themselves children of the Sun, although they lived near the equator where the Moon-cult, as we presently shall see, owns its most faithful adherents. In the neighbourhood of the equator, winter and summer differ very slightly with respect to temperature and altitude of the Sun. Rather, it is the alternation of humid and dry seasons that is of deciding importance. No sheet of snow covers the ground in winter-time, kills the vegetation, or decimates the supply of nourishment for animals and men. Indeed, contrary to our experience, a suppression of growth often accompanies a high altitude of the Sun due to the drought which simultaneously occurs. The altitude and luminosity of the Sun change altogether too slightly in the course of the year to attract the attention of primitive man. The light of the Moon, on the other hand, varies from full intensity to nothing and this takes place in periods so short that memory has no time to forget the cycle. Even the low-standing Australian negroes utilize the phases of the Moon to denote remote times. Chronometry in any true sense they do not possess, unable as they are to state the number of days in a month. How much more fortunate the peoples who could count to ten or better yet to twenty and thus were able to use the single or the double decade as a measure of time. For them it was easy to determine the time between two successive phases of the Moon, seven and a half days apart. The truth once grasped that four phases separate two new Moons the important bridge could be established between the short measure, a day, and the longer measure, a month. The latter was then found to be nearly thirty times longer than the former. On a higher stage of culture, it was discovered that this ratio was not exact and the discrepancy must greatly have puzzled the people. The correct ratio is 29.53. At all events the periodic return of full Moon and new Moon proved the most reliable measure of time within their experience. This was something entirely different from the irregular occurrences of earthquakes, storms, lightning, and floods, not to mention the ravages of beasts and foes. Spaces of time that hitherto appeared boundless could be surveyed and computed. The idea of eternity dawned for the first time on humanity. The Moon was the great master, measurer of all. In Sanskrit the Moon’s name is _Mâs_, _i. e._ measurer, and “_mensis_” (Lat. month) is closely related to “_mensura_” (Lat. measure).