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E. BESSEY P. H. GRUMMANN F, M. FLING W. K. JEWETT L. A. SHERMAN CONTENTS I. Rest Days; A SoctoLocicaL Stupy. Hutton Webster 1 TI. On tue Pourricat ALLEcorY IN ‘* THE FAERIE QUEENE.”’ P. M. Buck, Jr. 159 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 4 i ‘ Wt ee, TINIVERSITY STUDIES NOL." 21 JANUARY-APRIL 1911 Nos. 1-2 isd OAS. An SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY? BY HUTTON WEBSTER Synopsis Pants GMO PECIT ee es yatta nce sacra a's Je oka ie ale fg Weta Re 2 ie Periods,or Abstinence at Critical Fpochsis 2.2... 8 1. Tabu Days among the Hawaiian Islanders..... 8 2. Lali Days among the Land Dayaks of Borneo... 11 PEM OMY S Ai INSEL Clos lo-9 5) ates Plo a de Me wi SS 17 II. Periods of Abstinence After a Death and on Re- PEVGt Ie OAC AIORA Gaz cif ichesat ore wiscojayersreidet, aca ae vid eat a 21 4. The Primitive Attitude towards Death......... 21 fa Japoeed. Days following a. Death... << .i./.. 0 = a2 6. Taboos Observed during Feasts of the Dead and eet em cima we CSMOSES.. 5, 0 \ At the other end of the scale might be mentioned the ancient Babylonians, who entertained very definite conceptions of taboo and conceptions equally definite of the evil spirits or demons which vexed the soul and body of one who had violated a mamit, or prohibition with a supernatural penalty. These considerations make it impossible for me to accept Mr. N. W. Thomas’s suggestion that the term “taboo” be limited “ to cases in which the punishment for violation is, so to speak, auto- matic; the direct result of the discharge of mana.’’!* The idea of taboo is world wide and nothing is to be gained by employing it with too restricted an application. Since persons, objects, and even actions are all liable to in- fection prudence dictates a variety of precautions: the dangerous object or individual is removed to a safe distance, or is carefully isolated, or is bound hand and foot by a series of insulating regulations. The entire community is interested in such pro- “The notion of transmissibility has been especially developed though in different directions and to different ends by such writers as E. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, London, 1902, passim, Hubert and Mauss, “ Esquisse d’une théorie générale de la magie,” L’année sociologique, Paris, 1904, vii. 108 sqq., F. B. Jevons, op. cit., chap. vi. and R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion, London, 1909, pp. 115-41. *J. S. Polack, Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, London, 1840, i. 234. %® Man, 1905, v. 63. 8 Hutton Webster ceedings, and on occasions may itself be placed under a rigid quarantine. When this happens a period of abstinence and quies- cence is regarded as the surest means of avoiding dangers felt to threaten each and every member of the sociai-group. Nor will the procedure greatly differ where distinctly animistic ideas pre- vail and when the impending danger is specifically attributed to the action of spiritual beings or deities. In the latter case, it is true, the idea of propitiation becomes increasingly prominent since it is often felt necessary to appease by various rites and ceremonies the supernatural powers responsible for the visita- tion. The two conceptions of abstinence and propitiation are not, indeed, always sharply distinguishable in concrete cases, and with advancing culture they tend to become more and more closely conjoined. It is highly probable that the origin of some of these communal regulations is to be sought in the taboos observed by individuals at such great and critical seasons as birth, puberty, marriage and death. Comparative studies have indicated how numerous are the taboos which attach to these times of high solemnity and sig- nificance ; and it seems reasonable to suppose that with the deepen- ing sense of social solidarity, observances once confined to the indi- vidual alone, or to his immediate connections, would often pass over into rites performed by the community at large. Some evidence tending to substantiate this opinion will be presented in- cidentally as the investigation proceeds. I. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE AT CRITICAL EPOG I. TABU DAYS AMONG THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDERS Our knowledge of taboo in the Polynesian area rests largely on the vague and unsatisfactory accounts by the early mission- aries who were unable to describe much more than its exterior aspects, its origin and inner significance having quite escaped their consideration. Fundamentally the system of taboos formed a religious institution, if religion be understood in its broadest 8 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 9 sense as a recognition of the supernatural. In Polynesian belicf the violation of a taboo would be punished by the offended atua or spirit. Such a conception readily lent itself to priestcraft and statecraft and so became in the hands of the ruling classes, a mighty engine of social control. In Hawaii, where the supersti- tions in question reached their most elaborate and grotesque de- velopment, communal taboos could be imposed only by the priests, although this action was often taken at the instance of the civil authorities. Police officers were even appointed to make sure that all prohibitions were strictly observed. For every breach of the rules the death penalty was inflicted unless the delinquent had some very powerful friends who themselves were either priests or chiefs.* The range of these Hawaiian taboos, as extended for reasons of state or religion, was very wide. Thus we are told that idols, temples, the persons and names of the king and his family, the persons of the priests, houses and clothes of the king and priests, were always tabu. Certain much prized articles of food besides almost everything offered in sacrifice were reserved by taboos for gods and men; and hence women, except in cases of particular indulgence, were restricted from using them. Some- times an entire island or district was tabooed and no one was allowed to approach it.? The institution of taboo also included various regulations re- quiring the special observance of certain times and seasons. These occurred, generally, on the approach of some important religious ceremony, immediately before going to war, and during the sickness of chiefs. Their duration was various, and appar- ently much longer in remote ages than in the period immediately preceding the arrival of the missionaries. In Hawaii, before the reign of Kamehameha II, forty days was the usual period. There were also periods of ten or five days, and sometimes of only one day. Tradition declares, however, that once a taboo was in force for thirty years during which time the men were * Ellis, op. cit., iv. 387 sqq. * Ellis, loc. ‘ctt. IO Hutton Webster not allowed to trim their beards. Subsequently there was a tabooed period kept for five years. Elsewhere in the South Seas less extensive periods prevailed, the longest known being at Huahine, one of the Society Islands, where a season of abstinence is said to have lasted for ten or twelve years.® The observance of such taboos varied according as they were common or strict. Whilst a common season prevailed, the men were required only to abstain from their usual duties and to attend at the feiaw or temple where prayers were offered every morning and evening. At a period strictly tabooed the regula- tions were of a sterner character and in consequence a general gloom.and silence pervaded the whole district or island. Every fire and light was extinguished; canoes were not launched ;* no person bathed; no one was to be seen out of doors save those whose presence was required at the temple. Even the lower crea- tion felt the rigor of the law: “no dog must bark, no pig must grunt, no cock must crow,—or the tabu would be broken, and fail to accomplish the object designed. On these occasions they tied up the mouths of the dogs and pigs, and put the fowls under a calabash, or fastened a piece of cloth over their eyes.’ * Ellis, Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee, London, 1826, p. 366; idem, Polynesian Researches, iv. 387 sq.; J. J. Jarves, History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, Boston, 1843, p. 57. *Death was the punishment for being found in a canoe on a tabooed day (H. T. Cheever, Jsland World of the Pacific, New York, 1856, p. 87). 5 Ellis, Narrative, 366 sq., idem, Polynesian Researches, iv. 388. Almost precisely the same regulations characterized the Sabbath observances introduced by the Christian missionaries among their Polynesian adher- ents. The Hawaiians, in fact, called the Sabbath Ja tabu or “sacred day” (Ellis, Narrative, 368). No food was cooked on that day, it being all prepared on the previous Saturday, no fires were kindled, no canoes were paddled. The natives neither fished nor tilled the soil, and if on a journey, they stopped over the Sabbath (H. T. Cheever, Life in the Sandwich Islands, New York, 1856, p. 295; Hiram Bingham, A Residence of Twenty- one Years in the Sandwich Islands, Hartford, 1849, pp. 177 sq.). In Tahiti, also, the Sabbath rest was rigidly maintained. On that day no canoes were launched and no person was seen abroad except on the way to church or when returning from divine service. “The success of the missionaries in introducing this strict observance of a Sabbath is as- IO Rest Days; A Sociological Study a From the fragmentary notices preserved in the older literature relating to Polynesia it thus becomes evident that the communal taboos occurred at critical or especially important seasons. The prohibitions were negative in character, required a period of abstinence sometimes verging upon complete quiescence, and were closely connected with the aristocratic and theocratic organiza- tion of Polynesian society. At the same time the communal regulations, artificially created, are to be assimilated to those which rested upon individuals alone and arose spontaneously as a result of various circumstances. Every account of aboriginal culture from Hawaii to New Zealand, contains numerous refer- ences to the network of taboos which invested private life. All persons dangerously ill were tabooed and were removed from their houses to an isolation in the bush. Mothers after childbirth were “unclean” and accordingly quarantined, likewise their new- born children. All persons who handled the body or bones of a dead person or assisted at his funeral were regarded as polluted and were subjected to a variety of purifying ordinances. The list might be extended almost indefinitely, but it suffices to point out that the individuals or objects placed under a ban were re- garded as dangerous and defiling and hence as requiring pro- tective measures imposed for the safety of the social group. If we assume, as I think we may, that the individual taboos repre- sent the earlier phase of the institution, then the communal taboos may be regarded as merely an extension to the body politic of these simpler and more rudimentary ideas. The probability of this transition will be strengthened by a consideration of the tabooed days found among some existing primitive peoples. 2. LALI DAYS AMONG THE LAND DAYAKS OF BORNEO The natives of Sarawak, British Borneo, have their days of abstinence, which among the Land Dayaks occur usually at rice cribed by themselves in a great degree to its analogy to the taboo days of heathen times... .” (Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the U. S. Ex- ploring Expedition, Philadelphia, 1845, ii. 13). See further, C. S. Stewart, A Visit to the South Seas, London, 1832, p. 302. il Le Hutton Webster planting and harvesting; sometimes, also, at mid-harvest. The taboos observed among the Kayans of the Baram River district have been well described by a recent traveller whose picturesque narrative deserves an extended notice.* ‘During the days de- voted to search for omens in reference to the sites of the rice- fields, and also again in reference to the planting, the Kayans re- frain from their usual daily occupations, and neither leave their houses themselves nor allow strangers to enter. These days of seclusion are termed permantong padi, or lali padi, and cor- respond very closely to taboo elsewhere.’”” The rude agricultural methods of the Dayaks start with the preliminary process of clearing off a site in the dense jungle. The work is extremely tedious, and if, after all the heavy labor, the crops should fail or be destroyed by monkeys, birds, or beetles, the entire household feel that some act has been com- mitted whereby the displeasure of the spirits is aroused. Ac- cordingly, before beginning so arduous a task it is essential to take omens from the actions of certain birds, mammals, and. reptiles—the amau, who are supposed to be in the confidence of the spirits... A patch of jungle having been tentatively selected, °W. H. Furness, 3d, Home Life of the Borneo Head Hunters, Phila- delphia, 1902, pp. 160-69. For earlier accounts see Spenser St. John, in Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1863, n. s., ii. 243; idem, Life in the Forests of the Far East, London, 1862, i. 175 sqq.; Hose, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1893, xxi. 170. For a very interesting description by a native Dayak see Leo Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, i. 170 sqq. *Permantong is the term used by the Kayans of the Baram district; among the Kayans in the valley of the Kapuas River, Dutch Borneo, the word is pantang. Both these forms are possibly derived from the Malay hantu, a word meaning demon or evil spirit, with the prefix per and the affix an. The Malay word in full would thus be per-hantu-an, meaning “possessed by spirits” or “bewitched.” Lali is probably a pure Kayan word with much the same significance (Furness, op. cit., 160). “On these omen animals see further, St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, 1. 191 sgq.; Perham, in H. L. Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, London, 1896, i. 191-201; A. C. Haddon, Head- Hunters, London, 1901, pp. 384 sqq.; Hose and McDougall, “The Rela- tions Between Men and Animals in Sarawak,” Journal of the Anthro- £2 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 13 the work begins with the clearing off the dense undergrowth. During this preliminary stage, when the labor is less heavy than it will be later when trees must be felled, the household is not as yet under a taboo. Nevertheless every individual keeps a sharp eye for evil omens. Should a native on the way to the clearing see any one of four ominous animals, a certain species of snake, a deer, a civet cat or a rain-bird, the site will be at once abandoned regardless of the work already done there. Wilfully to disregard such warning “not only compromises the abundance and quality of the crops, but also the health, or even the life, of the whole household.’’® If no evil omens are observed for three days the Kayan work- ers feel sufficiently encouraged to proceed to the next stage of felling the heavy timber on the site which has now been cleared of its underbrush. Then ensues an elaborate series of auguries. Whilst the various families making up the household of a com- munal dwelling remain secluded in the long veranda, or in their small private rooms, sitting all day long, quite still, smoking and talking, two hawk-men are off in the forest looking for a hawk called niho.. Three days must be devoted to this search: if the hawk be seen on the first day, but not on the two days following, the omen is unfavorable. The people will continue the prepa- ration of the soil, but they expect poor crops, a result pretty certain to follow their half-hearted and discouraged ‘labors. On the second day the search is continued, and if the hawk be seen, the omen is favorable but not completely so. If the third day’s search again reveals a hawk, the two men return at once to the house and spread the good news. Every one now lights a cigarette or waves a fire-brand whereby a blessing is invoked on pological Institute, 1901, xxxi. 175 sqq. The cult of omen animals is very widely diffused in Sarawak. Archdeacon Perham, who knew the natives well, declares that the ominous birds are thought to be possessed with the spirits of certain invisible beings in the upper world whose names they bear and as whose deputies they serve (op. cit., 200). Cf. also Hose and McDougall, op. cit., 206, 212; Nyuak in Anthropos, 1906, i. 176 sq., 408 sqq. *Furness, op. cit., 161. 13 14 Hutton Webster his or her particular rice-field. All eyes eagerly watch the actions of the hawk. “Should he sail away out of sight without once flapping his wings all are delighted; it means that the clearing of the jungle may now continue prosperously, and that neither attack of enemies nor accident to the workers need be feared. Should the hawk flap his wings, it follows that some men, in fell- ing the jungle, will be badly cut by their axes or perhaps crushed under falling trees. All instantly avert their eyes from the flap- ping hawk, lest the bird should recognize them in the fields and select them as victims.”?° There now occurs a brief respite from the permantong or lali, and the people may leave their houses. But the same formali- ties must be observed by the inhabitants whilst search is made for four other ominous animals. In each case there is a three- day period of seclusion and abstinence. These are all the omens that must be consulted before the heavy timber can be felled, the ground burned over, and the rice planted. The foregoing illustrations have exhibited the elaborate series of taboos which affect the inmates of a communal house or village, before the crop is started. Other regulations concern outsiders. From the hour when the real labor of felling the jungle begins, until the seed-planting is completed, no stranger may enter the house or field. Should a neighbor, by accident or necessity, come within the Jali district he must atone for the trespass by making a small payment. This is called the wsut and consists, ordinarily, of a few beads or an iron implement. It is placed in a basket and hung up in the rice-field till it rusts away or disappears. The women have as their special duty to see that the usut is paid. But the Jalt ordinances of the Kayans are not confined to the time of seed-planting. Once more, when the crop is all har- vested, the house is closed to strangers. For eight days no one may go away on an expedition or return to the village from abroad. Another season of restriction follows during the period when the rice is being stored in the granaries. “ But as soon as ” Furness, op. cit., 162 sq. 14 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 15 this harvesting is over, a general feast is prepared, and merri- ment of all sorts makes up for the weariness of the long day’s work. The women don every stitch of their finery and every bead to their name; some even assume men’s clothes, and carry shield, spear, and parang. In the evening, all join in a long procession round the house; guests are invited to participate in the festivities, and ‘jest and youthful jollity’ rule the hour; the brimming cup passes freely, and to the harmonious strains of the kaluri the women ‘trip it as they go’ or leap in war-dances in imitation of the men.’ The Jali observances of the Kayans and other Dayaks are significant as showing how for a Borneo community the whole period of farming, from the initial task of selecting a site to the final storing of the rice in the granaries, is subject to supernatural influence. Planting and harvesting in particular, are critical times when every precaution must be taken to secure the ap- proval, to thwart the ill-will, of the spirits which invest the tribal life. All the taboos are restrictive in character: the inhabitants “remain in their houses to eat, drink, and sleep, but their eating must be moderate and often the meal consists of nothing but rice and salt. ... The people under the interdict must not bathe, touch fire, or busy themselves with their ordinary occupations.’ In the course of an excellent study of the Borneo festivals,** Mrs. Scott concludes that they are far more effective when accompanied by the various taboos. The change of occupations heightens the sacredness of the feast and also gives leisure to the inhabitants of the village to join in the long elaborate ritual. “Idem, 164 sq. @Spenser St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 175 sq. Mr. Hose declares that at such times the inhabitants of a communal house may taboo their private rooms to the other inmates. Small fines are im- posed for infringing the taboos, if the act be unintentional, but when a man forces his way into a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, ending in bloodshed may result (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1893, xi) T70). * (Mrs.) S. B. Scott, “ Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1908, xxix. 236-80. 15 16 Hutton Webster At the same time the closed house provides freedom from intrusion and secures the presence of every member of the tribe. Furthermore it may be noticed how the prospect of feasting, drinking and general excitement furnishes an added zest to the labors of the workers. The mid-harvest festival, when this is celebrated, affords a much needed rest in the heavy labor of harvesting; and the last and greatest of the festivals comes as a natural period of relaxation after the long strain of toil and frugality is suddenly released.** That in actual practice the Borneo observances have this out- come it is impossible to deny. Yet it must be noticed that very similar regulations are in force on many other and quite different occasions. Thus we are told that a particular species of taboo called pamali peniakit is imposed on the inhabitants of a village when a general sickness prevails. It is marked by the slaying of a pig and a feast made in order to propitiate the divinity which has sent the malady amongst them. In its severest form the taboo lasts for eight days, “and during this period everything in the village is at a standstill, the inhabitants shutting them- selves up from all intercourse with strangers.’** A death in a * Idem, 244 sqq. * (Sir) Hugh Low, Sardwak, London, 1848, p. 260. Cf. Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, i. 416 sq. In the island of Nias, when an epidemic breaks out a quarantine is established in each village, not only against the in- habitants of the infected village, but against all strangers; no person from outside is allowed to enter (Frazer, The Golden Bough, London, 1900, iii. 64). The inhabitants of the Poggi or Pageh Islands, two islands of the Mentawei group, which lies off the western coast of Sumatra, have “a very remarkable and strange custom to which they are strongly attached and which they observe faithfully under all circumstances. It consists in this, that on certain occasions they are bound to remain in their village and may not quit it for any cause whatever; further they will allow no stranger to enter the village, much less their dwellings; they may neither give nor receive anything; they must abstain from certain foods, and may not trade” (idem, Totemism and Exogamy, London, 1910, ii. 214 sq.). The Dutch authorities cited by Prof. Frazer do not indicate on what occasions these communal interdicts are enforced. A season of abstinence known as hiang has been discovered among the natives of Formosa (Joest, in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Ethnologic und Urgeschichte, 1882, p. 62). 16 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 17 Land Dayak village has the effect of tabooing it, usually for a single day (infra). When a village is under construction, weav- ing the native cloth, settling quarrels, and going on the warpath are forbidden; to break these regulations would cause a death in the village® On the occasion of certain solemn perform- ances of the medicine-man a three-days’ taboo is declared and the people rest from work.17 Such evidence indicates that the sea- sons of restriction and abstinence marking the agricultural opera- tions of the Borneo head-hunters are not to be explained solely on utilitarian grounds.*§ 3. GENNA DAYS IN ASSAM Taboos remarkably similar to those of the Land Dayaks are found among the various Tibeto-Burman tribes inhabiting the hills of Assam.?® These peoples are not truly primitive: even the least advanced use iron implements and weave cloths. Some have both permanent villages and agricultural fields, some move both their villages and their fields every three or four years, others still are permanent so far as their village sites are con- © Nyuak, op. cit., 181. ™ Idem, 412. In the cultivation of their paddy crop the Kandyans of Ceylon observe a variety of ceremonies, some of them strikingly like the Dayak rites. Thus the peasant, having selected a suitable site for farming first presents himself to the village astrologer who names an auspicious day on which to begin operations. Should the goiya, on the way to his land at the time fixed, encounter any sights or sounds which portend failure — the hoot of an owl, a house-lizard’s cry, the growling of a dog, the sight of persons carrying weapons capable of inflicting wounds —he will immedi- ately turn back and again approach the diviner to determine a lucky day (Kehelpannala, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1896, xxv. 104 sq.). *T. C. Hodson, “ The Genna amongst the Tribes of Assam,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 92-103. See also idem, “Some Naga Customs and Superstitions,” Folk-Lore, 1910, xxi. 296-312. For almost identical observances among the tribes of Northern Arakan, British Burma, cf. R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in Journal of the Anthro- pological Institute, 1873, ii. 240. 17 18 Hutton Webster cerned, but shift their cultivation year by year. In the latter case the natives preserve a memory of the time when they moved their fields by chance “in a ceremony intended to determine by magical rites the proper site for the new cultivation.’*° The Assamese would therefore represent an agricultural stage some- what higher than that just studied among the Dayaks of Borneo. The communal taboos, 7. ¢e., such as are observed by an entire village, are either those of regular occurrence or those which follow necessarily after some event has happened. The regular taboos, for the most part, are connected with the crops. Before sowing, the village is tabu or genna.** Gates are closed and neither egress nor ingress allowed. In some villages the gennas last for ten days. During this time the men cook and eat apart from the women and various food restrictions are strictly en- forced. The end of the festival is marked in some tribes by an outburst of licentiousness, for afterwards, when the crops are planted and so long as the, remain ungarnered, the slightest in- continence might prove ruinous. Between the conclusion of this initial crop genna and the commencement of the genna ushering in the harvest, some tribes interpose a third genna which depends on the appearance of the first blade of rice.2? In addition, dur- ing the entire season until the harvest time there are various restrictions communally observed. Ali fishing, hunting, cutting grass, and felling trees are forbidden. The tribes which spe- cialize in cloth-weaving, salt-making, or the manufacture of pottery may not engage in such occupations. Drums and bugles are silent throughout the period. If a man should beat a drum or blow a bugle when the crops were in the ground or un- harvested, not only would his own crops fail but those of the ” Hodson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 92. * The term genna is also applied to the festival or assemblage of com- munal rites by which all events possessing social importance are celebrated (Davis, in Assam Census Report, 1891, 1. 249). *In Northern Arakan a season of restriction is imposed when the rice plant is up and requires weeding. At this time all intercourse with the village is forbidden for seven days (R. F. St. Andrew St. John, loc. cit.). 18 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 19 entire village would suffer, if not then, at any rate in the near future.?* Mr. Hodson suggests that the idea underlying the various restrictions is that men must not give time and attention to any- thing but the care of the crops. He points out, further, that at such a period, the thatching grass and timber are too raw for use in housebuilding. The practical effect of the taboo against hunting, moreover, is to provide a much needed closed season for the game. These appear, however, to be merely incidental results and not the primary or original purpose of the regula- tions. It is to be observed that similar taboos, imposing a similar period of abstinence, mark a rain-compelling ceremony when the headman works magic for the benefit of the entire community. General gennas are also proclaimed after the occurrence of unusual phenomena such as earthquakes** and eclipses, the acci- dental death of a villager, or the breaking out of a contagious disease. If it is known that an epidemic sickness is about, a genna is proclaimed and the headman makes a propitiatory sacri- fice of some animal. The destruction of a village by fire occa- sions a general genna, because such an event shows the people that spirits inimical to the village are about and active.?’ It *“The strength of the genna system among the Nagas lies... in the indirectness and uncertainty of its sanctions. A violation of a tabu on hunting during the cultivating season would, — specifically, — bring about a shortage of rice, but any subsequent misfortune would be attributed to it. If all may suffer for the default of one, it becomes the business of each to see that his neighbor keeps the law” (Hodson, in Folk-Lore, IOL0,, xi. .307)) “Among the Nandi, a people of British East Africa, there is a pro- hibition of work for a whole day following an earthquake, a phenomenon which Nandi speculation, in common with other savage philosophies, at- tributes to the movement of underground spirits. If a hailstorm occurs, 1f a hoe breaks, or a beast of prey seizes a goat, no work must be done in the fields for the rest of the day and for twenty-four hours afterwards, as it is believed that any sick person who eats the grain when harvested, or who drinks beer made from the grain will die and that pregnant women will abort (A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, Oxford, 1909, pp. 20,,100). *In Northern Arakan a ya or taboo is declared when an epidemic breaks out and all intercourse with the infected village is forbidden until the 19 20 Hutton Webster would seem, therefore, that the negative regulations or taboos have here in Assam much the same purpose as in other regions: they are protective, and conciliatory, to a certain extent they are even compelling, in so far as the observance of the taboos is thought to prevent the spirits from working further damage. “I see in these genna customs,” writes Mr. Hodson, “the foundation of all communal life, for the primary lesson they teach, whether directly or indirectly, is that harm to one is harm to all, and that the strength of all is greater than the strength of one.”*° Besides the communal regulations the natives of Assam are subject to many others which affect individuals alone. There are gennas at childbirth, name-giving, ear-piercing, hair-cutting, and marriage.27_ As Mr. Hodson points out, such taboos are intended disease has disappeared. Similar periods of restriction, lasting three days, are declared when a village is burnt or a new one erected. An individual breaking such a regulation is fined by the local headman. The fact that a village is tabooed is indicated to the traveller by suspending strings or canes across the road (R. F. St. Andrew St. John, Joc. cit.). **Tdem, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 103. It may be noted that in Southern India the village rites of sacrifice are frequently held when cholera or smallpox is raging, and that they are analogous to some of the genna customs. “I have dignified,” writes the Bishop of Madras, “the periodical sacrifices to the village goddesses by the name of festivals. But the term is a misnomer. There is really nothing of a festal character about them. They are only gloomy and weird rites for the propitiation of angry deities or the driving away of evil spirits, and it is very difficult to detect any traces of a spirit of thank- fulness or praise. Even the term worship is hardly correct. The object of all the various rites and ceremonies is not to worship the deity in any true sense of the word, but simply to propitiate it and avert its wrath” (“ The Village Deities of Southern India,’ Madras Government Museum, Bulletin, 1907, v. 128 sq.). * According to Mr. Furness the Nagas of Eastern Assam strictly taboo a house where tattooing is being done. When a man or woman is sick, a taboo is declared and likewise when any domestic animal is giving birth to young. Even the hatching of a brood of chickens bans the house for from two to ten days. These taboos are indicated by placing bunches of leaves on the door-post and by tying across the doorway one of the long pestles used for pounding husks of rice (Journal of the Anthro- pological Institute, 1902, xxxil. 466). 20 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 21 “to afford protection against harm from spirits who at those moments are specially active.”?* An older writer who has com- mented on these practices among the Angami Nagas remarks that there is “no end to the reasons on which a kenme must or may be declared, and as it consists of a general holiday when no work is done this Angami sabbath appears to be rather a popular institution.”?° In the three communities which have been selected as repre- sentative it thus appears that there are certain occasions when the normal current of life is interrupted and when what may well be called a crisis presents itself. In general, any time of special significance, any period of storm or stress, any epoch when un- toward events have occurred or are expected to occur, may be marked by taboos designed to meet the emergency in the com- munal life and to ward off the threatened danger or disaster. Taboos are imposed in connection with such unusual and there- fore critical events as a conflagration, an epidemic sickness, or an earthquake; or at the time of such important undertakings as the commencement of a war, seed-planting and harvest, or the celebration of a solemn religious or magical ceremony. But the notion of crisis has a far wider extension and, as I hope to show, will be found capable of a general application to the phenomena discussed in the following chapters.*° IJ. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS 4. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS DEATH Among the lower races perhaps the commonest occasion for the suspension of ordinary occupations is after a death. The * Hodson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 102. “Brown, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1875, xliv. i. 316. ” On the sociological conception of crisis see W. I. Thomas, Source Book for Social Origins, Chicago, 1909, pp. 16 sqq.; R. R. Marett, The Birth of Humility, Oxford, 1910, pp. 28 sqqg. (an inaugural lecture by the Reader in Social Anthropology). 22 Hutton Webster prohibition of work at this time often forms only one of a number of regulations which impose partial or complete abstinence from food (infra) and also place a ban on such things as loud talking, uproarious mirth and music, the wearing of ornaments and gay clothing. All the taboos may be confined to the family or at most, to the relatives of the deceased. In other cases they con- cern the entire community. As Professor Westermarck has suggested! the reason for the rule against work may sometimes be that inactivity is a natural accompaniment of sorrow or the mourner may be in a delicate condition requiring rest. Possibly, in some instances the idea is simply that of honoring the dead— an idea which still finds expression in our practice of intermitting labor and business operations on the occasion of public funerals. Some of the illustrations to be cited exhibit clearly animistic con- ceptions. The soul of the dead man is thought to remain for a time with the body, or in the grave, or near the scenes of the earthly life. Until the funeral ceremonies are completed, when the ghost is finally “laid” or departs for the abode of the dead, it is advisable for the survivors to avoid all conspicuous activity. In such instances we may perhaps see simply a precaution taken against the dead man’s ghost. A similar period of quiescence is frequently considered necessary when the death is attributed to an evil spirit which hangs about its quarry and is likely not to be satisfied with one victim alone.* But earlier, probably, in development, and certainly far more general, is the belief in the pollution of death.* Primitive peoples seldom recognize a death as due to natural causes. Sickness, and death following on sickness, when not attributed to the direct action of an evil spirit or of some malevolent person who has been practicing nefarious magic, are thought to be due to the contaminating miasma of death. Death is a mysterious atmos- 1 Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, London, 1908, ii. 283. 2For a useful collection of ethnographic evidence see E. Samter, Ge- burt, Hochzeit und Tod, Leipzig, 1911. ® Crawley, op. cit., 95 sqq.; J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris,’ London, 1907, pp. 407 sqq.; L. R. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, London, 1905, pp. 96 sqq.; Jevons, op. cit., 66, 76. N i) Rest Days; A Sociological Study 23 pherical poison which extends its defiling influence far and wide. Hence we have at least one motive for the very common practice of destroying the house and personal property of the deceased.* Hence arise the taboos of the corpse, of persons who have any- thing to do with the corpse, of the relatives of the deceased, and of the mourners generally. An obvious application of these ideas requires that all activity should be abandoned by the survivors for a period following a death; and where the social consciousness is strong, the notion of abstinence at so critical a season may be extended to the entire community. 5. TABOOED DAYS FOLLOWING A DEATH The illustrations of these death taboos are so numerous and are found so widely among primitive peoples that it is permissible to disregard the confines of special geographical or cultural areas and make a general survey of the phenomena. In Samoa the death of a chief of high rank was an occasion for suspending all work in the settlement.? The Sea Dayaks of Borneo taboo their village after a death, remaining at home and abstaining from outdoor occupations, for seven days in the case of a male, three days for a female, and one for an infant. This ulit is confined to the relatives of the deceased and does not affect the community at large. During the wlit music and jollity are forbidden, ornaments and bright dresses laid aside, and deep mourning assumed. Among the Land Dayaks the death of a man tabooed the entire village for a day.’ In Timor, when a *See further my article, “ The Influence of Superstition on the Evo- lution of Property Rights,’ Publications of the American Sociological Society, 1909, iv. 159 sq. *George Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, London, 1861, p. 220; idem, Samoa, London, 1884, p. 146. °H. L. Roth, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1892, xxi. 122. Cf. Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, i. 413: “On a death occurring in the vil- lage it is tabooed to work on the farm; at busy times, for three days; at other times, for seven days.” *Spenser St. John, in Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1863, n. S., li. 236; idem, Life in the Forests of the Far East, London, 1863, i. 163. 24 Hutton Webster king dies, no work is done for seven days thereafter. On the island of Yam, one of the Carolines, the critical occasions when communal taboos, lasting up to six months, are declared include a time of drought, famine, or sickness, and the death of a chief or famous man. “In short, any great public event is thus cele- brated, and, in fact, there is always a tabu in full swing some- where or other, to the great disgust of the traders, who only see in these enforced holidays an excuse for idling, drunkenness and debauchery.”® Among the Roro-speaking tribes of British New Guinea an entire village will mourn for a chief or influential man “by abstaining from fishing, hunting, and pot-making, and by reducing garden-work to a minimum.” The period of mourn- ing lasts from six to ten days.1° The Tenguians of Northern Luzon observe a tabooed period following a funeral until the soul of the dead man takes its departure for its final home and can no longer influence the living. The inhabitants of Kar Nicobar abstain from work as a sign of mourning.” In Northern Arakan, British Burma, when any villager is killed by an animal, or when any woman resident in the village dies in childbirth, or when the body of a person who died in such a manner is brought into the village, all intercourse with that village is cut off until the appearance of the next new moon. Amongst the hill tribes of Assam, death, whatever its mode, “puts the tribal nerves on the stretch, and affects the communal life, as is proved by the correlated variations of the gennas or “Forbes, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1884, xiii. 420. °F. W. Christian, The Caroline Islands, London, 1899, p. 290. See further an interesting description of the taboos enveloping the fishermen of Yap, one of the Carolines (W. H. Furness, 3rd, Island of Stone Money, Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 sq.). *C. G. Seligmann, Melanesians of British New Guinea, Cambridge, IQIO, p. 275. , “Cole, in American Anthropologist, 1900, n. s., xi. 337. In this instance abstinence from labor is not specifically stated to be one of the taboos observed. “C. B. Kloss, In the Andamans and Nicobars, London, 1903, p. 305. *R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in Journal of the Anthropological Insti- tute, 1873, ii. 240. Rest Days; A Sociological Study 25 communal tabus.’'* We find general or communal gennas occa- sioned by the death of a man from wounds inflicted by an enemy or by a wild animal, by the death of a man from snake bite or from cholera or smallpox, or by the death of a woman in child- birth.° Besides these taboos following an accidental or unusual death, there is the further custom when a death occurs in a family, of tabooing the house generally for five days, during which time no one but the inmates may go in or out. There are even individual or family gennas occasioned by the death of animals within the house. As a rule the taboos continue for one day only.?® Very similar customs may be observed within the African area. The Kafirs of South Africa allow no one to work in the fields on the day after a death.1*7 The Basuto abstain from all public work on the day when an influential person dies.1*_ Among the Nandi of British East Africa a death furnishes one of the occasions when all agricultural work is temporarily suspended. If the owner of a plantation dies whilst his crops are ripening all the grain must be eaten and none reserved for sowing, for otherwise the grain would rot in the ground.® Amongst the Akikttyu of the same part of Africa where all the taboos connected with the corpse are very prominent, the day after a death has occurred is regarded as an unlucky day. “ People will not travel, and goats and sheep will not bear, and all the inhabitants of the village shave their heads. The women will not go out for four days. On the “Hodson, in Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions, Oxford, 1909, i. 58. *TIdem, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 96. “We find among the Naga tribes that, if a woman died in childbirth (an event of rare occurrence), the child was never allowed to live, because they believed it to be an evil spirit, a disembodied ghost, incarnated in the mother whose death it had caused” (idem, in Folk-Lore, 1910, xxi. 301). * Brown, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1875, xliv. i. 316; Woodthorpe, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1882, xi. 71; Hodson, ibid., 1906, xxxvi. 97. * Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, London, 1904, p. 253. * EF. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, Paris, 1859, p. 275. * Hollis, The Nandi, p. 20. 26 Hutton Webster next day the sons who have taken part in the burial do not work.’2° Among the Arabs of Morocco studied by Professor Westermarck, there is a prohibition of all work in the village until the funeral has taken place.*? In the New World, the funeral ceremonies of the kings of Mechoacan “lasted five days, and in all that time no Fire was permitted to be kindled in the City, except in the King’s house and Temples, nor yet any Corn was ground, or Market kept, nor durst any go out of their houses.”** Among the Seminoles of Florida on the day of a funeral and for three days thereafter, the relatives of the deceased remained at home and abstained from work. During this time the dead man was supposed to remain in his grave. Subsequently he took his departure for an abode in the skies and mourning then ceased.** The taboos following a death appear to be especially promi- nent among the Eskimo tribes within the Arctic circle. In Greenland we meet the practice of requiring the household of the deceased to abstain from certain kinds of work for some time after death.24 Among the Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Strait, after the death of any person it is forbidden “to scrape the frost from the window, to shake the beds or to disturb the shrubs under the bed, to remove oil-drippings from under the lamp, to scrape hair from skins, to cut snow for the purpose of melting it, to work on iron, wood, stone or ivory. Furthermore, women are forbidden to comb their hair, to wash their faces, and to dry their boots and stockings.’’? Among the Central Eskimo, Dr. Boas notes how in the winter a long space of bad weather occasions privation since hunters cannot leave their huts. “If ”W.S. and Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, London, 1910, p. 172. * Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. 283. ~Thomas Gage, New Survey of the West Indies, London, 1677, p. 160; cited by Jevons, /ntroduction to the History of Religion, 65. ** Maccauley, in Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 521. * Hans Egede, Description of Greenland, London, 1845, p. 150. * Boas, in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1901, XV. 121 sq. 26 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 27 by chance some one should happen to die during this time, famine is inevitable, for a strict law forbids the performance of any kind of work during the days of mourning.’’*® According to one account the Innuit, from the head of Bristol Bay to the Arctic, require the survivors to refrain from work for twenty days after a death in the family.2* This is probably too broad a statement which does not allow for minor divergencies of custom through- out so extensive an area. On the lower Kuskokwim River the Alaskan villagers abstain from work on the day of a death, and in many instances, on the day following such an event. None of the relatives of the deceased may perform any labor during the period, four or five days in length, when the shade is believed to remain with the body.?® The rule requiring no work in a village on the day when a person dies prevails generally among the Bering Strait Eskimo. Relatives of the deceased must ab- stain from activity during the three following days.?® One ob- server tells of a Point Barrow woman who declined to sew on clothing, even at his house, because there was a dead man in the village who had not yet been carried to the cemetery. She feared “he would see her.” But after consultation with her husband she concluded that it was possible to protect herself from “him” by tracing with a snow knife a circle about herself on the floor. Within this area she did the sewing required, being very careful to keep all her work inside it.*° Remarkably similar customs prevail among some of the Asiatic Eskimo and incidentally reinforce the argument for the trans- mission of cultural elements between northwestern America and northeastern Asia. The Reindeer Chukchee forbid any kind of woman's work with needle and scraper during the period of the funeral ceremonies. This rule refers to all the houses of the °° Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 427. Cf., also, 614. 7H. W. Elliott, Our Arctic Province, New York, 1887, p. 380. * Nelson, in Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 319. * Nelson, op. cit., 312. ® Murdock, in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 424. 27 28 Hutton Webster camp or village, and even to other settlements in the vicinity. The Koryak stopped all work in the settlement before the last rites to the dead. No one went hunting or sealing, no one went to fetch wood, even the women did no sewing. At the present time this rule is so far abrogated as to apply only to those in the house where the body lies.22. Among the Yakuts when a man dies the members of his household may not execute any work until after the next full moon.** 6. TABOOS OBSERVED DURING FEASTS OF THE DEAD AND AT EXPULSION OF GHOSTS - Feasts of the dead, the primitive All Souls’ days, sometimes furnish occasions for abstinence from work. The same practice is met at periods devoted to the banning of the ghosts of the recently deceased, and of evil spirits generally, from the com- munity.** Here, as elsewhere, we may well raise the query whether such proceedings have always existed with the particular meaning now assigned to them or whether in many instances they may not hark back to a “ pre-animistic’’ period when the evil in- fluences, instead of being personified under the form of spirits, were more vaguely regarded as some mysterious and infectious contamination. The descriptions of primitive rites by early observers, though frequently the only accounts which we possess, are often obscure and unsatisfactory. These remarks apply to an annual ceremony which some Fijian tribes were wont to perform, possibly as an expulsion of evil spirits or ghosts. “The time of its celebration was determined by the appearance of a certain fish or sea-slug which swarms out in dense shoals from the coral reefs on a * Bogoras, in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Xe 52M. * Jochelson, tbid., x. 104 sq. *® Sumner, “ Phe Yakuts,” abridged from the Russian of Sieroshevski, Tournal of the Anthropological Institute, 1901, xxxi. 107. *On All Souls’ days, see Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris? 301-18. On the expulsion of evils, idem, The Golden Bough, London, 1900, iii. 39-03. 28 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 29 single day of the year, usually in the last quarter of the moon in November. The appearance of the sea-slugs was the signal for a general feast at those places where they were taken. An in- fluential man ascended the tree and prayed to the spirit of the sky for good crops, fair winds, and so on. Thereupon a tre- mendous clatter, with drumming and shouting, was raised by all the people in their houses for about half an hour. This was fol- lowed by a dead quiet for four days, during which the people feasted on the sea-slug. All this time no work of any kind might be done, not even a leaf plucked or the offal removed from the houses. If a noise was made in any house, as by a child crying, a forfeit was at once exacted by the chief. At daylight on the expiry of the fourth night the whole town was in an uproar; men and boys scampered about, knocking with clubs and sticks at the doors of the houses and crying Sinariba. This con- cluded the ceremony.’’** From that treasury of archi ic custom, The Golden Bough, I take another illustration of a day of abstinence observed by the people of Bali, an island to the east of Java. Generally the period chosen for the expulsion of evil spirits is the day of the “dark” moon in the ninth month. At the appointed time the inhabitants of a village or district gather at the principal temple and after prayers have been recited by the priests, the blast of a horn summons the devils to partake of a meal which has been prepared for them. The people who have stayed at home unite by a deafening knocking on doors and beams, to hasten the departure of the demons from the houses. The fiends then flee to the banquet which has been set out for them; but here the priest receives them with curses which finally drive the spirits from the district. “ When the last devil has taken his departure, the uproar is succeeded by a dead silence, which lasts during the * Frazer, The Golden Bough, iti. 81 sq.; citing U. S. Exploring Expedi- tion, Ethnography and Philology by H. Hale, pp. 67 sq.; Ch. Wilkes, Nar- rative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, iii. 90 sq. On the Palola viridis or sea-slug, cf. Turner, Samoa, p. 206; George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, London, 1910, pp. 135 sq. 20 30 Hutton Webster next day also. The devils, it is thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and in order to make them think that Bali is not Bali but some desert island, no one may stir from his own abode for twenty-four hours. Even ordinary household work, including cooking, is discontinued. Only the watchmen may show themselves in the streets... Wreaths of thorns and leaves are hung at all entrances to warn strangers from entering. Not till the third day is this state of siege raised, and even then it is forbidden to work at the rice-fields or to buy and sell in the market. Most people still stay at home, striving to while away the time with cards and dice.’’*° , Ceremonies of ghost-riddance attended by seasons of abstin- ence are found in other parts of the savage world. The in- habitants of Kar Nicobar, an island to the northwest of Sumatra, have an annual festival called ki-alah. For an entire month previous to its celebration silence is observed throughout the island, no fires or lights are allowed, no cheroots smoked. At the conclusion of this period comes the grand feast to feed the evil spirits and send them back to their respective abodes in the jungle. It is a native belief that such spirits or “devils” visit the villages at this season of the year.*7 Among the many gennas or festivals accompanied by taboos, which are observed in Assam, is one devoted to the praiseworthy object of finally laying to rest the ghosts of all who have died during the year. This period of propitiation takes place in the cold weather after the crops have * Frazer, The Go'den Bough? iii. 80 sq.; citing R. van Eck, in Tijd- schrift voor Nederlandsch-Indiz, 1879, n. s., viii. 58 sqq. Accord- ing to another writer referred to by Prof. Frazer, the ceremony must always be performed at the new moon. It seems like!y that this time or that of the “dark” moon was chosen as being an occasion when spirits are particularly active, perhaps by association of ideas, since the moon during the period of her invisibility is commonly supposed to visit the underworld (infra). The period of quiescence is clearly a means of avoiding contact with the ghostly powers. The reason given for abstain- ing from activity—to make the spirits think “that Bali is not Bali ”—may be taken as an attempt to explain a custom no longer understood. * Solomon, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1902, xxxii, 216. 30° Rest Days; A Sociological Study 31 been reaped.** In west Africa some of the Gold Coast tribes hold a festival towards the end of August, called affirah-bi, when there is a general remembrance of the dead. It forms a tabooed period lasting for eight days during which time no work may be performed.*® Among the Yoruba tribes of the Slave Coast every June there is an All Souls’ festival lasting seven days. It resembles the affirah-bi rites but the ceremony is held in honor of Egungun, who is supposed to have risen from the dead and after whom a powerful secret society has been named. I have elsewhere pointed out that in west Africa, as in some other parts of the world, the secret societies are closely associated with the cult of the dead.t? This fact makes it possible to suggest that the tabooed days which occur when these organizations hold their public ceremonies may have once been connected with feasts of the dead or expulsion of ghosts. Such an hypothesis might help to explain the very rigorous prohibitions in force when the secret societies visit the towns, although the taboos seem now imposed chiefly to secure the respectful attention of the inhabitants. In Old Kalabar when the great Egbo scciety visits a community all business is suspended, all doors are shut, and silence prevails. On the departure of Egbo the town bell is rung in a peculiar way to indicate that normal occupations may be now resumed. The cessation of business on these Egbo visits may last a day, fre- quently two or three days. In the latter case, however, the Egbo rules are relaxed for an hour or two to permit the holding of the daily market. * Hodson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 96. According to another account the festival occurs on the night of the new moon in December. The shades of those who have died during the pre- ceding year are believed to revisit the living at this time (Peal, in Zeit- schrift fiir Ethnologie, 1808, xxx. 355). * A.B. Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, London, 1887, pp. 227 sq. *® Primitive Secret Societies, New York, 1908, pp. 104 sq. “Walker, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1877, vi. 121 sq. Cf. R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies, London, 1910, pp. 41 sg. (Oro con- finements among the Egbas). Si 32 Hutton Webster At the other end of the scale, the classical peoples observed an annual expulsion of ghosts accompanied by the imposition of various taboos. The ancient Greeks, as we know on Plato’s au- thority, had their “days polluted and unfit for public business.’’*? These were the dro¢pades quepai, “certain days which brought with them complete idleness and cessation of business, and which were called unlucky (dzogpaddes). At such times no one would accost any one else, and friends would positively have no dealings with each other and even sanctuaries were not used.”** Three such days occurred from the 11th to the 13th of the month Anthesterion, when the Athenians celebrated the festival of the Anthesteria. Though in outward semblance only a brilliant cere- mony in honor of the wine-god Dionysus, the Anthesteria had also a sombre significance as the time when the shades of the dead issued from the underworld and walked the streets.** Ropes were fastened round the temples to keep out the wander- ing ghosts, and the people smeared their houses with pitch to catch any rash intruders into the dwellings of living men.** For the entertainment of the unseen guests during their short stay pots of boiled food were everywhere placed in the streets; but at the end of the festival the souls were roughly bidden to depart. Thus the Anthesteria, in substance, formed one of those numer- ous ceremonies for the riddance of ghosts by means of feasting and placation, which have so wide a diffusion in the lower cul- ture. The attribution of the festival to Dionysus and all those pleasanter associations with which the cheerful fancy of the “Plato, Leges, vii. 800. * Scholiast, on Lucian, Timon, 43. “Cf. Hesychius, s. v. miapal quépar: “the polluted days of the month Anthesterion, on which days they think the souls of the departed are sent up from the nether world.” Photius, s. v., meapa nuépa, says that on the second day, the Choes, the people as prophylactics against ghosts and evil influences used to chew buckthorn and anoint their doors with pitch. **“See Frazer’s note (op. cit., iii. 88 n.”) for.some related customs of savages. Rest Days; A Sociological Study 33 Greeks invested it, represent a comparatively late development.*® The two Roman festivals of the dead, the so-called Parentalia in February, the Lemuria in May, were likewise celebrated as dies religiosi, true days of abstinence, when it was unlucky to begin a journey or to undertake any important business. At such times the temples and lawcourts were closed, magistrates laid aside the insignia of office, and marriages were forbidden.* The February celebration from the 13th to the 21st of that month has been taken to embody all that was least superstitious and fearful in the generally terrifying worship of the dead. The Lemuria, (May 9, 11, 13), had rather an opposite character and represents the more ancient rite for the expulsion of the ghosts of the dead.*8 The three days in the Roman year, August 24, October 5, and November 8, when the door of the Lower World was unclosed for the spirits of the dead to come forth—quibus mundus patet—were also religiosi or unlucky. ‘“ When the mundus is open,’ said Varro, “the gate of the doleful underworld gods is open, therefore it is not proper on those days for a battle to be fought, troops to be levied, the army to march forth, a ship to set sail, or a man to marry.”* “On the Anthesteria, from an anthropological standpoint, see particu- larly Jane E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 32 sqq., 49 sqq. Dr. L. R. Farnell who has recently examined the Anthesteria, does not share Miss Harrison’s view that the whole of the festival was originally an All Souls’ feast. He thinks the first day, the Pithoigia, was entirely joyous and Bacchic, the second day, the Choes, was also a purely Dionysiac festival, though perhaps of a less happy character. Dr. Farnell holds that the ritual for the third day, the Chytroi, was originally an independent ceremony of ghost-riddance which fell so near the Dionysiac celebration as to become attached to the latter as a mournful finale (Cults of the Greek States, Oxford, 1900, v. 215 sqq.). “Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, iv. 9, 5; Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 29 sq. * Ovid, Fasti, v. 419-86; W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, London, 1899, pp. 306 sqq., 106 sqq.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer, Munich, 1902, pp. 187 sqq. *® Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 16, 18. Cf. Festus, 154. Mommsen (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, i. part i°. 296) holds that the exercise of religious rites was not forbidden on these three days. Se 34 Hutton Webster III. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE AT SACRED TIMES AND’ SEASONS 7. THE CONCEPTION OF HOLINESS To the primitive mind that variety of impersonal spiritual power known as sanctity or holiness, which attaches to the . divine chief or king, to such objects of special reverence as bull- roarer, idol, and temple, and even to particular localities, is suffi- ciently material to be transmissible, and to be capable of infect- ing with its mysterious qualities whatever is done at a particular time. It is, of course, only for the purpose of closer analysis that we may separate the taboos restricting or prohibiting secular employments on sacred days from those other negative regula- tions which, as has been seen, affect a community at critical epochs (supra). In the primitive consciousness what is danger- ous because polluted and what is dangerous because sacred, are not sharply differentiated. The “holy” thing and the “unclean” thing possess alike the mystic potency, the magical power, the mana or orenda, to employ an aboriginal terminology which expresses early man’s sense of being ever surrounded by un- known agencies among which he must walk warily if he is to walk in safety. “The Greeks and the barbarians,” says an old geographer, “have this in common, that they accompany their sacred rites by a festal remission of labor.”? To drop work on a joyous feast-day and give free rein to the primitive play instincts may be regarded as the most natural of proceedings. The cessation of ordinary activities is often dictated by practical considerations : if men are to gather for religious exercises they must abandon, temporarily, their usual occupations. Among peoples which *The best study of holiness in its relation to the concept of taboo is still that of W. Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites,*> London, 1894, chaps. iv-v). Mr. Marett has some interesting remarks on the subject in the Oxford inaugural lecture referred to above (The Birth of Humility, 14 sqq.). * Strabo, Geographica, x. 3, 9. 34. Rest Days; A Sociological Study 35 possess polytheistic cults, we find, moreover, that most holy days are dedicated to various deities. If the notion be entertained that the “infection” of the god’s holiness extends to everything begun or done on his holy day, it is easy to see how the idea might arise that the deity is pleased and flattered by the enforced idle- ness Of his worshippers. Abstinence from work thus becomes a recognized way of expressing a proper reverence towards the god. Conversely, to labor on a sacred day implies a want of respect for the divinity, who is “angry” or “unfavorable” at such a time. These are sentiments reasonably certain of con- tinued development as priestly influence becomes predominant in any community. “The Lord thy God is a jealous God.” At the same time it appears that in many, perhaps most in- stances, the connection of a holy day with a particular divinity is not primary and direct, but comes rather as an. after-thought. The period dedicated to a god and observed with abstinence may have been once tabooed for other and quite different reasons. What was true of the Athenian Anthesteria we shall find to be true of many another holy day discussed in this and subsequent chapters. 8. HOLY DAYS IN THE LOWER AND THE HIGHER CULTURE Among peoples belonging to the lower culture the Tongan Islanders furnish an illustration of the holy day which is also a day of abstinence. In this part of Polynesia the natives held a festival called imachi when the first fruits of the yam harvest were offered to the gods. No one was allowed to work on the sacred day, nor could any one appear abroad except for the pur- poses of the ceremony.*? It is not improbable that the cessation of labor characterizing this ceremony formed a rite of purifica- tion preliminary to the bringing-in of the first-fruits. On sucha hypothesis the connection of the festival with the gods would be but secondary, a point more clearly brought out by some *John Martin, Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands ... from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner, Boston, 1820, p. 483. Cf. 383 n. a2 36 Hutton Webster classical festivals presently to be discussed. Amongst certain Fijian tribes when the sacred manga enclosure was being raised for the initiation ceremonies the people suspended all other work. Not even food-planting might be done at this time. If “any impious person transgressed this law, “he would only plant evil to himself and to his kinsfolk.’’* In this instance there was no attribution of the sacred period to any particular divinity, though all the ceremonies connected with the manga were sup- posed to be under the care and by the direction of the ancestral spirits. In another part of the world, among the Basuto of South Africa, we learn that days of sacrifice or “great purifica- tion” are holidays, when no work is done. “ Hence it is,” writes a French missionary, “that the law relative to the repose of the seventh day, so far from finding any objection in the minds of the natives, appears to them very natural, and perhaps even more fundamental, than it appears to certain Christians.’* To the Hebrews the Day of Atonement was the Sabbath sSabbathon,® the holiest of rest days, “a sabbath of solemn rest,” when “no manner of work” might be performed. The trans- gressor of this regulation was threatened with death: ‘ Whoever doeth any work at all on that same day, I will destroy from among his people.’ does not fast on that day: the expression “to afflict your souls” (‘inna nephesh) was considered by late theologians to be a synonym for fasting, and as a matter of fact the Atonement fast was the only one enjoined by the Law. On the Day of Atone- ment a scapegoat laden with the sins of the people was sent forth into the wilderness where it was sacrificed to Azazel, a bad angel or demon. In the later centuries of Jewish history, and particularly after the Exile, this rite took on a more spiritual character at a time when the ceremonial aspects of sin and A similar punishment is prescribed for one who *Fison, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1885, xiv. 18. "E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, Paris, 1850, p. 275. *Both expressions are commonly derived from the Babylonian sabattum. See infra. * Leviticus, xvi. 31; xxiii. 26-32. 36 Rest Days; A Sociological Study ews atonement became increasingly prominent. Yet certain features of its celebration, and especially that of the sin-laden goat which has so many parallels among the lower races,* make it probable that the ritual for the day represents an elaboration of earlier and simpler customs familiar in pre-Exilic times. If this be true it is not unreasonable to suppose that the “sabbath of solemn rest” forms likewise a survival from a still ruder past when sin was conceived so materially as a contaminating influence that common prudence dictated abstinence from work and other activities at a critical season devoted to the driving-out of evil. The Greeks of late classical times appear to have regarded their religious festivals much as we regard our holidays: thus Plato declares that “the gods, pitying the toils which our race is born to undergo, have appointed holy festivals, by which men alternate rest and labor.”1® With this remark, indicating that for the philosophic thinker the process of rationalization had begun, it is interesting to compare the statement of a modern scholar that among the Greeks “the time occupied by the feast of the gods was as sacred, 7. ¢., as much subject to taboos, as was the whole of the Jewish Sabbath.’ *On “scapegoats” see Frazer, The Golden Bough? iii. 93-134. *On the relation of the Hebrew kipper or atonement to the Babylonian kuppuru and the connection of both with ideas of taboo see some sugges- tive pages in R. C. Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1904, ii. pp. 1. sqqg. It is not necessary to accept his view that the Jewish ceremony was directly borrowed from Babylonia. = Plato, Leges, ii. 653. “ E. E. Sikes, “ Folk-Lore in the Works and Days of Hesiod,” Classical Review, 1893, vii. 390. Mr. Sikes quotes Hesiod (Opera et Dies, 742-43) : und dard mevrdfo.o beady év daitl Barely aviov amd xAwpod Tduvery aidwu cLdnpw as containing a two-fold prohibition: “Do not cut your nails at all at a feast of the gods. Whatever you do, at all events, do not cut them with iron.” With this he compares the English lines: “Tt was better you were never born Than on the Sabbath pare hair or corn.” Another old English rhyme (preserved in Henderson’s Notes on the a7 38 Hutton Webster How ancient superstition invested many of the Greek festivals has been already illustrated by the Anthesteria (supra). Among the other unlucky days (érodpddes juepar) observed by the Athenians were those devoted to the celebration of the Plyntheria, the washing festival of their patron goddess. On this occasion Athena’s image was borne in procession to the sea, divested of its adornments, and laved in the purifying waters. Plutarch’s biography of Alcibiades contains a significant refer- ence to the ceremony. At the time when that brilliant though shifty Greek returned from exile to his native city, the people were holding the Plyntheria, in Athena’s honor. On that day “the Praxiergidae solemnize their secret rites: they take off all the ornaments from her image and cover it up. Hence the Athenians account this day as most unlucky of all, and do no work on it. And it seemed as though the Goddess were receiving him in no friendly or kindly fashion, as she hid her face from Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, London. 1870, p. 18) runs as follows: “Sunday shaven, Sunday shorn, Better hadst thou ne’er been born!” In certain parts of Ireland the people will not shave on Sunday (Kinahan, in Folk-Lore Record, 1881, iv. 105). Among the modern Egyptians, however, Saturday is held to be the unluckiest day, particularly unfavorable for shaving and cutting the nails (E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians,’ London, 1871, i. 331). Are these similarities to be explained by any hypothesis of the diffusion of culture (or superstition) ? In some parts of the modern Greek world we have what may be reason- ably taken as direct survivals of the taboos formerly investing the festal days of classical divinities. Thus in Cyprus and certain Aegean islands the first three or six days of August are times when no trees are cut or peeled to obtain resin, when the use of water for washing either clothes or the body is forbidden, and when no one travels by water. In Cyprus the severity of the regulations has led to the days being called the “ evil days of August.’ The careful observer who reports these facts argues most plausibly that the periods thus marked by special forms of abstinence were originally sacred to tree-nymphs and water-nymphs, whose festivals were observed in pagan antiquity (J. C. Lawson, Modern Greck Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, Cambridge, 1910, pp. 152 sq.). 38 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 39 him and seemed to banish him from her presence.’’** Miss Har- rison’s brilliant researches have shown that the Plyntheria and its attendant festival, the Kallyntheria, when Athena’s image was re- dressed and “ beautified,” were originally rites of purification at harvest time, rites which must have existed long before their attribution to the protecting deity of Athens.” With the Plyntheria may be profitably compared the better- known Roman festival of the Vestalia. The Athenian cere- monies came in May, the Roman in June, but their content as purificatory rites preliminary to the bringing-in of the first-fruits was much the same. The nine days devoted to the Vestalia were ill-omened (religiosi). During their celebration the innermost sanctuary of Vesta, shut all the rest of the year, was opened to the matrons of Rome, who crowded to it barefooted, whilst the Vestals themselves offered the sacred cakes made of the first ears of corn plucked a month previously. On the ninth day (June 15) the temple was swept and the refuse thrown into the Tiber. Then the dies religiosi came to an end as soon as the last act of cleansing had been duly performed—Quando stercus delatum fas, “When the rubbish has been carried away.’’** In addition to such festivals as the Parentalia, Lemuria, and Vestalia, celebrated on unlucky days when all important under- takings, both religious and secular, were intermitted, the Romans had also their distinctively sacred days. The feriae, or dies feriati, included all days consecrated to any deity. On the % Plutarch, Alcibiades, 34. * Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 114 sqq. In the post- Exilic calendar of the Jews the Day of Firstfruits, inaugurating the Feast of Weeks, is declared to be a time when “no toilsome work”? is allowable (Leviticus, xxiii. 21; Numbers, xxviii. 