The gestures may be accompanied by descriptive expressions, as among the negroes, or replaced by them, which seems to be the rule among other peoples. The latter practice offers the further advantage of being available in the night-time, when it is necessary to mention a point of time after dark. The Kayans denote the time of day by pointing to the position of the sun, but for morning and evening they also use the expressions ‘when the sun has risen’ or ‘set’[69]. Expressions for the most important divisions, sunrise and sunset (= morning and evening) and noon, are found among all peoples. Even the tribes of Central and Northern Australia have words e. g. for evening and for morning before sunrise[70]. The richness of the terminology however varies exceedingly. The Indians divide the day into three or four rough divisions only. The Seminole of Florida divided up the day by terms descriptive of the positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset[71]: unfortunately we are not told what these words were or how many of them existed. Among the Hopi of Arizona there is every evidence that the time of day was early indicated by the altitude of the sun[72]. The Omahas know no smaller divisions of the day than morning, noon, and afternoon, to which certainly must be added the transitional periods of sunrise and sunset[73]. The Occaneechi of Virginia measure the day by sunrise, noon, and sunset[74]. The Algonquins of the same province mention the three times of the rise, power, and lowering of the sun[75]. Many tribes however had four divisions[76], e. g. the Natchez of Louisiana, who divided the day into four equal parts: half the morning, until noon, half the afternoon, until evening[77]. But there is also a richer terminology, e. g. the Kiowa words for dawn (‘first-light’), sunrise (lit. ‘the-sun-has-come-up’), morning (lit. ‘full-day’), noon, earlier afternoon until about 3 o’clock, late afternoon, evening (lit. ‘first-darkness’)[78]; and in particular among the Statlumh of British Columbia: dawn (‘it-just-comes-day’), early morning (‘just-now-morning’), morning light (‘just-see-things’), full light (‘just-now-day’), sunrise (‘outside-sun’), early morning (midway between sunrise and noon), noon (up till about 2 p. m.), middle of the afternoon, about 4 p. m., ‘three-fourths-of-the-day-have-gone’, ‘sun-sitting-down’, ‘the-sun-gone’,’evening-creeping-up-the-mountain’ (this refers to the line of shadow on the eastern mountains), ‘reached-the-top’, i. e. the line of the shadows, twilight, ‘getting-dark’, night, darkness, pitch dark[79].
Of the Indians of S. America little is reported. ‘The-sun-is-perpendicular’ was the expression for noon on the Orinoco[80]. The Indians of Chile had words for morning twilight, dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, evening twilight, night, and midnight[81].
The terminology for the parts of the day is especially rich in Africa, a fact which is connected with the refinement of the observation of the sun’s position resulting from the custom of indicating this by a gesture in the direction of the heavens. Such simple indications as those of the Babwende for noon, ‘the-sun-over-the-crown-of-the-head’, and for midnight, ‘the-silence-of-the-land’[82], are rare. A number of elaborate time-indications are as a rule employed. The Wadschagga say at six o’clock in the morning ‘the sun rises’, at twelve o’clock ‘the sun rests on his cushion’ (like a tired porter), from twelve to one ‘the sun goes straight on’, about two it ‘bows’, about six it ‘falls down’, or ‘spreads its arms out’, like a man in the act of falling[83]. The terms used by the Bangala are:—about 2 a. m., the lying fowl; 3, the lying bird; 4, the first fowl; 4–5, the sun is near; 5, not translated; 5.30–6, the dawn; 6, the sun is come; 6.15–7, ntete; 12 noon, 2–3, 3–4, not translated; 6, the fowls go in, or the sun enters, or the sun darkens; 6.30, twilight finishes; 11–12, one set of the ribs or one side of a person, meaning that a person turns from lying on one side over on to the other; 12 midnight, second division or second half[84]. In Bornu the expressions for the time of day are formed by the aid of the word dinia = ‘world’, ‘universe’, ‘sky’. From about 4 to 5 ‘the world cuts the aurora’; at 6 ‘the world is light’; at 12 ‘the sun is in the centre of the world’. Afterwards follow ‘it is evening’, twilight, night, midnight. Since the people are Mohammedans they also have expressions for the hours of prayer[85]. The expressions used by the Shilluk of the White Nile are translated[86]:—“The first morning, twilight becomes visible, morning dawn, morning, the earth is morning (it is