THE ORIGIN OF HOLIDAYS, 519 



inspires confidence between man and man, and gives stability to 

 customs and institutions. 



We can hardly appreciate tlie meaning of the appearance of 

 the new moon to the primitive man. It was the herald of a new 

 season of light to dispel his natural dislike and even fear of dark- 

 ness. The old Hindus and the Arabs through the Syrians sacri- 

 ficed at new and full moons. The Tasmanians danced at full 

 moon. One of the earliest recorded festivals of the ancient He- 

 brews is that of the new moon. This event was regularly cele- 

 brated by the chief of the Nootka Columbians, by causing a slave 

 to be killed to furnish a banquet, amid songs and dancing, to the 

 other chiefs of lower rank. A certain phase of the moon was also 

 the most frequent natural periodic event to suggest the memory 

 of events celebrated at the last moon, and were this memory vivid 

 enough the savage would be moved to renew his demonstrations. 

 The Uaup^s laments his dead from the time of death to burial, 

 and follows this with an Irish wake. Then a lunar month after 

 death the corpse is disinterred, roasted in a pan, the remaining 

 black mass is powdered, mixed with drink, and drunk. The fu- 

 neral wake among the Abyssinians is held some months after the 

 funeral. 



When man's memory grew stronger with his development, the 

 natural solar divisions of time acted as stimuli on his mind to 

 commemorate festival events. The ancient Peruvians feasted 

 each month of the year, but had their principal feasts at the sol- 

 stices and equinoxes. To the Sol grove, the abode of the family 

 gods or deceased ancestors, the Santals repair yearly, to worshijD 

 with dancing, music, chanting songs in memory of the founder, 

 and to hold sacrificial feasts of goats and fowls. Each family 

 danced about the tree, supposed to be the abode of its own god.. 

 The Karens * have an annual feast of the dead at a new moon,, 

 when the deceased are supposed to be present, and partake of the- 

 food and receive addresses. Among the Kalmucks four yearly 

 feasts are held: (1) New-year's, lasting for several days, with 

 feasting and good wishes. (2) Summer festival, with wrestling, 

 horse-racing, etc. (3) " Consecration of the water," when bodily 

 and spiritual ailments of the bathers in the water were cured. 

 (4) " Candle festival," at beginning of winter, when lights are lit 

 in the temple. The most important and popular feast among the 

 Malagasy is the New-year, or " bathing," that being the princi- 

 pal part of the ceremony. Ten or fifteen thousand bullocks, how- 

 ever, are usually killed at this time, and sacrifices are made to the 

 gods and at the tombs of the king's ancestors. The funeral cere- 

 monies of the Todas are usually celebrated annually by feasting, 



* Spencer's " Descriptive Sociology," No. V, " Asiatic Races," Table XXXVII, and 

 page 23. 



