BOANERGES
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BOANERGES
r ' / /
BY
]^,^e^ RENDEL HARRIS
Cambridge :
at the University Press
1913
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
CONTENTS
Preface
PAGES
vii — ix
Errata
,
s
CHAP.
I.
Introduction ....
Boanerges
xi —
1-
sxiv
-12
11.
The Parentage of the Twins .
13-
-19
III.
The Thunder-bird .
.
20-
-30
IV.
The Red Robes of the Dioscuri
31-
-48
V.
The Twin-Cult in West Africa
49-
-97
VI.
The Twin-Cult in South Africa
98-
-107
VII.
The Twin-Cult in East Africa
.
108-
-128
VIII.
The Twin-Cult in Madagascar
. 129-
-131
IX.
The Twin-Cult in South America
.
. 132-
-141
X.
The Twin-Cult amongst the North
Indians ....
Americar
142-
-151
XL
Of Twins in Ancient Mexico .
. 152-
-154
XII.
The Twin-Heroes of North and South America
L 155-
-159
XIII.
The Twin-Cult in Saghalien, Northern Japan
and the Kurile Islands
>
160-
-164
XIV.
Of Twins in Burma, Cambodia, and the Malaj
Archipelago
T
. 165-
-170
XV.
The Twin-Cult in Polynesia, Melanesia, anc
Australia ......
l
. 171-
-178
XVI.
The Twin-Cult in Assam, etc.
. 179-
-181
XVII.
The Twin-Fear in Ancient India .
. 182-
-190
XVIII.
The Twin-Cult in Central Asia Minor .
. 191-
-194
XIX.
Why did the Twins go to Sea?
. 195-
-204
XX.
The Twins and the Origin of Navigation
. 205-
-215
XXI.
The Twins in Phoenician Tradition
.
. 216-
-220
VI
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGK8
XXII. The Voyage to Colchis of Jason and his
Companions 221—233
XXIII. The Ploughs and Yokes of the Heavenly Twins 234—249
XXIV. The Twin-Cult at Edessa .... 250—264
XXV. Further Traces of the Twins in Arabia and
in Palestine 265—270
XXVI. The Twin-Cult in Egypt 271—274
XXVII. The Story of Esau and Jacob interpreted . 275—280
XXVIII. Further Traces of Dioscurism on the Sea of
Galilee 281—288
XXIX. The Dioscuric Element in II Maccabees . 289—290
XXX. On the Names commonly given to Twin
Children 291—296
XXXI. On the Twins in the Lettish Folk-songs and
on the Holy Oak 297—303
XXXII. The Heavenly Twins in Graeco-Roman Tradi-
tion 304—312
XXXIII. Some Further Points of Contact between
Graeco-Roman Beliefs and Savage Life . 313 — 316
XXXIV. Some Further Remarks on Twin-Towns and
Twin-Sanctuaries 317 — 325
XXXV. The Case of King Keleos .... 326—332
XXXVI. Jason and the Symplegades .... 333—337
XXXVII. Jason and Triptolemos 338—343
XXXVIII. The Woodpecker and the Plough . . . 344—347
XXXIX. The Korybantes and the infant Zeus . . 348—353
XL. Bees and the Holy Oak 354—357
XLI. The Twins in Western Europe . . . 358—360
XLII. Dioscurism and Jasonism .... 361 — 374
XLIII. Some Further Remarks upon Graeco-Roman
Dioscurism 375 — 379
XLIV. Are the Twin-Myths one or many? . . 380—383
XLV. Twins in the Bridal-Chamber and in the Birth-
Chamber 384—388
Additional Notes 389—419
Index 420—424
PREFACE
XN publishing the present volume, I must confess that
there are results arrived at, and other results adum-
brated, which I did not anticipate when I set to work to
arrange into something like order the mass of information
which I had collected concerning the antiquity and wide
diffusion of Twin-cults, and their influence upon religions
past and present. The investigation, however, opened up
from point to point, in a way that made it impossible for
me to limit its scope or obscure its meaning. As often as
I repeated to myself the warning to beware of the idea that
one had found a master-key in mythology, so often some
fresh door or window would open under the stress of the
particular key that I was carrying ; and it was necessary to
go on with what one had begun, when the first stages of
enquiry were so rich in results. However much one might
elect to rest and be thankful over the elucidations which
a knowledge of Twin-cults furnishes to the history of the
Ancient Roman State or of the Modern Roman Church, we
could not stop the investigation in mid-stream, and say that
it should not be carried into the history of the Ancient
Jewish State, or the Modern Christian Church. There was
a harvest of results in the myths and legends of the Book of
Genesis, which now for the first time became intelligible;
but the pathway of the enquirer led on from Genesis into the
books of the Maccabees ; and by establishing Dioscurism for
the period immediately preceding the Christian era, one was
Vlll PREFACE
able to take a flying leap into the very centre of the Gospel
history. As said above, this was not what I originally ex-
pected or intended : but the motion of the enquiry could not
be arrested. If we have really found a clue for the elimina-
tion of certain Gospel miracles from the pages of history, we
must follow the clue as far as it can fairly be traced, on the
ground that what is good for the Old Testament or for
Judaism cannot necessarily be illicit for the New Testament
or for Christianity. The value of the enquiry and its
supposed results will be estimated later on by those who are
more expert than ourselves in theological learning, and in
the folk-lore which we have assumed to be a branch of
theology.
No book that I have ever written has left me with a
greater burden of indebtedness to my friends; they have
furnished me with parallels and with facts from the four
corners of the world and from the longest extension of time.
It is impossible to name them all ; here and there the reader
will find an acknowledgement made for some service or
information, or verified quotation. My own students, from
their international character (Woodbrooke being a meeting
place of the nations), have delved for me into the folk-lore of
Europe, Asia, Australia, and America : if I mention one who
has worked harder for me and brought home more spoil than
others, it will be my friend, Mr R. H. D. Willey. Dr Glover,
as in previous cases, has helped me with many wise sugges-
tions, and with the elimination of many errors, typographical
and otherwise. Mr F. G. Montagu Powell supplied me with
an actual carved image of a dead twin, which he had obtained
from his son, who is a doctor in Lagos. Dr Frazer gave me
many a hint from his vast collection of folk-lore. Mr Fritz
Krenkow helped me where I was altogether unfurnished, in
the region of early Arabic literature. My Missionary friends,
PREFACE IX
too, in many a field of foreign service, found for me one
desired link after another. From Miss Jane Harrison and
Prof. Gilbert Murray I have had some wise criticisms and
valuable confirmations. It has been difficult to acknow-
ledge all that I received : but I tender grateful thanks to
one and all, with the assurance that none of my friends is in
any way involved in any discredit attaching to conclusions
that I have drawn or suggested.
In two directions I should like to have improved the
book ; first, it has occasionally happened that a reference
could not be verified, owing to the distance at which I live
from the great libraries : second, it will be felt at many
points, that the book ought to have been illustrated ; the
expense has deterred me from an adornment of the pages
which I recognise to be almost necessary.
For the first time in my life I have made an index to my
book, for which, rough as it is, my readers will be grateful.
RENDEL HARRIS.
woodbrooke,
Selly Oak.
1 August 1913.
H. a
EREATA
p. 61, 1. 3, for contrast read compare.
p. 63 note, add sets after Benin.
p. 78, 1. 19, for Cessou read Ceston, and again 1. 25.
p. 213, note i, for Larkey read Larkby.
p. 241, note, for J. H. Allen read J. H. Allan.
p. 284, note ^, for Sauve read Sauv6, and corr. ref. to v. 157 ff.
p. 287, 1. 12, for Xenophon read Xanthippos.
INTEODUCTION
In the present treatise, I propose to make a more extended
study of the Cult of the Heavenly Twins than I was able to
attempt in my previous investigations into the subject. It
was inevitable that the discovery which I made of the existence
of pairs of twin saints in the Church calendars, and which
led back naturally to the place of the Heavenly Twins in the
religions of Greece and Rome, should require to be approached
from the side of anthropology rather than from that of
ecclesiastical or classical culture, as soon as it became clear
that the phenomena under examination were world wide,
and that the religious practices involved were the product of
all the ages of human history. At the same time, I do not
want to discuss the subject altogether de novo, nor have I
the expectation of writing the one book on this particular
subject. The banquet of research at which I am seated is
likely to be one of many courses: if I could fancy myself
beginning once more at the first course, I have no prospect
of sitting the feast out ah ovo usque ad mala. Indeed, I
am reasonably sure that I shall never get to the apples at
all, and on that ground might well be absolved from the
completeness which one naturally desires in the study of
a single compartment of knowledge. For these reasons,
then, I think it best to assume some of the results which I
have arrived at in previous books and articles on the subject,
and to use these results as a basis for further study, making
such changes as may be necessary in the light of clearer
knowledge, and confirming previous enquiries made in limited
areas by the parallels which are supplied by a wider know-
ledge of the world and of the history of man.
b 2
Xll INTRODUCTION
My first book on the Twin-Cult was an expansion of a
short course of lectures given in Cambridge in the year
1903. It was entitled the Dioscuri in the Christian Legends.
Starting from the observation that there was a tendency in
human nomenclature to express by similarity of sound or by
parallelism of meaning the twin relationship, it was suggested
(and this was the real point of departure in the enquiry)
Florus that Florus and Laurus in the Byzantine and other calendars
Laurus were twins. Vespasian's retort upon a courtier who had
twin- corrected him for saying plostrum instead of plaustrum by
' calling him Flaurus instead of Florus, may be used to
illustrate the pronunciation of the names.
It was then noted that amongst the Russian peasantry
\j Florus and Laurus (or as they say Frol and Lavior) are
with care regarded as the patron saints of horses, which led to the
o orses; j^q^^ suggestion that they were the representatives of the
Great Twin-Brethren of pre-Christian times.
That they were twins was confirmed by a reference to
they were their Acts in the Synaxaria of the Greek Church, where they
were described as twin-brethren, who were of the craft of
stone-masons, the day of their celebration being the 18th of
August.
This might have been confirmed by calendars of the
Syrian Church ; for example, in the Paris Syriac MS. 142,
they are commemorated as follows :
18th of Ab. Commemoration of the holy martyrs,
the twin-brethren Laurus and Florus.
Ab was, of course, the substitute for August, when the
festival was taken over, and it is to be observed that it was
as twins that they were in the first instance commemorated
in Syria.
The next fact betrayed by the Church calendars, was
that the 18th of August was the day on which the Greek
Church honours St Helena, the mother of Constantine, which
immediately suggested that the Cult of the Twins was
accompanied by a cult of their sister ; Castor and Pollux, as
Florus and Laurus, being ecclesiastically attached to their
stone-
masons.
INTRODUCTION XIU
sister Helen, who has now become the Dowager Empress of Cult of
TV , . Helen,
liyzantium.
The next step was to show why the Byzantine hagiolo-
gists describe the twins as stone-masons, rather than as horse
riders or horse-rearers, as in Homer and elsewhere ; or since
the Russian connection between the Twins and horses was
probably primitive, we had to ask the question whether the
Heavenly Twins were builders in stone as well as tamers of Heavenly
horses. The latter was well known, not only from Homeric builders,
references to horse-taming Castor, but also from the parallel
cults in ancient Greece and in India (where the Twins are
actually known as Agvinau or the Dual Horsemen). The
other part of the identification was made for Castor and
Pollux, from Greek traditions of cities that they had built,
and of cities that they had destroyed : in particular it was
shown that the title Aairepcrai,, which had been given to
them in ancient times, and was commonly interpreted by the
scholiasts as the Destroyers of the City Las, was a misunder-
standing of an original Stone-Workers. And a comparison
with kindred myths, such as that of the Theban twins,
Zethus and Amphion, confirmed the belief that the twins
were builders of cities, and patrons and inventors of architec-
ture. By this time, the questions of the origin, meaning,
and diffusion of the Twin-Cult were moved into a wider
field. The Greek parallels showed that the worship of the
Great Twin-Brethren was not confined to Sparta, nor to
Dorian colonies. The Indian parallels suggested that the
myth might go back to the origins of the Aryan race. The
Twins were found in Persia as well as in India, and, if we
examined the Vedic hymns, we could deduce such a variety
of useful offices discharged by the twins, as to make it certain
that a cult, which we find so highly differentiated, must be
of extreme antiquity.
It was then shown that a cult of the same kind had Twin-
been described by Tacitus, as prevailing among the Naharvali among the
in Eastern Europe (perhaps in Lithuania), and that the Naharvali.
existing folk-songs of the Lettish people describe certain
Sons of God who ride upon horses, and who are identified,
XIV INTRODUCTION
from certain points of view, with the Morning Star, and the
Evening Star. This discovery was important, not only for
its confirmation of the observation of Tacitus, who said that
the young men named Alois amongst the Lithuanians were
honoured as Castor and Pollux amongst the Romans, but
also because it suggested that there was an earlier stage of
stellar identification which preceded that of the well-known
stars in the constellation Gemini. It was clear that at one
time the Aryan race did not know that the Morning Star
was the same as the Evening Star ; and because they were
alike, they were treated as twins, rather than as the same
star. Moreover, they never appeared in the East and West
on the same night, but, as it was said, when one was up, the
other was down, and conversely, which led at once to the
beautiful story of the divided immortality of Castor and
Pollux in the Greek mythology. This strange belief in the
duality of the planet Venus was illustrated subsequently on
a journey across Asia Minor, when I could not find anyone
who was aware that the Morning Star was the same as the
Evening Star. The Greeks themselves seem to have arrived
at this knowledge quite late.
Twins half We are now able to detect the earlier belief which lay
f 1
half im- behind the Greek legend of the divided immortality of
mortal. Castor and Pollux, and to suspect that in each case of a pair
of Great Twin Brethren, one of the pair was mortal and
the other was immortal ; this was due, not to a study of
the stars, but to the dual paternity, which had affected the
mother of twins, one parent being an immortal god, and
the other a mortal man. This observation turned out to be
very important ; it was not suspected at the time, as proved
afterwards to be the case, that the belief in question was not
confined to the Aryan race, but that, in some form or other,
the dual paternity theory could be illustrated fi-om the most
uncivilized and savage races that exist upon the planet ; so
that we need not have begun <|ur enquiry with ancient
histories or with classical writers ; we might have begun it
with the modern missionary and traveller engaged in work
for and observations of the rudest peoples. This point was
INTRODUCTION XV
to come out more clearly at a later stage. It is interesting
to note that in these investigations the Zodiac had already-
been left far behind; whatever may be the reason for
including the Heavenly Twins in the Zodiac, or in an early
calendar of months, we were not dealing with Babylonian
myth-making, but with something much earlier. In the
history of the Twins, the elevation to a Zodiacal peerage is
almost the last honour that is conferred upon them.
The next step in the enquiry was to collect from the Twins in
Vedic literature the varied functions discharged by the
Twin-Brethren, some of which could be paralleled at once
from Western twin-cults. The principal of these functions
were:
(1) To save from darkness :
(2) To restore youth and remove senility :
(3) To protect in battle :
(4) To act as physicians (especially as miracle-workers,
in healing the blind, the lame, etc.):
(5) To be the patrons of the bride-chamber, and bless
newly married people :
(6) To promote fertility in men, as well as in animal
life and in plant life (as by the invention of the plough and
the bestowal of the rain and dew) :
(7) To protect travellers by land and sea, under which
latter head their fame became great in the Mediterranean,
where, indeed, it subsists even to the present day.
It has already been intimated that a cult so highly
evolved has antiquity written large upon it : it must go back
to the earliest pages of human history. A superficial
objection has been, however, made to some of the character-
istics here recognised as denoting the Twin-Horsemen, on the
ground that the functions assigned to them really belong to
other gods, as, for instance, rain-making to Indra, and military
prowess to other gods; so that we ought not to emphasise
their functions so strongly on the ground of occasional Vedic
references, and it is even said that, in any case, more proof
XVI INTRODUCTION
is required that the Vedic Horsemen are the Dioscuri. The
objection may be noted ; it will answer itself as the enquiry
proceeds: when it has been shown that similar beliefs can
be traced all over the rest of the world, we shall not be able
to insulate India, or even Palestine. It may, however, be
remarked in passing, that the variety of functions assigned
to the Great Twins is just as marked in the West as in the
East : though their place in the pantheon of Olympus is
barely recognised, they share functions with almost every
Twins Olympic god : but it is not they who are encroaching upon
than^^ the Olympians: every one knows, by this time, that, with
Olympic some exceptions, it is the Olympians who are modern: the
overlapping in function between them and the Twins arises
from the fact that the religious stratum which appears in
the Olympic religion is superposed upon earlier strata, which
it does not wholly cover: and when the antiquity of the
Twin-Cult is demonstrated, there is no difficulty in their
exercising powers of divination with Athena, or going
hunting after the fashion of Artemis. With Zeus they share
antiquity as well as function, and the latter because they are
Dioscuri, Zeus hoys.
To return to the investigation in Dioscuri and the
Christian legends. The attempt to classify the functions
which the Dioscuri exercised both in the East and the
West, led to a startling result in another quarter of the
Christian world. It is well known that legend had been
busy with St Thomas and with his place in the propagation
of Christianity in the East, say from Edessa to India. These
legends occur in an early Syriac document, called by the
Dioscuri name of the Acts of Thomas, which gives the story of St
^Tliomas'^ Thomas' apostolate in native Syriac, showing no signs of a
translation. It is well known that the name Thomas means
nothing more or less than Twin; and when we read the
account of his mission, we find him discharging Dioscuric
functions all along the line. He can build palaces and
temples and tombs; he can make ploughs and yokes, and
masts for ships; he can tame animals for driving, and he
can act as the patron of a wedding ; to say nothing of other
INTRODUCTION XVll
powers and interests not so obviously Dioscuric. In all these
functions he has with him as his immortal companion and
counterpart, similar in every respect to himself, the Lord
Jesus; and although the scribes of the Acts have tried to
obliterate the startling statement, he is, over and over again,
recognised as being the Twin of the Messiah. Attempts on
the part of the scribes to substitute a slightly different
word, to read Abyss of the Messiah, or Ocean- flood of the
Messiah {Tehoma for Tauma), only serve by their unintelligi-
bility to bring more strongly into relief the fact that in the
earliest days of the Syrian Church at Edessa, Jesus and
Thomas were regarded as Twin-Brethren. They were, in
consequence, the Dioscures of the City: and there was raised
the interesting question whether we could find the original
Dioscures, whom they might be assumed to have displaced,
in the same way as Castor and Pollux were displaced in the
West by Floras and Laurus and other pairs of saints. It
was well known that the chief religion at Edessa was Solar, Twins at
in which the Sun was honoured along with two assessors, ^^^^'
named Monim and Aziz. The names appear to be Semitic,
but there can be little doubt that they correspond to the
Twin-Brethren of the Aryan religions : in particular, their
close relation to the Sun-god, shows them to be parallel to
the two torch bearers of the Mithraic monuments, one of
whom stands with a torch raised, and the other with his
torch depressed, and who are known by the names of Cautes
and Cautopates. As, however, in spite of the similarity of
these names, which suggests twinship, nothing was known as
to the meaning of the names, nor as to the functions which
they discharged, we could not take the final step of identifying
Monim and Aziz with Cautes and Cautopates. The Mithraic
or Persian figures remained over for further investigation.
It was, however, fairly established that the Edessan religion
had Dioscuric features. It is inconceivable that there should
be so many twin-traits in the Acts of Thomas unless the
writer had been using Jesus and Thomas to replace some
other pair of Great Brethren.
In this connection we tried to establish the existence of
XVlll INTRODUCTION
Twin the Dioscuric stars on the coinage of Edessa, and to show
Edessa. ^^^^ *he two great pillars, which still rise above the city from
the ramparts of its citadel, were votive pillars in honour of
the Twins, and it was suggested that the Syriac inscription
on one of the pillars could be read in that sense. Under
both these heads there was something wanting to the
argument ; the numismatic evidence was susceptible of other
interpretations and the decipherment of the inscription on
the pillar was challenged by Prof Burkitt on an important
point. So that, here again, caution and repeated investigation
were necessary. The main points as to the existence of
Dioscuric worship at Edessa are quite clearly made out.
The Twins were there from old time, and they were replaced
by Jesus and Thomas. That was the chief result of the
enquiry, and, it need hardly be said, it raised at once the
question whether the Twins had been similarly displaced
elsewhere, and whether Jesus and Thomas were really Twins,
or whether they were only treated as such by the hagiologist,
for the sake of the good results that would follow in the
depaganisation of Edessa.
Collaterally, again, the question was raised as to the
place of the Twin-Cult in the Semitic religion. Edessa, itself,
was in ancient times a meeting point of religions : it is so,
almost as decidedly, to-day. We must not, however, assume
Semitic ancestry for the Twins because they are called
Monim and Aziz: these might be only names given by the
Edessan Arabs to the Aryan or Parthian Twins. The
question as to the existence of Twins in Semitic religion has
to be investigated on its own merits, as, for instance, in
Phoenicia (though we are not quite sure that Phoenicia is
originally Semitic) and in Palestine and Arabia. On these
points also further enquiry was to be desired.
In the volume which followed, named the Cult of the
Heavenly Twins (published in 1906), the enquiry was re-
sumed : and this time, instead of beginning with the pairs of
twin-saints under ecclesiastical disguise in the Calendar, I
began at the opposite end of the evolution of the cult, with
a study of the Taboo of Twins, which prevails to this day
INTRODUCTION XIX
among savage tribes, and constitutes their greatest Fear or
Supreme Reverence, and so furnishes the basis from which
the evolution of Natural Religion must inevitably proceed.
It was shown, in the first instance, that the Taboo in
question, which can be traced through almost all elementary Twin-
races, involved in its earliest stage the destruction of the amonffele-
mother of the twins, the twins themselves, and of the house mentary
and the chattels which might conceivably have been infected
by the Taboo. From this simple solution of the problem
raised by the great Fear for the Savage, we passed on to
consider those subsequent stages of reflection in which reason
was sought for the phenomenon, and for the best way of
dealing with it, and measures of mitigation were proposed
for the severity with which the unfortunate causes of the
Taboo were treated. It became more and more clear that
this initial application of reason, which started from the
observation that the mother had either done or suffered
something dreadful, resulted in the hypothesis of a double
paternity, of the kind which is common in Greek and Roman
mythology; only the second father was not yet become an
Olympian : he was, perhaps, only a spirit, or the externalised
soul of some person or thing, or an animal — by preference
a bird. It was natural that the hypothesis of dual parentage
should lead to some difference in the treatment of the
children ; if only one was abnormal, a very elementary
instinct of justice would suggest that only one should be
killed. From this point the progress of humane feeling was
seen in the further development of lenity in the substitution
of exile for death, or its equivalent, exposure. The mother
and children are now isolated, and the result of their
isolation is to make their retreat in wood or in island, into
a sanctuary : thus, from the taboo on twins, there arose the
sanctuary rights of Twin-towns. It was suggested that
these Twin-towns, which still exist in their earliest simplicity Formation
in parts of Africa, were at one time very common in Europe, ^wns.
and that Rome itself was such a sanctuary. An important
discovery was then made, that the Taboo on Twins is not
always interpreted as Evil, but that there are tribes to-day
XX INTRODUCTION
which regard Twins as a blessing, though they show, by their,
purifications of the persons involved, and of the community
in which they appear, that the second interpretation either
leans upon the first, which it has corrected, or, which is
perhaps the more accurate way of stating the case, that the
primitive Fear, aroused by the uncommon or abnormal
event, has been explained in two opposite senses. It is
curious that, to this day, tribes which are locally almost
contiguous, will take opposite views of the perplexing phe-
nomenon. Those which think twins a blessing appear to do
so, because they find them serviceable; they, with their
mother, stand for abnormal fertility, which is thought of as
contagious; and they are credited with control of the
influences which make for fertility, which gives them at once
a place of authority, because of their usefulness, in the tribes
where they are born. The next important step was the
discovery that there were tribes in S.E. Africa, which had
Twins referred the parentage of both the twins to the Sky (or
of the Sky. Perhaps to its equivalent, the Thunder) and that the Twins
had obtained, through this parentage, the title of Sky-
children, or Thunder-children. We are now at a stage in
the evolution of the cult which must have been very nearly
that of the ancestors of the Greeks, when they gave to their
idealised Twin-Brethren, the title of Dioscuri, or Zeus' boys.
From this point, the investigation proceeds with comparative
ease, the more savage interpretations of twinship being now
left behind, except for stray survivals of ancient customs;
and an increasing sense is developed of the greatness, and
goodness, and usefulness of the Twins, as being, either
wholly or in part, the descendants and representatives of
the Sky-god.
Various It was now possible to explain why the Twins had such
of twins. ^ prominent place in agriculture, and amongst the tribal
rain-makers. Successive inventions could be directly traced
to them, and they became the patrons of sexual acts and the
restorers of lapsed sexual functions. They acquired mantic
gifts, and became prophets and healers; they used their
relation to the all-seeing Heaven to determine whether men
INTRODUCTION XXI
spoke truly, and became the patrons of trust, and of commerce
which reposes on trust, and the punishers of perjury. In
cases where the twins were not, both of them, credited to
celestial parentage, it was natural that steps should be taken
to define, if possible, the Immortal one of the pair, and to
distinguish him from his less favoured brother. Traces were
found of favourite forms of differentiation, such as Red and
White, Rough and Smooth, Strong and Weak, Mechanic or
Artist, or by the discrimination of names expressing either
the priority of one twin over the other, or their special
characteristics. The naming of twins was evidently a subject
deserving further and closer attention. The use of assonant
names was especially noticed.
The rest of the book was chiefly devoted to the expansion
and verification of the former thesis that the ecclesiastical
calendar was full of cases of disguised twins, who were, Twins
presumably, transferred to the service of the Church from calendar.
the Dioscuric cults which prevailed all over Europe before
the introduction of Christianity. The most interesting cases
were those of Cosmas and Damian, Protasius and Gervasius,
the Tergemini at Langres (Speusippus and his brethren),
Nearchus and Polyeuctes. A further enquiry was made into •
the case of Judas Thomas; and some explanations were given
of the symbols proper to represent the Dioscuri in Sparta
and elsewhere.
It will be seen that the investigations, which we have
thus briefly summarised, had thrown a great light upon the
history of that branch of human culture, which we now call
Dioscurism. Much still remained to be cleared up, both
with regard to the savage origins, and with regard to the
ecclesiastical disguises of the cult : special investigation was
also necessary in explanation of certain functions discharged
by the Heavenly Twins, which did not seem to have any
connection with savage life, or with savage explanations of
life. To take a single case of one of the most widespread
Dioscuric functions, the protection of sailors in the Mediter-
ranean and elsewhere, it was by no means obvious how such
XXll
INTRODUCTION
Twins
protect
sailors.
Twins as
Eiver-
Saints.
a function should have fallen to the lot either of twins, or
the descendants of twins. The same thing appears in the
functions of chariot-driving and horse - training : we may
easily prove these functions to exist over wide areas ; but we
cannot easily prove that they were implicit in the archaic
cult. These and similar enquiries remain over, to be dis-
cussed more carefully as we know our Twins better, and as
we cease to be satisfied with merely recording the facts,
without giving a reason for the facts.
In order to solve the question as to why the Heavenly
Twins became the special patrons of sailors, and are so, to
some extent, even to the present day, it did not seem to me
to be adequate to label the Twins as Universal Saviours, and
then deduce from that title one of their most striking
functions ; nor did it seem sufficient to say that the respect
paid by sailors to the Twins was due to the control which
the Twins exercised over the weather by their affiliation
with the Sky-god ; for we found them exercising their art
over inland waters and streams, as well as over open seas,
and in. those cases the control of the weather seemed hardly
an adequate motive. Accordingly I proceeded to make
a further study of the Dioscuri as Sea-Saints, and discovered
that there were not a few cases in which it could be proved
that the Twins had definitely come down-stream, and had
been honoured on rivers before ever they came to be
revered at sea : an interesting case was that of Komulus
and Remus, who are still worshipped on the Riviera as
San Romolo and San Remo, and under other disguises can
easily be recognised on the Atlantic sea-board and else-
where.
These results were presented to the Oxford Congress for
the History of Religions in 1908, and were published in the
Contemporary Review in January of the following year.
Many new illustrations were given, not only of the general
thesis that the Dioscuri were River-Saints before they were
Sea-Saints, but also of their care of navigation in dangerous
shallows and straits, and of their patronage of harbours and
of lighthouses.
INTRODUCTION XXllI
Some of these points may be re-stated in the following
pages : but at present it is to be noticed that in taking the
Dioscuri up-stream and inland, we had definitely abandoned
the idea that the reason of their nautical activity lay in their
care of the weather. We shall, therefore, be obliged to seek
for another solution, and we shall find it before very long.
We are to go up the stream of time, as well as to ascend the
great rivers : we must go back to the time before man had
donned the ' robur et aes triplex,' which, Horace says, must
have been the equipment of the first navigator; we must
proceed as if the sea did not exist, and search for simpler
experiments than those which made Horace wonder : and as
the stream of time is ascended by us, the Twins are to
ascend with us, and help us to the explanation of their
various functions. It does not, at first sight, seem likely
that the art of navigation can be proved to be a Dioscuric
art from its first inception, but this is the direction in which
the ship's head (the ship itself being now much diminished)
appears to be pointing.
Now let us make the briefest possible summary of the
results already arrived at, so that in the following pages we
may see how to confirm them and how to extend them,
where to limit the area or the time to which they are to
be referred, and where to extend and make universal the
facts which have come to our knowledge. The following
summary, necessarily incomplete, will assist our further
investigations.
The appearance of Twins is regarded by primitive man
with aversion : they are a great Fear, a Taboo. The mother
of such twins, and the twins themselves, must b'e killed :
the settlement must be purified from the Taboo. She, the
mother, is either a criminal or a victim ; she has had con-
nection with a spirit, or the numen residing animistically in
some object ; perhaps it was a bird, perhaps it was the
thunder, or the lightning, or the sky.
Alleviations are proposed ; spare one child (but which ?),
spare the mother. Exile the mother and kill the children :
exile the mother and the children, to an island or a village
XXIV INTRODUCTION
of their own : make a twin-island, or twin-sanctuary, or
twin-village, or place of refuge.
Or perhaps they are not bad at all ; then do not kill
them : use purificatory rites and revere them ; perhaps they
are the children, one of them at least, of the Sky, or the
Thunder. Then they can help with rain-making, and their
mother, by contact, can fertilise fields and plants and crops.
Primitive agriculture is of the woman ; how much more is it
of the woman who has borne twins ! Perhaps they will show
us how to make digging-sticks and ploughs. As they are
fertile they will help women who are going to have offspring,
and men and women who are past having any. If their father
is the Sky the boys will get rain from him ; and he will help
them to find stolen property (for he sees and knows every-
thing), and to know if men speak truly : and they will help
trading (for the merchants can deposit their goods securely in
the neighbourhood of their sanctuaries), and they will punish
lying. As they know what their father knows, they will
tell us in dreams things that we ought to know, and the
medicines that we ought to apply to our diseases ; and we
will make images of them by which we may keep them in
remembrance, and make our salutations before them.
This is a brief summary of the facts already collected
about Twins.
CHAPTER I
BOANERGES .
As is well known, the title which we place at the head of
this chapter is the name which is given in the Gospel of
Mark to James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and which
is explained by the Evangelist as meaning ' Sons of Thunder.' Sons of
Neither of the two other Synoptic writers, Matthew and
Luke, transfers this statement of Mark to his pages. It
may, perhaps, be inferred that they found the explanation
unintelligible or objectionable. The only other ancient
Christian writing in which it occurs is in Justin Martyr's
Dialogue with Trypho, where Justin professes to be giving
information from the Memoirs of the Apostles, and was,
therefore, either working directly from the Petrine tra-
dition in Mark, or from some collateral tradition^: in either
case, the antiquity of the statement is confirmed; and the
probability that Justin's source is Mark will be increased
when we observe that they appear to share in a peculiar and
perhaps corrupt form of spelling for the name.
The difficulties attaching to the Marcan statement relate,
first, to the form of the spelling ; second, to the meaning of
its equivalent translation.
As there seemed to be no Hebrew word exactly answering
to the termination -reges or -erges, those of the early Fathers
who were scholars could do little with the linguistic problem,
and it was reserved for Jerome to suggest that, as the word
^ Justin, Dial. 106. 'He changed the name of one of the Apostles and
called him Peter : and in his (Peter's) memoirs it is also recorded to have
happened, that he changed the name of the sons of Zebedee to Sons of
Thunder (Boanerges).'
H. B. 1
2 BOANERGES [CH.
for Thunder in Hebrew is re'em, where the middle letter
(Ayin) is often transliterated in Greek by g, an error had
been made in the final consonant of a Semitic word : Boane-
would, then, be an attempt to transliterate, from some dialect
or other, the word for * Sons of,' which we commonly write
B'ne.
It is possible that Jerome's is the right solution. It may,
however, be suggested, that there is a closely related root in
the Arabic language, which may furnish us the necessary
explanation ; the word ragasa (u->^j) means to ' roar aloud,'
'to thunder 1.' Perhaps, then, this is the root that we are in
search of.
Turn, now, to the explanation which Mark gives of the
matter. He tells us to equate the transliterated Semitic
word with ' Sons of Thunder ' ; and we shall see that no
room is left for reasonable doubt as to what was meant
by the peculiar appellation given to the two young men.
None of the Fathers, however, seems to have had any
suspicion as to the true meaning; and the modern com-
mentators are as much at sea as their patristic antecedents.
The common method of interpretation is to compare the
forceful actions and utterances of James and John with the
Origen on thunder. Thus, in the recently discovered scholia of Origen
oanerges. ^^ ^j^^ Apocalypse, when Origen comes to discuss the seven
thunders in c. 10, v. 3, and the proposal to incorporate the
voices of these seven thunders in the Apocalypse, he
remarks parenthetically that ' if you enquire into the case
of the Sons of Thunder, James and John, whom Jesus
called Boanerges, that is. Sons of Thunder, you will find
them very properly called Sons of Thunder on account of
the loud voice of their ideas and doctrines ^'
' The same line is taken among the moderns by Dr Swete,
who tells us» that ' in the case of James, nothing remains to
^ The same word occurs in Hebrew (? Aramaic) in the second Psalm,
* Wherefore do the heathen rage ? ' as our translators imitatively rendered the
word. Cf . the Latin, Quare fremuerunt gentes ?
* " Texte u. Untersuch. xxxvin. 3, p. 40.
3 Comm. on Mark, iii. 17.
l] BOANERGES S
justify the title beyond the fact of his early martyrdom,
probably due to the force of his denunciations (Acts xii. 2) :
John's vorjTT) ^povrri (Orig. Philoc. XV. 18) is heard in
Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse.'
It is not necessary to examine into any further ex-
planations, either ancient or modem, of the perplexing
Boanerges, since it is clear that ' Sons of Thunder ' is quite
intelligible from the standpoint of folk-lore, and means that
the persons so named were either actually twins or so twin-
like in appearance or action, that they might appropriately
be spoken of as 'the twins.' As the results which will
follow this identification are of the highest importance, it
will be well to set down some of the confirmations of the
correctness of the interpretation. Can we find ' sons of
thunder ' elsewhere, either exactly so named or in equivalent
language ? Can we find either ' sons of the sky,' or ' sons
of lightning,' as parallels to the Boanerges ? And if they
are found, is there any evidence which suggests that the
idea that twins were children of the thunder was as much
at home in Palestine as in the outside world ? The first
and most obvious remark to be made is that the expression
is quam proxime the equivalent of the title by which the
Spartan Twins were known ; for ' Dioscuri ' is literally
' Zeus' boys,' and while it is common to explain Zeus Twins
etymologically as the equivalent of the bright sky (Dyaus), g^^g
everyone knows that the actual Zeus is just as much the
Thunder as he is the Bright Sky ; in Graeco-Roman circles
he is, in fact, the thunder-god rather than the sky-god ; and,
as might be expected, when we move into regions further .
north it is the Thunder-god whom we meet in the person
of Thor, and not the bright sky at all. The fact is that
the original notion of ' sky ' involved the idea of ' thunder ' ;
and just as in the African tribes of to-day, one word did
duty for both.
We shall see, by-and-by, when we examine into the cult
of the Heavenly Twins more closely, that in almost every case
in which the Twins are represented, in art, in worship, by an
attached priesthood, or by appropriate sacrifices, one colour
1—2
4 BOANERGES [CH*
dominates the representations, the red colour of the lightning.
There is not the slightest objection to the equation of the
Greek Dioscuri with the Children of the Thunder.
To take the matter a. step further: it has been shown
that amongst the Baronga tribes in Portuguese East Africa,
it is the custom to attach to twins, when born, the collective
Bana-ba- name of ' Bana-ba-Tilo,' or ' children of Tilo,' where the
word ' Tilo ' is used for ' sky ' in the general sense, including
the thunder and lightning, and possibly the rain. And it
was evident, as soon as attention was drawn to it, that we
had here in an African tribe the very same nomenclature
of twins which we find for the special ideal twins. Castor and
Pollux, amongst the Greeks. It is curious that Dr Frazer,
who had studied the account of the Baronga customs given
by M. Junod, the Swiss missionary, did not notice the
equivalence between Bana-ba-Tilo and Dioscuri, until I
pointed it out to him ; and he promptly retorted upon my
own lack of vision by remarking that in that case we had the
explanation of the perplexing Boanerges in the New Testa-
ment. We had between us arrived at the equivalence :
Boanerges = Dioscuri = Bana-ba-Tilo !
We shall have to refer to the Baronga tribes again for other
features of the twin-cult: at the present point, all that is
necessary is to show how widespread is the idea that twins
are to be assigned, either wholly or in part, to the parentage
of the thunder^
Now let us return to Palestine. If we take the Survey
Twins in map of the Palestine Exploration Society, we shall find a
Palestine, yi^age not far from Jaffa, marked by the name of Ibn Abraq
or Ihraq. It is four or five miles from Jaffa, and a little to
the north of the road that leads from Jaffa to Jerusalem.
The name means ' Son of Lightnings,' and suggests at once
a classification with the 'Sons of Thunder' that we are
discussing : only, in that case, we should expect a dual or
a plural in the Arabic. Now let us look at the book of
^ M. Junod's work, Les Ba-ronga, 4tude ethnographique sur les indigenes,
de la Baie de Delagoa, was published at Neuch&tel in 1898 in vol. 10 of
Bulletin de la Soci6t€ Neuckateloise de Geographic.
l] BOANERGES
Joshua xix. 45, where we shall find a series of place-names
in the tribe of Dan and amongst them Jehud and Bne-
Baraq and Gath-Rimmon. Here we have the name in its
original form, with the desired plural, while the worship
of the thunder is further attested by the presence in the
neighbourhood of a place which is compounded with that
of the Thunder-god (Rimmon). We need not, therefore,
hesitate to say that there was an ancient town in Palestine,
not far from Jaffa, which was named after the Heavenly
Twins. Further confirmation will be found in the great
inscription of Sennacherib, which mentions a town Bana-ai-
har-qa in connection with Joppa and Beth-dagon. We are
sure, then, that such a town as was named Sons of Lightning
existed from the earliest times in Western Palestine.
We have now to investigate further the meaning of this
peculiar appellation: and it seems as if it could be only
one of three things : either (a) it is a settlement of people
coming from elsewhere, and bringing with them the name
of their protector-gods, much as the Greeks gave the name
of Tyndaris to a settlement in Sicily, in honour of the
Tyndaridae, or Sons of Tyndareus (Castor and Pollux) ; or
(b) it is a place-name of the same category as a number of
Dioscuric shrines, where sailors made appeal and presented
votive offerings, the position of such sanctuaries being
determined by dangerous rocks, shallows, and straits ; or
(c) it is a primitive sanctuary of the Twins, and a twin-
town, similar to those which are being formed by exiled
twin-mothers and their children in West Africa at the
present day.
Of these explanations the second is the most probable,
for, as is well known, the shore at Jaffa has outside it a
dangerous reef of rocks which was certain to require a
special oversight on the part of those who have the care
of sailors. Perhaps the actual position of the modem
village Ibn Ibraq is moved somewhat from its original site.
We should have expected the Dioscureion to be on high
ground, especially if it served as lighthouse and look-out
station as well as shrine. Here, then, we have, and again
6 BOANERGES [CH.
on Palestinian soil, a decided memory of Twin-cult. It
may, perhaps, be urged that the village belongs to the
Philistines and their cult, and in the same way that the
Boanerges of Galilee are Aryan and not Semitic. That
may be so, but our first business is to find them ; if we want
to get them out of the Holy Land again, that will come later,
and will require special proof, which will perhaps not be forth-
coming. Wherever these commemorated twins come from,
they are to be studied along with the similar phenomena
that are being recorded and observed all over the world.
There must be no preliminary exclusion of the Holy Land.
Twins in For instance, it is well known that Cyrene and the
Cyrene. Qyrenaica are under the protection of the Dorian twins, and
that the Cyrenians regarded themselves, when they posed as
Greek, as being a Dorian colony. Hence they put on their
coins stars, horses and the silphium plant, which are the
sacred symbols of the Dioscuri ^ But it must be noted that
they had other than Spartan reasons for the cult of the Twins,
for just off their coast lay the Great Syrtis, one of the chief
perils to ancient navigation, which we remember to have
been dreaded when the tempestuous wind Euraquilo swept
St Paul's ship across the Mediterranean from Crete to
Africa. Amongst the famous cities of the Pentapolis we
find the name of Barca, which again reminds us by its
name and by its coins, that the city was named after the
Children of the Lightning. And this name is Semitic and
not Dorian Greek; so that we hesitate to ascribe the cult
of the Twins in the Cyrenaica only to Dorian (Spartan)
colonizers 2. It is much more likely to be Phoenician first
^ e.g. Hunter Collection, no. 36 (Cyrene) : a coin showing silphium plant
between two stars etc.
2 The recognition of Cyrene as a cult centre for twin-worship has a
literary as well as a numismatic interest. When the authorof the second book of
Maccabees epitomized the five books of Jason of Cyrene, his first section was
concerned with the attempt of Heliodorus to rob the temple at Jerusalem,
and his repulse by certain young men, who have been recognised as the
Dioscuri, slightly disguised as angels. But in that case, Jason must have
given the first place to this incident, and this is natural enough, for he was
writing in Cyrene and for Cyrenian readers, who would understand perfectly
the kind of interposition which he was recording, and be predisposed to
accept his interpretation.
ij 'i BOANERGES 7
and Dorian after. In the same way the Twins of BnS
Barqa may be Palestinian first and Philistian or Phoenician
afterwards. A somewhat similar case, of the carrying of
the Twins by colonization, will be found in the Spanish
city Barcelona, whose ancient name Barkinon shows that
it was a Punic settlement. It is not inconceivable, there-
fore, that in the neighbourhood of Jaiffa, Phoenician
navigators or settlers should have established a shrine or
a sanctuary or a settlement, named after the Twins, and
we shall see later an abundant evidence of the Twin Cult
in Phoenicia itself. If, on the other hand, it should be
urged that the colony (if it was a colony) was Philistian, and
came originally from Crete, we shall be equally able to
establish Twin-worship for the early civilization of that
famous island. And, in brief, whoever may have been the
people that were responsible for the settlement and naming
of Bne Barqa, the name itself can only stand for the
Heavenly Twins, considered as the Sons of the Lightning.