morning)—the difference here is not evident—noon, the sun is in the zenith, the sun begins to sink (afternoon), it is afternoon, the sun is setting, the sun has set, it is night, at night, midnight.” The Yoruba divide the day into early morning, morning or forenoon, noon (when the day is ‘perpendicular’), shadow-lengthening or afternoon, evening or twilight[87]. The Masai distinguish the following parts of the day:—at 4 a. m. it is ‘not-yet-early’; at 5 it is ‘early’; somewhat later come dawn, twilight (about 5.30, ‘the-sun-is-still-far-off’), and sunrise (‘the-sun-shews-himself-a-little’ or ‘rises’). From 8 to 10 it is ‘still-early’, towards 11 they say ‘the-sun-is-not-yet-perpendicular-overhead’, at 12 ‘the-sun-is-perpendicular-overhead’. The afternoon is usually expressed by ‘the-shadow-is-turned-round’. This phrase is often used for the period from 3 to 5 p. m. In particular, 12–2 = ‘the-sun-is-broken’, 2–4 = ‘afternoon-now’, 4–6 is evening, 5 = ‘the-sun-goes-down’, sunset glow = ‘the-twilight-follows-the-sun’. With the coming of darkness begins the tapa, which lasts until 8 o’clock, when the people usually go to rest[88]. Another authority gives the following list:—Evening, when the cattle return to the kraal just before sunset; night-fall, or the hour for gossip, before the people go to bed about 8 o’clock; then night, midnight, and the time when the buffaloes go to drink (about 4 a. m.), this latter is the hour before the sun rises; then ‘the blood-red period’ or ‘the time when the sun decorates the sky’, this is the hour when the first rays of the sun redden the heavens; after that morning, when the sun has risen. There are also hours called ‘the-sun-stands-(or is-)opposite-to-one’ (midday), and ‘the-shadows-lower-themselves’ (1–2 p. m.)[89]. The Nandi, north-east of the Victoria Nyanza, divide the day into six parts with separate names: 5–6 a. m., 6–9 a. m., 9 a. m.–2 p. m., 2–6 p. m., 6–7 p. m., night. They have moreover a highly developed terminology for the hours of the day, to which we shall return later. The Baganda distinguish the following times of day:—night, midnight, cock-crow, early dawn, morning, ‘little sun’ (early morning from 6 to 9), full or broad daylight (9–2), midday, afternoon, evening[90]. The lower classes sometimes reckon from the meal-times, breakfast at 7 a. m., dinner at noon, and supper at 6 p. m. Women engaged in rough work in the gardens spoke of the time at which such and such an event took place as that of the first or second pipe, the first marking an interval of rest at 8 a. m., the second being smoked when work ceased at 10 a. m.[91]. The expressions for the times of day among the Thonga of South Africa have been translated and explained as follows:—“The dawn is called nipandju; then come tlhabela sana, the time when the rays of the sun (sana) are piercing; hisaka sana, when they are burning; nhlekani, the middle of the sky, or shitahataka, the maximum point of heat; then ndjenga or lihungu, the afternoon; the time when the sun goes down (renga); ku pela or ku hlwa, when it reaches the horizon; and inpimabayeni, the twilight, literally ‘the time when you do not easily recognise strangers coming to your village because it grows dark’”[92]. It is remarkable here that many indications are given from the increasing heat and not from the position of the sun. The Hottentots distinguish morning and evening twilight, morning brightness, i. e. the time of clear day shortly before sunrise (the native name is given because about dawn it is usually most perceptibly cold), and evening brightness, ‘the red twilight’. ‘Little children’s twilight’ was in some places the name given to the time of the first noticeable diminution of light after sunset, in accordance with the belief that at this hour most children were born. Afternoon and morning were only approximate. A distinction was made between evening and late evening, which extended till long after sunset[93]. The author just quoted remarks that in this case one is struck by the fact that while the limits of day and night are elaborately marked out, of the hours of day itself only noon is brought into prominence. The same is the case with most peoples who possess a more highly developed terminology of this nature, and the circumstance is perfectly natural, since the concrete differences in the phenomena of light and of the heavens become so great and so easily visible during the transition from day to night and night to day. As soon as the sun has risen a little in the heavens these differences consist chiefly in the position of the sun and in the increasing heat. Here the language of signs is really more expressive.
