Rest Days; A Sociological Study 1 15 



of the moon was regarded as the most ominous of signs, portend- 

 ing some public misfortune or disaster. 



Taken in its entirety the cuneiform evidence thus confirms the 

 evidence from the non-Babylonian area and makes it reasonably 

 certain that the " evil days " of the Rawlinson calendar owed their 

 origin to the quartering of the lunar month into lunar weeks. As 

 such they were analogous to the divisions of the lunation found 

 elsewhere in primitive and archaic culture. It may therefore be 

 argued with some confidence that the numerous regulations for 

 these critical days arose as lunar taboos bearing a close resem- 

 blance to those observed by man}- other peoples at the changes of 

 the moon. 



l6. TABOOS OBSERVED ON THE " EVIL DAYS " 



Recent students of Semitic magic have shown that the Sumer- 

 ians and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, were 

 familiar with the idea of tabu; the term uiauiit which appears so 

 frequently in the cuneiform records is exactly equivalent to tabu, 

 since it refers to that state of ritual impurity or ceremonial un- 

 cleanness which ensues on various circumstances and is regarded 

 as extremely contagious.-" Mamit may also be rendered as the 

 " ban " or prohibition which is attached to acts regarded as dan- 

 gerous and unclean. The third tablet of the Sliurpu series is 

 entirely devoted to these prohibitions and gives a list of no less 

 than one hundred and sixty-three taboos. " The tapus include 

 those which come from the family, old or young, friend or neigh- 

 bor, rich or poor ; oven, bellows, pots and cups, bed or couch, 

 chariot or weapons. To drink out of an unclean vessel, to sit in 

 the sun, to root up plants in the desert, to cut reeds in a thicket, 

 to slay the young of beasts, to pray with unclean hands, and a 

 host of other common actions, might under certain conditions 

 bring a tapu on the man."-"' It thus appears that the taboos at 

 critical or evil days represented to the Babylonians only a partic- 



^ C. Fossey, La magie assyrieiuie, Paris, 1902, p. 58. 



'"R. C. Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1904, 

 ii. p. xlv. 



115 



