REST DAYS 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. gorfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published May, 1916. Norfcoooti J. 8. Gushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Co 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 mono- graph has been retained for the present volume, in which the same line of argument is followed and the same conclu- sions 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 out- side the Semitic area in antiquity and later ages. The prin- cipal 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 men- tion Dr. Crawford H. Toy, now Professor Emeritus in Harvard University, and Dr. Louis H. Gray, now Assist- ant Editor of Hastings's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Mr. G. D. Swezey, Professor of Astronomy in the Uni- versity 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 Vlll PREFACE 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: avov euro )(\a)pov rd^veiv & CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Observance of days of abstinence and quiescence not unknown in the lower culture, p. i . Probable origin of the Sabbatarian regulations in primi- tive 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 qui- escence, 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, I o. Likeness between the Hawaiian Sabbaths and the Sabbatarian regulations introduced by missionaries, p. I o. 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. Ta- booed days observed in the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and New Zealand, pp. 1517. In the Tonga Islands a period of taboo imposed at the time of the first-fruits' sacrifice, pp. 1 8, 19. Days kept sacred to certain gods in Samoa and other parts of Polynesia, pp. 1 9-2 1 . -Tabooed days of the Fijians, pp. 21-24. Other instances of cojor munal 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 ob- served by the Kay an of Sarawak and Dutch Borneo, pp. 27-33 > ^7 ^ e 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, x CONTENTS 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. 5355. Customs allied to the genna in Burma, pp. 55-58. Indo-China probably the centre of diffusion of the genna 9 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 com- munal 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, es- pecially among the Eskimo, pp. 7073 ; 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. 7578. 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 CONTENTS xi 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, 1 02. Connection of these days with the institution of the market, pp. 1 02, 103. The evidence for market weeks and market days in various parts of the world : in New Guinea and Melanesia, pp. 103, 1 04 ; in Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula, pp. 1 04, 105 ; in Tonkin, Siam, and Assam, pp. 105, 106 ; throughout the central parts of Africa, pp. 106-108 ; among the Congo negroes, pp. 109, no; 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. 118120. 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. 125127. 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 unfavour- able, for business of various sorts, pp. 131-134. Lunar eclipses sometimes marked by a general suspension of activity, pp. 134, 135. The inter lunium often observed by a cessation of labour, pp. 136140. 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. 149-1 5 1. Sabbatarian observance of lunar days in post-Vedic times, pp. 15* 154. The posaha of Jainism, pp. 154, 155. The Buddhist Sab- bath, or uposatha, pp. 155-158. Introduction of the uposatha into xii CONTENTS 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, 1 70. The Roman Kalends, Nones, and Ides, p. 1 70. The dies postriduani, pp. 1 70, 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. 202204 ; 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. 2 1 1-2 1 2. The seven planets and planetary deities of the Baby- lonians, 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 desig- nations 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. CONTENTS xiii The Babylonian lunar month, p. 226. Determination of the be- ginning of the month, pp. 226, 227. Adjustment of septenary di- visions 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. 232234. 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 be- tween the Hebrew seven-day week and the septenary cycle of the Baby- lonians, 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 regula- tions 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 phari- saic 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 xiv CONTENTS 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. Un- lucky 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. Epagom- enal days in the French Republican calendar, p. 283. Some un- lucky 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 Mal- agasy, pp. 294, 295. Egyptian calendars of lucky and unlucky days, pp. 295-297. A Babylonian calendar, pp. 297, 298. The Hesi- odic 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 devel- opment 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, 307, 308. REST DAYS REST DAYS INTRODUCTION 2 ; ^ REST DAYS but now known to exist in many other regions of the aboriginal world. 1 "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. 2 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 partic- ular manner. 3 The word tapua'i means "to abstain from all work, games, etc." 4 a translation which in- dicates 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." 5 In a derivative sense 1 For the leading facts relating 2 A list of the equivalents of tabu to the institution of taboo see Sir in the languages of Polynesia and J. G. Frazer, "Taboo," Encyclo- Melanesia will be found in Wil- pcedia Britannica,* xxiii, 15-18; Ham Churchill, The Polynesian idem, Taboo and the Perils of the Wanderings, Washington, 1911, pp. Soul, London, 1911; N. W. 263^. Thomas, "Taboo," Encyclopedia 3 E. Shortland, Traditions and Britannic a, xxvi, 337-341; L. Superstitions of the New Zealanders,* Marillier, "Tabou," La grande London, 1856, p. 101. encyclopedic, xxx, 848 sq. ; A. Bros, 4 E. Tregear, The Maori-Poly- La religion des peuples non-civilises, nesian Comparative Dictionary, Wei- Paris, 1907, pp. 185-213 ; C. H. lington (N.Z.), 1891, p. 472. Toy, Introduction to the History of 6 William Ellis, Polynesian Re- Religions, Boston, 1913, pp. 239- searches, London, 1859, iv, 385. 264. INTRODUCTION 3 tabu came naturally to signify " forbidden" or "pro- hibited"; 1 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 regu- lations or prohibitions, but to those only which are supported by a supernatural sanction and the viola- tion of which is visited with a supernatural punish- ment. 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 awful- ness, does refer to the sacred and unapproachable char- acter which things may possess when solemnly cursed in the name of a powerful ghost or spirit. 2 Among the natives of the Gabun colony of French Equatorial Africa orunda meant, originally, "prohibited from hu- man use." Under missionary hands the word de- veloped into its related sense of "sacred to spiritual use," and in the Mpongwe Scriptures orunda serves as the translation of our word "holy." 3 The Malagasy equivalent of tabu is fady, which means, primarily, "dangerous," but which has the derivative meanings sacre, "prohibited," "ill-omened," "unlucky." 4 An- thropologically, it is no far cry from such expressions to the Greek dyios or to the Latin sacer, since each of these terms conveys the twin ideas of sanctity and pollution. 5 1 The proper term for "prohibit" 4 A. van Gennep, Tabou et was rahui (ibid., iy, 386). totemisme a Madagascar, Paris, 2 R. H. Codrington, The Mela- 1904, pp. 12 sqq., 23. nesians, Oxford, 1891, p. 215. In 6 As Sir James Frazer has pointed the Banks Islands and in the New out (Encyclopedia Britannica,* Hebrides the word rongo is em- xxiii, 18), the Greeks usually dis- ployed to indicate the naturally criminated the two ideas, dyvos holy character which certain ob- being devoted to the sense of jects may possess, quite independ- "sacred** and ti/ayi/s to that of ently of any human sanction or "unclean'* or "accursed.** The prohibition (ibid., p. 181). two words, of course, have no cbn- 3 R. H. Nassau, Fetichism in nection, dyvos being related to Skt. West Africa, London, 1904, p. 80. yaj-, "sacrifice** and evayijs to 4 REST DAYS It is convenient to distinguish between taboos which are artificially imposed and those which follow inev- itably 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 ad- vanced 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 ordi- nances 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 explana- tion 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 primi- tive 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, pro- duces 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 Skt. agas-, "sin" (E. Boisacq, Hebrew tame "is not the ordinary Dictionnaire etymologique de la word for things physically foul; langue 'grecque, Heidelberg and it is a ritual term and corresponds Paris, 1907, pt. i, 7, 9). Among exactly to the idea of taboo" (Kin- the Romans sacer always continued ship and Marriage in Early Arabia? to retain the double meaning; it London, 1903, p. 309). For a list may be closely rendered by tabu. of Biblical passages containing tame Compare Servius on Vergil, neis, see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A iii, 75. The late W. Robertson Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Smith referred to the fact that the Old Testament, Boston, 1906, p. 379. INTRODUCTION 5 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 con- tact, but also by sight and mere proximity. It is probably true that, in using such expressions as " con- tagion" 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 imper- sonal, forces immanent in nature. 1 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. 2 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. 3 Among the 1 The notion of transmissibility R. Marett, The Threshold of Reli- has been especially developed by gion, 2 London, 1914, pp. 99-121. such writers as A. E. Crawley, The 2 On the general belief in the Mystic Rose, London, 1902, passim, omnipresence of demons and their Hubert and Mauss, "Esquisse action in causing human ills see d'une theorie generale de la magie," Sir J. G. Frazer, The Scapegoat, L'annee sociologique, 1904, vii, 108 London, 1913, pp. 72-108. sqq.; F. B. Jevons, An Introduc- 3 J. S. Polack, Manners and Cus- tion to the History of Religion,* 1 toms of the New Zealanders, London, London, 1908, pp. 59-68, and R. 1840, i, 234. 6 REST DAYS Kayan and other pagan tribes of Borneo the minor spirits, or toh, play a considerable part in the regula- tion 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." 1 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." 2 The Babylonians, again, appear to have entertained very definite con- ceptions 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. 3 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 pre- cautions : the dangerous individual or thing is removed to a safe distance ; or is carefully isolated ; or is sub- jected to a series of insulating regulations. The en- 1 Hose and McDougall, The Rites," Journal of the Royal An- Pagan Tribes of Borneo, London, thropological Institute, 1910, xl, 1912, i, 26. 428. 2 C. W. Hobiey, "Kikuyu Cus- 3 R. C. Thompson, The Devils toms and Beliefs. Thahu and its and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, Lon- Connection with Circumcision don, 1904, ii, pp. xxxix sqq. INTRODUCTION 7 tire 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 pro- cedure 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 cere- monies the supernatural powers responsible for the visitation. The two conceptions of abstinence and propitiation are not, indeed, always sharply distin- guishable in concrete cases, and with advancing cul- ture 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. 1 Comparative studies have indicated how numerous are the pro- hibitions which attach to these times of high solemnity and significance ; and it is reasonable to suppose that, with the deepening sense of social solidarity, observ- ances 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. 1 For an extensive presentation Beautiful, London, 1913, i, 22-100, of the ethnographic evidence see ii, 225-278. The whole subject is Sir J. G. Frazer, Taboo and the most suggestively treated by Pro- Perils of the Soul, London, 1911, fessor A. van Gennep, Les rites de pp. 131-223; idem. Balder the passage, Paris, 1909. 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 reli- gious institution, if religion be understood in its broad- est 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, com- munal 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 8 TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 9 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. 1 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. Else- where 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. 2 The observance of such taboos varied according as they were common or strict. When a common sea- son 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 regu- lations 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 pres- ence 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 1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, don, 1826, p. 366; idem, Polynesian iv, 387 sqq. Researches, iv, 387 sq. ; J. J. Jarves, 2 Idem, Narrative of a Tour History of the Hawaiian or Sand- through Hawaii or Owhyhee, Lon- wich Islands? Boston, 1843, p. 57. io REST DAYS of the dogs and pigs, and put the fowls under a cala- bash, or fastened a piece of cloth over their eyes." 1 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. 2 The Sabbatarian regulations introduced by Chris- tian missionaries among their Hawaiian adherents presented no sharp contrast to the rigours of the old dis- pensation. 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. 3 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." 4 1 Ellis, Narrative, pp. 366 sq.; was heard through the day; no compare idem, Polynesian Re- persons were seen carrying burdens searches, iv, 388. in or out of the village, nor any 2 H. T. Cheever, The Island canoes passing across the bay. It World of the Pacific, Glasgow [1851], could not but be viewed as the dawn p. 63. of a bright sabbatic day for the 3 Ellis, Narrative, p. 368; Hiram dark shores of Hawaii" (Polynesian Bingham, A Residence of Twenty- Researches, iv, 408). For similar one Years in the Sandwich Islands, statements see C. S. Stewart, A Hartford, 1849, pp. 177 sq. De- Visit to the South Seas, London, scribing his experiences at Kihoro, 1832, pp. 277 sqq., 302 sq. the missionary Ellis could not 4 Charles Wilkes, Narrative of restrain his admiration of the con- the U.S. Exploring Expedition, duct of the native converts on Philadelphia, 1845, ii, 13. "The Sunday: "No athletic sports were tabu system/' wrote an early mis- seen on the beach; no noise of sionary, "making sacred certain playful children shouting as they times, persons, and places, and con- gambolled in the surf, nor distant taining many restrictions and pro- sound of the cloth-beating mallet hibitions, may easily be interpreted TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS n Communal taboos were observed by the Hawaiian Islanders generally in connection with important reli- gious 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, con- sisting 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 pro- nounced 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 dur- ing 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 com- pany had feasted, a procession was formed with the feather-gods in front, followed by the chiefs and people as a relic, much changed and cor- au moins dans quelques-uns de ses rupted, from the ancient ceremonial effets, mais eminemment religieux observances of the Jews" (Sheldon dans son origine, non moins que Dibble, History of the Sandwich 1'interdit des Hebreux, avec lequel Islands, Lahainaluna, 1843, p. 27). il avait des rapports frappans, qui The resemblances between the n'ont point encore etc signales, Polynesian institution and certain quoique meritant assurement toute customs recorded in the Old Testa- Tattention du philosophe et du ment impressed another early moraliste" (J. A. Moerenhout, writer, who refers to taboo as "ce Voyages aux lies du grand ocean, singulier usage, en partie politique, Paris, 1837, ii, 6). 12 REST DAYS with pala fern, o/u'fl-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." 1 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 pray- ers 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 congre- gation sat in front of the mana house, listening and watching in profound silence. The king stood listen- ing 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 dur- ing 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 congratu- lated the king, and predicted for him victory and long life. The people then raised loud shouts of Lele wale ka aha el which were repeated by all who heard them, and so the news travelled far and wide." 2 Such were 1 W. D. Alexander, A Brief His- the early archives of the govern- tory of the Hawaiian People, New ment. York, 1899, p. 55. The author's 2 Alexander, op. cit., pp. 56 sq. work is based largely on unpub- Elsewhere this excellent authority lished Hawaiian manuscripts and describes the Hawaiian prayers as TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 13 some of the ceremonies at the dedication of an impor- tant temple. 1 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 feast- ing 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. 2 in some measure magical incanta- translated from the Hawaiian by tions, which, to secure the desired N. B. Emerson, is an exception- effect, required to be repeated ally valuable repository of native without the slightest mistake. lore. " During the most important class 2 Alexander, op. cit., pp. 59 sqq. ; of prayers, called aha, it was neces- Malo, op. cit., pp. 186-210. This sary that absolute silence should New Year's festival with its accom- be preserved, as the least noise panying taboo is also referred to in would break the spell and destroy an early work entitled Voyage of the whole effect of the charm" H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich (ibid., p. 50). A similar precaution, Islands in the Years 1824-1825, as is well known, characterized the London, 1826, pp. n sq. Accord- ritual of a Roman sacrifice. ing to A. Fornander (An Account 1 For additional data on this of the Polynesian Race, London, subject see Jarves, op. cit., pp. 1878, i, 119 sq.) the Hawaiian year 51 sq., and David Malo, Hawai- consisted of twelve 3<>day months ian Antiquities, Honolulu, 1903, with five additional tabu days in- pp. 210-248. The latter work, tercalated at the end of Welehu. i 4 REST DAYS 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 relat- ing 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 si- lence. 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 dedica- tion. Meanwhile a man was sent to the woods to gather pala fern. All that day a solemn rest was ob- served 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. 1 The Hawaiian religious system included a remark- able 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 If this statement be correct, the the Hawaiian year was strictly Hawaiian epagomenal days would lunar, with months of 29 and 30 furnish a remarkable parallel to days in alternation and an occa- those of the ancient Mexicans and sional intercalary month. Egyptians (below, pp. 279 sqg.). 1 Alexander, op. cit., pp. 52 sq. t But the best authorities agree that 62 sq. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 15 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. 1 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. Diver- gencies 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 cere- mony 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 aban- 1 Ibid., pp. 50 sqq.; Dibble, op. the god Lono. The same point is cit. 9 25 sq.; Malo, op. cit. y p. 56. made by Judge Fornander (op. cit., The latter authority, a native i, 123 n. 2 ), whose information was writer intimately versed in Hawai- derived from the Hon. S. M. ian antiquities, declares that the Kamakau, an intelligent Hawaiian, seasons of taboo were not observed born and brought up under the during the four makahiki months heathen regime. On these Hawai- of the year, when the regular reii- ian Sabbaths see below, pp. 88, gious services were suspended for 188, 233, 258, 303. games and ceremonies in honour of 16 REST DAYS doned ; "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 con- sumed 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. 1 Among the Maori of New Zealand the preparations for mackerel fish- ing 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. 2 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 1 J. A. Moerenhout, Voyages ing as "un jour de silence et de aux lies du grand ocean, Paris, 1837, repos, tapu pour ceux qui restent i, 516 sq. ^ See further Mathias a la maison." G [Garcia] (Lettres sur les lies 2 William Yate, An Account of Marquises, Paris, 1843, p. 210), New Zealand, London, 1835, p. who refers to the first day of fish- 85. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 17 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. 1 Still another critical epoch when the Maori subjected themselves to communal taboos occurred at the begin- ning 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. 2 1 James Cowan, The Maoris of no. No food might be cooked on New Zealand, Melbourne and Lon- the day before a war-party set out don, 1910, pp. i i6sq. The kumara (ibid., p. 108). Mr. Tregear, an crop was sacred, all persons en- excellent authority, declares that gaged in its cultivation were tempo- in New Zealand "there were no rarily tabooed, and the offering long periods of silence such as the of the first-fruits of the kumara kings of Hawaii laid on their people formed a very solemn religious by proclaiming tapu" (ibid., p. 122). ceremony (E. Tregear, in Journal Another writer assures us that the of the Anthropological Institute, Maori "had no days more sacred 1890, xix, no). Compare Richard than others" (Taylor, op. cit., Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, London, p. 92). Yet in one part of New J^SS, p. 57. Zealand it was customary to cele- 2 E. Tregear, in Journal of the brate the new year with a karakia, Anthropological Institute, 1890, xix, or magical incantation and prayer; i8 REST DAYS 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 possess- ing a detailed description of the ceremony by an eye- witness of it. 1 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 prepara- tion 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 Nofo, oooa tegger gnaooe, oooa gnaooe, 'Rest thou, doing no work; thou shalt not work.'" 2 This in another place there was a of Mr. William Mariner, Boston, karakia when the new moon ap- 1820, pp. 381-385. Mariner passed geared; and in still another place four years among the Tonga Is- "the most sacred day of the year landers as the adopted son of the was that appointed for hair-cutting; king Finow. His picturesque, but the people assembled from all the apparently reliable, narrative de- neighbouring parts, often more than scribes the natives in their aborig- a thousand in number ; the opera- inal state before the arrival of tion being commenced with karakia, Christian missionaries, the operator and his obsidian (sub- 2 Not only was all work pro- stitute for scissors) being thus ren- hibited at the time of the inachi, dered peculiarly sacred" (ibid., but even any one's appearance p. 93). abroad, unless for the purposes of 1 John Martin, An Account of the ceremony, was interdicted the Natives of the Tonga Islands . . . (Martin-Mariner, op. cit., p. 383 from the Extensive Communications n. 2 ). The Tongans observed a TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 19 increases till midnight, men generally singing the first part of the sentence, and the women the last, to pro- duce 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 pro- ceedings consisted in the solemn presentation of the first-fruits to the divine chief at the grave of his prede- cessor, 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 com- plex pantheon of household and village gods, the recip- ients 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. 1 One of these militant divinities was the cuttle-fish (fe'e), said to have been imported like restriction after a death. l This Samoan religious system When a corpse was being taken to has been fully described by Sir the burying-ground, all persons in J. G. Frazer, who believes that it the roadway or the adjacent fields exhibits "what seems to be the were obliged to keep out of sight, passage of pure totemism into a under pain of becoming tabooed. religion of anthropomorphic gods Those who showed themselves at with animal and vegetable attri- such a time were generally killed butes, like the deities of ancient on the spot (ibid., pp. 243 sq. 9 Greece" (Totemism and Exogamy, 394). London, 1910, ii, 152). 20 REST DAYS 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 an- other 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.^ 1 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 cocoa- nut-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." 2 The festivals of the other village deities of Samoa seem not to have been marked by compulsory cessation of activity. 3 The observance of regular periods consecrated to the gods has been noticed in some other parts of Poly- nesia. 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 1 George Turner, Samoa, Lon- 3 Ibid., pp. 26 sq. 9 41, 44, 47, 49, don, 1884, pp. 29 sq. 53, 57. 2 Ibid., p. 60. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 21 laid aside. The people assembled from the three is- lands of the group to enjoy feasting and dancing. They prayed to their divinity for life, health, and a plentiful supply of fish and cocoanuts. 1 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. 2 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. 3 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." 4 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 per- formed by some Fijian tribes. The time of its cele- 1 Turner, Samoa, p. 269. Western Pacific, London, 1853, 2 Ibid., p. 279. pp. 245 sq. 3 J. E. Erskine, Journal of a 4 Basil Thomson, The Fijians, Cruise among the Islands of the London, 1908, p. 114. 22 REST DAYS bration was determined by the appearance of a cer- tain 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 gen- eral 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 through- out 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 immedi- ately exacted by the chief/' 1 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. 2 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. 3 1 U.S. Exploring Expedition, This festival bore the name of Philadelphia, 1846, vi, 67 sq. tarnbo nalanga (ibid., iii, 342). {Ethnography and Philology, by H. 8 In Samoa the second half of Hale). the year was called the palolo sea- 2 Charles Wilkes, Narrative of son, from the appearance of this the U.S. Exploring Expedition, singular worm for three days in Philadelphia, 1845, iii, 90 sq. the course of a year. If the last TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 23 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 probably, 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 repre- sented, 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 dwell- ing-place of the spirits ; it was a tabernacle as holy to these Fijians as was the structure in the Wilder- ness to the Israelites ; there the first-fruits of the yam harvest were solemnly presented to the ances- tors ; 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.'" 1 quarter of the moon is late in Octo- des and Banks Islands). See A. her, the palolo is found the day Kramer, Die Samoa-Inseln, Stutt- before, the day of, and the day gait, 1903, ii, 399-406, and B. after that quarter. Should the last Friedlander, "Notes on the palolo," quarter of the moon be early in Journal of the Polynesian Society, October, the worm does not come 1898, vii, 44-46. till the last quarter of the Novem- 1 L. Fison, "The nanga, or ber moon (Turner, Samoa, p. 207). Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wain- The palolo, it may be noted, is not an imala, Fiji," Journal of the Anthro- entire animal, but only the "prop- pological Institute, 1885, xiv, 18. agation-body" of a sea-annelid The solemn rite of initiation into (apparently Eunice Firidis Gray), the nanga was always celebrated which lives in holes in the coral at the time of the New Year's fes- stone and comes to the surface for tival, late in October or early in the act of fertilization. It is found November. This Fijian festival, in various parts of Polynesia, in- called solevu ni vilavou, corre- cluding Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, sponded to the Tahitian and Hawai- and also in Melanesia (New Hebri- ian makahiki (A. B. Joske, "The 24 REST DAYS In this instance there was no attribution of the sacred period to any particular divinity, though all the cere- monies 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 observ- ance of communal rest days on certain occasions when the social consciousness had been deeply moved by untoward and disastrous events. In Futuna, or Er- ronan, 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." 1 In Hawaii a tabu period was declared during the sickness of chiefs. 2 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 fu- neral ceremonies were performed. During this time no stranger might approach the stricken village ; a luck- less wayfarer, pushing in by accident, would have been promptly clubbed. 3 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 " wiz- ards," 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 nanga of Viti Levu," Internatio- 2 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, nales Archiv fur Ethnographie, 1889, iv, 387. ii, 259). On the nanga see further 3 W. T. Pritchard, Polynesian H. Webster, "Totem Clans and Reminiscences, London, 1866, pp. Secret Associations in Australia 149 sq.; George Turner, Nineteen and Melanesia," Journal of the Years in Polynesia, London, 1861, Royal Anthropological Institute, p. 229; idem, Samoa, p. 146. See 1911, xli, 506 sq. also A. Bastian, Inselgruppen in 1 S. P. Smith, in Journal of the Oceanien, Berlin, 1883, p. 55. Polynesian Society, 1892, i, 40. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 25 time of drought, famine, or sickness, after a death of a chief or famous man, and before a fishing expedition. 1 "In short, any great public event is thus celebrated, and, in fact, there is always a tabu in full swing some- where or other, to the great disgust of the traders, who only see in these enforced holidays an excuse for idling, drunkenness and debauchery." 2 The accounts preserved in the older literature relat- ing 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, to- gether 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 pro- tective measure necessary for the safety of the social group. If we assume that the individual taboos repre- sent the earlier phase of the institution, then the com- munal taboos may be regarded as merely an extension to the body politic of these simpler and more rudi- mentary customs. The probability of such a transi- tion will be strengthened by a consideration of the tabooed days found among some other primitive peoples. 1 For an interesting description ers and fishers, generally, see of the regulations imposed on the Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the fishermen themselves see W. H. Soul, pp. 190-223. ~^. W. Furness, 3d., The Island of Stone 2 F. W. Christian, The Caroline Money, Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 sq. On taboos observed by hunt- Money, Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 Islands, London, 1899, p. 290. hi 26 REST DAYS 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. 1 Among the Roro-speaking tribes, inhabiting the strip of coast from Cape Posses- sion 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. 2 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 la- boured 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 caus- ing 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." 3 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, 1 A close observer, G. A. J. van sians of British New Guinea, Cam- der Sande, did not notice any spe- bridge, 1910, p. 275. cial rest days among the natives 3 Quoted in Turner, Samoa, with whom he came in contact, and p. 349. The custom mentioned in whose customs he has so fully de- the text must now be obsolete. It scribed (Nova Guinea, Leiden, 1907, is not referred to in Dr. Seligmann's iii, 270). exhaustive account of the Koita 2 C. G. Seligmann, The Melane- and Motu tribes. * TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 27 e 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) plant- ing and harvesting, sometimes also at mid-harvest. 1 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. 2 "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." 3 The rude agricultural methods of the Kayan start with the preliminary process of clearing a site in the 1 It would seem that among the The Malay word in full would Bornean tribes, generally, the chief thus be per-hantu-an, meaning is responsible for the proper obser- "possessed by spirits" or "be- vation of the omens and for the witched." Lali is probably a pure regulation of taboos affecting an Kayan word and means both entire community. Compare Hose "prohibited" and "sacred" (Fur- and McDougall, The Pagan Tribes ness, op. cit., p. 160; A. W. of Borneo, London, 1912, i, 65. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, 2 W. H. Furness, 3d., The Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 109). Ac- Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters, cording to Messrs. Hose and Philadelphia, 1902, pp. 160-169. McDougall malan and parit are 3 Permantong is the term used the proper Kayan words for taboo, by the Kayan of the Baram Dis- though lali and tulah are used as trict; among the Kayan in the their lingua franca equivalents, valley of the Kapuas River, Dutch Malan applies to acts involving Borneo, the word is pantang, the risks to the entire community, regular Malay equivalent of tabu. parit to those involving risk to the Both these forms are possibly de- individual committing the for- rived from the Malay hantu, a bidden act (Pagan Tribes of Borneo, word meaning demon or evil spirit, i, 14 n. 1 ). with the prefix per and the affix an. 28 REST DAYS 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. 1 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 house- hold." 2 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 ve- 1 On these omen animals see 1911, pp. 47 sq., 152 sqq., 298; further Sir Spenser St. John, Hose and McDougall, op. cit., ii, Life in the Forests of the Far East, 51-114 (with some interesting par- London, 1862, i, 191 sqq.; J. allels between the modern Kayan Perham, in H. L. Roth, The Natives and the Roman auspices). Com- of Sarawak and British North pare W. D. Wallis, "Divination Borneo, London, 1896, i, 191-201 ; and Omens in Borneo and in A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters, Lon- Ancient Rome," Classical Journal, don, 1901, pp. 384 sqq.; E. H. 1914, ix, 272-274. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the 2 Furness, op. cit., p. 161. Sea Dyaks of Borneo, London, TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 29 randa, 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 fol- lowing, 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 flap- ping 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." 1 There now occurs a brief respite of the lali observ- ance, 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 absti- nence 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, 1 Furness, op. cit., pp. 162 sq. 30 REST DAYS 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 merri- ment 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." * These customs of the Kayan of Sarawak are signifi- cant as showing how for a Bornean community the whole period of farming, from the initial task of select- ing 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 1 Furness, op. cit., pp. 164 sq. I TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 31 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 com- munity of primitive farmers who depend mainly on the rice crop for subsistence, and by whom all agri- cultural operations have been invested with a religious significance. Without the consent of the spirits no farm work may be undertaken ; without a strict regi- men 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 conse- quently endanger the welfare of the crops. 1 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. 2 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 1 This period of seclusion is em- wooden helmets and bandages of ployed by the Kayan in various banana leaves, simulate the actions games and masquerades, which, if of evil spirits. On the magical sig- they have a recreative value, pos- nificance of games in primitive sess as well a religious or magical agriculture, see Sir J. G. Frazer, meaning in the minds of the Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, people. During the sowing festi- London, 1912, i, 92-112. val the men play at spinning tops, 2 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch the youths engage in athletic Borneo, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 166 sports, and maskers, disguised by sqq. 32 REST DAYS 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 in- volves 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. 1 To the Kayan on the Mahakam River in Dutch Borneo, the building of a chief's 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. 2 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 con- struction of the house, such as the sinking of the piles and the placing of the finely carved wooden figure- heads at the two ends of the ridgepole, are signalized by appropriate sacrifices to the spirits. When a suffi- cient quantity of shingles has been prepared for cover- ing the roof, another offering, consisting of a fat pig and two chickens, is made to the spirits. Then fol- lows a rest period, called melo* two days in length. During this time a strip of rattan is stretched around 1 Nieuwenhuis, op. cit., i, 107. do not go forth on the search for 2 The Kayan call the full moon omens (ibid., i, 415). the "evil moon" and at this time 'Translated by Dr. Nieuwen- build neither houses nor boats, and huis as "sitzen, nicht arbeiten." I TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 33 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 last- ing eight days. Thus anxiously and seriously does the Kayan conduct himself in all the crises of his tribal life. 1 Among the most numerous and powerful of the Bor- nean 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 cus- toms. A Christianized native, who has given to us a remarkably intimate description of the religious observ- ances of his people, thus sets forth the omens and inci- dents 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 fall- ing 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 fre- quent 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 btdinding, 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 winnow- ing-fan, will deter the Iban from going on the war- path, for they tell of defeat and of being overpowered by the enemy. 1 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, " Reli- des II internationalen Kongresses giose Zeremonien beim Hauserbau fur allgemeine Religions geschichte, der Bahau-Dajak am obern Maha- Basel, 1905, pp. 107-119; compare kam in Borneo," Ferhandlungen idem, Quer durch Borneo >, ii, 174. D 34 REST DAYS "To hear the cry of a bird of evil omen on first wak- ing 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, 1 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." 2 But these are not all the circumstances under which an Iban community subjects itself to the rule of ab- stinence. Rice-planting here, as among the Kayan, necessitates certain rest periods, each of three days' duration. 3 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. 4 When rumours are abroad of cholera, smallpox, or fever, another season of seclusion is imposed. The entrance to the village 1 "At certain seasons of the Years in Sarawak, London, 1866, moon, just before and just after the i, 149). full, the [Sea] Dyaks do not work 2 Leo Nyuak, "Religious Rites at their farms ; and what with and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks bad omens, sounds, signs, adverse of Sarawak," translated from the dreams, and deaths, two-thirds of Dyak by the Very Rev. Edm. their time is not spent in farm Dunn, Anthropos, 1906, i, 410 sq. labour" (Charles Brooke, Ten * Ibid., i, 176. * Ibid., i, 181. : TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 35 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. 1 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 2 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 inhabi- tants 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." 3 l Ibid., i, 416 sq. which the Dyak has peopled his 2 Betara, otherwise petara, is the universe. See J. Perham, f( Petara, ordinary Sea Dyak name for or Sea Dyak Gods," Journal of the deity. The word is incorrectly Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic translated as "Great Spirit"; in Society, 1881, no. 8; H. L. Roth, general belief there are many The Natives of Sarawak and British petara. These gods, it may be North Borneo, London, 1896, i, noted, are separated by no distinct 168-182. line of demarcation from the thou- 3 Brooke Low, in Roth, op. cit., sands of antu, or spirits, with i, 401. See also idem, in Journal 36 REST DAYS 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 occa- sions when the Land Dyak subject themselves to pamali, or taboo : "The first, pamali mati, is on a house, and on every- thing in it for twelve days after the decease of any per- son 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 re- moved 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 inter- course 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. of the Anthropological Institute, contributed to a stricter observance 1893, xxii, 24. Many primitive of the rules of sexual morality, peoples are accustomed to trace a both among the married and the direct connection between sexual unmarried. See The Magic Art sins and the welfare of the crops. and the Evolution of Kings, London, As Sir James Frazer has shown, 1911, ii, 104-119. this superstition has undoubtedly TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 37 "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." 1 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 dis- used for one day, or some one will meet with an acci- dent 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." 2 In the course of an excellent study of the Land Dyak festivals, 3 Mrs. S. B. Scott argues that they are far more effective as social observances when accom- panied by the various taboos. The change of occupa- tions 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 1 Sir Hugh Low, Sarawak, Lon- 2 William Chalmers, in Roth, op. don, 1848, pp. 260-262. See also cit., i, 401. Sir Spenser St. John, Life in the 3 Mrs. S. B. Scott, "Harvest Forests of the Far East, London, Festivals of the Land Dyaks," 1862, i, 175 sqq. According to Journal of the American Oriental this writer porikh is the Land Dyak Society, 1908, xxix, 236-280. expression equivalent to pamali. 38 REST DAYS 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, af- fords a much needed rest from the heavy work of har- vesting ; 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. 1 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. 2 Childbirth imposes a taboo of eight days' duration on a Land Dyak family ; 3 in this case the regulation does not appear to be ex- tended to the community at large. Sickness is another event which puts a family under the ban ; 4 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 1 Mrs. S. B. Scott, " Harvest provided some other woman begins Festivals of the Land Dyaks," the work for her ; and the husband Journal of the American Oriental may dig a trench or erect a post, Society y 1908, xxix, 244 sqq. if the hands of others are first set 2 St. John, op. cit., i, 163. to the task. Taboos of this sort 3 Ibid., i, 1 60. The Sea Dyak prevail until the child cuts its first make an interesting distinction be- teeth (F. W. Leggatt, in Roth, tween mali and penti, the former op. cit., i, 98). absolutely forbidding certain kinds 4 Sir Hugh Low observes that of work to a person under the ban, among the Land Dyak the favourite the latter allowing it to be under- remedies for the cure of internal taken, if started by some one not diseases are turmeric and spices, subject to the taboo. For in- taken in huge quantities; "but stance, though both parents are for anything at all serious, recourse penti during the wife's pregnancy, is had to the pamali, both in medi- the expectant mother may engage cal and surgical cases" (Sarawak, in basket-making and mat-weaving, p. 308). TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 39 taboos, based on gross superstition, into community ordinances which may sometimes have a real justi- fication in their social usefulness. These Bornean regulations disclose a fairly consist- ent effort to adjust the length of the communal taboo to the importance of the event which it commemorates. Thus, housebuilding imposes a shorter season of ab- stinence 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." 1 To these prohibitions should be added that of sexual intercourse, a taboo specifically mentioned for one Bornean tribe, and probably found among others. 2 The close resemblances, even in details, between the communal taboos observed in different parts of Borneo must, unquestionably, be attributed to a long-con- tinued process of diffusion among the various Indone- 1 St. John, op. cit. t i, 175 sq. voice whether there is no taboo" (Land Dyak). Mr. Charles Hose (L. Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, i, declares that at such times the 175). inhabitants of a Kayan communal 2 The Murik on the Baram house may taboo their private River, a community of hardworking rooms to the other inmates. Small farmers, in addition to the corn- fines are imposed for infringing the munal taboos observed by them at rule, if the act is unintentional, sowing, also keep a lemalli of seven but when a man forces his way into days, when the paddy crop is about a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, to be harvested. "For the first ending in bloodshed, may result three days of this no one stirs out (Journal of the Anthropological of the house, no work is done, Institute, 1894, xxiii, 170). "It is and no sexual intercourse is al- an old custom among the Iban for lowed" (R. S. Douglas, in Sarawak a stranger, before climbing the Museum Journal, 1911, i, 146 ladder of a house, to ask in a loud sqq.). 40 REST DAYS sian 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 popu- lation. Though our knowledge of Bornean ethnog- raphy 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 observ- ing 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 Nico- barese 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 propiti- ated with offerings or driven out by exorcisms. On such occasions the Nicobarese hold lengthy festivals, some of which are accompanied by periods of com- munal abstinence. The native name for these en- forced rest days or holidays is anoiila. 1 Every year the inhabitants of Kar Nicobar observe the ceremony of kataphang, at which time the group of buildings, called the elpanam* is cleaned out and purified to the accom- 1 See below, p. 165. found under different names in 2 The elpanam consists of several many of the East Indian islands, large structures, which serve as a and even more widely. See H. guest-house for strangers and as a Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, town-hall for feasts and public New York, 1908, pp. 8 sqq. gatherings. The institution is I TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 41 paniment 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 elpa- nam 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. 