Rest Days; A Sociological Study 3 



doned, songs, dances, and loud noises forbidden. Under these 

 conditions the cessation of labor merges into a cessation of all 

 the usual activities. The day of rest becomes a day of abstinence 

 and quiescence. 



It might be thought that such observances, especially those 

 which impose a period of rest, have a rationalistic basis and arise 

 from man's need of relaxation and idleness as a relief from daily 

 toil and the harsh conditions of existence. Yet for the vast pro- 

 portion of the rest days observed by primitive peoples it would be 

 rash to assume an origin in considerations of practical utility. A 

 survey of the evidence to be submitted suggests rather that the 

 Sabbatarian regulations have arisen chiefly, if not wholly, as pure 

 superstitions, the product of an all too logical intellect or of a 

 disordered fancy. In the last analysis they are based primarily 

 on fear, that " feare of things invisible," which Hobbes, fore- 

 shadowing modern anthropological theories, regarded as " the 

 naturall Seede of Religion."- They find their clearest expression 

 in the " taboos " or prohibitions first noticed amongst the natives 

 of the South Seas, but now known to exist in many other regions 

 of the aboriginal world.^ 



" Taboo " from the Polynesian tabu, is one of the few words 

 which the languages of the Pacific have contributed to our Eng- 

 lish speech. Tabu appears to be, properly, the Tongan term, 

 tapu, the word as found in Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, the 

 Society Islands, and New Zealand, kapu, the Hawaiian ex- 

 pression. The etymology of tapii is uncertain, though an attempt 

 has been made to derive it from ta, to mark, and pu, an adverb 

 of intensity. The compound tapu would then mean "marked 

 thoroughly," and would come to signify " sacred " or " pro- 



- Leviathan, chap. xi. 



' For the leading facts relating to the institution of taboo (as opposed 

 to the numerous theories which have been built upon it) see J. G. Frazer, 

 "Taboo," Encyclopaedia Britannica^ xxiii. 15-18; idem. Taboo and the 

 Perils of the Soul, London, 191 1 {The Golden Bough,^ pt. ii.) ; L. ]\Iaril- 

 lier, "Tabou," La grande encyclopedic, xxx. 84^-49; A. Bros, La religion 

 des peuples non-civilises, Paris 1907, pp. 185-207. 