We have, then, the companion term of the highest antiquity
for the Boanerges of the New Testament. Nor does there
seem any reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of our
interpretation.
At this point, however, it becomes necessary to stop
and consider more closely the forms under which thunder
and lightning were regarded by primitive mankind, and
the characteristics which they attributed to them. One
caution may be expressed before we turn to this investi-
gation. It has been suspected thg,t in attributing twins
to the parentage of the Thunder, whether one or both of
them be so honoured, that we are on a plane of human
evolution, where the facts of racial propagation are not
regarded as established in final form, and according to an
unvarying law. Parentage, for the primitive man, can come
from anywhere : from natural forces, and unusual objects
and events. The wind was credited with the fecundation
of mares; the Egyptian bull Apis was conceived from a
lightning flash, if we may believe Herodotus. Amongst
the North American Indians, we find parentage imagined
B BOANERGES [Cfl.
in the most diverse forms. And it seems certain, therefore,
that there may be cases where single births are credited
to the Thunder and the Lightning, as well as dual births.
We must not dogmatically affirm that every Son of Thunder
is necessarily a twin.
Thunder- To take a single example: the Aramaean people in
ancient ^-E. Syria worshipped, amongst other objects of devotion,
Damascus, ^jjg gQ^ Hadad, who is the equivalent of the Babylonian
god Adad, the god of thunder. It seems, moreover, that a
number of the Syrian kings of Damascus took the title of
Bar-hadad. We should clearly be wrong in assuming that
Bar-hadad was a twin : for we can make out a sequence of
kings of Syria as follows :
Tab-Rimmon.
Bar- Hadad = Heb. Ben-hadad.
Hadad-idri = Heb. Hadad-ezer.
Bar-Hadad = Heb. Ben-hadad.
Hazael.
Four out of these five are affiliated to the Thunder-god, either
in the Assyrian form Ramman, or in the Babylonian (?Am-
orite) form Adad or Hadad. Now the succession of the
names shows that the reference to the Thunder-god must be
a matter of dignity, not an indication of twin-ship. It will
be otherwise with private persons who do not stand in the
same close relationship to the gods as their kings. Such
persons may, and constantly do, have theophoric names ; but
the term Son of Thunder is more than an ordinary theophoric
name, implying the gift or grace of a god in the birth of a
child. The probability is, therefore, that when such a name
was borne by a private individual, the name connoted twin-
ship. To take a curious illustration, we find in the chronicle
of Joshua the Stylite^ that a bishop of Telia in the sixth
century was named Bar-hadad. The persistence of the ancient
name must be conceded, although it may be questioned
whether its meaning continued to be understood : and the
easiest explanation of the persistence of such a pagan name
, - 1 Ed. Wright, c. 58.
l] BOANERGES 9
in Christian circles is that it was for the general population
the name of a twin. If, however, it should be thought that
this explanation is unwarranted, the occurrence of the
name with its undoubted meaning would be one more reason
for caution in the too rapid inference from Thunder Sonship
to Twinship.
There is another direction in which we may require a
preliminary caution. We have shown that it does not
necessarily follow that when the parenthood of the Thunder
is recognised, it necessarily extends to both of the twins.
The Dioscuri may be called unitedly. Sons of Zeus ; but a
closer investigation shows conclusively that there was a
tendency in the early Greek cults to regard one twin as of
divine parentage, and the other of human. Thus Castor is
credited to Tyndareus, Pollux to Zeus ; and of the Theban
twins, Amphion is divine, and the son of Zeus, while Zethus
is human and of ordinary parentage ; and a little reflection
shows, that such a distinction was, in early days, almost
inevitable. The extra child made the trouble, and was
credited to an outside source. Only later will the difficulty
of discrimination lead to the recognition of both as Sky-boys
or Thunder-boys. An instance from a remote civilization
will show that this is the right view to take.
For example, Arriaga, in his Extirpation of Idolatry in Twins in
Peru, tells us that ' when two children are produced at one
birth, which, as we said before, they call Chuchos or Curi,
and in el Cuzco Taqui Hua-hua, they hold it for an impious
and abominable occurrence, and they say, that one of them is
the child of the Lightning, and require a severe penance, as
if they had committed a great sin^' And it is interesting to
note that when the Peruvians, of whom Arriaga speaks,
became Christians, they replaced the name of Son of Thunder,
given to one of the twins, by the name of Santiago, having
learnt from their Spanish teachers that St James (Santiago,
^ Arriaga, Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru, p. 32, Lima, 1621,
' Quando nacen dos de un parto, qui como diximos arriva llaman Chuchos,
Curi, y en el Cuzco Taqui Huahua, lo tienan por cosa saerilega y abo-
minabile, y aunque dizen, qui el uno es hijo del Bayo, hazen grande peni-
tencia, como si uviessen hecho un gran peccado.'
10
BOANERGES
[ch:
S. Diego) aiid St John had been called Sons of Thunder by
our Lord, a phrase which these Peruvi?in Indians seem to
have understood, where the great commentators of the
Christian Church had missed the meaning. When they
heard the Spaniards fire off their harquebuses, they used to
call the piece fired by the name of Illapa (i.e. Thunder^) or
Rayo (i.e. Lightning) or Santiago (i.e. Son of Thunder) ^
Santiago, for them, was the equivalent of the thunder.
Another curious and somewhat similar transfer of the
language of the Marcan story in the folk-lore of a people,
distant both in time and place, but sharing the Jewish or
Galilean popular beliefs, will be found, even at the present
day, amongst the Danes. Dr Blinkenberg, in his valuable
Thunder- monograph on The Thunderweapon, has collected evidence
Denmark, fr^m many parts of Denmark to show that it is still common
to pay regard to Thunderstones, as being animistically in-
habited by the Thunder, and able in consequence to avert
the lightning from persons or places, in time of storm ^
1 See Acosta, Natural and Moral history of the Indes, reprinted by
Hakluyt Society, Lond. 1880, p. 304, ' The thunder they (the Peruvians)
called by three divers names, Chuquilla, Catuilla, and Intillape (Yllapa is
Thunder in Quichna) , supposing it to be a man in heaven with a sling and
a mace, and that it is in his power to cause rain, haile, thunder and all the
rest that appertaines to the region of the air.'
2 Arriaga, I.e. p. 33, 'En el nombre de Santiago tienen tambien super-
sticion y suelen dar esto nombre ad uno de los Chuchos come a hijos de
Bayo, q suelen llamar Santiago. No entiendo que sera por el nombre
Boanerges, que les pusso al apostol Santiago y a su hermano S. Juan Christo
nuestro Serior, llamandoles Eayos, que esto quiere dezir hijos del trueno,
segun la frasse Hebrea, sino o porque se avra estendido por aca la frasse,
conseya de los muchachos de Espana, que quando truena, dizen que corre
el cavallo de Santiago, or porque veian, que en las guerras que tenian los
Espaiioles, quando querian disparar los arcabuzes, que los Indios Uaman
Illapa, o Kayo, apellidavan primero Santiago, Santiago. De qualquiera
manera que sea, usurpan con grande supersticion el nombre de Santiago,
y assi entra las denias constituciones que dexan los Visitadores acabade la
visita es una, que nadie se llamo Santiago, sino Diego.'
3 It must not be supposed that this use of the thunderstone as a
lightning-averter is peculiar to Denmark. Probably the horse-shoes which
one sees everywhere in country houses in England belong to the same
category. Usener {Gotternamen, p. 287) gives an account of the pulling
down of an old convent at Bonn in the year 1884, when an axe of the
stone age was discovered under one of the beams. Evidently it had been
regarded as a thunder axe, and had been used for the protection of the
l] : : '! BO ANEKGES 1 1
Besides the conventional flint axes and celts, which commonly
pass as thunder-missiles all over the world, the Danes regard
the fossil sea-urchin as a thunderstone, and give it a peculiar
name. Such stones are named in Sailing, sehedaei-stones or
s'bedaei; in North Sailing they are called sepadeje-stones.
In Norbaek, in the district of Viborg, the peasantry called Zebedee-
them Zebedee stones ! At Jebjerg, in the parish of Orum,
district of Randers, they called them sebedei-stones. At
Romshinde, in the district of Aarhus, the man who carried a
zebedee-stone in his pocket believed himself immune from
thunder. At Salten, and at Taaning in the same district,
they were called seppedij-stones. At Klakring, in the district
of Vejle, they were called spddejo-stones, and are put under
the roof as a protection against lightning.
The name that is given to these thunderstones is, there-
fore, very well established, and it seems certain that it is
derived from the reference to the Sons of Zebedee in the
Gospel as sons of thunder. The Danish peasant, like the
Peruvian savage, recognised at once what was meant by
Boanerges, and called his thunderstone after its patron
saint. Probably he displaced some earlier title in giving the
stone this name.
Feilberg, in his great dictionary, discusses the meaning
of the name under the head of Spudejesten, and with the
following conclusion: the word spddeje signifies a witch, a
prophetess ; hence the stone is a witch-stone. The zebedee-
stone is a perversion of this, under the influence of Mark
iii. 17. In Kolkar's dictionary, the same derivation is given,
and the same allusion to Mark iii. 17 ; and the name
bodejesten is explained in the same way as milkmaid-stone
from bodeje, a milkmaid. There is no difficulty about the
latter derivation, as the stones are actually used in dairies to
keep the thunder from souring the milk; but the other
derivation is inadequate, and in view of the Peruvian analogy,
it is more natural to suppose that the stones were regarded
sacred building against lightning. We shall see later how the same result is
accomplished by the attachment to a building of the body or representation
of the thunder-bird.
12 BOANERGES [CH. I
as embodiments of the thunder, in which case the thunder-
stone becomes naturally enough a Zebedee-stone',
I It may be asked whether this does not require or suggest a further
possibility that Zebedee may itself be a thunder-name, whose meaning having
been obscured, an alternative name for the Sons of Thunder was introduced.
The name Zabdai (Zebedee) is good Hebrew ; it will be found, for instance,
in the last chapter of Ezra in the form Zabad bis, and Zebedaiah (i.e. God
has bestowed). It must be regarded as a genuine Hebrew name, unless there
should be reason to believe that Zabdai is a Hebrew substitute for some non-
Semitic name. Of non-Semitic influence in Galilee, there seem to be decided
traces; but it is extremely unlikely that we can refer Zebedee to such a
source. The only possible direction would be the name of the Phrygian
Zeus, which the Greeks give as Sabazios, Sabadios, and a variety of similar
spellings. Usener traces the root of this name {Gotternamen, p. 44) to the
word storm, which would make Sabazios originally a storm god. His cult
can be traced as far east as Cilicia and Cappadocia; and in the west he
follows the Koman armies with Mithra. I know, however, of no trace of him
in Syria or Northern Palestine. In his cult-monuments we sometimes find
depicted the Eagle and the Lightning, and the Oakbranch. On a bronze
relief of Sabazios in Copenhagen, the corners of the plate are occupied by
the Dioscuri, standing by the side of their horses. This may be nothing but
Syncretism. On the other hand, the Eagle is the Thunder-bird, and as we
shall see, the Oak-tree is the Thunder-tree ; so we have five suggestions for
identifying Sabazi with the Thunder. If such identification were possible,
Zebedee might still be a real person, for his name would be theophoric. In
the mysteries of Sabazios the initiate became identified with his god. The
identification of Sabazi with Zebedee would not, therefore, imply that
Zebedee was not a real person. The name occurs, moreover, a number of
times in the recently recovered papyri from Elephantine, in the forms Zabdai
and Zebadaiah, so that there appears to be no reason for questioning its
Hebraism, or introducing a mythological meaning.
On the other hand, it might be suggested that the awkward and unnatural
expression, 'the mother of Zebedee's children,' which occurs twice in the
Gospel of Matthew (xx. 20, xxvii. 56), would be perfectly lucid, if 'Zebedee's
children ' were equivalent to the Dioscuri or Zeus' boys.
CHAPTER II
THE PARENTAGE OF THE TWINS
In the previous chapter it was shown that the popular
belief which expressed itself in the name Boanerges was very
widely spread over the ancient and the modern world. It
was not maintained that the Thunder, considered as parent,
had no children except twin children, but it was clear that
such were commonly assigned to him ; and that one child out
of a pair of twins was his by right, the other was his by
concession. The second child gravitated, so to speak, to the
same parentage as the first.
It becomes proper, therefore, to discuss more at length
the primitive conception of the Thunder, in order that we
may explain from it, wherever possible, the functions assigned
to the Twins in early or later stages of evolution. We shall,
therefore, indicate briefly some of the forms through which
the idea of Thunder has passed, without attempting an
exhaustive treatment of the subject.
Everyone knows the Thunder-god in the latest form Aryan
which he took for our ancestors, or for the artists and poets gQ^
of Greek and Roman civilization. The conception was
anthropomorphic; the Thunder was either Thor with his
mell, or Jupiter with his lightning in hand, or Zeus, striking
men and ships with his bolts. There was a European Sky-god,
who was viewed alternatively as a Thunder-god. The thunder
was, in fact, his monopoly. A very little study, however,
of classical literature and archaeology, will show that this
monopoly is an acquired monopoly. The thunder has been
' cornered,' to use a modern commercial expression. Rival
firms have been suppressed or made tributary ; they produce
the article, but after the rule of 'sic vos non vobis.'
14 THE PARENTAGE OF THE TWINS [CH.
Hephaestus is a rival Thunder-god, to whom nothing is left
but the smithy: the Cyclopes, too, appear to have had a
foundry of their own, and Hesiod expressly calls one of them
by the name of Brontes or Thunderer. Prometheus, too, the
Fire-bringer, belongs to the same circle of ideas; he is,
perhaps, an original Zeus, for the fire and the lightning are
closely related, and Zeus himself is in one passage called
Promantheus\
Poseidon, also, appears at one time or another to have
been of similar occupation, for the trident which he wields is
not, as has sometimes been supposed, the archaic fish-spear,
but the forked lightning, whose correct analogue is the group
of lightning-shafts in the hands of the ancient Assyrian gods^.
All of these forms, however, belong to the anthropomorphic
stage in which the thunder is visaged as a man.
The There are, however, abundant indications that this anthro-
bird.^ ^^ pomorphic stage has been reached by a somewhat long
journey. The Greeks themselves recognised that Zeus had
antecedents ; there was an ornithomorph, and possibly several
theriomorphs, before the anthropomorph. When we see Zeus
accompanied by an eagle in whose claws the sheaf of lightning
is disposed, we have one case out of many similar ones,
where two forms of a cult are expressed at one glance, the
elder and the younger, the eagle being the cult-ancestor of
Zeus ; we shall see presently reason to believe that there is
an earlier form of thundering bird than the eagle, and that
the eagle has actually displaced the woodpecker : but for the
present it is sufiicient to state that the human thunder-gods
^ Tzetzes in Lycoph. Alex. 537.
2 Hence I infer that Mr A. B. Cook is wrong in connecting the trident
with the lordship of the sea : in describing a scarab of Etruscan workmanship,
in which a naked male deity is stepping into a chariot, grasping a thunderbolt
in his right hand, a trident in his left, Mr Cook remarks, ' the thunderbolt
marks him as a sky-god, the trident as a water-god etc' He goes on to give
Brunn's description of a bas-relief at Albano, where ' the central figure is a
god, bearded and crowned, who by the attributes of a thunderbolt and a
trident on his right, and a cornucopia surmounted by an eagle on his left side,
is shown to be Jupiter conceived as lord of the sky, the sea, and the under-
world.' For sea, read lightning : and so with the rest of the examples adduced
by Mr Cook {Folk-Lore, 1904, pp. 274-^).
Il] THE PARENTAGE OP THE TWINS 15
have been evolved out of animal and bird forms, or have at
least been evolved side by side with such forms.
The memory of such cult ancestry lingered amongst the
Greeks and Latins to a very late day. They told legends of
a time when Zeus was not, and when Woodpecker was king ; King
and even if such statements should be made by a comic poet^ pecker,
he was not playing the innovator when he made the state-
ment, but the thoughtful conservative. In the same way,
artists all over the world have drawn the Thunder with bird
characteristics, very commonly with bird's feet. The popular
pictures of the devil with cock's feet are only an intimation
that the devil is one of the dispossessed thunder-gods. In
China, as we shall see later on, the thunder is drawn as a
man hurling lightnings, but the man has bird's feet. In
Crete there was a legend of the death of Zeus, which caused
holy horror to the pious Greeks of Olympian times, and was
the foundation for the much misunderstood saying that ' the
Cretans were aye liars ' ; but along with this legend there
was another as to the death of Picus, who was also Zeus.
Picus is, of course, the woodpecker. The statement is pre-
served for us by Suidas, under the form of an epitaph,
^EvddBe Kelrai 6ava>v [/9ao-t\eto9] IItJ/co? o Ka\ Zev?.
All of which is suggestive enough, and intimates to us that
we should make an investigation into the bird-forms or
animal-forms with which the thunder was identified by men
of ancient days. Nor can we, in such an enquiry, ignore the
question as to whether the thunder had inanimate forms, or
vegetable forms, with which the primitive animist had
alternatively made his equation. That such forms existed is
clear from the persistent belief in the thunderstone, extant
in Europe down to the present day; such stones being
recognised in the stone axes of early times, or in fossil-forms
(like the sea-urchins amongst the Danes), which the thunder
has tenanted in such a way as to make them either a danger
or a means of security. In the vegetable world, as we shall
see, there are various thunder- incarnations. It suffices to
^ Aristophanes, Aves, 478.
1^
THE PARENTAGE OF THE TWINS
[CH.
The
Thunder-
Oak.
The
Thunder-
axe.
mention, in the first instance, the oak-tree, which is for the
Europeans of ancient time the same thing in vegetable life
as the eagle was in bird life, comparable also to the sky
itself, as being an animistic dwelling of the thunder, Mr
A. B. Cook, in a series of remarkable papers on the European
sky-god ^ has shown how closely the cult of the sky-god
amongst our ancestors was connected with the cult of the
sacred tree, the oak being the tree most commonly honoured,
though there are distinct traces of other tree cults. We
shall find the best explanation of the equation between the
sky-god and the oak-tree in the lightning which passes from
one to the other, and makes its secondary dwelling in the
tree that it strikes. We shall probably see reason for be-
lieving that peculiar sanctity attaches to a hollow oak. In
the same way the Romans regarded as sacred, and fenced off
from the public with appropriate warnings, the spot of
ground where a lightning flash struck, or where a thunder-
stone was supposed to have fallen. The thunderstone itself,
when identified, became a sacred object, either dangerous, as
still containing the thunder within it, or protective, on the
hypothesis that lightning does not strike lightning. The
thunder-weapon accordingly becomes one of the principal
objects of cult, and in some points of view is regarded as
almost divine. In the East the gods constantly carry it,
in the form of an axe, frequently a double axe, while
in the West the most common form of the axe is known to
us as the hammer of Thor. On the ancient Cretan monu-
ments, on the Hittite and Assyrian sculptures, the sky-god
(storm-god, thunder-god) is constantly represented with or
by the single or double axe; and in many cases the god
carries his axe (thunderstone) in one hand, and his bunch of
lightnings in the other, the bunch of lightnings being often
in the form of a single or double trident I
We have thus two series of identifications to keep in
mind:
1 Folk-Lore, 1904.
2 For illustration, see Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon: Eoseher, s.v.
Bamman, Teshub, Dolichenus, etc.
it] the parentage oe the twins 17
Sky-god
or Thunder-god = Oak-god (with various substitute or
alternative trees).
or Lightning-god = Thunderstone (stone-axe, double-axe,
hammer, etc., including fossils with
imagined thunder- forms).
= Lightning (trident, double trident, etc.),
to which must be added the anthropomorphic, ornitho-
morphic or zoomorphic representations of the thunder.
These representations of the thunder as beast, bird or
man are of the first importance in our enquiry as to the
origin and development of the twin-cult ; for, if the Twins
are regarded as the sons of the thunder, the parentage will
be more easily recognisable when the thunder takes an
animate shape. It is not impossible that thunder-trees or
thunderstones should be identified with twins, but it is, in
the nature of the case, much less likely than that the twins
should be recognised in forms of animal life, which have been
associated either with the thunder, or the thunder-tree.
Moreover, we shall be able to trace the modification of the
parentage of the Twins from a bird ancestry to a human
ancestry, since this very change of view is actually taking
place among certain savage tribes at the present day, the
Thunder being considered by them in the first instance as a
bird, and in a later and secondary identification being en-
dowed with a human form. As we have said, it is these
identifications and modifications which need to be carefully
watched, if we are to determine how such an idea as that of
the great Twin Brethren of the Dorians arose out of the
senseless but terrible taboo which we find still existing in
savage Africa at the present day.
Of bird ancestries, we shall show that the first place
must be given to the woodpecker, but that there are a
number of other birds, more or less demonstrably thunder-
birds ; we shall also come across suspicious cases of thunder-
beasts, including the squirrel, the flying-squirrel and perhaps
the beaver ; and all of these must be grouped in an equation
of identification similar to what is given above, so that the
H. B. 2
18 THE PARENTAGE OF THE TWINS [CH.
Sky-god
or Thunder-god = woodpecker, robin, stork (?), swan (?),
eagle, etc.
or Lightning-god = squirrel or beaver (?), etc.
= thunder- man (Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, etc.),
and according to the state of evolution of the idea of the
thunder, will be the form assigned to the Twins considered
as of Thunder-parentage.
The importance of the last consideration will be evident.
If, for example, we find Twins regarded as Woodpeckers, or
as human beings with names or characteristics which imply
The Twins woodpecker antecedents, then the twin-cult which we are
peckers. ' considering is older than the time when the woodpecker had
given place to an eagle or to an Olympian Jove. We are
working from a very ancient stratum of civilization, if it can
be called civilization, and not fi"om a time when gods and
goddesses many had already been recognised and defined.
To say that the Twins in Greek religion are pre-Olympian
is to put it very gently indeed. They may be Zeus' boys,
but just as there was a time when there was no Zeus, so
there was a time when there were no boys. And it is to the
study of such a time that we must turn if we are to under-
stand the cult.
If, moreover, we must not derive our cult fi'om Olympian
Zeus, or from any similar anthropomorph, still less must we
begin by discussing the Twins as they were finally lodged in
the Zodiac. For even if the Zodiac were as ancient as the
neo-Babylonian school imagine (which it almost certainly is
not), its antiquity would be a mere handbreadth compared
with the space of distant time in which our forefathers worked
out their fears of the elemental forces into the fabric of a
noble, though idolatrous, religion. The Zodiac can be left
almost to the last section of such an enquiry as that upon
which we are engaged.
Returning, then, to our theme, the suggested parentage
of Twins by the Thunder or Lightning requires that we
should examine rapidly the forms which the Thunder-cult
takes in different parts of the world, and determine in what
Il] THE PARENTAGE OF THE TWINS 19
cases a Twin-cult has associated itself with the Thunder-cult.
The two parts of the enquiry will, almost of necessity, go on
side by side ; but perhaps it will be best to fix our minds at
first upon the Thunder rather than upon the Twins.
If it should happen that anyone should be sceptical as to
the multiplicity of the forms, animate and inanimate, which
have been suggested for the Thunder in the previous pages,
we have only to remind ourselves that exactly the same thing
happens with regard to the Corn Spirit, which is recognised
as man, as woman, as maid, as wolf, dog, cat, hare, and a
number of animals associate or associable with the cornfield.
2—2
CHAPTER III
THE THUNDER-BIRD
Thunder
among
Red
Indians.
The Thunder-bird was, as I suppose, first discovered
amongst the Red Indians of North America, and it is still
extant among surviving tribes of that rapidly disappearing
race.
For example, among the Den^ Indians in the north-west
of Canada, known as the Hare-skin D^nes, there is a belief
that the thunder is a huge bird : all winter long he lies
hidden under ground, somewhere in the west-south-west.
But when the warm weather returns, he returns along with
the migrant birds ; then, if he shakes his tail, we hear the
thunder ; and if he winks his eyes there are dazzling light-
nings \
What is here reported of the Den^ Indians is common
belief of the whole race, although some tribes, such as the
Iroquois, may have changed or abandoned their beliefs under
the influence of the white man. If, however, we go back to
the accounts given of Indian beliefs by the first Jesuit
Missions, we find enquiries made and reports collected which
prove how universal was the belief in the thunder-bird.
Thus the missionary, Le Jeune, in his Relation under date
1 Pettitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, L6gendes et
Traditions des Den6 Peaux-de-Lievre, p. 283, ' Iti est un oiseau gigantesque,
qui demeure au pays des manes avec le gibier Emigrant. II y s^joume tout
I'hiver sous terre, k la retomb^e de la vodte celeste, bien loin, au Pied-du-
Ciel, dans I'ouest sud-ouest. Mais lorsqu'il fait chaud de nouveau, lorsque
le gibier aiM revient vers nous k tire d'aUes, vers notre pays accourt Iti,
suivi de toutes les ames ou revenants. Alors, s'il fait vibrer les plumes de la
queue, nous entendons gronder le tonnerre, et s'il clignotte des yeux lea
dclairs de la foudre nous ^blouissent, dit-on. Celui-ci est une divinit6
mauvaise, car elle cause la mort des hommes.'
CH. Ill] THE THUNDER-BIRD 21
1632 (Jesuit Relations, v. 57) tells of the Indians in the
neighbourhood of Quebec that ' they (the Iroquois) believe The
that the thunder is a bird, and a savage one day asked a '^
Frenchman if they did not capture them in France ; having
told him yes, he begged him to bring him one, but a very
little one : he feared that it would frighten him if it were
large.' Two years later (1633, 1634), Le Jeune reports again '
{Jesuit Relations, vi. 225), ' I asked them (the Montagnais)
about the thunder : they said they did not know what animal
it was ; that it ate snakes and sometimes trees ; that the
Hurons believed it to be a very large bird. They were led
to this belief by a hollow sound made by a kind of swallow
which appears here in the summer. I have not seen any of
these birds in France, but have examined some of them here.
They have a beak, a head and a form like the swallow, except
that they are a little larger ; they fly about in the evening,
repeatedly making a dull noise.' Le Jeune explains that the
Hurons compared this noise with that made by the thunder-
bird : ' there is only one man who has seen this bird, and he
only once in his lifetime. This is what my old man told me.'
Evidently the Hurons as well as the Iroquois believed in
the thunder-bird. In a note which is added to the tenth
volume of the (reprinted) Jesuit Relations (x. 319, 320), the
matter is summed up as follows:
'The myth of the Thunder-bird was, in some form or
other, common to the North American tribes from Mexico to
Hudson's Bay, and from the S. Lawrence to Bering Strait,
and it is still current among most of the northern and western
tribes. They explain the vivid and (to them) mysterious and
terrible phenomena of the thunderstorm as proceeding from
* an immense bird, so large that its shadow darkens the heavens:
the thunder is the sound made by the flapping of its wings, the
lightning is the flashing or the winking of its eye, and the
deadly and invisible thunderbolts are arrows sent forth by the
bird against its enemies. The Indians greatly dread this
imaginary bird, often addressing prayers to it during a
thunderstorm.'
It would be a mistake to suppose that the Thunder is
22 THE THUNDER-BIRD [CH.
always imagined to be a large bird ; on the contrary, as we
shall see presently (and the point is important for our
enquiry), there are tribes that have seen the thunder in a
form as small as the humming bird. The legends of the
Dakota Indians and of some other tribes identify the
thunder-bird with the Creator of the World, and say that it
brought fire from heaven for the use of men : they tell of an
unceasing strife between Unktaha, the god of waters, and
Wauhkem, the thunder-bird. Mrs Mary Eastman gives the
The following Sioux explanation of the thunder* : ' Thunder is
Sioux. a large bird, flying through the air; its bright tracks are
seen in the heavens, before you hear the clapping of its
wings. But it is the young ones that do the mischief. The
parent bird would not hurt a Dahcotah. Long ago a thunder-
bird fell from the heavens ; and our fathers saw it as it lay,
not far from the Little Crow's village.'
For a more detailed statement of Dakota beliefs, with
an important modification, v. infra.
Lillooet Mr Teit, in his account of the Indians on the Lillooet
River in British Columbia^, tells us, in an account to which
Transition we shall have to refer again, that ' some describe the thunder-
Thunder- ^^^^ ^® being like the ruby-throated humming-bird and of
bird to about the same size. Others describe the thunder as a bird
man. " about one metre in length. On its head it has a large crest,
like that of the blue jay, but standing far backward.... When
it turns its head from side to side, as it does when angry, fire
darts from its eyes, which is the lightning.... /Some of the
lower Lillooet Indians say that the thunder is a man. It is
said that he was seen on the Lower Lillooet river some years
ago, during a heavy thunderstorm. Each time a flash of
lightning came he could be seen standing on one leg.'
We shall have to return to this account, but for the
present it is sufficient to note, over and above the con-
ventional Red Indian account of the origin of thunder and
lightning, that the bird is sometimes regarded as extremely
small, and that the actual change from the ornithomorph to
1 Eastman, Dahcotah or Life and Legends of the Sioux, p. 19.
2 Teit, The Lillooet Indians.
iri] THE THUNDER-BIRD 23'
the anthropomorph is actually in process amongst the Indians
of British Columbia. Both of these points should be care-
fully noted.
This important transformation in the belief can also be The
traced among the Dakotas, to whom we were just now ^^^^0*^8.
referring: for they say that the Thunder-bird which was
killed at Little Crow's village on the Mississippi River, had Thunder-
a face like a man, with a nose like an eagle's hill ; its body ^^^^ T^^^
was long and slender. Its wings had four joints to each, face.
which were painted in zigzags to represent lightning^.
Here, then, we see the same transformation going on,
with the aid of a pictorial symbol. It is not difficult, in view
of such beliefs, to realise the changes which produced out of
birds the thunder-gods of antiquity, for they also often carry
on, more or less definitely, the bird tradition. In the case of
the Dakotas, the human form is just beginning to appear.
In the case of the Thompson Indians, the change appears to
have been completely made, though it has not been accepted
by the whole community. In Graeco -Roman religions, Jupiter
will keep at his side the eagle out of whom he has been
evolved. In China, all the bird will disappear except the
feet, the bill, and perhaps the wings.
The same belief in the Thunder-bird, but apparently
without any deflection in the direction of the Thunder-man,
will be found amongst the Thompson Indians of British The
Columbia^. According to them, the thunder is 'a little ^^^°2S°"
larger than the grouse, and of somewhat similar shape :...the
thunder-bird shoots arrows, using its wings like a bow. The
rebound of its wings in the air, after shooting makes the
thunder.... The arrow-heads fired by the Thunder are found
in many parts of the country. They are of black stone and
of very large size. Some Indians say that lightning is the
twinkling of the thunder's eyes etc'
In the same way the Ahts of Vancouver Island believe The Ahts.
in a great thunder-bird. His name is Tootooch. He is a
^ Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. m. p. 486; ibid.
p. 233.
2 Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 338 seq.
24 THE THUNDER-BIRD [CH.
mighty, supernatural bird, dwelling aloft and far away. The
flap of his wings makes the thunder (Tootah) and his tongue
is the forked lightning^.
The importance of these statements is obvious in view of
the belief in the thunder-arrow and the thunder-axe amongst
our own ancestors, and amongst modern Europeans, like the
Danish farmers, whom we have described above. It is not
necessary, for our purpose, to collect further evidence of the
Thunder-bird amongst the North American Indians : those
who wish to examine further into the subject may consult
Myron Eells on ' The Thunder-bird,' in the Journal of the
American Anthropological Society'^; or Brinton's Myths of
the New World, pp. 239, 245, or Chamberlain, 'Thunder-
bird amongst the Algonquins,' in the Journal of the American
Anthropological Society^ We shall presently see that there
is no need to describe these beliefs so exclusively as Myths of
the New World : but before returning to the Old World in
search of parallels to the Indian beliefs, it may be as well to
point out that the thunder-bird can be located amongst the
Esquimaux, and that it can be followed south into Mexico,
and into South America. A few instances may be given.
For the Esquimaux, see Hoffmann, Graphic Ar-t of the
Esquimaux, pi. 72, where a picture of the thunder-bird,
from the Escjuimaux' point of view is given.
The Amolagst the Caribs, the Thunder-god is called Sawaku ;
Caribs. sometimes he is spoken of as a star, and sometimes as a bird,
who blows the lightning through a great reed^
The Amongst the Brazilians, the fear of the thunder is very
great ; they have a thunder-god named Tupa, whose voice or
the flapping of whose wings, makes the thunder. From him
comes the name Tupecanongo, given to the thunder, while
the lightning is called Tupaberaba, i.e. the flashing of Tupa.
Some of the Brazilians think the thunder is the noise made
by departed spirits. They also attribute to the thunder-god
the invention of agriculture.
^ Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 177.
2 Vol. 11. pp. 329-36. 8 Vol. ra. pp. 51-4.
* Miiller, Amerikanische Urreligionen.
Brazil-
ians
Ill] THE THUNDER-BIRD 25
It is sufficient to point out that, even if Tupa should be
regarded as a thunder-man, it is a thunder-man who has
been evolved out of a thunder-bird, which appears to be
not very dissimilar to the type current among the North
American Indians^.
The belief in a thunder-bird, which we find so widely Thunder-
diffused over North and South America, can be traced amongst Polynesia,
the Polynesians, with the aid of the observations we have
already made as to the development of the belief. For
instance, John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, brought
home amongst other relics the image of the god Taan, the
god of Thunder : and he tells us that, ' when the thunder
peals, the natives said that this god was flying, and pro-
ducing this sound by the flapping of his luings! This is
almost exactly the language by which we found the thunder-
bird described by the Dakotas or the Brazilians I
In the same way we are informed by Ellis, the Poly-
nesian missionary, that 'among the Hervey Islands, they
worshipped a god of thunder; but he does not appear to
have been an object of great terror to any of them. The
thunder was supposed to he produced by the clapping of his
wings'^' Evidently another slightly disguised thunder-bird.
Now let us try South Africa, and see whether the same
beliefs are current.
Mr Dudley Kidd* tells us that 'the natives in Zululand The
believe that if one examines the spot where lightning struck
the ground, the shaft of an assegai will be found.' This
corresponds exactly to the European or Red Indian belief
in the thunderstone or thunder-arrow. 'The lightning is
thus thought to be some dazzling spear hurled through the
air. Others maintain that a special brown bird will be
found at this spot, which is supposed to be surrounded by
a mist or haze — probably their interpretation of the dazzling
of their eyes by the bright light. This idea is modified in
1 For the Brazilian Thunder-god, see Miiller, ut supra, p. 271.
* Williams, Missionary Enterprise, p. 109.
3 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, p. 417.
* The Essential Kafir, p. 120.
26 THE THUNDER-BIRD [CH.
The Pondoland, where the natives assure you that lightning is
°" °^' caused by a brown bird, which spits fire down on the earth.
The Bom- The Bomvanas modify this again, by saying that the bird sets
vanas. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ g^^^ ^^^ throws it down on the earth. I was
on the point of shooting one of these birds, and the natives
' cried out in horror, begging me not to "shoot the lightning".'
Mr Kidd goes on to explain that, in the native opinion,
the thunder is caused by the flapping of the bird's wings,
a belief which we have found in North and South America,
and in Polynesia. When the thunder is loud and crackling,
the agent is said to be the female bird ; when it is distant
and rumbling, the male bird.
A further modification of the thunder-bird is said, by
Mr Kidd, to exist in Natal, where ' a white hird^ of enormous
size comes down and flaps his wings. An old native was
quite indignant with a missionary who contradicted this
assertion. The old man wanted to know how such a person
could ever presume to teach the natives, when he did not
know that thunder was caused by a bird.' Mr Kidd goes
on to explain the various means employed by the South
Lightning African Bantus to avert the lightning. The Kafirs stick
aver ers. g^ggggg^^g through the roof when a storm begins ; and others
place a hoe leaning against the side of the house. These
practices are clearly parallel to our European methods of
protection from the thunderstone by means of the thunder-
stone. It is more difficult to understand why the natives
on the Zambesi place pieces of ostrich shell on their roofs
as a protection against lightning. Does this mean that any
African tribe had identified the ostrich with a thunder-
bird ? The real business of protection against lightning
belongs to the medicine men. These have for their business,
as Mr Kidd says, to control the clouds, which they drive
about like herds of oxen. They use as medicine the assegai
shafts which lie on the ground where the lightning strikes,
they catch the thunder-bird and make medicine of its
feathers, and they even eat the birds so as to be strong to
fight the storm.
* Is this a case of white lightning ?
Ill] THE THUNDER-BIRD 27
Something of this kind had been noticed by the great
African missionary, Dr Moffat, amongst the Bechuanas. He The
tells us^ 'Thunder they supposed to be caused by a certain anas"'
bird which may be seen soaring very high during the storm,
and which appeared to the natives as if it nestled among the
forked lightnings. Some of these birds are not infrequently
killed, and their having been seen to descend to the earth
may have given rise to this ludicrous notion. I have never
had an opportunity of examining this bird, but presume it
belongs to the vulture species.' The missionary little
suspected that the ' ludicrous notion ' was once the common
belief of his own European ancestors. How near his descrip-
tion of the Bechuana thunder-bird approaches to the eagle
of Zeus ! Amongst the Zulus the same belief can be traced ;
we have a striking statement on the subject in Callaway's
Religious System of the Amazulu'^ which, has the advantage
of giving the Zulu belief in their own words, as follows:
' There is a bird of heaven : it too is killed ; it comes down The
when the lightning strikes the earth and remains on the " "^'
ground The bird of heaven is a bird which is said to
descend from the sky, when it thunders, and to be found
in the neighbourhood of the place where the lightning has
struck. The heaven doctors place a large vessel of amasi
mixed with various substances near a pool such as is
frequently met with on the tops of hills: this is done to
attract the lightning that it may strike in that place. The
doctor remains at hand watching, and when the lightning
strikes the bird descends and he rushes forward and kills
it.' The body of the captured bird makes a very powerful
medicine. The heaven doctor here described might equally
be called thunder-doctor or rain-doctor; for the same term
commonly describes sky, thunder, and lightning among
African tribes, a usage which has its parallel in the terms
in which the Greek poets describe Zeus. We shall return
to these Zulu beliefs at a later point. For the present, it is
sufficient to show that the thunder-bird has a leading place
^ Moffat, Missionary Labours in S. Africa, 4th ed. p. 338.
s p. 119.
28
THE THUNDER-BIRD
[CH.
Thunder-
bird in
Mada-
gascar.
Yoruba
tribes.
Ewe-
tribes.
in South African religion, and that the thunder-man does
not seem to have yet arrived, unless the medicine man
should be his foreshadowing and prototype.
Crossing to Madagascar, we might suppose that we had
passed outside the area of belief in the thunder-bird ; there
is, however, as my friend John Sims points out, a bird known
to the natives as vorombdratra, which is exactly hird-of-
thunder.
In West Africa, among the negro tribes, we have the
curious phenomenon of an advance in civilization relatively
to the Bantus ; for the thunder appears, in some places, to
be regarded as a man. Amongst the negroes of the Guinea
Coast, the thunder-god is Shango, and I have not as yet
detected any trace of bird-ancestry about him; though it
is very probable that closer acquaintance would disclose
it. Ellis shows in his Yoruha-speaking Peoples (p. 47) the
two stages of belief closely adjacent : ' the notion we found
amongst the Ewes that a bird-like creature was the animating
entity of the thunderstorm has no parallel here, and Shango
is purely anthropomorphic'
The exact passage in which Ellis describes the lightning-
god of the Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast is
deserving of study \
' Khebioso, whose name is often abbreviated to So, is the
lightning-god, and the word itself is used to mean lightning,
though the more correct term for that is So-fia. On the Gold
Coast, the lightning is wielded by the Sky-god, Nyankupon.
'The name Khebioso is compounded of Khe (bird), bi
(to let go light, to throw out light), and so (fire), so that
it literally means the bird, or bird-like creature, that throws
out fire The Ewe-speaking negroes imagine that Khebioso
is a flying god, who partakes in some way of the nature of
a bird. The general idea appears to be that Khebioso is a
bird-like creature, hidden in the midst of the black thunder-
cloud, from which he casts out the lightning, and by some
the crashing of the thunder is believed to be the flapping of its
enormous wings.'
^ Ellis, Ewe-speaking peoples, p. 37.
Hi] THE THUNDER-BIRD 29
Ellis also notes that the negroes of the Slave Coast, as
elsewhere, identify the flint implements of the Stone Age
with thunderbolts, and they are consequently called So-Kpe
{Kpe = stone). ' After a building has been struck by
lightning, the priests of Khebioso, who at once run to the
spot to demand that the inmates should make amends for
the evident offence they have given their god, almost
invariably produce a flint arrow-head, or axe, which they
of course bring with them, but pretend to have found in
or near the building.'
The case of Shango, who is also known by the name of
Hurler of Stones (i.e. of thunderbolts), is interesting, as we
shall see later, on account of his having migrated to Brazil
with the slaves of the Portuguese, where he held his own
as an object of religion, even after the conversion of the
Brazilian negroes to Roman Catholicism.
The thunder-bird is also known to the Bakerewe, who The
live on the largest island in the Victoria Nyanza Lake ^. bakerewe.
I give the account at length. ' Foudre (nkuba) — Comme
la plupart des Negres, les Bakerewe personifient la foudre ;
cest un coq mysterieux, au plumage de feu, qui s'abat
capricieusement sur les hommes et les choses, tuant, de-
truisant ou brulant tout ce qu'il touche. Bref! c'est un
esprit des plus malfaisants. Cependant il y a un moyen
de I'empecher de nuire : etre assez prompt pour le couvrir,
des qu'il apparait, d'une corbeille fortement tress^e, dans
laquelle il demeure prisonnier quelques instants, pour s'en
retoumer bientdt purement et simplement par ou il est
venu, sans causer le moindre dommage.'
So, then, the domestic cock is amongst the thunder-birds,
and his colour is red.
When we pass into Asia, we find ourselves nearing the
beliefs of our ancestors ; the thunder is now commonly re-
garded anthropomorphically, although there are still traces
of bird-ancestry in the existing beliefs. One of the most
striking cases has already been alluded to, the Chinese
representation of the thunder-god with bird's feet. There
1 See Hurel in Anthropos, 1911, Heft i. p. 75.
30 THE THUNDER-BIRD [CH. Ill
Chinese is in the possession of Mr Freer, of Detroit, a beautiful
god! painting of the thunder-god by Hokusai, a Japanese painter
who affects Chinese archaism ; the picture, which I had the
opportunity of studying when I was in Detroit some time
since, shows this very peculiarity of the human form joined
to bird's feet. We shall refer to this picture again when we
come to discuss the colour of the thunder-god. More striking
is the figure of the Chinese thunder-god which Miss Harri-
son {Themis, p. 115) has reproduced from Simpson {The
Buddhist Praying Wheel). Here we have the god beating
a series of drums arranged in a circle ; he has a thunderbolt
in his left hand, and his bird-ancestry is betrayed by wings,
claws and an eagle's beak.
We have now, perhaps, illustrated sufficiently for our
purpose the existence of a wide-spread belief in the
thunder-bird. It is not our intention to deal exhaustively
with this subject; but we have to prove that the belief
was held by our own Indo-European ancestors, for until we
know what was the idea of the thunder that prevailed
amongst them, we cannot trace to its origin the Cult of the
Heavenly Twins, considered as the Children of the Thunder.