1 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 anoi- ila 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. 2 The exact meaning of these observances is difficult to make out. Very similar customs have been found among the *V. Solomon, in Journal of the xxxii, 210; Kloss, op. cit., pp. Anthropological Institute, 1902, 297 sq. Another kiala festival, xxxii, 215 sq. See also C. B. Kloss, also followed by alternate periods ot In the Andamans and Nicobars, rest and work, appears to be ob- London, 1903, pp. 293 sqq. served in connection with fishing 2 V. Solomon, in Journal of the (Kloss, op. cit., p. 295). Anthropological Institute, 1902, 42 REST DAYS 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, includ- ing 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. 1 This period of quiescence is clearly a means of avoiding contact with the ghostly powers. The reason given for abstaining from activ- ity to make the spirits suppose that Bali is not Bali may be taken as a nai've 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 1 R. van Eck, in Tijdschrift voor reproduced by J. Jacobs, Eenigen Nederlandsch-Indie, 1879, n.s., viii, tijd onder de Baliers, Batavia, Eck's account is 1883, pp. 190 sqq. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 43 are not agreeable to the pitara, who desire to see the old institutions and usages faithfully preserved." 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. 2 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. 3 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 pundn. The "great" pundn 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" pundn. The same pro- pitiatory usage becomes necessary when a villager has been killed by a crocodile. The "little" pundn relates !R. Friederich, 'm Journal of the der Niasser," Tijdschrift voor in- Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, n.s., dische taal-land-en volkenkunde, ix, 77. On the petara see above, 1890, xxxm, 486 sqq. m p 35 n z 3 Hinlopen and Severm, ibid., 2 F. Kramer, "Der Gotzendienst 1855, iii, 329 W 44 REST DAYS 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" pundn 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. 1 The wild and little-known aborigines of Formosa, who are probably of Indonesian origin, appear to pos- sess 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." 2 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 ex- cluded from the village. 3 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." 4 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 1 A. Maass, " Ta-kd-kdi-kdi 3 W. Joest, in Verhandlungen der tabu," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthro- 1905, xxxvii, 155 sq. The greater pologie, Ethnologic, und Urge- part of this valuable article is con- schichte, 1882, p. [(62) (bound with cerned with the analogies between Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, vol. xiv) . the taboo system in the Mentawi 4 G. Taylor, in Proceedings of the Islands and related systems in Royal Geographical Society, 1889, Indonesia and Polynesia. n.s., xi, 233; idem, "Folklore of 2 W. A. Pickering, Pioneering in Aboriginal Formosa," Folk-lore Formosa, London, 1898, p. 71. Journal, 1887, v, 150. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 45 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 pro- nounced belief in spirits both good and evil. Cere- monies of propitiation accompany all important un- dertakings, 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 eifective 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 y pointed outward to warn the approach- ing 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 mis- chievous persons. But the guards go to sleep and the 46 REST DAYS 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." l 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 y 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. 2 It occurs, on an average, about every ten days during the year, though not with absolute regu- larity. Three men, belonging to what might be de- scribed 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 preced- ing the day. "The small boys, however, are the true 'criers.' They make more noise in the evening before the rest day, crying Teng-ao I whi teng-ao! (' 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 *J. P. Finley and William W. C. Clapp, "A Vocabulary of Churchill, The Subanu, Washington, the Igorot Language," Bureau of 1913, pp. 31 sq. Science, Division of Ethnology, Pub- 2 The word is also spelled tengau lications, Manila, 1908, v, 198. and translated "holiday." See TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 47 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. 1 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 oppor- tune time when needed. They are sacred because all petitions are made to Lumawig their god, a living spirit, hero, and benefactor." 2 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, reli- gious 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 J A. E. Jenks, "The Bontoc 1911, Professor Jenks writes, "I Igorot," Ethnological Survey Publi- believe the rest days are first for cations, Manila, 1905, i, 205 sqq. the purpose of having time for 2 From a letter to the author, religious observances this fact dated December 10, 1910. In a necessitated the rest. I never second letter, under date March 8, proved this point, however." 48 REST DAYS 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 over- take 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 per- formed 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-teng-ao ta-ko nan ja-kil' /, an expression meaning, "Rest day! We observe the ceremony for rain!" 1 These and other instances cited by Professor Jenks indicate clearly that the Igorot festivals are intended to pro- pitiate evil-minded spirits and to secure material blessings from Lumawig, the supreme being. 2 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 priest- hood, to calendarize seasons of taboo at definite and regular intervals. And the dedication of this "Sab- 1 Jenks, op. cit., p. 213. family to appease or win the good " It is safe to say that one feast will of some anito [ancestral spirit] " is held daily in Bontoc by some (Jenks, op. cit., p. 198). TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 49 bath" to Lumawig may be only a natural outcome of the preeminence 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. 1 The foregoing examples suffice to show how numer- ous are the occasions on which the natives of Indonesia subject themselves to the rule of abstinence. Assum- ing, 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 2 to their system of taboos. 3 The following description refers particularly to the Naga of Manipur. Here, as in Borneo, the regular communal taboos are for the most part connected 1 Some, if not all, of the Igorot Journal of the Anthropological In- peoples of northern Luzon are stitute, 1906, xxxvi, 92-103 ; idem, familiar with the idea of taboo as "Some Naga Customs and Super- applied to individuals or to families stitions," Folk-lore, 1910, xxi, 296- at certain critical times. The 312; idem, "Genna," Encyclopedia Ibaloi Igorot equivalent of taboo is Britannica, 11 xi, 596; idem, The pidiu. A man, while in the pecul- Naga Tribes of Manipur, London, iarly solemn condition of pidiu, 1911, pp. 164-186. "must not bathe, must not admit 3 " The word genna is used in two visitors into his house, and must ways: (i) it may mean practically not work, travel, etc./* under pen- a holiday i.e., a man will say, alty of punishment by the making, 'My village is doing genna to-day,' or departed souls, for transgression by which he means that, owing of the regulations (O. Scheerer, either to the occurrence of a village "The Nabaloi Dialect," Ethnologi- festival or some such unusual cal Survey Publications, Manila, occurrence ... his people are ob- 1905, ii, 167). But these prohibi- serving a holiday ; (2) genna means tions do not seem to be socialized. anything forbidden" (A. W. Davis, 2 T. C. Hodson, "The genna in Census of India, 1891, Assam, amongst the Tribes of Assam," i, 249). 50 REST DAYS 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 begin- ning 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 indus- try 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." 1 It is obvious that some of these taboos tend, indi- rectly, 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 sports- men 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 1 Hodson, Naga Tribes, pp. 167 business, but among the Meithei, sq. Among some of the Manipuri the Hinduised neighbours of the Naga the various genna are marked Naga, the tug-of-war has dwindled by rope-pulling contests, when the into a mere pastime (Hodson, in women and girls have a tug-of-war Folk-lore, 1910, xxi, 300). On the with the men. This is described as magical significance of the games a means of taking omens for the played by the Kayan of Borneo future of the crops (ibid., p. 168). during their periods of seclusion, The Naga ceremonial is a serious see above, p. 31 n. 1 TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 51 of the sun or moon, and the appearance of comets. These events are attributed to supernatural activity. 1 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 neigh- bouring village is enough to require the imposition of a genna? 1 The outbreak of epidemic sickness necessi- tates a genna, the purpose of which is clearly prophy- lactic. 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 cus- tomary to hold a village genna when a villager dies, irrespective of the immediate cause of his decease. 3 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." 4 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 ; 1 Hodson, Naga Tribes, pp. 166 festival occurs on the night of the sq., 175. December new moon. The shades 2 Ibid,, pp. 109, 167, 175. of the dead are supposed to visit 3 Ibid., pp. 166 sq. y 173. the living at this time (S. E. 4 Ibid., pp. 151 sq.y 174. Ac- Peal, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, cording to another account the 1898, xxx, 355). 52 REST DAYS and also when a man rashly allows his private or secret name to be mentioned in public. 1 We may agree with an early writer, who, commenting on these prac- tices 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." 2 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. 3 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, when- ever a rite is to be performed which requires the whole force of the community behind it, a force which oper- ates 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 forti- fied by the whole strength and will of the village, is 1 Hodson, op. cit. f pp. 109, 144, moon of the lunar year (D. Pram, I 73> I 75 S 9' The Naga west of in Revue coloniale Internationale, the Doyang River are said to have 1887, v, 489). a genna also at the annual cere- 2 John Butler, in Journal of the mony of making new fire for the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1875, village. The fire, produced by n.s., xlv, i, 316. This observer friction, is first used in burning describes the kennie as a system of down the jungle before the sowing taboo, "singularly similar to that of the crops (W. Crooke, Natives in vogue among the savages inhab- of Northern India, London, 1907, iting the Pacific islands." p. 45; E. T. Dalton, Descriptive 3 Hodson, Naga Tribes, p. 167, Ethnology of Bengal, Calcutta, 1872, citing C. A. Soppitt, Account of the E- 43)- The Angami Naga mark Kachcha Ndgas, p. 10. y a three days' genna the first full * TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 53 able to control and constrain forces which are beyoncT his control if unaided. He relies on cooperative strength." l 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 domesti- cated 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 vil- lage to village. The Mayang Khong Naga, in partic- ular, 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." 2 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 ab- surdity. The genna custom, which seems to have attained its most complicated and grotesque development 1 Hodson, op. cit., p. 141. The taboos imposed by him would be khullakpa, also called gennabura, or obliged to pay a fine, the proceeds "authorizer of genna," is himself being used to provide a sub- subject to a number of vexatious stantial repast for the village restrictions designed to prevent any elders (Hodson, in Journal of the impairment of the efficiency of his Anthropological Institute, 1901, xxxi, sacred office. On these taboos see 307). below, pp. 233 sq. It is worthy of 2 Hodson, Naga Tribes, pp. 177, note that the khullakpa enjoys a 180. The Naga of eastern Assam good deal of indirect authority strictly taboo a house where tattoo- because of his power to close a ing is being done (W. H. Furness, village and declare a genna. An 3d., in Journal of the Anthropo- individual who violated any of the logical Institute, 1902, xxxii, 466). 54 REST DAYS 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. 1 General seasons of restriction seem to be unknown among the Khasi, who inhabit the Khasi and Jaintia hills, except in a single instance. 2 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. 3 Another Tibeto-Burman people, the Mikir, who dwell in the Mikir Hills to the northwest of Mani- pur, 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. 4 The genna exists among the Mishmi and Abor on the frontiers of northeastern Assam and Tibet. 5 The Lushei (some- times called Kuki) of the Lushei Hills to the south of 1 T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis, 4 Edward Stack, The Mikirs, London, 1908, p. 118. It is sig- edited by Sir Charles Lyall, Lon- nificant that the Moirang, a more don, 1908, p. 43. or less backward and isolated 5 Hodson, Naga Tribes, p. 20. Meithei tribe, still keep up some- The Mishmi have household genna thing like a system of communal whenever the members of a family genna connected with agricultural are visited by illness or misfortune operations (ibid., p. 119). of any kind. Possibly there are 2 P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis, also village rites of the same nature. London, 1907, p. 158. See R. Wilcox, in Selections from 3 A. Playfair, The Garos, London, the Records of the Bengal Govern- 1909, p. 114; see below, p. 57 n. 1 ment, Calcutta, 1855, no. 23, p. 64. . TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 55 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." These restrictions sometimes affect households only, sometimes entire villages. They are communally imposed in connec- tion with the sacrifice performed before a large hunting party starts out, at the harvest festival, when an epi- demic sickness rages, and on other occasions. 2 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." 3 The same communal taboo is observed when a village is being built, and regularly in July, when the rice requires cultivation. 4 These tribes formerly lived in the Arakan Hills of Lower Burma, where identical regulations, known as ya, are also enforced. 5 The genna custom may be traced in various parts of Burma. From the Naga, Lushei, and other tribes 1 J. Shakespear, The Lushei Wild Races of South-eastern India Kuki Clans, London, 1912, p. 69. (London, 1870), where the refer- 2 Ibid., pp. 72 sq., 75, 78, 80, 87; ence to the khang will be found on C. A. Soppitt, A Short Account of pp. 196 sq. the Kuki-Lushai Tribes, Shillong, 4 Lewin, Hill Tracts, p. 94; 1887, p. 19. idem, Wild Races, p. 236 (Mro). 3 T. H. Lewin, The Hill Tracts of 6 R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in Chittagong, Calcutta, 1869, p. 78. Journal of the Anthropological In- Captain Lewin's interesting work stitute, 1873, ii, 240. was republished under the title 56 REST DAYS 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 un- familiar 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 Ran- goon, they spent the day hiding under the bushes so that the cholera-spirit might not find them. 1 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, recog- nize six occasions during the year, when no one is supposed to do any work. The rest days, number- ing 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. 2 Similar customs are still observed by some of the Karen tribes. Of the Tsawku Karen it is said that their religion con- sists entirely in attempts to appease various malignant spirits. When the inhabitants of a village or the mem- bers of a household are engaged in ceremonies of propiti- ation, "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 prose- cuted according to law,' and these insignia are scru- pulously respected." 3 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 1 B. S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900 ? The Chin Hills, Rangoon, 1896, pt. i, vol. i, pp. 425 sq. i, 198. 3 A. R. McMahon, The Karens of 2 Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Golden Chersonese, London, the Shan States, edited by Scott 1876, p. 292. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 57 sowing or planting days means blight for the crop. 1 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 festi- val, 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 dis- pleased at the presence of strangers. 2 The Wild Wa, a head-hunting tribe on the northeastern frontier of the Shan States, are said to have no regularly re- current festivals, but hold them as often as they are confronted by "particular dangers or necessities." 3 The Miao (Miao-tse), one of the little-known tribes of southwestern China, celebrate musical festivals throughout the year. These seem now to be fetes 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 1 Sir R. C. Temple, "Burma," Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck- Hastings's Encyclopedia of Reli- Archipel, 1897, xiii, 87). gion and Ethics, iii, 37. Similarly, 2 R. G. Woodthorpe, in Jour- the Yabim of German New Guinea nal of the Anthropological Institute, require all the inhabitants of a 1897? xxvi, 27 sqq.; Sir J. G. Scott, village to remain at home on the "Buddhism in the Shan States," morning after the birth of a child. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, This is regarded as a necessary 1911? n.s., xliii, 931. On taboos precaution, if the fruits of the fields affecting intercourse with strangers and gardens are not to be spoiled see, in general, Frazer, Taboo and by the noxious influences emanating the Perils of the Soul, pp. 101-116. from a woman in childbed (K. 3 Gazetteer of Upper Burma and Vetter, in Nachrichten uber Kaiser the Shan States, pt. i, vol. i, p. 515. 58 REST DAYS to understand how the harvests are influenced by this custom." 1 The genna, either in vigorous activity or in attenu- ated 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 empty- ing into the Bay of Bengal. The custom of the genna appears to be one of the most characteristic fea- tures of Indo-Chinese culture ; its presence, therefore, throughout this area must be explained as the result of diffusion and not of independent origination. Fur- thermore, 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 under- stand 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 Archi- pelago, 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 im- poses on the husband, during the pregnancy of his wife 1 S. R. Clarke, Among the Tribes in South-west China, London, 1911, p. 63. TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 59 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 sym- pathy between them, so that the acts of the one affect the welfare of the other. Similar ideas underly 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. 1 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 conclu- sion 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. 2 Finally, it may be pointed out how directly these communal regulations make for social solidarity. Stu- dents of early society have long recognized the fact that the institution of taboo, in its individualistic 1 For instances of "magical really "two great practical advan- telepathy" in hunting, fishing, and tages : namely, it inspires confi- warfare see Frazer, The Magic Art dence, and it promotes discipline and the Evolution of Kings, i, and a strong sense of collective 119-134. unity and responsibility. It is not 2 As Messrs. Hose and McDou- improbable, then, that the advan- gall judiciously observe, the cult tages of this seemingly senseless of omen-birds found "among the cult outweigh its drawbacks, which, Kayan of Borneo, though it ham- in the shape of endless delays and pers their undertakings at almost changes of plans, are by no means every turn and might seem to be small" (Pagan Tribes of Borneo, wholly foolish and detrimental, has i, 170 n. 1 ). 60 REST DAYS aspects, has helped to nurse in man a sense of rever- ence 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. Altru- ism becomes a coercive process, and social cohesion is secured by each member of the group making him- self his brother's keeper. It is desirable to keep in mind these positive benefits inherent in the taboo sys- tem, 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. 1 In general any time of special significance, in- augurating 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 conflagra- tion, 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 ; dur- ing 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 1 On the sociological conception 1909, pp. 16 sqq. ; R. R. Marett, of crisis see W. I. Thomas, Source The Threshold of Religion? London, Book for Social Origins, Chicago, 1914, pp. 198 sqq. TAI 1 11 TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS 61 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 underly 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. 1 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 rela- tives 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 sur- vivors to avoid all conspicuous activity, if they would not attract the unwelcome attentions of the ghost. A similar period of quiescence may be considered 1 On the primitive ideas of death G. Frazer, The Belief in Immortality see particularly R. Hertz, "Contri- and the Worship of the Dead, Lon- bution a une etude sur la represen- don, 1913, i, 31-58; A. van Gennep, tation collective de la morte," Les rites de passage, Paris, 1909, L'annee sociologique, 1905-1906, x, pp. 209-236; L. Levy-Bruhl, Les 48-137; E. S. Hartland, "Death fonctions mentales dans les societes and Disposal of the Dead (Introduc- inferieures, Paris, 1910, pp. 321- tory)," Hastings's Encyclopedia of 330, 352-396. For a useful collec- Religion and Ethics, iv, 411-444; tion of ethnographic evidence see W. H. R. Rivers, "The Primitive E. Samter, Geburt, Hochzeit, und Conception of Death," Hibbert Tod, Leipzig, 1911. Journal, 1912, x, 393~4O7; Sir J. 62 TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 63 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. 1 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, gener- ally. An obvious application of such ideas requires that all activities should be abandoned by the sur- vivors for some time after a death; and, where the sense of social solidarity is strong, the notion of absti- nence at so critical a season may be extended to the entire community. 2 Communal taboos following a death are not un- known in Polynesia, Micronesia, and New Guinea, 3 and may be traced elsewhere in the Oceanic area. In Timor, when a king dies, no work is done for seven days thereafter. 4 In Halmahera an entire village will 1 A. E. Crawley, The Mystic Sociology, 1910, xv, 794-805 ; H. Rose, London, 1902, pp. 95 sqq.; Berkusky, "Der Einfluss aberglau- L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of bischer Vorstellungen auf das wirt- Religion, London, 1905, pp. 96 sqq.; schaftliche und soziale Leben der E. Westermarck, The Origin and Naturvolker," Zeitschrift fur Social- Development of the Moral Ideas, wissenschaft, 1913, n.s., iv, 489-498, London, 1906-1908, ii, 535 sqq. 567-584. 2 On the sociological aspects of 3 Above, pp. 24, 25, 26. these and other superstitions see 4 H. O. Forbes, in Journal of the H.Webster, "Influence of Super- Anthropological Institute, 1884, xiii, stition on the Evolution of Prop- 420. erty Rights," American Journal of 64 REST DAYS be tabooed in consequence of the death of one of its members. Violations of the taboo (pomali) are severely punished. 1 The practice of intermitting work in a village until a corpse is buried prevails in many of the Molucca Islands. 2 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." 3 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 inhabi- tants 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." 4 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. 5 1 A. Maass, " Ta-kd-kdi-kai 3 D/C. Worcester, in Philippine tabu" Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Journal of Science, 1906, i, 844. 1905, xxxvii, 155; J. G. F. Riedel, Compare F. C. Cole, in American ibid,, 1885, xvii, 69. Anthropologist, 1909, n.s., xi, 337 2 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en (Tenguian). kroesharige r as sen tusschen Selebes 4 C. B. Kloss, In the Andamans en Papua, The Hague, 1886, pp. and Nicobars, London, 1903, pp. 1 68 (Seranglao and Gorong archi- 303 sqq. pelagoes), 197 (Watubela Islands), 5 Annandale and Robinson, Fas- 223 (Kei Islands), 341 (Babar Archi- ciculi Malayensis, London, 1903- pelago), 414 (Keisar Island). 1904, i, 83. j TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 65 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. 1 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." 2 In the case of a chief's death the natives refrain from work for a longer period than is usual when a commoner dies. 3 Similar restrictions are found among the Land Dyak, 4 the Dusun, or Sundyak, of British North Borneo, 5 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. 6 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 com- prise the heirs of the deceased. 7 But all cases of death by sudden illness, by accident, by the hand of an enemy, 1 Brooke Low, in Journal of the of the Royal Geographical Society, Anthropological Institute, 1892, xxi, 1858, ii, 348. 122; idem, in Roth, Natives of 6 Hose and McDougall, op. cit., Sarawak and British North Borneo, ii, 37 sq. The Kayan on the i, 155. Mahakam River require all those 2 L. Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, who have been polluted by taking i, 413 . part in burial ceremonies to undergo 3 E. H. Gomes, Seventeen Years a two days' melo, or ceremonial ab- among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, stention from work (Nieuwenhuis, London, 1911, p. 139. op. cit., ii, 119). 4 Above, p. 36. 7 Hodson, Naga Tribes, pp. 99, 6 De Crespigny, in Proceedings 174, 177. F 66 REST DAYS and by wild animals or snakes necessitate general or village genna. 1 The same rule prevails when a woman has died in childbirth. 2 The purpose of these regula- tions 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. 3 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. 4 Similar regulations exist among the Lao of northern Siam and among the savage inhabitants of Indo-China. 5 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 1 Hodson, op. cit., pp. 100, 152, a five days' village genna, but the 1 66, 174. Compare idem, "Mor- same period of restriction is also tuary Ritual and Eschatological imposed after the death of a child Beliefs among the Hill Tribes of dying in infancy (J. Shakespear, Assam," Archivfiir Religionswissen- "Customs at Death among the schaft, 1909, xii, 449. Manipuris and Cognate Clans," 2 Hodson, Ndga Tribes, p. 88. Folk-lore, 1912, xxiii, 466 sqq.). "We find among the Naga tribes 3 P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis, that, if a woman died in childbirth London, 1907, p. 143. (an event of rare occurrence), the 4 R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in child was never allowed to live, Journal of the Anthropological In- because they believed it to be an stitute, 1873, ii, 240. evil spirit, a disembodied ghost, in- 6 A. Coussot and H. Ruel, Douzf carnated in the mother whose death mois chez les sauvages du Laos, it had caused" (idem, "Some Naga Paris, 1898, p. 205; A. Cabaton, Customs and Superstitions," Folk- "Indo-China (Savage Races)," lore, 1910, xxi, 301). Among the Hastings's Encyclopedia of Religion Kabui Naga not only does the death and Ethics, vii, 232. of a woman in childbirth necessitate TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 67 a subsequent date they perform a final ceremony to remove every trace of the death pollution and to give peace to the departed spirit. 1 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. 2 Among the Kasuba, a forest tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills in the Madras Presi- dency, fear of pollution requires the relatives of the deceased to abstain from all kinds of work for an entire day. 3 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 mourn- ing, 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. 4 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. 5 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 * F. Fawcett, in Folk-lore, 1912, 4 H. Hosten, "Paharia Burial xxiii, 42. Customs (British Sikkim)," Antkro- 2 A. K. Iyer, The Cochin Tribes pos, 1909, iv, 673, 675. and Castes, Madras, 1909, i, 265. 6 S. C. Das, Journey to Lhasa 3 C. H. Rao, in Anthropos, 1909, and Central Tibet, London, 1902, iv, 181. p. 256. 68 REST DAYS work of every sort is suspended for six months. 1 "If a person is struck by lightning, the whole kraal fast and do not even drink water, until the mediciner has per- formed his office." 2 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. 3 In Ussindja, a district of Ger- man 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. 4 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 restric- tions 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." 5 The taboos enforced by the Nandi present some curious resem- blances 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 super- stitions invest the process of farming with many restric- 1 Dudley Kidd, The Essential 2 Joseph Shooter, The Kafirs of Kafir, London, 1904, p. 253 ; Fare- Natal and the Zulu Country, Lon- well, in W. F. W. Owen, Narrative don, 1857, p. 216. of Voyages to explore the Shores of 3 E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, Paris, Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, 1859, p. 275. London, 1833, ii, 397. A Kafir 4 P. Kollmann, Der Nordzuesten chief, on succeeding to power, is unserer ostafrikanischen Kolonie, said to have declared a taboo of Berlin, 1898, p. 77. all field work for an entire year and 5 W. S. Routledge and Katherine to have put to death every woman Routledge, With a Prehistoric Peo- who became pregnant during this pie, London, 1910, p. 172. period (Globus, 1889, Ivi, 62). TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 69 tions : 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 phenome- non which Nandi speculation, in common with other savage philosophies, attributes to the movement of underground spirits. 1 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 planta- tion dies while his crops are ripening, all the grain must be eaten and none reserved for sowing; other- wise the grain will rot in the ground. 2 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. 3 Their neighbours, the !R. Lasch, "Die Ursache und Bedeutung der Erdbeben im Volks- glauben und Vplksbrauch," Archiv fur 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. 2 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, Ox- ford, 1908, pp. 17, 20, 100. The rules imposed by Nandi custom on persons ceremonially unclean in- clude 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 per- form 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 nigerien, Paris, 1904, p. 227). 3 C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda, London, 1902, p. 28 (Occasional Papers of the Royal Anthropological Institute, no. i). 70 REST DAYS 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. 1 Certain Abys- sinian tribes refrain from ploughing, sowing, and grind- ing grain until a corpse is buried. 2 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. 3 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 gar- ments, 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. 4 In the New World the funeral ceremonies of the rulers of Mechoacan furnish another illustration of the super- stition 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 J Sir H. H. Johnston, The 4 H. E. Standing, "Malagasy Uganda Protectorate, London, 1902, fady," Antananarivo Annual, 1883, ii, 176 sqq. no. 7, p. 74. Compare A. Grandi- 2 W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische dier, ibid., 1891, no. 15, p. 316; A. Studien, Schaffhausen, 1864, p. 528 van Gennep, Tabou et totemisme d (Barea and Kunama). Madagascar, Paris, 1904, pp. 100 3 Westermarck, Origin and Devel- sqq., 203. opment of the Moral Ideas, ii, 283. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 71 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 accom- panied by a season of communal abstinence which lasted five days, "and in all that time no fire was per- mitted 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." 1 Among the Seminoles of Florida on the day of a funeral, and for three days thereafter, the relatives of the de- ceased 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. 2 The restrictions following a death appear to be espe- cially 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. 3 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." 4 These Eskimo require the 1 Thomas Gage, A New Survey tory, 1901, xv, 121 sq. With these of the West-Indies^ London, 1699, regulations may be compared the p. 160. restrictions which, among the 2 C. MacCauley, in Fifth Annual Kwakiutl of British Columbia, are Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, imposed on a man who has eaten p. 521. human flesh as a ceremonial rite 3 Hans Egede, A Description of and who, therefore, is considered Greenland, London, 1745, pp. 149 sq. unclean. He must not approach 4 F. Boas, in Bulletin of the his wife for an entire year, nor is he American Museum of Natural His- allowed either to gamble or to work 72 REST DAYS 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. 1 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. 2 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 per- form any labour during the period, four or five days in length, when the shade is believed to remain with the body. 3 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 ab- during this time (Boas, "The p. (164) (bound with Zeitschrift Social Organization and the Secret fur Ethnologie, vol. xvii). These Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians," Eskimo observe like restrictions Report of the U.S. National Museum after the capture of whales, seals, for 1895, pp. 537 sq.). and walruses, which form their 1 F. Boas, in Sixth Annual Re- principal food supply. port of the Bureau of Ethnology, 2 H. W. Elliott, Our Arctic pp. 427, 613 sq.; compare idem, Province, New York, 1887, p. 389. "Die Sagen der Baffin-Land Eski- 3 E. W. Nelson, in Eighteenth mos," Ferhandlungen der Berliner Annual Report of the Bureau of Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Eth- American Ethnology, p. 319. nologie, und Urgeschichte, 1885, TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 73 stain from activity during the three following days. 1 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 hus- band 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. 2 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. 3 The Koryak stopped all work in the 1 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).^ 2 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 accept- ing as many of the Christian teach- ings as can be assimilated by them to their old pagan observances. The missionary they regard as a shaman and his prohibitions, es- pecially 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 main- tained 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. Stefansson, "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. 3 W. Bogoras, in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural His- tory, xi, 521. 74 REST DAYS 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. 1 Among the Yakut, when a man dies, the members of his household may not execute any work until after the next full moon. 2 Taboos of this nature are not confined to savage and barbarous communities, since the fear of the death pol- lution 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 shiVa, 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 con- dolence. Bereaved children should abstain for a year from music and recreation." 3 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, 4 and the Scotch think that "it is not right to spin if there be a corpse in the same township." 5 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. 6 Here, as elsewhere, we may 1 W. Jochelson, ibid., x, 104^. 5 George Henderson, Survivals 2 W. G. Sumner, "The Yakuts," in Belief among the Celts, Glasgow, abridged from the Russian of 1911, p. 296 (Isle of Iriskay). Sieroshevski, Journal of the Anthro- 6 On feasts of All Souls, in pological Institute, 1901, xxxi, 107. general, see Sir J. G. Frazer, Adonis, 3 W. H. Bennett, in Hastings's Attis, Osiris? London, 1914, ii, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 5 1-83 ; on the public expulsion of iv, 499. evils see idem, The Scapegoat, Lon- 4 A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Folks- don, 1913, pp. 109-169. Compare aberglaube der Gegenwart,* edited by also P. Sartori, Die Speisung der E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 461. Toten, Dortmund, 1903, pp. 48-55. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 75 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 mys- terious and infectious contamination. Rites for commemorating kindly spirits or for expel- ling 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. 1 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." 2 The Bahima, a Bantu-speaking 1 Above, pp. 13, 21 sq. y 31, 40 the Matabele year. The late ruler, sqq., 51, 57. Lobengula, compromised this self- 2 E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, Paris, denying ordinance by drinking beer I 859> P- 275. The king of the only out of a bottle. During the Matabele was obliged to abstain new-moon day "he was supposed from food and drink on the new to have communication with the moon following the beginning of spirits of his ancestors, and he 76 REST DAYS 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-drink- ing. "There is no work on balubale day." 1 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. 2 The great national fete 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. 3 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 remem- brance of the dead. No work may be done during this festival, which lasts eight days. 4 The Guinea negroes abstained altogether from busi- H. H. Johnston, The Uganda ness" (L. Decle, Three Years in Protectorate, London, 1902, ii, 631 sq. Savage Africa, London, 1900, 2 C. Velten, Sitten und Gebrauche p. 156). der Suaheli, Gottingen, 1903, p. 342. 1 J. F. Cunningham, Uganda and 3 Soury-Lavergne and de la its Peoples, London, 1905, pp. 12 sq. Deveze, "La fete nationale du The Bahima demons, a numerous fandroana en Imerina, Madagas- company, are mostly identified car," Anthropos, 1913, viii, 308. with the various maladies from 4 A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking which the natives suffer. See Sir Peoples, London, 1887, pp. 227 sq. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 77 would seem also to perform annual rites for the expul- sion 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 com- pleted." 1 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. 2 Since in west Africa, as in some other parts of the world, secret societies are intimately related to the cult of the dead, 3 it may be that the tabooed days, observed when these organizations hold their cere- monies, 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 ^'Extracts from Diary of the 2 A. B. .Ellis, The Yoruba-speak- late Rev. John Martin, Wesleyan ing Peoples, London, 1894, pp. Missionary in West Africa, 1843- 107 sq. 1848," Man, 1912, xii, 138 sq. 3 See H. Webster, Primitive Compare A. J. N. Tremearne, Secret Societies, New York, 1908, The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria, pp. 104 sq. London, 1912, pp. 202 sq. 78 REST DAYS 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. 1 On the great feast days of Oro women must remain indoors from daybreak till noon. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 6 1 Mrs. R. B. Batty, in Journal 3 R.E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies, of the Anthropological Institute, London, 1910, pp. 41 sq., quoting 1889, xix, 1 60. Adesola in the Nigerian Chronicle. 2 Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, 4 J. B. Walker, in Journal of the pp. no sq. The Oro rites are Anthropological Institute, 1877, vi, attributed by Ellis to the ogboni 1 21 sq. society, but it is probable that the 6 T. J. Hutchinson, Impressions term "Oro" is also applied toother of Western Africa, London, 1858, secret associations of Yorubaland. pp. 141 sq. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 79 The festivals of the dead, observed in classical an- tiquity, were marked by taboos. Among the Greeks the rites took place on the so-called a7ropa8cs ^tepai (ed. M. Schmidt, think that the souls of the departed Jena, 1867, C <>1- 211). are sent up from the nether world." 3 E. Rhode, Psyche, 6 Tubingen, Photius, s.v. /uapa fjfjLcpa (ed. S. 1910, p. 235; P. Stengel, Die A. Naber, Leiden, 1864-1865, i, griechischen Sakralaltertiimer, Mu- 423), says that on the second day nich, 1890, p. 156 (with references the people used to chew buckthorn to the classical authorities). The and anoint their doors with pitch, fifth day of every Athenian month See Frazer's note (The Scapegoat, was regarded as unpropitious, and p. 153 rc. 1 ) on the widespread use hence was not dedicated to any of buckthorn and pitch as prophy- divinity. A superstitious avoid- lactics against ghosts and ance of the "fifths'* of the month influences. 8o REST DAYS 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 every- where 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. 1 Corresponding to the Greek aTro^paSe? ^/icpat 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. 2 Among the dies religiosi were those on which the Romans celebrated two fes- tivals of the dead, the so-called Parentalia in February, the last month of the old Roman year, and the Lemuria 1 On the Anthesteria, from an anthropological standpoint, see par- ticularly 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 An- thesteria have we a genuine cere- mony of ghost-riddance, this day falling so near the Dionysiac cele- bration as to become attached to the latter as a mournful finale (The Cults of the Greek States, Ox- ford, 1906-1910, y, 215 sqq.}. But, on this view, it is difficult to see why the second day, the Choes, should have been expressly men- tioned as "polluted" (/xtapa), and why the first day , the Pithoigia, should have been described as "totally unlucky" (es TO TTO.V 0,71-0- 2 Festus, De verborum significa- tione, ed. C. O. Miiller, Leipzig, 1839, p. iuMcsroq, Satuar-iS6', nalia, i, 16, 24. The dies religiosi were sometimes confused, even by the ancients, with the dies nefasti (compare Gellius, Noctes Atticce, iv, 9, 5), which were days marked in the calendar as occasions when the praetor's court was not open and assemblies (comitia) could not law- fully meet. But not all dies reli- giosi were observed as non-comi- tial and non-judicial days. It seems, indeed, that the priestly authorities who drew up the calen- dar 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 Romer, Munich, 1902, pp. 376 sq.; W. W. Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, London, 191 1, pp. 38 sqq.; T. Mommsen, in Corpus in- scriptionum Latinarum, i, pt. i, 2 296. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 81 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, n, 13), had rather an opposite char- acter and probably represents the more ancient rite for the expulsion of the ghosts of the dead. 1 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." 2 To the Hebrews the Day of Atonement was a shab- bdth shabbdthon* the holiest of rest days, u a Sabbath of solemn rest," when "no manner of work" might be per- formed. The transgressor of this regulation was threat- ened with death : "Whoever doeth any work at all on that same day, I will destroy from among his people." 4 A similar punishment was prescribed for one who did not fast on that day; the expression "to afflict your souls" ('innd nephesh) was considered by late the- ologians 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 wild- 1 Gellius, op. cit., iv, 9, 5 ; times, was not a state festival, but Varro, De lingua Latina, vi, 29 sq. ; a purely domestic affair. Ovid, Fasti, v, 419-486; W. W. 2 Varro, ap. Macrobius, op. cit., Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the i, 16, 18; Festus, op. cit., p. 156. Period of the Republic, London, Compare Fowler, "Mundus Patet," 1899, pp. 106 sqq., 306 sqq. The Journal of Roman Studies, 1912,11, first eight days of the Parentalia 25-33. belonged only to the sphere of 3 Both expressions are commonly family worship, but the ninth derived from the Babylonian shabat- day (Feb. 21) was also a public turn; see below, p. 235. celebration, known as the Feralia. 4 Leviticus, xvi, 31, xxiii, 26-32; The Lemuria, at least in historic compare Numbers, xxix, 7. G 82 REST DAYS erness, 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 in- creasingly prominent. The Day of Atonement has been usually considered a very late institution, unknown in the time of Zech- ariah 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. 1 This would have been an appropriate time for an annual ceremony of purification, since the new year is so fre- quently 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 shabbdth shabbdthon, a time of "solemn rest" and of "holy convocation." No toilsome work might then be performed ; trumpets were to be blown, per- haps to indicate its solemnity, and special sacrifices were to be offered. 2 Moreover, certain features of the Atonement ceremony, especially that of the sin-laden goat, which has so many parallels among the lower races, 3 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, 1 Leviticus, xxv, 9', Ezekiel,x\,i. hausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte 2 Leviticus, xxiii, 23-25 ; Num- Israels? Berlin, 1905, p. 1 05 bers, xxix, 1-7. It has been sug- n. 2 ; see below, p. 247 n. 2 ). In the gested that the first ten days of ritual of the Jewish church they the seventh month were epagom- are described as days of "peni- enal, bridging the gap, as it were, tence.' between the old lunar year of 355 3 See Sir J. G. Frazer, The Scape- days and the solar year (J. Well- goat, London, 1913, pp. 170 sqq. TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH 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 con- taminating influence that common prudence dictated abstinence from work and other activities at a critical season devoted to the driving-out of evil. 1 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 accom- panied with danger. But labour is also suspended on other days of the feast, especially by the women." 2 1 On the relation of the Hebrew kipper, or atonement, to the Assyr- ian 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 unneces- sary 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 wilder- ness of northern Arabia. See H. Grimme, "Das Alter des israelitis- chen Versohnungstages," Archiv fur Religionsivissenschaft, 1911, xiv, 130-142. 2 E. Westermarck, "The Popu- lar Ritual of the Great Feast in Morocco," Folk-lore, 1911, xxii, 157 sq., 1 80 sqq. 84 REST DAYS 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 pro- pitiation 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 resem- blance between the Greek and the Roman superstitions relating to unlucky days the cbro^paSes rjpepcu, 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 con- tact, 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 com- prehension of a religion as a social product than through the study of its festivals. They are preeminently 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 elabo- rate their ritual, and to fix more precisely the time and order of their celebration. It becomes the business ot 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 an- cient geographer, "have this in common, that they ac- company their sacred rites by a festal remission of labour." 