blending an assortment of thoughts and experiences for my friends, relations and kindred spirit

blending an assortment of thoughts and experiences for my friends, relations and kindred spirit
By Alison Hobbs, blending a mixture of thoughts and experiences for friends, relations and kindred spirits.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Back to basics

From the book The Arctic Sky, Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore and Legend by John MacDonald, which I've just posted to George for his March birthday (allowing enough of time for a parcel by surface mail to reach Australia), here's a quotation from an Inuit man:

"Even if I did not have a watch, the movement of these stars can tell me the time. The Tukturjuit [Ursa Major constellation] are easily recognized because they have the form of a caribou. When the caribou apppears to stand on its hind legs and its head starts to get higher this is an indication that midnight is approaching." [...] In South Baffin Island the stars of Tukturjuit were also used for orientation: "When you are a long distance out on the sea ice and the shore of Baffin is obscured—raise your left hand and when your fingers and thumb match the constellation's stars your arm points towards the mainland."

Were our clocks and GPS gadgets to fail, who in our 'civilised' world would still be able to use the stars for guidance?

I thought I might find some similar information about Australian aboriginals, and sure enough: although they never had calendars, the Boorong people of Victoria always knew that when, in what we call October, the Mallee-fowl constellation (Lyra) vanishes, to "sit with the Sun" it's time to start gathering the Mallee-fowl's eggs on earth. Other indigenous Australians see the first appearance of Orion in their sky as a reminder that Dingo puppies are about to be born.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am reminded of my mother's lore that one started making one's Christmas puddings on "stir up Sunday": the 25th Sunday after Trinity in the Church of England when the collect of the day begins "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people". I don't think it means "wills" as in "last wills and testaments"and certainly the women in our village took it as an injunction to stir the puddings, not their wills (which were always formidable).

Anyway, it seems as valid a way to count the passage of time as waiting for the great ferret in the sky to sit on his hind legs when the stoat is in its second heaven....

Alison Hobbs said...

If you are not careful, Mr Anonymous, the Great Ferret in the Sky will come and bite your head off for being disrespectful.