Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/83

 Rh I am strongly of opinion that the Biblical narrative of the bargain between the shepherds Jacob and Laban (Genesis, Chapter XXX.), which is at present admittedly in an obscure and confused condition, might be rendered more intelligible by regarding it from the standpoint of the use of tallies by Jacob (verses 37-8). So far as I am aware, after an extended search, no suggestion has hitherto been made of such an explanation, which I consider worthy of further investigation and of separate treatment.

An even more interesting survival than the sheep tally occurs amongst the shepherds of the South Downs. A turf sundial is still to be found in use in a few places, from which the cheap watch has not yet driven it. A shepherd, after feeding his flock on roots where they have been "folded" for the night, will take them on to the grassy downs, returning with them when it is time for the night folding. In order to do this he must know at what hour to begin his return journey, for he may have a long distance to go. If without a watch, and with no clocks within hearing, he resorts to one of the turf dials shown in Plate II. If the sun fails him, and his dial consequently does not work, he has to work by dead reckoning. In some cases the old shepherds can make very good estimates of the time without either watch, sundial, or visible sun.

The form of sundial photographed in Fig. 6 is made as follows:—Having selected a fairly smooth bit of turf, the shepherd marks a rough circle about eighteen inches in diameter with a pointed stick, leaving the stick perpendicularly in the ground in the centre. Due south of this he fixes another stick, about twelve inches long, on the periphery of the circle. The south direction is either ascertained at mid-day by means of another man's watch, or, more frequently, by landmark bearings known to the shepherd. Having done this, he fixes another stick due west, which is, of course, merely a matter of measurement. He then fixes in the intervening quadrant of the circle five sticks for the hours one to five inclusive, so completing a sundial with seven gnomons on its circumference. At three o'clock in an October afternoon, which is about the time shown in the photograph, it may be about time to return to the fold, and the