44 The Week 



be ascribed to a common source. Friday is the day held 

 sacred by the Mahometans since the 6th century, and by 

 the Hindoos for many thousands of years. Saturday is the 

 Sabbath of the Jews, who were therefore supposed, according 

 to Plutarch,* to be worshippers of Saturn. Sunday is held 

 sacred to rest or recreation wherever the Christian religion 

 prevails, and has been so since the 3rd century ; and as most 

 nations have worshipped the sun, it has probably been the 

 most generally observed in ancient times. 



Though the septenary cycle has been used by most 

 branches of the Aryan family, it seems singularly to have 

 been unknown to the Greeks, and to the Romans and ancient 

 Etruscans ; who used respectively cycles of eight and 

 ten days ; the two former until about the 2nd century after 

 our eraf. But though the dominion of the Romans in 

 Britain lasted till the 5th century, it is evident that our 

 ancestors did nofc acquire the week from them, but had 

 obtained it previously from Scandinavia, as is partly proved 

 by our present names of the days, which belong to the old 

 Scandinavian mythology. Indeed it seems not quite clear 

 whence the Romans acquired it. They did not get it with 

 their amended calendar from Egypt in Csesar's time, and it 

 seems that they could have got it from the north as easily 

 as from the east ; for the Saxons and Kelts and other 

 northern peoples had it long before their contact with the 

 Romans.^ Dio Cassius§ reports that the Romans derived 

 it shortly before his time (born ] 55) from the Egyptians, 

 who he says named the days from the seven planets — or 

 bodies then known — of our solar system. But the Egyptians 

 are positively asserted |] to have more anciently used a cycle 

 of ten — not seven — days ; and if they thus only acquired 

 the week so lately from the east, the probabilities of the 

 Romans having obtained it from the north are increased. 

 The Egyptians had not even any original astronomy of their 

 own, as Sir G. C. Lewis shews in his Astronomy of the 

 Ancients, chap, v., nor were the Chaldseans — from whom 



* Symposia 5. Other points of resemblance between the Jewish and 

 other mythologies are too striking for mere coincidence. Abraham corre 

 sponds with Brahma as well as with Saturn, Samson with Hercules 

 Jephtha's daughter with Iphigenia, &c, &c. 



t See Adams' Roman Antiquities, pp. 84 and 331. 



I Kees' Cyclopedia (week) and English Cyclopedia. 



§ History of Rome, vol. xxxvii. See Sir Gr. C. Lewis, Astronomy of 

 Ancients, p. 304. 



|| Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iv. p. 412, quoting Lepsius in a note. 



