146 Hutton Webster 



thirty-six dies postriduani, or days following the Calends, Nones, 

 and Ides, which were also regarded as unlucky,* and as such 

 unsuitable for journeys and marches, were so indicated for some 

 special reason, such as a disaster to the state. Perhaps, however, 

 they were real survivals of taboos at new moon, first quarter, and 

 full moon, their assumed historic significance having been the con- 

 scious fiction of a later and more sophisticated age. 



Sometimes the belief in days lucky and unlucky is a conclusion 

 drawn from the observation of natural phenomena, as in the no- 

 tion previously referred to (supra) that during the " death " of 

 the moon all mundane business ought to be suspended. The con- 

 ception of luckiness and unluckiness may also be deduced a priori 

 from the assumed character of certain times. Thus the old Japa- 

 nese are said to have held five yearly festivals or holidays " pur- 

 posely laid on those days, which, by reason of their Imparity are 

 judged to be the most unfortunate." These were New Year's 

 day, the third day of the third month, the fifth of the fifth month, 

 the seventh of the seventh month, the ninth of the ninth month.^ 

 Sometimes, again the superstition rests on utterly trivial consid- 

 erations illustrated by a Jewish belief reaching back to the Talmud 

 that it is lucky to begin an undertaking or a journey on Tuesday, 

 because in describing the third day of creation it is said, " God 

 saw that it was good." Contrariwise it is unlucky to commence 

 anything of importance on Monday when this is not said at 

 all.'' Where such conceptions are rife they readily lend them- 

 selves to divination and astrology and under the fostering care of 

 practitioners of magical arts may develop into elaborate augural 

 codes. 



* Ovid, Fasti, i. 59 sq.; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 25; Livy, vi. i; 

 Aulus Gellius, v. 17. These days were usually described as the dies atri 

 vel vitiosi. The greater number of them were available for judicial busi- 

 ness, but not for meetings of the assemblies {dies fasti non comitiales). 



^ Kaempfer, History of Japan, ii. 22. In Korea the fifth, fifteenth, and 

 twenty-fifth of each month are called " broken days " when the people 

 avoid any new undertakings (W. E. Griffis, Corca," New York, 1889, p. 

 298). 



" Jacobs, " Superstition," in Jezvish Encyclopedia, xi. 599. 



146 



