WHAT TIME IS IT?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4707, 4 June 1924, Page 3

WHAT TIME IS IT?

...u SOME CURIOUS ANSWERS. “Coming in a jiffy 1” we exclaim. L'll be with you in a tick” (or “a brace of shakes”). The Swedes say “I’ll be with you in an eye-blink” (ogonblick). So du the Malays and Javanese. "The hut was burned down in less than the time in which maize is not yet completely roasted,” which means less than a quarter of an hour, declare the natives of the Cross River region of the Caineroons, states a writer in the “Manchester Guardian. ’ "1 saw the shark swim past the time it takes to cook a pot of yams ago," n Bismarck Archipelago islaffder tells you. If an event happened quickly, he declares : "It happened in a stickthrow" (the time a throw stick is in the air). “The big wind came in the hour of ghosts,” says the Marquesan islander, meaning the first part of the night. If he says that the big blow began about midnight, he tells you that it came "at great sleep.” The first time you begin to .interrogate a New Herbridean about the time a thing happened in the night, he will puzzle you by pointing up into the sky. Then an old stager will tell you that he is pointing to the spot which the sun would have reached had it been day-time—a pretty good idea, in a land where clocks are unimagined. “My son will be back in a quid-chew." declares the Javanese, meaning five minutes, the time it takes to chew a quid of sirih. After waiting half an hour you return and say: “It is now ’kay’ cooking time (the time it takes to cook a ‘kay’ of rice), and he is not here." “Sorry.’ says the native ; “he has sent a message that he cannot be here until a ‘gantang’ cooking time (the time it takes to cook a ’gantang’ of rice, which is about 90 minutes).’’ “The lion came in the silence of the land, ’ exclaim the African Babwende race, meaning at midnight. An exasperating custom of the Bismarck islanders is to tell you that a thing happened as long ago as it takes to walk from some place you have never heard of to another place you have never heard of. In one village the- standard expression for four hours was the time that it took a lame old woman to hobble half-way to the other side of the island. That was as clear aS any clock-reading to the villagers, who had known the old lady for years—but it didn’t help the stranger much! Some tropical races say, “That happened just before the turning of the smoke”; along the coast a stiff wind suddenly blows in from the sea shortly befbre sunset. The natives of have one of the jolliest primitive time systems. Midnight they call centre of night; 2 a.m. is frog-erpaking, 3 a.m. is cock-crow, 4 a.m. is morning, also night; 5 a.m. is crow-croaking, 5.15 a.m. is glimmer of day, 5.30 a.m. is unlazy awake, 6 a.m. is.sunrise, 6.15 a.m. is cattle go out, 6.30 a.m. is leaves are dry, 9 a.m. is sun over eaves, 12 noon is sun over roof ridge, 2 a.m. is day slips, and so it goes, in detail, until 9.30 P.m., which is everyone in bed. The Nandi, an African race, have have a rather, similar toll of hours,, puzzling at first tothe newcomer, but as clear to themselves as any numbered hours to us. A Nandi afternoon runs thus: Noon, the sun has stood upright; 12.30 p.m., the goats nave drunk water ; 1 p.m., the sun turns ; 1.30 p.m., the drones hum , 2 p.m., the Oxen feed; 3 p.m., the goats Lave been collected ; p.m., the oxen are; watered, second time; 4.30 p.m., the goats. sleep ; 5 p.m.. take goats home; 5.30 p.m,, goats entei kra’al; 6 p.m., sun finished; 6.15 p.m. milk cows; 6,45 p.m., can’t see man nor beast; 7 p.m., the heavens are fastened ; 8 p.m., porridge is finished ; 9 p;m., those who have drunk milk are asleep; 10 p.m., the huts are closed ; 11 p.m., those who sleep early wake up; and 12 is night’s middle.