As we are getting a little tired of these complicated descriptions, let us branch off for a few remarks on some curiosities of Eastern time keeping. They evidently think of an hour as a _period of time_ more specifically than we do. When we say "6 o'clock" we mean a point of time marked by the striking of the clock. We have no names for the hour periods. We must say "from 5 to 6" or "between 5 and 6" for an hour period. The "twelfth hour" of the New Testament, I understand to mean a whole hour ending at sunset; so we are dealing with an oriental attitude of mind towards time. I think we get that conception nearly correct when we read of the "middle watch" and understand it to mean _during_ the middle third of the night. Secondly, why do the Japanese use no 1, 2, 3 on their dials? These numbers were sacred in the temples and must not be profaned by use on clocks, and they mentally deducted these from the clock hours, but ultimately became accustomed to 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thirdly, why this reading of the hours backwards? Let us suppose a toiler commencing at sunrise, or six. When he toiled one hour he felt that there was one less to come and he called it five. This looks quite logical, for the diminishing numbers indicated to him how much of his day's toil was to come. Another explanation which is probably the foundation of "secondly" and "thirdly" above, is the fact that mathematics and superstition were closely allied in the old days of Japan. If you take the numbers 1 to 6, Fig. 23, and multiply them each into the uncanny "yeng number," or nine, you will find that the last digits, reading downwards, give 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Stated in other words: When 1 to 6 are multiplied into "three times three" the last figures are 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and _1, 2, 3, have disappeared_; so the common people were filled with fear and awe. Some of the educated, even now, are mystified by the strange results produced by using three and nine as factors, and scientific journals often give space to the matter. We know that these results are produced by the simple fact that nine is one less than the "radix" of our decimal scale of numbers. Nine is sometimes called the "indestructible number," since adding the digits of any of its powers gives an even number of nines. But in those days it was a mystery and the common people feared the mathematicians, and I have no doubt the shrewd old fellows took full advantage of their power over the plebeians. In Japan, mathematics was not cleared of this rubbish till about 700 A. D. [Illustration: Fig. 23--Use of "Yeng Number" and Animal Names of Hours]