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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Africa offers good examples of the fluctuation and further sub-division of the seasons. The Wagogo of East Africa divide the year into the dry season, about May to October, and the rainy season, November to April. In the latter they further distinguish the little rainy season, songola, November and December, and the greater one, itika, about February and March[286]. In the neighbourhood of Mombasa the great rains begin in April and last approximately for a month, mwaka or masika: mchoo is a week in August, and vuli a fortnight in November, with showers. Beyond the seasons the natives have little idea of the lapse of time[287]. The Wa-Sania of British East Africa have three periods of four months each, gunu, adolaia, and huggaia, but no explanation whatever of these names is given[288]. The Masai divide the rainy season into three periods, and also have four seasons of three months each:—(1) ol dumeril, the time of the lesser rains, preceding that of the great rains. The latter fall in (2) en gokwa, named after the Pleiades, which at that time rise low on the western horizon (sic!). Then follows (3) ol airodjerod, the season of the gentle after-rains, and then (4) ol ameii, the time of hunger and drought[289]. Hollis begins the list with the months of the showers, and calls the season of the great rains l’apaitin le-’l-lengon, ‘the months of plenty’, stating that the latter season, in which the setting of the Pleiades takes place in the evening, is called from these loo-’n-gokwa[290]. Among the Ewe tribes the year has three periods:—adame, March to June; keleme, July to October; pepi, November to February. In the first two much rain falls, so that work in the fields is greatly hindered. Inland the year begins in March with the yam-sowing, and ends in February. The three principal seasons include four months each. Inland keleme also includes another period, masa, September and October, the second maize-sowing. Hence the name ‘masa-corn’. Pepi is the harmattan time, in which fall yam-harvesting, grass-drying, and hunting[291]. The Yoruba divide the year into the dry season, the season of the harmattan wind, and the rainy season, the last-named being further divided into the time of the first rains and that of the last rains or ‘little rainy season’[292]. In Loango a dry and a rainy season of about 6 months each are distinguished. In many districts there is also a third season, tschimuna, the time of the ripening of favourite fruits etc., and the hot seasons are then often simply called bimuna[293].