Rest Days; A Sociological Study 45 



we are left in the dark. The same obscurity veils the " sabbath " 

 kept by the Lolos, Pula, and other aboriginal tribes of western 

 China, as a rule, every sixth day. No ploughing must take 

 place at this time, and in some places the women are not even 

 allowed to sew or wash clothes.-" Among the Kafirs of north- 

 eastern Afghanistan there is a rest day called agar which occurs 

 weekly, on Thursday or Saturday, but only during the months 

 from April to September when field work is in progress. The 

 traveller who mentions the agars seems to imply that they were 

 rigorously observed by the male members of a village, though only 

 field work was stopped for women who were constantly to be 

 seen carrying stones or earth for building operations or engaged 

 in other coolie labor on the rest days. Though our authority 

 failed to discover the origin of this Kafir institution he suggests 

 that it may have been once considered as an unlucky day since the 

 people were averse to starting on a journey as well as to engag- 

 ing in farm labor at such a time.-^ 



ceremonially killed. Again, the Bontoc Igorot have several rites connected 

 with climate. The fakil ceremony for rain occurs four times a year, on 

 four succeeding days, and is performed by four different priests. " There 

 is the usual ceremonial pig killing by the priest, and each night preceding 

 the ceremony all the people cry : ' I-teng'-ao ta-ko nan fa-Jul'.' This is 

 only an exclamation, meaning, " Rest day ! We observe the ceremony for 

 rain!" (Jenks, op. cit., 213). These and other examples given by Prof. 

 Jenks in his monograph indicate clearly that the Bontoc feasts and cere- 

 monies are intended to propitiate evil-minded spirits and to secure material 

 blessings from Lumawig, the supreme being. The analogies from Borneo 

 and Assam suggest that here in Luzon the rest accompanying the rites has 

 likewise a propitiatory character quite as much as the prayers and 

 sacrifices. The same interpretation would accordingly apply to the regular 

 rest day called teng-ao', although the latter seems now to be regarded 

 chiefly as a holiday. The small boys, says Prof. Jenks, " make more noise 

 in the evening before the rest day, crying ' Tcng-ao' ! whi tcng-ao'!' 

 ('Rest day! hurrah! rest day!'), than I have heard from the pueblo at 

 any other time" (op. cit., 205). 



^ Henry, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1903, xxxiii. 105. 



^ (Sir) G. S. Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, London, 1896, pp. 

 579 sq. Though the Kafirs now have free intercourse with their Moham- 

 medan neighbors there is no reason to believe that the agar day owes any- 

 thing to the Mohammedan sabbath which comes on Friday and is observed 

 throughout the year. 



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