As far as we have gone, we have found evidence of the
existence of two dominant fears in the mind of primitive
man, one the perfectly natural fear of thunder and lightning,
the other, which at first sight seems as artificial as the
other is natural, the fear of twins; and we have already
more than a suspicion that these two fears are closely
involved in one another : so much of religious practice and
belief is traceable to one or other of these forms of terror
that we might almost say that on these two dreads hang
nine-tenths of subsequent religion.
We now know how to recognise the thunder-bird when
we see him in proprid persona, or in forms which have
displaced him. There is, however, a further direction in
which identification of the thunder can be made; in this
also we shall find constant connection between the Thunder
and the Twins: we refer to the colour identification to which
we propose to devote our next chapter.
CHAPTER IV
THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI
In the present chapter we are going to show that the The
proper colour for the raiment of the Dioscuri is red, and that ^earTed
this red colour is significant of the relation in which they cloaks.
stand to the Thunder^
That the Dioscuri, when they have appeared at important
functions in Greek or Roman history, wore scarlet chlamydes
can be deduced from the traditional account of their heroical
deeds, which frequently make mention of their dress and
involve us in the belief that the colour is significant : no
doubt if the coins or other monuments, on which they are
represented riding victoriously toM^ards or from some great
enterprise, could talk to us in colour as well as in form, they
would say the same thing, for it is the same chlamys in
metal or stone that is described as red in the prose of the
historians : and just as we know that their horses, wherever
represented, are, for the most part, white, so we know that
their robes, flying in the wind, are red.
It has not, however, been as commonly recognised that
the reason why the robes are red lies in the fact that the
Twins are personifications of the lightning, being either
Sons of Zeus or Sons of Thunder, or Children of the Sky,
or whatever other title may express their superhuman
•affinities.
Suppose, then, we start from the statement that red is
1 Most of this chapter has already appeared in the Contemporary Review
for May, 1912 ; the matter is reproduced here by the courtesy of the
Editors.
32 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
the proper colour for the lightning, and illustrate that
statement by reference
Red is the (1) To the colour ascribed to the Thunder-bird, who
Thunder- i^ ^^^ zoomorphic representative of thunder
^^^d,of and lightning:
man, (2) To the colour ascribed to the anthropomorphic
^ °^ representation of the deity who controls the
priest. thunder :
(3) To the colour worn by the priests and human
representatives of the aforesaid deity.
If all these developments of the idea of thunder and
lightning tell the same story of colour, we shall have little
doubt as to the meaning of that colour when it appears in
the raiment of the Heavenly Twins.
We begin, then, with the Thunder-bird. And first of
all, we select some cases of savage tribes who have evolved
the idea of the Thunder-bird. We alluded above to the
Zulus, whose opinions were so carefully recorded in Calla-
Zululand. way's Religious System of the Amazulu. Amongst these
statements about the bird of heaven, or sky-bird, or
thunder-bird, which comes down when the lightning strikes,
we are told that the witch-doctors lie in wait for the
thunder by the side of a pool near a hill-top, and that, when
the lightning strikes, they rush forward and kill it. 'It is
said to have a red hill, red legs, and a short red tail like fire :
its feathers are bright and dazzling, and it is very fat.' In
the same book^ we are furnished with an account given
by a Zulu who had actually seen a feather of the bird,
exhibited to him by the man who had found it. The story
runs thus:
'As regards that bird, there are many who have seen
it with their eyes, and especially doctors, and those persons
who have seen it when it thunders, and the lightning strikes
the ground ; the bird remains where the ground was struck.
If there is any one near that place he sees it in the fog on
the ground and goes and kills it. When he has killed it,
he begins to be in doubt, saying, "Can it be that I shall
1 I.e. p. 381.
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 33
continue to live as I have killed this bird, which I never saw
before ? Is it not really that bird which it is said exists, the
lightning bird which goes with the lightning ? " He is in
doubt because he sees that its characteristics are not like
those of birds which he has seen for a long time ; he sees
that it is quite peculiar, for its feathers glisten. A man
may think that it is red : again he sees that it is not so, that
it is green. But if he looks earnestly he may say, " No, it
is something between the two colours as I am looking at it."
I myself once saw a feather of this kind as I was living on
the Umsundugi, for I had wished for a long time to see the "
colour of the bird, and at length I saw one of its feathers.
The man, to whom it belonged, took it out of his bag, and
truly I saw it and said, "Indeed it is the feather of a
dreadful bird ! " '
This very naive account shows that what was expected
was a bird of a red colour ; if an actual bird obtained at the
right time should turn out to be green, the savage looks at
it, and it turns out to be between red and green.
Now let us turn back to the North American Indians
whom we were describing in a previous chapter.
Amongst the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, we Lillooet
found first an identification of the thunder with the ruhi/- " ^^"^*
throated humming-bird. Then apparently because the bird
was too insignificant there was a suggestion that the thunder
was * a bird about a metre in length ; on its head it has
a large crest, like that of the blue jay, but standing far
backward. Its body is blue and its throat red.' Then
after a statement that 'the Indians claim that it was seen
in the mountains near Pemberton some years ago ' the
account continues, ' The humming-bird is the friend of the
thunder ' (i.e. not really the thunder-bird, though some think
it to be so). * Some of the Lower Lillooet Indians say that
the thunder is a man. It is said that he was seen on the
Lower Lillooet River some years ago, during a heavy
thunder-storm. Each time a flash of lightning came, he
could be seen standing on one leg. His head and hair
were red and the hair stood out stiff from one side of his
H. B. . 3
34
THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI
[CH.
head^' Here the colour will be noted, not only for the
humming-bird's throat, and for the unknown bird to whom
he is related (not being the thunder-bird exactly but just
his friend), whose throat also is red, but also because we
have here, as we pointed out in the previous chapter,
amongst the Lillooet Indians, the very transition from the
zoomorphic to the anthropomorphic representation of the
thunder; in which connection we note that when the
thunder passes over from the ranks of birds to men, he
carries his colour with him. The same feature comes out
Thompson amongst the Thompson Indians, of whom we are told that
' Some describe the colour of its plumage as wholly red, while
others say that it resembles the female blue grouse, but has
large red bars above its eyes, or has a red head, or some red
in its plumage^.'
The same thing occurs among the Shuswap Indians,
where the conception of the thunder is said to be the same
as amongst the Thompson Indians. * The thunder-bird is
large and black, and covered with down or short downy
feathers. Some part of its body — according to some, its head
— is bright red^!
The prominence which is given to the colour of the
thunder is something which belongs to the nature of the
case, and ought to be carefully noted ; for it is a dominant
factor in a number of traditional lines of thought. The
writer of the article on the Cherokees* in Hastings' Cyclo-
pedia of Religion and Ethics, sees the stress laid on the
colour and the meaning of it : he says ' The Cherokees
possess quite a number of anthropomorphic deities of more
or less importance. Of these Asgaya Gigagei (Red Man) is
perhaps the most frequently invoked. He appears to be
connected in some way with the thunder.... The facts that he
Shuswap
Indians.
Chero-
kees.
1 Teit, The Lillooet Indians.
2 Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, pp. 3^8-99.
* Teit, The Shuswap (Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
History, New York). The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. i. pt. vil
1909, p. 597.
* Mr Lewis Spence. He is quoting. from the Reports of the Bureau of
Ethnology at Washington.
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 25
is described as being of a red colour, and that the Cherokees
were originally a mountain people, seem to point to the
conclusion that he was a thunder-god. Other thunder-gods
of the American race, the Con of the Peruvians, for example, Peruvians.
are described as red in colour, and dwelling in clouds upon
the mountain tops — their hue, of course, denoting the light-
ning. The Chac or rain (cloud) gods of the Mayas were Mayas.
called " the Red Ones " owing to their emanating from the
clouds. A portion of the feather-shield of Tlaloc, the
Mexican god of rain, was also of a red colour.'
We are certain, then, that the colour of the thunder-
god or storm-god is commonly regarded as red, and in par-
ticular the thunder-god considered as thunder-bird, must
be a bird with red feathers, a red head, or breast, or tail. It
may, perhaps, be objected that we do not prove that red
always connotes lightning: nor is every red bird a thunder-bird :
that may be freely admitted ; it may be, for instance, a fire-
bird, or a sun-bird, especially a rising-sun bird. Such cases
may be found both East and West : but the fire-bird is only
slightly differentiated from the thunder-bird or lightning-
bird, and we shall sometimes find the two omithomorphs to
be the same. Lightning and fire are in the nature of the
case next door neighbours. Supposing, then, that we have
proved red to be the proper colour of the American thunder-
*gods, can we affirm the same thing for the other hemisphere,
and, in particular, was the thunder-god of the Aryans a bird,
and was it a red bird ? The answers to such questions have
heen coming in for some time past from various quarters, and
there has been an increasing perception of the existence of
an ancient bird-cult, earlier than the anthropomorphic deities
of Greece and Rome. Peculiar importance appears to be
attached to the woodpecker in the early traditions of either
civilization. As we have already stated, the w^oodpecker in Wood-
Oreek tradition antedates Zeus ; in Latin the same bird was c^it
honoured as Picus Feronius, and associated with the early earlier
1- n -r, IT. T -11 1/.-1 tban Zeus.
history oi Romulus and Remus. It assisted the wolf m the
nutrition of the twins, which is very nearly the same thing
as saying that the woodpecker is an alternative parent.
3—2
%
36 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
Some persons have treated the woodpecker as a fire-bird,
and have supposed it to be the inventor of the fire-stick,
from its habit of drilling into trees in search of food ; and,
on the same hypothesis, it has been brought into contact
with the Prometheus legends. As we have already said, the
ideas of lightning and fire are closely connected : but it is
clear that the woodpecker must be the lightning bird, for it
is the predecessor of Zeus and of Zeus' eagle ^. Between
Zeus and the woodpecker stands the intermediate zoomorph,
the eagle, which is certainly a thunder-bird ; but even if
the eagle were not there as a connecting link, the thunderous
character of Zeus is so well known that it would be hard
to describe his predecessor in any other terms: in other
words, the original thunder-bird of the Aryans was a wood-
pecker, i
But was he red in colour ? The answer is that almost
all the woodpeckers are distinguished by red heads or by
red feathers. The woodpecker that was the predecessor of
Zeus is probably the great black woodpecker. Its head is a,
brilliant red^. ,
^ In proving the woodpecker to be the European thunder-bird, we are
making an unnecessary geographical limitation. The Arabs of N.W. Africa
call it Hedad, or Heddad, which is the Amorite thunder-god as we know it
in the name Ben-Hadad. Thus the Syrian kings show the name Picus just
as do Italian kings.
2 Its head is one of the significant features in the account given of its;
origin in the Norse legends. Here it is known as Gertrude's fowl, and
is supposed to be the metamorphosis of an old woman in a red cap. (We
shall see something like this presently in the story of the metamorphosis of
King Picus.) The Norse legend will be found in Grimm {Tent, Myth. p. 673,
Eng. trans.) or in Dasent's Popular Tales from tlie Norse, p. 230. It runs as.
follows: When our Lord walked on earth with Peter, they came to a woman
that sat baking; her name was Gertrude, and she wore a red cap on her
head. Faint and hungry from his long journey, our Lord asked for a little
cake. She took a little dough and set it on, but it rose so high that it filled
the pan ; she thought it too large for an alms, took less dough, and began to
bake it, but this grew as big, and still she refused to give it. The third time
she took still less dough, and when the cake swelled to the same size, 'Ye
must go without,' said Gertrude, 'all that I bake becomes too big for yoa.'
Then was the Lord angry, and said, ' Since thou hast grudged to give me
ought, thy doom is that thou be a little bird, seek thy scanty sustenance
'twixt wood and bark, and only drink as oft as it shall rain. No sooner
vrete these words spoken than the woman was changed into Gertrude's fowL»
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 37
It may, then, be taken for granted that the woodpecker
had been recognised as a thunder-bird by the colour of his
head. Some would add (as we have already intimated)
that he was also a fire-bird, on account of his drilling holes
in trees after the manner of a fire-stick. As we have said,
it is not always easy to tell whether a bird with red crest or
red plumage is a fire-bird or a lightning-bird, or whether it is
both. Some Red Indians use the tail feathers of the red
flicker when they desire to set on fire with their arrows the
wigwam of an enemy ^; in this case, the red flicker is a
fire-bird ; but is he also a lightning-bird ? I do not know
for certain, but as they profess to be imitating the thunder
in using the red feathers in question, it seems likely.
There is, however, a parallel case of some importance, in
which we can decide that the bird under discussion was both
fire-bird, and lightning-bird. I refer to the robin redbreast. The
The evidence is abundant and interesting that it was a thunder-
fire-bird, but it may be suspected that as it was so iden- bird,
tified from its colour (and without any thought of the fire-
drill, as is the case of the woodpecker) that it may just as
easily be a thunder-bird. Let us see.
Its smallness is no disqualification for discharging the
functions which might seem more naturally to belong to the
eagle of Zeus : for we have already seen the ruby-throated
humming-bird acting as Thunder to the American Indians ;
and one writer on American folk-lore tells us^ that he was
actually shown the nest of the Thunder, and was surprised
at its minuteness. So the robin is not excluded, nor even
and flew up the kitchen chimney. And to this day we see her in her red cap,
and the rest of the body black, for the soot of the chimney had blackened
her : continually she hacks into the bark of trees for food, and pipes before
rain, because, being always thirsty, she then hopes to drink.
^ Teit, The Thompson Indians, p. 346. ' On account of their belief that
the thunder shoots the ordinary thunder arrow-heads, and tail-feathers of
the red-shafted flicker, which sets on fire everything that it touches, the
Indians attached feathers of this bird to their arrows, which they shot at
enemies' houses. They also made arrows intended to fire houses from wood
of trees struck by lightning, or tied a splint of such wood to their ordinary
arrows.'
2 Catlin, Life among the Indians, p. 166.
$3 THE BED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
his constant companion, the wren. As a bringer of fire,
the robin appears in a curious story told by Swainson^
An old woman, a native of Guernsey, declared that the
robin was the first who brought fire to Guernsey, and that
in crossing the water, his feathers were singed, and he has
remained red ever since. She added that her mother had
a great veneration for the robin, ' for what should we have
done without fire ! ' The story suggests to us that the robin
has been taboo from the earliest times, and not merely
because of a Christian legend that has been attached to
him. And in his case, it may be inferred that no dis-
tinction was made between the robin as fire-bird, and the
robin as thunder-bird. The name Robin is the friendly
form of Robert, it is Shakespeare's ' bonny sweet Robin ' ;
Robert is a common Norman name substituted for Rothbart
(Red-beard), which is well known to be a title of Thor. So
we get to the thunder-god at last. The very name Robin
Redbreast is almost a dittograph.
It would be easy to bring forward other cases of the
folk-lore explanations of the plumage of birds. For instance,
it can be shown that Greece and Rome had other thunder-
birds beside the woodpecker. If the woodpecker was
honoured in ancient Rome, and elsewhere in Italy (for at
Picenum they worshipped a woodpecker on a pillar, i.e. on
the substitute for a sacred tree), recent investigation has
confirmed ancient tradition as to its sanctity in ancient
The Crete ^ ; there is also evidence that the cock was worshipped
thunder- ^^ a thunder-bird in early times. We have already alluded
^^^^- to him in that capacity, amongst a tribe dwelling on an
island in the Victoria Nyanza. At Sparta, also, as the
Dioscuric reliefs there discovered show, the cock is in
evidence from the third century B.C. onwards, which suggests
that at Sparta the cock had become, at some period, the
cult animal in the worship of the Great Twin Brethren. In
1 Folk-lore of British birds, p. 16.
2 I am referring to the famous painted sarcophagus discovered by the
Italians at Hagia Triada, where sacred birds are perched on pillars sur-
mounted by thunder-axes, and I am assuming that they are woodpeckers.
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 39
the great votive relief at Verona, in which Argenidas ex-
presses his devotion for a safe return from a sea voyage,
Mr A. B. Cook has detected a cock, perched on the rocks
overhanging the harbour, where the returned ship rides at
anchor. He has also shown that a cock was connected with
the worship of Zeus Felchanos, where the second name '
under its equivalent Vulcanus makes it fairly certain that
the deity covered by the two names was a thunder-god ^
From these and similar indications we infer that the cock
is a thunder-bird, and its red crest is in harmony with the
identification. A curious confirmation of this arises from
the fact that the cock in modern times discharges a function Thunder-
which belonged in ancient days to the thunder-eagle. Jig^tning^*
Vitruvius tells us^ that eagles are to be put upon the ends
of the roofs of temples, to protect them from lightning;
the same duty is discharged for modern churches and barns
by the mounted cock upon the weather-vane ; and it is
amusing (and we may add, it is characteristically ecclesias-
tical) to see the old and new sometimes side by side, when
the modern lightning conductor runs up by the side of
the ancient lightning averter. From these and similar cases
we see that the worship of the thunder passed through an
ornithomorphic stage, and that the proper colour by which
one recognises the representative of the thunder or lightning
is red. No doubt the cock has to do with the lightning, and
that he is what the Red Indian would call Thunder, with
power to avert the Thunder.
The question will arise at this point as to why, if the
cock is the cult-bird of the Dioscuri in Sparta at the time to
which we refer, it was not so at an earlier date. The answer The cock
is that it is a religious importation that came from Persia, came^from
Avhere it was discharging the same function of thunder- Persia.
hood and original royalty as the woodpecker was doing in
Greece. The Greeks call it ' the Persian bird,' and Aristophanes
tells us distinctly of the place of honour which it occupied
1 See A. B. Cook, Folk-Lore, 1904. For the Spartan reliefs, see Tod and
Wace, Cat. of Sparta Musetims, p. 113, etc.
2 See S.Eeinach, Mythes, Cultes et Eeligions, torn. iii. p. 73.
40 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
in Persian folk-lore. Thus in the Birds (11. 480 sqq. tr.
Rogers) :
"Zeus won't in a hurry the sceptre restore to the Woodpecker tapping
the Oak.
In times prehistoric 'tis easily proved, by evidence weighty and ample,
That Birds and not Gods were the rulers of men, and the lords of the
world; for example
Time was that the Persians were ruled by the cock, a king autocratic,
alone ;
The sceptre he wielded or ever the names, Megabazus, Darius, were
known ;
And the Persian he still by the people is called, from the Empire that
once was his own."
Aristophanes clearly claims for the cock a position parallel
to that of the woodpecker antedating Zeus ; consequently
the real king displaced in Persia is not Megabazus or Darius,
but some deity more or less parallel to Zeus, in the Persian
The cock pantheon. Let us test the matter by enquiring whether the
^T-l^u^ cock is a cult animal in Mithraism. A reference to Cumont^
Mithra-
cult. will show a number of cases where a cock attends the
Mithraic twins Cautes and Cautopates.
" On donne souvent un coq pour compagnon a Cautes,"
with reference to monuments where the cock is seen at the
feet of Cautes, or on his hand. On another monument the
cock is said to stand at the feet of Cautopates.
It was natural to interpret these of a Solar cult, rather
than of the thunder : but first interpretations are not always
correct or final : and it does not by any means follow that
the thunder-bird is excluded. Moreover, since Cautes, who
has the cock on his hand, shows by that sign, in the manner
known to archaeologists, that he has displaced in the cult
what he is carrying, we may say that the Mithraic twins
were originally a ceuple of cocks in the same way that in
ancient Greece we identify them with a couple of wood-
peckers.
This protective power of the Thunder against the
Thunder can also be seen in the Zulu belief to which we
have already alluded ; for if the Zulu medicine man finds
a thunder-bolt, *he uses it as a heaven-medicine,' and so
> Monuments relatifs au culte de Mithra, u 210, 212. .
•
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 41
they say that the courage which they possess of contend-
ing with the heaven (i.e. the lightning) is that thunder-
bolt, which is found where the lightning has struck.
Especially the bird also, which is called the lightning bird,
they say that it is among the most powerful of all lightning-
medicines \
We come in the next place to the anthropomorphic repre-
sentation of thunder and lightning : and here our previous Com-
investigation has helped us, by showing us, in the case of the o^ndian
Lillooet Indians, an actual transformation of function from thunder-
bird to man ; and with that transference, the symbolic colour scan-
is also transferred. When one reads as above, the Lillooet ^mavian.
Indian's account of the man with red face and red hair, who
was seen every time a flash of lightning came, we are
reminded of the thunder-god of our own ancestors. For
Thor had red hair and a red beard, and when he blew therein
it thundered and lightened. We see how close the American
Indian had come to the Scandinavian idea.
But it is not only Thor that makes the connection
between the earlier zoomorphs of the thunder and the red
colour of the thunder. Jupiter Capitolinus himself was Jupiter
formerly a red-painted image ; so that there could be no J^nus^^s
mistake in saying that he was, par excellence, the Thunder. Thunder.
He was fulminate, as far as colour could make him, and
strangely like the Northern Thor. What the Dioscuri by
their drapery suggest, he reinforces by a more complete
statement.
With regard to the Dioscuri themselves, the association
of red colour with them, is not a mere Roman peculiarity :
it must be an Aryan idea, for we find that the Veda says The
that red is the proper colour of the A^vins (the Indian r^*"/"^^
horsemen, who correspond to the Dioscuri). Accordingly
Oldenberg says^ 'in certain special sacrifices, along with
a bull offered to Indra, there is introduced a red-coloured
goat for the Ayvins, for the Ayvins equally are of red colour.'
It has been pointed out, for example, that, in the old times,
1 Callaway, Religions System of the Amazulu, p. 380.
2 Oldenberg, Veda, p. 358.
•
42 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
a successful Roman general, to whom a triumph was granted,
was considered as an actual impersonation of Jupiter, and to
fulfil that dramatic action, he was painted red^
This painting of the triumphant Roman general may be
compared with the humbler parallel of the man amongst
The the Thompson Indians of British Columbia to whom twins
Thunder- g^j-g given in charge when they are bom. He wears a head-
among the band, generally of the bark of Eleagnus argentea, into which
Incliwi^^°° are stuck eagle or hawk feathers. He paints his whole face
red, and holds a fir-branch in each hand. Evidently the
man is, here also, personating the thunder, and pretending to
be the father of the twins ^
That this is the meaning of the red-painted face may be
seen from cases where the father of the twins himself takes
on the decoration. Thus Boas tells us in his sixth report on
the N.W. tribes of Canada*, that the ' parents of twins must
build a small hut in the woods far from the village. There
they have to stay, two years. The father must continue to
clean himself by bathing in ponds for a whole year, and must
keep his face painted red.' The father is raised to thunder-
rank by the possession of twin-children.
What is true of the successful Roman general who
impersonates Jupiter for one particular occasion, is probably
true of the priests who represent him in other senses. Now
these priests are the successors of a long line of medicine
men, occupied inter alia with the management of the weather,
and working by sympathetic and other magic, for the kind of
weather that they want. If, then, we can show that red is the
proper colour for such performances, it will not be difficult to
1 We may refer to Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 36. 'Minium quoque...nunc
inter pigmenta magnae auctoritatis, et quondam apud Romanos non solum
magnae, sed etiam sacrae. Enumerat auctores Verrius, quibus credere sit
necesse, Jovis ipsius simulacri faciem diebus festis minio illini solitam,
triumphantumque corpora; sic Camillum triumphasse.'
See also Rushforth in Smith-Weyte-Marindin ; Diet. Ant. ii. 894, who
points out the identification of the triumphing general with the god. See
Suet. Aug. 94; Juv. x. 38; Liv. x. 7, 10, etc.
2 Teit, The Thompson Indians , p. 310 {Jesup N. Pacific Expedition, vol. i.
1898-1900).
3 1890, p. 39. • ■
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 43
generalise for the priesthood the same colour as applies to
the divinity. Here is one curious case from a very debased
civilization, that of the negroes in Brazil, who have become Thunder-
nominally Roman Catholic, but have largely reverted to the °^*
savage cults of the West Coast of Africa from which they negroes
originally came. They build rude oratories (terreiros) in
the manner of the African fetish huts, and have mingled in
an indiscriminate manner the saint worship of the Roman
Catholic Church with the original fetishism. In every one
of these huts, for example, will be found images of Cosmas
and Damian, one of the conventional Roman substitutes for
twin-worship. This combination of cults they call the
worship of the Orisas (or saints). In the catalogue of these,
the third place is given to the thunder-god Shango ; he is
the thunder-god of the Yorubas in West Africa. His other
name is Dzakouta, which means the ' hurler of stones,' by
reference to the thunderbolts. The wooden figure of Shango
which is found in all these oratories represents a priest with
the insignia of the deity, and especially with a flint hatchet
in each hand, and another flint hatchet over his head. And
amongst the other insignia of this thunder-repi'esenting figure,
not the least significant is his red apron. To the worship of
Shango, an order of devotees is attached, every one of whom
is dressed in red. And the Abbe Etienne Ignace, to whom
we owe these observations, remarks that the colour is meant
to represent the lightning ; ' cette couleur, en effet, est de
nature a rappeler les eclairs rutilants qui s'echappent des
mains de cette divinite\'
The hatchets, too, as we have seen elsewhere, are thunder-
axes, and can be paralleled in many a Greek and Oriental
cult, as in the worship of Jupiter Dolichenus and amongst
the ancient Cretans.
This single illustration from an out-of-the-way corner
will show how the medicine men and priests of old-time
thought of the thunder and lightning and their various
representations and qualities. There can be no doubt that
the red raiment of the Heavenly Twins at Rome means the
^ Anthropos for 1908, pp. 886, sqq.
44 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
same as the red colour of the images, priests and worshippers
amongst the negroes in Brazil.
The story The transition from the red feathers of the woodpecker
Picus. to the red raiment of the Dioscuri, can be studied very
prettily in the inverse order, in Ovid's account of the meta-
morphosis of Picus, king of Latium, at the hands of Circe,
the enchantress. According to Ovid, this enchantment was
an act of feminine revenge upon Picus, because he did not
respond to Circe's amatory proposals : he was, in fact, con-
tracted elsewhere. Picus, the king of Ausonian lands, of
Saturnian descent, a lover of horseflesh, and skilled in
cavalry warfare, goes out to hunt the wild boar in the
woods. Him Circe spies from out the glade, as he rode
along, with two boar-spears in his left-hand, and (notice
the horseman's raiment) robed in a scarlet chlamys buckled
with gold^
Now notice what happens when Circe transforms him
from king Picus into king Woodpecker : his wings become
the colour of the robe, his golden buckle turns to feathers,
and his neck is ringed with gold. Nothing remains of the
ancient Picus except his name.
Purpureum chlamydis pennae traxere colorem,
Fibula quod fuerat, vestemque momorderat aurum,
Pluma fit, et fulvo cervix praecingitur auro,
Nee quicquam antiqui Pico nisi nomina restat,
Ov. Met. XIV. 393-396.
Ovid's metamorphosis is an artificial one, in exactly the
opposite direction to what really took place : the tradition
was not a mythological one from man to bird, but a change
of cult from ornithomorph to anthropomorph. The real
king Picus is the woodpecker, who was king before Zeus.
Let us then transform him back again, and we shall see that his
golden throat and red feathers become the scarlet chlamys
bound with gold of the thunder-man. The scarlet colour
of king Picus' chlamys answers then to the red feathers of
the woodpecker: and we have traced this colour through
the bird form to the human form in theology, and in the
1 Poeniceam fulvo chlamydem contractus ab auro, Ov. 3Iet. xiv. 345.
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 45
images of the gods and the dress of their worshippers in
ritual.
We can now return to the description of the Dioscuri
which has come down to us in the ancient legends; no
better instance could be found than Pausanias' story of the The M«s-
two young warriors from Messene, who dressed themselves ^jj-ggg ^s
up as Dioscuri, and deceived the Spartans who were gathered Dioscuri.
for a religious festival in honour of the Twins\ '^Once
when the Lacedemonians were celebrating a festival in camp
in honour of the Dioscuri, and were carousing and making
merry after their mid-day meal, Gonippus and Panormus
appeared to them, clad in white tunics and purple cloaks
(')^\a/jbv8afi 7rop^vpd<;, tr. red cloaks) riding on gallant steeds,
with caps (irlXoi) on their heads, and spears in their hands.
When the Lacedemonians saw them, they did obeisance
and prayed, thinking that the Dioscuri were come to the
sacrifice. But when once the young men were in their
midst, they galloped through them all, stabbing with their
spears ; and after laying many low, they rode off to Andania,
Thus they dishonoured the sacrifices of the Dioscuri. It was
this, I believe, that roused the hatred of the Dioscuri against
the Messenians.'
No doubt the young Messenian cavalry-officers got them-
selves up for the sport by a proper equipment in caps,
tunics, cloaks and colours. I think there can be no doubt
that Pausanias means us to understand that their chlamydes
were red.
The same thing may be noted in the account of the The
battle of the Sagras river, where the Locrians unexpectedly j^^j ^.j^g
defeated the men of Crotona by the aid of the Dioscuri. Locrians.
The Latin version of this story is in Justin. The Locrians
had appealed to the Spartans for aid, but the Spartans had
a distaste to go so far afield, and recommended the Locrians
to consult the Dioscuri. When the day of battle came,
there appeared on the wings of the little Locrian army two
young warriors of strange appearance, and unusual size,
riding white horses and wearing scarlet cloaks. These
1 Pausanias, tr. Frazer, iv. 27. 1.
46 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [CH.
strange auxiliaries decided the day in favour of the Locrians,
and the news of the battle was miraculously telegraphed on
the very same day to Athens and Sparta ^
Another curious legendary point which betrays the origin
The Twin of Castor and Pollux as the Sons of the Thunder will be
in the found in the story of the sceptic who doubted their veracity,
Forum at as they stood by the pool of Juturna and told the victory at
the Lake Regillus. The Twins touched the unbeliever's
beard. It was at once changed to a red colour; the victim
of the miracle went ever afterwards by the name of Aheno-
barbus, and transmitted the title to his clan. If the thing
had happened in Northern Lands, he would have been nick-
named Rothbart, and every one would have recognised that
he had had dealings with Thor, who bears the same supple-
mentary name^
Not only was it the case that the Dioscuri were believed
to have worn red chlamydes on those occasions when they
miraculously turned the tide of the battle, but there is
The reason to believe that the soldiers who were immediately
anny^° under their patronage were also clothed in scarlet. Cer-
imitates tainly this was the case with the Spartans, who used to so
the Twins. . , , . , ^ ^ ^, x ,
into battle carrying the sacred cross-beams (ooKava) that
were the visible representations of the presence of the Twin
Brethren. They wore cloaks of the appropriate red colour
and marched to the music of flutes that played a tune
known as Castor's tune. I suppose this means that Castor
was the inventor of it, so that we have here a case of the
patronage of music by one of the Twins, as we have it in
' Justin. XX. 2, 3. ' Quo metu territi Locrenses ad Spartanos decurrunt;
auxilium supplices deprecantur ; illi longinqua militia gravati, auxiHum
a Castore et Polluce petere eos jubent....In cornibus quoque duo juvenes
diverso a caeteris armorum habitu, eximia magnitudine et albis equis, et
coccineis paludamentis, pugnare visi sunt, nee ultra apparuerunt, quam
pugnatum est. Hanc admirationem auxit incredibilis famae velocitas ; nam
eodem die, qua in Italia pugnatum est, et Corintho et Athenis et Laceda«-
mone nuntiata est victoria.'
^ The story will be found in Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus, xxv. eW ot /j^v
iwi^avaai Xiyovrai, ttjs vwrjvqs avrov Totv xepoiv drpifia /uetSiwcrej • 17 Se eiiOvs
iK fi€\alv7)i rptx^s «'s Trippav puTa^aXovffa, ri^ fikv X67<fj tticttiv, t<^ d' dvdpl
irapaffxiiv itrlKXriffiv Tou.'Arivd^ap^ov, ojrep earl xa^fOTrtirywj'a.
IV] THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI 47
the Theban pair, Zethus and Amphion, of whom the latter
is reported to have built Thebes, or to have helped to build
it, by the music of his lyre^ We remember also the Hebrew-
triad, Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal; of whom Jubal is the in-
ventor of the harp and organ. If this is the right explanation
of Castor's tune, this agrees with the idea that we get of
him elsewhere, that he was the gentler of the pair, and his
brother the professional ruffian.
At Sparta, then, the music was Dioscuric, and so was the
drapery. On a certain occasion when an earthquake had
destroyed Sparta, and when the Messenians were in revolt,
the Spartans sent a messenger to Athens for help; and
Aristophanes describes the appearance of the suppliant,
seated on the altar, with pale face and red coat^.
The Spartan army, then, was thoroughly Dioscurized.
And it is natural to ask the question whether the same
thing is not true of the Roman Knights, who rode in pro-
cession, called Transvectio Equitum, on the day of the
Commemoration of the Battle of the Lake Regillus,
We have now shown, from many points of view, that red
is the proper Dioscuric colour ; our investigation having
taken us into the earlier cults that preceded the great
religions of Greece, Rome, and India, and into the omitho-
morphic worship which precedes some, at least, of the an-
thropomorphic representations of deity. The colour of the
thunder has affected all its living representatives. Moreover
the suspicion arises that this may apply, to some extent, to
the vegetable and inanimate representatives of the Thunder,
Here is an interesting case. We have seen that, in general,
^ Cf. Marlowe, Dr Faustus, Act n. sc. 2 :
' Have not I made blind Homer sing to me ?
And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes,
With ravishing sounds of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistophilis ? '
2 This is pointed out by Frazer, Attis, p. 108, who gives the reference to
Aristophanes, Lysistrata (1138, seq.). Other allusions (v. Frazer, in loc.)
will be found in Plutarch, Lycurgus, 22; Xenophon, Respuh. Lacedaem.
XL. 3; Aristotle in a scholion to Aristophanes, Acharn. 320; Plutarch, Instit.
Lacon. 24.
48 THE RED ROBES OF THE DIOSCURI [cH. IV
the thunder-tree is the £>ak, though there are traces of other
dwellings for the mysterious flame: at Sparta, the Twins
were detected once in a wild pear-tree. In Palestine, also,
sacred oaks are the fashion, and it is from such sacred oak
(or terebinth) that the Thunderrgod and the Twins came to
The pome- visit Abraham. There is, however, another tree, the pome-
Thunder- gr^nate tree, whose name, Rimmon, has perplexed the lexico-
tree: graphers. They usually content themselves by saying it is
etymologically of unknown origin. As Rimmon (Assyrian,
Rammanu) is the name for one of the thunder-gods of
Mesopotamia, we are naturally invited to consider the
pomegranate as a thunder-tree ; and anyone who has ever
seen a pomegranate orchard, aflame with scarlet blossoms in
the early spring, will have no doubt as to the reasons of the
identification.
the holly- It is possible that this observation may lead us to the
*y®^' reason for the sanctity of the holly-tree, and the rowan-tree
tree. (mountain-ash) in our own islands^
Even inanimate objects will sometimes furnish us with
the colour suggestion. Blinkenberg reports that in the
islands off Esthonia, people believe that the thunder-stone
turns red on the approach of a storm^.
1 The rowan-tree is simply the red tree; not from the English roan
which goes back through Italian rovano to the Latin rufus; but from a
Norse form said to be derived from a word meaning red and supposed to be
related to the Icelandic reynir : see Skeat, Etym. Diet.
2 The reference is to Russwurm, Eibofolke, ii, 249. The whole passage
is important. ' Wahrend eines Gewitters werden die Donnerkeile ganz roth
(I. of Worms), und man legt sie dann in das Gefass, aus welchem das Vieh
trinkt, damit es durch den Schreck beim Donner nicht Schaden leide : denn
dadurch wird die Milch ganz kraftlos und giebt keinen Rahm (Dago,
Wichterpal, and Worms). Die Donnerkeile sichern auch gegen Einschlagen
des Blitzes (Wichterpal, Worms).... Wenn man Korn aussaet, legt man sie
in das Kiilmit (Kjolmt) aus welcher man streuet, so schadet in dem Jahre...
das Gewitter dem Korne nicht,... wer daher einen Donnerkeil findet, der darf
ihn nicht weggeben, weil er sonst sein Gliick verscherzen wiirde (Worms).'
CHAPTER V
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
We have spent some time in explaining the beliefs
which savage peoples have as to the nature of thunder and
lightning, and have taken pains to point out, without
attempting an exhaustive treatment, the wide-spread idea
that the thunder is a bird. It was necessary to do this
because of another belief, also widely held, which is our
main study, that Twins are the Children of Thunder. It
was impossible to deal adequately with the genesis of the
Twin-cult, unless we had some previous idea of Thunder-
cult. Now that we are sufficiently informed on that point,
we can go on to discuss the Twin-cults more minutely. Is
the taboo on Twins as universal as it is early ? Are there
any wide stretches of human life or of human history that
know nothing of such a taboo ? And does the taboo, where
it exists, work out from a Fear into anything that can be
called a Religion ? To answer these questions, we want to
know more about peoples savage of to-day, and about peoples
less cultured than ourselves in bygone days.
We shall begin with Africa, because there we shall find
civilization most elementary, and we may therefore be able
to get nearest to the origin of the Great Fear, and to mark
most certainly its early developments. There are still many
parts of Africa, where we only know the coast-line, and a
little of the hinterland. Where the coast-line belongs to
a progressive European power, the custom of killing twins is
sure to be in process of disappearance ; and on this account,
the evidence is apt to be elusive. We shall, however, be
able to establish quite easily the general existence of Twin-
H. B. 4
50
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Dapper's
Geo-
graphy.
Blomert's
travels.
Twins
killed in
Benin.
Muller on
the Gold-
Coast.
Twins of
same sex
live.
cults all over Africa, both amongst the negroes, and amongst
the Bantus.
I believe the first to publish information about the Twin-
cult in West Africa was Dr Olfert Dapper, whose book
entitled Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaansche Ge-
westen was published at Amsterdam in 1668. It certainly
is strange that we should have no English or Portuguese
relations of an earlier date. The important thing about
Dapper is that he is a scientific geographer, and describes
countries and peoples he has never visited; he tells us, in
his preface, that he obtained much information about the
country between Cape Verde and the kingdom of Lovango
(Loango) from the writings of Samuel Blomert, which had
been handed to him by the great Leyden scholar, Isaac
Vossius : and he mentions that Blomert's account was very
full, and that it contained a large amount of information
not previously recorded. Blomert had, as Dapper tells us,
lived several years in Afi:ica.
It may be assumed, then, that it was from Blomert
that Dapper obtained the statement that in Benin ' no twins
are ever found ; but as may be supposed, they are bom there
as well as elsewhere, for it is suspected that either of them
is every time choked by the midwife, the giving birth to
twins being considered a dishonour in the country, for they
firmly believe that one man cannot be the father of two
children at one time.'
In this account we have evidence that twins are killed,
a conjecture as to how they are got rid of, and the native
reason for their removal. We know enough about the Twin-
cult to inspire us with confidence in Dapper's statements.
The case was otherwise with those who followed him, as we
shall presently see.
In 1673, W. T. Muller published at Hamburg an account
of a part of the Gold Coasts In this we find (p. 184) that
when a woman brings into the world twins of the same sex,
they preserve them alive. If, however, they should be of
^ Die Afrikansclie auf der Guineisclien Gold-cust gelegene Landschaft
Fetu.
f] the twin-cult in west AFRICA 51
opposite sexes, they select one of them to live, and kill the
other. We shall see, later on, cases of especial severity
towards twins of opposite sexes, and reasons assigned for
that severity ^
In 1704 there was published at Utrecht, by Bosman, a Bosnian's
work entitled Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge van de Guinese, tio^n"f
which contained accounts by D. van Nyendael of the manners Guinea,
and customs of the natives on the Gulf of Guinea.
Bosman, in his preface, challenges Dappers statements,
and so does Nyendael. They argue that Dapper had never
visited Benin, and that his accounts are contradicted by
their own. That Dapper was never in Benin, we have his own
statement for; he was not a traveller, but a scholar writing
on Universal Geography ; that his evidence contradicted
V. Nyendael's is not to his discredit. The discord brings
at once to the front the important fact that precisely opposite
views of twins may be taken in the very same district.
Thus V. Nyendael relates that ' if a woman bear two Twins
children at birth, it is believed to be a good omen, and ^^ ^^^^
the king is immediately informed thereof, and he causes Benin (?)
public joy to be expressed by all sorts of music... In all
parts of the Benin territory, twin-births are esteemed good
omens, except at Arebo, where they are of the contrary except at
opinion, and treat the twin-bearing woman very barbarously ; ''^^^°°-
for they actually kill both mother and infants, and sacrifice
them to a certain devil, which they fondly imagine harbours
in a wood, near the village. But if the man happens
to be more than ordinarily tender, he generally buys off his
wife, by sacrificing a female slave in her place : but the
children are, without possibility of redemption, obliged to be
made the satisfactory offerings which this savage law requires.'
So it is clear that v. Nyendael had come across both
interpretations of the twin-taboo (though he makes too little
^ ' Wanns geschieht dass die Miitter Zwillinge eines Geschlechtes zur
Welt traget, so behalten sie dieselbe beim Leben. Sind aber die Zwillinge
unterschiedenes Geschlechtes, ein Knablein und ein Magdlein, so erwahlen
sie eines darausz, welches sie wollen, das ander aber wird von ihnen
erwehnter massen get6dtet...Gleicher Gestalt wird auch das zehende Kind,
welches eine Miitter gebiehret, unschuldiger Weise getodtet.'
4—2
52 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
of the savagery of the Guinea negroes), and that he had
also detected the beginning of the modification of the more
savage interpretation. There was, therefore, no need to
challenge Dapper's statements which might have been as
true as his own : v. Nyendael goes on to give cases which he
had known ; the first one, which he dates in the year 1690,
was of a native merchant, whose wife had borne twins : the
merchant redeemed his wife with a slave, but sacrificed the
children. Next year, the same thing happened to a priest's
wife, and the priest sacrificed, with his own hands, the two
children, and a substituted slave woman. Exactly a year
later, the priest's wife repeated the offence of twin-bearing,
and V, Nyendael suspects that she atoned for her fertility by
death.
We are now in possession of trustworthy information as
to the state of opinion on twins in the district of Benin.
They were liked and not liked ; the centre of dislike appears
to have been Arebo. More than a hundred years later, Benin
was visited by Lieut, (afterwards Commander) John King
of the British Navy. It was somewhere between the years
1815 and 1821 ^ He saw much service on the Guinea Coast,
but his account of Benin appears only to be known in a
French translation^.
Lieut. Lieut. King notes that the barbarous custom of exposing
^*°S- twins which formerly existed at Arebo (lat. 5° 80', long. 5° 10')
has now introduced itself at Gatto : the children were placed
in an earthen pot, face upwards, and allowed to perish on the
top of a hill.
From this statement we arrive at a confirmation of
V. Nyendael's statement about Arebo (unless King should be
quoting from v. Nyendael) ; we have also the very doubtful
statement that the inhumanity of twin-murder was spreading
elsewhere. It is not at all likely that the Guinea natives were
becoming more inhuman with the course of time : the natural
explanation is that the observers were coming across more
traces of the murders of twins, and not that more twins were
^ See O'Byme's Naval Biography. Lond. 1849.
