[1] Are forming separate administrative division of "Persian Gulf
Ports."
[2] Persian census in 1884; 25,284 males, 28,323 females.
FARTHING (A.S. _feortha_, fourth, +_ing_, diminutive), the smallest
English coin, equal to the fourth of a penny. It became a regular part
of the coinage from the reign of Edward I., and was, up to the reign of
Mary, a silver coin. No farthing was struck in the reign of Elizabeth,
but a silver three-farthing piece was issued in that reign, with a
profile bust of the queen crowned, with a rose behind her head, and
inscribed "E.D.G. Rosa sine spina." The copper farthing was first
introduced in the reign of James I., a patent being given to Lord
Harington of Exton in 1613 for the issue of copper tokens of this
denomination. It was nominally of six grains' weight, but was usually
heavier. Properly, however, the copper farthing dates from the reign of
Charles II., in whose reign also was issued a tin farthing, with a small
copper plug in the centre, and an inscription on the edge, "Nummorum
famulus 1684." No farthings were actually issued in the reign of Queen
Anne, though a number of patterns were prepared (see NUMISMATICS:
_MEDIEVAL SECTION, ENGLAND_). In 1860 the copper farthing was superseded
by one struck in bronze. In 1842 a proclamation was issued giving
currency to half-farthings, and there were several issues, but they were
demonetized in 1869. In 1897 the practice was adopted of darkening
farthings before issue, to prevent their being mistaken for
half-sovereigns.
FARTHINGALE (from the O. Fr. _verdagalle_, or _vertugalle_, a corruption
of the Spanish name of the article, _verdagado_, from _verdago_, a rod
or stick), a case or hoop, originally of bent rods, but afterwards made
of whalebone, upon which were hung the voluminous skirts of a woman's
dress. The fashion was introduced into England from Spain in the 16th
century. In its most exaggerated shape, at the beginning of the 17th
century, the top of the farthingale formed a flat circular surface
projecting at right angles to the bodice (see COSTUME).
FARUKHABAD, FARRAKHABAD, or FURRUCKABAD, a city and district of
British India in the Agra division of the United Provinces. The city is
near the right bank of the Ganges, 87 m. by rail from Cawnpore. It forms
a joint municipality with Fatehgarh, the civil headquarters of the
district with a military cantonment. Pop. (1901) 67,338. At Fatehgarh is
the government gun-carriage factory; and other industries include
cotton-printing and the manufacture of gold lace, metal vessels and
tents.
The DISTRICT OF FARUKHABAD has an area of 1685 sq. m. It is a flat
alluvial plain in the middle Doab. The principal rivers are: the Ganges,
which has a course of 87 m. either bordering on or passing through the
district, but is not at all times navigable by large boats throughout
its entire course; the Kali-nadi (84 m.) and the Isan-nadi (42 m.), both
tributaries of the Ganges; and the Arind-nadi, which, after a course of
20 m. in the south of the district, passes into Cawnpore. The principal
products are rice, wheat, barley, millets, pulses, cotton, sugar-cane,
potatoes, &c. The grain crops, however, are insufficient for local
wants, and grain is largely imported from Oudh and Rohilkhand. The
district is, therefore, liable to famine, and it was severely visited by
this calamity six times during the 19th century--in 1803-1804,
1815-1816, 1825-1826, 1837-1838, 1868-1869 and 1899-1900. Farukhabad is
one of the healthiest districts in the Doab, but fevers are prevalent
during August and September. The average annual mean temperature is
almost 80 deg. F.; the average annual rainfall, 29.4 in.
In the early part of the 18th century, when the Mogul empire was
breaking up, Mahommed Khan, a Bangash Afghan from a village near
Kaimganj, governor of Allahabad and later of Malwa, established a
considerable state of which the present district of Farukhabad was the
nucleus, founding the city of Farukhabad in 1714. After his death in
1743, his son and successor Kaim Khan was embroiled by Safdar Jang, the
nawab wazir of Oudh, with the Rohillas, in battle with whom he lost his
life in 1749. In 1750 his brother, Ahmad Khan, recovered the Farukhabad
territories; but Safdar Jang called in the Mahrattas, and a struggle for
the possession of the country began, which ended in 1771, on the death
of Ahmad Khan, by its becoming tributary to Oudh. In 1801 the nawab
wazir ceded to the British his lands in this district, with the tribute
due from the nawab of Farukhabad, who gave up his sovereign rights in
1802. In 1804 the Mahrattas, under Holkar, ravaged this tract, but were
utterly routed by Lord Lake at the town of Farukhabad. During the mutiny
Farukhabad shared the fate of other districts, and passed entirely out
of British hands for a time. The native troops, who had for some time
previously evinced a seditious spirit, finally broke into rebellion on
the 18th of June 1857, and placed the titular nawab of Farukhabad on the
throne. The English military residents took shelter in the fort, which
they held until the 4th of July, when, the fort being undermined, they
endeavoured to escape by the river. One boat succeeded in reaching
Cawnpore, but only to fall into the hands of Nana. Its occupants were
made prisoners, and perished in the massacre of the 10th of July. The
other boat was stopped on its progress down the river, and all those in
it were captured or killed, except four who escaped. The prisoners were
conveyed back to Fatehgarh, and murdered there by the nawab on the 19th
of July. The rebels were defeated in several engagements, and on the 3rd
of January 1858 the English troops recaptured Fatehgarh fort; but it was
not till May that order was thoroughly re-established. In 1901 the
population was 925,812, showing an increase of 8% in one decade. Part of
the district is watered by distributaries of the Ganges canal; it is
traversed throughout its length by the Agra-Cawnpore line of the
Rajputana railway, and is also served by a branch of the East Indian
system. Tobacco, opium, potatoes and fruit, cotton-prints, scent and
saltpetre are among the principal exports.
