Part 14

In an ancient calendar of the year 334, in the reign of Constantine the Great, twenty-six Egyptian days were designated.[409] At an early period, however, the church authorities forbade the superstitious observance of these days.

Some of the most eminent early writers of the Christian Church, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom, were earnest in their denunciation of the prevalent custom of regulating the affairs of life by reference to the supposed omens of the calendar. The fourth council of Carthage, in 398, censured such practices; and the synod of Rouen, in the reign of Clovis, anathematized those who placed faith in such relics of paganism.[410]

We learn on the authority of Marco Polo that the Brahmins of the province of Laristan, in southern Persia, in the thirteenth century, were extremely punctilious in their choice of suitable days for the performance of any business matters. This famous traveler wrote that a Brahmin who contemplated making a purchase, for example, would measure the length of his own shadow in the early morning sunlight, and if the shadow were of the proper length, as officially prescribed for that day, he would proceed to make the purchase; otherwise he would wait until the shadow conformed in length to a predetermined standard for that day of the week.

The Latin historian, Rolandino (1200-76), in the third book of his “Chronicle,” describes an undertaking which resulted disastrously because, as was alleged, it was rashly begun on an “Egyptian day.” There is frequent mention of these days in many ancient manuscripts in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.[411]

In a so-called “Book of Precedents,” printed in 1616, fifty-three days are specified as being “such as the Egyptians noted to be dangerous to begin or take anything in hand, or to take a journey or any such thing.” An ancient manuscript mentions twenty-eight days in the year “which were revealed by the Angel Gabriel to good Joseph, which ever have been remarked to be very fortunayte dayes either to let blood, cure wounds, use marchandizes, sow seed, build houses, or take journees.”

Astrologers formerly specified particular days when it was dangerous for physicians to bleed patients; and especially to be avoided were the first Monday in April, on which day Cain was born and his brother Abel slain; the first Monday in August, the alleged anniversary of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the last Monday in December, which was the reputed birthday of Judas Iscariot.

In Mason’s “Anatomie of Sorcerie” (1612), the prevailing notions on this subject were characterized as vain speculations of the astrologers, having neither foundation in God’s word nor yet natural reason to support them, but being grounded only upon the superstitious imagination of men. A work of 1620, entitled “Melton’s Astrologaster,” says that the Christian faith is violated when, like a pagan and apostate, any man “doth observe those days which are called _Egyptiaci_, or the calends of January, or any month, day, time, or year, either to travel, marry or do anything in.” And the learned Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,” published in 1658, declaimed in quaint but forcible language against the frivolity of such doctrines.

II. ROMAN SUPERSTITION CONCERNING DAYS

The Romans had their _dies fasti_, corresponding to the modern court days in England. On such days, of which there were thirty-eight in the year, it was lawful for the prætor to administer justice and to pronounce the three words, _Do, dico, addico_, “I give laws, declare right, and adjudge losses.”

The days on which the courts were not held were called _nefasti_ (from _ne_ and _fari_), because the three words could not then be legally spoken by the prætor. But these days came to be regarded as unlucky, a fact rendered evident by an expression of Horace. The Romans also classed as unfortunate the days immediately following the calends, nones, and ides of each month. Unlucky days were termed _dies atri_, because they were marked in the calendar with black charcoal, the lucky ones being indicated by means of white chalk. There were also days which were thought especially favorable for martial operations, but the anniversary of a national misfortune was considered very inauspicious. Thus after the defeat of the Romans by the Gauls under Brennus on the banks of the river Allia, July 16, 390 B. C., that date was given a prominent place among the black days of the calendar. But not every general was influenced by such superstitions. Lucullus, when an attempt was made to dissuade him from attacking Tigranes, king of Armenia (whom he defeated B. C. 69), because upon that date the Cimbri had vanquished a Roman army, replied, “_I_ will make it a day of _good_ omen for the Romans.”[412] The Roman ladies, we are told, gave less heed to the unlucky days of their own calendar than to the works of Egyptian astrologers, among whom Petosiris was their favorite authority, when they wished to ascertain the proper day, and even the hour, for the performance of household and other duties.[413]

Horace (book ii. ode xiii.) thus apostrophizes a tree, by whose fall he narrowly escaped being crushed at Sabinum: “Thou cursed tree! whoever he was that first planted thee did it surely on an unlucky day, and with a sacrilegious hand.”

