Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalof404219041905roya).pdf/245

 I can only suggest 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 shadow 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 necessaries 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 Kenyahs 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 important operations could hardly fail to be overlaid with superstition.