2 Journal des Voy. vol. xin. Paris, 1823.
y] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 53
being murdered. As to their placing of twins in earthen
pots on the top of a hill, that is confirmed by later travellers ;
the top of the hill only means that portions of the country
are tabooed for the purpose of getting rid of the dangerous
invaders. Any part of the bush, for instance, into which
twins have been thrown, becomes, as we shall see, iiifected
with the taboo of the exposed children, and will be universally
avoided, except for the purpose of such exposures.
When Captain John Adams published in 1823 his Captain
Memarks on the Country from Cape Palmas to the River ^dams.
Congo, he noticed the same variety in the treatment of
twins. He tells us (p. 37) that all twins born in Fanti- Twins
land are called by the same name Attah, which signifies ^^^^omed
twin, and that the mothers are held in great esteem for Fantis
being thus prolific. Whereas in Bonny, the reverse takes Bonny,
place : ' the mothers of twins are compared to goats and are
not infrequently destroyed.' We shall find this comparison
of the twin-mother with the multiple-bearing lower animals
in many parts of the world : it is not, however, to be re-
garded as the root idea of the great taboo, whose leading
characteristic is fear rather than disgust.
Captain Hugh Crow tells us in his Memoirs, published in Captain
London in 1830, that at Bonny both the mother and the ^^"^^
twins are put to death. Here we have the taboo in its
extreme form, without any modification. So far we have
been following what may be called a history of the discovery
of the Twin-cults ; and the authors quoted, most of whom we
have verified, will be found collected in Ling Roth's book on
Greater Benin^. We shall obtain some more information for
our purpose from this valuable book. In recent times, the
evidence of travellers and of missionaries has greatly ex-
tended our knowledge. We will continue the examination
of the beliefs of the natives in the Niger Delta, making
notes from point to point of any important developments in
the cult.
For example, there lies before me a magazine which
makes reports of a mission in the Niger Delta called the
1 Greater Benin. Halifax, 1903.
54
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Twins
killed in
Qua Iboe
district.
Twin-
mothers
banished,
Qua Iboe Mission Quarterly, and relates to work carried on
near the mouth of the Qua Iboe Kiver. In the issue for
August, 1911, Mr R. W. Smith reports a visit he paid to a
native church at Enon. He describes the change which the
Gospel was making in the people, and by contrast speaks of
what bad happened upon a previous visit. He tells us that
'about two months previous to this service, I heard the
people wailing in the village. Some young fellows asked me
to come and see a woman who had just given birth to twins.
I went with them to a little dilapidated hut. The woman
was sitting on the ground, and the children were lying on the
clay floor. There was no one to help her.
' I went outside and asked the women to do something.
They told me that Twins were a sign of God's wrath ; if they
assisted this woman, their own children would be blighted.
I must say to their credit, they looked greatly distressed,
and I am sure would have liked to help, but this horrible
fear possessed them to such a degree as almost to paralyse their
minds. I caught the husband, who wanted to run away,
and tried to make him help, but he moaned and groaned so
much that I was glad to get rid of him. One of the young
fellows and myself washed the infants, and as the woman
refused to suckle them, I got a tin of milk, and we tried to
feed them. For two days we kept them alive, but at last
they died.'
This very simple account of the Twin-cult in our own
time will show clearly the extent to which the Great Fear
still prevails, stronger than neighbourliness, and more potent
than the love of father, or even mother, for the children.
In the next issue of the same magazine (Nov, 1911, p. 199),
Mr Smith gives a further account of his conflict, as a
Christian teacher, with the great Taboo. As it brings out
some further important features of the Cult, I transcribe
some sentences.
' You have heard how women who give birth to twins
are treated in Qua Iboe. The children are killed and the
women banished to a village where only mothers of twins are
allowed to live. The man who was foremost in welcoming me
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 55
to the town (of Ikot-Idung) had five wives. One, whose name
was Chonko, his favourite, immediately after my arrival,
gave birth to twins. The father came and said " What shall
I do." I said, "Do you want to send her away?" and he
said, "No"; I said, "Alright, my house is nearly finished,
are you prepared to leave your own compound and take your
wife there and nurse her ? " He assented and went. The
custom is to condemn a house where twins have been horn.
The people said to me, " Look ! we have built you a nice
house, now you've gone and spoilt it, because you will have
very bad fortune if you live there after that woman is
gone." The chiefs threatened the man. The walls and floor
were very damp, and the mud had not dried. He caught
a severe cold sleeping on the ground, yet he remained firm,
and to-day his wife is living with him. This brave stand
has influenced the minds of all, and I hope to see the cruel
custom soon done away with completely.'
The writer has given us two fresh pieces of information ;
one, that the taboo on the unfortunate woman and children
extends to their house, and, he might have added, to all
their possessions. A Biblical parallel may be found in the
story of Achan in the book of Joshua, who had touched
tabooed spoil, with lamentable results to himself and all that
was his.
The second point of importance is that the woman might
be expelled to live in a place where other similar tabooed
women live ; in other words, we have the suggestion of the
formation of a twin-town or sanctuary.
Mr Smith did not notice, that the abolition of the twin-
taboo which he was trying to accomplish radically by the
introduction of the Christian faith, was already begun by a
slower evolutionary method. Apparently, it was already the
custom to spare the woman, and to assign her a permanent
exile in place of an immediate death.
Many more testimonies to the beliefs of the negroes in
the Delta of the Niger and in adjacent districts might
be quoted at this point. Some of them have already been
given, or reference has already been made to them in the
56 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
second chapter of my book on the Cult of the Heavenly
Twins, and it is not necessary to repeat them, simply for the
sake of making a complete literature on the Twin-cult.
It is proper, however, to allude briefly to such parts of the
evidence of travellers and of missionaries as throw into
relief either the inner meaning of the cult, or the various
stages of development through which it passes.
Miss One of the most striking and pathetic accounts of the
KinJslev's ^*^^^ which the twin-ten-or has upon the native mind is
story. given by Miss Kingsley in her Travels in West Africa^.
She relates the case of a poor slave woman who had become
an outcast through bearing twins, and the way in which the
children were saved by the heroic intervention of Miss
Slessor, a lady missionary at Okyou. The story should be
read in Miss Kingsley's own pages, which are abbreviated in
Mr Ling Roth's book on Greater Benin, and still more
by myself in the work just referred to. A single sentence
from Miss Kingsley lets in a flood of light, without her
Twin knowing it, on the history of the taboo : 'All children are
and others ^^''^wn (into the bush) who have arrived in this world in the
exposed, way considered unorthodox, or who cut their teeth in an
improper manner. Twins are killed among all the Niger
Delta Tribes, and in districts out of English control, the
mother is killed too, except in 0-mon, where the sanctuary
Twin- is. There Twin mothers and their children are exiled to an
aries. island in the Cross River. They have to remain on the
island, and if any man goes across and marries one of them,
he has to remain on the island too.'
The opening sentence as to children born in an un-
orthodox manner is a delicate allusion to another savage
terror, the dread of children born feet first. It is an im-
portant study, as the history of Ancient Rome, with its
worship of Venus Verticordia, appears to involve European
peoples in the same primitive belief and dread. We shall
come across more of this sort of thing. With regard to the
twin-births, however, of which Miss Kingsley remarks that
' there is always a sense of there being something uncanny
1 p. 324.
y] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 57
about twins/ the passage which we have quoted conveys an
excellent idea both of the extent of the taboo, its original
intensity, and the mode in which the taboo has been
gradually lifted. The reference to the sanctuary on the
Cross River is of the first importance, as we shall see later.
It means that the origin of sanctuaries is to be sought, in
part at least, in the isolation of twins with their mothers and
attached or annexed friends. Here again we shall want to
examine the matter in the light of Greek and Roman origins.
The Cross River, which is a little to the east of the Sanctu-
Niger, after passing through the district of 0-mon, to which ^he^cross
Miss Kingsley refers, runs out into the Gulf of Guinea at Old Eiver.
Calabar ; and from a missionary of the Calabar Mission (quoted
by me in Cult, pp. 12-14), named Goldie, we obtained the
same statement as that made by Miss Kingsley with regard Mr Goldie
to the formation of sanctuaries S to the following effect : ^.j^^ ^f
that ' the mother, who was visited with the much dreaded twin-
affliction of a twin-birth, was no doubt formerly destroyed
with her infants ; but we found on our arrival that, though
she was driven out of the town, and mourned for as dead,
she was permitted to live in the farm districts, and a hamlet
was built on the outskirts of each town, called the ' twin-
tnothers village,' in which those resided who were under-
going the banishment for life.'
This passage also is illuminating : it shows that the twin-
sanctuary is something much more common than the single
island in the Cross River, of which Miss Kingsley speaks ;
in other words, if the course of human evolution in Europe
is anything like what we see in the Niger Delta, the pro-
gressive civilization of antiquity must have been prolific in
Twin-towns to an extent comparable with the abnormal
fertility of the female population. There should be many
Twin-towns, as Mr Goldie properly calls them, and we shall
have to keep our eyes open for such towns, and such islands,
as bear marks, in their nomenclature or otherwise, of an
origin in the twin-taboo.
Returning to Mr Goldie's account, it will be found that
1 Goldie, Calabar and its Mission, pp. 24 seq.
58 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
he gives a similar account to what we find elsewhere of the
exposures of twin-children in the bush, where their bodies
are commonly carried in earthen pots, and left for the ants
or the hyenas to devour. It is not pleasant to describe
these cruelties, but it must be done to some extent, if we
are to realise the intensity of the twin-taboo ; for without
a proper realisation of that intensity, we shall constantly be
disposed towards a sceptical attitude, and be asking ourselves
the question whether it is possible that a taboo of the kind
we are discussing can have had the wide range or the
deep hold upon the human mind which we attribute to it ;
and it is only as we observe how every other natural in-
stinct gives way before it, that we see how potent the taboo
must have been, and is, in the formation of belief
Thus Mr Goldie reports of the case in which he un-
successfully intervened to save certain exposed twin-children,
that the mother refused any help, and would rather die than
become a twin-mother. The poor slave woman of whom
Extent Miss Kingsley and Miss Slessor make report has a rankling
tensity of sense of injustice with regard to the way in which she has
Taboo. been treated by her people, and the destruction of her goods
and chattels, but she has not the least maternal instinct
towards the rescued children, whom she appears to detest as
cordially as any of the rest of the community.
An English doctor who was called in to the assistance of a
negi'O woman in this region reports that, when the first child
of a certain pair of twins arrived, the women in the court-
yard made themselves ecstatically happy over it, until it was
whispered from within the house, that a second child was
en route, when they dashed the helpless babe to the ground
and fled as if they were escaping from wild beasts.
An even stronger proof of the hold of the taboo will be
found by most Christians in its power to resist the affections
Twins produced and developed by the reception of the Faith : it is
excluded difficult, or has been in recent times, to persuade native
Christian Christians to admit to their fellowship in the Church any
Churches, p^j-sons marked by the taint of a twin-birth \ These, and
^ See Cult of the Heavenly Twins, pp. 14, 15.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 59
similar instances which might be given will help us to
understand why we are right in laying emphasis on the
place which such a taboo must have assigned to it in human
history.
It is interesting, also, and necessary to watch the varia-
tions in the treatment of the subject by tribes who would
have been expected, from their physical contiguity, to think
the same. Mr Goldie, to whom we have just referred, points
this out clearly ^ He tells us that ' a small tribe near
Ikorofiong (on the Cross River) kill both mother and
children ; the people of Akaba, another small tribe in our
neighbourhood, drive the poor mother into the bush, and
allow her to perish of want. The Calabar people sometimes
pick them up, the women going to the side of the river to
hail any canoe passing. Another tribe drives off both father
and mother, but the father is allowed to return to society on
paying a fine, and catching a certain animal without killing
it.' That the father should be taboo is rare and not quite
intelligible : nor do I see the meaning of the catching of the
animal referred to. Is the animal in any way concerned with
the parentage in the minds of the savages ? One would like
to know. So far, at all events, we have not found the West
African negroes assigning the twin-children to the parentage
of the Thunder, or employing them as Rain-makers, in con-
sequence of a Sky or Thunder paternity. Perhaps they are
not commonly in want of rain.
To return to our collection of facts ; here is an extract Mockler-
from a traveller through the Niger country, which explains F^^^^y^^^'^
Miss Kingsley's reference to a Taboo on children who do not supersti-
cut their teeth properly, and throws light again on the ^''"^'
variety that appears in the cult. We are told by Mockler-
Ferryman in his work on British Nigeria^ that 'certain
births are considered unlucky ; in the Niger Delta, for
instance, a woman who bears twins is proclaimed an out-
cast, and her offspring destroyed. Children who cut their
upper teeth first are also supposed to be under evil influence,
^ Cult of the Heavenly Ttcins, p. 15.
2 p. 231.
60
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Major
Partridge
on Cross
Eiver
natives.
and are made away with, and the child of a mother dying in
giving it birth is buried alive. But these superstitions are
not universal, for in some districts twins are considered
the greatest good-luck ; and whereas some tribes offer up
albino babies to their gods, others reverence them.'
Hence we have a suggestion, not very definite, that in
certain cases the gods were supposed to be implicated in
abnormal births.
We have already referred to the beliefs of the natives
in that part of Nigeria which borders on the Cross River.
For this district we have a body of official information from
Major Partridge, which will show some of the difficulties the
British Government has had to contend with in its attempt
to extirpate the twin-taboo ^ He tells us (p. 38) that ' one
day a man living in a village distant only half an hour's walk
from the town complained to me in court that, his wife
having given birth to twins, the villagers wanted to drive
away the mother and infants, and make him pay to the
community a fine of five goats. (Here the father is clearly
sharing the responsibility for what has occurred.) The chief
of the village was summoned to attend court, and stated
that, though their ancient custom forbade any mother of
twins to go near the village stream, the w^oman in question
had actually drawn water therefrom, and had thus polluted the
stream, and that in consequence of her action a leopard was
infesting their neighbourhood, and so they wanted to banish
her and her babies and fine the father. (It is not quite
certain whether this means for polluting the stream or for
producing twins ; perhaps it means both.) I had to explain
that this custom of theirs was unnecessary in the eyes of the
Government, and to issue an order that the man and his
family were not to be molested, and the complainant did not
Twins due appear again. The natives believe that when twins are horn,
paternity. ^^^ ** ^^^ product of the mothers intercourse with a man, and
the other of her intercourse with an evil spirit, and she is
looked upon as no better than a she-goat or a dog, and driven
forth, while her babies are either drowned, or cast into the
^ Partridge, Cross River Natives (Hutchinson, 1905).
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 61
bush to perish.' The latter part of this statement is, I suspect,
an alternative explanation for the former part ; we shall find
it common to contrast the prolific woman with the lower
animals : the allusion to a spirit ancestry, and the consequent
differentiation of the twins, is of the highest importance for
our enquiry. Some further notes may be made from Major
Partridge's book\ An account is given (p. 62) of a visit to
Ezialli, said to be the richest of the Aro rulers. The visitor
learns in conversation that the Aros regard the Vulture as a
sacred bird, and that it has hitherto been the custom, when
a woman bears twins, to kill both the mother and her off-
spring.
Some further notes on the twin-taboo are given (pp.
257 seq.) ; we are told that the husband of a twin-mother
repudiates her, and she is driven away from the community.
The twins were generally to be killed, but there were ex-
ceptions. When the mother was a free-born woman, pro- ■
perly married according to native custom, one baby was
destroyed, but she was permitted to rear the other. When
she was a slave, one was destroyed, and the other given to
another woman to bring up. At a case heard at Ogada, the
plaintiff being an Ikwe, and the defendant an Eshupum, an
old woman of Ogada stated that 'the old Ikwe custom is that, Ikwe
when a woman bears twins, they drive her away. Some- "^*eT^
times they bring her here and give her to us, but they take Twin-
back the children when old enough to leave their mother.*
This shows that the custom varies considerably. Among igarras
the Igarras, up the Niger, twins are welcomed and considered ^f&^^^
^ * "^ twins as
as lucky. lucky.
Perhaps the most important study of the twin-taboo on
the Lower Niger, is that given in Leonard's book on The
Lower Niger and its tribes^. Leonard brings out many
important- details of the influence of the taboo on the life
of the persons that are, or may be, affected by it. For
^ The full title of which is: Cross River Natives, being some notes on the
primitive pagans of Obibura Hill District, Southern Nigeria, including a
description of the circles of upright sculptured stones on the left bank of the
Aweyong Eiver,
2 Published in 1906 (Macmillan).
02 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
instance (p. 310) ' on the birth of twins — looked on as this is,
as unnatural and monstrous — all domestic utensils are at
once destroyed.' Leonard suggests that the destruction of
twins, if not exactly a sacrifice to ancestral spirits, is closely
akin to it. It is an offence against the ancestral gods that
must, of necessity, be removed, along with the offending
cause, the woman. He continues^ with the important obser-
vation that the origin of the custom is 'lost in antiquity,
and due apparently to the conception that one birth at a
time is the distinguishing feature between man and all other
creation, and therefore the birth of twins was regarded as
an unnatural event, to be ascribed solely to the influence of
malign spirits, acting in conjunction with the power of
evil ...Indeed, according to their ancient faith, although two
Second energies are required to produce a unit, the production of
to spirit ^^^ such units is out of the common groove, therefore un-
ancestry. natural, because it implies at once a spirit duality, or
enforced possession of some intruding and malignant demon,
in the yielding and offending person of a member of the
household,... For, in their opinion, the natural product of
two human energies, as a single unit, is only endowed or
provided with one soul-spirit. The custom that prevails
amopg the Ibo or Brass men, of allowing one, always the
first-born of the twins, to live, is a practical admission of
this conception.'
Here we have the dual paternity clearly brought out,
and the important additional fact that among the Ibo or
people on the Brass river, the first-born is reckoned to be of
human parentage. We ought, on this belief, to say Castor
and Pollux, not Pollux and Castor ; Zethus and Amphion for
the Theban twins would also be the right order as is clear
also from the ' divine Amphion ' where Amphion only means
somebody's twin. Leonard goes on to state in the strongest
terms the 'horror and detestation' which twins produce in
every home in the Niger Delta. ' It is the standing law of
the priests that no time is to be lost in removing the un-
fortunate infants. This is generally done by throwing them
^ I.e. p. 458 seq.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 63
into the Bush, to be devoured by wild animals, or the equally
ferocious driver ants, or sometimes, as is done by the Ibibio,
Ijo, and other coast tribes, by setting them adrift on creeks in
roughly made baskets of reeds and bulrushes, when they are
soon drowned or swallowed by sharks or crocodiles'^' Leonard
goes on to explain the various modifications of the taboo.
The mother, for instance, may be quarantined in a detached
hut for sixteen days. After this they go through purification
rites, ending up with the sacrifice of a chicken or pup, and
with the removal of the chalk which had previously been
smeared upon them. We shall meet elsewhere with this
custom of whitewashing the twins. The father also pays
to the priests a fine of about 1600 manillas (say £6. 13s. 4c?.).
On the subject of the formation of twin- towns, Leonard is
perfectly explicit.
'In the Ibibio country, and formerly among the Efik,... Formation
the women, looked on as unclean for the rest of their lives, are towns
obliged to reside in villages, which are known as Twin-towns! 1?;^^®
The husband continues to maintain the wife, and the children country.
are returned when weaned, i.e. at the end of two or three
years. Should the woman have children of any other member
of the community, the possession of them reverts to her
original husband. Special sacrifices are made when a twin-
child is received back from taboo, as well as in all cases of
intercourse between the tabooed and the community. By
this means, the women of the community are supposed to
be protected against the contagion of the twin-curse.' But
what is to be done if the first offending woman should
repeat the offence ? ' In this case,' says Leonard, ' the proba-
bilities are that the death of the mother would be demanded
by the household and by the community as well. Or, if not
killed, she would be driven into the bush and left to die,
although, if discovered by a stranger, he is at liberty to
claim her as his own property, that is, at least, if he feels
^ This striking variation in the treatment of twins by the coast tribes in
the Bay of Benin, us thinliing whether this may not be the real mean-
ing of the stories told of the exposure of Moses and Sargon. The parallel
story of Eomulus and Remus must be kept in mind.
64 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
inclined to run the risk of a venture so truly provocative of
offence.' It is a natural assumption that the stranger, so
annexing a twin mother, even with the modified taboo
described above, would find himself migrating to a twin-
village, or furnishing in his own dwelling the nucleus of such
a village.
Eites of Leonard goes on to describe the method by which the
tion. Ibo clans purify house and community on the arrival of
twins. All the people in that quarter of the village appear
to be affected, and have to throw away their food and drink
and half-burnt firewood ; in short, everything which might be
affected by the contagion. It is not, however, stated that
the house itself in which the twin-birth takes place is
destroyed or abandoned. To that extent some modification
of taboo appears to have been introduced : at an early stage
we may be sure that the house or hut would have been
abandoned or destroyed. The mother, herself, is promptly
isolated ; and we have this important supplementary state-
ment that when a woman is delivered of a child, and it is
known that another is to follow, ' she is instantly carried into
the bush, and whenever the second is born it is immediately
thrown away, while the first-born is retained, and named
Inmeaho, which means two people.' We may probably infer
that this second child is the offence, and is due to the spirit
parentage. The name should be noticed, for it is charac-
teristic of the situation that twins have special names. The
same thing occurs at Brass where the first-born is kept, and
the other thrown away. In this case, if the child is a male
it is called Isele, and if a female Sela, both names meaning
Selected. It is implied by the name that one has been
destroyed, but that it is settled in advance which one is
to be kept. It is not a case of ' that is the one that I should
keep.' The election is according to law and not according to
grace. Leonard also alludes to the case, hinted at by Miss
Kingsley, of a child whose manner of birth is irregular. Such
a child is called Mkporooko, i.e. had or evil feet, and its birth
causes the same taboo as a twin-birth. The mother, in such
a case, goes to the Twin-town.
#
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 65
So much, then, is clear, that the majority of the tribes of
the Niger Delta hold strongly the belief in the twin-curse ;
there may be some local modifications, but the general
prohibition of intercourse with those affected by twin-birth,
the avoidance of common roads, dwellings and markets, is
practically universal.
We have already alluded (p. 61, sup.) to Major Partridge's
statement that higher up the Niger, among the Igarras, the
taboo is interpreted in exactly the opposite sense. This is
confirmed by Leonard, who shows that they regard the
uncanny event as due to good spirits rather than malign.
In this case, then. Twins are regarded as a blessing. Yet
the Igarra tribes are in contact on the south and on the east
with the Ibo tribes, who take the gloomy view of the
situation. Even more curious is the reversal of judgement
with regard to the relative importance of the twins ; the Second-
second-born is regarded as the elder : it is assumed that the ^^^j^ j^^g
birth-right follows the younger child of the pair; the real primo-
. eeniture
elder has sent the younger into the world in advance of him rights.
in token of his superiority. This curious and important belief
will have to be alluded to again, when we come to discuss
certain Biblical twins. The Igarra, however, make no differ-
ence in the treatment of twins, who are regarded as exactly
equal and who, when adult, are married on the same day.
An annual twin-day festival is kept up, in honour of the
birth of all twins in the community. Twins are supposed to
have special powers : they cannot be poisoned and they have
mantic foresight as to children not yet born. All of this is
very important. When I was first engaged on the West
African beliefs, I did not immediately get evidence of the
dual paternity, or the intervening spirit father. This comes
out with clearness in the statements of Partridge and
Leonard. The latter has especially thrown light upon the
savage mind and the savage custom. It remains to be seen
whether in any of the districts described the second paternity
can be identified with Sky, Rain, or Thunder: or whether
some other explanations may be the ones which express more
exactly what the natives really think.
H. B. 5
66
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Koler on
Bonny
natives.
Onitsha
natives
destroy
twins.
Twin-
mothers
compared
to lower
animals.
Insults
and
curses.
There are still some customs attaching to the twin-cult
in the Niger Delta, which need to be brought out, as well as
some further confirmations of statements already reported.
In 1848 Hermann Koler published at Gottingen, a book
called Einige Notizen ilber Bonny. He remarks \ with regard
to the customs of the natives at Bonny, that, however
little trouble a single child may give to its mother, yet if
she were brought to bed of twins, it would mean very ill
fortune for her : the twins would be evidence of her guilt,
and the mother and children would be put to deaths Here
we have again the implication that one man cannot be the
parent of two simultaneous children.
In Mockler-Ferryman's account of Major Claude Mac-
donald's mission to the Niger and Benue rivers, we have
some important statements ^ At Sierra Leone, the party
were received by a missionary, a native of the place, named
Strong, who told them ' Strange tales of the barbarism of the
people of Onitsha, — tales of human sacrifices, destruction of
twins, and slavery, which we listened to with horror and
disgusts' Onitsha is on the Niger river, half-way fi-om
Lokoja to the coast. When they called on the king of
Onitsha, they made a proclamation in the name of the Queen
of England 'against all human sacrifices, twin-murders and
slavery. The poor king, being a good Conservative, begged
that the customs might last out his time'.' With regard to
the Ibo tribes of whom we have written above, they report^
that ' one of the most barbarous customs of the Ibo tribes
is the destruction of twins. A woman, by giving birth to
twins is considered to have committed an unnatural offence,
and to have made herself akin to the lower order of animals.
Her twins are taken from her and thrown into the bush to
perish, whilst the miserable woman herself is proclaimed an
outcast, and driven from her village. No greater insult can
be offered to an Ibo woman than to call her twi7i-hearer, or
1 I.e. p. 102.
^ ' So wenig Umstande aber ein einziges Kind der Mutter macht, so
ungliicklich ist es fur sie von Zwillingen entbunden zu werden ; es gilt als
Beweis von Schuld, und Mutter und Kinder werden getodtet.'
3 Mockler-Ferryman, Up the Niger. Lond. 1892.
* p. 20. 6 p. 23. 6 p, 39.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 67
to hold up two fingers at her. This barbarism, at one time
common in all Ibo tribes, has been considerably abated
amongst the tribes dwelling near the main river, owing to
the exertions of the Royal Niger Company.'
The interesting form of symbolic cursing in the Niger
region should be noted. It has important ecclesiastical
parallels to which we may allude later.
The same observation, which we previously noted, with
regard to the appreciation of twins by the Igbarra tribes,
is also recorded by the Macdonald expedition: they say^,
' Cannibalism is not practised by the Igbirras, and twins are
worshipped under the impression that their birth brings luck to
the family.' This is the strongest statement that we have come
across yet of the devotion to twins of certain African tribes.
From another writer we obtain confirmation of the
peculiar form of cursing prevalent in the Niger Delta. In
a book of J. Smith on Trade and Travels in the Gulph j. Smith
of Guinea (Lond. 1851), we find as follows^: 'In the g^^g^^^/^
Bonny, woe be to the women who have two children at a
birth, or who even become mothers of more than four, for
their children are destroyed and the woman banished. The
greatest possible insult you can offer an inhabitant of this
place, is to call him nam-a-shoobra, meaning one of twins, Twin-
or, as they would say, half a man : nam-a-shoohra also °"*^^^'^^'
conveys the idea of being the son of one of the lower
animals'; [not necessarily; the writer has misunderstood the
comparison of the twin-mother with the lower animals].
'The fiend-like expression of the countenance of a chief
when applying this dreadful blasphemous language to a
slave, with arm and two fingers extended, pointing at the
unlucky offender, and thus intimating by sign as well as by
speech that he is only half a man, is one of those displays
of human passion often witnessed, but not easily to be
described or forgotten.' The writer does not understand the
twin-curse, and his explanation about being half a man is
probably his own imagination. The situation described is
intelligible enough, in view of what has preceded.
1 I.e. p. 141. 2 I.e. p. 47.
5-2
68
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Aro tribes
detest
twins.
Ellis on
Yoruba
tribes.
Twins
sacred to
monkey-
god.
Among the Aro tribes, there was a curious concurrence
noted by Partridge^ of a belief in the sanctity of the vulture,
and the customary belief in the detestability of twins, which
suggests a possibility of a connection between the bird and
the twins. It seems to be a proper subject for enquiry
whether the vulture may be the second parent in the twin-
product, and whether, on the other hand, it may perhaps
be a thunder-bird. We have not means of deciding these
points at present, and must content ourselves with setting
down the evidence, which occurs in the description of a
visit paid by Major Partridge to Ezialli, the richest of the
Aro rulers. 'The chief has a clean skin brought for his
guest to sit on, and compliments are exchanged through
an interpreter. The visitor learns that the Aros regard the
vulture as a sacred bird, and that it has hitherto been the
custom, when a woman bears twins, to kill both the mother
and her offspring.'
Now we have probably said enough about the twin-
customs of the Benin Coast and the Lower Niger; let us
move westward and see how things stand in the Yoruba
country. For this our natural guide will be Ellis, in his
book on the Yoruha-speaking peoples of the West Coast of
Africa. Amongst the minor gods of the Yorubas, Ellis
gives the sixteenth place to Ibeji, who is described as
follows'':
' Iheji.
Ibeji, twins (bi, to beget, eji, two) is the tutelary deity
of twins, and answers to the god Hoho of the Ewe-tribes.
A small black monkey, generally found amongst mangrove
trees, is sacred to Ibeji. Offerings of fruit are made to it,
and its flesh may not be eaten by twins or the parents of
twins. This monkey is called Edon dudu, or Edun oriokuTiy
and one of twin children is generally named after it, Edon
or Edun. When one of twins dies, the mother carries with
the surviving child to keep it from pining for its lost
comrade, and also to give the spirit of the deceased child
1 I.e. p. 62.
p. 80.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 69
something to enter into without disturbing the living child,
a small wooden figure, seven or eight inches long, roughly
fashioned in human shape, and of the sex of the dead child....
At Erapo, a village on the Lagoon between Lagos and
Badagry, there is a celebrated temple to Ibeji, to which all
twins, and the parents of twins, from a long distance round
make pilgrimages. It is said to be usual in Ondo to destroy
one of twins. This is contrary to the practice of the Yoru-
bas, and, if true, the custom has probably been borrowed
from the Benin tribes of the East.'
It is clear that the Yorubas have come to regard twins
favourably : as to the destruction of twins at Ondo, there is
no reason to suppose that twin-murder has been borrowed :
it is much more likely that the Ondo people have a belief
which is in process of modification, than that they have de-
liberately abandoned a humane view of twins for the opposite.
We have now struck a new area of savage belief: we Twins
have the twins deified in a small way, and provided with ^°.^' , ,
a temple, and we seem to be on the road to their represen-
tation by means of images. As Ellis points out, the origin
of this image-making is animistic, rather than religious. I
am, myself, in possession of such an image, obtained from Images
a doctor at Lagos. It has several nails driven into the twins
crown of its head, and the natural explanation is that the
medicine-man, or some one of that character, first conjured
the spirit of the dead child into the' image, and then fixed
it there by means of nails. The chief from whom the doctor
obtained it parted with it, because, the second twin being
now dead, there was no further danger to be guarded against.
The image had become useless. It may be remarked that
it is extremely ugly, and apparently was originally an-
drogyne. Whether such an image would develope naturally
into a god under favourable circumstances, is difficult to say.
Ellis does not say whether the Ibeji are represented regu-
larly by images: nor is there any clue to the meaning of the
cult-animal (in this case a black monkey) which turns up
in the story. From the pilgrimages, we may, perhaps, infer
as in a previous case, the existence of an annual festival.
70
THE TWIN -CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
Tshi.
tribes
make
image
of dead
twin.
Twins at
Porto
Novo,
Miss Kingsley has also given an interesting account of
the substitution of an image for a dead twin child. This
was among the Tshi-speaking tribes. She says :
'I remember once among the Tschwi trying to amuse a
sickly child with an image which was near it and which I
thought was its doll. The child regarded me with its great
melancholy eyes pityingly, as much as to say, " a pretty fool
you are making of yourself," and so I was, for I found out
that the image was not a doll at all, but an image of the
child's dead twin, which was being kept near it as a habi-
tation for the deceased twin's soul, so that it might not
have to wander about, and, feeling lonely, call its companion
after it.'
Returning for a moment to the Yoruba customs, it will
be seen that there is no evidence as yet brought forward to
connect the twins with the thunder-god. The latter is
named Shango, and is quite the normal type ; he could be
placed in the same row with Thor and Zeus. It remains to
be seen whether he has any bird ancestries, or whether he
has the twins in any way under his protection.
A somewhat similar report as to the making of images of
twins is reported in Les Missions Catholiques, for 1875. In
this case the images are of twins born dead : and household
sacrifices to these images are supposed to result in answers
to prayers, and a knowledge of future events. A picture is
given, hideous enough^ of the two images arranged Janus-
fashion. The main points of the report are given in a note\
The place for which this custom is reported is Porto Novo
on the Slave Coast. Further information from the same
centre will be found in Les Missions Catholiques for 1884.
It is interesting to note that the small monkey previously
referred to turns up here also, and that it is supposed
there is spiritual confraternity between the twins and the
monkeys.
1 Vol. vn. 1875, p. 592. Igbedji (jumeaux). Les femmes qui mettent au
monde des jumeaux morts font fabriquer une statue a double face et d'une
seule pi6ce....Elles la placent dans un coin de leur maison, et lui offrent
deux poules, des bananes, et de I'huile de palme, afin d'obtenir les
faveurs dont elles ont besoin, et surtout la connaissance de I'avenir.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 71
Les Missions Gatholiques, xvi. (1884), p. 250. Ibeji.
' Quand une femme a deux enfants jumeaux, on ne les tue
pas a Porto-novo, comme cela se pratique dans le Benin,
mais les Noirs croient que ces enfants ont pour compagnons Twins
des- genies semblables a ceux qui animent les singes d'une ^on^keys°
petite espece, tres commune dans les forets de la Guinee.
Quand les enfants seront grands, ils ne pourront pas manger
de la chair de singe, et, en attendant, la mere fait des
offrandes aux singes de la foret, leur porte des bananes, et
autres friandises pour les adoucir.' If one of the children
should be sick, the mother goes into the forest with the
witch doctor, taking with her a basket full of provisions for
the spirits. ' On la depose au pied d'un arbre ; le feticheur
evoque les esprits et quand ceux-ci manifestent leur presence
on se retire pour les laisser manger en paix. Apres quelque
temps on vient voir si les genies ont trouve I'offrande a leur
gout. Lorsque tout a disparu, heureux presage pour la
sante de I'enfant. L'esprit qui accepte le sacrifice est bien
entendu un esprit en chair et en os qui, prevenu a temps,
s'etait cache pres d'un endroit convenu.'
Whether we call such performances religious or not, it
will be agreed that they contain all the elements necessary
for the evolution of a religion, spirits to be propitiated,
priests, and sacrifices.
Among the Tshi-speakmg peoples of the Gold Coast, Ellis on
Ellis notes an interesting case of twin-trees, in which a deity tribes.
is supposed to reside, to which twins born in Cape Coast are
brought to be named \ This god, formerly worshipped, was
Kottor-Krahah, who resided at the Wells now known by
that name. He was said to have migrated with the Fantis
from beyond Coomassie. When the emigrants came to the
sight of the present Kottor-Krabah wells, they were reduced
to great straits for want of water. The god showed them
where to dig at the foot of two large silk-cotton trees.
' The two silk-cotton trees were afterwards named N'ihna-
atta (Ihna, silk-cotton trees, attah, twins), and were regarded
as belonging to the god, who, it was believed, resided in
1 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 42.
72 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
them. One tree was said to be male, the other female.
.Sheep were in former times sacrificed to Kottor-Krabah,
and twins born in Cape Coast were carried to the trees to
be named.'
There is certainly some link between twins and this
mysterious and elusive god; but what the connection is
must remain, for the present, obscure.
We have not found any traces, as yet, of the use of twins
as rain-makers in W, Africa. This may be mere lack of
information from the observers of the phenomena; or it
may be that the connection between twins and the sky-god
has not been made in these parts. This is a matter that
will require closer investigation : we must not generalise too
rapidly and say ' all twins are sons of Thunder,' but we must
delimit, if possible, the area over which that identification
is probable.
Twins in When we move again to the westward, we come to
7°^^' the area which the Germans call by the name of Togo-
land, for which we have a variety of information fi-om the
most careful explorers and observers. For instance, Klose,
in his book entitled Togo unter Deutscher Flagge, draws
attention to the treatment of twins, using in part a dis-
sertation by Clerk, entitled Meine Reisen in den Hinterldndern
von Togo\ From Klose, then, we learn that amongst the
Kratyi tribes, people believe that in the case of twin-births
an evil spirit has had a hand in the game, for which
reason they mercilessly kill the innocent children. Should
the women be so unfortunate as to bear twins a second
time, the people do not shrink fi:om throwing the innocent
children on to an ant-heap, since this is the only way in
which they can prevent a similar recurrence. It is note-
worthy that most of the savage races regard twin-births as
of evil omen and that an evil spirit is responsible therefor".
From the same writer we learn the customs of the
Bassari, a tribe living between 9° and 10° N. Lat. and
between 0° and 1° E. Long.^: 'Twins are regarded as
1 N. Clerk in Mittheilungen d. Geogr. Gesell. Jena IX.
2 Klose, I.e. p. 350. {Characteristik der Kratyileute und der Haussa.)
» I.e. p. 509 sqq.
Y] the twin-cult in west AFRICA 73
ill-omened by the Bassari. If the first-born children are Twins
twins, one child is preserved, the other is put in a large pot BTs'^ri.
and buried alive. Should the twins be boy and girl, the
boy is kept: should they be of the same sex, they follow the
Spartan custom, of preserving the stronger. To express in
some way the relationship of the twins to one another, they
sacrifice a fowl and divide it into two parts. One half is
given to the child that is to be buried, the other half is
put into a pot and buried near by. This sacrifice placates
at once the Fetish and reminds the spirit of the dead child
of his near relation to the living child, so that he shall not
wreak vengeance on him. Twin children, not first-born,
are in any case buried alive. Later on the father of the
twins goes to the Fetish doctor, to pray for his help against
the recurrence of the event.
* Women who have borne twins must not take part in
agricultural operations, for fear of damaging the crops. Only
after the birth of another child are they permitted to work
in the fields '^
As we shall see later on, twins and twin-mothers are in
many places especially valued for their influence on agri-
culture ; apparently because they can, by sympathetic magic,
communicate their own fertility. It will be noticed above
that there is, in certain cases, a slight margin of choice, with
regard to the child whose life is preserved.
For this same district we have a further description by Wolf on
a German missionary named Franz Wolf. The account will
be found in Anthropos, Bd vii. Heft 1 and 2, pp. 81-95 2.
From this article we get a good deal of valuable information :
according to Wolf, twins and triplets are welcomed amongst
the Fo. They are regarded as Ohoho's children. Twins
are common, triplets also occur. Of twins and triplets the
last born is first in rank, and the explanation is given, valeat
quantum, that persons of high rank send messengers before
thera. Fixed names are attached to them, e.g.
1 Very nearly the same statements by Klose in Globus, lxxxi. (1902),
p. 190 sqq.
* The title is: Beitrag zur Ethnographie der Fo-neger in Togo.
74 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
Twins: both boys: Esd and Esi,
both girls: Hv£vi and Hues4,
one boy and one girl: the boy Esi and the girl Esihue.
Triplets (a known case) :
hoy, Ese: gir\, Esi: girl, Esihue.
Children of twins have also definite names assigned to
them :
First-bom: boy, Dosu,
girl, Devi.
Second; boy, Dosavi,
girl, Dohnevi.
Third: boy, Donyo,
girl, Dosovi.
The mother has to divide her food into equal portions, and
eat similarly from each portion, evidently so that each child
whom she nourishes shall be equally served. If she did
not, the neglected child would be cross and die.
Ohoho the The Ohoho-cult. Wolf cannot decide whether Ohoho,
twins? to whose parentage the twins are referred, is the guardian
of the twins, or whether he is God who has taken possession
of them. They appear in some way to identify twins with
Ohoho, and call the father Ohohodyito (Ohoho-bearer), and
the mother Ohohono (Ohoho-mother).
After the birth, a couple of plates of food are prepared
for the Ohoho, and a woman, herself the mother of twins,
gives the invitation to the food which she has prepared, and
of which she has placed small portions in the dishes, in the
terras ' This food is yours, I give it to you.' The remainder
of the food is eaten by the visitors. Here again we have a
rudimentaiy sacrifice with suggestions of a twin-priesthood.
When a twin dies, there are curious ceremonies to be
gone through, which may be of importance in the interpre-
tation of the twin-cult.
Capture The parents buy a white hen, maize-beer, a new calabash,
of a dead and a piece of white linen. They go out with a crowd of
*^^°" natives into the bush. They look about for a long-tailed
monkey (Meerkatze), and when they see it, they say, ' See !
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 75
there is Ese,' meaning the dead child. (The monkey's name
is Esio.) A twin-mother takes the calabash, pours some
beer into it, and calls the monkey, saying 'Come, Ese, let
us go home.' After three calls, she shuts the calabash with
the stopper, and binds it up in the white linen. Ese is now
inside. Then a woman kneels, and the twin-mother puts
the calabash on her head. The woman has a string of
cowries given her, which she holds in her teeth. She is
now supposed to be possessed by the deity Ohoho. They
return home, the twin-mother marching in front. They
throw cowries to the carrier woman, which are picked up
for her. On reaching home, the contents of the calabash,
which are now supposed to involve Ohoho, are poured into
the twin dishes. The birth sacrifice is repeated, and finally
the dish that is supposed to belong to the dead child is
covered up.
There really seems something like Totemism in the
foregoing account of Ohoho, the twins, and the long-tailed
monkey. Wolf himself appears to have maintained the
existence of individual totems amongst the Fo- tribe \ in the
case of twins. He suggests that the totems of twins are
the two kinds of monkey, to which the people in Togo-land
pay respect; the esio (Meerkatze), and the okla (Husarenaffe).
Twins may never kill and eat the former; they may kill,
but not eat the latter. It is said by the natives that twins,
in sleep, turn into one or other of these monkeys, and go
into the fields to eat maize. If one of the monkeys is killed,
the corresponding twin dies.
The parents of twins set apart every year a little patch
of maize for the twins to eat, when turned into monkeys.
This patch is never reaped, but left undisturbed.
There are traces of hereditary totemism in some tribes
(e.g. the Atak-pame), the totem-name being derived in the
first instance from the twin-mother. I suppose that in such
cases a person bears the twin name without being actually
a twin.
Further information, in much greater detail, is given by
^ See Anthropos, vol. vi. pp. 457, 458.
76 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
Spieth a Togo-land missionary, named Spieth, in a book on the
tribes. ' Ewe-speaking tribes ^ Spieth describes at great length the
manners and customs of the Ho-tribe, the Akoviewe, and the
Kpenoe. About 600 pages are given to the Ho-district, and
a close and careful study is made of the subject of twins,
and the rites associated therewith. If we epitomise his
reports, we find that the birth of twins is an exceeding joy.
The path, of the twin-mother is better than the path of a
rich man; a special drum is beaten to express the joy proper
to this case.