The aboriginals of the Andaman Islands have terms for the following times of day:—dawn, the time between this and sunrise, sunrise, the time between sunrise and 7 a. m., morning (three different expressions), noon, the time from noon to 3 p. m., from 3 to 5, from 5 to sunset, sunset, twilight, from night-fall to midnight, midnight[94]. In Busang (the common commercial language of the Bakau) as spoken by the Mendalam Kayan of Borneo the different times of day are named:—dow (day) bekang (open, split) = 6 a. m.; dow njirang (to shine) mahing (powerful) = about 9 a. m.; dow negrang (upright) marong (real) = about 12 noon; dow njaja (great) = about 4 p. m.; dow lebi (little) = about 6 p. m.[95] The terms used by the Islamite Malayans of Sumatra are mingled with Arabic loan-words, which I indicate by (Ar.):—6 a. m. (Ar.) dawn, 9 ‘half of the rising’, 11 ‘close to noon’, 12 ‘middle of the day’, 12–1 p. m. (Ar.), 1–3 ‘mid-descent’, 3 ‘the time of the long sinking’, 4 (Ar.) afternoon, 5.30 ‘time of twilight’, 6 (Ar.) sunset, 8 (Ar.) evening[96]. The Javanese speak of morning, forenoon, noon, afternoon, fall of the day, sunset, evening[97]. The Achenese of Sumatra, who have a fully developed calendar influenced by Arabic, keep the old names for the times of day but with Arabic words and the Moslem hours of prayer intermingled. About 6 a. m. = with the breaking forth of the sun; 7–7.30 = the sun a pole high, referring to the poles used in propelling craft; 9 = rice time, i. e. meal time; 10 = the loosening of the ploughing-gear; 11 = the approaching of the zenith; 12 = the zenith; 12.30 = the falling from the zenith; 1.30–2 = the middle of the period devoted to obligatory noon-day prayers; 3 = the last part of this; 3.30 = the beginning, 4.30–5 = the middle, and 5.30 = the last part of the time of afternoon prayers; 6 = sunset; 7.30 = evening, especially referring to the time of commencement of the evening prayer; then come midnight and the last third of night, 3 a. m. = the single crowing of the cock, 4–4.30 = the continuous crowing of the cocks, nearly 5 = the streaks of dawn[98]. For the Malays of the Peninsula the following list is given:—just before dawn = before the flies are astir; after sunrise = the heat begins; about 8 a. m. = when the dew dries up; about 9 = when the sun is half-way above. Then follow:—when the plough rests; noon = just noon, right in the middle, when the shadows are round; afternoon = when the day turns back; about 1.30 p. m. = after (Friday) prayer; about 3 = when the buffaloes go to water; about 10 = when the children have gone to sleep[99].
The natives of the Solomon Islands have a rich terminology. In Buin the following degrees of brightness in the daylight are distinguished:—4 a. m., ‘it gradually begins to get light’; 5, ‘the brightness is coming on’; 6, ‘the sun shews himself’; 7, ‘it is getting sun’, ‘the sun is there’; 10, ‘the sun is over the side-rafters of the roof’ (i. e. not yet quite overhead); 12 noon, ‘the sun has come overhead’; 2 p. m., ‘with westerly inclination’, ‘turning’; 3.30, ‘it has come to the tying of the knot’ (on the Gazelle Peninsula they say of this time ‘the sun has sat down to glow’); 5, ‘darkness is drawing near’; 6, ‘it has begun to get dark’; 7, ‘it has grown dark’[100]. Moreover there are words and expressions which mean ‘middle of the heavens’, ‘the sun is over the ridge’, ‘the sun stands below 70° from the horizon’, ‘the sun is on the entrance-beam’[101]. A feature of special note here is that the houses (which must all be built facing the same direction) and their parts serve as aids in indicating time. The inhabitants of New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) divided up the day according to the position of the sun, and had words for sunrise, noon, afternoon, the time of the declining sun, nearly sunset, sunset, and presumably some others[102].
The Polynesians mingle the time-indications based on the position of the sun with others which are derived from the life of men and nature. We are told that the Hawaiian day was divided into three general parts, 1, breaking the shadows, 2, the plain, full day, 3, the decline of the day. But this must be completed by what follows:—The lapse of night, however, was noted by five stations: 1, about sunset; 2, between sunset and midnight; 3, midnight; 4, between midnight and sunrise; 5, sunrise[103]. A native Hawaiian writes:—“When the stars fade away and disappear, it is ao, daylight; when the sun rises, day has come, la; when the sun becomes warm, morning is past; when the sun is directly overhead it is awahea, noon; when the sun inclines to the west in the afternoon, the expression is wa ani ka la. After that come evening, ahi-ahi (ahi, fire), and then sunset, napoo ka la, and then comes po, the night, and the stars shine out”. Other expressions are translated:—‘there comes a glimmer of colour on the mountains’, ‘the curtains of night are parted’, ‘the mountains light up’, ‘day breaks’, ‘the east blooms with yellow’, ‘it is broad daylight’[104].