26). “Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 32; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 707 sqq.; Fowler, Roman Festivals, 148 sqq. * Feriae seems to have been originally fesiae (Wissowa, op. cit., 366 n.), hence dies feriati must have been equivalent to dies festi, though some authorities hold that not all ferial days were consecrated to the worship of the gods. Possible exceptions were the seven days of the Saturnalia and the nundinae (infra). In the earlier period the ferial days 39 40 Hutton Webster calendars they are marked nefasti, indicating that at such times all political and judicial business must be suspended. They were days when the gods demanded the service of men by visits to the temples, by prayers and sacrifices. Hence the feriae formed holidays when even slaves enjoyed a cessation from toil. We may assume with confidence, however, that the ferial days were not established as a boon to the laborer. The regulations en- forced at such times indicate how, in Roman belief, it was essen- tial that the sanctity of the season should not be polluted by un- seemly activity. The rev sacrorum and flamines were not allowed even to see any work being done during the celebration of the feriae; hence, when they went out, heralds preceded them to enjoin the people from working in their presence. An acci- dental neglect of such admonitions was punished with a fine and atonement was made by the sacrifice of a pig. An intentional disobedience constituted a crime beyond the power of atonement. In the later centuries of the Republic the growing spirit of rationalism began to raise questions as to what kinds of work might properly be done on the public feriae. One pontiff de- clared that it was no violation of them for a person to do any work which had reference to the gods or the offering of sacrifices —ad deos pertinens sacrorumve causa® All labor was likewise allowable which was necessary to supply the urgent wants of life. The pontiff Scaevola held that any work might be done if suffer- ing and injury were caused by its neglect or delay—licet quod praetermissum noceret.1* Consequently, should a man’s ox fall into a pit he might employ workmen to lift it out without polluting the feriae. Vergil, writing when this rationalistic movement had culminated, declares that “even on holy days some work is per- mitted by the laws of God and man. The strictest worshipper has never scrupled to drain the fields, plant a hedge to protect a crop, set snares for birds, fire the brambles, or wash his bleating were not calendarized, but were determined by the phases of the moon (Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, ill. 174). ** Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 16, 10. “ Tdem, i. 16, II. 40 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 41 sheep for health’s sake in the stream.”** Such interpretations indicate that in late classical antiquity the burdens of the old tabooed days were being gradually lifted and their observance adjusted to the social and economic needs of a progressive community. These old Roman festivals, kept so scrupulously in the earlier epoch, are further significant since they present the closest classical analogy to the periods of abstinence which we have previously met in the modern savage world (supra). The celebration of a ferial day, to the Roman as to the Naga of Assam, formed the most appropriate way of confronting a crisis. The man who had blasphemed and so incurred the divine anger ought to placate the outraged deity by celebrating a private festival. One who had pronounced by accident the names of certain mysterious divinities resorted to a similar procedure (ferias observabat). The Flaminica or wife of the Flamen Dialis was invested, like her husband, with a network of taboos: if she heard thunder she became tabooed—feriata—until the cele- bration of an expiatory sacrifice (donec placasset deos).'° Cer- tain natural phenomena resulted in the cessation of all public activity by the people at large and the institution of extraordinary festivals. A rain of stones from heaven, accompanied by lightning, provoked a nine-days’ festival in the time of Hannibal’s invasion of Italy; two and a half centuries later, the emperor Claudius, when an earthquake happened at Rome, never failed to “appoint holidays for sacred rites.’”*° Such examples, which by no means exhaust the subject, may nevertheless suffice to show how in ancient Rome the feriae were ceremonies to appease the supernatural powers; and how the times of their celebration were originally periods of gloom and not of joy. That subsequently, * Georgica, i. 268-72. Cf. Cato’s injunctions: “On holidays, old ditches could have been repaired, the public roads paved, bramble-bushes cut down, ... everything made neat and clean” (De re rustica, 2). * Macrobius, i. 16, 8. On the taboos affecting the Flamen and Flaminica see F. B. Jevons, Plutarch’s Romane Questions, London, 1892, p. 1xxiii sqq.; Frazer, The Golden Bough,’ i. 241 sq. » Livy, xxv. 7; Suetonius, Claudius, 22. 4! 42 Hutton Webster when superstition had somewhat relaxed its grip, they became festive occasions (infra), celebrated so luxuriously that both Sulla and Augustus felt themselves obliged to promulgate laws restricting the expenditure at such times, is only another instance of man’s ineradicable tendency to convert his fast days into feast days.?+ Q. QUASI-HOLY DAYS In addition to those seasons of sacredness which come at times devoted to the worship of the gods, there are also found certain rest days, more or less regular in occurrence, following at short intervals after periods of continuous labor. Such quasi-holy days, as they may be styled provisionally, might appear to have a purely utilitarian origin. As far as my investigations have pro- ceeded they indicate the absence of periodic rest days among migratory hunting and fishing peoples? and among nomadic pastoral tribes. A wandering hunter requires no regular day of rest, since his life passes in alternations of continuous labor while following the chase and of almost uninterrupted idleness after a successful hunt. For the shepherd there can be no relaxa- ™ See generally on the feriae Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Rémer, 365 sqq.; A. S. Wilkins, “Feriae,” in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,» London, 1891, ii. 836-38: C. Julian, “ Feriae,” in Daremberg and Saglio, op. cit., iv. 1042 sqq., where the pertinent literature is fully cited. “The Indians of Cape Flattery are said to make the month of August a tribal season of repose when no berries are picked or fish taken from the sea, except occasionally by children (Swan, in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, xvi. no. 220, p. 91). Perhaps the practice was consciously designed to establish a “closed season,” though this is probably attributing too much foresight to the Indian. The fish or berries may have been considered unfit for eating in August. Among the Beni of Benin during the first month of their dry season, the harvest of yams having been reaped, the people say they “rest and chop” (R. E. Dennett, At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind, London, 1906, p. 216). Here a season of rest is observed by an agricultural people because they have no special labor to perform. Similarly, among the Akikuyu of British East Africa, there are three months in the year when little or no work is done since the crops are then ripening (Dundas, in Man, 19009, ix. 38). 42 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 43 tion of the diurnal duties, for every morning the cattle must be driven abroad to pasture, they must be watched and watered, ana at night they must be milked. Possibly, also, as von Ihering has suggested, the shepherd, compared with the farmer, has scarcely any need of a regular rest day; his occupation causes him so little continuous exertion that he can pursue it all the year round without any injury to his health.2? A farmer, however, is bene- fited by a period of rest recurring more or less regularly, and though agricultural pursuits are dependent on the seasons and weather he is usually able to postpone his work for a brief period without serious loss. It might, therefore, be argued that a change from pastoral to agricultural life would itself be suffi- cient to call into existence the institution of a periodically recur- ring day of rest. But this purely theoretical reasoning ought to be confirmed by numerous instances of sabbaths regularly observed by primitive agricultural peoples. If such are not widely found it may then be urged that the connection of the rest day with the farmer’s pursuits is in most cases secondary, due to the obvious facts that the sabbath institution implies a settled life, a developed form of social organization and government, and something approaching a calendar system. In nearly every instance where an agricul- tural people observes a periodic rest day this is also a “sacred” day, dedicated to a divinity and hedged about with taboos. It seems scarcely in accord with what we know of primitive culture to assume that the sacred or quasi-sacred rest day generally arose from purely practical considerations, and afterwards, to preserve its integrity, was safeguarded with prohibitions and consecrated to a god. At the same time this explanation may hold good in some of the instances to be cited. Utility, as well as super- stitition, has played a part in the genesis of social institutions. The references to regular rest days among primitive peoples are not numerous and often are most obscure. A missionary who was well acquainted with the Melanesian peoples, refers to an interesting custom observed by the inhabitants of Kerepunu, * Evolution of the Aryan, London, 1897, p. 117. 43 44 Hutton Webster a small island off the coast of southeastern New Guinea. The natives are most industrious: every morning men, women and children go to work in the fields and return only at nightfall. “They have a rule, to which they strictly adhere all the year round, of working for two days and resting the third.’* A recent student of the Bontoc Igorot, mountain farmers in the northern part of Luzon, tells us that they have a “sacred” rest day called téngao’, almost certainly of native origin. It occurs, on an average, about every ten days during the year, though not with absolute regularity. The old men of the two divisions of the pueblo determine when it shall take place, and announcement is publicly made on the preceding evening. “If a person goes to labor in the fields on a sacred day—not having heard the an- nouncement or in disregard of it—he is fined for ‘breaking the 9 9905 Sabbath.’ ’’?> As to the remote origin of this Filipino institution * Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, London, 1885, pp. 40 sq. See also (Sir) William MacGregor, British New Guinea, London, 1897, p. 44. A close observer, G. A. J. van der Sande, did not notice any special rest days among the peoples with whom he came in con- tact and whose customs he has so fully described (Nova Guinea, iii. Leiden, 1907, p. 270). * A. E. Jenks, in Ethnological Survey Publications, Manila, 1995, i. 206. In a letter dated December I0, 1910, Professor Jenks tells me that these rest days “are selected so that such intimate, important interests as agriculture and beneficial weather may be given the amount of attention they deserve. The people have no calendar for succeeding ceremonial observances, so a priesthood has developed to fix such days at the opportune time when needed. They are sacred because all petitions are made to Lumawig, their god, a living spirit, hero and benefactor.’ In a second letter under date March 8, 1911, Dr. Jenks writes: “I believe the rest days are first for the purpose of having time for religious observances—this fact necessitated the rest. I never proved this point, however.’ The Bontoc Igorot observe a number of ceremonies connected with their agricultural operations and designed, like those of the Dayaks and Nagas, to secure an abundant crop. Thus at the beginning of baliling, the fifth period of the Bontoc year, when there is a general planting of camotes, a rite called Joskod is per- formed: the pueblo priest kills a chicken or pig, and then petitions’ Luma- wig for so many camotes “that the ground will crack and burst open.” At the close of the period of baliling there ensues a three days’ rest known as kopus when supplications are addressed to Lumawig and a chicken is 44 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 45 we are left in the dark. The same obscurity veils the “ sabbath” kept by the Lolos, Pula, and other aboriginal tribes of western China, as a rule, every sixth day. No ploughing must take place at this time, and in some places the women are not even allowed to sew or wash clothes.2* Among the Kafirs of north- eastern Afghanistan there is a rest day called agar which occurs weekly, on Thursday or Saturday, but only during the months from April to September when field work is in progress. The traveller who mentions the agars seems to imply that they were rigorously observed by the male members of a village, though only field work was stopped for women who were constantly to be seen carrying stones or earth for building operations or engaged in other coolie labor on the rest days. Though our authority failed to discover the origin of this Kafir institution he suggests that it may have been once considered as an unlucky day since the people were averse to starting on a journey as well as to engag- ing in farm labor at such a time.*’ ceremonially killed. Again, the Bontoc Igorot have several rites connected with climate. The fakil ceremony for rain occurs four times a year, on four succeeding days, and is performed by four different priests. “ There is the usual ceremonial pig killing by the priest, and each night preceding the ceremony all the people cry: ‘J-téng’-ao ta-ko nan fa-kil’’? This is only an exclamation, meaning, ‘Rest day! We observe the ceremony for rain!” (Jenks, op. cit., 213). These and other examples given by Prof. Jenks in his monograph indicate clearly that the Bontoc feasts and cere- monies are intended to propitiate evil-minded spirits and to secure material blessings from Lumawig, the supreme being. The analogies from Borneo and Assam suggest that here in Luzon the rest accompanying the rites has likewise a propitiatory character quite as much as the prayers and sacrifices. The same interpretation would accordingly apply to the regular rest day called téng-ao’, although the latter seems now to be regarded chiefly as a holiday. The small boys, says Prof. Jenks, ‘make more noise in the evening before the rest day, crying ‘ Téng-ao’! whi téng-ao’!’ (‘Rest day! hurrah! rest day!’), than I have heard from the pueblo at any other time” (op. cit., 205). * Henry, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1903, Xxxili. 105. * (Sir) G. S. Robertson, Kdfirs of the Hindu-Kush, London, 1806, pp. 579 sq. Though the Kafirs now have free intercourse with their Moham- medan neighbors there is no reason to believe that the agar day owes any- thing to the Mohammedan sabbath which comes on Friday and is observed throughout the year. 45 46 Hutton Webster a. The Toda Days of Abstinence The Todas, who dwell in permanent villages on the undulating plateaus of the Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India, have a re- markable system of rest days. The social organization of this interesting people consists of two endogamous divisions, called Teivaliol and Tartharol. Each of these primary sections is com- posed of intermarrying clans, and each clan possesses a group of villages in common. At the present time Toda interests, both economic and religious, center about their buffaloes. The daily life of the Toda men is largely devoted to the care of these animals and to labor in the dairies. The buffalo is a sacred animal, the dairy itself is almost a temple, the dairyman is only one remove from a priest. In fact, Toda religious rites seem to be little else than the arrangements which a pastoral and com- munistic people have made for the provision and care of an article of food. According to Mr. Rivers, whose careful studies are a model of anthropological investigation, nearly every Toda ceremony has its appointed day or days. The choice of these “is often dependent on another Toda institution, the sacred day, either of the village or of the dairy. Every clan has certain days of the week on which people are restricted from following many of their ordinary occupations, although they are not the occasions of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the madnol or village day, and the palinol or dairy day.”?* We begin with the former. Each Toda village has its madnol, but in general where there are several villages of the same clan the madnol is the same for the whole clan. There are at least eight prohibitions character- izing the observance of this sacred day. Feasts may not be given at such a time, funeral ceremonies may not be performed, the people may not bathe or cut their nails, and the men may not shave. Clothes are not to be washed, the house is not to be cleansed, and though the ordinary meals may be prepared, the. people must not cook rice with milk. Other regulations forbid the dairyman to leave the village, the buffaloes to be *W. H.R. Rivers, The Todas, London, 1906, p. 405. 46 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 47 taken from one place to another, or the people to migrate from one village to another.?® It will be noticed that though not all work is prohibited, yet the regulations are extensive enough to affect most of the customary occupations. Among the Teivaliol, one of the two endogamous divisions of the Toda people, the madnol is the only sacred day of the week. . With the other division called Tartharol there is also a dairy day or palinol, the regulations for which have much the same char- acter as for the madnol. Toda ingenuity has devised various recognized ways of evad- ing the rules for the holy days and so of avoiding the incon- venience which might otherwise be entailed on the people. For instance, the rule that nothing may be taken from the village on the madnol has the unpleasant consequence that nothing may be bought on the madnol, since buying implies the departure of money from the village. This rule is circumvented when neces- sary by taking money out of the village on the day before the madnol and burying it in some spot where it can be found on the following day. In this way a purchase can be completed even on the holy day. Again, the rule forbidding women to leave the village on the madnol is evaded in an ingenious fashion. Women who wish to leave the village on a holy day, do so before daybreak. ‘“ They wait outside the village till the sun is up, then return to the village, have their meals and do any necessary work, and may then leave. Having left the village before daybreak, a woman is apparently regarded as ceremonially absent during her return to the village, and by making this false start she is held to be keeping the law.’’*° With these possibilities of evasion, it follows that the rules are rarely broken. When a breach of them does occur the culprit may have to perform a propitiatory sacrifice similar to that which follows the commission of various other ceremonial sins against the Toda moral code. “It seemed quite clear, however, that this only happened if some misfortune should befall the ” Rivers, op. cit., 405 sq. *° Ibid., 407. 47 48 Hutton Webster offender, his family, or his buffaloes. It would seem that a man might habitually and notoriously desecrate the madnol, but no steps would be taken by himself or the community so long as things went well with the man. If he should become ill or if his buffaloes should suffer in any way, he would consult the diviners and they would then certainly find that his misfortunes were due to his infringement of the laws connected with the sacred days.’”** There is much variety in the days observed as the madnol or palinol of the different villages and clans. The most frequent days appear to be Wednesday and Friday, which are sacred in six clans. Sunday is sacred in five clans, Monday and Tuesday in three, Thursday in two. In no clan does Saturday appear to be kept as a holy day.** The origin of these sacred days among the Todas is very obscure. Mr. Rivers first suggests the possibility of the institu- tions of madnol and palinol having grown out of the belief in unlucky days. The code of rules prescribing what might and what might not be done would then be only an elaboration of the common superstition which restricts activity at such unlucky periods. But there are several difficulties in the way of this view. It is extremely doubtful whether the Toda in general has any such belief in days lucky and unlucky,** and if he has, the idea is probably a recent importation from the Hindus, among whom the superstition is very prevalent. Again, the distinction between madnol and palinol is one which cannot be satisfactorily explained by such an hypothesis. Finally, the different clans of the Todas have different sacred days, whereas one would expect lucky and unlucky days to be the same for the entire community. This seems especially reasonable when it is considered that the sacred days, by restricting intercourse between the different clans, produce much inconvenience, which of course is increased by the * Rivers, 407. * Tdem, 408. * See Rivers, 411, for a reference to certain restrictions which may have arisen out of a belief in unlucky days. Ross King (Journal of Anthro- pology, 1870, i. 33 sq.) expressly attributes this superstition to the Todas. 48 Rest Days; A Sociological. Study 49 fact that the different clans have different madnols. Whatever be the origin of these Toda rules, there is, writes Mr. Rivers, “little doubt that when at the present time a given act is done or not done on a given day, the action is not based on a belief in lucky or unlucky days, but, as nearly always among the Todas, on custom prescribing that the act shall or shall not be done on that day.’’** The question may be raised whether the resemblance of the Toda madnol to the Hebrew Sabbath may not be accounted for by supposing the former institution to have been founded on ideas borrowed from Christians or Jews. If this has been the case it is certain that the borrowing took place very long ago. In studying the origin and history of the Todas we have no record that reaches back more than three centuries. From various close resemblances between the Toda customs and those of the people of Malabar Mr. Rivers thinks it probable that the Todas at one time lived in Malabar, migrating thence to the Nilgiri Hills. Both Christians and Jews were well established in Malabar more than a thousand years ago. If the Todas left Malabar before these settlements of foreigners were made, then Jewish or Chris- tian influences can be excluded; if the migration took place sub- sequently, then they may have contributed to the development of the Toda institutions.*° In spite of these considerations Mr. Rivers is apparently in- clined to consider the Toda madnol as substantially a native in- stitution which may help to explain the origin of the Hebrew Sabbath. ‘In a busier community than that of the Todas, the existence of different madnol[s] for different clans of the com- munity would soon become a serious obstacle to carrying on the business of life, and such a community would probably agree that all clans should have the same holy day. At present the madnol is undoubtedly more sacred than the other sacred days, and if the latter were then to be neglected, we should have a community in which various activities were prohibited on one day of the * The Todas, 410 sq. * Ibid., 459, 695 sqq., 710 sq. 49 50 Hutton Webster week, and the institution so arising would differ very little from the Hebrew Sabbath. It is possible that the Todas show in an early stage the institution of a Sabbath in which the whole community has not yet settled on a single and joint holy day.’’%* This interesting hypothesis, which is put forth tentatively, throws no light on the reasons which led to the ascription of a tabu character to certain days. Mr. Rivers himself refers to the “enormous influence of the period of the moon in Toda cere- - monial,’’** a fact which suggests that the Toda rest days had their ultimate origin in those seasons of abstinence at the lunar changes found elsewhere in India (infra) and so generally in other regions of the world. b. Tabooed Days in West Africa We must regret the scantiness of our information regarding the rest days observed by certain African tribes. Thus many of the Gallas are said to show great respect for Saturday and Sun- day, and on these days do not work in the fields. Here we may legitimately assume Jewish and Christian influences from Abys- sinia, especially since the Gallas of equatorial Africa do not observe any periods of rest. The missionary Krapf, who notices this African sabbath, is inclined, however, to ascribe a purely rationalistic origin to the custom. He points out that whilst the Wanika of German East Africa rest from labor every fourth day and pass the time in feasting and carousing, their neighbors, the nomadic Masai and Wakuafi, know no distinction of days “solely because, from their point of view, they do not think that any particular day of rest is required.’’*s Throughout central Africa from the British and German pos- sessions in the east to the Portuguese and French possessions in the west, there is a market place every few miles at which the neighboring tribes meet regularly for exchanges. Usually °° The Todas, pp. 411 sq. "| bids, 502: J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours, London, 1867, pp. 82, 365. 50 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 51 every fourth day is a market day observed by the cessation of ordinary occupations. The custom among the Wanika has already been noticed. Among the Akikuyu of British East Africa who employ 30-day months beginning with new moon, there is a week of four days, the latter being indicated by the names of the different markets held on them. Each market takes place on the fourth day of the cycle and no two markets in the same neighborhood occur on the same day.*® In the Congo Free State similar four-day periods closing with a market prevail among the tribes of the Lualaba district,*° among the Ba-Yaka, a Bantu people occupying the Kasai district,4t and among the Ba-Mbala who dwell between the rivers Inzia and Kwilu. The Ba-Mbala year consists of thirteen lunar months, each divided into seven weeks of four days, the last day being pika, the market Bay A week of four or more days, one of which is usually ob- served as a market-day and sabbath, may be traced in west Africa from the Congo to the Niger. In the language of the western Congo tribes the week is called Juwmingu.** In Loango, where the natives have a month of twenty-eight days reckoned from new moon, seven weeks are counted to the month. The week contains four days called, respectively, nssona, nduika, ntono, and wstlu, the first being regarded as a day of rest.## With this account it is interesting to compare the statement of an old writer, according to whom the Loango negroes “‘ never work above three days in succession; the fourth is for them a general rest day, during which they are not allowed to busy themselves in tillage. ® Dundas, in Man, 1900, ix. 38. Cf. W. S. and Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, London, 1910, p. 105. ®V.L. Cameron, Across Africa, London, 1877, ii. 3. “Torday and Joyce, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, XXXvVi. 44. “Torday and Joyce, ibid., 1905, xxxv. 413. Cf. also ibid., 1906, xxxvi. 291 (Ba-Huana). *“ (Sir) H. H. Johnston, The River Congo, London, 1884, p. 455. “E. Pechuél-Loesche, in Die Loango-Expedition, dritte Abteilung, erste Halfte, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 130. ist 52 Hutton Webster The men, who repose habitually, work still less on that day. They walk, sport, and go to market. The missionaries have never been able to procure from the negroes any explanation of this period of four days which forms their week.’’** In Congo Francais the Bavili week also consists of four days. Sona is the men’s day of rest, but the women’s market day when only the women buy and sell in the market. At that time it is regarded as wrong for husbands to have intercourse with their wives. Another day, called ntona, is reserved for the women, who may not plant at this time. Burials also take place on the ntona day.*® Among the Ibo and other tribes of Southern Nigeria, eke, the fourth day of the week, is observed as a day of rest and a market day.*7 In Great Benin the fifth day of the week was observed as a rest day by farmers, though other than agricultural labor might be carried on.48 In Dahomi every fourth day is said to be a holiday, “not kept holy, but devoted to the will of the working classes; in short, a sort of remuneration to the slave for *The Abbé Proyart, “History of Loango,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 576. Cf. also, Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvoiker, Leipzig, 1860, ii. 201, who cites other authorities, to me inaccessible, for the attribution of the day to the gods. *R. E. Dennett, At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind, London, 1906, pp. 64, 140. Among the lower Congo tribes, generally, the dead are buried only on two days, nsona and nkandu, of the four-day week (J. H. Weeks, in Folk-Lore, 1909, xx. 61). * A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes, London, 1906, pp. 305, 375.' Cf. also Globus, viii. 90. Seven weeks are counted to the month of twenty-eight days (W. F. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage, London, 1856, p. 316). According to Bosman the negroes of Fida held a great market every three days (Pinkerton, xvi. 483). * Cyril Punch, quoted in H. L. Roth, Great Benin, Halifax (Eng.), 1903, p. 52, n’. Nyendael, at the opening of the eighteenth century, remarks on this custom as follows: “ Their Sabbath happens every fifth day, which is very solemnly observed by the great, with the slaughter of cows, sheep, and goats, whilst the commonalty kill dogs, cats, and chickens, or what- ever their money will reach. And of whatever is killed, large portions are distributed to the necessitous, in order to enable them, as every person is obliged to celebrate this festival” (ibid.). See also (Miss) Tucker, Abbeokuta, London, 1858, p. 37; Bosman, “ Guinea,’ in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 531. 52 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 53 the three days labor.”*® The Akposo of Togoland have a five-day week, the fifth day being held sacred to their creator-god, Uwolowo, whose name it bears. The other gods are worshipped on the second day of the week, a time when no work may be done.*° Among the tribes of the Niger interior each town is said to hold a market once in four days.*? The natives of Africa, whether Bantu or negro, are the keenest of traders, and it might be supposed therefore that the cessation of agricultural labor on the market-days has only an utilitarian object in view. The origin of markets remains an obscure ques- tion; but the evidence from such different areas as Australia, Melanesia, the Andaman Islands, and America, indicates that neighboring peoples come together in the first instance for the celebration of religious rites and festivals at the conclusion of which there is opportunity for the interchange of gifts and barter- ing.’ Similarly to the Greeks the Olympic games furnished the occasion for a great fair; in modern Europe all the important Church festivals are followed by fairs; in England however, the festival has become obsolete, the market having completely taken its place. These considerations suggest that on closer inquiry the African market-days may be shown to have had a religious origin, and that formerly their principal feature was not buying and selling but the performance of sacred ceremonies accom- panied by a superstitious cessation of labor. The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis have supplied a considerable body of information regarding certain of the west African sabbaths which serves to strengthen the hypothesis formulated above. Our information relates to the Tshi-speaking and Ga-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, and to “ F. E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans, London, 1851, p. 181. ° Miller, in Anthropos, 1907, ii. 201. Uwolowo corresponds to the Ewe “high god,’ Mawu (infra). “William Allen, Narrative of the Expedition Sent by her Majesty's Government to the River Niger in 1841, London, 1848, i. 308. * H. L. Roth, “ Trading in Early Days,” Bankfield Museum Notes, Hali- fax (Eng.), 1908, no. 5, pp. 23 sqq.; Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, 20, 3I. 52 54 Hutton Webster the Ewe- and Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast. Of these the Tshi tribes (including the Fantis and Ashantis) are the least, and the Yoruba tribes (including the Egbas, Ibadans, Jebus, etc.), the most civilized. Among all these peoples there are a few general deities worshipped by the members of a tribe or of several tribes in common, a great number of local deities confined to one locality and one particular natural object, and, in addition, tutelary or protecting deities worshipped by special sections of the community or by families and individuals alone. Among the Tshi tribes, on the day sacred to the tutelary deity of a family all its members wear white or light-colored clothes, and mark themselves with white clay. On such days no work is done. If one of the members of the family be absent on a journey he must make a halt. The duration of such a festival depends on the position of the family. Ordinarily one day is considered enough, though influential chiefs may extend the period over two or three days. In celebrating the day sacred to the tutelary god of a town the practice is essentially the same. All the inhabitants abstain from labor, daub themselves with white clay, and appear in white or light-colored clothes.** It is not, however, only the guardian gods of a family or a town who are honored with holy days. Among the Ewe tribes every general and tribal deity, with the exception of Mawu, the most powerful of their divinities, has his sacred day.** Saturday, for instance, is sacred to Khebioso, the lightning-god. It is kept as a holy day by his followers, who pass it in eating, drinking, and dancing.®® The Yoruba tribes, who have a five-day week,®® keep A. B. Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, London, 1887, pp. 93, 89. On the Gold Coast white seems to be the special color appropriate for holy or festive days. On a man’s birthday, which is sacred to his kra, or tenanting spirit, he abstains from work, puts white clay on his face and dons a white cloth (ibid., 156). * Ellis, Ewe-Speaking Peoples, London, 1890, p. 70. “bed. (AT: * Ako-ojo (“First Day”), Ojo-awo (“Day of the Secret” [sacred to Ifa]), Ojo-Ogun (“Day of Ogun” [the god of iron]), Ojo-Shango (“Day of Shango” [the god of thunder]), Ojo-Obatala (‘ Obatala’s Day”). A holy day is called ose, and because each holy day recurs weekly, 54 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 55 the first day as a general sabbath. Each of the four other days is a day of rest for the followers of the god to which it is dedi- cated, and for them only.** For the adherents of a god to violate the day sacred to him is a serious offense, punishable with a fine, and in former days, with death. The general notion is that if the honor of the god be not vindicated by his followers all will suffer for the neglect. “The sabbath-breaker is, in fact, killed by the other worshippers of the god from motives of self-pro- Eection,’’°s The Tshi-speaking peoples also illustrate the custom of appro- priating particular days of the week to the god worshipped by different classes of the community. Thus, whilst the first day of the Tshi week is a general sabbath, bna-da, the second day, is the fisherman’s holiday. Its observance is now accounted for by a tradition that the first fisherman, named Kwegia, chose Tuesday for a day of rest; but the real reason according to Ellis is that in times past Tuesday was the day sacred to the god of the sea, for it is now the day commonly sacred to the majority of the existing sea deities. Any fisherman who violated this rule was fined, and his fish were cast into the sea. In the old days he would have been put to death. Of late years the spread of ' Christianity and scepticism has caused this observance of Tues- day as a rest day to fall into disuse.°® The Tshi likewise ob- ose has come also to mean the week of five days. See also, R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies, London, 1910, pp. 77 sqq., who makes the Yoruba week consist of four days with Shango’s Day “as a Sunday.” "Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, London, 1894, p. 145. Among the Malagasy, before the destruction of idolatry at Imérina in 1860, each idol had a sacred day when those who were its special votaries abstained from work (James Sibree, The Great African Island, London, 1880, p. 281; idem, in Folk-Lore Record, 1879, ii. 32). S Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 149. * Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, 220 sq.; idem, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 149. Beecham declares that were the fishermen to go out to sea on this day, “the fetish would be angry, and spoil their fishing” (Ashantee and the Gold Coast, London, 1841, p. 186). Cf. also Bosman, ‘‘ Guinea,” in Pinkerton’s, Voyages and Travels, xvi. 402 sq.; Mary H. Kingsley, West African Studies, London, 1901, p. 145. 55 56 Hutton Webster serve fi-da, the fifth day of the week, as the regular rest day for farmers.°® In Coomassie, the Ashanti capital, no agricultural work may be done on Thursday.* Three of the peoples studied by Ellis divide the month into weeks and observe one day of each week as a general day of rest. Thus the Tshi keep dyo-da, the first day of their seven- day week, as a sabbath. The Ga-speaking tribes, who also employ the hebdomadal cycle, observe the first day as a com- munal sabbath. Its name, dsu, means “ purification,’ a term which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon.** The Yorubas on the Slave Coast have a week of five days. Ako-ojo, the first day of the week, “is a sabbath, or day of general rest. It is considered unlucky, and no business of importance is ever undertaken on it. On this day all the temples are swept out, and water, for the use of the gods, is brought in procession.’’® © Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, 220. * [bid., 304. “TIbid., 220. Each of the days has its appropriate name derived from that of a distinguished chief, semi-deified after death (ibid., 218 sq.). The suffix da, attached to all the weekday names comes from the verb da “to sleep,” though da or eda has now acquired the meaning of “ day.” A week is da-pen, “a set of days” or nuaotyo, “ eight days,’ because the week contains seven days and part of an eighth (mua =the plural of da). “Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 147. An old writer, whose observa- tions were confined to Accra on the Gold Coast, speaks of haughbah as one of the two sacred days of the week. It is compulsory on all ranks and sexes, but is especially observed by women. “ Under the supposition that some malign potency pervades the surrounding country on this day, more particularly directed against the pregnant women, their daily avocations are restricted within the walls of their domiciles, no egress being tolerated either for the purposes of travelling or other exterior occupations. Not many people therefore presume to violate these injunctions by issuing forth early in the forenoon, and none resort to their familiar haunts in the markets or public thoroughfares, until the prohibition has been withdrawn by the well-known sign of a declining sun” (Daniell, in Journal of the Ethnological Society, 1856, iv. 23). “Ellis, op. cit., 145. The market is held weekly, that is, every fifth day, but never on the ako-ojo (ibid., 149). This is the only instance with which I am familiar where the market day does not coincide with the general day of rest. 56 Rest Days; A Sociological Study oF The west African evidence which Ellis has gathered would seem to indicate that, aside from the inter-tribal borrowing which has doubtless taken place, certain days are regularly ob- served as periods of rest by the community generally, or by special classes of individuals. The extensive development of the sabbatarian regulations may be reasonably associated with the extraordinary tangle of general, local and tutelary deities of all sorts found in this part of Africa. If the custom had arisen of honoring a tribal god with a day held generally sacred, it would be but a step to extend the practice to the divinities worshipped by individual families or by particular sections of the community. The observance of a general day of rest by the Yorubas, Tshis, and other peoples, is undoubtedly a native institution. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Ellis, who was much impressed with its re- semblance to the Hebrew Sabbath, argues that both were originally lunar festivals, connected with moon worship and cele- brated on the first day of the new moon. “ This holy day, before the invention of weeks, recurred monthly, but after the lunar month was subdivided, it recurred weekly, and was held on the first day of the week. . . . That the Jewish Sabbath should come to be called the seventh day, though originally the day of the new moon, and consequently the first day of the lunar month, can be readily understood. When a holy day recurs every seventh day, the day on which it is held is naturally called the seventh day. Thus the Yoruba sabbath, which occurs every fifth day, is called the fifth day of the week, though the mean- ing of the name ako-ojo is first day.”®* This theory of a common origin for both the west African and the Hebrew rest days fails to elucidate satisfactorily the taboos observed in each instance; and the explanation of the “seventh day,” for reasons to be stated later, cannot be accepted. At the same time I am not dis- posed wholly to reject the hypothesis advanced by Ellis for the origin of the weekly holy day in west Africa. In this region, as “Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 146, 148. The author presented his arguments more fully in an article, “On the Origin of Weeks and Sab- baths,” Popular Science Monthly, 1895, xlvi. 320-43. ? ay 58 Hutton Webster elsewhere in the African area, there is a common practice of observing new moon as a festival accompanied by cessation of labor (infra). The possibility of a purely utilitarian origin for the institution must also be kept in mind. Here, as in other in- stances, we may look for fuller knowledge to clear up many puzzling problems. c. Quasi-holy Days in Archaic Civilizations It is curious to discover in a far distant quarter of the world a rest day observed which presents some similarity to the west African customs. The ancient Peruvians had a lunar month, divided, like that of the Greeks, into three decades. If we may trust an old authority, each of these periods closed with a holiday and season of rest. ‘The institution was attributed to the Apu- Ccapac-Inca, whose beneficent activities gained for him the appellation of Pachacutec, “Reformer of the World.’** To Garcilasso de la Vega, this Peruvian sabbath appeared to be solely devised for utilitarian ends. “In order that labor might not be so continuous as to become oppressive, the Ynca ordained that there should be three holidays every month, in which the people should divert themselves with various games. He also commanded that there should be three fairs every month, when the laborers in the field should come to market and hear any- thing that the Ynca or his Council might have ordained. They called these assemblies Catu, and they took place on the holi- days.’’** Possibly the observance of a rest day was here once connected with a lunar festival and the accompanying abstinence at such a time. This explanation will scarcely apply, however, to the old Mexican custom of holding a public market or fair at the close of each five-day period, four of which formed the Aztec “month.’’*S In this instance there could have been no * Perhaps “Reformer of the Calendar,” from pacha, time, and cutina, overturn or reform. * Garcilasso, bk. vi. chap. xxxv.; C. R. Markham, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, London, 1871, ii, 206. *Sahagun, Histoire générale (transl. Jourdanet and Siméon, Paris? 58 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 59 connection with the moon, the Mexican months being purely artificial divisions of the solar year.® The Roman nundinal period, an eight-day week, closed (or began) with a market day not unlike the Peruvian and Mexican institutions. The country folk, having labored for seven days in the fields, came to the towns on the eighth day. This was called nundinae, the ninth (the eighth day by the ordinary in- clusive reckoning being counted as the ninth), and was employed as a market day when peasants and townsmen exchanged their products. The nundinae, however, was more than a market-day: at this time ordinary occupations were interrupted; schooi-chil- dren enjoyed a holiday; and banquets of more than the usual sumptuousness celebrated the festive occasion. The origin and early development of the nwndinae are veiled in obscurity. In the classical age it was even disputed whether the nundinal day began or ended a week; clearly, however, it marked the separation of the weeks. The institution enjoyed a high antiquity,‘° tradition ascribing it now to the Etruscans, now to Romulus or to Servius Tullius. In historic times the nundinae present themselves as the rest-days and market-days of a labori- ous agricultural people; it may, indeed, be questioned whether they were ever anything else. Yet even classical writers were uncertain whether the nundinae were properly included among the ferial days, that is, among the days that belonged to the gods and not to men (supra). In Varro’s time the pontiffs held that they were not feriatae, but many writers, cited by Macro- bius,’t maintained the contrary belief. Though not public festivals the state so far recognized the nundinae by dedicating 1880, pp. Ixxili, 290 sg.). Father Sahagun speaks of these quintaines as so- called “weeks.” See also Payne, History of the New World Called America, Oxford, 1899, ii. 359. *® However, the Mexicans are known to have once held a market at the end of each thirteen-day period, the latter being apparently regarded as a division of the lunar month (infra). ® Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquit. Roman., ii. 28. ™ Saturnalia, i. 16, 30. 59 60 Hutton Webster them to Saturn’ or to Jupiter, and by requiring the Flaminica Dialis to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter on their occurrence. These regulations bear an archaic stamp, suggesting that at a remote period the nwndinae may have been quasi-holy days, more or less resembling those which have been found in other parts of the world.78 2 Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 42. %T have elsewhere (infra) advanced reasons for believing that the nundinal cycle, in historic times a periodic week, running continuously through the months and years, was originally a lunar week which arose from the quartering of the synodic month. From this the conjecture is possible that the nundinal day was originaliy unfit for labor because of lunar taboos which attached to it. Certain considerations give more or less plausibility to such an hypothesis. If the nwndinae were once feriae, then they were absolutely nefastae, unsuitable, that is, for public business and judicial transactions. The Hortensian law in 287 B. C. made them dies fastae (ut fastae essent nundinae, Macrobius, Sat. i. 16. Cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., xviii. 13; Madvig, Verfassung und Verwaltung d. rém. Staates, i. 254 n; Daremberg and Saglio, op. cit., iii. 176, iv. 1047 sq.). We might therefore see in this law, besides its avowed political purpose, the desire to free the nundinal day from irksome restrictions which had previously characterized it. But such an interpretation is open to serious criticism. It seems probable that at least from the middle of the fifth century B. C., the nundinal days could be used for the settlement of legal business as is indicated by a passage in the Twelve Tables—Tertiis nundinis partis secanto, “ On the third market-day, the creditors shall make a division of the property” (Tabula, iii. 6, in Gellius, xx. I, 49). Some authorities hold that there is also reason for believing that until the Hortensian law, meetings of the public assemblies might be held on the nundinal day. On this view the lex Hortensia made the nundinal days dies fastae non comitiales, that is, forbade comitial meetings on these dates though allow- ing judicial business to be done thereon. The peasants who came into the city to use the markets were thus given an opportunity to settle their lawsuits without being engrossed by the duties of voting for magistrates. (For this explanation see G. W. Botsford, Roman Assemblies, New York, 1909, pp. 139, 315, 471; Marquardt-Wissowa, Rémische Staatsverwaltung, ili.” 290). In the presence of the conflicting testimony of the classical writers the precise nature of the nundinae and of the legislation affecting them, becomes a matter difficult to make out. The subject would repay exhaustive investigation. For several references in the above note I am indebted to my colleague, Prof. F. W. Sanford. On the nundinae, gener- 60 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 61 The nundinal period and nundinae present such close analogies to the Jewish seven-day week and the Sabbath that it becomes scarcely surprising to find the Roman institution contributing to the development of the Christian Sunday. The earliest Sunday law is the famous constitution of Constantine (321 A.D.) enact- ing that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and work- shops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die Solis). Markets continued to be held on Sunday and indispensable agri- cultural work was to be permitted, “since it so frequently hap- pens that no other day is so appropriate for the sowing of grain or the planting of vines.’’™* It is highly doubtful whether this legislation of Constantine had any relation to Christianity ; at any rate, as was acknowledged by a candid historian, the rescript commanding the observance of Sunday contains no allusion to its peculiar sanctity as a Christian institution.*® It would rather appear that the emperor were only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the empire, to the other ferial days of the Roman calendar.“* With the final victory of Christianity over paganism the old feriae and the nundinae were abolished,’ Sunday, together with the Christian festivals, being gradually substituted in their place. ally, see Besnier, in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, vii. 120-22; Marindin, in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, ii. 251 sq. ™ Codex Justinianus, bk. iii., tit. 12 (De Feriis). © H. H. Milman, History of Christianity, New York, 1870, ii. 206. *® To the spread of Oriental solar worship in the empire from the second to the fourth century must be also attributed the substitution of dies solis for dies Saturni as the first day of the planetary week. Cf. Gundermann, in Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 180 sq.). “The date of the obsolescence of the nundinae is not definitely known; the calendar of Philocalus (354 A. D.) indicates that they were then still dbserved at Rome. The days of the planetary week are marked by the letters A—G, which side by side have the old nundinal letters A-H. This had probably become a feature of the State calendar since the Sunday legislation of Constantine (Carleton, in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Reli- gion and Ethics, iii. 84). 61 62 Hutton Webster IV. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE CONNECTED WITH LUNAR PHENOMENA IO. SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO THE MOON There is good reason for believing that among many primitive peoples the moon rather than the sun, the planets, or any of the constellations, first excited the imagination and aroused feelings of superstitious awe or religious veneration. The worship of the moon is widespread ;1 and in various mythologies that lumt- nary, often conceived as masculine, plays the most important part among the heavenly bodies.? “When challenged to defend their peculiar religious system by the sun worshippers of the sierra, the Indians of Pacasmayu were at no loss for arguments. The moon, they contended, must necessarily be more powerful than the sun, because the latter only shone by day, while the former shone not only by night, but in the daytime also; the moon, moreover, sometimes eclipsed the sun, but the sun never eclipsed the moon. When the moon disappeared in the interval between two lunations, it was supposed that he had gone to the other world to inflict punishment on the wicked.’ But there are other reasons which led early philosophers to ascribe a special importance to the moon. Sometimes the lunar rays are considered positively deleterious, especially for little children. Greek nurses, for example, took special pains never to show their charges to the moon.* Some Brazilian Indians believe that the moon makes children ill. Immediately after delivery mothers will hide themselves with their infants in the thickest *For many illustrations of moon-worship among the Greeks see W. H. Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 1-11; for some illustrations from non-Hellenic peoples in antiquity, idem, 12-16, and Nachtrage, Leipzig, 1895, pp. I-10. 7A. Réville, Les religions des peuples non-civilisés, Paris, 1883, ii. 226; D. G. Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, New York, 1897, pp. 139 sq.; E. J. Payne, History of the New World Called America, Oxford, 1892, i. 547 sqq.; Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris? 366 sq. *Paytie, of. ctt., i. 550. * Plutarch, Quaestiones conviviales, iv. 10, 3, 7; Frazez, op. cit., 376. 62 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 63 part of the forest to avoid the lunar rays.* Moonshine may also be considered injurious for adults. Certain Queensland abo- rigines will not stare long at the moon, for by doing so a heavy rain is likely to result.6 When an English traveller in Arabia was noticed gazing at the clear beauty of the moon the Bedouins said: “Look not so fixedly on him; it is not wholesome.’” Possibly the same idea found expression in one of the most beau- tiful of the Psalms: “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.”* The well-known fancy attributing lunacy to the rays of the moon is sufficiently illustrated by two passages in the New Testament where epilepsy is regarded as caused by the moon.® : Some primitive folk have apparently noticed that monthly periodicity belongs to women and moon alike, and joining these observations, have supposed that the lunar changes cause men- struation.1° Such beliefs were also held in classical antiquity.™ The influence of the moon on the tides, recognized by so primi- > Spix and Martius, Reise in Brasilien, i. 381, iii. 1186. On the other hand, children of the Bageshu, a Bantu race of British East Africa, are expected to take part in new-moon dances, since it is believed that they derive benefit from the moon (Roscoe, in Journal of the Royal Anthro- pological Institute, 1909, xxxix. 193). *W. E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin no. 5, Brisbane, reas, Dp; 7. *C. M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, i. 444. * Psalms, cxxi. 6. This passage has been very unsatisfactorily explained as a reference to the blinding that results from sleeping in the moonlight with uncovered face. The meaning of another Biblical passage (Hosea, v. 7) is most obscure. * Matthew, iv. 24, xvii. 15. The Greek verb used here is ceAnudfoua. * Beardmore, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1890, xix. 460 (British New Guinea) ; Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthro- pological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 206. At Sabai and Yam the word for moon, ganumi, may be used instead of nanamud, the proper word for menstrual blood (ibid.). The Greenlanders believe the moon, conceived as a masculine divinity, to possess the power of impregnation; young girls as a consequence are afraid to look long at the luminary (Hans Egede, Description of Greenland, London, 1845, p. 209). “Roscher, op. cit., 55-61; idem, Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der gricchischen und romischen Mythologie, s. v. “ Mondgottin,” cols. 3150 sqq. 63 64 Hutton Webster tive a people as the Andaman Islanders, and at the other end of the scale by the Babylonians, furnishes another element of mystery in the lunar phenomena.’* That changes in the moon are associated with weather changes as cause and effect is an ancient superstition not yet wholly obsolete in rural com- munities."* Comparative studies have shown how very general is the belief that the moon exerts great influence on growth, particularly on the growth of vegetation and on all human life and activity.** For this opinion there appear to have been two principal causes. Observation showed that moisture in the air and soil are favor- able to organic growth, and further that atmospheric moisture is greater at night than in the day. It was reasonable to suppose the moon itself the source of dew and moisture, especially when it was also noticed that the dew is heaviest on cloudless nights. These beliefs were entertained by the ancients who attributed heat to the sun, but moisture to the moon.” Another fallacy has had an even greater part in generating these lunar fancies. The apparent growth of the moon in the former half of each lunation is associated with the ripening of plants and fruits, the increase of animals, and hence with the prosperous issue of human undertakings. From this doctrine of lunar sympathy have arisen those numerous rules for the guidance of shepherds and husbandmen which had a wide prevalence in ” Man, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii. 337; M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, p. 358. * Hazen, “ The Origin and Value of Weather Lore,” Journal of Ameri- can Folk-Lore, 1900, xiii. 191-98; E. G. Dexter, Weather Influences, New York, 1904, pp. 10-20. “Payne, op. cit., i. 547 sq.; Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 130; W. G. Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 124 sqq. * Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, 49 sqq., 61-67. The New Zea- landers believed that it was in the night that everything grew (R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, London, 1855, p. 175). The single Old Testament passage which may possibly embody a like conception is Deuteronomy, xxxiii. 14: “and for the precious things put forth by the moon.” But the text is almost certainly corrupt. “64 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 65 ancient times and still survive with almost undiminished vigor amongst the superstitious classes of to-day.*® The doctrine of lunar sympathy, by a natural extension, may also account for the common belief that “the same things which grow with the waxing, dwindle with the waning moon,’** and therefore that all business done in the latter half of a lunation is doomed to failure. Thus the Todas appear to regard the first half of the month as the most auspicious for their numerous ceremonies. Usually the first appropriate day of the week after the new moon is the day for nearly every Toda rite. “I met with no case,” says Mr. Rivers, “in which any ceremony was ap- pointed for the period of the full moon or for the second half of the moon’s period.’** The Andaman Islanders abstain from work during the first few evenings of the third quarter of the moon.?® The Buriats are said never to undertake anything of importance between the full and the new moon.?® The Man- dingoes of Senegambia, who paid great attention to the changes of the moon, thought it “very unlucky to begin a journey or any other work of consequence in the last quarter.*1_ The Hovas and other tribes of Madagascar regard the waning of the moon as “an unfavorable time for any important undertaking.”?? Similar beliefs were held by the early Germans wha, according to Caesar, despaired of victory if they engaged in battle be- fore the new moon.** Tacitus, with fuller knowledge, declares that the Germans considered the new and the full moon as the *For many illustrations see Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 361 sqq., 369 sq. ™ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, xx. 8. * The Todas, 4t1I. * Man, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii. 152. ” Peter Dobell, Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia, London, 1830, ii. 16. **M. Park, “ Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 875. “J. Sibree, “ Malagasy Folk-Lore and Popular Superstitions,’ Folk- Lore Record, 1879, ii. 32. * De bello Gal.ico, i. 50. 65 66 Hutton Webster most auspicious season for beginning any enterprise.** A like superstition was that of the Scottish Highlanders, to whom the moon in her increase, full growth, and wane were “the emblems of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance; but the first and middle they seize with avidity, presaging the most auspicious issue of their under- takings.”?° Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered unfavorable for work and may also be accompanied by fasting. The time of such unnatural darkness is considered to be particularly peril- ous, when it is wise to avoid not only every sort of activity but also the consumption of food tainted with the infection of material evil or danger. When the Todas know that an eclipse is about to occur they abstain from food; when it is over they have a feast and eat a special food prepared on all ceremonial occasions.2®° In northern India, the time of a lunar eclipse is considered most unlucky for the commencement of any business of importance.27 Among the Jews there are many who abstain from food on the day of an eclipse of the moon, which they regard as an evil omen.** An English antiquarian of the seven- teenth century is authority for the injunction not to undertake any important business during an eclipse.?° Among various peoples it is thought that during the period of her invisibility the moon descends to the underworld. Such * Germania, 11. The well-known rule of the Spartans which forbade them to lead out their armies before the full moon (Herodotus, vi. 106; Pausanias, i. 28, 4) was a related though not a precisely similar super- stition. “Frazer, op. cit., p. 3690; citing (Sir) John Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 457. * Rivers, op. cit., 592, 580. 7, W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Fale Lore of Northern India? West- minster, 1896, i. 23. ** J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica, Basileae, 1680, p. 477; cited by Wester- marck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. 310. *John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, edited by J. Britten, London, 1881, p. 85. 66 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 67 notions have played their part in generating ideas of tabooed or unlucky days. Thus the Akikuyu of British East Africa, who regard the moon as the sun’s wife, believe that when the moon comes to maturity the sun fights with her and kills her. While she is “dead,” as the natives say, no journeys are undertaken, no sacrifices offered, no sheep killed. It is further considered that goats and sheep will not bear on the day after the disap- pearance of the moon.*® Some tribes of equatorial Africa, ac- cording to the account given by Du Chaillu, believe that the new moon is especially ill-humored and hungry on the day she emerges from darkness. “She looks down over our country,” the natives declared, “and seeks whom she can devour, and we poor black men are very much afraid of her on that account, and we hide ourselves from her sight on that night.” People who die between new and full moon are said to be those whom the new moon saw at this fateful time, in spite of all the precautions they took.** The Canarese of Hyderabad and Mysore do not work in the fields on the last day of the month. If a child is born on the day before the new moon this is a sign that some one in the family will die. If a cow or a buffalo has a calf at such a time, it must be sold. On the evening before new moon or at new moon no one may eat cooked food. The new moon is con- secrated io the dead.?*. The ancient Greeks paid special regard to the period, reckoned at three days, between the disappearance of the old and the reappearance of the new moon. At Athens these days were called doéAwo because the moonlight was ex- tinguished at this time. They were classed with the other dmoppades jpepac or unfavorable days (supra), when no meetings of the senate were held, when the tribunals of justice did not render decisions, and when private individuals abstained from all ”W. S. and Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, London, IQIO, p. 284. *P. B. Du Chaillu, In African Forest and Jungle, New York, 1903, pp. 96 sq. For the Abyssinian beliefs see Littmann, in Archiv fiir Religions- wissenschaft, 1908, xi. 314 sq. For the Arab superstitions see Goldziher, ibid., 1910, xiii. 44 n.* " Gengnagel, in Ausland, 1891, pp. 871 sq. 67 68 Hutton Webster acts which should be accomplished only under the most favorable auspices. During the doe\wo it was necessary to sacrifice to the underworld gods in order to avoid their anger. Appropriately, these days were consecrated to chthonic deities and to the dead.** Similar beliefs appear to have survived in the still current idea that the three days before the new moon are especially unlucky and apt to be attended by storms and winds.*4 The astrological conceptions which have centered about the moon stations afford an interesting study in the diffusion of super- stition. The old Babylonian astronomers, who watched night by night the course of the moon through the heavens, associated that luminary with various prominent stars and constellations, drawing therefrom various forecasts for each day in the tropical or periodic month.*® The fact is well known that Babylonian astrology and astronomy—for the two were scarcely distinguish- able in the earlier period—exerted great influence on the neigh- boring peoples of Asia, and hence it has been argued that the lunar mansions, usually twenty-seven or twenty-eight in number, which we find among the Hindus and Chinese, and the augural calendars connected therewith, were derived ultimately from Babylonia.*® It is probably true that the Arabian moon stations mentioned in the Koran** reach back to the same source. The *E. Rohde, Psyche,’ Freiburg-i-B., 1898, i. 235, 269; Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, i. 174, 322. In Greek fancy Selene was believed to descend to the lower world and the abode of shades; hence the goddess came to be identified with Persephone (Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, 46 sqq.). * Hazen, op. cit., 192. *® Mean length 27, 321 days. * Lehmann, in Abhandl. Berliner Gesells. f. Anthrop., Ethnol. u. Urgesch., 1895. p. 435 n°; F. K. Ginzel, “ Die astronomischen Kenntnisse der Baby- lonier,” Kito, 1901, i. 12 sqq.; L. H.-Gray, “The Parsi-Persian Burj- Namah, or Book of Omens from the Moon,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1910, Xxx. 337. *“ God hath appointed mansions for the moon” (Sfira, x. 5). See in general on this subject, A. de G. Motylinski, Les mansions lunaires des Arabes, Alger, 18909; Hommel, in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenland- ischen Gesellschaft, 1891, pp. 592 sqq. 68 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 69 Arabs carried them to Madagascar, where they gave rise to an elaborate distinction of days lucky and unlucky. In general, some days were considered absolutely bad; others were abso- lutely good; others were considered indifferent. Again, some days were not regarded as good in general though still good enough for special purposes; one being excellent for a house- warming, another good for marking out the ground for a new town, still another was a lucky day to be born on, but a bad day for business. Some days had a special peculiarity of their own, thus children born on a certain day usually became dumb. The character of a day, according to the Malagasy astrologers, de- pended, in short, on what one of the twenty-eight lunar stations it represented.*§ II. TABOOS OBSERVED AT CHANGES OF THE MOON We may well believe that the different appearances of the moon were the first celestial phenomena observed with any degree of continuous attention by primitive man. Not only are the phases of the moon marked by striking variations in her form and in the amount of light she radiates, but from night to night she follows a regular path through the sky, changing her eleva- tion above the horizon and appearing to occupy at her successive phases different quarters of the heavens. Such phenomena pre- sent elements of mystery not found in the sun’s prosaic course, and help to explain why some of the lowest of existing peoples watch the succession of lunar phases with the most keen interest. The central Australians have distinct names applied to the * Sibree, “ Divination among the Malagasy,” Folk-Lore, 1892, iii. 220 sq. It is worth noting that 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 an astrological and a chronological value (Farrand, “ Note sur le cal- endrier malgache et le fandruana,”’ Revue des études ethnographiques et Sociologiques, 1908, p. 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 (Litt- mann, in Archiv fiir Religionswissenschaft, 1908, xi. 301 sq.). 69 70 Hutton Webster new moon, half moon, full moon and last quarter.*® The Andaman Islanders, possessing no extended enumeration, did not count the moons in the year, but nevertheless had appropriate words to designate the lunar phases.*? The Bontoc Igorot have noted and named eight phases of the moon.*t The natives of New Britain were close observers of the phases of the moon (kalang) and had separate terms for them.*? A further develop- ment may be traced in the Polynesian area where, as in Hawaii, the Society Islands, and New Zealand, for every night in the month there were distinct names derived from the various aspects of the moon according to her age.** Among the Nandi of British East Africa, all the nights of the lunar month are likewise de- scribed by the varying aspects of the moon.** The Bavili of French Congo even appoint special individuals to observe the *® Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, London, 1897, p. 505. “Man, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii. 337. * Jenks, in Ethnological Survey Publications, Manila, 1905, 1. 219. “G. Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, London, i910, p. 332. Cf. Somerville, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1897, xxvi. 404 (Solomon islanders). “The Maori, for instance, counted twenty-eight moon “nights,” which show how closely that luminary was observed: 1. noni hope, the moon is in the Reinga or underworld; 4. he oho ata, the moon is visible; 5. ouenuku, it begins to rise a little way; 6. maweti, it rises still higher; 14. he atua, full; 19. he ohika, the moon begins to wane; 24. tanagaroa a roto, it sinks into the sea; 28. he o mutu, it disappears (Taylor, Te Ika a Mawi, 177). To the Society Islanders the fifteenth day was omarae, or the moon with a round and full face; the thirtieth day, oterieo, was the time when the moon dies or is changed (Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 87 sq.). In the Hervey Group several of the moon nights were sacred to the gods. The twenty-eighth day was called mauri—ghost; the twenty-ninth, omutu— ended; the thirtieth, otire 0 avaiki—lost in the depths of Avaiki or Hades (W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 318). Among the Caroline Islands (Yap, Lamotrek, Ponape, Uleai) the successive days of the moon are given names which indicate her age (F. W. Christian, Caroline Islands, London, 1899, pp. 387 sq., 392-090). “Hollis, op. cit., 95 sq. 70 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 71 changes of the moon.*® The Hottentots of South Africa have separate names for all the lunar phases.*® A survey of the anthropological evidence appears to indicate, as might indeed be expected, that of the four lunar phases it is particularly the new moon which awakens interest and atten- tion. The first appearance of that luminary in the western sky after sunset is often hailed with various ceremonial observances. Professor Frazer suggests that in many cases such rites have a magical aspect, the new moon, with its promise of growth and increase, being greeted with ceremonies intended to renew and strengthen, by means of sympathetic magic, the life of man.** He cites, among others, two interesting customs found in the New World. The Indians of the Ucayli river in Peru are said to greet the appearance of the new moon with great joy. They make long speeches to her, accompanied with vehement gesticula- tions, imploring her protection and begging that she invigorate their bodies.*8 Certain tribes of southern California, afterwards gathered into the Mission San Juan Capistrano, celebrated the new moon with dances, saying, ‘As the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so we also having to die, will again live.”4® An old traveller recites how at the appearance of every new moon the Congo negroes “ fall on their knees, or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, ‘So may I renew my life as thou art renewed.” But if the sky was clouded, they did nothing, con- sidering that the moon had lost its virtue.*° Of the Mandingoes * Dennett, op. cit., 86. *L. Schultze, dus Namaland und Kalahari, Jena, 1907, p. 370. “ Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 370 sqq. “W. Smythe and F. Lowe, Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para, London, 1836, p. 230. So the ancient Peruvians, according to Father Acosta, assembled on the first day of the tenth moon “before the rising thereof, and in seeing it they cryed staal, carrying torches in their handes and saying, ‘Let all harme goe away,’ striking one another with their torches” (The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii. 575 sq.). “Father G. Boscana, “Chinegchinich,” in Life in California by an American, New York, 1846, pp. 208 sq. * Merolla, “ Voyage to Congo” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 273. 71 72 Hutton Webster it is said that on the first appearance of the new moon, “ which they look upon to be newly created, they say a short prayer.” Some of the foregoing examples may perhaps be more simply interpreted as an expression of man’s delight at the reappearance of the luminary which, so generally in savage fancy, is supposed to descend to the underworld during the interval between luna- tions. Where the new moon is festively observed it often happens that a similar rite occurs at full moon; and much less commonly, at each half moon. It seems idle to seek a particularistic ex- planation for such ceremonies. We have already noticed the sympathetic influence which the waxing and waning of the moon is supposed to exert on human activities. Furthermore, it has been shown that the appearance of the new moon is thought to be pregnant with interest and importance for the life of man. These ideas of lunar influence would naturally be extended to the full moon, and later, in some instances, to the half moons, as marking the most prominent stages in a lunation. The feel- ings of fear, of curiosity, of awe and veneration excited by the moon and concentrated on her phases, afford a sufficient reason for their being regarded as critical times, to be marked, as the following examples show, not only by religious exercises, but also by fasting and the cessation of all normal occupations.*? bf ** Mungo Park, “ Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa,” in Pinker- ton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 875. *° The vice of seeking a particularistic explanation for widespread social phenomena is illustrated by Nielsen, who, with misdirected ingenuity, has argued that the early Semites founded their sabbaths on the observation that the moon (conceived as a divinity) rests four times in a lunation. Days on which the deity rested were to be likewise observed by his worshippers as days of rest. (D. Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Uberlieferung, Strassburg, 1904, pp. 63 sqq.) It is true that the moon looks full for a day or two before and for a day or two after she is full; similarly the changes in her form at the beginning of a luna- tion are scarcely perceptible. The moon, therefore, might be said to “rest” at these two periods. But neither astronomical science nor untu- tored observation lends any support to the idea that the moon “ rests” at the close of each and every phase. Such an hypothesis, were it true, 72 Rest Days; A Sociological Study as In old Hawaii four periods in every month, lasting two nights and a day each, “were consecrated or made tabu.’*? These epochs were dedicated severally to the four great gods, viz: Ku, from the third to the sixth night; Hua, at full moon, including the fourteenth and fifteenth nights ; Kaloa or Kanaloa, the twenty- fourth and twenty-fifth nights; Kane, the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth nights. “ During these tabu periods a devout king generally spent the time in the feiau, and no person could pass its limits on pain of death.”*+ The Hawaiian evidence is a very clear indication of the practice of consecrating to particular divini- ties certain times as sacred, which formerly were tabooed for quite different reasons. Among the Land Dayaks of Borneo at full moon and on the third day after it (called bubuk), it is thought dangerous to do any farm work, for the paddy would be devoured by blight and mildew. In some tribes the unlucky days are those of the new and full moon, and its first and third quarters.** With this ac- count it is interesting to compare the statement of a native Dayak who has given us a remarkable description of the religious rites and customs observed by his people. He says: ‘The news of a death occurring in the neighborhood or at a distance, the time of full moon, the performance of ceremonies over the sick by the medicine man, a sacrifice to the spirits, are incidents that require all the villagers to rest from work. Likewise if some of the vil- lagers attend a feast in a neighboring village, those that remain behind must rest from work lest they should incur the anger of would not account for the other forms of abstinence, in addition to the cessation of labor, which occur in connection with the moon’s changes. And as we shall see, the observance of lunar taboos may be quite disas- sociated from true moon-worship and probably long antedates the latter cult. 8 Jarves, op. cit., 83. *W. D. Alexander, Brief History of the Hawaiian People, New York, 1891, pp. 50 sqg. The author’s work is largely based on unpublished Hawaiian manuscripts and the early archives of the government. °H. L. Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, London, 1896, i. 40T. 73 74 Hutton Webster the guardian spirits of those attending the feast.’*® That the time of full moon is a time of crisis, associated in the native mind with various other critical occasions when it is thought necessary to propitiate the spirits with abstinence, could scarcely be better illus- trated than by the above quotation. Various African peoples have similar beliefs regarding the unfavorable influence of lunar changes on human occupations. The Zulus welcome the first appearance of the new moon with demonstrations of joy, but on the day following they abstain from all labor, “thinking that if anything is sown on those days they can never reap the benefit thereof.”*" Of certain Bechuana tribes in the neighborhood of the Leeambye river, Livingstone remarks: “‘ There is no stated day of rest in any part of this coun- try except the day after the appearance of the new moon, and the people then refrain only from going to their gardens.’’** Among the Baganda there is great rejoicing at the appearance of the new moon. A feast for seven days takes place when no work is done. Previously, firewood and other things are gathered and stored in order that the women need not go out to gather it or do any work other than cooking.®® In Budu, a district of Uganda, there is a curious cult of the python conducted by the members of a single clan. The sacred snake is kept in a temple where the people gather when the new moon appears to make their offerings and hold a seven days’ feast. Throughout this period no work may be performed.®° The Mendi of Sierra Leone hold a new °° Leo Nyuak, “Religious Rites and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks of Sarawak,” translated from the Dyak by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn, An- thropos, 1906, 1. 410 sq. ™ Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris? 364; citing Fairweather, in W. F. Owen’s Narrative of Voyages, etc., ii. 396. Cf. also Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, London, 1904, p. 110. °° Missionary Travels and Researches-in South Africa, New York, 1870, p. 255. An earlier writer says of the Bechuanas generally that when the new moon appears, “all must cease from work, and keep what is called in England a holiday” (John Campbell, Travels in South Africa, London, 1822, ii. 205). * Roscoe, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1902, xxxii. 76. ® Idem, “ Python Worship in Uganda,” Man, 1909, ix. 88 sqq. 74 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 75 moon festival when they abstain from all work, “alleging that if they infringed this rule corn and rice would grow red, the new moon being a ‘day of blood.” Various other west African sabbaths which possibly had a former connection with lunar taboos have been previously noticed (supra). In modern Ceylon and India we meet occasional references to rites at new and full moon, though it is not improbable that they have come down from ancient times. Thus the Sinhalese Kand- yans do not gather the paddy crop on days when changes in the moon take place. The same prohibition is observed on inaus- picious days generally.*? In northern India the appearance of the new moon is an unfavorable time for undertaking important business.** The Canarese, whose superstitions relating to the last day of the lunar month have already been noticed, do not plough their fields at new moon and full moon. At neither of these times are marriages permitted.** In Kumaon and Garhwal, how- ever, “the eighth, eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth lunar days, both of the increase and decrease of the moon in each month, are considered fortunate days. At the full moon in the months Asarh, Kartik, Magh, and Vaisakh religious ceremonies are pecu- liarly meritorious, while on the third lunar day in Vaisakh their merit is imperishable. There are many other propitious days in the year.” The Badagas of the Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India consider those children as unlucky who are born on the day * A.B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, London, 1894, p. 146. “Kehelpannala, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1896, xxv. 108. According to the same authority, abstinence from agricultural labor is also observed on days when péya, the Buddhist Sabbath, occurs. Pdya means properly the dark day of the new moon (R. S. Hardy, Manual of Budhism,? London, 1880, pp. 22, 50). PGrooke, op. cit., i. 23. “Gengnagel, in Ausland, 1891, p. 871 sq. ©T am indebted for this information to Dr. K. T. Waugh, now of Beloit College, Wisconsin, in a letter dated February 7, 1911. Among the Kumaon people it would seem that the changes of the moon are now con- sidered as favorable or lucky occasions. 75 76 Hutton Webster of the new moon, the full moon, or on three days before the full moon.*° Among peoples of archaic culture there are numerous illustra- tions of lunar festivals and of the abstinence which so generally attends them. The evidence from India is particularly instruc- tive and deserves extended consideration. Professor Wester- marck, who has given some examples of the superstition under discussion, quotes the statement in the Vishnu Purana that he who attends to secular affairs on the days of the new or the full moon goes to the Rudhiranda hell, whose wells are blood.** With the development of the complex Brahmanic ritual, holy and un- lucky days in India became almost identical with the days when the sacred books should not be read. Thus the laws of Manu re- quired a learned Brahman not to recite the Veda on the new moon day, nor on the fourteenth and eighth days of each half- month, nor on the full moon day. It is said that “the new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth day the pupil, the eighth and full-moon days destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him therefore avoid reading on those days.’’** This injunction, moreover, is repeated for a great variety of other critical occa- sions: during a heavy thunderstorm or an eclipse; or when an earthquake occurs. A like prohibition followed after events causing pollution; a Brahman, for example, should not read the Vedas in a village through which a corpse had been taken, or near a burning-ground.*® Some of these taboos have endured till the present time, the eighth day of each fortnight, held sacred to Durga, being a period when no study is allowable for a pious Hindu."° * Jagor, in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 1876, p. 201. “Vishnu Purdna, translated by H. H. Wilson, London, 1840, p. 209; Westermarck, op. cit., ii. 284. The modern Puranas, in their existing form, were all written after the sixth century, A. D., and hence are a relatively late production of Brahmanical thought. “Laws of Manu, translated by G. Buhler, Sacred Books of the East, XXV. iv. II3 sq. bide, AV. LOTESGg: * Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinditism,’ New York, 1891, p. 433. 76 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 77 In ancient India, the critical epochs determined by the lunar phases were marked by still other forms of abstinence. In the earliest Vedic period a custom existed of observing two sacred periods in every month, new moon and full moon, with sacrifices to the gods.“ The simpler forms of the rite were gradually ex- tended into an elaborate ritual. Every Brahmanical householder was required to perform two half-monthly sacrifices for a period of thirty years after he had set up a home of his own. Accord- ing to some authorities these sacrifices were obligatory for the rest of his life. The ceremony usually occupied the greater part of two consecutive days. Whilst the first day was to be chiefly occupied with preparatory rites and the taking of the vow of abstinence by the sacrificer and his wife, the second day was reserved for the main performance of the ceremony.”* The restrictions included abstention from various kinds of food and other carnal pleasures, and the observance of silence throughout the ceremonial. A difference of opinion exists as to the exact days appointed for these rites, though, clearly, they were asso- ciated with new and full moon. Some native authorities decided in favor of the last two days of each half of the lunar month; but the generality of ritualistic writers considered the first day of the half-month—that is, the first and sixteenth days of the month—to be the proper time for the second or sacrificial rite. Since it was permitted to compress the two-days’ rites of the full- moon sacrifice into one single day, the conjecture is plausible that originally only one day was assigned to the two observances of abstinence and sacrifice.™ Durga, a form of Parvati, seems to have had an ancient connection with the moon. "Martin Haug, The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda, Bombay, 1863, ii. 5; H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, Berlin, 1879, 364 sqg.; A. Hille- brandt, Die altindische Neu- und Vollmondsopfer, Jena, 1880. The new- moon day was called darsa, the day of the full moon, purnamasa. "The first day was called upavasatha, a fasting or fast-day (cf. San- skrit, wpa, an adverbial adjunct, signifying to refrain from, abstain, hence, to fast). The second day’s ceremony was known as the darsapurnamdasa sacrifice. ® Julius Eggeling, The Satapatha-Brahmana, i. 1, 1, 1 sqq. (Sacred 77 78 Hutton Webster The ritualistic requirements for this ceremony do not include the cessation of labor by the Brahmanical householder and his family. It might, therefore, be argued that the new and full moon observances were not originally dictated by a superstitious regard for the lunar phases. The fasting on the upavasatha day would then be merely a rite preliminary to the sacrifice on the following day; the association of the two ceremonies with new and full moon would mean only that these two divisions of a lunar month were chosen as convenient and conspicuous periods for the performance of religious duties. That many so-called lunar festivals have no connection with such lunar superstitions as have been described, is a proposition so obvious as to require no demonstration. To the present instance, however, these con- siderations can scarcely apply. It is well known that the upava- satha was a fast preparatory to the offering of the “ moon plant,” the intoxicating soma, whose personification and deification are assigned to a date earlier than that of the Vedas themselves. In the Rig Veda soma is occasionally identified with the moon; ac- cording to some authorities soma, everywhere in the Rig Veda, means the moon. During post-Vedic times, in any case, the moon-god was regularly conceived as represented on earth by the mysterious soma plant.** During this later period the regula- tions previously cited for non-reading days to be observed by pious Brahmans show clearly that the moon’s changes were held in superstitious regard as times peculiarly dangerous or polluting ; such beliefs, leading to the cessation of labor at new and full moon, are even now current in various parts of India (supra). The Buddhist sabbath or wposatha falls on the day of the full Books of the East, xii. 1 sq., cf., also 374 sq.). In the Institutes of Vishnu (xlvii. 3) the new moon is a penitential fast day (S. B. E. vii. 152). Vari- ous lunar penances are described in Manu, xi. 217 sqqg. For modern Brah- mans the new and full moon days are regularly fast days (Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs, and Cermonies, Oxford, 1906, p. 270). * A. Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, Breslau, 1891, i. 267 sqq., 336 sqq.; E. W. Hopkins, Religions of India, Boston, 1895, pp. 112 sqq. Cf. also, Sacred Books of the East, xii. 176 sqq. (Satapatha Brahmana, i. 6, 4, 5 sqq.). Rest Days; A Sociological Study 79 moon, on the day when there is no moon, and on the two days which are eighth from the full and new moon. On these days selling and buying, work and business, hunting and fishing, are forbidden, and all schools and law-courts are closed. The upo- satha has always been a fast-day from sunrise to sunset; hence, as no cooking is allowed to taint its sanctity, the Buddhist pre- pares his evening meal in the early morning before the sun appears.”° Although Buddhism died out in India, its ancient home, Bud- dhist missionaries from Ceylon carried the new faith to Burma in the fifth century A. D., whence it afterwards penetrated to Siam. In both these lands the wposatha is still observed. Ac- cording to an old traveller, the “ eighth day of the increasing moon, the fifteenth or full moon, the eighth of the decreasing moon, and the last day of the moon, are religiously observed by Birmans as sacred festivals. On these hebdominal (sic) holidays no public business is transacted in the Rhoom: mercantile dealings are sus- pended; handicraft is forbidden; and the strictly pious take no sustenance between the rising and the setting of the sun; but the latter instance of self-denial is not very common, and, as I under- stood, is rarely practiced, except in the metropolis, where the appearance of sanctity is sometimes assumed as a ladder by which the crafty attempt to climb to promotion.’’’® The Siamese sab- bath was also an institution introduced by Buddhist missionaries. “Their Sunday, which they call vampra, is always on the fourth day of the moon; in each month they have two grand ones, at the ®™H. Kern, Der Buddhismus, Leipzig, 1884, ii. 258; R. C. Childers, Dictionary of the Pali Language, London, 1875, p. 535. In Ceylon, the dark day of new moon is péya (supra); full moon, paholawaka; and the eighth day after new and full moon, atawaka (R. S. Hardy, Manual of Budhism, London, 1880, pp. 22, 50, 52). “M. Syme, “ Embassy to Ava,” London, 1800, in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, ix. 507 sq. These “duty days” have been sympathetically described by a recent authority who notes that the second and fourth days, that is, those of full moon and new moon, are the more sacred. The passage of the holy day into the holiday is well illustrated by these Bur- mese sabbaths. See Shway Yoe [Sir J. G. Scott], The Burman: his Life and Notions,’ London, 1910, pp. 217 sqq. 79 80 Hutton Webster new and full moon, and two less solemn, on the seventh and twenty-first. This day does not exempt them from labor, only fishing is forbidden them; and those who transgress this prohi- bition pay a fine and are thrown into prison, for having profaned the sanctity of that day.”"’ There can be no doubt that the uposatha, though widely diffused in southeastern Asia, originated in India where it was based on the ancient Brahmanical rites at new and full moon. According to one Buddhist tradition the monks of the non-Buddhistic sects were accustomed to meet together at the middle and at the close of every half-month for the purpose of proclaiming their teaching in public. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these period- ical meetings on the fourteenth or fifteenth, and eighth day of each half month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha him- self.*8 According to one account the recitation as the Patimokkha The Buddha seems to have wished that the Patimokkha be recited only on the fourteenth or the fifteenth day of each month.®° At this time, however, the custom of observing the eighth day in each lunar fortnight in addition to new moon and full moon was apparently well established in India, a circum- stance which led to the adoption of all four periods by Buddhism.** ™ Turpin, “ History of Siam,” Paris, 1771, in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, ix. 583. I do not understand the reference to the “fourth day” (or night) of the moon. In Cambodia the Buddhist holidays or feast days likewise fall on the eighth, and more especially, the fifteenth day of each fortnight (Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 111, 162). **Rhys Davids and Oldenberg, Mahdvagga, ii. 1 sqq. (Vinaya Texts. Sacred Books of the East, xiii. 239 sqq.). Cf. also Introduction, p. x. of the Buddha’s precepts was to constitute the uposatha service.” ® Mahavagga, ii. 31. ° Ibid., ii. 4, 2. An uposatha service on the fourteenth day of a short month was to be followed by a celebration on the fifteenth of the following long month, the months consisting of 29 and 30 days in alternation (cf. abid., ii. 34, 1). *'The eighth day of the waning moon (dsfak@) is distinctly mentioned in the Vedas as forming with new moon and full moon, the regular festival periods. Cf. Whitney, Atharva-Veda, 15, 16, 2; Zimmer, op. cit., 365; H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, Berlin, 1894, p. 439. Of these 80 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 8I In the Sutta Nipdta, a collection of seventy didactic poems belonging to the Pitakas or sacred books of the southern Bud- dhists, Eight Precepts or moral commandments are enumerated, of which five are binding on every Buddhist, whether mendicant or layman, the remaining three not being obligatory for the laity. The entire eight are said to constitute the eight-fold fast or upo- satha declared by the Buddha; to break any of them on the upo- satha day (the 14th or 15th and 8th day of the lunar fortnight), is considered highly irreligious. Instead of worshipping the moon or observing lunar taboos, the Buddhists were to keep the fast day by a special fulfillment of the moral law; one of the many instances in which Gautama gave a spiritual meaning to an earlier superstitious rite.*? That the wposatha celebrated as a lunar fes- tival with fasting, avoidance of sexual intercourse, refraining from wearing wreaths and using perfumes, and other regulations, should have come to be regarded as also a rest day, seems only a natural outcome of its character as a season of abstinence. The upo- satha is thus discovered amongst the earliest institutions of Bud- dhism; in its origin it could have owed nothing to Jewish or Christian influence; in its diffusion throughout southeastern Asia it appears to have remained unaffected by the influence of Islam. If these conclusions be accepted, the Buddhist Sabbath dates back, remotely, to taboos observed at changes of the moon. the full-moon day seems to have enjoyed most importance (Oldenberg, loc. cit.) and similarly in Buddhism, Cf. Mahd-Sudassana Sutta, i. 11: “On the Sabbath day, on the day of the full moon” (Rhys Davids, Bud- dhist Suttas, S. B. E., xi. 251 sq. Cf. 254 n°). Elsewhere the uposatha service is referred particularly to the fifteenth day, “it being full moon” (Sutta Nipata, iii, 12). “V. Fausboll, The Sutta Nipdta, ii. 14, 19 sqq. (Sacred Books of the East, x. part ii. pp. 65 sq.) ; T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, London, 1890, pp. 137 sqq. It may be noted that the last of the Eight Precepts — “ He should sleep on a mat spread on the ground” (ii. 14, 26) is identical with one of the rites prescribed for the upavasatha where the celebrant is dis- tinctly enjoined to sleep on the gound (or a shake-down of grass, a blanket). See Satapatha Brahmana, i. 1, 1, 11. The prohibition of drink- ing intoxicating liquor (ii. 14, 23) was directed against the ancient soma sacrifice on the second day of the upavasatha ceremony (Sat. Brah. i. 6, 4, 5 sqq.). 8I Se Hutton Webster The lunar festivals found in China have doubtless been affected by contact with Buddhism. In the T‘ang dynasty Buddhist calcu- lators were even invited to undertake an improvement of the imperial calendar. The Chinese Ts‘ing-Kwei, or Regulations of the Priesthood, a Buddhist document, enumerates, among others, four festivals to be kept each month, at new moon and full moon, and on the 8th and 23d days. These are called kin-ming si-chai, ‘‘the four feasts illustriously decreed” ;8* it seems reasonable to regard them as the Chinese variant of the uposatha. Among non- Buddhists there is another custom of observing on the first and. fifteenth of each month a ceremony, anciently in honor of the moon, but now particularly addressed to various deities, especially the gods of wealth. At one time it was customary to sacrifice a bullock to the moon on these days. On the feast day the courts of justice and yamans or government residences, are closed.** This festival, which appears to be of native origin, is now chiefly celebrated as a holiday, though its connection with an early cult of the moon, and perhaps, in remote period, with various lunar taboos, is something more than a conjecture. An old writer tells us that in Japan there are three monthly holidays connected with the moon, though now immovable feasts. “The first is call’d /sitatz, and is the first day of each month. It deserves rather to be call’d a Day of Compliments and mutual Civilities, than a Church or Sunday.” The second holiday is the fifteenth of each month “being the day of the Full-Moon. The Gods of the Country have a greater share in the visits, the Japa- nese make on this day, than their Friends and Relations.” The third festival occurs on the twenty-eighth of each month, “ be- ing the day of the New Moon, or the last day of the decreasing ® Joseph Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, London, 1893, p. 206. Cf. also the posadha rite (Hastings, op. cit. iii. 554). “J. H. Gray, China, London, 1878, i. 263 n’. The well-known Feast of Lanterns comes on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. According to national tradition this is the moon’s birthday. The Japanese Feast of Lanterns, celebrated on the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the old calendar, is included by Professor Frazer among his examples of the periodic expulsion of ghosts (The Golden Bough,’ iii. 86 sq.). "82 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 83 moon. Not near so much regard is had to this, than there is to either of the two former, and the Sintos Temples are very little crowded on it. There is a greater concourse of people on this day at the Budsos [| Buddhist] Temples, it being one of the monthly Holidays sacred to Amida.’’** In Oriental and classical antiquity lunar rites enjoyed a wide diffusion. They formeda familiar feature of the Semitic religions, nor were they unknown to the old Egyptians. The latter held a new moon festival to celebrate the reappearance of that luminary after its temporary obscuration. Herodotus is authority for the statement that the Egyptians also sacrificed pigs to the full moon though they abhorred the use of swine on all other festivals.*® Such ceremonies had doubtless come down from prehistoric times ; and in the light of the numerous analogies elsewhere it is not improbable that they may have been once accompanied by various taboos. Among the Greeks the first of the month was a day of repose, of prayers and offerings to the gods. At rationalistic Athens it would seem as if the burden of the old prohibitions had been gradually relaxed with growing culture ; though public affairs were stispended on the new moon day (Noumenia), the markets were open for business.** Both new moon and full moon appear to have been regular monthly festivals among the Greeks, the former being sacred to Hera who had an ancient connection with the moon. Similarly at Rome all the Calends were consecrated to Juno.*® *°E. Kaempfer, History of Japan, ii. 21 sq. (Glasgow reprint, 1906). Kaempfer, of course, is no very reliable authority on Shintoism, but in this particular instance he may be presumed to have reported the facts with accuracy. * Herodotus, ii. 47. * Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 16; Roscher, in Philologus, 1808, p. 218; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 25. ** Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, 110 sq.; A. Mommsen, Heorto- logie, Leipzig, 1864, p. 2. The position of Hera as a goddess of marriage and childbirth can only be explained by her ancient ré/e as a moon-deity. In Roman mythology Juno was associated with the moon as Juno- Lucina, it being held that she aided women during confinement (Plutarch, Quaest. Rom., 77). In old Egyptian belief the moon was supposed to 83 84 Hutton Webster Traces of the ancient superstitions relating to the moon still linger in European culture. The people of Thermia in the Cy- clades, believe it necessary to suspend all work on the days just preceding the full moon.*® An English antiquarian, previously cited, declares that according to the rules of astrology “it is not good to undertake any Businesse of importance in the new of the moon; and not better just at the Full of the moon; but worst of alin "an, mehipser- sor" V. , LUNAK CALENDAKS I2. LUNAR MONTHS It is sufficiently evident that the alternations of night and day must have furnished man with his most elementary conceptions of the passage of time. A longer cycle was naturally suggested by the lunar phenomena so striking, so obvious, and marked by such easily determinable stages. Theneed of observing the moons, apart from religious or superstitious reasons, was no doubt mainly connected with economic considerations. To the hunting and frugivorous savage it is of supreme importance to be able to anticipate the different periods of the year which bring with them different supplies of natural food; and for this purpose the moons afford a convenient basis of reckoning. Hence we find that quite commonly among primitive peoples the moons are named after the molting, migrating and pairing of animals, or after the bud- ding, blossoming and ripening of the fruits of the earth. Again, most shepherd tribes reckon time by moons. In the pastoral stage it is probable that the necessity of calculating the various periods of gestation and the proper time of breeding so that young animals might be brought into the world at seasons most favorable to their make women fruitful, and the waxing moon to develop the germ in the mother’s body (Brugsch, in Verhandl. Berliner Gesells. f. Anthrop., Ethnol. u. Urgesch., 1880, p. 568. “J. T. Bent, The Cyclades, London, 1885, p. 438. *” Aubrey, op. cit., 85. 84 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 85 health and maintenance, contributed to the observation of the moon and to the formation of lunar calendars.* If the desirability of observing the successive moons was felt by frugivorous and pastoral peoples it will be readily seen how the introduction of agricultural operations, often accompanied by religious ceremonies and festivals, rendered definite and clearly marked divisions of time a matter of the greatest moment. It is therefore probable that rude popular calendars based on the moon were in use long before more accurate observations were made by primitive astronomers.” There is much evidence for the practice of naming the moon months after the different agricultural opera- tions, such as planting and harvesting, which occur in them. Among both Babylonians and Hebrews, for example, the early epithets of the months are connected with agriculture and the farmer’s life.* A survey of the anthropological and historical data indicates that for most primitive peoples as well as for those of archaic civilizations, the moon is the measure of time and that the period of a lunation furnishes the customary unit for longer reckonings. Lunar months and years are general throughout Africa, Poly- nesia and North America; lunar calendars in Mexicoand Yucatan preceded the introduction of the solar year, the ancient Peruvians reckoned by the succession of lunations, as still do the Malagasy, the Arabs and the Chinese. The importance of the moon for the ancient Egyptian and Babylonian calendars is shown by the fact that in the one case the hieroglyph signifying month was repre- sented by a crescent moon, in the other case by the regular use of the sign for thirty to indicate the moon-god Sin. Linguistic *Cf. Payne, History of the New World Called America, Oxford, 1899, ii 327-Sq: * These considerations make it impossible for me to accept M. Hubert’s conclusion that the first calendars were merely almanacs which registered day by day various prognostics and directions of a magico-religious char- acter. See his valuable essay “ Etude sommaire de la représentation du temps dans la religion et la magie,” in Hubert and Mauss, Mélanges dhistoire des religions, Paris, 1900, pp. 228 sq. *Jastrow, op. cit., 462. 85 86 Hutton Webster researches indicate that in most if not all the Indo-European lan- guages the names for moon and month originally coincided. In Max Miiller’s poetical language the moon was “the golden hand on the dark dial of heaven.’”* A lunar month, however, does not necessarily imply a lunar year; the Melanesians, for instance, count by moons, but are said to have no notion of a year as a fixed period of time.® The foundation of yearly reckonings must doubtless be sought in marked seasonal contrasts, or, where these are not found, in the observation of the Pleiades. Their isolated appearance and con- spicuous light have always aroused much attention, and their posi- tion in the sky with respect to seed-time and harvest enabled them to serve as a guide to the agriculturist.° The reckoning by moons, when once formulated, combines readily with the succession of the seasons, as is seen in the original moon-calendar of Mexico, where several of the months bear seasonal names.‘ That lunar reckonings are likewise associated with the Pleiades year may be illustrated by the practice of the Maori, the first month of whose lunar year was determined by the rising of the Pleiades.* In order to adapt the same moons to the same seasons as they successively occurred, or to the cosmical setting and heliacal rising of the Pleiades, the number of moons was usually reckoned at 12, giving the lunar year of 354 (or 355 days).® The period of a lunation seems to have been most frequently *Since this chapter was originally written much valuable material on calendar systems has appeared in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1911, vol. iii. s. v. “ Calendar.” ° Codrington, op. cit., 349. The Veddahs of Ceylon are said not to keep “any account of time,’ reckoning neither months nor years (H. Parker, Ancient Ceylon, London, 1900, pp. 84 sg., 109 sq.). °On the significance of the Pleiades generally see “Die Plejaden im Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum Jahresbeginn und Landbau,” Globus, 1893, Ixiv. no. 22. The thorough investigation of the Pleiades calendars found among primitive peoples would be a useful piece of work. * Payne, op. cit., 11. 3290, for the calendar as conjecturally restored. ‘Shortland, op. cit., 210. ® The lunar year of 12 synodic months is, exactly, 354d. 8h. 48m. 36s. "86 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 87 estimated at 30 days;'® months of that length are found among peoples, such as the Todas, who are unfamiliar with solar reck- onings and whose calendar is strictly lunar.1t. The early Baby- lonian month seems also to have consisted of 30 days.*2 When the moon’s synodic revolution came to be more accurately meas- ured by calculating an average from the number of days com- prized in several successive lunations, the true length (about 29% days)** could be conveniently calendarized only by periods of 29 and 30 days in alternation. Such vacillating months were used by the Maori of New Zealand, they were familiar to the Jews,"* the later Babylonians’® and the Greeks,’® and they are still found among the Arabs and various peoples of southeastern Asia. The Roman arrangement of the months, though based on the lunar year, is sui generis.* * Philo Judaeus speaks of the number thirty as being derived from the notion of the month (De mundi opificio, 19). * Rivers, op. cit., 591. Other illustrations among the ancient Peruvians, the Caroline Islanders (Christian, op. cit., 392 sqq.), etc. * Muss-Arnolt, in Journal of Biblical Literature, xi. 72 sq. In the temple records belonging to the third millenium B. C., found at Telloh, months of 30 days are exclusively employed. * The Mayas are said to have estimated the lunation at 29.526 days, too short by only four thousandths of a day—a truly remarkable achievement (Forstemann, in Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 28, p. 408). The Incan astronomers, however, got no further than the primitive estimate of 30 days; hence their lunar year consisted of 360 days divided into 12 months commencing with the winter solstice. No method appears to have existed by which the reckoning might be coordinated with the succession of years (Payne, op. cit., 11. 330 sqq.; Spence, in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 68 sq.). *E. Schtirer, History of the Jews in the Time of Christ, Edinburgh, 1905, div. i. vol. 1. 367 sqq. *Lehmann, in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthro- pologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 1806, p. 444. * The Greeks never knew the exact mean measurement of a lunation (20d. 12h, 44m. 3s.) and owing to their neglect of the odd minutes and seconds in the true lunation they were obliged to intercalate an extra day every 32 or 33 months. From a passage of Aristophanes in the “ Clouds” it would appear that this duty was not always performed (Nubes, 610 sqq.). “The Roman lunar year of 355 days, consisted of 12 months, March, 87 88 Hutton Webster It is unnecessary, in this connection, to discuss fully the various methods which have been employed to adjust the lunar year to the tropic or seasonal year. One expedient is the counting of thirteen lunar months to the year, a practice found among some tribes of North America as well as in Polynesia, Siberia, and Africas A year of 13 lunar months gets even more quickly out of harmony with the seasons and the course of the sun; hence arose the practice of intercalating the thirteenth month, usually in every second or third year.4® Familiar illustrations are furnished by the Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks; among modern peoples by the natives of Burma, Siam, and China. The methods of intercalation employed are historically numerous, the details often obscure, and in no instance were the results wholly successful. The difficulties arising from such attempts to codrdinate incommensurable periods must have been the prime cause of the adoption of calendars in which the month, instead of denoting the moon’s synodic revolution, was given an May, July, and October having 31 days, and the rest 290, except February, which had 28 days. All the months, therefore, had an odd number of days, save February which was specially devoted to purification and the cult of the dead. This peculiar arrangement of the months appears to have been based on an old superstition that odd numbers are of good omen, even numbers of ill omen (Fowler, Roman Festivals, 3; Th. Mommsen, Die rémische Chronologie bis auf Caesar, Berlin, 1858, p. 13; Marquardt-Wissowa, Rémische Staatsverwaltung,’ iii. 284). Possibly, the choice of 355 days rather than 354 days as the length of the lunar year, was dictated by similar considerations (L. Holzapfel, Rodmische Chrono- logie, Leipzig, 1885, p. 281). * The Thompson Indians of British Columbia grouped their lunar months into five seasons, an arrangement which enabled them to bring the lunar and tropic year into harmony, since they had an indefinite number of unnamed months (Teit, in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, ii. 239). Five seasons were familiar to the ancient Hindus (Haug, Aitareya Brahmanam, ii. 6, 39). ” The thirteenth or intercalary month, mentioned in the Rig Veda, bears a distinctly unfavorable character, being regarded as unfit for any religious undertaking (Haug, Aitareya Brahmanam, ii. 26). Among the Loango negroes the thirteenth month, intercalated every three years, likewise is regarded as an evil time (Pechuél-Loesche, in Die Loango-Expedition, dritte Abteilung, erste Halfte, Stuttgart, 1907, pp. 138 sq.). 88 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 89 arbitrary number of days approaching the twelfth part of a solar year. Peoples who reckon by moons naturally begin their lunar month with the first appearance of the luminous crescent in the western sky.2° The real new moon being invisible during two or three days, various expedients are resorted to for the pur- pose of ensuring regularity in lunar reckonings. Thus the Todas, whose year consists of twelve months each of thirty days, keep a record of the number of days from one new moon to the full moon and from that to the next new moon. The full moon is counted as being on the fifteenth day after the new moon, and the new moon as being on the sixteenth day after the full moon.2?. The Basuto begin their month on the day when the new moon is visible, though they count two more days when the moon cannot be seen at all in the heavens.“ Among the Romans the day of the new moon, Kalendae, “the proclaiming day” (calare), was so called because in early times the pontiffs had been accustomed to announce in the presence of the people, ” This custom affords the explanation of the widespread practice of beginning the civil day at sunset or, more accurately, in the interval between the going down of the sun and complete darkness. The neces- sities of a calendar system requiring that the first day of the month should be counted from the same moment that the month itself is supposed to begin, it follows that the other days of the month are likewise calculated from evening to evening. The noctidiurnal cycle may be observed among such widely separated peoples as the Maori, the Yorubas of West Africa, and the Malagasy. The Babylonian day bégan with the evening, and this is still the practice throughout the Mohammedan world. The Jewish com- munities of the present in commencing their ritual day in the evening, retain a practice illustrated by several Old Testament passages (Genesis, i. 5; Psalms, lv. 17). Various festivals such as the Sabbath and Day of Atonement were so arranged as to begin with and end with the evening. Among most of the Indo-Germanic peoples the civil day or nycthemeron commenced at sunset; and this custom was not abandoned in Italy and some other parts of Europe until about a century ago. Our English words “fortnight ” and “sennight” contain reminiscences of a similar practice. * Rivers, op. cit., 500 sqq. =J. Sechefo, “The Twelve Lunar Months among the Basuto,” Anthropos, 1909, iv. 931 sqq. The author is a native Basuto. 89 rere) Hutton Webster whether five or seven days were to be reckoned from the Calends to the day of the first quarter.22 In Babylonia, where the month began in theory on the day when the new moon was visible, and where the lunar movements were also followed with great attention for astrological purposes, the royal astronomers sent regular reports to the king as to the appearance or non- appearance of the new moon.*4 13. LUNAR WEEKS The lunar month which in rude communities provides a satis- factory chronological unit does not meet the needs of an ad- vancing society. Shorter periods become desirable, both for the regulation of religious festivals and for the ordering of markets and business engagements. In some instances brief cycles of 3 and 4 days may have been arbitrarily determined without ref- erence to the moon. In west Africa, however, we frequently find the month divided into seven weeks of four days each (supra), a circumstance indicating that the week is now regarded as a division of the lunation. An 11-day period which, indeed, would make an unsatisfactory division of the lunation, appears to be unknown. A vulgar cycle of 12 days is still used in China, the number twelve having been suggested, probably, by the num- ber of months in the year.2® A similar explanation may hold good for the 13-day period of the Mexicans, who appear to have %Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 15, 9; Varro, De lingua Latina, 6, 27; Mommsen, Rémische Chronologie, 16 sq. *R. C. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astronomers of Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1900, ii. p. xviti sg. Cf. Ginzel, in Klio, I90I, i. 193, who refers to the observations made of the length of time during which the new moon was visible in the evening on the first of the month. * The cycle has some connection with astrology and is doubtless of late development. See Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 84. counted thirteen months to the lunar year.2® Since new moon **7 de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii. 393, 396; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific Coast, ii. 515; Payne, op. cit., ii. 310, 323 sqqg. Mr. Payne however, suggests as a factor leading to the choice of the number 13, the recognition gO Rest Days; A Sociological Study gI and full moon form the most conspicuous lunar phases it has been a common practice among peoples, some of whom have no regular civil weeks, nevertheless to recognize two periods in the lunar month as marked by the waxing and by the waning moon Such a two-fold division was familiar to the ancient Hindus and Persians, to the oldest Greeks and Romans.2* Among the Ger- mans the new and full moon appear as the most prominent lunar phases.2* The division of the lunation into two parts, the one of 15 days, the other of 14 or 15 days, according as the month had 29 or 30 days, is clearly indicated for the Celtic peoples.°° of thirteen visible phases of the moon’s increase (Mex. mextozolistli, the moon’s waxing) and thirteen phases of her decrease (mecochiliztli, the moon’s sleep). ‘From employing the 13 seasonal names of moons to denote the series of days thus enumerated it is an easy transition to a continuous reckoning by cycles of 13 days perpetually denoted in the same way; and a perpetual cycle thus established formed a true calendar” (op. cit., ii. 356). Some other less plausible reasons for the selection of the number 13 are considered by Mr. C. P. Bowditch, The Numeration, Calendar Systems, and Astronomical Knowledge of the Mayas, Cambridge, [Mass.], 1910, pp. 266 sq. In some pueblos the markets were held every 13th day; a circumstance which has been rightly regarded as relating back to times when the 13-day cycle was the only one known (Payne, op. cit., ii. 368). The later cycle of 5 days found among the Mexicans and Mayas may be regarded simply as a convenient division of the 20-day periods, eighteen of which were counted in the solar year. (Brinton, “ The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1893, xxxi. 262 sqq.). On the market-day which closed each 5-day period see supra. ™ Schrader, Reallerikon, s. v. “Mond und Monat”; H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, Berlin, 1879, p. 364. Modern Hindus divide the month into two parts called pukh, or fortnights. The first is called badi, reckon- ing from the first to the fifteenth, which day is called amavus, answering to the Roman Ides, and is held in great sanctity. The second division is called sudi, from full moon to new moon (Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, s. uv. “Month”). The days of the month are thus reckoned by the increasing and decreasing moon (supra). For a similar bipartite division of the month in Cambodia and Siam see Hastings, op. cit., iii. III, 113, 136. * Tacitus, Germania, 11 (cum aut inchoatur luna aut impletur). ” Loth, in Revue celtique, 1904, xxv. 131; Thurneysen, in Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 191. In the Calendar of Coligny between gl 92 Hutton Webster Our English “ fortnight” (O. E. fedwertyne mht) preserves the memory of a similar practice. Peoples sufficiently developed in culture to require weekly cycles being already familiar with the length of the moon’s syno- dic revolution,*° it is reasonable to assume that in most, perhaps all, cases civil weeks of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 days would arise as divisions, either of the true lunation or of the conventional month. The origin and early history of the week, remain, however, in- volved in much obscurity. W. H. Roscher, whose extensive re- searches have greatly contributed to our knowledge of the sub- ject, argues that the sidereal month (averaging 27d. 7h. 43m. T1.55s.) and the “light” month or period of the visible moon (assuming this at 28d.), have furnished the basis for the 9-day and 7-day divisions; the synodic month the basis for the division into 3 decades.*t This ingenious explanation is open to several objections. The calculation of the sidereal month implies an extent of astronomical knowledge which can scarcely be pred- icated of the peoples who have employed 9-day divisions. Again, the length of the “light month” is a highly variable quantity which cannot be said even to average 28 days. As a matter of fact months of 27 and 28 days which we should ex- pect to find associated with the 9- and 7-day divisions are very rare. By far the commoner arrangement is the calendarizing of the lunation by alternate periods of 29 and 30 days for the reasons mentioned above. Still another objection to Roscher’s theories requires more extended discussion. Since the lunar month begins with the new moon it follows each part is placed in large letters the word ATENOUX, indicating the night of the full moon, “ great night” (Hastings, op. cit., 11i. 82). “°° The synodic revolution of the moon is the time between two successive conjunctions with the sun, and may be measured from new moon to new moon or from full to full. It varies about 13 hours by reason of eccen- tricities of the moon’s orbit and of that of the earth about the sun, but its mean value is 20d. 12h. 44m. 3s. *°“ Tie enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der altesten Griechen,” Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der kéniglich-séchsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1903, xxi. no. 4, Dp. 5 sq., 14, 68 sq. Rest Days; A Sociological Study 93 that the divisions of the month begin likewise with the new moon, and the first day of the month is at the same time the first day of the first week in the month, the last day of the month is the last day of the last week. Thus the Yoruba week consists of 5 days, and six of them are supposed to make a lunar month. Asa matter of fact, since the first day of the first week always commences with the appearance of the new moon, the month really contains five weeks of 5 days’ duration, and one of four days and a-half, approximately. The Yoruba tribes, choos- ing thirty as the number to be divided, have been obliged to de- duct some twelve hours from the last 5-day week in order to make six of these periods agree with the lunar (synodic) month.** Again, the Tshi tribes of the Gold Coast, having chosen 7-day weeks, find it riecessary to begin them at different hours of the day. Consequently some of their periods, termed n ehsiin, “ It is seven,” may have eight days and six nights, others the reverse, and others seven days and nights, with a fractional part of a day or night.** The same difficulties were experienced by the Ahantas of the western districts of the Gold Coast who divide the lunar month into three periods, two of ten days’ dura- tion, and the third lasting until the next new moon appears, that is, for about nine days and a half.** The Sofalese of east Africa must have had the same system, for they are said to have . divided the month into three periods of 10 days each, the first day of the first week being the festival of the new moon.** The * Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 143 sq. The Benin tribes are said to employ the same method of reckoning. Idem, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, 215 sq. The Ga tribes have an exactly similar mode of measuring time, though their names for the days of the week are not the same as those used by the Tshi. With both the Tshis and Gas the full moon marks the commencement of the third week of 73 days, and with the Yorubas, the commencement of the fourth week of 5 days, in each case marking the lapse of half a month. *Tdem, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 144. The first period, called adai, is considered lucky; the second, called ajamfo, unlucky; adim, the third period, bears a neutral character (John Beecham, Ashantee and the wine Coast, London, 1841, p. 187. *® De Faria, in Astley’s Voyages and Travels, iii. 397. 93 94 Hutton Webster Maori of New Zealand who likewise reckoned by decades, thirty- six to the year,*® were doubtless obliged to count only nine days in their third and last decade, when the alternating sequence of 29 and 30 day months gave them 29 days in their lunar month. All this procedure is especially significant since it illustrates the expedients which have been used by primitive peoples whose months and weeks are both strictly lunar, to overcome the diffi- culty presented by the fact that the length of a lunation is an odd number, not yielding to subdivision into exactly equal parts. It is a mark of late development when the divisions of the month, as the Roman nundinal period, and the Jewish seven-day week, run continuously through the year. _ Bearing in mind this evidence yielded by contemporary or almost contemporary races belonging to the lower culture, we may approach the more difficult problem involved in the consid- eration of the cycles used among historical peoples. We begin with the division into decades employed by the ancient Peruvians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians.** It seems reasonable to regard such 10-day cycles, like those of the primitive peoples just men- tioned, as originating in the desire to find a convenient division of the lunar month, a division perhaps suggested by the increase, culmination, and decrease of the moon, as shown by the waxing crescent, the more or less full disk, and the waning crescent. If it be held that the arrangement by decades was rather suggested by denary arithmetic, we may at least feel confident that it would not have been chosen except for its close approximation to the length of the lunar month. Asa matter of fact such a sequence represents the true course of the lunation in days more correctly Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, 177; cf. Waitz-Gerland, op. cit., vi. 72. In some of the Caroline Islands we find, not decades, but a curious three-fold division, evidently associated with the moon. Thus at Yap the 30-day month is divided into pul—=new moon (1-13 days), botrau full moon (14-23 days), lumor = darkness (23-30 days). See Christian, op. cit., 304. "The Chinese have no formal division of the month, but it is a common practice among them to speak of anything as happening in the first, middle, or third (last) decade (Hastings, op. cit., ili. 83). A similar arrangement prevailed in Japan (ibid., 115). 94 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 95 than a 9-day, or an 8-day, or even a 7-day week. The Peruvian cycle, already noticed, formed merely a division of the primi- tive 30-day lunar month (supra). The decades of the ancient Egyptians,** being divisions of the conventional 30-day month, must have run periodically from month to month, save as inter- rupted by the five epagomenal days required to make up the solar year. They were known as the decade of the beginning (hati), that of the middle (abi), and that of the end (pahu), a characterization which may have once had reference to three lunar phases. But since these names were in use as early as the Xth dynasty, inquiry into their origin becomes a matter of specu- lation. On the other hand, the Greek decades,*® betray in their names, pyv torapevos (waxing), peo@v (central), and $@vev (wan- ing), an association with the moon. The days of the last decade were usually counted backwards; in “hollow” months, the day corresponding to the 29th of “ full”? months was omitted, so that the decade really contained only nine days. At Athens the last day of the third decade was styled @ zai vea (“old and new moon”’), as being the day which belonged half to one (theoretical) month of 29% days, and half to the next. No clearer illustration could be afforded of lunar weeks adjusted to the lunar month.*° The evidence for the existence of 9-day cycles is very obscure. Some negroes of the Guinea coast are said to employ them.** SC. R. Lepsius, Die Chronologie der Aegypter, Berlin, 1849, i. 22, 132 sqq.; Foucart, “ Calendar (Egyptian),”’ in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Reli- gion and Ethics, iii. 92, 105. * A. Mommsen, Chronologie, Untersuchungen tiber das Kalenderwesen der Griechen, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 43 sqq.; Unger, in Iwan von Miiller’s Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, i. 563 sq. “Tt has been already noticed (supra) that the early Greeks recog- nized a twofold division of the month which was marked by the day of full moon—éxounvlia—on the 15th day. Popular custom continued to ob- serve the 15th as full moon day, although after the introduction of the sequence of 29 and 30 days, the day of full moon in “hollow” months fell on the 14th day except when an extra day was intercalated every 32 or 33 months (Unger, op. cit., 563). “H. Schurtz, Urgeschichte der Kultur, Leipzig, 1900, p. 633. 95 g6 Hutton Webster Roscher believes he has found traces of 9-day periods among various Indo-Germanic peoples, particularly the Greeks of the Homeric and pre-Homeric age.*? It cannot be conclusively shown, however, that the numerous illustrations of 9-day periods given by him were ever employed for civil purposes as regular divisions of the month.** London, 1830, i. 475. As in Africa the principal use of the Javanese week was to determine the markets or fairs held in the important towns. Each day had its distinc- tive name—laggi, pahing, pon, wagi, kliwon. The natives considered these names to have a mystical relation to colors and the divisions of the horizon, the first day (white, east), the second (red, south), the third (yellow, west), the fourth (black, north), and the fifth day a mixed color or center (John Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, Edin- burgh, 1820, i. 289 sqg.). These fancies must be explained by the color symbolism which so frequently attaches to the cardinal points. Pp. B. Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, New York, 1889, i. 37 sg.; Vig- fusson, Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1874, s. v. “fimt.” Cf. also F. B. Gummere, Germanic Origins, New York, 1802, p. 418. = Sayce, in Proceedings of the Seciety of Biblical Archaeology, 1897, xix. 288; H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1808, i1. 95 sqq.; Jensen, “ Die siebentagige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” Zeit- schrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 150 sq. ® Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, ili. 55, no. 3, 17 $qq. 98 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 99 view of the analogies elsewhere, that this connection with the lunar phases is secondary and hence less ancient than the division into five-day periods. The cuneiform texts of a much later period also contain traces of the JamusStu which Jensen thinks was then a periodic week running unbroken through the year. In that case the hamustwu had become disassociated from the moon and the lunar month. The entire subject is obscure and may well await future discoveries for its complete elucidation.** I4. THE HEBDOMADAL CYCLE In the preceding pages much evidence has been presented to show how carefully various primitive races watch the changes of the moon and describe them by appropriate names (supra). The lunar phases form an easy means of calculating the passage of time; and we often find them employed for chronological pur- poses where civil weeks are unknown. Thus the natives of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, New Guinea, employ for all time units greater than a day, the phases of the moon.*? The Dayaks of Borneo, who have no true weeks, are nevertheless said “ to reckon their time by the full moon, half-moon, and new moon.’ *Tn the Mah Yast, 4, occurs the statement: “ We sacrifice unto the new moon, the full moons, and the Vishaptathas.” According to the editor (Darmesteter, in Sacred Books of the East, xxiii. 90 n.°), new moon and full moon are not used here with their usual significance, but the passage refers to the division of the month into six parts of five days, the first part forming new moon, the second a period answering, in a measure, to first quarter, and the third, which belonged to full moon, being called the Vishaptatha. If this interpretation be correct the Persians at the time the Yasts were written recognized a sor: of 5-day week, which may show Babylonian influence. Cf. Mah Yast, 2: “ For fifteen days does the moon wax; for fifteen days does the moon wane.” The Avesta month consisted of thirty days, the first, eighth, fifteenth, and twenty-third, being dedicated to Ahuramazda (W. Geiger, Civilization of the Eastern Iranians, London, 1885, i. 146 n.*). * B. Hagen, Unter den Papua’s, Wiesbaden, 1899, p. 244. °C. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo,? London, 1882, p. 212. The Bontoc Igorot “seldom count time by the phases of the moon” (Jenks, op. cit., i 210). 99 100 Hutton Webster Similarly, the south Arabians determine the day of the month by observation of the moon’s phases, the first quarter being called, for example, the 7th day, the last quarter, the 21st day.°’ Of the American Indians it is said generally that the “ alternations of day and night and the changes of the moon and the seasons formed the bases of their [calendar] systems.”°* When new moon and full moon are recognized as supplying the two-fold division of the month, it is a natural step, if shorter cycles are desired, to find them by quartering the lunation, a subdivision rendered both obvious and easy by the two half moons. We still speak of the “quarters” of the moon. The length of a lunation being approximately 29% days, a fourth of this period occupies about 73¢ days. In such a matter it is necessary to employ round numbers; the Roman nundinal period of eight days (supra) probably expresses one method of calen- darizing the quarter of a lunation, the seven-day week the other and more accurate division. It is scarcely an argument against the natural origin of the hebdomadal cycle to urge that because seven days do not form an exact division of the lunar month, that period could not have been chosen with such a purpose in view.°?> No other number will divide the lunation without a remainder. Accordingly, the first method of reckoning the seven- day week (as of all other cycles) was to commence with new moon and count successively seven, foprteen, twenty-one, and twenty-eight days, either leaving over as epagomenal, one or two days at the end, or resolving the difficulty by beginning the weeks at different hours of the day, the somewhat complicated device of certain primitive peoples (supra). Such lunar weeks are true divisions of the lunar month. The history of the seven-day week introduces a variety of * Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion, 85, referring to Dr. Glaser’s observations. ‘ ** Thomas, “Calendar,” Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 30, part i. p. 189. No civil weeks have been discovered among even the most advanced of the American tribes. * F. Ruhl, Chronologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, Berlin, 1897, p. 50. ‘100 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 101 obscure and difficult problems. The fact that the hebdomadal cycle, though naturally suggested by the four lunar phases, is possibly absent from the lower culture except as a borrowed institution, itself requires explanation. Here it may be suffh- cient to observe that a period of seven days, in comparison with other cycles which might be chosen, furnishes an unsatisfactory divisor of the lunation, falling short of a quarter of a month by more than nine hours. The five- and ten-day periods provide better lunar weeks, a circumstance which may be taken to account for their wide diffusion (supra). There is no certain evidence of a seven-day week which cannot be traced back ultimately to Semitic antiquity. Thus in India it appears to have been introduced probably as late as the sixth century of our era, by Greek astronomers to whom the planetary week (infra) was already a familiar institution. The modern Tamil and Urdu names of the week days are derived from the names of the sun, moon, and five planets.°° The hebdomadal cycle employed in Burma, Siam, Annam and Cambodia was no doubt introduced by Indian Buddhists.*t The seven-day week in China was also taken over from India, probably by the Buddhist missionaries.*2 The Mohammedan conquest of India, beginning with the invasion of the Punjaub in the seventh century, must have introduced the same septenary period into regions where it had not previously found entrance; in Malaysia, it is certainly °F. Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, London, 1885, s. vv. “ Month,” “Week.” * Pinkerton, op. cit., ix. 506 (Burma) ; idem, ix. 583 (Siam); Hastings, op. cit., iii. 113, 350 (Cambodia and Annam). “In the 8th century A.D., a Chinese document, kieu-chi-li, based on an Hindu original, apportions the days of the week to the sun, moon, and five planets in the well known astrological order. In some Chinese almanacs, Sunday is called the day of Mit=—=Mithra, the Sun. See Alexander Wylie, “On the Knowledge of the Weekly Sabbath in China,” Chinese Researches, Shanghai, 1897, pp. 86-101; J. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism,’ London, 1893, p. 211. In old Japan the week was unknown, the present seven-day week, with Sunday as an official holiday, being only recently introduced (Hastings, ili. 115). IOI 102 Hutton Webster the outcome of the expansion of Islam.°* Thus it has been already noticed (supra) that the Javanese dropped their five-day week for the Mohammedan cycle; in the case of the Achehnese, who form a kingdom in Sumatra, not only has the seven-day week been borrowed but the people go so far as to make Friday, the Mohammedan sabbath,** a day pantang for all agricultural work, pantang being the native term for tabu.* In another part of the world, on the west African coast, a seven-day week is employed by the Tshi- and Ga-speaking tribes, but here the evidence less certainly supports a theory of borrow- ing.°® The Tshi- and Ga-cycles are strictly lunar, and do not run continuously through the year. Moreover, the other tribes of the Guinea coast employ cycles of five, six, eight, nine, and ten days which are undoubtedly of native origin. It is true that Mohammedan states were formed to the north of the forest country of the Gold Coast as early as the eleventh century after the Christian era; and it may be argued therefore that the west African seven-day week was taken over from Islam as appears to have been the case with the Mohammedan Mandingoes of Senegambia who have the same institution.°* One would sup- “ Waitz, op. cit., v. 169. For the astrological significance of the 7-day week among the Malays see W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic. London, 1900, pp. 548 sq. “The Koran contains no directions for the religious observance of Saturday or Sunday, but on Friday (Jum‘ah, the Day of Assembly) the people are directed to gather in the chief mosques for prayer and other exercises (T. P. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, London, 1885, pp. 131, 666). °C. S. Hurgronje, The Achehnesc, Leiden, 1906, i. 261, 236. Cf. supra on the similar Polynesian naming of the Christian Sabbath. “Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, 215 sq.; idem, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 142 sq. Ellis regarded the hebdomadal cycle in West Africa as purely of native origin (Tshi, 217). See also B. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, London, 1853, ii. 189 sq. *R. Caillié, Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo, London, 1830, i. 346.. The market-day among the Mandingoes is held once every week as in west Africa. I have not been able to discover whether the Mandingoe week is periodic or lunar. If the former is found then the argument for the native origin of the Tshi lunar 7-day week would be much strengthened. 102 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 103 pose, however, that if borrowed, the Tshi seven-day week would run continuously through the months and the year instead of being so carefully adjusted to the length of the lunation. The investigation of the weeks used by peoples in the lower culture has been much neglected, and it would be interesting to learn if any other hebdomadal cycles can be found where no possibility of foreign influence exists. With the exception of the west African week, it seems cer- tain that all other examples of a seven-day week can be traced back to Oriental antiquity. It is highly probable that the hebdomadal cycle found among the Arabians is pre-Islamic; whether it was borrowed by them from the Hebrews or, as some Semitic scholars believe, from the Aramaeans, is a disputed question.** It is even possible that the institution in Arabia was of native origin. Still other authorities have looked to Babylonia as the center whence the knowledge and use of the seven-day week was spread eastwards into Persia, westwards into Syria, Palestine and Arabia.*° Whatever hypothesis be accepted, for the origin of the hebdomadal cycle employed for civil pur- poses we are brought back to the regions of anterior Asia in- habited by Semitic peoples in antiquity. f. fHE BABYLONIAN “EVIL. DAYS” AND SABATTU ‘ 15, THE ‘EVIL “DAYS * The late George Smith, fortunate above most explorers in the interest excited by his researches, when working over the cunei- * Néldeke, “ Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Semiten,” Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 162. ® Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion, 52 sqq. Since none of the ancient Arabian inscriptions contain a hemerology we have no monu- mental evidence as to the division of the month. The Harranians in Christian times appear to have reckoned in true lunar weeks and months (Nielsen, op. cit., 79). ®E. Schrader, “ Der babylonische Ursprung der siebentigigen Woche,” Theologische Studien und Kritiken, 1874, xlvii. 343-53. 103 104 Hutton Webster form literature in the British Museum found a tablet which referred to certain days of abstinence observed in ancient Meso- potamia. He writes: “In the year 1869, I discovered among other things a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days or ‘Sabbaths,’ are marked out as days on which no work should be undertaken.’’t Shortly after this striking announcement Sir Henry Rawlinson published a portion of a calendar, the transcript of a much more ancient Babylonian original, which had been made by order of Asshurbanipal and placed in his royal library at Nineveh. The calendar, which is complete for the thirteenth or intercalary month called Elul I, and for Marcheswan, the eighth month of the Babylonian year, takes up the thirty days in succession and indicates the deity to which each day is sacred and what sacri- fices or precautionary measures are necessary for each day. All the days are styled “ favorable,” an expression which must indi- cate a pious hope, not a fact, since the words t-hulgala or wmu limnu (“the evil day”) are particularly applied to the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth days. Such days would seem therefore to have possessed an indeterminate character: though naturally evil or unlucky, they could be made favorable or at least innocuous, provided the rules for their ob- servance were faithfully followed. The second Elui, being an intercalated month, might be thought to have enjoyed a special significance, as intercalary months have had elsewhere (supra) ; but such an hypothesis will not explain the inclusion of the month Marcheswan in the calendar. Hence it is highly probable * Assyrian Discoveries,’ London, 1883, p. 12. *Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, London, 1875, vol. iv, pls. 32-33. A complete translation was given by Sayce, Records of the Past, London, 1876, Ist ser., vii. 157-68. Cf. also Zimmern, in E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,’ Berlin, 1903, pp. 503 sqqg. The complete series consisted of fifteen tablets. Of these, nos. 2 (II Nisan), 4 (Sivan), 8 (II Elul), 10 (Marcheswan), 12 (Tebeth), 13 (Shebat), and 15 (II Adar), have survived, in full or in part, but only tablets 8 and 10 have so far been published. 104 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 105 that at one time the other months were similarly marked, though as yet there is no certain evidence for the observance of the five “evil days” in all the months of the Babylonian year. The choice of the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty- eighth days has obviously some relation to the number seven and its multiples. The difficulty which arises with respect to the inclusion of the nineteenth day has been solved to the satisfaction of most scholars by the suggestion that the nineteenth day was regarded as seven times the seventh day (7. e., the forty-ninth from the first of the preceding month). The nineteenth day marked a “week of weeks.’ With regard to the reasons which dictated the choice of the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, two radically divergent views have been entertained. It has been argued, in the first place, that the “evil days” were selected as corresponding to the moon’s successive changes; hence that the seventh day marks the close of the earliest form of the seven- day week, a week bound up with the lunar phases. According to a second opinion, the setting apart of every seventh day was due to a belief in the sanctity of the number seven among the Babylonians ; hence the seven-day cycles were not regarded origi- nally as quarters of the lunar month but rather as periods con- taining the sacred number of seven days, which, as a mere coin- cidence, happened to be roughly the fourth part of a lunation.* The latter hypothesis deserves extended consideration. Cf. Jensen, “Die siebentagige Woche in Babylon und Nineveh,” Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 152. The celebration of the nineteenth day may be further explained as the outcome of an old custom of reckoning by double months of sixty days. The fact is of considerable importance since it indicates that the nineteenth day was not divorced from the moon, being reckoned, as the other “evil” days, from ‘new moon. Hommel has recently sought to show that in long months of 30 days the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth were regu- larly observed, in short 29-day months, the fifth, twelfth, nineteenth [and twenth-sixth?]. But this is pure speculation (“‘ Calendar [Babylonian],” in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1911, iti. 76). *For this second view cf. F. Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, London, 1903, pp. IOI sq. 105 106 Hutton Webster a. The Cult of Seven and the Planetary Week It is a familiar fact that various races have attached a special significance to certain numbers as good or evil, lucky or unlucky. To the primitive mind numbers, as well as names, are realities possessing their own proper virtue. To the number seven, in particular, a special importance has been ascribed by many peoples widely separated in space and time.® Were that number found predominantly among peoples who have a seven-day week we might be justified in always associating the two. The Todas, for example, attach a marked significance to the number seven and they also have a seven-day week.* On the other hand the west African peoples who employ an hebdomadal cycle do not to my knowledge consider seven a sacred number. Seven, again, is one of the Nandi unlucky numbers; among the Akikuyu of British East Africa, it is of all numbers the most unlucky in divination: but neither of these peoples has a seven-day week.* The same may be said of the Sea Dayaks, whose favorite number, after three, is seven... In the opinion of most Americanists the sanctity of seven amongst many Indian tribes is the outgrowth of cosmical conceptions of the four cardinal points, reinforced by conceptions of a central, an upper, and a lower world.® *>For a useful collection of evidence see von Adrian, “ Die Siebenzahl im Geistesleben der Volker,” Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesell- schaft in Wien, 1901, xxxi. 225-74. ° Rivers, op. cit., 415. "Hollis, op. cit., 89; W. S. and Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, 264, 274. * Brooke Low, in H. L. Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, London, 1906, i. 23. °In New Mexico the Zufi priests preserve a ceremonial diagram of the 7 “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 cult of 7 among the Indians see J. W. Powell, in Cushing, Zuni Folk Tales, New York, 1901, pp. xii. sqg.; Hagar, in Boas Anniversary Volume, New York, 1906, p. 361 (Cherokee); Dorsey, in Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 397 (Osage, Kansa, Omaha, Dakota and Ponka tribes). Cf. also Brinton, “ The Origin of Sacred Numbers,” American 106 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 107 Whether these considerations can with safety be applied outside the American area is highly doubtful. Roscher’s exhaustive investigations have conclusively shown that the number seven enjoyed a mystic significance very early in Greek life, being especially prominent in the cults of Apollo and Dionysus.t? The learned author believes that the important role of seven is to be found in its use as a divisor of the “light” month of twenty-eight days, this being in turn connected with the mysterious influence which the moon has been supposed to exert on nature and on human life.1t He points out further that the old Pythagoreans in their philosophical and mathematical specula- tions appear to have recognized the seven-day period as arising from the quartering of the lunar month.1? The influence of Babylonian astrological conceptions based on the cult of the seven planets must be certainly attributed to a subsequent period of Greek history. Their introduction only served to reinforce ideas Anthropologist, 1894, vii. 168-73; idem, Myths of the New World, Phila- delphia, 1896, pp. 83 sqqg. A suggestive but highly speculative treatment has been given by W J McGee (“ Primitive Numbers,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 821-52), who believes that the germs of the number-concept starting with the Halves and advancing to that of the Quarters, must be traced back to prehuman conditions. Some students have seen in the much discussed swastika a symbol of the Four Quarters and of quadruplicate division in general (Cushing, “ Observations relative to the Origin of the Fylfot or Swastika,” American Anthropologist, 1907, n. s., ix. 334-36). Mrs. Zelia Nuttall has sought to apply these considerations to the common explanation of cults of 4 and 7 in India, Babylonia and Egypt as ultimately derived from cosmical con- ceptions (“The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civiliza- tions,” Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, ii. 544 sqqg.). The researches of Thomas Wilson have traced the wide diffusion of the swastika in both Asia and Europe. See his elaborate monograph “The Swastika,’ Annual Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1804, esp. 7990-905. *“ Fristen,” 49; “ Sieben- und Neunzahl,” 4-19, 67 sq. ™“Fristen,” 4, 73 sg.; “ Hebdomadenlehren,” 157 sqg. Cf. supra for criticisms of this theory. ** Hebdomadenlehren,” 31. 107 108 Hutton Webster of the sacredness of seven which were purely Greek in origin.™ In the Semitic area, again, various students have been inclined to seek at least one root of the cult of seven in the observation of the Pleiades and the use of Pleiades calendars by the agri- culturist.1* This aspect of the problem has been worked out in one instance with much ingenuity by Grimme who discerns in the duration of the Hebrew Pentecost or Feast of Weeks (Deut., xvi. 10) as well in the rites which marked that important agricultural festival the predominance of a septenary division based on the Pleiades.*® It is a well known fact that in ancient Babylonia seven en- joyed from a very early period, a high degree of sanctity.1¢ According to the most recent investigations, seven was already a symbolic number in time of King Gudea. We meet it in magical rituals of the first Babylonian dynasty; and it comes to the front in the narrative of the Flood which seems to have assumed a written form as early as the third millennium B.C.1" *“ Fristen,’ 71; “Sieben- und Neunzahl,’ 69; ‘“ Hebdomadenlehren,” 161 sq. Still other students have seen in this sanctity of seven the results of early intercourse with the Semitic Orient through Phoenician channels (Bérard, in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 1809, xxxix. 426 sqq.; Thumb, “Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen,” Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, t9ol, 1. 163 sqg.). The theory of the diffusion of the cult of seven from the East might now be strengthened by substituting Cretan for Phoenician intermediaries. “Cf. Zimmern, in Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testa- ment, 620 sq. * H. Grimme, Das israelitische Pfingstfest und der Plejadenkult, Pader- born, 1907. * For a very complete presentation of the evidence see Johannes Hehn, “Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten Testament,” Leipzig, 1907 (Leipziger semitistische Studien, vol. ii. no. 5, pp. 4-44). See also von Adrian, op. cit., 226 sqq.; J. Meinhold, Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament, Gottingen, 1905, pp. 14 sqq.; Zimmern, in Schrader, Keilinschriften, 459, 620 sqq.; Jensen, in Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wort- forschung, 1901, i. 151 sqq.; idem, Kosmologie der Babylonier, Strass- burg, 1890, pp. 171-78. “Hehn, op. cit., 4t sqq. This writer would derive the sacredness of seven from the Sumerians (idem, 46). “108 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 10g It might therefore be argued with some plausibility that Babylonia formed the center from which the lore connected with seven passed to adjoining regions of western Asia and thence into other parts of the ancient world."s Many Assyriologists have connected the symbolism of seven with the seven stars visible to the naked eye which traverse the celestial zodiac. For the Babylonian astrologers and astronomers these were the sun, the moon, and the five larger planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.1® But as the Italian astron- omer Schiaparelli has remarked, to associate the sun and moon, bodies giving so much light, and of so appreciable a diameter with the five so much smaller planets is scarcely to be predicated of the earliest Babylonian cosmography. To perceive their com- mon characteristic, 7. e., periodic movement within the zodiacal belt, prolonged and accurate observations are essential.2? We * Cf. von Adrian, op. cit., 262 sqq. The marked predominance of seven among the Hebrews, if not wholly explained by borrowing from Baby- lonia, may reasonably be assumed to have been much influenced by Babylonian conceptions. On the Hebrew cult of seven see Hehn, op. cit., 77-90; Meinhold, op. cit., 20 sqqg.; Zockler, in Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck, Realencyklopadie fiir protestantische Theologie, s. v. “ Sieben.” * On the seven planets see Zimmern, in Schrader, Keilinschriften; 620 Sqq. ® Astronomy in the Old Testament, Oxford, 1905, p. 134. It is also necessary to have noticed that Mercury and Venus as morning stars are the same as Mercury and Venus as evening stars. This again is not what might be expected of primitive astronomy. The old Maori, for instance, regarded the morning and evening star as different planets. “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” (Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders, 219). Similarly the early Greeks held the morning star, ‘Ewo¢épos, and “Eorepos, the evening star, to be different bodies, and their identity was not recognized until the time of Pythagoras in the 6th century B. C. (Roscher, Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der griechischen und rémischen Mythol- ogie, s. v., “ Planeten,” col. 2521). A similar misconception must have been true of the Babylonians among whom the planet Venus (Dilbat) as a morning star was considered masculine, and as an evening star feminine (Hehn, of. cit., 48; referring to Rawlinson, op. cit., iii. 53, 2). With regard to the Jews it has been argued by the astronomer previously cited 109 110 Hutton Webster have no evidence that in the third or second milleniums before our era Babylonian astronomy had made such great attainments. Up to the present time it has not been possible to trace the Babylonian names of the seven planets and the order in which they appear to an earlier period than the seventh century, B.C.** It follows, therefore, that the cult of seven could not have originated in the observation of the seven planets, though it is quite conceivable that after their recognition the belief in the sanctity of seven was thereby much strengthened. It further follows that the so-called planetary or astrological week, in which the seven days are named after the planets must have developed long after seven-day weeks were known and generally used in western Asia. The various problems raised by the study of the planetary week in its origin and diffusion need only be briefly treated in this connection. The astrological conception of the seven planets as rulers or regents of the week appears for the first time in Alexandrian speculations during the Hellenistic era. It is obvious that these ideas could not have been derived from the Jews who, on the testimony of the Old Testament, were familiar with not more than two planets, the morning star, Venus, and Saturn (Isaiah, xiv. 12; Amos, v. 26). The Jews moreover had no special names for the days of their week (except for the Sabbath), but indicated each day by the ordinal numbers, a practice still followed by Mohammedan peoples and by the Greeks, Slavs, and Finns in modern Europe. Nor can the origin of the week-day names be sought in Assyria or Babylonia; the Babylonians certainly associated some of their principal deities with the seven planets and even ascribed to every day in the month its appropriate divinity, but there is nothing in the cuneiform records to indicate a practice of specifically naming each day in the 7-day period after a planetary god or goddess. None of the week days, save perhaps the seventh (infra), appears to have been named at all. The most that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the belief in the influence of that the two appearances of Venus in the morning and evening were thought of by them as two different. stars with the name Mazzaroth (Schiaparelli, op. cit., 48, 85 sqq., 174 sq.), an interpretation, however, by no means certain. *\ Ginzel, in Klio, toot, i. 189. Nebuchadnezzar (605-561 B.C.) in the India House Inscription boasts of having raised a temple to the seven rulers of heaven and earth. Other instances reach back to Asshurbanipal of Assyria (668-626 B.C.). Rest Days; A Sociological Study i i the planets on human affairs goes back to Babylonia, the mother-land of astrology. During the Hellenistic era the mingling of East and West in such a cosmopolitan center as Alexandria made possible that strange mixture of Babylonian astrology with the cosmical conceptions derived from Pythagoras and his successors which gave rise to the astrological week with the planetary names. The succession of the planets in the cuneiform inscriptions is vacillating. The most common order—Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, Mars—does not throw much light on the well known grouping which gives the planets in the order of their distance from the earth—Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; or, commencing with the highest planet and descending to the lowest—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. This arrangement has been traced back to Pythagoras and his school, though it is questionable whether it dates from an earlier period than the second or third century before our era. It is not until a much later period that we find any evidence in Occidental lands for a naming of the week days after the seven planets and hence for the planetary or astrological week. According to the well known principle, if the day be divided into twenty-four hours and each hour of the seven-day week be assigned to the several planets in turn, then Saturn will preside over the Ist, 8th, 15th, and 22d hours, the 23d hour will fall to Jupiter, and the 24th to Mars. The 25th hour, or the first hour of the second day, will belong to the Sun, the first hour of the third day to the Moon, and so on for the remain- ing week days. An inscription found at Pompeii gives the planetary names for the days of the week in the order still in use, except for the accidental omission of Wednesday.” In the second century Dio Cassius refers to the planetary week as well known to his time.” In spite of this fact the use of the planetary week did not become general in pagan antiquity; it is only in the 4th and 5th centuries, after the triumph of Christianity that the Latin Church which had formerly adopted the Jewish seven-day week, took over the planetary names for the week-days and so combined two institutions which previously had run in different though parallel paths. It is not improbable that we may see in this acceptance of the planetary order evidence for the growing influence of astrological superstitions introduced by Christian converts from paganism. The old beliefs in the power of the stars over human destinies lived on in the Christian com- munities; the heavenly bodies, though no longer deities, were still demons capable of affecting the fate of man. The Greek Church, however, never = Saturni, Solis, Lunae, Martis, Jovis, Veneris. Cf. infra for the change from Saturday to Sunday as the first day of the planetary week. Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 18. pie Hutton Webster adopted the planetary names and has retained until the present day the simple numbering of the week days after the Jewish fashion.* The preceding discussion has indicated that in different regions various considerations account for the special significance attached to seven, as to many other numbers. Within the same cultural area the widespread cult of a sacred number such as seven must likewise be explained by the operation of a variety of factors; and among these we are entitled to reckon the circumstance that the four phases of the moon divide the lunation into periods, approximately seven days in length. If the lunar changes were marked by special observances and prohibitions it might naturally result that their calendarizing into seven-day periods would give the number seven certain mystic or evil associations derived from these taboos, among a people so superstitious as the ancient Baby- lonians. It would follow, therefore, that the septenary periods disclosed in the calendar for Elul II and Marcheswan were not arbitrarily chosen because of an earlier belief in the symbolic meaning of the number seven. In the former chapters reasons have been given for the natural origin of the seven-day cycle in the quartering of alunation; and much testimony has been adduced for the taboos which mark the close of the lunar phases or the septenary divisions based thereon. To the analogies from other regions may now be added the evidence yielded by the cuneiform records of Babylonia. b. Babylonian Lunar Weeks The Babylonian month, as has been seen, was a lunar month, and like all lunar months began at least theoretically, with the * The diffusion of the planetary week has been treated with exhaustive learning by E. Schiirer, “Die siebentagige Woche im Gebrauche der christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte,” Zeitschrift fiir die neutes- tamentliche Wissenschaft, 1905, vi. 1-66, an article which incorporates nearly everything of value in the earlier discussions of the problem. See further Roscher, “ Planeten,” Ausfiihrliches Lexikon, etc., cols. 2518-39; idem, “ Hebdomadenlehren,” 164 sqqg.; O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, s. v. “Woche”; “Geschichte der Namen der Wochentage,” Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 150-03. E12 Rest Days; A Sociological Study [iz first appearance of the new moon (supra). The seven-day periods mentioned in the Rawlinson calendar were also reckoned from the new moon, a fact clearly indicated by the description for the first day of the month: Umu J . . . inuma ina arhi Sin innamaru. . . . “ The first day . . . when in the month the moon becomes visible.” We may reasonably assume from our knowl- edge of the lunar reckonings among existing peoples that in Baby- lonia the last day of the month (when the latter was reckoned at 29 days), or the last two days of a 30-day month, were regarded as forming an epagomenal period which interrupted the regular succession of 7-day cycles. It is not impossible that the Baby- lonians who had estimated very closely the length of the moon’s synodic course, may have employed some such device as that of the Gold Coast natives (supra) in order that four of their lunar weeks should correspond exactly to the lunation. We may next inquire whether there is any additional evidence which indicates that the 7-day periods had a natural origin in the quartering of a lunation. It has already been noticed that in the third millennium B.C. the Babylonians were probably familiar with a 5-day period called hamustw which has been taken to con- stitute a civil week. Whether it preceded the hebdomadal cycle or afterwards supplanted it, perhaps as forming a closer divisor of the lunation, or whether the two periods may not have existed more or less contemporaneously within the Babylonian area, are matters concerning which the cuneiform records tell us nothing. We know, however, that the 5-day periods were closely associated with the successive appearances of the moon (supra); and the same associations are even more clearly exemplified in the case of the hebdomadal cycle. From a remote antiquity the Babylonians observed the lunar phases with special care and reckoned with remarkable accuracy the length of both the synodic and sidereal months.*° In the fifth tablet of the Creation series, documents which in their original On this subject see F. K. Ginzel, “ Die astronomischen Kenntnisse der Babylonier und ihre kulturhistorische Bedeutung,” Klio, 1901, i. 12 5qq., 200 sqq. 1 ie T1l4 Hutton Webster form are traced to the close of the third millennium, it is told how Merodach or Marduk, having created and ordered the heav- enly bodies, then placed the moon in the sky to make known the days and divide the month with her phases. Although this inter- esting production in its mutilated state mentions only the seventh and fourteenth(?) days we are entitled to believe that the original text also referred to the twenty-first and twenty-eighth days, as is indicated in the translation given below.*® In another record of later date, the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth days are specifically indicated as the days of Sin, the moon-god.?* That these four days enjoyed a special significance 1s further indi- cated by a passage in an omen calendar which declares that the appearance of a halo about the moon on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth days is to be considered as an eclipse of that luminary.** In Babylonian astrology an eclipse “Lines 12) sqq.- “Nannar, the moon-god, he brought forth, and entrusted the night to him; Placed him there, as a luminary of night, to mark off the days; Month after month, he fashioned him as full moon (saying) : ‘At the beginning of the moon, when evening begins, Let thy horns shine, to mark off the heavens; On the seventh day make half the disk, Stand perpendicular . . . with thy first half; When at sunset thou risest on the horizon Stand opposite her [on the 14th] in brightest splendor [From the 15th] on, approach again the course of the sun. [On the 21st] stand perpendicular again to the sun, [From the 22nd] on... to seek his course [On the 28th to the sun] approach and hold judgment. x99 I have used the version by W. Muss-Arnolt (R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, New York, 1901, p. 206). See further, L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, London, 1902, i. 78 sqq. The expres- sion “stand perpendicular” on the 7th and 21st days refers to the moon’s position as regards the earth or the sun—that is, the meridian—in which she stands at sunset when in-her first or last quarter. * Rawlinson, op. cit., iii. 64, 18b. In the period following Hammurabi (c. 1900 B.C.) Nannar and Sin are thoroughly identified. * Thid., iii. 64, series Sin ina tamartisu. I14 Rest Days; A Sociological Study RES of the moon was regarded as the most ominous of signs, portend- ing some public misfortune or disaster. Taken in its entirety the cuneiform evidence thus confirms the evidence from the non-Babylonian area and makes it reasonably certain that the “evil days” of the Rawlinson calendar owed their origin to the quartering of the lunar month into lunar weeks. As such they were analogous to the divisions of the lunation found elsewhere in primitive and archaic culture. It may therefore be argued with some confidence that the numerous regulations for these critical days arose as lunar taboos bearing a close resem- blance to those observed by many other peoples at the changes of the moon. 16. TABOOS OBSERVED ON THE “ EVIL DAYS” Recent students of Semitic magic have shown that the Sumer- ians and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, were familiar with the idea of tabu; the term mamuit which appears so frequently in the cuneiform records is exactly equivalent to tabu, since it refers to that state of ritual impurity or ceremonial un- cleanness which ensues on various circumstances and is regarded as extremely contagious.*? Mamit may also be rendered as the “ban” or prohibition which is attached to acts regarded as dan- gerous and unclean. The third tablet of the Shurpu series is entirely devoted to these prohibitions and gives a list of no less than one hundred and sixty-three taboos. “The tapus include those which come from the family, old or young, friend or neigh- bor, rich or poor; oven, bellows, pots and cups, bed or couch, chariot or weapons. To drink out of an unclean vessel, to sit in the sun, to root up plants in the desert, to cut reeds in a thicket, to slay the young of beasts, to pray with unclean hands, and a host of other common actions, might under certain conditions bring a tapw on the man.’*® It thus appears that the taboos at critical or evil days represented to the Babylonians only a partic- ™C. Fossey, La magie assyrienne, Paris, 1902, p. 58. ”R. C. Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1904, li, p. xlv. 115 116 Hutton Webster ular application of a widespread and generally accepted super- stition. The Rawlinson calendar contains specific directions for the observance of the five evil days, in each instance the same except for differences in the names of the deities.** The regulations for the seventh day read as follows: “The seventh day is a fast of Merodach [Marduk] and Zir- panitum, a fortunate day, an evil day. The shepherd of the great peoples shall not eat flesh cooked by fire, which is smoked**(?), he shall not change the dress of his body, he shall not put on white, he shall not make an offering. The king shall not ride in his chariot, the priestess shall not declare (a divine decision), in secret spot a seer shall not make (an oracle), a physician shall not lay his hand ona sick man, (the day) is unsuitable for doing business.’’** In the light of the illustrations which have been previously given, it is clear that the regulations for the “evil days” prescribe a season of abstinence affecting many royal activities. The “shepherd of the great peoples” is to abstain from cooked meat 81 Ror discussions of the evil days from various points of view see Jensen, op. cit., 153; Meinhold, op. cit., 15 sqq.; Friedrich Bohn, Der Sabbat im Alten Testament, Giitersloh, 1903, pp. 39-43; Hehn, op. cit., 106-09; Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions sémitiques, Paris, 1905, pp. 291 sqq. On the nineteenth day “the shepherd of the great peoples” is for- bidden to eat “ anything which the fire has touched.” °°T have used the version by Pinches (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, xxvi. 52. The text has been frequently translated and for purposes of comparison I add the rendering given by Thompson (op. cit., pp. xlviii sq.) : “ The seventh day is the festival day of Marduk and Sarpanitum. A happy (?) day. An evil day. The shepherd of the wide-spreading peoples must not eat flesh that has been cooked over coals, nor bread (cooked) in ashes. He must not change the clothes of his body, nor put on white garments. He must not offer sacrifices. The king must not ride out in his chariot, and must not utter decisions in a secret place. The physician must not lay his hand on the sick. It is unfitted for making a curse. In the evening the king should make offerings and offer sacrifice to Marduk and Ishtar; his prayer will be pleasing unto the god.” 116 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 117 and on the nineteenth day from all cooked food.** He is not to change his clothes or put on white (i. e., festive) raiment; he must not offer sacrifices. The king is even forbidden to be seen out of doors in his chariot. It is evident that the Babylonian ruler who observed these regulations five times a month would have been almost as strictly secluded as the Hawaiian monarch, who likewise, during the four monthly tabu periods retired to the precincts of his temple (supra). It has been usually held that these regulations are survivals from ancient times when priest-kings were accredited with a divine or supernatural nature. On this theory they would be analogous to those prohibitions which in primitive society, as Dr. Frazer has so well shown, envelope the lives of chieftains and rulers “in an ocean of rites and taboos.”’** The king is the repre- sentative of his people; his prosperity results in a like prosperity for his people; if he sins, the whole country sins and suffers with him. The subject has been aptly illustrated by the regulations to which in former days the Mikado of Japan was subject, by the countless rules which fettered the lives of Egyptian monarchs, and by those curious geasa or taboos, once observed by the ancient rulers of Ireland. A consideration of the evidence yielded by primitive societies leads me to suggest, however, that the Babylonian regulations may have been, at least in part, the broken-down form of taboos im- posing abstinence on the community at large. In Hawaii, where the four lunar phases were observed as tabu periods, the prohibi- tions affecting the king represented only an intensification of the communal taboos, to be explained by the extreme sanctity attached to the Hawaiian ruler. In Assam, where the gemna institution enjoys a vigorous life (supra), we find that besides the prohibi- tions communally observed at critical times the genna-bura or priest-chief is surrounded with many elaborate taboos. Their * Taboos relating to the use of fire are discussed elsewhere (infra). ® For much evidence ‘as to the sacredness of chiefs and kings and the accompanying taboos see Frazer, The Golden Bough,? London, 1900, i. 233-47; idem, Psyche’s Task, London, 1909, pp. 4-16. I17 118 Hutton Webster purpose is “to protect the man who acts on behalf of the whole subdivision or village on the occasions of general gennas, from any accident which might impair his power.” He is subject to various food restrictions, must content himself with only one wife, and must even separate himself from her on the eve of a general genna. In one group the headman may not eat in a strange village, nor, whatever the provocation, may he utter a word of abuse. The violation of any one of these taboos is thought to bring misfortune on the entire village.*° It is not wholly specu- lative to suggest that were the natives of Assam, with advancing culture, to discard their communal taboos as burdensome, the special regulations affecting the genna-bura might survive, in deference to old tradition, and might even be increased in severity if that individual should likewise grow in authority and holiness. The situation would then furnish a very close analogy to what existed in ancient Babylonia. The regulations concerning the “evil days,” it may be noted, do not concern the king alone. We may reasonably assume that “the shepherd of the great peoples ” and the king mentioned further on in the hemerology are one and the same; but the record also describes certain rules imposed on the priest (or priestess) and on the physician, both important functionaries among the Babylonians. It seems also evident that the day was generally regarded as unsuitable for any one to lay a curse or ban; according to other but possibly less accurate ren- derings, unsuitable for all business. These considerations in- crease the probability that at one time some taboos on the seventh day were observed by the entire community. It is, however, questionable whether in late historic times there was any general abstention from work and other activities on the “evil days.” The Babylonians were a highly organized commer- cial and manufacturing people who would have found such regu- lations burdensome to the highest degree. Possibly taboos once communally observed were gradually relaxed and at last aban- doned, just as modern Jews are now neglecting the observance of * Hodson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1906, xxxvi. 08. Cf. idem, in Folk-Lore, 1910, xxi. 208. 118 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 119 the Sabbath. The practice might have been kept up, however, by the king and the priests as the special guardians of conservative institutions.** I7. THE SABATTU The cuneiform records contain a term Sabattu (m) or Sapattu (m) which has been generally accepted as the phonetic equiva- lent of the Hebrew Sabbathon (infra). The Assyrian-Babylonian expression does not occur in such a connected text as the hemer- ology for the month Elul the second. Up to the present it has been found only three or four times in the inscriptions.** One of these cases is that of a cuneiform lexicographical tablet con- taining the equation: Ssa-bat-tu(m) itm ni-i lb-bi.2’ The * An interesting effort to discover whether there was any general observance of the Babylonian evil days was made by the late astronomer, G. Schiaparelli (Astronomy in ihe Old Testament, 132 n.’, 175 sqq.). The examination of 3148 documents of the period 604-449 B.C. led him to the conclusion that there was no marked falling off of business on any of the five days. It is, of course, true that these statistics deal with a late period in Babylonian history and include the reigns of several Persian rulers. By this time the general observance of the custom may have been in decay. Moreover the criticism is valid that the figures do not distinguish the sort of business done on those days. Many of the documents are temple records relating to offerings, receipts of salaries by priests and so on. Such business was possibly not regarded as a violation of the pro- hibitions in question (Cf. C. H. W. Johns, “ The Babylonian Sabbath,” Expository Times, 1906, xvii. 566-67). In his Assyrian Deeds and Docu- ments, London, 1901, ii. 40 sqq., the same author has pointed out that in Assyria during the period 720-606 B.C., the seventh, fourteenth, twenty- first, and twenty-eighth days do not show any marked abstention from secular business. But out of 365 dated documents only 2 were dated on the nineteenth. Again in Babylonia out of 356 dated documents of the Hammurabi period only 2 again are dated on the nineteenth and only 26 on the four other evil days. At this earlier epoch, if such evidence be accepted, there would seem to have been a marked abstention in Babylonia on the aforesaid days. * The evidence is cited by Jensen (Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortfor- Schung, 1901, i. 153). ~® Rawlinson, op. cit., ii. pl. 32, 1. 16 a-b. The reading Sapattu is also possible (Zimmern, in Schrader, Keilinschriften,® 592 n.°). The discovery of this important equation seems to have been first made by Boscawen. Cf. Sayce, in Academy, 1875, viii. 555. 119 120 Hutton Webster usual translation of the latter is “day of rest of (or for) the heart” (s. c.,. “of the angered gods’). Various scholafsean England and Germany, intent on discovering Babylonian parallels for all Hebrew institutions, have therefore explained sabattu and its equivalent phrase by the five “evil days”? found in the calen- dar already noticed.*° This identification was based on the ob- servation that the “evil days” seemed also to be penitential days when by special observances the gods must be appeased and their anger averted. The Hebrew Sabbath would therefore represent an institution directly derived from the Babylonian regulations forthe. evil! days: Until the present time, however, Assyriology has sounded no certain note concerning the etymology and significance of the term sabattu. Thus Delitzsch holds that “the only meaning that may be justifiably assumed is “ ending (of work), cessation, keep- ing holiday from work.’’*t As the result of linguistic analy- sis Hirschfeld concludes, on the contrary, that “the idea of rest- ing for religious reasons after a certain spell of working days is far too complicated to be the original meaning of a primitive root.”* Jastrow, again, points out that tim nih libbi with which Sabattu has been provisionally equated, was a standing expression for the pacification of a deity’s anger. It occurs frequently in Babylonian religious literature, where it is more particularly used in hymns addressed by penitentials to some god who has shown his ill-will to them. Sabattu implies therefore a day of propi- tiation and the idea of rest involved refers to gods and not to men—a refraining from or cessation of divine anger.* Zim- * Cf. Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, London, 1895, p. 74; Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, 41; Zimmern, in Schrader, Keilinschriften, 593. The purely conjectural character of this procedure was pointed out as early as 1882 by Francis Brown in his article, “The Sabbath in the Cuneiform Records,” “Presbyterian Review, iii. 693. Cf. also A. T. Clay, Amurru, Philadelphia, 1909, pp. 55 sqq. “ Babel and Bible, 90. : “ Hirschfeld, “Remarks on the Etymology of Sabbath,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1896, n. s., xxviii. 358. * Jastrow, “ The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,” American Journal of Theology, 1808, ii. 316 sq., 351. 120 Rest Days; A Sociological Study I2I mern suggests that Sabattu may be derived from the verb sabatu with the sense of “ discontinue” or “desist” applied to the anger of the gods.4* Pinches on the contrary, believes that Sabattu comes from the Sumerian Sa-bat which probably had no con- nection with the Semitic verb Sabdtu.*? Nielsen, who like Pinches, derives Sabattu from Sabat, goes still further afield for a satisfactory explanation, and considers Sabat a term taken over from the Arabian thabat from a root meaning “rest” applied to the lunar phases.*® As the outcome of extensive philological study Hehn argues that sabattw meant originally “ fullness,” “completeness,” the notion of rest being later and entirely sec- ondary.** Finally, in.a brief, though highly suggestive study, Professor Toy holds that the root idea in the Babylonian expres- sion was that of abstinence, though Sabattu might also have been regarded as a day of propitiation because of the restrictions at- tached to it.* These conflicting interpretations scarcely make for. confidence in the results of a purely philological analysis. A late discovery, however, has thrown new and unexpected light on the problem. We now know, with certainty, that the term Sabattu (Sapattw) was applied to at least one day in the Babylonian month. Mr. T. G. Pinches has recently published a list of the Sumerian and “Zimmern, in Schrader, Kei.inschriften* 593. In one cuneiform list (Rawlinson, op. cit., v. pl. 28, 1. e-f) the verb sabdtu is equated with gamaru which is thought to mean “be complete,” “be full,” though in some other syllabaries it apparently has the sense of “pacify.” In the light of the meaning now assigned to Sabattu both translations appear to be intelligible and harmonious. *T.G. Pinches, The Old Testament, London, 1902, p. 327. *“ Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion, 87 sq. He also sees in sabat a variant of the Babylonian subtu used as a terminus technicus for the moon-stations (op. cit., 69). *“ Siebenzahl und Sabbat,” 98. *C. H. Toy, “The Earliest Form of the Hebrew Sabbath.” Journal of Biblical Literature, 1899, xviii. 190 sqqg. The author in this article was the first to recognize the original identity of the Sabbath and primitive seasons of taboo. I2I!I 122 Hutton Webster Babylonian names of the days of the month in which the 15th day is called sapattu.*® The choice of the 15th day has obviously some reference to a two-fold division of the lunar month, which in the earlier Babylonian period seems to-have consisted regu- larly of thirty days. The 15th is the day of the full moon in the middle of the month. There is good evidence, however, for be- lieving that the Babylonian months in the later period consisted of twenty-nine and thirty days in alternation (supra). When the month had twenty-nine days, the fifteenth day or Sabattu -would accordingly be equivalent to the fourteenth day from new moon, as reckoned in the Babylonian list of “ evil days.’”*°® Though as yet the data cannot be supplied from the cuneiform records we may now be well nigh certain that the term Sabattu was likewise applied to the other “evil days” (seventh, twenty- first and twenty-eighth, perhaps also, the nineteenth), since all possessed the same character as periods marked by the observance of lunar taboos; and we may now understand why Sabattu should be equated with the expression tim nih libbi as a day of rest for the heart, or a day for appeasing the anger of the deity. In the developed Babylonian cult the ‘ evil days” were occasions when the gods must be propitiated and conciliated. In the primi- tive faith of the Semitic peoples they were occasions marked by the changes of the moon and observed with superstitious con- ‘ cern as times of fasting, cessation of activity, and other forms of abstinence. ““ Sapattu, the Babylonian Sabbath,” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1904, xxvi. 51-56. The tablet containing the list formed a part of the library of Asshurbanipal. A portion of this list was published in Rawlinson, op. cit., iii. pl. 56, no. 4, and additions to it were subsequently identified by Pinches. See also the comments by Zimmern in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaindischen Gesellschaft, 1904, lviii. 199- 202, 458-60. A division of the month found in K. 170 (Cuneiform Tests, XXV. 50) gives first day, new moon; seventh day, moon as kidney (half- moon) ; fifteenth day, full moon. Cf. supra. The remarkable parallel afforded by the Buddhist uposatha, a full- moon day celebrated on the fifteenth of “long” months, the fourteenth of “short” months, has already been discussed (supra). 122 Rest Days; A Sociological Study P28 Vit et PE BE BREMW SABBATH 18. THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT The earliest Biblical references to the Sabbath all indicate that the institution had long been found among the Hebrews. It appears in the most ancient documents of the Law such as the two Decalogues' and the First Code,? and forms a central feature of regulations the majority of which in content, if not in form, are almost certainly pre-Exilic. It is mentioned in the Books of Kings during the time of the prophet Elisha.* It is noticed in the prophecies of Amos and Hosea.* The antiquity of the Sab- bath is further indicated by the fact that Israelitish tradition pre- served no certain information of its origin. From the Old Testament we cannot tell whether the Sabbath was hallowed in remembrance of Jehovah's rest after the Creation,® or whether it was instituted as a memorial of the serfdom of the Hebrews . during their sojourn in Egypt.® Assuming, as do most reputable critics, that the narrative in the first chapter of Genesis which divides the work of creation into six days is comparatively late, it follows that the Sabbath could not have been founded as a reminiscence of the completion of the Creation. The author must have been familiar with the institution of a seven-day week ending ina Sabbath. Its chief characteristic was then that of a day of rest as appears from the fact that without mentioning *The form of the Fourth Commandment in the First Decalogue (Exodus, xx. 8), “ Remember the Sabbath day,” etc., itself may indicate not the institution of a new day but the sanctioning of an old one. In the Second Decalogue (Deuteronomy, v. 12), the commandment reads: “ Ob- serve the Sabbath day.” Perhaps, however, “ remember” is merely equiva- lent to “keep in mind in the future.” * Exodus, xxiii. 12. °2 Kings, iv. 23. * Amos, viii. 5; Hosea, ii. 11. pexodus, xx. 11. Cf. xxxi. 17. * Deuteronomy, v. 15. Cf. Nehemiah, ix. 14; Ezekiel, xx. 12. The chief Old Testament references to the Sabbath have been grouped in their as- sumed historical order by E. G. King, “ The Sabbath in the Light of the Higher Criticism,” Expository Times, 1906, xvii. 438-43. 123 124 Hutton Webster the Sabbath by name he seeks to glorify it by placing the hal- lowed character of the seventh day at the beginning of the world. The sanctity of the seventh day is in reality antedated, and the priestly writer wished to adjust artificially the work of creation font, The earlier theories which have been advanced to account for the origin of the Sabbath now possess only an historical interest. Writing in the seventeenth century the learned John Spencer argued that Egypt was the original home of the institution, since in various Old Testament passages the Sabbath is declared to have been established to commemorate the escape from Egyptian bondage. But the Egyptians, as we know (supra) employed ten-day periods, and there is no evidence that in historical times they were familiar with any shorter division of the month. Another and more common theory associated with the great names of Kuenen and Baur, connects the Sabbath with the worship of Saturn from which planet the first day of the as- trological week received its name (infra). It is true that in addition to Venus the name of another planet familiar to the Hebrews may with great probability be recognized in the name Kaivan or Kéwan mentioned by the prophet Amos who was apparently reproving the Jews of his time for revering Saturn.® * Cf. Jastrow, “ The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,” Amert- can Journal of Theology, 1808, ii. 313 sq.; S. R. Driver, The Book of Genesis,» 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, Lon- don, 1907, p. 70). ° Schiaparelli, op. cit., 48 sq. Kaivan was the name of Saturn among the ancient Arabs and also among the Assyrians. Doubtless the astrological practices associated with the planet were borrowed from Babylonia. I can see no justification for Budde’s suggestion that Amos was imputing Saturn worship to ancient Israel in the period of the desert wanderings, rather than to the Israel of his own day (Religion of Israel to the Exile, New York, 1899, p. 68). The words of Amos may be translated (though the text is corrupt): “And ye shall take Sakkut your king and Kéwan, the star of your god, images which ye made for yourselves” (Amos, v. 26; cf. Acts, vii. 40). 124 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 125 But a sporadic adoration of this planet at a degenerate period in Hebrew life when the Chosen People were giving themselves over to astrology, divination, and the worship of the heavenly bodies, is scarcely sufficient to account for an institution which reaches back to the beginnings of Israelitish history. At a much later date the Jews became familiar with the astrological notions concerning the influence of the planets on human destinies and with the assignment of the seven week days to the seven planets. These imported superstitions appear to have led the rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, “the star of the Sabbath.” Here, however, we have not a naming of the day after the star, but a naming of the star after the day. It is only in the first century A.D. that we find any certain evidence that the Jewish Sabbath always corresponded to Saturn’s day or Saturday.® Putting aside such outworn theories a brief reference may be made to those which account for the Sabbath as partly a borrowed institution. To hold, as many pan-Babylonians have °Cf. W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebréischen Archdologie, Strassburg, 1894, ii. 141 sq.; Schiirer, in Zeitschrift fiir die neutestamentliche Wissen- schaft, 1905, vi. 6 sg., 19. Saturn came to assume the réle of sidus tris- tissimum or stella iniquissima and hence to the Romans Saturday ap- peared to be a day of bad omen. The oldest reference to Saturday is that given by Tibullus who died in 19 B. C. (Saturni aut sacram me tenuisse diem, Elegiae, i. 3, 18). This line may possibly refer to the Jewish Sabbath; at any rate it seems probable that the evil associations of the day were due to the diffusion of the Jewish Sabbath which was known to the Romans (though imperfectly) as early as the last century of the Republic. Dio Cassius (xxxvii. 17) speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their God the day called the day of Saturn “on which, among other peculiar actions, they undertake no serious occupation.” There is an old Talmudic story which tells how Moses, having arranged with Pharaoh for a day of rest to be observed by the Hebrews, was asked what day he thought most suitable for the purpose. Moses answered: “The seventh, which is dedicated to the planet Saturn; works done on this day do not, as a rule, prosper in any case” (Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, 102). In modern Bengal, Sani or Saturn is much dreaded and is carefully pro- pitiated, either on Saturdays, or on particular occasions when astrological calculations indicate that a visitation from him is to be specially feared (Gait, in Census Report, 1901, i. 189). 125 126 Hutton Webster done (supra), that the Sabbath was a direct importation from the regions of the Tigris and the Euphrates, is a hypothesis incapable of substantiation from the existing evidence at our disposal. Although we may be reasonably sure that the term Sabattu was applied to all the evil days in the Rawlinson calendar there is no certainty that the Babylonians observed those days as times of abstinence during the age when Hebrew culture came most in contact with that of the Mesopotamian peoples. In the present state of our knowledge it can only be argued, and this with great plausibility, that the observance of tabooed days in connection with the phases of the moon goes back to a period of remote antiquity before the various Semitic peoples had journeyed to the homes where, in historical times, we find them. The theory that the Sabbath reaches back ultimately to Baby- lonia has sometimes been modified into the hypothesis that it was first taken over from Babylonia by the agricultural inhabitants of Canaan, from whom, in turn, the Israelites borrowed an insti- tution which would have no meaning to a nomadic people.?? Even were we to assume, however, that the Sabbath from its beginning was an institution of peasants and not of nomads, it may be suggested that it was probably of high antiquity. It is a grave question whether there is any Old Testament evidence that the ancestors of Israel there described were in the solely pastoral stage. Recent studies appear to have pushed back the agricultural life of the early Hebrews to the time of Abraham. The patriarchs would seem to have been regularly agriculturists, who kept in addition flocks of sheep and herds of cattle——a com- bination of the shepherd’s and the farmer’s life which can be par- alleled among many primitive tribes. But these are minor considerations. The view, so frequently expressed, that the Sabbath cannot be very primitive since it “presupposes agriculture and a tolerably hard-pressed working- day life,’"? betrays an imperfect acquaintance with popular super- ™ Cf. Nowack, op. cit., ii. 144; Gall, in Archiv fiir Religionswissenschaft, 1902, v. 321. "J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, Edinburgh, 1885, p. 114. The same argument has been urged by W. E. Addis, Documents 1:26 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 127 stition. The brief prohibitions of work found in the Penta- teuch cannot be separated, by any subtleties of exegesis, from the numerous other taboos with which the institution was in- vested. The rest on the Sabbath is only one of the forms of abstinence in connection with the lunar changes; and if the Sabbath began as a festival at new moon and full moon it may well have been celebrated by the Israelites before their contact with Canaanitish culture. The origin of the Sabbath can only be explained when it is pushed back to a prehistoric age long antedating the cult of Jehovah, the establishment of a ritualistic religion, and the formation of a priestly class. The ancient dwellers in the Arabian wilderness who celebrated new and full moon as seasons of abstinence and rest little dreamed that in their senseless custom lay the roots of a social institution which on the whole, in past ages, has worked for human welfare, and promises an even greater measure of benefit to humanity in all future times. 19. THE SABBATH AS A LUNAR FESTIVAL To a shepherd people in tropical or semi-tropical lands the moon is a gentle guardian, bringing restful coolness after the day with its withering heat, and dispelling with her kindly beams the thick darkness which may cloak a lurking foe. “ This,” writes an intrepid traveller, “is the planet of way for the way- faring Semitic race. The moon is indeed a watch-light of the night in the nomad wilderness; they are glad in her shining upon the great upland, they may sleep then in some assurance from their enemies.”**? The worship of the moon as a masculine divinity was highly developed among the south Arabians, as Glaser’s discoveries have shown and also among the Harranians."* of the Hexateuch, London, 1892, i. 139; idem, Hebrew Religion to the Establishment of Judaism under Esra, London, 1906, p. 85. ”C. M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, i. 366. * See generally on this subject, F. Hommel, Der Gestirndienst dcr alten Araber und die altisraclitische Uberlieferung, Munchen, 1901, and D. Niel- sen, Die altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Uberlieferung, Strassburg, 1904, both, however, very untrustworthy guides. 127 128 Hutton Webster It was not perhaps by accident that the Old Testament makes Abraham dwell at Ur and Harran, for both were centers of an ancient moon cult'* and both lay beyond the limits of the Baby- lonian plain on the confines of a desert overrun by nomad Arab tribes. Nor was it strange—if we may further follow a some- what speculative inquiry—that Moses should have led the Israe- lites to Sinai (the Mount of Sin or the moon), to receive the Law. As late as the close of the sixth century B.C., the penin- sula of Sinai was devoted to lunar worship.** That the moon- god Sin anciently had precedence over Shamash the sun-god has been shown by various writers who place the chief centers of Babylonian sun-worship east of the Euphrates.'® To the Israelites, as to the ancient Egyptians, the moon was preeminently the “wanderer” by whose movements the earliest calendars were framed.** One of the Hebrew names for “ Nannar at Ur (Uru) in western Chaldea, Sin at Harran (Haran) in northern Mesopotamia. It is curious to find a Moslem tradition current about 850 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.” (Apology of Al Kindy, 17; A. S. Palmer, Babylonian Influence on the Bible, London, 18697, p. 2). * Pinches, “ Moon,” in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bib-e, iti. 434. * Nielsen, op. cit., 31 sg.; Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 68, 75 sq; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology, London, 1899, pp. 17 sq. “Like the Babylonian, the Hebrew lunar year consisted of 12 months, adjusted to the tropic or seasonal year by the intercalation of a thirteenth month. The name of the latter is first met in the Mishna occurring there as the “second Adar.” In the Mishna, also, the number of days in a lunar year is fixed at 354. The months consisted of 29 days (hence called “ defective”), 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, 7%. e., 52 complete weeks, is found in two pseudographia which date probably from Maccabaean 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 Poznanski, “Calendar (Jewish),” in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iti. 117 sqq. 128 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 129 “month” is yérah, from ydaréah, “moon”; it is called also hodesh which means new moon. In one of the most magnifi- cent of the Psalms we read that Jehovah “appointed the moon for the seasons’’*; all the Jewish festivals, like those of the Hawaiians, were determined by the moon. At the same time there is almost no Biblical testimony to indicate that the prim- itive Hebrews ever conceived the moon as a divinity and ad- dressed to that luminary specific acts of worship. The only reference to a lunar cult in the Old Testament where the kissing of the hand to the moon is mentioned’® may have meant little more than do some of our own popular superstitions regarding the moon. In any case, one can hardly build up a theory of an original worship of the moon among the early Israelites on the basis of a single passage, and that more or less obscure. The evidence seems quite conclusive that of the lunar phases it was especially the new and the full moon which first aroused the attention of the Semitic nomads and evoked feelings of awe and veneration. Even to-day “the first appearing of the virgin moon is always greeted with a religious emotion in the deserts of Arabia.”*° In modern Palestine when the Bedouin and Fellahin first see the lunar crescent, they exclaim: ‘‘God’s new moon has appeared in his exaltedness. May it be for us a blessed new moon.’?* The Harranians, who long retained their ancient customs, held a new moon festival as late as the eleventh or twelfth century of our era. On the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month offerings were made to the moon and the occa- * Psalms, civ. 19. Cf. 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 wonder- fully in her changing... ” Op, xXxi. 20. ” Doughty, op. cit., ii. 305 sq. Cf. Nielsen, op. cit., 50. For the inter- esting Abyssinian customs see Littmann, in Archiv fiir Religionswissen- schaft, 1908, xi. 313 sq. * (Mrs.) H. H. Spoer, in Folk-Lore, 1910, xxi. 2809. 129 130 Hutton Webster sion was otherwise festively celebrated.2? Such rites must have descended from Semitic antiquity since the ritual expressions hallala, ahalla (Heb. hilal) are etymologically explained by hilal, “new moon” or “ crescent.” The festival of new moon?® described in the Old Testament must belong to a very early period in Hebrew history, and as it may be celebrated as well by nomads as by agriculturists there is no difficulty in regarding it as antedating the permanent settle- ment in Canaan. The Hebrew month, as among other peoples who count by lunations (supra), began when the silvery crescent was first discerned in the evening twilight. In later Judaism as soon as the moon’s appearance was proved by credible wit- nesses before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, the feast of the new moon was solemnized and messengers were sent abroad to an- nounce the opening of the new month.** As early as the reign of Saul there is explicit evidence that the first day of the month was regarded as a period of exceptional importance when, ap- parently, all servile work was forbidden.*® In the age of Elisha “Ginzel, in Klio, 1901, i. 15, referring to the Fihrist. The Harranians had four sacrificial days in every month, and of these, at least two were determined by the conjunction and opposition of the moon. * Nowack, op. cit., ii. 138 sqg.; Wellhausen, Prolegomena, 112 sqq.; Benzinger, “ New Moon,” in Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. cols. 3401 sqq.; Abrahams, “New Moon,” Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, iii. 521- 23; Kohler, “ New Moon,” Jewish Encyclopedia, ix. 243 sq. * Nowack, op. cit., ii. 140; Schiaparelli, op. cit., pp. 92, 102 sqq.; E. Schtrer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, div. i. vol. i. 366 sq. It is difficult to assume that the ancient Hebrews had no system for determining the duration of each month and hence that no one knew beforehand whether it was to consist of 29 or 30 days. That the date of the new moon could be known in advance seems to be indicated by an important passage (zr Samuel, xx. 5, 18, 24, 27) where David and Jonathan act on the knowledge that the next day would be the New Moon festival. Though the Old Testament contains no indication of the way of fixing the months it may be conjectured that the Hebrews, like some primitive peoples of the present, made allowance for the days of the moon’s invisi- bility in a more or less arbitrary fashion (cf. supra). =r Samuel, xx. 5, 18-19, 24, 27. Cf. the Douay version of these pas- sages. =¥30 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 131 the new moon seems to have been one of the favorite occasions for consulting the prophets,?* a circumstance which could be ex- plained if the day were marked by a cessation of ordinary labor. There are still other reasons, presently to be given, for believing that until the Exile or later, the new moon was a general rest day; and this it has continued to be for Jewish women until the present time.** Finally, it is difficult to understand the rule forbidding fasting at new moon except as a reference to a custom formerly observed but in later times regarded as an illegitimate rite (infra).*® Not only new moon but full moon as well had a religious significance to the early Israelites.2? The great agricultural festivals must have been celebrated at the time of full moon, for when the sacred calendar was framed in post-Exilic times, they were definitely fixed for the middle of the month. On the fourteenth day of the first month came the Passover, and on the fifteenth day of the same month the Feast of Unleavened Bread (from the fifteenth to the twenty-first ).°° On the fifteenth day of the seventh month began the Feast of Tabernacles which was likewise celebrated for seven days.** It is to be observed, also, that these festivals, like the Sabbath and Day of Atonement, were periods of rest. The first and last of the seven days’ Feast * 2 Kings, iv. 23. * Abrahams, in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, iii. 522; John Allen, Modern Judaism, London, 1830, pp. 390 sq. * Cf. Judith, viii. 8. *® A passage in one of the Psalms (1xxxi. 3): ‘“ Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast-day,” probably refers to the New Moon in the seventh month (Leviticus, xxiii. 24). Similarly, “ full moon” may be explained as referring to the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles which began on the fifteenth of the same month (ibid., xxiii 39). ” Leviticus, xxiii. 5-6; Exodus, xii. 6 sqq.; Numbers, xxviii. 16-17. * Leviticus, xxiii. 39, 33-36; Numbers, xxix. 12. Ezekiel (xlv. 25), seems to have been the first to fix the Feast of Booths on the fifteenth of the seventh month, though from 7 Kings xii. 32 it would appear that this date was already established in the southern kingdom of Judah. This passage, however, may be post-Exilic. 131 132 Hutton Webster of Unleavened Bread were to be kept for religious assemblies where “no toilsome work” was allowed.** A like prohibition characterized the Feast of Tabernacles: “on the first day shall be a complete rest, and on the eighth day shall be a complete rest.”** When the priestly lawgivers arranged the post-Exilic calendar the institution of a weekly Sabbath had come into exist- ence. As a consequence the custom of observing every full moon as a period of abstinence must have fallen into disuse except as it was perpetuated in the sabbatarian rules for the celebration of the great agricultural festivals. In some of the older parts of the Bible, and especially during the time of the earlier prophets, the new moon and the Sabbath are repeatedly mentioned together. In the pathetic narrative which describes how the Shunammite woman sought Elisha that the prophet might restore her son to life, her husband asks: “ Where- fore will thou go to him to-day? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath?’’*+ The prophet Hosea, promising that the people’s unfaithfulness shall be punished, cries out wrathfully: “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.’”*® Amos rebukes the oppressors of his people “that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, saying ‘ When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great?’’’®> Tsaiah condemns the formalism of the ancient faith in striking words: “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of as- semblies—I cannot away with iniquity and solemn meeting.’’** Elsewhere, in the same work appears the prophecy: “ And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from * Leviticus, xxiii. 6-8; Exodus, xii. 15-16; Numbers, xxviii. 17-18, 25. %8 T eviticus, xxiii. 39; Numbers, xxix. 12, 35. The eighth day was prob- ably added by later lawgivers. * 2 Kings, iv. 23. eVEVOSed.. ile Ue % Amos, viii. 4-5. * Tsaiah, i. 13. Rest Days; A Sociological Study 133 one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah.’’** This remarkable conjunction of the Sababth with new moon in some of the oldest parts of the Hebrew Scriptures had been previously noticed by such acute critics as Wellhausen and Robert- son Smith, who, however, were unable to offer a satisfactory solution of the problem thus presented. When, however, it was learned from the cuneiform records that the Babylonian Sabattu fell on the fifteenth (or fourteenth) day of the month and meant with great probability the day of the full moon (supra), it be- came clear that in these Biblical passages we have a survival of what must have been the original application of the Hebrew term “sabbath.’”°° Among the Israelites, as among so many other peoples, there were two lunar festivals, held on the day of the new moon (/odesh) and on the day of the full moon Sabbath). These festivals, we have every reason to believe, reached back into the dateless past of prehistoric times. If the analogies from contemporary and archaic societies have any validity, the Hebrew seven-day week, in historic times a periodic week, arose from the subdivision of the lunation as de- termined by new and full moon. It must likewise have been originally a lunar week, corresponding closely to the moon’s four phases, and not at first disassociated from the month. It is scarcely possible to determine when such lunar cycles were in- troduced among the early Hebrews. Comparisons with other primitive peoples do not indicate that a division of the month into lunar weeks is familiar to nomadic pastoral tribes which, in- deed, would scarcely require them for their simple economy. The Israelites may have originated their lunar weeks themselves 8 Isaiah, \xvi. 23. ® This pregnant suggestion was first made by Zimmern in his comments on the discovery by Pinches, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlindischen Gesellschaft, 1904, lvii. 202 with note 1). Subsequently the hypothesis was elaborated by J. Meinhold, Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament, G6ttingen, 1905. His main conclusions have been accepted by Karl 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. 133 134 Hutton Webster as many other peoples have done; they may have borrowed them from the Babylonians as various authorities have supposed ;*° they may have taken them from the Canaanites whose agricultural festivals appear to have been transferred to the Hebrew calen- dar with little essential change. Archaeological research points more and more to the great influence of Canaanitish culture on the early Hebrews. With our present knowledge we cannot hope to fix with any exactness the precise period when the momentous change from lunar weeks to periodic weeks took place in Israel. That the periodic week was borrowed from Babylonia is an hypothesis that finds little support in any cuneiform evidence at present available.t It is highly questionable whether the Babylonians ever possessed the institution of a periodic seven-day week. That it was borrowed from the Canaanites is a gratuitous as- sumption. Until evidence to the contrary is found we may with good reason attribute the periodic week to the Hebrews them- selves—an institution as characteristically their own as formed the nundinal period to the Romans, both being weeks which ran from month to month and from year to year. In his able treatise Meinhold has gone so far as to argue that until the age of Ezekiel the Israelites employed no weeks at all.*? He then supposes that continuous seven-day weeks were intro- duced largely through Ezekiel’s reforming influence, hence that the Sabbath as the last day of the periodic week was a post- Exilic institution. Critics have pointed out that it is almost im- possible for so far-reaching a change to have occurred unre- corded; moreover that the acceptance of such an hypothesis makes it necessary to argue that all places in the Old Testament where the Sabbath is mentioned as the seventh day of the week are either of Ezekiel’s time or later.“* To my mind, the problem is *” Marti, “ Week,” in Encyclopaedia Biblica, iv. col. 5290. “Cf. Zimmern, in E. Schrader, Keilinschriften* 504. See also A. H. McNeile, Book of Exodus, London, 1908, p. 122. “ Sabbat und Woche, to sqq., 21 sqq. “Cf. Hehn, “ Siebenzahl und Sabbat,” 115 sqq. 134 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 135 simplified if we assume that the Hebrews employed lunar seven- day weeks perhaps for a long period anterior to the Exile, lunar weeks ending with special observances on the seventh day, but none the less tied to the lunar month. The change from such lunar cycles to those unconnected with the month would not have involved so abrupt and sudden a departure from the previous system of time reckoning as that from a bipartite division of the lunar month to a week running unfettered through the year. With the institution of a periodic week ending in a Sabbath observed every seventh day, there would be no longer any necessity for the observance of a new moon festival as a day of general abstinence since the weeks would run continuously, and the weekly Sabbath would take the place of a festival formerly observed every seventh day from new moon or the beginning of the month. Various writers have argued that the new moon festival was deliberately thrust aside on account of the heathenish superstitions which associated themselves with it.*4 It is more reasonable to suppose that the religious observance of New Moon fell gradually into disuse with the adoption of the periodic seven- day week ending in a Sabbath. Whatever significance it con- tinued to have in the later period of Jewish history must be ascribed to the fact that when all the great festivals were definitely fixed to certain days, the new moon as marking the beginning of the month, assumed a special importance in the sacred calendar. 20. TABOOS OBSERVED ON THE SABBATH Nearly all the sabbatarian regulations are meaningless except as elucidated from the comparative point of view. Thus the rule which required everyone to remain indoors on the Sabbath: “ Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day,’’*® is identical with the numerous rules enjoin- “Wellhausen, Prolegomena, 113; Robertson Smith, “ Sabbath,” in En- cyclopaedia Britannica, xxi. 126; Hehn, op. cit., 117. * Exodus, xvi. 29. According to Origen, Dositheus, the head of an ascetic Samaritan sect, based on this text the requirement that his fol- lowers throughout the Sabbath day should preserve unchanged the posi- 135 136 Hutton Webster mg seclusion during tabooed seasons (supra). Again, the pro- hibition: ‘‘Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day ’’*® which in another passage*’ is amplified into the rule requiring all cooking to be done on the preceding day, may be first compared with the taboos observed by “the shepherd of the great peoples” in Babylonia. On four “evil days” he is not to eat roasted meat or baked bread, and on the nineteenth day he may eat nothing which has been touched by fire (supra). Ina remarkable calendar of the unlucky days observed by the Egyptians (infra), we find an extensive series of regula- tions regarding the use of fire. On the fifth of the month Athyr, fire might not be looked at, and if it went out, it might not be rekindled. On the eleventh of Tobi no one might approach a fire-place, for, said the scribe, on that day the god Ra had once burst into flame to devour his enemies and the effects of his meta- morphosis were felt on every anniversary of the day. These taboos, which reach back into a remote period of Egyptian his- tory, are still found among the peasants of Thebes and the Said who on certain days of the year refuse to kindle a fire, and on others avoid approaching the flame, even of a candle or a lamp, tion which they occupied at the beginning of the festival. A. J. Reinach (Cultes, mythes, et. religions, Paris, 1906, ii. 444), wittily compared this with the practice of various animals, who, when in danger and unable to flee, fait le mort. Immobility is obviously the most favorable condition in which to avoid evil influences and spirits. “ Exodus, XXXV. 3. “ Thid., 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 (Shabbath, 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 sub- stances as would maintain but not increase the heat. The prohibition to kindle a fire on the Sabbath was naturally extended to one of extinguish- ing a fire as well as lights and lamps (Shabbath, xvi. 6). In mediaeval times Rabbi Solomon ben Adret had a lock made 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). 136 Rest Days; A Sociological Study je and the most timid do not smoke.*® In Hawaii, as we have seen, during the four tabu seasons in each lunar month, “every fire and light was extinguished.” Similar rules characterize periods of abstinence elsewhere in the aboriginal world (supra). Some of these taboos relating to fire may reflect primitive man’s fear of a mysterious element which had not yet been completely tamed and harnessed to human use; but the fact that among vari- ous peoples all fires are put out after a death, indicates a more probable origin of the prohibition in the fear of attracting evil spirits or harmful influences, generally. Thus in Morocco when a person has died in the morning “no fire is made in the whole village until he is buried, and in some parts of the country the inmates of a house or tent where a death has occurred, abstain from making fire for two or three days.’*® Similar customs have a wide diffusion and can be traced, for example, among the Dayaks of Borneo, in Burma and ancient Persia, and among the peasants of Calabria and the Scottish Highlanders.®*® It is hardly possible to urge that the putting out of fires on such occasions is always a necessary result of the widespread custom of fasting after a death and until the corpse is buried; as a matter of fact we find that fires may be extinguished when there is no fasting, and also that the fast is often restricted to the daytime when evil spirits, and in particular the ghost of the dead man, are presumed to be unable to see. But as Professor Westermarck has so ably shown the wide- spread custom of fasting is itself often to be explained as due to the desire to prevent pollution.’ Under certain circumstances to partake of food may.cause defilement; hence fasting is only one of the numerous precautions necessary to avoid contamination. These ideas find expression in the rules prescribing fasting after *“G. Maspero New Light on Ancient Egypt? London, 1909, pp. 130 sq. * Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. 305. ® For a collection of the ethnographic evidence see Frazer, “ On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1885, xv. 90. * E. Westermarck, “ The Principles of Fasting,’ Fo’k-Lore, 1908, xviii. 397 sqq.; idem, Moral Ideas, ii. 293 sqq. 137 138 Hutton Webster a death when, frequently, a real fear exists of eating food affected with the death contagion.®? On other critical occasions, also, the eating of food is thought to be injurious and hence ought to be avoided. Thus fasting may be enjoined during an eclipse of the sun or moon, or during a thunderstorm. “Abstinence from food, either partial or complete, marks several of the tabooed days pre- viously considered (supra). Such well established facts suggest that in the earliest period fasting may have also marked the Hebrew Sabbath.** This hypothesis seems first to have been ad- vanced by the “ judicious” Hooker,®** who observes that “it may bea question, whether in some sort they [the Jews] did not always fast on the Sabbath.” He instances a statement of Josephus that the sixth hour or noon was the time when “our laws require us to go to dinner on Sabbath-days.’®® Various pagan writers also refer to the Sabbath as a day of fasting.®* It is, of course, well known that in the first century of our era, and long previously, the Sabbath was a day of gladness, celebrated with feasting and good cheer. The notion that it was a fast day must have arisen from a misunderstanding of the Biblical rule forbidding cooking on the Sabbath. Yet it seems difficult, with Professor Wester- marck, to explain the curious rule which forbids fasting at new moon (supra) and on the seventh day otherwise than “as a pro- test against a fast once familiar to the Jews on this occasion, but afterwards regarded as an illegitimate rite.’ The foregoing ° Cf. supra on the cessation of work after a death. * Cf. Jastrow, in American Journal of Theology, 1808, ii. 325; Wester- marck, op. cit., 11. 310 sq. * Ecclesiastical Polity, v. 72. © De vita sua, 54. * Suetonius, Octavius, 76; Justin, xxxvi, 2. The latter speaks of the Sabbath having been consecrated as a fast day to commemorate a seven days’ fast of the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia. The various classi- cal texts bearing on the Jewish Sabbath are collected by T. Reinach, Fontes rerum judaicarum, i. 104, 243, 266, 287. See also M. Wolff, “ Het oordeel der Hellensch-Romeinsche schrijvers over oorsprong, naam, en viering van der Sabbat,” Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1910, xliv. 162-72. * Moral Ideas, ii. 310. Cf. Schulchan Aruch, i. 91, 117. Perhaps the fasting originally occurred only at new and full moon and was never ex- tended to the weekly sabbath. 138 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 139 pages have supplied too many illustrations of the transformation of fast days into feast days for such an explanation to be dis- missed as an idle conjecture. Even the rules which required rest on the Sabbath day betray in their original form something quite different from a humani- tarian purpose to provide a season of relaxation and repose for man and beast. No plea of necessary labor is to be accepted at even the busiest seasons of the year: “In plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.’”°* When the Israelites were in the wilder- ness and dependent on manna for their sustenance, the heavenly food was not to be gathered on the Sabbath day and those who went out to seek it found none in the fields. But that which was gathered during the preceding day preserved its freshness through- out the Sabbath.®® In the Decalogue (E-‘vodus, xx. 10), the sev- enth day is stated to be a Sabbath not only for the householder and his family, but for the stranger within the gates and for the cattle. No utilitarian reason is here assigned for the prohibition of labor nor does the commandment indicate that its author was inspired with sentiments of consideration for the lower creation. It is only in passages belonging to a far later period of Hebrew history that we find the priestly writers enjoining the Sabbath observance “that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed.”®° When the notion of a weekly Sabbath was extended to the Sab- batical year the seventh year was to be “a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land,” not because of the advantage of allowing soil to lie fallow at regular intervals, but because the land itself was con- secrated as “a Sabbath unto Jehovah.”*t The regulation does not imply that as a consequence of a fallow year the land will pro- duce better harvests on the succeeding year. It is expressly said that the year before the Sabbath year is the one to be conspicuous S Exodus, XXxXiv. 21. ™ [bid., xvi. 24 Sqq. © Ibid., xxiii. 12. Cf. Deuteronomy, v. 14. * Leviticus, xxv. 4. That this law was occasionally productive of great distress we may learn from r Maccabees, vi. 48, 53. Cf. Josephus, Antt- quitates Judaeorum, xiv. 16, 2. 139 140 Hutton Webster for its fruitfulness: “Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.”*? That subsequently the produce of the soil was to be devoted to the poor and to the cattle,** may be taken as represent- ing a partial triumph of the utilitarian spirit. During the Jubilee at the end of seven times seven years, “ Ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines,”** a regulation which can be explained only as the outcome of the sabbatarian observances attached to the seventh day and the seventh year. In the Hawaiian Islands and west Africa the punishment of one who broke a sabbatarian taboo was death (supra). Among the early Israelites a similar penalty was enforced against the Sabbath-breaker: “‘ Every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death ; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.”