Note 2781 — Chapter XXIX · LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION: ESPECIALLY IN THE NINTH, TENTH, AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES

Mention may perhaps be made in this connection of the “Tobias nights,” three nights of abstinence which newly wedded couples were sometimes accustomed to observe in the middle ages in order to defeat the demons. The practice is mentioned in the Vulgate, but not in most ancient versions of the Book of Tobit. In 1409 the citizens of Abbeville won a lawsuit with the bishop of Amiens who claimed the right to grant dispensations from the observance of the Tobias nights and required that fees be paid him for that purpose. See J. G. Frazer (1918), I, 498-520, where analogous practices of primitive tribes are listed.