These are, poetically regarded, very fine examples of the rich terminology for the time of transition between night and day. In Tahiti the day has six divisions which are fairly accurately determined by the height of the sun. Names are given for midnight, midnight to daybreak, daybreak, sunrise, the time when the sun begins to be hot, when it reaches the meridian, evening before sunset, the time after sunset[105]. The names for the times of day among the Society Islanders were particularly well developed. For the day there were two expressions according to its extension either from morning to evening twilight or from the rising to the setting of the sun. No division into regular periods was known, nor any means of establishing these; nevertheless the islanders distinguished a varying number of points of time, according to recurring physical changes, at unequal distances from each other. Thus:—the time of cock-crow, the first breaking of clouds, twilight, the stirring of the flies, the time at which a man’s face can be recognised, daylight, the dipping forward of the sun’s edge, sunrise, the sun above the horizon, the rays broadening over the land, the rays falling on the crown of the head, the same a little oblique, the shadow as long as the object, the same longer than the man, the sun near the horizon, sunset, the time at which the houses are lit up, twilight, night, midnight[106]. For the Marquesas are given:—daybreak, twilight, dawn, (‘the day or the red sky, the fleeing night’), broad day—bright day from full morning to about ten o’clock—, noon (‘belly of the sun’), afternoon (‘back part of the sun’), evening (‘fire-fire’, the same expression as in Hawaii, i. e. the time to light the fires on the mountains or the kitchen fire for supper)[107]. The Samoans divided the day into first dawn, dawn, cock-crowing, day-break, the time when the bird iao was heard (i = call, ao = day-break), morning, the time to feed the tame pigeons (about 9 a. m.), the sun upright (= noon), half-way down (about 3 p. m.), sunset. After that the night was divided into:—the crying of the cricket (about 20 minutes after sunset), fire-lighting (about half-an-hour later), the extinguishing of the lights (about 9 p. m.), midnight, and tulna o pa ma ao, ‘the standing together of night and day’[108].
Indications of this nature are convenient only in countries in which the sun is neither too often nor too long hidden by clouds. When the sun is hidden the inhabitants have to manage as best they can. A very interesting statement in this connection is made by a Swahili native. In rainy days his tribe observed the crowing of the cock. At the first cock-crow they knew that it was 5 or 6 a. m.; when the cock failed to crow all sense of a division of time was lost to them[109].
The phenomena of Nature afford little basis for the naming of the times of day, since there is hardly one of them which recurs regularly every day at a definite time, with the exception of cock-crow, which is in great favour as an indication of the time before sunrise. Other exceptional cases are such names as that mentioned for the Society Islands, ‘the stirring of the flies’; one given for the Mahakam Kayan of Borneo, tiling (a cricket which is only to be heard at sunset) duan (to sing)[110]; a couple of expressions of the Wadschagga, ‘the cry of the partridge’ in the evening, ‘the turning of the smoke down the mountain’[111]; and one of the Nandi, ‘the elephants have gone to water’[112]. But a people which devotes itself to cattle-rearing or to agriculture may borrow from its regular daily occupations expressions for the times of day. Thus the Mahakam Kayan, besides the above-mentioned name for late afternoon and the term for noon (beluwa dow, ‘half-day’), have an expression for about 4 p. m.—dow uli, i. e. ‘the time of the home-coming from work in the fields’. The Javanese are strongly influenced by civilisation and have, especially for astrological purposes, a fully developed chronological system; not seldom, however, the times of day are given in relation to the rural labour. So they say ‘when the buffalo is sent to the pastures’, ‘when the buffalo is brought back from the pastures’ or ‘is housed’ etc.; but for the time of the occurrence of any event the position of the sun is usually indicated[113]. The Achenese and the Malays of Sumatra have an expression exactly corresponding to the Greek βουλυτός[114]. The Wadschagga have expressions for the position of the sun, but also others[115], among which may be mentioned ‘the first going of the oxen to the pastures in the morning’. This kind of terminology seems to have been developed into a system among the Banyankole, a cattle-raising tribe of the Uganda Protectorate. The day is divided up in the following way:—6 a. m., milking-time; 9 a. m., katamyabosi, not translated; 12 noon, rest for the cattle; 1 p. m., the time to draw water; 2 p. m., the time for the cattle to drink; 3 p. m., the cattle leave the watering-place to graze; 4 p. m., the sun shews signs of setting; 5 p. m., the cattle return home; 6 p. m., the cattle enter the kraal; 7 p. m., milking-time[116]. This terminology is of especial interest since it remains in various Indo-European languages as a relic of antiquity, and affords a hitherto little observed piece of evidence for the life of antiquity which agrees well with others. Compare Sanskrit sagavás, the time when the cows are herded together; βουλυτός, the time when the oxen were unyoked in the Homeric phrase ἦμος δ’ ἠέλιος μετενίσσετο βουλυτόνδε[117]; and Irish im-buarach, morning, ‘at the yoking of the oxen’. With rest or meal-times are associated Old High German untorn, ‘noon’, the time of the mid-day rest, Sanskrit abhipitvam, ‘evening’, and Lithuanian piëtus, ‘noon’, which goes back to Sanskrit pitus, ‘meal-time’[118].