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Reckoning of Days

There are two Tuchuk calendars. One is kept by the men, and relates to the seasonal migrations of the bosk. It is divided into seasons, rather than into days, and runs from one Season of Snows to the next. Some years are longer than others, when measured in days.

A second, and far more complex, calendar is kept by the women of the tribe. It is based on the phases of Gor's largest moon, and is divided into fifteen months. Each month is named after one of the fifteen varieties of the bosk. This calendar functions completely independently from the calendar based on the snows. As Tarl Cabot writes in Nomads of Gor: "The Moon of the Brown Bosk may at one time occur in the winter; at another time, years later, in the summer."

The visual representation of this calendar is a set of coloured wooden pegs fixed on the sides of some of the Wagons. A small disc, bearing the image of a bosk, is slipped over one of the pegs, its position dependent on what moon it is.

The Tuchuks do not give numbers to their years. Each year is given a name, which is related to some happening of import that occurred during the past fifteen moons. These names are not written down, but are kept in the memories of men known as Year Keepers. Some of these Year Keepers can recite the names of thousands of years. They, along with the Camp Singers, are the repositories of Tuchuk history.

It should be mentioned that very few of the Wagon People can read or write. Those who can have acquired their knowledge in the cities, and they are rare. The Tuchuks tend to have excellent memories. Their "literature" is a rich body of oral histories and lore which is recited at given times throughout the year by the Camp Singers.

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