330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wliich is really a week of seven days and some nine hours, and in 

 consequence each week commences at a different hour of the day. 

 The first day of the first week commences when the new moon is 

 first seen, usually about sunset, and each moon contains exactly 

 four of these periods, or weeks. Say the new moon is visible at 

 5 P. M. on a Monday, then the first week will terminate about 

 2 A. M. on the next Tuesday but one, and will contain seven days 

 and eight nights nearly. The second week, commencing at 2 a. m. 

 on Tuesday, will terminate at 11 A. M. on the Tuesday following, 

 and will contain seven and a half days and seven nights, approxi- 

 mately. The third week will terminate at 8 P. m. on the next 

 Tuesday, and the fourth when the next new moon appears. Each 

 of the seven days has a name : 1. Dyo-da, or Adjivo-da. 2. Bna- 

 da. 3. Uku-da, or Wuku-da. 4. Yaw-da. 5. Fi-da. 6. Memin- 

 da, or Memere-da. 7. Kwasi-da. It is sometimes said that these 

 days correspond to ours, but that is not quite correct. The only 

 correspondence is one of order i. e., Dyo-da answers to Monday 

 because it is the first of the series, and Fi-da to Friday because it 

 is the fifth ; but as the Tshi week is nine hours longer than ours, 

 the days do not correspond in time. 



The suffix da, which we see attached to these names, is derived 

 from the verb da, " to sleep," and shows that, as we should expect, 

 the period is a seven-night period rather than a seven-day period. 

 From its connection with these words, da, or eda, has now ac- 

 quired the meaning of " day." A week is da-pen, " a set of days," 

 or nuaotyo, " eight days," because the week contains seven days 

 and a part of an eighth. Nua is the plural of da. The word for 

 " day," in contradistinction to " night," is aivia, which properly 

 means " sun." Month, or moon, is sram, a word which is derived 

 from sra, "to watch for," and has reference to the custom of 

 watching for the new moon. Sram-fia, '' moon-appearing," is the 

 beginning of the month, and sram-iviia, " moon-dying," the end. 



The Ga tribes of the Gold Coast likewise have a week of seven 

 days and some nine hours, so that a lunar month consists of four 

 of these periods. Their names for the days are : 1. Dsu. 2. Dsu- 

 fo. 3. Fso. 4. So. 5. So-ha. 6. Ho. 7. Ho-gba. These seem to 

 consist of three pairs and a single one, viz., the third day. Day 

 and night, as contrasted one with the other, are fa7ie and nyon, 

 the formor of which probably means " the redness," and no doubt 

 refers to the sun, while the latter means "moon." Nyon-dse, 

 " moon-appearing," means the beginning or early part of the 

 month, and nyon-gbo, "moon-dying," the end. These two nations 

 afford examples of a seven-day week being formed directly from 

 the lunar month. 



Now, as nations progress in knowledge and gain a more or 

 less accurate notion of the solar year, they begin to compute time 



