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