Primitive Time-reckoning / A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples

by Martin P. Nilsson

The Eskimos of Greenland knew up to about the twentieth year how many winters a person had lived, but beyond that they could not go. Sometimes however they used as epochs from which to calculate pellesingvoak, ‘the little priest’, i. e. the arrival of Egede in the country, or the arrival or departure of other well-known Europeans, or the founding of Godthaab and other colonies; they would say that this or that person was born at the coming or departure of such and such a person, or when eggs were collected, seals caught, etc.[442].

The Caffres rarely give the proper length of past or future periods of time, and when they do so the period is never of more than a few months’ duration. Otherwise it is their custom to determine the date at which this or that event took place by reference to a contemporaneous event of greater importance[443].

The Lapps of Västerbotten reckon their age by the reindeer, e. g. when this or that aldo (= female with calf) was born. Formerly they never went farther back in counting than the previous year. When they had to give the date of an important event they referred to the time at which some specially fine female reindeer was born[444].

The Hottentots, as has been said, have no interest in their own age, but keep in mind that of their cattle from the calving and lambing periods. When they wish to date back somewhat farther, well-known events such as the outbreak of cattle-plague, hostilities with neighbouring tribes or with the whites, immigrations, etc. furnish them with satisfactory general indications from which, coupling them in particular cases with the birth of their children or the stature of these at the time, they can arrive at a date[445].

Where the political development has advanced so far that a stable monarchy exists, the succession of rulers offers an excellent means of chronological orientation, and within every reign certain years can be distinguished by special events. But this brings us to the beginning of history, and I desist from following the subject further. One example only:—The Baganda reckon by the reigns of the kings and by certain wars in one particular reign. They say ‘It was in the reign of such a king’, or ‘I was still in arms when such and such a war was fought in so and so’s reign’[446].

Where no reigns furnish a system of chronological reckoning, the concrete references may be systematised until each year is named and distinguished by a definite event. This was the practice of the Arabians before Mohammed. Mohammed is said to have been born in the year of the elephant, or, according to other sources, some years after the year in which the viceroy of Yemen marched against Mecca with an army in which there were elephants[447]. Another year is called the year of treason or outrage, because certain garments which a Himjarite king had sent that year to Mecca were stolen, whence arose a conflict at the feast of pilgrims, in which the young Mohammed is said to have taken part[448].

The Wagogo count the years by important events, e. g. ‘the year when the cattle died’, or ‘two years after the building of Boma (Kilimatinde Station)’[449]. The Masai do not count the years, but rather denote them by referring to the most important events that took place in them, e. g. a murrain, a drought, the death of the chief, an expedition particularly rich in booty, etc.[450]. A fully developed calendar of this nature is possessed by the Herero, and has been published from the year 1820[451]. I give a few years as examples:—1820, ojo (= year of the) tjekeue: from the name of the Matabele chief who in 1820 came to Okahandja with a white peace-ox and made peace with Katjamuaha. 1842, ojohange, ‘year of peace’, the Nama and Herero made peace. 1843, ojomaue, ‘year of the stones’: the Herero as the slaves of Jonker Africander had to build for him a stone wall; or ojovihende, ‘year of the stakes’: the Herero had to build a palisade around Jonker’s dockyard. 1844, 1845, ojomukugu or ojombondi, ‘year of vomiting, of nausea’: the Nama had poisoned Katjamuaha, and the latter vomited and purged. And so on up to 1902 inclusive. There are lacking only the years 1854, 1855, and, significantly, 1891, 1895, 1899, and 1900, towards the end: the reckoning fails under growing European influence. Several years have two descriptions, e. g. 1844 and 1845 (see above); these and 1887–8 are run together, the latter as the ‘year of the red murrain among the cows’.