The Latin writer, Macrobius, stated that when one of the _nundinæ_ or market days fell upon New Year’s, it was considered very unfortunate. In such an event the Emperor Augustus, who was very superstitious, adopted the method of inserting an extra day in the previous year and subtracting one from that ensuing, thus preserving the regularity of the Julian style of reckoning time. Ordinarily, however, New Year’s Day was deemed auspicious, and on that day, as now, people were accustomed to wish each other happiness and good fortune.

III. MEDIÆVAL BELIEF IN DAY-FATALITY

The early Saxons in England were extremely credulous in regard to the luck or misfortune of particular days of the month, and derived a legion of prognostics, both good and evil, from the age of the moon. Thus, they considered the twelfth day of the lunar month a profitable one for sowing, getting married, traveling, and blood-letting, but the thirteenth day was in bad repute among the Saxons, an evil day for undertaking any work. The fourteenth was good for all purposes, for buying serfs, marrying, and putting children to school; whereas the sixteenth was profitable for nothing but thieving. The twenty-second was a proper time for buying villains, or agricultural bondmen, and a boy born on that day would become a physician. The twenty-fifth was good for hunting, and a girl then born would be of a greedy disposition and a “wool-teaser.”[414]

In an English manuscript of the twelfth century mentioned in Chambers’s “Book of Days,” and known as the “Exeter Calendar,” New Year’s is set down as a _Dies mala_. As an illustration of the credulity prevalent in England in the fifteenth century regarding the influences, meteorological and moral, of the occurrence of important church festivals on particular days of the week, a few lines from a manuscript of the Harleian Collection in the British Museum are here quoted:—

Lordlings all of you I warn, If the day that Christ was born Fell upon a Sunday, The winter shall be good, I say, But great winds aloft shall be; The summer shall be fair and dry, By kind skill and without loss. Through all lands there shall be peace. Good time for all things to be done, But he that stealeth shall be found soon. What child that day born may be A great lord he shall live to be.

Not alone in Britain, but throughout the world, men have esteemed one day above another. This universal tendency of the human mind is tersely expressed in a translation by Barnaby Googe of some verses accredited to the Bavarian theologian, Thomas Kirchmaier (1511-78), whose literary pseudonym was Naogeorgus:—

And first, betwixt the dayes they make no little difference, For all be not of vertue like, nor like preheminence, But some of them Egyptian are and full of jeopardee, And some againe, beside the rest, both good and luckie bee, Like difference of the nights they make, as if the Almightie King, That made them all, not gracious were to them in everything.[415]

John Gaule, in his “Magastromancer” (1652), remarks that, according to the teachings of the astrologers,

Times can give a certain fortune to our business. The magicians likewise have observed, and all the antient verse men consent in this, that it is of very great concernment in what moment of time and disposition of the heavens everything, whether naturall or artificial, hath received its being in this world: for they have delivered that the first moment hath so great power that all the course of fortune dependeth thereon and may be foretold thereby.

In the dark ages, and also in early modern times, the false doctrines of astrology, an inheritance from the ancients, dominated the actions of men. In all important enterprises, as well as in every-day labors, it was deemed essential to make a beginning under the influence of a favorable planet. Nor did these beliefs prevail exclusively among ignorant people, but were as well a part of the creed of scholars, and of the nobility and gentry. Modern astronomical discoveries, and especially the Copernican system, availed to banish a vast amount of superstition regarding the malevolent character of certain days. But neither science nor religion have yet been able wholly to eradicate it, as is evident from the ill-repute associated with the sixth day of the week even at the present time, a subject to be considered later.

