Chapter IV: Market Days

Rest days, more or less regular in occurrence and following at short intervals after periods of continuous labour, are frequently observed by primitive agriculturists. Sabbaths of this sort seem to be unknown among migratory hunting and fishing peoples or among nomadic pastoral tribes.[256] A wandering hunter requires no regular day of rest, since his life passes in alternations of continuous labour, while following the chase, and of almost uninterrupted idleness, after a successful hunt. For the shepherd there can be no relaxation of the diurnal duties, for every morning the cattle must be driven abroad to pasture, they must be watched and watered, and at night they must be milked. And, as Rudolf von Ihering has suggested, the shepherd, compared with the farmer, scarcely needs a regular rest day; his occupation causes him so little continuous exertion that he can pursue it all the year round without any injury to his health. A farmer, however, is benefited by a period of rest recurring more or less regularly, and, though agricultural pursuits are dependent on the seasons and weather, he is usually able to postpone his work for a brief period without serious loss. It might be argued, therefore, that the change from pastoral to agricultural life would itself be sufficient to call into existence the institution of a periodic rest day.[257] The evidence to be submitted suggests, however, that the connection of the rest day with the farmer’s pursuits is secondary, rather than direct, and is due to the obvious fact that the Sabbath institution implies a settled life, a more or less developed form of social organization and government, and something approaching a calendar system.

The greater number of periodic rest days observed by agricultural peoples in the lower stages of culture are associated with the institution of the market.[258] Days on which markets regularly take place are not infrequently characterized by sabbatarian regulations. It is necessary, therefore, to present in some detail the evidence for market weeks and market days in various parts of the world.[259]

Some Australian tribes have established trade centres, where there are periodical meetings for the purpose of exchanging the products and manufactures of neighbouring communities. More or less bartering occurs also in connection with great tribal convocations, especially those for the initiation ceremonies.[260] Necessarily, such gatherings take place at infrequent intervals. The beginnings of regular markets may, however, be traced in certain parts of New Guinea and among some of the Melanesian Islands. The natives of the Mekeo District of British New Guinea are said to hold markets, every fifth day at Mawaia and Mohu (on the banks of the Angabunga River), and at other intervals elsewhere. Women from several villages will assemble at some appointed place, usually on the boundary between two tribes, and there will exchange their products for commodities from other localities. The bartering lies entirely in the hands of the women, who, however, are accompanied by a few armed men acting as a guard.[261] The Kerepunu of Hood Peninsula, to the east of Port Moresby, are described by a missionary who knew them well as most industrious farmers: every morning men, women, and children go to work in the fields and return only at nightfall. “They have a rule, to which they strictly adhere all the year round, of working for two days and resting the third.”[262] The Kerepunu rest day may have originated in a practice, now lapsed, of holding a market every third day, since there is evidence for the former existence of markets in the neighbourhood of Port Moresby.[263] The natives of Patipi and Roembatti, on the MacCluer Gulf in the extreme western part of Dutch New Guinea, have markets, which as a rule recur every fifth day.[264] In the Gazelle Peninsula, Bismarck Archipelago, markets at which the women buy and sell take place every third day.[265] In New Caledonia, where each tribe is divided into sea-folk and bush-folk, the former being cocoa-tree planters and fishers, the latter being yam-growers, there is said to be a lively market conducted each week by the women. “The ladies [_sic_] of each section of the tribe sit down in rows with their produce before them, and barter is transacted in dances, with a good deal of manœuvring.”[266] In some parts of old Polynesia markets were held at stated periods, but, unfortunately, no record seems to have been made of the time intervals in popular use.[267]

Markets take place in Celebes,[268] Sumatra, and Java, usually every fifth day, but sometimes at shorter intervals. Among the Batta of Sumatra a market occurs every third, fourth, or fifth day, according to a regular succession and in a designated place, until the round of participating villages has been made. At Batta markets all hostilities are suspended, and it is sometimes required that every man who carries a musket in the market place shall put a green bough in the muzzle, as a token of his peaceful intentions.[269] The Javanese _pasar_, or market week, consisted of five days—_lege_ (or _manis_), _pahing_ (or _pa_), _pon_, _wage_, and _kaliwon_. The principal use of the Javanese week was to determine the markets or fairs held in the important towns.[270]

The _pasar_ spread from Java to the island of Bali, where it is employed in combination with the week of seven days.[271] In the Malay Peninsula, side by side with the ordinary seven-day week, there is a popular cycle of five days used for the determination of lucky and unlucky days. The names of the days are those of Hindu divinities, but the cycle itself is probably of Javanese origin.[272]

