Rest Days; A Sociological Study 73 



In old Hawaii four periods in every month, lasting two nights 

 and a day each, " were consecrated or made tahu.''-'^ These 

 epochs were dedicated severally to the four great gods, vis: Ku, 

 from the third to the sixth night ; Hua, at full moon, including 

 the fourteenth and fifteenth nights ; Kaloa or Kanaloa, the twenty- 

 fourth and twenty-fifth nights ; Kane, the twenty-seventh and 

 twenty-eighth nights. " During these tabu periods a devout king 

 generally spent the time in the heiau, and no person could pass its 

 limits on pain of death. "^* The Hawaiian evidence is a very 

 clear indication of the practice of consecrating to particular divini- 

 ties certain times as sacred, which formerly w^ere tabooed for 

 quite different reasons. 



Among the Land Dayaks of Borneo at full moon and on the 

 third day after it (called biibiik), it is thought dangerous to do 

 any farm work, for the paddy would be devoured by blight and 

 mildew. In some tribes the unlucky days are those of the new 

 and full moon, and its first and third quarters."'^ With this ac- 

 count it is interesting to compare the statement of a native Dayak 

 who has given us a remarkable description of the religious rites 

 and customs observed by his people. He says : " The news of a 

 death occurring in the neighborhood or at a distance, the time of 

 full moon, the performance of ceremonies over the sick by the 

 medicine man, a sacrifice to the spirits, are incidents that require 

 all the villagers to rest from work. Likewise if some of the vil- 

 lagers attend a feast in a neighboring village, those that remain 

 behind must rest from work lest they should incur the anger of 



would not account for the other forms of abstinence, in addition to the 

 cessation of labor, which occur in connection with the moon's changes. 

 And as we shall see, the observance of lunar taboos may be quite disas- 

 sociated from true moon-worship and probably long antedates the latter 

 cult. 



°'Jarves, op. cit., 83. 



"W. D. Alexander, Brief History of the Haivaiian People, New York, 

 1891, pp. 50 sqq. The author's work is largely based on unpublished 

 Hawaiian manuscripts and the early archives of the government. 



^ H. L. Roth, Natives of Sarazvak and British North Borneo, London, 

 1896. i. 401. 



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