The Aino of the Kurile Islands:—1, long days; 2, the snow melts; 3, coalmouse month; 4, sea-gull’s eggs month; 5, guillemot’s eggs month; 6, foddering month; 7, salmon-catching month; 8, month when the birds grow fat, or bird-snaring month; 9, the grass withers, or month when the grass is withered; 10, month of the short days; 11, winter month; 12, the-snow-fills-up.
The Aleuts begin the year in March:—1, the foremost, or the time when people gnaw belts; 2, the period when people gnaw belts for the last time, or the time when one is out there (outside the house); 3, month of flowers; 4, young-of-animals month; 5, month when the young animals are fat; 6, the warm month; 7, month in which hair grows, when the feathers and coats of animals grow thick; 8, hunting-month; 9, the month after hunting-month; 10, sea-lion month, when these animals are caught; 11, the great month, which is longer than any of the others; 12, cormorant month, when this bird is caught in nets.
Unfortunately the attention paid to these names has not been extended to the word which means ‘month’. It would be valuable to know if the same word means ‘moon’: if so, it would be clearly proved that a moon-month is in question. Except in the lists for the Minusinsk Tatars and the Tunguses the names end with the same word, which is translated ‘month’, and in one case (the Buriats) ‘moon’, but this is doubtless a peculiarity due to the authority; however, isolated names are interspersed which have not this concluding word, as appears also from the above translations. The number of days indicated in the list [pp. 176 f]. suits only to moon-months. Upon the whole we are authorised in concluding that we have to do with genuine moon-months. This is expressly stated by American travellers, to whom we owe further information about the peoples of eastern Siberia.
The year of the Koryak, north of Kamchatka, is divided into twelve lunar months (called ‘moons’). The first month begins at the time of the winter solstice and corresponds to our December. Some months have different names in different places, but the names of the months most commonly used are as follows:—1, cold-winds month or snow-storms month; 2, (growing-of-)the-reindeer’s-spinal-sinew month; 3, false-making-udder month or reindeer-udder month[720]; 4, reindeer-does’-calving month; 5, water-month; 6, first summer-month; 7, second summer-month; 8, reddening (of leaves) month; 9, pairing-season-of-the-reindeer-bucks month or empty (bare)-twigs month; 10, autumn’s month; 11, rutting-season-of-mountain-sheep month; 12, itself-head month or month-of-the-head-itself[721].
The Yukaghir names for their lunar months are given in translation:—1 (July), the middle-of-the-summer month; 2, the small mosquito month, because the mosquitoes appear; 3, the fish month, because fishing is then taking place for the winter stock; 4, the wild-reindeer buck month, the rutting-time of the wild reindeer; 5, the autumn month; 6, before-the-ridge month; 7, ridge month, i. e. the ridge of the spinal column—because in reckoning this month is denoted by the atlas, the first cervical vertebra—, or the great butterfly month; 8, the little butterfly month; here are meant the larvae of two species of gadfly which in summer lay their eggs, one in the skin of the reindeer, and the other in its nostril: during the winter the eggs develop into larvae; 9, name not translated; 10, the ancient men cille month: cille means the icy surface formed during the night on the snow, after having melted during the day: this commences in April; 11, leaf-month; 12, the mosquito month, because the mosquito makes its appearance then[722].
The same system recurs in North America. The Eskimos of the Behring Straits divide up the time according to the moon: by the ‘moons’ all time is reckoned during the year, and dates are set in advance for certain festivals and rites. Thirteen moons are reckoned to the year, although our authority could not always obtain complete series. The list is arranged according to our months:—1, ‘to turn about’, named from a game with a top; 2, time when the first seals are born; 3, time of creeping on game (refers to the seal-hunting on the ice); 4, time of cutting off, from the appearance of sharp lines of colour on the ptarmigan’s body; 5, time for going in kayaks; 6, time for fawn-hunting; 7, the time when geese get new wing-feathers (moulting); 8, time for brooding geese to moult; 9, time for velvet-shedding (from horns of reindeer); 10, time for setting seal-nets; 11, time for bringing in winter stores; 12, time of the drum, the month when the winter festival begins. Very often several different names may be used to designate the same moon, if it should chance to be at a season when different occupations or notable occurrences in nature are observed: our authority has used the most common terms. For the lower Yukon delta, near Mission, the following list is drawn up:—1, season for top-spinning and running round the kashim; 2, time of offal-eating (scarcity of food), or the cold moon; 3, time of opening the upper passage-ways into the houses (this falls too early and is referred to an earlier, warmer time); 4, birds come; 5, geese come; 6, time of eggs; 7, time of salmon; 8, time for red salmon; 9, time for young geese to fly; 10, time for shedding velvet from reindeer-horns; 11, mush-ice forms; 12, time of musk-rats; 13, time of the feast. A third list was obtained just south of the Yukon delta:—1, named from the game of the top; 2, the time of much moon, i. e. long nights; 3, the time of taking hares in nets; 4, the time of opening summer doors; 5, arrival of geese; 6, time of whitefish; 7, time of braining salmon; 8, geese moult; 9, swans moult; 10, the flying away (migration of the birds); 11, time of velvet-shedding; the names of the twelfth, and doubtless also of the thirteenth, month were not obtained[723].