Markets recurring every fifth day are found among the Indo-Chinese, as in Tonkin[273] and the various Lao states of northern Siam.[274] Among the Shan all work ceases on market days, except what is necessarily involved in buying and selling. Every native tries to be in his own village when the market takes place there, not only to trade but also to exchange news and gossip. The centre of the village becomes a forum, where every subject is fully discussed.[275] “The Shan is a born trader, and the great feature of life in this country is the bazaar, which is held on every fifth day at all the chief villages of the states.”[276] Another traveller tells us that on the first three of the five days constituting the Shan market week small bazaars are held in different parts of the country, but no trading takes place anywhere on the fourth day.[277] The Khasi of Assam have a great market every eighth day, from which circumstance they have developed a week of eight days. “The reason of the eight-day week is because the markets are usually held every eighth day. The names of the days of the week are not those of planets, but of places where the principal markets are held, or used to be held, in the Khasi and Jaintia hills.”[278] It may be regarded as certain that this eight-day period arose from a doubling of an earlier four-day cycle, as has been the case among certain African peoples. Even now in the Wár country, lying to the south of the Khasi and Jaintia District, markets are usually held every fourth day.[279]

Throughout the central parts of Africa, from the British and German possessions in the east to those of the Portuguese and French in the west, there are numerous market places where neighbouring communities meet regularly to exchange their productions. Usually every fourth day is a market day, observed with the cessation of ordinary occupations, and by the Wanika of British East Africa, according to missionary testimony, with feasting and carousing.[280] In the same part of British East Africa the Wagiriama possess a week of four days, each with its name.[281] Among the Akikuyu, who employ thirty-day months beginning with new moon, there is a week of four days, the latter being indicated by the names of the different markets held on them. Each market is held on the fourth day of the cycle, and no two markets in the same neighbourhood occur on the same day.[282] The Akikuyu market places in populous districts are often not more than seven miles apart. The site chosen for a market is usually a hill-top, sufficiently open and accessible to accommodate the natives who may assemble there to the number of four or five thousand. All in all the market forms a very important feature of Akikuyu society.[283] The Wachaga of German East Africa, who dwell on the southern slopes of mighty Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, hold a daily market, so ordered as to recur every third day in one of three neighbouring settlements. The days of this three-day week are separately named, and hence the Wachaga always know where the market is to be held. The markets, which are said to be very ancient, are visited only by women.[284] The English missionary, David Livingstone, has described the markets held by the Manyema, who occupy part of the territory between Lake Tanganyika and the Congo. As many as three thousand people, chiefly women, may sometimes be seen in the _chitoka_, or market place. The market is held to-day in one locality, to-morrow in another, and so on till the cycle of four days is completed.[285] Among the natives on the lower Lomami River, near the equator, markets are described as recurring every third day,[286] and among the Bakuba (Bushongo), who occupy the valley of the Sankuru River, every fifth day.[287] The Baluba, whose territory lies between the Sankuru and Kasai rivers, hold important markets. A German explorer who was present at one of them described the market place as neutral ground, where even members of hostile tribes might appear without danger. The chief, in whose honour this primitive fair was held, kept peace and order, assisted by half a dozen stalwart guards carrying broad axes on their shoulders. Whenever any dispute arose, these policemen were immediately on the scene of action.[288] The four-day market week is found among various tribes, such as the Bayaka,[289] Bambala,[290] and Bahuana,[291] occupying the region between the Loange and Kwango rivers, tributaries of the Kasai.

