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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79292 ***
+
+
+
+
+REST DAYS
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
+    ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
+
+    MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
+    LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
+    MELBOURNE
+
+    THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
+    TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+                                 REST DAYS
+
+                    _A Study in Early Law and Morality_
+
+                                    BY
+                           HUTTON WEBSTER, PH.D.
+      PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
+                  AUTHOR OF “PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES”
+
+     “The study of their own species is doubtless the most interesting
+     and important that can claim the attention of mankind; and this
+     science, like all others, it is impossible to improve by abstract
+     speculation, merely. A regular series of authenticated facts is
+     what alone can enable us to rise towards a perfect knowledge in
+     it.”—WILLIAM MARSDEN, _The History of Sumatra_, London, 1811,
+     Preface.
+
+                                 New York
+                           THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                                   1916
+
+                           _All rights reserved_
+
+                             COPYRIGHT, 1916,
+                         BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+                 Set up and printed. Published May, 1916.
+
+                               Norwood Press
+                   J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
+                          Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+To MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+What perhaps might be described as the first edition of this work
+appeared in 1911 in the _University Studies_ of the University of
+Nebraska. The title of the original monograph has been retained for
+the present volume, in which the same line of argument is followed and
+the same conclusions are reached. After a lapse of nearly five years I
+have not felt the necessity of modifying, to any essential degree, the
+results of the earlier investigation. The book, then, differs from its
+predecessor chiefly in providing a more extensive collection of the
+relevant data.
+
+Although much has been written on the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian
+Sunday, and on the assumed Babylonian prototype of these institutions,
+little inquiry has hitherto been made into the rest days so commonly
+observed outside the Semitic area in antiquity and later ages. The
+principal reason for this neglect of the comparative aspects of the
+subject must doubtless be found in the still imperfect appreciation of
+the fact that the great institutions of modern civilization have their
+roots in the beliefs and customs, and often in the superstitions, of
+savage and barbarian society. It will be the task of social anthropology,
+by an impressive accumulation of evidence, to make this truth a
+commonplace of popular knowledge.
+
+Among the friends and correspondents who have aided me by criticisms
+and suggestions I wish particularly to mention Dr. Crawford H. Toy, now
+Professor Emeritus in Harvard University, and Dr. Louis H. Gray, now
+Assistant Editor of Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.
+Mr. G. D. Swezey, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Nebraska,
+was good enough to help me in some troublesome details relating to the
+calendar. The late Walter Kendall Jewett, formerly University Librarian,
+and the kindest and most genial of men, put at my disposal many books
+which otherwise would have been difficult of access. To my honoured
+colleague, Professor George Elliott Howard, I owe the inspiration,
+reaching back to undergraduate days, which comes from association with
+one whose devotion to scholarly ideals is matched only by his enthusiasm
+for social service. Finally, I must acknowledge my obligation to
+Chancellor Samuel Avery, whose interest in the book has made possible its
+publication at this time.
+
+                                                           HUTTON WEBSTER.
+
+LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, February, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+ERRATA
+
+
+Page 80, note 2, _read_: p. 156; Macrobius, _Satur-_
+
+Page 92, note, _read_: αὖον ἀπὸ χλωροῦ τάμνειν αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ
+
+Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                               INTRODUCTION
+
+    Observance of days of abstinence and quiescence not unknown in the
+    lower culture, p. 1.—Probable origin of the sabbatarian regulations
+    in primitive taboos, pp. 1, 2.—_Tabu_ in Polynesia and equivalent
+    customs in other parts of the world, pp. 2, 3.—Classification of
+    taboos, p. 4.—Characteristics of taboos, pp. 4, 5.—Their animistic
+    sanctions, pp. 5, 6.—Reasons for imposing taboos which necessitate
+    abstinence and quiescence, pp. 6, 7.—Connection of communal taboos
+    with those observed by individuals, p. 7.
+
+                             CHAPTER I
+
+                  TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS
+
+    The institution of taboo in the Hawaiian Islands, pp. 8,
+    9.—Observance there of tabooed days, pp. 9, 10.—Likeness between
+    the Hawaiian Sabbaths and the sabbatarian regulations introduced by
+    missionaries, p. 10.—Communal taboos imposed when a chief temple
+    was consecrated, pp. 11-13; at the time of the celebration of the
+    New Year’s festival, p. 13; and in connection with the taking of
+    certain fish, p. 14.—The four regular _tabu_ periods in the Hawaiian
+    month, pp. 14, 15.—Tabooed days observed in the Society Islands,
+    the Marquesas Islands, and New Zealand, pp. 15-17.—In the Tonga
+    Islands a period of taboo imposed at the time of the first-fruits’
+    sacrifice, pp. 18, 19.—Days kept sacred to certain gods in Samoa and
+    other parts of Polynesia, pp. 19-21.—Tabooed days of the Fijians,
+    pp. 21-24.—Other instances of communal rest days in Polynesia,
+    pp. 24, 25.—General significance of the Polynesian evidence, p.
+    25.—Tabooed days not unknown in New Guinea, p. 26.—Tabooed days in
+    Borneo, pp. 26, 27.—Those observed by the Kayan of Sarawak and Dutch
+    Borneo, pp. 27-33; by the Iban or Sea Dyak, pp. 33-35; and by the
+    Land Dyak, pp. 36, 37.—General significance of the Bornean evidence,
+    pp. 37-39.—Observance of seasons of communal repose confined to the
+    Indonesian population of Borneo, pp. 39, 40.—Tabooed days in the
+    Nicobar Islands, pp. 40, 41; in Bali and Nias, pp. 41-43; in the
+    Mentawi Islands, pp. 43, 44; in Formosa, p. 44; and in the Philippine
+    Archipelago, pp. 44-49.—The _genna_ among the Naga tribes of Manipur,
+    pp. 49-53.—_Genna_ customs among other peoples of Assam, pp.
+    53-55.—Customs allied to the _genna_ in Burma, pp. 55-58.—Indo-China
+    probably the centre of diffusion of the _genna_, p. 58.—Resemblance
+    of communal rest days to the practice of the _couvade_, pp. 58,
+    59.—Psychological and sociological aspects of these communal
+    regulations, pp. 59, 60.—Days of abstinence and quiescence mark
+    crises in the community life, pp. 60, 61.
+
+                             CHAPTER II
+
+        TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS
+
+    Prohibition of work and other forms of activity a common regulation
+    following a death, p. 62.—The animistic explanation of this taboo,
+    pp. 62, 63.—Belief in the pollution of death, p. 63.—Many instances
+    of communal taboos imposing abstinence and quiescence to be found
+    among semi-civilized peoples in various parts of the world: in the
+    East Indian Archipelago, pp. 63, 64; among the tribes of Borneo, p.
+    65; in Assam, pp. 65, 66; in India and Tibet, pp. 66, 67; throughout
+    Africa, pp. 67-70; in Madagascar, p. 70; in North America, especially
+    among the Eskimo, pp. 70-73; and among some Siberian tribes, pp.
+    73, 74.—Survivals of such taboos in the funeral observances of
+    civilized peoples, p. 74.—Similar regulations imposed in connection
+    with feasts of the dead and ceremonies of demon-expulsion, pp. 74,
+    75.—The evidence from Africa, pp. 75-78.—Unlucky days observed by
+    the Athenians in connection with the festivals of the Genesia and
+    the Anthesteria, pp. 79, 80.—Unlucky days observed by the Romans in
+    connection with the festivals of the Parentalia and the Lemuria,
+    pp. 80, 81.—The Hebrew Day of Atonement, pp. 81-83.—The Feast of
+    Sacrifices in Islam, p. 83.—World-wide diffusion of the custom of
+    observing tabooed days after a death and on related occasions, p. 84.
+
+                            CHAPTER III
+
+                             HOLY DAYS
+
+    Characteristics of religious festivals, p. 85.—Festival times often
+    marked by cessation of labour, pp. 85, 86.—Origin of the conception
+    of a “holy” day, pp. 86, 87.—Consecration of holy days to particular
+    divinities, pp. 87, 88.—Connection between tabooed days and holy
+    days, p. 88.—The taboo element in the festivals observed by Dravidian
+    peoples of India, pp. 88-90.—The Hebrew Day of First-fruits, pp. 90,
+    91.—Greek holy days, p. 91.—The Athenian Plynteria, pp. 92, 93.—The
+    Roman Vestalia, pp. 93, 94.—Ferial days of the Romans as tabooed
+    days, pp. 94-100.
+
+                             CHAPTER IV
+
+                            MARKET DAYS
+
+    The observance of periodic rest days confined to agricultural
+    peoples, pp. 101, 102.—Connection of these days with the institution
+    of the market, pp. 102, 103.—The evidence for market weeks and market
+    days in various parts of the world: in New Guinea and Melanesia, pp.
+    103, 104; in Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula, pp.
+    104, 105; in Tonkin, Siam, and Assam, pp. 105, 106; throughout the
+    central parts of Africa, pp. 106-108; among the Congo negroes, pp.
+    109, 110; and among the Guinea negroes, pp. 110-117.—Origin of the
+    market week in Africa, pp. 117, 118.—Sabbatarian features of the west
+    African market day, p. 118.—Market weeks and market days in ancient
+    Mexico and Peru, pp. 118-120.—The Roman nundinal day, pp. 120-123.
+
+                             CHAPTER V
+
+                 LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS
+
+    Great importance assigned to the moon by primitive peoples, pp. 124,
+    125.—The lunar rays often believed to be deleterious to both children
+    and adults, pp. 125-127.—The moon supposed to cause menstruation and
+    impregnation, pp. 127-130.—Influence of the moon on the tides, p.
+    130.—Belief that the moon affects the growth of vegetation, pp. 130,
+    131.—Doctrine of lunar sympathy, p. 131.—The waxing moon commonly
+    regarded as favourable, the waning moon as unfavourable, for business
+    of various sorts, pp. 131-134.—Lunar eclipses sometimes marked by a
+    general suspension of activity, pp. 134, 135.—The _interlunium_ often
+    observed by a cessation of labour, pp. 136-140.—Ceremonies performed
+    at new moon, pp. 140-142.—Seasons of abstinence and restriction at
+    new moon and full moon, p. 143.—Tabooed days in connection with
+    the lunar changes found among the Bantu peoples of Africa, pp.
+    144-148.—Lunar taboos in modern India, pp. 148, 149.—The _upavasatha_
+    of the Aryans of ancient India, pp. 149-151.—Sabbatarian observance
+    of lunar days in post-Vedic times, pp. 151-154.—The _posaha_ of
+    Jainism, pp. 154, 155.—The Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, pp.
+    155-158.—Introduction of the _uposatha_ into Ceylon, Burma, Siam,
+    and Cambodia, pp. 158-162.—The Buddhist Sabbath in Tibet, Mongolia,
+    China, and Japan, pp. 162-164.—Lunar days observed in Indonesia,
+    pp. 164, 165.—Lunar festivals of the ancient Iranians, pp. 165,
+    166.—Lunar festivals in ancient Egypt, pp. 166-169.—The Greek
+    Noumenia and Dichomenia, pp. 169, 170.—The Roman Kalends, Nones, and
+    Ides, p. 170.—The _dies postriduani_, pp. 170, 171.—Lunar festivals
+    in heathen Europe, p. 172.
+
+                             CHAPTER VI
+
+                    LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK
+
+    Beginnings of the calendar, p. 173.—The moon as the measure of
+    time, pp. 173-175.—Popular calendars based on the moon, pp. 175,
+    176.—The lunar year, pp. 176, 177.—Adjustment of the lunar year to
+    the solar year, pp. 177, 178.—Calendarizing of the lunation, p.
+    178.—Commencement of the lunar month, pp. 178, 179.—Phases of the
+    moon often named and used for time-reckonings, pp. 180-182.—Bipartite
+    division of the lunation, pp. 182-186.—Shorter divisions of the
+    lunation, pp. 187, 188.—The decade, pp. 188-192.—The ennead, pp. 192,
+    193.—The octad, pp. 193, 194.—Six-day weeks, p. 194.—The pentad, pp.
+    194-196.—The hebdomad, pp. 196, 197.—Diffusion of the hebdomadal
+    cycle: in Africa, pp. 197-199; in India, pp. 199-201; in southeastern
+    Asia, p. 201; in China and Japan, pp. 202-204; and in the Malay
+    Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago, pp. 204, 205.—The Arabic
+    week and the Mohammedan Sabbath, pp. 205, 206.—Mystic numbers in
+    general, pp. 206-208.—Seven as a mystic number among semi-civilized
+    peoples, pp. 208-211.—Symbolism of seven in ancient India, Greece,
+    and Babylonia, pp. 211-212.—The seven planets and planetary deities
+    of the Babylonians, pp. 213-215.—The planetary week, pp. 215,
+    216.—Theories of its origin, pp. 216-218.—Spread of the planetary
+    week in the Roman Empire, pp. 218, 219.—Adoption of the planetary
+    designations of the weekdays by the Christians, pp. 220, 221.—Spread
+    of the planetary week among Romance, Germanic, and Slavic peoples
+    during the early Middle Ages, pp. 221, 222.
+
+                            CHAPTER VII
+
+            THE BABYLONIAN “EVIL DAYS” AND THE SHABATTUM
+
+    The “evil days” of the months of Elul II and Markheshwan, pp.
+    223, 224.—Possible explanations of the origin of these days, pp.
+    224, 225.—The Babylonian lunar month, p. 226.—Determination of
+    the beginning of the month, pp. 226, 227.—Adjustment of septenary
+    divisions to the lunation, pp. 227, 228.—Association of septenary
+    divisions with successive phases of the moon, pp. 228, 229.—The
+    seven-day cycles in Babylonia not true “weeks,” pp. 229, 230.—Special
+    significance attached to the seventh day, pp. 230, 231.—Taboo in
+    Babylonia, pp. 231, 232.—Prohibitions observed on the seventh day, p.
+    232.—Their connection with primitive taboos, pp. 232-234.—How far the
+    seventh day was marked by a general abstention from labour, pp. 234,
+    235.—The term _shabattum_, pp. 235, 236.—Various explanations of its
+    meaning, pp. 236-238.—_Shabattum_ applied to the fifteenth day of the
+    month, pp. 238, 239.—Festival observance of new moon and full moon by
+    the Babylonians, pp. 239, 240.—Probable connection of the _shabattum_
+    with the “evil days,” pp. 240, 241.
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII
+
+                         THE HEBREW SABBATH
+
+    The Sabbath an ancient institution, pp. 242, 243.—The theory of its
+    origin in the worship of Saturn untenable, pp. 243, 244.—Connection
+    of the Sabbath Day with Saturday, pp. 244, 245.—The Sabbath, with
+    the seven-day week, not borrowed from Egypt or Babylonia, pp. 245,
+    246.—Importance of the moon to the early Hebrews, pp. 246-248.—The
+    festival of the new moon, pp. 248, 249.—Observance of the new-moon
+    day by abstinence from work, pp. 249, 250.—Religious significance
+    attached to the day of full moon, pp. 250, 251.—The Sabbath
+    originally the full-moon day, p. 251.—Early association of new moon
+    and the Sabbath, pp. 251-253.—The term _shabbath_ later applied to
+    every seventh day of the month, p. 253.—Differences between the
+    Hebrew seven-day week and the septenary cycle of the Babylonians,
+    pp. 253, 254.—The Hebrew week probably at first no periodic but
+    connected with the lunation, pp. 254, 255.—Obsolescence of the
+    new-moon day as a day of rest, p. 255, 256.—Character of the Sabbath
+    in pre-Exilic times, p. 256.—Various sabbatarian regulations to be
+    explained as taboos, pp. 256-262.—Revival in post-Exilic times of the
+    austere significance attached to the Sabbath, pp. 262, 263.—Strict
+    observance of the Sabbath rest according to the rules of pharisaic
+    Judaism, pp. 263, 264.—The Sabbath as a day of gladness and good
+    cheer, pp. 264-266.—Introduction of the Sabbath into the Roman world,
+    pp. 266, 267.—The Lord’s Day as observed by the early Christians,
+    pp. 267, 268.—Their adoption of the pagan designation Sunday, p.
+    268.—Ecclesiastical recognition of Saturday as a holy day, p.
+    269.—The Lord’s Day not at first marked by abstinence from labour,
+    pp. 269, 270.—Beginning of Sunday legislation, pp. 270, 271.
+
+                             CHAPTER IX
+
+                            UNLUCKY DAYS
+
+    The belief in unlucky days frequently a result of erroneous
+    association of ideas, pp. 272-274.—The observation of natural
+    phenomena sometimes accounts for the unlucky character attached
+    to certain times, pp. 274, 275.—The conception of unluckiness
+    sometimes deduced from the assumed critical nature of certain
+    periods, such as epagomenal months and days, p. 276.—The Twelve Days
+    in ancient India, pp. 276, 277.—European folklore of the Twelve
+    Days, pp. 277-279.—Unlucky character of the five supplementary
+    days in the Mexican and Maya calendars, pp. 279-281.—The five
+    supplementary days among the ancient Egyptians, Persians, and
+    Armenians, pp. 281-283.—Epagomenal days in the French Republican
+    calendar, p. 283.—Some unlucky days observed in southeastern
+    Europe probably derived from the holy days of classical antiquity,
+    pp. 283-285.—Likeness between tabooed days and the unlucky days
+    observed in southeastern Asia, pp. 285-288.—The Toda rest days, pp.
+    288-292.—Rest days of the Siah Posh Kafirs, pp. 293, 294.—Unlucky
+    days among the Malagasy, pp. 294, 295.—Egyptian calendars of lucky
+    and unlucky days, pp. 295-297.—A Babylonian calendar, pp. 297,
+    298.—The Hesiodic calendar, pp. 298, 299.—Unlucky days observed
+    during the Middle Ages, pp. 299-301.—Decline of the superstition
+    after the Reformation, p. 301.
+
+                             CONCLUSION
+
+    The observance of tabooed and unlucky days exerts a hampering
+    influence on social and economic progress, pp. 302, 303.—Non-working
+    days in Hawaii, in Ashanti, and among the Hopi Indians of Arizona, p.
+    303.—The numerous religious festivals held in modern China and Korea
+    and in ancient Egypt and Greece, pp. 303, 304.—Excessive development
+    of Roman festivals, pp. 304-306.—Holy days in the religious calendar
+    of Christendom, pp. 306, 307.—Passage of the holy day into the
+    holiday, pp. 307, 308.
+
+
+
+
+REST DAYS
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The custom of refraining from labour on certain occasions is by no means
+unknown to peoples in the lower stages of culture. Associated practices
+include the discontinuance of public gatherings, the closing of the house
+or of the village against all strangers, the extinguishing of lights, and
+fasting, either partial or complete. Bright and gay dresses may be laid
+aside, bathing and anointing given up, and songs, dances, and loud noises
+forbidden. Under these conditions the cessation of labour merges into a
+cessation of all the usual activities. The day of rest becomes a day of
+abstinence and quiescence.
+
+It might be thought that such observances, especially those which impose
+a period of rest, have a rationalistic basis and arise from man’s need
+of relaxation and idleness as a relief from daily toil and the harsh
+conditions of existence. Yet for the vast proportion of the rest days
+observed by primitive peoples it would be rash to assume an origin in
+considerations of practical utility. A survey of the evidence to be
+submitted indicates that the sabbatarian regulations have arisen chiefly,
+if not wholly, as pure superstitions, the product of an all-too-logical
+intellect or of a disordered fancy. In the last analysis they are based
+primarily on fear, that “fear of things invisible,” which Hobbes,
+foreshadowing modern anthropological theories, regarded as “the natural
+seed of religion.”[1] They find their clearest expression in the
+“taboos,” or prohibitions, first noticed among the natives of the South
+Seas, but now known to exist in many other regions of the aboriginal
+world.[2]
+
+“Taboo,” from the Polynesian _tabu_, is one of the few words which the
+languages of the Pacific have contributed to our English speech. _Tabu_
+appears to be, properly, the Tonga term, _tapu_, the word as found in
+Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands, and New Zealand, and
+_kapu_, the Hawaiian expression.[3] The etymology of _tapu_ is uncertain,
+though an attempt has been made to derive it from _ta_, to mark, and
+_pu_, an adverb of intensity. The compound _tapu_ would then mean “marked
+thoroughly,” and would come to signify “sacred” in a secondary sense,
+since sacred things and places were commonly indicated in a particular
+manner.[4] The word _tapua’i_ means “to abstain from all work, games,
+etc.”[5]—a translation which indicates how intimately the idea of
+abstinence was associated with the notion of _tapu_.
+
+In all the Polynesian languages _tapu_ or _tabu_ appears to have been
+employed with an adjectival meaning, referring to something holy, sacred,
+and inviolable, or to something polluted and accursed. The word, we
+learn, did not imply any moral quality, but expressed “a connection
+with the gods, or a separation from ordinary purposes, and exclusive
+appropriation to persons or things considered sacred; sometimes it means
+devoted as by a vow.”[6] In a derivative sense _tabu_ came naturally
+to signify “forbidden” or “prohibited”;[7] and this is the most general
+meaning of the word in its anglicized form. But in anthropological usage
+the term “taboo” refers, not to all negative regulations or prohibitions,
+but to those only which are supported by a supernatural sanction and the
+violation of which is visited with a supernatural punishment.
+
+The progress of comparative research has shown that conceptions very
+similar to the Polynesian _tabu_ have a wide prevalence in the lower
+culture and even among peoples of archaic civilization. The Melanesian
+_tambu_, though never signifying any inherent holiness or awfulness, does
+refer to the sacred and unapproachable character which things may possess
+when solemnly cursed in the name of a powerful ghost or spirit.[8] Among
+the natives of the Gabun colony of French Equatorial Africa _orunda_
+meant, originally, “prohibited from human use.” Under missionary hands
+the word developed into its related sense of “sacred to spiritual use,”
+and in the Mpongwe Scriptures _orunda_ serves as the translation of
+our word “holy.”[9] The Malagasy equivalent of _tabu_ is _fady_, which
+means, primarily, “dangerous,” but which has the derivative meanings
+_sacré_, “prohibited,” “ill-omened,” “unlucky.”[10] Anthropologically, it
+is no far cry from such expressions to the Greek ἅγιος or to the Latin
+_sacer_, since each of these terms conveys the twin ideas of sanctity and
+pollution.[11]
+
+It is convenient to distinguish between taboos which are artificially
+imposed and those which follow inevitably as the consequence of
+particular acts or as the outcome of certain situations. Thus, a chief
+may set a taboo over the common crops until harvest time, or a private
+individual may protect his own property through the use of the same
+supernatural machinery: these are prohibitions analogous to the laws of
+an advanced society, though supported by sanctions both human and divine.
+On the other hand, new-born children with their mothers, strangers,
+manslayers, and mourners are frequently subjected to taboos which exist
+in the social consciousness rather as well-defined customs of anonymous
+origin than as specific ordinances laid down by some superior authority.
+In both cases, however, it is legitimate to suppose that a reason has
+always existed for the ascription of the _tabu_ character to persons and
+things—although an explanation may not now be forthcoming and although
+the ideas on which the practice was once based may have become obscure or
+meaningless with the lapse of time.
+
+A comparative study of the taboos observed by primitive peoples indicates
+that originally things or persons are tabooed because they are considered
+dangerous, mysterious, abnormal, uncanny, “awful”—because they are felt
+to be potent for weal or woe in the life of man. Primitive psychology,
+refining these ideas and applying them to different classes of phenomena,
+produces the cognate notions of pollution and sanctity. The corpse is
+unclean; the shedder of human blood is likewise unclean; but the chief
+or king, who belongs to a superior order of beings, is sacrosanct or
+holy. These characteristics are easily regarded as infectious, as capable
+of transmission, not alone by physical contact, but also by sight and
+mere proximity. It is probably true that, in using such expressions as
+“contagion” and “infection,” we are resorting to a refined terminology to
+express what must be really simpler in the thought of the savage. Living
+in a mental stage where distinctions of cause and effect are not clearly
+drawn, where a rigid distinction of the natural and the supernatural can
+scarcely be said to exist at all, he finds no difficulty in imagining an
+universe in which all things have power, after their kind, a power for
+good or a power for ill—in other words, have _mana_. This now-familiar
+Melanesian term, like the Algonkin _manitou_, the Iroquoian _orenda_, and
+the Siouan _wakanda_, may be said to express early man’s sense of those
+ever-present, though vague and impersonal, forces immanent in nature.[12]
+
+At the same time the fact must be recognized that the majority of taboos
+are now supported by animistic beliefs of a much more precise character.
+The penalty for the infraction of a taboo is generally death or some
+physical ailment supposed to be inflicted by the offended spirits or
+demons.[13] The Polynesian _atua_, by entering the body of any impious
+person, caused disease or “intestinal embarrassment”: the culprit
+forthwith swelled up and died. The same demonic beings, if angered,
+might visit entire tribes with an epidemic, or send down lightning and
+fire from heaven, or bring about the unsuccessful issue of a war.[14]
+Among the Kayan and other pagan tribes of Borneo the minor spirits, or
+_toh_, play a considerable part in the regulation of conduct. They are
+the powers that bring misfortunes upon an entire house or village when
+any member of it ignores taboos or otherwise violates tribal customs,
+without performing the propitiatory rites demanded by the occasion. “Thus
+on them, rather than on the gods, are founded the effective sanctions
+of prohibitive rules of conduct.”[15] Among the Akikuyu of British East
+Africa, who possess a most elaborate system of taboos, it is a general
+belief that any one in the condition of _thahu_ becomes emaciated and ill
+or breaks out in eruptions and boils. If the _thahu_ is not removed, the
+patient will die. “In many cases this undoubtedly happens by the process
+of auto-suggestion, as it never occurs to the Kikuyu mind to be skeptical
+in a matter of this kind. It is said that the _thahu_ condition is
+caused by the _ngoma_, or spirits of departed ancestors, but the process
+does not seem to have been analyzed any further.”[16] The Babylonians,
+again, appear to have entertained very definite conceptions of taboo,
+and conceptions, equally definite, of the evil spirits which vexed the
+soul and body of one who had infringed a _mamit_, or prohibition with a
+supernatural penalty.[17] With the progress of religious conceptions the
+punishment of the taboo-breaker may come to be regarded as an important
+function of the tribal or national god, whose chief concern is the
+maintenance of the customary moral rules.
+
+Since persons, objects, and even actions are all liable to infection,
+prudence dictates a variety of precautions: the dangerous individual or
+thing is removed to a safe distance; or is carefully isolated; or is
+subjected to a series of insulating regulations. The entire community
+is interested in such proceedings, and on certain occasions may itself
+be placed under a rigid quarantine. When this happens, a period of
+abstinence and quiescence is regarded as the surest means of avoiding
+dangers felt to threaten each and every member of the social group.
+Nor will the procedure greatly differ where distinctly animistic ideas
+prevail, and when the impending danger is specifically attributed to the
+action of spiritual beings or of gods. In the latter case, it is true,
+the idea of propitiation becomes increasingly prominent, since it is
+often felt to be necessary to appease by various rites and ceremonies the
+supernatural powers responsible for the visitation. The two conceptions
+of abstinence and propitiation are not, indeed, always sharply
+distinguishable in concrete cases, and with advancing culture they tend
+to become more and more closely conjoined.
+
+It is highly probable that the origin of some of the communal regulations
+is to be sought in the taboos observed by persons at such great and
+critical seasons as birth, puberty, marriage, and death.[18] Comparative
+studies have indicated how numerous are the prohibitions which attach to
+these times of high solemnity and significance; and it is reasonable to
+suppose that, with the deepening sense of social solidarity, observances
+once confined to the individual alone, or to his immediate connections,
+would often pass over into rites performed by the community at large.
+Some evidence tending to substantiate this opinion will be presented
+incidentally as the investigation proceeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS
+
+
+Our knowledge of taboo within the Polynesian area rests chiefly on the
+vague and unsatisfactory accounts by early missionaries, who were unable
+to describe much more than its exterior aspects, its origin and inner
+significance having quite escaped their consideration. Fundamentally,
+the system of taboos formed a religious institution, if religion be
+understood in its broadest sense as a recognition of the supernatural.
+The Polynesian belief that the violator of a taboo would be punished
+by the offended _atua_, or spirits, readily lent itself to priestcraft
+and statecraft and so became in the hands of the ruling classes an
+_instrumentum regni_, a powerful engine of social and political control.
+In Hawaii, where the superstitions in question reached their most
+elaborate and grotesque development, communal taboos could be imposed
+only by the priests, although this action was often taken at the instance
+of the civil authorities. Police officers were even appointed to make
+sure that all prohibitions were strictly observed. For every breach of
+the rules the death penalty was inflicted, unless the delinquent had some
+very powerful friends who themselves were either priests or chiefs.
+
+The range of these Hawaiian taboos, as extended for reasons of state or
+religion, was very wide. We are told that idols, temples, the persons and
+names of the king and his family, the persons of the priests, and the
+houses and clothes of the king and priests were always _tabu_. Certain
+much-prized articles of food, besides almost everything offered in
+sacrifice, were reserved by taboos for gods and men; hence women, except
+in cases of particular indulgence, were restricted from using them.
+Sometimes an entire island or district was tabooed and no one was allowed
+to approach it.[19]
+
+The institution of taboo also included regulations for the special
+observance of certain times and seasons. Their duration was various, and
+apparently much longer in remote ages than in the period immediately
+preceding the arrival of the missionaries. In Hawaii, before the reign
+of Kamehameha II, forty days was the usual length of time. There were
+also periods of ten days and of five days, and sometimes of only one
+day. Tradition declares, however, that once a taboo was in force for
+thirty years and that during this time the men were not allowed to trim
+their beards. A tabooed period kept for five years is also mentioned.
+Elsewhere in the South Seas less extensive periods prevailed, the longest
+known being at Huahine, one of the Society Islands, where a season of
+abstinence is said to have lasted for ten or twelve years.[20]
+
+The observance of such taboos varied according as they were common or
+strict. When a common season prevailed, the men were required only
+to abstain from their usual duties and to attend at the _heiau_, or
+temple, where prayers were offered every morning and evening. During a
+period strictly tabooed the regulations had a sterner character, and in
+consequence a general gloom and silence pervaded the whole district or
+island. Every fire and light was extinguished; canoes were not launched;
+no person bathed; and no one was to be seen out of doors, save those
+whose presence was required at the temple. Even the lower creation felt
+the force of the law: “no dog must bark, no pig must grunt, no cock must
+crow—or the _tabu_ would be broken, and fail to accomplish the object
+designed. On these occasions they tied up the mouths of the dogs and
+pigs, and put the fowls under a calabash, or fastened a piece of cloth
+over their eyes.”[21] From another account we learn that any one found
+in a canoe on a _tabu_ day incurred the death penalty, and that the same
+Draconian punishment was meted out to the individual who indulged in
+carnal pleasures or made only a noise at such a time.[22]
+
+The sabbatarian regulations introduced by Christian missionaries among
+their Hawaiian adherents presented no sharp contrast to the rigours
+of the old dispensation. The natives even called Sunday _la tabu_,
+“the tabooed day.” No food was cooked on that day, the meals being all
+prepared on the previous Saturday; no fires were kindled; and no canoes
+were paddled. The people neither fished nor tilled the soil and, if on
+a journey, they halted until the sacred day was over.[23] In Tahiti,
+also, the Sunday rest was rigidly maintained. On that day no canoes were
+launched, and no person was seen abroad except on the road to church or
+when returning from divine service. The success of the missionaries in
+introducing this strict observance of Sunday was, we learn, “ascribed by
+themselves in a great degree to its analogy to the taboo days of heathen
+times.”[24]
+
+Communal taboos were observed by the Hawaiian Islanders generally in
+connection with important religious ceremonies. Of these, one of the
+most elaborate was the consecration of a _luakini_, or chief temple. The
+rites, which were often performed just before a war in order to insure
+victory, occupied ten or more days. After a solemn purification of the
+island or district all the people were summoned to divine service, during
+which a priest sprinkled them with holy water, _i.e._, salt water mixed
+with a little turmeric, some moss, and a bunch of a sacred fern. “The
+next thing in order was to bring down the principal idol, called the
+_hakuohia_, from the forest. A great procession was formed, consisting of
+the king, the _hakuohia_ priest, and a crowd of attendants carrying idols
+and various offerings, and leading a human victim. The tree had been
+selected and the axe consecrated the day before. On arriving at the tree,
+the priest recited the appropriate _aha_ [prayer] amid dead silence,
+after which the king pronounced the _amama_ [spell], and killed the hog
+with a single blow. The priest inquired whether any sound of man or beast
+or bird or cricket had been heard during the _aha_, and if not, it was a
+good omen. The doomed man was then brought forward, and offered to the
+god by the king, after which his body was buried at the foot of the tree.
+The consecrated hog was baked in an oven on the spot, while the tree was
+cut down, trimmed, and covered with _ieie_ vines. After the company had
+feasted, a procession was formed with the feather-gods in front, followed
+by the chiefs and people with _pala_ fern, _ohia_-branches, etc., and
+others carrying the new idol.... The inhabitants remained indoors, for it
+was death to meet the procession, and all fires were strictly forbidden.
+The images were finally carried to the _heiau_, where they were deposited
+with shoutings and beating of drums.”[25] Following this rite came a long
+series of services at the _heiau_. The night of the great _aha_ “was
+the most solemn and critical of all. The omens were carefully observed,
+and prayers were offered in every house for the success of the coming
+_aha_, and for auspicious weather, that there might be no wind or rain,
+no thunder or lightning, no high surf, and no sound of man or beast to
+mar the ceremonies. If the sky was clear and everything favourable,
+between midnight and morning the king and high-priest entered the small
+house, called _waiea_, to perform the great _aha_ (_hulahula_), while the
+congregation sat in front of the _mana_ house, listening and watching
+in profound silence. The king stood listening intently and holding a
+pig, while the high-priest, clad in white _kapa_, and holding a _lama_
+rod wound with _aloa_ (white _kapa_), recited the long prayer. At its
+close the king killed the pig with a single blow, and offered it up with
+a short prayer to the four great gods. The priests then asked the king
+whether the _aha_ was perfect, and whether he had heard the voice of man
+or dog or mouse or fowl, or anything else during the prayer. If not, he
+tapped the large drum as a signal that it was over, and they both went
+out to question the assembly outside. If no one had heard a sound during
+the ceremony, the high-priest congratulated the king, and predicted for
+him victory and long life. The people then raised loud shouts of _Lele
+wale ka aha e!_ which were repeated by all who heard them, and so the
+news travelled far and wide.”[26] Such were some of the ceremonies at
+the dedication of an important temple.[27]
+
+Communal taboos also marked the celebration by the Hawaiians of the
+great _makahiki_, or New Year’s festival, sacred to the god Lono. On the
+twenty-third of the month Welehu, which nearly corresponded to November,
+Lono’s image was decorated and, when night came on, all the people went
+to bathe in the sea. This rite of purification having been accomplished,
+men and women donned new clothing in preparation for the festival which
+began at sunrise on the morrow. During the four days of its continuance
+no fishing, no bathing, no pounding of _kapa_, and no beating of drums
+or blowing of conchs was permitted. Land and sky and sea were _tabu_
+to Lono, and only feasting and games were allowed. The high-priest was
+blindfolded and remained in seclusion. On the fifth day the bandage was
+removed from his eyes and canoes were allowed to put to sea. On the
+sixth day the _tabu_ season began again and continued for about twenty
+days longer. The festivities at length drew to a close, the ornaments of
+Lono’s image were packed up and deposited in the temple for use another
+year, and all restrictions on fishing and farming were taken off—_noa ka
+makahiki_.[28]
+
+In old Hawaii, as in the other Polynesian islands, fishing formed one
+of the chief means of livelihood and ranked next to agriculture in
+importance. The fishermen, who composed almost a distinct class, observed
+many religious rites peculiar to themselves. For instance, a man would
+not venture to use a new net or to build and launch a new canoe, without
+prayer and sacrifice to his gods. Communal regulations relating to
+fishing were imposed twice a year in connection with two sacred fish,
+the _aku_, or bonito, and the _opelu_. Each was _tabu_ by turns for six
+months. In Hinaiaelee (July) the taboo began on the first night of the
+month, at which time no fire might be kindled, and no sound of man or
+beast or fowl might break the profound silence. The following morning
+the high-priest repaired to the house of Ku-ula, the god of fishermen,
+to offer a pig and to recite the great _aha_, as during a dedication.
+Meanwhile a man was sent to the woods to gather _pala_ fern. All that day
+a solemn rest was observed on shore. Next morning the head fisherman,
+wearing a white _malo_, or girdle, took the sacred fern and a new net in
+his canoe and put to sea. After prayers to his tutelary deities and to Ku
+the fisherman proceeded to cast the net. If he and his crew made a haul
+of _opelu_, they paddled joyfully for the shore and presented the fish
+to the high-priest, who sent some to the king and placed the rest on the
+altar in the temple. Next day the _opelu_ became _noa_, or free to all,
+but the _aku_ in its turn was prohibited to human use for six months, and
+was not to be eaten on pain of death.[29]
+
+The Hawaiian religious system included a remarkable approximation to
+the institution of a weekly Sabbath. In every lunar month there were
+four tabu periods, dedicated severally to the four great gods of the
+native pantheon. The first was that of Ku, from the third to the sixth
+night; the second, that of Hua, at full moon, including the fourteenth
+and fifteenth nights; the third, that of Kaloa, on the twenty-fourth and
+twenty-fifth nights; and the fourth, that of Kane, on the twenty-seventh
+and twenty-eighth nights. During these _tabu_ periods a devout king
+generally remained in the _heiau_, busy with prayer and sacrifice. Women
+at such times were forbidden to enter canoes, and sexual intercourse was
+also prohibited.[30]
+
+The occasions when seasons of communal abstinence and quiescence were
+enforced in the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, Samoa, and New
+Zealand were not always the same as in the Hawaiian group. Divergencies
+of custom might well be expected among the widely scattered divisions of
+the Polynesian race. But, if such rites as those for the dedication of a
+temple or for the observance of four _tabu_ periods in every month were
+confined to the Hawaiians, some other ceremonies, notably those connected
+with fishing, were much alike throughout the entire Pacific area.
+
+In the Society and the Marquesas islands the bonito fishing in November
+or December opened with a ceremony removing the prohibition which
+had previously rested on the capture of that fish. A strict taboo of
+all activity marked the first day of the proceedings: no one could
+approach the seashore, or make a fire, or cook food, or even eat before
+the going-down of the sun. The customary employments of the men in
+canoe-building and house-building, of the women in the preparation of
+cloths, mats, and thread, were abandoned; “in a word, all work was
+forbidden; it was a day of silence and of devotion.” Meanwhile the
+priests remained in the _marai_, or temple, engaged in prayer; and
+their assistants prepared an altar to receive the first-fruits of the
+fishing. At nightfall the single canoe which had gone forth to the
+fishing returned with the catch of bonito. Several of the largest fish
+were placed on the altar, and the others were entirely consumed in a
+blazing fire before the altar. The fish caught on this day belonged to
+the gods and those on the following day to the high-priest; but on the
+third day fishing was opened to all.[31] Among the Maori of New Zealand
+the preparations for mackerel fishing included the observance of various
+taboos. Every one concerned in making or mending nets, the ground where
+the nets were made, and the river, on the banks of which the work went
+on, were in a state of sacredness. Nobody might walk over the ground, no
+canoe might pass up and down the river, no fire might be made within a
+prescribed distance, and no food might be prepared, until the holy season
+came to an end.[32] In this instance only fishermen and their assistants
+appear to have been subject to the restrictions. The Maori, however,
+observed communal taboos in connection with the planting of the _kumara_,
+or sweet potato, formerly the most important agricultural product of New
+Zealand and the chief reliance of the natives for food. An old chief of
+Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua, has described how, when the time to plant
+_kumara_ arrived, the priests went forth to the woods for branches of the
+sacred _mapau_ tree. “On that day and the day following, everything was
+_tapu_. The people fasted and did no cooking. The waters of the lake were
+_tapu_; no canoes were allowed to put out and no fishing was done.” The
+priests took the _mapau_ twigs to the stone image of the _kumara_-god
+(still kept on the island), and laying them on the idol, prayed for an
+abundant harvest. In the evening they went to the gardens and stuck
+the branches in the earth. The skull of a tribal chief of _ariki_ rank
+was disinterred and placed beside the _mapau_ sticks, in order that
+the _mana_, or magical power of the dead chieftain, might guard the
+plantation and assist in securing a bountiful harvest.[33]
+
+Still another critical epoch when the Maori subjected themselves to
+communal taboos occurred at the beginning of a war. Hostilities having
+been decided on, the first thing necessary was to take the auspices
+by casting the _niu_. One of the leading priests procured a quantity
+of fern-stalks, some of which represented spears, and the remainder,
+warriors. The warrior-sticks were stuck in a mat and a fern-stalk
+was hurled at each one. If the missile fell on the left side of the
+warrior-stick, this was a sign that the person whom it represented would
+fall in battle, if on the right side, that he would live. A similar
+procedure was enacted with sticks named for enemies, and for the men,
+women, and children who were to be left at home. On the completion of the
+_niu_ ceremony, the priests lifted the taboo which had rested over the
+settlement, a taboo imposing abstinence from food, but not, apparently,
+from work.[34]
+
+The sacrifice of first-fruits seems to have formed a regular part of
+the religious system of the Polynesian peoples, for we possess specific
+references to it among the Hawaiians, the Samoans, the New Zealanders,
+the natives of the Society Islands, and those of the Tonga Islands. In
+the latter group the ceremony, called _inachi_, generally took place
+about October. It was observed with scrupulous care, since the people
+believed that to neglect it would bring upon them the vengeance of the
+gods. We are fortunate in possessing a detailed description of the
+ceremony by an eye-witness of it.[35] According to William Mariner the
+word _inachi_ referred to that portion of the fruits of the earth and of
+other eatables which was offered to the god in the person of the divine
+chief Tooitonga, an allotment made once a year, just before the yam crop
+had arrived at maturity. On the day before the ceremony the first-fruits
+of the yam season were dug up, ornamented with ribbons, and dyed red,
+in preparation for the procession on the morrow. “The sun has scarcely
+set when the sound of the conch begins again to echo through the island,
+increasing as the night advances. At the _mooa_ [capital] and all the
+plantations the voices of men and women are heard singing _Nófo, óooa
+tegger gnaoóe, óooa gnaoóe_, ‘Rest thou, doing no work; thou shalt not
+work.’[36] This increases till midnight, men generally singing the first
+part of the sentence, and the women the last, to produce a more pleasing
+effect: it then subsides for three or four hours, and again increases
+as the sun rises. Nobody, however, is seen stirring out in the public
+roads till about eight o’clock, when the people from all quarters of the
+island are seen advancing towards the _mooa_, and canoes from all the
+other islands landing their men; so that all the inhabitants of Tonga
+seem approaching by sea and land, singing and sounding the conch. At the
+_mooa_ itself the universal bustle of preparation is seen and heard; and
+the different processions entering from various quarters, of men and
+women, all dressed up in new _gnatoos_, ornamented with red ribbons and
+wreaths of flowers, and the men armed with spears and clubs, betoken
+the importance of the ceremony about to be performed.” The proceedings
+consisted in the solemn presentation of the first-fruits to the divine
+chief at the grave of his predecessor, and closed with a feast and
+dance. Then the people returned to their homes, perfectly assured of the
+protection of the gods.
+
+The natives of Samoa possessed a remarkably complex pantheon of household
+and village gods, the recipients of prayer and sacrifice, and, in the
+case of the village gods, honoured with temples, priests, and annual
+festivals. The Samoans had also war-gods, who in character resembled
+the other deities, since they were supposed to be incarnate in animals
+or embodied in inanimate objects.[37] One of these militant divinities
+was the cuttle-fish (_fe’e_), said to have been imported from Fiji. In
+one place Fe’e was a general village god whose province was not confined
+to war. “The month of May was sacred to his worship. No traveller was
+then allowed to pass through the village by the public road; nor was any
+canoe allowed in the lagoon off that part of the settlement. There was
+great feasting, too, on these occasions, and also games, club exercise,
+spear-throwing, wrestling, etc.... In another district three months
+were sacred to the worship of Fe’e. During that time any one passing
+along the road, or in the lagoon, would be beaten, if not killed, for
+insulting the god. For the first month torches and all other lights
+were forbidden, as the god was about and did not wish to be seen. White
+turbans were also forbidden during the festivities, and confined to war.
+At this time, also, all unsightly burdens—such as a log of firewood on
+the shoulder—were forbidden, lest it should be considered by the god as
+a mockery of his _tentacula_.”[38] Another village god, who rejoiced in
+the name of Titi Usi, or Glittering Leaf Girdle, received worship at
+the new moon. “At that time all work was suspended for a day or two.
+The cocoanut-leaf blinds were kept down, and the people sat still in
+their houses. Any one walking in front of the house risked a beating.
+After prayer and feasting a man went about and blew a shell-trumpet as
+a sign to all that the ceremonies were over, and that the usual routine
+of village and family life might be resumed.”[39] The festivals of the
+other village deities of Samoa seem not to have been marked by compulsory
+cessation of activity.[40]
+
+The observance of regular periods consecrated to the gods has been
+noticed in some other parts of Polynesia. At Fakaofo, or Bowditch
+Island, in the Union group, the month of May was devoted to the worship
+of the great god Tui Tokelau. All work was then laid aside. The people
+assembled from the three islands of the group to enjoy feasting and
+dancing. They prayed to their divinity for life, health, and a plentiful
+supply of fish and cocoanuts.[41] In tiny Manahiki, or Humphrey Island,
+the natives had special days for worship, every three or four months. At
+such times heaps of food were collected in the place of public assembly,
+and the king, who was high-priest as well, prayed for food and life
+and health in behalf of his people.[42] We are told, also, that when
+the god Ratu-mai-Mbulu visited the Fiji Islands, the inhabitants lived
+very quietly for an entire month, lest they should disturb the deity in
+his task of making the fruit-trees blossom and bear fruit. During this
+Lenten season the natives did not plant or build or sail on the ocean
+or go to war. The priests announced the time of the god’s advent and
+departure.[43] According to a later account Ratu-mai-Mbulu (Lord from
+Hades) was probably a deity of foreign extraction. “Through him the
+earth gives her increase. In December he comes forth from Mbulu, and
+pours sap into the fruit-trees, and pushes the young yam shoots through
+the soil. Throughout that moon it is _tabu_ to beat the drum, to sound
+the conch-shell, to dance, to plant, to fight, or to sing at sea, lest
+Ratu-mai-Mbulu be disturbed, and quit the earth before his work is
+completed. At the end of the month the priest sounds the consecrated
+shell; the people raise a great shout, carrying the good news from
+village to village; and pleasure and toil are again free to all.”[44]
+
+The descriptions of Polynesian customs by early observers, though
+frequently the only accounts we possess, are sometimes very brief and
+obscure. These remarks apply to a curious ceremony annually performed by
+some Fijian tribes. The time of its celebration was determined by the
+appearance of a certain sea-slug, which swarms out in dense shoals from
+the coral reefs on a single day of the year, usually in November during
+the last quarter of the moon. The arrival of the sea-slugs furnished
+the signal for a general feast at those places where they were taken.
+Hostilities were suspended between rival communities for four days, and
+a taboo was laid to prevent noise or disturbance during this period.
+No labour might be done and no person might be seen outside his house.
+“In Ovolau the ceremony begins by a man ascending a tree and praying
+for fine weather and winds throughout the year. Thereupon a tremendous
+clatter, with drumming and shouting, is raised by all the people inside
+of the houses for about half an hour, and then a dead quiet ensues for
+four days, during which they are feasting on the _mbalolo_. If in any
+dwelling a noise is made, as by a child crying, a forfeit (_ori_) is
+immediately exacted by the chief.”[45] According to another account the
+rule requiring quiescence was so strictly observed that not even a leaf
+might be plucked or the offal removed from the houses. During these four
+days the men lived in their special club-house (_mbure_), and the women
+and children remained shut up in the family abodes. At daylight, on the
+expiry of the fourth night, the whole town was in an uproar; and men and
+boys scampered about, knocking with sticks at the doors of the dwellings
+and crying _Sinariba_. This concluded the ceremony.[46] It would seem
+that these accounts refer to a Fijian New Year’s festival, which, like
+that of the Hawaiians, was held in November for a period of four days,
+and was marked by communal taboos imposing abstinence and quiescence.[47]
+
+The western tribes of Viti Levu, largest of the Fiji Islands, in
+traditions, language, and physical type are recognized as distinctly
+Melanesian. In former days these tribes possessed a secret association
+known as _nanga_, or _mbaki_, which closely resembled the secret
+societies so common in the Melanesian Archipelago. It is highly probable,
+therefore, that, at least in its known form, the _nanga_ was a late
+importation into the island of Viti Levu. Initiation into the _nanga_
+was supposed to bring the youth of the tribe into relations with the
+ancestral spirits, who were represented, at the time of the ceremonies,
+by the elders and by some of the middle-aged men. The sanctuary and lodge
+of the association formed the earthly dwelling-place of the spirits; it
+was a tabernacle as holy to these Fijians as was the structure in the
+Wilderness to the Israelites; there the first-fruits of the yam harvest
+were solemnly presented to the ancestors; and there the young men of Viti
+Levu were introduced to the mysteries of the tribe. When the _nanga_
+enclosure was being raised for the initiatory performances, the people
+suspended all other work. Not even food-planting might be done at such a
+time. “If any impious person transgressed this law, ‘he would only plant
+evil to himself and to his kinsfolk.’”[48] In this instance there was no
+attribution of the sacred period to any particular divinity, though all
+the ceremonies connected with the _nanga_ were supposed to be directed by
+the ancestral spirits.
+
+The scanty records of aboriginal Polynesian society also contain some
+passing references to the observance of communal rest days on certain
+occasions when the social consciousness had been deeply moved by untoward
+and disastrous events. In Futuna, or Erronan, an island which lies
+close to the dividing line between Polynesia and Melanesia, the custom
+of taboo is said to be very common. “They go so far as to _tapu_ the
+day—_e.g._, to interdict all work in order to please the gods, or to
+avert the hurricanes.”[49] In Hawaii a _tabu_ period was declared during
+the sickness of chiefs.[50] In Samoa the death of a chief of high rank
+was followed by the suspension of all work in the settlement for from
+ten to thirty days, until the funeral ceremonies were performed. During
+this time no stranger might approach the stricken village; a luckless
+wayfarer, pushing in by accident, would have been promptly clubbed.[51]
+This Samoan regulation, as we shall see, is only a particular instance of
+a widespread primitive custom. Communal rest days are still observed in
+some parts of Micronesia, as on the island of Yap, one of the Carolines.
+Here two aged “wizards,” before whom all important questions come for
+decision, have the power of imposing taboos on an entire village. The
+periods of seclusion have been known to last for six months. The critical
+epochs, when such interdicts are enforced, occur during a time of
+drought, famine, or sickness, after a death of a chief or famous man,
+and before a fishing expedition.[52] “In short, any great public event
+is thus celebrated, and, in fact, there is always a _tabu_ in full
+swing somewhere or other, to the great disgust of the traders, who only
+see in these enforced holidays an excuse for idling, drunkenness and
+debauchery.”[53]
+
+The accounts preserved in the older literature relating to Polynesia thus
+make it evident that communal taboos occurred at critical, or especially
+important, seasons. The prohibitions were negative in character, required
+a period of abstinence sometimes verging upon complete quiescence, and
+were closely connected with the aristocratic and theocratic organization
+of Polynesian society. At the same time the communal regulations,
+artificially created, are to be assimilated to those which rested
+upon individuals alone and arose spontaneously as a result of various
+circumstances. Every description of aboriginal culture, from Hawaii
+to New Zealand, contains numerous references to the network of taboos
+which invested private life. All persons dangerously ill, all mothers at
+childbirth, together with their infants, all persons who handled a corpse
+or assisted at a funeral, were deemed unclean and hence were subjected
+to a rigid quarantine, a protective measure necessary for the safety
+of the social group. If we assume that the individual taboos represent
+the earlier phase of the institution, then the communal taboos may be
+regarded as merely an extension to the body politic of these simpler
+and more rudimentary customs. The probability of such a transition will
+be strengthened by a consideration of the tabooed days found among some
+other primitive peoples.
+
+Seasons of communal abstinence are not found in Australia, and only
+faint indications of them exist within the Melanesian area, that great
+island group which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Archipelago. In
+New Guinea itself a few instances of the custom under consideration have
+been noted, all within the British possessions there.[54] Among the
+Roro-speaking tribes, inhabiting the strip of coast from Cape Possession
+in the west to Kabadi in the east, it is said that an entire village
+will mourn for a chief or influential man “by abstaining from fishing,
+hunting, and pot-making, and by reducing garden-work to a minimum.” The
+period of mourning lasts from six to ten days.[55] In the neighbourhood
+of Port Moresby are the Motu and Koita tribes, some of whose customs
+were described, many years ago, by a native missionary who long laboured
+in New Guinea. Among these tribes, we are told, “fishing work lays the
+people under a number of restrictions. There must be no talking; any one
+causing another to speak prevents his getting any fish. If the fishermen
+are going on a turtle expedition, all must be still throughout the
+village. None go about among the houses, or on the public road. All go up
+to their houses and sit still. No sound of a voice, or chopping firewood,
+or any movement is allowed, until it is supposed that the fishing party
+is clear of the lagoon, and out into the deep ocean, and then the
+villagers resume their usual occupation.”[56] These taboos in connection
+with fishing closely resemble the regulations so common in Polynesia.
+
+The Indonesian inhabitants of Borneo are divided into a large number
+of tribes, among which the Kayan, the Sea Dyak, and the Land Dyak are
+perhaps the best known. All these peoples till the soil and live in long
+communal houses situated on the banks of the rivers. Though now spread
+over a wide area in Borneo, the different tribes possess in common
+many social and religious customs, notably the cult of omen animals,
+together with the observance of numerous taboos which are regularly
+enforced at the time of rice (_padi_) planting and harvesting, sometimes
+also at mid-harvest.[57] The taboos found among the Kayan on the Baram
+River, Sarawak, have been well described by a recent traveller, whose
+picturesque narrative deserves an extended notice.[58] “During the days
+devoted to search for omens in reference to the sites of the rice-fields,
+and also again in reference to the planting, the Kayan refrain from
+their usual daily occupations, and neither leave their houses themselves
+nor allow strangers to enter. These days of seclusion are termed
+_permantong padi_, or _lali padi_, and correspond very closely to taboo
+elsewhere.”[59]
+
+The rude agricultural methods of the Kayan start with the preliminary
+process of clearing a site in the dense jungle. The work is extremely
+tedious and if, after all the heavy labour, the crops should fail or
+be destroyed by monkeys, birds, or beetles, the entire household feels
+that some act has been committed whereby the displeasure of the spirits
+is aroused. Accordingly, before beginning so arduous a task, it is
+essential to take omens from the actions of certain birds, mammals, and
+reptiles, called _amau_, which are supposed to be in the confidence of
+the spirits.[60] A patch of jungle having been tentatively selected,
+the work begins with the removal of the dense undergrowth. During this
+preliminary stage, while the labour is less heavy than it will be later,
+when trees must be felled, the household is not as yet under a taboo.
+Each person, nevertheless, keeps a sharp eye for evil omens. Should a
+native on the way to the clearing see any one of four ominous animals, a
+certain species of snake, a deer, a civet cat, or a rain-bird, the site
+will be at once abandoned, regardless of the work already done there.
+Wilfully to ignore such a warning “not only compromises the abundance and
+quality of the crops, but also the health, or even the life, of the whole
+household.”[61]
+
+If no evil omens are observed for three days, the Kayan workers feel
+sufficiently encouraged to proceed to the next stage of felling the
+heavy timber on the site, which has now been stripped of its underbrush.
+Then ensues an elaborate series of auguries. While the various families
+making up the household of a communal dwelling remain secluded on the
+long veranda, or in their small private rooms, sitting very still all
+day and smoking and talking, two hawk-men are off in the forest looking
+for a hawk, called _niho_. Three days must be devoted to this search: if
+the hawk is seen on the first day, but not on the two days following,
+the omen is unfavourable. The people will continue the preparation of
+the soil, but they expect poor crops, a result pretty certain to follow
+their half-hearted and discouraged labours. On the second day the search
+is continued, and if the hawk is seen, the omen is favourable, but not
+completely so. If the third day’s search again reveals a hawk, the two
+men return at once to the house and spread the good news. Every one
+now watches the actions of the hawk. “Should he sail away out of sight
+without once flapping his wings all are delighted; it means that the
+clearing of the jungle may now continue prosperously, and that neither
+attack of enemies nor accident to the workers need be feared. Should the
+hawk flap his wings, it follows that some men, in felling the jungle,
+will be badly cut by their axes or perhaps crushed under falling trees.
+All instantly avert their eyes from the flapping hawk, lest the bird
+should recognize them in the fields and select them as victims.”[62]
+
+There now occurs a brief respite of the _lali_ observance, and the people
+may leave their houses. But the same formalities must be observed by the
+natives while search is made for four other ominous animals. In each case
+there is a period of seclusion and abstinence lasting for three days.
+These are all the omens that must be consulted before the heavy timber
+may be felled, the ground burned over, and the rice planted.
+
+Such are the various taboos which affect the inmates of a communal
+house or village, before the crop is started. Other regulations concern
+outsiders. From the hour when the real labour of felling the jungle
+begins and until the seed-planting is completed, no stranger may enter
+house or field. Should a neighbour, by accident or necessity, come
+within the tabooed district, he must atone for the trespass by making a
+small payment, called _usut_. It consists, ordinarily, of a few beads or
+an iron implement. These objects are placed in a basket and hung up in
+the rice-field till they rust away or disappear. It is a special duty of
+the women to see that this _usut_ is paid.
+
+The _lali_ ordinances of the Kayan are not confined to the time of
+seed-planting. Once more, when the crop is all harvested, the house is
+closed to strangers. For eight days no one may go away on an expedition
+or return to the village from abroad. Another season of restriction
+follows during the period when the rice is being stored in the granaries.
+“But as soon as this harvesting is over, a general feast is prepared,
+and merriment of all sorts makes up for the weariness of the long day’s
+work. The women don every stitch of their finery and every bead to their
+name; some even assume men’s clothes, and carry shield, spear, and
+_parang_. In the evening all join in a long procession round the house;
+guests are invited to participate in the festivities, and ‘jest and
+youthful jollity’ rule the hour; the brimming cup passes freely, and to
+the harmonious strains of the _kaluri_ the women ‘trip it as they go,’ or
+leap in war-dances in imitation of the men.” After this festival there
+follows yet another period of taboo, ten days in length, when no one is
+allowed to do a stroke of any work that resembles the cultivation of
+rice: “should any restless creature express a desire for active work, he
+is scoffed at and scorned as a spoil-sport and kill-joy.”[63]
+
+These customs of the Kayan of Sarawak are significant as showing how for
+a Bornean community the whole period of farming, from the initial task
+of selecting a site to the final storing of the rice in the granaries,
+is supposed to be subject to supernatural influences. Planting and
+harvesting are critical times, when every precaution must be taken to
+win the approval, and to thwart the ill will, of the spirits which
+affect the tribal life. If we turn, now, to the Kayan on the Mendalam
+River in Dutch Borneo, we shall find here also a community of primitive
+farmers who depend mainly on the rice crop for subsistence, and by
+whom all agricultural operations have been invested with a religious
+significance. Without the consent of the spirits no farm work may be
+undertaken; without a strict regimen of sacrifices and taboos their aid
+cannot be secured for the growth and maturity of the crops. A traveller,
+who has described in detail the agricultural rites of the Kayan, tells
+us that the sowing festival lasts several weeks and that during this
+period certain communal regulations are enforced. On the first day of the
+festival every one, save the very old and the very young, must refrain
+from bathing; then for eight successive days no work may be done and no
+intercourse may be held with neighbouring communities. The custom of
+excluding strangers at this time has a purely religious meaning: the
+presence of strangers, so the Kayan believe, would frighten or annoy the
+spirits and consequently endanger the welfare of the crops.[64] Following
+the rites at sowing come those which inaugurate the hoeing of the fields,
+and finally the New Year’s festival, eight days in duration, when the
+harvest has been safely garnered and the long period of labour and
+anxiety is at an end.[65]
+
+But the critical occasions demanding the observance of taboos are not
+confined by the Kayan to agricultural occupations. Every important
+undertaking may be commenced only when favourable omens have been
+vouchsafed by the good spirits, and when the spirits of evil intent have
+been pacified by many acts of abstinence. These aborigines, for example,
+entertain the belief that house-building, which necessarily involves
+the cutting-down of many trees, is a dangerous occupation, because it
+arouses the animosity of the tree-spirits. Hence some Kayan villages,
+after the erection of a communal house, observe a period of penance for
+an entire year. The Ulu-Ayar Dyak on the Mandai River, when they use the
+valuable ironwood as timber, feel it necessary, in consequence, to deny
+themselves various dainties for three years.[66] To the Kayan on the
+Mahakam River in Dutch Borneo, the building of a chiefs house, in which
+task all take part by contributing either materials or labour, forms a
+matter of great moment. Dr. Nieuwenhuis, who witnessed the ceremonies
+on such an occasion, tells us that the regulations enforced begin with
+the collection of materials for the new dwelling. Nothing may be done
+at full moon, a time when important business is always suspended.[67]
+During the search for satisfactory trees and while these are being turned
+into piles, planks, and shingles, watch is kept for spirit-warnings as
+revealed by the flight and cries of the ominous birds. Work on the house
+always terminates at nightfall, when birds are silent. Important stages
+in the construction of the house, such as the sinking of the piles and
+the placing of the finely carved wooden figureheads at the two ends of
+the ridgepole, are signalized by appropriate sacrifices to the spirits.
+When a sufficient quantity of shingles has been prepared for covering
+the roof, another offering, consisting of a fat pig and two chickens, is
+made to the spirits. Then follows a rest period, called _melo_,[68] two
+days in length. During this time a strip of rattan is stretched around
+the house to indicate that no one may enter it. While the house is being
+shingled, any untoward event will interrupt the progress of the work.
+For instance, should a man tumble off the roof, it would be necessary to
+perform another sacrifice and to declare a _melo_ lasting eight days.
+Thus anxiously and seriously does the Kayan conduct himself in all the
+crises of his tribal life.[69]
+
+Among the most numerous and powerful of the Bornean tribes are the Iban,
+or Sea Dyak, who occupy much of the country between the Baram River in
+Sarawak and the Kapuas River in Dutch Borneo. Throughout this extensive
+district the Iban use the same language and possess substantially uniform
+customs. A Christianized native, who has given to us a remarkably
+intimate description of the religious observances of his people, thus
+sets forth the omens and incidents which require abstention from work.
+
+“When at night the Iban dreams of insult, anger, or that he has been
+bitten by a snake, crushed by a falling tree, waylaid by a ghost, chased
+by a crocodile, the following day he rests from all work: to go abroad
+or about his work after such dreams would cause him to be wounded, hurt
+by falling wood, or shot by an arrow from the evil spirits’ blowpipe.
+On the frequent recurrence of such dreams the medicine-man is called
+in, who rubs the patient’s body with a charm which makes him invisible
+to the evil spirits. This ceremony is called _bedinding_, _i.e._, the
+shielding.... To dream of being enveloped by a swarm of bees, of being
+overwhelmed by falling earth, that the waist-cloth has rotted away, or of
+eating rice from a winnowing-fan, will deter the Iban from going on the
+warpath, for they tell of defeat and of being overpowered by the enemy.
+
+“To hear the cry of a bird of evil omen on first waking in the morning,
+or on rising up from the morning meal, prevents the Iban from going to
+his work on that day.... When the Iban is setting out to his work and has
+descended the ladder leading from his house, if the note of a bird of
+any kind is heard at the same time as his foot first touches the ground,
+he must turn back. The cry of the _kikeh senabong_, gazelle, or deer,
+heard on the path, will cause him to give up work for that day. The same
+happens if these omens are heard as he enters the field; arrives at the
+_pankalan_, _i.e._, ‘resting place’; when commencing his work; whilst
+sharpening his chopper, or after the midday meal.
+
+“The news of a death occurring in the neighbourhood or at a distance, the
+time of full moon,[70] the performance of ceremonies over the sick by
+the medicine-man, a sacrifice to the spirits, are incidents that require
+all the villagers to rest from work. Likewise, if some of the villagers
+attend a feast in a neighbouring village, those that remain behind must
+rest from work lest they should incur the anger of the guardian spirits
+of those attending the feast.”[71]
+
+But these are not all the circumstances under which an Iban community
+subjects itself to the rule of abstinence. Rice-planting here, as among
+the Kayan, necessitates certain rest periods, each of three days’
+duration.[72] While a village is under construction, weaving the native
+cloth, settling quarrels, and going on the warpath are forbidden; to
+break this taboo would cause a death in the village.[73] When rumours
+are abroad of cholera, smallpox, or fever, another season of seclusion
+is imposed. The entrance to the village is railed off, and no one is
+allowed either ingress or egress for three days, during which time all
+rest from work. Meanwhile the village elders have prepared an offering
+to the evil spirit of the epidemic. This sacrifice, together with a
+winnowing-fan on which is the figure of man drawn in chalk, is placed
+in a shed near the village. The evil spirit, it is thought, will stop
+to observe the chalk-drawing and thus will be led to discover the food
+which has been left in the shed. Having satisfied his hunger, he will not
+seek to enter the village.[74] The general character of these taboos as
+propitiatory rites is further illustrated by some of the customs relating
+to agriculture. When the forest land has been fully cleared and left
+to dry, sun and wind become of vital consequence to the Iban, for, if
+the people are unable to burn the immense mass of timber and brush-wood
+in the jungle, famine stares them in the face during the year to come.
+“If it pour with rain day after day and week after week, and there is
+no promise of continued fine weather, they are apt to imagine that some
+impurity has defiled the tribe and that the face of the Great Spirit is
+hid from them. So the elders of the people get to work to find it out,
+and adjudicate on all cases of incest and bigamy, and purify the earth
+with the blood of pigs. Prayers are offered to Betara[75] from one end of
+the country to the other; for the space of three days the villages are
+tabooed, and all labour is discontinued; the inhabitants remain at home
+and strangers are not admitted. But if the weather is warm and dry, the
+farms are ready in a very few days for the burning.”[76]
+
+The seasons of communal abstinence found among the Land Dyak, who dwell
+in the southwestern part of Sarawak, differ only in minor details from
+those of other Bornean tribes. There are three principal occasions when
+the Land Dyak subject themselves to _pamali_, or taboo:
+
+“The first, _pamali mati_, is on a house, and on everything in it for
+twelve days after the decease of any person belonging to it: during this
+time, no one who is not an inhabitant of the dwelling can enter it, nor
+are the persons usually residing in it allowed to speak to such, nor can
+anything, on any pretence whatever, be removed from it, until the twelve
+days of the prohibition be expired: its conclusion is marked by the death
+of a fowl or pig, according to the circumstances of the family.
+
+“The _pamali peniakit_ is undertaken by a whole village during any
+sickness which prevails generally amongst the members of the tribe; it
+is marked by a pig slain, and a feast being made in order to propitiate
+the divinity who has sent the malady among them; in its severest form
+it is of eight days’ continuance, and during this period everything in
+the village is at a standstill, the inhabitants shutting themselves up
+from all intercourse with strangers.... The _pamali peniakit_ is also
+undertaken by individuals when any member of the family is sick; thus
+parents often put themselves under its regulations, fondly hoping that
+by denying themselves for a time the pleasures of intercourse with their
+fellow creatures, they will prevail upon the malignant spirit, which is
+supposed to have shed its withering influence over their offspring, to
+restore it to its wonted health and strength.
+
+“The _pamali omar_, or taboo on the farms, occurs immediately after the
+whole of the seed is sown: it lasts four days, and during that period,
+no person of the tribe enters any of the plantations on any account;
+a pig and feast are, according to their practice, also necessary. The
+proper observance of these various forms of _pamali_ is probably amongst
+the most ancient of their customs, and was practised by their tribes
+previously to the introduction of the Hindu religion.”[77] From another
+authority we learn that the Land Dyak recognize a variety of incidents,
+more or less inimical to the operations of farming, which suffice to
+impose taboos. “If the basket in which the paddy is put as it is cut
+during harvesting be upset, that farm must rest for a day, and a fowl
+must be killed, or all their paddy will go rotten. If a tree falls across
+the farm-path, a fowl must be killed on the spot, and the path be disused
+for one day, or some one will meet with an accident on it.... At full
+moon, and on the third day after it (called _bubuk_), no farm work may
+be done, unless it is wished that the paddy should be devoured by blight
+and mildew. In some tribes the unlucky days are those of the new and full
+moon, and its first and third quarters.”[78]
+
+In the course of an excellent study of the Land Dyak festivals,[79]
+Mrs. S. B. Scott argues that they are far more effective as social
+observances when accompanied by the various taboos. The change of
+occupations heightens the sacredness of the feast, and also enables all
+the inhabitants of a village to join in the long, elaborate ritual.
+At the same time the closed house prevents intrusion and secures the
+presence of every member of the community. Furthermore, the prospect
+of feasting, drinking, and general excitement gives an added zest to
+the labours of the Dyak farmers. The mid-harvest festival, when this is
+celebrated, affords a much needed rest from the heavy work of harvesting;
+and the last and greatest of the festivals comes as a natural period
+of relaxation after the long strain of toil and frugality is suddenly
+relaxed.[80]
+
+That in actual practice the Land Dyak observances have this outcome, it
+is impossible to deny. Yet it must be noticed that similar regulations
+are in force on other and quite different occasions. As we have just
+seen, the Land Dyak place an interdict, twelve days in length, upon a
+house in which any one has died; the same event also causes a general
+banning of the village for one day only.[81] Childbirth imposes a taboo
+of eight days’ duration on a Land Dyak family;[82] in this case the
+regulation does not appear to be extended to the community at large.
+Sickness is another event which puts a family under the ban;[83] when the
+sickness assumes an epidemic form and threatens the general well-being,
+the rule of abstinence must be observed by every one in the village. Such
+evidence from the Land Dyak customs, confirmed as it is by the facts
+relating to the customs of other Bornean tribes, clearly illustrates
+the passage of individual taboos, based on gross superstition, into
+community ordinances which may sometimes have a real justification in
+their social usefulness.
+
+These Bornean regulations disclose a fairly consistent effort to adjust
+the length of the communal taboo to the importance of the event which it
+commemorates. Thus, house-building imposes a shorter season of abstinence
+than does planting or sowing; a single death in the village may require
+the cessation of activity by the inhabitants for only one day; but an
+epidemic sickness may necessitate a three days’ rest, as among the Iban,
+or even eight days’ rest, as among the Land Dyak. The restrictions
+themselves appear to be substantially the same in all instances: the
+inhabitants “remain in their houses, in order to eat, drink, and sleep;
+but their eating must be moderate, and often consists of nothing but rice
+and salt.... People under interdict may not bathe, touch fire, or employ
+themselves about their ordinary occupations.”[84] To these prohibitions
+should be added that of sexual intercourse, a taboo specifically
+mentioned for one Bornean tribe, and probably found among others.[85]
+
+The close resemblances, even in details, between the communal taboos
+observed in different parts of Borneo must, unquestionably, be attributed
+to a long-continued process of diffusion among the various Indonesian
+tribes. These taboos have not been found, at any rate have not been
+described, among the nomadic hunting tribes, which occupy the interior
+parts of Borneo and probably represent an aboriginal population.
+Though our knowledge of Bornean ethnography is still very imperfect,
+there seems to be no doubt that the present Indonesian inhabitants are
+descended from immigrants into the island at no very remote date. We are
+justified, therefore, in seeking a foreign source for various elements of
+the existing Bornean culture. In particular, the practice of observing
+communal taboos, in its rudiments, if not in its completely developed
+form, may reasonably be regarded as an importation into Borneo, if
+similar customs are found to prevail among other Indonesian peoples.
+
+Between the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the northern coast
+of Sumatra lies the archipelago of the Nicobars. The inhabitants appear
+to be of Indonesian type, but more or less intermixed with Malays and
+with the natives of Burma and Siam. In spite of the labours of numerous
+missionaries the Nicobarese are said to entertain no conception of a
+Supreme Being or of a future state. They have, however, a very lively
+belief in evil spirits, which seem to be chiefly the ghosts of the
+wicked. These malignant beings, the source of all misfortune and
+disease, are propitiated with offerings or driven out by exorcisms. On
+such occasions the Nicobarese hold lengthy festivals, some of which
+are accompanied by periods of communal abstinence. The native name for
+these enforced rest days or holidays is _anoiila_.[86] Every year the
+inhabitants of Kar Nicobar observe the ceremony of _kataphang_, at which
+time the group of buildings, called the _elpanam_,[87] is cleaned out and
+purified to the accompaniment of much singing and dancing. When this
+preliminary work is done and the rubbish has been cast into the sea, the
+doors of the houses in the _elpanam_ are closed and the people return to
+their private abodes in the village. “Silence has now to be observed for
+a full month; no fire or light may be seen; no cheroot may be smoked.
+Women and children are interdicted from coming to the _elpanam_, and,
+if they have to come during the night on urgent affairs (to purchase
+things), they have to place a light at the entrance of the _elpanam_ and
+then come without noise.... The chief sufferers by this festival are the
+Burmans, because the people cannot supply any nuts nor can they work in
+making _kopra_, for the reason that they cannot go into the jungle to
+fetch nuts nor can they come to the _elpanam_.” The natives believe that
+during this time the evil spirits from the jungle visit the _elpanam_.
+When the month is up, a great feast is given to the spirits and they are
+sent back to the jungle.[88] Another Nicobar festival is that of _kiala_.
+The word means, properly, “to take food.” The _kiala_ is celebrated with
+much feasting, to which the inhabitants of neighbouring communities come
+as guests. At midday a cry of supplication is heard from each building:
+“Let our house be enriched with plenty of food. Let us have many eatable
+things from other villages. Let there come new women to our villages. Let
+us be happy.” Then follow in regular sequence a day of rest—_anoiila_—a
+day of pig-hunting in the jungle, a second _anoiila_, and a second day of
+pig-hunting. One more rest day ends the festival.[89] The exact meaning
+of these observances is difficult to make out.
+
+Very similar customs have been found among the people of Bali, an
+island to the east of Java. When the Balinese are confronted by some
+real or imaginary danger, such as an epidemic, an earthquake, or a lunar
+eclipse, they at once take measures to drive away the evil spirits, or
+_buta_, which have caused the ominous event. This praiseworthy object
+is supposed to be accomplished partly by verbal commands “go away! go
+away!” addressed to the _buta_, partly by means of an unearthly uproar
+of shouting and knocking. Then follow two days of absolute silence, the
+stillness of the grave. During this period, known as _sepi_, no one
+ventures out of doors and no strangers are admitted to the village.
+Even the usual domestic work, including cooking, is discontinued. The
+interdict against all activity is lifted on the third day, but even
+then work in the rice-fields and buying and selling in the market are
+forbidden. The evil spirits, it is believed, would like to return at
+once to their old haunts, hence they must be led to think that Bali is
+not Bali, but some uninhabited island.[90] This period of quiescence is
+clearly a means of avoiding contact with the ghostly powers. The reason
+given for abstaining from activity—to make the spirits suppose that Bali
+is not Bali—may be taken as a naïve effort to explain a custom no longer
+understood. The Balinese have also a New Year’s festival, which shows the
+influence of Buddhism in the date chosen for its observance, the first
+five weeks of the Buddhist year. “At this time the gods are supposed to
+dwell on the earth, and the _pitara_ especially return to the bosoms of
+their families; hence the constant offerings and the incessant games
+and amusements, which are regarded as necessary less for the living
+generation than for the _pitara_ and gods sojourning among them; hence
+also the cessation from work and the disinclination to intercourse with
+foreigners during this period. Trade and foreigners are not agreeable
+to the _pitara_, who desire to see the old institutions and usages
+faithfully preserved.”[91]
+
+In the island of Nias, lying off the western coast of Sumatra, the
+news of an epidemic sickness will cause a quarantine to be established
+in every community, not only against the inhabitants of the infected
+village, but against all strangers without discrimination. The quarantine
+lasts for eight days.[92] Probably this taboo is observed on other
+occasions, as seems to be the case with the inhabitants of the Pagi
+Islands, which form the southern extension of the Mentawi group.
+These islanders are scarcely above the level of culture reached by
+Bornean tribes: they live in large communal houses, practise tattooing
+assiduously, and worship the evil spirits which manifest their power in
+thunder and lightning, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods. The natives,
+at certain times, are said to remain in their villages and to exclude
+all strangers. During this period of separation from the world they may
+neither give nor receive anything, they must refrain from eating certain
+articles of food, and they may not engage in trade.[93] A very competent
+observer, who has made a special study of the taboo system in the
+Mentawi Islands, describes the seasons of restriction found there under
+the name of _punän_. The “great” _punän_ arises from any circumstance
+which vitally affects the welfare of a community: when a chief erects
+a house for himself, when a village is visited by an epidemic, or when
+a cocoanut-palm is overthrown by some _force majeure_. Similarly, the
+inauguration of a superior chief or the choice of a priest requires the
+imposition of a “great” _punän_. The same propitiatory usage becomes
+necessary when a villager has been killed by a crocodile. The “little”
+_punän_ relates rather to individuals and to families. Many are the
+occasions when it is imposed—at house-building, at the setting-out of a
+garden, at boat-making, and when a native leaves his village to settle
+elsewhere. The “little” _punän_ is especially obligatory for women during
+pregnancy, at birth, and for eight months thereafter. It occurs also as
+an accompaniment of marriage, when there is sickness in a family, and
+when some member of the household has died. All crises in the communal
+and individual life of the Mentawi Islanders are thus kept as periods of
+restriction; in some cases, however, these rest days have become to all
+intents and purposes festivals and holidays.[94]
+
+The wild and little-known aborigines of Formosa, who are probably of
+Indonesian origin, appear to possess similar customs. Of them it is
+said, generally, that “great fasts are held after a sickness or when any
+of the tribe have been killed. At such times they will be silent, and
+will only eat sufficient food to maintain life.”[95] Another traveller
+refers to these communal fast days under the native name of _hiang_, and
+adds the further fact that at such times strangers are excluded from the
+village.[96] A very intelligent observer, describing the superstitions
+of the Peiwan, mentions a curious custom according to which “one who has
+unpleasant dreams must confine himself to his house for the day.”[97]
+This very scanty information will doubtless be supplemented by much more
+evidence, when the Formosan tribes have been scientifically studied.
+
+The Philippine Archipelago contains a great number of Indonesian tribes,
+among which are the Subanu of Mindanao, a mountain people occupying the
+interior portions of the Zamboanga District, where they have taken refuge
+from the raids of their hereditary enemies, the Moros and Filipinos.
+The Subanu are described as a suspicious and superstitious people
+with a pronounced belief in spirits—both good and evil. Ceremonies of
+propitiation accompany all important undertakings, such as the clearing
+of a new plantation, the building of a house, the beginning of a
+journey, hunting, and the harvesting of the crops. Festivals are held to
+propitiate these spirits, or to celebrate some event in which an entire
+settlement is interested. From the following account it would seem that
+the custom of communal abstinence is frequently observed by the Subanu.
+“In contending against the difficulties of their settlement life the
+Subanu have gradually adopted an effective quarantine service against the
+spread of infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, and cholera. Upon
+the appearance of the first case among any of the settlement families,
+the _timuai_ [communal chief] orders the establishment of the signals
+of quarantine, and these are quickly provided. Fences of poles and
+split bamboo, or _bejuco_, are erected across the main trails leading
+to the houses of the settlement. On these fences are placed, in fixed
+positions, carved imitations of war weapons, such as spears, _kampilan_,
+_barong_, and _pira_, pointed outward to warn the approaching stranger
+or visitor to remain away. It is a notice that death will be visited
+upon the person who attempts to enter the settlement while the scourge
+of disease prevails.... Near the signal fences are erected light wooden
+stands with offerings of various articles of food to appease the wrath
+of the gods and cause them to assist in extirpating the disease. Small
+sheds are also sometimes erected near the stands, under which guards
+may be stationed to prevent the food from being taken by wild animals,
+birds, and mischievous persons. But the guards go to sleep and the food
+(cooked rice, boiled eggs, fruit, tobacco, betel-nut, cooked chicken,
+etc.) disappears, whereupon the guards report that _diuata_ (god) has
+accepted the gifts and will drive away the disease. Superstition and good
+sense are strangely but effectively mingled in this scheme of practical
+and efficacious quarantine; and the Subanu stand alone among all the
+tribes and peoples of Mindanao in devising and operating such protective
+measures.”[98]
+
+Another Indonesian people of the Philippines are the Bontoc Igorot, a
+non-Christian folk dwelling in northern Luzon. They are mountain farmers
+and live in towns made up of political divisions, or _ato_, analogous to
+the wards of an American city. The business of each _ato_ is conducted
+by a council of elders. These Bontoc Igorot observe a sacred rest
+day, called _tengao_.[99] It occurs, on an average, about every ten
+days during the year, though not with absolute regularity. Three men,
+belonging to what might be described as a hereditary priesthood, fix
+the time for the _tengao_, as for all other ceremonials of the pueblo.
+They then inform the elders of each _ato_, who, in turn, make a public
+announcement on the evening preceding the day. “The small boys, however,
+are the true ‘criers.’ They make more noise in the evening before the
+rest day, crying _Tĕng-aó! whi tĕng-aó!_ (‘Rest day! hurrah! rest day!’)
+than I have heard from the pueblo at any other time.” The _tengao_
+appears to be marked by the cessation of agricultural work, but not by
+abstinence from all activity. “If a person goes to labour in the fields
+on a sacred day—not having heard the announcement, or in disregard
+of it—he is fined for ‘breaking the Sabbath.’” The lawbreaker has to
+surrender firewood or rice or a small chicken to the value of about ten
+cents, or the wage of two days. The fines are then expended in buying
+chickens and pigs for certain religious ceremonies, known as _patay_.
+These rites are performed every new moon for the general well-being of
+the pueblo.[100] We are further told that the rest days are selected
+in order that “such intimate, important interests as agriculture and
+beneficial weather may be given the amount of attention they deserve.
+The people have no calendar for succeeding ceremonial observances, so
+a priesthood has developed to fix such days at the opportune time when
+needed. They are sacred because all petitions are made to Lumawig their
+god, a living, spirit, hero, and benefactor.”[101]
+
+There seems to be every reason for supposing that this remarkable
+institution of an almost periodic Sabbath is of native origin. The Bontoc
+Igorot dwell in a remote and inaccessible region; and they are a fairly
+primitive people whose religious ideas have been unaffected by either
+Christianity or Mohammedanism. The _tengao_ itself is apparently confined
+to this single tribe of northern Luzon. At the same time the sacred
+rest day does not stand without relation to the other observances of
+the Igorot. Like the Bornean tribes they have a number of agricultural
+ceremonies, religious in character, and designed to secure an abundant
+harvest. Some of these ceremonies are accompanied by periods of rest.
+Every year, on the occasion when _camotes_ are planted, the pueblo priest
+kills a chicken or a pig, and petitions Lumawig for so many _camotes_
+“that the ground will crack and burst open.” This rite takes place in the
+fifth period of the Igorot year, called _baliling_. A similar rite is
+performed when black beans are planted. The end of _baliling_ (about the
+first of September) is marked by a three days’ rest, known as _kopus_. At
+this time one of the priests charged with the performance of the _patay_
+rite addresses a short supplication to Lumawig and then solemnly kills
+a chicken. It is a critical moment for the people of the pueblo. Should
+the gall of the fowl be found white or whitish, this means that disaster
+will overtake the community. But a gall with a dark green colour implies
+that the spirit enemies of Bontoc are not revengeful and that the pueblo
+will enjoy prosperity. Another occasion when the Igorot rests from labour
+comes at the _fakil_ ceremony for rain. It occurs four times each year,
+on four succeeding days, and is performed by four different priests.
+There is the usual sacrifice of a pig by the priest, and each night, just
+before this rite takes place, all the people cry _I-tĕng-aó ta-ko nan
+fa-kilʹ!_, an expression meaning, “Rest day! We observe the ceremony for
+rain!”[102] These and other instances cited by Professor Jenks indicate
+clearly that the Igorot festivals are intended to propitiate evil-minded
+spirits and to secure material blessings from Lumawig, the supreme
+being.[103] The evidence from Borneo and other regions suggests that
+here in Luzon the rest accompanying some of the festivals has likewise a
+propitiatory character, quite as much as the prayers and sacrifices. The
+same interpretation would accordingly apply to the _tengao_, though that
+day seems now to be regarded in some degree as a holiday. Furthermore,
+the conjecture is plausible that the _tengao_ in its earlier form was not
+a periodic but an occasional observance, called forth only by particular
+emergencies in the communal life. The present form of this institution
+gives evidence of a tendency, doubtless directed by the Igorot
+priesthood, to calendarize seasons of taboo at definite and regular
+intervals. And the dedication of this “Sabbath” to Lumawig may be only
+a natural outcome of the preëminence assigned to that supreme god, who
+stands out in such bold relief against the crowd of ancestral spirits,
+good and bad, investing the Igorot world.[104]
+
+The foregoing examples suffice to show how numerous are the occasions
+on which the natives of Indonesia subject themselves to the rule of
+abstinence. Assuming, with modern ethnographers, that the Indonesian
+peoples represent an admixture in various proportions of primitive Indian
+and southern Mongolian stocks, we need not be surprised to discover
+that in certain parts of southeastern Asia, and notably among the
+Tibeto-Burman tribes of Assam and Burma, there flourishes a system of
+communal regulations strikingly similar to those which have just been
+described.
+
+The Naga tribes, who are said to resemble more closely the natives of
+the Indian Archipelago than any of the other peoples occupying the hills
+of Assam, apply the name _genna_[105] to their system of taboos.[106]
+The following description refers particularly to the Naga of Manipur.
+Here, as in Borneo, the regular communal taboos are for the most part
+connected with the crops. Every stage of the rice cultivation is marked
+by a village _genna_, the duration of which varies. Thus, among the Mao
+Naga the rice-sowing necessitates a ten days’ _genna_, the transplanting
+of the rice calls for only one day of restriction, the beginning of
+the harvest for four days, and the harvest home for ten days. At such
+times the village gates are shut and neither egress nor ingress is
+allowed. “Among all these tribes from the day of the first crop _genna_
+to the final harvest home all other forms of industry and activity are
+forbidden. All hunting, fishing, tree- and grass-cutting, all weaving,
+pot-making, salt-working, games of all kinds, bugling, dancing, all
+trades are strictly forbidden—are _genna_—lest the grain in the ear be
+lost.”[107]
+
+It is obvious that some of these taboos tend, indirectly, to produce
+beneficial effects. The prohibition of all labour, except agricultural,
+during the season of rice-planting and harvesting permits the inhabitants
+of a village to devote their time and attention solely to the care of
+the crops. And the practical result of the taboo against hunting is
+to provide a much-needed close season for wild animals, “for these
+sportsmen spare not the game.” It is equally obvious, however, that the
+regulations in question have had no utilitarian origin. Identical taboos
+are imposed on a great variety of other occasions. A rain-compelling
+ceremony, when the headman works magic for the benefit of the entire
+village, is accompanied by a _genna_. General _genna_ are also proclaimed
+after the occurrence of unusual phenomena, such as earthquakes, eclipses
+of the sun or moon, and the appearance of comets. These events are
+attributed to supernatural activity.[108] The destruction of a village
+by fire occasions a general _genna_, sometimes for three days, before
+any steps are taken to rebuild the houses. Such an event indicates that
+spirits inimical to the people are about and active; consequently the
+mere sight of the burning of a neighbouring village is enough to require
+the imposition of a _genna_.[109] The outbreak of epidemic sickness
+necessitates a _genna_, the purpose of which is clearly prophylactic.
+Animal sacrifices of a propitiatory nature are made at such times. Some
+of the Mao Naga even hold a regular village _genna_, as a means of
+preventing all sickness during the year, while the Kabui Naga observe an
+annual _genna_ in order to protect themselves from being hurt by bamboos.
+The occurrence of mysterious cases of death requires a _genna_, for the
+purpose of separating the living as soon as possible from the dangerous
+dead; in the Mao group it is customary to hold a village _genna_ when a
+villager dies, irrespective of the immediate cause of his decease.[110]
+All the Naga communities hold a _genna_ devoted to the praiseworthy
+object of finally laying to rest the ghosts of those who have died
+during the preceding year. The rite takes place at the time of cold
+weather, after the crops have been reaped. At this annual festival, “they
+restore to the living those of their members who have been in jeopardy
+of the contagion of death.”[111] Communal _genna_ are also enforced in
+connection with the first death in the year of any domestic animals; on
+the return to the village of a party of warriors with human heads taken
+in a foray; when a python—a serpent closely associated with sickness—is
+killed and eaten; during the deliberations of the village council; and
+also when a man rashly allows his private or secret name to be mentioned
+in public.[112] We may agree with an early writer, who, commenting on
+these practices among the Angami Naga, remarks that there is “no end
+to the reasons on which a _kennie_ must or may be declared, and as it
+consists of a general holiday when no work is done, this Angami Sabbath
+appears to be rather a popular institution.”[113]
+
+A survey of these Naga ordinances indicates that here in Assam they
+have much the same purpose as in other regions: they are protective
+and conciliatory; to a certain extent they are even compelling, in so
+far as the observance of the taboos is supposed to prevent the evil
+spirits from inflicting further harm. The coercive quality of a _genna_
+is also illustrated by the idea that, while the ill effects of an
+interruption of a village ceremony are sometimes irremediable, there
+are other cases where a repetition of the rite is enough to avert all
+disastrous consequences.[114] It is to be observed, furthermore, that
+all _genna_ are declared and supervised by the _khullakpa_, the secular
+and religious head of the village. He acts in a representative capacity,
+whenever a rite is to be performed which requires the whole force of the
+community behind it, a force which operates through him. “These village
+_genna_,” declares Mr. Hodson, “seem in many cases to be inspired by
+the belief that man, _the man_, the _khullakpa_, when fortified by the
+whole strength and will of the village, is able to control and constrain
+forces which are beyond his control if unaided. He relies on coöperative
+strength.”[115]
+
+In addition to the village _genna_ the Naga are subject to numerous
+regulations which affect individuals or families only, and do not extend
+to the community at large. Household _genna_ are occasioned by such
+events as the birth of children or of domesticated animals, the first
+hair-cutting and ear-piercing, the naming of children, and finally the
+death of domesticated animals in the house. The restrictions apply to
+all who are normally inmates of the house, and to any others, such as
+midwives, who may be temporarily members of the family. The duration of
+these _genna_ varies not only from tribe to tribe but also from village
+to village. The Mayang Khong Naga, in particular, have worked out an
+elaborate scale for _genna_ following the birth of domestic animals.
+“When a cow calves, the _genna_ lasts for five days; when a sow litters,
+three days’ _genna_ is necessary; while when a bitch has pups, or a cat
+has kittens, two days are ample. A hen hatching out a brood of chickens
+brings on a _genna_ of one day.”[116] Such observances may be said to
+mark the acme of the Naga taboo system, or, from another point of view,
+to reduce it to an absurdity.
