The _pars pro toto_ counting of the year from shorter or longer seasons does not however extend beyond the years immediately following or preceding. It is stated of the tribes living at the southern end of Lake Nyassa that the years are reckoned in ‘rains’ up to three or four years: everything beyond that is _kale_, ‘some time ago’[420]. In the district around Mombasa, in periods not exceeding five years, the date is usually fixed by the number of harvests which have been gathered[421]. In general the primitive peoples reckon only where an immediate practical interest requires them to do so. The Kiwai Papuans have no word for year, but only for the monsoon periods: they cannot as a rule state how many years have elapsed since a certain event, but only whether it took place recently or long ago[422]. The inhabitants of the islands of the Torres Straits never count years[423]. Individuals belonging to tribes at a low stage of civilisation keep no account of their own age. Among the Waporogo no one can say how old he is[424]. The Edo-speaking tribes have a calendar, but an enquiry as to the age of a man or the number of years since a given event will meet with no answer, or a random one[425]. In Dahomey no negro has the slightest idea of his age[426]. The Hottentots have no interest in their own age, but are interested in that of their cattle, which they reckon by the calving and lambing periods[427]. Few of the Chinhwan of Formosa know their age[428]. The Negritos of Zambales have no idea of their age[429]. No Marquesas Islander, no Oceanian in general, can give either his own age or the time of any event[430]; even the Maoris do not know their age, although they know that the man of forty years is older than the man of thirty[431]. The statements here made obviously refer to the absolute age of a man, not to the relative age; for either it is immediately seen or else easily remembered from childhood who is older and who younger. The Babwende, for instance, never know how old they are, but do know quite well who is the oldest[432]. Since the relative age is thus known, the age of the people and the time of events can be determined by reference to the speaker’s own relative age or to that of someone else. On the same page as that from which the above quotation for the Marquesas Islands is taken, it is stated that in order to determine the time of any event the people indicate how tall a person was, or how long his beard was, at the time when the event took place. The Indians of Pennsylvania temporarily determined an event by referring to their own age at the time of its occurrence[433].