“ TOBIAS DAYS ”—ORIGIN 435 
continence enjoined on the newly married could only be 
disregarded if the husband had previously paid for the privilege 
a fee to some religious authority, came to be known as “ Tobias 
Days.” 
No searching, however diligent, of the Septuagint or of 
our A. or R. Versions, nor (it seems) of the Aramaic text of the 
tale of Tobit sheds light on the origin of the custom or of the 
application of the name. 
The Vulgate, however, which the Roman Church adopts, 
sets forth the story of the abstinence of Tobias from Sara. 
“Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said unto her: Sara, 
arise, and let us pray to God to-day, and to-morrrow, and the 
next day: because for these three nights we are joined to God : 
and when the third night is over we will be in our wedlock. 
For we are the children of the Saints, and we must not be 
joined together like the heathen who know not God.” ! 
From this (apparently) solitary and quite different version 
sprang the custom of the “ Tobias Days,” and the jus prime 
noctts, of which the usual conception is ‘a monstrous fable 
born of ignorance, prejudice, and confusion of ideas.’’ 2 
The custom of continence for varying periods probably 
springs from the common widespread belief (of which Tobit 
affords a Semitic example) that demons lie in wait to harm 
newly-married couples, and from the hope that if allowed free 
1 Tobit, viii. 4 and 5 (Douai version). The fatuity of his reasoning, 
although with seven predecessors slain by the demon much must be pardoned 
to Tobias, is obvious, when we discover that the practice of deferring the 
consummation of marriage for a certain time is older than Tobit and Christi- 
anity, and has been observed by heathen tribes, not on any ascetic principle, 
in many parts of the world. Hence, ‘‘ we may reasonably infer that far from 
instituting the rule and imposing it on the pagans, the Church, on the contrary, 
borrowed it (like much else) from the heathen, and sought to give it a scriptural 
sanction by appealing to the authority of the angel Raphael.” Frazer, op. 
cit., I. 505. 
2 The whole question is fully treated by J. G. Frazer, op. cit., vol. I., pp. 
485-530, and Adonis, Aitis, and Osiris, 3rd ed., vol. I., pp. 57-60. Some 
writers hold that the period of continence originated at an ancient time when 
it was deemed advisable that the deflowering should be effected by a god or 
his representatives—in Israel the Sacred Men—so that the woman should 
receive strength to bear children to her husband. For the practice they rely 
on Hosea iv. 14, and for the deferment to the seventh night on Gen. xxix. 
27, and in the correction of the reading in Judges, xiv. 18, from ‘‘ before the 
sun went down” to “ before he went into her chamber.” The evidence to 
my mind is far from convincing. 