The taboo imposed in such cases is not long : the father
and mother are obliged to fast and to be silent until other
twin parents come on the scene. To these they pay ransom,
to the amount of 20 hoka. The woman who presides over
the ceremonies prepares and eats food, the midwife prepares
palm- wine, with which she first washes her hands. A
festival is decreed at the nearest market-town of the Ho-
tribe : and on a certain day the relatives come together,
under the leadership of the visiting twin-mother who has
charge of the proceedings; the parents have now to buy
back their house and chattels from the visitors. The old
woman says a prayer to the effect that everybody may have
twins. The parents now have their hair ceremonially cut.
Beans are cooked in a couple of pots and taken into the
market place, and girls are appointed to feed the company
therefrom with spoons. The happy parents are led up and
down the street to the music of drums. More palm-wine
is drunk, and it is then on sale to the general public, at
the price of 5 hoka for two calabashes. The mother of the
ceremonies is then paid off and goes to her home.
No ceremonies are allowed for twins of opposite sexes.
The twins themselves are forbidden to eat the flesh of
the Hussar-monkey. The reason assigned is that twins
are called by the name of ' Children of the Hussar-monkey.'
Neither must they eat rat. If any one shoots one of these
monkeys, the twin-parents are allowed to cudgel him.
Here, then, again we have the appearance of the monkey as
1 Spieth, Efve-Stamme, Berlin, 1906, pp. 202-206.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 77
cult-animal, and this time he is definitely connected with
the parentage of the children. The meaning of this is not
yet clear, but we shall perhaps find that this particular
monkey is associated with the care of the weather.
It will be observed that however joyfully twins are
regarded, there are plenty of suggestions of ransom on the
part of the parents, both for themselves and their property.
With something of the same kind of ceremonies, Spieth Twins
describes (p. 616) the twin-births amongst the Akoviewe. ^'^o^ewe!
The woman who is assisting the twin-mother leaves her on
the arrival of the first child for fear of falling into a swoon
or catching an incurable cough.... Various vegetables and
fruits are soaked in water, and the mother and children
are soaked therein. The father is prohibited from eating
offerings made to the Hussar monkey, or from eating the
flesh of the same. For twin-boys there is a twenty-five
day festival, for twin-girls one of twenty. Strangers are
regaled, presents are made to the twins (which must in
any case be of equal value), the drums are beaten, and so on.
Much the same revelry occurs among the tribe of
the Kpenoe\ Palm-wine flows in abundance for those
who bring cowries, as gift or exchange. The customs are
under the supervision of those who are themselves twins,
to wit drumming, dancing, and drinking. The twins are
carried about on their parents' shoulders for every one to see.
The festival is costly, and often results in the impoverish-
ment of the parents.
Later on the writer^ makes the remark that when
it rains, the people address God and say *The Hussar-
monkey sees it and weeps,' which has its nearest parallel in
'Zeus rains' of the Greeks. It is possible, then, as was sug-
gested above, that the monkey iii question is a rain-maker.
Moving again westward, we come to the Gold Coast : we Twins on
have already pointed out on the authority of a seventeenth Q^^g^.
century writer that in the district of Fetu, twins were
brought up, except when they were of opposite sexes, in
1 Spieth, I.e. p. 694. 2 j^g, p, 914.
78 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
which case one of them was killed. It is remarked by
Finsch^ that on the Gold Coast, twins are looked upon as
lucky, while the contrary is the case with triplets. Among
the Fantis, it also appears to be the custom to spare the
lives of twins: in the report of Catholic Missions for 1893^
it is stated for the neighbourhood of Elmina, that there is
no lack of ceremonies more or less religious on the Gold
Coast. They celebrate a festival called Abam at the birth
of twins, and at the birth of the third or the seventh in
a family. The Abam consists of purifications made with a
special herb; a bracelet is given to the twin-child, which
must be worn all his life long. The Abam is renewed before
each harvest.
If we understand this rightly, twins are welcomed, and
neither is killed, but there must be expiatory rites.
Twins in Further to the West, we come to Liberia : concerning
Liberia, ^j^^ tribe of the Golahs in this country, we have some
important information from a Roman Catholic Missionary,
(J. H. Cessou) in Monrovia, as reported in Anthropos for
Nov. — Dec. 1911 (pp. 1037-8). In this district, twins are
not killed, but there are certain taboos which they must
observe. Cessou says they must not eat (1) bananas, (2) a
certain snake, (3) the bush-goat or black-deer. Sometimes
the name of bush-goat is given to children, but it is not
limited to twin-children. Cessou goes on to explain :
*Les personnes sujettes a ces prohibitions — k ces tabous
si tel est bien ici le mot propre — sont les jumeaux, en Golah
asevi ou zina, aussi comme en Vai. Jumeaux et fils de
jumeaux ne peuvent manger le bush-goat.
'Le pere d'un de nos boys est jumeau: il ne pent en
manger; son fils ^galement ne pent en manger. Quand il
nous I'amena, " Ne lui donnez pas du bush-goat," a nous
dit-il...
' Les jumeaux ont en effet le singulier privilege d'ap-
prendre beaucoup de choses par reve. Peut-etre est-ce parce
qu'ils voient les esprits des morts, dont la vie dans I'autre
1 Otto Finsch in Allgem. Zeitschrift f. Erdkunde, Bd 17, 1864, p. 361.
2 Les Missions Catholiques, xxv. 1893, p. 346.
■V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 79
monde est la rdplique de la vie terrestre....Quoiqu'il en
soit, les jumeaux ont le privilege d'apprendre des choses
par le moyen des reves....
'Et pourquoi done les jumeaux ne peuvent-ils pas manger
le bush-goat ? Des jumeaux, il y a longtemps de cela, nous
ont dit les vieux, ont vu, parait-il, dans leurs reves que les
esprits des gens morts prenaient des corps de bush-goats,
lis ont vu des bush-goats, qui n'^taient point des animaux
mais des hommes. Voyez-vous un bush-goat qui se sauve
d'une certaine fa9on, ce n'est pas un animal, c'est un esprit.
Les jumeaux sachant dont, pour I'avoir vu en reve, que
certains bush-goats sont des hommes, they know them to he
men, ne peuvent en manger : ce serait mal, et d'ailleurs s'ils
en mangeaient, ils perdraient leurs privileges. They cannot
get good head again, and they no fit see again the things iliey
fit see otherwise.'
It was not, however, necessarily a twin that had been
changed into a bush-goat.
On the death of one of a pair of twins, the survivor has Protection
to he medicined hy another twin of the same family. After t^j^ fj-om
being washed by the medicining twin, the surviving twin ^^^
is returned to his parents, and the officiant twin receives a
reward in the shape of palm-oil, white cloth, and bleached
rice: because white is the proper colour for twins, 'the white White the
, r . 1 . . , , • , colour of
thmgs be twm things. t^ins \
The mantic gifts of twins are strongly emphasized in the
foregoing : one is surprised, however, to find that the twin-
colour amongst the Golahs is white, and not red. Does that
mean that the Golahs thought of lightning as white ?
A good deal further to the West we come to Sierra
Leone; here we have a very instructive monograph on the
manners and customs of the Sherbro hinterlands As there Twins
seems to be great variation in the details of the twin-cult g|jgi.i3j.o
for Sierra Leone from what we find on the Guinea Coast, hinter-
we will examine carefully what this writer (Mr T. J. Aid- Aidridge
ridge) has to say on the subject I He tells us that 'Another on Sabo
° ■^ "^ •' super-
'- T. J. Aldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland, London, 1901. stition.
2 I.e. pp. 149-151.
80
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH*
Names of
twins.
Magic
twin-
houses.
Germs of
a twin-
priest-
hood.
kind of fetish for the obtaining of money from the super-
stitious is the twin-houses, or Sabo, the working of which is
carried out by twins, who may be any two persons of either
or both sexes, who are actual twins, or are one of twin
children of different families. The elder twin is called Sau
and the younger Jina, irrespective of sex. It is always
necessary, to render the fetish medicine efficacious, that it
should be deposited beneath specially erected twin temples,
...Either the Sau or the Jina has the Fera Wuri, or twin
stick, that is, has the power to set up these twin-houses
and administer the medicine. Although both sexes can apply
to the Sabo, it is more generally used by women in regard to
their specific complaints, more especially in cases of pregnancy
or the absence o/*Y.... Assuming that the patient is a woman,
said to be under the twin influence, it is necessary that she
should be washed in the medicine, and should set up the
twin-houses, which, of course, means an outlay.
'A meeting follows with the Sau or Jina, and the fees
being paid a dance is arranged, to take place at the ap-
pearance of the next new moon, to which any of the
town-folk can go. The dance is kept up all night, and at
daylight the Sabo women, attended by some from the dance,
proceed to the bush to collect all the material for setting up
the little twin temples, and for preparing the ablutionary
medicine....'
The account goes on to describe the washing of the
woman with the twin medicine. Some grains of rice are
scattered on the ground, a twin holds a live fowl over the
woman, and says ' If it is true that this woman has been
affected by the twin spirit, the fowl must show it by eating
up the rice,' which, of course, the fowl promptly does.
These twin houses are frequently met with throughout the
Mendi and Sherbro countries.
It is clear from this account that twins are in high
esteem; they have developed a twin-priesthood, an im-
portant fact to remember, for we shall find such twin-
priesthoods of the female sex in ancient Egypt, and perhaps
elsewhere. The same tendency towards a twin-priesthood
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 81
was noticed among the Ewe-speaking tribes described above,
where the purification of the twin-mother comes by the
hands of other twin parents. Perhaps we shall be right
in saying that where the danger of twins has to be averted
there is a tendency to place the averting power in the hands of
those who are themselves twins. This will lead naturally to
a twin-priesthood.
Mr Aldridge explains that he had often seen the little
twin houses without understanding their meaning : but
that, shortly before writing his book, he had found out
from the head man of a certain village that ' two particular
houses were put up by a woman belonging to the town, who
had twins both very sick. She had consulted the medicine
man, and he had advised her to apply to the Sabo medi-
cine.'
Now let us return to the Guinea Coast, and move east- Twins in
ward from Benin, which will take us again into German roons.
territory in the Cameroons. In this district from 3° N. Lat.
and 5° S. Lat., live the Fang tribes : let us see what the
Fang tribes think on the subject. In Anthropos, i. 745 sqq.,
M. Louis Martron tells us as follows : * Quand deux jumeaux Among
viennent au monde, I'un d'eux, s'il n'y a personne pour le twins^may
recueillir, est destine a la mort. Celui qui survit n'a pas not look
le droit de regarder I'arc-en-ciel. Si par inadvertance ses rainbow,
yeux ont rencontr^ le met^ore, il devra se raser les sourcils,
en colorer la place, d'un cot^, avec du charbon noir, de I'autre
avec la poussiere du bois rouge. Defense ainsi, de manger • -
tout animal dont le pelage est tachet^ ou zebre: panthere, . „
chat-tigre, antilope-cheval, etc.: et de tout poisson convert
d'^cailles.'
Here again we strike new ground. The destruction of
twins is partial, as in so many places, but the twin that
lives must never look upon the rainbow. I do not at
present see the meaning of this : we shall meet the same
superstition again in E. Africa.
We come next to the mouth of the Congo River, and DuChaillu
to the territory known as the French Congo. This district A^ghango
is partly covered by a journey of Du Chaillu, described as land.
H. B. 6
82 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
a Journey to Ashango Land. We shall get some curious
details^ of the traveller's experiences amongst the Aponos
and Ishogos. He describes a war-dance accompanied by
hideous noises, which continued all night long. ' The singing
and dancing during this uproarious night were partly con-
nected with a curious custom of this people, namely, the cele-
bration of the mpaza, or the release from the long deprivation
of liberty which a woman suffers who has had the misfortune
to bring forth twins. The custom altogether is a very
strange one, but it is by no means peculiar to the Ishogos,
although this is the first time I witnessed the doings. The
negroes of this part of Africa have a strange notion or
superstition that when twins {mpaza) are born, one of them
must die early; so, in order, apparently, to avoid such a
calamity, the mother is confined to her hut, or rather,
restricted in her intercourse with her neighbours, until both
the children have grown up, when the danger is supposed
to have passed.' Evidently Du Chaillu misunderstood his
informants, who were substituting severe taboo and isolation
of the mother and twins in place of the death of one of the
twins. It was not that one would die, but that one would
have to be killed. The natives were progressive in their
treatment of the subject : as Du Chaillu himself remarks,
'The tribes here are far milder than those near Lagos, or
in East Africa, where, as Burton mentions, twins are always
killed immediately on their being born.'
Nature of As to the nature of the isolations, which corresponds to
isolation what, in other communities, would be exile, we have some
interesting details. The woman is allowed to go into the
forest, but may not speak to any one outside her own family.
No one but the father and mother are allowed to enter the
hut: a stranger who did so would be seized and sold into
slavery. The twins must not mix with other children, and
all the household utensils are tabooed: (on the Niger they
would probably have been destroyed). Du Chaillu remarks
r that 'some of the notions have a resemblance to the nonsense
believed in by old nurses in more civilised countries, such
1 pp. 272-274.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 83
as, for instance, that when the mother takes one of the
twins in her arms, something dreadful will happen if the
father does not take the other, and so forth.' 'The house
where the twins were born is always marked in some way
to distinguish it from the others, in order to prevent mistakes.
Here in Yengue, it had two long poles on each side of the
door, at the top of which was a piece of cloth, and at the
foot of the door were a number of pegs stuck in the ground
and painted white. The twins were now six years old, and White as
the poor woman was released from her six years imprison- *qi '
ment on the day of my arrival. During the day two women
were stationed at the door of the house with their faces and
legs painted white, — one was the doctor, the other was the
mother. The festivities commenced by their marching down
the streets, one beating a drum, with a slow measured beat,
and the other singing. The dancing, singing, and drinking
of all the villagers then set in for the night. After the
ceremony, the twins were allowed to go about like other
children. In consequence of all this trouble and restriction
of liberty, the bringing forth of twins is consider'ed, and no
wonder, by the women, as a great calamity. Nothing irri-
tates or annoys an expectant mother in these countHes so
much as to point to her and tell her she is sure to have twins'
He might have made the statement more general; almost
any West African woman (except in cases where twins are
regarded as a blessing) would recognise the curse of the
pointed two fingers as the most terrible of objurgations.
Now let us enquire how matters are looked at by the Twins on
tribes higher up the Congo River. The Congo gives us a*^®^^'^^^*
chance of getting into the heart of Africa, whereas, up to
the present, we have been visiting the sea-board, with slight
excursions into the hinterland. It will be difficult to deter-
mine the beliefs of the Congo natives, for Belgian barbarity
and rubber-hunting have decimated the populations, and,
to an astonishing degree, blotted and torn the records that
we are trying to read.
The best information that I have been able to secure is Kenred
contained in a letter from my friend Kenred Smith of the ^™^*^-
6—2
84 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
Baptist Mission at Upoto, on the Upper Congo. He writes me
to the following effect with regard to the Ngombe Manners
and Customs.
Twins (Mapasa).
Tem- When twins are born the relatives of the mother gather
finTpaid ^^^ present to the father of the children, spears and knives
by the ^ jjj honour of the birth. These spears and knives are never
relatives really reckoned as belonging to the father of the twins, and
to the YiQ does not pay them away for the purchase of another
wife, nor pay his debts with them, but preserves them intact.
After a period extending to four or five months, a feast is
prepared and the spears and knives handed back to the
relatives of his wife.
Twins Twins are supposed to name themselves, by appearing
dream to^ ^^ some of the villagers in a dream, and stating what their
one of the names are to be. The person having the dream tells the
villflifiTGrs
parents, and the names given in the dream are the names
No other by which the children will be called. If the parents attempt
name safe. ^^ attach other names to the children they will die.
The mother of the children after regaining her strength
Pride over (and the cessation of the haemorrhage), gives mondundu,
^^°^" that is, she takes her twins on show to her relatives and
friends, and receives presents of money and food.
Mother When the mother eats, she eats from two pots, the
^have food, maize, manioc pudding, fish, etc. being cooked in two
bilaterally different vessels. When eating, the mother is careful to
or in take first with her right hand, from the pot on her right,
sucklmg. and then with her left hand from the pot on her left. If
she eats only from the right hand vessel or only from the
left, or has only one pot, one of the twins will die.
Spirits While the mother eats, some of her relatives or some
drums. of the villagers beat the ndundu or gbugbu drums. This
custom of drum beating is continued until the mother comes
out from the abwai, that is, until she comes out from being
Mother confined in her hut. This confinement lasts about two
seduded mQ^^^g ^nd the mother is only allowed to go abroad at
tabooed, night, or if in the day, only at the back of the hut where
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 85
the general public have no access. This imprisonment takes
place after the mondundu spoken of above. When she has
finished her imprisonment and enters again into the life of
the village, her friends give presents.
When nursing her little ones the mother of the twins Each child
reserves one side for the one and the other for the other own^ide
twin. of the
After the birth of the twins, on one of the leading paths Care taken
near the village maduka are erected. The maduka are *° P^®:,
° _ serve the
placed on two branches of trees planted on either side ofafter-
the path. Each branch has three or four prongs, and the ^^ '
maduka rest on these prongs. The maduka are simply old
and useless native pots no longer fit for cooking the manioc
bread pudding. Into these old pots are placed the makaka-
benji (the placenta), and it is supposed that unless the
maduka are erected the twins will die.
Passers-by pluck leaves and throw them at the foot of The
each stick on either side of the path, believing that thus gives good
they will be lucky on their journey, whether it be a hunting luck,
journey into the forest, or a journey to collect a debt, or a
journey made for the sake of visiting friends. Little heaps
of accumulated leaves gradually surround the two sticks on
which the maduka rest.
Twins are not called in to perform special functions, as Twins
marriage, funerals, etc., but as twins are thought to be ancestrj^^*
emhete e Akongo (a wonder of God) and are sometimes (?one or
spoken of as bana ba milimo {children of the spirits) when
they are grown up, some superstitious reverence attaches
to them. Thus if men are going hunting and one of the Twins
number curses a twin, and the twin responds by saying that I'u^t^n*^^
the hunt will be in vain, it will be abandoned, the others huntingor
believing that the twin has some occult power which will be ^ ^^^'
exercised against them, so that no animals will be taken.
The same applies to fishing. If a twin should jungoa (bless)
a fishing or hunting party, it is sure to be successful. Twins Twins
are not called in as rain-makers amongst the Ngorabes. po^gj.
Here rain is usually abundant, so the rain-maker is not o^^r rain,
needed. When there .is a period of, continuous rain, a
86 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
twin is called upon to make it cease. Usually, the last
born twin is called, and he, taking some rain-saturated
earth from outside the hut, puts it on the fire, and calls
Twin kills on the rain to cease and the earth to dry up. 'If one
twin. twin should die, his fellow-twin is supposed to have
killed it'
It will be recognised at once that this is a very im-
portant and illuminating communication. Here we appear to
be amongst the Bantu and not in Negro circles : the language,
hana ha milimo, is clearly Bantu. Twins are regarded as
a blessing, but the period of isolation and the drum-beating
show that there is danger underneath the felicity. Here,
for the first time, we have a reference to the sanctity of the
placenta; we shall see plenty of this in East Africa. The
belief that one twin kills the other, which we know of old
in the story of Romulus and Remus, or in that of Esau and
Jacob, is here definitely stated. From the fact that the
■ younger twin controls the weather, it is legitimate to infer
that it is the younger twin that is the spirit-child or sky-
child. The references to the twins as patrons of hunting
and fishing are of the first importance, and will receive
striking confirmation.
Dr Girling From the same mission we have a very interesting state-
amongthe ^^^^ from the pen of Dr E. C. Girling, with regard to the
Batito. treatment of twins among the Batito, to the west of Lake
Leopold II. Dr Girling publishes in the Herald, the organ
of the Baptist Missionary Society, for March 1912, a photo-
Twins graph showing a pair of twins whose faces have been painted
^ite white, to avert evil from them. His description is as follows:
' The accompanying photograph gives you an idea of one of
the sights we saw inland. It represents twins born in a
Batito village away near Lake Leopold. They are nearly
six months old, and have been subjected to this white-
washing process every morning : also they and their mother
have never been allowed to pass the rough curtain fence
erected round the door of their hut for all these months.
Mother and babies all looked as if some fresh air and exercise
would do them good.
Vj THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 87
• The birth of twins is regarded as a misfortune, and these Depre-
rites are for the purpose of averting further evil. The father 1^^°^^
and mother were also smeared with chalk and their bodies
decorated with leaves.'
Here we have some new features, the whitewashing of
the children and the parents, and the decoration of the
latter with leaves. The reason for these practices is obscure :
and there does not seem to be any suggestion of the dual
paternity or of the thunder-god.
It is interesting, too, to find again the opposite views
with regard to twins so nearly adjacent as in these two
cases from the same mission.
This may be the best place to refer to the twin-custom Twins in
as it prevails in the district of central Africa, known as counter.
Msidi's country, or Katanga, or Garenganze. The district
may be described as lying in Lat. 10° S., and in Long. 25° —
26° E.: it was visited by Mr Arnot, who travelling N.W.
from Natal, crossed the continent to Benguela, and from
thence journeyed E.N.E. to Katanga. In his book entitled
Garenganze, he gives us a statement to the following
effect:
'As a rule, these simple people are fond of their children.
Cases of infanticide are very rare, and then only because of
some deformity. Twins, strange to say, are not only allowed Twins are
to live, but the people delight in them.' However much the
people may delight in twins, there is decided evidence of
purificatory rites. Mr Arnot goes on to describe a treatment
both of the king and his people by a witch doctoress, who
sprinkled them with an ill-smelling medicine, and spouted Beer-
beer in their faces from her own sweet mouth, a proceeding ^s a de-
which the whole company took up with great zest^ I do precatory
not understand the meaning of the beer-spouting, unless
it should be for a rain-charm. As we shall see, among the
Baronga in S.E. Africa the arrival of twins is at once a
signal for rain-charming on the part of the women. Beer,
however, does not exactly drop * like the gentle rain from
1 For this ceremony, see Cult of the Heavenly Twins, p. 16, from Arnot,
Garenganze, p. 241.
88 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
heaven' (we need not continue the quotation). Perhaps it
is sufficient to say that even in Msidi's country there are
traces of purificatory rites in the midst of the happiness
caused by twin-births. The situation might then be summed
Anker- up in the language of Ankermann ^ : ' Dans quelques tribes on
regard les jumeaux comme un signe de malheur : c'est pour-
quoi on les tue. Meme chez les peuplades qui se rejouissent
k la naissance des jumeaux, les parents sont obliges d'ac-
complir certaines ceremonies dont le but parait etre de
conjurer le mauvais sort (par exemple dans I'Ouganda).'
As we have already seen, this judgement might be
applied over a very wide area in Africa, and we shall prob-
ably say the same elsewhere.
Nassau on Dr Nassau says nearly the same things : ' In other parts,
country, as in the Gabun country, where twins are welcomed, it is
nevertheless considered necessary to have special ceremonies
performed for the safety of their lives, or, if they die, to
prevent evil.'
It will be observed that the cult, as it is developed from
its early form of irrational terror, is tending towards definite
practices and fixed explanations ; priesthood is beginning to
appear, and the dead twins are beginning to be honoured.
Where the twins are allowed to live, Twin-towns are formed.
We have not, however, reached the point where the thunder
is very much in evidence, and we have not yet found the
colour assigned to the twins which we have shown to prevail
in the traditions of the Aryan peoples and elsewhere. This
is somewhat surprising, for while Shango, the thunder-god
of the Yorubas, as is seen by the negro cults in Brazil, is
as red as he can be painted, we have not found that this
colour is assigned to twins in W^. African tribes. On the
other hand, we have two or three times found reference to
white as being the colour of twins, and on the Congo have
found them whitewashing twins every day. The meaning
of this is not quite clear. Perhaps we may infer that some
tribes regard lightning as red and others as white : but in
1 U Etk\wgraphie actuelle de VAfriqu^ Meridionale, p. 935.
2 Fetichisvi in W. Africa, p. 206.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 89
that case the proof is still incomplete of the connection of
twins with the thunder and the lightning. The Brazilian
negroes tell us to connect Shango with the twin-cult, for
they have mounted Cosmas and Damian with Shango in
their oratories; but we are still deficient in the evidence
which is to connect African twins generally or "finally with
sky, thunder, or lightning. In some tribes there are traces
of the twins as rain-makers, through a particular monkey
with whom they are identified. We have nothing, as yet,
to entitle us to attach the term Boanerges to the West
African twins.
Perhaps we may get some light upon the question of
colour from the following considerations. Among the Ewe- Thunder-
speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, Ellis notes the worship iightning-
of a god Bo, who is the protector of persons engaged in ro<is.
war, and of a god So (Khebioso) who is the lightning. The
priests of Bo carry about, on ceremonial occasions, a peculiar
axe, usually made of brass ; also they carry fasces, or bundles
of sticks, called Bo-So, from four to six feet long, painted red
and white in alternate stripes, or spotted with the same
colours^
Here we have the exact parallel to the fasces carried by
the Roman lictors, except that at Rome the axe is in the
bundle of rods : notice that the Roman fasces are bound up
with red leather. Probably the axe in each case is a
thunder-axe, and the rods are the lightning shafts. If this
be so, the colours red and white are both in use amongst
these tribes to represent the thunder and lightning. The
explanation is still tentative, but we shall see presently,
when we come to consider the practices of the Wurundi in
German East Africa, that the use of red and white in the
ceremonial dance at the birth of twins, is accompanied by
a belief that the spirit father of the twins is really the
Thunder.
The whole subject of the use of colours by savages
requires closer attention : we have shown the importance
of red in ceremonies connected with the thunder : white is
1 Ellis, I.e. p. 68.
90 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
a very common decoration all over the world, and it must
not be hastily assumed that it has necessarily an interpreta-
tion that would link it with the lightning. We will, how-
ever, add a few considerations that may help to elucidate
the matter.
Meaning It is certain that primitive men attach great importance
white *" ^^ *^^ paint they wear, and, as far as white is concerned,
paint. it is commonly held that this is put on to avert spirits.
For instance, there is an important paper by Campbell in
the Indian Antiquary for June, 1895, in which it is main-
tained that the colours dreaded by spirits are red, yellow,
and black, and perhaps white. No attempt is made to
explain what spirits are connected with what colours ; are
there not 'black spirits and white, red spirits and gray'?
Moreover, when it is said that a spirit is averted by a
colour, does not this often mean that the colour is the
spirit's colour, and that the person painted is under the
protection of the spirit ? For instance, we know that red is
in many places the thunder-colour, and that a thunder-bird,
who is to keep off the thunder from a building or temple,
should be (or was originally) a bird with red feathers. So we
certainly need more investigation into the actual meaning
of colours when employed by savages. I have suggested
that the bundle of rods accompanied by an axe, which the
savage in W. Africa paints red and white, is the equiva-
lent for the Roman fasces bound with red leather, and
stands symbolically for thunder and lightning. This does
not mean that white paint necessarily means the lightning,
though I think this is the most natural explanation in the
case of the whitewashed twins on the Congo. On the
general subject of pipeclay as disguise or decoration, we
may consult what Miss Harrison has said about the Titans,
who stole away the infant Dionysos, and who were painted
with white clay (TCTavofi). ' The Titanes, the white-clay
men, were later, regardless of quantity, mythologised into
Titanes \' The explanation of the name is ingenious.
There is still something to explain in the whitewashing
J Themis, p. 17.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 91
of the Titans. Perhaps Miss Harrison can complete her
ingenious argument. Why were they painted white ? ' Tell
me that, and unyoke ! '
Here is another curious custom to which my attention Origin of
has been drawn by my colleague, Mr R. A. Aytoun. The ^^^^^'^
ordinary decoration of a barber's shop is a striped pole, in
colours red and white. The explanation usually given of
this is that it is a sign that the barber is also a surgeon
who does blood-letting: the blood and the bandages being
denoted by the striping of the pole. No doubt there is
something to be said for the explanation, as it is well known
that the arts of the barber and surgeon overlap : even at the
present day, in the East, the barber-surgeon is one person
and not two : but the explanation of the pole by blood and
bandages has an unnatural look about it. Perhaps if we ex-
amine more closely into the history of surgery we may see the
matter more clearly. Who are the patron saints of surgery ?
The answer of the mediaeval world will be at once, Cosmas , ■
and Damian, the saints who healed without taking fee, the "
Christian heirs of Aesculapius and of the Heavenly Twins.
The barber's pole is, then, the sign of Cosmas and Damian :
but Cosmas and Damian are the Heavenly Twins : then the
red and white stripes are the sign of the Sons of Thunder.
The induction is too rapid to be altogether satisfactory.
Supplementary Information from Dr Girling with
REGARD TO TwiNS AMONG THE BaTITO.
Enquiry from Dr Girling elicited, in a letter from Bolobo Upper
on the Upper Congo, dated May 27th, 1912, the following ^°"8°-
additional information.
First of all Dr Girling confirms the period of seclusion of
twins amongst the Batito to be one year. ' I learnt from Seclusion
the teacher that the twins and mother I saw at Isanga in °n^°*^^^
July last year are still in seclusion, but are very soon to be twins,
allowed their freedom : this would make the period of seclu^
sion about one year, or until the children could walk. I have
made enquiries in this neighbourhood from boys belonging
92 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
to the Bobangi, Batende, Basingele, Batehe and Batito tribes,
and get a period of seclusion varying from eight days
to eighteen days, but I have nowhere found anyone who
speaks of so long a period as one year; but as there were
two sets of twins at Isanga (Batito tribe), and both sets were
secluded for one year, I should say that the custom of the
Batito is probably as stated by our teacher.'
Next he doubts the existence of a former custom of killing
twins, on the ground that twins are lucky : a natural hesita-
tion to any one approaching the subject for the first time.
...'I can find no traces of any former custom which
included the killing of twins; twins are considered a sign
of good fortune not in the least to be regretted, and so the
killing of them would seem to be inconsistent.'
Then he records the belief that one twin kills the other,
to which we have drawn attention elsewhere in W. Africa,
in ancient Rome, etc.
Twin kills ' It is Sometimes thought that when a twin dies early in
twin. \[fQ ^jjg survivor has had some part in his death ; the natives,
when I asked the question, answered, " Yes ! we think that
the other twin refused his brother because he wished to be
alone." '
He also got a suspicion of a belief that the spirit of the
dead twin would try to call the other into the spirit world.
Dr Girling failed to find any connection of twins with the
sky, a point on which I especially desired additional informa-
tion. He reports some further facts regarding the cult.
No appa- ' I can find no connection between twins and rain or the
i^ent gjjy from the natives I questioned. I obtained a few ad-
tion with ditional somewhat insignificant facts. When twins are born
The\win ^^^ woman who last bore twins comes to the mother, and
priestess? they both dance together with the father and friends who
wish to join for a day or so.' This is really an important
point, as it is paralleled in West Africa, where we find the
beginnings of a twin priesthood in the female sex, occupied
in averting the dangers presented by the situation. He
goes on to describe what looks like a ransom paid for the
twins amongst the Bobangi.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 93
' A curious custom, which I can only find in the Bobangi
tribe, is that all the friends of the father enter his house and
take anything they may find (unless the father has been
there first and hidden his belongings) ; they take a hoe, Kansom
fishing-line, baskets, pots, anything, these they hold as a B^j^^ngi ^
pledge to be redeemed by the father, he usually pays the
same price for redemption of all the articles, irrespective of
their value. The price per article is variously given as
2 rods (Id.) to 10 or 15 rods, or even more, according to
the wealth and standing of the man ; he has to pay as high
a price as he can to avert disaster from the twins.'
The last sentence is suggestive, — it will be bad for the
twins if they are not ransomed.
Dr Girling goes on to explain the important place which
the placenta occupies in the cult : we shall see many varieties
in the disposal of the placentae, especially in Uganda and
East Africa.
'The disposal of the placentae is interesting in the Disposal
Bobangi district : they are placed one each side of the path, placenta,
or at cross roads, and a three-forked stick stuck up over each
placenta, and in the forks of each a pot painted in three
colours, white, yellow, and red, is placed.'
Here we have the extension of the red and white colours
of the lightning-sticks which we recorded above. Is it
possible that the triple forks which are here recorded as
being set up are, like the trident of antiquity, representa-
tions of the lightning, and were the twins primitively buried
in the pots ? Dr Girling continues :
...'If a twin dies young, he is buried with the placenta
under the stick and pot.
' In some tribes the placentae are buried in the forest,
and a shed is erected....
' Pots are also erected at the corner of this shed and the
twins are buried there, if they die young.
' If the twins live to reach adolescence, they are buried
in the usual burying- ground, with, however, greater ceremony
and more noise than even at the ordinary funerals.
' Another curious custom in connection with the placenta
94 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH.
Twin- I have from my friend at Isanga, and it is unconfirmed, but
Feaf^clad? ^ ^^ inclined to credit it. You will remember that husband
and wife in my article were described as being decked with
leaves; these leaves as they wither and the placentae are
kept together in the hut, and are buried in the bush when
the lady is released from confinement,...
'The father of the twins (amongst the Bobangi) must
always eat only food cooked in his wife's pot, he must not
eat food cooked in any other pot ; if he goes on a journey
the pot goes with him.
' One old lady persisted in stating that twins brought
riches to the father, because everybody brought presents
of fish, etc., at odd times to the twins.
' A mother never allows a twin to sit on the bare ground.'
The foregoing observations will be seen, upon reflection,
to have a distinct value ; for the customs are parallel to
those which we have recorded elsewhere, and should admit
of similar explanations.
Further The foregoing accounts of the forms which the twin-cult
Congo°" takes in the Congo region are full of suggestion to the
twins. student of the subject: and I am the more interested in
the communication which my friends have made, because
on the first enquiry it seemed as if the twin-cult did not
exist on the Congo. Gradually the peculiar features of the
Congolese cult became registered and interpreted, and the
transition could be traced from the savagery common on
the West Coast of Africa to the timid appreciation which
prevails on the other side of the continent. As it is
important to collect as much testimony as possible, I am
going to transcribe some further details for the Congo, given
to me recently by my friend Mr Howell of the Baptist
Mission. We shall find many features of the West African
cult to prevail, such as the making of an image of a dead
twin to be placed near the surviving twin, the importance
assigned to a former twin-mother in the purification of a
house where twins are born, and so on. Let us see, then,
what Mr Howell says on the subject: his first observations
relate to a tribe near Stanley Pool.
V] ' THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 95
* Bawumba tribe, Near Stanley Pool. Congo. The
' As soon as twins are bom, a man (anyone will do) ^^'^"^ *•
mounts the roof of the house, he adorns himself with a
special kind of long grass, used for medicinal purposes, it is
placed over his shoulder and under the opposite arm, either
shoulder will do, he then dances all day.
' A woman who has given birth to twins is then called, The twin-
she takes them in her arms and dances outside the hut, ^"^^ ^^^*
this is done before anything whatever is done to the
children.
' She places a wide white mark across the forehead of Cere-
each child, after the ceremonies the children are treated just ^^[Jg*
as other children. wash.
' In case of the death of one, a Ayooden image is made, so Image of
that the remaining child shall have company, it sees the
image and thinks it is its companion.'
No explanation is yet forthcoming of the dancing, or of
the grass-decorated man.
The next observations relate to a tribe about 500 miles
higher up the river.
' Bangala tribe, 500 miles above Stanley Pool. Congo The
Bangala.
river.
* When the twins are eight days old, the mother takes
them in her arms, and dances in front of her house before the
folk of the town, she and the folk around sing.
' The decoration of leaves in the form of a garland is the
same as when one child only is born, one kind of fibre is
always used in making up all garlands. At the time they
are named, first Nkumu, second one Mpeya. These names Names of
are held all through life. . ^^"^"
'The one born first is always carried on the right arm,
the second one on the left. Whenever the mother is Equality
saluted, she must always give two salutations in return, men^.^*
If a present be given there must be two alike, if not, there
is grief to one.
'They are expected to cry together and rejoice together.
' If one dies, no ceremony is performed.'
Mr Howell next refers to the Ngombe tribe (described
96
THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA
[CH.
The
Ngombe.
Twin-
priestess.
Names of
twins.
Fees to
twin-
priestess.
Twins
quaxrel.
Lower
Congo.
above by Mr Kenred Smith), which is 100 miles further up
stream.
'Ngombe tribe, big, widespread, runs across Congo,
direction S.W. and N.E,, 600 miles above Stanley Pool.
Congo.
' A woman is called in to assist at birth, who has herself
given birth to twins.
' She first gives them their names, the first one is called
Mondunga, second one Ndumba. The children are kept from
sight in the house one month.
' The attendant ties rings of vine or fibre round ankles,
wrists, neck and waist, over both shoulders, round under the
arms, also the mother and father wear exactly the same kind
of thing. •
' After a month or so, a dance is arranged, and presents
are given, and all decorations discarded.
'The day of birth a string is tied across the path, and
anyone passing must pay toll ; the father fixes the sum.
' If one is a weakling it is killed. If any present is
given it must be given to both. Two responses given to
any salutation, one for each child. The house is fenced
in. After the final dance all the decorations, fence, etc., etc.,
are burned.
'The assistant is paid 2000 brass rods, which equal
about £4, and then the mother is eligible to render assistance
to other women who give birth to twins, collect fees, etc.
' Should there be no woman about who has given birth
to twins, and thus be eligible to render assistance, no one
else can.
' Common report says twins do not agree.'
It should be noted that we have here the elementary
priesthood already alluded to, where twin-mothers or twin-
children assist in the purificatory rites at a twin-birth.
Traces of the custom of killing one child of a pair can be
detected in Mr Howell's remark ' if one is a weakling it is
killed.'
The fourth series of observations belongs to the Lower
Congo.
V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 97
' When twins are bom, one is often neglected and starved
to death. Women do not like twins because of the extra
trouble involved in looking after them : when a twin is thus
starved or dies a natural death, a piece of wood carved into
an image to represent the child is put with the live twin image of
so that it may not be lonely ; in case of epidemic of small-
pox, and if the child is vaccinated, the request is made by
the mother for the vaccine to be put on the image, and if
refused, the mother will take some from the child to rub on image vac-
the image, so that the spirit of the dead child shall not get
jealous ^
'If the second child dies, the image is buried with it.
When a twin dies, it is placed on leaves, a white cloth put Twins
over it, and it is buried at cross roads, like a suicide, or as a ^^ cross-
man struck by lightning^' roads.
It will be seen that the description is susceptible again
of another explanation than that which lies on the surface.
To starve a child to death is, after all, only a lesser degree
of murder; we may conjecture that the custom of killing one
twin does not lie very far under the surface of the existing
civilisation, as reported by Mr Howell.
Notice should also be taken of the custom of burying
a twin in the same way as a person struck by lightning is
buried : this admits of an easy explanation, if we assume
that the dead child belongs in some way to the lightning.
At all events, the parallelism in the treatment should be
carefully noted.
We have now added considerably to the knowledge of
the Twin-cult in the Congo region ; the general impression
is that we are receding from the common savagery of
W. Africa, into what may be called a more temperate
region*.
1 Information supplied by Dr Catharine Mabie, a missionary on the
Congo.
2 The remarkable coincidence with the English custom of burying a
suicide at the cross roads should be noted, as well as the regard for, or fear
of, a fulminate person.
=* For the treatment of twins in Bih6 (Angola) see notes at end of volume.
H. B.
CHAPTER VI
THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA
The
Hereros,
Isolation
of twins
and
parents.
Fictitious
expulsion.
As we pass down the West Coast of Africa, and leave
the Equatorial regions, we come to the German Territory,
which used to be known as Damaraland and Great Namaqua
land. The principal tribes in this region are the Hereros.
I have given in Cult of the Heavenly Twins^ a brief state-
ment of the opinions and practices of the Hereros, noting
(1) that a twin-birth is one of the happiest of events;
(2) that the parents of twins were allowed to levy a tax
on their neighbours, as if the danger from the twins attached
itself to the tribe rather than the family; (3) that after
purification by the witch-doctor, the whole tribe presents its
ofiferings to the parents.
The case of the Hereros is an interesting one, because it
combines the feature of public satisfaction over the birth of
twins with an unusually careful ritual for the deprecation of
the evils which lurk in the phenomenon.
A very careful account is given by the Missionary J. Irle,
in his book on the Hererol First of all, he shows that when
a twin-birth is announced, the father, accompanied by two
men, leaves the kraal and goes outside to a rapidly con-
structed hut. He is promptly followed by the mother, with
her twin children, and a pair of women attendants. These
eight people now form a Guild of Twins and will be so
designated for a whole year. The whole tribe, with their
herds, are now summoned ; and the isolated people are now
recalled to the kraal, where they are met with a volley of
missiles and with howling on the part of the women. As
1 p. 31. 2 Dig Hereto (Gutersloh, 1906), pp. 96-99.
CH. Vl] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA 99
the things thrown do not hit, it is clear that we are dealing
with an original expulsion which is now pretended and done
in mimicry. The company now gather round the altar of
sacrifice inside the camp ; every man brings a present to the
father, and every woman a present (a round piece of ostrich
egg) to the mother. Certain men and women are cere-
moniously dedicated for the occasion. The women build a
hut for the twins, the men prepare an ox for sacrifice.
After this, the family make a tour of the village, and Tribal
collect more gratuities from their neighbours ; they carry on '^"''^^°°^*
the same process in neighbouring kraals. The father and
mother obtain special names: he is called Omupandje and
she Onjambari (i.e. the one who suckles two). Up to the
end of the first year the parents have been dressed in their
oldest and worst clothes; now the taboo is raised, and they
change their raiment.
Irle points out that the ritual for twins among the Irle on
Herero is much milder than among some Bantu tribes, ^^^^°^'
where one or both of the twins are killed^; but he rightly
doubts, in view of the ceremonies performed, whether we
have a right to say that the Herero regard twins as a bless-
ing. He suggests that they are spared on account of their
value as a reinforcement to the tribe; but that, in reality,
they are forbidden ; and are more regarded in the light of
fear than of happiness. The value of these observations is Original
clear. Even the relative humanity of the Herero is seen to twins
turn, in the first instance, on utility rather than on senti-
ment. The original dread of the abnormal twins looks at us
fi:om the ceremonies required for their admission to tribal
life.
We come next into British South Africa, and here the
tracks of the superstition that we are following are obscured
by the strong hand of the Government, which, in Cape
Colony at all events, has no room for twin murders or such
like social aberrations. We are, therefore, obliged to refer
to historical documents if we wish to know whether the
^ He instances the Ovambo tribe to the north of Damara land, who kill
both twins.
7—2
100
THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA
[CH.
Cape of
Good
Hope.
Hotten-
tots.
One twin
killed or
exposed.
Hottentots are to be classed either with the Hereros or with
the Benin negroes.
In Kolbe's work on The Present State of the Gape of Good
Hope^ we have a statement concerning the Hottentot festivals
and barbarities at the birth of twins : the account strikes one
as being overdrawn by the assistance of a powerful imagina-
tion, but most of the details can be paralleled elsewhere, so
that we must not condemn Kolbe too hastily. He tells
us^ that the Hottentot women dread the birth of twins, and
that they use their influence to persuade intending husbands
to submit to a certain operation which is intended to remove
twins out of the field of probable or possible events. As,
however, in spite of these precautions twins are born, he
proceeds to describe the customs that attach to them.