The market week (_lumingu_[292]), four days in length, appears to be generally diffused among the peoples on both banks of the lower Congo. A missionary, long resident in this part of Africa, tells us that here the week consists of four days, named _nkandu_, _konzo_, _nkenge_, and _nsona_ in the cataract region. The markets are designated after the days of the week and the towns near which they are held. For instance, the Manyama market is known as _nsona a Manyama_, because it is held on _nsona_ day. The great trade markets, however, usually occur every eighth day, for the convenience of traders and to insure a good attendance. At the smaller, local markets, held every fourth day, exchanges are limited to goats, fowls, and foodstuffs. Every one wants to increase the attendance at these local markets; hence it may be declared a penal offence for a woman to go to her farm on the market day. “In some parts another day of the short week is declared to be an unlucky day for farming operations. This is no lingering trace of the idea of a Sabbath, for the day fixed is most arbitrary, two adjacent villages avoiding different days, while in others the women will work any day.”[293] An early explorer, referring to the custom of observing _nsona_ as a rest day, declares that “on this day they refrain from working in the plantations, under the superstitious notion that the crop would fail; they, however, perform any other kind of work.”[294] In Loango, where the natives have a month of twenty-eight days reckoned from new moon, seven weeks are counted to the month. The four weekdays are called, respectively, _nsona_, _nduka_, _ntono_, and _nsilu_, the first being regarded as a day of rest.[295] Another writer describes _sona_ (_nsona_) as the men’s day of rest, but the women’s market day, when the latter buy and sell in the market. At this time it is regarded as wrong for husbands to have intercourse with their wives. On another day, _ntona_ (_ntono_), the women may not plant, and burials take place.[296] With these accounts it is interesting to compare the statement of an old writer, according to whom the Loango negroes “never work above three days in succession; the fourth is for them a general rest day, during which they are not allowed to engage in tillage. The men, who repose habitually, work still less on that day. They walk, sport, and go to market. The missionaries have been unable to procure from the negroes any explanation of this period of four days, which forms their week.”[297]

The market is a well-developed institution among the semi-civilized negroes about the Gulf of Guinea. In this part of Africa the sabbatarian character of the market day is specially pronounced. Markets every third, fifth, eighth, or tenth day have been noticed in the interior districts of Kamerun. Market days are observed with abstinence from work of every sort, including farm labour; indeed, says an observer, they may be considered the Sundays of the native calendar.[298] In Old Calabar the week consists of eight days. The weekdays are named from peculiar rites of the _egbo_ secret society performed thereon, or from the markets which occur on them. That the week here originally contained four days only is obvious from the circumstance that the names applied to the second group of four days are the same as those which the four days of the first group receive, except for being preceded in each case by the adjective “little.”[299] The Ibo and other tribes of the Niger Delta (Southern Nigeria) observe _eke_, the first day of the four-day week, as the appropriate time for abstaining from toilsome labour and for marketing. Natives are forbidden to climb a cocoanut tree on _eke_.[300] Among the Asaba people, a branch of the powerful Ibo tribe, there seems not to be any communal regulation respecting the observance of _eke_: “the days for rest, for public market, and for work vary with the individual according to the particular governing _juju_ [fetish] as determined by the medicine man.”[301] Among the Edo, or Bini, of Southern Nigeria the week is everywhere a recognized period of time. It is, properly speaking, four days in length, this being the interval between the two markets in any given locality. Occasionally, as in the Ida District, markets are found every eighth day, “but the names applied to the intervening days clearly show that a four-day week was the primary one.” One of the four days is commonly known as the rest day, when men often stay at home—though farm work is not absolutely forbidden—and when women go to the market.[302]

The excellent studies of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, supplemented by later accounts, furnish a considerable amount of information regarding the rest days observed by the Yoruba-speaking and Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast and by the Tshi-speaking and Ga-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast. Some of these African Sabbaths are kept only by families or by the inhabitants of a single locality. Among the Tshi, for example, on the day sacred to the tutelary deity of a family all its members wear white or light-coloured clothes, mark themselves with white clay, and abstain from work. The day sacred to the tutelary deity of a town is celebrated in the same manner.[303]

In this part of west Africa particular days of the week are assigned to the gods worshipped by different classes of the community. The Yoruba keep the first day of the week as a general Sabbath, but each of the remaining days is a period of rest only for the followers of the god to which it is dedicated.[304] For the adherents of a god to violate the day sacred to him is a serious offence, punishable with a fine, and in former times, with death. The notion prevails that, if the honour of the god is not vindicated by his followers, all will suffer for the neglect. “The Sabbath-breaker is, in fact, killed by the other worshippers of the god from motives of self-protection.”[305] While the first day of the Tshi week is a general Sabbath, _bna-da_, the second day, is the fishermen’s holiday. Any fisherman who ventures forth on this day is fined and his catch thrown into the sea. In former times he would have been put to death.[306] The fifth day, _iffi-da_, of the Tshi week is the regular rest day for farmers.[307] Similarly, among the Ewe every tribal deity, with one exception, has a sacred day, observed by his followers to the accompaniment of much eating, drinking, and dancing.[308]