FASCES, in Roman antiquities, bundles of elm or birch rods from which
the head of an axe projected, fastened together by a red strap. Nothing
is known of their origin, the tradition that represents them as borrowed
by one of the kings from Etruria resting on insufficient grounds. As the
emblem of official authority, they were carried by the lictors, in the
left hand and on the left shoulder, before the higher Roman magistrates;
at the funeral of a deceased magistrate they were carried behind the
bier. The lictors and the fasces were so inseparably connected that they
came to be used as synonymous terms. The fasces originally represented
the power over life and limb possessed by the kings, and after the
abolition of the monarchy, the consuls, like the kings, were preceded by
twelve fasces. Within the precincts of the city the axe was removed, in
recognition of the right of appeal (_provocat-io_) to the people in a
matter of life and death; outside Rome, however, each consul retained
the axe, and was preceded by his own lictors, not merely by a single
_accensus_ (supernumerary), as was originally the case within the city
when he was not officiating. Later, the lictors preceded the officiating
consul, and walked behind the other. Valerius Publicola, the champion of
popular rights, further established the custom that the fasces should be
lowered before the people, as the real representatives of sovereignty
(Livy ii. 7; Florus i. 9; Plutarch, _Publicola_, 10); lowering the
fasces was also the manner in which an inferior saluted a superior
magistrate. A dictator, as taking the place of the two consuls, had 24
fasces (including the axe even within the city); most of the other
magistrates had fasces varying in number, with the exception of the
censors, who, as possessing no executive authority, had none. Fasces
were given to the Flamen Dialis and (after 42 B.C.) even to the Vestals.
During the times of the republic, a victorious general, who had been
saluted by the title of imperator by his soldiers, had his fasces
crowned with laurel (Cicero, _Pro Ligario_, 3). Later, under the empire,
when the emperor received the title for life on his accession, it became
restricted to him, and the laurel was regarded as distinctive of the
imperial fasces (see Mommsen, _Romisches Staatsrecht_, i., 1887, p.
373).
FASCIA (Latin for a bandage or fillet), a term used for many objects
which resemble a band in shape; thus in anatomy it is applied to the
layers of fibrous connective tissue which sheathe the muscles or cover
various parts or organs in the body, and in zoology, and particularly in
ornithology, to bands or stripes of colour. In architecture the word is
used of the bands into which the architrave of the Ionic and Corinthian
orders is subdivided; their origin would seem to have been derived from
the superimposing of two or more beams of timber to span the opening
between columns and to support a superincumbent weight; the upper beam
projected slightly in front of the lower, and similar projections were
continued in the stone or marble beam though in one block. In the Roman
Corinthian order the fasciae, still projecting one in front of the
other, were subdivided by small mouldings sometimes carved. The several
bands are known as the first or upper fascia, the second or middle
fascia and the third or lower fascia. The term is sometimes applied to
flat projecting bands in Renaissance architecture when employed as
string courses. It is also used, though more commonly in the form
"facia," of the band or plate over a shop-front, on which the name and
occupation of the tradesman is written.
FASCINATION (from Lat. _fascinare_, to bewitch, probably connected with
the Gr. [Greek: baskainein], to speak ill of, to bewitch), the art of
enchanting or bewitching, especially through the influence of the "evil
eye," and so properly of the exercise of an evil influence over the
reason or will. The word is thus used of the supposed paralysing
attraction exercised by some reptiles on their victims. It is also
applied to a particular hypnotic condition, marked by muscular
contraction, but with consciousness and power of remembrance left. In a
quite general sense, fascination means the exercise of any charm or
strong attraction.
FASCINE (from the Lat. _fascina_, _fascis_, a bundle of sticks), a large
faggot of brushwood used in the revetments of earthworks and for other
purposes of military engineering. The British service pattern of fascine
is 18 ft. long; it is tied as tightly as possible at short intervals,
and the usual diameter is 9 in. Similar bundles of wood formed part of
the foundations of the early lake-dwellings, and in modern engineering
fascines are used in making rough roads over marshy ground and in
building river and sea walls and breakwaters.
FASHION (adapted from Fr. _facon_, Lat. _factio_, making, _facere_, to
do or make), the action of making, hence the shape or form which
anything takes in the process of making. It is thus used in the sense of
the pattern, kind, sort, manner or mode in which a thing is done. It is
particularly used of the common or customary way in which a thing is
done, and so is applied to the manner or custom prevalent at or
characteristic of a particular period, especially of the manner of
dress, &c., current at a particular period in any rank of society, for
which the French term is _modes_ (see COSTUME).
FASHODA (renamed, 1904, KODOK), a post on the west bank of the Upper
Nile, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, in 9 deg. 53' N., 32 deg. 8' E., 459 m. S.,
by river, of Khartum. It is the headquarters of the mudiria (province)
of the Upper Nile. The station is built on a flat peninsula connected by
a narrow strip of land with a ridge which runs parallel with the river.
The surrounding country is mostly deep swamp and the station is most
unhealthy; mosquitoes are present in millions. The climate is always
damp and the temperature rarely below 98 deg. in the shade. The
government offices are well-built brick structures. In front of the
station is a long low island, and when the Nile is at its lowest this
channel becomes dry. Several roads from Kordofan converge on the Nile at
this point, and near the station is the residence of the _mek_, or king,
of the Shilluk tribe, whose designation of the post was adopted when it
was decided to abandon the use of Fashoda. At Lul, 18 m. farther up
stream, is an Austrian Roman Catholic mission station.
An Egyptian military post was established at Fashoda in 1865. It was
then a trading station of some importance, slaves being the chief
commodity dealt in. In 1883-1884 the place fell into the hands of the
Mahdists. On the 10th of July 1898 it was occupied by a French force
from the Congo under Commandant J.B. Marchand, a circumstance which gave
rise to a state of great tension between Great Britain and France. On
the 11th of December following the French force withdrew, returning
home via Abyssinia (see AFRICA, S 5, and EGYPT: _History_, and
_Military Operations_).
FAST AND LOOSE, a cheating game played at fairs by sharpers. A strap,
usually in the form of a belt, is rolled or doubled up with a loop in
the centre, and laid edgewise on a table. The swindler then bets that
the loop cannot be caught with a stick or skewer as he unrolls the belt.
As this looks to be easy to do the bet is often taken, but the sharper
unrolls the belt in such a manner as to make the catching of the loop
practically impossible. Centuries ago it was much practised by gipsies,
a circumstance alluded to by Shakespeare in _Anthony and Cleopatra_ (iv.
12):
"Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss."
From this game is taken the colloquial expression "to play fast and
loose." At the present day it is called "prick the garter" or "prick the
loop."
FASTI, in Roman antiquities, plural of the Latin adjective _fastus_, but
more commonly used as a substantive, derived from _fas_, meaning what is
binding, or allowable, by divine law, as opposed to _jus_, or human law.
