of Edinburgh, Session 1883-84. 
351 
Any tools may be obtained ready made from a smith, and may be 
used in barter when new. 
Compensation for killing a woman or for any serious crime must 
be paid in cattle. JSTo cowries are used as coin in this district. 
No drawing or writing is known, but certain marks are used to 
distinguish between arrows, pots, and the like. 
Measures . — A year is made up of twelve months or divisions, 
but the number of days in each division is said to vary — I could 
not make out how or why. 
A day is from sunrise to sunset. The year begins about the first 
month of harvest, when the grain is quite dry. Distance is reckoned 
by time. 
If you ask the distance to a place not very far away, they will 
often point to the sky and say — “ When the sun is at that spot 
you may be there.” 
No measure of weight, quantity, or length is used. 
The number of cows given to a son, or the number of things lent 
or borrowed, is remembered by means of small lengths of grass, 
bundles of which are kept in a basket on the wall of the hut. 
Dried beans are sometimes used for the purpose. 
The Madis count by tens ; hundreds are known, but not thousands. 
Sticks are sometimes notched to remember numbers. 
Astronomy , — The twilight in this district is very short. The Madis 
divide the day into three parts — morning from about 5.30 to 10 a.m.; 
mid-day 10 to 3 p.m.; and afternoon from 3 to 6.30 p.m. So that, 
roughly speaking, sunrise and sunset begin and end the day. The 
names for sunrise and sunset are kadro-ersa, kadro-lobo. There are 
names too for several of the stars (calu). The Pleiades, Minge 
Minge. The larger star by which they tell the time, Torn. The 
milky way, Guguree (road). 
Their study of the stars does not seem to go further than giving 
names to some of them. The winds are called Bluku. East, 
Duwerie ; West, Huwerie. Night, Endo ; Morning, Demindo. 