+
+The _genna_ custom, which seems to have attained its most complicated
+and grotesque development among the Naga, prevails, or in the past has
+prevailed, throughout a wide area of Assam. The Hinduised Meithei of
+Manipur, whose affinity to the wild hill tribes such as the Naga and Kuki
+is admitted, no longer possess the custom itself, though preserving the
+memory of it in their word _namungba_, or taboo.[117] General seasons of
+restriction seem to be unknown among the Khasi, who inhabit the Khasi
+and Jaintia hills, except in a single instance.[118] Their neighbours on
+the west, the Garo, a people of Tibeto-Burman stock, have the equivalent
+of _genna_ in the word _marang_, conveying the ideas of “unlucky” and
+“unlawful.” But the Garo custom itself is scarcely socialized: the taboos
+relate to individuals, and in only one case extend to the community at
+large. This is the prohibition for any one in a village to labour in the
+fields on the day when a child is born. It is believed that should a farm
+be visited at such a time the crop would be cursed and blighted.[119]
+Another Tibeto-Burman people, the Mikir, who dwell in the Mikir Hills
+to the northwest of Manipur, have individual taboos of various kinds
+and, in addition, a compulsory village festival called _rongker_. It is
+held annually at the beginning of cultivation. At this time the gods
+are invoked for good crops, good health, and preservation from tigers.
+There is no music or dancing during the festival.[120] The _genna_ exists
+among the Mishmi and Abor on the frontiers of northeastern Assam and
+Tibet.[121] The Lushei (sometimes called Kuki) of the Lushei Hills to the
+south of Manipur have a well-developed system of taboo, here known as
+_hrilh_. Persons subject to _hrilh_ “must do no work, except necessary
+household tasks, and must not leave a prescribed area.”[122] These
+restrictions sometimes affect households only, sometimes entire villages.
+They are communally imposed in connection with the sacrifice performed
+before a large hunting party starts out, at the harvest festival, when an
+epidemic sickness rages, and on other occasions.[123] West of the Lushei
+dwell the Tippera and Mro tribes, among whom the communal taboo observed
+in consequence of an epidemic goes under the name of _khang_. “The
+quarantine is inaugurated and declared with a certain degree of ceremony.
+A sacrifice is offered, and the village is encircled with a fresh-spun
+white thread. The blood of the animal sacrificed is then sprinkled about
+the village, and a general sweeping and cleansing takes place, the houses
+and gates being decorated with green boughs. They attach great importance
+to the quarantine being kept unbroken. It generally lasts three days,
+and during that time no one is allowed to enter or leave the village.
+I have known several murders committed, owing to persons persisting in
+breaking the _khang_.”[124] The same communal taboo is observed when a
+village is being built, and regularly in July, when the rice requires
+cultivation.[125] These tribes formerly lived in the Arakan Hills of
+Lower Burma, where identical regulations, known as _ya_, are also
+enforced.[126]
+
+The _genna_ custom may be traced in various parts of Burma. From the
+Naga, Lushei, and other tribes of Assam the ethnical transition is
+unbroken to the Chin, who occupy the Chindwin valley and the hills to
+the west. Probably these aborigines are not unfamiliar with the _genna_
+as a device to avoid a visitation by demonic powers identified with
+smallpox, cholera, and other diseases. We are told that once, when
+cholera broke out among some Chin on a visit to Rangoon, they spent the
+day hiding under the bushes so that the cholera-spirit might not find
+them.[127] The Kachin (Chingpaw) on the upper Irawadi River, a people
+generally regarded as closely akin to the Chin on the one hand and to
+the Karen on the other, recognize six occasions during the year, when
+no one is supposed to do any work. The rest days, numbering sixteen
+in all, are known collectively as _na na ai_, which may be translated
+“ceremonial holiday.” They all occur in connection with agriculture—when
+the jungle is fired, before and after seed-planting, while the crop is
+ripening, and at harvest—as a means of securing the good will of the
+_nat_, or spirits.[128] Similar customs are still observed by some of
+the Karen tribes. Of the Tsawku Karen it is said that their religion
+consists entirely in attempts to appease various malignant spirits. When
+the inhabitants of a village or the members of a household are engaged
+in ceremonies of propitiation, “they put up a bow with an arrow ready
+fitted to the string, or some other sign to indicate that there is ‘no
+admittance,’ or that ‘trespassers will be prosecuted according to law,’
+and these insignia are scrupulously respected.”[129] The Sawngtung Karen
+forbid any one to leave the village on the day of the birth of a child
+in it, and no eggs may be kept in the village while the fields are
+being reaped. The Taungthu Karen believe that giving away anything at
+all on sowing or planting days means blight for the crop.[130] These
+superstitions no doubt represent decadent forms of a once-extensive
+_genna_ system among the Karen. The _genna_, again, has been noticed
+among the Muhso, or Lalu, a large tribe which has emigrated from China
+to the Shan States. The Muhso close their villages against strangers
+for five days during an annual festival, which begins on the Chinese
+New Year’s Day. Bamboo gateways and symbols are erected along the paths
+approaching a settlement, in order to warn possible intruders. If an
+outsider persists in entering a village, he is kept a prisoner there till
+the festival is over. All his possessions, even his clothes, are taken
+away from him and he is returned naked to the world. In explanation of
+this conduct the natives say that the spirits, in whose honour the feast
+is held, are displeased at the presence of strangers.[131] The Wild Wa, a
+head-hunting tribe on the northeastern frontier of the Shan States, are
+said to have no regularly recurrent festivals, but hold them as often
+as they are confronted by “particular dangers or necessities.”[132] The
+Miao (Miao-tse), one of the little-known tribes of southwestern China,
+celebrate musical festivals throughout the year. These seem now to be
+_fêtes_ pure and simple, though at one time possessing a religious
+character. “If asked why they hold these festivals, they say that if they
+failed to do so their crops would be bad; and yet they do not profess to
+understand how the harvests are influenced by this custom.”[133]
+
+The _genna_, either in vigorous activity or in attenuated survival,
+has now been traced throughout a wide area in southeastern Asia, and
+particularly among the Tibeto-Burman tribes of Assam and Burma. Modern
+ethnographers recognize in the Indo-Chinese an immigrant population,
+probably from western China, which for many centuries has been gradually
+moving southward along the course of the great rivers emptying into the
+Bay of Bengal. The custom of the _genna_ appears to be one of the most
+characteristic features of Indo-Chinese culture; its presence, therefore,
+throughout this area must be explained as the result of diffusion and
+not of independent origination. Furthermore, we have found that in the
+various Indonesian islands as far as New Guinea, and especially in
+Borneo, customs closely akin to that of the _genna_ also belong to the
+native culture. It is likely that the ancestors of the Polynesians passed
+through these islands on their way to the Pacific; if this be so, we
+can understand why _tabu_ in Polynesia should present so many obvious
+resemblances to _lali_ in Borneo and to _genna_ in Assam. The student
+whose primary concern is the wanderings of peoples cannot neglect such
+evidence of extensive diffusion, showing how for ages cultural elements
+have been drifting from the interior of Asia over the Indo-Chinese region
+and the Indian Archipelago, and thence into the island world of the
+Pacific.
+
+What general conclusions may be drawn from a comparative survey of these
+communal taboos in the several areas under consideration? In the first
+place it seems clear that the various negative regulations, such as those
+imposing idleness, fasting, and continence, closely resemble some of
+the pains and penalties to which the savage subjects himself on other
+occasions. For instance, the well-known custom of the _couvade_ imposes
+on the husband, during the pregnancy of his wife or after the birth of
+the child, a number of restrictions, which often include abstention from
+various sorts of work, and sometimes from all occupations whatsoever.
+The practice of the _couvade_ appears to be an outgrowth of the idea
+that under special circumstances the close ties uniting husband and wife
+engender a mystic sympathy between them, so that the acts of the one
+affect the welfare of the other. Similar ideas underlie the numerous
+rules of abstinence observed by hunters, fishers, and warriors when
+absent from home, and by the relatives and friends whom they have left
+behind.[134] We cannot always fathom the savage logic which has generated
+the numberless regulations observed at such critical seasons; but they
+would seem to be particular expressions of an ancient doctrine—“In
+quietness shall be your strength.”
+
+In the second place it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, however
+vexatious and burdensome may be the restrictions resting on a primitive
+community, these are not without a definite psychological value. The
+consciousness that all the omens have been duly taken and that all taboos
+have been properly observed is itself invigorating; the community goes
+forward, henceforth, with renewed strength and confidence to the tasks
+which lie before it.[135]
+
+Finally, it may be pointed out how directly these communal regulations
+make for social solidarity. Students of early society have long
+recognized the fact that the institution of taboo, in its individualistic
+aspects, has helped to nurse in man a sense of reverence and a power of
+self-restraint greatly needed under primitive conditions. Such beneficial
+results are even more manifest in the case of communal taboos. For, when
+the restrictions are violated by any one, there is always the feeling
+that misfortune will overtake the entire social group, and hence a duty
+devolves on each man to see that his neighbour obeys the law. Altruism
+becomes a coercive process, and social cohesion is secured by each member
+of the group making himself his brother’s keeper. It is desirable to
+keep in mind these positive benefits inherent in the taboo system, since
+perhaps excessive attention has been directed to its hampering influence
+on society.
+
+In the three regions which have been selected for close examination—the
+Hawaiian Islands, Borneo, and Assam—it thus appears that there are
+certain occasions when the normal current of life is interrupted, and
+when what may well be called a crisis presents itself.[136] In general
+any time of special significance, inaugurating a new era or marking the
+transition from one state to another, any period of storm and stress, any
+epoch when untoward events have occurred or are expected to occur, may be
+invested with taboos designed to meet the emergency in the communal life
+and to ward off the threatened danger or disaster. Periods of abstinence
+are imposed because of such unusual, and therefore critical, events as a
+conflagration, an epidemic sickness, or an earthquake; after a death; at
+the changes of the moon; at the end of the old year and the beginning of
+the new year; during a time devoted to the banning of ghosts and demons;
+and in connection with such important undertakings as the commencement
+of a war, seed-planting, and harvest, and the celebration of a solemn
+religious or magical ceremony. The peoples whom we have just studied
+have, so to speak, institutionalized their fears, working out thereby a
+protective procedure highly complex and elaborate. But the conceptions
+which generated the tabooed day in Polynesia, Indonesia, and southeastern
+Asia are not local and confined; on the contrary they underlie a wide
+range of social phenomena.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS
+
+
+Among the lower races perhaps the most common occasion for the suspension
+of ordinary occupations is after a death.[137] The prohibition of work
+at this time usually forms only one of a number of regulations, which
+also impose partial or complete abstinence from food and place a ban on
+loud talking, singing, and the wearing of ornaments and gay clothing.
+The taboos are often confined to the family or at most to the relatives
+of the deceased; in other cases they affect the entire community.
+The explanation of these rules must sometimes be sought in animistic
+conceptions. The soul of the dead man is supposed to remain for a time
+with the body in the grave or near the scenes of the earthly life. Until
+the funeral ceremonies are completed, when the ghost is finally “laid”
+or departs for the abode of the dead, prudence requires the survivors to
+avoid all conspicuous activity, if they would not attract the unwelcome
+attentions of the ghost. A similar period of quiescence may be considered
+necessary when the death is attributed to an evil spirit, which lurks
+about its quarry and seeks another victim.
+
+But earlier, probably, in development, and certainly far more general,
+is the belief in the pollution of death.[138] Primitive peoples seldom
+recognize a death as due to what we should call natural causes. Sickness,
+and death following on sickness, when not attributed to the direct action
+of an evil spirit or of some malevolent person who has been practising
+nefarious magic, are thought to be due to the contaminating miasma of
+death. Death is a mysterious atmospherical poison which extends its
+defiling influence far and wide. Hence we have at least one motive for
+the very common custom of destroying the house and personal property of
+the deceased. Hence arise the taboos of the corpse, of persons who have
+anything to do with the corpse, of the relatives of the deceased, and of
+mourners, generally. An obvious application of such ideas requires that
+all activities should be abandoned by the survivors for some time after
+a death; and, where the sense of social solidarity is strong, the notion
+of abstinence at so critical a season may be extended to the entire
+community.[139]
+
+Communal taboos following a death are not unknown in Polynesia,
+Micronesia, and New Guinea,[140] and may be traced elsewhere in the
+Oceanic area. In Timor, when a king dies, no work is done for seven days
+thereafter.[141] In Halmahera an entire village will be tabooed in
+consequence of the death of one of its members. Violations of the taboo
+(_pomali_) are severely punished.[142] The practice of intermitting work
+in a village until a corpse is buried prevails in many of the Molucca
+Islands.[143] Among all the non-Christian tribes of northern Luzon,
+“there is no field work in an _ato_ on the day when an adult person
+is buried.”[144] The inhabitants of Kar Nicobar exhibit great fear of
+ghostly influence before the funeral ceremonies have been completed. The
+corpse of any one who has died in the village is conveyed at once to
+the “dead house,” and the inhabitants proceed to barricade themselves
+in their houses and to keep fires burning before the doors. The houses,
+canoes, and ground about the village are covered with palm leaves to
+prevent the ghost from entering. Some of the dead man’s pigs are killed,
+a few cocoa palms are cut down, and on rare occasions his house is
+burnt, or unroofed and left deserted. “Shaving the head is sometimes
+indulged in as a sign of mourning, together with frequent bathing and
+abstinence from work.”[145] The Malay fishermen of the Patani States in
+the Malay Peninsula observe various restrictions and prohibitions, the
+transgression of which would bring sickness or misfortune. If a death
+occurs in a fishing village, no boat from that village must go to sea
+on the following day, and no one must set out on a land journey. The
+fisherman or the traveller who disregarded this injunction would have no
+luck and would probably meet with some disaster.[146]
+
+Periods of abstinence after a death are observed by many of the tribes
+of Borneo, in close connection with the prevailing institution of taboo.
+When a death occurs in an Iban village, the inhabitants give up their
+outdoor occupations and remain at home, seven days in the case of a male,
+three days for a female, and one day for an infant. During this time the
+relatives of the deceased lay aside their ornaments and bright dresses,
+assume deep mourning, and abstain from music and jollity.[147] Another
+authority declares that after a death “it is tabooed to work on the farm:
+at busy times for three days; at other times for seven days.”[148] In
+the case of a chief’s death the natives refrain from work for a longer
+period than is usual when a commoner dies.[149] Similar restrictions are
+found among the Land Dyak,[150] the Dusun, or Sundyak, of British North
+Borneo,[151] and some other tribes. Members of a Kayan household observe
+various mourning ceremonies, and in particular avoid all music, feasts,
+and jollifications for a period which varies in length according to the
+social standing of the deceased.[152]
+
+Among the Naga tribes of Manipur, with the notable exception of the
+Mao people by whom a village _genna_ is held whenever a villager dies,
+it is not necessary or usual to perform this communal rite in cases of
+regular and non-mysterious death. The _genna_ is then confined to the
+clan, that is, to the group of individuals who comprise the heirs of the
+deceased.[153] But all cases of death by sudden illness, by accident, by
+the hand of an enemy, and by wild animals or snakes necessitate general
+or village _genna_.[154] The same rule prevails when a woman has died
+in childbirth.[155] The purpose of these regulations seems to be that
+of separating the living as soon as possible from the dangerous spirits
+of the dead, or of avoiding the contagion of death. Among the Khasi of
+Assam, who do not observe general seasons of restriction, clan _genna_
+are imposed after a death. The surviving clansmen are not allowed to work
+until three days have elapsed from the time of placing the bones of the
+deceased in the clan tomb.[156] In northern Arakan, Lower Burma, when
+any native has been killed by a tiger, crocodile, or other animal, when
+any woman resident in the village dies in childbed, or when the body
+of a person who died in such a manner is brought into the village, all
+intercourse with that village is cut off until the appearance of the next
+new moon.[157] Similar regulations exist among the Lao of northern Siam
+and among the savage inhabitants of Indo-China.[158]
+
+Taboos following a death and imposing abstinence from work are found
+in various parts of India. Among the Muppan, a hill-tribe of Wynaad,
+Malabar, the relatives of the deceased do no work on the day after
+the funeral, and also partially abstain from food. At a subsequent
+date they perform a final ceremony to remove every trace of the death
+pollution and to give peace to the departed spirit.[159] In former times
+the Kataharayan, a fisher folk living on the Malabar coast, intermitted
+their fishing for three days after the death of a prince of Malabar.[160]
+Among the Kasuba, a forest tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills in the
+Madras Presidency, fear of pollution requires the relatives of the
+deceased to abstain from all kinds of work for an entire day.[161] Far
+away to the north, among the Paharia of British Sikkim, the same ideas
+of pollution prevail. All persons belonging to the household of the
+deceased must observe strict silence during the period of mourning, and
+they may eat only one meal a day and that “half a bellyful.” Under such
+circumstances, we are told, work in the fields is impossible.[162] With
+these regulations may be compared those observed in Tibet, where rich
+and respectable men, when their parents die, abstain for a year from
+participating in marriage ceremonies and festivities, and undertake no
+lengthy journeys. Upon the demise of the Dalai Lama or of the Tashi Lama,
+all work ceases for seven days, public offices are closed, and markets
+are suspended. The people refrain from amusements and festivities and
+from going into groves for pleasure, sport, and love-making. For thirty
+days women are forbidden to put on their jewellery, and neither men nor
+women may wear new clothes. Thus the land of Tibet goes into mourning for
+the loss of one of its great hierarchs.[163]
+
+Very similar customs are found within the African area. They seem to
+be generally observed by the Bantu peoples of South Africa. Among all
+the Zulu tribes it is the rule that no one labours in the fields on
+the day following a death, and that after the death of a chief work
+of every sort is suspended for six months.[164] “If a person is struck
+by lightning, the whole kraal fast and do not even drink water, until
+the mediciner has performed his office.”[165] The Basuto, who form the
+eastern branch of the widespread Bechuana people, abstain from all public
+work on the day when an influential person dies.[166] In Ussindja, a
+district of German East Africa, the Sultan Rwoma gave vent to his sorrow
+for the loss of a favourite son by forbidding all agricultural work for
+six years. Within a few months, however, famine stared his subjects in
+the face, and the grief-stricken father was compelled to rescind the
+prohibition.[167] Mourning regulations which impose abstinence from work
+have been described among various tribes of British East Africa occupying
+the territory to the east and north of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The Akikuyu,
+who observe many restrictions connected with the corpse, regard the day
+after a death as unlucky. “People will not travel, and goats and sheep
+will not bear, and all the inhabitants of the village shave their heads.
+The women will not go out for four days. On the next day the sons who
+have taken part in the burial do not work.”[168] The taboos enforced by
+the Nandi present some curious resemblances to those which we have met
+among Indonesian peoples. The Nandi, probably in former days a hunting
+tribe, have now taken to agriculture and raise large crops of eleusine
+grain and millet. Their superstitions invest the process of farming with
+many restrictions: no one while in a plantation may carry a spear or
+rest a spear on the earth; thigh-bells must not be worn; a hide must not
+be dragged along the ground; whistling is strictly forbidden. Work is
+prohibited for an entire day following an earthquake, a phenomenon which
+Nandi speculation, in common with other savage philosophies, attributes
+to the movement of underground spirits.[169] If a hailstorm occurs, if a
+hoe breaks, or if a beast of prey seizes a goat, no work must be done in
+the fields for the rest of the day and for twenty-four hours afterwards.
+It is believed that any sick person who eats the grain when harvested,
+or who drinks beer made from the grain, will die, and that pregnant
+women will abort. If the owner of a plantation dies while his crops are
+ripening, all the grain must be eaten and none reserved for sowing;
+otherwise the grain will rot in the ground.[170] The Nilotic Kavirondo
+do not cultivate their fields for three days after the death of any one
+of importance, and for ten days after the death of a chief.[171] Their
+neighbours, the Basoga, sometimes extended the days of mourning for a
+deceased chief to two months. It is said that the crops not infrequently
+suffered because of the strict abstention from work in the fields.[172]
+Certain Abyssinian tribes refrain from ploughing, sowing, and grinding
+grain until a corpse is buried.[173] Among the Arabs of Morocco, studied
+by Professor Westermarck, there is a prohibition of all work in the
+village until the funeral has taken place.[174]
+
+The belief in the pollution of death is very strong among the Malagasy.
+On the decease of a sovereign many practices are tabooed (_fady_) to the
+common people, such prohibitions extending to various periods according
+to the will of the new ruler. Thus, to sing, to play music, to clap
+hands, to laugh boisterously, to dance, to wear ornaments or brightly
+coloured garments, to dress or anoint the hair, to wear a hat, to cut the
+nails, to clean the teeth, to bathe, to gaze in a mirror, and to carry
+the arms akimbo are all _fady_. Such tasks as pottery-making, spinning
+and weaving, plaiting of mats, carpentry, and metal-working are often
+suspended. Furthermore, no, one is allowed to lie on a bedstead or to
+ride in a palanquin or on horse-back, and every one is expected to shave
+the head and uncover the shoulders. Many of these regulations, it is to
+be noticed, are also enforced after the death of a near relative.[175]
+
+In the New World the funeral ceremonies of the rulers of Mechoacan
+furnish another illustration of the superstition under discussion. We
+are told that when a king was buried all who had participated in the
+obsequies washed themselves and went to dinner in the yard of the king’s
+house, “and having dined they wiped their hands upon certain locks of
+cotton-wool, hanging down their heads, and not speaking a word, except
+it were to ask for drink.” These purificatory rites were accompanied
+by a season of communal abstinence which lasted five days, “and in all
+that time no fire was permitted to be kindled in the city, except in
+the king’s house and temples, nor yet any corn was ground, or market
+kept, nor durst any go out of their houses.”[176] Among the Seminoles
+of Florida on the day of a funeral, and for three days thereafter, the
+relatives of the deceased remained at home and abstained from work.
+During this time the dead man was supposed to remain in his grave.
+Subsequently he took his departure for an abode in the skies, and
+mourning then ceased.[177]
+
+The restrictions following a death appear to be especially prominent
+among the Eskimo tribes, who possess a well-marked system of taboos. In
+Greenland we meet the practice of requiring not only the kindred of the
+deceased, but likewise all who have lived in the same house with him to
+abstain from certain articles of food and from work for some time after
+death.[178] Among the Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Strait after
+the death of any person it is forbidden “to scrape the frost from the
+window, to shake the beds or to disturb the shrubs under the bed, to
+remove oil-drippings from under the lamp, to scrape hair from skins, to
+cut snow for the purpose of melting it, to work on iron, wood, stone, or
+ivory. Furthermore, women are forbidden to comb their hair, to wash their
+faces, and to dry their boots and stockings.”[179] These Eskimo require
+the relatives of the deceased to shut themselves up in his hut and mourn
+his loss for three days. During this time the inhabitants of a village
+must not use their dogs, but must walk to the hunting-ground. For one day
+at least they are not allowed to go hunting, and the women refrain from
+all work whatsoever. Dr. Boas notes how in the winter a long space of
+bad weather occasions privation, since hunters cannot leave their huts.
+“If by chance some one should happen to die during this time, famine is
+inevitable, for a strict law forbids the performance of any kind of work
+during the days of mourning.” During these three days the soul of the
+deceased is supposed to be still with the body, not having yet gone to
+the home of the goddess Sedna in the underworld.[180] According to one
+account the Innuit, from the head of Bristol Bay to the Arctic, require
+the survivors to refrain from work for twenty days after a death in the
+family.[181] This is probably too broad a statement and does not allow
+for minor divergencies of custom throughout so extensive an area. On the
+lower Kuskokwim River the Alaskan villagers abstain from work on the day
+of a death, and, in many instances, on the day following such an event.
+None of the relatives of the deceased may perform any labour during the
+period, four or five days in length, when the shade is believed to remain
+with the body.[182] The rule requiring no work in a village on the day
+when a person dies prevails among the Bering Strait Eskimo. Relatives
+of the deceased must abstain from activity during the three following
+days.[183] One observer tells of a Point Barrow woman who declined to
+sew on clothing, even at his house, because there was a dead man in the
+village who had not yet been carried to the cemetery. She feared that “he
+would see her.” But after consultation with her husband she concluded
+that it was possible to protect herself from “him” by tracing with a
+snow-knife a circle about herself on the floor. Within this area she
+did the sewing required, being very careful to keep all her work inside
+it.[184]
+
+Remarkably similar customs prevail among some of the Asiatic Eskimo, and
+incidentally reinforce the argument for the transmission of cultural
+elements between northwestern America and northeastern Asia. The Reindeer
+Chukchi forbid any kind of woman’s work with needle and scraper during
+the period of the funeral ceremonies. This rule refers to all the
+houses of the camp or village, and even to other settlements in the
+vicinity.[185] The Koryak stopped all work in the settlement before the
+last rites to the dead. No one went hunting or sealing, no one went to
+fetch wood, and the women did no sewing. At the present time this rule is
+so far abrogated as to apply only to those in the house where the body
+lies.[186] Among the Yakut, when a man dies, the members of his household
+may not execute any work until after the next full moon.[187]
+
+Taboos of this nature are not confined to savage and barbarous
+communities, since the fear of the death pollution has been felt by
+various civilized peoples and has found expression in their funeral
+ceremonies. Thus, we learn that in Rabbinical times and among some
+modern Jews, during the _shib‘a_, or seven days of strict mourning, “the
+relatives abstain from work and remain at home, sitting on the floor
+or on a low bench, reading the _Book of Job_, and receiving visits of
+condolence. Bereaved children should abstain for a year from music and
+recreation.”[188] Outcroppings of the same belief occasionally manifest
+themselves among the folk of Europe. German peasants abstain from all
+work, except what is absolutely necessary, before the funeral,[189] and
+the Scotch think that “it is not right to spin if there be a corpse in
+the same township.”[190] This latter instance furnishes a close parallel
+to the Eskimo superstition.
+
+Feasts of the dead, the primitive All Souls’ days, are sometimes
+occasions for abstinence from work. The same custom may be observed at
+times devoted to the public and ceremonial expulsion of ghosts and demons
+from the community.[191] Here, as elsewhere, we may well raise the query
+whether such proceedings have always existed with the particular meaning
+now assigned to them; or whether in many instances they may not hark back
+to a “pre-animistic” epoch when the evil influences, instead of being
+personified under the form of spirits, were more vaguely regarded as some
+mysterious and infectious contamination.
+
+Rites for commemorating kindly spirits or for expelling those of evil
+intent were doubtless first performed at irregular intervals, as the
+supposed need for them arose. They tend, however, to be massed and
+assigned to particular times, thus meeting a demand for order and
+precision. Their celebration usually takes place at a period which
+coincides with well-marked changes of the seasons, or with one of the
+great epochs of the agricultural year, as sowing or harvest. They have
+a particular and appropriate association with the end of the old year
+or with the beginning of the new year, a time which, by many primitive
+peoples, is itself fixed with reference to seasonal changes or to
+agricultural operations.
+
+Ceremonies of ghost-riddance and demon-riddance, accompanied by communal
+abstinence, have already been noted in Polynesia, Indonesia, and
+southeastern Asia.[192] They are not unknown in Africa. The Basuto,
+who do no work on the day when an influential man dies, also observe
+as holidays the times of sacrifice or of great purification. “Hence it
+is,” writes a French missionary, “that the law relative to the repose of
+the seventh day, so far from finding any objection in the minds of the
+natives, appears to them very natural, and perhaps even more fundamental,
+than it seems to certain Christians.”[193] The Bahima, a Bantu-speaking
+tribe of Ankole, a district which lies immediately to the west of Lake
+Victoria Nyanza, set apart one day each month for festival purposes.
+It is then that the Bahima seek to appease certain ghastly, shrivelled
+demons who, though they expend most of their fury on one another,
+frequent the kraals and occasionally take a native by the arm and shake
+him mercilessly. These demons are called _balubale_. Their placation is
+said to consist chiefly of drum-beating and beer-drinking. “There is no
+work on _balubale_ day.”[194] On the next-to-the-last day of the year the
+Swaheli of German East Africa observe an ancient custom, which probably
+antedates Mohammedan influence in this part of Africa. They parch some
+millet and pour it, together with ashes, on the corners of their houses
+as a prophylactic against the evil spirits supposed to be particularly
+troublesome at this time. Swaheli school-children enjoy a holiday on the
+last two days of the year and New Year’s Day.[195] The great national
+_fête_ of the _fandroana_, marking the commencement of the Malagasy year,
+occurs at the new moon of the month Alahamady, and the first days of this
+month are regarded as very unlucky for commoners, who therefore abstain
+from all activity.[196] We may conjecture that this festival, though
+traditionally established only about three centuries ago, in its present
+form incorporates observances connected with the new year as a critical
+season. Some of the Gold Coast tribes of west Africa hold a festival
+toward the end of August, called _affirah-bi_, when there is a general
+remembrance of the dead. No work may be done during this festival,
+which lasts eight days.[197] The Guinea negroes would seem also to
+perform annual rites for the expulsion of evil spirits. The ceremony of
+demon-riddance, formerly held at Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast,
+was intended to drive the devil Abonsam out of the town by means of an
+unearthly uproar of shouts, screams, beating of sticks, rattling of pans,
+and firing of guns, in which all the inhabitants joined. “The custom is
+preceded by four weeks’ dead silence; no gun is allowed to be fired, no
+drum to be beaten, no palaver to be made between man and man. If, during
+these weeks, two natives should disagree and make a noise in the town,
+they are immediately taken before the king and fined heavily. If a dog
+or pig, sheep or goat be found at large in the street, it may be killed,
+or taken by any one, the former owner not being allowed to demand any
+compensation. This silence is designed to deceive Abonsam, that, being
+off his guard, he may be taken by surprise and frightened out of the
+place. If any one die during the silence, his relatives are not allowed
+to weep until the four weeks have been completed.”[198]
+
+The Yoruba tribes of the Slave Coast celebrate every June an All Souls’
+festival lasting seven days. It resembles the _affirah-bi_ rites, but the
+ceremony is held in honour of Egungun, who is supposed to have risen from
+the dead and after whom a powerful secret society has been named.[199]
+Since in west Africa, as in some other parts of the world, secret
+societies are intimately related to the cult of the dead,[200] it may
+be that the tabooed days, observed when these organizations hold their
+ceremonies, were once connected with feasts of the dead or expulsion of
+ghosts. The belief may also exist that the god of the secret society
+affects with his holiness the day of his public appearance, and so makes
+it unfit for business. However, the taboos seem now to be maintained
+chiefly as a means of securing the respectful attention of non-initiates,
+particularly women. The presence in Yoruba towns of the bugbear god Oro
+compels women to seclude themselves from seven o’clock in the evening
+until five o’clock in the morning.[201] On the great feast days of
+Oro women must remain indoors from daybreak till noon.[202] A native
+writer points out that these Oro confinements, as they may be called,
+are declared in times of political crisis, when a new law or other
+measure of importance is under consideration, and whenever a sacrifice
+is offered in behalf of the community. The streets are then cleared of
+all unseemly traffic and of women, in order to permit the god and his
+followers to appear abroad without danger of contamination.[203] Again,
+in Old Calabar, when the great _egbo_ society visits a community, all
+business is suspended, all doors are shut, and absolute silence prevails.
+On the departure of the god and his attendant mummers, the town-bell is
+rung in a peculiar way to indicate that normal occupations may be now
+resumed. The cessation of business on the occasion of these visits of
+_egbo_ may last a day, but frequently extends to two or three days. In
+the latter case, however, the strict rule of seclusion is relaxed for
+an hour or more to permit the holding of the daily market.[204] During
+an _egbo_ visitation it would be death for any one not a member of the
+order to venture forth; even members themselves, if their grade is lower
+than that which controls the proceedings for the day, would be severely
+whipped.[205]
+
+The festivals of the dead, observed in classical antiquity, were marked
+by taboos. Among the Greeks the rites took place on the so-called
+ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι, unlucky days accompanied by complete idleness and
+cessation of business. “At such times no one would address any one else,
+friends avoided all intercourse with one another, and even sanctuaries
+were not used.”[206] Ancient authorities also refer to these days as
+times when magistrates suspended their functions, when courts were
+closed, when sacrifices were not offered and oracular responses were
+not delivered, and when people refrained from any business which it was
+hoped would have a prosperous outcome.[207] At Athens the festival of
+the Genesia, an annual commemoration of the dead, occurred on the fifth
+of Boëdromion, a day which was included among the ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι.[208]
+Three more unlucky days were the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
+of Anthesterion, when the Athenians celebrated the festival of the
+Anthesteria. Though in outward semblance only a brilliant ceremony in
+honour of Dionysus, the Anthesteria had also a sombre significance as
+the time when the shades of the dead issued from the underworld and
+walked the streets.[209] Ropes were fastened round the temples to keep
+out the wandering ghosts, and the people smeared their houses with
+pitch to catch any rash intruders into the dwellings of living men.
+For the entertainment of the unseen guests during their short stay pots
+of boiled food were everywhere placed in the streets; but at the end of
+the festival the souls were roughly bidden to depart. The Anthesteria,
+in substance, thus formed one of those numerous ceremonies for the
+riddance of ghosts by means of feasting and placation which have so wide
+a diffusion in the lower culture.[210]
+
+Corresponding to the Greek ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι were the Roman _dies
+religiosi_, true days of abstinence, when it was unlucky to begin a
+journey or to undertake any important business. During their continuance
+temples and law courts were, or ought to be, closed, magistrates laid
+aside the insignia of office, armies did not march, and no marriages
+took place.[211] Among the _dies religiosi_ were those on which the
+Romans celebrated two festivals of the dead, the so-called Parentalia
+in February, the last month of the old Roman year, and the Lemuria in
+May. The February celebration, from the thirteenth to the twenty-first of
+that month, has been taken to embody all that was least superstitious and
+fearful in the generally terrifying worship of the dead. The Lemuria (May
+9, 11, 13), had rather an opposite character and probably represents the
+more ancient rite for the expulsion of the ghosts of the dead.[212] The
+three days in the Roman year, August 24, October 5, and November 8, when
+the door of the Lower World was unclosed for the spirits of the dead to
+come forth—_quibus mundus patet_—were also _religiosi_, or unlucky. “When
+the _mundus_ is open,” said Varro, “the gate of the doleful underworld
+gods is open; therefore, it is not proper on those days for a battle to
+be fought, troops to be levied, the army to march forth, a ship to set
+sail, or a man to marry.”[213]
+
+To the Hebrews the Day of Atonement was a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_,[214]
+the holiest of rest days, “a Sabbath of solemn rest,” when “no manner
+of work” might be performed. The transgressor of this regulation was
+threatened with death: “Whoever doeth any work at all on that same day,
+I will destroy from among his people.”[215] A similar punishment was
+prescribed for one who did not fast on that day; the expression “to
+afflict your souls” (_‘innā nephesh_) was considered by late theologians
+to be a synonym for fasting, and as a matter of fact the Atonement fast
+was the only one enjoined by the Law. On the Day of Atonement a goat,
+laden with the sins of the people, was sent forth into the wilderness,
+where it was sacrificed to Azazel, a bad angel or demon. In the later
+centuries of Jewish history this rite took on a more spiritual character,
+as the ceremonial aspects of sin and atonement became increasingly
+prominent.
+
+The Day of Atonement has been usually considered a very late institution,
+unknown in the time of Zechariah and even in the age of Nehemiah not
+employed for the special purpose of a national humiliation. What seems
+more probable is that the Day of Atonement was taken over and adopted
+into the Priestly Code of post-Exilic Judaism from a popular and
+primitive ceremony of sin-riddance, doubtless of high antiquity. It is
+to be observed that the fast was held on the tenth day of the seventh
+month, a day which appears to have marked, originally, the beginning of
+the new year.[216] This would have been an appropriate time for an annual
+ceremony of purification, since the new year is so frequently observed
+with ceremonies of a cathartic or apotropaic character. Even in late Old
+Testament ritual, New Year’s Day, celebrated as the Feast of Trumpets on
+the first day of the seventh month, was also a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_, a
+time of “solemn rest” and of “holy convocation.” No toilsome work might
+then be performed; trumpets were to be blown, perhaps to indicate its
+solemnity, and special sacrifices were to be offered.[217] Moreover,
+certain features of the Atonement ceremony, especially that of the
+sin-laden goat, which has so many parallels among the lower races,[218]
+strengthen the probability that the ritual for the day represents an
+elaboration of earlier and simpler customs familiar in pre-Exilic times.
+If this be true, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the “Sabbath
+of solemn rest” forms likewise a survival from a still ruder past, when
+sin was conceived so materially as a contaminating influence that common
+prudence dictated abstinence from work and other activities at a critical
+season devoted to the driving-out of evil.[219]
+
+Ideas of this sort live long in the minds of men. The greatest of
+Mohammedan festivals, the so-called Feast of Sacrifices, is now
+celebrated as a means of securing moral purification and blessing.
+But the ceremony rests on a heathen basis, and its principal feature,
+an animal sacrifice, was borrowed by Islam from Arabian paganism. An
+eminent authority, who has noticed the striking prevalence of cathartic
+ceremonies at the Great Feast, suggests that its primary object may have
+been to expel evils which were supposed to threaten the people at the
+time of the year when the sacrifice occurred. “Throughout Morocco the
+first day of the feast is kept as a holiday, both by men and women, and
+so is generally the second day also, which in some places is regarded as
+a particularly dangerous time. I am told that anybody who should work
+on that day would have some grave misfortune—robbers would kill him at
+night, or some of his children or animals would die, or he would be
+struck with blindness—and travelling on that day is likewise supposed to
+be accompanied with danger. But labour is also suspended on other days of
+the feast, especially by the women.”[220]
+
+The evidence presented in this chapter raises once more the perplexing
+and much-debated problem of the diffusion of culture. The custom
+of keeping tabooed days after a death may be properly described as
+world-wide, since it exists in all the continents. And the observance as
+Sabbaths of periods devoted to the propitiation or expulsion of spirits,
+though less common, has been also traced among many half-civilized
+tribes of Oceania, Asia, and Africa, as well as in classic Greece
+and Rome. Within contiguous areas, for example, in Borneo and the
+adjoining islands, or among related peoples, such as the American and
+Asiatic Eskimo, it is reasonable to ascribe the uniformity of custom
+to long-continued borrowing. Again, the close resemblance between the
+Greek and the Roman superstitions relating to unlucky days—the ἀποφράδες
+ἡμέραι and the _dies religiosi_—is satisfactorily accounted for by the
+hypothesis of a common inheritance from prehistoric antiquity. But where
+tabooed days are observed for the same reasons by unrelated peoples, who,
+as far as our knowledge reaches, have never been in cultural contact, the
+student is obliged to conclude that the beliefs underlying the custom in
+question have not been narrowly limited but belong to the general stock
+of primitive ideas. In such cases the doctrine of the fundamental unity
+of the human mind seems alone to be capable of explaining the astonishing
+similarity of its products at different times and in different parts of
+the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOLY DAYS
+
+
+There exists, perhaps, no shorter road to the comprehension of a religion
+as a social product than through the study of its festivals. They are
+preëminently social in character; they give expression to the feelings
+of an entire community, whether clan, tribe, or nation; and in their
+development they are closely associated with the general progress of
+society. As civilization develops, festivals tend to increase in number,
+to elaborate their ritual, and to fix more precisely the time and order
+of their celebration. It becomes the business of a particular class—the
+priesthood—to establish and maintain a calendar of sacred seasons. We may
+assume with some confidence that the priestly attitude in such matters
+has not been entirely disinterested. The holy day, observed with worship,
+sacrifice, and offerings, must contribute directly to the well-being and
+prestige of the sacerdotal order.
+
+“The Greeks and the barbarians,” declares an ancient geographer, “have
+this in common, that they accompany their sacred rites by a festal
+remission of labour.”[221] In fact most festivals are celebrated as
+holidays, when men give up secular occupations and devote themselves to
+religious exercises and relaxation. Festivals, in consequence, assume
+with advancing culture a great significance from the economic and
+sociological standpoint. For the peasant and the artisan they provide
+welcome relief from physical exertion, and for all ranks of society
+their pageants and processions, their games, feasts, and merry-makings
+give an outlet to the play instincts of mankind. We must not conclude,
+however, that the remission of labour accompanying a festival has always
+been dictated by practical and non-superstitious considerations. It has
+been already pointed out that in some fairly rude communities abstinence
+from work is a part of the regular procedure for facing a crisis and the
+spiritual dangers supposed to characterize such an occasion. The rest is
+a measure of protection and propitiation, quite as much as the fasts, the
+sacrifices, and the prayers by which it may be attended. Where ideas of
+this nature prevail, all labour becomes _tabu_.
+
+As we pass from savagery to barbarism and from animism to polytheism, the
+notion of taboo, at first vague and indeterminate, tends to differentiate
+into the twin concepts of impurity and holiness. This differentiation,
+indeed, is never perfectly accomplished even by peoples which have
+reached some measure of civilization; and the lower races find still
+greater difficulty in distinguishing between what is dangerous, because
+polluted, and what is dangerous, because sacred. The “holy” thing and the
+“unclean” thing possess alike the mystic potency, the magico-spiritual
+power, the _mana_ or _orenda_, to employ a terminology which expresses
+early man’s sense of being ever surrounded by unknown agencies, among
+which he must walk warily, if he is to walk in safety.[222]
+
+To the primitive mind the sanctity which attaches to the divine chief
+and king, to such objects of special reverence as bull-roarers, idols,
+and altars, and also to certain places and shrines, is sufficiently
+material to be transmissible and to be capable of infecting with its
+mysterious qualities whatever is done at a particular time. The notion
+of the transmissibility of holiness might seem of itself to furnish a
+sufficient reason for abstaining from ordinary occupations on a sacred
+day: the power that blesses can also blast. In practice, however, this
+idea appears to mingle quite inextricably with the opposite though
+related conception that what is holy can be contaminated by contact
+with the secular and the profane. Furthermore, when holy days come to
+be definitely consecrated to deities, who at such times are believed to
+be present among their worshippers, it is easy to see how the belief
+arises that a god is pleased and flattered by the enforced idleness of
+his devotees. Abstinence from work then takes its place among other rites
+as a recognized way of expressing a proper reverence for the divinity;
+while, conversely, to labour on his holy day implies a disrespectful
+attitude toward him. These are sentiments reasonably certain of continued
+development, as priestly influence becomes predominant in any community.
+“The Lord thy God is a jealous God.”[223]
+
+The consecration of a particular day to a divinity is a common feature
+of polytheistic cults. Had we definite information concerning the
+origin and development of the great deities of the higher religions,
+it would probably appear that in most instances their connection with
+particular days is a secondary rather than a primary formation. In other
+words a period dedicated to a god and observed by his worshippers with
+abstinence from labour may once have been a season of taboo for other
+and quite different reasons. Some pertinent instances of tabooed days
+which grew into holy days have already engaged our attention.[224] Thus,
+in the comparatively well-developed religious system of the Hawaiians
+the New Year’s festival was consecrated to the god Lono; but the same
+festival in Fiji was not associated with any particular divinity. Again,
+the Hawaiians observed in every month four _tabu_ periods, which were
+severally dedicated to the great gods of the native pantheon, Ku, Hua,
+Kaloa, and Kane. That these Sabbaths had originally no connection with
+any divinity and arose in consequence of superstitious beliefs regarding
+lunar phenomena is a highly probable conclusion, when we recall the
+numerous taboos attaching to the phases of the moon, for instance, among
+the Dyak tribes of Borneo. Once more, the attribution of the Bontoc
+Igorot _tengao_, or rest day, to Lumawig, the only god throughout the
+Bontoc culture area, cannot be earlier than the emergence of this supreme
+being from the crowd of spirits in which the native so firmly believes.
+Lastly, we have seen how, in the case of the Athenian Anthesteria, the
+attribution of the festival to Dionysus and the cheerful associations
+with which the fancy of the Greeks invested it represent a comparatively
+late development.
+
+If many holy days of polytheistic cults were once tabooed days, it
+follows that a taboo element may be looked for in various religious
+celebrations which in outward semblance have only a festive, happy
+character. Particularly does this seem to be true of the numerous rites
+observed by the Dravidian peoples of India. The Kota, an aboriginal
+tribe of the Nilgiri Hills, hold an annual feast, called _kambata_ or
+_kamata_, in honour of Kamataraya. It lasts about a fortnight. On the
+second day of the festival no work may be done except digging clay and
+making pots.[225] The Uraon keep three great feasts during the year.
+The first, known as _sarhul_, occurs in May. Its object is said to
+be the celebration of the mystical marriage of the sun-god with the
+earth-goddess, in order that they may become fruitful and consequently
+bestow good crops. At the same time the Uraon take care to propitiate all
+the village spirits, lest the latter should frustrate the efforts of Sun
+and Earth to increase and multiply. On the eve of the appointed day no
+one is allowed to plough his fields.[226] In Bengal, Mother Earth is the
+object of much devotion. The goddess generally manifests herself as the
+benignant source of all things, the giver of the fruits of the earth. But
+sometimes she brings disease and hence requires propitiation. The chief
+festival in her honour occurs at the end of the hot season, when she is
+supposed to suffer from the impurity common to women. All ploughing,
+sowing, and other work cease at this time, and Bengali widows refrain
+from eating cooked rice.[227] A very similar festival, called _ucharal_,
+is celebrated by the natives of the Malabar coast at the end of January,
+when Mother Earth has her annual menstruation. For three days at this
+time the people stop all work, except hunting: the house may not be
+cleaned; the daily smearing of the floor with cow-dung is discontinued;
+and even gardens may not be watered.[228] The village rites observed by
+the Telugu, Kanarese, and Tamil peoples of southern India, in honour of
+their local deities, though unattended by compulsory abstinence from
+labour, are clearly of a propitiatory character. In this respect they
+are analogous to the _genna_ customs in Assam. Usually the people hold
+no regular festival, but perform their rites of sacrifice only when some
+great misfortune—an outbreak of cholera, smallpox, cattle disease, or
+drought—has convinced them that evil spirits are about and active. “I
+have dignified,” writes the Bishop of Madras, “the periodical sacrifices
+to the village goddesses by the name of festivals. But the term is a
+misnomer. There is really nothing of a festal character about them. They
+are only gloomy and weird rites for the propitiation of angry deities
+or the driving away of evil spirits, and it is very difficult to detect
+any traces of a spirit of thankfulness or praise. Even the term worship
+is hardly correct. The object of all the various rites and ceremonies is
+not to worship the deity in any true sense of the word, but simply to
+propitiate and avert its wrath.”[229] The propitiatory feature is not
+absent from some of the purely Hindu festivals, which in this respect may
+have been affected by the cults of the aboriginal peoples of India.[230]
+
+One of the Hebrew agricultural festivals described in the Old Testament
+furnishes an instance of what seem to be ancient taboos surviving in
+a developed religious ritual. In the post-Exilic calendar the Day of
+First-fruits, inaugurating the Feast of Weeks, was declared to be a time
+of “holy convocation,” when no “servile work” was allowable.[231] Now,
+primitive peoples quite commonly observe various ceremonies in connection
+with first-fruits, particularly a sacramental eating of them preliminary
+to general use.[232] With advancing culture this rite tends to be
+replaced by an act of definite sacrifice of a portion of the first-fruits
+to the spirits or the gods, who have it in their power to give or to
+withhold the crops. The rite of first-fruits marks a time of peculiar
+solemnity, when gratitude to the supernatural powers mingles with fear of
+the hostile influences which may affect injuriously the grain that lies
+still ungathered. So critical an epoch is frequently inaugurated by a
+ceremonial cleansing or purgation of the community; and the rite itself
+may require fasting and continence on the part of those who celebrate
+it. In at least one case previously noticed, the ceremonial inbringing
+of first-fruits formed an occasion for abstaining from all secular
+activities.[233] Since a like restriction was attached to the Hebrew Day
+of First-fruits, we may surmise with some probability that abstinence
+from labour at this time was observed by the early Hebrews as a primitive
+taboo long before the festival was definitely consecrated to Jehovah. It
+is difficult to avoid the same conclusion with respect to the sabbatarian
+rules which invested other agricultural festivals of the Hebrews.[234]
+
+The Greeks in late classical times appear to have regarded their
+religious festivals much as we regard our holidays. “The gods,” said
+Plato, “in pity for the toils which our race is born to undergo have
+appointed holy festivals, by which men alternate rest and labour.”[235]
+With this remark, indicating that for the philosophic thinker the process
+of rationalization had begun, it is interesting to compare the statement
+of a modern scholar that among the Greeks “the time occupied by the feast
+of the gods was as sacred, _i.e._, as much subject to taboos, as was the
+whole of the Jewish Sabbath.”[236] The unlucky days (ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι)
+observed by the Athenians included the twenty-fifth or twenty-ninth
+of Thargelion, a day devoted to the celebration of the Plynteria, the
+washing festival of their patron goddess. On this occasion Athene’s
+image was borne in procession to the sea, divested of its adornments,
+and laved in the purifying waters. Plutarch’s biography of Alcibiades
+contains a significant reference to the ceremony. At the time when
+that brilliant though shifty Greek returned from exile to his native
+city, the people were holding the Plynteria, in Athene’s honour. On that
+day “the Praxiergidæ solemnize their secret rites: they remove all the
+ornaments from her image and cover it up. Hence the Athenians regard
+this day as most unlucky, and do no work on it. It seemed as though the
+goddess were receiving him in no friendly fashion, for she hid her face
+from his as if to banish him from her sight.” Xenophon, also, referring
+to the return of Alcibiades at the time of the Plynteria, declares that
+“none of the Athenians would venture to transact any serious business
+on this day.” And Pollux informs us that the sanctuaries were roped
+round at the Plynteria, as at other unlucky times, doubtless to avoid
+their being tainted with the pollution of the day.[237] The Athenians
+themselves ascribed the unluckiness of the day of the Plynteria to
+the fact of Athene’s absence from the city during the festival. It
+is probable, however, that the Plynteria was at one time a rite of
+purification preliminary to the bringing-in of the first-fruits, and
+hence a rite which must have existed long before its ascription to the
+protecting deity of Athens.[238] So considered, the Plynteria as a rest
+day affords a close parallel to the Tongan _inachi_ and the Hebrew Day of
+First-fruits.
+
+With the Plynteria may be profitably compared the better-known Roman
+festival of the Vestalia. The Athenian ceremonies came in May, the
+Roman, in June, but they were alike in content. The nine days devoted
+to the Vestalia were ill-omened (_religiosi_). During their celebration
+the innermost sanctuary of Vesta, shut all the rest of the year, was
+opened to the matrons of Rome, who crowded to it barefooted, while the
+Vestals themselves offered the sacred cakes made of the first ears
+of corn plucked a month previously. On the ninth day (June 15) the
+temple was swept and the refuse thrown into the Tiber. Then the _dies
+religiosi_ came to an end, as soon as the last act of cleansing had been
+duly performed—_Quando stercus delatum fas_, “When the rubbish has been
+carried away.”[239]
+
+The Roman religious festivals, of which a few, as we have seen, were
+celebrated on _dies religiosi_,[240] went collectively under the
+name of _feriæ_ (_dies feriati_).[241] The public _feriæ_, numbering
+sixty-one in republican times, were all consecrated to deities of the
+state cults. As illustrating the Roman prejudice against even numbers
+as unlucky, it is interesting to note that, with two exceptions, all
+these older _feriæ_ occurred on days which, reckoning from the beginning
+of the month, would be denoted by odd numbers. The same superstition
+required that, where a festival occupied more than one day in a month,
+there should be an interval of one or three days between the beginning
+and close of its celebration, as in the case of the Lemuria on the
+ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of February. The ferial days were of
+prehistoric origin, though the testimony of tradition assigned them to
+Romulus and particularly to Numa, the priestly king who was believed
+to have organized the Roman religion. Considering the great antiquity
+of the _feriæ_, it becomes a legitimate inquiry how far they resemble
+the festivals observed in modern times by peoples scarcely inferior in
+culture to the Romans at the dawn of their history. What likeness, in
+other words, can be traced between the _feriæ_ and days _tabu_?
+
+The ancients made a fundamental distinction between public and private
+_feriæ_. The former included all festivals which were celebrated by the
+community at large, the latter, those which appertained to individuals,
+families, _gentes_, sacred colleges, and other social groups within the
+body politic. Since the Roman state religion was based on the religion
+of the family and the _gens_, we are entitled to believe that the _feriæ
+privatæ_ provided the model for the _feriæ publicæ_; and this view is
+confirmed by numerous analogies elsewhere.[242] The festivals observed by
+_gentes_ are little known and appear to have become obsolete at an early
+date; the family festivals, on the other hand, flourished throughout
+antiquity. All important epochs in the life of a Roman housefather and
+his children—birth, naming, assumption of the _toga virilis_, marriage,
+and death—were kept as ferial days. The _feriæ denicales_ are especially
+noteworthy, for they show that the Romans shared the superstitious
+notions of many primitive peoples concerning the noxious influence of
+death. These ceremonies, which took place a few days after the funeral,
+were for the purpose of purifying the house and its inmates from the
+death contagion.[243] Abstinence from labour formed a special feature of
+all family festivals: they were rest days for both man and beast. As that
+model economist, Cato the Elder, remarked, “For mules, horses, and asses
+there are no other holidays than those of the family.”[244] However, we
+must probably include, as an exception to Cato’s statement, the festival
+of the Paganalia, or _feriæ sementivæ_, which came in January after the
+seed had been sown. During this time the plough rested by command of the
+gods, and not the farmer only, but also his slaves and animal servants,
+enjoyed holiday idleness. The festival had a distinctly prophylactic
+character, being marked by prayers, offerings, and other rites designed
+to ward off evil influences from the crops.[245] The Paganalia, as its
+name indicates, was an old village rite which survived into historic
+times and became incorporated in the public _feriæ_ of the Roman city.
+But before turning to this division of our subject it may be pointed
+out that among the private _feriæ_ were also included those which were
+observed by individuals only, as a means of removing the taint of some
+impurity which rested upon them. A man who had pronounced accidentally
+the names of certain mysterious divinities was expected to celebrate
+a private festival as a means of expiation (_ferias observabat_). The
+Flaminica, or wife of the Flamen Dialis, who with her husband was subject
+to many restrictions, became tabooed—_feriata_—if she heard thunder, and
+might not engage in her religious duties until she had performed an act
+of lustration (_donec placasset deos_).[246]
+
+The public _feriæ_ were also occasions for abstinence, purification, and
+propitiation. On the calendars they are marked _nefasti_, indicating
+that at such times all political and judicial business must be suspended.
+In the later period of the Roman Republic unscrupulous consuls sometimes
+put this regulation to a base use by ordering special _feriæ_ for all
+comitial days, so as to stave off legislation by their rivals.[247]
+The gods, on ferial days, demanded the service of men by visits to the
+temples and by prayers and sacrifices. Hence the _feriæ_ formed public
+holidays, when even slaves enjoyed a cessation of toil. “Let contentions
+of every kind cease on the sacred festivals, and let servants enjoy
+them with a remission of labour; for this purpose they were appointed
+at certain seasons.”[248] These words of Cicero reflect, however, not
+the original purpose of the _feriæ_ but only the interpretation put upon
+them by a rationalistic thinker in a sophisticated age. We may assume
+with confidence that the ferial days were not established as a boon to
+the labourer. The regulations enforced on the _feriæ_ indicate how, in
+Roman belief, it was essential that their holiness should not be polluted
+by unseemly activity. The _rex sacrorum_ and _flamines_, whose lives
+were passed in an odour of sanctity, were not allowed even to see any
+work being done during the celebration of _feriæ_; hence, when these
+officials went out, heralds preceded them to enjoin the people from
+working in their presence. An accidental neglect of such admonitions
+was punished with a fine and atonement was made by the sacrifice of a
+pig. An intentional disobedience constituted a crime beyond the power of
+atonement.[249]
+
+In the later centuries of the republic, with the decay of
+supernaturalism, questions began to be raised as to what kinds of work
+might legitimately be done on the public _feriæ_. The pontiff Umbro
+declared that it was no violation of them for a person to do any work
+which had reference to the gods, or the offering of sacrifices—_ad deos
+pertinens sacrorumve causa_.[250] All labour was likewise allowable which
+was necessary to supply the urgent wants of life. The pontiff Scævola
+held that any work might be done, if suffering and injury were caused
+by its neglect or delay—_licet quod prætermissum noceret_. If a house
+threatened to tumble down on a ferial day, the inhabitants might take
+the requisite measures to repair it at this time. And should a man’s oxe
+fall into a pit, he might employ workmen to lift it out without polluting
+the _feriæ_.[251] Cato thought that on holidays a farmer might repair
+ditches, pave the public roads, and make everything neat and clean about
+his premises.[252] Vergil, writing when this rationalistic movement had
+culminated, asserts that “even on holy days some work is permitted by
+the laws of God and man. The strictest worshipper has never scrupled
+to drain the fields, plant a hedge to protect a crop, set snares for
+birds, fire the brambles, or wash his bleating sheep for health’s sake in
+the stream.”[253] Such interpretations indicate that in late classical
+antiquity the burdens of the old tabooed days were being gradually
+lifted, and their observance adjusted to the social and economic needs of
+a progressive community.
+
+Corresponding to the private _feriæ_ observed by individuals on special
+occasions were those public holidays which had to be kept by the
+community at large, in consequence of some unusual and terrifying event.
+Certain natural phenomena resulted in the cessation of all activity
+by the people and the institution of extraordinary festivals (_feriæ
+imperativæ_). These were decreed by the magistrates, acting on the
+advice of the priests and with the consent of the Senate. Festivals
+of this sort were anonymous; they were dedicated neither to god nor
+goddess—_sive deo sive deæ_—for the divine author of the portent was
+obviously unknown. Numerous instances of the celebration of extraordinary
+_feriæ_ are noticed by classical historians, especially by Livy. During
+the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the third of Rome’s legendary kings,
+a rain of stones on the Alban Mount led to the institution of a nine
+days’ festival. Shortly after the establishment of the republic an
+aurora borealis so terrified the people that they kept a three days’
+festival. About half a century after the sack of Rome by the Gauls
+a rain of stones, accompanied by an obscuration of the sun, made it
+necessary for the Senate to appoint a dictator whose special business
+it was to appease the supernatural powers by appointing holidays and
+performing ceremonies. When Hannibal was in Italy, threatening the
+life of the Roman commonwealth, Heaven seemed to multiply portents,
+and Livy particularly mentions two occasions when a shower of stones
+provoked compulsory holidays for the usual period (_novemdiales feriæ_).
+Earthquakes always aroused superstitious fears and made it necessary
+to celebrate propitiatory _feriæ_. In the year 193 B.C. the frequent
+earthquakes led to the institution of so many festivals that all public
+business was blocked; the Senate could not meet and the consuls were
+constantly employed in rites of propitiation. Under these circumstances,
+so Livy tells us, the people grew weary, not only of the earthquakes but
+also of the _feriæ_ appointed to expiate them, and an edict was passed
+that, whenever _feriæ_ were ordered to be observed on a certain day, in
+consequence of an earthquake, no fresh disturbance of the sort was to
+be reported on that same day. Only a year after the publication of this
+amusing edict the Romans were terrified by earthquake shocks which lasted
+for thirty-eight days, a period which was marked by a total cessation of
+business. And more than two hundred years later the emperor Claudius,
+when an earthquake happened at Rome, never failed to appoint holidays for
+sacred rites. Similar ceremonies, _pro valetudine populi_, were sometimes
+performed to drive away a devastating pestilence.[254]
+
+To the ancient Romans the celebration of ferial days thus provided an
+appropriate and effectual method of meeting a crisis. Like the tabooed
+days observed in Polynesia, Indonesia, and southeastern Asia at the
+present time, the _feriæ_ were occasions for the propitiation of
+supernatural and hostile powers. As such they must have been, originally,
+periods of gloom and not of joy. That subsequently, when superstition
+had in some measure relaxed its grip, they became festive occasions,
+celebrated so luxuriously that both Sulla and Augustus felt themselves
+obliged to promulgate laws restricting expenditures in connection with
+them,[255] may be taken as only another instance of man’s ineradicable
+tendency to convert his fast days into feast days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MARKET DAYS
+
+
+Rest days, more or less regular in occurrence and following at short
+intervals after periods of continuous labour, are frequently observed
+by primitive agriculturists. Sabbaths of this sort seem to be unknown
+among migratory hunting and fishing peoples or among nomadic pastoral
+tribes.[256] A wandering hunter requires no regular day of rest, since
+his life passes in alternations of continuous labour, while following the
+chase, and of almost uninterrupted idleness, after a successful hunt.
+For the shepherd there can be no relaxation of the diurnal duties, for
+every morning the cattle must be driven abroad to pasture, they must be
+watched and watered, and at night they must be milked. And, as Rudolf von
+Ihering has suggested, the shepherd, compared with the farmer, scarcely
+needs a regular rest day; his occupation causes him so little continuous
+exertion that he can pursue it all the year round without any injury to
+his health. A farmer, however, is benefited by a period of rest recurring
+more or less regularly, and, though agricultural pursuits are dependent
+on the seasons and weather, he is usually able to postpone his work for
+a brief period without serious loss. It might be argued, therefore, that
+the change from pastoral to agricultural life would itself be sufficient
+to call into existence the institution of a periodic rest day.[257] The
+evidence to be submitted suggests, however, that the connection of the
+rest day with the farmer’s pursuits is secondary, rather than direct,
+and is due to the obvious fact that the Sabbath institution implies a
+settled life, a more or less developed form of social organization and
+government, and something approaching a calendar system.
+
+The greater number of periodic rest days observed by agricultural peoples
+in the lower stages of culture are associated with the institution of
+the market.[258] Days on which markets regularly take place are not
+infrequently characterized by sabbatarian regulations. It is necessary,
+therefore, to present in some detail the evidence for market weeks and
+market days in various parts of the world.[259]
+
+Some Australian tribes have established trade centres, where there are
+periodical meetings for the purpose of exchanging the products and
+manufactures of neighbouring communities. More or less bartering occurs
+also in connection with great tribal convocations, especially those for
+the initiation ceremonies.[260] Necessarily, such gatherings take place
+at infrequent intervals. The beginnings of regular markets may, however,
+be traced in certain parts of New Guinea and among some of the Melanesian
+Islands. The natives of the Mekeo District of British New Guinea are
+said to hold markets, every fifth day at Mawaia and Mohu (on the banks
+of the Angabunga River), and at other intervals elsewhere. Women from
+several villages will assemble at some appointed place, usually on the
+boundary between two tribes, and there will exchange their products for
+commodities from other localities. The bartering lies entirely in the
+hands of the women, who, however, are accompanied by a few armed men
+acting as a guard.[261] The Kerepunu of Hood Peninsula, to the east of
+Port Moresby, are described by a missionary who knew them well as most
+industrious farmers: every morning men, women, and children go to work
+in the fields and return only at nightfall. “They have a rule, to which
+they strictly adhere all the year round, of working for two days and
+resting the third.”[262] The Kerepunu rest day may have originated in a
+practice, now lapsed, of holding a market every third day, since there
+is evidence for the former existence of markets in the neighbourhood of
+Port Moresby.[263] The natives of Patipi and Roembatti, on the MacCluer
+Gulf in the extreme western part of Dutch New Guinea, have markets,
+which as a rule recur every fifth day.[264] In the Gazelle Peninsula,
+Bismarck Archipelago, markets at which the women buy and sell take place
+every third day.[265] In New Caledonia, where each tribe is divided into
+sea-folk and bush-folk, the former being cocoa-tree planters and fishers,
+the latter being yam-growers, there is said to be a lively market
+conducted each week by the women. “The ladies [_sic_] of each section of
+the tribe sit down in rows with their produce before them, and barter is
+transacted in dances, with a good deal of manœuvring.”[266] In some parts
+of old Polynesia markets were held at stated periods, but, unfortunately,
+no record seems to have been made of the time intervals in popular
+use.[267]
+
+Markets take place in Celebes,[268] Sumatra, and Java, usually every
+fifth day, but sometimes at shorter intervals. Among the Batta of
+Sumatra a market occurs every third, fourth, or fifth day, according
+to a regular succession and in a designated place, until the round of
+participating villages has been made. At Batta markets all hostilities
+are suspended, and it is sometimes required that every man who carries a
+musket in the market place shall put a green bough in the muzzle, as a
+token of his peaceful intentions.[269] The Javanese _pasar_, or market
+week, consisted of five days—_lege_ (or _manis_), _pahing_ (or _pa_),
+_pon_, _wage_, and _kaliwon_. The principal use of the Javanese week was
+to determine the markets or fairs held in the important towns.[270]
+
+The _pasar_ spread from Java to the island of Bali, where it is employed
+in combination with the week of seven days.[271] In the Malay Peninsula,
+side by side with the ordinary seven-day week, there is a popular cycle
+of five days used for the determination of lucky and unlucky days. The
+names of the days are those of Hindu divinities, but the cycle itself is
+probably of Javanese origin.[272]
+
+Markets recurring every fifth day are found among the Indo-Chinese, as in
+Tonkin[273] and the various Lao states of northern Siam.[274] Among the
+Shan all work ceases on market days, except what is necessarily involved
+in buying and selling. Every native tries to be in his own village when
+the market takes place there, not only to trade but also to exchange
+news and gossip. The centre of the village becomes a forum, where every
+subject is fully discussed.[275] “The Shan is a born trader, and the
+great feature of life in this country is the bazaar, which is held on
+every fifth day at all the chief villages of the states.”[276] Another
+traveller tells us that on the first three of the five days constituting
+the Shan market week small bazaars are held in different parts of the
+country, but no trading takes place anywhere on the fourth day.[277]
+The Khasi of Assam have a great market every eighth day, from which
+circumstance they have developed a week of eight days. “The reason of
+the eight-day week is because the markets are usually held every eighth
+day. The names of the days of the week are not those of planets, but of
+places where the principal markets are held, or used to be held, in the
+Khasi and Jaintia hills.”[278] It may be regarded as certain that this
+eight-day period arose from a doubling of an earlier four-day cycle, as
+has been the case among certain African peoples. Even now in the Wár
+country, lying to the south of the Khasi and Jaintia District, markets
+are usually held every fourth day.[279]
+
+Throughout the central parts of Africa, from the British and German
+possessions in the east to those of the Portuguese and French in the
+west, there are numerous market places where neighbouring communities
+meet regularly to exchange their productions. Usually every fourth day
+is a market day, observed with the cessation of ordinary occupations, and
+by the Wanika of British East Africa, according to missionary testimony,
+with feasting and carousing.[280] In the same part of British East Africa
+the Wagiriama possess a week of four days, each with its name.[281] Among
+the Akikuyu, who employ thirty-day months beginning with new moon, there
+is a week of four days, the latter being indicated by the names of the
+different markets held on them. Each market is held on the fourth day
+of the cycle, and no two markets in the same neighbourhood occur on the
+same day.[282] The Akikuyu market places in populous districts are often
+not more than seven miles apart. The site chosen for a market is usually
+a hill-top, sufficiently open and accessible to accommodate the natives
+who may assemble there to the number of four or five thousand. All in
+all the market forms a very important feature of Akikuyu society.[283]
+The Wachaga of German East Africa, who dwell on the southern slopes of
+mighty Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, hold a daily market,
+so ordered as to recur every third day in one of three neighbouring
+settlements. The days of this three-day week are separately named,
+and hence the Wachaga always know where the market is to be held.
+The markets, which are said to be very ancient, are visited only by
+women.[284] The English missionary, David Livingstone, has described the
+markets held by the Manyema, who occupy part of the territory between
+Lake Tanganyika and the Congo. As many as three thousand people, chiefly
+women, may sometimes be seen in the _chitoka_, or market place. The
+market is held to-day in one locality, to-morrow in another, and so on
+till the cycle of four days is completed.[285] Among the natives on the
+lower Lomami River, near the equator, markets are described as recurring
+every third day,[286] and among the Bakuba (Bushongo), who occupy the
+valley of the Sankuru River, every fifth day.[287] The Baluba, whose
+territory lies between the Sankuru and Kasai rivers, hold important
+markets. A German explorer who was present at one of them described the
+market place as neutral ground, where even members of hostile tribes
+might appear without danger. The chief, in whose honour this primitive
+fair was held, kept peace and order, assisted by half a dozen stalwart
+guards carrying broad axes on their shoulders. Whenever any dispute
+arose, these policemen were immediately on the scene of action.[288]
+The four-day market week is found among various tribes, such as the
+Bayaka,[289] Bambala,[290] and Bahuana,[291] occupying the region between
+the Loange and Kwango rivers, tributaries of the Kasai.
+
+The market week (_lumingu_[292]), four days in length, appears to be
+generally diffused among the peoples on both banks of the lower Congo.
+A missionary, long resident in this part of Africa, tells us that here
+the week consists of four days, named _nkandu_, _konzo_, _nkenge_, and
+_nsona_ in the cataract region. The markets are designated after the
+days of the week and the towns near which they are held. For instance,
+the Manyama market is known as _nsona a Manyama_, because it is held on
+_nsona_ day. The great trade markets, however, usually occur every eighth
+day, for the convenience of traders and to insure a good attendance.
+At the smaller, local markets, held every fourth day, exchanges are
+limited to goats, fowls, and foodstuffs. Every one wants to increase
+the attendance at these local markets; hence it may be declared a penal
+offence for a woman to go to her farm on the market day. “In some parts
+another day of the short week is declared to be an unlucky day for
+farming operations. This is no lingering trace of the idea of a Sabbath,
+for the day fixed is most arbitrary, two adjacent villages avoiding
+different days, while in others the women will work any day.”[293]
+An early explorer, referring to the custom of observing _nsona_ as a
+rest day, declares that “on this day they refrain from working in the
+plantations, under the superstitious notion that the crop would fail;
+they, however, perform any other kind of work.”[294] In Loango, where
+the natives have a month of twenty-eight days reckoned from new moon,
+seven weeks are counted to the month. The four weekdays are called,
+respectively, _nsona_, _nduka_, _ntono_, and _nsilu_, the first being
+regarded as a day of rest.[295] Another writer describes _sona_ (_nsona_)
+as the men’s day of rest, but the women’s market day, when the latter
+buy and sell in the market. At this time it is regarded as wrong for
+husbands to have intercourse with their wives. On another day, _ntona_
+(_ntono_), the women may not plant, and burials take place.[296] With
+these accounts it is interesting to compare the statement of an old
+writer, according to whom the Loango negroes “never work above three
+days in succession; the fourth is for them a general rest day, during
+which they are not allowed to engage in tillage. The men, who repose
+habitually, work still less on that day. They walk, sport, and go to
+market. The missionaries have been unable to procure from the negroes any
+explanation of this period of four days, which forms their week.”[297]
+
+The market is a well-developed institution among the semi-civilized
+negroes about the Gulf of Guinea. In this part of Africa the sabbatarian
+character of the market day is specially pronounced. Markets every third,
+fifth, eighth, or tenth day have been noticed in the interior districts
+of Kamerun. Market days are observed with abstinence from work of every
+sort, including farm labour; indeed, says an observer, they may be
+considered the Sundays of the native calendar.[298] In Old Calabar the
+week consists of eight days. The weekdays are named from peculiar rites
+of the _egbo_ secret society performed thereon, or from the markets which
+occur on them. That the week here originally contained four days only
+is obvious from the circumstance that the names applied to the second
+group of four days are the same as those which the four days of the first
+group receive, except for being preceded in each case by the adjective
+“little.”[299] The Ibo and other tribes of the Niger Delta (Southern
+Nigeria) observe _eke_, the first day of the four-day week, as the
+appropriate time for abstaining from toilsome labour and for marketing.
+Natives are forbidden to climb a cocoanut tree on _eke_.[300] Among the
+Asaba people, a branch of the powerful Ibo tribe, there seems not to be
+any communal regulation respecting the observance of _eke_: “the days for
+rest, for public market, and for work vary with the individual according
+to the particular governing _juju_ [fetish] as determined by the medicine
+man.”[301] Among the Edo, or Bini, of Southern Nigeria the week is
+everywhere a recognized period of time. It is, properly speaking, four
+days in length, this being the interval between the two markets in any
+given locality. Occasionally, as in the Ida District, markets are found
+every eighth day, “but the names applied to the intervening days clearly
+show that a four-day week was the primary one.” One of the four days is
+commonly known as the rest day, when men often stay at home—though farm
+work is not absolutely forbidden—and when women go to the market.[302]
+
+The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, supplemented
+by later accounts, furnish a considerable amount of information regarding
+the rest days observed by the Yoruba-speaking and Ewe-speaking peoples
+of the Slave Coast and by the Tshi-speaking and Ga-speaking peoples of
+the Gold Coast. Some of these African Sabbaths are kept only by families
+or by the inhabitants of a single locality. Among the Tshi, for example,
+on the day sacred to the tutelary deity of a family all its members wear
+white or light-coloured clothes, mark themselves with white clay, and
+abstain from work. The day sacred to the tutelary deity of a town is
+celebrated in the same manner.[303]
+
+In this part of west Africa particular days of the week are assigned to
+the gods worshipped by different classes of the community. The Yoruba
+keep the first day of the week as a general Sabbath, but each of the
+remaining days is a period of rest only for the followers of the god to
+which it is dedicated.[304] For the adherents of a god to violate the day
+sacred to him is a serious offence, punishable with a fine, and in former
+times, with death. The notion prevails that, if the honour of the god is
+not vindicated by his followers, all will suffer for the neglect. “The
+Sabbath-breaker is, in fact, killed by the other worshippers of the god
+from motives of self-protection.”[305] While the first day of the Tshi
+week is a general Sabbath, _bna-da_, the second day, is the fishermen’s
+holiday. Any fisherman who ventures forth on this day is fined and his
+catch thrown into the sea. In former times he would have been put to
+death.[306] The fifth day, _iffi-da_, of the Tshi week is the regular
+rest day for farmers.[307] Similarly, among the Ewe every tribal deity,
+with one exception, has a sacred day, observed by his followers to the
+accompaniment of much eating, drinking, and dancing.[308]
+
+All these west African peoples divide the month into weeks and keep
+one weekday as a general Sabbath. Among the Yoruba, whose week is said
+to consist of five days,[309] the first day (_ako-ojo_) “is considered
+unlucky, and no business of importance is ever undertaken on it. On this
+day all the temples are swept out, and water, for the use of the gods,
+is brought in procession.”[310] The Ewe of Dahomey are said to observe
+every fourth day as a holiday, “not kept holy, but devoted to the will of
+the working classes; in short, a sort of remuneration to the slave for
+the three days’ labour.”[311] Weeks of four, five, and six days, usually
+ending in a general market day which is also a rest day, have been
+observed in various parts of Togo.[312]
+
+The week of seven days is not unknown to the Guinea negroes. Its presence
+in the hinterland of Togo is clearly due to the influence of Islam; in
+fact, the market day here recurs on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.[313]
+Some of the Ewe peoples nearer the Slave Coast also use a seven-day
+cycle, which appears to have been borrowed by them from their neighbours,
+the Tshi tribes of the Gold Coast.[314] The Tshi keep _adjwo-da_, the
+first day of their seven-day week, as a general Sabbath.[315] The Ga of
+the Gold Coast, who also have the seven-day week, observe the first day
+as a communal Sabbath. Its name, _dsu_, means “purification,” a term
+which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon.[316]
+
+Although market weeks of varying length have been reported among some
+of the other Sudanese negroes south of the Niger,[317] it is clear that
+the Mohammedan advance in this region has brought with it the week of
+seven days and the custom of holding a market every seventh day.[318]
+Similarly, in other parts of Africa, as on the lower Congo, the European
+week of seven days has taken the place of the shorter native cycles,
+with the result that, where earlier the market came every fourth day, at
+present it recurs every seventh day.[319] These facts make it practically
+certain that the seven-day week, found among the Ewe, Tshi, and Ga, was
+originally taken over from Islam. Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, indeed,
+regarded it as a purely African institution,[320] but he himself pointed
+out that Mohammedan states were formed to the north of the forest country
+of the Gold Coast as early as the eleventh century A.D., and that the
+period since then has been long enough to allow the new mode of reckoning
+to become known throughout the entire country. The Tshi, who seem to have
+moved from the Sudan interior to the coast districts at no very remote
+period, doubtless took with them their septenary mode of reckoning,
+which, as we have seen, they communicated to the Ewe and the Ga.
+
+The market, with its accompaniments, the market week and the market day,
+has thus been shown to prevail throughout equatorial Africa, on the
+Guinea coast, and in the basin of the Niger and the Nile.[321] The wide
+diffusion of this institution is doubtless in large measure the outcome
+of borrowing from tribe to tribe. A market, however, tends naturally to
+come into existence whenever neighbouring peoples have goods to exchange
+and the willingness to exchange them. The market place is originally in
+some neutral district on the tribal borders, where all hostilities must
+cease. In process of time the increasing friendliness between communities
+makes it possible for the market to be held in the different settlements
+according to a definite and well-known sequence. With the regular market
+is inseparably connected the market week, the length of which varies from
+three to ten days. The shorter intervals of three, four, and five days
+reflect the simple economy of primitive life, since the market must recur
+with sufficient frequency to permit neighbouring communities, who keep on
+hand no large stocks of food and other necessaries, to obtain them from
+one another. The longer cycles of six, eight, and ten days, much less
+common, apparently arise by doubling the earlier period, whenever it
+is desired to hold a great market for the produce of a wide area. That
+the recurrence of the market determines the length of the week is made
+obvious by the practice of naming the several weekdays from the markets
+that take place on them.[322] Thus there comes into existence a definite
+and recognized cycle of time, shorter than the lunar month and in origin
+unconnected with it, a true periodic week, running continuously from
+month to month and from year to year.
+
+A market day is necessarily more or less of a rest day. Those who attend
+a market must abandon for the time being their usual occupations. It is
+also a holiday, affording opportunities for social intercourse, sports,
+and amusements of all sorts. Such seems to be the character of most of
+the market days found in southeastern Asia and the adjacent islands, as
+well as in some parts of Africa. On the lower Congo, however, the market
+day sometimes bears an unlucky character, and a distinct tendency exists
+to attach various restrictions to it. In the Guinea region the market
+day often, though not always, coincides with the general day of rest
+observed by an entire community. As such it may be consecrated to a god.
+The same practice, we have seen, prevails in respect to the holy days of
+individuals, families, towns, and particular classes of the community.
+This extensive development of sabbatarian regulations appears to be
+peculiar to west Africa.
+
+The market week and the market day, though apparently unknown to the
+ruder tribes of America, formed a feature of those more advanced
+civilizations which were developed in the valleys of Mexico and Central
+America, and on the lofty tablelands of Colombia and Peru. Each important
+pueblo of Mexico held a market (_tianguiztli_) every fifth day, it being
+provided that neighbouring pueblos should observe different days, in
+order to secure a regular sequence of markets. All adults were obliged
+by law to resort to the _tianguiztli_, and severe penalties were imposed
+on those who exchanged commodities anywhere but at the appointed place
+and at the appointed time. The market days of old Mexico thus appear as
+compulsory holidays, when the people relinquished their usual occupations
+and assembled in great numbers, not only to buy and sell, but also,
+as we are told, to engage in games and festivities.[323] The five-day
+market week also existed in various parts of Central America.[324] In the
+Colombian Andes, among the Muysca (Chibcha) of Bogota, who had attained
+a degree of civilization far in advance of that reached by the other
+aborigines of Colombia, regular markets took place, apparently every
+third day.[325] If the Muysca week consisted only of three days, that of
+the Peruvians extended to ten days, ending in a holiday which was also
+a market day. The institution was attributed to the Apu-Ccapac-Ynca,
+whose beneficent activities gained for him the appellation of Pachacutec,
+“Reformer of the World.” To an old chronicler, himself of Ynca blood,
+this Peruvian Sabbath appeared to be devised solely for utilitarian
+ends. “In order that labour might not be so continuous as to become
+oppressive, the Ynca ordained that there should be three holidays every
+month, in which the people should divert themselves with various games.
+He also commanded that there should be three fairs every month, when the
+labourers in the field should come to market and hear anything that the
+Ynca or his council might have ordained. They called these assemblies
+_catu_, and they took place on the holidays.”[326] Considering how
+frequently eight and ten-day weeks have arisen by doubling periods of
+four and five days, respectively, it seems not unlikely that the Peruvian
+decade grew out of an earlier market week of five days similar to the
+Mexican institution.
+
+Another important instance of the market week and the market day in
+archaic civilizations is that of the Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_.[327]
+The nundinal cycle, eight days in length, began (or closed) with a
+day when the peasants came to Rome for purposes of trade. The nundinal
+day, however, was more than a market day. At this time the ordinary
+occupations were interrupted; school-children enjoyed a holiday; and
+sumptuous banquets celebrated the festive occasion.
+
+The origin and early development of the _nundinæ_ are veiled in
+obscurity. The institution enjoyed a high antiquity, tradition ascribing
+it now to Romulus, now to Servius Tullius, and now to the first
+consuls.[328] In historic times the _nundinæ_ present themselves as the
+market days and holidays of a laborious peasantry; it may be questioned,
+indeed, whether they were ever anything else. It seems probable that,
+at least from the middle of the fifth century B.C., the _nundinæ_ could
+be used for the settlement of judicial business, as is indicated by a
+passage in the Twelve Tables referring to them.[329] Furthermore, there
+is reason to believe that, until the passage of the Hortensian law in
+287 B.C., the nundinal days were available for meetings of the public
+assemblies. This unfortunate piece of legislation effectually debarred
+the rural voters from participation in law-making on the very occasions
+when the largest number of them would naturally be in the capital
+city.[330] The classical writers were uncertain whether the _nundinæ_
+should properly be included among the ferial days, that is, among the
+days which belonged to gods and not to men.[331] In Varro’s time the
+pontiffs held that the _nundinæ_ were not _feriatæ_, but many writers,
+cited by Macrobius, maintained the contrary opinion. The _nundinæ_
+certainly never became public festivals in the technical sense, though
+they were dedicated to Jupiter, to whom the Flaminica Dialis sacrificed
+a bull on their recurrence.[332] In this consecration to a deity the
+_nundinæ_ further resembled some of the west African market days.
+
+The Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_ have much historic interest. The
+eight-day cycle, as a periodic week unconnected with the lunar month,
+presented a close parallel to the Jewish week of seven days. Further
+parallels existed in the absence of names for the weekdays, Roman
+and Jewish, and in the special observance of one day of each week by
+abstention from the customary occupations. It is scarcely surprising to
+find, therefore, that the Roman _nundinæ_, together with the _feriæ_,
+contributed to the development of the Christian Sunday. The earliest
+Sunday law is the brief edict of Constantine (321 A.D.), enacting that
+magistrates, city people, and artisans were to rest “on the venerable
+day of the Sun.”[333] This legislation by Constantine probably bore no
+relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor,
+in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the Sun,
+the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire,
+to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar. Much significance must
+be attached to that part of Constantine’s edict permitting agricultural
+labour on Sunday, “since it frequently happens that the sowing of grain
+and planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other
+day.” In this particular the emperor was following the long-accepted
+rule as to the observance of the _feriæ_ in country districts.[334]
+Another regulation of Constantine’s, expressly appointing markets to be
+held on Sunday, doubtless represents an effort to assimilate the old
+Roman nundinal day to the new weekly Sunday.[335] With the final triumph
+of Christianity over paganism the old _feriæ_ and the _nundinæ_ were
+abolished, Sunday, with the other Christian festivals, being substituted
+in their place.[336]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS
+
+
+There is good reason for believing that among many primitive peoples the
+moon, rather than the sun, the planets, or any of the constellations,
+first excited the imagination and aroused feelings of superstitious awe
+or of religious veneration. The worship of the moon is widespread; and in
+various mythologies that luminary, often conceived as masculine, plays
+the most important part among the heavenly bodies.[337] “That the moon
+has certain effects on moist substances, that they are apparently subject
+to her influences, that, for instance, increase and decrease in ebb and
+flow develop periodically and parallel with the moon’s phases, all this
+is well known to the inhabitants of seashores and seafaring people.
+Likewise physicians are well aware that she affects the _humores_ of sick
+people, and that the fever-days revolve parallel with the moon’s course.
+Physical scholars know that the life of animals and plants depends upon
+the moon, and experimentalists know that she influences marrow and brain,
+eggs and the sediments of wine in casks and jugs, that she excites the
+minds of people who sleep in full moonlight, and that she affects
+(?) linen clothes which are exposed to it. Peasants know how the moon
+acts upon fields of cucumbers, melons, cotton, etc., and even make the
+times for the various kinds of sowing, planting, and grafting, and for
+the covering of the cattle depend upon the course of the moon. Lastly,
+astronomers know that meteorologic occurrences depend upon the various
+phases through which the moon passes in her revolutions.”[338] This
+succinct statement, by a learned Mohammedan of the eleventh century, of
+the reasons which led early philosophers to attach a special significance
+to the moon, may well serve as a text for elucidation and illustration.
+
+It is a widespread and ancient belief, found among peoples in all stages
+of culture, that the lunar rays are deleterious, especially to little
+children. Some Brazilian Indians, for instance, believe that the moon
+makes babies ill; hence mothers, immediately after delivery, will hide
+themselves and their infants in the thickest part of the forest, in
+order to prevent the moonlight from falling on them.[339] Yao boys,
+when undergoing initiation into manhood, are told to avoid not only a
+menstruating woman but also the sight of the new moon, since both are
+dangerous.[340] Greek nurses took special pains never to show their
+charges to the moon.[341] In modern Germany it is an injunction of
+peasant folklore never to point out the moon to young children.[342]
+
+Moonshine may also be deemed injurious to adults. Certain Queensland
+aborigines will not stare long at the moon, for by doing so a heavy rain
+is likely to result.[343] The Bushmen of South Africa avoid looking at
+the moon.[344] The Chukchi of northeastern Siberia believe that a man who
+looks too long at the moon may be bereft of his wits, or may be carried
+away altogether. The moon, think the Chukchi, has a lasso with which he
+catches the unlucky starer.[345] When an English traveller in Arabia
+was noticed gazing at the radiant desert moon, the Bedouin said, “Look
+not so fixedly on him; it is not wholesome.”[346] The same idea seems
+to have found expression in one of the most beautiful of the _Psalms_:
+“The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.”[347] Two
+New Testament passages illustrate the belief that epilepsy may be caused
+by the lunar rays.[348] Similarly, the Babylonians believed that Sin,
+the moon-god, could provoke leprosy, dropsy, and, above all, fever,
+which, like the lunar phases, has its periods of growth, culmination,
+and decline.[349] Plutarch refers to the assumed fact that those who
+sleep abroad under the beams of the moon are not easily wakened, but
+seem stupid and senseless.[350] This fear of the noxious influences of
+moonshine may be traced from classical times to the present day. French
+peasants consider it dangerous to sleep in the moonlight.[351] German
+peasants subject themselves to a long list of restrictions: no work,
+and especially no spinning, must be done in the moonlight, for the spun
+yarn would not hold, or the spinner would be spinning for her child a
+hangman’s halter or the linen of a shroud; no waggon or tools should be
+left exposed to the moonshine, for they would soon be broken; washed
+clothes should not be hung out to dry in the moonlight, for he who wore
+them would become moonstruck; one who sews by moonlight sews his own
+graveclothes; water from a spring or well in which the moon shines should
+not be drunk, since this would be to absorb the evil influences of the
+moon; one should never look long at the moon, under penalty of getting
+a goitre; the lunar rays should never penetrate into the kitchen, or
+otherwise the maid would break many dishes.[352] So numerous, indeed, are
+these lunar superstitions that throughout Germany Monday, as partaking of
+the qualities of the moon from which it is named, is generally an unlucky
+day.[353] In various parts of the United States the belief prevails that
+it is dangerous to sleep with the moon shining on the face. If fish are
+exposed to moonshine, they will spoil.[354]
+
+Various peoples have noticed that monthly periodicity belongs to women
+and moon alike, and, joining these observations, have supposed that
+the lunar changes cause menstruation, or that the first appearance
+of the menses is the result of defloration induced by the moon. As a
+natural outcome of such beliefs the moon is credited with the power of
+impregnation and is associated with childbirth.[355] Such superstitions
+are widespread. In the native legends of the Euahlayi, a tribe of New
+South Wales, Bahloo, the moon, is a very important personage. He it is
+who creates the girl babies. Euahlayi mothers are very careful not to
+look at the full moon or to let their babies do so, for an attack of
+thrush, an affection common in newly born children, would be the result.
+Bahloo has also a spiteful way of punishing a woman who stares at him by
+sending to her the dreaded twins.[356] In Saibai and Yam, two islands
+in Torres Straits, it is believed that the moon, in the shape of a man,
+embraces a girl when she is full-grown, and that the halo around the moon
+represents her blood. This story is also told on the neighbouring coast
+of British New Guinea.[357] Here, as well as in some parts of Melanesia,
+natives ascribe menstruation to the moon.[358] The Tuhoe, a Maori tribe,
+believe that the moon is the permanent (or true) husband of all women,
+because the latter menstruate when the moon appears. “According to the
+knowledge of our ancestors and elders,” say the Tuhoe, “the marriage of
+man and wife is a matter of no moment, the moon is the real husband.” And
+the women themselves, on seeing the new moon, say, “The _tane_ (husband)
+of all women in the world has appeared.”[359] The Jaluo, a tribe of
+Nilotic stock living in the district of Kavirondo, British East Africa,
+ascribe menstruation to the influence of the new moon and believe that
+women can become pregnant only at this time.[360] The Baganda suppose
+that menstruation is caused by the moon, either when new or waning.[361]
+Similar beliefs are entertained by the negroes of the western Sudan, who
+commonly give to this female function the name of the moon.[362] The
+Greenlanders believe that the moon, conceived as a masculine divinity,
+possesses the power of impregnation; as a consequence young girls are
+afraid to look long at this luminary, “imagining they might get a
+child by the bargain.”[363] The Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco
+associate the moon with marriage. Young girls will address the moon with
+the appeal “Moon, moon, I want to get married.”[364] Indian women in Peru
+are said to have prayed to the moon to give them an easy delivery.[365]
+In old Egyptian belief the moon was supposed to make women fruitful,
+and the waxing moon to develop the germ in the mother’s body.[366] The
+association of human fertility with the moon may perhaps explain why
+Ishtar, the mother-goddess of Babylonian mythology, came to be regarded
+as a daughter of Sin, the moon-god. In this capacity she presided over
+childbirth.[367] The Iranian peoples supposed that the moon contained a
+bull whose semen was another form of _haoma_, the intoxicating decoction
+of the moon-plant.[368] The position of Hera as a goddess of marriage
+and childbirth has been explained by the assumption that she played an
+ancient rôle as a moon-deity. Artemis, with whom Selene, or the divine
+personification of the moon, came to be identified, was regularly
+associated with childbirth. The Roman Juno was connected with the moon
+as Juno-Lucina, it being held that she aided women during confinement.
