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

5 страница из 76

For the popular month-names of the European peoples I have made use of the well-known extensive collections of Grimm, Weinhold, Miklosisch, etc. In this chapter my object has not been to make contributions to our knowledge of the popular months, but only to bring out, by means of numerous examples, the parallel between the popular names of the Julian months and the names of the lunar months among the primitive peoples. More isolated and disputed names are therefore omitted, and the names are given chiefly in translation. I have made only one exception, namely in the case of the Swedish lunar months, which really hardly belong to my subject since they are a popular development from the ecclesiastical calendar of the Middle Ages. I hope however to be excused for this, in the first place on patriotic grounds, and secondly because little attention has hitherto been paid to the matter. In another place I have dealt fully with the Swedish names of months, which are in the majority of cases not of popular origin.