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Title: Rest days
A study in early law and morality
Author: Hutton Webster
Release date: August 6, 2026 [eBook #79292]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: Macmillan and Co., 1916
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79292
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REST DAYS
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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TORONTO
REST DAYS
_A Study in Early Law and Morality_
BY
HUTTON WEBSTER, PH.D.
PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
AUTHOR OF “PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES”
“The study of their own species is doubtless the most interesting
and important that can claim the attention of mankind; and this
science, like all others, it is impossible to improve by abstract
speculation, merely. A regular series of authenticated facts is
what alone can enable us to rise towards a perfect knowledge in
it.”—WILLIAM MARSDEN, _The History of Sumatra_, London, 1811,
Preface.
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1916
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1916,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and printed. Published May, 1916.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
To MY WIFE
PREFACE
What perhaps might be described as the first edition of this work
appeared in 1911 in the _University Studies_ of the University of
Nebraska. The title of the original monograph has been retained for
the present volume, in which the same line of argument is followed and
the same conclusions are reached. After a lapse of nearly five years I
have not felt the necessity of modifying, to any essential degree, the
results of the earlier investigation. The book, then, differs from its
predecessor chiefly in providing a more extensive collection of the
relevant data.
Although much has been written on the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian
Sunday, and on the assumed Babylonian prototype of these institutions,
little inquiry has hitherto been made into the rest days so commonly
observed outside the Semitic area in antiquity and later ages. The
principal reason for this neglect of the comparative aspects of the
subject must doubtless be found in the still imperfect appreciation of
the fact that the great institutions of modern civilization have their
roots in the beliefs and customs, and often in the superstitions, of
savage and barbarian society. It will be the task of social anthropology,
by an impressive accumulation of evidence, to make this truth a
commonplace of popular knowledge.
Among the friends and correspondents who have aided me by criticisms
and suggestions I wish particularly to mention Dr. Crawford H. Toy, now
Professor Emeritus in Harvard University, and Dr. Louis H. Gray, now
Assistant Editor of Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.
Mr. G. D. Swezey, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Nebraska,
was good enough to help me in some troublesome details relating to the
calendar. The late Walter Kendall Jewett, formerly University Librarian,
and the kindest and most genial of men, put at my disposal many books
which otherwise would have been difficult of access. To my honoured
colleague, Professor George Elliott Howard, I owe the inspiration,
reaching back to undergraduate days, which comes from association with
one whose devotion to scholarly ideals is matched only by his enthusiasm
for social service. Finally, I must acknowledge my obligation to
Chancellor Samuel Avery, whose interest in the book has made possible its
publication at this time.
HUTTON WEBSTER.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, February, 1916.
ERRATA
Page 80, note 2, _read_: p. 156; Macrobius, _Satur-_
Page 92, note, _read_: αὖον ἀπὸ χλωροῦ τάμνειν αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ
Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Observance of days of abstinence and quiescence not unknown in the
lower culture, p. 1.—Probable origin of the sabbatarian regulations
in primitive taboos, pp. 1, 2.—_Tabu_ in Polynesia and equivalent
customs in other parts of the world, pp. 2, 3.—Classification of
taboos, p. 4.—Characteristics of taboos, pp. 4, 5.—Their animistic
sanctions, pp. 5, 6.—Reasons for imposing taboos which necessitate
abstinence and quiescence, pp. 6, 7.—Connection of communal taboos
with those observed by individuals, p. 7.
CHAPTER I
TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS
The institution of taboo in the Hawaiian Islands, pp. 8,
9.—Observance there of tabooed days, pp. 9, 10.—Likeness between
the Hawaiian Sabbaths and the sabbatarian regulations introduced by
missionaries, p. 10.—Communal taboos imposed when a chief temple
was consecrated, pp. 11-13; at the time of the celebration of the
New Year’s festival, p. 13; and in connection with the taking of
certain fish, p. 14.—The four regular _tabu_ periods in the Hawaiian
month, pp. 14, 15.—Tabooed days observed in the Society Islands,
the Marquesas Islands, and New Zealand, pp. 15-17.—In the Tonga
Islands a period of taboo imposed at the time of the first-fruits’
sacrifice, pp. 18, 19.—Days kept sacred to certain gods in Samoa and
other parts of Polynesia, pp. 19-21.—Tabooed days of the Fijians,
pp. 21-24.—Other instances of communal rest days in Polynesia,
pp. 24, 25.—General significance of the Polynesian evidence, p.
25.—Tabooed days not unknown in New Guinea, p. 26.—Tabooed days in
Borneo, pp. 26, 27.—Those observed by the Kayan of Sarawak and Dutch
Borneo, pp. 27-33; by the Iban or Sea Dyak, pp. 33-35; and by the
Land Dyak, pp. 36, 37.—General significance of the Bornean evidence,
pp. 37-39.—Observance of seasons of communal repose confined to the
Indonesian population of Borneo, pp. 39, 40.—Tabooed days in the
Nicobar Islands, pp. 40, 41; in Bali and Nias, pp. 41-43; in the
Mentawi Islands, pp. 43, 44; in Formosa, p. 44; and in the Philippine
Archipelago, pp. 44-49.—The _genna_ among the Naga tribes of Manipur,
pp. 49-53.—_Genna_ customs among other peoples of Assam, pp.
53-55.—Customs allied to the _genna_ in Burma, pp. 55-58.—Indo-China
probably the centre of diffusion of the _genna_, p. 58.—Resemblance
of communal rest days to the practice of the _couvade_, pp. 58,
59.—Psychological and sociological aspects of these communal
regulations, pp. 59, 60.—Days of abstinence and quiescence mark
crises in the community life, pp. 60, 61.
CHAPTER II
TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS
Prohibition of work and other forms of activity a common regulation
following a death, p. 62.—The animistic explanation of this taboo,
pp. 62, 63.—Belief in the pollution of death, p. 63.—Many instances
of communal taboos imposing abstinence and quiescence to be found
among semi-civilized peoples in various parts of the world: in the
East Indian Archipelago, pp. 63, 64; among the tribes of Borneo, p.
65; in Assam, pp. 65, 66; in India and Tibet, pp. 66, 67; throughout
Africa, pp. 67-70; in Madagascar, p. 70; in North America, especially
among the Eskimo, pp. 70-73; and among some Siberian tribes, pp.
73, 74.—Survivals of such taboos in the funeral observances of
civilized peoples, p. 74.—Similar regulations imposed in connection
with feasts of the dead and ceremonies of demon-expulsion, pp. 74,
75.—The evidence from Africa, pp. 75-78.—Unlucky days observed by
the Athenians in connection with the festivals of the Genesia and
the Anthesteria, pp. 79, 80.—Unlucky days observed by the Romans in
connection with the festivals of the Parentalia and the Lemuria,
pp. 80, 81.—The Hebrew Day of Atonement, pp. 81-83.—The Feast of
Sacrifices in Islam, p. 83.—World-wide diffusion of the custom of
observing tabooed days after a death and on related occasions, p. 84.
CHAPTER III
HOLY DAYS
Characteristics of religious festivals, p. 85.—Festival times often
marked by cessation of labour, pp. 85, 86.—Origin of the conception
of a “holy” day, pp. 86, 87.—Consecration of holy days to particular
divinities, pp. 87, 88.—Connection between tabooed days and holy
days, p. 88.—The taboo element in the festivals observed by Dravidian
peoples of India, pp. 88-90.—The Hebrew Day of First-fruits, pp. 90,
91.—Greek holy days, p. 91.—The Athenian Plynteria, pp. 92, 93.—The
Roman Vestalia, pp. 93, 94.—Ferial days of the Romans as tabooed
days, pp. 94-100.
CHAPTER IV
MARKET DAYS
The observance of periodic rest days confined to agricultural
peoples, pp. 101, 102.—Connection of these days with the institution
of the market, pp. 102, 103.—The evidence for market weeks and market
days in various parts of the world: in New Guinea and Melanesia, pp.
103, 104; in Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula, pp.
104, 105; in Tonkin, Siam, and Assam, pp. 105, 106; throughout the
central parts of Africa, pp. 106-108; among the Congo negroes, pp.
109, 110; and among the Guinea negroes, pp. 110-117.—Origin of the
market week in Africa, pp. 117, 118.—Sabbatarian features of the west
African market day, p. 118.—Market weeks and market days in ancient
Mexico and Peru, pp. 118-120.—The Roman nundinal day, pp. 120-123.
CHAPTER V
LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS
Great importance assigned to the moon by primitive peoples, pp. 124,
125.—The lunar rays often believed to be deleterious to both children
and adults, pp. 125-127.—The moon supposed to cause menstruation and
impregnation, pp. 127-130.—Influence of the moon on the tides, p.
130.—Belief that the moon affects the growth of vegetation, pp. 130,
131.—Doctrine of lunar sympathy, p. 131.—The waxing moon commonly
regarded as favourable, the waning moon as unfavourable, for business
of various sorts, pp. 131-134.—Lunar eclipses sometimes marked by a
general suspension of activity, pp. 134, 135.—The _interlunium_ often
observed by a cessation of labour, pp. 136-140.—Ceremonies performed
at new moon, pp. 140-142.—Seasons of abstinence and restriction at
new moon and full moon, p. 143.—Tabooed days in connection with
the lunar changes found among the Bantu peoples of Africa, pp.
144-148.—Lunar taboos in modern India, pp. 148, 149.—The _upavasatha_
of the Aryans of ancient India, pp. 149-151.—Sabbatarian observance
of lunar days in post-Vedic times, pp. 151-154.—The _posaha_ of
Jainism, pp. 154, 155.—The Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, pp.
155-158.—Introduction of the _uposatha_ into Ceylon, Burma, Siam,
and Cambodia, pp. 158-162.—The Buddhist Sabbath in Tibet, Mongolia,
China, and Japan, pp. 162-164.—Lunar days observed in Indonesia,
pp. 164, 165.—Lunar festivals of the ancient Iranians, pp. 165,
166.—Lunar festivals in ancient Egypt, pp. 166-169.—The Greek
Noumenia and Dichomenia, pp. 169, 170.—The Roman Kalends, Nones, and
Ides, p. 170.—The _dies postriduani_, pp. 170, 171.—Lunar festivals
in heathen Europe, p. 172.
CHAPTER VI
LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK
Beginnings of the calendar, p. 173.—The moon as the measure of
time, pp. 173-175.—Popular calendars based on the moon, pp. 175,
176.—The lunar year, pp. 176, 177.—Adjustment of the lunar year to
the solar year, pp. 177, 178.—Calendarizing of the lunation, p.
178.—Commencement of the lunar month, pp. 178, 179.—Phases of the
moon often named and used for time-reckonings, pp. 180-182.—Bipartite
division of the lunation, pp. 182-186.—Shorter divisions of the
lunation, pp. 187, 188.—The decade, pp. 188-192.—The ennead, pp. 192,
193.—The octad, pp. 193, 194.—Six-day weeks, p. 194.—The pentad, pp.
194-196.—The hebdomad, pp. 196, 197.—Diffusion of the hebdomadal
cycle: in Africa, pp. 197-199; in India, pp. 199-201; in southeastern
Asia, p. 201; in China and Japan, pp. 202-204; and in the Malay
Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago, pp. 204, 205.—The Arabic
week and the Mohammedan Sabbath, pp. 205, 206.—Mystic numbers in
general, pp. 206-208.—Seven as a mystic number among semi-civilized
peoples, pp. 208-211.—Symbolism of seven in ancient India, Greece,
and Babylonia, pp. 211-212.—The seven planets and planetary deities
of the Babylonians, pp. 213-215.—The planetary week, pp. 215,
216.—Theories of its origin, pp. 216-218.—Spread of the planetary
week in the Roman Empire, pp. 218, 219.—Adoption of the planetary
designations of the weekdays by the Christians, pp. 220, 221.—Spread
of the planetary week among Romance, Germanic, and Slavic peoples
during the early Middle Ages, pp. 221, 222.
CHAPTER VII
THE BABYLONIAN “EVIL DAYS” AND THE SHABATTUM
The “evil days” of the months of Elul II and Markheshwan, pp.
223, 224.—Possible explanations of the origin of these days, pp.
224, 225.—The Babylonian lunar month, p. 226.—Determination of
the beginning of the month, pp. 226, 227.—Adjustment of septenary
divisions to the lunation, pp. 227, 228.—Association of septenary
divisions with successive phases of the moon, pp. 228, 229.—The
seven-day cycles in Babylonia not true “weeks,” pp. 229, 230.—Special
significance attached to the seventh day, pp. 230, 231.—Taboo in
Babylonia, pp. 231, 232.—Prohibitions observed on the seventh day, p.
232.—Their connection with primitive taboos, pp. 232-234.—How far the
seventh day was marked by a general abstention from labour, pp. 234,
235.—The term _shabattum_, pp. 235, 236.—Various explanations of its
meaning, pp. 236-238.—_Shabattum_ applied to the fifteenth day of the
month, pp. 238, 239.—Festival observance of new moon and full moon by
the Babylonians, pp. 239, 240.—Probable connection of the _shabattum_
with the “evil days,” pp. 240, 241.
CHAPTER VIII
THE HEBREW SABBATH
The Sabbath an ancient institution, pp. 242, 243.—The theory of its
origin in the worship of Saturn untenable, pp. 243, 244.—Connection
of the Sabbath Day with Saturday, pp. 244, 245.—The Sabbath, with
the seven-day week, not borrowed from Egypt or Babylonia, pp. 245,
246.—Importance of the moon to the early Hebrews, pp. 246-248.—The
festival of the new moon, pp. 248, 249.—Observance of the new-moon
day by abstinence from work, pp. 249, 250.—Religious significance
attached to the day of full moon, pp. 250, 251.—The Sabbath
originally the full-moon day, p. 251.—Early association of new moon
and the Sabbath, pp. 251-253.—The term _shabbath_ later applied to
every seventh day of the month, p. 253.—Differences between the
Hebrew seven-day week and the septenary cycle of the Babylonians,
pp. 253, 254.—The Hebrew week probably at first no periodic but
connected with the lunation, pp. 254, 255.—Obsolescence of the
new-moon day as a day of rest, p. 255, 256.—Character of the Sabbath
in pre-Exilic times, p. 256.—Various sabbatarian regulations to be
explained as taboos, pp. 256-262.—Revival in post-Exilic times of the
austere significance attached to the Sabbath, pp. 262, 263.—Strict
observance of the Sabbath rest according to the rules of pharisaic
Judaism, pp. 263, 264.—The Sabbath as a day of gladness and good
cheer, pp. 264-266.—Introduction of the Sabbath into the Roman world,
pp. 266, 267.—The Lord’s Day as observed by the early Christians,
pp. 267, 268.—Their adoption of the pagan designation Sunday, p.
268.—Ecclesiastical recognition of Saturday as a holy day, p.
269.—The Lord’s Day not at first marked by abstinence from labour,
pp. 269, 270.—Beginning of Sunday legislation, pp. 270, 271.
CHAPTER IX
UNLUCKY DAYS
The belief in unlucky days frequently a result of erroneous
association of ideas, pp. 272-274.—The observation of natural
phenomena sometimes accounts for the unlucky character attached
to certain times, pp. 274, 275.—The conception of unluckiness
sometimes deduced from the assumed critical nature of certain
periods, such as epagomenal months and days, p. 276.—The Twelve Days
in ancient India, pp. 276, 277.—European folklore of the Twelve
Days, pp. 277-279.—Unlucky character of the five supplementary
days in the Mexican and Maya calendars, pp. 279-281.—The five
supplementary days among the ancient Egyptians, Persians, and
Armenians, pp. 281-283.—Epagomenal days in the French Republican
calendar, p. 283.—Some unlucky days observed in southeastern
Europe probably derived from the holy days of classical antiquity,
pp. 283-285.—Likeness between tabooed days and the unlucky days
observed in southeastern Asia, pp. 285-288.—The Toda rest days, pp.
288-292.—Rest days of the Siah Posh Kafirs, pp. 293, 294.—Unlucky
days among the Malagasy, pp. 294, 295.—Egyptian calendars of lucky
and unlucky days, pp. 295-297.—A Babylonian calendar, pp. 297,
298.—The Hesiodic calendar, pp. 298, 299.—Unlucky days observed
during the Middle Ages, pp. 299-301.—Decline of the superstition
after the Reformation, p. 301.
CONCLUSION
The observance of tabooed and unlucky days exerts a hampering
influence on social and economic progress, pp. 302, 303.—Non-working
days in Hawaii, in Ashanti, and among the Hopi Indians of Arizona, p.
303.—The numerous religious festivals held in modern China and Korea
and in ancient Egypt and Greece, pp. 303, 304.—Excessive development
of Roman festivals, pp. 304-306.—Holy days in the religious calendar
of Christendom, pp. 306, 307.—Passage of the holy day into the
holiday, pp. 307, 308.
REST DAYS
INTRODUCTION
The custom of refraining from labour on certain occasions is by no means
unknown to peoples in the lower stages of culture. Associated practices
include the discontinuance of public gatherings, the closing of the house
or of the village against all strangers, the extinguishing of lights, and
fasting, either partial or complete. Bright and gay dresses may be laid
aside, bathing and anointing given up, and songs, dances, and loud noises
forbidden. Under these conditions the cessation of labour merges into a
cessation of all the usual activities. The day of rest becomes a day of
abstinence and quiescence.
It might be thought that such observances, especially those which impose
a period of rest, have a rationalistic basis and arise from man’s need
of relaxation and idleness as a relief from daily toil and the harsh
conditions of existence. Yet for the vast proportion of the rest days
observed by primitive peoples it would be rash to assume an origin in
considerations of practical utility. A survey of the evidence to be
submitted indicates that the sabbatarian regulations have arisen chiefly,
if not wholly, as pure superstitions, the product of an all-too-logical
intellect or of a disordered fancy. In the last analysis they are based
primarily on fear, that “fear of things invisible,” which Hobbes,
foreshadowing modern anthropological theories, regarded as “the natural
seed of religion.”[1] They find their clearest expression in the
“taboos,” or prohibitions, first noticed among the natives of the South
Seas, but now known to exist in many other regions of the aboriginal
world.[2]
“Taboo,” from the Polynesian _tabu_, is one of the few words which the
languages of the Pacific have contributed to our English speech. _Tabu_
appears to be, properly, the Tonga term, _tapu_, the word as found in
Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands, and New Zealand, and
_kapu_, the Hawaiian expression.[3] The etymology of _tapu_ is uncertain,
though an attempt has been made to derive it from _ta_, to mark, and
_pu_, an adverb of intensity. The compound _tapu_ would then mean “marked
thoroughly,” and would come to signify “sacred” in a secondary sense,
since sacred things and places were commonly indicated in a particular
manner.[4] The word _tapua’i_ means “to abstain from all work, games,
etc.”[5]—a translation which indicates how intimately the idea of
abstinence was associated with the notion of _tapu_.
In all the Polynesian languages _tapu_ or _tabu_ appears to have been
employed with an adjectival meaning, referring to something holy, sacred,
and inviolable, or to something polluted and accursed. The word, we
learn, did not imply any moral quality, but expressed “a connection
with the gods, or a separation from ordinary purposes, and exclusive
appropriation to persons or things considered sacred; sometimes it means
devoted as by a vow.”[6] In a derivative sense _tabu_ came naturally
to signify “forbidden” or “prohibited”;[7] and this is the most general
meaning of the word in its anglicized form. But in anthropological usage
the term “taboo” refers, not to all negative regulations or prohibitions,
but to those only which are supported by a supernatural sanction and the
violation of which is visited with a supernatural punishment.
The progress of comparative research has shown that conceptions very
similar to the Polynesian _tabu_ have a wide prevalence in the lower
culture and even among peoples of archaic civilization. The Melanesian
_tambu_, though never signifying any inherent holiness or awfulness, does
refer to the sacred and unapproachable character which things may possess
when solemnly cursed in the name of a powerful ghost or spirit.[8] Among
the natives of the Gabun colony of French Equatorial Africa _orunda_
meant, originally, “prohibited from human use.” Under missionary hands
the word developed into its related sense of “sacred to spiritual use,”
and in the Mpongwe Scriptures _orunda_ serves as the translation of
our word “holy.”[9] The Malagasy equivalent of _tabu_ is _fady_, which
means, primarily, “dangerous,” but which has the derivative meanings
_sacré_, “prohibited,” “ill-omened,” “unlucky.”[10] Anthropologically, it
is no far cry from such expressions to the Greek ἅγιος or to the Latin
_sacer_, since each of these terms conveys the twin ideas of sanctity and
pollution.[11]
It is convenient to distinguish between taboos which are artificially
imposed and those which follow inevitably as the consequence of
particular acts or as the outcome of certain situations. Thus, a chief
may set a taboo over the common crops until harvest time, or a private
individual may protect his own property through the use of the same
supernatural machinery: these are prohibitions analogous to the laws of
an advanced society, though supported by sanctions both human and divine.
On the other hand, new-born children with their mothers, strangers,
manslayers, and mourners are frequently subjected to taboos which exist
in the social consciousness rather as well-defined customs of anonymous
origin than as specific ordinances laid down by some superior authority.
In both cases, however, it is legitimate to suppose that a reason has
always existed for the ascription of the _tabu_ character to persons and
things—although an explanation may not now be forthcoming and although
the ideas on which the practice was once based may have become obscure or
meaningless with the lapse of time.
A comparative study of the taboos observed by primitive peoples indicates
that originally things or persons are tabooed because they are considered
dangerous, mysterious, abnormal, uncanny, “awful”—because they are felt
to be potent for weal or woe in the life of man. Primitive psychology,
refining these ideas and applying them to different classes of phenomena,
produces the cognate notions of pollution and sanctity. The corpse is
unclean; the shedder of human blood is likewise unclean; but the chief
or king, who belongs to a superior order of beings, is sacrosanct or
holy. These characteristics are easily regarded as infectious, as capable
of transmission, not alone by physical contact, but also by sight and
mere proximity. It is probably true that, in using such expressions as
“contagion” and “infection,” we are resorting to a refined terminology to
express what must be really simpler in the thought of the savage. Living
in a mental stage where distinctions of cause and effect are not clearly
drawn, where a rigid distinction of the natural and the supernatural can
scarcely be said to exist at all, he finds no difficulty in imagining an
universe in which all things have power, after their kind, a power for
good or a power for ill—in other words, have _mana_. This now-familiar
Melanesian term, like the Algonkin _manitou_, the Iroquoian _orenda_, and
the Siouan _wakanda_, may be said to express early man’s sense of those
ever-present, though vague and impersonal, forces immanent in nature.[12]
At the same time the fact must be recognized that the majority of taboos
are now supported by animistic beliefs of a much more precise character.
The penalty for the infraction of a taboo is generally death or some
physical ailment supposed to be inflicted by the offended spirits or
demons.[13] The Polynesian _atua_, by entering the body of any impious
person, caused disease or “intestinal embarrassment”: the culprit
forthwith swelled up and died. The same demonic beings, if angered,
might visit entire tribes with an epidemic, or send down lightning and
fire from heaven, or bring about the unsuccessful issue of a war.[14]
Among the Kayan and other pagan tribes of Borneo the minor spirits, or
_toh_, play a considerable part in the regulation of conduct. They are
the powers that bring misfortunes upon an entire house or village when
any member of it ignores taboos or otherwise violates tribal customs,
without performing the propitiatory rites demanded by the occasion. “Thus
on them, rather than on the gods, are founded the effective sanctions
of prohibitive rules of conduct.”[15] Among the Akikuyu of British East
Africa, who possess a most elaborate system of taboos, it is a general
belief that any one in the condition of _thahu_ becomes emaciated and ill
or breaks out in eruptions and boils. If the _thahu_ is not removed, the
patient will die. “In many cases this undoubtedly happens by the process
of auto-suggestion, as it never occurs to the Kikuyu mind to be skeptical
in a matter of this kind. It is said that the _thahu_ condition is
caused by the _ngoma_, or spirits of departed ancestors, but the process
does not seem to have been analyzed any further.”[16] The Babylonians,
again, appear to have entertained very definite conceptions of taboo,
and conceptions, equally definite, of the evil spirits which vexed the
soul and body of one who had infringed a _mamit_, or prohibition with a
supernatural penalty.[17] With the progress of religious conceptions the
punishment of the taboo-breaker may come to be regarded as an important
function of the tribal or national god, whose chief concern is the
maintenance of the customary moral rules.
Since persons, objects, and even actions are all liable to infection,
prudence dictates a variety of precautions: the dangerous individual or
thing is removed to a safe distance; or is carefully isolated; or is
subjected to a series of insulating regulations. The entire community
is interested in such proceedings, and on certain occasions may itself
be placed under a rigid quarantine. When this happens, a period of
abstinence and quiescence is regarded as the surest means of avoiding
dangers felt to threaten each and every member of the social group.
Nor will the procedure greatly differ where distinctly animistic ideas
prevail, and when the impending danger is specifically attributed to the
action of spiritual beings or of gods. In the latter case, it is true,
the idea of propitiation becomes increasingly prominent, since it is
often felt to be necessary to appease by various rites and ceremonies the
supernatural powers responsible for the visitation. The two conceptions
of abstinence and propitiation are not, indeed, always sharply
distinguishable in concrete cases, and with advancing culture they tend
to become more and more closely conjoined.
It is highly probable that the origin of some of the communal regulations
is to be sought in the taboos observed by persons at such great and
critical seasons as birth, puberty, marriage, and death.[18] Comparative
studies have indicated how numerous are the prohibitions which attach to
these times of high solemnity and significance; and it is reasonable to
suppose that, with the deepening sense of social solidarity, observances
once confined to the individual alone, or to his immediate connections,
would often pass over into rites performed by the community at large.
Some evidence tending to substantiate this opinion will be presented
incidentally as the investigation proceeds.
CHAPTER I
TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS
Our knowledge of taboo within the Polynesian area rests chiefly on the
vague and unsatisfactory accounts by early missionaries, who were unable
to describe much more than its exterior aspects, its origin and inner
significance having quite escaped their consideration. Fundamentally,
the system of taboos formed a religious institution, if religion be
understood in its broadest sense as a recognition of the supernatural.
The Polynesian belief that the violator of a taboo would be punished
by the offended _atua_, or spirits, readily lent itself to priestcraft
and statecraft and so became in the hands of the ruling classes an
_instrumentum regni_, a powerful engine of social and political control.
In Hawaii, where the superstitions in question reached their most
elaborate and grotesque development, communal taboos could be imposed
only by the priests, although this action was often taken at the instance
of the civil authorities. Police officers were even appointed to make
sure that all prohibitions were strictly observed. For every breach of
the rules the death penalty was inflicted, unless the delinquent had some
very powerful friends who themselves were either priests or chiefs.
The range of these Hawaiian taboos, as extended for reasons of state or
religion, was very wide. We are told that idols, temples, the persons and
names of the king and his family, the persons of the priests, and the
houses and clothes of the king and priests were always _tabu_. Certain
much-prized articles of food, besides almost everything offered in
sacrifice, were reserved by taboos for gods and men; hence women, except
in cases of particular indulgence, were restricted from using them.
Sometimes an entire island or district was tabooed and no one was allowed
to approach it.[19]
The institution of taboo also included regulations for the special
observance of certain times and seasons. Their duration was various, and
apparently much longer in remote ages than in the period immediately
preceding the arrival of the missionaries. In Hawaii, before the reign
of Kamehameha II, forty days was the usual length of time. There were
also periods of ten days and of five days, and sometimes of only one
day. Tradition declares, however, that once a taboo was in force for
thirty years and that during this time the men were not allowed to trim
their beards. A tabooed period kept for five years is also mentioned.
Elsewhere in the South Seas less extensive periods prevailed, the longest
known being at Huahine, one of the Society Islands, where a season of
abstinence is said to have lasted for ten or twelve years.[20]
The observance of such taboos varied according as they were common or
strict. When a common season prevailed, the men were required only
to abstain from their usual duties and to attend at the _heiau_, or
temple, where prayers were offered every morning and evening. During a
period strictly tabooed the regulations had a sterner character, and in
consequence a general gloom and silence pervaded the whole district or
island. Every fire and light was extinguished; canoes were not launched;
no person bathed; and no one was to be seen out of doors, save those
whose presence was required at the temple. Even the lower creation felt
the force of the law: “no dog must bark, no pig must grunt, no cock must
crow—or the _tabu_ would be broken, and fail to accomplish the object
designed. On these occasions they tied up the mouths of the dogs and
pigs, and put the fowls under a calabash, or fastened a piece of cloth
over their eyes.”[21] From another account we learn that any one found
in a canoe on a _tabu_ day incurred the death penalty, and that the same
Draconian punishment was meted out to the individual who indulged in
carnal pleasures or made only a noise at such a time.[22]
The sabbatarian regulations introduced by Christian missionaries among
their Hawaiian adherents presented no sharp contrast to the rigours
of the old dispensation. The natives even called Sunday _la tabu_,
“the tabooed day.” No food was cooked on that day, the meals being all
prepared on the previous Saturday; no fires were kindled; and no canoes
were paddled. The people neither fished nor tilled the soil and, if on
a journey, they halted until the sacred day was over.[23] In Tahiti,
also, the Sunday rest was rigidly maintained. On that day no canoes were
launched, and no person was seen abroad except on the road to church or
when returning from divine service. The success of the missionaries in
introducing this strict observance of Sunday was, we learn, “ascribed by
themselves in a great degree to its analogy to the taboo days of heathen
times.”[24]
Communal taboos were observed by the Hawaiian Islanders generally in
connection with important religious ceremonies. Of these, one of the
most elaborate was the consecration of a _luakini_, or chief temple. The
rites, which were often performed just before a war in order to insure
victory, occupied ten or more days. After a solemn purification of the
island or district all the people were summoned to divine service, during
which a priest sprinkled them with holy water, _i.e._, salt water mixed
with a little turmeric, some moss, and a bunch of a sacred fern. “The
next thing in order was to bring down the principal idol, called the
_hakuohia_, from the forest. A great procession was formed, consisting of
the king, the _hakuohia_ priest, and a crowd of attendants carrying idols
and various offerings, and leading a human victim. The tree had been
selected and the axe consecrated the day before. On arriving at the tree,
the priest recited the appropriate _aha_ [prayer] amid dead silence,
after which the king pronounced the _amama_ [spell], and killed the hog
with a single blow. The priest inquired whether any sound of man or beast
or bird or cricket had been heard during the _aha_, and if not, it was a
good omen. The doomed man was then brought forward, and offered to the
god by the king, after which his body was buried at the foot of the tree.
The consecrated hog was baked in an oven on the spot, while the tree was
cut down, trimmed, and covered with _ieie_ vines. After the company had
feasted, a procession was formed with the feather-gods in front, followed
by the chiefs and people with _pala_ fern, _ohia_-branches, etc., and
others carrying the new idol.... The inhabitants remained indoors, for it
was death to meet the procession, and all fires were strictly forbidden.
The images were finally carried to the _heiau_, where they were deposited
with shoutings and beating of drums.”[25] Following this rite came a long
series of services at the _heiau_. The night of the great _aha_ “was
the most solemn and critical of all. The omens were carefully observed,
and prayers were offered in every house for the success of the coming
_aha_, and for auspicious weather, that there might be no wind or rain,
no thunder or lightning, no high surf, and no sound of man or beast to
mar the ceremonies. If the sky was clear and everything favourable,
between midnight and morning the king and high-priest entered the small
house, called _waiea_, to perform the great _aha_ (_hulahula_), while the
congregation sat in front of the _mana_ house, listening and watching
in profound silence. The king stood listening intently and holding a
pig, while the high-priest, clad in white _kapa_, and holding a _lama_
rod wound with _aloa_ (white _kapa_), recited the long prayer. At its
close the king killed the pig with a single blow, and offered it up with
a short prayer to the four great gods. The priests then asked the king
whether the _aha_ was perfect, and whether he had heard the voice of man
or dog or mouse or fowl, or anything else during the prayer. If not, he
tapped the large drum as a signal that it was over, and they both went
out to question the assembly outside. If no one had heard a sound during
the ceremony, the high-priest congratulated the king, and predicted for
him victory and long life. The people then raised loud shouts of _Lele
wale ka aha e!_ which were repeated by all who heard them, and so the
news travelled far and wide.”[26] Such were some of the ceremonies at
the dedication of an important temple.[27]
Communal taboos also marked the celebration by the Hawaiians of the
great _makahiki_, or New Year’s festival, sacred to the god Lono. On the
twenty-third of the month Welehu, which nearly corresponded to November,
Lono’s image was decorated and, when night came on, all the people went
to bathe in the sea. This rite of purification having been accomplished,
men and women donned new clothing in preparation for the festival which
began at sunrise on the morrow. During the four days of its continuance
no fishing, no bathing, no pounding of _kapa_, and no beating of drums
or blowing of conchs was permitted. Land and sky and sea were _tabu_
to Lono, and only feasting and games were allowed. The high-priest was
blindfolded and remained in seclusion. On the fifth day the bandage was
removed from his eyes and canoes were allowed to put to sea. On the
sixth day the _tabu_ season began again and continued for about twenty
days longer. The festivities at length drew to a close, the ornaments of
Lono’s image were packed up and deposited in the temple for use another
year, and all restrictions on fishing and farming were taken off—_noa ka
makahiki_.[28]
In old Hawaii, as in the other Polynesian islands, fishing formed one
of the chief means of livelihood and ranked next to agriculture in
importance. The fishermen, who composed almost a distinct class, observed
many religious rites peculiar to themselves. For instance, a man would
not venture to use a new net or to build and launch a new canoe, without
prayer and sacrifice to his gods. Communal regulations relating to
fishing were imposed twice a year in connection with two sacred fish,
the _aku_, or bonito, and the _opelu_. Each was _tabu_ by turns for six
months. In Hinaiaelee (July) the taboo began on the first night of the
month, at which time no fire might be kindled, and no sound of man or
beast or fowl might break the profound silence. The following morning
the high-priest repaired to the house of Ku-ula, the god of fishermen,
to offer a pig and to recite the great _aha_, as during a dedication.
Meanwhile a man was sent to the woods to gather _pala_ fern. All that day
a solemn rest was observed on shore. Next morning the head fisherman,
wearing a white _malo_, or girdle, took the sacred fern and a new net in
his canoe and put to sea. After prayers to his tutelary deities and to Ku
the fisherman proceeded to cast the net. If he and his crew made a haul
of _opelu_, they paddled joyfully for the shore and presented the fish
to the high-priest, who sent some to the king and placed the rest on the
altar in the temple. Next day the _opelu_ became _noa_, or free to all,
but the _aku_ in its turn was prohibited to human use for six months, and
was not to be eaten on pain of death.[29]
The Hawaiian religious system included a remarkable approximation to
the institution of a weekly Sabbath. In every lunar month there were
four tabu periods, dedicated severally to the four great gods of the
native pantheon. The first was that of Ku, from the third to the sixth
night; the second, that of Hua, at full moon, including the fourteenth
and fifteenth nights; the third, that of Kaloa, on the twenty-fourth and
twenty-fifth nights; and the fourth, that of Kane, on the twenty-seventh
and twenty-eighth nights. During these _tabu_ periods a devout king
generally remained in the _heiau_, busy with prayer and sacrifice. Women
at such times were forbidden to enter canoes, and sexual intercourse was
also prohibited.[30]
The occasions when seasons of communal abstinence and quiescence were
enforced in the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, Samoa, and New
Zealand were not always the same as in the Hawaiian group. Divergencies
of custom might well be expected among the widely scattered divisions of
the Polynesian race. But, if such rites as those for the dedication of a
temple or for the observance of four _tabu_ periods in every month were
confined to the Hawaiians, some other ceremonies, notably those connected
with fishing, were much alike throughout the entire Pacific area.
In the Society and the Marquesas islands the bonito fishing in November
or December opened with a ceremony removing the prohibition which
had previously rested on the capture of that fish. A strict taboo of
all activity marked the first day of the proceedings: no one could
approach the seashore, or make a fire, or cook food, or even eat before
the going-down of the sun. The customary employments of the men in
canoe-building and house-building, of the women in the preparation of
cloths, mats, and thread, were abandoned; “in a word, all work was
forbidden; it was a day of silence and of devotion.” Meanwhile the
priests remained in the _marai_, or temple, engaged in prayer; and
their assistants prepared an altar to receive the first-fruits of the
fishing. At nightfall the single canoe which had gone forth to the
fishing returned with the catch of bonito. Several of the largest fish
were placed on the altar, and the others were entirely consumed in a
blazing fire before the altar. The fish caught on this day belonged to
the gods and those on the following day to the high-priest; but on the
third day fishing was opened to all.[31] Among the Maori of New Zealand
the preparations for mackerel fishing included the observance of various
taboos. Every one concerned in making or mending nets, the ground where
the nets were made, and the river, on the banks of which the work went
on, were in a state of sacredness. Nobody might walk over the ground, no
canoe might pass up and down the river, no fire might be made within a
prescribed distance, and no food might be prepared, until the holy season
came to an end.[32] In this instance only fishermen and their assistants
appear to have been subject to the restrictions. The Maori, however,
observed communal taboos in connection with the planting of the _kumara_,
or sweet potato, formerly the most important agricultural product of New
Zealand and the chief reliance of the natives for food. An old chief of
Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua, has described how, when the time to plant
_kumara_ arrived, the priests went forth to the woods for branches of the
sacred _mapau_ tree. “On that day and the day following, everything was
_tapu_. The people fasted and did no cooking. The waters of the lake were
_tapu_; no canoes were allowed to put out and no fishing was done.” The
priests took the _mapau_ twigs to the stone image of the _kumara_-god
(still kept on the island), and laying them on the idol, prayed for an
abundant harvest. In the evening they went to the gardens and stuck
the branches in the earth. The skull of a tribal chief of _ariki_ rank
was disinterred and placed beside the _mapau_ sticks, in order that
the _mana_, or magical power of the dead chieftain, might guard the
plantation and assist in securing a bountiful harvest.[33]
Still another critical epoch when the Maori subjected themselves to
communal taboos occurred at the beginning of a war. Hostilities having
been decided on, the first thing necessary was to take the auspices
by casting the _niu_. One of the leading priests procured a quantity
of fern-stalks, some of which represented spears, and the remainder,
warriors. The warrior-sticks were stuck in a mat and a fern-stalk
was hurled at each one. If the missile fell on the left side of the
warrior-stick, this was a sign that the person whom it represented would
fall in battle, if on the right side, that he would live. A similar
procedure was enacted with sticks named for enemies, and for the men,
women, and children who were to be left at home. On the completion of the
_niu_ ceremony, the priests lifted the taboo which had rested over the
settlement, a taboo imposing abstinence from food, but not, apparently,
from work.[34]
The sacrifice of first-fruits seems to have formed a regular part of
the religious system of the Polynesian peoples, for we possess specific
references to it among the Hawaiians, the Samoans, the New Zealanders,
the natives of the Society Islands, and those of the Tonga Islands. In
the latter group the ceremony, called _inachi_, generally took place
about October. It was observed with scrupulous care, since the people
believed that to neglect it would bring upon them the vengeance of the
gods. We are fortunate in possessing a detailed description of the
ceremony by an eye-witness of it.[35] According to William Mariner the
word _inachi_ referred to that portion of the fruits of the earth and of
other eatables which was offered to the god in the person of the divine
chief Tooitonga, an allotment made once a year, just before the yam crop
had arrived at maturity. On the day before the ceremony the first-fruits
of the yam season were dug up, ornamented with ribbons, and dyed red,
in preparation for the procession on the morrow. “The sun has scarcely
set when the sound of the conch begins again to echo through the island,
increasing as the night advances. At the _mooa_ [capital] and all the
plantations the voices of men and women are heard singing _Nófo, óooa
tegger gnaoóe, óooa gnaoóe_, ‘Rest thou, doing no work; thou shalt not
work.’[36] This increases till midnight, men generally singing the first
part of the sentence, and the women the last, to produce a more pleasing
effect: it then subsides for three or four hours, and again increases
as the sun rises. Nobody, however, is seen stirring out in the public
roads till about eight o’clock, when the people from all quarters of the
island are seen advancing towards the _mooa_, and canoes from all the
other islands landing their men; so that all the inhabitants of Tonga
seem approaching by sea and land, singing and sounding the conch. At the
_mooa_ itself the universal bustle of preparation is seen and heard; and
the different processions entering from various quarters, of men and
women, all dressed up in new _gnatoos_, ornamented with red ribbons and
wreaths of flowers, and the men armed with spears and clubs, betoken
the importance of the ceremony about to be performed.” The proceedings
consisted in the solemn presentation of the first-fruits to the divine
chief at the grave of his predecessor, and closed with a feast and
dance. Then the people returned to their homes, perfectly assured of the
protection of the gods.
The natives of Samoa possessed a remarkably complex pantheon of household
and village gods, the recipients of prayer and sacrifice, and, in the
case of the village gods, honoured with temples, priests, and annual
festivals. The Samoans had also war-gods, who in character resembled
the other deities, since they were supposed to be incarnate in animals
or embodied in inanimate objects.[37] One of these militant divinities
was the cuttle-fish (_fe’e_), said to have been imported from Fiji. In
one place Fe’e was a general village god whose province was not confined
to war. “The month of May was sacred to his worship. No traveller was
then allowed to pass through the village by the public road; nor was any
canoe allowed in the lagoon off that part of the settlement. There was
great feasting, too, on these occasions, and also games, club exercise,
spear-throwing, wrestling, etc.... In another district three months
were sacred to the worship of Fe’e. During that time any one passing
along the road, or in the lagoon, would be beaten, if not killed, for
insulting the god. For the first month torches and all other lights
were forbidden, as the god was about and did not wish to be seen. White
turbans were also forbidden during the festivities, and confined to war.
At this time, also, all unsightly burdens—such as a log of firewood on
the shoulder—were forbidden, lest it should be considered by the god as
a mockery of his _tentacula_.”[38] Another village god, who rejoiced in
the name of Titi Usi, or Glittering Leaf Girdle, received worship at
the new moon. “At that time all work was suspended for a day or two.
The cocoanut-leaf blinds were kept down, and the people sat still in
their houses. Any one walking in front of the house risked a beating.
After prayer and feasting a man went about and blew a shell-trumpet as
a sign to all that the ceremonies were over, and that the usual routine
of village and family life might be resumed.”[39] The festivals of the
other village deities of Samoa seem not to have been marked by compulsory
cessation of activity.[40]
The observance of regular periods consecrated to the gods has been
noticed in some other parts of Polynesia. At Fakaofo, or Bowditch
Island, in the Union group, the month of May was devoted to the worship
of the great god Tui Tokelau. All work was then laid aside. The people
assembled from the three islands of the group to enjoy feasting and
dancing. They prayed to their divinity for life, health, and a plentiful
supply of fish and cocoanuts.[41] In tiny Manahiki, or Humphrey Island,
the natives had special days for worship, every three or four months. At
such times heaps of food were collected in the place of public assembly,
and the king, who was high-priest as well, prayed for food and life
and health in behalf of his people.[42] We are told, also, that when
the god Ratu-mai-Mbulu visited the Fiji Islands, the inhabitants lived
very quietly for an entire month, lest they should disturb the deity in
his task of making the fruit-trees blossom and bear fruit. During this
Lenten season the natives did not plant or build or sail on the ocean
or go to war. The priests announced the time of the god’s advent and
departure.[43] According to a later account Ratu-mai-Mbulu (Lord from
Hades) was probably a deity of foreign extraction. “Through him the
earth gives her increase. In December he comes forth from Mbulu, and
pours sap into the fruit-trees, and pushes the young yam shoots through
the soil. Throughout that moon it is _tabu_ to beat the drum, to sound
the conch-shell, to dance, to plant, to fight, or to sing at sea, lest
Ratu-mai-Mbulu be disturbed, and quit the earth before his work is
completed. At the end of the month the priest sounds the consecrated
shell; the people raise a great shout, carrying the good news from
village to village; and pleasure and toil are again free to all.”[44]
The descriptions of Polynesian customs by early observers, though
frequently the only accounts we possess, are sometimes very brief and
obscure. These remarks apply to a curious ceremony annually performed by
some Fijian tribes. The time of its celebration was determined by the
appearance of a certain sea-slug, which swarms out in dense shoals from
the coral reefs on a single day of the year, usually in November during
the last quarter of the moon. The arrival of the sea-slugs furnished
the signal for a general feast at those places where they were taken.
Hostilities were suspended between rival communities for four days, and
a taboo was laid to prevent noise or disturbance during this period.
No labour might be done and no person might be seen outside his house.
“In Ovolau the ceremony begins by a man ascending a tree and praying
for fine weather and winds throughout the year. Thereupon a tremendous
clatter, with drumming and shouting, is raised by all the people inside
of the houses for about half an hour, and then a dead quiet ensues for
four days, during which they are feasting on the _mbalolo_. If in any
dwelling a noise is made, as by a child crying, a forfeit (_ori_) is
immediately exacted by the chief.”[45] According to another account the
rule requiring quiescence was so strictly observed that not even a leaf
might be plucked or the offal removed from the houses. During these four
days the men lived in their special club-house (_mbure_), and the women
and children remained shut up in the family abodes. At daylight, on the
expiry of the fourth night, the whole town was in an uproar; and men and
boys scampered about, knocking with sticks at the doors of the dwellings
and crying _Sinariba_. This concluded the ceremony.[46] It would seem
that these accounts refer to a Fijian New Year’s festival, which, like
that of the Hawaiians, was held in November for a period of four days,
and was marked by communal taboos imposing abstinence and quiescence.[47]
The western tribes of Viti Levu, largest of the Fiji Islands, in
traditions, language, and physical type are recognized as distinctly
Melanesian. In former days these tribes possessed a secret association
known as _nanga_, or _mbaki_, which closely resembled the secret
societies so common in the Melanesian Archipelago. It is highly probable,
therefore, that, at least in its known form, the _nanga_ was a late
importation into the island of Viti Levu. Initiation into the _nanga_
was supposed to bring the youth of the tribe into relations with the
ancestral spirits, who were represented, at the time of the ceremonies,
by the elders and by some of the middle-aged men. The sanctuary and lodge
of the association formed the earthly dwelling-place of the spirits; it
was a tabernacle as holy to these Fijians as was the structure in the
Wilderness to the Israelites; there the first-fruits of the yam harvest
were solemnly presented to the ancestors; and there the young men of Viti
Levu were introduced to the mysteries of the tribe. When the _nanga_
enclosure was being raised for the initiatory performances, the people
suspended all other work. Not even food-planting might be done at such a
time. “If any impious person transgressed this law, ‘he would only plant
evil to himself and to his kinsfolk.’”[48] In this instance there was no
attribution of the sacred period to any particular divinity, though all
the ceremonies connected with the _nanga_ were supposed to be directed by
the ancestral spirits.
The scanty records of aboriginal Polynesian society also contain some
passing references to the observance of communal rest days on certain
occasions when the social consciousness had been deeply moved by untoward
and disastrous events. In Futuna, or Erronan, an island which lies
close to the dividing line between Polynesia and Melanesia, the custom
of taboo is said to be very common. “They go so far as to _tapu_ the
day—_e.g._, to interdict all work in order to please the gods, or to
avert the hurricanes.”[49] In Hawaii a _tabu_ period was declared during
the sickness of chiefs.[50] In Samoa the death of a chief of high rank
was followed by the suspension of all work in the settlement for from
ten to thirty days, until the funeral ceremonies were performed. During
this time no stranger might approach the stricken village; a luckless
wayfarer, pushing in by accident, would have been promptly clubbed.[51]
This Samoan regulation, as we shall see, is only a particular instance of
a widespread primitive custom. Communal rest days are still observed in
some parts of Micronesia, as on the island of Yap, one of the Carolines.
Here two aged “wizards,” before whom all important questions come for
decision, have the power of imposing taboos on an entire village. The
periods of seclusion have been known to last for six months. The critical
epochs, when such interdicts are enforced, occur during a time of
drought, famine, or sickness, after a death of a chief or famous man,
and before a fishing expedition.[52] “In short, any great public event
is thus celebrated, and, in fact, there is always a _tabu_ in full
swing somewhere or other, to the great disgust of the traders, who only
see in these enforced holidays an excuse for idling, drunkenness and
debauchery.”[53]
The accounts preserved in the older literature relating to Polynesia thus
make it evident that communal taboos occurred at critical, or especially
important, seasons. The prohibitions were negative in character, required
a period of abstinence sometimes verging upon complete quiescence, and
were closely connected with the aristocratic and theocratic organization
of Polynesian society. At the same time the communal regulations,
artificially created, are to be assimilated to those which rested
upon individuals alone and arose spontaneously as a result of various
circumstances. Every description of aboriginal culture, from Hawaii
to New Zealand, contains numerous references to the network of taboos
which invested private life. All persons dangerously ill, all mothers at
childbirth, together with their infants, all persons who handled a corpse
or assisted at a funeral, were deemed unclean and hence were subjected
to a rigid quarantine, a protective measure necessary for the safety
of the social group. If we assume that the individual taboos represent
the earlier phase of the institution, then the communal taboos may be
regarded as merely an extension to the body politic of these simpler
and more rudimentary customs. The probability of such a transition will
be strengthened by a consideration of the tabooed days found among some
other primitive peoples.
Seasons of communal abstinence are not found in Australia, and only
faint indications of them exist within the Melanesian area, that great
island group which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Archipelago. In
New Guinea itself a few instances of the custom under consideration have
been noted, all within the British possessions there.[54] Among the
Roro-speaking tribes, inhabiting the strip of coast from Cape Possession
in the west to Kabadi in the east, it is said that an entire village
will mourn for a chief or influential man “by abstaining from fishing,
hunting, and pot-making, and by reducing garden-work to a minimum.” The
period of mourning lasts from six to ten days.[55] In the neighbourhood
of Port Moresby are the Motu and Koita tribes, some of whose customs
were described, many years ago, by a native missionary who long laboured
in New Guinea. Among these tribes, we are told, “fishing work lays the
people under a number of restrictions. There must be no talking; any one
causing another to speak prevents his getting any fish. If the fishermen
are going on a turtle expedition, all must be still throughout the
village. None go about among the houses, or on the public road. All go up
to their houses and sit still. No sound of a voice, or chopping firewood,
or any movement is allowed, until it is supposed that the fishing party
is clear of the lagoon, and out into the deep ocean, and then the
villagers resume their usual occupation.”[56] These taboos in connection
with fishing closely resemble the regulations so common in Polynesia.
The Indonesian inhabitants of Borneo are divided into a large number
of tribes, among which the Kayan, the Sea Dyak, and the Land Dyak are
perhaps the best known. All these peoples till the soil and live in long
communal houses situated on the banks of the rivers. Though now spread
over a wide area in Borneo, the different tribes possess in common
many social and religious customs, notably the cult of omen animals,
together with the observance of numerous taboos which are regularly
enforced at the time of rice (_padi_) planting and harvesting, sometimes
also at mid-harvest.[57] The taboos found among the Kayan on the Baram
River, Sarawak, have been well described by a recent traveller, whose
picturesque narrative deserves an extended notice.[58] “During the days
devoted to search for omens in reference to the sites of the rice-fields,
and also again in reference to the planting, the Kayan refrain from
their usual daily occupations, and neither leave their houses themselves
nor allow strangers to enter. These days of seclusion are termed
_permantong padi_, or _lali padi_, and correspond very closely to taboo
elsewhere.”[59]
The rude agricultural methods of the Kayan start with the preliminary
process of clearing a site in the dense jungle. The work is extremely
tedious and if, after all the heavy labour, the crops should fail or
be destroyed by monkeys, birds, or beetles, the entire household feels
that some act has been committed whereby the displeasure of the spirits
is aroused. Accordingly, before beginning so arduous a task, it is
essential to take omens from the actions of certain birds, mammals, and
reptiles, called _amau_, which are supposed to be in the confidence of
the spirits.[60] A patch of jungle having been tentatively selected,
the work begins with the removal of the dense undergrowth. During this
preliminary stage, while the labour is less heavy than it will be later,
when trees must be felled, the household is not as yet under a taboo.
Each person, nevertheless, keeps a sharp eye for evil omens. Should a
native on the way to the clearing see any one of four ominous animals, a
certain species of snake, a deer, a civet cat, or a rain-bird, the site
will be at once abandoned, regardless of the work already done there.
Wilfully to ignore such a warning “not only compromises the abundance and
quality of the crops, but also the health, or even the life, of the whole
household.”[61]
If no evil omens are observed for three days, the Kayan workers feel
sufficiently encouraged to proceed to the next stage of felling the
heavy timber on the site, which has now been stripped of its underbrush.
Then ensues an elaborate series of auguries. While the various families
making up the household of a communal dwelling remain secluded on the
long veranda, or in their small private rooms, sitting very still all
day and smoking and talking, two hawk-men are off in the forest looking
for a hawk, called _niho_. Three days must be devoted to this search: if
the hawk is seen on the first day, but not on the two days following,
the omen is unfavourable. The people will continue the preparation of
the soil, but they expect poor crops, a result pretty certain to follow
their half-hearted and discouraged labours. On the second day the search
is continued, and if the hawk is seen, the omen is favourable, but not
completely so. If the third day’s search again reveals a hawk, the two
men return at once to the house and spread the good news. Every one
now watches the actions of the hawk. “Should he sail away out of sight
without once flapping his wings all are delighted; it means that the
clearing of the jungle may now continue prosperously, and that neither
attack of enemies nor accident to the workers need be feared. Should the
hawk flap his wings, it follows that some men, in felling the jungle,
will be badly cut by their axes or perhaps crushed under falling trees.
All instantly avert their eyes from the flapping hawk, lest the bird
should recognize them in the fields and select them as victims.”[62]
There now occurs a brief respite of the _lali_ observance, and the people
may leave their houses. But the same formalities must be observed by the
natives while search is made for four other ominous animals. In each case
there is a period of seclusion and abstinence lasting for three days.
These are all the omens that must be consulted before the heavy timber
may be felled, the ground burned over, and the rice planted.
Such are the various taboos which affect the inmates of a communal
house or village, before the crop is started. Other regulations concern
outsiders. From the hour when the real labour of felling the jungle
begins and until the seed-planting is completed, no stranger may enter
house or field. Should a neighbour, by accident or necessity, come
within the tabooed district, he must atone for the trespass by making a
small payment, called _usut_. It consists, ordinarily, of a few beads or
an iron implement. These objects are placed in a basket and hung up in
the rice-field till they rust away or disappear. It is a special duty of
the women to see that this _usut_ is paid.
The _lali_ ordinances of the Kayan are not confined to the time of
seed-planting. Once more, when the crop is all harvested, the house is
closed to strangers. For eight days no one may go away on an expedition
or return to the village from abroad. Another season of restriction
follows during the period when the rice is being stored in the granaries.
“But as soon as this harvesting is over, a general feast is prepared,
and merriment of all sorts makes up for the weariness of the long day’s
work. The women don every stitch of their finery and every bead to their
name; some even assume men’s clothes, and carry shield, spear, and
_parang_. In the evening all join in a long procession round the house;
guests are invited to participate in the festivities, and ‘jest and
youthful jollity’ rule the hour; the brimming cup passes freely, and to
the harmonious strains of the _kaluri_ the women ‘trip it as they go,’ or
leap in war-dances in imitation of the men.” After this festival there
follows yet another period of taboo, ten days in length, when no one is
allowed to do a stroke of any work that resembles the cultivation of
rice: “should any restless creature express a desire for active work, he
is scoffed at and scorned as a spoil-sport and kill-joy.”[63]
These customs of the Kayan of Sarawak are significant as showing how for
a Bornean community the whole period of farming, from the initial task
of selecting a site to the final storing of the rice in the granaries,
is supposed to be subject to supernatural influences. Planting and
harvesting are critical times, when every precaution must be taken to
win the approval, and to thwart the ill will, of the spirits which
affect the tribal life. If we turn, now, to the Kayan on the Mendalam
River in Dutch Borneo, we shall find here also a community of primitive
farmers who depend mainly on the rice crop for subsistence, and by
whom all agricultural operations have been invested with a religious
significance. Without the consent of the spirits no farm work may be
undertaken; without a strict regimen of sacrifices and taboos their aid
cannot be secured for the growth and maturity of the crops. A traveller,
who has described in detail the agricultural rites of the Kayan, tells
us that the sowing festival lasts several weeks and that during this
period certain communal regulations are enforced. On the first day of the
festival every one, save the very old and the very young, must refrain
from bathing; then for eight successive days no work may be done and no
intercourse may be held with neighbouring communities. The custom of
excluding strangers at this time has a purely religious meaning: the
presence of strangers, so the Kayan believe, would frighten or annoy the
spirits and consequently endanger the welfare of the crops.[64] Following
the rites at sowing come those which inaugurate the hoeing of the fields,
and finally the New Year’s festival, eight days in duration, when the
harvest has been safely garnered and the long period of labour and
anxiety is at an end.[65]
But the critical occasions demanding the observance of taboos are not
confined by the Kayan to agricultural occupations. Every important
undertaking may be commenced only when favourable omens have been
vouchsafed by the good spirits, and when the spirits of evil intent have
been pacified by many acts of abstinence. These aborigines, for example,
entertain the belief that house-building, which necessarily involves
the cutting-down of many trees, is a dangerous occupation, because it
arouses the animosity of the tree-spirits. Hence some Kayan villages,
after the erection of a communal house, observe a period of penance for
an entire year. The Ulu-Ayar Dyak on the Mandai River, when they use the
valuable ironwood as timber, feel it necessary, in consequence, to deny
themselves various dainties for three years.[66] To the Kayan on the
Mahakam River in Dutch Borneo, the building of a chiefs house, in which
task all take part by contributing either materials or labour, forms a
matter of great moment. Dr. Nieuwenhuis, who witnessed the ceremonies
on such an occasion, tells us that the regulations enforced begin with
the collection of materials for the new dwelling. Nothing may be done
at full moon, a time when important business is always suspended.[67]
During the search for satisfactory trees and while these are being turned
into piles, planks, and shingles, watch is kept for spirit-warnings as
revealed by the flight and cries of the ominous birds. Work on the house
always terminates at nightfall, when birds are silent. Important stages
in the construction of the house, such as the sinking of the piles and
the placing of the finely carved wooden figureheads at the two ends of
the ridgepole, are signalized by appropriate sacrifices to the spirits.
When a sufficient quantity of shingles has been prepared for covering
the roof, another offering, consisting of a fat pig and two chickens, is
made to the spirits. Then follows a rest period, called _melo_,[68] two
days in length. During this time a strip of rattan is stretched around
the house to indicate that no one may enter it. While the house is being
shingled, any untoward event will interrupt the progress of the work.
For instance, should a man tumble off the roof, it would be necessary to
perform another sacrifice and to declare a _melo_ lasting eight days.
Thus anxiously and seriously does the Kayan conduct himself in all the
crises of his tribal life.[69]
Among the most numerous and powerful of the Bornean tribes are the Iban,
or Sea Dyak, who occupy much of the country between the Baram River in
Sarawak and the Kapuas River in Dutch Borneo. Throughout this extensive
district the Iban use the same language and possess substantially uniform
customs. A Christianized native, who has given to us a remarkably
intimate description of the religious observances of his people, thus
sets forth the omens and incidents which require abstention from work.
“When at night the Iban dreams of insult, anger, or that he has been
bitten by a snake, crushed by a falling tree, waylaid by a ghost, chased
by a crocodile, the following day he rests from all work: to go abroad
or about his work after such dreams would cause him to be wounded, hurt
by falling wood, or shot by an arrow from the evil spirits’ blowpipe.
On the frequent recurrence of such dreams the medicine-man is called
in, who rubs the patient’s body with a charm which makes him invisible
to the evil spirits. This ceremony is called _bedinding_, _i.e._, the
shielding.... To dream of being enveloped by a swarm of bees, of being
overwhelmed by falling earth, that the waist-cloth has rotted away, or of
eating rice from a winnowing-fan, will deter the Iban from going on the
warpath, for they tell of defeat and of being overpowered by the enemy.
“To hear the cry of a bird of evil omen on first waking in the morning,
or on rising up from the morning meal, prevents the Iban from going to
his work on that day.... When the Iban is setting out to his work and has
descended the ladder leading from his house, if the note of a bird of
any kind is heard at the same time as his foot first touches the ground,
he must turn back. The cry of the _kikeh senabong_, gazelle, or deer,
heard on the path, will cause him to give up work for that day. The same
happens if these omens are heard as he enters the field; arrives at the
_pankalan_, _i.e._, ‘resting place’; when commencing his work; whilst
sharpening his chopper, or after the midday meal.
“The news of a death occurring in the neighbourhood or at a distance, the
time of full moon,[70] the performance of ceremonies over the sick by
the medicine-man, a sacrifice to the spirits, are incidents that require
all the villagers to rest from work. Likewise, if some of the villagers
attend a feast in a neighbouring village, those that remain behind must
rest from work lest they should incur the anger of the guardian spirits
of those attending the feast.”[71]
But these are not all the circumstances under which an Iban community
subjects itself to the rule of abstinence. Rice-planting here, as among
the Kayan, necessitates certain rest periods, each of three days’
duration.[72] While a village is under construction, weaving the native
cloth, settling quarrels, and going on the warpath are forbidden; to
break this taboo would cause a death in the village.[73] When rumours
are abroad of cholera, smallpox, or fever, another season of seclusion
is imposed. The entrance to the village is railed off, and no one is
allowed either ingress or egress for three days, during which time all
rest from work. Meanwhile the village elders have prepared an offering
to the evil spirit of the epidemic. This sacrifice, together with a
winnowing-fan on which is the figure of man drawn in chalk, is placed
in a shed near the village. The evil spirit, it is thought, will stop
to observe the chalk-drawing and thus will be led to discover the food
which has been left in the shed. Having satisfied his hunger, he will not
seek to enter the village.[74] The general character of these taboos as
propitiatory rites is further illustrated by some of the customs relating
to agriculture. When the forest land has been fully cleared and left
to dry, sun and wind become of vital consequence to the Iban, for, if
the people are unable to burn the immense mass of timber and brush-wood
in the jungle, famine stares them in the face during the year to come.
“If it pour with rain day after day and week after week, and there is
no promise of continued fine weather, they are apt to imagine that some
impurity has defiled the tribe and that the face of the Great Spirit is
hid from them. So the elders of the people get to work to find it out,
and adjudicate on all cases of incest and bigamy, and purify the earth
with the blood of pigs. Prayers are offered to Betara[75] from one end of
the country to the other; for the space of three days the villages are
tabooed, and all labour is discontinued; the inhabitants remain at home
and strangers are not admitted. But if the weather is warm and dry, the
farms are ready in a very few days for the burning.”[76]
The seasons of communal abstinence found among the Land Dyak, who dwell
in the southwestern part of Sarawak, differ only in minor details from
those of other Bornean tribes. There are three principal occasions when
the Land Dyak subject themselves to _pamali_, or taboo:
“The first, _pamali mati_, is on a house, and on everything in it for
twelve days after the decease of any person belonging to it: during this
time, no one who is not an inhabitant of the dwelling can enter it, nor
are the persons usually residing in it allowed to speak to such, nor can
anything, on any pretence whatever, be removed from it, until the twelve
days of the prohibition be expired: its conclusion is marked by the death
of a fowl or pig, according to the circumstances of the family.
“The _pamali peniakit_ is undertaken by a whole village during any
sickness which prevails generally amongst the members of the tribe; it
is marked by a pig slain, and a feast being made in order to propitiate
the divinity who has sent the malady among them; in its severest form
it is of eight days’ continuance, and during this period everything in
the village is at a standstill, the inhabitants shutting themselves up
from all intercourse with strangers.... The _pamali peniakit_ is also
undertaken by individuals when any member of the family is sick; thus
parents often put themselves under its regulations, fondly hoping that
by denying themselves for a time the pleasures of intercourse with their
fellow creatures, they will prevail upon the malignant spirit, which is
supposed to have shed its withering influence over their offspring, to
restore it to its wonted health and strength.
“The _pamali omar_, or taboo on the farms, occurs immediately after the
whole of the seed is sown: it lasts four days, and during that period,
no person of the tribe enters any of the plantations on any account;
a pig and feast are, according to their practice, also necessary. The
proper observance of these various forms of _pamali_ is probably amongst
the most ancient of their customs, and was practised by their tribes
previously to the introduction of the Hindu religion.”[77] From another
authority we learn that the Land Dyak recognize a variety of incidents,
more or less inimical to the operations of farming, which suffice to
impose taboos. “If the basket in which the paddy is put as it is cut
during harvesting be upset, that farm must rest for a day, and a fowl
must be killed, or all their paddy will go rotten. If a tree falls across
the farm-path, a fowl must be killed on the spot, and the path be disused
for one day, or some one will meet with an accident on it.... At full
moon, and on the third day after it (called _bubuk_), no farm work may
be done, unless it is wished that the paddy should be devoured by blight
and mildew. In some tribes the unlucky days are those of the new and full
moon, and its first and third quarters.”[78]
In the course of an excellent study of the Land Dyak festivals,[79]
Mrs. S. B. Scott argues that they are far more effective as social
observances when accompanied by the various taboos. The change of
occupations heightens the sacredness of the feast, and also enables all
the inhabitants of a village to join in the long, elaborate ritual.
At the same time the closed house prevents intrusion and secures the
presence of every member of the community. Furthermore, the prospect
of feasting, drinking, and general excitement gives an added zest to
the labours of the Dyak farmers. The mid-harvest festival, when this is
celebrated, affords a much needed rest from the heavy work of harvesting;
and the last and greatest of the festivals comes as a natural period
of relaxation after the long strain of toil and frugality is suddenly
relaxed.[80]
That in actual practice the Land Dyak observances have this outcome, it
is impossible to deny. Yet it must be noticed that similar regulations
are in force on other and quite different occasions. As we have just
seen, the Land Dyak place an interdict, twelve days in length, upon a
house in which any one has died; the same event also causes a general
banning of the village for one day only.[81] Childbirth imposes a taboo
of eight days’ duration on a Land Dyak family;[82] in this case the
regulation does not appear to be extended to the community at large.
Sickness is another event which puts a family under the ban;[83] when the
sickness assumes an epidemic form and threatens the general well-being,
the rule of abstinence must be observed by every one in the village. Such
evidence from the Land Dyak customs, confirmed as it is by the facts
relating to the customs of other Bornean tribes, clearly illustrates
the passage of individual taboos, based on gross superstition, into
community ordinances which may sometimes have a real justification in
their social usefulness.
These Bornean regulations disclose a fairly consistent effort to adjust
the length of the communal taboo to the importance of the event which it
commemorates. Thus, house-building imposes a shorter season of abstinence
than does planting or sowing; a single death in the village may require
the cessation of activity by the inhabitants for only one day; but an
epidemic sickness may necessitate a three days’ rest, as among the Iban,
or even eight days’ rest, as among the Land Dyak. The restrictions
themselves appear to be substantially the same in all instances: the
inhabitants “remain in their houses, in order to eat, drink, and sleep;
but their eating must be moderate, and often consists of nothing but rice
and salt.... People under interdict may not bathe, touch fire, or employ
themselves about their ordinary occupations.”[84] To these prohibitions
should be added that of sexual intercourse, a taboo specifically
mentioned for one Bornean tribe, and probably found among others.[85]
The close resemblances, even in details, between the communal taboos
observed in different parts of Borneo must, unquestionably, be attributed
to a long-continued process of diffusion among the various Indonesian
tribes. These taboos have not been found, at any rate have not been
described, among the nomadic hunting tribes, which occupy the interior
parts of Borneo and probably represent an aboriginal population.
Though our knowledge of Bornean ethnography is still very imperfect,
there seems to be no doubt that the present Indonesian inhabitants are
descended from immigrants into the island at no very remote date. We are
justified, therefore, in seeking a foreign source for various elements of
the existing Bornean culture. In particular, the practice of observing
communal taboos, in its rudiments, if not in its completely developed
form, may reasonably be regarded as an importation into Borneo, if
similar customs are found to prevail among other Indonesian peoples.
Between the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the northern coast
of Sumatra lies the archipelago of the Nicobars. The inhabitants appear
to be of Indonesian type, but more or less intermixed with Malays and
with the natives of Burma and Siam. In spite of the labours of numerous
missionaries the Nicobarese are said to entertain no conception of a
Supreme Being or of a future state. They have, however, a very lively
belief in evil spirits, which seem to be chiefly the ghosts of the
wicked. These malignant beings, the source of all misfortune and
disease, are propitiated with offerings or driven out by exorcisms. On
such occasions the Nicobarese hold lengthy festivals, some of which
are accompanied by periods of communal abstinence. The native name for
these enforced rest days or holidays is _anoiila_.[86] Every year the
inhabitants of Kar Nicobar observe the ceremony of _kataphang_, at which
time the group of buildings, called the _elpanam_,[87] is cleaned out and
purified to the accompaniment of much singing and dancing. When this
preliminary work is done and the rubbish has been cast into the sea, the
doors of the houses in the _elpanam_ are closed and the people return to
their private abodes in the village. “Silence has now to be observed for
a full month; no fire or light may be seen; no cheroot may be smoked.
Women and children are interdicted from coming to the _elpanam_, and,
if they have to come during the night on urgent affairs (to purchase
things), they have to place a light at the entrance of the _elpanam_ and
then come without noise.... The chief sufferers by this festival are the
Burmans, because the people cannot supply any nuts nor can they work in
making _kopra_, for the reason that they cannot go into the jungle to
fetch nuts nor can they come to the _elpanam_.” The natives believe that
during this time the evil spirits from the jungle visit the _elpanam_.
When the month is up, a great feast is given to the spirits and they are
sent back to the jungle.[88] Another Nicobar festival is that of _kiala_.
The word means, properly, “to take food.” The _kiala_ is celebrated with
much feasting, to which the inhabitants of neighbouring communities come
as guests. At midday a cry of supplication is heard from each building:
“Let our house be enriched with plenty of food. Let us have many eatable
things from other villages. Let there come new women to our villages. Let
us be happy.” Then follow in regular sequence a day of rest—_anoiila_—a
day of pig-hunting in the jungle, a second _anoiila_, and a second day of
pig-hunting. One more rest day ends the festival.[89] The exact meaning
of these observances is difficult to make out.
Very similar customs have been found among the people of Bali, an
island to the east of Java. When the Balinese are confronted by some
real or imaginary danger, such as an epidemic, an earthquake, or a lunar
eclipse, they at once take measures to drive away the evil spirits, or
_buta_, which have caused the ominous event. This praiseworthy object
is supposed to be accomplished partly by verbal commands “go away! go
away!” addressed to the _buta_, partly by means of an unearthly uproar
of shouting and knocking. Then follow two days of absolute silence, the
stillness of the grave. During this period, known as _sepi_, no one
ventures out of doors and no strangers are admitted to the village.
Even the usual domestic work, including cooking, is discontinued. The
interdict against all activity is lifted on the third day, but even
then work in the rice-fields and buying and selling in the market are
forbidden. The evil spirits, it is believed, would like to return at
once to their old haunts, hence they must be led to think that Bali is
not Bali, but some uninhabited island.[90] This period of quiescence is
clearly a means of avoiding contact with the ghostly powers. The reason
given for abstaining from activity—to make the spirits suppose that Bali
is not Bali—may be taken as a naïve effort to explain a custom no longer
understood. The Balinese have also a New Year’s festival, which shows the
influence of Buddhism in the date chosen for its observance, the first
five weeks of the Buddhist year. “At this time the gods are supposed to
dwell on the earth, and the _pitara_ especially return to the bosoms of
their families; hence the constant offerings and the incessant games
and amusements, which are regarded as necessary less for the living
generation than for the _pitara_ and gods sojourning among them; hence
also the cessation from work and the disinclination to intercourse with
foreigners during this period. Trade and foreigners are not agreeable
to the _pitara_, who desire to see the old institutions and usages
faithfully preserved.”[91]
In the island of Nias, lying off the western coast of Sumatra, the
news of an epidemic sickness will cause a quarantine to be established
in every community, not only against the inhabitants of the infected
village, but against all strangers without discrimination. The quarantine
lasts for eight days.[92] Probably this taboo is observed on other
occasions, as seems to be the case with the inhabitants of the Pagi
Islands, which form the southern extension of the Mentawi group.
These islanders are scarcely above the level of culture reached by
Bornean tribes: they live in large communal houses, practise tattooing
assiduously, and worship the evil spirits which manifest their power in
thunder and lightning, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods. The natives,
at certain times, are said to remain in their villages and to exclude
all strangers. During this period of separation from the world they may
neither give nor receive anything, they must refrain from eating certain
articles of food, and they may not engage in trade.[93] A very competent
observer, who has made a special study of the taboo system in the
Mentawi Islands, describes the seasons of restriction found there under
the name of _punän_. The “great” _punän_ arises from any circumstance
which vitally affects the welfare of a community: when a chief erects
a house for himself, when a village is visited by an epidemic, or when
a cocoanut-palm is overthrown by some _force majeure_. Similarly, the
inauguration of a superior chief or the choice of a priest requires the
imposition of a “great” _punän_. The same propitiatory usage becomes
necessary when a villager has been killed by a crocodile. The “little”
_punän_ relates rather to individuals and to families. Many are the
occasions when it is imposed—at house-building, at the setting-out of a
garden, at boat-making, and when a native leaves his village to settle
elsewhere. The “little” _punän_ is especially obligatory for women during
pregnancy, at birth, and for eight months thereafter. It occurs also as
an accompaniment of marriage, when there is sickness in a family, and
when some member of the household has died. All crises in the communal
and individual life of the Mentawi Islanders are thus kept as periods of
restriction; in some cases, however, these rest days have become to all
intents and purposes festivals and holidays.[94]
The wild and little-known aborigines of Formosa, who are probably of
Indonesian origin, appear to possess similar customs. Of them it is
said, generally, that “great fasts are held after a sickness or when any
of the tribe have been killed. At such times they will be silent, and
will only eat sufficient food to maintain life.”[95] Another traveller
refers to these communal fast days under the native name of _hiang_, and
adds the further fact that at such times strangers are excluded from the
village.[96] A very intelligent observer, describing the superstitions
of the Peiwan, mentions a curious custom according to which “one who has
unpleasant dreams must confine himself to his house for the day.”[97]
This very scanty information will doubtless be supplemented by much more
evidence, when the Formosan tribes have been scientifically studied.
The Philippine Archipelago contains a great number of Indonesian tribes,
among which are the Subanu of Mindanao, a mountain people occupying the
interior portions of the Zamboanga District, where they have taken refuge
from the raids of their hereditary enemies, the Moros and Filipinos.
The Subanu are described as a suspicious and superstitious people
with a pronounced belief in spirits—both good and evil. Ceremonies of
propitiation accompany all important undertakings, such as the clearing
of a new plantation, the building of a house, the beginning of a
journey, hunting, and the harvesting of the crops. Festivals are held to
propitiate these spirits, or to celebrate some event in which an entire
settlement is interested. From the following account it would seem that
the custom of communal abstinence is frequently observed by the Subanu.
“In contending against the difficulties of their settlement life the
Subanu have gradually adopted an effective quarantine service against the
spread of infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, and cholera. Upon
the appearance of the first case among any of the settlement families,
the _timuai_ [communal chief] orders the establishment of the signals
of quarantine, and these are quickly provided. Fences of poles and
split bamboo, or _bejuco_, are erected across the main trails leading
to the houses of the settlement. On these fences are placed, in fixed
positions, carved imitations of war weapons, such as spears, _kampilan_,
_barong_, and _pira_, pointed outward to warn the approaching stranger
or visitor to remain away. It is a notice that death will be visited
upon the person who attempts to enter the settlement while the scourge
of disease prevails.... Near the signal fences are erected light wooden
stands with offerings of various articles of food to appease the wrath
of the gods and cause them to assist in extirpating the disease. Small
sheds are also sometimes erected near the stands, under which guards
may be stationed to prevent the food from being taken by wild animals,
birds, and mischievous persons. But the guards go to sleep and the food
(cooked rice, boiled eggs, fruit, tobacco, betel-nut, cooked chicken,
etc.) disappears, whereupon the guards report that _diuata_ (god) has
accepted the gifts and will drive away the disease. Superstition and good
sense are strangely but effectively mingled in this scheme of practical
and efficacious quarantine; and the Subanu stand alone among all the
tribes and peoples of Mindanao in devising and operating such protective
measures.”[98]
Another Indonesian people of the Philippines are the Bontoc Igorot, a
non-Christian folk dwelling in northern Luzon. They are mountain farmers
and live in towns made up of political divisions, or _ato_, analogous to
the wards of an American city. The business of each _ato_ is conducted
by a council of elders. These Bontoc Igorot observe a sacred rest
day, called _tengao_.[99] It occurs, on an average, about every ten
days during the year, though not with absolute regularity. Three men,
belonging to what might be described as a hereditary priesthood, fix
the time for the _tengao_, as for all other ceremonials of the pueblo.
They then inform the elders of each _ato_, who, in turn, make a public
announcement on the evening preceding the day. “The small boys, however,
are the true ‘criers.’ They make more noise in the evening before the
rest day, crying _Tĕng-aó! whi tĕng-aó!_ (‘Rest day! hurrah! rest day!’)
than I have heard from the pueblo at any other time.” The _tengao_
appears to be marked by the cessation of agricultural work, but not by
abstinence from all activity. “If a person goes to labour in the fields
on a sacred day—not having heard the announcement, or in disregard
of it—he is fined for ‘breaking the Sabbath.’” The lawbreaker has to
surrender firewood or rice or a small chicken to the value of about ten
cents, or the wage of two days. The fines are then expended in buying
chickens and pigs for certain religious ceremonies, known as _patay_.
These rites are performed every new moon for the general well-being of
the pueblo.[100] We are further told that the rest days are selected
in order that “such intimate, important interests as agriculture and
beneficial weather may be given the amount of attention they deserve.
The people have no calendar for succeeding ceremonial observances, so
a priesthood has developed to fix such days at the opportune time when
needed. They are sacred because all petitions are made to Lumawig their
god, a living, spirit, hero, and benefactor.”[101]
There seems to be every reason for supposing that this remarkable
institution of an almost periodic Sabbath is of native origin. The Bontoc
Igorot dwell in a remote and inaccessible region; and they are a fairly
primitive people whose religious ideas have been unaffected by either
Christianity or Mohammedanism. The _tengao_ itself is apparently confined
to this single tribe of northern Luzon. At the same time the sacred
rest day does not stand without relation to the other observances of
the Igorot. Like the Bornean tribes they have a number of agricultural
ceremonies, religious in character, and designed to secure an abundant
harvest. Some of these ceremonies are accompanied by periods of rest.
Every year, on the occasion when _camotes_ are planted, the pueblo priest
kills a chicken or a pig, and petitions Lumawig for so many _camotes_
“that the ground will crack and burst open.” This rite takes place in the
fifth period of the Igorot year, called _baliling_. A similar rite is
performed when black beans are planted. The end of _baliling_ (about the
first of September) is marked by a three days’ rest, known as _kopus_. At
this time one of the priests charged with the performance of the _patay_
rite addresses a short supplication to Lumawig and then solemnly kills
a chicken. It is a critical moment for the people of the pueblo. Should
the gall of the fowl be found white or whitish, this means that disaster
will overtake the community. But a gall with a dark green colour implies
that the spirit enemies of Bontoc are not revengeful and that the pueblo
will enjoy prosperity. Another occasion when the Igorot rests from labour
comes at the _fakil_ ceremony for rain. It occurs four times each year,
on four succeeding days, and is performed by four different priests.
There is the usual sacrifice of a pig by the priest, and each night, just
before this rite takes place, all the people cry _I-tĕng-aó ta-ko nan
fa-kilʹ!_, an expression meaning, “Rest day! We observe the ceremony for
rain!”[102] These and other instances cited by Professor Jenks indicate
clearly that the Igorot festivals are intended to propitiate evil-minded
spirits and to secure material blessings from Lumawig, the supreme
being.[103] The evidence from Borneo and other regions suggests that
here in Luzon the rest accompanying some of the festivals has likewise a
propitiatory character, quite as much as the prayers and sacrifices. The
same interpretation would accordingly apply to the _tengao_, though that
day seems now to be regarded in some degree as a holiday. Furthermore,
the conjecture is plausible that the _tengao_ in its earlier form was not
a periodic but an occasional observance, called forth only by particular
emergencies in the communal life. The present form of this institution
gives evidence of a tendency, doubtless directed by the Igorot
priesthood, to calendarize seasons of taboo at definite and regular
intervals. And the dedication of this “Sabbath” to Lumawig may be only
a natural outcome of the preëminence assigned to that supreme god, who
stands out in such bold relief against the crowd of ancestral spirits,
good and bad, investing the Igorot world.[104]
The foregoing examples suffice to show how numerous are the occasions
on which the natives of Indonesia subject themselves to the rule of
abstinence. Assuming, with modern ethnographers, that the Indonesian
peoples represent an admixture in various proportions of primitive Indian
and southern Mongolian stocks, we need not be surprised to discover
that in certain parts of southeastern Asia, and notably among the
Tibeto-Burman tribes of Assam and Burma, there flourishes a system of
communal regulations strikingly similar to those which have just been
described.
The Naga tribes, who are said to resemble more closely the natives of
the Indian Archipelago than any of the other peoples occupying the hills
of Assam, apply the name _genna_[105] to their system of taboos.[106]
The following description refers particularly to the Naga of Manipur.
Here, as in Borneo, the regular communal taboos are for the most part
connected with the crops. Every stage of the rice cultivation is marked
by a village _genna_, the duration of which varies. Thus, among the Mao
Naga the rice-sowing necessitates a ten days’ _genna_, the transplanting
of the rice calls for only one day of restriction, the beginning of
the harvest for four days, and the harvest home for ten days. At such
times the village gates are shut and neither egress nor ingress is
allowed. “Among all these tribes from the day of the first crop _genna_
to the final harvest home all other forms of industry and activity are
forbidden. All hunting, fishing, tree- and grass-cutting, all weaving,
pot-making, salt-working, games of all kinds, bugling, dancing, all
trades are strictly forbidden—are _genna_—lest the grain in the ear be
lost.”[107]
It is obvious that some of these taboos tend, indirectly, to produce
beneficial effects. The prohibition of all labour, except agricultural,
during the season of rice-planting and harvesting permits the inhabitants
of a village to devote their time and attention solely to the care of
the crops. And the practical result of the taboo against hunting is
to provide a much-needed close season for wild animals, “for these
sportsmen spare not the game.” It is equally obvious, however, that the
regulations in question have had no utilitarian origin. Identical taboos
are imposed on a great variety of other occasions. A rain-compelling
ceremony, when the headman works magic for the benefit of the entire
village, is accompanied by a _genna_. General _genna_ are also proclaimed
after the occurrence of unusual phenomena, such as earthquakes, eclipses
of the sun or moon, and the appearance of comets. These events are
attributed to supernatural activity.[108] The destruction of a village
by fire occasions a general _genna_, sometimes for three days, before
any steps are taken to rebuild the houses. Such an event indicates that
spirits inimical to the people are about and active; consequently the
mere sight of the burning of a neighbouring village is enough to require
the imposition of a _genna_.[109] The outbreak of epidemic sickness
necessitates a _genna_, the purpose of which is clearly prophylactic.
Animal sacrifices of a propitiatory nature are made at such times. Some
of the Mao Naga even hold a regular village _genna_, as a means of
preventing all sickness during the year, while the Kabui Naga observe an
annual _genna_ in order to protect themselves from being hurt by bamboos.
The occurrence of mysterious cases of death requires a _genna_, for the
purpose of separating the living as soon as possible from the dangerous
dead; in the Mao group it is customary to hold a village _genna_ when a
villager dies, irrespective of the immediate cause of his decease.[110]
All the Naga communities hold a _genna_ devoted to the praiseworthy
object of finally laying to rest the ghosts of those who have died
during the preceding year. The rite takes place at the time of cold
weather, after the crops have been reaped. At this annual festival, “they
restore to the living those of their members who have been in jeopardy
of the contagion of death.”[111] Communal _genna_ are also enforced in
connection with the first death in the year of any domestic animals; on
the return to the village of a party of warriors with human heads taken
in a foray; when a python—a serpent closely associated with sickness—is
killed and eaten; during the deliberations of the village council; and
also when a man rashly allows his private or secret name to be mentioned
in public.[112] We may agree with an early writer, who, commenting on
these practices among the Angami Naga, remarks that there is “no end
to the reasons on which a _kennie_ must or may be declared, and as it
consists of a general holiday when no work is done, this Angami Sabbath
appears to be rather a popular institution.”[113]
A survey of these Naga ordinances indicates that here in Assam they
have much the same purpose as in other regions: they are protective
and conciliatory; to a certain extent they are even compelling, in so
far as the observance of the taboos is supposed to prevent the evil
spirits from inflicting further harm. The coercive quality of a _genna_
is also illustrated by the idea that, while the ill effects of an
interruption of a village ceremony are sometimes irremediable, there
are other cases where a repetition of the rite is enough to avert all
disastrous consequences.[114] It is to be observed, furthermore, that
all _genna_ are declared and supervised by the _khullakpa_, the secular
and religious head of the village. He acts in a representative capacity,
whenever a rite is to be performed which requires the whole force of the
community behind it, a force which operates through him. “These village
_genna_,” declares Mr. Hodson, “seem in many cases to be inspired by
the belief that man, _the man_, the _khullakpa_, when fortified by the
whole strength and will of the village, is able to control and constrain
forces which are beyond his control if unaided. He relies on coöperative
strength.”[115]
In addition to the village _genna_ the Naga are subject to numerous
regulations which affect individuals or families only, and do not extend
to the community at large. Household _genna_ are occasioned by such
events as the birth of children or of domesticated animals, the first
hair-cutting and ear-piercing, the naming of children, and finally the
death of domesticated animals in the house. The restrictions apply to
all who are normally inmates of the house, and to any others, such as
midwives, who may be temporarily members of the family. The duration of
these _genna_ varies not only from tribe to tribe but also from village
to village. The Mayang Khong Naga, in particular, have worked out an
elaborate scale for _genna_ following the birth of domestic animals.
“When a cow calves, the _genna_ lasts for five days; when a sow litters,
three days’ _genna_ is necessary; while when a bitch has pups, or a cat
has kittens, two days are ample. A hen hatching out a brood of chickens
brings on a _genna_ of one day.”[116] Such observances may be said to
mark the acme of the Naga taboo system, or, from another point of view,
to reduce it to an absurdity.