' On every birth, excepting still ones, the parents observe
an Andersmaken or solemn feast by way of thanksgiving, in
which all the inhabitants of the kraal they live in have a
share. Yet do they often give the lie to those thanksgivings
by a cruel custom, practised indeed by some other nations,
but, to bosoms replenished with reason and humanity, the
most shocking one in the world : and this on the birth of
twins. If the twins are boys, the parents observe an Anders-
maken by killing two fat bullocks for the entertainment of
the whole kraal, men, women, and children, who all, with
their parents, rejoice at the birth as a mighty blessing. The
mother only is excluded this entertainm,ent, so far, that she
has only some of the fat of the bullocks sent her, with which
to anoint herself and the new-bom.
'But if the twins are girls, things take quite another
face. There is little or no rejoicing: and all the sacrifice
that goes to the Andersmaken on such an occasion is a
couple of sheep at the most. But they cannot often resolve
to rear both twins. If the parents are rich, and the mother
has not, or pretends she has not, supplies of milk for her
nourishment, the whole kraal which is consulted, forsooth, in
form on this occasion, easily admitting this plea, the worse-
^ English translation by Medley, London, 1731.
2 Vol. I. p. 117.
Vl] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA 101
featured of the two is buried alive, or exposed on the bough
of a tree or among bushes.
' If the parents of twin girls are poor, their poverty is
their plea for exposing or making away with one of them.
They jnake this plea before the whole kraal, which generally
allows it, without taking much pains to look into it. The
case is the same when the twins are a boy and a girl, and
the parents have a mind to be rid of one of them. Only
here they are not governed by the features, in choice of the
child to be buried alive or exposed. For the girl is certainly
condemned, if either scarcity of the mother's milk, or poverty,
be alleged against breeding up both. But great rejoicings
are made for the boy.'
Now in reading over Kolbe's statement, one may hesitate
to believe what he says about the attempt to frustrate
physically the production of twins by an operation upon the
male parent : but as to the rest of the story, it is not very
different from what we have been recording elsewhere, and
it appears to indicate that in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, the Hottentot custom was gradually changing from
aversion of twins to their approbation. The explanation
given for not bringing one or both of them up, is not, indeed,
the original thought, but it is one which we shall meet with
not a few times elsewhere, among people who want a reason
for a practice which they have not abandoned, and have lost
the original explanation. To denounce Kolbe's accuracy
because of its imputing an impossible degree of cruelty to
the Hottentots is absurd. Le Vaillant, who pours scorn on Le Vail-
Kolbe and his imaginings, tried to disprove the killing of x'Vb"'^
twin children, and, failing in this, maintained that the sup-
posed cruelty was really a case of preternatural tenderness.
I quote his words ^ : ' I took great pains to enquire among
the Hottentots whether, when a mother is delivered of twii)s,
one of them is destroyed upon the spot : the result of my
enquiry was, that this unnatural custom is very rarely
practised. Though a great cruelty, it is supposed to owe its
^ Le Vaillant, Travels in Africa (English translation, London, 1790),
vol. n. p. 57.
102
THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA
[CH.
Twin rise to maternal tenderness, the fear of not being able to
tender- furnish sufficient nourishment for both (and consequently
ness ! seeing them perish) has suggested the expedient of sacrificing
one to the safety of the other.'
We need hardly say, in view of the examples already
accumulated, that this excess of maternal tenderness is a
pure imagination. Le Vaillant goes on to say that the
Gonaquais were wholly exempt from this reproach, and
greatly offended at the suggestion of such a thing. It was,
however, hardly possible to explain the twin-cult in the
eighteenth century, and for travellers of that period (resi-
dent missionaries were scarce or non-existent) we must be
thankful for the facts which they report to us, and improve,
as best we may, on their explanations.
Kidd on An admirable summary of the twin-cult from the Kafir
Twfns™^° standpoint will be found in Mr Dudley Kidd's Savage Child-
hood^: he tells us that 'it is very difficult for any European
to look at native customs practised in connection with the
birth of twins from the Kafir point of view. The native
thinks that twins are scarcely human ; and that the bearing
of twins is a thing entirely out of the course of nature.
The people do not like to talk about twins, and the fact
of their existence is hidden, if possible, by the parents. In
olden days, one of the twins was always put to death, and
One twin frequently both were killed. It is natural, so it was thought,
for dogs and pigs to have twin ofispring in a litter, but for
human beings it is disgraceful. A woman who has twins
is taunted with belonging to a disgraceful family, and in
olden times, if she gave birth to twins a second time, she
was killed as a monstrosity. When one of the twins was
allowed to live, an old woman, generally the grandmother,
would kill the child by holding her hand over its mouth. In
other cases the father placed a lump of earth in the mouth
of the child, thinking he would lose his strength if he did
not do this. In other tribes the child was exposed in the
veld, and was left for the wild animals to devour, or else it
was thrown into a river.'
^ pp. 45 sqq.
or both
killed.
Vl] THE TWIN -CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA 103
All of these points of view and all of these practices have
already come before us. My friend, Dudley Kidd, points out
that under British rule it is very difficult to carry on such
practices, but that, in spite of British rule, they are still
carried on secretly. He then gives some important informa-
tion which he gathered from a chief's son in Zululand, who
was himself a twin. A few of the important details may
be set down, and for further information reference must be
made to Dudley Kidd's book.
A twin that is killed has no name : a twin that is saved No name
has no name until he is sixteen. The twin in question was
called ' Hatred,' which shows what his parents thought of
him. Twins are regarded as being in abnormal sympathy
with one another, which may very well be the case. When
a twin marries there are no festivities. They are not counted
amongst the children. Twins are said to have no brains, but
to be, in spite of this, abnormally clever. They are supposed
to be able to foretell the weather from their physical feelings.
In war- time they are put in front of the army ^ If a man does
an action unduly dual, like eating two mice caught at the
same time, the result may be that his wife will bear twins.
We shall find plenty of similar ideas elsewhere.
Mr Kidd remarks in conclusion that ' when the above Twins
fervid beliefs and fears about twins are borne in mind, it "Jrli^'' %.
' amongst
causes no surprise to learn that the people regard twins as Kafirs,
most unlucky, and seek to kill them in infancy.' So much
for the Kafir generally and for Zululand.
Next let us try Matabeleland, or as it is now called,
Rhodesia.
Here is an extract from a London paper {Daily News Twins
for Dec. 27th, 1910) describing a twin murder among the ^^olgg^a
Matabele.
1 Compare the way in which they are carried in symbol before the
Spartan army, in the shape of the Dokana, and how they are represented
on the field of battle by the Spartan kings.
104 THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA [CH.
'A GHASTLY CUSTOM.
'WHERE TWINS AND TRIPLETS ARE KILLED.
• Bulawayo, Dee. 5th.
A case in 'A remarkable case, showing the tenacity of the Mata-
Courts^. ^®^^ ^^ clinging to ancient customs, came before the Circuit
Court here this week. A native and his two wives were
charged with the murder of the twin children of one of the
, - ; latter. It is the Matabele custom to destroy twins, on the
ground that their birth is due to the influence of some evil
spirit. In the present case the children were buried alive.
When triplets are bom, the mother is killed as well as all
three children. The prisoners told the Court that their
fathers had instructed them always to destroy twins; but
if the white men were sure that such a proceeding was not
necessary, and even that it was wrong, they would not do it
again. All three prisoners were sentenced to death, but
with a recommendation to mercy which will probably prove
eflfectual.'
On reading this report, it is easy to see that it is just
the kind of offence in which it is almost impossible for the
European to judge of the native mentality. The Matabele
- try to explain that what they are doing is their religion, and
it is evidently not possible to make their judge sympathetic
with that point of view. They are the victims of a great
hereditary Fear; but if the white man can lift the Fear,
they will change the custom. The white man does not
understand the Fear, nor does he, in consequence, appreciate
the concession.
Report As I was much interested in this case, and felt sure that
Town ^^ would result in racial contempt and hostility, I took the
Clerk of trouble to enquire of the Mayor of Bulawayo, and I was very
' courteously furnished by the Town Clerk with a newspaper
report of the proceedings and an explanatory letter, which
brought the news that * the sentence of death inflicted upon
the culprits had, in this instance, been eventually reduced
Vl] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA 105
by the High Commissioner to penal servitude.' The letter
concluded thus :
' The custom of putting to death twins immediately after
birth is an old and superstitious one indulged in by the
Matabele, and which in nearly every case is carried out with
extreme brutality. This custom is, however, becoming less
frequent the more it is being realised amongst the natives .
that such crimes are, under the English law, punishable by
death.'
I suppose all our ancestors once took the Matabele view :
it is a difficult matter for the twentieth century after Christ
to sit in judgement on the twentieth century before Christ ;
and one can only hope that if these poor creatures have to
be severely punished, it will not be penal servitude for life.
The description given of Matabele views is illuminating, and
brings out suggestively the idea that twins are due, in part, .
to the intervention of a spirit. It will be noticed that both
.children were killed and the mother spared. This suggests
that the modification of the taboo begins with the mother,
which is both natural and likely^
To the westward of Rhodesia and the Transvaal, we Bechu-
shall find the Bechuanas, concerning whom we have an early
testimony to the following effect from John Campbell ^
(Bootchuajia Manners and Customs, vol. ii. p. 206).
When a woman has twins, one of the children is put Twins
to death. Should a cow have two calves one of them is ^^^ ^^^
either killed or driven away. kine.
Here we have a new feature, the extension of the taboo
to the larger cattle. This is important, for we shall find the
same custom existing in Wales to-day, and in ancient India
we shall find abundant evidence of it.
1 There is a reference to the Matabele custom in Decle, Three Years in
Savage Africa, p. 160 : ' Twins (among the Matabele) are put to death, and
the mortality among children is enormous.' Bent, in his Ruined Cities
of Mashonaland, p. 276, notes that at Lutzi, ' if a woman gives birth to
twins they are immediately destroyed. This they consider an unnatural
freak on the part of the woman, and it is supposed to indicate famine, or
some other calamity.'
2 Travels in South Africa, being a narrative of a second journey to the
interior of that country, London, 1822.
106 THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA [CH.
Maha- To the north of Matabeleland is a tribe called the
t^jjj' Mahalaka. Amongst these people, if twins are born, one
killed. is always killed ; the decision being made by throwing dice.
The condemned child is put alive into a pot, and soon
becomes the prey of the hyenas \
In the N.E, corner of the Transvaal, between the rivers
Bawenda. Limpopo and Levuvu, we have a people called the Bawenda,
or people of Wenda. Of these people Gottschling says^ that
'the curriculum vitae of the heathen Bawenda is a long
Twins succession of fear, superstition, oppression, and misery,... If
®°* twins are born they are killed, for if they were left alive,
it would bring a calamity upon the whole country, according
to their opinion.' These people are supposed by Gottschling
to have migrated to their present situation from the region
of the great lakes.
Baronga. We come now to the Baronga tribes of the Portuguese
E. Africa. To this tribe we have already made reference,
and they occupy an important position in our enquiry.
Dr Frazer first drew attention to them in his researches
into rain-making, a subject intimately connected with the
origin of kingship : and it was in following out the account
of the Baronga customs, as described by a Swiss missionary
named Junod, that we stumbled upon the interesting fact
Twins are that the Baronga people described twins in the terms which
y* "y^- recalled the Dioscuri or Zeus Boys of the Greeks, and with
the Boanerges or Thunder-Boys of the New Testament.
The name for twins is Bana-ha-Tilo, where Tilo stands for
the Sky, in its various manifestations : and it was of further
importance that the twins with their mother were actually
employed by the natives as rain- makers.
These remarkable coincidences give to the Baronga people
a very important position in this enquiry. M. Junod's mono-
graph on the Baronga is of the highest value : as, however,
I have discussed the evidence which he gives in Cult of
^ C. Mauch, quoted in Ploss, Das Kind, pp. 191 sqq. (Stuttgart, 1876).
2 'The Bawenda: a sketch of their history and customs,' in Jotim.
Anthrap. Instit. vol. xxxv. (1895), p. 371.
Vl] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AFRICA 107
the Heavenly Twins'^, I shall not repeat all that is there
said^
It should, however, be remembered that the twin-mother Survivals
is immediately expelled with her children to a wretched hut expulsion!
in the neighbourhood, and has to undergo ceremonial puri-
fication. Her own hut is burnt and all her property, except
so far as the witch-doctor is pleased to reserve anything for
his own use. As the children grow up, they are driven away
from the native village with cries of ' Go away, children of
the Sky.' The women pour water over the twin-mother and
sing rain-charms. M. Junod reports a case in which the
grandfather of twins tried to kill one of them, but was pre-
vented by the women in the neighbourhood. It is certain,
therefore, that in old times the Baronga used to kill their
twins; it is equally certain that they are now using them
for beneficent purposes, through their supposed connection
with the sky. The Baronga, therefore, are on the watershed
between those who detest twins and those who delight in
them, and they mark the transition from the one opinion
to the other. The connecting-link in this case between
cursing and blessing is the Sky-parentage.
1 pp. 18—21.
2 M. Junod's work is entitled Les Ba-ronga : 4tude ethnographique sur
lea indigenes de la Bale de Delagoa ; it was published at Neuchatel in 1898
as the tenth volume of the Bulletin de la Societe Neuchdteloise de Geographie.
CHAPTER YII
THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA
Twins in In British East Africa we shall find abundant traces
e" Africa ^^ *^® twin-superstition, with indications that the existing
customs have behind them as cruel treatment of twins as
can be found in the Niger delta. Sir H. H. Johnston tells
us, however, of tribes at the S. end of L. Nyassa, and in
the Shir^ Highlands, which ' do not seem to care much one
way or another whether twins are born^' On the other
hand, amongst the Atonga, the birth of twins is a most
unlucky circumstance, and although the people would not
admit it, Johnston believes that one of twins was frequently
killed. They have the curious belief that the tie between
twins is so strong, that even when separated by distance,
each feels the other's pain. In that case, to allow them
both to live, is to double the pain of their lives. It may
be regarded as probable that the Atonga originally killed
twins, and now kill one of the two, though perhaps they are
becoming ashamed of the practice.
The Wau- Amonsfst the Waukonde, at the N. end of L. Nyassa,
konde. - . .
twins are also unpopular. As Sir H. H. Johnston says,
' the birth of twins is not ordinarily well-received and in
some tribes one of the two children is killed. I have never
heard of any case of triplets or quadruplets; and when I
told natives that such cases occurred in England occasionally,
they expressed the greatest horror! To which the following
important note is added :
'A curious custom obtains amongst the Waukonde, if
twins are born. Both parents are put into a grass hut in
a secluded part of the village, and there they abide for one
^ H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, pp. 418 sqq.
CH. VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 109
month. No villager can see the face of the secluded persons.
The father hides himself lest his enemies should kill him.'
Here we have again the twin- taboo, and the isolation of
those involved ; curiously the father, in this case, appears
to be the worse offender. Probably there is here some
exaggeration or misunderstanding of the situation.
Amongst the Akikuya of British E. Africa, whose customs The
have been studied by Mr and Mrs RoutledgeS we are told ^ "^*'
that ' twins as among other races are considered unlucky.
If they are the first-born children they are both killed, or
possibly only the last one. The idea is that they prevent
a woman bearing again; i,f they come later in the family,
the prejudice does not exist. Triplets are also unlucky
without regard to position in the family, and one or all are
killed. The same applies to an infant born feet first.'
It may be doubted whether this report is correct with
regard to the repetition of twin-birth. The ordinary ex-
perience is exactly the opposite : a taboo which may be
lightened at the first of such births, becomes more severe
at a second. The danger of irregularly bom children has
already been noted in several instances.
In German East Africa, we note for Usambara and the German
neighbouring districts that child murder is frequent in '
Bondei. Children are killed here if they are twins or if
the upper teeth appear before the lower, customs to which
we have already given West African parallels. Such children
are supposed to be unlucky^.
In the same province we have from Mr Cole, the mis-
sionary of the Church Missionary Society at Mpwapwa, the
following information^ ' The Wetumba, or Waspara, kill The
twins, but the Wagogo have no such custom. The Wetumba
also kill infants. . .if the feet come first at birth ; or if one
hand protrudes at birth.' The case of the Wagogo does
not seem to be exhaustively dealt with : one wants to know
1 With a prehistoric People: The Akikuya of British East Africa, by
W. Scoresby and Katharine Eoutledge (London : Arnold, 1910).
^ Baumann, Usambara und seine Nachhargebiete, Berlin, 1891. Bondei
is in lat. 5° 15' S. and long. 38° 45' E.
3 Journal of Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902), p. 308.
Africa.
llO THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFEICA [CH.
whether there are any purificatory rites which would imply
fear or detestation in previous generations.
As to the Wetumba, we have already noted in W. African
centres the dislike of a child born feet first. The other
feature is new: it is also important, as it has a parallel in
the book of Genesis in the story of Pharez and Zara, the
twin children of Judah. No reason is forthcoming as to
why the protrusion of the hand should be unlucky. In the
Biblical parallel Pharez would seem to be lucky, for the
benediction at the close of the book of Ruth on the posterity
of Boaz is made in his name.
Central In Mr Swann's delightful account of his great work in
the civilisation of Central Africa^ will be found a statement
of the twin-problem as it presented itself to a pioneer of
'sweeter manners, purer laws.' Mr Swann does not say
much about the destruction of twins on the scale of the
more intense taboo. He came, however, to the conclusion
that many children were killed because twin-mothers could
not rear them and work in the rice fields as well.
' When a woman had given birth to twins, the work
imposed on her in the rice fields was so great a burden as
to be almost unbearable, and there were, no doubt, thousands
of infants killed. I had long talks with the chiefs, but they
all considered that it was no use punishing the women ; we
must gain our object by other means. I recognised that it
was a great task for mothers with twin children to clean
the tax-rice, and this helped me to solve the problem of
infantile mortality.
' I issued the notice to the efifect that all women who
bore twins would be exempt from taxation during the
current year, provided they brought the youngsters the
following year.'
As might be expected, this caused some interesting
developments on the lines of personation and plural voting.
The In the neighbourhood of Zanzibar, amongst the Waza-
ramo, twins, ' here called Wapacha, and by the Arabs of
Waza
ramo.
' Fighting the Slave Hunters in Central Africa, p. 319.
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 111
Zanzibar, Shukul, are usually sold or exposed in the jungle
as amongst the Ibos of W. Africa^'
So Burton, who also informs us concerning the Wanyam-
wezi, a tribe which dwells half-way between Zanzibar and Lake
Tanganyika.
Here ' twins are not common as amongst the Kafir race,
and one of the two is invariably put to death : the universal
custom amongst these tribes is for the mother to wrap a
gourd or calabash in skins, to place it to sleep with, and
to Teed it like the survivor^'
We may compare the West African custom of making
an image of the dead twin, and placing it in the cradle with
the living one.
Just north of Zanzibar, in British territory, to the N. W. of
Mombasa, we have the tribe of the Wakamba, The Wakamba The
do not kill twins, but, according to Decle^ 'they are supposed to Wakamba.
bring bad luck, as it is thought the father will die before they
grow up to be strong.' This supposed dangerous reaction of
twins upon the father has also been noted among the Kafirs^
The same thought of danger to the parents is found
amongst the Wadjagga, a people living in the neighbourhood The
of Kilimanjaro. Of these Merker writes that one of the ^ ^^^^*'
twins is killed : if they are of the same sex, it is the first-
born that is spared ; when the sexes are different the girl
is killed. If they did not kill these children it is believed
that, later on, they would kill their parents ^
Next let us examine into the beliefs of the tribes known
by the name of Warundi, who live between Zanzibar and
Ujiji. These tribes speak a language (Kirundi), for which
a dictionary has recently been published by a missionary
named van der Burgt^ This dictionary and the attached
1 Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. i. p. 116.
2 Ibid. vol. n. p. 23. ^ xhree years in Savage Africa, p. 491.
•» E.g. Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 202: 'If a mother gives
birth to twins one is frequently killed by the father, for the natives think
that unless a father places a lump of earth in the mouth of one of the babies,
he will lose his strength. '
■^ Merker in Petermann, Erganzungsband, xxx. Heft. 138 ; RechtsverMlt-
nisse und Sitten der Wadschagga, p. 13.
^ V. d. Burgt, Dictionnaire Fran^ais-Kirundi,
112 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
notes contain an amount of valuable information as to the
folk-lore and general customs of the people. I propose to
make some extracts from and comments upon the article in
the dictionary which is headed Jumeau.
We are first told that twins are frequent among the
Warundi and that their birth is a religious event, which
calls for ritual songs, dances, etc.: often lasting for weeks.
The people say that, if these religious ceremonies were
omitted, the children would die, and perhaps their parents
also. Even if one or both of the twins were to die, the ritual
must go on. This suggests that the evil has to be averted
which the twins have brought.
As soon as the news gets abroad, all the neighbours
flock together to take part in the ceremonial. They bring
loads of presents for the parents, more exactly sacrificial
offerings to the spirits. An incredible quantity of provisions
is presented, and disappears, as if by magic.
The children being born the Kiranga, whom I suppose
to be the witch-doctor, appears with his acolytes to implore
the favour of the spirit Rikiranga. If the twins are bom
at night, the announcement throws the whole village into
an uproar. Meal and leaves are scattered around the hut,
they sprinkle also a mixture of water and beer and other
consecrated liquid. Then the ritual dances begin, and are
carried to the point of frenzy : the dancers, male and female,
are marked with red and white paint, and they dance and
leap as if the devil was in them, for hours at a time, with
the sweat streaming ofi" them. Meanwhile they are singing
ritual hymns which are proper to the several dances.
The names of the dances themselves are Turerewe, Ntam-
anevje, Awana ni wawiri. A witch doctress sprinkles the
company with some liquid: on the third day, when the
mother comes out of her hut, the ceremony of the spear,
as it is called, begins afresh. It is also renewed if, at a
subsequent time, the woman should have other children, not
twins.
Of the children, the first born is always called wakuru,
wuwiruke: the second is called wutoyi wusinga, shakati.
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 113
Children born subsequently take the names: (i) cyiza or
shahati, (ii) wisago, (iii) nyamhere.
At the birth of twins two black sheep are purchased, one
of which is devoted and assigned to each of the twins. The
greatest care is taken of these sheep, they can run where
they like, and feed where they will. If one sheep dies it
must be replaced. These sheep are the external repre-
sentation of the spirits of the twins.
The question may be asked, Why they conduct these
religious ceremonies over twins. The reason is that the
Warundi believe the mother has had the visit of an incubus.
The younger people think this is a joke, but the older people,
the initiated, the awafumv, keep up the belief They know
that these twin-children, half spirits as they are, do not
commonly live. Their spirit calls for them ; he is a jealous
spirit, and may even call for the father and mother, taking
their tribute in corpses !
Now the account which we have here summarized is
of real value : it brings out clearly the fact of the intrusive
spirit ancestry. A spirit is responsible for one, if not both,
of the children. The whole community is in danger, and
averting rites must be practised. That is why the com-
munity comes together for the dance and the ritual chant,
and why they bring presents. But what sort of a spirit
is the cause of the uncanny phenomenon ? In order to find
this out, we must examine the songs that are sung by the
painted dancers: van der Burgt comes to our aid with
translations of some of these songs : his translations are
tentative, but they are sufficiently exact to show clearly
what the people are about. The first of his songs is some-
thing to the following effect :
Hymn I.
(The guardian spirit) will see his children and will rejoice:
The supposed father of the twins, where was he (at the
moment of their conception) ?
He was gone to draw water, to gather firewood, to cut grass;
The children of the family, I see them.
(The guardian spirit) will see his children and will rejoice.
This hymn shows clearly that the savages have the belief
H. B. 8
114 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
in a second parent, who came when the regular parent was
away from home. This spirit parent is entreated to look
kindly upon the children. At the end of the hymn, it is
said in his name, that he does look favourably on them.
The second chant is equally instructive :
Hymn II.
I was not there, my children: I was gone to gather wood!
I was far away: the father of the twins enters.
To-morrow I shall thunder, twins,
I shall come down in a storm.
Here the first lines represent the father of the twins
explaining his absence, in the same way as was suggested
in the first hymn. The dancers answer their own questions
in his name : but towards the end of the hymn, the spirit-
father speaks, and discloses to us the fact that he is the
storm-spirit, or thunder-god. The twins are therefore the
Sons of Thunder. So much being clearly made out, it is
surely not an undue stretch of the imagination to suggest
that the red and white paint of the dancers is the symbol of
the thunder and lightning.
From this dialect dictionary, with its careful notes and
observations, we have learnt a good deal about the meaning
of twin-births to primitive man. It is especially important
to note that here, among the Warundi, the spirit-father
is credited with both of the children : each of them is a
Dioscure : their parent is the thunder, and we may, if we
please, call them Boanerges.
Captain The name of Merker, to which we referred some way
^^d\h^ back, brings up the Masai, and his careful account of their
Masai. manners and customs. Without necessarily endorsing all
of Merker's views as to the possible Semitic ancestry of the
Masai, it may be remarked that the criticisms made upon
Merker are, so far, entirely insufficient to shake his credibility
as to the matters of fact which he professes to record.
Twin boys Amongst the Masai, then, there is the greatest joy over
welcomed. ^^^ birth of twins, especially if they are boys. The twins
are decorated with a neck-ornament of leather to which
Vll] THE TWIN-CULT IK EAST AFRICA 115
cowry-shells are attached. The mother does not bring up
both the children, but has the assistance of another woman
belonging to the same kraal. No special names are attached
to twins. If there were any peculiar purifications, they
appear not to be practised any longer. Did such purifi-
cations ever exist ? the analogy of all the other tribes that
we have been discussing suggests an affirmative answer :
but if that is the right answer it is probable that a closer
examination would betray traces of the purifications or of
isolations of mother and children. We are certainly far
removed from the West African treatment of the matter.
This absence of purificatory rites would be much more
intelligible if we could be sure that Merker had made out
his case for a Semitic ancestry of the Masai, and for the Are the
derivation of them from an Asiatic home by migration gemitic ?
through Egypt. In that case they would have brought
their twin cult out of Asia, and probably from a higher
civilization than they now enjoy, from which higher civili-
zation the purificatory rites might well have disappeared.
It would be well if some consensus could be arrived at
on this question, either pro or con. For certainly the coin-
cidences which Merker points out between the Masai legends
and the stories in the Old Testament are too striking to be
accidental. Either they are real national traditions, or they
have learnt the stories from Christian missionaries. Up to
the present, there is no satisfactory proof of the latter, and
Professor Hommel has recently expressed his belief that
they are really the Semitic people which Merker affirmed
them to be^
It will help the understanding of the involved problem
if we take one single case, out of the many which occur in
the Masai traditions collected by Merker, for a closer con-
sideration^ : the story deals with a case of deceit, resulting
in the alienation of the rights of the first-born of two
brothers. It tells how a man named Mutari married a
woman whose name was Nasingoi. Nasingoi conceived
1 See Expository Times for June and July, 1910.
* Merker, Die Masai, p. 311.
8—2
116 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
The Masai triplets, two of whom were born first, after the normal
Jacob manner of twins, while the third was delayed, and did not
story. reach the outer world till three months later. The first-born
was covered with hair and had a beard, for which reason
he was called 'L ol munjoi, the bearded one. The second
one was called 'L en jergog, because his mother wrapped
him up after birth in an untanned calf-skin. The third
child, when it appeared, was appropriately named Ndarassi,
the loiterer. The first child continued to develop his
hairy characteristics, the second remained nearly hairless,
with a very scanty beard : while the third had actually
no hair at all.
The story certainly opens with striking coincidences
with the Esau and Jacob legends in the book of Genesis.
Now let us see what happens. One day the father was very
sick, and the two elder brothers betook themselves to a
prayer- festival, which was being held in the neighbourhood,
in order to pray for the recovery of their father. Ndarassi,
however, the youngest son, remained at home in the kraal.
Meanwhile the father became worse, and realising that his
death was at hand, he called for his eldest son, 'L ol munjoi,
to bless him before he departed. Ndarassi heard the cry,
promptly stripped off a goatskin, and put the parts of it
on his breast, his shoulders, and his cheeks. He went into
the darkness of the hut, and deceived his father in the
Biblical manner. When the eldest son returned and went
into the hut in order to get the blessing of his dying father,
he found that he had been anticipated and that Ndarassi
had been made the heir.
The story here combines two biblical incidents, the fraud
of the birthright, and the fraud of the blessing : the blessing
is no distant Messianic theme, nor general promise of fertile
lands, etc., it is the actual inheritance. The elder brother
departed, angry enough at what had happened, and returned
later with warriors to take his revenge on Ndarassi; the
latter, however, met him fi'iendly, and by presents and fair
speeches diverted his eldest brother's anger. Here again we
have extraordinary coincidence with the Jacob and Esau
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 117
story : and it must be admitted that the Masai account
cannot be treated as independent of the book of Genesis.
We are often surprised at the appearance of the same folk-
lore traits in different parts of the world, but here the
agreements are too close and too significant to be set on one
side. It follows that either the Masai traditions are sub-
stantially the Biblical traditions as brought by them from
an Asiatic home, or they have been brought into the Masai
story book by Christian teachers in modern times. In the
former case, we have what is practically a new copy of
Genesis and part of Exodus opened to us (the Masai
traditions going down to the giving of the Law, with
Kilimanjaro for Sinai), in which case the variants in the
legends will often be significant and important; in the
alternative supposition, we have a tale-^f deceit, successfully
accomplished by natives upon an inquisitive German scholar,
to which we shall not easily find a parallel. In which
direction does the truth lie ? It is not easy to decide :
Merker's book was promptly used by the late Professor Emil
Reich as a cudgel for the backs of the higher critics, who
were supposed to be annihilated by a new proof of the
antiquity of the Mosaic traditions, though it was difficult
to see how the Mosaic records were to be rendered credible
by proving them to be a part of Arabian folk-lore thousands
of years before Christ M
The question was very fairly stated by Prof Cameron of Cameron
Aberdeen in the Expository Times for February, March, and °" Marker.
April 1906. The conclusion at which Prof Cameron arrived
was a sympathetic suspense of judgement : ' It is obvious
that, if Captain Merker has given us the real beliefs of the
Masai, an interesting and important question has been raised
for Biblical students. It would be unreasonable to throw
the Captain's conclusions aside, as of no value ; it would be
foolish to accept them as beyond dispute. What is wanted
1 Eeich, Cont. Rev. (Feb. 1905) : ' Thousands of years before Christ a
stock of religious and other legends had grown up amongst the peoples of
Arabia... legends about the Creation, the Deluge, the Decalogue, etc. in their
aboriginal form.'
118 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
is further investigation, and it is sincerely to be hoped that
this may be undertaken without loss of time.' Probably
it was this challenge which called forth a letter in the
Steggall Expository Times for June 1906, from Mr A. R. Steggall, a
^^' missionary amongst the Masai, who declared roundly that
though he had often had peculiar opportunities for becoming
acquainted with the Masai legends, 'anything in the least
like what Captain Merker has got from them was never
so much as hinted at.' And he maintains that Mr A. C.
Hollis on Hollis, the author of a valuable work on The Masai, language
and folk-lore, agreed with him, and told him that he had
been assured by a Masai boy in his employ that Captain
Merker 's informant had been for some years connected with
a Roman Catholic Mission in the neighbourhood, and that
numbers of Masai had been under instruction in the Church
Missionary Society's Station at Taveta.
In estimating the value of these objections, it should be
remembered that Merker himself says that it took years of
intercourse before the state of friendliness was attained in
which the legends were confided to him ; and that it is
therefore not surprising that Steggall and Hollis, in spite
of their peculiar opportunities, should not have found their
way as completely or as successfully into the Masai mind.
From this time forward, I do not think any further
progress was made with the matter in England, until in
June and July of 1910, the Expository Times reprinted with
Hommel expansions the preface which Dr Fritz Hommel had written
on Merker. £^j. ^j^^ second edition of his friend. Captain Merker's book
(Merker being himself now deceased). Hommel shows
conclusively that the linguistic affinities of the Masai lan-
guage are with the Gallo and Somali languages, and that
their scheme of verb conjugation is fundamentally Semitic ;
so that there is fresh reason for believing that the Masai
came from the North, and originally from Arabia. He
concludes his statement as follows: 'I close this article
with the sure expectation that now, when my deceased
. friend's book has appeared in a second edition, the traditions
of the Masai will no longer meet with the scepticism to
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 13 9
which they were exposed when they were first divulged,
but that they will be duly appreciated in their incalculable
importance for the history of religion, as they deserve to be.
And I repeat once more that a Christian or Jewish influence
of a former time (at all events through Christian Nuba
from the third century A.D., or through the Jewish Falashas
on the borders of Abyssinia) or from the older northern
abodes of the Masai, is out of the question because then
— a fact which Merker had emphasized — one would neces-
sarily have expected connections not only with the history
of the Biblical ancestors and patriarchs down to the giving
of the Law, but also with the later parts of Biblical history
(and especially some sort of allusion to the Gospels, in the
event of Christian missionaries coming into consideration).'
I do not know that I can make a serious contribution
of my own to the solution of the problem at the present
time. It still seems to require scientific treatment and
further investigation. If we quote the Masai legends in
our argument, we must do so with some residual suspense
of judgement as to the value and validity of what we
quote.
In the course of Professor Hommel's argument, to which
we have drawn attention, he shows that the Nandi tribes
must be closely connected with the Masai, for linguistic and
other reasons. Let us now see what the Nandi think on The
the subject of twins. These tribes live on the east side of ^'^"*^'-
Lake Nyanza, not far from Kavirondo Bay : the Kavirondo
tribes are partly Nilotic and partly Bantu ; to the east of
these lie the Nandi, and the Lumbwa tribes. It will be
convenient to take these together, and our guide will be
Hobley in his work on Eastern Uganda. He tells us with
regard to the Bantu Kavirondo^ that ' twins are considered
very lucky, and amongst the Ama-wanga the birth of twins
is celebrated by what appears to us to be a somewhat
obscene dance. The mother of twins has to remain seven
days in her house before she may appear across the
threshold.'
^ Eastern Uganda, p. 17.
120 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
Here we have the isolation of the mother in a much
reduced form : but it is there, and implies that some evil
has to be averted.
The Kavi- Of the Nilotic Kavirondo, we are told' that 'twins are
rondo. considered lucky, but the infants and their parents have to
stay in seclusion in their hut for a whole month. Women
neighbours may enter the hut, but men may not. The twin
born first is called Apio (the one who comes quickly). The
twin born second is called Adongo (the one who is delayed)'.
The birth of twins is signalised by dances which extend over
a whole month : they are apparently of a somewhat obscene
character.' Sir H. H. Johnston says nearly the same in his
book on the Uganda Protectorate^: 'The (Kavirondo) women
are prolific, and the birth of twins is not an uncommon
occurrence. This is considered an extremely lucky event,
and is celebrated by an obscene dance, which is, however,
only lewd in its stereotyped gestures, and does not, so far as
I know, result in actual immorality. The mother of twins
must remain in her house for seven days without crossing
The the threshold.' These are Bantus; of the Ja-Luo, whom
Johnston classifies as Nilotic negroes, we are told that
' twins are considered lucky, though their arrival is attended
by a good many ceremonies, and by propitiatory dances,
which are of an obscene nature.'
It is not difficult to detect the primal fear at the back
of these rejoicings.
TheNandi For the Nandi and Lumbwa tribes^ Hobley says that
Lumbwa ' ^^ ^ woman bears twins, the twins are not killed as in some
tribes, but the woman has to go and live apart for some
months, and she is not allowed to go near the cattle boma,
but one cow is put aside for her, and she drinks its milk ;
if she goes near the cattle they are said to die.' Here also
the excess of joy at the birth of twins is tempered by the
1 I.e. p. 28.
2 We may compare the Masai title th^ loiterer as above, for the third
in a group of triplets.
3 Uganda Protectorate, n. p. 748.
* Eastern Uganda, pp. 39sqq.
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 121
sense of danger which they cause, and the consequent
necessity of isolation.
There are very nearly the same statements in Johnston,
tit supra, IT. 878. According to Hollis, the Nandi have a Twin
sky -god (the sun ?) and a pair of thunder-gods, one kindly L^"^^'^"
and the other malevolent. The sky-god is called Asista,
the superhuman thunder-gods Ilet ne mie (the good one)
and Ilet ne ya (the evil one)\ The collocation is extremely
suggestive. It is suggested that the two thunder-gods of
the Nandi should be compared with the two lightning gods
among the Ewe-tribes of West Africa.
Hollis makes the taboo of the twin-mother to be life-long.
According to him, ' the birth of twins is looked upon as an
inauspicious event, and the mother is considered unclean for
the rest of her life.... She may enter nobody's house until she
has sprinkled a calabash of water on the ground, and she
may never cross the threshold of a cattle-kraal again. One
of the twins is always called Simatua... vfhWst the other
receives an animal's name such as Chep-tiony, Chep-sepet,
Che-maket, Che-makvt etc.^' Simatua is explained to be the
name of a species of fig-tree.
Not far from the Victoria Nyanza lake on the north, we
come to the Basoga-Batamba tribe, in the Uganda Pro- The
tectorate, of whom M. A. Condon writes in Anthropos ^or^^^°^^^
March — April 191 1^ From him we learn that twins in this
district are not killed, but welcomed, and especial names
are assigned to them: e.g. when the twins are
boy and girl, Naiswa and Babilye, Special
two boys, Waiswa and Kato,
two girls, Uja and Babilye.
(Babilye = second).
Concerning twins generally^ it is said that their birth
is considered a great blessing. Certainly it is a very rare
occurrence, and triplets is an occurrence never heard of
After the birth of twins, no one is allowed to look at them,
^ See Hollis, lite Nandi, their language and folklore, p. 41.
2 Hollis, I.e. p. 68,
3 p. 395. 4 I.e. p. 376.
names.
122
THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA
[CH.
Twin-
feast.
Twin
dances.
Preserva-
tion of
birth-
tokens.
Twins as
cowry-
shells.
The
Bakena.
not even the father, although ' I have seen occasions,' says
Condon, ' when the happy man would like to break through
this rigorous rule. The good tidings are soon spread, the
relations are informed of this joyous event. Ten days after
birth the children are given names.... For the mhaga or feast,
if the father be a rich man, two bulls are slaughtered, one
for each child. If a poor man, two goats are sufficient. Of
course, the everlasting maliua or beer, is in great demand,
and each one imbibes freely, so that by midnight there
•will not be a sober one among the company. This is the
occasion for much immorality. Paid dancers are brought in.
These are men and women who very often are quite nude,
and perform dances mostly of an immoral nature. The
whole time the singing is in praise of the happy couple,
wishing them and their offspring long life.'
So far no special function is predicated of the twins, but
we shall find presently conclusive evidence that they stand for
the forces that make for fertility. There is, however, amongst
the tribes in question, a peculiar regard paid to the umbilical
cord and the placenta. Condon notes that in the case of
twins the former is always kept, and generally is worn by
the father about his person.
There is also a curious custom, according to which every
one of the relations presents a cowry-shell to the twin
mother. These she makes into two strings, and takes them
always with her, in the event of one or other of the twins
dying. She calls them bana bange, my children. ' It is
most amusing (says Condon), to see the mother of twins
cleaning and scrubbing the cowry-shells as if they were
her own flesh and blood.'
I suppose that it is of tribes occupying adjoining territory
to the foregoing (the Bakena) that Roscoe speaks in a recent
Anthropological journal'; here, 'twins are thought to be
gifts of the gods, and the happy father announces their
birth by beating a drum. The sound is taken up and
repeated by his neighbours, so the good news goes rumbling
1 Man. IX.
Exogamy.
(1909), pp. 118 sqq. quoted by Frazer, Totemigm and
VIl] TTHE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 123
down the waterways for a long distance. The father's
sister's son, hastens to the house, closes the front door, and
makes a temporary opening at the back of the hut. He
takes the leading part in the dancing ceremonies which
follow. The after-birth of the twins is put into two new
cooking pots and dried ; then it is taken ashore and left in
the gi-ass in one of the gardens.' The taboo on the mother
and twins by closing the house and making an opening at
the back has been already noticed in West Africa in various
forms.
We now come to the Baganda, or people of Uganda, The
for whom we are splendidly furnished with information "^
by Mr Roscoe, whom we have just been quoting \ The
birth of twins is followed by a propitiatory and thanks-
giving ceremony to Mukasa, the god of plenty. From which
we see that twins have now fertility for their chief mark,
and will be useful accordingly, both to men and plants.
' No announcement is made (amongst the Baganda) of
the birth of twins, nor is the word twins mentioned until
the rejoicings are over. Should any refer to their birth, it
is believed the children will die^'
' The father is called Salongo, the mother Nalongo, and
the children Balongo. If the birth takes place during the Cere-
day, both the mother and children must remain outside twin-
until the father goes to the mandwa (priest) whom he ^^'^^^'
consulted when his wife conceived. He takes with him
nine cowrie shells and one seed of the wild banana ; these
are the tokens which inform the mandwa (priest) that twins
are born. The Mandwa consults the oracles and tells the
father the result ; he instructs him how to act, to take the
children into the house, and call a friend to come and act
as Mutaka.'
The Mutaka is now master of the ceremonies ; he closes
the front door, and makes openings at the back of the house,
as described above for the Nandi.
^ Journal of Anthropological Institute {J.A.I.), vols. xxxi. , xxxii. (1901,
1902).
2 J.A.I. XXXII. p. 33.
124 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH.
'Salongo next takes an offering to Muanga, the chief
priest of Mukasa, as a thank offering for the great favour
shown him in giving him twins.'
' The Mutaka waits until the evening, when he is given
the placenta of each child, which he takes to some unculti-
vated spot near, and puts them into a couple of earthen
pots and leaves them there.... The placenta of a prince is
always preserved, it is called the mulongo^.' There follows
Fertility a description of the dancing and feasting which take place
cated. ^ month later, when the flower of the banana is medicined
by contact with the body of the fertile and fertilizing twin-
mother. It is evident that in Uganda, as amongst the
ancient Peruvians, woman is supposed to be the agricultural
side of the house, a barren woman a curse to the field and
garden, a fertile woman, such as a twin-mother, the very
opposite. This is the main reason why twins are such a
blessing to the whole community.
Salongo then remains at home till the next war expedi-
tion, after which there is another feast, ending up with the
making of an effigy of each child, which is called the Mulongo.
Body of ' When twins die, they are not buried at once, but their
dried bodies are placed by the fire and dried ; the mother has to
before sleep with them near the fire each night, as though they
were alive. Should Salongo (the father) be absent they
await his return for the funeral. The Mutaka buries them,
and Nalongo puts the stones from the fireplace on the graves.
Each child, according to custom, must have a separate
grave.'
It will be seen clearly from the foregoing that for the
Baganda the leading feature in a twin birth is Fertility,
and that this is supposed to react upon the whole com-
The munity, and upon their fields and gardens. In the Jouitml
Bahima. ^ ^/^g Anthropological Institute for January — June 1907,
Roscoe describes another tribe in the Uganda Protectorate,
called the Bahima^ Amongst this people one clan has for
1 Apparently this means ' twin ' and the placenta is imagined to be the
prince's double.
2 J, A.I. XXXVII. p. 100.
VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 125
totem Ahalongo, i.e. twins. 'When a woman gives birth to
twins the natives desert the kraal, place the mother and twins
with her parents, and build a new kraal ; when the twins have
cut their first teeth the husband restores his wife to her
home.' Evidently up to that time the mother and twins are
tabooed, but only slightly.