1 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 exer- tion, and for all ranks of society their pageants and processions, their games, feasts, and merry-makings 1 Strabo, Geographica, x, 3, 9. 85 86 REST DAYS 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 dic- tated 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 diffi- culty 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. 1 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 1 The best study of holiness in further N. Soderblom, "Holiness its relation to the concept of taboo (General and Primitive)," Hast- is still that of W. Robertson Smith ings's Encyclopedia of Religion and (The Religion of the Semites? Ethics, vi, 731-741. London, 1894, chaps, iv-v). See HOLY DAYS 87 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 wor- shippers, 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 atti- tude 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." 1 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 pri- mary formation. In other words a period dedicated to a god and observed by his worshippers with absti- 1 " In economic theory," writes the body of the people. The trib- Dr. Thorstein Veblen, "sacred holi- ute is paid in vicarious leisure, and days are obviously to be construed the honourific effect which emerges as a season of vicarious leisure per- is imputed to the person or the fact formed for the divinity or saint in for whose good repute the holiday whose name the tabu is imposed and has been instituted. Such a tithe to whose good repute the absten- of vicarious leisure is a perquisite tion from useful effort on those days of all members of the preternatural is conceived to inure. The char- leisure class and is indispensable acteristic feature of all such seasons to their good fame. Un saint qu'on of devout vicarious leisure is a more ne chdme pas is indeed a saint fallen or less rigid tabu on all activity that on evil days" (The Theory of the is of human use. . . . Sacred holi- Leisure Class > New York, 1899, days, and holidays generally, are pp. 309 sq.). of the nature of a tribute levied on 88 REST DAYS nence from labour may once have been a season of taboo for other and quite different reasons. Some per- tinent instances of tabooed days which grew into holy days have already engaged our attention. 1 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 conclu- sion, 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 out- ward 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. 2 The Uraon keep three 1 Above, pp. 13, 15, 47, 49, 79. Primitive Tribes and Monuments of 2 J. W. B reeks, An Account of the the Nilagiris, London, 1873, p. 44. HOLY DAYS 89 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. 1 In Bengal, Mother Earth is the object of much devotion. The goddess generally manifests her- self 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. 2 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. 3 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 analo- gous 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 out- break of cholera, smallpox, cattle disease, or drought 1 P. Dehon, in Memoirs of the 3 C. K. Menon, " Some Agricul- Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1906, i, tural Ceremonies in Malabar," Mad- no, i, p. 144. ras Government Museum, Bulletin, 2 W. Crooke, Natives of Northern 1906, v, 104 sq. India, London, 1907, p. 232. 90 REST DAYS has convinced them that evil spirits are about and active. "I have dignified," writes the Bishop of Madras, "the periodical sacrifices to the village god- desses by the name of festivals. But the term is a misnomer. There is really nothing of a festal char- acter 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." 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. 2 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 re- ligious 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. 3 Now, primitive peoples quite commonly observe various ceremonies in connec- tion with first-fruits, particularly a sacramental eating of them preliminary to general use. 4 With advancing 1 Henry Whitehead, "The Vil- smallpox." See E. W. Hopkins, lage Deities of Southern India," The Religions of India, Boston, Madras Government Museum, Bui- 1895, p. 452 w. 2 ; H. H. Wilson, letin, 1907, v, 128 sq. The whole Essays and Lectures chiefly on the subject of these Dravidian festivals Religions of the Hindus, London, has now been carefully investigated 1862, ii, 209 J. by my former pupil Mr. W. T. 3 Leviticus, xxiii, 21 ; Numbers, Elmore. See his monograph xxviii, 26. " Dravidian Gods in Modern Hin- 4 The ethnographic evidence re- duism," University Studies, Lin- lating to first-fruits has been very coin, Nebraska, 1915, xv, 1-152. fully collected by Sir J. G. Frazer 2 Several of the Hindu festivals (Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, are accompanied by prayer, fasting, London, 1912, ii, 48-137). See bathing, and oblation. One of the also J. A. MacCulloch, "First- minor ceremonies during the month fruits (Introductory and Primi- of February is intended to " avert tive)," Hastings's Encyclopedia of HOLY DAYS 91 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 ab- staining from all secular activities. 1 Since a like re- striction 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 agricul- tural festivals of the Hebrews. 2 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." 3 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." 4 Religion and Ethics, vi, 41-45; 4 E. E. Sikes, "Folk-lore in the E. N. Fallaize, "Harvest," ibid., ' Works and Days' of Hesiod," vi, 520-525. Classical Review, 1893, vii, 390. 1 On the Tongan inachi see above, The Hesiodic injunction (Opera et pp. 18 sq. dies, 742-743) Below, pp. 250 sq. ^ g> ^ Trevrd&Ko O&v tv burl 6a- 3 Plato, Leges, n, 653. Xc REST DAYS The unlucky days (d-Tro^/oaSes ^ftcpat) 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 proces- sion to the sea, divested of its adornments, and laved in the purifying waters. Plutarch's biography of Alcibiades contains a significant reference to the cere- avov OLTTO T0i stripped of its metaphorical set- ting, 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 celebra- tion of the festival called the Ves- talia, 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 mar- ket days (nundina), but to cut the hair on the I7th and 29th days of the month is a preventive of baldness and headache (Historia naturalis^ xxviii, 5). These pagan superstitions have passed into mod- ern 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 some- times a distinction is made between the two days, as in Northumber- land, 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 Macedo- nia Wednesday and Friday are the two days when the nails should not be cut, while Sunday is unpro- pitious 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 shav- ing and cutting the nails (E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians,* London, 1871, i> 33 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 Folk- lore, 1904, xv, 187). These super- stitions may rest ultimately on the notion that such acts as hair-cut- ting, 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 En- cyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vi, 474-476. HOLY DAYS 93 mony. 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 Praxiergidae 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 Plyn- teria, as at other unlucky times, doubtless to avoid their being tainted with the pollution of the day. 1 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, how- ever, that the Plynteria was at one time a rite of puri- fication 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. 2 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 sauctnary 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 1 Plutarch, Alcibiades, 34; Xen- son, Prolegomena to the Study of ophon, Hellenicay i, 4, 12; Pollux, Greek Religion, Cambridge, 1903, Onomasticon, viii, 141. pp. 114 sqq. 2 Compare Miss Jane E. Harri- 94 REST DAYS 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 cleans- ing had been duly performed Quando stercus dela- tum fas, "When the rubbish has been carried away." 1 The Roman religious festivals, of which a few, as we have seen, were celebrated on dies religiosi? went col- lectively under the name of fericz (dies feriati)* The public ferice, 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 fericz 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 cele- bration, 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 particu- larly to Numa, the priestly king who was believed 1 Varro, De lingua Latina, vi, 32 ; dassischen Altertumswissenschaft, Ovid, Fasti, vi, 219 sqq., 707 sqq.; vi, coll. 2211-2213; A. S. Wilkins, Festus, De verborum signification, in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin's ed. C. O. Muller, p. 250; Fowler, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Roman Festivals, pp. 145 sqq. Antiquities,* ii, 836-838; and es- 2 In addition to the Parentalia, pecially C. Jullian, in Daremberg Lemuria, and Vestalia, the occasions and SaghVs Dictionnaire des anti- on which the Salii performed their quites grecques et romaines, iv, dances in March and October 1042-1066. The plural form fericz (Ovid, Fasti, iii, 393 sqq.; Livy, indicates that the festival day xxxvii, 33; Suetonius, Otho, 8) recurs periodically;* compare the and the two days succeeding the similar usage as respects nundincz fericz Latincz (Cicero, Ad Qu. frat., (below, p. 120). Fericz seems to ii, 4, 2) were included among the have been first written fesicz, dies religiosi. whence the word festus. On the 3 See G. Wissowa, Religion und derivation of fericz see A. Walde, Kultus der Rdmer, Munich, 1902, Lateinisches etymologisches Worter- PP- 365-381; idem, in Pauly- buck? Heidelberg, 1910, pp. 270 Wissowa's Real-Encyclopddie der sq. HOLY DAYS 95 to have organized the Roman religion. Considering the great antiquity of the ferice, 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 jerice and days tabu ? The ancients made a fundamental distinction between public and private ferice. 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/m^ private? provided the model for the/m'^ public ce ; and this view is confirmed by numerous analogies elsewhere. 1 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 an- tiquity. All important epochs in the life of a Roman housefather and his children birth, naming, assump- tion of the toga virilis, marriage, and death were kept as ferial days. The/m^ denicales are especially note- worthy, for they show that the Romans shared the superstitious notions of many primitive peoples con- cerning the noxious influence of death. These cere- monies, which took place a few days after the funeral, were for the purpose of purifying the house and its inmates from the death contagion. 2 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 1 Above, pp. 25, 38 sq.y 43 sq., 53. 55. It was not lawful to bury a 2 Festus, De verborum signifi- corpse on a public holiday, doubt- catione: denicales ferice colebantur, less through fear of polluting the cum hominis mortui causa familia sacredness of the occasion. See purgabatur (ed. Miiller, p. 70) ; Columella, De re rustica, ii, 22, 5. compare Cicero, De legibus, ii, 22, 96 REST DAYS than those of the family." l However, we must probably include, as an exception to Cato's statement, the festival of the Paganalia, or ferice sementivce, 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. 2 The Paganalia, as its name indicates, was an old village rite which survived into historic times and became incorporated in the public ferice of the Roman city. But before turning to this division of our subject it may be pointed out that among the private ferice were also included those which were observed by individuals only, as a means of remov- ing 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 ob- servabai). The Flaminica, or wife of the Flamen Dialis, who with her husband was subject to many restric- tions, became tabooed feriata if she heard thunder, and might not engage in her religious duties until she had performed an act of lustration (donee placasset deos)? The public ferice were also occasions for abstinence, purification, and propitiation. On the calendars they 1 Cato, De agri cultura, 138. see Fowler, Roman Festivals, Compare the Mosaic injunction pp. 294 sqq.; idem, The Religious relating to the Sabbath (Deuter- Experience of the Roman People, onomy,v, 14). London, 1911, pp. 61 sq. 2 Ovid, Fasti, i, 664 sq. : 3 Macrobius, op. cit., i, 16, 8. Pagus agat festum: pagum lustrate, On the taboos affecting the Flamen coloni a Flaminica see F. B. Jevons, Et date paganis ennua liba focis. Perch's Romane Questions, Lon- don, 1892, pp. Ixxni sqq.; Sir J. G. Some ancient authorities (Varro, Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the De lingua Latina, vi, 26; Macro- Soul, pp. 13 sq. The Flamen was bius, Saturnalia, i, 16, 6) appear to in a condition of permanent taboo distinguish the Paganalia from the Dialis cotidie feriatus est (Gel- f erics sementivee. On this festival lius, Noctes Atticce, x, 15, 16). o r<= m u T HOLY DAYS 97 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 ferice for all comitial days, so as to stave off legislation by their rivals. 1 The gods, on ferial days, demanded the service of men by visits to the temples and by prayers and sacrifices. Hence the ferice 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." 2 These words of Cicero reflect, however, not the original pur- pose of the ferice 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/m<^ indicate how, in Roman belief, it was essential that their holiness should not be polluted by unseemly activity. The rex sacrorum and flamine S, whose lives were passed in an odour of sanctity, were not allowed even to see any work being done dur- ing the celebration of ferice ; 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. 3 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 ferice. The pontiff Umbro declared that it 1 Appian, Bellum civile, i, 55; 3 Macrobius, op. cit., i, 16, 9: Plutarch, Sulla, 8 ; Dio Cassius, Pollui ferias, si . . . opus aliquod xxxviii, 6. fieret; Festus, s.v. praciamitatores : 2 Cicero, De legibus, ii, 8, 19; ut homines se ab opere abstinerent, compare ii, 12, 29; idem, De quia his opus facicntem videre ir- divinatione, i, 45, 102. religiosum erat (ed. Miiller, p. 248). 98 REST DAYS 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. 1 All labour was likewise allowable which was necessary to supply the urgent wants of life. The pontiff Scsevola held that any work might be done, if suffering and injury were caused by its neglect or delay licet quod prcztermissum 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 work- men to lift it out without polluting the jerice? Cato thought that on holidays a farmer might repair ditches, pave the public roads, and make everything neat and clean about his premises. 3 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." 4 Such interpretations indicate that in late classical antiquity the burdens of the old tabooed days were being grad- ually lifted, and their observance adjusted to the social and economic needs of a progressive community. Corresponding to the private ferice observed by indi- viduals 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 ex- traordinary festivals (j *eriro^V,22,33,54,58,68, 104, in. xli, 21, xlii, 2; Suetonius, Divus 2 Gellius, Nodes Attica , ii, 24, Claudius, 22. Many more in- u; compare Horace, Carmina, ii, stances are given by Julius Obse- 3, 6-9. CHAPTER IV MARKET DAYS REST days, more or less regular in occurrence and following at short intervals after periods of continu- ous labour, are frequently observed by primitive agri- culturists. Sabbaths of this sort seem to be unknown among migratory hunting and fishing peoples or among nomadic pastoral tribes. 1 A wandering hunter requires no regular day of rest, since his life passes in alterna- tions of continuous labour, while following the chase, 1 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 Smith- sonian 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 Mans 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 Okla- homa, keep autumn as "a period of combined rest, hunting, and en- joyment." 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 infor- mation 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 oppor- tunity 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 impor- tant feasts. The division of time into kaba and dauka (specially de- voted to labour) has now lapsed. 101 102 REST DAYS 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 continu- ous 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 de- pendent 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. 1 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 some- thing 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. 2 Days on which markets regularly take place are not 1 The Evolution of the Aryan, Socialwissenschaft, 1906, ix, 619- translated by A. Drucker, London, 627, 700^715, 764-782; H. Schurtz, 1897, p. 117. Das afrikanische Gewerbe, Leipzig, 2 On primitive markets see Karl 1900, pp. 115-122; P. J. Hamilton Andree, Geographie des Welthandels, Grierson, The Silent Trade, Edin- Stuttgart, 1867, i, 40-81; C. burgh, 1903, pp. 54-62; H. L. Kb'hne, "Markt-, Kaufmanns- Roth, "Trading in Early Days," und Handelsrecht in primitiven Bankfield Museum Notes, Halifax Kulturverhaltnissen," Zeitschrift (Eng.), 1908, no. 5, pp. 23 sqq.; fur vergleichende Recht swissenschaft, N. W. Thomas, "The Market in 1895, xi, 196-220; R. Lasch, "Das African Law and Custom," Journal Marktwesen auf den primitiven of the Society of Comparative Legisla- Kulturstufen," Zeitschrift fur tion," 1908, n.s., no. 19, pp. 90-106. MARKET DAYS 103 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. 1 Some Australian tribes have established trade cen- tres, where there are periodical meetings for the purpose of exchanging the products and manufactures of neigh- bouring communities. More or less bartering occurs also in connection with great tribal convocations, espe- cially those for the initiation ceremonies. 2 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 else- where. Women from several villages will assemble at some appointed place, usually on the boundary between two tribes, and there will exchange their prod- ucts for commodities from other localities. The bar- tering lies entirely in the hands of the women, who, however, are accompanied by a few armed men acting as a guard. 3 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." 4 The 1 Some observers use ambiguous Tribes of South-east Australia, Lon- language, when referring to the don, 1904, pp. 714 sqq. On Aus- length four, five, six days, etc. tralian barter see G. C. Wheeler, of market weeks. Throughout The Tribe and Intertribal Relations this chapter I have regularly trans- in Australia, London, 1910, pp. 93- lated by "every fifth day" such 97. expressions as "tous les cinq jours," 3 A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters, "de cinq en cinq jours," "alle fiinf Black, White, and Brown, London, Tage," "einmal in fiinf Tagen," 1901, pp. 265, 269. and "einmaal in de vijf dagen." 4 James Chalmers, in Chalmers 2 A. W. Howitt, The Native and Gill, Work and Adventure in 104 REST DAYS 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. 1 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. 2 In the Gazelle Peninsula, Bismarck Archipelago, markets at which the women buy and sell take place every third day. 3 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 manoeuvring." 4 In some parts of old Poly- nesia markets were held at stated periods, but, unfor- tunately, no record seems to have been made of the time intervals in popular use. 5 Markets take place in Celebes, 6 Sumatra, and Java, usually every fifth day, but sometimes at shorter inter- New Guinea, London, 1885, pp. landsckaardrijkskundiggenootschap, 40 sq. Compare M. Krieger, Neu- 1904, second series, xxi, 644. Guinea, Berlin, 1899, p. 335. Sir 3 J. Graf Pfeil, Studien und William MacGregor observes that Beobachtungen aus der Siidsee, the institution of the Sabbath, as a Brunswick, 1899, p. 116. day of rest, "is not quite new to 4 J. J. Atkinson, in Folk-lore, the Papuan, but . . . the Papuan 1903, xiv, 245. Mr. Atkinson in Sabbath of Keapara [Kerepunu] this passage probably has in mind exceeds the Hebrew in dividing the European week introduced into time into weeks of three days. The New Caledonia by the French, great majority of the tribes, how- 6 Basil Thomson, The Fijians, ever, do not seem to have a regu- London, 1908, p. 288; Wilkes, lar week, and work or rest ca- Narrative of the U.S. Exploring priciously" (British New Guinea, Expedition, iii, 300 sq. (Somu- London, 1897, pp. 44 sq.). See Somu, in the Fiji group); J. J. above, p. 26 n. 1 Jarves, History of the Hawaiian or 1 C. G. Seligmann, The Mela- Sandwich Islands? Boston, 1843, nesians of British New Guinea, Cam- p. 77. bridge, 1910, pp. 48, 94 (Koita). 6 P. Sarasin and F. Sarasin, 2 J. S. A. van Dissel, in Tijd- Reisen in Celebes, Wiesbaden, 1905, schrift van het koninklijk neder- ii, 324. MARKET DAYS 105 vals. 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. 1 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 deter- mine the markets or fairs held in the important towns. 2 The pasar spread from Java to the island of Bali, where it is employed in combination with the week of seven days. 3 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. 4 Markets recurring every fifth day are found among the Indo-Chinese, as in Tonkin 5 and the various Lao states of northern Siam. 6 Among the Shan all work 1 W. Marsden, The History of day a mixed colour, and focus, or Sumatra,* London, i8n,pp. 379 sq.; centre. See John Crawfurd, His- F. Junghuhn, Die Battaldnder auf tory of the Indian Archipelago, Sumatra, Berlin, 1847, pp. 227 sq.; Edinburgh, 1820, i, 289 sq. These J. v. Brenner, Besuch bei den Kan- fancies must be explained by the nibalen Sumatras, Wiirzburg, 1894, colour symbolism which so fre- p. 291 ; B. Hagen, in Petermanns quently attaches to the cardinal Mitteilungen, 1883, xxix, 173 (Batta points. of Lake Toba) ; W. Volz, Nord- 3 R. Friederich, in Journal of the Sumatra, Berlin, 1909, i, 267. Royal Asiatic Society, 1878, n.s., 2 Sir T. S. Raffles, History of x, 88 sqq.; compare ibid., 1876, Java, 2 London, 1830, i, 531; P. J. n.s., viii, 198. Veth, Java, 2 Haarlem, 1907, iv, 4 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, 296 sqq. The names of the days in London, 1900, pp. 545 sq. the pasar were considered to bear a 6 J. Richard, Histoire naturelle, mystical relation to colours and the civile, et politique du Tonquin, Paris, divisions of the horizon, the first 1778, i, 151. day (white, east), the second (red, 6 Lillian J. Curtis, The Laos of south), the third (yellow, west), the North Siam, Philadelphia, 1903, fourth (black, north), and the fifth p. 132. 106 REST DAYS 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. 1 "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." 2 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. 3 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." 4 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 War country, lying to the south of the Khasi and Jaintia District, markets are usually held every fourth day. 5 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 nu- merous market places where neighbouring communities 1 Mrs. Leslie Milne, The Shans of the Anthropological Institute, at Home, London, 1910, p. 132. 1897, xxvi, 19. 2 C. E. D. Black, in Geographical 4 P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis, Journal, 1895, vi, 30 (Shan of London, 1907, p. 189. According Upper Burma). Compare also to C. Becker (Anthropos, 1909, iv, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the 894) the market is called jeu duh. Shan States, edited by Scott and 6 Gurdon, op. cit., p. 190. Com- Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, pare Sir J. D. Hooker (Himalayan vol. i, p. 536 (Shan of Lower Journals, London, 1891, p. 487), Burma). who attributes the fourth-day mar- 3 R. G. Woodthorpe, in Journal kets to the Khasi generally. MARKET DAYS 107 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 testi- mony, with feasting and carousing. 1 In the same part of British East Africa the Wagiriama possess a week of four days, each with its name. 2 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 neighbour- hood occur on the same day. 3 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. 4 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. 5 The English missionary, David 1 J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, that the Wagiriama observe jumwa and Missionary Labours, London, both as a market day and a rest 1867, pp. 82, 365. day. Similarly, the name of the 2 W. W. A. Fitzgerald, Travels in weekly market held at Antana- the Coastlands of British East Africa, narivo, the capital of Madagascar, London, 1898, p. in, quoting is zoma, or Friday (Antananarivo W. E. Taylor, Vocabulary of the Annual, 1889-1892, iv, 372). Giryama Language, London, 1897. 3 K. R. Dundas, in Man, 1909, The name applied to the first ix, 38. day of the week jumwa is 4 W. S. Routledge and Katherine directly taken from the Arabic Routledge, With a Prehistoric Peo- al jum'a (Friday, the Mohamme- pie, London, 1910, pp. 105 sq. dan day of worship), from which 5 A Widenmann, in Petermanns circumstance it may be concluded Mitteilungen, 1899, Erganzungsheft, io8 REST DAYS 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. 1 Among the natives on the lower Lomami River, near the equa- tor, markets are described as recurring every third day, 2 and among the Bakuba (Bushongo), who occupy the valley of the Sankuru River, every fifth day. 3 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. When- ever any dispute arose, these policemen were imme- diately on the scene of action. 4 The four-day market week is found among various tribes, such as the Bayaka, 5 Bambala, 6 and Bahuana, 7 occupying the region between the Loange and Kwango rivers, tributaries of the Kasai. no. 129, p. 69; M. Merker, ibid., 4 H. v. Wissmann, My Second 1902, no. 138, p. 25; G. Volkens, Journey through Equatorial Africa, Der Kilimandscharo, Berlin, 1897, London, 1891, p. 125. p. 239; B. Gutmann, "Feldbau- B Torday and Joyce, in Journal sitten und Wachstumsbrauche der of the Anthropological Institute, Wadschagga," Zeitschrift fur Eth- 1906, xxxvi, 44. Each day of the nologie, 1913, xlv, 502. Bayaka week bears a name, the 1 Horace Waller, editor, The last being pungu, or market day Last Journals of David Livingstone (ibid., p. 47). in Central Africa, New York, 1875, 6 Torday and Joyce, ibid., 1905, p. 367. See also V. L. Cameron, xxxv, 413. The Bambala year Across Africa, London, 1877, ii, 3. consists of thirteen lunar months, 2 E. Torday, in Mitteilungen der each divided into seven weeks of anthropologischen Gesellschaft in four days, the last day of each week Wien, 1911, xli, 192. being pika, or market day. 3 H. v. Wissmann et aL, Im 1 Torday and Joyce, ibid., 1906, Innern Afrikas, 3 Leipzig, 1891, xxxvi, 291. p. 252. MARKET DAYS 109 The market week (lumingu 1 ), 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 avoid- ing different days, while in others the women will work any day." 2 An early explorer, referring to the cus- tom of observing nsona as a rest day, declares that "on this day they refrain from working in the planta- tions, under the superstitious notion that the crop would fail ; they, however, perform any other kind of work." 3 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. 4 An- other writer describes sona (nsona) as the men's day 1 Sir H. H. Johnston, The River 4 E. Pechiiel-Loesche, in Die Congo, London, 1884, p. 455. Loango-Expedition, dritte Abteilung, 2 H. H. Bentley, Pioneering on erste Halfte, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 139. the Congo, London, 1900, i, 399 sq. See also A. Bastian, Die deutsche 3 J. K. Tuckey, Narrative of an Expedition an der Loango- Kiiste, Expedition to explore the River Jena, 1874, i, 209. Zaire, New York, 1818, p. 238. i io REST DAYS 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. 1 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 re- pose 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 expla- nation of this period of four days, which forms their week." 2 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 1 R. E. Dennett, At the Back of 1687, p. 24. For further details the Black Man's Mind, London, relating to markets and market 1906, pp. 64, 140; idem, Notes on weeks among the lower Congo the Folklore of the Fjort, London, peoples see Herbert Ward, Five 1898, pp. 8, 137. Among the lower Years with the Congo Cannibals, Congo tribes, generally, the dead London, 1890, p. 59; J. H. Weeks, are buried only on two of the four Congo Life and Folklore, London, weekdays (J. H. Weeks, in Folk- 1911, pp. 227 sq.; H. Nipperdey, lore, 1909, xx, 6 1 ; compare idem, "Zur Bedeutung der Wochen- Among the Primitive Bakongo, Phil- Markte am Congo," Revue coloniale adelphia, 1914, p. 249). international, 1887, v, 205-214; 2 L. B. Proyart, Histoire de A. Thonnar, Essai sur le systeme Loango, Kakongo, et autres royaumes economique des primitifs d'apres d'Afrique, Paris, 1776, p. 116. A les populations de I'etat independant still earlier reference to this Afri- du Congo, Brussels, 1901, pp. 82- can Sabbath will be found in G. 114; A. Cureau, Les societes primi- A. Cavazzi da Montecuccoli, Is- tives de I'Afrique equatoriale, Paris, torica descrizione de' tre regni Congo, 1912, pp. 295 sqq. Matamba, et Angola, Bologna, MARKET DAYS in 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." 2 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? 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." 4 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 1 F. Hutter, Wanderungen und Exploring Voyage, London, 1856, Forschungen im Nord-Hinterland p. 316). An early missionary to von Kamerun, Brunswick, 1902, west Africa observes that among pp. 266, 360; compare Preuss, in the Ibo, Igara, and other Nigerian Deutsches Kolonialblatt, 1898, ix, tribes the week consists of four days, 456. viz. eke, a market day and unlucky 2 W. F. Daniell, in Journal of the for the ata, or chief, to see strangers, Ethnological Society, 1848, i, 222 sq. ede, a lucky or good day, afo, an 3 A. G. Leonard, The Lower unlucky day, and uko, a lucky day. Niger and its Tribes, London, 1906, Besides these days of good and PP- 395> 375 > William Allen, evil omen the Mohammedans have Narrative of the Expedition sent by made the natives believe that Fri- Her Majesty's Government to the day is an unlucky day to under- River Niger in 184.1, London, 1848, take any work of importance i> 398; N. W. Thomas, Anthropo- (S. A. Crowther, in The Church logical Report on the Ibo-speaking Missionary Intelligencer, 1865, n.s., Peoples of Nigeria, London, 1913, i, i, 55). 127. Seven weeks are here counted 4 J. Parkinson, in Journal of the to the month of twenty-eight Anthropological Institute, 1906, days (W. F. Baikie, Narrative of an xxxvi, 317. ii2 REST DAYS 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. 1 The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, supplemented by later accounts, furnish a con- siderable 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 fami- lies 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. 2 1 N. W. Thomas, Anthropologi- to enable them, as every person is cal Report on the Edo-speaking obliged to celebrate this festival" Peoples of Nigeria, London, 1910, (David van Nyendael, "A Descrip- i, 1 8 sq. That the eight-day week tion of Rio Formosa, or the River of the Bini has developed from a of Benin," in W. Bosman, A New more ancient four-day week is also and Accurate Description of the the opinion of R. E. Dennett (At Coast of Guinea, London, 1705, the Back of the Black Man's Mind, p. 456). pp. 214, 364). The Bini week has 2 A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking been stated to consist of five days Peoples, London, 1887, pp. 89, 93. (Cyril Punch, quoted in H. L. On the Gold Coast white seems to Roth, Great Benin, Halifax [Eng.], be the special colour appropriate for 1903, p. 52 n. 1 ), but this is cer- holy or festive days. On a man's tainly an error. An early traveller birthday, which is sacred to his kra, among the Bini declares that their or tenanting spirit, he abstains Sabbath "happens every fifth day, from work, puts white clay on his which is very solemnly observed face, and dons a white cloth by the great with the slaughter (ibid., p. 156). On the Tshi holy of cows, sheep, and goats, whilst days, observed by families or pri- the commonalty kill dogs, cats, and vate persons only, see further Bos- chickens, or whatever their money man, op. cit., p. 153; W. Hutton, will reach to. And of whatever A Voyage to Africa, London, 1821, is killed, large portions are distrib- p. 166 n* (Ashanti) ; E. Perre- uted to the necessitous, in order gaux, Chez les Achanti, Neuchatel, MARKET DAYS 113 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 remain- ing days is a period of rest only for the followers of the god to which it is dedicated. 1 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." 2 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 ven- tures forth on this day is fined and his catch thrown into the sea. In former times he would have been put to death. 3 The fifth day, iffi-da, of the Tshi week is the regular rest day for farmers. 4 Similarly, among the Ewe every tribal deity, with one exception, has a sacred day, observed by his followers to the accom- paniment of much eating, drinking, and dancing. 5 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, 6 the first day (ako-ojo) "is considered un- 1906, p. 272; J. Parkinson, in 4 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples* Man, 1911, xi, 2 (Appolonians). pp. 220, 304. 1 Ellis, The Y or uba-s peaking Peo- 6 Idem, The Ewe-speaking Peo- ples, London, 1894, p. 145. pies, London, 1890, pp. 41, 79. 2 Ibid., p. 149. 6 Ako-ojo, "First Day"; ojo- 3 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, awo, " Day of the Secret," sacred pp. 220 sq. Beecham declares that to Ifa ; ojo-ogun, " Day of Ogun," were the fishermen to go out to sea the god of iron ; ojo-shango, " Day on this day, "the fetish would be of Shango," the god of thunder; angry and spoil their fishing" ojo-obatala, "Obatala's Day." A (Ashantee and the Gold Coast, holy day is called ose (se, to dis- London, 1841, p. 186). Compare allow), and because each holy day also Bosman, op. cit., p. 160; recurs weekly, ose has also come Miss Mary H. Kingsley, West to mean the week of five days African Studies, 2 London, 1901, p. (Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, 145. pp. 145 sq.}. According to an i REST DAYS lucky, and no business of importance is ever under- taken on it. On this day all the temples are swept out, and water, for the use of the gods, is brought in procession." 1 The Ewe of Dahomey are said to ob- serve 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." 2 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. 3 earlier writer osse (ose), or holy day, comes from a word signifying silence. This expression was trans- ferred 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, Ab- beokuta; or Sunrise within the Tropics? 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 Mans 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 follow- ing 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, Lon- don, 1910, pp. 72-80). A five-day week has been noted among the Jebu of southeastern Yorubaland (D'Avezac, in Memoires de la societe 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). 1 Ellis, Y or uba-s peaking Peoples, P- H5- 2 F. E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans, London, 1851, p. 181. For every fourth day as the mar- ket day at Whydah see P. E. Isert, Neue Reise nach Guinea und den Caribdischen 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). 3 Four-day weeks : R. Plehn, Beitrdge zur Folkerkunde des Togo- Gebietes, Halle, 1898, p. 9; J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stdmme, Berlin, 1906, p. 3 1 1 (Ho) ; five-day weeks : R. Plehn, in Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, MARKET DAYS 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 mar- ket day here recurs on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath. 1 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. 2 The Tshi keep adjwo-da, the first day of their seven-day week, as a general Sabbath. 3 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 "puri- fication," a term which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon. 4 1896, ix, 123; six-day weeks: von Zech, ibid., 1898, xi, 128; Chris- taller, in Mitteilungen der geogra- phischen Gesellschaft fur Thuringen, 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. Miiller, in Anthropos, 1907, ii, 201). 1 A. Mischlich, in Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehr- ten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, 1896, ix, 83. 2 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). 3 Ellis, Y or uba-s peaking Peoples, pp. 146 sq.; idem, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 218. 4 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 ot the two sacred days of the seven-day week. It is compulsory for all ranks and sexes, but is espe- cially observed by the women. "Under the supposition that some malign potency pervades the sur- rounding country on this day, more particularly directed against the pregnant women, their daily avo- cations are restricted within the walls of their domiciles, no egress being tolerated either for the pur- poses 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 declin- ing sun" (W. F. Daniell, in Journal of the Ethnological Society, 1856, iv, 23). n6 REST DAYS Although market weeks of varying length have been reported among some of the other Sudanese negroes south of the Niger, 1 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. 2 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. 3 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 insti- tution, 4 but he himself pointed out that Mohammedan states were formed to the north of the forest country 1 R. A. Freeman, Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jdman, West- minster, 1898, p. 176 (market every fourth day among the Ga- man, 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 Guinee, Paris, 1892, i, 370 (market every fifth day among the Diulasu) ; L. Desplagnes, Le plateau central nigerien, 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 negres de I'Afrique sus-equatoriale, Paris, 1889, pp. 355 sqq. 2 A. Mischlich, Lehrbuch der hausanischen Sprache, Berlin, 1902, p. 127 (Hausa) ; J. S. Gallieni, Voyage au Soudan franqais, Haut- Niger, et pays de Segou, Paris, 1885, p. 436 (Segu) ; R. Gallic, Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo, London, 1830, i, 323, 346 (Man- dingo) ; 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 Fri- day. Here, again, Mohammedan influence is to be suspected (F. Hut- ter, Wanderungen und Forschungen im Nord-Hinterland von Kamerun, Brunswick, 1902, p. 361). 3 C. van Overbergh, Les May- ombe, Brussels, 1907,, p. 353 ; A. de Calonne Beaufaict, Etudes Bakango, Liege, 1912, p. 79; J. H. Weeks, Among the Primitive Bakongo, Phil- adelphia, 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. Paulitsche, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas. Die materielle Kultur der Dandkil, Galla, und Somal, Berlin, 1893, p. 313). 4 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 217. So also B. Cruickshank (Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, London, 1853, ii, 189 sq.}. MARKET DAYS 117 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. 1 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 neigh- bouring 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 1 No evidence for markets has River, Belgian Congo) ; J. Maes, in been discovered among the Bantu Anthropos, 1913, viii, 357 (Mon- tribes south of the Zambesi. The gelima, on the Aruwimi River, Bel- absence of markets elsewhere is gian Congo) ; A. J. N. Tremearne, sometimes specifically noted by our The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria, authorities; see F. Thonner, Im London, 1912, p. 245 (Kagoro and afrikanischen Urwald, Berlin, 1898, other pagan tribes of Northern p. 33 (Mondunga, on the Dua Nigeria). n8 REST DAYS 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. 1 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 peri- odic 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, aifording 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 re- strictions 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 prac- tice, 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 appar- ently 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 arid 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 1 Above, pp. 107, 109, in. MARKET DAYS 119 adults were obliged by law to resort to the tianguiztli, and severe penalties were imposed on those who ex- changed 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 festiv- ities. 1 The five-day market week also existed in various parts of Central America. 2 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. 3 If the Muysca week consisted only of three days, that of the Peruvians extended to ten days, end- ing 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 appella- tion of Pachacutec, "Reformer of the World." To J D. F. S. Clavigero, Storia antica del Messico, Cesena, 1780, ii, 62, 163 ; B. de Sahagim, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana, transl. Jourdanet and Simeon, Paris, 1880, pp. Ixxiii, 290 sq.; A. von Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleresy Paris, 1816, ii, 340; G. Briihl, Die Culturvolker Alt- Amerikas y New York, 1887, p. 234; J. Kohler, "Das Recht der Az- teken," Zeitschrift fur 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.). 2 Brasseur de Bourbourg, His- toire des nations civilisees du Mexique et de FAmerique-Centrale, Paris, 1858, iii, 464. 3 A. von Humboldt, op. cit. y i, 340, ii, 227; Briihl, op. cit. t p. 239; compare p. 326, where a market every fourth day is stated to have been held in Turmeque. In Soro- toca the market took place every eighth day (ibid.). But authentic details concerning the Chibcha calendar are not to be had. Ac- cording 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. 120 REST DAYS 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 continu- ous 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." 1 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 nundincz? The nundinal cycle, 1 Garcilasso de la Vega, Comen- romaines,v\\, 120-122; E. Huschke, tarios reales de los Incas, pt. i, bk. vi, Das alte romische Jahr und seine ch. 35; C. R. Markham, First Part Tage, Breslau, 1869, pp. 288-312; of the Royal Commentaries of the R. Flex, Die dlteste Monatseintei- Yncas, London, 1871, ii, 206. It lung der Romer, Jena, 1880, pp. 16 is an old error, for which Garcilasso sqq. ; and especially P. Huvelin, de la Vega (op. cit., pt. i, bk. ii, Essai historique sur le droit des ch. 23) appears to be responsible, marches et des foires, Paris, 1897, that the Peruvians had a week of pp. 84-99. According to the seven days, following the successive Roman system of inclusive reckon- phases of the moon. But Acosta, ing which may be compared who visited Peru soon after the with that sometimes employed in Spanish conquest of that country, is Yorubaland (p. 119 n. 1 ) the better informed and says clearly market fell on the ninth day, as that neither Peruvians nor Mexi- the derivation of the word nundince cans had a seven-day week (J. de (from novem) indicates. It has Acosta,HistoriadelasIndias,bk.vi, been suggested by H. Diels (Sibyl- ch. 3 ; The Natural and Moral His- linische Blatter, Berlin, 1890, p. 41 tory of the Indies, edited by C. R. ft. 1 ) that the choice of the ninth Markham, London, 1880, ii, 396). day was influenced by the symbol- 2 See G. E. Marindin, in Smith, ism attaching to the number nine Wayte, and Marindin's Dictionary among the Romans, as among other of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3 Indo-European peoples; compare ii, 251 sq.; M. Besnier, in Darem- the Nones, or the ninth day before berg, Saglio, and Pottier's Diction- the Ides, and the nine days' festi- naire des antiquites grecques et vals (novemdiales feriee}. Prob- MARKET DAYS 121 jight 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 occupa- tions were interrupted ; schoolchildren enjoyed a holi- day ; and sumptuous banquets celebrated the festive occasion. The origin and early development of the nundincz 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. 1 In historic times the nundince 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 nundince could be used for the settlement of judicial business, as is indicated by a passage in the Twelve Tables referring to them. 2 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 legis- lation effectually debarred the rural voters from partic- ipation in law-making on the very occasions when the largest number of them would naturally be in the capi- tal city. 3 The classical writers were uncertain whether ably, however, the Roman market (Tabula iii, 6, in Gellius, Noctes week consisted originally of four Attica, xx, i, 49). days only, and later was doubled 3 Macrobius, op. cit., i, 16, 30; to form the cycle employed in Pliny, Historia naturalis, xviii, 3. historic times. The nundinal days I accept the view that the lex Hor- were not named, but were indicated tensia converted the nundince into in the calendars by letters of the dies fasti non comitiales, that is, alphabet from A to H. forbade comitial meetings on these 1 Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 16, dates, though allowing judicial busi- 32 sq.; Dionysius Halicarnassensis, ness to be done thereon. For this Antiquitates Romanes, ii, 28, vii, 58 ; explanation see G. W. Botsford, compare Varro, De re rustica, ii, The Roman Assemblies, New York, praef. Cicero attributes the in- 1909, pp. 139,315,471 ; Marquardt- stitution of markets to Numa (De Wissowa, Romische Staatsverwal- republica, ii, 14, 27). tung, Leipzig, 1885, iii, 2 290. It has 2 Tertiis nundinis partis secanto been maintained that toward the 122 REST DAYS the nundince should properly be included among the ferial days, that is, among the days which belonged to gods and not to men. 1 In Varro's time the pontiffs held that the nundince were not feriatce, but many writers, cited by Macrobius, maintained the contrary opinion. The nundince certainly never became public festivals in the technical sense, though they were dedi- cated to Jupiter, to whom the Flaminica Dialis sacri- ficed a bull on their recurrence. 2 In this consecration to a deity the nundince further resembled some of the west African market days. The Roman nundinum and nundince 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 week- days, Roman and Jewish, and in the special observ- ance of one day of each week by abstention from the customary occupations. It is scarcely surprising to find, therefore, that the Roman nundince, together with the/m^, contributed to the development of the Chris- tian Sunday. The earliest Sunday law is the brief edict of Constantine (321 A.D.), enacting that magis- trates, city people, and artisans were to rest "on the venerable day of the Sun." 3 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 end of the republican period the bili die Solis quiescant (Codex prohibition referred to was no Justinianus, iii, 12, 3). The pro- longer observed (P. Groebe, in hibition of holding court on Sun- Drumann-Groebe, Geschichte Roms, z day was relaxed by Constantine in Berlin, 1899-1906, iii, 779). the same year so far as to permit 1 Above, pp. 94 sqq. such legal proceedings as the eman- 2 Macrobius, op. cit., i, 16, 30. cipation and manumission of slaves According to Plutarch (Quezstiones to take place at this time (Codex Romance, 42), the nundince were Theodosianus, ii, 8, i). Eusebius consecrated to Saturn. (Vita Constantini, iv, 18-20) tells 3 Omnes judices urbanceque plebes us that the emperor forbade all et cunctarum artium officia venera- military exercises on Sunday. I ( MARKET DAYS 123 stablished 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 permit- ting 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 ferice in country districts. 