Rest Days; A Sociological Study 53 



the three days labor. ""'^ The Akposo of Togolancl have a five-day 

 week, the fiftli day being held sacred to their creator-god, 

 Uwolowo, whose name it bears. The other gods are worshipped 

 on the second day of the week, a time when no work may be 

 done.°° Among the tribes of the Niger interior each town is 

 said to hold a market once in four days.^^ 



The natives of Africa, whether Bantu or negro, are the keenest 

 of traders, and it might be supposed therefore that the cessation 

 of agricultural labor on the market-days has only an utilitarian 

 object in view. The origin of markets remains an obscure ques- 

 tion ; but the evidence from such different areas as Australia, 

 Melanesia, the Andaman Islands, and America, indicates that 

 neighboring peoples come together in the first instance for the 

 celebration of religious rites and festivals at the conclusion of 

 which there is opportunity for the interchange of gifts and barter- 

 ing.^- Similarly to the Greeks the Olympic games furnished the 

 occasion for a great fair ; in modern Europe all the important 

 Church festivals are followed by fairs ; in England however, the 

 festival has become obsolete, the market having completely taken 

 its place. These considerations suggest that on closer inquiry 

 the African market-days may be shown to have had a religious 

 origin, and that formerly their principal feature was not buying 

 and selling but the performance of sacred ceremonies accom- 

 panied by a superstitious cessation of labor. 



The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis have 

 supplied a considerable body of information regarding certain 

 of the west African sabbaths which serves to strengthen the 

 hypothesis formulated above. Our information relates to the 

 Tshi-speaking and Ga-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, and to 



^"F. E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans, London, 1851, p. 181. 



^" Miiller, in Anthropos, 1907, ii. 201. Uwolowo corresponds to the Ewe 

 "high god," Mawu {infra). 



°^ William Allen, Narrative of the Expedition Sent by her Majesty's 

 Government to the River Niger in 1841, London, 1848, i. 398. 



^'H. L. Roth, "Trading in Early Days," Bankfield Museum Notes, Hali- 

 fax (Eng.), 1908, no. 5, pp. 22, sqq.; Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, 

 29, 31- 



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