The _genna_ custom, which seems to have attained its most complicated
and grotesque development among the Naga, prevails, or in the past has
prevailed, throughout a wide area of Assam. The Hinduised Meithei of
Manipur, whose affinity to the wild hill tribes such as the Naga and Kuki
is admitted, no longer possess the custom itself, though preserving the
memory of it in their word _namungba_, or taboo.[117] General seasons of
restriction seem to be unknown among the Khasi, who inhabit the Khasi
and Jaintia hills, except in a single instance.[118] Their neighbours on
the west, the Garo, a people of Tibeto-Burman stock, have the equivalent
of _genna_ in the word _marang_, conveying the ideas of “unlucky” and
“unlawful.” But the Garo custom itself is scarcely socialized: the taboos
relate to individuals, and in only one case extend to the community at
large. This is the prohibition for any one in a village to labour in the
fields on the day when a child is born. It is believed that should a farm
be visited at such a time the crop would be cursed and blighted.[119]
Another Tibeto-Burman people, the Mikir, who dwell in the Mikir Hills
to the northwest of Manipur, have individual taboos of various kinds
and, in addition, a compulsory village festival called _rongker_. It is
held annually at the beginning of cultivation. At this time the gods
are invoked for good crops, good health, and preservation from tigers.
There is no music or dancing during the festival.[120] The _genna_ exists
among the Mishmi and Abor on the frontiers of northeastern Assam and
Tibet.[121] The Lushei (sometimes called Kuki) of the Lushei Hills to the
south of Manipur have a well-developed system of taboo, here known as
_hrilh_. Persons subject to _hrilh_ “must do no work, except necessary
household tasks, and must not leave a prescribed area.”[122] These
restrictions sometimes affect households only, sometimes entire villages.
They are communally imposed in connection with the sacrifice performed
before a large hunting party starts out, at the harvest festival, when an
epidemic sickness rages, and on other occasions.[123] West of the Lushei
dwell the Tippera and Mro tribes, among whom the communal taboo observed
in consequence of an epidemic goes under the name of _khang_. “The
quarantine is inaugurated and declared with a certain degree of ceremony.
A sacrifice is offered, and the village is encircled with a fresh-spun
white thread. The blood of the animal sacrificed is then sprinkled about
the village, and a general sweeping and cleansing takes place, the houses
and gates being decorated with green boughs. They attach great importance
to the quarantine being kept unbroken. It generally lasts three days,
and during that time no one is allowed to enter or leave the village.
I have known several murders committed, owing to persons persisting in
breaking the _khang_.”[124] The same communal taboo is observed when a
village is being built, and regularly in July, when the rice requires
cultivation.[125] These tribes formerly lived in the Arakan Hills of
Lower Burma, where identical regulations, known as _ya_, are also
enforced.[126]
The _genna_ custom may be traced in various parts of Burma. From the
Naga, Lushei, and other tribes of Assam the ethnical transition is
unbroken to the Chin, who occupy the Chindwin valley and the hills to
the west. Probably these aborigines are not unfamiliar with the _genna_
as a device to avoid a visitation by demonic powers identified with
smallpox, cholera, and other diseases. We are told that once, when
cholera broke out among some Chin on a visit to Rangoon, they spent the
day hiding under the bushes so that the cholera-spirit might not find
them.[127] The Kachin (Chingpaw) on the upper Irawadi River, a people
generally regarded as closely akin to the Chin on the one hand and to
the Karen on the other, recognize six occasions during the year, when
no one is supposed to do any work. The rest days, numbering sixteen
in all, are known collectively as _na na ai_, which may be translated
“ceremonial holiday.” They all occur in connection with agriculture—when
the jungle is fired, before and after seed-planting, while the crop is
ripening, and at harvest—as a means of securing the good will of the
_nat_, or spirits.[128] Similar customs are still observed by some of
the Karen tribes. Of the Tsawku Karen it is said that their religion
consists entirely in attempts to appease various malignant spirits. When
the inhabitants of a village or the members of a household are engaged
in ceremonies of propitiation, “they put up a bow with an arrow ready
fitted to the string, or some other sign to indicate that there is ‘no
admittance,’ or that ‘trespassers will be prosecuted according to law,’
and these insignia are scrupulously respected.”[129] The Sawngtung Karen
forbid any one to leave the village on the day of the birth of a child
in it, and no eggs may be kept in the village while the fields are
being reaped. The Taungthu Karen believe that giving away anything at
all on sowing or planting days means blight for the crop.[130] These
superstitions no doubt represent decadent forms of a once-extensive
_genna_ system among the Karen. The _genna_, again, has been noticed
among the Muhso, or Lalu, a large tribe which has emigrated from China
to the Shan States. The Muhso close their villages against strangers
for five days during an annual festival, which begins on the Chinese
New Year’s Day. Bamboo gateways and symbols are erected along the paths
approaching a settlement, in order to warn possible intruders. If an
outsider persists in entering a village, he is kept a prisoner there till
the festival is over. All his possessions, even his clothes, are taken
away from him and he is returned naked to the world. In explanation of
this conduct the natives say that the spirits, in whose honour the feast
is held, are displeased at the presence of strangers.[131] The Wild Wa, a
head-hunting tribe on the northeastern frontier of the Shan States, are
said to have no regularly recurrent festivals, but hold them as often
as they are confronted by “particular dangers or necessities.”[132] The
Miao (Miao-tse), one of the little-known tribes of southwestern China,
celebrate musical festivals throughout the year. These seem now to be
_fêtes_ pure and simple, though at one time possessing a religious
character. “If asked why they hold these festivals, they say that if they
failed to do so their crops would be bad; and yet they do not profess to
understand how the harvests are influenced by this custom.”[133]
The _genna_, either in vigorous activity or in attenuated survival,
has now been traced throughout a wide area in southeastern Asia, and
particularly among the Tibeto-Burman tribes of Assam and Burma. Modern
ethnographers recognize in the Indo-Chinese an immigrant population,
probably from western China, which for many centuries has been gradually
moving southward along the course of the great rivers emptying into the
Bay of Bengal. The custom of the _genna_ appears to be one of the most
characteristic features of Indo-Chinese culture; its presence, therefore,
throughout this area must be explained as the result of diffusion and
not of independent origination. Furthermore, we have found that in the
various Indonesian islands as far as New Guinea, and especially in
Borneo, customs closely akin to that of the _genna_ also belong to the
native culture. It is likely that the ancestors of the Polynesians passed
through these islands on their way to the Pacific; if this be so, we
can understand why _tabu_ in Polynesia should present so many obvious
resemblances to _lali_ in Borneo and to _genna_ in Assam. The student
whose primary concern is the wanderings of peoples cannot neglect such
evidence of extensive diffusion, showing how for ages cultural elements
have been drifting from the interior of Asia over the Indo-Chinese region
and the Indian Archipelago, and thence into the island world of the
Pacific.
What general conclusions may be drawn from a comparative survey of these
communal taboos in the several areas under consideration? In the first
place it seems clear that the various negative regulations, such as those
imposing idleness, fasting, and continence, closely resemble some of
the pains and penalties to which the savage subjects himself on other
occasions. For instance, the well-known custom of the _couvade_ imposes
on the husband, during the pregnancy of his wife or after the birth of
the child, a number of restrictions, which often include abstention from
various sorts of work, and sometimes from all occupations whatsoever.
The practice of the _couvade_ appears to be an outgrowth of the idea
that under special circumstances the close ties uniting husband and wife
engender a mystic sympathy between them, so that the acts of the one
affect the welfare of the other. Similar ideas underlie the numerous
rules of abstinence observed by hunters, fishers, and warriors when
absent from home, and by the relatives and friends whom they have left
behind.[134] We cannot always fathom the savage logic which has generated
the numberless regulations observed at such critical seasons; but they
would seem to be particular expressions of an ancient doctrine—“In
quietness shall be your strength.”
In the second place it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, however
vexatious and burdensome may be the restrictions resting on a primitive
community, these are not without a definite psychological value. The
consciousness that all the omens have been duly taken and that all taboos
have been properly observed is itself invigorating; the community goes
forward, henceforth, with renewed strength and confidence to the tasks
which lie before it.[135]
Finally, it may be pointed out how directly these communal regulations
make for social solidarity. Students of early society have long
recognized the fact that the institution of taboo, in its individualistic
aspects, has helped to nurse in man a sense of reverence and a power of
self-restraint greatly needed under primitive conditions. Such beneficial
results are even more manifest in the case of communal taboos. For, when
the restrictions are violated by any one, there is always the feeling
that misfortune will overtake the entire social group, and hence a duty
devolves on each man to see that his neighbour obeys the law. Altruism
becomes a coercive process, and social cohesion is secured by each member
of the group making himself his brother’s keeper. It is desirable to
keep in mind these positive benefits inherent in the taboo system, since
perhaps excessive attention has been directed to its hampering influence
on society.
In the three regions which have been selected for close examination—the
Hawaiian Islands, Borneo, and Assam—it thus appears that there are
certain occasions when the normal current of life is interrupted, and
when what may well be called a crisis presents itself.[136] In general
any time of special significance, inaugurating a new era or marking the
transition from one state to another, any period of storm and stress, any
epoch when untoward events have occurred or are expected to occur, may be
invested with taboos designed to meet the emergency in the communal life
and to ward off the threatened danger or disaster. Periods of abstinence
are imposed because of such unusual, and therefore critical, events as a
conflagration, an epidemic sickness, or an earthquake; after a death; at
the changes of the moon; at the end of the old year and the beginning of
the new year; during a time devoted to the banning of ghosts and demons;
and in connection with such important undertakings as the commencement
of a war, seed-planting, and harvest, and the celebration of a solemn
religious or magical ceremony. The peoples whom we have just studied
have, so to speak, institutionalized their fears, working out thereby a
protective procedure highly complex and elaborate. But the conceptions
which generated the tabooed day in Polynesia, Indonesia, and southeastern
Asia are not local and confined; on the contrary they underlie a wide
range of social phenomena.
CHAPTER II
TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS
Among the lower races perhaps the most common occasion for the suspension
of ordinary occupations is after a death.[137] The prohibition of work
at this time usually forms only one of a number of regulations, which
also impose partial or complete abstinence from food and place a ban on
loud talking, singing, and the wearing of ornaments and gay clothing.
The taboos are often confined to the family or at most to the relatives
of the deceased; in other cases they affect the entire community.
The explanation of these rules must sometimes be sought in animistic
conceptions. The soul of the dead man is supposed to remain for a time
with the body in the grave or near the scenes of the earthly life. Until
the funeral ceremonies are completed, when the ghost is finally “laid”
or departs for the abode of the dead, prudence requires the survivors to
avoid all conspicuous activity, if they would not attract the unwelcome
attentions of the ghost. A similar period of quiescence may be considered
necessary when the death is attributed to an evil spirit, which lurks
about its quarry and seeks another victim.
But earlier, probably, in development, and certainly far more general,
is the belief in the pollution of death.[138] Primitive peoples seldom
recognize a death as due to what we should call natural causes. Sickness,
and death following on sickness, when not attributed to the direct action
of an evil spirit or of some malevolent person who has been practising
nefarious magic, are thought to be due to the contaminating miasma of
death. Death is a mysterious atmospherical poison which extends its
defiling influence far and wide. Hence we have at least one motive for
the very common custom of destroying the house and personal property of
the deceased. Hence arise the taboos of the corpse, of persons who have
anything to do with the corpse, of the relatives of the deceased, and of
mourners, generally. An obvious application of such ideas requires that
all activities should be abandoned by the survivors for some time after
a death; and, where the sense of social solidarity is strong, the notion
of abstinence at so critical a season may be extended to the entire
community.[139]
Communal taboos following a death are not unknown in Polynesia,
Micronesia, and New Guinea,[140] and may be traced elsewhere in the
Oceanic area. In Timor, when a king dies, no work is done for seven days
thereafter.[141] In Halmahera an entire village will be tabooed in
consequence of the death of one of its members. Violations of the taboo
(_pomali_) are severely punished.[142] The practice of intermitting work
in a village until a corpse is buried prevails in many of the Molucca
Islands.[143] Among all the non-Christian tribes of northern Luzon,
“there is no field work in an _ato_ on the day when an adult person
is buried.”[144] The inhabitants of Kar Nicobar exhibit great fear of
ghostly influence before the funeral ceremonies have been completed. The
corpse of any one who has died in the village is conveyed at once to
the “dead house,” and the inhabitants proceed to barricade themselves
in their houses and to keep fires burning before the doors. The houses,
canoes, and ground about the village are covered with palm leaves to
prevent the ghost from entering. Some of the dead man’s pigs are killed,
a few cocoa palms are cut down, and on rare occasions his house is
burnt, or unroofed and left deserted. “Shaving the head is sometimes
indulged in as a sign of mourning, together with frequent bathing and
abstinence from work.”[145] The Malay fishermen of the Patani States in
the Malay Peninsula observe various restrictions and prohibitions, the
transgression of which would bring sickness or misfortune. If a death
occurs in a fishing village, no boat from that village must go to sea
on the following day, and no one must set out on a land journey. The
fisherman or the traveller who disregarded this injunction would have no
luck and would probably meet with some disaster.[146]
Periods of abstinence after a death are observed by many of the tribes
of Borneo, in close connection with the prevailing institution of taboo.
When a death occurs in an Iban village, the inhabitants give up their
outdoor occupations and remain at home, seven days in the case of a male,
three days for a female, and one day for an infant. During this time the
relatives of the deceased lay aside their ornaments and bright dresses,
assume deep mourning, and abstain from music and jollity.[147] Another
authority declares that after a death “it is tabooed to work on the farm:
at busy times for three days; at other times for seven days.”[148] In
the case of a chief’s death the natives refrain from work for a longer
period than is usual when a commoner dies.[149] Similar restrictions are
found among the Land Dyak,[150] the Dusun, or Sundyak, of British North
Borneo,[151] and some other tribes. Members of a Kayan household observe
various mourning ceremonies, and in particular avoid all music, feasts,
and jollifications for a period which varies in length according to the
social standing of the deceased.[152]
Among the Naga tribes of Manipur, with the notable exception of the
Mao people by whom a village _genna_ is held whenever a villager dies,
it is not necessary or usual to perform this communal rite in cases of
regular and non-mysterious death. The _genna_ is then confined to the
clan, that is, to the group of individuals who comprise the heirs of the
deceased.[153] But all cases of death by sudden illness, by accident, by
the hand of an enemy, and by wild animals or snakes necessitate general
or village _genna_.[154] The same rule prevails when a woman has died
in childbirth.[155] The purpose of these regulations seems to be that
of separating the living as soon as possible from the dangerous spirits
of the dead, or of avoiding the contagion of death. Among the Khasi of
Assam, who do not observe general seasons of restriction, clan _genna_
are imposed after a death. The surviving clansmen are not allowed to work
until three days have elapsed from the time of placing the bones of the
deceased in the clan tomb.[156] In northern Arakan, Lower Burma, when
any native has been killed by a tiger, crocodile, or other animal, when
any woman resident in the village dies in childbed, or when the body
of a person who died in such a manner is brought into the village, all
intercourse with that village is cut off until the appearance of the next
new moon.[157] Similar regulations exist among the Lao of northern Siam
and among the savage inhabitants of Indo-China.[158]
Taboos following a death and imposing abstinence from work are found
in various parts of India. Among the Muppan, a hill-tribe of Wynaad,
Malabar, the relatives of the deceased do no work on the day after
the funeral, and also partially abstain from food. At a subsequent
date they perform a final ceremony to remove every trace of the death
pollution and to give peace to the departed spirit.[159] In former times
the Kataharayan, a fisher folk living on the Malabar coast, intermitted
their fishing for three days after the death of a prince of Malabar.[160]
Among the Kasuba, a forest tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills in the
Madras Presidency, fear of pollution requires the relatives of the
deceased to abstain from all kinds of work for an entire day.[161] Far
away to the north, among the Paharia of British Sikkim, the same ideas
of pollution prevail. All persons belonging to the household of the
deceased must observe strict silence during the period of mourning, and
they may eat only one meal a day and that “half a bellyful.” Under such
circumstances, we are told, work in the fields is impossible.[162] With
these regulations may be compared those observed in Tibet, where rich
and respectable men, when their parents die, abstain for a year from
participating in marriage ceremonies and festivities, and undertake no
lengthy journeys. Upon the demise of the Dalai Lama or of the Tashi Lama,
all work ceases for seven days, public offices are closed, and markets
are suspended. The people refrain from amusements and festivities and
from going into groves for pleasure, sport, and love-making. For thirty
days women are forbidden to put on their jewellery, and neither men nor
women may wear new clothes. Thus the land of Tibet goes into mourning for
the loss of one of its great hierarchs.[163]
Very similar customs are found within the African area. They seem to
be generally observed by the Bantu peoples of South Africa. Among all
the Zulu tribes it is the rule that no one labours in the fields on
the day following a death, and that after the death of a chief work
of every sort is suspended for six months.[164] “If a person is struck
by lightning, the whole kraal fast and do not even drink water, until
the mediciner has performed his office.”[165] The Basuto, who form the
eastern branch of the widespread Bechuana people, abstain from all public
work on the day when an influential person dies.[166] In Ussindja, a
district of German East Africa, the Sultan Rwoma gave vent to his sorrow
for the loss of a favourite son by forbidding all agricultural work for
six years. Within a few months, however, famine stared his subjects in
the face, and the grief-stricken father was compelled to rescind the
prohibition.[167] Mourning regulations which impose abstinence from work
have been described among various tribes of British East Africa occupying
the territory to the east and north of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The Akikuyu,
who observe many restrictions connected with the corpse, regard the day
after a death as unlucky. “People will not travel, and goats and sheep
will not bear, and all the inhabitants of the village shave their heads.
The women will not go out for four days. On the next day the sons who
have taken part in the burial do not work.”[168] The taboos enforced by
the Nandi present some curious resemblances to those which we have met
among Indonesian peoples. The Nandi, probably in former days a hunting
tribe, have now taken to agriculture and raise large crops of eleusine
grain and millet. Their superstitions invest the process of farming with
many restrictions: no one while in a plantation may carry a spear or
rest a spear on the earth; thigh-bells must not be worn; a hide must not
be dragged along the ground; whistling is strictly forbidden. Work is
prohibited for an entire day following an earthquake, a phenomenon which
Nandi speculation, in common with other savage philosophies, attributes
to the movement of underground spirits.[169] If a hailstorm occurs, if a
hoe breaks, or if a beast of prey seizes a goat, no work must be done in
the fields for the rest of the day and for twenty-four hours afterwards.
It is believed that any sick person who eats the grain when harvested,
or who drinks beer made from the grain, will die, and that pregnant
women will abort. If the owner of a plantation dies while his crops are
ripening, all the grain must be eaten and none reserved for sowing;
otherwise the grain will rot in the ground.[170] The Nilotic Kavirondo
do not cultivate their fields for three days after the death of any one
of importance, and for ten days after the death of a chief.[171] Their
neighbours, the Basoga, sometimes extended the days of mourning for a
deceased chief to two months. It is said that the crops not infrequently
suffered because of the strict abstention from work in the fields.[172]
Certain Abyssinian tribes refrain from ploughing, sowing, and grinding
grain until a corpse is buried.[173] Among the Arabs of Morocco, studied
by Professor Westermarck, there is a prohibition of all work in the
village until the funeral has taken place.[174]
The belief in the pollution of death is very strong among the Malagasy.
On the decease of a sovereign many practices are tabooed (_fady_) to the
common people, such prohibitions extending to various periods according
to the will of the new ruler. Thus, to sing, to play music, to clap
hands, to laugh boisterously, to dance, to wear ornaments or brightly
coloured garments, to dress or anoint the hair, to wear a hat, to cut the
nails, to clean the teeth, to bathe, to gaze in a mirror, and to carry
the arms akimbo are all _fady_. Such tasks as pottery-making, spinning
and weaving, plaiting of mats, carpentry, and metal-working are often
suspended. Furthermore, no, one is allowed to lie on a bedstead or to
ride in a palanquin or on horse-back, and every one is expected to shave
the head and uncover the shoulders. Many of these regulations, it is to
be noticed, are also enforced after the death of a near relative.[175]
In the New World the funeral ceremonies of the rulers of Mechoacan
furnish another illustration of the superstition under discussion. We
are told that when a king was buried all who had participated in the
obsequies washed themselves and went to dinner in the yard of the king’s
house, “and having dined they wiped their hands upon certain locks of
cotton-wool, hanging down their heads, and not speaking a word, except
it were to ask for drink.” These purificatory rites were accompanied
by a season of communal abstinence which lasted five days, “and in all
that time no fire was permitted to be kindled in the city, except in
the king’s house and temples, nor yet any corn was ground, or market
kept, nor durst any go out of their houses.”[176] Among the Seminoles
of Florida on the day of a funeral, and for three days thereafter, the
relatives of the deceased remained at home and abstained from work.
During this time the dead man was supposed to remain in his grave.
Subsequently he took his departure for an abode in the skies, and
mourning then ceased.[177]
The restrictions following a death appear to be especially prominent
among the Eskimo tribes, who possess a well-marked system of taboos. In
Greenland we meet the practice of requiring not only the kindred of the
deceased, but likewise all who have lived in the same house with him to
abstain from certain articles of food and from work for some time after
death.[178] Among the Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Strait after
the death of any person it is forbidden “to scrape the frost from the
window, to shake the beds or to disturb the shrubs under the bed, to
remove oil-drippings from under the lamp, to scrape hair from skins, to
cut snow for the purpose of melting it, to work on iron, wood, stone, or
ivory. Furthermore, women are forbidden to comb their hair, to wash their
faces, and to dry their boots and stockings.”[179] These Eskimo require
the relatives of the deceased to shut themselves up in his hut and mourn
his loss for three days. During this time the inhabitants of a village
must not use their dogs, but must walk to the hunting-ground. For one day
at least they are not allowed to go hunting, and the women refrain from
all work whatsoever. Dr. Boas notes how in the winter a long space of
bad weather occasions privation, since hunters cannot leave their huts.
“If by chance some one should happen to die during this time, famine is
inevitable, for a strict law forbids the performance of any kind of work
during the days of mourning.” During these three days the soul of the
deceased is supposed to be still with the body, not having yet gone to
the home of the goddess Sedna in the underworld.[180] According to one
account the Innuit, from the head of Bristol Bay to the Arctic, require
the survivors to refrain from work for twenty days after a death in the
family.[181] This is probably too broad a statement and does not allow
for minor divergencies of custom throughout so extensive an area. On the
lower Kuskokwim River the Alaskan villagers abstain from work on the day
of a death, and, in many instances, on the day following such an event.
None of the relatives of the deceased may perform any labour during the
period, four or five days in length, when the shade is believed to remain
with the body.[182] The rule requiring no work in a village on the day
when a person dies prevails among the Bering Strait Eskimo. Relatives
of the deceased must abstain from activity during the three following
days.[183] One observer tells of a Point Barrow woman who declined to
sew on clothing, even at his house, because there was a dead man in the
village who had not yet been carried to the cemetery. She feared that “he
would see her.” But after consultation with her husband she concluded
that it was possible to protect herself from “him” by tracing with a
snow-knife a circle about herself on the floor. Within this area she
did the sewing required, being very careful to keep all her work inside
it.[184]
Remarkably similar customs prevail among some of the Asiatic Eskimo, and
incidentally reinforce the argument for the transmission of cultural
elements between northwestern America and northeastern Asia. The Reindeer
Chukchi forbid any kind of woman’s work with needle and scraper during
the period of the funeral ceremonies. This rule refers to all the
houses of the camp or village, and even to other settlements in the
vicinity.[185] The Koryak stopped all work in the settlement before the
last rites to the dead. No one went hunting or sealing, no one went to
fetch wood, and the women did no sewing. At the present time this rule is
so far abrogated as to apply only to those in the house where the body
lies.[186] Among the Yakut, when a man dies, the members of his household
may not execute any work until after the next full moon.[187]
Taboos of this nature are not confined to savage and barbarous
communities, since the fear of the death pollution has been felt by
various civilized peoples and has found expression in their funeral
ceremonies. Thus, we learn that in Rabbinical times and among some
modern Jews, during the _shib‘a_, or seven days of strict mourning, “the
relatives abstain from work and remain at home, sitting on the floor
or on a low bench, reading the _Book of Job_, and receiving visits of
condolence. Bereaved children should abstain for a year from music and
recreation.”[188] Outcroppings of the same belief occasionally manifest
themselves among the folk of Europe. German peasants abstain from all
work, except what is absolutely necessary, before the funeral,[189] and
the Scotch think that “it is not right to spin if there be a corpse in
the same township.”[190] This latter instance furnishes a close parallel
to the Eskimo superstition.
Feasts of the dead, the primitive All Souls’ days, are sometimes
occasions for abstinence from work. The same custom may be observed at
times devoted to the public and ceremonial expulsion of ghosts and demons
from the community.[191] Here, as elsewhere, we may well raise the query
whether such proceedings have always existed with the particular meaning
now assigned to them; or whether in many instances they may not hark back
to a “pre-animistic” epoch when the evil influences, instead of being
personified under the form of spirits, were more vaguely regarded as some
mysterious and infectious contamination.
Rites for commemorating kindly spirits or for expelling those of evil
intent were doubtless first performed at irregular intervals, as the
supposed need for them arose. They tend, however, to be massed and
assigned to particular times, thus meeting a demand for order and
precision. Their celebration usually takes place at a period which
coincides with well-marked changes of the seasons, or with one of the
great epochs of the agricultural year, as sowing or harvest. They have
a particular and appropriate association with the end of the old year
or with the beginning of the new year, a time which, by many primitive
peoples, is itself fixed with reference to seasonal changes or to
agricultural operations.
Ceremonies of ghost-riddance and demon-riddance, accompanied by communal
abstinence, have already been noted in Polynesia, Indonesia, and
southeastern Asia.[192] They are not unknown in Africa. The Basuto,
who do no work on the day when an influential man dies, also observe
as holidays the times of sacrifice or of great purification. “Hence it
is,” writes a French missionary, “that the law relative to the repose of
the seventh day, so far from finding any objection in the minds of the
natives, appears to them very natural, and perhaps even more fundamental,
than it seems to certain Christians.”[193] The Bahima, a Bantu-speaking
tribe of Ankole, a district which lies immediately to the west of Lake
Victoria Nyanza, set apart one day each month for festival purposes.
It is then that the Bahima seek to appease certain ghastly, shrivelled
demons who, though they expend most of their fury on one another,
frequent the kraals and occasionally take a native by the arm and shake
him mercilessly. These demons are called _balubale_. Their placation is
said to consist chiefly of drum-beating and beer-drinking. “There is no
work on _balubale_ day.”[194] On the next-to-the-last day of the year the
Swaheli of German East Africa observe an ancient custom, which probably
antedates Mohammedan influence in this part of Africa. They parch some
millet and pour it, together with ashes, on the corners of their houses
as a prophylactic against the evil spirits supposed to be particularly
troublesome at this time. Swaheli school-children enjoy a holiday on the
last two days of the year and New Year’s Day.[195] The great national
_fête_ of the _fandroana_, marking the commencement of the Malagasy year,
occurs at the new moon of the month Alahamady, and the first days of this
month are regarded as very unlucky for commoners, who therefore abstain
from all activity.[196] We may conjecture that this festival, though
traditionally established only about three centuries ago, in its present
form incorporates observances connected with the new year as a critical
season. Some of the Gold Coast tribes of west Africa hold a festival
toward the end of August, called _affirah-bi_, when there is a general
remembrance of the dead. No work may be done during this festival,
which lasts eight days.[197] The Guinea negroes would seem also to
perform annual rites for the expulsion of evil spirits. The ceremony of
demon-riddance, formerly held at Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast,
was intended to drive the devil Abonsam out of the town by means of an
unearthly uproar of shouts, screams, beating of sticks, rattling of pans,
and firing of guns, in which all the inhabitants joined. “The custom is
preceded by four weeks’ dead silence; no gun is allowed to be fired, no
drum to be beaten, no palaver to be made between man and man. If, during
these weeks, two natives should disagree and make a noise in the town,
they are immediately taken before the king and fined heavily. If a dog
or pig, sheep or goat be found at large in the street, it may be killed,
or taken by any one, the former owner not being allowed to demand any
compensation. This silence is designed to deceive Abonsam, that, being
off his guard, he may be taken by surprise and frightened out of the
place. If any one die during the silence, his relatives are not allowed
to weep until the four weeks have been completed.”[198]
The Yoruba tribes of the Slave Coast celebrate every June an All Souls’
festival lasting seven days. It resembles the _affirah-bi_ rites, but the
ceremony is held in honour of Egungun, who is supposed to have risen from
the dead and after whom a powerful secret society has been named.[199]
Since in west Africa, as in some other parts of the world, secret
societies are intimately related to the cult of the dead,[200] it may
be that the tabooed days, observed when these organizations hold their
ceremonies, were once connected with feasts of the dead or expulsion of
ghosts. The belief may also exist that the god of the secret society
affects with his holiness the day of his public appearance, and so makes
it unfit for business. However, the taboos seem now to be maintained
chiefly as a means of securing the respectful attention of non-initiates,
particularly women. The presence in Yoruba towns of the bugbear god Oro
compels women to seclude themselves from seven o’clock in the evening
until five o’clock in the morning.[201] On the great feast days of
Oro women must remain indoors from daybreak till noon.[202] A native
writer points out that these Oro confinements, as they may be called,
are declared in times of political crisis, when a new law or other
measure of importance is under consideration, and whenever a sacrifice
is offered in behalf of the community. The streets are then cleared of
all unseemly traffic and of women, in order to permit the god and his
followers to appear abroad without danger of contamination.[203] Again,
in Old Calabar, when the great _egbo_ society visits a community, all
business is suspended, all doors are shut, and absolute silence prevails.
On the departure of the god and his attendant mummers, the town-bell is
rung in a peculiar way to indicate that normal occupations may be now
resumed. The cessation of business on the occasion of these visits of
_egbo_ may last a day, but frequently extends to two or three days. In
the latter case, however, the strict rule of seclusion is relaxed for
an hour or more to permit the holding of the daily market.[204] During
an _egbo_ visitation it would be death for any one not a member of the
order to venture forth; even members themselves, if their grade is lower
than that which controls the proceedings for the day, would be severely
whipped.[205]
The festivals of the dead, observed in classical antiquity, were marked
by taboos. Among the Greeks the rites took place on the so-called
ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι, unlucky days accompanied by complete idleness and
cessation of business. “At such times no one would address any one else,
friends avoided all intercourse with one another, and even sanctuaries
were not used.”[206] Ancient authorities also refer to these days as
times when magistrates suspended their functions, when courts were
closed, when sacrifices were not offered and oracular responses were
not delivered, and when people refrained from any business which it was
hoped would have a prosperous outcome.[207] At Athens the festival of
the Genesia, an annual commemoration of the dead, occurred on the fifth
of Boëdromion, a day which was included among the ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι.[208]
Three more unlucky days were the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
of Anthesterion, when the Athenians celebrated the festival of the
Anthesteria. Though in outward semblance only a brilliant ceremony in
honour of Dionysus, the Anthesteria had also a sombre significance as
the time when the shades of the dead issued from the underworld and
walked the streets.[209] Ropes were fastened round the temples to keep
out the wandering ghosts, and the people smeared their houses with
pitch to catch any rash intruders into the dwellings of living men.
For the entertainment of the unseen guests during their short stay pots
of boiled food were everywhere placed in the streets; but at the end of
the festival the souls were roughly bidden to depart. The Anthesteria,
in substance, thus formed one of those numerous ceremonies for the
riddance of ghosts by means of feasting and placation which have so wide
a diffusion in the lower culture.[210]
Corresponding to the Greek ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι were the Roman _dies
religiosi_, true days of abstinence, when it was unlucky to begin a
journey or to undertake any important business. During their continuance
temples and law courts were, or ought to be, closed, magistrates laid
aside the insignia of office, armies did not march, and no marriages
took place.[211] Among the _dies religiosi_ were those on which the
Romans celebrated two festivals of the dead, the so-called Parentalia
in February, the last month of the old Roman year, and the Lemuria in
May. The February celebration, from the thirteenth to the twenty-first of
that month, has been taken to embody all that was least superstitious and
fearful in the generally terrifying worship of the dead. The Lemuria (May
9, 11, 13), had rather an opposite character and probably represents the
more ancient rite for the expulsion of the ghosts of the dead.[212] The
three days in the Roman year, August 24, October 5, and November 8, when
the door of the Lower World was unclosed for the spirits of the dead to
come forth—_quibus mundus patet_—were also _religiosi_, or unlucky. “When
the _mundus_ is open,” said Varro, “the gate of the doleful underworld
gods is open; therefore, it is not proper on those days for a battle to
be fought, troops to be levied, the army to march forth, a ship to set
sail, or a man to marry.”[213]
To the Hebrews the Day of Atonement was a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_,[214]
the holiest of rest days, “a Sabbath of solemn rest,” when “no manner
of work” might be performed. The transgressor of this regulation was
threatened with death: “Whoever doeth any work at all on that same day,
I will destroy from among his people.”[215] A similar punishment was
prescribed for one who did not fast on that day; the expression “to
afflict your souls” (_‘innā nephesh_) was considered by late theologians
to be a synonym for fasting, and as a matter of fact the Atonement fast
was the only one enjoined by the Law. On the Day of Atonement a goat,
laden with the sins of the people, was sent forth into the wilderness,
where it was sacrificed to Azazel, a bad angel or demon. In the later
centuries of Jewish history this rite took on a more spiritual character,
as the ceremonial aspects of sin and atonement became increasingly
prominent.
The Day of Atonement has been usually considered a very late institution,
unknown in the time of Zechariah and even in the age of Nehemiah not
employed for the special purpose of a national humiliation. What seems
more probable is that the Day of Atonement was taken over and adopted
into the Priestly Code of post-Exilic Judaism from a popular and
primitive ceremony of sin-riddance, doubtless of high antiquity. It is
to be observed that the fast was held on the tenth day of the seventh
month, a day which appears to have marked, originally, the beginning of
the new year.[216] This would have been an appropriate time for an annual
ceremony of purification, since the new year is so frequently observed
with ceremonies of a cathartic or apotropaic character. Even in late Old
Testament ritual, New Year’s Day, celebrated as the Feast of Trumpets on
the first day of the seventh month, was also a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_, a
time of “solemn rest” and of “holy convocation.” No toilsome work might
then be performed; trumpets were to be blown, perhaps to indicate its
solemnity, and special sacrifices were to be offered.[217] Moreover,
certain features of the Atonement ceremony, especially that of the
sin-laden goat, which has so many parallels among the lower races,[218]
strengthen the probability that the ritual for the day represents an
elaboration of earlier and simpler customs familiar in pre-Exilic times.
If this be true, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the “Sabbath
of solemn rest” forms likewise a survival from a still ruder past, when
sin was conceived so materially as a contaminating influence that common
prudence dictated abstinence from work and other activities at a critical
season devoted to the driving-out of evil.[219]
Ideas of this sort live long in the minds of men. The greatest of
Mohammedan festivals, the so-called Feast of Sacrifices, is now
celebrated as a means of securing moral purification and blessing.
But the ceremony rests on a heathen basis, and its principal feature,
an animal sacrifice, was borrowed by Islam from Arabian paganism. An
eminent authority, who has noticed the striking prevalence of cathartic
ceremonies at the Great Feast, suggests that its primary object may have
been to expel evils which were supposed to threaten the people at the
time of the year when the sacrifice occurred. “Throughout Morocco the
first day of the feast is kept as a holiday, both by men and women, and
so is generally the second day also, which in some places is regarded as
a particularly dangerous time. I am told that anybody who should work
on that day would have some grave misfortune—robbers would kill him at
night, or some of his children or animals would die, or he would be
struck with blindness—and travelling on that day is likewise supposed to
be accompanied with danger. But labour is also suspended on other days of
the feast, especially by the women.”[220]
The evidence presented in this chapter raises once more the perplexing
and much-debated problem of the diffusion of culture. The custom
of keeping tabooed days after a death may be properly described as
world-wide, since it exists in all the continents. And the observance as
Sabbaths of periods devoted to the propitiation or expulsion of spirits,
though less common, has been also traced among many half-civilized
tribes of Oceania, Asia, and Africa, as well as in classic Greece
and Rome. Within contiguous areas, for example, in Borneo and the
adjoining islands, or among related peoples, such as the American and
Asiatic Eskimo, it is reasonable to ascribe the uniformity of custom
to long-continued borrowing. Again, the close resemblance between the
Greek and the Roman superstitions relating to unlucky days—the ἀποφράδες
ἡμέραι and the _dies religiosi_—is satisfactorily accounted for by the
hypothesis of a common inheritance from prehistoric antiquity. But where
tabooed days are observed for the same reasons by unrelated peoples, who,
as far as our knowledge reaches, have never been in cultural contact, the
student is obliged to conclude that the beliefs underlying the custom in
question have not been narrowly limited but belong to the general stock
of primitive ideas. In such cases the doctrine of the fundamental unity
of the human mind seems alone to be capable of explaining the astonishing
similarity of its products at different times and in different parts of
the world.
CHAPTER III
HOLY DAYS
There exists, perhaps, no shorter road to the comprehension of a religion
as a social product than through the study of its festivals. They are
preëminently social in character; they give expression to the feelings
of an entire community, whether clan, tribe, or nation; and in their
development they are closely associated with the general progress of
society. As civilization develops, festivals tend to increase in number,
to elaborate their ritual, and to fix more precisely the time and order
of their celebration. It becomes the business of a particular class—the
priesthood—to establish and maintain a calendar of sacred seasons. We may
assume with some confidence that the priestly attitude in such matters
has not been entirely disinterested. The holy day, observed with worship,
sacrifice, and offerings, must contribute directly to the well-being and
prestige of the sacerdotal order.
“The Greeks and the barbarians,” declares an ancient geographer, “have
this in common, that they accompany their sacred rites by a festal
remission of labour.”[221] In fact most festivals are celebrated as
holidays, when men give up secular occupations and devote themselves to
religious exercises and relaxation. Festivals, in consequence, assume
with advancing culture a great significance from the economic and
sociological standpoint. For the peasant and the artisan they provide
welcome relief from physical exertion, and for all ranks of society
their pageants and processions, their games, feasts, and merry-makings
give an outlet to the play instincts of mankind. We must not conclude,
however, that the remission of labour accompanying a festival has always
been dictated by practical and non-superstitious considerations. It has
been already pointed out that in some fairly rude communities abstinence
from work is a part of the regular procedure for facing a crisis and the
spiritual dangers supposed to characterize such an occasion. The rest is
a measure of protection and propitiation, quite as much as the fasts, the
sacrifices, and the prayers by which it may be attended. Where ideas of
this nature prevail, all labour becomes _tabu_.
As we pass from savagery to barbarism and from animism to polytheism, the
notion of taboo, at first vague and indeterminate, tends to differentiate
into the twin concepts of impurity and holiness. This differentiation,
indeed, is never perfectly accomplished even by peoples which have
reached some measure of civilization; and the lower races find still
greater difficulty in distinguishing between what is dangerous, because
polluted, and what is dangerous, because sacred. The “holy” thing and the
“unclean” thing possess alike the mystic potency, the magico-spiritual
power, the _mana_ or _orenda_, to employ a terminology which expresses
early man’s sense of being ever surrounded by unknown agencies, among
which he must walk warily, if he is to walk in safety.[222]
To the primitive mind the sanctity which attaches to the divine chief
and king, to such objects of special reverence as bull-roarers, idols,
and altars, and also to certain places and shrines, is sufficiently
material to be transmissible and to be capable of infecting with its
mysterious qualities whatever is done at a particular time. The notion
of the transmissibility of holiness might seem of itself to furnish a
sufficient reason for abstaining from ordinary occupations on a sacred
day: the power that blesses can also blast. In practice, however, this
idea appears to mingle quite inextricably with the opposite though
related conception that what is holy can be contaminated by contact
with the secular and the profane. Furthermore, when holy days come to
be definitely consecrated to deities, who at such times are believed to
be present among their worshippers, it is easy to see how the belief
arises that a god is pleased and flattered by the enforced idleness of
his devotees. Abstinence from work then takes its place among other rites
as a recognized way of expressing a proper reverence for the divinity;
while, conversely, to labour on his holy day implies a disrespectful
attitude toward him. These are sentiments reasonably certain of continued
development, as priestly influence becomes predominant in any community.
“The Lord thy God is a jealous God.”[223]
The consecration of a particular day to a divinity is a common feature
of polytheistic cults. Had we definite information concerning the
origin and development of the great deities of the higher religions,
it would probably appear that in most instances their connection with
particular days is a secondary rather than a primary formation. In other
words a period dedicated to a god and observed by his worshippers with
abstinence from labour may once have been a season of taboo for other
and quite different reasons. Some pertinent instances of tabooed days
which grew into holy days have already engaged our attention.[224] Thus,
in the comparatively well-developed religious system of the Hawaiians
the New Year’s festival was consecrated to the god Lono; but the same
festival in Fiji was not associated with any particular divinity. Again,
the Hawaiians observed in every month four _tabu_ periods, which were
severally dedicated to the great gods of the native pantheon, Ku, Hua,
Kaloa, and Kane. That these Sabbaths had originally no connection with
any divinity and arose in consequence of superstitious beliefs regarding
lunar phenomena is a highly probable conclusion, when we recall the
numerous taboos attaching to the phases of the moon, for instance, among
the Dyak tribes of Borneo. Once more, the attribution of the Bontoc
Igorot _tengao_, or rest day, to Lumawig, the only god throughout the
Bontoc culture area, cannot be earlier than the emergence of this supreme
being from the crowd of spirits in which the native so firmly believes.
Lastly, we have seen how, in the case of the Athenian Anthesteria, the
attribution of the festival to Dionysus and the cheerful associations
with which the fancy of the Greeks invested it represent a comparatively
late development.
If many holy days of polytheistic cults were once tabooed days, it
follows that a taboo element may be looked for in various religious
celebrations which in outward semblance have only a festive, happy
character. Particularly does this seem to be true of the numerous rites
observed by the Dravidian peoples of India. The Kota, an aboriginal
tribe of the Nilgiri Hills, hold an annual feast, called _kambata_ or
_kamata_, in honour of Kamataraya. It lasts about a fortnight. On the
second day of the festival no work may be done except digging clay and
making pots.[225] The Uraon keep three great feasts during the year.
The first, known as _sarhul_, occurs in May. Its object is said to
be the celebration of the mystical marriage of the sun-god with the
earth-goddess, in order that they may become fruitful and consequently
bestow good crops. At the same time the Uraon take care to propitiate all
the village spirits, lest the latter should frustrate the efforts of Sun
and Earth to increase and multiply. On the eve of the appointed day no
one is allowed to plough his fields.[226] In Bengal, Mother Earth is the
object of much devotion. The goddess generally manifests herself as the
benignant source of all things, the giver of the fruits of the earth. But
sometimes she brings disease and hence requires propitiation. The chief
festival in her honour occurs at the end of the hot season, when she is
supposed to suffer from the impurity common to women. All ploughing,
sowing, and other work cease at this time, and Bengali widows refrain
from eating cooked rice.[227] A very similar festival, called _ucharal_,
is celebrated by the natives of the Malabar coast at the end of January,
when Mother Earth has her annual menstruation. For three days at this
time the people stop all work, except hunting: the house may not be
cleaned; the daily smearing of the floor with cow-dung is discontinued;
and even gardens may not be watered.[228] The village rites observed by
the Telugu, Kanarese, and Tamil peoples of southern India, in honour of
their local deities, though unattended by compulsory abstinence from
labour, are clearly of a propitiatory character. In this respect they
are analogous to the _genna_ customs in Assam. Usually the people hold
no regular festival, but perform their rites of sacrifice only when some
great misfortune—an outbreak of cholera, smallpox, cattle disease, or
drought—has convinced them that evil spirits are about and active. “I
have dignified,” writes the Bishop of Madras, “the periodical sacrifices
to the village goddesses by the name of festivals. But the term is a
misnomer. There is really nothing of a festal character about them. They
are only gloomy and weird rites for the propitiation of angry deities
or the driving away of evil spirits, and it is very difficult to detect
any traces of a spirit of thankfulness or praise. Even the term worship
is hardly correct. The object of all the various rites and ceremonies is
not to worship the deity in any true sense of the word, but simply to
propitiate and avert its wrath.”[229] The propitiatory feature is not
absent from some of the purely Hindu festivals, which in this respect may
have been affected by the cults of the aboriginal peoples of India.[230]
One of the Hebrew agricultural festivals described in the Old Testament
furnishes an instance of what seem to be ancient taboos surviving in
a developed religious ritual. In the post-Exilic calendar the Day of
First-fruits, inaugurating the Feast of Weeks, was declared to be a time
of “holy convocation,” when no “servile work” was allowable.[231] Now,
primitive peoples quite commonly observe various ceremonies in connection
with first-fruits, particularly a sacramental eating of them preliminary
to general use.[232] With advancing culture this rite tends to be
replaced by an act of definite sacrifice of a portion of the first-fruits
to the spirits or the gods, who have it in their power to give or to
withhold the crops. The rite of first-fruits marks a time of peculiar
solemnity, when gratitude to the supernatural powers mingles with fear of
the hostile influences which may affect injuriously the grain that lies
still ungathered. So critical an epoch is frequently inaugurated by a
ceremonial cleansing or purgation of the community; and the rite itself
may require fasting and continence on the part of those who celebrate
it. In at least one case previously noticed, the ceremonial inbringing
of first-fruits formed an occasion for abstaining from all secular
activities.[233] Since a like restriction was attached to the Hebrew Day
of First-fruits, we may surmise with some probability that abstinence
from labour at this time was observed by the early Hebrews as a primitive
taboo long before the festival was definitely consecrated to Jehovah. It
is difficult to avoid the same conclusion with respect to the sabbatarian
rules which invested other agricultural festivals of the Hebrews.[234]
The Greeks in late classical times appear to have regarded their
religious festivals much as we regard our holidays. “The gods,” said
Plato, “in pity for the toils which our race is born to undergo have
appointed holy festivals, by which men alternate rest and labour.”[235]
With this remark, indicating that for the philosophic thinker the process
of rationalization had begun, it is interesting to compare the statement
of a modern scholar that among the Greeks “the time occupied by the feast
of the gods was as sacred, _i.e._, as much subject to taboos, as was the
whole of the Jewish Sabbath.”[236] The unlucky days (ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι)
observed by the Athenians included the twenty-fifth or twenty-ninth
of Thargelion, a day devoted to the celebration of the Plynteria, the
washing festival of their patron goddess. On this occasion Athene’s
image was borne in procession to the sea, divested of its adornments,
and laved in the purifying waters. Plutarch’s biography of Alcibiades
contains a significant reference to the ceremony. At the time when
that brilliant though shifty Greek returned from exile to his native
city, the people were holding the Plynteria, in Athene’s honour. On that
day “the Praxiergidæ solemnize their secret rites: they remove all the
ornaments from her image and cover it up. Hence the Athenians regard
this day as most unlucky, and do no work on it. It seemed as though the
goddess were receiving him in no friendly fashion, for she hid her face
from his as if to banish him from her sight.” Xenophon, also, referring
to the return of Alcibiades at the time of the Plynteria, declares that
“none of the Athenians would venture to transact any serious business
on this day.” And Pollux informs us that the sanctuaries were roped
round at the Plynteria, as at other unlucky times, doubtless to avoid
their being tainted with the pollution of the day.[237] The Athenians
themselves ascribed the unluckiness of the day of the Plynteria to
the fact of Athene’s absence from the city during the festival. It
is probable, however, that the Plynteria was at one time a rite of
purification preliminary to the bringing-in of the first-fruits, and
hence a rite which must have existed long before its ascription to the
protecting deity of Athens.[238] So considered, the Plynteria as a rest
day affords a close parallel to the Tongan _inachi_ and the Hebrew Day of
First-fruits.
With the Plynteria may be profitably compared the better-known Roman
festival of the Vestalia. The Athenian ceremonies came in May, the
Roman, in June, but they were alike in content. The nine days devoted
to the Vestalia were ill-omened (_religiosi_). During their celebration
the innermost sanctuary of Vesta, shut all the rest of the year, was
opened to the matrons of Rome, who crowded to it barefooted, while the
Vestals themselves offered the sacred cakes made of the first ears
of corn plucked a month previously. On the ninth day (June 15) the
temple was swept and the refuse thrown into the Tiber. Then the _dies
religiosi_ came to an end, as soon as the last act of cleansing had been
duly performed—_Quando stercus delatum fas_, “When the rubbish has been
carried away.”[239]
The Roman religious festivals, of which a few, as we have seen, were
celebrated on _dies religiosi_,[240] went collectively under the
name of _feriæ_ (_dies feriati_).[241] The public _feriæ_, numbering
sixty-one in republican times, were all consecrated to deities of the
state cults. As illustrating the Roman prejudice against even numbers
as unlucky, it is interesting to note that, with two exceptions, all
these older _feriæ_ occurred on days which, reckoning from the beginning
of the month, would be denoted by odd numbers. The same superstition
required that, where a festival occupied more than one day in a month,
there should be an interval of one or three days between the beginning
and close of its celebration, as in the case of the Lemuria on the
ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of February. The ferial days were of
prehistoric origin, though the testimony of tradition assigned them to
Romulus and particularly to Numa, the priestly king who was believed
to have organized the Roman religion. Considering the great antiquity
of the _feriæ_, it becomes a legitimate inquiry how far they resemble
the festivals observed in modern times by peoples scarcely inferior in
culture to the Romans at the dawn of their history. What likeness, in
other words, can be traced between the _feriæ_ and days _tabu_?
The ancients made a fundamental distinction between public and private
_feriæ_. The former included all festivals which were celebrated by the
community at large, the latter, those which appertained to individuals,
families, _gentes_, sacred colleges, and other social groups within the
body politic. Since the Roman state religion was based on the religion
of the family and the _gens_, we are entitled to believe that the _feriæ
privatæ_ provided the model for the _feriæ publicæ_; and this view is
confirmed by numerous analogies elsewhere.[242] The festivals observed by
_gentes_ are little known and appear to have become obsolete at an early
date; the family festivals, on the other hand, flourished throughout
antiquity. All important epochs in the life of a Roman housefather and
his children—birth, naming, assumption of the _toga virilis_, marriage,
and death—were kept as ferial days. The _feriæ denicales_ are especially
noteworthy, for they show that the Romans shared the superstitious
notions of many primitive peoples concerning the noxious influence of
death. These ceremonies, which took place a few days after the funeral,
were for the purpose of purifying the house and its inmates from the
death contagion.[243] Abstinence from labour formed a special feature of
all family festivals: they were rest days for both man and beast. As that
model economist, Cato the Elder, remarked, “For mules, horses, and asses
there are no other holidays than those of the family.”[244] However, we
must probably include, as an exception to Cato’s statement, the festival
of the Paganalia, or _feriæ sementivæ_, which came in January after the
seed had been sown. During this time the plough rested by command of the
gods, and not the farmer only, but also his slaves and animal servants,
enjoyed holiday idleness. The festival had a distinctly prophylactic
character, being marked by prayers, offerings, and other rites designed
to ward off evil influences from the crops.[245] The Paganalia, as its
name indicates, was an old village rite which survived into historic
times and became incorporated in the public _feriæ_ of the Roman city.
But before turning to this division of our subject it may be pointed
out that among the private _feriæ_ were also included those which were
observed by individuals only, as a means of removing the taint of some
impurity which rested upon them. A man who had pronounced accidentally
the names of certain mysterious divinities was expected to celebrate
a private festival as a means of expiation (_ferias observabat_). The
Flaminica, or wife of the Flamen Dialis, who with her husband was subject
to many restrictions, became tabooed—_feriata_—if she heard thunder, and
might not engage in her religious duties until she had performed an act
of lustration (_donec placasset deos_).[246]
The public _feriæ_ were also occasions for abstinence, purification, and
propitiation. On the calendars they are marked _nefasti_, indicating
that at such times all political and judicial business must be suspended.
In the later period of the Roman Republic unscrupulous consuls sometimes
put this regulation to a base use by ordering special _feriæ_ for all
comitial days, so as to stave off legislation by their rivals.[247]
The gods, on ferial days, demanded the service of men by visits to the
temples and by prayers and sacrifices. Hence the _feriæ_ formed public
holidays, when even slaves enjoyed a cessation of toil. “Let contentions
of every kind cease on the sacred festivals, and let servants enjoy
them with a remission of labour; for this purpose they were appointed
at certain seasons.”[248] These words of Cicero reflect, however, not
the original purpose of the _feriæ_ but only the interpretation put upon
them by a rationalistic thinker in a sophisticated age. We may assume
with confidence that the ferial days were not established as a boon to
the labourer. The regulations enforced on the _feriæ_ indicate how, in
Roman belief, it was essential that their holiness should not be polluted
by unseemly activity. The _rex sacrorum_ and _flamines_, whose lives
were passed in an odour of sanctity, were not allowed even to see any
work being done during the celebration of _feriæ_; hence, when these
officials went out, heralds preceded them to enjoin the people from
working in their presence. An accidental neglect of such admonitions
was punished with a fine and atonement was made by the sacrifice of a
pig. An intentional disobedience constituted a crime beyond the power of
atonement.[249]
In the later centuries of the republic, with the decay of
supernaturalism, questions began to be raised as to what kinds of work
might legitimately be done on the public _feriæ_. The pontiff Umbro
declared that it was no violation of them for a person to do any work
which had reference to the gods, or the offering of sacrifices—_ad deos
pertinens sacrorumve causa_.[250] All labour was likewise allowable which
was necessary to supply the urgent wants of life. The pontiff Scævola
held that any work might be done, if suffering and injury were caused
by its neglect or delay—_licet quod prætermissum noceret_. If a house
threatened to tumble down on a ferial day, the inhabitants might take
the requisite measures to repair it at this time. And should a man’s oxe
fall into a pit, he might employ workmen to lift it out without polluting
the _feriæ_.[251] Cato thought that on holidays a farmer might repair
ditches, pave the public roads, and make everything neat and clean about
his premises.[252] Vergil, writing when this rationalistic movement had
culminated, asserts that “even on holy days some work is permitted by
the laws of God and man. The strictest worshipper has never scrupled
to drain the fields, plant a hedge to protect a crop, set snares for
birds, fire the brambles, or wash his bleating sheep for health’s sake in
the stream.”[253] Such interpretations indicate that in late classical
antiquity the burdens of the old tabooed days were being gradually
lifted, and their observance adjusted to the social and economic needs of
a progressive community.
Corresponding to the private _feriæ_ observed by individuals on special
occasions were those public holidays which had to be kept by the
community at large, in consequence of some unusual and terrifying event.
Certain natural phenomena resulted in the cessation of all activity
by the people and the institution of extraordinary festivals (_feriæ
imperativæ_). These were decreed by the magistrates, acting on the
advice of the priests and with the consent of the Senate. Festivals
of this sort were anonymous; they were dedicated neither to god nor
goddess—_sive deo sive deæ_—for the divine author of the portent was
obviously unknown. Numerous instances of the celebration of extraordinary
_feriæ_ are noticed by classical historians, especially by Livy. During
the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the third of Rome’s legendary kings,
a rain of stones on the Alban Mount led to the institution of a nine
days’ festival. Shortly after the establishment of the republic an
aurora borealis so terrified the people that they kept a three days’
festival. About half a century after the sack of Rome by the Gauls
a rain of stones, accompanied by an obscuration of the sun, made it
necessary for the Senate to appoint a dictator whose special business
it was to appease the supernatural powers by appointing holidays and
performing ceremonies. When Hannibal was in Italy, threatening the
life of the Roman commonwealth, Heaven seemed to multiply portents,
and Livy particularly mentions two occasions when a shower of stones
provoked compulsory holidays for the usual period (_novemdiales feriæ_).
Earthquakes always aroused superstitious fears and made it necessary
to celebrate propitiatory _feriæ_. In the year 193 B.C. the frequent
earthquakes led to the institution of so many festivals that all public
business was blocked; the Senate could not meet and the consuls were
constantly employed in rites of propitiation. Under these circumstances,
so Livy tells us, the people grew weary, not only of the earthquakes but
also of the _feriæ_ appointed to expiate them, and an edict was passed
that, whenever _feriæ_ were ordered to be observed on a certain day, in
consequence of an earthquake, no fresh disturbance of the sort was to
be reported on that same day. Only a year after the publication of this
amusing edict the Romans were terrified by earthquake shocks which lasted
for thirty-eight days, a period which was marked by a total cessation of
business. And more than two hundred years later the emperor Claudius,
when an earthquake happened at Rome, never failed to appoint holidays for
sacred rites. Similar ceremonies, _pro valetudine populi_, were sometimes
performed to drive away a devastating pestilence.[254]
To the ancient Romans the celebration of ferial days thus provided an
appropriate and effectual method of meeting a crisis. Like the tabooed
days observed in Polynesia, Indonesia, and southeastern Asia at the
present time, the _feriæ_ were occasions for the propitiation of
supernatural and hostile powers. As such they must have been, originally,
periods of gloom and not of joy. That subsequently, when superstition
had in some measure relaxed its grip, they became festive occasions,
celebrated so luxuriously that both Sulla and Augustus felt themselves
obliged to promulgate laws restricting expenditures in connection with
them,[255] may be taken as only another instance of man’s ineradicable
tendency to convert his fast days into feast days.
CHAPTER IV
MARKET DAYS
Rest days, more or less regular in occurrence and following at short
intervals after periods of continuous labour, are frequently observed
by primitive agriculturists. Sabbaths of this sort seem to be unknown
among migratory hunting and fishing peoples or among nomadic pastoral
tribes.[256] A wandering hunter requires no regular day of rest, since
his life passes in alternations of continuous labour, while following the
chase, and of almost uninterrupted idleness, after a successful hunt.
For the shepherd there can be no relaxation of the diurnal duties, for
every morning the cattle must be driven abroad to pasture, they must be
watched and watered, and at night they must be milked. And, as Rudolf von
Ihering has suggested, the shepherd, compared with the farmer, scarcely
needs a regular rest day; his occupation causes him so little continuous
exertion that he can pursue it all the year round without any injury to
his health. A farmer, however, is benefited by a period of rest recurring
more or less regularly, and, though agricultural pursuits are dependent
on the seasons and weather, he is usually able to postpone his work for
a brief period without serious loss. It might be argued, therefore, that
the change from pastoral to agricultural life would itself be sufficient
to call into existence the institution of a periodic rest day.[257] The
evidence to be submitted suggests, however, that the connection of the
rest day with the farmer’s pursuits is secondary, rather than direct,
and is due to the obvious fact that the Sabbath institution implies a
settled life, a more or less developed form of social organization and
government, and something approaching a calendar system.
The greater number of periodic rest days observed by agricultural peoples
in the lower stages of culture are associated with the institution of
the market.[258] Days on which markets regularly take place are not
infrequently characterized by sabbatarian regulations. It is necessary,
therefore, to present in some detail the evidence for market weeks and
market days in various parts of the world.[259]
Some Australian tribes have established trade centres, where there are
periodical meetings for the purpose of exchanging the products and
manufactures of neighbouring communities. More or less bartering occurs
also in connection with great tribal convocations, especially those for
the initiation ceremonies.[260] Necessarily, such gatherings take place
at infrequent intervals. The beginnings of regular markets may, however,
be traced in certain parts of New Guinea and among some of the Melanesian
Islands. The natives of the Mekeo District of British New Guinea are
said to hold markets, every fifth day at Mawaia and Mohu (on the banks
of the Angabunga River), and at other intervals elsewhere. Women from
several villages will assemble at some appointed place, usually on the
boundary between two tribes, and there will exchange their products for
commodities from other localities. The bartering lies entirely in the
hands of the women, who, however, are accompanied by a few armed men
acting as a guard.[261] The Kerepunu of Hood Peninsula, to the east of
Port Moresby, are described by a missionary who knew them well as most
industrious farmers: every morning men, women, and children go to work
in the fields and return only at nightfall. “They have a rule, to which
they strictly adhere all the year round, of working for two days and
resting the third.”[262] The Kerepunu rest day may have originated in a
practice, now lapsed, of holding a market every third day, since there
is evidence for the former existence of markets in the neighbourhood of
Port Moresby.[263] The natives of Patipi and Roembatti, on the MacCluer
Gulf in the extreme western part of Dutch New Guinea, have markets,
which as a rule recur every fifth day.[264] In the Gazelle Peninsula,
Bismarck Archipelago, markets at which the women buy and sell take place
every third day.[265] In New Caledonia, where each tribe is divided into
sea-folk and bush-folk, the former being cocoa-tree planters and fishers,
the latter being yam-growers, there is said to be a lively market
conducted each week by the women. “The ladies [_sic_] of each section of
the tribe sit down in rows with their produce before them, and barter is
transacted in dances, with a good deal of manœuvring.”[266] In some parts
of old Polynesia markets were held at stated periods, but, unfortunately,
no record seems to have been made of the time intervals in popular
use.[267]
Markets take place in Celebes,[268] Sumatra, and Java, usually every
fifth day, but sometimes at shorter intervals. Among the Batta of
Sumatra a market occurs every third, fourth, or fifth day, according
to a regular succession and in a designated place, until the round of
participating villages has been made. At Batta markets all hostilities
are suspended, and it is sometimes required that every man who carries a
musket in the market place shall put a green bough in the muzzle, as a
token of his peaceful intentions.[269] The Javanese _pasar_, or market
week, consisted of five days—_lege_ (or _manis_), _pahing_ (or _pa_),
_pon_, _wage_, and _kaliwon_. The principal use of the Javanese week was
to determine the markets or fairs held in the important towns.[270]
The _pasar_ spread from Java to the island of Bali, where it is employed
in combination with the week of seven days.[271] In the Malay Peninsula,
side by side with the ordinary seven-day week, there is a popular cycle
of five days used for the determination of lucky and unlucky days. The
names of the days are those of Hindu divinities, but the cycle itself is
probably of Javanese origin.[272]
Markets recurring every fifth day are found among the Indo-Chinese, as in
Tonkin[273] and the various Lao states of northern Siam.[274] Among the
Shan all work ceases on market days, except what is necessarily involved
in buying and selling. Every native tries to be in his own village when
the market takes place there, not only to trade but also to exchange
news and gossip. The centre of the village becomes a forum, where every
subject is fully discussed.[275] “The Shan is a born trader, and the
great feature of life in this country is the bazaar, which is held on
every fifth day at all the chief villages of the states.”[276] Another
traveller tells us that on the first three of the five days constituting
the Shan market week small bazaars are held in different parts of the
country, but no trading takes place anywhere on the fourth day.[277]
The Khasi of Assam have a great market every eighth day, from which
circumstance they have developed a week of eight days. “The reason of
the eight-day week is because the markets are usually held every eighth
day. The names of the days of the week are not those of planets, but of
places where the principal markets are held, or used to be held, in the
Khasi and Jaintia hills.”[278] It may be regarded as certain that this
eight-day period arose from a doubling of an earlier four-day cycle, as
has been the case among certain African peoples. Even now in the Wár
country, lying to the south of the Khasi and Jaintia District, markets
are usually held every fourth day.[279]
Throughout the central parts of Africa, from the British and German
possessions in the east to those of the Portuguese and French in the
west, there are numerous market places where neighbouring communities
meet regularly to exchange their productions. Usually every fourth day
is a market day, observed with the cessation of ordinary occupations, and
by the Wanika of British East Africa, according to missionary testimony,
with feasting and carousing.[280] In the same part of British East Africa
the Wagiriama possess a week of four days, each with its name.[281] Among
the Akikuyu, who employ thirty-day months beginning with new moon, there
is a week of four days, the latter being indicated by the names of the
different markets held on them. Each market is held on the fourth day
of the cycle, and no two markets in the same neighbourhood occur on the
same day.[282] The Akikuyu market places in populous districts are often
not more than seven miles apart. The site chosen for a market is usually
a hill-top, sufficiently open and accessible to accommodate the natives
who may assemble there to the number of four or five thousand. All in
all the market forms a very important feature of Akikuyu society.[283]
The Wachaga of German East Africa, who dwell on the southern slopes of
mighty Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, hold a daily market,
so ordered as to recur every third day in one of three neighbouring
settlements. The days of this three-day week are separately named,
and hence the Wachaga always know where the market is to be held.
The markets, which are said to be very ancient, are visited only by
women.[284] The English missionary, David Livingstone, has described the
markets held by the Manyema, who occupy part of the territory between
Lake Tanganyika and the Congo. As many as three thousand people, chiefly
women, may sometimes be seen in the _chitoka_, or market place. The
market is held to-day in one locality, to-morrow in another, and so on
till the cycle of four days is completed.[285] Among the natives on the
lower Lomami River, near the equator, markets are described as recurring
every third day,[286] and among the Bakuba (Bushongo), who occupy the
valley of the Sankuru River, every fifth day.[287] The Baluba, whose
territory lies between the Sankuru and Kasai rivers, hold important
markets. A German explorer who was present at one of them described the
market place as neutral ground, where even members of hostile tribes
might appear without danger. The chief, in whose honour this primitive
fair was held, kept peace and order, assisted by half a dozen stalwart
guards carrying broad axes on their shoulders. Whenever any dispute
arose, these policemen were immediately on the scene of action.[288]
The four-day market week is found among various tribes, such as the
Bayaka,[289] Bambala,[290] and Bahuana,[291] occupying the region between
the Loange and Kwango rivers, tributaries of the Kasai.
The market week (_lumingu_[292]), four days in length, appears to be
generally diffused among the peoples on both banks of the lower Congo.
A missionary, long resident in this part of Africa, tells us that here
the week consists of four days, named _nkandu_, _konzo_, _nkenge_, and
_nsona_ in the cataract region. The markets are designated after the
days of the week and the towns near which they are held. For instance,
the Manyama market is known as _nsona a Manyama_, because it is held on
_nsona_ day. The great trade markets, however, usually occur every eighth
day, for the convenience of traders and to insure a good attendance.
At the smaller, local markets, held every fourth day, exchanges are
limited to goats, fowls, and foodstuffs. Every one wants to increase
the attendance at these local markets; hence it may be declared a penal
offence for a woman to go to her farm on the market day. “In some parts
another day of the short week is declared to be an unlucky day for
farming operations. This is no lingering trace of the idea of a Sabbath,
for the day fixed is most arbitrary, two adjacent villages avoiding
different days, while in others the women will work any day.”[293]
An early explorer, referring to the custom of observing _nsona_ as a
rest day, declares that “on this day they refrain from working in the
plantations, under the superstitious notion that the crop would fail;
they, however, perform any other kind of work.”[294] In Loango, where
the natives have a month of twenty-eight days reckoned from new moon,
seven weeks are counted to the month. The four weekdays are called,
respectively, _nsona_, _nduka_, _ntono_, and _nsilu_, the first being
regarded as a day of rest.[295] Another writer describes _sona_ (_nsona_)
as the men’s day of rest, but the women’s market day, when the latter
buy and sell in the market. At this time it is regarded as wrong for
husbands to have intercourse with their wives. On another day, _ntona_
(_ntono_), the women may not plant, and burials take place.[296] With
these accounts it is interesting to compare the statement of an old
writer, according to whom the Loango negroes “never work above three
days in succession; the fourth is for them a general rest day, during
which they are not allowed to engage in tillage. The men, who repose
habitually, work still less on that day. They walk, sport, and go to
market. The missionaries have been unable to procure from the negroes any
explanation of this period of four days, which forms their week.”[297]
The market is a well-developed institution among the semi-civilized
negroes about the Gulf of Guinea. In this part of Africa the sabbatarian
character of the market day is specially pronounced. Markets every third,
fifth, eighth, or tenth day have been noticed in the interior districts
of Kamerun. Market days are observed with abstinence from work of every
sort, including farm labour; indeed, says an observer, they may be
considered the Sundays of the native calendar.[298] In Old Calabar the
week consists of eight days. The weekdays are named from peculiar rites
of the _egbo_ secret society performed thereon, or from the markets which
occur on them. That the week here originally contained four days only
is obvious from the circumstance that the names applied to the second
group of four days are the same as those which the four days of the first
group receive, except for being preceded in each case by the adjective
“little.”[299] The Ibo and other tribes of the Niger Delta (Southern
Nigeria) observe _eke_, the first day of the four-day week, as the
appropriate time for abstaining from toilsome labour and for marketing.
Natives are forbidden to climb a cocoanut tree on _eke_.[300] Among the
Asaba people, a branch of the powerful Ibo tribe, there seems not to be
any communal regulation respecting the observance of _eke_: “the days for
rest, for public market, and for work vary with the individual according
to the particular governing _juju_ [fetish] as determined by the medicine
man.”[301] Among the Edo, or Bini, of Southern Nigeria the week is
everywhere a recognized period of time. It is, properly speaking, four
days in length, this being the interval between the two markets in any
given locality. Occasionally, as in the Ida District, markets are found
every eighth day, “but the names applied to the intervening days clearly
show that a four-day week was the primary one.” One of the four days is
commonly known as the rest day, when men often stay at home—though farm
work is not absolutely forbidden—and when women go to the market.[302]
The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, supplemented
by later accounts, furnish a considerable amount of information regarding
the rest days observed by the Yoruba-speaking and Ewe-speaking peoples
of the Slave Coast and by the Tshi-speaking and Ga-speaking peoples of
the Gold Coast. Some of these African Sabbaths are kept only by families
or by the inhabitants of a single locality. Among the Tshi, for example,
on the day sacred to the tutelary deity of a family all its members wear
white or light-coloured clothes, mark themselves with white clay, and
abstain from work. The day sacred to the tutelary deity of a town is
celebrated in the same manner.[303]
In this part of west Africa particular days of the week are assigned to
the gods worshipped by different classes of the community. The Yoruba
keep the first day of the week as a general Sabbath, but each of the
remaining days is a period of rest only for the followers of the god to
which it is dedicated.[304] For the adherents of a god to violate the day
sacred to him is a serious offence, punishable with a fine, and in former
times, with death. The notion prevails that, if the honour of the god is
not vindicated by his followers, all will suffer for the neglect. “The
Sabbath-breaker is, in fact, killed by the other worshippers of the god
from motives of self-protection.”[305] While the first day of the Tshi
week is a general Sabbath, _bna-da_, the second day, is the fishermen’s
holiday. Any fisherman who ventures forth on this day is fined and his
catch thrown into the sea. In former times he would have been put to
death.[306] The fifth day, _iffi-da_, of the Tshi week is the regular
rest day for farmers.[307] Similarly, among the Ewe every tribal deity,
with one exception, has a sacred day, observed by his followers to the
accompaniment of much eating, drinking, and dancing.[308]
All these west African peoples divide the month into weeks and keep
one weekday as a general Sabbath. Among the Yoruba, whose week is said
to consist of five days,[309] the first day (_ako-ojo_) “is considered
unlucky, and no business of importance is ever undertaken on it. On this
day all the temples are swept out, and water, for the use of the gods,
is brought in procession.”[310] The Ewe of Dahomey are said to observe
every fourth day as a holiday, “not kept holy, but devoted to the will of
the working classes; in short, a sort of remuneration to the slave for
the three days’ labour.”[311] Weeks of four, five, and six days, usually
ending in a general market day which is also a rest day, have been
observed in various parts of Togo.[312]
The week of seven days is not unknown to the Guinea negroes. Its presence
in the hinterland of Togo is clearly due to the influence of Islam; in
fact, the market day here recurs on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.[313]
Some of the Ewe peoples nearer the Slave Coast also use a seven-day
cycle, which appears to have been borrowed by them from their neighbours,
the Tshi tribes of the Gold Coast.[314] The Tshi keep _adjwo-da_, the
first day of their seven-day week, as a general Sabbath.[315] The Ga of
the Gold Coast, who also have the seven-day week, observe the first day
as a communal Sabbath. Its name, _dsu_, means “purification,” a term
which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon.[316]
Although market weeks of varying length have been reported among some
of the other Sudanese negroes south of the Niger,[317] it is clear that
the Mohammedan advance in this region has brought with it the week of
seven days and the custom of holding a market every seventh day.[318]
Similarly, in other parts of Africa, as on the lower Congo, the European
week of seven days has taken the place of the shorter native cycles,
with the result that, where earlier the market came every fourth day, at
present it recurs every seventh day.[319] These facts make it practically
certain that the seven-day week, found among the Ewe, Tshi, and Ga, was
originally taken over from Islam. Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, indeed,
regarded it as a purely African institution,[320] but he himself pointed
out that Mohammedan states were formed to the north of the forest country
of the Gold Coast as early as the eleventh century A.D., and that the
period since then has been long enough to allow the new mode of reckoning
to become known throughout the entire country. The Tshi, who seem to have
moved from the Sudan interior to the coast districts at no very remote
period, doubtless took with them their septenary mode of reckoning,
which, as we have seen, they communicated to the Ewe and the Ga.
The market, with its accompaniments, the market week and the market day,
has thus been shown to prevail throughout equatorial Africa, on the
Guinea coast, and in the basin of the Niger and the Nile.[321] The wide
diffusion of this institution is doubtless in large measure the outcome
of borrowing from tribe to tribe. A market, however, tends naturally to
come into existence whenever neighbouring peoples have goods to exchange
and the willingness to exchange them. The market place is originally in
some neutral district on the tribal borders, where all hostilities must
cease. In process of time the increasing friendliness between communities
makes it possible for the market to be held in the different settlements
according to a definite and well-known sequence. With the regular market
is inseparably connected the market week, the length of which varies from
three to ten days. The shorter intervals of three, four, and five days
reflect the simple economy of primitive life, since the market must recur
with sufficient frequency to permit neighbouring communities, who keep on
hand no large stocks of food and other necessaries, to obtain them from
one another. The longer cycles of six, eight, and ten days, much less
common, apparently arise by doubling the earlier period, whenever it
is desired to hold a great market for the produce of a wide area. That
the recurrence of the market determines the length of the week is made
obvious by the practice of naming the several weekdays from the markets
that take place on them.[322] Thus there comes into existence a definite
and recognized cycle of time, shorter than the lunar month and in origin
unconnected with it, a true periodic week, running continuously from
month to month and from year to year.
A market day is necessarily more or less of a rest day. Those who attend
a market must abandon for the time being their usual occupations. It is
also a holiday, affording opportunities for social intercourse, sports,
and amusements of all sorts. Such seems to be the character of most of
the market days found in southeastern Asia and the adjacent islands, as
well as in some parts of Africa. On the lower Congo, however, the market
day sometimes bears an unlucky character, and a distinct tendency exists
to attach various restrictions to it. In the Guinea region the market
day often, though not always, coincides with the general day of rest
observed by an entire community. As such it may be consecrated to a god.
The same practice, we have seen, prevails in respect to the holy days of
individuals, families, towns, and particular classes of the community.
This extensive development of sabbatarian regulations appears to be
peculiar to west Africa.
The market week and the market day, though apparently unknown to the
ruder tribes of America, formed a feature of those more advanced
civilizations which were developed in the valleys of Mexico and Central
America, and on the lofty tablelands of Colombia and Peru. Each important
pueblo of Mexico held a market (_tianguiztli_) every fifth day, it being
provided that neighbouring pueblos should observe different days, in
order to secure a regular sequence of markets. All adults were obliged
by law to resort to the _tianguiztli_, and severe penalties were imposed
on those who exchanged commodities anywhere but at the appointed place
and at the appointed time. The market days of old Mexico thus appear as
compulsory holidays, when the people relinquished their usual occupations
and assembled in great numbers, not only to buy and sell, but also,
as we are told, to engage in games and festivities.[323] The five-day
market week also existed in various parts of Central America.[324] In the
Colombian Andes, among the Muysca (Chibcha) of Bogota, who had attained
a degree of civilization far in advance of that reached by the other
aborigines of Colombia, regular markets took place, apparently every
third day.[325] If the Muysca week consisted only of three days, that of
the Peruvians extended to ten days, ending in a holiday which was also
a market day. The institution was attributed to the Apu-Ccapac-Ynca,
whose beneficent activities gained for him the appellation of Pachacutec,
“Reformer of the World.” To an old chronicler, himself of Ynca blood,
this Peruvian Sabbath appeared to be devised solely for utilitarian
ends. “In order that labour might not be so continuous as to become
oppressive, the Ynca ordained that there should be three holidays every
month, in which the people should divert themselves with various games.
He also commanded that there should be three fairs every month, when the
labourers in the field should come to market and hear anything that the
Ynca or his council might have ordained. They called these assemblies
_catu_, and they took place on the holidays.”[326] Considering how
frequently eight and ten-day weeks have arisen by doubling periods of
four and five days, respectively, it seems not unlikely that the Peruvian
decade grew out of an earlier market week of five days similar to the
Mexican institution.
Another important instance of the market week and the market day in
archaic civilizations is that of the Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_.[327]
The nundinal cycle, eight days in length, began (or closed) with a
day when the peasants came to Rome for purposes of trade. The nundinal
day, however, was more than a market day. At this time the ordinary
occupations were interrupted; school-children enjoyed a holiday; and
sumptuous banquets celebrated the festive occasion.
The origin and early development of the _nundinæ_ are veiled in
obscurity. The institution enjoyed a high antiquity, tradition ascribing
it now to Romulus, now to Servius Tullius, and now to the first
consuls.[328] In historic times the _nundinæ_ present themselves as the
market days and holidays of a laborious peasantry; it may be questioned,
indeed, whether they were ever anything else. It seems probable that,
at least from the middle of the fifth century B.C., the _nundinæ_ could
be used for the settlement of judicial business, as is indicated by a
passage in the Twelve Tables referring to them.[329] Furthermore, there
is reason to believe that, until the passage of the Hortensian law in
287 B.C., the nundinal days were available for meetings of the public
assemblies. This unfortunate piece of legislation effectually debarred
the rural voters from participation in law-making on the very occasions
when the largest number of them would naturally be in the capital
city.[330] The classical writers were uncertain whether the _nundinæ_
should properly be included among the ferial days, that is, among the
days which belonged to gods and not to men.[331] In Varro’s time the
pontiffs held that the _nundinæ_ were not _feriatæ_, but many writers,
cited by Macrobius, maintained the contrary opinion. The _nundinæ_
certainly never became public festivals in the technical sense, though
they were dedicated to Jupiter, to whom the Flaminica Dialis sacrificed
a bull on their recurrence.[332] In this consecration to a deity the
_nundinæ_ further resembled some of the west African market days.
The Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_ have much historic interest. The
eight-day cycle, as a periodic week unconnected with the lunar month,
presented a close parallel to the Jewish week of seven days. Further
parallels existed in the absence of names for the weekdays, Roman
and Jewish, and in the special observance of one day of each week by
abstention from the customary occupations. It is scarcely surprising to
find, therefore, that the Roman _nundinæ_, together with the _feriæ_,
contributed to the development of the Christian Sunday. The earliest
Sunday law is the brief edict of Constantine (321 A.D.), enacting that
magistrates, city people, and artisans were to rest “on the venerable
day of the Sun.”[333] This legislation by Constantine probably bore no
relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor,
in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the Sun,
the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire,
to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar. Much significance must
be attached to that part of Constantine’s edict permitting agricultural
labour on Sunday, “since it frequently happens that the sowing of grain
and planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other
day.” In this particular the emperor was following the long-accepted
rule as to the observance of the _feriæ_ in country districts.[334]
Another regulation of Constantine’s, expressly appointing markets to be
held on Sunday, doubtless represents an effort to assimilate the old
Roman nundinal day to the new weekly Sunday.[335] With the final triumph
of Christianity over paganism the old _feriæ_ and the _nundinæ_ were
abolished, Sunday, with the other Christian festivals, being substituted
in their place.[336]
CHAPTER V
LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS
There is good reason for believing that among many primitive peoples the
moon, rather than the sun, the planets, or any of the constellations,
first excited the imagination and aroused feelings of superstitious awe
or of religious veneration. The worship of the moon is widespread; and in
various mythologies that luminary, often conceived as masculine, plays
the most important part among the heavenly bodies.[337] “That the moon
has certain effects on moist substances, that they are apparently subject
to her influences, that, for instance, increase and decrease in ebb and
flow develop periodically and parallel with the moon’s phases, all this
is well known to the inhabitants of seashores and seafaring people.
Likewise physicians are well aware that she affects the _humores_ of sick
people, and that the fever-days revolve parallel with the moon’s course.
Physical scholars know that the life of animals and plants depends upon
the moon, and experimentalists know that she influences marrow and brain,
eggs and the sediments of wine in casks and jugs, that she excites the
minds of people who sleep in full moonlight, and that she affects
(?) linen clothes which are exposed to it. Peasants know how the moon
acts upon fields of cucumbers, melons, cotton, etc., and even make the
times for the various kinds of sowing, planting, and grafting, and for
the covering of the cattle depend upon the course of the moon. Lastly,
astronomers know that meteorologic occurrences depend upon the various
phases through which the moon passes in her revolutions.”[338] This
succinct statement, by a learned Mohammedan of the eleventh century, of
the reasons which led early philosophers to attach a special significance
to the moon, may well serve as a text for elucidation and illustration.
It is a widespread and ancient belief, found among peoples in all stages
of culture, that the lunar rays are deleterious, especially to little
children. Some Brazilian Indians, for instance, believe that the moon
makes babies ill; hence mothers, immediately after delivery, will hide
themselves and their infants in the thickest part of the forest, in
order to prevent the moonlight from falling on them.[339] Yao boys,
when undergoing initiation into manhood, are told to avoid not only a
menstruating woman but also the sight of the new moon, since both are
dangerous.[340] Greek nurses took special pains never to show their
charges to the moon.[341] In modern Germany it is an injunction of
peasant folklore never to point out the moon to young children.[342]
Moonshine may also be deemed injurious to adults. Certain Queensland
aborigines will not stare long at the moon, for by doing so a heavy rain
is likely to result.[343] The Bushmen of South Africa avoid looking at
the moon.[344] The Chukchi of northeastern Siberia believe that a man who
looks too long at the moon may be bereft of his wits, or may be carried
away altogether. The moon, think the Chukchi, has a lasso with which he
catches the unlucky starer.[345] When an English traveller in Arabia
was noticed gazing at the radiant desert moon, the Bedouin said, “Look
not so fixedly on him; it is not wholesome.”[346] The same idea seems
to have found expression in one of the most beautiful of the _Psalms_:
“The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.”[347] Two
New Testament passages illustrate the belief that epilepsy may be caused
by the lunar rays.[348] Similarly, the Babylonians believed that Sin,
the moon-god, could provoke leprosy, dropsy, and, above all, fever,
which, like the lunar phases, has its periods of growth, culmination,
and decline.[349] Plutarch refers to the assumed fact that those who
sleep abroad under the beams of the moon are not easily wakened, but
seem stupid and senseless.[350] This fear of the noxious influences of
moonshine may be traced from classical times to the present day. French
peasants consider it dangerous to sleep in the moonlight.[351] German
peasants subject themselves to a long list of restrictions: no work,
and especially no spinning, must be done in the moonlight, for the spun
yarn would not hold, or the spinner would be spinning for her child a
hangman’s halter or the linen of a shroud; no waggon or tools should be
left exposed to the moonshine, for they would soon be broken; washed
clothes should not be hung out to dry in the moonlight, for he who wore
them would become moonstruck; one who sews by moonlight sews his own
graveclothes; water from a spring or well in which the moon shines should
not be drunk, since this would be to absorb the evil influences of the
moon; one should never look long at the moon, under penalty of getting
a goitre; the lunar rays should never penetrate into the kitchen, or
otherwise the maid would break many dishes.[352] So numerous, indeed, are
these lunar superstitions that throughout Germany Monday, as partaking of
the qualities of the moon from which it is named, is generally an unlucky
day.[353] In various parts of the United States the belief prevails that
it is dangerous to sleep with the moon shining on the face. If fish are
exposed to moonshine, they will spoil.[354]
Various peoples have noticed that monthly periodicity belongs to women
and moon alike, and, joining these observations, have supposed that
the lunar changes cause menstruation, or that the first appearance
of the menses is the result of defloration induced by the moon. As a
natural outcome of such beliefs the moon is credited with the power of
impregnation and is associated with childbirth.[355] Such superstitions
are widespread. In the native legends of the Euahlayi, a tribe of New
South Wales, Bahloo, the moon, is a very important personage. He it is
who creates the girl babies. Euahlayi mothers are very careful not to
look at the full moon or to let their babies do so, for an attack of
thrush, an affection common in newly born children, would be the result.
Bahloo has also a spiteful way of punishing a woman who stares at him by
sending to her the dreaded twins.[356] In Saibai and Yam, two islands
in Torres Straits, it is believed that the moon, in the shape of a man,
embraces a girl when she is full-grown, and that the halo around the moon
represents her blood. This story is also told on the neighbouring coast
of British New Guinea.[357] Here, as well as in some parts of Melanesia,
natives ascribe menstruation to the moon.[358] The Tuhoe, a Maori tribe,
believe that the moon is the permanent (or true) husband of all women,
because the latter menstruate when the moon appears. “According to the
knowledge of our ancestors and elders,” say the Tuhoe, “the marriage of
man and wife is a matter of no moment, the moon is the real husband.” And
the women themselves, on seeing the new moon, say, “The _tane_ (husband)
of all women in the world has appeared.”[359] The Jaluo, a tribe of
Nilotic stock living in the district of Kavirondo, British East Africa,
ascribe menstruation to the influence of the new moon and believe that
women can become pregnant only at this time.[360] The Baganda suppose
that menstruation is caused by the moon, either when new or waning.[361]
Similar beliefs are entertained by the negroes of the western Sudan, who
commonly give to this female function the name of the moon.[362] The
Greenlanders believe that the moon, conceived as a masculine divinity,
possesses the power of impregnation; as a consequence young girls are
afraid to look long at this luminary, “imagining they might get a
child by the bargain.”[363] The Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco
associate the moon with marriage. Young girls will address the moon with
the appeal “Moon, moon, I want to get married.”[364] Indian women in Peru
are said to have prayed to the moon to give them an easy delivery.[365]
In old Egyptian belief the moon was supposed to make women fruitful,
and the waxing moon to develop the germ in the mother’s body.[366] The
association of human fertility with the moon may perhaps explain why
Ishtar, the mother-goddess of Babylonian mythology, came to be regarded
as a daughter of Sin, the moon-god. In this capacity she presided over
childbirth.[367] The Iranian peoples supposed that the moon contained a
bull whose semen was another form of _haoma_, the intoxicating decoction
of the moon-plant.[368] The position of Hera as a goddess of marriage
and childbirth has been explained by the assumption that she played an
ancient rôle as a moon-deity. Artemis, with whom Selene, or the divine
personification of the moon, came to be identified, was regularly
associated with childbirth. The Roman Juno was connected with the moon
as Juno-Lucina, it being held that she aided women during confinement.