Amongst the Bahima generally, there are no elaborate
ceremonies over twins. They prefer, however, that twins Twins of
should be of one sex ; to have them of opposite sexes is ^^^H^ ^
unlucky. ' They are afraid to speak about them in a dis- unlucky.
paraging way lest a ghost should overhear them and be
angry and cause illness in the clan.' Very likely that ghost
has something to do with the parentage of the twins.
We have also some information from the same province
in the travels of Emin Pasha (i.e. E. Schnitzer) ; whose
letters and despatches were published in 1888 by Schwein-
furth and Ratzel^
Of the Magungo who live near the Albert Nyanza we The
learn that if twins are born of the same sex, the whole ^^ungo.
village rejoices over the event. They have special words
for the first and' last born of the twins.
Here again we have hostility implied to twins of opposite
sexes : the reason will be given by tribes in Australia and Twins of
elsewhere : it is due to a fear that the rules about clan °PP°^'J^?
sexes dis-
marriage have been ante-natally violated. liked.
Of the Wanyoro, or people of Unyoro, we are told'' again The
that a birth feet first portends misfortune to the family, "'^^y^^^-
This is the reason for the Roman cult of Venus Verticordia,
to which we have already referred. Amongst the Wanyoro,
the birth of twins causes great joy and rich presents are
brought to the mother from all quarters: the first-born,
whether boy or maid, is called Singoma, the other is named Names of
Kato. The placenta of each twin is placed in an earthen ^^"^'
pot, and for four days stands in a miniature hut erected
inside the house, after which it is carried in procession
^ Emin Pasha : Eine Sammlung von Reisebriefen und Berichten Dr Emin-
Pasha's: von Schweinfiirth und Ratzel (Leipzig, 1888).
2 I.e. pp. 81, 82.
126
THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA
[CH.
Care of
placenta.
Twins in
Monbuttu
land.
Special
names.
The
Lattuka.
Twins
unlucky
to the
hunter.
Baii
tribes.
Gondokoro and
Here we find
to a great hut erected in the high grass, and there it
is left.
If the twins die, they and their placentae are put in
an earthen pot in the mother's hut. Again a miniature
hut is erected, over which the father watches to keep the
hyenas away. A long period of mourning follows, and at
the end of it, the hut in which the birth occurred is burnt.
In Monbuttuland, which is somewhat to the west of the
tribes just described ^ twins are regarded as peculiarly lucky,
and are the occasion of a great festival to which all the
people of the neighbourhood bring presents. The after-
birth is carried in procession in a pot and buried, and every
one is obliged on the way to pluck two leaves, to spit on
them and throw them right and left. Twins here have
special names;
Boys : Ahum and Nahesse :
Girls : Ahuda and Tindade.
A little lower down the Nile, between
Agaru, there is a people called Lattuka
traces of the gloomier view of twin-births ; it is held that
a twin-birth brings ill luck to the father : if he goes buffalo-
hunting, he will certainly be killed by the buffalo: if he
wounds an antelope, it will escape the man. A person so
threatened will not venture to hunt^: he will stay in the
village until some other woman bears twins and diverts the
ill luck, or until his wife brings another child into the world,
and so breaks the spell. Twins have no special names, and
are brought up with the other children, without prejudice
against them. In fact, the ill luck in this case appears to
be concentrated on the father.
Somewhat lower down the Nile^ amongst the Bari and
Fadjelin tribes, the names given to male twins are Keniy
and Mundia'.
1 I.e. p. 208. 2 I.e. p. 236.
2 The adverse influence of twins on the hunt should be noted : elsewhere
the favourable view of twins expresses itself in the belief that they are great
aids to the hunter.
* I.e. p. 361.
' This was noted by the travellers because a couple of hills were named
Vll] THE TWIN-CULT IN BAST AFRICA 127
The Bari tribes, to whom reference has just been made,
occupy a vast extent of country to the west of Galla Land,
say about Lat. 5 N., and Long. 34 E. Of these people Twins
Casati reports' that 'twins are considered unlucky, and
when a birth of this kind takes place, the mother is sent
back to her father, who is bound to return part of the dowry
paid. There appears to be no thought of killing the twins ;
they are unlucky ; ill-starred ; evil-omened.
We have now accumulated a mass of evidence from
tribes existing in Africa at the present time, or in quite Summary
recent days, with regard to the almost universal diffusion evidence."
of the twin-taboo, and the various interpretations and
developments that it undergoes. Almost all these pecu-
liarities will turn up in other parts of the world, and some
will be especially significant, on account of the place which
they hold in Greek and Roman Mythology. The twin-
beliefs do not identify the twins with Sky or Thunder so
much as might have been expected : this is partly due to
the fact that the travellers who make reports of savage
customs do not always know what to look for; the most
decided case is that of the Baronga, where the African
civilization can be seen to have touched an early Greek
level. Next in importance we may place the Warundi, who
identify the parent of twins with the Storm-god. The
identification of a second parent is clearly made in a number
of cases, but whether this second parent is a spirit or an
animal is not very clear; sometimes it appears to be one,
and sometimes the other. There are cases in which the
influence causing the dual birth is the totem of the mother,
so that it is conceivable that the thunder may itself have
come on the scene as a totem. Bird-parentage is occasionally
suggested, but in West Africa, monkeys seem more prominent
in the cult than birds. If the thunder had been a common
twins, the names being those given above. It is interesting to compare
a modem instance like the twin hills just outside Genoa, or in ancient times
the twin peaks of Delphi (i.e. if Delphi is really an abbreviation or an earlier
form of Adelphi).
1 Casati, Ten years in Equatorial Africa, i. p. 303.
128 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [CH. VII
totem, or a common second parent, we should have ex-
pected to find more use of the colour red in connection
with the twins : as a matter of fact, white in the form of
chalk-smearing is more common, and in one instance we
are expressly told that 'white things be twin things.' On
this question of the interpretation of the white-painting
some further investigation appears to be necessary. It may
be an alternative colour for lightning. Cases of red and
white painting are suggestive ^
We have now made a rapid tour of the savage races
in Africa : nothing has been said about the tribes and
peoples on the Mediterranean sea-board, nor have we dis-
cussed the Egyptians : in the case of the latter, we are not
confined to modern history ; we have the oldest records in
the world to draw upon, when we enquire whether twins
were hated or adored by the ancient Egyptians. The matter
had better be detached from the African tribes.
We will now go on to discuss the situation in
Madagascar.
^ For a striking case of red and white painting to represent thunder and
lightning in Central Australia, see Additional Notes at the end of the volume.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TWIN-CULT IN MADAGASCAR
Madagascar goes geographically with Africa, but its
ethnographical relations are by no means exclusively African.
There are Malay elements in the origins of the Malagasy
tribes. As, however, geographical contiguity is the first
factor in our arrangement of the theme, let us see what can
be said of twins in Madagascar, without asking how far
Malagasy customs can be paralleled in the Malay Peninsula.
Allusion was made to the subject in Cult, pp. 22, 23, where Twin-
evidence was brought forward as to the former prevalence Madagas-
of twin-murder in Madagascar from members of the Friends' car.
Mission in that country. Mr Standing had, in fact, pointed
out in his book Children of Madagascar (p. 31), that * twins
were also considered unlucky, and one would often be sent
away to be brought up by some one else or even put to death
as soon as born.' In Madagascar the word for Taboo is
Fady, and Mr Standing has published an extended enume-
ration of existing forms of Fady in Madagascar ^ This list,
however, seems to refer to existing superstitions as to what
is lucky and unlucky, and its references to twins are few.
I notice, however, one or two cases : No. 209 = No. 252. If
a pregnant woman eats anything double, she will bear twins.
This is only a case of sympathetic magic; it may be
paralleled elsewhere, in Denmark, for example, where to eat
a double nut, or to look on a woman wearing two aprons, is
supposed to have the same effect of twin-birth. It is
obvious that such mild taboos as these have little to do
with the great Fear that we have been discussing: they
1 H. F. Standing, 'Les Fady Malgaches,' Extrait du Bulletin de
V Academic Malgache, Tananarive (1883).
H. B. 9
130 THE TWIN-CULT IN MADAGASCAR [CH.
belong to a much more advanced stage of civilization.
In the same collection (No. 613) will be found a warning
against planning a house with a retour d'aile in the month
of Alakurabo. The sequence will be twins; but I confess
I do not see the reason for this. Mr Standing has also
written on the same subject, in a Madagascar Journal ^ from
which it appears that in the province of Imerina it was
fady to keep alive both of a pair of twins together.
Apparently each parent disposed of one of the pair. If the
twins appeared in the royal family, they and their mother
lost their noble rank.
M. Gennep, who has written a treatise on Taboo and
Totemism in Madagascar"^, observes that amongst the people
referred to by Standing (the Antimerina) it is probable that
twins were originally put to death. On the other hand, in
the south of the island, amongst the Tanala, twins were
regarded as a gift of the supreme god, Zanahary".
M. Gennep notes further the gradual modification of the
original twin murder, and the alleviation of the taboo also
in the cases of children bom on an unlucky day, week, or
month. In the S.E. of the island, amongst the Antamba-
hoaka, when a woman gives birth to twins, she and her
assistants withdraw at once, and give place to the witch
doctor, who promptly strangles the children ; after which
the family reassembles and mourns over them. Or they
throw them into the swamp on the pretence that they
cannot live, or that they would be dangerous to their
parents if they were brought up, and might actually threaten
their lives. A woman who refused to follow the custom of
the tribe was said to have seen one of her children lose its
life, and the other its reason*.
1 Ant. Ann. No. VII. 1883, p. 79.
2 Gennep, ' Tabou et tot^misme en Madagascar,' quoted in Revue des
traditions populaires, Jan. 1907, pp. 45-7.
3 Durand, 'Etude sur les Tanalas d'Ambohimanga du Sud,' Notes,
Beconn. Expl. 1898, t. n. p. 1275.
* G. Ferrand, 'Notes sur la region comprise entre les rivieres Mananjara
et lavibola,' Extrait du Bull. Soc. G4ogr. Paris, 1896, p. 14. Les Musulmans
a Madagascar, fasc. n. Paris, 1893, pp. 21, 22.
VIIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN MADAGASCAR 131
We need scarcely doubt that in Madagascar, as well as
on the African mainland, twins were taboo in the severest
sense, and that the same alleviations of taboo occurred
as we have noticed in other places. We have also the same
phenomenon which we observed elsewhere, of the opposite
interpretations given to an original state of taboo by
different tribes.
9—2
CHAPTEE IX
THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA
Twins in Now let US cross into South America, and see what customs
South . -1 1 1 • 1
America, still prevail at the birth of twins, and what can be traced
as having been practised in olden times. We shall have to
remember at the outset that when we are discussing a
negroid population, say in Brazil, that has been brought
from the West Coast of Africa, we are not necessarily col-
lecting any fresh evidence, though we may be reviving
evidence of a hundred or two hundred years ago with regard
to the Guinea coast or elsewhere.
When we are dealing with tribes, whose migration can
be traced from Mexico or other parts of North America, we
shall equally find ourselves in difficulty as to whether the
evidence is always to be regarded as South American ; but
these questions of ethnographic origin can be left for future
study: what we have to do is to find out for the present,
or the not very remote past, the distribution of the twin-
superstitions.
The results will be instructive, for we shall be discussing
civilizations higher than the Bantu in Africa, and, for the
most part, far removed from the Negroes (Yoruba, Ibo and
other tribes already discussed).
Orinoco We will begin with some general statements. The abbot
Filippo Salvadore Gilii, in his description of Spanish South
America \ tells us that the people in the region of Orinoco,
whether because single births are the normal thing or
because multiple births suggest the infidelity of the wife,
pretend great surprise at hearing that, amongst the Spaniards,
1 Saggio di Storia Americana, o sia Storia Naturale, Civile, e Sacra dei
regni e delle provincie Spagnuole di Terra-ferma nelV America meridionale,
descritta daW abate Filippo Salvadore Gilii, vol. n. p. 261. Rom. 1781.
Indians.
CH. IX] THE TWTN-CDLT IN SOUTH AMERICA 133
twins occur. They say they are not dogs to bring forth
children in that way. To avoid, then, the reviling of others. One child
when such a birth occurs, they bury one of the children.
In the same Spartan way they deal with defective children,
and with children horn feet first, twisting their necks as soon
as born.
The foregoing statement is confirmed by Gumilla^ who
reports that if a child is born with any defect or moftstrosity,
or with a hare-lip, it must die on the spot ; and in the same
way in the case of twins, one of them is immediately buried
by its own mother. He also reports a special case in honour
of the Virgin Mary, when one of the Mission-Fathers heard
that an Indian woman had buried a daughter four hours
previously ; the Padre implored the protection of the Virgin,
hastened to the spot, disinterred the child, which was still
alive, and baptised it by the name of Mary of the Miracle ;
the said child grew up in the Mission of S. Miguele, and
was eleven years old when Gumilla wrote. He does not
say whether the child was a twin ; nor does he seem to have
any other explanation except cruelty for the murder of such
children.
We have similar statements concerning the barbarities Guyana
of the Guyana Indians from the pen of the great traveller '^"^*°^-
Humboldt^ 'Among the barbarous peoples of Guyana, as
among the half-civilized inhabitants of the South Sea, many
young women do not wish to become mothers. If they have
children, these are not only exposed to the dangers of savage
life, but to still other dangers, arising from popular pre-
judices of the most fantastic kind. If the children happen
to be twin-brothers, the false ideas of propriety and of family
honour require that one of them should perish ; to bring One child
twins into the world is to expose oneself to public ridicule, ^^^^*^^-
it is to be like the rats, like the opossums, like the vilest
animals, which bring forth many young at once. But there
* Historia natural, civil y geografica de las naciones situadc en las
riberas del rio Orinoco, vol. ii. p. 53. My references are to a popular
edition, published at Barcelona in 1882.
^ A. de Humboldt, Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales, ii. 305.
134 THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA [CH.
is more in it than this; twin children bom at the same
lying-in cannot belong to the same father. We have here
an axiom of the Selwas Indians^; and in all zones, in the
most diverse states of society, when the people get hold of
an axiom, they hold it more tenaciously than wise men who
have first ventured to state it. In such cases, to avoid
domestic disturbance, the elderly relatives of the mother,
or the midwives, undertake the disappearance of one of the
twins. Even if the new-born child is not a twin, yet if
it has some physical defect, the father promptly kills it.
They will have none but strong and well-made children, for
Spirit- or the deformities indicate the influence of the bad spirit lolo-
paternity. quiamo, or of the bird Tikititi, the enemy of the human race.'
So here again we see the contending explanations of the
twin phenomenon: the blame on the woman: the possible
spirit paternity, or bird-paternity, of disapproved children.
It will be seen that we are not very far from the ideas of
the Greeks.
This same idea came out in the case which I reported
in CulP from British Guiana, which gave me the clue to the
explanation of the dual paternity of twins. A few sentences
Essequibo may be recalled from Commissioner McTurk's report on the
Indians, recrudescence of superstition among the Essequibo Indians :
'An Indian woman gave birth to twins: at the time, there
was considerable sickness in the neighbourhood, and a pui
man (sorcerer, witch-doctor) was called in. He declared the
cause of the sickness to be one of the twins, who was the
Spirit- child of a Kenaima, as a Avoman could not naturally produce
paternity. ^^^ children at a birth. The particular child was sick and
fretful, and one night on the cry of an owl or other night
bird, the child woke and commenced to cry. The pui man,
who was present, declared the cry of the bird to be the
1 These Indians live between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. So great
is her aversion from the thought of being a twin-mother and having to face
at once the scorn of the other women who compare her with a mouse, and
the jealousy of her husband, who suspects infidelity, that a woman will
hurriedly bury her first child when she sees that a second is to be expected.
See Le Vaillant, Voyages a Guyane et Cayenne.
2 Cult of the Heavenly Twim, pp. 5-7.
IX] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA 135
Kenaima father of the child calling to it, and the child's
crying its answer. The next day at his instigation a large Qne child
hole was dug in the ground and a fire was built in it, when ' ®
it was well ablaze the infant was thrown into it and burnt
to death.' Later on, the mother shared the same fate, and and its
this accentuation of the recrudescent superstition shows "^°
clearly that the original custom was to kill the mother and
both children ; for there is no possible solution of the problem
that perplexes the savage by killing the mother and one
child. If the mother goes in the original custom, one may
be certain that both children went. That the mother was
killed in this particular story is due to a reaction in the
cult, which has irregularly returned upon itself
The importance of this incident from British Guiana The
lies in the exposure it makes of the underlying strata ofpg^j.gn|;_
belief. We see the spirit solution, one child the child of
a Kenaima, an animistic conception which lends itself to
totemistic ideas, but which in British Guiana appears com-
monly as the external soul of a man or other animal. Then
we have the suggested bird parentage, but without any
recognition as yet that the bird in question is the thunder;
and further we have the belief in the reaction of the twin-
birth upon the rest of the community. The ideas run
parallel at several points to the observations of v. Humboldt
on the causes of defective or irregular children.
As we are now in British Guiana, it may be noted that British
Schomburgk in his Travels in British Guiana found twin- t^^j^.
births rare, and twin-murders amongst the Macusis and the births
'^ . and twin-
Waikas non-existent. He was, however, quite aware oi the murders
common custom elsewhere of sacrificing one child, and ap- ™''^-
parently so were the natives of whom he speaks, since they
give the conventional explanations, that the twin-mother
has been unfaithful to her husband, and that the other
women would compare her multiple birth with those of the
lower animals. Schomburgk attributes the absence of the
twin-murder to the general mildness of the character of
the Macusis.
When he spoke to the women of these tribes about the
136 THE TWIN -CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA [CH.
fertility of the Paranaghieris, who not uncommonly have
^ twins, and sometimes bear three children at once, they
poured scorn upon such women, and maintained that they
themselves were not such dogs as to have a heap of children
at once^ Evidently Schomburgk is here giving the ex-
ception which proves the rule. The explanations given of
twin-births are the same among those who kill one child and
those who do not kill.
Twins in Now let us come to the ancient American populations
. * of Peru, where we shall find some evidence of the first
importance.
The situation is- rapidly summed up for us by Miiller
in his work on the Original Religions of America^ The
Peruvians used to honour the lightning under the name of
Libiac, and offer to it the choicest sheaves of maize. Twins,
Twins are whether of men or llamas, were regarded as the Children of
ofLiffM- the Lightning. On the birth of such, a fast was necessary,
ning. and a sacrifice to the god Acuchuccacpuc. If the twins died
young, their bodies were preserved in large jare. A woman
who had borne twins, must confess and undergo penance.
It is evident from this summary, that although twins
were not killed, they were detested and their mother dis-
Expiatory graced. Expiatory rites were required : but the most in-
teresting feature of all is the parentage of the lightning.
Here we have reached the same point as the early Greek
and Palestinian civilization; we detected the emergence of
this belief in certain African tribes.
We shall do well, in view of the importance which this
statement acquires from its biblical and classical parallels,
to examine into some of the authorities upon whom Miiller
relies, and to supplement them where possible.
One of the most valuable books for our purpose is
Arriaga's Extirpation of Idolatry in Fei'ii, published at
Lima in 1621, a book as interesting to the ethnologist as
it is rare*.
1 Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch Guiana, Leipzig, 1848.
'^ Miiller, Amerikmiische Urreligioneti, p. 370.
3 Arriaga, Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Pint, Lima, 1621.
IX] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA 137
We have already alluded to the Peruvian beliefs as
described by Arriaga, in reference to the cult of the thunder :
but now we must examine them more closely: and as the
book in the original is hard to come at\ we will transcribe
some of the leading passages (p. 32):
Quando nacen dos de un parto, que como diximos Names of
arriva llaman Chuchos o Curi, y en el Cuzco Taqui Huahua, twins.
lo tienan por cosa sacrilega y abominabile, y aunque dizen,
qui el uno es hijo del Rayo, hazen grande penitencia, como
si uviessen hecho un gran pecado. Le ordinario es ayunar
muchos dias assi el Padre como la Madre, como le refirio el
dotor Francisco de Avila, no comiendo sal, ni agi, ni juntan-
dosse en este tiempo, que en algunas partes suelen sei por
seys meses, y otras assi el Padre como la Madre se hechan
de un lado cada uno de porsi, y estan cinco dias sin menearse
de aquel lado, el un pie encogido, y debaxo de la corba ponen
un pallar, o hava, hasta que con el sudor comien9a a brotar,
y otros cinco dias se buelven del otro lado de la misma
manera; y este tempo ayunan al modo dicho. Acabada
esta penitencia los parientes ca9an un venado, y desollandole,
hazen uno como palio del pellejo, y debaxo del pasean a los
penitentes, con unas sogillas al cuello, las quales traen des-
pues por muchos dias.
Este mes de Julio passado, en la doctrina de Mangas del
Corregiemento de Cojatambo, avia parida una India dos de
un parto, y la penitencia que hizo sue estar diez dias de
rodillas, y con les manos tambien, en el suelo como quien
esta en quattro pies, sin mudar postura en todo esse tiempo
para cosa ninguna, y estava tan flaca, y desfigurada de esta
penitencia, que hallandole en ella, no se atrevib el Cura a
castigalla, porque no peligrasse, y a este modo tendran on
otras partes, otras diversas supersticiones en este caso.
From the foregoing it appears that when twins are born,
they call them Chuchos or Curi, and in el Cuzco they call One twin
them Taqui Huahua ; twin-birth is regarded as abominable, ^^^^^'
and one of the twins is said to be the Son of the Lightning, child.
' It will be found translated in the Hakluyt Society's series of books
of travel.
138 THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA [CH.
The importance of this is obvious : we have the missing link
in the development between the two natural and the two
supernatural children. It is the same variation between
single and dual divine children that we detect in Greek
literature when Castor and Pollux are both said to be
children of Zeus, and when we find out, as in Zeus' in-
dignant protests in Pindar, that it is only Pollux that is
entitled to that parentage.
Father and mother of the Peruvian twins have to fast,
to abstain from salt and pepper and sexual intercourse; in
some districts this abstinence lasts six months. These
statements are confirmed by the Chronicle of Peru of Pedro
de Cieza de Leon (a.d. 1532-50), translated by Clements R.
Markham for the Hakluyt Society, and published in 1864.
Here we find (p. 232, c. 65) that ' these Indians hold it to
be unlucky to bring forth two babes at once, or when a
child is born with any natural defect, such as having six
fingers on one hand. If these things happen, the man and
his wife become sad, and fast, without eating aji (Chili
pepper), or drinking chicha, which is their wine, and they
do other things according to their customs, as they have
learnt them from their fathers.' To which statement Mark-
ham adds a confirming note from Rivero, that 'twins, called
Chuchu, and children born feet first, called Chacpa, were
offered up to the huacas ' (sanctuaries), in some districts.
Arriaga reports further a recent case of the penance of an
Indian woman for bearing twins ; she remained in one position,
on her hands and knees, for ten days, without moving for all
that time ; at the end of which time she was, as the narrator
says, much disfigured.
Peruvians We have narrated already the fondness of the converts to
Boaner^- Christianity for the name of Santiago, or S. Diego, because
ges. they understood that St James (i.e. Santiago) and St John
were called Sons of Thunder, an appellation which was
perfectly familiar to them. St James was evidently iden-
tified by them with the Thunder, and when they heard the
Spaniards fire off their harquebuses, they promptly called
these weapons by the name of Santiago. Amongst these
IX] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA 139
Peruvian tribes, then, the conjunction between twins and
thunder or lightning is clearly made out. It should farther Twinning
be noted that the twin-tahoo in Peru affected llamas as well
as men. The parallel to this will be found in ancient India,
in modem Wales, and in some parts of South Africa, where
the larger cattle are subject to expiatory rites to avert the
ill-luck of twinning. Arriaga gives a summary of the twin
superstition in an edict against Idolatry, which I transcribe
(p. 132, c. 18): Item si saben, que quando alguna muger pare
dos de un vientre que llaman Chuchu, o uno creatura de
pies, que llaman Chacpa, la dicha muger ayuna ciertos dias
por ceremonia gentilica, no comiendo sal, ny agi, ny dor-
miendo con su marido; encerrandose, y escondiendose en
parte secreta, donde non la vea nadie ; y si alguna de las
dos criaturas se muere la guardan en una olla por ceremonia
di su gentilidad.
Here again we have the twin children grouped with
those born feet first; and the isolation of the woman is
definitely stated: also the preservation of a dead twin in
a jar, which may be compared with the West African
custom of disposing of the body. The dead twin, no
doubt, was originally kept from harming its brother in this
way. Arriaga, however, thinks the twin was preserved
as a sacred thing, on account of its relationship to the
Lightning^
Now let us come down to the province of Bolivia, where Twins in
we shall find amongst the Moxos and Chiquitos tribes the ° ^^^^'
same custom of killing twins, apparently in the severer
form. D'Orbigny notes ^ that the Moxos people immolate
through superstition a woman who miscarries, and her
children if they are twins. It is surprising to find such
customs amongst people of otherwise gentle manners : they
killed twin children, on the supposition that only animals
could produce several young at once. Religion has, indeed,
^ I.e. pp. 16, 17. 'Los Cuerpos Chuchos, y por otro nombre Curi, que es
quando nacen dos de un vientre, si mueren chiquitos, los mete en unas ollas,
y los guardan dentro de casa, come una cosa sagrada, dizen que el uno
es hijo del Eayo.'
2 Alcide D'Orbigny, L'honwie Americain, pp. 211, 232, Paris, 1839.
140
THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA
[CH.
The
Moxos
kill one
twin.
The
Chiri-
guanos
kill one
twin.
The
Great
Brethren
in South
America.
caused the cessation of these superstitious customs, but it
must not be supposed that all traces of primitive savage
life have disappeared. The reference to religion means the
missions of the Jesuit fathers. It may be worth while to
hunt up the Jesuit accounts of these Missions. In Lettres
6difiantes et curieuses^ there is an abridgment of a Spanish
account of Padre Cyprian Baraze, the Jesuit founder of the
mission to the Moxos tribe, printed at Lima by order of
Bishop Urban de Matha. From it we learn that the Moxos
' have the barbarous custom of burying little children when
their mother dies; and, in case the mother brings forth twins,
they bury one of them giving as their reason that the mother
cannot veiy well bring up two children at once.' As we
have already suggested, this does not seem to be the real
reason, though we frequently come across it. It is an excuse
rather than a reason.
A little to the south of the Moxos tribes will be found
the Chiriguanos. For these people we have a reference in
the account of a journey from Santiago in Chili to Arica in
Peru^: if a woman in this tribe bears twins, they keep one
and sacrifice the other, provided the inother makes no formal
objection, which seldom happens. Here we have again the
modification (if it really is one) in the treatment of the twins ;
one only is killed.
There are some reasons for supposing that in the legends
of South American peoples we have a recurrence of the
theme of a pair of Great Brethren, much in the same way
as amongst the Mediterranean people. According to Ehren-
reich' these brother heroes take a part in the subordinate
processes of creation and occupy an intermediate position
between God and men. We shall find similar beliefs among
the North American Indians, and many points of contact
with the ideas of primitive man in the Eiastern hemisphere.
We shall return to this subject later on.
1 Vol. vra. p. 86 (Paris, 1781).
'^ Thouar, Explorations dam V Amerique dii Sud, Paris, 1891.
" Ehrenreich, Die Mytlien imd Legenden der Sudamer. Urvolker.
zur Zeitschrift filr Ethnologie (Berlin, 1905, p. 44).
Suppl.
IX] THE TWIN-CULT IN SOUTH AMERICA 141
Amongst the negro populations of Brazil, we have the Twin
survival and modification of beliefs brought with them from among
the West Coast of Africa. Although they have nominally ^''^^ilian
neffi'OGS.
accepted the Roman Catholic religion, they still build their
ancient fetish houses and worship their ancient gods. Their
devotion to Shango, the thunder-god of the Yoruba negroes, Shango
is very marked : but in the very same huts they erect ^^^^i
images of Cosmas and Damian, and tables for casting lots. Cosmas
As Cosmas and Damian are one of the many ecclesiastical Damian.
substitutes for the ineradicable worship of the Heavenly
Twins, we conjecture naturally that they have replaced
twins attached in some way to Shango. The evidence has
not, however, been yet forthcoming that twins or their
totems or their images are in this way connected with
Shango. That Shango is still there in Brazil is certain ;
that twins are a part of the cult of Brazilian negroes is
possible. For the description of the customs of these people,
we may consult the article of I'Abbe Ignace to which we
have already referred in the chapter on The Red Robes of
the Dioscuri^.
1 Anthropos for 1908: pp. 886 sqq.
CHAPTER X
THE TWIN-CULT AMONGST THE NORTH AMERICAN
INDIANS
Beliefs of We shall now turn to the beliefs of the North American
Amerinds, jn^jfans on the subject of twins, and we shall find an abund-
ance of parallels with customs noted in other countries and
amongst other peoples, including traces of the connection of
twins with the sky and the thunder, and of their usefulness
in hunting and fishing.
Traces of twin-murder may be found among the Indian
Cali- tribes in California. For example, the Pitt River Indians
omia. practise the killing of one child. S. Powers^ says that 'in
One child case of the birth of twins one is almost always destroyed,
for the feeling is universal that two little mouths at once
are too great a burden. Infanticide seems to prevail in no
other instance than this.' He also tells us (p. 354) con-
cerning the Miwok Indians, who formerly occupied territory
that extended from the Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin
River, and from the Cosumnes to the Fresno, that ' mention
is made of a woman named Ha-u-chi-ah,' living near
Murphy's, who, in 1858 gave birth to twins, and destroyed
one of them, according to the universal custom. We shall
find closer Dioscuric parallels as we move further north.
For instance, Dr Franz Boas, in his Report to the British
Association on the Indians of British Columbia^ tells us of
Tsimshian the Tsimshian Indians that 'while the religion of the Tlingit
and Haida Indians seems to be a nature worship, founded
on the general idea of the animation of natural objects, no
object obtaining a prominent place, that of the Tsimshian
is a pure worship of Heaven (Leqa). Heaven is a great
1 S. Powers, Tribes of California, Washington, 1877, p. 271.
'•* Proceedings of British Association, 1889, p. 845.
CH. X] TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 143
deity, who has a number of mediators named Neqnoq^
Now let us see what the Tsimshian say about twins^
* Twins are believed to control the weather; therefore they pray Twins
to wind and rain, Calm down, breath of the twins. What- weather
ever twins wish for is fulfilled, therefore they are feared, as
they can harm the man whom they hate. They can. call ^/ie and bring
olachen and the salmon and are therefore called Sewihan,
= making plentiful.' This is thoroughly Dioscuric, at all
events. Not very unlike these beliefs are those of the
Kwakiutl ' : they believed that ' twins were transformed Kwakiutl
salmon : as children of salmon they are guarded against twins are
going near the water, as it is believed that they would be salmon.
retransformed into salmon. While children, they are able to
summon any wind by motions of their hands, and can make
fair or bad iveather. They have the power of curing diseases,
and use for this purpose a rattle called K'oaquaten, which They
has the shape of a flat box about three feet long by two weather,
feet wide.' Again we are on the parallel line to the Dioscuri ;
the control of the weather is in evidence, and the curing of
diseases. Note should be made of the rattle. It will turn
up again in Indian circles, and may be related to the famous
Australian-Greek rhombus or bull-roarer.
For a more extended account of the Kwakiutl Indians, Story of
see Franz Boas and George Hunt, Kwakiutl Texts, ii. pp. 322 — brought
330^. ' In the opinion of the Kwakiutl twins are nothing ^^^^'
but salmon who have assumed human shape, and in that
guise can bring plenty of their finny brothers and sisters to
the fisherman's net. Well, once upon a time there was a
chief called Chief-of-the-Ancients. There was no river where
he lived, and therefore necessarily no salmon. This troubled
the chief, so one day he said to his younger brothers, '* I wish
^ The Tsimshian inhabit Nass and Skeena rivers and the adjacent islands.
The Tlingit inhabit Southern Alaska. The Haida inhabit Queen Charlotte
islands and part of Prince of Wales Archipelago.
2 I.e. p. 847.
3 The Kwakiutl Indians inhabit the coast from Gardiner channel to Cape
Mudge, with the sole exceptions of the country around Dean inlet, and the
West Coast of Vancouver Island.
■* Jesup N. Pacific Expedition, Memoir of American Museum of Natural
History, quoted by Frazer in Toteviism and Exogamy, ni. 337.
144 TWIN-CULT OP NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [CH.
The
Skgomic
Indians.
Twins
control
weather.
Isolation
of twin-
parents.
to look for one who is a twin and make her my wife that
through her the salmon may come." His aunt, the star-
woman, bade him go to the graves and search among them
for a twin. So he went to the graves, and cried out, "Is
there a twin here, O graves ?" But the graves said, "There
is none here." This he did to many graves. But at last
one of the graves answered " I am a twin." The Chief-of-
the- Ancients went to it, and gathered the bones and sprinkled
them with the water of life, and the twin-woman at once
came to life.' The account goes on to tell how the tiuin-lady
brought the salmon. The motive of the tale is clearly the
control of twins over fishing, and their power to bring good
luck.
In the Report of the British Association for 1900, we
have a paper by C. Hill-Tout on another tribe of Indians
in British Columbia, the Skgomic', which brings up some
further folk-lore beliefs of great interest. 'The birth of
twins was a very special event, twins always possessing, as
was believed, supernormal powers, the commonest of which
ivas control of the wind. It would seem that the birth of
twins was usually presaged by dreams on the part of both
parents. In those dreams minute instructions would be
given to the parents as to the course they must pursue in
the care and upbringing of the children. These they must
follow implicitly in every particular. If they were neglected,
it was thought and believed that the twins would die....
Immediately after the birth of twins, both husband and wife
must bathe in cold water, using the tips of spruce, fir, and
cedar branches to scrub themselves with. After this they
must remain in seclusion apart from the rest of the tribe for
a month. Any breach of this rule was regarded as a grave
offence which was bound to bring severe punishment on the
offenders. The hair of twins was supposed never to be cut.
If for any reason this rule was departed from, great care
had to be taken to bury all that had been cut off.... If at
any time wind was desired for sailing, the bodies of the twins
would be rubbed with oil or grease, after which, it is said, the
1 I.e. p. 481.
X] TWIN-CULT OP NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 145
wind would immediately rise. The tsaianuk, a kind of
small fish which I was unable to identify, and which periodi-
cally visits the Skgomic river in large numbers, are said
to be descended from a pair of twins \'
Now let us turn to the Shuswap Indians, concerning
whom we have an excellent account by J, Teit^.
' Twins were considered great " mystery," and the regula- Shuswap
tions concerning them were much the same as amongst the "'^^^'^^•
Thompson Indians^. The woman's husband was the real
father of twins ; but the foetus was divided, and became two
creations through the influence of the black bear, grisly bear. Bear or
or deer. The mother was frequently visited by one of these parentage?
animals in her dreams, or she repeatedly dreamed of their
young, and thus she had twins. Whichever animal she
dreamed about became their protector for life, the manitou,
of her children. A woman was considered lucky to have
twins, for she thus gained powerful manitous for her children,
before their birth. Twins who had the deer for their pro- Twins
tectors were always success/id in hunting : in like manner, hunting!"
those who had the grisly bear for protector could always find
bears and kill them easily. The bear never became angry
or tried to hurt them. Most twins were under, the pro-
tection of the black bear. A good many had the grisly bear
^ This comes from a curious folk-tale, given in the same report (p. 523),
concerning a man, the father of twins, who collected all the fish that
frequented the above-mentioned river, and placed them in a box in separate
compartments, which box he placed in the trunk of a tree. Soon after this
he died, and from that time no more fish came into the river, until a man,
by supernatural revelation, discovered the box, and put the dust of the
contained fish into the river. This made the wind blow and the fish come,
especially a new kind, the tsaianuk. Since then the people always put
a little bone dust in the river, and always have plenty of fish. The Skgomic
regard these particular fish as the descendants of twin children of the man
who originally hid away the fish-bones ; and according to them, it was the
power of the twins that made the wind blow, when the bone-dust was
disturbed.
For our purpose, the chief points to be noted are just these, the control
of the weather and of the fish by twins, which is assumed in the story.
^ The Shtisicap : Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History,
New York. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. ii. p. vii. 1909 ;
pp. 586 sqq.)
' Vide infra, pp. 146, 147.
H. B. 10
146 TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [CH.
Parents for protector, and a lesser number the deer.... On the birth of
isolated. ^^.^^ ^^g parents shifted camp to the woods, some distance
away from other people, even if it were midwinter. Twins
were not carried round so much as other children, one of the
parents generally remaining at home with t\i&m.... Twins were
not allowed near people for four years. During this time
the father washed them with fir-branches every day. If the
father happened to die, the mother washed them. Young
men were not employed for this purpose, at least among the
The twins Western Shuswap. Twins were believed to be endowed with
weather power over the elements, especially over rain and snow. If a
twin bathed in a lake or stream, it would rain.... The next
child born after twins was also considered "mystery," for
some of the influences which controlled the twins still
remained in the womb of the mother. For this reason the
next child was kept apart, and washed with fir-branches, in
and bring the manner of twins, for a year or less.... Twins (p. 609) wei'e
goo - uc . QQ^g^(jigj,g^ ^Q^y lucky guardians for gamblers.'
The taboo on twins shows itself very clearly in these
regulations for the isolation of the parents and children ; we
note again their control of the weather, their influence in the
chase, and their general good luck. All of these points must
be carefully registered.
Thompson We come now to the Thompson Indians of British
Indians. Columbia, to whom reference was just now made\
' A woman about to be delivered of twins was generally
made aware of the fact beforehand by the repeated appearance
of the grisly bear in her dreams : therefore twins were re-
garded as different from other children, and were treated
accordingly. They were called "grisly-bear children," or
" hairy feet." Immediately after their birth, the father put
on a head-band and went outside, walking round the house
in a circle, striking the ground with a fir-bough, and singing
the grisly bear song. These children were supposed to be
under special protection of the grisly bear and were endowed
by him with special powers. Amongst these was the powei-
- ^ 1 Teit, The Tftornpson hidians of British Columbia, p. 310. (Jesup North
Pacific Expedition, vol. i. 1898—1900.)
X] TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 147
of creating good or had weather. Twins were supposed to Twins
be unable to see a grisly bear. The grisly was not looked ^^^^l^^^ .
upon as the real father of the twins, but only as their pro-
tector. When twins were bom, if it were possible, a young have bear
man was selected by the father to sing when they first ^"'^P**''^""
cried.... Such a person was thought to become proficient in
the mystery of the grisly bear, and obtained him for his
guardian spirit.... fTe painted his whole face red, and carried
a fir-branch in each hand. If the twins were male and
female, he held a male fir-branch in the right hand, and a
female fir-branch in the left. As soon as the children began
to cry, he went round them, following the sun's course, at
the same time singing the grisly bear song, and striking the
children with the branches.. ..The parents, during the ceremony Parents
had their faces painted red. The grisly -bear painting was a ^^^ ^
picture of a bear's paw in red on each cheek. The impression
of a mans hand in red was used to represent a hear in facial
paintings.... The singer sometimes staid with the twins
during the entire period of separation, and took them under
his special care, washing them and singing to them.... The
mother always took care to suckle the elder first. If she
should not do this, one of the twins would die. After Parents
the birth of twins the parents moved some distance away fourTearT
fi^om other people, and lived in a lodge made of fir-boughs
and bark, and continued to live there until the children were
about four years of age.... A male passing by a lodge in which
twin children resided always whistled. When wishing to
see some of the inmates, he called them by whistling from a
distance, but he did not enter.'
Closely related to these customs are those of the Lil-
looet Indians, on the Lower Lillooet River, in British
Columbia^
' The beliefs of the Lillooet regarding twins differed Lillooet
somewhat from those of the Thompson people. Twins were
considered the real offspring of the grisly bear. Many say
the grisly bear pitied the woman and made these children
grow in her womb. The husband of tJie woman was not tJie Bear
parentage.
^ Teit, The Lillooet Indians, p. 263.
10—2
148 TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [CH.
real father of twins, though some believed that the grisly
bear had acted through him. When twins were bom, the
husband went outside and walked round in a circle, following
the sun's course. He struck the ground with a fir-branch as
Parents he went round, and sang the grisly bear song. The -parents
tabooed for ^^ fwins built a lodge apart from the people, in luhich they
tour years. -^ o f j r r ' j
lived until the children were about four years old. The
longer they kept the children away from the people the
better was their chance of life.... The mother always suckled
the eldest child first. When the father visited people
during the period of isolation, he had to change his clothes
before going home again. If possible a young man was
hired to attend to the children, during the whole period of
isolation.... ^e wore no particular dress, nor did he paint in
any particular manner. When the family returned again
to live with the people... the lodge in which they had lived
was left standing till it fell down. It was never burned, for
that would cause the children to die. When one of twins
died, whether infant or adult, the body was never buried. It
was tied up and deposited rather high up in a bushy fir-tree,
and the grisly bear was supposed to take it away. Many
Indians say that twins were grisly bears in human form, and
that when a twin died, his soul went back to the grisly bears
and became one of them.'
When we compare the Lillooet customs with those of
the Thompson Indians, we see close agreement crossed by
some striking diversities. The grisly bear is more prominent
in the Lillooet story, and is very nearly the father of the
twins. The young man in the Thompson story paints his
face red, but not in the Lillooet story. This painting the
face red, however, is significant : it is the colour proper to
Parents the thunder, as was seen more clearly in a previous chapter.
Thumler -^^^ when the young man paints his face red, the explana-
tion of that feature of the cult would naturally be that he is
pretending to be the thunder (man or bird) just as the
Roman General in a triumph is painted red to imitate
Jupiter Capitol inus, and Jupiter himself painted red be-
cause he is the thunder. There seems, however, to be no
X] TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 149
room for the Thunder as parent in these Indian legends;
the grisly bear is the prominent actor, and, if we like, the
second parent. But where is there any connection between
the grisly bear and the thunder ? It appears to be a totem
by itself.
Now let us go back to a little earlier period than that Indians of
described by the investigators of the Jesup North Pacific ^^^^^
Expedition. In the year 1824, John R. Jewett published
at Edinburgh, an account of his Adventures and Suffer-ings
during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages
of Nootka Sound. He reports intelligently enough what he
noticed during that enforced sojourn, just outside Vancouver
Island. ' On the birth of twins, they have a most singular
custom, which, I presume, has its origin in some religious
opinion ; but what it was I could never satisfactorily learn.
The father is prohibited for the space of two years from Taboos on
eating any kind of meat, or fresh fish, during which time he pJ^^-g^t
does no kind of labour whatever, being supplied with what
he has occasion for from the tribe.
