Читать книгу Primitive Time-reckoning. A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples онлайн

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The indication of time from the position of the sun is really only satisfactory in the tropics, where the sun always stands very high and the length of its daily course is not exposed to too great variation. Where the sun is much lower in winter than in summer, and the length of the day varies greatly at different times of the year, the method ceases to be practicable. If descriptive expressions of one kind or another are not resorted to, other means must be found. Above all it is important to determine the fixed point which divides the day into two parts, i. e. noon. In the living-room of the houses of the Scanian peasants, which were always built ‘according to the sun’, i. e. facing east and west, there was in the southern window-sill, beside the middle shaft of the frame, a line which was called the ‘noon-line’. When the shadow of the shaft fell parallel with this line it was noon. This device is not exactly primitive, since windows in the room, more particularly in the wall, belong to a quite advanced stage of civilisation. But on the other hand such customs as the determination of noon and other moments of the day from the position of the sun above certain points on the horizon—elevations and hills—are old. In Iceland the divisions of the day were, and still are, determined from the visible course of the heavenly bodies. The people imagined that the sun in the course of a day and a night ran through the eight equal regions of the heavens (ættir, sing. ætt). The time of day was determined from the position of the sun above the horizon by the selection in every house of certain outstanding points within the range of vision to serve as ‘day-marks’ (dagsmǫrk, sing. -mark)—where these were lacking, small piles of stones were erected for the purpose—so that when the sun stood above one of these marks a certain time of day was given. The most important times thus determined were rismál or miðr morgin (6 a. m.), dagmál (9 a. m.), hádegi (12 o’clock noon), míðmundi (1.30 p. m.), nón (undoubtedly originally called undorn and also eykt, 3 p. m.), miðr aptann (6 p. m.), and nattmál (9 p. m.). These indications in hours are however only approximate, since the time varies according to the position of the place in question[66]. The word eykt really designates any of these approximately three-hour divisions; but since the length of the day varies enormously so far north, the business of everyday life leads to an attempt at systematising, e. g. rismál = ‘the time of rising’. The spot which the sun has reached at one of these divisions is therefore called dagmálastað, nónstað, eyktarstað etc. This mode of determining time must be old since it is also found in Scandinavia, where it has given names to many mountain-peaks. In Baedeker I have only noticed:—Middagsfjället in Jämtland, Middagshorn in Norangdal, Middagshaugen in Aardal, Sogn, Middagsnib in Oldendal in the Nordfjord district, Middagsberg on the Nærøfjord in Sogn, Nonsnib above Loen Water in Nordfjord, Solbjørgenut in the Nærøfjord, Sogn. From Fritzner’s Old Norwegian Lexicon (s. v. eyktarstað) I take:—Durmaalstind, Rismaalsfjeld, Nonsfjeld, Natmaalstinden, Middagsfjeld in Tromsö ‘amt’ and in Finnmarken, Eyktargnipa and Undornfjeld in Mule Syssel in Iceland; the peak of the latter lies in the nonstað. Such names are common in Norway. In Sweden there are further:—Middagsberget in Dalecarlia = Gesundaberget, just south of Mora; the name is found again in Härjedalen, in addition to Nonsberget, Nonsknätten and Middagshognan. Lidén[67] instances similar names in S. Sweden and in England, and also those formed with mosse, ‘swamp’, vik, ‘bay’, and åker, ‘field’. It is easy to understand why middag, ‘noon’, everywhere predominates as a nomenclator. The Lapps also indicate time by the position of the sun in relation to the surrounding natural objects[68].