®’ We are not informed how frequently this stern ordinance was enforced; the case of him who gathered sticks on the Sabbath® is the only instance of capi- tal punishment for Sabbath desecration which has found its way into the Scriptures as we now have them. From various sources we may gather that the Hebrews kept the Sabbath with varying degrees of rigor in different places and at different times. In the age of Nehemiah the people of Judah made wine and gathered the harvest on the Sabbath. All manner of burdens were brought into Jerusalem on that day and the inhabi- ® Leviticus, Xxv. 21. © Exodus, XXili. IT: * Leviticus, xxv. 11. Whether the Jubilee was celebrated after 48 or after 49 years is a problem incapable of solution from the Old Testament evidence. As Schiaparelli has well shown (Astronomy in the Old Testa- ment, 146 sqq.), the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus combines together two systems of rules which are not only different but actually irrecon- cilable with each other, the septennial system of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee system of fifty years. * Exodus, xxxi. 14. Cf. for a similar regulation, ibid., xxxv. 2. * Numbers, xv. 32-36. The comments of Philo Judaeus on this passage are interesting, if not illuminating (Vita Mosis, iii. 27-28). 140 Rest Days; A Sociological Study I4I tants bought and sold with the men of Tyre.** These practices indicate that the ancient taboos were then relaxing their hold and that the Sabbath bade fair to become a social institution, divorced from supernatural sanctions. It is doubtless true that the Exile tended to augment the relig- ious importance of the Sabbath, since even in heathen lands it could be observed by a people who now had neither state nor temple. In the Exilic literature great significance is ascribed to the Sabbath®* and in post-Exilic law it is regarded as a sign be- tween Jehovah and the children of Israel that Jehovah is their God. It is impossible, however, to follow those critics®® who assume that the rigor of the sabbatarian observances after the Exile forms an entirely new development, and that the priestly Sabbath represents something very different from the Sabbath of the Book of the Covenant or of Deuteronomy. The increased significance of the institution led naturally to a revival of the old taboos with which the day had been always invested, taboos which otherwise might have been expected to disappear with advancing culture and the decay of supernaturalism. The like has happened elsewhere amongst peoples of archaic civilization. It is not im- possible that closer contact with Assyria and Babylonia from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. did something to revitalize the older superstitions and to give to the Sabbath once more an aus- tere character.“ The day, however, seems never wholly to have lost all traces of its severe and sombre origin in a tabu season; it is significant in this connection that whilst the Hebrews had their * Nehemiah, x. 31; xiii. 15-16. Ezekiel dwells constantly on the pro- fanation of the Sabbath in his catalogue of the sins of the Israelites (xx. 13, 16, 21, 24; xxii. 8, 26; xxiii. 38. For the prohibitions of burden-bear- ing and marketing on the Sabbath see Amos, viii. 5; Jeremiah, xvii. 21-22. “Cf. Isaiah lvi. 2 sq., lviii. 13. ®T. K. Cheyne, Jewish Religious Life after the Exile, New York, 1808, p. 66; C. G. Montefiore, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Reigion of the Ancient Hebrews, London, 1893, pp. 229 sq., 338 sq.; Wellhausen, Prolegomena, 115; W. R. Smith, “ Sabbath,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, xxi. 124. ™ Cf. Hirsch, “ Sabbath,” in Jewish Encyclopedia, x. 590; Bohn, Der Sabbat im Alten Testament, 8 sqq., 89 sqq. I4I 142 Hutton Webster favorable and unfavorable days as the phrase yém tob (*‘ good day”) for holy day shows, the Sabbath is never so described.” The later history of the Sabbath as a tabu day culminates in the exaggerations of pharisaic Judaism and the extraordinary microl- ogy of the rabbinical enactments.** The Mishna enumerates no less than thirty-nine principal classes of prohibited actions. Some of these are regarded as belonging to as ancient a period as any of the taboos found in the Old Testament; the majority, however, represent only an elaboration of the scriptural precepts. Two en- tire treatises are devoted to the provisions for Sabbath observance. The Shabbath is chiefly remarkable as an illustration of the subtle refinements and distinctions of which the rabbis were capable. Thus the prohibitions to tie or untie a knot being regarded as too general, it was necessary to define the species of knots referred to. A camel-driver’s knot and boatman’s knot rendered the man who tied or untied them a sabbath-breaker ; but Rabbi Meir said, “A knot which a man can untie with one hand only, he does not become guilty by untying.” Rabbi Jehudah, more liberal of mind, laid down the rule that any knot might be lawfully tied which was not intended to be permanent. The second treatise, Erabim, was intended to alleviate the extreme rigor of some of the enactments in the former work. Thus the limits of a ‘“ Sabbath-day’s jour- ney’ having been fixed at two thousand cubits, the rabbis con- ceded that one who before the Sabbath had deposited food for two meals at the boundary thereby removed his habitation from the town and made that place his new domicile. When the Sabbath came he was at liberty to proceed two thousand cubits beyond it though he lost the right to walk the same distance in the opposite direction. These legal fictions may be most appropriately com- pared with the methods of evading the sabbatarian rules found among the modern Todas (supra). The Jewish Sabbath appears to have been known to the Romans as ™ Jastrow, in American Journal of Theology, 1808, ii. 324 n.*. Cf. 1 Maccabees, ii. 31 sqq.; 2 Maccabees, v. 25, vi. 11, vili. 26. The principal regulations in the Mishna are well summarized by Schiirer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, div. ii. vol. ii. 96-105. ‘142 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 143 early as the last century of the Republic, to judge from the notices of the institution in classical writers. By the time of the Empire references to it multiply. The Diaspora which spread abroad a knowledge of the Jewish seven-day week introduced the Sabbath likewise. It is a curious coincidence that the very time when the preaching of Christianity began was also the period when the Jewish propaganda reached its height. In the great commercial centers on the Mediterranean there were numerous Jewish communities with pagan proselytes who adopted Jewish customs including the observance of the Sabbath. Philo” bears witness to the wide diffusion of the institution; and Josephus,” with pardonable exagger- ation, could write that there was no city among the Greeks or the bar- barians where the festival of the Sabbath was not celebrated. Although the Sabbath was abolished by Christ for his followers” its observance by Jewish converts in Palestine did not immediately cease. The Jewish seven-day week passed over to Christianity almost unchanged, doubtless because the use of the planetary week with its names of pagan deities could scarcely prove attractive. The days were reckoned in their numerical order as second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, the latter, how- ever, being called more commonly, 7 Tapackevj, the day of preparation before the Sabbath. It is impossible to say definitely how far back the practice of marking the first day of the week (7 kupiaxh quépa,'the Lord’s Day), by acts of worship, may be traced. Pliny the Younger, at the opening of the second century, makes it probable that among the Chris- tians of Bithynia and no doubt elsewhere in Asia Minor the day of religi- ous worship was Sunday.” Justin Martyr, writing about 150 A.D., has very explicit statements about the celebration of Sunday as marking the day when Christ arose from the dead.” The original identity of Sabbath and full moon day throws much light on the reasons which led to the choice of the first day of the week as the day of the Resurrection. The early Christian church was divided into two parties, one celebrating the day of resurrection annually on the four- teenth of Nisan (corresponding to the seventh of April in the year 30 A.D.—the date of the crucifixion), the other instituting the weekly “ Lord’s Day.” The division was not healed until the Council of Nicea. An im- portant part in this controversy was played by the phrase “the day after the Sabbath,” occurring in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus (v. 11), where directions are given for bringing the first fruits of harvest to the "Vita Mosis, ii. 4. * Contra Apionem, ii. 30. ™ Mark, ii. 27; John, v. 17. ® Epistolae, x. 08. " Apologia prima, 67; Deissmann, “Lord’s Day,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. cols. 2813-16. 143 144 Hutton Webster priest. ‘“ And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you: on the day after the Sabbath he shall wave it.” The reference was to the beginning of the fifty days’ period from Passover to Pentecost. Among the Jews the orthodox view was that “Sabbath” in this passage meant the first day of Passover, whereas the heretical Jewish sects, in- cluding the Samaritans, took the word literally to mean Sunday; according to their view Pentecost always fell on a Sunday. The early Christians adopted the heterodox view, and when the Council of Nicea definitely established the observance of a weekly “Lord’s Day” that day was fixed as Sunday—“ the day after the Sabbath.” But as has recently been shown, the term Sabbath in this passage described the fifteenth day of Nisam not as a festival day but merely as the middle of the month.” There is no evidence that Sunday at first was marked by sabbatic ob- servances; on the contrary, in one of the Epistles of Ignatius, we find the exhortation not to ‘“sabbatize” which was afterwards expanded into a warning against keeping the Sabbath, after the Jewish fashion, “as if delighting in idleness.” In the fourth century a Church Council ex- pressly enacted that “the Christians ought not to judaise and rest on the Sabbath, but ought to work on that day.’*’ That the earliest Sunday law, the edict issued by Constantine in 321, had probably no relation to Chris- tianity has already been indicated (supra). As Professor Westermarck has pointed out, though the obligatory Sunday rest in no case was a continu- ance of the Jewish Sabbath, it gradually was confounded with it, owing to its injunction of a weekly day of rest, as the code of divine morality. But in southern European lands, the restraints connected with the day seem never to have become so burdensome as elsewhere; people habitually work hard on the Sabbath. After Protestantism modelled on the Old Testament gained the upper hand in north Europe the Sabbath ordinances were revived to an extraordinary degree.™ * The foregoing statements are based on Prof. Morris Jastrow’s sum- mary of the papers presented at the recent meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. See the Nation, 1911, xcii. 8 sq. ® Epistola ad Magnesios, 9. ° Concilium Laodicenum, can. 20. “Cf. Alice M. Earle, Sabbath in Puritan New England, New York, 1891, pp. 245-58. 144 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 145 arr. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE AT UNLUCKY TIMES AND SEASONS 21. THE CONCEPTION OF UNLUCKINESS The observance of lucky and unlucky days is a familiar phe- nomenon in primitive society and among peoples of archaic civili- zation. Under the attenuated form of a survival, the belief still lingers in civilized and Christian lands. The reasons for the assignment of a good and an evil character to certain days are usually quite obscure; and even where explanations are provided, they are, as a rule, explanations after the event. The attempt to provide a satisfactory origin for them insensibly widens out into an effort to account for the genesis of the great body of popular and anonymous superstitions. Probably the commonest source of the belief in lucky and unlucky days is to be sought in that erroneous association of ideas which underlies so much of savage magic and savage religion. If an event, fortunate or unfortunate, has taken place on a certain day, the notion easily arises that all actions performed on the recurrence of the day will have a similarly favorable or unfavor- able issue. Thus among the Tshis of west Africa days are con- sidered unlucky generally on account of some great calamity having taken place at such dates. Their most unlucky day is the anniversary of the Saturday on which Osai Tutu was slain in an ambush near Acromanti in 1731.1. The dies religiost or unlucky days of the Roman calendar (supra) included the anniversary of the battle of the Allia, dies Alliensis (July 18), when the Re- public had suffered grave misfortune.” After the assassination of Julius Caesar a decree was made that the Ides of March (March 15) should be called parricidium, henceforth to be ob- served as an unlucky day.* It has usually been supposed that the *Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples, 219 sq. *The same date was also observed as the dies Fabiorum (Livy, vi. I). It may be noted that July 18 is sometimes marked C in the calendars, indicating that the day was one on which the comitia might meet. * Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 88. 145 146 Hutton Webster thirty-six dies postriduam, or days following the Calends, Nones, and Ides, which were also regarded as unlucky,* and as such unsuitable for journeys and marches, were so indicated for some special reason, such as a disaster to the state. Perhaps, however, they were real survivals of taboos at new moon, first quarter, and full moon, their assumed historic significance having been the con- scious fiction of a later and more sophisticated age. Sometimes the belief in days lucky and unlucky is a conclusion drawn from the observation of natural phenomena, as in the no- tion previously referred to (supra) that during the “death” of the moon all mundane business ought to be suspended. The con- ception of luckiness and unluckiness may also be deduced a@ priori from the assumed character of certain times. Thus the old Japa- nese are said to have held five yearly festivals or holidays “ pur- posely laid on those days, which, by reason of their Imparity are judged to be the most unfortunate.’”’ These were New Year’s day, the third day of the third month, the fifth of the fifth month, the seventh of the seventh month, the ninth of the ninth month.® Sometimes, again the superstition rests on utterly trivial consid- erations illustrated by a Jewish belief reaching back to the Talmud that it is lucky to begin an undertaking or a journey on Tuesday, because in describing the third day of creation it is said, ‘ God saw that it was good.” Contrariwise it is unlucky to commence anything of importance on Monday when this is not said at all.© Where such conceptions are rife they readily lend them- selves to divination and astrology and under the fostering care of practitioners of magical arts may develop into elaborate augural codes. * Ovid, Fasti, i. 59 sg.; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 25; Livy, vi. 1; Aulus Gellius, v. 17. These days were usually described as the dies atri vel vitiosi. The greater number of them were available for judicial busi- ness, but not for meetings of the assemblies (dies fasti non comitiales). °Kaempfer, History of Japan, ii. 22. In Korea the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month are called “broken days” when the people avoid any new undertakings (W. E. Griffis, Corea, New York, 1889, p. 208). ° Jacobs, “ Superstition,” in Jewish Encyclopedia, xi. 590. " 146 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 147 The foregoing considerations do not, however, apply to all ex- amples of the superstition under discussion. In many instances, as has been repeatedly noticed, no clear line of demarcation can be drawn between days tabu and days considered “unlucky.” Both may involve similar ideas of contagion; the notion of sanc- tity or pollution in the one being conceived as scarcely more trans- missible than the vaguer conception of “ unluckiness”’ which attaches to certain periods and affects everything done on such occasions. In each case the roots of the institution go back to the primitive, unanalyzed sense of danger lurking in the unusual and the abnormal. Accordingly, many of the so-called unlucky days found among peoples of archaic culture and still lingering in contemporary civilization may be regarded as survivals from an earlier institution of days of abstinence communally observed. It is true that as compared with the longer duration of some tabooed periods among primitive peoples, the unlucky day consti- tutes a limited season of restriction. This difference may be ex- plained as the necessary outcome of advancing culture, since the burden of the old restrictions would otherwise become intolerable. Every progressive society tries to shake off vexatious restrictions, the classic example of which was the voluntary abolition in Hawaii of the entire tabu system before the advent of the missionaries.’ 22. UNLUCKY DAYS IN THE LOWER AND THE HIGHER CULTURE ‘ The likeness between tabooed days and some “unlucky” days may be illustrated by much ethnographic evidence drawn from different cultural areas. The Maori, we are told, endeavor to determine by divination whether the day set for a journey is fa- * This took place in 1819 when Kamehameha II succeeded to the throne previously occupied by his energetic father. The first missionaries did not arrive from America until 1820. See the accounts of this remarkable revo- lution in Ellis, op. cit., iv. 126 sqq. Cf. also, The Private Journal of the Rev. C. S. Stewart, Dublin, 1830, p. 78. *Some material on unlucky days is collected in R. Andree’s brief article “Tagewahlerei” in his Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Leip- zig, 1878, pp. 1-8. The chapter devoted to the subject in William Jones, Credulities Past and Present, London, 1808, is an uncritical miscellany. 147 148 Hutton Webster vorable or unfavorable. The fisherman is hopeless of making a catch on an unfavorable day. At such times “no dress will be commenced, no seine cast, no fish-hook baited, no ground turned up, seed sown, distant visit made, flax cut or dressed, timber cut, canoe formed, or even food partaken of.’® It is scarcely neces- sary to point out that these unfavorable days of the Maori differ in no essential respect from the tabu days observed elsewhere within the Polynesian region. Like the latter they constitute a season of restriction, abstinence, and rest. The Malagasy un- lucky days, as they have been commonly described, furnish an instance even more apt. The native term fady (or tabu) used for all objects and persons tabooed, is likewise applied to unfa- vorable days and months, the quality of such periods as dangerous or unlucky being thought transmissible to beings and actions.’® Among the Tanala one of the months called faosa is considered extremely unlucky. “ Noone works in that month, no one changes his place of abode or goes about. If any one happens to be in the fields when the month comes in there he remains.”** The Sihanaka keep Tuesday as an unlucky day when no work is allowed in the fields. In addition each family or tribe inherits a special unlucky day in each week when it is not permissible to show oneself outside the house. The Sakalava likewise abstain from all business and remain strictly in seclusion on their unlucky days, which belong both to families and to individuals. Among the Betsimisaraka, Saturday was so unlucky that one could do nothing then except eat, drink, sleep and dress the hair. Since °J. S. Polack, Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, London, 1840, i. 256. ° Cf. A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme a Madagascar, Paris, 1904, pp. 199 sqq. The Malagasy belief in lucky and unlucky days as determined by the lunar stations (supra) appeafs to be a direct importation from the Arabs superimposed on an earlier and thoroughly native observance of tabooed seasons. Similarly, the Malagasy have taken over the planetary week with all its astrological significance (supra). 4 Sibree, in Folk-Lore Record, 1879, ii. 32; citing Antananarivo Annual, NO: (2, p: 160) 148 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 149 the introduction of Christianity the day observed in the same rig- orist fashion is Sunday.** The observance of unlucky seasons with communal abstinence may be further illustrated by the practices attaching to epago- menal days. Like intercalary months (supra) they are often regarded as specially critical and important times. The solar year, superseding the lunar year of 354 days, seems to have been generally assumed in the first instance at the round number of 360 days, the earth’s periodical course around the sun being taken as a multiple of the moon’s course around the earth. In ancient Mexico, where a solar calendar came into use, the 360 days were divided into eighteen periods each of twenty days. As their total did not round out the solar year it became necessary to add five days; and these possessed an unfavorable character. They were called nemontemi, “the superfluous, supplementary days” with the secondary significance of “the useless days” as being conse- crated to no deity and employed for no civic business. That they were considered sinister and unlucky is evident from the absti- nence that characterized them. Nothing of any importance was done on the nemontemi. The house was not swept, no legal case was tried, and any person so unfortunate as to be born on one of these days was destined for a poor and miserable life. At the same time, the nemontemi possessed a prophetic power for the whole year. “They were also careful,” says Father Sahagun, “during these fatal days not to fall asleep during the day, not to quarrel together, not to trip or to fall, because they said that if any of these things befell them, they would continue to befall them thence forevermore.’’* In Yucatan, among the Mayas, the same abstinence prevailed during the epagomenal days there called rma kaba kin, the “ days without names.” “On these days men left the house as seldom “van Gennep, op. cit., 202 sq. ®E. Seler, in Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 28, p. 16; Sahagun, Histoire générale des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, Paris, 1880, pp. Ixvi sq., 77, 164; J. de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii. 392. 149 150 Hutton Webster as possible, did not wash themselves, and took special care not to undertake any menial or difficult task, doubtless because they lived in the conviction that they would be forced to keep on doing it through the whole ensuing year. The Mexicans were more pas- sive in regard to these days, inasmuch as they merely took care to avoid conjuring up mischief for the coming year while the Mayas did things more thoroughly. During these days, so por- tentous for the entire year, they banished the evil which might threaten them. They prepared a clay image of the demon of evil, Uuayayab, . . . confronted it with the deity who had supreme power during the year in question, and then carried it out of the village in the direction of that cardinal point to which the new year belonged.’’# It is an impressive testimony to the essential unity of primitive culture that in a far distant quarter of the globe an almost identical superstition existed. The Egyptian solar calendar, as the Mexi- can, was based on a year of 365 days, but in Egypt the year was divided into twelve equal months of thirty days each, likewise leaving five supplementary days to be added at the end of the twelfth month—“ the five days over and above the year,” as they were styled by the Egyptians. At an early period these epago- menal days were celebrated in certain temples as those on which the five gods of the Osirian cycle—Osiris, Horus, Typhon, Isis, Nephthys, were born.” The first, third and fifth were held to be unlucky, the second is not described as either lucky or unlucky, whilst the fourth is said to be a “ beautiful festival of heaven and Gari 28 “Seler, op. cit., 16 sq. Cf. for a fuller account idem, in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 308. * Diodorus Siculus, i. 13, 4; Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 12. “E, A. W. Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, London, 1904, ii. 109. Wiede- mann (Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 1897, p. 211) mentions only the third as an unlucky day. See also Foucart, in Hastings, Encyclo- paedia of Religion and Ethics, iii, 92 sq., 105. The ancient Persians likewise counted five epagomenal days to make up the solar year; and their feast of the Sacaea, mentioned by Berosus, has been shown to be identical with the celebration of these supplementary 150 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 151 The other lucky and unlucky days of the ancient Egyptians have been made familiar to us by the fortunate discovery of a calendar, a Nineteenth Dynasty papyrus, giving a list of such days for sev- eral months in the year. This is the Sallier Papyrus IV.1* It days—Ferwardin (Meissner, in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandi- schen Gesellschaft, 1896, 1. 296). By some scholars the Persian festival has been derived from the Babylonian New Year’s festival of Zakmuk which is traced back to the time of Gudea in the third millenium B.C. (cf. Frazer, The Golden Bough, iii. 151 sqq.). This hypothesis has not won wide acceptance (cf. Lang’s acute discussion, Magic and Religion, London, IQOI, pp. I4I sqqg.) ; and, in fact, requires us to assume the existence of the five epagomenal days among the Babylonians at a very remote period. In Babylonia, however, the year was always a lunar year, adjusted to the tropical year only by the use of intercalary months (supra). The festival of Zakmuk, it should be noted, occupied not five but at least eleven days. In view of these considerations the suggestion may be pertinent that whatever resemblance existed between the Sacaea and the festival of Zakmuk is explained by both being held at specially critical seasons, the end of the old year or the beginning of the new year. Among the early Celts, as well as among other Indo-European peoples, there are found traces of twelve intercalary days or “nights,” added to the lunar year of 354 days, in the effort to accommodate it to the tropic or seasonal year. In modern Brittany these are called gourdeziou or “ sup- plementary days.” Popular superstition also describes them as “ evil days,” and further considers each one as prognosticating the character or quality of a month in the coming year. See J. Loth, “Les douze jours supplé- mentaires, gourdeziou, des Bretons, des Germains, et des Hindous,” Revue celtique, 1903, xxiv. 310 sqq. In Brahmanic literature the twelve days are referred to as “an image of the coming year” (O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, Strassburg, 1901, p. IQr). “ The text was published in Select Papyri of the British Museum, i. pls. 144-08 and was translated by Chabas, Le calendrier des jours fastes et néfastes de l'année égyptienne, Chalons, 1870 (Oeuvres diverses, v. 126- 235). Bohn (Der Sabbat im Alten Testament, pp. 57 sqq.) gives a revised and corrected version of some of the leading passages and classifies the contents of the calendar under such headings as prohibitions of eating, drinking and bathing, prohibitions of work, prohibitions of going out or of travelling, directions regarding fire and light, sexual intercourse, loud talking, music, and so on. Such an arrangement illustrates clearly the nature of the taboos observed. See further on this important calendar, Maspero, Etudes égyptiennes, Paris, 1886, i. 28 sqq.; idem, New Light on Ancient Egypt,? London, 1909, pp. 128-36; Wiedemann, op. cit., 263 sqq.; 151 152 Hutton Webster purports to have been written by a contemporary of Ramses II and to be based on the works of certain former seers. To the injunctions it contains we may reasonably ascribe a high antiquity. . This interesting production of ancient though misdirected learning divides the hours between the rising and setting of the sun into three seasons of four, each of which is ruled by its particular influence. Most often their character was the same in all three seasons. Thus the fifth of the month Paophi is described as “inauspicious, inauspicious, inauspicious. In no wise go out of thy house on this day; approach not a woman.” The preceding day, the fourth Paophi, is, however, characterized as “inauspi- cious, auspicious, auspicious,” 7. ¢., varying in influence.* Thus it would seem that a single day might have both a favorable and an unfavorable character—a refinement of ingenious superstition which finds a parallei in the Babylonian calendars. The month Thot was particularly unfavorable for labor. On the twentieth of that month no work was done, no oxen killed, no stranger received. On the twenty-second no fish were to be eaten, no oil lamp lighted. On the twenty-third no incense was to be put on the fire, no large cattle, goats or ducks to be killed. For the twenty-sixth the injunction is, “do absolutely nothing on this day.” Similar advice is given on several days of the month Paophi, and more than thirty times in the remainder of the Sallier calendar.?® The remarkably close analogies presented by many of these injunctions to the taboos of primitive peoples, make it highly probable that the calendar represents the systematization of far more ancient regulations for seasons of abstinence. Doubtless many changes in the shape both of additions and corruptions crept in; the calendar itself presents evidence that the Egyptians had begun to rationalize their taboos. Thus the scribe after E. A. W. Budge, Egyptian Magic? Lond., toot, pp. 224 sqq.; Foucart, op. cit., ili. 100 sg. The latter holds that the popular character of the collection has been exaggerated, a view to which comparative studies lend little support. * Wiedemann, of. cit., 263. Cf. Maspero, Romans et poésies au Papyrus Harris, no. 5, pp. 38 sq. * Maspero, Dawn of Civilizations New York, 1897, p. 211 n.’. 152 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 153 indicating the things to be done or avoided, the animals whose encounter or sight should be shunned, adds a summary of the motives which justified his recommendations. In almost every case this is a legendary episode of the gods. Men were bene- fited or injured by the pleasure or pain of the gods.°° The Babylonian augural calendar for the intercalated month of Elul and for Marcheswan (supra) is not the only example of omen literature to be found in the cuneiform records. We possess a document,”* preserved in great part, which includes every day in the year, either specifying its nature as favorable or unfavorable or adding other indications with regard to its character. A note like “hostility,” appended to the twenty-first day of the second month is an omen that the gods are out of humor on that day; the twenty-third day described as “heart not good” is explained by the contrast “heart glad” on the follow- ing day. Not content with a simple distinction of favorableness and unfavorableness, the calendar also deals with days “ wholly favorable” and “half favorable.” Still other days are noted as those portending “distress,” “trouble, fears, J iajury,. “darkness,” “moon obscured,” and the like. The precautions and prohibitions set forth for unlucky days include, among many others, the familiar taboos of eating specified foods, of sexual intercourse, of buying and selling, wearing bright garments, travelling, holding law courts, and so on. The calendar con- tains a number of references to the king and may very probably have served the priests in their instructions to the monarch. As Professor Jastrow remarks, the belief in lucky and unlucky days has a distinctly popular flavor, making it probable that the priests embodied in their lists many of the notions that arose among the people, and gave them an official sanction. The Greeks in Hesiod’s time possessed an elaborate calendar 9 ce ”Maspero, New Light on Ancient Egypt, 120. *Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, v. pls. 48, 40; Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 379 sqq.; Bohn, Der Sabbat im Alten Testament, 55 sqq. 153 154 Hutton Webster , of lucky and unlucky days.22 ‘‘ Sometimes a day is a stepmother, sometimes a mother,’ Hesiod remarks pithily. What ancient regulations for the observance of tabooed periods are embodied in the calendar is problematical. However, many of the pro- hibitions with which the first part of the poem concludes are thoroughly primitive taboos.2* Hesiod does not mention any days when labor is to be entirely abandoned. We may assume, perhaps, that at the period when the Hesiodic poems were com- posed the rationalizing temper of the Greeks had gotten some- what the better of their superstitious fears. In the Hesiodic list, as in the Egyptian and Babylonian calendars, appears the notion that not only whole days but even parts of days have an individual character, working for good or evil. Thus the middle ninth (the nineteenth) is said to be “a better day toward afternoon.” The “fourth which followeth the twentieth of the month is the best at dawn, but it is worse toward afternoon.” Hesiod does not distinguish the months as lucky and unlucky, and the days which possess either of these attributes are the same for every month. He gives no explanation for their luckiness or unlucki- ness though traces of a rationalizing process are perhaps observy- able in the directions regarding the fifths (presumably 5, 15, 25) which are unlucky “because on the fifth men say the Erinyes attended the birth of Oath (Horkos), whom Strife bare to punish perjurers.’ The seventh again is lucky “for on that day Leto bare Apollo of the Golden Sword.”?4 The Hesiodic injunctions did not cease to be observed in the later classical epoch and exercised great influence on civil and political life. The super- stitions relating to unlucky days only gained a firmer foothold under the influence of Chaldean and Egyptian doctrines, in pass- * Opera et Dies, 765-828. On the Hesiodic calendar see E. E. Sikes, “Folk-Lore in the Works and Days of Hesiod,” Classical Review, 1803, vil. 389-94, and the Addenda to Mr. A. W. Mair’s admirable version of Hesiod, Oxford, 1908, pp. 162-66. For a full analysis of the calendar see A. Mommsen, Chronologie, Untersuchungen iiber das Kalenderwesen der Griechen, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 39-46. % Opera et Dies, 724-64. 4 Tbid., 820, 802, 770. eae4 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 155 ing from Greece to Rome and from Rome to western Europe.”° The old Irish, whose geasa or taboos have been previously noticed (supra), entertained a great respect for lucky and unlucky days. How they were rationalized by Christian teachers is amusingly illustrated by a marginal note to a medical treatise bearing the date 1733. “The prohibited Mondays of the year. The first Monday in April, on which day Cain was born and his brother slain. The second Monday in August, on which day Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The thirteenth (the third Monday of ?) December, on which day Judas was born that betrayed Christ.’ Anglo-Saxon calendars give a total of about twenty-four evil days out of the year, when it is dangerous if not fatal, to begin an enterprise or totravel. These dies malt, it is worth noting, were called “Egyptian days.” A manuscript calendar dating from the reign of Henry VI gives a list of thirty-two such days. After the Reformation the old evil days appear to have abated much of their ancient malevolent influences, and to have left behind them only a general superstition against fishermen setting *The Vergilian calendar (Georgica, i. 276 sqqg.) is obviously an imita- tion of the Hesiodic, though it may be supposed 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. ** Eleanor Hull, “ Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa,’ Folk-Lore, 1901, xii. 48. In the course of this article Miss Hull has given a new interpretation of the ces noiden Ulad, that extraordinary weakness or prostration which at certain times overtook the king and all the grown warriors of Ulster. In the tale of “The Debility of the Ultonians” it lasts for five days, but in the epic of Tdin bé Cuailgne, for about four months, during which time Cuchulainn, who, with women and children, was exempt, kept up a single-handed combat against the invaders of Ulster. Miss Hull believes that five days was the real length of the Ultonian abstention from work and warfare, this period being exaggerated in the epic into four months, perhaps to cover Cuchulainn with glory. She would under- stand such a season of abstinence as analogous to the tabooed periods of other peoples. But this hypothesis, it must be admitted, does not explain why women and children were not subject to the taboo. 155 156 Hutton Webster out to fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a new place—on a Friday.?* CONCLUSION It is fairly obvious, from the foregoing discussion, that the belief in days lucky and unlucky, has operated, like other super- stitions, to retard the development of mankind. They hinder in- dividual initiative and tend to prevent the undertaking of lengthy enterprises which may be interrupted by the recurrence of an unfavorable period. Their elaborate development compels fitful, intermittent labor rather than a steady and continuous occupa- tion. The Burman, for example, “is so fettered by his horoscope and the lucky and unlucky days for him recorded therein, which are taught him in rhymes from childhood, that the character has been given him by strangers of alternate idleness and energy. But both are enforced by the numerous days and seasons when he may not work without disaster to himself. Unlucky days cause him so much fear that he will resort to all sorts of excuses to avoid business on them. Similarly, on lucky days he will work beyond his strength, because he is assured of success.” These remarks, by a keen observer, are capable of a wide applica- tion to various primitive races. The belief in unfavorable sea- sons may even directly affect political and social progress where, as in modern Ashanti and in ancient Rome, assemblies could not be held, nor courts of justice stand open, nor armies engage the enemy, when the unlucky day came round. It is equally obvious that all such beliefs play into the hands of the astrologer and magician, tending further to strengthen the bonds with which superstition enchains its votaries. Yet the picture is not wholly dark. To the student of primi- tive religion and sociology nothing is more interesting than the contemplation of that unconscious though beneficent process * Chambers’s Book of Days, i. 42. See also John Aubrey’s quaint essay pn “Day-fatality; or, some observations of days lucky and unlucky” (Miscellanies upon Various Subjects, London, 1784, pp. 3-36). *R. C. Temple, “ Burma,” in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iti. 20. 156 Rest Days; A Sociological Study 157 which has converted institutions based partly or wholly on a belief in the imaginary and the supernatural into institutions rest- ing on the rock of reason and subserving human welfare. Though the origin of tabooed and unlucky days must be sought in gross superstition, sooner or later they acquire a social signifi- cance and may then be perpetuated as the primitive holidays long after their earlier meaning has faded away. The extent to which the day of abstinence provides an inter- mission of labor may be illustrated from various regions. In Ashanti, an old writer calculates that there are only a hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty days in the year during which business of any importance can be safely undertaken.2 In ancient Egypt the number of unlucky days varied according to the months. Thus there were six in Paophi, seven in Khoiak and Phamenot, five in Pharmouti. It may be reckoned “that popular superstition rendered useless about one-fifth of the year.”* In the old Roman calendar out of three hundred and fifty-five days, at least a hundred and eight were completely nefasti when no judicial or political business could be lawfully transacted.* In the Julian calendar the total number of days available for secular business had fallen to two hundred and thirty-nine out of three hundred and sixty-five. Of the dies nefasti, on which the state expected the citizens so far as possible to intermit their own private business and labor, nearly a half were celebrated as public feriae, or festivals of the gods (supra). As the Roman passion for holidays and their attendant games and spectacles increased, we find the number of days given over to such amusements rising from sixty-six in the reign of Augus- tus to eighty-seven in that of Tiberius, and under Marcus Aure- lius to a hundred and thirty-five. By the middle of the fourth * Beecham, Ashantee and the Gold Coast, 188. *Maspero, New Light on Ancient Egypt,’ 135. “This calculation assumes 1091 dies fasti et comitiales, on which the public assemblies might meet, 45 dies fasti non comitiales, available for judicial business though not for political gatherings, 108 dies nefasti, 3 dies fissi, 11 dies intercisst (Mommsen, in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Berlin, 1893, vol i. pt. i.7 296). Wissowa (Religion und Kultus der Romer, 368 sq.) reckons 109 dies nefasti, 192 comitial days, and 43 dies fasti non comitiales. 157 158 Hutton Webster century their number had reached one hundred and seventy-five.® The Greek religious festivals, small and great, are estimated to have occupied about seventy days in the Athenian year. Thus the proportion of holidays to working days was not greatly dif- ferent from what it is with us; but their occurrence at irregular intervals and grouping together around the major festivals must have caused much more interference with the routine of daily life.6 In modern China, so many festivals in honor of deities are observed as holidays, that, as has been expressly said, they take the place in a large measure, of the Sabbath institution.” To what extremes the practice of abstaining from labor at sacred times may extend is further illustrated in Abyssinia, where the numerous feasts and fasts are so strictly observed as to render about six months of the year prohibited for any kind of employ- ment.® Human nature, it has been said, is always ready for the shift from fast to feast. This transition with all its subtle and mani- fold results on the organization of society may be followed under our own eyes. The passage of the holy day into the holiday, beginning in the lower culture, promises to reach its culmination in the thorough secularizing of all the great festivals of the Christian year. That. evolutionary movement, whether for weal or woe, at least provides a singularly instructive illustration of those close relations between religion and social progress which must ever impress the inquirer into the early history of mankind. °L. Friedlander, Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire, London, 1908, ii. 11 sg. Mommsen (op. cit., 207 sqq.) gives a list of the ancient feriae and of those added in the imperial epoch. No new public feriae of regular recurrence were introduced during republican times. Although the ancients were careful to distinguish the feriae from the ludi (cf. Gellius, ii. 24, 11. Diebus ludorum et feriis quibusdam), yet in the imperial age the transformation of the feriae into joyous holidays had been so far effected that many of them were celebrated much as were the ludi. Cf. supra. *Jane E. Harrison, in Companion to Greek Studies, Cambridge, 1905, p. 324. Cf. supra. ‘J. H. Gray, China, London, 1878, i. 249. The same statement is made of the Korean religious holidays (Griffis, op. cit., 295). *W.C. Harris, Highlands of Ethiopia, New York, 1843, p. 280. 158 ON THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY IN “THE FAERIE QUEENE” IBY s EEO MMi BUICK. sy. Spenser himself has told us that underlying the moral allegory of the Faerie Queene we shall find, if we look closely enough, an historical allegory, perhaps far less distinct in outline, but cer- tainly not less interesting. “‘In the Faery Queene (he says in his letter to Raleigh) I mean glory in my general intention; but in my particular, | conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our Soveraine the Queene, and her kingdom in Faery Land.” Again in the Introduction to the Third Book— “But, O dredd soveraine, Thus far forth pardon, sith that choicest witt Cannot your glorious pourtrait figure playne, That I in colour’d showes may shadow itt, And antique praises unto present persons fitt.” And in the Introduction to the Second Book— “And thou, O fairest princesse under sky, In this fayre mirrhour maist behold thy face; And thine own realmes in lond of Faery, And in this Antique image thy great ancestry.” Furthermore, in the sonnets addressed to the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord Hunsdon, and Sir John Norris he directly states that they have a place in the allegory. The dedication, then, to the queen of “these his labours to live with the Eternities of her Fame” is no daring *The allegory that underlies the narrative of the first three books is taken up in this article. These books are all that composed the first edition of the poem. The fourth, fifth and sixth books were written after the poet’s return to Ireland from a visit to England. In them, as I shall hope to show in a later article, the allegory, instead of having to do with the larger and better known affairs of Elizabeth’s reign, is more or less episodical in character and deals largely with court gossip. 159 2 Philo M. Buck, Jr. glorification of his own verse. It is the assertion that the deeds there chronicled, under the guise of an allegory, are those which shall make her age one of heroic grandeur. The beginning of the time of the action is clearly given.? “Ye see that good King Uther now doth make Strong warre upon the paynim brethren, hight Octa and Oza, whom he lately brake beside Cayr Verolame.” Uther died shortly after the battle of Verulam. By Uther possi- bly is meant Henry VIII. The paynim brethren can hardly be other than Francis I and Charles V, with whom Henry was engaged in ceaseless war.® It was during this time that England entered the fold of the reformed church, the triumph of which under Elizabeth is the climax of Book I. For the sake of clearness it will be well to take up the books in their order. One thing, however, must be kept clearly in mind. Spenser was a poet, not an historian, and the order he follows is seldom historical, nor are the characters ever more than occa- sionally consistent. Hence any attempt to read into the poem a consistent development of the historical events of the time will be followed by immediate disaster. Spenser loves to mystify his readers. In addition, too close an allegory at that time would have nipped the poem in the bud. Elizabeth never spoke plainly and to the purpose herself, much less allowed it in others. Book I. The Legend of Holiness In the First Book the moral allegory is predominant. The Red-Cross Knight is “Saint George of Merry England,”’* the descendant of the old Saxon Kings, the spirit of the English peo- ple. Una is true religion, the Unity of the Faith. She rides on an ass (humility), and leads a lamb (innocence). But the his- torical allegory is at times clear. Arthur is clearly the Earl of Leicester. In Holinshed’s® description of the welcome tendered * Book III, Canto iii, St. 52. * Philip II is called a paynim king. Book I. xii. 18 and Book I. xi. 7. * Book I. x. 61. ° Ephesians IV. 13. ° Chronicles, London, 1587, vol. 2, p. 1426. "160 The Political Allegory in “The Faerie Queene” 3 Leicester by the Dutch in 1586 occurs this passage—‘ Over the entrance of the court gate was placed aloft upon a scaffold, as it had been in a cloud or skie, Arthur of Bretaine, whom they com- pared to the Earl.” Leicester’s courtship of the queen was notorious ; and there are several direct references in the poem to Arthur’s long pursuit of the Faerie Queene, Gloriana, or Tana- quill. —‘fayrest Tanaquill Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill.’” “For only worthy you [Arthur], through prowess priefe, (Yf living man mote worthy be) to be her [Gloriana’s] liefe. 998 St. George, England, sets out for the delivery of Una, the true faith, and the conquest of the dragon of Sin. Almost im- mediately comes up the storm in the church, and England is led into the Wandering Wood and to Error’s Den. These are the troubles that come when England is in the grip of a false faith, and when even true religion loses her way. Error comes forth and confronts the champion, and the first battle of the Reforma- tion is on. In the struggle many books and papers and foul- shapen monsters are vomited up by Error, referring to the many pamphlet publications given out during the latter years of Henry VIII when the doctrinal war was hottest. But the reformation was not to be allowed to proceed unat- tacked by popery. The knight and Una meet Archimago, the genius of Catholicism. Force could no longer be employed against England, but Henry’s allegiance to the ancient forms of doctrine and ritual was never seriously shaken. His Protestantism went no farther than the break with the pope and the announcement of himself as the supreme head of the Church of England. True Religion and England are separated by the mischief of Archi- mago. This must refer to the last years of Henry’s reign when he was equally hard on Catholics and Protestants. He executed Sir Thomas More for denying the royal supremacy in matters of religion, and many like the young Anne Ascue for equally pro- nounced Protestantism. “Introduction i. St. 2. ebook I..i1x: 17: 161 4 Philo M. Buck, Jr. I am inclined to regard Archimago as Cardinal Pole or Bishop Gardiner, both of whom were expelled from England in the reign of Edward VI, but plotted ceaselessly for the return of England to the ancient faith; and on the accession of Mary guided the Catholic policy of the Queen. At first I was inclined to regard him as typifying the Jesuits who so unceasingly plotted the over- throw of Elizabeth. This, however, is probable only in the later books where the chief events of the reign of Elizabeth are shadowed in the allegory. The Red-Cross Knight, now divorced from True Religion, wanders aimlessly until he meets Sans Foy and Duessa.® Sans Foy is defeated and slain, and the victor takes Duessa as his com- panion. The former (the faithless one) is the eldest of three brothers, of whom the other two are Sans: Loy (the lawless one), and Sans Joy (the joyless one). Their father is old Aveungle (the blind one). They seem to be historical characters—Sans Foy suggests France,'° which was for a while under the faithless Henry II, who we know made advances for an alliance with Queen Mary (Duessa, as we shall see below). Sans Joy can hardly be any other than the king of Spain, Philip II. Sans Loy, the lawless one, as we shall see, may be the figure of the Duke of Alva. Aveungle, the blind one, may stand for the Pope. The alliance with France was broken off, and Mary came to be the Queen of England. The jockeying of Philip of Spain and Henry of France for an advantageous position on the accession of Mary to the throne, and the final defeat of France are well shown by Martin Hume." *For some reason or other Spenser avoids any reference to the reign of Edward VI and the protectorships of Somerset and Northumberland. Perhaps the fate of these two protectors, and the fact that one of them was the father of Leicester, made it a delicate subject for even an allegory. In the list of British Kings in Book H, Canto xi both Edward and Mary are excluded. * France was always regarded by the English as being utterly devoid of faith, either in religion or policy. The Massacre of St. Bartholemew, 1572, did not restore English confidence in a French pledge. This was the time of the Guises. “Two English Queens and Philip, p. 4. 162 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 5 Duessa calls herself Fidessa. Mary prided herself on her fidelity to the Catholic Church. Indeed, her allegiance to the church became an obsession and she, contrary to all maxims of statesmanship, outraged the consciences of her subjects, and burned their bodies in Smithfield. Duessa is the daughter of the Emperor of Rome, who in her youth had been betrothed to a meek and debonair prince, but her hopes had been slain. Mary was born in the shadow of the Romish Church, but early her, hopes of becoming Queen of England were checked by the decree of divorce that Henry insisted on obtaining from his Council, in order that he might marry Anne Boleyn. Upton offers an interesting theory.12 He considers Duessa as only the Catholic Church, the Pope’s daughter. His plan to marry her to the prince “meek and debonair” was his desire to annex to Catholicism the eastern Church of Constantinople. This plan was frustrated by the capture of the East by the Turks (Sans Foy). But there are several inconsistencies in this view. In the first place, the prince she was to marry was slain, but not by Sans Foy; and she came into his possession long after her virgin widowhood began. Further, England never came into conflict with the Turks as Upton’s theory would have us believe. It seems more reasonable to regard the defeat of Sans Foy as the diplomatic check the French received when Mary became queen and married Philip.1? This broke down Henry’s policy of tempor- izing with France and Spain, aiding each in turn, but never finding himself engaged in any serious European war. The diplomatic defeat of the French led to the war against France, when England found herself suddenly attacked and Calais captured. As we shall see, the result of the Red-Cross Knight’s alliance with Duessa led to his capture in an unexpected hour by Orgoglio. But of this later. The next adventure that befalls the Red-Cross Knight, now traveling with Duessa, is their meeting with Fradubio (the wavering one) and Fraelissa ( the frail one), both of whom have been turned into trees by the wiles of Duessa, and are so to remain *Upton’s Faerie Queene, ed. 1758. See note on this canto. *% Martin Hume, Queens of Old Spain, p. 216. 163 6 Philo M. Buck, Jr. until they are “bathed in a living well.” I take this to be a covert allusion to the pathetic fate of Lord Guilford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey. Dudley, through his father, Northumberland, and his party, had aimed at setting up the claims of Lady Jane to the throne of England as against those of Mary, Duessa, and on the failure of the scheme the young couple met their fate on the block. In the story Fradubio had dared to compare the beauty of Fraelissa and Duessa, which won him the latter’s enmity." The story now (Canto iii) turns back to the wanderings of Una (True Religion), who now in many ways suggests the character of Elizabeth. England has accepted Mary (Duessa) ; and Una (Elizabeth) is compelled to wander through the woods in search of her natural protector. She is not, however, left un- guarded. The Lion rushes forward at first to devour her, but see- ing her beauty and innocence, he immediately becomes her devoted follower. Clearly the Lion represents the common English people, who guarded Elizabeth, as well as true religion, from the power of Mary, which on several occasions was nearly roused to crush her.” As she travels forward she meets Corceca (Blind Devotion —cui caecum est cor), and Abessa (Monastic Devotion), who are kept in plenty by the thieving of Kirkrapine (Robber of the Churches). The latter is slain by the Lion, an obvious allusion to the abolishment of the monasteries. She now is met by the subtle Archimago disguised as the Red- Cross Knight whom she welcomes with delight. Elizabeth was constantly at this time surrounded by the most intricate deceit. She was courted by Lord Thomas Seymour, brother of the Pro- tector, Somerset, and who had married King Henry’s widow, Catherine Parr; and it was only by her inimitable power of adapting herself to all circumstances that she was able to escape disgrace and death. Catholic agents and spies were constantly around her. But Archimago is attacked by Sans Loy, who thinks = Gantoutt 374 * At this point Upton has a note. “ Christian Truth was in a very un- settled state during the reigns of King Henry the Eighth, and of Edward the Sixth. But after their deaths, she was entirely in the will and power of the Lawless Victor.” He regards the lion as representing Henry VIII. Violv2) p. 367. 164 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 7 the disguised magician is the slayer of his brother, the Lion is slain, and she carried away as captive by the lawless one. Elizabeth, even before the death of Mary, was courted by Philip of Spain. One of the first ambassadors to come to congratulate her upon her becoming Queen was the Spanish Duke of Feria. And he again proposed the match between Elizabeth and aiip. 11.16 True Religion had a hard time of it after England and Mary were united. It found itself protected only by the people of Eng- land, and was safe only in the wilderness. It suffered from Blind Devotion and the Monastic System (which Mary sought to re- establish). It was tempted by the preaching of Gardiner and Pole; and finally, in the Netherlands especially, it was cruelly oppressed by the Duke of Alva (Sans Loy), the man who re- spected no laws in his treatment of Dutch nobles and burghers. That Alva evidently is meant by the character of Sans Loy is made a little clearer in a later canto. The story now turns to the Red-Cross Knight who is led by Duessa to the House of Pride, the Court of Lucifera. The palace is beautiful to the eye but built on an insecure foundation, and already is in places ruinous and old. This is obviously the Roman Church, and Lucifera, the maiden queen, the Scarlet Woman. The description of her court is an extended moral allegory taken partly from the Book of Revelation and partly from mediaeval allegorical morality stories. Thus, the six un- equal beasts who draw her chariot are, with Pride, the seven deadly sins. The six wizards who enable her to uphold her usurped power may be the College of Cardinals. It is a picture of the decadent yet splendid court of Rome. The political allegory is as clear as the moral. Duessa (Mary) brought England back into the fold of the Catholic Church. But England’s acceptance was not a joyful one, for he remained aloof from Lucifera while Duessa rode next to her chair. There were constant uprisings in England against the close alliance between England, Philip, and the Pope, and especially against the mar- ®See Hume, Two English Queens and Philip, chapter v. 165 8 Philo M. Buck, Jr. riage of Mary and Philip. These were led successively by Sir Peter Carew, the Earl of Suffolk (Lady Jane Grey’s father) and Sir Thomas Wyatt. Indeed the distrust of the people went so far that Philip at Alva’s suggestion had to ask that Cardinal Pole’s legatory powers be revoked on account of English hostility. This was done in 1557; and may also be referred to in the defeat of Archimago by Sans Loy.”” But for the time being, at any rate, all looks peaceful; and Lucifera with her whole band rides out to take an airing. This is doubtless a reference to the apparent political and religious alliance, about 1556 (at the time of the abdication of Charles V), when England under Mary, Spain and the Netherlands under Philip and his viceroy Alva, France under the Guises, and Austria under Maximilian, were all banded together to extirpate heresy, and to bring back the whole world under the one dominion of the Church of Rome. But the airing is not a cheerful one, for the land is covered with a foggy mist that promises danger, and strewn with the bones of those who have already given up their lives for religious freedom. At this point, Sans Joy, the youngest brother, appears on the scene. Duessa immediately secretly allies herself with him, and a fight is imminent between the Red-Cross Knight and that cham- pion. Next day the combat comes off, and Sans Joy is almost defeated and only saved from Death by Duessa’s begging his life from Night, her grandparent as well as Sans Joy’s. This evi- dently pictures the marriage of Mary and Philip, the antagonism of England, and the elimination of Philip’s direct control of Eng- lish politics. Duessa and Sans joy are related as were Mary and Philip (cousins). Several things are notable in this. Duessa is more attached to Sans Joy and Lucifera than to the Red-Cross Knight whom she tried to betray. The battle does not end in Sans Joy’s death, nor even in his defeat. The Red-cross Knight against his will is made much of by Lucifera and her court, and as soon as he can he secretly slips away from the court, yet cannot get away from the false Duessa. All these things seem to make’ it perfectly clear that Spenser had in his mind the unfortunate ™See Hume, Two English Queens and Philip, chapter iv. 160 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 9 position of a half-protestant England united to a Queen whose love of Rome and Spain was greater than her love of her coun- try, which she would at all costs betray to her faith; and finally England’s resolute turning away from Spanish and Catholic intrigue and insisting on political and religious freedom from foreign interference. The queen, however, was still obeyed though her unfitness to rule had more than once been demonstrated. Now came the crowning disaster of Mary’s reign, due directly to her love for Philip and Rome. In the meanwhile, however, the adventures of Una are taken up (Canto vi). True Religion, as we remember, was left in a rather unpleasant situation, carried off in the lawless arms of Sans Loy. I understand this as a reference to the hardships suffered by the Dutch protestants at the hands of Alva. She is saved by the wild satyrs, the “ Salvage folk’’* who protect her, and whom she teaches the way of truth. Here she remains until she meets Sir Satyrane, a noble knight, the son of a Satyr by Thyainis, who is married to a loose, unruly swain, Therion. They wander forth to find the Red-Cross Knight but fall in with Sans Loy who is wandering in search of her. A battle follows whose issue we are not told. Upton would regard the satyrs as the rural population of England, and Satyrane, from the circum- stances of his birth and general character, as Sir John Perrot, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. This may be true. Yet I feel that he had in mind the suffering of the Dutch. The Satyrs, the wild men of the woods, were perhaps the Beggars of the Sea, who defied the force of Alva, and Satyrane, who was long in fight with Alva, the Prince of Orange, who also gave much aid to Elizabeth in her conflict with Spain. The story now (Canto vii) goes back to the Red-Cross Knight and Duessa. In an hour of careless ease, while they are disport- ing themselves near the well of feebleness, he is set upon unex- *% The taming of the Salvage Folk by Una may be an echo of one of the incidents of the entertainment at Kenilworth. At the gate of the castle, as the queen entered, was a huge “ Salvage man” armed with a club who denied entrance in the most imperious manner; but at the sight of the queen, he humbled himself, and paid his allegiance to her truth and beauty. 167 10 Philo M. Buck, Jr. pectedly, while unarmed, by Orgoglio, the giant Pride, and is captured and thrown into a dungeon. Duessa now gladly becomes the highly honored mistress of Orgoglio, and is mounted on a huge, seven-headed serpent. Clearly the sudden capture of Calais, 1558, is here alluded to. Mary had left the citadel entirely in an unprovided condition, while she made war, to please her husband, against France. Francis, Duke of Guise, the embodi- ment of pride and arrogance, captured the undefended place, and England’s cup of humiliation was full. Duessa, I think, has suddenly shifted her political role, and is now Mary, Queen of Scots,” the young Queen of France, whom the Guise and Spanish party would advance to the crown of England. Such was the condition of affairs when Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558. Una has left Satyrane and Sans Loy fighting, and meets her dwarf who tells her that her natural protector is in the power of Orgoglio. A champion appears in the person of Arthur,?® Leicester, and the task of freeing England from foreign domination is begun. Always Leicester was to the popular mind, at least, identified with the party that opposed the Spanish and French influence. In 1586 he led the English expedition against Spain in Flanders. He was the popular English hero. Arthur, with the help of his magic shield, kills Orgoglio, although Duessa had nearly over-powered his Squire with her poison. The allegory is, of course, the reuniting of England and True Religion, or the accession of Elizabeth, owing, according to Spenser, to the faithfulness and might of the Earl of Leicester. A French fleet and force under D’Oysel sent into Scotland to prepare that country for a war on England, to enforce the claim of Mary Stuart to the English crown, was defeated at Leith by Lord Grey, a close relative of Leicester, in 1560, and England was saved. The beauty of Duessa is stripped from her, and her native hue is shown. The claims of Mary, Queen of Scots, to *Duessa is called by the poet the Scarlet whore. The English, and especially the Scotch under John Knox, were no less complimentary to the illfated Mary. In a later book Duessa is certainly Mary Queen of Scots. * Arthur is accompanied by his squire Timias whom most commentators have understood to be Sir Walter Raleigh, but of him more later. 168 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” BL the throne of England are shown to be no more than an idle terror. All that now remains is to strengthen England and to establish the true church. This is done in the cantos that follow. First England’s despair of ever being able to make her way unaided through the perils that surrounded her is admirably portrayed in the adventures of the Red-Cross Knight and Despair, and of Terwin and Trevisan, the latter of whom has already fallen victim to Despair’s alluring logic. Terwin and Trevisan may well represent some continental states who had found the Catholic oppression too strong. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the power of the Protestants was at its lowest ebb, and state after state was apparently succumbing to the attacks of the revived Catholic vigor. This was especially true in France and Saxony. In the first, the Guise faction was apparently in full power ; and in the other, the young Elector Maurice had appar- ently sold himself to the reactionary party. Una, religion, how- ever, saved the Red-Cross Knight, and he was taken to the House of Holiness to recuperate. He there learns that he is the descend- ant of the early Saxon Kings of England, and is sent forth to fight the battle of the faith against the great dragon. The dragon is slain; and Una and St. George, as he is now called, are united. As he is about to be married to Una, the false Duessa sends Archimago with a letter claiming that she has a prior claim on his hand. This is probably the allegory of the claim of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the throne of England.?? But Archimago is uncased and all ends happily. Book II. The Legend of Guyon, or Temperance The Introduction to this Book makes it perfectly clear that in what follows Spenser has a political significance. The hero of this Book is Sir Guyon, the guide; and he is bound on a quest to avenge the death of the parents of Ruddymane (the bloody hand), a babe whose parents, Mortdant and Amavia, had been slain by the wiles of the wicked sorceress, Acrasia, who dwells in the Bower of Bliss to entrap and utterly unman good knights. * There may be an allusion here also to the accusation of Mary, Queen of Scots, that Elizabeth had been too free with her favors with both Leicester and Alencon. 169 12 Philo M. Buck, Jr. According to Upton, Guyon is Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, and Ruddymane alludes to the rebellion of the O’Neills of Ireland, whose badge was the bloody hand. The Palmer who accompanied Guyon he finds to be Whitgift, afterward the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, who was tutor of Essex. Essex was bred among the Puritans, and was himself a Puritan; and according to Sir H. Watton, “his countenance was demure and temperate.” “The Earl of Essex was master of the horse to Queen Elizabeth: and great care is taken to let us know very particularly concerning Sir Guyon’s ‘lofty stede with golden sell’.”*? Later in Book ILI, Canto i, Guyon dares to match himself with Britomart, Eliza- beth, and is overthrown, and Upton pertinently asks, “ And has not the poet with the finest art managed a very dangerous and secret piece of history?” This all seems very good, but will not bear close scrutiny. In the first place, Essex was Leicester’s son-in-law, -and this relation between Guyon and Arthur is hardly borne out by the story. Guyon appears rather to be much older than Arthur. Again young Essex was not in Ireland fighting the O’Neills until long after the poem was published in 1589. His father, Walter,?* the elder Earl of Essex, was there, and lost his life from exposure on the battlefield and from the defeats he suffered. Further, no account is taken by Upton of Acrasia, the chief character, next to Guyon, in the poem. Finally it is distinctly stated in Canto 1, St. 6, that Guyon ia3 ... knighthood took of good Sir Huon’s hand, When with King Oberon he came to Faery land.” In Book II, Canto x, St. 75, we learn that Oberon was Henry VIII. The younger Earl of Essex was not born during the reign of Henry VIII, and the elder was but a boy when Henry VIII died. This seems to settle the Essex theory. To me Guyon represents Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex. He was, at least during the first years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a great favorite, perhaps ranking next to Robert Dudley, John Upton’s Faerie Queene, ed. 1758. ** The character of the elder Earl of Essex is in keeping with the char- acter of Guyon. See Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587, p. 1265. 170 The Political Allegory in “The Faerie Queene” 13 Earl of Leicester. Among the nobles of Elizabeth’s reign, he would be entirely fitted to wear on his shield the countenance of the Maiden Queen as did Guyon, for in 1572 he was the Queen’s champion. He was knighted in 1544 when Henry VIII set out for France. Sir Huon, of Bordeaux, may here refer to the French King whom Henry met on this occasion. Sussex was one of the six lords who bore the canopy of Henry VIII at the royal funeral. His character, too, was peculiarly fitted to the part which Guyon plays in the story. He was ever one of the most temperate, level-headed statesmen of Elizabeth’s reign, and one who was never except temporarily out of Elizabeth’s favor.*+ But in order to see how well he fits into the story, we shall have to study the book canto by canto. In Canto i we first see Archimago, who has escaped from the prison into which he had been cast by St. George in the last book, and is determined to avenge himself upon that knight, now that Una (True Religion) is beyond his power. He will try “ forged treason or open fight,’ any means that may be presented to his hand. Of course, Archimago now is the Jesuits who had fled from England, and came flocking back from the seminary at Amiens with the purpose of harming England, either by treason- able murder, or by foreign force. Among these the most famous were Allan, Parsons, Sanders, Campion. The readiest means to their hands was the claim of Mary, Queen of Scots, Duessa. Archimago now meets Guyon and persuades him to take up the cause of Duessa, under the old name Fidessa, a damsel, he says, who has been foully wronged by St. George. Guyon at first takes up her cause, but as soon as he sees the maligned hero, he changes his mind and the two knights are allied. The allegory is clear. During Mary’s reign in England, Sussex had been one of her chief ministers. He had even gone so far as to help to sup- press the Wyatt Rebellion. But when Elizabeth came to the throne, he resigned his deputyship of Ireland and came to offer his free allegiance to the new Queen. His religion, too, apparently gave him little concern, for he gave his unqualified assent to all *For an account of the chief events in the life of the Earl of Sussex, see the Dictionary of National Biography. 171 14 Philo M. Buck, Jr. the changes which Elizabeth inaugurated. The question of his loyalty was raised in 1569 when he was appointed to suppress the Northern Rebellion (see later), but he was amply vindicated by commissioners who were sent out by Elizabeth to spy on him. Guyon in his quest to destroy Acrasia is accompanied by a Palmer who symbolizes the temperance that is to distinguish the deeds of this hero. By Acrasia I understand the Queen of Scots and her strange power (so clearly shown in Hume’s Love Affairs of Mary, Queen of Scots) over the hearts and minds of nearly all the men who came under her influence. Of all the men who came near her, there were only two who were not affected by her feminine appeal. They were Sir Amyas Paulet and the Earl of Sussex. The Palmer seems to be the old Scotch reformer, John Knox, who, irritated by her feminine charms, broke cut into most intemperate temperance in his Monstrous Regiment of Women. We will recollect that, according to Spenser’s own preface to the poem, on the second day of the feast which the Faerie Queene held in her court, a Palmer came bearing a babe with red hands and asking for revenge against Acrasia who had caused the tragedy. John Knox made a similar appeal to England against the government of Mary and had offered the young prince, James, son of the murdered Darnley, to the English Queen as a ward. In the story of the poem, Guyon and the Palmer come upon the dying Amavia, the dead Mortdant, and the poor orphan child dyed with the sign of the horrible murder. It seems clear. Scotland, in the person of Knox, asks England to free the country of the woman who could allow Darnley, her husband, whom she has inveigled into a marriage, to be murdered in order that she might enjoy the love of the Earl of Bothwell. We will recollect that the child was made over, not to the Faerie Queene, but to Temperance, Medina, who was to bring it up, and teach it who had caused the ruin of its parents. Young James was taken away from his mother shortly after his birth, and given into the hands of the Lords of the Congregation, to be brought up and taught to rule. In Canto ii Guyon and the Palmer carrying the child repair to the Castle of the Three Sisters, Perissa (Excess), Medina (Tem- £72 The Political Allegory in “The Faerie Queene” 15 perance), and Elissa (Deficiency). He there meets the lovers of the first and third, Sans Joy and Huddibras, and a conflict is averted only by the prayers of Medina. If there is any political allegory here, it is so slight that only a guess can be made. The babe is made over to Medina. The third is a most interesting canto. While Guyon had been busy with the babe, a vain braggart, Braggadocchio, had stolen his horse and lance, and meeting with Trompart, a congenial soul, had gone forth to show his finery to an admiring world. Iam inclined to agree with Upton and see in this a reference to Alencon, Anjou as he was known after the first Duke of Anjou became Henry III of France, and Simier, and their courtship of Queen Elizabeth. Guyon is embarrassed by their theft. Sussex was for a while a warm advocate of the marriage, and by that step fell into some political troubles. The whole story is told in Hume’s Courtships of Queen Elizabeth and need not be more than referred to here. Both Alencon and Simier were of course obstacles in the way of Leicester. Indeed Leicester went so far as twice to hire des- peradoes to murder Simier. And Simier retaliated by telling Elizabeth of the Earl’s marriage to the Countess of Essex, which well nigh ruined the favorite politically. At this point Archimago appears on the scene and offers to get for Braggadocchio Arthur’s sword. That is, he promises to undermine Leicester’s influence at court. And both these things are actually done. Leicester naturally did not desire the Alencgon match. But Sussex and Burleigh and others, who favored it, came very near to bringing it about, and for a time Leicester’s influence was on the wane. Archimago, of course, was the strong Catholic pressure that supported the match for conscientious reasons, in order that the growing spirit of Protestantism might be checked. The chief obstacle to the match was the strong Puritan faction headed by Leicester (Arthur). The two now set forward and meet Belphoebe, whom Spenser directly states in his prefatory note to be Queen Elizabeth. They are at first terrified. But gradually Trompart comes to his senses and begins a speech of marvelous compliment of the lady and his lord. At this point, Braggadocchio appears on the scene from 173 16 Philo M. Buck, Jr. his place of hiding and tries to carry off the lady by main force, but is frustrated by her darts. The similarity in this scene to the strange courtship by Simier of Elizabeth for his master, and the reception of Alengon in England can readily be seen in the pages of Hume’s book mentioned above. According to current gossip, Elizabeth showed more favor to Simier than the nature of his mission warranted; and when he came on his visit, Alencon was received with an ardor that almost bordered on extravagance. These matters which might reflect on the Queen are naturally suppressed by Spenser, though we shall see later that in Braggadocchio’s being elected as her knight by the Snowy Florimel, we have lightly sketched Elizabeth’s specious acceptance of Alencon as a lover.”