42 Hutfon Webster 



when superstition had somewhat relaxed its grip, they became 

 festive occasions (infra), celebrated so luxuriously that both 

 Sulla and Augustus felt themselves obliged to promulgate laws 

 restricting the expenditure at such times, is only another instance 

 of man's ineradicable tendency to convert his fast days into feast 

 days.-^ 



9. QUASI- HOLY DAYS 



In addition to those seasons of sacredness which come at times 

 devoted to the worship of the gods, there are also found certain 

 rest days, more or less regular in occurrence, following at short 

 intervals after periods of continuous labor. Such quasi-holy 

 days, as they may be styled provisionally, might appear to have a 

 purely utilitarian origin. As far as my investigations have pro- 

 ceeded they indicate the absence of periodic rest days among 

 migratory hunting and fishing peoples-^ and among nomadic 

 pastoral tribes. A wandering hunter recjuires no regular day of 

 rest, since his life passes in alternations of continuous labor 

 while following the chase and of almost uninterrupted idleness 

 after a successful hunt. For the shepherd there can be no relaxa- 



"^ See generally on the feriae Wissowa, Religion und Kttltiis der Roiiicr, 

 365 sqq.; A. S. Wilkins, "Feriae," in Smith, Wayte, and Marindin, 

 Dictionary of Grceti and Roman Antiquities^ London, 1891, ii. 836-38; 

 C. Julian, " Feriae," in Daremberg and Saglio, op. cit., iv. 1042 sqq., where 

 the pertinent literature is fully cited. 



■"The Indians of Cape Flattery are said to make the month of August 

 a tribal season of repose when no berries are picked or fish taken from the 

 sea, except occasionally by children (Swan, in SmitJisonian Contributions 

 to Knozdedge. xvi. no. 220, p. 91). Perhaps the practice was consciously 

 designed to establish a " closed season," though this is probably attributing 

 too much foresight to the Indian. The fish or berries may have been 

 considered unfit for eating in August. Among the Beni of Benin during 

 the first month of their dry season, tire harvest of yams having been 

 reaped, the people say they " rest and chop " (R. E. Dennett, At the 

 Back of tlie Black Man's Mind, London, 1906, p. 216). Here a season of 

 rest is observed by an agricultural people because they have no special 

 labor to perform. Similarly, among the Akikuyu of British East Africa, 

 there are three months in the year when little or no work is done since the 

 crops are then ripening (Dundas, in .l/(7», 1909, ix. 38). 



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