SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in thie column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.]
Rest Days. By Hutton Webster. (Macmillan and Co. 12a. 6d. net.) —This is a very solid piece of research by a Nebraskan Professor into the interesting questions of tabooed days, holy days, market days, the lunar calendar and the week, the origin of the Sabbath, and unlucky days. The author has collected his evidence from the most varied sources. Ancient Babylonia and modern Nigeria, Rome and the South Seas, early Egypt and the Russia and Mexico of to-day are equally represented in the mass of examples here compared in the true scientific manner, Tabooed and unlucky days ho regards as " among the superstitions which have retarded the progress of mankind," because they tend to snake labour fitful and uncertain. The Romans of the fourth century gave up one hundred and seventy-five days to holidays and the circus. In some districts of Eastern Galicia, it is said, the peasants make holiday on two hundred days in the year, combining the Greek and the Roman Church festivals. This is too much, of course ; but the author, being an American, is inclined to underestimate the value of holidays. He thinks that " in Catholic countries there is still an excessive amount of time devoted to religious celebrations " ; in England, however, and even in Scotland, there is a reaction towards the observance of the old festivals which our Puritan ancestors abolished.
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