Chapter I: Preface

What perhaps might be described as the first edition of this work appeared in 1911 in the _University Studies_ of the University of Nebraska. The title of the original monograph has been retained for the present volume, in which the same line of argument is followed and the same conclusions are reached. After a lapse of nearly five years I have not felt the necessity of modifying, to any essential degree, the results of the earlier investigation. The book, then, differs from its predecessor chiefly in providing a more extensive collection of the relevant data.

Although much has been written on the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, and on the assumed Babylonian prototype of these institutions, little inquiry has hitherto been made into the rest days so commonly observed outside the Semitic area in antiquity and later ages. The principal reason for this neglect of the comparative aspects of the subject must doubtless be found in the still imperfect appreciation of the fact that the great institutions of modern civilization have their roots in the beliefs and customs, and often in the superstitions, of savage and barbarian society. It will be the task of social anthropology, by an impressive accumulation of evidence, to make this truth a commonplace of popular knowledge.

Among the friends and correspondents who have aided me by criticisms and suggestions I wish particularly to mention Dr. Crawford H. Toy, now Professor Emeritus in Harvard University, and Dr. Louis H. Gray, now Assistant Editor of Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_. Mr. G. D. Swezey, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Nebraska, was good enough to help me in some troublesome details relating to the calendar. The late Walter Kendall Jewett, formerly University Librarian, and the kindest and most genial of men, put at my disposal many books which otherwise would have been difficult of access. To my honoured colleague, Professor George Elliott Howard, I owe the inspiration, reaching back to undergraduate days, which comes from association with one whose devotion to scholarly ideals is matched only by his enthusiasm for social service. Finally, I must acknowledge my obligation to Chancellor Samuel Avery, whose interest in the book has made possible its publication at this time.

HUTTON WEBSTER.

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, February, 1916.

ERRATA

Page 80, note 2, _read_: p. 156; Macrobius, _Satur-_

Page 92, note, _read_: αὖον ἀπὸ χλωροῦ τάμνειν αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ

Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Observance of days of abstinence and quiescence not unknown in the
lower culture, p. 1.—Probable origin of the sabbatarian regulations
in primitive taboos, pp. 1, 2.—_Tabu_ in Polynesia and equivalent
customs in other parts of the world, pp. 2, 3.—Classification of
taboos, p. 4.—Characteristics of taboos, pp. 4, 5.—Their animistic
sanctions, pp. 5, 6.—Reasons for imposing taboos which necessitate
abstinence and quiescence, pp. 6, 7.—Connection of communal taboos
with those observed by individuals, p. 7.