Besides these, each day of the week has its own appropriate occupations, according to another system, at times ascertained by measuring the length of one’s shadow. Further, it would appear that some days are unlucky altogether: one account gives seven unlucky days in every month; another asserts that Thursday is unlucky in the months Dhu-’l-hijjah, Muharram, and Safar; Tuesday in Rabiʿ-al-awal, Rabiʿ-al-akhir, and Jumada-’l-awal; Saturday in Jumada-’l-akhir, Rĕjab and Shaʿban; Sunday in Ramadhan, Shawal, and Dhu-’l-kaʿidah; a third specifies twelve other most inauspicious days in every year, viz. the 28th of Muharram, the 10th of Safar, the 14th of Rabiʿ-al-awal, and so on, while for greater convenience a calendar has been drawn up, which is far too long to be reproduced here, but which closely resembles the weather chart illustrated on another page, and gives the whole list of days of the Muhammadan year classified under the heads lucky (baik), somewhat unlucky, very unlucky, and neutral.
Besides this, whole years are lucky or unlucky according as the first of Muharram falls on a Sunday, Monday, etc.; and, moreover, years vary in luck according to the letter they bear in the Cycle of Eight.[228]
Most of these systems of divination involve the construction of a sort of calendar, and require some degree of astronomical knowledge; but of astronomy properly so-called the Malays have scarcely even a smattering, its place being taken by the, to them, far more important science of astrology. “Their meagre ideas regarding the motions of the heavenly bodies are derived, through the Arabs, from the Ptolemaic system.”[229]
The seven Heavenly Bodies (Bintang Tujoh), mentioned above, whose motions they believe to be produced by the agency of angels,[230] retain their Arabic names,[231] and are believed to rule the “seven ominous moments” (Katika Tujoh), which are supposed to depend on the influences of these several sidereal bodies.[232]
The signs of the Zodiac similarly bear Arabic appellations, the form of divination in which they bear the principal part being called the Twelve Constellations (Bintang Dua-b’las).[233]
This form of divination is not quite so common as are those of the Five Ominous Times (5-square) and the Seven Heavenly Bodies (7-square), and I have not been able to find out much about the methods of working it, but a copy of one of the diagrams used for the purpose will be found on another page.
According to one view, which is perhaps the prevalent one, every man’s luck is determined by one or other of the zodiacal constellations, and in order to find out which one it is, the following direction is given:—
“Reckon the numerical equivalent of the person’s name and of the name of his mother by the values of the letters according to the system of the Abjad; add the two numerical equivalents together, and divide the total by twelve; if the remainder is 1, his sign is the Ram, if 2, the Bull, and so on.”
Each constellation has a series of characteristics which are supposed to influence the whole life of the person who is subject to it.[234]
Besides the above, a few of the other constellations are known to possess Malay names, and wherever this is the case, the name given appears usually to be quite original, having no connection with the nomenclature obtaining among nations with which we are more familiar.[235]