8. Pai Ȧgâ´nti, "Summer Ägâ´nti" (see [number 2]). This moon is so named because, in Kiowa folklore, it says to its predecessor, "Just watch me; pretty soon I'll make it hot. Spring (áségya) ends and summer (paígya, pai) begins after this moon is full and begins to wane; it maybe considered approximately to include late April and early May, but a tally on the Anko calendar puts an event of June 14 within this period.
9. Pai Tépgañ P'a, "Summer Tépgañ moon" (see [number 3]). It is possible that this moon is so called on account of a northward migration of wild geese, although it seems too late in the season. According to the testimony of white observers on the Kiowa reservation, wild geese appear first in October, stay all winter in the lakes and ponds, and go north again in March and April. The wild ducks, in the rivers, remain all the year. The name may have kept this place as part of the series from the time when the Kiowa lived in the far north, where the seasons are of course later. It usually comprises parts of May and June, although in one place Anko puts the 4th of July in this moon; in other places he puts the same date in the next or second moon following. It is one of the summer moons.
10. Pai Gañhíña P'a Sȧn, "Summer Gañhíña moon" (see [numbers 4] and [9]). This is also a summer moon, approximating June-July. Tallies from the Anko calendar put events of July 4 and July 20 within this moon, to which also he says belongs the time of school closing, about June 20.
11. Táguñótal P'a Sȧn, "Little-moon-of-deer-horns-dropping-off," because the deer now begin to shed their horns. This is another summer moon, equivalent to July-August, and was considered to begin after the annual sun dance. Tallies from the Anko calendar give to it an event of July 29, and in one instance the celebration of July 4.
12. Táguñótal P'a (Edal), "(Great-) Moon-of-deer-horns-dropping-off," because when it is at an end, all the deer have shed their antlers. This moon comprises August-September; summer ends and fall (páongya) begins in the middle of this moon. It is sometimes also called Aídeñgúak`o P'a, "Yellow-leaves Moon," because the leaves now begin to change color.
MOONS OR MONTHS OF OTHER TRIBES
Some extracts from standard authorities on other wild tribes may be of interest in connection with the moons or months of the Kiowa.
Hidatsa and Mandan—"Many writers represent that savage Indian tribes divide the year into twelve periods corresponding to our months, and that each month is named from some meteorological occurrence or phase of organic creation observable at the time. Among others, Maximilian presents us with a list of twelve months; 'the month of the seven cold days,' 'the pairing month,' 'the month of weak eyes,' etc.; he introduces this list in one of his chapters descriptive of the Mandans. He does not say it is their list of months, but publishes it without comment, and yet it is presented in such a manner as to lead the reader to suppose that it is the regular and original Mandan calendar. Other authors present lists of Indian months in much the same way. As the results of my own observations, I should say that the Mandan and Minnetaree are generally aware that there are more than twelve lunations in a year, that they as yet know nothing of our manner of dividing the year, and that although, when speaking of 'moons,' they often connect them with natural phenomena, they have no formal names for the lunar periods. I think the same might be said of other tribes who are equally wild.
"The Hidatsa recognize the lapse of time by days, lunar periods, and years; also by the regular recurrence of various natural phenomena, such as the first formation of ice in the fall, the breaking of the ice in the Missouri in the spring, the melting of the snowdrifts, the coming of the wild geese from the south, the ripening of various fruits, etc. A common way of noting time a few years ago was by the development of the buffalo calf in utero. A period thus marked by a natural occurrence, be it long or short, is called by them the kadu, season, time, of such an occurrence. Some long seasons include shorter seasons; thus they speak of the season of strawberries, the season of service-berries, etc., as occurring within the season of warm weather. They speak of the seasons of cold weather or of snow, of warm weather, and of death or decay, which we consider as agreeing with our seasons of winter, summer, and fall; but they do not regularly allot a certain number of moons to each of these seasons. Should you ask an interpreter who knew the European calendar what were the Indian names of the months, he would probably give you names of a dozen of these periods or natural seasons, as we might call them, corresponding in time to our months. In a few years, when these Indians shall know more of our system of noting time than they now do, they will devise and adopt regular Hidatsa names for the months of our calendar" (Matthews, 4).
Pawnee.—"They had no method of computing years by calendric notation. Occasionally a year that had been marked by some important event, as a failure of crops, unusual sickness, or a disastrous hunt, was referred to as a year by itself, but at a few years' remove even this mark became indistinct or faded altogether away. Any occurrence ten or twelve years past was usually designated as long ago. Their great use of the past was not as history, but simply as a storehouse of tradition, and this tendency soon enveloped the most important events with a semi-traditional glamour. When time was computed by years, it was done by winters. The year comprised alternately twelve and thirteen moons or months.... The intercalary month, ŭsarĕr´ăhu, was usually inserted at the close of the summer months. The regular months were grouped as with us by threes, the first three constituting winter (pi´c̀ĭkŭt), the second three spring (ora´rĕkaru), the next three summer (li´ŭt), the last three autumn (lĕtskukĭ). The year was also divided into two seasons (kŭt´ĭharu), a warm and a cold. As may be readily anticipated, there was much confusion in their system of reckoning by moons. They sometimes became inextricably involved and were obliged to have recourse to objects about them to rectify their computations. Councils have been known to be disturbed, or even broken up, in consequence of irreconcilable differences of opinion as to the correctness of their calculations."