Rest Days; A Sociological Study 1 1 



From the fragmentary notices preserved in the older hteraturc 

 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 w^ere 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. 



I I 



