Rest Days; A Sociological Study 153 



indicating the things to be done or avoided, the animals whose 

 encounter or sight should be shunned, adds a summary of the 

 motives which justified his recommendations. In almost every 

 case this is a legendary episode of the gods. Men were bene- 

 fited or injured by the pleasure or pain of the gods.-*' 



The Babylonian augural calendar for the intercalated month 

 of EIul and for Marcheswan (supra) is not the only example 

 of omen literature to be found in the cuneiform records. We 

 possess a document,-^ preserved in great part, which includes 

 every day in the year, either specifying its nature as favorable 

 or unfavorable or adding other indications with regard to its 

 character. A note like " hostility," appended to the twenty-first 

 day of the second month is an omen that the gods are out of 

 humor on that day ; the twenty-third day described as " heart not 

 good " is explained by the contrast " heart glad " on the follow- 

 ing day. Not content with a simple distinction of favorableness 

 and unfavorableness, the calendar also deals with days "wholly 

 favorable " and " half favorable." Still other days are noted 

 as those portending "distress," "trouble," "tears," "injury," 

 " darkness," " moon obscured," and the like. The precautions 

 and prohibitions set forth for unlucky days include, among many 

 others, the familiar taboos of eating specified foods, of sexual 

 intercourse, of buying and selling, wearing bright garments, 

 travelling, holding law courts, and so on. The calendar con- 

 tains a number of references to the king and may very probably 

 have served the priests in their instructions to the monarch. As 

 Professor Jastrow remarks, the belief in lucky and unlucky days 

 has a distinctly popular flavor, making it probable that the priests 

 embodied in their lists many of the notions that arose among the 

 people, and gave them an official sanction. 



The Greeks in Hesiod's time possessed an elaborate calendar 



^ Maspero, New Light on Ancient Egypt, 129. 



'^Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, v. pis. 48, 49; 

 Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 379 sqq.; Bohn, Der Sabbat 

 iin Alien Testanioit, 55 sqq. 



153 