°- In Canto iv the story turns back to Guyon whom we left march- ing away from the castle of Medina, Perissa and Elissa. He sees before him a youth set upon by Furor and the vile hag, Occasion. The youth is saved by Guyon though the latter is almost slain by Furor’s fiery attacks. The Palmer, however, shows him a way out of the difficulty and Furor and his mother, Occasion, are bound and gagged. This adventure of Furor I take to be a covert allusion to Sussex’s long and troublesome Lord Deputyship of Ireland which lasted from 1557 to 1564, during which years he had to war against the two barbaric chieftains Shan O’Neill and Sorley Boy MacDonnell. The fighting of Furor is extremely suggestive of the lawless fighting of these two chieftains. “His rude assault and rugged handeling Straunge seemed to the Knight, that aye with foe In fayre defence and goodly menaging Of armes was wont to fight.” The description of Furor also is suggestive of the description Spenser gives of the wild Irish in his View of the Present State of Ireland.2® It is a fact that, though Sussex did defeat the O'Neill and MacDonnell and reduce the realm to some kind of order, the breaking out of the Northern Rebellion in 1569 started ** Book IV, Canto v. Canto iv, ot. 15. 174 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 17 them out again; and it was left to Sir Henry Sidney to complete the work. We shall see later that Pyrocles, whom I take to be the Earl of Northumberland, unloosed the bonds of both Furor and Occasion. The young man Phaon whom Guyon released was oppressed by Furor because of his murder of his affianced bride Claribell through the machinations of his false friend Philemon. Phaon was descended from the famous Coradin. There is not enough here given to make more than a guess at the allegory. Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in 1571 married Anne Cecil, the daughter of his guardian Lord Burleigh. His waywardness and extravagance coupled with a scandal, alienated him temporarily from his wife in 1575. He was in more than one of his troubles backed by Sussex.?* Spenser had no special occasion to have much affection for him, for in 1579, while Spenser was in London, he insulted publicly Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser’s literary patron, and according to current gossip, tried to have him assassinated.?* I am inclined to think that we meet him again in Book III under the name of Paridel, where his unbridled passions and ex- travagance are more clearly drawn, as well as the “ antique glory of his ancestry, under a shady veil writ,” according to the state- ment of the poet in the introductory sonnet addressed to him. Certainly the name Phaon, from the Greek gatvw, shine, sug- gests his well known love of finery and magnificence. At this point (Cantos v—vi), Pyrocles is announced by Atin (Strife), and Guyon must defend himself. My first temptation was to follow Upton and see in Pyrocles and in his lustful brother, Cymocles, the two Irish rebels, Sorley Boy MacDonnell and Shan O’Neill. They were both in a way implicated in the affairs of Mary Queen of Scots, receiving aid on her account from the Duke of Albany. The characters of the two paynim knights fit the two wild chieftains, but there are several difficulties. Neither of them was slain during the deputyship of Sussex, but during that of Sidney. Further, both Pyrocles and Cymocles were slain by Arthur when they were on the point of making * See Dictionary of Nat. Biography, articles on Sussex and Oxford. *See Fox Bourne, Life of Sidney, p. 181. 175 18 Philo M. Buck, Jr. an end of Guyon. Leicester had no direct connection with Irish | affairs, and instead of assisting, when he had the opportunity, against Shan O’Neill, he rather hampered both Sussex and Sid- ney.” Again, Cymocles is expressly stated to be a lover of Acrasia, and the wildest stretch of imagination-can hardly connect the savage O'Neill with the delicate Queen of Scots. I, therefore, have been driven to see in this the allegory of the Northern Rebellion of 1569, which Sussex subdued, but only with the aid of Leicester’s brother, the Earl of Warwick.®® Sussex, as President of the North, when the rebellion seemed imminent, was ordered to bring the Earls of Northumberland and West- moreland to court. Northumberland at once raised the banner of rebellion; and this must be the first encounter between Guyon and Pyrocles. Pyrocles was overcome but his life was spared, and in turn he unbinds Furor and Occasion. That is, Northumberland’s first offensive movements are checked by Sussex. But Atin sets off for Cymocles who had been reposing in the Bower of Bliss with Acrasia. This probably refers to Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland’s love for the Queen of Scots.*t Their com- bined forces of 15,000 were too much for Sussex who had only some 3,000 men to oppose them. At this point, because he did not move against the rebels, Sussex’s loyalty was challenged by Elizabeth’s council. This is symbolized by Guyon’s apparent jour- ney of pleasure with Immodest Mirth (Phaedria). The fight, too, between Guyon and Cymocles is indecisive. While Sussex is waiting for aid from the south, adventures come to Guyon. He is tempted by Mammon and Ambition, but he declares he has no use for worldly wealth, and that he must renounce Mammon’s daughter, Lady Ambition, as he is already troth plight to another. At various times, Sussex was offered heavy bribes by Spain; we know that this was done in 1574 and ” Fox Bourne, Life of Sidney, chapter iii. “Tt is true that this rebellion is again symbolized in Book V, Canto ix. This time, however, there is another hero mentioned. ** The luxurious character of Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, has been referred to by all editors of Spenser’s works in another con- nection. It is but adding to the strength of this theory that he in this as well corresponds with the character of Cymocles. 176 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 19 1578, and it might have been done earlier as well. He also was married to Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of the Earl of Southampton.*? In Canto viii, after his return from the journey through Mam- mon’s realm, Guyon fainted. He is, in this state of weakness, set upon by both Cymocles and Pyrocles, but Arthur fortunately appears and the brothers are killed, first Cymocles and then Pyrocles, the latter being beheaded at his own request. Sussex was saved by the arrival of troops under the Earl of Warwick and Lord Hunsdon. In the sonnet addressed to Lord Hunsdon, Spenser directly says: “When that tumultuous rage and fearful deene Of Northerne rebels ye did pacify... ; Live, Lord, forever in this lasting verse, That all posteritie thy honor may reherse.” It is not impossible to regard Lord Hunsdon or the Earl of Warwick, the brother of Leicester, as here acting in the place of Leicester in the character of Arthur, especially as Leicester was one of Elizabeth’s closest advisers at this time. Pyrocles had received from Archimago the sword of Arthur which was meant for Braggadocchio. Leicester had previously been suggested even by Elizabeth as a possible husband for Mary; and during this rebellion it was natural that his loyalty should be suspected. It is also curious that Pyrocles was be- headed by Arthur after the fight when he had been overcome. Northumberland was executed at York in 1572 for participation in the rebellion.** After the death of Pyrocles, Archimago flees and for a time at least is absent from the story. When Elizabeth had put down the Northern Rebellion, there was at least the semblance of peace in the kingdom. Guyon and Arthur together go now in Cantos ix—x to the home of Alma (Temperance), and there are refreshed after the battle. * See article on Sussex in Dict. of Nat. Biography. “It may be objected that Spenser applies the term paynim knights to these brothers. But it is possible that by paynim Spenser means not pagan but Catholic. 177 20 Philo M. Buck, Jr. While there, wondrous accounts of the early British and later English Kings are shown them, the former largely taken from Holinshed and Geoffrey of Monmouth. These do not concern us here as they have no connection with the subject. Canto x1 describes the battle which Arthur and his squire waged against the passions that besieged the home of Alma (the body). In the conflict, Arthur is nearly deprived of his life by Maleger. He is saved by his squire, and then squeezes the life out of his enemy and casts him into a lake. This is no doubt a clear refer- ence to the two occasions, at least, when Leicester’s impetuous passions nearly caused his political downfall. In 1562, he sur- reptitiously married Amy Robsart, and when it was revealed to the Queen, Leicester was banished from court favors. The offense was repeated in 1578 when he, under almost similar cir- cumstances, married the Countess of Essex. Leicester was also annoyed exceedingly by political tracts which vilified him, and especially by the tract usually called Leicester's Commonwealth, supposed to have been written by the Jesuit Parsons. Sidney took up the defense of his uncle in print, and this may be the aid re- ceived from his squire mentioned in the poem.** If, however, to be fairly consistent in these characters we wish to regard Timias as Raleigh, then it refers to some unknown aid Leicester received from Raleigh during those times. Raleigh had, at least before 1581, attached himself to Leicester, for on the 25th of August of that year he writes to him :—“ [ may not forgett continually to put your Honour in mind of my affection unto your Lordshipe . . . I wilbe found ready, and dare do as miche in your service as any man you may commande.’’*5 The capture of Acrasia (Canto xii) is of course the putting an end to the power of Mary, Queen of Scots, to damage England and Elizabeth. Mary was confined first at Bolton in Yorkshire, then in the strong castle of Tutbury, and then later at Fotheringay. Sussex was directly responsible for the first change in the place of her imprisonment. From a guest under careful surveillance, ** See Fox Bourne, Life of Sidney, p. 274-75. *° See Hume, Sir Walter Ralegh, p. 27 178 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 21 at Carlisle, she became a political prisoner in rigorous confine- ment at Tutbury. The young man, Verdant, taken with Acrasia, is undoubtedly the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard. “The young man, sleeping by her, seemed to be Some goodly swayne of honorable place. His warlike arms, the ydle instruments Of sleeping praise, were hong upon a tree; And his brave shield, full of old moniments.” Norfolk plotted to marry the Queen of Scots, but the failure of the Northern Rebellion and the discovery of the Ridolfi Con- spiracy, 1571, sealed his fate. According to the story, however, Guyon does not bind him but sends him off to the Faerie Queene. Sussex did not favor the execution of Norfolk, but pleaded for his life. And it was only with the greatest reluctance that Nor- folk was given over by the Queen to the block. Book III. The Legend of Britomart of Chastity. I take this book to be the allegory of Elizabeth’s Courtships. For a detailed account of these, the reader is referred to Martin Hume’s excellent book, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. Spenser in the Introduction to Book III expressly states that the Queen will be able in this book “In mirrours more than one her- self to see.” Taking this literally, it seems reasonable to regard many of the heroines of this book as Elizabeth under her several character- istics: Britomart, the military ; Belphoebe, the pastoral; Florimel, the romantic; Amoret, the loving and faithful. It will be further noticed that at no time do these various allegories of Queen Elizabeth come into conflict as the stories are told, except when Amoret, the loving and faithful, is saved from the vile magician, Busyrane, by the military power of Britomart. Elizabeth, as we have seen, was early in her career courted by Philip II of Spain, and refused his attentions. The rebuff was a dangerous one to 179 22 Philo M. Buck, Jr. England, and it was only Elizabeth’s military power that saved England from annihilation.*® But to proceed to the detailed study of each canto :— In Canto i Arthur (Leicester) and Guyon (Sussex, as before) as they travel together meet Britomart. Guyon, apparently without reason, tries a fall with the stranger knight and is overthrown. But he bore himself so well “that mischievous mischance his life and limbs did spare.” We have seen before, in Book II, that at the beginning of her reign, Sussex’ loyalty to Elizabeth was suspected as he had been an active partisan of Queen Mary I. But it did not take him long to rehabilitate himself and to make himself one of the most trusted of Elizabeth’s advisers. There are also other events in his life that caused a slight disagreement between him and the Queen. In 1566 he had obstructed the Leicester marriage pro- ject, and had advocated warmly the proposal to marry the Queen to the Archduke Charles; and in 1571, he had been a warm sup- porter of the Alencon marriage treaty. Both these offenses had won him not a little disfavor on account of his officiousness, as Elizabeth had styled it. Upton’s comment on this passage is interesting. He regards Guyon as the Earl of Essex, and this conflict with Britomart as one of Essex’s quarrels with the Queen. This I have already shown to be improbable.** At this point, the three companions behold Florime! rushing by pursued by a hideous forester. The forester is probably the Irish rebels who gave Elizabeth so much trouble; and Florimel, Eliza- beth as we shall see. Guyon and Arthur both set off in chase of Florimel hoping “to win thereby most goodly meede, the fairest dame alive.” Certainly Elizabeth was to the courtier poet, Spen- ser, the only one entitled to this praise. Britomart, however, is unmoved by the distress of a mere woman, and after waiting for a while for the knights to rejoin her, goes off on her own quest. Timias, more thoughtful than either Guyon or Arthur, pursues * Under Canto xii will be found another possible explanation of this incident. Vide supra, p. 170. 180 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 23 the cause of the trouble, the forester. Thus we have portrayed Leicester and Sussex, each a candidate for the fair Florimel’s rescue, and Raleigh in pursuit of the wild Irish rebels. Britomart, in the meanwhile, follows her own adventure. She comes to the Castle Joyous where six knights are jointly attacking one knight, the Knight of the Red Cross, England, to force him to give up his love. The castle is named after that of Lancelot, which was situated in France; and it is not amiss to regard this as the allegory of the war which Sir John Norris waged in France against the League, which was founded to bring the whole of France back to the Catholic Church, and later to force England to give over its Protestant religion. Britomart, Elizabeth, how- ever, brings such valuable aid to the Red-Cross Knight that the six submit, and she is declared the winner of the person of the Mistress of the Castle, Malecasta, the Lady of Delight. The picture of the castle and its inmates reminds us very strongly of the court of France during the time of Catherine de’Medici and Margaret of Navarre. And in this home of the enemy, Britomart finds a wooer. Malecasta by secret and by open signs shows her love for the victorious Britoness, and when repulsed is restrained only by the martial bearing of the two knights. Queen Catherine was always eager for an alliance with England. Over and over again, envoys were sent to negotiate an offensive and defensive alliance. The Queen offered to Eliza- beth, one after another, her three sons, Charles, Anjou and Alencon. In Canto ii Britomart discovers to the Red-Cross Knight her desire to meet Sir Arthegall. She learns that he is one of the most powerful of the knights of Maidenhead, and that he “ rest- less walketh all the world around.” Arthegall has long been identified with Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton. Lord Grey was one of the most constantly employed men of his time. In his youth, he had served with his father in Calais, later had aided in the suppression of the Northern Re- bellion, and in 1580-82, had been Lord Deputy in Ireland. The coat of arms given to Arthegall, a crowned ermelin, suggests by its color (gray) his name. Lord Grey had been one of Spenser’s 181 24 Philo M. Buck, Jr. patrons and hence we have this glorification of a man who really possessed very little extraordinary genius. In Canto iii, the chronicle of British and English kings is re- sumed from Book II, Canto x, St. 68. Queen Elizabeth, her victory over the Armada, and her aid to the Dutch, are clearly alluded to in Stanza 40. In Canto iv Britomart now pursues her journey until she arrives at the Rich Strand where she meets Marinell who suffers no one to go that way unchallenged. Marinell is the son of Dumarin and the nymph Cymoent, and had been taised in a rocky cave as one forlorne. His coat of arms bore three squared scutcheons. At her prayer, his grandfather, Nereus, had endowed him with all riches from the East and West. His mother had often been fearful “Lest his too haughtie hardiness might rear Some hard mischief.” She had learned from Proteus that some great disaster would overtake him at the hands of a woman, “For of a woman he should have much ill, A Virgin, straunge and stout him should dismay or kill.” But notwithstanding her warnings, he is overthrown by Brito- mart. There can be no doubt that there is some historical allusion here. According to Upton, Marinell stands for Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England. But there is nothing in his life that can correspond with these adventures. I am much more inclined to regard Marinell as Sir Walter Raleigh who has already appeared as Timias. We must remember that Florimel is represented as being in love with Marinell. About the time this part of the poem was written, Raleigh was at the height of his court favor. He had already shown his remarkable ability as a soldier and sailor, in Ireland, on the Spanish Main, and in Spanish waters. His arms contained like those of Marinell, squared scutcheons. His uncle, Hawkins, had long ago earned a lasting place among British navigators, and almost all of his Devonshire friends were soldiers or sailors. He had been raised among exceedingly hard surroundings, and had made his way against 182 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” 25 great odds. His conflict with Britomart would correspond with the episode mentioned in the beginning of the Colin Clout’s Come Home Again, which forced him to retire to his Irish estates, 1588-9. Then Raleigh’s imperiousness of temper corresponds exactly with Marinell’s. Raleigh was brusque even to rudeness even with his superiors; and it was this that raised him as much as anything else in the eyes of Elizabeth. Finally, the name Marinell is almost an anagram of Raleigh as it was then pro- nounced. It was appropriate to drop the story thus in the third book, with Marinell wounded and Florimel separated from him, for Spenser could not forsee Raleigh’s subsequent rise in popularity with the Queen. The story of the union of Florimel and Marinell is postponed until Book IV, Canto xi, but there the allegory is altered slightly. In the meanwhile Arthur pursues the flying Florimel as Leicester pursues his suit of the Queen. Night comes down and he is forced to give over the quest. “But gentle Sleepe envyde him any rest; Instead thereof sad sorrow and disdaine Of his hard hap did vexe his noble brest, And thousand fancies bett his ydle brayne With their light wings, the sights of semblants vaine: Oft did he wish that Lady faire mote bee His Faery Queene, for whom he did complaine; Or that his Faery Queene were such as shee: And ever hasty Night be blamed bitterlie :” In Canto v, after a long search, he meets her dwarf, Dony, who reports who she is. She is “royally clad,’ and “a fayrer wight did never sunne behold.’”’ She is “the bountiest virgin and most debonaire.” She loves Marinell, but he is too much taken up with his knightly duties to pay court to any lady. At this time Raleigh was busy in Ireland. Undoubtedly this was written after the Earl of Leicester had died, and when Raleigh had climbed into the place of favor formerly occupied by the Earl. The story now turns to the adventures of Timias, who gives us another view of Spenser’s patron, Sir Walter Raleigh. The 183 26 Philo M. Buck, Jr. forester summons his two brothers, and they meet at a ford, and there lie in wait to murder the youth. “Within that wood there was a covert glade, Foreny a narrow foord, to them well knowne, Through which it was uneath for wight to wade; And now by fortune it was overflowne: By that same way they knew that Squyre unknowne Mote algates passe; forthy themselves they set There in await with thicke woods overgrowne, And all the while their malice they did whet With cruell threats his passage through the ford to let. It fortuned, as they devized had, The gentle Squyre came ryding that same way, Unweeting of their wile and treason bad, And through the ford to passen did assay; But that fierce foster, which late fled away, Stoutly foorth stepping on the further shore, Him boldy bad his passage there to stay, Till he had made amends, and full restore For all the damage which he had him doen afore.” Such adventures were by no means uncommon with Raleigh. I take the following from Martin Hume’s Life of Ralegh.*® “On one occasion he rode to Dublin to urge Lord Grey and his council to allow him to capture David, Lord Barry of Barrycourt, whose loyalty was more than doubtful. He was given a free hand; but spies were everywhere, and Barry was fully informed of Ralegh’s project. To anticipate the action of the English, he burnt his own castle and wasted his lands, and one of Desmond’s vassals, Fitz-Edmond, lay in ambush for Captain Ralegh at a ford he had to cross between Youghal and Cork. Ralegh’s escort was a small one, only six men, most of whom had straggled when the ford was reached. Ralegh suddenly found himself face to face in a dangerous place with a relatively large force of horse and foot. Almost alone, he literally cut his way through to the opposite bank of the river, accompanied by another young Devon- ian named Moyle. In crossing the river, the latter twice found- ered in deep water, and twice his life was rescued by Ralegh at Siea25 184 The Political Allegory in “The Faerie Queene” ag the risk of his own. Then Ralegh, standing with a pistol in one hand and his iron-shod quarter-staff in the other, withstood the rebel force until his straggling escort had crossed the stream.” Such acts could not fail to reach the ears of the Queen; and Raleigh was rapidly advanced in the royal favor. In the story, Timias was severely wounded and nursed back to life by Bel- phoebe. In this connection there is a curious mention of tobacco as one of the remedies that Belphoebe may have applied to the wounded squire (St. 32). Raleigh introduced the weed to the western world in 1584. Instantly his heart is fired with love for his benefactress. So in the poem we have Raleigh probably pictured in two roles, the conquering Marinell and the lovelorn Timias—roles that were singularly appropriate for the haughty court favorite. In Canto vi the poet now proceeds to give the birth and ancestry of Belphoebe and her twin sister Amoret. They are the daughters of Chrysogone, and raised by Diana and Venus, re- spectively. Some commentators, Upton in particular, have tried to identify Mary, Queen of Scots, with Amoret. But it would have been impossible for the puritan Spenser to celebrate as a heroine of chastity, Mary the paramour of Bothwell and, as was then thought, the murderess of Darnley. Further, it would be hard to identify the cruel magician Busyrane who wished to win Amoret’s love by fair or foul means with any of the servants of Queen Elizabeth who kept Mary in captivity. I am much more inclined to regard Amoret as another picture of the Virgin Queen, kept from the object of her love, Sir Scudamour (Essex) by the machinations of the old court intriguer, Lord Burleigh. Amoret represents Elizabeth as the faithful lover, as Belphoebe represents her as the dauntless huntress. The allegory of Amoret and Sir Scudamour will be taken up in its place. It is enough here to call attention to the martial daring and romantic nature of Robert Devereaux, well symbolized by the name Scudamour (shield of love). In Cantos vii—viii the story now turns to the adventures of Florimel whom we left flying from Arthur. Upton sees in Florimel the character of Mary, Queen of Scots. I shall copy 185 28 Philo M. Buck, Jr. two of his notes entire. Florimel “is pursued by Prince Arthur, who, in the historical allusion, is the Earl of Leicester, and who was talked of, and that too, by Queen Elizabeth’s consent, as the intended husband of the Queen of Scots. But what persecutions does she undergo in this canto? I don’t-say that the monster pursuing her, ‘with thousand spots of colours quaint elected,’ typifies the motley dress of the Queen of Scots’ subjects; whom to avoid she hastens to the seas, ‘for in the seas to drown her- self she fared,’ rather than to be caught of that Motley Crew, her false tyrannical courtiers and subjects now pursuing her: she leaps therefore into a boat, “so safety found at sea, which she found not at land.’ “*The Queen of Scots having escaped out of prison, and levied a hasty army, which was easily defeated, she was so terrified, that she rode that day above sixty miles; and then rather chose to commit herself to the miseries of the sea, than to the false fidelity of her people:’” (from Camden, p. 118). There she was oppressed first by the fisherman and later by Proteus who impris- oned her and sought her love. Upton remarks “ Tis said that the Queen of Scots, when flung into prison, was committed to the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and was hardly dealt with by him, because she hearkened not to his solicitations.” In the first place, it is hardly necessary to remark that the Queen was not misused by Shrewsbury, and if she had been, it would have been highly improper for Spenser the court poet to have slandered the noble earl. The chief difficulty with this view is that it makes a heroine of Mary, a person who was utterly odious in the sight of the puritan poet, a character, too, whom he has shown up in the blackest possible colors in the character of Duessa and Acrasia.*® The adventures of Florimel are in brief as follows: she escapes from Arthur; spends the night in a witch’s hut where the son, a lazy good-for-nothing boy, falls in love with her; she escapes soon after, but the witch sends after her a dreadful monster; to save her life, she leaps into a boat, only to be assailed by the old fisherman, master of the boat; and is at last rescued by Proteus 8° See Book V, Canto ix. zE56 The Political Allegory in “The Faerie Queene” 29 who confines her in a dark dungeon to force her love. All through, it is Florimel’s chastity which is celebrated, a character- istic which Mary’s most enthusiastic admirers can hardly claim for her. If we regard Florimel as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth, all seri- ous difficulties disappear. The witch is Catherine de’ Medici, and her character fits the common English opinion of the French Queen Mother’s. The son “a lazy loord, for nothing good to donne” (good-for-nothing) courted her “With soft sighs and lovely semblances. He weened that his affections entire She should aread; many resemblances To her he made, and many kind remembrances.” This is a fairly accurate picture of Alencon’s desperate courtship which lasted about ten years.*? When Elizabeth extricated her- self from the French match, she not only incurred the enmity of Catherine and the French, but calumny, the monster, was busy whispering that her treatment of Alencon had not all of it been inspired by maiden prudence. If we read the letters that passed between them, we suspect that this whisper was not all without foundation. The adventure with the fisherman seems the allegory of an earlier love affair with Lord Thomas Seymour, the brother of the Protector Somerset, and the man who married Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. He was Lord High Admiral of England, and, among other misdeeds, for his violent courtship of young Princess Elizabeth, he was executed. This affair detracts greatly from the credit of Lord Thomas, for Elizabeth at that time was a young girl only fourteen years of age. The treatment which Florimel was subjected to by the old fisherman suggests very vividly that of Elizabeth by Seymour, as it is recounted by Hume in his Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. But Elizabeth was too important a person to be permitted to be made a toy of, even a political toy, and King Philip, husband of “See Hume, Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. “Tbid., chapter i. 187 30 Philo M. Buck, Jr. Mary, took her under his protection. The fact is, and Elizabeth afterward acknowledged it, that he saved her life at this very juncture. In all the proceedings and examination of witnesses, not a word of a treasonable nature could be brought out against her. Proteus saved Florimel’s life and honor, Philip saved Eliza- beth’s. The old fisherman was cast into the sea, Seymour was beheaded. But, and here the allegory grows stronger, when Mary died, Philip directly proposed marriage to Elizabeth; and when he was courteously refused, he began his consistent policy of reducing her pride by a series of reprisals and underhand oppressions. Proteus imprisoned Florimel in order to break her will. There we leave her until Marinell hears her moans, com- pells her release, and marries her. Raleigh, as much as anyone, by his statemanship and prowess was responsible for the final overthrow of Philip’s gigantic schemes.** After Florimel’s escape from the Beast, Satyrane appears and after a conflict binds the Beast with her girdle. If again the Beast is the wrath of France and of the League, the allegory is plain. William of Orange was able to check it in Flanders and Holland. English aid, however, was required to carry this out. It will be remembered that Alencon became Governor of the Netherlands, and playing the traitor gave over some of the cities to his soldiers to sack. They were unable to do this because of the vigilance of Orange. At this point, Satyrane attempts to save the Squire of Dames from the vile Argante, the wife and sister of the vile Ollyphant, but is captured himself. He is saved by Palladine, a female knight, coming to his rescue. Just to what event this refers I am unable to discover. After the capture of Antwerp in 1585, the English came to the aid of the Dutch. It may refer to this. "The cave of Proteus is described as a most lonesome cavern. So was the palace of the Escurial. There he - “ Offered faire guiftes t’allure her sight, And with flattering words he sweetly wood her.” This attempted bribery is exactly in line with Philip’s actions. This part of the poem was probably written in 1589 when there were fears of a second Armada. England had not yet learned to despise Philip’s power. “$88 The Political Allegory in “ The Faerie Queene” oi In Canto viii the story now turns back to the witch’s son who mourns the loss of Florimel. To quiet the boy, his mother makes for him a snowy Florimel, an exact copy of the escaped original. Her hair is of gold wire. “Yet golden wyre was not so yellow thryse As Florimel’s fayre heare.” Elizabeth prided herself upon her golden (red) hair. The young man is completely taken in, and joys in his love; and the snowy lady seems to reciprocate his tenderness. ‘‘ Him long she so with shadowes entertained.” This is exactly what Elizabeth did with Alengon. Long after she had seen that marriage to him was impossible, she kept him at her feet by false shows of affection. The false Florimel then seems to be Elizabeth drawn into trifling courtships for political reasons. And now as if to mystify us, Spenser brings Braggadocchio and Trompart upon the scene, who seize upon the snowy lady and bear her away. That is, he makes Alencon come in another character and seize upon the empty prize.** But for the present, Braggadocchio may not keep his prize. Another claimant appears who forcibly seizes and carries her away. He is a much more knightly person, and we feel a breath of pity that it is only a shadow that he has secured. I take it that Sir Ferraugh, this knight, is the Archduke Charles of Austria, who played hide and seek with Elizabeth and Alencon in the seventies, to the utter disconcerting of all Englishmen. At any rate, the story is beautifully complicated, as were all of Eliza- beth’s political love affairs. We leave these characters and turn to Satyrane who mourns Florimel as dead after he had picked up her girdle and had bound the Beast. He now meets Sir Paridell, who is out seeking Flori- mel, and who informs him that the chief news in Fairy Land is “the Jate ruin of proud Marinell” (the enforced retirement of the proud Raleigh to Ireland in 1589) and “the sudden parture of faire Florimell.”’ Paridell seems to have more than one role. In “Tt is possible to regard the witch’s son as the Duke of Anjou, after- ward Henry III, who was for political reasons, also a candidate for the hand of Elizabeth. 189 a2 Philo M. Buck, Jr. Book V, Canto ix, he seems to be Westmoreland or some other person connected with the Northern Rebellion, but here he is a noble knight with but one blemish; he is too free in his loves. In Cantos ix—x Paridell and Satyrane come to the castle of Malbecco, a miserly, jealous old curmudgeon, who refuses them admittance. While they are debating what to do, Britomart rides up and demands admittance. Paridell not liking her imperious- ness, and not knowing her sex, jousts with her and is promptly overthrown. They are however reconciled by Satyrane, and after a show of force, all are admitted to the castle. During the even- ing, Paridell wins the love of Hellenore, Malbecco’s beautiful wife, and before many days runs away with her and a large part of her husband’s wealth. Soon, however, he tires of her and leaves her with the satyrs, where she is found by her husband. During the search for his wife, Malbecco is further duped and plundered by Braggadocchio and Trompart; and disgraced and impoverished, he attempts self-destruction, only to fail in that, and becomes the symbol of jealousy. There is some very interesting historical allusion here. I take Paridell for another view of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. In the sonnet addressed to him, Spenser says that in the poem will be found his famous name and ancestry. Paridell declares his name and ancestors to Britomart in Canto ix, St. 36-37. The ancestor Paris, suggests French extraction, and the de Veres were almost the only noble family that could trace their line unbroken to the French of the 12th Century.** Oxford was a poet. Paridell is called “the learned lover.” “And otherwhyles with amorous delights And pleasing toyes he would her entertaine; Now singing sweetly to surprize her sprights, Now making layes of love and lovers paine, Bransles, ballads, virelayes,-and verses vaine; Oft purposes, oft riddles, he devysd, And thousands like which flowed in his braine, With which he fed her fancy, and entysd To take to his new love, and leave her old despysd.” “For the story of the life of the Earl of Oxford referred to here see Hume, Great Lord Burleigh. 190 The Political Allegory in.“ The Faerie Queene” 33 The young earl was the ward of Burleigh and early became a court favorite. He was always wayward and extravagant. On several occasions he came into conflict with the Queen. In 1571 he objected to the execution of Norfolk. To break away from Court in 1574, he escaped to Flanders to attach himself to Orange (Satyrane). Elizabeth was furious at his contempt and had him sent back at once (the quarrel before the castle of Malbecco when Paridell was overthrown). After a return from Italy he aped foreign manners and dress (Paridell’s elegance). In 1571 he suddenly married Anne Cecil, Burleigh’s daughter (Malbecco’s wife), and his extravagance was a perpetual drain on his father- in-law’s purse. When he found that Burleigh would no longer pay his bills, he deserted his wife (abandonment of Hellenore). There are also some traces of similarity between Burleigh and Malbecco. Burleigh was in his later years extremely jealous of younger men, especially of Essex. See Colin Clout's Come Home Again. Here he is described as follows: “Therein a cancred crabbed carle does dwell, That has no skill of court nor courtesie, Ne cares what men say of him ill or well: For all his dayes he drownes in privitie, Yet has full large to live and spend at libertie. But all his mind is set on mucky pelfe, To hoord up heapes of evill-gotten masse, For which he others wrongs, and wreckes himselfe: ” Burleigh’s love of money was notorious. Spenser, too, had no love for Burleigh, as, according to the story, Burleigh was directly responsible for Spenser’s want of preferment. There are several other points well worthy of attention. Satyrane and Paridell wanted assistance from Malbecco which he begrudged. Orange, with Oxford and other young English hotheads, was anxious for Burleigh to espouse a war against Philip, to save Holland. Burleigh was for counting the cost, and preferred a diplomatic peace with Spain.** Oxford took advan- tage of his nearness to Anne Cecil to arrange what would be a * This is clearly brought out in Martin Hume’s Great Lord Burleigh. IQ! 34 Philo M. Buck, Jr. good financial match. Braggadocchio and Trompart duped Mal- becco into trusting them and then robbed him. Burleigh was ina similar way duped by the Alencon marriage treaty, not once but repeatedly. At present, I have nothing better to offer in the way of an explanation of these incidents. Certainly Spenser would not wish to make the allegory too clear. In Cantos xi—xii Satyrane and Britomart proceed together and save a young man from the giant Ollyphant. We seem to get back again to the English and Dutch operations in the Nether- lands.*® They separate and Britomart meets Sir Scudamour who is in great distress because the gentle Amoret, his mistress, is in the power of Busyrane, the wicked magician. This again presents some difficulties. For the present, I need only state that by Scudamour, I understand the Earl of Essex who was kept from winning Amoret, Elizabeth, by the wiles of Burleigh (Busyrane). Britomart does not slay Busyrane, but binds him in chains, to symbolize the destruction of Burleigh’s power. The full story of Scudamour is reserved for the Fourth Book.** It is possible to regard Busyrane as Philip II, who early courted Elizabeth, and the magical fire as the fire of the Inquisition. It needs only to be added that Spenser may have borrowed his idea of the Masque of Cupid from a Masque of Cupid performed before the Queen at Norwich shortly after the affair at Kenilworth. “ The young man may be Henry of Navarre. “T did once hope that it was possible to see in this adventure the marriage of Lady Penelope Devereaux to Lord Rich, that ended so un- happily for her and for her true lover Sir Philip Sidney. Another possible explanation of this incident may be seen on page 21. The satire on Lord Burleigh may seem daring, and perhaps unjust; but we must remember that Elizabeth’s chief minister was Leicester’s chief rival, and that Leices- ter was Spenser’s hero. 192 Volumes I-X of UNIVERSITY STUDIES are each complete in four numbers. Index and title page are furnished for each volume. A list of the papers printed in the first two volumes may be had on application, Single numbers (excepting Vol. II, No. 3) may be had for 75 cents each. A few copies of Volumes I, II, III, 1V, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X complete in ; numbers, are still to be had. All communications regarding purchase or exchange should be addressed to THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LIBRARY —<———_ sa LINCOLN, Nes., U.S, A. PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PA. + r\y Vou. XI Jury, 1911 No. 3 UNIVERSITY STUDIES PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF COMMITTEE OF PUBL C. E. BESSEY P. H. GRUMMANN F, M. FLING W. K. JEWETT L. A. SHERMAN CONTENTS I. A New SpeciEs OF TREMATODE FROM THE PAINTED TERRAPIN, Chrysemys marginata Acassiz. fF. D. VIVES RAT em Ge WY COUEU ONS Sande. + \yooaud dodiecs ss toes 193 II. THE PENTATOMIDAE OF NEBRASKA. /. Z. Zimmer... 219 II. Wiiiiams’ ‘‘ THe APHIDIDAE OF NEpRASKA.”’ _/.._/. FEED so Was gue fle hes ds He a eet eens sae heed thie BN: MEO i kei 253 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA BIINIVERSITY STUDIES VoL. XI SULLY LOTL No: 3 meNEW SPECIES OF TREMATODE FROM THE PAINTED TERRAPIN,- CHRYSEMYS MARGINATA AGASSIZ BY FRANKLIN D. BARKER AND GEORGE W. COVEY Synopsis Pact REMOTES tg cote Se ace See oh uae ate ae 8 Bs foes 193 EG ae eal eR ae 2 acon oe a, a Pg a 194 My One PEMIALGUS Ses seals bos a0 one te ee eee es 198 areata ea ec a ig. wee iS 5 aha or Sony deen Meecer a oe 207 Comparative Table of the Species in the Genus Telorchis. I gs et aa becca ans mows i uatd era leyt oes etm Sao bs 217 BR Seiad sk TET! 5 hte s a sete. x t T. leptus (Barker and Covey) T. arrectum (Molin) COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS TELORCHIS Length, 3.500 mm. cowwienele -* paves * Body flat; long elliptical shape. Anterior, subterminal; acetabulum. yetralsuckersereesseress 7 Te ecior third of body. pharyngeal pouch oF prephar- = eee PharyNXsesee sere Following the “esophageal bulb —the esophagus probably. larger extend to posterior end. that of testes. WARTEIIVOWCE s Fy uasibaieies|occcccscccvecs fF csccccensesees SIMTMGM aaa ue vecainseciccces Descending (left) and ascending (right) limbs; passes along right side of cirrus pouch to genital pore. — EMIS Vs aiesiita\eisiniesalbieiee \se.s ameter half that of body. Vasa efferentia............. cirrus pouch. penis. about two-thirds as long penis. Sigmoidal in form. Genital pore......... Just anterior to acetabulum. Vitelline glands......... to end of caeca. back to anterior testis. by irregular little vesicles. Cuticula OS pe Linens Excretory system SOOO nnn inna green lizard. Seeseenes is, Molin variable; slightly larger than ‘Slightly smaller than oral sucker. INOMES 0 cv eiisscciecesscesniejeces ‘Esophageal bulb’ =Pharynx(?). and is a “thin, short, pharynx" Caeca first diverge, thenb ecoming vesseeveeeseseees+|Lies at side of part of cirrus pouch corresponding to sem. vesicle. Spherical; diam, = two-thirds One behind the other, almost con- tiguous, in penultimate fifth of body; perfectly spherical; di- .|Thin duct from superior vertex of Right from anterior testis testes, reaches to seminal vesicle which fills posterior one-third of .|Cylindrical, about 4 times as great in diameter as spine-covered, Base at left side of ova- ry. Itcurvesabout acetabulum| forking of intestines. Contains] to reach the genital pore. Pouch In lateral areas from genital pore Surround mid-) dle of region of body like a belt, Formed Covered with spines which disap-|... Small; of orange-yellow color... . - ety pore large and in apex of 0.095 mm. in diam. bet ns AP RORUO TROON DODO EOt Si MG;CPF Sy ELIT IONIE gras, 10)s\)0:n 15 9 vere ee ” 0.225 mm. long...... Two caeca, reach posterior to both testes. Behind ventral sucker, a little an- terior to the middle of the body. Just posterior to ovary........-- Passes left of acetabulum, opens at genital pore with penis, fills space between ovary and an- terior testis (according to Staf- ford's drawing the uterus is not in definite lateral fields). In median line at posterior end, one behind the other. 0.875 mm. from anterior end. 0.18-0.24 long. At each side of anterior end is conical shaped appendage whose _ substance seems to be in continuation with the oral sucker. Nearly spherical; 2-3 mm. behind) oral sucker. 0.21-0.25 mm. across. 0.22-0.27 mm, long. Prepharynx, 0.42-0.47 mm, posterior end, pass the posterior testis by one or two lengths of a testis. Reniform; 0.36—0.46 mm. in cross- section. In descending and ascending limbs, | which do not cross. Fills space} between ovary and anterior| testis. | Oval or elliptical, in usual position. I Anterior one: length, 0.50-0.76 mm. Width, 0.40-0.70 mm. Posterior one: Length, 0.60-' 0.86 mm. Width, 0.30-0.60 mm | ' 4 \Left one from anterior testis,| diameter. oral sucker. LOBON tH ateretaielalstsivteleiajaioieiarteretetate Nearly spherical, close anterior 0.376 mm. in transverse direction. (dicht vor) to division of in| 0.452 mm. in sagittal direction testine. Absent (?).......... pada. cn Absent. Caeca rather wide—reach clear to|\ Two caeca begin at pharynx and extend posterior between middle and lateral thirds to extreme posterior end of the body. Immediately posterior to posterior end of cirrus pouch, in middle line, just a little posterior to ven- 0.200 mm., longi- 0.350 mm., transverse direction. 0.350 mm., tral sucker. tudinal direction. sagittal direction. stoeeutis .\Ventral and posterior to ovary... Right and dorsal to shell gland... sucker and posterior testis. Greatest between ovary and anterior testis. In two lateral fields. Terminal part passes} n median line, one posterior to the, other. Anterior one sph rical 0.350 mm. X0.45 mm. in diam-) eter. Posterior one elongated) 0.550 mm. long. passes along inner border of caeca to point just anterior to ovary, then transversely to the sperm bladder. drawn transversely vesicula seminalis. as To left side, opens dorsally. Lie between the intestine and body wall, from the genital pore, to near the anterior testis or not quite so far forward. By ance 0,021 mm. X0.042 mm... . Branches at posterior testis... ._. Tot tssssesesses-..|Podarcis muralis and Lacerta vir-\Chrysemys picta, eastern painted turtle. (1859: 831-33)........-...|Stafford (1900: 407), (1905: 690). |Penis 0.500 mm. long. Opens dorsally just posterior to line) through) Cylindrical; posterior end reaches the ovary; anterior end grows) much smaller than posterior end. | Just anterior to ventral sucker.| In the lateral areas; begin posterior to ovary, reach almost to an-| terior testis; grouping in grape-| like clusters may be indistinctly} seen. Spines present Numerous, thick-shelled. 0.023 mm. 0.014 mm, fore host not definite. Braun (1gor: 18). - Very large, 1 mm. long, 0.48 mm. Anterior to ventral sucker, re- Dorso-lateral 0.012 mm. thick. Very numerous, 0.014 X0.023 mm. Turtle; museum specimens, there-| Eunectes scytale, snake.......++-: in cross-section. Greater part) posterior to ventral sucker. Posterior part full of vesicula seminalis and prostate glands. moved to left to line between| middle and left lateral thirds of body. throughout full length of body. Overlie the in-| testine and folds of the uterus. Spines present.’ Subterminal; 0.645 or 0.538 mm. At junction of first and second fourths; slightly smaller than left and ventral to cirrus pouch.| Spines present on cuticula, . 0.019 mm. wide. 0.046 mm. long. 0.24 mm. in diam. (by Linstow mm. from anterior end. mm.—0.16 mm. diam.; 0.18 mm., long. diam. Absent. . eter. Short, 0.13 mm.—o.17 long. esophagus, extend to posterio: end of body. Relatively nea: mid-line, testes and inside yolk glands. At posterior end of cirrus pouch approx. in mid-line, spherical. 2.0-2.4 mm. anterior end. mm. in diameter. from Fills whole space between ventral) Between the caeca of intestines and | testis. and left limb (ascending) ; do not cross each other. Equal, spherical or slightly elon- gated. 0.27 mm.-o.36 mm. in diameter. (According to Braun anterior larger; both are elon- gated.) 0.16-0.18 mm. in diam, (by| of worm. Always larger than Braun). acetabulum, but relative size inconstant. Size, 0.1348 mm. Approximately round. 1.00 Diam., 0.125 mm...... 5 0.13 transverse 0.II mm. transverse diameter; 0.08 mm.—o.1r mm., long. diam- Two caeca begin at posterior end of, outside uterus and nearly 0.16 mm.—o.18 between ovary and anterior} Right limb (descending)| ) ; Slightly oval, long axis in long axis long. diam, Absent..... Spherical. Diameter,o.068 mm. /|Oval in cross-section. in diameter. Thin. Length, 0.278 mm..... .|0.130 mm. long...... Caeca run clear back to posterior end. Slightly hidden by testes and vitellaria. r r tween the testes. Spherical; diameter, 0.11-0.14 mm. lies over base of cirrus pouch at approximately the middle of the long axis of the body. Spherical n rietelerefeteveteraterstare ieavetate ater cretarttatatens|| crete eietetarefel=teleleteftetntsterelalersttars eter dala afelslataleteyaye Decste aeeyatetettataie sions | etelstaletetatstelstelereiee a ia rsiavelar . aiiuocaoocHanuc ? \Not in distinct ascending and descending fields, but coils sup-| do not cross each other. perimposed and confused; fills) | whole space between caeca and between ovary and anterior testis. Terminal section S-form,| reaches genital atrium. Far posterior; one directly behind other; spherical. Diameter, 0.16-0.21 mm. posterior to acetabulum. Vesi-| cula seminalis lies in posterior end. Immediately anterior to Rental! sucker (according to Linstow| two pores are present side by) side). In lateral areas. Begin a little anterior to ovary, do not reach} testes. Acini are definite, 8-9) on right, 12-13 on left. Right! gland is thus shorter. Just anterior and a little left of Lateral to caeca; 1.16 mm. long.) eee a trasesstalerate A tele lo Matataterareter eral 8 \Very long, running forward to]..........-20+ Pevsseneeeees unite to form vesicula seminalis| in cirrus pouch. | Elongated, club-shaped. 1.0 mm./Uncommonly long, coiled. Length|Greatly elongated, or more long. Pouch mostly| (without coils), 0.693 mm. Base| contains small ves. seminali beneath ovary, reaches forward) to end at genital atrium just an-| terior and little to left of acetab-| ulum. Extends back to touch slightly beneath ovary. or acetabulum. and slightly removed to left. Middle third of lateral area: Begin half way between ovary and acetabulum, and reach al- most to anterior border of an- terior testis. Made of rather confused grape-like clusters. Thin; armed with spines back to)..........--.++> BP acre atnaleianion’ ovary. Thickness, 0.00396. Numberless; when new, golden|o.0228 mm. X0.0409 MM........++ yellow; when ripe, dark brown. 0.0334 mm. X0.0194 mm. Bladder at posterior end passes Bladder posterior to testis.......|.......-++20++ Bisleaie as aiginsiaiatn Duct of Bagge Bernier dorsal to testes, stretched for- ee gpg Bee hee h Le ua ane causes testes to lie obliquely. ranches. Sarasin siv'='« Tropidonotus natrix, snake.....+- yaaa aed ns or Cistudo Iuiaria, box turtle. ..+-|Lahe (1899: 524)... +--+ +e++e0+ Braun (1901: 14)->-"">* Peessees Mahling (1898: 18), (1898: 93-94)-|Braun (1001: 19). ++ ++++++++++* Descending and ascending limbs Spherical at extreme posterior end. Somewhat anterior to acetabulum Begins anterior to ovary and! ends rather far anterior to testes. | Circular; 0.059 mm., both diams. 0.059 mm.,trans. diam.,0,054 mm., 0.036 mm. Caeca end on plane passing be- .|Short esophagus............. noe Spherical We mtarsisrsistis vaininecn tate Spherical or elliptical, just beh posterior end of cirrus pou 0.16-0.21 mm. in diameter. aetialaie siete scinincnt? eoeE ecayet ats ohersia|| fed tierate Wares aratne Raw rarete’e aerate SAdneise MP lstsforeper wieiaisie.a)>.ovuc(b viv-a]| > sininlaioial a alaVaiareTsU ci coh eerste Tat erple BisRicecsinisisiciataceieisvelate | ula(tia(eiy oor nnde (haematocrit SoGLnnGE Gnen Pi stetarrscnteteral thle -eie;| Okibib.olthauters were hea poretetatmaminiaaney Descending and ascending limbs of) | uterus cross each other (Braun).) Spherical and at extreme posterior end (Braun) ovoid. . in diam. 0.114 mm. S. ie | $s t cylindrical,|Elongated, cylindrical, contains, small vesicula seminalis; tends back to touch or lie slight-| ly beneath ovary. | | Somewhat anterior to acetabulum and slightly to left (Braun). Middle third of lateral areas. 0.018 mm.o X.028 MM...- ++ +++ Duct passes dorsal to testes (Braun). Testudo orbicularis, Emys lutaria Emys lutaria or Cistudo lutaria, urtle, Stossich a (1895: 16) 0.14 mm. in diameter........... Very small. 0.08 mm. in diameter, Situated anteriorly. stnieisretn cialeerstafete Piictelata's Sa eles we Bulb very small. . Caeca end on plane which passes between testes, diameter, 0.10-0,.1r mm. in diameter. mm, from oral sucker. of the intest. Absent (?) end posterior to testes, right descending and left a cending fields. But there fields indefinite. (Stoss.).| 0.20 mm. wide. usual length of testis. Elongated, yet shorter than in the} other species, and posterior end) is distended; reaches far pos-| terior to acetabulum. The base} | lying near ovary. ex- Immediately anterior to anterior border of ventral sucker. Almost spherical; 0.227 mm, in .|Prepharynx, 0.12-0.17 mm. long, . Ellipsoidal—o,.13_ mm. wide; situ- ated just before division place Run very close to edges of body; Between ovary and anterior testis; more or less crossing making the Oval, 0.18-0.31 mm. long., 0.13~ Behind each other in posterior end but sepa- rated by greater distance than Just anterior to acetabulum | T. angustum (Stafford) T. bi Em, TY. clava (Lube). T. f subgen. T, acule . aren (ion) elorchiee eee FE eee T. nematoides (Miihl.) 7. parvus (Braun) T. poirieri (Stoss.) T. pl B | | i : . pleroticus (Brn.) T. soltvagus (Odb Width, 1.000 Length, 3.150 mm. Width, 0.455|Length, i i i i aa an = : 3-15) 455 Sein Rae ee aes pial lier Ss 1.2-2.3 ae Sy oa hart wi 1.0 Length, 3-03-4.13 mm. Width |Length, 2.00 mm. Width,o.34 mm. Length, 11.0mm. Width, 0.5 mm. Length, 6-8 Width, —— ; ‘ ie in : F 5 : } 0.5 mm.| 0.385 mm., widest part. ‘| (wi tas j cae 3 tie 1 2 Touts idth, 0.26-/Length, 7. Wi ngth Widt 0.8-1.3 mm.; at pharynx, 0.5 (fear post. end); nee st part. Length:| (widest part). aches 6— mee a ain Width, 0.8-0.9 Le; 2.013 mm, th mm.; between testes, 0.5—-0.86 ; a : ears? ue Cee paris mm. settee eect eens Peceeeeee scenes baie Beare | ten teen acetabulum, tapers Pein: posteriorly. Like a nematode............... Widest near anterior end; lateralRibbon-shaped — (band-fdrmig).'Long, flat; anteri = : fi i R L : ; 1 5 , flat; ant i i ‘ PUIG Ne-BADE pace converge backward) Has a_neck-part anterinty on rounded St Beer sere cees bal.” Boat ae ee pe om this point. (Braun). Flat. Rounded pos-| ders straight; 1 . ? eriot Suverion to acetabuiiings ight; not quite parallel.) to field containing uterus, body| both pidly terior end. White color (Stoss). sharply reduced. At petted ried pepe "ae opening|0.125 mm. in diam..............|Nearly spherical; 0.20-0.25 wide; terior end rounded. width, 0.24 mm, 1.0 Diameter, 0.28 mm. than oral sucker, None... . . .|Present. Length 0.35 mm.... same plane. ind ich. body. Diameter, 0.27 mm. In descending and ascending limbs, which cross each other, not re- maining in their own lateral | fields. The separation of the | limbs of uterus is, hence, not so sharp as in some others, An- terior to acetabulum, always lies s- is end narrowing lessmarked. An- Sub-terminal: length, 0.19 mm.,/Sub-terminal, circular. 0.106 Round, 1.5 mm. from anterior end. 0.640 mm.from anterior end. 0. Larger} mm. transverse diameter. 0.0) Spherical; diameter, 0.146 mm... Run near borders of body, internal to yolk glands, to extreme pos- terior end, where they end in Under extreme posterior end of cirrus pouch, spherical; at left a little anterior to the middle of Posterior end more or less in both diameters. longest diameter. . .|Present, muscular = prepharynx, 0.059 mm. transverse diameter. 0.059 mm. longest diameter. 0.065(?) sagittal diam. Present 0.089 mm. long, Two caeca, always reach posterior to both testes. In mid-line, 0.150 mm. posterior to ventral sucker, nearly spher- ical, 0.088 mm.indiameter. At junction of first and second thirds of body. .|Present, opening to left of ovary, between it and the medial bound- ary of the caecum of intestine. .|Present, diffuse without definite limiting membrane; posterior and ventral to the ovary, re- ceptaculum, and yolk reservoir. Present, posterior ventral, and a little to left of ovary, and dorsal to a part of the shell gland. Present, just posterior to ovary and dorsal to shell gland. 'Fills space between caeca of in- testines, and between ovary and anterior testis. Right descend- ing, left ascending limbs. Ter- minal portion passes left of ovary and acetabulum, then follows cirrus pouch to base of | on left side and passes over to | join cirrus pouch as rather thick vagina, Equal, irregularly round; lie flat- tened slightly against each other. in extreme posterior end of body; separated from point by length of one testis. Length, 0.50 mm., width 0.42 mm, Cannot be seen, 0 Extremely long; from anterior edge of acetabulum it reaches back through one-third length of body =2.4mm, Coiled like a spring and of equal diameter (0.1 mm.) throughout, excepting a slight distension for sperm-bladder at posterior extremity, Begin posterior to ovary, reach'I Begin anterior to ovary and end) almost to anterior testis. Are anterior to testes (Braun). In) of equal length, or right is} | grape-like clusters, only slightly} shorter. Follicles hide caeca of) developed (Stoss.). intestines. |Spines absent...---+++++se*50"* Spines present. .....+0--+-0005* 0.010 mm. 0.020 mm. (Small.).. box|Turtle, museum fore exact host not known. 227); Braun (1901:/ Braun (1901: 17)--+++++++++ |Spines present..++++ +++ |Uncommonly numerous, | Only ampulla-like bladder running n lateral areas,outside cacca, begin’ one-third of distance from ace-| tabulum to ovary behind the acetabulum, and end, the right a little anterior, the left a little posterior toa plane one half way from ovary tO posterior end. Made up of follicles which are’ grouped very indefinitely in clusters. 0.03 mm.o.015 mM. Thin-shelled with lid. When newly made’ they are less, become, golden-brown, 4nd finally, at full development, dark-brown. dorsal to testes: 18 to be seen. genital papilla, ne behind the other, in median line, at extreme posterior end. Both approximately spherical, but tend to be slightly elongated transversely. 0.118 mm, in diameter (mode). Right one from anterior testis left from posterior; run along inner inner border of intestinal caeca. Base to right of, or over center of acetabulum—never posterior to t. Aprox. 0.413 mm. long; crosses to left and anteriorly, ventral to left caecum and opens on genital papilla. Very near left lateral border of body at level with posterior end of esophagus. opens on genital papilla, at base of which is opening of vagina; dorsal. Two lateral fields outside caeca of intestine— reach from ovary to near anterior testis. longer than right; acini not definite. Vas deferens Left is Minute spines present. 0.023 X0.05r mm. Lid present, no filaments. Bladder, central, between caeca, extends from testes to ovary. Anteriorly it branches into two of which goes each and ends blindly, sha Posteriorly it connects with a bladder pos- terior to testes, by a duct dorsal to the testes. running specimens, there-/River turtle, Clemmys caspica....\Chrysemys marginata (Agassiz) lodhner (1902: 29)+--...........| Present paper. eras tay SSaAt} Hah soos) pene tt rset eweped * Was pemsib.ak, 41, 388-8 9. widns nsqat roan 273.0290 oue into aadi wilson ylitgi?!..... 6... eee meib ni am 7000. | eybed jo biid? toheins al jj “CREAT AM ragaTs) pH F ns pe ets Bt MY DBL ead Asye ek. cea e nas -QOOF reitte acne) Shemesadt = "etnd lsogadqoes* A] eee y : , : * * ey ® —T aT =, Wie + > + selves te owe « Ooo * ft ae, room MOIS PO Lipsy) » 2 on Savin A . p3iol. amen 288.0/""dlud Lerysifqaes"* ac “xeytedq .Jioda aide get hae ‘f ae “gidedorg eugedqors adi | Sa ud o} wirateod fons . ese ont grimos> dasd3 gravib Jer 798911 2... sou tes pee .eetsot || .bas tortecq of buetzo wgisl 3! } | j a . : th "a; 2A 01931] stan thay Aer. { : AS esa comer hn yt 38 Sh a ahaa te. oihbien oxtt 7° fiat.,..soieoy mie Ot _ - lebridd-ow? = “smal Nectetae est29) to Jad -—— oe ee? Arena Py bY are See pete ig De rene anne eee es Ot REE taker pre ee Mapas eam anion angie : ed i 4 ype . ~¢* ' base * aAD* “4s pia ee ee ee | ~~ -¢ ‘ = . pryit Thea > é : ? m+) - 4 4 —_ . Wy epi) Pitt) pe oO nOTR IO) mare cir> (DN SPASTIC UMeEI vr. 77H) PA feet an (| CEs eg ery ye 9 fie ze y gy oy aes | Sih ier Prins eSsentnyp ur ip ee «i be Wleye Fs egytahpe ote Soy mw: coto & St me jf. uF ci veces # m0 $ Tt FS ay! A: ' +*# ee ee ewe re | eee ee eee eae ee peress.sCis¥O Of tobistvoq Jan lemsqe muledsssoe to tol aoaes aft thasaee. ae pe tbes eee een re onal 2 2itoq Miive s10q fatingg § slyix risa a ee @ brs: yay Qn ApmiNd goage.../@inga 99 -sfaung bypiseeneaes aaa ise ot acibroode) sides? tones *s is igs autos 13 goiwerb « ‘brot “io cca: rho ar ioie ov eeetacy id ntTieet Sh. dine eevee oredereeilh or teen ee a. Suh eee ra —— A New Species of Trematode 25 Wi Esopharus DFESent: vas och yee iw es cfaed oss s. g. Cercorchis Lihe. Type species—Telorchis Linstowi (Stoss.). SPILAODUACIS ANSEL, oon cua cdseancssceavvamestavies s. g. Telorchis Lihe. Type species —Telorchis clava Lihe. I wish here to express my appreciation to Professor F. D. Barker, of the Department of Zoology of the University of Nebraska, at whose suggestion and under whose direction this work was begun and completed. PAPERS CITED Braun, M. 1901, Trematoden der Chelonier. Mitt. a. d. zool. Mus, in Bert., v. 2, No. I, pp. 13-20. Looss, A. 1899. Weitere Beitrage zur Kenntnis Trematoden-Fauna Aegyp- tens. Zool. Jahrb. Syst., v. 12, pp. 521-784. Ltue, M. 1899. Zur Kenntnis einiger Distomen. Zool. Anz., v. 22, pp. 524-39. 1900. Uber einige Distomen aus Schlangen und Eidechsen. Ctrbl. Bakt., Abt. 1, v. 28, pp. 555-66. Moin, R. 1859. Nuovi myzelminthi raccolti ed esaminati. Sitzungsb. d. K. Akad. d. Wissensch. Wien, math.-naturw. Cl., v. 37, pp. 818-54. MUHLING, P. 18098a. Die Helminthen-Fauna der Wirbeltiere Ostpreussens. Arch. f. Naturg., Jahrg. 64, v. I, pp. 1-118. 1898b. Studien aus Ostpreussens Helminthenfauna. Zool. Anz., Vv. 21, pp. 16-24. OpHNER, T. : 1902. Trematoden aus Reptilien nebst allgemeinen systematischen Bemerkungen. K. Svenska Vetensk-Akad. Forh., Stockholm, Vv. 50, pp. 19-45. STAFFORD, J. 1900. Some Undescribed Trematodes. Zool. Jahrb. Syst., v. 13, Pp. 399-414. 1905. Trematodes from Canadian Vertebrates. Zool. Anz., v. 28. pp. 681-94. StossicH, M. 1895. I distomi dei rettili. Boll. Soc. adriat. di sc. nat. in Trieste, v. 16, pp. 213-93. 217 26 Franklin D. Barker and George W. Covey EXPLANATION OF PLATE All figures were made either with the camera lucida from original stained and mounted specimens or copied with a pantograph from the original drawings. Abbreviations ac., acetabulum, p.b., pharynx, (ee cirrus, p.p.b., pre-pharynx, c.p., cirrus pouch, pr.g., prostate glands, cu., cuticula, p.p., pars prostatica, em., embryo, r.s., receptaculum seminis, es., esophagus, s.g., shell gland, ex.c., excretory canal, t: testis, ex.p., excretory pore, ui., wuterus, g.p., genital pore, vd., vagina, g.pa., genital papilla, v.d., vas deferens, 1., intestine, v.dt., vitelline duct, ie lid, v.e€., vas efferens, E¢., Watirer’s canal; v.g., vitelline gland, m., mouth, v.s., vesicula seminalis, o.s., oral sucker, u.r., vitelline reservoir. ov., ovary, Fic. 1. Region of genital papilla of Telorchis leptus Barker and Covey, enlarged to show relations of cirrus pouch to other structures. Dorsal view. XX 124. Fic. 2. Telorchis angustum Stafford, after Stafford (1900: 399, plate Zowten Oe ees: Fic. 3. A part of a cross-section of Telorchis leptus Barker and Covey, taken through the genital papilla, showing relations of vas deferens to vagina. > 124. Fic. 4. Cross-section through the middle of the cirrus pouch. > 124. Fic. 5. Female reproductive organs of Telorchis leptus Barker and Covey. Dorsal view. X 124. Fic. 6. Eggs of Telorchis leptus Barker and Covey. 321. Fic. 7, A portion of Telorchis nematoides (Miuhl.), after Miuhling (1898a: 1-118, plate 4, fig. 22) to show relations of the cirrus pouch to other organs, in the subgenera Telorchis and Cercorchis. X 30. Fic. 8. Telorchis (Protenes) leptus Barker and Covey. Dorsal view. X 59. 218 IPs AyD) 4 tt) ep ' QS ve PRD G. W.Covey del. » € a tA a = atin THE PENTATOMIDAE OF NEBRASKA BY JOHN TODD ZIMMER This paper is to be considered merely as a faunal list repre- senting the family Pentatomidae in Nebraska as it is known at the present time. The list is based for the most part on specimens actually present in the collection of the University of Nebraska although several species are included, parenthetically, on the authority of previously published records when no specimens are now at hand. Necessarily the list is not a final one as, until re- cently, little collecting of Hemiptera has been done in the state and further work along this line will, undoubtedly, bring to light many species which are, as yet, unrecorded from Nebraska. In fact, the number of species is being constantly increased, and it has been found necessary to revise this paper, after it was once completed, in order to include a half dozen or more forms found since the list was begun. Some synonymy has been included, but it has been restricted to a single citation (the first) of the various specific names ap- plied to each species. Generic changes have not been mentioned. The synoptic keys are based mainly on the work of such men as Uhler, Stal, Signoret, Summers, Heidemann, Montandon, Van- Duzee and Schouteden whose various tables have been rear- ranged and modified so as to include only Nebraskan forms. Some of the characters used are new ones, especially in cases where I have found what seem to be more constant differences than those employed in published synopses. To Professors Lawrence Bruner and Myron H. Swenk, of the University of Nebraska, and to Mr. E. P. VanDuzee of Buffalo, N. Y., many thanks are due for valuable suggestions used in the preparation of this paper, and acknowledgments must also be made to the various authors whose synopses have been utilized in the keys. University Stupies, Vol. XI, No. 3, July rgr1z 219 - John Todd Zimmer It may be necessary to add that Monroe canyon, Warbonnet canyon and Hat creek are in Sioux county, Springview Bridge in Keyapaha county and Hogan’s Bridge in Holt county. The other localities cited can be found on any map of the state. Order HEMIPTERA-HETEROPTERA Division TROCHALOPODA Superfamily PENTATOMOIDEA Family PENTATOMIDAE KEY TO THE SUBFAMILIES 3 Tibiae set ‘with heavy spines in TOWS. 21.4. 662'4c. csv des vole areata 5 ) Dibiae: without rows or. heavy: SpinleS:.c. «s/c + ciece ecole eieerctet oer neers 2 2. Scutellum rarely exceeding the corium in length, in which case the bucculae converge caudally beneath the basal joint of the ros- trum; frenum usually more than one third the length of the SCUtE] IGG si5,c.0: nis ccs v.sierete's eielale, ale © cision cual eeielaiele Sneek eee 3 2. Scutellum usually longer than the corium, often covering the most of the abdomen; frenum present or absent, when present rarely exceeding one third the length of the scutellum............... 4 . Bucculae parallel, forming a groove for the reception of the basal joint of the rostrum which is normal in size.......... PENTATOMINAE . Bucculae small, converging and uniting posteriorly beneath the basal joint of the rostrum which is swollen and enlarged....ASOPINAE 4. Primary and secondary veins of alae parallel; frenum present or absent; scutellum usually smaller and more flattened. GRAPHOSOMINAE 4. Primary and secondary veins of alae divergent, including a broad, spindle-shaped area; scutellum broader and more convex; frenum ADSEMED ih cls Se ctetars wiles wre! orate ie) wicvaresabelorss eter terete ene aoe SCUTELLERINAE . Scutellum more or less flattened, triangular, narrowed at tip, shorter than the corium; the apex of the corium broad....... CYDNINAE . Scutellum broad and convex, covering much of the abdomen, exceeding the corium in length; corium narrowed at the tip... THYREOCORINAE SusrFAMILy PENTATOMINAE KEY TO THE TRIBES AND GENERA . Abdomen ventrally sulcate; head elongate; rostrum reaching posterior to the hind coxae; antennae distant from the eyes; juga with a lateral tooth near the apex.......sssee. (Hatyini1) Brochymena 220 The Pentatomidae of Nebraska 3 1. Without the above combination of characters and juga without a lateral HAGENS ysis sae Wekp se he dliehen Seueettka ae «ses. (PENTATOMINI)..2 2. Segment 2 of the venter unarmed, without median spine or tubercle. .3 2. Segment 2 of the venter with a median spine or tubercle projecting anteriorly between the hind coxae...........-..00. Scie ioutetecke 3. Odoriferous orifices either far laterad of the coxae or distinctly elevated or continued in a sulcus; head usually not strongly deflexed; lateral margins of the juga sometimes narrowly reflexed, the reflexed portions never greatly swollen............. ag oketat eave 4 3. Odoriferous orifices usually situated just anterior to the lateral border of the hind coxae, without sulcus and scarcely elevated; head strongly deflexed, front almost vertical, reflexed lateral margins of the juga much swollen; if sulcus is present it is continued laterally in a gradually disappearing wrinkle and the juga are GQ. LONER iat GE LEVIS Sis inw stele x wpaisin aia was oo ay wisi eseie A rncectete 17 4. Sulcus from the odoriferous orifices continued laterally in a gradu- ally disappearing wrinkle; juga longer than the tylus and con- PetGUS Hat. their APICES <5 usic0.5.0.05 05.008" PeRoeaakes tad tn cd CVIDOLUS 4. Sulcus absent or ending suddenly, not continued laterally in a grad- ually disappearing wrinkle; if the sulcus is absent, the orifices are far laterad of the coxae ....... ha atalovs staat Rs yet rater cycle 5 5. Lateral margins of the pronotum sometimes with humeral spines or projections but these never bent posteriorly; veins of the mem- brane of the hemelytra simple or slightly furcate or else the lateral margins of the pronotum not conspicuously explanate...6 5. Lateral margins of the pronotum conspicuously explanate or with a prominent process at lateral angles bent slightly posteriorly; if the margins are explanate, the veins of the hemelytral membrane are irregularly furcate or anastomosing....... at evaracare kiosk oe ol 6. Scutellum usually with its apex distinctly narrowed and ith its lateral margins concave towards the apex, or else the head but slightly deflexed and not triangular nor noticeably convex dor- Sally 4) ; PRESS OF —) HH New ERA PRINTING COMPANY | / LANCASTER, PA. Vou, XI OcrToBER, 1911 UNIVERSITY STUDIES =: COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION C. E. BESSEY P. H. GRUMMANN F, M. FLING W. K. JEWETT L. A. SHERMAN CONTENTS I. THe NARRATIVE IN THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE ‘‘ GAL- Lic WaR,’’ CHAPTERS 50-55. /. W. Sanford...... 293 II. ROBESPIERRE AND MIRABEAU AT THE JACOBINS, DECEM- BER 6,1790. Charles Kuhimann LINCOLN, NEBRASKA UNIVERSITY STUDIES VoL. XI OCTOBER 1rg1t No. 4 Tae NARRATIVE IN THE BIGHTH BOOK.OF THE GALLIC. WAR,” CHAPTERS 50-55; A STUDY IN CHRONOLOGY BY FREDERICK WARREN SANFORD I The dispute between Caesar and the senate, the absorbing topic in Roman political circles in the year 50 B.C., while possessed of legal and constitutional aspects, was in large measure a political question. It is therefore necessary, in order to understand the dispute clearly and to see how it culminated in civil war, to estab- lish the order of events with the greatest accuracy possible. In consequence much laborious research has been devoted to the chronology of the years 51, 50, and early 49. My purpose in this paper is to determine, more accurately than seems to me to have been done before, the chronology of certain related events of the year 50. The topics considered will be: (1) the order and dates of events recorded by Hirtius, B.G., VIII, 50-55, in particular the movements of Caesar and his legions, (2) the date of the election of M. Antonius to the augurate, (3) the date of Fam. VIII, 14, the letter in which Caelius Rufus reports Antonius’s victory to Cicero, (4) the date at which the consul Marcellus authorized Pompeius to assume command of the two legions taken from Caesar and to defend the state. Hirtius’s narrative of the movements of Caesar and his legions in the year 50 begins with an account of Caesar’s first journey to University Sruvies, Vol. XI, No. 4, October rozz. 293 No Frederick Warren Sanford Italy (c. 50), in the course of which he received news of An- tonius’s election as augur ($3). Hirtius represents this journey as undertaken for the purpose of inducing the voters of Cisalpine Gaul to attend the augural election and to support Antonius. Caesar’s evident interest in Antonius’s candidacy renders it all but certain that he was informed of the result of the election as soon as practicable. The close time relation between the election and Caesar’s journey is obvious. The attempt will first be made to discover the date at which Antonius defeated L. Domitius for the place in the college of augurs left vacant through the death of Hortensius? and, in inevitable connection therewith, the date of Fam. VIII, 14. It will be profitable at the outset to summarize the argument for what may be fairly termed the current view, which fixes the election and the letter in the latter part of September. The fullest elaboration of this view is due to H. Nissen? and W. Sternkopf.® Their argument is substantially as follows: In the opening sentence of B.G., VIII, 50, Hirtius writes: /pse Iibernis peractis contra consuetudinem in Italiam quam maximis itineribus est profectus, ut municipia et colonias appellaret, quibus M. Antonii, quaestoris sui, commendaverat sacerdotti petitionem. The phrase hibernis peractis, by which Hirtius indicates the season in which Caesar came to Italy, means, so Nissen asserts,* “ after inspection of the winter quarters’”—in which Caesar’s legions spent the entire summer of 50—not, as Drumann® and Lange® understood it, “‘at the end of winter.” In Fam. VIII, 14, 4, Caelius suggests that civil war may be averted by sending Caesar or Pompeius to fight the Parthians: Si alter uter eorum ad Parthicum bellum non eat, video magnas impendere discordias, quas ferrum etvisiudicabit. Lange thought *Bardt, Die Priester der vier grossen Collegien aus rémisch-repub- likanischer Zeit, p. 25. Berlin, 1871. *“ Ter Ausbruch des Birgerkriegs 49 v. Chr.,” II, Historische Zeitschrift, 46 (1881), pp. 48-105. This second part alone is referred to in this paper. * Quaestiones Chronologicae. Diss., Marburg, 1884. * Ausbr., p. 67, 4; Quaest., p. 28. °Gesch. Roms, III, pp. 103, 391. °*Rodm. Alt., III’, p. 308. 