Cuaprter XX XVII 
RECOGNITION OF TIME, SEASON, NUMBER, DISTANCE 
Time: Recognized by special events; the year fixed by the Pleiades (936). 
Seasons for ripening of certain fruits, clearing lands, hunting particular animals, 
prognosticated by stars and constellations (937) ; wet and dry seasons (938). 
Enumeration: Strings, sticks, stones (939) ; conceptions of the higher numbers 
(940). 
Distance (941). 
936. To indicate periods of time past Indians will refer to some 
special personal event, their entrance into this life, ‘‘ When my eyes 
open,” “ When I first catch myself,” “ When I begin to crawl,” ete. 
The Surinam bush Negroes speak of the age when a boy can carve a 
paddle or make a corial (KM, 27). Schomburgk expresses the cer- 
tain conviction (SR, 1, 174) that his visit to the Warrau on the Waini, 
the first occasion on which these people had seen white individuals, 
must have opened a new era for them in the sense of affording a reck- 
oning period to start from. To indicate time very long past, the 
Surinam Carib will use some such expression as “before the grand- 
father of my grandmother was born.” When at sunset, and after 
the stars show themselves, the Pleiades rise from the east, then their 
[Orinoco Indian] new year [the wet season] begins, and in their 
commercial relations (¢ratos) it is usually the time for settlement 
(G, 11,281). The Cayenne Galibi (PBA, 179; Cr, 215), the Surinam 
and Island Carib (PEN, 1, 103; RO, 451) also reckoned the 
year by this constellation, an arrangement which I have likewise 
found customary among the Arawak and Warrau of the Pomeroon. 
Hence from east to west of the Guiana area, from the Orinoco to 
Cayenne, the reappearance of the Pleiades or “Seven-Star ” on the 
eastern horizon soon after sunset (December) constitutes the passing 
of a year. 
937. The year is divided not into months but into seasons accord- 
ing as the more important economic animals and plants after which 
they are named breed, reach maturity, bear fruit, etc. These seasons 
follow each other in regular succession year by year, according as 
certain stars and constellations make their appearance, take up a 
certain position in the sky, or even disappear. That is to say, 
the presence and position of various stars are associated with 
particular seasons. [Penard gives a list of these seasons (PEN, 1, 
715 