In the “Loseley Manuscripts,” edited by Alfred John Kempe, London, 1836, is to be found a letter, some extracts from which may serve to illustrate the paramount influence of astrology in England in the sixteenth century. The letter is addressed to Mr. George More, at Thorpe:—

As for my comming to you upon Wensday next … I cannot possibly be wᵗʰ you till Thursday.

On Fryday and Saterday the signe will be in the heart, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the stomake, during wᶜʰ tyme it wil be no good dealing wᵗʰ your ordinary phisicke until Wensday come Sevenight at the nearest, and from that tyme forwards for 15 or 16 days passing good. In w’ch time yf it will please you to let me understand of your convenient opportunity and season, I will not faill to come along presently wᵗʰ your messenger.

Your worship’s assured lovinge fr(ie)nd SIMON TRIPPE, M. D.

WINTON. Septemb. 18. 1581.

The influence of the position of the moon in determining the proper seasons for surgical operations, and for the administration of medicines, may be best illustrated by a few extracts from ancient almanacs.

An antique illustrated manuscript almanac for the year 1386 contains the following advice to physicians:

In a new mone sal not be layting of blode, for yan are mennys bodyes voyed of blode and humos, and yan by layting of blode sal yay more be anoyded.

And again:—

It es to know generally, yt ye tyme electe to gyve a medcyn in es whan ye mone and ye Lord ascendyng ar free from all ille and not let by it, … and it es hyely to be ware to a medcyn whyles ye mone es in an ill aspect, wt Satne or Mars.

An almanac for the year 1568, published by John Securis, London, contains a list of days in that year favorable or otherwise for the preservation of man’s health.

The second day of January was therein declared to be wholly propitious. The twelfth was unfavorable, owing to the furious aspect of Mars to the Sun, which was not, however, likely to cause bodily sickness, but rather to incline the hearts of some people to imagine evil of their rulers. The fifteenth of April was especially to be dreaded. On that day, says the writer, “God keep us from the fury of Mars.”

In June evil passions were to stir men’s hearts, anger, hatred, and strife; for in that month were no less than six quartile aspects of the planets, one to another.

Many propitious days are also mentioned, and in conclusion _all_ days are declared to be favorable to a good man.

“A New Almanacke and Prognostication for the Yeare of our Lord God 1569” (London) says that surgical operations must be performed only when “the Moone or Lorde of the firste house” is in the zodiacal sign governing the particular member or organ which is to be operated upon.

And in an English almanac for the year 1571 we find the following passage:—

No part of man’s body ought to be touched with the Chirurgicall instruments, or cauterie actuall or potencial, when the Sunne or Moone, or the Lord of the Ascendent, is in the same signe that ruleth that part of man’s body.

Also _Gemini_, _Leo_, the last halfe of _Libra_, and the first 12 degrees of _Scorpio_: with _Taurus_, _Virgo_, and _Capricorne_, are not good for the letting of bloud. Two days before the change of the Moone, and a day after, is yll to let bloud.…

If the same be for the Pestilence, the Phrensie, the Pluresie, the Squincie, or for a Continuall headach, proceeding of choler or bloud; or for any burning Ague, or extreme paine of partes, a man may not so carefully stay for a chosen day by the _Almanack_: for that in the meane tyme the pacient perhaps may dye. For which cause let the skilfull Chirurgeon open a veine, unless he finde the pacient verie weake, or that the Moone be in the Same Syne that governeth that part of man’s body.

