The tribes of Arizona observed the course of the sun, more particularly to determine the dates of their religious ceremonies, but also to decide the time of secular occupations. Among the Zuñi the winter solstice begins when the rising sun strikes a certain point at the south-west end of ‘Corn Mountain’, and a great feast is then celebrated. Then the sun moves to the north, passes the moon at ayonawa yälläne, and continues round to a point north-west of Zuñi, which is called ‘Great Mountain’, where it sets consecutively for four days at the same point. The last day is the summer solstice. On this occasion also a great festival is celebrated[1044]. The Hopi determine the time for their religious ceremonies, for planting, and for sowing by observing the points on the horizon where the sun rises or sets. The winter ceremonies are determined by the position of the sunset, the summer by the position of the sunrise. The two points of the solstices are called the ‘houses’ of the sun. There are 13 landmarks, by means of which the seasons are determined from the ecliptic. The number suggests that there is some connexion with the months. It would in that case be a quite isolated example of the regulation of the months by the observation of the sun’s position[1045].
The Incas erected artificial marks. There were in Cuzco sixteen towers, eight to the west and eight to the east, arranged in groups of four. The two middle ones were smaller than the others, and the distance between the towers was eight, ten, or twenty feet. The space between the little towers through which the sun passed at sunrise and sunset was the point of the solstices. In order to verify this the Inca chose a favourable spot from which he observed carefully whether the sun rose and set between the little towers to east and west. For the observation of the equinoxes richly ornamented pillars were set up in the open space before the temple of the sun. When the time approached, the shadow of the pillars was carefully observed. The open space was circular and a line was drawn through its centre from east to west. Long experience had taught them where to look for the equinoctial point, and by the distance of the shadow from this point they judged of the approach of the equinox. When from sunrise to sunset the shadow was to be seen on both sides of the pillar and not at all to the south of it, they took that day as the day of the equinox. This last account is for Quito, which lies just under the equator. At the spring equinox the maize was reaped and a feast was celebrated, at the autumn equinox the people celebrated one of their four principal feasts[1046]. The months were calculated from the winter solstice.
Among the Amazulu, we are told, the path of the sun in winter is different from its summer path: for it travels northward till it reaches a certain place,—a mountain or a forest (where it rises and sets)—and it does not pass beyond these two places; it comes out of its winter house; when it comes out it goes southward to its summer place. We say that when it quits its winter place it is fetching the summer, until it reaches a certain mountain or tree; and then it turns northward again, fetching the winter, in constant succession. These are its houses; we say so, for it stays in its winter house a few days: and when it quits that place we know that it has ended the winter and is now fetching the summer; and indeed it travels southward until, when the summer has grown, it enters the summer house a few days, and then quits it again, in constant succession[1047]. The Basuto also call the summer solstice the house of the sun, and intelligent chiefs adjust the reckoning of the months by it[1048].
For the Bismarck Archipelago the following details are given. On the island of Vuatam there is celebrated some time after the solstice and usually at the beginning of January—the exact date depends on the weather—a festival the object of which is to regulate the course of the sun and to secure good weather. In the whole of the north-eastern part of the Gazelle Peninsula the fact of the solstice is known, although no festival is celebrated. When the sun had its greatest southern amplitude it rose over Birar on St. George’s Channel. A native magistrate, To Kakao, explained how the sun would turn again and would finally attain its greatest northern amplitude on the horizon when it sank between the volcanic mountains ‘South Daughter’ and ‘Mother’. In Valaur the view is completely cut off to the east, and so the sun is observed at its setting, the turning-point in the south being formed by two mountain peaks situated close together. Another southern turning-point is furnished by still another mountain. The spot denoting the turning-point in the Baining mountain is chosen rather far off, and the observation is therefore not very accurate. The solstices are brought into connexion with the variation of the monsoons. To Kakao said that the north-east trade-wind blew all the time the sun was in the south (November to February), but during the time when it was situated in a northerly direction (May to August) the south-east monsoon prevailed. In Valaur the south-east monsoon blows as long as the sun sets WNW (May to August): but from November to February, when the sun sets WSW, the north-west trade blows[1049]. The Moanu of the Admiralty Islands name the divisions of the year according to the position of the sun. If it stands north of the equator the division in question is called morai im paün (‘war sun’), since it is during this time more particularly that wars are carried on. When the sun stands above the equator this division is named morai in kauas (‘sun of friendship’): this is the time of peace and of mutual visits. When the sun turns southward the colder season, morai unonou, begins[1050].