294 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 3 that Caelius must have written these words in June or July, at a time when the fact of the Parthians’ withdrawal within their own territories in the summer of 50 was as yet unknown in Rome.’ But the point was not well taken, Nissen observes, since Rome might rightly be regarded as on a continuous war footing with the Parthians, until the death of Crassus should be avenged.’ A debate on pay for Pompeius’s troops occurred in the senate in 51, July 22.°. When the same question came up in 50, a decree was stopped by Curio’s veto, the withdrawal of which is noticed in Fam. VIII, 14, 4: Curio noster sapienter id, quod remisit de stipendio Pompei, fecisse existimatur. Nissen’? and Sternkopf,™ proceeding on the assumption that the debate in 50 occurred at the same time, or nearly so, as in 51, argue that Fam. VIII, 14, must then have been written later than June or the beginning of July, the period within which Lange placed it. Lange’ fixed the election of Appius Claudius and L. Piso to the censorship in 50 early in May, basing his conclusion on Cicero’s allusions to Appius’s candidacy in Fam. III, 10, 3, 11; II, 1, 5; 13, 2. A more careful consideration of these passages, Stern- kopi* thinks, together with the fact that no reference to the election is made in Fam. III, 12 (written early in August and before Fam. III, 13), leads to the conclusion that the election was held in August; in that case Fam. VIII, 14, can not be dated in June or July, as it was evidently written after Appius had entered upon his censorial duties (cf. §4): Scis Appium censorem hic ostenta facere, de signis et tabulis, de agri modo, de aere alieno acerrime agere? According to Plutarch,’ Antonius was first elected tribune, * Rom. Alt., IIT’, p. 396, 5. § Ausbr., p. 69, 2; Quaest., pp. 27-28. ° Fam. VIII, 4, 4. ” Ausbr., p. 69, 2. * Ouaest., p. 26. 2 Rom. Alt., III’, p. 307. 8 Quaest., pp. 25-26. Cf. de Boor, Fasti censori, p. 94, cited by Sternkopf. * Ant. 5. 295 4 Frederick Warren Sanford then augur. Drumann* and Lange? were wrong, in the opinion of Nissen** and Sternkopf,1® in rejecting Plutarch’s evidence, their error being due to their erroneous understanding of B.G., VIII, 50, 1. The annual elections occurred in August,!® since Cicero received news of them at Ephesus September 29.7° Illegal methods employed to defeat Servius Galba, Caesar’s candidate for the consulship, also point to an even numbered month, and so August, in which the younger consul, Marcellus, who was un- friendly to Caesar, would have the fasces.21_ B.G., VIII, 50, 4, also proves, according to Nissen’s inference,”? that the civil elec- tions were past when the augural contest came up. Fam. VIII, 12, was written in September, during the ludi cir- censes or shortly after (cf. $3): Znsolentissimi homines summis Circensibus ludis meis postulandum me lege Scantinia curant. Nissen and Sternkopf accept the common emendation of the cor- rupt ms. reading in §4: Scis Domitio comitiorum diem timori esse. Te exspecto etc. As these words set the augural election in the future, it follows that Fam. VIII, 14, was written later than Fam. VIII, 12.78 Sternkopf** finds further evidence to establish the relative dates of Fam. VIII, 12, and VIII, 14. In the course of a quarrel be- tween Appius and Caelius, the former, in conjunction with Domi- tius, employed Servius Pola to institute criminal proceedings against Caelius for an alleged offense covered by the lex Scantinia. Caelius answered with the same charge against Appius, as we are told in Fam. VIII, 12, 3: Vix hoc erat Pola elocutus, cum ego Appium censorem eadem lege postulavi. Quod melius caderet, nihil vidi; nam sic est a populo et non infimo quoque adprobatum, * Gesch. Roms, I, p. 68. * Rom. Alft., IIT’, p. 399. ™ Ausbr., pp. 68, 13 67, 4. * Quaest., p. 28. * Ausbr., p. 67, 4. » Att. VI, 8, 1-2. “ Avasbr., ©. 67, 437.8 G.,. VILE S0,'4. ” Ausbr., p. 68, 1; Quaest., p. 28. * Ausbr., p. 68, 1; Quaest., pp. 24, 27. * Quaest., pp. 24-25. : 296 ty eal all Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 5 ut maiorem Appio dolorem fama quam postulatio attulerit. Stern- kopf thinks there is a plain allusion to this incident in Fam. VIII, 14, 4: Curre, per deos atque homines! et quam primum haec risum ven, legis Scantiniae iudicium apud Drusum fieri, Appium de tabulis et signis agere; crede mihi, est properandum. The con- trast between Appius’s plight as defendant under the lex Scan- timia and his moral fervor as censor, Sternkopf holds, would have been unintelligible to Cicero, if Fam. VIII, 12, had not preceded MILI, 14: The date of Fam. VIII, 14, and the date of the augural election Nissen?> and Sternkopf*® seek to establish within close limits by the following argument. In 4f¢t. VI, 9, 5, written at Athens October 15, Cicero makes this request of Atticus: Perscribes . de censoribus, maximeque de signis, tabulis quid fiat, referaturne. Cicero’s desire for information was evidently inspired by Fam. VIII, 14, 4: Scis Appium censorem hic ostenta facere, de signis et tabulis, de agri modo, de aere alieno acerrime agere? Inas- much as Cicero himself was a collector of works of art, he doubt- less wrote Atticus immediately on receiving Fam. VIII, 14, a fact which, apart from other evidence, would indicate that this last named letter is to be referred to September. Again, in Fam. XIV, 5,1, written at Athens October 16, Cicero remarks: Cognovt enim ex multorum amicorum litteris, quas attulit Acastus, ad arma rem Spectare. This observation is in harmony with Fam. VIII, 14, 2: De summa re publica saepe tibi scripsi me in annum pacem non videre, et, quo propius ea contentio, quam fieri necesse est, accedit, eo clarius id periculum apparet. Fam. VIII, 14, was surely one of the letters which the slave Acastus delivered to Cicero at the Piraeus October 14, having come from Rome in twenty-one days.2* September 23 may be taken as its date. The augural election was held between the date of Fam. VIII, 12, and September 23.78 * Ausbr., p. 60, 2. *° Quaest., pp. 24, 26-27. Bam sl, 5, 1° Attx VI,"0, 1; * Hoffmann (De Origine Belli Civilis Caesariani, pp. 103-04) put the augural election in August. At the same time he dated Fam. VIII, 12, in 297 6 Frederick Warren Sanford The date of Hortensius’s death near the end of June, Nissen remarks,*® is consistent with the date already established for the augural election. The rumor current in Rome between September 19 and 23, that Caesar would occupy Placentia with four legions October 15,?° Nissen and Sternkopf explain as having been caused by Caesar’s first trip to Italy at the close of September.*? Nissen notes that both Fam. VIII, 12, and VIII, 14, expect Cicero to arrive home soon.*? II Nissen’s interpretation of hibernis peractis (B. G., VIII, 50, 1), “after inspection of the winter quarters,” can not be successfully defended. Caesar surely had no occasion to inspect the camp at Nemetocenna, which had been his own headquarters during the winter of 51/50;** and there is no cogent reason for thinking that he visited the other camps in which the various legions were sta- tioned. The only tour of this kind mentioned in the Commen- taries was made in 54, and then for the special purpose of finding what progress had been made in the construction of a fleet for the expedition to Britain.** The verb employed in the passage September, after the Judi Romani, and accepted as a text in $4: Scis Domitio comitiorum diem timori esse. In like manner Tyrrell and Purser (Correspondence of M. Tullius Cicero, Ill, pp. LXXXIII, XCIX) desig- nate June as the month in which the augural election occurred, but assign Fam. VIII, 12, to September (p. 240) and adopt the same text as Hoffmann in §4. Mommsen (Staatsr., I*, p. 563, 1) thought nothing stood in the way of dating the augural election in 50 between the consular and prae- torian elections. L. Holzapfel (“Der Endtermin der gallischen Statt- halterschaft Casars,” Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, V, p. 112, 6) in pass- ing dates Fam. VIII, 14, in August. O. E. Schmidt (Briefwechsel, p. 88) gives the augural election a date between Sept. 20 and 24 and dates Fam. VIII, 14, the 23d or 24th. * Ausbr., Dp. 68,23 cf. Pam: VIL, 13; Att. Vi, 6, 2: Beaks, PAE AVA, Ort * Ausbr., p. 69; Quaest., p. 28. Ausbr., p. 68, I. ® BiG. VIII, B66; 52) 1: ed ed Che Vee oe 298 Sica ai a oC Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 7 cited is circumire. The verb peragere does not naturally lend itself to the meaning “ inspect,” “make the round of,” and seems never to have been so employed.*® Its essential and invariable meaning is, “to go through with,” “to bring to completion.” It may be applied to the work of completing a building, although this usage is comparatively rare.*° It frequently takes as object nouns in which the time element is prominent; so also other compounds, as well as the simple verb agere. The lexicons furnish abundant illustrations. That hiberna may bear the meaning “ winter,” “season in winter quarters,” is sufficiently evidenced.** If pera- gere can not mean “inspect,” and if the meaning “construct” is excluded by facts from the present passage, Drumann and Lange were right in taking hibernis peractis to mean “at the end of winter.” Hiberna is employed instead of hiems to indicate the place in addition to the season.** But they went too far in using the phrase as positive evidence for June (April or May of the reformed calendar) as the date of the augural election. From a military standpoint, winter, although not naturally to be thought of as extending so far as the middle of August (the equivalent in the reformed calendar of October 1 of the current calendar), was more elastic in its application than in ordinary speech and need not refer to the early spring months. The phrase hibernis peractis, therefore, while not necessarily implying so early a month as June, suggests an earlier time than October 1 or late Septem- ber for Caesar’s first journey to Italy. The interpretation of hibernis peractis adopted above and the inference drawn therefrom are borne out by the relation of B. G.,; *% P. Groebe expresses doubt as to Nissen’s interpretation, Drumann- Groebe, Gesch. Roms, III, p. 349, 3. See also Hoffmann, De Origine, pp. 102-03. % Suet., Otho 7, ad peragendam auream domum. The phrase hibernis peractis of our present passage can not be referred to the construction of quarters for the winter of 50/49; these were established much later, after the review of the army (cc. 52, 1; 54, 4). *Tiv. XXIII, 46, 0, per hiberna; IX, 28, 2, XXXIV, 22, hiberna agere; Verg., Aen. I, 266, hiberna transire (hiberna as subject) ; cf. Liv. XX VII, 8, 19; 21, 3, aestiva agere. 8 See Conington on Verg,, /. c. 299 8 Frederick Warren Sanford VIII, 50, to c. 49,°° and again by the phrase contra consuetudinem, c.50,1. Notwithstanding exceptions, it was certainly not Caesar’s custom to go to Italy at the close of the winter quarter season, but at the conclusion of the summer’s campaign. It is not to the point that the legions spent the entire summer of 50 in the winter quarters of 51/50, if they did, for in c. 50 Hirtius is speaking of Caesar’s movements only. Caelius’s suggestion in Fam. VIII, 14, 4, of the possibility of averting civil war by sending Caesar or Pompeius against the Parthians is consistent with any date that may be assigned to the letter. Perhaps there would have been some additional incentive, at the time when Caelius wrote, to think of Parthia as a possible field for the employment of Caesar or Pompeius, if the letter was written in late July or early August, before the retreat of the Parthians in the present summer could have been known in Rome. The question of pay for Pompeius’s troops may or may not have come up at the same time in 50 as in 51. Granted that it did, it follows that Lange’s date for Fam. VIII, 14, is too early. But there is nothing in Fam. VIII, 14, 4, or elsewhere to show how long a time elapsed between the debate in 50 and the with- drawal of Curio’s veto. It may have been very short. Lange undoubtedly dated the election of censors in 50 too early. Whether or not the election occurred in August, it certainly ante- dated Fam. VIII, 12, by a considerable period of time, as this letter shows that Appius was censor at the beginning of the quar- rel between Caelius and Appius and that the quarrel was some- what prolonged. Plutarch’s evidence in regard to the relative dates of the tribu- nician and augural elections, despite his proneness to error in matters of chronology, is not lightly to be set aside. As to the period in which the annual elections were held, it appears from Att. VI, 8, 2, that Batonius, whom Cicero met at Ephesus Septem- ber 29, knew the result of the elections of praetors, tribunes, and consuls. If it be assumed that Batonius, or the news that he brought, came directly from Rome, the time from Rome to °° Cf. c. 49, 1, Caesar in Belgio cum hiemaret; also c. 46, 6, and note 35. 300 ee Reelin. 0 tn ee Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 9 Ephesus is not likely to have been less than thirty-five days.*° This merely establishes August 24 as a terminus ante quem for the three elections mentioned. Granted that Marcellus presided at the consular election, it does not follow that the election was held in an even month; the available evidence stands against the theory that consular collegiate duties were divided in accordance with a monthly alternation of the fasces at this period, especially in respect to the presidency of the comitia and senate.*t Mar- cellus may as well have presided over the consular election in an odd month. It is to be observed that after the first month or two of the debates concerning the Gallic provinces we hear almost nothing of the older consul, Paulus, during the remainder of the year. In regard to the relative order of civil and sacerdotal elec- tions in 50, B. G., VIII, 50, 4, proves only that at the time when Caesar first knew the result of the augural election he knew also the result of the consular election, without enabling us to deter- mine which of the two elections occurred first or how much time separated them. ‘They may, so far as this passage indicates, have been held in quick succession, one courier bringing the first news of both. From evidence to be presented later it will be found that the consular election did precede the augural. Fam. VIII, 12, was undoubtedly written in September. Since Caelius was probably kept busy during the games, and by his own confession was ad litteras scribendas pigerrimus,*? the earliest probable date of the letter is September 19, the games ending on the 18th.*? The conjectural emendation of Scis Domitio, etc., Fam. VIII., 12, 4, is eminently satisfactory from a paleographical point of view, but it is nowise decisive. Acastus arrived at the Piraeus from Rome on the 2Ist day (note 27). Cicero made the voyage between the Piraeus and Ephesus in thirteen days going, fourteen returning. The Aegean could be crossed in less time. But to judge from the evidence furnished by Cicero’s letters from Cilicia, thirty-five days under ordinary conditions were quick time from Rome to Ephesus. “ Mommsen, Staatsr., I°, p. 41 ff.; Madvig, Verf. und Verw., I, p. 374; Lange, Rém. Alt., I’, p. 733; Willems, Le Sénat, II, pp. 126-28. “ Fam. VIII, 1, I. * Wissowa, Religion und Kulius der Rémer, pp. 385-86. 301 10 Frederick Warren Sanford Sternkopf finds a contrast between Appius’s position as defen- dant under the /ex Scantinia and his censorial severity. Another explanation is possible. The words legis Scantiniae iudicium apud Drusum fieri, Fam. VIII, 14, 4, seem clearly to involve a contrast between the character of Drusus and his position as pre- siding judge. Otherwise apud Drusum is pointless. A similar contrast is possibly to be found in Appium de tabulis et signis agere; Appius had displayed no little enthusiasm in appropriating statues and pictures in Greece some years earlier.44 That we have two cases of contrast intended between private conduct and official position is suggested also by the chiastic arrangement of the words in the two infinitive clauses. This view of the passage does not exclude the possibility that the iudiciuwm was after all one involving Appius, in which case the thrust at him in Appium de tabulis et signis agere may be doubly pointed. It is possible, however, if iudicium fieri refers to a single trial, that allusion is made to some other person than Appius; or again, from the nature of the phrase, the reference may be to a docket of cases coming under the /ex Scantinia, in a court or a section of a court presided over by Drusus, perhaps, as Lange suggested,*® in accordance with an edict issued by Appius. On either of the last two suppositions we have an item of news casually alluded to and otherwise unex- plained. It is not impossible that Fam. VIII, 14, was accom- panied by a commentarium*® containing all information essential to an understanding of casual allusions in the letter. Although other friends than Caelius, whose letters were carried by Acastus, may have reported to Cicero the censor’s edict regard- ing statues and pictures, we do not know that they did. We do know that Fam. VIII, 14, contains the information. It is almost certain, therefore, that this letter was one of those which Acastus carried to Cicero when he left Rome September 23. Ifthe augural election was held later than the date of Fam. VIII, 12, it must have been held later than September 18, the closing day of the *“Cic., de vomo, 43, 111-12; cf. Fam. VIII, 12, 3, praeterea coepi sace- lum, in domo quod est, ab eo petere. * Rom. Alt., III’, p. 308. “Fam: VIII, 2,25 11, 4. 302 ee Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” II Judi Romani, since the assemblies did not meet during the periods of the public games,*’ and probably later than September 19, which, as noted above, is the earliest probable date of Fam. VIII, 12. If Hortensius’s death took place at the end of June, that fact is consistent with dating the augural election late in September. But the date of Hortensius’s death assumed by Nissen rests upon the rate of letter-post from Rome to Rhodes. In a given case, and in the absence of positive evidence, we can not be sure that a letter or a messenger traveled at the ordinary rate. Cicero, fur- thermore, heard of Hortensius’s death not at the end of August, but near the r1oth.** If the augural election was held between September 18 and 23, Caesar’s arrival in Italy can not have been earlier than October I, as is clear from the fact that he was informed of the outcome of the election before reaching Italy.‘° The fact of his arrival can hardly have been known in Rome earlier than October tro. To base a rumor which was current in the city between September 19 and 23, and perhaps earlier, on Caesar’s trip to Italy, necessi- tates the assumption that his coming was generally known some considerable time in advance of his arrival. There is nothing: additional, in the way of positive evidence, to support such am assumption. In Fam. VIII, 12, 4, Caelius says in anticipation of Cicero’s re- turn home: Te exspecto valde et quam primum videre cupio; in VIII, 14,4: Curre, per deos atque homines! et quam primum haec risum ven, legis Scantiniae iudicium apud Drusum fieri, Appium de tabulis et signis agere; crede mihi, est properandum. These passages seem to express nothing more than Caelius’s earnest wish to see Cicero at the earliest possible moment. If there is any difference in tone between the two, VIII, 12, 4, more nearly indi- cates the expectation of seeing Cicero soon. From the foregoing discussion it is made out with reasonable certainty, (1) that there is nothing in the evidence thus far adduced to justify rejection of Plutarch’s explicit statement that *" Staatsr., III’, pp. 1055-56; Rom. Alt., II’, p. 460. *“ Schmidt, Briefw., p. 91. oS sitr. VL, 50;.3- 303 12 Frederick Warren Sanford Antonius was first elected tribune, then augur; (2) that Fam. VIII, 14, was carried from Rome by Acastus September 23. Hibernis peractis, B. G., VIII, 50, 1, together with the context, favors an earlier date than late September for Caesar’s first jour- ney to Italy. The validity of other points raised by Nissen and Sternkopf must be determined ultimately in the light of other evidence. III Hirtius, in speaking of Caesar’s first trip to Italy, B. G., VIII, 50, 2, says that Caesar had sent Antonius on ahead paulo ante. | Antonius was also elected tribune.®°° He must therefore have come to Rome at least a trinundinum before the date of the tribu- nician election, in order to make the usual professio.** We have found in August 24 a terminus ante quem for the election of trib- unes, consuls, and praetors. These three colleges of magistrates appear to have been elected relatively in the order named in the period of the late Republic, although not necessarily in imme- diate succession.®? If it be assumed that these elections in 50 were held in August and in immediate succession, the latest date for the praetorian election would be the 20th, which was the last comitial day before the 24th, the latest date for the consular elec- tion the 18th, for the tribunician the 16th, and the latest date for Antonius’s professio, if the trinundinum was seventeen days, the dast day of July. Antonius should therefore have left his camp jn the Belgian country’* before the middle of July, the distance to travel being not less than 1,100 m.p. But he certainly left Belgium at a much earlier date. Antonius and Caesar could not have known what date would be set for the election of tribunes. To be on the safe side they would have to assume the earliest possible date, ° Hirtius says nothing of Antonius’s election to the tribunate. This is probably due to the fact that he is concerned primarily with Caesar’s move- ments, and so mentions only those political events in Rome which, as he alleges, affected Caesar’s plans, vis., Antonius’s candidacy for the augurate and the result of the consular election. 5 Staatsr., 17, p. 484; Rom. Alt., I’, p. 714. @ Rom. Alt., 1°, p. 718. Dae, VILL, AG, AS 47. 304 ee ee ee er ee Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 13 t. e., July 14,°¢ the first comitial day following the ludi A polli- nares. Antonius must then arrive in Rome not later than June 27, leaving camp early in the month. He probably came some- what earlier than June 27, for he would not be likely to plan his journey in such a way as to arrive on the last day available for the professio. Paulo ante and similar phrases are relative, and therefore elastic. Nevertheless the four months which would in- tervene between the departure of Antonius and Caesar from Bel- gium, if the latter came to Italy in late September, are too long a time, in comparison with the total period dealt with in B. G., VIII, 50-55, to harmonize well with paulo ante. This item of evidence also favors an earlier date than late September for the augural election and for Caesar’s first journey to Italy. Appius Claudius in his attempt to humiliate Caelius, Fam. VIII, 12, I-3, is reported by the latter as working in collusion with Domitius, ut nunc est, mihi inimicissimo homine. The clause ut nunc est implies a change in the relations between Caelius and Domitius. That Caelius had not been one of Domitius’s personal friends is evident from Fam. VIII, 14,1: ut ne familiarem quidem suum quemquam tam oderit quam me. From what immediately precedes it is equally evident that Domitius did regard Caelius as a natural supporter in the augural contest on the ground of polit- ical affiliation: Magna illa comitia fuerunt, et plane studia ex partium sensu apparuerunt; perpauci necessitudinem secuti offi- cium praestiterunt. Itaque mihi est Domitius nimicissimus. From this it is to be inferred that Caelius and Domitius had not been personally hostile hitherto. Caelius’s support of Antonius would afford ample reason for Domitius’s present hostility. We know ‘of no other reason. The casual way in which the changed rela- tions of the two are mentioned, without indication of the cause, is most naturally explained by supposing that Fam. VIII, 12, was * This was undoubtedly the date in 51. The tribunes and consuls were elected in that year before July 19 (Att. V, 18, 1, 3), and there were only three comitial days between the Judi Apollinares and the toth, viz., the 14th, 17th, 18th; of these the 18th was dies Alliensis, on which the assem- blies, perhaps also the senate, seem not to have met (Wissowa, Relig. und Kult., p. 376; Willems, Le Sénat, II, p. 151, 5). 305 14 Frederick Warren Sanford written later than the date of the augural election and later than VIII, 14, as §1 of the latter contains the information essential to the understanding of the casual allusion in VITI, 12, 1. The only reasonable hypothesis alternative to the one above, that will allow the augural election and Fam. VIII, 14, a later date than the date of VIII, 12, is, that Caelius had, in a letter not preserved to us, informed Cicero of the impending election, of his own support of Antonius, and of Domitius’s consequent enmity; or, that VIII, 12, was accompanied by a commentarium that gave the required in- formation. ‘There is no evidence, otherwise, for a lost letter. In respect to a commentarium, the item of Domitius’s hostility, a matter of personal concern to the writer, is precisely of a sort to elicit an additional word of explanation from Caelius himself, the more so because he employed another to compile the digest of. news which he was sending to Cicero from time to time.°® The absence of such explanation or comment favors the view that the election and Fam. VIII, 14, antedated Fam. VIII, 12. Similar evidence is afforded by another line in Fam. VIII, 12, I, in the same sentence with the reference to Domitius’s hostility: (Posteaquam vero comperi eum) .. . velle hoc munusculum deferre Cn. Pompeto. Caelius’s relations with Pompeius are not known to have been distinctly unfriendly before the former de- serted the conservatives in the augural matter. Caelius’s clash with Pompeius in connection with the trial of Milo®® in 52 need not have caused a serious personal breach, any more than Cicero’s defense of Milo alienated him and Pompeius. At the same period Caelius gave no uncertain sign of his party loyalty by his tem- porary opposition to the plan to grant Caesar the privilege of can- didacy in absence when he should stand for a second consulship.*” In 51 and 50 Caelius seems to have taken no active part in the senate’s debates concerning the Gallic provinces, partly, perhaps, owing to his friendship with Curio.°® On the whole, his letters to Cicero, notwithstanding disparaging allusions to Pompeius and © Fam. VIII, 4, 1. * Ascon. in Mil., Or., p. 37. © Ate Vil; 1, #8 = Foam-ll, gh.s = Valin ty. ve 306 een See ee ——e eo ee a as Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 15 other opponents of Caesar, reveal a conservative up to the time of the augural contest. Although at the date of Fam. VIII, 14 (cf. §§ 2, 3) Caelius had not definitely committed himself to Caesar’s cause, his support of Antonius was a plain advertisement of his openness to conviction and could not but anger Pompeius. Unless Fam. VIII, 14, was written before VIII, 12, Cicero might have been at a loss to understand eum velle hoc munusculum de- ferre Cn. Pompeio. The same alternative hypothesis of a lost letter or a commentarium applies in this case as in the case of Domitius and Caelius. From Fam. VIII, 14, 1, we learn that Domitius after his defeat at the polls invoked the aid of the courts to vent his anger at various supporters of Antonius, enlisting his son Gnaeus as pros- ecutor in at least one case, that of Saturninus. In the closing sentence of § 1 Caelius alleges the acquittal of Sex. Peducaeus as a ground for hope in the case of Saturninus: Nam Cn. Saturni- num adulescentem ipse Cn. Domitius reum fecit sane quam supe- riore a vita invidiosum; quod iudicium nunc in exspectatione est, etiam in bona spe post Sex. Peducaei absolutionem. Caelius does not say that Peducaeus was prosecuted for an offense committed: in support of Antonius’s election to the augurate. But it must: have been so, in order that the citation of his case should be to the point. Peducaeus’s support of Antonius here assumed finds some confirmation in the fact that he took sides with Caesar in the Civil War.*® The nature of the charge against Peducaeus is not stated. The most natural charges incidental to an election were ambitus and vis. Cicero, in alluding to this election, Phil. II, 2, 4, says: Cuius (Curtonis) etiam familiares de vi condemnatt sunt, quod tui nimis studiosi fuissent. That all cases resulted in conviction is not probable. It was not to Cicero’s purpose to note exceptions. A criminal process involved the postulatio, followed by the nominis delatio, at which the praetor set the hearing of the case not less than ten days later.*° If postulatio and nominis delatio in the case of Peducaeus occurred on successive days, if the ten days be taken by inclusive reckoning, and if one day only, SoApa wo... L1,.45. ® Greenidge, Legal Procedure of Cicero’s Time, p. 450 ff. 307 16 Frederick Warren Sanford the tenth day after the nominis delatio, be assigned to the trial, eleven days are required for the whole process. The tite was in all probability longer by at least a day or two, for the evidence, although scanty, indicates that postulatio and nominis delatio did not fall on successive days.*! It is therefore impossible to give the augural election a place between the date of Fam. VIII, 12, and September 23. The election in that event could not have been held earlier than September 19,° probably not earlier than the 20th, which would leave but two or three days for the criminal process in question. The latest possible date of the election, con- sidering the evidence from Peducaeus’s trial alone, would be Au- gust 28, the last comitial day before the Judi Romam, which began September 4. If the charge against Peducaeus was vis, the trial might have been held during the games.*? Any other charge would necessitate a trial date later than the games. There is fairly conclusive evidence to show that in the period of the late Republic vacancies in the more important priestly col- leges were filled each year at one time, and that the sacerdotal election held a fixed place in the series of civil elections, between the consular and the praetorian.** August 20 has been established cas the latest possible date of the praetorian election. August 18 as thus seen to be the latest possible date of the augural election. Whether or not the augural election in 50 did in fact occur as late as August 18 depends on the amount of time required for the events of Hirtius’s narrative in B. G., VIII, 50-55. Before dis- cussing these in detail it is desirable first to consider the latter terminus of the narrative, the date of Caesar’s arrival in Italy on his second journey thither. In c. 55, 1, Hirtius reports Caesar’s arrival in these words: Quo cum ventsset, cognoscit per C. Mar- cellum consulem legiones duas ab se missas, quae ex senatus con- sulto deberent ad Parthicum bellum duci, Pompeio traditas atque love si MCh 7S AlOlig) ate @ P. 302 and note 47. * Greenidge, Legal Proced., p. 457. % Staatsr., I7, p. 563; II, p. 30; Rom. Alt. II’, pp. 538-39; Bouche- Leclerq in Daremberg-Saglio, I, p. 552; Gemoll, De Cooptatione Sacer- dotum Romanorum, pp. 14-15; Wissowa, Relig. und Kult., p. 418. 308 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 17 in Italia retentas esse. This overt act of the consul was certainly of sufficient importance to warrant the assumption that Caesar was informed of the new posture of affairs by his friends in Rome as soon as possible. The date at which Pompeius received his commission from Marcellus evidently has an important bearing on the date of Caesar’s coming to Italy. IV In the accounts given by Appian,® Dio,®* and Plutarch,®’ the investiture of Pompeius with the sword at the hands of Marcellus took place in the suburbs of Rome, and apparently not long before the termination of Curio’s tribunate. Appian’s account is inher- ently probable in making this dramatic scene follow a meeting of the senate, at which Marcellus endeavored to induce the senate to put into the field the two legions taken from Caesar. Nissen®® thought from the tone of Att. VII, 3, that Cicero received word of this event from Atticus in a letter delivered to him at Aecula- num December 6 (§1), and that in consequence December 4 was probably the day on which Marcellus directed Pompeius to take up arms. Aeculanum, however, was about 180 m. p. from Rome; the date of Pompeius’s commission could scarcely have been later than December 2, it being assumed that Nissen’s understanding of Ait. VII, 3; is ‘correct. L. Holzapfel?° and C. Bardt*! are at one in holding closely to the evidence of Appian and Dio as to the time and place and in dating this event not later than Decem- ber 2. Bardt does not think that Att. VII, 3, reveals greater per- turbation on Cicero’s part than other letters of the period.’ However that may be, there is additional evidence to show that Gs Ll, 23: *° XL, 64-66. * Pomp. 58-50. = Ausbr., p. 72,. 2. © Briefw., p. 96. “Die Anfange des Biirgerkrieges zwischen Casar und Pompeius,” II, Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, IV, pp. 334-35. *“ Die Ubergabe des Schwertes an Pompeius,” Hermes, XLV, p. 330. ® Tbid., pp. 342-43. 309 18 Frederick Warren Sanford December 2 is the latest date that can be assigned to this incident. Of the events of this period no other than Pompeius’s commis- sion from Marcellus to take over command of the two legions furnished an adequate cause for Caesar’s summoning of the eighth and twelfth legions from Transalpine Gaul.** Caesar on his way to Brundisium in 49 left Auximum January 28 or 29.7% The twelfth legion overtook him at Auximum or very soon after he left that place, certainly before he reached Firmum (February 2). This legion, it may safely be assumed, was one of the four that had gone into quarters for the winter in the country of the Aedui,’® and so was probably quartered not farther south than -Matisco. The distance from that place to Auximum either by the Graian or the Cottian Alps was approximately 650 m. p. It is not likely, from what is known of the rate of march of Roman armies and from a consideration of the distance to be covered, that the actual marching time was less than thirty-five or thirty-six days, with six additional days for rest. If the twelfth legion came to Auximum the evening of January 29, it must have left camp not later than December 18. It is highly probable, as already assumed, that Caesar’s friends in Rome sent a courier to him as soon as they knew of Marcellus’s bestowal of command upon Pompeius; and since it was of great importance to Caesar to keep in touch with his representatives in the city, it may be further assumed that they would know by what route a courier need go in order to find Caesar at the earliest moment.’7 There 8 Caesar’s account of this, B. C., I, 8, 1 (cf. 7, 7), as has been frequently observed, is misleading in regard to the date. Appian (B. C., II, 34) and Plutarch (Caes. 32) contain reminiscences of the truth. QL. Holzapfel, Beitrage, III, p. 218 ff.; Mary Bradford Peaks, “ Caesar’s Movements, Jan. 21 to Feb. 14, 49 B. C.,” Classical Review, XVIII, p. 346 ff. S Ba worse tS iG. NA ee Ase As 7 See B. G., VIII, 52, 3, ibi quamquam crebro audiebat, etc. Information of this sort would naturally come, in part at least, from Rome. There can be no doubt that Caesar was in frequent communication with the Capital. His close friends there surely knew of the review, of its place, and of the route by which Caesar would return -to Italy. 310 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 19 appears, further, to be no reason for doubting that Petronius’® preserves an historical fact in bringing Caesar into Italy on his second journey by the Little St. Bernard. From B. G., VIII, 55, I, we know that Caesar received the news of Pompeitis’s commis- sion after arriving in Italy. It is also certain from the same chap- ter that the news came to him before he arrived at Ravenna; for, however brief the lost portion of Bk. VIII, Caesar’s arrival at Ravenna was surely recorded. Caesar therefore met the courier at some point between the Little St. Bernard and Ravenna. Sue- tonius furnishes the information that Caesar held the usual pro- vincial assizes before going to Ravenna. Since the assizes would naturally be held in the larger towns, and since Caesar would naturally come down the Aemilian road on his way to Ravenna, he is not likely to have been farther east than Bononia when the courier found him. Immediately upon receiving the news of Marcellus’s act, we may imagine, Caesar sent the same or another courier on to the eighth and twelfth legions with orders to march. We have to account, then, for the virtually uninter- rupted journey of a courier from Rome to the Aeduan country. The distance from Rome to Matisco via Bononia, Placentia, and the Little St. Bernard, was 750 m. p. or more. Unless a courier made unusual speed he would require at least fifteen days to travel this distance.8° If he arrived at Matisco the evening of December 17, causing the twelfth legion to break camp December 18, he must have left Rome not later than the morning of the 3d. The sources are unanimous in representing the suburbs of Rome as the scene of the delivery of the sword to Pompeius. The incident can not be dated later than December 2. According to O. E. Schmidt’s reconstruction of the chronology of events at the close of the year 50, Pompeius, who had been at Naples for some time past, received his commission from Mar- cellus there about December 13.8 Upon learning that Pompeius 8 Sat., 122, 1. 144 ff.; Desjardins, Géographie de la Gaule romaine, ipa74s Tul. 30. © Briefw., p. 201 ff. ** Tbid., pp. 14-15, 96-100. 311 20 Frederick Warren Sanford had gone to Apulia to assume command of the two legions, Curio left Rome for Ravenna December 21, to inform Caesar, and ar- rived December 24 or 25; from Ravenna Caesar sent marching orders to the eighth and twelfth legions; the twelfth started for Italy January 1. But Pompeius’s sojourn in Campania, as Bardt objects,** belongs to a period considerably earlier than December, when Atticus was on the road to Rome in September.®* In sup- port of December 13 as the approximate date of Pompeius’s com- mission from Marcellus, Schmidt cites Att. VII, 5,4: De re publica cotidie magis timeo; non enim boni, ut putant, consentiunt. Quos ego equites Romanos, quos senatores vidi, qui acerrime cum cetera, tum hoc iter Pompei vituperarent. Pace opus est: ex victoria cum multa, tum certe tyrannus exsistet. In cum cetera Schmidt sees a reference to Marcellus’s arbitrary assumption of authority, and in hoc iter a reference to the journey which he thinks Pom- peius made from Naples to Luceria in order formally to take over command of the legions. But the passage proves with certainty only that Cicero, since arriving in the region frequented by sena- tors and knights, has had the opportunity to meet many of them and has found them far from united in approval of the step taken by Marcellus and Pompeius. As observed below, hoc iter may just as well refer to Pompeius’s journey from Rome to Campania. Again, at his conference with Cicero in Campania December 10 (Att. VII, 4, 2), Pompeius remarked that Hirtius, who arrived in Rome the evening of December 6, coming from Caesar, had failed to visit him, and professed to find in this fact proof of Caesar’s estrangement. Such an inference on Pompeius’s part is almost unthinkable, if at the time of Hirtius’s arrival in Rome Pompeius himself had been in Campania; in the latter event Hirtius would have had a six days’ journey to make, to and fro, in order to see Pompeius. It is implicit in Pompeius’s criticism that Hirtius failed to do something easy and natural to do, from which it is to be inferred that Pompeius was in the neighborhood of Rome De- cember 6. It is therefore almost certain that he was there when & Hermes, XLV, Pp. 330. ATEN ee 5 312 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 21 Marcellus entrusted him with the defense of the state. He may have departed for Campania December 7. To follow Schmidt’s dates, there were at best but five days, December 25-29, after Curio’s arrival at Ravenna, in which a courier must travel from Ravenna to the Aeduan country, a jour- ney of nearly 540 m. p. Schmidt himself is our best authority that couriers did not usually make better than 50 m. p. daily.** Furthermore, the twelfth legion leaving camp January 1 would have had but twenty-nine days in which to travel the 650 m. Pp. to Auximum. If four or five days be allowed for rest, the daily march would have been 26 or 27 m. p., an impossible rate for so great a distance. | Caesar says in B. C., I, 7, 7, that he called out the thirteenth legion initio tumultus. If he sent for the eighth and twelfth legions at the same time, as Schmidt suggests, with probability, initium tumultus is to be identified, not with Caesar’s receipt of news that Pompeius had arrived in Apulia and had assumed com- mand of the two legions, which Schmidt thinks were quartered there at this time, but, as Nissen®® saw, with intelligence of the commissioning of Pompeius by Marcellus in the suburbs of the city. The legions, too, were doubtless at Capua when Pompeius took charge of them December 10 or soon after; it was here, rather than at Naples, that Cicero met Pompeius on that date.*® Pompeius may have sent the legions into Apulia in December, although this is not at all certain. Whether he himself accom- panied them, if they went at this time, would be another question ; hoc iter, Att. VII, 5, 4, may refer to the recent journey of Pom- peius from Rome to Capua. Although Pompeius seems to have qualified his acceptance of the proffered commission,** Caesar could feel fully justified in sending for reinforcements upon learn- ing of the arbitrary procedure of Marcellus and Pompeius. If in the course of the next few weeks negotiations looking to a peaceful settlement of his dispute with Pompeius and the senate * Note 80. 8 Ausbr., p. 75. 1 Holzapfel, Beitrage, IV, p. 334, 7. Pm eaG,.| Li, 30, 313 22 Frederick Warren Sanford should prove successful, it would be easy enough to turn his legions back. Schmidt holds that the conferment of command on Pompeius prior to December 7 would have made impossible the negotiations arranged for that day between Balbus, acting as Caesar’s repre- sentative, and Scipio, who, as Pompeius’s father-in-law, was cer- tainly acting with Pompeius’s sanction.** But we are not justified in assuming that Pompeius, on the one hand, would have been aware of inconsistency in his action or would have felt embar- rassment in such a situation. He doubtless regarded himself as the defender of the state in a time of urgent need. Caesar was the one who, as it must have seemed to Pompeius, through the obstructive actions of his agent Curio, was responsible for the threatened civil war.*® So far as Balbus was concerned, he was in all probability acting without immediate and specific instruc- tions from Caesar, for it is not at all likely that there had been time for communication with Caesar since the commissioning of Pompeius. The peculiar relation sustained by Balbus to Caesar and Pompeius, as well as his character in general, made him emi- nently fit to act as a mediator on his own motion, whatever the circumstances.°° To Hirtius the situation may have seemed more serious, in consequence of which he did not wait to learn the out- come of the conference between Balbus and Scipio.®* If for the moment December 2 be taken as the date of Pom- peius’s commission from Marcellus, and if Hirtius be understood to mean that Caesar received news of this immediately upon enter- ing Italy, it is not probable that he arrived earlier than December * Briefw., p. 96; Att. VII, 4, 2. ° See Fam. VIII, 8, 9 (Oct., 51): Cum (Pompeius) interrogaretur, si qui tum intercederent, dixit hoc nihil interesse, utrum C. Caesar senatui dicto audiens futurus non esset an pararet, qui senatum decernere non pateretur. ® Drumann, Gesch., II, p. 597 ff. *C, Bardt (Hermes, XLV, p. 340) thinks that Hirtius came to Rome by appointment and was to have participated in the conference with Scipio. This seems to me more than can be rightly inferred from Ai?t. VII, 4, 2. What Pompeius complains of, is, simply, that Hirtius had not only not called on him but had not even awaited the result of Balbus’s intended con- ference with Scipio. : 314 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” a3 12, as the distance from Rome to the northwestern border of Italy was more than 500 m. p.°? But other evidence renders it improbable that Caesar came into Italy so late. There is no good reason to doubt the statements of Appian and Dio that Curio left Rome to go to Caesar as soon as his tribunate came to an end. From Appian’s account it appears that he found Caesar at Ra- venna. Curio doubtless learned from Hirtius December 6 of Caesar’s probable whereabouts at the time when he himself should leave Rome to join Caesar. The distance between the two places was nearly 260 m. p. Leaving Rome December 10 Curio could have been in Ravenna by December 14.°° This latter date is to be taken as the latest possible date of Caesar’s arrival in Ravenna. Obviously he could not have been at the northwestern frontier of Italy as late as December 12, to say nothing of the provincial assizes, brief though they may have been. It is highly probable that Hirtius came into Italy in company with Caesar. If Hirtius went on directly to Rome, say from Augusta Praetoria, at a courier’s pace of 50 m. p. daily, Novem- ber 25 is the latest probable date of arrival at that place, since Hirtius came to Rome December 6. Some sixteen or seventeen days would thus be available for the assizes. If Caesar arrived in Italy November 25, it is necessary, on the assumption that Pompeius received his commission from Mar- cellus December 2, to take the clause quo cum venisset, B. G., VIII, 55, 1, as the equivalent of quo postquam venit. If, how- ever, Hirtius meant that Caesar heard of Pompeius’s commission immediately on entering Italy, the commission must be dated earlier than December 2, as early as the middle of November. The first of these alternatives is certainly possible. The second ~ is not made impossible by the mere fact that Marcellus, the younger consul, presided at the meeting of the senate which pre- ceded the commissioning of Pompeius. As noted before, the older "Tt was approximately 520 m. p. from Rome to Augusta Praetoria via Bononia, Placentia, Laus Pompeia, Vercellae, Eporedia. * Tt need not be supposed that Curio always traveled as rapidly as he did on his return trip to Rome in order to deliver Caesar’s ultimatum Jan. f (Apa..B. CG. Tl, 32). 355 24 Frederick Warren Sanford practice of alternation of fasces can not be used as a basis for distributing the months between the two consuls. But there is very good reason for thinking that Caesar arrived in Italy earlier than November 25. Marcellus’s proposal to turn the two legions against Caesar is said by Appian to have been inspired by a false rumor that Caesar had crossed the Alps and was marching on the city.°* The latter half of the rumor was certainly false. Curio’s denunciation of the report need refer to this second part only. But it is quite possible that Caesar came into Italy earlier than November 25 by a week or more, as will appear later. It is credible also that the government party was watching Caesar’s movements and was quickly informed of his presence in Cisalpine Gaul. If, in addition, the fact that a part of the army was on its way to the Aeduan country after the re- view, or had already arrived there, became known in northern Italy at the time of Caesar’s coming, it may have been converted into the rumor that the entize army was marching to attack the city. On this hypothesis Caesar would have reached Italy at least nine or ten days before the date at which Pompeius received his commission, as early as November 20 or 21, the latest pos- sible date of that event being December 2. This hypothesis would compel us to adopt the first of the alternative explanations of quo cum venisset given above. There is further evidence for this explanation. In.B. G., VIII, 52, 4 ff., Hirtius seeks to justify the equanimity with which Caesar, in the period following the review of his army, received reports of his enemies’ endeavors to tamper with La- bienus’s loyalty, and mentions one attempt in particular which Curio made to secure a decree of the senate ordering both Pom- peius and Caesar to give up their armies. Hirtius might be ex- pected to cite the most impressive incident of the kind, one in_ which a vote was taken, if possible, and in consequence the vote of 370 to 22 in favor of the disarmament of the two rivals, which left no doubt of the senate’s aversion to civil war, and which could well have been regarded as reassuring to Caesar.%® It would mB, C., I1,313 cf. Plut., Pomp. 58. * App. B. GC, 11,303. Plat,, Pomp. 58: 316 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 25 heighten the effect of this attempted justification if such a vote had come as the culmination of Curio’s repeated proposals to the same effect. But Hirtius was bound by the facts, whatever they were. The phraseology employed, facere coepit, is conclusive against our thinking of an actual vote.°* It would seem that at the moment when Curio attempted to divide the senate another tribune friendly to Pompeius interposed his veto.®* From this it follows that the vote of 370 to 22 reported by Appian and Plutarch belongs to a date too late for Caesar to have been informed of it while with his army after the review, although it may have been taken while he was on his way to Italy. As the commissioning of Pompeius followed a still later meeting of the senate, it is very probable that Caesar reached Italy at a date too early at least for a courier with news of Pompeius’s commission to meet him upon his arrival. Since Hirtius’s language, quo cum venisset, acts as no bar to finding a connection between Caesar’s presence in Italy and Marcellus’s arbitrary assumption of authority, and since the rumor in question is very likely to have had some basis in fact, it may be regarded as reasonably certain that Caesar came into Italy by November 20 or 21, and that his presence there was the occa- sion of the rumor which led to the arming of Pompeius. The rumor which we have been discussing sprang up between the two meetings of the senate described by Appian. If the two sessions fell on December 1 and 2, respectively, as is now generally assumed, we have a series of three events remarkable for the ra- pidity of their succession—the vote on successors to Caesar and Pompeius December I, on the same day or the next the receipt of news that Caesar had arrived in his Cisalpine province and would attack the city, and the attempt of Marcellus to bring about a vir- * For similar phraseology in connection with an attempt to pass a law, cf. Att. IV, 17, 3 (16, 6): Coepta ferri leviter, intercessum non invitis. ™ This incident belongs to an early period in the debates on the Gallic provinces (cf. App., B. C., II, 28-29). Lange placed it in June (Rom. Alt., III’, p. 396, 1), basing his conclusion simply on what he conceived to be the relation between B. G., VIII, 52 and 54. His mistaken identification of the incident to which Hirtius alludes, c. 52, 5, with the vote of 370-22 led him to date the latter far too early. For veto of a tribune’s relatio see Willems, Le Sénat, II, pp. 133, 140, 201. 317 26 Frederick Warren Sanford tual declaration of war, followed by the commissioning of Pom- peius. That the third should have followed the second imme- diately was natural and is easy to believe. But it is not so probable that all three occurred within the space of two days. The vote on successors to Caesar and Pompeius, it seems more likely, belongs to November rather than to December. I am inclined to think that the commissioning of Pompeius also occurred in November, for it is difficult to escape the impression that Hirtius’s coming to Rome was closely related to this incident. The course of events I conceive to have been as follows. Caesar arrived in northwestern Italy November 14 or 15. The incident of the vote on successors to Caesar and Pompeius occurred be- tween this date and November 25. By the latter date word of Caesar’s arrival was conveyed to Rome. Marcellus called the senate together the same day and endeavored to rouse it to action. The senate’s unwillingness to adopt coercive measures against Curio, who had prevented a vote on Marcellus’s proposal to turn the legions at Capua against Caesar, induced the consul to act on his own responsibility by authorizing Pompeius to defend the state. Caesar’s friends despatched a messenger to him at once. In the meantime Caesar had journeyed on toward Ravenna, per- haps to Mutina or Bononia. The messenger found him December I. Caesar sent orders to the eighth and twelfth legions to start for Italy, directed the scattered detachments of the thirteenth legion to assemble at Ravenna, and sent Hirtius on to Rome to obtain a later and fuller account of the situation. Hirtius came to Rome the evening of December 6. Here he learned that Pom- peius intended to go to Capua on the following day. Balbus, in the hope of forestalling such a move on Pompeius’s part, had ar- ranged to confer with Scipio early on the morning of the 7th. Hirtius would not await the outcome of the conference, but started back to rejoin Caesar the night of the 6th. Whether Caesar had in the meantime gone on to Ravenna, or awaited Hirtius’s return before proceeding thither, can not be determined with certainty. It is probable, however, that the two met at Ravenna. Hirtius would probably not reach Bononia before December 11. Since Curio and Caesar met at Ravenna, and since Curio may have 318 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 2, arrived there by the 13th, it is more likely than not that Hirtius and Caesar also met at Ravenna. They would as a matter of course have agreed on a meeting place before Hirtius departed for Rome. In B. G., VIII, 55, 1, Hirtius, in reporting Caesar’s receipt of the news that the two legions at Capua had been placed at Pom- peius’s disposal, adds, atque in Italia retentas esse. Hirtius cer- tainly does not refer to the placing of these legions in winter quarters in Apulia, if they were really sent there in December. They could not have left Capua before December 10, for it is fairly certain that Pompeius did not reach Capua before the gth. As we have found that the message which prompted Caesar to. send for the eighth and twelfth legions was despatched from Rome not later than December 2 or 3, and probably as early as November 25 or 26, the words quoted above are to be regarded as a corollary to those preceding, meaning that the assignment of these two legions to Pompeius was in effect a proclamation, so far as the consul’s authority went in the matter, that the legions would not be sent to Syria. Of their actual detention in Italy hitherto, if they had been there any long time (p. 331), Caesar could not have been in ignorance. From Hirtius, Caesar learned of Pom- peius’s intended journey to Capua. From Curio, he learned that Pompeius had actually left Rome December 7. The net result of the preceding discussion is, (1) that Pompeius received his commission to defend the state not later than Decem- ber 2, probably as early as November 25, (2) that Caesar arrived in Italy on his second trip not later than November 20 or 21, and probably as early as the 14th or 15th. V It is now in order to investigate Hirtius’s narrative in detail. At the moment when Caesar was informed of the result of the augural election (c. 50, 3) sufficient time at least had elapsed since the election for a courier to travel from Rome toa point beyond the confines of Italy. It is likely that Caesar came by the Little St. Bernard, as on his second trip. The distance from Rome to the 319 28 Frederick Warren Sanford Little St. Bernard via Augusta Praetoria was nearly 560 m. p. Caesar probably did not meet the courier in less than twelve days after the election.®® Caesar then made the round of Cisalpine Gaul described in cc. 50, 3-52, 1. The time consumed will be discussed later. At the conclusion of this journey Caesar returned to his troops at Nemetocenna, which is doubtless to be identified with Nemeta- cum (Arras).®® Starting from some point in the western part of Cisalpine Gaul, Augusta Taurinorum or Eporedia, he had 660 m. p. to travel, either by the Cottian or the Graian Alps, going via Vienna and Durocortorum. On occasion Caesar traveled as rap- idly as 100 m, p. daily.1°° In contrast to this rapid rate we find him, after the fatiguing campaign early in 49, taking twelve days for the journey from Brundisium to Rome, 370 m. p.1°% The journey from Italy to Nemetocenna was made summa celeritate (c. 52, 1). But the circumstances seem not to have called for extreme speed. It is probably near enough to the truth to assume ten days for the trip. From Nemetocenna, according to Hirtius (c. 52, 1), Caesar sent orders to the legions in the various winter camps of 51/50 to assemble in the country of the Treveri. The vicinity of Au- gusta Treverorum is a not improbable rendezvous. Of the winter camps (c. 46, 4) those among the Turoni and the Lemovices. were farthest distant both from Nemetocenna and the assumed place of review. A courier to the first camp mentioned would have required perhaps six days, to the legions among the Lemovices eight to ten days, according to the location of the camp. The legions in the former country?” going via Autricum, Lutetia, Durocortorum, would have had not far from 380 m. p. to travel, for which they needed as much as twenty-one marching days and **Tf Caesar came by the Cottian Alps, a messenger meeting him beyond the Alps would have had 500 m. p. or more to travel. Gis bo eh hen pars ay asG.Lbopo sso. *° Drumann, Gesch., III, p. 748; Schmidt, Briefw., p. 378. Briefw., pp. 162-65. von Goler (Caesars gallischer Krieg, 1, p. 360) suggests Amboise as a probable site for this camp. 320 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 29 not less than three days for rest. The legions among the Lemo- vices were quartered near the frontier of the Arverni (c. 46, 4). If stationed in the northern part of the country of the Lemovices, by marching to the Elaver, then across to Decetia, Augustodunum, Dibio, Tullum, Augusta Treverorum, they would have had to travel, at a rough estimate, 385 m. p., twenty-one plus three days; if quartered as far south as Argentat, as von Goler thought pos- sible, they would have had 80 m. p. farther to march, a total of twenty-six plus four days. If all of the ten legions that occupied the winter camps of 51/50 were present at the review, the various items noted foot up from fifty-four days (12+ 10+8-+ 24) to sixty-two days (12+ 10+ 10+ 30). But these ten legions in- cluded the first,1°* one of the two which Caesar gave up for the Parthian war, and the thirteenth, which took the place of the fifteenth in Cisalpine Gaul, the latter being the other legion taken from Caesar (c.54,1-3). The following considerations will show that the first and thirteenth legions could not have been present at the review. It is certain that the first and fifteenth legions were as far south as Capua on December 2, the latest date at which Pompeius can have been authorized to assume command of them. The distance from Augusta Treverorum to Capua via Vienna, the Little St. Bernard, Placentia, Bononia, Rome, was nearly 1,170 m. p.; via Vienna, Cularo, Brigantio, Augusta Taurinorum, Genoa, Rome, nearly 1,120 m. p. At 18 m. p. daily, with eleven days for rest, the first legion needed from seventy-three to seventy-six days to reach Capua, without a stop at the Capital. If it be assumed, (1) that the legions in the territory of the Lemovices were quartered but twenty-four days from the place of review, (2) that the review occupied one day, (3) that the first legion started south the day after, (4) that it arrived at Capua in seventy-three days, a total of one hundred and twenty-eight days results (54-++1-+ 73) for events between the date of the augural election and December 2, without having allowed time for Caesar’s journey through Cisal- *8 This was its number in Pompeius’s army. In Caesar’s it was known as the sixth. Caesar’s fifteenth became Pompeius’s third. Drumann- Groebe, Gesch., III, p. 707. 321 30 Frederick Warren Sanford pine Gaul. The total time may be reduced to about one hundred and twenty days, if we assume that Caesar sent marching orders to the legions among the Turoni and Lemovices while on his way north. The sacerdotal election, as we have found, regularly fol- lowed the consular, the consular the tribunician; the earliest possible date of the tribunician election was July 14, of the con- sular July 17, of the augural July 20.1% Between July 20 and December 2 there were one hundred and thirty days. This leaves but nine or ten days for Caesar’s extended journey through his Cisalpine province, certainly too short a time. Sufficient time can not be gained for this purpose without impossible reduction of the estimates made above. It is highly improbable, too, that the first legion happened to reach Capua on the very day on which Pom- peius was empowered to take command. Evidently the first legion did not march to the Treveran country. If the first did not, the thirteenth did not, for the sources indicate that the first and the fifteenth came down at the same time, while in c. 54, 3, the tense relation of deducebatur and mittit proves that the thirteenth marched to Cisalpine Gaul to replace the fifteenth in the same period of time in which the latter was withdrawn. Where the first and thirteenth legions wintered in 51/50, or whether they wintered together, is not known; possibly together and in the country of the Lemovices. If so, the longest march of legions to the review would doubtless be that from the country of the Turoni. Allow the courier sent thither with marching orders six days, and the total time for the movements accounted for is fifty-three days (12-+ 10-+6-+ 24+ 1), including one day for the review. After the review Caesar placed Labienus in charge of Cisalpine Gaul (c. 52, 2). Caesar now heard frequently that his political enemies were in communication with his lieutenant with a view to depriving him of a part of his army (c. 52, 3). Caesar’s friends in Rome, and perhaps others in the Cisalpine province, were prob- ably sending one messenger after another, as their sharp watch over Caesar’s interests put them in possession of information.?”% 7 Note 54. °° Note 77. 322 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” Al Hirtius does not indicate whether Labienus was present at the review or was already in Italy at the time when he was placed in charge of the province. The frequency of the reports concerning him, together with the fact that the army remained in the Tre- veran country, probably, long enough to make it desirable to shift its camping ground from time to time, warns us that the period between the review and Caesar’s final departure for Italy must not be made too short. At last Caesar sent his legions into winter quarters, while he himself proceeded to Cisalpine Gaul (c. 54, 4-5). The distance from Augusta Treverorum to Augusta Praetoria via the Little St. Bernard was nearly 520 m. p. Caesar and his army had prob- ably not moved far from the scene of the review in their changes of camping ground. The time necessary for Caesar’s journey may be reckoned at eight days. The total time for the various estimates made becomes sixty-one days (12+ 10+6+24+ 1 +8), exclusive of Caesar’s tour of Cisalpine Gaul and of the period between thé review and Caesar’s final departure for Italy. It must be admitted that such calculations as those made above run no little risk of error. The rates of travel in the case of Caesar, couriers, and legions, may have been, but probably were not, more rapid than assumed; orders to march to the Treveran country may have been despatched to the more distant legions while Caesar was enroute to Nemetocenna, although this is not the natural inference to be drawn from c. 52, 1, and was certainly not true of the legions at Nemetocenna; the place of review, too, may have been in the western part of the Treveran country, which would somewhat reduce the marching time of the legions quar- tered among the Turoni. On the other hand, the news of the augural election may have come to Caesar later than twelve days after the election; it has been assumed also that the review took place at the earliest possible date after the assembling of the legions ; again, it is possible that a portion of the army did come from the country of the Lemovices and from a point as far south as Argentat. If it be granted, as may be done with due regard for probabilities, that Caesar sent marching orders to the legions farthest from the place of review while he was on his northward 323 32 Frederick Warren Sanford journey, the sixty-one days made out above are reduced to approxi- mately fifty-five. As a working hypothesis this number may safely be assumed as the minimum total time for the events thus far considered. . If Caesar arrived at Augusta Praetoria even as late as Novem- ber 25, it becomes certain, on this score alone, that the current view as to the date of the augural election is untenable. Accord- ing to that view the election was held later than the date of Fam. VIII, 12, and so not earlier than September 19. Between this date and November 25, inclusive, there were only sixty-six days, with two time allowances, certainly not short, yet to be made. Previous evidence has fixed August 18 as the latest possible date of the augural election.°* Between that date and the prob- able time of Caesar’s second arrival in Italy, November 14, there were eighty-five days, leaving thirty days for the two items still to be accounted for, Caesar’s journey through northern Italy and his sojourn with his army after the review. Caesar’s ostensible purpose (c. 50, 3-4) in visiting the towns of Cisalpine Gaul was political, with reference first to Antonius’s candidacy for the augurate, and then to his own candidacy for the consulship of 48. But in view of the attitude of his political opponents he could not have been blind to the possibility of having . to defend himself by an appeal to arms. In the event of hostilities he must at all hazards be able to count on the loyalty of his Cisal- pine province, without regard to the difference in political status between the Cispadane and Transpadane regions. He certainly would not hesitate to enroll citizens with Latin rights in any new levies, and had probably done so in the years past. Even from a candidate’s standpoint the Transpadane region was of some in- terest, since full Roman citizenship was possessed by the old Roman colony of Eporedia, and also by Cremona and Aquileia, which as Latin colonies had received full citizenship by the lex Pompeia” of 89. By virtue of the same law many other Trans- padane communities had acquired the rights of Latin colonies. =P, 308: 7 Marquardt, Staatsverw., I*, pp. 61-62. 324 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 33 The latter recognized in Caesar a long time advocate of their ad- vancement to full citizenship.1°* That Caesar should have slighted them in his triumphal progress through the province, is, in the light of all the circumstances, incredible. Hirtius (c. 50, 3ff.) clearly meant that Caesar visited both the Cispadane and Trans- padane towns. At the moment when Caesar learned of Antonius’s triumph over Domitius he was still outside the bounds of Italy. Counting only from the Little St. Bernard, an itinerary including these towns along the main roads of Cisalpine Gaul would involve something like 1,050 m. p. of travel: Eporedia-Vercellae-Novaria-Mediola- nium-Comum - Bergomum - Brixia - Verona - Vicetia - Patavium- Concordia-Aquileia-Ateste-Hostilia - Mantua-Cremona-Placentia- Bononia - Pistoria - Luna - Genoa-Dertona-Augusta Taurinorum. The purpose and circumstances of the journey make it improb- able that Caesar traveled rapidly. Although the distance traveled may have been less than 1,050 m. p., it is altogether likely that the time consumed was the greater part of a month. The neces- sity of allowing time, perhaps as much as for the tour of the province, for Caesar’s stay with his army after the review, pre- ceding his second trip to Italy, renders it practically impossible-to date the augural election as late as August 18, and points rather to July as the month in which the election was held. But the conclusion reached above raises a difficulty. It has been demonstrated by Sternkopf that Fam. VIII, 14, was almost certainly one of the letters which Acastus carried from Rome September 23.1°° Furthermore, the first section of the letter gives the unmistakable impression of having been written soon after the augural election, when that event was yet very fresh in the writer’s mind, while the estimate of time for the items in Hirtius’s narrative tends to push the election back into July. The solution of this difficulty. lies ready to hand. In Fam. VIII, 12, 4, Caelius writes: Conturbat me mora servi huius, qui tibi litteras attulit ; nam acceptis prioribus litteris amplius dies quadraginta mansit. : *8 Sueton., Jul. 8. ee 207. 325 34 Frederick Warren Sanford The verb attulit is an epistolary perfect. In prioribus litteris we have a reference to no other than Fam. VIII, 14. Both that letter and Fam. VIII, 12, were carried by Acastus. Caelius wrote Fam. VIII, 14, in August and entrusted it to Acastus with the understanding that the latter would start soon. For some un- known reason Acastus lingered in Rome more than forty days. His delay in starting may account in part for the quick trip that he made eventually to the Piraeus.%° Fam. VIII, 12, may have been written as late as September 23, or as early as the 19th. In dies quadraginta Caelius employs a round number ; amplius dies quadraginta imply less than fifty days, at most forty-nine, and necessarily at least 41. If Fam. VIII, 12, be given its latest pos- sible date, September 23, and if the more than forty days be taken as forty-one, the latest date at which Acastus can have received Fam. VIII, 14, is August 12. The earliest date lies forty-nine days back from September 109, 7. e., July 31. General probability is against either extreme. July 31 is improbable for the following reasons also. ‘The earliest possible date of the augural election was July 20, leaving only eleven days to July 31 inclusive. The criminal process directed against Peducaeus probably required more than this amount of time.44. In Fam. VIII, 14, 1, also, the manner in which Caelius cites Peducaeus’s acquittal as a reason for hope in the case of Saturninus indicates that Caelius is not writing the very day of the acquittal. To give Fam. VIII, 14, the date July 31 would not leave time for the criminal process and for the probable interval between its conclusion and the writing of the letter. The comitial days in July after the 20th were the 22d and the 26th to the 31st inclusive. If the augural election occurred on the 26th, there remained seventeen days between that date and August 12, inclusive, probably sufficient to include the criminal process and to allow several days before Caelius wrote Fam. VIII, 14. But this places the writing of the letter and its delivery to Acastus on the latest possible date. As remarked, general probability is against either extreme. It is most likely, 19 21 days, Fam. XIV, 5, 1. 2 Ps 307; 326 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 35 therefore, that the election occurred July 20 or 22, and that Fam. VIII, 14, was written and entrusted to Acastus not earlier than August 5 and not later than August Io. The date arrived at for Fam. VIII, 14, accords well with the history of the feud between Caelius and Appius.142 The election of censors was probably held in July. About this time Caelius applied to Appius for money, regarding the latter as under obliga- tions to him, possibly for services rendered at the time of Appius’s trials for treason and bribery in the preceding spring.14* Appius’s refusal precipitated a quarrel, the bitterness of which may be imagined from the violent characters of the principals. At the inception of the quarrel, Caelius, remembering his own attitude towards Appius in the spring and his advice to Cicero at that time, felt some embarrassment in complaining to Cicero of Appius’s conduct.4 Nevertheless his state of mind is reflected in Fam. VIII, 14, 4: Scis Appium Censorem, etc. The earliest of the functions of newly elected censors was the lectio senatus.** Ap- pius, in casting about for some means of attack on Caelius, in conjunction with Domitius, who, as Caelius would have us believe, held the latter chiefly or largely responsible for his discomfiture at the polls, conceived the idea of excluding Caelius from the senate.® Caelius, though much against his will, finally appealed for protection to Appius’s colleague, Piso, with success. Soon after taking office Appius had issued a number of edicts, among them probably one directed at the scandalous practices legislated against in the /ex Scantinia. Prosecutions on the basis of this law were already in progress, under the presidency of Drusus, at the date of Fam. VIII, 14 (cf. §4). Appius, still abetted by Domitius, at last procured an accusation against Caelius under the lex Scantinia, which Caelius promptly answered in kind. The Fam. VII; 12: ot Fam. VIL, 6,.1.°3..53 tll, 107: 1) 3. ™4 Cf. Caelius’s words in Fam, VIII, 12, 1: Pudet me confiteri et quert de Appio. 45 Staatsr., II?, p. 415; Le Sénat, I, p. 240; Dio, XL, 63. "Tn Fam. VIII, 12, 1, conlegam should undoubtedly be read instead of conlegium. 327 36 Frederick Warren Sanford breach between the two men was now so wide that there was no occasion for further silence on Caelius’s part. To the description of the quarrel he devoted an entire letter. Fam. VIII, 14, contains no mention of the elections other than the augural. It is quite probable that the letter was accompanied by a commentarium, with full news not only of the elections, but also of the debate on pay for Pompeius’s troops, of Curio’s veto and subsequent withdrawal of the same, of Appius’s edicts, of the processes instituted before Drusus under the lex Scantinia, and of numerous other matters of interest to Cicero. Caelius chose for comment, among the elections, only the one which interested -him most because of his own part therein, and contented himself with a passing notice of the wisdom of Curio’s action in with- drawing his veto. VI The general purpose of the long digression beginning in B. G., VIII, 52, 4, has been commented on above.1!" It falls into three parts, (1) Curio’s endeavors to effect a compromise between Pom- peius and Caesar, with a specific attempt to secure a decree of the senate, (2) the action of the senate in the year 51, (3) the episode of the two legions. The second is a parenthesis within.a paren- thesis. All three serve to illustrate the implacable animosity towards Caesar of a political clique with Pompeius at the head. The first evidences the inclination of a majority of the senate towards peace, it being implied that the Pompeians dared not allow Curio’s proposal to come to a vote (c. 52, 5); the same pur- pose is served by the second part (c. 53). The first and third illustrate Caesar’s willingness to obey constituted authority and his desire for peace. That Curio’s attempt to have a definite decree passed belongs to a date comparatively early in the year has been pointed out.1** These questions arise. What was the date of the decree with reference to the two legions? At what time did they come down from Caesar’s provinces? What was the time relation between OP aEaTOl "8 Note 97. 