+Ancient mythologers found it easy to identify the Italian Diana,
+originally a goddess who looked after women in their time of peril,
+with the Greek Artemis, who had the same functions.[369] Modern French
+folklore still contains references to the idea that the moon can cause
+impregnation; in Basse-Bretagne, for example, it is thought that a young
+woman who exposes her person to the lunar rays may conceive and bear a
+child.[370]
+
+The influence of the moon on the tides furnishes another element of
+mystery in the lunar phenomena. So primitive a people as the Andaman
+Islanders habitually refer tidal movements to the action of the moon;
+and the same connection between things lunar and things terrestrial has
+been recognized by other peoples, such as the Hawaiians, the ancient
+Babylonians, and the modern Chinese.[371] That changes in the moon
+are associated with weather changes as cause and effect is an ancient
+superstition not yet obsolete in rural communities.[372]
+
+Comparative studies have shown how very general is the belief that the
+moon exerts great influence on growth, particularly on the growth of
+vegetation, and on all human life and activity.[373] For this opinion
+there appear to have been two principal causes. Observation showed that
+moisture in the air and soil are favourable to organic growth and,
+further, that atmospheric moisture is greater at night than during the
+day. It was reasonable to suppose the moon itself to be the source of
+dew and moisture, especially when it was also noticed that the dew is
+heaviest on cloudless nights. These beliefs were entertained by the
+ancients, who attributed heat to the sun, but moisture to the moon.[374]
+
+Another fallacy has had an even greater part in generating these
+lunar fancies. The apparent growth of the moon in the first half of
+the lunation is associated with the ripening of plants and fruits,
+the increase of animals, and hence with the prosperous issue of human
+undertakings. From this doctrine of lunar sympathy have arisen numerous
+rules for the guidance of shepherds and husbandmen, which had a wide
+prevalence in antiquity and still survive with almost undiminished vigour
+among the superstitious classes of to-day.[375]
+
+The doctrine of lunar sympathy, by a natural extension, may also account
+for the common belief that “the same things which grow with the waxing,
+dwindle with the waning, moon,”[376] and therefore that all business
+done in the latter half of a lunation is doomed to failure. The Toda
+appear to regard the first half of the month as the auspicious time for
+their numerous ceremonies. “I met with no case,” says Dr. Rivers, “in
+which any ceremony was appointed for the period of the full moon or
+for the second half of the moon’s period.”[377] The Andaman Islanders
+abstain from work during the first few evenings of the third quarter
+of the moon.[378] The Buriat are said never to undertake anything of
+importance between the full and the new moon.[379] The Tatars, according
+to the account of an Italian friar who in the thirteenth century made an
+adventurous journey to Mongolia, began any new enterprise “at new moon,
+or when the moon is full.”[380] The Mandingo paid great attention to the
+changes of the moon and thought it “very unlucky to begin a journey or
+any other work of consequence in the last quarter.”[381] Of the Sudanese
+negroes, generally, it is said that they are much influenced in their
+undertakings by the appearance of the new moon. For instance, a journey
+which has been decided upon during the last quarter of the moon is always
+postponed until the new moon. No chief would presume to lead out his
+tribesmen on a war party before the appearance of the crescent.[382]
+The Nandi celebrate their very important circumcision festival, as well
+as all marriage ceremonies, during the waxing moon, but perform their
+mourning rites during the waning moon.[383] The Hova and other tribes
+of Madagascar regard the waning of the moon as “an unfavourable time
+for any important undertaking.”[384] Similar beliefs were entertained
+by the early Germans, who, according to Cæsar, despaired of victory if
+they engaged in battle before the new moon.[385] Tacitus, with fuller
+knowledge, declares that the Germans considered the new moon and the full
+moon as the most auspicious seasons for beginning any enterprise.[386]
+This superstition seems still to linger in some districts of Germany,
+where it is commonly held that any work begun when the moon is on the
+increase is sure to succeed, and that the full moon brings everything to
+perfection; whereas business undertaken during the waning moon is doomed
+to failure.[387] A like belief was that of the Scottish Highlanders, to
+whom the moon in her increase, full growth, and wane was “the emblem of
+a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her
+revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance;
+but the first and the middle they seize with avidity, presaging the
+most auspicious issue to their undertakings.”[388] On the other hand
+the people of Thermià (Kythnos), one of the Cyclades, believe that you
+should never do any work, if you can help it, on the days preceding
+full moon, while for grafting, planting, cutting trees, and bleaching
+clothes those days are best which follow the full moon.[389] And an
+English antiquarian of the seventeenth century declares that, according
+to the rules of astrology, “it is not good to undertake any business of
+importance in the new of the moon; and not better just at the full of the
+moon; but worst of all in an eclipse.”[390]
+
+Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered unfavourable for work,
+and may also be accompanied by fasting and other forms of abstinence.
+During such times of uncanny and terrifying darkness it is thought to
+be wise to avoid every sort of activity, as well as the consumption of
+food which may be tainted with mysterious evil.[391] Among the Wasania,
+a tribe of British East Africa, no cohabitation takes place during an
+eclipse.[392] Lunar and solar eclipses are among the phenomena which
+require a Naga community to declare a _genna_ and give up its ordinary
+occupations.[393] When the Toda know that an eclipse is about to occur,
+they abstain from meat and drink; when it is over, they have a feast and
+eat a special food prepared on all ceremonial occasions.[394] In southern
+India it is a common custom, when an eclipse occurs, for the people to
+retire into their houses and remain behind closed doors. “The time is in
+all respects inauspicious, and no work begun or completed during this
+period can meet with success; indeed, so great is the dread, that no
+one would think of initiating any important work at this time.”[395]
+The natives of northern India are said to consider it a great crime to
+partake of food, drink water, or answer the calls of nature during an
+eclipse.[396] Such a period is considered most unlucky for commencing
+any business of importance. A pregnant woman will do no work during an
+eclipse, as otherwise her child would be deformed. Among high-caste
+Hindus no food which has been in the house during an eclipse of the sun
+or the moon may be eaten. It must be given away, and all earthen vessels
+in use in the house at the time must be broken.[397] The Chinese formerly
+observed lunar eclipses by a general suspension of business.[398] The
+fatal delay which led to the destruction of the Athenian fleet and army
+before Syracuse was the result of a lunar eclipse, as interpreted by the
+soothsayers and the incompetent, superstitious Nicias.[399] Among the
+Jews there were formerly many who abstained from food on the day of an
+eclipse of the moon, a portent which they regarded as evil.[400] This
+belief, as has been noted, prevailed in England at least as late as the
+seventeenth century.[401]
+
+Various peoples have supposed that the moon, during the period of her
+invisibility, descends to the underworld. This conception has played
+a noteworthy part in generating superstitions concerning tabooed and
+unlucky days. The Akamba, a tribe of British East Africa, believe that
+on the day which completes the month no child is born and no domestic
+animal gives birth. One of the Akamba clans is called _mu-mwei_ (_mwei_
+signifying moon), and by the members of this clan no house may be swept
+on the last day of the month.[402] The Akikuyu, a tribe related to the
+Akamba, regard the moon as the sun’s wife, and suppose that when the
+moon comes to maturity the sun fights with her and kills her. While she
+is “dead,” as the natives say, no journeys are undertaken, no sacrifices
+are offered, and no sheep are killed. It is further considered that
+goats and sheep will not bear on the day after the disappearance of the
+moon.[403] The Wagiriama keep as Sabbaths the odd days at the end of
+the month, before the appearance of the new moon.[404] Some tribes of
+equatorial Africa believe that the new moon is especially ill-humoured
+and hungry on the day when she emerges from darkness. “She looks down
+over our country,” the natives declare, “and seeks whom she can devour,
+and we poor black men are very much afraid of her on that account, and we
+hide ourselves from her sight on that night.” People who die between new
+and full moon are said to be those whom the new moon saw at this fateful
+time, in spite of all the precautions they took.[405] The missionary,
+David Livingstone, while sojourning at Lake Nyassa, discovered that the
+natives in this region regarded the _interlunium_ as distinctly unlucky.
+On one occasion his men delayed an expedition till they had seen the new
+moon. We must have the new moon, they said, for a lucky starting.[406]
+The “dark day” of the moon was considered by the Zulu as inauspicious for
+engaging in battle.[407]
+
+A superstitious attitude toward the _interlunium_ appears to be very
+prevalent among the Dravidian peoples of India. The Kanarese of Hyderabad
+and Mysore do not work in the fields on the last day of the month. If
+a child is born at this time, they believe that some one in the family
+will die. If a cow or a buffalo has a calf at such a time, it must be
+sold. On the evening before new moon no one may eat cooked food. The
+new moon is consecrated to the dead.[408] The Saoria of the Rajmahal
+Hills, who regard Sunday as unlucky and do not work in the fields, pay
+visits, or get married on this day, observe much the same restrictions
+during the period of the moon’s invisibility. Marriages will not be
+fruitful if consummated during the dark of the moon, and in general the
+time is associated with bad luck and sickness.[409] The same belief is
+found elsewhere in northern India, sometimes with beneficial results, as
+appears from the following description, which applies to the district of
+Rohtak. “To-day (29th November, 1883), in passing through the Jât and
+Ahîr villages in Rohtak, I noticed that no work was being done at the
+wells or in the fields, and that the peasants, usually so hard at work,
+were idling in the village instead. On inquiring the reason, I was told
+that to-day was the _amâwas_, the last day of the moon, and that on this
+day of the month the bullocks are always given a rest. The men themselves
+do any work that is to be done without using the cattle, but no one yokes
+his bullocks in the plough or at the well, or, if he can help it, in the
+cart. I noticed that some of the peasants were busy making thorn-fences,
+or doing other light work, but no bullocks were at work anywhere, and as
+there is little to be done at this season without their help, the custom
+practically gave the men a rest also, and the unusual idleness gave the
+villages a sort of Sunday look. The bullocks are given this rest once a
+month, on the last day of the moon, and also on the _makar kâ sankrânt_,
+which comes about January, when the sun enters into the sign of Capricorn
+(_makar_), and on the _dîwâlî_ and _gôrdhan_ (the day after the _dîwâlî_)
+in the middle of Kârtik (October). Except on these fifteen days it is
+lawful for a man to yoke his cattle on all other days of the year, but
+these particular days are strictly a Sabbath for the cattle, and no one
+thinks of yoking them on these days. If any one did, it would be a sin
+(_pâp_), and his fellows would at once stop him. There is no such Sabbath
+for man, and it is not thought wrong (_pâp_) for a man to work on any day
+of the year, though, of course, there are many holidays (_têohâr_), on
+which little work is done.”[410]
+
+These superstitions relating to the dark of the moon have not been
+confined to the natives of Africa and the aborigines of India. They meet
+us among peoples of archaic civilization and they survive among the
+peasantry of European lands. To the Babylonians, who paid particular
+attention to all lunar phenomena, the disappearance of the moon at the
+end of the month occasioned much anxiety. The day when the moon could
+no longer be seen in the heavens was called the “day of sorrow” (_ûm
+bubbuli_, literally, the “day of the snatching away”). The absence of
+the moon was reckoned at three days, and during this time prayers were
+recited and solemn expiatory rites were prescribed, primarily for the
+king, who, as the representative of his people, had to take special care
+not to provoke the gods to anger at so critical a season. We still have
+one of the prayers recited by the ruler in his sanctuary and addressed to
+the moon-god Sin. The thirtieth day of the month is here described as the
+god’s “holy day” or “festival.” The prayer concludes with an allusion to
+an eclipse, from which it appears that the Babylonians, knowing neither
+the cause nor nature of such a phenomenon, supposed that, unless the
+gods were pacified during the moon’s temporary obscuration, there would
+follow the more terrifying portent of an eclipse.[411] Modern Arabs
+consider the last day or last three days of the month to be unfavourable
+for any sort of undertaking.[412] By the Athenians these three days were
+called ἀσέλινοι, because on them the moonlight was extinguished. They
+were classed with the other unlucky days (ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι) of popular
+superstition. During the ἀσέλινοι it was necessary to sacrifice to the
+underworld gods in order to avoid their anger.[413] Selene at this time
+was supposed to descend to the underworld and the abode of shades;
+hence the moon came to be associated with Persephone.[414] The Romans do
+not appear to have marked the _interlunium_ or _intermenstruum_ by any
+special observances. European folklore, however, still preserves traces
+of the ancient superstition, as in the Cornish belief that a child, so
+unfortunate as to be born at this time, will never live to attain the age
+of puberty. Hence the saying, “No moon, no man.”[415] Similar beliefs
+would seem to survive in the very common idea that the three days before
+the new moon are especially unlucky and likely to be attended by storms
+and winds.[416]
+
+We may well believe that the different appearances of the moon were
+the first celestial phenomena observed with any degree of continuous
+attention by primitive man. Not only are the phases of the moon marked by
+striking variations in her form and in the amount of light she radiates,
+but from night to night she follows a regular path through the sky,
+changing her elevation above the horizon and appearing to occupy at her
+successive phases different quarters of the heavens. Such phenomena
+present elements of mystery not found in the sun’s prosaic course. A
+survey of the anthropological evidence appears to indicate, as might
+indeed be expected, that of the lunar phases it is particularly the new
+moon which awakens interest and attention. The first appearance of that
+luminary in the western sky after sunset is often hailed with various
+ceremonial observances. The Indians of the Ucayali River in Peru are
+said to greet the appearance of the new moon with great joy. They make
+long speeches to her, accompanied with vehement gesticulations, imploring
+her protection and begging that she invigorate their bodies.[417] Certain
+tribes of southern California, afterwards gathered into the Mission of
+San Juan Capistrano, celebrated the new moon with dances, saying, “As
+the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so we also, having to die, will
+again live.”[418] The Dakota and other Plains Indians, when the moon does
+not shine, “say the moon is dead; and some call the three last days of it
+the naked days. The moon’s first appearance they term its coming to life
+again.” At this time they stretch forth their hands toward the moon and
+repeat joyful expressions.[419] The Creek and Cherokee Indians, according
+to an early writer, “assemble and feast at the appearance of the new
+moon, when they seem to be in great mirth and gladness, but, I believe,
+make no offerings to that planet.”[420] Similar observances have been
+noted in various parts of Africa. An old traveller recites how, at the
+appearance of every new moon, the Congo negroes, “fall on their knees,
+or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, ‘So may I renew my
+life as thou art renewed.’” But if the sky was clouded, they did nothing,
+believing that the moon had lost its virtue.[421] The Mandingo, on the
+first appearance of the new moon, “which they look upon to be newly
+created,” say a short prayer.[422] The Bushmen had their special seasons
+of merry-making, when the dance was never neglected. “Dancing began with
+the new moon, as an expression of joy that the dark nights had ended,
+and was continued at the full moon, that they might avail themselves of
+the delicious coolness after the heat of the day, and the brilliancy of
+the moonlight in this portion of the southern hemisphere.”[423]
+
+It has been suggested that in many cases the ceremonies at new moon have
+a magical aspect. On this theory the first appearance of the luminary,
+with its promise of growth and increase, would be greeted with rites
+intended to renew and strengthen, by means of sympathetic magic, the
+life of man.[424] Though it is true that in process of time ideas of a
+magico-religious character may attach themselves to lunar phenomena, and
+especially to new moon, there seems to be little reason for assuming them
+to be original and primary. Most of the foregoing examples, indeed, may
+be more simply interpreted as a naïve expression of man’s delight at the
+return of the moon to the world, after an absence at once mysterious and
+portentous. Still less necessary is the assumption, so commonly made,
+that all lunar ceremonies are acts of worship addressed to the moon as a
+divinity. Religious festivals appear in the first instance to be fixed
+at new moon or full moon because these are the two most striking periods
+of the lunation and mark, respectively, the beginning and middle of the
+lunar month.
+
+Among many peoples in both the lower and the higher culture the time
+of new moon and full moon, much less commonly of each half moon, forms
+a season of restriction and abstinence. The lunar day is sometimes
+a holy day dedicated to a god, who may be identified with the moon
+itself. Instances of this sort are to be correlated with the general
+course of religious development, involving, as it does, the emergence of
+polytheistic cults and the schematization of the ritual. But under more
+primitive conditions the lunar day is a tabooed day, quite independent
+of any association with a deity. It seems idle to seek a particularistic
+explanation for the taboos observed on such an occasion. We have already
+noticed the sympathetic influence which the waxing and waning of the moon
+is supposed to exert on human activities. Furthermore, we have seen that
+the new moon, rising as it were from the dead, is thought to be pregnant
+with meaning for the life of man. Her very newness is an element of
+interest; her contrasts, in shape, size, and position in the heavens, to
+the old moon further deepen the impression of her significance; and her
+function of inaugurating the month not only gives to her a special place
+in primitive calendar systems but also invests her with the emotional
+importance belonging to the commencement of any new period. These ideas
+of lunar influence are naturally extended to the full moon, which, as
+will be shown, is commonly regarded as marking the division of the lunar
+month into two equal parts, and in some instances to the half moons, as
+indicating the other prominent stages in a lunation. The phases of the
+moon thus come to be considered critical times and to be marked not only
+by religious exercises but also by fasting and cessation of the customary
+occupations.[425]
+
+Lunar taboos, involving abstinence and quiescence, are commonly observed
+in Polynesia and Indonesia.[426] Various African peoples likewise
+entertain pronounced beliefs regarding the unfavourable influence of the
+moon’s changes on human activities. The Zulu welcome the first appearance
+of the new moon with demonstrations of joy, but on the day following they
+abstain from all labour, “thinking if anything is sown on those days they
+can never reap the benefits thereof.”[427] The Bapiri, a tribe of the
+Bechuana stock, stay at home at new moon and do not go out to the fields.
+“They believe that if they should set about their labour at such a
+season, the millet would remain in the ground without sprouting, or that
+the ear would fail to fill, or that it would be destroyed by rust.”[428]
+Of another Bechuana tribe, the Makololo, in the neighbourhood of the
+Leeambye River, Livingstone remarks, “There is no stated day of rest in
+any part of this country except the day after the appearance of the new
+moon, and the people then refrain only from going to their gardens.”[429]
+An earlier writer, referring to the Bechuana, says that when the new moon
+appears, “all must cease from work, and keep what is called in England
+a holiday.”[430] To the north of the Bechuana, in the upper basin of the
+Zambesi, live the Barotse, by whom the new moon is made an occasion for
+great festivities. “It is a general holiday; men of all ranks sing and
+dance, while the women assemble apart and give vent to strident howls of
+their own.”[431] Similarly, among all the people from Nyassaland to Ujiji
+on Lake Tanganyika the first night of the new moon is a public festival,
+sometimes celebrated by a dance in which the men alone participate.[432]
+The Baziba, who dwell to the west and southwest of Lake Victoria Nyanza,
+are said to be one of the few tribes in this part of Africa having “a
+recognized day of rest, independently of the Christians’ Sabbath. The two
+first days of every moon are universal holidays.”[433]
+
+A superstitious observance of the new-moon day is found among some of
+the tribes and peoples occupying British East Africa. The Akamba, whose
+beliefs regarding the _interlunium_ have been already mentioned,[434]
+also consider it very unlucky to move cattle or livestock of any kind
+from one place or another, or even to give presents of any stock,
+during the first four days of the new moon.[435] Well-marked Sabbaths
+are kept by some sections of the Baganda, the great tribe, or rather
+nation, occupying Uganda. At the temple estate of the god Mukasa, the
+most important Baganda deity, there was a week’s rest, _bwerende_, on
+the appearance of each new moon; no special gatherings were held during
+this period, but the people did the minimum of work, even the cutting of
+firewood being forbidden. All preparations for the festival were made
+beforehand, in order that the women should not be obliged to perform any
+labour other than cooking.[436] In Budu, a district of Uganda, there is
+a curious worship of the python, conducted by members of the Heart clan.
+The sacred snake, which bears the title of Selwanga, is kept in a temple
+and receives worship at the new moon. When this appears, the people
+repair to the shrine of the python and make their offerings. No work may
+be done on the estate for seven days.[437] Again, the principal chief of
+the district of Singo, who was shield-bearer to the king of the Baganda,
+“had to observe a taboo each full moon, namely, to abstain from food from
+noon of the day of the full moon until the following morning, and also
+to live apart from his wives during that time. ‘It is full moon, the
+Mukwenda may not eat,’ was a saying among the people.”[438] The Banyoro,
+a Bantu people related to the Baganda, who inhabit the country to the
+northwest of Uganda, performed every full moon a ceremony which has been
+thus described: “In the afternoon all the drums in the place were beaten,
+and everybody shouted, as no one dared keep silent for fear of offending
+the moon. The king posted men at the cross-roads and seized every one who
+passed along. These unfortunate folk were brought in to him and offered
+as a propitiatory sacrifice for the whole country to the evil spirits.
+The hair of the victims was put into cow horns and their blood was poured
+on to it, the horns being then kept by different people as charms against
+sickness and trouble. After this the king appeared swathed in barkcloths,
+taking up his position in his council hall, his subjects coming to do
+obeisance to him. A dead silence prevailed, for no one was allowed to
+even cough in his presence.... As the full moon rose the feasting began,
+and the drinking and dancing continued till dawn. The king’s chief wife
+had to sit by her intoxicated spouse and pinch his arm or bite his
+finger, to prevent sleep; for a man to slumber during full moon brought
+disaster to the household.”[439] New moon, as well as full moon, seems
+to have been observed by the Banyoro, for Speke found the palace of the
+king of Unyoro shut up, because the new moon had been seen for the first
+time on the preceding evening.[440] The same explorer describes a like
+custom found among the Bahima, or Wahuma, of Ankole, a region lying to
+the southwest of Uganda. “On the first appearance of the new moon every
+month, the king shuts himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic
+horns—the horns of wild animals stuffed with charm-powder—for two or
+three days. These may be counted his Sundays or church festivals which he
+dedicates to devotion.”[441]
+
+New-moon and full-moon festivals, accompanied by abstinence from secular
+activities, are thus seen to form a common feature of native life in
+southern and eastern Africa. The custom of keeping them as rest days is
+apparently confined to Bantu peoples, who arose from a mixture of Hamites
+with the true negroes. No sabbatarian regulations are discoverable among
+the Bushmen, representing the aborigines of southern Africa, or among the
+non-Bantu tribes of eastern Africa. It may be argued, therefore, that
+these African Sabbaths are of foreign parentage, being derived remotely
+from Hamitic and Himyaritic (Semitic) immigrants into Africa. The
+argument is strengthened by the fact that lunar festivals may be traced
+to a remote antiquity, both in Egypt and in western Asia. In any case,
+however, they must have been much modified with their transmission from
+tribe to tribe and from century to century.
+
+None of the natives of southern and eastern Africa who observe new moon
+and full moon as seasons of abstinence appear to be familiar with the
+market week and the market day. On the other hand, in central and western
+Africa, where markets are so generally found and where the market day is
+kept as a holiday, lunar festivals accompanied by a cessation of labour
+are very rare.[442] Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, who was much impressed
+with the resemblance of the west-African rest day to the Hebrew Sabbath,
+supposed that both were once lunar festivals, connected with moon-worship
+and celebrated on the first day of the new moon. “This holy day, before
+the invention of weeks, recurred monthly, but after the lunar month
+was divided, it recurred weekly, and was held on the first day of the
+week.”[443] His theory, however plausible at first sight, breaks down
+when we remember that the keeping of moon-days as Sabbaths does not
+necessarily imply worship of the moon as a deity; that full moon, as
+well as new moon, may be observed festively with abstinence from labour;
+and, finally, that the market week did not arise as a subdivision of
+the month, but was in origin quite independent of the lunation. The
+restrictions attending market days have nothing to do with superstitions
+relating to the moon.
+
+Lunar taboos are not unknown in modern India. The natives of northern
+India regard the new moon as an unfavourable time for undertaking
+important business.[444] The Kanarese, whose customs and beliefs relating
+to the last day of the lunar month have already been noticed, do not
+plough their fields at new moon and full moon.[445] The Badaga of the
+Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India think that children born on the day
+of the new moon, the full moon, or any one of the three days immediately
+preceding the full moon, will be unfortunate throughout life.[446] The
+Korava regard the day after new moon as unlucky for starting out from
+home.[447] Similar superstitions are doubtless to be found among other
+Dravidian peoples.
+
+The Aryans of ancient India observed two sacred periods in every month,
+new moon and full moon, with sacrifices to the gods.[448] The simpler
+forms of the rite were gradually extended into an elaborate ritual.
+Every Brahmanical householder was required to perform two half-monthly
+sacrifices for a period of thirty years, after he had set up a home of
+his own. According to some authorities these sacrifices were obligatory
+for the rest of his life. The ceremony usually occupied the greater
+part of two consecutive days. While the first day was to be chiefly
+occupied with preparatory rites and the taking of the vow of abstinence
+(_vrata_) by the sacrificer and his wife, the second day was reserved
+for the performance of the main ceremony.[449] Since it was permitted
+to compress the two days’ rites of the full-moon sacrifice into a
+single day, the conjecture is plausible that originally only one day
+was assigned to the observances of abstinence and sacrifice.[450] The
+ritualistic requirements for this ceremony do not expressly include the
+cessation of labour by the Brahmanical householder and his family. It
+might be argued, therefore, that the new-moon and full-moon observances
+were not originally dictated by a superstitious regard for the lunar
+phases. The fasting on the _upavasatha_ day would then be merely a rite
+preliminary to the sacrifice on the following day; and the association of
+the two ceremonies with new and full moon would mean only that these two
+divisions of a lunar month were selected as convenient and conspicuous
+periods for the performance of religious duties. But the evidence at our
+disposal enables us to attach a deeper significance to the ancient Aryan
+rite.
+
+In the first place it is well known that the _upavasatha_ was a fast
+preparatory to the offering of the “moon plant,” the intoxicating _soma_,
+whose personification and deification are assigned to a date earlier than
+that of the Vedas themselves. A very competent scholar, after pointing
+out that in Vedic literature the moon takes a much higher rank than the
+sun, being regarded as the creator and ruler of the world, has argued
+that everywhere in the _Rig-Veda soma_ and the moon are identified, and
+that the terrestrial plant is merely a symbolic representation of the
+luminary. According to this view the moon-god as Soma forms the centre
+of Vedic religion.[451] The theory, thus unequivocally stated, has not
+won wide acceptance; according to the commoner view Soma as a god is
+ordinarily celebrated in the Vedic hymns only as a personification of
+the beverage; and his identification with the moon is to be explained
+as a secondary mythological formation. Certain instances of such
+identification are met in a few of the latest hymns of the _Rig-Veda_;
+and in the _Atharva-Veda_ Soma several times means the moon. Post-Vedic
+writings regularly refer to Soma as the moon, which, when drunk by the
+gods, begins to wane.[452]
+
+In the second place the two half-monthly sacrifices were characterized
+by restrictions which can best be described as taboos. The Brahmanical
+householder was obliged to abstain from certain kinds of food, especially
+meat, and from sexual intercourse. He might not cut hair, beard, or
+nails. He should sleep, not on a bed, but on the ground. The directions
+for the ceremonies, as given in the _Grihya-sûtra of Gobhila_, further
+require the worshipper not to set out on a journey; if he is away from
+home even at a distant place, to return to his house; not to sell
+goods (though he may buy them from others); and to speak as little as
+possible.[453] It is obvious that the scrupulous observance of all these
+regulations would convert the _upavasatha_ day into a Sabbath, marked,
+not only by fasting, but also by the cessation of most secular activities.
+
+In post-Vedic times the sabbatarian quality of lunar days becomes
+increasingly prominent. In the _Institutes of Vishnu_ the new moon is
+mentioned as a penitential fast day.[454] A variety of lunar penances
+is prescribed in the _Laws of Manu_.[455] The same lawbook sets forth
+that “on the (night of) new moon and the eighth (lunar day), and also on
+the (night of) full moon and the fourteenth (lunar day), let a Brahman
+who has finished his student’s course be always (as) a student, even in
+season,” that is, let him remain chaste.[456] According to the _Vishnu
+Purana_, a relatively late production of Brahmanical thought, there
+are “certain days on which unguents, flesh, and women are unlawful, as
+the eighth and fourteenth lunar days, new moon and full moon, and the
+entrance of the sun into a new sign. On these occasions the wise will
+restrain their appetites, and occupy themselves in the worship of the
+gods, as enjoined by holy writ, in meditation, and in prayer; and he
+who behaves differently will fall into a hell where ordure will be his
+food.”[457] It is also said that he who attends to secular affairs on the
+days of the _parvans_ (new moon and full moon) will be punished hereafter
+in a hell of blood.[458] For modern Brahmans the new-moon and full-moon
+days are regularly fast days.[459]
+
+With the development of the complex ritual of Brahmanism holy and
+unlucky days became almost identical with days when the sacred books
+should not be read. The code of Manu requires a learned Brahman not to
+recite the Veda on the new-moon day, or on the fourteenth and eighth
+days of each half-month, or on the full-moon day. It is said that “the
+new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth day the pupil, the
+eighth and full-moon days destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him
+therefore avoid reading on those days.”[460] This injunction, moreover,
+is repeated for a great variety of other critical occasions: during a
+heavy thunderstorm; during an eclipse; and when an earthquake occurs. A
+like prohibition is enforced after events causing pollution; a Brahman,
+for example, should not read the Veda in a village through which a corpse
+has been taken, or near a burning-ground.[461] Similar prohibitions are
+set forth at great length in the lawbook of Gautama. The Veda ought not
+to be studied and recited when there is a thunderstorm, an earthquake, an
+eclipse or a fall of meteors; on the day of the new moon (on the latter
+occasion reading may be interrupted for two days); on the full moon of
+three months of the year, and so forth.[462] In the _Vishnu Purana_ we
+read that “on the days called _parvans_, on periods of impurity, upon
+unseasonable thunder, at the occurrence of eclipses or atmospheric
+portents, a wise man must desist from the study of the Vedas.”[463] Some
+of these taboos have endured till the present time, the eighth day of
+each fortnight, held sacred to the goddess Durga, being a period when no
+study is allowable for a pious Hindu.[464]
+
+The Vedic ceremonies at new moon and full moon appear to have influenced
+the Hindu festival of Bhaskara Saptami, which takes place on the
+twenty-second of the month Magha, the seventh day of the light fortnight
+(4th of February). “This day is in an especial degree sacred to the sun.
+Abstinence is to be practised on the day preceding; and in the morning
+before sunrise, or at the first appearance of dawn, bathing is to be
+performed until sunrise; a rigid fast is to be observed throughout the
+day, worship is to be offered the sun, presents are to be made to the
+Brahmans, and in the evening the worshipper is to hold a family feast;
+one of the observances of the day is abstinence from study, neither
+teacher nor scholar being allowed to open a book.”[465] For the proper
+observance of the festival it is also necessary that the sun should be
+worshipped in his own temple, with prayers and offerings on the sixth
+day, during which abstinence is to be practised, and at night the
+worshipper should sleep on the ground. In upper India the festival day is
+also called Achala Saptami, the fixed or immovable seventh, or Jayanti
+Saptami, the victorious seventh, and so forth. “Whatever the designation,
+the worship of the sun is the prominent ceremony of the seventh of the
+light half of Magha. The same may be said, however, of the seventh lunar
+day throughout the year, chiefly of one seventh in each fortnight,
+that of the moon’s increase; but also of the seventh day of the moon’s
+wane.”[466] The religious books declare that whoever worships the sun on
+the seventh day of the moon’s increase, with fasting and offerings of
+white oblations, as white flowers and the like, and whoever fasts on the
+seventh of the moon’s wane and offers to the sun red flowers and articles
+of a red colour, is purified from all iniquity and goes after death to
+the solar sphere. “The worship of the sun, on the seventh of the dark
+fortnight, seems to have gone out of use, but that on the seventh of the
+light fortnight is strongly recommended in various authorities, beginning
+with this seventh of Magha and continuing throughout the year.”[467]
+The selection of the seventh day of each fortnight as the time of the
+festival may have been due to the symbolic significance of that number,
+while the choice of the sun as the object of adoration doubtless reflects
+the commanding position which that luminary assumed in post-Vedic times.
+The close resemblance between these Hindu ceremonies of sun-worship and
+those prescribed in the Vedas for the observance of new moon and full
+moon suggests, however, that there has been a partial fusion of the two
+festivals.
+
+The Vedic observance of new moon and full moon survived in the ritual of
+both Jainism and Buddhism, the two great monastic sects which arose in
+the sixth century B.C. out of the bosom of Brahmanism. The Jain ceremony,
+known as _posaha_, is declared to have been specially instituted for
+those who said that “we cannot, submitting to the tonsure, renounce the
+life of a householder and enter the monastic state, but we shall strictly
+observe the _posaha_ on the fourteenth and eighth days of each fortnight
+(on the new-moon and) full-moon days.”[468] The faithful householder
+“should never neglect the _posaha_ fast in both fortnights, not even for
+a single night.”[469] In the Jain scriptures, the _posaha_ is further
+defined as the observance of a fast or the eating once only on the two
+holy days of each fortnight, “after having given up bathing, unguents,
+ornaments, company of women, odours, incense, lights, etc., and assumed
+renunciation as an ornament.” The _posaha_ is thus distinguished by
+the four abstinences from food, bodily attentions, sexual intercourse,
+and daily work.[470] The keeping of the _posaha_ at the present day is
+especially connected with the holy fast of Pajjusaṇa at the close of the
+Jain religious year. The observance of the rite at other times by laymen
+appears to be dying out.[471]
+
+The Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, like the Jain _posaha_, owed its
+existence remotely to the Vedic lunar rites. As celebrated anciently in
+India and in modern times in Nepal and Ceylon, the _uposatha_ falls on
+the day of the new moon, on the day of the full moon, and on the two
+days which are eighth from new and full moon. The _uposatha_ is marked
+not only by fasting but also by abstinence from secular activities:
+during its continuance buying and selling, work and business, hunting and
+fishing are forbidden, and all schools and courts of justice are closed.
+Whoever observes the _uposatha_ rigidly must abstain from food between
+sunrise and sunset. Since no cooking is allowed to taint the sanctity
+of the _uposatha_, the pious Buddhist prepares his evening meal in the
+early morning before the sun appears.[472]
+
+The _uposatha_, as contrasted with the _upavasatha_, is a ceremony
+attached to all four of the lunar phases, instead of to two only;
+moreover, it is a rest day as well as a fast day. How may it be shown
+that the Buddhist institution forms a natural outgrowth of the earlier
+Brahmanical rite?
+
+The origin of the custom of observing four days in the lunar month as
+_uposatha_ is involved in some obscurity. According to Buddhist tradition
+the monks of non-Buddhistic sects were accustomed to assemble at the
+middle and close of every half-month for the purpose of proclaiming
+their teachings. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these
+periodical meetings on the fourteenth or fifteenth and eighth day of
+each half-month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha himself.[473]
+There seems to be not the slightest ground for supposing that the number
+of Buddhist Sabbaths was originally two, but was afterwards increased
+to four in every month. The words of the canon are: “I prescribe that
+you assemble on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth day of each [half]
+month.”[474] In the _Dhammika Sutta_ the wording is: “Then having with a
+believing mind kept abstinence (_uposatha_) on the fourteenth, fifteenth,
+and eighth days of the half-month,” etc.[475] When Buddhism arose, the
+custom of keeping the eighth day of each lunar fortnight, in addition to
+new moon and full moon, appears to have been well-established in both
+Brahmanism and the non-Buddhistic sects, a circumstance which led to the
+adoption of all four periods by Buddhists as well.[476] Two of these
+days (at new moon and full moon) are devoted to the special ceremony of
+reading, in an assembly of at least four monks, the _patimokkha_, or the
+disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, according to the regulation laid
+down by the Buddha.[477]
+
+In the _Sutta Nipâta_, a collection of seventy didactic poems belonging
+to the Pitakas, or sacred books of the southern Buddhists, Eight Precepts
+or Moral Commandments are enumerated. Five of these are binding on every
+Buddhist, whether mendicant or layman, but the remaining three are not
+obligatory for the laity. The precepts are: (1) not to destroy life; (2)
+not to commit theft; (3) not to tell lies; (4) not to drink intoxicating
+liquors; (5) not to indulge in unlawful sexual intercourse; (6) not to
+eat unseasonable food at night; (7) not to wear garlands or use perfumes;
+and (8) not to sleep on a raised couch.[478] These precepts are said to
+constitute the eight-fold fast, or _uposatha_, declared by the Buddha.
+Their special observance on the _uposatha_ day is inculcated, and to
+break any of them on that day is considered highly irreligious. Instead
+of observing lunar taboos, the Buddhists were to keep the _uposatha_ by
+a special fulfillment of the moral law, with clean garments and with
+clean minds; one of the many instances in which the founder of Buddhism
+gave a spiritual meaning to an earlier superstitious rite. That the
+_uposatha_, marked as it was by fasting, avoidance of sexual intercourse,
+and refraining from wearing wreaths and using perfumes, should have come
+to be regarded as a rest day seems to be only the natural result of its
+observance as a season of abstinence. The _uposatha_ is thus discovered
+among the earliest institutions of Buddhism; in its origin it could
+have owed nothing to Jewish or Christian influence; in its diffusion
+throughout southeastern Asia it appears to have remained unaffected by
+the influence of Islam. If these conclusions be accepted, the Buddhist
+Sabbath dates back, remotely, to taboos observed at changes of the moon.
+
+Buddhism was early introduced into Ceylon. The Sabbath still observed
+there by the Sinhalese falls on the four _poya_ days of the month, the
+days of the changes of the moon.[479] Missionaries from Ceylon carried
+the new faith to Burma, at least as early as the fifth century A.D.
+According to an old traveller the “eighth day of the increasing moon,
+the fifteenth or full moon, the eighth of the decreasing moon, and the
+last day of the moon, are religiously observed by Birmans (_sic_) as
+sacred festivals. On these hebdomadal holidays no public business is
+transacted in the Rhoom: mercantile dealings are suspended; handicraft is
+forbidden; and the strictly pious take no sustenance between the rising
+and the setting of the sun; but the latter instance of self-denial is not
+very common, and, as I understood, is rarely practised, except in the
+metropolis, where the appearance of sanctity is sometimes assumed as a
+ladder by which the crafty attempt to climb to promotion.”[480] According
+to a more recent and sympathetic account there are “four _ubone_, or
+duty days, in every lunar month, on which all good Burmans are expected
+to go and worship at the pagodas. These are the eighth of the crescent,
+the full moon, the eighth of the waning, and the change, of which the
+second and the fourth are the more sacred. As the monks have nothing to
+do with looking after the spiritual state of the people, it is entirely
+a matter to be settled by one’s self whether any particular worship
+day is to be observed or not. If you conclude that strict religious
+observances are only necessary for your spiritual well-being on the
+day of the full moon, or at any rate that you may leave out the eighth
+of the crescent and waning moon, then the _ubone_ does not concern you
+at all, and you may proceed about your ordinary business without being
+considered a reprobate. The very devout may go to the pagoda on all the
+four sacred days of the month; but if you choose to omit one or several,
+or substitute an ordinary day for that provided by religious custom,
+there is no one to take you to task for it. Were a Burman never to go to
+the pagoda at all, or fail to do so for any considerable time, he would
+indeed soon get a very bad character among his neighbours, and might even
+be formally excommunicated by the _yahan_. There is, however, practically
+no constraint save the force of public opinion. But the duties of worship
+are so light, and so dependent in their details upon yourself, and
+there is so much amusement to be got out of a visit to the pagoda on
+an _ubone_, that few, even of the most worldly-minded, miss any great
+number of the appointed days, and a special festival is always carefully
+observed.... It must not, however, be supposed that all the people take
+this easy-going and frivolous view of duty days. Diligent seekers after
+_kutho_ behave very differently. They do not merely limit themselves to
+the customary forms of worship and offerings. They sleep little, or not
+at all, the night before; telling their beads instead, and reading good
+books, some of the discourses of the Buddha, or portions of the greater
+_zat_. All necessary business is transacted the day previous to the
+_ubone_, and neighbours are exhorted to observe the festival properly.
+After one simple dish in the morning, they eat nothing for the rest of
+the day; or perhaps on certain occasions do not break their fast till
+after midday, a custom very general on the first day of Lent. Instead
+of staying in the noisy _zayat_, where the assembled people are talking
+of light matters, laughing and diverting themselves, they retire to a
+_tazaung_ on the pagoda platform or to some place shaded by trees; there
+they finger the hundred and eight beads of their rosary, muttering, ‘All
+is transient, sorrowful, and vain; the Lord, the Law, the Assembly; the
+three precious things’; and meditate on the example of the Lord Buddha
+and the excellence of his Law. To vary the monotony of this performance,
+they go for an hour or two to one of the monasteries to talk with the
+prior or some learned brother, or perhaps to hear him read and expound
+one of the _jataka_, or birth-stories. So the duty day passes. By sunset
+most of the worshippers are making their way back to their homes; but
+a few zealous spirits remain all night in the _zayat_, and only return
+with daylight on the following morning. This simple round of celebration
+is repeated four times in every lunar month, with here and there a feast
+day of some particular shrine thrown in, when the only difference is that
+there is greater ceremony and a more or less large influx of strangers,
+according to the sanctity of the pagoda.”[481]
+
+The Siamese Sabbath (_wan phra_) was also an institution introduced by
+Buddhist missionaries. An old writer describes it as follows: “Their
+Sunday, called by them _vampra_, is always the fourth day of the moon; in
+each month they have two great ones, at the new and full moon, and two
+less solemn, on the seventh and twenty-first. This day does not exempt
+them from labour, since only fishing is forbidden to them. Those who
+transgress this prohibition pay a fine and are thrown into prison, as
+having profaned the sanctity of the day.”[482] A later writer declares
+that hunting is also forbidden, and adds that on these days one cannot
+find fresh fish and meat in the shops.[483] In former times the temples
+were crowded with worshippers, who brought their offerings and listened
+to the hymns, prayers, and moral discourses addressed to them by the
+Buddhist priests.[484] But we are told that now a majority of the temples
+stand empty on the _wan phra_, and what worshippers there are consist
+invariably of women. Since the adoption of the solar calendar in 1889 the
+_wan phra_ has been superseded to a large extent for civil purposes by
+Sunday.[485] The Buddhist Sabbath is also found in Cambodia.[486]
+
+In some districts of Tibet the monthly Buddhist festivals (_du-zang_) are
+four in number, following the successive phases of the moon. In other
+parts of the country only three festivals are celebrated—at new moon,
+first quarter, and full moon. On these days no animal food ought to be
+eaten and no animal killed; those who break this rule are threatened
+with severe punishment in a future existence. “To abstain from worldly
+occupations is, however, not enacted, and as the Buddhist laymen in the
+Himalaya and western Tibet are not very fond of passing the whole day in
+prayers and in the temples, these holy days are not particularly marked
+in the habits of the population.”[487] As elsewhere in Buddhist lands the
+new-moon and full-moon Sabbaths are of most importance, since on these
+occasions the _patimokkha_ is recited in the monasteries, accompanied by
+a public confession of sins.[488] However, in Tibet there appears never
+to have been much uniformity as to the times for the observance of the
+_uposatha_, the practice varying with different provinces and sects.[489]
+In Bhutan, where Buddhism was introduced by missionaries from Tibet, the
+eighth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, and thirtieth of the month are said to
+be the holy days, while the Mongolians have the thirteenth, fourteenth,
+and fifteenth, the three days being brought together perhaps because of
+the great distance which separates the monasteries from the temple.[490]
+Among the Kalmucks on the Volga, to the north of the Caspian, the
+_uposatha_ is generally observed thrice a month—the eighth day after new
+moon, the fifteenth, and the thirtieth.[491]
+
+The _uposatha_ is not unknown among the Buddhists of China. The Chinese
+_Ts’ing-kwei_, or “Regulations of the Priesthood,” a Buddhist document,
+enumerates, among others, four festivals to be kept each month, at new
+moon and full moon, and on the eighth and twenty-third days. These are
+called _kin-ming sï-chai_, “the four feasts illustriously decreed”; they
+may be regarded as a variant of the _uposatha_.[492] Among non-Buddhists
+there is another custom of observing on the new and full moon of each
+month a ceremony, anciently in honour of the moon, but now particularly
+addressed to various deities, especially the gods of wealth. It was
+formerly the rule to sacrifice a bullock to the moon at this time.
+During the festival the courts of justice and _yaman_, or government
+residences, are closed. Offerings are made in the Confucian temples, and
+even the family gods receive their meed of worship. The householder on
+this day enjoys a better meal than usual, without, however, intermitting
+his ordinary occupations.[493] There is no reason to believe that this
+Chinese festival owes anything to contact with Buddhism. Its independent
+origin, in connection with an early cult of the moon and perhaps at a
+remote period with various lunar taboos, becomes, therefore, something
+more than a conjecture.
+
+The Buddhist Sabbath penetrated to Japan. An old writer tells us that in
+Japan there are three monthly holidays connected with the moon, though
+now immovable feasts. “The first is called _isitatz_, and is the first
+day of each month. It deserves rather to be called a day of compliments
+and mutual civilities, than a church or Sunday.” The second holiday is on
+the fifteenth of each month, “being the day of the full moon. The gods of
+the country have a greater share in the visits the Japanese make on this
+day, than their friends and relations.” The third festival occurs on the
+twenty-eighth of each month, “being the day of the new moon, or the last
+day of the decreasing moon. Not near so much regard is had to this, than
+there is to either of the two former, and the Sintos [Shinto] temples
+are very little crowded on it. There is a greater concourse of people on
+this day at the Budsos [Buddhist] temples, it being one of the monthly
+holidays sacred to Amida.”[494]
+
+Buddhism and Brahmanism, spreading beyond the confines of continental
+Asia, carried the custom of keeping lunar festivals into some parts of
+Indonesia. In Bali, where the _padanda_, or Brahmans, have preserved
+many features of the old Vedic religion, fasts and sacrifices are still
+obligatory on the householder at new moon and full moon.[495] In Kar
+Nicobar Buddhist influence from Burma is seen in the custom of observing
+a rest day on the seventh day of the moon, at full moon, and on the
+twenty-second day of the moon, but only during seven lunar months of the
+year.[496] The Nicobarese have given to this imported Buddhist Sabbath
+their native name _anoiila_, which is regularly applied to the rest days
+or holidays observed by them on various critical occasions.[497]
+
+We pass now from the lunar festivals found in ancient and modern India
+and in those countries of southeastern Asia which have been long affected
+by the cultural influence of India to similar observances among peoples
+of archaic civilization. The ancient Iranians appear to have celebrated
+four lunar days in each month, for the oldest part of the Avesta
+contains the following passage: “I dedicate, I perform (the sacrifice)
+for the month (gods), the time-divisions of Asa, for the between-moon
+[_i.e._, the new moon], ... for the full moon, and for the intervening
+seventh(s),” in other words, for the first, eighth, fifteenth, and
+twenty-third days, which were all dedicated to Ahura Mazda.[498] The
+choice of these four lunar days was due to the division of the Avesta
+thirty-day month into two unequal parts, containing fourteen and sixteen
+days, respectively, and to the further subdivision of each part so as to
+form two groups of seven days and two of eight days. This arrangement
+had the practical advantage of permitting a quadripartite division of
+the month without a remainder. There is no evidence that the four groups
+formed civil weeks, or that the first day of each group was observed as a
+Sabbath.[499]
+
+Although the Egyptians had abandoned the old lunar year and lunar month,
+perhaps as early as the beginning of the fourth millenium B.C., the
+people continued for many centuries to observe as festivals the first and
+fifteenth days of the month. In the earlier calendar these would have
+coincided with the two significant epochs of the lunation, namely, new
+moon and full moon. The “monthly feasts” and the “half-monthly feasts”
+are mentioned in the very ancient texts preserved in the pyramids at
+Sakkara of kings of the Sixth Dynasty.[500] They are referred to in
+the _Book of the Dead_, in the directions requiring special chapters
+of that work to be recited on the first day of the month, apparently
+when it coincides with new moon, and on the last day of the sixth month
+of the Egyptian year, when that day coincides with the full moon.[501]
+That they were practised under the Twelfth Dynasty appears clearly from
+the well-known inscription of Khnumhotep II, cut on the walls of the
+chapel chamber in his tomb at Benihasan. Khnumhotep II, a local ruler
+of the sixteenth nome in Upper Egypt, sets forth in this inscription
+a somewhat vainglorious account of his buildings and his piety. Among
+other things he says, “I endowed him [the mortuary priest] with fields
+and peasants; I commanded the mortuary offering of bread, beer, oxen,
+and geese, at every feast of the necropolis: at the feast of the first
+of the year, of New Year’s Day, of the great year, of the little year,
+of the last of the year, the great feast, at the great Rekeh, at the
+little Rekeh, at the feast of the five intercalary days, at —— ——, at
+the twelve monthly feasts, at the twelve mid-monthly feasts; every
+feast of the happy living, and of the dead.”[502] Again, there is an
+explicit reference to new-moon festivals under the Thirteenth Dynasty
+in a celebrated inscription placed by Thothmes III (1501-1447 B.C.)
+on the walls of the great temple of Amon at Karnak. This inscription
+describes the numerous campaigns made by the Egyptian king in Syria.
+The account of the battle of Megiddo opens as follows: “Year 23, first
+(month) of the third season (ninth month), on the twenty-first day, the
+day of the feast of the new moon, corresponding to the royal coronation,
+early in the morning, behold, command was given to the entire army to
+move.”[503] The significance of this lunar festival is further set
+forth in the inscriptions on the ceiling of the pronaos of the temple
+of Dendera, where the phases of the moon are portrayed together with
+other astronomical matters. The thirty days of the month are here given
+their eponymic names and are arranged in two divisions, according as
+they belong to the decreasing or to the increasing moon. Four lunar
+days are brought into special prominence as associated with the chief
+phases of the moon, viz., 1st lunar day = “festival of new moon”; 7th
+lunar day = “festival of the first quarter”; 15th lunar day = “festival
+of the fifteenth,” and 23d lunar day = “festival of the third quarter.”
+In this inscription full moon on the fifteenth of the lunar month,
+repeatedly mentioned in poetical terms as “the eye of the moon,” seems
+to have been regarded as the most significant of the lunar phases.[504]
+The oldest traces of this important list of lunar days belong to the
+Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties; the latest date from Ptolemaic and
+Roman times.[505] The evidence, then, fully warrants the conclusion
+that from the earliest period the Egyptians included the celebrations
+at new moon and full moon among the most important of their religious
+ceremonies.[506] In late classical times the lunar festivals appear to
+have been consecrated to Osiris, whose identification with the moon
+is reasonably certain.[507] But to what extent, if any, they were
+accompanied by the imposition of taboos remains problematical.
+
+The evidence for lunar rites among the Greeks must be pieced together
+from scattered references in the classical writers. The day of the
+visible new moon (νουμηνία), marking the beginning of the lunar month,
+appears to have been ceremonially observed throughout the Greek
+world.[508] The Noumenia was particularly associated with Apollo and also
+with Hera, a goddess who seems to have had an ancient rôle as a moon
+deity. The antiquity of the Noumenia may be judged from the references to
+it in the _Odyssey_, where no other general festival than that of Apollo
+is mentioned. In the island of Ithaca a feast of Apollo on the new-moon
+day was in progress at the time of the trial of Odysseus’s bow. Is it not
+the holy day of Apollo, ask the suitors? Who on such a day could stretch
+the bow?[509] The first of the month is holy, declares Hesiod.[510] In
+Athens, and doubtless in other Greek cities, the Noumenia continued to be
+in historic times a day of repose, when all public activities, except of
+a religious character, were intermitted.[511] Private business, however,
+was not suspended on the Noumenia; the markets, especially those for the
+purchase of slaves, were then particularly frequented; the time was
+regarded as the most favourable for marriage; and in the homes there
+was much feasting and good cheer.[512] The Dichomenia (διχομηνία), or
+full-moon day, appears also to have been a regular monthly festival in
+Greece, though of lesser importance than the Noumenia.[513]
+
+The Roman month was originally lunar, and at all periods was divided by
+the real or imaginary phases of the moon. The Kalends, or day of the
+visible new moon, were sacred to Juno, a goddess, who, like the Greek
+Hera, was particularly associated with the moon.[514] On the Kalends
+one of the pontiffs performed a sacrifice, with the assistance of the
+_rex sacrorum_.[515] Pious Romans also celebrated the new-moon day with
+offerings and prayers to the family gods.[516] The Ides, or day of
+the full moon, were consecrated to Jupiter, but the Nones, which may
+originally have marked the moon’s first quarter, were not sacred to any
+deity.[517] The Kalends of March, June, and October, the Nones of July,
+and the Ides of all the months were numbered among the _feriæ publicæ_,
+or sacred festivals attended by a compulsory remission of labour, of the
+Roman state religion.[518]
+
+The taboos which at Rome invested the lunar phases appear to have
+lingered into the historic age under yet another guise. Among the unlucky
+days (_dies religiosi_[519]) of the Roman calendar were those following
+the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The thirty-six _dies postriduani_ were
+regarded as unsuitable for many purposes, both public and private: for
+battles, levies, sacred rites, journeys, and marriages.[520] We are told
+that they owed their unlucky quality to a pronouncement of the Senate and
+pontiffs, in consequence of the grave defeat of the Allia on the 18th of
+Quinctilis (July). According to the story preserved by Gellius one of the
+senators publicly declared that on the day following the Ides the Roman
+commander had performed sacred rites with a view to engaging the Gauls,
+only to experience an overwhelming defeat two days later. Many other
+senators called to mind that on sundry occasions, when sacrifices on the
+day following the Kalends, Nones, or Ides had been performed to secure
+the favour of the gods in battle, not victory but disaster followed. In
+consequence these days were declared unfit for public sacrifices.[521] It
+is obvious that this traditional explanation of the _dies postriduani_
+must be far from the real truth. Unlucky days are not generated in such
+an artificial fashion or on so wholesale a scale. We may with some
+confidence regard the prohibitions accompanying these days as real
+survivals of primitive taboos at new moon, first quarter, and full moon,
+their assumed historic significance being only the conscious fiction of a
+later and more sophisticated age.[522]
+
+The scanty records on which we must rely for our knowledge of the heathen
+inhabitants of central and northern Europe, before they came into
+contact with Rome and Christianity, furnish no certain evidence that
+they celebrated lunar festivals. According to Strabo the Celtiberians
+and their neighbours to the north sacrificed every full moon to a
+nameless god, the ceremony taking place at night and being accompanied
+by dancing.[523] Again, Tacitus, who mentions the custom of the Germans
+of holding their assemblies on “fixed days” (_certi dies_), either at
+the new moon or the full moon, also refers to the _certi dies_ on which
+they think it lawful to propitiate Mercury, their chief god, with human
+sacrifices.[524] Such statements may mean much or little. Having traced
+lunar festivals among the Aryans of India, the Iranians, the Greeks, and
+the Romans, it might reasonably be supposed that the Celts and Germans
+were also familiar with them.
+
+But the festive observance of the two great epochs of the lunation was
+by no means confined in antiquity to Indo-Germanic peoples. The Chinese
+and Egyptian festivals at new moon and full moon reach back into the
+past as far as the historical eye can follow them; while in Semitic
+lands, as we shall learn, the same rites occupied a most conspicuous
+place in the religious calendar. Not unjust was the remark of Isidore of
+Seville, a famous scholar of the Middle Ages, that the ancients, just
+as the Hebrews, were accustomed to celebrate the beginnings of all the
+months—_apud veteres enim omnium mensium principia colebantur, sicut et
+apud Hebræos_.[525]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK
+
+
+The calendar forms one of the most important of social institutions and
+registers in its gradual improvement from age to age the onward march
+of culture. The first attempts at calendar-making were naturally of
+the rudest sort, for they were based on the untutored experience and
+observation of common men. With the progress of society the regulation
+of calendrical matters tended to fall into the hands of the sacerdotal
+class, partly because priests alone enjoyed the leisure necessary for
+prolonged researches, but chiefly because the calendar, on which depends
+the orderly sequence of holy days and festivals, was itself an affair of
+religion.[526]
+
+It is clear that the alternations of night and day must have furnished
+man with his most elementary conceptions of the passage of time. A longer
+cycle was naturally suggested by the lunar phenomena, so striking, so
+obvious, and marked by stages so readily determined. A survey of the
+anthropological data indicates that among savage and barbarous peoples
+the moon is the measure of time, and that the period of a lunation
+furnishes the customary unit for longer reckonings.[527] Lunar months
+are general throughout Australia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Africa, and
+America, wherever primitive calendars have not been supplanted by more
+refined calculations borrowed from advanced peoples. The computation
+of time by moons naturally formed the basis of those early calendars
+which were framed by peoples just rising into civilization. In Mexico
+and Yucatan the year of twelve moon-months preceded the introduction of
+the solar year; and the ancient Peruvians, in some respects so advanced,
+always continued to reckon by the succession of lunations.[528] There
+can be no doubt that the solar calendar in use among the Egyptians at
+the very dawn of their history had been preceded by a more primitive
+reckoning of the year in lunations. It is enough to point out in this
+connection that the Egyptians regularly employed the figure of a crescent
+moon as the hieroglyph for “month.”[529] The calendars of Semitic
+peoples, notably those of the Babylonians and Hebrews, were based on the
+moon;[530] and the prophet Mohammed, when enjoining on his followers the
+observance of the pure lunar year, in place of the lunisolar year used
+by the Arabians before the Hegira, was in reality reverting to a still
+more primitive mode of counting time. Lunisolar calendars, in which the
+primary unit is the lunation, were known, long before the Christian era,
+to every civilization in the Old World from the Roman in the west to the
+Chinese in the east. Linguistic researches indicate that in most, if not
+all, Indo-European languages, the names for moon and month originally
+coincided.[531] In Max Müller’s poetical language the moon was “the
+golden hand on the dark dial of heaven.”
+
+The need of observing the moons, apart from religious or superstitious
+reasons, was no doubt mainly connected with economic considerations.
+To the savage it is of supreme importance to be able to anticipate the
+different periods of the year which bring with them different supplies
+of natural food; and for this purpose the moons afford a convenient
+basis of reckoning. Hence we find that very generally among primitive
+peoples the moons are named after the moulting, migrating, and pairing
+of animals, or after the budding, blossoming, and ripening of the fruits
+of the earth. Again, most shepherd tribes reckon time by moons. In the
+pastoral stage it is probable that the necessity of calculating the
+various periods of gestation and the proper time for breeding, so that
+young animals might be brought into the world at seasons most favourable
+to their health and maintenance, contributed to the observation of the
+moon and to the formation of lunar calendars. If the desirability of
+observing the successive moons was felt by frugivorous and pastoral
+peoples, it will be readily seen how the introduction of agricultural
+operations, often accompanied by religious ceremonies and festivals,
+rendered definite and clearly marked divisions of time a matter of the
+greatest moment. It is therefore probable that rude popular calendars
+based on the moon were in use long before more accurate observations were
+made by primitive astronomers. There is much evidence for the practice
+of naming the moon-months after the different agricultural operations,
+such as planting and harvesting, which occur in them. Among the Chinese,
+Japanese, Babylonians, Hebrews, Celts, Germans, and Slavs, the early
+epithets of some or all of the months are connected with agriculture and
+the farmer’s life. And the Roman Aprilis, Maius, and Junius, from which
+our own month-names have been taken, are believed to have been originally
+seasonal designations, referring to the sprouting, growth, and maturity
+of vegetation.
+
+A lunar month does not necessarily imply a lunar year. Of not a few
+savage and half-civilized peoples it is expressly said that they have
+but vague notions of a year as a fixed period of time, and that they can
+refer to events more than a few months past only as happening after some
+noteworthy event, such as a flood, a drought, an earthquake, a comet, or
+the death of a chief. The foundation of yearly reckonings must be sought
+in the observation of rhythmical natural phenomena—the alternation of
+the seasons, the recurrence of periodical winds, the varying length of
+day as determined by the sun’s elevation, and especially the rising and
+setting of the Pleiades.[532] In order to adapt the same moons to the
+same seasons as they successively occurred, or to the course of the
+sun, or to the rising and setting of the Pleiades, the number of moons
+was usually taken at twelve, giving the lunar year of three hundred and
+fifty-four days.[533]
+
+It is unnecessary in this connection to discuss fully the various methods
+which have been employed to adjust the pure lunar year of twelve synodic
+months to the seasonal or solar year. Some primitive peoples adopt the
+expedient of counting thirteen lunations to the year. A more common and
+accurate procedure is to intercalate the thirteenth month, usually in
+every second or third year. Familiar illustrations are furnished by the
+Hindus, Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks in antiquity; among modern peoples,
+by the natives of Burma, Siam, China, and Japan.[534] The methods of
+intercalation employed are historically numerous, the details are often
+obscure, and in no instance were the results wholly successful. The
+difficulties arising from such attempts to coördinate incoördinable
+quantities must have been the prime cause of the adoption of calendars
+in which the month, instead of denoting the moon’s synodic revolution,
+received an arbitrary number of days approaching the twelfth part of a
+solar year.
+
+The period of a lunation seems to have been generally estimated, in
+the first instance, at thirty days, a calculation found in the lunar
+calendars of many half-civilized peoples, and still employed at the
+present day on all occasions when absolute accuracy is not considered
+necessary. Indeed, if lunations be used, it is more exact to count by
+thirty days than by twenty-nine. When the moon’s synodic revolution came
+to be more accurately measured by calculating an average from the number
+of days comprised in several successive lunations, the true length (about
+twenty-nine and one-half days) could be conveniently calendarized only by
+periods of twenty-nine and thirty days in alternation. Such vacillating
+months were used by the Hawaiians and the New Zealanders; they were
+familiar to the Jews, the later Babylonians, and the Greeks; and they are
+still found throughout the Mohammedan world, and among various peoples of
+southeastern Asia.[535]
+
+People who reckon by moons naturally begin their lunar month with the
+first appearance of the luminous crescent in the western sky.[536] The
+real moon being invisible for two or three days, various expedients are
+adopted in order to secure regularity in lunar reckonings. Thus, the
+Toda keep a record of the number of days from new moon to full moon and
+from that to the next new moon. The full moon is counted as being on
+the fifteenth day after the new moon, and the new moon as being on the
+sixteenth day after the full moon.[537] The Basuto begin their month on
+the day when the new moon is visible, though they count two more days
+when the moon cannot be seen at all in the heavens.[538] Still other
+devices were employed in antiquity by the Babylonians, Hebrews, and
+Romans.[539]
+
+The lunar month, which in rude communities provides a satisfactory
+chronological unit, does not meet the needs of an advancing society.
+Shorter periods become desirable, and these may be found in the division
+of the lunation. There is much evidence that primitive peoples watch
+the lunar phases with keen interest, often name them, and sometimes use
+them for the purpose of reckoning time. The natives of Victoria are said
+to employ ordinal numbers only in numbering the days of the month for
+making appointments. As their months are marked by the reappearance of
+the moon, their ordinal numbers do not go beyond twenty-eight.[540] The
+Dieri and related tribes of South Australia reckon by lunar phases; “when
+anticipating a grand ceremony they refer to the first or last quarter
+of the moon.”[541] The central Australians, who regard the moon as a
+male deity, have distinct names applied to new moon, first quarter, full
+moon, and last quarter.[542] In German New Guinea the phases of the moon
+are employed for all time-units greater than a day.[543] The natives of
+New Britain are close observers of the phases of the moon (_kalang_)
+and have separate terms for them.[544] The New Caledonians count by
+lunar months, “each divided into four weeks, following the four phases
+of the moon.”[545] The Kayan on the Mendalam River in Dutch Borneo name
+eight phases of the waxing and waning moon.[546] The Dyak tribes on the
+Mahakam and Barito rivers in Dutch Borneo “reckon their time by the full
+moon, half moon, and new moon.”[547] In those parts of Sumatra where
+the seven-day week has not been introduced, it is a common practice
+to calculate by the days of the moon’s age.[548] The very primitive
+peoples occupying Nias and the Mentawi Islands off the western coast of
+Sumatra distinguish four phases of the moon and give to them appropriate
+names.[549] Not only do the Nicobarese possess terms to denote the chief
+phases of the lunation, but they are also able to indicate any particular
+day in the lunar month with perfect clearness, since each day has its
+particular name.[550] The Andaman Islanders, possessing no extended
+enumeration, do not count the moons in the year, but nevertheless employ
+appropriate words to designate the lunar phases.[551] The Bontoc and
+Ibaloi Igorot have noted and named eight phases of the moon; these,
+however, are said to be seldom used for counting time.[552] Throughout
+the Caroline Islands (Yap, Lamotrek, Ponape, Uleai) the successive days
+of the month receive names indicating the moon’s age.[553] In Polynesia
+every night in the month had its distinct name derived from the changing
+aspects of the moon.[554] The Nandi of British East Africa similarly
+designate the successive nights of a lunar month.[555] The Bini of
+Southern Nigeria even appoint special persons to observe the changes of
+the moon.[556] The Ho tribes of Togo and the Hottentots of South Africa
+employ separate terms for all the lunar phases.[557] In South America
+the Karaja of Brazil, in addition to noting and naming the four most
+conspicuous phases of the moon, also distinguish a fifth phase, which
+occurs between first quarter and full moon.[558] Of the North American
+Indians it has been said, generally, that the “alternations of day and
+night and the changes of the moon and the seasons formed the basis of
+their [calendar] systems.”[559] In the words of the _Koran_ the phases of
+the moon are “indications of time for men.”[560]
+
+Since new moon and full moon are the most conspicuous lunar phases, it
+has been a common practice to recognize two periods in the lunation, as
+marked by the waxing and the waning moon.[561] This two-fold division
+of the month does not seem to be employed for calendrical purposes by
+the Australian aborigines, but in some parts of Melanesia the two halves
+of the lunation receive appropriate names and the full moon itself bears
+a particular designation.[562] The Maori of New Zealand, who sometimes
+“divide the month into halves or fortnights by ‘moon-growing’ and
+‘moon-lessening,’”[563] are the only Polynesian people to adopt this mode
+of reckoning. It is met, also, in Malaysia (Java, Sumatra, Bali, Nias,
+etc.), but only where Indian culture has penetrated.[564]
+
+The division of the month into two parts is found among most
+Indo-European peoples. In India the recognition of the “light” and
+“dark” halves of the month goes back to Vedic antiquity.[565] Modern
+Hindus divide the month into two fortnights, the days of which are
+reckoned continuously as those of the increasing or decreasing moon.
+The full-moon day (_amavus_) is held in great sanctity.[566] Like
+customs prevail in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Indo-China, and other parts
+of Asia.[567] The bipartite division of the month was familiar to the
+ancient Persians[568] and to the early Greeks.[569] The fifteenth of the
+month was regularly called by the Greeks the full-moon day (Dichomenia,
+διχομηνία) even after the introduction of the sequence of twenty-nine day
+and thirty-day months.[570] In “hollow” months of twenty-nine days the
+full moon, of course, would fall on the fourteenth day, except when an
+extra day was intercalated every thirty-two or thirty-three months.[571]
+The Roman _kalendæ_ and _idus_ corresponded to the Greek νουμηνία and
+διχομηνία.[572] The Kalends were so named because in early times the
+pontiffs had been accustomed to make a public announcement (_calare_)
+whether five or seven days should be reckoned from new moon to the first
+quarter.[573] The Ides thus fell on the thirteenth or fifteenth day of
+the month, according as the Nones occurred on the fifth or seventh day.
+The Roman belief in the virtue of odd numbers doubtless explains this
+choice of dates for both Nones and Ides.[574] Among the ancient Germans
+new moon and full moon appear as the most prominent lunar phases.[575]
+The division of the lunation into two parts, the first of fifteen
+days, the second of fourteen or fifteen days, according as the month
+had twenty-nine or thirty days, is clearly indicated for the Celtic
+peoples.[576] In the Calendar of Coligny the days of each half-month
+are numbered consecutively, following what must have been the old
+Indo-European practice. The second half of the month is always preceded
+by the title _atenoux_, doubtless indicating full moon, and variously
+translated “great night” or “renewal.”[577] That this Gallic calendar
+presents no exceptional custom is obvious from the constant occurrence
+in the literature of the insular Celts of such expressions as the Welsh
+_pythewnos_, a fortnight (literally “a fifteen night”), and the Irish
+_cóicthiges_, which has the same meaning.[578] With these terms may be
+compared our English “fortnight” (O. E. _feówertȳne niht_).
+
+The bipartite division of the month may be traced even more widely. It
+was recognized by the Egyptians, who appear to have counted the days
+by the decreasing and increasing moon and to have regarded the full
+moon (_mḥ_) as the most important of the lunar phases.[579] For Semitic
+peoples, notably the Babylonians and Hebrews, new moon and full moon
+enjoyed significance not only as religious festivals but also as the
+most conspicuous periods of the lunation. A primitive cycle of thirteen
+days used for ritual purposes by the ancient Mexicans may have been
+originally suggested by the number of months in the lunar year, but the
+choice of this number seems also to have been affected by the recognition
+of thirteen visible stages of the moon’s increase (_mextozoliztli_,
+the moon’s waking) and thirteen visible stages of her decrease
+(_mecochiliztli_, the moon’s sleep).[580] In both Colombia and Peru the
+half-months were reckoned by the waxing and the waning of the moon.[581]
+
+From the division of the month into two fortnights, at once the
+simplest, earliest, and most widespread form of the week, we pass to
+the consideration of those shorter cycles of time which are found in
+various parts of the world. It might appear at first sight that all civil
+weeks of five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten days would likewise have
+a natural origin in divisions, either of the true lunation or of the
+conventional month. But the evidence which has been presented for the
+existence of market weeks shows that these arose quite independently of
+the lunar month, and that only at a subsequent period, when they came
+into general use for calendrical purposes, were they adjusted to the
+length of the moon’s monthly course. Some interesting examples of this
+process of adjustment may be studied among the negroes of west Africa.
+Thus, the Yoruba week consists of five days, and six of them are supposed
+to make a lunar month. As a matter of fact, since the first day of the
+first week always commences with the appearance of the new moon, the
+month really contains five weeks of five days’ duration, and one of four
+days and a half, approximately.[582] Again, the Tshi tribes of the Gold
+Coast, having chosen seven-day weeks, find it necessary to begin them
+at different hours of the day. Some of their weeks, termed _n’ehsŭn_,
+“It is seven,” may have eight days and six nights, others the reverse,
+and others seven days and nights, with a fractional part of a day or
+night.[583] Such are the expedients adopted by some semi-civilized
+peoples, whose months are strictly lunar, to avoid the difficulty
+presented by the fact that the length of the lunation (twenty-nine and a
+half days) does not permit of subdivision into exactly equal parts.
+
+One of the most common forms of the week is the decade. When not based on
+the institution of the market, it seems reasonable to suppose that this
+cycle was originally suggested by the increase, culmination, and decrease
+of the moon, as shown by the waxing crescent, the more or less full disk,
+and the waning crescent. If it be held that the arrangement by decades
+was based rather on denary arithmetic, we may at least feel confident
+that it would not have been chosen except for its close approximation
+to the length of the lunar month. As a matter of fact, such a sequence
+represents the true course of the lunation in days more correctly than
+a nine-day, or an eight-day, or even a seven-day week. A division of
+the month into decades is definitely attributed to the Maori of New
+Zealand, who doubtless were obliged to count only nine days in the third
+and last decade of every other month.[584] The arrangement of the four
+Hawaiian _tabu_ periods, of which the first three came at intervals of
+ten days, argues strongly in favour of a division of time into decades,
+or _anahulu_. This term, though now obsolete, occurs frequently in
+ancient legends and songs as a measure of time comprising ten days. The
+fourth monthly _tabu_ period, sacred to the god Kane, was celebrated
+on the twenty-seventh of the month, only three days after the festival
+of Kaloa, from which circumstance it has been plausibly regarded as of
+later introduction than the others.[585] A curious division of the month
+into three parts prevails in some of the Caroline Islands. In Yap,
+for instance, the thirty-day month is divided into _pul_, or new moon,
+lasting thirteen days, _botrau_, or full moon, lasting nine days, and
+_lumor_, or darkness, continuing to the end of the month.[586] Lunar
+decades are found in southeastern Asia. The Chingpaw or Kachin of Upper
+Burma, whose primitive year consists of twelve lunar months uncorrected
+by intercalation and arbitrarily adjusted to the successive seasons,
+recognize three divisions of the month, each of ten days’ duration. The
+first, called _shitta pyaw_, includes ten days of the waxing moon; the
+last, called _shitta si_, includes ten days of the waning moon. The
+intervening period bears no special name, though the full moon itself is
+called _shitta lai_.[587] The peoples of French Indo-China (Cochin-China,
+Anam, and Tonkin) regularly divide the month into three decades, but
+this arrangement is now being gradually superseded by the European week
+of seven days.[588] Probably the Indo-Chinese custom was borrowed from
+the Chinese, among whom it has long been a common practice to speak
+of anything as happening in the first, middle, or last decade of any
+particular month.[589] A similar system has not yet become obsolete in
+Japan, where the ten-day periods are known as the upper, middle, and
+lower decades.[590] Various African peoples use the ten-day cycle. Among
+the Wagiriama of British East Africa the three decades (_makumi_) exist
+side by side with the market week four days in length.[591] The Sofalese
+of Portuguese East Africa are said to have divided the month into three
+periods each of ten days, the first day of the first week being the
+festival of the new moon.[592] Among the Tofoke, a Congo tribe, the lunar
+month consists of three parts, reckoned, respectively, from new moon to
+the increasing half moon, from this to the decreasing half moon, and
+thence to the end of the month. Each of these phases bears a distinct
+name.[593] The Ahanta of the Gold Coast divide the lunar month into three
+periods, two of ten days’ duration, and the third lasting till the next
+new moon appears, that is, for about nine days and a half.[594] These
+decades seem to be quite independent of the market weeks, sometimes ten
+days long, which are also found in Africa. On the other hand the Peruvian
+decades, previously noticed, were clearly connected with the institution
+of the market.[595] The sole instance of a week discoverable among the
+Indians of North America is found among the Zuñi of northeastern New
+Mexico, a Pueblo tribe leading a sedentary existence and in many respects
+advanced in culture. By the Zuñi “the month is divided into three parts,
+each part being called _topĭnta as temla_, ‘one ten.’”[596]
+
+A ten-day week was employed in antiquity by the Egyptians. The
+hieroglyphic expression meaning “the ten days” is found in inscriptions
+belonging to the age of the Pyramid-builders. The names applied to each
+of the three decades—_hati_, that of the beginning, _abi_, that of the
+middle, and _pahu_, that of the end—are perhaps somewhat less ancient,
+the earliest definite use of these appellations being found in the time
+of the Tenth Dynasty. The decades ran continuously from month to month.
+Since the Egyptian year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days,
+it was necessary, however, in alternate years to begin the reckoning
+of the decades on the sixth, instead of on the first, of the month.
+According to an inscription dating from the time of the Third Dynasty,
+the first day of each decade was marked by sacrifices, and later records
+contain frequent instances of a religious observance of this day.[597]
+
+The Greek decades betray in their names, μὴν ἱστάμενος (waxing), μεσῶν
+(central), and φθίνων (waning), an association with the moon. The days of
+the last decade were usually counted backward; in “hollow” months, the
+day corresponding to the twenty-ninth of “full” months was omitted, so
+that the decade really contained only nine days. By the Athenians the
+last day of the third decade was styled ἕνη καὶ νέα (“old and new moon”),
+as being the day which belonged in part to the preceding (theoretical)
+month of twenty-nine and a half days and in part to the following month.
+No clearer illustration could be afforded of lunar weeks adjusted to
+the lunar month.[598] The Greek arrangement by decades must have been
+very old. Unknown to Homer, it appears in Hesiod’s _Works and Days_ side
+by side with the still earlier division of the month into two parts
+determined by full moon. Hesiod, who tells his Bœotian farmer to avoid
+the thirteenth of the waxing month for the commencement of sowing, and
+who declares that the fourth, whether of the waning or of the waxing
+month, is “a very fateful day,” also uses such expressions as the “first
+sixth,” “first ninth,” “middle third,” “middle fourth,” and “the fourth
+which follows the twentieth of the month.”[599] This unequivocal evidence
+for the use of the decades as early as the middle of the eighth century
+B.C. seems to dispose of the theory[600] that they were an importation
+from Egypt.
+
+The evidence for the existence of weeks of nine days is very obscure.
+They are found in west Africa, but only as market weeks unconnected
+with the lunation. Efforts have been made to discover traces of such
+periods among various Indo-Germanic peoples, particularly the Greeks
+of the Homeric and pre-Homeric age.[601] There are, indeed, numerous
+illustrations in the older literature of cycles of nine days (as also
+of nine years), but no evidence at all that these were ever employed for
+civil purposes as regular divisions of the month. The same remark applies
+to the so-called weeks of nine days among the ancient Germans,[602] and
+to the frequent mention in old Irish and Welsh texts of periods of three
+days and nights and of nine days and nights.[603]
+
+Market weeks, eight days in length, which seem to have developed from
+earlier periods of four days, are found in Assam, in certain parts
+of Africa, perhaps at one time among the Indians of Colombia, and in
+antiquity among the Romans.[604] Such market weeks are independent of the
+moon and run unfettered through the months and years. On the other hand
+a week of eight days, called _‘sāmĕn_, which exists among the northern
+Abyssinians, is clearly adjusted to the length of the lunation. Every
+month consists, theoretically, of four weeks, of which the first two are
+those of the increasing moon and the last two those of the decreasing
+moon. In practice, however, the people are compelled to count only six
+days in their fourth and last week.[605] This Abyssinian cycle possibly
+may have originated as a market week, since elsewhere in Africa market
+weeks of four or more days have been adjusted, somewhat artificially, to
+the length of the lunation.
+
+Six-day weeks, connected with the market and probably derived from an
+earlier week of three days’ duration, are found in Africa.[606] There
+are also a few instances of the same cycle where a connection with the
+market does not certainly appear. The Lolo, Pula, and other aboriginal
+tribes of southwestern China keep a “Sabbath,” as a rule every sixth day.
+No ploughing may take place at this time, and in some places the women
+are not allowed even to sew or wash clothes.[607] The Bawenda, who occupy
+the northeast corner of the Transvaal, are said also to use a week of six
+days, though only three of these are separately named.[608]
+
+The numerous five-day weeks found in the Malay Archipelago, southeastern
+Asia, and Africa all exist in connection with the market.[609] On the
+other hand this cycle seems to be sometimes independent of the market.
+An Egyptian calendar, belonging to the second century B.C. but probably
+based on much older material, divides the year for astrological purposes
+into weeks of five days, each week corresponding to the sixth part of
+one of the signs or constellations of the zodiac. The calendar also gives
+the name of the presiding deity of each sign, together with the omens,
+portents, and favourable or unfavourable characteristics that belong
+to it.[610] A five-day period, _khamushtu_, employed as a sixth of the
+month, appears to have been familiar to the Assyro-Babylonians in the
+third millenium B.C. We do not know how far the _khamushtu_ entered into
+the civil life of the Mesopotamian peoples, but from the circumstance
+that this system of computing short time-intervals was used in mercantile
+and monetary transactions it may be surmised that we here have to do with
+a very ancient form of the market week.[611] Babylonian and Assyrian
+cuneiform texts also contain traces of five-day periods associated with
+the successive changes of the moon and dedicated to various divinities;
+but it is not certain that these later cycles were derived from the
+_khamushtu_.[612] The whole subject is obscure and may well await future
+discoveries for its complete elucidation. Finally, there is evidence
+that the old Scandinavian peoples employed time-intervals of five days,
+of which six were counted to the month. Here, again, we are at a loss to
+determine how far this pentad, called _fimt_, was regularly used as a
+civil week in heathen times. After the introduction of the hebdomadal
+cycle into northern lands, the term survived as a standing phrase in
+Norse laws and popular sayings.[613]
+
+The preceding pages have presented much evidence to show how carefully
+primitive peoples watch the changes of the moon and describe them by
+appropriate names. The four lunar phases provide, indeed, an obvious
+means of calculating the passage of time; and they are often used for
+this purpose in the absence of any recognized calendrical unit shorter
+than the lunar month. The length of the lunation being approximately
+twenty-nine and a half days, a single phase occupies about seven and
+three-eighths days, which must be calendarized as seven days, since it is
+necessary to employ a round number. It is not a valid argument against
+the natural origin of the hebdomadal cycle to urge that seven does not
+form an exact division of the lunar month. No other number will divide
+the lunation without a remainder. However, the hebdomad furnishes a less
+satisfactory time-unit than the decade, the former falling short of a
+quarter of the month by more than nine hours, the latter exceeding a
+third of the lunation by rather less than four hours. This circumstance
+may account for the otherwise remarkable fact that, while the ten-day
+lunar week is found in many parts of the world, the week of seven days
+occurs in the lower culture and among peoples of archaic civilization
+only as a borrowed institution, which can be traced ultimately to Semitic
+lands and Semitic antiquity.
+
+The prevalence of the seven-day week throughout the world furnishes a
+most impressive instance of the diffusion of a cultural element. Its
+introduction into the Pacific area during the nineteenth century and
+among the aborigines of America as the result of their contact with
+European civilization is well known.[614] In Africa it has been spread
+by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; in southeastern Asia and the Malay
+Archipelago the original disseminators were Hindus, followed later by
+Arabs and Europeans. This imported week has sometimes provided a cycle
+of time shorter than the lunar month, where none existed before; in
+other cases it has supplanted a native cycle usually associated with the
+market. Together with the week has often gone the Jewish, Christian or
+Mohammedan rest day.
+
+In Madagascar and along the east coast of Africa Arab influence,
+continuing for many centuries, naturally left its impress on the
+calendar. The names of the Malagasy weekdays are of Arabic origin.[615]
+Previous to the introduction of Christianity under Radama I (1810-1828)
+no rest day was communally observed, though each god had a sacred day
+when those who were its special votaries abstained from work.[616] The
+Swaheli, who occupy the coast lands north and south of Zanzibar, use a
+seven-day week, beginning with Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.[617] Some
+peculiar arrangements are found among the Masai of eastern equatorial
+Africa, a warlike race clearly distinguished by language, customs, and
+appearance from the Bantu peoples. The Masai seem to be connected with
+the so-called Nilotic group, and their ancient home has been placed in
+the region between Lake Rudolf and the Nile. At the present time they
+dwell much farther south both in British and German territory. The Masai
+count time by moon months, generally taken at thirty days in length.
+The month does not begin with the visible new moon, but on the fourth
+day thereafter. In addition they have a week of seven days, each one
+separately named. The seventh day, which ends, and does not begin, the
+week, is called _essubat ’n oloṅ_, “the good day.” According to Masai
+tradition this week in remote times began on the new-moon day, but now
+it is reckoned continuously without regard to the lunation. Furthermore,
+the Masai appear to have once divided the months into decades, as is
+still indicated by their expression, _ne̱gera_, applied to the tenth,
+twentieth, and thirtieth days. This term comes from a verbal form
+meaning “to be silent.”[618] There can be little question that the Masai
+seven-day week was borrowed from Jewish or Christian sources, while the
+decade arrangement may have been affected remotely by cultural contact
+with peoples influenced by ancient Egypt. Most of the interior tribes
+of British East Africa recognize no subdivision of the lunar month. But
+among the Rendile and Burkeneji, who inhabit the steppes east of Lake
+Rudolf, we find a week of seven days. Three of these days are marked
+by restrictions. The first day, _hahat_, is a fast day, at which time
+animals cannot be slaughtered for food. On the second day, _hura hakhan_
+(_hura_ in the Rendile language means sun), no work may be done, except
+the slaughtering of food animals. On the fifth day, _ser hakhan_, people
+will not travel, move their grazing grounds, or make cattle-medicine.
+The natives are unable to identify the particular days of their week
+with those of the European cycle.[619] Many of the Galla tribes between
+Shoa, a kingdom of southern Abyssinia, and the Tana River of British
+East Africa, are said to show great respect for Saturday and Sunday,
+and on these days do not work in the fields. Here we may legitimately
+assume Jewish and Christian influences from Abyssinia, especially since
+the nomadic Galla of equatorial Africa do not seem to keep any special
+rest days.[620] Other eastern Hamitic peoples, the Somali, Afar, and
+Danakil, use the seven-day week with Arabic names and observe Friday, the
+Mohammedan Sabbath.[621] The seven-day week found among the natives of
+Kaffa, a region of eastern Africa on the borderland between the British
+and Italian spheres of influence, appears to have been introduced a few
+centuries ago by Christian immigrants from Amhara, the central province
+of Abyssinia.[622] The spread of Islam among the Sudanese and Guinea
+negroes has resulted in the introduction of the hebdomadal cycle and of
+the custom of holding markets on the seventh day.[623]
+
+The seven-day week in India has a long history. The original division
+of the Hindu lunar month was, as we have seen, into two equal parts,
+determined by the waxing and the waning moon. This arrangement, which
+still prevails in India, appears to have been the only one in calendrical
+use until long after the beginning of the Christian era. It is true that
+even in Vedic times the eighth day after the full moon was regarded as
+one of the festival days of the month, and that, at least as early as the
+rise of Jainism and Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., the eighth day
+after new moon was added to the list of holy days.[624] The celebration
+of four lunar festivals does not, however, imply the use of a civil week
+by the Hindus, any more than in the case of the Persian festivals, which
+likewise were adjusted to the phases of the moon.[625] The hebdomadal
+cycle in India was entirely a borrowed institution, derived from the
+planetary or astrological week, the days of which are named after five
+planets and the sun and moon. By the middle of the third century A.D.,
+the planetary week was well known in the Roman world, and somewhat
+later it was introduced as an astrological device into India. Who the
+intermediaries were—whether Hindus who visited Mediterranean lands or
+learned Greeks who made the voyage to India—it is impossible to say. The
+earliest-known genuine instance of a planetary name of a day in India
+occurs in an inscription belonging to the year 484 A.D. By the end of
+the eighth century there are perhaps ten other inscriptional records,
+coming from various parts of India and from Indian settlements in Java,
+Cochin-China, and Cambodia, of the assignment of the weekdays to the
+planets. After 900 A.D., instances of this practice are more numerous,
+indicating that the seven-day week had now become something more than an
+astrological device and was generally recognized for civil purposes as a
+part of the Hindu calendar.[626] In modern India every day of the week
+has its sacred character for the devotees of various gods, Sunday being
+especially consecrated to the sun, Monday, to Siva, and Saturday, to the
+monkey-god Hanuman.[627] For Hindus, generally, Sunday, Tuesday, and
+Saturday are unlucky days, and at such times no important business will
+be undertaken or any long journey begun.[628]
+
+India was the center from which the planetary week of seven days was
+first introduced into southeastern Asia—into Ceylon, the Maldive Islands,
+Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, and Siam.[629] The Brahmanist Chams in
+Cambodia and Anam use the planetary weekdays borrowed from Hinduism, but
+the Mohammedan Chams sometimes employ the days of the Arabic week and
+observe Friday as a Sabbath.[630] The Laotians, who have taken over the
+planetary week from the Siamese, are careful, as pious Buddhists, so
+to adjust their calendar that Sunday (_van athit_) always falls on the
+eighth and fifteenth days of the lunar fortnight.[631]
+
+The Chinese possess no regular division of the month into weeks, though
+a popular cycle, ten days in length, has long been found among them. The
+week of seven days is coming into use in commercial centres frequented
+by Europeans, where, for Monday, Tuesday, etc., native names meaning
+“first day,” “second day,” etc., have been coined. The assertion that
+the Chinese from of old have been familiar with the seven-day week
+appears to be based on their custom, which is not of extreme antiquity,
+of applying the names of the twenty-eight lunar mansions to each day of
+the year in rotation, from which circumstance the same four out of the
+twenty-eight always fall on Sunday and constitute what has been well
+described as a perpetual “Sunday letter.”[632] On the other hand there
+is definite evidence that the planetary week was introduced from India
+to China, where, however, it seems never to have been employed except
+for astrological purposes. A Chinese translation, made in the eighth
+century A.D. of an Indian treatise on astrology, apportions the days of
+the week among the planets, according to the astrological order. Sunday
+in some Chinese almanacs is still called the “day of Mit,” that is, the
+day of Mithra, the Persian deity associated with the sun. This “Sunday”
+seems formerly to have had a place in the state calendars issued under
+imperial auspices at Peking.[633] In this connection it is interesting to
+note that the famous Nestorian Monument bears witness to the introduction
+of the Christian Sunday into China by Nestorian missionaries from
+Persia.[634] But the week of seven days as a calendrical entity never
+took root among the Chinese, nor have they ever observed a weekly day of
+rest.[635]
+
+In old Japan, as in China, the week of seven days was unknown. Shortly
+after the restoration of the Mikado’s power in 1867-1868 there was
+introduced what were called the _ichi-roku_, or holidays on the “ones”
+and “sixes” of each month, _i.e._, on the first, sixth, eleventh,
+sixteenth, twenty-first, twenty-sixth, and thirty-first days. But this
+arrangement, borrowed from the Christian Sunday, did not last long,
+and the copy soon gave way to the original. The Japanese now have the
+seven-day week with names derived from the Occidental names. Sunday, in
+vulgar parlance is called _dontaku_ (a corruption of the Dutch Zontag)
+and Saturday, in equally vulgar parlance, is called _han-don_, that is,
+“half-Sunday” (because the modern English Saturday half-holiday has made
+its way into Japan).[636] On Sunday government offices and schools are
+closed. In the cities some of the larger banks and mercantile houses
+also suspend their business on Sunday, but as a rule country people,
+artisans, and labourers observe no weekly day of rest. By people of the
+middle and highest classes Sunday is preëminently a day devoted to social
+intercourse, and even Japanese Christians, after attending an early
+morning church service, feel themselves free to devote the afternoon and
+evening to any form of legitimate recreation or amusement.[637]
+
+The planetary cycle is not unknown in the Malay Peninsula, though
+here employed, as it seems, solely for astrological purposes. For
+civil purposes weeks of seven days, marked by the return of Friday,
+the Mohammedan Sabbath, are in general use.[638] Curious animistic
+superstitions sometimes attach themselves to this day. Thus, the Malays
+of the Patani States believe that the spirits have extra power over
+mankind on Friday, hence many people will not take shelter under a tree
+at any time on this day, lest the spirits sitting in the tree dive down
+into them. This precaution especially applies to travellers, whose bodies
+are weary and whose souls are therefore weak. Some Malays who have
+wooden chests in which they store their finery and treasures dare not,
+on Friday, lift the lid of one of these receptacles, because then the
+chest’s soul (_semangat_) might escape. Henceforth the chest would become
+a dead thing and all luck would desert its owner. Patani fishermen on
+Friday always make offerings to the _semangat_ of their boats.[639]
+
+The seven-day week in the Malay Archipelago exists both as a Hindu
+institution of remote origin and also as an outcome of the expansion of
+Islam over this region. The Achehnese in northern Sumatra have not only
+borrowed the hebdomad from the Mohammedans, but go so far as to make
+Friday a day _pantang_ for all agricultural work, _pantang_ being the
+native term for taboo.[640] Among the natives of the Kuantan District
+the seven weekdays bear names derived from the Arabic.[641] On the
+other hand the Batta of Lake Toba possess a calendar derived from Hindu
+sources and also a week of seven days, with planetary names clearly
+taken from the Sanskrit. But the Batta magicians, who use this cycle for
+astrological purposes, do not now recognize its planetary origin; they
+know only the sun, the moon, and, possibly, Venus. To the Batta _ari na
+pitu_, the seventh day, is an evil day, and he who ventures to begin
+any work upon it will surely be visited by some grave misfortune.[642]
+In districts of Sumatra where neither Hindu nor Arabic influence has
+penetrated, a division into weeks is unknown, the natives counting,
+instead, by the days of the moon’s age.[643] In Java the Hindu planetary
+week was combined with the still earlier market week of five days in
+the eighth and ninth centuries, A.D., and since that time the Arabic
+designations of the seven weekdays have also been introduced.[644] A
+similar combination of the two cycles, yielding a period of thirty-five
+days, occurs in Bali.[645] In Macassar, a former native kingdom of
+Celebes, the Mohammedan Sabbath is observed.[646]
+
+The foregoing pages make it clear that the spread of Mohammedan rule
+both in Asia and Africa has introduced the week of seven days into
+regions where it had not previously found entrance. The Arabs themselves
+adopted the week from the Jews and Christians, presumably at the time of
+their conversion to Islam.[647] In the Arabic week the days from Sunday
+to Thursday are numbered in their order, Friday is called _al jum‘a_
+“the meeting” (for worship), and Saturday, _as sabt_, “the Sabbath.” On
+Friday, according to the rule laid down by Mohammed, the faithful are
+to take part in the midday prayer at the mosque and to listen to the
+sermon which follows the prayer. Labour is suspended during the service,
+but at its close secular vocations, including marketing, are resumed.
+The Mohammedean _jum‘a_, unlike the Jewish Sabbath, but like the early
+Christian Sunday, is not a day of rest.[648]
+
+The seven-day week has now been traced over a large part of the globe. It
+sometimes exists as a planetary-astrological cycle of pagan derivation;
+in other cases its presence is obviously due to Jewish, Christian, or
+Mohammedan influence. In no region does the hebdomadal cycle appear as an
+independent product of the native culture. The inquiry into its remote
+origin and connection with the cult of the number seven takes us back to
+the ancient Oriental world.