_Fasti dies_ thus came to mean the days on which law business might be
transacted without impiety, corresponding to our own "lawful days"; the
opposite of the _dies fasti_ were the _dies nefasti_, on which, on
various religious grounds, the courts could not sit. The word _fasti_
itself then came to be used to denote lists or registers of various
kinds, which may be divided into two great classes.
1. _Fasti Diurni_, divided into _urbani_ and _rustici_, a kind of
official year-book, with dates and directions for religious ceremonies,
court-days, market-days, divisions of the month, and the like. Until 304
B.C. the lore of the _calendaria_ remained the exclusive and lucrative
monopoly of the priesthood; but in that year Gnaeus Flavius, a
pontifical secretary, introduced the custom of publishing in the forum
tables containing the requisite information, besides brief references to
victories, triumphs, prodigies, &c. This list was the origin of the
public Roman calendar, in which the days were divided into weeks of
eight days each, and indicated by the letters A-H. Each day was marked
by a certain letter to show its nature; thus the letters F., N., N.P.,
F.P., Q. Rex C.F., C., EN., stood for _fastus_, _nefastus_, _nefastus_
in some unexplained sense, _fastus priore_, _quando rex_ (_sacrorum_)
_comitiavit fastus_, _comitialis_ and _intercisus_. The _dies intercisi_
were partly _fasti_ and partly _nefasti_. Ovid's _Fasti_ is a poetical
description of the Roman festivals of the first six months, written to
illustrate the Fasti published by Julius Caesar after he remodelled the
Roman year. Upon the cultivators fewer feasts, sacrifices, ceremonies
and holidays were enjoined than on the inhabitants of cities; and the
rustic fasti contained little more than the ceremonies of the calends,
nones and ides, the fairs, signs of zodiac, increase and decrease of the
days, the tutelary gods of each month, and certain directions for rustic
labours to be performed each month.
2. _Fasti Magistrales_, _Annales_ or _Historici_, were concerned with
the several feasts, and everything relating to the gods, religion and
the magistrates; to the emperors, their birthdays, offices, days
consecrated to them, with feasts and ceremonies established in their
honour or for their prosperity. They came to be denominated _magni_, by
way of distinction from the bare calendar, or _fasti diurni_. Of this
class, the _fasti consulares_, for example, were a chronicle or register
of time, in which the several years were denoted by the respective
consuls, with the principal events which happened during their
consulates. The _fasti triumphales_ and _sacerdotales_ contained a list
in chronological order of persons who had obtained a triumph, together
with the name of the conquered people, and of the priests. The word
_fasti_ thus came to be used in the general sense of "annals" or
"historical records." A famous specimen of the same class are the _fasti
Capitolini_, so called because they were deposited in the Capitol by
Alexander Farnese, after their excavation from the Roman forum in 1547.
They are chiefly a nominal list of statesmen, victories, triumphs, &c.,
from the expulsion of the kings to the death of Augustus. A considerable
number of fasti of the first class have also been discovered; but none
of them appear to be older than the time of Augustus. The Praenestine
calendar, discovered in 1770, arranged by the famous grammarian Verrius
Flaccus, contains the months of January, March, April and December, and
a portion of February. The tablets give an account of festivals, as also
of the triumphs of Augustus and Tiberius. There are still two complete
calendars in existence, an official list by Furius Dionysius Philocalus
(A.D. 354), and a Christian version of the official calendar, made by
Polemius Silvius (A.D. 448). But some kinds of fasti included under the
second general head were, from the very beginning, written for
publication. The _Annales Pontificum_--different from the _calendaria_
properly so called--were "annually exhibited in public on a white table,
on which the memorable events of the year, with special mention of the
prodigies, were set down in the briefest possible manner." Any one was
allowed to copy them. Like the pontifices, the augurs also had their
books, _libri augurales_. In fact, all the state offices had their fasti
corresponding in character to the consular fasti named above.
For the best text and account of the fragments of the Fasti see
_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i. (2nd ed.); on the subject
generally, Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, SS 74, 75,
and article by Bouche-Leclercq in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire
des antiquites_.
FASTING (from "fast," derived from old Teutonic _fastejan_; synonyms
being the Gr. [Greek: nesteuein], late Lat. _jejunare_), an act which is
most accurately defined as an abstention from meat, drink and all
natural food for a determined period. So it is defined by the Church of
England, in the 16th homily, on the authority of the Council of
Chalcedon[1] and of the primitive church generally. In a looser sense
the word is employed to denote abstinence from certain kinds of food
merely; and this meaning, which in ordinary usage is probably the more
prevalent, seems also to be at least tolerated by the Church of England
when it speaks of "fast or abstinence days," as if fasting and
abstinence were synonymous.[2] More vaguely still, the word is
occasionally used as an equivalent for moral self-restraint generally.
This secondary and metaphorical sense ([Greek: nesteuein kakotetos])
occurs in one of the fragments of Empedocles. For the physiology of
fasting, see DIETETICS; NUTRITION; also CORPULENCE.
Starvation itself (see also HUNGER and THIRST) is of the nature of a
disease which may be prevented by diet; nevertheless there are connected
with it a few peculiarities of scientific and practical interest.
"Inedia," as it is called in the nomenclature of diseases by the London
College of Physicians, is of two kinds, arising from _want of food_ and
from _want of water_. When entirely deprived of nutriment the human body
is ordinarily capable of supporting life under ordinary circumstances
for little more than a week. In the spring of 1869 this was tried on the
person of a "fasting girl" in South Wales. The parents made a show of
their child, decking her out like a bride on a bed, and asserting that
she had eaten no food for two years. Some reckless enthusiasts for truth
set four trustworthy hospital nurses to watch her; the Celtic obstinacy
of the parents was roused, and in defence of their imposture they
allowed death to take place in eight days. Their trial and conviction
for manslaughter may be found in the daily periodicals of the date; but,
strange to say, the experimental physiologists and nurses escaped
scot-free. There is no doubt that in this instance the unnatural
quietude, the grave-like silence, and the dim religious light in which
the victim was kept contributed to deter death.
One thing which remarkably prolongs life is a supply of water. Dogs
furnished with as much as they wished to drink were found by M. Chossat
(_Sur l'inanition_, Paris, 1843) to live three times as long as those
who were deprived of solids and liquids at the same time. Even wetting
the skin with sea-water has been found useful by shipwrecked sailors.
