COMPUTING TIME IN BORNEO. 5 



I can only sug-g-est one reason why these people though 

 they have got so far, have not invented a sun-dial. That is 

 this. In the tropics there are many days near each equinox on 

 which no sun-dial would be of use. When the sun in its yearly 

 course passes from the north of the zenith to the south, its sha- 

 dow is due west in the morning hours, due east in the afternoon. 

 Any time-piece depending on the direction of the shadow must 

 therefore fail. The difficulty might indeed be obviated, but no 

 sundial could be devised which would in the tropics tell the 

 time in every month of the year. 



This then is their instrument, in which no point essential to 

 accuracy has been neglected. The measuring stick has been 

 notched in accordance with the experience of previous years, 

 and when the shadow, after lengthening during May and June, 

 begins again to grow less, the house assembles and by mutual 

 consent they decide when to plant. The best time for planting 

 has not arrived until the noonday shadow is the length of the 

 forearm from the tip of the fingers to the inside of the elbow. 

 When the shadow is less than the length of the hand, sowing 

 is not likely to prove very productive. The measuring stick is 

 left in charge of some old and presumably wise man, less capable 

 than his fellows of hard work, who sees to it that the shadow 

 is not measured obliquely and reports the favourable moment. 

 This man is excused from farming and is supplied with neces- 

 saries in return for his services. In good years he naturally 

 is very well treated. 



It would be pleasant to stop here, and say that otherwise 

 the Kenyans care nothing about the heavenly bodies. But 

 having given the bright side of the picture and shown how they 

 have acquired some accurate knowledge, the result of long and 

 genuine experience, it is only fair to state that they lay almost 

 equal importance on the meaningless mummery with which 

 these mysterious measurements are accompanied. Such im- 

 portant operations could hardly fail to be overlaid with super- 

 stition. 



R. A. Soc, No. 42, 1904. 