+
+It is a familiar fact that many people attach to certain numbers a sacred
+or symbolic meaning.[649] Such mystic numbers, unlike those of ordinary
+arithmetic, are real categories in which thought naturally rests;
+they are not fortuitous counts of objects but are rather subjective
+syntheses—_cadres donnés d’avance_—according to which the mind divides
+up and parcels out all things visible and invisible. Like names they
+may become virtual entities endowed with their own functional power.
+The symbolism and superstitions attaching to certain numbers, which we
+discover in the records of all archaic civilizations, must be based
+on very primitive modes of thinking, since a similar tendency toward
+mysticism in the use of numbers appears among half-civilized peoples.
+It is a tendency to whose development no bounds can be set, once the
+refining ingenuity of the priestly class has begun to elaborate the
+concept of the “sacred” as opposed to that of the “profane.” It seems
+obvious, therefore, that the systems of sacred numbers, found in ancient
+India, Babylonia, Greece, and other cultural areas, incorporate many
+items of folk superstition together with the results of much speculative
+activity on the part of early organizers of religion.
+
+It would be hard to find any number in the first decade which has not
+been invested, by this or that society, with a mystical significance.
+Seven, in particular, has enjoyed a marked importance among many peoples
+widely separated in space and time.[650] As a symbolic number it occurs
+among the Babylonians, Greeks, and Hindus at the very dawn of their
+history; and it still figures prominently in the popular lore of India,
+China, and southeastern Asia. Cultural influences emanating from the
+Asiatic mainland appear to have introduced the symbolism of seven into
+certain parts of Oceania and, notably, into Borneo. Of the Sea Dyak
+of Sarawak it is said that, after three, their favourite number is
+seven; while among the Malanau, another Sarawak tribe, seven is very
+prominent in rites of exorcism.[651] The same number occurs repeatedly
+in the legends of the Dusun of British North Borneo, and its mystic
+significance may account in part for the curious system of unlucky days
+observed by them. The Dusun consider twelve days of the month, beginning
+with the seventh and including also the fourteenth and twenty-first,
+as distinctly bad for agricultural labour. At such times they refrain
+from going to their rice-fields, under penalty of failure of the crop,
+but other work than that on the farms may sometimes be performed. The
+natives cannot furnish any explanation of the evil quality of these
+days.[652] A peculiar observance of the seventh day is found in some
+parts of Melanesia. When the first missionaries visited the New Hebrides
+and introduced the European week with Sunday as a day of rest, the
+natives were much astonished to learn that the whites were also familiar
+with their _bugi kai bituki_, or evil day. These Melanesians had never
+recognized any time-divisions shorter than the lunar month, but it
+had long been a custom among them to mark the seventh day by certain
+taboos. The natives would not engage in warfare on the seventh day
+after the declaration of hostilities; nor would they attempt to execute
+vengeance on the seventh day after the receipt of an insult.[653] The
+two prohibitions perhaps represent the broken-down form of a system of
+taboos at one time much more extensive. Elsewhere in the Pacific area
+(New Guinea, Australia, and Polynesia) seven does not seem to possess any
+special significance.
+
+The mystic qualities of seven are recognized in Africa, but only where
+foreign influences have penetrated. Among the Wachaga of German East
+Africa the seventh month of the year is most unlucky: houses are not
+built, or marriages celebrated, or fields planted, or wars begun, during
+this fateful time.[654] The Wagiriama and Wasania, Bantu tribes living in
+the southeastern corner of British East Africa, observe the symbolism of
+seven in birth, circumcision, and mourning ceremonies.[655] The Akikuyu
+attach a very special ill-luck to the seventh day. A herdsman will not
+herd his flocks for more than six days, and on the seventh he must be
+relieved by another man. One who has been away on a journey for six days
+will not return to his village on the seventh; sooner than do so he will
+go and sleep at the house of a neighbour a short distance away. Were this
+rule broken, he would certainly be struck down by some serious illness,
+and a medicine-man would have to be called in to remove the curse. “This
+belief,” we are told, “makes it easy for the missionaries to explain to
+the Akikuyu the force of the Christian observance of the Sabbath.”[656]
+Seven is also one of the unlucky numbers of the Nandi.[657] The seven-day
+periods kept as Sabbaths by some of the Baganda and the seven-day
+week with three days marked by taboos, found among the Rendile and
+Burkeneji, have been previously noticed.[658] In some parts of Abyssinia
+and Somaliland we find not only a week of seven days but also cycles
+of seven months and seven years, with seven as a distinctively holy
+number.[659] In west Africa, besides the adoption of a seven-day week
+as the result of Mohammedan influence, there is also a symbolic use of
+seven in native folktales,[660] thus providing an instructive parallel
+to the same feature in European stories. The frequent occurrence of the
+symbolic seven in the magic and astrology of north African peoples must
+also be attributed to the spread of Islam from the Mediterranean to the
+Sudan.[661]
+
+If the cult of seven in the Pacific area and Africa appears clearly as
+a borrowed institution, no other explanation than that of independent
+origination can account for the fact that some American Indian tribes
+also ascribe a peculiar sanctity to this number. In the opinion of most
+Americanists the symbolism of seven is here an outgrowth of cosmical
+conceptions of the four cardinal points, reinforced by conceptions of
+a central, an upper, and a lower world. Seven is thus the most sacred
+number because it represents all the regions of the cosmos.[662] This
+explanation cannot be safely applied outside the American area.
+
+The antiquity of the symbolism of seven in the Old World is attested by
+its appearance as a sacred number in the earliest literary records of
+India, Greece, and Babylonia. Numerous references to seven occur in the
+_Rig-Veda_, where, however, it enjoys less importance than three.[663]
+Periods of seven days and seven years are frequently mentioned in the
+_Odyssey_.[664] Hesiod includes the seventh day of the month in his list
+of holy days (έβδόμη ἱερὸν ἦμαρ), “for on the seventh day Leto bare
+Apollo of the golden sword”; and this particular connection with the
+seventh day was maintained by the god in the later age of Greek history.
+Most of his great festivals began on the seventh day, at which time all
+public business appears to have ceased.[665] Many other illustrations
+exist of the large symbolic rôle played by the number seven in Greece
+at a remote period.[666] Among the Babylonians, as early as the third
+millenium B.C., seven appears as a symbolic number in magico-religious
+rituals, incantations, exorcisms, and mythological narratives.[667] Thus,
+in the Babylonian version of the Deluge myth, periods of seven days’
+duration assume a marked importance: the rain continues for six days and
+ceases on the seventh, when the waters begin to subside; and seven days
+again intervene before the Babylonian Noah is able to abandon the Ark
+and offer sacrifice to the gods for his preservation. The exceptional
+importance which this number enjoyed in Babylonia lends credibility to
+the theory that here was the centre from which the lore of seven passed
+to adjoining regions of western Asia and thence to more distant parts of
+the ancient world.[668]
+
+Some Assyriologists have connected the symbolism of seven with the seven
+stars visible to the naked eye which traverse the celestial zodiac. For
+the Babylonian astrologers and astronomers these were the sun, the moon,
+and the five larger planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
+There can be no question that the separation of the planets from the
+fixed stars, one of the enduring contributions which Babylonia has made
+to civilization, was the outcome of superstitious notions concerning
+the influence of the heavenly bodies on the life of man. The Babylonian
+astrologers who watched night by night the stately procession of the
+stars across the cloudless skies were animated by no high zeal for
+scientific knowledge, but rather by the necessity of drawing from the
+celestial phenomena omens of good or ill for king and country. Jupiter
+and Venus were probably the first planets to be differentiated, the one
+because of his brilliant light, the other because of her two appearances
+when she precedes the rising, and follows the setting, sun. Saturn,
+Mercury, and Mars seem originally to have been combined under the one
+designation Lu-Bat, a term which came to bear the general meaning of
+“planet”—doubtless on account of the difficulty involved in observing
+their separate courses.[669] We do not know when all five planets were
+set off from the fixed stars, or when they were first connected with
+the sun and moon to form a group of seven planetary luminaries. As an
+eminent Italian astronomer has remarked, both achievements must have
+required centuries of close and accurate observations; they do not
+belong to a primitive astronomy.[670] Hence we may safely conclude that
+the symbolism of seven, reaching into remote Babylonian antiquity,
+long preceded the recognition of the seven planets; nay, more, that
+the symbolic significance of this number imposed itself on Babylonian
+astronomers and astrologers and compelled them to include in it all the
+principal stars.
+
+The differentiation of the planets led naturally to their identification
+with the greater deities of the Babylonian pantheon, whose several
+names—Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Marduk, and Ninib—have come down to us
+through the Greeks and Romans in their classical equivalents, Mercury,
+Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. It is by no means certain, however,
+that at all periods of Babylonian history these were the only deities
+which enjoyed planetary affiliations, or that the same gods were
+invariably connected with the same planets. The association of planet and
+god seems to have been quite artificial and arbitrary; at any rate, the
+omen texts do not show any close correspondence between the character
+of the deity and the prognostications drawn from the behaviour of his
+planet. Furthermore, the cuneiform records contain no indication that the
+Babylonians were familiar with what is known as the astrological order
+of the planets, the order, that is, in which they appear as regents of
+the weekdays in the so-called planetary week of seven days. The oldest
+known list of the Babylonian planets dates from about 700 B.C., and
+presents the following arrangement: Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn,
+Mercury, Mars. The same order is found one hundred and fifty years
+later, in astronomical texts belonging to the time of the New Babylonian
+Empire.[671] This seems to be nothing more than the sequence according
+to which the planets were severally differentiated from the fixed stars.
+At all events it is not the astrological sequence, which lies at the
+basis of the planetary week. Nor can the origin of the names of the
+weekdays be sought in Babylonia. It is true that the Babylonians, like
+the Egyptians,[672] ascribed to every day in the month its appropriate
+divinity, but absolutely no evidence exists that they ever applied the
+names of the seven planetary deities to the days of a septenary cycle.
+That step was taken at another time and by another people.
+
+The planetary week,[673] an institution which has spread eastward
+over the Oriental world and westward into Europe, is a product of the
+speculations of astrologers and philosophers during the Hellenistic, or
+Græco-Oriental, era. The sequence of its days depends ultimately upon the
+order of the seven planetary spheres, adopted by Ptolemy in antiquity
+and after him by astronomers until the discoveries of Copernicus. If the
+planets are grouped according to their distance from the earth, beginning
+with the highest and descending to the lowest, we obtain the following
+order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. No certain
+evidence exists that this arrangement was known at an earlier date than
+the second century before our era.[674] The astrological order, which
+also begins with Saturn, proceeds next to the fourth planet, or Sun, from
+which again the fourth planet (by inclusive reckoning) is the Moon. By
+continuing to select every fourth planet thereafter we obtain at length
+the regents of the seven weekdays: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury,
+Jupiter, Venus.
+
+How, it may be asked, did such an arrangement arise? This question has
+been answered for us by the Roman historian, Dio Cassius, who interrupts
+his narrative of the victorious campaign of Pompey the Great in Palestine
+to furnish a brief account of the planetary week.[675] The institution,
+says Dio Cassius, can be explained in two ways. According to the first
+explanation the gods are supposed to preside over separate days of the
+week, following the “‘principle of the tetrachord’ (which is believed
+to constitute the basis of music).”[676] The planetary week would thus
+be one expression of the occult relations supposed to exist between
+harmonic intervals of music and the seven planetary spheres. Though
+the idea that the motions of the planets were regulated by the laws of
+musical harmony had great popularity among some of the Greek schools
+of philosophy, neo-Pythagorean and neo-Platonist, it is not, however,
+to this comparatively refined doctrine of the “music of the spheres”
+that we must look for the origin of the planetary sequence.[677] The
+second explanation given by Dio Cassius, and also by Vettius Valens,
+is connected with the astrological theory of “chronocratories,” which
+assigned to the several planets dominion over hours and days as periods
+of time. If the day is divided into twenty-four hours and each hour is
+ascribed in turn to the several planets—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun,
+Venus, Mercury, Moon—then Saturn will preside over the first, eighth,
+fifteenth, and twenty-second hours of the first day, the twenty-third
+hour will fall to Jupiter, and the twenty-fourth to Mars. The
+twenty-fifth hour, or the first hour of the second day, will belong to
+the Sun, the first hour of the third day to the Moon, and so on for the
+remaining weekdays. The planetary deity found to preside over the first
+hour of a day is then supposed to give his name to the entire day. This
+scheme, as far as it depends on the recognition of twenty-four hours, is
+evidently not of Greek origin, for the mathematical division of the day
+into fixed parts did not arise in the Occident, but was due to Oriental
+influences.[678]
+
+The planetary week thus presents itself as a curious amalgam of ideas
+derived from different sources. Babylonia, the motherland of divination,
+provided the doctrine of the influence of the stars on human destinies;
+Greece furnished the mathematical astronomy which grouped the planets
+according to their distance from the earth; and upon these foundations
+astrologers of the Hellenistic era, familiar with the cult of seven and
+with a division of the day into twenty-four hours, built up what was, at
+the outset, an entirely pagan institution.
+
+The seven-day week (ἑβδομάς, _septimana_), in its astrological form, has
+had a varied history. It probably first appeared in the star cults of
+Mesopotamia and Syria, certainly not before the second century B.C.,
+passed thence to the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, the meeting-ground
+of East and West, and about the age of Augustus gained an entrance into
+Occidental lands. The first reasonably certain evidence of its existence
+in Italy is found in the so-called _fasti Sabini_, the fragments of a
+calendar drawn up between the years 19 B.C.-4 A.D. Here the days of the
+seven-day week (indicated by the letters _A_ to _F_) and those of the
+old Roman nundinal cycle (indicated by the letters _A_ to _G_) are set
+forth in parallel columns for the months of September and October. All
+similar calendars of the same period employ only the lettering of the
+eight-day Roman week.[679] The earliest evidence for the planetary naming
+of the weekdays is found in two inscriptions from Pompeii. Of these, the
+first gives all the names of the planetary deities in their Greek form;
+the second, the names in their more familiar Latin form, except for the
+accidental omission of Wednesday: Saturni, Solis, Lunæ, Martis, Jovis,
+Veneris.[680] Indications that the planetary week was known and used
+during the second century A.D. occur in both classical literature and
+the inscriptions. Dio Cassius,[681] writing early in the third century
+(about 210-220 A.D.), declares that the custom of referring the days to
+the stars, called planets, had then become quite familiar to the Romans
+as well as to the rest of mankind. The accuracy of this statement is
+confirmed by his Christian contemporaries, Tertullian and Clement of
+Alexandria, who in their writings addressed to the pagans employ the
+planetary names of the weekdays.[682]
+
+The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week with
+its numbered weekdays,[683] but by the close of the third century A.D.
+this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth
+centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western
+half of Christendom.[684] The use of the planetary names by Christians
+attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by
+converts from paganism. The old beliefs in the power of the stars over
+human destinies lived on in Christian communities; the heavenly bodies,
+though no longer deities, were still demons capable of affecting the
+fate of man. During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar
+worships, especially that of Mithra,[685] in the Roman world, had already
+led to the substitution by pagans of _dies Solis_ for _dies Saturni_,
+as the first day of the planetary week; and Constantine’s famous edict,
+as we have seen, definitely enrolled Sunday among the holidays of the
+Roman state religion.[686] The change from Saturn’s Day to Sunday must
+have further commended the planetary week in Christian circles, where
+the Lord’s Day (_dies dominica_), beginning the week, had long been
+observed as that on which Christ, the “Sun of Righteousness,” rose
+from the dead.[687] Thus gradually a pagan institution was engrafted on
+Christianity.
+
+The planetary week became familiar to the barbarians of the West before
+its adoption by Christianity. Much monumental evidence exists to show
+that in Gaul and Roman Germany the planetary order, beginning with
+Saturn, was known from the first half of the third century. The same
+cycle appears to have been introduced into Roman Britain. In nearly all
+Romance countries the planetary names are applied to the weekdays except
+the first and seventh, for which the ecclesiastical designations, _dies
+dominica_ and _sabbatum_, are retained.[688] In most Germanic languages
+Sunday and Monday appear as translations of the Latin forms; Tuesday,
+Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday represent equations of classical and
+Germanic deities, based on the most obvious points of resemblance between
+them;[689] while Saturday, for which no corresponding Germanic god
+suggested itself, is a corrupt form of Saturnus.[690] Among the Slavic
+peoples, whose week begins with Monday, as the first day after rest, the
+planetary names are unknown, the days being numbered in conformity with
+the usage of the Greek Church.[691] A similar custom prevails among the
+Lithuanians and Esthonians, who appear to have borrowed their week from
+the Slavs. Modern Greeks employ the ecclesiastical designations of the
+weekdays,[692] but the Finns and Lapps, at the other extremity of Europe,
+in adopting the week from the Scandinavians, took over also the planetary
+names of the days.[693]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BABYLONIAN “EVIL DAYS” AND THE SHABATTUM
+
+
+It is time to return to Babylonia. We have seen that here the cult of
+seven as a symbolic number was long anterior to the recognition of
+the seven planets; and, furthermore, that the planetary week, instead
+of being an early creation of Babylonian astrology, arose during the
+Hellenistic Age from the union of Greek and Oriental speculations. But
+for many centuries previously a seven-day week, in which the days were
+numbered, not named, had existed as a Jewish institution in western Asia;
+and we have still to determine whether this Jewish form of the week was
+derived remotely from Babylonia, and according to what conceptions the
+assumed Babylonian original was itself developed.
+
+In the year 1869 the late George Smith, well known as a pioneer student
+of Assyriology, discovered among the cuneiform tablets in the British
+Museum “a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every
+month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days, or ‘Sabbaths,’
+are marked out as days on which no work should be undertaken.”[694] Six
+years afterward Sir Henry Rawlinson published this calendar in the fourth
+volume of his standard collection of cuneiform inscriptions. It appears
+to be a transcript of a much more ancient Babylonian original, possibly
+belonging to the age of Hammurabi, which had been made by order of
+Asshurbanipal and placed in his royal library at Nineveh. The calendar,
+which is complete for the thirteenth or intercalary month, called Elul
+II, and for Markheshwan, the eighth month of the Babylonian year, takes
+up the thirty days in succession and indicates the deity to which each
+day is sacred and what sacrifices or precautionary measures are necessary
+for each day. All the days are styled “favourable,” an expression which
+must indicate a pious hope, not a fact, since the words _ud-khul-gal_ or
+_ûmu limnu_ (“the evil day”) are particularly applied to the seventh,
+fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days. The second
+Elul, being an intercalated month, might be thought to have enjoyed a
+special significance, as intercalary months have had elsewhere;[695]
+but such a hypothesis will not explain the inclusion of the month of
+Markheshwan in the calendar.[696] Hence it is highly probable that at one
+time the other months were similarly marked, though as yet there is no
+inscriptional evidence for the observance of the five “evil days” in all
+the months of the Babylonian year.[697]
+
+With regard to the reasons which dictated the choice of the seventh,
+fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, two views have been
+entertained. It has been held, in the first place, that the “evil
+days” were selected as corresponding to the moon’s successive changes;
+hence that the seventh day marks the close of the earliest form of the
+seven-day week, a week bound up with the lunar phases. According to
+another opinion the setting apart of every seventh day was due to the
+importance ascribed to seven; hence that the seven-day cycles were not
+regarded as quarters of the lunation but rather as periods containing
+the symbolic number of seven days, which happened to coincide, roughly,
+with a fourth part of the lunar month. The second view would be merely an
+amplification of the first, if we assume, with perhaps the majority of
+Assyriologists, that the rôle of seven as a symbolic number is ultimately
+connected with the moon changing her phases at intervals of approximately
+seven days.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that in the present state of our knowledge
+we cannot obtain any satisfactory explanation of the origin of a symbolic
+number. As far as seven is concerned, the American evidence, previously
+referred to,[698] indicates that cosmical speculations may sometimes
+account for its significance; while in the Semitic area, again, one root
+of the cult of seven may lie in the observation of the Pleiades and the
+early use of Pleiades calendars by the agriculturist.[699] That the
+Pleiades number seven stars has been noted even by savage peoples, who
+have also observed that each one of three other prominent constellations,
+Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Orion, contains seven principal stars. Such
+unexplained coincidences may have served to confirm the impression of the
+significance of seven in the minds of Babylonian astrologers, even though
+the mystic quality of that number was based originally on a different
+set of ideas. But it is unnecessary to discuss further what popular
+superstitions and priestly speculations gave rise to the symbolism of
+seven in ancient Babylonia.
+
+The month in Babylonia was a lunar month, and the year was a lunisolar
+year. Unlike the Egyptians, who passed from moon- to sun-reckonings
+before the dawn of history, the Babylonians always retained the
+primitive lunar calendar, harmonized with the solar year by the crude
+method of intercalating an extra month at the necessary intervals. As
+in all lunar calendars the month began with the visible new moon. So
+important was this for the determination of the month that _arxu_, the
+Babylonian expression for “month,” meant, properly, the beginning of the
+month; while Nannar (_nannaru_), one of the names of the moon-god, was
+originally applied to the new moon.[700] The length of the month was
+reckoned at thirty days as an approximate average of the duration of
+the moon’s course, a calculation familiar enough to many half-civilized
+peoples.[701] The ideogram for _arxu_ is the number “thirty” enclosed in
+the ideogram for “day”; and the ideogram for Sin, the moon-deity, is made
+up of that for “god” and of that for “thirty,” which number was sacred
+to him. When in late mythological syncretism the goddess Ishtar was
+represented as the daughter of Sin, her sacred number became fifteen, and
+this, with the determinative of goddess prefixed to it, was often used to
+express her name.[702]
+
+Though the calendar assigned to each month thirty full days, the actual
+month must have often included only twenty-nine days, since the reckoning
+employed was purely lunar. We may assume, in the absence of definite
+statements as to the way of fixing the length of the month, that the
+Babylonians at first followed the rough-and-ready method of modern Arabs:
+on the twenty-ninth of the month, after the sun has gone down, they look
+in the western sky for the faint sickle of the moon; if this is seen, the
+new month begins forthwith; if it cannot be seen, the following day is
+also included in the old month, which then contains thirty days. By the
+middle of the seventh century B.C., and perhaps at an even earlier date,
+a more exact means of calculating the length of the month had come into
+use. The royal astrologers, who sent regular reports to the king as to
+the appearance or non-appearance of the moon at the expected time, appear
+to have carefully observed the day of the opposition of the sun and moon
+in the middle of the month; when the full-moon day was known, it became
+an easy matter to determine how many more days should be counted to the
+end of the month.[703] It was not until the third or second century B.C.,
+when exact astronomical methods had supplanted purely empirical study of
+the heavens, that the Babylonians were able to calculate the appearance
+of the true new moon. By this time, too, the progress of astronomical
+knowledge allowed them to adopt the more accurate calendarizing of the
+lunation into months of twenty-nine and thirty days, five of the former,
+and seven of the latter, length.[704]
+
+These details concerning the Babylonian calendar, in all but its latest
+form, are enough to indicate that it presents no striking divergence
+from the general type of lunar reckonings. The Babylonians, like all
+other peoples of the ancient East, based their calculations of time on
+the moon. It follows, therefore, that the seven-day periods described
+in the Rawlinson calendar were also reckoned from the visible new moon;
+indeed, this fact is clearly indicated by the description applied in
+that calendar to the first day of the month.[705] We may reasonably
+assume that the last day of the month (when the latter actually included
+only twenty-nine days) or the last two days of a thirty-day month were
+regarded as forming an epagomenal period, interrupting the regular
+succession of seven-day cycles. Possibly the Babylonians may have
+employed some such device as that found among the negroes of west Africa,
+in order that four of their lunar periods should correspond exactly to
+the length of the lunation.[706]
+
+We may next inquire whether additional evidence exists to indicate
+that the seven-day periods of the Rawlinson calendar were definitely
+associated with successive phases of the moon. It has already been
+noticed that very early in the Assyro-Babylonian cultural area there was
+in at least occasional use a five-day cycle, called _khamushtu_.[707]
+Whether it preceded the hebdomadal cycle or afterwards supplanted it
+(perhaps as forming a closer divisor of the lunation), or whether the
+two periods may not have existed more or less contemporaneously, are
+matters concerning which the cuneiform records tell us nothing. They do
+tell us, however, that a five-day period, possibly to be identified with
+the _khamushtu_, was closely associated with the successive appearances
+of the moon, as in a text where the first five days of the month are
+spoken of as those of the crescent moon, the next five, as those of the
+half-moon (“kidney”), and the five following days as those of the full or
+nearly full moon.[708] A similar association with the moon’s course is
+set forth in the case of a seven-day period in a text which specifically
+indicates the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days
+as those of Sin, the moon-god.[709] Another text connects several days
+of the month with the moon’s course in the following order: first day,
+new moon; seventh day, moon as “kidney” (half-moon); fifteenth day,
+full moon.[710] Finally, in the fifth tablet of the Babylonian _Epic of
+Creation_, a work which in its original form is traced to the close of
+the third millennium B.C., it is told how the god Marduk, having created
+and set in order the heavenly bodies, then placed the moon in the sky to
+make known the days and divide the month with her phases. Although this
+interesting production, in its present mutilated state, mentions only the
+seventh and fourteenth days, we are entitled to believe that the original
+text also referred to the twenty-first and twenty-eighth days of the
+month.[711]
+
+The cuneiform evidence thus makes it reasonably certain that the cycles
+of seven days’ duration found in the Rawlinson calendar were regarded as
+divisions of the lunar month. This conclusion does not require us to hold
+that these cycles originated in the quartering of the lunation. Their
+choice may conceivably have been dictated in the first instance by the
+desire to apply the prevailing symbolism of seven to periods of time;
+while only later, and as a secondary development, were they brought into
+connection with the phases of the moon. In either case the seven-day
+periods can be only loosely and inaccurately described as “weeks.”
+Nothing in the cuneiform records indicates that the Babylonians ever
+employed them for civil purposes. These periods seem to have had solely
+a religious significance, as was true also of the four divisions of the
+month, similarly connected with the lunar phases, in the sacred calendars
+of both Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.[712] What we have disclosed in
+Babylonia is, not the week itself, but the material out of which such an
+institution might be formed.
+
+Each septenary period in the calendar for Elul II and Markheshwan closed
+with an unnamed “evil day.” The symbolism of seven cannot in itself
+account for the unlucky quality attaching to this seventh day. Seven to
+the Babylonians bore no unlucky character. It stood, rather, for the
+notion of completeness or totality, appearing in prayers, incantations,
+and exorcisms to indicate the sum total of the gods or spirits recognized
+by the worshipper; sometimes marking the length of the period during
+which such important actions as the dedication of a temple or the
+mourning for a death must be performed; and often, again, assuming a
+mythological rôle, as in the seven gates of the underworld, the seven
+names of the goddess Ishtar, and the periods of seven days’ duration
+found in the Babylonian Deluge narrative.[713] In these and many other
+instances seven appears as a symbolic, but not as a portentous, number.
+Assuming, however, that the seven-day periods of the Rawlinson calendar
+were associated with successive phases of the moon—whether originally or
+secondarily does not matter—it is clear that the seventh day, marking
+the critical or transition point in each phase, would possess a special
+importance. In fact, the negative or prohibitive regulations enforced
+among the Babylonians on the “evil days” bear a close resemblance to the
+taboos which many other peoples have observed at the changes of the moon.
+
+Recent students of Semitic magic have shown that the Sumerians and their
+successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, were familiar with the idea
+of taboo; the term _mamit_, which appears frequently in magical texts,
+is exactly equivalent to _tabu_, since it refers to that state of ritual
+impurity or ceremonial uncleanness attending certain circumstances or
+actions.[714] A great part of the so-called _Shurpu_ series[715] deals
+with the methods of removing the condition of _mamit_ into which a man
+may have wittingly or unwittingly fallen. The murderer, the adulterer,
+or the thief became _mamit_ in consequence of his breach of ordinary
+social morality, but equally cursed was the unlucky person who ran up
+against another who was under a taboo, slept on his bed, ate out of his
+plate, or drank from his cup. A man might be contaminated by putting his
+foot in some unclean water, by treading in some libation that had been
+poured forth, by touching a bewitched woman, and even by seeing one of
+unwashed hands. The third tablet of the _Shurpu_ series enumerates no
+less than one hundred and sixty-three taboos, including “those which come
+from the family, old or young, friend or neighbour, rich or poor; oven,
+bellows, pots and cups, bed or couch, chariot or weapons. To drink out of
+an unclean vessel, to sit in the sun, to root up plants in the desert,
+to cut reeds in a thicket, to slay the young of beasts, to pray with
+unclean hands, and a host of other common actions, might under certain
+conditions bring a _tapu_ on the man.” Such tabooed acts placed the man
+under an interdiction; if he fell sick, he knew that his sufferings were
+due to the hostility of some supernatural power; and a professional
+exorcist would be called in to drive away by magical words, prayers,
+and rites the divine curse clinging to his person.[716] It seems to be
+clear, then, that the taboos observed on the “evil days” represented to
+the Babylonians only a particular application of an ancient and generally
+accepted superstition.
+
+The calendar for Elul II contains specific directions for the observance
+of the five “evil days,” in each case the same except for differences in
+the names of the deities.[717] The regulations for the seventh day read
+as follows:
+
+“An evil day. The shepherd of great peoples shall not eat flesh cooked
+upon the coals, or bread of the oven.[718] The garment of his body he
+shall not change, he shall not put on clean [garments]. He shall not
+bring an offering. The king shall not ride in his chariot. He shall not
+speak as a ruler (?). The priest shall not give a decision in the secret
+place. The physician shall not lay his hand on a patient. To issue a
+malediction it [the day] is not suitable.[719] At night the king shall
+bring his gift before Marduk and Ishtar, he shall offer a sacrifice. The
+lifting up of his hands will then be pleasing to god.”
+
+It is clear that the rules for the seventh day prescribe a season of
+abstinence affecting many royal activities. The “shepherd of great
+peoples” must not eat any food which has been cooked with fire; he must
+not change his clothes; and he must not offer a sacrifice until the end
+of the day. The king is not to speak in public; and he is even forbidden
+to travel. The Babylonian monarch who observed all these taboos five
+times a month would have been as strictly secluded as was the Hawaiian
+ruler, who, likewise, during the four monthly _tabu_ periods retired to
+the inner precincts of his temple.[720]
+
+The Babylonian regulations have been interpreted as survivals from
+ancient times, when priest-kings were accredited with a divine or
+supernatural nature, and hence were subjected to numberless restrictions
+designed to prevent any impairment of their sanctity and magical
+power.[721] A consideration of the evidence yielded by primitive
+societies suggests, however, that the Babylonian regulations may have
+been connected originally with taboos imposed on the entire community.
+In Hawaii, where the lunar phases were observed as _tabu_ periods, the
+prohibitions affecting the king represented only an intensification of
+the communal taboos, to be explained by the extreme sanctity attached
+to the Hawaiian ruler. In Assam, where the _genna_ institution enjoys a
+vigorous life, we find that, besides the prohibitions communally observed
+at critical times, the _khullakpa_, or priest-chief, is surrounded by
+many elaborate taboos. Their purpose is “to protect the man who acts on
+behalf of the whole subdivision or village on the occasions of general
+_genna_, from any accident which might impair his power.” He is subject
+to various food restrictions, must content himself with only one wife,
+and must even separate himself from her on the eve of a general _genna_.
+In one group the headman may not eat in a strange village, nor,
+whatever the provocation, may he utter a word of abuse. The violation
+of any one of these taboos is thought to bring misfortune on the entire
+village.[722] It is not wholly speculative to suggest that, were the
+natives of Assam to discard their communal taboos as burdensome, the
+special regulations affecting the _khullakpa_ might survive, in deference
+to old tradition, and might even be increased in severity, if that
+individual should grow in authority and holiness. The situation would
+then furnish a very close analogy to what existed in ancient Babylonia.
+The regulations concerning the “evil days,” it may be noted, did not
+pertain to the king alone. We may reasonably assume that “the shepherd
+of great peoples” and the king mentioned further on in the calendar are
+one and the same; but the record also describes certain rules imposed
+on the priest and on the physician, both important functionaries among
+the Babylonians. It seems also evident that the day was regarded as
+unsuitable for any one to lay a curse or ban; according to another, and
+possibly more accurate, rendering, unsuitable for all business. These
+considerations increase the probability that at one time some taboos on
+the seventh day were observed by the entire community.[723]
+
+It is questionable, however, whether in late historic times there was any
+general abstention from work and other activities on the “evil days.”
+The Babylonians were a highly organized commercial and manufacturing
+people who would have found such regulations burdensome to the highest
+degree. Taboos once generally observed may have been gradually relaxed
+and at last abandoned, just as modern Jews are now neglecting the
+observance of the Sabbath. The practice might have been kept up, however,
+by the king and the priests as the special guardians of conservative
+institutions.[724]
+
+The cuneiform records contain a term _shabattum_, which has been
+generally accepted as the phonetic equivalent of the Hebrew _shabbāthôn_,
+perhaps an intensive form of _shabbāth_ or Sabbath, referring to a
+Sabbath of particular solemnity.[725] _Shabattum_, a word which has
+been found as yet only five or six times in Assyro-Babylonian documents,
+occurs in a lexicographical tablet containing the equation _shabbattu(m)
+= ûm nûkh libbi_.[726] The accepted translation of the latter expression
+is “day of rest of (or for) the heart” (_s.c._, “of the angered gods”).
+Various scholars in England and Germany, intent on discovering Babylonian
+parallels for all Hebrew institutions, have therefore explained
+_shabattum_ and its equivalent phrase by the five “evil days” found
+in the calendar already noticed. This identification was based on the
+observation that these seemed also to be penitential days, when by
+special observances the gods must be appeased and their anger averted.
+The Hebrew Sabbath would therefore represent an institution directly
+derived from the Babylonian regulations for the “evil days.”[727]
+
+Until recently, however, Assyriology has sounded no certain note
+concerning the etymology and significance of the term _shabattum_. Thus,
+Delitzsch holds that “the only meaning that may be justifiably assumed
+is ‘ending (of work), cessation, keeping holiday from work.’”[728] As
+the result of linguistic analysis Hirschfeld concludes, on the contrary,
+that “the idea of resting for religious reasons after a certain spell
+of working days is far too complicated to be the original meaning of a
+primitive root.”[729] Jastrow, again, points out that _ûm nûkh libbi_,
+with which _shabattum_ has been equated, was a standing expression for
+the pacification of a deity’s anger. It occurs frequently in Babylonian
+religious literature, where it is more particularly used in hymns
+addressed by penitentials to some god who has shown his ill-will toward
+them. _Shabattum_ implies, therefore, a day of propitiation, and the
+idea of rest involved refers to gods and not to men—a refraining from
+or cessation of divine anger.[730] Zimmern suggests that _shabattum_
+may be derived from the verb _shabâtu_, with the sense of “discontinue”
+or “desist,” applied to the anger of the gods.[731] Pinches, on the
+contrary, believes that the word comes from the Sumerian _shabat_, which
+probably had no connection with the Semitic verb _shabâtu_.[732] Nielsen
+goes still further afield for a satisfactory explanation, and considers
+_shabat_ a term taken over from the Arabic _thabat_, from a root meaning
+“rest,” applied to the lunar phases.[733] As the outcome of extensive
+philological study Hehn argues that _shabattum_ meant originally
+“fulness,” “completeness,” the notion of rest being later and entirely
+secondary.[734] Still another interpretation makes _shabattum_ equivalent
+to “day of lament.”[735] Finally, in a brief, though highly suggestive
+study, Professor Toy holds that the root idea in the Babylonian
+expression was that of abstinence, though _shabattum_ might also have
+been regarded as a day of propitiation because of the restrictions
+attached to it.[736]
+
+These conflicting interpretations scarcely made for confidence in the
+results of a purely philological analysis. Recent discoveries, however,
+have thrown new light on the problem. A lexicographical tablet from the
+library of the Assyrian king Asshurbanipal gives the names attached to
+several days of the Babylonian month; and among these is the designation
+_shabattum_, applied to the fifteenth day.[737] Still more recently a
+similar use of _shabattum_ has been found in a text which contains an
+account of the moon’s course during the month. Reference is here made to
+the first appearance of the new moon, its ash-grey light until about the
+seventh day thereafter, its opposition with the sun on the fourteenth
+day, its aspects on the twenty-first, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth
+days, and finally its disappearance on the thirtieth day, being the time
+of conjunction with the sun. In this description, which for minuteness
+recalls the Polynesian naming of the nights from successive aspects of
+the moon,[738] the fifteenth day again appears as _shabattum_.[739]
+
+It is clear that the Babylonians recognized, with many other peoples, the
+two most prominent stages of the lunation, new moon and full moon, and
+described them by particular names, _nannaru_ and _shabattum_. Evidence
+exists, moreover, showing that these two days from very early times were
+observed as festivals, particularly in the cities of Ur and Harran. Here
+were the chief seats of the cult of Sin, the moon-god, always one of the
+most important members of the Babylonian pantheon and anciently enjoying
+precedence over Shamash, the sun-god.[740] Certain cuneiform tablets,
+all written down during the time of the Fourth Dynasty of Ur and dating,
+therefore, from the third millennium B.C., distinctly refer to sacrifices
+which were made to the divine kings of Ur on the new-moon day and on the
+fifteenth of the month.[741] At Harran, where the cult of Sin continued
+to flourish under the Roman Empire and into the early Middle Ages, four
+sacrificial days were observed every month, and of these at least two
+were determined by the conjunction and opposition of the moon.[742]
+Outside the Babylonian cultural area, but within the general field of
+Semitic religion, there is also the interesting evidence yielded by the
+inscription of Narnaka, which indicates that as late as the time of the
+Ptolemies new moon and full moon were the chief periods of sacrifice
+observed by the Phœnicians.[743]
+
+The choice of the fifteenth day as the _shabbatum_ was obviously
+determined by the length of the Babylonian month, which in the earlier
+period was regularly taken at thirty days’ duration. We have seen,
+however, that, where lunar reckonings are employed and the month begins
+at sunset with the visible new moon, the fourteenth day more commonly
+coincides with the full of the moon.[744] _Shabattum_ being the technical
+expression for the fifteenth day as the time of full moon, it is only
+reasonable to conclude that, if not the name, at any rate the observances
+belonging to this day would be often transferred to the fourteenth of
+the month, or to any other day on which the moon became full. No other
+hypothesis will explain the outstanding fact that _shabattum_ was equated
+with _ûm nûkh libbi_ as a day for appeasing the anger of the deity. And
+if for practical purposes the fourteenth day might be a _shabattum_,
+it is not difficult to assume that this was also the case with the
+days (seventh, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth, perhaps, also, the
+nineteenth), which marked other characteristic stages of the lunation. In
+the developed Babylonian cult all these were “evil days,” when the gods
+must be propitiated and conciliated. In the primitive faith of Semitic
+peoples they were occasions observed with superstitious concern as times
+of fasting, cessation of activity, and other forms of abstinence.[745]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HEBREW SABBATH
+
+
+The earliest Biblical references to the Sabbath all indicate that the
+institution had long been found among the Hebrews. It appears in the
+most ancient documents of the Law, such as the two Decalogues,[746] the
+old “Ritual Code,” and the nearly related “Book of the Covenant.”[747]
+It is mentioned in the “Books of Kings” during the time of the prophet
+Elisha.[748] It is noticed in the prophecies of Amos and Hosea.[749]
+The antiquity of the Sabbath is further indicated by the fact that
+Hebrew tradition preserved no certain information of its origin. From
+the Old Testament we cannot tell whether the Sabbath was hallowed in
+remembrance of Jehovah’s rest after the Creation,[750] or whether it was
+instituted as a memorial of the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt.[751]
+Assuming, with most reputable critics, that the narrative in the first
+chapter of Genesis, which divides the work of creation into six days,
+is comparatively late, it follows that the Sabbath could not have been
+founded as a reminiscence of the completion of the Creation. The author
+must have been familiar with the institution of a seven-day week ending
+in a Sabbath. Its chief characteristic was then that of a day of rest,
+as appears from the fact that, without mentioning the Sabbath by name,
+he seeks to glorify it by placing the hallowed character of the seventh
+day at the beginning of the world. The sanctity of the seventh day is in
+reality antedated, and the priestly writer wished to adjust artificially
+the work of creation to it.[752]
+
+An old and still common theory derives the Sabbath institution from the
+worship of Saturn, after which planet the first day of the astrological
+week received its designation.[753] The theory is untenable for more than
+one reason. In the first place the Hebrews did not name their weekdays
+after the planets, but indicated them by ordinal numbers. In the second
+place Saturn’s Day began the planetary week, while the Jewish Sabbath was
+regarded as the last day of the seven, a suitable position for a rest
+day. And in the third place neither the Hebrews nor any other Oriental
+people ever worshipped the planet Saturn as god and observed his day as
+a festival. It is true that, besides Venus, another planet familiar to
+the Hebrews may be recognized in the Old Testament under the name Kewan,
+the Assyrian designation of Saturn.[754] This name appears in a passage
+of Amos, where the prophet has been supposed to be referring to an early
+worship of Saturn by the Israelites during the period of their sojourn in
+the Wilderness.[755] But a single Old Testament text, both corrupt and
+obscure, can scarcely be cited as proving that Saturn was ever recognized
+by the Israelites as a distinct god. If it be held that Amos had in mind
+the Hebrews of his own time, the passage in question can only refer to
+the adoption by them of astrological notions derived from Babylonia.
+These imported superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn
+_Shabbti_, “the star of the Sabbath,” which, however, is not a naming of
+the day after the planet, but a naming of the planet after the day. It
+was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had
+become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always
+to have corresponded to Saturn’s Day.[756]
+
+The association of the Sabbath Day with Saturday was probably one
+reason why Saturn, a planet in Babylonian astrological schemes regarded
+as beneficent rather than malefic, should have come to assume in late
+classical times the rôle of an unlucky star (_sidus tristissimum_,
+_stella iniquissima_). The oldest reference to Saturday is found in a
+verse by the poet Tibullus (d. 19 B.C.), who apparently identifies
+Saturn’s Day with the supposed inauspicious Jewish Sabbath, when he gives
+as one of his excuses for not quitting Rome the bad omens which detained
+him “on the sacred day of Saturn.”[757] Ovid mentions “foreign Sabbaths”
+along with the anniversary of the day of the battle of the Allia—_dies
+Alliensis_—as unlucky occasions.[758] Frontinus, a Roman military officer
+and tactician (d. about 103 A.D.), says that Vespasian defeated the Jews
+by attacking them on Saturn’s Day, when it was unlawful for them to do
+anything. Dio Cassius also speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their
+god the day called the day of Saturn, “on which, among many other most
+peculiar actions, they undertake no serious occupation.”[759]
+
+The Hebrews manifested so little originality in cultural matters and
+borrowed so heavily from their neighbours that it becomes a natural
+inquiry whether the Sabbath, with the seven-day week, may not have arisen
+outside of Israel. Writing in the seventeenth century the learned John
+Spencer argued that Egypt was the original home of the institution,
+since in various Old Testament passages the Sabbath is declared to have
+been established to commemorate the exodus from Egypt.[760] But the
+Egyptians, as we have seen, divided their months into decades, and no
+evidence exists that they ever employed for civil purposes any shorter
+division of the month.[761] A second hypothesis, which makes the week
+and the Sabbath a direct importation from Babylonia, is likewise without
+warrant in the light of existing information.[762] The same may be said
+of the theory that the Sabbath was first taken over from Babylonia
+by the agricultural inhabitants of Canaan, from whom, in turn, the
+Israelites borrowed an institution which would have no meaning to a
+nomadic people.[763] But the opinion, so frequently expressed, that the
+Sabbath cannot be very primitive, since it “presupposes agriculture and
+a tolerably hard-pressed working-day life,”[764] betrays an imperfect
+acquaintance with popular superstition. The brief prohibitions of work
+found in the Pentateuch cannot be separated, by any subtleties of
+exegesis, from the numerous other taboos with which the institution was
+invested. The rest on the Sabbath is only one of the forms of abstinence
+in connection with lunar changes; and, if the Sabbath began as a festival
+at new moon and full moon, it may well have been observed by the
+Israelites before their contact with Canaanitish culture. The ancient
+dwellers in the Arabian wilderness, who celebrated new moon and full moon
+as seasons of abstinence and rest, little dreamed that in their senseless
+custom lay the roots of a social institution, which, on the whole, has
+contributed to human welfare in past ages and promises an even greater
+measure of benefit to humanity in all future times.
+
+To a shepherd people in tropical or semi-tropical lands the moon appears
+as a gentle guardian, bringing restful coolness after the day with its
+withering heat, and dispelling with her kindly beams the thick darkness
+which may cloak a lurking foe. “This,” writes an intrepid traveller, “is
+the planet of way for the way-faring Semitic race. The moon is indeed a
+watch-light of the night in the nomad wilderness; they are glad in her
+shining upon the great upland, they may sleep then in some assurance from
+their enemies.”[765] To the Israelites, as to the ancient Egyptians, the
+moon was preëminently the “wanderer,” by whose movements the earliest
+calendars were framed.[766] One of the Hebrew names for “month” is
+_yérah_, from _yārēaḥ_, “moon”; it is called, also _ḥodesh_, which
+means new moon. One of the most magnificent of the _Psalms_ declares
+that Jehovah “appointed the moon for the seasons”;[767] all the Jewish
+festivals were determined by the moon. At the same time there is no
+Biblical testimony to indicate that the Israelites ever conceived of
+the moon as a divinity and addressed to that luminary specific acts of
+worship. It was only toward the end of the Hebrew monarchy, when the
+Chosen People were giving themselves over to astrology, divination, and
+the worship of the heavenly bodies, that clear evidence of a moon-cult
+appears in the Old Testament, where it encounters the denunciation of the
+prophets, the prohibitions of the Law, and the repressive measures of a
+reforming king.[768]
+
+The evidence is quite conclusive that of the lunar phases it was
+especially the new moon and the full moon which first aroused the
+attention of the Semitic nomads and evoked feelings of delight and
+veneration. Even to-day “the first appearing of the virgin moon is always
+greeted with a religious emotion in the deserts of Arabia.”[769] When the
+Bedouin and Fellahin of modern Palestine first see the lunar crescent
+they exclaim, “God’s new moon has appeared in his exaltedness. May it
+be for us a blessed new moon.”[770] Modern Jewish ritual prescribes a
+special service for the new-moon day, including the recital of psalms of
+joy. So familiar an expression as Hallelujah, “praise Jehovah” (Jahweh),
+is a verbal form of the onomatopoetic stem _hilâl_, meaning “new moon,”
+“crescent,” with the addition of the divine name.[771] The Hebrew month,
+as among other peoples who count by lunations, began when the silvery
+crescent was first discerned in the evening twilight. In later Judaism,
+as soon as the moon’s appearance was proved by credible witnesses before
+the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, the feast of the new moon was held, and
+messengers were sent abroad to announce the opening of the new month. The
+celebration of the festival would seem, at least occasionally, to have
+lasted two days, an arrangement obviously dictated by the inability to
+determine beforehand on which of two successive days the moon might be
+expected to appear.[772]
+
+The new-moon festival was considered an exceptional solemnity as early
+as the time of Saul. The twentieth chapter of the _First Book of Samuel_
+records a conversation between David and Jonathan in which the former
+says, “Behold, to-morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit
+at meat with the king.” It appears from this chapter that the first
+two days of the month were marked by feasts at which all members of
+the household were expected to be present, unless prevented by some
+ceremonial uncleanness.[773] The occasion was also observed by compulsory
+abstinence from all servile work.[774] In the time of Elisha the new
+moon seems to have been one of the favourite occasions for consulting
+the prophets, a circumstance which could be explained if the day were
+marked by a cessation of the usual occupations.[775] There are other
+reasons, presently to be given, for believing that until the Exile, or
+later, the new moon was a general rest day; and such it still remains for
+Jewish women, whose conservative instincts have thus preserved a memorial
+of its ancient observance.[776]
+
+Full moon, as well as new moon, enjoyed a religious significance to
+the early Hebrews. Two great agricultural festivals, one marking the
+commencement of the barley harvest, the other, the close of the fruit
+harvest, must have been celebrated at about the time of full moon,
+for, when the sacred calendar was framed in post-Exilic times, they
+were definitely fixed at the middle of the month.[777] The Passover,
+observed on the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan), was followed
+on the fifteenth day by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, occupying seven
+days.[778] The Feast of Tabernacles began on the fifteenth of the seventh
+month (Tishri) and likewise continued for seven days.[779] The religious
+importance of these two festivals is indicated by the injunction to keep
+the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as times of
+“holy convocation,” when no “servile work” might be done,[780] and by the
+significant expression _shabbāthôn_ (“solemn rest”), which is used in
+reference to the beginning and end of the Feast of Tabernacles, that is,
+to the fifteenth and twenty-second of the month Tishri.[781] Furthermore,
+the Pentateuchal codes contain a passage, the meaning of which was in
+dispute several centuries before the Christian era, where the word
+“Sabbath” appears to be used in a sense precisely the same as that of
+the Babylonian _shabattum_, referring to the fifteenth day of the month.
+In the twenty-third chapter of _Leviticus_ it is prescribed that on “the
+morrow after the Sabbath” the sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest is
+to be brought to the priest, who shall wave it before Jehovah, and that,
+counting from “the morrow after the Sabbath,” fifty days are to elapse
+before the commencement of the Feast of Weeks.[782] As Professor Jastrow
+has clearly shown, the word “Sabbath” is here used, not in its later
+sense of a seventh day of rest, but as a survival of the old designation
+of the Sabbath as the full-moon day. “The two references in _Leviticus_
+stand out as solitary sign-posts of an abandoned road.”[783]
+
+In some of the older parts of the Bible, and especially in the earlier
+prophetical compositions, the new moon and the Sabbath are repeatedly
+mentioned together. In the pathetic narrative which describes how the
+Shunammite woman went to seek Elisha that the prophet might restore her
+son to life, her husband asks, “‘Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day?
+It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.’”[784] The prophet Hosea, promising
+that the people’s unfaithfulness shall be punished, cries out wrathfully,
+“I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons,
+and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.”[785] Amos rebukes the
+oppressors of his people “that would swallow up the needy, and cause the
+poor of the land to fail, saying ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we
+may sell grain? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the
+ephah small and the shekel great?’”[786] Isaiah condemns the formalism
+of the ancient faith in striking words: “Bring no more vain oblations;
+incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling
+of assemblies—I cannot bear iniquity with the solemn meeting.”[787]
+Elsewhere, in the same work appears the prophecy: “And it shall come to
+pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another,
+shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah.”[788]
+
+This remarkable association of the Sabbath with the day of new moon
+had been previously noticed by such acute critics as Wellhausen and
+Robertson Smith, who were unable to offer a satisfactory solution of
+the problem thus presented.[789] When, however, the cuneiform records
+disclosed the fact that the Babylonian _shabattum_ fell on the fifteenth
+(or fourteenth) day of the month and referred to the day of the full
+moon, it became clear that in these Biblical passages we have another
+survival of what must have been the primary meaning of the Hebrew term
+_shabbāth_.[790] As late, then, as the eighth century B.C., popular
+phraseology retained a lingering trace of the original collocation of
+the new-moon and full-moon days as festival occasions characterized by
+abstinence from secular activities. How long-lived were the old ideas is
+further illustrated by the provision in Ezekiel’s reforming legislation
+that the inner eastern gate of the new Temple at Jerusalem should be shut
+during the six working days, but should be opened on the Sabbath and on
+the new-moon day for the religious assemblage of the people.[791] That
+the term _shabbāth_, the designation of the full-moon day, should have
+come to be applied to every seventh day of the month seems to be quite in
+accord with both Babylonian and Hebrew usage, which, as we have seen, led
+the month itself to be called after the new-moon day.[792]
+
+The Hebrew seven-day week, ending with the Sabbath, presented so obvious
+a resemblance to the Babylonian septenary period, which closed with an
+“evil day,” that scholars have felt themselves compelled to seek its
+origin in Babylonia. The two institutions, nevertheless, show important
+differences. The Babylonian cycle, as far as we know, was never employed
+as a chronological unit; the Hebrew week was a true civil week, a
+definite and well-understood period of time. The Babylonian cycle seems
+not to have been dissociated from the lunation;[793] the Hebrew week was
+a periodic week, running unfettered from month to month and from year
+to year. The Babylonian “evil day” was an unnamed unlucky day, observed
+by the king, by priests, and by physicians, but not certainly by the
+people at large; the Hebrew Sabbath was a named holy day, dedicated to
+the worship of the national god and kept by the entire community as a
+festival. These real divergencies make it certain that the Hebrew week
+and Sabbath, in the form in which we know them, could not have been taken
+over without change from Babylonia. The celebration of new-moon and
+full-moon festivals, which both Babylonians and Hebrews appear to have
+derived from a common Semitic antiquity, underwent, in fact, a radically
+unlike evolution among the two kindred peoples. To dissever the week
+from the lunar month, to employ it as a recognized calendrical unit,
+and to fix upon one day of that week for the exercises of religion were
+momentous innovations, which, until evidence to the contrary is found,
+must be attributed to the Hebrew people alone.
+
+In his able treatise Meinhold has argued that until the age of Ezekiel
+the Hebrews employed no weeks at all. He then supposes that continuous
+seven-day weeks were introduced, largely through Ezekiel’s reforming
+influence, and hence that the Sabbath as the last day of the periodic
+week was a post-Exilic institution.[794] Critics have pointed out that
+it is highly improbable that so far-reaching a change should have
+occurred without being recorded; moreover, that the acceptance of such
+a hypothesis makes it necessary to assume that all places in the Old
+Testament where the Sabbath is mentioned as the seventh day are either
+of Ezekiel’s time or later. But the problem is simplified if we hold
+that the Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, perhaps for several
+centuries preceding the Exile; weeks, that is, which ended with special
+observances on the seventh day but none the less were tied to the moon’s
+course. The change from such cycles to those unconnected with the
+lunation would not have involved so abrupt and sudden a departure from
+the previous system of time reckoning as that from a bipartite division
+of the lunar month to a week which ran continuously through the months
+and the years.[795]
+
+The establishment of a periodic week ending in a Sabbath observed every
+seventh day was doubtless responsible for the gradual obsolescence of
+the new-moon festival as a period of general abstinence, since with
+continuous weeks the new-moon day and the Sabbath Day would from time
+to time coincide. This seems to be a more natural explanation than that
+which regards the complete ignoring of the new-moon festival in the “Book
+of the Covenant” and in the Deuteronomic legislation as a deliberate act,
+designed to wean the people away from an observance to which heathenish
+superstitions were attached. The day of new moon never lost, indeed, its
+significance in Jewish ritual, for, when all the great festivals were
+definitely fixed to certain days, the new moon, as marking the beginning
+of the month, continued to hold a leading place in the sacred calendar.
+The Priestly Code prescribed special offerings for the new-moon day, and
+in Ezekiel’s legislation the sacrifices marking it exceeded in importance
+those for the Sabbath.[796] The ancient character of this festival as a
+season of compulsory abstinence from labour survived in its observance as
+a rest day by Jewish women, perhaps also in the provision of the law of
+_Leviticus_ that the first day of the seventh month, beginning the new
+year, should be a “solemn rest,” “a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a
+holy convocation.”[797]
+
+The Sabbath is described in the Pentateuchal codes as an agricultural
+institution. It appears there as a day of rest from farm labour, to
+be observed not only by the householder and his family, but also by
+the slaves, the cattle, and the stranger within the gates. In what is
+generally considered the earlier form of the Decalogue the keeping of the
+Sabbath is prescribed, “that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may
+rest as well as thou”; or, as expressed in another passage, “that thine
+ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the
+sojourner may be refreshed.”[798] From this commandment one might draw
+the conclusion that in pre-Exilic times the Sabbath enjoyed a purely
+humanitarian character as a season of repose for man and beast. The
+omission of any similar statement in the later form of the Decalogue,
+where the prohibition of Sabbath labour is based solely upon Jehovah’s
+rest on the seventh day,[799] would then be explained as the outcome of
+the priestly desire to exalt the Sabbath as a religious festival at the
+expense of its more humane and social aspects. The further requirement
+that even in the busiest seasons of the year no plea of necessity might
+be accepted in mitigation of the strict rule of Sabbath observance—“in
+ploughing time and in harvest thou shalt rest”[800]—also would be taken
+as evidence of the growing rigour of ecclesiastical ordinances.
+
+Properly considered, however, this priestly attitude toward the Sabbath
+was not a radical departure but rather an intensification of the austere
+significance attached from the earliest times to the new-moon and
+full-moon days. The Pentateuchal codes contain, in fact, a number of
+Sabbatarian regulations which are meaningless, except when elucidated
+from the comparative standpoint as taboos. The rule requiring every one
+to remain indoors on the Sabbath: “Abide ye every man in his place,
+let no man go out of his place on the seventh day,”[801] is identical
+with the numerous rules which impose seclusion on tabooed or unlucky
+occasions, as a means of avoiding physical contact with supernatural and
+invisible powers of evil.
+
+The prohibition: “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations
+upon the Sabbath Day,”[802] which in another passage[803] is amplified
+into the rule requiring all cooking to be done on the preceding day, may
+be first compared with the taboos observed by “the shepherd of great
+peoples” in Babylonia. On four “evil days” he was not to eat roasted meat
+or baked bread, and on the nineteenth day he might eat nothing which had
+been touched by fire.[804] In a remarkable calendar of the unlucky days
+observed by the Egyptians we find an extensive series of regulations
+regarding the use of fire. On the fifth of the month of Athyr, fire
+might not be looked at and, if it went out, it might not be rekindled.
+On the eleventh of Tybi no one might approach a fire-place, for, said
+the scribe, on that day the god Ra had once burst into flame to devour
+his enemies, and the effects of his metamorphosis were felt on every
+anniversary of the day. These taboos, which reach back into a remote
+period of Egyptian history, are still found among the peasants of Thebes
+and the Saîd, who, on certain days of the year, refuse to kindle a fire,
+and on others avoid approaching the flame, even of a candle or a lamp,
+and the most timid do not smoke.[805] In Hawaii, as we have seen, during
+the four _tabu_ seasons in each lunar month, “every fire and light was
+extinguished.” The same regulation is attached to periods of abstinence
+elsewhere in the aboriginal world.[806]
+
+Some of these taboos relating to fire may reflect primitive man’s fear
+of a mysterious element which had not yet been completely tamed and
+harnessed to human use; but the fact that among various peoples all
+fires are put out after a death indicates a more probable origin of
+the prohibition in the fear of attracting evil spirits or influences.
+In Morocco, when a person has died in the morning, “no fire is made in
+the whole village until he is buried, and in some parts of the country
+the inmates of a house or tent where a death has occurred, abstain from
+making fire for two or three days.”[807] Similar customs are found in
+Polynesia, Borneo, the East Indies, Burma, and various parts of Africa;
+they were practised by Persians and Greeks in antiquity; and they still
+survive among the peasants of Calabria and the Scottish Highlanders.[808]
+It is hardly possible to urge that the putting-out of fires on such
+occasions is always a necessary result of the widespread custom of
+fasting after a death and until the corpse is buried; as a matter of fact
+we find that fires may be extinguished when there is no fasting, and also
+that the fast is often restricted to the daytime, when evil spirits, and
+in particular the ghost of the dead man, are presumed to be unable to see.
+
+But, as Professor Westermarck has so ably shown, the widespread custom of
+fasting is itself often to be explained as due to the desire to prevent
+pollution.[809] Under certain circumstances to partake of food may
+cause defilement; hence fasting is only one of the numerous precautions
+necessary to avoid contamination. These ideas find expression in the
+rules which, like those prescribing the cessation of labour after a
+death, require mourners to abstain from eating food infected with
+the death pollution. Fasting may also be enjoined on other critical
+occasions, such as an eclipse of the sun or the moon, or during a
+thunderstorm; and we have seen that it characterizes some of the tabooed
+days previously considered.[810] Such well-established facts suggest
+that in the earliest period fasting may have also marked the Hebrew
+Sabbath.[811] This hypothesis seems first to have been advanced by the
+“judicious” Hooker, who observes that “it may be a question, whether in
+some sort they [the Jews] did not always fast on the Sabbath.”[812] He
+instances a statement of Josephus that the sixth hour or noon was the
+time when “our laws require us to go to dinner on Sabbath-days.”[813]
+Various pagan writers also refer to the Sabbath as a day of fasting.[814]
+Such a notion may have arisen from a misunderstanding of the Biblical
+rule forbidding cooking on the Sabbath, or, perhaps, from a confusion
+of this festival with the great fast on the Day of Atonement, which
+was a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_, a “Sabbath of solemn rest.”[815] Yet it
+seems difficult to understand the rule forbidding fasting at new moon
+and on the seventh day,[816] except as a reference to a custom formerly
+observed but in later times regarded as an illegitimate rite. Since the
+Sabbath fell, originally, at the middle of the month, it may be that
+the new-moon and full-moon days were once marked by both cessation of
+labour and abstinence from food. The foregoing pages have supplied too
+many instances of the transformation of fasts into feasts for such an
+explanation to be dismissed as an idle conjecture.[817]
+
+When the notion of a weekly Sabbath was extended, after the Captivity,
+to the Sabbatical Year, the seventh year was to be a “Sabbath of solemn
+rest” (_shabbāth shabbāthôn_) for the land, not because of the advantage
+of allowing soil to lie fallow at regular intervals, but because the land
+itself was consecrated as “a Sabbath unto Jehovah.”[818] The regulation
+does not imply that, as a consequence of a fallow year, the land will
+produce better harvests on the succeeding year. It is expressly said that
+the year before the Sabbatical Year is the one to be conspicuous for its
+fruitfulness: “Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth
+year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.”[819] The rule
+requiring that the produce of the soil should be devoted to the poor and
+to the cattle[820] perhaps indicates a partial triumph of the utilitarian
+spirit. During the Jubilee, at the end of seven times seven years, “Ye
+shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor
+gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines,”[821] a regulation which
+can be explained only as the outcome of the sabbatarian observances
+attached to the seventh day and the seventh year.
+
+In the Hawaiian Islands and west Africa any one who broke a sabbatarian
+taboo suffered death. Among the early Israelites the Sabbath-breaker
+was threatened with a similar penalty: “Every one that profaneth it
+shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that
+soul shall be cut off from among his people.”[822] We are not informed
+how frequently this stern ordinance was enforced; the case of the
+wood-gatherer on the Sabbath, who, by direction of Moses, acting on a
+direct revelation from Jehovah, was stoned to death outside the camp, is
+the only instance of capital punishment for Sabbath desecration which has
+found its way into the Scriptures as we now have them.[823] The instance
+is an instructive one, as revealing the strong sense of group-welfare and
+hatred of the non-conformist, characteristic of a religion which had not
+yet outrun clan and tribal limitations.
+
+The Old Testament affords evidence that the Hebrews kept the Sabbath
+with varying degrees of rigour in different places and at different
+times. Under the later prophets a movement appears to have begun toward
+a stricter observance of the day, as is seen in the effort of Jeremiah
+to prevent burden-bearing on the Sabbath, and in Ezekiel’s constant
+insistence on the profanation of the Sabbath in his catalogue of the sins
+of the Israelites.[824] But more than a century after these prophets,
+in the age of Nehemiah, the people of Judea made wine and gathered the
+harvest on the Sabbath. All manner of burdens were brought into Jerusalem
+on that day, and the inhabitants bought and sold with the men of
+Tyre.[825] These practices indicate that the Sabbath bade fair to become
+a social institution, divorced from supernatural sanctions.
+
+It is doubtless true that the Exile tended to augment the religious
+importance of the Sabbath, since even in heathen lands it could be
+observed by a people who now had neither state nor temple. In the Exilic
+literature great significance is ascribed to the Sabbath,[826] and in
+post-Exilic law it is regarded as a sign between Jehovah and the children
+of Israel that Jehovah is their God. It is impossible, however, to follow
+those critics who assume that the rigour of the sabbatarian observances
+after the Exile forms an entirely new development, and that the priestly
+Sabbath represents something very different from the Sabbath of the “Book
+of the Covenant” or of _Deuteronomy_.[827] The increased significance
+of the institution led naturally to a revival of the old taboos with
+which the day had been always invested, taboos which otherwise might
+have been expected to disappear with advancing culture and the decay of
+supernaturalism. Closer contact with Assyria and Babylonia, from the
+eighth to the sixth century B.C., also may have helped to revitalize
+the older superstitions and to give to the Sabbath once more an austere
+character.[828] The day, in fact, seems never wholly to have lost
+all traces of its severe and sombre origin in a period of taboo; it
+is significant in this connection that, while the Hebrews had their
+favourable and unfavourable days, as the expression _yôm tôb_ (“good
+day”) for holy days shows, the Sabbath is never so described.[829]
+
+The later history of the Sabbath as a _tabu_ day culminates in the
+exaggerations of pharisaic Judaism and the extraordinary micrology of
+the rabbinical enactments.[830] The _Mishna_ enumerates no less than
+thirty-nine principal classes of prohibited actions. Some of these
+are regarded as belonging to as ancient a period as any of the taboos
+found in the Old Testament; the majority, however, represent only an
+elaboration of the scriptural precepts. Two entire works are devoted
+to the provisions for Sabbath observance. The first treatise, called
+_Shabbāth_, is chiefly remarkable as an illustration of the subtle
+refinements and distinctions of which the rabbis were capable. Thus, the
+prohibitions to tie or untie a knot being regarded as too general, it was
+necessary to define the species of knot referred to. A camel-driver’s
+knot and a boat-man’s knot rendered the man who tied or untied them a
+Sabbath-breaker; but Rabbi Meir said, “A knot which a man can untie with
+one hand only, he does not become guilty by untying.” Rabbi Jehudah,
+still more liberal of mind, laid down the rule that any knot which was
+not intended to be permanent might be lawfully tied. The second treatise,
+_Ērūbim_, was intended to alleviate the extreme rigour of some of the
+enactments in the former work. Thus, the limits of a “Sabbath Day’s
+journey” having been fixed at two thousand cubits, the rabbis conceded
+that one who before the Sabbath had deposited food for two meals at the
+boundary thereby removed his habitation from the town and made that place
+his new domicile. When the Sabbath came, he was at liberty to proceed
+two thousand cubits beyond it, though he lost the right to walk the same
+distance in the opposite direction. As is well known, literal obedience
+of the Sabbath regulations was sometimes carried to such an extreme
+as to prove a source of great hardship, danger, and even death to its
+devotees.[831]
+
+These legal fictions, these casuistical elaborations of the simple
+ordinances of the Pentateuch concerning the Sabbath, may be paralleled
+by the growth of pontifical regulations at Rome relating to what might
+and what might not be done on public ferial days.[832] Like the Roman
+_feriæ_, also, the Hebrew Sabbath affords an instance of what seems to
+be a very general, perhaps universal, tendency of the human mind to
+dwell with special emphasis on the festive aspects of a holy season, and
+by some subtle alchemy of the spirit to convert what was once a day of
+gloom and anxiety into a day of gladness and good cheer. The post-Exilic
+prophet, the so-called second Isaiah, when he urges his people to “call
+the Sabbath a delight”[833] presents it, indeed, as a festival “holy to
+Jehovah,” but capable, nevertheless, of contributing to man’s physical
+and mental refreshment. And in later Judaism the strict observance of
+the Sabbath rest did not by any means preclude abstinence from bodily
+pleasures. Fasting, as we have seen, was forbidden on that day; three
+substantial meals were to be “enjoyed,” so Jewish theologians declared;
+and the New Testament itself contains evidence that Pharisees of the
+strictest type gave sumptuous entertainments on the Sabbath.[834] In
+fact, various Christian Fathers were persuaded that the Jews observed the
+Sabbath as a day of violent excess, and converts to Christianity were
+cautioned against applying to the Lord’s Day the _luxus sabbatarius_.
+“The Jews in our time,” says St. Augustine, “observe their Sabbath by a
+kind of bodily rest, languid and luxurious. They abstain from labour and
+give themselves up to trifles, and, though God ordained the Sabbath, they
+spend it in actions which God forbids. Our rest is from evil works, their
+rest is from good works; for it is better to plough than to dance.”[835]
+We may believe that such criticisms had slight justification in the real
+nature of the Jewish observance, little more, perhaps, than Plutarch’s
+quaint notion that the Sabbath must bear some relation to Dionysus, for,
+said Plutarch, when the Jews keep the Sabbath, they invite one another
+to potations till all are drunk.[836] It is more satisfying to turn
+to hundreds of Jewish hymns where the Sabbath is hailed “as a day of
+rest and joy, of pleasure and delight, a day in which man enjoys some
+presentiment of the pure bliss and happiness which are stored up for
+the righteous in the world to come, and to which such tender names were
+applied as the ‘Queen Sabbath,’ the ‘Bride Sabbath,’ and the ‘Holy, dear,
+beloved Sabbath.’”[837]
+
+The Jewish Sabbath appears to have been first brought to the attention
+of the Romans as early as the last century of the republic, when
+Pompey’s sweeping campaigns in the East led to the establishment of
+Roman dominion over Syria and Judea. References to the institution in
+Tibullus, Horace, and Ovid indicate that its peculiar character as a day
+of rest was then generally understood.[838] Their contemporary, Philo,
+the Hellenistic Jew of Alexandria, declared that the seventh day was the
+festival, not of one city or one country, but of all the earth, “the
+birthday of the world,”[839] and Josephus could write that there was
+no city among the Greeks or the barbarians where the festival of the
+Sabbath was not celebrated.[840] These statements, though exaggerated,
+bear witness to the success of that Jewish propaganda which, at the
+very time when the preaching of Christianity began, carried this other
+Oriental faith throughout the ancient world. The great commercial cities
+of the Mediterranean became seats of thriving Jewish communities where
+pagan proselytes adopted Jewish customs, including the observance of the
+Sabbath.[841]
+
+The Jewish seven-day week with its numerical indications of the days was
+adopted by the early Christians, to whom the planetary week, bearing the
+names of pagan deities, could scarcely prove attractive.[842] Friday
+and Saturday continued to have the designations παρασκευή and σάββατον,
+respectively, but Sunday, which by Jewish custom was called “the first
+day” after the Sabbath, eventually received the designation ἡ κυριακὴ
+ἡμέρα (_dies dominica_), the Lord’s Day.[843] The New Testament contains
+unambiguous evidence that from a very early period “the first day of the
+week” was observed by Christians as a day of assembly for the “breaking
+of bread” and perhaps for the collection of free-will offerings.[844]
+The author of the _Epistle of Barnabas_, toward the end of the first
+century, speaks of keeping the “eighth day” for rejoicing, and justifies
+its observance as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ.[845] The
+_Didache_, or _Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_, a work which belongs to
+the early part of the second century, enjoins meetings “on the Lord’s own
+day” (κατὰ κυριακὴν δὲ Κυρίου), for the breaking of bread and giving
+thanks.[846] Eusebius of Cæsarea, in his _Ecclesiastical History_,
+preserves a fragment of a letter of Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth (175
+A.D.), to Soter, Bishop of Rome, in which the former says, “To-day we
+passed the Lord’s holy day, when we read your epistle”; and the same
+historian also mentions the fact that Melito, Bishop of Sardis (170
+A.D.), had written among other works a treatise on the Lord’s Day.[847]
+Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the second century, describes
+how, “on the day called Sunday” (τῇ τοῦ Ἡλίου λεγομένη ἡμέρα), all
+town and country Christians were wont to assemble for instruction in
+the holy writings, and for prayer, the distribution of bread and wine,
+and the collection of alms. The name Sunday commemorates, according to
+Justin, the first day of creation and the resurrection of Christ from
+the darkness of the grave.[848] Justin’s use of this nomenclature, in a
+work addressed to the pagans, witnesses to the spread of Oriental solar
+worship throughout the Roman Empire, leading to the substitution of the
+day of Sun for Saturn’s Day, as the beginning of the planetary week. As
+we have learned, the Christians themselves adopted eventually the pagan
+designation of the first day of the week.[849]
+
+Though Jesus regarded the Sabbath as still binding on his followers,
+his teaching that it was a social institution designed for practical
+benefit to mankind, and not as a fetish, brought him repeatedly into
+conflict with the Pharisees, and called forth those utterances which
+have been so strangely neglected by sabbatarians in after ages: “For the
+Son of man is lord of the Sabbath”; “The Sabbath was made for man, and
+not man for the Sabbath”; “My Father worketh [on it] even until now,
+and I work.”[850] Jewish Christians appear at first to have continued
+the observance of the Sabbath, but this practice met the unqualified
+condemnation of St. Paul;[851] and one of the _Epistles_ of St. Ignatius,
+who suffered martyrdom about 107 A.D., refers to Christians as “no longer
+observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day
+(μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες, ἀλλὰ κατὰ κυριακὴν ζῶντες), on which also our life
+has sprung up again by Him and by His death.”[852] However, the Jewish
+element in the churches of the East was strong enough to secure the
+ecclesiastical recognition of Saturday as a holy day. It long continued
+to be observed like Sunday, by religious assemblies and feasting, though
+not by any compulsory cessation of the ordinary occupations.[853]
+Tertullian was the first Church Father to declare that Christians
+ought to abstain on Sunday from secular duties and occupations, lest
+they should “give place to the Devil.”[854] Tertullian’s statement has
+sometimes been understood to indicate a Sabbatarian spirit on the part of
+its author; properly considered, however, it means only that Christians
+should so carefully observe the duties peculiar to the Lord’s Day as to
+neglect, if necessary, their worldly business on that day. Other Church
+Fathers of the third century, including Origen and Cyprian, made no
+reference to Sunday as a day of abstinence from labour. The earliest
+Sunday law, the edict issued by Constantine in 321 A.D., bore no relation
+to Christianity.[855] What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as
+a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the
+fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency
+abstinence from labour on Sunday. The view that the Christian Lord’s Day
+is but the Jewish Sabbath transferred from the seventh to the first day
+of the week found occasional expression in both the law and the theology
+of the Middle Ages, and culminated in the sabbatarian excesses of
+English and Scottish Puritanism.[856]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+UNLUCKY DAYS
+
+
+The observance of lucky and unlucky days is a familiar phenomenon in
+primitive society and among peoples of archaic civilization. Under
+the attenuated form of a survival, the superstition still lingers in
+civilized and Christian lands. The reasons for the assignment of a good
+or an evil character to certain days are usually quite obscure; and even
+where explanations are provided, these are, as a rule, explanations
+after the event. The attempt to provide a satisfactory origin for them
+insensibly widens out into an effort to account for the genesis of the
+great body of popular and anonymous superstitions.
+
+Probably the commonest source of the belief in unlucky days is to be
+sought in that erroneous association of ideas which underlies so much of
+savage magic and savage religion. If an event, fortunate or unfortunate,
+has taken place on a certain day, the notion easily arises that all
+actions performed on the recurrence of the day will have a similarly
+favourable or unfavourable issue. Among the Tshi of west Africa, the
+most unlucky day is the anniversary of the Saturday on which Osai Tutu
+was slain in an ambush near Acromanti in 1731.[857] In modern Macedonia
+the superlative ill-luck attending Tuesday is explained by some as due
+to the fact—historically true—that Constantinople was taken by the
+Turks on this day of the week.[858] The _dies religiosi_, or unlucky
+days, of the Roman calendar included the anniversary of the battle of
+the Allia, _dies Alliensis_ (July 18), when the republic had suffered
+grave misfortune. The same date was also observed as the anniversary of
+the destruction of the Fabii at the Cremera, 477 B.C.[859] After the
+assassination of Julius Cæsar a decree was made that the Ides of March
+(March 15) should be called _parricidium_, and henceforth should be
+observed as an unlucky day.[860] The superstitions which in Christian
+times have gathered about Friday—at once a holy and an unlucky day—are
+connected with it as the anniversary of Christ’s Passion. In the Middle
+Ages people were accustomed to date on Friday all the unfortunate events
+of religious tradition and history. On that day Adam sinned and was
+driven from Paradise, Cain killed his brother Abel, John the Baptist was
+beheaded, and Herod slew the Holy Innocents. It was also the day of the
+Deluge, the Confusion of Tongues, and the infliction of the Plagues upon
+Egypt. Synchronisms of this sort had a great attraction to the mediæval
+mind, and numerous lists of them are preserved in old manuscripts.[861]
+There is a Jewish superstition, reaching back to the Talmud, that it
+is lucky to begin an undertaking on Tuesday, because, in describing
+the third day of creation, it is said, “God saw that it was good.”
+Contrariwise, it is unlucky to commence anything of importance on Monday,
+as to which day nothing at all is said.[862] Where such conceptions are
+rife, they readily lend themselves to divination and astrology, and under
+the fostering care of practitioners of magical arts may develop into
+elaborate augural codes.
+
+The observation of natural phenomena sometimes accounts for the unlucky
+character ascribed to particular occasions. We have already noted many
+superstitious observances connected with the phases of the moon, her
+monthly disappearance from the heavens, and her occasional eclipse
+by the earth. A further illustration of the same subject is found in
+the astrological doctrine of the moon stations. The old Babylonian
+astronomers, one of whose duties it was to make very careful observations
+of the moon, noticed that at each lunation she appears to pass by the
+same star-groups. It was natural, therefore, to associate the moon with
+the conspicuous stars and constellations in the vicinity of the moon’s
+path. The names which they received were in time extended to the lunar
+days themselves; and this apparent connection between the two became
+the principal basis of astrological forecasts for each day of the
+sidereal month.[863] The fact is well known that Babylonian astrology
+and astronomy—for the two were scarcely distinguishable in the earlier
+period—exerted great influence on the neighbouring peoples of Asia; and
+hence it has been generally assumed that the lunar mansions, reckoned
+at twenty-seven or twenty-eight in number, which we find among the
+Hindus and Chinese, and the augural calendars connected therewith, were
+derived ultimately from Babylonia.[864] In modern India the _nakshatra_,
+as they are called, “are consulted at births, marriages, and on all
+occasions of family rejoicing, distress, or calamity. No one undertakes
+a journey or any important matter except on days which the aspect of
+the _nakshatra_ renders lucky and auspicious.”[865] Among the Persians
+and Arabs the lunar stations have long been employed for astrological
+purposes.[866] The Arabs carried them to Madagascar, where they gave
+rise to an elaborate distinction of days lucky and unlucky. Some days
+were considered absolutely bad; others were absolutely good; others were
+indifferent. Again, some days were not regarded as good in general,
+though still good enough for special purposes; one being excellent for
+a house-warming, another for marking out the ground for a new town, and
+still another was lucky to be born on, but bad for business. Some days
+had a special peculiarity of their own, for instance, children born on a
+certain day usually became dumb. The character of a day, according to the
+Malagasy astrologers, depended, in short, on what one of the twenty-eight
+lunar stations it represented.[867]
+
+The conception of unluckiness may be deduced _a priori_ from the
+assumed critical nature of certain periods, such as epagomenal months
+and days. The thirteenth month, which many peoples employing lunar
+calculations find it necessary to intercalate at more or less regular
+intervals, is sometimes regarded as unlucky.[868] Again, the eleven
+or twelve days by which the solar year exceeds the lunar year assumed
+among various Indo-European peoples a portentous and often unfavourable
+significance.[869] The celebration of the Twelve Nights, in the sense
+of the Twelve Nights and Days, as a festival before or after the winter
+solstice, has been assigned to the Aryans of the Vedic age in India on
+the strength of certain passages in the _Rig-Veda_, where the three
+Ribhus, generally regarded as the personified seasonal deities who
+divided up the year, are described as sleeping during these days “in
+the house of the sun.”[870] The prophetic character of the Twelve Days
+appears to be indicated by their characterization in various Brahmanical
+writings as an “image of the coming year.”[871] Some eminent scholars
+have thought that the Twelve Days represent an ancient method of
+adjusting the lunar year to the solar year, as practised by the early
+Aryans before the custom arose of inserting a thirteenth month, to which
+reference is also made in the _Rig-Veda_.[872] This opinion, though not
+free from difficulties, is strongly supported by numerous parallels to
+the Indian evidence found in European folklore of the Twelve Days.[873]
+
+Throughout Europe from east to west the Twelve Days, usually reckoned
+from Christmas to Epiphany, are prolific in popular superstitions and
+customs. At this time the souls of the dead, sometimes under animal
+form, return to the earth and revisit the living; witches and demons
+swarm in the mischief-laden air; werewolves roam about, and the Wild
+Huntsman rides in the heavens. Most of the ceremonies performed during
+the Twelve Days have a distinctly pagan cast, such as the constant fire
+on the domestic hearth, the village bonfires, and the lighted candles;
+while others, such as the sprinkling of the houses with holy water and
+the marking of the cross on the doors, have only a thin veneer of
+Christianity. To a certain extent the Twelve Days thus form the modern
+European representative of those seasons devoted to the expulsion of
+ghosts and evil spirits which are observed by peoples of the lower
+culture.[874] A further resemblance exists in the distinctly unlucky
+character often assigned to the Twelve Days. In Macedonia no marriages
+are solemnized during their continuance.[875] In various parts of Germany
+they are kept as rest days, when the most important household occupations
+and even those on the farm are omitted. The housewife must not spin,
+weave lace, or engage in her usual tasks of washing and baking; and the
+farmer must not thresh grain. Certain foods, especially peas and other
+legumes, are carefully avoided; and no meat is eaten. It is not wise to
+lend anything out of the house or to remove refuse and sweepings. One
+ought not to be short of anything at this time, else one will be short
+of everything during the ensuing year. Certain animals, particularly
+associated with witches, should not be called by their right names;
+hence, you must refer to the fox as “Mr. Long-tail,” and to the mouse as
+“Floor-runner.” During these fateful days perfect quiet is essential:
+no table must be pushed about and no doors slammed, otherwise the house
+will be struck by lightning. In this period dreams and other prognostics
+are most to be relied on and are most carefully investigated. Everywhere
+in Germany it is believed that the weather of the Twelve Days determines
+what will be experienced during the following twelve months, so that they
+form, in effect, a meteorological calendar for the new year.[876] This
+last superstition, however, is not confined to Germany, being met, for
+instance, in modern Brittany. In most parts of that country the Twelve
+Days, here reckoned from the first of January, are popularly termed
+_gour-deziou_, “male days,” an expression which must be understood as
+meaning supplementary or additional days.[877] A superstitious avoidance
+of certain kinds of work during the Twelve Days may still be found in
+remote districts of the British Isles. In Shropshire horses are not set
+to the plough at this time and no spinning is done.[878] In Aberdeenshire
+people believe that all work ought, if possible, to be finished before
+Christmas Day. Between this time and New Year’s Eve no bread is baked and
+no clothes are washed, and the spinning-wheel must be carried from one
+side of the house to the other.[879] The Twelve Days over and above the
+year were called in Wales “days of days” (_dyddian dyddon_). “They are
+free days, and let any one come from any place he may, he will be free,
+and exposed to no weapon or stroke, since there can be no court and law
+of country on those days.”[880]
+
+The solar year, superseding the lunar year of three hundred and
+fifty-four days, seems to have been generally assumed in the first
+instance at the round number of three hundred and sixty days, the earth’s
+periodical course around the sun being taken as a multiple of the moon’s
+course around the earth. In ancient Mexico, where a solar calendar came
+into use, the three hundred and sixty days were divided into eighteen
+periods, each of twenty days. As their total did not round out the solar
+year it became necessary to add five days at the end of the year; and
+these possessed an unfavourable character. They were called _nemontemi_,
+“the superfluous, supplementary days,” with the secondary significance
+of “the useless days,” as being consecrated to no deity and employed
+for no civic business. That they were considered sinister and unlucky
+is evident from the abstinence that characterized them. Nothing of any
+importance was done on the _nemontemi_. The house was not swept, no legal
+case was tried, and any person so unfortunate as to be born on one of
+these days was destined to a poor and miserable life. At the same time,
+the _nemontemi_ possessed a prophetic power for the whole year. “They
+were careful,” says Father Sahagun, “during these fatal days not to
+fall asleep during the day, not to quarrel together, not to trip or to
+fall, because they said that if any of these things befell them, they
+would continue to befall them thence forevermore.”[881] Among the Mayas
+of Yucatan the same abstinence prevailed on the five _xma kaba kin_,
+the “days without names.” On these days “men left the house as seldom
+as possible, did not wash or comb themselves, and took special care
+not to undertake any menial or difficult task, doubtless because they
+lived in the conviction that they would be forced to keep on doing it
+through the whole ensuing year. The Mexicans were more passive in regard
+to these days, inasmuch as they merely took care to avoid conjuring up
+mischief for the coming year, while the Mayas did things more thoroughly.
+During these days, so portentous for the entire year, they banished
+the evil which might threaten them. They prepared a clay image of the
+demon of evil, Uuayayab, that is, _u-uayab-haab_ (‘by whom the year is
+poisoned’), confronted it with the deity who had supreme power during the
+year in question, and then carried it out of the village in the direction
+of that cardinal point to which the new year belonged.”[882]
+
+It is an impressive testimony to the essential unity of primitive
+culture that in a far distant quarter of the globe an almost identical
+superstition existed. The Egyptian solar calendar, like the Mexican,
+was based on a year of three hundred and sixty days, but in Egypt these
+were grouped into twelve equal months of thirty days each, leaving five
+supplementary days to be added at the end of the twelfth month—“the five
+days over and above the year” (_haru duaït hiru ronpit_), as they were
+styled.[883] Their great antiquity is indicated by another designation,
+“little month,” applied to them; and, in fact, a notice of the epagomenal
+days occurs in the _Pyramid Texts_ belonging to the Sixth Dynasty, where
+they are referred to as the “five additional days” on which the gods were
+born.[884] Later monumental records show that the deities associated
+respectively with these days were the five members of the Osirian
+cycle, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.[885] The evidence of the
+_Leiden Papyrus_, setting forth the ceremonies requisite for epagomenal
+days, indicates that they enjoyed exceptional importance because of
+their position at the end of the year. As religious festivals they were
+consecrated to the dead. Furthermore, they bore a distinctly ominous or
+unlucky character, and many were the prayers and magical formulas to be
+recited by the pious worshipper in order to secure divine protection
+against the malefic influences supposed to characterize them. To
+positive rites of prayer and sacrifice the worshipper must add cessation
+of all activity: “during the five days at the end of the year do no
+work; abstain from everything”—so runs the priestly text.[886] These
+precautions taken, he might look forward to a happy New Year.
+
+The conquest of Egypt in the sixth century B.C. by the Achæmenian
+kings seems to have introduced a knowledge of the excellencies of the
+Egyptian solar reckoning to the Persians. Their five epagomenal days
+were called the Gāthā-days, each being sacred to one of the five great
+divisions of the _Gāthās_, or Zoroastrian hymns. A Persian calendar of
+late date (1687 A.D.) gives the first day as lucky, and the third as
+unlucky.[887] It is significant that among the Persians, as in ancient
+Egypt, the epagomenal days particularly belonged to the dead, to whom
+sacrifices were regularly offered at this time, as well as during the
+first five days of the new year.[888] The Armenians also had their five
+supplementary days—_aweleach_—intercalated after the twelfth month, an
+arrangement doubtless borrowed from the Persians, but these days do not
+appear to have been marked by any special observances.[889] The latest
+attempt to introduce the use of epagomenal days dates from the time of
+the French Revolution. In their desire to abolish a chronological system
+bound up with the Christian religion the bold innovators of the National
+Convention set aside in 1793 the Gregorian calendar, establishing a
+Republican calendar in which the seven-day week was replaced by the
+decade and the year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each,
+according to the old Egyptian arrangement. Five intercalary days,
+popularly called _sansculottides_, came at the end of the year (six
+days at the end of every fourth year); they were dedicated to Virtue,
+Genius, Labour, Opinion, and Reward; and were observed as holidays. But
+this calendar, which John Quincy Adams described as an “incongruous
+composition of profound learning and superficial frivolity, of irreligion
+and morality, of delicate imagination and coarse vulgarity,” had a short
+life. In 1802 the week of seven days returned into general use, and three
+years later an edict of Napoleon ordered the restoration of the Gregorian
+calendar.[890] In our own time, however, serious proposals have been
+made looking toward the reformation of the present awkward calendar, and
+among them is the suggestion that we adopt the ancient Egyptian system of
+months and epagomenal days.
+
+It has been repeatedly noticed in the preceding pages that oftentimes
+no clear line of demarcation can be drawn between days _tabu_ and days
+considered “unlucky.” Both may involve ideas of contagion, the sanctity
+or pollution attaching to the one being conceived as scarcely less
+transmissible than the vaguer “unluckiness” which belongs to certain
+periods and affects everything done during their continuance. How
+some of the so-called unlucky days, still lingering in contemporary
+civilization, have descended from the holy days of antiquity is aptly
+illustrated by the superstitions relating to the certain days of March
+and of August, as observed at the present time in southeastern Europe.
+In Macedonia the peasants during the first three days and the last
+three days of these two months do not plant; they cut no tree or vine,
+for fear lest it should wither; they do not bathe in the sea, or their
+bodies would swell; and they even refrain from washing clothes.[891]
+In various parts of Greece and the Ægean it is considered necessary to
+abstain from particular kinds of work on certain days of August, and
+occasionally of March. During the first five days of August the people
+of Epirus do not wash clothes or go into the fields to work. In Crete
+the period is longer, for here on the first six and last six days of
+August clothes are not washed and grapes are not gathered.[892] In Cos
+on the first three days of August the women do no work (for it would
+not prosper) and wash no clothes (for these would soon wear out). The
+eleven days which follow are supposed to foreshadow the weather during
+the succeeding eleven months: as the fourth day is, so will September
+be; the fifth day prognosticates the weather for October, and so on.
+The fifteenth of August is celebrated as the Feast of the Assumption,
+closing a fortnight’s strict fast.[893] The Cypriotes observe the
+first three or six days of August as times when no trees are cut or
+peeled to obtain resin, when the use of water for washing clothes or
+the body is forbidden, and when no one travels by water. The severity
+of the regulations has led to the days being called the “evil days of
+August.”[894] All these taboos thus show much similarity, relating in
+particular to abstention from work which has to do with water or with
+vines and trees. From this fact it becomes a plausible inference that the
+unlucky days were originally sacred to the tree-nymphs and water-nymphs,
+whose festivals were celebrated in pagan antiquity. At the present time
+the days are associated with the _drymais_, mysterious spirits supposed
+to be abroad on them, and probably to be identified with the dryads
+(δρύαδες) of classic mythology.