1 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 Sun- day. 2 With the final triumph of Christianity over paganism the old j 'erics and the nundince were abolished, Sunday, with the other Christian festivals, being sub- stituted in their place. 3 1 Above, p. 98. 3 The date of the obsolescence of 2 Provisione etiam pietatis su[a]e the nundince is not definitely known. nundinas die Solis perpeti anno The fasti Philocali (354 A.D.) constituit (Corpus inscriptionum marks the days of the seven-day Latinarum, iii, no. 4121, p. 523). week by the letters A-G, and gives Markets were held on Sunday in side by side the old nundinal many parts of Europe until late in letters A-H (Corpus inscriptionum the Middle Ages, in spite of numer- Latinarum, i, pt. i, 2 256 sqq.). ous edicts, ecclesiastical and civil, This arrangement had probably forbidding the practice (Huvelin, become a feature of the state op. cit. f pp. 46, 156^.). calendar since the Sunday legisla- tion of Constantine. 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 lumi- nary, often conceived as masculine, plays the most important part among the heavenly bodies. 1 "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 1 P. Ehrenreich, Die allgemeine Roscher, Uber Selene und Ver- Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen wandtes, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 1-16, Grundlagen, Leipzig, 1910, pp. and Nachtrdge, Leipzig, 1895, pp. i- 114-127; S. Arrhenius, "tfberden 19. For the ideas of civilized chil- Ursprung des Gestirnkultus," dren relating to the moon see J. W. Sfitntia, 1911, ix, pp. 424 sqq., Slaughter, "The Moon in Child- Sir J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, hood and Folklore," American Osiris, 3 London, 1914, ii, 140-150; Journal of Psychology, 1902, xiii, E. J. Payne, History of the New 294-318; G. S. Hall, "Note on World called America, Oxford, Moon Fancies," ibid., 1903, xiv, 1892-1899, i, 547 sqq.; W. H. .88-91. 124 .. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 125 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." 1 This succinct statement, by a learned Mohammedan of the eleventh century, of the reasons which led early philosophers to attach a special signif- icance to the moon, may well serve as a text for elucida- tion 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 Brazil- ian 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. 2 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. 3 Greek nurses took special pains never to show their charges to the moon. 4 In 1 Albiruni, India, translated by ganda mother believes that her child C. E. Sachau, London, 1888, i, 346 will grow strong and healthy, if it sq. Compare the fine passage in is shown the first new moon after Apuleius (Metamorphoses, xi, i). its birth (idem, The Baganda, 2 Spix and Martius, Reise in London, 1911, p. 58). Similarly, Brasilien, Munich, 1823-1831, i, it is said that in the island of Kiri- 381, iii, 1 1 86. wina, the largest of the Trobriand 3 K. Weule, Native Life in East group to the east of New Guinea, a Africa, London, 1909, p. 188. On mother always presents her child the other hand, children of the to the first new moon after its Bageshu, a Bantu people of British birth, in order that it may grow East Africa, are expected to take fast and talk soon (George Brown, part in new-moon dances, since it is Melanesians and Polynesians, Lon- thought that they derive benefit don, 1910, p. 37). from the moon (J. Roscoe, in 4 Plutarch, Qu&stiones convivi- Journal of the Anthropological In- ales, iii, 10, 3. stitute, 1909, xxxix, 193). A Ba- 126 REST DAYS modern Germany it is an injunction of peasant folk- lore never to point out the moon to young children. 1 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. 2 The Bushmen of South Africa avoid looking at the moon. 3 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. 4 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." 5 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." 6 Two New Testament passages illustrate the belief that epilepsy may be caused by the lunar rays. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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 moon- 1 A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Folks- 6 C. M. Doughty, Travels in aberglaube der Gegenwart? edited by Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 391 i, 444. (Oldenburg). 6 Psalms, cxxi, 6. Another Bib- 2 W. E. Roth, North Queensland Heal passage (Hosea, v, 7), possibly Ethnography, Bulletin, 1903, no. 5, referring to the moon, is most p. 7. obscure. 3 W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. 7 Matthew, iv, 24, xvii, 15. ^ The Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman Folk- Greek verb used here is creA.r7viao/>uu. lore, London, 1911, pp. 67 sq. 8 E. Combe, Histoire du culte de 4 W. Bogoras, in Memoirs of the Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie, American Museum of Natural His- Paris, 1908, pp. 36 sqq. tory, xi, 306. 9 Qucestiones conviviales, iii, 10, 3. a LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 127 ight. 1 German peasants subject themselves to a long list of restrictions : no work, and especially no spin- ning, 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 moon- shine, 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 Various peoples have noticed that monthly peri- odicity belongs to women and moon alike, and, join- ing these observations, have supposed that the lunar changes cause menstruation, or that the first appear- ance 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. 5 Such superstitions 1 P. Sebillot, Le folk-lore de 4 Fanny D. Bergen, Current France, Paris, 1904-1907, i, 45. Superstitions, Boston, 1896, p. 2 Wuttke-Meyer, op. cit., p. 301. 120. 3 Ibid., p. 59. In Voigtland, B For the belief that impregna- central Germany, the assaults of tion can be accomplished by the witches are especially looked for and sun, see Sir J. G. Frazer, Balder dreaded on Mondays (R. Eisel, the Beautiful, London, 1913, i, Sagenbuch des Voigtlandes, Gera, 74 sqq. 1871, p. 210). 128 REST DAYS 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. 1 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. 2 Here, as well as in some parts of Melanesia, natives ascribe menstruation to the moon. 3 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 them- selves, on seeing the new moon, say, "The tane (hus- band) of all women in the world has appeared." 4 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. 5 The 1 Mrs. K. L. Parker, The Euahlayi xxxii, 303 sq. (Sinaugolo of the Tribe, London, 1905, pp. 50, 64, 98. Rigo District) ; E. Beardmore, 2 C. G. Seligmann, in Reports of ibid., 1890, xix, 460 (Mawatta of the Cambridge Anthropological Ex- the Daudai District) ; A. Baessler, pedition to Torres Straits, v, 206 sq. Neue Sudsee Bilder, Berlin, 1900, The word for moon, ganumi, is p. 383 (Santa Cruz Islands), sometimes used as a synonym of 4 E. Best, "Notes on Procreation nanamud, the proper expression for among the Maori People of New menstrual blood (ibid.). Compare Zealand," Journal of the Polynesian A. Hunt, in Journal of the Anthro- Society, 1905, xiv, 210 sq. pological Institute, 1899, xxviii, u. 5 C. W. Hobley, in Journal of 3 C. G. Seligmann, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1903, the Anthropological Institute, 1902, xxxiii, 358. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 129 Uganda suppose that menstruation is caused by the moon, either when new or waning. 1 Similar beliefs are entertained by the negroes of the western Sudan, who commonly give to this female function the name of the moon. 2 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." 3 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." 4 Indian women in Peru are said to have prayed to the moon to give them an easy delivery. 5 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. 6 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. 7 The Ira- nian peoples supposed that the moon contained a bull whose semen was another form of haoma, the intoxicat- ing decoction of the moon-plant. 8 The position of 1 J. Roscoe, t'&tV/., 1901, xxxi, 121. Osiris, a god often identified with 2 Thomas Winterbottom, An the moon, was supposed to be Account of the Native Africans in the born of a virgin cow impregnated Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, by a divine influence emanating London, 1803, ii, 206 (Mandingo, from the moon (Plutarch, Qucss- Susu, etc.). tiones conviviales, viii, I, 3 ; idem, 3 Hans Egede, A Description of De hide et Osiride, 43). On the Greenland, London, 1745, p. 205. discovery of an Apis the Egyptians 4 W. B. Grubb, An Unknown kept a holiday (Herodotus, iii, 28). People in an Unknown Land, 1 W. H. Roscher, "Aphrodite," London, 1911, p. 139. in Roscher's Ausfilhrliches Lexikon 6 P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion der griechischen und romischen de la idolatria del Piru, Lima, 1621, Mythologie, i, coll. 390 sq. p. 32. 8 L. H. Gray, in Spiegel Me- 6 H. Brugsch, Religion und^ My- morial Volume, Bombay, 1908, thologie der alien Agypter, Leipzig, pp. 160-168. Raka and Sinivali, 1885, p. 335. The sacred bull two of the Vedic goddesses identi- Apis, which the Egyptians re- fied with the lunar phases, seem to garded as an image of the soul of have been associated with child- 130 REST DAYS Hera as a goddess of marriage and childbirth has been explained by the assumption that she played an ancient role 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. 1 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. 2 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 habit- ually 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. 3 That changes in the moon are associated with weather changes as cause and effect is an ancient superstition not yet obsolete in rural communities. 4 Comparative studies have shown how very general birth (Rig-Veda, i\, 32-, transl. H. 337; Sheldon Dibble, History of the Grassmann, i, 41). Sandwich Islands, Lahainaluna, 1 Plutarch, Quastiones conviviales, 1843, p. 109; N. B. Dennys, The iiiy 10, 3 ; idem, Qucestiones Ro- Folk-lore of China, London, 1876, mancz, 77. See further, W. H. p. 118; M. Jastrow, The Religion Roscher, Juno und Hera, Leipzig, of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1875, PP- 40-59; idem, Uber Selene 1898, p. 358. und Verwandtes, pp. 55-61 ; idem, 4 H. A. Hazen, "The Origin and "Mondgottin," Ausfiihrliches Lexi- Value of Weather Lore," Journal of con der griechischen und romischen American Folk-lore, 1900, xiii, 191- Mythologie, ii, coll. 3150 sqq. 198; E. G. Dexter, Weather In- 2 Sebillot, op. cit., i, 41. fluences, New York, 1904, pp. 10- 3 E. H. Man, in Journal of the 26. Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii, LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 131 is the belief that the moon exerts great influence on growth, particularly on the growth of vegetation, and on all human life and activity. 1 For this opinion there appear to have been two principal causes. Observa- tion showed that moisture in the air and soil are favour- able 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. 2 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 asso- ciated 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 prev- alence in antiquity and still survive with almost un- diminished vigour among the superstitious classes of to-day. 3 The doctrine of lunar sympathy, by a natural ex- tension, may also account for the common belief that "the same things which grow with the waxing, dwindle with the waning, moon," 4 and therefore that all busi- 1 Payne, op. cit., i, 547 sq. ; possibly embody a like conception Sir E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,* is Deuteronomy, xxxiii, 14: "and London, 1903, i, 130; W. G. Black, for the precious things put forth by Folk-medicine, London, 1883, pp. the moon/' See W. von Baudissin, 124 sqq.; A. E. Crawley, "Dew," Jahve et Moloch, Leipzig, 1874, p. 24. Hastings's Encyclopedia of Religion 3 For many illustrations see and Ethics, ^,.698-701. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris? ii, 2 Roscher, Uber Selene und Ver- 131 sqq.; J. Grimm, Teutonic wandtes, pp. 49 sqq., 61-67. The Mythology, London, 1883, ii, 708- New Zealanders believed that it 716. was in the night that everything 4 Gellius, Noctes Attica, xx, 8 : grew (R. Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, Eadem autem ipsa, quce crescente London, 1855, p. 175). The single luna gliscunt, deficiente contra Old Testament passage which may defiunt. 132 REST DAYS ness 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." 1 The Andaman Islanders abstain, from work during the first few evenings of the third quarter of the moon. 2 The Buriat are said never to undertake anything of importance between the full and the new moon. 3 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." 4 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." 5 Of the Sudanese negroes, generally, it is said that they are much influenced in their under- takings by the appearance of the new moon. For instance, a journey which has been decided upon dur- ing 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. 6 The Nandi celebrate their very important circumcision festival, as well as all mar- riage ceremonies, during the waxing moon, but per- form their mourning rites during the waning moon. 7 The Hova and other tribes of Madagascar regard the waning of the moon as "an unfavourable time for any 1 TheTodas,London, 1906, p. 411. R. Hakluyt, The Principal Naviga- 2 E. H. Man, in Journal of the tions, Traffiques, and Discoveries of Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii, the English Nation, i, 141 sq. 152 sq. It is also said of the An- (Glasgow reprint, 1903-1905). damanese that they do no work, 8 Mungo Park, Travels in the except what is noiseless, between Interior Districts of Africa, London, dawn and sunrise (ibid.). 1816, i, 266. 3 Peter Dobell, Travels in Kam- 6 L. G. Binger, Du Niger au tchatka and Siberia, London, 1830, golfede Guinee, Paris, 1892, ii, 116. ii, 1 6. 7 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, Ox- 4 Joannes de Piano Carpini, in ford, 1908, pp. 52, 60, 71. H LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 133 important undertaking." 1 Similar beliefs were enter- tained by the early Germans, who, according to Caesar, despaired of victory if they engaged in battle before the new moon. 2 Tacitus, with fuller knowledge, de- clares that the Germans considered the new moon and the full moon as the most auspicious seasons for begin- ning any enterprise. 3 This superstition seems still to linger in some districts of Germany, where it is com- monly 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. 4 A like belief was that of the Scottish High- landers, 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 im- portance ; but the first and the middle they seize with avidity, presaging the most auspicious issue to their undertakings." 5 On the other hand the people of 1 J. Sibree, "Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions," Folk- lore Record, 1879, ii, 32. 2 De bello Gallico, i, 50. 3 Germania, 1 1 . The rule of the Spartans never to march out to war before the full moon (Herodo- tus, 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- 4 Kuhn and Schwartz, Nord- deutsche Sagen, Mdrchen, und Ge- brduche, Leipzig, 1848, p. 457. 5 The Rev. John Grant, in Sir John Sinclair's The Statistical Ac- count of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1794, xii, 457. See also Charles Rogers, Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character? 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 Rhys, "The Coligny Calendar," Proceed- ings 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 espe- cially on the twelfth day. "Zu- grunde liegt die weit verbreitete Vorstellung, dass alles, was gedei- 134 REST DAYS Thermia (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, plant- ing, cutting trees, and bleaching clothes those days are best which follow the full moon. 1 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." 2 Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered un- favourable 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. 3 Among the Wasania, a tribe of British East Africa, no cohabitation takes place during an eclipse. 4 Lunar and solar eclipses are among the phenomena which require a Naga community to de- clare a genna and give up its ordinary occupations. 5 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. 6 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 hen und zunehmen soli, wahrend to eclipses, generally, see R. Lasch, des zunehmenden Mondes vorge- " Die Finsternisse in der Mythologie nommen werden soil" (M. P. Nils- und im religiosen Brauch der son in Archiv fur Religionswissen- Volker," Archivfur Religionswissen- schaft, 1911, xiv, 441 sq.). schaft, 1900, Hi, 97-152. 1 J. T. Bent, The Cyclades, Lon- 4 W. E. H. Barrett, in Journal don, 1885, p. 438. of the Anthropological Institute, 2 John Aubrey, Remaines of 1911, xli, 35. Gentilisme and Judaisme, edited by 5 Hodson, Ndga Tribes, pp. 166 J. Britten, London, 1881, p. 85. sq. See above, pp. 50 sq. 3 On the superstitions attaching 6 Rivers, op. cit., pp. 580, 592. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 135 o one would think of initiating any important work at this time." 1 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. 2 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. 3 The Chinese formerly observed lunar eclipses by a general suspen- sion of business. 4 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. 5 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. 6 This belief, as has been noted, prevailed in England at least as late as the seventeenth century. 7 1 Madras Weekly Mail, I5th 4 John Barrow, Travels in China, October, 1908, quoted by Edgar London, 1804, p. 287. Thurston, Omens and Superstitions 6 Thucydides, vii, 50 ; Plutarch, of Southern India, London and Nicias, 23. Leipzig, 1912, p. 44. 6 J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica, 3 2 R. G. Chaube, "Some of the Basel, 1680, p. 477: Defectum luncs Most Popular Beliefs and Super- pro pessimo habent signo, quod stitions of the Hindus of North- aliquid mali et inauspicati ab ern India/* Journal of the Anthro- hostibus et inimicis suis portendat. pological Society of Bombay, v, Ideo ejusmodi die animas vulgo 326. jejunio affligunt et ab hostibus suis 3 W. Crooke, The Popular Reli- a Deo defendi postulant. gion and Folk-lore of Northern 7 Above, p. 134. During a solar India, 2 Westminster, 1896, i, eclipse Swabian peasants totally 21 sqq. ; compare idem, Natives of abandon their usual occupations Northern India, London, 1907, and shut up their cattle in the p. 203. See also H. G. Rose, stalls (A. Birlinger, Folksthum- " Hindu Pregnancy Observances in liches aus Schwaben, Freiburg-i.- the Punjab," Journal of the Anthro- B., 1861-1862, i, 189). In Ober- pological Institute, 1905, xxxv, Pfalz and Bohemia at such a time 277 sq. it is believed to be dangerous to 136 REST DAYS Various peoples have supposed that the moon, dur- ing the period of her invisibility, descends to the under- world. 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. 1 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 consid- ered that goats and sheep will not bear on the day after the disappearance of the moon. 2 The Wagiriama keep as Sabbaths the odd days at the end of the month, before the appearance of the new moon. 3 Some tribes of equatorial Africa believe that the new moon is espe- cially 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 be- tween 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. 4 The missionary, David Liv- 'VJTf ' eat anything or even to go outside 3 W. W. A. Fitzgerald, Travels in the house, unless one's mouth is the Coastlands of British East securely covered with a cloth Africa, London, 1898, p. in, quot- (Wuttke-Meyer, op. cit., p. 302). ing W. E. Taylor, Vocabulary of 1 C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of the Giryama Language, London, A-Kamba and other East African 1897. The name of these rest days Tribes, Cambridge, 1910, p. 53. jumwa is Arabic; see above, 2 W. S. Routledge and Kath- p. 107 n. z erine Routledge, With a Pre- 4 P. B. Du Chaillu, In African historic People, London, 1910, p. Forest and Jungle, New York, 1903, 284. pp. 96 sq. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 137 ingstone, while sojourning at Lake Nyassa, discovered that the natives in this region regarded the interlunium as distinctly unlucky. On one occasion his men de- layed an expedition till they had seen the new moon. We must have the new moon, they said, for a lucky starting. 1 The "dark day" of the moon was consid- ered by the Zulu as inauspicious for engaging in battle. 2 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 1 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. 3 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 invisi- bility. 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. 4 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 Jat and Ahir 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 1 Horace Waller, editor, The Last moon day, her milk, it is believed, Journals of David Livingstone in will kill the owner (P. Kershasp, Central Africa, New York, 1875, "Some Superstitions prevailing p. 275. among the Canarese-speaking Peo- 2 J. Y. Gibson, The Story of the pie of Southern India," Journal of Zulus, London, 1911, p. 175. the Anthropological Society of Bom- 3 Gengnagel, "Volksglaube und bay, vii, 84). Wahrsagerei an der Westkiiste 4 R. B. Bainbridge, in Memoirs Indiens," Ausland, 1891, Ixiv, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal , 871 sq. Another observer declares 1907, ii, 50. that if a cow calves on the new- 138 REST DAYS in the village instead. On inquiring the reason, I was told that to-day was the amawas, the last day of the moon, and that on this day of the month the bul- locks 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 kd sankrant, which comes about January, when the sun enters into the sign of Capricorn (makar), and on the diwdli and gordhan (the day after the diwdli) in the middle of Kartik (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 (pap), and his fellows would at once stop him. There is no such Sabbath for man, and it is not thought wrong (pap) for a man to work on any day of the year, though, of course, there are many holidays (teohdr), on which little work is done." * 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 1 J. Wilson, in Indian Antiquary, 1897, xxvi, 308 (from Punjab Notes and Queries, 1883). LUNA: LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 139 day of sorrow" (um 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 obscura- tion, there would follow the more terrifying portent of an eclipse. 1 Modern Arabs consider the last day or last three days of the month to be unfavourable for any sort of undertaking. 2 By the Athenians these three days were called dcrcXti/ot, because on them the moonlight was extinguished. They were classed with the other unlucky days (a7rooi it was neces- sary to sacrifice to the underworld gods in order to avoid their anger. 3 Selene at this time was supposed 1 M. Jastrow, Aspects of Reli- Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques gious Belief and Practice in Baby- et romaines, i, 332. G. F. Schoe- lonia and Assyria, New York, 1911, mann denies that the dcre'Aivoi were , pp. 214, 333 sqq.; idem, Die Reli- truly ill-omened, since there are gion Babyloniens und Assyriens, instances of popular assemblies Giessen, 1905-1912, i, 440, ii, being fixed for these days (Grie- 510 sqq. Compare L. W. King, chische Alterthumerf edited by J. Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, H. Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, London, 1896, pp. 5 sq. 457 w. 4 ). It would seem, how- 2 1. Goldziher, in Archiv fur ever, that the Athenians, like the Religionswissenschaft, 1910, xiii, Romans, sometimes distinguished 44 n. 4 For the Abyssinian be- between days popularly considered liefs see E. Littmann, ibid., 1908, unlucky and those officially recog- xi, 314 sq. nized as such in the state calendars. 3 E. Rhode, Psyche,* Tubingen, Friday is for us a most unlucky day, 1910, i, 234 n. 1 , 269 w. 2 ; E. Caille- but, excepting Good Friday, it is mer, in Daremberg and Saglio's not a dies non. i 4 o REST DAYS to descend to the underworld and the abode of shades ; hence the moon came to be associated with Persephone. 1 The Romans do not appear to have marked the inter- lunium 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." 2 Similar beliefs would seem to survive in the very common idea that the thre^e days before the new moon are especially unlucky and likely to be attended by storms and winds. 3 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 particu- larly the new moon which awakens interest and atten- tion. The first appearance of that luminary in the western sky after sunset is often hailed with various 1 Roscher, ffber Selene und^ Fer- 2 T. F. T. Dyer, English Folk- wandtes, pp. 46 sqq. The inter- lore, London, 1878, p. 41 ; Thomas lunar days were selected by the Hardy, The Return of the Native, ancients for the celebration of the London, 1895, p. 29. sacred marriages of the gods and 3 H. A. Hazen, in Journal of goddesses and, particularly, of the American Folk-lore, 1900, xiii, 192. sun and moon. At least from the American folklore contains the time of Thales the conjunction of injunction never to kill cattle or the two luminaries was indi- pigs, or even wild game, by the cated by the same term crvvoSos "dark of the moon"; it is most (coitus) which was applied to the unlucky, and the meat will come act of procreation (ibid., pp. 76 to no good (Bergen, Current Super- sqq.). stitions, p. 121). LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 141 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. 1 Certain tribes of southern California, after- wards gathered into the Mission of San Juan Capis- trano, 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." 2 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. 3 The Creek and Cherokee Indians, according to an early writer, "as- semble 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." 4 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, 6 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. 5 The Mandingo, on the first appearance of the new moon, "which they look upon to be newly created," say a short prayer. 6 The Bushmen had their special seasons of merry-making, when the dance was never neglected. "Dancing began with the 1 W. Smy the and F. Lowe, Nar- America? London, 1781, pp. 250, r alive of a Journey from Lima to 252. Para, London, 1836, p. 230. 4 W. Bartram, in Transactions 2 Father G. Boscana, "Chinig- of the American Ethnological Society, chinich," in Life in California by an 1853, iii, pt. i, 26. American, New York, 1846, pp. 5 Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," 298 sq. in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, 3 Jonathan Carver, Travels xvi, 273. through the Interior Parts of North 6 Mungo Park, op. cit., i, 265. 142 REST DAYS 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." l It has been suggested that in many cases the cere- monies 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. 2 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 naive 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. 1 G. W. Stow, The Native Races Turner, Samoa, p. 67; A. E. Jenks, of South Africa, London, 1905, in Ethnological Survey Publications, p. 112. For further examples of i, 206 (Bontoc Igorot of Luzon); new-moon and full-moon celebra- V. Solomon, in Journal of the tions see P. Kolben, The Present Anthropological Institute, 1902, State of the Cape of Good Hope, xxxii, 213 (Nicobarese) ; W. Bogo- London, 1731, i, 96 (Hottentots); ras, in Memoirs of the American J. Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin Museum of Natural History, xi, 378 of the Tasmanians, London, 1870, (Chukchi); J. v. Klaproth, Reise pp. 1 86 sqq.; Seligmann, Melane- in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien, sians of British New Guinea, , p. 193 Halle, 1814, ii, 602 (Osetes) ; A. (Koita) ; Carl Ribbe, Zzvei Jahre von Humboldt, Fues des Cordilleres, unter den Kannibalen der Salomo- Paris, 1816, ii, 244 (Muysca of Inseln, Dresden, 1903, p. 163 Colombia). (Shortland Island) ; Taylor, Te 2 Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3 Ika A Maui, p. 93 (Maori) ; ii, 140. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 143 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 some- times a holy day dedicated to a god, who may be identi- fied 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 occa- sion. We have already noticed the sympathetic influ- ence which the waxing and waning of the moon is sup- posed 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 impres- sion of her significance ; and her function of inaugu- rating 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 com- mencement 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 cus- tomary occupations. 1 1 The vice of seeking particu- ingenuity, has argued that the laristic explanations of widespread early Semites founded their Sab- social phenomena is illustrated by baths on the observation that the Nielsen, who, with misdirected moon (conceived as a divinity) 144 REST DAYS Lunar taboos, involving abstinence and quiescence, are commonly observed in Polynesia and Indonesia. 1 Various African peoples likewise entertain pronounced beliefs regarding the unfavourable influence of the moon's changes on human activities. The Zulu wel- come the first appearance of the new moon with demon- strations 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." 2 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." 3 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." 4 An earlier writer, referring to the Bechuana, says that when the new moon appears, " all must cease from work, rests four times in a lunation. addition to the cessation of labour, Days on which the deity rested which occur in connection with the were to be likewise observed by his moon's changes. And, as we shall worshippers as days of rest (D. see, the observance of lunar taboos Nielsen, Die altarabische Mond- may be quite dissociated from true religion und die mosaische Uberlie- moon-worship and probably long jerung, Strassburg, 1904, pp. 63 antedates the latter cult. sqq.). It is true that the moon * Above, pp. 14 sq., 20, 32 and looks full for a day or two before n. 2 , 34 and n. 1 , 37, 52 n. 1 and for a day or two after she is 2 Lieutenant Farewell, in W. F. full; similarly, the changes in her W. Owen, Narrative of Foyages to form at the beginning of a luna- explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, tion are scarcely perceptible. The and Madagascar, London, 1833, ii, moon, therefore, might be said to 397; compare Dudley Kidd, The "rest" at these two periods. But Essential Kafir, London, 1904, neither astronomical science nor p. no. untutored observation lends any 3 G. W. Stow, The Native Races support to the idea that the moon of South Africa, London, 1905, "rests" at the close of each and p. 414. every phase. Such a hypothesis, 4 Missionary Travels and Re- were it true, would not account for searches in South Africa, New the other forms of abstinence, in York, 1870, p. 255. LUN^ LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 145 and keep what is called in England a holiday." l 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." 2 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 partici- pate. 3 The Baziba, who dwell to the west and south- west of Lake Victoria Nyanza, are said to be one of the few tribes in this part of Africa having "a recog- nized day of rest, independently of the Christians' Sabbath. The two first days of every moon are uni- versal holidays." 4 A superstitious observance of the new-moon day is found among some of the tribes and peoples occupy- ing British East Africa. The Akamba, whose beliefs regarding the interlunium have been already men- tioned, 5 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. 6 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 weeks' rest, bwerende, on the appearance of each new moon ; no special gather- ings 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 cook- 1 John' Campbell, Travels in 3 Ibid. y p. 295. South Africa, London, 1822, ii, 4 J. F. Cunningham, Uganda and 205. its Peoples, London, 1905, p. 294. 2 L. Decle, Three Years in Sav- B Above, p. 136. age Africa, London, 1900, pp. 85 sq. 6 Hobley, op. cit. t p. 104. L 146 REST DAYS ing. 1 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. 2 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." 3 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 ap- peared 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 al- lowed 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 1 John Roscoe, The Baganda, 2 Roscoe, Baganda, pp. 320 sqq.; London, 1911, pp. 297, 299, 428; idem, "Python Worship in Ugan- idem, in Journal of the Anthropo- da," Man, 1909, ix, 88 sqq. logical Institute, 1902, xxxii, 76. 3 Idem, Baganda, pp. 249 sq. LUM LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 147 his arm or bite his finger, to prevent sleep ; for a man to slumber during full moon brought disaster to the household." l 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 pre- ceding evening. 2 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." 3 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 Sab- baths 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. 1 Mrs. A. B. Fisher, Twilight Speke this custom is also observed Tales of the Black Baganda, London by the king of Uganda, who, on the [1912], pp. 37 sq. first day after the appearance of 2 J. H. Speke, Journal of the the new moon, examines and ar- Discovery of the Source of the Nile, ranges his mapembe, or fetishes Edinburgh, 1863, p. 523. (ibid., p. 372). 3 Ibid., p. 259. According to 148 REST DAYS 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. 1 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." 2 His theory, however plaus- ible 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 busi- ness. 3 The Kanarese, whose customs and beliefs relating to the last day of the lunar month have al- ready been noticed, do not plough their fields at new 1 The Mendi of the hinterland nize no weeks (Yoruba-s peaking of Sierra Leone are said to hold a Peoples, p. 146). new-moon festival and at it to 2 Ibid. Ellis presented his argu- abstain from all work, "alleging ments more fully in an article "On that if they infringed this rule the Origin of Weeks and Sabbaths/' corn and rice would grow red, the Popular Science Monthly, 1895, new moon being a 'day of blood/ " xlvi, 329-343. Ellis, who cites this instance with- 3 W. Crooke, The Popular Reli- out giving his authority, adds the gion and Folk-lore of Northern further fact that the Mendi recog- India, 2 Westminster, 1896, i, 23. UNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 149 >n and full moon. 1 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. 2 The Korava regard the day after new moon as unlucky for starting out from home. 3 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. 4 The simpler forms of the rite were gradually extended into an elaborate ritual. Every Brahmanical householder was required to per- form two half-monthly sacrifices for a period of thirty years, after he had set up a home of his own. Accord- ing 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 re- served for the performance of the main ceremony. 5 Since it was permitted to compress the two days' rites of the full-moon sacrifice into a single day, the conjec- 1 Gengnagel, "Volksglaube und Opferrituals," Indische Studien, Wahrsagerei an der Westkiiste 1868, x, 329 sqq.; H. Zimmer, Indians/* Ausland, 1891, Ixiv, Altindisches Leben, Berlin, 1879, 871 sq. pp. 364 sq.; A. Hillebrandt, Das 2 F. Jagor, in V erhandlungen der altindische Neu- und Vollmonds- Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthro- opfer, Jena, 1879; idem, in pologie, Ethnologie, und Urge- Biihler's Grundriss der indo-arischen schichte, 1876, p. (201) (bound with Philologie und Altertumskunde t Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, vol. viii). Strassburg, 1901, ii, pt. ii, pp. 75 sq. 3 Thurston, Omens and Super- The new-moon day was called stitions of Southern India, p. 22. darsa, the day of the full moon, 4 Rig-Veda, i, 9, I, i, 94, 4 purnamdsa. (transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 8, 95) ; 8 The first day was called Atharva-Veda, vii, 79, 3, vii, 80, upavasatha, a fasting or fast day 1-4 (transl. W. D. Whitney, (compare Sanskrit upa, an adver- pp. 444-446) ; Martin Haug, The bial adjunct, signifying to refrain Aitareya Brahmanam o/ the Rig- from, abstain, hence, to fast). The Veda, Bombay, 1863, ii, 5; A. second day's ceremony was known Weber, "Zur Kenntnis des vedische as the darsapurnamdsa sacrifice. ISO REST DAYS ture is plausible that originally only one day was assigned to the observances of abstinence and sacri- fice. 1 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 con- spicuous 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. 2 The theory, thus unequivocally stated, has not won wide acceptance ; according to the commoner view Soma as a god is ordinarily cele- brated 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 forma- tion. Certain instances of such identification are met in a few of the latest hymns of the Rig-Veda; and in the 1 Satapatha-Brdhmana, i, I, I, 2 A. Hillebrandt, Vedische My- I sqq. (Sacred Books of the East> thologie, Breslau, 1891-1899, i, xii, I sq.; compare also 374 sq.). 267 sqq., 313, 366 sqq.; ii, 209-240. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 151 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. 1 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, espe- cially 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 cere- monies, as given in the Grihya-sutra 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. 2 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 In- stitutes of Vishnu the new moon is mentioned as a penitential fast day. 3 A variety of lunar penances is prescribed in the Laws of Manu* 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. 5 According to the Vishnu Purana, a rela- tively late production of Brahmanical thought, there 1 A. Bergaigne, La religion i, 6, 4, 5 sqq. (S. B. E., xii, 176 vediquf, Paris, 1878, i, 157 sqq.; sqq.). A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythol- 2 Grihya-sutra of Gobhila y i, 5, ogy, Strassburg, 1897, pp. 112 1-26 (S. B. E., xxx, 25-28). sqq.; E. W. Hopkins, The Reli- 3 Institutes of Fishnu, xlvii, 3 gions of India, Boston, 1895, pp. (S. B. E., vii, 152). 112 sqq.; J. Muir, Original San- 4 Laws of Manu, xi, 217 sqq. skrit Texts? London, 1884, v, 270 (S. B. E., xxv, 474 sq.). sq. Compare Satapatha-Brdhmana, 6 Ibid., iv, 128 (S.B.E., xxv, 149). 152 REST DAYS 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 medita- tion, and in prayer; and he who behaves differently will fall into a hell where ordure will be his food." 1 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. 2 For modern Brahmans the new-moon and full-moon days are regularly fast days. 3 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." 4 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 ex- ample, should not read the Veda in a village through which a corpse has been taken, or near a burning- ground. 6 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 thunder- storm, an earthquake, an eclipse or a fall of meteors ; 1 Vishnu Purdna, iii, n (the Customs ; and Ceremonies? Oxford, translation by H. H. Wilson, 1906, p. 270. edited by F. Hall, London, 1865, 4 Laws of Manu, iv, 113 sq. iii, 132 sq.). (S. B. E., xxv, 147). 2 7tV.,ii, 6 (Wilson-Hall, ii, 2 19). 6 Ibid., iv, 101 sqq. (S. B. E. y 3 J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, xxv, 144.^.). . LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 153 n 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. 1 In the Vishnu Pur ana 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." 2 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. 3 The Vedic ceremonies at new moon and full moon appear to have influenced the Hindu festival of Bhas- kara Saptami, which takes place on the twenty-second of the month Magha, the seventh day of the light fortnight (4th of February). u This day is in an espe- cial 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 Brah- mans, 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." 4 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 wor- shipper should sleep on the ground. In upper India the festival day is also called Achala Saptami, the 1 Gautama, xvi, 22, 35-37 (S. 3 Sir M. Monier- Williams, Brah- B. E. y ii, 258 sqq.). Compare manism and Hinduism,* 1 New York, Apastamba, i, 3, 9, 28: "at the 1891^.433. new moon (he shall not study) for 4 H. H. Wilson, "The Religious two days and nights" (S. B. E. y Festivals of the Hindus," in Essays ii, 36). and Lectures chiefly on the Religion 2 Fishhu Purdha, iii, 12 (Wilson- of the Hindus, edited by R. Rost, Hall, iii, 143). London, 1862, ii, 194. 154 REST DAYS 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." 1 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 authori- ties, beginning with this seventh of Magha and con- tinuing throughout the year." 2 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 posi- tion 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 !H. H. Wilson, "The Religious of the Hindus, edited by R. Rost, Festivals of the Hindus," in Essays London, 1862, ii, 197. and Lectures chiefly on the Religion 2 Ibid., p. 199. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 155 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." 1 The faithful householder "should never neglect the posaha fast in both fortnights, not even for a single night." 2 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. 3 The keeping of the posaha at the present day is especially connected with the holy fast of Paj- jusana at the close of the Jain religious year. The observance of the rite at other times by laymen appears to be dying out. 4 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 sun- rise and sunset. Since no cooking is allowed to taint the sanctity of the uposatha, the pious Buddhist pre- 1 Sutrakrtahga, ii, 7, 17; com- ford, 1895, pp. xix, 23 n. 2 (S.B.E., pare, ii, 2, 76 (S. B. E., xlv, 428 sq., vol. xlv). 383). 4 Margaret Stevenson, "Festi- 2 Uttaradhyayana, v, 23 ; com- vals and Fasts (Jain)/* Hastings's pare ix, 42 (S. B. E., xlv, 23, 39). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 3 H. Jacobi, Gaina Sutras, Ox- v, 875 sq. 156 REST DAYS pares his evening meal in the early morning before the sun appears. 1 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 obscur- ity. 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 meet- ings on the fourteenth or fifteenth and eighth day of each half-month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha himself. 2 There seems to be not the slightest ground for supposing that the number of Buddhist Sabbaths was originally two, but was afterwards in- creased 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." 3 In the Dhammika Sutta the wording is : "Then having with a believing mind kept abstinence (uposatha) on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth 1 H. Kern, Der Buddhismus und uposatha service on the fourteenth seine Geschichte in Indien, Leipzig, day of a short month was to be 1884, ii, 256 sqq.; idem, Manual of followed by a celebration on the Indian Buddhism, Strassburg, 1896, fifteenth of the following long pp. 99 sq.; R. C. Childers, A month. Compare ibid., ii, 34, i. Dictionary of the Pali Language, The important word " half," which London, 1875, s.v. uposatho. has been inserted above, was 2 Mahavagga, ii, I, 1-4 (S. B. E., omitted by an unfortunate over- xiii, 239 sq.; compare p. x). sight in the translation of this 3 Ibid., ii, I, 4 (S. B. E., xiii, passage from the Mahavagga, as 240). This rule is to be understood given in the Sacred Books of the as requiring an assembly to be held East. It appears, however, in on the fourteenth or the fifteenth Mr. H. C. Warren's rendering of of each half-month, according as the same passage (Buddhism in the month had twenty-nine or Translations, Cambridge [Mass.], thirty days. In other words an 1909, p. 404). LUN, LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 157 days of the half-month," etc. 1 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 Brah- manism and the non-Buddhistic sects, a circumstance which led to the adoption of all four periods by Buddhists as well. 2 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 pati- mokkha, or the disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, according to the regulation laid down by the Buddha. 3 In the Sutta Nipata, a collection of seventy didactic poems belonging to the Pitakas, or sacred books of the southern Buddhists, Eight Precepts or Moral Com- mandments are enumerated. Five of these are bind- ing on every Buddhist, whether mendicant or layman, but the remaining three are not obligatory for the 1 Sutta Nipdta, ii, 14, 26 (S. B. E., x, pt. ii, 66). 2 The eighth day of the waning moon (astaka) is distinctly men- tioned in the Vedas, as forming with new moon and full moon the regular festival periods. Compare Atharva-Veda, xv, 1 6, 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. Com- pare Mahd-Sudassana Sutta, i, II : "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 fif- teenth day of the month, "it being full moon" (Sutta Nipdta, iii, 12), proem. (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. Grass- mann, i, 41) ; Satapatha-Brdhmana, ix, 5, i, 38 (S. B. E., xliii, 264); C. Lassen, Indische Alterthums- kunde? Leipzig and London, 1867- 1874, i, 986. 3 Mahdvagga, 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 upasampadd 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. 158 REST DAYS laity. The precepts are: (i) 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 unlaw- ful sexual intercourse ; (6) not to eat unseasonable food at night ; (7) not to wear garlands or use per- fumes ; and (8) not to sleep on a raised couch. 1 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 fulfill- ment 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 sea- son of abstinence. The uposatha is thus discovered among the earliest institutions of Buddhism ; in its origin it could have owed nothing to Jewish or Chris- tian 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 1 Sutta Nipdta, ii, 14, 19-26 I, 6, 4, 5 sqq. (S. B. E., xii, 176 sqq.). (S. B. E. 9 x, pt. ii, 65 sqq.}. See On the other hand the last precept also T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, is identical with one of the regula- London, 1890, pp. 137 sqq.; Child- tions for the upavasatha, where the ers, op. cit.y s.v. silam. The prohi- celebrant is distinctly enjoined to bition of drinking intoxicating sleep on the ground (or a shake- liquors was directed against the down of grass, a blanket). See ancient soma sacrifice on the Satapatha-Brdhmana, i, I, I, II second day of the upavasatha cere- (S. B. E., xii, 6). mony. See Satapatha-Brdhmana, LI LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 159 of the moon. 1 Missionaries from Ceylon carried the new faith to Burma, at least as early as the fifth cen- tury 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 ris- ing and the setting of the sun ; but the latter instance of self-denial is not very common, and, as I under- stood, 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." 