Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — Clocks of Savages. [ARTICLE]

Clocks of Savages.

Neither clock nor timepiece Is to be found In Liberia. The reckoning of time is made entirely by the movement and position of the sun. which rises at (I A. M. and sets at (i P. M. almost to the minute all the year round, and at noon is vertically overhead. The islanders of the South Pacific have no clocks, but make an Ingenious and reliable time-marker of (heir own. They take Hie kernels from (he nuts of the candle tree and wash and string them on the rib of a palm leaf. The first or top kernel is then ligbled. All of the kernels are of the same size and substance, and each will burn a certain number of minutes and then set tire to the next one below’. The natives tie pieces of black cloth at ••egtil.u* intervals along the.string to mark tlie divisions of time. Among Hie natives of Slngar, in tire Malay Archipelago, another peculiar device is used. Two bottles are placed neck and neck, and -and is put in one of them, which pours itself into the other every half hour, when the bottles are reversed. There is a line near by, also, on which arc. hang twelve rods, marked with notches from one lo twelve.