[34] For a complete series for one individual with illustration, see Maclean, (a), 119.
[35] Hoffman, 73; Maximilian, Vol. 23, 287.
[36] See Maximilian, Vol. 23, 118.

Reckoning Time.

As far as our information goes, the time of day was noted by the sun and the night by the position of Ursa major, the Seven Stars. The year was designated by the winter, each winter constituting a new year. Two divisions or seasons were recognized; spring and autumn were regarded as originating with the whites. Each season was considered as composed of moons; the period during which the moon was invisible taken as the beginning of another moon. We found little consistency in the nomenclature of moons, our information implying that they were considered more by numerals than by names. The tendency was to count the moons from about October, the beginning of winter or the new year. Variation seems to have been due to the fact that calendar counts were kept by a few individuals, usually medicine men, who modified the system according to their own theories. One man who kept a calendar gave the following list:—

Winter Moons.Summer Moons.
1. Beginning winter moonBeginning summer’s moon
2. Wind moonFrog moon
3. Cold moonThunder moon
4. Two-big-Sunday moonBig-Sunday moon
5. Changeable moonBerry moon
6. Uncertain moonChokecherry moon
7. Geese moon

The references to Sunday are to the Christmas and July holidays of our own calendar. The year is generally regarded as comprising fourteen moons equally divided among the two seasons. As calendars were usually in the keeping of men owning beaver bundles and the number seven was employed in enumerating parts of their rituals, this division of the year into moons may be a matter of convention rather than observation. They claim to have reckoned twenty-six days to a moon. Some, however, assert that thirty days were counted; but in this case the year could not have comprised fourteen moons.

From one man we secured a set of 179 sticks used for keeping track of time. Red sticks were used for years. Another used a bag with two parts; one faced with red, the other with blue. Fourteen pebbles were used to mark the moons; each time the moon became invisible he moved a pebble to the other side. Calendars, or winter counts, were kept by memory rather than by sticks, or paintings. We get the impression, however, that there was less interest in such records than among the Dakota and Kiowa. The following is Elk-horn’s winter count, beginning about 1845:—

1. Camped down at Mouth River; Gambles killed; sun dance at Crow Garden (a place).

2. Camped near Fort Benton; moved to Yellowstone country; some Crow escaped by letting themselves down from a rock with a rope; Yellow River, the place of the sun dance; camped at a place where Bad-tail killed a Sioux.