properly speaking, 4 days long, this being the interval between the two markets at any given spot. Occasionally, as in the Ida district, eight-day markets are found, but the names applied to the intervening days clearly shew that a four-day week was the primary one. One of the four days is commonly known as the rest-day, and on this day men frequently stop at home, though farm-work is not absolutely forbidden. Women, on the other hand, go to market as usual[1096]. Among the Ibo-speaking peoples the names of the four days are _eke_, _oye_, _afo_, and _nkwo_. These are the same names as those of the Bini, but _afo_ and _oye_ are in the inverted order; it is idle to speculate on the origin of the names[1097]. In Loango the four days are variously named, but principally they are called _nssona_, _nduka_, _ntono_, _nsilu_, which names are also often applied to the open spaces where markets are held on the days in question; _nssona_ corresponds to our Sunday[1098], i. e. it is a day of rest. The Yoruba have, besides the market-week, a longer one of 16 (or 17) days. Of these two periods Ellis says:--The Yoruba week consists of five days, and six of them are supposed to make a lunar month, which however always begins with the new moon. (This is therefore the familiar round number.) The days are:--1, _ako-ojo_, the first day, day of general rest, considered unlucky; the temples are swept and water is brought in procession for the use of the gods. No business of importance is ever undertaken on this day. 2, _ojo-awo_, ‘day of the secret’, sacred to Ifa. 3, _ojo-Ogun_, 4, _ojo-Shango_, 5, _ojo-Obatula_, i. e. the name of a god, added to the word ‘day’. Each of these four days is a day of rest for the followers of the god to which it is dedicated, and for them only, but _ako-ojo_ is a day of rest for all. Markets are held every fifth day in different townships, but never on the _ako-ojo_. From this custom has arisen another mode of computing time, namely by periods of 17 days, called _eta-di-ogun_ (‘three less than twenty’). This is the outcome of the Esu societies, the members of which meet every fifth market-day. The first and fifth market-days are counted in, and thus the number 17 is obtained. For instance, supposing the second day of a month to be a market-day, the second market would fall on the 6th, the third on the 10th, the fourth on the 14th, and the fifth on the 18th. The fifth market-day, on which the members meet, is counted again as the first of the next series. These clubs are so common that the 17-day period has become a kind of auxiliary measure of time[1099]. The account contains an inward contradiction. Ellis enumerates five days and says that the market is held every fifth day, but when he reckons the days again below, the periods are four-day periods. We must probably assume that the word _ako-ojo_ is applied to one of the four days, denoting it to be a day of rest, and that Ellis, when he says that