56 Hutton Webster 



serve fi-da, the fifth day of the week, as the regular rest day 

 for farmers.''" In Coomassie, the Ashanti capital, no agricultural 

 work may be done on Thursday.^^ 



Three of the peoples studied by Ellis divide the month into 

 weeks and observe one day of each week as a general day of 

 rest. Thus the Tshi keep dyo-da, the first day of their seven- 

 day week, as a sabbath."- The Ga-speaking tribes, who also 

 employ the hebdomadal cycle, observe the first day as a com- 

 munal sabbath. Its name, dsii, means " purification," a term 

 which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon."^ The 

 Yorubas on the Slave Coast have a week of five days. Ako-ojo, 

 the first day of the week, "is a sabbath, or day of general rest. 

 It is considered unlucky, and no business of importance is ever 

 undertaken on it. On this day all the temples are swept out, and 

 water, for the use of the gods, is brought in procession."®* 



"" Ellis, Tshi-S peaking Peoples, 220. 



^"■Ibid., 304. 



^ Ibid., 220. Each of the days has its appropriate name derived from 

 that of a distinguished chief, semi-deified after death (ibid., 218 sq.). 

 The suffix da, attached to all the weekday names comes from the verb 

 da " to sleep," though da or eda has now acquired the meaning of " day." 

 A week is da-pen, " a set of days " or nuaotyo, " eight days," because the 

 week contains seven days and part of an eighth (una = the plural of da). 



^ Ellis, Yornba-S peaking Peoples, 147. An old writer, whose observa- 

 tions were confined to Accra on the Gold Coast, speaks of haughbah as 

 one of the two sacred days of the week. It is compulsory on all ranks 

 and sexes, but is especially observed by women. " Under the supposition 

 that some malign potency pervades the surrounding country on this 

 day, more particularly directed against the pregnant women, their 

 daily avocations are restricted within the walls of their domiciles, no 

 egress being tolerated either for the purposes of travelling or other 

 exterior occupations. Not many people therefore presume to violate these 

 injunctions by issuing forth early in the forenoon, and none resort to 

 their familiar haunts in the markets or public thoroughfares, until the 

 prohibition has been withdrawn by the well-known sign of a declining sun " 

 (Daniell, in Journal of the Ethnological Society, 1856, iv. 23). 



** Ellis, op. cit., 145. The market is held weekly, that is, every fifth day, 

 but never on the ako-ojo (ibid., 149)- This is the only instance with 

 which T am familiar where the market day does not coincide with the 

 general day of rest. 



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