+
+The likeness between tabooed days as periods of abstinence and some
+unlucky days may be further illustrated by much ethnographic evidence
+drawn from different cultural areas. The Maori, we are told, endeavour to
+determine by divination whether the day set for a journey is favourable
+or unfavourable. The fisherman is hopeless of making a catch on an
+unfavourable day. At such a time “no dress will be commenced, no seine
+cast, no fish-hook baited, no ground turned up, seed sown, distant
+visit made, flax cut or dressed, timber cut, canoe formed, or even food
+partaken of.”[895] The Batta of Sumatra possess elaborate calendars of
+days favourable, unfavourable, and of a doubtful character; and these
+are regularly consulted by the Batta magician in order that his clients
+may know when to commence any important undertaking, such as sowing
+and harvesting, house-building, erection of a new village, removal
+to another village, preparation of sacrifices at birth, name-giving,
+burial, betrothal, and marriage, and all other great occasions. A day
+may be wholly unlucky for one thing, but not for another; for instance,
+a day which could not safely be used for the celebration of a sacrifice
+might still be used for the inauguration of agricultural labour. On the
+other hand, there are certain days, indicated in the calendars, when all
+activity ceases, except the entertainment of relatives and indispensable
+harvest work. If a man should meet with misfortune on one of these fatal
+days, a sacrifice must be offered to the supernatural power supposed to
+be responsible for the visitation. The Batta calendar in its existing
+form is derived from India, but the people seem formerly to have
+possessed their own rude calendar, which was used to determine the lucky
+and unlucky days in a lunar month. Even at the present time the calendar
+is not employed for the fixation of dates in the European sense, but only
+in the service of popular superstition.[896]
+
+The Mohammedan Malays of the Malay Peninsula possess a number of
+divinatory calendars, one specifying seven unlucky days in every month, a
+second, twelve other most inauspicious days in every year, while a third
+gives all the days of the year classified under the heads lucky, somewhat
+unlucky, most unlucky, and neutral.[897] Chinese popular calendars set
+forth a similar classification of the days of the month as very lucky,
+neither lucky nor unlucky, unlucky, and very unlucky.[898] Furthermore,
+the first, fifth, and ninth months are considered unfavourable by the
+Chinese, who will not marry or change houses during these months.[899]
+In Korea the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth days of each month
+are called “broken days.” At such times the people avoid any new
+undertakings.[900] The old Japanese are said to have held five yearly
+festivals or holidays, “purposely laid on those days, which, by reason
+of their imparity, are judged to be the most unfortunate.” These were
+New Year’s Day, the third day of the third month, the fifth of the fifth
+month, the seventh of the seventh month, and the ninth of the ninth
+month.[901] In modern Japan the cheap popular calendars, circulating
+among the lower classes, contain indications for every day of a cycle of
+six days. Of these, the first is described as good during the forenoon
+for urgent business, such as lawsuits and petitions, but not good after
+midday. The second is good in the forenoon and in the evening, but not
+in the afternoon. The first half of the third day is bad, and no urgent
+business should be undertaken at such a time; the afternoon, however, is
+lucky. Nothing done on the fourth day will prosper. The fifth day is very
+lucky for anything, especially removals or journeys. With the exception
+of the noon-tide hour the whole of the sixth day is unlucky. This cycle
+used in divination flourishes side by side with the week of seven
+days.[902]
+
+The Tibetans are great astrologers. In every monastery there is at
+least one divining lama whose business it is to determine propitious
+and unpropitious times. Calendars exist for all the days of the month,
+some being described as “good,” others as “middling,” others as “bad,”
+while one is referred to as “not very good,” and still another as “the
+worst.” Among the causes of the luck or unluck attaching to certain days
+the Tibetans are inclined to lay stress on the periodical migrations of
+the spirits inhabiting the regions above the earth. It seems that the
+two kinds of spirits, good and evil, shift their abodes, to some extent
+every day and also contemporaneously with the phases of the moon, the
+commencement of a new season, and so on. Their migrations are performed
+with unequal velocity; hence, the combination of spirits varies for every
+day. If the good spirits are more numerous than the evil spirits on a
+particular day, the time will be favourable for any undertaking; and
+_vice versa_. This belief, we are told, offers a wide field of intrigue
+to the lamas, who alone are able to decide what have been the actual
+movements of the spirits.[903]
+
+The Toda, who dwell in permanent villages on the plateaus of the Nilgiri
+Hills in southeastern India, have a remarkable system of rest days
+deserving to be described at some length. The social organization of
+this interesting people consists of two endogamous divisions, called
+Teivaliol and Tartharol. Each of these primary sections is composed of
+intermarrying clans, and each clan possesses a group of villages in
+common. At the present time Toda interests, both economic and religious,
+centre about their buffaloes. The daily life of the Toda men is largely
+devoted to the care of these animals and to labour in the dairies. The
+buffalo is a sacred animal; the dairy itself is almost a temple; and the
+dairyman is only one remove from a priest. Toda religious rites seem
+to be, in fact, little more than the arrangements which a pastoral and
+communistic people have made for the provision and care of an article
+of food. According to Dr. Rivers, whose careful studies are a model
+of anthropological investigation, nearly every Toda ceremony has its
+appointed day or days. The choice of these “is often dependent on another
+Toda institution, the sacred day, either of the village or of the dairy.
+Every clan has certain days of the week on which people are restricted
+from following many of their ordinary occupations, although they are
+not the occasions of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the
+_madnol_, or village day, and the _palinol_, or dairy day.”[904]
+
+Each Toda village has its _madnol_, but, in general, where there are
+several villages of the same clan, the _madnol_ is the same for the whole
+clan. There are at least eight prohibitions characterizing the observance
+of this sacred day. Feasts may not be given at such a time, funeral
+ceremonies may not be performed, people may not bathe or cut their
+nails, and men may not shave. Clothes are not to be washed, the house
+is not to be cleansed, and, though the ordinary meals may be prepared,
+rice and milk must not be cooked together. Other regulations forbid the
+dairyman to leave the village, the buffaloes to be taken from one place
+to another, or the people to migrate from one village to another.[905]
+Though not all work is prohibited, the regulations are extensive enough
+to affect most of the customary occupations. Among the Teivaliol, one of
+the two endogamous divisions of the Toda people, the _madnol_ is the only
+sacred day of the week. With the other division, called Tartharol, there
+is also a dairy day, or _palinol_, the regulations for which have much
+the same character as for the _madnol_.
+
+Toda ingenuity has devised recognized methods of evading the rules for
+the holy days, and so of avoiding the inconvenience which might otherwise
+be entailed on the people. The rule that nothing may be taken from the
+village on the _madnol_ would prevent any purchases from outsiders being
+made on the holy day, since money would have to pass out of the village
+in payment. The Toda avoid this awkward consequence by the simple device
+of taking money beyond the village limits on the day before the _madnol_
+and burying it in some spot where it can be found when wanted. The rule
+forbidding Toda women to leave the village on the _madnol_ is evaded
+in a curious fashion. A woman will depart from the settlement before
+daybreak, will remain outside till the sun is up, and will then return
+to her home, for breakfast and the performance of any necessary work.
+During this time she is regarded as ceremonially absent from the village,
+hence her actual departure later in the day for another village is not
+considered to be a desecration of the _madnol_. With these possibilities
+of evasion open to the pious Toda, it follows that the regulations are
+seldom broken, in the letter if not in the spirit. When a breach of
+them does occur, the culprit may be obliged to perform a propitiatory
+sacrifice similar to that which follows the commission of various
+other ceremonial sins. “It seemed quite clear, however, that this only
+happened if some misfortune should befall the offender, his family, or
+his buffaloes. It would seem that a man might habitually and notoriously
+desecrate the _madnol_, but no steps would be taken by himself or the
+community so long as things went well with the man. If he should become
+ill or if his buffaloes should suffer in any way, he would consult the
+diviners and they would then certainly find that his misfortunes were due
+to his infringement of the laws connected with the sacred days.”[906]
+
+There is much variety in the days observed as the _madnol_ or the
+_palinol_ of the different villages and clans. The most frequent days
+appear to be Wednesday and Friday, which are sacred in six clans. Sunday
+is sacred in five clans, Monday and Tuesday in three, Thursday in two. In
+no clan does Saturday appear to be kept as a holy day.[907]
+
+The origin of these sacred days among the Toda is very obscure. Dr.
+Rivers first suggests the possibility of the institution of _madnol_ and
+_palinol_ having grown out of the belief in unlucky days. The code of
+rules prescribing what might and what might not be done would then be
+only an elaboration of the common superstition which restricts activity
+at such unlucky periods. But there are several difficulties in the way of
+this view. It is extremely doubtful whether the Toda has any such belief
+in days lucky and unlucky,[908] and if he has, the idea is probably a
+recent importation from the Hindus, among whom the superstition is very
+prevalent. Again, the distinction between _madnol_ and _palinol_ is one
+which cannot be satisfactorily explained by such a hypothesis. Finally,
+the different clans of the Toda have different sacred days, whereas
+one would expect lucky and unlucky days to be the same for the entire
+community. This seems especially reasonable when it is considered that
+the sacred days, by restricting intercourse between the different clans,
+produce much inconvenience, which, of course, is increased by the fact
+that the different clans have different _madnol_. Whatever be the origin
+of these Toda rules, there is, writes Dr. Rivers, “little doubt that when
+at the present time a given act is done or not done on a given day, the
+action is not based on a belief in lucky or unlucky days, but, as nearly
+always among the Toda, on custom prescribing that the act shall or shall
+not be done on that day.”[909]
+
+The question may be raised whether the resemblance of the Toda _madnol_
+to the Hebrew Sabbath is not accounted for by supposing the former
+institution to have been founded on ideas borrowed from Christians or
+Jews. If this has been the case, it is certain that the borrowing took
+place very long ago. In studying the origin and history of the Toda we
+have no record that reaches back more than three centuries. From various
+close resemblances between the Toda customs and those of the people of
+Malabar, Dr. Rivers thinks it probable that the Toda at one time lived in
+Malabar, migrating thence to the Nilgiri Hills. Both Christians and Jews
+were well established in Malabar more than a thousand years ago. If the
+Toda left Malabar before these settlements of foreigners were made, then
+Jewish or Christian influences can be excluded; if the migration took
+place subsequently, then they may have contributed to the development of
+the Toda institution.[910]
+
+In spite of these considerations, Dr. Rivers is inclined to consider the
+Toda _madnol_ as substantially a native institution, which may help to
+explain the origin of the Hebrew Sabbath. “In a busier community than
+that of the Toda, the existence of different _madnol_ for different
+clans of the community would soon become a serious obstacle to carrying
+on the business of life, and such a community would probably agree that
+all clans should have the same holy day. At present the _madnol_ is
+undoubtedly more sacred than the other sacred days, and if the latter
+were then to be neglected, we should have a community in which various
+activities were prohibited on one day of the week, and the institution so
+arising would differ very little from the Hebrew Sabbath. It is possible
+that the Toda show in an early stage the institution of a Sabbath in
+which the whole community has not yet settled on a single and joint holy
+day.”[911] The fact that the Toda employ the seven-day week, which must
+be entirely a borrowed institution with them, suggests, however, that
+the prohibitions attaching to certain days of that week were ultimately
+derived from foreign sources.[912]
+
+Another curious instance of communal rest days is found among the Siah
+Posh Kafirs, a primitive Aryan people dwelling in the northeastern part
+of Afghanistan, between Chitral and the Hindu-Kush. They seem formerly
+to have occupied a more extended area about the headwaters of the Indus.
+The conversion of the surrounding tribes, first to Buddhism and later to
+Mohammedanism, has further served to isolate them. With the Afghans on
+the west their enmity is deadly and unceasing, but their relations with
+their eastern neighbours admit of friendly intercourse. It is on this
+side, therefore, that we must look for the introduction into Kafiristan
+of Indian cultural elements, among which is the seven-day week.[913]
+On certain weekdays the Siah Posh Kafirs rest from work. Young and old
+gather in large buildings erected in the centre of the villages and here
+they dance all night, to the music of flutes and trumpets, and sing songs
+in honour of the gods.[914] According to a later and fuller account, the
+Kafir rest days are called _agar_; in some districts they occur every
+Thursday, in other districts, every Saturday, but only during the months
+from April to September, when field work is in progress. The _agar_
+appear to be rigorously observed by the male inhabitants of a village,
+but the women, who stop their field-work on these days, do not scruple
+to engage in other coolie labour during their continuance. “I failed,”
+writes our authority, “to discover anything concerning the origin of
+these _agar_. Their observance may have become a national custom, the
+origin of which is as difficult to determine as the Sabbaths of other
+ancient peoples. As the Kám people were averse to starting on a journey
+on the _agar_ days, and as all the women left their field-work altogether
+on those occasions, it is possible that the _agar_ was originally
+considered an unlucky day.”[915]
+
+Perhaps no people have subjected themselves to more irksome restrictions
+on unlucky days than the natives of Madagascar. In this island systems of
+taboo are widespread and elaborate, even at the present time. The term
+_fady_ (or _tabu_), used for all objects and persons tabooed, is likewise
+applied by the Malagasy to unfavourable days and months, the quality
+of such periods as dangerous or unlucky being considered transmissible
+to beings and actions.[916] By the Hova, a people of remote, perhaps
+prehistoric, Malay origin, now occupying the central tableland of
+Madagascar, only twelve days in the month were regarded as lucky. The
+first days of some months possessed a most disastrous character, and
+children born on them were usually put to death. The same cruel practice
+was found among other tribes, such as the Bara and Tanala, leading, in
+the latter case, to the destruction of at least one-fourth of all the
+infants born.[917] The Tanala consider one of the months, called _faosa_,
+extremely unlucky. “No one works in that month, no one changes his place
+of abode or goes about. If any one happens to be in the fields when the
+month comes in, there he remains.”[918] The Sihanaka keep Tuesday as an
+unlucky day on which no work is allowed in the fields. Each Sihanaka
+family, in addition, inherits a special unlucky day in each week, when it
+is not permissible to go outside the house.[919] The Sakalava likewise
+abstain from all business and remain strictly in seclusion on their
+unlucky days, which belong both to families and to individuals.[920]
+Among the Betsimisaraka each person has his unlucky day when he does not
+work; in fact, he can do nothing at this time except eat, drink, sleep,
+and dress his hair. Since the introduction of Christianity the day kept
+in this strict fashion is Sunday.[921]
+
+These accounts of lucky and unlucky days observed by half-civilized
+peoples at the present time throw light on the references to the same
+superstition found in the records of archaic civilizations. For Egypt
+we have the evidence of several ancient calendars preserved in papyrus
+manuscripts. The first of these dates from the Twelfth Dynasty (about
+2000 B.C.) and includes all the days of the month, eighteen being defined
+as “good,” nine as “bad,” and three (the sixteenth, twenty-second, and
+twenty-third), as “half-good” and “half-bad.” The primitive character
+of this calendar is indicated by the fact that the same prognostics are
+attached to the same days of the month throughout the year. The second
+calendar, dating from about 1000 B.C., is more complicated, since the
+prognostics of the several days are unlike in the different months, while
+each day is itself divided into three parts, lucky, unlucky, and neutral.
+Neither calendar contains mention of the five epagomenal days.[922]
+
+The third and best-known of these Egyptian calendars is the _Papyrus
+Sallier IV_, which in its present form belongs to about 1200 B.C. but
+is based on much earlier documents.[923] Parts of the manuscript at the
+beginning and end have been lost, so that it now contains prognostics
+for only two hundred and thirty-five days of the year. This interesting
+production of ancient though misdirected learning divides the hours
+between the rising and the setting of the sun into three periods,
+each of which is ruled by its particular influence. Some days were
+good throughout the three periods, some were wholly bad, others were
+critical—_dubium sed in malum vergens_—while others again presented
+combinations of these three characteristics. The following are typical
+regulations, arranged according to the order of the Egyptian months.[924]
+22 Thoth: eat no fish and light no oil lamp. 23 Thoth: put no incense
+on the fire; kill no animals, domestic or wild; eat neither a goose nor
+a goat. A child born on this day will amount to nothing. 26 Thoth: do
+nothing on this day. 4 Paophi: do not go out of the house. 5 Paophi:
+do not go out of the house; do not have intercourse with a woman. 22
+Paophi: do not wash and do not approach a stream. 19 Athyr: light no
+fire. 6 Mechir: do no work. 13 Pharmuthi: do not go anywhere. In the
+calendar as a whole the most frequent injunctions relate to quitting
+the house, travelling, sailing, and undertaking any kind of work. Next
+in number are the prohibitions of loud talking, singing, and sexual
+intercourse. There are also prohibitions of drinking, bathing, and
+killing or eating certain animals, besides others directed against
+the use of fire and lights. It is clear that in this curious treatise
+we have a systematization of popular taboos relating to the lucky or
+unlucky character of certain days. The fact that it was used as a
+boy’s schoolbook indicates how priestly influence had erected into a
+pseudo-science the uncouth and childish superstitions of the multitude.
+The calendar itself presents evidence that the priests had begun to
+rationalize the taboos, for the prohibitions are often accompanied by a
+summary of the motives which justified them, usually legendary episodes
+of the gods. For instance, the regulation for the twenty-sixth of
+Thoth—“do absolutely nothing”—is explained by a reference to the terrific
+combat between Horus and his uncle Set, which occurred on this ill-omened
+day.[925]
+
+The Babylonian augural calendar for the intercalated month of Elul and
+for Markheshwan is not the only example of omen literature to be found in
+the cuneiform records. We possess a document, preserved in great part,
+which includes every day in the year, either specifying its nature as
+favourable or unfavourable or adding other indications with regard to its
+character. A note like “hostility,” appended to the twenty-first day of
+the second month, is a warning that the gods are out of humour on that
+day; the twenty-third day, described as “heart not good,” is explained
+by the contrast “heart glad” on the following day. Not content with a
+simple distinction of favourableness and unfavourableness, the calendar
+also deals with days “wholly favourable” and “half favourable.” Still
+other days are noted as those portending “distress,” “trouble,” “tears,”
+“injury,” “darkness,” “moon obscured,” and the like. The precautions
+and prohibitions set forth for unlucky days include, among many others,
+the familiar taboos of eating specified foods, such as swine’s flesh,
+beef, dates, and fish, sexual intercourse, buying and selling, wearing
+bright garments, travelling, holding law courts, and so on. The calendar
+contains a number of references to the king and may, very probably, have
+served the priests in their instructions to the monarch. As Professor
+Jastrow remarks, the belief in lucky and unlucky days has a distinctly
+popular flavour, making it probable that the priests embodied in their
+lists many of the notions that arose among the people, and gave to these
+an official sanction.[926]
+
+The Greeks of Hesiod’s time possessed an elaborate calendar of lucky and
+unlucky days.[927] “Sometimes a day is a stepmother, sometimes a mother,”
+Hesiod remarks pithily. What ancient regulations for the observance of
+tabooed periods are embodied in the calendar is problematical. Many of
+the prohibitions with which the first part of the poem concludes are,
+however, thoroughly primitive taboos.[928] Hesiod does not mention
+any days when labour is to be entirely abandoned. We may assume,
+perhaps, that at the period when the Hesiodic poems were composed the
+rationalizing temper of the Greeks had gotten somewhat the better of
+their superstitious fears. In the Hesiodic list, as in the Egyptian
+and Babylonian calendars, the notion appears that not only whole days
+but even parts of days have an individual character, working for good
+or evil. The middle ninth (the nineteenth) is said to be “a better day
+toward afternoon.” The “fourth which followeth the twentieth of the
+month is the best at dawn, but it is worse toward afternoon.” Hesiod
+does not distinguish the months as lucky or unlucky, and the days which
+possess either of these attributes are the same for every month. He
+gives no explanation for their luckiness or unluckiness, though traces
+of a rationalizing process are perhaps observable in the directions
+regarding the “fifths” (presumably the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth
+days), which are specially unlucky “because on the fifth men say the
+Erinyes attended the birth of Oath (Horkos), whom Strife bare to punish
+perjurers.” The seventh again is lucky, “for on that day Leto bare Apollo
+of the Golden Sword.”[929] The Hesiodic injunctions did not cease to be
+observed in the later classical epoch and exercised great influence on
+civil and political life. The superstitions relating to unlucky days only
+gained a firmer foothold, under the influence of Babylonian and Egyptian
+doctrines, in passing from Greece to Rome and from Rome to western
+Europe.[930]
+
+During the Middle Ages perhaps the most widespread observance of unlucky
+days had to do with those which went under the significant name of _dies
+Ægyptiaci_. The prohibitions marking them—not to build a house, not to
+buy or sell, not to cut hair, beard, and nails, and so on—possessed,
+however, no character specifically Egyptian. The mediæval belief was that
+these days received their designation because on one of them the plagues
+had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt, and on another Pharaoh and
+his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. As early as the fourth
+century A.D. Christian writers refer to “Egyptian days” as times feared
+and avoided by both pagans and converts to Christianity.[931] About
+this period the superstition gained admittance to the state calendars.
+In the _fasti Philocali_ (354 A.D.), twenty-five _dies Ægyptiaci_ are
+reckoned, two in each month except January, which contains three.[932]
+A mediæval French manuscript, dating from the reign of St. Louis,
+includes twenty-four such days, but another manuscript, of the fourteenth
+century, enumerates thirty days of the year as very dangerous, when it
+is necessary to abstain from buying and selling, building, and planting.
+Still another manuscript, of the fifteenth century, reckons thirty-one
+wholly evil days, while certain hours of other days also possess
+dangerous qualities.[933] In the seventeenth century J. B. Thiers, the
+learned curé of Vibraie, notices the “Egyptian days” in his extensive
+list of the superstitious beliefs regarding certain times and seasons,
+prevalent in his age but condemned by theologians (St. Thomas Aquinas),
+popes (Nicholas I), and Church synods and councils.[934] Anglo-Saxon
+calendars mention about twenty-four “Egyptian days” in the year, when
+it is dangerous, if not fatal, to begin an enterprise or to travel. A
+manuscript calendar, dating from the reign of Henry VI, gives a list of
+thirty-two such days. After the Reformation the old unlucky days appear
+to have abated much of their malevolence, and to have left behind them
+only a general superstition against fishermen starting out to fish, or
+seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to
+enter a new place—on a Friday.[935]
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+It is fairly obvious that the observance of tabooed and unlucky days
+must be included among the many superstitions which have retarded the
+progress of mankind. They hinder individual initiative and tend to
+prevent the undertaking of lengthy enterprises which may be interrupted
+by the recurrence of an unfavourable period. Their extensive development
+compels fitful, intermittent labour, rather than a steady and continuous
+occupation. The Burman, for example, “is so fettered by his horoscope and
+the lucky and unlucky days for him recorded therein, which are taught
+him in rhymes from childhood, that the character has been given him by
+strangers of alternate idleness and energy. But both are enforced by
+the numerous days and seasons when he may not work without disaster to
+himself. Unlucky days cause him so much fear that he will resort to all
+sorts of excuses to avoid business on them. Similarly, on lucky days he
+will work beyond his strength, because he is assured of success.”[936]
+Again, it is said that Europeans in India usually fail to realize the
+great influence which ideas of lucky and unlucky days exert on the
+conduct of the people. Superstitious avoidance of unpropitious occasions
+will often explain the failure of the natives to obey a court summons
+or to keep their appointments with government officers.[937] These
+remarks, by keen observers, are capable of a wide application to various
+primitive races. The belief in unfavourable seasons may even directly
+affect political and social progress, where, as in modern Ashanti and in
+ancient Rome, assemblies could not be held, or courts of justice stand
+open, or armies engage the enemy, when the unlucky day came round. It
+is equally obvious that all such beliefs play into the hands of the
+astrologer and magician, tending further to strengthen the bonds with
+which superstition enchains its votaries.
+
+From the economic point of view it deserves to be pointed out how the
+extensive development of tabooed and unlucky days seriously limits
+production and thus lowers the efficiency of labour. In Hawaii the
+seasons of strict abstinence regularly observed during eight months of
+the year reached a total of seventy-two days, while from time to time
+still other _tabu_ days were appointed by the priests.[938] In Ashanti
+an old writer calculated that there were only from one hundred and fifty
+to one hundred and sixty days in the year during which business of
+any importance could be safely undertaken.[939] Few peoples have more
+holidays than the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Their religious festivals
+occupy more than half the year. It is a noteworthy fact, however, that
+the Hopi celebrate their longest and most important ceremonies during
+the months from harvest time to planting, when there is little work
+to be done. “Although the Pueblo farmer may thoroughly believe in his
+ceremonial system as efficacious, his human nature is too practical to
+consume the precious planting time with elaborate ceremonials.”[940]
+In modern China and Korea so many festivals in honour of deities are
+observed as holidays that they take the place, to a certain extent, of
+the Sabbath institution.[941] Among the ancient Egyptians the unlucky
+days varied in number according to the different months, six, for
+instance, occurring in Paophi, seven each in Choiak and Phamenoth, and
+five in Pharmuthi. It may be reckoned that “popular superstition rendered
+useless about one-fifth of the year.”[942] The Athenian festivals are
+estimated to have occupied from fifty to sixty days of the year. The
+irregular distribution of these holidays throughout the months, and
+especially their congestion in spring and autumn, must have caused much
+interference with the routine of daily life.[943] In some city-states the
+festivals were more numerous: at Tarentum, in the days of its prosperity,
+the people are said to have had more holidays than working days.[944]
+
+In the old Roman calendar, out of three hundred and fifty-five days,
+nearly one-third (one hundred and nine) were marked as _nefasti_, that
+is, as unlawful for judicial and political business. These days belonged
+wholly to the gods, while eleven more days of the year were shared by
+the divine and the human inhabitants of the city.[945] We know on the
+evidence of Cicero that in the last century of the republic the numerous
+days when courts could not sit had become a resource on which a wealthy
+criminal could speculate as a means of delaying and evading justice;
+while Suetonius enumerates among the praiseworthy reforms of Augustus
+the cutting-down of non-judicial days by thirty, “in order that crimes
+might not escape punishment or business be impeded by delay.”[946] Of the
+_dies nefasti_ sixty-one, including the Ides of every month, the Kalends
+of three months, and the Nones of July, were numbered in the republican
+calendar among the public festivals—_feriæ publicæ_—on which the state
+expected the citizens to abstain, as far as possible, from their private
+business and labour.[947] But the number of rest days observed really
+reached a larger total, when we remember that, besides the extraordinary
+_feriæ_, proclaimed from time to time, there was a marked tendency during
+the last two centuries of the republic to extend over several days
+festivals to which originally only one day had been allotted. This was
+for the purpose of giving time for an elaborate programme of public games
+(_ludi_), consisting of chariot-races, stage plays, and other forms of
+popular amusement. As the Roman passion for holidays and their attendant
+spectacles increased, we find the number of days devoted to them rising
+from sixty-six in the reign of Augustus to eighty-seven in that of
+Tiberius, and, under Marcus Aurelius, to a hundred and thirty-five. By
+the middle of the fourth century their number had reached one hundred
+and seventy-five.[948] For the lower classes at Rome the gladiatorial
+combats, chariot-races, and dramatic shows formed the chief pleasure of
+life. The once-sovereign people of Rome became a lazy, worthless rabble,
+fed by the state and amused with the games. Of them it was well said
+by an ancient satirist that they wanted only two things to make them
+happy—“bread and the games of the circus.”[949]
+
+Many of the holy days in the religious calendar of Christendom were
+borrowed, as is well known, from the public festivals of ancient
+paganism. This must be the chief reason for the observance of so many
+non-working days during the Middle Ages. Their number was largely reduced
+in Protestant Europe as the result of the Reformation, which did away
+with the majority of saints’ days. In Catholic countries, however, there
+is still an excessive amount of time devoted to religious celebrations.
+Mexico, for instance, is described as “a land of holidays. Counting
+Sundays, there are one hundred and thirty-one in the Mexican calendar,
+and it is asserted that more than half of the people observe them all....
+On certain of these days all Mexico takes to the festival, and it usually
+requires from one to three days for the _peons_ to sober up and get back
+to regular work again.”[950] The Greek Church, as a celebrated traveller
+and historian once pointed out, requires her followers to observe so
+many holy days “as practically to shorten the lives of the people very
+materially. I believe that one-third of the number of days in the year
+are ‘kept holy,’ or rather, _kept stupid_, in honour of the saints: no
+great portion of the time thus set apart is spent in religious exercises
+and the people don’t betake themselves to any animating pastimes,
+which might serve to strengthen the frame, or invigorate the mind, or
+exalt the taste.”[951] In Russia commercial and educational progress
+is hindered by the multitude of saints’ days. “The _dies nefas_, when
+work is tabooed, becomes a serious handicap in the race of modern life.
+These saints’ days, together with the Sundays, rob the Russian of nearly
+one-third of his time, for they leave him only about two hundred and
+fifty days for work. He would sooner work on a Sunday than on a saint’s
+day.”[952] In eastern Galicia, where a calendar is in use which permits
+the observance of the religious festivals of both the Roman and the Greek
+churches, the number of holidays or non-working days is considerably in
+excess of one hundred, rising in some districts to one hundred and fifty,
+and in others reaching the amazing total of two hundred.[953] To what
+extremes the practice of abstaining from labour on holy days may extend
+is further illustrated in Abyssinia, where the numerous fasts and feasts
+are so strictly kept as to render about six months of the year prohibited
+for any secular employments.[954]
+
+Human nature, it has been said, is always ready for the shift from
+fast to feast, from Sabbath to Saturnalia. To the student of primitive
+religion and sociology nothing is more interesting than the contemplation
+of that unconscious though beneficent process which has converted
+institutions, based partly or wholly on a belief in the imaginary and
+the supernatural, into institutions resting on the rock of reason and
+promoting human welfare. Though the origin of tabooed and unlucky days
+must be sought in gross superstition, sooner or later they acquire a
+secular character and may then be perpetuated as holidays, long after
+their earlier significance has disappeared. The transition, with all
+its subtle and manifold results on the organization of society, may
+be followed under our own eyes. The passage of the holy day into
+the holiday, beginning in the lower culture, promises to reach its
+culmination in the secularizing of all the great festivals of the
+Christian year. This evolutionary movement, whether for weal or woe,
+at least provides a singularly instructive illustration of the close
+relations between religion and social progress, which must ever impress
+the inquirer into the early history of mankind.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[1] _Leviathan_, chap. xi.
+
+[2] For the leading facts relating to the institution of taboo see Sir
+J. G. Frazer, “Taboo,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxiii, 15-18; _idem_,
+_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911; N. W. Thomas, “Taboo,”
+_Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xxvi, 337-341; L. Marillier, “Tabou,” _La
+grande encyclopédie_, xxx, 848 _sq._; A. Bros, _La religion des peuples
+non-civilisés_, Paris, 1907, pp. 185-213; C. H. Toy, _Introduction to the
+History of Religions_, Boston, 1913, pp. 239-264.
+
+[3] A list of the equivalents of tabu in the languages of Polynesia
+and Melanesia will be found in William Churchill, _The Polynesian
+Wanderings_, Washington, 1911, pp. 263 sq.
+
+[4] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,²
+London, 1856, p. 101.
+
+[5] E. Tregear, _The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, Wellington
+(N.Z.), 1891, p. 472.
+
+[6] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, London, 1859, iv, 385.
+
+[7] The proper term for “prohibit” was _rahui_ (_ibid._, iv, 386).
+
+[8] R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, Oxford, 1891, p. 215. In the
+Banks Islands and in the New Hebrides the word _rongo_ is employed to
+indicate the naturally holy character which certain objects may possess,
+quite independently of any human sanction or prohibition (_ibid._, p.
+181).
+
+[9] R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_, London, 1904, p. 80.
+
+[10] A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp.
+12 _sqq._, 23.
+
+[11] As Sir James Frazer has pointed out (_Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹
+xxiii, 18), the Greeks usually discriminated the two ideas, ἁγνός being
+devoted to the sense of “sacred” and ἐναγής to that of “unclean” or
+“accursed.” The two words, of course, have no connection, ἁγνός being
+related to Skt. _yaj-_, “sacrifice” and ἐναγής to Skt. _āgas-_, “sin” (E.
+Boisacq, _Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque_, Heidelberg and
+Paris, 1907, pt. i, 7, 9). Among the Romans _sacer_ always continued to
+retain the double meaning; it may be closely rendered by _tabu_. Compare
+Servius on Vergil, _Æneis_, iii, 75. The late W. Robertson Smith referred
+to the fact that the Hebrew _ṭāmē_ “is not the ordinary word for things
+physically foul; it is a ritual term and corresponds exactly to the
+idea of taboo” (_Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_,² London, 1903,
+p. 309). For a list of Biblical passages containing _ṭāmē_ see Brown,
+Driver, and Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_,
+Boston, 1906, p. 379.
+
+[12] The notion of transmissibility has been especially developed by such
+writers as A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, _passim_,
+Hubert and Mauss, “Esquisse d’une théorie générale de la magie,” _L’année
+sociologique_, 1904, vii, 108 sqq.; F. B. Jevons, _An Introduction to the
+History of Religion_,⁴ London, 1908, pp. 59-68, and R. R. Marett, _The
+Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 99-121.
+
+[13] On the general belief in the omnipresence of demons and their action
+in causing human ills see Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London,
+1913, pp. 72-108.
+
+[14] J. S. Polack, _Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders_, London,
+1840, i, 234.
+
+[15] Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i,
+26.
+
+[16] C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs. _Thahu_ and
+its Connection with Circumcision Rites,” _Journal of the Royal
+Anthropological Institute_, 1910, xl, 428.
+
+[17] R. C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London,
+1904, ii, pp. xxxix _sqq._
+
+[18] For an extensive presentation of the ethnographic evidence see Sir
+J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911, pp.
+131-223; _idem_, _Balder the Beautiful_, London, 1913, i, 22-100, ii,
+225-278. The whole subject is most suggestively treated by Professor A.
+van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909.
+
+[19] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 sqq.
+
+[20] _Idem_, _Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee_, London,
+1826, p. 366; _idem_, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 _sq._; J. J.
+Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands_,² Boston, 1843, p.
+57.
+
+[21] Ellis, _Narrative_, pp. 366 _sq._; compare _idem_, _Polynesian
+Researches_, iv, 388.
+
+[22] H. T. Cheever, _The Island World of the Pacific_, Glasgow [1851],
+p. 63.
+
+[23] Ellis, _Narrative_, p. 368; Hiram Bingham, _A Residence of
+Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_, Hartford, 1849, pp. 177
+_sq._ Describing his experiences at Kihoro, the missionary Ellis could
+not restrain his admiration of the conduct of the native converts on
+Sunday: “No athletic sports were seen on the beach; no noise of playful
+children shouting as they gambolled in the surf, nor distant sound of
+the cloth-beating mallet was heard through the day; no persons were seen
+carrying burdens in or out of the village, nor any canoes passing across
+the bay. It could not but be viewed as the dawn of a bright sabbatic
+day for the dark shores of Hawaii” (_Polynesian Researches_, iv, 408).
+For similar statements see C. S. Stewart, _A Visit to the South Seas_,
+London, 1832, pp. 277 _sqq._, 302 _sq._
+
+[24] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_,
+Philadelphia, 1845, ii, 13. “The _tabu_ system,” wrote an early
+missionary, “making sacred certain times, persons, and places, and
+containing many restrictions and prohibitions, may easily be interpreted
+as a relic, much changed and corrupted, from the ancient ceremonial
+observances of the Jews” (Sheldon Dibble, _History of the Sandwich
+Islands_, Lahainaluna, 1843, p. 27). The resemblances between the
+Polynesian institution and certain customs recorded in the Old Testament
+impressed another early writer, who refers to taboo as “ce singulier
+usage, en partie politique, au moins dans quelques-uns de ses effets,
+mais éminemment religieux dans son origine, non moins que l’interdit des
+Hébreux, avec lequel il avait des rapports frappans, qui n’ont point
+encore été signalés, quoique méritant assurément toute l’attention du
+philosophe et du moraliste” (J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand
+océan_, Paris, 1837, ii, 6).
+
+[25] W. D. Alexander, _A Brief History of the Hawaiian People_, New York,
+1899, p. 55. The author’s work is based largely on unpublished Hawaiian
+manuscripts and the early archives of the government.
+
+[26] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 56 _sq._ Elsewhere this excellent
+authority describes the Hawaiian prayers as in some measure magical
+incantations, which, to secure the desired effect, required to be
+repeated without the slightest mistake. “During the most important class
+of prayers, called _aha_, it was necessary that absolute silence should
+be preserved, as the least noise would break the spell and destroy the
+whole effect of the charm” (_ibid._, p. 50). A similar precaution, as is
+well known, characterized the ritual of a Roman sacrifice.
+
+[27] For additional data on this subject see Jarves, _op. cit._, pp.
+51 _sq._, and David Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, Honolulu, 1903, pp.
+210-248. The latter work, translated from the Hawaiian by N. B. Emerson,
+is an exceptionally valuable repository of native lore.
+
+[28] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 59 _sqq._; Malo, _op. cit._, pp.
+186-210. This New Year’s festival with its accompanying taboo is also
+referred to in an early work entitled _Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the
+Sandwich Islands in the Years 1824-1825_, London, 1826, pp. 11 _sq._
+According to A. Fornander (_An Account of the Polynesian Race_, London,
+1878, i, 119 _sq._) the Hawaiian year consisted of twelve 30-day months
+with five additional _tabu_ days intercalated at the end of Welehu. If
+this statement be correct, the Hawaiian epagomenal days would furnish
+a remarkable parallel to those of the ancient Mexicans and Egyptians
+(below, pp. 279 _sqq._). But the best authorities agree that the Hawaiian
+year was strictly lunar, with months of 29 and 30 days in alternation and
+an occasional intercalary month.
+
+[29] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 52 _sq._, 62 _sq._
+
+[30] _Ibid._, pp. 50 _sqq._; Dibble, _op. cit._, 25 _sq._; Malo, _op.
+cit._, p. 56. The latter authority, a native writer intimately versed
+in Hawaiian antiquities, declares that the seasons of taboo were not
+observed during the four _makahiki_ months of the year, when the regular
+religious services were suspended for games and ceremonies in honour of
+the god Lono. The same point is made by Judge Fornander (_op. cit._, i,
+123 _n._²), whose information was derived from the Hon. S. M. Kamakau, an
+intelligent Hawaiian, born and brought up under the heathen _régime_. On
+these Hawaiian Sabbaths see below, pp. 88, 188, 233, 258, 303.
+
+[31] J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand océan_, Paris, 1837,
+i, 516 _sq._ See further Mathias G— [Garcia] (_Lettres sur les îles
+Marquises_, Paris, 1843, p. 210), who refers to the first day of fishing
+as “un jour de silence et de repos, _tapu_ pour ceux qui restent à la
+maison.”
+
+[32] William Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, London, 1835, p. 85.
+
+[33] James Cowan, _The Maoris of New Zealand_, Melbourne and London,
+1910, pp. 116 _sq._ The _kumara_ crop was sacred, all persons engaged
+in its cultivation were temporarily tabooed, and the offering of the
+first-fruits of the _kumara_ formed a very solemn religious ceremony (E.
+Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, xix, 110).
+Compare Richard Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 57.
+
+[34] E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890,
+xix, 110. No food might be cooked on the day before a war-party set out
+(_ibid._, p. 108). Mr. Tregear, an excellent authority, declares that in
+New Zealand “there were no long periods of silence such as the kings of
+Hawaii laid on their people by proclaiming _tapu_” (_ibid._, p. 122).
+Another writer assures us that the Maori “had no days more sacred than
+others” (Taylor, _op. cit._, p. 92). Yet in one part of New Zealand it
+was customary to celebrate the new year with a _karakia_, or magical
+incantation and prayer; in another place there was a _karakia_ when
+the new moon appeared; and in still another place “the most sacred day
+of the year was that appointed for hair-cutting; the people assembled
+from all the neighbouring parts, often more than a thousand in number;
+the operation being commenced with _karakia_, the operator and his
+obsidian (substitute for scissors) being thus rendered peculiarly sacred”
+(_ibid._, p. 93).
+
+[35] John Martin, _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands ...
+from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner_, Boston, 1820,
+pp. 381-385. Mariner passed four years among the Tonga Islanders as the
+adopted son of the king Finow. His picturesque, but apparently reliable,
+narrative describes the natives in their aboriginal state before the
+arrival of Christian missionaries.
+
+[36] Not only was all work prohibited at the time of the _inachi_,
+but even any one’s appearance abroad, unless for the purposes of the
+ceremony, was interdicted (Martin-Mariner, _op. cit._, p. 383 _n._²).
+The Tongans observed a like restriction after a death. When a corpse was
+being taken to the burying-ground, all persons in the roadway or the
+adjacent fields were obliged to keep out of sight, under pain of becoming
+tabooed. Those who showed themselves at such a time were generally killed
+on the spot (_ibid._, pp. 243 _sq._, 394).
+
+[37] This Samoan religious system has been fully described by Sir J. G.
+Frazer, who believes that it exhibits “what seems to be the passage of
+pure totemism into a religion of anthropomorphic gods with animal and
+vegetable attributes, like the deities of ancient Greece” (_Totemism and
+Exogamy_, London, 1910, ii, 152).
+
+[38] George Turner, _Samoa_, London, 1884, pp. 29 _sq._
+
+[39] _Ibid._, p. 60.
+
+[40] _Ibid._, pp. 26 _sq._, 41, 44, 47, 49, 53, 57.
+
+[41] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 269.
+
+[42] _Ibid._, p. 279.
+
+[43] J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western
+Pacific_, London, 1853, pp. 245 _sq._
+
+[44] Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, London, 1908, p. 114.
+
+[45] _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, Philadelphia, 1846, vi, 67 _sq._
+(_Ethnography and Philology_, by H. Hale).
+
+[46] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_,
+Philadelphia, 1845, iii, 90 _sq._ This festival bore the name of _tambo
+nalanga_ (_ibid._, iii, 342).
+
+[47] In Samoa the second half of the year was called the _palolo_ season,
+from the appearance of this singular worm for three days in the course of
+a year. If the last quarter of the moon is late in October, the _palolo_
+is found the day before, the day of, and the day after that quarter.
+Should the last quarter of the moon be early in October, the worm does
+not come till the last quarter of the November moon (Turner, _Samoa_, p.
+207). The _palolo_, it may be noted, is not an entire animal, but only
+the “propagation-body” of a sea-annelid (apparently _Eunice Viridis_
+Gray), which lives in holes in the coral stone and comes to the surface
+for the act of fertilization. It is found in various parts of Polynesia,
+including Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and also in Melanesia (New Hebrides and
+Banks Islands). See A. Krämer, _Die Samoa-Inseln_, Stuttgart, 1903, ii,
+399-406, and B. Friedländer, “Notes on the _palōlo_,” _Journal of the
+Polynesian Society_, 1898, vii, 44-46.
+
+[48] L. Fison, “The _nanga_, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala,
+Fiji,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1885, xiv, 18. The
+solemn rite of initiation into the _nanga_ was always celebrated at the
+time of the New Year’s festival, late in October or early in November.
+This Fijian festival, called _solevu ni vilavou_, corresponded to the
+Tahitian and Hawaiian _makahiki_ (A. B. Joske, “The _nanga_ of Viti
+Levu,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, 1889, ii, 259). On the
+_nanga_ see further H. Webster, “Totem Clans and Secret Associations
+in Australia and Melanesia,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
+Institute_, 1911, xli, 506 _sq._
+
+[49] S. P. Smith, in _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1892, i, 40.
+
+[50] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387.
+
+[51] W. T. Pritchard, _Polynesian Reminiscences_, London, 1866, pp.
+149 _sq._; George Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, London, 1861,
+p. 229; _idem_, _Samoa_, p. 146. See also A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in
+Oceanien_, Berlin, 1883, p. 55.
+
+[52] For an interesting description of the regulations imposed on the
+fishermen themselves see W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Island of Stone Money_,
+Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 _sq._ On taboos observed by hunters and
+fishers, generally, see Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp.
+190-223.
+
+[53] F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_, London, 1899, p. 290.
+
+[54] A close observer, G. A. J. van der Sande, did not notice any special
+rest days among the natives with whom he came in contact, and whose
+customs he has so fully described (_Nova Guinea_, Leiden, 1907, iii, 270).
+
+[55] C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_, Cambridge,
+1910, p. 275.
+
+[56] Quoted in Turner, _Samoa_, p. 349. The custom mentioned in the text
+must now be obsolete. It is not referred to in Dr. Seligmann’s exhaustive
+account of the Koita and Motu tribes.
+
+[57] It would seem that among the Bornean tribes, generally, the chief
+is responsible for the proper observation of the omens and for the
+regulation of taboos affecting an entire community. Compare Hose and
+McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i, 65.
+
+[58] W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters_,
+Philadelphia, 1902, pp. 160-169.
+
+[59] _Permantong_ is the term used by the Kayan of the Baram District;
+among the Kayan in the valley of the Kapuas River, Dutch Borneo, the
+word is _pantang_, the regular Malay equivalent of _tabu_. Both these
+forms are possibly derived from the Malay _hantu_, a word meaning
+demon or evil spirit, with the prefix _per_ and the affix _an_. The
+Malay word in full would thus be _per-hantu-an_, meaning “possessed by
+spirits” or “bewitched.” _Lali_ is probably a pure Kayan word and means
+both “prohibited” and “sacred” (Furness, _op. cit._, p. 160; A. W.
+Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 109). According
+to Messrs. Hose and McDougall _malan_ and _parit_ are the proper Kayan
+words for taboo, though _lali_ and _tulah_ are used as their _lingua
+franca_ equivalents. _Malan_ applies to acts involving risks to the
+entire community, _parit_ to those involving risk to the individual
+committing the forbidden act (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 14 _n._¹).
+
+[60] On these omen animals see further Sir Spenser St. John, _Life in the
+Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i, 191 _sqq._; J. Perham, in H.
+L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, London, 1896,
+i, 191-201; A. C. Haddon, _Head-hunters_, London, 1901, pp. 384 _sqq._;
+E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_, London,
+1911, pp. 47 _sq._, 152 _sqq._, 298; Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii,
+51-114 (with some interesting parallels between the modern Kayan and the
+Roman auspices). Compare W. D. Wallis, “Divination and Omens in Borneo
+and in Ancient Rome,” _Classical Journal_, 1914, ix, 272-274.
+
+[61] Furness, _op. cit._, p. 161.
+
+[62] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 162 _sq._
+
+[63] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 164 _sq._
+
+[64] This period of seclusion is employed by the Kayan in various games
+and masquerades, which, if they have a recreative value, possess as
+well a religious or magical meaning in the minds of the people. During
+the sowing festival the men play at spinning tops, the youths engage in
+athletic sports, and maskers, disguised by wooden helmets and bandages
+of banana leaves, simulate the actions of evil spirits. On the magical
+significance of games in primitive agriculture, see Sir J. G. Frazer,
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, London, 1912, i, 92-112.
+
+[65] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 166
+_sqq._
+
+[66] Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, i, 107.
+
+[67] The Kayan call the full moon the “evil moon” and at this time build
+neither houses nor boats, and do not go forth on the search for omens
+(_ibid._, i, 415).
+
+[68] Translated by Dr. Nieuwenhuis as “sitzen, nicht arbeiten.”
+
+[69] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, “Religiöse Zeremonien beim Häuserbau der
+Bahau-Dajak am obern Mahakam in Borneo,” _Verhandlungen des II
+internationalen Kongresses für allgemeine Religionsgeschichte_, Basel,
+1905, pp. 107-119; compare _idem_, _Quer durch Borneo_, ii, 174.
+
+[70] “At certain seasons of the moon, just before and just after the
+full, the [Sea] Dyaks do not work at their farms; and what with bad
+omens, sounds, signs, adverse dreams, and deaths, two-thirds of their
+time is not spent in farm labour” (Charles Brooke, _Ten Years in
+Sarawak_, London, 1866, i, 149).
+
+[71] Leo Nyuak, “Religious Rites and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks
+of Sarawak,” translated from the Dyak by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn,
+_Anthropos_, 1906, i, 410 _sq._
+
+[72] _Ibid._, i, 176.
+
+[73] _Ibid._, i, 181.
+
+[74] _Ibid._, i, 416 _sq._
+
+[75] Betara, otherwise _petara_, is the ordinary Sea Dyak name for deity.
+The word is incorrectly translated as “Great Spirit”; in general belief
+there are many _petara_. These gods, it may be noted, are separated by no
+distinct line of demarcation from the thousands of _antu_, or spirits,
+with which the Dyak has peopled his universe. See J. Perham, “_Petara_,
+or Sea Dyak Gods,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
+Society_, 1881, no. 8; H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British
+North Borneo_, London, 1896, i, 168-182.
+
+[76] Brooke Low, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401. See also _idem_, in
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1893, xxii, 24. Many
+primitive peoples are accustomed to trace a direct connection between
+sexual sins and the welfare of the crops. As Sir James Frazer has shown,
+this superstition has undoubtedly contributed to a stricter observance of
+the rules of sexual morality, both among the married and the unmarried.
+See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, London, 1911, ii, 104-119.
+
+[77] Sir Hugh Low, _Sarawak_, London, 1848, pp. 260-262. See also Sir
+Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i,
+175 _sqq._ According to this writer _porikh_ is the Land Dyak expression
+equivalent to _pamali_.
+
+[78] William Chalmers, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401.
+
+[79] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of
+the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 236-280.
+
+[80] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of
+the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 244 _sqq._
+
+[81] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 163.
+
+[82] _Ibid._, i, 160. The Sea Dyak make an interesting distinction
+between _mali_ and _penti_, the former absolutely forbidding certain
+kinds of work to a person under the ban, the latter allowing it to
+be undertaken, if started by some one not subject to the taboo. For
+instance, though both parents are _penti_ during the wife’s pregnancy,
+the expectant mother may engage in basket-making and mat-weaving,
+provided some other woman begins the work for her; and the husband may
+dig a trench or erect a post, if the hands of others are first set to the
+task. Taboos of this sort prevail until the child cuts its first teeth
+(F. W. Leggatt, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 98).
+
+[83] Sir Hugh Low observes that among the Land Dyak the favourite
+remedies for the cure of internal diseases are turmeric and spices, taken
+in huge quantities; “but for anything at all serious, recourse is had to
+the _pamali_, both in medical and surgical cases” (_Sarawak_, p. 308).
+
+[84] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 175 _sq._ (Land Dyak). Mr. Charles Hose
+declares that at such times the inhabitants of a Kayan communal house
+may taboo their private rooms to the other inmates. Small fines are
+imposed for infringing the rule, if the act is unintentional, but when
+a man forces his way into a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, ending in
+bloodshed, may result (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1894,
+xxiii, 170). “It is an old custom among the Iban for a stranger, before
+climbing the ladder of a house, to ask in a loud voice whether there is
+no taboo” (L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 175).
+
+[85] The Murik on the Baram River, a community of hardworking farmers,
+in addition to the communal taboos observed by them at sowing, also keep
+a _lemalli_ of seven days, when the paddy crop is about to be harvested.
+“For the first three days of this no one stirs out of the house, no
+work is done, and no sexual intercourse is allowed” (R. S. Douglas, in
+_Sarawak Museum Journal_, 1911, i, 146 _sqq._).
+
+[86] See below, p. 165.
+
+[87] The _elpanam_ consists of several large structures, which serve as
+a guest-house for strangers and as a town-hall for feasts and public
+gatherings. The institution is found under different names in many of the
+East Indian islands, and even more widely. See H. Webster, _Primitive
+Secret Societies_, New York, 1908, pp. 8 _sqq._
+
+[88] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902,
+xxxii, 215 _sq._ See also C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_,
+London, 1903, pp. 293 _sqq._
+
+[89] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902,
+xxxii, 210; Kloss, _op. cit._, pp. 297 _sq._ Another kiala festival, also
+followed by alternate periods of rest and work, appears to be observed in
+connection with fishing (Kloss, _op. cit._, p. 295).
+
+[90] R. van Eck, in _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië_, 1879, n.s.,
+viii, 58 _sqq._ Van Eck’s account is reproduced by J. Jacobs, _Eenigen
+tijd onder de Baliërs_, Batavia, 1883, pp. 190 _sqq._
+
+[91] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1877,
+n.s., ix, 77. On the _petara_ see above, p. 35 _n._²
+
+[92] F. Krämer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” _Tijdschrift voor
+indische taal- land- en volkenkunde_, 1890, xxxiii, 486 _sqq._
+
+[93] Hinlopen and Severin, _ibid._, 1855, iii, 329 _sq._
+
+[94] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,
+1905, xxxvii, 155 _sq._ The greater part of this valuable article is
+concerned with the analogies between the taboo system in the Mentawi
+Islands and related systems in Indonesia and Polynesia.
+
+[95] W. A. Pickering, _Pioneering in Formosa_, London, 1898, p. 71.
+
+[96] W. Joest, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
+Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1882, p. (62) (bound with
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. xiv).
+
+[97] G. Taylor, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1889,
+n.s., xi, 233; _idem_, “Folklore of Aboriginal Formosa,” _Folk-lore
+Journal_, 1887, v, 150.
+
+[98] J. P. Finley and William Churchill, _The Subanu_, Washington, 1913,
+pp. 31 _sq._
+
+[99] The word is also spelled _tengau_ and translated “holiday.” See W.
+C. Clapp, “A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language,” _Bureau of Science,
+Division of Ethnology, Publications_, Manila, 1908, v, 198.
+
+[100] A. E. Jenks, “The Bontoc Igorot,” _Ethnological Survey
+Publications_, Manila, 1905, i, 205 _sqq._
+
+[101] From a letter to the author, dated December 10, 1910. In a second
+letter, under date March 8, 1911, Professor Jenks writes, “I believe
+the rest days are first for the purpose of having time for religious
+observances—this fact necessitated the rest. I never proved this point,
+however.”
+
+[102] Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 213.
+
+[103] “It is safe to say that one feast is held daily in Bontoc by
+some family to appease or win the good will of some _anito_ [ancestral
+spirit]” (Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 198).
+
+[104] Some, if not all, of the Igorot peoples of northern Luzon are
+familiar with the idea of taboo as applied to individuals or to families
+at certain critical times. The Ibaloi Igorot equivalent of taboo is
+_pidiu_. A man, while in the peculiarly solemn condition of _pidiu_,
+“must not bathe, must not admit visitors into his house, and must not
+work, travel, etc.,” under penalty of punishment by the _making_, or
+departed souls, for transgression of the regulations (O. Scheerer, “The
+Nabaloi Dialect,” _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905, ii,
+167). But these prohibitions do not seem to be socialized.
+
+[105] T. C. Hodson, “The _genna_ amongst the Tribes of Assam,” _Journal
+of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906, xxxvi, 92-103; _idem_, “Some
+Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 296-312; _idem_,
+“Genna,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xi, 596; _idem_, _The Nāga Tribes
+of Manipur_, London, 1911, pp. 164-186.
+
+[106] “The word _genna_ is used in two ways: (1) it may mean practically
+a holiday—_i.e._, a man will say, ‘My village is doing _genna_ to-day,’
+by which he means that, owing either to the occurrence of a village
+festival or some such unusual occurrence ... his people are observing a
+holiday; (2) _genna_ means anything forbidden” (A. W. Davis, in _Census
+of India, 1891, Assam_, i, 249).
+
+[107] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 167 _sq._ Among some of the Manipuri
+Naga the various _genna_ are marked by rope-pulling contests, when the
+women and girls have a tug-of-war with the men. This is described as a
+means of taking omens for the future of the crops (_ibid._, p. 168).
+The Naga ceremonial is a serious business, but among the Meithei, the
+Hinduised neighbours of the Naga, the tug-of-war has dwindled into a
+mere pastime (Hodson, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 300). On the magical
+significance of the games played by the Kayan of Borneo during their
+periods of seclusion, see above, p. 31 _n._¹
+
+[108] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 166 _sq._, 175.
+
+[109] _Ibid._, pp. 109, 167, 175.
+
+[110] _Ibid._, pp. 166 _sq._, 173.
+
+[111] _Ibid._, pp. 151 _sq._, 174. According to another account the
+festival occurs on the night of the December new moon. The shades of
+the dead are supposed to visit the living at this time (S. E. Peal, in
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1898, xxx, 355).
+
+[112] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 109, 144, 173, 175 _sq._ The Naga west of
+the Doyang River are said to have a _genna_ also at the annual ceremony
+of making new fire for the village. The fire, produced by friction, is
+first used in burning down the jungle before the sowing of the crops (W.
+Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 45; E. T. Dalton,
+_Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1872, p. 43). The Angami
+Naga mark by a three days’ _genna_ the first full moon of the lunar year
+(D. Prain, in _Revue coloniale internationale_, 1887, v, 489).
+
+[113] John Butler, in _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1875,
+n.s., xlv, i, 316. This observer describes the _kennie_ as a system of
+taboo, “singularly similar to that in vogue among the savages inhabiting
+the Pacific islands.”
+
+[114] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 167, citing C. A. Soppitt, _Account of
+the Kachcha Nāgas_, p. 10.
+
+[115] Hodson, _op. cit._, p. 141. The _khullakpa_, also called
+_gennabura_, or “authorizer of _genna_,” is himself subject to a number
+of vexatious restrictions designed to prevent any impairment of the
+efficiency of his sacred office. On these taboos see below, pp. 233 _sq._
+It is worthy of note that the _khullakpa_ enjoys a good deal of indirect
+authority because of his power to close a village and declare a _genna_.
+An individual who violated any of the taboos imposed by him would be
+obliged to pay a fine, the proceeds being used to provide a substantial
+repast for the village elders (Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 307).
+
+[116] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 177, 180. The Naga of eastern Assam
+strictly taboo a house where tattooing is being done (W. H. Furness, 3d.,
+in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 466).
+
+[117] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, London, 1908, p. 118. It is
+significant that the Moirang, a more or less backward and isolated
+Meithei tribe, still keep up something like a system of communal _genna_
+connected with agricultural operations (_ibid._, p. 119).
+
+[118] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 158.
+
+[119] A. Playfair, _The Garos_, London, 1909, p. 114; see below, p. 57
+_n._¹
+
+[120] Edward Stack, _The Mikirs_, edited by Sir Charles Lyall, London,
+1908, p. 43.
+
+[121] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 20. The Mishmi have household _genna_
+whenever the members of a family are visited by illness or misfortune of
+any kind. Possibly there are also village rites of the same nature. See
+R. Wilcox, in _Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government_,
+Calcutta, 1855, no. 23, p. 64.
+
+[122] J. Shakespear, _The Lushei Kuki Clans_, London, 1912, p. 69.
+
+[123] _Ibid._, pp. 72 _sq._, 75, 78, 80, 87; C. A. Soppitt, _A Short
+Account of the Kuki-Lushai Tribes_, Shillong, 1887, p. 19.
+
+[124] T. H. Lewin, _The Hill Tracts of Chittagong_, Calcutta, 1869, p.
+78. Captain Lewin’s interesting work was republished under the title
+_Wild Races of South-eastern India_ (London, 1870), where the reference
+to the _khang_ will be found on pp. 196 _sq._
+
+[125] Lewin, _Hill Tracts_, p. 94; _idem_, _Wild Races_, p. 236 (Mro).
+
+[126] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.
+
+[127] B. S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, _The Chin Hills_, Rangoon, 1896, i, 198.
+
+[128] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, edited by Scott and
+Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, pp. 425 _sq._
+
+[129] A. R. McMahon, _The Karens of the Golden Chersonese_, London, 1876,
+p. 292.
+
+[130] Sir R. C. Temple, “Burma,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
+and Ethics_, iii, 37. Similarly, the Yabim of German New Guinea require
+all the inhabitants of a village to remain at home on the morning after
+the birth of a child. This is regarded as a necessary precaution, if the
+fruits of the fields and gardens are not to be spoiled by the noxious
+influences emanating from a woman in childbed (K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten
+über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, xiii, 87).
+
+[131] R. G. Woodthorpe, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1897, xxvi, 27 _sqq._; Sir J. G. Scott, “Buddhism in the Shan States,”
+_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1911, n.s., xliii, 931. On taboos
+affecting intercourse with strangers see, in general, Frazer, _Taboo and
+the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 101-116.
+
+[132] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, pt. i, vol. i, p.
+515.
+
+[133] S. R. Clarke, _Among the Tribes in South-west China_, London, 1911,
+p. 63.
+
+[134] For instances of “magical telepathy” in hunting, fishing, and
+warfare see Frazer, _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i,
+119-134.
+
+[135] As Messrs. Hose and McDougall judiciously observe, the cult of
+omen-birds found among the Kayan of Borneo, though it hampers their
+undertakings at almost every turn and might seem to be wholly foolish
+and detrimental, has really “two great practical advantages: namely, it
+inspires confidence, and it promotes discipline and a strong sense of
+collective unity and responsibility. It is not improbable, then, that
+the advantages of this seemingly senseless cult outweigh its drawbacks,
+which, in the shape of endless delays and changes of plans, are by no
+means small” (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 170 _n._¹).
+
+[136] On the sociological conception of crisis see W. I. Thomas, _Source
+Book for Social Origins_, Chicago, 1909, pp. 16 _sqq._; R. R. Marett,
+_The Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 198 _sqq._
+
+[137] On the primitive ideas of death see particularly R. Hertz,
+“Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la morte,”
+_L’année sociologique_, 1905-1906, x, 48-137; E. S. Hartland, “Death
+and Disposal of the Dead (Introductory),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iv, 411-444; W. H. R. Rivers, “The Primitive
+Conception of Death,” _Hibbert Journal_, 1912, x, 393-407; Sir J. G.
+Frazer, _The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead_, London,
+1913, i, 31-58; A. van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909,
+pp. 209-236; L. Lévy-Bruhl, _Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés
+inférieures_, Paris, 1910, pp. 321-330, 352-396. For a useful collection
+of ethnographic evidence see E. Samter, _Geburt, Hochzeit, und Tod_,
+Leipzig, 1911.
+
+[138] A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, pp. 95 _sqq._; L.
+R. Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_, London, 1905, pp. 96 _sqq._; E.
+Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, London,
+1906-1908, ii, 535 _sqq._
+
+[139] On the sociological aspects of these and other superstitions see
+H. Webster, “Influence of Superstition on the Evolution of Property
+Rights,” _American Journal of Sociology_, 1910, xv, 794-805; H. Berkusky,
+“Der Einfluss abergläubischer Vorstellungen auf das wirtschaftliche und
+soziale Leben der Naturvölker,” _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_,
+1913, n.s., iv, 489-498, 567-584.
+
+[140] Above, pp. 24, 25, 26.
+
+[141] H. O. Forbes, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1884,
+xiii, 420.
+
+[142] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,
+1905, xxxvii, 155; J. G. F. Riedel, _ibid._, 1885, xvii, 69.
+
+[143] J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
+en Papua_, The Hague, 1886, pp. 168 (Seranglao and Gorong archipelagoes),
+197 (Watubela Islands), 223 (Kei Islands), 341 (Babar Archipelago), 414
+(Keisar Island).
+
+[144] D. C. Worcester, in _Philippine Journal of Science_, 1906, i, 844.
+Compare F. C. Cole, in _American Anthropologist_, 1909, n.s., xi, 337
+(Tenguian).
+
+[145] C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, London, 1903, pp. 303
+_sqq._
+
+[146] Annandale and Robinson, _Fasciculi Malayensis_, London, 1903-1904,
+i, 83.
+
+[147] Brooke Low, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1892,
+xxi, 122; _idem_, in Roth, _Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_,
+i, 155.
+
+[148] L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 413.
+
+[149] E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_,
+London, 1911, p. 139.
+
+[150] Above, p. 36.
+
+[151] De Crespigny, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_,
+1858, ii, 348.
+
+[152] Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii, 37 _sq._ The Kayan on the
+Mahakam River require all those who have been polluted by taking part in
+burial ceremonies to undergo a two days’ _melo_, or ceremonial abstention
+from work (Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, ii, 119).
+
+[153] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 99, 174, 177.
+
+[154] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 100, 152, 166, 174. Compare _idem_,
+“Mortuary Ritual and Eschatological Beliefs among the Hill Tribes of
+Assam,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1909, xii, 449.
+
+[155] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 88. “We find among the Naga tribes
+that, if a woman died in childbirth (an event of rare occurrence), the
+child was never allowed to live, because they believed it to be an evil
+spirit, a disembodied ghost, incarnated in the mother whose death it
+had caused” (_idem_, “Some Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_,
+1910, xxi, 301). Among the Kabui Naga not only does the death of a woman
+in childbirth necessitate a five days’ village _genna_, but the same
+period of restriction is also imposed after the death of a child dying in
+infancy (J. Shakespear, “Customs at Death among the Manipuris and Cognate
+Clans,” _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 466 _sqq._).
+
+[156] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 143.
+
+[157] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.
+
+[158] A. Coussot and H. Ruel, _Douze mois chez les sauvages du Laos_,
+Paris, 1898, p. 205; A. Cabaton, “Indo-China (Savage Races),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vii, 232.
+
+[159] F. Fawcett, in _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 42.
+
+[160] A. K. Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, Madras, 1909, i, 265.
+
+[161] C. H. Rao, in _Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 181.
+
+[162] H. Hosten, “Pahāria Burial Customs (British Sikkim),” _Anthropos_,
+1909, iv, 673, 675.
+
+[163] S. C. Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, London, 1902, p.
+256.
+
+[164] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, London, 1904, p. 253; Farewell,
+in W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of
+Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_, London, 1833, ii, 397. A Kafir chief,
+on succeeding to power, is said to have declared a taboo of all field
+work for an entire year and to have put to death every woman who became
+pregnant during this period (_Globus_, 1889, lvi, 62).
+
+[165] Joseph Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_, London,
+1857, p. 216.
+
+[166] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275.
+
+[167] P. Kollmann, _Der Nordwesten unserer ostafrikanischen Kolonie_,
+Berlin, 1898, p. 77.
+
+[168] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
+People_, London, 1910, p. 172.
+
+[169] R. Lasch, “Die Ursache und Bedeutung der Erdbeben im Volksglauben
+und Volksbrauch,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1902, v, 236-257,
+369-383; B. Struck, “African Ideas on the Subject of Earthquakes,”
+_Journal of the African Society_, 1909, viii, 398-411.
+
+[170] A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_, Oxford, 1908, pp. 17, 20, 100. The
+rules imposed by Nandi custom on persons ceremonially unclean include
+abstinence from work. For instance, after Nandi girls have been operated
+upon at puberty, they must stay in their mothers’ huts in complete
+seclusion for a month or more. After recovering from the effects of the
+operation, they may be married. But if no husbands appear, the girls
+continue to live in a secluded state for several weeks longer. If they go
+abroad, they must always wear long masks and veils; they must not stand
+near anybody or call a person by name; they may not enter a cornfield or
+a cattle-kraal; and they may do no work. Again, a Nandi bride, for an
+entire month after her marriage, is waited on by the bridegroom’s mother,
+since it is unlawful for a bride during this period to perform labour.
+Similarly, a Nandi mother, after the birth of a child, is unclean and
+may not do any housework for a month (_ibid._, pp. 59 _sq._, 63 _sqq._).
+Among the Habbe of the western Sudan a man, whose wife is menstruating,
+dares not undertake any journey, hunt, or sow (L. Desplagnes, _Le plateau
+central nigérien_, Paris, 1904, p. 227).
+
+[171] C. W. Hobley, _Eastern Uganda_, London, 1902, p. 28 (_Occasional
+Papers of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, no. 1).
+
+[172] Sir H. H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii,
+176 _sqq._
+
+[173] W. Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, Schaffhausen, 1864, p. 528
+(Barea and Kunama).
+
+[174] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 283.
+
+[175] H. E. Standing, “Malagasy _fady_,” _Antananarivo Annual_, 1883, no.
+7, p. 74. Compare A. Grandidier, _ibid._, 1891, no. 15, p. 316; A. van
+Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp. 100 _sqq._,
+203.
+
+[176] Thomas Gage, _A New Survey of the West-Indies_,⁴ London, 1699, p.
+160.
+
+[177] C. MacCauley, in _Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
+p. 521.
+
+[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_, London, 1745, pp. 149
+_sq._
+
+[179] F. Boas, in _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, 1901, xv, 121 _sq._ With these regulations may be compared
+the restrictions which, among the Kwakiutl of British Columbia, are
+imposed on a man who has eaten human flesh as a ceremonial rite and who,
+therefore, is considered unclean. He must not approach his wife for an
+entire year, nor is he allowed either to gamble or to work during this
+time (Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the
+Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_, pp. 537
+_sq._).
+
+[180] F. Boas, in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp.
+427, 613 _sq._; compare _idem_, “Die Sagen der Baffin-Land Eskimos,”
+_Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie,
+und Urgeschichte_, 1885, p. (164) (bound with _Zeitschrift für
+Ethnologie_, vol. xvii). These Eskimo observe like restrictions after the
+capture of whales, seals, and walruses, which form their principal food
+supply.
+
+[181] H. W. Elliott, _Our Arctic Province_, New York, 1887, p. 389.
+
+[182] E. W. Nelson, in _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
+American Ethnology_, p. 319.
+
+[183] _Ibid._, p. 312. Similarly, a hunter who has participated in the
+capture of a whale is not allowed to do any work for the next four days,
+that being the time during which the ghost of the whale is supposed to
+stay with its body (_ibid._, p. 438).
+
+[184] J. Murdock, in _Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p.
+424. The Alaskan Eskimo are now being rapidly converted to Christianity
+or, rather, are accepting as many of the Christian teachings as can be
+assimilated by them to their old pagan observances. The missionary they
+regard as a shaman and his prohibitions, especially those relating to
+Sunday observance, they treat as so many new taboos to be added to their
+long catalogue of restrictions. “An Eskimo who is a great admirer of the
+white people (and some Eskimo are not) said to me once that some Eskimo
+foolishly maintained that white men were less intelligent than Eskimo
+are. But he said that he had a crushing reply to those who made this
+statement. He would say to them: ‘Our wise men have taboos on food and
+drink, they have taboos on clothing and methods of travel, on words and
+thoughts; but until the white man came did we ever hear of Sunday? Did
+the wisest of us ever think of the fact that a _day_ might be taboo?’”
+(V. Stefánsson, “On Christianizing the Eskimo,” _Harper’s Magazine_,
+1913, cxxvii, 674; _idem_, _My Life with the Eskimo_, New York, 1913, p.
+412; compare pp. 36 _sq._, 89 _sqq._, 374 _sq._, 416 _sqq._)
+
+[185] W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_,
+xi, 521.
+
+[186] W. Jochelson, _ibid._, x, 104 _sq._
+
+[187] W. G. Sumner, “The Yakuts,” abridged from the Russian of
+Sieroshevski, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 107.
+
+[188] W. H. Bennett, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
+iv, 499.
+
+[189] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited by
+E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 461.
+
+[190] George Henderson, _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_, Glasgow,
+1911, p. 296 (Isle of Iriskay).
+
+[191] On feasts of All Souls, in general, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Adonis,
+Attis, Osiris_,³ London, 1914, ii, 51-83; on the public expulsion of
+evils see _idem_, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 109-169. Compare
+also P. Sartori, _Die Speisung der Toten_, Dortmund, 1903, pp. 48-55.
+
+[192] Above, pp. 13, 21 _sq._, 31, 40 _sqq._, 51, 57.
+
+[193] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275. The king of the
+Matabele was obliged to abstain from food and drink on the new moon
+following the beginning of the Matabele year. The late ruler, Lobengula,
+compromised this self-denying ordinance by drinking beer only out of a
+bottle. During the new-moon day “he was supposed to have communication
+with the spirits of his ancestors, and he abstained altogether from
+business” (L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, London, 1900, p.
+156).
+
+[194] J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, London, 1905, pp.
+12 _sq._ The Bahima demons, a numerous company, are mostly identified
+with the various maladies from which the natives suffer. See Sir H. H.
+Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii, 631 _sq._
+
+[195] C. Velten, _Sitten und Gebräuche der Suaheli_, Göttingen, 1903, p.
+342.
+
+[196] Soury-Lavergne and de la Devèze, “La fête nationale du _fandroana_
+en Imerina, Madagascar,” _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 308.
+
+[197] A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples_, London, 1887, pp. 227
+_sq._
+
+[198] “Extracts from Diary of the late Rev. John Martin, Wesleyan
+Missionary in West Africa, 1843-1848,” _Man_, 1912, xii, 138 _sq._
+Compare A. J. N. Tremearne, _The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria_, London,
+1912, pp. 202 _sq._
+
+[199] A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, London, 1894, pp. 107
+_sq._
+
+[200] See H. Webster, _Primitive Secret Societies_, New York, 1908, pp.
+104 _sq._
+
+[201] Mrs. R. B. Batty, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1889, xix, 160.
+
+[202] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 110 _sq._ The Oro rites are
+attributed by Ellis to the _ogboni_ society, but it is probable that the
+term “Oro” is also applied to other secret associations of Yorubaland.
+
+[203] R. E. Dennett, _Nigerian Studies_, London, 1910, pp. 41 _sq._,
+quoting Adesola in the _Nigerian Chronicle_.
+
+[204] J. B. Walker, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1877,
+vi, 121 _sq._
+
+[205] T. J. Hutchinson, _Impressions of Western Africa_, London, 1858,
+pp. 141 _sq._
+
+[206] Scholium on Lucian, _Timon_, 43.
+
+[207] Plato, _Leges_, vii, 800; Lucian, _Pseudologistes_, 12; Plutarch,
+_De EI apud Delphos_, 20; _idem_, _De defectu oraculorum_, 14; _idem_,
+_Vita Alexandri_, 14; Hesychius, _s.v._ ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι (ed. M. Schmidt,
+Jena, 1867, col. 211).
+
+[208] E. Rhode, _Psyche_,⁶ Tübingen, 1910, p. 235; P. Stengel, _Die
+griechischen Sakralaltertümer_, Munich, 1890, p. 156 (with references to
+the classical authorities). The fifth day of every Athenian month was
+regarded as unpropitious, and hence was not dedicated to any divinity. A
+superstitious avoidance of the “fifths” of the month can be traced back
+to Hesiod (_Opera et dies_, 802 _sqq._).
+
+[209] Compare Hesychius, _s.v._ μιαροὶ ἡμέραι (ed. Schmidt, col. 1045):
+“the polluted days of the month of Anthesterion, on which days they
+think that the souls of the departed are sent up from the nether world.”
+Photius, _s.v._ μιαρὰ ἡμέρα (ed. S. A. Naber, Leiden, 1864-1865, i, 423),
+says that on the second day the people used to chew buckthorn and anoint
+their doors with pitch. See Frazer’s note (_The Scapegoat_, p. 153 _n._¹)
+on the widespread use of buckthorn and pitch as prophylactics against
+ghosts and evil influences.
+
+[210] On the Anthesteria, from an anthropological standpoint, see
+particularly Miss Jane E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
+Religion_, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 32 _sqq._, 49 _sqq._ Dr. L. R. Farnell
+thinks that only in the ritual for the third and final day of the
+Anthesteria have we a genuine ceremony of ghost-riddance, this day
+falling so near the Dionysiac celebration as to become attached to the
+latter as a mournful finale (_The Cults of the Greek States_, Oxford,
+1906-1910, v, 215 _sqq._). But, on this view, it is difficult to see
+why the second day, the Choes, should have been expressly mentioned as
+“polluted” (μιαρά), and why the first day, the Pithoigia, should have
+been described as “totally unlucky” (ἐς τὸ πᾶν άποφράς).
+
+[211] Festus, _De verborum significatione_, ed. C. O. Müller, Leipzig,
+1839, p. 156; Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 24. The _dies religiosi_
+were sometimes confused, even by the ancients, with the _dies nefasti_
+(compare Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv, 9, 5), which were days marked
+in the calendar as occasions when the prætor’s court was not open and
+assemblies (_comitia_) could not lawfully meet. But not all _dies
+religiosi_ were observed as non-comitial and non-judicial days. It
+seems, indeed, that the priestly authorities who drew up the calendar
+did not wish to recognize these products of popular superstition by
+incorporating all of them, under the guise of _dies nefasti_, in the
+Roman state religion. On the _dies religiosi_, also described as _dies
+atri_ or _dies vitiosi_, see G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,
+Munich, 1902, pp. 376 _sq._; W. W. Fowler, _The Religious Experience of
+the Roman People_, London, 1911, pp. 38 _sqq._; T. Mommsen, in _Corpus
+inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 296.
+
+[212] Gellius, _op. cit._, iv, 9, 5; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 29
+_sq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, v, 419-486; W. W. Fowler, _The Roman Festivals of
+the Period of the Republic_, London, 1899, pp. 106 _sqq._, 306 _sqq._ The
+first eight days of the Parentalia belonged only to the sphere of family
+worship, but the ninth day (Feb. 21) was also a public celebration, known
+as the Feralia. The Lemuria, at least in historic times, was not a state
+festival, but a purely domestic affair.
+
+[213] Varro, _ap._ Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 18; Festus, _op. cit._,
+p. 156. Compare Fowler, “Mundus Patet,” _Journal of Roman Studies_, 1912,
+ii, 25-33.
+
+[214] Both expressions are commonly derived from the Babylonian
+_shabattum_; see below, p. 235.
+
+[215] _Leviticus_, xvi, 31, xxiii, 26-32; compare _Numbers_, xxix, 7.
+
+[216] _Leviticus_, xxv, 9; _Ezekiel_, xl, 1.
+
+[217] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 23-25; _Numbers_, xxix, 1-7. It has been
+suggested that the first ten days of the seventh month were epagomenal,
+bridging the gap, as it were, between the old lunar year of 355 days and
+the solar year (J. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_,³
+Berlin, 1905, p. 105 _n._²; see below, p. 247 _n._²). In the ritual of
+the Jewish church they are described as days of “penitence.”
+
+[218] See Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 170 _sqq._
+
+[219] On the relation of the Hebrew _kipper_, or atonement, to the
+Assyrian _kuppuru_ and the connection of both with ideas of taboo, see R.
+C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London, 1904,
+ii, pp. 1 _sqq._ It is unnecessary to accept his conclusion that the
+Hebrew ceremony was directly borrowed from Babylonia. The view advanced
+in the text as to the antiquity of the Atonement rite may now claim the
+support of Professor Grimme, who sees in this ceremony one of the oldest
+elements of the Law and finds the prototype of Azazel in the hairy demons
+which were believed to haunt the wilderness of northern Arabia. See H.
+Grimme, “Das Alter des israelitischen Versöhnungstages,” _Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 130-142.
+
+[220] E. Westermarck, “The Popular Ritual of the Great Feast in Morocco,”
+_Folklore_, 1911, xxii, 157 _sq._, 180 _sqq._
+
+[221] Strabo, _Geographica_, x, 3, 9.
+
+[222] The best study of holiness in its relation to the concept of taboo
+is still that of W. Robertson Smith (_The Religion of the Semites_,²
+London, 1894, chaps. iv-v). See further N. Söderblom, “Holiness (General
+and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi,
+731-741.
+
+[223] “In economic theory,” writes Dr. Thorstein Veblen, “sacred holidays
+are obviously to be construed as a season of vicarious leisure performed
+for the divinity or saint in whose name the _tabu_ is imposed and to
+whose good repute the abstention from useful effort on those days is
+conceived to inure. The characteristic feature of all such seasons of
+devout vicarious leisure is a more or less rigid _tabu_ on all activity
+that is of human use.... Sacred holidays, and holidays generally, are of
+the nature of a tribute levied on the body of the people. The tribute is
+paid in vicarious leisure, and the honourific effect which emerges is
+imputed to the person or the fact for whose good repute the holiday has
+been instituted. Such a tithe of vicarious leisure is a perquisite of all
+members of the preternatural leisure class and is indispensable to their
+good fame. _Un saint qu’on ne chôme pas_ is indeed a saint fallen on evil
+days” (_The Theory of the Leisure Class_, New York, 1899, pp. 309 _sq._).
+
+[224] Above, pp. 13, 15, 47, 49, 79.
+
+[225] J. W. Breeks, _An Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of
+the Nīlagiris_, London, 1873, p. 44.
+
+[226] P. Dehon, in _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1906, i,
+no. 1, p. 144.
+
+[227] W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 232.
+
+[228] C. K. Menon, “Some Agricultural Ceremonies in Malabar,” Madras
+Government Museum, _Bulletin_, 1906, v, 104 _sq._
+
+[229] Henry Whitehead, “The Village Deities of Southern India,” Madras
+Government Museum, _Bulletin_, 1907, v, 128 _sq._ The whole subject of
+these Dravidian festivals has now been carefully investigated by my
+former pupil Mr. W. T. Elmore. See his monograph “Dravidian Gods in
+Modern Hinduism,” _University Studies_, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1915, xv,
+1-152.
+
+[230] Several of the Hindu festivals are accompanied by prayer, fasting,
+bathing, and oblation. One of the minor ceremonies during the month
+of February is intended to “avert smallpox.” See E. W. Hopkins, _The
+Religions of India_, Boston, 1895, p. 452 _n._²; H. H. Wilson, _Essays
+and Lectures chiefly on the Religions of the Hindus_, London, 1862, ii,
+209 _sq._
+
+[231] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 21; _Numbers_, xxviii, 26.
+
+[232] The ethnographic evidence relating to first-fruits has been
+very fully collected by Sir J. G. Frazer (_Spirits of the Corn and
+of the Wild_, London, 1912, ii, 48-137). See also J. A. MacCulloch,
+“First-fruits (Introductory and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, vi, 41-45; E. N. Fallaize, “Harvest,” _ibid._, vi,
+520-525.
+
+[233] On the Tongan _inachi_ see above, pp. 18 _sq._
+
+[234] Below, pp. 250 _sq._
+
+[235] Plato, _Leges_, ii, 653.
+
+[236] E. E. Sikes, “Folk-lore in the ‘Works and Days’ of Hesiod,”
+_Classical Review_, 1893, vii, 390. The Hesiodic injunction (_Opera et
+dies_, 742-743):
+
+    μηδ’ ἀπὸ πεντόζοιο θεῶν ἐν δαιτὶ θαλείῃ
+    αὖον ἀπὸ χλωροῦ τάμνειν αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ
+
+stripped of its metaphorical setting, means simply, “Do not cut your
+nails with iron on a joyous festival of the gods.” This taboo may be
+compared with the rule observed by the Flaminica Dialis at Rome, who,
+during the celebration of the festival called the Vestalia, might not cut
+her hair or nails (Ovid, _Fasti_, vi, 225-226). The Roman antiquarian,
+Pliny the Elder, refers to the belief that it is ominous to pare the
+nails on market days (_nundinæ_), but to cut the hair on the 17th
+and 29th days of the month is a preventive of baldness and headache
+(_Historia naturalis_, xxviii, 5). These pagan superstitions have passed
+into modern European folklore, being widely current, for example, in
+England (W. Henderson, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties
+of England and the Borders_, London, 1879, pp. 17 _sq._), as in the
+familiar lines:
+
+    “Better a child had ne’er been born
+    Then cut his nails on a Sunday morn!”
+
+Or, as another old English rhyme runs:
+
+    “Sunday shaven, Sunday shorn,
+    Better hadst thou ne’er been born!”
+
+In certain parts of Ireland people will not shave on Sunday (G. H.
+Kinahan, in _Folk-lore Record_, 1881, iv, 105). Besides Sunday, Friday is
+often considered an unlucky day for cutting hair or nails, and sometimes
+a distinction is made between the two days, as in Northumberland, where
+it is unlucky to cut hair on a Friday or to pare nails on a Sunday
+(_Denham Tracts_, ed. J. Hardy, ii, 343). In Macedonia Wednesday and
+Friday are the two days when the nails should not be cut, while Sunday
+is unpropitious for bathing (G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folk-lore_,
+Cambridge, 1903, p. 190). Similar taboos are found outside of Europe.
+The Egyptians hold Saturday to be particularly unfavourable for shaving
+and cutting the nails (E. W. Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern
+Egyptians_,⁵ London, 1871, i, 331), while the Jews in Jerusalem think
+that the nails should be cut early in the week, so that they may not
+start growing on the Sabbath (Miss A. Goodrich-Freer, in _Folklore_,
+1904, xv, 187). These superstitions may rest ultimately on the notion
+that such acts as hair-cutting, shaving, and nail-paring are ritually
+unclean, and hence that their performance on a sacred day would defile
+the festival. See in general on this subject, E. E. Sikes, “Hair and
+Nails,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi, 474-476.
+
+[237] Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 34; Xenophon, _Hellenica_, i, 4, 12;
+Pollux, _Onomasticon_, viii, 141.
+
+[238] Compare Miss Jane E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
+Religion_, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 114 _sqq._
+
+[239] Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 32; Ovid, _Fasti_, vi, 219 _sqq._,
+707 _sqq._; Festus, _De verborum significatione_, ed. C. O. Müller, p.
+250; Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, pp. 145 _sqq._
+
+[240] In addition to the Parentalia, Lemuria, and Vestalia, the occasions
+on which the Salii performed their dances in March and October (Ovid,
+_Fasti_, iii, 393 _sqq._; Livy, xxxvii, 33; Suetonius, _Otho_, 8) and the
+two days succeeding the _feriæ Latinæ_ (Cicero, _Ad Qu. frat._, ii, 4, 2)
+were included among the _dies religiosi_.
+
+[241] See G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, Munich, 1902, pp.
+365-381; _idem_, in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
+Altertumswissenschaft_, vi, coll. 2211-2213; A. S. Wilkins, in Smith,
+Wayte, and Marindin’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,³
+ii, 836-838; and especially C. Jullian, in Daremberg and Saglio’s
+_Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines_, iv, 1042-1066. The
+plural form _feriæ_ indicates that the festival day recurs periodically;
+compare the similar usage as respects _nundinæ_ (below, p. 120). _Feriæ_
+seems to have been first written _fesiæ_, whence the word _festus_. On
+the derivation of _feriæ_ see A. Walde, _Lateinisches etymologisches
+Wörterbuch_,² Heidelberg, 1910, pp. 270 _sq._
+
+[242] Above, pp. 25, 38 _sq._, 43 _sq._, 53.
+
+[243] Festus, _De verborum significatione: denicales feriæ colebantur,
+cum hominis mortui causa familia purgabatur_ (ed. Müller, p. 70); compare
+Cicero, _De legibus_, ii, 22, 55. It was not lawful to bury a corpse on a
+public holiday, doubtless through fear of polluting the sacredness of the
+occasion. See Columella, _De re rustica_, ii, 22, 5.
+
+[244] Cato, _De agri cultura_, 138. Compare the Mosaic injunction
+relating to the Sabbath (_Deuteronomy_, v, 14).
+
+[245] Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 664 _sq._:
+
+    _Pagus agat festum: pagum lustrate, coloni;_
+    _Et date paganis ennua liba focis._
+
+Some ancient authorities (Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 26; Macrobius,
+_Saturnalia_, i, 16, 6) appear to distinguish the Paganalia from the
+_feriæ sementivæ_. On this festival see Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, pp.
+294 _sqq._; _idem_, _The Religious Experience of the Roman People_,
+London, 1911, pp. 61 _sq._
+
+[246] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 8. On the taboos affecting the
+Flamen and Flaminica see F. B. Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane Questions_,
+London, 1892, pp. lxxiii _sqq._; Sir J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils
+of the Soul_, pp. 13 _sq._ The Flamen was in a condition of permanent
+taboo—_Dialis cotidie feriatus est_ (Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, x, 15, 16).
+
+[247] Appian, _Bellum civile_, i, 55; Plutarch, _Sulla_, 8; Dio Cassius,
+xxxviii, 6.
+
+[248] Cicero, _De legibus_, ii, 8, 19; compare ii, 12, 29; _idem_, _De
+divinatione_, i, 45, 102.
+
+[249] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 9: _Pollux ferias, si ... opus
+aliquod fieret_; Festus, _s.v._ _præciamitatores: ut homines se ab opere
+abstinerent, quia his opus facientem videre irreligiosum erat_ (ed.
+Müller, p. 248).
+
+[250] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 10.
+
+[251] _Ibid._, i, 16, 11; compare _Matthew_, xii, 11; _Luke_, xiv, 5.
+
+[252] Cato, _De agri cultura_, ii, 4.
+
+[253] Vergil, _Georgica_, i, 268-272, with the commentary of Servius. An
+entire chapter of Columella’s treatise on husbandry (_De re rustica_, ii,
+22) is devoted to a discussion of what may and what may not be done by a
+farmer on ferial days. The pontifical law in such matters was as minute,
+tyrannical, and absurd as the rabbinical ordinances relating to the
+proper observance of the Sabbath. See below, p. 263.
+
+[254] Livy, i, 31, iii, 5, vii, 28, xxi, 62, xxv, 7, xxxiv, 55, xxxv, 40,
+xli, 21, xlii, 2; Suetonius, _Divus Claudius_, 22. Many more instances
+are given by Julius Obsequens in his curious work, _De prodigiis_, 22,
+33, 54, 58, 68, 104, 111.
+
+[255] Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, ii, 24, 11; compare Horace, _Carmina_,
+ii, 3, 6-9.
+
+[256] The Indians of Cape Flattery, state of Washington, are said to keep
+the month of August as a period of repose when no berries are picked
+and no fish are taken from the sea, except occasionally by children (J.
+G. Swan, in _Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_, xvi, no. 220,
+p. 91). Perhaps the practice was consciously designed to establish a
+“close season,” though this is probably attributing too much foresight
+to the Indian. The fish or berries may have been considered unfit for
+eating in August. After gathering the yam harvest the Bini of Benin
+keep the first month of the dry season as a time of idleness (R. E.
+Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, London, 1906, p. 216).
+Here a period of rest is observed by an agricultural people because they
+have no special labour to perform. Among the Akikuyu of British East
+Africa there are three months in the year when little or no work is
+done, since the crops are then ripening (K. R. Dundas, in _Man_, 1909,
+ix, 38). The Yuchi Indians, now in the state of Oklahoma, keep autumn
+as “a period of combined rest, hunting, and enjoyment.” The winter,
+also, is passed in idleness and recreation (F. G. Speck, _Ethnology of
+the Yuchi Indians_, Philadelphia, 1909, p. 67). Dr. C. G. Seligmann
+has sent to me, in manuscript, some curious information regarding a
+division of time observed by the Sinaugolo, a hill-tribe to the east of
+Port Moresby, British New Guinea. It seems that long ago, according to
+Sinaugolo tradition, the people had to labour incessantly and enjoyed no
+opportunity to celebrate their dances and other festive ceremonies. So
+they instituted what was called the _kaba_ period as a relaxation from
+the hard work of ordinary life. During this period, which recurred every
+other year or oftener, the Sinaugolo danced and held their most important
+feasts. The division of time into _kaba_ and _dauka_ (specially devoted
+to labour) has now lapsed.
+
+[257] _The Evolution of the Aryan_, translated by A. Drucker, London,
+1897, p. 117.
+
+[258] On primitive markets see Karl Andree, _Geographie des Welthandels_,
+Stuttgart, 1867, i, 40-81; C. Köhne, “Markt-, Kaufmanns- und Handelsrecht
+in primitiven Kulturverhältnissen,” _Zeitschrift für vergleichende
+Rechtswissenschaft_, 1895, xi, 196-220; R. Lasch, “Das Marktwesen auf den
+primitiven Kulturstufen,” _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_, 1906,
+ix, 619-627, 700-715, 764-782; H. Schurtz, _Das afrikanische Gewerbe_,
+Leipzig, 1900, pp. 115-122; P. J. Hamilton Grierson, _The Silent Trade_,
+Edinburgh, 1903, pp. 54-62; H. L. Roth, “Trading in Early Days,”
+_Bankfield Museum Notes_, Halifax (Eng.), 1908, no. 5, pp. 23 _sqq._;
+N. W. Thomas, “The Market in African Law and Custom,” _Journal of the
+Society of Comparative Legislation_, 1908, n.s., no. 19, pp. 90-106.
+
+[259] Some observers use ambiguous language, when referring to the
+length—four, five, six days, etc.—of market weeks. Throughout this
+chapter I have regularly translated by “every fifth day” such expressions
+as “tous les cinq jours,” “de cinq en cinq jours,” “alle fünf Tage,”
+“einmal in fünf Tagen,” and “einmaal in de vijf dagen.”
+
+[260] A. W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-east Australia_, London,
+1904, pp. 714 _sqq._ On Australian barter see G. C. Wheeler, _The Tribe
+and Intertribal Relations in Australia_, London, 1910, pp. 93-97.
+
+[261] A. C. Haddon, _Head-hunters, Black, White, and Brown_, London,
+1901, pp. 265, 269.
+
+[262] James Chalmers, in Chalmers and Gill, _Work and Adventure in New
+Guinea_, London, 1885, pp. 40 sq. Compare M. Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_,
+Berlin, 1899, p. 335. Sir William MacGregor observes that the institution
+of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, “is not quite new to the Papuan,
+but ... the Papuan Sabbath of Keapara [Kerepunu] exceeds the Hebrew
+in dividing time into weeks of three days. The great majority of the
+tribes, however, do not seem to have a regular week, and work or rest
+capriciously” (_British New Guinea_, London, 1897, pp. 44 _sq._). See
+above, p. 26 _n._¹
+
+[263] C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_,
+Cambridge, 1910, pp. 48, 94 (Koita).
