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 Shilluk know the months but also divide the year into the following nine seasons:—yey jeria, about September, harvest of red dura; anwoch, about October, end of the harvest, people are waiting for white dura to ripen; agwero, about November-December, harvest of white dura begins; wudo, December to January, harvest of white dura continues; leu, January-February, the hot season, dodin, about March, in these two there is no work in the fields; dokot, about April, ‘mouth of rain’, beginning of the rains; shwer, about May-July, time for planting red dura; doria, about July-September, beginning of harvest[310]. A similar but more indefinite mode of reckoning seems to exist among the Bakairi of S. America, of whom it is said that they reckon by dry and rainy seasons, and also distinguish ‘months’ not by the moon but quite vaguely by the rain and the heat and the phases of the maize-culture[311]. Their months are given as follows:—‘hardest rain’, about January; ‘less rain’, February; ‘rain ceases’, March; ‘it (the weather) becomes good’, April; ‘wood-cutting’, May and June; July, nameless; ‘end-of-the-day-time’, August; ‘the rain is coming’, September and October; ‘the maize ripens’, November; December, nameless[312].