AGRICULTURE 107 



vertically in the ground ; It is carefully adjusted 

 with the aid of plumb lines, and the possibility of its 

 sinking deeper into the earth is prevented by pass- 

 ing its lower end through a hole in a board laid 

 horizontally on the ground, its surface flush with 

 the surface of the ground which is carefully smoothed. 

 The pole is provided with a shoulder which rests 

 upon this board. The upper end of the pole is 

 generally carved in the form of a human figure. 

 The carving may be very elaborate, or the figure 

 may be indicated only by a few notches. The 

 length of the pole from the collar to its upper 

 extremity is made equal to the span from tip to tip 

 of outstretched arms of its maker, plus the length of 

 his span from tip of the thumb to that of the first 

 finger. This pole {aso do) stands on a cleared space 

 before or behind the house, and is surrounded by 

 a strong fence ; the area within the fence, some 

 three or four yards in diameter, being made as level 

 and smooth as possible. The clerk of the weather 

 has a neatly worked flat stick, on which lengths are 

 marked off by notches ; these lengths are measured 

 by laying the stick along the radial side of the left 

 arm, the butt end against the anterior fold of the 

 armpit. A notch is then cut at each of the follow- 

 ing positions : one notch about one inch from the 

 butt end, a second opposite the middle of the upper 

 arm, one opposite the elbow, one opposite the bend 

 of the wrist, one at the first interphalangeal joint, 

 one at the finger-tip. The other side of the rod 

 bears a larger number of notches, of which the most 

 distal marks the greatest length of the mid-day 

 shadow, the next one the length of the mid-day 

 shadow three days after it has begun to shorten, 

 the next the length of the shadow after three more 

 days' shortening, and so on. The mid-day shadow 

 is, of course, the minimal length reached in the course 

 of the day, and the marks denoting the changes in 