+
+[264] J. S. A. van Dissel, in _Tijdschrift van het koninklijk
+nederlandsch aardrijkskundig genootschap_, 1904, second series, xxi, 644.
+
+[265] J. Graf Pfeil, _Studien und Beobachtungen aus der Südsee_,
+Brunswick, 1899, p. 116.
+
+[266] J. J. Atkinson, in _Folklore_, 1903, xiv, 245. Mr. Atkinson in
+this passage probably has in mind the European week introduced into New
+Caledonia by the French.
+
+[267] Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, London, 1908, p. 288; Wilkes,
+_Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iii, 300 _sq._ (Somu-Somu,
+in the Fiji group); J. J. Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich
+Islands_,² Boston, 1843, p. 77.
+
+[268] P. Sarasin and F. Sarasin, _Reisen in Celebes_, Wiesbaden, 1905,
+ii, 324.
+
+[269] W. Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_,³ London, 1811, pp. 379 _sq._;
+F. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, Berlin, 1847, pp. 227 _sq._;
+J. v. Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras_, Würzburg, 1894, p.
+291; B. Hagen, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1883, xxix, 173 (Batta of
+Lake Toba); W. Volz, _Nord-Sumatra_, Berlin, 1909, i, 267.
+
+[270] Sir T. S. Raffles, _History of Java_,² London, 1830, i, 531; P. J.
+Veth, _Java_,² Haarlem, 1907, iv, 296 _sqq._ The names of the days in
+the _pasar_ were considered to bear a mystical relation to colours and
+the divisions of the horizon, the first day (white, east), the second
+(red, south), the third (yellow, west), the fourth (black, north), and
+the fifth day a mixed colour, and _focus_, or centre. See John Crawfurd,
+_History of the Indian Archipelago_, Edinburgh, 1820, i, 289 _sq._ These
+fancies must be explained by the colour symbolism which so frequently
+attaches to the cardinal points.
+
+[271] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878,
+n.s., x, 88 _sqq._; compare _ibid._, 1876, n.s., viii, 198.
+
+[272] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, pp. 545 _sq._
+
+[273] J. Richard, _Histoire naturelle, civile, et politique du Tonquin_,
+Paris, 1778, i, 151.
+
+[274] Lillian J. Curtis, _The Laos of North Siam_, Philadelphia, 1903, p.
+132.
+
+[275] Mrs. Leslie Milne, _The Shans at Home_, London, 1910, p. 132.
+
+[276] C. E. D. Black, in _Geographical Journal_, 1895, vi, 30 (Shan
+of Upper Burma). Compare also _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
+States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, p.
+536 (Shan of Lower Burma).
+
+[277] R. G. Woodthorpe, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1897, xxvi, 19.
+
+[278] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 189. According to
+C. Becker (_Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 894) the market is called _jeu duh_.
+
+[279] Gurdon, _op. cit._, p. 190. Compare Sir J. D. Hooker (_Himalayan
+Journals_, London, 1891, p. 487), who attributes the fourth-day markets
+to the Khasi generally.
+
+[280] J. L. Krapf, _Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours_, London,
+1867, pp. 82, 365.
+
+[281] W. W. A. Fitzgerald, _Travels in the Coastlands of British East
+Africa_, London, 1898, p. 111, quoting W. E. Taylor, _Vocabulary of the
+Giryama Language_, London, 1897. The name applied to the first day of
+the week—_jumwa_—is directly taken from the Arabic _al jum‘a_ (Friday,
+the Mohammedan day of worship), from which circumstance it may be
+concluded that the Wagiriama observe _jumwa_ both as a market day and a
+rest day. Similarly, the name of the weekly market held at Antananarivo,
+the capital of Madagascar, is _zoma_, or Friday (_Antananarivo Annual_,
+1889-1892, iv, 372).
+
+[282] K. R. Dundas, in _Man_, 1909, ix, 38.
+
+[283] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
+People_, London, 1910, pp. 105 _sq._
+
+[284] A. Widenmann, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1899, Ergänzungsheft,
+no. 129, p. 69; M. Merker, _ibid._, 1902, no. 138, p. 25; G. Volkens,
+_Der Kilimandscharo_, Berlin, 1897, p. 239; B. Gutmann, “Feldbausitten
+und Wachstumsbräuche der Wadschagga,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913,
+xlv, 502.
+
+[285] Horace Waller, editor, _The Last Journals of David Livingstone in
+Central Africa_, New York, 1875, p. 367. See also V. L. Cameron, _Across
+Africa_, London, 1877, ii, 3.
+
+[286] E. Torday, in _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
+Wien_, 1911, xli, 192.
+
+[287] H. v. Wissmann _et al._, _Im Innern Afrikas_,³ Leipzig, 1891, p.
+252.
+
+[288] H. v. Wissmann, _My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa_,
+London, 1891, p. 125.
+
+[289] Torday and Joyce, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1906, xxxvi, 44. Each day of the Bayaka week bears a name, the last being
+_pungu_, or market day (_ibid._, p. 47).
+
+[290] Torday and Joyce, _ibid._, 1905, xxxv, 413. The Bambala year
+consists of thirteen lunar months, each divided into seven weeks of four
+days, the last day of each week being _pika_, or market day.
+
+[291] Torday and Joyce, _ibid._, 1906, xxxvi, 291.
+
+[292] Sir H. H. Johnston, _The River Congo_, London, 1884, p. 455.
+
+[293] H. H. Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, London, 1900, i, 399 _sq._
+
+[294] J. K. Tuckey, _Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River
+Zaire_, New York, 1818, p. 238.
+
+[295] E. Pechuël-Loesche, in _Die Loango-Expedition_, dritte Abteilung,
+erste Hälfte, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 139. See also A. Bastian, _Die deutsche
+Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, Jena, 1874, i, 209.
+
+[296] R. E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, London, 1906,
+pp. 64, 140; _idem_, _Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort_, London, 1898,
+pp. 8, 137. Among the lower Congo tribes, generally, the dead are buried
+only on two of the four weekdays (J. H. Weeks, in _Folklore_, 1909, xx,
+61; compare _idem_, _Among the Primitive Bakongo_, Philadelphia, 1914, p.
+249).
+
+[297] L. B. Proyart, _Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et autres royaumes
+d’Afrique_, Paris, 1776, p. 116. A still earlier reference to this
+African Sabbath will be found in G. A. Cavazzi da Montecuccoli,
+_Istorica descrizione de’ tre regni Congo, Matamba, et Angola_, Bologna,
+1687, p. 24. For further details relating to markets and market weeks
+among the lower Congo peoples see Herbert Ward, _Five Years with the
+Congo Cannibals_, London, 1890, p. 59; J. H. Weeks, _Congo Life and
+Folklore_, London, 1911, pp. 227 _sq._; H. Nipperdey, “Zur Bedeutung
+der Wochen-Märkte am Congo,” _Revue coloniale internationale_, 1887,
+v, 205-214; A. Thonnar, _Essai sur le système économique des primitifs
+d’après les populations de l’état indépendant du Congo_, Brussels,
+1901, pp. 82-114; A. Cureau, _Les sociétés primitives de l’Afrique
+équatoriale_, Paris, 1912, pp. 295 _sqq._
+
+[298] F. Hutter, _Wanderungen und Forschungen im Nord-Hinterland von
+Kamerun_, Brunswick, 1902, pp. 266, 360; compare Preuss, in _Deutsches
+Kolonialblatt_, 1898, ix, 456.
+
+[299] W. F. Daniell, in _Journal of the Ethnological Society_, 1848, i,
+222 _sq._
+
+[300] A. G. Leonard, _The Lower Niger and its Tribes_, London, 1906,
+pp. 305, 375; William Allen, _Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her
+Majesty’s Government to the River Niger in 1841_, London, 1848, i, 398;
+N. W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of
+Nigeria_, London, 1913, i, 127. Seven weeks are here counted to the month
+of twenty-eight days (W. F. Baikie, _Narrative of an Exploring Voyage_,
+London, 1856, p. 316). An early missionary to west Africa observes
+that among the Ibo, Igara, and other Nigerian tribes the week consists
+of four days, viz. _eke_, a market day and unlucky for the _ata_, or
+chief, to see strangers, _ede_, a lucky or good day, _afo_, an unlucky
+day, and _uko_, a lucky day. Besides these days of good and evil omen
+the Mohammedans have made the natives believe that Friday is an unlucky
+day to undertake any work of importance (S. A. Crowther, in _The Church
+Missionary Intelligencer_, 1865, n.s., i, 55).
+
+[301] J. Parkinson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906,
+xxxvi, 317.
+
+[302] N. W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Edo-speaking Peoples
+of Nigeria_, London, 1910, i, 18 _sq._ That the eight-day week of
+the Bini has developed from a more ancient four-day week is also the
+opinion of R. E. Dennett (_At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, pp.
+214, 364). The Bini week has been stated to consist of five days (Cyril
+Punch, quoted in H. L. Roth, _Great Benin_, Halifax [Eng.], 1903, p. 52
+_n._¹), but this is certainly an error. An early traveller among the
+Bini declares that their Sabbath “happens every fifth day, which is very
+solemnly observed by the great with the slaughter of cows, sheep, and
+goats, whilst the commonalty kill dogs, cats, and chickens, or whatever
+their money will reach to. And of whatever is killed, large portions
+are distributed to the necessitous, in order to enable them, as every
+person is obliged to celebrate this festival” (David van Nyendael, “A
+Description of Rio Formosa, or the River of Benin,” in W. Bosman, _A New
+and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea_, London, 1705, p. 456).
+
+[303] A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples_, London, 1887, pp. 89, 93.
+On the Gold Coast white seems to be the special colour appropriate for
+holy or festive days. On a man’s birthday, which is sacred to his _kra_,
+or tenanting spirit, he abstains from work, puts white clay on his face,
+and dons a white cloth (_ibid._, p. 156). On the Tshi holy days, observed
+by families or private persons only, see further Bosman, _op. cit._,
+p. 153; W. Hutton, _A Voyage to Africa_, London, 1821, p. 166 _n._*
+(Ashanti); E. Perregaux, _Chez les Achanti_, Neuchâtel, 1906, p. 272; J.
+Parkinson, in _Man_, 1911, xi, 2 (Appolonians).
+
+[304] Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, London, 1894, p. 145.
+
+[305] _Ibid._, p. 149.
+
+[306] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 220 _sq._ Beecham declares that
+were the fishermen to go out to sea on this day, “the fetish would be
+angry and spoil their fishing” (_Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London,
+1841, p. 186). Compare also Bosman, _op. cit._, p. 160; Miss Mary H.
+Kingsley, _West African Studies_,² London, 1901, p. 145.
+
+[307] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 220, 304.
+
+[308] _Idem_, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples_, London, 1890, pp. 41, 79.
+
+[309] _Ako-ojo_, “First Day”; _ojo-awo_, “Day of the Secret,” sacred
+to Ifa; _ojo-ogun_, “Day of Ogun,” the god of iron; _ojo-shango_, “Day
+of Shango,” the god of thunder; _ojo-obatala_, “Obatala’s Day.” A holy
+day is called _ose_ (_se_, to disallow), and because each holy day
+recurs weekly, _ose_ has also come to mean the week of five days (Ellis,
+_Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 145 _sq._). According to an earlier writer
+_osse_ (_ose_), or holy day, comes from a word signifying silence. This
+expression was transferred to the Christian Sunday, with which the
+Yoruba became familiar after the year 1822, when many of them emigrated
+to Sierra Leone (Miss Sarah Tucker, _Abbeokuta; or Sunrise within the
+Tropics_,² London, 1853, p. 37 _n._*). Whether the Yoruba week really
+consists of five days seems open to grave doubt. Bishop James Johnson, a
+native African, substantiates Ellis by giving the names of the five days
+(quoted in Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, p. 245), and
+also speaks of “every fifth day, which is the close of a week of _oses_,
+or worshipping days” (_ibid._, p. 251). But Mr. Dennett himself, in his
+latest work, cites three native informants in favour of a week of four
+days. Moreover, Shango’s (Jakuta’s) Day is described by Mr. Dennett as
+the Yoruba “Sunday.” The first day of the week is Ogun’s Day, the other
+weekdays following in the order given by Ellis. It is to be noted that
+Ogun’s Day, the first, fifth, ninth, and so on, is the regular market
+day. The god Ogun in some parts of Yorubaland has taken the place of
+another deity, Odudua, whom Mr. Dennett found to be universally regarded
+as the originator of the system of weekdays (_Nigerian Studies_,
+London, 1910, pp. 72-80). A five-day week has been noted among the
+Jebu of southeastern Yorubaland (D’Avezac, in _Mémoires de la société
+ethnologique_, 1845, ii, pt. ii, 81), and Burton refers to the same
+institution among the Egba, by whom the terminal day is called _ose_ (R.
+F. Burton, _Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains_, London, 1863, i, 205).
+
+[310] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 145.
+
+[311] F. E. Forbes, _Dahomey and the Dahomans_, London, 1851, p. 181.
+For every fourth day as the market day at Whydah see P. E. Isert, _Neue
+Reise nach Guinea und den Caribäischen Inseln in Amerika_, Berlin, 1790,
+p. 132. Bosman (_op. cit._, p. 352) makes the Fida (Whyda) market recur
+every third day. A great market every sixth day is said to be held in the
+district about the town of Ardrah (Allada), Dahomey (John Adams, _Remarks
+on the Country extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo_, London,
+1823, p. 88).
+
+[312] Four-day weeks: R. Plehn, _Beiträge zur Völkerkunde des
+Togo-Gebietes_, Halle, 1898, p. 9; J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_, Berlin,
+1906, p. 311 (Ho); five-day weeks: R. Plehn, in _Mitteilungen von
+Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_,
+1896, ix, 123; six-day weeks: von Zech, _ibid._, 1898, xi, 128;
+Christaller, in _Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft für
+Thüringen_, 1890, viii, 121; L. Conradt, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_,
+1896, xlii, 15 (Adele). The Akposo, who have a week of five days, keep
+the fifth day sacred to their creator-god, Uwolowo, whose name it bears.
+The other gods are worshipped on the second day of the week, a time when
+no work may be done (F. Müller, in _Anthropos_, 1907, ii, 201).
+
+[313] A. Mischlich, in _Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und
+Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_, 1896, ix, 83.
+
+[314] E. Henrici, _Lehrbuch der Ephe-Sprache_, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 59
+_sq._ The names of the seven weekdays in the Ewe and Tshi languages are
+almost identical. See the lists in Henrici, _op. cit._, pp. 59 _sq._, and
+Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 218. The Ewe have borrowed from the
+Tshi not only the names of the weekdays but also the custom of giving to
+private persons names derived from those of the weekdays (Henrici, _op.
+cit._, p. 60).
+
+[315] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 146 _sq._; _idem_,
+_Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 218.
+
+[316] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 147. For the names of the Ga
+weekdays, see _ibid._, p. 143. An early writer, whose observations were
+confined to Akkra on the Gold Coast, speaks of _haughbah_ (_ho-gba_) as
+one of the two sacred days of the seven-day week. It is compulsory for
+all ranks and sexes, but is especially observed by the women. “Under the
+supposition that some malign potency pervades the surrounding country on
+this day, more particularly directed against the pregnant women, their
+daily avocations are restricted within the walls of their domiciles, no
+egress being tolerated either for the purposes of travelling or other
+exterior occupations. Not many people, therefore, presume to violate
+these injunctions by issuing forth early in the forenoon, and none resort
+to their familiar haunts in the markets or public thoroughfares, until
+the prohibition has been withdrawn, by the well-known sign of a declining
+sun” (W. F. Daniell, in _Journal of the Ethnological Society_, 1856, iv,
+23).
+
+[317] R. A. Freeman, _Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jáman_,
+Westminster, 1898, p. 176 (market every fourth day among the Gaman, a
+Tshi-speaking people); M. Monnier, _France noire_, Paris, 1894, p. 209
+(market every fifth day in Kong); L. G. Binger, _Du Niger au golfe de
+Guinée_, Paris, 1892, i, 370 (market every fifth day among the Diulasu);
+L. Desplagnes, _Le plateau central nigérien_, Paris, 1907, p. 377 (market
+every sixth day among the Habbe). A market every ninth day is described
+as being held at Bocqua in Northern Nigeria (R. Lander and J. Lander,
+_Journal of an Expedition to explore the Course and Termination of the
+Niger_, London, 1832, iii, 73, 82). For a general account of markets
+among the Nigerian peoples see A. Hovelacque, _Les nègres de l’Afrique
+sus-équatoriale_, Paris, 1889, pp. 355 _sqq._
+
+[318] A. Mischlich, _Lehrbuch der hausanischen Sprache_, Berlin, 1902, p.
+127 (Hausa); J. S. Gallieni, _Voyage au Soudan français, Haut-Niger, et
+pays de Segou_, Paris, 1885, p. 436 (Segu); R. Callié, _Travels through
+Central Africa to Timbuctoo_, London, 1830, i, 323, 346 (Mandingo);
+A. Hacquard, _Monographie de Tombouctou_, Paris, 1900, p. 55; O.
+Lenz, _Timbuktu_, Leipzig, 1884, i, 154. The Bali market is said to
+be held every seventh day, _i.e._, on Friday. Here, again, Mohammedan
+influence is to be suspected (F. Hutter, _Wanderungen und Forschungen im
+Nord-Hinterland von Kamerun_, Brunswick, 1902, p. 361).
+
+[319] C. van Overbergh, _Les Mayombe_, Brussels, 1907, p. 353; A. de
+Calonne Beaufaict, _Études Bakango_, Liége, 1912, p. 79; J. H. Weeks,
+_Among the Primitive Bakongo_, Philadelphia, 1914, pp. 248 _sq._ Some
+of the Galla tribes have been so far affected by Arabic influences as
+to hold their markets every seventh day (P. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie
+Nordost-Afrikas. Die materielle Kultur der Danâkil, Galla, und Somâl_,
+Berlin, 1893, p. 313).
+
+[320] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 217. So also B. Cruickshank
+(_Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa_, London, 1853, ii, 189
+_sq._).
+
+[321] No evidence for markets has been discovered among the Bantu tribes
+south of the Zambesi. The absence of markets elsewhere is sometimes
+specifically noted by our authorities; see F. Thonner, _Im afrikanischen
+Urwald_, Berlin, 1898, p. 33 (Mondunga, on the Dua River, Belgian Congo);
+J. Maes, in _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 357 (Mongelima, on the Aruwimi
+River, Belgian Congo); A. J. N. Tremearne, _The Tailed Head-hunters of
+Nigeria_, London, 1912, p. 245 (Kagoro and other pagan tribes of Northern
+Nigeria).
+
+[322] Above, pp. 107, 109, 111.
+
+[323] D. F. S. Clavigero, _Storia antica del Messico_, Cesena, 1780, ii,
+62, 163; B. de Sahagun, _Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España_,
+transl. Jourdanet and Siméon, Paris, 1880, pp. lxxiii, 290 _sq._; A.
+von Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, Paris, 1816, ii, 340; G. Brühl,
+_Die Culturvölker Alt-Amerikas_, New York, 1887, p. 234; J. Kohler, “Das
+Recht der Azteken,” _Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft_,
+1895, xi, 75, 87; E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_,
+Oxford, 1892-1899, ii, 359. A greater market or fair was sometimes held
+once in every cycle of twenty days, that is, on every fourth ordinary
+market day. Eighteen market months were included in the solar year. How
+such “months” may arise is illustrated by a Yoruba mode of computing
+time by periods of seventeen days, that being the number of days in four
+market weeks, when the first and fifth days of each cycle are counted in
+(Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 149 _sq._).
+
+[324] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique
+et de l’Amérique-Centrale_, Paris, 1858, iii, 464.
+
+[325] A. von Humboldt, _op. cit._, i, 340, ii, 227; Brühl, _op. cit._, p.
+239; compare p. 326, where a market every fourth day is stated to have
+been held in Turmequé. In Sorotoca the market took place every eighth day
+(_ibid._). But authentic details concerning the Chibcha calendar are not
+to be had. According to von Humboldt (_op. cit._, ii, 244) ten of the
+Muysca “weeks” formed a lunation called _suna_. The _suna_ began, not at
+new moon, but at full moon.
+
+[326] Garcilasso de la Vega, _Comentarios reales de los Incas_, pt. i,
+bk. vi, ch. 35; C. R. Markham, _First Part of the Royal Commentaries
+of the Yncas_, London, 1871, ii, 206. It is an old error, for which
+Garcilasso de la Vega (_op. cit._, pt. i, bk. ii, ch. 23) appears to be
+responsible, that the Peruvians had a week of seven days, following the
+successive phases of the moon. But Acosta, who visited Peru soon after
+the Spanish conquest of that country, is better informed and says clearly
+that neither Peruvians nor Mexicans had a seven-day week (J. de Acosta,
+_Historia de las Indias_, bk. vi, ch. 3; _The Natural and Moral History
+of the Indies_, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii, 396).
+
+[327] See G. E. Marindin, in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin’s _Dictionary of
+Greek and Roman Antiquities_,³ ii, 251 _sq._; M. Besnier, in Daremberg,
+Saglio, and Pottier’s _Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines_,
+vii, 120-122; E. Huschke, _Das alte römische Jahr und seine Tage_,
+Breslau, 1869, pp. 288-312; R. Flex, _Die älteste Monatseinteilung der
+Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 16 _sqq._; and especially P. Huvelin, _Essai
+historique sur le droit des marchés et des foires_, Paris, 1897, pp.
+84-99. According to the Roman system of inclusive reckoning—which
+may be compared with that sometimes employed in Yorubaland (p. 119
+_n._¹)—the market fell on the ninth day, as the derivation of the word
+_nundinæ_ (from _novem_) indicates. It has been suggested by H. Diels
+(_Sibyllinische Blätter_, Berlin, 1890, p. 41 _n._¹) that the choice of
+the ninth day was influenced by the symbolism attaching to the number
+nine among the Romans, as among other Indo-European peoples; compare the
+Nones, or the ninth day before the Ides, and the nine days’ festivals
+(_novemdiales feriæ_). Probably, however, the Roman market week consisted
+originally of four days only, and later was doubled to form the cycle
+employed in historic times. The nundinal days were not named, but were
+indicated in the calendars by letters of the alphabet from A to H.
+
+[328] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 32 _sq._; Dionysius
+Halicarnassensis, _Antiquitates Romanæ_, ii, 28, vii, 58; compare Varro,
+_De re rustica_, ii, præf. Cicero attributes the institution of markets
+to Numa (_De republica_, ii, 14, 27).
+
+[329] _Tertiis nundinis partis secanto (Tabula_ iii, 6, in Gellius,
+_Noctes Atticæ_, xx, i, 49).
+
+[330] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 30; Pliny, _Historia naturalis_,
+xviii, 3. I accept the view that the _lex Hortensia_ converted the
+_nundinæ_ into _dies fasti non comitiales_, that is, forbade comitial
+meetings on these dates, though allowing judicial business to be done
+thereon. For this explanation see G. W. Botsford, _The Roman Assemblies_,
+New York, 1909, pp. 139, 315, 471; Marquardt-Wissowa, _Römische
+Staatsverwaltung_, Leipzig, 1885, iii,² 290. It has been maintained that
+toward the end of the republican period the prohibition referred to was
+no longer observed (P. Groebe, in Drumann-Groebe, _Geschichte Roms_,²
+Berlin, 1899-1906, iii, 779).
+
+[331] Above, pp. 94 _sqq._
+
+[332] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 30. According to Plutarch
+(_Quæstiones Romanæ_, 42), the _nundinæ_ were consecrated to Saturn.
+
+[333] _Omnes judices urbanæque plebes et cunctarum artium officia
+venerabili die Solis quiescant_ (_Codex Justinianus_, iii, 12, 3).
+The prohibition of holding court on Sunday was relaxed by Constantine
+in the same year so far as to permit such legal proceedings as the
+emancipation and manumission of slaves to take place at this time (_Codex
+Theodosianus_, ii, 8, 1). Eusebius (_Vita Constantini_, iv, 18-20) tells
+us that the emperor forbade all military exercises on Sunday.
+
+[334] Above, p. 98.
+
+[335] _Provisione etiam pietatis su[a]e nundinas die Solis perpeti anno
+constituit_ (_Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, iii, no. 4121, p. 523).
+Markets were held on Sunday in many parts of Europe until late in the
+Middle Ages, in spite of numerous edicts, ecclesiastical and civil,
+forbidding the practice (Huvelin, _op. cit._, pp. 46, 156 _sq._).
+
+[336] The date of the obsolescence of the _nundinæ_ is not definitely
+known. The _fasti Philocali_ (354 A.D.) marks the days of the seven-day
+week by the letters A-G, and gives side by side the old nundinal letters
+A-H (_Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 256 _sqq._). This
+arrangement had probably become a feature of the state calendar since the
+Sunday legislation of Constantine.
+
+[337] P. Ehrenreich, _Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen
+Grundlagen_, Leipzig, 1910, pp. 114-127; S. Arrhenius, “Über den Ursprung
+des Gestirnkultus,” _Scientia_, 1911, ix, pp. 424 _sqq._, Sir J. G.
+Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ London, 1914, ii, 140-150; E. J.
+Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford, 1892-1899, i,
+547 _sqq._; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, Leipzig, 1890,
+pp. 1-16, and _Nachträge_, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 1-19. For the ideas of
+civilized children relating to the moon see J. W. Slaughter, “The Moon in
+Childhood and Folklore,” _American Journal of Psychology_, 1902, xiii,
+294-318; G. S. Hall, “Note on Moon Fancies,” _ibid._, 1903, xiv, 88-91.
+
+[338] Albîrûnî, _India_, translated by C. E. Sachau, London, 1888, i, 346
+_sq._ Compare the fine passage in Apuleius (_Metamorphoses_, xi, 1).
+
+[339] Spix and Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_, Munich, 1823-1831, i, 381,
+iii, 1186.
+
+[340] K. Weule, _Native Life in East Africa_, London, 1909, p. 188. On
+the other hand, children of the Bageshu, a Bantu people of British East
+Africa, are expected to take part in new-moon dances, since it is thought
+that they derive benefit from the moon (J. Roscoe, in _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, 1909, xxxix, 193). A Baganda mother believes
+that her child will grow strong and healthy, if it is shown the first
+new moon after its birth (_idem_, _The Baganda_, London, 1911, p. 58).
+Similarly, it is said that in the island of Kiriwina, the largest of the
+Trobriand group to the east of New Guinea, a mother always presents her
+child to the first new moon after its birth, in order that it may grow
+fast and talk soon (George Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, London,
+1910, p. 37).
+
+[341] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3.
+
+[342] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited by
+E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 391 (Oldenburg).
+
+[343] W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography_, _Bulletin_, 1903, no.
+5, p. 7.
+
+[344] W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd, _Specimens of Bushman Folk-lore_,
+London, 1911, pp. 67 _sq._
+
+[345] W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_,
+xi, 306.
+
+[346] C. M. Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, Cambridge, 1888, i, 444.
+
+[347] _Psalms_, cxxi, 6. Another Biblical passage (_Hosea_, v, 7),
+possibly referring to the moon, is most obscure.
+
+[348] _Matthew_, iv, 24, xvii, 15. The Greek verb used here is
+σεληνιάζομαι.
+
+[349] E. Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie_,
+Paris, 1908, pp. 36 _sqq._
+
+[350] _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3.
+
+[351] P. Sébillot, _Le folk-lore de France_, Paris, 1904-1907, i, 45.
+
+[352] Wuttke-Meyer, _op. cit._, p. 301.
+
+[353] _Ibid._, p. 59. In Voigtland, central Germany, the assaults of
+witches are especially looked for and dreaded on Mondays (R. Eisel,
+_Sagenbuch des Voigtlandes_, Gera, 1871, p. 210).
+
+[354] Fanny D. Bergen, _Current Superstitions_, Boston, 1896, p. 120.
+
+[355] For the belief that impregnation can be accomplished by the sun,
+see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Balder the Beautiful_, London, 1913, i, 74 _sqq._
+
+[356] Mrs. K. L. Parker, _The Euahlayi Tribe_, London, 1905, pp. 50, 64,
+98.
+
+[357] C. G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
+Expedition to Torres Straits_, v, 206 _sq._ The word for moon, _ganumi_,
+is sometimes used as a synonym of _nanamud_, the proper expression
+for menstrual blood (_ibid._). Compare A. Hunt, in _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, 1899, xxviii, 11.
+
+[358] C. G. Seligmann, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1902, xxxii, 303 _sq._ (Sinaugolo of the Rigo District); E. Beardmore,
+_ibid._, 1890, xix, 460 (Mawatta of the Daudai District); A. Baessler,
+_Neue Südsee Bilder_, Berlin, 1900, p. 383 (Santa Cruz Islands).
+
+[359] E. Best, “Notes on Procreation among the Maori People of New
+Zealand,” _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1905, xiv, 210 _sq._
+
+[360] C. W. Hobley, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1903,
+xxxiii, 358.
+
+[361] J. Roscoe, _ibid._, 1901, xxxi, 121.
+
+[362] Thomas Winterbottom, _An Account of the Native Africans in the
+Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_, London, 1803, ii, 206 (Mandingo, Susu,
+etc.).
+
+[363] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_, London, 1745, p. 205.
+
+[364] W. B. Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_, London, 1911,
+p. 139.
+
+[365] P. J. de Arriaga, _Extirpación de la idolatria del Piru_, Lima,
+1621, p. 32.
+
+[366] H. Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Ägypter_, Leipzig,
+1885, p. 335. The sacred bull Apis, which the Egyptians regarded as an
+image of the soul of Osiris, a god often identified with the moon, was
+supposed to be born of a virgin cow impregnated by a divine influence
+emanating from the moon (Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, viii, 1,
+3; _idem_, _De Iside et Osiride_, 43). On the discovery of an Apis the
+Egyptians kept a holiday (Herodotus, iii, 28).
+
+[367] W. H. Roscher, “Aphrodite,” in Roscher’s _Ausführliches Lexikon der
+griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, i, coll. 390 _sq._
+
+[368] L. H. Gray, in _Spiegel Memorial Volume_, Bombay, 1908, pp.
+160-168. Râkâ and Sînîvalî, two of the Vedic goddesses identified
+with the lunar phases, seem to have been associated with childbirth
+(_Rig-Veda_, ii, 32; transl. H. Grassmann, i, 41).
+
+[369] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3; _idem_, _Quæstiones
+Romanæ_, 77. See further, W. H. Roscher, _Juno und Hera_, Leipzig, 1875,
+pp. 40-59; _idem_, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 55-61; _idem_,
+“Mondgöttin,” _Ausführliches Lexicon der griechischen und römischen
+Mythologie_, ii, coll. 3150 _sqq._
+
+[370] Sébillot, _op. cit._, i, 41.
+
+[371] E. H. Man, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883,
+xii, 337; Sheldon Dibble, _History of the Sandwich Islands_, Lahainaluna,
+1843, p. 109; N. B. Dennys, _The Folk-lore of China_, London, 1876, p.
+118; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, Boston, 1898,
+p. 358.
+
+[372] H. A. Hazen, “The Origin and Value of Weather Lore,” _Journal
+of American Folk-lore_, 1900, xiii, 191-198; E. G. Dexter, _Weather
+Influences_, New York, 1904, pp. 10-26.
+
+[373] Payne, _op. cit._, i, 547 _sq._; Sir E. B. Tylor, _Primitive
+Culture_,⁴ London, 1903, i, 130; W. G. Black, _Folk-medicine_, London,
+1883, pp. 124 _sqq._; A. E. Crawley, “Dew,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iv, 698-701.
+
+[374] Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 49 _sqq._, 61-67. The
+New Zealanders believed that it was in the night that everything grew (R.
+Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 175). The single Old Testament
+passage which may possibly embody a like conception is _Deuteronomy_,
+xxxiii, 14: “and for the precious things put forth by the moon.” See W.
+von Baudissin, _Jahve et Moloch_, Leipzig, 1874, p. 24.
+
+[375] For many illustrations see Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii,
+131 _sqq._; J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, London, 1883, ii, 708-716.
+
+[376] Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, xx, 8: _Eadem autem ipsa, quæ crescente
+luna gliscunt, deficiente contra defiunt_.
+
+[377] _The Todas_, London, 1906, p. 411.
+
+[378] E. H. Man, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883,
+xii, 152 _sq._ It is also said of the Andamanese that they do no work,
+except what is noiseless, between dawn and sunrise (_ibid._).
+
+[379] Peter Dobell, _Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia_, London, 1830,
+ii, 16.
+
+[380] Joannes de Plano Carpini, in R. Hakluyt, _The Principal
+Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation_, i, 141
+_sq._ (Glasgow reprint, 1903-1905).
+
+[381] Mungo Park, _Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa_, London,
+1816, i, 266.
+
+[382] L. G. Binger, _Du Niger au golfe de Guinée_, Paris, 1892, ii, 116.
+
+[383] A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_, Oxford, 1908, pp. 52, 60, 71.
+
+[384] J. Sibree, “Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions,”
+_Folk-lore Record_, 1879, ii, 32.
+
+[385] _De bello Gallico_, i, 50.
+
+[386] _Germania_, 11. The rule of the Spartans never to march out to war
+before the full moon (Herodotus, vi, 106; Pausanias, i, 28, 4) prevented
+them from sending aid to the Athenians at the time of the battle of
+Marathon. Though the Spartans always knew how to make use of their
+religious scruples, during their festivals they really did ostentatiously
+abstain from expeditions which might have been profitable to them. See A.
+Holm, _History of Greece_, London, 1895, ii, 26, referring to Thucydides,
+iv, 5, v, 75.
+
+[387] Kuhn and Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche_,
+Leipzig, 1848, p. 457.
+
+[388] The Rev. John Grant, in Sir John Sinclair’s _The Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1794, xii, 457. See also Charles Rogers,
+_Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character_,² London, 1865, p. 172 (as
+to Orkney). In the Calendar of Coligny, the most important of the Celtic
+inscriptions of ancient Gaul, the lunation is divided into two parts by
+the full moon, and nearly all the important activities of the month are
+crowded into the first fortnight, apparently because of the ill luck
+associated with a waning moon. See Sir John Rhŷs, “The Coligny Calendar,”
+_Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 221, 265. It has
+been pointed out that most of the Greek festivals known to us fell in the
+first half of the month, and especially on the twelfth day. “Zugrunde
+liegt die weit verbreitete Vorstellung, dass alles, was gedeihen und
+zunehmen soll, während des zunehmenden Mondes vorgenommen werden soll”
+(M. P. Nilsson in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 441
+_sq._).
+
+[389] J. T. Bent, _The Cyclades_, London, 1885, p. 438.
+
+[390] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, edited by J.
+Britten, London, 1881, p. 85.
+
+[391] On the superstitions attaching to eclipses, generally, see R.
+Lasch, “Die Finsternisse in der Mythologie und im religiösen Brauch der
+Völker,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1900, iii, 97-152.
+
+[392] W. E. H. Barrett, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1911, xli, 35.
+
+[393] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 166 _sq._ See above, pp. 50 _sq._
+
+[394] Rivers, _op. cit._, pp. 580, 592.
+
+[395] _Madras Weekly Mail_, 15th October, 1908, quoted by Edgar Thurston,
+_Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, London and Leipzig, 1912, p.
+44.
+
+[396] R. G. Chaube, “Some of the Most Popular Beliefs and Superstitions
+of the Hindus of Northern India,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society
+of Bombay_, v, 326.
+
+[397] W. Crooke, _The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
+Westminster, 1896, i, 21 _sqq._; compare _idem_, _Natives of Northern
+India_, London, 1907, p. 203. See also H. G. Rose, “Hindu Pregnancy
+Observances in the Punjab,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1905, xxxv, 277 _sq._
+
+[398] John Barrow, _Travels in China_, London, 1804, p. 287.
+
+[399] Thucydides, vii, 50; Plutarch, _Nicias_, 23.
+
+[400] J. Buxtorf, _Synagoga Judaica_,³ Basel, 1680, p. 477: _Defectum
+lunæ pro pessimo habent signo, quod aliquid mali et inauspicati ab
+hostibus et inimicis suis portendat. Ideo ejusmodi die animas vulgo
+jejunio affligunt et ab hostibus suis a Deo defendi postulant._
+
+[401] Above, p. 134. During a solar eclipse Swabian peasants totally
+abandon their usual occupations and shut up their cattle in the stalls
+(A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1861-1862,
+i, 189). In Ober-Pfalz and Bohemia at such a time it is believed to be
+dangerous to eat anything or even to go outside the house, unless one’s
+mouth is securely covered with a cloth (Wuttke-Meyer, _op. cit._, p. 302).
+
+[402] C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_,
+Cambridge, 1910, p. 53.
+
+[403] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
+People_, London, 1910, p. 284.
+
+[404] W. W. A. Fitzgerald, _Travels in the Coastlands of British East
+Africa_, London, 1898, p. 111, quoting W. E. Taylor, _Vocabulary of the
+Giryama Language_, London, 1897. The name of these rest days—_jumwa_—is
+Arabic; see above, p. 107 _n._²
+
+[405] P. B. Du Chaillu, _In African Forest and Jungle_, New York, 1903,
+pp. 96 _sq._
+
+[406] Horace Waller, editor, _The Last Journals of David Livingstone in
+Central Africa_, New York, 1875, p. 273.
+
+[407] J. Y. Gibson, _The Story of the Zulus_, London, 1911, p. 175.
+
+[408] Gengnagel, “Volksglaube und Wahrsagerei an der Westküste Indiens,”
+_Ausland_, 1891, lxiv, 871 _sq._ Another observer declares that if a cow
+calves on the new-moon day, her milk, it is believed, will kill the owner
+(P. Kershasp, “Some Superstitions prevailing among the Canarese-speaking
+People of Southern India,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society of
+Bombay_, vii, 84).
+
+[409] R. B. Bainbridge, in _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_,
+1907, ii, 50.
+
+[410] J. Wilson, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 308 (from _Punjab
+Notes and Queries_, 1883).
+
+[411] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
+and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 214, 333 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Religion
+Babyloniens und Assyriens_, Giessen, 1905-1912, i, 440, ii, 510 _sqq._
+Compare L. W. King, _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, London, 1896, pp. 5
+_sq._
+
+[412] I. Goldziher, in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1910, xiii, 44
+_n._⁴ For the Abyssinian beliefs see E. Littmann, _ibid._, 1908, xi, 314
+_sq._
+
+[413] E. Rhode, _Psyche_,⁶ Tübingen, 1910, i, 234 _n._¹, 269 _n._²;
+E. Caillemer, in Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des antiquités
+grecques et romaines_, i, 332. G. F. Schoemann denies that the ἀσέλινοι
+were truly ill-omened, since there are instances of popular assemblies
+being fixed for these days (_Griechische Alterthümer_,⁴ edited by J. H.
+Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, 457 _n._⁴). It would seem, however, that
+the Athenians, like the Romans, sometimes distinguished between days
+popularly considered unlucky and those officially recognized as such in
+the state calendars. Friday is for us a most unlucky day, but, excepting
+Good Friday, it is not a _dies non_.
+
+[414] Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 46 _sqq._ The interlunar
+days were selected by the ancients for the celebration of the sacred
+marriages of the gods and goddesses and, particularly, of the sun and
+moon. At least from the time of Thales the conjunction of the two
+luminaries was indicated by the same term σύνοδος (_coitus_) which was
+applied to the act of procreation (_ibid._, pp. 76 _sqq._).
+
+[415] T. F. T. Dyer, _English Folklore_, London, 1878, p. 41; Thomas
+Hardy, _The Return of the Native_, London, 1895, p. 29.
+
+[416] H. A. Hazen, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, 1900, xiii, 192.
+American folklore contains the injunction never to kill cattle or pigs,
+or even wild game, by the “dark of the moon”; it is most unlucky, and the
+meat will come to no good (Bergen, _Current Superstitions_, p. 121).
+
+[417] W. Smythe and F. Lowe, _Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para_,
+London, 1836, p. 230.
+
+[418] Father G. Boscana, “Chinigchinich,” in _Life in California by an
+American_, New York, 1846, pp. 298 _sq._
+
+[419] Jonathan Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North
+America_,³ London, 1781, pp. 250, 252.
+
+[420] W. Bartram, in _Transactions of the American Ethnological Society_,
+1853, iii, pt. i, 26.
+
+[421] Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,
+xvi, 273.
+
+[422] Mungo Park, _op. cit._, i, 265.
+
+[423] G. W. Stow, _The Native Races of South Africa_, London, 1905, p.
+112. For further examples of new-moon and full-moon celebrations see P.
+Kolben, _The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_, London, 1731, i,
+96 (Hottentots); J. Bonwick, _Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians_,
+London, 1870, pp. 186 _sqq._; Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New
+Guinea_, p. 193 (Koita); Carl Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen
+der Salomo-Inseln_, Dresden, 1903, p. 163 (Shortland Island); Taylor,
+_Te Ika A Maui_, p. 93 (Maori); Turner, _Samoa_, p. 67; A. E. Jenks, in
+_Ethnological Survey Publications_, i, 206 (Bontoc Igorot of Luzon); V.
+Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 213
+(Nicobarese); W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, xi, 378 (Chukchi); J. v. Klaproth, _Reise in den Kaukasus und
+nach Georgien_, Halle, 1814, ii, 602 (Osetes); A. von Humboldt, _Vues des
+Cordillères_, Paris, 1816, ii, 244 (Muysca of Colombia).
+
+[424] Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii, 140.
+
+[425] The vice of seeking particularistic explanations of widespread
+social phenomena is illustrated by Nielsen, who, with misdirected
+ingenuity, has argued that the early Semites founded their Sabbaths
+on the observation that the moon (conceived as a divinity) rests
+four times in a lunation. Days on which the deity rested were to be
+likewise observed by his worshippers as days of rest (D. Nielsen, _Die
+altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Überlieferung_, Strassburg,
+1904, pp. 63 _sqq._). It is true that the moon looks full for a day or
+two before and for a day or two after she is full; similarly, the changes
+in her form at the beginning of a lunation are scarcely perceptible.
+The moon, therefore, might be said to “rest” at these two periods. But
+neither astronomical science nor untutored observation lends any support
+to the idea that the moon “rests” at the close of each and every phase.
+Such a hypothesis, were it true, would not account for the other forms
+of abstinence, in addition to the cessation of labour, which occur in
+connection with the moon’s changes. And, as we shall see, the observance
+of lunar taboos may be quite dissociated from true moon-worship and
+probably long antedates the latter cult.
+
+[426] Above, pp. 14 _sq._, 20, 32 _and_ _n._², 34 and _n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹
+
+[427] Lieutenant Farewell, in W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to
+explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_, London, 1833, ii,
+397; compare Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, London, 1904, p. 110.
+
+[428] G. W. Stow, _The Native Races of South Africa_, London, 1905, p.
+414.
+
+[429] _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_,²⁵ New York,
+1870, p. 255.
+
+[430] John Campbell, _Travels in South Africa_, London, 1822, ii, 205.
+
+[431] L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, London, 1900, pp. 85 _sq._
+
+[432] _Ibid._, p. 295.
+
+[433] J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, London, 1905, p. 294.
+
+[434] Above, p. 136.
+
+[435] Hobley, _op. cit._, p. 104.
+
+[436] John Roscoe, _The Baganda_, London, 1911, pp. 297, 299, 428;
+_idem_, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 76.
+
+[437] Roscoe, _Baganda_, pp. 320 _sqq._; _idem_, “Python Worship in
+Uganda,” _Man_, 1909, ix, 88 _sqq._
+
+[438] _Idem_, _Baganda_, pp. 249 _sq._
+
+[439] Mrs. A. B. Fisher, _Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda_, London
+[1912], pp. 37 _sq._
+
+[440] J. H. Speke, _Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile_,
+Edinburgh, 1863, p. 523.
+
+[441] _Ibid._, p. 259. According to Speke this custom is also observed by
+the king of Uganda, who, on the first day after the appearance of the new
+moon, examines and arranges his _mapembe_, or fetishes (_ibid._, p. 372).
+
+[442] The Mendi of the hinterland of Sierra Leone are said to hold a
+new-moon festival and at it to abstain from all work, “alleging that
+if they infringed this rule corn and rice would grow red, the new moon
+being a ‘day of blood.’” Ellis, who cites this instance without giving
+his authority, adds the further fact that the Mendi recognize no weeks
+(_Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 146).
+
+[443] _Ibid._ Ellis presented his arguments more fully in an article “On
+the Origin of Weeks and Sabbaths,” _Popular Science Monthly_, 1895, xlvi,
+329-343.
+
+[444] W. Crooke, _The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
+Westminster, 1896, i, 23.
+
+[445] Gengnagel, “Volksglaube und Wahrsagerei an der Westküste Indiens,”
+_Ausland_, 1891, lxiv, 871 _sq._
+
+[446] F. Jagor, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
+Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1876, p. (201) (bound with
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. viii).
+
+[447] Thurston, _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, p. 22.
+
+[448] _Rig-Veda_, i, 9, 1, i, 94, 4 (transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 8,
+95); _Atharva-Veda_, vii, 79, 3, vii, 80, 1-4 (transl. W. D. Whitney,
+pp. 444-446); Martin Haug, _The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rig-Veda_,
+Bombay, 1863, ii, 5; A. Weber, “Zur Kenntnis des vedische Opferrituals,”
+_Indische Studien_, 1868, x, 329 _sqq._; H. Zimmer, _Altindisches
+Leben_, Berlin, 1879, pp. 364 _sq._; A. Hillebrandt, _Das altindische
+Neu- und Vollmondsopfer_, Jena, 1879; _idem_, in Bühler’s _Grundriss der
+indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, ii, pt.
+ii, pp. 75 _sq._ The new-moon day was called _darśa_, the day of the full
+moon, _pūrṇamāsa_.
+
+[449] The first day was called _upavasatha_, a fasting or fast day
+(compare Sanskrit _upa_, an adverbial adjunct, signifying to refrain
+from, abstain, hence, to fast). The second day’s ceremony was known as
+the _darśapūrṇamāsa_ sacrifice.
+
+[450] _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 1, 1, 1 _sqq._ (_Sacred Books of the
+East_, xii, 1 _sq._; compare also 374 _sq._).
+
+[451] A. Hillebrandt, _Vedische Mythologie_, Breslau, 1891-1899, i, 267
+_sqq._, 313, 366 _sqq._; ii, 209-240.
+
+[452] A. Bergaigne, _La religion védique_, Paris, 1878, i, 157 _sqq._;
+A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, Strassburg, 1897, pp. 112 _sqq._;
+E. W. Hopkins, _The Religions of India_, Boston, 1895, pp. 112 _sqq._;
+J. Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_,³ London, 1884, v, 270 _sq._ Compare
+_Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 6, 4, 5 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xii, 176 _sqq._).
+
+[453] _Grihya-sûtra of Gobhila_, i, 5, 1-26 (_S. B. E._, xxx, 25-28).
+
+[454] _Institutes of Vishnu_, xlvii, 3 (_S. B. E._, vii, 152).
+
+[455] _Laws of Manu_, xi, 217 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 474 _sq._).
+
+[456] _Ibid._, iv, 128 (_S. B. E._, xxv, 149).
+
+[457] _Vishńu Puráńa_, iii, 11 (the translation by H. H. Wilson, edited
+by F. Hall, London, 1865, iii, 132 _sq._).
+
+[458] _Ibid._, ii, 6 (Wilson-Hall, ii, 219).
+
+[459] J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_,³ Oxford,
+1906, p. 270.
+
+[460] _Laws of Manu_, iv, 113 _sq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 147).
+
+[461] _Ibid._, iv, 101 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 144 _sqq._).
+
+[462] Gautama, xvi, 22, 35-37 (_S. B. E._, ii, 258 _sqq._). Compare
+Âpastamba, i, 3, 9, 28: “at the new moon (he shall not study) for two
+days and nights” (_S. B. E._, ii, 36).
+
+[463] _Vishńu Puráńa_, iii, 12 (Wilson-Hall, iii, 143).
+
+[464] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York, 1891,
+p. 433.
+
+[465] H. H. Wilson, “The Religious Festivals of the Hindus,” in _Essays
+and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus_, edited by R. Rost,
+London, 1862, ii, 194.
+
+[466] H. H. Wilson, “The Religious Festivals of the Hindus,” in _Essays
+and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus_, edited by R. Rost,
+London, 1862, ii, 197.
+
+[467] _Ibid._, p. 199.
+
+[468] _Sûtrakṛtâṅga_, ii, 7, 17; compare, ii, 2, 76 (_S. B. E._, xlv, 428
+_sq._, 383).
+
+[469] _Uttarâdhyayana_, v, 23; compare ix, 42 (_S. B. E._, xlv, 23, 39).
+
+[470] H. Jacobi, _Gaina Sûtras_, Oxford, 1895, pp. xix, 23 _n._² (_S. B.
+E._, vol. xlv).
+
+[471] Margaret Stevenson, “Festivals and Fasts (Jain),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v, 875 _sq._
+
+[472] H. Kern, _Der Buddhismus und seine Geschichte in Indien_, Leipzig,
+1884, ii, 256 _sqq._; _idem_, _Manual of Indian Buddhism_, Strassburg,
+1896, pp. 99 _sq._; R. C. Childers, _A Dictionary of the Pali Language_,
+London, 1875, _s.v._ _uposatha_.
+
+[473] _Mahâvagga_, ii, 1, 1-4 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 239 _sq._; compare p. x).
+
+[474] _Ibid._, ii, 1, 4 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 240). This rule is to be
+understood as requiring an assembly to be held on the fourteenth _or_ the
+fifteenth of each half-month, according as the month had twenty-nine or
+thirty days. In other words an _uposatha_ service on the fourteenth day
+of a short month was to be followed by a celebration on the fifteenth
+of the following long month. Compare _ibid._, ii, 34, 1. The important
+word “half,” which has been inserted above, was omitted by an unfortunate
+oversight in the translation of this passage from the _Mahâvagga_, as
+given in the _Sacred Books of the East_. It appears, however, in Mr. H.
+C. Warren’s rendering of the same passage (_Buddhism in Translations_,
+Cambridge [Mass.], 1909, p. 404).
+
+[475] _Sutta Nipâta_, ii, 14, 26 (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 66).
+
+[476] The eighth day of the waning moon (_áṣṭakā_) is distinctly
+mentioned in the Vedas, as forming with new moon and full moon the
+regular festival periods. Compare _Atharva-Veda_, xv, 16, 2 (transl.
+W. D. Whitney, p. 790); Zimmer, _op. cit._, p. 365; H. Oldenberg, _Die
+Religion des Veda_, Berlin, 1894, p. 439. Of these, the full-moon
+day seems to have enjoyed most importance (Oldenberg, _loc. cit._),
+and similarly in Buddhism. Compare _Mahâ-Sudassana Sutta_, i, 11:
+“On the Sabbath day, on the day of full moon” (_S. B. E._, xi, 251
+_sq._). Elsewhere the _uposatha_ service is referred particularly to
+the fifteenth day of the month, “it being full moon” (_Sutta Nipâta_,
+iii, 12), prœm. (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 131 _sq._). In very early
+times the Hindus had named and deified as goddesses the four phases
+of the moon. See _Rig-Veda_, ii, 32 (transl. H. Grassmann, i, 41);
+_Satapatha-Brâhmana_, ix, 5, 1, 38 (_S. B. E._, xliii, 264); C. Lassen,
+_Indische Alterthumskunde_,² Leipzig and London, 1867-1874, i, 986.
+
+[477] _Mahâvagga_, ii, 4, 1-2 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 246 _sq._). The
+_patimokkha_ is one of the oldest parts of the Buddhist canonical
+compositions. The Pali version has been translated in full by Professors
+Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg (_S. B. E._, vol. xiii) and the part
+for monks, by J. F. Dickson (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
+1876, n.s., viii, 62-130). For a description of these ceremonies as
+witnessed March 27, 1893, at the Malwatta monastery in Kandy see E. M.
+Bowden, “The _uposatha_ and _upasampadâ_ Ceremonies,” _ibid._, 1893,
+n.s., xxv, 159-161. Mr. Bowden notes that at the Malwatta monastery the
+_uposatha_ service is held more frequently on the day which precedes the
+new and the full moon than on the new and full-moon days.
+
+[478] _Sutta Nipâta_, ii, 14, 19-26 (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 65 _sqq._).
+See also T. W. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, London, 1890, pp. 137 _sqq._;
+Childers, _op. cit._, _s.v._ _sīlaṁ_. The prohibition of drinking
+intoxicating liquors was directed against the ancient _soma_ sacrifice on
+the second day of the _upavasatha_ ceremony. See _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, 1,
+6, 4, 5 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xii, 176 _sqq._). On the other hand the last
+precept is identical with one of the regulations for the _upavasatha_,
+where the celebrant is distinctly enjoined to sleep on the ground (or a
+shake-down of grass, a blanket). See _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 1, 1, 11
+(_S. B. E._, xii, 6).
+
+[479] Mahony, in _Asiatic Researches_, 1803, vii, 40 _sq._; Edward Upham,
+_Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon_, London, 1833, iii, 161 _sqq._;
+R. S. Hardy, _Eastern Monachism_, London, 1850, pp. 236 _sqq._; _idem_,
+_Manual of Buddhism_,² London, 1880, pp. 22, 50, 52; C. F. Köppen, _Die
+Religion des Buddha und ihre Entstehung_, Berlin, 1857-1859, i, 563
+_sq._; D. J. Gogerly, “The Laws of the Buddhist Priesthood,” _Journal
+of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1858-1859, iii,
+253-261. By the Kandian, who occupy the interior of Ceylon, not only the
+_poya_ days, but all unlucky days (_vitti_) as well, are observed with
+abstinence from agricultural labour (P. Kehelpannala, in _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, 1896, xxv, 108).
+
+[480] Michael Symes, _An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava_,
+London, 1800, p. 335. See further Hiram Cox, _Journal of a Residence in
+the Burman Empire_, London, 1821, p. 241; Sangermano, _A Description of
+the Burmese Empire_, translated by W. Tandy, Rome, 1833, p. 92; C. J. F.
+S. Forbes, _British Burma_, London, 1878, pp. 169 _sqq._
+
+[481] Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], _The Burman: his Life and Notions_,³
+London, 1910, pp. 217-220. The Tungthu of Tenasserim have borrowed these
+“duty days” from the Burmese (_Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
+States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, p.
+558).
+
+[482] F. H. Turpin, _Histoire civile et naturelle du royaume de Siam_,
+Paris, 1771, i, 45 _sq._ The “fourth day” of the moon must here be
+counted from the astronomical new moon. The _uposatha_ in Siam, as in
+Ceylon and Burma, falls regularly on the eighth and fifteenth days of the
+waxing moon and on the eighth and fourteenth or fifteenth days of the
+waning moon.
+
+[483] J. B. Pallegoix, _Description du royaume Thai ou Siam_, Paris,
+1854, i, 249.
+
+[484] John Crawfurd, _Journal of an Embassy_, London, 1830, ii, 75; Sir
+John Bowring, _The Kingdom and People of Siam_, London, 1857, i, 158.
+
+[485] J. G. D. Campbell, _Siam in the Twentieth Century_, London, 1904,
+p. 224 _n._¹; G. E. Gerini, “Festivals and Fasts (Siamese),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v, 885.
+
+[486] J. Moura, _Le royaume de Cambodge_, Paris, 1883, i, 321. The Malays
+of the Malacca Peninsula regard the fourteenth and fifteenth days of each
+lunar month as unlucky. On these two days no work in the rice fields
+is allowed, a prohibition which only increases the native tendency to
+laziness (C. O. Blagden, “Notes on the Folk-lore and Popular Religion
+of the Malays,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
+Society_, 1896, no. 29, p. 6).
+
+[487] E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig and London, 1863, p.
+237.
+
+[488] L. A. Waddell, _The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism_, London, 1895,
+p. 501; W. W. Rockhill, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1891,
+n.s., xxiii, 207 _n._³
+
+[489] Marco Polo refers to five days or four days or three days in each
+month when the lamas or clergy of Tibetan Buddhism shed no blood and
+abstain from animal food (Sir Henry Yule, _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_,³
+London, 1903, i, 220, 223). Compare N. Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, London,
+1876, i, 65.
+
+[490] Köppen, _op. cit._, i, 564.
+
+[491] P. S. Pallas, _Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen
+Reichs_, Frankfort, 1776, i, 295.
+
+[492] Joseph Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_,² London, 1893, p. 206. In
+Buddhist monasteries the _patimokkha_ is regularly recited at new moon
+and full moon. The ceremony is known as _posadha_ (J. J. M. de Groot,
+“Buddhism in China,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
+iii, 554).
+
+[493] J. H. Gray, _China_, London, 1878, i, 263 _n._¹; C. Pitou, _La
+Chine_, Lausanne and Paris [1902], pp. 27 _sqq._ See also W. Grube,
+_Religion und Kultus der Chinesen_, Leipzig, 1910, p. 66; J. D. Ball,
+_The Celestial and his Religions_, Hongkong, 1906, p. 25; J. Edkins,
+_Religion in China_,² London, 1878, pp. 48 _sq._
+
+[494] E. Kaempfer, _History of Japan_, ii, 21 _sq._ (Glasgow reprint,
+1906).
+
+[495] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1876,
+n.s., viii, 197 _sq._ Most priests also observe with prayer and fasting
+every fifth day (_kaliwon_) of the Javanese five-day market week, which
+has been introduced into Bali (Friederich, _loc. cit._).
+
+[496] E. H. Man, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 269 _n._³⁰ According
+to this account the Nicobarese do not observe new-moon ceremonies. Other
+authorities, however, refer to sacrifices and celebrations at this
+time. See V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1902, xxxii, 204, 213; W. Svoboda, in _Internationales Archiv für
+Ethnographie_, 1893, vi, 22.
+
+[497] Above, pp. 40 _sqq._
+
+[498] _Yasna_, i, 8 (so also _ibid._, ii, 8; compare _Yast_ vii, 4). See
+L. H. Gray, “Festivals and Feasts (Iranian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia
+of Religion and Ethics_, v, 872; L. H. Mills, in _Sacred Books of the
+East_, xxxi, 198, 205; W. Geiger, _Civilization of the Eastern Irānians_,
+London, 1885, i, 146 _n._¹ The term _vishaptatha_, here translated “the
+intervening seventh” refers to the seventh day between the new moon (on
+the 1st) and the full moon (on the 15th), that is, to the 8th day of the
+month (E. Bartholomae, _Altiranisches Wörterbuch_, Strassburg, 1904, col.
+1472). The theories as to the meaning of _vishaptatha_, advanced by J.
+Darmesteter, have not won the acceptance of scholars (_Sacred Books of
+the East_, xxiii, 90 _n._⁵; _Le Zend-Avesta_, Paris, 1892-1893, i, 12
+_n._³⁴).
+
+[499] R. Roth, “Der Kalender des Avesta und die sogenannten _gahanbâr_,”
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1880, xxxiv,
+710; L. H. Gray, “Der iranische Kalender,” Geiger and Kuhn’s _Grundriss
+der iranischen Philologie_, ii, 675 _sq._ There is extant a Pehlevi
+tract, said to have been composed in Persia during the fourth century
+A.D., which mentions among other matters five days in every month,
+namely, the 1st, 7th, 14th, 22d, and 30th, as times to be observed by
+abstinence from all worldly business. The manuscript sets forth in
+detail the peculiar virtues of all the days of one of the Zoroastrian
+months. “Some are best for beginning a journey or voyage, others for
+the regulation of matters of domestic economy, some again for social
+gatherings and festivities, and others again for the pursuit of learning,
+while not a few are reserved for rest and pious contemplation.” These
+precepts are no longer observed; in fact, their very existence is unknown
+to most Parsis at the present day. See D. F. Karaka, _History of the
+Parsis_, London, 1884, i, 132 _sqq._
+
+[500] _Pyramid Texts_, § 521 (= Teti, l. 12); compare _ibid._, § 1453 (=
+Pepi, l. 657 = Mernere, ll. 763-764). Professor J. H. Breasted of the
+University of Chicago has very kindly furnished me with a translation of
+these passages, based on the monumental edition of the texts prepared by
+K. Sethe (_Die altägyptischen Pyramidentexte_, Leipzig, 1908-1910).
+
+[501] _The Book of the Dead_ (Theban Recension), chs. cxxxv, cxl (_The
+Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, translated by E. A. W. Budge, London,
+1898, pp. 218, 230). See also H. Brugsch, “Über die Hieroglyphe des
+Neumondes und ihre verschiedenen Bedeutungen,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen
+morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1856, x, 676.
+
+[502] J. H. Breasted, _Ancient Records of Egypt_, Chicago, 1906, i,
+285. See further E. Mahler, _Études sur le calendrier égyptien_, Paris,
+1907, p. 128; _idem_, in _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen
+Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 35.
+
+[503] Breasted, _op. cit._, ii, 184; for an earlier translation see S.
+Birch, in _Records of the Past_, ii, 43.
+
+[504] H. Brugsch, _Thesaurus inscriptionum Ægyptiacarum_, Leipzig,
+1883-1891, pt. i, 30 _sqq._, 49 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Ägyptologie_,
+Leipzig, 1891, pp. 332 _sq._
+
+[505] Brugsch, _Thesaurus_, pt. i, 52; _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 332.
+
+[506] Compare _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 334; E. Meyer, “Ägyptische
+Chronologie,” _Abhandlungen der königlich-preussischen Akademie der
+Wissenschaften_, 1904, p. 7.
+
+[507] Herodotus, ii, 47; Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 8, 43, 52;
+Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii, 129-131; Budge, _Osiris and the
+Egyptian Resurrection_, i, 384-396.
+
+[508] J. Meursius, _Græcia feriata, sive de festis Græcorum_, Lugduni
+Batavorum, 1619, pp. 210-214; F. G. Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_,
+Göttingen, 1857, i, 554 _sq._; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und
+Verwandtes_, pp. 110 _sq._; _idem_, in _Philologus_, 1898, lvii, 216,
+218; E. Saglio, “Noumenia,” Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des
+antiquités grecques et romaines_, iv, 108. The word νουμηνία occasionally
+was used in the sense of the true or astronomical new moon (Thucydides,
+ii, 28).
+
+[509] _Odyssey_, xxi, 258 _sq._: νῦν μὲν γὰρ κατὰ δῆμον ἑορτὴ τοῖο θεοῖο
+ἁγνή· τίς δέ κε τόξα τιταίνοιτ’; Compare _ibid._, xiv, 158-162, xx, 156,
+276-278.
+
+[510] _Opera et dies_, 770.
+
+[511] Aristophanes, _Nubes_, 615-619; _idem_, _Acharnenses_, 999;
+_idem_, _Vespæ_, 96; Demosthenes, _Adv. Aristogiton_, i, 99; Athenæus,
+_Deipnosophistæ_, xii, 76; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 25; _idem_, _De
+vitando ære alieno_, 2; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii, 16; Theophrastus,
+_Characteres_, 14; Lucian, _Icaromenippus_, 13; _idem_, _Lexiphanes_, 6.
+
+[512] Aristophanes, _Vespæ_, 171; _idem_, _Equites_, 43 _sq._; Alciphron,
+_Epistolæ_, iii, 38; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii, 129; Proclus, on
+Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 780; Suidas, _s.v._ νουμηνία (ed. G. Bernhardy,
+Halle, 1853, ii, 1010).
+
+[513] _Hymni Homerici_, xxxii, 11; Plutarch, _De gloria Atheniensis_,
+7; _idem_, _Dion_, 23. Hesiod (_op. cit._, 819, compare 794 _sqq._)
+describes the 14th of the month as “above all a holy day” (περὶ πάντων
+ἱερὸν ἦμαρ).
+
+[514] Above, p. 130.
+
+[515] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 15, 9.
+
+[516] Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 47; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 24; Vergil,
+_Bucolica_, i, 43 _sq._; Horace, _Carmina_, iii, 23, 1 _sq._
+
+[517] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 15, 15; Ovid, _op. cit._, i, 48 _sq._;
+Lydus, _De mensibus_, iii, 7.
+
+[518] Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, p. 369; compare T.
+Mommsen, in _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 297.
+
+[519] Above, pp. 80 _sq._, 94.
+
+[520] Varro, _De lingua Latina_, 29; Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 59 _sq._; Livy,
+vi, 1; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 25; Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv,
+9, 5; Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 18. These days were also described
+as _atri vel vitiosi_. The greater number of them were available for
+judicial business, but not for meetings of the assemblies (_dies fasti
+non comitiales_). Many Romans also regarded as ominous the fourth day
+before the Kalends, Nones, and Ides; according to one account because
+the battle of Cannæ took place on the fourth day before the Nones of the
+month Sextilis (Gellius, _op. cit._, v, 17, 3).
+
+[521] Verrius Flaccus, _ap._ Gellius, _op. cit._, v, 17; Macrobius, _op.
+cit._, i, 16, 21.
+
+[522] On this point I am happy to find myself in agreement with Dr. W.
+Warde Fowler, who also regards the traditional explanation of the _dies
+postriduani_ as an ætiological myth. “The fact that the authorities
+of the state had made one or two days _religiosi_ as anniversaries of
+disasters, supplied a handy explanation for a number of other _dies
+religiosi_ of which the true explanation had been entirely lost; but that
+there was such a true explanation, resting on very primitive beliefs, I
+have very little doubt” (_The Religious Experience of the Roman People_,
+London, 1911, p. 40). Dr. Fowler in a letter (under date Dec. 9, 1911)
+tells me that he regards as “quite probable” the suggestion in the
+text that these days were originally tabooed in consequence of lunar
+superstitions attaching to them.
+
+[523] _Geographica_, iii, 4, 16.
+
+[524] _Germania_, 9, 11.
+
+[525] Isidorus Hispalensis, _Etymologiæ sive origines_, v, 33.
+
+[526] J. K. Fotheringham, “Calendar (Introductory),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 61-64; F. K. Ginzel,
+_Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, Leipzig,
+1906-1911, ii, 121-159; E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,
+Erster Band, Erste Hälfte, Berlin, 1907, pp. 231-243; R. Schram,
+“Jahrform und Zeitrechnung verschiedener Völker,” _Mitteilungen der
+kaiserlich-königlichen geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, 1884, xxvii,
+481-498; M. Hubert, “Étude sommaire de la représentation du temps dans
+la religion et la magie,” in Hubert and Mauss, _Mélanges d’histoire des
+religions_, Paris, 1909, pp. 189-229.
+
+[527] The lunar or synodic month, determined by the synodic revolution
+of the moon, is the time between two successive conjunctions of that
+luminary with the sun, and may be measured from new moon to new moon
+or from full to full. It varies about thirteen hours by reason of
+eccentricities of the moon’s orbit and of that of the earth about the
+sun, but its mean value is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds.
+The length of the “light month,” or period of the moon’s visibility,
+though commonly taken at three days, is a variable quantity. It is the
+usual practice to assume that the moon becomes visible on the first
+evening when she is more than thirty hours old at sunset. Her mean age
+when first seen is, therefore, 30 hours + 24/2 hours = 1 day, 18 hours.
+See J. K. Fotheringham, “On the Smallest Visible Phase of the Moon,”
+_Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_, 1910, lxx, 527-531.
+
+[528] E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford,
+1892-1899, ii, 329, 331; E. Förstemann, in _Bulletin of the Bureau of
+American Ethnology_, 1904, no. 28, p. 523 (Maya pre-solar calendar).
+
+[529] Horapollo, _Hieroglyphica_, i, 4; compare H. Brugsch, in
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1856, x,
+676; C. R. Lepsius, _Die Chronologie der Ägypter_, Berlin, 1849, i,
+156 _sq._, 219; E. Meyer, “Ägyptische Chronologie,” _Abhandlungen der
+königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Berlin, 1904, pp.
+5 _sqq._ Papyri discovered by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie at Kahun,
+belonging to the age of Sesostris III, show that a lunar year of three
+hundred and fifty-five days was still recognized as late as the Twelfth
+Dynasty. These papyri relate to the temple revenues, which the priests,
+with characteristic religious conservatism, were accustomed to reckon
+according to lunar months (seven of thirty days and five of twenty-nine
+days). See L. Borchardt, in _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache_, 1899,
+xxxvii, 92-95.
+
+[530] Below, pp. 226, 247.
+
+[531] O. Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_,
+translated by F. B. Jevons, London, 1890, p. 306; _idem_, _Reallexikon
+der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, p. 547.
+
+[532] R. Andree, “Die Plejaden im Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum
+Jahresbeginn und Landbau,” _Globus_, 1893, lxiv, 362-366; Sir J. G.
+Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, London, 1912, i, 307-319;
+E. Förstemann, “The Pleiades among the Mayas,” _Bulletin of the Bureau of
+American Ethnology_, 1904, no. 28, pp. 523 _sq._
+
+[533] The lunar year of twelve synodic months consists, exactly, of 354
+days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 36 seconds. The Maori have a legend to the
+effect that their ancient year contained ten months only, until a certain
+teacher, full of divine wisdom, instructed them to make their year
+twelve months long (E. Tregear, _The Maori Race_, Wanganui [N.Z.], 1904,
+p. 143). The Chinese have a similar tradition of a ten-month year (H.
+A. Giles, _A Glossary of References on Subjects connected with the Far
+East_,³ Shanghai, 1900, p. 183). The Roman “year of Romulus” consisted
+of ten months and (commonly) three hundred and four days (Censorinus,
+_De die natali_, xx, 2-3; Lydus, _De mensibus_, i, 16). Sceptical modern
+historians are inclined to dismiss the Roman tradition as a mere figment
+of the imagination.
+
+[534] The thirteenth month is referred to in the _Rig-Veda_ (i, 25,
+8; transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 25) as the “later-born month”; compare
+_Atharva-Veda_, v, 6, 4, xiii, 3, 8 (transl. W. D. Whitney, pp. 230,
+729). This intercalary month bears a distinctly unfavourable character,
+being regarded as unfit for any religious undertaking (Haug, _Aitareya
+Brahmanam_, ii, 26). Among the Loango negroes the thirteenth month,
+inserted every three years, is likewise regarded as an evil time (E.
+Pechuël-Loesche, _op. cit._, pp. 138 _sq._).
+
+[535] The old Roman arrangement of the months, though based on the
+lunar year, is _sui generis_. Four of the twelve months, viz., March,
+May, July, and October, had thirty-one days, and the rest twenty-nine
+days, except February, which had twenty-eight days. All the months thus
+had an odd number of days, save February, which was specially devoted
+to purificatory ceremonies and the cult of the dead. This peculiar
+arrangement appears to have been based on an old belief that odd numbers
+are of good omen, even numbers, of ill omen (T. Mommsen, _Die römische
+Chronologie bis auf Cæsar_, Berlin, 1858, p. 13; Marquardt-Wissowa,
+_Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii,² 284). The superstition, alluded to
+by Vergil in a famous line—_Numero deus impare gaudet_ (_Bucolica_,
+viii, 75)—is supposed to have been derived from Pythagorean speculations
+regarding the cosmic properties of numbers. It may better be considered
+a genuinely Italian notion, since like beliefs are found in the folklore
+of other peoples, notably the old Arabs and the modern Hindus. See I.
+Goldziher, in _Globus_, 1901, lxxx, 31; Crooke, _Popular Religion and
+Folk-lore of Northern India_,² ii, 51. The choice of 355 days, rather
+than 354 days, as the length of the Roman lunar year, was undoubtedly
+determined by the prevalence of the same superstition (Censorinus, _De
+die natali_, xx, 4).
+
+[536] This custom explains the widespread practice of beginning the civil
+day at sunset or, more accurately, in the interval between the going-down
+of the sun and complete darkness. The necessities of a calendar system
+requiring that the first day of the month should be counted from the same
+moment that the month itself is supposed to begin, it follows that the
+other days of the month must also be calculated from evening to evening.
+The noctidiurnal cycle is widespread throughout the lower culture, being
+found, generally, among the North American Indians, the Melanesians and
+Polynesians, and in Africa. The same cycle obtained among many peoples
+of archaic civilization. The Babylonian day began with the evening, and
+this is still the custom among the Arabs and throughout the Mohammedan
+world. Modern Jewish communities, in beginning their ritual day in the
+evening, retain a practice illustrated by several Old Testament passages
+(_Genesis_, i, 5; _Psalms_, lv, 17). Various festivals and fasts, such
+as the Sabbath, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
+were so arranged as to begin and end with the evening. Among most of
+the Indo-Germanic peoples the civil day, or nycthemeron, commenced at
+sunset; and the practice, which still survives in Iceland, was not
+abandoned in Italy and some other parts of Europe until about a century
+ago. Our English words “fortnight” and “sennight” are reminiscent of
+this ancient custom. See G. A. Wilken, “Het tellen bij nachten bij de
+volken van het maleisch-polynesische ras,” _Bijdragen tot de taal- land-
+en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, 1886, fifth series, pt. i,
+378-392; A. Fischer, “‘Tag und Nacht’ im arabischen und die semitische
+Tagesberechnung,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse
+der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, 1909, xxvii,
+741-758; O. Schrader, _Reallexikon_, p. 845; S. Reinach, “Die,” in
+Daremberg and Saglio, _op. cit._, iii, 168 _sq._, G. Bilfinger, _Der
+bürgerliche Tag_, Stuttgart, 1888.
+
+[537] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 590 _sqq._
+
+[538] J. Sechefo, “The Twelve Lunar Months among the Basuto,”
+_Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 931 _sqq._
+
+[539] Below, pp. 184, 226 _sq._, 248 _sq._
+
+[540] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, Melbourne, 1881, p. xcix.
+
+[541] S. Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1895,
+xxiv, 174.
+
+[542] Spencer and Gillen, _The Native Tribes of Central Australia_,
+London, 1897, pp. 25, 564 _sq._
+
+[543] B. Hagen, _Unter den Papua’s_, Wiesbaden, 1899, p. 244.
+
+[544] George Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, London, 1910, p. 332.
+
+[545] V. de Rochas, _La Nouvelle-Calédonie_, Paris, 1862, p. 191.
+
+[546] Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, i, 317.
+
+[547] C. Bock, _Head-hunters of Borneo_,² London, 1882, p. 212.
+
+[548] William Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_,³ London, 1811, p. 194;
+compare B. Hagen, _Die Orang Kubu auf Sumatra_, Frankfurt-a.-M., 1908, p.
+154.
+
+[549] E. Modigliani, _Un viaggio a Nias_, Milan, 1890, pp. 4, 484; A.
+Maass, _Bei liebenswürdigen Wilden_, Berlin, 1902, p. 93.
+
+[550] E. H. Man, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 270 _sq._
+
+[551] _Idem_, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883, xii,
+337.
+
+[552] A. E. Jenks, in _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905,
+i, 219; O. Scheerer, _ibid._, ii, 158.
+
+[553] F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_, London, 1899, pp. 387
+_sq._, 392 _sqq._; M. Girschner, in _Baessler-Archiv_, 1911, ii, 175 _sq._
+
+[554] The Maori counted twenty-eight “nights” of the moon, including:
+1. _noni hope_, the moon is in the _reinga_, or underworld; 4. _he oho
+ata_, the moon is visible; 5. _ouenuku_, it begins to rise a little way;
+6. _maweti_, it rises still higher; 14. _he atua_, full; 19. _he ohika_,
+the moon begins to wane; 24. _tanagaroa a roto_, it sinks into the sea;
+28. _he o mutu_, it disappears (Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 177). To
+the Society Islanders the fifteenth day was _omarae_, or the moon with
+a round and full face; the thirtieth day, _oterieo_, was the time when
+the moon dies or is changed (Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i, 87
+_sq._). In the Hervey group several of the moon nights were sacred to the
+gods. The twenty-eighth day was called _mauri_—ghost; the twenty-ninth,
+_omutu_—ended; the thirtieth, _otire o avaiki_—lost in the depths of
+_avaiki_, or Hades (W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_,
+London, 1876, p. 318). For a table of the days of the moon’s age in the
+Maori, Moriori, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Marquesan, and Rarotongan languages
+see Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 666.
+
+[555] Hollis, _Nandi_, pp. 95 _sq._
+
+[556] Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, p. 186.
+
+[557] J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_, Berlin, 1906, p. 556; L. Schultze,
+_Aus Namaland und Kalahari_, Jena, 1907, p. 370. The Hottentots now use
+the European week (Schultze, _op. cit._, p. 372).
+
+[558] F. Krause, _In den Wildnissen Brasiliens_, Leipzig, 1911, p. 339.
+
+[559] C. Thomas, “Calendar,” _Handbook of American Indians_, pt. i, 189
+(_Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, no. 30).
+
+[560] _Koran_, ii, 185. Even at the present time the south Arabians
+determine the day of the month by observation of the moon’s phases, the
+first quarter being called, for example, the seventh day, and the last
+quarter, the twenty-first day (Nielsen, _Altarabische Mondreligion_, p.
+85, referring to Dr. Glaser’s observations).
+
+[561] The mean age of the moon when first seen being 30 hours + 24/2
+hours = 1 day, 18 hours (above, p. 174 _n._¹), and the mean age of the
+moon when full being (29 days, 12 + hours)/2 = 14 days, 18 hours, it
+follows that the mean interval between the first appearance of the moon
+and the full of the moon is about 13 days. “In other words the moon
+becomes full on an average at the end of the thirteenth day and the
+beginning of the fourteenth night. Hence, where the days are reckoned
+from sunset, we should expect the fourteenth day of the month to be
+regarded as the day of the full moon. And it is in fact one of the days
+most commonly so regarded. The fifteenth is a date obtained more simply.
+Fifteen is half thirty and, as the middle of the month, should be the
+date of full moon. In calendars based on calculations the month is
+frequently reckoned from the actual new moon, and in these the fifteenth
+is more correct than the fourteenth for the mean date of full moon.” It
+should be noted, also, that, as a general rule, the nearer the autumnal
+equinox, the later the first appearance of the moon and the shorter
+the interval between the visible new moon and full moon. If the first
+appearance is late, as it often is in September, the moon might be full
+on the night following the eleventh day. See J. K. Fotheringham, in
+_Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 283, 286.
+
+[562] R. Thurnwald, _Forschungen auf den Salomo-Inseln und dem Bismarck
+Archipel_, Berlin, 1912-1913, i, 330 _sq._
+
+[563] E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890,
+xix, 114.
+
+[564] L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Polynesian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iii, 130; J. v. Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen
+Sumatras_, Würzburg, 1894, p. 233; R. Friederich, in _Journal of the
+Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878, n.s., x, 93 _sq._; Modigliani, _op. cit._,
+p. 464.
+
+[565] A. Weber, in _Indische Studien_, 1853, ii, 166 _n._*; H. Zimmer,
+_Altindisches Leben_, Berlin, 1879, p. 364; G. Thibaut, “Astronomie,
+Astrologie, und Mathematik,” Bühler’s _Grundriss der indo-arischen
+Philologie und Altertumskunde_, iii, pt. ix, 12. This lunar fortnight of
+the Hindus attracted the attention of the Romans, and Quintus Curtius
+speaks of it as a noteworthy fact (_Historiæ Alexandri Magni_, viii, 9).
+References to it are also found in mediæval literature; compare Albîrûnî,
+_op. cit._, i, 359.
+
+[566] G. E. Balfour, _The Cyclopædia of India_,³ ii, 981; Sewell and
+Dikshit, _The Indian Calendar_, London, 1896, p. 4.
+
+[567] Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, _s.v._ _parācadasí_;
+A. Cabaton, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 136
+(as to the Siamese); Shway Yoe, _The Burman_,³ p. 550; A. Cabaton, in
+Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 113 _sq._ (as to
+the Cambodians, Chams, and Laotians); H. Vámbéry, _Die primitive Cultur
+des turko-tatarischen Volkes_, Leipzig, 1879, p. 160; Carl Hiekisch, _Die
+Tungusen_, St. Petersburg, 1879, p. 94. In Tibet the fifteenth day of the
+lunar month receives a special name (A. Csoma de Körös, _A Grammar of the
+Tibetan Language_, Calcutta, 1834, p. 157).
+
+[568] _Yašt_, vii, 2 (_S. B. E._, xxiii, 89).
+
+[569] _Odyssey_, xiv, 162; xix, 307: τοῦ μὲν φθίνοντος μηνός, τοῦ
+δ’ ἱσταμένοιο; Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 780: μηνὸς δ’ ἱσταμένου
+τριςκαιδεκάτην.
+
+[570] G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” Iwan von
+Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i, 563.
+However, evidence is not wanting for the observance of the fourteenth
+day, and even of the sixteenth day, as that of the full moon. See A.
+Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 99 _sqq._
+
+[571] The Greeks never knew the exact mean measurement of a lunation and,
+owing to their neglect of the odd minutes and seconds in the lunar month,
+they were obliged occasionally to intercalate an additional day. From a
+passage in Aristophanes it would appear that this pious duty to the gods
+was not always performed (_Nubes_, 610 _sqq._).
+
+[572] T. Mommsen, _Römische Chronologie_, pp. 13 _sq._, 215 _sq._;
+Marquardt-Wissowa, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii,² 282 _sq._
+
+[573] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 15, 10; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi,
+27.
+
+[574] The _nonæ_, or Nones, were so called because, by the Roman
+inclusive reckoning, they fell on the ninth day (_nonus_) before the
+Ides (Varro, _loc. cit._). Plutarch’s derivation from _novus_, new
+or young, referring to the waxing moon, is without justification
+(_Quæstiones Romanæ_, 24). On the etymology of _idus_ see Walde,
+_Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch_,² p. 375. The Romans had no
+name, corresponding to _nonæ_, for the last quarter of the moon. It has
+been argued, therefore, that the Nones never marked the first quarter and
+that they were introduced, quite artificially, during the regal period
+(R. Flex, _Die älteste Monatseinteilung der Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 5
+_sq._, 24 _sqq._, 36, 42).
+
+[575] Tacitus, _Germania_, 11: _cum aut inchoatur luna aut impletur_.
+
+[576] J. Loth, “L’année celtique d’après les textes irlandais, gallois,
+bretons, et le calendrier de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1904, xxv, 131;
+R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentage in den keltischen Dialecten,”
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 191.
+
+[577] The long inscription, engraved on a bronze tablet, which forms the
+Calendar of Coligny, was discovered in 1897 near the city of Lyons. See
+S. de Ricci, “Le calendrier gaulois de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1898,
+xix, 213-223; R. Thurneysen, “Der Kalender von Coligny,” _Zeitschrift für
+celtische Philologie_, 1899, ii, 523-544; Sir John Rhŷs, “The Coligny
+Calendar,” _Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 207 _sqq._
+
+[578] Loth, _loc. cit._; Rhŷs, _Celtic Heathendom_,³ London, 1898, pp.
+360 _sq._
+
+[579] Horapollo, _Hieroglyphica_, i, 4; Brugsch, _Ägyptologie_, p.
+331; E. Mahler, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1901, n.s.,
+xxxiii, 55 _sqq._ Mahler’s hypothesis that the Egyptians looked upon the
+full moon as the completion of the lunation is not improbable; there
+are several passages in the Vedas where the full moon is indicated as
+the end of the month and at the same time as the beginning of the next
+month (Thibaut, _op. cit._, p. 12). The evidence yielded by the Calendar
+of Coligny has been thought to imply that originally the Sequani of
+Gaul counted the months from full moon to full moon (R. Thurneysen, in
+_Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie_, 1899, ii, 526). The Melanesians
+of New Georgia do not seem to calculate long periods of time at all: “one
+full moon to another is as far as they usually go” (B. T. Somerville, in
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1897, xxvi, 404).
+
+[580] Payne, _op. cit._, ii, 310, 323 _sqq._, 355 _sqq._; J. de Acosta,
+_op. cit._, bk. vi, ch. 2 (ed. C. R. Markham, ii, 393); H. H. Bancroft,
+_The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_, ii, 515 _sq._
+For other and less plausible reasons leading to the choice of the number
+thirteen, see C. P. Bowditch, _The Numeration, Calendar Systems, and
+Astronomical Knowledge of the Mayas_, Cambridge (Mass.), 1910, pp. 266
+_sq._
+
+[581] V. Restrepo, _Los Chibchas antes de la conquista española_, Bogota,
+1895, p. 162; Garcilasso de la Vega, _op. cit._, pt. i, bk. ii, ch. 23
+(transl. C. R. Markham, i, 181).
+
+[582] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 143 _sq._ The Benin tribes
+are said to employ the same method of reckoning.
+
+[583] _Idem_, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 215 _sq._ The Ga tribes have
+an exactly similar mode of measuring time, though their names for the
+days of the week are not the same as those used by the Tshi. With both
+the Tshi and Ga the full moon marks the commencement of the third week of
+7⅜ days and, with the Yoruba, the commencement of the fourth week of 5
+days, in each case marking the lapse of half a month.
+
+[584] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 177. When the Maori
+adopted the European week, they gave native names to three of the
+weekdays. Sunday they called “the week,” _te wiki_, because on that day
+the week began, Saturday was _te ra horoi_, or washing and cleaning-up
+day, a name derived from their observation of European customs at that
+time, and Friday was _te ra oka_, or bleeding day, so named because the
+missionaries killed their pigs on Friday in order to be able to cut them
+up on Saturday and dispose of them before Sunday. The remaining weekdays
+had naturalized names, viz., _manei_, _turei_, _wenerei_, and _tairei_
+(_ibid._, pp. 176 _sq._).
+
+[585] Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, p. 54; N. B. Emerson, in _ibid._, p.
+200; Fornander, _Account of the Polynesian Race_, i, 120 _sq._ On the
+Hawaiian Sabbaths see above, pp. 14 _sq._, 88.
+
+[586] Christian, _Caroline Islands_, p. 394.
+
+[587] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, edited by Scott
+and Hardiman, pt. i, vol. i, p. 434; H. J. Wehrli, _Beitrag zur
+Ethnologie der Chingpaw (Kachin) von Ober-Burma_, Leiden, 1904, p. 68
+(_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vol. xvi, Supplement).
+
+[588] A. Cabaton, “Calendar (Indo-Chinese),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iii, 110.
+
+[589] T. L. Bullock and L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Chinese),” _ibid._, iii,
+83. The names of the three decades are said to be _shang_, _chung_, and
+_hea_ (Robert Morrison, _A View of China for Philological Purposes_,
+Macao, 1817, p. 104).
+
+[590] E. W. Clement, “Calendar (Japanese),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iii, 115.
+
+[591] Fitzgerald, _op. cit._, p. 111.
+
+[592] De Faria, in Astley’s _A New General Collection of Voyages and
+Travels_, London, 1746, iii, 397. The eighth day of the new moon was
+considered most unlucky by the Sofalese. No one on that day was allowed
+to attend court or even speak to the king (_ibid._).
+
+[593] E. Torday, in _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
+Wien_, 1911, xli, 200.
+
+[594] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 144. The first period, called
+_adai_, is considered lucky; the second, called _ajamfo_, is unlucky;
+while _adim_, the third period, has a neutral character (John Beecham,
+_Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London, 1841, p. 187). An old writer
+asserts that the negroes living inland from the Gold Coast count in
+every month the “great fortunate time,” nineteen days in length, and the
+“lesser fortunate time,” of seven days’ duration. Between these periods
+come seven ill or unfortunate days which serve as “a sort of vacation to
+them, for then they do not travel, till their land, or undertake anything
+of consequence, but remain altogether idle” (W. Bosman, _A New and
+Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea_, London, 1705, p. 160).
+
+[595] Above, pp. 119 _sq._
+
+[596] Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, in _Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau
+of American Ethnology_, p. 108. It is only right to add that Dr. J. W.
+Fewkes, an eminent authority on the Pueblo Indians, expressed to me
+in conversation (July, 1912) his doubts as to the correctness of Mrs.
+Stevenson’s statement.
+
+[597] Lepsius, _Chronologie der Ägypter_, i, 131 _sqq._; Brugsch,
+_Thesaurus_, pt. i, 488 _sqq._; _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 364. On the
+astrological connection between the thirty-six decades of the twelve
+months and certain constellations see G. Daressy, “Une ancienne liste des
+décans égyptiens,” _Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte_, 1900,
+i, 79-90. The old and once popular theory, based upon a misunderstanding
+of certain passages in classical writers (Herodotus, ii, 82; Dio Cassius,
+xxxvii, 19), that the Egyptians originally possessed a week of seven days
+has now been entirely abandoned. For some monumental evidence, dating
+from the Twenty-second Dynasty, which may possibly refer to an hebdomadal
+cycle then used in astronomical speculations, see G. Daressy, “La semaine
+des Égyptiens,” _Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte_, 1909, x,
+21-23, 180-182.
+
+[598] Pollux, _Onomasticon_, i, 63; G. F. Unger, in Iwan von Müller’s
+_Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i, 563 _sqq._; M. P.
+Nilsson, “_Die älteste griechische Zeitrechnung, Apollo und der Orient_,”
+_Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 432 _sq._
+
+[599] Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 765 _sqq._; compare A. W. Mair, _Hesiod_,
+Oxford, 1908, pp. 165 _sq._; A. Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, p.
+43.
+
+[600] E. Curtius, _History of Greece_, New York, 1871, ii, 58; C.
+E. Ruelle, “Calendarium,” Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des
+antiquités grecques et romaines_, ii, 832.
+
+[601] W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen
+Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der
+philologisch-historischen Klasse der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft
+der Wissenschaften_, Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4, pp. 14 _sqq._; _idem_,
+“Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus und Mythus der Griechen,” _ibid._,
+1904, xxiv, no. 1, pp. 54, 69, 83.
+
+[602] K. Simrock, _Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie_,⁹ Bonn, 1887, p.
+156; E. Siecke, _Die Liebesgeschichte des Himmels_, Strassburg, 1892,
+pp. 47 _sqq._; K. Weinhold, “Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,”
+_Abhandlungen der königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_,
+Berlin, 1897, pp. 40 _sqq._
+
+[603] R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentage in den keltischen
+Dialecten,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 191. J.
+Loth, however, regards the Celtic periods as having been employed as
+ordinary weeks (“L’année celtique d’après les textes irlandais, gallois,
+bretons, et le calendrier de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1904, xxv, 136).
+He accepts Roscher’s theory of the sidereal month having furnished the
+basis for such nine-day periods as are found among the Celts, and argues
+that subsequently, when the sidereal month had been abandoned for the
+synodic month, the nine-day periods became artificial units, independent
+of any connection with the moon. But so strange a transition as that
+from the sidereal to the synodic month cannot be supported by any Celtic
+evidence and has no analogy among other peoples. For another theory see
+Sir John Rhŷs, _Celtic Heathendom_,³ London, 1898, pp. 361-366.
+
+[604] Above, pp. 106, 109 _sqq._, 119 _n._³, 120 _sq._ The theory
+advanced by Theodor Mommsen that the Roman _nundinum_ originally
+represented a quadripartite division of the lunation (_Römische
+Chronologie_, pp. 240 _sq._) was afterwards abandoned by its author
+(_Römisches Staatsrecht_, iii, 373). Compare also R. Flex, _Die älteste
+Monatseinteilung der Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 18 _sqq._
+
+[605] E. Littmann, “Sternensagen und Astrologisches aus Nordabessinien,”
+_Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 302 _sq._, 319. In order to
+adapt the _‘sāmĕn_ to the imported hebdomadal cycle, Sunday is counted
+twice.
+
+[606] Above, pp. 114 _and_ _n._³, 116 _n._¹
+
+[607] A. Henry, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1903,
+xxxiii, 105. The Muhso, a Lao hill tribe, “have a twelfth-day Sabbath
+or sacred day, not very definitely marked” (Daniel McGilvary, _A Half
+Century among the Siamese and the Lāo_, New York [1912], p. 323). Did
+this “Sabbath” originate as a market day, which at first recurred every
+sixth day?
+
+[608] E. Gottschling, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+1905, xxxv, 382.
+
+[609] Above, pp. 103 _sqq._, 108, 110, 113 _and_ _n._⁶, 114 _and_ _n._³,
+116 _n._¹
+
+[610] _The Oxyrhynchus Papyri_, edited by Grenfell and Hunt, London,
+1903, pt. iii, 126-137.