The persistence of similar beliefs is shown by the following extract from “A Briefe Prognosticon or rather Diagnosticon for this Year of Grace” (1615), by John Keene, London:—

Seeing that these inferiour and sublunary mixt bodies are governed of the superiour and simple bodies, and especially by the motion of our neighbour Planet, the Moone, diseases vary and differ, and not for that she exceedes the rest in vertue and power, but because she is neerer us and swifter in motion; for wee see, the Moone increasing, humours increase; and when she decreaseth, humours decrease: for the bones in the full of the Moone are full of marrow, all living creatures both on sea and land, are then augmented in humiditie, as the Crab, Lobster, Oyster, etc. Also humours in man’s bodie and in Plants are then increased: for when the Sunne and Moone are in hot signes, heate is increased, in cold signes, cold exceedes heate; therefore have we just cause in purging of humours to consider the motion of the Moone through every signe of the Zodiacke, not only in purging of humours, but also in curing diseases and in strengthening the faculties and vertues.

In the “Dialogue of Dives and Pauper,” printed by Richard Pynson in 1493, this subject is referred to as follows:—

Alle that take hede to dysmal dayes, or use nyce observances in the newe moone, or in the newe yeere, as setting of mete or drynke by night on the benche to fede alholde (or gobelyn).

The French traveler, Jean Chardin (1643-1713), stated that in the year 1668 Cossacks invaded the northern provinces of Persia; and when the inhabitants appealed to the Persian government for aid, they received only the reply that no assistance could be sent them until the moon had passed out of the sign of the Scorpion. The Persians formerly divided all the days of the year into three classes,—preferable or lucky, middling or indifferent, and unlucky or detested ones;[416] and the Emperor Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-86) was governed in his military operations by the advice of astrologers, and always waited until they had indicated the fortunate moment for a start.

The “English Apollo, by Richard Saunders, student in the divine, laudable, and celestial sciences, London, 1656,” in giving advice to mariners, says that the good or bad position of the planets at the time of sailing has much influence over the fortunes of a voyage. The ancient sages, moreover, declared that the chief means of averting evil were, first, the devout invocation of Providence; and, secondly, the careful choice of a proper time for sailing by observation of the rules of astrology.

In William Jones’s “Credulities Past and Present” (1525), St. Augustine is quoted as follows:—

No man shall observe by the days on what day he travel, or on what he return; because God created all the seven days which run in the week to the end of this world. But whithersoever he desires to go, let him sing and say his _Paternoster_, if he know it, and call upon his Lord, and bless himself, and travel free from care, under the protection of God, without the sorceries of the Devil.

IV. PREVALENCE OF SIMILAR BELIEFS IN MODERN TIMES

Among the Chinese of to-day, as with the inhabitants of ancient Babylon, the days which are deemed favorable or otherwise for business transactions, farming operations, or for traveling are still determined by astrologers, and are indicated in an official almanac published annually at Pekin by the Imperial Board of Astronomers. The various tribes of the island of Madagascar also are exceedingly superstitious in regard to the luck or ill-luck attending certain days, and the lives of children born at an unlucky time are sometimes sacrificed to save them from anticipated misfortune.

Natives of the Gold Coast of West Africa, in their divisions of the year, observe a “long time” consisting of nineteen lucky days, and a “short time” of seven equally propitious days. The seven days intervening between these two periods are considered unlucky, and during this time they undertake no voyages nor warlike enterprises. Somewhat similar ideas prevail in Java and Sumatra, and in many of the smaller islands of the Malay Archipelago. The Cossacks of western Siberia, the natives of the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, and the Laplanders of the far North, all adapt their lives to the black and white days of their calendar. The peasantry of West Sussex in England will not permit their children to go blackberrying on the tenth day of October, on account of a belief that the Devil goes afield on that day, and bad luck would surely befall any one rash enough to eat fruit gathered under such circumstances. The same people believe that all cats born in the month of May are hypochondriacs, and have an unpleasant habit of bringing snakes and vipers into the house.