Ancient mythologers found it easy to identify the Italian Diana,
originally a goddess who looked after women in their time of peril,
with the Greek Artemis, who had the same functions.[369] Modern French
folklore still contains references to the idea that the moon can cause
impregnation; in Basse-Bretagne, for example, it is thought that a young
woman who exposes her person to the lunar rays may conceive and bear a
child.[370]
The influence of the moon on the tides furnishes another element of
mystery in the lunar phenomena. So primitive a people as the Andaman
Islanders habitually refer tidal movements to the action of the moon;
and the same connection between things lunar and things terrestrial has
been recognized by other peoples, such as the Hawaiians, the ancient
Babylonians, and the modern Chinese.[371] That changes in the moon
are associated with weather changes as cause and effect is an ancient
superstition not yet obsolete in rural communities.[372]
Comparative studies have shown how very general is the belief that the
moon exerts great influence on growth, particularly on the growth of
vegetation, and on all human life and activity.[373] For this opinion
there appear to have been two principal causes. Observation showed that
moisture in the air and soil are favourable to organic growth and,
further, that atmospheric moisture is greater at night than during the
day. It was reasonable to suppose the moon itself to be the source of
dew and moisture, especially when it was also noticed that the dew is
heaviest on cloudless nights. These beliefs were entertained by the
ancients, who attributed heat to the sun, but moisture to the moon.[374]
Another fallacy has had an even greater part in generating these
lunar fancies. The apparent growth of the moon in the first half of
the lunation is associated with the ripening of plants and fruits,
the increase of animals, and hence with the prosperous issue of human
undertakings. From this doctrine of lunar sympathy have arisen numerous
rules for the guidance of shepherds and husbandmen, which had a wide
prevalence in antiquity and still survive with almost undiminished vigour
among the superstitious classes of to-day.[375]
The doctrine of lunar sympathy, by a natural extension, may also account
for the common belief that “the same things which grow with the waxing,
dwindle with the waning, moon,”[376] and therefore that all business
done in the latter half of a lunation is doomed to failure. The Toda
appear to regard the first half of the month as the auspicious time for
their numerous ceremonies. “I met with no case,” says Dr. Rivers, “in
which any ceremony was appointed for the period of the full moon or
for the second half of the moon’s period.”[377] The Andaman Islanders
abstain from work during the first few evenings of the third quarter
of the moon.[378] The Buriat are said never to undertake anything of
importance between the full and the new moon.[379] The Tatars, according
to the account of an Italian friar who in the thirteenth century made an
adventurous journey to Mongolia, began any new enterprise “at new moon,
or when the moon is full.”[380] The Mandingo paid great attention to the
changes of the moon and thought it “very unlucky to begin a journey or
any other work of consequence in the last quarter.”[381] Of the Sudanese
negroes, generally, it is said that they are much influenced in their
undertakings by the appearance of the new moon. For instance, a journey
which has been decided upon during the last quarter of the moon is always
postponed until the new moon. No chief would presume to lead out his
tribesmen on a war party before the appearance of the crescent.[382]
The Nandi celebrate their very important circumcision festival, as well
as all marriage ceremonies, during the waxing moon, but perform their
mourning rites during the waning moon.[383] The Hova and other tribes
of Madagascar regard the waning of the moon as “an unfavourable time
for any important undertaking.”[384] Similar beliefs were entertained
by the early Germans, who, according to Cæsar, despaired of victory if
they engaged in battle before the new moon.[385] Tacitus, with fuller
knowledge, declares that the Germans considered the new moon and the full
moon as the most auspicious seasons for beginning any enterprise.[386]
This superstition seems still to linger in some districts of Germany,
where it is commonly held that any work begun when the moon is on the
increase is sure to succeed, and that the full moon brings everything to
perfection; whereas business undertaken during the waning moon is doomed
to failure.[387] A like belief was that of the Scottish Highlanders, to
whom the moon in her increase, full growth, and wane was “the emblem of
a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her
revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance;
but the first and the middle they seize with avidity, presaging the
most auspicious issue to their undertakings.”[388] On the other hand
the people of Thermià (Kythnos), one of the Cyclades, believe that you
should never do any work, if you can help it, on the days preceding
full moon, while for grafting, planting, cutting trees, and bleaching
clothes those days are best which follow the full moon.[389] And an
English antiquarian of the seventeenth century declares that, according
to the rules of astrology, “it is not good to undertake any business of
importance in the new of the moon; and not better just at the full of the
moon; but worst of all in an eclipse.”[390]
Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered unfavourable for work,
and may also be accompanied by fasting and other forms of abstinence.
During such times of uncanny and terrifying darkness it is thought to
be wise to avoid every sort of activity, as well as the consumption of
food which may be tainted with mysterious evil.[391] Among the Wasania,
a tribe of British East Africa, no cohabitation takes place during an
eclipse.[392] Lunar and solar eclipses are among the phenomena which
require a Naga community to declare a _genna_ and give up its ordinary
occupations.[393] When the Toda know that an eclipse is about to occur,
they abstain from meat and drink; when it is over, they have a feast and
eat a special food prepared on all ceremonial occasions.[394] In southern
India it is a common custom, when an eclipse occurs, for the people to
retire into their houses and remain behind closed doors. “The time is in
all respects inauspicious, and no work begun or completed during this
period can meet with success; indeed, so great is the dread, that no
one would think of initiating any important work at this time.”[395]
The natives of northern India are said to consider it a great crime to
partake of food, drink water, or answer the calls of nature during an
eclipse.[396] Such a period is considered most unlucky for commencing
any business of importance. A pregnant woman will do no work during an
eclipse, as otherwise her child would be deformed. Among high-caste
Hindus no food which has been in the house during an eclipse of the sun
or the moon may be eaten. It must be given away, and all earthen vessels
in use in the house at the time must be broken.[397] The Chinese formerly
observed lunar eclipses by a general suspension of business.[398] The
fatal delay which led to the destruction of the Athenian fleet and army
before Syracuse was the result of a lunar eclipse, as interpreted by the
soothsayers and the incompetent, superstitious Nicias.[399] Among the
Jews there were formerly many who abstained from food on the day of an
eclipse of the moon, a portent which they regarded as evil.[400] This
belief, as has been noted, prevailed in England at least as late as the
seventeenth century.[401]
Various peoples have supposed that the moon, during the period of her
invisibility, descends to the underworld. This conception has played
a noteworthy part in generating superstitions concerning tabooed and
unlucky days. The Akamba, a tribe of British East Africa, believe that
on the day which completes the month no child is born and no domestic
animal gives birth. One of the Akamba clans is called _mu-mwei_ (_mwei_
signifying moon), and by the members of this clan no house may be swept
on the last day of the month.[402] The Akikuyu, a tribe related to the
Akamba, regard the moon as the sun’s wife, and suppose that when the
moon comes to maturity the sun fights with her and kills her. While she
is “dead,” as the natives say, no journeys are undertaken, no sacrifices
are offered, and no sheep are killed. It is further considered that
goats and sheep will not bear on the day after the disappearance of the
moon.[403] The Wagiriama keep as Sabbaths the odd days at the end of
the month, before the appearance of the new moon.[404] Some tribes of
equatorial Africa believe that the new moon is especially ill-humoured
and hungry on the day when she emerges from darkness. “She looks down
over our country,” the natives declare, “and seeks whom she can devour,
and we poor black men are very much afraid of her on that account, and we
hide ourselves from her sight on that night.” People who die between new
and full moon are said to be those whom the new moon saw at this fateful
time, in spite of all the precautions they took.[405] The missionary,
David Livingstone, while sojourning at Lake Nyassa, discovered that the
natives in this region regarded the _interlunium_ as distinctly unlucky.
On one occasion his men delayed an expedition till they had seen the new
moon. We must have the new moon, they said, for a lucky starting.[406]
The “dark day” of the moon was considered by the Zulu as inauspicious for
engaging in battle.[407]
A superstitious attitude toward the _interlunium_ appears to be very
prevalent among the Dravidian peoples of India. The Kanarese of Hyderabad
and Mysore do not work in the fields on the last day of the month. If
a child is born at this time, they believe that some one in the family
will die. If a cow or a buffalo has a calf at such a time, it must be
sold. On the evening before new moon no one may eat cooked food. The
new moon is consecrated to the dead.[408] The Saoria of the Rajmahal
Hills, who regard Sunday as unlucky and do not work in the fields, pay
visits, or get married on this day, observe much the same restrictions
during the period of the moon’s invisibility. Marriages will not be
fruitful if consummated during the dark of the moon, and in general the
time is associated with bad luck and sickness.[409] The same belief is
found elsewhere in northern India, sometimes with beneficial results, as
appears from the following description, which applies to the district of
Rohtak. “To-day (29th November, 1883), in passing through the Jât and
Ahîr villages in Rohtak, I noticed that no work was being done at the
wells or in the fields, and that the peasants, usually so hard at work,
were idling in the village instead. On inquiring the reason, I was told
that to-day was the _amâwas_, the last day of the moon, and that on this
day of the month the bullocks are always given a rest. The men themselves
do any work that is to be done without using the cattle, but no one yokes
his bullocks in the plough or at the well, or, if he can help it, in the
cart. I noticed that some of the peasants were busy making thorn-fences,
or doing other light work, but no bullocks were at work anywhere, and as
there is little to be done at this season without their help, the custom
practically gave the men a rest also, and the unusual idleness gave the
villages a sort of Sunday look. The bullocks are given this rest once a
month, on the last day of the moon, and also on the _makar kâ sankrânt_,
which comes about January, when the sun enters into the sign of Capricorn
(_makar_), and on the _dîwâlî_ and _gôrdhan_ (the day after the _dîwâlî_)
in the middle of Kârtik (October). Except on these fifteen days it is
lawful for a man to yoke his cattle on all other days of the year, but
these particular days are strictly a Sabbath for the cattle, and no one
thinks of yoking them on these days. If any one did, it would be a sin
(_pâp_), and his fellows would at once stop him. There is no such Sabbath
for man, and it is not thought wrong (_pâp_) for a man to work on any day
of the year, though, of course, there are many holidays (_têohâr_), on
which little work is done.”[410]
These superstitions relating to the dark of the moon have not been
confined to the natives of Africa and the aborigines of India. They meet
us among peoples of archaic civilization and they survive among the
peasantry of European lands. To the Babylonians, who paid particular
attention to all lunar phenomena, the disappearance of the moon at the
end of the month occasioned much anxiety. The day when the moon could
no longer be seen in the heavens was called the “day of sorrow” (_ûm
bubbuli_, literally, the “day of the snatching away”). The absence of
the moon was reckoned at three days, and during this time prayers were
recited and solemn expiatory rites were prescribed, primarily for the
king, who, as the representative of his people, had to take special care
not to provoke the gods to anger at so critical a season. We still have
one of the prayers recited by the ruler in his sanctuary and addressed to
the moon-god Sin. The thirtieth day of the month is here described as the
god’s “holy day” or “festival.” The prayer concludes with an allusion to
an eclipse, from which it appears that the Babylonians, knowing neither
the cause nor nature of such a phenomenon, supposed that, unless the
gods were pacified during the moon’s temporary obscuration, there would
follow the more terrifying portent of an eclipse.[411] Modern Arabs
consider the last day or last three days of the month to be unfavourable
for any sort of undertaking.[412] By the Athenians these three days were
called ἀσέλινοι, because on them the moonlight was extinguished. They
were classed with the other unlucky days (ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι) of popular
superstition. During the ἀσέλινοι it was necessary to sacrifice to the
underworld gods in order to avoid their anger.[413] Selene at this time
was supposed to descend to the underworld and the abode of shades;
hence the moon came to be associated with Persephone.[414] The Romans do
not appear to have marked the _interlunium_ or _intermenstruum_ by any
special observances. European folklore, however, still preserves traces
of the ancient superstition, as in the Cornish belief that a child, so
unfortunate as to be born at this time, will never live to attain the age
of puberty. Hence the saying, “No moon, no man.”[415] Similar beliefs
would seem to survive in the very common idea that the three days before
the new moon are especially unlucky and likely to be attended by storms
and winds.[416]
We may well believe that the different appearances of the moon were
the first celestial phenomena observed with any degree of continuous
attention by primitive man. Not only are the phases of the moon marked by
striking variations in her form and in the amount of light she radiates,
but from night to night she follows a regular path through the sky,
changing her elevation above the horizon and appearing to occupy at her
successive phases different quarters of the heavens. Such phenomena
present elements of mystery not found in the sun’s prosaic course. A
survey of the anthropological evidence appears to indicate, as might
indeed be expected, that of the lunar phases it is particularly the new
moon which awakens interest and attention. The first appearance of that
luminary in the western sky after sunset is often hailed with various
ceremonial observances. The Indians of the Ucayali River in Peru are
said to greet the appearance of the new moon with great joy. They make
long speeches to her, accompanied with vehement gesticulations, imploring
her protection and begging that she invigorate their bodies.[417] Certain
tribes of southern California, afterwards gathered into the Mission of
San Juan Capistrano, celebrated the new moon with dances, saying, “As
the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so we also, having to die, will
again live.”[418] The Dakota and other Plains Indians, when the moon does
not shine, “say the moon is dead; and some call the three last days of it
the naked days. The moon’s first appearance they term its coming to life
again.” At this time they stretch forth their hands toward the moon and
repeat joyful expressions.[419] The Creek and Cherokee Indians, according
to an early writer, “assemble and feast at the appearance of the new
moon, when they seem to be in great mirth and gladness, but, I believe,
make no offerings to that planet.”[420] Similar observances have been
noted in various parts of Africa. An old traveller recites how, at the
appearance of every new moon, the Congo negroes, “fall on their knees,
or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, ‘So may I renew my
life as thou art renewed.’” But if the sky was clouded, they did nothing,
believing that the moon had lost its virtue.[421] The Mandingo, on the
first appearance of the new moon, “which they look upon to be newly
created,” say a short prayer.[422] The Bushmen had their special seasons
of merry-making, when the dance was never neglected. “Dancing began with
the new moon, as an expression of joy that the dark nights had ended,
and was continued at the full moon, that they might avail themselves of
the delicious coolness after the heat of the day, and the brilliancy of
the moonlight in this portion of the southern hemisphere.”[423]
It has been suggested that in many cases the ceremonies at new moon have
a magical aspect. On this theory the first appearance of the luminary,
with its promise of growth and increase, would be greeted with rites
intended to renew and strengthen, by means of sympathetic magic, the
life of man.[424] Though it is true that in process of time ideas of a
magico-religious character may attach themselves to lunar phenomena, and
especially to new moon, there seems to be little reason for assuming them
to be original and primary. Most of the foregoing examples, indeed, may
be more simply interpreted as a naïve expression of man’s delight at the
return of the moon to the world, after an absence at once mysterious and
portentous. Still less necessary is the assumption, so commonly made,
that all lunar ceremonies are acts of worship addressed to the moon as a
divinity. Religious festivals appear in the first instance to be fixed
at new moon or full moon because these are the two most striking periods
of the lunation and mark, respectively, the beginning and middle of the
lunar month.
Among many peoples in both the lower and the higher culture the time
of new moon and full moon, much less commonly of each half moon, forms
a season of restriction and abstinence. The lunar day is sometimes
a holy day dedicated to a god, who may be identified with the moon
itself. Instances of this sort are to be correlated with the general
course of religious development, involving, as it does, the emergence of
polytheistic cults and the schematization of the ritual. But under more
primitive conditions the lunar day is a tabooed day, quite independent
of any association with a deity. It seems idle to seek a particularistic
explanation for the taboos observed on such an occasion. We have already
noticed the sympathetic influence which the waxing and waning of the moon
is supposed to exert on human activities. Furthermore, we have seen that
the new moon, rising as it were from the dead, is thought to be pregnant
with meaning for the life of man. Her very newness is an element of
interest; her contrasts, in shape, size, and position in the heavens, to
the old moon further deepen the impression of her significance; and her
function of inaugurating the month not only gives to her a special place
in primitive calendar systems but also invests her with the emotional
importance belonging to the commencement of any new period. These ideas
of lunar influence are naturally extended to the full moon, which, as
will be shown, is commonly regarded as marking the division of the lunar
month into two equal parts, and in some instances to the half moons, as
indicating the other prominent stages in a lunation. The phases of the
moon thus come to be considered critical times and to be marked not only
by religious exercises but also by fasting and cessation of the customary
occupations.[425]
Lunar taboos, involving abstinence and quiescence, are commonly observed
in Polynesia and Indonesia.[426] Various African peoples likewise
entertain pronounced beliefs regarding the unfavourable influence of the
moon’s changes on human activities. The Zulu welcome the first appearance
of the new moon with demonstrations of joy, but on the day following they
abstain from all labour, “thinking if anything is sown on those days they
can never reap the benefits thereof.”[427] The Bapiri, a tribe of the
Bechuana stock, stay at home at new moon and do not go out to the fields.
“They believe that if they should set about their labour at such a
season, the millet would remain in the ground without sprouting, or that
the ear would fail to fill, or that it would be destroyed by rust.”[428]
Of another Bechuana tribe, the Makololo, in the neighbourhood of the
Leeambye River, Livingstone remarks, “There is no stated day of rest in
any part of this country except the day after the appearance of the new
moon, and the people then refrain only from going to their gardens.”[429]
An earlier writer, referring to the Bechuana, says that when the new moon
appears, “all must cease from work, and keep what is called in England
a holiday.”[430] To the north of the Bechuana, in the upper basin of the
Zambesi, live the Barotse, by whom the new moon is made an occasion for
great festivities. “It is a general holiday; men of all ranks sing and
dance, while the women assemble apart and give vent to strident howls of
their own.”[431] Similarly, among all the people from Nyassaland to Ujiji
on Lake Tanganyika the first night of the new moon is a public festival,
sometimes celebrated by a dance in which the men alone participate.[432]
The Baziba, who dwell to the west and southwest of Lake Victoria Nyanza,
are said to be one of the few tribes in this part of Africa having “a
recognized day of rest, independently of the Christians’ Sabbath. The two
first days of every moon are universal holidays.”[433]
A superstitious observance of the new-moon day is found among some of
the tribes and peoples occupying British East Africa. The Akamba, whose
beliefs regarding the _interlunium_ have been already mentioned,[434]
also consider it very unlucky to move cattle or livestock of any kind
from one place or another, or even to give presents of any stock,
during the first four days of the new moon.[435] Well-marked Sabbaths
are kept by some sections of the Baganda, the great tribe, or rather
nation, occupying Uganda. At the temple estate of the god Mukasa, the
most important Baganda deity, there was a week’s rest, _bwerende_, on
the appearance of each new moon; no special gatherings were held during
this period, but the people did the minimum of work, even the cutting of
firewood being forbidden. All preparations for the festival were made
beforehand, in order that the women should not be obliged to perform any
labour other than cooking.[436] In Budu, a district of Uganda, there is
a curious worship of the python, conducted by members of the Heart clan.
The sacred snake, which bears the title of Selwanga, is kept in a temple
and receives worship at the new moon. When this appears, the people
repair to the shrine of the python and make their offerings. No work may
be done on the estate for seven days.[437] Again, the principal chief of
the district of Singo, who was shield-bearer to the king of the Baganda,
“had to observe a taboo each full moon, namely, to abstain from food from
noon of the day of the full moon until the following morning, and also
to live apart from his wives during that time. ‘It is full moon, the
Mukwenda may not eat,’ was a saying among the people.”[438] The Banyoro,
a Bantu people related to the Baganda, who inhabit the country to the
northwest of Uganda, performed every full moon a ceremony which has been
thus described: “In the afternoon all the drums in the place were beaten,
and everybody shouted, as no one dared keep silent for fear of offending
the moon. The king posted men at the cross-roads and seized every one who
passed along. These unfortunate folk were brought in to him and offered
as a propitiatory sacrifice for the whole country to the evil spirits.
The hair of the victims was put into cow horns and their blood was poured
on to it, the horns being then kept by different people as charms against
sickness and trouble. After this the king appeared swathed in barkcloths,
taking up his position in his council hall, his subjects coming to do
obeisance to him. A dead silence prevailed, for no one was allowed to
even cough in his presence.... As the full moon rose the feasting began,
and the drinking and dancing continued till dawn. The king’s chief wife
had to sit by her intoxicated spouse and pinch his arm or bite his
finger, to prevent sleep; for a man to slumber during full moon brought
disaster to the household.”[439] New moon, as well as full moon, seems
to have been observed by the Banyoro, for Speke found the palace of the
king of Unyoro shut up, because the new moon had been seen for the first
time on the preceding evening.[440] The same explorer describes a like
custom found among the Bahima, or Wahuma, of Ankole, a region lying to
the southwest of Uganda. “On the first appearance of the new moon every
month, the king shuts himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic
horns—the horns of wild animals stuffed with charm-powder—for two or
three days. These may be counted his Sundays or church festivals which he
dedicates to devotion.”[441]
New-moon and full-moon festivals, accompanied by abstinence from secular
activities, are thus seen to form a common feature of native life in
southern and eastern Africa. The custom of keeping them as rest days is
apparently confined to Bantu peoples, who arose from a mixture of Hamites
with the true negroes. No sabbatarian regulations are discoverable among
the Bushmen, representing the aborigines of southern Africa, or among the
non-Bantu tribes of eastern Africa. It may be argued, therefore, that
these African Sabbaths are of foreign parentage, being derived remotely
from Hamitic and Himyaritic (Semitic) immigrants into Africa. The
argument is strengthened by the fact that lunar festivals may be traced
to a remote antiquity, both in Egypt and in western Asia. In any case,
however, they must have been much modified with their transmission from
tribe to tribe and from century to century.
None of the natives of southern and eastern Africa who observe new moon
and full moon as seasons of abstinence appear to be familiar with the
market week and the market day. On the other hand, in central and western
Africa, where markets are so generally found and where the market day is
kept as a holiday, lunar festivals accompanied by a cessation of labour
are very rare.[442] Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, who was much impressed
with the resemblance of the west-African rest day to the Hebrew Sabbath,
supposed that both were once lunar festivals, connected with moon-worship
and celebrated on the first day of the new moon. “This holy day, before
the invention of weeks, recurred monthly, but after the lunar month
was divided, it recurred weekly, and was held on the first day of the
week.”[443] His theory, however plausible at first sight, breaks down
when we remember that the keeping of moon-days as Sabbaths does not
necessarily imply worship of the moon as a deity; that full moon, as
well as new moon, may be observed festively with abstinence from labour;
and, finally, that the market week did not arise as a subdivision of
the month, but was in origin quite independent of the lunation. The
restrictions attending market days have nothing to do with superstitions
relating to the moon.
Lunar taboos are not unknown in modern India. The natives of northern
India regard the new moon as an unfavourable time for undertaking
important business.[444] The Kanarese, whose customs and beliefs relating
to the last day of the lunar month have already been noticed, do not
plough their fields at new moon and full moon.[445] The Badaga of the
Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India think that children born on the day
of the new moon, the full moon, or any one of the three days immediately
preceding the full moon, will be unfortunate throughout life.[446] The
Korava regard the day after new moon as unlucky for starting out from
home.[447] Similar superstitions are doubtless to be found among other
Dravidian peoples.
The Aryans of ancient India observed two sacred periods in every month,
new moon and full moon, with sacrifices to the gods.[448] The simpler
forms of the rite were gradually extended into an elaborate ritual.
Every Brahmanical householder was required to perform two half-monthly
sacrifices for a period of thirty years, after he had set up a home of
his own. According to some authorities these sacrifices were obligatory
for the rest of his life. The ceremony usually occupied the greater
part of two consecutive days. While the first day was to be chiefly
occupied with preparatory rites and the taking of the vow of abstinence
(_vrata_) by the sacrificer and his wife, the second day was reserved
for the performance of the main ceremony.[449] Since it was permitted
to compress the two days’ rites of the full-moon sacrifice into a
single day, the conjecture is plausible that originally only one day
was assigned to the observances of abstinence and sacrifice.[450] The
ritualistic requirements for this ceremony do not expressly include the
cessation of labour by the Brahmanical householder and his family. It
might be argued, therefore, that the new-moon and full-moon observances
were not originally dictated by a superstitious regard for the lunar
phases. The fasting on the _upavasatha_ day would then be merely a rite
preliminary to the sacrifice on the following day; and the association of
the two ceremonies with new and full moon would mean only that these two
divisions of a lunar month were selected as convenient and conspicuous
periods for the performance of religious duties. But the evidence at our
disposal enables us to attach a deeper significance to the ancient Aryan
rite.
In the first place it is well known that the _upavasatha_ was a fast
preparatory to the offering of the “moon plant,” the intoxicating _soma_,
whose personification and deification are assigned to a date earlier than
that of the Vedas themselves. A very competent scholar, after pointing
out that in Vedic literature the moon takes a much higher rank than the
sun, being regarded as the creator and ruler of the world, has argued
that everywhere in the _Rig-Veda soma_ and the moon are identified, and
that the terrestrial plant is merely a symbolic representation of the
luminary. According to this view the moon-god as Soma forms the centre
of Vedic religion.[451] The theory, thus unequivocally stated, has not
won wide acceptance; according to the commoner view Soma as a god is
ordinarily celebrated in the Vedic hymns only as a personification of
the beverage; and his identification with the moon is to be explained
as a secondary mythological formation. Certain instances of such
identification are met in a few of the latest hymns of the _Rig-Veda_;
and in the _Atharva-Veda_ Soma several times means the moon. Post-Vedic
writings regularly refer to Soma as the moon, which, when drunk by the
gods, begins to wane.[452]
In the second place the two half-monthly sacrifices were characterized
by restrictions which can best be described as taboos. The Brahmanical
householder was obliged to abstain from certain kinds of food, especially
meat, and from sexual intercourse. He might not cut hair, beard, or
nails. He should sleep, not on a bed, but on the ground. The directions
for the ceremonies, as given in the _Grihya-sûtra of Gobhila_, further
require the worshipper not to set out on a journey; if he is away from
home even at a distant place, to return to his house; not to sell
goods (though he may buy them from others); and to speak as little as
possible.[453] It is obvious that the scrupulous observance of all these
regulations would convert the _upavasatha_ day into a Sabbath, marked,
not only by fasting, but also by the cessation of most secular activities.
In post-Vedic times the sabbatarian quality of lunar days becomes
increasingly prominent. In the _Institutes of Vishnu_ the new moon is
mentioned as a penitential fast day.[454] A variety of lunar penances
is prescribed in the _Laws of Manu_.[455] The same lawbook sets forth
that “on the (night of) new moon and the eighth (lunar day), and also on
the (night of) full moon and the fourteenth (lunar day), let a Brahman
who has finished his student’s course be always (as) a student, even in
season,” that is, let him remain chaste.[456] According to the _Vishnu
Purana_, a relatively late production of Brahmanical thought, there
are “certain days on which unguents, flesh, and women are unlawful, as
the eighth and fourteenth lunar days, new moon and full moon, and the
entrance of the sun into a new sign. On these occasions the wise will
restrain their appetites, and occupy themselves in the worship of the
gods, as enjoined by holy writ, in meditation, and in prayer; and he
who behaves differently will fall into a hell where ordure will be his
food.”[457] It is also said that he who attends to secular affairs on the
days of the _parvans_ (new moon and full moon) will be punished hereafter
in a hell of blood.[458] For modern Brahmans the new-moon and full-moon
days are regularly fast days.[459]
With the development of the complex ritual of Brahmanism holy and
unlucky days became almost identical with days when the sacred books
should not be read. The code of Manu requires a learned Brahman not to
recite the Veda on the new-moon day, or on the fourteenth and eighth
days of each half-month, or on the full-moon day. It is said that “the
new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth day the pupil, the
eighth and full-moon days destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him
therefore avoid reading on those days.”[460] This injunction, moreover,
is repeated for a great variety of other critical occasions: during a
heavy thunderstorm; during an eclipse; and when an earthquake occurs. A
like prohibition is enforced after events causing pollution; a Brahman,
for example, should not read the Veda in a village through which a corpse
has been taken, or near a burning-ground.[461] Similar prohibitions are
set forth at great length in the lawbook of Gautama. The Veda ought not
to be studied and recited when there is a thunderstorm, an earthquake, an
eclipse or a fall of meteors; on the day of the new moon (on the latter
occasion reading may be interrupted for two days); on the full moon of
three months of the year, and so forth.[462] In the _Vishnu Purana_ we
read that “on the days called _parvans_, on periods of impurity, upon
unseasonable thunder, at the occurrence of eclipses or atmospheric
portents, a wise man must desist from the study of the Vedas.”[463] Some
of these taboos have endured till the present time, the eighth day of
each fortnight, held sacred to the goddess Durga, being a period when no
study is allowable for a pious Hindu.[464]
The Vedic ceremonies at new moon and full moon appear to have influenced
the Hindu festival of Bhaskara Saptami, which takes place on the
twenty-second of the month Magha, the seventh day of the light fortnight
(4th of February). “This day is in an especial degree sacred to the sun.
Abstinence is to be practised on the day preceding; and in the morning
before sunrise, or at the first appearance of dawn, bathing is to be
performed until sunrise; a rigid fast is to be observed throughout the
day, worship is to be offered the sun, presents are to be made to the
Brahmans, and in the evening the worshipper is to hold a family feast;
one of the observances of the day is abstinence from study, neither
teacher nor scholar being allowed to open a book.”[465] For the proper
observance of the festival it is also necessary that the sun should be
worshipped in his own temple, with prayers and offerings on the sixth
day, during which abstinence is to be practised, and at night the
worshipper should sleep on the ground. In upper India the festival day is
also called Achala Saptami, the fixed or immovable seventh, or Jayanti
Saptami, the victorious seventh, and so forth. “Whatever the designation,
the worship of the sun is the prominent ceremony of the seventh of the
light half of Magha. The same may be said, however, of the seventh lunar
day throughout the year, chiefly of one seventh in each fortnight,
that of the moon’s increase; but also of the seventh day of the moon’s
wane.”[466] The religious books declare that whoever worships the sun on
the seventh day of the moon’s increase, with fasting and offerings of
white oblations, as white flowers and the like, and whoever fasts on the
seventh of the moon’s wane and offers to the sun red flowers and articles
of a red colour, is purified from all iniquity and goes after death to
the solar sphere. “The worship of the sun, on the seventh of the dark
fortnight, seems to have gone out of use, but that on the seventh of the
light fortnight is strongly recommended in various authorities, beginning
with this seventh of Magha and continuing throughout the year.”[467]
The selection of the seventh day of each fortnight as the time of the
festival may have been due to the symbolic significance of that number,
while the choice of the sun as the object of adoration doubtless reflects
the commanding position which that luminary assumed in post-Vedic times.
The close resemblance between these Hindu ceremonies of sun-worship and
those prescribed in the Vedas for the observance of new moon and full
moon suggests, however, that there has been a partial fusion of the two
festivals.
The Vedic observance of new moon and full moon survived in the ritual of
both Jainism and Buddhism, the two great monastic sects which arose in
the sixth century B.C. out of the bosom of Brahmanism. The Jain ceremony,
known as _posaha_, is declared to have been specially instituted for
those who said that “we cannot, submitting to the tonsure, renounce the
life of a householder and enter the monastic state, but we shall strictly
observe the _posaha_ on the fourteenth and eighth days of each fortnight
(on the new-moon and) full-moon days.”[468] The faithful householder
“should never neglect the _posaha_ fast in both fortnights, not even for
a single night.”[469] In the Jain scriptures, the _posaha_ is further
defined as the observance of a fast or the eating once only on the two
holy days of each fortnight, “after having given up bathing, unguents,
ornaments, company of women, odours, incense, lights, etc., and assumed
renunciation as an ornament.” The _posaha_ is thus distinguished by
the four abstinences from food, bodily attentions, sexual intercourse,
and daily work.[470] The keeping of the _posaha_ at the present day is
especially connected with the holy fast of Pajjusaṇa at the close of the
Jain religious year. The observance of the rite at other times by laymen
appears to be dying out.[471]
The Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, like the Jain _posaha_, owed its
existence remotely to the Vedic lunar rites. As celebrated anciently in
India and in modern times in Nepal and Ceylon, the _uposatha_ falls on
the day of the new moon, on the day of the full moon, and on the two
days which are eighth from new and full moon. The _uposatha_ is marked
not only by fasting but also by abstinence from secular activities:
during its continuance buying and selling, work and business, hunting and
fishing are forbidden, and all schools and courts of justice are closed.
Whoever observes the _uposatha_ rigidly must abstain from food between
sunrise and sunset. Since no cooking is allowed to taint the sanctity
of the _uposatha_, the pious Buddhist prepares his evening meal in the
early morning before the sun appears.[472]
The _uposatha_, as contrasted with the _upavasatha_, is a ceremony
attached to all four of the lunar phases, instead of to two only;
moreover, it is a rest day as well as a fast day. How may it be shown
that the Buddhist institution forms a natural outgrowth of the earlier
Brahmanical rite?
The origin of the custom of observing four days in the lunar month as
_uposatha_ is involved in some obscurity. According to Buddhist tradition
the monks of non-Buddhistic sects were accustomed to assemble at the
middle and close of every half-month for the purpose of proclaiming
their teachings. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these
periodical meetings on the fourteenth or fifteenth and eighth day of
each half-month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha himself.[473]
There seems to be not the slightest ground for supposing that the number
of Buddhist Sabbaths was originally two, but was afterwards increased
to four in every month. The words of the canon are: “I prescribe that
you assemble on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth day of each [half]
month.”[474] In the _Dhammika Sutta_ the wording is: “Then having with a
believing mind kept abstinence (_uposatha_) on the fourteenth, fifteenth,
and eighth days of the half-month,” etc.[475] When Buddhism arose, the
custom of keeping the eighth day of each lunar fortnight, in addition to
new moon and full moon, appears to have been well-established in both
Brahmanism and the non-Buddhistic sects, a circumstance which led to the
adoption of all four periods by Buddhists as well.[476] Two of these
days (at new moon and full moon) are devoted to the special ceremony of
reading, in an assembly of at least four monks, the _patimokkha_, or the
disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, according to the regulation laid
down by the Buddha.[477]
In the _Sutta Nipâta_, a collection of seventy didactic poems belonging
to the Pitakas, or sacred books of the southern Buddhists, Eight Precepts
or Moral Commandments are enumerated. Five of these are binding on every
Buddhist, whether mendicant or layman, but the remaining three are not
obligatory for the laity. The precepts are: (1) not to destroy life; (2)
not to commit theft; (3) not to tell lies; (4) not to drink intoxicating
liquors; (5) not to indulge in unlawful sexual intercourse; (6) not to
eat unseasonable food at night; (7) not to wear garlands or use perfumes;
and (8) not to sleep on a raised couch.[478] These precepts are said to
constitute the eight-fold fast, or _uposatha_, declared by the Buddha.
Their special observance on the _uposatha_ day is inculcated, and to
break any of them on that day is considered highly irreligious. Instead
of observing lunar taboos, the Buddhists were to keep the _uposatha_ by
a special fulfillment of the moral law, with clean garments and with
clean minds; one of the many instances in which the founder of Buddhism
gave a spiritual meaning to an earlier superstitious rite. That the
_uposatha_, marked as it was by fasting, avoidance of sexual intercourse,
and refraining from wearing wreaths and using perfumes, should have come
to be regarded as a rest day seems to be only the natural result of its
observance as a season of abstinence. The _uposatha_ is thus discovered
among the earliest institutions of Buddhism; in its origin it could
have owed nothing to Jewish or Christian influence; in its diffusion
throughout southeastern Asia it appears to have remained unaffected by
the influence of Islam. If these conclusions be accepted, the Buddhist
Sabbath dates back, remotely, to taboos observed at changes of the moon.
Buddhism was early introduced into Ceylon. The Sabbath still observed
there by the Sinhalese falls on the four _poya_ days of the month, the
days of the changes of the moon.[479] Missionaries from Ceylon carried
the new faith to Burma, at least as early as the fifth century A.D.
According to an old traveller the “eighth day of the increasing moon,
the fifteenth or full moon, the eighth of the decreasing moon, and the
last day of the moon, are religiously observed by Birmans (_sic_) as
sacred festivals. On these hebdomadal holidays no public business is
transacted in the Rhoom: mercantile dealings are suspended; handicraft is
forbidden; and the strictly pious take no sustenance between the rising
and the setting of the sun; but the latter instance of self-denial is not
very common, and, as I understood, is rarely practised, except in the
metropolis, where the appearance of sanctity is sometimes assumed as a
ladder by which the crafty attempt to climb to promotion.”[480] According
to a more recent and sympathetic account there are “four _ubone_, or
duty days, in every lunar month, on which all good Burmans are expected
to go and worship at the pagodas. These are the eighth of the crescent,
the full moon, the eighth of the waning, and the change, of which the
second and the fourth are the more sacred. As the monks have nothing to
do with looking after the spiritual state of the people, it is entirely
a matter to be settled by one’s self whether any particular worship
day is to be observed or not. If you conclude that strict religious
observances are only necessary for your spiritual well-being on the
day of the full moon, or at any rate that you may leave out the eighth
of the crescent and waning moon, then the _ubone_ does not concern you
at all, and you may proceed about your ordinary business without being
considered a reprobate. The very devout may go to the pagoda on all the
four sacred days of the month; but if you choose to omit one or several,
or substitute an ordinary day for that provided by religious custom,
there is no one to take you to task for it. Were a Burman never to go to
the pagoda at all, or fail to do so for any considerable time, he would
indeed soon get a very bad character among his neighbours, and might even
be formally excommunicated by the _yahan_. There is, however, practically
no constraint save the force of public opinion. But the duties of worship
are so light, and so dependent in their details upon yourself, and
there is so much amusement to be got out of a visit to the pagoda on
an _ubone_, that few, even of the most worldly-minded, miss any great
number of the appointed days, and a special festival is always carefully
observed.... It must not, however, be supposed that all the people take
this easy-going and frivolous view of duty days. Diligent seekers after
_kutho_ behave very differently. They do not merely limit themselves to
the customary forms of worship and offerings. They sleep little, or not
at all, the night before; telling their beads instead, and reading good
books, some of the discourses of the Buddha, or portions of the greater
_zat_. All necessary business is transacted the day previous to the
_ubone_, and neighbours are exhorted to observe the festival properly.
After one simple dish in the morning, they eat nothing for the rest of
the day; or perhaps on certain occasions do not break their fast till
after midday, a custom very general on the first day of Lent. Instead
of staying in the noisy _zayat_, where the assembled people are talking
of light matters, laughing and diverting themselves, they retire to a
_tazaung_ on the pagoda platform or to some place shaded by trees; there
they finger the hundred and eight beads of their rosary, muttering, ‘All
is transient, sorrowful, and vain; the Lord, the Law, the Assembly; the
three precious things’; and meditate on the example of the Lord Buddha
and the excellence of his Law. To vary the monotony of this performance,
they go for an hour or two to one of the monasteries to talk with the
prior or some learned brother, or perhaps to hear him read and expound
one of the _jataka_, or birth-stories. So the duty day passes. By sunset
most of the worshippers are making their way back to their homes; but
a few zealous spirits remain all night in the _zayat_, and only return
with daylight on the following morning. This simple round of celebration
is repeated four times in every lunar month, with here and there a feast
day of some particular shrine thrown in, when the only difference is that
there is greater ceremony and a more or less large influx of strangers,
according to the sanctity of the pagoda.”[481]
The Siamese Sabbath (_wan phra_) was also an institution introduced by
Buddhist missionaries. An old writer describes it as follows: “Their
Sunday, called by them _vampra_, is always the fourth day of the moon; in
each month they have two great ones, at the new and full moon, and two
less solemn, on the seventh and twenty-first. This day does not exempt
them from labour, since only fishing is forbidden to them. Those who
transgress this prohibition pay a fine and are thrown into prison, as
having profaned the sanctity of the day.”[482] A later writer declares
that hunting is also forbidden, and adds that on these days one cannot
find fresh fish and meat in the shops.[483] In former times the temples
were crowded with worshippers, who brought their offerings and listened
to the hymns, prayers, and moral discourses addressed to them by the
Buddhist priests.[484] But we are told that now a majority of the temples
stand empty on the _wan phra_, and what worshippers there are consist
invariably of women. Since the adoption of the solar calendar in 1889 the
_wan phra_ has been superseded to a large extent for civil purposes by
Sunday.[485] The Buddhist Sabbath is also found in Cambodia.[486]
In some districts of Tibet the monthly Buddhist festivals (_du-zang_) are
four in number, following the successive phases of the moon. In other
parts of the country only three festivals are celebrated—at new moon,
first quarter, and full moon. On these days no animal food ought to be
eaten and no animal killed; those who break this rule are threatened
with severe punishment in a future existence. “To abstain from worldly
occupations is, however, not enacted, and as the Buddhist laymen in the
Himalaya and western Tibet are not very fond of passing the whole day in
prayers and in the temples, these holy days are not particularly marked
in the habits of the population.”[487] As elsewhere in Buddhist lands the
new-moon and full-moon Sabbaths are of most importance, since on these
occasions the _patimokkha_ is recited in the monasteries, accompanied by
a public confession of sins.[488] However, in Tibet there appears never
to have been much uniformity as to the times for the observance of the
_uposatha_, the practice varying with different provinces and sects.[489]
In Bhutan, where Buddhism was introduced by missionaries from Tibet, the
eighth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, and thirtieth of the month are said to
be the holy days, while the Mongolians have the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth, the three days being brought together perhaps because of
the great distance which separates the monasteries from the temple.[490]
Among the Kalmucks on the Volga, to the north of the Caspian, the
_uposatha_ is generally observed thrice a month—the eighth day after new
moon, the fifteenth, and the thirtieth.[491]
The _uposatha_ is not unknown among the Buddhists of China. The Chinese
_Ts’ing-kwei_, or “Regulations of the Priesthood,” a Buddhist document,
enumerates, among others, four festivals to be kept each month, at new
moon and full moon, and on the eighth and twenty-third days. These are
called _kin-ming sï-chai_, “the four feasts illustriously decreed”; they
may be regarded as a variant of the _uposatha_.[492] Among non-Buddhists
there is another custom of observing on the new and full moon of each
month a ceremony, anciently in honour of the moon, but now particularly
addressed to various deities, especially the gods of wealth. It was
formerly the rule to sacrifice a bullock to the moon at this time.
During the festival the courts of justice and _yaman_, or government
residences, are closed. Offerings are made in the Confucian temples, and
even the family gods receive their meed of worship. The householder on
this day enjoys a better meal than usual, without, however, intermitting
his ordinary occupations.[493] There is no reason to believe that this
Chinese festival owes anything to contact with Buddhism. Its independent
origin, in connection with an early cult of the moon and perhaps at a
remote period with various lunar taboos, becomes, therefore, something
more than a conjecture.
The Buddhist Sabbath penetrated to Japan. An old writer tells us that in
Japan there are three monthly holidays connected with the moon, though
now immovable feasts. “The first is called _isitatz_, and is the first
day of each month. It deserves rather to be called a day of compliments
and mutual civilities, than a church or Sunday.” The second holiday is on
the fifteenth of each month, “being the day of the full moon. The gods of
the country have a greater share in the visits the Japanese make on this
day, than their friends and relations.” The third festival occurs on the
twenty-eighth of each month, “being the day of the new moon, or the last
day of the decreasing moon. Not near so much regard is had to this, than
there is to either of the two former, and the Sintos [Shinto] temples
are very little crowded on it. There is a greater concourse of people on
this day at the Budsos [Buddhist] temples, it being one of the monthly
holidays sacred to Amida.”[494]
Buddhism and Brahmanism, spreading beyond the confines of continental
Asia, carried the custom of keeping lunar festivals into some parts of
Indonesia. In Bali, where the _padanda_, or Brahmans, have preserved
many features of the old Vedic religion, fasts and sacrifices are still
obligatory on the householder at new moon and full moon.[495] In Kar
Nicobar Buddhist influence from Burma is seen in the custom of observing
a rest day on the seventh day of the moon, at full moon, and on the
twenty-second day of the moon, but only during seven lunar months of the
year.[496] The Nicobarese have given to this imported Buddhist Sabbath
their native name _anoiila_, which is regularly applied to the rest days
or holidays observed by them on various critical occasions.[497]
We pass now from the lunar festivals found in ancient and modern India
and in those countries of southeastern Asia which have been long affected
by the cultural influence of India to similar observances among peoples
of archaic civilization. The ancient Iranians appear to have celebrated
four lunar days in each month, for the oldest part of the Avesta
contains the following passage: “I dedicate, I perform (the sacrifice)
for the month (gods), the time-divisions of Asa, for the between-moon
[_i.e._, the new moon], ... for the full moon, and for the intervening
seventh(s),” in other words, for the first, eighth, fifteenth, and
twenty-third days, which were all dedicated to Ahura Mazda.[498] The
choice of these four lunar days was due to the division of the Avesta
thirty-day month into two unequal parts, containing fourteen and sixteen
days, respectively, and to the further subdivision of each part so as to
form two groups of seven days and two of eight days. This arrangement
had the practical advantage of permitting a quadripartite division of
the month without a remainder. There is no evidence that the four groups
formed civil weeks, or that the first day of each group was observed as a
Sabbath.[499]
Although the Egyptians had abandoned the old lunar year and lunar month,
perhaps as early as the beginning of the fourth millenium B.C., the
people continued for many centuries to observe as festivals the first and
fifteenth days of the month. In the earlier calendar these would have
coincided with the two significant epochs of the lunation, namely, new
moon and full moon. The “monthly feasts” and the “half-monthly feasts”
are mentioned in the very ancient texts preserved in the pyramids at
Sakkara of kings of the Sixth Dynasty.[500] They are referred to in
the _Book of the Dead_, in the directions requiring special chapters
of that work to be recited on the first day of the month, apparently
when it coincides with new moon, and on the last day of the sixth month
of the Egyptian year, when that day coincides with the full moon.[501]
That they were practised under the Twelfth Dynasty appears clearly from
the well-known inscription of Khnumhotep II, cut on the walls of the
chapel chamber in his tomb at Benihasan. Khnumhotep II, a local ruler
of the sixteenth nome in Upper Egypt, sets forth in this inscription
a somewhat vainglorious account of his buildings and his piety. Among
other things he says, “I endowed him [the mortuary priest] with fields
and peasants; I commanded the mortuary offering of bread, beer, oxen,
and geese, at every feast of the necropolis: at the feast of the first
of the year, of New Year’s Day, of the great year, of the little year,
of the last of the year, the great feast, at the great Rekeh, at the
little Rekeh, at the feast of the five intercalary days, at —— ——, at
the twelve monthly feasts, at the twelve mid-monthly feasts; every
feast of the happy living, and of the dead.”[502] Again, there is an
explicit reference to new-moon festivals under the Thirteenth Dynasty
in a celebrated inscription placed by Thothmes III (1501-1447 B.C.)
on the walls of the great temple of Amon at Karnak. This inscription
describes the numerous campaigns made by the Egyptian king in Syria.
The account of the battle of Megiddo opens as follows: “Year 23, first
(month) of the third season (ninth month), on the twenty-first day, the
day of the feast of the new moon, corresponding to the royal coronation,
early in the morning, behold, command was given to the entire army to
move.”[503] The significance of this lunar festival is further set
forth in the inscriptions on the ceiling of the pronaos of the temple
of Dendera, where the phases of the moon are portrayed together with
other astronomical matters. The thirty days of the month are here given
their eponymic names and are arranged in two divisions, according as
they belong to the decreasing or to the increasing moon. Four lunar
days are brought into special prominence as associated with the chief
phases of the moon, viz., 1st lunar day = “festival of new moon”; 7th
lunar day = “festival of the first quarter”; 15th lunar day = “festival
of the fifteenth,” and 23d lunar day = “festival of the third quarter.”
In this inscription full moon on the fifteenth of the lunar month,
repeatedly mentioned in poetical terms as “the eye of the moon,” seems
to have been regarded as the most significant of the lunar phases.[504]
The oldest traces of this important list of lunar days belong to the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties; the latest date from Ptolemaic and
Roman times.[505] The evidence, then, fully warrants the conclusion
that from the earliest period the Egyptians included the celebrations
at new moon and full moon among the most important of their religious
ceremonies.[506] In late classical times the lunar festivals appear to
have been consecrated to Osiris, whose identification with the moon
is reasonably certain.[507] But to what extent, if any, they were
accompanied by the imposition of taboos remains problematical.
The evidence for lunar rites among the Greeks must be pieced together
from scattered references in the classical writers. The day of the
visible new moon (νουμηνία), marking the beginning of the lunar month,
appears to have been ceremonially observed throughout the Greek
world.[508] The Noumenia was particularly associated with Apollo and also
with Hera, a goddess who seems to have had an ancient rôle as a moon
deity. The antiquity of the Noumenia may be judged from the references to
it in the _Odyssey_, where no other general festival than that of Apollo
is mentioned. In the island of Ithaca a feast of Apollo on the new-moon
day was in progress at the time of the trial of Odysseus’s bow. Is it not
the holy day of Apollo, ask the suitors? Who on such a day could stretch
the bow?[509] The first of the month is holy, declares Hesiod.[510] In
Athens, and doubtless in other Greek cities, the Noumenia continued to be
in historic times a day of repose, when all public activities, except of
a religious character, were intermitted.[511] Private business, however,
was not suspended on the Noumenia; the markets, especially those for the
purchase of slaves, were then particularly frequented; the time was
regarded as the most favourable for marriage; and in the homes there
was much feasting and good cheer.[512] The Dichomenia (διχομηνία), or
full-moon day, appears also to have been a regular monthly festival in
Greece, though of lesser importance than the Noumenia.[513]
The Roman month was originally lunar, and at all periods was divided by
the real or imaginary phases of the moon. The Kalends, or day of the
visible new moon, were sacred to Juno, a goddess, who, like the Greek
Hera, was particularly associated with the moon.[514] On the Kalends
one of the pontiffs performed a sacrifice, with the assistance of the
_rex sacrorum_.[515] Pious Romans also celebrated the new-moon day with
offerings and prayers to the family gods.[516] The Ides, or day of
the full moon, were consecrated to Jupiter, but the Nones, which may
originally have marked the moon’s first quarter, were not sacred to any
deity.[517] The Kalends of March, June, and October, the Nones of July,
and the Ides of all the months were numbered among the _feriæ publicæ_,
or sacred festivals attended by a compulsory remission of labour, of the
Roman state religion.[518]
The taboos which at Rome invested the lunar phases appear to have
lingered into the historic age under yet another guise. Among the unlucky
days (_dies religiosi_[519]) of the Roman calendar were those following
the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The thirty-six _dies postriduani_ were
regarded as unsuitable for many purposes, both public and private: for
battles, levies, sacred rites, journeys, and marriages.[520] We are told
that they owed their unlucky quality to a pronouncement of the Senate and
pontiffs, in consequence of the grave defeat of the Allia on the 18th of
Quinctilis (July). According to the story preserved by Gellius one of the
senators publicly declared that on the day following the Ides the Roman
commander had performed sacred rites with a view to engaging the Gauls,
only to experience an overwhelming defeat two days later. Many other
senators called to mind that on sundry occasions, when sacrifices on the
day following the Kalends, Nones, or Ides had been performed to secure
the favour of the gods in battle, not victory but disaster followed. In
consequence these days were declared unfit for public sacrifices.[521] It
is obvious that this traditional explanation of the _dies postriduani_
must be far from the real truth. Unlucky days are not generated in such
an artificial fashion or on so wholesale a scale. We may with some
confidence regard the prohibitions accompanying these days as real
survivals of primitive taboos at new moon, first quarter, and full moon,
their assumed historic significance being only the conscious fiction of a
later and more sophisticated age.[522]
The scanty records on which we must rely for our knowledge of the heathen
inhabitants of central and northern Europe, before they came into
contact with Rome and Christianity, furnish no certain evidence that
they celebrated lunar festivals. According to Strabo the Celtiberians
and their neighbours to the north sacrificed every full moon to a
nameless god, the ceremony taking place at night and being accompanied
by dancing.[523] Again, Tacitus, who mentions the custom of the Germans
of holding their assemblies on “fixed days” (_certi dies_), either at
the new moon or the full moon, also refers to the _certi dies_ on which
they think it lawful to propitiate Mercury, their chief god, with human
sacrifices.[524] Such statements may mean much or little. Having traced
lunar festivals among the Aryans of India, the Iranians, the Greeks, and
the Romans, it might reasonably be supposed that the Celts and Germans
were also familiar with them.
But the festive observance of the two great epochs of the lunation was
by no means confined in antiquity to Indo-Germanic peoples. The Chinese
and Egyptian festivals at new moon and full moon reach back into the
past as far as the historical eye can follow them; while in Semitic
lands, as we shall learn, the same rites occupied a most conspicuous
place in the religious calendar. Not unjust was the remark of Isidore of
Seville, a famous scholar of the Middle Ages, that the ancients, just
as the Hebrews, were accustomed to celebrate the beginnings of all the
months—_apud veteres enim omnium mensium principia colebantur, sicut et
apud Hebræos_.[525]
CHAPTER VI
LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK
The calendar forms one of the most important of social institutions and
registers in its gradual improvement from age to age the onward march
of culture. The first attempts at calendar-making were naturally of
the rudest sort, for they were based on the untutored experience and
observation of common men. With the progress of society the regulation
of calendrical matters tended to fall into the hands of the sacerdotal
class, partly because priests alone enjoyed the leisure necessary for
prolonged researches, but chiefly because the calendar, on which depends
the orderly sequence of holy days and festivals, was itself an affair of
religion.[526]
It is clear that the alternations of night and day must have furnished
man with his most elementary conceptions of the passage of time. A longer
cycle was naturally suggested by the lunar phenomena, so striking, so
obvious, and marked by stages so readily determined. A survey of the
anthropological data indicates that among savage and barbarous peoples
the moon is the measure of time, and that the period of a lunation
furnishes the customary unit for longer reckonings.[527] Lunar months
are general throughout Australia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Africa, and
America, wherever primitive calendars have not been supplanted by more
refined calculations borrowed from advanced peoples. The computation
of time by moons naturally formed the basis of those early calendars
which were framed by peoples just rising into civilization. In Mexico
and Yucatan the year of twelve moon-months preceded the introduction of
the solar year; and the ancient Peruvians, in some respects so advanced,
always continued to reckon by the succession of lunations.[528] There
can be no doubt that the solar calendar in use among the Egyptians at
the very dawn of their history had been preceded by a more primitive
reckoning of the year in lunations. It is enough to point out in this
connection that the Egyptians regularly employed the figure of a crescent
moon as the hieroglyph for “month.”[529] The calendars of Semitic
peoples, notably those of the Babylonians and Hebrews, were based on the
moon;[530] and the prophet Mohammed, when enjoining on his followers the
observance of the pure lunar year, in place of the lunisolar year used
by the Arabians before the Hegira, was in reality reverting to a still
more primitive mode of counting time. Lunisolar calendars, in which the
primary unit is the lunation, were known, long before the Christian era,
to every civilization in the Old World from the Roman in the west to the
Chinese in the east. Linguistic researches indicate that in most, if not
all, Indo-European languages, the names for moon and month originally
coincided.[531] In Max Müller’s poetical language the moon was “the
golden hand on the dark dial of heaven.”
The need of observing the moons, apart from religious or superstitious
reasons, was no doubt mainly connected with economic considerations.
To the savage it is of supreme importance to be able to anticipate the
different periods of the year which bring with them different supplies
of natural food; and for this purpose the moons afford a convenient
basis of reckoning. Hence we find that very generally among primitive
peoples the moons are named after the moulting, migrating, and pairing
of animals, or after the budding, blossoming, and ripening of the fruits
of the earth. Again, most shepherd tribes reckon time by moons. In the
pastoral stage it is probable that the necessity of calculating the
various periods of gestation and the proper time for breeding, so that
young animals might be brought into the world at seasons most favourable
to their health and maintenance, contributed to the observation of the
moon and to the formation of lunar calendars. If the desirability of
observing the successive moons was felt by frugivorous and pastoral
peoples, it will be readily seen how the introduction of agricultural
operations, often accompanied by religious ceremonies and festivals,
rendered definite and clearly marked divisions of time a matter of the
greatest moment. It is therefore probable that rude popular calendars
based on the moon were in use long before more accurate observations were
made by primitive astronomers. There is much evidence for the practice
of naming the moon-months after the different agricultural operations,
such as planting and harvesting, which occur in them. Among the Chinese,
Japanese, Babylonians, Hebrews, Celts, Germans, and Slavs, the early
epithets of some or all of the months are connected with agriculture and
the farmer’s life. And the Roman Aprilis, Maius, and Junius, from which
our own month-names have been taken, are believed to have been originally
seasonal designations, referring to the sprouting, growth, and maturity
of vegetation.
A lunar month does not necessarily imply a lunar year. Of not a few
savage and half-civilized peoples it is expressly said that they have
but vague notions of a year as a fixed period of time, and that they can
refer to events more than a few months past only as happening after some
noteworthy event, such as a flood, a drought, an earthquake, a comet, or
the death of a chief. The foundation of yearly reckonings must be sought
in the observation of rhythmical natural phenomena—the alternation of
the seasons, the recurrence of periodical winds, the varying length of
day as determined by the sun’s elevation, and especially the rising and
setting of the Pleiades.[532] In order to adapt the same moons to the
same seasons as they successively occurred, or to the course of the
sun, or to the rising and setting of the Pleiades, the number of moons
was usually taken at twelve, giving the lunar year of three hundred and
fifty-four days.[533]
It is unnecessary in this connection to discuss fully the various methods
which have been employed to adjust the pure lunar year of twelve synodic
months to the seasonal or solar year. Some primitive peoples adopt the
expedient of counting thirteen lunations to the year. A more common and
accurate procedure is to intercalate the thirteenth month, usually in
every second or third year. Familiar illustrations are furnished by the
Hindus, Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks in antiquity; among modern peoples,
by the natives of Burma, Siam, China, and Japan.[534] The methods of
intercalation employed are historically numerous, the details are often
obscure, and in no instance were the results wholly successful. The
difficulties arising from such attempts to coördinate incoördinable
quantities must have been the prime cause of the adoption of calendars
in which the month, instead of denoting the moon’s synodic revolution,
received an arbitrary number of days approaching the twelfth part of a
solar year.
The period of a lunation seems to have been generally estimated, in
the first instance, at thirty days, a calculation found in the lunar
calendars of many half-civilized peoples, and still employed at the
present day on all occasions when absolute accuracy is not considered
necessary. Indeed, if lunations be used, it is more exact to count by
thirty days than by twenty-nine. When the moon’s synodic revolution came
to be more accurately measured by calculating an average from the number
of days comprised in several successive lunations, the true length (about
twenty-nine and one-half days) could be conveniently calendarized only by
periods of twenty-nine and thirty days in alternation. Such vacillating
months were used by the Hawaiians and the New Zealanders; they were
familiar to the Jews, the later Babylonians, and the Greeks; and they are
still found throughout the Mohammedan world, and among various peoples of
southeastern Asia.[535]
People who reckon by moons naturally begin their lunar month with the
first appearance of the luminous crescent in the western sky.[536] The
real moon being invisible for two or three days, various expedients are
adopted in order to secure regularity in lunar reckonings. Thus, the
Toda keep a record of the number of days from new moon to full moon and
from that to the next new moon. The full moon is counted as being on
the fifteenth day after the new moon, and the new moon as being on the
sixteenth day after the full moon.[537] The Basuto begin their month on
the day when the new moon is visible, though they count two more days
when the moon cannot be seen at all in the heavens.[538] Still other
devices were employed in antiquity by the Babylonians, Hebrews, and
Romans.[539]
The lunar month, which in rude communities provides a satisfactory
chronological unit, does not meet the needs of an advancing society.
Shorter periods become desirable, and these may be found in the division
of the lunation. There is much evidence that primitive peoples watch
the lunar phases with keen interest, often name them, and sometimes use
them for the purpose of reckoning time. The natives of Victoria are said
to employ ordinal numbers only in numbering the days of the month for
making appointments. As their months are marked by the reappearance of
the moon, their ordinal numbers do not go beyond twenty-eight.[540] The
Dieri and related tribes of South Australia reckon by lunar phases; “when
anticipating a grand ceremony they refer to the first or last quarter
of the moon.”[541] The central Australians, who regard the moon as a
male deity, have distinct names applied to new moon, first quarter, full
moon, and last quarter.[542] In German New Guinea the phases of the moon
are employed for all time-units greater than a day.[543] The natives of
New Britain are close observers of the phases of the moon (_kalang_)
and have separate terms for them.[544] The New Caledonians count by
lunar months, “each divided into four weeks, following the four phases
of the moon.”[545] The Kayan on the Mendalam River in Dutch Borneo name
eight phases of the waxing and waning moon.[546] The Dyak tribes on the
Mahakam and Barito rivers in Dutch Borneo “reckon their time by the full
moon, half moon, and new moon.”[547] In those parts of Sumatra where
the seven-day week has not been introduced, it is a common practice
to calculate by the days of the moon’s age.[548] The very primitive
peoples occupying Nias and the Mentawi Islands off the western coast of
Sumatra distinguish four phases of the moon and give to them appropriate
names.[549] Not only do the Nicobarese possess terms to denote the chief
phases of the lunation, but they are also able to indicate any particular
day in the lunar month with perfect clearness, since each day has its
particular name.[550] The Andaman Islanders, possessing no extended
enumeration, do not count the moons in the year, but nevertheless employ
appropriate words to designate the lunar phases.[551] The Bontoc and
Ibaloi Igorot have noted and named eight phases of the moon; these,
however, are said to be seldom used for counting time.[552] Throughout
the Caroline Islands (Yap, Lamotrek, Ponape, Uleai) the successive days
of the month receive names indicating the moon’s age.[553] In Polynesia
every night in the month had its distinct name derived from the changing
aspects of the moon.[554] The Nandi of British East Africa similarly
designate the successive nights of a lunar month.[555] The Bini of
Southern Nigeria even appoint special persons to observe the changes of
the moon.[556] The Ho tribes of Togo and the Hottentots of South Africa
employ separate terms for all the lunar phases.[557] In South America
the Karaja of Brazil, in addition to noting and naming the four most
conspicuous phases of the moon, also distinguish a fifth phase, which
occurs between first quarter and full moon.[558] Of the North American
Indians it has been said, generally, that the “alternations of day and
night and the changes of the moon and the seasons formed the basis of
their [calendar] systems.”[559] In the words of the _Koran_ the phases of
the moon are “indications of time for men.”[560]
Since new moon and full moon are the most conspicuous lunar phases, it
has been a common practice to recognize two periods in the lunation, as
marked by the waxing and the waning moon.[561] This two-fold division
of the month does not seem to be employed for calendrical purposes by
the Australian aborigines, but in some parts of Melanesia the two halves
of the lunation receive appropriate names and the full moon itself bears
a particular designation.[562] The Maori of New Zealand, who sometimes
“divide the month into halves or fortnights by ‘moon-growing’ and
‘moon-lessening,’”[563] are the only Polynesian people to adopt this mode
of reckoning. It is met, also, in Malaysia (Java, Sumatra, Bali, Nias,
etc.), but only where Indian culture has penetrated.[564]
The division of the month into two parts is found among most
Indo-European peoples. In India the recognition of the “light” and
“dark” halves of the month goes back to Vedic antiquity.[565] Modern
Hindus divide the month into two fortnights, the days of which are
reckoned continuously as those of the increasing or decreasing moon.
The full-moon day (_amavus_) is held in great sanctity.[566] Like
customs prevail in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Indo-China, and other parts
of Asia.[567] The bipartite division of the month was familiar to the
ancient Persians[568] and to the early Greeks.[569] The fifteenth of the
month was regularly called by the Greeks the full-moon day (Dichomenia,
διχομηνία) even after the introduction of the sequence of twenty-nine day
and thirty-day months.[570] In “hollow” months of twenty-nine days the
full moon, of course, would fall on the fourteenth day, except when an
extra day was intercalated every thirty-two or thirty-three months.[571]
The Roman _kalendæ_ and _idus_ corresponded to the Greek νουμηνία and
διχομηνία.[572] The Kalends were so named because in early times the
pontiffs had been accustomed to make a public announcement (_calare_)
whether five or seven days should be reckoned from new moon to the first
quarter.[573] The Ides thus fell on the thirteenth or fifteenth day of
the month, according as the Nones occurred on the fifth or seventh day.
The Roman belief in the virtue of odd numbers doubtless explains this
choice of dates for both Nones and Ides.[574] Among the ancient Germans
new moon and full moon appear as the most prominent lunar phases.[575]
The division of the lunation into two parts, the first of fifteen
days, the second of fourteen or fifteen days, according as the month
had twenty-nine or thirty days, is clearly indicated for the Celtic
peoples.[576] In the Calendar of Coligny the days of each half-month
are numbered consecutively, following what must have been the old
Indo-European practice. The second half of the month is always preceded
by the title _atenoux_, doubtless indicating full moon, and variously
translated “great night” or “renewal.”[577] That this Gallic calendar
presents no exceptional custom is obvious from the constant occurrence
in the literature of the insular Celts of such expressions as the Welsh
_pythewnos_, a fortnight (literally “a fifteen night”), and the Irish
_cóicthiges_, which has the same meaning.[578] With these terms may be
compared our English “fortnight” (O. E. _feówertȳne niht_).
The bipartite division of the month may be traced even more widely. It
was recognized by the Egyptians, who appear to have counted the days
by the decreasing and increasing moon and to have regarded the full
moon (_mḥ_) as the most important of the lunar phases.[579] For Semitic
peoples, notably the Babylonians and Hebrews, new moon and full moon
enjoyed significance not only as religious festivals but also as the
most conspicuous periods of the lunation. A primitive cycle of thirteen
days used for ritual purposes by the ancient Mexicans may have been
originally suggested by the number of months in the lunar year, but the
choice of this number seems also to have been affected by the recognition
of thirteen visible stages of the moon’s increase (_mextozoliztli_,
the moon’s waking) and thirteen visible stages of her decrease
(_mecochiliztli_, the moon’s sleep).[580] In both Colombia and Peru the
half-months were reckoned by the waxing and the waning of the moon.[581]
From the division of the month into two fortnights, at once the
simplest, earliest, and most widespread form of the week, we pass to
the consideration of those shorter cycles of time which are found in
various parts of the world. It might appear at first sight that all civil
weeks of five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten days would likewise have
a natural origin in divisions, either of the true lunation or of the
conventional month. But the evidence which has been presented for the
existence of market weeks shows that these arose quite independently of
the lunar month, and that only at a subsequent period, when they came
into general use for calendrical purposes, were they adjusted to the
length of the moon’s monthly course. Some interesting examples of this
process of adjustment may be studied among the negroes of west Africa.
Thus, the Yoruba week consists of five days, and six of them are supposed
to make a lunar month. As a matter of fact, since the first day of the
first week always commences with the appearance of the new moon, the
month really contains five weeks of five days’ duration, and one of four
days and a half, approximately.[582] Again, the Tshi tribes of the Gold
Coast, having chosen seven-day weeks, find it necessary to begin them
at different hours of the day. Some of their weeks, termed _n’ehsŭn_,
“It is seven,” may have eight days and six nights, others the reverse,
and others seven days and nights, with a fractional part of a day or
night.[583] Such are the expedients adopted by some semi-civilized
peoples, whose months are strictly lunar, to avoid the difficulty
presented by the fact that the length of the lunation (twenty-nine and a
half days) does not permit of subdivision into exactly equal parts.
One of the most common forms of the week is the decade. When not based on
the institution of the market, it seems reasonable to suppose that this
cycle was originally suggested by the increase, culmination, and decrease
of the moon, as shown by the waxing crescent, the more or less full disk,
and the waning crescent. If it be held that the arrangement by decades
was based rather on denary arithmetic, we may at least feel confident
that it would not have been chosen except for its close approximation
to the length of the lunar month. As a matter of fact, such a sequence
represents the true course of the lunation in days more correctly than
a nine-day, or an eight-day, or even a seven-day week. A division of
the month into decades is definitely attributed to the Maori of New
Zealand, who doubtless were obliged to count only nine days in the third
and last decade of every other month.[584] The arrangement of the four
Hawaiian _tabu_ periods, of which the first three came at intervals of
ten days, argues strongly in favour of a division of time into decades,
or _anahulu_. This term, though now obsolete, occurs frequently in
ancient legends and songs as a measure of time comprising ten days. The
fourth monthly _tabu_ period, sacred to the god Kane, was celebrated
on the twenty-seventh of the month, only three days after the festival
of Kaloa, from which circumstance it has been plausibly regarded as of
later introduction than the others.[585] A curious division of the month
into three parts prevails in some of the Caroline Islands. In Yap,
for instance, the thirty-day month is divided into _pul_, or new moon,
lasting thirteen days, _botrau_, or full moon, lasting nine days, and
_lumor_, or darkness, continuing to the end of the month.[586] Lunar
decades are found in southeastern Asia. The Chingpaw or Kachin of Upper
Burma, whose primitive year consists of twelve lunar months uncorrected
by intercalation and arbitrarily adjusted to the successive seasons,
recognize three divisions of the month, each of ten days’ duration. The
first, called _shitta pyaw_, includes ten days of the waxing moon; the
last, called _shitta si_, includes ten days of the waning moon. The
intervening period bears no special name, though the full moon itself is
called _shitta lai_.[587] The peoples of French Indo-China (Cochin-China,
Anam, and Tonkin) regularly divide the month into three decades, but
this arrangement is now being gradually superseded by the European week
of seven days.[588] Probably the Indo-Chinese custom was borrowed from
the Chinese, among whom it has long been a common practice to speak
of anything as happening in the first, middle, or last decade of any
particular month.[589] A similar system has not yet become obsolete in
Japan, where the ten-day periods are known as the upper, middle, and
lower decades.[590] Various African peoples use the ten-day cycle. Among
the Wagiriama of British East Africa the three decades (_makumi_) exist
side by side with the market week four days in length.[591] The Sofalese
of Portuguese East Africa are said to have divided the month into three
periods each of ten days, the first day of the first week being the
festival of the new moon.[592] Among the Tofoke, a Congo tribe, the lunar
month consists of three parts, reckoned, respectively, from new moon to
the increasing half moon, from this to the decreasing half moon, and
thence to the end of the month. Each of these phases bears a distinct
name.[593] The Ahanta of the Gold Coast divide the lunar month into three
periods, two of ten days’ duration, and the third lasting till the next
new moon appears, that is, for about nine days and a half.[594] These
decades seem to be quite independent of the market weeks, sometimes ten
days long, which are also found in Africa. On the other hand the Peruvian
decades, previously noticed, were clearly connected with the institution
of the market.[595] The sole instance of a week discoverable among the
Indians of North America is found among the Zuñi of northeastern New
Mexico, a Pueblo tribe leading a sedentary existence and in many respects
advanced in culture. By the Zuñi “the month is divided into three parts,
each part being called _topĭnta as temla_, ‘one ten.’”[596]
A ten-day week was employed in antiquity by the Egyptians. The
hieroglyphic expression meaning “the ten days” is found in inscriptions
belonging to the age of the Pyramid-builders. The names applied to each
of the three decades—_hati_, that of the beginning, _abi_, that of the
middle, and _pahu_, that of the end—are perhaps somewhat less ancient,
the earliest definite use of these appellations being found in the time
of the Tenth Dynasty. The decades ran continuously from month to month.
Since the Egyptian year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days,
it was necessary, however, in alternate years to begin the reckoning
of the decades on the sixth, instead of on the first, of the month.
According to an inscription dating from the time of the Third Dynasty,
the first day of each decade was marked by sacrifices, and later records
contain frequent instances of a religious observance of this day.[597]
The Greek decades betray in their names, μὴν ἱστάμενος (waxing), μεσῶν
(central), and φθίνων (waning), an association with the moon. The days of
the last decade were usually counted backward; in “hollow” months, the
day corresponding to the twenty-ninth of “full” months was omitted, so
that the decade really contained only nine days. By the Athenians the
last day of the third decade was styled ἕνη καὶ νέα (“old and new moon”),
as being the day which belonged in part to the preceding (theoretical)
month of twenty-nine and a half days and in part to the following month.
No clearer illustration could be afforded of lunar weeks adjusted to
the lunar month.[598] The Greek arrangement by decades must have been
very old. Unknown to Homer, it appears in Hesiod’s _Works and Days_ side
by side with the still earlier division of the month into two parts
determined by full moon. Hesiod, who tells his Bœotian farmer to avoid
the thirteenth of the waxing month for the commencement of sowing, and
who declares that the fourth, whether of the waning or of the waxing
month, is “a very fateful day,” also uses such expressions as the “first
sixth,” “first ninth,” “middle third,” “middle fourth,” and “the fourth
which follows the twentieth of the month.”[599] This unequivocal evidence
for the use of the decades as early as the middle of the eighth century
B.C. seems to dispose of the theory[600] that they were an importation
from Egypt.
The evidence for the existence of weeks of nine days is very obscure.
They are found in west Africa, but only as market weeks unconnected
with the lunation. Efforts have been made to discover traces of such
periods among various Indo-Germanic peoples, particularly the Greeks
of the Homeric and pre-Homeric age.[601] There are, indeed, numerous
illustrations in the older literature of cycles of nine days (as also
of nine years), but no evidence at all that these were ever employed for
civil purposes as regular divisions of the month. The same remark applies
to the so-called weeks of nine days among the ancient Germans,[602] and
to the frequent mention in old Irish and Welsh texts of periods of three
days and nights and of nine days and nights.[603]
Market weeks, eight days in length, which seem to have developed from
earlier periods of four days, are found in Assam, in certain parts
of Africa, perhaps at one time among the Indians of Colombia, and in
antiquity among the Romans.[604] Such market weeks are independent of the
moon and run unfettered through the months and years. On the other hand
a week of eight days, called _‘sāmĕn_, which exists among the northern
Abyssinians, is clearly adjusted to the length of the lunation. Every
month consists, theoretically, of four weeks, of which the first two are
those of the increasing moon and the last two those of the decreasing
moon. In practice, however, the people are compelled to count only six
days in their fourth and last week.[605] This Abyssinian cycle possibly
may have originated as a market week, since elsewhere in Africa market
weeks of four or more days have been adjusted, somewhat artificially, to
the length of the lunation.
Six-day weeks, connected with the market and probably derived from an
earlier week of three days’ duration, are found in Africa.[606] There
are also a few instances of the same cycle where a connection with the
market does not certainly appear. The Lolo, Pula, and other aboriginal
tribes of southwestern China keep a “Sabbath,” as a rule every sixth day.
No ploughing may take place at this time, and in some places the women
are not allowed even to sew or wash clothes.[607] The Bawenda, who occupy
the northeast corner of the Transvaal, are said also to use a week of six
days, though only three of these are separately named.[608]
The numerous five-day weeks found in the Malay Archipelago, southeastern
Asia, and Africa all exist in connection with the market.[609] On the
other hand this cycle seems to be sometimes independent of the market.
An Egyptian calendar, belonging to the second century B.C. but probably
based on much older material, divides the year for astrological purposes
into weeks of five days, each week corresponding to the sixth part of
one of the signs or constellations of the zodiac. The calendar also gives
the name of the presiding deity of each sign, together with the omens,
portents, and favourable or unfavourable characteristics that belong
to it.[610] A five-day period, _khamushtu_, employed as a sixth of the
month, appears to have been familiar to the Assyro-Babylonians in the
third millenium B.C. We do not know how far the _khamushtu_ entered into
the civil life of the Mesopotamian peoples, but from the circumstance
that this system of computing short time-intervals was used in mercantile
and monetary transactions it may be surmised that we here have to do with
a very ancient form of the market week.[611] Babylonian and Assyrian
cuneiform texts also contain traces of five-day periods associated with
the successive changes of the moon and dedicated to various divinities;
but it is not certain that these later cycles were derived from the
_khamushtu_.[612] The whole subject is obscure and may well await future
discoveries for its complete elucidation. Finally, there is evidence
that the old Scandinavian peoples employed time-intervals of five days,
of which six were counted to the month. Here, again, we are at a loss to
determine how far this pentad, called _fimt_, was regularly used as a
civil week in heathen times. After the introduction of the hebdomadal
cycle into northern lands, the term survived as a standing phrase in
Norse laws and popular sayings.[613]
The preceding pages have presented much evidence to show how carefully
primitive peoples watch the changes of the moon and describe them by
appropriate names. The four lunar phases provide, indeed, an obvious
means of calculating the passage of time; and they are often used for
this purpose in the absence of any recognized calendrical unit shorter
than the lunar month. The length of the lunation being approximately
twenty-nine and a half days, a single phase occupies about seven and
three-eighths days, which must be calendarized as seven days, since it is
necessary to employ a round number. It is not a valid argument against
the natural origin of the hebdomadal cycle to urge that seven does not
form an exact division of the lunar month. No other number will divide
the lunation without a remainder. However, the hebdomad furnishes a less
satisfactory time-unit than the decade, the former falling short of a
quarter of the month by more than nine hours, the latter exceeding a
third of the lunation by rather less than four hours. This circumstance
may account for the otherwise remarkable fact that, while the ten-day
lunar week is found in many parts of the world, the week of seven days
occurs in the lower culture and among peoples of archaic civilization
only as a borrowed institution, which can be traced ultimately to Semitic
lands and Semitic antiquity.
The prevalence of the seven-day week throughout the world furnishes a
most impressive instance of the diffusion of a cultural element. Its
introduction into the Pacific area during the nineteenth century and
among the aborigines of America as the result of their contact with
European civilization is well known.[614] In Africa it has been spread
by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; in southeastern Asia and the Malay
Archipelago the original disseminators were Hindus, followed later by
Arabs and Europeans. This imported week has sometimes provided a cycle
of time shorter than the lunar month, where none existed before; in
other cases it has supplanted a native cycle usually associated with the
market. Together with the week has often gone the Jewish, Christian or
Mohammedan rest day.
In Madagascar and along the east coast of Africa Arab influence,
continuing for many centuries, naturally left its impress on the
calendar. The names of the Malagasy weekdays are of Arabic origin.[615]
Previous to the introduction of Christianity under Radama I (1810-1828)
no rest day was communally observed, though each god had a sacred day
when those who were its special votaries abstained from work.[616] The
Swaheli, who occupy the coast lands north and south of Zanzibar, use a
seven-day week, beginning with Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.[617] Some
peculiar arrangements are found among the Masai of eastern equatorial
Africa, a warlike race clearly distinguished by language, customs, and
appearance from the Bantu peoples. The Masai seem to be connected with
the so-called Nilotic group, and their ancient home has been placed in
the region between Lake Rudolf and the Nile. At the present time they
dwell much farther south both in British and German territory. The Masai
count time by moon months, generally taken at thirty days in length.
The month does not begin with the visible new moon, but on the fourth
day thereafter. In addition they have a week of seven days, each one
separately named. The seventh day, which ends, and does not begin, the
week, is called _essubat ’n oloṅ_, “the good day.” According to Masai
tradition this week in remote times began on the new-moon day, but now
it is reckoned continuously without regard to the lunation. Furthermore,
the Masai appear to have once divided the months into decades, as is
still indicated by their expression, _ne̱gera_, applied to the tenth,
twentieth, and thirtieth days. This term comes from a verbal form
meaning “to be silent.”[618] There can be little question that the Masai
seven-day week was borrowed from Jewish or Christian sources, while the
decade arrangement may have been affected remotely by cultural contact
with peoples influenced by ancient Egypt. Most of the interior tribes
of British East Africa recognize no subdivision of the lunar month. But
among the Rendile and Burkeneji, who inhabit the steppes east of Lake
Rudolf, we find a week of seven days. Three of these days are marked
by restrictions. The first day, _hahat_, is a fast day, at which time
animals cannot be slaughtered for food. On the second day, _hura hakhan_
(_hura_ in the Rendile language means sun), no work may be done, except
the slaughtering of food animals. On the fifth day, _ser hakhan_, people
will not travel, move their grazing grounds, or make cattle-medicine.
The natives are unable to identify the particular days of their week
with those of the European cycle.[619] Many of the Galla tribes between
Shoa, a kingdom of southern Abyssinia, and the Tana River of British
East Africa, are said to show great respect for Saturday and Sunday,
and on these days do not work in the fields. Here we may legitimately
assume Jewish and Christian influences from Abyssinia, especially since
the nomadic Galla of equatorial Africa do not seem to keep any special
rest days.[620] Other eastern Hamitic peoples, the Somali, Afar, and
Danakil, use the seven-day week with Arabic names and observe Friday, the
Mohammedan Sabbath.[621] The seven-day week found among the natives of
Kaffa, a region of eastern Africa on the borderland between the British
and Italian spheres of influence, appears to have been introduced a few
centuries ago by Christian immigrants from Amhara, the central province
of Abyssinia.[622] The spread of Islam among the Sudanese and Guinea
negroes has resulted in the introduction of the hebdomadal cycle and of
the custom of holding markets on the seventh day.[623]
The seven-day week in India has a long history. The original division
of the Hindu lunar month was, as we have seen, into two equal parts,
determined by the waxing and the waning moon. This arrangement, which
still prevails in India, appears to have been the only one in calendrical
use until long after the beginning of the Christian era. It is true that
even in Vedic times the eighth day after the full moon was regarded as
one of the festival days of the month, and that, at least as early as the
rise of Jainism and Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., the eighth day
after new moon was added to the list of holy days.[624] The celebration
of four lunar festivals does not, however, imply the use of a civil week
by the Hindus, any more than in the case of the Persian festivals, which
likewise were adjusted to the phases of the moon.[625] The hebdomadal
cycle in India was entirely a borrowed institution, derived from the
planetary or astrological week, the days of which are named after five
planets and the sun and moon. By the middle of the third century A.D.,
the planetary week was well known in the Roman world, and somewhat
later it was introduced as an astrological device into India. Who the
intermediaries were—whether Hindus who visited Mediterranean lands or
learned Greeks who made the voyage to India—it is impossible to say. The
earliest-known genuine instance of a planetary name of a day in India
occurs in an inscription belonging to the year 484 A.D. By the end of
the eighth century there are perhaps ten other inscriptional records,
coming from various parts of India and from Indian settlements in Java,
Cochin-China, and Cambodia, of the assignment of the weekdays to the
planets. After 900 A.D., instances of this practice are more numerous,
indicating that the seven-day week had now become something more than an
astrological device and was generally recognized for civil purposes as a
part of the Hindu calendar.[626] In modern India every day of the week
has its sacred character for the devotees of various gods, Sunday being
especially consecrated to the sun, Monday, to Siva, and Saturday, to the
monkey-god Hanuman.[627] For Hindus, generally, Sunday, Tuesday, and
Saturday are unlucky days, and at such times no important business will
be undertaken or any long journey begun.[628]
India was the center from which the planetary week of seven days was
first introduced into southeastern Asia—into Ceylon, the Maldive Islands,
Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, and Siam.[629] The Brahmanist Chams in
Cambodia and Anam use the planetary weekdays borrowed from Hinduism, but
the Mohammedan Chams sometimes employ the days of the Arabic week and
observe Friday as a Sabbath.[630] The Laotians, who have taken over the
planetary week from the Siamese, are careful, as pious Buddhists, so
to adjust their calendar that Sunday (_van athit_) always falls on the
eighth and fifteenth days of the lunar fortnight.[631]
The Chinese possess no regular division of the month into weeks, though
a popular cycle, ten days in length, has long been found among them. The
week of seven days is coming into use in commercial centres frequented
by Europeans, where, for Monday, Tuesday, etc., native names meaning
“first day,” “second day,” etc., have been coined. The assertion that
the Chinese from of old have been familiar with the seven-day week
appears to be based on their custom, which is not of extreme antiquity,
of applying the names of the twenty-eight lunar mansions to each day of
the year in rotation, from which circumstance the same four out of the
twenty-eight always fall on Sunday and constitute what has been well
described as a perpetual “Sunday letter.”[632] On the other hand there
is definite evidence that the planetary week was introduced from India
to China, where, however, it seems never to have been employed except
for astrological purposes. A Chinese translation, made in the eighth
century A.D. of an Indian treatise on astrology, apportions the days of
the week among the planets, according to the astrological order. Sunday
in some Chinese almanacs is still called the “day of Mit,” that is, the
day of Mithra, the Persian deity associated with the sun. This “Sunday”
seems formerly to have had a place in the state calendars issued under
imperial auspices at Peking.[633] In this connection it is interesting to
note that the famous Nestorian Monument bears witness to the introduction
of the Christian Sunday into China by Nestorian missionaries from
Persia.[634] But the week of seven days as a calendrical entity never
took root among the Chinese, nor have they ever observed a weekly day of
rest.[635]
In old Japan, as in China, the week of seven days was unknown. Shortly
after the restoration of the Mikado’s power in 1867-1868 there was
introduced what were called the _ichi-roku_, or holidays on the “ones”
and “sixes” of each month, _i.e._, on the first, sixth, eleventh,
sixteenth, twenty-first, twenty-sixth, and thirty-first days. But this
arrangement, borrowed from the Christian Sunday, did not last long,
and the copy soon gave way to the original. The Japanese now have the
seven-day week with names derived from the Occidental names. Sunday, in
vulgar parlance is called _dontaku_ (a corruption of the Dutch Zontag)
and Saturday, in equally vulgar parlance, is called _han-don_, that is,
“half-Sunday” (because the modern English Saturday half-holiday has made
its way into Japan).[636] On Sunday government offices and schools are
closed. In the cities some of the larger banks and mercantile houses
also suspend their business on Sunday, but as a rule country people,
artisans, and labourers observe no weekly day of rest. By people of the
middle and highest classes Sunday is preëminently a day devoted to social
intercourse, and even Japanese Christians, after attending an early
morning church service, feel themselves free to devote the afternoon and
evening to any form of legitimate recreation or amusement.[637]
The planetary cycle is not unknown in the Malay Peninsula, though
here employed, as it seems, solely for astrological purposes. For
civil purposes weeks of seven days, marked by the return of Friday,
the Mohammedan Sabbath, are in general use.[638] Curious animistic
superstitions sometimes attach themselves to this day. Thus, the Malays
of the Patani States believe that the spirits have extra power over
mankind on Friday, hence many people will not take shelter under a tree
at any time on this day, lest the spirits sitting in the tree dive down
into them. This precaution especially applies to travellers, whose bodies
are weary and whose souls are therefore weak. Some Malays who have
wooden chests in which they store their finery and treasures dare not,
on Friday, lift the lid of one of these receptacles, because then the
chest’s soul (_semangat_) might escape. Henceforth the chest would become
a dead thing and all luck would desert its owner. Patani fishermen on
Friday always make offerings to the _semangat_ of their boats.[639]
The seven-day week in the Malay Archipelago exists both as a Hindu
institution of remote origin and also as an outcome of the expansion of
Islam over this region. The Achehnese in northern Sumatra have not only
borrowed the hebdomad from the Mohammedans, but go so far as to make
Friday a day _pantang_ for all agricultural work, _pantang_ being the
native term for taboo.[640] Among the natives of the Kuantan District
the seven weekdays bear names derived from the Arabic.[641] On the
other hand the Batta of Lake Toba possess a calendar derived from Hindu
sources and also a week of seven days, with planetary names clearly
taken from the Sanskrit. But the Batta magicians, who use this cycle for
astrological purposes, do not now recognize its planetary origin; they
know only the sun, the moon, and, possibly, Venus. To the Batta _ari na
pitu_, the seventh day, is an evil day, and he who ventures to begin
any work upon it will surely be visited by some grave misfortune.[642]
In districts of Sumatra where neither Hindu nor Arabic influence has
penetrated, a division into weeks is unknown, the natives counting,
instead, by the days of the moon’s age.[643] In Java the Hindu planetary
week was combined with the still earlier market week of five days in
the eighth and ninth centuries, A.D., and since that time the Arabic
designations of the seven weekdays have also been introduced.[644] A
similar combination of the two cycles, yielding a period of thirty-five
days, occurs in Bali.[645] In Macassar, a former native kingdom of
Celebes, the Mohammedan Sabbath is observed.[646]
The foregoing pages make it clear that the spread of Mohammedan rule
both in Asia and Africa has introduced the week of seven days into
regions where it had not previously found entrance. The Arabs themselves
adopted the week from the Jews and Christians, presumably at the time of
their conversion to Islam.[647] In the Arabic week the days from Sunday
to Thursday are numbered in their order, Friday is called _al jum‘a_
“the meeting” (for worship), and Saturday, _as sabt_, “the Sabbath.” On
Friday, according to the rule laid down by Mohammed, the faithful are
to take part in the midday prayer at the mosque and to listen to the
sermon which follows the prayer. Labour is suspended during the service,
but at its close secular vocations, including marketing, are resumed.