Four men and a boy of fourteen who got shut in the Tynewydd mine near
Porth, in South Wales, in the winter of 1876-1877 for ten days without
food, were not only alive when released, but several of them were able
to walk, and all subsequently recovered. The thorough saturation of the
narrow space with aqueous vapour, and the presence of drain water in the
cutting, were probably their chief preservatives--assisted by the high
even temperature always found in the deeper headings of coal mines, and
by the enormous compression of the confined air. This doubtless
prevented evaporation, and retarded vital processes dependent upon
oxidation. The accumulation of carbonic acid in the breathed air would
also have a similar arrestive power over destructive assimilation. These
prisoners do not seem to have felt any of the severer pangs of hunger,
for they were not tempted to eat their candles. With the instinctive
feeling that darkness adds a horror to death, they preferred to use them
for light. At the wreck of the "Medusa" frigate in 1816, fifteen people
survived on a raft for thirteen days without food.
It is a paradoxical fact, that the supply of the stomach even from the
substance of the starving individual's body should tend to prolong life.
In April 1874 a case was recorded of exposure in an open boat for 32
days of three men and two boys, with only ten days' provisions,
exclusive of old boots and jelly-fish. They had a fight in their
delirium, and one was severely wounded. As the blood gushed out he
lapped it up; and instead of suffering the fatal weakness which might
have been expected from the haemorrhage, he seems to have done well.
Experiments were performed by a French physiologist, M. Anselmier
(_Archives gen. de medecine_, 1860, vol. i. p. 169), with the object of
trying to preserve the lives of dogs by what he calls "artificial
autophagy." He fed them on the blood taken from their own veins daily,
depriving them of all other food, and he found that the fatal cooling
incident to starvation was thus postponed, and existence prolonged. Life
lasted till the emaciation had proceeded to six-tenths of the animal's
weight, as in Chossat's experiments, extending to the fourteenth day,
instead of ending on the tenth day, as was the case with other dogs
which were not bled.
Various people have tried, generally for exhibition purposes, how long
they could fast from food with the aid merely of water or some medicinal
preparation; but these exhibitions cannot be held to have proved
anything of importance. A man named Jacques in this way fasted at
Edinburgh for thirty days in 1888, and in London for forty-two days in
1890, and for fifty days in 1891; and an Italian named Succi fasted for
forty days in 1890.
_Religious Fasts._--Fasting is of special interest when considered as a
discipline voluntarily submitted to for moral and religious ends. As
such it is very widely diffused. Its modes and motives vary considerably
according to climate, race, civilization and other circumstances; but it
would be difficult to name any religious system of any description in
which it is wholly unrecognized.[3] The origin of the practice is very
obscure.[4] In his _Principles of Sociology_ Herbert Spencer collected,
from the accounts we have of various savage tribes in widely separated
parts of the globe, a considerable body of evidence, from which he
suggested that it may have arisen out of the custom of providing
refreshments for the dead, either by actually feeding the corpse, or by
leaving eatables and drinkables for its use. It is suggested that the
fasting which was at first the natural and inevitable result of such
sacrifice on behalf of the dead may eventually have come to be regarded
as an indispensable concomitant of all sacrifice, and so have survived
as a well-established usage long after the original cause had ceased to
operate.[5] But this theory is repudiated by the best authorities;
indeed its extreme precariousness at once becomes evident when it is
remembered that, now at least, it is usual for religious fasts to
precede rather than to follow sacrificial and funeral feasts, if
observed at all in connexion with these. Spencer himself (p. 284) admits
that "probably the practice arises in more ways than one," and proceeds
to supplement the theory already given by another--that adopted by E.B.
Tylor--to the effect that it originated in the desire of the primitive
man to bring on at will certain abnormal nervous conditions favourable
to the seeing of those visions and the dreaming of those dreams which
are supposed to give the soul direct access to the objective realities
of the spiritual world.[6] Probably, if we leave out of sight the very
numerous and obvious cases in which fasting, originally the natural
reflex result of grief, fear or other strong emotion, has come to be the
usual conventional symbol of these, we shall find that the practice is
generally resorted to, either as a means of somehow exalting the higher
faculties at the expense of the lower, or as an act of homage to some
object of worship. The axiom of the Amazulu, that "the continually
stuffed body cannot see secret things," meets even now with pretty
general acceptance; and if the notion that it is precisely the food
which the worshipper foregoes that makes the deity more vigorous to do
battle for his human friend be confined only to a few scattered tribes
of savages, the general proposition that "fasting is a work of reverence
toward God" may be said to be an article of the Catholic faith.[7]
Although fasting as a religious rite is to be met with almost
everywhere, there are comparatively few religions, and those only of the
more developed kind, which appoint definite public fasts, and make them
binding at fixed seasons upon all the faithful. Brahmanism, for example,
does not appear to enforce any stated fast upon the laity.[8] Among the
ancient Egyptians fasting seems to have been associated with many
religious festivals, notably with that of Isis (Herod. ii. 40), but it
does not appear that, so far as the common people were concerned, the
observance of these festivals (which were purely local) was compulsory.
The [Greek: nesteia] on the third day of the Thesmophoria at Athens was
observed only by the women attending the festival (who were permitted to
eat cakes made of sesame and honey). It is doubtful whether the fast
mentioned by Livy (xxxvi. 37) was intended to be general or sacerdotal
merely.
_Jewish Fasts._--While remarkable for the cheerful, non-ascetic
character of their worship, the Jews were no less distinguished from all
the nations of antiquity by their annual solemn fast appointed to be
observed on the 10th day of the 7th month (Tisri), the penalty of
disobedience being death. The rules, as laid down in Lev. xvi. 29-34,
xxiii. 27-32 and Numb. xxix. 7-11, include a special injunction of
strict abstinence ("ye shall afflict your souls"[9]) from evening to
evening. This fast was intimately associated with the chief feast of the
year. Before that feast could be entered upon, the sins of the people
had to be confessed and (sacramentally) expiated. The fast was a
suitable concomitant of that contrition which befitted the occasion. The
practice of stated fasting was not in any other case enjoined by the
law; and it is generally understood to have been forbidden on
Sabbath.[10] At the same time, private and occasional fasting, being
regarded as a natural and legitimate instinct, was regulated rather than
repressed. The only other provision about fasting in the Pentateuch is
of a regulative nature, Numb. xxx. 14 (13), to the effect that a vow
made by a woman "to afflict the soul" may in certain circumstances be
cancelled by her husband.
