THE WORDS: DAY, MONTH, YEAR, COMPARATIVE.
Day: Malay, ari or hari; Javanese, aivan; Sunda, powi; Tahiti, ra or la; Hawaiian, la and ao; Marquesan, a; Hervey group, ra; Tonga, aho; Samoa, aso; Stewart and Howe groups, atho.
Month: Malay, bulau, (also moon); Javanese, wulau; Sunda, aulau; Tahiti, marama, awae; Hawaiian, malama, mahina (moon); Marquesan, ma’ama; Tonga, mahina; Samoan, masina; Stewart and Howe, merima (moon).
Year: Malay, taun, tahun; Tonga, tau (season); Hawaiian, makahiki, kau (a season, period).
The week of seven days was introduced into Java by the Hindus. Previously the week was divided into five days, like that of the Mexicans. Their names were: (1) laggi, blue, or east; (2) pahina, red, or south; (3) pon, yellow, or west; (4) wagi, black or north; (5) kliwon, mixed colour, the hearth or center. The designating of the north by the black color indicates, according to Mr. Rienzi, that this denomination originated in Hindustan where the sun is never to northward, as in Java or other equinoxial countries.
The ancient Javanese divided the year into thirty periods called woukou, or 360 days, and also into twelve months of unequal length, and the year ended with intercalary days.
At Bali, the year commences about the month of April. The Braminical civil year was the lunar—that of Saka or Salivana—and the priests calculated the intercalary days.
The Javanese have a cycle of seven years, similar to that of Tibet and Siam. The names of the years are mostly of Sanscrit origin and are: 1. manghara, the lobster or crab; 2. menda, the goat; 3. kalabang, the centipede; 4. wichitra, the worm; 5. mintouna, the fish; 6. was, the scorpion; 7. maicha, the buffalo.
In speaking of the Javanese cycle of twelve years and the correspondence of the names of the years with the names of the Sanscrit zodiac, Mr. Rienzi adds: “Ainsi nous retrouvons en Océanie le zodiaque de l’Asie centrale que l’Europe a également adopté”—(Océanie, Vol. I, p. 168.)
In ancient Egypt and Arabia the year was divided into three seasons. This was the ancient arrangement in the Society islands. The Egyptian year began with the winter season in or about November, so also in Arabia. The first was the season of sowing and planting; the second was the summer harvesting and reaping; the third the season of waters, time of inundating the Nile.—(Glidden’s Ancient Egypt.)