The Mohammedean _jum‘a_, unlike the Jewish Sabbath, but like the early
Christian Sunday, is not a day of rest.[648]
The seven-day week has now been traced over a large part of the globe. It
sometimes exists as a planetary-astrological cycle of pagan derivation;
in other cases its presence is obviously due to Jewish, Christian, or
Mohammedan influence. In no region does the hebdomadal cycle appear as an
independent product of the native culture. The inquiry into its remote
origin and connection with the cult of the number seven takes us back to
the ancient Oriental world.
It is a familiar fact that many people attach to certain numbers a sacred
or symbolic meaning.[649] Such mystic numbers, unlike those of ordinary
arithmetic, are real categories in which thought naturally rests;
they are not fortuitous counts of objects but are rather subjective
syntheses—_cadres donnés d’avance_—according to which the mind divides
up and parcels out all things visible and invisible. Like names they
may become virtual entities endowed with their own functional power.
The symbolism and superstitions attaching to certain numbers, which we
discover in the records of all archaic civilizations, must be based
on very primitive modes of thinking, since a similar tendency toward
mysticism in the use of numbers appears among half-civilized peoples.
It is a tendency to whose development no bounds can be set, once the
refining ingenuity of the priestly class has begun to elaborate the
concept of the “sacred” as opposed to that of the “profane.” It seems
obvious, therefore, that the systems of sacred numbers, found in ancient
India, Babylonia, Greece, and other cultural areas, incorporate many
items of folk superstition together with the results of much speculative
activity on the part of early organizers of religion.
It would be hard to find any number in the first decade which has not
been invested, by this or that society, with a mystical significance.
Seven, in particular, has enjoyed a marked importance among many peoples
widely separated in space and time.[650] As a symbolic number it occurs
among the Babylonians, Greeks, and Hindus at the very dawn of their
history; and it still figures prominently in the popular lore of India,
China, and southeastern Asia. Cultural influences emanating from the
Asiatic mainland appear to have introduced the symbolism of seven into
certain parts of Oceania and, notably, into Borneo. Of the Sea Dyak
of Sarawak it is said that, after three, their favourite number is
seven; while among the Malanau, another Sarawak tribe, seven is very
prominent in rites of exorcism.[651] The same number occurs repeatedly
in the legends of the Dusun of British North Borneo, and its mystic
significance may account in part for the curious system of unlucky days
observed by them. The Dusun consider twelve days of the month, beginning
with the seventh and including also the fourteenth and twenty-first,
as distinctly bad for agricultural labour. At such times they refrain
from going to their rice-fields, under penalty of failure of the crop,
but other work than that on the farms may sometimes be performed. The
natives cannot furnish any explanation of the evil quality of these
days.[652] A peculiar observance of the seventh day is found in some
parts of Melanesia. When the first missionaries visited the New Hebrides
and introduced the European week with Sunday as a day of rest, the
natives were much astonished to learn that the whites were also familiar
with their _bugi kai bituki_, or evil day. These Melanesians had never
recognized any time-divisions shorter than the lunar month, but it
had long been a custom among them to mark the seventh day by certain
taboos. The natives would not engage in warfare on the seventh day
after the declaration of hostilities; nor would they attempt to execute
vengeance on the seventh day after the receipt of an insult.[653] The
two prohibitions perhaps represent the broken-down form of a system of
taboos at one time much more extensive. Elsewhere in the Pacific area
(New Guinea, Australia, and Polynesia) seven does not seem to possess any
special significance.
The mystic qualities of seven are recognized in Africa, but only where
foreign influences have penetrated. Among the Wachaga of German East
Africa the seventh month of the year is most unlucky: houses are not
built, or marriages celebrated, or fields planted, or wars begun, during
this fateful time.[654] The Wagiriama and Wasania, Bantu tribes living in
the southeastern corner of British East Africa, observe the symbolism of
seven in birth, circumcision, and mourning ceremonies.[655] The Akikuyu
attach a very special ill-luck to the seventh day. A herdsman will not
herd his flocks for more than six days, and on the seventh he must be
relieved by another man. One who has been away on a journey for six days
will not return to his village on the seventh; sooner than do so he will
go and sleep at the house of a neighbour a short distance away. Were this
rule broken, he would certainly be struck down by some serious illness,
and a medicine-man would have to be called in to remove the curse. “This
belief,” we are told, “makes it easy for the missionaries to explain to
the Akikuyu the force of the Christian observance of the Sabbath.”[656]
Seven is also one of the unlucky numbers of the Nandi.[657] The seven-day
periods kept as Sabbaths by some of the Baganda and the seven-day
week with three days marked by taboos, found among the Rendile and
Burkeneji, have been previously noticed.[658] In some parts of Abyssinia
and Somaliland we find not only a week of seven days but also cycles
of seven months and seven years, with seven as a distinctively holy
number.[659] In west Africa, besides the adoption of a seven-day week
as the result of Mohammedan influence, there is also a symbolic use of
seven in native folktales,[660] thus providing an instructive parallel
to the same feature in European stories. The frequent occurrence of the
symbolic seven in the magic and astrology of north African peoples must
also be attributed to the spread of Islam from the Mediterranean to the
Sudan.[661]
If the cult of seven in the Pacific area and Africa appears clearly as
a borrowed institution, no other explanation than that of independent
origination can account for the fact that some American Indian tribes
also ascribe a peculiar sanctity to this number. In the opinion of most
Americanists the symbolism of seven is here an outgrowth of cosmical
conceptions of the four cardinal points, reinforced by conceptions of
a central, an upper, and a lower world. Seven is thus the most sacred
number because it represents all the regions of the cosmos.[662] This
explanation cannot be safely applied outside the American area.
The antiquity of the symbolism of seven in the Old World is attested by
its appearance as a sacred number in the earliest literary records of
India, Greece, and Babylonia. Numerous references to seven occur in the
_Rig-Veda_, where, however, it enjoys less importance than three.[663]
Periods of seven days and seven years are frequently mentioned in the
_Odyssey_.[664] Hesiod includes the seventh day of the month in his list
of holy days (έβδόμη ἱερὸν ἦμαρ), “for on the seventh day Leto bare
Apollo of the golden sword”; and this particular connection with the
seventh day was maintained by the god in the later age of Greek history.
Most of his great festivals began on the seventh day, at which time all
public business appears to have ceased.[665] Many other illustrations
exist of the large symbolic rôle played by the number seven in Greece
at a remote period.[666] Among the Babylonians, as early as the third
millenium B.C., seven appears as a symbolic number in magico-religious
rituals, incantations, exorcisms, and mythological narratives.[667] Thus,
in the Babylonian version of the Deluge myth, periods of seven days’
duration assume a marked importance: the rain continues for six days and
ceases on the seventh, when the waters begin to subside; and seven days
again intervene before the Babylonian Noah is able to abandon the Ark
and offer sacrifice to the gods for his preservation. The exceptional
importance which this number enjoyed in Babylonia lends credibility to
the theory that here was the centre from which the lore of seven passed
to adjoining regions of western Asia and thence to more distant parts of
the ancient world.[668]
Some Assyriologists have connected the symbolism of seven with the seven
stars visible to the naked eye which traverse the celestial zodiac. For
the Babylonian astrologers and astronomers these were the sun, the moon,
and the five larger planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
There can be no question that the separation of the planets from the
fixed stars, one of the enduring contributions which Babylonia has made
to civilization, was the outcome of superstitious notions concerning
the influence of the heavenly bodies on the life of man. The Babylonian
astrologers who watched night by night the stately procession of the
stars across the cloudless skies were animated by no high zeal for
scientific knowledge, but rather by the necessity of drawing from the
celestial phenomena omens of good or ill for king and country. Jupiter
and Venus were probably the first planets to be differentiated, the one
because of his brilliant light, the other because of her two appearances
when she precedes the rising, and follows the setting, sun. Saturn,
Mercury, and Mars seem originally to have been combined under the one
designation Lu-Bat, a term which came to bear the general meaning of
“planet”—doubtless on account of the difficulty involved in observing
their separate courses.[669] We do not know when all five planets were
set off from the fixed stars, or when they were first connected with
the sun and moon to form a group of seven planetary luminaries. As an
eminent Italian astronomer has remarked, both achievements must have
required centuries of close and accurate observations; they do not
belong to a primitive astronomy.[670] Hence we may safely conclude that
the symbolism of seven, reaching into remote Babylonian antiquity,
long preceded the recognition of the seven planets; nay, more, that
the symbolic significance of this number imposed itself on Babylonian
astronomers and astrologers and compelled them to include in it all the
principal stars.
The differentiation of the planets led naturally to their identification
with the greater deities of the Babylonian pantheon, whose several
names—Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Marduk, and Ninib—have come down to us
through the Greeks and Romans in their classical equivalents, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. It is by no means certain, however,
that at all periods of Babylonian history these were the only deities
which enjoyed planetary affiliations, or that the same gods were
invariably connected with the same planets. The association of planet and
god seems to have been quite artificial and arbitrary; at any rate, the
omen texts do not show any close correspondence between the character
of the deity and the prognostications drawn from the behaviour of his
planet. Furthermore, the cuneiform records contain no indication that the
Babylonians were familiar with what is known as the astrological order
of the planets, the order, that is, in which they appear as regents of
the weekdays in the so-called planetary week of seven days. The oldest
known list of the Babylonian planets dates from about 700 B.C., and
presents the following arrangement: Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn,
Mercury, Mars. The same order is found one hundred and fifty years
later, in astronomical texts belonging to the time of the New Babylonian
Empire.[671] This seems to be nothing more than the sequence according
to which the planets were severally differentiated from the fixed stars.
At all events it is not the astrological sequence, which lies at the
basis of the planetary week. Nor can the origin of the names of the
weekdays be sought in Babylonia. It is true that the Babylonians, like
the Egyptians,[672] ascribed to every day in the month its appropriate
divinity, but absolutely no evidence exists that they ever applied the
names of the seven planetary deities to the days of a septenary cycle.
That step was taken at another time and by another people.
The planetary week,[673] an institution which has spread eastward
over the Oriental world and westward into Europe, is a product of the
speculations of astrologers and philosophers during the Hellenistic, or
Græco-Oriental, era. The sequence of its days depends ultimately upon the
order of the seven planetary spheres, adopted by Ptolemy in antiquity
and after him by astronomers until the discoveries of Copernicus. If the
planets are grouped according to their distance from the earth, beginning
with the highest and descending to the lowest, we obtain the following
order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. No certain
evidence exists that this arrangement was known at an earlier date than
the second century before our era.[674] The astrological order, which
also begins with Saturn, proceeds next to the fourth planet, or Sun, from
which again the fourth planet (by inclusive reckoning) is the Moon. By
continuing to select every fourth planet thereafter we obtain at length
the regents of the seven weekdays: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury,
Jupiter, Venus.
How, it may be asked, did such an arrangement arise? This question has
been answered for us by the Roman historian, Dio Cassius, who interrupts
his narrative of the victorious campaign of Pompey the Great in Palestine
to furnish a brief account of the planetary week.[675] The institution,
says Dio Cassius, can be explained in two ways. According to the first
explanation the gods are supposed to preside over separate days of the
week, following the “‘principle of the tetrachord’ (which is believed
to constitute the basis of music).”[676] The planetary week would thus
be one expression of the occult relations supposed to exist between
harmonic intervals of music and the seven planetary spheres. Though
the idea that the motions of the planets were regulated by the laws of
musical harmony had great popularity among some of the Greek schools
of philosophy, neo-Pythagorean and neo-Platonist, it is not, however,
to this comparatively refined doctrine of the “music of the spheres”
that we must look for the origin of the planetary sequence.[677] The
second explanation given by Dio Cassius, and also by Vettius Valens,
is connected with the astrological theory of “chronocratories,” which
assigned to the several planets dominion over hours and days as periods
of time. If the day is divided into twenty-four hours and each hour is
ascribed in turn to the several planets—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun,
Venus, Mercury, Moon—then Saturn will preside over the first, eighth,
fifteenth, and twenty-second hours of the first day, the twenty-third
hour will fall to Jupiter, and the twenty-fourth to Mars. The
twenty-fifth hour, or the first hour of the second day, will belong to
the Sun, the first hour of the third day to the Moon, and so on for the
remaining weekdays. The planetary deity found to preside over the first
hour of a day is then supposed to give his name to the entire day. This
scheme, as far as it depends on the recognition of twenty-four hours, is
evidently not of Greek origin, for the mathematical division of the day
into fixed parts did not arise in the Occident, but was due to Oriental
influences.[678]
The planetary week thus presents itself as a curious amalgam of ideas
derived from different sources. Babylonia, the motherland of divination,
provided the doctrine of the influence of the stars on human destinies;
Greece furnished the mathematical astronomy which grouped the planets
according to their distance from the earth; and upon these foundations
astrologers of the Hellenistic era, familiar with the cult of seven and
with a division of the day into twenty-four hours, built up what was, at
the outset, an entirely pagan institution.
The seven-day week (ἑβδομάς, _septimana_), in its astrological form, has
had a varied history. It probably first appeared in the star cults of
Mesopotamia and Syria, certainly not before the second century B.C.,
passed thence to the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, the meeting-ground
of East and West, and about the age of Augustus gained an entrance into
Occidental lands. The first reasonably certain evidence of its existence
in Italy is found in the so-called _fasti Sabini_, the fragments of a
calendar drawn up between the years 19 B.C.-4 A.D. Here the days of the
seven-day week (indicated by the letters _A_ to _F_) and those of the
old Roman nundinal cycle (indicated by the letters _A_ to _G_) are set
forth in parallel columns for the months of September and October. All
similar calendars of the same period employ only the lettering of the
eight-day Roman week.[679] The earliest evidence for the planetary naming
of the weekdays is found in two inscriptions from Pompeii. Of these, the
first gives all the names of the planetary deities in their Greek form;
the second, the names in their more familiar Latin form, except for the
accidental omission of Wednesday: Saturni, Solis, Lunæ, Martis, Jovis,
Veneris.[680] Indications that the planetary week was known and used
during the second century A.D. occur in both classical literature and
the inscriptions. Dio Cassius,[681] writing early in the third century
(about 210-220 A.D.), declares that the custom of referring the days to
the stars, called planets, had then become quite familiar to the Romans
as well as to the rest of mankind. The accuracy of this statement is
confirmed by his Christian contemporaries, Tertullian and Clement of
Alexandria, who in their writings addressed to the pagans employ the
planetary names of the weekdays.[682]
The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week with
its numbered weekdays,[683] but by the close of the third century A.D.
this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth
centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western
half of Christendom.[684] The use of the planetary names by Christians
attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by
converts from paganism. The old beliefs in the power of the stars over
human destinies lived on in Christian communities; the heavenly bodies,
though no longer deities, were still demons capable of affecting the
fate of man. During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar
worships, especially that of Mithra,[685] in the Roman world, had already
led to the substitution by pagans of _dies Solis_ for _dies Saturni_,
as the first day of the planetary week; and Constantine’s famous edict,
as we have seen, definitely enrolled Sunday among the holidays of the
Roman state religion.[686] The change from Saturn’s Day to Sunday must
have further commended the planetary week in Christian circles, where
the Lord’s Day (_dies dominica_), beginning the week, had long been
observed as that on which Christ, the “Sun of Righteousness,” rose
from the dead.[687] Thus gradually a pagan institution was engrafted on
Christianity.
The planetary week became familiar to the barbarians of the West before
its adoption by Christianity. Much monumental evidence exists to show
that in Gaul and Roman Germany the planetary order, beginning with
Saturn, was known from the first half of the third century. The same
cycle appears to have been introduced into Roman Britain. In nearly all
Romance countries the planetary names are applied to the weekdays except
the first and seventh, for which the ecclesiastical designations, _dies
dominica_ and _sabbatum_, are retained.[688] In most Germanic languages
Sunday and Monday appear as translations of the Latin forms; Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday represent equations of classical and
Germanic deities, based on the most obvious points of resemblance between
them;[689] while Saturday, for which no corresponding Germanic god
suggested itself, is a corrupt form of Saturnus.[690] Among the Slavic
peoples, whose week begins with Monday, as the first day after rest, the
planetary names are unknown, the days being numbered in conformity with
the usage of the Greek Church.[691] A similar custom prevails among the
Lithuanians and Esthonians, who appear to have borrowed their week from
the Slavs. Modern Greeks employ the ecclesiastical designations of the
weekdays,[692] but the Finns and Lapps, at the other extremity of Europe,
in adopting the week from the Scandinavians, took over also the planetary
names of the days.[693]
CHAPTER VII
THE BABYLONIAN “EVIL DAYS” AND THE SHABATTUM
It is time to return to Babylonia. We have seen that here the cult of
seven as a symbolic number was long anterior to the recognition of
the seven planets; and, furthermore, that the planetary week, instead
of being an early creation of Babylonian astrology, arose during the
Hellenistic Age from the union of Greek and Oriental speculations. But
for many centuries previously a seven-day week, in which the days were
numbered, not named, had existed as a Jewish institution in western Asia;
and we have still to determine whether this Jewish form of the week was
derived remotely from Babylonia, and according to what conceptions the
assumed Babylonian original was itself developed.
In the year 1869 the late George Smith, well known as a pioneer student
of Assyriology, discovered among the cuneiform tablets in the British
Museum “a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every
month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days, or ‘Sabbaths,’
are marked out as days on which no work should be undertaken.”[694] Six
years afterward Sir Henry Rawlinson published this calendar in the fourth
volume of his standard collection of cuneiform inscriptions. It appears
to be a transcript of a much more ancient Babylonian original, possibly
belonging to the age of Hammurabi, which had been made by order of
Asshurbanipal and placed in his royal library at Nineveh. The calendar,
which is complete for the thirteenth or intercalary month, called Elul
II, and for Markheshwan, the eighth month of the Babylonian year, takes
up the thirty days in succession and indicates the deity to which each
day is sacred and what sacrifices or precautionary measures are necessary
for each day. All the days are styled “favourable,” an expression which
must indicate a pious hope, not a fact, since the words _ud-khul-gal_ or
_ûmu limnu_ (“the evil day”) are particularly applied to the seventh,
fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days. The second
Elul, being an intercalated month, might be thought to have enjoyed a
special significance, as intercalary months have had elsewhere;[695]
but such a hypothesis will not explain the inclusion of the month of
Markheshwan in the calendar.[696] Hence it is highly probable that at one
time the other months were similarly marked, though as yet there is no
inscriptional evidence for the observance of the five “evil days” in all
the months of the Babylonian year.[697]
With regard to the reasons which dictated the choice of the seventh,
fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, two views have been
entertained. It has been held, in the first place, that the “evil
days” were selected as corresponding to the moon’s successive changes;
hence that the seventh day marks the close of the earliest form of the
seven-day week, a week bound up with the lunar phases. According to
another opinion the setting apart of every seventh day was due to the
importance ascribed to seven; hence that the seven-day cycles were not
regarded as quarters of the lunation but rather as periods containing
the symbolic number of seven days, which happened to coincide, roughly,
with a fourth part of the lunar month. The second view would be merely an
amplification of the first, if we assume, with perhaps the majority of
Assyriologists, that the rôle of seven as a symbolic number is ultimately
connected with the moon changing her phases at intervals of approximately
seven days.
It must be admitted, however, that in the present state of our knowledge
we cannot obtain any satisfactory explanation of the origin of a symbolic
number. As far as seven is concerned, the American evidence, previously
referred to,[698] indicates that cosmical speculations may sometimes
account for its significance; while in the Semitic area, again, one root
of the cult of seven may lie in the observation of the Pleiades and the
early use of Pleiades calendars by the agriculturist.[699] That the
Pleiades number seven stars has been noted even by savage peoples, who
have also observed that each one of three other prominent constellations,
Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Orion, contains seven principal stars. Such
unexplained coincidences may have served to confirm the impression of the
significance of seven in the minds of Babylonian astrologers, even though
the mystic quality of that number was based originally on a different
set of ideas. But it is unnecessary to discuss further what popular
superstitions and priestly speculations gave rise to the symbolism of
seven in ancient Babylonia.
The month in Babylonia was a lunar month, and the year was a lunisolar
year. Unlike the Egyptians, who passed from moon- to sun-reckonings
before the dawn of history, the Babylonians always retained the
primitive lunar calendar, harmonized with the solar year by the crude
method of intercalating an extra month at the necessary intervals. As
in all lunar calendars the month began with the visible new moon. So
important was this for the determination of the month that _arxu_, the
Babylonian expression for “month,” meant, properly, the beginning of the
month; while Nannar (_nannaru_), one of the names of the moon-god, was
originally applied to the new moon.[700] The length of the month was
reckoned at thirty days as an approximate average of the duration of
the moon’s course, a calculation familiar enough to many half-civilized
peoples.[701] The ideogram for _arxu_ is the number “thirty” enclosed in
the ideogram for “day”; and the ideogram for Sin, the moon-deity, is made
up of that for “god” and of that for “thirty,” which number was sacred
to him. When in late mythological syncretism the goddess Ishtar was
represented as the daughter of Sin, her sacred number became fifteen, and
this, with the determinative of goddess prefixed to it, was often used to
express her name.[702]
Though the calendar assigned to each month thirty full days, the actual
month must have often included only twenty-nine days, since the reckoning
employed was purely lunar. We may assume, in the absence of definite
statements as to the way of fixing the length of the month, that the
Babylonians at first followed the rough-and-ready method of modern Arabs:
on the twenty-ninth of the month, after the sun has gone down, they look
in the western sky for the faint sickle of the moon; if this is seen, the
new month begins forthwith; if it cannot be seen, the following day is
also included in the old month, which then contains thirty days. By the
middle of the seventh century B.C., and perhaps at an even earlier date,
a more exact means of calculating the length of the month had come into
use. The royal astrologers, who sent regular reports to the king as to
the appearance or non-appearance of the moon at the expected time, appear
to have carefully observed the day of the opposition of the sun and moon
in the middle of the month; when the full-moon day was known, it became
an easy matter to determine how many more days should be counted to the
end of the month.[703] It was not until the third or second century B.C.,
when exact astronomical methods had supplanted purely empirical study of
the heavens, that the Babylonians were able to calculate the appearance
of the true new moon. By this time, too, the progress of astronomical
knowledge allowed them to adopt the more accurate calendarizing of the
lunation into months of twenty-nine and thirty days, five of the former,
and seven of the latter, length.[704]
These details concerning the Babylonian calendar, in all but its latest
form, are enough to indicate that it presents no striking divergence
from the general type of lunar reckonings. The Babylonians, like all
other peoples of the ancient East, based their calculations of time on
the moon. It follows, therefore, that the seven-day periods described
in the Rawlinson calendar were also reckoned from the visible new moon;
indeed, this fact is clearly indicated by the description applied in
that calendar to the first day of the month.[705] We may reasonably
assume that the last day of the month (when the latter actually included
only twenty-nine days) or the last two days of a thirty-day month were
regarded as forming an epagomenal period, interrupting the regular
succession of seven-day cycles. Possibly the Babylonians may have
employed some such device as that found among the negroes of west Africa,
in order that four of their lunar periods should correspond exactly to
the length of the lunation.[706]
We may next inquire whether additional evidence exists to indicate
that the seven-day periods of the Rawlinson calendar were definitely
associated with successive phases of the moon. It has already been
noticed that very early in the Assyro-Babylonian cultural area there was
in at least occasional use a five-day cycle, called _khamushtu_.[707]
Whether it preceded the hebdomadal cycle or afterwards supplanted it
(perhaps as forming a closer divisor of the lunation), or whether the
two periods may not have existed more or less contemporaneously, are
matters concerning which the cuneiform records tell us nothing. They do
tell us, however, that a five-day period, possibly to be identified with
the _khamushtu_, was closely associated with the successive appearances
of the moon, as in a text where the first five days of the month are
spoken of as those of the crescent moon, the next five, as those of the
half-moon (“kidney”), and the five following days as those of the full or
nearly full moon.[708] A similar association with the moon’s course is
set forth in the case of a seven-day period in a text which specifically
indicates the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days
as those of Sin, the moon-god.[709] Another text connects several days
of the month with the moon’s course in the following order: first day,
new moon; seventh day, moon as “kidney” (half-moon); fifteenth day,
full moon.[710] Finally, in the fifth tablet of the Babylonian _Epic of
Creation_, a work which in its original form is traced to the close of
the third millennium B.C., it is told how the god Marduk, having created
and set in order the heavenly bodies, then placed the moon in the sky to
make known the days and divide the month with her phases. Although this
interesting production, in its present mutilated state, mentions only the
seventh and fourteenth days, we are entitled to believe that the original
text also referred to the twenty-first and twenty-eighth days of the
month.[711]
The cuneiform evidence thus makes it reasonably certain that the cycles
of seven days’ duration found in the Rawlinson calendar were regarded as
divisions of the lunar month. This conclusion does not require us to hold
that these cycles originated in the quartering of the lunation. Their
choice may conceivably have been dictated in the first instance by the
desire to apply the prevailing symbolism of seven to periods of time;
while only later, and as a secondary development, were they brought into
connection with the phases of the moon. In either case the seven-day
periods can be only loosely and inaccurately described as “weeks.”
Nothing in the cuneiform records indicates that the Babylonians ever
employed them for civil purposes. These periods seem to have had solely
a religious significance, as was true also of the four divisions of the
month, similarly connected with the lunar phases, in the sacred calendars
of both Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.[712] What we have disclosed in
Babylonia is, not the week itself, but the material out of which such an
institution might be formed.
Each septenary period in the calendar for Elul II and Markheshwan closed
with an unnamed “evil day.” The symbolism of seven cannot in itself
account for the unlucky quality attaching to this seventh day. Seven to
the Babylonians bore no unlucky character. It stood, rather, for the
notion of completeness or totality, appearing in prayers, incantations,
and exorcisms to indicate the sum total of the gods or spirits recognized
by the worshipper; sometimes marking the length of the period during
which such important actions as the dedication of a temple or the
mourning for a death must be performed; and often, again, assuming a
mythological rôle, as in the seven gates of the underworld, the seven
names of the goddess Ishtar, and the periods of seven days’ duration
found in the Babylonian Deluge narrative.[713] In these and many other
instances seven appears as a symbolic, but not as a portentous, number.
Assuming, however, that the seven-day periods of the Rawlinson calendar
were associated with successive phases of the moon—whether originally or
secondarily does not matter—it is clear that the seventh day, marking
the critical or transition point in each phase, would possess a special
importance. In fact, the negative or prohibitive regulations enforced
among the Babylonians on the “evil days” bear a close resemblance to the
taboos which many other peoples have observed at the changes of the moon.
Recent students of Semitic magic have shown that the Sumerians and their
successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, were familiar with the idea
of taboo; the term _mamit_, which appears frequently in magical texts,
is exactly equivalent to _tabu_, since it refers to that state of ritual
impurity or ceremonial uncleanness attending certain circumstances or
actions.[714] A great part of the so-called _Shurpu_ series[715] deals
with the methods of removing the condition of _mamit_ into which a man
may have wittingly or unwittingly fallen. The murderer, the adulterer,
or the thief became _mamit_ in consequence of his breach of ordinary
social morality, but equally cursed was the unlucky person who ran up
against another who was under a taboo, slept on his bed, ate out of his
plate, or drank from his cup. A man might be contaminated by putting his
foot in some unclean water, by treading in some libation that had been
poured forth, by touching a bewitched woman, and even by seeing one of
unwashed hands. The third tablet of the _Shurpu_ series enumerates no
less than one hundred and sixty-three taboos, including “those which come
from the family, old or young, friend or neighbour, rich or poor; oven,
bellows, pots and cups, bed or couch, chariot or weapons. To drink out of
an unclean vessel, to sit in the sun, to root up plants in the desert,
to cut reeds in a thicket, to slay the young of beasts, to pray with
unclean hands, and a host of other common actions, might under certain
conditions bring a _tapu_ on the man.” Such tabooed acts placed the man
under an interdiction; if he fell sick, he knew that his sufferings were
due to the hostility of some supernatural power; and a professional
exorcist would be called in to drive away by magical words, prayers,
and rites the divine curse clinging to his person.[716] It seems to be
clear, then, that the taboos observed on the “evil days” represented to
the Babylonians only a particular application of an ancient and generally
accepted superstition.
The calendar for Elul II contains specific directions for the observance
of the five “evil days,” in each case the same except for differences in
the names of the deities.[717] The regulations for the seventh day read
as follows:
“An evil day. The shepherd of great peoples shall not eat flesh cooked
upon the coals, or bread of the oven.[718] The garment of his body he
shall not change, he shall not put on clean [garments]. He shall not
bring an offering. The king shall not ride in his chariot. He shall not
speak as a ruler (?). The priest shall not give a decision in the secret
place. The physician shall not lay his hand on a patient. To issue a
malediction it [the day] is not suitable.[719] At night the king shall
bring his gift before Marduk and Ishtar, he shall offer a sacrifice. The
lifting up of his hands will then be pleasing to god.”
It is clear that the rules for the seventh day prescribe a season of
abstinence affecting many royal activities. The “shepherd of great
peoples” must not eat any food which has been cooked with fire; he must
not change his clothes; and he must not offer a sacrifice until the end
of the day. The king is not to speak in public; and he is even forbidden
to travel. The Babylonian monarch who observed all these taboos five
times a month would have been as strictly secluded as was the Hawaiian
ruler, who, likewise, during the four monthly _tabu_ periods retired to
the inner precincts of his temple.[720]
The Babylonian regulations have been interpreted as survivals from
ancient times, when priest-kings were accredited with a divine or
supernatural nature, and hence were subjected to numberless restrictions
designed to prevent any impairment of their sanctity and magical
power.[721] A consideration of the evidence yielded by primitive
societies suggests, however, that the Babylonian regulations may have
been connected originally with taboos imposed on the entire community.
In Hawaii, where the lunar phases were observed as _tabu_ periods, the
prohibitions affecting the king represented only an intensification of
the communal taboos, to be explained by the extreme sanctity attached
to the Hawaiian ruler. In Assam, where the _genna_ institution enjoys a
vigorous life, we find that, besides the prohibitions communally observed
at critical times, the _khullakpa_, or priest-chief, is surrounded by
many elaborate taboos. Their purpose is “to protect the man who acts on
behalf of the whole subdivision or village on the occasions of general
_genna_, from any accident which might impair his power.” He is subject
to various food restrictions, must content himself with only one wife,
and must even separate himself from her on the eve of a general _genna_.
In one group the headman may not eat in a strange village, nor,
whatever the provocation, may he utter a word of abuse. The violation
of any one of these taboos is thought to bring misfortune on the entire
village.[722] It is not wholly speculative to suggest that, were the
natives of Assam to discard their communal taboos as burdensome, the
special regulations affecting the _khullakpa_ might survive, in deference
to old tradition, and might even be increased in severity, if that
individual should grow in authority and holiness. The situation would
then furnish a very close analogy to what existed in ancient Babylonia.
The regulations concerning the “evil days,” it may be noted, did not
pertain to the king alone. We may reasonably assume that “the shepherd
of great peoples” and the king mentioned further on in the calendar are
one and the same; but the record also describes certain rules imposed
on the priest and on the physician, both important functionaries among
the Babylonians. It seems also evident that the day was regarded as
unsuitable for any one to lay a curse or ban; according to another, and
possibly more accurate, rendering, unsuitable for all business. These
considerations increase the probability that at one time some taboos on
the seventh day were observed by the entire community.[723]
It is questionable, however, whether in late historic times there was any
general abstention from work and other activities on the “evil days.”
The Babylonians were a highly organized commercial and manufacturing
people who would have found such regulations burdensome to the highest
degree. Taboos once generally observed may have been gradually relaxed
and at last abandoned, just as modern Jews are now neglecting the
observance of the Sabbath. The practice might have been kept up, however,
by the king and the priests as the special guardians of conservative
institutions.[724]
The cuneiform records contain a term _shabattum_, which has been
generally accepted as the phonetic equivalent of the Hebrew _shabbāthôn_,
perhaps an intensive form of _shabbāth_ or Sabbath, referring to a
Sabbath of particular solemnity.[725] _Shabattum_, a word which has
been found as yet only five or six times in Assyro-Babylonian documents,
occurs in a lexicographical tablet containing the equation _shabbattu(m)
= ûm nûkh libbi_.[726] The accepted translation of the latter expression
is “day of rest of (or for) the heart” (_s.c._, “of the angered gods”).
Various scholars in England and Germany, intent on discovering Babylonian
parallels for all Hebrew institutions, have therefore explained
_shabattum_ and its equivalent phrase by the five “evil days” found
in the calendar already noticed. This identification was based on the
observation that these seemed also to be penitential days, when by
special observances the gods must be appeased and their anger averted.
The Hebrew Sabbath would therefore represent an institution directly
derived from the Babylonian regulations for the “evil days.”[727]
Until recently, however, Assyriology has sounded no certain note
concerning the etymology and significance of the term _shabattum_. Thus,
Delitzsch holds that “the only meaning that may be justifiably assumed
is ‘ending (of work), cessation, keeping holiday from work.’”[728] As
the result of linguistic analysis Hirschfeld concludes, on the contrary,
that “the idea of resting for religious reasons after a certain spell
of working days is far too complicated to be the original meaning of a
primitive root.”[729] Jastrow, again, points out that _ûm nûkh libbi_,
with which _shabattum_ has been equated, was a standing expression for
the pacification of a deity’s anger. It occurs frequently in Babylonian
religious literature, where it is more particularly used in hymns
addressed by penitentials to some god who has shown his ill-will toward
them. _Shabattum_ implies, therefore, a day of propitiation, and the
idea of rest involved refers to gods and not to men—a refraining from
or cessation of divine anger.[730] Zimmern suggests that _shabattum_
may be derived from the verb _shabâtu_, with the sense of “discontinue”
or “desist,” applied to the anger of the gods.[731] Pinches, on the
contrary, believes that the word comes from the Sumerian _shabat_, which
probably had no connection with the Semitic verb _shabâtu_.[732] Nielsen
goes still further afield for a satisfactory explanation, and considers
_shabat_ a term taken over from the Arabic _thabat_, from a root meaning
“rest,” applied to the lunar phases.[733] As the outcome of extensive
philological study Hehn argues that _shabattum_ meant originally
“fulness,” “completeness,” the notion of rest being later and entirely
secondary.[734] Still another interpretation makes _shabattum_ equivalent
to “day of lament.”[735] Finally, in a brief, though highly suggestive
study, Professor Toy holds that the root idea in the Babylonian
expression was that of abstinence, though _shabattum_ might also have
been regarded as a day of propitiation because of the restrictions
attached to it.[736]
These conflicting interpretations scarcely made for confidence in the
results of a purely philological analysis. Recent discoveries, however,
have thrown new light on the problem. A lexicographical tablet from the
library of the Assyrian king Asshurbanipal gives the names attached to
several days of the Babylonian month; and among these is the designation
_shabattum_, applied to the fifteenth day.[737] Still more recently a
similar use of _shabattum_ has been found in a text which contains an
account of the moon’s course during the month. Reference is here made to
the first appearance of the new moon, its ash-grey light until about the
seventh day thereafter, its opposition with the sun on the fourteenth
day, its aspects on the twenty-first, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth
days, and finally its disappearance on the thirtieth day, being the time
of conjunction with the sun. In this description, which for minuteness
recalls the Polynesian naming of the nights from successive aspects of
the moon,[738] the fifteenth day again appears as _shabattum_.[739]
It is clear that the Babylonians recognized, with many other peoples, the
two most prominent stages of the lunation, new moon and full moon, and
described them by particular names, _nannaru_ and _shabattum_. Evidence
exists, moreover, showing that these two days from very early times were
observed as festivals, particularly in the cities of Ur and Harran. Here
were the chief seats of the cult of Sin, the moon-god, always one of the
most important members of the Babylonian pantheon and anciently enjoying
precedence over Shamash, the sun-god.[740] Certain cuneiform tablets,
all written down during the time of the Fourth Dynasty of Ur and dating,
therefore, from the third millennium B.C., distinctly refer to sacrifices
which were made to the divine kings of Ur on the new-moon day and on the
fifteenth of the month.[741] At Harran, where the cult of Sin continued
to flourish under the Roman Empire and into the early Middle Ages, four
sacrificial days were observed every month, and of these at least two
were determined by the conjunction and opposition of the moon.[742]
Outside the Babylonian cultural area, but within the general field of
Semitic religion, there is also the interesting evidence yielded by the
inscription of Narnaka, which indicates that as late as the time of the
Ptolemies new moon and full moon were the chief periods of sacrifice
observed by the Phœnicians.[743]
The choice of the fifteenth day as the _shabbatum_ was obviously
determined by the length of the Babylonian month, which in the earlier
period was regularly taken at thirty days’ duration. We have seen,
however, that, where lunar reckonings are employed and the month begins
at sunset with the visible new moon, the fourteenth day more commonly
coincides with the full of the moon.[744] _Shabattum_ being the technical
expression for the fifteenth day as the time of full moon, it is only
reasonable to conclude that, if not the name, at any rate the observances
belonging to this day would be often transferred to the fourteenth of
the month, or to any other day on which the moon became full. No other
hypothesis will explain the outstanding fact that _shabattum_ was equated
with _ûm nûkh libbi_ as a day for appeasing the anger of the deity. And
if for practical purposes the fourteenth day might be a _shabattum_,
it is not difficult to assume that this was also the case with the
days (seventh, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth, perhaps, also, the
nineteenth), which marked other characteristic stages of the lunation. In
the developed Babylonian cult all these were “evil days,” when the gods
must be propitiated and conciliated. In the primitive faith of Semitic
peoples they were occasions observed with superstitious concern as times
of fasting, cessation of activity, and other forms of abstinence.[745]
CHAPTER VIII
THE HEBREW SABBATH
The earliest Biblical references to the Sabbath all indicate that the
institution had long been found among the Hebrews. It appears in the
most ancient documents of the Law, such as the two Decalogues,[746] the
old “Ritual Code,” and the nearly related “Book of the Covenant.”[747]
It is mentioned in the “Books of Kings” during the time of the prophet
Elisha.[748] It is noticed in the prophecies of Amos and Hosea.[749]
The antiquity of the Sabbath is further indicated by the fact that
Hebrew tradition preserved no certain information of its origin. From
the Old Testament we cannot tell whether the Sabbath was hallowed in
remembrance of Jehovah’s rest after the Creation,[750] or whether it was
instituted as a memorial of the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt.[751]
Assuming, with most reputable critics, that the narrative in the first
chapter of Genesis, which divides the work of creation into six days,
is comparatively late, it follows that the Sabbath could not have been
founded as a reminiscence of the completion of the Creation. The author
must have been familiar with the institution of a seven-day week ending
in a Sabbath. Its chief characteristic was then that of a day of rest,
as appears from the fact that, without mentioning the Sabbath by name,
he seeks to glorify it by placing the hallowed character of the seventh
day at the beginning of the world. The sanctity of the seventh day is in
reality antedated, and the priestly writer wished to adjust artificially
the work of creation to it.[752]
An old and still common theory derives the Sabbath institution from the
worship of Saturn, after which planet the first day of the astrological
week received its designation.[753] The theory is untenable for more than
one reason. In the first place the Hebrews did not name their weekdays
after the planets, but indicated them by ordinal numbers. In the second
place Saturn’s Day began the planetary week, while the Jewish Sabbath was
regarded as the last day of the seven, a suitable position for a rest
day. And in the third place neither the Hebrews nor any other Oriental
people ever worshipped the planet Saturn as god and observed his day as
a festival. It is true that, besides Venus, another planet familiar to
the Hebrews may be recognized in the Old Testament under the name Kewan,
the Assyrian designation of Saturn.[754] This name appears in a passage
of Amos, where the prophet has been supposed to be referring to an early
worship of Saturn by the Israelites during the period of their sojourn in
the Wilderness.[755] But a single Old Testament text, both corrupt and
obscure, can scarcely be cited as proving that Saturn was ever recognized
by the Israelites as a distinct god. If it be held that Amos had in mind
the Hebrews of his own time, the passage in question can only refer to
the adoption by them of astrological notions derived from Babylonia.
These imported superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn
_Shabbti_, “the star of the Sabbath,” which, however, is not a naming of
the day after the planet, but a naming of the planet after the day. It
was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had
become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always
to have corresponded to Saturn’s Day.[756]
The association of the Sabbath Day with Saturday was probably one
reason why Saturn, a planet in Babylonian astrological schemes regarded
as beneficent rather than malefic, should have come to assume in late
classical times the rôle of an unlucky star (_sidus tristissimum_,
_stella iniquissima_). The oldest reference to Saturday is found in a
verse by the poet Tibullus (d. 19 B.C.), who apparently identifies
Saturn’s Day with the supposed inauspicious Jewish Sabbath, when he gives
as one of his excuses for not quitting Rome the bad omens which detained
him “on the sacred day of Saturn.”[757] Ovid mentions “foreign Sabbaths”
along with the anniversary of the day of the battle of the Allia—_dies
Alliensis_—as unlucky occasions.[758] Frontinus, a Roman military officer
and tactician (d. about 103 A.D.), says that Vespasian defeated the Jews
by attacking them on Saturn’s Day, when it was unlawful for them to do
anything. Dio Cassius also speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their
god the day called the day of Saturn, “on which, among many other most
peculiar actions, they undertake no serious occupation.”[759]
The Hebrews manifested so little originality in cultural matters and
borrowed so heavily from their neighbours that it becomes a natural
inquiry whether the Sabbath, with the seven-day week, may not have arisen
outside of Israel. Writing in the seventeenth century the learned John
Spencer argued that Egypt was the original home of the institution,
since in various Old Testament passages the Sabbath is declared to have
been established to commemorate the exodus from Egypt.[760] But the
Egyptians, as we have seen, divided their months into decades, and no
evidence exists that they ever employed for civil purposes any shorter
division of the month.[761] A second hypothesis, which makes the week
and the Sabbath a direct importation from Babylonia, is likewise without
warrant in the light of existing information.[762] The same may be said
of the theory that the Sabbath was first taken over from Babylonia
by the agricultural inhabitants of Canaan, from whom, in turn, the
Israelites borrowed an institution which would have no meaning to a
nomadic people.[763] But the opinion, so frequently expressed, that the
Sabbath cannot be very primitive, since it “presupposes agriculture and
a tolerably hard-pressed working-day life,”[764] betrays an imperfect
acquaintance with popular superstition. The brief prohibitions of work
found in the Pentateuch cannot be separated, by any subtleties of
exegesis, from the numerous other taboos with which the institution was
invested. The rest on the Sabbath is only one of the forms of abstinence
in connection with lunar changes; and, if the Sabbath began as a festival
at new moon and full moon, it may well have been observed by the
Israelites before their contact with Canaanitish culture. The ancient
dwellers in the Arabian wilderness, who celebrated new moon and full moon
as seasons of abstinence and rest, little dreamed that in their senseless
custom lay the roots of a social institution, which, on the whole, has
contributed to human welfare in past ages and promises an even greater
measure of benefit to humanity in all future times.
To a shepherd people in tropical or semi-tropical lands the moon appears
as a gentle guardian, bringing restful coolness after the day with its
withering heat, and dispelling with her kindly beams the thick darkness
which may cloak a lurking foe. “This,” writes an intrepid traveller, “is
the planet of way for the way-faring Semitic race. The moon is indeed a
watch-light of the night in the nomad wilderness; they are glad in her
shining upon the great upland, they may sleep then in some assurance from
their enemies.”[765] To the Israelites, as to the ancient Egyptians, the
moon was preëminently the “wanderer,” by whose movements the earliest
calendars were framed.[766] One of the Hebrew names for “month” is
_yérah_, from _yārēaḥ_, “moon”; it is called, also _ḥodesh_, which
means new moon. One of the most magnificent of the _Psalms_ declares
that Jehovah “appointed the moon for the seasons”;[767] all the Jewish
festivals were determined by the moon. At the same time there is no
Biblical testimony to indicate that the Israelites ever conceived of
the moon as a divinity and addressed to that luminary specific acts of
worship. It was only toward the end of the Hebrew monarchy, when the
Chosen People were giving themselves over to astrology, divination, and
the worship of the heavenly bodies, that clear evidence of a moon-cult
appears in the Old Testament, where it encounters the denunciation of the
prophets, the prohibitions of the Law, and the repressive measures of a
reforming king.[768]
The evidence is quite conclusive that of the lunar phases it was
especially the new moon and the full moon which first aroused the
attention of the Semitic nomads and evoked feelings of delight and
veneration. Even to-day “the first appearing of the virgin moon is always
greeted with a religious emotion in the deserts of Arabia.”[769] When the
Bedouin and Fellahin of modern Palestine first see the lunar crescent
they exclaim, “God’s new moon has appeared in his exaltedness. May it
be for us a blessed new moon.”[770] Modern Jewish ritual prescribes a
special service for the new-moon day, including the recital of psalms of
joy. So familiar an expression as Hallelujah, “praise Jehovah” (Jahweh),
is a verbal form of the onomatopoetic stem _hilâl_, meaning “new moon,”
“crescent,” with the addition of the divine name.[771] The Hebrew month,
as among other peoples who count by lunations, began when the silvery
crescent was first discerned in the evening twilight. In later Judaism,
as soon as the moon’s appearance was proved by credible witnesses before
the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, the feast of the new moon was held, and
messengers were sent abroad to announce the opening of the new month. The
celebration of the festival would seem, at least occasionally, to have
lasted two days, an arrangement obviously dictated by the inability to
determine beforehand on which of two successive days the moon might be
expected to appear.[772]
The new-moon festival was considered an exceptional solemnity as early
as the time of Saul. The twentieth chapter of the _First Book of Samuel_
records a conversation between David and Jonathan in which the former
says, “Behold, to-morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit
at meat with the king.” It appears from this chapter that the first
two days of the month were marked by feasts at which all members of
the household were expected to be present, unless prevented by some
ceremonial uncleanness.[773] The occasion was also observed by compulsory
abstinence from all servile work.[774] In the time of Elisha the new
moon seems to have been one of the favourite occasions for consulting
the prophets, a circumstance which could be explained if the day were
marked by a cessation of the usual occupations.[775] There are other
reasons, presently to be given, for believing that until the Exile, or
later, the new moon was a general rest day; and such it still remains for
Jewish women, whose conservative instincts have thus preserved a memorial
of its ancient observance.[776]
Full moon, as well as new moon, enjoyed a religious significance to
the early Hebrews. Two great agricultural festivals, one marking the
commencement of the barley harvest, the other, the close of the fruit
harvest, must have been celebrated at about the time of full moon,
for, when the sacred calendar was framed in post-Exilic times, they
were definitely fixed at the middle of the month.[777] The Passover,
observed on the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan), was followed
on the fifteenth day by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, occupying seven
days.[778] The Feast of Tabernacles began on the fifteenth of the seventh
month (Tishri) and likewise continued for seven days.[779] The religious
importance of these two festivals is indicated by the injunction to keep
the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as times of
“holy convocation,” when no “servile work” might be done,[780] and by the
significant expression _shabbāthôn_ (“solemn rest”), which is used in
reference to the beginning and end of the Feast of Tabernacles, that is,
to the fifteenth and twenty-second of the month Tishri.[781] Furthermore,
the Pentateuchal codes contain a passage, the meaning of which was in
dispute several centuries before the Christian era, where the word
“Sabbath” appears to be used in a sense precisely the same as that of
the Babylonian _shabattum_, referring to the fifteenth day of the month.
In the twenty-third chapter of _Leviticus_ it is prescribed that on “the
morrow after the Sabbath” the sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest is
to be brought to the priest, who shall wave it before Jehovah, and that,
counting from “the morrow after the Sabbath,” fifty days are to elapse
before the commencement of the Feast of Weeks.[782] As Professor Jastrow
has clearly shown, the word “Sabbath” is here used, not in its later
sense of a seventh day of rest, but as a survival of the old designation
of the Sabbath as the full-moon day. “The two references in _Leviticus_
stand out as solitary sign-posts of an abandoned road.”[783]
In some of the older parts of the Bible, and especially in the earlier
prophetical compositions, the new moon and the Sabbath are repeatedly
mentioned together. In the pathetic narrative which describes how the
Shunammite woman went to seek Elisha that the prophet might restore her
son to life, her husband asks, “‘Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day?
It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.’”[784] The prophet Hosea, promising
that the people’s unfaithfulness shall be punished, cries out wrathfully,
“I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons,
and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.”[785] Amos rebukes the
oppressors of his people “that would swallow up the needy, and cause the
poor of the land to fail, saying ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we
may sell grain? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the
ephah small and the shekel great?’”[786] Isaiah condemns the formalism
of the ancient faith in striking words: “Bring no more vain oblations;
incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling
of assemblies—I cannot bear iniquity with the solemn meeting.”[787]
Elsewhere, in the same work appears the prophecy: “And it shall come to
pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah.”[788]
This remarkable association of the Sabbath with the day of new moon
had been previously noticed by such acute critics as Wellhausen and
Robertson Smith, who were unable to offer a satisfactory solution of
the problem thus presented.[789] When, however, the cuneiform records
disclosed the fact that the Babylonian _shabattum_ fell on the fifteenth
(or fourteenth) day of the month and referred to the day of the full
moon, it became clear that in these Biblical passages we have another
survival of what must have been the primary meaning of the Hebrew term
_shabbāth_.[790] As late, then, as the eighth century B.C., popular
phraseology retained a lingering trace of the original collocation of
the new-moon and full-moon days as festival occasions characterized by
abstinence from secular activities. How long-lived were the old ideas is
further illustrated by the provision in Ezekiel’s reforming legislation
that the inner eastern gate of the new Temple at Jerusalem should be shut
during the six working days, but should be opened on the Sabbath and on
the new-moon day for the religious assemblage of the people.[791] That
the term _shabbāth_, the designation of the full-moon day, should have
come to be applied to every seventh day of the month seems to be quite in
accord with both Babylonian and Hebrew usage, which, as we have seen, led
the month itself to be called after the new-moon day.[792]
The Hebrew seven-day week, ending with the Sabbath, presented so obvious
a resemblance to the Babylonian septenary period, which closed with an
“evil day,” that scholars have felt themselves compelled to seek its
origin in Babylonia. The two institutions, nevertheless, show important
differences. The Babylonian cycle, as far as we know, was never employed
as a chronological unit; the Hebrew week was a true civil week, a
definite and well-understood period of time. The Babylonian cycle seems
not to have been dissociated from the lunation;[793] the Hebrew week was
a periodic week, running unfettered from month to month and from year
to year. The Babylonian “evil day” was an unnamed unlucky day, observed
by the king, by priests, and by physicians, but not certainly by the
people at large; the Hebrew Sabbath was a named holy day, dedicated to
the worship of the national god and kept by the entire community as a
festival. These real divergencies make it certain that the Hebrew week
and Sabbath, in the form in which we know them, could not have been taken
over without change from Babylonia. The celebration of new-moon and
full-moon festivals, which both Babylonians and Hebrews appear to have
derived from a common Semitic antiquity, underwent, in fact, a radically
unlike evolution among the two kindred peoples. To dissever the week
from the lunar month, to employ it as a recognized calendrical unit,
and to fix upon one day of that week for the exercises of religion were
momentous innovations, which, until evidence to the contrary is found,
must be attributed to the Hebrew people alone.
In his able treatise Meinhold has argued that until the age of Ezekiel
the Hebrews employed no weeks at all. He then supposes that continuous
seven-day weeks were introduced, largely through Ezekiel’s reforming
influence, and hence that the Sabbath as the last day of the periodic
week was a post-Exilic institution.[794] Critics have pointed out that
it is highly improbable that so far-reaching a change should have
occurred without being recorded; moreover, that the acceptance of such
a hypothesis makes it necessary to assume that all places in the Old
Testament where the Sabbath is mentioned as the seventh day are either
of Ezekiel’s time or later. But the problem is simplified if we hold
that the Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, perhaps for several
centuries preceding the Exile; weeks, that is, which ended with special
observances on the seventh day but none the less were tied to the moon’s
course. The change from such cycles to those unconnected with the
lunation would not have involved so abrupt and sudden a departure from
the previous system of time reckoning as that from a bipartite division
of the lunar month to a week which ran continuously through the months
and the years.[795]
The establishment of a periodic week ending in a Sabbath observed every
seventh day was doubtless responsible for the gradual obsolescence of
the new-moon festival as a period of general abstinence, since with
continuous weeks the new-moon day and the Sabbath Day would from time
to time coincide. This seems to be a more natural explanation than that
which regards the complete ignoring of the new-moon festival in the “Book
of the Covenant” and in the Deuteronomic legislation as a deliberate act,
designed to wean the people away from an observance to which heathenish
superstitions were attached. The day of new moon never lost, indeed, its
significance in Jewish ritual, for, when all the great festivals were
definitely fixed to certain days, the new moon, as marking the beginning
of the month, continued to hold a leading place in the sacred calendar.
The Priestly Code prescribed special offerings for the new-moon day, and
in Ezekiel’s legislation the sacrifices marking it exceeded in importance
those for the Sabbath.[796] The ancient character of this festival as a
season of compulsory abstinence from labour survived in its observance as
a rest day by Jewish women, perhaps also in the provision of the law of
_Leviticus_ that the first day of the seventh month, beginning the new
year, should be a “solemn rest,” “a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a
holy convocation.”[797]
The Sabbath is described in the Pentateuchal codes as an agricultural
institution. It appears there as a day of rest from farm labour, to
be observed not only by the householder and his family, but also by
the slaves, the cattle, and the stranger within the gates. In what is
generally considered the earlier form of the Decalogue the keeping of the
Sabbath is prescribed, “that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may
rest as well as thou”; or, as expressed in another passage, “that thine
ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the
sojourner may be refreshed.”[798] From this commandment one might draw
the conclusion that in pre-Exilic times the Sabbath enjoyed a purely
humanitarian character as a season of repose for man and beast. The
omission of any similar statement in the later form of the Decalogue,
where the prohibition of Sabbath labour is based solely upon Jehovah’s
rest on the seventh day,[799] would then be explained as the outcome of
the priestly desire to exalt the Sabbath as a religious festival at the
expense of its more humane and social aspects. The further requirement
that even in the busiest seasons of the year no plea of necessity might
be accepted in mitigation of the strict rule of Sabbath observance—“in
ploughing time and in harvest thou shalt rest”[800]—also would be taken
as evidence of the growing rigour of ecclesiastical ordinances.
Properly considered, however, this priestly attitude toward the Sabbath
was not a radical departure but rather an intensification of the austere
significance attached from the earliest times to the new-moon and
full-moon days. The Pentateuchal codes contain, in fact, a number of
Sabbatarian regulations which are meaningless, except when elucidated
from the comparative standpoint as taboos. The rule requiring every one
to remain indoors on the Sabbath: “Abide ye every man in his place,
let no man go out of his place on the seventh day,”[801] is identical
with the numerous rules which impose seclusion on tabooed or unlucky
occasions, as a means of avoiding physical contact with supernatural and
invisible powers of evil.
The prohibition: “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations
upon the Sabbath Day,”[802] which in another passage[803] is amplified
into the rule requiring all cooking to be done on the preceding day, may
be first compared with the taboos observed by “the shepherd of great
peoples” in Babylonia. On four “evil days” he was not to eat roasted meat
or baked bread, and on the nineteenth day he might eat nothing which had
been touched by fire.[804] In a remarkable calendar of the unlucky days
observed by the Egyptians we find an extensive series of regulations
regarding the use of fire. On the fifth of the month of Athyr, fire
might not be looked at and, if it went out, it might not be rekindled.
On the eleventh of Tybi no one might approach a fire-place, for, said
the scribe, on that day the god Ra had once burst into flame to devour
his enemies, and the effects of his metamorphosis were felt on every
anniversary of the day. These taboos, which reach back into a remote
period of Egyptian history, are still found among the peasants of Thebes
and the Saîd, who, on certain days of the year, refuse to kindle a fire,
and on others avoid approaching the flame, even of a candle or a lamp,
and the most timid do not smoke.[805] In Hawaii, as we have seen, during
the four _tabu_ seasons in each lunar month, “every fire and light was
extinguished.” The same regulation is attached to periods of abstinence
elsewhere in the aboriginal world.[806]
Some of these taboos relating to fire may reflect primitive man’s fear
of a mysterious element which had not yet been completely tamed and
harnessed to human use; but the fact that among various peoples all
fires are put out after a death indicates a more probable origin of
the prohibition in the fear of attracting evil spirits or influences.
In Morocco, when a person has died in the morning, “no fire is made in
the whole village until he is buried, and in some parts of the country
the inmates of a house or tent where a death has occurred, abstain from
making fire for two or three days.”[807] Similar customs are found in
Polynesia, Borneo, the East Indies, Burma, and various parts of Africa;
they were practised by Persians and Greeks in antiquity; and they still
survive among the peasants of Calabria and the Scottish Highlanders.[808]
It is hardly possible to urge that the putting-out of fires on such
occasions is always a necessary result of the widespread custom of
fasting after a death and until the corpse is buried; as a matter of fact
we find that fires may be extinguished when there is no fasting, and also
that the fast is often restricted to the daytime, when evil spirits, and
in particular the ghost of the dead man, are presumed to be unable to see.
But, as Professor Westermarck has so ably shown, the widespread custom of
fasting is itself often to be explained as due to the desire to prevent
pollution.[809] Under certain circumstances to partake of food may
cause defilement; hence fasting is only one of the numerous precautions
necessary to avoid contamination. These ideas find expression in the
rules which, like those prescribing the cessation of labour after a
death, require mourners to abstain from eating food infected with
the death pollution. Fasting may also be enjoined on other critical
occasions, such as an eclipse of the sun or the moon, or during a
thunderstorm; and we have seen that it characterizes some of the tabooed
days previously considered.[810] Such well-established facts suggest
that in the earliest period fasting may have also marked the Hebrew
Sabbath.[811] This hypothesis seems first to have been advanced by the
“judicious” Hooker, who observes that “it may be a question, whether in
some sort they [the Jews] did not always fast on the Sabbath.”[812] He
instances a statement of Josephus that the sixth hour or noon was the
time when “our laws require us to go to dinner on Sabbath-days.”[813]
Various pagan writers also refer to the Sabbath as a day of fasting.[814]
Such a notion may have arisen from a misunderstanding of the Biblical
rule forbidding cooking on the Sabbath, or, perhaps, from a confusion
of this festival with the great fast on the Day of Atonement, which
was a _shabbāth shabbāthôn_, a “Sabbath of solemn rest.”[815] Yet it
seems difficult to understand the rule forbidding fasting at new moon
and on the seventh day,[816] except as a reference to a custom formerly
observed but in later times regarded as an illegitimate rite. Since the
Sabbath fell, originally, at the middle of the month, it may be that
the new-moon and full-moon days were once marked by both cessation of
labour and abstinence from food. The foregoing pages have supplied too
many instances of the transformation of fasts into feasts for such an
explanation to be dismissed as an idle conjecture.[817]
When the notion of a weekly Sabbath was extended, after the Captivity,
to the Sabbatical Year, the seventh year was to be a “Sabbath of solemn
rest” (_shabbāth shabbāthôn_) for the land, not because of the advantage
of allowing soil to lie fallow at regular intervals, but because the land
itself was consecrated as “a Sabbath unto Jehovah.”[818] The regulation
does not imply that, as a consequence of a fallow year, the land will
produce better harvests on the succeeding year. It is expressly said that
the year before the Sabbatical Year is the one to be conspicuous for its
fruitfulness: “Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth
year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.”[819] The rule
requiring that the produce of the soil should be devoted to the poor and
to the cattle[820] perhaps indicates a partial triumph of the utilitarian
spirit. During the Jubilee, at the end of seven times seven years, “Ye
shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor
gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines,”[821] a regulation which
can be explained only as the outcome of the sabbatarian observances
attached to the seventh day and the seventh year.
In the Hawaiian Islands and west Africa any one who broke a sabbatarian
taboo suffered death. Among the early Israelites the Sabbath-breaker
was threatened with a similar penalty: “Every one that profaneth it
shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that
soul shall be cut off from among his people.”[822] We are not informed
how frequently this stern ordinance was enforced; the case of the
wood-gatherer on the Sabbath, who, by direction of Moses, acting on a
direct revelation from Jehovah, was stoned to death outside the camp, is
the only instance of capital punishment for Sabbath desecration which has
found its way into the Scriptures as we now have them.[823] The instance
is an instructive one, as revealing the strong sense of group-welfare and
hatred of the non-conformist, characteristic of a religion which had not
yet outrun clan and tribal limitations.
The Old Testament affords evidence that the Hebrews kept the Sabbath
with varying degrees of rigour in different places and at different
times. Under the later prophets a movement appears to have begun toward
a stricter observance of the day, as is seen in the effort of Jeremiah
to prevent burden-bearing on the Sabbath, and in Ezekiel’s constant
insistence on the profanation of the Sabbath in his catalogue of the sins
of the Israelites.[824] But more than a century after these prophets,
in the age of Nehemiah, the people of Judea made wine and gathered the
harvest on the Sabbath. All manner of burdens were brought into Jerusalem
on that day, and the inhabitants bought and sold with the men of
Tyre.[825] These practices indicate that the Sabbath bade fair to become
a social institution, divorced from supernatural sanctions.
It is doubtless true that the Exile tended to augment the religious
importance of the Sabbath, since even in heathen lands it could be
observed by a people who now had neither state nor temple. In the Exilic
literature great significance is ascribed to the Sabbath,[826] and in
post-Exilic law it is regarded as a sign between Jehovah and the children
of Israel that Jehovah is their God. It is impossible, however, to follow
those critics who assume that the rigour of the sabbatarian observances
after the Exile forms an entirely new development, and that the priestly
Sabbath represents something very different from the Sabbath of the “Book
of the Covenant” or of _Deuteronomy_.[827] The increased significance
of the institution led naturally to a revival of the old taboos with
which the day had been always invested, taboos which otherwise might
have been expected to disappear with advancing culture and the decay of
supernaturalism. Closer contact with Assyria and Babylonia, from the
eighth to the sixth century B.C., also may have helped to revitalize
the older superstitions and to give to the Sabbath once more an austere
character.[828] The day, in fact, seems never wholly to have lost
all traces of its severe and sombre origin in a period of taboo; it
is significant in this connection that, while the Hebrews had their
favourable and unfavourable days, as the expression _yôm tôb_ (“good
day”) for holy days shows, the Sabbath is never so described.[829]
The later history of the Sabbath as a _tabu_ day culminates in the
exaggerations of pharisaic Judaism and the extraordinary micrology of
the rabbinical enactments.[830] The _Mishna_ enumerates no less than
thirty-nine principal classes of prohibited actions. Some of these
are regarded as belonging to as ancient a period as any of the taboos
found in the Old Testament; the majority, however, represent only an
elaboration of the scriptural precepts. Two entire works are devoted
to the provisions for Sabbath observance. The first treatise, called
_Shabbāth_, is chiefly remarkable as an illustration of the subtle
refinements and distinctions of which the rabbis were capable. Thus, the
prohibitions to tie or untie a knot being regarded as too general, it was
necessary to define the species of knot referred to. A camel-driver’s
knot and a boat-man’s knot rendered the man who tied or untied them a
Sabbath-breaker; but Rabbi Meir said, “A knot which a man can untie with
one hand only, he does not become guilty by untying.” Rabbi Jehudah,
still more liberal of mind, laid down the rule that any knot which was
not intended to be permanent might be lawfully tied. The second treatise,
_Ērūbim_, was intended to alleviate the extreme rigour of some of the
enactments in the former work. Thus, the limits of a “Sabbath Day’s
journey” having been fixed at two thousand cubits, the rabbis conceded
that one who before the Sabbath had deposited food for two meals at the
boundary thereby removed his habitation from the town and made that place
his new domicile. When the Sabbath came, he was at liberty to proceed
two thousand cubits beyond it, though he lost the right to walk the same
distance in the opposite direction. As is well known, literal obedience
of the Sabbath regulations was sometimes carried to such an extreme
as to prove a source of great hardship, danger, and even death to its
devotees.[831]
These legal fictions, these casuistical elaborations of the simple
ordinances of the Pentateuch concerning the Sabbath, may be paralleled
by the growth of pontifical regulations at Rome relating to what might
and what might not be done on public ferial days.[832] Like the Roman
_feriæ_, also, the Hebrew Sabbath affords an instance of what seems to
be a very general, perhaps universal, tendency of the human mind to
dwell with special emphasis on the festive aspects of a holy season, and
by some subtle alchemy of the spirit to convert what was once a day of
gloom and anxiety into a day of gladness and good cheer. The post-Exilic
prophet, the so-called second Isaiah, when he urges his people to “call
the Sabbath a delight”[833] presents it, indeed, as a festival “holy to
Jehovah,” but capable, nevertheless, of contributing to man’s physical
and mental refreshment. And in later Judaism the strict observance of
the Sabbath rest did not by any means preclude abstinence from bodily
pleasures. Fasting, as we have seen, was forbidden on that day; three
substantial meals were to be “enjoyed,” so Jewish theologians declared;
and the New Testament itself contains evidence that Pharisees of the
strictest type gave sumptuous entertainments on the Sabbath.[834] In
fact, various Christian Fathers were persuaded that the Jews observed the
Sabbath as a day of violent excess, and converts to Christianity were
cautioned against applying to the Lord’s Day the _luxus sabbatarius_.
“The Jews in our time,” says St. Augustine, “observe their Sabbath by a
kind of bodily rest, languid and luxurious. They abstain from labour and
give themselves up to trifles, and, though God ordained the Sabbath, they
spend it in actions which God forbids. Our rest is from evil works, their
rest is from good works; for it is better to plough than to dance.”[835]
We may believe that such criticisms had slight justification in the real
nature of the Jewish observance, little more, perhaps, than Plutarch’s
quaint notion that the Sabbath must bear some relation to Dionysus, for,
said Plutarch, when the Jews keep the Sabbath, they invite one another
to potations till all are drunk.[836] It is more satisfying to turn
to hundreds of Jewish hymns where the Sabbath is hailed “as a day of
rest and joy, of pleasure and delight, a day in which man enjoys some
presentiment of the pure bliss and happiness which are stored up for
the righteous in the world to come, and to which such tender names were
applied as the ‘Queen Sabbath,’ the ‘Bride Sabbath,’ and the ‘Holy, dear,
beloved Sabbath.’”[837]
The Jewish Sabbath appears to have been first brought to the attention
of the Romans as early as the last century of the republic, when
Pompey’s sweeping campaigns in the East led to the establishment of
Roman dominion over Syria and Judea. References to the institution in
Tibullus, Horace, and Ovid indicate that its peculiar character as a day
of rest was then generally understood.[838] Their contemporary, Philo,
the Hellenistic Jew of Alexandria, declared that the seventh day was the
festival, not of one city or one country, but of all the earth, “the
birthday of the world,”[839] and Josephus could write that there was
no city among the Greeks or the barbarians where the festival of the
Sabbath was not celebrated.[840] These statements, though exaggerated,
bear witness to the success of that Jewish propaganda which, at the
very time when the preaching of Christianity began, carried this other
Oriental faith throughout the ancient world. The great commercial cities
of the Mediterranean became seats of thriving Jewish communities where
pagan proselytes adopted Jewish customs, including the observance of the
Sabbath.[841]
The Jewish seven-day week with its numerical indications of the days was
adopted by the early Christians, to whom the planetary week, bearing the
names of pagan deities, could scarcely prove attractive.[842] Friday
and Saturday continued to have the designations παρασκευή and σάββατον,
respectively, but Sunday, which by Jewish custom was called “the first
day” after the Sabbath, eventually received the designation ἡ κυριακὴ
ἡμέρα (_dies dominica_), the Lord’s Day.[843] The New Testament contains
unambiguous evidence that from a very early period “the first day of the
week” was observed by Christians as a day of assembly for the “breaking
of bread” and perhaps for the collection of free-will offerings.[844]
The author of the _Epistle of Barnabas_, toward the end of the first
century, speaks of keeping the “eighth day” for rejoicing, and justifies
its observance as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ.[845] The
_Didache_, or _Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_, a work which belongs to
the early part of the second century, enjoins meetings “on the Lord’s own
day” (κατὰ κυριακὴν δὲ Κυρίου), for the breaking of bread and giving
thanks.[846] Eusebius of Cæsarea, in his _Ecclesiastical History_,
preserves a fragment of a letter of Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth (175
A.D.), to Soter, Bishop of Rome, in which the former says, “To-day we
passed the Lord’s holy day, when we read your epistle”; and the same
historian also mentions the fact that Melito, Bishop of Sardis (170
A.D.), had written among other works a treatise on the Lord’s Day.[847]
Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the second century, describes
how, “on the day called Sunday” (τῇ τοῦ Ἡλίου λεγομένη ἡμέρα), all
town and country Christians were wont to assemble for instruction in
the holy writings, and for prayer, the distribution of bread and wine,
and the collection of alms. The name Sunday commemorates, according to
Justin, the first day of creation and the resurrection of Christ from
the darkness of the grave.[848] Justin’s use of this nomenclature, in a
work addressed to the pagans, witnesses to the spread of Oriental solar
worship throughout the Roman Empire, leading to the substitution of the
day of Sun for Saturn’s Day, as the beginning of the planetary week. As
we have learned, the Christians themselves adopted eventually the pagan
designation of the first day of the week.[849]
Though Jesus regarded the Sabbath as still binding on his followers,
his teaching that it was a social institution designed for practical
benefit to mankind, and not as a fetish, brought him repeatedly into
conflict with the Pharisees, and called forth those utterances which
have been so strangely neglected by sabbatarians in after ages: “For the
Son of man is lord of the Sabbath”; “The Sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the Sabbath”; “My Father worketh [on it] even until now,
and I work.”[850] Jewish Christians appear at first to have continued
the observance of the Sabbath, but this practice met the unqualified
condemnation of St. Paul;[851] and one of the _Epistles_ of St. Ignatius,
who suffered martyrdom about 107 A.D., refers to Christians as “no longer
observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day
(μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες, ἀλλὰ κατὰ κυριακὴν ζῶντες), on which also our life
has sprung up again by Him and by His death.”[852] However, the Jewish
element in the churches of the East was strong enough to secure the
ecclesiastical recognition of Saturday as a holy day. It long continued
to be observed like Sunday, by religious assemblies and feasting, though
not by any compulsory cessation of the ordinary occupations.[853]
Tertullian was the first Church Father to declare that Christians
ought to abstain on Sunday from secular duties and occupations, lest
they should “give place to the Devil.”[854] Tertullian’s statement has
sometimes been understood to indicate a Sabbatarian spirit on the part of
its author; properly considered, however, it means only that Christians
should so carefully observe the duties peculiar to the Lord’s Day as to
neglect, if necessary, their worldly business on that day. Other Church
Fathers of the third century, including Origen and Cyprian, made no
reference to Sunday as a day of abstinence from labour. The earliest
Sunday law, the edict issued by Constantine in 321 A.D., bore no relation
to Christianity.[855] What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as
a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the
fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency
abstinence from labour on Sunday. The view that the Christian Lord’s Day
is but the Jewish Sabbath transferred from the seventh to the first day
of the week found occasional expression in both the law and the theology
of the Middle Ages, and culminated in the sabbatarian excesses of
English and Scottish Puritanism.[856]
CHAPTER IX
UNLUCKY DAYS
The observance of lucky and unlucky days is a familiar phenomenon in
primitive society and among peoples of archaic civilization. Under
the attenuated form of a survival, the superstition still lingers in
civilized and Christian lands. The reasons for the assignment of a good
or an evil character to certain days are usually quite obscure; and even
where explanations are provided, these are, as a rule, explanations
after the event. The attempt to provide a satisfactory origin for them
insensibly widens out into an effort to account for the genesis of the
great body of popular and anonymous superstitions.
Probably the commonest source of the belief in unlucky days is to be
sought in that erroneous association of ideas which underlies so much of
savage magic and savage religion. If an event, fortunate or unfortunate,
has taken place on a certain day, the notion easily arises that all
actions performed on the recurrence of the day will have a similarly
favourable or unfavourable issue. Among the Tshi of west Africa, the
most unlucky day is the anniversary of the Saturday on which Osai Tutu
was slain in an ambush near Acromanti in 1731.[857] In modern Macedonia
the superlative ill-luck attending Tuesday is explained by some as due
to the fact—historically true—that Constantinople was taken by the
Turks on this day of the week.[858] The _dies religiosi_, or unlucky
days, of the Roman calendar included the anniversary of the battle of
the Allia, _dies Alliensis_ (July 18), when the republic had suffered
grave misfortune. The same date was also observed as the anniversary of
the destruction of the Fabii at the Cremera, 477 B.C.[859] After the
assassination of Julius Cæsar a decree was made that the Ides of March
(March 15) should be called _parricidium_, and henceforth should be
observed as an unlucky day.[860] The superstitions which in Christian
times have gathered about Friday—at once a holy and an unlucky day—are
connected with it as the anniversary of Christ’s Passion. In the Middle
Ages people were accustomed to date on Friday all the unfortunate events
of religious tradition and history. On that day Adam sinned and was
driven from Paradise, Cain killed his brother Abel, John the Baptist was
beheaded, and Herod slew the Holy Innocents. It was also the day of the
Deluge, the Confusion of Tongues, and the infliction of the Plagues upon
Egypt. Synchronisms of this sort had a great attraction to the mediæval
mind, and numerous lists of them are preserved in old manuscripts.[861]
There is a Jewish superstition, reaching back to the Talmud, that it
is lucky to begin an undertaking on Tuesday, because, in describing
the third day of creation, it is said, “God saw that it was good.”
Contrariwise, it is unlucky to commence anything of importance on Monday,
as to which day nothing at all is said.[862] Where such conceptions are
rife, they readily lend themselves to divination and astrology, and under
the fostering care of practitioners of magical arts may develop into
elaborate augural codes.
The observation of natural phenomena sometimes accounts for the unlucky
character ascribed to particular occasions. We have already noted many
superstitious observances connected with the phases of the moon, her
monthly disappearance from the heavens, and her occasional eclipse
by the earth. A further illustration of the same subject is found in
the astrological doctrine of the moon stations. The old Babylonian
astronomers, one of whose duties it was to make very careful observations
of the moon, noticed that at each lunation she appears to pass by the
same star-groups. It was natural, therefore, to associate the moon with
the conspicuous stars and constellations in the vicinity of the moon’s
path. The names which they received were in time extended to the lunar
days themselves; and this apparent connection between the two became
the principal basis of astrological forecasts for each day of the
sidereal month.[863] The fact is well known that Babylonian astrology
and astronomy—for the two were scarcely distinguishable in the earlier
period—exerted great influence on the neighbouring peoples of Asia; and
hence it has been generally assumed that the lunar mansions, reckoned
at twenty-seven or twenty-eight in number, which we find among the
Hindus and Chinese, and the augural calendars connected therewith, were
derived ultimately from Babylonia.[864] In modern India the _nakshatra_,
as they are called, “are consulted at births, marriages, and on all
occasions of family rejoicing, distress, or calamity. No one undertakes
a journey or any important matter except on days which the aspect of
the _nakshatra_ renders lucky and auspicious.”[865] Among the Persians
and Arabs the lunar stations have long been employed for astrological
purposes.[866] The Arabs carried them to Madagascar, where they gave
rise to an elaborate distinction of days lucky and unlucky. Some days
were considered absolutely bad; others were absolutely good; others were
indifferent. Again, some days were not regarded as good in general,
though still good enough for special purposes; one being excellent for
a house-warming, another for marking out the ground for a new town, and
still another was lucky to be born on, but bad for business. Some days
had a special peculiarity of their own, for instance, children born on a
certain day usually became dumb. The character of a day, according to the
Malagasy astrologers, depended, in short, on what one of the twenty-eight
lunar stations it represented.[867]
The conception of unluckiness may be deduced _a priori_ from the
assumed critical nature of certain periods, such as epagomenal months
and days. The thirteenth month, which many peoples employing lunar
calculations find it necessary to intercalate at more or less regular
intervals, is sometimes regarded as unlucky.[868] Again, the eleven
or twelve days by which the solar year exceeds the lunar year assumed
among various Indo-European peoples a portentous and often unfavourable
significance.[869] The celebration of the Twelve Nights, in the sense
of the Twelve Nights and Days, as a festival before or after the winter
solstice, has been assigned to the Aryans of the Vedic age in India on
the strength of certain passages in the _Rig-Veda_, where the three
Ribhus, generally regarded as the personified seasonal deities who
divided up the year, are described as sleeping during these days “in
the house of the sun.”[870] The prophetic character of the Twelve Days
appears to be indicated by their characterization in various Brahmanical
writings as an “image of the coming year.”[871] Some eminent scholars
have thought that the Twelve Days represent an ancient method of
adjusting the lunar year to the solar year, as practised by the early
Aryans before the custom arose of inserting a thirteenth month, to which
reference is also made in the _Rig-Veda_.[872] This opinion, though not
free from difficulties, is strongly supported by numerous parallels to
the Indian evidence found in European folklore of the Twelve Days.[873]
Throughout Europe from east to west the Twelve Days, usually reckoned
from Christmas to Epiphany, are prolific in popular superstitions and
customs. At this time the souls of the dead, sometimes under animal
form, return to the earth and revisit the living; witches and demons
swarm in the mischief-laden air; werewolves roam about, and the Wild
Huntsman rides in the heavens. Most of the ceremonies performed during
the Twelve Days have a distinctly pagan cast, such as the constant fire
on the domestic hearth, the village bonfires, and the lighted candles;
while others, such as the sprinkling of the houses with holy water and
the marking of the cross on the doors, have only a thin veneer of
Christianity. To a certain extent the Twelve Days thus form the modern
European representative of those seasons devoted to the expulsion of
ghosts and evil spirits which are observed by peoples of the lower
culture.[874] A further resemblance exists in the distinctly unlucky
character often assigned to the Twelve Days. In Macedonia no marriages
are solemnized during their continuance.[875] In various parts of Germany
they are kept as rest days, when the most important household occupations
and even those on the farm are omitted. The housewife must not spin,
weave lace, or engage in her usual tasks of washing and baking; and the
farmer must not thresh grain. Certain foods, especially peas and other
legumes, are carefully avoided; and no meat is eaten. It is not wise to
lend anything out of the house or to remove refuse and sweepings. One
ought not to be short of anything at this time, else one will be short
of everything during the ensuing year. Certain animals, particularly
associated with witches, should not be called by their right names;
hence, you must refer to the fox as “Mr. Long-tail,” and to the mouse as
“Floor-runner.” During these fateful days perfect quiet is essential:
no table must be pushed about and no doors slammed, otherwise the house
will be struck by lightning. In this period dreams and other prognostics
are most to be relied on and are most carefully investigated. Everywhere
in Germany it is believed that the weather of the Twelve Days determines
what will be experienced during the following twelve months, so that they
form, in effect, a meteorological calendar for the new year.[876] This
last superstition, however, is not confined to Germany, being met, for
instance, in modern Brittany. In most parts of that country the Twelve
Days, here reckoned from the first of January, are popularly termed
_gour-deziou_, “male days,” an expression which must be understood as
meaning supplementary or additional days.[877] A superstitious avoidance
of certain kinds of work during the Twelve Days may still be found in
remote districts of the British Isles. In Shropshire horses are not set
to the plough at this time and no spinning is done.[878] In Aberdeenshire
people believe that all work ought, if possible, to be finished before
Christmas Day. Between this time and New Year’s Eve no bread is baked and
no clothes are washed, and the spinning-wheel must be carried from one
side of the house to the other.[879] The Twelve Days over and above the
year were called in Wales “days of days” (_dyddian dyddon_). “They are
free days, and let any one come from any place he may, he will be free,
and exposed to no weapon or stroke, since there can be no court and law
of country on those days.”[880]
The solar year, superseding the lunar year of three hundred and
fifty-four days, seems to have been generally assumed in the first
instance at the round number of three hundred and sixty days, the earth’s
periodical course around the sun being taken as a multiple of the moon’s
course around the earth. In ancient Mexico, where a solar calendar came
into use, the three hundred and sixty days were divided into eighteen
periods, each of twenty days. As their total did not round out the solar
year it became necessary to add five days at the end of the year; and
these possessed an unfavourable character. They were called _nemontemi_,
“the superfluous, supplementary days,” with the secondary significance
of “the useless days,” as being consecrated to no deity and employed
for no civic business. That they were considered sinister and unlucky
is evident from the abstinence that characterized them. Nothing of any
importance was done on the _nemontemi_. The house was not swept, no legal
case was tried, and any person so unfortunate as to be born on one of
these days was destined to a poor and miserable life. At the same time,
the _nemontemi_ possessed a prophetic power for the whole year. “They
were careful,” says Father Sahagun, “during these fatal days not to
fall asleep during the day, not to quarrel together, not to trip or to
fall, because they said that if any of these things befell them, they
would continue to befall them thence forevermore.”[881] Among the Mayas
of Yucatan the same abstinence prevailed on the five _xma kaba kin_,
the “days without names.” On these days “men left the house as seldom
as possible, did not wash or comb themselves, and took special care
not to undertake any menial or difficult task, doubtless because they
lived in the conviction that they would be forced to keep on doing it
through the whole ensuing year. The Mexicans were more passive in regard
to these days, inasmuch as they merely took care to avoid conjuring up
mischief for the coming year, while the Mayas did things more thoroughly.
During these days, so portentous for the entire year, they banished
the evil which might threaten them. They prepared a clay image of the
demon of evil, Uuayayab, that is, _u-uayab-haab_ (‘by whom the year is
poisoned’), confronted it with the deity who had supreme power during the
year in question, and then carried it out of the village in the direction
of that cardinal point to which the new year belonged.”[882]
It is an impressive testimony to the essential unity of primitive
culture that in a far distant quarter of the globe an almost identical
superstition existed. The Egyptian solar calendar, like the Mexican,
was based on a year of three hundred and sixty days, but in Egypt these
were grouped into twelve equal months of thirty days each, leaving five
supplementary days to be added at the end of the twelfth month—“the five
days over and above the year” (_haru duaït hiru ronpit_), as they were
styled.[883] Their great antiquity is indicated by another designation,
“little month,” applied to them; and, in fact, a notice of the epagomenal
days occurs in the _Pyramid Texts_ belonging to the Sixth Dynasty, where
they are referred to as the “five additional days” on which the gods were
born.[884] Later monumental records show that the deities associated
respectively with these days were the five members of the Osirian
cycle, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.[885] The evidence of the
_Leiden Papyrus_, setting forth the ceremonies requisite for epagomenal
days, indicates that they enjoyed exceptional importance because of
their position at the end of the year. As religious festivals they were
consecrated to the dead. Furthermore, they bore a distinctly ominous or
unlucky character, and many were the prayers and magical formulas to be
recited by the pious worshipper in order to secure divine protection
against the malefic influences supposed to characterize them. To
positive rites of prayer and sacrifice the worshipper must add cessation
of all activity: “during the five days at the end of the year do no
work; abstain from everything”—so runs the priestly text.[886] These
precautions taken, he might look forward to a happy New Year.
The conquest of Egypt in the sixth century B.C. by the Achæmenian
kings seems to have introduced a knowledge of the excellencies of the
Egyptian solar reckoning to the Persians. Their five epagomenal days
were called the Gāthā-days, each being sacred to one of the five great
divisions of the _Gāthās_, or Zoroastrian hymns. A Persian calendar of
late date (1687 A.D.) gives the first day as lucky, and the third as
unlucky.[887] It is significant that among the Persians, as in ancient
Egypt, the epagomenal days particularly belonged to the dead, to whom
sacrifices were regularly offered at this time, as well as during the
first five days of the new year.[888] The Armenians also had their five
supplementary days—_aweleach_—intercalated after the twelfth month, an
arrangement doubtless borrowed from the Persians, but these days do not
appear to have been marked by any special observances.[889] The latest
attempt to introduce the use of epagomenal days dates from the time of
the French Revolution. In their desire to abolish a chronological system
bound up with the Christian religion the bold innovators of the National
Convention set aside in 1793 the Gregorian calendar, establishing a
Republican calendar in which the seven-day week was replaced by the
decade and the year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each,
according to the old Egyptian arrangement. Five intercalary days,
popularly called _sansculottides_, came at the end of the year (six
days at the end of every fourth year); they were dedicated to Virtue,
Genius, Labour, Opinion, and Reward; and were observed as holidays. But
this calendar, which John Quincy Adams described as an “incongruous
composition of profound learning and superficial frivolity, of irreligion
and morality, of delicate imagination and coarse vulgarity,” had a short
life. In 1802 the week of seven days returned into general use, and three
years later an edict of Napoleon ordered the restoration of the Gregorian
calendar.[890] In our own time, however, serious proposals have been
made looking toward the reformation of the present awkward calendar, and
among them is the suggestion that we adopt the ancient Egyptian system of
months and epagomenal days.
