The Wagogo count the years by important events, e. g. ‘the year when the cattle died’, or ‘two years after the building of Boma (Kilimatinde Station)’[449]. The Masai do not count the years, but rather denote them by referring to the most important events that took place in them, e. g. a murrain, a drought, the death of the chief, an expedition particularly rich in booty, etc.[450]. A fully developed calendar of this nature is possessed by the Herero, and has been published from the year 1820[451]. I give a few years as examples:--1820, _ojo_ (= year of the) _tjekeue_: from the name of the Matabele chief who in 1820 came to Okahandja with a white peace-ox and made peace with Katjamuaha. 1842, _ojohange_, ‘year of peace’, the Nama and Herero made peace. 1843, _ojomaue_, ‘year of the stones’: the Herero as the slaves of Jonker Africander had to build for him a stone wall; or _ojovihende_, ‘year of the stakes’: the Herero had to build a palisade around Jonker’s dockyard. 1844, 1845, _ojomukugu_ or _ojombondi_, ‘year of vomiting, of nausea’: the Nama had poisoned Katjamuaha, and the latter vomited and purged. And so on up to 1902 inclusive. There are lacking only the years 1854, 1855, and, significantly, 1891, 1895, 1899, and 1900, towards the end: the reckoning fails under growing European influence. Several years have two descriptions, e. g. 1844 and 1845 (see above); these and 1887-8 are run together, the latter as the ‘year of the red murrain among the cows’. The same mode of reckoning appears, strongly developed and fixed by the aid of picture-writing, among the Indians of N. America. Heckewelder says of the Indians of Pennsylvania:--“They reckon larger intervals of time by some noteworthy event, e. g. a very severe winter, a very deep snow-fall, an unusual inundation, a general war, the building of a new town by the whites, etc. Thus I have heard more than fifty years ago:--‘When their brother Miqaon talked to their fathers they were so old or so tall, they could catch butterflies or hit a bird with an arrow’. Of others I have heard that they were born in the hard winter (1739-40), or could then do this or that, or already had grey hair. When they could not refer directly to any such distinguishing epochs they would say: ‘So many winters after that’”[452]. This method of reckoning seems to have existed among the Pawnee at an initial stage. Sometimes they referred to a year that had been marked by some important event, e. g. a failure of crops, unusual sickness, a disastrous hunt: this was referred to as a year by itself, but after only a few years’ remove this mark became indistinct and faded away[453]. Among the Dakota and the Kiowa detailed descriptions were given in picture-writings, which are well-known and have been published, for the Dakota by Mallery and for the Kiowa by Mooney. They are painted on buffalo hide, later also on paper, and represent in painting the history of the tribe. They were executed by a specially gifted