Among the Moslems of India there are in each month seven evil days, on which no enterprise is to be undertaken on any consideration. Some of the peculiar superstitions of these people with regard to traveling on the different week-days are shown in “Zanoon-E-Islam, or the Customs of the Mussulmans of India,” by Jaffur Shurreef. Thus, if any one proposes journeying on Saturday, he should eat fish before starting, in order that his plan may be successfully accomplished, but on Sunday betel-leaf is preferable for this purpose. In like manner, on Monday he should look into a mirror in order to obtain wealth. On Tuesday he should eat coriander-seed, and on Wednesday should partake of curdled milk before starting. On Thursday, if he eat raw sugar, he may confidently anticipate returning with plenty of merchandise; and on Friday, if he eat dressed meat, he will bring back pearls and jewels galore.

Some idea of the beliefs current in the mother country during the last century may be obtained by a study of the advertisements of astrologers and medical charlatans in the public press of that period. For example, in the year 1773 one Sylvester Partridge, proprietor and vendor of antidotes, elixirs, washes for freckles, plumpers for rounding the cheeks, glass eyes, calves and noses, ivory jaws, and a new receipt for changing the color of the hair, offered for a consideration to furnish advice as to the proper times and seasons for letting blood, and to indicate the most favorable aspect of the moon for drawing teeth and cutting corns. He proffered counsel, moreover, as to the avoidance of unlucky days for paring the nails, and the kindest zodiacal sign for grafting, inoculation, and opening of bee-hives.

In enlightened England there are still to be found many people who believe that the relative positions of the sun, moon, and planets are prime factors in determining the proper times and seasons for undertaking terrestrial enterprises. Zadkiel’s Almanac for 1898 states that natural astrology is making good progress towards becoming once more a recognized science. To quote from the preface of this publication:—

As the whole body of the ocean is not able to keep down one single particle of free air, which must assuredly force its way to the surface to unite with the atmosphere, so cannot the combined forces of the prejudice and studied contempt of all the _soi-disant_ “really scientific men” of the end of the century prevent the truth of _astrologia sana_ from soaring above their futile efforts to crush it down, to join the great atmosphere of natural science, to enlighten the human mind in its onward course and effort,—“to soar through Nature up to Nature’s God.”

One example may suffice to exhibit the character of the predictions given in this same work. Under the caption, “Voice of the Stars,” August, 1898, the writer says that the stationary positions of Saturn and Uranus are likely to shake Spain (and perhaps Tuscany) physically and politically about the 10th or 11th insts. There will be strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Spain; for Mars in the sign Gemini, and Saturn in Sagittarius, must create friction and disturbances in both countries.

The Jewish current beliefs in the influence of certain days and seasons appear to have been mostly derived from the Romans of old. Even nowadays among the Jews no marriages are solemnized during the interval of fifty days between the Feast of the Passover and Pentecost; and formerly the favorite wedding-days were those of the new or full moon.[417] In Siam the eighth and fifteenth days of the moon are observed as sacred, and devoted to worship and rest from ordinary labor. Sportsmen are forbidden to hunt or fish on these days. The Siamese astrologers indicate the probable character of any year by associating it with some animal, upon whose back the New Year is represented as being mounted.[418]

V. THE SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK

Let us now consider the subject of Friday as an alleged _dies mala_. The seven week-days were originally named after Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and the Moon, in the order given, and these names are found in the early Christian calendars. The Teutonic nations, however, adopted corresponding names in the Northern mythology,—the Sun and Moon, Tyr, the Norse God of War, Wodan, Thor, Freyja, and Saturn; and our early Saxon ancestors worshiped images representing all these deities until Christianity supplanted paganism in Britain. It has been suggested that our Friday may have been named after Frigga, the wife of Odin and the principal goddess of the ancient Scandinavians. But it is much more probable that the day derives its name from Freyja, the Goddess of Love, a deity corresponding to the Roman Venus and the Grecian Aphrodite. Freyja, the most easily propitiated of the goddesses, was wont to listen favorably to all who invoked her aid, and was especially tender-hearted to disconsolate lovers. She dwelt in a magnificent palace, and journeyed about in a car drawn by two cats.[419]

It has been hinted that Freyja’s character was not irreproachable, and that thence arose Friday’s ill-repute, but such an hypothesis is wholly untenable.