The history of Israel from Moses to Ezra furnishes a large number of
instances in which the fasting instinct was obeyed both publicly and
privately, locally and nationally, under the influence of sorrow, or
fear, or passionate desire. See, for example, Judg. xx. 26; 1 Sam. vii.
6 (where the national fast was conjoined with the ceremony of pouring
out water before the Lord); Jer. xxxvi. 6, 9; and 2 Sam. xii. 16.[11]
Sometimes the observance of such fasts extended over a considerable
period of time, during which, of course, the stricter _jejunium_ was
conjoined with _abstinentia_ (Dan. x. 2). Sometimes they lasted only for
a day. In Jonah iii. 6, 7, we have an illustrative example of the rigour
with which a strict fast might be observed; and such passages as Joel
ii. and Isa. lviii. 5 enable us to picture with some vividness the
outward accompaniments of a Jewish fast day before the exile.
During the exile many occasional fasts were doubtless observed by the
scattered communities, in sorrowful commemoration of the various sad
events which had issued in the downfall of the kingdom of Judah. Of
these, four appear to have passed into general use--the fasts of the
10th, 4th, 5th and 7th months--commemorating the beginning of the siege
of Jerusalem, the capture of the city, the destruction of the temple,
the assassination of Gedaliah. As time rolled on they became invested
with increasing sanctity; and though the prophet Zechariah, when
consulted about them at the close of the exile (Zech. viii. 19), had by
no means encouraged the observance of them, the rebuilding of the temple
does not appear to have been considered an achievement of sufficient
importance to warrant their discontinuance. It is worthy of remark that
Ezekiel's prophetic legislation contains no reference to any fast day;
the book of Esther (ix. 31), on the other hand, records the institution
of a new fast on the 13th of the 12th month.
In the post-exile period private fasting was much practised by the
pious, and encouraged by the religious sentiment of the time (see Judith
viii. 6; Tob. xii. 8, and context; Sirach xxxiv. 26, Luke ii. 37 and
xviii. 12). The last reference contains an allusion to the weekly fasts
which were observed on the 2nd and 5th days of each week, in
commemoration, it was said, of the ascent and descent of Moses at Sinai.
The real origin of these fasts and the date of their introduction are
alike uncertain; it is manifest, however, that the observance of them
was voluntary, and never made a matter of universal obligation. It is
probable that the Sadducees, if not also the Essenes, wholly neglected
them. The second book (_Seder Moed_) of the Mishna contains two
tractates bearing upon the subject of fasting. One (_Yoma_, "the day")
deals exclusively with the rites which were to be observed on the great
day of expiation or atonement the other (_Taanith_, "fast") is devoted
to the other fasts, and deals especially with the manner in which
occasional fasting is to be gone about if no rain shall have fallen on
or before the 17th day of Marcheschwan. It is enacted that in such a
case the rabbis shall begin with a light fast of three days (Monday,
Thursday, Monday), i.e. a fast during which it is lawful to work, and
also to wash and anoint the person. Then, in the event of a continued
drought, fasts of increasing intensity are ordered; and as a last resort
the ark is to be brought into the street and sprinkled with ashes, the
heads of the Nasi and Ab-beth-din being at the same time similarly
sprinkled.[12] In no case was any fast to be allowed to interfere with
new-moon or other fixed festival. Another institution treated with
considerable fulness in the treatise _Taanith_ is that of the [Hebrew:
anshei maamad] (_viri stationis_), who are represented as having been
laymen severally representing the twenty-four classes or families into
which the whole commonwealth of the laity was divided. They used to
attend the temple in rotation, and be present at the sacrifices; and as
this duty fell to each in his turn, the men of the class or family which
he represented were expected in their several cities and places of abode
to engage themselves in religious exercises, and especially in fasting.
The suggestion will readily occur that here may be the origin of the
Christian _stationes_. But neither Tertullian nor any other of the
fathers seems to have been aware of the existence of any such
institution among the Jews; and very probably the story about it may
have been a comparatively late invention. It ought to be borne in mind
that the Aramaic portion of the _Megillath Taanith_ (a document
considerably older than the treatises in the Mishna) gives a catalogue
only of the days on which fasting was forbidden. The Hebrew part
(commented on by Maimonides), in which numerous fasts are recommended,
is of considerably later date. See Reland, _Antiq. Hebr._ p. iv. c. 10;
Derenbourg, _Hist. de Palestine_, p. 439.
_Practice of the Early Christian Church._--Jesus Himself did not
inculcate asceticism in His teaching, and the absence of that
distinctive element from His practice was sometimes a subject of hostile
remark (Matt. xi. 19). We read, indeed, that on one occasion He fasted
forty days and forty nights; but the expression, which is an obscure
one, possibly means nothing more than that He endured the privations
ordinarily involved in a stay in the wilderness. While we have no reason
to doubt that He observed the one great national fast prescribed in the
written law of Moses, we have express notice that neither He nor His
disciples were in the habit of observing the other fasts which custom
and tradition had established. See Mark ii. 18, where the correct
reading appears to be--"The disciples of John, and the Pharisees, were
fasting" (some customary fast). He never formally forbade fasting, but
neither did He ever enjoin it. He assumed that, in certain circumstances
of sorrow and need, the fasting instinct would sometimes be felt by the
community and the individual; what He was chiefly concerned about was to
warn His followers against the mistaken aims which His contemporaries
were so apt to contemplate in their fasting (Matt. vi. 16-18). In one
passage, indeed, He has been understood as practically commanding resort
to the practice in certain circumstances. It ought to be noted, however,
that Matt. xvii. 21 is probably spurious; and that in Mark ix. 29 the
words "and fasting" are omitted by Westcott and Hort as well as by
Tischendorf on the evidence of the Cod. Sinaiticus (first hand) and Cod.
Vaticanus.[13] The reference to "the fast" in Acts xxvii. 9 has
generally been held to indicate that the apostles continued to observe
the yearly Jewish fast. But this inference is by no means a necessary
one. According to Acts xiii. 2, 3, xiv. 23, they conjoined fasting with
prayer at ordinations, and doubtless also on some other solemn
occasions; but at the same time the liberty of the Christian "in respect
of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath" was strongly
insisted on, by one of them at least, who declared that meat whether
taken or abstained from commendeth not to God (Col. ii. 16-23; 1 Cor.
viii. 8; Rom. xiv. 14-22; 1 Tim. iv. 3-5). The fastings to which the
apostle Paul alludes in 2 Cor. vi. 5, xi. 27, were rather of the nature
of inevitable hardships cheerfully endured in the discharge of his
sacred calling. The words which appear to encourage fasting in 1 Cor.
vii. 5 are absent from all the oldest manuscripts and are now omitted by
all critics;[14] and on the whole the precept and practice of the New
Testament, while recognizing the propriety of occasional and
extraordinary fasts, seem to be decidedly hostile to the imposition of
any of a stated, obligatory and general kind.