It has been repeatedly noticed in the preceding pages that oftentimes
no clear line of demarcation can be drawn between days _tabu_ and days
considered “unlucky.” Both may involve ideas of contagion, the sanctity
or pollution attaching to the one being conceived as scarcely less
transmissible than the vaguer “unluckiness” which belongs to certain
periods and affects everything done during their continuance. How
some of the so-called unlucky days, still lingering in contemporary
civilization, have descended from the holy days of antiquity is aptly
illustrated by the superstitions relating to the certain days of March
and of August, as observed at the present time in southeastern Europe.
In Macedonia the peasants during the first three days and the last
three days of these two months do not plant; they cut no tree or vine,
for fear lest it should wither; they do not bathe in the sea, or their
bodies would swell; and they even refrain from washing clothes.[891]
In various parts of Greece and the Ægean it is considered necessary to
abstain from particular kinds of work on certain days of August, and
occasionally of March. During the first five days of August the people
of Epirus do not wash clothes or go into the fields to work. In Crete
the period is longer, for here on the first six and last six days of
August clothes are not washed and grapes are not gathered.[892] In Cos
on the first three days of August the women do no work (for it would
not prosper) and wash no clothes (for these would soon wear out). The
eleven days which follow are supposed to foreshadow the weather during
the succeeding eleven months: as the fourth day is, so will September
be; the fifth day prognosticates the weather for October, and so on.
The fifteenth of August is celebrated as the Feast of the Assumption,
closing a fortnight’s strict fast.[893] The Cypriotes observe the
first three or six days of August as times when no trees are cut or
peeled to obtain resin, when the use of water for washing clothes or
the body is forbidden, and when no one travels by water. The severity
of the regulations has led to the days being called the “evil days of
August.”[894] All these taboos thus show much similarity, relating in
particular to abstention from work which has to do with water or with
vines and trees. From this fact it becomes a plausible inference that the
unlucky days were originally sacred to the tree-nymphs and water-nymphs,
whose festivals were celebrated in pagan antiquity. At the present time
the days are associated with the _drymais_, mysterious spirits supposed
to be abroad on them, and probably to be identified with the dryads
(δρύαδες) of classic mythology.
The likeness between tabooed days as periods of abstinence and some
unlucky days may be further illustrated by much ethnographic evidence
drawn from different cultural areas. The Maori, we are told, endeavour to
determine by divination whether the day set for a journey is favourable
or unfavourable. The fisherman is hopeless of making a catch on an
unfavourable day. At such a time “no dress will be commenced, no seine
cast, no fish-hook baited, no ground turned up, seed sown, distant
visit made, flax cut or dressed, timber cut, canoe formed, or even food
partaken of.”[895] The Batta of Sumatra possess elaborate calendars of
days favourable, unfavourable, and of a doubtful character; and these
are regularly consulted by the Batta magician in order that his clients
may know when to commence any important undertaking, such as sowing
and harvesting, house-building, erection of a new village, removal
to another village, preparation of sacrifices at birth, name-giving,
burial, betrothal, and marriage, and all other great occasions. A day
may be wholly unlucky for one thing, but not for another; for instance,
a day which could not safely be used for the celebration of a sacrifice
might still be used for the inauguration of agricultural labour. On the
other hand, there are certain days, indicated in the calendars, when all
activity ceases, except the entertainment of relatives and indispensable
harvest work. If a man should meet with misfortune on one of these fatal
days, a sacrifice must be offered to the supernatural power supposed to
be responsible for the visitation. The Batta calendar in its existing
form is derived from India, but the people seem formerly to have
possessed their own rude calendar, which was used to determine the lucky
and unlucky days in a lunar month. Even at the present time the calendar
is not employed for the fixation of dates in the European sense, but only
in the service of popular superstition.[896]
The Mohammedan Malays of the Malay Peninsula possess a number of
divinatory calendars, one specifying seven unlucky days in every month, a
second, twelve other most inauspicious days in every year, while a third
gives all the days of the year classified under the heads lucky, somewhat
unlucky, most unlucky, and neutral.[897] Chinese popular calendars set
forth a similar classification of the days of the month as very lucky,
neither lucky nor unlucky, unlucky, and very unlucky.[898] Furthermore,
the first, fifth, and ninth months are considered unfavourable by the
Chinese, who will not marry or change houses during these months.[899]
In Korea the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth days of each month
are called “broken days.” At such times the people avoid any new
undertakings.[900] The old Japanese are said to have held five yearly
festivals or holidays, “purposely laid on those days, which, by reason
of their imparity, are judged to be the most unfortunate.” These were
New Year’s Day, the third day of the third month, the fifth of the fifth
month, the seventh of the seventh month, and the ninth of the ninth
month.[901] In modern Japan the cheap popular calendars, circulating
among the lower classes, contain indications for every day of a cycle of
six days. Of these, the first is described as good during the forenoon
for urgent business, such as lawsuits and petitions, but not good after
midday. The second is good in the forenoon and in the evening, but not
in the afternoon. The first half of the third day is bad, and no urgent
business should be undertaken at such a time; the afternoon, however, is
lucky. Nothing done on the fourth day will prosper. The fifth day is very
lucky for anything, especially removals or journeys. With the exception
of the noon-tide hour the whole of the sixth day is unlucky. This cycle
used in divination flourishes side by side with the week of seven
days.[902]
The Tibetans are great astrologers. In every monastery there is at
least one divining lama whose business it is to determine propitious
and unpropitious times. Calendars exist for all the days of the month,
some being described as “good,” others as “middling,” others as “bad,”
while one is referred to as “not very good,” and still another as “the
worst.” Among the causes of the luck or unluck attaching to certain days
the Tibetans are inclined to lay stress on the periodical migrations of
the spirits inhabiting the regions above the earth. It seems that the
two kinds of spirits, good and evil, shift their abodes, to some extent
every day and also contemporaneously with the phases of the moon, the
commencement of a new season, and so on. Their migrations are performed
with unequal velocity; hence, the combination of spirits varies for every
day. If the good spirits are more numerous than the evil spirits on a
particular day, the time will be favourable for any undertaking; and
_vice versa_. This belief, we are told, offers a wide field of intrigue
to the lamas, who alone are able to decide what have been the actual
movements of the spirits.[903]
The Toda, who dwell in permanent villages on the plateaus of the Nilgiri
Hills in southeastern India, have a remarkable system of rest days
deserving to be described at some length. The social organization of
this interesting people consists of two endogamous divisions, called
Teivaliol and Tartharol. Each of these primary sections is composed of
intermarrying clans, and each clan possesses a group of villages in
common. At the present time Toda interests, both economic and religious,
centre about their buffaloes. The daily life of the Toda men is largely
devoted to the care of these animals and to labour in the dairies. The
buffalo is a sacred animal; the dairy itself is almost a temple; and the
dairyman is only one remove from a priest. Toda religious rites seem
to be, in fact, little more than the arrangements which a pastoral and
communistic people have made for the provision and care of an article
of food. According to Dr. Rivers, whose careful studies are a model
of anthropological investigation, nearly every Toda ceremony has its
appointed day or days. The choice of these “is often dependent on another
Toda institution, the sacred day, either of the village or of the dairy.
Every clan has certain days of the week on which people are restricted
from following many of their ordinary occupations, although they are
not the occasions of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the
_madnol_, or village day, and the _palinol_, or dairy day.”[904]
Each Toda village has its _madnol_, but, in general, where there are
several villages of the same clan, the _madnol_ is the same for the whole
clan. There are at least eight prohibitions characterizing the observance
of this sacred day. Feasts may not be given at such a time, funeral
ceremonies may not be performed, people may not bathe or cut their
nails, and men may not shave. Clothes are not to be washed, the house
is not to be cleansed, and, though the ordinary meals may be prepared,
rice and milk must not be cooked together. Other regulations forbid the
dairyman to leave the village, the buffaloes to be taken from one place
to another, or the people to migrate from one village to another.[905]
Though not all work is prohibited, the regulations are extensive enough
to affect most of the customary occupations. Among the Teivaliol, one of
the two endogamous divisions of the Toda people, the _madnol_ is the only
sacred day of the week. With the other division, called Tartharol, there
is also a dairy day, or _palinol_, the regulations for which have much
the same character as for the _madnol_.
Toda ingenuity has devised recognized methods of evading the rules for
the holy days, and so of avoiding the inconvenience which might otherwise
be entailed on the people. The rule that nothing may be taken from the
village on the _madnol_ would prevent any purchases from outsiders being
made on the holy day, since money would have to pass out of the village
in payment. The Toda avoid this awkward consequence by the simple device
of taking money beyond the village limits on the day before the _madnol_
and burying it in some spot where it can be found when wanted. The rule
forbidding Toda women to leave the village on the _madnol_ is evaded
in a curious fashion. A woman will depart from the settlement before
daybreak, will remain outside till the sun is up, and will then return
to her home, for breakfast and the performance of any necessary work.
During this time she is regarded as ceremonially absent from the village,
hence her actual departure later in the day for another village is not
considered to be a desecration of the _madnol_. With these possibilities
of evasion open to the pious Toda, it follows that the regulations are
seldom broken, in the letter if not in the spirit. When a breach of
them does occur, the culprit may be obliged to perform a propitiatory
sacrifice similar to that which follows the commission of various
other ceremonial sins. “It seemed quite clear, however, that this only
happened if some misfortune should befall the offender, his family, or
his buffaloes. It would seem that a man might habitually and notoriously
desecrate the _madnol_, but no steps would be taken by himself or the
community so long as things went well with the man. If he should become
ill or if his buffaloes should suffer in any way, he would consult the
diviners and they would then certainly find that his misfortunes were due
to his infringement of the laws connected with the sacred days.”[906]
There is much variety in the days observed as the _madnol_ or the
_palinol_ of the different villages and clans. The most frequent days
appear to be Wednesday and Friday, which are sacred in six clans. Sunday
is sacred in five clans, Monday and Tuesday in three, Thursday in two. In
no clan does Saturday appear to be kept as a holy day.[907]
The origin of these sacred days among the Toda is very obscure. Dr.
Rivers first suggests the possibility of the institution of _madnol_ and
_palinol_ having grown out of the belief in unlucky days. The code of
rules prescribing what might and what might not be done would then be
only an elaboration of the common superstition which restricts activity
at such unlucky periods. But there are several difficulties in the way of
this view. It is extremely doubtful whether the Toda has any such belief
in days lucky and unlucky,[908] and if he has, the idea is probably a
recent importation from the Hindus, among whom the superstition is very
prevalent. Again, the distinction between _madnol_ and _palinol_ is one
which cannot be satisfactorily explained by such a hypothesis. Finally,
the different clans of the Toda have different sacred days, whereas
one would expect lucky and unlucky days to be the same for the entire
community. This seems especially reasonable when it is considered that
the sacred days, by restricting intercourse between the different clans,
produce much inconvenience, which, of course, is increased by the fact
that the different clans have different _madnol_. Whatever be the origin
of these Toda rules, there is, writes Dr. Rivers, “little doubt that when
at the present time a given act is done or not done on a given day, the
action is not based on a belief in lucky or unlucky days, but, as nearly
always among the Toda, on custom prescribing that the act shall or shall
not be done on that day.”[909]
The question may be raised whether the resemblance of the Toda _madnol_
to the Hebrew Sabbath is not accounted for by supposing the former
institution to have been founded on ideas borrowed from Christians or
Jews. If this has been the case, it is certain that the borrowing took
place very long ago. In studying the origin and history of the Toda we
have no record that reaches back more than three centuries. From various
close resemblances between the Toda customs and those of the people of
Malabar, Dr. Rivers thinks it probable that the Toda at one time lived in
Malabar, migrating thence to the Nilgiri Hills. Both Christians and Jews
were well established in Malabar more than a thousand years ago. If the
Toda left Malabar before these settlements of foreigners were made, then
Jewish or Christian influences can be excluded; if the migration took
place subsequently, then they may have contributed to the development of
the Toda institution.[910]
In spite of these considerations, Dr. Rivers is inclined to consider the
Toda _madnol_ as substantially a native institution, which may help to
explain the origin of the Hebrew Sabbath. “In a busier community than
that of the Toda, the existence of different _madnol_ for different
clans of the community would soon become a serious obstacle to carrying
on the business of life, and such a community would probably agree that
all clans should have the same holy day. At present the _madnol_ is
undoubtedly more sacred than the other sacred days, and if the latter
were then to be neglected, we should have a community in which various
activities were prohibited on one day of the week, and the institution so
arising would differ very little from the Hebrew Sabbath. It is possible
that the Toda show in an early stage the institution of a Sabbath in
which the whole community has not yet settled on a single and joint holy
day.”[911] The fact that the Toda employ the seven-day week, which must
be entirely a borrowed institution with them, suggests, however, that
the prohibitions attaching to certain days of that week were ultimately
derived from foreign sources.[912]
Another curious instance of communal rest days is found among the Siah
Posh Kafirs, a primitive Aryan people dwelling in the northeastern part
of Afghanistan, between Chitral and the Hindu-Kush. They seem formerly
to have occupied a more extended area about the headwaters of the Indus.
The conversion of the surrounding tribes, first to Buddhism and later to
Mohammedanism, has further served to isolate them. With the Afghans on
the west their enmity is deadly and unceasing, but their relations with
their eastern neighbours admit of friendly intercourse. It is on this
side, therefore, that we must look for the introduction into Kafiristan
of Indian cultural elements, among which is the seven-day week.[913]
On certain weekdays the Siah Posh Kafirs rest from work. Young and old
gather in large buildings erected in the centre of the villages and here
they dance all night, to the music of flutes and trumpets, and sing songs
in honour of the gods.[914] According to a later and fuller account, the
Kafir rest days are called _agar_; in some districts they occur every
Thursday, in other districts, every Saturday, but only during the months
from April to September, when field work is in progress. The _agar_
appear to be rigorously observed by the male inhabitants of a village,
but the women, who stop their field-work on these days, do not scruple
to engage in other coolie labour during their continuance. “I failed,”
writes our authority, “to discover anything concerning the origin of
these _agar_. Their observance may have become a national custom, the
origin of which is as difficult to determine as the Sabbaths of other
ancient peoples. As the Kám people were averse to starting on a journey
on the _agar_ days, and as all the women left their field-work altogether
on those occasions, it is possible that the _agar_ was originally
considered an unlucky day.”[915]
Perhaps no people have subjected themselves to more irksome restrictions
on unlucky days than the natives of Madagascar. In this island systems of
taboo are widespread and elaborate, even at the present time. The term
_fady_ (or _tabu_), used for all objects and persons tabooed, is likewise
applied by the Malagasy to unfavourable days and months, the quality
of such periods as dangerous or unlucky being considered transmissible
to beings and actions.[916] By the Hova, a people of remote, perhaps
prehistoric, Malay origin, now occupying the central tableland of
Madagascar, only twelve days in the month were regarded as lucky. The
first days of some months possessed a most disastrous character, and
children born on them were usually put to death. The same cruel practice
was found among other tribes, such as the Bara and Tanala, leading, in
the latter case, to the destruction of at least one-fourth of all the
infants born.[917] The Tanala consider one of the months, called _faosa_,
extremely unlucky. “No one works in that month, no one changes his place
of abode or goes about. If any one happens to be in the fields when the
month comes in, there he remains.”[918] The Sihanaka keep Tuesday as an
unlucky day on which no work is allowed in the fields. Each Sihanaka
family, in addition, inherits a special unlucky day in each week, when it
is not permissible to go outside the house.[919] The Sakalava likewise
abstain from all business and remain strictly in seclusion on their
unlucky days, which belong both to families and to individuals.[920]
Among the Betsimisaraka each person has his unlucky day when he does not
work; in fact, he can do nothing at this time except eat, drink, sleep,
and dress his hair. Since the introduction of Christianity the day kept
in this strict fashion is Sunday.[921]
These accounts of lucky and unlucky days observed by half-civilized
peoples at the present time throw light on the references to the same
superstition found in the records of archaic civilizations. For Egypt
we have the evidence of several ancient calendars preserved in papyrus
manuscripts. The first of these dates from the Twelfth Dynasty (about
2000 B.C.) and includes all the days of the month, eighteen being defined
as “good,” nine as “bad,” and three (the sixteenth, twenty-second, and
twenty-third), as “half-good” and “half-bad.” The primitive character
of this calendar is indicated by the fact that the same prognostics are
attached to the same days of the month throughout the year. The second
calendar, dating from about 1000 B.C., is more complicated, since the
prognostics of the several days are unlike in the different months, while
each day is itself divided into three parts, lucky, unlucky, and neutral.
Neither calendar contains mention of the five epagomenal days.[922]
The third and best-known of these Egyptian calendars is the _Papyrus
Sallier IV_, which in its present form belongs to about 1200 B.C. but
is based on much earlier documents.[923] Parts of the manuscript at the
beginning and end have been lost, so that it now contains prognostics
for only two hundred and thirty-five days of the year. This interesting
production of ancient though misdirected learning divides the hours
between the rising and the setting of the sun into three periods,
each of which is ruled by its particular influence. Some days were
good throughout the three periods, some were wholly bad, others were
critical—_dubium sed in malum vergens_—while others again presented
combinations of these three characteristics. The following are typical
regulations, arranged according to the order of the Egyptian months.[924]
22 Thoth: eat no fish and light no oil lamp. 23 Thoth: put no incense
on the fire; kill no animals, domestic or wild; eat neither a goose nor
a goat. A child born on this day will amount to nothing. 26 Thoth: do
nothing on this day. 4 Paophi: do not go out of the house. 5 Paophi:
do not go out of the house; do not have intercourse with a woman. 22
Paophi: do not wash and do not approach a stream. 19 Athyr: light no
fire. 6 Mechir: do no work. 13 Pharmuthi: do not go anywhere. In the
calendar as a whole the most frequent injunctions relate to quitting
the house, travelling, sailing, and undertaking any kind of work. Next
in number are the prohibitions of loud talking, singing, and sexual
intercourse. There are also prohibitions of drinking, bathing, and
killing or eating certain animals, besides others directed against
the use of fire and lights. It is clear that in this curious treatise
we have a systematization of popular taboos relating to the lucky or
unlucky character of certain days. The fact that it was used as a
boy’s schoolbook indicates how priestly influence had erected into a
pseudo-science the uncouth and childish superstitions of the multitude.
The calendar itself presents evidence that the priests had begun to
rationalize the taboos, for the prohibitions are often accompanied by a
summary of the motives which justified them, usually legendary episodes
of the gods. For instance, the regulation for the twenty-sixth of
Thoth—“do absolutely nothing”—is explained by a reference to the terrific
combat between Horus and his uncle Set, which occurred on this ill-omened
day.[925]
The Babylonian augural calendar for the intercalated month of Elul and
for Markheshwan is not the only example of omen literature to be found in
the cuneiform records. We possess a document, preserved in great part,
which includes every day in the year, either specifying its nature as
favourable or unfavourable or adding other indications with regard to its
character. A note like “hostility,” appended to the twenty-first day of
the second month, is a warning that the gods are out of humour on that
day; the twenty-third day, described as “heart not good,” is explained
by the contrast “heart glad” on the following day. Not content with a
simple distinction of favourableness and unfavourableness, the calendar
also deals with days “wholly favourable” and “half favourable.” Still
other days are noted as those portending “distress,” “trouble,” “tears,”
“injury,” “darkness,” “moon obscured,” and the like. The precautions
and prohibitions set forth for unlucky days include, among many others,
the familiar taboos of eating specified foods, such as swine’s flesh,
beef, dates, and fish, sexual intercourse, buying and selling, wearing
bright garments, travelling, holding law courts, and so on. The calendar
contains a number of references to the king and may, very probably, have
served the priests in their instructions to the monarch. As Professor
Jastrow remarks, the belief in lucky and unlucky days has a distinctly
popular flavour, making it probable that the priests embodied in their
lists many of the notions that arose among the people, and gave to these
an official sanction.[926]
The Greeks of Hesiod’s time possessed an elaborate calendar of lucky and
unlucky days.[927] “Sometimes a day is a stepmother, sometimes a mother,”
Hesiod remarks pithily. What ancient regulations for the observance of
tabooed periods are embodied in the calendar is problematical. Many of
the prohibitions with which the first part of the poem concludes are,
however, thoroughly primitive taboos.[928] Hesiod does not mention
any days when labour is to be entirely abandoned. We may assume,
perhaps, that at the period when the Hesiodic poems were composed the
rationalizing temper of the Greeks had gotten somewhat the better of
their superstitious fears. In the Hesiodic list, as in the Egyptian
and Babylonian calendars, the notion appears that not only whole days
but even parts of days have an individual character, working for good
or evil. The middle ninth (the nineteenth) is said to be “a better day
toward afternoon.” The “fourth which followeth the twentieth of the
month is the best at dawn, but it is worse toward afternoon.” Hesiod
does not distinguish the months as lucky or unlucky, and the days which
possess either of these attributes are the same for every month. He
gives no explanation for their luckiness or unluckiness, though traces
of a rationalizing process are perhaps observable in the directions
regarding the “fifths” (presumably the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth
days), which are specially unlucky “because on the fifth men say the
Erinyes attended the birth of Oath (Horkos), whom Strife bare to punish
perjurers.” The seventh again is lucky, “for on that day Leto bare Apollo
of the Golden Sword.”[929] The Hesiodic injunctions did not cease to be
observed in the later classical epoch and exercised great influence on
civil and political life. The superstitions relating to unlucky days only
gained a firmer foothold, under the influence of Babylonian and Egyptian
doctrines, in passing from Greece to Rome and from Rome to western
Europe.[930]
During the Middle Ages perhaps the most widespread observance of unlucky
days had to do with those which went under the significant name of _dies
Ægyptiaci_. The prohibitions marking them—not to build a house, not to
buy or sell, not to cut hair, beard, and nails, and so on—possessed,
however, no character specifically Egyptian. The mediæval belief was that
these days received their designation because on one of them the plagues
had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt, and on another Pharaoh and
his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. As early as the fourth
century A.D. Christian writers refer to “Egyptian days” as times feared
and avoided by both pagans and converts to Christianity.[931] About
this period the superstition gained admittance to the state calendars.
In the _fasti Philocali_ (354 A.D.), twenty-five _dies Ægyptiaci_ are
reckoned, two in each month except January, which contains three.[932]
A mediæval French manuscript, dating from the reign of St. Louis,
includes twenty-four such days, but another manuscript, of the fourteenth
century, enumerates thirty days of the year as very dangerous, when it
is necessary to abstain from buying and selling, building, and planting.
Still another manuscript, of the fifteenth century, reckons thirty-one
wholly evil days, while certain hours of other days also possess
dangerous qualities.[933] In the seventeenth century J. B. Thiers, the
learned curé of Vibraie, notices the “Egyptian days” in his extensive
list of the superstitious beliefs regarding certain times and seasons,
prevalent in his age but condemned by theologians (St. Thomas Aquinas),
popes (Nicholas I), and Church synods and councils.[934] Anglo-Saxon
calendars mention about twenty-four “Egyptian days” in the year, when
it is dangerous, if not fatal, to begin an enterprise or to travel. A
manuscript calendar, dating from the reign of Henry VI, gives a list of
thirty-two such days. After the Reformation the old unlucky days appear
to have abated much of their malevolence, and to have left behind them
only a general superstition against fishermen starting out to fish, or
seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to
enter a new place—on a Friday.[935]
CONCLUSION
It is fairly obvious that the observance of tabooed and unlucky days
must be included among the many superstitions which have retarded the
progress of mankind. They hinder individual initiative and tend to
prevent the undertaking of lengthy enterprises which may be interrupted
by the recurrence of an unfavourable period. Their extensive development
compels fitful, intermittent labour, rather than a steady and continuous
occupation. The Burman, for example, “is so fettered by his horoscope and
the lucky and unlucky days for him recorded therein, which are taught
him in rhymes from childhood, that the character has been given him by
strangers of alternate idleness and energy. But both are enforced by
the numerous days and seasons when he may not work without disaster to
himself. Unlucky days cause him so much fear that he will resort to all
sorts of excuses to avoid business on them. Similarly, on lucky days he
will work beyond his strength, because he is assured of success.”[936]
Again, it is said that Europeans in India usually fail to realize the
great influence which ideas of lucky and unlucky days exert on the
conduct of the people. Superstitious avoidance of unpropitious occasions
will often explain the failure of the natives to obey a court summons
or to keep their appointments with government officers.[937] These
remarks, by keen observers, are capable of a wide application to various
primitive races. The belief in unfavourable seasons may even directly
affect political and social progress, where, as in modern Ashanti and in
ancient Rome, assemblies could not be held, or courts of justice stand
open, or armies engage the enemy, when the unlucky day came round. It
is equally obvious that all such beliefs play into the hands of the
astrologer and magician, tending further to strengthen the bonds with
which superstition enchains its votaries.
From the economic point of view it deserves to be pointed out how the
extensive development of tabooed and unlucky days seriously limits
production and thus lowers the efficiency of labour. In Hawaii the
seasons of strict abstinence regularly observed during eight months of
the year reached a total of seventy-two days, while from time to time
still other _tabu_ days were appointed by the priests.[938] In Ashanti
an old writer calculated that there were only from one hundred and fifty
to one hundred and sixty days in the year during which business of
any importance could be safely undertaken.[939] Few peoples have more
holidays than the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Their religious festivals
occupy more than half the year. It is a noteworthy fact, however, that
the Hopi celebrate their longest and most important ceremonies during
the months from harvest time to planting, when there is little work
to be done. “Although the Pueblo farmer may thoroughly believe in his
ceremonial system as efficacious, his human nature is too practical to
consume the precious planting time with elaborate ceremonials.”[940]
In modern China and Korea so many festivals in honour of deities are
observed as holidays that they take the place, to a certain extent, of
the Sabbath institution.[941] Among the ancient Egyptians the unlucky
days varied in number according to the different months, six, for
instance, occurring in Paophi, seven each in Choiak and Phamenoth, and
five in Pharmuthi. It may be reckoned that “popular superstition rendered
useless about one-fifth of the year.”[942] The Athenian festivals are
estimated to have occupied from fifty to sixty days of the year. The
irregular distribution of these holidays throughout the months, and
especially their congestion in spring and autumn, must have caused much
interference with the routine of daily life.[943] In some city-states the
festivals were more numerous: at Tarentum, in the days of its prosperity,
the people are said to have had more holidays than working days.[944]
In the old Roman calendar, out of three hundred and fifty-five days,
nearly one-third (one hundred and nine) were marked as _nefasti_, that
is, as unlawful for judicial and political business. These days belonged
wholly to the gods, while eleven more days of the year were shared by
the divine and the human inhabitants of the city.[945] We know on the
evidence of Cicero that in the last century of the republic the numerous
days when courts could not sit had become a resource on which a wealthy
criminal could speculate as a means of delaying and evading justice;
while Suetonius enumerates among the praiseworthy reforms of Augustus
the cutting-down of non-judicial days by thirty, “in order that crimes
might not escape punishment or business be impeded by delay.”[946] Of the
_dies nefasti_ sixty-one, including the Ides of every month, the Kalends
of three months, and the Nones of July, were numbered in the republican
calendar among the public festivals—_feriæ publicæ_—on which the state
expected the citizens to abstain, as far as possible, from their private
business and labour.[947] But the number of rest days observed really
reached a larger total, when we remember that, besides the extraordinary
_feriæ_, proclaimed from time to time, there was a marked tendency during
the last two centuries of the republic to extend over several days
festivals to which originally only one day had been allotted. This was
for the purpose of giving time for an elaborate programme of public games
(_ludi_), consisting of chariot-races, stage plays, and other forms of
popular amusement. As the Roman passion for holidays and their attendant
spectacles increased, we find the number of days devoted to them rising
from sixty-six in the reign of Augustus to eighty-seven in that of
Tiberius, and, under Marcus Aurelius, to a hundred and thirty-five. By
the middle of the fourth century their number had reached one hundred
and seventy-five.[948] For the lower classes at Rome the gladiatorial
combats, chariot-races, and dramatic shows formed the chief pleasure of
life. The once-sovereign people of Rome became a lazy, worthless rabble,
fed by the state and amused with the games. Of them it was well said
by an ancient satirist that they wanted only two things to make them
happy—“bread and the games of the circus.”[949]
Many of the holy days in the religious calendar of Christendom were
borrowed, as is well known, from the public festivals of ancient
paganism. This must be the chief reason for the observance of so many
non-working days during the Middle Ages. Their number was largely reduced
in Protestant Europe as the result of the Reformation, which did away
with the majority of saints’ days. In Catholic countries, however, there
is still an excessive amount of time devoted to religious celebrations.
Mexico, for instance, is described as “a land of holidays. Counting
Sundays, there are one hundred and thirty-one in the Mexican calendar,
and it is asserted that more than half of the people observe them all....
On certain of these days all Mexico takes to the festival, and it usually
requires from one to three days for the _peons_ to sober up and get back
to regular work again.”[950] The Greek Church, as a celebrated traveller
and historian once pointed out, requires her followers to observe so
many holy days “as practically to shorten the lives of the people very
materially. I believe that one-third of the number of days in the year
are ‘kept holy,’ or rather, _kept stupid_, in honour of the saints: no
great portion of the time thus set apart is spent in religious exercises
and the people don’t betake themselves to any animating pastimes,
which might serve to strengthen the frame, or invigorate the mind, or
exalt the taste.”[951] In Russia commercial and educational progress
is hindered by the multitude of saints’ days. “The _dies nefas_, when
work is tabooed, becomes a serious handicap in the race of modern life.
These saints’ days, together with the Sundays, rob the Russian of nearly
one-third of his time, for they leave him only about two hundred and
fifty days for work. He would sooner work on a Sunday than on a saint’s
day.”[952] In eastern Galicia, where a calendar is in use which permits
the observance of the religious festivals of both the Roman and the Greek
churches, the number of holidays or non-working days is considerably in
excess of one hundred, rising in some districts to one hundred and fifty,
and in others reaching the amazing total of two hundred.[953] To what
extremes the practice of abstaining from labour on holy days may extend
is further illustrated in Abyssinia, where the numerous fasts and feasts
are so strictly kept as to render about six months of the year prohibited
for any secular employments.[954]
Human nature, it has been said, is always ready for the shift from
fast to feast, from Sabbath to Saturnalia. To the student of primitive
religion and sociology nothing is more interesting than the contemplation
of that unconscious though beneficent process which has converted
institutions, based partly or wholly on a belief in the imaginary and
the supernatural, into institutions resting on the rock of reason and
promoting human welfare. Though the origin of tabooed and unlucky days
must be sought in gross superstition, sooner or later they acquire a
secular character and may then be perpetuated as holidays, long after
their earlier significance has disappeared. The transition, with all
its subtle and manifold results on the organization of society, may
be followed under our own eyes. The passage of the holy day into
the holiday, beginning in the lower culture, promises to reach its
culmination in the secularizing of all the great festivals of the
Christian year. This evolutionary movement, whether for weal or woe,
at least provides a singularly instructive illustration of the close
relations between religion and social progress, which must ever impress
the inquirer into the early history of mankind.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Leviathan_, chap. xi.
[2] For the leading facts relating to the institution of taboo see Sir
J. G. Frazer, “Taboo,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxiii, 15-18; _idem_,
_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911; N. W. Thomas, “Taboo,”
_Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xxvi, 337-341; L. Marillier, “Tabou,” _La
grande encyclopédie_, xxx, 848 _sq._; A. Bros, _La religion des peuples
non-civilisés_, Paris, 1907, pp. 185-213; C. H. Toy, _Introduction to the
History of Religions_, Boston, 1913, pp. 239-264.
[3] A list of the equivalents of tabu in the languages of Polynesia
and Melanesia will be found in William Churchill, _The Polynesian
Wanderings_, Washington, 1911, pp. 263 sq.
[4] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,²
London, 1856, p. 101.
[5] E. Tregear, _The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, Wellington
(N.Z.), 1891, p. 472.
[6] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, London, 1859, iv, 385.
[7] The proper term for “prohibit” was _rahui_ (_ibid._, iv, 386).
[8] R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, Oxford, 1891, p. 215. In the
Banks Islands and in the New Hebrides the word _rongo_ is employed to
indicate the naturally holy character which certain objects may possess,
quite independently of any human sanction or prohibition (_ibid._, p.
181).
[9] R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_, London, 1904, p. 80.
[10] A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp.
12 _sqq._, 23.
[11] As Sir James Frazer has pointed out (_Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹
xxiii, 18), the Greeks usually discriminated the two ideas, ἁγνός being
devoted to the sense of “sacred” and ἐναγής to that of “unclean” or
“accursed.” The two words, of course, have no connection, ἁγνός being
related to Skt. _yaj-_, “sacrifice” and ἐναγής to Skt. _āgas-_, “sin” (E.
Boisacq, _Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque_, Heidelberg and
Paris, 1907, pt. i, 7, 9). Among the Romans _sacer_ always continued to
retain the double meaning; it may be closely rendered by _tabu_. Compare
Servius on Vergil, _Æneis_, iii, 75. The late W. Robertson Smith referred
to the fact that the Hebrew _ṭāmē_ “is not the ordinary word for things
physically foul; it is a ritual term and corresponds exactly to the
idea of taboo” (_Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_,² London, 1903,
p. 309). For a list of Biblical passages containing _ṭāmē_ see Brown,
Driver, and Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_,
Boston, 1906, p. 379.
[12] The notion of transmissibility has been especially developed by such
writers as A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, _passim_,
Hubert and Mauss, “Esquisse d’une théorie générale de la magie,” _L’année
sociologique_, 1904, vii, 108 sqq.; F. B. Jevons, _An Introduction to the
History of Religion_,⁴ London, 1908, pp. 59-68, and R. R. Marett, _The
Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 99-121.
[13] On the general belief in the omnipresence of demons and their action
in causing human ills see Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London,
1913, pp. 72-108.
[14] J. S. Polack, _Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders_, London,
1840, i, 234.
[15] Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i,
26.
[16] C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs. _Thahu_ and
its Connection with Circumcision Rites,” _Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute_, 1910, xl, 428.
[17] R. C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London,
1904, ii, pp. xxxix _sqq._
[18] For an extensive presentation of the ethnographic evidence see Sir
J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911, pp.
131-223; _idem_, _Balder the Beautiful_, London, 1913, i, 22-100, ii,
225-278. The whole subject is most suggestively treated by Professor A.
van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909.
[19] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 sqq.
[20] _Idem_, _Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee_, London,
1826, p. 366; _idem_, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 _sq._; J. J.
Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands_,² Boston, 1843, p.
57.
[21] Ellis, _Narrative_, pp. 366 _sq._; compare _idem_, _Polynesian
Researches_, iv, 388.
[22] H. T. Cheever, _The Island World of the Pacific_, Glasgow [1851],
p. 63.
[23] Ellis, _Narrative_, p. 368; Hiram Bingham, _A Residence of
Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_, Hartford, 1849, pp. 177
_sq._ Describing his experiences at Kihoro, the missionary Ellis could
not restrain his admiration of the conduct of the native converts on
Sunday: “No athletic sports were seen on the beach; no noise of playful
children shouting as they gambolled in the surf, nor distant sound of
the cloth-beating mallet was heard through the day; no persons were seen
carrying burdens in or out of the village, nor any canoes passing across
the bay. It could not but be viewed as the dawn of a bright sabbatic
day for the dark shores of Hawaii” (_Polynesian Researches_, iv, 408).
For similar statements see C. S. Stewart, _A Visit to the South Seas_,
London, 1832, pp. 277 _sqq._, 302 _sq._
[24] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_,
Philadelphia, 1845, ii, 13. “The _tabu_ system,” wrote an early
missionary, “making sacred certain times, persons, and places, and
containing many restrictions and prohibitions, may easily be interpreted
as a relic, much changed and corrupted, from the ancient ceremonial
observances of the Jews” (Sheldon Dibble, _History of the Sandwich
Islands_, Lahainaluna, 1843, p. 27). The resemblances between the
Polynesian institution and certain customs recorded in the Old Testament
impressed another early writer, who refers to taboo as “ce singulier
usage, en partie politique, au moins dans quelques-uns de ses effets,
mais éminemment religieux dans son origine, non moins que l’interdit des
Hébreux, avec lequel il avait des rapports frappans, qui n’ont point
encore été signalés, quoique méritant assurément toute l’attention du
philosophe et du moraliste” (J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand
océan_, Paris, 1837, ii, 6).
[25] W. D. Alexander, _A Brief History of the Hawaiian People_, New York,
1899, p. 55. The author’s work is based largely on unpublished Hawaiian
manuscripts and the early archives of the government.
[26] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 56 _sq._ Elsewhere this excellent
authority describes the Hawaiian prayers as in some measure magical
incantations, which, to secure the desired effect, required to be
repeated without the slightest mistake. “During the most important class
of prayers, called _aha_, it was necessary that absolute silence should
be preserved, as the least noise would break the spell and destroy the
whole effect of the charm” (_ibid._, p. 50). A similar precaution, as is
well known, characterized the ritual of a Roman sacrifice.
[27] For additional data on this subject see Jarves, _op. cit._, pp.
51 _sq._, and David Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, Honolulu, 1903, pp.
210-248. The latter work, translated from the Hawaiian by N. B. Emerson,
is an exceptionally valuable repository of native lore.
[28] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 59 _sqq._; Malo, _op. cit._, pp.
186-210. This New Year’s festival with its accompanying taboo is also
referred to in an early work entitled _Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the
Sandwich Islands in the Years 1824-1825_, London, 1826, pp. 11 _sq._
According to A. Fornander (_An Account of the Polynesian Race_, London,
1878, i, 119 _sq._) the Hawaiian year consisted of twelve 30-day months
with five additional _tabu_ days intercalated at the end of Welehu. If
this statement be correct, the Hawaiian epagomenal days would furnish
a remarkable parallel to those of the ancient Mexicans and Egyptians
(below, pp. 279 _sqq._). But the best authorities agree that the Hawaiian
year was strictly lunar, with months of 29 and 30 days in alternation and
an occasional intercalary month.
[29] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 52 _sq._, 62 _sq._
[30] _Ibid._, pp. 50 _sqq._; Dibble, _op. cit._, 25 _sq._; Malo, _op.
cit._, p. 56. The latter authority, a native writer intimately versed
in Hawaiian antiquities, declares that the seasons of taboo were not
observed during the four _makahiki_ months of the year, when the regular
religious services were suspended for games and ceremonies in honour of
the god Lono. The same point is made by Judge Fornander (_op. cit._, i,
123 _n._²), whose information was derived from the Hon. S. M. Kamakau, an
intelligent Hawaiian, born and brought up under the heathen _régime_. On
these Hawaiian Sabbaths see below, pp. 88, 188, 233, 258, 303.
[31] J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand océan_, Paris, 1837,
i, 516 _sq._ See further Mathias G— [Garcia] (_Lettres sur les îles
Marquises_, Paris, 1843, p. 210), who refers to the first day of fishing
as “un jour de silence et de repos, _tapu_ pour ceux qui restent à la
maison.”
[32] William Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, London, 1835, p. 85.
[33] James Cowan, _The Maoris of New Zealand_, Melbourne and London,
1910, pp. 116 _sq._ The _kumara_ crop was sacred, all persons engaged
in its cultivation were temporarily tabooed, and the offering of the
first-fruits of the _kumara_ formed a very solemn religious ceremony (E.
Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, xix, 110).
Compare Richard Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 57.
[34] E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890,
xix, 110. No food might be cooked on the day before a war-party set out
(_ibid._, p. 108). Mr. Tregear, an excellent authority, declares that in
New Zealand “there were no long periods of silence such as the kings of
Hawaii laid on their people by proclaiming _tapu_” (_ibid._, p. 122).
Another writer assures us that the Maori “had no days more sacred than
others” (Taylor, _op. cit._, p. 92). Yet in one part of New Zealand it
was customary to celebrate the new year with a _karakia_, or magical
incantation and prayer; in another place there was a _karakia_ when
the new moon appeared; and in still another place “the most sacred day
of the year was that appointed for hair-cutting; the people assembled
from all the neighbouring parts, often more than a thousand in number;
the operation being commenced with _karakia_, the operator and his
obsidian (substitute for scissors) being thus rendered peculiarly sacred”
(_ibid._, p. 93).
[35] John Martin, _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands ...
from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner_, Boston, 1820,
pp. 381-385. Mariner passed four years among the Tonga Islanders as the
adopted son of the king Finow. His picturesque, but apparently reliable,
narrative describes the natives in their aboriginal state before the
arrival of Christian missionaries.
[36] Not only was all work prohibited at the time of the _inachi_,
but even any one’s appearance abroad, unless for the purposes of the
ceremony, was interdicted (Martin-Mariner, _op. cit._, p. 383 _n._²).
The Tongans observed a like restriction after a death. When a corpse was
being taken to the burying-ground, all persons in the roadway or the
adjacent fields were obliged to keep out of sight, under pain of becoming
tabooed. Those who showed themselves at such a time were generally killed
on the spot (_ibid._, pp. 243 _sq._, 394).
[37] This Samoan religious system has been fully described by Sir J. G.
Frazer, who believes that it exhibits “what seems to be the passage of
pure totemism into a religion of anthropomorphic gods with animal and
vegetable attributes, like the deities of ancient Greece” (_Totemism and
Exogamy_, London, 1910, ii, 152).
[38] George Turner, _Samoa_, London, 1884, pp. 29 _sq._
[39] _Ibid._, p. 60.
[40] _Ibid._, pp. 26 _sq._, 41, 44, 47, 49, 53, 57.
[41] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 269.
[42] _Ibid._, p. 279.
[43] J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western
Pacific_, London, 1853, pp. 245 _sq._
[44] Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, London, 1908, p. 114.
[45] _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, Philadelphia, 1846, vi, 67 _sq._
(_Ethnography and Philology_, by H. Hale).
[46] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_,
Philadelphia, 1845, iii, 90 _sq._ This festival bore the name of _tambo
nalanga_ (_ibid._, iii, 342).
[47] In Samoa the second half of the year was called the _palolo_ season,
from the appearance of this singular worm for three days in the course of
a year. If the last quarter of the moon is late in October, the _palolo_
is found the day before, the day of, and the day after that quarter.
Should the last quarter of the moon be early in October, the worm does
not come till the last quarter of the November moon (Turner, _Samoa_, p.
207). The _palolo_, it may be noted, is not an entire animal, but only
the “propagation-body” of a sea-annelid (apparently _Eunice Viridis_
Gray), which lives in holes in the coral stone and comes to the surface
for the act of fertilization. It is found in various parts of Polynesia,
including Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and also in Melanesia (New Hebrides and
Banks Islands). See A. Krämer, _Die Samoa-Inseln_, Stuttgart, 1903, ii,
399-406, and B. Friedländer, “Notes on the _palōlo_,” _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, 1898, vii, 44-46.
[48] L. Fison, “The _nanga_, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala,
Fiji,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1885, xiv, 18. The
solemn rite of initiation into the _nanga_ was always celebrated at the
time of the New Year’s festival, late in October or early in November.
This Fijian festival, called _solevu ni vilavou_, corresponded to the
Tahitian and Hawaiian _makahiki_ (A. B. Joske, “The _nanga_ of Viti
Levu,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, 1889, ii, 259). On the
_nanga_ see further H. Webster, “Totem Clans and Secret Associations
in Australia and Melanesia,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute_, 1911, xli, 506 _sq._
[49] S. P. Smith, in _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1892, i, 40.
[50] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387.
[51] W. T. Pritchard, _Polynesian Reminiscences_, London, 1866, pp.
149 _sq._; George Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, London, 1861,
p. 229; _idem_, _Samoa_, p. 146. See also A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in
Oceanien_, Berlin, 1883, p. 55.
[52] For an interesting description of the regulations imposed on the
fishermen themselves see W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Island of Stone Money_,
Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 _sq._ On taboos observed by hunters and
fishers, generally, see Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp.
190-223.
[53] F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_, London, 1899, p. 290.
[54] A close observer, G. A. J. van der Sande, did not notice any special
rest days among the natives with whom he came in contact, and whose
customs he has so fully described (_Nova Guinea_, Leiden, 1907, iii, 270).
[55] C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_, Cambridge,
1910, p. 275.
[56] Quoted in Turner, _Samoa_, p. 349. The custom mentioned in the text
must now be obsolete. It is not referred to in Dr. Seligmann’s exhaustive
account of the Koita and Motu tribes.
[57] It would seem that among the Bornean tribes, generally, the chief
is responsible for the proper observation of the omens and for the
regulation of taboos affecting an entire community. Compare Hose and
McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i, 65.
[58] W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters_,
Philadelphia, 1902, pp. 160-169.
[59] _Permantong_ is the term used by the Kayan of the Baram District;
among the Kayan in the valley of the Kapuas River, Dutch Borneo, the
word is _pantang_, the regular Malay equivalent of _tabu_. Both these
forms are possibly derived from the Malay _hantu_, a word meaning
demon or evil spirit, with the prefix _per_ and the affix _an_. The
Malay word in full would thus be _per-hantu-an_, meaning “possessed by
spirits” or “bewitched.” _Lali_ is probably a pure Kayan word and means
both “prohibited” and “sacred” (Furness, _op. cit._, p. 160; A. W.
Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 109). According
to Messrs. Hose and McDougall _malan_ and _parit_ are the proper Kayan
words for taboo, though _lali_ and _tulah_ are used as their _lingua
franca_ equivalents. _Malan_ applies to acts involving risks to the
entire community, _parit_ to those involving risk to the individual
committing the forbidden act (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 14 _n._¹).
[60] On these omen animals see further Sir Spenser St. John, _Life in the
Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i, 191 _sqq._; J. Perham, in H.
L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, London, 1896,
i, 191-201; A. C. Haddon, _Head-hunters_, London, 1901, pp. 384 _sqq._;
E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_, London,
1911, pp. 47 _sq._, 152 _sqq._, 298; Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii,
51-114 (with some interesting parallels between the modern Kayan and the
Roman auspices). Compare W. D. Wallis, “Divination and Omens in Borneo
and in Ancient Rome,” _Classical Journal_, 1914, ix, 272-274.
[61] Furness, _op. cit._, p. 161.
[62] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 162 _sq._
[63] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 164 _sq._
[64] This period of seclusion is employed by the Kayan in various games
and masquerades, which, if they have a recreative value, possess as
well a religious or magical meaning in the minds of the people. During
the sowing festival the men play at spinning tops, the youths engage in
athletic sports, and maskers, disguised by wooden helmets and bandages
of banana leaves, simulate the actions of evil spirits. On the magical
significance of games in primitive agriculture, see Sir J. G. Frazer,
_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, London, 1912, i, 92-112.
[65] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 166
_sqq._
[66] Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, i, 107.
[67] The Kayan call the full moon the “evil moon” and at this time build
neither houses nor boats, and do not go forth on the search for omens
(_ibid._, i, 415).
[68] Translated by Dr. Nieuwenhuis as “sitzen, nicht arbeiten.”
[69] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, “Religiöse Zeremonien beim Häuserbau der
Bahau-Dajak am obern Mahakam in Borneo,” _Verhandlungen des II
internationalen Kongresses für allgemeine Religionsgeschichte_, Basel,
1905, pp. 107-119; compare _idem_, _Quer durch Borneo_, ii, 174.
[70] “At certain seasons of the moon, just before and just after the
full, the [Sea] Dyaks do not work at their farms; and what with bad
omens, sounds, signs, adverse dreams, and deaths, two-thirds of their
time is not spent in farm labour” (Charles Brooke, _Ten Years in
Sarawak_, London, 1866, i, 149).
[71] Leo Nyuak, “Religious Rites and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks
of Sarawak,” translated from the Dyak by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn,
_Anthropos_, 1906, i, 410 _sq._
[72] _Ibid._, i, 176.
[73] _Ibid._, i, 181.
[74] _Ibid._, i, 416 _sq._
[75] Betara, otherwise _petara_, is the ordinary Sea Dyak name for deity.
The word is incorrectly translated as “Great Spirit”; in general belief
there are many _petara_. These gods, it may be noted, are separated by no
distinct line of demarcation from the thousands of _antu_, or spirits,
with which the Dyak has peopled his universe. See J. Perham, “_Petara_,
or Sea Dyak Gods,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society_, 1881, no. 8; H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British
North Borneo_, London, 1896, i, 168-182.
[76] Brooke Low, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401. See also _idem_, in
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1893, xxii, 24. Many
primitive peoples are accustomed to trace a direct connection between
sexual sins and the welfare of the crops. As Sir James Frazer has shown,
this superstition has undoubtedly contributed to a stricter observance of
the rules of sexual morality, both among the married and the unmarried.
See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, London, 1911, ii, 104-119.
[77] Sir Hugh Low, _Sarawak_, London, 1848, pp. 260-262. See also Sir
Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i,
175 _sqq._ According to this writer _porikh_ is the Land Dyak expression
equivalent to _pamali_.
[78] William Chalmers, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401.
[79] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of
the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 236-280.
[80] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of
the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 244 _sqq._
[81] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 163.
[82] _Ibid._, i, 160. The Sea Dyak make an interesting distinction
between _mali_ and _penti_, the former absolutely forbidding certain
kinds of work to a person under the ban, the latter allowing it to
be undertaken, if started by some one not subject to the taboo. For
instance, though both parents are _penti_ during the wife’s pregnancy,
the expectant mother may engage in basket-making and mat-weaving,
provided some other woman begins the work for her; and the husband may
dig a trench or erect a post, if the hands of others are first set to the
task. Taboos of this sort prevail until the child cuts its first teeth
(F. W. Leggatt, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 98).
[83] Sir Hugh Low observes that among the Land Dyak the favourite
remedies for the cure of internal diseases are turmeric and spices, taken
in huge quantities; “but for anything at all serious, recourse is had to
the _pamali_, both in medical and surgical cases” (_Sarawak_, p. 308).
[84] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 175 _sq._ (Land Dyak). Mr. Charles Hose
declares that at such times the inhabitants of a Kayan communal house
may taboo their private rooms to the other inmates. Small fines are
imposed for infringing the rule, if the act is unintentional, but when
a man forces his way into a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, ending in
bloodshed, may result (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1894,
xxiii, 170). “It is an old custom among the Iban for a stranger, before
climbing the ladder of a house, to ask in a loud voice whether there is
no taboo” (L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 175).
[85] The Murik on the Baram River, a community of hardworking farmers,
in addition to the communal taboos observed by them at sowing, also keep
a _lemalli_ of seven days, when the paddy crop is about to be harvested.
“For the first three days of this no one stirs out of the house, no
work is done, and no sexual intercourse is allowed” (R. S. Douglas, in
_Sarawak Museum Journal_, 1911, i, 146 _sqq._).
[86] See below, p. 165.
[87] The _elpanam_ consists of several large structures, which serve as
a guest-house for strangers and as a town-hall for feasts and public
gatherings. The institution is found under different names in many of the
East Indian islands, and even more widely. See H. Webster, _Primitive
Secret Societies_, New York, 1908, pp. 8 _sqq._
[88] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902,
xxxii, 215 _sq._ See also C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_,
London, 1903, pp. 293 _sqq._
[89] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902,
xxxii, 210; Kloss, _op. cit._, pp. 297 _sq._ Another kiala festival, also
followed by alternate periods of rest and work, appears to be observed in
connection with fishing (Kloss, _op. cit._, p. 295).
[90] R. van Eck, in _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië_, 1879, n.s.,
viii, 58 _sqq._ Van Eck’s account is reproduced by J. Jacobs, _Eenigen
tijd onder de Baliërs_, Batavia, 1883, pp. 190 _sqq._
[91] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1877,
n.s., ix, 77. On the _petara_ see above, p. 35 _n._²
[92] F. Krämer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” _Tijdschrift voor
indische taal- land- en volkenkunde_, 1890, xxxiii, 486 _sqq._
[93] Hinlopen and Severin, _ibid._, 1855, iii, 329 _sq._
[94] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,
1905, xxxvii, 155 _sq._ The greater part of this valuable article is
concerned with the analogies between the taboo system in the Mentawi
Islands and related systems in Indonesia and Polynesia.
[95] W. A. Pickering, _Pioneering in Formosa_, London, 1898, p. 71.
[96] W. Joest, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1882, p. (62) (bound with
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. xiv).
[97] G. Taylor, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1889,
n.s., xi, 233; _idem_, “Folklore of Aboriginal Formosa,” _Folk-lore
Journal_, 1887, v, 150.
[98] J. P. Finley and William Churchill, _The Subanu_, Washington, 1913,
pp. 31 _sq._
[99] The word is also spelled _tengau_ and translated “holiday.” See W.
C. Clapp, “A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language,” _Bureau of Science,
Division of Ethnology, Publications_, Manila, 1908, v, 198.
[100] A. E. Jenks, “The Bontoc Igorot,” _Ethnological Survey
Publications_, Manila, 1905, i, 205 _sqq._
[101] From a letter to the author, dated December 10, 1910. In a second
letter, under date March 8, 1911, Professor Jenks writes, “I believe
the rest days are first for the purpose of having time for religious
observances—this fact necessitated the rest. I never proved this point,
however.”
[102] Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 213.
[103] “It is safe to say that one feast is held daily in Bontoc by
some family to appease or win the good will of some _anito_ [ancestral
spirit]” (Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 198).
[104] Some, if not all, of the Igorot peoples of northern Luzon are
familiar with the idea of taboo as applied to individuals or to families
at certain critical times. The Ibaloi Igorot equivalent of taboo is
_pidiu_. A man, while in the peculiarly solemn condition of _pidiu_,
“must not bathe, must not admit visitors into his house, and must not
work, travel, etc.,” under penalty of punishment by the _making_, or
departed souls, for transgression of the regulations (O. Scheerer, “The
Nabaloi Dialect,” _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905, ii,
167). But these prohibitions do not seem to be socialized.
[105] T. C. Hodson, “The _genna_ amongst the Tribes of Assam,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906, xxxvi, 92-103; _idem_, “Some
Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 296-312; _idem_,
“Genna,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xi, 596; _idem_, _The Nāga Tribes
of Manipur_, London, 1911, pp. 164-186.
[106] “The word _genna_ is used in two ways: (1) it may mean practically
a holiday—_i.e._, a man will say, ‘My village is doing _genna_ to-day,’
by which he means that, owing either to the occurrence of a village
festival or some such unusual occurrence ... his people are observing a
holiday; (2) _genna_ means anything forbidden” (A. W. Davis, in _Census
of India, 1891, Assam_, i, 249).
[107] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 167 _sq._ Among some of the Manipuri
Naga the various _genna_ are marked by rope-pulling contests, when the
women and girls have a tug-of-war with the men. This is described as a
means of taking omens for the future of the crops (_ibid._, p. 168).
The Naga ceremonial is a serious business, but among the Meithei, the
Hinduised neighbours of the Naga, the tug-of-war has dwindled into a
mere pastime (Hodson, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 300). On the magical
significance of the games played by the Kayan of Borneo during their
periods of seclusion, see above, p. 31 _n._¹
[108] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 166 _sq._, 175.
[109] _Ibid._, pp. 109, 167, 175.
[110] _Ibid._, pp. 166 _sq._, 173.
[111] _Ibid._, pp. 151 _sq._, 174. According to another account the
festival occurs on the night of the December new moon. The shades of
the dead are supposed to visit the living at this time (S. E. Peal, in
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1898, xxx, 355).
[112] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 109, 144, 173, 175 _sq._ The Naga west of
the Doyang River are said to have a _genna_ also at the annual ceremony
of making new fire for the village. The fire, produced by friction, is
first used in burning down the jungle before the sowing of the crops (W.
Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 45; E. T. Dalton,
_Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1872, p. 43). The Angami
Naga mark by a three days’ _genna_ the first full moon of the lunar year
(D. Prain, in _Revue coloniale internationale_, 1887, v, 489).
[113] John Butler, in _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1875,
n.s., xlv, i, 316. This observer describes the _kennie_ as a system of
taboo, “singularly similar to that in vogue among the savages inhabiting
the Pacific islands.”
[114] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 167, citing C. A. Soppitt, _Account of
the Kachcha Nāgas_, p. 10.
[115] Hodson, _op. cit._, p. 141. The _khullakpa_, also called
_gennabura_, or “authorizer of _genna_,” is himself subject to a number
of vexatious restrictions designed to prevent any impairment of the
efficiency of his sacred office. On these taboos see below, pp. 233 _sq._
It is worthy of note that the _khullakpa_ enjoys a good deal of indirect
authority because of his power to close a village and declare a _genna_.
An individual who violated any of the taboos imposed by him would be
obliged to pay a fine, the proceeds being used to provide a substantial
repast for the village elders (Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 307).
[116] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 177, 180. The Naga of eastern Assam
strictly taboo a house where tattooing is being done (W. H. Furness, 3d.,
in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 466).
[117] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, London, 1908, p. 118. It is
significant that the Moirang, a more or less backward and isolated
Meithei tribe, still keep up something like a system of communal _genna_
connected with agricultural operations (_ibid._, p. 119).
[118] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 158.
[119] A. Playfair, _The Garos_, London, 1909, p. 114; see below, p. 57
_n._¹
[120] Edward Stack, _The Mikirs_, edited by Sir Charles Lyall, London,
1908, p. 43.
[121] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 20. The Mishmi have household _genna_
whenever the members of a family are visited by illness or misfortune of
any kind. Possibly there are also village rites of the same nature. See
R. Wilcox, in _Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government_,
Calcutta, 1855, no. 23, p. 64.
[122] J. Shakespear, _The Lushei Kuki Clans_, London, 1912, p. 69.
[123] _Ibid._, pp. 72 _sq._, 75, 78, 80, 87; C. A. Soppitt, _A Short
Account of the Kuki-Lushai Tribes_, Shillong, 1887, p. 19.
[124] T. H. Lewin, _The Hill Tracts of Chittagong_, Calcutta, 1869, p.
78. Captain Lewin’s interesting work was republished under the title
_Wild Races of South-eastern India_ (London, 1870), where the reference
to the _khang_ will be found on pp. 196 _sq._
[125] Lewin, _Hill Tracts_, p. 94; _idem_, _Wild Races_, p. 236 (Mro).
[126] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.
[127] B. S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, _The Chin Hills_, Rangoon, 1896, i, 198.
[128] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, edited by Scott and
Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, pp. 425 _sq._
[129] A. R. McMahon, _The Karens of the Golden Chersonese_, London, 1876,
p. 292.
[130] Sir R. C. Temple, “Burma,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, iii, 37. Similarly, the Yabim of German New Guinea require
all the inhabitants of a village to remain at home on the morning after
the birth of a child. This is regarded as a necessary precaution, if the
fruits of the fields and gardens are not to be spoiled by the noxious
influences emanating from a woman in childbed (K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten
über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, xiii, 87).
[131] R. G. Woodthorpe, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1897, xxvi, 27 _sqq._; Sir J. G. Scott, “Buddhism in the Shan States,”
_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1911, n.s., xliii, 931. On taboos
affecting intercourse with strangers see, in general, Frazer, _Taboo and
the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 101-116.
[132] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, pt. i, vol. i, p.
515.
[133] S. R. Clarke, _Among the Tribes in South-west China_, London, 1911,
p. 63.
[134] For instances of “magical telepathy” in hunting, fishing, and
warfare see Frazer, _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i,
119-134.
[135] As Messrs. Hose and McDougall judiciously observe, the cult of
omen-birds found among the Kayan of Borneo, though it hampers their
undertakings at almost every turn and might seem to be wholly foolish
and detrimental, has really “two great practical advantages: namely, it
inspires confidence, and it promotes discipline and a strong sense of
collective unity and responsibility. It is not improbable, then, that
the advantages of this seemingly senseless cult outweigh its drawbacks,
which, in the shape of endless delays and changes of plans, are by no
means small” (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 170 _n._¹).
[136] On the sociological conception of crisis see W. I. Thomas, _Source
Book for Social Origins_, Chicago, 1909, pp. 16 _sqq._; R. R. Marett,
_The Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 198 _sqq._
[137] On the primitive ideas of death see particularly R. Hertz,
“Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la morte,”
_L’année sociologique_, 1905-1906, x, 48-137; E. S. Hartland, “Death
and Disposal of the Dead (Introductory),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iv, 411-444; W. H. R. Rivers, “The Primitive
Conception of Death,” _Hibbert Journal_, 1912, x, 393-407; Sir J. G.
Frazer, _The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead_, London,
1913, i, 31-58; A. van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909,
pp. 209-236; L. Lévy-Bruhl, _Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés
inférieures_, Paris, 1910, pp. 321-330, 352-396. For a useful collection
of ethnographic evidence see E. Samter, _Geburt, Hochzeit, und Tod_,
Leipzig, 1911.
[138] A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, pp. 95 _sqq._; L.
R. Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_, London, 1905, pp. 96 _sqq._; E.
Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, London,
1906-1908, ii, 535 _sqq._
[139] On the sociological aspects of these and other superstitions see
H. Webster, “Influence of Superstition on the Evolution of Property
Rights,” _American Journal of Sociology_, 1910, xv, 794-805; H. Berkusky,
“Der Einfluss abergläubischer Vorstellungen auf das wirtschaftliche und
soziale Leben der Naturvölker,” _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_,
1913, n.s., iv, 489-498, 567-584.
[140] Above, pp. 24, 25, 26.
[141] H. O. Forbes, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1884,
xiii, 420.
[142] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,
1905, xxxvii, 155; J. G. F. Riedel, _ibid._, 1885, xvii, 69.
[143] J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
en Papua_, The Hague, 1886, pp. 168 (Seranglao and Gorong archipelagoes),
197 (Watubela Islands), 223 (Kei Islands), 341 (Babar Archipelago), 414
(Keisar Island).
[144] D. C. Worcester, in _Philippine Journal of Science_, 1906, i, 844.
Compare F. C. Cole, in _American Anthropologist_, 1909, n.s., xi, 337
(Tenguian).
[145] C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, London, 1903, pp. 303
_sqq._
[146] Annandale and Robinson, _Fasciculi Malayensis_, London, 1903-1904,
i, 83.
[147] Brooke Low, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1892,
xxi, 122; _idem_, in Roth, _Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_,
i, 155.
[148] L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 413.
[149] E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_,
London, 1911, p. 139.
[150] Above, p. 36.
[151] De Crespigny, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_,
1858, ii, 348.
[152] Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii, 37 _sq._ The Kayan on the
Mahakam River require all those who have been polluted by taking part in
burial ceremonies to undergo a two days’ _melo_, or ceremonial abstention
from work (Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, ii, 119).
[153] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 99, 174, 177.
[154] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 100, 152, 166, 174. Compare _idem_,
“Mortuary Ritual and Eschatological Beliefs among the Hill Tribes of
Assam,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1909, xii, 449.
[155] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 88. “We find among the Naga tribes
that, if a woman died in childbirth (an event of rare occurrence), the
child was never allowed to live, because they believed it to be an evil
spirit, a disembodied ghost, incarnated in the mother whose death it
had caused” (_idem_, “Some Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_,
1910, xxi, 301). Among the Kabui Naga not only does the death of a woman
in childbirth necessitate a five days’ village _genna_, but the same
period of restriction is also imposed after the death of a child dying in
infancy (J. Shakespear, “Customs at Death among the Manipuris and Cognate
Clans,” _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 466 _sqq._).
[156] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 143.
[157] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.
[158] A. Coussot and H. Ruel, _Douze mois chez les sauvages du Laos_,
Paris, 1898, p. 205; A. Cabaton, “Indo-China (Savage Races),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vii, 232.
[159] F. Fawcett, in _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 42.
[160] A. K. Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, Madras, 1909, i, 265.
[161] C. H. Rao, in _Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 181.
[162] H. Hosten, “Pahāria Burial Customs (British Sikkim),” _Anthropos_,
1909, iv, 673, 675.
[163] S. C. Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, London, 1902, p.
256.
[164] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, London, 1904, p. 253; Farewell,
in W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of
Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_, London, 1833, ii, 397. A Kafir chief,
on succeeding to power, is said to have declared a taboo of all field
work for an entire year and to have put to death every woman who became
pregnant during this period (_Globus_, 1889, lvi, 62).
[165] Joseph Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_, London,
1857, p. 216.
[166] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275.
[167] P. Kollmann, _Der Nordwesten unserer ostafrikanischen Kolonie_,
Berlin, 1898, p. 77.
[168] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
People_, London, 1910, p. 172.
[169] R. Lasch, “Die Ursache und Bedeutung der Erdbeben im Volksglauben
und Volksbrauch,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1902, v, 236-257,
369-383; B. Struck, “African Ideas on the Subject of Earthquakes,”
_Journal of the African Society_, 1909, viii, 398-411.
[170] A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_, Oxford, 1908, pp. 17, 20, 100. The
rules imposed by Nandi custom on persons ceremonially unclean include
abstinence from work. For instance, after Nandi girls have been operated
upon at puberty, they must stay in their mothers’ huts in complete
seclusion for a month or more. After recovering from the effects of the
operation, they may be married. But if no husbands appear, the girls
continue to live in a secluded state for several weeks longer. If they go
abroad, they must always wear long masks and veils; they must not stand
near anybody or call a person by name; they may not enter a cornfield or
a cattle-kraal; and they may do no work. Again, a Nandi bride, for an
entire month after her marriage, is waited on by the bridegroom’s mother,
since it is unlawful for a bride during this period to perform labour.
Similarly, a Nandi mother, after the birth of a child, is unclean and
may not do any housework for a month (_ibid._, pp. 59 _sq._, 63 _sqq._).
Among the Habbe of the western Sudan a man, whose wife is menstruating,
dares not undertake any journey, hunt, or sow (L. Desplagnes, _Le plateau
central nigérien_, Paris, 1904, p. 227).
[171] C. W. Hobley, _Eastern Uganda_, London, 1902, p. 28 (_Occasional
Papers of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, no. 1).
[172] Sir H. H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii,
176 _sqq._
[173] W. Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, Schaffhausen, 1864, p. 528
(Barea and Kunama).
[174] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 283.
[175] H. E. Standing, “Malagasy _fady_,” _Antananarivo Annual_, 1883, no.
7, p. 74. Compare A. Grandidier, _ibid._, 1891, no. 15, p. 316; A. van
Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp. 100 _sqq._,
203.
[176] Thomas Gage, _A New Survey of the West-Indies_,⁴ London, 1699, p.
160.
[177] C. MacCauley, in _Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
p. 521.
[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_, London, 1745, pp. 149
_sq._
[179] F. Boas, in _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History_, 1901, xv, 121 _sq._ With these regulations may be compared
the restrictions which, among the Kwakiutl of British Columbia, are
imposed on a man who has eaten human flesh as a ceremonial rite and who,
therefore, is considered unclean. He must not approach his wife for an
entire year, nor is he allowed either to gamble or to work during this
time (Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the
Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_, pp. 537
_sq._).
[180] F. Boas, in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp.
427, 613 _sq._; compare _idem_, “Die Sagen der Baffin-Land Eskimos,”
_Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie,
und Urgeschichte_, 1885, p. (164) (bound with _Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie_, vol. xvii). These Eskimo observe like restrictions after the
capture of whales, seals, and walruses, which form their principal food
supply.
[181] H. W. Elliott, _Our Arctic Province_, New York, 1887, p. 389.
[182] E. W. Nelson, in _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology_, p. 319.
[183] _Ibid._, p. 312. Similarly, a hunter who has participated in the
capture of a whale is not allowed to do any work for the next four days,
that being the time during which the ghost of the whale is supposed to
stay with its body (_ibid._, p. 438).
[184] J. Murdock, in _Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p.
424. The Alaskan Eskimo are now being rapidly converted to Christianity
or, rather, are accepting as many of the Christian teachings as can be
assimilated by them to their old pagan observances. The missionary they
regard as a shaman and his prohibitions, especially those relating to
Sunday observance, they treat as so many new taboos to be added to their
long catalogue of restrictions. “An Eskimo who is a great admirer of the
white people (and some Eskimo are not) said to me once that some Eskimo
foolishly maintained that white men were less intelligent than Eskimo
are. But he said that he had a crushing reply to those who made this
statement. He would say to them: ‘Our wise men have taboos on food and
drink, they have taboos on clothing and methods of travel, on words and
thoughts; but until the white man came did we ever hear of Sunday? Did
the wisest of us ever think of the fact that a _day_ might be taboo?’”
(V. Stefánsson, “On Christianizing the Eskimo,” _Harper’s Magazine_,
1913, cxxvii, 674; _idem_, _My Life with the Eskimo_, New York, 1913, p.
412; compare pp. 36 _sq._, 89 _sqq._, 374 _sq._, 416 _sqq._)
[185] W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_,
xi, 521.
[186] W. Jochelson, _ibid._, x, 104 _sq._
[187] W. G. Sumner, “The Yakuts,” abridged from the Russian of
Sieroshevski, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 107.
[188] W. H. Bennett, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
iv, 499.
[189] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited by
E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 461.
[190] George Henderson, _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_, Glasgow,
1911, p. 296 (Isle of Iriskay).
[191] On feasts of All Souls, in general, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Adonis,
Attis, Osiris_,³ London, 1914, ii, 51-83; on the public expulsion of
evils see _idem_, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 109-169. Compare
also P. Sartori, _Die Speisung der Toten_, Dortmund, 1903, pp. 48-55.
[192] Above, pp. 13, 21 _sq._, 31, 40 _sqq._, 51, 57.
[193] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275. The king of the
Matabele was obliged to abstain from food and drink on the new moon
following the beginning of the Matabele year. The late ruler, Lobengula,
compromised this self-denying ordinance by drinking beer only out of a
bottle. During the new-moon day “he was supposed to have communication
with the spirits of his ancestors, and he abstained altogether from
business” (L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, London, 1900, p.
156).
[194] J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, London, 1905, pp.
12 _sq._ The Bahima demons, a numerous company, are mostly identified
with the various maladies from which the natives suffer. See Sir H. H.
Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii, 631 _sq._
[195] C. Velten, _Sitten und Gebräuche der Suaheli_, Göttingen, 1903, p.
342.
[196] Soury-Lavergne and de la Devèze, “La fête nationale du _fandroana_
en Imerina, Madagascar,” _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 308.
[197] A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples_, London, 1887, pp. 227
_sq._
[198] “Extracts from Diary of the late Rev. John Martin, Wesleyan
Missionary in West Africa, 1843-1848,” _Man_, 1912, xii, 138 _sq._
Compare A. J. N. Tremearne, _The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria_, London,
1912, pp. 202 _sq._
[199] A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, London, 1894, pp. 107
_sq._
[200] See H. Webster, _Primitive Secret Societies_, New York, 1908, pp.
104 _sq._
[201] Mrs. R. B. Batty, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1889, xix, 160.
[202] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 110 _sq._ The Oro rites are
attributed by Ellis to the _ogboni_ society, but it is probable that the
term “Oro” is also applied to other secret associations of Yorubaland.
[203] R. E. Dennett, _Nigerian Studies_, London, 1910, pp. 41 _sq._,
quoting Adesola in the _Nigerian Chronicle_.
[204] J. B. Walker, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1877,
vi, 121 _sq._
[205] T. J. Hutchinson, _Impressions of Western Africa_, London, 1858,
pp. 141 _sq._
[206] Scholium on Lucian, _Timon_, 43.
[207] Plato, _Leges_, vii, 800; Lucian, _Pseudologistes_, 12; Plutarch,
_De EI apud Delphos_, 20; _idem_, _De defectu oraculorum_, 14; _idem_,
_Vita Alexandri_, 14; Hesychius, _s.v._ ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι (ed. M. Schmidt,
Jena, 1867, col. 211).
[208] E. Rhode, _Psyche_,⁶ Tübingen, 1910, p. 235; P. Stengel, _Die
griechischen Sakralaltertümer_, Munich, 1890, p. 156 (with references to
the classical authorities). The fifth day of every Athenian month was
regarded as unpropitious, and hence was not dedicated to any divinity. A
superstitious avoidance of the “fifths” of the month can be traced back
to Hesiod (_Opera et dies_, 802 _sqq._).
[209] Compare Hesychius, _s.v._ μιαροὶ ἡμέραι (ed. Schmidt, col. 1045):
“the polluted days of the month of Anthesterion, on which days they
think that the souls of the departed are sent up from the nether world.”
Photius, _s.v._ μιαρὰ ἡμέρα (ed. S. A. Naber, Leiden, 1864-1865, i, 423),
says that on the second day the people used to chew buckthorn and anoint
their doors with pitch. See Frazer’s note (_The Scapegoat_, p. 153 _n._¹)
on the widespread use of buckthorn and pitch as prophylactics against
ghosts and evil influences.
[210] On the Anthesteria, from an anthropological standpoint, see
particularly Miss Jane E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion_, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 32 _sqq._, 49 _sqq._ Dr. L. R. Farnell
thinks that only in the ritual for the third and final day of the
Anthesteria have we a genuine ceremony of ghost-riddance, this day
falling so near the Dionysiac celebration as to become attached to the
latter as a mournful finale (_The Cults of the Greek States_, Oxford,
1906-1910, v, 215 _sqq._). But, on this view, it is difficult to see
why the second day, the Choes, should have been expressly mentioned as
“polluted” (μιαρά), and why the first day, the Pithoigia, should have
been described as “totally unlucky” (ἐς τὸ πᾶν άποφράς).
[211] Festus, _De verborum significatione_, ed. C. O. Müller, Leipzig,
1839, p. 156; Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 24. The _dies religiosi_
were sometimes confused, even by the ancients, with the _dies nefasti_
(compare Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv, 9, 5), which were days marked
in the calendar as occasions when the prætor’s court was not open and
assemblies (_comitia_) could not lawfully meet. But not all _dies
religiosi_ were observed as non-comitial and non-judicial days. It
seems, indeed, that the priestly authorities who drew up the calendar
did not wish to recognize these products of popular superstition by
incorporating all of them, under the guise of _dies nefasti_, in the
Roman state religion. On the _dies religiosi_, also described as _dies
atri_ or _dies vitiosi_, see G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,
Munich, 1902, pp. 376 _sq._; W. W. Fowler, _The Religious Experience of
the Roman People_, London, 1911, pp. 38 _sqq._; T. Mommsen, in _Corpus
inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 296.
[212] Gellius, _op. cit._, iv, 9, 5; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 29
_sq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, v, 419-486; W. W. Fowler, _The Roman Festivals of
the Period of the Republic_, London, 1899, pp. 106 _sqq._, 306 _sqq._ The
first eight days of the Parentalia belonged only to the sphere of family
worship, but the ninth day (Feb. 21) was also a public celebration, known
as the Feralia. The Lemuria, at least in historic times, was not a state
festival, but a purely domestic affair.
[213] Varro, _ap._ Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 18; Festus, _op. cit._,
p. 156. Compare Fowler, “Mundus Patet,” _Journal of Roman Studies_, 1912,
ii, 25-33.
[214] Both expressions are commonly derived from the Babylonian
_shabattum_; see below, p. 235.
[215] _Leviticus_, xvi, 31, xxiii, 26-32; compare _Numbers_, xxix, 7.
[216] _Leviticus_, xxv, 9; _Ezekiel_, xl, 1.
[217] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 23-25; _Numbers_, xxix, 1-7. It has been
suggested that the first ten days of the seventh month were epagomenal,
bridging the gap, as it were, between the old lunar year of 355 days and
the solar year (J. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_,³
Berlin, 1905, p. 105 _n._²; see below, p. 247 _n._²). In the ritual of
the Jewish church they are described as days of “penitence.”
[218] See Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 170 _sqq._
[219] On the relation of the Hebrew _kipper_, or atonement, to the
Assyrian _kuppuru_ and the connection of both with ideas of taboo, see R.
C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London, 1904,
ii, pp. 1 _sqq._ It is unnecessary to accept his conclusion that the
Hebrew ceremony was directly borrowed from Babylonia. The view advanced
in the text as to the antiquity of the Atonement rite may now claim the
support of Professor Grimme, who sees in this ceremony one of the oldest
elements of the Law and finds the prototype of Azazel in the hairy demons
which were believed to haunt the wilderness of northern Arabia. See H.
Grimme, “Das Alter des israelitischen Versöhnungstages,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 130-142.
[220] E. Westermarck, “The Popular Ritual of the Great Feast in Morocco,”
_Folklore_, 1911, xxii, 157 _sq._, 180 _sqq._
[221] Strabo, _Geographica_, x, 3, 9.
[222] The best study of holiness in its relation to the concept of taboo
is still that of W. Robertson Smith (_The Religion of the Semites_,²
London, 1894, chaps. iv-v). See further N. Söderblom, “Holiness (General
and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi,
731-741.
[223] “In economic theory,” writes Dr. Thorstein Veblen, “sacred holidays
are obviously to be construed as a season of vicarious leisure performed
for the divinity or saint in whose name the _tabu_ is imposed and to
whose good repute the abstention from useful effort on those days is
conceived to inure. The characteristic feature of all such seasons of
devout vicarious leisure is a more or less rigid _tabu_ on all activity
that is of human use.... Sacred holidays, and holidays generally, are of
the nature of a tribute levied on the body of the people. The tribute is
paid in vicarious leisure, and the honourific effect which emerges is
imputed to the person or the fact for whose good repute the holiday has
been instituted. Such a tithe of vicarious leisure is a perquisite of all
members of the preternatural leisure class and is indispensable to their
good fame. _Un saint qu’on ne chôme pas_ is indeed a saint fallen on evil
days” (_The Theory of the Leisure Class_, New York, 1899, pp. 309 _sq._).
[224] Above, pp. 13, 15, 47, 49, 79.
[225] J. W. Breeks, _An Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of
the Nīlagiris_, London, 1873, p. 44.
[226] P. Dehon, in _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1906, i,
no. 1, p. 144.
[227] W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 232.
[228] C. K. Menon, “Some Agricultural Ceremonies in Malabar,” Madras
Government Museum, _Bulletin_, 1906, v, 104 _sq._
[229] Henry Whitehead, “The Village Deities of Southern India,” Madras
Government Museum, _Bulletin_, 1907, v, 128 _sq._ The whole subject of
these Dravidian festivals has now been carefully investigated by my
former pupil Mr. W. T. Elmore. See his monograph “Dravidian Gods in
Modern Hinduism,” _University Studies_, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1915, xv,
1-152.
[230] Several of the Hindu festivals are accompanied by prayer, fasting,
bathing, and oblation. One of the minor ceremonies during the month
of February is intended to “avert smallpox.” See E. W. Hopkins, _The
Religions of India_, Boston, 1895, p. 452 _n._²; H. H. Wilson, _Essays
and Lectures chiefly on the Religions of the Hindus_, London, 1862, ii,
209 _sq._
[231] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 21; _Numbers_, xxviii, 26.
[232] The ethnographic evidence relating to first-fruits has been
very fully collected by Sir J. G. Frazer (_Spirits of the Corn and
of the Wild_, London, 1912, ii, 48-137). See also J. A. MacCulloch,
“First-fruits (Introductory and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, vi, 41-45; E. N. Fallaize, “Harvest,” _ibid._, vi,
520-525.
[233] On the Tongan _inachi_ see above, pp. 18 _sq._
[234] Below, pp. 250 _sq._
[235] Plato, _Leges_, ii, 653.
[236] E. E. Sikes, “Folk-lore in the ‘Works and Days’ of Hesiod,”
_Classical Review_, 1893, vii, 390. The Hesiodic injunction (_Opera et
dies_, 742-743):
μηδ’ ἀπὸ πεντόζοιο θεῶν ἐν δαιτὶ θαλείῃ
αὖον ἀπὸ χλωροῦ τάμνειν αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ
stripped of its metaphorical setting, means simply, “Do not cut your
nails with iron on a joyous festival of the gods.” This taboo may be
compared with the rule observed by the Flaminica Dialis at Rome, who,
during the celebration of the festival called the Vestalia, might not cut
her hair or nails (Ovid, _Fasti_, vi, 225-226). The Roman antiquarian,
Pliny the Elder, refers to the belief that it is ominous to pare the
nails on market days (_nundinæ_), but to cut the hair on the 17th
and 29th days of the month is a preventive of baldness and headache
(_Historia naturalis_, xxviii, 5). These pagan superstitions have passed
into modern European folklore, being widely current, for example, in
England (W. Henderson, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties
of England and the Borders_, London, 1879, pp. 17 _sq._), as in the
familiar lines:
“Better a child had ne’er been born
Then cut his nails on a Sunday morn!”
Or, as another old English rhyme runs:
“Sunday shaven, Sunday shorn,
Better hadst thou ne’er been born!”
In certain parts of Ireland people will not shave on Sunday (G. H.
Kinahan, in _Folk-lore Record_, 1881, iv, 105). Besides Sunday, Friday is
often considered an unlucky day for cutting hair or nails, and sometimes
a distinction is made between the two days, as in Northumberland, where
it is unlucky to cut hair on a Friday or to pare nails on a Sunday
(_Denham Tracts_, ed. J. Hardy, ii, 343). In Macedonia Wednesday and
Friday are the two days when the nails should not be cut, while Sunday
is unpropitious for bathing (G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folk-lore_,
Cambridge, 1903, p. 190). Similar taboos are found outside of Europe.
The Egyptians hold Saturday to be particularly unfavourable for shaving
and cutting the nails (E. W. Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern
Egyptians_,⁵ London, 1871, i, 331), while the Jews in Jerusalem think
that the nails should be cut early in the week, so that they may not
start growing on the Sabbath (Miss A. Goodrich-Freer, in _Folklore_,
1904, xv, 187). These superstitions may rest ultimately on the notion
that such acts as hair-cutting, shaving, and nail-paring are ritually
unclean, and hence that their performance on a sacred day would defile
the festival. See in general on this subject, E. E. Sikes, “Hair and
Nails,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi, 474-476.
[237] Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 34; Xenophon, _Hellenica_, i, 4, 12;
Pollux, _Onomasticon_, viii, 141.
[238] Compare Miss Jane E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion_, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 114 _sqq._
[239] Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 32; Ovid, _Fasti_, vi, 219 _sqq._,
707 _sqq._; Festus, _De verborum significatione_, ed. C. O. Müller, p.
250; Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, pp. 145 _sqq._
[240] In addition to the Parentalia, Lemuria, and Vestalia, the occasions
on which the Salii performed their dances in March and October (Ovid,
_Fasti_, iii, 393 _sqq._; Livy, xxxvii, 33; Suetonius, _Otho_, 8) and the
two days succeeding the _feriæ Latinæ_ (Cicero, _Ad Qu. frat._, ii, 4, 2)
were included among the _dies religiosi_.
[241] See G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, Munich, 1902, pp.
365-381; _idem_, in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
Altertumswissenschaft_, vi, coll. 2211-2213; A. S. Wilkins, in Smith,
Wayte, and Marindin’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,³
ii, 836-838; and especially C. Jullian, in Daremberg and Saglio’s
_Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines_, iv, 1042-1066. The
plural form _feriæ_ indicates that the festival day recurs periodically;
compare the similar usage as respects _nundinæ_ (below, p. 120). _Feriæ_
seems to have been first written _fesiæ_, whence the word _festus_. On
the derivation of _feriæ_ see A. Walde, _Lateinisches etymologisches
Wörterbuch_,² Heidelberg, 1910, pp. 270 _sq._
[242] Above, pp. 25, 38 _sq._, 43 _sq._, 53.
[243] Festus, _De verborum significatione: denicales feriæ colebantur,
cum hominis mortui causa familia purgabatur_ (ed. Müller, p. 70); compare
Cicero, _De legibus_, ii, 22, 55. It was not lawful to bury a corpse on a
public holiday, doubtless through fear of polluting the sacredness of the
occasion. See Columella, _De re rustica_, ii, 22, 5.
[244] Cato, _De agri cultura_, 138. Compare the Mosaic injunction
relating to the Sabbath (_Deuteronomy_, v, 14).
[245] Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 664 _sq._:
_Pagus agat festum: pagum lustrate, coloni;_
_Et date paganis ennua liba focis._
Some ancient authorities (Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi, 26; Macrobius,
_Saturnalia_, i, 16, 6) appear to distinguish the Paganalia from the
_feriæ sementivæ_. On this festival see Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, pp.
294 _sqq._; _idem_, _The Religious Experience of the Roman People_,
London, 1911, pp. 61 _sq._
[246] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 8. On the taboos affecting the
Flamen and Flaminica see F. B. Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane Questions_,
London, 1892, pp. lxxiii _sqq._; Sir J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils
of the Soul_, pp. 13 _sq._ The Flamen was in a condition of permanent
taboo—_Dialis cotidie feriatus est_ (Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, x, 15, 16).
[247] Appian, _Bellum civile_, i, 55; Plutarch, _Sulla_, 8; Dio Cassius,
xxxviii, 6.
[248] Cicero, _De legibus_, ii, 8, 19; compare ii, 12, 29; _idem_, _De
divinatione_, i, 45, 102.
[249] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 9: _Pollux ferias, si ... opus
aliquod fieret_; Festus, _s.v._ _præciamitatores: ut homines se ab opere
abstinerent, quia his opus facientem videre irreligiosum erat_ (ed.
Müller, p. 248).
[250] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 10.
[251] _Ibid._, i, 16, 11; compare _Matthew_, xii, 11; _Luke_, xiv, 5.
[252] Cato, _De agri cultura_, ii, 4.
[253] Vergil, _Georgica_, i, 268-272, with the commentary of Servius. An
entire chapter of Columella’s treatise on husbandry (_De re rustica_, ii,
22) is devoted to a discussion of what may and what may not be done by a
farmer on ferial days. The pontifical law in such matters was as minute,
tyrannical, and absurd as the rabbinical ordinances relating to the
proper observance of the Sabbath. See below, p. 263.
[254] Livy, i, 31, iii, 5, vii, 28, xxi, 62, xxv, 7, xxxiv, 55, xxxv, 40,
xli, 21, xlii, 2; Suetonius, _Divus Claudius_, 22. Many more instances
are given by Julius Obsequens in his curious work, _De prodigiis_, 22,
33, 54, 58, 68, 104, 111.
[255] Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, ii, 24, 11; compare Horace, _Carmina_,
ii, 3, 6-9.
[256] The Indians of Cape Flattery, state of Washington, are said to keep
the month of August as a period of repose when no berries are picked
and no fish are taken from the sea, except occasionally by children (J.
