ABSTRACT
In the pre-colonial period many people in rural regions had to depend upon the cocks as timepieces during the hours between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m.; this practice still continues in many a remote area. Those in the royal city had the royal gong or time-drum to indicate the time throughout the twenty-four hour period. Here is an extract on the subject from a Burmese play written in 1879. The husband is explaining the nocturnal hours to his wife:
‘In our country village…there is no sweet pealing time-gong or time-drum. Just like our fathers before, we are satisfied to take the crowing of the golden cock…as giving the correct time. The evening cock-crow denotes…‘the children’s bed-time’ (8 p.m.). A little later it crows with full voice, all the adults will be lying in their beds. It is termed “the head-on-pillow cock” (10 p.m.). Again after that, it is rightly called “bachelor’s return” (that is from courting: 11 p.m.). After this is “midnight cock”. Before the glassy colour has appeared on the sky, in the hour of half dark and half light, the cock crows and declares the time and it is known as “cock of earliest dawn” (3 a.m.). One crow after this the aurora emerges. Glassy colours spread out and boldly streak the eastern sky. This is usually called “the daybreak crow” (5 a.m.)’ (Hla Pe 1952:61).