The same mode of reckoning appears, strongly developed and fixed by the aid of picture-writing, among the Indians of N. America. Heckewelder says of the Indians of Pennsylvania:—“They reckon larger intervals of time by some noteworthy event, e. g. a very severe winter, a very deep snow-fall, an unusual inundation, a general war, the building of a new town by the whites, etc. Thus I have heard more than fifty years ago:—‘When their brother Miqaon talked to their fathers they were so old or so tall, they could catch butterflies or hit a bird with an arrow’. Of others I have heard that they were born in the hard winter (1739–40), or could then do this or that, or already had grey hair. When they could not refer directly to any such distinguishing epochs they would say: ‘So many winters after that’”[452]. This method of reckoning seems to have existed among the Pawnee at an initial stage. Sometimes they referred to a year that had been marked by some important event, e. g. a failure of crops, unusual sickness, a disastrous hunt: this was referred to as a year by itself, but after only a few years’ remove this mark became indistinct and faded away[453]. Among the Dakota and the Kiowa detailed descriptions were given in picture-writings, which are well-known and have been published, for the Dakota by Mallery and for the Kiowa by Mooney. They are painted on buffalo hide, later also on paper, and represent in painting the history of the tribe. They were executed by a specially gifted Indian and were handed down from father to son. When worn out and obliterated by use they were renewed. In winter they were often produced before the fire, and the events recounted. Everyone knew them, however, so that anybody could shew when he was born or when his father died, and some also knew the meaning of the pictures. Four copies belonging to the Dakota are known, which go back to 1800, 1786, 1775, and the mythical period, respectively. Every year is denoted by a picture, without distinction between winter and summer. Some of the terms used are:—1794–5, the ‘Long-Hair-killed’ winter; 1817–8, the ‘Chozé-built-a-house-of-dead-logs’ winter; 1818–9, the ‘small-pox-used-them-up-again’ winter; 1821–2, ‘the star (meteor)-passed-by-with-a-loud-noise’ winter; 1825–6, the ‘many-Yanktonais-drowned’ winter (through an inundation); 1833–4, the ‘storm-of-stars’ winter (so called from the abundance of shooting-stars), etc. Four Kiowa calendars are known, one of which is arranged in months, of which it gives 37; two of the others refer to the years 1833–93, one to the years 1864–93. In the first each month is indicated by the crescent of the moon, and above is the picture characteristic of the month. The Kiowa annual calendars are clearer than the Dakota in that they indicate winter by a thick black stroke signifying that the vegetation has died, and summer by the medicine lodge with its figures, which form the central feature of the religious ceremonies of the summer. Above and by the side of these signs are the pictures, giving the principal events of the seasons, so that the reckoning of the year becomes the history of the tribe. The Indians however were also acquainted with simpler modes of reckoning. Among the Nahyssan of S. Carolina time was measured and a rude chronology arranged by means of strings of leather with knots of various colours, like the Peruvian quipos[454]. The Dakota use a circle as the symbol of time, a smaller one for a year and a larger one for a longer period: the circles are arranged in rows, thus: ȱȱȱ or o-o-o[455]. The Pima of Arizona make use of a tally. The year-mark is a deep notch across the stick. The records of early years are memorised, and there are a few minor notches to aid in recalling them. The year-notches are alike, yet when a narrator was asked to go back and repeat the story for a certain year he never made a mistake. Taking the stick in his hand, he would rake his thumb-nail across the year-notch and begin:—‘This notch means etc.’[456].

The development is clear. Often an important event has been impressed upon the memory and now serves as a landmark from which the few years that it is possible to count are reckoned. Such events multiply, and when their succession is known, a longer period can be mastered. Finally the process is systematised, so that every year has its event (necessarily even if it be an unimportant one), and is named from that: hence the reckoning of the years becomes also the history of the people. This kind of time-reckoning is really used by every one of us. Whoever looks back over his past life sees chiefly the more important events, not the dates of the years, and to these he joins the more peripheral events and so finds his way in the labyrinth of memory. But we mark the events by the dates, and thereby obtain an estimation of the course of time, which is the last acquisition of the human mind in this domain. The mode of reckoning in question penetrates deeply among the culture peoples.