How was "The Tyme Appointed"? by Anthony Aveni Virginia's
Powhatan Indians, here represented by Jerry Fortune of the
Rappahannock tribe, made the heavens their calendar. Imagine
living without watches or calendars. How would you know when
your bills were due or when to plan periodic visits to your
dentist or physician? For most cultures that thrived before the
invention of the mechanical clock the time to stop work was
reckoned by whether you could see heads on a coin, and lunchtime
was determined by raising your hand skyward to see whether the
sun had reached its highest point. Longer-term intervals were
counted off on notched sticks, and by the lost art of moon
watching. The neat thing about the moon is that anyone who pays
attention to it can easily discern changes in its face from day
to day. The moon begins its month-long cycle as a thin "first
crescent," visible in the west shortly after sunset. Within a
week it moves farther from the setting sun as it waxes to a
D-shaped first quarter seen high on the