The Central Eskimos divide the year into 13 months, the names of which vary very much according to the tribes and the latitude of the place. One month, siringilang, ‘without sun’—the name covers the whole period of the year in which the sun does not rise—is of indeterminate length (sic!), and thereby serves to equalise the length of the year. The name qaumartenga denotes only the days which are without sun but have twilight, the rest of this month is called sirinektenga; other names of months are not given[724]. The Eskimos of Greenland begin to count the moons at the winter solstice. After the third moon they remove from the winter houses into their summer tents. In the fourth they know that the little birds are again to be seen and that the ravens lay eggs, in the fifth the angmasset and the seals are once more to be seen with their young, at the end of this month the eider-ducks begin to brood and the reindeer-does to calve. From this time on, only those who live on latitude 59° can reckon by the moon any longer: the others count by the phenomena of natural life[725].
The Konyag of the island of Kodiak off the southern coast of Alaska count from August the following months:—1, the Pleiades begin to rise; 2, Orion rises; 3, hoar-frost covers the grass; 4, snow appears on the mountains; 5, the rivers and lakes freeze; 6, the sixth month; 7, dried fish is cut in pieces; 8, the ice breaks; 9, the ravens lay eggs; 10, the birds (e. g. ducks etc.) which stay about the island in winter lay eggs; 11, the seals pair; 12, the porpoises pair[726]. For the Thlinkit two lists are given, the first, from Sitka, beginning with August:—1, takes its name because all birds then come down from the mountains; 2, ‘small moon’ or ‘moon-child’, so called because fish and berries then begin to fail; 3, ‘big moon’, because the first snow then appears, and bears begin to get fat; 4, month when people have to shovel snow away from their doors; 5, month when every animal on land and in the water begins to have hair in the mother’s womb; 6, ‘ goose month’, because it is that in which the sun starts back and people begin to look for geese; 7, ‘black-bear month’, the month when black and brown bears begin to have cubs and throw them out into the snow; 8, the month when ‘sea-flowers’ and all other things under the sea begin to grow; 9, ‘real-flower month’, when flowers, nettles, etc. begin to shew life; 10, ‘tenth month’, when people know that everything is going to grow; 11, ‘eleventh month’, the month of salmon; 12, ‘month when everything is born’; 13, ‘month when everything born commences to fatten’. The second list, from Wrangel, begins with January:—1, ‘goose month’, perhaps so called because the geese were then all at the south; 2, ‘black-bear month’, the month when the black bear turns over on the other side in his den; 3, ‘silver-salmon month’: the reason of the name is unknown, this is not their proper month; 4, ‘month before everything hatches’; 5, ‘month when everything hatches’; 6, meaning unknown; 7, ‘month when the geese cannot fly’; 8, ‘month when all animals prepare their dens’; 9, ‘moon child’ or ‘young moon’; 10, ‘big moon’; 11, ‘moon when all creatures go into their dens’; 12, ‘ground-hog-mother’s moon’; the thirteenth month is missing[727]. The author’s report consists in part of extremely doubtful explanations of the natives, and the whole seems hardly to be in order: here, as everywhere, the memory of the old names of the months has begun to fade away. The type to which the list belongs, however, is well known.
Among the Shuswap of British Columbia the months have two classes of names. They are called ‘the first month’ etc., or have recognised names derived from some characteristic. The names among the Fraser River division, and their special characteristics, are as follows:—1, or ‘going-in time’. People commence to enter their winter houses. The deer rut. 2, or (name not translated). First real cold. 3, or (d:o). Sun turns. 4, or ‘spring (winds) month’. Frequent Chinook winds. The snow begins to disappear. 5, or ‘(little) summer (month)’. Snow disappears completely from the lower grounds. A few spring roots are dug, and many people leave their winter houses at the end of the month. 6, or (name not translated). Snow disappears from the higher ground. The grass grows fast. People dig roots. 7, or ‘midsummer (month)’. People fish trout at the lakes. 8, or ‘getting-ripe month’. Service-berries ripen. 9, or ‘autumn month’. Salmon arrive. 10, or (name not translated). People fish salmon all month. 11, or (d:o). People cache their fish and leave the rivers to hunt. Balance of the year, ‘fall time’. People hunt and trap game in the mountains[728].