+
+[611] The data relating to the _khamushtu_ are found in some Cappadocian
+tablets discovered by Golénischeff and others in mounds not far from
+Kaisariyeh. This city was a colony of Assyria and the last outpost of
+Assyrian power in the northwest. The tablets are in Babylonian cuneiform
+script belonging to the age of Hammurabi. Professor A. H. Sayce in 1897
+was the first to show that the term _khamushtu_ in these documents
+represented a continuous succession of five-day periods; and Professor
+Hugo Winckler later made, independently, the same discovery. See Sayce,
+in _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, 1897, xix, 288;
+_idem_, in _Babyloniaca_, 1907, ii, 1-45; Winckler, _Altorientalische
+Forschungen_, Leipzig, 1898-1900, ii, 91 _sqq._, 354 _sqq._
+
+[612] For references to the cuneiform evidence see P. Jensen, “Die
+siebentägige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150 _sq._; W. Muss-Arnolt, in _Journal of
+Biblical Literature_, xi, 94; A. Jeremias, _The Old Testament in the
+Light of the Ancient East_, London, 1911, i, 65.
+
+[613] G. Vígfússon, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_, Oxford, 1874,
+_s.v._ _fimt_; Vígfússon and Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, Oxford,
+1883, i, pp. cxx, 428; F. B. Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, New York, 1892,
+p. 418; T. F. Troels-Lund, _Livsbelysning_, Copenhagen, 1904, pp. 13,
+198. For the translation of this last reference I am indebted to Mr. N.
+H. Debel.
+
+[614] The Stseelis, an Indian tribe of British Columbia, have a singular
+tradition that their ancestors used to observe a kind of Sabbath ceremony
+long before the coming of the whites. The people assembled every seventh
+day for dancing and praying. It is impossible to explain this tradition
+apart from European influence at some remote time (C. Hill-Tout, in
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1904, xxxiv, 329).
+
+[615] L. Dahle, “The Influence of the Arabs on the Malagasy Language,”
+_Antananarivo Annual_, 1875-1878, i, 205. In addition to the Arabic
+seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, the Malagasy also use, for
+astrological purposes, the planetary designations of the weekdays. Of
+these, three are good or lucky days, three are unlucky, and one has
+a neutral character. See J. Sibree, “Divination among the Malagasy,”
+_Folklore_, 1892, iii, 220 _sq._
+
+[616] Soury-Lavergne and de la Devèze, in _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 310
+_n._⁴; James Sibree, _The Great African Island_, London, 1880, p. 281.
+
+[617] O. Kersten, editor, _Baron Carl Claus von der Decken’s Reisen in
+Ost-Afrika_, Leipzig, 1869, i, 101.
+
+[618] M. Merker, _Die Masai_,² Berlin, 1910, pp. 157 _sq._, 327 _sq._;
+compare Sir Charles Eliot, in A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_, Oxford, 1905, p.
+xiv.
+
+[619] C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of the A-Kamba and Other East African
+Tribes_, Cambridge, 1910, p. 163.
+
+[620] J. L. Krapf, _Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours_, London,
+1867, p. 82.
+
+[621] J. W. C. Kirk, _A Grammar of the Somali Language_, Cambridge, 1905,
+p. 134; P. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas. Die geistige
+Kultur der Danâkil, Galla, und Somâl_, Berlin, 1896, p. 224.
+
+[622] F. J. Bieber, in _Revue des études ethnographiques et
+sociologiques_, 1909, ii, 38, 63.
+
+[623] Above, pp. 115 _sqq._ For further instances see Anne Raffenel,
+_Nouveau voyage dans le pays des nègres_, Paris, 1856, i, 350 (Bambara);
+H. Gaden, in _Revue d’ethnographie et de sociologie_, 1912, iii, 52
+(Toucouleur and Mohammedan Peul of Senegal). Among the Vey of Liberia the
+week of seven days must be due to Christian influence (J. Büttikofer,
+_Reisebilder aus Liberia_, Leiden, 1890, ii, 317).
+
+[624] Above, p. 157 _and_ _n._²
+
+[625] Above, p. 166.
+
+[626] J. F. Fleet, “The Use of the Planetary Names of the Days of the
+Week in India,” _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1912, n.s., xliv,
+1039-1046. For lists of the more common planetary names of the weekdays,
+as now found in India, see Sewell and Dikshit, _The Indian Calendar_,
+London, 1896, p. 2. The celebrated astronomical work in Sanskrit, known
+as the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_, contains two references to the planetary
+week (i, 51-52, xii, 78-79; transl. Burgess-Whitney, in _Journal of
+the American Oriental Society_, 1860, v, 175-178, 396), and in the
+_Hitōpadēśa_ (ed. Johnson, p. 16, l. 411) there is an interesting passage
+which, as A. W. von Schlegel was the first to point out (_Indische
+Bibliothek_, 1827, ii, 178), refers to Sunday as a sacred day.
+
+[627] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York, 1891,
+p. 433; W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 226;
+_idem_, _The Tribes and Castes of the North-western Provinces and Oudh_,
+Calcutta, 1896, iii, 112.
+
+[628] J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_,³ Oxford,
+1906, p. 382.
+
+[629] R. Percival, _An Account of the Island of Ceylon_, London, 1803, p.
+187; H. C. P. Bell, _The Máldive Islands_, Colombo, 1883, p. 119; B. H.
+Hodgson, _Essays on the Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepál and
+Tibet_, London, 1874, p. 8; E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig
+and London, 1863, 289; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_,³ London, 1910, pp. 550
+_sq._; E. Aymonier, _Le Cambodge_, Paris, 1900-1904, i, 42, ii, 19; De
+la Loubère, _A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam_, London,
+1693, ii, 168.
+
+[630] A. Cabaton, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
+iii, 113, 345, 450. On the other hand a week of seven days, found in
+central Asia, has been borrowed from Persia, as its name _hafta_ from the
+Persian _heft_, “seven,” indicates (H. Vámbéry, _Die primitive Cultur
+des turko-tatarischen Volkes_, Leipzig, 1879, p. 160). In northern Asia,
+again, the Russian advance has begun to lead to the use of the seven-day
+week by native tribes, such as the Yukaghir of northeastern Siberia (W.
+Jochelson, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, xiii,
+42).
+
+[631] Tournier, _Notice sur le Laos français_, Hanoi, 1900, p. 188.
+
+[632] Robert Morrison, _A View of China for Philological Purposes_,
+Macao, 1817, pp. 52, 102; _idem_, _A Grammar of the Chinese Language_,
+Serampore, 1815, p. 54.
+
+[633] A. Wylie, “On the Knowledge of the Weekly Sabbath in China,”
+_Chinese Researches_, Shanghai, 1897, pt. ii, 86-101; J. Edkins, _Chinese
+Buddhism_,² London, 1893, p. 211.
+
+[634] The Nestorian Monument was set up in 781 A.D. in the department or
+prefecture of Hsî-an, province of Shen-hsî, northwestern China. At the
+end of the inscription on it we read: “Erected in the second year of the
+period Chien-chung of the great T’ang dynasty, the year-star being in
+Tso-yo, on the seventh day of the first month, being Sunday.” See James
+Legge, _The Nestorian Monument of Hsî-an Fu in Shen-hsî, China_, London,
+1888, p. 29. A replica of this monument, which is a limestone block ten
+feet in height and of two tons’ weight, was taken to the United States
+in 1908 and now rests in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
+See F. V. Holm, “The Holm Nestorian Expedition to Sian, MCMVII,” _Open
+Court_, 1909, xxiii, 18-28.
+
+[635] “Some persons,” writes an experienced observer of the Chinese,
+“have expressed their surprise that the unceasing round of toil which
+the Chinese labourer pursues has not rendered him more degraded. It is
+usually said that a weekly rest is necessary for the continuance of
+the powers of body and mind in man in their full activity, and that
+decrepitude and insanity would oftener result were it not for this
+relaxation.... Yet, in China, people who apparently tax themselves
+uninterruptedly to the utmost stretch of body and mind, live in health to
+old age.... Nothing like a seventh day of rest, or religious respect to
+that interval of time, is known among the Chinese, but they do not, as a
+people, exercise their minds to the intensity, or upon the high subjects,
+common among western nations, and this perhaps is one reason why their
+yearly toil produces no disastrous effects” (S. W. Williams, _The Middle
+Kingdom_,² New York, 1883, i, 809 _sq._).
+
+[636] B. H. Chamberlain, _Things Japanese_,² London, 1891, pp. 418 _sq._
+
+[637] Arthur Lloyd, _Every-day Japan_, London, 1909, pp. 371 _sq._
+
+[638] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, pp. 548 _sq._, 554.
+
+[639] Annandale and Robinson, _Fasciculi Malayensis_, London, 1903-1904,
+i, 80 _sq._, 100; ii, 30, 55.
+
+[640] C. S. Hurgronje, _The Achehnese_, Leiden, 1906, i, 236, 261.
+
+[641] A. Maass, _Durch Zentral-Sumatra_, Berlin, 1910, p. 513.
+
+[642] J. Winkler, “Der Kalender der Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra,”
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913, xlv, 441 _sqq._
+
+[643] W. Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_³, London, 1811, p. 194.
+
+[644] E. Metzger, “Über die Zeitrechnung der Javanen”, _Deutsche
+Rundschau für Geographie und Statistik_, 1887, ix, 311; P. J. Veth,
+Java,², Haarlem, 1907, iv, 297 _sq._ A recent observer points out that,
+although the life of a Javanese village is never intensely laborious,
+it is, in a sense, a life of continuous labour, “for the Javanese does
+not feel compelled to abstain from labour entirely upon any day of the
+week—not even on a Friday—to satisfy his religious beliefs. He works
+as long as he needs to work; but only too often only just so long. His
+village holidays are numerous” (A. Cabaton, _Java, Sumatra, and the Other
+Islands of the Dutch East Indies_, London and Leipzig, 1911, pp. 125
+_sq._).
+
+[645] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878,
+n.s., x, 89, 93.
+
+[646] _An Historical Description of the Kingdom of Macasar_, London,
+1701, p. 149.
+
+[647] T. Nöldeke, “Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Semiten,”
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 162; J. Wellhausen,
+_Reste arabischen Heidentums_,² Berlin, 1897, p. 142.
+
+[648] _Koran_, lxii, 9 _sq._ (_S. B. E._, ix, 283); T. P. Hughes,
+_Dictionary of Islam_, London, 1885, pp. 131, 666; _idem_, “The Mosque
+Life of the Muslim,” _Open Court_, 1906, xx, 335; T. W. Juynboll,
+“Djum‘a,” _The Encyclopædia of Islām_, i, 1061 _sq._
+
+[649] See in general L. Lévy-Bruhl, _Les fonctions mentales dans les
+sociétés inférieures_, Paris, 1910, pp. 235-257; D. G. Brinton, “The
+Origin of Sacred Numbers,” _American Anthropologist_, 1894, vii,
+168-173; _idem_, _The Myths of the New World_,³ Philadelphia, 1896, pp.
+83-119; W. J. McGee, “Primitive Numbers,” _Nineteenth Annual Report
+of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, pt. ii, 821-852; W. Schultz,
+“Gesetze der Zahlenverschiebung im Mythus und in mythenhaltiger
+Überlieferung,” _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
+Wien_, 1910, xl, 101-150; R. Hirzel, “Über Rundzahlen,” _Berichte
+über die Verhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der
+königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft_, Leipzig, 1885, xxxvii, 1-74; E.
+Kautzsch, “Zahlen,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie für
+protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xx, 598-607; A. Bergaigne, _La
+religion védique_, Paris, 1883, ii, 114-156; E. W. Hopkins, “The Holy
+Numbers of the _Rig-Veda_,” in _Oriental Studies_, Boston, 1894, pp.
+141-159; E. Wölfflin, “Zur Zahlensymbolik,” _Archiv für lateinische
+Lexikographie und Grammatik_, 1895, ix, 33-353; I. Goldziher, “Über
+Zahlenaberglauben im Islam,” _Globus_, 1901, lxxx, 31-32. For collections
+of the evidence relating to the sacredness of certain numbers see
+B. Stade, “Die Dreizahl im Alten Testament,” _Zeitschrift für die
+alttestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1906, xxvi, 124 _sqq._; H. Usener,
+“Dreiheit,” _Rheinisches Museum für Philologie_, 1903, n.s., lviii, 1-47,
+161-208, 321-362; Anne W. Buckland, “Four as a Sacred Number,” _Journal
+of the Anthropological Institute_, 1896, xxv, 96-102; F. X. Kugler, “Die
+Symbolik der Neunzahl bei den Babyloniern,” in _Assyriologische und
+archäologische Studien Hermann v. Hilprecht gewidmet_, Leipzig, 1909, pp.
+304-309; A. Kaegi, “Die Neunzahl bei den Ostariern,” in _Philologische
+Abhandlungen für Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler_, Zürich, 1891, pp. 50-70; K.
+Weinhold, “Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” _Abhandlungen der
+königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Berlin, 1897, pp.
+1-61; Edgar Thurston, “The Number Seven in Southern India,” in _Essays
+and Studies presented to William Ridgeway_, Cambridge, 1913, pp· 353-364;
+W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen
+der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen
+Klasse der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_,
+Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4; _idem_, “Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus
+und Mythus der Griechen,” _ibid._, 1904, xxiv, no. I; _idem_, “Die
+Hebdomadenlehren der griechischen Philosophen und Ärzte,” _ibid._, 1904,
+xxiv, no. 6; _idem_, “Enneadische Studien,” _ibid._, 1907, xxvi, no. i;
+_idem_, “Die Zahl 40 im Glauben, Brauch, und Schrifttum der Semiten,”
+_ibid._, 1909, xxvii, no. 4; _idem_, “Über Alter, Ursprung, und Bedeutung
+der hippokratischen Schrift von der Siebenzahl,” _ibid._, 1911, xxviii,
+no. 5; _idem_, “Die Tessarakontaden und Tessarakontadenlehren der
+Griechen und anderer Völker,” _Berichte über die Verhandlungen_, etc.,
+Leipzig, 1909, lxi, 17-206.
+
+[650] For a large collection of evidence see F. von Andrian,
+“Die Siebenzahl im Geistesleben der Völker,” _Mitteilungen der
+anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, 1901, xxxi, 225-274.
+
+[651] Brooke Low, in H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British
+North Borneo_, London, 1906, i, 231; Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan
+Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, ii, 134 _sq._
+
+[652] I. H. N. Evans, “Notes on the Religious Beliefs, Superstitions,
+Ceremonies, and Tabus of the Dusuns,” _Journal of the Royal
+Anthropological Institute_, 1912, xlii, 394 _sq._
+
+[653] Suas, “Le septième jour aux Nouvelles Hébrides, Océanie,”
+_Anthropos_, 1912, vii, 1057; compare _ibid._, 50 _n._¹
+
+[654] M. Merker, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1902, Ergänzungsheft, no.
+138, p. 25.
+
+[655] W. E. H. Barrett, in _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
+Institute_, 1911, xli, 22, 31 _sq._, 34.
+
+[656] C. W. Hobley, _ibid._, 1910, xl, 439 _sq._ Seven among the
+Akikuyu is of all numbers the most unlucky in divination (Routledge and
+Routledge, _With a Prehistoric People_, pp. 264, 274).
+
+[657] Hollis, _Nandi_, p. 89.
+
+[658] Above, pp. 145 _sq._, 198 _sq._
+
+[659] Above, p. 199.
+
+[660] E. Dayrell, _Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa_,
+London, 1910, nos. xxx-xxxii, xxxiv, xxxviii, etc.
+
+[661] E. Doutté, _Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du nord_, Algiers,
+1909, pp. 184 _sqq._
+
+[662] The Zuñi priests preserve a ceremonial diagram of the seven
+“Ancient Spaces,” or primeval cosmogonic areas, representing north,
+east, south, west, the zenith, the nadir, and the middle. The observer
+is always supposed to stand in the central space. For illustrations of
+the seven-cult among the American Indians see J. W. Powell, in F. H.
+Cushing, _Zuñi Folk Tales_, New York, 1901, pp. xii _sq._; S. Hagar,
+“Cherokee Star-lore,” in _Boas Anniversary Volume_, New York, 1906, p.
+361; J. O. Dorsey, in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
+p. 397 (Osage, Kansa, Omaha, Dakota, and Ponka tribes); Jean L’Heureux,
+in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1886, xv, 303 (Blackfoot);
+D. G. Brinton, _The Lenâpé and their Legends_, Philadelphia, 1885, pp.
+139 _sq._
+
+[663] E. W. Hopkins, “The Holy Numbers of the _Rig-Veda_,” in _Oriental
+Studies_, Boston, 1894, pp. 141, 144 _sq._; compare A. Bergaigne, _La
+religion védique_, Paris, 1883, ii, 123, 127.
+
+[664] _Odyssey_, x, 81, xii, 399, xiv, 252, 288, xv, 477.
+
+[665] _Opera et dies_, 770 _sq._; Herodotus, vi, 57; Æschylus, _Septem
+contra Thebas_, 800; Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, viii, 1, 2;
+Lydus, _De mensibus_, ii, 12. The seventh day of each month was a holiday
+for Greek children, in remembrance of Apollo’s birth on the seventh of
+Thargelion (Lucian, _Pseudologistes_, 16). The first and twentieth of
+the month were also consecrated to Apollo, who received in consequence
+the cult titles Ἑβδομαγέτης, Νεομήνιος and Εἰκάδιος. According to
+Plutarch (_Dion_, 23), a festival of Apollo was also celebrated on the
+fifteenth of the month. On the seventh day in Greece see, further, L.
+R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, Oxford, 1906-1910, iv, 258
+_sq._; _idem_, _Greece and Babylon_, London, 1911, p. 295; O. Gruppe,
+_Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, Munich, 1906, ii, 939
+_sqq._; M. P. Nilsson, “Die älteste griechische Zeitrechnung, Apollo und
+der Orient,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 442 _sqq._
+
+[666] See the exhaustive collection of the evidence, both literary and
+inscriptional, in Roscher, “Fristen und Wochen,” pp. 41-68; _idem_,
+“Sieben- und Neunzahl,” pp. 4-53; _idem_, “Hebdomadenlehren,” pp. 7-23.
+Some students have seen in this sanctity of seven the results of early
+intercourse with the Orient through Phœnician channels (V. Bérard, in
+_Revue de l’histoire des religions_, 1899, xxxix, 426 _sq._; compare
+A. Thumb, “Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen,” _Zeitschrift
+für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 163 _sq._). The theory of the
+diffusion of the cult of seven from the East might now be strengthened by
+substituting Cretan for Phœnician intermediaries. Nilsson argues that the
+seven-cult, together with the worship of Apollo, reached Greece by way
+of Asia Minor, “eine Etappe auf dem Wege nach Babylonien” (_Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 447 _sq._).
+
+[667] J. Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten
+Testament_, Leipzig, 1907, pp. 4-44; P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der
+Babylonier_, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 170-184.
+
+[668] The predominance of seven among the Hebrews, if not wholly
+explained by borrowing from Babylonia, may reasonably be assumed to have
+been much influenced by Babylonian conceptions. On the Hebrew cult of
+this number see Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat_, pp. 77-90; O. Zöckler,
+“Siebenzahl, heilige,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie
+für protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xviii, 310-317.
+
+[669] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
+and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 217 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Religion
+Babyloniens und Assyriens_, Giessen, 1905-1912, ii, 446 _sq._, 663 _sqq._
+
+[670] G. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, Oxford, 1905,
+pp. 134 _sq._ The fact that by the Babylonians Venus, as a morning star,
+was considered masculine and as an evening star, feminine (F. X. Kugler,
+_Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel_, Münster-i.-W., 1907-1910, ii, 19
+_sq._) must point back to a time when the different appearances of that
+heavenly body at morning and evening were regarded as those of different
+planets. Such was also the opinion of the early Greeks, who held the
+morning star, Ἑωσφόρος, and Ἕσπερος, the evening star, to be different
+bodies. Their identity was not recognized until the time of Pythagoras
+in the sixth century B.C. (W. H. Roscher, “Planeten,” _Ausführliches
+Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, iii, col. 2521).
+Similar misconceptions are found among primitive peoples. Of the Maori
+it has been said: “Tawera is their Lucifer and Merimeri their Hesperus,
+and under these two names the beauty of the planet Venus is frequently
+celebrated in their poetry” (E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions
+of the New Zealanders_,² p. 219). Additional evidence is found among
+the aborigines of Sumatra (Marsden, _op. cit._, p. 194), the Hottentots
+(Schultze, _op. cit._, p. 367), and the Cherokee Indians (Hagar, in _Boas
+Anniversary Volume_, p. 357).
+
+[671] Kugler, _op. cit._, i, 13; compare F. Boll, “Zur babylonischen
+Planetenordnung,” _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1911, xxv, 373. Between
+400 B.C. and the opening of the Christian era the order is the same,
+except that Mercury and Saturn exchange places.
+
+[672] Herodotus, ii, 82.
+
+[673] The history of the planetary week has been treated with exhaustive
+learning by E. Schürer, “Die siebentägige Woche im Gebrauche der
+christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte,” _Zeitschrift für die
+neutestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1905, vi, 1-66. A very valuable survey
+is that by F. Boll, “Hebdomas,” in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie
+der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, vii, coll. 2547-2578. Among the
+earlier discussions those by J. C. H(are), “On the Names of the Days of
+the Week,” _Philological Museum_, 1832, i, 1-73, and E. Schrader, “Der
+babylonische Ursprung der siebentägigen Woche,” _Theologische Studien und
+Kritiken_, 1874, xlvii, 343-353, hold an honourable place. See further
+W. H. Roscher, “Planeten,” _Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen
+und römischen Mythologie_, iii, coll. 2518-2539; A. Bouché-Leclercq,
+_L’astrologie grecque_, Paris, 1899, pp. 476-484; Jensen, Nöldeke, _et
+al._, “Geschichte der Namen der Wochentage,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150-193; O. Schrader, “Woche,” _Reallexikon
+der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, pp. 959-965;
+W. Lotz, “Woche,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie
+für protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xxi, 409-414; F. Rühl,
+_Chronologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit_, Berlin, 1897, pp. 49-63;
+F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_,
+Leipzig, 1906-1911, index, _s.v._ “Woche.” The word “week” in various
+Germanic languages has the general meaning of “change” (Anglo-Saxon
+_wice_, Old Frisian _wike_, Old Norse _vika_, Danish _uge_, Old High
+German _wecha_, Gothic _wiko_, etc.). See F. L. K. Weigand, _Deutsches
+Wörterbuch_,⁵ Giessen, 1910, ii, 1279. The Latin _vicis_, “change,”
+“turn” (a genitive form) is a related expression. See Walde, _op. cit._,
+p. 833.
+
+[674] The reverse order, beginning with the Moon and ending with Saturn,
+is attributed to Pythagoras by Pliny the Elder (_Historia naturalis_,
+ii, 22) and by Censorinus (_De die natali_, xiii, 3); and according
+to Macrobius it was adopted by Archimedes in the third century B.C.
+(_Commentarium in somnium Scipionis_, i, 19, 2, ii, 3, 13). But the
+statements of these late writers on the subject may be safely disregarded.
+
+[675] _Historia Romana_, xxxvii, 18 _sq._ There is also extant a still
+earlier explanation of the planetary sequence by Vettius Valens, an
+astrologer of the age of the Antonines. The one provided by Plutarch,
+in the seventh chapter of the fourth book of his _Symposiacs_, has been
+lost. Dio Cassius attributes the origin of the planetary week to the
+Egyptians; Lydus, a Byzantine antiquarian of the fifth century A.D.,
+hesitates between the Egyptians and the Babylonians (_De mensibus_, ii,
+31).
+
+[676] This arrangement—διὰ τεσσάρων—may be illustrated by means of the
+heptagram. Let the circumference of a circle be divided into seven equal
+arcs and the signs of the planets—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
+Mercury, Moon—be placed at the points of division. If these points
+are connected by a series of continuous chords, then, beginning with
+Saturn, the lines of the chords will lead successively to the signs of
+the planets in the astrological order. The figure of a seven-branched
+star, inscribed in a circle, is an ancient device; indeed, the heptagram
+appears on a clay tablet recently unearthed at Nippur in Babylonia (H. V.
+Hilprecht, _Explorations in Bible Lands_, Philadelphia, 1903, p. 530),
+but in this case quite without any indication of its use.
+
+[677] As a matter of fact the gamut, or scale of seven notes comprised
+within the interval of an octave, rests on no fundamental laws of
+acoustic phenomena but is itself a product of the all-pervading symbolism
+of seven. This system of musical numeration has spread from Greece as
+far east as India and China. See J. Combarieu, _La musique et la magie_,
+Paris, 1909, pp. 176-200.
+
+[678] Herodotus (ii, 109) says explicitly that the Greeks learned from
+the Babylonians to divide the day into twelve parts. This statement
+agrees with the evidence from the cuneiform records, which show that it
+was the Babylonian custom to divide the nycthemeron, or cycle of night
+and day, into twelve _kaspu_, corresponding to two of our equinoctial
+hours. On the other hand the Egyptians from very early times were
+familiar with a division into twenty-four hours, twelve for the night
+and twelve for the natural day. It is not improbable, therefore, that
+the astrological use of the twenty-four hours was remotely derived
+from Egypt. On the entire subject of hour deities see W. Gundel,
+“Stundengötter,” _Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde_, 1913, xii, 100-131.
+
+[679] _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 220; G. Gundermann,
+“Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Römern,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 177.
+
+[680] A. Mau, in _Bullettino dell’ instituto di corrispondenza
+archeologica_, 1881, p. 30; _Atti della reale accademia dei lincei,
+anno 1901, Serie v, classe di scienze morali_, etc., _ix, Notizie degli
+scavi_, p. 330.
+
+[681] _Historia Romana_, xxxvii, 18.
+
+[682] Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13;
+Clement, _Stromata_, vii, 12, 75; compare Justin Martyr, _Apologia
+prima_, 67.
+
+[683] The Jews indicated each weekday by its numerical name, as the first
+day, the second day, and so on; compare _Exodus_, xvi, 5, 22; _Matthew_,
+xxviii, 1; _Mark_, xvi, 2; _Luke_, xxiv, 1; _John_, xx, 1; _Acts_, xx,
+7; 1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2. The sixth day, preceding the Sabbath, came
+eventually to be called by Hellenistic Jews ἡ παρασκευή, or “preparation”
+for the Sabbath; compare _Matthew_, xxvii, 62; _Mark_, xv, 42; _Luke_,
+xxiii, 54; _John_, xix, 31.
+
+[684] The oldest dated Christian inscription to employ a planetary
+designation belongs to the year 269 A.D. (_Inscriptiones Christianæ urbis
+Romæ_, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, no. 11).
+
+[685] According to the testimony of Celsus, as quoted by Origen (_Contra
+Celsum_, vi, 21), the seven planets played an important rôle in the
+Mithraic mysteries. The chief position was naturally assigned to the sun,
+from which circumstance Cumont concludes, not only that the planetary
+week was known to Mithraism, but also that the _dies Solis_ “était
+évidemment le plus sacré de l’hebdomade pour les fidèles de Mithra, et,
+comme les Chrétiens, ils devaient sanctifier le dimanche et non pas
+le sabbat.” See F. Cumont, _Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux
+mystères de Mithra_, Brussels, 1896-1899, i, 118 _sq._, ii, 31.
+
+[686] Above, pp. 122 _sq._
+
+[687] Below, p. 268.
+
+[688] Italian _domenica_, _sabbato_; Spanish _domingo_, _sabado_; French
+_dimanche_, _samedi_, etc. But the heathen names of even these two days
+continued for a long time in popular use, as is evident from the words
+of Gregory of Tours: _Ecce enim dies Solis adest, sic enim barbaries
+vocitare diem dominicam consueta est_ (_Historia Francorum_, iii, 15).
+The other weekdays (Monday to Friday) in the calendar of the Roman Church
+follow the Jewish usage in being numbered, not named: _feria secunda_,
+_feria tertia_, _feria quarta_, _feria quinta_, and _feria sexta_
+(Isidore of Seville, _Etymologiæ sive origines_, v, 30). In Portugal the
+influence of the Church was strong enough to secure the general adoption
+of this mode of reckoning, instead of the planetary sequence; and here
+Monday is still called _feira segunda_, Tuesday, _feira terça_, etc.
+It is curious to find the old Roman term for a holy day thus employed
+to refer to the weekdays that are particularly devoted to secular
+occupations. The origin of the practice has not been satisfactorily
+explained.
+
+[689] Tiu (Mars), Woden (Mercurius), Thor (Jupiter), Frija (Venus). The
+special observance of Thursday as a holy day reflects the commanding
+place occupied by Thor in Germanic paganism. His worship on that day is
+referred to in documents of the early Middle Ages as a superstition to be
+eradicated (_nullus diem Jovis in otio observet_, etc.), but the modern
+Esthonians still consider Thursday as holier than Sunday and in Sweden,
+as late as the nineteenth century, the day was generally considered
+sacred. See J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, London, 1882, i, 191; O.
+Montelius, “The Sun-god’s Axe and Thor’s Hammer,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi,
+77.
+
+[690] The Scandinavian name for Saturday, “bath-day” or “wash-day” (Old
+Norse _laugardagr_), arose from the custom of taking a bath at the end of
+the week (De la Saussaye, _The Religion of the Teutons_, Boston, 1902, p.
+379; P. B. Du Chaillu, _The Land of the Midnight Sun_, New York, 1881,
+ii, 205 _sqq._).
+
+[691] In Slavic antiquity Friday, or some day corresponding to it,
+appears to have been consecrated to a female divinity, whose personality,
+after the introduction of Christianity, became merged into that of St.
+Prascovia. “As she is supposed to wander about the houses of the peasants
+on her holy day, and to be offended if she finds certain kinds of work
+going on, they are (or at least they used to be) frequently suspended
+on Fridays. It is a sin, says a time-honoured tradition, for a woman to
+sew or spin, or weave, or buck linen on a Friday, and similarly for a
+man to plait bast shoes, twine cords, and the like. Spinning and weaving
+are especially obnoxious to ‘Mother Friday,’ for the dust and refuse
+thus produced injure her eyes.” The peasants believe that any work begun
+on Friday is sure to go wrong (W. R. S. Ralston, _Russian Folktales_,
+London, 1873, pp. 198 _sq._).
+
+[692] In Thessaly and Macedonia Saturday (σάββατον) is considered
+inauspicious for beginning any undertaking. This taboo on the day has
+been considered as perhaps a reminiscence of the Jewish Sabbath (Sir
+Rennell Rodd, _The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, London, 1892, p.
+159). According to Mr. G. F. Abbott, the Macedonians believe it unlucky
+to finish any work on a Saturday; the end of the week being associated
+in some way with the end of the owner’s life. “People born on a Saturday
+(hence called Σαββατιανοί or Sabbatarians) are believed to enjoy the
+doubtful privilege of seeing ghosts and phantasms, and of possessing
+great influence over vampires” (_Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903,
+pp. 191, 221).
+
+[693] On the week among European peoples see further E. Maass, _Die
+Tagesgötter im Rom und den Provinzen_, Berlin, 1902; A. Thumb, “Die
+albanesischen Wochentage,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_,
+1901, i, 173-175; R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentagen in den
+keltischen Dialecten,” _ibid._, pp. 186-191; W. Meyer-Lübke, “Die Namen
+der Wochentage im Romanischen,” _ibid._, pp. 192 _sq._; C. L. Rochholz,
+_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, ii, 9-63; K. A. Oberle,
+_Überreste germanischen Heidentums im Christentum_, Baden-Baden, 1883,
+pp. 13-40; Grimm, _op. cit._, i, 122-130.
+
+[694] G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_,⁷ London, 1883, p. 12; compare
+_idem_, _The Assyrian Eponym Canon_, London, 1875, pp. 19 _sq._
+
+[695] Above, p. 177 _n._²
+
+[696] The first edition (1875) of the fourth volume of Rawlinson’s
+_Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ contained only a calendar for
+the month of Elul II, but in the second edition (1891) of this volume
+there was added, from a number of fragments, a calendar for the month of
+Markheshwan.
+
+[697] The difficulty which arises in respect to the nineteenth day has
+been solved to the satisfaction of most Assyriologists by the suggestion
+that the nineteenth day was regarded as seven times the seventh day
+(_i.e._, the forty-ninth from the first of the preceding month). This,
+of course, would not be strictly true, when the preceding month had
+only twenty-nine days, but it seems that the early Babylonian month was
+conventionally taken at thirty days’ duration.
+
+[698] Above, pp. 210 _sq._
+
+[699] Compare H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das
+Alte Testament_,³ Berlin, 1903, pp. 620 _sq._ The possible influence
+of Pleiades cults has been worked out with much ingenuity by H. Grimme
+(_Das israelitische Pfingstfest und der Plejadenkult_, Paderborn, 1907),
+who discerns in the duration of the Hebrew Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks,
+as well as in the rites which marked that agricultural festival, the
+predominance of a septenary division based on the observation of these
+seven stars.
+
+[700] W. Muss-Arnolt, “The Names of the Assyro-Babylonian Months and
+their Regents,” _Journal of Biblical Literature_, 1892, xi, 73; E. Combe,
+_Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie_, Paris, 1908, pp.
+8, 13.
+
+[701] Above, p. 178.
+
+[702] W. Muss-Arnolt, in _Journal of Biblical Literature_, 1892, xi, 72
+_sqq._, 82 _sqq._, 90; E. Meyer, “Astarte,” in Roscher’s _Ausführliches
+Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, i, col. 649.
+
+[703] R. C. Thompson, _The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of
+Nineveh and Babylon_, London, 1900, ii, pp. xviii _sqq._, xxvi.
+
+[704] Epping and Strassmeier, _Astronomisches aus Babylon_,
+Freiburg-i.-B., 1889, p. 179; F. X. Kugler, _Die babylonische
+Mondrechnung_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1900, pp. 49, 201; F. H. Weissbach, “Zum
+babylonischen Kalender,” in _Assyriologische und archäologische Studien
+Hermann v. Hilprecht gewidmet_, Leipzig, 1909, p. 281.
+
+[705] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iv,² pl. 32, col. 1, ll. 1-2; W. Lotz,
+_Quæstiones de historia Sabbati_, Leipzig, 1883, p. 39.
+
+[706] Above, pp. 187 _sq._
+
+[707] Above, p. 195.
+
+[708] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iii, 55, no. 3, ll. 17-26; P. Jensen, “Die
+siebentägige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150.
+
+[709] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iii, 64, 18 b; Jensen, in _Zeitschrift
+für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 152; Zimmern, in Schrader,
+_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 621 _n._⁵
+
+[710] _Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum_,
+pt. xxv, pl. 50 (K. 170); F. Hommel, “Calendar (Babylonian),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 76.
+
+[711] _Enuma elish_, v, ll. 12-18 (transl. L. W. King, _The Seven Tablets
+of Creation_, London, 1902, i, 78, 81):
+
+  “The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him.
+  He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days;
+  Every month without ceasing with the crown he covered (?) him, (saying):
+  ‘At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land,
+  Thou commandest the horns to determine six days
+  And on the seventh day to [divide] the crown
+  On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand opposite, the half[...].’”
+
+For other translations see P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_,
+Strassburg, 1890, pp. 288 _sqq._; W. Muss-Arnolt, in R. F. Harper,
+_Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, New York, 1901, p. 296.
+
+[712] Above, pp. 157, 165 _sq._
+
+[713] Above, p. 212.
+
+[714] C. Fossey, _La magie assyrienne_, Paris, 1902, pp. 52, 58.
+
+[715] See H. Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln s̆urpu_, Leipzig, 1896.
+
+[716] R. C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London,
+1904, ii, pp. xxxix _sqq._
+
+[717] H. C. Rawlinson, _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_,
+London, 1891, iv,² pl. 32-33. The complete text was first translated
+by A. H. Sayce (“A Babylonian Saints’ Calendar,” _Records of the
+Past_, London, 1876, vii, 157-170) and shortly thereafter by W. Lotz
+(_Quæstiones de historia Sabbati_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-49). The
+passage relating to the seventh day has been many times rendered by
+Assyriologists, not without variations in the result. I have used the
+version in the scholarly work of R. W. Rogers, _Cuneiform Parallels to
+the Old Testament_, New York, 1912, p. 189.
+
+[718] The nineteenth day would seem to be particularly tabooed, for then
+the “shepherd of great peoples” is forbidden to eat “anything which the
+fire has touched.”
+
+[719] Most Assyriologists (Jeremias, Delitzsch, Lagrange, Pinches, Clay)
+make this sentence read: “The day is unsuitable for any business,” a
+translation which, if correct, converts the seventh day into a veritable
+Sabbath. To this translation Professor Morris Jastrow now adds the great
+weight of his authority, pointing out that we must read _ana epasch la
+na-ṭu_, “‘für Arbeit (oder Ausführung) nicht geignet’ ... und nicht,
+wie man früher annahm, _epesch arrati_, ‘zum Fluchen,’ was ja ein
+eigentümliches Verbot wäre” (_Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_,
+Giessen, 1905-1912, ii, 533 _n._¹).
+
+[720] Above, p. 15.
+
+[721] For much evidence as to the sacredness of chiefs and kings and as
+to the accompanying taboos, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils
+of the Soul_, London, 1911, pp. 1-17; _idem_, _Psyche’s Task_,² London,
+1913, pp. 6-19.
+
+[722] T. C. Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906,
+xxxvi, 98; _idem_, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 298; _idem_, _Nāga Tribes of
+Manipur_, pp. 102, 141 _sq._
+
+[723] For further discussions of the “evil days” see M. J. Lagrange,
+_Études sur les religions sémitiques_,² Paris, 1905, pp. 291 _sqq._; J.
+Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten Testament_,
+Leipzig, 1907, pp. 106-109; J. Meinhold, _Sabbat und Woche im Alten
+Testament_, Göttingen, 1905, pp. 15 _sqq._; F. Bohn, _Der Sabbat im Alten
+Testament_, Gütersloh, 1903, pp. 39-43.
+
+[724] Some painstaking efforts have been made to discover whether during
+historic times there was any general observance in Babylonia of the “evil
+days.” W. Lotz (_op. cit._, p. 66), from an examination of 540 dated
+contract tablets belonging to different months, found that the average of
+the number of transactions on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days was 18,
+which would be also the average for each day of the month. The 19th day,
+however, had only one contract to its credit. Schiaparelli (_op. cit._,
+p. 132 _n._¹) examined about 400 dated documents from the archives of
+the Babylonian business firm, Egibi and Sons, and showed that there was
+a real abstention from business only on the 19th day, when no contracts
+were concluded. The same investigator (_op. cit._, pp. 175 _sqq._) also
+classified according to the day of the month 2764 dates on contract
+tablets belonging to the period 604-449 B.C. and found again that, while
+the transactions for the 7th, 14th, and 21st days were considerably
+above the average (94) and those for the 28th day only slightly below
+it, the 19th day registered but 12 transactions. It is true that these
+statistics deal with a late period of Babylonian history and include the
+reigns of several Persian kings. By this time the general observance
+of the custom may have been in decay. The figures, moreover, do not
+distinguish the sort of business done on the “evil days.” Many of the
+documents are temple records, having to do with offerings, receipts of
+salaries by priests, etc., and such business may not have been regarded
+as a violation of the prohibitions in question (C. H. W. Johns, “The
+Babylonian Sabbath,” _Expository Times_, 1906, xvii, 566 _sq._). For
+Assyria, during the period 720-606 B.C., 365 dated documents indicate
+no marked cessation of business on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days.
+“They were not kept with puritan respect for the Sabbath, if Sabbaths
+they really were.” Only 2 contracts, however, were made on the 19th,
+and for one of these the date is doubtful (_idem_, _Assyrian Deeds and
+Documents_, London, 1901, ii, 40 _sq._). Finally, out of 356 dated
+documents of the Hammurabi era, only 2 were dated on the 19th and only
+26 on the four other “evil days” (_idem_, in _Expository Times_, 1906,
+xvii, 566 _sq._). It would seem, accordingly, that at this earlier period
+(about 2000 B.C.) there was a sabbatic observance of all five days, and
+especially of the 19th day.
+
+[725] _Shabbāthôn_ occurs all together ten times in the Old Testament,
+where it is applied to New Year’s Day, the Day of Atonement (above, pp.
+82 _sq._), the first and eighth days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and
+also to the Sabbatical Year (_Leviticus_, xxv, 4) and to the Sabbath
+Day proper (_Exodus_, xvi, 23, xxxi, 15, xxxv, 2; _Leviticus_, xxiii,
+3). Professor Morris Jastrow thinks that _shabbāthôn_ is mistranslated
+as “solemn rest” and that in fact it is merely an adjectival formation
+meaning “sabbatical” or “Sabbath-like.” The word “belongs to a period
+prior to the development of a Sabbath institution, celebrated every
+seventh day without any reference to the phases of the moon” (_American
+Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914, xxx, 97 _n._⁷).
+
+[726] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, ii, pl. 32, no. i, 16 a-b (_Cuneiform
+Texts_, pt. xviii, pl. 23, 17 [K. 4397]). The discovery of this
+important equation was made by W. H. Boscawen; see A. H. Sayce, in
+_Academy_, 1875, viii, 555. _Shabattu(m)_ here and elsewhere can be read
+_shapattu(m)_, without, however, affecting the sense (P. Jensen, in
+_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1900, xiv, 182; H. Zimmern, in Schrader,
+_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 592 _n._⁵).
+
+[727] A. H. Sayce, _The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the
+Monuments_, London, 1895, p. 74; _idem_, _The Religions of Ancient Egypt
+and Babylonia_, Edinburgh, 1902, p. 476; F. Delitzsch, _Babel and Bible_,
+London, 1903, p. 41. The purely conjectural character of this procedure
+was long ago pointed out by Francis Brown in his article, “The Sabbath in
+the Cuneiform Records,” _Presbyterian Review_, 1882, iii, 693. Compare
+also A. T. Clay, _Amurru_, Philadelphia, 1909, pp. 55 _sqq._
+
+[728] _Babel and Bible_, p. 99.
+
+[729] H. Hirschfeld, “Remarks on the Etymology of Šabbāth,” _Journal of
+the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1896, n.s., xxviii, 357.
+
+[730] M. Jastrow, “The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,”
+_American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 316 _sq._, 351; compare _idem_,
+_Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_, New York, 1914, pp. 134, 149.
+
+[731] H. Zimmern, in Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 593. In one
+cuneiform list (Rawlinson, _op. cit._, v, pl. 28, l. e-f) the verb
+_shabâtu_ is equated with _gamâru_, which is thought to mean “be
+complete,” “be full,” “cease,” though in some other syllabaries it
+apparently has the sense of “pacify.” In the light of the meaning now
+assigned to _shabattum_ both translations appear to be intelligible and
+harmonious.
+
+[732] T. G. Pinches, _The Old Testament_, London, 1902, p. 327.
+
+[733] D. Nielsen, _Die altarabische Mondreligion_, pp. 87 _sq._
+
+[734] J. Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat_, p. 98.
+
+[735] S. Langdon, “The Derivation of _Šabattu_ and Other Notes,”
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 30.
+
+[736] C. H. Toy, “The Earliest Form of the Hebrew Sabbath,” _Journal
+of Biblical Literature_, 1899, xviii, 190 _sqq._; compare _idem_,
+_Introduction to the History of Religions_, Boston, 1913, p. 251.
+
+[737] The text (K. 6012 + K. 10,684) forms a part of the British Museum
+collection of cuneiform tablets. A portion of the text was published by
+Rawlinson (_op. cit._, iii, pl. 56, no. 4) and additions to it, as well
+as duplicate Babylonian fragments, were subsequently identified by Dr.
+Pinches, to whom, accordingly, full credit for this important discovery
+should be ascribed. See T. G. Pinches, “_Šapattu_, the Babylonian
+Sabbath,” _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, 1904,
+xxvi, 51-56. H. Zimmern, however, had previously pointed out that,
+according to the Rawlinson text, the fifteenth day of a thirty-day month
+might have borne the designation _shabattum_ (Zimmern, in Schrader,
+_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 593 _n._³); compare his comments on Pinches’s
+discoveries (_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_,
+1904, lviii, 199-202, 458-460).
+
+[738] Above, p. 181 _n._⁷
+
+[739] The text (K. 2164 + 2195 + 3510) has been edited with a translation
+and commentary by E. Weidener, “Zur babylonischen Astronomie,”
+_Babyloniaca_, 1911, vi, 8 _sqq._ It should be observed that it belongs
+to the same series as the text (K. 170) in which the fifteenth day is
+expressly described as the day of full moon (above, p. 229). Professor A.
+H. Sayce has published a table of lunar longitudes (K. 490) which shows
+how many degrees the moon advances during the first fifteen days of the
+month and how many degrees it retrogrades during the second half of the
+month (_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1887, ii, 337-340).
+
+[740] Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin_, pp. 46 _sqq._, 86 _sq._;
+Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_, i, 66 _sq._, 72 _sqq._
+
+[741] H. Radau, _Early Babylonian History_, New York, 1900, pp. 314 _sq._
+The text on the statue of Gudea, a chief, or _patesi_, of Lagash (_c._
+2350 B.C.), bears record of a rest day which has been interpreted as a
+full-moon day, therefore as a _shabattum_: “No one was struck with the
+whip, the mother corrected not her child, the householder, the overseer,
+the labourer ... the work of their hands ceased. In the graves of the
+city ... no corpse was buried. The Kalû played no psalm, uttered no
+dirge, the wailing women let no dirge be heard. In the realm of Lagash
+no man who had a lawsuit went to the hall of justice.” See A. Jeremias,
+_The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East_, London, 1911, i,
+203; compare H. Winckler, _Religionsgeschichtlicher und geschichtlicher
+Orient_, Leipzig, 1906, p. 61. Professor Morris Jastrow holds, however,
+that this passage from the inscription of Gudea has no reference to the
+full moon (_American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914,
+xxx, 98 _n._²).
+
+[742] D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, St. Petersburg,
+1856, ii, 8, 94 _sqq._, translating the _Fihrist_ (ix, i, 5) of Ibn
+al-Nadīm. On the Harranians see in general D. S. Margoliouth, in
+Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi, 519 _sq._ It is
+curious to find a Moslem tradition, current about 830 A.D., that “Abraham
+lived with his people four-score years and ten in the land of Harran,
+worshipping none other than Al Ozza, an idol famous in that land and
+adored by the men of Harran, under the name of the Moon, which same
+custom prevails among them to the present day” (Sir William Muir, _The
+Apology of Al Kindy_,² London, 1887, p. 17).
+
+[743] W. F. von Landau, _Beiträge zur Altertumskunde des Orients_,
+Leipzig, 1899, ii, 46 _sq._; compare _idem_, _Die phönizischen
+Inschriften_, Leipzig, 1907, p. 22 (_Der alte Orient_, viii, 3).
+
+[744] Above, p. 182 _n._⁷ There are numerous reports by Babylonian
+astrologers according to which any one of five days, from the twelfth to
+the sixteenth of the month, might be taken as the exact time when the
+moon became full, depending, of course, upon how early or how late was
+the visible new moon (Kugler, _Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel_, ii,
+14 _sq._).
+
+[745] The Rev. C. H. C. Johns has pointed out that in Babylonian
+calendars many days are indicated as _nubattu_, a term signifying rest,
+pause, and especially a god’s connubial rest with his consort goddess.
+“The observance of such days was a bar to attending even to important
+diplomatic business or setting out on a journey.... It is quite possible
+that _shabattum_ and _nubattum_ are from the same root and originally
+denoted much the same thing—a pause, abstention, from whatever cause or
+for ceremonial purposes” (_Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xxiii, 961 _sq._).
+A calendar of the intercalary month of Elul cites the 3d, 7th, and 16th
+days as the _nubattu_ of Marduk and his consort Sarpanit (Lagrange, _op.
+cit._, p. 284 _n._⁶; Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 371).
+
+[746] The form of the Fourth Commandment in the First Decalogue
+(_Exodus_, xx, 8), “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy,” indicates
+not the institution of a new day but the sanctioning of an old one. In
+the Second Decalogue (_Deuteronomy_, v, 12), the commandment reads:
+“Observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” The word “holy” in these
+injunctions has the force of “set apart ritually,” “separated from common
+use,” _i.e._, taboo.
+
+[747] _Exodus_, xxxiv, 21, xxiii, 12.
+
+[748] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. This is perhaps the earliest historical
+reference to the Sabbath.
+
+[749] _Amos_, viii, 5; _Hosea_, ii, 11.
+
+[750] _Genesis_, ii, 2-3; _Exodus_, xx, 11.
+
+[751] _Deuteronomy_, v. 15; compare _Nehemiah_, ix, 14; _Ezekiel_, xx,
+12. The principal Old Testament references to the Sabbath have been
+grouped in their assumed historical order by E. G. King, “The Sabbath
+in the Light of the Higher Criticism,” _Expository Times_, 1906, xvii,
+438-443.
+
+[752] M. Jastrow, “The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,”
+_American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 313 _sq._; S. R. Driver, _The
+Book of Genesis_,⁵ London, 1906, p. 35. Canon Cheyne suggests that
+the priestly writer in _Genesis_, ii, 2 _sqq._ appears to accept the
+anthropomorphic view which finds such frequent expression in Oriental
+antiquity. Things on earth correspond to things in heaven; if God
+“rested” on the seventh day, man ought to do likewise (_Traditions and
+Beliefs of Ancient Israel_, London, 1907, p. 70). Later Hebrew writers
+carry this idea of correspondence so far as to require the angels to
+observe all the Jewish festivals (H. P. Smith, _The Religion of Israel_,
+New York, 1914, p. 229).
+
+[753] F. Baur, “Der hebräische Sabbat und die Nationalfeste des
+mosaischen Cultus,” _Tübinger Zeitschrift für Theologie_, 1832, iii, 145
+_sqq._; A. Kuenen, _The Religion of Israel_, London, 1873, i, 262 _sqq._;
+Paul de Lagarde, editor, _Psalterium iuxta Hebræos Hieronymi_, Leipzig,
+1874, 158 _sqq._
+
+[754] Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, pp. 48 _sq._; P.
+Jensen, “Astronomy,” _Jewish Encyclopedia_, ii, 246.
+
+[755] _Amos_, v, 26; W. R. Harper, _A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
+on Amos and Hosea_, New York, 1905, pp. 137 _sqq._; K. Budde, _The
+Religion of Israel to the Exile_, New York, 1899, pp. 67 _sqq._
+
+[756] J. Fürst, _Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte der Juden in Asien_,
+Leipzig, 1849, pt. i, 40; W. Nowack, _Lehrbuch der hebräischen
+Archäologie_, Strassburg, 1894, ii, 142 _sq._; E. Schürer, in
+_Zeitschrift für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1905, vi, 6 _sq._,
+19. There is a Talmudic story which tells how Moses, having arranged
+with Pharaoh for a day of rest to be observed by the Hebrews in Egypt,
+was asked what day he thought most suitable for the purpose. Moses
+answered, “The seventh day, sacred to Saturn; work done upon this day
+never prospers” (Jeremias, _The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient
+East_, i, 202; Delitzsch, _Babel and Bible_, p. 102).
+
+[757] _Saturni aut sacram me tenuisse diem_ (_Elegiæ_, i, 3, 18).
+
+[758] Ovid, _Remedium amoris_, 220; compare _idem_, _Ars amatoria_, i,
+415-416; Horace, _Satiræ_, i, 9, 69-70; Persius, _Satiræ_, v, 184.
+
+[759] Frontinus, _Strategematica_, ii, 1, 17; Dio Cassius, _Historia
+Romana_, xxxvii, 17. Tacitus (_Historiæ_, v, 4) thinks that the Jewish
+Sabbath may be an observance in honour of Saturn, though he gives an
+alternative explanation, connecting the day with the escape from Egyptian
+bondage. For other evidence from classical writers see P. Lejay, “Le
+sabbat juif et les poètes latins,” _Revue d’histoire et de littérature
+religieuses_, 1903, viii, 305-335; T. Reinach, _Textes d’auteurs grecs et
+romains relatifs au judaïsme_, Paris, 1895, pp. 104, 243, 266, 287; M.
+Wolff, “Het oordeel der hellenensch-romeinsche schrijvers over oorsprong,
+naam, en viering van der Sabbat,” _Theologisch Tijdschrift_, 1910, xliv,
+162-172.
+
+[760] J. Spencer, _De legibus Hebræorum ritualibus et earum rationibus_,
+Cambridge, 1727, i, 67 _sqq._ (bk. i, ch. v, sect. viii).
+
+[761] Above, p. 191.
+
+[762] Below, pp. 253 _sq._
+
+[763] Nowack, _op. cit._, ii, 144; R. Smend, _Lehrbuch der
+alttestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1899, pp. 160
+_sq._; A. F. von Gall, “Die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft und die
+keilinschriftliche Forschung,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1902,
+v, 321.
+
+[764] J. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_,⁶ Berlin, 1905,
+p. 109; W. E. Addis, _Documents of the Hexateuch_, London, 1892, i, 139;
+_idem_, _Hebrew Religion to the Establishment of Judaism under Ezra_,
+London, 1906, p. 85.
+
+[765] C. M. Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, Cambridge, 1888, i, 366.
+
+[766] The Hebrew lunisolar year consisted of twelve months, adjusted to
+the solar year by the intercalation of a thirteenth month. The name of
+the latter is first met in the _Mishna_, where it is styled the “second
+Adar.” The months consisted of 29 days (hence called “defective” months),
+or of 30 days (“full” months), but there seems to have been no uniform
+sequence of long and short months. The regulation of the month was
+probably at first in the hands of the priests and later was committed
+to the Sanhedrin. A solar year of 364 days, _i.e._, 52 complete weeks,
+is found in two pseudographia which date probably from Maccabæan times
+(_Book of Enoch_ and _Book of Jubilees_), but it is hardly likely that
+solar reckonings were then in general use. On this subject consult S.
+Poznanśki, “Calendar (Jewish),” in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
+and Ethics_, iii, 117 _sqq._
+
+[767] _Psalms_, civ, 19. Compare _Ecclesiasticus_, xliii, 6-8: “He
+made the moon also to serve in her season for a declaration of times,
+and a sign of the world. From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light
+that decreaseth in her perfection. The month is called after her name,
+increasing wonderfully in her changing.”
+
+[768] _Jeremiah_, viii, 2; _Zephaniah_, i, 5; _Deuteronomy_, xvii, 3; 2
+_Kings_, xxiii, 5; G. W. Gilmore, “Moon,” _New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia
+of Religious Knowledge_, vii, 493. That no trace of the cult of Sin, the
+Babylonian moon-god, is discoverable in the Old Testament, even in the
+name Sinai, is the opinion of the latest investigator of this subject.
+See E. Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin_, Paris, 1908, pp. 157 _sqq._
+The custom of kissing the hand to the moon (_Job_, xxxi, 26 _sq._) may
+have meant to the Hebrews little more than it does to us. Orthodox Jewish
+mothers are said still to teach their sons to take off their caps to the
+new moon.
+
+[769] Doughty, _op. cit._, ii, 305 _sq._; compare D. Nielsen, _Die
+altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Überlieferung_, Strassburg,
+1904, p. 50. For the Abyssinian customs see E. Littmann, in _Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 313 _sq._
+
+[770] Mrs. H. H. Spoer, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 289.
+
+[771] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
+and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 214 _n._³, 336 _n._²; F. Hommel, _Der
+Gestirndienst der alten Araber und die altisraelitische Überlieferung_,
+Munich, 1901, p. 28.
+
+[772] 1 _Samuel_, xx, 27-28; compare _Judith_, viii, 6. On the new-moon
+festival see Nowack, _op. cit._, ii, 138 _sqq._; Wellhausen, _op. cit._,
+pp. 107 _sqq._; I. Benzinger, _Hebräische Archäologie_,² Tübingen,
+1907, pp. 388 _sq._; G. Förster, “Die Neumondfeier im Alten Testament,”
+_Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie_, 1906, xlix, 1-17; B.
+Stade, _Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments_, Tübingen, 1905, i, 176
+_sqq._; A. Dillmann, _Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus_,³ edited by V.
+Ryssel, Leipzig, 1897, pp. 634 _sqq._ See also “New Moon” in Hastings’s
+_Dictionary of the Bible_, _Jewish Encyclopedia_, and _Encyclopædia
+Biblica_.
+
+[773] 1 _Samuel_, xx, 5-6, 24-29.
+
+[774] _Ibid._, xx, 18-19. In verse 19 the Hebrew expression _beyom
+hama ‘aseh_, rendered in the Authorized Version (margin) “in the day
+of the business,” appears in the Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate,
+and the Jewish Aramaic Targum as the designation of a working day, in
+distinction from the festival day of the new moon. The Douai version of
+the Scriptures translates accordingly, “in the day when it is lawful
+to work.” Professor H. P. Smith holds that, owing to the corruption of
+the text, the particular day here intended is no longer intelligible
+(_A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Samuel_, New
+York, 1899, pp. 190 _sq._). He has, however, overlooked the fact, that,
+as my friend and pupil Rabbi Jacob Singer points out to me, the same
+expression _sheset yeme hama ‘aseh_ is found in _Ezekiel_ (xlvi, 1) as
+the designation of “the six working days” of the week; see Brown, Driver,
+and Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_, Boston,
+1906, p. 795.
+
+[775] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. Some Biblical references indicate that on the
+first day of the month the prophets were supposed to be most under the
+influence of their divine afflatus; compare _Ezekiel_, xxvi, 1, xxix, 17,
+xxxi, 1, xxxii, 1; _Haggai_, i, 1.
+
+[776] John Allen, _Modern Judaism_,² London, 1830, pp. 390 _sq._; H. G.
+F. Löwe, _Schulchan Aruch, oder die vier jüdischen Gesetzbücher_, Vienna,
+1896, i, 91; M. Friedmann, in _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii, 712;
+Israel Abrahams, _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 374.
+
+[777] That the Old Testament thus contains indirect evidence of the
+celebration of full-moon day by the early Hebrews was long ago recognized
+by the learned commentator, August Dillmann. “Von einer Feier des
+Vollmondes zeigt sich bei den Israeliten keine Spur.... Jedoch war er
+dadurch bevorzugt, dass an ihm das grosse Frühlings- und Herbstfest
+begann” (_Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus_,³ p. 635). A passage in one
+of the _Psalms_ (lxxxi, 3): “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the
+full moon, on our feast-day,” probably refers to new moon in the seventh
+month, or New Year’s Day (_Leviticus_, xxiii, 24), and to the first day
+of the Feast of Tabernacles, which began on the fifteenth of the same
+month (_ibid._, xxiii, 39).
+
+[778] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 5-6; _Exodus_, xii, 6 _sqq._; _Numbers_,
+xxviii, 16-17.
+
+[779] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 33-36, 39; _Numbers_, xxix, 12.
+
+[780] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 6-8; _Exodus_, xii, 16; _Numbers_, xxviii, 18,
+25.
+
+[781] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 39; _Numbers_, xxix, 12, 35.
+
+[782] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 11, 15.
+
+[783] M. Jastrow, “‘The Day after the Sabbath,’” _American Journal of
+Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914, xxx, 104.
+
+[784] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. This passage, incidentally, affords proof that
+at the time it was written the legal length of a “Sabbath Day’s journey”
+had not been determined, for from Shunem to Elisha’s abode on Carmel was
+a distance of some thirty to forty kilometres (R. Kittel, _Die Bücher der
+Könige_, Göttingen, 1900, p. 200).
+
+[785] _Hosea_, ii, 13 (A. V. v. 11).
+
+[786] _Amos_, viii, 4-5.
+
+[787] _Isaiah_, i, 13.
+
+[788] _Ibid._, lxvi, 23; compare _Colossians_, ii, 16.
+
+[789] Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_,⁶ pp. 108 _sq._; Smith, “Sabbath,”
+_Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxi, 126.
+
+[790] This pregnant suggestion was first made by H. Zimmern in his
+comments on the discovery by T. G. Pinches (_Zeitschrift der deutschen
+morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1904, lvii, 202 _and_ _n._¹). The
+hypothesis of the original identity of Sabbath and full-moon day was
+subsequently elaborated by J. Meinhold (_Sabbat und Woche im Alten
+Testament_, Göttingen, 1905), whose main conclusions have been accepted
+by K. Marti (_Religion of the Old Testament_, London, 1907, pp. 150
+_sq._) and T. K. Cheyne (_Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient Israel_,
+London, 1907, p. 69). See also E. Mahler, “Der Sabbat,” _Zeitschrift
+der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 40, 46 _sq._;
+M. Jastrow, _Hebrew and Baylonian Traditions_, New York, 1914, pp. 154
+_sqq._, 185.
+
+[791] _Ezekiel_, xlvi, 1-3.
+
+[792] Above, pp. 226, 247. _Shabbāth_ also appears several times in the
+Old Testament in the general sense of “week,” the name of the principal
+weekday being used as the designation of the entire cycle of seven days.
+Compare _Leviticus_, xxiii, 15, xxv, 8.
+
+[793] H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 594; compare A.
+H. McNeile, _The Book of Exodus_, London, 1908, p. 122.
+
+[794] Johannes Meinhold, _Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament_,
+Göttingen, 1905, pp. 10 _sqq._; compare _idem_, “Die Entstehung des
+Sabbats,” _Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1909,
+xxix, 81-112.
+
+[795] The march of the Israelitish host around Jericho on seven
+successive days, one of which must have been the Sabbath, if that
+institution as a weekly rest day was then known to them, would have been
+a profanation of the Sabbath according to later ideas. See _Joshua_, vi,
+4, 14-15; compare Tertullian, _Adversus Judæos_, 4. But this account
+may contain a reminiscence of a period of Hebrew history when the week,
+either lunar or periodic, had not become established in Israel.
+
+[796] _Numbers_, xxviii, 11-15; _Ezekiel_, xlvi, 4-6; compare 1
+_Chronicles_, xxiii, 31; 2 _Chronicles_, ii, 4, viii, 13, xxxi, 3;
+_Ezra_, iii, 5; _Nehemiah_, x, 33.
+
+[797] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 24; compare _Numbers_, xxix, 1; _Nehemiah_,
+viii, 2, 9-12. But see above, p. 82.
+
+[798] _Deuteronomy_, v, 14; _Exodus_, xxiii, 12.
+
+[799] _Exodus_, xx, 8-11.
+
+[800] _Ibid._, xxxiv, 21.
+
+[801] _Exodus_, xvi, 29. On this text Dositheus, the founder of an
+ascetic Samaritan sect, is said to have based the requirement that, in
+whatever habit, place, or posture the Sabbath found a man, in this he
+was to continue till the close of the sacred festival; if he was found
+sitting, he must sit still all the day, or, if reclining, he must lie
+down all the day (Origen, _De principiis_, iv, 1, 17). S. Reinach wittily
+compares the Dosithean injunction to the practice of various animals,
+which, when in danger and unable to flee, _fait le mort_ (“Le sabbat
+hébraïque,” _Cultes, mythes, et religions_, Paris, 1906-1912, ii, 444).
+For some mediæval stories illustrating the rule of absolute repose on the
+Sabbath, see R. Basset, “L’observation du sabbat,” _Revue des traditions
+populaires_, 1893, viii, 250-254.
+
+[802] _Exodus_, xxxv, 3.
+
+[803] _Ibid._, xvi, 23. The rules forbidding the lighting of fires
+and cooking on the Sabbath were very strictly observed by the Essenes
+(Josephus, _Bellum Judaicum_, ii, 8). In the _Mishna_ (_Shabbāth_, iv, 1)
+the prohibition to bake and boil on the Sabbath is interpreted to mean
+that food may be kept hot on the Sabbath, provided its existing heat is
+not increased, which would be “boiling.” Hence the food must be put only
+into such substances as would maintain but not increase the heat. The
+prohibition to kindle a fire on the Sabbath was naturally extended to
+one of extinguishing a fire, as well as lights and lamps (_ibid._, xvi,
+6). In mediæval times Rabbi Solomon ben Adret had a lock affixed to his
+stove, and kept the key over the Sabbath to prevent his too-considerate
+housemaid from lighting a fire on Saturdays (I. Abrahams, _Jewish Life
+in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 83). On the modern Jewish custom
+of kindling lights at the arrival and departure of the Sabbath see M.
+Friedmann, “The Sabbath Light,” _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii,
+707-721.
+
+[804] Above, p. 232 _and_ _n._³
+
+[805] F. J. Chabas, _Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de
+l’année égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. 46, 68; Sir G. Maspero, _New
+Light on Ancient Egypt_,² London, 1909, pp. 130 _sq._
+
+[806] Above, pp. 9, 12, 15, 16, 20, 41, etc.
+
+[807] E. Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii,
+305.
+
+[808] For a collection of the ethnographic evidence, see Sir J. G.
+Frazer, “On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrative of the Primitive
+Theory of the Soul,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1885,
+xv, 90; _idem_, _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, London,
+1911, ii, 267 _n._⁴; E. S. Hartland, “Death and Disposal of the Dead
+(Introductory and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and
+Ethics_, iv, 439.
+
+[809] E. Westermarck, “The Principles of Fasting,” _Folklore_, 1908,
+xviii, 397 _sqq._; _idem_, _Moral Ideas_, ii, 293 _sqq._
+
+[810] Above, pp. 15, 17, 39, 44, etc.
+
+[811] Compare M. Jastrow, in _American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii,
+324 _sqq._; Westermarck, _op. cit._, ii, 310 _sq._
+
+[812] _Ecclesiastical Polity_, v, 72.
+
+[813] _De vita sua_, 54.
+
+[814] Suetonius, _Divus Augustus_, 76; Strabo, _Geographica_, xvi, 2, 40;
+Martial, _Epigrammata_, iv, 4; Justin, xxxvi, 2. Justin speaks of the
+Sabbath as having been consecrated as a fast day to commemorate a seven
+days’ fast of the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia.
+
+[815] Above, pp. 81 _sqq._
+
+[816] _Judith_, viii, 6; _Schulchan Aruch_, i, 91 _sq._
+
+[817] The Talmud (_Tractate Pesachim_, 105 a) indicates that some
+superstitions attached to the afternoon of the Sabbath as a dangerous
+time for the consumption of food. During the early Middle Ages Jews in
+northern France, Lorraine, and Germany, but not in Provence, Narbonne,
+or Spain, refrained from eating and drinking on Sabbath afternoons. See
+D. Kaufmann, “Was the Custom of Fasting on Sabbath Afternoon Part of the
+Early Anglo-Jewish Ritual?” _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1894, vi, 754-756.
+
+[818] _Leviticus_, xxv, 4. This law was occasionally productive of great
+distress (1 _Maccabees_, vi, 48, 53; compare Josephus, _Antiquitates
+Judaicæ_, xiv, 16, 2).
+
+[819] _Leviticus_, xxv, 21.
+
+[820] _Exodus_, xxiii, 11.
+
+[821] _Leviticus_, xxv, 11. Whether the Jubilee was celebrated after
+forty-eight years or after forty-nine years is a problem incapable of
+solution from the Old Testament evidence. As Schiaparelli has well shown
+(_Astronomy in the Old Testament_, pp. 146 _sqq._), the twenty-fifth
+chapter of _Leviticus_ combines two systems of rules which are not only
+different but actually irreconcilable with each other, the septennial
+system of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee system of fifty years.
+
+[822] _Exodus_, xxxi, 14; for a similar regulation see _ibid._, xxxv, 2.
+
+[823] _Numbers_, xv, 32-36. The comments of Philo Judæus on this passage
+are interesting, if not illuminating (_Vita Mosis_, iii, 27-28).
+
+[824] _Jeremiah_, xvii, 19-27; _Ezekiel_, xx, 13, 16, 21, 24, xxii, 8,
+26, xxiii, 38.
+
+[825] _Nehemiah_, x, 31, xiii, 15-16. The use of the Sabbath Day for
+marketing is paralleled by the Mohammedan observance of _jum‘a_ (above,
+p. 206).
+
+[826] _Isaiah_, lvi, 2 _sq._, lviii, 13.
+
+[827] T. K. Cheyne, _Jewish Religious Life after the Exile_, New York,
+1898, p. 66; C. G. Montefiore, _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of
+Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews_,² London,
+1893, pp. 229 _sq._, 338 _sq._; Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_,⁶ p. 110; W. R.
+Smith, “Sabbath,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxi, 124; K. Marti, _Das
+Dodekapropheton_, Tübingen, 1904, p. 26.
+
+[828] Compare E. G. Hirsch; “Sabbath,” in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, x, 590;
+Bohn, _Der Sabbat im Alten Testament_, pp. 8 _sqq._, 89 _sqq._
+
+[829] M. Jastrow, in _American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 324 _n._⁴⁷
+_idem_, _Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_, p. 162. The Old Testament
+contains at least one reference to a lucky day (1 _Samuel_, xxv, 8).
+Among modern Jews no marriages are celebrated during the period between
+Passover and Pentecost. The origin of the superstition is unknown, but
+its antiquity may be judged from the fact that in the 8th century A.D.
+the rabbis themselves were unable to account for it (Abrahams, _op.
+cit._, p. 184). By the Romans May was considered an unlucky month for
+marriage, a belief which Ovid (_Fasti_, v, 489-490) connects with the
+celebration of the Lemuria in May. Compare Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_,
+86. The superstition, as is well known, has descended to our own time.
+
+[830] The principal regulations in the _Mishna_ are well summarized by E.
+Schürer, _History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ_, div. ii,
+vol. ii, 96-105. For the rigorous rules observed by the Covenanters of
+Damascus, a Jewish sect whose history has been only lately recovered, see
+G. F. Moore, in _Harvard Theological Review_, 1911, iv, 346 _sq._
+
+[831] 1 _Maccabees_, ii, 31 _sqq._; 2 _Maccabees_, v, 25-26, vi, 11,
+viii, 26; Josephus, _Antiquitates Judaicæ_, xii, 62. Plutarch refers
+to the Jews who allowed their enemies to rear scaling ladders and make
+themselves masters of their walls, and “so lay still until they were
+caught like so many trout in the dragnet of their own superstition” (_De
+superstitione_, 8).
+
+[832] Above, pp. 97 _sq._
+
+[833] _Isaiah_, lviii, 13.
+
+[834] _Luke_, xiv, 1-24.
+
+[835] Augustine, _In comm. ad Psalm. xcii_ (_Nicene and Post-Nicene
+Fathers of the Christian Church_, viii, 453). This passage, with others
+in a similar strain, from St. Chrysostom, Prudentius, and Theodoret,
+is adduced by the learned ecclesiastical historian Joseph Bingham
+(_Antiquities of the Christian Church_, London, 1838-1840, vii, 32
+_sqq._).
+
+[836] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iv, 6, 2.
+
+[837] S. Schechter, in _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii, 763; compare
+_idem_, _Studies in Judaism_, New York, 1896, pp. 244 _sqq._, and Israel
+Abrahams, _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 12, 24,
+373 _sq._ See further J. Mann, “The Observance of the Sabbath and the
+Festivals in the First Two Centuries of the Current Era, according to
+Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and the Rabbinic Sources,” _Jewish
+Review_, 1914, iv, 433-456.
+
+[838] Above, pp. 244 _sq._
+
+[839] _De opificio mundi_, 30; compare _idem_, _Vita Mosis_, ii, 4.
+
+[840] _Contra Apionem_, ii, 40.
+
+[841] Compare Juvenal, _Satiræ_, xiv, 105-106 (with J. B. Mayor’s
+commentary); Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13.
+
+[842] Above, p. 220.
+
+[843] In the New Testament such phrases as ἐν δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων
+(_Acts_, xx, 7) and κατὰ μίαν σαββάτου (1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2; compare
+_Matthew_, xxviii, 1; _Mark_, xvi, 2; _Luke_, xxiv, 1; _John_, xx, 1, 19)
+refer to Sunday as “the first day of the week.” An equivalent expression,
+πρώτῃ σαββάτου, is also found (_Mark_, xvi, 9). The designation of Sunday
+as the Lord’s Day—ἡ κυριακὴ ἡμέρα—occurs in a single New Testament
+passage (_Revelation_, i, 10). Some critics hold that the author of
+the _Apocalypse_ was referring here, not to Sunday but to the day of
+Judgment, called elsewhere ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη “the great day” (_ibid._, vi,
+17, xvi, 14).
+
+[844] _Acts_, xx, 7; 1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2; compare _John_, xx, 26.
+
+[845] _Epistola Barnabæ_, 15; compare Justin Martyr, _Dialogus cum
+Tryphone_, 138; Tertullian, _De idolatria_, 14. The “eighth day” might
+seem to be a natural designation for the day following the Sabbath, the
+seventh day; more probably, however, it is to be explained by the ancient
+practice of inclusive reckoning.
+
+[846] _Didache_, xiv, 1. The testimony of Pliny the Younger (_Epistolæ_,
+x, 98) makes it evident that as early as the year 111 A.D. the Christians
+of Asia Minor were accustomed to hold religious assemblies on a fixed day
+(_stato die_), which can hardly have been other than the first day of the
+week.
+
+[847] Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, iv, 23, 11, iv, 26, 2.
+
+[848] _Apologia prima_, 67. Tertullian, who found it necessary to answer
+the objection that Christians worshipped the sun, declares, “Indeed, they
+made Sunday a day of joy, but for other reasons than to adore the sun,
+which was no part of their religion” (_Apologeticus_, 16; compare _Ad
+nationes_, i, 13).
+
+[849] Above, pp. 220 _sq._ On the early history of the Christian Sunday
+see A. Barry, “Lord’s Day,” Smith and Cheetham’s _Dictionary of Christian
+Antiquities_, ii, 1042-1053; G. A. Deissmann, “Lord’s Day,” _Encyclopædia
+Biblica_, iii, coll. 2813-2816; O. Zöckler, “Sonntagsfeier,” Herzog,
+Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und
+Kirche_,³ xviii, 521-529; T. Zahn, “Geschichte des Sonntags vornehmlich
+in der alten Kirche,” in _Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche_,²
+Erlangen, 1898, pp. 160-208, 351-376; J. A. Hessey, _Sunday_,⁵ London,
+1889, pp. 40-49.
+
+[850] _Matthew_, xii, 8; _Mark_, ii, 27; _John_, v, 17.
+
+[851] _Colossians_, ii, 16; compare _Romans_, xiv, 5; _Galatians_, iv,
+10-11.
+
+[852] _Epistola ad Magnesios_, 9. The longer recension of this passage,
+though an interpolation of much later date, expresses the same antagonism
+toward sabbatizing: “But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a
+spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation
+of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things
+prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a
+prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing, and plaudits which have
+no sense in them” (_Ante-Nicene Fathers_, i, 62 _sq._).
+
+[853] _Constitutiones Apostolicæ_, ii, 59, 1, vii, 23, 2, viii, 33, 1;
+_Concilium Laodicenum_, can. 16 (Labbe-Mansi, _Sacrorum conciliorum
+collectio_, ii, 567); Socrates, _Historia ecclesiastica_, vi, 8. The
+church council held at Laodicea in 363 A.D. anathematized as Judaizers
+those who refrained from work on Saturday (_Concilium Laodicenum_, can.
+29; Labbe-Mansi, _op. cit._, ii, 580). The anathema did not penetrate
+to the ancient Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, where Saturday is still
+strictly observed. “The ox and the ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits
+are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit
+of idleness reigns throughout the day.... When, a few years ago, one
+daring spirit presumed, in advance of the age, to burst the fetters of
+superstition, his majesty the king of Shoa, stimulated by the advice of
+besotted monks, delegated his wardens throughout the land, and issued
+a proclamation, that whoso disturbed the original dreamy stillness of
+the Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his property to the royal treasury,
+and be consigned to the state dungeon” (W. C. Harris, _The Highlands
+of Ethiopia_, New York [1843], p. 272). The Celts kept Saturday as a
+day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday (A. Bellesheim,
+_History of the Catholic Church in Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1887-1890, i,
+86).
+
+[854] _De oratione_, 23: _Omni anxietatis habitu et officio cavere
+debemus, differentes etiam negotia, ne quem diabolo locum demus_.
+Tertullian, however, elsewhere rejects the implication that Christians
+should be sabbatizers, “we, to whom these Sabbaths belong not, nor the
+new moons, nor the feast days once beloved of God” (_De idolatria_, 14);
+compare _idem_, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13; _idem_,
+_Adversus Judæos_, 4; Augustine, _De spiritu et littera_, 24.
+
+[855] Above, pp. 122 _sq._
+
+[856] For the history of Sunday legislation see E. V. Neale, _Feasts
+and Fasts_, London, 1845; R. E. Prime, “Sunday Legislation,” _New
+Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_, xi, 146-151; J.
+Gairdiner, “Sundays, Ancient and Modern,” in Gairdiner and Spedding,
+_Studies in English History_, Edinburgh, 1881, pp. 286-315; Hans
+[Johannes] Meinhold, _Sabbat und Sonntag_, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 65-103;
+Alice M. Earle, _The Sabbath in Puritan New England_, New York, 1891, pp.
+245-258.
+
+[857] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 219 _sq._
+
+[858] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903, p. 189. In
+Greece and Albania, also, Tuesday is an unlucky day for every sort of
+enterprise (Miss Mary Hamilton, _Greek Saints and their Festivals_,
+Edinburgh, 1910, p. 190).
+
+[859] Livy, vi, 1; Tacitus, _Historiæ_, ii, 91; Suetonius, _Vitellius_,
+11. Compare Ovid (_Fasti_, i, 49-50):
+
+    _Omen ab eventu est; illis nam Roma diebus,_
+    _Damna sub adverso Marte tristia tulit._
+
+[860] Suetonius, _Divus Julius_, 88.
+
+[861] See “La recommandation du vendredi,” _Mélusine_, 1888-1889, iv,
+104, 133 _sqq._, 205 _sq._ However, the Friday superstition may ante-date
+Christianity. In Macedonia it is believed that ablutions on Friday are
+dangerous, especially for women in childbed (Abbott, _op. cit._, p. 190).
+The Brahmans of India share the Friday superstition, saying that “on this
+day no business must be commenced” (Buchanan, in _Asiatick Researches_,
+vi, 172). Among the Parsis Tuesday and Friday are inauspicious days,
+generally avoided for betrothals, marriages, and other happy occasions.
+Many persons will not begin an important work or start on a distant
+journey on these days (J. J. Modi, “Omens among the Parsees,” _Journal
+of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, i, 294). All over Burma
+Friday is unlucky. “Don’t go on Friday” is a current saying (L. Vossion,
+“_Nat_-worship among the Burmese,” _Journal of American Folk-lore_, 1892,
+iv, 112). For Russian superstitions relating to Friday see above, p. 222
+_n._²
+
+[862] J. Jacobs, “Superstition,” _Jewish Encyclopedia_, xi, 599.
+
+[863] The sidereal month, determined by the moon’s revolution from any
+star back to the same star, has a mean length of 27 days, 7 hours, 43
+minutes, and 11 seconds. The least duration is 27 days, 4 hours, and the
+greatest, about 7 hours longer.
+
+[864] F. K. Ginzel (_Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
+Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1906-1911, i, 70 _sqq._) provides a useful survey,
+with bibliographies, of the lengthy discussions relating to the origin
+and diffusion of the moon-stations. See also W. D. Whitney, “On the Lunar
+Zodiac of India, Arabia, and China,” in his _Oriental and Linguistic
+Studies_, second series, New York, 1874, pp. 341-421.
+
+[865] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York,
+1891, pp. 345 _sq._; compare J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and
+Ceremonies_,³ Oxford, 1906, p. 382.
+
+[866] L. H. Gray, “The Parsī-Persian _Burj-Nāmah_, or Book of Omens from
+the Moon,” _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, 1910, xx, 337
+_sqq._; A. de C. Motylinski, _Les mansions lunaires des Arabes_, Algiers,
+1899.
+
+[867] J. Sibree, “Divination among the Malagasy,” _Folklore_, 1892, iii,
+220 _sq._ In Madagascar the names of the separate days in the month have
+been taken directly from the Arabic names for the twenty-eight lunar
+mansions. It thus appears that these names have both astrological and
+chronological value (G. Ferrand, “Note sur le calendrier malgache et
+le _fandruana_,” _Revue des études ethnographiques et sociologiques_,
+1908, i, 95). Among the northern Abyssinians lucky and unlucky days are
+likewise determined by the lunar stations, though only six or seven
+are reckoned, each containing from two to seven days (E. Littmann,
+“Sternensagen und Astrologisches aus Nordabessinien,” _Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 301 _sq._).
+
+[868] Above, p. 177 _n._²
+
+[869] According to A. Jeremias no evidence exists for the recognition of
+twelve intercalary days in the ancient Oriental world (_Das Alter der
+babylonischen Astronomie_, Leipzig, 1909, p. 42 _n._¹). However, the
+Babylonian New Year’s festival of Zagmuk, which occupied the first eleven
+days of the spring month of Nisan, has been compared with the Twelve Days
+of Indo-European antiquity (H. Winckler, _Altorientalische Forschungen_,
+Leipzig, 1898, ii, i, 182). What relation, if any, the Babylonian Zagmuk
+bore to the Babylo-Persian Sacæa and the Hebrew Purim is still a subject
+of controversy. See the full presentation of the evidence in Sir J. G.
+Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 354-407. The Babylonian _Epic
+of Gilgamesh_, recorded on twelve cuneiform tablets, has been plausibly
+interpreted as a solar myth, recounting the sun’s annual course during
+the twelve months. Now, a relationship undoubtedly exists between at
+least three tablets of the poem and the corresponding months of the
+year, notably in the case of the eleventh tablet, in which the story of
+the Deluge is told, and the eleventh month, which by the Babylonians
+was termed the “month of rain” (M. Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and
+Assyria_, pp. 484, 510). It is curious, therefore, to find that in the
+Hebrew narrative of the Flood the waters cover the earth for the period
+of a year and eleven days, apparently, here, a lunar year of 354 days
+plus eleven days (_Genesis_, vii, 11, viii, 14).
+
+[870] _Rig-Veda_, i, 161, 11, 13, iv, 33, 7; compare _Atharva-Veda_, iv,
+11, 11 (transl. W. D. Whitney, p. 166).
+
+[871] _Kāṭhaka_, 7, 5; _Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa_, 1, 1, 9, 10; H. Zimmer,
+_Altindisches Leben_, Berlin, 1879, p. 367.
+
+[872] A. Weber, “Zwei vedische Texte über Omina und Portenta,”
+_Philologische und historische Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie
+der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1858, pp. 388 _sq._; _idem_, _Indische
+Studien_, 1868, x, 242 _sq._, 1885, xvii, 223 _sqq._, 1898, xviii, 45;
+_idem_, “Vedische Beiträge,” _Sitzungsberichte der königlich-preussischen
+Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1898, pp. 559 _sqq._ Compare
+A. Ludwig, _Der Rigveda_, Prague, 1883, vi, 232; A. Kaegi, _The
+Rigveda_, Boston, 1886, p. 37; Zimmer, _op. cit._, pp. 366 _sq._ For
+contrary opinions see O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen
+Altertumskunde_, pp. 391 _sq._; G. Thibaut, in Bühler’s _Grundriss der
+indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_, iii, pt. ix, 9 _sq._
+
+[873] J. Lippert, _Christentum, Volksglaube, und Volksbrauch_, Berlin,
+1882, pp. 680-685; C. A. Miles, _Christmas in Ritual and Tradition,
+Christian and Pagan_, London, 1912, pp. 238-246; Frazer, _The Scapegoat_,
+pp. 313-345.
+
+[874] Above, pp. 74 _sqq._
+
+[875] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903, p. 75.
+
+[876] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited
+by E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, pp. 63 _sqq._ See also K. Weinhold,
+_Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schlesien_, Gräz,
+1853, pp. 11 _sq._; K. A. Oberle, _Überreste germanischen Heidentums
+im Christentum_, Baden-Baden, 1883, pp. 63 _sq._; E. H. Meyer,
+_Indogermanische Mythen_, Berlin, 1887, ii, 526 _sqq._
+
+[877] J. Loth, “Les douze jours supplémentaires (_gour-deziou_) des
+Bretons, et les douze jours des Germains et des Indous,” _Revue
+celtique_, 1903, xxiv, 310-312.
+
+[878] Miss C. S. Burne, editor, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, London, 1883, p.
+403.
+
+[879] W. Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland_,
+London, 1881, p. 156; _idem_, in _Folk-lore Record_, 1884, ii, 332.
+
+[880] John Williams ab Ithel, _Barddas_, Llandovery, 1862-1874, i, 424
+_sq._
+
+[881] E. Seler, “The Mexican Chronology,” _Bulletin of the Bureau of
+American Ethnology_, no. 28, p. 16. The passage quoted above is from
+Seler’s translation of the Aztec text of Sahagun, which is more complete
+than the latter’s Spanish version (_Historia general de las cosas de
+Nueva España_, ii, 37; transl. Jourdanet and Siméon, Paris, 1880, pp. 50,
+77, 164, 283, 291). Other Spanish authorities refer to the _nemontemi_
+as days when the people did nothing but receive and return visits
+(Clavigero, _Storia antica del Messico_, vi, 24; Acosta, _Historia de las
+Indias_, vi, 2).
+
+[882] E. Seler, in _Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, no.
+28, pp. 16 _sq._; compare _idem_, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
+and Ethics_, iii, 308. The principal authority for the Maya custom is
+Diego de Landa, _Relación de las cosas de Yucatan_, ch. xxxv (transl.
+Brasseur de Bourbourg, pp. 211 _sqq._).
+
+[883] These five days thus inserted between the “small year” and the
+“large year” did not interrupt the regular sequence of the three decades
+into which the Egyptian month was divided; see above, p. 191.
+
+[884] Pepi, 2, l. 754. A still earlier reference is found in an
+inscription belonging to the time of the Fifth Dynasty (K. Sethe,
+_Urkunden des alten Reichs_, Leipzig, 1903, i, 24).
+
+[885] H. Brugsch, “Die fünf Epagomenen in einem hieratischen Papyrus zu
+Leiden,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1852,
+v, 254-258; compare _idem_, _Die Ägyptologie_, Leipzig, 1891, p. 362; C.
+R. Lepsius, _Die Chronologie der Ägypter_, Berlin, 1849, i, 145 _sqq._
+The chief classical references to the epagomenal days are Herodotus, ii,
+4; Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 12; and Diodorus Siculus, i, 13, 4.
+
+[886] F. J. Chabas, _Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de
+l’année égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. 102-107. In the _Leiden
+Papyrus_ (i. 346) only the first, third, and fifth days are marked with
+the same sign as unlucky, but the observances prescribed relate to all
+five days. Plutarch (_op. cit._, 12) refers to the third day, that of Set
+or Tryphon, as inauspicious for Egyptian kings, who did no business on
+it and took no care of their persons till nightfall. The parallel to the
+royal observance of the Babylonian “evil days” is instructive (above, pp.
+232 _sq._).
+
+[887] L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Persian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iii, 129; _idem_, “Divination (Persian),” _ibid._,
+iv, 819.
+
+[888] F. Justi, _Geschichte des alten Persiens_, Berlin, 1879, p. 79.
+
+[889] F. Macler, “Calendar (Armenian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, iii, 70.
+
+[890] J. Levering, in _Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and
+Sciences_, 1873, viii, 348-364; “Calendrier républicain,” _La grande
+encyclopédie_, viii, 908-910.
+
+[891] Abbott, _op. cit._, pp. 21, 63. The Macedonians observe the same
+restrictions on the Wednesdays and Fridays of these two months.
+
+[892] Miss Mary Hamilton, _Greek Saints and their Festivals_, Edinburgh,
+1910, pp. 187 _sq._
+
+[893] W. H. D. Rouse, “Folklore from the Southern Sporades,” _Folklore_,
+1899, x, 179.
+
+[894] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion_,
+Cambridge, 1910, pp. 152 _sq._
+
+[895] J. S. Polack, _Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders_, London,
+1840, i, 256.
+
+[896] J. Winkler, “Der Kalender der Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra,”
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913, xlv, 436-447. Among the Batta
+dwelling inland from the Bay of Tapanuli the priest or magician, whose
+duty it is to announce propitious days, is a most important functionary
+in every village. The people “will not engage in any undertaking, however
+trifling, or make the smallest alteration in their domestic economy,
+without first consulting him” (Burton and Ward, in _Memoirs of the Royal
+Asiatic Society_, 1827, i, 500).
+
+[897] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, p. 549.
+
+[898] N. B. Dennys, _The Folk-lore of China_, London, 1876, pp. 30 _sq._
+In China there is also the state almanac, which is annually prepared
+at Pekin under the direction of a bureau attached to the Board of
+Rites. By making it a penal offence to issue a counterfeit or pirated
+edition of this almanac, the government astrologers have monopolized the
+management of the superstitions of the people in regard to the fortunate
+or unfortunate conjunction of each day and hour. “No one ventures to be
+without an almanac, lest he be liable to the greatest misfortunes, and
+run the imminent hazard of undertaking important events on black-balled
+days” (S. W. Williams, _The Middle Kingdom_,² New York, 1883, ii, 79
+_sq._).
+
+[899] H. A. Giles, _A Glossary of References on Subjects connected with
+the Far East_,³ Shanghai, 1900, p. 183.
+
+[900] W. E. Griffis, _Corea, the Hermit Nation_,³ New York, 1889, p. 298.
+
+[901] E. Kaempfer, _History of Japan_, ii, 22 (Glasgow reprint, 1906).
+
+[902] A. Lloyd, “Death and Disposal of the Dead (Japanese),” Hastings’s
+_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, 486 _n._¹
+
+[903] E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig and London, 1863, pp.
+293 _sqq._
+
+[904] W. H. R. Rivers, _The Todas_, London, 1906, p. 405.
+
+[905] _Ibid._, pp. 405 _sq._
+
+[906] Rivers, _Todas_, p. 407.
+
+[907] _Ibid._, p. 408.
+
+[908] See _ibid._, p. 411, for a reference to certain restrictions which
+may have arisen out of a belief in unlucky days. W. R. King (_Journal of
+Anthropology_, 1870, i, 33 _sq._) expressly attributes this superstition
+to the Toda.
+
+[909] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 410 _sq._
+
+[910] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 459, 695 _sqq._, 710 _sq._
+
+[911] _Ibid._, pp. 411 _sq._
+
+[912] These Toda taboos suggest at once the Jewish sabbatarian
+regulations and the methods of evading or mitigating them devised by
+the rabbis (above, p. 264). Until the present day the Bene-Israel, a
+body of Jews domiciled for many centuries in the Bombay Presidency, have
+preserved the old Hebrew fasts and festivals, though under Indian names
+and with Indian features superadded. Their habit of observing Saturday
+as a Sabbath and of giving their oxen rest from the oil-mills on that
+day has gained for them among their Hindu neighbours the name of “the
+Saturday oil-men” (J. H. Lord, “Bene-Israel,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
+Religion and Ethics_, ii, 470 _sq._).
+
+[913] The week of seven days, with names derived from the Sanskrit,
+appears to have been introduced by the Shins into Dardistan and western
+Kashmir. See J. Biddulf, _Tribes of the Hindoo-Koosh_, Calcutta, 1880, p.
+93; G. W. Leitner, _The Hunza and Nagyr Handbook_,² Woking, 1893, p. 16.
+
+[914] H. Roskoschny, _Afghanistan und seine Nachbarländer_, Leipzig,
+1885, i, 174.
+
+[915] Sir G. S. Robertson, _The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush_, London, 1896,
+pp. 579 _sq._
+
+[916] A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, p.
+199. The Malagasy belief in lucky and unlucky days, as determined by the
+moon stations (above, p. 275), appears to be a direct importation from
+the Arabs superimposed on an earlier and thoroughly native observance of
+tabooed seasons. The Malagasy have also taken over from Islam the week of
+seven days (above, p. 197).
