NA TUKE 



[December 30, 1909 



the exhibition of a herd of reindeer in charge of a 

 party of Lapps, an exliibition which led to the impor- 

 tation of parties of natives from many other parts 

 of the world. 



Either personally or by means of his representatives, 

 Mr. Hagenbeck has explored a very large portion of 

 the globe, having brought home, and reared, walruses 

 from Greenland, giraffes, elephants, and rhinoceroses 

 from the heart of Africa, tigers and sambar from the 

 jungles of India, and wild horses and onagers from 

 the fringe of the Gobi desert. The most interesting 

 chapters in the book are undoubtedly those in which 

 the author describes the various methods of capturing 

 wild animals alive, and the behaviour and habits of 

 particular species and groups. Did space permit, we 

 might refer to many stories of adventures and escapes, 

 but we must be content with mentioning one case 

 where a party of some 3000 baboons attacked and beat 

 off the captors of their fellows. These baboons, like 

 many carnivora, are captured as adults by means of 

 traps ; but in the case of the larger herbivores Mr. 

 Hagenbeck's most successful method is to train the 

 natives (if they require it) to ride in pursuit of the 

 herds until the young ones are brought to a stand- 

 still. 



The book, which deserves a fuller notice than can 

 be given here, is rich in interest from beginning to 

 end; and should be of considerable value to all the 

 custodians of zoological gardens. R. L. 



THE SEXTO-DECIMAL YEAR OF BRITISH 

 CALENDARS. 



IN searching English and Welsh calendars for 

 sequences of festivals at intervals corresponding 

 with the sun's stations on quarter and half-quarter 

 days, or, in other words, the quarter days of both 

 the solstitial and the May years — the octave year 

 consisting of eight half-quarters — I find another 

 octave year definitely marked in the calendars, and 

 to a large extent still observed by festivals and fairs. 

 The year of British calendars is definitely sexto- 

 decimal, both the solstitial and May quarter days 

 being duplicated, with the striking result that the 

 eight half-half-quarter days coincide within three 

 days of the exact half-half-quarter stations of the sun, 

 the unit interval being roughly three weeks. The 

 interval between a solstitial and a May quarter day 

 being roughly six weeks, the duplicate octave year 

 may be calfed an intermediate year. 



The intermediate year is evidently the oldest octave 

 of the two. It is the year as observed previouslv to 

 the publication of the Julian calendar. Its basis was 

 a calendar which was not corrected for the precession 

 of the equinoxes, but which in other respects has 

 been kept up to date. Calendars of other countries 

 present similar anachronisms, but the persistence in 

 Britain of such a belated calendar calls for special 

 notice. 



The jumbling together of two festival reckon- 

 ings, on bases two thousand years apart, has resulted 

 in a strikingly symmetrical sexto-decimal year. The 

 festivals of the older octave were accurately fixed on 

 solar quarter and half-quarter days, a fact which 

 implies either the continued use of astronomical 

 monuments for solar or stellar observation on those 

 days, or a computation based on the exact length 

 of the year. Within the Christian era, the festivals 

 of the older reckoning drifted out of correspondence 

 with the original solar stations. When the dates of 

 the older sequence of festivals were marked in the 

 Julian calendar, it was found — and I think it is hardly 

 possible that the fact could have been overlooked — 

 that the dates were just midway between the solar 

 NO. 2096; VOL. 82] 



stations of a Julian sequence of festivals, and it 

 became possible to utilise the half-half-quarter stations 

 of the sun to indicate the incidence of the belated 

 festivals. What makes the subject still more inter- 

 esting is the discovery by Sir Norman Lockyer and 

 others of indications of similar half-time dates in 

 monument measures (Nature, November 12, igo8, 

 P- 36). 



A complete sexto-decimal solar year may be ex- 

 pressed as follows, the nearest round number of 

 minutes of declination being given : — 



June 22 



May 29-30, July 16 

 May 6, August 8 

 Apiil 12-13, September 

 March 21, September 23 



30 



February 27-28, October 15-16 

 November 8, February 4 

 November 30, January 13-14 

 December 23 



Half-quarters of the 



Date Dedication 



November 30 Andrew 



January 13... Hilary 



February 28 ) Oswald 



Older Octave. 



18... I Luke 



Cliaracter of Festival 

 All Hallows 

 Winter solstice 



Candlemas 



Vernal equinox 

 May day 



Summer solstice 



Lammas 



Autumnal equinox 



When the older octave only was marked in a 

 calendar, such a calendar was doubtless a lunar one, 

 and sometimes the interval between two festivals 

 exactly corresponds with the solar interval only in a 

 lunar reckoning. For instance, January 13-April :,3 

 represents in the Roman lunar calendar the exact 

 interval between the winter solstice and the vernal 

 equinox, both dates being also Ides. 



The intermediate year is clearly a May one,' the 

 first quarter, November-February, being rounded by 

 the patron saints of Scotland and Wales. There is 

 abundant evidence of St. Andrew's having been 

 observed as New Year's Day. The interval between 

 St. David's Day and St. Andrew's corresponds to the 

 length of the vegetation year pure and simple. I 

 think St. Patrick's Day, March 17, represents, like 

 St. David's, a Candlemas festival, by a lunar calcu- 

 lation like that of the Coligny calendar. That date 

 about the ninth century coincided with the vernal 

 equinox, when it seems to have been given an equi- 

 noctial significance in connection with the com- 

 memoration of St. Patrick ; but the shamrock, like the 

 date, is reminiscent of a Candlemas festival (Nature, 

 July 25, 1907, p. 295). 



In one parish in Glamorgan — namely, Llangeinor 

 — the complete sexto-decimal year was, until recently, 

 observed by holding a court every three weeks. The 

 patronal day is October S, three weeks before All 

 Hallows, but originally an autumnal equinox festival. 



There is much evidence to show that the Scan- 

 dinavian and German invaders of England, on the 

 one hand, and the Welsh-speaking invaders of Wales 

 from the north in post-Roman times, are chiefly 

 responsible for fixing permanently the intermediate 

 year in our calendar. So much is indicated by the 

 list of saints commemorated, but more particularly 

 by the association in Wales of half-half-quarter fairs 

 with traces of northern and Scandinavian settlements 



