Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/281

 arecapalm,—such are the occupations of the great mass of the population.

It must be understood that such a peasantry can make no use of their calendar of 12 lunar revolutions for the purposes of their calling, which is most intimately connected with the changes of the seasons. Each of the months of the lunar calendar of course gradually traverses all seasons at the rate of about 11 days per annum.

Notwithstanding this (and we find the same in Java), the ordinary Achehnese if asked when rice is sown, will at first reply that it must be done in, let us say, the months of Haji and Asan-Usén. He simply reflects that such was about the time in the last two years, and forgets for the moment that it was formerly otherwise. In the long run, however, he would notice his mistake, and so he makes his calculations and plans for agricultural work without any help from the Mohammedan calendar.

In most Moslim countries, indeed, there is, in addition to what we may call the ecclesiastical year, which follows the phases of the moon, a civil year which in some way or other keeps pace with the sun.

The Turks employ the Julian solar year, while the Arabs direct their attention to the 28 stations of the moon, constellations which the moon traverses in about a solar year. The Turkish system can of course only be successfully carried out in a country where there is a more or less regulated government and an official double calendar. Such a thing could not be thought of in Arabia, where on the other hand a calendar written in the clear heavens and exhibiting fresh phenomena every thirteen days, is in the highest degree practical.

Clear nocturnal skies are however indispensable for an astronomical knowledge on the part of the people, so comparatively widespread as to have made the Arabic moon-stations familiar to every one concerned. In the East Indian Archipelago observation of what takes place in the firmament is usually much impeded by cloudy skies and for a great part of the year quite impossible. All that has been found written in Indonesia on the subjects of astronomy and astrology is largely borrowed from foreign sources. The true popular astronomy in this part of the world sets to work with one or two great constellations, and the knowledge of the movements of these is confined to a few individuals, who enlighten their fellow-villagers as far as is necessary.

Orion is well-known to the Javanese peasants, who in different