+
+[917] J. Sibree, “Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions,”
+_Folk-lore Record_, 1879, ii, 30-33. The custom still exists among the
+Masikoro, an inland branch of the Sakalava tribe. Many Vezo (coast
+Sakalava) families continue to expose a child born on an unlucky day, but
+it is afterwards rescued and brought up by the relatives as their own.
+“Such a child is, however, looked upon with some suspicion as to what
+will be its character, because of its having been born on an unlucky day.
+It is thought that it may bring some calamity upon the family, or may
+itself be miserable or unfortunate in one way or another, when grown up.
+It is a very common opinion that bad conduct is only the result of being
+born on an unlucky day” (A. Walen, in _Antananarivo Annual_, 1883, no. 7,
+pp. 51 _sq._).
+
+[918] J. Sibree, _loc. cit._
+
+[919] A. van Gennep, _op. cit._, p. 203; _Antananarivo Annual_, 1891, no.
+15, pp. 302 _sq._
+
+[920] V. Noel, in _Bulletin de la société de géographie_, 1843, second
+series, xx, 71.
+
+[921] A. van Gennep, _op. cit._, pp. 202 _sq._
+
+[922] The two manuscripts (both in the British Museum) have been
+edited, respectively, by F. L. Griffith (_Hieratic Papyri from Kahun
+and Gurob_, London, 1898, pl. 25 text, p. 62; and E. A. W. Budge,
+_Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri_, London, 1911, pls. 31-32).
+See further W. Wreszinski, “Tagewählerei im alten Ägypten,” _Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 86-100.
+
+[923] The text was published in _Select Papyri in the Hieratic
+Character_, London, 1844, pt. i, pls. 144-168, and was translated by
+F. J. Chabas (_Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de l’année
+égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870). The work of Chabas was masterly, but it
+has now become antiquated by the progress of Egyptology. F. Bohn (_Der
+Sabbat im Alten Testament_, Gütersloh, 1903, pp. 57-62) gives a revised
+and corrected version of numerous passages, based on the studies of
+Professor Sethe, and Wreszinski (_loc. cit._) translates directly from
+the Egyptian text. For discussions of this important document see Sir G.
+Maspero, _Études égyptiennes_, Paris, 1886, i, 29 _sq._; _idem_, _Les
+contes populaires de l’Égypte ancienne_,³ Paris, 1905, pp. xlix-lii;
+_idem_, _New Light on Ancient Egypt_,² London, 1909, pp. 128-136;
+A. Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, London, 1894, pp. 351 _sq._; A.
+Wiedemann, _The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, London, 1897, pp. 263
+_sqq._; E. A. W. Budge, _Egyptian Magic_,² London, 1901, pp. 224 _sqq._;
+G. Foucart, “Calendar (Egyptian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
+and Ethics_, iii, 100 _sq._
+
+[924] W. Wreszinski, in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 89
+_sqq._
+
+[925] Chabas, _op. cit._, 28; Wreszinski, in _Archiv für
+Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 92 _sq._
+
+[926] Rawlinson, _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, v, pls. 48,
+49; Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 379 _sqq._, Bohn,
+_Der Sabbat im Alten Testament_, pp. 55 _sqq._ A Babylonian tablet (K.
+98), published by Professor Sayce (_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1887,
+ii, 333-335), gives a list of days on which it was fortunate to undertake
+such operations as “staking the canal,” “thinning the plantation,” and
+“sinking the foundations of a house.” Still another text, published
+by Dr. Stephen Langdon (_Expositor_, 1909, xxii, 156), contains the
+injunction that on the fifth day of Nisan “he who fears Marduk or
+Sarpanit shall not go out to work.” On the Babylonian _nubattu_ see
+above, p. 241 _n._¹
+
+[927] _Opera et dies_, 765-828. On the Hesiodic calendar see E. E. Sikes,
+“Folk-lore in the Works and Days of Hesiod,” _Classical Review_, 1893,
+vii, 389-394, and the Addenda to Professor A. W. Mair’s admirable version
+of Hesiod, Oxford, 1908, pp. 162-166. For a full analysis of the calendar
+see A. Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-46.
+
+[928] _Opera et dies_, 724-764.
+
+[929] _Ibid._, 810, 820, 802 _sqq._, 770.
+
+[930] The Vergilian calendar (_Georgica_, i, 276 _sqq._) is obviously
+an imitation of Hesiod’s, but it may be presumed that Vergil, with his
+intimate knowledge of the farmer’s life, incorporated in his catalogue of
+lucky and unlucky days some of the peasant lore of ancient Italy.
+
+[931] Augustine, _In comm. ad Pauli ep. ad Galatas_, 4; Ambrose, _Epist._
+i, 23; compare Marinus, _Vita Procli_, 19.
+
+[932] _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 256, 297, with T.
+Mommsen’s commentary. The anonymous author of the _Versus de diebus
+Ægyptiacis_ (_Poetæ latini minores_, ed. A. Baehrens, v, 354-356) reduces
+their number to twenty-four:
+
+    _Bis deni binique dies scribuntur in anno,_
+    _In quibus una solet mortalibus hora timeri._
+
+[933] L. Moland, “Calendrier français du treizième siècle,” _Revue
+archéologique_, 1862, n.s., v, 103 _sq._
+
+[934] J. B. Thiers, _Traité des superstitions_,⁴ Paris, 1741, i, 291
+_sq._ See further Karl Meyer, _Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters_, Basel,
+1884, p. 210; Du Cange, _Glossarium mediæ et infimæ latinitatis_, ed.
+Favre, iii, 106 _sq._
+
+[935] Chambers’s _Book of Days_, i, 42. See also O. Cockayne, _Leechdoms,
+Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England_, London, 1866, iii, 150-197,
+and John Aubrey’s quaint essay on “Day-fatality; or, Some Observations of
+Days Lucky and Unlucky” (_Miscellanies upon Various Subjects_, London,
+1784, pp. 3-36). Some rules concerning “perilous days” are reprinted by
+Sir Lawrence Gomme from a fifteenth century manuscript (_Folklore_, 1913,
+xxiv, 121-123).
+
+[936] Sir R. C. Temple, “Burma,” in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
+and Ethics_, iii, 29; compare Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], _The Burman,
+his Life and Notions_,³ London, 1910, pp. 383-389. On the unlucky days
+observed in Upper Burma see _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
+States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. ii, 48
+_sqq._
+
+[937] W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
+Westminster, 1896, ii, 52 _sq._
+
+[938] D. Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, Honolulu, 1903, p. 56.
+
+[939] J. Dupuis, _Journal of a Residence in Ashantee_, London, 1824, 213
+_n._*; compare John Beecham, _Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London, 1841,
+p. 188.
+
+[940] J. W. Fewkes, “Tusayan _Katcinas_,” _Fifteenth Annual Report of the
+Bureau of American Ethnology_, Washington, 1897, p. 255. The Hopi furnish
+one of the few instances of compulsory rest days to be found among the
+American Indians. They hold a mid-winter festival, called the _soyáluña_,
+at the time of the winter solstice. “December is regarded as a sacred
+month; no work is performed in it, and few games are allowed. It is the
+month of the return of the sun and the gods, and bears the same name as
+July, in which they depart” (J. W. Fewkes, “The Winter Solstice Ceremony
+at Walpi,” _American Anthropologist_, 1898, xi, 69).
+
+[941] J. H. Gray, _China_, London, 1878, i, 249; W. E. Griffis, _Corea,
+the Hermit Nation_,³ New York, 1889, p. 295. According to one account
+the shops in China are shut and all business suspended only on the first
+three days of the year, though these and numerous other festivals, both
+general and local, are common occasions for relaxation and merry-making
+(S. W. Williams, _The Middle Kingdom_,³ New York, 1883, i, 809).
+
+[942] Maspero, _New Light on Ancient Egypt_,² p. 135.
+
+[943] G. F. Schoemann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,⁴ edited by J. H.
+Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, 458 _sq._; compare Plato, _Leges_, ii,
+653; Thucydides, ii, 38.
+
+[944] Strabo, _Geographica_, vi, 3, 4.
+
+[945] This calculation assumes 109 _dies nefasti_, 192 _dies fasti
+et comitiales_, on which assemblies might meet, 43 _dies fasti non
+comitiales_, available for judicial business but not for meetings of
+the assemblies, 8 _dies intercisi_, or days partly _fasti_ and partly
+_nefasti_, and 3 _dies fissi_ (Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,
+pp. 368 _sq._).
+
+[946] Cicero, _In Verrem_, i, 10; Suetonius, _Divus Augustus_, 32. It
+has been already noticed (above, p. 97) that Roman consuls sometimes
+instituted extraordinary _feriæ_ for the purpose of blocking legislation
+by their rivals, ferial days being included in the _dies nefasti_.
+
+[947] Above, pp. 94 _sqq._, 170.
+
+[948] L. Friedländer, _Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire_,
+London, 1908, ii, 11 _sq._; W. W. Fowler, _Social Life at Rome in the
+Age of Cicero_, New York, 1909, pp. 287 _sqq._ Though the ancients were
+careful to distinguish the _feriæ_ from the _ludi_ (compare Gellius,
+_Noctes Atticæ_, ii, 24, 11: _Diebus ludorum et feriis quibusdam_), yet
+in late republican and imperial times the joyous aspects of the _feriæ_
+had become so prominent that nearly all of them were converted into
+_ludi_.
+
+[949] _Panem et circenses_ (Juvenal, x, 81).
+
+[950] W. J. Showalter, in _National Geographic Magazine_, 1914, xxv, 493.
+
+[951] A. W. Kinglake, _Eothen_, chap. v.
+
+[952] W. F. Adeney, _The Greek and Eastern Churches_, New York, 1908, p.
+433.
+
+[953] L. Caro, _Auswanderung und Auswanderungspolitik in Osterreich_,
+Leipzig, 1909, p. 56.
+
+[954] W. C. Harris, _The Highlands of Ethiopia_, New York [1843], p. 280.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Aberdeenshire, 279.
+
+  Abonsam, a Gold Coast demon, 77.
+
+  Abor, the, 54.
+
+  Abraham, 240 _n._¹
+
+  Abyssinia, 70, 139 _n._², 193 _sq._, 199, 210, 270 _n._, 307.
+
+  Achehnese of Sumatra, 204.
+
+  Adams, J. Q., on the French Revolutionary calendar, 283.
+
+  Afar, the, 199.
+
+  _Affirah-bi_, a Gold Coast festival of the dead, 76, 77.
+
+  Afghanistan, 293.
+
+  _Agar_, the rest days of the Siah Posh Kafirs, 293 _sq._
+
+  Ἅγιος, Greek term for taboo, 3 _and n._⁵
+
+  _Aha_, Hawaiian prayers, 11, 12 _and n._², 13.
+
+  Ahanta of the Gold Coast, 190 _and n._⁴
+
+  Akamba of British East Africa, 136, 145.
+
+  Akikuyu of British East Africa, 6, 68, 101 _n._¹, 107, 136, 209 _sq._
+
+  Akposo of Togo, 115 _n._
+
+  Alaska, 72 _sq._, 73 _n._²
+
+  Albania, 272.
+
+  Alcibiades, 92 _sq._
+
+  Allia, battle of the, 171, 245, 273.
+
+  _Amau_, the Kayan omen animals, 28 _and n._¹
+
+  Amos, the prophet, 244, 252.
+
+  _Anahulu_, the Hawaiian, 188.
+
+  Anam, 189, 201.
+
+  Andaman Islanders, the, 132, 181.
+
+  Animals, used in divination, 27, 28 _and n._¹, 59 _n._²;
+    rest days for, 95 _sq._, 138.
+
+  Animistic sanctions of taboos, 5 _sq._
+
+  _Anito_, ancestral spirits of the Bontoc Igorot, 48 _n._²
+
+  _Anoiila_, the Nicobarese term for rest day, 40, 165.
+
+  Anthesteria, Athenian festival of the, 79 _sq._, 88.
+
+  _Antu_, Bornean spirits, 35 _n._²
+
+  Apis, sacred Egyptian bull, 129 _n._⁶
+
+  Apollo, 169, 211 _and n._⁴, 212 _n._¹, 299.
+
+  Ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι, Greek unlucky days, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139
+      _and n._³, 140.
+
+  Arabs, lunar superstitions of the, 126, 139, 248;
+    calendar of the, 175, 179 _n._¹, 182 _n._⁶, 226 _sq._;
+    their preference for odd numbers, 178 _n._¹;
+    their adoption of the seven-day week, 206;
+    lunar mansions of the, 275.
+
+  Arakan, 55, 66.
+
+  Arizona, 303.
+
+  Armenia, 282 _sq._
+
+  Artemis, 130.
+
+  Aryans of ancient India, lunar festivals of the, 149 _sqq._;
+    their epagomenal days, 276 _sq._
+
+  Ἀσέλινοι, the Athenian, 139 _and n._³
+
+  Ashanti, 303.
+
+  Assam, 49 _sqq._, 53 _sqq._, 65 _sq._, 89, 106, 233 _sq._
+
+  Asshurbanipal, Assyrian king, 223, 238.
+
+  Astrology, 191 _n._¹, 194 _sq._, 197 _n._², 202, 204, 205, 210, 213
+      _sqq._, 216 _sqq._, 220, 244, 274 _sq._, 286 _n._³, 287 _sq._,
+      303.
+
+  _Atenoux_, 185.
+
+  Athene, 92, 93.
+
+  Athenian festivals, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq._, 169 _sq._, 304.
+
+  Atonement, Day of, 81 _sqq._, 93, 179 _n._¹, 235 _n._², 260.
+
+  _Atua_, Polynesian spirits, 5, 8.
+
+  August, unlucky days of, in Greek lands, 284.
+
+  Augustine, St., 265.
+
+  Augustus, Roman emperor, 100, 219, 305.
+
+  Aurelius, Marcus, 305.
+
+  Auspices, Maori, 17.
+
+  Australia, 26, 128, 180, 183.
+
+  Azazel, a bad angel or demon, 82, 83 _n._¹
+
+
+  Babylonians, the, their conception of taboo, 6, 231 _sq._;
+    their superstitions relating to the moon, 126, 138 _sq._;
+    their five-day period, or _khamushtu_, 195 _and n._², 228;
+    cult of seven among the, 212 _sqq._, 225, 229 _sqq._;
+    the seven planets and planetary deities of the, 213 _sqq._;
+    their division of the nycthemeron into twelve _kaspu_, 218 _n._¹;
+    their “evil days,” 223 _sqq._, 230, 231, 232 _sqq._, 236, 241, 254,
+      257 _sq._, 282 _n._¹;
+    seven-day cycles of the, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._;
+    lunar month of the, 226 _sqq._;
+    the _shabattum_, 235 _sqq._, 239, 240 _sq._;
+    new-moon and full-moon days observed by the, 239 _sq._;
+    their unlucky days, 241 _n._¹, 297 _sq._;
+    the Hebrew week and Sabbath not directly borrowed from the, 246;
+    their lunar mansions, 274 _sq._
+
+  Badaga of the Madras Presidency, 149.
+
+  Baffin Land, 71 _sq._
+
+  Baganda of Uganda, 129, 145 _sq._
+
+  Bahima of Uganda, 75 _sq._, 76 _n._¹, 147.
+
+  Bahuana of Belgian Congo, 108.
+
+  Bakuba of Belgian Congo, 108.
+
+  Bali, island of, 41 _sqq._, 105, 165 _and n._¹, 183, 205.
+
+  _Balubale_, Bahima demons, 76 _and n._¹
+
+  Bambala of Belgian Congo, 108 _and n._⁶
+
+  Banyoro of Uganda, 146 _sq._
+
+  Bapiri of British South Africa, 144.
+
+  Barotse of British South Africa, 145.
+
+  Barter, Australian, 103.
+
+  Basoga of Uganda, 69 _sq._
+
+  Basuto of British South Africa, 68, 75 _and n._², 179.
+
+  Bathing prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9, 31, 39,
+      49 _n._¹, 70, 92 _n._, 155, 273 _n._³, 289, 297.
+
+  Batta of Sumatra, 105, 205, 285 _sq._
+
+  Bawenda of British South Africa, 194.
+
+  Bayaka of Belgian Congo, 108 _and n._⁵
+
+  Baziba of Uganda, 145.
+
+  Bechuana of British South Africa, 68, 144 _sq._
+
+  Belgian Congo, 105 _sq._, 117 _n._¹, 190.
+
+  Bengal, 88 _sq._, 137.
+
+  Benin, 101 _n._¹, 111, 112 _and n._¹, 182, 187 _n._¹
+
+  Bhaskara Saptami, Hindu festival of, 153 _sq._
+
+  Bhutan, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 163.
+
+  Bini of Benin, 101 _n._¹, 111, 112 _and n._¹, 182, 187 _n._¹
+
+  Bodily attentions not permitted during a tabooed or unlucky period,
+      1, 9, 31, 39, 49 _n._¹, 70, 71, 92 _n._, 151, 155, 232, 233, 282
+      _n._¹, 289, 300.
+    _See also_ Bathing.
+
+  Bohemia, 135 _n._⁷
+
+  _Book of the Dead_, the, 167.
+
+  Borneo, 6, 26 _sqq._, 65, 88, 180, 208 _sq._
+
+  Boscawen, W. H., 236 _n._¹
+
+  Bowditch Island. _See_ Fakaofo.
+
+  Brazil, 125, 182.
+
+  Breasted, J. H., 167 _n._¹
+
+  British Columbia, 71 _n._⁴, 197 _n._¹
+
+  —— East Africa, 6, 68 _sq._, 107, 128, 134, 136, 145, 181 _sq._, 189
+      _sq._, 198 _sq._, 209 _sq._
+
+  —— New Guinea, 26 _and n._³, 101 _n._¹, 103 _sq._
+
+  —— North Borneo, 65, 208 _sq._
+
+  —— South Africa, 67 _sq._, 137, 144 _sq._, 182, 194, 214 _n._
+
+  Brittany, 130, 279.
+
+  _Bubuk_, the Land Dyak name of full moon, 37.
+
+  Buddha, the, 156, 157, 158, 161.
+
+  Buddhism, observance of the _uposatha_ in, 155 _sqq._
+
+  Buriat of Siberia, 132.
+
+  Burkeneji of British East Africa, 198 _sq._
+
+  Burma, tabooed days observed in, 55 _sqq._, 66;
+    the Buddhist Sabbath in, 159 _sqq._;
+    divisions of the month employed in, 184, 189;
+    the seven-day week in, 201;
+    unlucky days observed in, 273 _n._³, 302.
+
+  Bushmen of British South Africa, 126, 141 _sq._, 147.
+
+  Bushongo. _See_ Bakuba.
+
+  _Buta_, Balinese evil spirits, 42.
+
+
+  Calabar (Old), 78, 111.
+
+  Calendar, the, 13 _n._¹, 47, 75, 82 _n._², 118, 148, 166, 173 _sqq._,
+      226 _sqq._, 248 _sq._, 253 _sqq._, 279, 281, 282 _sq._
+
+  Cambodia, 162, 184 _n._², 200, 201.
+
+  Canaanites, the Sabbath not borrowed from the, 246.
+
+  Cannæ, battle of, 171 _n._¹
+
+  Cardinal points, colour symbolism of the, 105 _n._²
+
+  Caroline Islands, the, 24 _sq._, 181, 188 _sq._
+
+  Cato the Elder, on Roman holidays, 95 _sq._, 98.
+
+  Celebes, 104, 205.
+
+  Celtiberians, lunar festivals of the, 172.
+
+  Celts, lunar festivals of the, 172;
+    their calendar, 185 _sq._;
+    nine-day cycles of the, 193 _and n._²
+
+  Central America, 118, 119, 174, 280 _sq._
+
+  Ceylon, 155, 158, 159 _and n._¹, 184, 201.
+
+  Chams, the, 184 _n._², 201.
+
+  Cherokee Indians, the, 141, 214 _n._
+
+  Cheyne, T. K., 243 _n._¹
+
+  Chibcha. _See_ Muysca.
+
+  Chiefs and kings, death of, necessitates communal abstinence, 25, 26,
+      63, 65, 67, 68, 69 _sq._;
+    responsible for the observance of communal taboos, 27 _n._¹, 45, 68
+      _n._¹;
+    subject to various restrictions, 233 _sq._
+
+  Childbirth, taboos imposed in connection with, 4, 7, 25, 38 _and
+      n._³, 44, 53, 56, 57 _n._¹, 66 _and n._², 69 _n._²;
+    the moon associated with, 127 _sqq._
+
+  Chinese, lunar superstitions of the, 135, 164;
+    lunar festivals observed by the, 163 _sq._;
+    their tradition of a ten-month year, 177 _n._¹;
+    their lunar decades, 189 _and n._⁴;
+    the planetary week known to the, 202;
+    their lunar mansions, 202, 274;
+    observe no rest days, 203 _and n._¹, 303 _sq._;
+    unlucky days of the, 286 _and n._³, 287.
+
+  Chingpaw. _See_ Kachin.
+
+  Chronocratories, astrological theory of, 217 _sq._
+
+  Chukchi of Siberia, 73, 126.
+
+  Cicero, on Roman holidays, 97, 304 _sq._
+
+  Claudius, Roman emperor, 100.
+
+  Cochin-China, 189, 200.
+
+  Coligny, Calendar of, 133 _n._⁵, 185 _and n._⁴, 186 _n._¹
+
+  Colombia, 119 _and n._³, 186.
+
+  Comets, taboos imposed in connection with, 51.
+
+  Congo Free State. _See_ Belgian Congo.
+
+  Constantine, edict of, relating to Sunday, 122 _sq._, 270.
+
+  Cooking not allowed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 10, 15, 16,
+      42, 155, 232 _and n._³, 233, 257 _and n._³, 258, 260.
+
+  Copernicus, 216.
+
+  Cos, island of, 284.
+
+  Courts and public offices not open during a tabooed or unlucky
+      period, 67, 79, 80, 122 _and n._³, 155, 164, 169, 203, 211, 239
+      _n._⁴, 279, 280, 298, 303, 305.
+
+  _Couvade_, custom of the, 58 _sq._
+
+  Covenanters of Damascus, the, 263 _n._³
+
+  Creation myth, the Babylonian, 229;
+    the Hebrew, 242 _sq._
+
+  Creek Indians, the, 141.
+
+  Cremera, battle of the, 273.
+
+  Crete, 284.
+
+  Crisis, sociological conception of, 60 _sq._, 86.
+
+  Cumont, Franz, 220 _n._³
+
+  Cyclades, the, 134.
+
+  Cyprian, 270.
+
+  Cyprus, 284.
+
+
+  Dahomey, 114 _and n._²
+
+  Dakota Indians, the, 141.
+
+  Dalai Lama, tabooed days observed after the death of the, 67.
+
+  Danakil, the, 199.
+
+  Darmesteter, J., 166 _n._
+
+  David, 245.
+
+  Dead, festivals of the, 51 _and n._⁴, 74 _sqq._, 79 _sqq._
+
+  Death, taboos observed after a, 7, 19 _n._, 24, 25, 26, 34, 36, 38,
+      39, 43, 44, 51, 60, 63 _sqq._, 84, 95 _and n._², 258 _sq._;
+    primitive ideas of, 62 _sq._
+
+  Debel, N. H., 196 _n._¹
+
+  Decade, the, 188 _sqq._, 198, 245, 281 _n._²
+
+  Decalogues, the, 242 _and n._¹, 256.
+
+  Deluge myth, the Babylonian, 212, 230;
+    the Hebrew, 276 _n._²
+
+  Demons, punish the violators of taboos, 5 _sq._, 8, 28, 31 _sqq._, 40
+      _sqq._, 48, 49 _n._¹, 51;
+    expulsion of, 22, 40 _sqq._, 56, 74 _sqq._, 278.
+
+  Dendera, temple of, 168.
+
+  Dew, the moon believed to be the source of, 131 _and n._²
+
+  Diana, 130.
+
+  Dichomenia, the Greek full-moon day, 170 _and n._², 184 _and n._⁵
+
+  Dieri of South Australia, 180.
+
+  _Dies Ægyptiaci_, 299 _sqq._
+
+  _—— Alliensis_, 245, 273.
+
+  _—— atri._ See _Dies religiosi_.
+
+  _—— dominica_, the Lord’s Day, 220 _sq._, 267.
+
+  _—— feriati._ See _Feriæ_.
+
+  _—— nefasti_, 80 _n._², 304 _sq._
+
+  _—— postriduani_, 170 _sq._
+
+  _—— religiosi_, Roman unlucky days, 80 _and n._², 81, 84, 93 _sq._,
+      94 _n._², 170 _sq._, 171 _n._³, 273.
+
+  _—— Saturni._ _See_ Saturday.
+
+  _—— Solis._ _See_ Sunday.
+
+  _—— vitiosi._ See _Dies religiosi_.
+
+  Diffusion of cultural elements, 39 _sq._, 58, 84, 196.
+
+  Dio Cassius, on the origin of the planetary week, 216 _sqq._;
+    on the Hebrew Sabbath, 245.
+
+  Dionysus, 79, 88, 266.
+
+  Diulasu, the, 116 _n._¹
+
+  Divination, 17, 27, 28 _sqq._, 48, 50 _n._¹, 285 _sqq._
+
+  Dositheus, observance of the Sabbath by, 257 _n._¹
+
+  Dravidians of India, 66 _sq._, 88 _sqq._, 137 _sq._, 148 _sq._
+
+  Durga, Hindu goddess, 153.
+
+  Dusun of British North Borneo, 65, 208 _sq._
+
+  Dutch Borneo, 26 _n._¹, 31 _sqq._, 180.
+
+  —— New Guinea, 104.
+
+  _Du-zang_, the Tibetan Sabbath, 162 _sq._
+
+
+  Earthquakes, taboos imposed in connection with, 42, 43, 50, 60, 69,
+      99 _sq._, 152.
+
+  Eclipses, taboos imposed in connection with, 42, 50 _sq._, 99, 134
+      _sq._, 152, 153, 259.
+
+  Edo. _See_ Bini.
+
+  _Egbo_, a secret society of Old Calabar, 78, 111.
+
+  Egungun, a Slave Coast deity, 77.
+
+  “Egyptian days.” See _Dies Ægyptiaci_.
+
+  Egyptians, superstitions of the, relating to the moon, 129 _and n._⁶;
+    their lunar festivals, 166 _sqq._;
+    solar year of the, 166, 174, 281;
+    their ideas as to the full moon, 186 _and n._¹;
+    ten-day week of the, 191 _and n._¹, 245, 281 _n._²;
+    astrological cycles of the, 191 _n._¹, 194 _sq._;
+    the division of the nycthemeron into twenty-four hours known to
+      the, 218 _n._¹;
+    their unlucky days, 258, 282, 295 _sqq._, 304;
+    epagomenal days of the, 281 _sq._
+
+  Elisha, 249, 251.
+
+  Ellis, A. B., on the origin of weeks and Sabbaths, 115, 148 and _n._²
+
+  Ellis, William, 10 _n._³
+
+  Elmore, W. T., 90 _n._¹
+
+  _Elpanam_, the men’s house in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _and n._², 41.
+
+  Elul II, Babylonian intercalary month, 224, 232, 241 _n._¹, 297.
+
+  England, lunar superstitions in, 134, 135, 140;
+    unlucky days observed in, 279, 300 _sq._
+
+  Ennead, the, 192 _sq._
+
+  Epagomenal days, Hawaiian, 13 _n._²;
+    Hebrew, 82 _n._², 276 _n._²;
+    early Aryan, 276 _sq._;
+    European folklore of the Twelve Days, 277 _sqq._;
+    Mexican and Maya, 279 _sqq._;
+    Egyptian, 281 _sq._;
+    Persian, 282;
+    Armenian, 282 _sq._;
+    of the French Revolutionary calendar, 283.
+
+  _Epic of Creation_, the Babylonian, 229.
+
+  Epirus, 284.
+
+  Erronan. _See_ Futuna.
+
+  Eskimo, the, 71 _sqq._, 129.
+
+  Essenes, the, 257 _n._³
+
+  Esthonians, the, 222.
+
+  Euahlayi of New South Wales, 128.
+
+  “Evil Days,” the Babylonian, 223 _sqq._, 230, 231, 232 _sqq._, 236,
+      241, 254, 257 _sq._, 282 _n._¹
+
+  Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, tabooed days observed by
+      the, 112, 113, 114, 115.
+
+  Ezekiel, 253, 254, 255, 262.
+
+
+  _Fady_, Malagasy term for taboo, 3, 70, 294.
+
+  Fakaofo (Bowditch Island), 20 _sq._
+
+  _Fakil_, a Bontoc Igorot festival, 48.
+
+  _Fandroana_, a Malagasy festival, 76.
+
+  Farming, restrictions on, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 16
+      _sq._, 17 _n._¹, 21, 23, 27 _sqq._, 37, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47 _sq._,
+      49 _sq._, 54, 55, 57 _sq._, 64, 65, 67, 68 _sqq._, 89, 96, 98,
+      103, 109, 110, 113, 137, 144, 148 _sq._, 159 _n._¹, 162 _n._⁴,
+      190 _n._⁴, 194, 204, 208 _sq._, 256, 284, 285, 293, 295, 300.
+
+  Farnell, L. R., 80 _n._¹
+
+  Fasting practised during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 15, 16, 17,
+      32, 39, 43, 44, 58, 62, 67, 68, 75 _n._², 81, 89, 134, 135, 143,
+      146, 149 _sqq._, 155, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163 _n._², 198, 233,
+      259 _sq._, 278, 285, 298.
+
+  _Fasti Philocali_, the, 123 _n._³, 300.
+
+  _—— Sabini_, the, 219.
+
+  Feast of Weeks, Hebrew, 90, 225 _n._², 251.
+
+  Fe’e, Samoan war-god, 19 _sq._
+
+  Feralia, Roman festival of the, 81 _n._¹
+
+  _Feriæ_, the Roman, 94 _sqq._, 122 _sq._, 170, 221 _n._², 264 _sq._,
+      305 _and n._³
+
+  _—— denicales_, 95 _and n._²
+
+  _—— imperativæ_, 98 _sqq._
+
+  _—— sementivæ_, 96 _and n._¹
+
+  Festivals, Polynesian, 11 _sqq._;
+    Bornean, 30 _sq._, 37 _sq._;
+    in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _sq._, 41 _n._²;
+    in Bali, 41 _sqq._;
+    in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._;
+    in the Philippines, 45 _sqq._;
+    in Manipur, 49 _sqq._;
+    in Assam, 53 _sqq._;
+    in Burma, 55 _sqq._;
+    in Africa, 75 _sqq._, 112 _sqq._;
+    ancient Greek, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq_, 133 _n._⁵, 169 _sq._, 211,
+      304;
+    ancient Roman, 80 _sq._, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sqq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
+    Jewish, 82, 276 _n._²;
+    Mohammedan, 83;
+    characteristics of, 85;
+    accompanied by the remission of labour, 85 _sqq._;
+    consecrated to divinities, 87 _sq._;
+    of the Dravidian peoples of India, 88 _sqq._;
+    Hebrew, 90 _sq._, 248 _sqq._;
+    ancient Aryan, in India, 149 _sqq._;
+    modern Brahmanic, 153 _sq._, 165;
+    Jain, 154 _sq._;
+    Buddhist, 155 _sqq._;
+    Chinese, 163 _sq._, 303 _sq._;
+    Iranian, 165 _sq._;
+    Egyptian, 166 _sqq._;
+    Babylonian, 239 _sq._;
+    Phœnician, 240;
+    Christian, 267 _sqq._, 306 _sq._;
+    Hopi Indian, 303.
+
+  Fewkes, J. W., on the Zuñi decades, 191 _n._
+
+  Fiji Islands, the, 21 _sqq._, 88.
+
+  _Fimt_, the Scandinavian, 195 _sq._
+
+  Finns, the, 222.
+
+  Fires and lights extinguished during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1,
+      9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 39, 41, 71, 257 _and n._³, 258 _sq._,
+      296, 297.
+
+  First-fruits, ceremony of, in New Zealand, 17 _n._¹;
+    in the Tonga Islands, 18 _and n._², 19;
+    in the Fiji Islands, 23;
+    the Hebrew Day of, 90 _sq._;
+    the Athenian Plynteria, 92 _sq._;
+    the Roman Vestalia, 93 _sq._
+
+  Fishermen subject to taboos, 14, 25 _n._¹
+
+  Fishing, restrictions on, during a tabooed period, 13, 14 _sqq._, 25
+      _and n._¹, 26 _and n._³, 50, 64, 67, 113 _and n._³, 155, 161,
+      285, 301.
+
+  Flamen Dialis, restrictions imposed on the, 96 _and n._³
+
+  Flaminica Dialis, 92 _n._, 96, 122.
+
+  Florida, state of, 71.
+
+  Food taboos. _See_ Fasting.
+
+  Formosa, 44.
+
+  Fowler, W. W., on the _dies postriduani_, 171 _n._³
+
+  France, lunar superstitions in, 126 _sq._, 130;
+    unlucky days observed in mediæval, 300.
+
+  Frazer, J. G., 2 _n._¹, 3 _n._⁵, 5, 19 _n._¹, 25 _n._², 31 _n._¹,
+      36 _n._, 57 _n._², 59 _n._¹, 74 _n._⁶, 79 _n._⁴, 90 _n._⁴, 127
+      _n._⁵, 131 _n._³, 277 _n._⁴
+
+  French Equatorial Africa, 3.
+
+  Friday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 139 _n._³, 222 _n._², 273 _and n._³,
+      301;
+    as the Mohammedan Sabbath, 107 _n._², 111 _n._³, 115, 116 _sq._,
+      197, 199, 201, 204, 205 _sq._, 262 _n._²
+
+  Frontinus, 245.
+
+  Full moon, 32 _and n._², 34 _and n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹, 133 _and n._³,
+      134, 142 _sq._, 146 _sq._, 148 _sqq._, 179, 180, 181 _n._⁷, 182
+      _n._⁷, 183, 184 _sq._, 186 _n._¹, 229, 238 _sqq._, 240 _n._³,
+      246, 250 _sqq._, 254, 257, 260.
+
+  Futuna (Erronan), island of, 24.
+
+
+  Galicia, saints’ days observed in, 307.
+
+  Galla, the, 116 _n._³, 199.
+
+  Gaman, the, 116 _n._¹
+
+  Games played during a tabooed period, 13, 20, 31 _n._¹, 50 _n._¹
+
+  Gamut, origin and diffusion of the, 217 _n._²
+
+  Garo of Assam, 54.
+
+  Ga-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, tabooed days observed by the,
+      112, 115;
+    their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²
+
+  Gāthā-days, the Persian, 282.
+
+  Gaul, ancient, 186 _n._¹, 221.
+
+  Genesia, Athenian festival of the, 79.
+
+  _Genna_ (_kennie_), the Naga term for rest day, 49 _and n._³, 52 _n._²
+
+  _Gennabura._ See _Khullakpa_.
+
+  German East Africa, 68, 76, 107, 197, 209.
+
+  —— New Guinea, 57 _n._¹, 180.
+
+  Germanic languages, names of the week days in, 221 _sq._
+
+  Germans, ancient, observance of new moon and full moon by the, 133,
+      172, 185;
+    cycles of nine days used by the, 193.
+
+  Germany, abstinence from work after a death observed in, 74;
+    lunar superstitions in, 126, 127, 133, 135 _n._⁷;
+    unlucky days observed in, 127, 278 _sq._
+
+  _Gilgamesh, Epic of_, 276 _n._²
+
+  Gold Coast of west Africa, 76 _sq._, 112, 113, 115, 187, 190 _and n._⁴
+
+  _Gour-deziou_, the, in Brittany, 279.
+
+  Greek Church, saints’ days in the calendar of the, 306 _sq._
+
+  Greeks, ancient, unlucky days of the, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139
+      _sq._;
+    festivals of the, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq._, 133 _n._⁵, 169 _sq._,
+      211, 304;
+    their superstitions relating to the moon, 126, 129 _sq._, 133
+      _n._³, 139 _sq._;
+    their lunar calendar, 169, 184;
+    lunar decades of the, 191 _sq._;
+    cycles of nine days and nine years used by the, 192 _sq._;
+    cult of seven among the, 211 _sq._
+
+  Greenland, 71, 129.
+
+  Grimme, H., on the Day of Atonement, 83 _n._¹;
+    on Pleiades cults among the Hebrews, 225 _n._²
+
+  Gudea, the inscription of, 239 _n._⁴
+
+
+  Habbe of the Sudan, 69 _n._², 116 _n._¹
+
+  Hair-cutting, superstitions relating to, 9, 18 _n._, 53, 92 _n._,
+      151, 300.
+
+  Halmahera, island of, 63 _sq._
+
+  Hammurabi, Babylonian king, 223, 235 _n._¹
+
+  Hannibal, 99.
+
+  Hanuman, Hindu monkey-god, 201.
+
+  _Haoma_, 129.
+
+  Harran, city of, 239, 240 _and n._¹
+
+  _Haughbah_, a tabooed day on the Gold Coast, 115 _n._⁴
+
+  Hawaiian Islanders, tabooed days observed by the, 8 _sqq._, 24, 88,
+      188, 233, 258, 303;
+    their calendar, 13 _n._², 188.
+
+  Hebdomad. _See_ Seven-day week.
+
+  Hebrews, the, their Sabbath, 10 _n._⁴, 91, 96 _n._¹, 98 _n._⁴, 104
+      _n._, 109, 122, 148, 179 _n._¹, 235, 236 _and n._, 242 _sqq._,
+      291 _sq._;
+    the Day of Atonement, 81 _sqq._, 93, 179 _n._¹, 235 _n._², 260;
+    their agricultural festivals, 90 _sq._, 250 _sq._;
+    cult of seven among the, 212 _n._³;
+    their seven-day week, 243, 245 _sq._, 253 _sqq._, 267;
+    new-moon and full-moon festivals of the, 248 _sqq._
+    _See also_ Jews.
+
+  _Heiau_, Hawaiian temple, 9, 12, 15.
+
+  Heptagram, the, 217 _n._¹
+
+  Hera, 130, 169, 170.
+
+  Hervey Islands, the, 181 _n._⁷
+
+  Hesiod, 169, 170 _n._², 192, 211, 298 _sq._
+
+  _Hiang_, a Formosan term for rest day, 44.
+
+  Ho of Togo, 182.
+
+  Hobbes, Thomas, on the origin of religion, 1.
+
+  Holiness, the conception of, 86 _and n._¹, 242 _n._¹
+
+  Holy days. _See_ Festivals.
+
+  —— water, Hawaiian, 11.
+
+  Hooker, Richard, 259 _sq._
+
+  Hopi Indians of Arizona, festivals of the, 303 _and n._³
+
+  Horace, 266.
+
+  Hosea, the prophet, 252.
+
+  Hottentots of British South Africa, 182, 214 _n._
+
+  Hours, division of the nycthemeron into, 218 _and n._¹
+
+  House-building, taboos imposed in connection with, 32 _sq._, 34, 39,
+      43, 44, 45, 55, 209, 285, 299, 300.
+
+  Hova of Madagascar, 132 _sq._, 294.
+
+  _Hrilh_, the Lushei term for taboo, 55.
+
+  Hua, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88.
+
+  Huahine, island of, 9.
+
+  Humphrey Island. _See_ Manahiki.
+
+  Hunting, restrictions on, during a tabooed period, 50, 72 _and n._¹,
+      73 _n._¹, 74, 155, 161 _sq._
+
+
+  Iban (Sea Dyak) of Borneo, 33 _sqq._, 65, 208.
+
+  Ibo of Southern Nigeria, 111 _and n._³
+
+  Ides, the, 170, 171, 184 _sq._, 185 _n._¹, 305.
+
+  Ignatius, St., 269 _and n._³
+
+  Igorot of Luzon, 46 _sqq._, 88, 181.
+
+  Ihering, R. von, on the origin of periodic rest days, 102.
+
+  Impregnation believed to be accomplished by the moon, 127 _sqq._
+
+  _Inachi_, the Tonga ceremony of first-fruits, 18 _and n._², 93.
+
+  Inclusive reckoning, practice of, 119 _n._¹, 120 _n._², 267 _n._⁵
+
+  India, tabooed days after a death observed in, 66 _sq._;
+    Dravidian village festivals, 88 _sqq._;
+    Dravidian lunar superstitions, 132, 134 _sq._, 148 _sq._;
+    the ancient Aryan _upavasatha_, 149 _sqq._;
+    Hindu festival of Bhaskara Saptami, 153 _sq._;
+    Hindu bipartite division of the month, 183 _sq._;
+    the seven-day week in, 199 _sqq._;
+    symbolism of seven in, 211;
+    the lunar mansions in, 275;
+    the Twelve Days in, 276 _sq._;
+    unlucky days observed in, 291, 302.
+
+  Indians, North American, 141, 182, 197, 210, 211 _and n._¹
+
+  Indo-China, 66, 105 _sq._, 184, 189, 200.
+
+  Innuit of Alaska, 72.
+
+  _Interlunium_, the, as a tabooed period, 136 _sqq._
+
+  Iranians, lunar superstitions of the, 129;
+    their lunar festivals, 165 _sq._, 200;
+    their bipartite division of the month, 184.
+    _See also_ Persians.
+
+  Isaiah, 252, 265.
+
+  Ishtar, Babylonian goddess, 129, 226, 230, 232.
+
+  Isidore of Seville, 172.
+
+  Italy, introduction of the planetary week into, 219.
+
+
+  Jainism, observance of the _posaha_ in, 154 _sq._
+
+  Jaluo of British East Africa, 128.
+
+  Japan, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 164;
+    the lunar decade in, 189;
+    the seven-day week in, 203 _sq._;
+    rest days observed in, _ib._;
+    unlucky days observed in, 287.
+
+  Jastrow, Morris, on the observance of the seventh day in Babylonia,
+      232 _n._⁴;
+    on the meaning of _shabbāthôn_, 236 _n._;
+    on the meaning of _shabattum_, 237;
+    on the inscription of Gudea, 240 _n._;
+    on the original significance of the word “Sabbath,” 251;
+    on Babylonian unlucky days, 298.
+
+  Java, 104, 105 _and n._², 183, 200, 205 _and n._⁴
+
+  Jehovah, 91, 242, 247, 248, 256, 260, 261, 262.
+
+  Jenks, A. E., on the rest days observed by the Bontoc Igorot, 47 _n._²
+
+  Jeremiah, 262.
+
+  Jericho, 255 _n._¹
+
+  Jesus, words of, relating to the observance of the Sabbath, 269.
+
+  Jews, taboos after a death observed by the, 74;
+    celebration of New Year’s Day by the, 82;
+    their superstitions relating to the moon, 126 _and n._⁶, 135 _and
+      n._⁶;
+    neglect of the Sabbath by modern, 235;
+    unlucky days of the, 263 _n._², 273 _sq._
+    _See also_ Hebrews.
+
+  Johns, C. H. W., on the observance of the Babylonian “evil days,” 235
+      _n._¹;
+    on the Babylonian _nubattu_, 241 _n._¹
+
+  Jonathan, 249.
+
+  Josephus, 260.
+
+  Jubilee, the Hebrew, 261 _and n._³
+
+  _Jum‘a, al_, the Mohammedan Sabbath, 107 _n._², 111 _n._³, 115, 116
+      _sq._, 197, 199, 201, 204 _sqq._, 262 _n._²
+
+  Juno, 130, 170.
+
+  Jupiter, the Roman _nundinæ_ consecrated to, 122;
+    the Ides consecrated to, 170;
+    the planet, 213.
+
+  Justin, Roman historian, on the origin of the Sabbath, 260 _n._³
+
+  Justin Martyr, 268.
+
+
+  Kachin (Chingpaw), 56, 189.
+
+  Kaffa, 199.
+
+  Kafiristan, 293 _sq._
+
+  Kagoro of northern Nigeria, 117 _n._¹
+
+  Kalends, the, 170, 171, 184, 305.
+
+  Kalmucks, the _uposatha_ observance of the, 163.
+
+  Kaloa, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88, 188.
+
+  _Kamata._ See _Kambata_.
+
+  Kamataraya, a Kota deity, 88.
+
+  _Kambata_, a Kota festival, 88.
+
+  Kamehameha II, Hawaiian king, 9.
+
+  Kamerun, 110 _sq._
+
+  Kanarese-speaking peoples of southern India, their village festivals,
+      89 _sq._;
+    observance of the _interlunium_ by the, 137 _and n._³;
+    tabooed days of the, 148 _sq._
+
+  Kandian of Ceylon, 159 _n._¹
+
+  Kane, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88, 188.
+
+  _Kapu._ See _Tabu_.
+
+  Karaja of Brazil, 182.
+
+  _Karakia_, Maori magical incantation and prayer, 17 _n._²
+
+  Karen of Burma, 56 _sq._
+
+  Kasuba of the Madras Presidency, 67.
+
+  Kataharayan of Malabar, 67.
+
+  _Kataphang_, a Nicobarese festival, 40 _sq._
+
+  Kavirondo of British East Africa, 69.
+
+  Kayan of Borneo, 6, 26 _sqq._, 65 _and n._⁶, 180.
+
+  _Kennie._ See _Genna_.
+
+  Kerepunu of British New Guinea, rest day observed by the, 103 _and
+      n._⁴, 104.
+
+  Kewan, Assyrian designation of the planet Saturn, 244.
+
+  _Khamushtu_, the Assyro-Babylonian, 195 _and n._², 228.
+
+  _Khang_, the Mro term for rest day, 55.
+
+  Khasi of Assam, 54, 66, 106.
+
+  Khnumhotep II, an Egyptian local ruler, inscription of, 167.
+
+  _Khullakpa_ (_gennabura_), the secular and religious head of a Naga
+      community, 52 _sq._, 53 _n._¹, 233 _sq._
+
+  _Kiala_, a Nicobarese festival, 41 _and n._²
+
+  Kiriwina, island of, 125 _n._³
+
+  Koita of British New Guinea, 26 _and n._³
+
+  _Kopus_, a Bontoc Igorot festival, 48.
+
+  _Koran_, the, 182.
+
+  Korava of the Madras Presidency, 149.
+
+  Korea, 287, 303 _sq._
+
+  Koryak of Siberia, 73 _sq._
+
+  Kota of the Madras Presidency, 88.
+
+  Ku, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88.
+
+  Kuki. _See_ Lushei.
+
+  _Kumara_, the, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._¹
+
+  Kwakiutl of British Columbia, ceremonial cannibalism among the, 71
+      _n._⁴
+
+
+  Labour, remission of, during a tabooed or unlucky period. _See_ Rest
+      days.
+
+  _Lali_, a Kayan term for taboo, 27 _and n._³
+
+  Lalu. _See_ Muhso.
+
+  Land Dyak of Sarawak, 36 _sq._, 65.
+
+  Lao of Siam, 66, 105, 184 _n._², 194 _n._³, 201.
+
+  Laodicea, church council of, 269 _n._⁴
+
+  Laotians. _See_ Lao.
+
+  Lapps, the, 222.
+
+  _La tabu_, Hawaiian designation of Sunday, 10.
+
+  _Laws of Manu_, the, 151, 152.
+
+  Lemuria, Roman festival of the, 80, 81 _and n._¹, 94 _and n._², 263
+      _n._²
+
+  Lengua Indians of Paraguay, the, 129.
+
+  _Lex Hortensia_, the, 121 _and n._³
+
+  Liberia, 199 _n._⁵
+
+  Lithuanians, the, 222.
+
+  Loango, market days kept in, 109 _sq._;
+    the thirteenth month considered unlucky in, 177 _n._²
+
+  Lobengula, a Matabele king, 75 _n._²
+
+  Lolo, the, 194.
+
+  Lono, Hawaiian deity, 13, 15 _n._¹, 88.
+
+  Lotz, W., 232 _n._², 235 _n._¹
+
+  _Luakini_, chief temple in the Hawaiian Islands, consecration of a,
+      11 _sqq._
+
+  Lu-Bat, the Babylonian term, 213.
+
+  _Ludi_, the Roman, 305 _and n._³, 306.
+
+  Lumawig, supreme god of the Bontoc Igorot, 47, 48 _sq._, 88.
+
+  _Lumingu_, 109.
+
+  Lunar fortnights, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255.
+
+  —— mansions, the, 202, 274 _sq._, 294 _n._¹
+
+  —— weeks, 187 _sq._, 253 _sqq._
+
+  Lunation, beginning of the, at full moon, 119 _n._³, 186 _n._¹;
+    length of the, 174 _n._¹, 178;
+    division of the, into two fortnights, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255.
+
+  Lushei (Kuki), the, 54 _sq._
+
+  _Luxus sabbatarius_, the, 265.
+
+  Luzon, 46 _sqq._, 64, 88, 181.
+
+
+  Macassar, 205.
+
+  Macedonia, unlucky days observed in, 222 _n._³, 272, 278.
+
+  Madagascar, 3, 70, 76, 107 _n._², 132 _sq._, 197, 275 _and n._⁴
+
+  _Madnol_, the Toda, 289 _sqq._
+
+  Madras Presidency, the, 66 _sq._, 88, 89, 132, 134, 149, 288 _sqq._
+
+  Magicians, 34, 68, 285, 286 _n._¹, 287 _sq._
+
+  _Makahiki_, the Hawaiian New Year’s festival, 13 _and n._², 15 _n._¹,
+      23 _n._¹
+
+  _Making_, ancestral spirits of the Ibaloi Igorot, 49 _n._¹
+
+  Makololo of British South Africa, 144.
+
+  Malabar, 66 _sq._, 89, 291 _sq._
+
+  Malagasy, their conception of taboo, 3;
+    tabooed days observed by the, 70, 76;
+    the seven-day week of the, 107 _n._², 197 _and n._²;
+    their lunar superstitions, 132 _sq._;
+    their lucky and unlucky days, 275, 294 _sq._
+
+  Malanau of Sarawak, 208.
+
+  Malay Peninsula, 64, 105, 204, 286.
+
+  Maldive Islands, the, 201.
+
+  _Mamit_, the Babylonian term for taboo, 6, 231.
+
+  _Mana_, magical power, 5, 17, 86.
+
+  Manahiki (Humphrey Island), 21.
+
+  Mandingo of the Sudan, 132, 141.
+
+  Manipur, tabooed days observed in, 49 _sqq._, 65 _sq._
+
+  _Manitou_, 5.
+
+  Manyema of Belgian Congo, 108.
+
+  Maori of New Zealand, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._², 128, 177 _n._¹, 181 _n._⁷,
+      183, 188 _and n._¹, 214 _n._, 285.
+
+  _Marang_, the Garo term for taboo, 54.
+
+  March, unlucky days of, in Greek lands, 284.
+
+  Marduk, Babylonian god, 214, 229, 232, 241 _n._¹
+
+  Mariner, William, 18 _n._¹
+
+  Markets, rise of, 103, 117;
+    characteristic features of, among semi-civilized peoples, 105, 107,
+      108.
+    _See also_ Market days.
+
+  Market days, observance of, in New Guinea and Melanesia, 103 _sq._;
+    in Celebes, Sumatra, and Java, 104 _sq._;
+    in Tonkin, Siam, Burma, and Assam, 105 _sq._, 194 _n._³;
+    in Africa, 106 _sqq._;
+    in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Peru, 118 _sqq._;
+    in ancient Rome, 120 _sqq._;
+    restrictions attending, not connected with lunar superstitions, 148.
+
+  —— weeks, length of, 117 _sq._;
+    origin of, 118, 148, 187, 193.
+    _See also_ Market days.
+
+  Markheshwan, the eighth month of the Babylonian year, 224 _and n._²,
+      297.
+
+  Marquesas Islands, the, 15 _sq._, 16 _n._¹
+
+  Marriages not celebrated during a tabooed or unlucky period, 67, 80,
+      81, 137, 171, 209, 263 _n._², 273 _n._³, 278, 285, 286.
+
+  Masai, the seven-day week of the, 197 _sq._
+
+  Matabele of South Africa, restrictions observed by the king of the,
+      75 _n._²
+
+  May, an unlucky month for marriage, 263 _n._²
+
+  Mayas of Yucatan, 174, 280 _sq._
+
+  _Mbaki._ See _Nanga_.
+
+  _Mbalolo_, 22.
+
+  _Mbure_, the men’s house in the Fiji Islands, 22.
+
+  Mechoacan, tabooed days observed after the death of a ruler of, 70
+      _sq._
+
+  Medicine, practice of, by the Land Dyak of Borneo, 38 _n._⁴
+
+  Meinhold, J., 253 _n._⁶, 254.
+
+  Meithei of Manipur, 54 _and n._¹
+
+  Mekeo District of British New Guinea, 103.
+
+  _Melo_, a Kayan term for rest day, 32 _and n._³, 33, 65 _n._⁶
+
+  Mendi of Sierra Leone, 148 _n._¹
+
+  Men’s house, the, 22, 40 _and n._²
+
+  Menstruation, superstitions relating to, 69 _n._², 125;
+    supposed connection of the moon with, 127 _sqq._
+
+  Mentawi Islands, the, 43 _sq._, 44 _n._¹, 181.
+
+  Mexicans, market days kept by the, 118, 119 _and n._¹;
+    calendar of the, 174, 186 _and n._², 279 _sq._;
+    unlucky days of the, 280;
+    saints’ days observed by the modern, 306.
+
+  Miao (Miao-tse), the, 57.
+
+  Middle Ages, observance of unlucky days during the, 273, 299 _sqq._
+
+  Mikir of Assam, 54.
+
+  Mindanao, 45 _sq._
+
+  Mishmi, the, 54 _and n._⁵
+
+  _Mishna_, the, 263 _sq._
+
+  Missionaries, observance of Sunday introduced by, 10 _and n._³, 73
+      _n._², 75, 188 _n._¹, 209, 210, 295.
+
+  Mithra, a Persian deity, 202, 220 _and n._³
+
+  Mohammed, 175, 206.
+
+  Molucca Islands, the, 64 _and n._²
+
+  Mommsen, Theodor, on the Roman _nundinum_, 193 _n._³
+
+  Monday, an unlucky day in Germany, 127 _and n._³;
+    in India, consecrated to Siva, 201;
+    the first day of the week in Slavic countries, 222;
+    an unlucky day among the Jews, 274.
+
+  Mondunga of Belgian Congo, 117 _n._¹
+
+  Mongelima of Belgian Congo, 117 _n._¹
+
+  Mongolia, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 163.
+
+  Month, the lunar, 13 _n._², 156 _n._³, 166, 169, 170, 173 _sqq._, 226
+      _sqq._, 247;
+    intercalation of a thirteenth, 177 _and n._², 224, 247 _n._², 276;
+    beginning of the, 178 _sq._, 226 _sq._, 248 _sq._;
+    division of the, by the waxing and waning moon, 182 _sqq._;
+    the sidereal, 274 _n._²
+
+  Moon, tabooed or unlucky periods observed in connection with changes
+      of the, 14 _sq._, 20, 32 _and n._², 34 _and n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹,
+      60, 88, 131 _sqq._, 143 _sqq._, 146 _sq._, 149 _sqq._, 224 _sq._,
+      233, 241, 246, 256 _sqq._;
+    eclipses of the, marked by taboos, 42, 50 _sq._, 134 _sq._;
+    supposed deleterious influence of the, 125 _sqq._;
+    associated with impregnation and childbirth, 127 _sqq._;
+    influence of, on the tides, 130;
+    supposed influence of, on the growth of vegetation, 130 _sq._;
+    doctrine of lunar sympathy, 131 _sqq._;
+    superstitions relating to the _interlunium_, 136 _sqq._;
+    as the measure of time, 173 _sqq._;
+    day of the new, how calculated, 174 _n._¹, 179, 184, 226 _sq._, 248
+      _sq._;
+    phases of the, closely observed by savage and barbarous peoples,
+      180 _sqq._, 238 _sq._;
+    day of the full, how calculated, 182 _n._⁷, 227;
+    division of the lunation into two periods, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255;
+    importance of the, to the early Hebrews, 246 _sq._;
+    Hebrew cult of the, 247, 248 _n._¹
+    _See also_ Full moon, Lunar mansions, _and_ New moon.
+
+  Moonshine, supposed noxious influence of, 125 _sqq._
+
+  Morocco, 70, 83, 258.
+
+  Moses, 244 _n._³, 261.
+
+  Motu of British New Guinea, 26 _and n._³
+
+  Mpongwe of French Equatorial Africa, their conception of taboo, 3.
+
+  Mro, the, 55.
+
+  Muhso (Lalu), the, 57, 194 _n._³
+
+  _Mundus patet_, 81.
+
+  Muppan of Malabar, 66 _sq._
+
+  Music, astrological notions relating to, 217 _and n._²
+
+  Muysca of Colombia, market days kept by the, 119 _and n._³
+
+
+  Naga of Manipur, tabooed days observed by the, 49 _sqq._, 65 _sq._,
+      134, 234.
+
+  Nail-paring, superstitions relating to, 91 _n._⁴, 151, 300.
+
+  _Nakshatra_, the Hindu, 275.
+
+  _Namungba_, the Meithei term for taboo, 54.
+
+  _Na na ai_, the Kachin term for rest day, 56.
+
+  Nandi of British East Africa, 68 _sq._, 69 _n._², 132, 181 _sq._, 210.
+
+  _Nanga_, a secret association in Fiji, 23 _and n._¹
+
+  Nannar, a Babylonian moon-god, 226.
+
+  _Nannaru_, Babylonian name of new-moon day, 226, 239.
+
+  Narnaka, inscription of, 240.
+
+  Nehemiah, 262.
+
+  _Nemontemi_, the, Mexican epagomenal days, 280 _and n._¹
+
+  Nepal, 155, 201.
+
+  Nestorian Monument, the, 202 _and n._³
+
+  New Britain, 180.
+
+  —— Caledonia, 104 _and n._⁴, 180.
+
+  —— Georgia, island of, 186 _n._¹
+
+  —— Hebrides, the, 209.
+
+  —— Mexico, 190.
+
+  —— South Wales, 128.
+
+  —— Zealand, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._², 128, 177 _n._¹, 181 _n._⁷, 183, 188
+      _and n._¹, 214 _n._, 285.
+
+  New moon, 18 _n._, 20, 37, 125 _and n._³, 132, 133, 136 _sq._, 140
+      _sqq._, 174 _n._¹, 179, 180, 181 _n._⁷, 184 _sq._, 186, 187, 226
+      _sqq._, 238 _sqq._, 246, 248 _sqq._, 253, 254, 255 _sq._, 260.
+
+  New Year’s festival, Hawaiian, 13 _and_ _n._², 88;
+    Maori, 17 _n._²;
+    Fijian, 22 _and n._², 23 _n._¹;
+    Kayan, 31;
+    Balinese, 42 _sq._;
+    Muhso, 57;
+    Hebrew, 82, 235 _n._², 256;
+    Babylonian, 276 _n._²
+
+  _Ngoma_, Akikuyu ancestral spirits, 6.
+
+  Nias, island of, 43, 181, 183.
+
+  Nicobar Islands, the, 40 _sq._, 64, 165 _and n._², 181.
+
+  Nielsen, D., 143 _n._¹, 237.
+
+  Nigeria (Northern), 116 _n._¹, 117 _n._¹;
+    (Southern), 78, 101 _n._¹, 111 _sq._, 182, 187 _n._¹
+
+  Nine as a symbolic number, 120 _n._²
+
+  Nineteenth day of the month, observance of the, in Babylonia, 224
+      _and n._³, 232 _n._³, 235 _n._¹, 257 _sq._
+
+  _Niu_, casting the, a Maori method of divination, 17.
+
+  _Noa_, 14.
+
+  Nones, the, 120 _n._², 170, 171, 185 _and n._¹, 305.
+
+  Northern Territory of South Australia, 180.
+
+  Noumenia, the Greek new-moon day, 169 _sq._, 184.
+
+  _Novemdiales feriæ_, 99, 120 _n._²
+
+  _Nubattu_, the Babylonian, 241 _n._¹
+
+  Numa, 94 _sq._, 121 _n._¹
+
+  Numbers, prejudice against even, 94, 178 _n._¹, 185;
+    symbolism of, 120 _n._², 206 _sqq._
+
+  _Nundinæ_, Roman market days, 92 _n._, 94 _n._³, 120 _sqq._
+
+  _Nundinum_, Roman market week, 120, 122, 193 _and n._³, 219.
+
+  Nycthemeron, the, 179 _n._¹, 218 _n._¹
+
+
+  Octad, the, 193 _sq._
+
+  _Odyssey_, the, 169, 211.
+
+  _Ogboni_, a Yoruba secret society, 78 _n._²
+
+  Ogun, a Yoruba god, 114 _n._
+
+  Omens, Kayan, 28 _sq._, 31 _sq._;
+    Iban, 33 _sq._;
+    Bontoc Igorot, 48;
+    Naga, 50 _n._¹
+
+  Ominous animals, cult of, in Borneo, 27, 28 _sq._, 32, 34, 59 _n._²
+
+  _Orenda_, 5, 86.
+
+  Origen, 270.
+
+  Ornaments not worn during a tabooed or unlucky period, 63, 65, 67, 70.
+
+  Oro, a Slave Coast deity, 78 _and n._²
+
+  _Orunda_, the Mpongwe term for taboo, 3.
+
+  Osiris, identified with the moon, 129 _n._⁶, 168 _sq._
+
+  Ovid, 245, 263 _n._², 266.
+
+
+  _Padi_, or rice, taboos affecting the cultivation of, in Borneo, 27
+      _sqq._, 37, 39 _n._²
+
+  Paganalia, Roman festival of the, 96 _and n._¹
+
+  Pagi Islands, the, 43.
+
+  Paharia of British Sikkim, 67.
+
+  _Palolo_ worm, the, 22 _and n._³
+
+  _Pamali_, a Land Dyak term for taboo, 36 _sq._, 37 _n._¹
+
+  _Pantang_, the Malay term for taboo, 27 _n._³, 204.
+
+  _Papyrus Sallier IV_, the, 296 _and n._¹, 297.
+
+  Paraguay, 129.
+
+  Parentalia, Roman festival of the, 80, 81 _and n._¹, 94 _n._²
+
+  Parsis, lucky and unlucky days of the, 166 _n._¹, 273 _n._³
+
+  _Pasar_, Javanese market week, 105, 165 _n._¹
+
+  Passover, the, 250.
+
+  Patani States of the Malay Peninsula, 64, 204.
+
+  _Patimokkha_, the disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, 157 _and
+      n._³, 163 _and n._⁵
+
+  Paul, St., 269.
+
+  Pentad, the, 194 _sqq._
+
+  Perfumes and unguents not used during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1,
+      152, 155, 158.
+
+  _Permantong_, a Kayan term for taboo, 27 _and n._³
+
+  Persians, the seven-day week of the, 201 _n._⁴;
+    lunar mansions of the, 275;
+    their epagomenal days, 282.
+    _See also_ Iranians.
+
+  Peruvians, market days kept by the, 119 _sq._;
+    the seven-day week unknown to the, 120 _n._¹;
+    their lunar superstitions, 129, 141;
+    calendar of the, 174, 186, 190.
+
+  _Petara_, Sea Dyak gods, 35 _n._², 42 _sq._
+
+  Pharisees, the, 265, 269.
+
+  Philippine Islands, the, 44 _sqq._, 64, 88.
+
+  Philo Judæus, 261 _n._⁵, 266.
+
+  Phœnicians, the, 212 _n._¹, 240.
+
+  _Pidiu_, the Ibaloi Igorot term for taboo, 49 _n._¹
+
+  Pinches, T. G., on the meaning of _shabattum_, 237, 238 _n._⁴
+
+  _Pitara._ See _Petara_.
+
+  Planetary or astrological week, in India, 200, 292;
+    in southeastern Asia, 201;
+    in China, 202 _sq._;
+    in Japan, 203 _sq._;
+    in the Malay Peninsula, 204;
+    in Sumatra, Java, and Bali, 205;
+    origin of the, 215 _sqq._;
+    introduction of the, into the Occident, 219;
+    adopted by Christianity, 220 _sq._;
+    its diffusion in Europe, 221 _sq._;
+    in Afghanistan, 293.
+
+  Planets, differentiation of the, from the fixed stars, 213;
+    identification of the, with deities of the Babylonian pantheon, 214
+      _sq._;
+    the planetary week, 215 _sqq._;
+    in Mithraism, 220 _n._³
+
+  Plato, on festival days, 91.
+
+  Pleiades calendars, 176 _sq._, 225 _and n._²
+
+  Pliny the Younger, 268 _n._¹
+
+  Plutarch, 264 _n._¹, 266.
+
+  Plynteria, Athenian festival of the, 92 _sq._
+
+  _Pomali_, a Malay term for taboo, 64.
+
+  Pompeii, inscriptions from, relating to the planetary week, 219.
+
+  Pompey the Great, 216, 266.
+
+  _Porikh._ See _Pamali_.
+
+  Portugal, names of the weekdays in, 221 _n._²
+
+  Portuguese East Africa, 190.
+
+  _Posadha_, the, in China, 163 _n._⁵
+
+  _Posaha_, the Jain, 154 _sq._
+
+  _Poya_ days, observed in Ceylon, 158, 159 _and n._¹
+
+  Prascovia, St., 222 _n._²
+
+  Prayer, nature of Hawaiian, 12 _n._²
+
+  Pre-animistic sanctions of taboos, 4 _sq._, 75, 83.
+
+  Ptolemy, Greek astronomer, 216.
+
+  Puberty, taboos imposed on the attainment of, 7, 69 _n._²;
+    initiation at, among the Fijians, 23 _and n._¹, 24;
+    among the Yao, 125.
+
+  Pula, the, 194.
+
+  _Punän_, the term for taboo in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._
+
+  Punjab, the, 137 _sq._
+
+  Purim, Hebrew festival of, 276 _n._²
+
+  _Pyramid Texts_, the, 166 _sq._, 281.
+
+  Python, cult of the, in Uganda, 146.
+
+
+  Ra, Egyptian god, 258.
+
+  Radama I, Malagasy king, 197.
+
+  Ratu-mai-Mbulu, a Fijian deity, 21.
+
+  Reformation, the, 301, 306.
+
+  Reinach, S., 257 _n._¹
+
+  Rendile of British East Africa, 198 _sq._
+
+  Rest days, characteristics of primitive, 1;
+    connection of, with the institution of taboo, 1 _sq._;
+    in Hawaii, 9 _sqq._, 88, 188, 233, 303;
+    in the Society Islands and the Marquesas Islands, 15 _sq._, 16
+      _n._¹;
+    among the Maori, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._²;
+    in the Tonga Islands, 18 _and n._², 19;
+    in Samoa, 19 _sq._;
+    in New Guinea, 26 _and n._¹;
+    among the Kayan of Borneo, 27 _sqq._;
+    among the Iban or Sea Dyak, 33 _sqq._;
+    among the Land Dyak, 36 _sqq._;
+    in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _sq._, 165;
+    in Bali, 41 _sqq._;
+    in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._;
+    in the Philippines, 44 _sqq._;
+    in Manipur, 49 _sqq._;
+    in Assam, 53 _sqq._;
+    in Burma, 55 _sqq._;
+    among the aborigines of southwestern China, 57 _sq._, 194;
+    a characteristic feature of Indo-Chinese culture, 58;
+    compared with the _couvade_, 58 _sq._;
+    psychological and sociological aspects of, 59 _sq._;
+    mark critical epochs in the communal life, 60 _sq._;
+    observed after a death, 62 _sqq._, 84;
+    observance of, in Africa, during seasons of ghost-riddance and
+      demon-riddance, 74 _sqq._;
+    observed in connection with the proceedings of west African secret
+      societies, 77 _sq._;
+    the Greek ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι as, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139 _sq._;
+    the Roman _dies religiosi_ as, 80 _sq._, 84, 93 _sq._, 170 _sq._,
+      273;
+    the Hebrew Day of Atonement and Feast of Trumpets as, 81 _sqq._;
+    the Mohammedan Feast of Sacrifices, 83;
+    festivals observed as, 85 _sqq._;
+    among the Dravidian peoples of India, 88 _sqq._;
+    the Hebrew Day of First-fruits, 90 _sq._;
+    Greek festivals as, 91 _sqq._, 169 _sq._, 211 _sq._, 304;
+    Roman festivals as, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
+    observed in connection with agricultural operations, 101 _and
+      n._¹, 102;
+    market days as, 103 _sq._, 104 _n._, 109 _sqq._, 118, 119 _sqq._;
+    observed in connection with the waning moon, 131 _sqq._;
+    observed during lunar eclipses, 134 _sq._;
+    observed during the _interlunium_, 136 _sqq._;
+    observed at changes of the moon, 143;
+    lunar days as, in Africa, 144 _sqq._;
+    lunar taboos in modern India, 148 _sq._;
+    the ancient Aryan _upavasatha_ as a Sabbath, 149 _sqq._;
+    sabbatarian character of lunar days in Brahmanism, 151 _sqq._;
+    the Jain _posaha_, 154 _sq._;
+    the Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, 155 _sqq._;
+    diffusion of the Buddhist Sabbath, 158 _sqq._;
+    new moon and full moon as, among the Greeks and Romans, 169 _sq._;
+    the _dies postriduani_, 170 _sq._;
+    in Madagascar and eastern Africa, 197 _sqq._;
+    of the American Indians, 197 _n._¹, 303 _n._³;
+    not observed by the Chinese, 203 _and n._¹, 303 _sq._;
+    in Japan, 203 _sq._;
+    not observed by the Javanese, 205 _n._⁴;
+    in Islam, 205 _sq._;
+    seventh days observed as, 208 _sqq._;
+    in Christianity, 220 _sqq._, 269 _sqq._, 306 _sqq._;
+    in Mithraism, 220 _n._³;
+    the Babylonian “evil days” as, 223, 232 _sqq._, 235 _n._¹, 236,
+      241, 254;
+    the Hebrew Sabbath, 242 _sqq._;
+    the Christian Sunday, 267 _sqq._;
+    unlucky days observed as, 272 _sqq._;
+    social and economic significance of, 302 _sqq._
+
+  _Rex sacrorum_, the Roman, 97, 170.
+
+  _Rig-Veda_, the, 177 _n._², 276, 277.
+
+  Rivers, W. H. R., on the lunar superstitions of the Toda, 132;
+    on their sacred days, 288 _sqq._
+
+  Roman Church, names of the weekdays in the calendar of the, 221 _n._²
+
+  Romance countries, names of the weekdays in, 221 _and n._²
+
+  Romans, ancient, unlucky days of the, 80 _and n._², 81, 84, 93 _sq._,
+      94 _n._², 170 _sq._, 171 _n._³, 273;
+    festivals of the, 80 _sq._, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sqq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
+    their market week and market days, 92 _n._, 94 _n._³, 120 _sqq._,
+      193 _and n._³, 219;
+    their lunar calendar, 170, 184 _sq._
+
+  Romulus, 94, 121, 177 _n._¹
+
+  _Rongker_, the Mikir term for rest day, 54.
+
+  Roro-speaking peoples of British New Guinea, 26.
+
+  Russia, Friday an unlucky day in, 222 _n._²;
+    saints’ days observed in, 307.
+
+
+  Sabbatarian regulations, penalties for disobedience of, 10, 20, 46
+      _sq._, 113, 160, 161, 261 _sq._, 290;
+    how evaded, 264, 289 _sq._, 293 _n._³
+
+  Sabbath, the Hebrew, 10 _n._⁴, 91, 96 _n._¹, 98 _n._⁴, 104 _n._, 109,
+      122, 148, 179 _n._¹, 235, 236 _and n._, 242 _sqq._, 291 _sq._,
+      304.
+
+  —— Day’s journey, length of a, 251 _n._⁵, 264.
+
+  Sabbatical Year, the Hebrew, 236 _n._, 260 _sqq._
+
+  _Sacer_, the Latin term for taboo, 3 _and n._⁵
+
+  Saints’ days, observance of, 306 _sq._
+
+  Samoa, village deities of, 19 _sq._;
+    tabooed days observed in, 19 _sq._, 24.
+
+  Sanhedrin, the, 247 _n._², 248.
+
+  _Sansculottides_, the, 283.
+
+  Saoria of Bengal, 137.
+
+  Sarawak, 27 _sqq._, 33 _sqq._, 65, 208.
+
+  _Sarhul_, a Uraon festival, 89.
+
+  Sarpanit, Babylonian goddess, 241 _n._¹
+
+  Saturday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 201, 222 _n._³, 244 _n._³, 245;
+    names applied to, 188 _n._¹, 221, 222 _and n._²;
+    change from, to Sunday, as the first day of the planetary week, 220
+      _sq._, 268;
+    Saturn’s Day and, 243 _sqq._;
+    ecclesiastical recognition of, as a holy day, 269 _and n._⁴
+
+  Saturn, supposed consecration of the _nundinæ_ to, 122 _n._²;
+    the planet, 213, 243 _sqq._
+    _See also_ Saturday.
+
+  Sayce, A. H., on the _khamushtu_, 195 _n._²
+
+  Scapegoat, the Hebrew, 81 _sqq._
+
+  Schiaparelli, G., 213, 235 _n._¹, 261 _n._³
+
+  Scotland, abstinence from work after a death observed in, 74;
+    lunar superstitions in, 133;
+    observance of Saturday in, 270 _n._;
+    unlucky days observed in, 279.
+
+  Sea Dyak. _See_ Iban.
+
+  Seclusion necessary during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9, 10,
+      12, 15, 20, 22, 26, 28 _sq._, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 53, 56, 58
+      _sq._, 64, 65, 69 _n._², 71, 74, 78, 115 _n._⁴, 147, 232 _sq._,
+      257, 280, 295, 296, 297.
+    _See also_ Strangers, exclusion of.
+
+  Secret societies, in Fiji, 23 _and n._¹, 24;
+    in west Africa, 77 _sq._, 111.
+
+  Selene, 130, 139 _sq._
+
+  Seligmann, C. G., 26 _n._³, 101 _n._¹
+
+  Seminoles of Florida, 71.
+
+  _Sepi_, the Balinese term for rest day, 42.
+
+  Sequani of Gaul, 186 _n._¹
+
+  Servius Tullius, 121.
+
+  Seven, as a symbolic number, 208 _sqq._, 225 _and n._², 229 _sqq._
+
+  Seven-day week, the, in New Caledonia, 104 _and n._⁴;
+    in the island of Bali, 105;
+    in the Malay Peninsula, 105, 204;
+    among the Guinea and Sudanese negroes, 115 _sqq._, 199;
+    not known to the Peruvians, 120 _n._¹;
+    in Sumatra, 180;
+    in New Zealand, 188 _n._¹;
+    in Indo-China, 189;
+    unknown to the Egyptians, 191 _n._¹, 245 _sq._;
+    Abyssinian, 194 _n._¹;
+    origin and diffusion of the, 196 _sq._;
+    in Madagascar and eastern Africa, 197 _sq._;
+    in India, 199 _sqq._, 292;
+    in southeastern Asia, 201;
+    in central and northern Asia, 201 _n._⁴;
+    in China, 202 _sq._;
+    in Japan, 203 _sq._;
+    in the Malay Archipelago, 204 _sq._;
+    of the Arabs, 205 _sq._;
+    the planetary or astrological, 215 _sqq._;
+    in Babylonia, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._, 253 _sq._;
+    of the Hebrews, 253 _sqq._;
+    of the early Christians, 267;
+    of the Toda, 292;
+    in Afghanistan, 293.
+    _See also_ Planetary or astrological week.
+
+  Seventh day, the, 205, 208 _sqq._, 224, 232 _sq._, 243, 244 _n._³,
+      299.
+
+  Sexual intercourse, prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period,
+      10, 15, 39 _and n._², 58, 110, 134, 146, 151, 152, 155, 158, 233,
+      296 _sq._, 298;
+    effect of illicit, on the crops, 36 _n._
+
+  _Shabattum_, Babylonian name of full-moon day, 81 _n._³, 235 _sqq._,
+      251.
+
+  _Shabbāth_, original meaning of the Hebrew term, 251, 252, 253;
+    used in the general sense of “week,” 253 _n._²
+
+  _—— shabbāthôn_, the Hebrew, 81 _and n._³, 82, 251, 260.
+
+  _Shabbāthôn_, the Hebrew, 235 _and n._²
+
+  _Shabbti_, Jewish designation of the planet Saturn, 244.
+
+  Shamash, Babylonian sun-god, 239.
+
+  Shan of Burma, 105 _sq._
+
+  Shaving, superstitions relating to, 92 _n._
+
+  _Shib’a_, Jewish period of strict mourning after a death, 74.
+
+  Shropshire, 279.
+
+  Siam, tabooed days observed in, 66;
+    market days kept in, 105, 194 _n._³;
+    the Buddhist Sabbath in, 161 _sq._;
+    bipartite division of the month employed in, 184;
+    the seven-day week in, 201.
+
+  Siberia, 73 _sq._, 126, 132, 201 _n._⁴
+
+  Sickness, taboos imposed in connection with, 24, 25, 34 _sq._, 36,
+      38, 39, 42, 43 _sqq._, 51, 60.
+
+  Sierra Leone, 148 _n._¹
+
+  Sikkim, 67.
+
+  Silence observed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9 _sq._, 11,
+      12 _and n._², 14, 16 _n._¹, 20, 21, 22, 26, 41, 42, 44, 62, 67,
+      77, 151, 278, 297.
+
+  Sin, a Babylonian moon-god, 126, 129, 139, 226, 228 _sq._, 239, 240,
+      248 _n._¹
+
+  Sinaugolo of British New Guinea, a division of time formerly observed
+      by the, 101 _n._¹
+
+  Singer, Jacob, 249 _n._³
+
+  Slave Coast of west Africa, 77 _sq._, 112, 113 _sq._, 187.
+
+  Slavic peoples, names of the weekdays among, 222.
+
+  Smith, H. P., 249 _n._³
+
+  Smith, W. R., 4 _n._, 86 _n._¹, 252.
+
+  Society Islands, the, 9, 15 _sq._, 181 _n._⁷
+
+  Sofalese of Portuguese East Africa, 190 _and n._²
+
+  _Solevu ni vilavou_, a Fijian New Year’s festival, 23 _n._¹
+
+  _Soma_, the intoxicating juice of the moon-plant, 150 _sq._, 158 _n._¹
+
+  Somali, the, 199, 210.
+
+  South Australia, 180.
+
+  _Soyáluña_, a Hopi Indian festival, 303 _n._³
+
+  Spartans, religious scruples of the, 133 _n._³
+
+  Spencer, John, on the origin of the Sabbath in Egypt, 245.
+
+  Spirits. _See_ Demons.
+
+  Strabo, on festival days, 85.
+
+  Strangers, exclusion of, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 20,
+      24, 27, 29 _sq._, 35, 36, 37, 39 _n._¹, 42 _sq._, 44, 45 _sq._,
+      49 _n._¹, 50, 55, 56, 57 _and n._², 66.
+
+  Stseelis of British Columbia, 197 _n._¹
+
+  Subanu of Mindanao, 45 _sq._
+
+  Sudan, the, 69 _n._², 116 _n._¹, 132, 141.
+
+  Sulla, 100.
+
+  Sumatra, 104 _sq._, 180 _sq._, 183, 204 _sq._, 214 _n._, 285 _sq._
+
+  Sun, worship of the, in modern India, 153 _sq._
+
+  Sunday, observance of, by native converts to Christianity, 10 _and
+      n._³, 73 _n._², 75, 114 _n._, 188 _n._¹, 209, 210, 295;
+    an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 137, 201;
+    legislation of Constantine relating to, 122 _sq._, 220;
+    markets held on, during the Middle Ages, 123 _and n._²;
+    in Siam, 162;
+    in India, 200 _n._³, 201;
+    among the Lao, 201;
+    in China, 202 _and n._³;
+    in Japan, 203 _sq._;
+    becomes the first day of the planetary week, 220 _sq._, 268;
+    how named by the early Christians, 267 _and n._³;
+    how observed by the early Christians, 267 _sq._;
+    comes to be regarded as a rest day, 269 _sqq._
+
+  —— legislation, 122 _sq._, 270 _sq._
+
+  Sundyak. _See_ Dusun.
+
+  Superstition, sociological aspects of, 63 _n._², 302, 307 _sq._
+
+  _Sutta Nipâta_, the, 157.
+
+  Swaheli of German East Africa, 76, 197.
+
+
+  Tabernacles, Hebrew Feast of, 236 _n._, 250, 251.
+
+  Taboo, derivation of the word, 2;
+    ideas involved in, 2 _sq._;
+    definition of, 3;
+    conception of, widely diffused, _ib._;
+    how classified, 4;
+    pre-animistic character of, 4 _sq._;
+    supported by animistic sanctions, 5 _sq._;
+    conceptions of abstinence and propitiation involved in, 6 _sq._;
+    social aspects of, 7, 25, 38 _sq._, 59 _sq._, 95;
+    holiness and, 86 _and n._¹
+
+  _Tabu_, the Polynesian conception of, 2 _and n._²;
+    compared with the Hebrew conception, 10 _n._⁴;
+    compared with the Babylonian _mamit_, 231.
+
+  Tacitus, on the origin of the Sabbath, 245 _n._³
+
+  Tahiti, observance of Sunday in, 10.
+
+  _Tambo nalanga_, a Fijian New Year’s festival, 22 _and n._²
+
+  _Tambu_, the Melanesian term for taboo, 3.
+
+  _Ṭāmē_, the Hebrew term for taboo, 4 _n._
+
+  Tamil-speaking peoples of southern India, village festivals of the,
+      89 _sq._
+
+  _Tapu._ See _Tabu_.
+
+  Tarentum, festivals of ancient, 304.
+
+  Tashi Lama, tabooed days observed after the death of the, 67.
+
+  Tatars, the, 132.
+
+  Tattooing, superstitions relating to, 53 _n._²
+
+  Telugu-speaking peoples of southern India, village festivals of the,
+      89 _sq._
+
+  Tenasserim, 161 _n._¹
+
+  _Tengao_ (_tengau_), the Bontoc Igorot term for rest day, 46 _and
+      n._², 88.
+
+  _Tengau._ See _Tengao_.
+
+  Tertullian, on the proper observance of Sunday, 268 _n._³, 269, 270
+      _and n._¹
+
+  _Thahu_, the Akikuyu term for taboo, 6.
+
+  Thessaly, unlucky days observed in, 222 _n._³
+
+  Thor, 221 _n._³
+
+  Thothmes III, inscription of, 167 _sq._
+
+  Thursday, observance of, as a holy day, 221 _n._³
+
+  Tiberius, Roman emperor, 305.
+
+  Tibet, tabooed days observed in, 67;
+    the Buddhist Sabbath in, 162 _sq._;
+    the seven-day week in, 201;
+    unlucky days observed in, 287 _sq._
+
+  Tibullus, 244 _sq._, 266.
+
+  Tides, influence of the moon on the, 130.
+
+  Timor, island of, 63.
+
+  Tippera, the, 55.
+
+  Titi Usi, Samoan village deity, 20.
+
+  Toda of the Madras Presidency, beliefs of, relating to the moon, 132,
+      134;
+    their reckoning of the lunation, 179;
+    their sacred days, 288 _sqq._
+
+  Tofoke of Belgian Congo, 190.
+
+  Togo, 114 _and n._³, 115, 182.
+
+  _Toh_, the Kayan spirits, 6.
+
+  Tonga Islands, the, 18 _and n._², 19.
+
+  Tonkin, 105, 189.
+
+  Tooitonga, Tonga divine chief, 18, 19.
+
+  Torres Straits, islands of, 128 _and n._²
+
+  Toy, C. H., on the meaning of _shabattum_, 238.
+
+  Trading not allowed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 42, 43, 67,
+      71, 151, 155, 159, 300.
+
+  Travel prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, 7, 20, 21, 26,
+      49 _n._¹, 64, 68, 83, 115 _n._⁴, 136, 151, 171, 190 _n._⁴, 198,
+      201, 210, 232, 233, 241 _n._¹, 273 _n._³, 275, 285, 289, 293,
+      297, 298, 301.
+
+  Trumpets, Hebrew Feast of, 82.
+
+  Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, tabooed days observed by
+      the, 112, 113, 115;
+    their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²;
+    unlucky days of the, 272.
+
+  Tuesday, an unlucky day, 201, 272 _and n._²;
+    a lucky day, 273 _sq._
+
+  Tuhoe of New Zealand, beliefs of the, relating to the moon, 128.
+
+  Tui Tokelau, Polynesian divinity, 20 _sq._
+
+  Tullus Hostilius, Roman king, 99.
+
+  Tungthu of Tenasserim, 161 _n._¹
+
+  Twelve Days, the, of the early Aryans, 276 _sq._;
+    in European folklore, 277 _sqq._
+
+
+  _Ubone_, or duty days, observed in Burma, 159 _sqq._, 161 _n._¹
+
+  _Ucharal_, a festival celebrated in Malabar, 89.
+
+  Uganda, 69 _sq._, 75 _sq._, 129, 145 _sqq._, 147 _n._³
+
+  _Ûm nûkh libbi_, 236, 241.
+
+  Union Islands, the, 20 _sq._
+
+  United States, the, lunar superstitions in, 127, 140 _n._³
+
+  Unleavened Bread, Hebrew Feast of, 179 _n._¹, 250, 251.
+
+  Unlucky days, of the ancient Greeks, 79 _and n._³, 80 _and n._¹, 84,
+      92 _sq._, 139 _and n._³, 140;
+    of the ancient Romans, 80 _sq._, 84, 93 _sq._, 170 _sq._, 273;
+    African, 111 _n._³, 190 _n._², 190 _n._³, 272;
+    German, 127, 278 _sq._;
+    in Ceylon, 159 _n._¹;
+    in the Malay Peninsula, 162 _n._⁴, 286;
+    Persian, 166 _n._¹, 282;
+    Malagasy, 197 _n._², 275, 294 _sq._;
+    Hindu, 201, 275;
+    Russian, 222 _n._²;
+    modern Greek, 222 _n._³, 272 _n._², 284 _sq._;
+    Babylonian, 241 _n._¹, 297 _sq._;
+    Egyptian, 258, 282, 295 _sqq._, 304;
+    Hebrew, 263 _and n._²;
+    origin of beliefs in, 272, 274, 276, 283;
+    Macedonian, 272, 273 _n._³, 278, 284 _and n._¹;
+    mediæval superstitions concerning, 273, 299 _sqq._;
+    Burmese, 273 _n._³, 302;
+    Abyssinian, 276 _n._;
+    in the British Isles, 279;
+    Mexican, 279 _sq._;
+    Maya, 280 _sq._;
+    Maori, 285;
+    in Sumatra, 285 _sq._;
+    Chinese, 286 _sq._;
+    Korean, 287;
+    Japanese, _ib._;
+    Tibetan, 287 _sq._;
+    Toda, 290 _sq._;
+    of the Siah Posh Kafirs, 293 _sq._;
+    in the Hesiodic calendar, 298 _sq._;
+    social and economic aspects of, 302 _sqq._
+
+  _Upavasatha_, observance of the, in ancient India, 149 _sqq._, 156.
+
+  _Uposatha_, the Buddhist Sabbath, 155 _sqq._;
+    diffusion of the, in southeastern Asia, 158 _sqq._
+
+  Ur, city of, 239.
+
+  Uraon of Bengal, 88 _sq._
+
+
+  Veblen, Thorstein, on sacred holidays, 87 _n._¹
+
+  Vedas, the, not to be read on certain occasions, 152 _sq._
+
+  Venus, the planet, 205, 213, 214 _n._¹, 243.
+
+  Vergil, on Roman holy days, 98;
+    his calendar of lucky and unlucky days, 299 _n._²
+
+  Vespasian, Roman emperor, 245.
+
+  Vestalia, Roman festival of the, 92 _n._, 93 _sq._
+
+  Vey of Liberia, 199 _n._⁵
+
+  Victoria, 180.
+
+  Village gods, Samoan, 19 _and n._¹, 20.
+
+  _Vishaptatha_, 166 _n._
+
+  _Vishnu Purana_, the, 151 _sq._, 152.
+
+
+  Wa, the Wild, 57.
+
+  Wachaga of German East Africa, 107, 209.
+
+  Wagiriama of British East Africa, 107 _and n._², 136 _and n._³, 189
+      _sq._, 209.
+
+  Wahuma. _See_ Bahima.
+
+  _Wakanda_, 5.
+
+  Wales, unlucky days observed in, 279.
+
+  Wanika of British East Africa, 107.
+
+  _Wan phra_, the Siamese Sabbath, 161 _sq._
+
+  Warfare not engaged in during a tabooed or unlucky period, 21, 22,
+      33, 34, 80, 81, 132, 133 _and n._³, 137, 171, 209, 303.
+
+  Wasania of British East Africa, 134, 209.
+
+  Wednesday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._
+
+  Weekdays, names of the, in Java, 105;
+    in Africa, 109, 111, 112, 113 _n._⁶, 115 _n._²;
+    in New Zealand, 188 _n._¹;
+    of the planetary sequence, 219;
+    in European languages, 221 _sq._;
+    among the early Christians, 267 _and n._³
+
+  Weeks, three-day, 103 _sq._, 105, 107, 108, 110, 119 _and n._³;
+    four-day, 105, 106 _sq._, 108, 109 _sq._, 111 _sq._, 114 _and n._²,
+      116 _n._¹, 119 _n._³;
+    five-day, 103, 104, 105 _sq._, 108, 110, 112 _n._¹, 113 _and n._⁶,
+      114 _and n._³, 116 _n._¹, 118 _sq._, 165 _n._¹, 187 _and n._²,
+      194 _sqq._;
+    six-day, 114 _and n._², 115 _n._, 116 _n._¹, 194;
+    seven-day, 104 _and n._⁴, 105, 115 _sqq._, 120 _n._¹, 122, 180, 187
+      _and n._², 189, 194 _n._¹, 196 _sq._, 197 _sqq._, 199 _n._⁵, 215
+      _sqq._, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._, 253 _sqq._, 267;
+    eight-day, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112 _n._¹, 119 _n._³, 120 _sqq._,
+      193 _sq._;
+    nine-day, 116 _n._¹, 192, 193 _and n._²;
+    ten-day, 110, 119 _sq._, 188 _sqq._
+    _See also_ Lunar weeks _and_ Market weeks.
+
+  Wellhausen, Julius, 82 _n._², 252.
+
+  Westermarck, Edward, 259.
+
+  White, the colour appropriate for sacred days observed on the Gold
+      Coast, 112 _and n._²
+
+  Winckler, Hugo, on the _khamushtu_, 195 _n._²
+
+  Women, restrictions on, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 15, 22,
+      41, 78, 83, 89, 115 _n._⁴, 194.
+
+
+  _Ya_, the Arakanese term for rest day, 55.
+
+  Yabim of German New Guinea, 57 _n._¹
+
+  Yakut of Siberia, 74.
+
+  Yap, island of, 24 _sq._, 189.
+
+  Year, the lunar, 13 _n._², 82 _n._², 174, 175, 176 _sqq._, 226, 247
+      _n._²;
+    beginning of the new, 75;
+    the solar, 82 _n._², 166, 174, 177 _sq._, 247 _n._², 279 _sqq._
+
+  Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, tabooed days observed by
+      the, 77 _sq._, 112, 113 _sq._;
+    their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²
+
+  Yucatan, 174, 280 _sq._
+
+  Yuchi Indians, the, 101 _n._¹
+
+  Yukaghir of Siberia, 201 _n._⁴
+
+
+  Zagmuk, Babylonian festival of, 276 _n._²
+
+  Zimmern, H., 237, 238 _n._⁴, 252 _n._⁶
+
+  Zulu of British South Africa, 67 _sq._, 137, 144.
+
+  Zuñi Indians of New Mexico, 190 _and n._⁶, 211 _n._¹
+
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79292 ***