112 Hutton Webster 



adopted the planetary names and has retained until the present day the 

 simple numbering of the week days after the Jewish fashion." 



The preceding discussion has indicated that in different regions 

 various considerations account for the special significance attached 

 to seven, as to many other numbers. Within the same cuUural 

 area the widespread cult of a sacred number such as seven must 

 likewise be explained by the operation of a variety of factors ; 

 and among these we are entitled to reckon the circumstance that 

 the four phases of the moon divide the lunation into periods, 

 approximately seven days in length. If the lunar changes were 

 marked by special observances and prohibitions it might naturally 

 result that their calendarizing into seven-day periods would give 

 the number seven certain mystic or evil associations derived from 

 these taboos, among a people so superstitious as the ancient Baby- 

 lonians. It would follow, therefore, that the septenary periods 

 disclosed in the calendar for Elul II and Marcheswan were not 

 arbitrarily chosen because of an earlier belief in the symbolic 

 meaning of the number seven. In the former chapters reasons 

 have been given for the natural origin of the seven-day cycle in 

 the quartering of a lunation ; and much testimony has been adduced 

 for the taboos which mark the close of the lunar phases or the 

 septenary divisions based thereon. To the analogies from other 

 regions may now be added the evidence yielded by the cuneiform 

 records of Babylonia. 



b. Babylonian Lunar Weeks 

 The Babylonian month, as has been seen, was a lunar month, 

 and like all lunar months began at least theoretically, with the 



-*The diffusion of the planetary week has been treated with exhaustive 

 learning by E. Schiirer, " Die siebentagige Woche im Gebrauche der 

 christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte," Zeitschrift fi'ir die neutes- 

 tamentliche Wisscnschaft, 1905, vi. 1-66, an article which incorporates 

 nearly everything of value in the earlier discussions of the problem. See 

 further Roscher, " Planeten," Ausfiihrlichcs Lexikoii, etc.. cols. 2518-39; 

 idem, " Hebdomadenlehren," 164 sqq.; O. Schrader, Reallexikon der 

 indogermanischen Altertumsknude. s. v. "Woche"; " Geschichte der 

 Namen der Wochentage,"' Zeitschrift fiir dcutsche Wortforschung, 1901, 

 i- 150-93. 



I 12 