2 According to a more recent and sym- pathetic 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 ob- 1 Mahony, in Asiatic Researches, unlucky days (vitti) as well, are 1803, vii, 40 sq.; Edward Upham, observed with abstinence from Sacred and Historical Books of agricultural labour (P. Kehel- Ceylon, London, 1833, iii, 161 sqq.; pannala, in Journal of the Anthro- R. S. Hardy, Eastern Monachism, pological Institute, 1896, xxv, London, 1850, pp. 236 sqq.; idem, 108). Manual of Buddhism? London, 2 Michael Symes, An Account of 1880, pp. 22, 50, 52; C. F. Koppen, an Embassy to the Kingdom of Die Religion des Buddha und ihre Ava, London, 1800, p. 335. See Entstehung, Berlin, 1857-1859, i, further Hiram Cox, Journal of a 563 sq.; D. J. Gogerly, "The Laws Residence in the Burman Empire, of the Buddhist Priesthood," Jour- London, 1821, p. 241 ; Sangermano, nal* of the Ceylon Branch of the A Description of the Burmese Em- Royal Asiatic Society, 1858-1859, pire, translated by W. Tandy, iii, 253-261. By the Kandian, Rome, 1833, p. 92; C. J. F. S. who occupy the interior of Ceylon, Forbes, British Burma, London, not only the poya days, but all 1878, pp. 169 sqq. 160 REST DAYS served 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 wan- ing 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 pro- vided by religious custom, there is no one to take you to task for it. Were a Burman never to go to the pa- goda 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 excommuni- cated 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 amuse- ment 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 cer- tain occasions do not break their fast till after mid- day, a custom very general on the first day of Lent. Instead of staying in the noisy zayat, where the assem- bled people are talking of light matters, laughing and LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 161 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 sanc- tity of the pagoda." * The Siamese Sabbath (wan phra) was also an insti- tution 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." 2 A later writer declares that hunting is also forbidden, and adds that on these days one can- 1 Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, The Burman: his Life and Notions? 1900, pt. i, vol. i, p. 558). London, 1910, pp. 217-220. The 2 F. H. Turpin, Histoire civile et Tungthu of Tenasserim have bor- naturelle du royaume de Siam, Paris, rowed these "duty days" from the 1771, i, 45 sq. The "fourth day" of Burmese {Gazetteer of Upper Burma the moon must here be counted from and the Shan States, edited by the astronomical new moon. The 162 REST DAYS not find fresh fish and meat in the shops. 1 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. 2 But we are told that now a majority of the temples stand empty on the wan phra y 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. 3 The Buddhist Sabbath is also found in Cambodia. 4 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." 5 As elsewhere in Buddhist lands the new-moon and full- uposatha in Siam, as in Ceylon and ings's Encyclopedia of Religion and Burma, falls regularly on the eighth Ethics, v, 885. and fifteenth days of the waxing 4 J. Moura, Le royaume de moon and on the eighth and four- Cambodge, Paris, 1883, i, 321. teenth or fifteenth days of the wan- The Malays of the Malacca Penin- ing moon. sula regard the fourteenth and 1 J. B. Pallegoix, Description du fifteenth days of each lunar month royaume Thai ou Siam, Paris, 1854, as unlucky. On these two days i, 249. no work in the rice fields is allowed, 2 John Crawfurd, Journal of an a prohibition which only increases Embassy, London, 1830, ii, 75; the native tendency to laziness Sir John Bowring, The Kingdom and (C. O. Blagden, "Notes on the People of Siam, London, 1857, i, Folk-lore and Popular Religion of 158. the Malays," Journal of the Straits 3 J. G. D. Campbell, Siam in the Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society? Twentieth Century, London, 1904, 1896, no. 29, p. 6). p. 224 n. 1 ', G. E. Gerini, "Festi- 8 E. Schlaginweit, Buddhism in vals and Fasts (Siamese)," Hast- Tibet, Leipzig and London, 1863, p. 237. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 163 moon Sabbaths are of most importance, since on these occasions the patimokkha is recited in the monasteries, accompanied by a public confession of sins. 1 How- ever, 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. 2 In Bhutan, where Buddhism was intro- duced by missionaries from Tibet, the eighth, four- teenth, 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. 3 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. 4 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 s'i-chai, "the four feasts illustriously decreed"; they may be re- garded as a variant of the uposatha* 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 1 L. A. Waddell, The Buddh- 3 Koppen, op. cit., i, 564. ism of Tibet, or Lamaism, London, 4 P. S. Pallas, Reise durch ver- 1895, p. 501 ; W. W. Rockhill, in schiedene Provinzen des russischen Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Reichs, Frankfort, 1776, i, 295. 1891, n.s., xxiii, 207 w. 8 5 Joseph Edkins, Chinese Buddh- 2 Marco Polo refers to five days ism? London, 1893, p. 206. In or four days or three days in each Buddhist monasteries the pati- month when the lamas or clergy of mokkha is regularly recited at new Tibetan Buddhism shed no blood moon and full moon. The cere- and abstain from animal food (Sir mony is known as posadha (J. J. Henry Yule, The Book of Ser M. de Groot, "Buddhism in Marco Polo, 3 London, 1903, i, 220, China," Hastings's Encyclopedia 223). Compare N. Prejevalsky, of Religion and Ethics, iii, 554). Mongolia, London, 1876, i, 65. 164 REST DAYS 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 tem- ples, 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. 1 There is no reason to believe that this Chinese festival owes, anything to contact with Buddhism. Its independent origin, in connec- tion 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 im- movable 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 holi- days sacred to Amida." 2 Buddhism and Brahmanism, spreading beyond the 1 J. H. Gray, China, London, The Celestial and his Religions, 3, i, 263 n. 1 ; C. Pitou, La Chine, Hongkong, 1906, p. 25 ; J. Edkins, Lausanne and Paris [1902], Religion in China? London, 1878, 1878, i, 263 n. 1 ; C. Pitou, La Chine, Hongkong, 1906, p. 25 ; J. Edkins, a: 902], Religion in China? Londoi rube, pp. 48 sq. Religion und Kultus der Chine sen, 2 E. Kaempfer, History of Japan, Leipzig, 1910, p. 66; J. D. Ball, ii, 21 sq. (Glasgow reprint, 1906). LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 165 confines of continental Asia, carried the custom of keeping lunar festivals into some parts of Indonesia. In Bali, where the padanda, or Brahmans, have pre- served many features of the old Vedic religion, fasts and sacrifices are still obligatory on the householder at new moon and full moon. 1 In Kar Nicobar Buddhist influence from Burma is seen in the custom of observ- ing 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. 2 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. 3 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 influ- ence 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 be- tween-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. 4 1 R. Friederich, in Journal of Solomon, in Journal of the Anthro- the Royal Asiatic Society, 1876, n.s., pological Institute, 1902, xxxii, 204, viii, 197 sq. Most priests also 213; W. Svoboda, in Internatio- observe with prayer and fasting nates Archiv fiir Ethnographic, 1893, every fifth day (kaliwon) of the vi, 22. Javanese five-day market week, 3 Above, pp. 40 sqq. which has been introduced into 4 Yasna, i, 8 (so also ibid., ii, Bali (Friederich, loc. cit.}. 8; compare Vast vii, 4). See L. 2 E. H. Man, in Indian Anti- H. Gray, "Festivals and Feasts quary, 1897, xxvi, 269 w. 30 Ac- (Iranian)," Hastings's Encyclopa- cording to this account the Nico- dia of Religion and Ethics, v, 872 ; barese do not observe new-moon L. H. Mills, in Sacred Books of the ceremonies. Other authorities, East, xxxi, 198, 205 ; W. Geiger, however, refer to sacrifices and Civilization of the Eastern Iranians, celebrations at this time. See V. London, 1885, i, 146 n. 1 The 166 REST DAYS The choice of these four lunar days was due to the division of the Avesta thirty-day month into two un- equal parts, containing fourteen and sixteen days, re- spectively, 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 ad- vantage 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. 1 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 sig- nificant 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 term vishaptatha, here translated been composed in Persia during the "the intervening seventh" refers fourth century A.D., which mentions to the seventh day between the among other matters five days in new moon (on the ist) and the every month, namely, the ist, full moon (on the I5th), that is, 7th, I4th, 22d, and 3Oth, as times to the 8th day of the month (E. to be observed by abstinence from Bartholomae, Altiranisches Worter- all worldly business. The manu- buch, Strassburg, 1904, col. 1472). script sets forth in detail the pe- The theories as to the meaning of culiar virtues of all the days of one vishaptatha, advanced by J. Dar- of the Zoroastrian months. "Some mesteter, have not won the accept- are best for beginning a journey or ance of scholars (Sacred Books of voyage, others for the regulation the East, xxiii, 90 n. 6 ; Le Zend- of matters of domestic economy, Avesta, Paris, 18921893, i, 12 some again for social gatherings n. 34 ). and festivities, and others again 1 R. Roth, "Der Kalender des for the pursuit of learning, while Avesta und die sogenannten not a few are reserved for rest and gahanbar," Zeitschrift der deutschen pious contemplation." These pre- morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, 1880, cepts are no longer observed; in xxxiv, 710; L. H. Gray, "Der fact, their very existence is un- iranische Kalender," Geiger and known to most Parsis at the pres- Kuhn's Grundriss der iranischen ent day. See D. F. Karaka, His- Philologie, ii, 675 sq. There is tory of the Parsis, London, 1884, i, extant a Pehlevi tract, said to have 132 sqq. L LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 167 of the Sixth Dynasty. 1 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. 2 That they were practised under the Twelfth Dynasty appears clearly from the well-known inscrip- tion 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 inter- calary days, at , at the twelve monthly feasts, at the twelve mid-monthly feasts ; every feast of the happy living, and of the dead." 3 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 Egyp- 1 Pyramid Texts, 521 ( = Teti, translated by E. A. W. Budge, I. 12); compare ibid., 1453 London, 1898, pp... 218, 230). See ( = Pepi, 1. 657 = Mernere, 11. 763- also H. Brugsch, "Uber die Hiero- 764). Professor J. H. Breasted of glyphe des Neumondes und ihre the University of Chicago has very verschiedenen Bedeutiingen," Zeit- kindly furnished me with a trans- schrift der deutschen morgenldn- lation of these passages, based on dischen Gesellschaft, 1856, x, 676. the monumental edition of the 3 J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records texts prepared by K. Sethe (Die of Egypt, Chicago, 1906, i, 285. See altdgyptischen Pyramidentexte, Leip- further E. Mahler, Etudes sur le zig, 1908-1910). calendrier egyptien, Paris, 1907, 2 The Book of the Dead (Theban p. 128; idem, in Zeitschrift der Recension), chs. cxxxv, cxl (The deutschen morgenldndischen Gesell- Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, schaft, 1908, Ixii, 35. i68 REST DAYS tian 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, correspond- ing to the royal coronation, early in the morning, behold, command was given to the entire army to move." 1 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"; yth lunar day = "festival of the first quar- ter"; i^th 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. 2 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. 3 The evidence, then, fully warrants the conclusion that from the ear- liest period the Egyptians included the celebrations at new moon and full moon among the most important of their religious ceremonies. 4 In late classical times the lunar festivals appear to have been consecrated to Osiris, whose identification with the moon is reason- 1 Breasted, op. cit., ii, 184; for 3 Brugsch, Thesaurus, pt. i, 52; an earlier translation see S. Birch, idem, Agyptologie, p. 332. in Records of the Past, ii, 43. 4 Compare idem, Agyptologie, 2 H. Brugsch, Thesaurus ins crip- p. 334; E. Meyer, "Agyptische tionum jEgyptiacarum, Leipzig, Chronologic," Abhandlungen der 18831891, pt. i, 30 sqq.y 49 sqq.; koniglich-preussisc hen Akademie der idem, Die Agyptologie, Leipzig, Wissenschaften, 1904, p. 7. 1891, pp. 332 sq. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 169 ably certain. 1 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 (vovpyvia), marking the beginning of the lunar month, appears to have been ceremonially observed through- out the Greek world. 2 The Noumenia was particularly associated with Apollo and also with Hera, a goddess who seems to have had an ancient role 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 ? 3 The first of the month is holy, declares Hesiod. 4 In Athens, and doubtless in other Greek cities, the Noumenia con- tinued to be in historic times a day of repose, when all public activities, except of a religious character, were intermitted. 5 Private business, however, was not sus- pended on the Noumenia ; the markets, especially those for the purchase of slaves, were then particularly 1 Herodotus, ii, 47 ; Plutarch, astronomical new moon (Thucyd- De hide et Osiride, 8, 43, 52; ides, ii, 28). Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris? ii, 3 Odyssey, xxi, 258 sq. : 129-131; Budge, Osiris and the vvv /no/ yap Kara 8rjfj.ov eoprrj rolo Otoio Egyptian Resurrection, i, 384-396. ayvi; TIS 8e KC roa nraiVoir' ; 2 J. Meursius, GrcBcia feriata, Compare ibid., xiv, 158-162, xx, sive de festis Gr&corum, Lugduni 156, 276-278. Batavorum, 1619, pp. 210-214; 4 Opera et dies, 770. F. G. Welcker, Griechische Cotter- 5 Aristophanes, Nubes, 615^619; lehre, Gottingen, 1857, i, 554 sq. ; idem, Acharnenses, 999; idem, W. H. Roscher, Uber Selene und Vespce, 96; Demosthenes, Adv. Ferwandtes, pp. 1 10 sq. ; idem, in Aristogiton, i, 99 ; Athenaeus, Deip- Philologus, 1898, Ivii, 216, 218; E. nosophista, xii, 76 ; Plutarch, Quas- Saglio, "Noumenia," Daremberg tiones Romance, 25 ; idem, De vitando and Saglio's Dictionnaire des anti- cere alieno, 2; Porphyry, De absti- quites grecques et romaines, iv, 108. nentia, ii,i6; Theophrastus, Charac- The word votyx^vta occasionally teres, 14; Lucian, Icaromenippus 9 was used in the sense of the true or 13 ; idem, Lexiphanes, 6. 170 REST DAYS frequented ; the time was regarded as the most favour- able for marriage ; and in the homes there was much feasting and good cheer. 1 The Dichomenia (St^o/i^j/ia), or full-moon day, appears also to have been a regular monthly festival in Greece, though of lesser impor- tance than the Noumenia. 2 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. 3 On the Kalends one of the pontiffs performed a sacri- fice, with the assistance of the rex sacrorum* Pious Romans also celebrated the new-moon day with offer- ings and prayers to the family gods. 5 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. 6 The Kalends of March, June, and October, the Nones of July, and the Ides of all the months were numbered among the feria publicce, or sacred festivals attended by a compulsory remission of labour, of the Roman state religion. 7 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 reli- giosi 8 ) of the Roman calendar were those following the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The thirty-six dies 1 Aristophanes, Vespce, 171 ; 3 Above, p. 130. idem, Equites, 43 sq.; Alciphron, 4 Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 15, 9. Epistola, iii, 38; Porphyry, De 5 Ovid, Fasti, i, 47; Plutarch, abstinentia, ii, 129; Proclus, on Qucsstiones Romanes, 24; Vergil, Hesiod, Opera et dies, 780; Suidas, Bucolica, i, 43 sq.; Horace, Car- s.v. vovfjirjvui (ed. G. Bernhardy, mina, iii, 23, i sq. Halle, 1853, ii, 1010). 6 Macrobius, op. cit., i, 15, 15; z Hymni Homerici, xxxii, n; Ovid, , op. cit., i, 48 sq.; Lydus, De Plutarch, De gloria Atheniensis, 7 ; mensibus, iii, 7. idem, Dion, 23. Hesiod (op. cit., 7 Wissowa, Religion und Kultus 819, compare 794 sqq.} describes der Romer, p. 369; compare T. the 1 4th of the month as "above all Mommsen, in Corpus inscriptionum a holy day" (TTC/OI TTCIVTWV icpov Latinarum, i, pt. i, 2 297. 8 Above, pp. 80 sq., 94. LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS 171 postriduani were regarded as unsuitable for many pur- poses, both public and private : for battles, levies, sacred rites, journeys, and marriages. 1 We are told that they owed their unlucky quality to a pronounce- ment of the Senate and pontiffs, in consequence of the grave defeat of the Allia on the i8th 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 per- formed 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. 2 It is obvious that this traditional explanation of the dies postri- duani 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 signif- icance being only the conscious fiction of a later and more sophisticated age. 3 1 Varro, De lingua Latina, 29 ; day before the Nones of the month Ovid, Fasti, i, 59 sq.; Livy, vi, i; Sextilis (Gellius, op. cit., v, 17, 3). Plutarch, Qucestiones Romance, 2$ ; 2 Verrius Flaccus, ap. Gellius, Gellius, Nodes Attica, iv, 9, 5; op. cit., v, 17; Macrobius, op. cit., Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 16, 18. i, 16, 21. These days were also described as 3 On this point I am happy to atri vel vitiosi. The greater num- find myself in agreement with Dr. ber of them were available for W. Warde Fowler, who also regards judicial business, but not for the traditional explanation of the meetings of the assemblies (dies dies postriduani as an aetiological jasti non comitiales) . Many Ro- myth. "The fact that the authori- mans also regarded as ominous the ties of the state had made one or fourth day before the Kalends, two days religiosi as anniversaries Nones, and Ides; according to one of disasters, supplied a handy ex- account because the battle of planation for a number of other Cannae took place on the fourth dies religiosi of which the true ex- 172 REST DAYS 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. 1 Again, Tacitus, who mentions the cus- tom 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. 2 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 Hebrceos* Elanation had been entirely lost; the suggestion in the text that ut that there was such a true these days were originally tabooed explanation, resting on very prim- in consequence of lunar supersti- itive beliefs, I have very little tions attaching to them, doubt'* (The Religious Experience 1 Geographica, iii, 4, 16. of the Roman People, London, 1911, 2 Germania, 9, n. p. 40). Dr. Fowler in a letter 3 Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymolo* (under date Dec. 9, 1911) tells me gics sive origines, v, 33. that he regards as "quite probable" CHAPTER VI LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK THE calendar forms one of the most important of social institutions and registers in its gradual improve- ment 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. 1 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 strik- ing, so obvious, and marked by stages so readily deter- mined. A survey of the anthropological data indi- cates 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 reckon- K. Fotheringham, "Calen- dar (Introductory)," Hastings' s En- cyclopedia 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 Halfte, Berlin, 1907, pp. 231-243; R. Schram, "Jahrform und Zeit- rechnung verschiedener Volker," Mitteilungen der kaiserlich-kbnig- lichen geographischen Gesellschaft in Witn, 1884,, xxvii, 481-498; M. Hubert, "Etude sommaire de la representation du temps dans la religion et la magie," in Hubert and Mauss, Melanges d'histoire des religions, Paris, 1909, pp. 189- 229. 173 174 REST DAYS ings. 1 Lunar months are general throughout Aus- tralia, 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, al- ways continued to reckon by the succession of luna- tions. 2 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 reckon- ing 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 hiero- glyph for " month." 3 The calendars of Semitic peo- 1 The lunar or synodic month, determined by the synodic revolu- tion of the moon, is the time be- tween 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 min- utes, and 3 seconds. The length of the "light month," or period of the moon's visibility, though com- monly taken at three days, is a variable quantity. It is the usual practice to assume that the moon becomes visible on the first even- ing when she is more than thirty hours old at sunset. Her mean age when first seen is, therefore, 30 hours + hours = I day, 18 hours. See J. K. Fotheringham, "On the Smallest Visible Phase of the Moon," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1910, Ixx, 527-531. 2 E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, Oxford, 1892-1899, ii, 329, 331 ; E. Forste- mann, in Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1904, no. 28, p. 523 (Maya pre-solar calendar). 3 Horapollo," Hieroglyphic a, i, 4 ; compare H. Brugsch, in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenldndischen Ge- sellschaft, 1856, x, 676; .C. R. Lepsius, Die Chronologie der Agypter, Berlin, 1849, i, 156 sq., 219; E. Meyer, "Agyptische Chronologic," Abhandlungen der koniglich-preussi- schen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1904, pp. 5 sqq. Papyri dis- covered by Professor W. M. Flin- ders 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 conserva- LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 175 pies, notably those of the Babylonians and Hebrews, were based on the moon ; 1 and the prophet Mo- hammed, when enjoining on his followers the observ- ance 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. 2 In Max Miiller's poetical language the moon was "the golden hand on the dark dial of heaven." The need of observing the moons, apart from reli- gious or superstitious reasons, was no doubt mainly connected with economic considerations. To the sav- age 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, mi- grating, 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 tism, were accustomed to reckon 2 O. Schrader, Prehistoric Antiq- according to lunar months (seven uities of the Aryan Peoples, trans- of thirty days and five of twenty- lated by F. B. Jevons, London, nine days). See L. Borchardt, in 1890, p. 306; idem, Reallexikon der Zeitschrift fur dgyptische Sprache, indogermanischen Altertumskunde, 1899, xxxvii, 92-95. Strassburg, 1901, p. 547. 1 Below, pp. 226, 247. 176 REST DAYS calendars. If the desirability of observing the succes- sive moons was felt by frugivorous and pastoral peo- ples, 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 mo- ment. 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 agri- cultural 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 recur- rence of periodical winds, the varying length of day as determined by the sun's elevation, and especially the rising and setting of the Pleiades. 1 In order to adapt the same moons to the same seasons as they succes- 1 R. Andree, "Die Plejaden im of the Wild, London, 1912, i, 307- Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung 319; E. Forstemann, "The Plei- zum Jahresbeginn und Landbau," ades among the Mayas," Bulletin Globus, 1893, Ixiv, 362-366; Sir of the Bureau of American Ethnology, J. G. Frazer, Spirits of the Corn and 1904, no. 28, pp. 523 sq. LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 177 >ively 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. 1 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 fur- nished by the Hindus, Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks in antiquity; among modern peoples, by the natives of Burma, Siam, China, and Japan. 2 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 coordinate incoordinable 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 num- 1 The lunar year of twelve Sceptical modern historians are synodic months consists, exactly, inclined to dismiss the Roman tra- of 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, dition as a mere figment of the and 36 seconds. The Maori have imagination. a legend to the effect that their 2 The thirteenth month is re- ancient year contained ten months ferred to in the Rig-Veda (i, 25, 8; only, until a certain teacher, full of transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 25) as the divine wisdom, instructed them to "later-born month"; compare make their year twelve months Atharva-Veda, v, 6, 4, xiii, 3, 8 long (E. Tregear, The Maori Race, (transl. W. D. Whitney, pp. 230, Wanganui [N.Z.], 1904, p. 143). 729). This intercalary month The Chinese have a similar tradi- bears a distinctly unfavourable tion of a ten-month year (H. A. character, being regarded as unfit Giles, A Glossary of References on for any religious undertaking Subjects connected with the Far East? (Haug, Aitareya Brahmanam y ii, 26) . Shanghai, 1900, p. 183). The Among the Loango negroes the Roman "year of Romulus" con- thirteenth month, inserted every sisted of ten months and (com- three years, is likewise regarded as monly) three hundred and four an evil time (E. Pechuel-Loesche, days (Censorinus, De die natali, xx, op. cit. 9 pp. 138 sq.). 2-3; Lydus, De mensibus, i, 16). 178 REST DAYS ber 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 cal- culation 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 consid- ered 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. 1 People who reckon by moons naturally begin their lunar month with the first appearance of the luminous 1 The old Roman arrangement in a famous line Numero deus of the months, though based on the impare gaudet (Bucolica, viii, 75) lunar year, is sui generis. Four of is supposed to have been derived the twelve months, viz., March, from Pythagorean speculations re- May, July, and October, had thirty- garding the cosmic properties of one days, and the rest twenty-nine numbers. It may better be con- days, except February, which had sidered a genuinely Italian notion, twenty-eight days. All the months since like beliefs are found in the thus had an odd number of days, folklore of other peoples, notably save February, which was spe- the old Arabs and the modern cially devoted to purificatory cere- Hindus. See I. Goldziher, in monies and the cult of the dead. Globus, 1901, Ixxx, 31; Crooke, This peculiar arrangement appears Popular Religion and Folk-lore of to have been based on an old belief Northern India? ii, 51. The that odd numbers are of good choice of 355 days, rather than 354 omen, even numbers, of ill omen days, as the length of the Roman (T. Mommsen, Die romische Chro- lunar year, was undoubtedly deter- nologie bis auf Cczsar, Berlin, 1858, p. mined by the prevalence of the 13 ; Marquardt-Wissowa, Romische same superstition (Censorinus, De Staatsverwaltung, Hi, 2 284). The die natali, xx, 4). superstition, alluded to by Vergil LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 179 crescent in the western sky. 1 The real moon being invisible for two or three days, various expedients are adopted in order to secure regularity in lunar reckon- ings. 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. 2 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. 3 Still other devices were employed in antiquity by the Babylonians, Hebrews, and Romans. 4 1 This custom explains the wide- spread practice of beginning the civil day at sunset or, more accu- rately, in the interval between the foing-down of the sun and complete arkness. 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 calcu- lated from evening to evening. The noctidiurnal cycle is wide- spread throughout the lower cul- ture, being found, generally, among the North American Indians, the Melanesians and Polynesians, and in Africa. The same cycle ob- tained among many peoples of archaic civilization. The Baby- lonian day began with the even- ing, 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, Iv, 17). Various festivals and fasts, such as the Sabbath, the Day of Atone- ment, 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 nycthe- meron, 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 Neder- landsch-Indie, 1886, fifth series, pt. i, 378-392; A. Fischer, "'Tag und Nacht* im arabischen und die semitische Tagesberechnung," Abhandlungen der philologisch- historischen Klasse der koniglich- sdchischen Gesellschaft der Wissen- schaften, 1909, xxvii, 741-758; O. Schrader, Reallexikon, p. 845; S. Reinach, "Die," in Daremberg and Saglio, op. cit., iii, 168 sq., G. Bilfinger, Der burgerliche Tag, Stuttgart, 1888. 2 Rivers, Todas, pp. 590 sqq. 3 J. Sechefo, "The Twelve Lunar Months among the Basuto," An- thropos, 1909, iv, 931 sqq. 4 Below, pp. 184, 226 sq., 248 sq. i8o REST DAYS The lunar month, which in rude communities pro- vides 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 appoint- ments. As their months are marked by the reappear- ance of the moon, their ordinal numbers do not go beyond twenty-eight. 1 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." 2 The central Aus- tralians, who regard the moon as a male deity, have distinct names applied to new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. 3 In German New Guinea the phases of the moon are employed for all time-units greater than a day. 4 The natives of New Britain are close observers of the phases of the moon (kalang) and have separate terms for them. 5 The New Caledonians count by lunar months, "each divided into four weeks, following the four phases of the moon." 6 The Kayan on the Mendalam River in Dutch Borneo name eight phases of the waxing and waning moon. 7 The Dyak tribes on the Mahakam and Barito rivers in Dutch Borneo "reckon their time by the full moon, half moon, and new moon." 8 In those parts of Sumatra where the seven-day week has not been introduced, 1 James Dawson, Australian Ab- 4 B. Hagen, Unter den Papua's, origines, Melbourne, 1881, p. xcix. Wiesbaden, 1899, p. 244. 2 S. Gason, in Journal of the 5 Georgetown, Melanesians and Anthropological Institute, 1895, xxiv, Polynesians, London, 1910, p. 332. 174. 6 V. de Rochas, La Nouvelle- 3 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Caledonie, Paris, 1862, p. 191. Tribes of Central Australia, London, 7 Nieuwenhuis, op. cit., i, 317. 1897, pp. 25, 564 sq. 8 C. Bock, Head-hunters of Bor- neo,' 1 ' London, 1882, p. 212. LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 181 it is a common practice to calculate by the days of the moon's age. 1 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. 2 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 clear- ness, since each day has its particular name. 3 The Andaman Islanders, possessing no extended enumera- tion, do not count the moons in the year, but never- theless employ appropriate words to designate the lunar phases. 4 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. 6 Throughout the Caroline Islands (Yap, Lamotrek, Ponape, Uleai) the successive days of the month receive names indicating the moon's age. 6 In Polynesia every night in the month had its distinct name derived from the changing aspects of the moon. 7 The Nandi of 1 William Marsden, The History of Sumatra? London, 1811, p. 194; compare B. Hagen, Die Orang Kubu auj 'Sumatra, Frankfurt-a.-M., 1908, P 154- 2 E. Modigliani, Un viaggio a Nias, Milan, 1890, pp. 4, 484; A. Maass, Bei liebenswurdigen Wilden, Berlin, 1902, p. 93. 3 E. H. Man, in Indian Anti- quary, 1897, xxvi, 270 sq. 4 Idem, in Journal of the Anthro- pological Institute, 1883, xii, 337. 6 A. E. Jenks, in Ethnological Survey Publications, Manila, 1905, i, 219; O. Scheerer, ibid., ii, 158. 6 F. W. Christian, The Caroline Islands, London, 1899, pp. 387 sq., 392 sqq.; M. Girschner, in Baessler- Archiv, 1911, ii, 175 sq. 7 The Maori counted twenty- eight "nights" of the moon, in- cluding: i. 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 disap- pears (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 Re- searches, 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). 1 82 REST DAYS British East Africa similarly designate the successive nights of a lunar month. 1 The Bini of Southern Nigeria even appoint special persons to observe the changes of the moon. 2 The Ho tribes of Togo and the Hottentots of South Africa employ separate terms for all the lunar phases. 3 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. 4 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." 5 In the words of the Koran the phases of the moon are " indications of time for men." 6 Since new moon and full moon are the most conspicu- ous lunar phases, it has been a common practice to recognize two periods in the lunation, as marked by the waxing and the waning moon. 7 This two-fold division For a table of the days of the example, the seventh day, and the moon's age in the Maori, Morion, last quarter, the twenty-first day Hawaiian, Tahitian, Marquesan, (Nielsen, Altarabische Mondreligion, and Rarotongan languages see p. 85, referring to Dr. Glaser's obser- Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Com- vations). parative Dictionary, p. 666. 7 The mean age of the moon 1 Hollis, Nandi, pp. 95 sq. when first seen being 30 hours 2 Dennett, At the Back of the ,24 , , Q , Black Man's Mind, p. 186. + f hours = I day, 18 hours 3 J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stdmme, (above, p. 174 w. 1 ), and the mean Berlin, 1906, p. 556; L. Schultze, age of the moon when full being Aus Namaland und Kalahari, Jena, 29 days, 12 + hours _ i 8 1907, p. 370. The Hottentots now 2 use the European week (Schultze, hours, it follows that the mean op. cit., p. 372). interval between the first appear- 4 F. Krause, In den Wildnissen ance of the moon and the full of Brasiliens, Leipzig, 1911, p. 339. the moon is about 13 days. "In 6 C. Thomas, "Calendar," Hand- other words the moon becomes full book of American Indians, pt. i, on an average at the end of the 189 (Bulletin of the Bureau of thirteenth day and the beginning American Ethnology, no. 30). of the fourteenth night. Hence, 6 Koran, ii, 185. Even at the where the days are reckoned from present time the south Arabians sunset, we should expect the four- determine the day of the month by teenth day of the month to be observation of the moon's phases, regarded as the day of the full the first quarter being called, for moon. And it is in fact one of the LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 183 of the month does not seem to be employed for calendri- cal 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. 1 The Maori of New Zealand, who sometimes "divide the month into halves or fortnights by 'moon-growing' and 'moon-lessen- ing,'" 2 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 cul- ture has penetrated. 3 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. 4 Modern Hindus divide the month into two fortnights, the days of which are reckoned continuously as those of the increasing 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 cal- culations 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 autum- nal 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 follow- ing the eleventh day. See J. K. Fotheringham, in Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909-1910, pp. 283, 286. 1 R. Thurnwald, Forschungen auf den Salomo-Inseln und dem Bis- marck Archipel, Berlin, 1912-1913, i, 330 sq. 2 E. Tregear, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1890, xix, X **L. H. Gray, "Calendar (Poly- nesian)," Hastings' s Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, iii, 130; J. v. Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, Wiirzburg, 1894, p. 233; R. Friederich, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society^, 1878, n.s., x, 93 sq.; Modigliani, op. cit., p. 464. 4 A. Weber, in Indische Studien, 1853, ii, 166 n*-, H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, Berlin, 1879, p. 364; G. Thibaut, "Astronomic, Astrologie, und Mathematik," Biihler's Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, iii, pt. ix, 12. This lunar fortnight of the Hindus attracted the atten- tion of the Romans, and Quintus Curtius speaks of it as a note- worthy fact (Histories Alexandri Magni, viii, 9). References to it are also found in mediaeval litera- ture; compare Albiruni, op. cit., i, 359- 1 84 REST DAYS or decreasing moon. The full-moon day (amavus) is held in great sanctity. 1 Like customs prevail in Cey- lon, Burma, Siam, Indo-China, and other parts of Asia. 2 The bipartite division of the month was famil- iar to the ancient Persians 3 and to the early Greeks. 4 The fifteenth of the month was regularly called by the Greeks the full-moon day (Dichomenia, St^o/Lt^i/ia) even after the introduction of the sequence of twenty- nine day and thirty-day months. 6 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. 6 The Roman kalendce and idus corresponded to the Greek VOV^VIOL and Si^o^^ta. 7 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. 8 The Ides thus 1 G. E. Balfour, The Cyclopedia of India? ii, 981 ; Sewell and Dikshit, The Indian Calendar, Lon- don, 1896, p. 4. 2 Childers, Dictionary of the Pali Language, s.v. paracadasi; A. Caba- ton, in Hastings's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, iii, 136 (as to the Siamese) ; Shway Yoe, The Burman? p. 550; A. Cabaton, in Hastings's Encyclopedia of Reli- gion and Ethics, iii, 113 sq. (as to the Cambodians, Chams, and Laotians) ; H. Vambery, Die pri- mitive 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 Koros, A Grammar of the Tibetan Language, Calcutta, 1834, p. 157). 3 Yost, vii, 2 (S. B. E., xxiii, 89). 4 Odyssey, xiv, 162; xix, 307: TOV ftev 0tvovros fArjvos, Tov 8' ! was considered most unlucky by the length, and the "lesser fortunate Sofalese. No one on that day was time," of seven days' duration, allowed to attend court or even Between these periods come seven speak to the king (ibid.}. ill or unfortunate days which serve 3 E. Torday, in Mitteilungen der as "a sort of vacation to them, for anthropologischen Gesellschaft in then they do not travel, till their Wien, 1911, xli, 200. land, or undertake anything of con- 4 Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, sequence, but remain altogether p. 144. The first period, called idle" (W. Bosnian, A New and adai, is considered lucky ; the Accurate Description of the Coast of second, called ajamfo, is unlucky; Guinea, London, 1705, p. 160). while adim, the third period, has a 6 Above, pp. 119 sq.. neutral character (John Beecham, 6 Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, in Ashantee and the Gold Coast, Lon- Twenty-third Annual Report of the LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 191 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. 1 The Greek decades betray in their names, ptjv iora/iei/09 (waxing), /utco-wi/ (central), and 0lvv (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 Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 79-90. The old and once popular 1 08. It is only right to add that Dr. theory, based upon a misunder- J. W. Fewkes, an eminent authority standing of certain passages in on the Pueblo Indians, expressed to classical writers (Herodotus, ii, me in conversation (July, 1912) his 82; Dio Cassius, xxxvii, 19), that doubts as to the correctness of Mrs. the Egyptians originally possessed Stevenson's statement. a week of seven days has now been 1 Lepsius, Chronologic der A gyp- entirely abandoned. For some ter, i, 131 sqq.; Brugsch, Thesaurus, monumental evidence, dating from pt. i, 488 sqq. ; idem, Agyptologie, the Twenty-second Dynasty, which p. 364. On the astrological con- may possibly refer to an hebdoma- nection between the thirty-six dec- dal cycle then used in astronomical ades of the twelve months and cer- speculations, see G. Daressy, "La tain constellations see G. Daressy, semaine des Egyptiens," Annales "Une ancienne liste des decans du service des antiquites de I'Egypte, egyptiens," Annales du service des 1909, x, 21-23, 180-182. antiquites de I'figypte, 1900, i, 192 REST DAYS the last day of the third decade was styled Ivi] KOI vea ("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. 1 The Greek arrange- ment 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 Boeotian farmer to avoid the thirteenth of the wax- ing 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." 2 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 3 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, partic- ularly the Greeks of the Homeric and pre-Homeric age. 4 There are, indeed, numerous illustrations in the 1 Pollux, Onomasticon, i, 63 ; G. New York, 1871, ii, 58; C. E. F. Unger, in Iwan von Miiller's Ruelle, "Calendarium," Darem- Handbuch der klassischen Alter- berg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des tumswissenschaft, i, 563 sqq.; M. antiquites grecques et romaines, ii, P. Nilsson, "Die alteste griechische 832. Zeitrechnung, Apollo und der 4 W. H. Roscher, "Die enneadi- Orient," Archivfur Religionszuissen- schen und hebdomadischen Fristen schafty 1911, xiv, 432 sq. und Wochen der altesten Griechen," 2 Hesiod, Opera et dies, 765 sqq. ; Abhandlungen der philologisch-his- compare A. W. Mair, Hesiod, Ox- torischen Klasse der koniglich- ford, 1908, pp. 165^.; A. Momm- sdchischen Gesellschaft der Wissen- sen, Chronologie, Liepzig, 1883, schaften, Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4, p. 43. pp. 14 sqq.; idem, "Die Sieben- 3 E. Curtius, History of Greece, und Neunzahl im Kultus und LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 193 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, 1 and to the frequent mention in old Irish and Welsh texts of periods of three days and nights and of nine days and nights. 2 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 an- tiquity among the Romans. 3 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 'sdmen, 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 Mythus der Griechen," ibid., 1904, xxiv, no. i, pp. 54, 69, 83. 1 K. Simrock, Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, 9 Bonn, 1887, p. 156; E. Siecke, Die Liebesge- schichte des Himmels, Strassburg, 1892, pp. 47 sqq.; K. Weinhold, "Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen," Abhandlungen der k oniglich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1897, pp. 40 sqq. 2 R. Thurneysen, " Die Namen der Wochentage in den keltischen Dialecten," Zeitschrift fur deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i, 191. J. Loth, however, regards the Celtic periods as having been employed as ordinary weeks ("L'annee cel- tique d'apres 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 fur- nished the basis for such nine-day periods as are found among the Celts, and argues that subse- quently, 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 Rhys, Celtic Heathen- dom? London, 1898, pp. 361-366. 3 Above, pp.io6, 109.^., 119 n. 3 , 1 20 sq. The theory advanced by Theodor Mommsen that the Ro- man nundinum originally repre- sented a quadripartite division of the lunation (Romische Chronologie, pp. 240 sq.) was afterwards aban- doned by its author (Romisches Staatsrecht, iii, 373). Compare also R. Flex, Die dlteste Monatseinteilung der Romer, Jena, 1880, pp. 18 sqq. 194 REST DAYS increasing moon and the last two those of the decreas- ing moon. In practice, however, the people are com- pelled to count only six days in their fourth and last week. 1 This Abyssinian cycle possibly may have ori- ginated 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 prob- ably derived from an earlier week of three days' dura- tion, are found In Africa. 2 There are also a few in- stances 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. 3 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. 4 The numerous five-day weeks found in the Malay Archipelago, southeastern Asia, and Africa all exist in connection with the market. 5 On the other hand this cycle seems to be sometimes independent of the market. An Egyptian calendar, belonging to the second cen- tury 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 1 E. Littmann, " Sternensagen definitely marked" (Daniel Mo und Astrologisches aus Nordabes- Gilvary, A Half Century among the sinien," Archiv fur Religionswis- Siamese and the Lao, New York senschaft, 1908, xi, 302 sq., 319. In [1912], p. 323). Did this "Sab- order to adapt the 'sdmen to the bath" originate as a market day, imported hebdomadal cycle, Sun- which at first recurred every sixth day is counted twice. day ? 2 Above, pp. 114 and w. 3 , 116 n. 1 4 E. Gottschling, in Journal of 8 A. Henry, in Journal of the the Anthropological Institute, 1905, Anthropological Institute, 1903, xxxv, 382. xxxiii, 105. The Muhso, a Lao 5 Above, pp. 103 sqq., 108, no, hill tribe, "have a twelfth-day 113 and n. 6 , 114 and n. 3 , 116 n. 1 Sabbath or sacred day, not very .- LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 195 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. 1 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. 2 Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform texts also contain traces of five-day periods associated with the successive changes of the moon and dedicated to various divini- ties ; but it is not certain that these later cycles were derived from the khamushtu* 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 1 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Hugo Winckler later made, inde- edited by Grenfell and Hunt, pendently, the same discovery. See London, 1903, pt. iii, 126-137. Sayce, in Proceedings of the Society 2 The data relating to the of Biblical Archeology, 1897, xix, khamushtu are found in some 288; idem, in Babyloniaca, 1907, Cappadocian tablets discovered by ii, 1-45 ; Winckler, Altorientalische Golenischeff and others in mounds Forschungen, Leipzig, 1898-1900, not far from Kaisariyeh. This city ii, 91 sqq. y 354 sqq. was a colony of Assyria and the 3 For references to the cuneiform last outpost of Assyrian power in evidence see P. Jensen, "Die the northwest. The tablets are in siebentagige Woche in Babylon Babylonian cuneiform script belong- und Nineveh," Zeitschrift fur ing to the age of Hammurabi. Pro- deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i, fessor A. H. Sayce in 1897 was the 150 sq.; W. Muss-Arnolt, in first to show that the term kham- Journal of Biblical Literature, xi, ushtu in these documents repre- 94; A. Jeremias, The Old Testa- sented a continuous succession of ment in the Light of the Ancient five-day periods; and Professor East, London, 1911, i, 65. 196 REST DAYS hebdomadal cycle into northern lands, the term sur- vived as a standing phrase in Norse laws and popular sayings. 1 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 approxi- mately twenty-nine and a half days, a single phase occupies about seven and three-eighths days, which f must be calendarized as seven days, since it is necessary to employ a round number. It is not a valid argu- ment 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 exceed- ing a third of the lunation by rather less than four hours. This circumstance may account for the other- wise 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 peo- ples of archaic civilization only as a borrowed insti- tution, 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 1 G, Vigfusson, An Icelandic- 1892, p. 418; T. F. Troels-Lund, English Dictionary, Oxford, 1874, Livsbelysning, Copenhagen, 1904, s.v. fimt; Vigfusson and Powell, pp. 13, 198. For the translation Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Oxford, of this last reference I am indebted 1883, i, pp. cxx, 428; F. B. Gum- to Mr. N. H. Debel. mere, Germanic Origins, New York, LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 197 among the aborigines of America as the result of their contact with European civilization is well known. 1 In Africa it has been spread by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ; in southeastern Asia and the Malay Archi- pelago the original disseminators were Hindus, fol- lowed 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. 2 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. 3 The Swa- heli, who occupy the coast lands north and south of Zanzibar, use a seven-day week, beginning with Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath. 4 Some peculiar arrange- ments are found among the Masai of eastern equa- torial Africa, a warlike race clearly distinguished by 1 The Stseelis, an Indian tribe to the Arabic seven-day week with of British Columbia, have a singu- its numbered weekdays, the Mala- lar tradition that their ancestors gasy also use, for astrological used to observe a kind of Sabbath purposes, the planetary designa- ceremony long before the coming tions of the weekdays. Of these, of the whites. The people assem- three are good or lucky days, three bled every seventh day for dancing are unlucky, and one has a neutral and praying. It is impossible to character. See J. Sibree, "Divina- explain this tradition apart from tion among the Malagasy," Folk- European influence at some remote lore, 1892, iii, 220 sq. time (C. Hill-Tout, in Journal of 3 Soury-Lavergne and de la De- the Anthropological Institute, 1904, veze, in Anthropos, 1913, viii, 310 xxxiv, 329). w. 4 ; James Sibree, The Great Afri- 2 L. Dahle, "The Influence of can Island, London, 1880, p. 281. the Arabs on the Malagasy Lan- 4 O. Kersten, editor, Baron Carl guage," Antananarivo Annual, Claus von der Deckens Reisen in 1875-1878, i, 205. In addition Ost-Afrika, Leipzig, 1869, i, 101. 