The usage of the Christian church during the earlier centuries was in
this, as in so many other matters, influenced by traditional Jewish
feeling, and by the force of old habit, quite as much as by any direct
apostolic authority or supposed divine command. Habitual temperance was
of course in all cases regarded as an absolute duty; and "the
bridegroom" being absent, the present life was regarded as being in a
sense one continual "fast." Fasting in the stricter sense was not
unknown; but it is certain that it did not at first occupy nearly so
prominent a place in Christian ritual as that to which it afterwards
attained. There are early traces of the customary observance of the
Wednesday and Friday fasts--the _dies stationum_ (Clem. Alex. _Strom._
vii. 877), and also of a "quadragesimal" fast before Easter. But the
very passage which proves the early origin of "quadragesima,"
conclusively shows how uncertain it was in its character, and how unlike
the Catholic "Lent." Irenaeus, quoted by Eusebius (v. 24), informs us
with reference to the customary yearly celebration of the mystery of the
resurrection of our Lord, that disputes prevailed not only with respect
to the day, but also with respect to the manner of fasting in connexion
with it. "For some think that they ought to fast only one day, some two,
some more days; some compute their day as consisting of _forty hours_
night and day; and this diversity existing among those that observe it
is not a matter that has just sprung up in our times, but long ago among
those before us." It was not pretended that the apostles had legislated
on the matter, but the general and natural feeling that the
anniversaries of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ ought to
be celebrated by Christians took expression in a variety of ways
according to the differing tastes of individuals. No other stated fasts,
besides those already mentioned, can be adduced from the time before
Irenaeus; but there was also a tendency--not unnatural in itself, and
already sanctioned by Jewish practice--to fast by way of preparation for
any season of peculiar privilege. Thus, according to Justin Martyr
(_Apol._ ii. 93), catechumens were accustomed to fast before baptism,
and the church fasted with them. To the same feeling the quadragesimal
fast which (as already stated) preceded the joyful feast of the
resurrection, is to be, in part at least, attributed. As early as the
time of Tertullian it was also usual for communicants to prepare
themselves by fasting for receiving the eucharist. But that Christian
fasts had not yet attained to the exaggerated importance which they
afterwards assumed is strikingly shown in the well-known _Shepherd of
Hermas_ (lib. iii. sim. v.), where it is declared that "with merely
outward fasting nothing is done for true virtue"; the believer is
exhorted chiefly to abstain from evil and seek to cleanse himself from
feelings of covetousness, and impurity, and revenge: "on the day that
thou fastest content thyself with bread, vegetables and water, and thank
God for these. But reckon up on this day what thy meal would otherwise
have cost thee, and give the amount that it comes to to some poor widow
or orphan, or to the poor." The right of bishops to ordain special
fasts, "ex aliqua sollicitudinis ecclesiasticae causa" (Tertullian), was
also recognized.
_Later Practice of the Church._--According to an expression preserved by
Eusebius (_H.E._ v. 18), Montanus was the first to give laws (to the
church) on fasting. Such language, though rhetorical in form, is
substantially correct. The treatise of Tertullian,--_Concerning Fasting:
against the Carnal_,--written as it was under Montanistic influence, is
doubly interesting, first as showing how free the practice of the church
down to that time had been, and then as foreshadowing the burdensome
legislation which was destined to succeed. In that treatise (c. 15) he
approves indeed of the church practice of not fasting on Saturdays and
Sundays (as elsewhere, _De corona_, c. 3, he had expressed his
concurrence in the other practice of observing the entire period between
Easter and Pentecost as a season of joy); but otherwise he evinces great
dissatisfaction with the indifference of the church as to the number,
duration and severity of her fasts.[15] The church thus came to be more
and more involved in discussions as to the number of days to be
observed, especially in "Lent," as fast days, as to the hour at which a
fast ought to terminate (whether at the 3rd or at the 9th hour), as to
the rigour with which each fast ought to be observed (whether by
abstinence from flesh merely, _abstinentia_, or by abstinence from
lacticinia, _xerophagia_, or by literal _jejunium_), and as to the
penalties by which the laws of fasting ought to be enforced. Almost a
century, however, elapsed between the composition of the treatise of
Tertullian (_cir._ 212) and the first recorded instances of
ecclesiastical legislation on the subject. These, while far from
indicating that the church had attained unanimity on the points at
issue, show progress in the direction of the later practice of
catholicism. About the year 306 the synod of Illiberis in its 26th canon
decided in favour of the observance of the Saturday fast.[16] The
council of Ancyra in 314, on the other hand, found it necessary to
legislate in a somewhat different direction,--by its 14th canon
enjoining its priests and clerks at least to taste meat at the love
feasts.[17] The synod of Laodicea framed several rules with regard to
the observance of "Lent," such as that "during Lent the bread shall not
be offered except on Saturday and Sunday" (can. 49), that "the fast
shall not be relaxed on the Thursday of the last week of Lent, thus
dishonouring the whole season; but the fast shall be kept throughout the
whole period" (can. 50), that "during the fast no feasts of the martyrs
shall be celebrated" (can. 51), and that "no wedding or birthday feasts
shall be celebrated during Lent" (can. 52). The synod of Hippo (393
A.D.) enacted that the sacrament of the altar should always be taken
fasting, except on the Thursday before Easter. Protests in favour of
freedom were occasionally raised, not always in a very wise manner, or
on very wise grounds, by various individuals such as Eustathius of
Sebaste (c. 350), Aerius of Pontus (c. 375), and Jovinian, a Roman monk
(c. 388). Of the Eustathians, for example (whose connexion with
Eustathius can hardly be doubted), the complaint was made that "they
fast on Sundays, but eat on the fast-days of the church." They were
condemned by the synod of Gangra in Paphlagonia in the following
canons:--Can. 19, "If any one fast on Sunday, let him be anathema."[18]
Can. 20, "If any one do not keep the fasts universally commanded and
observed by the whole church, let him be anathema." Jovinian was very
moderate. He "did not allow himself to be hurried on by an inconsiderate
zeal to condemn fasting, the life of celibacy, monachism, considered
purely in themselves.... He merely sought to show that men were wrong
in recommending so highly and indiscriminately the life of celibacy and
fasting, though he was ready to admit that both under certain
circumstances might be good and useful" (Neander). He was nevertheless
condemned (390) both by Pope Siricius at a synod in Rome, and by Ambrose
at another in Milan. The views of Aerius, according to the
representations of his bitter opponent Epiphanius (_Haer._ 75, "Adv.
