Rest Days; A Sociological Study 97 



northern Abyssinians. Every month contains four weeks, of 

 which the first two are those of the increasing moon and the 

 last two those of the decreasing moon. People say, however, 

 that in reality the month has only three weeks and six days — 

 and so it is {und das ist wahr).*^ This Abyssinian evidence 

 may be taken as making it reasonably certain that the Roman 

 nundinal period (supra), the only 8-day week found in archaic 

 culture, arose from the quartering of the lunation, since the 

 length of the latter (29^ days) may be calendarized in quarters, 

 either of seven or of eight days. The Roman month was 

 originally lunar and at all periods was divided by the real or 

 (later) by the imaginary phases of the moon.'*' In historical 

 times, however, the nundinal period, like the Jewish seven-day 

 week, was independent of the moon, running unfettered from 

 month to month and from year to year.*^ 



^"Littmann, " Sternensagen und Astrologisches aus Nordabessinien," 

 Archiv fiir Religionsmssenschaft, 1908, xi. 302 sq., 319. In order to adapt 

 this native 8-day week to the imported hebdomadal cycle, Sunday is 

 counted twice. 



"Th. Mommsen, Die romische Chronologie, 13 sq., 215 sq.; Marquardt- 

 Wissowa, Romische Staafsvenmltung, Leipzig, 1885, iii.' 282 sq. On the 

 Calends see supra. The Nonac or Nones, marking first quarter, were so- 

 called because they were the ninth day {nanus) before the Ides {Varro, 

 De ling. Lat.. vi. 28). Plutarch's derivation from novus, new or young, 

 referring to the waxing moon, has no. justification (Quaest. Rom., 24). 

 The Ides, or day of the full moon, came on the 13th or 15th day of the 

 month, depending on whether the Nones fell on the Sth or the 7th ; the 

 day, however, was always the eighth after first quarter. The term Idus 

 has been derived from Etruscan iduo, to divide (Macrobius, Sat. i. 15), 

 but more probably the word goes back to a Sanskrit root, iiidh, idh, to 

 kindle, lighten. The Nones were sacred to no deity, but the Calends were 

 consecrated to Juno who had an ancient connection with the moon, and 

 the Ides to Jupiter. 



^*The evidence of the Fasti Sabiiii (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 

 i. part i.^ 220), drawn up between the years 19 B.C.-4 A.D., has been taken 

 to imply the existence of a week of seven days among the Sabines until 

 the close of the Roman republic (Marquardt-Wissowa, op. cit., iii." 289). 

 But the reference must certainly be to an early instance of the use of the 

 planetary or astrological week introduced from the East. See infra, 

 and cf. Gundermann, " Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Romern," 

 Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 177). 



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