ON THE ORIGIN OF WEEKS AND SABBATHS. 339 



As a rule the institution of the sabbath appears to be pri- 

 marily due to moon-worship, a form of worship which seems to 

 have been almost universal. With all deference to the opinion 

 of that school which fancies it can trace a solar myth in almost 

 every tradition and folklore tale, we think that moon-worship was 

 and is much more general than sun-worship, and for the simple 

 reason that the regular daily recurrence of the sun is far less 

 likely to excite speculation and wonder in uncivilized man than 

 the varying phases and periodical disappearance and reappear- 

 ance of the moon. 



We imagine that the earliest moon sabbath was a monthly 

 festival, held on the day when the new moon was first seen. The 

 Mendis of Sierra Leone abstain from all work on the day of the 

 new moon, alleging that if they infringed this rule the corn and 

 rice would grow red, the day of the new moon being a " day of 

 blood," from which we may perhaps infer that human sacrifices 

 were once offered to the new moon. The Bechuanas of South 

 Africa also observe the day of twenty-four hours, from the ap- 

 pearance of the new moon at sunset till next evening, as a day of 

 rest, and the people refrain from going to their gardens. Neither 

 the Mendis nor the Bechuanas have subdivided the lunar month 

 into weeks, so here we have examples of peoples who reckon time 

 by lunar months and observe a monthly moon sabbath. 



If we suppose this to be the first stage, and the lunar month 

 to be subsequently divided into weeks, then it follows that the 

 first day of the first week will be the festival or sabbath of the 

 new moon, as was the case in Sofala. Then, because the first 

 day of the first week is a moon sabbath, it will naturally happen 

 in some cases, through a connection of ideas, that the first day of 

 each week will be dedicated to the moon, and the moon sabbath 

 will recur as often in the month as the latter contains weeks. 

 We have evidence of this among the Tshi and Ga tribes, among 

 whom moon- worship is no longer found, except in so far that the 

 new moon is always saluted with reverence, but that it used to 

 prevail is shown by the moon's epithet BoJisiim, holy, sacred, or 

 deity. Dyo-da, the name of the first day of the Tshi week, means 

 "day of rest," in the sense of a general day of rest for all people, 

 for the moon was worshiped by all classes, and not, like the gods 

 of the sea and agriculture, by special sections of the community 

 only. Dyo-da was a day of rest for everybody, while Bna-da 

 was only a day of rest for seafaring folk and Fi-da for husband- 

 men. Dsu, the name of the first day of the Ga week, means 

 " purification," and because it was sacred to the moon Dsu seems 

 to have become a title of the moon, for in the cognate Yoruba 

 and Ewe languages we find the moon called Osu and Dsunu re- 

 spectively, and in Ga itself the word silver is rendered by dsu-etei, 



