Rest Days; A Sociological Study 85 



health and maintenance, contributed to the observation of the 

 moon and to the formation of hmar calendars.^ 



If the desirabihty of observing the successive moons was felt 

 by frugivorous and pastoral peoples it will be readily seen how 

 the introduction of agricultural operations, often accompanied by 

 religious ceremonies and festivals, rendered definite and clearly 

 marked divisions of time a matter of the greatest moment. It is 

 therefore probable that rude popular calendars based on the moon 

 were in use long before more accurate observations were made by 

 primitive astronomers.- There is much evidence for the practice 

 of naming the moon months after the different agricultural opera- 

 tions, such as planting and harvesting, which occur in them. 

 Among both Babylonians and Hebrews, for example, the early 

 epithets of the months are connected with agriculture and the 

 farmer's life.^ 



A survey of the anthropological and historical data indicates 

 that for most primitive peoples as well as for those of archaic 

 civilizations, the moon is the measure of time and that the period 

 of a lunation furnishes the customary unit for longer reckonings. 

 Lunar months and years are general throughout Africa, Poly- 

 nesia and North America ; lunar calendars in Mexico and Yucatan 

 preceded the introduction of the solar year, the ancient Peruvians 

 reckoned by the succession of lunations, as still do the Malagasy, 

 the Arabs and the Chinese. The importance of the moon for the 

 ancient Egyptian and Babylonian calendars is shown by the fact 

 that in the one case the hieroglyph signifying month was repre- 

 sented by a crescent moon, in the other case by the regular use 

 of the sign for thirty to indicate the moon-god Sin. Linguistic 



^ Cf. Payne, History of the Nezv World Called America, Oxford, 1899, 

 ii. 327 sq. 



* These considerations make it impossible for me to accept M. Hubert's 

 conclusion that the first calendars were merel}- almanacs which registered 

 day by day various prognostics and directions of a magico-religious char- 

 acter. See his valuable essay " fitude sommaire de la representation du 

 temps dans la religion et la magie," in Hubert and Mauss, Melanges 

 d'histoire des religions, Paris, 1909, pp. 228 sq. 



^Jastrow, op. cit., 462. 



85 



