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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In reality this cycle is in no way distinguished from the succession of seasons given above: it has only been improved and regulated. This happens more particularly under the influence of agriculture; one can speak of an agricultural year the seasons of which are determined and named in accordance with agriculture. Of the Fanti of the Gold Coast it is said that they divide the year, according to the changes of the climate, into nine parts with distinct names, beginning with the harmattan wind in January and ending with the small tornadoes in December[308]. The periods however are related to agriculture, as appears from a detailed description for the countries around the Niger. The end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry (about November) forms a kind of season by itself, and is called odun (year). The farmers go on weeding their farms to give the crops of their second harvest a chance. The dry season is divided into two sections of two months each. During the day it is very hot. The cold wind blowing from the east is called harmattan by Europeans, oye by the natives. The second crops of corn, beans, and guinea-corn are now gathered. The land is cleared for the next season’s crops, and the bush already felled is burnt. This is also the fishing season. The dry season (erun) continues for the next two months, but during the latter part of the second month the rumbling of thunder is heard and small rains fall. The preparation of the ground is continued and yam-planting begins. The rainy season may be divided into two parts separated by a little dry season: the first section consists of five lunar months of rain, the latter of two lunar months, one nearly dry month intervening. The first two months of this section of the rains are called asheroh ojo: it is the tornado season. At the beginning of this season ground-nuts and the first crop of corn are planted. In the next two months the rain-fall reaches its maximum. Towards the end of the second month it becomes possible to eat new corn. The main crop however is left standing in the fields until it becomes quite dry, which happens when the next season, the little dry season, sets in. This sub-division of the rainy season is called ago, probably because the corn has grown tall during the last month. The season called awori consists of one month of rain and the little dry season. The first crop of yams, the corn, the ground-nuts, and the gourds are gathered in. Before long the rains have ceased, the seed for the second crop of corn is sown. The two following months are called the arokuro season, and like the first two months of the rains they are tornado months. Bushes are felled in order to prepare the land for next year’s sowing, and weeding is continued[309]. The months mentioned are lunar months. An interesting feature is that the names of the seasons do not altogether coincide with the natural divisions of the climate, as the following comparison clearly shews:—odun, end of rains, beginning of dry season; erun, dry season I, II, 4 months; asheroh ojo, season of rains (tornadoes), 2 months; ago, rainy season, maximum, 2 months; awori, 1 month rain and little dry season; arokuro, season of rains (tornadoes), 2 months. The deviations are brought about, as the description shews, by the business of agriculture.