G. Swan, in _Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_, xvi, no. 220,
p. 91). Perhaps the practice was consciously designed to establish a
“close season,” though this is probably attributing too much foresight
to the Indian. The fish or berries may have been considered unfit for
eating in August. After gathering the yam harvest the Bini of Benin
keep the first month of the dry season as a time of idleness (R. E.
Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, London, 1906, p. 216).
Here a period of rest is observed by an agricultural people because they
have no special labour to perform. Among the Akikuyu of British East
Africa there are three months in the year when little or no work is
done, since the crops are then ripening (K. R. Dundas, in _Man_, 1909,
ix, 38). The Yuchi Indians, now in the state of Oklahoma, keep autumn
as “a period of combined rest, hunting, and enjoyment.” The winter,
also, is passed in idleness and recreation (F. G. Speck, _Ethnology of
the Yuchi Indians_, Philadelphia, 1909, p. 67). Dr. C. G. Seligmann
has sent to me, in manuscript, some curious information regarding a
division of time observed by the Sinaugolo, a hill-tribe to the east of
Port Moresby, British New Guinea. It seems that long ago, according to
Sinaugolo tradition, the people had to labour incessantly and enjoyed no
opportunity to celebrate their dances and other festive ceremonies. So
they instituted what was called the _kaba_ period as a relaxation from
the hard work of ordinary life. During this period, which recurred every
other year or oftener, the Sinaugolo danced and held their most important
feasts. The division of time into _kaba_ and _dauka_ (specially devoted
to labour) has now lapsed.
[257] _The Evolution of the Aryan_, translated by A. Drucker, London,
1897, p. 117.
[258] On primitive markets see Karl Andree, _Geographie des Welthandels_,
Stuttgart, 1867, i, 40-81; C. Köhne, “Markt-, Kaufmanns- und Handelsrecht
in primitiven Kulturverhältnissen,” _Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Rechtswissenschaft_, 1895, xi, 196-220; R. Lasch, “Das Marktwesen auf den
primitiven Kulturstufen,” _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_, 1906,
ix, 619-627, 700-715, 764-782; H. Schurtz, _Das afrikanische Gewerbe_,
Leipzig, 1900, pp. 115-122; P. J. Hamilton Grierson, _The Silent Trade_,
Edinburgh, 1903, pp. 54-62; H. L. Roth, “Trading in Early Days,”
_Bankfield Museum Notes_, Halifax (Eng.), 1908, no. 5, pp. 23 _sqq._;
N. W. Thomas, “The Market in African Law and Custom,” _Journal of the
Society of Comparative Legislation_, 1908, n.s., no. 19, pp. 90-106.
[259] Some observers use ambiguous language, when referring to the
length—four, five, six days, etc.—of market weeks. Throughout this
chapter I have regularly translated by “every fifth day” such expressions
as “tous les cinq jours,” “de cinq en cinq jours,” “alle fünf Tage,”
“einmal in fünf Tagen,” and “einmaal in de vijf dagen.”
[260] A. W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-east Australia_, London,
1904, pp. 714 _sqq._ On Australian barter see G. C. Wheeler, _The Tribe
and Intertribal Relations in Australia_, London, 1910, pp. 93-97.
[261] A. C. Haddon, _Head-hunters, Black, White, and Brown_, London,
1901, pp. 265, 269.
[262] James Chalmers, in Chalmers and Gill, _Work and Adventure in New
Guinea_, London, 1885, pp. 40 sq. Compare M. Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_,
Berlin, 1899, p. 335. Sir William MacGregor observes that the institution
of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, “is not quite new to the Papuan,
but ... the Papuan Sabbath of Keapara [Kerepunu] exceeds the Hebrew
in dividing time into weeks of three days. The great majority of the
tribes, however, do not seem to have a regular week, and work or rest
capriciously” (_British New Guinea_, London, 1897, pp. 44 _sq._). See
above, p. 26 _n._¹
[263] C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_,
Cambridge, 1910, pp. 48, 94 (Koita).
[264] J. S. A. van Dissel, in _Tijdschrift van het koninklijk
nederlandsch aardrijkskundig genootschap_, 1904, second series, xxi, 644.
[265] J. Graf Pfeil, _Studien und Beobachtungen aus der Südsee_,
Brunswick, 1899, p. 116.
[266] J. J. Atkinson, in _Folklore_, 1903, xiv, 245. Mr. Atkinson in
this passage probably has in mind the European week introduced into New
Caledonia by the French.
[267] Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, London, 1908, p. 288; Wilkes,
_Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iii, 300 _sq._ (Somu-Somu,
in the Fiji group); J. J. Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich
Islands_,² Boston, 1843, p. 77.
[268] P. Sarasin and F. Sarasin, _Reisen in Celebes_, Wiesbaden, 1905,
ii, 324.
[269] W. Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_,³ London, 1811, pp. 379 _sq._;
F. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, Berlin, 1847, pp. 227 _sq._;
J. v. Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras_, Würzburg, 1894, p.
291; B. Hagen, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1883, xxix, 173 (Batta of
Lake Toba); W. Volz, _Nord-Sumatra_, Berlin, 1909, i, 267.
[270] Sir T. S. Raffles, _History of Java_,² London, 1830, i, 531; P. J.
Veth, _Java_,² Haarlem, 1907, iv, 296 _sqq._ The names of the days in
the _pasar_ were considered to bear a mystical relation to colours and
the divisions of the horizon, the first day (white, east), the second
(red, south), the third (yellow, west), the fourth (black, north), and
the fifth day a mixed colour, and _focus_, or centre. See John Crawfurd,
_History of the Indian Archipelago_, Edinburgh, 1820, i, 289 _sq._ These
fancies must be explained by the colour symbolism which so frequently
attaches to the cardinal points.
[271] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878,
n.s., x, 88 _sqq._; compare _ibid._, 1876, n.s., viii, 198.
[272] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, pp. 545 _sq._
[273] J. Richard, _Histoire naturelle, civile, et politique du Tonquin_,
Paris, 1778, i, 151.
[274] Lillian J. Curtis, _The Laos of North Siam_, Philadelphia, 1903, p.
132.
[275] Mrs. Leslie Milne, _The Shans at Home_, London, 1910, p. 132.
[276] C. E. D. Black, in _Geographical Journal_, 1895, vi, 30 (Shan
of Upper Burma). Compare also _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, p.
536 (Shan of Lower Burma).
[277] R. G. Woodthorpe, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1897, xxvi, 19.
[278] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 189. According to
C. Becker (_Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 894) the market is called _jeu duh_.
[279] Gurdon, _op. cit._, p. 190. Compare Sir J. D. Hooker (_Himalayan
Journals_, London, 1891, p. 487), who attributes the fourth-day markets
to the Khasi generally.
[280] J. L. Krapf, _Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours_, London,
1867, pp. 82, 365.
[281] W. W. A. Fitzgerald, _Travels in the Coastlands of British East
Africa_, London, 1898, p. 111, quoting W. E. Taylor, _Vocabulary of the
Giryama Language_, London, 1897. The name applied to the first day of
the week—_jumwa_—is directly taken from the Arabic _al jum‘a_ (Friday,
the Mohammedan day of worship), from which circumstance it may be
concluded that the Wagiriama observe _jumwa_ both as a market day and a
rest day. Similarly, the name of the weekly market held at Antananarivo,
the capital of Madagascar, is _zoma_, or Friday (_Antananarivo Annual_,
1889-1892, iv, 372).
[282] K. R. Dundas, in _Man_, 1909, ix, 38.
[283] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
People_, London, 1910, pp. 105 _sq._
[284] A. Widenmann, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1899, Ergänzungsheft,
no. 129, p. 69; M. Merker, _ibid._, 1902, no. 138, p. 25; G. Volkens,
_Der Kilimandscharo_, Berlin, 1897, p. 239; B. Gutmann, “Feldbausitten
und Wachstumsbräuche der Wadschagga,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913,
xlv, 502.
[285] Horace Waller, editor, _The Last Journals of David Livingstone in
Central Africa_, New York, 1875, p. 367. See also V. L. Cameron, _Across
Africa_, London, 1877, ii, 3.
[286] E. Torday, in _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
Wien_, 1911, xli, 192.
[287] H. v. Wissmann _et al._, _Im Innern Afrikas_,³ Leipzig, 1891, p.
252.
[288] H. v. Wissmann, _My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa_,
London, 1891, p. 125.
[289] Torday and Joyce, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1906, xxxvi, 44. Each day of the Bayaka week bears a name, the last being
_pungu_, or market day (_ibid._, p. 47).
[290] Torday and Joyce, _ibid._, 1905, xxxv, 413. The Bambala year
consists of thirteen lunar months, each divided into seven weeks of four
days, the last day of each week being _pika_, or market day.
[291] Torday and Joyce, _ibid._, 1906, xxxvi, 291.
[292] Sir H. H. Johnston, _The River Congo_, London, 1884, p. 455.
[293] H. H. Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, London, 1900, i, 399 _sq._
[294] J. K. Tuckey, _Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River
Zaire_, New York, 1818, p. 238.
[295] E. Pechuël-Loesche, in _Die Loango-Expedition_, dritte Abteilung,
erste Hälfte, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 139. See also A. Bastian, _Die deutsche
Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, Jena, 1874, i, 209.
[296] R. E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, London, 1906,
pp. 64, 140; _idem_, _Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort_, London, 1898,
pp. 8, 137. Among the lower Congo tribes, generally, the dead are buried
only on two of the four weekdays (J. H. Weeks, in _Folklore_, 1909, xx,
61; compare _idem_, _Among the Primitive Bakongo_, Philadelphia, 1914, p.
249).
[297] L. B. Proyart, _Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et autres royaumes
d’Afrique_, Paris, 1776, p. 116. A still earlier reference to this
African Sabbath will be found in G. A. Cavazzi da Montecuccoli,
_Istorica descrizione de’ tre regni Congo, Matamba, et Angola_, Bologna,
1687, p. 24. For further details relating to markets and market weeks
among the lower Congo peoples see Herbert Ward, _Five Years with the
Congo Cannibals_, London, 1890, p. 59; J. H. Weeks, _Congo Life and
Folklore_, London, 1911, pp. 227 _sq._; H. Nipperdey, “Zur Bedeutung
der Wochen-Märkte am Congo,” _Revue coloniale internationale_, 1887,
v, 205-214; A. Thonnar, _Essai sur le système économique des primitifs
d’après les populations de l’état indépendant du Congo_, Brussels,
1901, pp. 82-114; A. Cureau, _Les sociétés primitives de l’Afrique
équatoriale_, Paris, 1912, pp. 295 _sqq._
[298] F. Hutter, _Wanderungen und Forschungen im Nord-Hinterland von
Kamerun_, Brunswick, 1902, pp. 266, 360; compare Preuss, in _Deutsches
Kolonialblatt_, 1898, ix, 456.
[299] W. F. Daniell, in _Journal of the Ethnological Society_, 1848, i,
222 _sq._
[300] A. G. Leonard, _The Lower Niger and its Tribes_, London, 1906,
pp. 305, 375; William Allen, _Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her
Majesty’s Government to the River Niger in 1841_, London, 1848, i, 398;
N. W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of
Nigeria_, London, 1913, i, 127. Seven weeks are here counted to the month
of twenty-eight days (W. F. Baikie, _Narrative of an Exploring Voyage_,
London, 1856, p. 316). An early missionary to west Africa observes
that among the Ibo, Igara, and other Nigerian tribes the week consists
of four days, viz. _eke_, a market day and unlucky for the _ata_, or
chief, to see strangers, _ede_, a lucky or good day, _afo_, an unlucky
day, and _uko_, a lucky day. Besides these days of good and evil omen
the Mohammedans have made the natives believe that Friday is an unlucky
day to undertake any work of importance (S. A. Crowther, in _The Church
Missionary Intelligencer_, 1865, n.s., i, 55).
[301] J. Parkinson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906,
xxxvi, 317.
[302] N. W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Edo-speaking Peoples
of Nigeria_, London, 1910, i, 18 _sq._ That the eight-day week of
the Bini has developed from a more ancient four-day week is also the
opinion of R. E. Dennett (_At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, pp.
214, 364). The Bini week has been stated to consist of five days (Cyril
Punch, quoted in H. L. Roth, _Great Benin_, Halifax [Eng.], 1903, p. 52
_n._¹), but this is certainly an error. An early traveller among the
Bini declares that their Sabbath “happens every fifth day, which is very
solemnly observed by the great with the slaughter of cows, sheep, and
goats, whilst the commonalty kill dogs, cats, and chickens, or whatever
their money will reach to. And of whatever is killed, large portions
are distributed to the necessitous, in order to enable them, as every
person is obliged to celebrate this festival” (David van Nyendael, “A
Description of Rio Formosa, or the River of Benin,” in W. Bosman, _A New
and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea_, London, 1705, p. 456).
[303] A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples_, London, 1887, pp. 89, 93.
On the Gold Coast white seems to be the special colour appropriate for
holy or festive days. On a man’s birthday, which is sacred to his _kra_,
or tenanting spirit, he abstains from work, puts white clay on his face,
and dons a white cloth (_ibid._, p. 156). On the Tshi holy days, observed
by families or private persons only, see further Bosman, _op. cit._,
p. 153; W. Hutton, _A Voyage to Africa_, London, 1821, p. 166 _n._*
(Ashanti); E. Perregaux, _Chez les Achanti_, Neuchâtel, 1906, p. 272; J.
Parkinson, in _Man_, 1911, xi, 2 (Appolonians).
[304] Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, London, 1894, p. 145.
[305] _Ibid._, p. 149.
[306] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 220 _sq._ Beecham declares that
were the fishermen to go out to sea on this day, “the fetish would be
angry and spoil their fishing” (_Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London,
1841, p. 186). Compare also Bosman, _op. cit._, p. 160; Miss Mary H.
Kingsley, _West African Studies_,² London, 1901, p. 145.
[307] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 220, 304.
[308] _Idem_, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples_, London, 1890, pp. 41, 79.
[309] _Ako-ojo_, “First Day”; _ojo-awo_, “Day of the Secret,” sacred
to Ifa; _ojo-ogun_, “Day of Ogun,” the god of iron; _ojo-shango_, “Day
of Shango,” the god of thunder; _ojo-obatala_, “Obatala’s Day.” A holy
day is called _ose_ (_se_, to disallow), and because each holy day
recurs weekly, _ose_ has also come to mean the week of five days (Ellis,
_Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 145 _sq._). According to an earlier writer
_osse_ (_ose_), or holy day, comes from a word signifying silence. This
expression was transferred to the Christian Sunday, with which the
Yoruba became familiar after the year 1822, when many of them emigrated
to Sierra Leone (Miss Sarah Tucker, _Abbeokuta; or Sunrise within the
Tropics_,² London, 1853, p. 37 _n._*). Whether the Yoruba week really
consists of five days seems open to grave doubt. Bishop James Johnson, a
native African, substantiates Ellis by giving the names of the five days
(quoted in Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, p. 245), and
also speaks of “every fifth day, which is the close of a week of _oses_,
or worshipping days” (_ibid._, p. 251). But Mr. Dennett himself, in his
latest work, cites three native informants in favour of a week of four
days. Moreover, Shango’s (Jakuta’s) Day is described by Mr. Dennett as
the Yoruba “Sunday.” The first day of the week is Ogun’s Day, the other
weekdays following in the order given by Ellis. It is to be noted that
Ogun’s Day, the first, fifth, ninth, and so on, is the regular market
day. The god Ogun in some parts of Yorubaland has taken the place of
another deity, Odudua, whom Mr. Dennett found to be universally regarded
as the originator of the system of weekdays (_Nigerian Studies_,
London, 1910, pp. 72-80). A five-day week has been noted among the
Jebu of southeastern Yorubaland (D’Avezac, in _Mémoires de la société
ethnologique_, 1845, ii, pt. ii, 81), and Burton refers to the same
institution among the Egba, by whom the terminal day is called _ose_ (R.
F. Burton, _Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains_, London, 1863, i, 205).
[310] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 145.
[311] F. E. Forbes, _Dahomey and the Dahomans_, London, 1851, p. 181.
For every fourth day as the market day at Whydah see P. E. Isert, _Neue
Reise nach Guinea und den Caribäischen Inseln in Amerika_, Berlin, 1790,
p. 132. Bosman (_op. cit._, p. 352) makes the Fida (Whyda) market recur
every third day. A great market every sixth day is said to be held in the
district about the town of Ardrah (Allada), Dahomey (John Adams, _Remarks
on the Country extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo_, London,
1823, p. 88).
[312] Four-day weeks: R. Plehn, _Beiträge zur Völkerkunde des
Togo-Gebietes_, Halle, 1898, p. 9; J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_, Berlin,
1906, p. 311 (Ho); five-day weeks: R. Plehn, in _Mitteilungen von
Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_,
1896, ix, 123; six-day weeks: von Zech, _ibid._, 1898, xi, 128;
Christaller, in _Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft für
Thüringen_, 1890, viii, 121; L. Conradt, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_,
1896, xlii, 15 (Adele). The Akposo, who have a week of five days, keep
the fifth day sacred to their creator-god, Uwolowo, whose name it bears.
The other gods are worshipped on the second day of the week, a time when
no work may be done (F. Müller, in _Anthropos_, 1907, ii, 201).
[313] A. Mischlich, in _Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und
Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_, 1896, ix, 83.
[314] E. Henrici, _Lehrbuch der Ephe-Sprache_, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 59
_sq._ The names of the seven weekdays in the Ewe and Tshi languages are
almost identical. See the lists in Henrici, _op. cit._, pp. 59 _sq._, and
Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 218. The Ewe have borrowed from the
Tshi not only the names of the weekdays but also the custom of giving to
private persons names derived from those of the weekdays (Henrici, _op.
cit._, p. 60).
[315] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 146 _sq._; _idem_,
_Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 218.
[316] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 147. For the names of the Ga
weekdays, see _ibid._, p. 143. An early writer, whose observations were
confined to Akkra on the Gold Coast, speaks of _haughbah_ (_ho-gba_) as
one of the two sacred days of the seven-day week. It is compulsory for
all ranks and sexes, but is especially observed by the women. “Under the
supposition that some malign potency pervades the surrounding country on
this day, more particularly directed against the pregnant women, their
daily avocations are restricted within the walls of their domiciles, no
egress being tolerated either for the purposes of travelling or other
exterior occupations. Not many people, therefore, presume to violate
these injunctions by issuing forth early in the forenoon, and none resort
to their familiar haunts in the markets or public thoroughfares, until
the prohibition has been withdrawn, by the well-known sign of a declining
sun” (W. F. Daniell, in _Journal of the Ethnological Society_, 1856, iv,
23).
[317] R. A. Freeman, _Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jáman_,
Westminster, 1898, p. 176 (market every fourth day among the Gaman, a
Tshi-speaking people); M. Monnier, _France noire_, Paris, 1894, p. 209
(market every fifth day in Kong); L. G. Binger, _Du Niger au golfe de
Guinée_, Paris, 1892, i, 370 (market every fifth day among the Diulasu);
L. Desplagnes, _Le plateau central nigérien_, Paris, 1907, p. 377 (market
every sixth day among the Habbe). A market every ninth day is described
as being held at Bocqua in Northern Nigeria (R. Lander and J. Lander,
_Journal of an Expedition to explore the Course and Termination of the
Niger_, London, 1832, iii, 73, 82). For a general account of markets
among the Nigerian peoples see A. Hovelacque, _Les nègres de l’Afrique
sus-équatoriale_, Paris, 1889, pp. 355 _sqq._
[318] A. Mischlich, _Lehrbuch der hausanischen Sprache_, Berlin, 1902, p.
127 (Hausa); J. S. Gallieni, _Voyage au Soudan français, Haut-Niger, et
pays de Segou_, Paris, 1885, p. 436 (Segu); R. Callié, _Travels through
Central Africa to Timbuctoo_, London, 1830, i, 323, 346 (Mandingo);
A. Hacquard, _Monographie de Tombouctou_, Paris, 1900, p. 55; O.
Lenz, _Timbuktu_, Leipzig, 1884, i, 154. The Bali market is said to
be held every seventh day, _i.e._, on Friday. Here, again, Mohammedan
influence is to be suspected (F. Hutter, _Wanderungen und Forschungen im
Nord-Hinterland von Kamerun_, Brunswick, 1902, p. 361).
[319] C. van Overbergh, _Les Mayombe_, Brussels, 1907, p. 353; A. de
Calonne Beaufaict, _Études Bakango_, Liége, 1912, p. 79; J. H. Weeks,
_Among the Primitive Bakongo_, Philadelphia, 1914, pp. 248 _sq._ Some
of the Galla tribes have been so far affected by Arabic influences as
to hold their markets every seventh day (P. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie
Nordost-Afrikas. Die materielle Kultur der Danâkil, Galla, und Somâl_,
Berlin, 1893, p. 313).
[320] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 217. So also B. Cruickshank
(_Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa_, London, 1853, ii, 189
_sq._).
[321] No evidence for markets has been discovered among the Bantu tribes
south of the Zambesi. The absence of markets elsewhere is sometimes
specifically noted by our authorities; see F. Thonner, _Im afrikanischen
Urwald_, Berlin, 1898, p. 33 (Mondunga, on the Dua River, Belgian Congo);
J. Maes, in _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 357 (Mongelima, on the Aruwimi
River, Belgian Congo); A. J. N. Tremearne, _The Tailed Head-hunters of
Nigeria_, London, 1912, p. 245 (Kagoro and other pagan tribes of Northern
Nigeria).
[322] Above, pp. 107, 109, 111.
[323] D. F. S. Clavigero, _Storia antica del Messico_, Cesena, 1780, ii,
62, 163; B. de Sahagun, _Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España_,
transl. Jourdanet and Siméon, Paris, 1880, pp. lxxiii, 290 _sq._; A.
von Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, Paris, 1816, ii, 340; G. Brühl,
_Die Culturvölker Alt-Amerikas_, New York, 1887, p. 234; J. Kohler, “Das
Recht der Azteken,” _Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft_,
1895, xi, 75, 87; E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_,
Oxford, 1892-1899, ii, 359. A greater market or fair was sometimes held
once in every cycle of twenty days, that is, on every fourth ordinary
market day. Eighteen market months were included in the solar year. How
such “months” may arise is illustrated by a Yoruba mode of computing
time by periods of seventeen days, that being the number of days in four
market weeks, when the first and fifth days of each cycle are counted in
(Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 149 _sq._).
[324] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique
et de l’Amérique-Centrale_, Paris, 1858, iii, 464.
[325] A. von Humboldt, _op. cit._, i, 340, ii, 227; Brühl, _op. cit._, p.
239; compare p. 326, where a market every fourth day is stated to have
been held in Turmequé. In Sorotoca the market took place every eighth day
(_ibid._). But authentic details concerning the Chibcha calendar are not
to be had. According to von Humboldt (_op. cit._, ii, 244) ten of the
Muysca “weeks” formed a lunation called _suna_. The _suna_ began, not at
new moon, but at full moon.
[326] Garcilasso de la Vega, _Comentarios reales de los Incas_, pt. i,
bk. vi, ch. 35; C. R. Markham, _First Part of the Royal Commentaries
of the Yncas_, London, 1871, ii, 206. It is an old error, for which
Garcilasso de la Vega (_op. cit._, pt. i, bk. ii, ch. 23) appears to be
responsible, that the Peruvians had a week of seven days, following the
successive phases of the moon. But Acosta, who visited Peru soon after
the Spanish conquest of that country, is better informed and says clearly
that neither Peruvians nor Mexicans had a seven-day week (J. de Acosta,
_Historia de las Indias_, bk. vi, ch. 3; _The Natural and Moral History
of the Indies_, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii, 396).
[327] See G. E. Marindin, in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin’s _Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Antiquities_,³ ii, 251 _sq._; M. Besnier, in Daremberg,
Saglio, and Pottier’s _Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines_,
vii, 120-122; E. Huschke, _Das alte römische Jahr und seine Tage_,
Breslau, 1869, pp. 288-312; R. Flex, _Die älteste Monatseinteilung der
Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 16 _sqq._; and especially P. Huvelin, _Essai
historique sur le droit des marchés et des foires_, Paris, 1897, pp.
84-99. According to the Roman system of inclusive reckoning—which
may be compared with that sometimes employed in Yorubaland (p. 119
_n._¹)—the market fell on the ninth day, as the derivation of the word
_nundinæ_ (from _novem_) indicates. It has been suggested by H. Diels
(_Sibyllinische Blätter_, Berlin, 1890, p. 41 _n._¹) that the choice of
the ninth day was influenced by the symbolism attaching to the number
nine among the Romans, as among other Indo-European peoples; compare the
Nones, or the ninth day before the Ides, and the nine days’ festivals
(_novemdiales feriæ_). Probably, however, the Roman market week consisted
originally of four days only, and later was doubled to form the cycle
employed in historic times. The nundinal days were not named, but were
indicated in the calendars by letters of the alphabet from A to H.
[328] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 32 _sq._; Dionysius
Halicarnassensis, _Antiquitates Romanæ_, ii, 28, vii, 58; compare Varro,
_De re rustica_, ii, præf. Cicero attributes the institution of markets
to Numa (_De republica_, ii, 14, 27).
[329] _Tertiis nundinis partis secanto (Tabula_ iii, 6, in Gellius,
_Noctes Atticæ_, xx, i, 49).
[330] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 30; Pliny, _Historia naturalis_,
xviii, 3. I accept the view that the _lex Hortensia_ converted the
_nundinæ_ into _dies fasti non comitiales_, that is, forbade comitial
meetings on these dates, though allowing judicial business to be done
thereon. For this explanation see G. W. Botsford, _The Roman Assemblies_,
New York, 1909, pp. 139, 315, 471; Marquardt-Wissowa, _Römische
Staatsverwaltung_, Leipzig, 1885, iii,² 290. It has been maintained that
toward the end of the republican period the prohibition referred to was
no longer observed (P. Groebe, in Drumann-Groebe, _Geschichte Roms_,²
Berlin, 1899-1906, iii, 779).
[331] Above, pp. 94 _sqq._
[332] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 16, 30. According to Plutarch
(_Quæstiones Romanæ_, 42), the _nundinæ_ were consecrated to Saturn.
[333] _Omnes judices urbanæque plebes et cunctarum artium officia
venerabili die Solis quiescant_ (_Codex Justinianus_, iii, 12, 3).
The prohibition of holding court on Sunday was relaxed by Constantine
in the same year so far as to permit such legal proceedings as the
emancipation and manumission of slaves to take place at this time (_Codex
Theodosianus_, ii, 8, 1). Eusebius (_Vita Constantini_, iv, 18-20) tells
us that the emperor forbade all military exercises on Sunday.
[334] Above, p. 98.
[335] _Provisione etiam pietatis su[a]e nundinas die Solis perpeti anno
constituit_ (_Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, iii, no. 4121, p. 523).
Markets were held on Sunday in many parts of Europe until late in the
Middle Ages, in spite of numerous edicts, ecclesiastical and civil,
forbidding the practice (Huvelin, _op. cit._, pp. 46, 156 _sq._).
[336] The date of the obsolescence of the _nundinæ_ is not definitely
known. The _fasti Philocali_ (354 A.D.) marks the days of the seven-day
week by the letters A-G, and gives side by side the old nundinal letters
A-H (_Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 256 _sqq._). This
arrangement had probably become a feature of the state calendar since the
Sunday legislation of Constantine.
[337] P. Ehrenreich, _Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen
Grundlagen_, Leipzig, 1910, pp. 114-127; S. Arrhenius, “Über den Ursprung
des Gestirnkultus,” _Scientia_, 1911, ix, pp. 424 _sqq._, Sir J. G.
Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ London, 1914, ii, 140-150; E. J.
Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford, 1892-1899, i,
547 _sqq._; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, Leipzig, 1890,
pp. 1-16, and _Nachträge_, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 1-19. For the ideas of
civilized children relating to the moon see J. W. Slaughter, “The Moon in
Childhood and Folklore,” _American Journal of Psychology_, 1902, xiii,
294-318; G. S. Hall, “Note on Moon Fancies,” _ibid._, 1903, xiv, 88-91.
[338] Albîrûnî, _India_, translated by C. E. Sachau, London, 1888, i, 346
_sq._ Compare the fine passage in Apuleius (_Metamorphoses_, xi, 1).
[339] Spix and Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_, Munich, 1823-1831, i, 381,
iii, 1186.
[340] K. Weule, _Native Life in East Africa_, London, 1909, p. 188. On
the other hand, children of the Bageshu, a Bantu people of British East
Africa, are expected to take part in new-moon dances, since it is thought
that they derive benefit from the moon (J. Roscoe, in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, 1909, xxxix, 193). A Baganda mother believes
that her child will grow strong and healthy, if it is shown the first
new moon after its birth (_idem_, _The Baganda_, London, 1911, p. 58).
Similarly, it is said that in the island of Kiriwina, the largest of the
Trobriand group to the east of New Guinea, a mother always presents her
child to the first new moon after its birth, in order that it may grow
fast and talk soon (George Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, London,
1910, p. 37).
[341] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3.
[342] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited by
E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 391 (Oldenburg).
[343] W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography_, _Bulletin_, 1903, no.
5, p. 7.
[344] W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd, _Specimens of Bushman Folk-lore_,
London, 1911, pp. 67 _sq._
[345] W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_,
xi, 306.
[346] C. M. Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, Cambridge, 1888, i, 444.
[347] _Psalms_, cxxi, 6. Another Biblical passage (_Hosea_, v, 7),
possibly referring to the moon, is most obscure.
[348] _Matthew_, iv, 24, xvii, 15. The Greek verb used here is
σεληνιάζομαι.
[349] E. Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie_,
Paris, 1908, pp. 36 _sqq._
[350] _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3.
[351] P. Sébillot, _Le folk-lore de France_, Paris, 1904-1907, i, 45.
[352] Wuttke-Meyer, _op. cit._, p. 301.
[353] _Ibid._, p. 59. In Voigtland, central Germany, the assaults of
witches are especially looked for and dreaded on Mondays (R. Eisel,
_Sagenbuch des Voigtlandes_, Gera, 1871, p. 210).
[354] Fanny D. Bergen, _Current Superstitions_, Boston, 1896, p. 120.
[355] For the belief that impregnation can be accomplished by the sun,
see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Balder the Beautiful_, London, 1913, i, 74 _sqq._
[356] Mrs. K. L. Parker, _The Euahlayi Tribe_, London, 1905, pp. 50, 64,
98.
[357] C. G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
Expedition to Torres Straits_, v, 206 _sq._ The word for moon, _ganumi_,
is sometimes used as a synonym of _nanamud_, the proper expression
for menstrual blood (_ibid._). Compare A. Hunt, in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, 1899, xxviii, 11.
[358] C. G. Seligmann, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1902, xxxii, 303 _sq._ (Sinaugolo of the Rigo District); E. Beardmore,
_ibid._, 1890, xix, 460 (Mawatta of the Daudai District); A. Baessler,
_Neue Südsee Bilder_, Berlin, 1900, p. 383 (Santa Cruz Islands).
[359] E. Best, “Notes on Procreation among the Maori People of New
Zealand,” _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1905, xiv, 210 _sq._
[360] C. W. Hobley, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1903,
xxxiii, 358.
[361] J. Roscoe, _ibid._, 1901, xxxi, 121.
[362] Thomas Winterbottom, _An Account of the Native Africans in the
Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_, London, 1803, ii, 206 (Mandingo, Susu,
etc.).
[363] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_, London, 1745, p. 205.
[364] W. B. Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_, London, 1911,
p. 139.
[365] P. J. de Arriaga, _Extirpación de la idolatria del Piru_, Lima,
1621, p. 32.
[366] H. Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Ägypter_, Leipzig,
1885, p. 335. The sacred bull Apis, which the Egyptians regarded as an
image of the soul of Osiris, a god often identified with the moon, was
supposed to be born of a virgin cow impregnated by a divine influence
emanating from the moon (Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, viii, 1,
3; _idem_, _De Iside et Osiride_, 43). On the discovery of an Apis the
Egyptians kept a holiday (Herodotus, iii, 28).
[367] W. H. Roscher, “Aphrodite,” in Roscher’s _Ausführliches Lexikon der
griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, i, coll. 390 _sq._
[368] L. H. Gray, in _Spiegel Memorial Volume_, Bombay, 1908, pp.
160-168. Râkâ and Sînîvalî, two of the Vedic goddesses identified
with the lunar phases, seem to have been associated with childbirth
(_Rig-Veda_, ii, 32; transl. H. Grassmann, i, 41).
[369] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iii, 10, 3; _idem_, _Quæstiones
Romanæ_, 77. See further, W. H. Roscher, _Juno und Hera_, Leipzig, 1875,
pp. 40-59; _idem_, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 55-61; _idem_,
“Mondgöttin,” _Ausführliches Lexicon der griechischen und römischen
Mythologie_, ii, coll. 3150 _sqq._
[370] Sébillot, _op. cit._, i, 41.
[371] E. H. Man, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883,
xii, 337; Sheldon Dibble, _History of the Sandwich Islands_, Lahainaluna,
1843, p. 109; N. B. Dennys, _The Folk-lore of China_, London, 1876, p.
118; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, Boston, 1898,
p. 358.
[372] H. A. Hazen, “The Origin and Value of Weather Lore,” _Journal
of American Folk-lore_, 1900, xiii, 191-198; E. G. Dexter, _Weather
Influences_, New York, 1904, pp. 10-26.
[373] Payne, _op. cit._, i, 547 _sq._; Sir E. B. Tylor, _Primitive
Culture_,⁴ London, 1903, i, 130; W. G. Black, _Folk-medicine_, London,
1883, pp. 124 _sqq._; A. E. Crawley, “Dew,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iv, 698-701.
[374] Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 49 _sqq._, 61-67. The
New Zealanders believed that it was in the night that everything grew (R.
Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 175). The single Old Testament
passage which may possibly embody a like conception is _Deuteronomy_,
xxxiii, 14: “and for the precious things put forth by the moon.” See W.
von Baudissin, _Jahve et Moloch_, Leipzig, 1874, p. 24.
[375] For many illustrations see Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii,
131 _sqq._; J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, London, 1883, ii, 708-716.
[376] Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, xx, 8: _Eadem autem ipsa, quæ crescente
luna gliscunt, deficiente contra defiunt_.
[377] _The Todas_, London, 1906, p. 411.
[378] E. H. Man, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883,
xii, 152 _sq._ It is also said of the Andamanese that they do no work,
except what is noiseless, between dawn and sunrise (_ibid._).
[379] Peter Dobell, _Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia_, London, 1830,
ii, 16.
[380] Joannes de Plano Carpini, in R. Hakluyt, _The Principal
Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation_, i, 141
_sq._ (Glasgow reprint, 1903-1905).
[381] Mungo Park, _Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa_, London,
1816, i, 266.
[382] L. G. Binger, _Du Niger au golfe de Guinée_, Paris, 1892, ii, 116.
[383] A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_, Oxford, 1908, pp. 52, 60, 71.
[384] J. Sibree, “Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions,”
_Folk-lore Record_, 1879, ii, 32.
[385] _De bello Gallico_, i, 50.
[386] _Germania_, 11. The rule of the Spartans never to march out to war
before the full moon (Herodotus, vi, 106; Pausanias, i, 28, 4) prevented
them from sending aid to the Athenians at the time of the battle of
Marathon. Though the Spartans always knew how to make use of their
religious scruples, during their festivals they really did ostentatiously
abstain from expeditions which might have been profitable to them. See A.
Holm, _History of Greece_, London, 1895, ii, 26, referring to Thucydides,
iv, 5, v, 75.
[387] Kuhn and Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche_,
Leipzig, 1848, p. 457.
[388] The Rev. John Grant, in Sir John Sinclair’s _The Statistical
Account of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1794, xii, 457. See also Charles Rogers,
_Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character_,² London, 1865, p. 172 (as
to Orkney). In the Calendar of Coligny, the most important of the Celtic
inscriptions of ancient Gaul, the lunation is divided into two parts by
the full moon, and nearly all the important activities of the month are
crowded into the first fortnight, apparently because of the ill luck
associated with a waning moon. See Sir John Rhŷs, “The Coligny Calendar,”
_Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 221, 265. It has
been pointed out that most of the Greek festivals known to us fell in the
first half of the month, and especially on the twelfth day. “Zugrunde
liegt die weit verbreitete Vorstellung, dass alles, was gedeihen und
zunehmen soll, während des zunehmenden Mondes vorgenommen werden soll”
(M. P. Nilsson in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 441
_sq._).
[389] J. T. Bent, _The Cyclades_, London, 1885, p. 438.
[390] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, edited by J.
Britten, London, 1881, p. 85.
[391] On the superstitions attaching to eclipses, generally, see R.
Lasch, “Die Finsternisse in der Mythologie und im religiösen Brauch der
Völker,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1900, iii, 97-152.
[392] W. E. H. Barrett, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1911, xli, 35.
[393] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 166 _sq._ See above, pp. 50 _sq._
[394] Rivers, _op. cit._, pp. 580, 592.
[395] _Madras Weekly Mail_, 15th October, 1908, quoted by Edgar Thurston,
_Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, London and Leipzig, 1912, p.
44.
[396] R. G. Chaube, “Some of the Most Popular Beliefs and Superstitions
of the Hindus of Northern India,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society
of Bombay_, v, 326.
[397] W. Crooke, _The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
Westminster, 1896, i, 21 _sqq._; compare _idem_, _Natives of Northern
India_, London, 1907, p. 203. See also H. G. Rose, “Hindu Pregnancy
Observances in the Punjab,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1905, xxxv, 277 _sq._
[398] John Barrow, _Travels in China_, London, 1804, p. 287.
[399] Thucydides, vii, 50; Plutarch, _Nicias_, 23.
[400] J. Buxtorf, _Synagoga Judaica_,³ Basel, 1680, p. 477: _Defectum
lunæ pro pessimo habent signo, quod aliquid mali et inauspicati ab
hostibus et inimicis suis portendat. Ideo ejusmodi die animas vulgo
jejunio affligunt et ab hostibus suis a Deo defendi postulant._
[401] Above, p. 134. During a solar eclipse Swabian peasants totally
abandon their usual occupations and shut up their cattle in the stalls
(A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1861-1862,
i, 189). In Ober-Pfalz and Bohemia at such a time it is believed to be
dangerous to eat anything or even to go outside the house, unless one’s
mouth is securely covered with a cloth (Wuttke-Meyer, _op. cit._, p. 302).
[402] C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_,
Cambridge, 1910, p. 53.
[403] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
People_, London, 1910, p. 284.
[404] W. W. A. Fitzgerald, _Travels in the Coastlands of British East
Africa_, London, 1898, p. 111, quoting W. E. Taylor, _Vocabulary of the
Giryama Language_, London, 1897. The name of these rest days—_jumwa_—is
Arabic; see above, p. 107 _n._²
[405] P. B. Du Chaillu, _In African Forest and Jungle_, New York, 1903,
pp. 96 _sq._
[406] Horace Waller, editor, _The Last Journals of David Livingstone in
Central Africa_, New York, 1875, p. 273.
[407] J. Y. Gibson, _The Story of the Zulus_, London, 1911, p. 175.
[408] Gengnagel, “Volksglaube und Wahrsagerei an der Westküste Indiens,”
_Ausland_, 1891, lxiv, 871 _sq._ Another observer declares that if a cow
calves on the new-moon day, her milk, it is believed, will kill the owner
(P. Kershasp, “Some Superstitions prevailing among the Canarese-speaking
People of Southern India,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society of
Bombay_, vii, 84).
[409] R. B. Bainbridge, in _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_,
1907, ii, 50.
[410] J. Wilson, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 308 (from _Punjab
Notes and Queries_, 1883).
[411] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 214, 333 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Religion
Babyloniens und Assyriens_, Giessen, 1905-1912, i, 440, ii, 510 _sqq._
Compare L. W. King, _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, London, 1896, pp. 5
_sq._
[412] I. Goldziher, in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1910, xiii, 44
_n._⁴ For the Abyssinian beliefs see E. Littmann, _ibid._, 1908, xi, 314
_sq._
[413] E. Rhode, _Psyche_,⁶ Tübingen, 1910, i, 234 _n._¹, 269 _n._²;
E. Caillemer, in Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des antiquités
grecques et romaines_, i, 332. G. F. Schoemann denies that the ἀσέλινοι
were truly ill-omened, since there are instances of popular assemblies
being fixed for these days (_Griechische Alterthümer_,⁴ edited by J. H.
Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, 457 _n._⁴). It would seem, however, that
the Athenians, like the Romans, sometimes distinguished between days
popularly considered unlucky and those officially recognized as such in
the state calendars. Friday is for us a most unlucky day, but, excepting
Good Friday, it is not a _dies non_.
[414] Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 46 _sqq._ The interlunar
days were selected by the ancients for the celebration of the sacred
marriages of the gods and goddesses and, particularly, of the sun and
moon. At least from the time of Thales the conjunction of the two
luminaries was indicated by the same term σύνοδος (_coitus_) which was
applied to the act of procreation (_ibid._, pp. 76 _sqq._).
[415] T. F. T. Dyer, _English Folklore_, London, 1878, p. 41; Thomas
Hardy, _The Return of the Native_, London, 1895, p. 29.
[416] H. A. Hazen, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, 1900, xiii, 192.
American folklore contains the injunction never to kill cattle or pigs,
or even wild game, by the “dark of the moon”; it is most unlucky, and the
meat will come to no good (Bergen, _Current Superstitions_, p. 121).
[417] W. Smythe and F. Lowe, _Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para_,
London, 1836, p. 230.
[418] Father G. Boscana, “Chinigchinich,” in _Life in California by an
American_, New York, 1846, pp. 298 _sq._
[419] Jonathan Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North
America_,³ London, 1781, pp. 250, 252.
[420] W. Bartram, in _Transactions of the American Ethnological Society_,
1853, iii, pt. i, 26.
[421] Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,
xvi, 273.
[422] Mungo Park, _op. cit._, i, 265.
[423] G. W. Stow, _The Native Races of South Africa_, London, 1905, p.
112. For further examples of new-moon and full-moon celebrations see P.
Kolben, _The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_, London, 1731, i,
96 (Hottentots); J. Bonwick, _Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians_,
London, 1870, pp. 186 _sqq._; Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New
Guinea_, p. 193 (Koita); Carl Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen
der Salomo-Inseln_, Dresden, 1903, p. 163 (Shortland Island); Taylor,
_Te Ika A Maui_, p. 93 (Maori); Turner, _Samoa_, p. 67; A. E. Jenks, in
_Ethnological Survey Publications_, i, 206 (Bontoc Igorot of Luzon); V.
Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 213
(Nicobarese); W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural
History_, xi, 378 (Chukchi); J. v. Klaproth, _Reise in den Kaukasus und
nach Georgien_, Halle, 1814, ii, 602 (Osetes); A. von Humboldt, _Vues des
Cordillères_, Paris, 1816, ii, 244 (Muysca of Colombia).
[424] Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii, 140.
[425] The vice of seeking particularistic explanations of widespread
social phenomena is illustrated by Nielsen, who, with misdirected
ingenuity, has argued that the early Semites founded their Sabbaths
on the observation that the moon (conceived as a divinity) rests
four times in a lunation. Days on which the deity rested were to be
likewise observed by his worshippers as days of rest (D. Nielsen, _Die
altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Überlieferung_, Strassburg,
1904, pp. 63 _sqq._). It is true that the moon looks full for a day or
two before and for a day or two after she is full; similarly, the changes
in her form at the beginning of a lunation are scarcely perceptible.
The moon, therefore, might be said to “rest” at these two periods. But
neither astronomical science nor untutored observation lends any support
to the idea that the moon “rests” at the close of each and every phase.
Such a hypothesis, were it true, would not account for the other forms
of abstinence, in addition to the cessation of labour, which occur in
connection with the moon’s changes. And, as we shall see, the observance
of lunar taboos may be quite dissociated from true moon-worship and
probably long antedates the latter cult.
[426] Above, pp. 14 _sq._, 20, 32 _and_ _n._², 34 and _n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹
[427] Lieutenant Farewell, in W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to
explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_, London, 1833, ii,
397; compare Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, London, 1904, p. 110.
[428] G. W. Stow, _The Native Races of South Africa_, London, 1905, p.
414.
[429] _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_,²⁵ New York,
1870, p. 255.
[430] John Campbell, _Travels in South Africa_, London, 1822, ii, 205.
[431] L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, London, 1900, pp. 85 _sq._
[432] _Ibid._, p. 295.
[433] J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, London, 1905, p. 294.
[434] Above, p. 136.
[435] Hobley, _op. cit._, p. 104.
[436] John Roscoe, _The Baganda_, London, 1911, pp. 297, 299, 428;
_idem_, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 76.
[437] Roscoe, _Baganda_, pp. 320 _sqq._; _idem_, “Python Worship in
Uganda,” _Man_, 1909, ix, 88 _sqq._
[438] _Idem_, _Baganda_, pp. 249 _sq._
[439] Mrs. A. B. Fisher, _Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda_, London
[1912], pp. 37 _sq._
[440] J. H. Speke, _Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile_,
Edinburgh, 1863, p. 523.
[441] _Ibid._, p. 259. According to Speke this custom is also observed by
the king of Uganda, who, on the first day after the appearance of the new
moon, examines and arranges his _mapembe_, or fetishes (_ibid._, p. 372).
[442] The Mendi of the hinterland of Sierra Leone are said to hold a
new-moon festival and at it to abstain from all work, “alleging that
if they infringed this rule corn and rice would grow red, the new moon
being a ‘day of blood.’” Ellis, who cites this instance without giving
his authority, adds the further fact that the Mendi recognize no weeks
(_Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 146).
[443] _Ibid._ Ellis presented his arguments more fully in an article “On
the Origin of Weeks and Sabbaths,” _Popular Science Monthly_, 1895, xlvi,
329-343.
[444] W. Crooke, _The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
Westminster, 1896, i, 23.
[445] Gengnagel, “Volksglaube und Wahrsagerei an der Westküste Indiens,”
_Ausland_, 1891, lxiv, 871 _sq._
[446] F. Jagor, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1876, p. (201) (bound with
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. viii).
[447] Thurston, _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, p. 22.
[448] _Rig-Veda_, i, 9, 1, i, 94, 4 (transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 8,
95); _Atharva-Veda_, vii, 79, 3, vii, 80, 1-4 (transl. W. D. Whitney,
pp. 444-446); Martin Haug, _The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rig-Veda_,
Bombay, 1863, ii, 5; A. Weber, “Zur Kenntnis des vedische Opferrituals,”
_Indische Studien_, 1868, x, 329 _sqq._; H. Zimmer, _Altindisches
Leben_, Berlin, 1879, pp. 364 _sq._; A. Hillebrandt, _Das altindische
Neu- und Vollmondsopfer_, Jena, 1879; _idem_, in Bühler’s _Grundriss der
indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, ii, pt.
ii, pp. 75 _sq._ The new-moon day was called _darśa_, the day of the full
moon, _pūrṇamāsa_.
[449] The first day was called _upavasatha_, a fasting or fast day
(compare Sanskrit _upa_, an adverbial adjunct, signifying to refrain
from, abstain, hence, to fast). The second day’s ceremony was known as
the _darśapūrṇamāsa_ sacrifice.
[450] _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 1, 1, 1 _sqq._ (_Sacred Books of the
East_, xii, 1 _sq._; compare also 374 _sq._).
[451] A. Hillebrandt, _Vedische Mythologie_, Breslau, 1891-1899, i, 267
_sqq._, 313, 366 _sqq._; ii, 209-240.
[452] A. Bergaigne, _La religion védique_, Paris, 1878, i, 157 _sqq._;
A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, Strassburg, 1897, pp. 112 _sqq._;
E. W. Hopkins, _The Religions of India_, Boston, 1895, pp. 112 _sqq._;
J. Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_,³ London, 1884, v, 270 _sq._ Compare
_Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 6, 4, 5 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xii, 176 _sqq._).
[453] _Grihya-sûtra of Gobhila_, i, 5, 1-26 (_S. B. E._, xxx, 25-28).
[454] _Institutes of Vishnu_, xlvii, 3 (_S. B. E._, vii, 152).
[455] _Laws of Manu_, xi, 217 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 474 _sq._).
[456] _Ibid._, iv, 128 (_S. B. E._, xxv, 149).
[457] _Vishńu Puráńa_, iii, 11 (the translation by H. H. Wilson, edited
by F. Hall, London, 1865, iii, 132 _sq._).
[458] _Ibid._, ii, 6 (Wilson-Hall, ii, 219).
[459] J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_,³ Oxford,
1906, p. 270.
[460] _Laws of Manu_, iv, 113 _sq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 147).
[461] _Ibid._, iv, 101 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xxv, 144 _sqq._).
[462] Gautama, xvi, 22, 35-37 (_S. B. E._, ii, 258 _sqq._). Compare
Âpastamba, i, 3, 9, 28: “at the new moon (he shall not study) for two
days and nights” (_S. B. E._, ii, 36).
[463] _Vishńu Puráńa_, iii, 12 (Wilson-Hall, iii, 143).
[464] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York, 1891,
p. 433.
[465] H. H. Wilson, “The Religious Festivals of the Hindus,” in _Essays
and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus_, edited by R. Rost,
London, 1862, ii, 194.
[466] H. H. Wilson, “The Religious Festivals of the Hindus,” in _Essays
and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus_, edited by R. Rost,
London, 1862, ii, 197.
[467] _Ibid._, p. 199.
[468] _Sûtrakṛtâṅga_, ii, 7, 17; compare, ii, 2, 76 (_S. B. E._, xlv, 428
_sq._, 383).
[469] _Uttarâdhyayana_, v, 23; compare ix, 42 (_S. B. E._, xlv, 23, 39).
[470] H. Jacobi, _Gaina Sûtras_, Oxford, 1895, pp. xix, 23 _n._² (_S. B.
E._, vol. xlv).
[471] Margaret Stevenson, “Festivals and Fasts (Jain),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v, 875 _sq._
[472] H. Kern, _Der Buddhismus und seine Geschichte in Indien_, Leipzig,
1884, ii, 256 _sqq._; _idem_, _Manual of Indian Buddhism_, Strassburg,
1896, pp. 99 _sq._; R. C. Childers, _A Dictionary of the Pali Language_,
London, 1875, _s.v._ _uposatha_.
[473] _Mahâvagga_, ii, 1, 1-4 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 239 _sq._; compare p. x).
[474] _Ibid._, ii, 1, 4 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 240). This rule is to be
understood as requiring an assembly to be held on the fourteenth _or_ the
fifteenth of each half-month, according as the month had twenty-nine or
thirty days. In other words an _uposatha_ service on the fourteenth day
of a short month was to be followed by a celebration on the fifteenth
of the following long month. Compare _ibid._, ii, 34, 1. The important
word “half,” which has been inserted above, was omitted by an unfortunate
oversight in the translation of this passage from the _Mahâvagga_, as
given in the _Sacred Books of the East_. It appears, however, in Mr. H.
C. Warren’s rendering of the same passage (_Buddhism in Translations_,
Cambridge [Mass.], 1909, p. 404).
[475] _Sutta Nipâta_, ii, 14, 26 (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 66).
[476] The eighth day of the waning moon (_áṣṭakā_) is distinctly
mentioned in the Vedas, as forming with new moon and full moon the
regular festival periods. Compare _Atharva-Veda_, xv, 16, 2 (transl.
W. D. Whitney, p. 790); Zimmer, _op. cit._, p. 365; H. Oldenberg, _Die
Religion des Veda_, Berlin, 1894, p. 439. Of these, the full-moon
day seems to have enjoyed most importance (Oldenberg, _loc. cit._),
and similarly in Buddhism. Compare _Mahâ-Sudassana Sutta_, i, 11:
“On the Sabbath day, on the day of full moon” (_S. B. E._, xi, 251
_sq._). Elsewhere the _uposatha_ service is referred particularly to
the fifteenth day of the month, “it being full moon” (_Sutta Nipâta_,
iii, 12), prœm. (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 131 _sq._). In very early
times the Hindus had named and deified as goddesses the four phases
of the moon. See _Rig-Veda_, ii, 32 (transl. H. Grassmann, i, 41);
_Satapatha-Brâhmana_, ix, 5, 1, 38 (_S. B. E._, xliii, 264); C. Lassen,
_Indische Alterthumskunde_,² Leipzig and London, 1867-1874, i, 986.
[477] _Mahâvagga_, ii, 4, 1-2 (_S. B. E._, xiii, 246 _sq._). The
_patimokkha_ is one of the oldest parts of the Buddhist canonical
compositions. The Pali version has been translated in full by Professors
Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg (_S. B. E._, vol. xiii) and the part
for monks, by J. F. Dickson (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
1876, n.s., viii, 62-130). For a description of these ceremonies as
witnessed March 27, 1893, at the Malwatta monastery in Kandy see E. M.
Bowden, “The _uposatha_ and _upasampadâ_ Ceremonies,” _ibid._, 1893,
n.s., xxv, 159-161. Mr. Bowden notes that at the Malwatta monastery the
_uposatha_ service is held more frequently on the day which precedes the
new and the full moon than on the new and full-moon days.
[478] _Sutta Nipâta_, ii, 14, 19-26 (_S. B. E._, x, pt. ii, 65 _sqq._).
See also T. W. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, London, 1890, pp. 137 _sqq._;
Childers, _op. cit._, _s.v._ _sīlaṁ_. The prohibition of drinking
intoxicating liquors was directed against the ancient _soma_ sacrifice on
the second day of the _upavasatha_ ceremony. See _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, 1,
6, 4, 5 _sqq._ (_S. B. E._, xii, 176 _sqq._). On the other hand the last
precept is identical with one of the regulations for the _upavasatha_,
where the celebrant is distinctly enjoined to sleep on the ground (or a
shake-down of grass, a blanket). See _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i, 1, 1, 11
(_S. B. E._, xii, 6).
[479] Mahony, in _Asiatic Researches_, 1803, vii, 40 _sq._; Edward Upham,
_Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon_, London, 1833, iii, 161 _sqq._;
R. S. Hardy, _Eastern Monachism_, London, 1850, pp. 236 _sqq._; _idem_,
_Manual of Buddhism_,² London, 1880, pp. 22, 50, 52; C. F. Köppen, _Die
Religion des Buddha und ihre Entstehung_, Berlin, 1857-1859, i, 563
_sq._; D. J. Gogerly, “The Laws of the Buddhist Priesthood,” _Journal
of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1858-1859, iii,
253-261. By the Kandian, who occupy the interior of Ceylon, not only the
_poya_ days, but all unlucky days (_vitti_) as well, are observed with
abstinence from agricultural labour (P. Kehelpannala, in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, 1896, xxv, 108).
[480] Michael Symes, _An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava_,
London, 1800, p. 335. See further Hiram Cox, _Journal of a Residence in
the Burman Empire_, London, 1821, p. 241; Sangermano, _A Description of
the Burmese Empire_, translated by W. Tandy, Rome, 1833, p. 92; C. J. F.
S. Forbes, _British Burma_, London, 1878, pp. 169 _sqq._
[481] Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], _The Burman: his Life and Notions_,³
London, 1910, pp. 217-220. The Tungthu of Tenasserim have borrowed these
“duty days” from the Burmese (_Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, p.
558).
[482] F. H. Turpin, _Histoire civile et naturelle du royaume de Siam_,
Paris, 1771, i, 45 _sq._ The “fourth day” of the moon must here be
counted from the astronomical new moon. The _uposatha_ in Siam, as in
Ceylon and Burma, falls regularly on the eighth and fifteenth days of the
waxing moon and on the eighth and fourteenth or fifteenth days of the
waning moon.
[483] J. B. Pallegoix, _Description du royaume Thai ou Siam_, Paris,
1854, i, 249.
[484] John Crawfurd, _Journal of an Embassy_, London, 1830, ii, 75; Sir
John Bowring, _The Kingdom and People of Siam_, London, 1857, i, 158.
[485] J. G. D. Campbell, _Siam in the Twentieth Century_, London, 1904,
p. 224 _n._¹; G. E. Gerini, “Festivals and Fasts (Siamese),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v, 885.
[486] J. Moura, _Le royaume de Cambodge_, Paris, 1883, i, 321. The Malays
of the Malacca Peninsula regard the fourteenth and fifteenth days of each
lunar month as unlucky. On these two days no work in the rice fields
is allowed, a prohibition which only increases the native tendency to
laziness (C. O. Blagden, “Notes on the Folk-lore and Popular Religion
of the Malays,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society_, 1896, no. 29, p. 6).
[487] E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig and London, 1863, p.
237.
[488] L. A. Waddell, _The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism_, London, 1895,
p. 501; W. W. Rockhill, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1891,
n.s., xxiii, 207 _n._³
[489] Marco Polo refers to five days or four days or three days in each
month when the lamas or clergy of Tibetan Buddhism shed no blood and
abstain from animal food (Sir Henry Yule, _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_,³
London, 1903, i, 220, 223). Compare N. Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, London,
1876, i, 65.
[490] Köppen, _op. cit._, i, 564.
[491] P. S. Pallas, _Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen
Reichs_, Frankfort, 1776, i, 295.
[492] Joseph Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_,² London, 1893, p. 206. In
Buddhist monasteries the _patimokkha_ is regularly recited at new moon
and full moon. The ceremony is known as _posadha_ (J. J. M. de Groot,
“Buddhism in China,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
iii, 554).
[493] J. H. Gray, _China_, London, 1878, i, 263 _n._¹; C. Pitou, _La
Chine_, Lausanne and Paris [1902], pp. 27 _sqq._ See also W. Grube,
_Religion und Kultus der Chinesen_, Leipzig, 1910, p. 66; J. D. Ball,
_The Celestial and his Religions_, Hongkong, 1906, p. 25; J. Edkins,
_Religion in China_,² London, 1878, pp. 48 _sq._
[494] E. Kaempfer, _History of Japan_, ii, 21 _sq._ (Glasgow reprint,
1906).
[495] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1876,
n.s., viii, 197 _sq._ Most priests also observe with prayer and fasting
every fifth day (_kaliwon_) of the Javanese five-day market week, which
has been introduced into Bali (Friederich, _loc. cit._).
[496] E. H. Man, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 269 _n._³⁰ According
to this account the Nicobarese do not observe new-moon ceremonies. Other
authorities, however, refer to sacrifices and celebrations at this
time. See V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1902, xxxii, 204, 213; W. Svoboda, in _Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie_, 1893, vi, 22.
[497] Above, pp. 40 _sqq._
[498] _Yasna_, i, 8 (so also _ibid._, ii, 8; compare _Yast_ vii, 4). See
L. H. Gray, “Festivals and Feasts (Iranian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia
of Religion and Ethics_, v, 872; L. H. Mills, in _Sacred Books of the
East_, xxxi, 198, 205; W. Geiger, _Civilization of the Eastern Irānians_,
London, 1885, i, 146 _n._¹ The term _vishaptatha_, here translated “the
intervening seventh” refers to the seventh day between the new moon (on
the 1st) and the full moon (on the 15th), that is, to the 8th day of the
month (E. Bartholomae, _Altiranisches Wörterbuch_, Strassburg, 1904, col.
1472). The theories as to the meaning of _vishaptatha_, advanced by J.
Darmesteter, have not won the acceptance of scholars (_Sacred Books of
the East_, xxiii, 90 _n._⁵; _Le Zend-Avesta_, Paris, 1892-1893, i, 12
_n._³⁴).
[499] R. Roth, “Der Kalender des Avesta und die sogenannten _gahanbâr_,”
_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1880, xxxiv,
710; L. H. Gray, “Der iranische Kalender,” Geiger and Kuhn’s _Grundriss
der iranischen Philologie_, ii, 675 _sq._ There is extant a Pehlevi
tract, said to have been composed in Persia during the fourth century
A.D., which mentions among other matters five days in every month,
namely, the 1st, 7th, 14th, 22d, and 30th, as times to be observed by
abstinence from all worldly business. The manuscript sets forth in
detail the peculiar virtues of all the days of one of the Zoroastrian
months. “Some are best for beginning a journey or voyage, others for
the regulation of matters of domestic economy, some again for social
gatherings and festivities, and others again for the pursuit of learning,
while not a few are reserved for rest and pious contemplation.” These
precepts are no longer observed; in fact, their very existence is unknown
to most Parsis at the present day. See D. F. Karaka, _History of the
Parsis_, London, 1884, i, 132 _sqq._
[500] _Pyramid Texts_, § 521 (= Teti, l. 12); compare _ibid._, § 1453 (=
Pepi, l. 657 = Mernere, ll. 763-764). Professor J. H. Breasted of the
University of Chicago has very kindly furnished me with a translation of
these passages, based on the monumental edition of the texts prepared by
K. Sethe (_Die altägyptischen Pyramidentexte_, Leipzig, 1908-1910).
[501] _The Book of the Dead_ (Theban Recension), chs. cxxxv, cxl (_The
Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, translated by E. A. W. Budge, London,
1898, pp. 218, 230). See also H. Brugsch, “Über die Hieroglyphe des
Neumondes und ihre verschiedenen Bedeutungen,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1856, x, 676.
[502] J. H. Breasted, _Ancient Records of Egypt_, Chicago, 1906, i,
285. See further E. Mahler, _Études sur le calendrier égyptien_, Paris,
1907, p. 128; _idem_, in _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen
Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 35.
[503] Breasted, _op. cit._, ii, 184; for an earlier translation see S.
Birch, in _Records of the Past_, ii, 43.
[504] H. Brugsch, _Thesaurus inscriptionum Ægyptiacarum_, Leipzig,
1883-1891, pt. i, 30 _sqq._, 49 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Ägyptologie_,
Leipzig, 1891, pp. 332 _sq._
[505] Brugsch, _Thesaurus_, pt. i, 52; _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 332.
[506] Compare _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 334; E. Meyer, “Ägyptische
Chronologie,” _Abhandlungen der königlich-preussischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften_, 1904, p. 7.
[507] Herodotus, ii, 47; Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 8, 43, 52;
Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ ii, 129-131; Budge, _Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection_, i, 384-396.
[508] J. Meursius, _Græcia feriata, sive de festis Græcorum_, Lugduni
Batavorum, 1619, pp. 210-214; F. G. Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_,
Göttingen, 1857, i, 554 _sq._; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und
Verwandtes_, pp. 110 _sq._; _idem_, in _Philologus_, 1898, lvii, 216,
218; E. Saglio, “Noumenia,” Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des
antiquités grecques et romaines_, iv, 108. The word νουμηνία occasionally
was used in the sense of the true or astronomical new moon (Thucydides,
ii, 28).
[509] _Odyssey_, xxi, 258 _sq._: νῦν μὲν γὰρ κατὰ δῆμον ἑορτὴ τοῖο θεοῖο
ἁγνή· τίς δέ κε τόξα τιταίνοιτ’; Compare _ibid._, xiv, 158-162, xx, 156,
276-278.
[510] _Opera et dies_, 770.
[511] Aristophanes, _Nubes_, 615-619; _idem_, _Acharnenses_, 999;
_idem_, _Vespæ_, 96; Demosthenes, _Adv. Aristogiton_, i, 99; Athenæus,
_Deipnosophistæ_, xii, 76; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 25; _idem_, _De
vitando ære alieno_, 2; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii, 16; Theophrastus,
_Characteres_, 14; Lucian, _Icaromenippus_, 13; _idem_, _Lexiphanes_, 6.
[512] Aristophanes, _Vespæ_, 171; _idem_, _Equites_, 43 _sq._; Alciphron,
_Epistolæ_, iii, 38; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii, 129; Proclus, on
Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 780; Suidas, _s.v._ νουμηνία (ed. G. Bernhardy,
Halle, 1853, ii, 1010).
[513] _Hymni Homerici_, xxxii, 11; Plutarch, _De gloria Atheniensis_,
7; _idem_, _Dion_, 23. Hesiod (_op. cit._, 819, compare 794 _sqq._)
describes the 14th of the month as “above all a holy day” (περὶ πάντων
ἱερὸν ἦμαρ).
[514] Above, p. 130.
[515] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 15, 9.
[516] Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 47; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 24; Vergil,
_Bucolica_, i, 43 _sq._; Horace, _Carmina_, iii, 23, 1 _sq._
[517] Macrobius, _op. cit._, i, 15, 15; Ovid, _op. cit._, i, 48 _sq._;
Lydus, _De mensibus_, iii, 7.
[518] Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, p. 369; compare T.
Mommsen, in _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 297.
[519] Above, pp. 80 _sq._, 94.
[520] Varro, _De lingua Latina_, 29; Ovid, _Fasti_, i, 59 _sq._; Livy,
vi, 1; Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, 25; Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv,
9, 5; Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 16, 18. These days were also described
as _atri vel vitiosi_. The greater number of them were available for
judicial business, but not for meetings of the assemblies (_dies fasti
non comitiales_). Many Romans also regarded as ominous the fourth day
before the Kalends, Nones, and Ides; according to one account because
the battle of Cannæ took place on the fourth day before the Nones of the
month Sextilis (Gellius, _op. cit._, v, 17, 3).
[521] Verrius Flaccus, _ap._ Gellius, _op. cit._, v, 17; Macrobius, _op.
cit._, i, 16, 21.
[522] On this point I am happy to find myself in agreement with Dr. W.
Warde Fowler, who also regards the traditional explanation of the _dies
postriduani_ as an ætiological myth. “The fact that the authorities
of the state had made one or two days _religiosi_ as anniversaries of
disasters, supplied a handy explanation for a number of other _dies
religiosi_ of which the true explanation had been entirely lost; but that
there was such a true explanation, resting on very primitive beliefs, I
have very little doubt” (_The Religious Experience of the Roman People_,
London, 1911, p. 40). Dr. Fowler in a letter (under date Dec. 9, 1911)
tells me that he regards as “quite probable” the suggestion in the
text that these days were originally tabooed in consequence of lunar
superstitions attaching to them.
[523] _Geographica_, iii, 4, 16.
[524] _Germania_, 9, 11.
[525] Isidorus Hispalensis, _Etymologiæ sive origines_, v, 33.
[526] J. K. Fotheringham, “Calendar (Introductory),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 61-64; F. K. Ginzel,
_Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, Leipzig,
1906-1911, ii, 121-159; E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,
Erster Band, Erste Hälfte, Berlin, 1907, pp. 231-243; R. Schram,
“Jahrform und Zeitrechnung verschiedener Völker,” _Mitteilungen der
kaiserlich-königlichen geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, 1884, xxvii,
481-498; M. Hubert, “Étude sommaire de la représentation du temps dans
la religion et la magie,” in Hubert and Mauss, _Mélanges d’histoire des
religions_, Paris, 1909, pp. 189-229.
[527] The lunar or synodic month, determined by the synodic revolution
of the moon, is the time between two successive conjunctions of that
luminary with the sun, and may be measured from new moon to new moon
or from full to full. It varies about thirteen hours by reason of
eccentricities of the moon’s orbit and of that of the earth about the
sun, but its mean value is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds.
The length of the “light month,” or period of the moon’s visibility,
though commonly taken at three days, is a variable quantity. It is the
usual practice to assume that the moon becomes visible on the first
evening when she is more than thirty hours old at sunset. Her mean age
when first seen is, therefore, 30 hours + 24/2 hours = 1 day, 18 hours.
See J. K. Fotheringham, “On the Smallest Visible Phase of the Moon,”
_Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_, 1910, lxx, 527-531.
[528] E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford,
1892-1899, ii, 329, 331; E. Förstemann, in _Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology_, 1904, no. 28, p. 523 (Maya pre-solar calendar).
[529] Horapollo, _Hieroglyphica_, i, 4; compare H. Brugsch, in
_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1856, x,
676; C. R. Lepsius, _Die Chronologie der Ägypter_, Berlin, 1849, i,
156 _sq._, 219; E. Meyer, “Ägyptische Chronologie,” _Abhandlungen der
königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Berlin, 1904, pp.
5 _sqq._ Papyri discovered by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie at Kahun,
belonging to the age of Sesostris III, show that a lunar year of three
hundred and fifty-five days was still recognized as late as the Twelfth
Dynasty. These papyri relate to the temple revenues, which the priests,
with characteristic religious conservatism, were accustomed to reckon
according to lunar months (seven of thirty days and five of twenty-nine
days). See L. Borchardt, in _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache_, 1899,
xxxvii, 92-95.
[530] Below, pp. 226, 247.
[531] O. Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_,
translated by F. B. Jevons, London, 1890, p. 306; _idem_, _Reallexikon
der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, p. 547.
[532] R. Andree, “Die Plejaden im Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum
Jahresbeginn und Landbau,” _Globus_, 1893, lxiv, 362-366; Sir J. G.
Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, London, 1912, i, 307-319;
E. Förstemann, “The Pleiades among the Mayas,” _Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology_, 1904, no. 28, pp. 523 _sq._
[533] The lunar year of twelve synodic months consists, exactly, of 354
days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 36 seconds. The Maori have a legend to the
effect that their ancient year contained ten months only, until a certain
teacher, full of divine wisdom, instructed them to make their year
twelve months long (E. Tregear, _The Maori Race_, Wanganui [N.Z.], 1904,
p. 143). The Chinese have a similar tradition of a ten-month year (H.
A. Giles, _A Glossary of References on Subjects connected with the Far
East_,³ Shanghai, 1900, p. 183). The Roman “year of Romulus” consisted
of ten months and (commonly) three hundred and four days (Censorinus,
_De die natali_, xx, 2-3; Lydus, _De mensibus_, i, 16). Sceptical modern
historians are inclined to dismiss the Roman tradition as a mere figment
of the imagination.
[534] The thirteenth month is referred to in the _Rig-Veda_ (i, 25,
8; transl. H. Grassmann, ii, 25) as the “later-born month”; compare
_Atharva-Veda_, v, 6, 4, xiii, 3, 8 (transl. W. D. Whitney, pp. 230,
729). This intercalary month bears a distinctly unfavourable character,
being regarded as unfit for any religious undertaking (Haug, _Aitareya
Brahmanam_, ii, 26). Among the Loango negroes the thirteenth month,
inserted every three years, is likewise regarded as an evil time (E.
Pechuël-Loesche, _op. cit._, pp. 138 _sq._).
[535] The old Roman arrangement of the months, though based on the
lunar year, is _sui generis_. Four of the twelve months, viz., March,
May, July, and October, had thirty-one days, and the rest twenty-nine
days, except February, which had twenty-eight days. All the months thus
had an odd number of days, save February, which was specially devoted
to purificatory ceremonies and the cult of the dead. This peculiar
arrangement appears to have been based on an old belief that odd numbers
are of good omen, even numbers, of ill omen (T. Mommsen, _Die römische
Chronologie bis auf Cæsar_, Berlin, 1858, p. 13; Marquardt-Wissowa,
_Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii,² 284). The superstition, alluded to
by Vergil in a famous line—_Numero deus impare gaudet_ (_Bucolica_,
viii, 75)—is supposed to have been derived from Pythagorean speculations
regarding the cosmic properties of numbers. It may better be considered
a genuinely Italian notion, since like beliefs are found in the folklore
of other peoples, notably the old Arabs and the modern Hindus. See I.
Goldziher, in _Globus_, 1901, lxxx, 31; Crooke, _Popular Religion and
Folk-lore of Northern India_,² ii, 51. The choice of 355 days, rather
than 354 days, as the length of the Roman lunar year, was undoubtedly
determined by the prevalence of the same superstition (Censorinus, _De
die natali_, xx, 4).
[536] This custom explains the widespread practice of beginning the civil
day at sunset or, more accurately, in the interval between the going-down
of the sun and complete darkness. The necessities of a calendar system
requiring that the first day of the month should be counted from the same
moment that the month itself is supposed to begin, it follows that the
other days of the month must also be calculated from evening to evening.
The noctidiurnal cycle is widespread throughout the lower culture, being
found, generally, among the North American Indians, the Melanesians and
Polynesians, and in Africa. The same cycle obtained among many peoples
of archaic civilization. The Babylonian day began with the evening, and
this is still the custom among the Arabs and throughout the Mohammedan
world. Modern Jewish communities, in beginning their ritual day in the
evening, retain a practice illustrated by several Old Testament passages
(_Genesis_, i, 5; _Psalms_, lv, 17). Various festivals and fasts, such
as the Sabbath, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
were so arranged as to begin and end with the evening. Among most of
the Indo-Germanic peoples the civil day, or nycthemeron, commenced at
sunset; and the practice, which still survives in Iceland, was not
abandoned in Italy and some other parts of Europe until about a century
ago. Our English words “fortnight” and “sennight” are reminiscent of
this ancient custom. See G. A. Wilken, “Het tellen bij nachten bij de
volken van het maleisch-polynesische ras,” _Bijdragen tot de taal- land-
en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, 1886, fifth series, pt. i,
378-392; A. Fischer, “‘Tag und Nacht’ im arabischen und die semitische
Tagesberechnung,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse
der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, 1909, xxvii,
741-758; O. Schrader, _Reallexikon_, p. 845; S. Reinach, “Die,” in
Daremberg and Saglio, _op. cit._, iii, 168 _sq._, G. Bilfinger, _Der
bürgerliche Tag_, Stuttgart, 1888.
[537] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 590 _sqq._
[538] J. Sechefo, “The Twelve Lunar Months among the Basuto,”
_Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 931 _sqq._
[539] Below, pp. 184, 226 _sq._, 248 _sq._
[540] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, Melbourne, 1881, p. xcix.
[541] S. Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1895,
xxiv, 174.
[542] Spencer and Gillen, _The Native Tribes of Central Australia_,
London, 1897, pp. 25, 564 _sq._
[543] B. Hagen, _Unter den Papua’s_, Wiesbaden, 1899, p. 244.
[544] George Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, London, 1910, p. 332.
[545] V. de Rochas, _La Nouvelle-Calédonie_, Paris, 1862, p. 191.
[546] Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, i, 317.
[547] C. Bock, _Head-hunters of Borneo_,² London, 1882, p. 212.
[548] William Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_,³ London, 1811, p. 194;
compare B. Hagen, _Die Orang Kubu auf Sumatra_, Frankfurt-a.-M., 1908, p.
154.
[549] E. Modigliani, _Un viaggio a Nias_, Milan, 1890, pp. 4, 484; A.
Maass, _Bei liebenswürdigen Wilden_, Berlin, 1902, p. 93.
[550] E. H. Man, in _Indian Antiquary_, 1897, xxvi, 270 _sq._
[551] _Idem_, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1883, xii,
337.
[552] A. E. Jenks, in _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905,
i, 219; O. Scheerer, _ibid._, ii, 158.
[553] F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_, London, 1899, pp. 387
_sq._, 392 _sqq._; M. Girschner, in _Baessler-Archiv_, 1911, ii, 175 _sq._
[554] The Maori counted twenty-eight “nights” of the moon, including:
1. _noni hope_, the moon is in the _reinga_, or underworld; 4. _he oho
ata_, the moon is visible; 5. _ouenuku_, it begins to rise a little way;
6. _maweti_, it rises still higher; 14. _he atua_, full; 19. _he ohika_,
the moon begins to wane; 24. _tanagaroa a roto_, it sinks into the sea;
28. _he o mutu_, it disappears (Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 177). To
the Society Islanders the fifteenth day was _omarae_, or the moon with
a round and full face; the thirtieth day, _oterieo_, was the time when
the moon dies or is changed (Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i, 87
_sq._). In the Hervey group several of the moon nights were sacred to the
gods. The twenty-eighth day was called _mauri_—ghost; the twenty-ninth,
_omutu_—ended; the thirtieth, _otire o avaiki_—lost in the depths of
_avaiki_, or Hades (W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_,
London, 1876, p. 318). For a table of the days of the moon’s age in the
Maori, Moriori, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Marquesan, and Rarotongan languages
see Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 666.
[555] Hollis, _Nandi_, pp. 95 _sq._
[556] Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_, p. 186.
[557] J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_, Berlin, 1906, p. 556; L. Schultze,
_Aus Namaland und Kalahari_, Jena, 1907, p. 370. The Hottentots now use
the European week (Schultze, _op. cit._, p. 372).
[558] F. Krause, _In den Wildnissen Brasiliens_, Leipzig, 1911, p. 339.
[559] C. Thomas, “Calendar,” _Handbook of American Indians_, pt. i, 189
(_Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, no. 30).
[560] _Koran_, ii, 185. Even at the present time the south Arabians
determine the day of the month by observation of the moon’s phases, the
first quarter being called, for example, the seventh day, and the last
quarter, the twenty-first day (Nielsen, _Altarabische Mondreligion_, p.
85, referring to Dr. Glaser’s observations).
[561] The mean age of the moon when first seen being 30 hours + 24/2
hours = 1 day, 18 hours (above, p. 174 _n._¹), and the mean age of the
moon when full being (29 days, 12 + hours)/2 = 14 days, 18 hours, it
follows that the mean interval between the first appearance of the moon
and the full of the moon is about 13 days. “In other words the moon
becomes full on an average at the end of the thirteenth day and the
beginning of the fourteenth night. Hence, where the days are reckoned
from sunset, we should expect the fourteenth day of the month to be
regarded as the day of the full moon. And it is in fact one of the days
most commonly so regarded. The fifteenth is a date obtained more simply.
Fifteen is half thirty and, as the middle of the month, should be the
date of full moon. In calendars based on calculations the month is
frequently reckoned from the actual new moon, and in these the fifteenth
is more correct than the fourteenth for the mean date of full moon.” It
should be noted, also, that, as a general rule, the nearer the autumnal
equinox, the later the first appearance of the moon and the shorter
the interval between the visible new moon and full moon. If the first
appearance is late, as it often is in September, the moon might be full
on the night following the eleventh day. See J. K. Fotheringham, in
_Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 283, 286.
[562] R. Thurnwald, _Forschungen auf den Salomo-Inseln und dem Bismarck
Archipel_, Berlin, 1912-1913, i, 330 _sq._
[563] E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890,
xix, 114.
[564] L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Polynesian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iii, 130; J. v. Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen
Sumatras_, Würzburg, 1894, p. 233; R. Friederich, in _Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878, n.s., x, 93 _sq._; Modigliani, _op. cit._,
p. 464.
[565] A. Weber, in _Indische Studien_, 1853, ii, 166 _n._*; H. Zimmer,
_Altindisches Leben_, Berlin, 1879, p. 364; G. Thibaut, “Astronomie,
Astrologie, und Mathematik,” Bühler’s _Grundriss der indo-arischen
Philologie und Altertumskunde_, iii, pt. ix, 12. This lunar fortnight of
the Hindus attracted the attention of the Romans, and Quintus Curtius
speaks of it as a noteworthy fact (_Historiæ Alexandri Magni_, viii, 9).
References to it are also found in mediæval literature; compare Albîrûnî,
_op. cit._, i, 359.
[566] G. E. Balfour, _The Cyclopædia of India_,³ ii, 981; Sewell and
Dikshit, _The Indian Calendar_, London, 1896, p. 4.
[567] Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, _s.v._ _parācadasí_;
A. Cabaton, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 136
(as to the Siamese); Shway Yoe, _The Burman_,³ p. 550; A. Cabaton, in
Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 113 _sq._ (as to
the Cambodians, Chams, and Laotians); H. Vámbéry, _Die primitive Cultur
des turko-tatarischen Volkes_, Leipzig, 1879, p. 160; Carl Hiekisch, _Die
Tungusen_, St. Petersburg, 1879, p. 94. In Tibet the fifteenth day of the
lunar month receives a special name (A. Csoma de Körös, _A Grammar of the
Tibetan Language_, Calcutta, 1834, p. 157).
[568] _Yašt_, vii, 2 (_S. B. E._, xxiii, 89).
[569] _Odyssey_, xiv, 162; xix, 307: τοῦ μὲν φθίνοντος μηνός, τοῦ
δ’ ἱσταμένοιο; Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 780: μηνὸς δ’ ἱσταμένου
τριςκαιδεκάτην.
[570] G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” Iwan von
Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i, 563.
However, evidence is not wanting for the observance of the fourteenth
day, and even of the sixteenth day, as that of the full moon. See A.
Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 99 _sqq._
[571] The Greeks never knew the exact mean measurement of a lunation and,
owing to their neglect of the odd minutes and seconds in the lunar month,
they were obliged occasionally to intercalate an additional day. From a
passage in Aristophanes it would appear that this pious duty to the gods
was not always performed (_Nubes_, 610 _sqq._).
[572] T. Mommsen, _Römische Chronologie_, pp. 13 _sq._, 215 _sq._;
Marquardt-Wissowa, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii,² 282 _sq._
[573] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i, 15, 10; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi,
27.
[574] The _nonæ_, or Nones, were so called because, by the Roman
inclusive reckoning, they fell on the ninth day (_nonus_) before the
Ides (Varro, _loc. cit._). Plutarch’s derivation from _novus_, new
or young, referring to the waxing moon, is without justification
(_Quæstiones Romanæ_, 24). On the etymology of _idus_ see Walde,
_Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch_,² p. 375. The Romans had no
name, corresponding to _nonæ_, for the last quarter of the moon. It has
been argued, therefore, that the Nones never marked the first quarter and
that they were introduced, quite artificially, during the regal period
(R. Flex, _Die älteste Monatseinteilung der Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 5
_sq._, 24 _sqq._, 36, 42).
[575] Tacitus, _Germania_, 11: _cum aut inchoatur luna aut impletur_.
[576] J. Loth, “L’année celtique d’après les textes irlandais, gallois,
bretons, et le calendrier de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1904, xxv, 131;
R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentage in den keltischen Dialecten,”
_Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 191.
[577] The long inscription, engraved on a bronze tablet, which forms the
Calendar of Coligny, was discovered in 1897 near the city of Lyons. See
S. de Ricci, “Le calendrier gaulois de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1898,
xix, 213-223; R. Thurneysen, “Der Kalender von Coligny,” _Zeitschrift für
celtische Philologie_, 1899, ii, 523-544; Sir John Rhŷs, “The Coligny
Calendar,” _Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1909-1910, pp. 207 _sqq._
[578] Loth, _loc. cit._; Rhŷs, _Celtic Heathendom_,³ London, 1898, pp.
360 _sq._
[579] Horapollo, _Hieroglyphica_, i, 4; Brugsch, _Ägyptologie_, p.
331; E. Mahler, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1901, n.s.,
xxxiii, 55 _sqq._ Mahler’s hypothesis that the Egyptians looked upon the
full moon as the completion of the lunation is not improbable; there
are several passages in the Vedas where the full moon is indicated as
the end of the month and at the same time as the beginning of the next
month (Thibaut, _op. cit._, p. 12). The evidence yielded by the Calendar
of Coligny has been thought to imply that originally the Sequani of
Gaul counted the months from full moon to full moon (R. Thurneysen, in
_Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie_, 1899, ii, 526). The Melanesians
of New Georgia do not seem to calculate long periods of time at all: “one
full moon to another is as far as they usually go” (B. T. Somerville, in
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1897, xxvi, 404).
[580] Payne, _op. cit._, ii, 310, 323 _sqq._, 355 _sqq._; J. de Acosta,
_op. cit._, bk. vi, ch. 2 (ed. C. R. Markham, ii, 393); H. H. Bancroft,
_The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_, ii, 515 _sq._
For other and less plausible reasons leading to the choice of the number
thirteen, see C. P. Bowditch, _The Numeration, Calendar Systems, and
Astronomical Knowledge of the Mayas_, Cambridge (Mass.), 1910, pp. 266
_sq._
[581] V. Restrepo, _Los Chibchas antes de la conquista española_, Bogota,
1895, p. 162; Garcilasso de la Vega, _op. cit._, pt. i, bk. ii, ch. 23
(transl. C. R. Markham, i, 181).
[582] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, pp. 143 _sq._ The Benin tribes
are said to employ the same method of reckoning.
[583] _Idem_, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 215 _sq._ The Ga tribes have
an exactly similar mode of measuring time, though their names for the
days of the week are not the same as those used by the Tshi. With both
the Tshi and Ga the full moon marks the commencement of the third week of
7⅜ days and, with the Yoruba, the commencement of the fourth week of 5
days, in each case marking the lapse of half a month.
[584] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 177. When the Maori
adopted the European week, they gave native names to three of the
weekdays. Sunday they called “the week,” _te wiki_, because on that day
the week began, Saturday was _te ra horoi_, or washing and cleaning-up
day, a name derived from their observation of European customs at that
time, and Friday was _te ra oka_, or bleeding day, so named because the
missionaries killed their pigs on Friday in order to be able to cut them
up on Saturday and dispose of them before Sunday. The remaining weekdays
had naturalized names, viz., _manei_, _turei_, _wenerei_, and _tairei_
(_ibid._, pp. 176 _sq._).
[585] Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, p. 54; N. B. Emerson, in _ibid._, p.
200; Fornander, _Account of the Polynesian Race_, i, 120 _sq._ On the
Hawaiian Sabbaths see above, pp. 14 _sq._, 88.
[586] Christian, _Caroline Islands_, p. 394.
[587] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, edited by Scott
and Hardiman, pt. i, vol. i, p. 434; H. J. Wehrli, _Beitrag zur
Ethnologie der Chingpaw (Kachin) von Ober-Burma_, Leiden, 1904, p. 68
(_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vol. xvi, Supplement).
[588] A. Cabaton, “Calendar (Indo-Chinese),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iii, 110.
[589] T. L. Bullock and L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Chinese),” _ibid._, iii,
83. The names of the three decades are said to be _shang_, _chung_, and
_hea_ (Robert Morrison, _A View of China for Philological Purposes_,
Macao, 1817, p. 104).
[590] E. W. Clement, “Calendar (Japanese),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iii, 115.
[591] Fitzgerald, _op. cit._, p. 111.
[592] De Faria, in Astley’s _A New General Collection of Voyages and
Travels_, London, 1746, iii, 397. The eighth day of the new moon was
considered most unlucky by the Sofalese. No one on that day was allowed
to attend court or even speak to the king (_ibid._).
[593] E. Torday, in _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
Wien_, 1911, xli, 200.
[594] Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples_, p. 144. The first period, called
_adai_, is considered lucky; the second, called _ajamfo_, is unlucky;
while _adim_, the third period, has a neutral character (John Beecham,
_Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London, 1841, p. 187). An old writer
asserts that the negroes living inland from the Gold Coast count in
every month the “great fortunate time,” nineteen days in length, and the
“lesser fortunate time,” of seven days’ duration. Between these periods
come seven ill or unfortunate days which serve as “a sort of vacation to
them, for then they do not travel, till their land, or undertake anything
of consequence, but remain altogether idle” (W. Bosman, _A New and
Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea_, London, 1705, p. 160).
[595] Above, pp. 119 _sq._
[596] Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, in _Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau
of American Ethnology_, p. 108. It is only right to add that Dr. J. W.
Fewkes, an eminent authority on the Pueblo Indians, expressed to me
in conversation (July, 1912) his doubts as to the correctness of Mrs.