Aerium"), seem on this head at least, though unpopular, to have been
characterized by great wisdom and sobriety. He did not condemn fasting
altogether, but thought that it ought to be resorted to in the spirit of
gospel freedom according as each occasion should arise. He found fault
with the church for having substituted for Christian liberty a yoke of
Jewish bondage.[19]
Towards the beginning of the 5th century we find Socrates (439)
enumerating (_H.E._ v. 22) a long catalogue of the different fasting
practices of the church. The Romans fasted three weeks continuously
before Easter (Saturdays and Sundays excepted). In Illyria, Achaia and
Alexandria the quadragesimal fast lasted six weeks. Others (the
Constantinopolitans) began their fasts seven weeks before Easter, but
fasted only on alternate weeks, five days at a time. Corresponding
differences as to the manner of abstinence occurred. Some abstained from
all living creatures; others ate fish; others fish and fowl. Some
abstained from eggs and fruit; some confined themselves to bread; some
would not take even that. Some fasted till three in the afternoon, and
then took whatever they pleased. "Other nations," adds the historian,
"observe other customs in their fasts, and that for various reasons. And
since no one can show any written rule about this, it is plain the
apostles left this matter free to every one's liberty and choice, that
no one should be compelled to do a good thing out of necessity and
fear." When Leo the Great became pope in 440, a period of more rigid
uniformity began. The imperial authority of Valentinian helped to bring
the whole West at least into submission to the see of Rome; and
ecclesiastical enactments had, more than formerly, the support of the
civil power. Though the introduction of the four Ember seasons was not
entirely due to him, as has sometimes been asserted, it is certain that
their widespread observance was due to his influence, and to that of his
successors, especially of Gregory the Great. The tendency to increased
rigour may be discerned in the 2nd canon of the synod of Orleans (541),
which declares that every Christian is bound to observe the fast of
Lent, and, in case of failure to do so, is to be punished according to
the laws of the church by his spiritual superior; in the 9th canon of
the synod of Toledo (653), which declares the eating of flesh during
Lent to be a mortal sin; in Charlemagne's law for the newly conquered
Saxony, which attaches the penalty of death to wanton disregard of the
holy season.[20] Baronius mentions that in the 11th century those who
ate flesh during Lent were liable to have their teeth knocked out. But
it ought to be remembered that this severity of the law early began to
be tempered by the power to grant dispensations. The so-called Butter
Towers (_Tours de beurre_) of Rouen, 1485-1507, Bourges and other
cities, are said to have been built with money raised by sale of
dispensations to eat _lacticinia_ on fast days.
It is probable that the apparent severity of the medieval Latin Church
on this subject was largely due to the real strictness of the Greek
Church, which, under the patriarch Photius in 864, had taken what was
virtually a new departure in its fasting praxis. The rigour of the fasts
of the modern Greek Church is well known; and it can on the whole be
traced back to that comparatively early date. Of the nine fundamental
laws of that church ([Greek: ennea parangelmata tes ekklesias]) two are
concerned with fasting. Besides fasts of an occasional and extraordinary
nature, the following are recognized as of stated and universal
obligation:--(1) The Wednesday and Friday fasts throughout the year
(with the exception of the period between Christmas and Epiphany, the
Easter week, the week after Whitsunday, the third week after Epiphany);
(2) The great yearly fasts, viz. that of Lent, lasting 48 days, from the
Monday of Sexagesima to Easter eve; that of Advent, 39 days, from
November 15 to Christmas eve; that of the Theotokos ([Greek: nesteia tes
Theotokou]), from August 1 to August 15; that of the Holy Apostles,
lasting a variable number of days from the Monday after Trinity; (3) The
minor yearly fasts before Epiphany, before Whitsunday, before the feasts
of the transfiguration, the invention of the cross, the beheading of
John the Baptist. During even the least rigid of these the use of flesh
and lacticinia is strictly forbidden; fish, oil and wine are
occasionally conceded, but not before two o'clock in the afternoon. The
practice of the Coptic church is almost identical with this. A week
before the Great Fast (Lent), a fast of three days is observed in
commemoration of that of the Ninevites, mentioned in the book of Jonah.
Some of the Copts are said to observe it by total abstinence during the
whole period. The Great Fast continues fifty-five days; nothing is eaten
except bread and vegetables, and that only in the afternoon, when church
prayers are over. The Fast of the Nativity lasts for twenty-eight days
before Christmas; that of the Apostles for a variable number of days
from the Feast of the Ascension; and that of the Virgin for fifteen days
before the Assumption. All Wednesdays and Fridays are also fast days
except those that occur in the period between Easter and Whitsunday. The
Armenians are equally strict; but (adds Rycaut) "the times seem so
confused and without rule that they can scarce be recounted, unless by
those who live amongst them, and strictly observe them, it being the
chief care of the priest, whose learning principally consists in knowing
the appointed times of fasting and feasting, the which they never omit
on Sundays to publish unto the people."[21]
At the council of Trent no more than a passing allusion was made to the
subject of fasting. The faithful were simply enjoined to submit
themselves to church authority on the subject; and the clergy were
exhorted to urge their flocks to the observance of frequent jejunia, as
conducive to the mortification of the flesh, and as assuredly securing
the divine favour. R.F.R. Bellarmine (_De jejunio_) distinguishes
_jejunium spirituale_ (_abstinentia a vitiis_), _jejunium morale_
(_parsimonia et temperantia cibi et potus_), _jejunium naturale_
(_abstinentia ab omni prorsus cibo et potu, quacunque ratione sumpto_),
and _jejunium ecclesiasticum_. The last he defines simply as an
abstinence from food in conformity with the rule of the church. It may
be either voluntary or compulsory; and compulsory either because of a
vow or because of a command. But the definition given by Alexander
Halensis, which is much fuller, still retains its authority:--"Jejunium
est abstinentia a cibo et potu secundum formam ecclesiae, intuitu
satisfaciendi pro peccato et acquirendi vitam aeternam." It was to this
last clause that the Reformers most seriously objected. They did not
deny that fasting might be a good thing, nor did they maintain that the
church or the authority might not ordain fasts, though they deprecated
the imposition of needless burdens on the conscience. What they
protested against was the theory of the opus operatum et meritorium as
applied to fasting. As matter of fact, the Reformed churches in no case
gave up the custom of observing fast days, though by some churches the
number of such days was greatly reduced. In many parts of Germany the
seasons of Lent and Advent are still marked by the use of emblems of
mourning in the churches, by the frequency of certain phrases (Kyrie
eleison, Agnus Dei) and the absence of others (Hallelujah, Gloria in
excelsis) in the liturgical services, by abstinence from some of the
usual social festivities, and by the non-celebration of marriages. And
occasional fasts are more or less familiar. The Church of England has
retained a considerable list of fasts; though Hooker (_E.P._ v. 72) had
to contend with some who, while approving of fastings undertaken "of
men's own free and voluntary accord as their particular devotion doth
move them thereunto," yet "yearly or weekly fasts such as ours in the
Church of England they allow no further than as the temporal state of
the land doth require the same for the maintenance of seafaring men and
preservation of cattle; because the decay of the one and the waste of
the other could not well be prevented but by a politic order appointing
some such usual change of diet as ours is."
