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between the joints of a bamboo stalk. Evi dently the pawukon is called after the many- jointed bamboo which is a natural counting- lath. In Javanese divination the pawukon has thirty wuku weeks of seven days, each wuku having a name of its own. Its origin is unknown. Perhaps it is related to a sacral cycle of ancient rice cultivation, from pre paring the soil up to the harvest. Names of some wukus, and the pawukon myth (Watu Gunut}), seem to point that way. Being originally a sacral year, the pawukon s subsequent close connection with divination is understandable. The wuku year of 210 days intersects both the solar year of 365 days and the Arabic lunar year of 354 days. In the Islamic period wukus are frequently mentioned in dates, but in Old Javanese texts they are scarcely met with. Perhaps at the time the pawukon was still considered as belonging specifically to the agrarian sphere, not closely connected with the Court. In Javanese chronology weeks are known from two up to ten days. Their numerous intersections are registered in divination tables and indicated as auspicious or inauspicious. The Javanese week of five days occupies an important place in everyday life side by side with the universally known seven-days week. The five-days week is called pasar-week because in many districts of Central Java the local market (pasar) was fixed on a day of the five-days week, not on a day of the seven-days week. The five days are especially interesting because of their close relation with ancient cosmic and social classification. The absence of references to them in Old Javanese texts is the more remarkable. Perhaps the explanation is the same as in the case of the mav,sa calendar

and the pazmkon: because they belonged to the aboriginal agrarian sphere of Javanese civilization Old Javanese Court scholars were not interested in them. Apparently in the Islamic period several elements of indigenous Javanese culture, losing part of their sacral character, were secularized and made known to the public on a greater scale than before. Probably this was the case with the way an, theatre, the gamelan orchestra and some sacral dances. Islam liberated Javanese literature and art from the fetters of ancient sacral taboos, and so some elements of culture were given the freedom to develop and expand. In chronology, however, the influence of Islam induced the Javanese Kings to ex change the old Indian solar year for the Arabic lunar year, which was unpractical. Annual religious celebrations of Islam follow the Arabic lunar year, and so this year became the sacral year of all Muslim peoples. For use in agriculture it was everywhere necessary to have a special solar calendar beside the official and sacral lunar one. In Java the man,sa calendar was given this function. The Javanese King of Mataram, Sultan Agut), who in Saka 1547, i.e. 1625 A.D., decided to follow henceforth the Arabic lunar calendar in all state matters, did not adopt the Islamic era, however. The solar Saka year 1547 was followed by a lunar Javanese year 1548, and so on. The Islamic Higra years (A.H. 1035, 1036) were henceforth mentioned incidentally but not officially. Without any doubt it was the intention of Sultan Agui} and his successors by this measure to demonstrate the continuity of Javanese history and cultural development,