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-hi, 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 

 offirali-hi 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.^" 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 society 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 lustifnfe. 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 Ethnologic, 1898, xxx. 355). 



''"A. B. Ellis, Tshi-S peaking Peoples, London, 1887, pp. 227 sq. 



*" Primitive Secret Societies, Xew York, 1908, pp. 104 sq. 



"Walker, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1^77, vi. 121 sq. 

 Cf. R. E. Dennett. Nigerian Studies, London, 1910, pp. 41 sq. {Ore con- 

 finements among the Egbas). 



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