198 REST DAYS 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 olon, "the good day." According to Masai tradition this week in remote times began on the new- moon day, but now it is reckoned continuously with- out regard to the lunation. Furthermore, the Masai appear to have once divided the months into decades, as is still indicated by their expression, negera, applied to the tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth days. This term comes from a verbal form meaning "to be silent." 1 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 1 M. Marker, Die Masai? Berlin, Sir Charles Eliot, in A. C. Hollis, 1910, pp. 157 sq.> 327 sq.; compare The Masai, Oxford, 1905, p. xiv. - LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 199 with those of the European cycle. 1 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 influ- ences from Abyssinia, especially since the nomadic Galla of equatorial Africa do not seem to keep any special rest days. 2 Other eastern Hamitic peoples, the Somali, Afar, and Danakil, use the seven-day week with Arabic names and observe Friday, the Moham- medan Sabbath. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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 1 C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of etudes ethnographiques et sociolo- the A-Kamba and Other East giques, 1909, ii, 38, 63. African Tribes, Cambridge, 1910, 8 Above, pp. 115 sqq. For p. 163. further instances see Anne Raffenel, 2 J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, Nouveau voyage dans le pays des and Missionary Labours, London, negres, Paris, 1856, i, 350 (Bam- 1867, p. 82. bara); H. Gaden, in Revue d'ethno- 3 J. W. C. Kirk, A Grammar of graphie et de sociologie, 1912, iii, 52 the Somali Language, Cambridge, (Toucouleur and Mohammedan r 95> ? 134; P. Paulitschke, Peul of Senegal). Among the Vey Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas. Die of Liberia the week of seven days geistige Kultur der Danakil, Galla, must be due to Christian influence und Somal, Berlin, 1896, p. 224. (J. Biittikofer, Reisebilder aus 4 F. J. Bieber, in Revue des Liberia, Leiden, 1890, ii, 317). 200 REST DAYS 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. 1 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 ad- justed to the phases of the moon. 2 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 week- days 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. 3 In 1 Above, p. 157 and n. 2 1896, p. 2. The celebrated astro- 2 Above, p. 166. nomical work in Sanskrit, known 3 J. F. Fleet, "The Use of the as the Surya-Siddhanta, contains Planetary Names of the Days of two references to the planetary the Week in India," Journal of the week (i, 51-52, xii, 78-79; transl. Royal Asiatic Society, 1912, n.s., Burgess- Whitney, in Journal of the xliv, 1039-1046. For lists of the American Oriental Society, 1860, v, more common planetary names of 175-178, 396), and in the Hito- the weekdays, as now found in padesa (ed. Johnson, p. 16, 1. 411) India, see Sewell and Dikshit, there is an interesting passage The Indian Calendar, London, which, as A. W. von Schiegel was w LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 201 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. 1 For Hindus, generally, Sunday, Tuesday, and Satur- day are unlucky days, and at such times no important business will be undertaken or any long journey begun. 2 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. 3 The Brah- manist Chams in Cambodia and Anam use the plane- tary weekdays borrowed from Hinduism, but the Mohammedan Chams sometimes employ the days of the Arabic week and observe Friday as a Sabbath. 4 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 athif) always falls on the eighth and fifteenth days of the lunar fortnight. 5 the first to point out (Indisches Bibliothek, 1827, ii, 178), refers to Sunday as a sacred day. 1 Sir M. Monier-Williams, Brdh- manism and Hinduism,* 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, Hi, 112. 2 J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies? Oxford, 1906, p. 382. 3 R. Percival, An Account of the Island of Ceylon, London, 1803, p. 187; H. C. P. Bell, The Maldive Islands, Colombo, 1883, p. 119; B. H. Hodgson, Essays on the Lan- guages, Literature, and Religion of Nepal and Tibet, London, 1874, p. 8 ; E. Schlaginweit, Buddhism in Tibet, Leipzig and London, 1863, L289 ; Shway Yoe, The Burman, 3 ndon, 1910, pp. 550 sq.; E. Aymonier, Le Cambodge, Paris, 1900-1904, i, 42, ii, 19; De la Loubere, A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam, London, 1693, ii, 168. 4 A. Cabaton, in Hastings's En- cyclopedia 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. Vambery, Die pri- mitive 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. Jochel- son, in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, xiii, 42). 5 Tournier, Notice sur le Laos fran$ais, Hanoi, 1900, p. 188. 202 REST DAYS 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 fre- quented 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." l 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 astro- logical 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. 2 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. 3 But the 1 Robert Morrison, A View of set up in 781 A.D. in the department China for Philological Purposes, or prefecture of Hsi-an, province of Macao, 1817, pp. 52, 102; idem, A Shen-hsi, northwestern China. At Grammar of the Chinese Language, the end of the inscription on it we Serampore, 1815, p. 54. read: "Erected in the second year 2 A. Wylie, "On the Knowledge of the period Chien-chung of the of the Weekly Sabbath in China," great T'ang dynasty, the year-star Chinese Researches, Shanghai, 1897, being in Tso-yo, on the seventh day pt. ii, 86-101 ; J. Edkins, Chinese of the first month, being Sunday." Buddhism? London, 1893, p. 211. See James Legge, The Nestorian 3 The Nestorian Monument was Monument of Hsi-an Fu in Shen- LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 203 veek of seven days as a calendrical entity never took root among the Chinese, nor have they ever observed a weekly day of rest. 1 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 par- lance is called dontaku (a corruption of the Dutch Zon- tag) 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). 2 On Sunday government offices and schools are closed. In the cities some of the larger banks and mercantile houses also suspend their business on Sun- day, but as a rule country people, artisans, and labour- hsi, China, London, 1888, p. 29. A insanity would pftener result were replica of this monument, which is it not for this relaxation. . . . a limestone block ten feet in height Yet, in China, people who appar- and of two tons* weight, was taken ently tax themselves uninterrupt- to the United States in 1908 and edly to the utmost stretch of body now rests in the Metropolitan Mu- and mind, live in health to old age. seum of Art, New York City. See . . . Nothing like a seventh day F. V. Holm, "The Holm Nestorian of rest, or religious respect to that Expedition to Sian, MCMVII," interval of time, is known among Open Court, 1909, xxiii, 18-28. the Chinese, but they dp not, as a 1 "Some persons," writes an people, exercise their minds to the experienced observer of the Chinese, intensity, or upon the high sub- "have expressed their surprise jects, common among western that the unceasing round of toil nations, and this perhaps is one which the Chinese labourer pursues reason why their yearly toil pro- has not rendered him more de- duces no disastrous effects" (S. W. graded. It is usually said that a Williams, The Middle Kingdom? weekly rest is necessary for the New York, 1883, i, 809 sq.}. continuance of the powers of body 2 B. H. Chamberlain, Things and mind in man in their full Japanese? London, 1891, pp. 418 activity, and that decrepitude and sq. 204 REST DAYS ers observe no weekly day of rest. By people of the middle and highest classes Sunday is preeminently 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. 1 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 Mo- hammedan Sabbath, are in general use. 2 Curious animistic superstitions sometimes attach themselves to this day. Thus, the Malays of the Patani States believe that the spirits have extra power over man- kind 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 precau- tion 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 (semangaf) 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. 3 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 Mo- hammedans, but go so far as to make Friday a day pantang for all agricultural work, pantang being the native term for taboo. 4 Among the natives of the 1 Arthur Lloyd, Every-day Japan, 3 Annandale and Robinson, Fas- London, 1909, pp. 371 sq. ciculi Malayensis, London, 1903- 2 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, 1904, i, 80 sq., 100; ii, 30, 55. London, 1900, pp. 548 sq., 4 C. S. Hurgronje, The Achehnese, 554. Leiden, 1906, i, 236, 261. LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 205 Kuantan District the seven weekdays bear names derived from the Arabic. 1 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 astro- logical purposes, do not now recognize its planetary origin ; they know only the sun, the moon, and, pos- sibly, 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 mis- fortune. 2 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. 3 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 desig- nations of the seven weekdays have also been intro- duced. 4 A similar combination of the two cycles, yielding a period of thirty-five days, occurs in Bali. 5 In Macassar, a former native kingdom of Celebes, the Mohammedan Sabbath is observed. 6 The foregoing pages make it clear that the spread of Mohammedan rule both in Asia and Africa has 1 A. Maass, Durch Zentral- feel compelled to abstain from Sumatra, Berlin, 1910, p. 513. labour entirely upon any day of 2 J. Winkler, " Der Kalender der the week not even on a Friday Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra," Zeit- to satisfy- his religious beliefs. schrift fur Ethnologic, 1913, xlv, He works as long as he needs to 441 sqq. work; but only too often only 3 W. Marsden, The History of just so long. His village holidays Sumatra? London, 1811, p. 194. are numerous" (A. Cabaton, Java, 4 E. Metzger, " Uber die Zeitrech- Sumatra, and the Other Islands of nung der Javanen," Deutsche the Dutch East Indies, London and Rundschau fur Geographic und Leipzig, 1911, pp. 125 sq.}. Statistik, 1887, ix, 311 ; P. J. Veth, 6 R. Friederich, in Journal of the Java, 2 Haarlem, 1907, iv, 297 sq. Royal Asiatic Society, 1878, n.s., A recent observer points out that, x, 89, 93. although the life of a Javanese 6 An Historical Description of village is never intensely laborious, the Kingdom of Macasar, London, it is, in a sense, a life of continuous 1701, p. 149. labour, "for the Javanese does not 206 REST DAYS 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 Chris- tians, presumably at the time of their conversion to Islam. 1 In the Arabic week the days from Sunday to Thursday are numbered in their order, Friday is called aljum^ a "the meeting" (for worship), and Satur- day, 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 re- sumed. The Mohammedean jum' a, unlike the Jewish Sabbath, but like the early Christian Sunday, is not a day of rest. 2 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 num- ber seven takes us back to the ancient Oriental world. It is a familiar fact that many people attach to cer- tain numbers a sacred or symbolic meaning. 3 Such 1 T. Noldeke, "Die Namen der societes inf ensures, Paris, 1910, Wochentage bei den Semiten," pp. 235-257; D. G. Brinton, "The Zeitschrift fur deutsche Wortfor- Origin of Sacred Numbers," Ameri- schung, 1901, i, 162; J. Wellhausen, can Anthropologist, 1894, vu > J 68- Reste arabischen Heidentums? Ber- 173 ; idem. The Myths of the New lin, 1897, p. 142. World? Philadelphia, 1896, pp. 83- 2 Koran, Ixii, 9 sq. (S. B. E., ix, 119; W. J. McGee, "Primitive 283) ; T. P. Hughes, Dictionary of Numbers/' Nineteenth Annual Re- Islam, London, 1885, pp. 131, 666; port of the Bureau of American idem, "The Mosque Life of the Ethnology, pt. ii, 821-852; W. Muslim," Open Court, 1906, xx, Schultz, "Gesetze der Zahlenver- 335; T.W. Juynboll," Djum'a," The schiebung im My thus und in Encyclop&dia of Islam, i, 1061 sq. mythenhaltiger Uberlieferung," 3 See in general L. Levy-Bruhl, Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Les fonctions mentales dans les Gesellschaft in Wien, 1910, xl, 101- . LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 207 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 donnes tfavance - 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 150; R. Hirzel, "Uber Rundzah- len," Berichte uber die Ferhand- lungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der koniglich-sdchsischen Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1885, xxxvii, 1-74; E. Kautzsch, "Zahlen," in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck's Real- encyklopddie fur protestantise he Theologie und Kirche? xx, 598- 607; A. Bergaigne, La religion vedique, Paris, 1883, ii, 114-156; E. W. Hopkins, "The Holy Num- bers of the Rig-Veda" in Oriental Studies, Boston, 1894, pp. 141-159; E. Wolfflin, "Zur Zahlensymbolik," Archiv fiir lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik, 1895, ix, 33~353; I. Goldziher, "tJber Zahlenaber- glauben im Islam," Globus, 1901, Ixxx, 31-32. For collections of the evidence relating to the sacredness of certain numbers see B. Stade, "Die Dreizahl im Alten Testa- ment," Zeitschrift fiir die alttesta- mentliche Wissenschaft, 1906, xxvi, 124 sqq.; H. Usener, "Dreiheit," Rheinisches Museum fiir Philologie, 1903, n.s., Iviii, 1-47, 161-208, 321-362; Anne W. Buckland, "Four as a Sacred Number," Journal of the Anthropological In- stitute^ 1896, xxv, 96-102; F. X. Kugler, "Die Symbolik der Neun- zahl bei den Babyloniern," in Assyriologische und archdologische Studien Hermann v. Hilprecht gewidmet, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 34~~ 309; A. Kaegi, "Die Neunzahl bei den Ostariern," in Philolo- gische Abhandlungen fiir Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler, Zurich, 1891, pp. 50-70; K. Weinhold, "Die mys- tische Neunzahl bei den Deut- schen," Abhandlungen der konig- lich-preussischen Akademie der Wis- senschaften, 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 hebdoma- dischen Fristen und Wochen der altesten Griechen," Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der koniglich-sdchsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4; idem, "Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus und Mythus der Griechen," ibid., 1904* *xiv, no. i ; idem, " Die Hebdomaden- lehren der griechischen Philosophen und Arzte," 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, "Uber Alter, Ursprung, und Bedeutung der hippokratischen Schrift von der Siebenzahl," ibid., 1911, xxviii, no. 5 ; idem, " Die Tessarakontaden und Tessarakontadenlehren der Griechen und anderer Volker," Berichte uber die Verhandlungen* etc., Leipzig, 1909, Ixi, 17-206. 208 REST DAYS 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 partic- ular, has enjoyed a marked importance among many peoples widely separated in space and time. 1 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 influ- ences emanating from the Asiatic mainland appear to have introduced the symbolism of seven into cer- tain 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 promi- nent in rites of exorcism. 2 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 1 For a large collection of evi- 2 Brooke Low, in H. L. Roth, dence see F. von Andrian, " Die The Natives of Sarawak and British Siebenzahl im Geistesleben der North Borneo, London, 1906, i, 231 ; Volker," Mitteilungen der anthro- Hose and McDougall, The Pagan polo gisc hen Gesellschaft in Wien, Tribes of Borneo, London, 1912, ii, 1901, xxxi, 225-274. 134 sq. LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 209 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. 1 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 cus- tom 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. 2 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 pene- trated. 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. 3 The Wagi- riama and Wasania, Bantu tribes living in the south- eastern corner of British East Africa, observe the symbolism of seven in birth, circumcision, and mourn- ing ceremonies. 4 The Akikuyu attach a very special . I. H. N. Evans, "Notes on the thropos, 1912, vii, 1057; compare eligious Beliefs, Superstitions, ibid., 50 n> Ceremonies, and Tabus of the 3 M. Merker, in PeUrmanns Dusuns," Journal of the Royal An- Mitteilungen, 1902, Erganzungsheft, thropological Institute, 1912, xlii, no. 138, p. 25. 394 S q. 4 W. E. H. Barrett, in Journal 2 Suas, "Le septieme jour aux of the Royal Anthropological Insti- Nouvelles Hebrides, Oceanic," An- tute, 1911, xli, 22, 31 sq., 34. 210 REST DAYS 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 dis- tance away. Were this rule broken, he would cer- tainly 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." 1 Seven is also one of the unlucky numbers of the Nandi. 2 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. 3 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 num- ber. 4 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 folk- tales, 5 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. 6 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 1 C. W. Hobley, ibid., 1910, xl, 4 Above, p. 199. 439 sq. Seven among the Akikuyu 6 E. Dayrell, Folk Stories from is of all numbers the most unlucky Southern Nigeria, West Africa, in divination (Routledge and Rout- London, 1910, nos. xxx-xxxii, xxxiv, ledge, With a Prehistoric People, pp. xxxviii, etc. 264, 274). 6 E. Doutte, Magie et religion 2 Hollis, Nandi, p. 89. dans V Afrique du nord, Algiers, 3 Above, pp. 145 sq., 198 sq. 1909, pp. 184 sqq. LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 211 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. 1 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 num- ber in the earliest literary records of India, Greece, and Babylonia. Numerous references to seven occur in the Rig-Veda, where, however, it enjoys less impor- tance than three. 2 Periods of seven days and seven years are frequently mentioned in the Odyssey* Hesiod includes the seventh day of the month in his list of holy days (e/jSd/xr/ iepbv ^fta/>), "for on the seventh day Leto bare Apollo of the golden sword" ; and this particular connection with the seventh day was main- tained 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. 4 Many other illustrations exist of the large 1 The Zuni 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 il- lustrations of the seven-cult among the American Indians see J. W. Powell, in F. H. Gushing, Zuni 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 Re- port of the Bureau of Ethnology, P- 397 (Osage, Kansa, Omaha, Dakota, and Ponka tribes) ; Jean L'Heureux, in Journal of the An- thropological Institute, 1886, xv, 303 (Blackfoot); D. G. Brinton, The Lendpe and their Legends, Philadelphia, 1885, pp. 139 sq. 2 E. W. Hopkins, "The Holy Numbers of the Rig-Veda" in Oriental Studies, Boston, 1894, pp. 141, 144 sq.; compare A. Ber- gaigne, La religion vedique, Paris, 1883, ii, 123, 127. 3 Odyssey, x, 8l, xii, 399, xiv, 252, 288, xv, 477. 4 Opera et dies, 770 sq. ; Herodo- tus, vi, 57 ; ^Eschylus, Septem contra Thebas, 800; Plutarch, Qu&stiones conviviales, viii, I, 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 212 REST DAYS symbolic role played by the number seven in Greece at a remote period. 1 Among the Babylonians, as early as the third millenium B.C., seven appears as a symbolic number in magico-religious rituals, incanta- tions, exorcisms, and mythological narratives. 2 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 aban- don 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. 3 Thargelion (Lucian, Pseudologistes, 1 6). The first and twentieth of the month were also consecrated to Apollo, who received in consequence the cult titles^ 'E/J&yiayenjs, Neo- /MT/VIOS and Ei/caSios. 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 Reli- gions gesc hie hte, Munich, 1906, ii, 939 sqq.; M. P. Nilsson, "Die alteste griechische Zeitrechnung, Apollo und der Orient," Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, I9ii,xiv, 442 sqq. 1 See the exhaustive collection of the evidence, both literary and in- scriptional, 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 Phoenician channels (V. Berard, in Revue de Fhistoire des religions, 1899, xxxix, 426 sq.; compare A. Thumb, "Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen," Zeitschrift fur deutsche Wortfor- schung, 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 Phoenician inter- mediaries. 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 Baby- lonien" (Archiv fur Religionswissen- schaft, 1911, xiv, 447 sq.}. 2 J. Hehn, Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alien Tes- tament, Leipzig, 1907, pp. 4-44; P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylo- nier, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 170-184. 3 The predominance of seven among the Hebrews, if not wholly explained by borrowing from Baby- lonia, may reasonably be assumed to have been much influenced by LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 213 Some Assyriologists have connected the symbolism of seven with the seven stars visible to the naked eye which traverse the celestial zodiac. For the Baby- lonian 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 super- stitious 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 dif- ferentiated, the one because of his brilliant light, the other because of her two appearances when she pre- cedes the rising, and follows the setting, sun. Saturn, Mercury, and Mars seem originally to have been com- bined under the one designation Lu-Bat, a term which came to bear the general meaning of " planet " - doubt- less on account of the difficulty involved in observing their separate courses. 1 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 achieve- ments must have required centuries of close and accu- rate observations ; they do not belong to a primitive astronomy. 2 Hence we may safely conclude that the Babylonian conceptions. On the l M. Jastrow, Aspects of Reli- Hebrew cult of this number see gious Belief and Practice in Baby- Hehn, Siebenzahl und Sabbat, pp. Ionia and Assyria, New York, 1911, 77-90; O. Zockler, "Siebenzahl, pp. 217 sqq.; idem, Die Religion heilige," in Herzog, Plitt, and Babyloniens und Assyriens, Giessen, Hauck's Realencyklopddie fur pro- 1905-1912, ii, 446 sq., 663 sqq. testantische Theologie und Kirche, 3 2 G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in xviii, 310-317. the Old Testament, Oxford, 1905, 214 REST DAYS 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 Sat- urn. 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 correspond- ence between the character of the deity and the prog- nostications drawn from the behaviour of his planet. Furthermore, the cuneiform records contain no indi- cation that the Babylonians were familiar with what is known as the astrological order of the planets, the order, pp. 134 sq. The fact that by the der griechischen und romischen Babylonians Venus, as a morning Mythologie, iii, col. 2521). Similar star, was considered masculine and misconceptions are found among as an evening star, feminine (F. X. primitive peoples. Of the Maori Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst it has been said: "Tawera is their in Babel, Miinster-i.-W., 1907- Lucifer and Merimeri their Hes- 1910, ii, 19 sq.} must point back perus, and under these two names to a time when the different ap- the beauty of the planet Venus is pearances of that heavenly body at frequently celebrated in their morning and evening were regarded poetry" (E. Shortland, Traditions as those of different planets. Such and Superstitions of the New Z,ea- was also the opinion of the early landers? p. 219). Additional evi- Greeks, who held the morning dence is found among the abori- star, 'Eo>cr<6pos, and ""Eo-Trepos, the gines of Sumatra (Marsden, op. cit. y evening star, to be different bodies. p. 194), the Hottentots (Schultze, Their identity was not recognized op. cit., p. 367), and the Cherokee until the time of Pythagoras in the Indians (Hagar, in Boas Anniver- sixth century B.C. (W. H. Roscher, sary Volume > p. 357). "Planeten," Ausfiihrliches Lexikon * V n *- in LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 215 that is, in which they appear as regents of the week- days 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 arrange- ment : 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. 1 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, 2 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, 3 an institution which has spread 1 Kugler, op. cit., i, 13 ; compare F. Boll, " Zur babylonischen Plane- tenordnung," Zeitschrift fur Assyri- ologie, 1911, xxv, 3 73 . Between 400 B.C. and the opening of the Chris- tian era the order is the same, except that Mercury and Saturn exchange places. 2 Herodotus, ii, 82. 3 The history of the planetary week has been treated with exhaus- tive learning by E. Schiirer, "Die siebentagige Woche im Gebrauche der christlichen Kirche der er- sten Jahrhunderte," Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1905, vi, 1-66. A very valuable survey is that by F. Boll, "Heb- domas," in Pauly-Wissowa's Real- Encyclopddie der classischen Alter- tumswissenschaft, vii, coll. 2547- 2578. Among the earlier discus- sions 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 siebentagigen Woche," Theologische Studien und Kritiken, 1874, xlvii, 343-353, hold an honourable place. See further W. H. Roscher, "Plane- ten," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen My- thologie y iii, coll. 2518-2539; A. Bouche-Leclercq, L' astrologie grecquey Paris, 1899, pp. 476-484; Jensen, Noldeke, et al., "Ge- schichte der Namen der Wochen- tage," Zeitschrift fur deutsche Wort- forschungy 1901, i, 150-193; O. Schrader, "Woche," Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertums- kundey Strassburg, 1901, pp. 959- 965; W. Lotz, "Woche," in Her- zog, Plitt, and Hauck's Realency- klopddie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche? xxi, 409-414; F. Riihl, Chronologic des Mittelalters 216 REST DAYS eastward over the Oriental world and westward into Europe, is a product of the speculations of astrologers and philosophers during the Hellenistic, or Grseco- Oriental, era. The sequence of its days depends ulti- mately 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 descend- ing to the lowest, we obtain the following order : Sat- urn, 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. 1 The astrological order, which also begins with Saturn, proceeds next to the fourth planet, or Sun, from which again the fourth planet (by inclu- sive 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. 2 The institution, says Dio Cassius, und der Neuzeit, ^ Berlin, 1897, * The reverse order, beginning pp. 49-63 ; F. K. Ginzel, Handbuch with the Moon and ending with der mathematischen und technischen Saturn, is attributed to Pythagoras Chronologie^ Leipzig, 1906-1911, by Pliny the Elder (Historia index, j.v. "Woche." The word naturalis, ii, 22) and by Censorinus "week" in various Germanic Ian- (De die natali, xiii, 3) ; and accord- guages has the general meaning of ing to Macrobius it was adopted "change" (Anglo-Saxon wice, Old by Archimedes in the third cen- Frisian wike. Old Norse vika, tury B.C. (Commentarium in som- Danish uge, Old High German nium Scipionis, i, 19, 2, ii, 3, 13). wecha^ Gothic wiko, etc.). See F. But the statements of these late L. K. Weigand, Deutsches Worter- writers on the subject may be buck,* Giessen, 1910, ii, 1279. The safely disregarded. Latin vicis, "change," "turn" (a 2 Historia Romana, xxxvii, 18 sq. genitive form) is a related expres- There is also extant a still earlier sion. See Walde, op. cit., p. 833. explanation of the planetary se- LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 217 n 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)." 1 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 compara- tively refined doctrine of the "music of the spheres" that we must look for the origin of the planetary se- quence. 2 The second explanation given by Dio Cas- sius, and also by Vettius Valens, is connected with the astrological theory of "chronocratories," which as- signed 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 quence by Vettius Valens, an astrol- oger 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 Egyp- tians and the Babylonians (De mensibusy ii, 31). 1 This arrangement &a reo-o-a- peoi/ may be illustrated by means of the heptagram. Let the circum- ference 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 divi- sion. If these points are con- nected 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 hepta- gram appears on a clay tablet recently unearthed at Nippur in Babylonia (H. V. Hiiprecht, Ex- plorations in Bible Lands, Phila- delphia, 1903, p. 530), but in this case quite without any indication of its use. 2 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. 218 REST DAYS 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 recogni- tion 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. 1 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 astron- omy 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 (e/jSo/jtas, septimana), in its astrological form, has had a varied history. It prob- ably first appeared in the star cults of Mesopotamia 1 Herodotus (ii, 109) says ex- very early times were familiar Elicitly that the Greeks learned with a division into twenty-four om the Babylonians to divide the hours, twelve for the night and day into twelve parts. This state- twelve for the natural day. It is ment agrees with the evidence not improbable, therefore, that the from the cuneiform records, which astrological use of the twenty-four show that it was the Babylonian hours was remotely derived from custom to divide the nycthemeron, Egypt. On the entire subject of or cycle of night and day, into hour deities see W. Gundel, "Stun- twelve kaspu, corresponding to dengotter," Hessische Blatter fur two of our equinoctial hours. On Folkskunde, 1913, xii, 100-131. the other hand the Egyptians from LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 219 ind Syria, certainly not before the second century B.C., passed thence to the cosmopolitan city of Alex- andria, the meeting-ground of East and West, and about the age of Augustus gained an entrance into Occidental lands. The first reasonably certain evi- dence 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. 1 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, Lunse, Martis, Jovis, Veneris. 2 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, 3 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 Clem- ent of Alexandria, who in their writings addressed to the pagans employ the planetary names of the week- days. 4 1 Corpus inscriptionum Latina- accademia dei lincei, anno 1901, rum, i, pt. i, 2 220; G. Gander- Serie v, classe di science morali, etc., mann, "Die Namen der Wochen- ix, Notizie degli scavi, p. 330. tage bei den Romern," Zeitschriftfur 3 Historia Romana, xxxvii, 18. deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i, 177. 4 Tertullian, Apologeticus, 16; 2 A. Mau, in Bullettino dell' idem, Ad nationes, i, 13; Clement, instituto di corrispondenza archeo- Stromata, vii, 12, 75; compare i) 1 88 1, p. 30; Atti della reale Justin Martyr, Apologia prima, 67. 220 REST DAYS The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, 1 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. 2 The use of the planetary names by Christians attests the growing influence of astrological speculations intro- duced 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, 3 in the Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of dies Soils for dies Saturni, as the first day of the planetary week ; and Constan- tine's famous edict, as we have seen, definitely enrolled Sunday among the holidays of the Roman state reli- gion. 4 The change from Saturn's Day to Sunday must have further commended the planetary week in Christian circles, where the Lord's Day (dies domi- nica), beginning the week, had long been observed as that on which Christ, the "Sun of Righteousness," 1 The Jews indicated each week- Celsus, as quoted by Origen (Contra day by its numerical name, as the Celsum, vi, 21), the seven planets first day, the second day, and so played an important role in the on ; compare Exodus, xvi, 5, 22 ; Mithraic mysteries. The chief po- Matthew, xxviii, i; Mark, xvi, 2; sition was naturally assigned to Luke, xxiv, i ; John, xx, I ; Acts, the sun, from which circumstance xx, 7; i Corinthians, xvi, 2. The Cumont concludes, not only that sixth day, preceding the Sabbath, the planetary week was known to came eventually to be called by Mithraism, but also that the Hellenistic Jews 17 Trapao-Keur;, or dies Solis "etait evidemment le "preparation" for the Sabbath; plus sacre de Thebdomade pour les compare Matthew, xxvii, 62 ; Mark, fideles de Mithra, et, comme les xv, 42; Luke,xxin, 54; John,xix, 31. Chretiens, ils devaient sanctifier 2 The oldest dated Christian in- le dimanche et non pas le sabbat." scription to employ a planetary See F. Cumont, Textes et monu- designation belongs to the year 269 ments figures relatifs aux mysteres A.D. (Inscriptiones Christiana urbis de Mithra, Brussels, 1896-1899, i, Roma, ed. De Rossi, i86i,i, no. n). 118 sq., ii, 31. 3 According to the testimony of 4 Above, pp. 122 sq. . LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK 221 se from the dead. 1 Thus gradually a pagan insti- tution was engrafted on Christianity. The planetary week became familiar to the barbari- ans 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 intro- duced into Roman Britain. In nearly all Romance countries the planetary names are applied to the week- days except the first and seventh, for which the ecclesi- astical designations, dies dominica and sabbatum, are retained. 2 In most Germanic languages Sunday and Monday appear as translations of the Latin forms ; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday repre- sent equations of classical and Germanic deities, based on the most obvious points of resemblance between them ; 3 while Saturday, for which no corresponding Germanic god suggested itself, is a corrupt form of 1 Below, p. 268. to find the old Roman term for a 2 Italian domenica, sabbato; holy day thus employed to refer Spanish domingo, sabado; French to the weekdays that are particu- dimanche y samedi, etc. But the larly devoted to secular occupations, heathen names of even these two The origin of the practice has not days continued for a long time in been satisfactorily explained, popular use, as is evident from the 3 Tiu (Mars), Woden (Mercu- words of Gregory of Tours : Ecce rius),Thor (Jupiter), Frij a (Venus). enim dies Solis adest, sic enim bar- The special observance of Thurs- baries vocitare diem dominicam con- day as a holy day reflects the com- sueta est (Historia Francorum, iii, manding place occupied by Thor 15). The other weekdays (Mon- in Germanic paganism. His wor- day to Friday) in the calendar of ship on that day is referred to in the Roman Church follow the documents of the early Middle Jewish usage in being numbered, Ages as a superstition to be eradi- not named : feria secunda, feria cated (nullus diem Jovis in otio tertia, feria quarto, feria quinta, observet, etc.), but the modern and feria sexta (Isidore of Seville, Esthonians still consider Thurs- Etymologia sive origines, v, 30). day as holier than Sunday and in In Portugal the influence of the Sweden, as late as the nineteenth Church was strong enough to secure century, the day was generally the general adoption of this mode considered sacred. See J. Grimm, of reckoning, instead of the planet- Teutonic Mythology, London, 1882, ary sequence; and here Monday i, 191; O. Montelius, "The Sun- is still called feira segunda, Tues- god's Axe and Thor's Hammer," day, feira ter$a, etc. It is curious Folk-lore, 1910, xxi, 77. 222 REST DAYS Saturnus. 1 Among the Slavic peoples, whose week begins with Monday, as the first day after rest, the planetary names are unknown, the days being num- bered in conformity with the usage of the Greek Church. 2 A similar custom prevails among the Lithu- anians and Esthonians, who appear to have borrowed their week from the Slavs. Modern Greeks employ the ecclesiastical designations of the weekdays, 3 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. 4 1 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 Teu- tons, Boston, 1902, p. 379; P. B. Du Chaillu, The Land of the Midnight Sun, New York, 1881, ii, 205 sqq.). 2 In Slavic antiquity Friday, or some day corresponding to it, appears to have been consecrated to a female divinity, whose person- ality, 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 Fri- days. 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.}. 3 In Thessaly and Macedonia Saturday (cribe a season of abstinence affecting many royal activ- ities. 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. 1 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. 2 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 repre- sented 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 sub- ject 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 1 Above, p. 15. Sir J. G. Frazer, Taboo and the 2 For much evidence as to the Perils of the Soul, London, 1911, sacredness of chiefs and kings and pp. 1-17; idem, Psyche's Task,* as to the accompanying taboos, see London, 1913, pp. 6-19. 234 REST DAYS 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. 1 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 khul- lakpa might survive, in deference to old tradition, and might even be increased in severity, if that individual should grow in authority and holiness. The situa- tion would then furnish a very close analogy to what existed in ancient Babylonia. The regulations con- cerning the "evil days," it may be noted, did not per- tain 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 function- aries 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. 2 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 bur- densome to the highest degree. Taboos once generally 1 T. C. Hodson, in Journal of Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den the Anthropological Institute, 1906, Babyloniern und im Alien Testa- xxxvi, 98; idem, in Folk-lore, 1910, ment, Leipzig, 1907, pp. 106-109; xxi, 298; idem, Ndga Tribes of J. Meinhold, Sabbat und Woche im Manipur, pp. 102, 141 sq. Alten Testament, Gottingen, 1905, 2 For further discussions of the pp. 15 sqq.; F. Bohn, Der Sabbat "^evil days" see M. J. Lagrange, im Alten Testament, Giitersloh, Etudes sur les religions semitiques? 1903, pp. 39-43. Paris, 1905, pp. 291 sqq.; J. Hehn, THE BABYLONIAN "EVIL DAYS" 235 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. 1 The cuneiform records contain a term shabattum, which has been generally accepted as the phonetic equivalent of the Hebrew shabbdthon, perhaps an in- tensive form of shabbdth or Sabbath, referring to a Sabbath of particular solemnity. 2 Shabattum, a word 1 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 belong- ing to different months, found that the average of the number of trans- actions on the yth, I4th, 2ist, and 28th days was 18, which would be also the average for each day of the month. The I9th day, how- ever, 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 I9th 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, I4th, and 2ist days were considerably above the aver- age (94) and those for the 28th day only slightly below it, the 1 9th day registered but 12 trans- actions. 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 observ- ance of the custom may have been in decay. The figures, more- over, 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, 1 4th, 2ist, and 28th days. "They were not kept with puritan respect for the Sabbath, if Sabbaths they really were." Only 2 con- tracts, however, were made on the 1 9th, 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 I9th 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 I9th day. 2 Shabbdthon occurs all together ten times in the Old Testament, where it is applied to New Year's Day, the Day of Atonement (above, 236 REST DAYS which has been found as yet only five or six times in Assyro-Babylonian documents, occurs in a lexicographi- cal tablet containing the equation shabbattu(m) = um nukh libbi. 1 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 obser- vation that these seemed also to be penitential days, when by special observances the gods must be ap- peased and their anger averted. The Hebrew Sab- bath would therefore represent an institution directly derived from the Babylonian regulations for the "evil days." 2 Until recently, however, Assyriology has sounded no certain note concerning the etymology and signifi- cance of the term shabattum. Thus, Delitzsch holds pp. 82 sq.}, the first and eighth Boscawen; see A. H, Sayce, in days of the Feast of Tabernacles, Academy, 1875, viii, 555. Ska- and also to the Sabbatical Year (Le- battu(m) here and elsewhere can viticus, xxv, 4) and to the Sabbath be read shapattu(m), without, how- Day proper (Exodus, xvi, 23, xxxi, ever, affecting the sense (P. Jensen, 15, xxxv, 2 ; Leviticus, xxiii, 3). Pro- in Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, 1900, fessor Morris Jastrow thinks that xiv, 182; H. Zimmern, in Schrader, shabbdthon is mistranslated as "sol- Keilinschriften, 3 p. 592 n. 5 ). emn rest" and that in fact it is 2 A. H. Sayce, The Higher Criti- merely an adjectival formation cism and the Verdict of the Monu- meaning "sabbatical" or "Sab- ments, London, 1895, p. 74; idem, bath-like." The word " belongs The Religions of Ancient Egypt and to a period prior to the develop- Babylonia, Edinburgh, 1902, p. 476; ment of a Sabbath institution, F. Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, celebrated every seventh day with- London, 1903, p. 41. The purely out any reference to the phases of conjectural character of this pro- the moon" (American Journal of cedure was long ago pointed out Semitic Languages and Literatures, by Francis Brown in his article, 1914, xxx, 97 n. 1 ). "The Sabbath in the Cuneiform 1 Rawlinson, op. cit., ii, pi. 32, Records," Presbyterian Review, no. i, 1 6 a-b (Cuneiform Texts, 1882, iii, 693. Compare also A. T. pt. xviii, pi. 23, 17 [K. 4397]). Clay, Amurru, Philadelphia, 1909, The discovery of this important pp. 55 sqq. equation was made by W. H. THE BABYLONIAN "EVIL DAYS" 237 that "the only meaning that may be justifiably as- sumed is " c ending (of work), cessation, keeping holi- day from work.' ' 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." 2 Jastrow, again, points out that um nukh 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 refrain- ing from or cessation of divine anger. 3 Zimmern sug- gests that shabattum may be derived from the verb shabatu, with the sense of "discontinue" or "desist," applied to the anger of the gods. 4 Pinches, on the contrary, believes that the word comes from the Sume- rian shabat, which probably had no connection with the Semitic verb shabatu. 5 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. 6 As the outcome of extensive philological study Hehn argues that shabattum meant originally "fulness," "completeness," the notion of rest being 1 Babel and Bible, p. 99. form list (Rawlinson, op. cit., v, pi. 2 H. Hirschfeld, " Remarks on 28, 1. e-f) thelverb shabatu is equated the Etymology of Sabbath," with gamdru^ which is thought to Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- mean "be complete," "be full," eiety, 1896, n.s., xxviii, 357. "cease," though in some other 3 M. Jastrow, "The Original syllabaries it apparently has the Character of the Hebrew Sabbath," sense of "pacify." In the light American Journal of Theology, of the meaning now assigned to 1898, ii, 316 sq. f 351; compare shabattum both translations appear idem, Hebrew and Babylonian Tra- to be intelligible and harmonious. ditions, New York, 1914, pp. 134, 8 T. G. Pinches, The Old Testa- 149. ment, London, 1902, p. 327. 4 H. Zimmern, in Schrader, Keil- 6 D. Nielsen, Die altarabische inschriften, 3 p. 593. In one cunei- Mondreligion, pp. 87 sq. 238 REST DAYS later and entirely secondary. 1 Still another interpre- tation makes shabattum equivalent to "day of lament." z Finally, in a brief, though highly suggestive study, Professor Toy holds that the root idea in the Baby- lonian expression was that of abstinence, though shabattum might also have been regarded as a day of propitiation because of the restrictions attached to it. 3 These conflicting interpretations scarcely made for confidence in the results of a purely philological analy- sis. 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. 4 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 appear- ance 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 1 J. Hehn, Siebenzahl und Sabbat, were subsequently identified by p. 98. Dr. Pinches, to whom, accordingly, 2 S. Langdon, "The Derivation full credit for this important dis- of Sabattu and Other Notes," covery should be ascribed. See Zeitschrift der deutschen morgen- T. G. Pinches, " Sapattu, the Baby- Idndischen Gesellschaft, 1908, Ixii, Ionian Sabbath," Proceedings of the 30. Society of Biblical Archeology, 1904, 3 C. H. Toy, "The Earliest xxvi, 51-56. H. Zimmern, how- Form of the Hebrew Sabbath," ever, had previously pointed out Journal of Biblical Literature, 1 899, that, according to the Rawlinson xviii, 190 sqq.; compare idem, text, the fifteenth day of a thirty- Introduction to the History of Reli- day month might have borne the gions, Boston, 1913, p. 251. designation shabattum (Zimmern, in 4 The text (K. 6012 + K. 10,684) Schrader, Keilinschriften? p. 593 forms a part of the British Museum n. 3 ) ; compare his comments on collection of cuneiform tablets. A Pinches's discoveries (Zeitschrift der portion of the text was published deutschen morgenldndischen Gesell- by Rawlinson (op. cit., iii, pi. 56, schaft, 1904, Iviii, 199-202, 458- no. 4) and additions to it, as well 460). as duplicate Babylonian fragments, THE BABYLONIAN "EVIL DAYS" 239 conjunction with the sun. In this description, which for minuteness recalls the Polynesian naming of the nights from successive aspects of the moon, 1 the fif- teenth day again appears as shabattum. 2 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 de- scribed them by particular names, nannaru and shabat- tum. Evidence exists, moreover, showing that these two days from very early times were observed as festi- vals, 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 prece- dence over Shamash, the sun-god. 3 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. 4 At Harran, where 1 Above, p. 181 ft. 7 4 H. Radau, Early Babylonian 2 The text (K. 2164 + 2195+ History, New York, 1900, pp. 3510) has been edited with a 314 sq. The tekt on the statue translation and commentary by E. of Gudea, a chief, or patesi, of Weidener, "Zur babylonischen Lagash (c. 2350 B.C.), bears record Astronomic," Babyloniaca, 1911, vi, of a rest day which has been inter- 8 sqq. It should be observed that preted as a full-moon day, therefore it belongs to the same series as the as a shabattum: "No one was text (K. 170) in which the fifteenth struck with the whip, the mother day is expressly described as the corrected not her child, the house- day of full moon (above, p. 229). holder, the overseer, the labourer Professor A. H. Sayce has published ... the work of their hands a table of lunar longitudes (K. 490) ceased. In the graves of the which shows how many degrees the city ... no corpse was buried, moon advances during the first The Kalu played no psalm, uttered fifteen days of the month and how no dirge, the wailing women let no many degrees it retrogrades dur- dirge be heard. In the realm of ing the second half of the month Lagash no man who had a lawsuit (Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, 1887, went to the hall of justice." See ii, 337-340). A. Jeremias, The Old Testament in 3 Combe, Histoire du culte de the Light of the Ancient East, Sin, pp. 46 sqq., 86 sq.; Jastrow, London, 1911, i, 203; compare Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, H. Winckler, Religions geschichtlic her i, 66 sq., 72 sqq. und geschichtlic her Orient, Leipzig, 240 REST DAYS the cult of Sin continued to flourish under the Roman Empire and into the early Middle Ages, four sacri- ficial days were observed every month, and of these at least two were determined by the conjunction and opposition of the moon. 1 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 Phoenicians. 