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"Within the day two phenomena chiefly recur with
such unfailing constancy as to be of use in
counting: they are the daily reviving sun and
the night of sleeping-time. The word for sun is
often the same as that for day. Within the day
fall a number of occupations which chiefly turn
the attention to its length and varying
phenomena, and this is the case also with the
sun itself, for the varying position of the sun
in the heavens affords the most usual mode of
indicating the time of the day." "The Polynesians mingle the time-indications based on the position of the sun with others which are derived from the life of men and nature. We are told that the Hawaiian day was divided into three general parts, 1, breaking the shadows, 2, the plain, full day, 3, the decline of the day... The lapse of night, however, was noted by five stations: 1, about sunset; 2, between sunset and midnight; 3, midnight; 4, between midnight and sunrise; 5, sunrise. A native Hawaiian [Malo] writes: - 'When the stars fade away and disappear, it is ao, daylight; when the sun rises, day has come, la; when the sun becomes warm, morning is past; when the sun is directly overhead it is awahea, noon; when the sun inclines to the west in the afternoon, the expression is wa ani ka la. After that come evening, ahi-ahi (ahi, fire), and then sunset, napoo ka la, and then comes po, the night, and the stars shine out..." "In Tahiti the day has six divisions which are fairly accurately determined by the height of the sun. Names are given for midnight, midnight to daybreak, daybreak, sunrise, the time when the sun begins to be hot, when it reaches the meridian, evening before sunset, the time after sunset." "For the Marquesas are given: - daybreak, twilight, dawn, ('the day or the red sky, the fleeing night'), broad day - bright day from full morning to about ten o'clock -, noon ('belly of the sun'), afternoon ('back part of the sun'), evening ('fire-fire', the same expression as in Hawaii, i.e. the time to light the fires on the mountains or the kitchen fire for supper)." (Nilsson) I have made a table which summarizes the main parts of this. |