Stevenson’s statement.
[597] Lepsius, _Chronologie der Ägypter_, i, 131 _sqq._; Brugsch,
_Thesaurus_, pt. i, 488 _sqq._; _idem_, _Ägyptologie_, p. 364. On the
astrological connection between the thirty-six decades of the twelve
months and certain constellations see G. Daressy, “Une ancienne liste des
décans égyptiens,” _Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte_, 1900,
i, 79-90. The old and once popular theory, based upon a misunderstanding
of certain passages in classical writers (Herodotus, ii, 82; Dio Cassius,
xxxvii, 19), that the Egyptians originally possessed a week of seven days
has now been entirely abandoned. For some monumental evidence, dating
from the Twenty-second Dynasty, which may possibly refer to an hebdomadal
cycle then used in astronomical speculations, see G. Daressy, “La semaine
des Égyptiens,” _Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte_, 1909, x,
21-23, 180-182.
[598] Pollux, _Onomasticon_, i, 63; G. F. Unger, in Iwan von Müller’s
_Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i, 563 _sqq._; M. P.
Nilsson, “_Die älteste griechische Zeitrechnung, Apollo und der Orient_,”
_Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 432 _sq._
[599] Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 765 _sqq._; compare A. W. Mair, _Hesiod_,
Oxford, 1908, pp. 165 _sq._; A. Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, p.
43.
[600] E. Curtius, _History of Greece_, New York, 1871, ii, 58; C.
E. Ruelle, “Calendarium,” Daremberg and Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des
antiquités grecques et romaines_, ii, 832.
[601] W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen
Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der
philologisch-historischen Klasse der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft
der Wissenschaften_, Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4, pp. 14 _sqq._; _idem_,
“Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus und Mythus der Griechen,” _ibid._,
1904, xxiv, no. 1, pp. 54, 69, 83.
[602] K. Simrock, _Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie_,⁹ Bonn, 1887, p.
156; E. Siecke, _Die Liebesgeschichte des Himmels_, Strassburg, 1892,
pp. 47 _sqq._; K. Weinhold, “Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,”
_Abhandlungen der königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_,
Berlin, 1897, pp. 40 _sqq._
[603] R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentage in den keltischen
Dialecten,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 191. J.
Loth, however, regards the Celtic periods as having been employed as
ordinary weeks (“L’année celtique d’après les textes irlandais, gallois,
bretons, et le calendrier de Coligny,” _Revue celtique_, 1904, xxv, 136).
He accepts Roscher’s theory of the sidereal month having furnished the
basis for such nine-day periods as are found among the Celts, and argues
that subsequently, when the sidereal month had been abandoned for the
synodic month, the nine-day periods became artificial units, independent
of any connection with the moon. But so strange a transition as that
from the sidereal to the synodic month cannot be supported by any Celtic
evidence and has no analogy among other peoples. For another theory see
Sir John Rhŷs, _Celtic Heathendom_,³ London, 1898, pp. 361-366.
[604] Above, pp. 106, 109 _sqq._, 119 _n._³, 120 _sq._ The theory
advanced by Theodor Mommsen that the Roman _nundinum_ originally
represented a quadripartite division of the lunation (_Römische
Chronologie_, pp. 240 _sq._) was afterwards abandoned by its author
(_Römisches Staatsrecht_, iii, 373). Compare also R. Flex, _Die älteste
Monatseinteilung der Römer_, Jena, 1880, pp. 18 _sqq._
[605] E. Littmann, “Sternensagen und Astrologisches aus Nordabessinien,”
_Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 302 _sq._, 319. In order to
adapt the _‘sāmĕn_ to the imported hebdomadal cycle, Sunday is counted
twice.
[606] Above, pp. 114 _and_ _n._³, 116 _n._¹
[607] A. Henry, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1903,
xxxiii, 105. The Muhso, a Lao hill tribe, “have a twelfth-day Sabbath
or sacred day, not very definitely marked” (Daniel McGilvary, _A Half
Century among the Siamese and the Lāo_, New York [1912], p. 323). Did
this “Sabbath” originate as a market day, which at first recurred every
sixth day?
[608] E. Gottschling, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
1905, xxxv, 382.
[609] Above, pp. 103 _sqq._, 108, 110, 113 _and_ _n._⁶, 114 _and_ _n._³,
116 _n._¹
[610] _The Oxyrhynchus Papyri_, edited by Grenfell and Hunt, London,
1903, pt. iii, 126-137.
[611] The data relating to the _khamushtu_ are found in some Cappadocian
tablets discovered by Golénischeff and others in mounds not far from
Kaisariyeh. This city was a colony of Assyria and the last outpost of
Assyrian power in the northwest. The tablets are in Babylonian cuneiform
script belonging to the age of Hammurabi. Professor A. H. Sayce in 1897
was the first to show that the term _khamushtu_ in these documents
represented a continuous succession of five-day periods; and Professor
Hugo Winckler later made, independently, the same discovery. See Sayce,
in _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, 1897, xix, 288;
_idem_, in _Babyloniaca_, 1907, ii, 1-45; Winckler, _Altorientalische
Forschungen_, Leipzig, 1898-1900, ii, 91 _sqq._, 354 _sqq._
[612] For references to the cuneiform evidence see P. Jensen, “Die
siebentägige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150 _sq._; W. Muss-Arnolt, in _Journal of
Biblical Literature_, xi, 94; A. Jeremias, _The Old Testament in the
Light of the Ancient East_, London, 1911, i, 65.
[613] G. Vígfússon, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_, Oxford, 1874,
_s.v._ _fimt_; Vígfússon and Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, Oxford,
1883, i, pp. cxx, 428; F. B. Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, New York, 1892,
p. 418; T. F. Troels-Lund, _Livsbelysning_, Copenhagen, 1904, pp. 13,
198. For the translation of this last reference I am indebted to Mr. N.
H. Debel.
[614] The Stseelis, an Indian tribe of British Columbia, have a singular
tradition that their ancestors used to observe a kind of Sabbath ceremony
long before the coming of the whites. The people assembled every seventh
day for dancing and praying. It is impossible to explain this tradition
apart from European influence at some remote time (C. Hill-Tout, in
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1904, xxxiv, 329).
[615] L. Dahle, “The Influence of the Arabs on the Malagasy Language,”
_Antananarivo Annual_, 1875-1878, i, 205. In addition to the Arabic
seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, the Malagasy also use, for
astrological purposes, the planetary designations of the weekdays. Of
these, three are good or lucky days, three are unlucky, and one has
a neutral character. See J. Sibree, “Divination among the Malagasy,”
_Folklore_, 1892, iii, 220 _sq._
[616] Soury-Lavergne and de la Devèze, in _Anthropos_, 1913, viii, 310
_n._⁴; James Sibree, _The Great African Island_, London, 1880, p. 281.
[617] O. Kersten, editor, _Baron Carl Claus von der Decken’s Reisen in
Ost-Afrika_, Leipzig, 1869, i, 101.
[618] M. Merker, _Die Masai_,² Berlin, 1910, pp. 157 _sq._, 327 _sq._;
compare Sir Charles Eliot, in A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_, Oxford, 1905, p.
xiv.
[619] C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of the A-Kamba and Other East African
Tribes_, Cambridge, 1910, p. 163.
[620] J. L. Krapf, _Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours_, London,
1867, p. 82.
[621] J. W. C. Kirk, _A Grammar of the Somali Language_, Cambridge, 1905,
p. 134; P. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas. Die geistige
Kultur der Danâkil, Galla, und Somâl_, Berlin, 1896, p. 224.
[622] F. J. Bieber, in _Revue des études ethnographiques et
sociologiques_, 1909, ii, 38, 63.
[623] Above, pp. 115 _sqq._ For further instances see Anne Raffenel,
_Nouveau voyage dans le pays des nègres_, Paris, 1856, i, 350 (Bambara);
H. Gaden, in _Revue d’ethnographie et de sociologie_, 1912, iii, 52
(Toucouleur and Mohammedan Peul of Senegal). Among the Vey of Liberia the
week of seven days must be due to Christian influence (J. Büttikofer,
_Reisebilder aus Liberia_, Leiden, 1890, ii, 317).
[624] Above, p. 157 _and_ _n._²
[625] Above, p. 166.
[626] J. F. Fleet, “The Use of the Planetary Names of the Days of the
Week in India,” _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1912, n.s., xliv,
1039-1046. For lists of the more common planetary names of the weekdays,
as now found in India, see Sewell and Dikshit, _The Indian Calendar_,
London, 1896, p. 2. The celebrated astronomical work in Sanskrit, known
as the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_, contains two references to the planetary
week (i, 51-52, xii, 78-79; transl. Burgess-Whitney, in _Journal of
the American Oriental Society_, 1860, v, 175-178, 396), and in the
_Hitōpadēśa_ (ed. Johnson, p. 16, l. 411) there is an interesting passage
which, as A. W. von Schlegel was the first to point out (_Indische
Bibliothek_, 1827, ii, 178), refers to Sunday as a sacred day.
[627] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York, 1891,
p. 433; W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 226;
_idem_, _The Tribes and Castes of the North-western Provinces and Oudh_,
Calcutta, 1896, iii, 112.
[628] J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_,³ Oxford,
1906, p. 382.
[629] R. Percival, _An Account of the Island of Ceylon_, London, 1803, p.
187; H. C. P. Bell, _The Máldive Islands_, Colombo, 1883, p. 119; B. H.
Hodgson, _Essays on the Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepál and
Tibet_, London, 1874, p. 8; E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig
and London, 1863, 289; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_,³ London, 1910, pp. 550
_sq._; E. Aymonier, _Le Cambodge_, Paris, 1900-1904, i, 42, ii, 19; De
la Loubère, _A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam_, London,
1693, ii, 168.
[630] A. Cabaton, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_,
iii, 113, 345, 450. On the other hand a week of seven days, found in
central Asia, has been borrowed from Persia, as its name _hafta_ from the
Persian _heft_, “seven,” indicates (H. Vámbéry, _Die primitive Cultur
des turko-tatarischen Volkes_, Leipzig, 1879, p. 160). In northern Asia,
again, the Russian advance has begun to lead to the use of the seven-day
week by native tribes, such as the Yukaghir of northeastern Siberia (W.
Jochelson, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, xiii,
42).
[631] Tournier, _Notice sur le Laos français_, Hanoi, 1900, p. 188.
[632] Robert Morrison, _A View of China for Philological Purposes_,
Macao, 1817, pp. 52, 102; _idem_, _A Grammar of the Chinese Language_,
Serampore, 1815, p. 54.
[633] A. Wylie, “On the Knowledge of the Weekly Sabbath in China,”
_Chinese Researches_, Shanghai, 1897, pt. ii, 86-101; J. Edkins, _Chinese
Buddhism_,² London, 1893, p. 211.
[634] The Nestorian Monument was set up in 781 A.D. in the department or
prefecture of Hsî-an, province of Shen-hsî, northwestern China. At the
end of the inscription on it we read: “Erected in the second year of the
period Chien-chung of the great T’ang dynasty, the year-star being in
Tso-yo, on the seventh day of the first month, being Sunday.” See James
Legge, _The Nestorian Monument of Hsî-an Fu in Shen-hsî, China_, London,
1888, p. 29. A replica of this monument, which is a limestone block ten
feet in height and of two tons’ weight, was taken to the United States
in 1908 and now rests in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
See F. V. Holm, “The Holm Nestorian Expedition to Sian, MCMVII,” _Open
Court_, 1909, xxiii, 18-28.
[635] “Some persons,” writes an experienced observer of the Chinese,
“have expressed their surprise that the unceasing round of toil which
the Chinese labourer pursues has not rendered him more degraded. It is
usually said that a weekly rest is necessary for the continuance of
the powers of body and mind in man in their full activity, and that
decrepitude and insanity would oftener result were it not for this
relaxation.... Yet, in China, people who apparently tax themselves
uninterruptedly to the utmost stretch of body and mind, live in health to
old age.... Nothing like a seventh day of rest, or religious respect to
that interval of time, is known among the Chinese, but they do not, as a
people, exercise their minds to the intensity, or upon the high subjects,
common among western nations, and this perhaps is one reason why their
yearly toil produces no disastrous effects” (S. W. Williams, _The Middle
Kingdom_,² New York, 1883, i, 809 _sq._).
[636] B. H. Chamberlain, _Things Japanese_,² London, 1891, pp. 418 _sq._
[637] Arthur Lloyd, _Every-day Japan_, London, 1909, pp. 371 _sq._
[638] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, pp. 548 _sq._, 554.
[639] Annandale and Robinson, _Fasciculi Malayensis_, London, 1903-1904,
i, 80 _sq._, 100; ii, 30, 55.
[640] C. S. Hurgronje, _The Achehnese_, Leiden, 1906, i, 236, 261.
[641] A. Maass, _Durch Zentral-Sumatra_, Berlin, 1910, p. 513.
[642] J. Winkler, “Der Kalender der Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra,”
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913, xlv, 441 _sqq._
[643] W. Marsden, _The History of Sumatra_³, London, 1811, p. 194.
[644] E. Metzger, “Über die Zeitrechnung der Javanen”, _Deutsche
Rundschau für Geographie und Statistik_, 1887, ix, 311; P. J. Veth,
Java,², Haarlem, 1907, iv, 297 _sq._ A recent observer points out that,
although the life of a Javanese village is never intensely laborious,
it is, in a sense, a life of continuous labour, “for the Javanese does
not feel compelled to abstain from labour entirely upon any day of the
week—not even on a Friday—to satisfy his religious beliefs. He works
as long as he needs to work; but only too often only just so long. His
village holidays are numerous” (A. Cabaton, _Java, Sumatra, and the Other
Islands of the Dutch East Indies_, London and Leipzig, 1911, pp. 125
_sq._).
[645] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1878,
n.s., x, 89, 93.
[646] _An Historical Description of the Kingdom of Macasar_, London,
1701, p. 149.
[647] T. Nöldeke, “Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Semiten,”
_Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 162; J. Wellhausen,
_Reste arabischen Heidentums_,² Berlin, 1897, p. 142.
[648] _Koran_, lxii, 9 _sq._ (_S. B. E._, ix, 283); T. P. Hughes,
_Dictionary of Islam_, London, 1885, pp. 131, 666; _idem_, “The Mosque
Life of the Muslim,” _Open Court_, 1906, xx, 335; T. W. Juynboll,
“Djum‘a,” _The Encyclopædia of Islām_, i, 1061 _sq._
[649] See in general L. Lévy-Bruhl, _Les fonctions mentales dans les
sociétés inférieures_, Paris, 1910, pp. 235-257; D. G. Brinton, “The
Origin of Sacred Numbers,” _American Anthropologist_, 1894, vii,
168-173; _idem_, _The Myths of the New World_,³ Philadelphia, 1896, pp.
83-119; W. J. McGee, “Primitive Numbers,” _Nineteenth Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, pt. ii, 821-852; W. Schultz,
“Gesetze der Zahlenverschiebung im Mythus und in mythenhaltiger
Überlieferung,” _Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in
Wien_, 1910, xl, 101-150; R. Hirzel, “Über Rundzahlen,” _Berichte
über die Verhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der
königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft_, Leipzig, 1885, xxxvii, 1-74; E.
Kautzsch, “Zahlen,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie für
protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xx, 598-607; A. Bergaigne, _La
religion védique_, Paris, 1883, ii, 114-156; E. W. Hopkins, “The Holy
Numbers of the _Rig-Veda_,” in _Oriental Studies_, Boston, 1894, pp.
141-159; E. Wölfflin, “Zur Zahlensymbolik,” _Archiv für lateinische
Lexikographie und Grammatik_, 1895, ix, 33-353; I. Goldziher, “Über
Zahlenaberglauben im Islam,” _Globus_, 1901, lxxx, 31-32. For collections
of the evidence relating to the sacredness of certain numbers see
B. Stade, “Die Dreizahl im Alten Testament,” _Zeitschrift für die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1906, xxvi, 124 _sqq._; H. Usener,
“Dreiheit,” _Rheinisches Museum für Philologie_, 1903, n.s., lviii, 1-47,
161-208, 321-362; Anne W. Buckland, “Four as a Sacred Number,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, 1896, xxv, 96-102; F. X. Kugler, “Die
Symbolik der Neunzahl bei den Babyloniern,” in _Assyriologische und
archäologische Studien Hermann v. Hilprecht gewidmet_, Leipzig, 1909, pp.
304-309; A. Kaegi, “Die Neunzahl bei den Ostariern,” in _Philologische
Abhandlungen für Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler_, Zürich, 1891, pp. 50-70; K.
Weinhold, “Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” _Abhandlungen der
königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Berlin, 1897, pp.
1-61; Edgar Thurston, “The Number Seven in Southern India,” in _Essays
and Studies presented to William Ridgeway_, Cambridge, 1913, pp· 353-364;
W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen
der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen
Klasse der königlichsächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_,
Leipzig, 1903, xxi, no. 4; _idem_, “Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus
und Mythus der Griechen,” _ibid._, 1904, xxiv, no. I; _idem_, “Die
Hebdomadenlehren der griechischen Philosophen und Ärzte,” _ibid._, 1904,
xxiv, no. 6; _idem_, “Enneadische Studien,” _ibid._, 1907, xxvi, no. i;
_idem_, “Die Zahl 40 im Glauben, Brauch, und Schrifttum der Semiten,”
_ibid._, 1909, xxvii, no. 4; _idem_, “Über Alter, Ursprung, und Bedeutung
der hippokratischen Schrift von der Siebenzahl,” _ibid._, 1911, xxviii,
no. 5; _idem_, “Die Tessarakontaden und Tessarakontadenlehren der
Griechen und anderer Völker,” _Berichte über die Verhandlungen_, etc.,
Leipzig, 1909, lxi, 17-206.
[650] For a large collection of evidence see F. von Andrian,
“Die Siebenzahl im Geistesleben der Völker,” _Mitteilungen der
anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, 1901, xxxi, 225-274.
[651] Brooke Low, in H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British
North Borneo_, London, 1906, i, 231; Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan
Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, ii, 134 _sq._
[652] I. H. N. Evans, “Notes on the Religious Beliefs, Superstitions,
Ceremonies, and Tabus of the Dusuns,” _Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute_, 1912, xlii, 394 _sq._
[653] Suas, “Le septième jour aux Nouvelles Hébrides, Océanie,”
_Anthropos_, 1912, vii, 1057; compare _ibid._, 50 _n._¹
[654] M. Merker, in _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, 1902, Ergänzungsheft, no.
138, p. 25.
[655] W. E. H. Barrett, in _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute_, 1911, xli, 22, 31 _sq._, 34.
[656] C. W. Hobley, _ibid._, 1910, xl, 439 _sq._ Seven among the
Akikuyu is of all numbers the most unlucky in divination (Routledge and
Routledge, _With a Prehistoric People_, pp. 264, 274).
[657] Hollis, _Nandi_, p. 89.
[658] Above, pp. 145 _sq._, 198 _sq._
[659] Above, p. 199.
[660] E. Dayrell, _Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa_,
London, 1910, nos. xxx-xxxii, xxxiv, xxxviii, etc.
[661] E. Doutté, _Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du nord_, Algiers,
1909, pp. 184 _sqq._
[662] The Zuñi priests preserve a ceremonial diagram of the seven
“Ancient Spaces,” or primeval cosmogonic areas, representing north,
east, south, west, the zenith, the nadir, and the middle. The observer
is always supposed to stand in the central space. For illustrations of
the seven-cult among the American Indians see J. W. Powell, in F. H.
Cushing, _Zuñi Folk Tales_, New York, 1901, pp. xii _sq._; S. Hagar,
“Cherokee Star-lore,” in _Boas Anniversary Volume_, New York, 1906, p.
361; J. O. Dorsey, in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
p. 397 (Osage, Kansa, Omaha, Dakota, and Ponka tribes); Jean L’Heureux,
in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1886, xv, 303 (Blackfoot);
D. G. Brinton, _The Lenâpé and their Legends_, Philadelphia, 1885, pp.
139 _sq._
[663] E. W. Hopkins, “The Holy Numbers of the _Rig-Veda_,” in _Oriental
Studies_, Boston, 1894, pp. 141, 144 _sq._; compare A. Bergaigne, _La
religion védique_, Paris, 1883, ii, 123, 127.
[664] _Odyssey_, x, 81, xii, 399, xiv, 252, 288, xv, 477.
[665] _Opera et dies_, 770 _sq._; Herodotus, vi, 57; Æschylus, _Septem
contra Thebas_, 800; Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, viii, 1, 2;
Lydus, _De mensibus_, ii, 12. The seventh day of each month was a holiday
for Greek children, in remembrance of Apollo’s birth on the seventh of
Thargelion (Lucian, _Pseudologistes_, 16). The first and twentieth of
the month were also consecrated to Apollo, who received in consequence
the cult titles Ἑβδομαγέτης, Νεομήνιος and Εἰκάδιος. According to
Plutarch (_Dion_, 23), a festival of Apollo was also celebrated on the
fifteenth of the month. On the seventh day in Greece see, further, L.
R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, Oxford, 1906-1910, iv, 258
_sq._; _idem_, _Greece and Babylon_, London, 1911, p. 295; O. Gruppe,
_Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, Munich, 1906, ii, 939
_sqq._; M. P. Nilsson, “Die älteste griechische Zeitrechnung, Apollo und
der Orient,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 442 _sqq._
[666] See the exhaustive collection of the evidence, both literary and
inscriptional, in Roscher, “Fristen und Wochen,” pp. 41-68; _idem_,
“Sieben- und Neunzahl,” pp. 4-53; _idem_, “Hebdomadenlehren,” pp. 7-23.
Some students have seen in this sanctity of seven the results of early
intercourse with the Orient through Phœnician channels (V. Bérard, in
_Revue de l’histoire des religions_, 1899, xxxix, 426 _sq._; compare
A. Thumb, “Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen,” _Zeitschrift
für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 163 _sq._). The theory of the
diffusion of the cult of seven from the East might now be strengthened by
substituting Cretan for Phœnician intermediaries. Nilsson argues that the
seven-cult, together with the worship of Apollo, reached Greece by way
of Asia Minor, “eine Etappe auf dem Wege nach Babylonien” (_Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1911, xiv, 447 _sq._).
[667] J. Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten
Testament_, Leipzig, 1907, pp. 4-44; P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der
Babylonier_, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 170-184.
[668] The predominance of seven among the Hebrews, if not wholly
explained by borrowing from Babylonia, may reasonably be assumed to have
been much influenced by Babylonian conceptions. On the Hebrew cult of
this number see Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat_, pp. 77-90; O. Zöckler,
“Siebenzahl, heilige,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie
für protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xviii, 310-317.
[669] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 217 _sqq._; _idem_, _Die Religion
Babyloniens und Assyriens_, Giessen, 1905-1912, ii, 446 _sq._, 663 _sqq._
[670] G. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, Oxford, 1905,
pp. 134 _sq._ The fact that by the Babylonians Venus, as a morning star,
was considered masculine and as an evening star, feminine (F. X. Kugler,
_Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel_, Münster-i.-W., 1907-1910, ii, 19
_sq._) must point back to a time when the different appearances of that
heavenly body at morning and evening were regarded as those of different
planets. Such was also the opinion of the early Greeks, who held the
morning star, Ἑωσφόρος, and Ἕσπερος, the evening star, to be different
bodies. Their identity was not recognized until the time of Pythagoras
in the sixth century B.C. (W. H. Roscher, “Planeten,” _Ausführliches
Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, iii, col. 2521).
Similar misconceptions are found among primitive peoples. Of the Maori
it has been said: “Tawera is their Lucifer and Merimeri their Hesperus,
and under these two names the beauty of the planet Venus is frequently
celebrated in their poetry” (E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions
of the New Zealanders_,² p. 219). Additional evidence is found among
the aborigines of Sumatra (Marsden, _op. cit._, p. 194), the Hottentots
(Schultze, _op. cit._, p. 367), and the Cherokee Indians (Hagar, in _Boas
Anniversary Volume_, p. 357).
[671] Kugler, _op. cit._, i, 13; compare F. Boll, “Zur babylonischen
Planetenordnung,” _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1911, xxv, 373. Between
400 B.C. and the opening of the Christian era the order is the same,
except that Mercury and Saturn exchange places.
[672] Herodotus, ii, 82.
[673] The history of the planetary week has been treated with exhaustive
learning by E. Schürer, “Die siebentägige Woche im Gebrauche der
christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte,” _Zeitschrift für die
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1905, vi, 1-66. A very valuable survey
is that by F. Boll, “Hebdomas,” in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie
der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, vii, coll. 2547-2578. Among the
earlier discussions those by J. C. H(are), “On the Names of the Days of
the Week,” _Philological Museum_, 1832, i, 1-73, and E. Schrader, “Der
babylonische Ursprung der siebentägigen Woche,” _Theologische Studien und
Kritiken_, 1874, xlvii, 343-353, hold an honourable place. See further
W. H. Roscher, “Planeten,” _Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen
und römischen Mythologie_, iii, coll. 2518-2539; A. Bouché-Leclercq,
_L’astrologie grecque_, Paris, 1899, pp. 476-484; Jensen, Nöldeke, _et
al._, “Geschichte der Namen der Wochentage,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150-193; O. Schrader, “Woche,” _Reallexikon
der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1901, pp. 959-965;
W. Lotz, “Woche,” in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie
für protestantische Theologie und Kirche_,³ xxi, 409-414; F. Rühl,
_Chronologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit_, Berlin, 1897, pp. 49-63;
F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_,
Leipzig, 1906-1911, index, _s.v._ “Woche.” The word “week” in various
Germanic languages has the general meaning of “change” (Anglo-Saxon
_wice_, Old Frisian _wike_, Old Norse _vika_, Danish _uge_, Old High
German _wecha_, Gothic _wiko_, etc.). See F. L. K. Weigand, _Deutsches
Wörterbuch_,⁵ Giessen, 1910, ii, 1279. The Latin _vicis_, “change,”
“turn” (a genitive form) is a related expression. See Walde, _op. cit._,
p. 833.
[674] The reverse order, beginning with the Moon and ending with Saturn,
is attributed to Pythagoras by Pliny the Elder (_Historia naturalis_,
ii, 22) and by Censorinus (_De die natali_, xiii, 3); and according
to Macrobius it was adopted by Archimedes in the third century B.C.
(_Commentarium in somnium Scipionis_, i, 19, 2, ii, 3, 13). But the
statements of these late writers on the subject may be safely disregarded.
[675] _Historia Romana_, xxxvii, 18 _sq._ There is also extant a still
earlier explanation of the planetary sequence by Vettius Valens, an
astrologer of the age of the Antonines. The one provided by Plutarch,
in the seventh chapter of the fourth book of his _Symposiacs_, has been
lost. Dio Cassius attributes the origin of the planetary week to the
Egyptians; Lydus, a Byzantine antiquarian of the fifth century A.D.,
hesitates between the Egyptians and the Babylonians (_De mensibus_, ii,
31).
[676] This arrangement—διὰ τεσσάρων—may be illustrated by means of the
heptagram. Let the circumference of a circle be divided into seven equal
arcs and the signs of the planets—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
Mercury, Moon—be placed at the points of division. If these points
are connected by a series of continuous chords, then, beginning with
Saturn, the lines of the chords will lead successively to the signs of
the planets in the astrological order. The figure of a seven-branched
star, inscribed in a circle, is an ancient device; indeed, the heptagram
appears on a clay tablet recently unearthed at Nippur in Babylonia (H. V.
Hilprecht, _Explorations in Bible Lands_, Philadelphia, 1903, p. 530),
but in this case quite without any indication of its use.
[677] As a matter of fact the gamut, or scale of seven notes comprised
within the interval of an octave, rests on no fundamental laws of
acoustic phenomena but is itself a product of the all-pervading symbolism
of seven. This system of musical numeration has spread from Greece as
far east as India and China. See J. Combarieu, _La musique et la magie_,
Paris, 1909, pp. 176-200.
[678] Herodotus (ii, 109) says explicitly that the Greeks learned from
the Babylonians to divide the day into twelve parts. This statement
agrees with the evidence from the cuneiform records, which show that it
was the Babylonian custom to divide the nycthemeron, or cycle of night
and day, into twelve _kaspu_, corresponding to two of our equinoctial
hours. On the other hand the Egyptians from very early times were
familiar with a division into twenty-four hours, twelve for the night
and twelve for the natural day. It is not improbable, therefore, that
the astrological use of the twenty-four hours was remotely derived
from Egypt. On the entire subject of hour deities see W. Gundel,
“Stundengötter,” _Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde_, 1913, xii, 100-131.
[679] _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 220; G. Gundermann,
“Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Römern,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 177.
[680] A. Mau, in _Bullettino dell’ instituto di corrispondenza
archeologica_, 1881, p. 30; _Atti della reale accademia dei lincei,
anno 1901, Serie v, classe di scienze morali_, etc., _ix, Notizie degli
scavi_, p. 330.
[681] _Historia Romana_, xxxvii, 18.
[682] Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13;
Clement, _Stromata_, vii, 12, 75; compare Justin Martyr, _Apologia
prima_, 67.
[683] The Jews indicated each weekday by its numerical name, as the first
day, the second day, and so on; compare _Exodus_, xvi, 5, 22; _Matthew_,
xxviii, 1; _Mark_, xvi, 2; _Luke_, xxiv, 1; _John_, xx, 1; _Acts_, xx,
7; 1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2. The sixth day, preceding the Sabbath, came
eventually to be called by Hellenistic Jews ἡ παρασκευή, or “preparation”
for the Sabbath; compare _Matthew_, xxvii, 62; _Mark_, xv, 42; _Luke_,
xxiii, 54; _John_, xix, 31.
[684] The oldest dated Christian inscription to employ a planetary
designation belongs to the year 269 A.D. (_Inscriptiones Christianæ urbis
Romæ_, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, no. 11).
[685] According to the testimony of Celsus, as quoted by Origen (_Contra
Celsum_, vi, 21), the seven planets played an important rôle in the
Mithraic mysteries. The chief position was naturally assigned to the sun,
from which circumstance Cumont concludes, not only that the planetary
week was known to Mithraism, but also that the _dies Solis_ “était
évidemment le plus sacré de l’hebdomade pour les fidèles de Mithra, et,
comme les Chrétiens, ils devaient sanctifier le dimanche et non pas
le sabbat.” See F. Cumont, _Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux
mystères de Mithra_, Brussels, 1896-1899, i, 118 _sq._, ii, 31.
[686] Above, pp. 122 _sq._
[687] Below, p. 268.
[688] Italian _domenica_, _sabbato_; Spanish _domingo_, _sabado_; French
_dimanche_, _samedi_, etc. But the heathen names of even these two days
continued for a long time in popular use, as is evident from the words
of Gregory of Tours: _Ecce enim dies Solis adest, sic enim barbaries
vocitare diem dominicam consueta est_ (_Historia Francorum_, iii, 15).
The other weekdays (Monday to Friday) in the calendar of the Roman Church
follow the Jewish usage in being numbered, not named: _feria secunda_,
_feria tertia_, _feria quarta_, _feria quinta_, and _feria sexta_
(Isidore of Seville, _Etymologiæ sive origines_, v, 30). In Portugal the
influence of the Church was strong enough to secure the general adoption
of this mode of reckoning, instead of the planetary sequence; and here
Monday is still called _feira segunda_, Tuesday, _feira terça_, etc.
It is curious to find the old Roman term for a holy day thus employed
to refer to the weekdays that are particularly devoted to secular
occupations. The origin of the practice has not been satisfactorily
explained.
[689] Tiu (Mars), Woden (Mercurius), Thor (Jupiter), Frija (Venus). The
special observance of Thursday as a holy day reflects the commanding
place occupied by Thor in Germanic paganism. His worship on that day is
referred to in documents of the early Middle Ages as a superstition to be
eradicated (_nullus diem Jovis in otio observet_, etc.), but the modern
Esthonians still consider Thursday as holier than Sunday and in Sweden,
as late as the nineteenth century, the day was generally considered
sacred. See J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, London, 1882, i, 191; O.
Montelius, “The Sun-god’s Axe and Thor’s Hammer,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi,
77.
[690] The Scandinavian name for Saturday, “bath-day” or “wash-day” (Old
Norse _laugardagr_), arose from the custom of taking a bath at the end of
the week (De la Saussaye, _The Religion of the Teutons_, Boston, 1902, p.
379; P. B. Du Chaillu, _The Land of the Midnight Sun_, New York, 1881,
ii, 205 _sqq._).
[691] In Slavic antiquity Friday, or some day corresponding to it,
appears to have been consecrated to a female divinity, whose personality,
after the introduction of Christianity, became merged into that of St.
Prascovia. “As she is supposed to wander about the houses of the peasants
on her holy day, and to be offended if she finds certain kinds of work
going on, they are (or at least they used to be) frequently suspended
on Fridays. It is a sin, says a time-honoured tradition, for a woman to
sew or spin, or weave, or buck linen on a Friday, and similarly for a
man to plait bast shoes, twine cords, and the like. Spinning and weaving
are especially obnoxious to ‘Mother Friday,’ for the dust and refuse
thus produced injure her eyes.” The peasants believe that any work begun
on Friday is sure to go wrong (W. R. S. Ralston, _Russian Folktales_,
London, 1873, pp. 198 _sq._).
[692] In Thessaly and Macedonia Saturday (σάββατον) is considered
inauspicious for beginning any undertaking. This taboo on the day has
been considered as perhaps a reminiscence of the Jewish Sabbath (Sir
Rennell Rodd, _The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, London, 1892, p.
159). According to Mr. G. F. Abbott, the Macedonians believe it unlucky
to finish any work on a Saturday; the end of the week being associated
in some way with the end of the owner’s life. “People born on a Saturday
(hence called Σαββατιανοί or Sabbatarians) are believed to enjoy the
doubtful privilege of seeing ghosts and phantasms, and of possessing
great influence over vampires” (_Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903,
pp. 191, 221).
[693] On the week among European peoples see further E. Maass, _Die
Tagesgötter im Rom und den Provinzen_, Berlin, 1902; A. Thumb, “Die
albanesischen Wochentage,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung_,
1901, i, 173-175; R. Thurneysen, “Die Namen der Wochentagen in den
keltischen Dialecten,” _ibid._, pp. 186-191; W. Meyer-Lübke, “Die Namen
der Wochentage im Romanischen,” _ibid._, pp. 192 _sq._; C. L. Rochholz,
_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, ii, 9-63; K. A. Oberle,
_Überreste germanischen Heidentums im Christentum_, Baden-Baden, 1883,
pp. 13-40; Grimm, _op. cit._, i, 122-130.
[694] G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_,⁷ London, 1883, p. 12; compare
_idem_, _The Assyrian Eponym Canon_, London, 1875, pp. 19 _sq._
[695] Above, p. 177 _n._²
[696] The first edition (1875) of the fourth volume of Rawlinson’s
_Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ contained only a calendar for
the month of Elul II, but in the second edition (1891) of this volume
there was added, from a number of fragments, a calendar for the month of
Markheshwan.
[697] The difficulty which arises in respect to the nineteenth day has
been solved to the satisfaction of most Assyriologists by the suggestion
that the nineteenth day was regarded as seven times the seventh day
(_i.e._, the forty-ninth from the first of the preceding month). This,
of course, would not be strictly true, when the preceding month had
only twenty-nine days, but it seems that the early Babylonian month was
conventionally taken at thirty days’ duration.
[698] Above, pp. 210 _sq._
[699] Compare H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das
Alte Testament_,³ Berlin, 1903, pp. 620 _sq._ The possible influence
of Pleiades cults has been worked out with much ingenuity by H. Grimme
(_Das israelitische Pfingstfest und der Plejadenkult_, Paderborn, 1907),
who discerns in the duration of the Hebrew Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks,
as well as in the rites which marked that agricultural festival, the
predominance of a septenary division based on the observation of these
seven stars.
[700] W. Muss-Arnolt, “The Names of the Assyro-Babylonian Months and
their Regents,” _Journal of Biblical Literature_, 1892, xi, 73; E. Combe,
_Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie_, Paris, 1908, pp.
8, 13.
[701] Above, p. 178.
[702] W. Muss-Arnolt, in _Journal of Biblical Literature_, 1892, xi, 72
_sqq._, 82 _sqq._, 90; E. Meyer, “Astarte,” in Roscher’s _Ausführliches
Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie_, i, col. 649.
[703] R. C. Thompson, _The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of
Nineveh and Babylon_, London, 1900, ii, pp. xviii _sqq._, xxvi.
[704] Epping and Strassmeier, _Astronomisches aus Babylon_,
Freiburg-i.-B., 1889, p. 179; F. X. Kugler, _Die babylonische
Mondrechnung_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1900, pp. 49, 201; F. H. Weissbach, “Zum
babylonischen Kalender,” in _Assyriologische und archäologische Studien
Hermann v. Hilprecht gewidmet_, Leipzig, 1909, p. 281.
[705] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iv,² pl. 32, col. 1, ll. 1-2; W. Lotz,
_Quæstiones de historia Sabbati_, Leipzig, 1883, p. 39.
[706] Above, pp. 187 _sq._
[707] Above, p. 195.
[708] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iii, 55, no. 3, ll. 17-26; P. Jensen, “Die
siebentägige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 150.
[709] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, iii, 64, 18 b; Jensen, in _Zeitschrift
für deutsche Wortforschung_, 1901, i, 152; Zimmern, in Schrader,
_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 621 _n._⁵
[710] _Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum_,
pt. xxv, pl. 50 (K. 170); F. Hommel, “Calendar (Babylonian),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 76.
[711] _Enuma elish_, v, ll. 12-18 (transl. L. W. King, _The Seven Tablets
of Creation_, London, 1902, i, 78, 81):
“The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him.
He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days;
Every month without ceasing with the crown he covered (?) him, (saying):
‘At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land,
Thou commandest the horns to determine six days
And on the seventh day to [divide] the crown
On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand opposite, the half[...].’”
For other translations see P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_,
Strassburg, 1890, pp. 288 _sqq._; W. Muss-Arnolt, in R. F. Harper,
_Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, New York, 1901, p. 296.
[712] Above, pp. 157, 165 _sq._
[713] Above, p. 212.
[714] C. Fossey, _La magie assyrienne_, Paris, 1902, pp. 52, 58.
[715] See H. Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln s̆urpu_, Leipzig, 1896.
[716] R. C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London,
1904, ii, pp. xxxix _sqq._
[717] H. C. Rawlinson, _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_,
London, 1891, iv,² pl. 32-33. The complete text was first translated
by A. H. Sayce (“A Babylonian Saints’ Calendar,” _Records of the
Past_, London, 1876, vii, 157-170) and shortly thereafter by W. Lotz
(_Quæstiones de historia Sabbati_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-49). The
passage relating to the seventh day has been many times rendered by
Assyriologists, not without variations in the result. I have used the
version in the scholarly work of R. W. Rogers, _Cuneiform Parallels to
the Old Testament_, New York, 1912, p. 189.
[718] The nineteenth day would seem to be particularly tabooed, for then
the “shepherd of great peoples” is forbidden to eat “anything which the
fire has touched.”
[719] Most Assyriologists (Jeremias, Delitzsch, Lagrange, Pinches, Clay)
make this sentence read: “The day is unsuitable for any business,” a
translation which, if correct, converts the seventh day into a veritable
Sabbath. To this translation Professor Morris Jastrow now adds the great
weight of his authority, pointing out that we must read _ana epasch la
na-ṭu_, “‘für Arbeit (oder Ausführung) nicht geignet’ ... und nicht,
wie man früher annahm, _epesch arrati_, ‘zum Fluchen,’ was ja ein
eigentümliches Verbot wäre” (_Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_,
Giessen, 1905-1912, ii, 533 _n._¹).
[720] Above, p. 15.
[721] For much evidence as to the sacredness of chiefs and kings and as
to the accompanying taboos, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils
of the Soul_, London, 1911, pp. 1-17; _idem_, _Psyche’s Task_,² London,
1913, pp. 6-19.
[722] T. C. Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906,
xxxvi, 98; _idem_, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 298; _idem_, _Nāga Tribes of
Manipur_, pp. 102, 141 _sq._
[723] For further discussions of the “evil days” see M. J. Lagrange,
_Études sur les religions sémitiques_,² Paris, 1905, pp. 291 _sqq._; J.
Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten Testament_,
Leipzig, 1907, pp. 106-109; J. Meinhold, _Sabbat und Woche im Alten
Testament_, Göttingen, 1905, pp. 15 _sqq._; F. Bohn, _Der Sabbat im Alten
Testament_, Gütersloh, 1903, pp. 39-43.
[724] Some painstaking efforts have been made to discover whether during
historic times there was any general observance in Babylonia of the “evil
days.” W. Lotz (_op. cit._, p. 66), from an examination of 540 dated
contract tablets belonging to different months, found that the average of
the number of transactions on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days was 18,
which would be also the average for each day of the month. The 19th day,
however, had only one contract to its credit. Schiaparelli (_op. cit._,
p. 132 _n._¹) examined about 400 dated documents from the archives of
the Babylonian business firm, Egibi and Sons, and showed that there was
a real abstention from business only on the 19th day, when no contracts
were concluded. The same investigator (_op. cit._, pp. 175 _sqq._) also
classified according to the day of the month 2764 dates on contract
tablets belonging to the period 604-449 B.C. and found again that, while
the transactions for the 7th, 14th, and 21st days were considerably
above the average (94) and those for the 28th day only slightly below
it, the 19th day registered but 12 transactions. It is true that these
statistics deal with a late period of Babylonian history and include the
reigns of several Persian kings. By this time the general observance
of the custom may have been in decay. The figures, moreover, do not
distinguish the sort of business done on the “evil days.” Many of the
documents are temple records, having to do with offerings, receipts of
salaries by priests, etc., and such business may not have been regarded
as a violation of the prohibitions in question (C. H. W. Johns, “The
Babylonian Sabbath,” _Expository Times_, 1906, xvii, 566 _sq._). For
Assyria, during the period 720-606 B.C., 365 dated documents indicate
no marked cessation of business on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days.
“They were not kept with puritan respect for the Sabbath, if Sabbaths
they really were.” Only 2 contracts, however, were made on the 19th,
and for one of these the date is doubtful (_idem_, _Assyrian Deeds and
Documents_, London, 1901, ii, 40 _sq._). Finally, out of 356 dated
documents of the Hammurabi era, only 2 were dated on the 19th and only
26 on the four other “evil days” (_idem_, in _Expository Times_, 1906,
xvii, 566 _sq._). It would seem, accordingly, that at this earlier period
(about 2000 B.C.) there was a sabbatic observance of all five days, and
especially of the 19th day.
[725] _Shabbāthôn_ occurs all together ten times in the Old Testament,
where it is applied to New Year’s Day, the Day of Atonement (above, pp.
82 _sq._), the first and eighth days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and
also to the Sabbatical Year (_Leviticus_, xxv, 4) and to the Sabbath
Day proper (_Exodus_, xvi, 23, xxxi, 15, xxxv, 2; _Leviticus_, xxiii,
3). Professor Morris Jastrow thinks that _shabbāthôn_ is mistranslated
as “solemn rest” and that in fact it is merely an adjectival formation
meaning “sabbatical” or “Sabbath-like.” The word “belongs to a period
prior to the development of a Sabbath institution, celebrated every
seventh day without any reference to the phases of the moon” (_American
Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914, xxx, 97 _n._⁷).
[726] Rawlinson, _op. cit._, ii, pl. 32, no. i, 16 a-b (_Cuneiform
Texts_, pt. xviii, pl. 23, 17 [K. 4397]). The discovery of this
important equation was made by W. H. Boscawen; see A. H. Sayce, in
_Academy_, 1875, viii, 555. _Shabattu(m)_ here and elsewhere can be read
_shapattu(m)_, without, however, affecting the sense (P. Jensen, in
_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1900, xiv, 182; H. Zimmern, in Schrader,
_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 592 _n._⁵).
[727] A. H. Sayce, _The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the
Monuments_, London, 1895, p. 74; _idem_, _The Religions of Ancient Egypt
and Babylonia_, Edinburgh, 1902, p. 476; F. Delitzsch, _Babel and Bible_,
London, 1903, p. 41. The purely conjectural character of this procedure
was long ago pointed out by Francis Brown in his article, “The Sabbath in
the Cuneiform Records,” _Presbyterian Review_, 1882, iii, 693. Compare
also A. T. Clay, _Amurru_, Philadelphia, 1909, pp. 55 _sqq._
[728] _Babel and Bible_, p. 99.
[729] H. Hirschfeld, “Remarks on the Etymology of Šabbāth,” _Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1896, n.s., xxviii, 357.
[730] M. Jastrow, “The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,”
_American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 316 _sq._, 351; compare _idem_,
_Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_, New York, 1914, pp. 134, 149.
[731] H. Zimmern, in Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 593. In one
cuneiform list (Rawlinson, _op. cit._, v, pl. 28, l. e-f) the verb
_shabâtu_ is equated with _gamâru_, which is thought to mean “be
complete,” “be full,” “cease,” though in some other syllabaries it
apparently has the sense of “pacify.” In the light of the meaning now
assigned to _shabattum_ both translations appear to be intelligible and
harmonious.
[732] T. G. Pinches, _The Old Testament_, London, 1902, p. 327.
[733] D. Nielsen, _Die altarabische Mondreligion_, pp. 87 _sq._
[734] J. Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat_, p. 98.
[735] S. Langdon, “The Derivation of _Šabattu_ and Other Notes,”
_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 30.
[736] C. H. Toy, “The Earliest Form of the Hebrew Sabbath,” _Journal
of Biblical Literature_, 1899, xviii, 190 _sqq._; compare _idem_,
_Introduction to the History of Religions_, Boston, 1913, p. 251.
[737] The text (K. 6012 + K. 10,684) forms a part of the British Museum
collection of cuneiform tablets. A portion of the text was published by
Rawlinson (_op. cit._, iii, pl. 56, no. 4) and additions to it, as well
as duplicate Babylonian fragments, were subsequently identified by Dr.
Pinches, to whom, accordingly, full credit for this important discovery
should be ascribed. See T. G. Pinches, “_Šapattu_, the Babylonian
Sabbath,” _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, 1904,
xxvi, 51-56. H. Zimmern, however, had previously pointed out that,
according to the Rawlinson text, the fifteenth day of a thirty-day month
might have borne the designation _shabattum_ (Zimmern, in Schrader,
_Keilinschriften_,³ p. 593 _n._³); compare his comments on Pinches’s
discoveries (_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_,
1904, lviii, 199-202, 458-460).
[738] Above, p. 181 _n._⁷
[739] The text (K. 2164 + 2195 + 3510) has been edited with a translation
and commentary by E. Weidener, “Zur babylonischen Astronomie,”
_Babyloniaca_, 1911, vi, 8 _sqq._ It should be observed that it belongs
to the same series as the text (K. 170) in which the fifteenth day is
expressly described as the day of full moon (above, p. 229). Professor A.
H. Sayce has published a table of lunar longitudes (K. 490) which shows
how many degrees the moon advances during the first fifteen days of the
month and how many degrees it retrogrades during the second half of the
month (_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1887, ii, 337-340).
[740] Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin_, pp. 46 _sqq._, 86 _sq._;
Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_, i, 66 _sq._, 72 _sqq._
[741] H. Radau, _Early Babylonian History_, New York, 1900, pp. 314 _sq._
The text on the statue of Gudea, a chief, or _patesi_, of Lagash (_c._
2350 B.C.), bears record of a rest day which has been interpreted as a
full-moon day, therefore as a _shabattum_: “No one was struck with the
whip, the mother corrected not her child, the householder, the overseer,
the labourer ... the work of their hands ceased. In the graves of the
city ... no corpse was buried. The Kalû played no psalm, uttered no
dirge, the wailing women let no dirge be heard. In the realm of Lagash
no man who had a lawsuit went to the hall of justice.” See A. Jeremias,
_The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East_, London, 1911, i,
203; compare H. Winckler, _Religionsgeschichtlicher und geschichtlicher
Orient_, Leipzig, 1906, p. 61. Professor Morris Jastrow holds, however,
that this passage from the inscription of Gudea has no reference to the
full moon (_American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914,
xxx, 98 _n._²).
[742] D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, St. Petersburg,
1856, ii, 8, 94 _sqq._, translating the _Fihrist_ (ix, i, 5) of Ibn
al-Nadīm. On the Harranians see in general D. S. Margoliouth, in
Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vi, 519 _sq._ It is
curious to find a Moslem tradition, current about 830 A.D., that “Abraham
lived with his people four-score years and ten in the land of Harran,
worshipping none other than Al Ozza, an idol famous in that land and
adored by the men of Harran, under the name of the Moon, which same
custom prevails among them to the present day” (Sir William Muir, _The
Apology of Al Kindy_,² London, 1887, p. 17).
[743] W. F. von Landau, _Beiträge zur Altertumskunde des Orients_,
Leipzig, 1899, ii, 46 _sq._; compare _idem_, _Die phönizischen
Inschriften_, Leipzig, 1907, p. 22 (_Der alte Orient_, viii, 3).
[744] Above, p. 182 _n._⁷ There are numerous reports by Babylonian
astrologers according to which any one of five days, from the twelfth to
the sixteenth of the month, might be taken as the exact time when the
moon became full, depending, of course, upon how early or how late was
the visible new moon (Kugler, _Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel_, ii,
14 _sq._).
[745] The Rev. C. H. C. Johns has pointed out that in Babylonian
calendars many days are indicated as _nubattu_, a term signifying rest,
pause, and especially a god’s connubial rest with his consort goddess.
“The observance of such days was a bar to attending even to important
diplomatic business or setting out on a journey.... It is quite possible
that _shabattum_ and _nubattum_ are from the same root and originally
denoted much the same thing—a pause, abstention, from whatever cause or
for ceremonial purposes” (_Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xxiii, 961 _sq._).
A calendar of the intercalary month of Elul cites the 3d, 7th, and 16th
days as the _nubattu_ of Marduk and his consort Sarpanit (Lagrange, _op.
cit._, p. 284 _n._⁶; Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 371).
[746] The form of the Fourth Commandment in the First Decalogue
(_Exodus_, xx, 8), “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy,” indicates
not the institution of a new day but the sanctioning of an old one. In
the Second Decalogue (_Deuteronomy_, v, 12), the commandment reads:
“Observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” The word “holy” in these
injunctions has the force of “set apart ritually,” “separated from common
use,” _i.e._, taboo.
[747] _Exodus_, xxxiv, 21, xxiii, 12.
[748] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. This is perhaps the earliest historical
reference to the Sabbath.
[749] _Amos_, viii, 5; _Hosea_, ii, 11.
[750] _Genesis_, ii, 2-3; _Exodus_, xx, 11.
[751] _Deuteronomy_, v. 15; compare _Nehemiah_, ix, 14; _Ezekiel_, xx,
12. The principal Old Testament references to the Sabbath have been
grouped in their assumed historical order by E. G. King, “The Sabbath
in the Light of the Higher Criticism,” _Expository Times_, 1906, xvii,
438-443.
[752] M. Jastrow, “The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,”
_American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 313 _sq._; S. R. Driver, _The
Book of Genesis_,⁵ London, 1906, p. 35. Canon Cheyne suggests that
the priestly writer in _Genesis_, ii, 2 _sqq._ appears to accept the
anthropomorphic view which finds such frequent expression in Oriental
antiquity. Things on earth correspond to things in heaven; if God
“rested” on the seventh day, man ought to do likewise (_Traditions and
Beliefs of Ancient Israel_, London, 1907, p. 70). Later Hebrew writers
carry this idea of correspondence so far as to require the angels to
observe all the Jewish festivals (H. P. Smith, _The Religion of Israel_,
New York, 1914, p. 229).
[753] F. Baur, “Der hebräische Sabbat und die Nationalfeste des
mosaischen Cultus,” _Tübinger Zeitschrift für Theologie_, 1832, iii, 145
_sqq._; A. Kuenen, _The Religion of Israel_, London, 1873, i, 262 _sqq._;
Paul de Lagarde, editor, _Psalterium iuxta Hebræos Hieronymi_, Leipzig,
1874, 158 _sqq._
[754] Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, pp. 48 _sq._; P.
Jensen, “Astronomy,” _Jewish Encyclopedia_, ii, 246.
[755] _Amos_, v, 26; W. R. Harper, _A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Amos and Hosea_, New York, 1905, pp. 137 _sqq._; K. Budde, _The
Religion of Israel to the Exile_, New York, 1899, pp. 67 _sqq._
[756] J. Fürst, _Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte der Juden in Asien_,
Leipzig, 1849, pt. i, 40; W. Nowack, _Lehrbuch der hebräischen
Archäologie_, Strassburg, 1894, ii, 142 _sq._; E. Schürer, in
_Zeitschrift für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1905, vi, 6 _sq._,
19. There is a Talmudic story which tells how Moses, having arranged
with Pharaoh for a day of rest to be observed by the Hebrews in Egypt,
was asked what day he thought most suitable for the purpose. Moses
answered, “The seventh day, sacred to Saturn; work done upon this day
never prospers” (Jeremias, _The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient
East_, i, 202; Delitzsch, _Babel and Bible_, p. 102).
[757] _Saturni aut sacram me tenuisse diem_ (_Elegiæ_, i, 3, 18).
[758] Ovid, _Remedium amoris_, 220; compare _idem_, _Ars amatoria_, i,
415-416; Horace, _Satiræ_, i, 9, 69-70; Persius, _Satiræ_, v, 184.
[759] Frontinus, _Strategematica_, ii, 1, 17; Dio Cassius, _Historia
Romana_, xxxvii, 17. Tacitus (_Historiæ_, v, 4) thinks that the Jewish
Sabbath may be an observance in honour of Saturn, though he gives an
alternative explanation, connecting the day with the escape from Egyptian
bondage. For other evidence from classical writers see P. Lejay, “Le
sabbat juif et les poètes latins,” _Revue d’histoire et de littérature
religieuses_, 1903, viii, 305-335; T. Reinach, _Textes d’auteurs grecs et
romains relatifs au judaïsme_, Paris, 1895, pp. 104, 243, 266, 287; M.
Wolff, “Het oordeel der hellenensch-romeinsche schrijvers over oorsprong,
naam, en viering van der Sabbat,” _Theologisch Tijdschrift_, 1910, xliv,
162-172.
[760] J. Spencer, _De legibus Hebræorum ritualibus et earum rationibus_,
Cambridge, 1727, i, 67 _sqq._ (bk. i, ch. v, sect. viii).
[761] Above, p. 191.
[762] Below, pp. 253 _sq._
[763] Nowack, _op. cit._, ii, 144; R. Smend, _Lehrbuch der
alttestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte_, Freiburg-i.-B., 1899, pp. 160
_sq._; A. F. von Gall, “Die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft und die
keilinschriftliche Forschung,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1902,
v, 321.
[764] J. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_,⁶ Berlin, 1905,
p. 109; W. E. Addis, _Documents of the Hexateuch_, London, 1892, i, 139;
_idem_, _Hebrew Religion to the Establishment of Judaism under Ezra_,
London, 1906, p. 85.
[765] C. M. Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, Cambridge, 1888, i, 366.
[766] The Hebrew lunisolar year consisted of twelve months, adjusted to
the solar year by the intercalation of a thirteenth month. The name of
the latter is first met in the _Mishna_, where it is styled the “second
Adar.” The months consisted of 29 days (hence called “defective” months),
or of 30 days (“full” months), but there seems to have been no uniform
sequence of long and short months. The regulation of the month was
probably at first in the hands of the priests and later was committed
to the Sanhedrin. A solar year of 364 days, _i.e._, 52 complete weeks,
is found in two pseudographia which date probably from Maccabæan times
(_Book of Enoch_ and _Book of Jubilees_), but it is hardly likely that
solar reckonings were then in general use. On this subject consult S.
Poznanśki, “Calendar (Jewish),” in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, iii, 117 _sqq._
[767] _Psalms_, civ, 19. Compare _Ecclesiasticus_, xliii, 6-8: “He
made the moon also to serve in her season for a declaration of times,
and a sign of the world. From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light
that decreaseth in her perfection. The month is called after her name,
increasing wonderfully in her changing.”
[768] _Jeremiah_, viii, 2; _Zephaniah_, i, 5; _Deuteronomy_, xvii, 3; 2
_Kings_, xxiii, 5; G. W. Gilmore, “Moon,” _New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia
of Religious Knowledge_, vii, 493. That no trace of the cult of Sin, the
Babylonian moon-god, is discoverable in the Old Testament, even in the
name Sinai, is the opinion of the latest investigator of this subject.
See E. Combe, _Histoire du culte de Sin_, Paris, 1908, pp. 157 _sqq._
The custom of kissing the hand to the moon (_Job_, xxxi, 26 _sq._) may
have meant to the Hebrews little more than it does to us. Orthodox Jewish
mothers are said still to teach their sons to take off their caps to the
new moon.
[769] Doughty, _op. cit._, ii, 305 _sq._; compare D. Nielsen, _Die
altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Überlieferung_, Strassburg,
1904, p. 50. For the Abyssinian customs see E. Littmann, in _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 313 _sq._
[770] Mrs. H. H. Spoer, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 289.
[771] M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia
and Assyria_, New York, 1911, pp. 214 _n._³, 336 _n._²; F. Hommel, _Der
Gestirndienst der alten Araber und die altisraelitische Überlieferung_,
Munich, 1901, p. 28.
[772] 1 _Samuel_, xx, 27-28; compare _Judith_, viii, 6. On the new-moon
festival see Nowack, _op. cit._, ii, 138 _sqq._; Wellhausen, _op. cit._,
pp. 107 _sqq._; I. Benzinger, _Hebräische Archäologie_,² Tübingen,
1907, pp. 388 _sq._; G. Förster, “Die Neumondfeier im Alten Testament,”
_Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie_, 1906, xlix, 1-17; B.
Stade, _Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments_, Tübingen, 1905, i, 176
_sqq._; A. Dillmann, _Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus_,³ edited by V.
Ryssel, Leipzig, 1897, pp. 634 _sqq._ See also “New Moon” in Hastings’s
_Dictionary of the Bible_, _Jewish Encyclopedia_, and _Encyclopædia
Biblica_.
[773] 1 _Samuel_, xx, 5-6, 24-29.
[774] _Ibid._, xx, 18-19. In verse 19 the Hebrew expression _beyom
hama ‘aseh_, rendered in the Authorized Version (margin) “in the day
of the business,” appears in the Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate,
and the Jewish Aramaic Targum as the designation of a working day, in
distinction from the festival day of the new moon. The Douai version of
the Scriptures translates accordingly, “in the day when it is lawful
to work.” Professor H. P. Smith holds that, owing to the corruption of
the text, the particular day here intended is no longer intelligible
(_A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Samuel_, New
York, 1899, pp. 190 _sq._). He has, however, overlooked the fact, that,
as my friend and pupil Rabbi Jacob Singer points out to me, the same
expression _sheset yeme hama ‘aseh_ is found in _Ezekiel_ (xlvi, 1) as
the designation of “the six working days” of the week; see Brown, Driver,
and Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_, Boston,
1906, p. 795.
[775] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. Some Biblical references indicate that on the
first day of the month the prophets were supposed to be most under the
influence of their divine afflatus; compare _Ezekiel_, xxvi, 1, xxix, 17,
xxxi, 1, xxxii, 1; _Haggai_, i, 1.
[776] John Allen, _Modern Judaism_,² London, 1830, pp. 390 _sq._; H. G.
F. Löwe, _Schulchan Aruch, oder die vier jüdischen Gesetzbücher_, Vienna,
1896, i, 91; M. Friedmann, in _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii, 712;
Israel Abrahams, _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 374.
[777] That the Old Testament thus contains indirect evidence of the
celebration of full-moon day by the early Hebrews was long ago recognized
by the learned commentator, August Dillmann. “Von einer Feier des
Vollmondes zeigt sich bei den Israeliten keine Spur.... Jedoch war er
dadurch bevorzugt, dass an ihm das grosse Frühlings- und Herbstfest
begann” (_Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus_,³ p. 635). A passage in one
of the _Psalms_ (lxxxi, 3): “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the
full moon, on our feast-day,” probably refers to new moon in the seventh
month, or New Year’s Day (_Leviticus_, xxiii, 24), and to the first day
of the Feast of Tabernacles, which began on the fifteenth of the same
month (_ibid._, xxiii, 39).
[778] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 5-6; _Exodus_, xii, 6 _sqq._; _Numbers_,
xxviii, 16-17.
[779] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 33-36, 39; _Numbers_, xxix, 12.
[780] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 6-8; _Exodus_, xii, 16; _Numbers_, xxviii, 18,
25.
[781] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 39; _Numbers_, xxix, 12, 35.
[782] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 11, 15.
[783] M. Jastrow, “‘The Day after the Sabbath,’” _American Journal of
Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1914, xxx, 104.
[784] 2 _Kings_, iv, 23. This passage, incidentally, affords proof that
at the time it was written the legal length of a “Sabbath Day’s journey”
had not been determined, for from Shunem to Elisha’s abode on Carmel was
a distance of some thirty to forty kilometres (R. Kittel, _Die Bücher der
Könige_, Göttingen, 1900, p. 200).
[785] _Hosea_, ii, 13 (A. V. v. 11).
[786] _Amos_, viii, 4-5.
[787] _Isaiah_, i, 13.
[788] _Ibid._, lxvi, 23; compare _Colossians_, ii, 16.
[789] Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_,⁶ pp. 108 _sq._; Smith, “Sabbath,”
_Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxi, 126.
[790] This pregnant suggestion was first made by H. Zimmern in his
comments on the discovery by T. G. Pinches (_Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1904, lvii, 202 _and_ _n._¹). The
hypothesis of the original identity of Sabbath and full-moon day was
subsequently elaborated by J. Meinhold (_Sabbat und Woche im Alten
Testament_, Göttingen, 1905), whose main conclusions have been accepted
by K. Marti (_Religion of the Old Testament_, London, 1907, pp. 150
_sq._) and T. K. Cheyne (_Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient Israel_,
London, 1907, p. 69). See also E. Mahler, “Der Sabbat,” _Zeitschrift
der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1908, lxii, 40, 46 _sq._;
M. Jastrow, _Hebrew and Baylonian Traditions_, New York, 1914, pp. 154
_sqq._, 185.
[791] _Ezekiel_, xlvi, 1-3.
[792] Above, pp. 226, 247. _Shabbāth_ also appears several times in the
Old Testament in the general sense of “week,” the name of the principal
weekday being used as the designation of the entire cycle of seven days.
Compare _Leviticus_, xxiii, 15, xxv, 8.
[793] H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, _Keilinschriften_,³ p. 594; compare A.
H. McNeile, _The Book of Exodus_, London, 1908, p. 122.
[794] Johannes Meinhold, _Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament_,
Göttingen, 1905, pp. 10 _sqq._; compare _idem_, “Die Entstehung des
Sabbats,” _Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1909,
xxix, 81-112.
[795] The march of the Israelitish host around Jericho on seven
successive days, one of which must have been the Sabbath, if that
institution as a weekly rest day was then known to them, would have been
a profanation of the Sabbath according to later ideas. See _Joshua_, vi,
4, 14-15; compare Tertullian, _Adversus Judæos_, 4. But this account
may contain a reminiscence of a period of Hebrew history when the week,
either lunar or periodic, had not become established in Israel.
[796] _Numbers_, xxviii, 11-15; _Ezekiel_, xlvi, 4-6; compare 1
_Chronicles_, xxiii, 31; 2 _Chronicles_, ii, 4, viii, 13, xxxi, 3;
_Ezra_, iii, 5; _Nehemiah_, x, 33.
[797] _Leviticus_, xxiii, 24; compare _Numbers_, xxix, 1; _Nehemiah_,
viii, 2, 9-12. But see above, p. 82.
[798] _Deuteronomy_, v, 14; _Exodus_, xxiii, 12.
[799] _Exodus_, xx, 8-11.
[800] _Ibid._, xxxiv, 21.
[801] _Exodus_, xvi, 29. On this text Dositheus, the founder of an
ascetic Samaritan sect, is said to have based the requirement that, in
whatever habit, place, or posture the Sabbath found a man, in this he
was to continue till the close of the sacred festival; if he was found
sitting, he must sit still all the day, or, if reclining, he must lie
down all the day (Origen, _De principiis_, iv, 1, 17). S. Reinach wittily
compares the Dosithean injunction to the practice of various animals,
which, when in danger and unable to flee, _fait le mort_ (“Le sabbat
hébraïque,” _Cultes, mythes, et religions_, Paris, 1906-1912, ii, 444).
For some mediæval stories illustrating the rule of absolute repose on the
Sabbath, see R. Basset, “L’observation du sabbat,” _Revue des traditions
populaires_, 1893, viii, 250-254.
[802] _Exodus_, xxxv, 3.
[803] _Ibid._, xvi, 23. The rules forbidding the lighting of fires
and cooking on the Sabbath were very strictly observed by the Essenes
(Josephus, _Bellum Judaicum_, ii, 8). In the _Mishna_ (_Shabbāth_, iv, 1)
the prohibition to bake and boil on the Sabbath is interpreted to mean
that food may be kept hot on the Sabbath, provided its existing heat is
not increased, which would be “boiling.” Hence the food must be put only
into such substances as would maintain but not increase the heat. The
prohibition to kindle a fire on the Sabbath was naturally extended to
one of extinguishing a fire, as well as lights and lamps (_ibid._, xvi,
6). In mediæval times Rabbi Solomon ben Adret had a lock affixed to his
stove, and kept the key over the Sabbath to prevent his too-considerate
housemaid from lighting a fire on Saturdays (I. Abrahams, _Jewish Life
in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 83). On the modern Jewish custom
of kindling lights at the arrival and departure of the Sabbath see M.
Friedmann, “The Sabbath Light,” _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii,
707-721.
[804] Above, p. 232 _and_ _n._³
[805] F. J. Chabas, _Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de
l’année égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. 46, 68; Sir G. Maspero, _New
Light on Ancient Egypt_,² London, 1909, pp. 130 _sq._
[806] Above, pp. 9, 12, 15, 16, 20, 41, etc.
[807] E. Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii,
305.
[808] For a collection of the ethnographic evidence, see Sir J. G.
Frazer, “On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrative of the Primitive
Theory of the Soul,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1885,
xv, 90; _idem_, _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, London,
1911, ii, 267 _n._⁴; E. S. Hartland, “Death and Disposal of the Dead
(Introductory and Primitive),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and
Ethics_, iv, 439.
[809] E. Westermarck, “The Principles of Fasting,” _Folklore_, 1908,
xviii, 397 _sqq._; _idem_, _Moral Ideas_, ii, 293 _sqq._
[810] Above, pp. 15, 17, 39, 44, etc.
[811] Compare M. Jastrow, in _American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii,
324 _sqq._; Westermarck, _op. cit._, ii, 310 _sq._
[812] _Ecclesiastical Polity_, v, 72.
[813] _De vita sua_, 54.
[814] Suetonius, _Divus Augustus_, 76; Strabo, _Geographica_, xvi, 2, 40;
Martial, _Epigrammata_, iv, 4; Justin, xxxvi, 2. Justin speaks of the
Sabbath as having been consecrated as a fast day to commemorate a seven
days’ fast of the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia.
[815] Above, pp. 81 _sqq._
[816] _Judith_, viii, 6; _Schulchan Aruch_, i, 91 _sq._
[817] The Talmud (_Tractate Pesachim_, 105 a) indicates that some
superstitions attached to the afternoon of the Sabbath as a dangerous
time for the consumption of food. During the early Middle Ages Jews in
northern France, Lorraine, and Germany, but not in Provence, Narbonne,
or Spain, refrained from eating and drinking on Sabbath afternoons. See
D. Kaufmann, “Was the Custom of Fasting on Sabbath Afternoon Part of the
Early Anglo-Jewish Ritual?” _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1894, vi, 754-756.
[818] _Leviticus_, xxv, 4. This law was occasionally productive of great
distress (1 _Maccabees_, vi, 48, 53; compare Josephus, _Antiquitates
Judaicæ_, xiv, 16, 2).
[819] _Leviticus_, xxv, 21.
[820] _Exodus_, xxiii, 11.
[821] _Leviticus_, xxv, 11. Whether the Jubilee was celebrated after
forty-eight years or after forty-nine years is a problem incapable of
solution from the Old Testament evidence. As Schiaparelli has well shown
(_Astronomy in the Old Testament_, pp. 146 _sqq._), the twenty-fifth
chapter of _Leviticus_ combines two systems of rules which are not only
different but actually irreconcilable with each other, the septennial
system of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee system of fifty years.
[822] _Exodus_, xxxi, 14; for a similar regulation see _ibid._, xxxv, 2.
[823] _Numbers_, xv, 32-36. The comments of Philo Judæus on this passage
are interesting, if not illuminating (_Vita Mosis_, iii, 27-28).
[824] _Jeremiah_, xvii, 19-27; _Ezekiel_, xx, 13, 16, 21, 24, xxii, 8,
26, xxiii, 38.
[825] _Nehemiah_, x, 31, xiii, 15-16. The use of the Sabbath Day for
marketing is paralleled by the Mohammedan observance of _jum‘a_ (above,
p. 206).
[826] _Isaiah_, lvi, 2 _sq._, lviii, 13.
[827] T. K. Cheyne, _Jewish Religious Life after the Exile_, New York,
1898, p. 66; C. G. Montefiore, _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of
Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews_,² London,
1893, pp. 229 _sq._, 338 _sq._; Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_,⁶ p. 110; W. R.
Smith, “Sabbath,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxi, 124; K. Marti, _Das
Dodekapropheton_, Tübingen, 1904, p. 26.
[828] Compare E. G. Hirsch; “Sabbath,” in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, x, 590;
Bohn, _Der Sabbat im Alten Testament_, pp. 8 _sqq._, 89 _sqq._
[829] M. Jastrow, in _American Journal of Theology_, 1898, ii, 324 _n._⁴⁷
_idem_, _Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_, p. 162. The Old Testament
contains at least one reference to a lucky day (1 _Samuel_, xxv, 8).
Among modern Jews no marriages are celebrated during the period between
Passover and Pentecost. The origin of the superstition is unknown, but
its antiquity may be judged from the fact that in the 8th century A.D.
the rabbis themselves were unable to account for it (Abrahams, _op.
cit._, p. 184). By the Romans May was considered an unlucky month for
marriage, a belief which Ovid (_Fasti_, v, 489-490) connects with the
celebration of the Lemuria in May. Compare Plutarch, _Quæstiones Romanæ_,
86. The superstition, as is well known, has descended to our own time.
[830] The principal regulations in the _Mishna_ are well summarized by E.
Schürer, _History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ_, div. ii,
vol. ii, 96-105. For the rigorous rules observed by the Covenanters of
Damascus, a Jewish sect whose history has been only lately recovered, see
G. F. Moore, in _Harvard Theological Review_, 1911, iv, 346 _sq._
[831] 1 _Maccabees_, ii, 31 _sqq._; 2 _Maccabees_, v, 25-26, vi, 11,
viii, 26; Josephus, _Antiquitates Judaicæ_, xii, 62. Plutarch refers
to the Jews who allowed their enemies to rear scaling ladders and make
themselves masters of their walls, and “so lay still until they were
caught like so many trout in the dragnet of their own superstition” (_De
superstitione_, 8).
[832] Above, pp. 97 _sq._
[833] _Isaiah_, lviii, 13.
[834] _Luke_, xiv, 1-24.
[835] Augustine, _In comm. ad Psalm. xcii_ (_Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church_, viii, 453). This passage, with others
in a similar strain, from St. Chrysostom, Prudentius, and Theodoret,
is adduced by the learned ecclesiastical historian Joseph Bingham
(_Antiquities of the Christian Church_, London, 1838-1840, vii, 32
_sqq._).
[836] Plutarch, _Quæstiones conviviales_, iv, 6, 2.
[837] S. Schechter, in _Jewish Quarterly Review_, 1891, iii, 763; compare
_idem_, _Studies in Judaism_, New York, 1896, pp. 244 _sqq._, and Israel
Abrahams, _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_, London, 1896, p. 12, 24,
373 _sq._ See further J. Mann, “The Observance of the Sabbath and the
Festivals in the First Two Centuries of the Current Era, according to
Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and the Rabbinic Sources,” _Jewish
Review_, 1914, iv, 433-456.
[838] Above, pp. 244 _sq._
[839] _De opificio mundi_, 30; compare _idem_, _Vita Mosis_, ii, 4.
[840] _Contra Apionem_, ii, 40.
[841] Compare Juvenal, _Satiræ_, xiv, 105-106 (with J. B. Mayor’s
commentary); Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13.
[842] Above, p. 220.
[843] In the New Testament such phrases as ἐν δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων
(_Acts_, xx, 7) and κατὰ μίαν σαββάτου (1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2; compare
_Matthew_, xxviii, 1; _Mark_, xvi, 2; _Luke_, xxiv, 1; _John_, xx, 1, 19)
refer to Sunday as “the first day of the week.” An equivalent expression,
πρώτῃ σαββάτου, is also found (_Mark_, xvi, 9). The designation of Sunday
as the Lord’s Day—ἡ κυριακὴ ἡμέρα—occurs in a single New Testament
passage (_Revelation_, i, 10). Some critics hold that the author of
the _Apocalypse_ was referring here, not to Sunday but to the day of
Judgment, called elsewhere ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη “the great day” (_ibid._, vi,
17, xvi, 14).
[844] _Acts_, xx, 7; 1 _Corinthians_, xvi, 2; compare _John_, xx, 26.
[845] _Epistola Barnabæ_, 15; compare Justin Martyr, _Dialogus cum
Tryphone_, 138; Tertullian, _De idolatria_, 14. The “eighth day” might
seem to be a natural designation for the day following the Sabbath, the
seventh day; more probably, however, it is to be explained by the ancient
practice of inclusive reckoning.
[846] _Didache_, xiv, 1. The testimony of Pliny the Younger (_Epistolæ_,
x, 98) makes it evident that as early as the year 111 A.D. the Christians
of Asia Minor were accustomed to hold religious assemblies on a fixed day
(_stato die_), which can hardly have been other than the first day of the
week.
[847] Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, iv, 23, 11, iv, 26, 2.
[848] _Apologia prima_, 67. Tertullian, who found it necessary to answer
the objection that Christians worshipped the sun, declares, “Indeed, they
made Sunday a day of joy, but for other reasons than to adore the sun,
which was no part of their religion” (_Apologeticus_, 16; compare _Ad
nationes_, i, 13).
[849] Above, pp. 220 _sq._ On the early history of the Christian Sunday
see A. Barry, “Lord’s Day,” Smith and Cheetham’s _Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities_, ii, 1042-1053; G. A. Deissmann, “Lord’s Day,” _Encyclopædia
Biblica_, iii, coll. 2813-2816; O. Zöckler, “Sonntagsfeier,” Herzog,
Plitt, and Hauck’s _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und
Kirche_,³ xviii, 521-529; T. Zahn, “Geschichte des Sonntags vornehmlich
in der alten Kirche,” in _Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche_,²
Erlangen, 1898, pp. 160-208, 351-376; J. A. Hessey, _Sunday_,⁵ London,
1889, pp. 40-49.
[850] _Matthew_, xii, 8; _Mark_, ii, 27; _John_, v, 17.
[851] _Colossians_, ii, 16; compare _Romans_, xiv, 5; _Galatians_, iv,
10-11.
[852] _Epistola ad Magnesios_, 9. The longer recension of this passage,
though an interpolation of much later date, expresses the same antagonism
toward sabbatizing: “But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a
spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation
of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things
prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a
prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing, and plaudits which have
no sense in them” (_Ante-Nicene Fathers_, i, 62 _sq._).
[853] _Constitutiones Apostolicæ_, ii, 59, 1, vii, 23, 2, viii, 33, 1;
_Concilium Laodicenum_, can. 16 (Labbe-Mansi, _Sacrorum conciliorum
collectio_, ii, 567); Socrates, _Historia ecclesiastica_, vi, 8. The
church council held at Laodicea in 363 A.D. anathematized as Judaizers
those who refrained from work on Saturday (_Concilium Laodicenum_, can.
29; Labbe-Mansi, _op. cit._, ii, 580). The anathema did not penetrate
to the ancient Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, where Saturday is still
strictly observed. “The ox and the ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits
are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit
of idleness reigns throughout the day.... When, a few years ago, one
daring spirit presumed, in advance of the age, to burst the fetters of
superstition, his majesty the king of Shoa, stimulated by the advice of
besotted monks, delegated his wardens throughout the land, and issued
a proclamation, that whoso disturbed the original dreamy stillness of
the Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his property to the royal treasury,
and be consigned to the state dungeon” (W. C. Harris, _The Highlands
of Ethiopia_, New York [1843], p. 272). The Celts kept Saturday as a
day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday (A. Bellesheim,
_History of the Catholic Church in Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1887-1890, i,
86).
[854] _De oratione_, 23: _Omni anxietatis habitu et officio cavere
debemus, differentes etiam negotia, ne quem diabolo locum demus_.
Tertullian, however, elsewhere rejects the implication that Christians
should be sabbatizers, “we, to whom these Sabbaths belong not, nor the
new moons, nor the feast days once beloved of God” (_De idolatria_, 14);
compare _idem_, _Apologeticus_, 16; _idem_, _Ad nationes_, i, 13; _idem_,
_Adversus Judæos_, 4; Augustine, _De spiritu et littera_, 24.
[855] Above, pp. 122 _sq._
[856] For the history of Sunday legislation see E. V. Neale, _Feasts
and Fasts_, London, 1845; R. E. Prime, “Sunday Legislation,” _New
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_, xi, 146-151; J.
Gairdiner, “Sundays, Ancient and Modern,” in Gairdiner and Spedding,
_Studies in English History_, Edinburgh, 1881, pp. 286-315; Hans
[Johannes] Meinhold, _Sabbat und Sonntag_, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 65-103;
Alice M. Earle, _The Sabbath in Puritan New England_, New York, 1891, pp.
245-258.
[857] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, pp. 219 _sq._
[858] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903, p. 189. In
Greece and Albania, also, Tuesday is an unlucky day for every sort of
enterprise (Miss Mary Hamilton, _Greek Saints and their Festivals_,
Edinburgh, 1910, p. 190).
[859] Livy, vi, 1; Tacitus, _Historiæ_, ii, 91; Suetonius, _Vitellius_,
11. Compare Ovid (_Fasti_, i, 49-50):
_Omen ab eventu est; illis nam Roma diebus,_
_Damna sub adverso Marte tristia tulit._
[860] Suetonius, _Divus Julius_, 88.
[861] See “La recommandation du vendredi,” _Mélusine_, 1888-1889, iv,
104, 133 _sqq._, 205 _sq._ However, the Friday superstition may ante-date
Christianity. In Macedonia it is believed that ablutions on Friday are
dangerous, especially for women in childbed (Abbott, _op. cit._, p. 190).
The Brahmans of India share the Friday superstition, saying that “on this
day no business must be commenced” (Buchanan, in _Asiatick Researches_,
vi, 172). Among the Parsis Tuesday and Friday are inauspicious days,
generally avoided for betrothals, marriages, and other happy occasions.
Many persons will not begin an important work or start on a distant
journey on these days (J. J. Modi, “Omens among the Parsees,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, i, 294). All over Burma
Friday is unlucky. “Don’t go on Friday” is a current saying (L. Vossion,
“_Nat_-worship among the Burmese,” _Journal of American Folk-lore_, 1892,
iv, 112). For Russian superstitions relating to Friday see above, p. 222
_n._²
[862] J. Jacobs, “Superstition,” _Jewish Encyclopedia_, xi, 599.
[863] The sidereal month, determined by the moon’s revolution from any
star back to the same star, has a mean length of 27 days, 7 hours, 43
minutes, and 11 seconds. The least duration is 27 days, 4 hours, and the
greatest, about 7 hours longer.
[864] F. K. Ginzel (_Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1906-1911, i, 70 _sqq._) provides a useful survey,
with bibliographies, of the lengthy discussions relating to the origin
and diffusion of the moon-stations. See also W. D. Whitney, “On the Lunar
Zodiac of India, Arabia, and China,” in his _Oriental and Linguistic
Studies_, second series, New York, 1874, pp. 341-421.
[865] Sir M. Monier-Williams, _Brāhmanism and Hindūism_,⁴ New York,
1891, pp. 345 _sq._; compare J. A. Dubois, _Hindu Manners, Customs, and
Ceremonies_,³ Oxford, 1906, p. 382.
[866] L. H. Gray, “The Parsī-Persian _Burj-Nāmah_, or Book of Omens from
the Moon,” _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, 1910, xx, 337
_sqq._; A. de C. Motylinski, _Les mansions lunaires des Arabes_, Algiers,
1899.
[867] J. Sibree, “Divination among the Malagasy,” _Folklore_, 1892, iii,
220 _sq._ In Madagascar the names of the separate days in the month have
been taken directly from the Arabic names for the twenty-eight lunar
mansions. It thus appears that these names have both astrological and
chronological value (G. Ferrand, “Note sur le calendrier malgache et
le _fandruana_,” _Revue des études ethnographiques et sociologiques_,
1908, i, 95). Among the northern Abyssinians lucky and unlucky days are
likewise determined by the lunar stations, though only six or seven
are reckoned, each containing from two to seven days (E. Littmann,
“Sternensagen und Astrologisches aus Nordabessinien,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1908, xi, 301 _sq._).
[868] Above, p. 177 _n._²
[869] According to A. Jeremias no evidence exists for the recognition of
twelve intercalary days in the ancient Oriental world (_Das Alter der
babylonischen Astronomie_, Leipzig, 1909, p. 42 _n._¹). However, the
Babylonian New Year’s festival of Zagmuk, which occupied the first eleven
days of the spring month of Nisan, has been compared with the Twelve Days
of Indo-European antiquity (H. Winckler, _Altorientalische Forschungen_,
Leipzig, 1898, ii, i, 182). What relation, if any, the Babylonian Zagmuk
bore to the Babylo-Persian Sacæa and the Hebrew Purim is still a subject
of controversy. See the full presentation of the evidence in Sir J. G.
Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 354-407. The Babylonian _Epic
of Gilgamesh_, recorded on twelve cuneiform tablets, has been plausibly
interpreted as a solar myth, recounting the sun’s annual course during
the twelve months. Now, a relationship undoubtedly exists between at
least three tablets of the poem and the corresponding months of the
year, notably in the case of the eleventh tablet, in which the story of
the Deluge is told, and the eleventh month, which by the Babylonians
was termed the “month of rain” (M. Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria_, pp. 484, 510). It is curious, therefore, to find that in the
Hebrew narrative of the Flood the waters cover the earth for the period
of a year and eleven days, apparently, here, a lunar year of 354 days
plus eleven days (_Genesis_, vii, 11, viii, 14).
[870] _Rig-Veda_, i, 161, 11, 13, iv, 33, 7; compare _Atharva-Veda_, iv,
11, 11 (transl. W. D. Whitney, p. 166).
[871] _Kāṭhaka_, 7, 5; _Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa_, 1, 1, 9, 10; H. Zimmer,
_Altindisches Leben_, Berlin, 1879, p. 367.
[872] A. Weber, “Zwei vedische Texte über Omina und Portenta,”
_Philologische und historische Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie
der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1858, pp. 388 _sq._; _idem_, _Indische
Studien_, 1868, x, 242 _sq._, 1885, xvii, 223 _sqq._, 1898, xviii, 45;
_idem_, “Vedische Beiträge,” _Sitzungsberichte der königlich-preussischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1898, pp. 559 _sqq._ Compare
A. Ludwig, _Der Rigveda_, Prague, 1883, vi, 232; A. Kaegi, _The
Rigveda_, Boston, 1886, p. 37; Zimmer, _op. cit._, pp. 366 _sq._ For
contrary opinions see O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen
Altertumskunde_, pp. 391 _sq._; G. Thibaut, in Bühler’s _Grundriss der
indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_, iii, pt. ix, 9 _sq._
[873] J. Lippert, _Christentum, Volksglaube, und Volksbrauch_, Berlin,
1882, pp. 680-685; C. A. Miles, _Christmas in Ritual and Tradition,
Christian and Pagan_, London, 1912, pp. 238-246; Frazer, _The Scapegoat_,
pp. 313-345.
[874] Above, pp. 74 _sqq._
[875] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_, Cambridge, 1903, p. 75.
[876] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited
by E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, pp. 63 _sqq._ See also K. Weinhold,
_Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schlesien_, Gräz,
1853, pp. 11 _sq._; K. A. Oberle, _Überreste germanischen Heidentums
im Christentum_, Baden-Baden, 1883, pp. 63 _sq._; E. H. Meyer,
_Indogermanische Mythen_, Berlin, 1887, ii, 526 _sqq._
[877] J. Loth, “Les douze jours supplémentaires (_gour-deziou_) des
Bretons, et les douze jours des Germains et des Indous,” _Revue
celtique_, 1903, xxiv, 310-312.
[878] Miss C. S. Burne, editor, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, London, 1883, p.
403.
[879] W. Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland_,
London, 1881, p. 156; _idem_, in _Folk-lore Record_, 1884, ii, 332.
[880] John Williams ab Ithel, _Barddas_, Llandovery, 1862-1874, i, 424
_sq._
[881] E. Seler, “The Mexican Chronology,” _Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology_, no. 28, p. 16. The passage quoted above is from
Seler’s translation of the Aztec text of Sahagun, which is more complete
than the latter’s Spanish version (_Historia general de las cosas de
Nueva España_, ii, 37; transl. Jourdanet and Siméon, Paris, 1880, pp. 50,
77, 164, 283, 291). Other Spanish authorities refer to the _nemontemi_
as days when the people did nothing but receive and return visits
(Clavigero, _Storia antica del Messico_, vi, 24; Acosta, _Historia de las
Indias_, vi, 2).
[882] E. Seler, in _Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, no.
28, pp. 16 _sq._; compare _idem_, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, iii, 308. The principal authority for the Maya custom is
Diego de Landa, _Relación de las cosas de Yucatan_, ch. xxxv (transl.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, pp. 211 _sqq._).
[883] These five days thus inserted between the “small year” and the
“large year” did not interrupt the regular sequence of the three decades
into which the Egyptian month was divided; see above, p. 191.
[884] Pepi, 2, l. 754. A still earlier reference is found in an
inscription belonging to the time of the Fifth Dynasty (K. Sethe,
_Urkunden des alten Reichs_, Leipzig, 1903, i, 24).
[885] H. Brugsch, “Die fünf Epagomenen in einem hieratischen Papyrus zu
Leiden,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, 1852,
v, 254-258; compare _idem_, _Die Ägyptologie_, Leipzig, 1891, p. 362; C.
