52 Hiitton Webster 



The men, who repose habitually, work still less on that day. 

 They walk, sport, and go to market. The missionaries have 

 never been able to procure from the negroes any explanation of 

 this period of four days which forms their week."*^ In Congo 

 Frangais the Bavili week also consists of four days. Sona is the 

 men's day of rest, but the women's market day when only the 

 women buy and sell in the market. At that time it is regarded 

 as wrong for husbands to have intercourse with their wives. 

 Another day, called nfona, is reserved for the women, who may 

 not plant at this time. Burials also take place on the ntoiia 

 day.*" Among the Ibo and other tribes of Southern Nigeria, eke, 

 the fourth day of the week, is observed as a day of rest and a 

 market day.*^ In Great Benin the fifth day of the week was 

 observed as a rest day by farmers, though other than agricultural 

 labor might be carried on.*® In Dahomi every fourth day is said 

 to be a holiday, " not kept holy, but devoted to the will of the 

 working classes ; in short, a sort of remuneration to the slave for 



^^ The Abbe Proyart, " History of Loango," in Pinkerton's Voyages 

 and Travels, xvi. 576. Cf. also, Waitz, Anfhropologie der Naturvolkcr, 

 Leipzig, i860, ii. 201, who cites other authorities, to me inaccessible, for the 

 attribution of the day to the gods. 



■•"R. E. Dennett, At the Back of the Black Man's Mind, London, 1906, 

 pp. 64, 140. Among the lower Congo tribes, generally, the dead are 

 buried only on two days, nsona and nkandu, of the four-day week (J. H. 

 Weeks, in Folk-Lore, 1909, xx. 61). 



^'A. G. Leonard, The Lozuer Niger and its Tribes, London, 1906, pp. 

 305, 375.' Cf. also Globus, viii. 90. Seven weeks are counted to the month 

 of twenty-eight days (W. F. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage, 

 London, 1856, p. 316). According to Bosnian the negroes of Fida held a 

 great market every three days (Pinkerton, xvi. 483). 



^^ Cyril Punch, quoted in H. L. Roth, Great Benin, Halifax (Eng.), 1903, 

 p. 52, »\ Nyendael, at the opening of the eighteenth century, remarks on 

 this custom as follows : " Their Sabbath happens every fifth day, which is 

 very solemnly observed by the great, -with the slaughter of cows, sheep, 

 and goats, whilst the commonalty kill dogs, cats, and chickens, or what- 

 ever their money will reach. And of whatever is killed, large portions 

 are distributed to the necessitous, in order to enable them, as every person 

 is obliged to celebrate this festival" (ibid.). See also (Miss) Tucker, 

 Abbeokuta, London, 1858, p. 37; Bosnian, '"Guinea," in Pinkerton's 

 J'oyages and Travels, xvi. 531. 



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