In the Orient as in the Western World, the first timekeepers were such simple phenomena of nature as the sun, the moon, and the stars. Myths and legends became interwoven with the religions that evolved. The Jesuit missionaries brought mechanical clocks to the Orient. The mechanical clock played a critical role in the acceptance of foreigners by Eastern potentates. Japanese clockmakers had to overcome the representation of Japanese time division by mechanical means. The Japanese day was reckoned in hours of variable length. The Chinese adopted Western numerals in an early period and used the 24 hour time measurement since the second century B.C.