One would suspect that this Melanesian science, like the knowledge of the stars, is borrowed from the Polynesians: for the latter understood the annual course of the sun. In Tahiti the place of the sunrise was called tataheita, that of the sunset topa-t-era. The annual movement of the sun from the south towards the north was recognised, and so was the fact that all these points of the daily approach to the zenith lay in a line. This meridian was called t’era-hwattea, the northern point of it tu-errau, and the opposite point above the horizon, or the south, toa[1051]. According to other sources the December solstice was called rua-maoro or rua-roa, the June solstice rua-poto. The Hawaiians called the northern limit of the sun in the ecliptic ‘the black, shining road of Kane’, and the southern limit ‘the black, shining road of Kanaloa’. The equator was named ‘the bright road of the spider’ or ‘the road to the navel of Wakea’, equivalent to ‘the centre of the world’[1052]. How the Polynesians came to recognise the tropics and the equator is unfortunately unknown, but certainly they did it like other peoples by observing the solstices and equinoxes at certain landmarks.
That the Greeks also recognised the solstices by means of the observation of certain landmarks may be gathered from a passage in Homer. In the Odyssey Eumaeus says of his native land: “A certain island Syrie ... above Ortygia, where the sun turns”[1053]. Wherever Syrie lay, even though in the realm of fable, the idea is that it lies in the direction of the spot at which the sun at its turning rises or sets. It therefore serves as a landmark, it is ‘the house of the sun’. Hesiod is so familiar with the winter and summer solstices that he reckons time from them in days[1054].
A much discussed question is whether the ancient Germans were acquainted with the solstices and equinoxes, an assumption which must be adopted by anyone who regards the Yule festival as a solstitial festival. Their acquaintance with these points has been denied and with this view I myself have concurred[1055]. After my researches in primitive time-reckoning, however, I can no longer maintain this opinion for the later heathen times of the north. For it has been shewn that primitive peoples—and especially those living far north, e. g. the Eskimos—observed the solstices well from certain points on the horizon. Now it has already been seen that the northern peoples observed the times of day in the same manner[1056], and this observation was also extended to the annual course of the sun. It is said, for example, that autumn lasts from the equinox until the sun sets in eyktarstað, i. e. the position in which it stands in the eykt[1057]; and that south of Iceland and Greenland the sun at the time of the shortest days inhabits eyktarstað and dagmálastað (that is to say at 9 a. m.)[1058]. The evidence, it is true, comes down from Christian days: but the method of determining time is of native origin and certainly goes back into heathen times. Hence it should not be denied that, although nothing of the kind has transpired, the solstices and equinoxes might have been approximately determined in the same way, and it may be that the regulation of the calendar profited by this.
Any other day of the year can be fixed by observation in the same way, though the observation of the solstices is probably the oldest. As late as the beginning of the 19th century this method was adopted in Norway as a check to the prime-staff. On certain farms there was a definite stone, buried in the earth, to which the people repaired for these observations. They noticed when the sun rose and shone out above certain mountain peaks, or when its last rays touched this or that summit. They also observed the length of the shadow on the face of a cliff, or noted when it touched the brow of a mountain or a certain stone. Thence they were able to give the important days of the year, e. g. the festival of St. Paul or Candlemas. Our authority says that the observation was very inaccurate, so that the Christmas Day of the people might fall on January 2. But it was not so bad as that, since they still followed the old style. The sun-mark for the first summer day (April 14) agreed with the 23rd of April[1059].