Rest Days; A Sociological Study 103 



pose, however, that if borrowed, the Tshi seven-day week would 

 run continuously through the months and the year instead of 

 being so carefully adjusted to the length of the lunation. The 

 investigation of the weeks used by peoples in the lower culture has 

 been much neglected, and it would be interesting to learn if any 

 other hebdomadal cycles can be found where no possibility of 

 foreign influence exists. 



With the exception of the west African week, it seems cer- 

 tain that all other examples of a seven-day week can be traced 

 back to Oriental antiquity. It is highly probable that the 

 hebdomadal cycle found among the Arabians is pre-Islamic ; 

 whether it was borrowed by them from the Hebrews or, as 

 some Semitic scholars believe, from the Aramaeans, is a disputed 

 question.*''^ It is even possible that the institution in Arabia 

 was of native origin.'^'' Still other authorities have looked to 

 Babylonia as the center whence the knowledge and use of the 

 seven-day week was spread eastwards into Persia, westwards into 

 Syria, Palestine and Arabia.'*' Whatever hypothesis be accepted, 

 for the origin of the hebdomadal cycle employed for civil pur- 

 poses we are brought back to the regions of anterior Asia in- 

 habited by Semitic peoples in antiquity. 



VI. THE BABYLONIAN "EVIL DAYS" AND 

 SABATTU 



15. THE " EVIL days" 



The late George Smith, fortunate above most explorers in the 

 interest excited by his researches, when working over the cunei- 



°* Noldeke, " Die Namen der Wochentage bei den Semiten,'' Zeitschrift 

 fi'ir deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i. 162. 



"' Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion, 52 sqq. Since none of the 

 ancient Arabian inscriptions contain a hemerology we have no monu- 

 mental evidence as to the division of the month. The Harranians in 

 Christian times appear to have reckoned in true lunar weeks and months 

 (Nielsen, op. cit., 79). 



'" E. Schrader, " Der babylonische Ursprung der siebentrigigen Woche." 

 Thcologische Studicn and Kritiken, 1874, xlvii. 343-53. 



103 