All these west African peoples divide the month into weeks and keep one weekday as a general Sabbath. Among the Yoruba, whose week is said to consist of five days,[309] the first day (_ako-ojo_) “is considered unlucky, and no business of importance is ever undertaken on it. On this day all the temples are swept out, and water, for the use of the gods, is brought in procession.”[310] The Ewe of Dahomey are said to observe every fourth day as a holiday, “not kept holy, but devoted to the will of the working classes; in short, a sort of remuneration to the slave for the three days’ labour.”[311] Weeks of four, five, and six days, usually ending in a general market day which is also a rest day, have been observed in various parts of Togo.[312]

The week of seven days is not unknown to the Guinea negroes. Its presence in the hinterland of Togo is clearly due to the influence of Islam; in fact, the market day here recurs on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.[313] Some of the Ewe peoples nearer the Slave Coast also use a seven-day cycle, which appears to have been borrowed by them from their neighbours, the Tshi tribes of the Gold Coast.[314] The Tshi keep _adjwo-da_, the first day of their seven-day week, as a general Sabbath.[315] The Ga of the Gold Coast, who also have the seven-day week, observe the first day as a communal Sabbath. Its name, _dsu_, means “purification,” a term which seems also to have been used as a title of the moon.[316]

Although market weeks of varying length have been reported among some of the other Sudanese negroes south of the Niger,[317] it is clear that the Mohammedan advance in this region has brought with it the week of seven days and the custom of holding a market every seventh day.[318] Similarly, in other parts of Africa, as on the lower Congo, the European week of seven days has taken the place of the shorter native cycles, with the result that, where earlier the market came every fourth day, at present it recurs every seventh day.[319] These facts make it practically certain that the seven-day week, found among the Ewe, Tshi, and Ga, was originally taken over from Islam. Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, indeed, regarded it as a purely African institution,[320] but he himself pointed out that Mohammedan states were formed to the north of the forest country of the Gold Coast as early as the eleventh century A.D., and that the period since then has been long enough to allow the new mode of reckoning to become known throughout the entire country. The Tshi, who seem to have moved from the Sudan interior to the coast districts at no very remote period, doubtless took with them their septenary mode of reckoning, which, as we have seen, they communicated to the Ewe and the Ga.

The market, with its accompaniments, the market week and the market day, has thus been shown to prevail throughout equatorial Africa, on the Guinea coast, and in the basin of the Niger and the Nile.[321] The wide diffusion of this institution is doubtless in large measure the outcome of borrowing from tribe to tribe. A market, however, tends naturally to come into existence whenever neighbouring peoples have goods to exchange and the willingness to exchange them. The market place is originally in some neutral district on the tribal borders, where all hostilities must cease. In process of time the increasing friendliness between communities makes it possible for the market to be held in the different settlements according to a definite and well-known sequence. With the regular market is inseparably connected the market week, the length of which varies from three to ten days. The shorter intervals of three, four, and five days reflect the simple economy of primitive life, since the market must recur with sufficient frequency to permit neighbouring communities, who keep on hand no large stocks of food and other necessaries, to obtain them from one another. The longer cycles of six, eight, and ten days, much less common, apparently arise by doubling the earlier period, whenever it is desired to hold a great market for the produce of a wide area. That the recurrence of the market determines the length of the week is made obvious by the practice of naming the several weekdays from the markets that take place on them.[322] Thus there comes into existence a definite and recognized cycle of time, shorter than the lunar month and in origin unconnected with it, a true periodic week, running continuously from month to month and from year to year.

A market day is necessarily more or less of a rest day. Those who attend a market must abandon for the time being their usual occupations. It is also a holiday, affording opportunities for social intercourse, sports, and amusements of all sorts. Such seems to be the character of most of the market days found in southeastern Asia and the adjacent islands, as well as in some parts of Africa. On the lower Congo, however, the market day sometimes bears an unlucky character, and a distinct tendency exists to attach various restrictions to it. In the Guinea region the market day often, though not always, coincides with the general day of rest observed by an entire community. As such it may be consecrated to a god. The same practice, we have seen, prevails in respect to the holy days of individuals, families, towns, and particular classes of the community. This extensive development of sabbatarian regulations appears to be peculiar to west Africa.