328 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” a7 this last event and Caesar’s distribution of the remaining legions into winter quarters for the winter of 50/49? At the date of Fam. II, 17, about July 17, Cicero knew that the two legions had been voted as reinforcements for Bibulus (§5). He knew it, as the context shows (antea dubitabam), before he learned of the withdrawal of the Parthians in the present summer. Sallustius, proquaestor under Bibulus in Syria, to whom this letter was addressed, had sent his orderly with two letters to Cicero, probably from Antioch, a journey of perhaps three or four days. In the first of these letters Sallustius had expressed doubt of the reality of the Parthians’ withdrawal (§3). At the date of Sal- lustius’s letter sufficient time had elapsed since the withdrawal, in Cicero’s judgment, to convince a reasonable man of its reality. At the date of Att. VI, 5 (cf. §3), June 26, Cicero did not know that the Parthians had gone. The date of their retreat may be fixed at about July 1; antea therefore refers to a period prior to that date. If Cicero knew of the senate’s decree before July 1, it was probably passed not later than the first half of May. It may have been passed in April. Caesar was probably not in- formed of the decree before the middle of May, at the very earliest. We do not know in what camp the first legion spent the winter of 51/50. The camp nearest Rome was in the country of the Aedui."® If stationed near Matisco the first legion had nearly 850 m. p. to Capua via Cularo, the Cottian Alps, Genoa, and Rome, or 890 m. p. via the Graian Alps and Bononia. It certainly reached Capua by December 2 at the latest. Both legions seem to have gone to Rome first, the first perhaps being joined by the fifteenth on the road. They probably remained at the Capital for a time before they were sent into quarters at Capua.’*° Even if they went straight through, the first must have started not later than early October. But the sources suggest a much earlier date for the bringing down of the two legions. Dio’s account”® clearly implies a considerable interval between eee, NLL, AG, A, he, a, 65-00; App. B..C., TI, 20. 329 38 Frederick Warren Sanford the arrival of these legions and their transfer to Pompeius. Plu- tarch**+ and Appian’*? voice the criticisms passed on Pompeius for failing to make due preparations against Caesar. Pompeius’s sense of security is said by them to have been due in part to the statements as to the disaffection of Caesar’s soldiers, made by the officers who returned with the first and fifteenth legions. Such criticisms involve the assumption that Pompeius had ample time in which to make preparations, and so favor an early date for the arrival of the legions: Sallustius in the first of his letters to Cicero had evidently expressed the hope that he would be relieved by his successor, Marius, in time to enable him to meet Cicero in Asia. Marius was to accompany the legions from Italy to Syria.1*8 Cicero in letters to friends in Rome had repeatedly declared his intention of discontinuing his proconsular functions in Cilicia promptly at the end of his year’s tenure of office, July 30. He had also been in communication with the members of Bibulus’s staff. Sallustius had no apparent reason for thinking that Cicero would tarry long in Asia. In his reply, Cicero makes plain that he regarded Sallustius’s hope of meeting him vain, in any case. But the proquaestor could not have conceived such a hope, unless the information which had come to Syria in regard to the two legions led him to think that they would be started on their jour- ney very soon after the passage of the senate’s decree; the first legion, if encamped in the Aeduan country, had 1,100 m. p. to Brundisium before it, and to this long march must be added the sea voyage. In like manner, Cicero evidently thought it possible, so far as the time element was concerned, that the two legions should have set sail for Syria before tidings of peace in the present summer could be carried to Rome; cf. Fam. II, 17, 5: Si antea auditum erit otium esse in Syria. News of the Parthians’ retreat might reach Rome by the end of August, possibly earlier. In his description of the battle of Pharsalus Caesar speaks of these legions as having been delivered up by himself initio dissen- 11 Pomp. 57, Caes. 20. 1 BO C,, 1; 20-30. 1* Fam. 11, 17,5, 330 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 39 sionts.1°* He surely regarded the earlier part of the period sub- sequent to March 1, 50, as imitium dissensionis. The conclusion naturally to be drawn from the evidence exam- ined, viz., that the first and fifteenth legions, the first in particular, made an early start for Rome, derives some support from the fact that, even if Bibulus’s need of reinforcements was a mere pretext, if Pompeius and his followers intended from the outset to keep the legions, it was to their interest to act in such a way as to seem sincere, by sending for the troops promptly. It might be that fortune would help them out later, as she did in the retreat of the Parthians, by furnishing an excuse for not despatching the legions to Syria for the present. The probability is that officers went to Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul to bring these legions to Rome without undue loss of time following the senate’s decree. If the first legion came from Matisco and left camp June 1, it may have come to Rome in the second half of July. It is not probable that it arrived later than the middle of August. Between the date at which Caesar surrendered the first legion and the distribution of the remaining legions into quarters for the winter of 50/49 as many as five months may have intervened, June I to early November. Since the events of c. 54, 1-3, belong to the first half of the year 50, it follows that the narrative inter- rupted at c. 52, 4, is resumed, in fact, in c. 54, 4, with the words ipse exercitut distribuit hiberna. But the author fails to signalize resumption, the employment of ise implying, rather, a close con- nection between its own sentence and what goes just before. The first and thirteenth legions, as we have found, came down about the same time.*”® Did Hirtius think of their departure as syn- chronous, or nearly so, with the assignment of winter quarters to the remaining legions? The circumstances attendant upon the withdrawal of the first and fifteenth legions from Caesar were surely too striking for Hirtius, who was with Caesar in 50, as he recalled the events of that year, to misplace by several months the date at which the first and thirteenth legions started south. His ie TL, BS, .F. a Pe dee: 331 40 Frederick Warren Sanford failure plainly to indicate return to his main theme must be due to a careless literary technique. Nissen thought that fit deinde, c. 54, 1, followed grammatically and logically on the preceding chapter.1?° So far as the chrono- logical relations of events in the year 50 are concerned, the senate’s decree with reference to the two legions was voted in the same period of the year in which Curio attempted to secure the decree disarming Pompeius and Caesar recorded in c. 52, 5.12" It is highly probable that with fit deinde Hirtius intended to resume his notice of events that occurred in the spring of 50, the summary being interrupted by c. 53. Vil What cause is to be assigned for the rumor, current in Rome between September 19 and 23, that Placentia would be occupied by four legions October 15? It could not have been the fact of Caesar’s first journey to Italy, as he came in early August, not in September. May the rumor have been due to the movements of troops in or from Transalpine Gaul? The march of the thirteenth legion into Italy could not have been responsible, owing to the comparatively early date at which it came to Italy; and it was merely taking the place of the fifteenth.1°° Nor can the rumor be connected with the march of the legions to winter quarters after the review. The review can not have been held before October ; and there followed a period of waiting before the legions scattered. The date of the march of the legions in this instance was too late to be responsible for the rumor. It must have been due to some cause operative during the time when the legions were still in the winter camps of 51/50. If Caesar was to make such a move as the occupation of Pla- ATS Di, Ds 7/5) Le ™ Note 97. 8 Nissen (Ausbr., p. 70, 2) argues that the officers who conducted the first and fifteenth legions to Rome took them over in October, probably, and reached the city not before the middle of November, the time being attested by the fact that Caesar sent the thirteenth legion into Italy at the latter date; further, that to the coming of the thirteenth legion into Italy may have been due the rumor that Caesar was marching on the city. 332 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 41 centia, he would naturally be expected to draw the four legions from the camps nearest to Placentia, those in the territories of the Aedui and the Lemovices.”® In that case it is certain that a part of the four legions would have to march 500 m. p. or more, from . the Lemovices to Placentia. But it is possible that the first and thirteenth legions had been quartered in the two camps mentioned. The camp among the Turoni therefore comes into the reckoning. One or more of the four legions might then have as much as 600 m. p. to march. That the official class at Rome had sufficient knowledge of Transalpine Gaul and of the location of Caesar’s camps to realize that the occupation of Placentia in the way an- ticipated involved from thirty-five to forty days of marching, is a not unreasonable assumption. The start of some of the four legions would thus be made as early, it might be, as September 5. This brings us to the period of time in which Caesar is very likely to have been on the road to Nemetocenna, after his visit to Italy. It may be regarded as certain that news of Caesar’s triumphal journey through Cisalpine Gaul and of the enthusiastic reception accorded him drifted down to Rome while the journey was in progress. If so, it could scarcely fail to awaken surmises. Caesar started back across the Alps about September 1. This return journey also was probably reported in Rome. Under normal con- ditions the proconsul’s trips across the mountains would constitute nothing extraordinary. But conditions were no longer normal. It is not difficult to believe that Caesar’s return to Transalpine Gaul gave rise to a rumor that troops were to be brought into Italy and that Caesar had recrossed the Alps for this purpose. Such a rumor would be strengthened, if, as is credible, a report of the intended march of the army to the review got abroad in Cisalpine Gaul, for the destination could easily be distorted. The surpris- ing thing in the rumor, however, is the definite date, October 15, set for the occupation of Placentia. It is tempting to think that this was the date by which, under Caesar’s orders, the legions were to assemble for the review. ™ B.G., Vii1, 46, 4. 333 42 Frederick Warren Sanford VItt It is plain from B. G., VIII, 50, 1, that Caesar, before going to Italy himself in behalf of Antonius’s augurai candidacy, had set in motion the electioneering machinery of his Cisalpine province. It seems equally certain from §2, taken in connection with §1, that after Antonius arrived in Rome further news came to Caesar of such a character as to inspire his first journey to Italy: Con- tendebat enim gratia cum libenter pro homine sibi coniunctissimo, quem paulo ante praemiserat ad petitionem, tum acriter contra factionem et potentiam paucorum, qui Antonii repulsa Caesaris decedentis gratiam convellere cupiebant. Evidently he expected to arrive in time to be of assistance to Antonius. In order to effect his purpose of arousing the voters of Cisalpine Gaul, Caesar should have arrived by July 1 or even earlier. Heactually arrived a month later. How did it happen that he came so late, when the usual time at which elections were held was well known? Antonius came to Rome as early, possibly, as the middle of June. That he would stand for the tribunate was probably as- sumed in advance. But he also doubtless gave out soon after his arrival that he aspired to succeed Hortensius in the college of augurs. No professio was required of a candidate for a priest- hood, that formality being replaced by a nomination in contio given by one or two members of the college concerned.%° How long before the election this contio was held is not known. At all events Antonius was safe in announcing his intention in the matter before the contio was held, since there was at least one member of the augural college, Servius Galba, upon whom he could rely for nomination.1*!_ Naturally a determined opposition would soon be manifested. It would become apparent also that the contest was to be waged on strictly political lines. It was of importance to Caesar’s prestige that Antonius should win. The opposition 7 Note 64. %1C. Bardt, Die Priester der vier grossen Collegien, p. 26. Galba is mentioned as augur (probably) first in March, 49 (Att. IX, 9, 3). But he must have become a member of the augural college before the summer of 50, for his election along with Antonius would surely have called forth some comment from Caelius in Fam.-VIII, 14, 1. 334 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 43 offered by the conservatives was greater, seemingly, than Caesar and Antonius had counted on: Contendebat . . . contra factionem et potentiam paucorum, qui Antonii repulsa Caesaris decedentis gratiam convellere cupiebant. Antonius may therefore be as- sumed to have despatched a courier to Nemetocenna. The augu- ral election was held, let us say, July 20. Although no professio was required of candidates in connection with the priestly elec- tions, it is nevertheless reasonable to suppose that the practice of issuing an edict a trinundinum in advance obtained for these elec- tions as well as for the elections of magistrates. The trinundinum was at least seventeen days. The edict for the sacerdotal election in 50 would be issued not later than July 4. It is obvious that a message from Rome sent after that date could not bring Caesar into Italy by July 20, much less enable him to do any electioneer- ing work and still leave time for the voters of his province to attend the election. Antonius’s message was certainly sent before July 4. As soon as Antonius found from the election edict that his hope of further assistance from Caesar in the way indicated was impossible of fulfillment, it would have been natural to des- patch another message to Caesar informing him of the actual date of the election, in order than he might waste as little time as possible on a fruitless errand. But it is evident that no such message was sent. The message that did intercept Caesar an- nounced Antonius’s victory. An explanation of this state of affairs may be conjectured. At the time when Antonius sent his first message some of the elections, including at least the sacerdotal, perhaps also the con- sular, had not yet been proclaimed, and, for some reason no longer discernible, seemed likely to be held not earlier than the latter part of August. This late date would leave time to inform Caesar of the bitter fight in prospect against Antonius’s candidacy and for Caesar to make further efforts, this time in person, to secure a large vote from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar had intended all the while to make the round of the lower province which Hirtius describes and at a time not far from the period in which it was’ made. Antonius knew this. Compliance with a suggestion from him that Caesar come to Italy immediately would require the latter 333 44 Frederick Warren Sanford to anticipate the projected date of departure from his headquarters at Nemetocenna by a comparatively short time. When the date at which the augural election was to be held became known to Antonius, the first courier to Caesar had been gone too long to make it possible for another courier to intercept him before he should be well on his way to Italy, if he had started promptly in response to the first message. As he was to come soon at any rate, there was no urgent reason for making an effort to inform him of the real date of the election. There was always the possi- bility, too, that a Roman election would be postponed after the date was set, and in that event Caesar might after all be in time to assist Antonius. The latter therefore waited until after the augural election, then sent a courier with the news of his suc- cessful candidacy for the tribunate and the augurate, of Galba’s defeat for the consulship, and of the elation of Caesar’s enemies over the election of consuls for 49 hostile to Caesar. The second courier met Caesar beyond the Italian frontier, more than 560 m. p. from Rome, if he went by the Little St. Bernard. The meeting occurred probably not earlier than twelve days after the election, 7. e., not earlier than August I. Caesar came from Nemetocenna quam maximus itineribus. He had trav- eled possibly 550 m2. p., having left Nemetocenna July 26 or shortly before. Antonius’s first courier had to travel 1,150 m. p. from Rome to Nemetocenna, a journey of twenty-three days at the ordinary pace. He may have left Rome by July 1, or earlier, for it is not certain that Caesar did start at once in response to An- tonius’s summons. Hirtius reports these happenings in such a way as to make it appear that the extended journey which Caesar made through Cisalpine Gaul was conceived only after he learned of Antonius’s victory and of Galba’s defeat. IX In B. G., VIII, 52, 2, Hirtius fails to indicate Labienus’s where- abouts at the time when Caesar gave him charge of Cisalpine Gaul. It was not till after this appointment, to judge from Hirtius’s account, that Caesar was informed of his enemies’ efforts to alien- 336 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 45 ate Labienus. From the nature of things these negotiations are not likely to have been carried on until Labienus was in Italy. It is probable that the review of Caesar’s army occurred about the middle of October, and that Caesar left his army to go to Italy by the end of the first week in November. The time necessary for Labienus’s journey to Cisalpine Gaul, if he had been present at the review, for the fact of his arrival to become known in Rome, for the discovery of the attempts to undermine his loyalty to Caesar, and for the journeys of couriers to Caesar sent to apprise him of these attempts, would much have exceeded the interval between the review and Caesar’s departure for Italy. Labienus, we may conclude, had been in Cisalpine Gaul for a con- siderable time before he was given charge of the province. It can not be far from the truth to assume that the efforts to attach him to the cause of the Pompeians began, or at least took on a more serious character, at the time when the rumor with regard to the occupation of Placentia was rife in the city, near the middle of September, but were discovered by Caesar’s friends only in time to inform him subsequently to the review. x If the conclusion reached in this paper as to the date of Fam. VIII, 14, is sound, some other emendation must be found for the corrupt passage in Fam. VIII, 12, 4, than the one usually adopted: Scis Domitio comitiorum diem timori esse. Te (exspecto, etc.). The reading of the Medicean is: Scis Domitio diem tumorae est (exspecto, etc.). The following emendations are suggested as possible: (1) Scis Domiti odium timorit esse. Te (exspecto, etc.). Wrong division gave Domitio dium, dium then being al- tered, deliberately or inadvertently, to the familiar diem; the re- maining words (timori esse. Te) are adopted from former emendations. The tum of tumorae might easily come from tim of timori, but final ae from final 7 is not so likely. (2) Scis Domiti odium in tumore esse. Te (exspecto, etc.). Odium may have been written in abbreviation, odiu; wrong division gave Domitio; in was mistaken for m and attached to diu, with the change of diwm to diem; final e of twmore, as frequently happens 337 46 Frederick Warren Sanford in the Medicean, gave final ae; esse was written in abbreviation. ee, which in conjunction with ¢ of te gave est, final e of te dropping out before e of exspecto. (3) Scis Domiti odium. Tu moraris. Te (exspecto, etc.). Is of moraris together with t of te gave est, e of te dropping out; tu morar gave tumorae. Of these emendations the second seems to me most plausible. In Domiti odium I see a reference to the feeling toward Caelius engendered in Domitius’s mind by his defeat at the augural election. XI. SUMMARY In the second half of May, before Antonius left his camp in Belgium to enter the contest for the tribunate at the coming elec- tion, word came to him and to Caesar of an actual or prospective vacancy in the augural college.t** Antonius had coveted the place which Cicero secured in this college in 53 after the death of P. Crassus, but had stepped aside, as he professed, in deference to the orator.** The chance now offered to gratify his ambition. At the same time, a successful contest for the place would re- dound to Caesar’s benefit, for it was inevitable, in the tense polit- ical situation of the year 50, that Caesar’s enemies should vigor- ously oppose any candidate known distinctly to be Caesar’s personal choice. Caesar therefore made known to the voters of his Cisal- pine province that he desired a large attendance on their part at the election. They seem to have responded to his appeal, and were no doubt present at the tribunician and consular elections also. About the same time that Caesar and Antonius learned of the vacancy in the augural college Caesar also received notification of the senate’s decree requiring himself and Pompeius to furnish one legion each for the reinforcement of Bibulus in Syria. Pom- peius demanded back the first legion, which he had previously lent Caesar, as his quota of the Syrian reinforcements. Caesar * Lange (Rom. Alt., III’, p. 398) was right, I think, in deciding upon late April as the period in which Hortensius fell ill and early May as the period in which his death occurred. But his illness followed Appius’s trial for ambitus, not the trial for maiestas, the latter having taken place in March, possibly; cf. Cic., Brut., 64, 230; 94, 324; Fam. III, 11, 1. eS Cig. AeA, SA: é 338 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 47 promptly despatched this legion to Italy and gave orders for the fifteenth, which was quartered in Cisalpine Gaul, to be delivered over to the proper officers. He also sent the thirteenth legion down from Transalpine Gaul to occupy the posts from which the detachments of the fifteenth were to be withdrawn. The first and fifteenth legions came to Rome not later than the middle of Au- gust, possibly in the latter half of July. Excuses were found for not sending them on to Syria at once. By the close of August the retreat of the Parthians was probably known in Rome. The two legions were then, or later, sent into winter quarters at Capua. In the meantime, Antonius had arrived in Rome, near the middle of June. The declaration that he, who had as yet held no higher office than the quaestorship, presumed to pit himself against Domitius, a consular, and a Domitius, too, as a candidate for the vacant seat of Hortensius in the augural college, together with the evident fact that Antonius must be regarded as Caesar’s can- didate, induced a more bitter contest even than Caesar and An- tonius had looked forward to, a contest in which party lines were closely drawn. Antonius’s interests were cared for by Curio in particular, who seems to have been plentifully supplied by Caesar with the sinews of political war.4%* When Antonius’s ambition to succeed Hortensius first became known, the edict for the sacer- dotal election had not been issued, and Antonius found reason to believe that the election would occur in the second half of August. A courier was sent to Caesar to inform him of the strong oppo- sition to Antonius’s candidacy, in order that Caesar might, if he saw fit, hurry to Italy and send the provincial voters to Rome in the greatest numbers possible. This courier left Rome July 1 or earlier. Caesar left Nemetocenna not far from July 26. On or about August 1, before arriving in Italy, he met another courier with the news of Antonius’s election as tribune and augur, of the failure of Servius Galba to obtain a consulship, and of the in- creased confidence which his political and personal foes were deriving from the fact that two consuls of their own way of think- ing would take office January 1 following. 4 Note 133; Plut., Ant. 5. 339 48 Frederick Warren Sanford The tribunician election had been held July 14, the consular on the 17th, the augural on the 20th. The elections of other annual magistrates and of censors were probably held on the remaining comitial days of July. Caelius Rufus supported Antonius for the augurate, influenced possibly by personal friendship both for An- tonius and Curio, but also by the desire to make it easier to join the stronger side in the event of civil war. Early in August Caelius learned that Cicero’s slave Acastus expected to leave the city soon to carry letters to his master. Caelius wrote Fam. VIII, 14, at some date from the 5th to the roth and entrusted the letter to Acastus. The letter was probably accompanied by a fresh budget of news drawn up by the person whom Caelius employed for that purpose. Acastus did not leave Rome till September 23, taking with him then Fam. VIII, 12, in addition to VIII, 14, also letters from many other correspondents of Cicero. Caesar arrived at Augusta Praetoria possibly as early as August 2 or 3. The remainder of that month was devoted to a trip through his Cisalpine province, which he had planned long before. The defeat of Galba and the increasing possibility that the dispute between Caesar and the senate would eventually call for the arbi- trament of arms rendered it more urgent than ever that the most ‘possible should be made of the tour in question. Caesar’s visit in one town after another was doubtless heralded in advance, and ‘there is no adequate reason for discrediting Hirtius’s account of the enthusiasm displayed by Caesar’s loyal provincial subjects. At the beginning of September Caesar recrossed the Alps and proceeded to Nemetocenna. News of this return journey, pre- ceded, as it surely had been, by a report of Caesar’s journey through northern Italy, gave rise to a rumor in Rome that Pla- centia would be occupied by four legions October 15. The rumor may have been reinforced by a perverted report of the intended march of legions to the place of review. Caesar arrived at Neme- tocenna September 10 or soon after. Despatches were sent from: this place to the scattered legions, which were still in the winter quarters of 51/50, to assemble in the vicinity of Augusta Tre- verorum. In the case of the more distant camps, however, it is not improbable that this order was issued while Caesar was en- 340 Narrative in Eighth Book of the “ Gallic War” 49 route to headquarters. The review was held near the middle of October. Labienus had been stationed in Cisalpine Gaul for some time prior to the review. Caesar still had confidence in him, or, if he had obtained any inkling of waning loyalty, deemed it best to assume an attitude of confidence. In token of his faith Caesar instructed Labienus to take charge of the Cisalpine province, with the further task of promoting Caesar’s interests as a candidate for the consulship of 48. Caesar remained with his army for a period of approximately three weeks, making occasional changes of camping ground. In the meantime, beginning as early as the middle of September, the time at which it is probable that the rumor with reference to the occupation of Placentia was first current in Rome, efforts were being made by Caesar’s enemies to draw Labienus away from his allegiance to Caesar. This fact was discovered in time to be reported to Caesar, while he was still with his army after the review, by friends in the city and possibly also by others in the Cisalpine province. November 7, or thereabouts, Caesar, accompanied by Hirtius, departed for Italy and arrived at Augusta Praetoria by November 14. He then busied himself with the provincial assizes. At a date earlier by several days, possibly, than November 25, and before Caesar’s arrival in Italy was known in Rome, a vote was taken in the senate on the question of appointing successors to Caesar and Pompeius. The senate voted affirmatively in the first instance, negatively in the second. Curio surely vetoed the vote inimical to Caesar. He then put the motion that both men be required to resign their armies and provinces, a motion which he had attempted to have a vote on earlier in the year, late in April it may be, then only to be stopped by a colleague’s veto. The senate was now allowed to give expression to its sentiment in the matter and approved by a vote of 370 to 22. This decree, too, was doubtless vetoed by a tribune friendly to Pompeius, for it was never invoked, so far as known, in later discussions on the question of right between the contending parties. On November 25 it became known in Rome that Caesar was in Italy. But this bare fact formed the kernel of a rumor that he was about to march 341 50 Frederick Warren Sanford upon the Capital with his army. The march of the four legions to winter quarters in the Aeduan country, if known in Cisalpine Gaul, may have contributed to the rumor. A meeting of the senate was called immediately, in which Marcellus proposed to take active measures to oppose Caesar. Failing in this and also in the attempt to subject Curio, who had prevented a vote on Marcellus’s proposal, to a vote of censure, the consul proceeded to the suburbs of the city and authorized Pompeius to assume command of the two legions quartered at Capua and to defend the commonwealth. Pompeius signified his intention of accepting the duty imposed upon him, but with the qualifying condition, “unless something better be found.” A messenger was despatched to Caesar to inform him of the new turn that events had taken. Caesar had meanwhile journeyed farther down in his province. The messenger met him about December 1, at Mutina or Bononia. The political confusion had not yet reached such a degree as to render war certain, but it was the part of military prudence to prepare for the worst. Caesar therefore sent a courier to the eighth and twelfth legions with orders to march into Italy and directed the detachments of the thirteenth legion -to assemble at Ravenna. The twelfth legion broke camp near the middle of December. Caesar also sent Hirtius to Rome to obtain a full report upon the situation. Hirtius found upon his arrival in the city the evening of December 6 that Pompeius was to depart for Capua the following day. Although Balbus was to confer with Scipio, Pompeius’s father-in- law, before daylight on the morning of the 7th, Hirtius did not await the result of the conference, but started back to rejoin Caesar the night of the 6th. It is probable that Caesar had in the meantime gone on to Ravenna. Curio left Rome December 10 and joined Caesar at Ravenna on or before December 14. 342 ROBESPIERRE AND MIRABEAU AT THE JACOBINS, DECEMBER 6, 1790 BY CHARLES KUHLMANN In the morning session of December 6, 1790, the national assem- bly passed a decree which, by implication, excluded inactive citi- zens from the national guards. Since, by an article of the electoral law of October, 1789, only persons whose annual tax amounted to the equivalent of three days’ work were recognized as active citizens, the later decree virtually restricted the right to bear arms to the middle class. The earlier enactment deprived the lower classes of political rights ; the latter was clearly intended to prevent them from securing by force what had been denied them by law. Such a policy naturally aroused the resentment of the radicals who found here their first opportunity to take definite issue with the majority. While the October decree was under discussion Robes- pierre and a number of others insisted that its adoption would convict the assembly of inconsistency. The declaration of rights proclaimed the equality of all men. How was it possible, there- fore, to create distinctions between citizens by disfranchising a whole class? The objection was logically unanswerable and no attempt at direct reply seems to have been made. Robespierre asked another question, equally embarrassing, which likewise re- mained unanswered. If the payment of the equivalent of three days’ work conferred the right to one vote, he demanded to know why those who contributed more than this amount should not be entitled to more votes. It is probably not true, as some writers have held, that the as- sembly was in the habit of ignoring Robespierre out of contempt for him. But however that may be, in this instance it is not nec- essary to assume such a motive. It is obvious that the less said in reply to him the better, for to argue with him would only have University Stupres, Vol. XI, No. 4, October rgrr. 343 2 Charles Kuhlmann made the inconsistency the more apparent. As matters stood in 1789 there seemed to be no immediate danger in the opposition from the small group of radicals because they possessed no means of coercing the majority. At the close of 1790, however, the situation had changed entirely. The agitators now found excel- lent weapons of offense in the Jacobin club and the sections of the city of Paris. The Jacobins at the latter period acted upon public opinion more potently than did the assembly. The large number of deputies among them had for some time menaced the inde- pendence of the legislative body but had now arrived at the point where their own position was threatened by the mass of non- deputies admitted into membership. The conservative Jacobin deputies did not dare oppose in their official capacities views formally approved at the society. Nor was the society an organi- zation with an influence limited to Paris and the assembly. A motion carried at its meetings was usually submitted to hundreds of affiliated societies each of which was in turn a center of revo- lutionary activity. From these latter bodies then issued resolu- tions and addresses to the public and the assembly demanding le islation in line with the original motion. The Jacobins them- selves were usually given a sort of mandate to see that the demands were complied with. It was a system now well understood by every intelligent Frenchman. Robespierre was, therefore, following a well-beaten path when, on the evening of December 6, 1790, he appeared in the Jacobin tribune with a long written discourse upon the organization of the national guards. The assembly had voted against his cherished views that morning but his cause was by no means hopeless if he could prevail upon the Jacobins to stand by him. Many of their members were already dissatisfied with the course of the conserva- tive deputies in the society and were beginning to listen with approval to more radical counsel. He succeeded in carrying almost the whole of the society with him. A storm of applause greeted his speech and it was evident that unless his arguments could be overcome in a conclusive way he would experience no difficulty in passing a motion placing the society on record as formally opposed to a decree of the assembly. Such action on the 344 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 3 part of the Jacobin club would have obtained a national hearing for Robespierre and since the drift of revolutionary opinion was now toward radical measures there is little doubt of the support he would have received. We shall see presently that to those who were able to look below the surface of things his speech presaged a dangerous agitation, if not something more serious. But if no one in the assembly had dared to answer him with practical argu- ment in 1789, when the disfranchisement of the poorer classes was decreed, who would have the temerity to undertake it now and at the Jacobins? The society would have refused to listen to him. Before, however, an opportunity arose for reply a diversion came in the most dramatic fashion and made an answer unnecessary. Mirabeau, who presided, brought Robespierre to an abrupt halt by reprimanding him for criticizing a decree of the national assembly. This had the effect evidently desired by Mirabeau in finally bring- ing Robespierre’s speech to a sterile close, but it brought down the society like a swarm of angry bees about the ears of the presi- dent. Camille Desmoulins, a special friend of Robespierre, de- scribes the scene as follows: Who would not have shared the holy indignation expressed in the evening in an admirable speech of Robespierre at the Jacobins? The ap- plause which greeted him and which constituted such a strong censure of the decree of the morning, appeared to alarm Mirabeau, president of the society. He dared to call Robespierre to order, saying that none was per- mitted to criticize a decree once rendered. This interruption excited a great uproar in the assembly already indignant because of the attempt made to deprive non-active citizens of the right to wear the uniform. Is there anything more tyrannical than the silence Mirabeau imposed upon Robespierre and the reason alleged for it? There was not a peasant or truck-woman in Attica who would not have laughed in the face of Mira- beau had he chanced to say that it was not permitted to speak against a decree. The tumult lasted for an hour and a half. Mirabeau, seeing that the voice of his bell had been smothered and that he could not speak to the ear, determined to speak to the eye, and in order to attract attention by an unusual procedure, in place of putting on his hat as is done by the president of the national assembly, he stood up in his chair and exclaimed “Let all my co-deputies surround me,” as if the question had been to pro- tect the decree in his person. Immediately some thirty honorable deputies gathered about Mirabeau. But on his side Robespierre, always so pure, so incorruptible, and in this session so eloquent, had about him all the true 345 4 Charles Kuhlmann Jacobins, all the republican souls, all the élite of patriotism. The silence which neither the bell nor the masterly action of Mirabeau was able to secure, Charles Lameth with his arm in a sling succeeded in restoring. He mounted the tribune and while praising Robespierre for his love of the people and calling him his very dear friend, he nevertheless censured him somewhat harshly and pretended like the president, that no one had the right to pass sentence upon a decree whether sanctioned or not. But M. Noailles conciliated the two parties by maintaining that the decree did not have the significance attributed to it; he had been present in the committee on the constitution when this article was under discussion and neither he nor the committee had understood it in the sense of M. Charles Lameth and of Mirabeau. The difficulty being removed, the president again gave the floor to Robespierre, who ended his address as he had begun it, in the midst of applause. Substantially the same facts, without Desmoulins’s embellish- ments, are recited in the Patriote francais of Brissot with the added detail that Robespierre had almost concluded when inter- rupted.” Unquestionably Mirabeau did not, as assumed by Desmoulins and Brissot, base his reprimand upon some general principle drawn from the bottomless depth of the reigning philosophy. On the contrary, he was doing a duty explicitly imposed upon him. The rules of the society forbade any member to express views opposed to the constitution and the spirit of the society which was supposed to be always in accord with that of the national assem- bly. Nevertheless, it is not at all likely that this was Mirabeau’s + Révolutions de France et de Brabant, No. 55. * Patriote francais of Dec. 7, 1790. Aulard in Société des Jacobins, vol. I, pp. 403-05, has reprinted the accounts of the session as given by Des- moulins and Brissot. * The society announced, in the preamble to its constitution, that one of its chief aims was to make known and to popularize the work of the as- sembly. Article IV. of the constitution itself reads as follows: “ Lorsqu’un membre de la société sera convaincu d’avoir manifesté, soit verbalement, soit par écrit, et a plus forte raison par des actions, des principes évidemment contraires a la constitution et aux droits des hommes, en un mot a I’esprit de la société, il sera, suivant la gravité des circonstances, réprimandé par le président, ou exclus de la société, aprés un jugement rendu a la majorité des voix.” Aulard, Société des Jacobins, vol. I, pp. xxvili-xxx. 346 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 5 teal reason for intervening. He was a Jacobin in name only* and regarded the society as one of the chief obstacles in the way of his plans for the restoration of royal authority.’ The society had not been very punctilious in observing its rules of discipline and as Robespierre’s infraction of them was met with applause Mira- | beau, who certainly foresaw the storm of protest his intervention would arouse, might have permitted the incident to pass without notice. Moreover, Robespierre’s course threatened to bring the Jacobins and the national assembly into conflict and as it was part of Mirabeau’s secret plan, at this time, to unpopularize the latter,® it would seem that Robespierre was playing directly into his hands when he launched an appeal to the whole of France against the disregard of the fundamental doctrine of the equality of man on the part of the assembly. On the other hand, since the drift toward ultra-radicalism shown by Robespierre and the group to which he belonged, could not fail to lead to a clash with the con- servatives in the society, especially with the Lameths, whom Mira- beau very much detested, what better could the latter have done than permit Robespierre to continue uninterrupted? From his point of view a schism in the Jacobin club was a thing greatly to be desired.” It was, moreover, his fixed principle never to do the unpopular thing unless it was absolutely necessary and unless the object justified the loss of popular favor involved in it. It would ~ *Until October, 1790, Mirabeau does not seem to have been very regular in his attendance at the Jacobins. He fell out with them during the dis- cussion in May over the right of declaring war and making peace and since, in this controversy, he defeated the plans of the society he drew upon himself some of the most violent invectives of the Jacobin press. He had previous to this joined the “ Club of ’89” which he now continued to frequent in preference to the Jacobins. On October 6, 1790, he re- turned to the latter society. 5 For his real attitude toward the society see his notes to the court pub- lished in the Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de La Marck, by Bacourt, 3 vols., Paris, 1851. * Forty-seventh note to the court. Bacourt, II, 414 ff. * Many of his notes to the court express this idea. 5’ He could upon occasion brave the dangers of physical violence as in the discussion over the question of the right to declare war and make peace and again in February of the following year when he opposed the 347 6 Charlies Kuhlmann appear, then, that his motives in this case were extremely complex and as usual well concealed. They are to be found not in the criticism of the decree of the assembly, but in the first part of Robespierre’s speech dealing with the organization of the national guards aimed, as we shall see in a moment, first at the destruction of the power of Lafayette and in the second place at the intro- duction of the Parisian populace into the guards. The two passages cited above from the papers of Brissot and Desmoulins do not inform us of the nature of Robespierre’s plan for the organization of the guards.® But in the Bulletin de Brest we find an account of a Jacobin session of which the exact date is not given. The Jacobin club (so runs the account) is occupying itself with the organization of the national guards. M. Robespierre read a much ap- Jacobins in their efforts to secure a law against emigration. For the latter instance, see the discussion in the Jacobin club on Feb. 28, 1791, in Aulard, Société des Jacobins, II, pp. 95-113. °Le/1450, in the national library at Paris bears the title “ Discours sur l’organisation des gardes nationales. Par Maximilien Robespierre, membre de l’Assemblée Nationale. 1791.” This is a pamphlet of seventy-eight pages and contains the provision for a rotating command of the guards mentioned below by the Bulletin, no officer being permitted to hold com- mand longer than six months and never to command the guards of more than one department. The armed man, he says, is always the master of the unarmed and a state in which a large armed force perpetually exists in the midst of an unarmed populace is never free and the stronger the discipline in the army the more certain is the destruction of freedom. The national guard must be the whole nation without distinction of class and without property qualifications, for no one can be deprived of the right of self-defense nor do the sacred rights of liberty depend upon the ownership of a certain amount of property. Although the people them- selves have made the revolution its fruits are to be reserved to an ambi- tious class seeking personal advantage, but this class will be uncere- moniously swept aside. What relation exists between this printed speech and the one delivered at the Jacobins we do not know, but it will be noted from the parts we have here repeated that the printed document preserves the core of the speech read at the Jacobins as retained by contemporaries. It contained many other important observations and was upon the whole closely reasoned in favor of the ideas of those who were possessed by an excessive fear of the military power as a means of overturning the work of the revolution. 348 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 7 plauded project supported also by Dubois de Crancé. According to this project the national guards of Paris are no longer to have a commander in chief. Such great power in the hands of a single chief appeared to be too dangerous. Each commandant of a battalion is to be general in turn and this division of power will serve as a check upon anyone disposed to abuse it.” That the Bulletin de Brest here refers to the session of Decem- ber 6 is proved by an obscure passage in the Feuille du jour, an opposition paper, which mentions Robespierre’s speech, Mira- beau’s interruption, the uproar which followed and the explanation made by Vicomte de Noailles.4 This makes Mirabeau’s action at first sight more puzzling than ever, for his quarrel with Lafayette was notorious and is now usually considered as a historical fact of considerable importance. The radical Jacobins had for some time lived in terror of Lafay- ette, whom they believed upon the point of making himself mili- tary dictator. Many times already their speakers had filled the Jacobin tribune with loud denunciations of the general and on November 12, 1790, when Carra was delivering one of these tirades of unusual violence, Chabroud, who was then president, called him to order, saying that it seemed to him inappropriate that a deputy holding such an honored position should be attacked at the society. This caused a commotion just such as Mirabeau experienced on December 6. While Chabroud’s case against Carra was not so definite as that of Mirabeau against Robespierre, his point was certainly well taken. Upon this occasion, however, Mirabeau could not resist the temptation of doing Lafayette an unquestion- able injury. He joined the clamoring mob against Chabroud, whom he declared to be in the wrong and maintained the right of anyone to criticize whomsoever he pleased, which was not at all a refutation of Chabroud’s point.12_ On December 6, then, Mira- ” No. 142, Dec. 12, 1790. This was a newspaper based upon the corre- spondence of the deputies of the Sénéchaussée of Brest with the bureau of correspondence at Brest. “UNO. 13, 1790: “For this session of the Jacobins see the Mercure national of Robert, No. 41, Nov. 23, 1790. Also Arthur Chuquet, Paris en 1790. Voyage de 349 8 Charles Kuhlmann beau not only contradicted his own precedents, but acted squarely contrary to what his plans at the time seemed to require. The explanation for this apparently inconsistent course is to be found in a more exact determination of the real convictions of Mirabeau with reference to Lafayette. There is very good reason to believe that many of his strictures on Lafayette were not made in good faith. At the Jacobins he fell in with the prevailing cry because it would strengthen his position in the society and enable him to carry on his campaign against the Lameths to better advan- tage. In spite of all the anathemas Mirabeau heaped upon Lafay- ette in his letters to the court, he did not really fear him as a military dictator, for of the guards he expressly stated that they were not numerous enough to hold out against a revolutionary uprising and not sufficiently disciplined or not sufficiently attached to their commander to make them a ready instrument in his hands. He recognized merely the fact that Lafayette’s command of the guards inspired fear at court and that he was strong enough to circumscribe the movements of the king upon whose conduct he thus exercised a pernicious influence.t* Upon the whole, how- ever, Lafayette was to be feared only so long as he acted with the military under his control. In his first note to the court, dated June 1, 1790, Mirabeau goes into this subject fundamentally and concludes that Lafayette’s power rested exclusively upon Paris and the guards of Paris. The capital, notoriously the most turbu- lent and radically revolutionary of any part of the kingdom, domi- nated Lafayette who would in every instance be constrained to follow its lead and in that way become its instrument in subjecting the executive and the rest of France to its control. Then Mira- beau asked: What does it mean, therefore, to give the ministry to M. de Lafayette? It would mean that the whole kingdom would be forced to act in unison with Paris, whereas the sole means of safety is to bring Paris back (to sanity) by means of the kingdom. It would mean that M. de Lafayette, joining to his own resources all the influence of the executive power, Halem. Paris, 1896. Letter of Halem of Nov. 12, 1790. Halem was pres- ent at this session. * Forty-seventh note to the court. Bacourt, IJ, 414 ff. 350 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 9 would become, whenever it should please him, head of the army, com- mandant of the national guards, lieutenant general of the kingdom, dis- tributor of all favors and first minister with ministers as clerks (commis), that is to say, being at the same time slave and despot, subject and master, he will be the most redoubtable of tyrants. Then, after explaining how a ministry independent of Lafayette would serve to destroy his present influence, he continued: - But such a man, limited to the command of a body of national guards, subordinated to the municipality of Paris, under the eye of the legislature, and without the favor of the king, would never become formidable to good ministers, strong in all the authority of the national assembly which they would understand how to direct and of which they would be the civic and revered professors and not the mutinous and rebellious disciples, would know how to employ every means of leading public opinion. Then, if he were merely ambitious, he would abandon his place of his own accord; then his most ardent adherents, deceived in their hopes, would be the first to abandon him; then the so-called hero would vanish." In this very connection it is to be noted that until the close of 1790 Mirabeau had not found in the composition of the ministry anything to encourage him in the belief that a better time was approaching. In October he had done his share in the work lead- ing to the overthrow of the old Necker ministry.1° But here again he was profoundly disappointed. Montmorin, the very man, whom, after Necker’s resignation, he most detested as the crea- ture of Lafayette,1* had been spared and of the new ministers appointed, despite all his protests and warnings, one, at least, was regarded as Lafayette’s man.*’ Hence, although the special ad- viser of the court, he still saw himself without direct influence in the government, while his rival preserved his position of advan- tage. At last, however, the private counsellors of the king and the queen became convinced that if he was to be of any use to them he must be allowed to act in concert with the ministry, that * Bacourt, II, 25-32. ** On October 28, 1790, La Marck wrote to Mercy-Argenteau that Mira- beau had provoked the attack upon the ministry. Bacourt, IJ, 283. * Thirty-eighth note to the court. Bacourt, II, 274-80. “La Marck states that Duportail, who was made minister of war, was one of Lafayette’s devoted friends. Bacourt, I, 229. 351 ite) Charles Kuhlmann is, permitted to take an actual part in executing ideas and advice hitherto merely addressed to the court, and there quietly buried, for the most part.1® To this plan Montmorin was prepared to lend himself and on December 5, 1790 (mark the date), held a long conference with Mirabeau in which he succeeded, to all appearances, in making his peace with the latter. He told him among many other things that his alliance with Lafayette had become intolerable. He assured him that Lafayette was ambitious not so much of real power as of the appearance of possessing it, that as a matter of fact he no longer exercised any influence in the ministry and that, since he had exhausted his fortune, he could no longer buy support—could not even retain his aides—should he, Montmorin, abandon him altogether. Although Lafayette cared only for himself and had betrayed all parties with whom he had had dealings, Montmorin did not wish to injure him nor see him displaced as commander of the national guards, at least not until a suitable successor could be found. He closed by inviting Mirabeau to draw up a plan of campaign in the interest of the royal authority ; in short, asked him to take the very place he had so long coveted as next best to that of leading minister.’ According to Mirabeau’s views, this changed the whole situation as regards the attitude to be assumed toward Lafayette. The sole condition which made his rival formidable no longer existed. When, on the following evening Robespierre came forward with a plan which promised finally to oust Lafayette from his command of the guards Mirabeau naturally did not feel like aiding in the attempt as he had usually done. Montmorin had even permitted him to see that the government was embarrassed over the question of finding a successor and it seemed to be his duty to forestall a too hasty retirement of the present commander. In a note to the court on January 17, 1791, he himself expressed anxiety at the * Bacourt, I, 165-66. In his thirty-sixth note to the court Mirabeau himself insisted upon the necessity of a ministry with which he could act in the execution of his plans to increase the king’s authority. Bacourt, II, 264. ” Forty-seventh note to the court, Dec. 6, 1790. Bacourt, II, 386-05. 352 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins II rapid decline of the power of Lafayette and spoke of the possible necessity of doing something to check it.?° But there were other and very powerful considerations which justified Mirabeau in departing from his usual method and op- posing Robespierre at every hazard. These were found in the threatening attitude the sections and the populace of Paris were beginning to assume and the evident intention of the radicals to force themselves to the front by making use of these elements. But as long as the sections were composed of the middle class, exclusive of the inactive citizens, it was necessary to reckon with Lafayette and his middle-class guards who had no special sym- pathy with the class below them. Had Robespierre been able to render his views effective, he would not only have displaced Lafayette, but in all probability inaugurated a new revolution, for he would have swamped the guards as then constituted with a flood of members who would certainly have been at the disposal of those who had championed their cause in the assembly, in the . press and in the political clubs. These radicals, whom we have several times mentioned, did not yet appear as an organized group, but they were clearly working toward the same end and in the Jacobin club favored the same tendencies. Besides Robespierre, they counted among them as prominent individuals Pétion, Fréron, Carra, Robert, Buzot, Brissot and later Camille Desmoulins, Lanthenas and Madame Roland. It was probably due largely to the two last named that this group finally gained consistency as a party with clearness and definiteness in their aims. But to show how they intended to arrive at their object it is necessary to return for a moment to the sections of Paris and the manner in which ‘they were constituted. As is well known, Paris had become practically independent as a result of the revolution of July, 1789. During this period the sixty electoral districts had become organized as deliberating bodies which several times showed a disposition to interfere in the work of legislation after the assembly removed to the capital, fol- lowing the disturbances in October of that year. This frightened » Bacourt, III, 9-12. 353 12 Charles Kuhlmann the majority of the deputies so that in the municipal law of May, 1790, Paris was redivided into forty-eight sections whose assem- blies were virtually restricted to the electoral function. On this occasion, as might be supposed, Robespierre protested against this policy of stifling political activity, for he wished to leave the people an organization enabling them to act officially and directly upon legislation. In other words, he wished to continue the conditions which had frightened the more conservative deputies and leave the assembly at the mercy of every impulse that swayed the mob in Paris. How well all parties understood what was involved in this is shown by the answer Mirabeau then made to the arguments of Robespierre. “Strong in my principles and the testimony of my conscience,” he said, “I shall refute two opposing opinions with- out seeking perfidious applause (designating the right which had espoused Robespierre’s views because they thought the perma- nency of the sections would interfere with the work of the assem- bly) and without fearing the tumultuous clamors” (designating the left). He declared the permanent sections desired by Robes- pierre a monstrosity. Camille Desmoulins, on the other hand, exclaimed in his newspaper, “ All the republicans are in consterna- tion at the suppression of the sixty tribunes of our districts,” when he learned that the assembly had decided against the per- manency of the sections.” Notwithstanding the recognized importance of the subject, the law was left somewhat obscure and presented a means by which its spirit, if not its letter, might be evaded so that under the pres- sure of events and at the instance of political agitators the old evil soon returned. The Jacobin club was guilty during the ministerial crisis in October, 1790, of a motion to appeal to the sections asking them to circulate a petition demanding the dismissal of the min- isters after the assembly had failed to pass a vote of lack of confi- dence. At this session (October 20) Mirabeau appeared in time 1 The text of the law is found in Ernest Mellié, Les Sections de Paris (Paris, 1892), 9-12. A summary of the discussion is given by Sigismond Lacroix, Actes de la commune de Paris pendant la révolution, second series, vol. 1, Introduction. ; 354 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 13 to defeat this motion by one of his renowned “ oblique” marches and thus checked this dangerous tendency for the moment.?? The overwhelming influence of Paris on the revolution has long been recognized, but, until quite recently, the conditions which made its insurrectionary movements possible had not been suffi- ciently studied. The party leaders, however, even during the period of the first assembly understood not only the dangers from this source, but were conversant as well with the methods by which the multitude could be set in motion. At the close of 1790, three different parties were maneuvring for the control of this field. The old Jacobins, represented by the comparatively moderate party of the Lameths, we have just mentioned as appealing to the sec- tions for support against the ministry. Openly working against this party was the newly organized “ Society of the Friends of the Monarchical Constitution,” composed of men whose opinions may be said to have found a sort of mean representation in conserva- tives such as Malouet and Clermont-Tonnére. They stated in their journal, a newspaper intended for general circulation, that they were urging their members diligently to attend the sessions of their respective sections. This statement, combined with the announcement that their society owed its existence almost solely to the fact that in their opinion it had become positively necessary to meet the Jacobins upon their own ground and with their own weapons, must be taken to mean that this was to be done as a party measure. Besides busying themselves with the assemblies of the sections the Monarchical society opened a bureau of subscrip- tions the proceeds of which were expended on bread-tickets distributed to the poor, enabling them to obtain bread at half the * Bacourt, II, thirty-sixth note to the court. Oct. 24, 1790. Chuquet, letter of Halem, Oct. 26, 1790. Although Mirabeau dissuaded the Jacobins from appealing to the sec- tions in this instance, the sections themselves, whether encouraged by the discussion at the society or not, continued the agitation until on November 10, a collective address was presented to the national assembly by a depu- tation reluctantly headed by Bailly, the mayor of Paris. Danton was the real speaker of the deputation. This whole subject is fully treated by Lacroix in Actes de la commune de Paris, second series, vol. I, 210-32. 355 14 Charles Kuhlmann market price.22 This was looked upon as a bribe and was so denounced at the Jacobins. Its too evident intention was to buy the support of the poorer classes who, under ordinary circum- stances, would have been very susceptible to this sort of appeal. The mere undertaking proves that the radicals were not alone in comprehending the political importance of this class, “the two hundred thousand beggars of Paris,” as Michelet puts it. Had the Monarchical society handled this affair with a little more skill, they might have become dangerous rivals to Robespierre and his partisans, but they made a fatal mistake at the very beginning by seeking to distribute their bread-tickets through the medium of the sectional assemblies where the middle-class Jacobins still con- trolled. Now while this faction of the Lameths through their influence in the Jacobin committee on correspondence would not affiliate associations of the lower class, they were still less inclined to permit them to be made the backbone of resistance on the part of their avowed enemies.2* They therefore made a direct appeal to the sections for the suppression of the new society, so that from the Jacobins the denunciation went to the municipality through the sections which gave it a sort of legal form. The municipality was weak enough to yield and ordered the Monar- chical society to suspend its sessions. The society complied under protest, after it had experienced a siege of the mob which suc- ceeded in breaking up one of its meetings. Under repeated de- mands for a hearing of its case, the order of the municipality was finally revoked,?° but the society had already perceived that neither Our best and most complete information regarding this society is found in the Journal de la Société des amis de la constitution monarchique, edited by M. de Fontanes (Bib. nat. Lc2/491). This is the official journal of the society. Sigismond Lacroix, in vols. I and II, has collected most of the evidence to be had with reference to the society. * A very instructive article concerning these popular societies and their relation to the Jacobins is reprinted by Aulard from the Patriote francais of Brissot. It is in the shape of a letter from Lanthenas. Société des Jacobins, II, 147-51. * The obscurity hitherto surrounding this subject has been thoroughly cleared up by Lacroix in Actes de la commune de Paris, second series, vols. I and II. See the Eclaircissements for December, 1790, and Janu- ary, February and March, 1701. : 356 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 15 in the sections nor among the poor was it possible to gain a foot- hold against the Jacobins. They had, in fact, merely furnished the party of the Lameths an occasion for a-new outbreak of vio- lence by which they sustained themselves a little longer at the head of the Jacobins. The failure of the Monarchical society’s charity program fur- nished a valuable object lesson to those interested in the lower class of society. As long as these people were excluded from the national guards, it was impossible to reach them effectively, except through the sections with the officers of which they were bound to come into some sort of contact. For obvious reasons, the press could not influence them very much. The political agitator, there- fore, who wished to base his power upon this class was greatly handicapped because he had no ready means of communicating with his adherents. This difficulty would have been in a large measure overcome had Robespierre succeeded in having them ad- mitted to the national guards. They could then have been reached as effectively as the actual guards were reached by the Jacobins in their endeavor to overthrow Lafayette.2° This problem was finally solved for the radicals by the formation of a large number of political societies among this class. We have seen from the paper of Desmoulins that it was not Mirabeau but Charles Lameth who quieted the Jacobins aroused over the reprimand administered to Robespierre. This is another interesting contradiction of this remarkable session of the society. Like Desmoulins the Lameths had really penetrated Mirabeau’s disguise. If they possessed no definite proof of his connection with the court they did not fail to see the object toward which all his efforts tended. But the Lameths had arrived at the turning of the road. To continue their reckless course, they foresaw, meant destruction. They stood at this moment perplexed over **In his forty-seventh note to the court, Mirabeau wrote: “C’est sous une infinité de rapports que je considére la garde nationale de Paris comme un obstacle au rétablissement de l’ordre. La plupart de ses chefs sont membres des Jacobins, et, portant les principes de cette société parmi leurs soldats, ils leurs apprennent a obéir au peuple comme a la premiére autorité.” Bacourt, II, 418. S57 16 Charles Kuhlmann the question of their retreat, knowing full well that, at the first sign of weakening, their numerous enemies, right, left and center, including Mirabeau, would fall upon them and make an end of their influence. They made up a faction rather than a party and in their private beliefs were not now so very far removed from the men who had organized the Monarchical society and wished to restore some force and authority to the executive. Hence, although they were known to be hostile to Mirabeau they felt themselves menaced much more from the radicals below them with whom they were to all outward appearances in perfect ac- cord. This fact did not altogether escape contemporaries.?* 7 The Feuille du jour of December 12, 1790, made the following analysis of the situation at the Jacobins at that time: “ L’esprit de division s’intro- duit de plus en plus, aux Jacobins. L’ambition profonde et calculée des uns, la démence incroyable des autres, rendent vraisemblable une scission trés-prochaine. En effet, si nous recherchons les caractéres et les intéréts de cette société, que pourrons-nous présumer? Que M. Barn[ave], par exemple, ayant acquis le sentiment de ses talens et de ses forces, reconnit qu'il est temps, au moment ot la révolution est consommeée, qu'il laisse un intervalle immense entre ses faibles agens et lui. Quelles peuvent étre ses vues? de continuer a jouer un role important dans l’opposition, et d’arriver au ministére. II est trop éclairé pour croire que les choses en resteront au point ott nous les voyons. Si ses démarches ostensibles sont encore mesurées, pour ne pas donner d’échec a sa popularité, ses opinions particuliéres sont toutes pour la constitution et l’ordre, tandis que tout ce qui l’entoure croit abonder dans son esprit, en désirant l’anéantissement du trone et l’anarchie. Son ami Lam[eth] sans posséder la facile élo- quence du premier, a trés-éminemment cet art, ce talens qui, joint au caractére, fait toujours un grand parti dans une assemblée. M. Dup[ort] aussi dangéreux dans l’ancien régime qu'il peut étre utile dans celui-ci, bien loin de s’éloigner de leurs opinions, les affermit encore. En un mot, ces trois acteurs essentiels de la révolution ne cherchent plus qu’un moyen adroit de quitter l’air de factieux, pour ne montrer que des hommes d’état, et peut-étre pour en mériter la gloire. “Si je compare ensuite avec eux la conduite de quelques-autres membres du club des Jacobins, qui s’agitent entre l’espoire d’un coupable succés et l’impuissance méme d’ajouter au mépris qu’on a pour eux, on verra que la rupture est certaine, et qu'il faut qu’elle s’accomplisse incessement.” The party here mentioned as opposed to that of the Lameths was, of course, that of the radicals to which Robespierre belonged. The rupture here anticipated did not occur until the -following May. 358 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 17 We have shown above why Mirabeau, from having been a relentless critic.of Lafayette, suddenly became his protector. Two passages from the Orateur du peuple of Fréron illustrate the manner in which he passed from one role to the other. On the evening of December 3, this paper recounts, Lafayette sent one of his aides to the Jacobins because he suspected that he would be denounced. As this individual, Lacombe, was not a member of the society the censors refused to allow him to remain. After he had deparied, Barnave and Mirabeau fell upon Lafayette in the usual fashion. Then someone read a pamphlet atrociously libel- ling the Lameths, D’Aiguillon and Robespierre. Against this no one made any protest, but when Lafayette’s name also was brought in a commotion was created. The Orateur du peuple says: At that moment these adoring hydrophobes began their howling accord- ing to their tactics in order to drown the voice of the reader and prevent the truth from being heard; it was then that Riquetti (Mirabeau) ex- claimed with the full power of his lungs, “ What, gentlemen! When names dear to the country are in question you do not interrupt the speaker, and you are pleased to cry scandal when they name whom! Good God! Lafayette!” It was also Mirabeau who, when the military almanac in which the sieur Motier (Lafayette) is named generalissimo of the national guards of the kingdom, was under discussion, and which almanac was also denounced, said at the same assembly: “Is Lafayette then mayor of the palace?” In order to characterize Lafayette’s devouring ambition, hidden under a gentle and cold bearing, Riquetti has given him among the people the sobriquet of Cromwell-Grandisson. That is to say, then, Mirabeau on December 3 fell in with the most radical of the Jacobins in sowing the impression that Lafay- ette was a most dangerous conspirator who required close watch- ing. There seemed at that moment no immediate prospect that Lafayette would be displaced and that the guards would fall into the hands of the radicals and the sections of Paris. Then, like a thunderclap came Robespierre with the suggestion that since Lafayette could not be lifted from his office his office be legis- lated out from under him combined with a plan to make of the guards a body which by its interests would have been of necessity opposed to the constitution as then in process of creation. On the fifteenth of the month we find Mirabeau has changed front 359 ae 2 ~ . ‘Charles Kuhlmann ssa; Aa altogether. The municipality of Marseilles had asked the Jacobins to indicate the attitude it ought to assume toward Lafayette. Evidently the drift of the debate made clear to Mirabeau that the answer would be unfavorable to the general. He took the floor again and while, to conceal his real object, he still represented Lafayette as harboring a criminal ambition and declared his at- tempt to influence the whole kingdom as a shameful presumption, he maintained that there was no occasion really to fear him because of the zeal, the courage and the patriotism of the Parisians who stood in his way.as a check.?* This was another of his renowned “oblique”? marches, for his object was to prevent Lafayette from being denounced to the municipality of Marseilles. How success- ful he was may be gathered from the Orateur du peuple which said: Mirabeau spoke and the phantom of the generalship vanished before all eyes like the smallest cloud before the first rays of the sun. Two days later the municipality of Marseilles was told that the society was not attached to any particular individual, but would not fail to denounce anyone who betrayed the public welfare.*® We have now before us the elements of the situation which produced the curious scene at the Jacobins on December 6. The * Compare this with his contemptuous opinion of Paris expressed a few days later in his forty-seventh note to the court, Bacourt, II, 417-18. Among other things consider the following: ‘Cent folliculaires, dont la seule ressource est le désordre; une multitude d’étrangers indépendants, qui soufflent la discorde dans tous lieux publics; tous les ennemis de lancienne court; une immense populace, accoutumée depuis une année a des succés et a des crimes; une foule de grands propriétaires qui n’osent pas se montrer, parce qu’ils ont trop a perdre; la réunion de tous les auteurs de la révolution et de ses principaux agents; dans les basses classes, la lie de la nation; dans les classes plus élevées, ce qu’elle a de plus corrompu, voila ce qui est Paris.” It would seem that if Lafayette had been the man for it, he might have found here the elements out of which to create a dangerous military, power. It was precisely because Mirabeau knew that Lafayette would not betray the country, but that a less scrupulous man might do so, given Lafayette’s opportunity, that he was not willing to take chances on a change such as Robespierre had attempted to bring about. ® Aulard, Société des Jacobins, I, 408-009. 360 Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 19 incident is incomprehensible when viewed merely as an attempt on the part of Mirabeau to restrain a violent orator. There is no evidence even that Robespierre was anything more than radical in his logic and not at all incendiary in the ordinary manner of the street agitator. He was reading from his manuscript and therefore not giving way under the applause of his auditors. Are we, then, to believe that Mirabeau, supposed by his most intimate friend La Marck to be so solicitous about his popularity that he would scarcely risk it for the most important objects, interfered in this instance merely to protect a Jacobin rule of conduct which was in reality no longer being observed and which he himself had upon a previous occasion helped to infringe? Not only this; by his intervention he indirectly sustained his enemy Lafayette who was directly menaced. Stranger still, Charles Lameth, an enemy of both Lafayette and Mirabeau, came to the rescue of the latter at the imminent peril of involving himself in the catastrophe which threatened to overwhelm the president. It is necessary to assume, on the contrary, that not only Mirabeau, but the rela- tively conservative party of the Lameths as well, saw in the endeavor of Robespierre the near approach of a new revolution which would have swept the middle class out of control and with it the new constitution. As if a premonition, an apparition of the Terror had come to frighten them, they forgot all the everyday animosities and ordinary considerations of individual advantage and hazarded everything in order to stifle the danger in its incipiency. 361 ‘ A . f i i t ‘ ( a ee | Vert os Att ' A few copies of Volumes I, II, III, IV, V, VI, vu, VIII, 1%, aap a ae are still to be had. Wi N ‘ rites OF ear THe NEw ERA PRINTING COMPANY y LANCASTER, PA. ITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES 3 9088 00876 4078 *