Note 300 — Chapter IV · MARKET DAYS

A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes, London, 1906, pp. 305, 375; William Allen, Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to the River Niger in 1841, London, 1848, i, 398; N. W. Thomas, Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, London, 1913, i, 127. Seven weeks are here counted to the month of twenty-eight days (W. F. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage, London, 1856, p. 316). An early missionary to west Africa observes that among the Ibo, Igara, and other Nigerian tribes the week consists of four days, viz. eke, a market day and unlucky for the ata, or chief, to see strangers, ede, a lucky or good day, afo, an unlucky day, and uko, a lucky day. Besides these days of good and evil omen the Mohammedans have made the natives believe that Friday is an unlucky day to undertake any work of importance (S. A. Crowther, in The Church Missionary Intelligencer, 1865, n.s., i, 55).