2 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. 3 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 1906, p. 61. Professor Morris name of the Moon, which same Jastrow holds, however, that this custom prevails among them to the passage from the inscription of present day" (Sir William Muir, Gudea has no reference to the full The Apology of Al Kindy? London, moon (American Journal of Semitic 1887, p. 17). Languages and Literatures, 1914, 2 W. F. von Landau, Beitrdge xxx, 98 n. z ). zur Altertumskunde des Orients, 1 D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier Leipzig, 1899, ii, 46 sq.; compare und der Ssabismus, St. Petersburg, idem, Die phonizischen Inschriften, 1856, ii, 8, 94 sqq.y translating the Leipzig, 1907, p. 22 (Der alte Fihrist (ix, i, 5) of Ibn al-Nadlm. Orient, viii, 3). On the Harranians see in general 3 Above, p. 182 n. 7 There are D. S. Margoliouth, in Hastings's numerous reports by Babylonian Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, astrologers according to which vi, 519 sq. It is curious to find a any one of five days, from the Moslem tradition, current about twelfth to the sixteenth of the 830 A.D., that "Abraham lived with month, might be taken as the his people four-score years and exact time when the moon became ten in the land of Harran, worship- full, depending, of course, upon how ping none other than Al Ozza, an early or how late was the visible idol famous in that land and adored new moon (Kugler, Sternkunde und by the men of Harran, under the Sterndienst in Babel, ii, 14 sq.). THE BABYLONIAN "EVIL DAYS 241 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 um nukh 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. 1 1 The Rev. C. H. C. Johns has pointed out that in Babylonian calendars many days are indicated as nubattUy 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, absten- tion, from whatever cause or for ceremonial purposes" (Encyclo- pcedia Britannica, 11 xxiii, 961 sq.). A calendar of the intercalary month of Elul cites the 3d, 7th, and i6th days as the nubattu of Marduk and his consort Sarpanit (Lagrange, op. cit., p. 284 n. 6 ; Schrader, Keilinschriften? p. 371). 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, 1 the old "Ritual Code," and the nearly related "Book of the Covenant." 2 It is mentioned in the "Books of Kings" during the time of the prophet Elisha. 3 It is noticed in the prophecies of Amos and Hosea. 4 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, 5 or whether it was instituted as a memorial of the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt. 6 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 form of the Fourth Com- 3 2 Kings, iv, 23. This is per- mandment in the First Decalogue haps the earliest historical reference (Exodus, xx, 8), "Remember the to the Sabbath. Sabbath Day, to keep it holy," 4 Amos, viii, 5; Hosea, ii, II. indicates not the institution of a 6 Genesis, ii, 2-3 ; Exodus, xx, new day but the sanctioning of an ii. old one. In the Second Deca- 6 Deuteronomy, v. 15; compare logue (Deuteronomy, v, 12), the Nehemiah, ix, 14; Ezekiel, xx, 12. commandment reads: "Observe The principal Old Testament refer- the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." ences to the Sabbath have been The word "holy" in these in- grouped in their assumed histori- junctions has the force of "set cal order by E. G. King, "The apart ritually," "separated from Sabbath in the Light of the Higher common use," i.e., taboo. Criticism," Expository* Times, 1906, 2 Exodus, xxxiv, 21, xxiii, 12. xvii, 438-443. 242 THE HEBREW SABBATH 243 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 sanc- tity of the seventh day is in reality antedated, and the priestly writer wished to adjust artificially the work of creation to it. 1 An old and still common theory derives the Sab- bath institution from the worship of Saturn, after which planet the first day of the astrological week received its designation. 2 The theory is untenable for more than one reason. In the first place the He- brews 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 1 M. Jastrow, "The Original p. 70). Later Hebrew writers Character of the Hebrew Sab- carry this idea of correspondence bath," American Journal of The- so far as to require the angels to ology, 1898, ii, 313 sq.; S. R. observe all the Jewish festivals Driver, The Book of Genesis* (H. P. Smith, The Religion of London, 1906, p. 35. Canon Israel, New York, 1914, p. 229). Cheyne suggests that the priestly 2 F. Baur, 'Der hebraische writer in Genesis, ii, 2 sqq. appears Sabbat und die Nationalfeste des to accept the anthropomorphic mosaischen Cultus," Tubinger view which finds such frequent Zeitschrift fur Theologie, 1832, iii, expression in Oriental antiquity. 145 sqq.; A Kuenen, The Religion Things on earth correspond to of Israel, London, 1873, i, 262 sqq.; things in heaven; if God "rested" Paul de Lagarde, editor, Psalteriurn on the seventh day, man ought to iuxta Hebrceos Hieronymi, Leipzig, do likewise (Traditions and Beliefs 1874, 158 sqq. of Ancient Israel, London, I97> 244 REST name Kewan, the Assyrian designation of Saturn. 1 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. 2 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 Baby- lonia. 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 insti- tution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn's Day. 3 The association of the Sabbath Day with Saturday was probably one reason why Saturn, a planet in Baby- lonian astrological schemes regarded as beneficent rather than malefic, should have come to assume in late classical times the role of an unlucky star (sidus tristissimum, Stella iniquissima) . The oldest refer- ence to Saturday is found in a verse by the poet Tibul- 1 Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the fur neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Old Testament, pp. 48 sq.; P. Jen- 1905, vi, 6 sq., 19. There is a sen, "Astronomy," Jewish Ency- Talmudic story which tells how clopedia, ii, 246. Moses, having arranged with 2 Amos, v, 26 ; W. R. Harper, A Pharaoh for a day of rest to be Critical and Exegetical Commentary observed by the Hebrews in Egypt, on Amos and Hosea, New York, was asked what day he thought 1905, pp. 137 sqq.; K. Budde, most suitable for the purpose. The Religion of Israel to the Exile, Moses answered, "The seventh New York, 1899, pp. 67 sqq. day, sacred to Saturn; work done 3 J. Fiirst, Kultur- und Liter a- upon this day never prospers" turgeschichte der Juden in Asien, (Jeremias, The Old Testament in Leipzig, 1849, pt. i, 40; W. the Light of the Ancient East, i, Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen 202; Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, Archdologie, Strassburg, 1894, ii, p. 102). 142 sq.; E. Schiirer, in Zeitschrift THE HEBREW SABBATH 245 his (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." 1 Ovid mentions "foreign Sabbaths" along with the anniversary of the day of the battle of the Allia dies Alliensis as unlucky occasions. 2 Frontinus, a Roman military officer and tactician (d. about 103 A.D.), says that Vespasian de- feated 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 under- take no serious occupation." 3 The Hebrews manifested so little originality in cul- tural 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. 4 But the Egyptians, as we have seen, divided their months into decades, and no evidence exists 1 Saturni aut sacram me tenuisse sabbat juif et les poetes latins," diem (Elegice, i, 3, 18). Revue d'histoire et de litter ature 2 Ovid, Remedium amoris, 220; religieuses, 1903, viii, 305-335; compare idem, Ars amatoria, i, T. Reinach, Textes d'auteurs grecs 415-416; Horace, Satires, i, 9, 69- et remains relatifs au Judaisms, 70; Persius, Satira, v, 184. Paris, 1895, pp. 104, 243, 266, 287; 3 Frontinus, Strategematica, ii, i, M. Wolff, "Het oordeel der helle- 17; Dio Cassius, Historia Romana, nensch-romeinsche schrijvers over xxxvii, 17. Tacitus (Historia, v, oorsprong, naam, en viering van 4) thinks that the Jewish Sabbath der Sabbat," Theologisch Tijd- may be an observance in honour of schrift, 1910, xliv, 162-172. Saturn, though he gives an alter- 4 J. Spencer, De legibus Hebrceo- native explanation, connecting the rum ritualibus et earum rationibus, day with the escape from Egyptian Cambridge, 1727, i, 67 sqq. (bk. i, bondage. For other evidence from ch. v, sect. viii). classical writers see P. Lejay, "Le 246 REST DAYS that they ever employed for civil purposes any shorter division of the month. 1 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. 2 The same may be said of the theory that the Sabbath was first taken over from Babylonia by the agricultural inhabitants of Ca- naan, from whom, in turn, the Israelites borrowed an institution which would have no meaning to a nomadic people. 3 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," 4 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 absti- nence 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 prom- ises 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 1 Above, p. 191. Religionswissenschaft, 1902, v, 2 Below, pp. 253 sq. 321. 3 Nowack, op. cit.y ii, 144; R. 4 J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena Smend, Lehrbuch der alttestament- zur Geschichte Israels? Berlin, lichen Religions geschichte, Freiburg- 1905, p. 109; W. E. Addis, Docu- i.-B., 1899, pp. 160 sq.; A. ments of the Hexateuch, London, F. von Gall, "Die alttestament- 1892, i, 139; idem, Hebrew Reli- liche Wissenschaft und die keilin- gion to the Establishment of Judaism schriftliche Forschung," Archiv fur under Ezra, London, 1906, p. 85. THE HEBREW SABBATH 247 restful coolness after the day with its withering heat, and dispelling with her kindly beams the thick dark- ness 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." l To the Israelites, as to the ancient Egyptians, the moon was preeminently the "wanderer," by whose movements the earliest calendars were framed. 2 One of the Hebrew names for "month" is yerah, from ydreah, "moon" ; it is called, also hodesh, which means new moon. One of the most magnificent of the Psalms declares that Jehovah "appointed the moon for the seasons" ; 3 all the Jewish festivals were deter- mined 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, 1 C. M. Doughty, Travels in weeks, is found in two pseudo- Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, graphia which date probably from i, 366. Maccabaean times (Book of Enoch 2 The Hebrew lunisolar year and Book of Jubilees), but it is consisted of twelve months, ad- hardly likely that solar reckonings justed to the solar year by the were then in general use. On this intercalation of a thirteenth month. subject consult S. Poznanski, "Cal- The name of the latter is first met endar (Jewish)," in Hastings's in the Mishna, where it is styled Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, the "second Adar." The months iii, 117 sqq. consisted of 29 days (hence called 3 Psalms, civ, 19. Compare "defective" months), or of 30 Ecclesiasticus, xliii, 6-8 : " He made days ("full" months), but there the moon also to serve in her season seems to have been no uniform for a declaration of times, and a sequence of long and short months. sign of the world. From the moon The regulation of the month was is the sign of feasts, a light that probably at first in the hands of decreaseth in her perfection. The the priests and later was com- month is called after her name, mitted to the Sanhedrin. A solar increasing wonderfully in her year of 364 days, i.e., 52 complete changing." 248 REST DAYS 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 repres- sive measures of a reforming king. 1 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." 2 When the Bedouin and Fellahin of modern Palestine first see the lunar crescent they exclaim, "God's new moon has appeared in his exalted- ness. May it be for us a blessed new moon." 3 Mod- ern 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 Jeho- vah" (Jahweh), is a verbal form of the onomatopoetic stem hilal, meaning "new moon," "crescent," with the addition of the divine name. 4 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 1 Jeremiah, viii, 2 ; Zephaniah, to take off their caps to the new i, 5 ; Deuteronomy, xvii, 3 ; 2 Kings, moon. xxiii, 5; G. W. Gilmore, "Moon," 2 Doughty, op. cit., ii, 305 sq.; New Schaf-Herzog Encyclopedia of compare D. Nielsen, Die alt- Religious Knowledge, vii, 493. arabische Mondreligion und die That no trace of the cult of Sin, mosaische Uberlieferung, Strassburg, the Babylonian moon-god, is dis- 1904^.50. For the Abyssinian cus- coverable in the Old Testament, toms see E. Littmann, in Archivfuf even in the name Sinai, is the Religionswissenschaft,i()o8,x\,3i3sq. opinion of the latest investigator 3 Mrs. H. H. Spoer, in Folk- of this subject. See E. Combe, lore, 1910, xxi, 289. Histoire du culte de Sin, Paris, 1908, 4 M. Jastrow, Aspects of Reli- pp. 157 sqq. The custom of kiss- gious Belief and Practice in Baby- ing the hand to the moon (Job, Ionia and Assyria, New York, 1911, xxxi, 26 sq.) may have meant to the pp. 214 w. 3 , 336 w. 2 ; F. Hommel, Hebrews little more than it does Der Gestirndienst der alien Araber to us. Orthodox Jewish mothers und die altisraelitische Uberlieferung* are said still to teach their sons Munich, 1901, p. 28. THE HEBREW SABBATH 249 moon was held, and messengers were sent abroad to announce the opening of the new month. The cele- bration of the festival would seem, at least occasion- ally, 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 ex- pected to appear. 1 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 conversa- tion between David and Jonathan in which the former says, " Behold, to-morrow i's 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. 2 The occasion was also observed by compulsory abstinence from all servile work. 3 In the time of Elisha the new 1 i Samuel, xx, 27-28; compare Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vul- Judith, viii, 6. On the new-moon gate, and the Jewish Aramaic festival see Nowack, op. cit., ii, Targum as the designation of a 138 sqq.; Wellhausen, op. cit., working day, in distinction from pp. 107 sqq.; I. Benzinger, the festival day of the new moon. Hebrdische Archaologie? Tubingen, The Douai version of the Scrip- 1907, pp. 388 sq.; G. Forster, tures translates accordingly, "in " Die Neumondfeier im Alten Tes- the day when it is lawful to work." tament," Zeitschrift fur wissen- Professor H. P. Smith holds that, schaftliche Theologie, 1906, xlix, owing to the corruption of the text, 1-17; B. Stade, Biblische Theologie the particular day here intended is des Alten Testaments, Tubingen, no longer intelligible (A Critical 1905, i, 176 sqq.; A. Dillmann, and Exegetical Commentary on the Die Bile her Exodus und Leviticus,* Books of Samuel, New York, 1899, edited by V. Ryssel, Leipzig, 1897, pp. 190 sq.}. He has, however, pp. 634 sqq. See also "New overlooked the fact, that, as my Moon" in Hastings's Dictionary friend and pupil Rabbi Jacob of the Bible, Jewish Encyclopedia, Singer points out to me, the same and Encyclopedia Biblica. expression she set yeme hama 'aseh 2 I Samuel, xx, 5-6, 24-29. is found in Ezekiel (xlvi, i) as the 3 Ibid.) xx, 18-19. In verse designation of "the six working 19 the Hebrew expression beyom days" of the week; see Brown, hama 'aseh, rendered in the Author- Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and ized Version (margin) "in the day English Lexicon of the Old Testa- of the business," appears in the ment, Boston, 1906, p. 795. 250 REST DAYS 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 cessa- tion of the usual occupations. 1 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 con- servative instincts have thus preserved a memorial of its ancient observance. 2 Full moon, as well as new moon, enjoyed a religious significance to the early Hebrews. Two great agri- cultural 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. 3 The Passover, observed on the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan), was followed on the fifteenth day by the Feast of Un- leavened Bread, occupying seven days. 4 The Feast of Tabernacles began on the fifteenth of the seventh month (Tishri) and likewise continued for seven days. 5 1 2 Kings, iv, 23. Some Biblical einer Feier des Vollmondes zeigt references indicate that on the sich bei den Israeliten keine Spur, first day of the month the prophets . . . Jedoch war er dadurch be- were supposed to be most under vorzugt, dass an ihm das grosse the influence of their divine afflatus ; Friihlings- und Herbstfest begann " compare JSzekiel, xxvi, I, xxix, 17, (Die Biicher Exodus und Leviticus, 3 xxxi, i, xxxii, i; Haggai, i, I. p. 635). A passage in one of the 2 John Allen, Modern Judaism, 2 Psalms (Ixxxi, 3): "Blow the London, 1830, pp. 390 sq.; H. G. trumpet at the new moon, at the F. Lowe, Schulchan Aruch, oder full moon, on our feast-day," die vier jiidischen Gesetzbucher, probably refers to new moon in Vienna, 1896, i, 91 ; M. Friedmann, the seventh month, or New Year's in Jewish Quarterly Review, 1891, Day (Leviticus, xxiii, 24), and to the iii, 712; Isra'ei Abrahams, Jewish first day of the Feast of Taber- Life in the Middle Ages, London, nacles, which began on the fif- 1896, p. 374. teenth of the same month (ibid., 3 That the Old Testament thus xxiii, 39). contains indirect evidence of the 4 Leviticus, xxiii, 5-6 ; Exodus, celebration of full-moon day by xii, 6 sqq.; Numbers, xxviii, 16- the early Hebrews was long ago 17. recognized by the learned commen- 5 Leviticus, xxiii, 33-36, 39; tator, August Dillmann. "Von Numbers, xxix, 12. THE HEBREW SABBATH 251 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, 1 and by the significant expression shabbdthon ("solemn rest"), which is used in reference to the begin- ning and end of the Feast of Tabernacles, that is, to the fifteenth and twenty-second of the month Tishri. 2 Furthermore, the Pentateuchal codes contain a pas- sage, 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. 3 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 designa- tion of the Sabbath as the full-moon day. "The two references in Leviticus stand out as solitary sign- posts of an abandoned road." 4 In some of the older parts of the Bible, and espe- cially in the earlier prophetical compositions, the new moon and the Sabbath are repeatedly mentioned to- gether. 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." The prophet 1 Leviticus, xxiii, 6-8; Exodus, the Sabbath,"' American Journal xii, 16; Numbers^ xxviii, 18, 25. of Semitic Languages and Liter a- 2 Leviticus, xxiii, 39; Numbers, tures, 1914, xxx, 104. xxix, 12, 35. 5 2 Kings, iv, 23. This passage, 3 Leviticus, xxiii, n, 15. incidentally, affords proof that at 4 M. Jastrow, "'The Day after the time it was written the legal 252 REST DAYS 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." l 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 ?'" 2 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 - cannot bear iniquity with the solemn meeting." 3 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." 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 prob- lem thus presented. 5 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 shabbath.* As late, then, as the eighth length of a "Sabbath Day's jour- 6 Wellhausen, Prolegomena? pp. ney" had not been determined, for 108 sq.; Smith, "Sabbath," En- from Shunem to Elisha's abode on cyclopedia Britannic a,* xxi, 126. Carmel was a distance of some 6 This pregnant suggestion was thirty to forty kilometres (R. first made by H. Zimmern in his Kittel, Die Biicher der Konige, comments on the discovery by Gottingen, 1900, p. 200). T. G. Pinches (Zeitschrift der 1 Hosea, ii, 13 (A. V. v. n). deutschen morgenlandischen Gesell- 2 Amos, viii, 4-5. schaft, 1904, Ivii, 202 and n. 1 ). 3 Isaiah, i, 13. The hypothesis of the original 4 Ibid., Ixvi, 23 ; compare Colos- identity of Sabbath and full-moon sians, ii, 16. day was subsequently elaborated THE HEBREW SABBATH 253 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. 1 That the term shabbdth, 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. 2 The Hebrew seven-day week, ending with the Sab- bath, presented so obvious a resemblance to the Baby- lonian 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 Baby- lonian 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 ; 3 the Hebrew week was a periodic week, running unfettered from month to by J. Meinhold (Sabbat und Woche Traditions, New York, 1914, pp. im Alten Testament, Gottingen, 154 sqq., 185. 1905), whose main conclusions l Ezekiel, xlvi, 1-3. have been accepted by K. Marti 2 Above, pp. 226, 247. Shab- (Religion of the Old Testament, bath also appears several times in London, 1907, pp. 150 sq.} and the Old Testament in the general T. K. Cheyne (Traditions and sense of "week/* the name of the Beliefs of Ancient Israel, London, principal weekday being used as the 1907, p. 69). See also E. Mahler, designation of the entire cycle of " Der Sabbat," Zeitschrift der seven days. Compare Leviticus, deutschen morgenldndischen Gesell- xxiii, 15, xxv, 8. schaft, 1908, Ixii, 40, 46 sq.; M. 3 H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, Jastrow, Hebrew and Baylonian Keilinschriften? p. 594; compare 254 REST DAYS 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 na- tional 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 un- like 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 insti- tution. 1 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 simpli- fied if we hold that the Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, perhaps for several centuries preced- A. H. McNeile,77^ Book of Exodus, 1905, pp. 10 sqq.; compare idem, London, 1908, p. 122. "Die Entstehung des Sabbats," 1 Johannes Meinhold, Sabbat und Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Woche im Alien Testament, Gottingen, Wissenschaft, 1909, xxix, 81-112. THE HEBREW SABBATH 255 ing 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. 1 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 Sab- bath 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 Deutero- nomic legislation as a deliberate act, designed to wean the people away from an observance to which hea- thenish 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 pre- scribed special offerings for the new-moon day, and in Ezekiel's legislation the sacrifices marking it exceeded in importance those for the Sabbath. 2 The ancient character of this festival as a season of compulsory abstinence from labour survived in its observance as a l The march of the Israelitish But this account may contain a host around Jericho on seven sue- reminiscence of a period of Hebrew cessive days, one of which must history when the week, either lunar have been the Sabbath, if that or periodic, had not become estab- institution as a weekly rest day lished in Israel, was then known to them, would 2 Numbers, xxviii, 11-15; Eze- have been a profanation of the kiel, xlvi, 4-6 ; compare I Chron- Sabbath according to later ideas. ides, xxiii, 31; 2 Chronicles, ii, 4, See Joshua, vi, 4, 14-15; compare viii, 13, xxxi, 3; Ezra, iii, 5; Tertullian, Adversus Judeeos, 4. Nehemiah, x, 33. 256 REST DAYS 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." * 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 re- freshed." 2 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, 3 would then be explained as the outcome of the priestly desire to exalt the Sabbath as a religious festival at the ex- pense 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" 4 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 1 Leviticus, xxiii, 24; compare 2 Deuteronomy, \, 14; Exodus, Numbers, xxix, i; Nehemiah, viii, xxiii, 12. 3 Exodus, xx, 8-1 1. 2, 9-12. But see above, p. 82. 4 Ibid., xxxiv, 21. THE HEBREW SABBATH 257 full-moon days. The Pentateuchal codes contain, in fact, a number of Sabbatarian regulations which are meaningless, except when elucidated from the com- parative 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," 1 is identical with the nu- merous rules which impose seclusion on tabooed or un- lucky occasions, as a means of avoiding physical con- tact with supernatural and invisible powers of evil. The prohibition : "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath Day, " 2 which in another passage 3 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 shep- herd 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 1 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 ail the day (Origen, De principles, iv, I, 17). S. Reinach wittily com- pares the Dosithean injunction to the practice of various animals, which, when in danger and unable to flee, fait le mort ("Le sabbat hebrai'que," Cultes, mythes, et reli- gions, Paris, 1906-1912, ii, 444). For some mediaeval stories illus- trating the rule of absolute repose on the Sabbath, see R. Basset, "L'observation du sabbat," Revue des traditions populaires, 1893, viii, 250-254. 2 Exodus, xxxv, 3. 3 Ibid., xvi, 23. The rules for- bidding the lighting of fires and cooking on the Sabbath were very strictly observed by the Essenes (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, ii, 8). In the Mishna (Shabbdth, iv, i) the prohibition to bake and boil on the Sabbath is interpreted to mean that food may be kept hot on the Sabbath, provided its exist- ing 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 pro- hibition 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 mediaeval times Rabbi Solomon ben Adret had a lock affixed to his stove, and kept the key over the Sabbath to prevent his too-con- siderate 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, 258 REST DAYS had been touched by fire. 1 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 Said, 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. 2 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. 3 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 prob- able 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." Similar customs are found in Polynesia, Borneo, the East Indies, Burma, and various parts of "The Sabbath Light," Jewish Quar- on Ancient Egypt? London, 1909, terly Review, 1891, iii, 707-721. pp. 130 sq. 1 Above, p. 232 and n. z 3 Above, pp. 9, 12, 15, 16, 20, 2 F. J. Chabas, Le calendrier des 41, etc. jours fastes et nefastes de I'annee 4 E. Westermarck, Origin and egyptienne, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. Development of the Moral Ideas, ii, 46, 68; Sir G. Maspero, New Light 305. THE HEBREW SABBATH 259 Africa ; they were practised by Persians and Greeks in antiquity ; and they still survive among the peasants of Calabria and the Scottish Highlanders. 1 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 pre- sumed 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. 2 Under certain circumstances to partake of food may cause defilement ; hence fasting is only one of the nu- merous 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 en- joined 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. 3 Such well-established facts suggest that in the earliest period fasting may have also marked the Hebrew Sabbath. 4 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 al- 1 For a collection of the ethno- ings's Encyclopedia of Religion and graphic evidence, see Sir J. G. Ethics, iv, 439. Frazer, "On Certain Burial Cus- 2 E. Westermarck, "The Prin- toms as Illustrative of the Primitive ciples of Fasting/* Folk-lore, 1908, Theory of the Soul," Journal of the xviii, 397 sqq.; idem, Moral Ideas, Anthropological Institute, 1885, xv, ii, 293 sqq. 90; idem, The Magic Art and the 3 Above, pp. 15, 17, 39, 44, etc. Evolution of Kings, London, 1911, 4 Compare M. Jastrow, in Amer-> ii, 267 n. 4 ; E. S. Hartland, " Death ican Journal of Theology, 1898, ii, and Disposal of the Dead (Intro- 324 sqq.; Westermarck, op. cit., ductory and Primitive)," Hast- ii, 310 sq. 260 REST DAYS ways fast on the Sabbath." 1 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." 2 Various pagan writers also refer to the Sab- bath as a day of fasting. 3 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 shabbdth shabbdthon, a "Sabbath of solemn rest." 4 Yet it seems difficult to understand the rule forbidding fasting at new moon and on the seventh day, 5 except as a reference to a custom formerly observed but in later times regarded as an illegitimate rite. Since the Sabbath fell, orig- inally, 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. 6 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" (shabbdth shabbdthon) for the land, not because of the advan- tage of allowing soil to lie fallow at regular intervals, but because the land itself was consecrated as "a Sabbath unto Jehovah." 7 The regulation does not 1 Ecclesiastical Polity , v, 72. superstitions attached to the after- 2 DC vita sua, 54. noon of the Sabbath as a dangerous 3 Suetonius, Divus Augustus, 76; time for the consumption of food. Strabo, Geographica, xvi, 2, 40; During the early Middle Ages Martial, Epigrammata, iv, 4; Jews in northern France, Lorraine, Justin, xxxvi, 2. Justin speaks of and Germany, but not in Provence, the Sabbath as having been conse- Narbonne, or Spain, refrained from crated as a fast day to commemo- eating and drinking on Sabbath rate a seven days* fast of the afternoons. See D. Kaufmann, Israelites in the deserts of Arabia. "Was the Custom of Fasting on 4 Above, pp. 8 1 sqq. Sabbath Afternoon Part of the 5 Judith, viii, 6; Schulchan Early Anglo-Jewish Ritual?" Aruch, i, 91 sq. Jewish Quarterly Review, 1894, vi, 6 The Talmud (Tractate Pesa- 754-756. chim, 105 a) indicates that some 7 Leviticus, xxv, 4. This law THE HEBREW SABBATH 261 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 fruit- fulness : "Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years." 1 The rule requiring that the produce of the soil should be devoted to the poor and to the cattle 2 perhaps indicates a partial triumph of the utili- tarian 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," 3 a regulation which can be ex- plained only as the outcome of the Sabbatarian observ- ances 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." 4 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. 5 was occasionally productive of twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus great distress (i Maccabees, vi, combines two systems of rules 48, 53 ; compare Josephus, Anti- which are not only different but quitates Judaica, xiv, 16, 2). actually irreconcilable with each 1 Leviticus, xxv, 21. other, the septennial system of the 2 Exodus, xxiii, 1 1 . Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee 3 Leviticus, xxv, n. Whether system of fifty years. the Jubilee was celebrated after 4 Exodus, xxxi, ,14; for a similar forty-eight years or after forty- regulation see ibid., xxxv, 2. nine years is a problem incapable 5 Numbers, xv, 32-36. The of solution from the Old Testament comments of Philo Judaeus on this evidence. As Schiaparelli has well passage are interesting, if not shown (Astronomy in the Old illuminating (Vita Mosis, iii, 27- Testament, pp. 146 sqq.), the 28). 262 REST DAYS 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 He- brews 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 EzekiePs constant insistence on the profanation of the Sabbath in his catalogue of the sins of the Israelites. 1 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. 2 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 aug- ment 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, 3 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 ob- servances after the Exile forms an entirely new develop- ment, and that the priestly Sabbath represents some- thing very different from the Sabbath of the " Book of the Covenant" or of Deuteronomy. 4 " The increased 1 Jeremiah, xvii, 19-27; Ezekiel, 3 Isaiah, Ivi, 2 sq., Iviii, 13. xx, 13, 16, 21, 24, xxii, 8, 26, xxiii, 38. 4 T. K. Cheyne, Jewish Religious * Nehemiah, x, 31, xiii, 15-16. Life after the Exile, New York, 1898, The use of the Sabbath Day for p. 66; C. G. Montefiore, Lectures marketing is paralleled by the on the Origin and Growth of Religion Mohammedan observance of jum'a as Illustrated by the Religion of the (above, p. 206). Ancient Hebrews? London, 1893, THE HEBREW SABBATH 263 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 super- stitions and to give to the Sabbath once more an aus- tere character. 1 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 connec- tion that, while the Hebrews had their favourable and unfavourable days, as the expression yom tob ("good day") for holy days shows, the Sabbath is never so described. 2 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. 3 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 Testa- pp. 229 sq., 338 sq.; Wellhausen, 8th century A.D. the rabbis them- Prolegomena,* p. no; W. R. selves were unable to account for it Smith, "Sabbath," Encyclopedia (Abrahams, op. cit., p. 184). By Britannic a? xxi, 124; K. Marti, the Romans May was considered Das Dodekapropheton, Tubingen, an unlucky month for marriage, a 1904, p. 26. belief which Ovid (Fasti, v, 489- 1 Compare E. G. Hirsch, "Sab- 490) connects with the celebration bath," in Jewish Encyclopedia, x, of the Lemuria in May. Compare 590; Bohn, Der Sabbat im Alien Plutarch, Quastionts Romantz, 86. Testament, pp. 8 sqq., 89 sqq. The superstition, as is well known, 2 M. Jastrow, in American Jour- has descended to our own time. nal of Theology, 1898, ii, 324 n* 7 3 The principal regulations in the idem, Hebrew and Babylonian Tra- Mishna are well summarized by ditions, p. 162. The Old Testa- E. Schiirer, History of the Jewish ment contains at least one reference People in the Time of Christ, div. ii, to a lucky day (i Samuel, xxv, 8). vol. ii, 96-105. For the rigorous Among modern Jews no marriages rules observed by the Covenanters are celebrated during the period of Damascus, a Jewish sect whose between Passover and Pentecost. history has been only lately re- The origin of the superstition is covered, see G. F. Moore, in Har- unknown, but its antiquity may be vard Theological Review, 1911, iv, judged from the fact that in the 346 sq. 264 RE ST DAYS ment ; the majority, however, represent only an elabo- ration of the scriptural precepts. Two entire works are devoted to the provisions for Sabbath observance. The first treatise, called Shabbdth, is chiefly remark- able 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, Erubim, 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 desposited 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. 1 These legal fictions, these casuistical elaborations of the simple ordinances of the Pentateuch concerning the Sabbath, may be paralleled by the growth of pon- tifical regulations at Rome relating to what might and 1 1 Maccabees, ii, 3 1 sqq. ; 2 selves masters of their walls, and Maccabees, v, 25-26, vi, n, viii, 26; "so lay still until they were caught Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicce, xii, like so many trout in the dragnet of 62. Plutarch refers to the Jews their own superstition " (De super- who allowed their enemies to rear stitione, 8). scaling ladders and make them- THE HEBREW SABBATH 265 what might not be done on public ferial days. 1 Like the Roman ferice, 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 sea- son, and by some subtle alchemy of the spirit to con- vert 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" 2 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. 3 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 sab- batarius. "The Jews in our time," says St. Augus- tine, "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." 4 We may believe that such criticisms had slight justification in the real nature of the Jewish 1 Above, pp. 97 sq. others in a similar strain, from St. 2 Isaiah, Iviii, 13. Chryspstom, Prudentius, and Theod- 3 Luke, xiv, 1-24. oret, is adduced by the learned 4 Augustine, In comm. ad Psalm. ecclesiastical historian Joseph Bing- xcii (Nicene and Post-Nicene ham (Antiquities of the Christian Fathers of the Christian Church, Church, London, 1838-1840, vii, viii, 453). This passage, with 32 sqq.). 266 REST DAYS 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. 1 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 Sab- bath,' and the 'Holy, dear, beloved Sabbath.'" 2 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 sweep- ing campaigns in the East led to the establishment of Roman dominion over Syria and Judea. References to the institution in Tibullus, Horace, and Ovid indi- cate that its peculiar character as a day of rest was then generally understood. 3 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," 4 and Josephus could write that there was no city among the Greeks or the barbarians where the festival of the Sabbath was not celebrated. 5 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 1 Plutarch, Quastiones conviviales, Sabbath and the Festivals in the iv, 6, 2. First Two Centuries of the Current 2 S. Schechter, in Jewish Quar- Era, according to Philo, Josephus, ttrly Review, 1891, iii, 763; com- the New Testament, and the Rab- pare idem, Studies in Judaism, New binic Sources," Jewish Review, 1914, York, 1896, pp. 244 sqg., and iv, 433-456. Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in 3 Above, pp. 244 sq. the Middle Ages, London, 1896, 4 De opificio mundi, 30; compare pp. 12, 24, 373 sq. See further idem, Vita Mosis, ii, 4. J. Mann, "The Observance of the 5 Contra Apionem, ii, 40. THE HEBREW SABBATH 267 became seats of thriving Jewish communities where pagan proselytes adopted Jewish customs, including the observance of the Sabbath. 1 The Jewish seven-day week with its numerical indi- cations of the days was adopted by the early Chris- tians, to whom the planetary week, bearing the names of pagan deities, could scarcely prove attractive. 2 Friday and Saturday continued to have the designa- tions irapao-Kevij and Tes, aXXa Kara KvpiaKyv aWcs), on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death." 3 However, the Jewish ele- ment 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 occu- pations. 4 Tertullian was the first Church Father to declare that Christians ought to abstain on Sunday 376; J. A. Hessey, Sunday,* admiring the workmanship of God, London, 1889, pp. 40-49. and not eating things prepared the 1 Matthew, xii, 8 ; Mark, ii, 27 ; day before, nor using lukewarm John, v, 17. drinks, and walking within a pre- 2 Colossians, ii, 16; compare scribed space, nor finding delight Romans, xiv, 5 ; Galatians, iv, in dancing, and plaudits which have lo-ii. no sense in them" (Ante-Nicene 3 Epistola ad Magnesias, 9. The Fathers, i, 62 sq.). longer recension of this passage, 4 Constitutiones Apostolica, ii, though an interpolation of much 59, I, vii, 23, 2, viii, 33, I ; Con- later date, expresses the same cilium Laodicenum, can. 16 (Labbe- antagonism toward sabbatizing : Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum col" " But let every one of you keep the lectio, ii, 567) ; Socrates, Historia Sabbath after a spiritual manner, ecclesiastic a, vi, 8. The church rejoicing in meditation on the law, council held at Laodicea in 363 A.D. not in relaxation of the body, anathematized as Judaizers those 270 REST DAYS from secular duties and occupations, lest they should "give place to the Devil." 1 Tertullian's statement has sometimes been understood to indicate a Sabba- tarian spirit on the part of its author; properly con- sidered, 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 refer- ence to Sunday as a day of abstinence from labour. The earliest Sunday law, the edict issued by Constan- tine in 321 A.D., bore no relation to Christianity. 2 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 who refrained from work on Satur- (W. C. Harris, The Highlands of day (ConciliumLaodicenum, can. 29 ; Ethiopia, New York [1843], p. 272). Labbe-Mansi, op. cit., ii, 580). The Celts kept Saturday as a day The anathema did not penetrate of rest, with special religious ser- to the ancient Christian kingdom of vices on Sunday (A. Bellesheim, Abyssinia, where Saturday is still History of the Catholic Church in strictly observed. "The ox and Scotland, Edinburgh, 1887-1890, i, the ass are at rest. Agricultural 86). pursuits are suspended. House- 1 De oratione, 23 : Omni anxie- hold avocations must be laid aside, tatis habitu et officio cavere debemus, and the spirit of idleness reigns differentes etiam negotia, ne quern throughout the day. . . . When, diabolo locum demus. Tertullian, a few years ago, one daring spirit however, elsewhere rejects the im- presumed, in advance of the age, plication that Christians should be to burst the fetters of superstition, sabbatizers, "we, to whom these his majesty the king of Shoa, stim- Sabbaths belong not, nor the new ulated by the advice of besotted moons, nor the feast days once monks, delegated his wardens beloved of God" (De idolatria, 14) ; throughout the land, and issued a compare idem, Apologeticus, 16; proclamation, that whoso disturbed idem, Ad nationes, i, 13 ; idem, Ad- the original dreamy stillness of the versus Judceos, 4 ; Augustine, De Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his spiritu et littera, 24. property to the royal treasury, and 2 Above, pp. 122 sq. be consigned to the state dungeon" THE HEBREW SABBATH 271 Middle Ages, and culminated in the Sabbatarian ex- cesses of English and Scottish Puritanism. 1 1 For the history of Sunday legis- Studies in English History, Edin- lation see E. V. Neale, Feasts and burgh, 1881, pp. 286-315; Hans Fasts, London, 1845 ; R. E. Prime, [Johannes] Meinhold, Sabbat und "Sunday Legislation," New Schajf- Sonntag, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 65- Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious 103 ; Alice M. Earle, The Sabbath Knowledge, xi, 146-151; J. Gair- in Puritan New England, ' New diner, " Sundays, Ancient and Mod- York, 1891, pp. 245-258. ern," in Gairdiner and Spedding, 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 civi-* lized and Christian lands. The reasons for the assign- ment 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 un- lucky days is to be sought in that erroneous associa- tion of ideas which underlies so much of savage magic and savage religion. If an event, fortunate or unfortu- nate, 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 unfavour- able 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 Acro- manti in I73I. 1 In modern Macedonia the superla- tive ill-luck attending Tuesday is explained by some as due to the fact historically true that Constanti- nople was taken by the Turks on this day of the week. 2 1 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, Tuesday is an unlucky day for pp. 219 sq. every sort of enterprise (Miss 2 G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Mary Hamilton, Greek Saints and Folklore, Cambridge, 1903, p. 189. their Festivals, Edinburgh, 1910, In Greece and Albania, also, p. 190). 272 UNLUCKY DAYS 273 The dies religiosi, or unlucky days, of the Roman calen- dar 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. 1 After the assassination of Julius Caesar a decree was made that the Ides of March (March 15) should be called parricidium, and hence- forth should be observed as an unlucky day. 2 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 reli- gious 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 mediaeval mind, and numer- ous lists of them are preserved in old manuscripts. 3 There is a Jewish superstition, reaching back to the 1 Livy, vi, i ; Tacitus, Historic?, business must be commenced" ii, 91; Suetonius, Fitellius, n. (Buchanan, in Asiatick Researches, Compare Ovid (Fasti, i, 49-50) : vi, 172). Among the Parsis Tues- /; illis j' i uays, gciicidiiy itvutucu iwi uc- ?P " *** ^f occ= 8eS Man a y nd pel h n e s r will not begin an important work 2 Suetonius, Divus Julius^ 88. or start on a distant journey on 3 See "La recommandation du these days (J. J. Modi, "Omens yendredi," Melusine, 1888-1889, among the Parsees," Journal of iv, 104, 133 sqq.j 205 sq. However, the Anthropological Society of Bom- the Friday superstition may ante- bay, i, 294). All over Burma date Christianity. In Macedonia Friday is unlucky. "Don't go it is believed that ablutions on on Friday" is a current saying Friday are dangerous, especially (L. Vossion, "./VaMvorship among for women in childbed (Abbott, the Burmese," Journal of American op. cit., p. 190). The Brahmans Folk-lore, 1892, iv, 112). For Rus- of India share the Friday supersti- sian superstitions relating to Fri- tion, saying that "on this day no day see above, p. 222 n. z i 274 REST DAYS Talmud, that it is lucky to begin an undertaking on Tuesday, because, in describing the third day of crea- tion, it is said, "God saw that it was good." Con- trariwise, it is unlucky to commence anything of im- portance on Monday, as to which day nothing at all is said. 1 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 partic- ular occasions. We have already noted many super- stitious observances connected with the phases of the moon, her monthly disappearance from the heavens, and her occasional eclipse by the earth. A further illus- tration 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 be- tween the two became the principal basis of astrological forecasts for each day of the sidereal month. 2 The fact is well known that Babylonian astrology and astronomy for the two were scarcely distinguish- able 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 1 J. Jacobs, " Superstition," Jew- has a mean length of 27 days, 7 ish Encyclopedia, xi, 599. hours, 43 minutes, and II seconds. 2 The sidereal month, deter- The least duration is 27 days, 4 mined by the moon's revolution hours, and the greatest, about 7 from any star back to the same star, hours longer. UNLUCKY DAYS 275 augural calendars connected therewith, were derived ultimately from Babylonia. 1 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." 2 Among the Persians and Arabs the lunar stations have long been employed for astrological purposes. 3 The Arabs carried them to Madagascar, where they gave rise to an elaborate distinction of days lucky and un- lucky. Some days were considered absolutely bad ; others were absolutely good ; others were indifferent. Again, some days were not regarded as good in gen- eral, 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. 4 1 F. K. Ginzel (Handbuch der Persian Burj-Namah, or Book of mathematischen und technischen Omens from the Moon," Journal of Chronologic, Leipzig, 1906-1911, i, the American Oriental Society, 1910, 70 sqq.} provides a useful survey, xx, 337 sqq.; A. de C. Motylinski, with bibliographies, of the lengthy Les mansions lunaires des Arabes, discussions relating to the origin Algiers, 1899. and diffusion of the moon-stations. 4 J. Sibree, " Divination among See also W. D. Whitney, "On the the Malagasy," Folk-lore, 1892, Lunar Zodiac of India, Arabia, and iii, 220 sq. In Madagascar the China," in his Oriental and Lin- names of the separate days in the guistic Studies, second series, New month have been taken directly York, 1874, pp. 341-421. from the Arabic names for the 2 Sir M. Monier-Williams, Brdh- twenty-eight lunar mansions. It manism and Hinduism, 4 ' New York, thus appears that these names have 1891, pp. 345 sq.; compare J. A. both astrological and chronological Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs, value (G. Ferrand, "Note sur le and Ceremonies? Oxford, 1906, calendrier malgache et le fand- p. 382. ruana" Revue des etudes ethno- 3 L. H. Gray, "The Parsi- graphiques et sociologiques, 1908, i, 2 7 6 REST DAYS The conception of unluckiness may be deduced a -priori from the assumed critical nature of certain pe- riods, 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. 1 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. 