R. Lepsius, _Die Chronologie der Ägypter_, Berlin, 1849, i, 145 _sqq._
The chief classical references to the epagomenal days are Herodotus, ii,
4; Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 12; and Diodorus Siculus, i, 13, 4.
[886] F. J. Chabas, _Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de
l’année égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870, pp. 102-107. In the _Leiden
Papyrus_ (i. 346) only the first, third, and fifth days are marked with
the same sign as unlucky, but the observances prescribed relate to all
five days. Plutarch (_op. cit._, 12) refers to the third day, that of Set
or Tryphon, as inauspicious for Egyptian kings, who did no business on
it and took no care of their persons till nightfall. The parallel to the
royal observance of the Babylonian “evil days” is instructive (above, pp.
232 _sq._).
[887] L. H. Gray, “Calendar (Persian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iii, 129; _idem_, “Divination (Persian),” _ibid._,
iv, 819.
[888] F. Justi, _Geschichte des alten Persiens_, Berlin, 1879, p. 79.
[889] F. Macler, “Calendar (Armenian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, iii, 70.
[890] J. Levering, in _Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences_, 1873, viii, 348-364; “Calendrier républicain,” _La grande
encyclopédie_, viii, 908-910.
[891] Abbott, _op. cit._, pp. 21, 63. The Macedonians observe the same
restrictions on the Wednesdays and Fridays of these two months.
[892] Miss Mary Hamilton, _Greek Saints and their Festivals_, Edinburgh,
1910, pp. 187 _sq._
[893] W. H. D. Rouse, “Folklore from the Southern Sporades,” _Folklore_,
1899, x, 179.
[894] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion_,
Cambridge, 1910, pp. 152 _sq._
[895] J. S. Polack, _Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders_, London,
1840, i, 256.
[896] J. Winkler, “Der Kalender der Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra,”
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1913, xlv, 436-447. Among the Batta
dwelling inland from the Bay of Tapanuli the priest or magician, whose
duty it is to announce propitious days, is a most important functionary
in every village. The people “will not engage in any undertaking, however
trifling, or make the smallest alteration in their domestic economy,
without first consulting him” (Burton and Ward, in _Memoirs of the Royal
Asiatic Society_, 1827, i, 500).
[897] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, London, 1900, p. 549.
[898] N. B. Dennys, _The Folk-lore of China_, London, 1876, pp. 30 _sq._
In China there is also the state almanac, which is annually prepared
at Pekin under the direction of a bureau attached to the Board of
Rites. By making it a penal offence to issue a counterfeit or pirated
edition of this almanac, the government astrologers have monopolized the
management of the superstitions of the people in regard to the fortunate
or unfortunate conjunction of each day and hour. “No one ventures to be
without an almanac, lest he be liable to the greatest misfortunes, and
run the imminent hazard of undertaking important events on black-balled
days” (S. W. Williams, _The Middle Kingdom_,² New York, 1883, ii, 79
_sq._).
[899] H. A. Giles, _A Glossary of References on Subjects connected with
the Far East_,³ Shanghai, 1900, p. 183.
[900] W. E. Griffis, _Corea, the Hermit Nation_,³ New York, 1889, p. 298.
[901] E. Kaempfer, _History of Japan_, ii, 22 (Glasgow reprint, 1906).
[902] A. Lloyd, “Death and Disposal of the Dead (Japanese),” Hastings’s
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, 486 _n._¹
[903] E. Schlaginweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, Leipzig and London, 1863, pp.
293 _sqq._
[904] W. H. R. Rivers, _The Todas_, London, 1906, p. 405.
[905] _Ibid._, pp. 405 _sq._
[906] Rivers, _Todas_, p. 407.
[907] _Ibid._, p. 408.
[908] See _ibid._, p. 411, for a reference to certain restrictions which
may have arisen out of a belief in unlucky days. W. R. King (_Journal of
Anthropology_, 1870, i, 33 _sq._) expressly attributes this superstition
to the Toda.
[909] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 410 _sq._
[910] Rivers, _Todas_, pp. 459, 695 _sqq._, 710 _sq._
[911] _Ibid._, pp. 411 _sq._
[912] These Toda taboos suggest at once the Jewish sabbatarian
regulations and the methods of evading or mitigating them devised by
the rabbis (above, p. 264). Until the present day the Bene-Israel, a
body of Jews domiciled for many centuries in the Bombay Presidency, have
preserved the old Hebrew fasts and festivals, though under Indian names
and with Indian features superadded. Their habit of observing Saturday
as a Sabbath and of giving their oxen rest from the oil-mills on that
day has gained for them among their Hindu neighbours the name of “the
Saturday oil-men” (J. H. Lord, “Bene-Israel,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics_, ii, 470 _sq._).
[913] The week of seven days, with names derived from the Sanskrit,
appears to have been introduced by the Shins into Dardistan and western
Kashmir. See J. Biddulf, _Tribes of the Hindoo-Koosh_, Calcutta, 1880, p.
93; G. W. Leitner, _The Hunza and Nagyr Handbook_,² Woking, 1893, p. 16.
[914] H. Roskoschny, _Afghanistan und seine Nachbarländer_, Leipzig,
1885, i, 174.
[915] Sir G. S. Robertson, _The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush_, London, 1896,
pp. 579 _sq._
[916] A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, p.
199. The Malagasy belief in lucky and unlucky days, as determined by the
moon stations (above, p. 275), appears to be a direct importation from
the Arabs superimposed on an earlier and thoroughly native observance of
tabooed seasons. The Malagasy have also taken over from Islam the week of
seven days (above, p. 197).
[917] J. Sibree, “Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions,”
_Folk-lore Record_, 1879, ii, 30-33. The custom still exists among the
Masikoro, an inland branch of the Sakalava tribe. Many Vezo (coast
Sakalava) families continue to expose a child born on an unlucky day, but
it is afterwards rescued and brought up by the relatives as their own.
“Such a child is, however, looked upon with some suspicion as to what
will be its character, because of its having been born on an unlucky day.
It is thought that it may bring some calamity upon the family, or may
itself be miserable or unfortunate in one way or another, when grown up.
It is a very common opinion that bad conduct is only the result of being
born on an unlucky day” (A. Walen, in _Antananarivo Annual_, 1883, no. 7,
pp. 51 _sq._).
[918] J. Sibree, _loc. cit._
[919] A. van Gennep, _op. cit._, p. 203; _Antananarivo Annual_, 1891, no.
15, pp. 302 _sq._
[920] V. Noel, in _Bulletin de la société de géographie_, 1843, second
series, xx, 71.
[921] A. van Gennep, _op. cit._, pp. 202 _sq._
[922] The two manuscripts (both in the British Museum) have been
edited, respectively, by F. L. Griffith (_Hieratic Papyri from Kahun
and Gurob_, London, 1898, pl. 25 text, p. 62; and E. A. W. Budge,
_Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri_, London, 1911, pls. 31-32).
See further W. Wreszinski, “Tagewählerei im alten Ägypten,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 86-100.
[923] The text was published in _Select Papyri in the Hieratic
Character_, London, 1844, pt. i, pls. 144-168, and was translated by
F. J. Chabas (_Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de l’année
égyptienne_, Chalon-s.-S., 1870). The work of Chabas was masterly, but it
has now become antiquated by the progress of Egyptology. F. Bohn (_Der
Sabbat im Alten Testament_, Gütersloh, 1903, pp. 57-62) gives a revised
and corrected version of numerous passages, based on the studies of
Professor Sethe, and Wreszinski (_loc. cit._) translates directly from
the Egyptian text. For discussions of this important document see Sir G.
Maspero, _Études égyptiennes_, Paris, 1886, i, 29 _sq._; _idem_, _Les
contes populaires de l’Égypte ancienne_,³ Paris, 1905, pp. xlix-lii;
_idem_, _New Light on Ancient Egypt_,² London, 1909, pp. 128-136;
A. Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, London, 1894, pp. 351 _sq._; A.
Wiedemann, _The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, London, 1897, pp. 263
_sqq._; E. A. W. Budge, _Egyptian Magic_,² London, 1901, pp. 224 _sqq._;
G. Foucart, “Calendar (Egyptian),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, iii, 100 _sq._
[924] W. Wreszinski, in _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 89
_sqq._
[925] Chabas, _op. cit._, 28; Wreszinski, in _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, 1913, xvi, 92 _sq._
[926] Rawlinson, _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, v, pls. 48,
49; Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 379 _sqq._, Bohn,
_Der Sabbat im Alten Testament_, pp. 55 _sqq._ A Babylonian tablet (K.
98), published by Professor Sayce (_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1887,
ii, 333-335), gives a list of days on which it was fortunate to undertake
such operations as “staking the canal,” “thinning the plantation,” and
“sinking the foundations of a house.” Still another text, published
by Dr. Stephen Langdon (_Expositor_, 1909, xxii, 156), contains the
injunction that on the fifth day of Nisan “he who fears Marduk or
Sarpanit shall not go out to work.” On the Babylonian _nubattu_ see
above, p. 241 _n._¹
[927] _Opera et dies_, 765-828. On the Hesiodic calendar see E. E. Sikes,
“Folk-lore in the Works and Days of Hesiod,” _Classical Review_, 1893,
vii, 389-394, and the Addenda to Professor A. W. Mair’s admirable version
of Hesiod, Oxford, 1908, pp. 162-166. For a full analysis of the calendar
see A. Mommsen, _Chronologie_, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-46.
[928] _Opera et dies_, 724-764.
[929] _Ibid._, 810, 820, 802 _sqq._, 770.
[930] The Vergilian calendar (_Georgica_, i, 276 _sqq._) is obviously
an imitation of Hesiod’s, but it may be presumed that Vergil, with his
intimate knowledge of the farmer’s life, incorporated in his catalogue of
lucky and unlucky days some of the peasant lore of ancient Italy.
[931] Augustine, _In comm. ad Pauli ep. ad Galatas_, 4; Ambrose, _Epist._
i, 23; compare Marinus, _Vita Procli_, 19.
[932] _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, i, pt. i,² 256, 297, with T.
Mommsen’s commentary. The anonymous author of the _Versus de diebus
Ægyptiacis_ (_Poetæ latini minores_, ed. A. Baehrens, v, 354-356) reduces
their number to twenty-four:
_Bis deni binique dies scribuntur in anno,_
_In quibus una solet mortalibus hora timeri._
[933] L. Moland, “Calendrier français du treizième siècle,” _Revue
archéologique_, 1862, n.s., v, 103 _sq._
[934] J. B. Thiers, _Traité des superstitions_,⁴ Paris, 1741, i, 291
_sq._ See further Karl Meyer, _Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters_, Basel,
1884, p. 210; Du Cange, _Glossarium mediæ et infimæ latinitatis_, ed.
Favre, iii, 106 _sq._
[935] Chambers’s _Book of Days_, i, 42. See also O. Cockayne, _Leechdoms,
Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England_, London, 1866, iii, 150-197,
and John Aubrey’s quaint essay on “Day-fatality; or, Some Observations of
Days Lucky and Unlucky” (_Miscellanies upon Various Subjects_, London,
1784, pp. 3-36). Some rules concerning “perilous days” are reprinted by
Sir Lawrence Gomme from a fifteenth century manuscript (_Folklore_, 1913,
xxiv, 121-123).
[936] Sir R. C. Temple, “Burma,” in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, iii, 29; compare Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], _The Burman,
his Life and Notions_,³ London, 1910, pp. 383-389. On the unlucky days
observed in Upper Burma see _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. ii, 48
_sqq._
[937] W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_,²
Westminster, 1896, ii, 52 _sq._
[938] D. Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, Honolulu, 1903, p. 56.
[939] J. Dupuis, _Journal of a Residence in Ashantee_, London, 1824, 213
_n._*; compare John Beecham, _Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, London, 1841,
p. 188.
[940] J. W. Fewkes, “Tusayan _Katcinas_,” _Fifteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, Washington, 1897, p. 255. The Hopi furnish
one of the few instances of compulsory rest days to be found among the
American Indians. They hold a mid-winter festival, called the _soyáluña_,
at the time of the winter solstice. “December is regarded as a sacred
month; no work is performed in it, and few games are allowed. It is the
month of the return of the sun and the gods, and bears the same name as
July, in which they depart” (J. W. Fewkes, “The Winter Solstice Ceremony
at Walpi,” _American Anthropologist_, 1898, xi, 69).
[941] J. H. Gray, _China_, London, 1878, i, 249; W. E. Griffis, _Corea,
the Hermit Nation_,³ New York, 1889, p. 295. According to one account
the shops in China are shut and all business suspended only on the first
three days of the year, though these and numerous other festivals, both
general and local, are common occasions for relaxation and merry-making
(S. W. Williams, _The Middle Kingdom_,³ New York, 1883, i, 809).
[942] Maspero, _New Light on Ancient Egypt_,² p. 135.
[943] G. F. Schoemann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,⁴ edited by J. H.
Lipsius, Berlin, 1897-1902, ii, 458 _sq._; compare Plato, _Leges_, ii,
653; Thucydides, ii, 38.
[944] Strabo, _Geographica_, vi, 3, 4.
[945] This calculation assumes 109 _dies nefasti_, 192 _dies fasti
et comitiales_, on which assemblies might meet, 43 _dies fasti non
comitiales_, available for judicial business but not for meetings of
the assemblies, 8 _dies intercisi_, or days partly _fasti_ and partly
_nefasti_, and 3 _dies fissi_ (Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,
pp. 368 _sq._).
[946] Cicero, _In Verrem_, i, 10; Suetonius, _Divus Augustus_, 32. It
has been already noticed (above, p. 97) that Roman consuls sometimes
instituted extraordinary _feriæ_ for the purpose of blocking legislation
by their rivals, ferial days being included in the _dies nefasti_.
[947] Above, pp. 94 _sqq._, 170.
[948] L. Friedländer, _Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire_,
London, 1908, ii, 11 _sq._; W. W. Fowler, _Social Life at Rome in the
Age of Cicero_, New York, 1909, pp. 287 _sqq._ Though the ancients were
careful to distinguish the _feriæ_ from the _ludi_ (compare Gellius,
_Noctes Atticæ_, ii, 24, 11: _Diebus ludorum et feriis quibusdam_), yet
in late republican and imperial times the joyous aspects of the _feriæ_
had become so prominent that nearly all of them were converted into
_ludi_.
[949] _Panem et circenses_ (Juvenal, x, 81).
[950] W. J. Showalter, in _National Geographic Magazine_, 1914, xxv, 493.
[951] A. W. Kinglake, _Eothen_, chap. v.
[952] W. F. Adeney, _The Greek and Eastern Churches_, New York, 1908, p.
433.
[953] L. Caro, _Auswanderung und Auswanderungspolitik in Osterreich_,
Leipzig, 1909, p. 56.
[954] W. C. Harris, _The Highlands of Ethiopia_, New York [1843], p. 280.
INDEX
Aberdeenshire, 279.
Abonsam, a Gold Coast demon, 77.
Abor, the, 54.
Abraham, 240 _n._¹
Abyssinia, 70, 139 _n._², 193 _sq._, 199, 210, 270 _n._, 307.
Achehnese of Sumatra, 204.
Adams, J. Q., on the French Revolutionary calendar, 283.
Afar, the, 199.
_Affirah-bi_, a Gold Coast festival of the dead, 76, 77.
Afghanistan, 293.
_Agar_, the rest days of the Siah Posh Kafirs, 293 _sq._
Ἅγιος, Greek term for taboo, 3 _and n._⁵
_Aha_, Hawaiian prayers, 11, 12 _and n._², 13.
Ahanta of the Gold Coast, 190 _and n._⁴
Akamba of British East Africa, 136, 145.
Akikuyu of British East Africa, 6, 68, 101 _n._¹, 107, 136, 209 _sq._
Akposo of Togo, 115 _n._
Alaska, 72 _sq._, 73 _n._²
Albania, 272.
Alcibiades, 92 _sq._
Allia, battle of the, 171, 245, 273.
_Amau_, the Kayan omen animals, 28 _and n._¹
Amos, the prophet, 244, 252.
_Anahulu_, the Hawaiian, 188.
Anam, 189, 201.
Andaman Islanders, the, 132, 181.
Animals, used in divination, 27, 28 _and n._¹, 59 _n._²;
rest days for, 95 _sq._, 138.
Animistic sanctions of taboos, 5 _sq._
_Anito_, ancestral spirits of the Bontoc Igorot, 48 _n._²
_Anoiila_, the Nicobarese term for rest day, 40, 165.
Anthesteria, Athenian festival of the, 79 _sq._, 88.
_Antu_, Bornean spirits, 35 _n._²
Apis, sacred Egyptian bull, 129 _n._⁶
Apollo, 169, 211 _and n._⁴, 212 _n._¹, 299.
Ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι, Greek unlucky days, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139
_and n._³, 140.
Arabs, lunar superstitions of the, 126, 139, 248;
calendar of the, 175, 179 _n._¹, 182 _n._⁶, 226 _sq._;
their preference for odd numbers, 178 _n._¹;
their adoption of the seven-day week, 206;
lunar mansions of the, 275.
Arakan, 55, 66.
Arizona, 303.
Armenia, 282 _sq._
Artemis, 130.
Aryans of ancient India, lunar festivals of the, 149 _sqq._;
their epagomenal days, 276 _sq._
Ἀσέλινοι, the Athenian, 139 _and n._³
Ashanti, 303.
Assam, 49 _sqq._, 53 _sqq._, 65 _sq._, 89, 106, 233 _sq._
Asshurbanipal, Assyrian king, 223, 238.
Astrology, 191 _n._¹, 194 _sq._, 197 _n._², 202, 204, 205, 210, 213
_sqq._, 216 _sqq._, 220, 244, 274 _sq._, 286 _n._³, 287 _sq._,
303.
_Atenoux_, 185.
Athene, 92, 93.
Athenian festivals, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq._, 169 _sq._, 304.
Atonement, Day of, 81 _sqq._, 93, 179 _n._¹, 235 _n._², 260.
_Atua_, Polynesian spirits, 5, 8.
August, unlucky days of, in Greek lands, 284.
Augustine, St., 265.
Augustus, Roman emperor, 100, 219, 305.
Aurelius, Marcus, 305.
Auspices, Maori, 17.
Australia, 26, 128, 180, 183.
Azazel, a bad angel or demon, 82, 83 _n._¹
Babylonians, the, their conception of taboo, 6, 231 _sq._;
their superstitions relating to the moon, 126, 138 _sq._;
their five-day period, or _khamushtu_, 195 _and n._², 228;
cult of seven among the, 212 _sqq._, 225, 229 _sqq._;
the seven planets and planetary deities of the, 213 _sqq._;
their division of the nycthemeron into twelve _kaspu_, 218 _n._¹;
their “evil days,” 223 _sqq._, 230, 231, 232 _sqq._, 236, 241, 254,
257 _sq._, 282 _n._¹;
seven-day cycles of the, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._;
lunar month of the, 226 _sqq._;
the _shabattum_, 235 _sqq._, 239, 240 _sq._;
new-moon and full-moon days observed by the, 239 _sq._;
their unlucky days, 241 _n._¹, 297 _sq._;
the Hebrew week and Sabbath not directly borrowed from the, 246;
their lunar mansions, 274 _sq._
Badaga of the Madras Presidency, 149.
Baffin Land, 71 _sq._
Baganda of Uganda, 129, 145 _sq._
Bahima of Uganda, 75 _sq._, 76 _n._¹, 147.
Bahuana of Belgian Congo, 108.
Bakuba of Belgian Congo, 108.
Bali, island of, 41 _sqq._, 105, 165 _and n._¹, 183, 205.
_Balubale_, Bahima demons, 76 _and n._¹
Bambala of Belgian Congo, 108 _and n._⁶
Banyoro of Uganda, 146 _sq._
Bapiri of British South Africa, 144.
Barotse of British South Africa, 145.
Barter, Australian, 103.
Basoga of Uganda, 69 _sq._
Basuto of British South Africa, 68, 75 _and n._², 179.
Bathing prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9, 31, 39,
49 _n._¹, 70, 92 _n._, 155, 273 _n._³, 289, 297.
Batta of Sumatra, 105, 205, 285 _sq._
Bawenda of British South Africa, 194.
Bayaka of Belgian Congo, 108 _and n._⁵
Baziba of Uganda, 145.
Bechuana of British South Africa, 68, 144 _sq._
Belgian Congo, 105 _sq._, 117 _n._¹, 190.
Bengal, 88 _sq._, 137.
Benin, 101 _n._¹, 111, 112 _and n._¹, 182, 187 _n._¹
Bhaskara Saptami, Hindu festival of, 153 _sq._
Bhutan, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 163.
Bini of Benin, 101 _n._¹, 111, 112 _and n._¹, 182, 187 _n._¹
Bodily attentions not permitted during a tabooed or unlucky period,
1, 9, 31, 39, 49 _n._¹, 70, 71, 92 _n._, 151, 155, 232, 233, 282
_n._¹, 289, 300.
_See also_ Bathing.
Bohemia, 135 _n._⁷
_Book of the Dead_, the, 167.
Borneo, 6, 26 _sqq._, 65, 88, 180, 208 _sq._
Boscawen, W. H., 236 _n._¹
Bowditch Island. _See_ Fakaofo.
Brazil, 125, 182.
Breasted, J. H., 167 _n._¹
British Columbia, 71 _n._⁴, 197 _n._¹
—— East Africa, 6, 68 _sq._, 107, 128, 134, 136, 145, 181 _sq._, 189
_sq._, 198 _sq._, 209 _sq._
—— New Guinea, 26 _and n._³, 101 _n._¹, 103 _sq._
—— North Borneo, 65, 208 _sq._
—— South Africa, 67 _sq._, 137, 144 _sq._, 182, 194, 214 _n._
Brittany, 130, 279.
_Bubuk_, the Land Dyak name of full moon, 37.
Buddha, the, 156, 157, 158, 161.
Buddhism, observance of the _uposatha_ in, 155 _sqq._
Buriat of Siberia, 132.
Burkeneji of British East Africa, 198 _sq._
Burma, tabooed days observed in, 55 _sqq._, 66;
the Buddhist Sabbath in, 159 _sqq._;
divisions of the month employed in, 184, 189;
the seven-day week in, 201;
unlucky days observed in, 273 _n._³, 302.
Bushmen of British South Africa, 126, 141 _sq._, 147.
Bushongo. _See_ Bakuba.
_Buta_, Balinese evil spirits, 42.
Calabar (Old), 78, 111.
Calendar, the, 13 _n._¹, 47, 75, 82 _n._², 118, 148, 166, 173 _sqq._,
226 _sqq._, 248 _sq._, 253 _sqq._, 279, 281, 282 _sq._
Cambodia, 162, 184 _n._², 200, 201.
Canaanites, the Sabbath not borrowed from the, 246.
Cannæ, battle of, 171 _n._¹
Cardinal points, colour symbolism of the, 105 _n._²
Caroline Islands, the, 24 _sq._, 181, 188 _sq._
Cato the Elder, on Roman holidays, 95 _sq._, 98.
Celebes, 104, 205.
Celtiberians, lunar festivals of the, 172.
Celts, lunar festivals of the, 172;
their calendar, 185 _sq._;
nine-day cycles of the, 193 _and n._²
Central America, 118, 119, 174, 280 _sq._
Ceylon, 155, 158, 159 _and n._¹, 184, 201.
Chams, the, 184 _n._², 201.
Cherokee Indians, the, 141, 214 _n._
Cheyne, T. K., 243 _n._¹
Chibcha. _See_ Muysca.
Chiefs and kings, death of, necessitates communal abstinence, 25, 26,
63, 65, 67, 68, 69 _sq._;
responsible for the observance of communal taboos, 27 _n._¹, 45, 68
_n._¹;
subject to various restrictions, 233 _sq._
Childbirth, taboos imposed in connection with, 4, 7, 25, 38 _and
n._³, 44, 53, 56, 57 _n._¹, 66 _and n._², 69 _n._²;
the moon associated with, 127 _sqq._
Chinese, lunar superstitions of the, 135, 164;
lunar festivals observed by the, 163 _sq._;
their tradition of a ten-month year, 177 _n._¹;
their lunar decades, 189 _and n._⁴;
the planetary week known to the, 202;
their lunar mansions, 202, 274;
observe no rest days, 203 _and n._¹, 303 _sq._;
unlucky days of the, 286 _and n._³, 287.
Chingpaw. _See_ Kachin.
Chronocratories, astrological theory of, 217 _sq._
Chukchi of Siberia, 73, 126.
Cicero, on Roman holidays, 97, 304 _sq._
Claudius, Roman emperor, 100.
Cochin-China, 189, 200.
Coligny, Calendar of, 133 _n._⁵, 185 _and n._⁴, 186 _n._¹
Colombia, 119 _and n._³, 186.
Comets, taboos imposed in connection with, 51.
Congo Free State. _See_ Belgian Congo.
Constantine, edict of, relating to Sunday, 122 _sq._, 270.
Cooking not allowed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 10, 15, 16,
42, 155, 232 _and n._³, 233, 257 _and n._³, 258, 260.
Copernicus, 216.
Cos, island of, 284.
Courts and public offices not open during a tabooed or unlucky
period, 67, 79, 80, 122 _and n._³, 155, 164, 169, 203, 211, 239
_n._⁴, 279, 280, 298, 303, 305.
_Couvade_, custom of the, 58 _sq._
Covenanters of Damascus, the, 263 _n._³
Creation myth, the Babylonian, 229;
the Hebrew, 242 _sq._
Creek Indians, the, 141.
Cremera, battle of the, 273.
Crete, 284.
Crisis, sociological conception of, 60 _sq._, 86.
Cumont, Franz, 220 _n._³
Cyclades, the, 134.
Cyprian, 270.
Cyprus, 284.
Dahomey, 114 _and n._²
Dakota Indians, the, 141.
Dalai Lama, tabooed days observed after the death of the, 67.
Danakil, the, 199.
Darmesteter, J., 166 _n._
David, 245.
Dead, festivals of the, 51 _and n._⁴, 74 _sqq._, 79 _sqq._
Death, taboos observed after a, 7, 19 _n._, 24, 25, 26, 34, 36, 38,
39, 43, 44, 51, 60, 63 _sqq._, 84, 95 _and n._², 258 _sq._;
primitive ideas of, 62 _sq._
Debel, N. H., 196 _n._¹
Decade, the, 188 _sqq._, 198, 245, 281 _n._²
Decalogues, the, 242 _and n._¹, 256.
Deluge myth, the Babylonian, 212, 230;
the Hebrew, 276 _n._²
Demons, punish the violators of taboos, 5 _sq._, 8, 28, 31 _sqq._, 40
_sqq._, 48, 49 _n._¹, 51;
expulsion of, 22, 40 _sqq._, 56, 74 _sqq._, 278.
Dendera, temple of, 168.
Dew, the moon believed to be the source of, 131 _and n._²
Diana, 130.
Dichomenia, the Greek full-moon day, 170 _and n._², 184 _and n._⁵
Dieri of South Australia, 180.
_Dies Ægyptiaci_, 299 _sqq._
_—— Alliensis_, 245, 273.
_—— atri._ See _Dies religiosi_.
_—— dominica_, the Lord’s Day, 220 _sq._, 267.
_—— feriati._ See _Feriæ_.
_—— nefasti_, 80 _n._², 304 _sq._
_—— postriduani_, 170 _sq._
_—— religiosi_, Roman unlucky days, 80 _and n._², 81, 84, 93 _sq._,
94 _n._², 170 _sq._, 171 _n._³, 273.
_—— Saturni._ _See_ Saturday.
_—— Solis._ _See_ Sunday.
_—— vitiosi._ See _Dies religiosi_.
Diffusion of cultural elements, 39 _sq._, 58, 84, 196.
Dio Cassius, on the origin of the planetary week, 216 _sqq._;
on the Hebrew Sabbath, 245.
Dionysus, 79, 88, 266.
Diulasu, the, 116 _n._¹
Divination, 17, 27, 28 _sqq._, 48, 50 _n._¹, 285 _sqq._
Dositheus, observance of the Sabbath by, 257 _n._¹
Dravidians of India, 66 _sq._, 88 _sqq._, 137 _sq._, 148 _sq._
Durga, Hindu goddess, 153.
Dusun of British North Borneo, 65, 208 _sq._
Dutch Borneo, 26 _n._¹, 31 _sqq._, 180.
—— New Guinea, 104.
_Du-zang_, the Tibetan Sabbath, 162 _sq._
Earthquakes, taboos imposed in connection with, 42, 43, 50, 60, 69,
99 _sq._, 152.
Eclipses, taboos imposed in connection with, 42, 50 _sq._, 99, 134
_sq._, 152, 153, 259.
Edo. _See_ Bini.
_Egbo_, a secret society of Old Calabar, 78, 111.
Egungun, a Slave Coast deity, 77.
“Egyptian days.” See _Dies Ægyptiaci_.
Egyptians, superstitions of the, relating to the moon, 129 _and n._⁶;
their lunar festivals, 166 _sqq._;
solar year of the, 166, 174, 281;
their ideas as to the full moon, 186 _and n._¹;
ten-day week of the, 191 _and n._¹, 245, 281 _n._²;
astrological cycles of the, 191 _n._¹, 194 _sq._;
the division of the nycthemeron into twenty-four hours known to
the, 218 _n._¹;
their unlucky days, 258, 282, 295 _sqq._, 304;
epagomenal days of the, 281 _sq._
Elisha, 249, 251.
Ellis, A. B., on the origin of weeks and Sabbaths, 115, 148 and _n._²
Ellis, William, 10 _n._³
Elmore, W. T., 90 _n._¹
_Elpanam_, the men’s house in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _and n._², 41.
Elul II, Babylonian intercalary month, 224, 232, 241 _n._¹, 297.
England, lunar superstitions in, 134, 135, 140;
unlucky days observed in, 279, 300 _sq._
Ennead, the, 192 _sq._
Epagomenal days, Hawaiian, 13 _n._²;
Hebrew, 82 _n._², 276 _n._²;
early Aryan, 276 _sq._;
European folklore of the Twelve Days, 277 _sqq._;
Mexican and Maya, 279 _sqq._;
Egyptian, 281 _sq._;
Persian, 282;
Armenian, 282 _sq._;
of the French Revolutionary calendar, 283.
_Epic of Creation_, the Babylonian, 229.
Epirus, 284.
Erronan. _See_ Futuna.
Eskimo, the, 71 _sqq._, 129.
Essenes, the, 257 _n._³
Esthonians, the, 222.
Euahlayi of New South Wales, 128.
“Evil Days,” the Babylonian, 223 _sqq._, 230, 231, 232 _sqq._, 236,
241, 254, 257 _sq._, 282 _n._¹
Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, tabooed days observed by
the, 112, 113, 114, 115.
Ezekiel, 253, 254, 255, 262.
_Fady_, Malagasy term for taboo, 3, 70, 294.
Fakaofo (Bowditch Island), 20 _sq._
_Fakil_, a Bontoc Igorot festival, 48.
_Fandroana_, a Malagasy festival, 76.
Farming, restrictions on, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 16
_sq._, 17 _n._¹, 21, 23, 27 _sqq._, 37, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47 _sq._,
49 _sq._, 54, 55, 57 _sq._, 64, 65, 67, 68 _sqq._, 89, 96, 98,
103, 109, 110, 113, 137, 144, 148 _sq._, 159 _n._¹, 162 _n._⁴,
190 _n._⁴, 194, 204, 208 _sq._, 256, 284, 285, 293, 295, 300.
Farnell, L. R., 80 _n._¹
Fasting practised during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 15, 16, 17,
32, 39, 43, 44, 58, 62, 67, 68, 75 _n._², 81, 89, 134, 135, 143,
146, 149 _sqq._, 155, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163 _n._², 198, 233,
259 _sq._, 278, 285, 298.
_Fasti Philocali_, the, 123 _n._³, 300.
_—— Sabini_, the, 219.
Feast of Weeks, Hebrew, 90, 225 _n._², 251.
Fe’e, Samoan war-god, 19 _sq._
Feralia, Roman festival of the, 81 _n._¹
_Feriæ_, the Roman, 94 _sqq._, 122 _sq._, 170, 221 _n._², 264 _sq._,
305 _and n._³
_—— denicales_, 95 _and n._²
_—— imperativæ_, 98 _sqq._
_—— sementivæ_, 96 _and n._¹
Festivals, Polynesian, 11 _sqq._;
Bornean, 30 _sq._, 37 _sq._;
in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _sq._, 41 _n._²;
in Bali, 41 _sqq._;
in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._;
in the Philippines, 45 _sqq._;
in Manipur, 49 _sqq._;
in Assam, 53 _sqq._;
in Burma, 55 _sqq._;
in Africa, 75 _sqq._, 112 _sqq._;
ancient Greek, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq_, 133 _n._⁵, 169 _sq._, 211,
304;
ancient Roman, 80 _sq._, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sqq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
Jewish, 82, 276 _n._²;
Mohammedan, 83;
characteristics of, 85;
accompanied by the remission of labour, 85 _sqq._;
consecrated to divinities, 87 _sq._;
of the Dravidian peoples of India, 88 _sqq._;
Hebrew, 90 _sq._, 248 _sqq._;
ancient Aryan, in India, 149 _sqq._;
modern Brahmanic, 153 _sq._, 165;
Jain, 154 _sq._;
Buddhist, 155 _sqq._;
Chinese, 163 _sq._, 303 _sq._;
Iranian, 165 _sq._;
Egyptian, 166 _sqq._;
Babylonian, 239 _sq._;
Phœnician, 240;
Christian, 267 _sqq._, 306 _sq._;
Hopi Indian, 303.
Fewkes, J. W., on the Zuñi decades, 191 _n._
Fiji Islands, the, 21 _sqq._, 88.
_Fimt_, the Scandinavian, 195 _sq._
Finns, the, 222.
Fires and lights extinguished during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1,
9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 39, 41, 71, 257 _and n._³, 258 _sq._,
296, 297.
First-fruits, ceremony of, in New Zealand, 17 _n._¹;
in the Tonga Islands, 18 _and n._², 19;
in the Fiji Islands, 23;
the Hebrew Day of, 90 _sq._;
the Athenian Plynteria, 92 _sq._;
the Roman Vestalia, 93 _sq._
Fishermen subject to taboos, 14, 25 _n._¹
Fishing, restrictions on, during a tabooed period, 13, 14 _sqq._, 25
_and n._¹, 26 _and n._³, 50, 64, 67, 113 _and n._³, 155, 161,
285, 301.
Flamen Dialis, restrictions imposed on the, 96 _and n._³
Flaminica Dialis, 92 _n._, 96, 122.
Florida, state of, 71.
Food taboos. _See_ Fasting.
Formosa, 44.
Fowler, W. W., on the _dies postriduani_, 171 _n._³
France, lunar superstitions in, 126 _sq._, 130;
unlucky days observed in mediæval, 300.
Frazer, J. G., 2 _n._¹, 3 _n._⁵, 5, 19 _n._¹, 25 _n._², 31 _n._¹,
36 _n._, 57 _n._², 59 _n._¹, 74 _n._⁶, 79 _n._⁴, 90 _n._⁴, 127
_n._⁵, 131 _n._³, 277 _n._⁴
French Equatorial Africa, 3.
Friday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 139 _n._³, 222 _n._², 273 _and n._³,
301;
as the Mohammedan Sabbath, 107 _n._², 111 _n._³, 115, 116 _sq._,
197, 199, 201, 204, 205 _sq._, 262 _n._²
Frontinus, 245.
Full moon, 32 _and n._², 34 _and n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹, 133 _and n._³,
134, 142 _sq._, 146 _sq._, 148 _sqq._, 179, 180, 181 _n._⁷, 182
_n._⁷, 183, 184 _sq._, 186 _n._¹, 229, 238 _sqq._, 240 _n._³,
246, 250 _sqq._, 254, 257, 260.
Futuna (Erronan), island of, 24.
Galicia, saints’ days observed in, 307.
Galla, the, 116 _n._³, 199.
Gaman, the, 116 _n._¹
Games played during a tabooed period, 13, 20, 31 _n._¹, 50 _n._¹
Gamut, origin and diffusion of the, 217 _n._²
Garo of Assam, 54.
Ga-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, tabooed days observed by the,
112, 115;
their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²
Gāthā-days, the Persian, 282.
Gaul, ancient, 186 _n._¹, 221.
Genesia, Athenian festival of the, 79.
_Genna_ (_kennie_), the Naga term for rest day, 49 _and n._³, 52 _n._²
_Gennabura._ See _Khullakpa_.
German East Africa, 68, 76, 107, 197, 209.
—— New Guinea, 57 _n._¹, 180.
Germanic languages, names of the week days in, 221 _sq._
Germans, ancient, observance of new moon and full moon by the, 133,
172, 185;
cycles of nine days used by the, 193.
Germany, abstinence from work after a death observed in, 74;
lunar superstitions in, 126, 127, 133, 135 _n._⁷;
unlucky days observed in, 127, 278 _sq._
_Gilgamesh, Epic of_, 276 _n._²
Gold Coast of west Africa, 76 _sq._, 112, 113, 115, 187, 190 _and n._⁴
_Gour-deziou_, the, in Brittany, 279.
Greek Church, saints’ days in the calendar of the, 306 _sq._
Greeks, ancient, unlucky days of the, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139
_sq._;
festivals of the, 79 _sq._, 88, 91 _sqq._, 133 _n._⁵, 169 _sq._,
211, 304;
their superstitions relating to the moon, 126, 129 _sq._, 133
_n._³, 139 _sq._;
their lunar calendar, 169, 184;
lunar decades of the, 191 _sq._;
cycles of nine days and nine years used by the, 192 _sq._;
cult of seven among the, 211 _sq._
Greenland, 71, 129.
Grimme, H., on the Day of Atonement, 83 _n._¹;
on Pleiades cults among the Hebrews, 225 _n._²
Gudea, the inscription of, 239 _n._⁴
Habbe of the Sudan, 69 _n._², 116 _n._¹
Hair-cutting, superstitions relating to, 9, 18 _n._, 53, 92 _n._,
151, 300.
Halmahera, island of, 63 _sq._
Hammurabi, Babylonian king, 223, 235 _n._¹
Hannibal, 99.
Hanuman, Hindu monkey-god, 201.
_Haoma_, 129.
Harran, city of, 239, 240 _and n._¹
_Haughbah_, a tabooed day on the Gold Coast, 115 _n._⁴
Hawaiian Islanders, tabooed days observed by the, 8 _sqq._, 24, 88,
188, 233, 258, 303;
their calendar, 13 _n._², 188.
Hebdomad. _See_ Seven-day week.
Hebrews, the, their Sabbath, 10 _n._⁴, 91, 96 _n._¹, 98 _n._⁴, 104
_n._, 109, 122, 148, 179 _n._¹, 235, 236 _and n._, 242 _sqq._,
291 _sq._;
the Day of Atonement, 81 _sqq._, 93, 179 _n._¹, 235 _n._², 260;
their agricultural festivals, 90 _sq._, 250 _sq._;
cult of seven among the, 212 _n._³;
their seven-day week, 243, 245 _sq._, 253 _sqq._, 267;
new-moon and full-moon festivals of the, 248 _sqq._
_See also_ Jews.
_Heiau_, Hawaiian temple, 9, 12, 15.
Heptagram, the, 217 _n._¹
Hera, 130, 169, 170.
Hervey Islands, the, 181 _n._⁷
Hesiod, 169, 170 _n._², 192, 211, 298 _sq._
_Hiang_, a Formosan term for rest day, 44.
Ho of Togo, 182.
Hobbes, Thomas, on the origin of religion, 1.
Holiness, the conception of, 86 _and n._¹, 242 _n._¹
Holy days. _See_ Festivals.
—— water, Hawaiian, 11.
Hooker, Richard, 259 _sq._
Hopi Indians of Arizona, festivals of the, 303 _and n._³
Horace, 266.
Hosea, the prophet, 252.
Hottentots of British South Africa, 182, 214 _n._
Hours, division of the nycthemeron into, 218 _and n._¹
House-building, taboos imposed in connection with, 32 _sq._, 34, 39,
43, 44, 45, 55, 209, 285, 299, 300.
Hova of Madagascar, 132 _sq._, 294.
_Hrilh_, the Lushei term for taboo, 55.
Hua, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88.
Huahine, island of, 9.
Humphrey Island. _See_ Manahiki.
Hunting, restrictions on, during a tabooed period, 50, 72 _and n._¹,
73 _n._¹, 74, 155, 161 _sq._
Iban (Sea Dyak) of Borneo, 33 _sqq._, 65, 208.
Ibo of Southern Nigeria, 111 _and n._³
Ides, the, 170, 171, 184 _sq._, 185 _n._¹, 305.
Ignatius, St., 269 _and n._³
Igorot of Luzon, 46 _sqq._, 88, 181.
Ihering, R. von, on the origin of periodic rest days, 102.
Impregnation believed to be accomplished by the moon, 127 _sqq._
_Inachi_, the Tonga ceremony of first-fruits, 18 _and n._², 93.
Inclusive reckoning, practice of, 119 _n._¹, 120 _n._², 267 _n._⁵
India, tabooed days after a death observed in, 66 _sq._;
Dravidian village festivals, 88 _sqq._;
Dravidian lunar superstitions, 132, 134 _sq._, 148 _sq._;
the ancient Aryan _upavasatha_, 149 _sqq._;
Hindu festival of Bhaskara Saptami, 153 _sq._;
Hindu bipartite division of the month, 183 _sq._;
the seven-day week in, 199 _sqq._;
symbolism of seven in, 211;
the lunar mansions in, 275;
the Twelve Days in, 276 _sq._;
unlucky days observed in, 291, 302.
Indians, North American, 141, 182, 197, 210, 211 _and n._¹
Indo-China, 66, 105 _sq._, 184, 189, 200.
Innuit of Alaska, 72.
_Interlunium_, the, as a tabooed period, 136 _sqq._
Iranians, lunar superstitions of the, 129;
their lunar festivals, 165 _sq._, 200;
their bipartite division of the month, 184.
_See also_ Persians.
Isaiah, 252, 265.
Ishtar, Babylonian goddess, 129, 226, 230, 232.
Isidore of Seville, 172.
Italy, introduction of the planetary week into, 219.
Jainism, observance of the _posaha_ in, 154 _sq._
Jaluo of British East Africa, 128.
Japan, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 164;
the lunar decade in, 189;
the seven-day week in, 203 _sq._;
rest days observed in, _ib._;
unlucky days observed in, 287.
Jastrow, Morris, on the observance of the seventh day in Babylonia,
232 _n._⁴;
on the meaning of _shabbāthôn_, 236 _n._;
on the meaning of _shabattum_, 237;
on the inscription of Gudea, 240 _n._;
on the original significance of the word “Sabbath,” 251;
on Babylonian unlucky days, 298.
Java, 104, 105 _and n._², 183, 200, 205 _and n._⁴
Jehovah, 91, 242, 247, 248, 256, 260, 261, 262.
Jenks, A. E., on the rest days observed by the Bontoc Igorot, 47 _n._²
Jeremiah, 262.
Jericho, 255 _n._¹
Jesus, words of, relating to the observance of the Sabbath, 269.
Jews, taboos after a death observed by the, 74;
celebration of New Year’s Day by the, 82;
their superstitions relating to the moon, 126 _and n._⁶, 135 _and
n._⁶;
neglect of the Sabbath by modern, 235;
unlucky days of the, 263 _n._², 273 _sq._
_See also_ Hebrews.
Johns, C. H. W., on the observance of the Babylonian “evil days,” 235
_n._¹;
on the Babylonian _nubattu_, 241 _n._¹
Jonathan, 249.
Josephus, 260.
Jubilee, the Hebrew, 261 _and n._³
_Jum‘a, al_, the Mohammedan Sabbath, 107 _n._², 111 _n._³, 115, 116
_sq._, 197, 199, 201, 204 _sqq._, 262 _n._²
Juno, 130, 170.
Jupiter, the Roman _nundinæ_ consecrated to, 122;
the Ides consecrated to, 170;
the planet, 213.
Justin, Roman historian, on the origin of the Sabbath, 260 _n._³
Justin Martyr, 268.
Kachin (Chingpaw), 56, 189.
Kaffa, 199.
Kafiristan, 293 _sq._
Kagoro of northern Nigeria, 117 _n._¹
Kalends, the, 170, 171, 184, 305.
Kalmucks, the _uposatha_ observance of the, 163.
Kaloa, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88, 188.
_Kamata._ See _Kambata_.
Kamataraya, a Kota deity, 88.
_Kambata_, a Kota festival, 88.
Kamehameha II, Hawaiian king, 9.
Kamerun, 110 _sq._
Kanarese-speaking peoples of southern India, their village festivals,
89 _sq._;
observance of the _interlunium_ by the, 137 _and n._³;
tabooed days of the, 148 _sq._
Kandian of Ceylon, 159 _n._¹
Kane, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88, 188.
_Kapu._ See _Tabu_.
Karaja of Brazil, 182.
_Karakia_, Maori magical incantation and prayer, 17 _n._²
Karen of Burma, 56 _sq._
Kasuba of the Madras Presidency, 67.
Kataharayan of Malabar, 67.
_Kataphang_, a Nicobarese festival, 40 _sq._
Kavirondo of British East Africa, 69.
Kayan of Borneo, 6, 26 _sqq._, 65 _and n._⁶, 180.
_Kennie._ See _Genna_.
Kerepunu of British New Guinea, rest day observed by the, 103 _and
n._⁴, 104.
Kewan, Assyrian designation of the planet Saturn, 244.
_Khamushtu_, the Assyro-Babylonian, 195 _and n._², 228.
_Khang_, the Mro term for rest day, 55.
Khasi of Assam, 54, 66, 106.
Khnumhotep II, an Egyptian local ruler, inscription of, 167.
_Khullakpa_ (_gennabura_), the secular and religious head of a Naga
community, 52 _sq._, 53 _n._¹, 233 _sq._
_Kiala_, a Nicobarese festival, 41 _and n._²
Kiriwina, island of, 125 _n._³
Koita of British New Guinea, 26 _and n._³
_Kopus_, a Bontoc Igorot festival, 48.
_Koran_, the, 182.
Korava of the Madras Presidency, 149.
Korea, 287, 303 _sq._
Koryak of Siberia, 73 _sq._
Kota of the Madras Presidency, 88.
Ku, Hawaiian deity, 15, 88.
Kuki. _See_ Lushei.
_Kumara_, the, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._¹
Kwakiutl of British Columbia, ceremonial cannibalism among the, 71
_n._⁴
Labour, remission of, during a tabooed or unlucky period. _See_ Rest
days.
_Lali_, a Kayan term for taboo, 27 _and n._³
Lalu. _See_ Muhso.
Land Dyak of Sarawak, 36 _sq._, 65.
Lao of Siam, 66, 105, 184 _n._², 194 _n._³, 201.
Laodicea, church council of, 269 _n._⁴
Laotians. _See_ Lao.
Lapps, the, 222.
_La tabu_, Hawaiian designation of Sunday, 10.
_Laws of Manu_, the, 151, 152.
Lemuria, Roman festival of the, 80, 81 _and n._¹, 94 _and n._², 263
_n._²
Lengua Indians of Paraguay, the, 129.
_Lex Hortensia_, the, 121 _and n._³
Liberia, 199 _n._⁵
Lithuanians, the, 222.
Loango, market days kept in, 109 _sq._;
the thirteenth month considered unlucky in, 177 _n._²
Lobengula, a Matabele king, 75 _n._²
Lolo, the, 194.
Lono, Hawaiian deity, 13, 15 _n._¹, 88.
Lotz, W., 232 _n._², 235 _n._¹
_Luakini_, chief temple in the Hawaiian Islands, consecration of a,
11 _sqq._
Lu-Bat, the Babylonian term, 213.
_Ludi_, the Roman, 305 _and n._³, 306.
Lumawig, supreme god of the Bontoc Igorot, 47, 48 _sq._, 88.
_Lumingu_, 109.
Lunar fortnights, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255.
—— mansions, the, 202, 274 _sq._, 294 _n._¹
—— weeks, 187 _sq._, 253 _sqq._
Lunation, beginning of the, at full moon, 119 _n._³, 186 _n._¹;
length of the, 174 _n._¹, 178;
division of the, into two fortnights, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255.
Lushei (Kuki), the, 54 _sq._
_Luxus sabbatarius_, the, 265.
Luzon, 46 _sqq._, 64, 88, 181.
Macassar, 205.
Macedonia, unlucky days observed in, 222 _n._³, 272, 278.
Madagascar, 3, 70, 76, 107 _n._², 132 _sq._, 197, 275 _and n._⁴
_Madnol_, the Toda, 289 _sqq._
Madras Presidency, the, 66 _sq._, 88, 89, 132, 134, 149, 288 _sqq._
Magicians, 34, 68, 285, 286 _n._¹, 287 _sq._
_Makahiki_, the Hawaiian New Year’s festival, 13 _and n._², 15 _n._¹,
23 _n._¹
_Making_, ancestral spirits of the Ibaloi Igorot, 49 _n._¹
Makololo of British South Africa, 144.
Malabar, 66 _sq._, 89, 291 _sq._
Malagasy, their conception of taboo, 3;
tabooed days observed by the, 70, 76;
the seven-day week of the, 107 _n._², 197 _and n._²;
their lunar superstitions, 132 _sq._;
their lucky and unlucky days, 275, 294 _sq._
Malanau of Sarawak, 208.
Malay Peninsula, 64, 105, 204, 286.
Maldive Islands, the, 201.
_Mamit_, the Babylonian term for taboo, 6, 231.
_Mana_, magical power, 5, 17, 86.
Manahiki (Humphrey Island), 21.
Mandingo of the Sudan, 132, 141.
Manipur, tabooed days observed in, 49 _sqq._, 65 _sq._
_Manitou_, 5.
Manyema of Belgian Congo, 108.
Maori of New Zealand, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._², 128, 177 _n._¹, 181 _n._⁷,
183, 188 _and n._¹, 214 _n._, 285.
_Marang_, the Garo term for taboo, 54.
March, unlucky days of, in Greek lands, 284.
Marduk, Babylonian god, 214, 229, 232, 241 _n._¹
Mariner, William, 18 _n._¹
Markets, rise of, 103, 117;
characteristic features of, among semi-civilized peoples, 105, 107,
108.
_See also_ Market days.
Market days, observance of, in New Guinea and Melanesia, 103 _sq._;
in Celebes, Sumatra, and Java, 104 _sq._;
in Tonkin, Siam, Burma, and Assam, 105 _sq._, 194 _n._³;
in Africa, 106 _sqq._;
in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Peru, 118 _sqq._;
in ancient Rome, 120 _sqq._;
restrictions attending, not connected with lunar superstitions, 148.
—— weeks, length of, 117 _sq._;
origin of, 118, 148, 187, 193.
_See also_ Market days.
Markheshwan, the eighth month of the Babylonian year, 224 _and n._²,
297.
Marquesas Islands, the, 15 _sq._, 16 _n._¹
Marriages not celebrated during a tabooed or unlucky period, 67, 80,
81, 137, 171, 209, 263 _n._², 273 _n._³, 278, 285, 286.
Masai, the seven-day week of the, 197 _sq._
Matabele of South Africa, restrictions observed by the king of the,
75 _n._²
May, an unlucky month for marriage, 263 _n._²
Mayas of Yucatan, 174, 280 _sq._
_Mbaki._ See _Nanga_.
_Mbalolo_, 22.
_Mbure_, the men’s house in the Fiji Islands, 22.
Mechoacan, tabooed days observed after the death of a ruler of, 70
_sq._
Medicine, practice of, by the Land Dyak of Borneo, 38 _n._⁴
Meinhold, J., 253 _n._⁶, 254.
Meithei of Manipur, 54 _and n._¹
Mekeo District of British New Guinea, 103.
_Melo_, a Kayan term for rest day, 32 _and n._³, 33, 65 _n._⁶
Mendi of Sierra Leone, 148 _n._¹
Men’s house, the, 22, 40 _and n._²
Menstruation, superstitions relating to, 69 _n._², 125;
supposed connection of the moon with, 127 _sqq._
Mentawi Islands, the, 43 _sq._, 44 _n._¹, 181.
Mexicans, market days kept by the, 118, 119 _and n._¹;
calendar of the, 174, 186 _and n._², 279 _sq._;
unlucky days of the, 280;
saints’ days observed by the modern, 306.
Miao (Miao-tse), the, 57.
Middle Ages, observance of unlucky days during the, 273, 299 _sqq._
Mikir of Assam, 54.
Mindanao, 45 _sq._
Mishmi, the, 54 _and n._⁵
_Mishna_, the, 263 _sq._
Missionaries, observance of Sunday introduced by, 10 _and n._³, 73
_n._², 75, 188 _n._¹, 209, 210, 295.
Mithra, a Persian deity, 202, 220 _and n._³
Mohammed, 175, 206.
Molucca Islands, the, 64 _and n._²
Mommsen, Theodor, on the Roman _nundinum_, 193 _n._³
Monday, an unlucky day in Germany, 127 _and n._³;
in India, consecrated to Siva, 201;
the first day of the week in Slavic countries, 222;
an unlucky day among the Jews, 274.
Mondunga of Belgian Congo, 117 _n._¹
Mongelima of Belgian Congo, 117 _n._¹
Mongolia, the Buddhist Sabbath in, 163.
Month, the lunar, 13 _n._², 156 _n._³, 166, 169, 170, 173 _sqq._, 226
_sqq._, 247;
intercalation of a thirteenth, 177 _and n._², 224, 247 _n._², 276;
beginning of the, 178 _sq._, 226 _sq._, 248 _sq._;
division of the, by the waxing and waning moon, 182 _sqq._;
the sidereal, 274 _n._²
Moon, tabooed or unlucky periods observed in connection with changes
of the, 14 _sq._, 20, 32 _and n._², 34 _and n._¹, 37, 52 _n._¹,
60, 88, 131 _sqq._, 143 _sqq._, 146 _sq._, 149 _sqq._, 224 _sq._,
233, 241, 246, 256 _sqq._;
eclipses of the, marked by taboos, 42, 50 _sq._, 134 _sq._;
supposed deleterious influence of the, 125 _sqq._;
associated with impregnation and childbirth, 127 _sqq._;
influence of, on the tides, 130;
supposed influence of, on the growth of vegetation, 130 _sq._;
doctrine of lunar sympathy, 131 _sqq._;
superstitions relating to the _interlunium_, 136 _sqq._;
as the measure of time, 173 _sqq._;
day of the new, how calculated, 174 _n._¹, 179, 184, 226 _sq._, 248
_sq._;
phases of the, closely observed by savage and barbarous peoples,
180 _sqq._, 238 _sq._;
day of the full, how calculated, 182 _n._⁷, 227;
division of the lunation into two periods, 182 _sqq._, 239, 255;
importance of the, to the early Hebrews, 246 _sq._;
Hebrew cult of the, 247, 248 _n._¹
_See also_ Full moon, Lunar mansions, _and_ New moon.
Moonshine, supposed noxious influence of, 125 _sqq._
Morocco, 70, 83, 258.
Moses, 244 _n._³, 261.
Motu of British New Guinea, 26 _and n._³
Mpongwe of French Equatorial Africa, their conception of taboo, 3.
Mro, the, 55.
Muhso (Lalu), the, 57, 194 _n._³
_Mundus patet_, 81.
Muppan of Malabar, 66 _sq._
Music, astrological notions relating to, 217 _and n._²
Muysca of Colombia, market days kept by the, 119 _and n._³
Naga of Manipur, tabooed days observed by the, 49 _sqq._, 65 _sq._,
134, 234.
Nail-paring, superstitions relating to, 91 _n._⁴, 151, 300.
_Nakshatra_, the Hindu, 275.
_Namungba_, the Meithei term for taboo, 54.
_Na na ai_, the Kachin term for rest day, 56.
Nandi of British East Africa, 68 _sq._, 69 _n._², 132, 181 _sq._, 210.
_Nanga_, a secret association in Fiji, 23 _and n._¹
Nannar, a Babylonian moon-god, 226.
_Nannaru_, Babylonian name of new-moon day, 226, 239.
Narnaka, inscription of, 240.
Nehemiah, 262.
_Nemontemi_, the, Mexican epagomenal days, 280 _and n._¹
Nepal, 155, 201.
Nestorian Monument, the, 202 _and n._³
New Britain, 180.
—— Caledonia, 104 _and n._⁴, 180.
—— Georgia, island of, 186 _n._¹
—— Hebrides, the, 209.
—— Mexico, 190.
—— South Wales, 128.
—— Zealand, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._², 128, 177 _n._¹, 181 _n._⁷, 183, 188
_and n._¹, 214 _n._, 285.
New moon, 18 _n._, 20, 37, 125 _and n._³, 132, 133, 136 _sq._, 140
_sqq._, 174 _n._¹, 179, 180, 181 _n._⁷, 184 _sq._, 186, 187, 226
_sqq._, 238 _sqq._, 246, 248 _sqq._, 253, 254, 255 _sq._, 260.
New Year’s festival, Hawaiian, 13 _and_ _n._², 88;
Maori, 17 _n._²;
Fijian, 22 _and n._², 23 _n._¹;
Kayan, 31;
Balinese, 42 _sq._;
Muhso, 57;
Hebrew, 82, 235 _n._², 256;
Babylonian, 276 _n._²
_Ngoma_, Akikuyu ancestral spirits, 6.
Nias, island of, 43, 181, 183.
Nicobar Islands, the, 40 _sq._, 64, 165 _and n._², 181.
Nielsen, D., 143 _n._¹, 237.
Nigeria (Northern), 116 _n._¹, 117 _n._¹;
(Southern), 78, 101 _n._¹, 111 _sq._, 182, 187 _n._¹
Nine as a symbolic number, 120 _n._²
Nineteenth day of the month, observance of the, in Babylonia, 224
_and n._³, 232 _n._³, 235 _n._¹, 257 _sq._
_Niu_, casting the, a Maori method of divination, 17.
_Noa_, 14.
Nones, the, 120 _n._², 170, 171, 185 _and n._¹, 305.
Northern Territory of South Australia, 180.
Noumenia, the Greek new-moon day, 169 _sq._, 184.
_Novemdiales feriæ_, 99, 120 _n._²
_Nubattu_, the Babylonian, 241 _n._¹
Numa, 94 _sq._, 121 _n._¹
Numbers, prejudice against even, 94, 178 _n._¹, 185;
symbolism of, 120 _n._², 206 _sqq._
_Nundinæ_, Roman market days, 92 _n._, 94 _n._³, 120 _sqq._
_Nundinum_, Roman market week, 120, 122, 193 _and n._³, 219.
Nycthemeron, the, 179 _n._¹, 218 _n._¹
Octad, the, 193 _sq._
_Odyssey_, the, 169, 211.
_Ogboni_, a Yoruba secret society, 78 _n._²
Ogun, a Yoruba god, 114 _n._
Omens, Kayan, 28 _sq._, 31 _sq._;
Iban, 33 _sq._;
Bontoc Igorot, 48;
Naga, 50 _n._¹
Ominous animals, cult of, in Borneo, 27, 28 _sq._, 32, 34, 59 _n._²
_Orenda_, 5, 86.
Origen, 270.
Ornaments not worn during a tabooed or unlucky period, 63, 65, 67, 70.
Oro, a Slave Coast deity, 78 _and n._²
_Orunda_, the Mpongwe term for taboo, 3.
Osiris, identified with the moon, 129 _n._⁶, 168 _sq._
Ovid, 245, 263 _n._², 266.
_Padi_, or rice, taboos affecting the cultivation of, in Borneo, 27
_sqq._, 37, 39 _n._²
Paganalia, Roman festival of the, 96 _and n._¹
Pagi Islands, the, 43.
Paharia of British Sikkim, 67.
_Palolo_ worm, the, 22 _and n._³
_Pamali_, a Land Dyak term for taboo, 36 _sq._, 37 _n._¹
_Pantang_, the Malay term for taboo, 27 _n._³, 204.
_Papyrus Sallier IV_, the, 296 _and n._¹, 297.
Paraguay, 129.
Parentalia, Roman festival of the, 80, 81 _and n._¹, 94 _n._²
Parsis, lucky and unlucky days of the, 166 _n._¹, 273 _n._³
_Pasar_, Javanese market week, 105, 165 _n._¹
Passover, the, 250.
Patani States of the Malay Peninsula, 64, 204.
_Patimokkha_, the disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, 157 _and
n._³, 163 _and n._⁵
Paul, St., 269.
Pentad, the, 194 _sqq._
Perfumes and unguents not used during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1,
152, 155, 158.
_Permantong_, a Kayan term for taboo, 27 _and n._³
Persians, the seven-day week of the, 201 _n._⁴;
lunar mansions of the, 275;
their epagomenal days, 282.
_See also_ Iranians.
Peruvians, market days kept by the, 119 _sq._;
the seven-day week unknown to the, 120 _n._¹;
their lunar superstitions, 129, 141;
calendar of the, 174, 186, 190.
_Petara_, Sea Dyak gods, 35 _n._², 42 _sq._
Pharisees, the, 265, 269.
Philippine Islands, the, 44 _sqq._, 64, 88.
Philo Judæus, 261 _n._⁵, 266.
Phœnicians, the, 212 _n._¹, 240.
_Pidiu_, the Ibaloi Igorot term for taboo, 49 _n._¹
Pinches, T. G., on the meaning of _shabattum_, 237, 238 _n._⁴
_Pitara._ See _Petara_.
Planetary or astrological week, in India, 200, 292;
in southeastern Asia, 201;
in China, 202 _sq._;
in Japan, 203 _sq._;
in the Malay Peninsula, 204;
in Sumatra, Java, and Bali, 205;
origin of the, 215 _sqq._;
introduction of the, into the Occident, 219;
adopted by Christianity, 220 _sq._;
its diffusion in Europe, 221 _sq._;
in Afghanistan, 293.
Planets, differentiation of the, from the fixed stars, 213;
identification of the, with deities of the Babylonian pantheon, 214
_sq._;
the planetary week, 215 _sqq._;
in Mithraism, 220 _n._³
Plato, on festival days, 91.
Pleiades calendars, 176 _sq._, 225 _and n._²
Pliny the Younger, 268 _n._¹
Plutarch, 264 _n._¹, 266.
Plynteria, Athenian festival of the, 92 _sq._
_Pomali_, a Malay term for taboo, 64.
Pompeii, inscriptions from, relating to the planetary week, 219.
Pompey the Great, 216, 266.
_Porikh._ See _Pamali_.
Portugal, names of the weekdays in, 221 _n._²
Portuguese East Africa, 190.
_Posadha_, the, in China, 163 _n._⁵
_Posaha_, the Jain, 154 _sq._
_Poya_ days, observed in Ceylon, 158, 159 _and n._¹
Prascovia, St., 222 _n._²
Prayer, nature of Hawaiian, 12 _n._²
Pre-animistic sanctions of taboos, 4 _sq._, 75, 83.
Ptolemy, Greek astronomer, 216.
Puberty, taboos imposed on the attainment of, 7, 69 _n._²;
initiation at, among the Fijians, 23 _and n._¹, 24;
among the Yao, 125.
Pula, the, 194.
_Punän_, the term for taboo in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._
Punjab, the, 137 _sq._
Purim, Hebrew festival of, 276 _n._²
_Pyramid Texts_, the, 166 _sq._, 281.
Python, cult of the, in Uganda, 146.
Ra, Egyptian god, 258.
Radama I, Malagasy king, 197.
Ratu-mai-Mbulu, a Fijian deity, 21.
Reformation, the, 301, 306.
Reinach, S., 257 _n._¹
Rendile of British East Africa, 198 _sq._
Rest days, characteristics of primitive, 1;
connection of, with the institution of taboo, 1 _sq._;
in Hawaii, 9 _sqq._, 88, 188, 233, 303;
in the Society Islands and the Marquesas Islands, 15 _sq._, 16
_n._¹;
among the Maori, 16 _sq._, 17 _n._²;
in the Tonga Islands, 18 _and n._², 19;
in Samoa, 19 _sq._;
in New Guinea, 26 _and n._¹;
among the Kayan of Borneo, 27 _sqq._;
among the Iban or Sea Dyak, 33 _sqq._;
among the Land Dyak, 36 _sqq._;
in the Nicobar Islands, 40 _sq._, 165;
in Bali, 41 _sqq._;
in the Mentawi Islands, 43 _sq._;
in the Philippines, 44 _sqq._;
in Manipur, 49 _sqq._;
in Assam, 53 _sqq._;
in Burma, 55 _sqq._;
among the aborigines of southwestern China, 57 _sq._, 194;
a characteristic feature of Indo-Chinese culture, 58;
compared with the _couvade_, 58 _sq._;
psychological and sociological aspects of, 59 _sq._;
mark critical epochs in the communal life, 60 _sq._;
observed after a death, 62 _sqq._, 84;
observance of, in Africa, during seasons of ghost-riddance and
demon-riddance, 74 _sqq._;
observed in connection with the proceedings of west African secret
societies, 77 _sq._;
the Greek ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι as, 79 _sq._, 84, 92 _sq._, 139 _sq._;
the Roman _dies religiosi_ as, 80 _sq._, 84, 93 _sq._, 170 _sq._,
273;
the Hebrew Day of Atonement and Feast of Trumpets as, 81 _sqq._;
the Mohammedan Feast of Sacrifices, 83;
festivals observed as, 85 _sqq._;
among the Dravidian peoples of India, 88 _sqq._;
the Hebrew Day of First-fruits, 90 _sq._;
Greek festivals as, 91 _sqq._, 169 _sq._, 211 _sq._, 304;
Roman festivals as, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
observed in connection with agricultural operations, 101 _and
n._¹, 102;
market days as, 103 _sq._, 104 _n._, 109 _sqq._, 118, 119 _sqq._;
observed in connection with the waning moon, 131 _sqq._;
observed during lunar eclipses, 134 _sq._;
observed during the _interlunium_, 136 _sqq._;
observed at changes of the moon, 143;
lunar days as, in Africa, 144 _sqq._;
lunar taboos in modern India, 148 _sq._;
the ancient Aryan _upavasatha_ as a Sabbath, 149 _sqq._;
sabbatarian character of lunar days in Brahmanism, 151 _sqq._;
the Jain _posaha_, 154 _sq._;
the Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, 155 _sqq._;
diffusion of the Buddhist Sabbath, 158 _sqq._;
new moon and full moon as, among the Greeks and Romans, 169 _sq._;
the _dies postriduani_, 170 _sq._;
in Madagascar and eastern Africa, 197 _sqq._;
of the American Indians, 197 _n._¹, 303 _n._³;
not observed by the Chinese, 203 _and n._¹, 303 _sq._;
in Japan, 203 _sq._;
not observed by the Javanese, 205 _n._⁴;
in Islam, 205 _sq._;
seventh days observed as, 208 _sqq._;
in Christianity, 220 _sqq._, 269 _sqq._, 306 _sqq._;
in Mithraism, 220 _n._³;
the Babylonian “evil days” as, 223, 232 _sqq._, 235 _n._¹, 236,
241, 254;
the Hebrew Sabbath, 242 _sqq._;
the Christian Sunday, 267 _sqq._;
unlucky days observed as, 272 _sqq._;
social and economic significance of, 302 _sqq._
_Rex sacrorum_, the Roman, 97, 170.
_Rig-Veda_, the, 177 _n._², 276, 277.
Rivers, W. H. R., on the lunar superstitions of the Toda, 132;
on their sacred days, 288 _sqq._
Roman Church, names of the weekdays in the calendar of the, 221 _n._²
Romance countries, names of the weekdays in, 221 _and n._²
Romans, ancient, unlucky days of the, 80 _and n._², 81, 84, 93 _sq._,
94 _n._², 170 _sq._, 171 _n._³, 273;
festivals of the, 80 _sq._, 93 _sqq._, 121 _sqq._, 170, 304 _sqq._;
their market week and market days, 92 _n._, 94 _n._³, 120 _sqq._,
193 _and n._³, 219;
their lunar calendar, 170, 184 _sq._
Romulus, 94, 121, 177 _n._¹
_Rongker_, the Mikir term for rest day, 54.
Roro-speaking peoples of British New Guinea, 26.
Russia, Friday an unlucky day in, 222 _n._²;
saints’ days observed in, 307.
Sabbatarian regulations, penalties for disobedience of, 10, 20, 46
_sq._, 113, 160, 161, 261 _sq._, 290;
how evaded, 264, 289 _sq._, 293 _n._³
Sabbath, the Hebrew, 10 _n._⁴, 91, 96 _n._¹, 98 _n._⁴, 104 _n._, 109,
122, 148, 179 _n._¹, 235, 236 _and n._, 242 _sqq._, 291 _sq._,
304.
—— Day’s journey, length of a, 251 _n._⁵, 264.
Sabbatical Year, the Hebrew, 236 _n._, 260 _sqq._
_Sacer_, the Latin term for taboo, 3 _and n._⁵
Saints’ days, observance of, 306 _sq._
Samoa, village deities of, 19 _sq._;
tabooed days observed in, 19 _sq._, 24.
Sanhedrin, the, 247 _n._², 248.
_Sansculottides_, the, 283.
Saoria of Bengal, 137.
Sarawak, 27 _sqq._, 33 _sqq._, 65, 208.
_Sarhul_, a Uraon festival, 89.
Sarpanit, Babylonian goddess, 241 _n._¹
Saturday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 201, 222 _n._³, 244 _n._³, 245;
names applied to, 188 _n._¹, 221, 222 _and n._²;
change from, to Sunday, as the first day of the planetary week, 220
_sq._, 268;
Saturn’s Day and, 243 _sqq._;
ecclesiastical recognition of, as a holy day, 269 _and n._⁴
Saturn, supposed consecration of the _nundinæ_ to, 122 _n._²;
the planet, 213, 243 _sqq._
_See also_ Saturday.
Sayce, A. H., on the _khamushtu_, 195 _n._²
Scapegoat, the Hebrew, 81 _sqq._
Schiaparelli, G., 213, 235 _n._¹, 261 _n._³
Scotland, abstinence from work after a death observed in, 74;
lunar superstitions in, 133;
observance of Saturday in, 270 _n._;
unlucky days observed in, 279.
Sea Dyak. _See_ Iban.
Seclusion necessary during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9, 10,
12, 15, 20, 22, 26, 28 _sq._, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 53, 56, 58
_sq._, 64, 65, 69 _n._², 71, 74, 78, 115 _n._⁴, 147, 232 _sq._,
257, 280, 295, 296, 297.
_See also_ Strangers, exclusion of.
Secret societies, in Fiji, 23 _and n._¹, 24;
in west Africa, 77 _sq._, 111.
Selene, 130, 139 _sq._
Seligmann, C. G., 26 _n._³, 101 _n._¹
Seminoles of Florida, 71.
_Sepi_, the Balinese term for rest day, 42.
Sequani of Gaul, 186 _n._¹
Servius Tullius, 121.
Seven, as a symbolic number, 208 _sqq._, 225 _and n._², 229 _sqq._
Seven-day week, the, in New Caledonia, 104 _and n._⁴;
in the island of Bali, 105;
in the Malay Peninsula, 105, 204;
among the Guinea and Sudanese negroes, 115 _sqq._, 199;
not known to the Peruvians, 120 _n._¹;
in Sumatra, 180;
in New Zealand, 188 _n._¹;
in Indo-China, 189;
unknown to the Egyptians, 191 _n._¹, 245 _sq._;
Abyssinian, 194 _n._¹;
origin and diffusion of the, 196 _sq._;
in Madagascar and eastern Africa, 197 _sq._;
in India, 199 _sqq._, 292;
in southeastern Asia, 201;
in central and northern Asia, 201 _n._⁴;
in China, 202 _sq._;
in Japan, 203 _sq._;
in the Malay Archipelago, 204 _sq._;
of the Arabs, 205 _sq._;
the planetary or astrological, 215 _sqq._;
in Babylonia, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._, 253 _sq._;
of the Hebrews, 253 _sqq._;
of the early Christians, 267;
of the Toda, 292;
in Afghanistan, 293.
_See also_ Planetary or astrological week.
Seventh day, the, 205, 208 _sqq._, 224, 232 _sq._, 243, 244 _n._³,
299.
Sexual intercourse, prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period,
10, 15, 39 _and n._², 58, 110, 134, 146, 151, 152, 155, 158, 233,
296 _sq._, 298;
effect of illicit, on the crops, 36 _n._
_Shabattum_, Babylonian name of full-moon day, 81 _n._³, 235 _sqq._,
251.
_Shabbāth_, original meaning of the Hebrew term, 251, 252, 253;
used in the general sense of “week,” 253 _n._²
_—— shabbāthôn_, the Hebrew, 81 _and n._³, 82, 251, 260.
_Shabbāthôn_, the Hebrew, 235 _and n._²
_Shabbti_, Jewish designation of the planet Saturn, 244.
Shamash, Babylonian sun-god, 239.
Shan of Burma, 105 _sq._
Shaving, superstitions relating to, 92 _n._
_Shib’a_, Jewish period of strict mourning after a death, 74.
Shropshire, 279.
Siam, tabooed days observed in, 66;
market days kept in, 105, 194 _n._³;
the Buddhist Sabbath in, 161 _sq._;
bipartite division of the month employed in, 184;
the seven-day week in, 201.
Siberia, 73 _sq._, 126, 132, 201 _n._⁴
Sickness, taboos imposed in connection with, 24, 25, 34 _sq._, 36,
38, 39, 42, 43 _sqq._, 51, 60.
Sierra Leone, 148 _n._¹
Sikkim, 67.
Silence observed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 9 _sq._, 11,
12 _and n._², 14, 16 _n._¹, 20, 21, 22, 26, 41, 42, 44, 62, 67,
77, 151, 278, 297.
Sin, a Babylonian moon-god, 126, 129, 139, 226, 228 _sq._, 239, 240,
248 _n._¹
Sinaugolo of British New Guinea, a division of time formerly observed
by the, 101 _n._¹
Singer, Jacob, 249 _n._³
Slave Coast of west Africa, 77 _sq._, 112, 113 _sq._, 187.
Slavic peoples, names of the weekdays among, 222.
Smith, H. P., 249 _n._³
Smith, W. R., 4 _n._, 86 _n._¹, 252.
Society Islands, the, 9, 15 _sq._, 181 _n._⁷
Sofalese of Portuguese East Africa, 190 _and n._²
_Solevu ni vilavou_, a Fijian New Year’s festival, 23 _n._¹
_Soma_, the intoxicating juice of the moon-plant, 150 _sq._, 158 _n._¹
Somali, the, 199, 210.
South Australia, 180.
_Soyáluña_, a Hopi Indian festival, 303 _n._³
Spartans, religious scruples of the, 133 _n._³
Spencer, John, on the origin of the Sabbath in Egypt, 245.
Spirits. _See_ Demons.
Strabo, on festival days, 85.
Strangers, exclusion of, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 1, 20,
24, 27, 29 _sq._, 35, 36, 37, 39 _n._¹, 42 _sq._, 44, 45 _sq._,
49 _n._¹, 50, 55, 56, 57 _and n._², 66.
Stseelis of British Columbia, 197 _n._¹
Subanu of Mindanao, 45 _sq._
Sudan, the, 69 _n._², 116 _n._¹, 132, 141.
Sulla, 100.
Sumatra, 104 _sq._, 180 _sq._, 183, 204 _sq._, 214 _n._, 285 _sq._
Sun, worship of the, in modern India, 153 _sq._
Sunday, observance of, by native converts to Christianity, 10 _and
n._³, 73 _n._², 75, 114 _n._, 188 _n._¹, 209, 210, 295;
an unlucky day, 92 _n._, 137, 201;
legislation of Constantine relating to, 122 _sq._, 220;
markets held on, during the Middle Ages, 123 _and n._²;
in Siam, 162;
in India, 200 _n._³, 201;
among the Lao, 201;
in China, 202 _and n._³;
in Japan, 203 _sq._;
becomes the first day of the planetary week, 220 _sq._, 268;
how named by the early Christians, 267 _and n._³;
how observed by the early Christians, 267 _sq._;
comes to be regarded as a rest day, 269 _sqq._
—— legislation, 122 _sq._, 270 _sq._
Sundyak. _See_ Dusun.
Superstition, sociological aspects of, 63 _n._², 302, 307 _sq._
_Sutta Nipâta_, the, 157.
Swaheli of German East Africa, 76, 197.
Tabernacles, Hebrew Feast of, 236 _n._, 250, 251.
Taboo, derivation of the word, 2;
ideas involved in, 2 _sq._;
definition of, 3;
conception of, widely diffused, _ib._;
how classified, 4;
pre-animistic character of, 4 _sq._;
supported by animistic sanctions, 5 _sq._;
conceptions of abstinence and propitiation involved in, 6 _sq._;
social aspects of, 7, 25, 38 _sq._, 59 _sq._, 95;
holiness and, 86 _and n._¹
_Tabu_, the Polynesian conception of, 2 _and n._²;
compared with the Hebrew conception, 10 _n._⁴;
compared with the Babylonian _mamit_, 231.
Tacitus, on the origin of the Sabbath, 245 _n._³
Tahiti, observance of Sunday in, 10.
_Tambo nalanga_, a Fijian New Year’s festival, 22 _and n._²
_Tambu_, the Melanesian term for taboo, 3.
_Ṭāmē_, the Hebrew term for taboo, 4 _n._
Tamil-speaking peoples of southern India, village festivals of the,
89 _sq._
_Tapu._ See _Tabu_.
Tarentum, festivals of ancient, 304.
Tashi Lama, tabooed days observed after the death of the, 67.
Tatars, the, 132.
Tattooing, superstitions relating to, 53 _n._²
Telugu-speaking peoples of southern India, village festivals of the,
89 _sq._
Tenasserim, 161 _n._¹
_Tengao_ (_tengau_), the Bontoc Igorot term for rest day, 46 _and
n._², 88.
_Tengau._ See _Tengao_.
Tertullian, on the proper observance of Sunday, 268 _n._³, 269, 270
_and n._¹
_Thahu_, the Akikuyu term for taboo, 6.
Thessaly, unlucky days observed in, 222 _n._³
Thor, 221 _n._³
Thothmes III, inscription of, 167 _sq._
Thursday, observance of, as a holy day, 221 _n._³
Tiberius, Roman emperor, 305.
Tibet, tabooed days observed in, 67;
the Buddhist Sabbath in, 162 _sq._;
the seven-day week in, 201;
unlucky days observed in, 287 _sq._
Tibullus, 244 _sq._, 266.
Tides, influence of the moon on the, 130.
Timor, island of, 63.
Tippera, the, 55.
Titi Usi, Samoan village deity, 20.
Toda of the Madras Presidency, beliefs of, relating to the moon, 132,
134;
their reckoning of the lunation, 179;
their sacred days, 288 _sqq._
Tofoke of Belgian Congo, 190.
Togo, 114 _and n._³, 115, 182.
_Toh_, the Kayan spirits, 6.
Tonga Islands, the, 18 _and n._², 19.
Tonkin, 105, 189.
Tooitonga, Tonga divine chief, 18, 19.
Torres Straits, islands of, 128 _and n._²
Toy, C. H., on the meaning of _shabattum_, 238.
Trading not allowed during a tabooed or unlucky period, 42, 43, 67,
71, 151, 155, 159, 300.
Travel prohibited during a tabooed or unlucky period, 7, 20, 21, 26,
49 _n._¹, 64, 68, 83, 115 _n._⁴, 136, 151, 171, 190 _n._⁴, 198,
201, 210, 232, 233, 241 _n._¹, 273 _n._³, 275, 285, 289, 293,
297, 298, 301.
Trumpets, Hebrew Feast of, 82.
Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, tabooed days observed by
the, 112, 113, 115;
their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²;
unlucky days of the, 272.
Tuesday, an unlucky day, 201, 272 _and n._²;
a lucky day, 273 _sq._
Tuhoe of New Zealand, beliefs of the, relating to the moon, 128.
Tui Tokelau, Polynesian divinity, 20 _sq._
Tullus Hostilius, Roman king, 99.
Tungthu of Tenasserim, 161 _n._¹
Twelve Days, the, of the early Aryans, 276 _sq._;
in European folklore, 277 _sqq._
_Ubone_, or duty days, observed in Burma, 159 _sqq._, 161 _n._¹
_Ucharal_, a festival celebrated in Malabar, 89.
Uganda, 69 _sq._, 75 _sq._, 129, 145 _sqq._, 147 _n._³
_Ûm nûkh libbi_, 236, 241.
Union Islands, the, 20 _sq._
United States, the, lunar superstitions in, 127, 140 _n._³
Unleavened Bread, Hebrew Feast of, 179 _n._¹, 250, 251.
Unlucky days, of the ancient Greeks, 79 _and n._³, 80 _and n._¹, 84,
92 _sq._, 139 _and n._³, 140;
of the ancient Romans, 80 _sq._, 84, 93 _sq._, 170 _sq._, 273;
African, 111 _n._³, 190 _n._², 190 _n._³, 272;
German, 127, 278 _sq._;
in Ceylon, 159 _n._¹;
in the Malay Peninsula, 162 _n._⁴, 286;
Persian, 166 _n._¹, 282;
Malagasy, 197 _n._², 275, 294 _sq._;
Hindu, 201, 275;
Russian, 222 _n._²;
modern Greek, 222 _n._³, 272 _n._², 284 _sq._;
Babylonian, 241 _n._¹, 297 _sq._;
Egyptian, 258, 282, 295 _sqq._, 304;
Hebrew, 263 _and n._²;
origin of beliefs in, 272, 274, 276, 283;
Macedonian, 272, 273 _n._³, 278, 284 _and n._¹;
mediæval superstitions concerning, 273, 299 _sqq._;
Burmese, 273 _n._³, 302;
Abyssinian, 276 _n._;
in the British Isles, 279;
Mexican, 279 _sq._;
Maya, 280 _sq._;
Maori, 285;
in Sumatra, 285 _sq._;
Chinese, 286 _sq._;
Korean, 287;
Japanese, _ib._;
Tibetan, 287 _sq._;
Toda, 290 _sq._;
of the Siah Posh Kafirs, 293 _sq._;
in the Hesiodic calendar, 298 _sq._;
social and economic aspects of, 302 _sqq._
_Upavasatha_, observance of the, in ancient India, 149 _sqq._, 156.
_Uposatha_, the Buddhist Sabbath, 155 _sqq._;
diffusion of the, in southeastern Asia, 158 _sqq._
Ur, city of, 239.
Uraon of Bengal, 88 _sq._
Veblen, Thorstein, on sacred holidays, 87 _n._¹
Vedas, the, not to be read on certain occasions, 152 _sq._
Venus, the planet, 205, 213, 214 _n._¹, 243.
Vergil, on Roman holy days, 98;
his calendar of lucky and unlucky days, 299 _n._²
Vespasian, Roman emperor, 245.
Vestalia, Roman festival of the, 92 _n._, 93 _sq._
Vey of Liberia, 199 _n._⁵
Victoria, 180.
Village gods, Samoan, 19 _and n._¹, 20.
_Vishaptatha_, 166 _n._
_Vishnu Purana_, the, 151 _sq._, 152.
Wa, the Wild, 57.
Wachaga of German East Africa, 107, 209.
Wagiriama of British East Africa, 107 _and n._², 136 _and n._³, 189
_sq._, 209.
Wahuma. _See_ Bahima.
_Wakanda_, 5.
Wales, unlucky days observed in, 279.
Wanika of British East Africa, 107.
_Wan phra_, the Siamese Sabbath, 161 _sq._
Warfare not engaged in during a tabooed or unlucky period, 21, 22,
33, 34, 80, 81, 132, 133 _and n._³, 137, 171, 209, 303.
Wasania of British East Africa, 134, 209.
Wednesday, an unlucky day, 92 _n._
Weekdays, names of the, in Java, 105;
in Africa, 109, 111, 112, 113 _n._⁶, 115 _n._²;
in New Zealand, 188 _n._¹;
of the planetary sequence, 219;
in European languages, 221 _sq._;
among the early Christians, 267 _and n._³
Weeks, three-day, 103 _sq._, 105, 107, 108, 110, 119 _and n._³;
four-day, 105, 106 _sq._, 108, 109 _sq._, 111 _sq._, 114 _and n._²,
116 _n._¹, 119 _n._³;
five-day, 103, 104, 105 _sq._, 108, 110, 112 _n._¹, 113 _and n._⁶,
114 _and n._³, 116 _n._¹, 118 _sq._, 165 _n._¹, 187 _and n._²,
194 _sqq._;
six-day, 114 _and n._², 115 _n._, 116 _n._¹, 194;
seven-day, 104 _and n._⁴, 105, 115 _sqq._, 120 _n._¹, 122, 180, 187
_and n._², 189, 194 _n._¹, 196 _sq._, 197 _sqq._, 199 _n._⁵, 215
_sqq._, 224 _sq._, 227 _sqq._, 253 _sqq._, 267;
eight-day, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112 _n._¹, 119 _n._³, 120 _sqq._,
193 _sq._;
nine-day, 116 _n._¹, 192, 193 _and n._²;
ten-day, 110, 119 _sq._, 188 _sqq._
_See also_ Lunar weeks _and_ Market weeks.
Wellhausen, Julius, 82 _n._², 252.
Westermarck, Edward, 259.
White, the colour appropriate for sacred days observed on the Gold
Coast, 112 _and n._²
Winckler, Hugo, on the _khamushtu_, 195 _n._²
Women, restrictions on, during a tabooed or unlucky period, 15, 22,
41, 78, 83, 89, 115 _n._⁴, 194.
_Ya_, the Arakanese term for rest day, 55.
Yabim of German New Guinea, 57 _n._¹
Yakut of Siberia, 74.
Yap, island of, 24 _sq._, 189.
Year, the lunar, 13 _n._², 82 _n._², 174, 175, 176 _sqq._, 226, 247
_n._²;
beginning of the new, 75;
the solar, 82 _n._², 166, 174, 177 _sq._, 247 _n._², 279 _sqq._
Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, tabooed days observed by
the, 77 _sq._, 112, 113 _sq._;
their lunar weeks, 187 _and n._²
Yucatan, 174, 280 _sq._
Yuchi Indians, the, 101 _n._¹
Yukaghir of Siberia, 201 _n._⁴
Zagmuk, Babylonian festival of, 276 _n._²
Zimmern, H., 237, 238 _n._⁴, 252 _n._⁶
Zulu of British South Africa, 67 _sq._, 137, 144.
Zuñi Indians of New Mexico, 190 _and n._⁶, 211 _n._¹
Printed in the United States of America.
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