108 TIME-RECKONING. 



In China and some other parts of the world, no half days are used. 

 The Italians, the Bohemians and the Poles have a division of the 

 day into twenty-four parts, numbered from the first to the twenty- 

 fourth, from one o'clock to twenty-four o'clock. The Chinese divide 

 the day into twelve parts, each being equal to two hours of our 

 time ; these they again divide into eight parts, thus sub-dividing the 

 whole day into ninety-six equal parts. The Chinese astronomers, 

 according to some authorities, divide the day into 100 parts, and 

 each of these into 100 minutes, so that the whole contains 10,000 

 minutes. The inhabitants of Malabar have divided the day into six 

 parts, each of these again into 60 parts. The ancient Tai-tars, Indians 

 and Persians divided the day into eight parts, they had also a 

 division of sixty parts. 



In Japan there are four principal points of division — at noon, mid- 

 night, sunset and sunrise, dividing the natural day into four variable 

 parts. These four parts are divided each into three equal portions, 

 together making twelve hours. Each hour is again divided into 

 twelve parts, thus making in all one hundred and forty-four sub- 

 divisions of the day. The six hours between sunrise and sunset 

 differ in length, day by day, from the six hours between sunset and 

 sunrise. During the summer the hours of the day are much longer 

 than those of the night, and shorter, on the contrary, in the winter. 



The division of that portion of the day during which the sun is 

 above the horizon, into parts, belongs to the remotest ages of antiquity. 

 The division of the other portion, which embraces the period of dark- 

 ness, is of more recent date. It was not introduced at Rome until 

 the time of the Punic Wars. 



In early times the only divisions x'ecognized were sunrise and sun- 

 set. Afterwards the division of the interval of daylight into two 

 parts was made to denote mid-day. For many ages the Romans 

 took no public notice of any point in the diurnal revolution of the 

 earth, excepting mid -day. The precise time was manifested when 

 the line of the sun's shadow fell along the forum in a particular 

 direction, and the fact was duly announced by sound of trumpet. 



Before mechanical means were adopted for the division of the day, 

 only the vague, natural divisions of forenoon, afternoon, morning, 

 evening and night could be used. Mention is made of the erection 

 of the first sun dial at Rome by Papirius Cursor, 293 B.C., and the 

 division of time into hours. The employment of sun dials led to a 



