actually found for the four "sabbaths," _i. e._ for the 7th, 14th, 21st
and 28th days, were 100, 98, 121 and 91 respectively. The Babylonians
evidently did not keep these days as days of rest, or of abstinence from
business, as the Jews keep their sabbath, or Christian countries their
Sunday. They cannot even have regarded it as an unlucky day, since we
find the average of contracts is rather higher for a "sabbath" than for
a common day.

The case is a little different with the 19th day of the month. This, as
the 49th day from the beginning of the previous month, was a sabbath of
sabbaths, at the end of a "week of weeks." In this case only 89
contracts are found, which is slightly below the average, though twelve
common days show a lower record still. But in most cases the date is
written, not as 19, but as 20-1; as if there were a superstition about
the number 19. On the other hand, this method of indicating the number
may be nothing more than a mode of writing; just as in our Roman
numerals, XIX., one less than XX., is written for 19.

The Babylonians, therefore, did not observe these days as days of rest,
though they seem to have marked them in the ritual of temple and court.
Nor did they make every seventh or every fifth a rest-day, for Prof.
Schiaparelli has specially examined these documents to see if they gave
any evidence of abstention from business either on one day in seven or
on one day in five, and in both cases with a purely negative result.

When we inquire which nation has been successful in impressing their
particular form of sabbath on the nations around the case is clear. We
have no evidence of the Babylonians securing the adoption of their
sabbatic arrangements by the Persians, Greeks and Parthians who
successively overcame them. It was entirely different with the Jews. The
Jewish kingdom before the Captivity was a very small one compared with
its enemies on either side--Assyria, Babylon and Egypt; it was but a
shadow even of its former self after the Return. And imperial Rome was a
mightier power than Assyria or Babylon at their greatest. If ever one
state was secure from influence by another on the score of its greater
magnitude and power, Rome was safe from any Jewish impress. Yet it is
perfectly well known that the impression made upon the Romans by the
Jews in this very matter of sabbath-keeping was widespread and deep.
Jewish influence was felt and acknowledged almost from the time that
Syria