In the practice of modern Roman Catholicism the following are recognized
as fasting days, that is to say, days on which one meal only, and that
not of flesh, may be taken in the course of twenty-four hours:--The
forty days of Lent (Sundays excepted), all the Ember days, the
Wednesdays and Fridays in Advent, and the vigils of certain feasts,
namely, those of Whitsuntide, of St Peter and St Paul, of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of All Saints and of Christmas day. The
following are simply days of abstinence, that is to say, days on which
flesh at all events must not be eaten:--The Sundays in Lent, the three
Rogation days, the feast of St Mark (unless it falls in Easter week),
and all Fridays which are not days of fasting. In the Anglican Church,
the "days of fasting or abstinence" are the forty days of Lent, the
Ember days, the Rogation days, and all the Fridays in the year, except
Christmas day. The evens or vigils before Christmas, the Purification of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Easter day, Ascension day, Pentecost, St Matthias, the Nativity of St
John Baptist, St Peter, St James, St Bartholomew, St Matthew, St Simon
and St Jude, St Andrew, St Thomas, and All Saints are also recognized as
"fast days." By the 64th canon it is enacted that "every parson, vicar
or curate, shall in his several charge declare to the people every
Sunday at the time appointed in the communion-book [which is, after the
Nicene creed has been repeated] whether there be any holy-days or
fast-days the week following." The 72nd canon ordains that "no minister
or ministers shall, without licence and direction of the bishop under
hand and seal, appoint or keep any solemn fasts, either publicly or in
any private houses, other than such as by law are or by public authority
shall be appointed, nor shall be wittingly present at any of them under
pain of suspension for the first fault, of excommunication for the
second, and of deposition from the ministry for the third." While
strongly discouraging the arbitrary multiplication of public or private
fasts, the English Church seems to leave to the discretion of the
individual conscience every question as to the manner in which the fasts
she formally enjoins are to be observed. In this connexion the homily
_Of Fasting_ may be again referred to. By a statute of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth it was enacted that none should eat flesh on "fish days"
(the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year) without a
licence, under a penalty. In the Scottish Presbyterian churches days of
"fasting, humiliation and prayer" are observed by ecclesiastical
appointment in each parish once or twice every year on some day of the
week preceding the Sunday fixed for the administration of the sacrament
of the Lord's Supper. In some of the New England States, it has been
usual for the governor to appoint by proclamation at some time in spring
a day of fasting, when religious services are conducted in the churches.
National fasts have more than once been observed on special occasions
both in this country and in the United States of America.
On the subject of fasting the views of Aerius are to a large extent
shared by modern Protestant moralists. R. Rothe, for example, who on
this point may be regarded as a representative thinker, rejects the idea
that fasting is a thing meritorious in itself, and is very doubtful of
its value even as an aid to devotional feeling. Of course when bodily
health and other circumstances require it, it becomes a duty; and as a
means of self-discipline it may be used with due regard to the claims of
other duties, and to the fitness of things. In this last aspect,
however, habitual temperance will generally be found to be much more
beneficial than occasional fasting. It is extremely questionable, in
particular, whether fasting be so efficient as it is sometimes supposed
to be in protecting against temptation to fleshly sin. The practice has
a well-ascertained tendency to excite the imagination; and in so far as
it disturbs that healthy and well-balanced interaction of body and mind
which is the best or at least the normal condition for the practice of
virtue, it is to be deprecated rather than encouraged (_Theologische
Ethik_, sec. 873-875).
_Mahommedan Fasts._--Among the Mahommedans, the month Ramadan, in which
the first part of the Koran is said to have been received, is by command
of the prophet observed as a fast with extraordinary rigour. No food or
drink of any kind is permitted to be taken from daybreak until the
appearance of the stars at nightfall. Extending as it does over the
whole "month of raging heat," such a fast manifestly involves
considerable self-denial; and it is absolutely binding upon all the
faithful whether at home or abroad. Should its observance at the
appointed time be interfered with by sickness or any other cause, the
fast must be kept as soon afterwards as possible for a like number of
days. It is the only one which Mahommedanism enjoins; but the doctors of
the law recommend a considerable number of voluntary fasts, as for
example on the tenth day of the month Moharram. This day, called the
"Yom Ashoora," is held sacred on many accounts:--"because it is believed
to be the day on which the first meeting of Adam and Eve took place
after they were cast out of paradise; and that on which Noah went out
from the ark; also because several other great events are said to have
happened on this day; and because the ancient Arabs, before the time of
the prophet, observed it by fasting. But what, in the opinion of most
modern Moslems, and especially the Persians, confers the greatest
sanctity on the day of Ashoora is the fact of its being that on which
El-Hoseyn, the prophet's grandson, was slain a martyr at the battle of
the plain of Karbala." It is the practice of many Moslems to fast on
this day, and some do so on the preceding day also. Mahomet himself
called fasting the "gate of religion," and forbade it only on the two
great festivals, namely, on that which immediately follows Ramadan and
on that which succeeds the pilgrimage. (See Lane, _Modern Egyptians_,
chaps, iii., xxiv.)