Among the Chinese of to-day, as with the inhabitants of ancient
Babylon, the days which are deemed favorable or otherwise for business
transactions, farming operations, or for traveling are still determined
by astrologers, and are indicated in an official almanac published
annually at Pekin by the Imperial Board of Astronomers. The various
tribes of the island of Madagascar also are exceedingly superstitious in
regard to the luck or ill-luck attending certain days, and the lives of
children born at an unlucky time are sometimes sacrificed to save them
from anticipated misfortune.
Natives of the Gold Coast of West Africa, in their divisions of the
year, observe a “long time” consisting of nineteen lucky days, and a
“short time” of seven equally propitious days. The seven days intervening
between these two periods are considered unlucky, and during this time
they undertake no voyages nor warlike enterprises. Somewhat similar
ideas prevail in Java and Sumatra, and in many of the smaller islands of
the Malay Archipelago. The Cossacks of western Siberia, the natives of
the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, and the Laplanders of the
far North, all adapt their lives to the black and white days of their
calendar. The peasantry of West Sussex in England will not permit their
children to go blackberrying on the tenth day of October, on account
of a belief that the Devil goes afield on that day, and bad luck would
surely befall any one rash enough to eat fruit gathered under such
circumstances. The same people believe that all cats born in the month of
May are hypochondriacs, and have an unpleasant habit of bringing snakes
and vipers into the house.
Among the Moslems of India there are in each month seven evil days, on
which no enterprise is to be undertaken on any consideration. Some of
the peculiar superstitions of these people with regard to traveling on
the different week-days are shown in “Zanoon-E-Islam, or the Customs of
the Mussulmans of India,” by Jaffur Shurreef. Thus, if any one proposes
journeying on Saturday, he should eat fish before starting, in order
that his plan may be successfully accomplished, but on Sunday betel-leaf
is preferable for this purpose. In like manner, on Monday he should
look into a mirror in order to obtain wealth. On Tuesday he should eat
coriander-seed, and on Wednesday should partake of curdled milk before
starting. On Thursday, if he eat raw sugar, he may confidently anticipate
returning with plenty of merchandise; and on Friday, if he eat dressed
meat, he will bring back pearls and jewels galore.
Some idea of the beliefs current in the mother country during the last
century may be obtained by a study of the advertisements of astrologers
and medical charlatans in the public press of that period. For example,
in the year 1773 one Sylvester Partridge, proprietor and vendor of
antidotes, elixirs, washes for freckles, plumpers for rounding the
cheeks, glass eyes, calves and noses, ivory jaws, and a new receipt for
changing the color of the hair, offered for a consideration to furnish
advice as to the proper times and seasons for letting blood, and to
indicate the most favorable aspect of the moon for drawing teeth and
cutting corns. He proffered counsel, moreover, as to the avoidance of
unlucky days for paring the nails, and the kindest zodiacal sign for
grafting, inoculation, and opening of bee-hives.
In enlightened England there are still to be found many people who
believe that the relative positions of the sun, moon, and planets are
prime factors in determining the proper times and seasons for undertaking
terrestrial enterprises. Zadkiel’s Almanac for 1898 states that natural
astrology is making good progress towards becoming once more a recognized
science. To quote from the preface of this publication:—
As the whole body of the ocean is not able to keep down one
single particle of free air, which must assuredly force its
way to the surface to unite with the atmosphere, so cannot the
combined forces of the prejudice and studied contempt of all
the _soi-disant_ “really scientific men” of the end of the
century prevent the truth of _astrologia sana_ from soaring
above their futile efforts to crush it down, to join the great
atmosphere of natural science, to enlighten the human mind in
its onward course and effort,—“to soar through Nature up to
Nature’s God.”
One example may suffice to exhibit the character of the predictions given
in this same work. Under the caption, “Voice of the Stars,” August, 1898,
the writer says that the stationary positions of Saturn and Uranus are
likely to shake Spain (and perhaps Tuscany) physically and politically
about the 10th or 11th insts. There will be strained diplomatic relations
between the United States and Spain; for Mars in the sign Gemini, and
Saturn in Sagittarius, must create friction and disturbances in both
countries.
The Jewish current beliefs in the influence of certain days and seasons
appear to have been mostly derived from the Romans of old. Even nowadays
among the Jews no marriages are solemnized during the interval of fifty
days between the Feast of the Passover and Pentecost; and formerly the
favorite wedding-days were those of the new or full moon.[417] In Siam
the eighth and fifteenth days of the moon are observed as sacred, and
devoted to worship and rest from ordinary labor. Sportsmen are forbidden
to hunt or fish on these days. The Siamese astrologers indicate the
probable character of any year by associating it with some animal, upon
whose back the New Year is represented as being mounted.[418]