2 The celebration of the Twelve Nights, in the sense of the Twelve Nights and Days, as a festival before or after the winter sol- stice, 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 95. Among the northern Abyssin- ians 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 fur Religionswissenschaft, 1908, xi, 301 sq.). 1 Above, p. 177 n. 2 2 According to A. Jeremias no evidence exists for the recognition of twelve intercalary days in the ancient Oriental world (Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie, Leip- zig, 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, Altorien- talische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1898, ii, i, 182). What relation, if any, the Babylonian Zagmuk bore to the Babylo-Persian Sacasa and the Hebrew Purim is still a subject of controversy. See the full pres- entation of the evidence in Sir J. G. Frazer, The Scapegoat, Lon- don, 1913, pp. 354-407. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, recorded on twelve cuneiform tab- lets, has been plausibly interpreted as a solar myth, recounting the sun's annual course during the twelve months. Now, a relation- ship 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, there- fore, 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, n, viii, 14). UNLUCKY DAYS 277 the house of the sun." 1 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." 2 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? 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. 4 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 * Rig-Veda, i, 161, n, 13, iv, 33, Berlin, 1898, pp. 559 -W Com- 7; compare 4tharva-Feda,iv, n, n pare A. Ludwig, Der Rigveda, (transl.W. D.Whitney, p. 166). Prague, 1883, vi, 232; A. Kaegi, 2 Kathaka, 7, 5; Taittiriya- The Rigveda, Boston, 1886, p. 37; brdhmana, I, I, 9, 10; H. Zimmer, Zimmer, op. cit., pp. 366 sq. For Altindisches Leben, Berlin, 1879, contrary opinions see O. Schrader, p. 367. Reallexikon der indogermanischen 3 A. Weber, "Zwei vedische Altertumskunde, pp. 391 sq.; G. Texte iiber Omina und Portenta," Thibaut, in Biihler's Grundriss der Philologische und historische Ab- indo-arischen Philologie und Alter- handlungen der kdniglichen Aka- tumskunde, iii, pt. ix, 9 sq. demie der 'Wissenschaften zu Berlin, * J. Lippert, Christentum, Folks- 1858, pp. 388 sq.; idem, Indische glaube, und Folksbrauch, Berlin, Studien, 1868, x, 242 sq., 1885, xvii, 1882, pp. 680-685; C. A. Miles, 223 sqq. t 1898, xviii, 45; idem, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, "Vedische Beitrage," Sitzungsbe- Christian and Pagan, London, 1912, richte der koniglich-preussischen pp. 238-246; Frazer, The Scape- Akademie der Wissenschaften zu goat, pp. 313-3 45. 278 REST DAYS a thin veneer of Christianity. To a certain extent the Twelve Days thus form the modern European representative of those seasons devoted to the expul- sion of ghosts and evil spirits which are observed by peoples of the lower culture. 1 A further resemblance exists in the distinctly unlucky character often assigned to the Twelve Days. In Macedonia no marriages are solemnized during their continuance. 2 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 every- thing 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 light- ning. In this period dreams and other prognostics are most to be relied on and are most carefully investi- gated. 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. 3 This last superstition, however, is 1 Above, pp. 74 sqq. Siiddeutschland und Schlesien, Graz, 2 G. F. Abbott, Macedonian 1853, pp. n sq.; K. A. Oberle, Folklore y Cambridge, 1903, p. 75. Uberreste germanischen Heidentums 3 A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Folks- im Christentum, Baden-Baden, aberglaube der Gegenwart? edited 1883, pp. 63 sq.; E. H. Meyer, by E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, Indogermanische Mythen, Berlin, pp. 63 sqq. See also K. Weinhold, 1887, ii, 526 sqq. Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus UNLUCKY DAYS 279 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 supple- mentary or additional days. 1 A superstitious avoid- ance 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. 2 In Aberdeen- shire 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. 3 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." 4 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 multi- ple 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 1 J. Loth, "Les douze jours 3 W. Gregor, Notes on the Folk' supplementaires (gour-deziou) des lore of the North-east of Scotland, Bretons, et les douze jours des London, 1881, p. 156; idem, in Germains et des Indous," Revue Folk-lore Record, 1884, ii, 332. celtique, 1903, xxiv, 310-312. 4 John Williams ab Ithel, Bard-- 2 Miss C. S. Burne, editor, das, Llandovery, 1862-1874, i, Shropshire Folk-lore, London, 1883, 424 sq. p. 403. 2 8o REST DAYS an unfavourable character. They were called nemon- temi, "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 char- acterized 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 nemon- temi 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." l 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 pos- sible, 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, 1 E. Seler, "The Mexican Chro- 37; transl. Jourdanet and Simeon, nology," Bulletin of the Bureau of Paris, 1880, pp. 50, 77, 164, 283, American Ethnology, no. 28, p. 16. 291). Other Spanish authorities The passage quoted above is refer to the nemontemi as days from Seler's translation of the when the people did nothing but Aztec text of Sahagun, which is receive and return visits (Clavigero, more complete than the latter' s Storia antica del Messico, vi, 24; Spanish version (Historia general Acosta, Historia de las Indias y de las cos as de Nueva Espana, ii, vi, 2). UNLUCKY DAYS 281 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." l 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 dudit him ronpit), as they were styled. 2 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. 3 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. 4 The evidence of the Leiden Papyrus, setting forth the cere- monies requisite for epagomenal days, indicates that 1 E. Seler, in Bulletin of the reference is found in an inscription Bureau of American Ethnology, belonging to the time of the Fifth no. 28, pp. 16 sq.; compare idem, Dynasty (K. Sethe, Urkunden des in Hastings's Encyclopedia of Reli- alien Reichs, Leipzig, 1903, i, 24). gion and Ethics, iii, 308. The * H. Brugsch, "Die fiinf Epa- principal authority for the Maya gomenen in einem hieratischen custom is Diego de Landa, Relacion Papyrus zu Leiden," Zeitschrift der de las cosas de Yucatan, ch. xxxv deutschen morgenldndischen Gesell- (transl. Brasseur de Bourbourg, schaft, 1852, v, 254-258; compare pp. 211 sqq.). idem, Die Agyptologie, Leipzig, 2 These five days thus inserted 1891, p. 362; C. JR.. Lepsius, Die between the "small year" and the Chronologic der Agypter, Berlin, "large year" did not interrupt 1849, i, 145 sqq. The chief classi- the regular sequence of the three cal references to the epagomenai decades into which the Egyptian days are Herodotus, ii, 4; Plutarch, month was divided; see above, De I side et Osiride, 12; and Dio- p. 191. dorus Siculus, i, 13, 4. 3 Pepi, 2, 1. 754. A still earlier 282 REST DAYS 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 sup- posed 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. 1 These precautions taken, he might look forward to a happy New Year. The conquest of Egypt in the sixth century B.C. by the Achaemenian 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 Gatha-days, each being sacred to one of the five great divisions of the Gdthds, or Zoroastrian hymns. A Persian calendar of late date (1687 A.D.) gives the first day as lucky, and the third as unlucky. 2 It is significant that among the Persians, as in ancient Egypt, the epagomenal days particularly belonged to the dead, to whom sacrifices were regu- larly offered at this time, as well as during the first five days of the new year. 3 The Armenians also had their five supplementary days aweleach interca- lated after the twelfth month, an arrangement doubt- less borrowed from the Persians, but these days do 1 F. J. Chabas, Le calendrier des ness on it and took no care of their jours fastes et nefastes de I'annee persons till nightfall. The paral- egyptienne, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. lei to the royal observance of the 102-107. In the Leiden Papyrus Babylonian "evil days" is instruc- (i. 346) only the first, third, and tive (above, pp. 232 sq.). fifth days are marked with the 2 L. H. Gray, "Calendar (Per- same sign as unlucky, but the sian)," Hastings's Encyclopedia of observances prescribed relate to all Religion and Ethics, iii, 129; idem, five days. Plutarch (pp. cit., 12) "Divination (Persian)," ibid., iv, refers to the third day, that of Set 819. or Tryphon, as inauspicious for 3 F. Justi, Geschichte des alien Egyptian kings, who did no busi- Persiens, Berlin, 1879, p. 79. UNLUCKY DAYS 283 not appear to have been marked by any special observ- ances. 1 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, popu- larly 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 deli- cate 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. 2 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 "un- lucky." Both may involve ideas of contagion, the sanctity or pollution attaching to the one being con- ceived as scarcely less transmissible than the vaguer "unluckiness" which belongs to certain periods and affects everything done during their continuance. 1 F. Macler, "Calendar (Ar- the American Academy of Arts and menian)," Hastings's Encyclopedia Sciences, 1873, viii, 348-364; "Ca- of Religion and Ethics, iii, 70. lendrier republicain," La grande 2 J. Levering, in Proceedings of encyclopedie, viii, 908-910. 284 REST DAYS How some of the so-called unlucky days, still linger- ing 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 south- eastern 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 re- frain from washing clothes. 1 In various parts of Greece and the ^Egean 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. 2 In Cos on the first three days of August the women do no work (for it would not pros- per) 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. 3 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 wash- ing 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." 4 Abbott, op. cit., pp. 21, 63. 3 W. H. D. Rouse, "Folklore The Macedonians observe the same from the Southern Sporades," Folk- restrictions on the Wednesdays lore, 1899, x, 179. and Fridays of these two months. 4 J. C. Lawson, Modern Greek 2 Miss Mary Hamilton, Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, Saints and their Festivals, Edin- Cambridge, 1910, pp. 152 sq. burgh, 1910, pp. 187 sq. UNLUCKY DAYS 285 11 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 origi- nally 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 (S/avaSes) 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 unfavour- able. 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." 1 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 sacri- fice might still be used for the inauguration of agri- cultural labour. On the other hand, there are certain days, indicated in the calendars, when all activity ceases, except the entertainment of relatives and indis- 1 J. S. Polack, Manners and Customs of the New Ze dander s t London, 1840, i, 256. 286 REST DAYS pensable 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 calen- dar, which was used to determine the lucky and un- lucky 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. 1 The Mohammedan Malays of the Malay Peninsula possess a number of divinatory calendars, one specify- ing seven unlucky days in every month, a second, twelve other most inauspicuous days in every year, while a third gives all the days of the year classified under the heads lucky, somewhat unlucky, most un- lucky, and neutral. 2 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. 3 Furthermore, the first, fifth, and ninth months are considered unfavourable by the Chinese, who will not marry or change houses during 1 J. Winkler, " Der Kalender der In China there is also the state Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra," Zeit- almanac, which is annually pre- schrift fur Ethnologic, 1913, xlv, pared at Pekin under the direction 436-447. Among the Batta of a bureau attached to the Board dwelling inland from the Bay of of Rites. By making it a penal Tapanuli the priest or magician, offence to issue a counterfeit or whose duty it is to announce pro- pirated edition of this almanac, the pitious days, is a most important government astrologers have mo- functionary in every village. The nopolized the management of the people "will not engage in any superstitions of the people in undertaking, however trifling, or regard to the fortunate or unfortu- make the smallest alteration in nate conjunction of each day and their domestic economy, without hour. "No one ventures to be first consulting him" (Burton and without an almanac, lest he be Ward, in Memoirs o/ the Royal liable to the greatest misfortunes, Asiatic Society, 1827, i, 500). and run the imminent hazard of 2 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, undertaking important events on London, 1900, p. 549. black-balled days" (S. W. Williams, ^ N. B. Dennys, The Folk-lore of The Middle Kingdom? New York, China, London, 1876, pp. 30 sq. 1883, ii, 79 sq.). UNLUCKY DAYS 287 these months. 1 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. 2 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. 3 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 under- taken 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. 4 The Tibetans are great astrologers. In every monas- tery 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 1 H. A. Giles, A Glossary of Ref- 3 E. Kaempfer, History of Japan, erences on Subjects connected with ii, 22 (Glasgow reprint, 1906). the Far East, 3 Shanghai, 1900, 4 A. Lloyd, " Death and Disposal p. 183. of the Dead (Japanese)," Hastings' s 2 W. E. Griffis, Corea, the Hermit Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Nation? New York, 1889, p. 298. iv, 486 n. 1 288 REST DAYS 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 veloc- ity ; 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 favour- able 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. 1 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 anthropo- logical 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 1 E. Schlaginweit, Buddhism in Tibet, Leipzig and London, 1863, pp. 293 sqq. UNLUCKY DAYS 289 restricted from following many of their ordinary occu- pations, 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." 1 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. 2 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 pur- chases 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 vil- lage 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 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas y 2 Ibid., pp. 405 sq. London, 1906, p. 405. u 2 9 o REST DAYS 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 hap- pened 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." * 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. 2 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 pre- scribing what might and what might not be done would then be only an elaboration of the common supersti- 1 Rivers, Todas, p. 407. 2 Ibid., p. 408. UNLUCKY DAYS 291 tion 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, 1 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 ex- plained 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 espe- cially 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." 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 Chris- 1 See ibid., p. 411, for a refer- nal of Anthropology, 1870, i, 33 sq.) ence to certain restrictions which expressly attributes this supersti- may have arisen out of a belief in tion to the Toda. unlucky days. W. R. King (Jour- 2 Rivers, Todas, pp. 410 sq. 292 REST DAYS tians 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. 1 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 activ- ities 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." 2 The fact that the Toda employ the seven-day week, which must be entirely a borrowed institution with them, suggests, however, that the prohi- bitions attaching to certain days of that week were ultimately derived from foreign sources. 3 1 Rivers, Todas, pp. 459, 695 sqq., fasts and festivals, though under 710 sq. Indian names and with Indian 2 Ibid., pp. 411 sq. features superadded. Their habit 3 These Toda taboos suggest at of observing Saturday as a Sab- once the Jewish Sabbatarian regu- bath and of giving their oxen rest lations and the methods of evading from the oil-mills on that day has or mitigating them devised by the gained for them among their rabbis (above, p. 264). Until the Hindu neighbours the name of "the present day the Bene-Israel, a body Saturday oil-men " (J. H. Lord, of Jews domiciled for many cen- "Bene-Israel," Hastings's Encyclo~ turies in the Bombay Presidency, pezdia of Religion and Ethics, ii, have preserved the old Hebrew 470 sq.). UNLUCKY DAYS 293 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 con- version 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 inter- course. 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. 1 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. 2 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 Kam 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 1 The week of seven days, with cutta, 1880, p. 93 ; G. W. Leitner, names derived from the Sanskrit, The Hunza and Nagyr Hand- appears to have been introduced book, 2 Woking, 1893, p. 16. by the Shins into Dardistan and 2 H. Roskoschny, Afghanistan western Kashmir. See J. Biddulf, und seine Nachbarldnder, Leipzig, Tribes of the Hindoo-Koosh, Cal- 1885, i, 174. 294 REST DAYS is possible that the agar was originally considered an unlucky day." l 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 termfady (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 trans- missible to beings and actions. 2 By the Hova, a people of remote, perhaps prehistoric, Malay origin, now occu- pying 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 char- acter, 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. 3 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 1 Sir G. S. Robertson, The Masikoro, an inland branch of the Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, London, Sakalava tribe. Many Vezo (coast 1896, pp. 579 sq. Sakalava) families continue to ex- 2 A. van Gennep, Tabou et pose a child born on an unlucky totemisme a Madagascar, Paris, day, but it is afterwards rescued 1904, p. 199. The Malagasy be- and brought up by the relatives as lief in lucky and unlucky days, as their own. "Such a child is, determined by the moon stations however, looked upon with some (above, p. 275), appears to be a suspicion as to what will be its direct importation from the Arabs character, because of its having superimposed on an earlier and been born on an unlucky day. It thoroughly native observance of is thought that it may bring some tabooed seasons. The Malagasy calamity upon the family, or may have also taken over from Islam itself be miserable or unfortunate the week of seven days (above, in one way or another, when grown p. 197). up. It is a very common opinion 3 J. Sibree, "Malagasy Folk- that bad conduct is only the result lore and Popular Superstitions,'* of being born on an unlucky day" Folk-lore Record, 1879, ii, 30-33. (A. Walen, in Antananarivo Annual, The custom still exists among the 1883, no. 7, pp. 51 sq.). UNLUCKY DAYS 295 when the month comes in, there he remains." 1 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. 2 The Sakalava likewise abstain from all business and remain strictly in seclusion on their unlucky days, which belong both to families and to individuals. 3 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. 4 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 dif- ferent months, while each day is itself divided into three parts, lucky, unlucky, and neutral. Neither calendar contains mention of the five epagomenal days. 5 1 J. Sibree, loc. cit. 4 A. van Gennep, op. cit., pp. 2 A. van Gennep, op. cit., p. 203 ; 202 sq. Antananarivo Annual, 1891, no. 15, 5 The two manuscripts (both in pp. 302 sq. the British Museum) have been 3 V. Noel, in Bulletin de la edited, respectively, by F. L. Grif- fociete de geographie, 1843, second fith (Hieratic Papyri from Kahun series, xx, 71. and Gurob, London, 1898, pi. 25 296 REST DAYS The third and best-known of these Egyptian calen- dars is the Papyrus Saltier IV, which in its present form belongs to about 1200 B.C. but is based on much earlier documents. 1 Parts of the manuscript at the beginning and end have been lost, so that it now con- tains 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 influ- ence. 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 ac- cording to the order of the Egyptian months. 2 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 text, p. 62 ; and E. A. W. Budge, and Wreszinski (loc. cit.) translates Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic directly from the Egyptian text. Papyri, London, 1911, pis. 31-32). For discussions of this important See further W. Wreszinski, "Tage- document see Sir G. Maspero, wahlerei im alten Agypten," Archiv Etudes egyptiennes, Paris, 1886, i, fur Religionswissenschaft, 1913, xvi, 29 sq.j idem, Les conies populaires 86-100. de I'Egypte ancienne, 3 Paris, 1905, 1 The text was published in pp. xlix-lii ; idem, New Light on Select Papyri in the Hieratic Char- Ancient Egypt, 2 London, 1909, acter, London, 1844, pt. i, pis. 144- pp. 128-136; A. Erman, Life in F. J. jour egyp tienne, Chalon-s.-S., 1870). The London, 1897, pp. 263 sqq.; E. A. ps. 144- 168, and was translated by F. J. Ancient Egypt, London, 1894, Chabas (Le calendrier des jours pp. 351 sq.; A. Wiedemann, The jastes et nefastes de I'annee egyp- Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, work of Chabas was masterly, W. Budge, Egyptian Magic, 2 Lon- but it has now become antiquated don, 1901, pp. 224 sqq.; G. Fou- by the progress of Egyptology. F. cart, "Calendar (Egyptian)," Hast- Bohn (Der Sabbat im Alten Testa- ings's Encyclopedia of Religion and ment, Giitersloh, 1903, pp. 57-62) Ethics, iii, 100 sq. gives a revised and corrected ver- 2 W. Wreszinski, in Archiv fur sion of numerous passages, based Religionswissenschaft, 1913, xvi, on the studies of Professor Sethe, 89 sqq. UNLUCKY DAYS 297 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 pro- hibitions 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 re- lating 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. 1 The Babylonian augural calendar for the interca- lated 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 unfavour- able 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 follow- ing day. Not content with a simple distinction of 1 Chabas, op. cit. t p. 28; Wreszinski, in Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, 1913, xvi, 92 sq. 298 REST DAYS favourableness and unfavourableness, the calendar also deals with days "wholly favourable" and "half favourable." Still other days are noted as those por- tending "distress," "trouble," "tears," "injury," "darkness," "moon obscured," and the like. The pre- cautions 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. 1 The Greeks of Hesiod's time possessed an elaborate calendar of lucky and unlucky days. 2 "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. 3 Hesiod does 1 Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscrip- tains the injunction that on the tions of Western Asia, v, pis. 48, 49; fifth day of Nisan "he who fears Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Marduk or Sarpanit shall not go Assyria, pp. 379 sqq., Bohn, Der out to work/' On the Babylonian Sabbat im Alien Testament, pp. 55 nubattu see above, p. 241 n. 1 sqq. A Babylonian tablet (K. 98), 2 Opera et dies, 765-828. On the published by Professor Sayce Hesiodic calendar see E. E. Sikes, (Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, 1887, "Folk-lore in the Works and Days "> 333~335)> gives a list of days on of Hesiod," Classical Review, 1893, which it was fortunate to undertake vii, 389-394, and the Addenda to such operations as "staking the Professor A. W. Mair's admirable canal," "thinning the plantation," version of Hesiod, Oxford, 1908, pp. and "sinking the foundations of a 162-166. For a full analysis of the house." Still another text, pub- calendar see A. Mommsen, Chrono- lished by Dr. Stephen Langdon logie, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-46. {Expository 1909, xxii, 156), con- 3 Opera et dies, 724-764. UNLUCKY DAYS 299 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 some- what 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 charac- ter, working for good or evil. The middle ninth (the nineteenth) is said to be "a better day toward after- noon." 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." 1 The Hesiodic injunc- tions did not cease to be observed in the later classical epoch and exercised great influence on civil and polit- ical 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. 2 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 JEgypiiaci. The prohibitions marking them not to build a house, .y 810, 820, 802 sqq.y 770. intimate knowledge of the farmer's 2 The Vergilian calendar (Geor- life, incorporated in his catalogue gica,y i, 276 sqq.) is obviously an of lucky and unlucky days some or imitation of Hesiod's, but it may the peasant lore of ancient Italy. be presumed that Vergil, with his 300 REST DAYS not to buy or sell, not to cut hair, beard, and nails, and so on possessed, however, no character specifi- cally Egyptian. The mediaeval 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. 1 About this period the superstition gained admittance to the state calendars. In the fasti Philocali (354 A.D.), twenty-five dies JEgyp- tiaci are reckoned, two in each month except January, which contains three. 2 A mediaeval French manuscript, dating from the reign of St. Louis, includes twenty- four such days, but another manuscript, of the four- teenth 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. 3 In the seventeenth century J. B. Thiers, the learned cure 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. 4 Anglo-Saxon calen- 1 Augustine, In comm. ad Pauliep. In quibus una solet mortalibus hora ad Galatas, 4; Ambrose, Epist. i, timeri. 23 ; compare Marinus, Vita Prodi* IQ. , T A /r i i /-. i i r ^ Corpus inscriptionum Latina- .' L ; Mola P "Calendner fran- rum, i, pt. i, 256, 297, with T. ?ais d u treizl eme siecle, Revue Mommsen's commentary. The ^cheologique, 1862, n.s., v, 103 anonymous author of the Versus de s ^' . T - diebus Agyptiacis (Poeta latini . J' ?' Jhiers, Traite des super- minores, ed. A. Baehrens, v, 354- *ons>* Pans, I74\i> W sq. 356) reduces their number to S /, e , fu her , K , a /! Meyer, Der twenty-four- Aberglaube des Mittelalters, Basel, 1884, p. 210; Du Cange, Glos* Bis deni binique dies scribuntur in sarium medics et infima latinitatis, anno, ed. Favre, iii, 106 sq. UNLUCKY DAYS 301 dars 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 malevo- lence, 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. 1 1 Chambers's Book of Days, i, 42. Unlucky" (Miscellanies upon Vari- See also O. Cockayne, Leechdoms, ous Subjects , London, 1784, pp. 3- Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early 36). Some rules concerning "peril- Englandy London, 1866, iii, 150- ous days" are reprinted by Sir 197, and John Aubrey's quaint Lawrence Gomme from a fifteenth essay on "Day-fatality; or, Some century manuscript (Folk-lore, 1913, Observations of Days Lucky and xxiv, 121-123). 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 man- kind. They hinder individual initiative and tend to prevent the undertaking of lengthy enterprises which may be interrupted by the recurrence of an unfavour- able 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 char- acter 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." 1 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. 2 These remarks, by keen 1 Sir R. C. Temple, " Burma," Upper Burma see Gazetteer of in Hastings's Encyclopedia of Reli- Upper Burma and the Shan States, ion and Ethics, iii, 29; compare edited by Scott and Hardiman, hway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], The Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. ii, 48 sqq. Burman, his Life and Notions, 3 2 W. Crooke, Popular Religion London, 1910, pp. 383-389. On and Folk-lore of Northern India, 2 the unlucky days observed in Westminster, 1896, ii, 52 sq. 302 CONCLUSION 303 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 magi- cian, 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 ap- pointed by the priests. 1 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. 2 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 con- sume the precious planting time with elaborate cere- monials." 3 In modern China and Korea so many 1 D. Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities, cinas," Fifteenth Annual Report of Honolulu, 1903, p. 56. the Bureau of American Ethnology, 2 J. Dupuis, Journal of a Resi- Washington, 1897, p. 255. The dence in Ashantee, London, 1824, Hopi furnish one of the few in- 213 n*\ compare John Beecham, stances of compulsory rest days to Ashantee and the Gold Coast, Lon- be found among the American don, 1841, p. 188. Indians. They hold a mid-winter 3 J. W. Fewkes, "Tusayan Kat- festival, called the soydluna, at the 304 REST DAYS festivals in honour of deities are observed as holidays that they take the place, to a certain extent, of the Sabbath institution. 1 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 super- stition rendered useless about one-fifth of the year." 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. 3 In some city-states the festivals were more numerous : at Tarentum, in the days of its pros- perity, the people are said to have had more holidays than working days. 4 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. 5 We know on the evidence of Cicero that time of the winter solstice. " De- other festivals, both general and cember is regarded as a sacred local, are common occasions for month ; no work is performed in it, relaxation and merry-making (S. and few games are allowed. It is W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom? the month of the return of the sun New York, 1883, i, 809). and the gods, and bears the same 2 Maspero, New Light on Ancient name as July, in_ which they Egypt? p. 135. depart" (J. W. Fewkes, "The 3 G. F. Schoemann, Griechische Winter Solstice Ceremony at Alterthumer? edited by J. H. Walpi," American Anthropologist, Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, 1898, xi, 69). 458 sq.; compare Plato, Leges, ii, 1 J. H. Gray, China, London, 653; Thucydides, ii, 38. 1878, i, 249; W. E. Griffis, Corea, 4 Strabo, Geographica, vi, 3, 4. the Hermit Nation? New York, 5 This calculation assumes 109 1889, p. 295. According to one dies nefasti, 192 dies fasti et comi- account the shops in China are tiales, on which assemblies might shut and all business suspended meet, 43 dies fasti non comitiales, only on the first three days of the available for judicial business but year, though these and numerous not for meetings of the assemblies, CONCLUSION 305 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 Augus- tus the cutting-down of non-judicial days by thirty, "in order that crimes might not escape punishment or business be impeded by delay." l 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 ferite public ce on which the state expected the citizens to abstain, as far as possible, from their private business and labour. 2 But the number of rest days observed really reached a larger total, when we remember that, besides the extraordi- nary ferice, 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 at- tendant 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. 3 For the lower classes at Rome the gladiatorial combats, chariot- 8 dies intercisiy or days partly fasti by their rivals, ferial days being and partly nffasti, and 3 dies fissi included in the dies nefasti. (Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der 2 Above, pp. 94 sqq., 170. Romer y pp. 368 sq.). 3 L. Friedlander, Roman Life and 1 Cicero, In Verrem y \, 10; Sueto- Manners under the Early Empire, nius, Divus Augustus, 32. It has London, 1908, ii, II sq.; W. W. been already noticed (above, p. 97) Fowler, Social Life at Rome in the that Roman consuls sometimes Age of Cicero, New York, 1909, instituted extraordinary ferics for pp. 287 sqq. Though the ancients the purpose of blocking legislation were careful to distinguish the x 3 o6 REST DAYS 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." 1 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." 2 The Greek Church, as a cele- brated traveller and historian once pointed out, requires her followers to observe so many holy days "as practi- cally 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 ^ from the l-udi (compare that nearly all of them were con- Gellius, Nodes Attica^ ii, 24, 1 1 : verted into ludi. Diebus ludorumet ferns quibusdam), l Panem et circenses (Juvenal, yet in late republican and imperial x, 81). times the joyous aspects of the 2 W. J. Showalter, in National jerice had become so prominent Geographic Magazine, 1914, xxv, 493. CONCLUSION 307 mind, or exalt the taste." 1 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." 3 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 con- siderably in excess of one hundred, rising in some districts to one hundred and fifty, and in others reach- ing the amazing total of two hundred. 3 To what extremes the practice of abstaining from labour on holy days may extend is further illustrated in Abys- sinia, where the numerous fasts and feasts are so strictly kept as to render about six months of the year prohibited for any secular employments. 4 Human nature, it has been said, is always ready for the shift from fast to feast, from Sabbath to Saturnalia, y To the student of primitive religion and sociology noth- ing is more interesting than the contemplation of that unconscious though beneficent process which has con- verted 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 1 A.W. Kinglake, jEoMiftt, chap. v. Auswanderungspolitik in Osier- 2 W. F. Adeney, The Greek and reich, Leipzig, 1909, p. 56. Eastern Churches, New York, 1908, 4 W. C. Harris, The Highlands p. 433. of Ethiopia, New York [1843], 3 L. Caro, Auswanderung und p. 280. 3 o8 REST DAYS 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 Chris- tian year. This evolutionary movement, whether for weal or woe, at least provides a singularly instruc- tive illustration of the close relations between religion and social progress, which must ever impress the in- quirer into the early history of mankind. 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 Revolu- tionary 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. "A7tos, Greek term for taboo, 3 and n. 6 Aha, Hawaiian prayers, n, 12 and n?, 13- Ahanta of the Gold Coast, 190 and w. 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. Ailia, 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. Anita, ancestral spirits of the Bontoc Igorot, 48 n? Anoiila, the Nicobarese term for rest day, 40, 165. Anthesteria, Athenian festival of the, 79 sq., 88. Antu, Bornean spirits, 35 n? Apis, sacred Egyptian bull, 129 .* Apollo, 169, 211 and n. 4 , 212 n. 1 , 299. ' A7ro0/xi5es yptpcu, Greek unlucky days, 79 sq., 84, 92 sq., 139 and n*, 140. Arabs, lunar superstitions of the, 126, 139, 248; calendar of the, 175, 179 n. 1 , 182 .', 226 sq. ; their pref- erence 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. 'AfrAiPoi, the Athenian, 139 and n. 8 Ashanti, 303. Assam, 49 sqq., 53 sqq., 65 sq., 89, 106, 233*7- Asshurbanipal, Assyrian king, 223, 238. Astrology, 191 n. 1 , 194 sq., 197 w. 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, 35- Aurelius, Marcus, 305. 309 310 INDEX 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?, 228; cult of seven among the, 212 sqq., 225, 229 sqq. ; the seven planets and planetary deities of the, 213 sqq. ; their divi- sion 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 ob- served by the, 239 sq. ; their un- lucky 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?, 179. Bathing prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, I, 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 , ill, 112 and n. 1 , 182, 187 n. 1 Bhaskara Saptami, Hindu festival of, 153 s SOS- 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, 1 14 and n? 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?, 258 sq.', primitive ideas of, 62 sq. Debel, N. H., 196 n. 1 Decade, the, 188 sqq., 198, 245, 281 n. J 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. t 40 sqq., 48, 49 n. 1 , 51; expulsion of, 22, 40 sqq., 56, 74 sqq., 278. Dendera, temple of, 168. 3 I2 INDEX Dew, the moon believed to be the source of, 131 and n? Diana, 130. Dichomenia, the Greek full-moon day, 170 and n? y 184 and n. 6 Dieri of South Australia, 180. Dies JEgyptiaci, 299 sqq. Alliensis, 245, 273. airi. See Dies religiosi. dominica, the Lord's Day, 220 sq., 267. feriati. See Feruc. nefasti, 80 w. 2 , 304 sq. postriduani, 170 sq. religiosi, Roman unlucky days, 80 and, n.\ 81, 84, 93 sq., 94 n?, 170 sq., 171 n\ 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 plane- tary week, 216 sqq. ; on the Hebrew Sabbath, 245. Dionysus, 79, 88, 266. Diulasu, the, n6n. 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 con- nection with, 42, 43, 50, 60, 69, 99 ^., 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, in. Egungun, a Slave Coast deity, 77. " Egyptian days." See Dies JEgyptiaci. Egyptians, superstitions of the, relating to the moon, 129 and n. 6 ; their lunar festivals, 166 sqq. ; solar year of the, 1 66, 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?', astrological cycles of the, 191 n. 1 , 194 sq. ; the division of the nycthe- meron 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? Ellis, William, 10 n? Elmore, W. T., 90 n. 1 Elpanam, the men's house in the Nicobar Islands, 40 and n. z , 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 w. 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. Fakily a Bontoc Igorot festival, 48. Fandroana, a Malagasy festival, 76. INDEX Farming, restrictions on, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 16 sq., 17 n.\ 21, 23, 27 sqq., 37, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47 sq., 49 J?., 54 55, 57 sq., 64, 65, 67, 68 sqq., 89, 96, 98, 103, 109, 110, 113, 137, 144, 148 sq., 159 n.\ 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, I, 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 J0., 278, 285, 298. Fasti Philocali, the, 123 n. 3 , 300. Sabini, the, 219. Feast of Weeks, Hebrew, 90, 225 w. 2 , 251. Fe'e, Samoan war-god, 19 sq. Feralis, Roman festival of the, 81 n. 1 Ferue, the Roman, 94 sqq., 122 sq., 170, 221 n. 2 , 264 /., 305 and n? denicales, 95 and n? imperatives, 98 sqq. sementivce, 96 anJ n. 1 Festivals, Polynesian, 1 1 sqq. ; Bornean, 30 /?., 37 sq. ; in the Nicobar Is- lands, 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 j^.; ancient Greek, 79 sq., 88, 91 jgg., 133 n. 6 , 169 J0., 211, 304; ancient Roman, 80 sq., 93 ^qq., I21 -W I 7> 304 j 55> 209, 285, 299, 300. Hova of Madagascar, 132 sq., 294. Hrilh, the Lushei term for taboo, 55. Hua, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88. INDEX 315 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, in 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 accom- plished by the moon, 127 sqq. Inachi, the Tonga ceremony of first- fruits, 1 8 and n. 2 , 93. Inclusive reckoning, practice of, 1 19 n. 1 , 120 n. 2 , 267 n. 6 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 upa- vasatha, 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, 21 1 ; the lunar mansions in, 275; the Twelve Days in, 276 sq.; un- lucky 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 ob- served in, 287. Jastrow, Morris, on the observance of the seventh day in Babylonia, 232 n. 4 ; on the meaning of shabbdt hon, 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 Baby- lonian unlucky days, 298. Java, 104, 105 and n.\ 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? Jeremiah, 262. Jericho, 255 n. 1 Jesus, words of, relating to the ob- servance of the Sabbath, 269. Jews, taboos after a death observed by the, 74; celebration of New Year's Day by the, 82 ; their super- stitions relating to the moon, 126 and . 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. 1 Jum'a, al, the Mohammedan Sabbath, 107 n. 2 , in n. 3 , 115, 116 sq., 197, 199, 201, 204 sqq., 262 n. 2 Juno, 130, 170. Jupiter, the Roman nundincs conse- crated 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. INDEX 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, no 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*, 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? Koita of British New Guinea, 26 and n? 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. Kwnara, the, 16 sq., 17 n. 1 Kwakiutl of British Columbia, cere- monial cannibalism among the, 71 n.* Labour, remission of, during a tabooed or unlucky period. See Rest days. Laliy a Kayan term for taboo, 27 and n? 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* 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, 8 1 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. 6 Lithuanians, the, 222. Loango, market days kept in, 109 sq. ; the thirteenth month considered un- lucky 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, 1 1 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. INDEX 317 Macassar, 205. 'Macedonia, unlucky days observed in, 222 n. 3 , 272, 278. Madagascar, 3, 70, 76, 107 n.\ 132 sq., 197, 275 and n* Madnol, the Toda, 289 sqq. Madras Presidency, the, 66 sq., 88, 89, 132, 134, 149, 2S8sqq. 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; character- istic 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, Colom- bia, and Peru, 118 sqq. ; in ancient Rome, 120 sqq. ; restrictions attend- ing, not connected with lunar super- stitions, 148. weeks, length of, 117 sq. ; origin of, 1 1 8, 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?, 273 n. 8 , 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? 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 Kay an 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, 1 1 8, 119 and n. 1 ; calendar of the, 174, 186 and n 2 , 279 sq. ; unlucky days of the, 280; saints' days ob- served 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. 6 Mishna, the, 263 sq. INDEX Missionaries, observance of Sunday introduced by, 10 and w. 3 , 73 n. 2 , 75, 188 n. 1 , 209, 210, 295. Mithra, a Persian deity, 202, 220 and n? Mohammed, 175, 206. Molucca Islands, the, 64 and. n? Mommsen, Theodor, on the Roman nundinum, 193 n? Monday, an unlucky day in Germany, 127 and n. s ; 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 ob- served 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 in- fluence 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.; doc- trine of lunar sympathy, 131 sqq. ; superstitions relating to the inter- lunium, 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 ob- served 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; impor- tance 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. 9 Mpongwe of French Equatorial Africa, their conception of taboo, 3. Mro, the, 55. Muhso (Lalu), the, 57, 194 n. 9 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. 9 Naga of Manipur, tabooed days ob- served by the, 49 sqq. 9 65 sq., 134, 234. Nail-paring, superstitions relating to, 91 n.*, 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. Nemontemiy 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 *- 1 , 179, 1 80, 181 n. 7 , 184 sq., 1 86, 187, 226 sqq., 238 sqq., 246, 248 sqq., 253, 254, 255 sq., 260. New Year's festival, Hawaiian, 13 and INDEX 319 n. 8 , 88; Maori, 17 . 2 ; Fijian, 22 and n?, 23 w. 1 ; Kayan, 31; Balinese, 42 j. ; Muhso, 57; Hebrew, 82, 235 * 256; Babylonian, 276 n. 2 Ngoma, Akikuyu ancestral spirits, 6. Nias, island of, 43, 181, 183. Nicobar Islands, the, 40 sq. y 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 , in sg., 182, 187 w. 1 Nine as a symbolic number, 120 n. a Nineteenth day of the month, ob- servance of the, in Babylonia, 224 and n*, 232 n. 9 , 235 n. 1 , 257 sq. Niu, casting the, a Maori method of divination, 17. Noa, 14. Nones, the, 120 n. 2 , 170, 171, 185 an S3. 56, 58 J?., 64, 65, 69 w. 2 , 71, 74, 78, 115 - 4 > I47> 232 sq., 257, 280, 295, 296, 297. See also Strangers, exclusion of. Secret societies, in Fiji, 23 and n.\ 24 ; in west Africa, 77 sq., in. Selene, 130, 139 sq. Seligmann, C. G., 26 n. 9 , 101 n. 1 Seminoles of Florida, 71. Sepi, the Balinese term for rest day, 42. Sequani of Gaul, 186 w. 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, 1 80; in New Zealand, 188 n. 1 ; in Indo-China, 189; unknown to the Egyptians, 191 n. 1 , 245 sq. ; Abyssin- ian, 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 w. 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?, 299. Sexual intercourse, prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, 10, 15, 39 and n?, 58, no, 134, 146, 151, 152, ISS 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. Shabbdth, original meaning of the Hebrew term, 251, 252, 253 ; used in the general sense of "week," 253 n. 2 shabbdtkon, the Hebrew, 81 and n. 3 , 82, 251, 260. Shabbdthon, the Hebrew, 235 and n? 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 mourn- ing after a death, 74. Shropshire, 279. Siam, tabooed days observed in, 66; market days kept in, 105, 194 n. z , the Buddhist Sabbath in, 161 sq. ; bipartite division of the month em- ployed 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, I, 9 sq., II, 12 and n?, 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? Slave Coast of west Africa, 77 sq., 112, 113 sq., 187. Slavic peoples, names of the weekdays among, 222. Smith, H. P., 249 n? Smith, W. R., 4 n., 86 n.\ 252. Society Islands, the, 9, 15 sq., 181 n. 7 Safalese of Portuguese East Africa, 190 and n? 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. Soydluna, a Hopi Indian festival, 303 n 3 Spartans, religious scruples of the, 133 n. 3 INDEX 323 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, I, 20, 24, 27, 29 sq., 35, 36, 37, 39 n.\ 42 sq., 44, 45 sq., 49 n. 1 , So, 55, 56, 57 * I55 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 w. 8 , 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? ; 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. t 161 n. 1 Ucharal, a festival celebrated in Mala- bar, 89. Uganda, 69 sq., 75 sq., 129, 145 sqq. t ~ H7 n * Um nukh libbi, 236, 241. Union Islands, the, 20 sq. United States, the, lunar superstitions in, 127, 140 n? Unleavened Bread, Hebrew Feast of, I79W. 1 , 250, 251. Unlucky days, of the ancient Greeks, 79 and n. 3 , 80 and n. 1 , 84, 92 sq., 139 and n.*, 140; of the ancient Romans, 80 sq., 84, 93 sq., 170 sq., 273 ; African, in n. 3 , 190 n 2 , 190 n. 3 , 272 ; German, 127, 278 sq. ; in Ceylon, 159 n. 1 ; in the Malay Peninsula, 162 w. 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 be- liefs in, 272, 274, 276, 283; Mace- donian, 272, 273 n. 3 , 278, 284 and n. 1 ; mediaeval superstitions concern- ing, 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. ; Tibe- tan, 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 south- eastern 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. t 93 sq. Vey of Liberia, 199 . 5 Victoria, 1 80. Village gods, Samoan, 19 and n. 1 , 20. Fishaptatha, 166 n. Vishnu Pur ana, 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?, 189 sq., 209. Wahuma. See Bahima. INDEX 325 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 . Weekdays, names of the, in Java, 105 ; in Africa, 109, in, 112, 113 ft. 6 , 115 ft. 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, no, 119 and n. 3 ; four-day, 105, 106 sq., 108, 109 sq., ill sq., 114 and n. 2 , 116 n. 1 , 119 ft. 3 ; five- day, 103, 104, 105 sq., 108, no, 112 ft. 1 , 113 and n. 6 , 114 and n?, 116 ft. 1 , 118 sq., 165 n. 1 , 187 and n?, 194 sqq. ; six-day, 114 and ft. 2 , 115 ft., 116 n. 1 , 194; seven-day, 104 and n. 4 , 105, 115 sqq., I2O n. 1 , 122, 1 80, 187 and . 2 , 189, 194 n. 1 , 196 sq., 197 sqq., 199 ft. 6 , 215 sqq., 224 sq., 227 J??., 253 sqq., 267; eight-day, 106, 109, no, in, 112 n. 1 , 119 n. 3 , 120 j-00., 193 sq. ; nine-day, 116 ft. 1 , 192, 193 and tt. 2 ; ten-day, no, 119 sq., 1 88 j^. See also Lunar weeks aw