The market week and the market day, though apparently unknown to the ruder tribes of America, formed a feature of those more advanced civilizations which were developed in the valleys of Mexico and Central America, and on the lofty tablelands of Colombia and Peru. Each important pueblo of Mexico held a market (_tianguiztli_) every fifth day, it being provided that neighbouring pueblos should observe different days, in order to secure a regular sequence of markets. All adults were obliged by law to resort to the _tianguiztli_, and severe penalties were imposed on those who exchanged commodities anywhere but at the appointed place and at the appointed time. The market days of old Mexico thus appear as compulsory holidays, when the people relinquished their usual occupations and assembled in great numbers, not only to buy and sell, but also, as we are told, to engage in games and festivities.[323] The five-day market week also existed in various parts of Central America.[324] In the Colombian Andes, among the Muysca (Chibcha) of Bogota, who had attained a degree of civilization far in advance of that reached by the other aborigines of Colombia, regular markets took place, apparently every third day.[325] If the Muysca week consisted only of three days, that of the Peruvians extended to ten days, ending in a holiday which was also a market day. The institution was attributed to the Apu-Ccapac-Ynca, whose beneficent activities gained for him the appellation of Pachacutec, “Reformer of the World.” To an old chronicler, himself of Ynca blood, this Peruvian Sabbath appeared to be devised solely for utilitarian ends. “In order that labour might not be so continuous as to become oppressive, the Ynca ordained that there should be three holidays every month, in which the people should divert themselves with various games. He also commanded that there should be three fairs every month, when the labourers in the field should come to market and hear anything that the Ynca or his council might have ordained. They called these assemblies _catu_, and they took place on the holidays.”[326] Considering how frequently eight and ten-day weeks have arisen by doubling periods of four and five days, respectively, it seems not unlikely that the Peruvian decade grew out of an earlier market week of five days similar to the Mexican institution.

Another important instance of the market week and the market day in archaic civilizations is that of the Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_.[327] The nundinal cycle, eight days in length, began (or closed) with a day when the peasants came to Rome for purposes of trade. The nundinal day, however, was more than a market day. At this time the ordinary occupations were interrupted; school-children enjoyed a holiday; and sumptuous banquets celebrated the festive occasion.

The origin and early development of the _nundinæ_ are veiled in obscurity. The institution enjoyed a high antiquity, tradition ascribing it now to Romulus, now to Servius Tullius, and now to the first consuls.[328] In historic times the _nundinæ_ present themselves as the market days and holidays of a laborious peasantry; it may be questioned, indeed, whether they were ever anything else. It seems probable that, at least from the middle of the fifth century B.C., the _nundinæ_ could be used for the settlement of judicial business, as is indicated by a passage in the Twelve Tables referring to them.[329] Furthermore, there is reason to believe that, until the passage of the Hortensian law in 287 B.C., the nundinal days were available for meetings of the public assemblies. This unfortunate piece of legislation effectually debarred the rural voters from participation in law-making on the very occasions when the largest number of them would naturally be in the capital city.[330] The classical writers were uncertain whether the _nundinæ_ should properly be included among the ferial days, that is, among the days which belonged to gods and not to men.[331] In Varro’s time the pontiffs held that the _nundinæ_ were not _feriatæ_, but many writers, cited by Macrobius, maintained the contrary opinion. The _nundinæ_ certainly never became public festivals in the technical sense, though they were dedicated to Jupiter, to whom the Flaminica Dialis sacrificed a bull on their recurrence.[332] In this consecration to a deity the _nundinæ_ further resembled some of the west African market days.

The Roman _nundinum_ and _nundinæ_ have much historic interest. The eight-day cycle, as a periodic week unconnected with the lunar month, presented a close parallel to the Jewish week of seven days. Further parallels existed in the absence of names for the weekdays, Roman and Jewish, and in the special observance of one day of each week by abstention from the customary occupations. It is scarcely surprising to find, therefore, that the Roman _nundinæ_, together with the _feriæ_, contributed to the development of the Christian Sunday. The earliest Sunday law is the brief edict of Constantine (321 A.D.), enacting that magistrates, city people, and artisans were to rest “on the venerable day of the Sun.”[333] This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the Sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar. Much significance must be attached to that part of Constantine’s edict permitting agricultural labour on Sunday, “since it frequently happens that the sowing of grain and planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other day.” In this particular the emperor was following the long-accepted rule as to the observance of the _feriæ_ in country districts.[334] Another regulation of Constantine’s, expressly appointing markets to be held on Sunday, doubtless represents an effort to assimilate the old Roman nundinal day to the new weekly Sunday.[335] With the final triumph of Christianity over paganism the old _feriæ_ and the _nundinæ_ were abolished, Sunday, with the other Christian festivals, being substituted in their place.[336]