Rest Days; A Sociological Study 75 



moon festival when they abstain from all work, "' alleging that if 

 thev infringed this rule corn and rice would grow red, the new 

 moon being a 'day of blood. '"^^ Various other west African 

 sabbaths which possibly had a former connection with lunar taboos 

 have been previously noticed (supra). 



In modern Ceylon and India we meet occasional references to 

 rites at new and full moon, though it is not improbable that they 

 have come down from ancient times. Thus the Sinhalese Kand- 

 vans do not gather the paddy crop on days when changes in the 

 moon take place. The same prohibition is observed on inaus- 

 picious days generally. •'- In northern India the appearance of 

 the new moon is an unfavorable time for undertaking important 

 business. "^^ The Canarese, whose superstitions relating to the last 

 day of the lunar month have already been noticed, do not plough 

 their fields at new moon and full moon. At neither of these 

 times are marriages permitted.*^** In Kumaon and Garhwal, how- 

 ever, ''the eighth, eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth lunar days, 

 both of the increase and decrease of the moon in each month, are 

 considered fortunate days. At the full moon in the months 

 Asarh, Kartik, Magh, and Vaisakh religious ceremonies are pecu- 

 liarly meritorious, while on the third lunar day in Vaisakh their 

 merit is imperishable. There are many other propitious days in 

 the year.""^ The Badagas of the Nilgiri Hills in southeastern 

 India consider those children as unlucky who are born on the day 



*' A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, London, 1894, p. 146. 



^^Kehelpannala, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1896, xxv. 

 108. According to the same authority, abstinence from agricuUural labor 

 is also observed on days when poya, the Buddhist Sabbath, occurs. Poya 

 means properly the dark day of the new moon (R. S. Hardy, Manual of 

 BiidJiisni,' London, 1880, pp. 22, 50). 



"" Crooke, op. cit., i. 23. 



" Gengnagel, in Ausland, 1891, p. 871 sq. 



^ I am indebted for this information to Dr. K. T. Waugh, now of Beloit 

 College, Wisconsin, in a letter dated February 7, 191 1. Among the 

 Kumaon. people it would seem that the changes of the moon are now con- 

 sidered as favorable or hickv occasions. 



75 