' In the meantime he and his wife, who is also obliged to
conform to the same abstinence, with their children, live
entirely separate from the others, a small hut being built Isolation
for their accommodation ; and he is never invited to any ° P^"^^"^ ^•
of the feasts, except such as consist wholly of dried pro-
visions, where he is treated with great respect, and seated
among the chiefs, though no more himself than a private
individual. Such births are very rare among them. An
instance of the kind, however, occurred while I was at
Tashees the last time ; but it was the only one known since
the reign of a former king. The father always appeared
very thoughtful and gloomy, never associated with the other
inhabitants, and was at none of their feasts, but such as
were entirely of dried provisions, and of this he did not
eat to excess, and constantly retired before the amusements
commenced. His dress was very plain, and he wore round Father
his head a red fillet of bark, the symbol of mourning and timnder-
devotion. It was his daily practice to repair to the band.
mountain, with a chief's rattle in his hand, to sing and
150 TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [CH.
Manitoba
Indians.
Twins
disliked.
pray. As Maquina informed me, for the fish to come into their
waters. When not thus employed, he kept continually at
home, except when sent for to sing and perform his cere-
monies over the sick, being considered a sacred character,
one much in favour with their gods.'
In this story, the grisly bear does not appear, but we
recognise the rattle of the Tsimshian Indians, the influence
of the twins (and their parents) over the coming of the fish
and the expulsion of diseases. The red fillet must also be
noticed, it must surely be a thunder symbol.
Amongst the Indians of Western Canada, we find traces
of an original alarm at the birth of twins. For instance,
Maclean in his work on the Canadian Savage Folk^ tells
us of his intercourse with Indians of the Blackfeet tribe.
' Visiting a lodge one day, I saw the father and one of the
wives with a gruesome countenance, and upon enquiring the
cause was shown twin-children in their beautiful moss-bags.
Twins are believed to be an omen of evil ; hence the sad
countenance of my friends.'
On another occasion he tells us^ that 'while thus be-
guiling the time, a faint cry was emitted from a tiny bundle
close at hand, and a young woman, with a rueful coun-
tenance, turned round to wait upon her babe. We had
known her as a young woman of a very lively disposition,
and were unable to account for the sudden change in her
deportment : but we were not long left in mystery, for as we
watched her tending her charge, a smile flitted over her
face when a second parcel moved, and emitted a sound
similar to that of the first. Ah ! here was the secret of the
sad countenance. An evil had befallen them in the shape
of twins. What evil genius was presiding over their camp ?
Or why should the gods thus send sorrow upon then ?
" Boys ? " " No ! worse than that : a thousandfold worse
than twin-boys. Twins ! Girls ! " The father morosely gazed
upon the tiny strangers who were unwelcome guests in that
home, and not a merry heart was there in that lodge.' So
p. 54.
» lb. p. 191.
X] TWIN-CULT OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 151
the old twin-superstition still lingers amongst the Indians of
Western Canada.
Maclean also tells us that the Indians still believe the Iroquois
story which the Iroquois told to the first Jesuit missionaries, th^Great
of a pair of celestial twins sent down by a celestial twin- Twins still
mother, whose names were Juskeha and Tawiskara. It is
not necessary to repeat here the story of their deeds, nor to
tell how one of the brethren found his way back again to
the heaven from which he had corae^.
1 It is, however, very interesting to note how Br^beuf, who first drew
attention to this pair of heavenly twins {Relation des Jesuites dans la
Nouvelle France, 1635, p. 34; 1636, p. 100), remarked on the way the twins
quarrelled. ' Judge,' said he, ' if there be not in this a touch of the death of
Abel ! '
CHAPTER XI
OF TWINS IN ANCIENT MEXICO
Twins in
Mexico.
One twin
killed.
First twin
mother.
Twins
endanger
their
parents.
In order to find out whether there are any traces of twin-
cult in Mexico in ancient times, we must in the first instance
turn to the Spanish writers on Mexican antiquities. In
Torquemada's account of the Ancient Indian Monarchy, we
find^ as foltows : ' They hold it for axiomatic that, when a
woman brings forth two children at one birth (which often
happens in these parts), either the father or the mother
must die. And the remedy, which the devil gave them
for this was, that they should slaughter one of the twins,
which in their tongue are called Cocolina, which means
snakes. Further they say that the first woman who bore
twins was called Cohuatl, which signifies snake, and this
is why they called the twins by the name of snakes ; and
they said that they would eat up the father or the mother if
they did not slaughter one of the two children ^.'
Fray Toribio (Motolinia)^ tells us as follows with regard
to the ancient Mexican belief on the matter of twins :
'Tenian tambien en que la mujer que parien dos de un
vientre, lo cual en esta tien-a acontece muchas voces, que el
padre 6 la mad re de los tales habia de morir; y el remedio
que el cruel demonio las daba, era que mataban uno de los
gemellos, y con esta creian que no morira el padre ni la madre,
y muchas voces lo hacian.'
According to this, the arrival of twins is a positive danger
to the father and mother, an opinion of which we have found
^ Torquemada, De la Monarq. Indian, n. p. 84.
2 See also Miiller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 514. 'Am Anfang
dieser Periode bevolkerte die Schlangenfrau Cihuatcohuatl oder Quetuzli die
Erde. Sie gebar jedesmal Zwillinge.'
3 In Icazbalceta, Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Mexico,
I. 130.
CH. Xl] OF TWINS IN ANCIENT MEXICO 153
traces elsewhere : for this reason, and to divert the danger,
one of the twins is commonly sacrificed.
We should not have been in the least surprised to hear
that the Mexicans had killed every one involved in the twin
affair, for their ritual is about as savage as anything that
ever appeared on the planet. It will be noticed that the two
writers quoted are not altogether independent; the testi-
mony is sufficient to establish the fact of twin-murder, which
is what we first want to know.
The next question would be whether the Mexicans, like
the ancient Peruvians, believed that one of the twins was
a child of the thunder (or perhaps both) — on this point I do
not think I have any evidence.
There is, however, a very curious theory propounded by
the Spanish writers on Mexican antiquities, that the Mexican
god Quetzalcoatl was himself a heavenly, twin, to which they Mexican
add the explanation that he was really the Apostle Thomas, *^^''""S°^^
who included the Mexicans amongst his extensive missionary
journeys. They base this belief on a philological equation
between Quetzalcoatl and Didymus! It is hardly necessary
to say anything on such speculations, but it would be in-
teresting to know whether there is any authority for trans-
lating Quetzalcoatl as precious twin : and whether he was a
twin-god. As I am unacquainted with Mexican, and have
little confidence in Mexican philologists, I cannot explain the
name, and as far as I have gone have not yet seen reason for
believing the god in question to be a twin\ For those who
are interested in the matter here is some of the evidence.
Rivero, Antigiledades Peruanas, tr. by Hawks, p. 15 : Identified
' We cannot do less than remark here on the opinions of ApVstle
many learned men, who think that the Toltecan god, Quet- Thomas !
zalcoatl, is identical with the Apostle Thomas, and it is
observable that the surname of this Apostle Didymus (twin)
has the same signification in Greek that Quetzalcoatl has in
Mexican. It is astonishing, also, to consider the numerous
and extensive regions traversed by this Apostle.' (!) He is
quoting from Pablo Felix, of Guatemala, whose Teatro
^ Ehrenreich takes the opposite view : v. inf. p. 158.
154 OP TWINS IN ANCIENT MEXICO [CH. XI
Gritico Americano will be found at the end of Del Rio's
Description of the Ruins of an ancient city (London, 1822),
p. 93 : * Doctor Liguenza believes that Quetzalcoatl was the
Apostle Thomas... he drew a comparison between the name
which St Thomas bore, viz. Didymus, signifying twin, and
Quetzalcoatl, compounded of the words Quetzalli, a precious
stone, and Coatl, twin, a precious twin.'
Perhaps that will be enough on St Thomas and his
Mexican travels.
According to Mr Lewis Spence\ ' the most unique of all
the gods of Mexico was Quetzalcoatl. This name indicates
"Feathered Serpent."... He was a culture-god, and was
closely connected with the sun.' Ehrenreich thinks that
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca are a pair of heroes, between
whom there subsists a constant quarrel. This, at all events,
is in the manner of Twin-cult, even if philology should not
countenance the hypothesis that the first of the pair was a
precious twin.
1 Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru, pp. 18, 19.
CHAPTER XII
THE TWIN-HEROES OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
We discussed in a previous chapter the traces that could
be found of the practice of twin-murder among the aboriginal
tribes of South America. Here the greatest discovery was that
the ancient Peruvians regarded one of a pair of twin-children
as being a Son of the Lightning. The information came in
the first instance from Arriaga; and, I suppose, it is the
rarity of Arriaga's work that is responsible for the omission
of any reference to this Peruvian belief in Ehrenreich's
very valuable work on the Myths and Legends of the
South American aborigines. The omission is the more to
be regretted because the recognition of the Peruvian parallel
to the Boanerges would have assisted Ehrenreich in his proof
that many of the legends which he was discussing were
migrations (i) from the Northern Pacific to the Southern,
and (ii) from Asia or Europe to America. If, however,
Ehrenreich failed to detect the Peruvian myth and its
meaning, and, apparently, failed also to see the original cause
of Twin-cults, he made up for his deficiency by an excellent
statement as to the cult of Twin-Heroes all over North and
South America : and to this question we now propose to
address ourselves.
It may be as well to make one or two preliminary state- South
ments with regard to South American beliefs concerning j^^ianr"
thunder. It seems clear that they had a Fire-bird, and equally ^^ave a
clear that they had not a Thunder-bird, in the same sense but no
and frequency as we find the Thunder represented by North ^^","^^^^"
American Indians. Ehrenreich says positively that the
Thunder-bird is not known in South America \ The Fire-bird
1 Ehrenreich, I.e. ' Eine in Siidamerika giinzlich fehlende Gestalt ist
der in Norden so bedeutsame Donnervogel.'
156 THE TWIN-HEROES OF N. AND S. AMERICA [cH.
is said to be the Hacka-hen {Galictis Barbara) recognised for
its function by its red bill. Amongst the Tupi Indians, on
the other hand, the fire is said to have been extracted by the
Twin-Brethren from the back of the sloths When, however,
we make our search for the animate representative of the
Thunder, we find to our surprise that the regularity of the
rain-fall and of the rainy seasons has, for the most part, put
the Thunder out of account, except in such cases as that of
the Peruvian tribes noted above. We thus find ourselves
very nearly in the same position as we shall presently be in
when we study the folk-lore of Ancient Egypt, where there
is no Thunder-bird because there is no thunder, and in either
case we naturally expect that the Thunder-bird, who is the
parent of Twins, will be replaced by a Sky-bird or a Solar-
bird : the bright sky of Zeus or the Sun-god Ra replacing
the dark sky of the Thunder,
South Now this is one of the significant points in the South
re™gion*" American cults : the worship is solar rather than tonitrual,
solar, not and the Great Twin-Brethren are the children of the Sky
and of the Sun, and may, on account of their kinship, actually
be identified with the Sun or with the Sun and Moon. In
South America, as Ehrenreich says, religion acquires a
strongly-marked solar character : and he affirms that amongst
the Eastern Tupi-Indians, where a Thunder and Lightning
god has been detected, the deity in question has arisen out
of missionary teaching ^ In the same way, Pillan, the
Thunder-god of the Araucanians is, in reality, the denizen
of a still active volcano, and so not a Sky-god at all.
These points should be carefully noted as explaining why
South American beliefs should difier so fundamentally from
those of the North American Indians, with which we shall
see reason to believe them to be intimately connected. The
difference lies in the weather characteristics of the north and
south ; it disappears as soon as we recognise that both the
Northern and Southern continents have for their leading
religious motive a belief in Twin-Heroes, occurring under
many forms, and so frequently reminiscent of the culture of
1 Ehrenreich, I.e. p. 16. 2 i.e. p. 21.
XIl] THE TWIN-HEROES OF N. AND S. AMERICA 157
the Eastern hemisphere, that we shall nob be able to detach
South America from North America, nor both of them from
the religions of Asia and Europe.
It will be convenient to make a brief summary of some Twin-
of these pairs of heroes, and then to point out peculiarities in g^^°^tf '"
their traditional histories which require comment. America.
Amongst the Yunkas of Peru, we have Pachakamak and
Wichama ;
amongst the Guamachucos, Apocatequil and Piguerao ;
amongst the Tupi, Tamendonare and Arikute ;
amongst the Mundruku, Karu and Rairu ;
amongst the Yurakare, Tiri and Karu ;
amongst the Arowak-Caribs, Keri and Kame ;
amongst the Guarayo, two nameless heroes who change
themselves into Sun and Moon ;
amongst the Orinoco-Giraro, two brother-gods ^
These pairs of Great Brethren are commonly described as
twins, sprung from the same mother, but from two different
fathers ; and they usually reckon their descent from the Sun,
so that the situation is exactly that which arises in the
interpretation of the perplexing phenomenon of twin-children,
where a dual paternity is the solution, the second parent
being Sky or Thunder or a bird which animistically repre-
sents the Sky or the Thunder. It thus becomes clear that the
Great Brethren of the South American Indians are the results
of an evolution of ideas exactly like that which, from a primi-
tive twin-taboo, produced Romulus and Remus or the Spartan
Dioscuri : and it is clear that we cannot detach these South
American twins from the pairs that turn up in the legends
of the Northern Americans. Thus we shall have to add to
our cycle of heroes the cases of:
Juskeha and Tawiskara among the Iroquois ; Twin-
Menabozho and Chokanipok among the Algonquins ; North
Ahaiyuta and Matsailema among the Zuni ; America.
Tobadizini and Nayenezkani among the Navaho ;
Pemsanto and Onkoito among the Maidu of California ;
^ See Ehrenreich, I.e. p. 45.
158 THE TWIN-HEROES OF N. AND S. AMERICA [CH.
Kanigyilak and Nemokois among the Kwakiutl ;
Masmasalanih and Noakaua among the Awikeno.
To these parallels from the North American Indians,
Ehrenreich suggests that the Mexican gods Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca may be added, and amongst the Mayas the
subterranean gods Hun-hun-ahpu and Vukub-hun-ahpu.
Nor can we be surprised that a claim should be made that
these groups of twin-heroes belong to the same class as the
Indian A9vinau, the Greek Dioscuri, and their Slavonic,
German and Celtic parallels \
Nexus We are thus obliged to admit that there is an internal
Northern nexus between these legends of Twin-Brethren : either they
^^ , are migrant traditions from an original centre, or thev are
Southern . , °, , . , • , , , ^
legends, independent evolutions, such as might be expected from
beUveen advancing civilization ; nor is it impossible that both of these
Asiatic explanations may have to be resorted to. What seems to be
American certainly established by Ehrenreich's researches is the exist-
myths. gnce of definite themes in the stories of the twin-heroes
which must be referred, on account of their singularity, to
a common origin. For example, what are we to say, when
the myth of the Twin-Brethren takes the form of birth from
Egg-birth, an egg ? Amongst the Guamachucos of Peru, the Solar
twins Apocatequil and Piguerao are born from two eggs,
deposited by the mother at the time of her death. Is this
a reminiscence of bird-parentage ? In that case, is the birth
of Castor and Pollux from an egg to be credited to the same
cycle ? We are further told that Apocatequil, for his brave
deeds, was regarded as the maker of thunder and lightning,
and that the thunderbolts were his children. These thunder-
bolts were employed to secure fertility and to avert lightning.
The parallels with the beliefs of the Eastern hemisphere are
obvious ^
Twins Amongst the Indians of N. W. America we find stories of
the^**^ Twin-Brethren who go up to heaven in order to set free the
sister. daughter of the Sky. Is this any other story than that of
^ Ehrenreich, I.e. pp. 45, 46.
2 For a summary of the story of the Peruvian Heavenly Twins, see
Additional Notes at the end of volume.
XIl] THE TWIN-HEROES OF N. AND S. AMERICA 159
the Greek Dioscuri liberating Helena? Or of the Twin-
Brethren in the Lettish folk-songs?
Ehrenreich points out that one of the most widely diffused Twins
characteristics of the American Twin-Brethren, is that they ^^^^^^^ ■
quarrel among themselves, so that one kills the other, or else
they separate and go opposite ways, east and west, or up and
down, apparently in quest of the Sun in his journey beneath
the earth. Is this any other story than what we already Are rough
have noted for Romulus and Remus, Esau and Jacob and the smooth,
rest ? The opposition between the brethren is emphasized
by the characteristics assigned to them, one of whom is rough
and impetuous, and the other smooth and gentle. Is this
anything different in the evolution of legend from what is
told of Zethus and Amphion, or again of Esau and Jacob ?^
But perhaps the most striking of all the contacts between
the legends of the Eastern and Western hemispheres is one
which Ehrenreich points out among the Tupi Indians, who
say that the Twin-Brethren go out to the East in search of They go
their wandering father, and when they find him, have to through
prove their kinship by marvels of prowess or of skill. *^/^ ^y™'
^ r J r • c plegades.
Amongst these feats is the passing through a pair of
clashing rocks, which at once recall the Symplegades in the
story of the Argonauts ; and since the wandering father is Argonaut
almost certainly the Sun, the suggestion arises that the twin and
Argonaut story has both twin and solar elements in it, and ^°^^^' ^
o J ... elementy.
that Jason is a solar twin, if not the Morning Star himself.
It is the recurrence of these and similar motives in the
various legends and mythologies that makes one so strongly
convinced that both the eastern and the western forms have
a common origin, very far back in the history of the human
race. That the motive of the Symplegades should have been
arrived at independently in Greece and in Peru, does not
seem very likely.
Now let us return to the geographical study of the
diffusion of the twin-taboo.
1 Ehrenreich, I.e. p. 51.
CHAPTER XIII
TRACES OF TWIN-CULT IN SAGHALIEN, NORTHERN
JAPAN, AND THE KURILE ISLANDS
Twin-cult
in Sagha-
lien.
The
Giljake.
Spirit
paternity.
Both
twins
killed?
We will now cross Behring's Straits, and make our first
enquiries into the existence of the twin-cult in Northern
Asia, beginning with those elementary civilizations which
are found in the islands off Kamschatka, and in the northern
parts of Japan.
In Anthropos for July-August 1910^ we have an article
by Bronislaw Pilsudski on Birth Customs in the Island of
Saghalien.
The tribes discussed are the Giljake and the Ainu ; the
latter are already well known as occupying the northern part
of Japan, where they are gradually dying out before the
more advanced civilization of the Japanese. They are a very
interesting people, and a group of them, who were brought
over to a recent Japanese exhibition in London, attracted
great attention.
The Giljake are convinced that, in the case of twins, one
of the twins is the son of a mountain and forest-god whom
they call Mountain-man. This deity has great power over
the Giljake and so the child must be restored to its spirit
father as soon as possible. As they do not know which of
the two it is, they treat them both alike. Here we have the
dual paternity, and the introduction of the spirit-father;
the description is not quite clear ; to send the child to its
father should naturally mean, as in British Guiana, its
sacrifice ; but the writer does not say this, nor does he say
that they kill them both.
When a twin dies among the Giljake, it is buried, and
not burnt, as is the usual custom.
1 pp. 756—74.
CH. XIIl] TWIN-CULT IN SAGHALIEN, ETC. 161
Twins who live and grow up are considered dangerous : Dead twin
but especially a dead twin is feared ; perhaps, as in the dangerous.
Niger region, because it might return and injure its brother
or the family. One way of getting rid of the danger of a
returning twin is to make a little model house for it, and
place in the house an image to represent the twin. This is
something like the W. African custom of conjuring the dead
twin into an image. This image in the Giljake custom has
to be fed every day.
In the case of the Saghalien Ainu, the customs are The
different, but the beliefs are much the same. One of the j^j^^ ^^"
children is considered of diabolic origin, because a man, in
their opinion, can only fertilize one child. The writer came
across no cases of twin-murder, but he quotes a Russian
traveller Krascheninnikov of the beginning of the nineteenth
century to the effect that the custom of killing one twin One twin
was current in the Kurile islands. Pilsudski shows reason the Kurile
for believing that the same custom once prevailed amongst islands,
the Ainu.
The Saghalien Ainu say that when a twin dies, it is
the one that had a spirit father, presumably because that is
the one that ought to die.
They carefully conceal the fact that twins are in the Twins a
community, apparently because it is a dishonour to the family d^ger,
as well as a public danger.
The writer also reports cases of a concurrence of Ainu Twins of
beliefs with those of the Japanese, that when twins are temper.^
born, one of them is strong, brave and lucky; the other is
an average human being. This differentiation between the
twins has its parallel in the cases of Herakles and Iphikles,
and to some extent of Zethus and Amphion. I do not know
what is the authority for the Japanese opinion, but Pilsudski
appears to be a careful observer.
In the northern villages of Saghalien, the Ainu make Ainu make
offerings at the birth of twins: the shaven sticks which °f^jj?ff
they call inao are fastened over the mother's bed : and births,
two little images to represent the twins are fastened to
H. B. 11
162 TRACES OF TWIN-CULT TN SAGHALIEN, [CH.
the wall. They have also talismans to prevent the return of
twins to the world. This last statement suggests a custom of
accelerating twins out of the world.
These uncivilized races deserve careful attention, not only
because they are uncivilized, and so disclose to us the ideas
and emotions of primitive man, but because they lie on the
bridge between Asia and America, or near it, and may,
therefore, help us to connect the North American Indians
with the Asiatic and European populations. In the case
of the Ainu, who are a migration from the mainland of Asia
to the islands, we have an Asiatic people to deal with, who
may be more closely related to peoples farther west than is
commonly imagined.
The great authority for the Ainu of Japan is that devoted
missionary, Mr Batchelor, who has given his life to their
uplifting. It is, however, to be noted that Mr Batchelor
sometimes reduces what might be thought the indecencies
of the native customs, in order to make the accounts more
palatable to the readers of the publications of the Religious
Tract Society, a proceeding which is no doubt quite proper,
but one that may sometimes obscure the meaning of a custom
or tradition.
Ainu have Batchelor does not appear to throw any light on the twin-
twm (?) g^j^ . jjg does, however, draw attention to a pair of Ainu
weather- ' . .^
gods. deities or demigods, who behave very much like promoted
and idealised twins. They are said to be brothers, and 'their
names are Shi-acha, the elder, and Mo-acha, the younger.
Shi-acha means " the rough " or " wild uncle," as he is sup-
posed to be of a very evil disposition, and to be continually
pursuing and persecuting his younger brother, Mo-acha.
Mo-acha means "uncle of peace." This one, being of a
benevolent and kindly character, and of a quiet disposition,
does all he can to live in peace and benefit the Ainu race\'
Shi-acha raises storms and drives his brother away ; Mo-acha
makes calm weather, so that the Ainu can fish. Some Ainu
think they are the same god.
^ Batchelor, The Ainu and their folk-lore, p. 536,
XIIl] N. JAPAN, AND THE KURILE ISLANDS 163
It is possible that this tale of the quarrelsome brothers
may be of the same type that we find in the West, Romulus
and Remus, Esau and Jacob, and the like. There is, how-
ever, no intimation in Mr Batchelor's account that they are
twins : they appear as weather-gods.
When we cross to the mainland, we strike the twin-cult
again, with a striking parallel to the story of Romulus and
Remus.
In a description of Kamschatka, published in Germany in Twins in
1774^ we are told that if a woman bears twins, the wolf is gchatka.
at the bottom of the business, and is, in some mysterious
way, the parent of the twins ; to bear twins is, consequently,
a sin. The same writer tells us^ that amongst the Italmens Wolf
they make out of grass an image to represent a wolf and
that they keep this all the year long, pretending that it is
the husband of the Italmen girls ; it is, however, prohibited
that the girls should bring forth twins : that would be a
grievous disaster, for which they hold the wolf in the forest
responsible. If such a birth occurred they would promptly
run out of the house ; if the twins were girls the case is so
much the worse. It is clear that here again we have the
twin-fear. Curiously the same people carve and set up
an image in human form, to represent the Thunder, and Thunder-
make offerings to it. It is not the Thunder, however, that ™^se-
is the parent of twins, but the wolf. And while we note
the coincidence in the intrusion of the wolf in the folk-
lores, respectively, of Kamschatka and Rome, we must not
lose sight of the differences between the traditions. The
Roman wolf is the foster-mother of the twins, and not the
father. This may be a Roman perversion of an original wolf
in the story, for the woodpecker, who also assists in bringing
up Romulus and Remus, stands for the Thunder, and is the
second male parent: but it is also possible that the two
wolves are not really parallel at all.
^ Steller, Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamschatken, p. 117 (Frankfurt
and Leipzig, 1774).
2 pp. 327 sqq.
11—2
164 TWIN-CULT IN SAGHALIEN, ETC. [CH. XIII
Twins The Kamschatkan evidence is clear that twins are a
dangerous. (Jaeger, and that they are due to a second parent, perhaps an
animal totem.
Leaving on one side the cases of the Japanese and
Chinese civilizations, where twin-cult has to be sought either
in history or in customs that survive from a distant past, we
may now examine some of the less advanced populations of
Southern Asia.
CHAPTER XIV
OF TWINS IN BURMA, CAMBODIA, AND THE
MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
Amongst the Sawngtung Karens, twins and triplets being The
spiritually dangerous are always killed \
In Cambodia, ' the birth of twins is considered unlucky,
as also is that of albinos, dwarfs, and deformed infants. These
unfortunate children, except when the offspring of hakus
(Brahmans), become from their very birth lifelong slaves of
the king'^.'
Amongst the Batak tribes of Java, there are traces of The
special regard for twins, and of a connection of twins with
the Rain and the Lightning. An interesting way of
examining the Batak cult will be to study Prof, van
Ophuij sen's paper on Der bataksche Zauberstah, from which
it appears that the Bataks use a magic staff in rain-making their
on which are carved the figures of ram-staff.
Si Adji Donda Hatahutan
and of his twin sister
Si Topi Radja Na Uasan,
with perhaps a third figure, who may be a double of the
second.
The story of these twins is told by the Batak people : it
opens as follows : ' Once upon a time in the old days, there
was a prince, whose wife brought twins into the world, a
boy and a girl. In any case it is unlucky to bear twins, but
the misfortune is even worse when the twins are a boy and
a girl.' So far we are on familiar ground : twins are taboo,
and as we find in many places, there is a special risk as to
1 Temple, in Hastings' Encyclop. Religion and Ethics, in. 32.
^ Cabaton, in Hastings' Encyclop. Religion and Ethics, m. 164.
166 TWINS IN BURMA, CAMBODIA, [CH.
boy and girl twins, because they are thought to have
antenatally contradicted the law of exogamy in the tribe.
The story goes on to tell how they were turned into branches
of trees, and, being cursed by God, could be made into magical
staves.
Prof. Ophuijsen says the names of these magical staves
mean
Prince of the dread staff,]
Maiden, thirsty princess, j
and that they represent the Lightning and the Earth.
Meerwaldt had explained them as Lightning and Rain,
probably with more correctness. Their father is called Datu
Arang Debata, which means Divine Black Prince, probably the
Sky covered with black clouds : his eldest son is the lightning.
On one of the staves described by v. Ophuijsen, the head
of Si Adji Donda is crowned with cock's feathers. The cock
is, as we shall often have occasion to note, one of the series
of thunder-birds. What does the staff represent ? Is it
a branch of the sacred tree, or is it another way of regarding
the lightning ? Or are both of these points of view tenable ?
In favour of the former is the belief in a Thunder-tree, such
as we find in Western and Middle Europe, in which the
Thunder-god animistically resides. In favour of the latter
explanation, that the staff i^ the lightning, we have for
parallels the spiral rod in the hands of the Mexican Thunder-
god ^ the trident in the hands of the Greek and Assyrian
gods, which is only a split flash of lightning, etc.
For Meerwaldt's belief that the twins are the lightning
and the rain, which may naturally be regarded as the children
of the Sky-god, we shall find some parallels in Chinese and
in Phoenician twin-lore, where the twins are Fire and Wind,
There seems to be no doubt about the twin-taboo among
the Bataks, nor that they are the children of the Sky, nor
that they are taboo in the sense of disapproval.
For a general summary of the beliefs of the natives of the
1 ' This Idol (Tlaloc) was painted blue and green, to represent the colours
of water, and held in his right hand a pointed spiral rod of gold, to represent
lightning.' Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. vi. p. 461.
XIV] AND THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 167
Dutch East Indies with regard to twins, we may consult
Wilken, ffandleiding voor de vergelijkende Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch Indie (pp. 207 sqq.).
In the island of Bali, Hindoo influences can still be The island
traced. The four Indian distinctions of caste can be ob-
served ; viz. the Brahmins of priestly caste, the Kshatryas or
soldiers, the Vaicayas or merchants and farmers ; and last
of all, the Sudras, or common people. The Bali people
call them Brahmanas, Satryas, Wesjas, and Sudras. There
is no doubt as to the origin of these Bali castes : and,
amongst them all, the birth of twins is regarded as a bless-
ing, provided they are of the same sex. If, however, a boy
and a girl are born, that is regarded as a calamity to both
parents and village, when it occurs among the Sudra and
Wesja castes, but a blessing for the Brahmana and Satrya ;
and in that case for the whole country.
In the two former cases twin-birth is called manak salah
or sinful birth, and the twins themselves sinful twins. This
peculiar variety in the interpretation of the twin-birth should
be carefully noted, because we have here within the limits of
a single community the very same change of view which we
observed amongst different tribes in Africa. It is not to
be supposed that the two upper castes always regarded
twins favourably : the twin-taboo is older than the caste
divisions ; but in the process of time the two upper castes
have rid themselves of the taboo, and h^ve left it hanging
round the necks of the two lower castes.
Immediately after the birth, the mother with her newly Mother
born babies is hunted out of the village and condemned for ^^^ ® '
three months to live outside the centre of the community,
preferably in a temporary dwelling in the neighbourhood of
a graveyard. They can only come back after the time
indicated and the offering of a proper sacrifice.
Amongst the Brahmanas and Satryas twins of opposite
sexes are called betrothed twins ; and in former times, it was
the custom to marry them to one another when they reached
maturity ^ The influence of Hindoo religion in these customs
1 Tijdschrift v. Ind. Tool- Lande- en Volkenkunde, deel xviii. pp. 164-6.
168 TWINS IN BURMA, CAMBODIA, [CH.
must be carefully kept in mind. It is quite possible that
many of the peculiar strands in the religions of the Dutch
East Indian islands may be traceable to continental migra-
tion, either Indian or Malay.
Niassers. Amongst the Niassers twins were universally regarded as
a curse and were immediately put to death ; their parents
were tabooed for a year\
Dyaks.etc. Amongst the Dyaks of the Western division, twins of the
same sex are a favourable sign, of different sexes the opposite is
the case. A boy in such a case becomes a slave of the prince^
Twin-births are looked at even less favourably by the
Makasars and Boegineze, who call them by names implying
marital infidelity^.
The case is even worse among the Igorrote. The last
born child of twins is given to someone who is willing to
bring it up. If no such person is found, the child is strangled
or buried alive. In some of the islands similar regulations
prevail, but, as a rule, twin-births are considered a sign of
good luck*.
Further light is thrown upon this subject by J. C. van
Eerde in a paper in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Lande- en
Volkenhunde'^.
Sumatra. Amongst these Malay populations of Sumatra, who may
be reckoned the most primitive, twin-births are not frequent,
and triplets are extremely rare. If a person eats two bananas
that have grown together, or an egg with two yolks, there is
great chance that twins will be born. When twins are of
different sex, then the children of the district throw stones
or coffee-beans against the wall of the house where the
twins are born : if this is not done, one of the twins, boy
or girl, will die. Van Eerde says that this is a stoning of
evil spirits, on the hypothesis that the children have before
birth broken sexual laws. We may compare this belief with
those of the natives of S. W. Australia.
1 Durdik, Geneesk. Tijdxchr. v. Neder. Ind. 1881, p. 262.
2 Tijdschr. r. Ind. T.- L.- en Volkenkunde, deel xi. p. 24.
» Ind. Gids. 1882, vol. i. p. 62. * I.e. p. 27.
'Een Huwelijk bij de Minangkabausche Maleiers,' vol. xliv. (1901),
p. 494.
XIV] AND THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 169
The twin problem in the Dutch East Indies is also dis-
cussed by Letteboer in Mededeeling van Wege der Neder-
landsche Zendelinggenootschap^. The observations are made island of
on the natives of Savu, an island between Java and New ^^^^'
Guinea. Twins are not desired : they are, moreover, rare.
Twins of opposite sexes are even more disliked : one of the
two must promptly die : if they both grew up they would be
permanently unhappy : they cannot be strong (for want of
sufficient sustenance), nor clever: they will be deficient in
memory : above all they dread the prospect of such twins
marrying one another. This seems to be a traditional belief,
and implies that in former times such cases of closely related
marriage actually occurred.
With the foregoing we may take the customs of the island The
of Yap in the Caroline group. f^^^^
In this island there do not appear any definite traces of the
twin-taboo. When twins are born, one of them is given to
a brother or other near relation to bring up, as it is thought
that otherwise one of the twins would die. Such a child
cannot afterwards be claimed by its parents in the event of
the death of its brother^.
Some closer enquiry into this case would seem desirable,
on account of the ambiguous statement that one of the twins
would die, if the brother did not remove it. As the case is
stated, it might mean nothing more than that it was difficult
for a woman to bring up twins.
Close to Sumatra on the west lies the island of Nias, Nias
concernmg which we have some further information from an
Italian traveller, named Modigliani^
In this island the fear of twins is very great : the twin-
birth is not considered as a natural phenomenon, but as a
superfoetation due to the operation of a demon. If twins
were allowed to live, they would bring on their village the
disaster of fire, of plague, or the death of their own parents ;
1 Vol. XLi. (1902), p. 46.
^ A. Senfft, Etlmograpliische Beitrage iiber die Karolinen-lnsel Yap in
Petermann, xlix. p. 53.
3 Viaggio a Nias, p. 355.
170 TWINS IN BURMA, CAMBODIA, ETC. [CH. XIV
consequently one of them is put to death, commonly the
weakest of the two. When the twin-murder is over, they
make a sacrifice to Adii Hdro, and the whole village gives
itself to a revel of congratulation over the escaped danger
and disgrace.
There can be no doubt here about the potency of the
twin-fear, and although the strongest twin has commonly
the right to survive, the cult cannot be reduced, as has
sometimes been suggested, to a case of * which shall
I keep ? '
CHAPTER XV
THE TWIN-CULT IN POLYNESIA, MELANESIA, AND
AUSTRALIA
We now turn to New Guinea, and the islands that lie to
the north and east of the Australian continent.
From the reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Twins in
Expedition to Torres Straits^ we learn that in many parts j/^^^
of British New Guinea twins are very much disliked, the Guinea are
unfortunate mother is regarded as being like a dog, and one
of the twins is almost invariably killed, but twins are not
disliked among the Sinangolo.
Twins are said to be uncommon among the Western
islands. Their occurrence is said to be due to excessive
intercourse and to inspire disgust. Formerly one of them
would have been got rid of by being buried alive in a hole
dug on the sand-beach.
There can be no doubt that the original twin-taboo lurks
under these statements : there is no trace of dual parentage,
and no remembrance of a time when both twins and their
mother were killed. The mother is, however, the object
of general reprobation, and, as we have so often found, is
compared with the multiple-bearing lower animals.
We have some further information of a belief in Mabuiag Twins
that twins are produced by the action of a sorcerer (maidelaig). by'magic.
He ' twists damap, apparently a kind of creeper brought
from New Guinea, round the neck of a wax figure, to which
he has given the name of the pregnant woman. The ends
of the damap are not tied, but cross each other in front of the
figure's neck, thus representing the two cords crossing each
other in ittero.... Twins are also considered to be produced
1 Vol. V. p. 198 (1904).
172
TWIN-CULT IN POLYNESIA,
[CH.
Tribes
on the
Papuan
Gulf kill
one twin.
Kuni
tribes
kill one.
by the pregnant woman touching or breaking a branch of
a loranthaceous plant (viscum sp. probably V. orientale)
parasitic on a tree, mader. The wood of this tree is much
esteemed for making digging sticks and as firewood, no
twin-producing properties are inherent in it, nor is it re-
garded as being infected with the properties of its twin-
producing parasite.'
One would like to know some more about the virtues of
this tree and its parasite.
On the mainland of New Guinea, bordering on the Papuan
Gulf, we find that the tribes living in the district of Elema,
the coast territory lying between Cape Possession on the
east, and the Alele River on the west, think that it is right
to kill one of the twins, in the interest of the tribe, and
because (it is an explanation which we have not infrequently
found elsewhere) no mother can successfully bring up two
children at once^
On the subject of twins in British New Guinea, there is
an important article by Henri Eschlimann in Anthropos for
March- April 19111 Speaking as a missionary for his own
district, he says that it is the general opinion that twins
have no right to live, and that he only knows of one case to
the contrary, where a woman who had borne twins gave one
to a neighbour who had lost her child. The fonnula for
dealing with such cases is
'A woman has borne twins, she will kill one,'
and the reason assigned is, as was just now stated, that if
she tried to bring both of them up, neither would become
strong.
Eschlimann tells a tale of the influence of the Catholic
religion of repressing this surviving barbarism. A woman
who had borne twins was going to take the usual steps, when
she was reviled and threatened by a Catholic friend with
divine judgements. The missionary was called in, and bought
the child in debate from its parents.
^ Holmes, 'Initiation Ceremonies of Natives of the Papuan Gulf,' Journ.
Anth. Instit. xxxii. (1902), p. 422.
2 pp. 264, 265.
XV] MELANESIA, AND AUSTRALIA 173
He relates another case of a woman, who, at her first
lying-in, had twins, and killed them both, for fear that her
husband would be offended at such a manner of beginning
married life.
The tribes here described are called Kuni, and the head-
quarters of the mission is at St Anne d'Oba-oba, Papua.
The north-eastern part of New Guinea and the adjacent
islands are now German territory, under the name of Kaiser
Wilhelm's Land and the Bismarck Archipelago.
From the former it is reported that twins of the same
sex are allowed to live ; if of different sexes, one is killed,
generally the female \
The same dislike of twins of opposite sexes is found in Twins dis-
the Bismarck Archipelago (Duke of York islands), according Bismarck
to an account of Mr Danks in the Journal of the Anthro- Islands.
j)ological Institute for 18891 The situation is summed up
by Frazer in his book on Totemism and Exogamy^ as follows :
' a curious corollary of the exogamy of the two classes is
that, if twins are born, and they are boy and girl, they are
put to death, because, being of the same class, and being of
opposite sex, they were supposed to have had in the womb a
closeness of connection which amounted to a violation of
their marital law.' Exogamy, that is to say, perpetuated Exogamy
twin-murder in a particular case, when it was disappearing t^i^.
in other cases. murder.
Frazer also quotes from Scott (which should be Scott
Nind ?) in the Journals of the Royal Geographical Society
for 1832* the custom of the natives of King George's Sound One twin
in S. W. Australia. Here, when twins were born, one was ^:^
killed ; if of opposite sexes, the girl w^as killed ; and the George's
reason for killing one of them is, as in New Guinea, that the
woman could not well bring up two^
This is almost exactly what Delessert reports for New
Holland in his Voyages dans les deux Oceans^ with the striking
^ Nachrichten Uber Kaiser-Wilhelm^s Land und der Bismarck Archipel.
p. 82.
2 Vol. XVIII. p. 292. 3 Vol. 11. p. 122.
* Vol. I. p. 39. * Frazer, I.e.
« Voyages dans les deux Oceans, Paris (1848), p. 142.
174
TWIN-CULT IN POLYNESIA,
[CH.
In the
Solomon
Islands
one twin
killed.
Traces
of dual
parentage
in Leper's
Island.
variation that, in the case of boy and girl twins, it is the
male that is sacrificed.
The customs in the Bismarck Archipelago are also re-
ported on, for the island formerly known as New Britain, by
Dr George Brown, in his book on Melanesians and Poly-
nesians'^. Twins (katai) were frequent. If both were male
or both female, they would be allowed to live; but if one
was a male and the other a female, the girl was strangled.
In some cases both were killed. This was done, because,
being of the same class, they were supposed to have violated
the laws of class relationship, or might do so in after life.
Both these reasons are given by the natives. In the Short-
land group (Solomon Islands) when twins were bom, one was
always killed.
When we move still further east, we do not find the same
evidence of twin-murder. Dr Brown reports^ that in Samoa
twins were frequent, and that he had been informed of two
cases of triplets. Ill-natured people talked of these as
litter, but there was no suggestion of making away with
them.
To the S.E. of the Solomon Islands lie the New Hebrides ;
in one of these. Leper's Island, Codrington reports that it is
thought that twins may be a gift of Tagaro. Women who
want a child will go to a sacred place in hope that the spirit
of the place will give them one, and sometimes he gives them
two. The suggestion of spirit influence should be noted.
Codrington does not believe in a spirit parentage of twins
amongst the Melanesians ; but he admits that in the island
of Florida, on the outskirts of the Solomon Island group,
there seems to be something of a suspicion that two fathers
may be concerned ; they take it that the woman has
trespassed in the sacred place, vumuha, of some ghost, Tin-
dalo, whose power lies that way. That certainly is very near
indeed to the statement that the second child of twins is a
spirit-child*.
^ George Brown, D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians, London (Macmillan),
p. 35 (1910).
* I.e. p. 45. 3 Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 229, 230.
XV] MELANESIA, AND AUSTRALIA 175
Codrington found no instances in the Melanesian groups Twins
of the practice of twin-murder, nor of any dislike to twins, Melanesia,
except for the trouble they cause. At Saa, he says, twins
are liked : at Motlav, the people of a village are proud of
their twins, and the parents and relations make much of
them; no one would adopt one of them because it would
spoil the pleasure of seeing them together. When one
reads these statements, especially the last, the impression
they make is that, in part at least, they are not sincere
answers to enquiries. The question was probably asked
in such a way as to suggest to the savage the kind of reply
that would please his enquirer. That the natives should be
averse to twins being brought up in different families is very
improbable. This is not the sort of thing that weighs with
them. While it is not impossible that the Melanesian mind
is friendly towards twins, it would be well to make a closer
investigation into the matter, as, for example, to enquire
whether there were any deprecatory rites at the supposed
welcome twin-birth. We are not to be surprised if there
should be a rapid change of sentiment from the unfavourable
view of twins in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago
to the supposed favourable judgement in the groups of islands
in the southern Pacific ; for we see such rapid changes taking
place as we move from tribe to tribe all over Africa ; what
we want is some more evidence as to the circumstances which
attend the birth of twins, concerning which Codrington has,
apparently, nothing to say. We want, also, some further
information of the relation between the woman and the
tindalo.
Here is another matter that requires a little clearing up
in connection with Polynesian beliefs. Occasionally it seems
as if they had more astronomical knowledge than belongs to The Con-
their proper tribal evolution. For example, in the Hervey of the
islands, Ellis ^ found that the natives knew ' many of the Twins
. . '' known m
constellations, and still more of the single stars. Mars they Hervey
cduWfetia ura,red. star.... The Pleiades they call matarii, small ^^^*'^*^^'
^ Ellis, Polynesian Researches, ii. 415.
176
TWIN-CULT IN POLYNESIA,
[CH.
eyes. But one of the most remarkable facts is, that the
constellation of the Twins is so named by them ; only, instead
of denominating the two stars Castor and Pollux, they call
them ma ainanu, the two ainanus; and to distinguish the
one from the other, ainanu above and ainanu below.'
The question is. How did the twin stars get this recogni-
tion of their duality among the South Sea Islanders ? Is it
spontaneous or borrowed : their own observation, or the
indication made to them by some voyagers ? I do not see
how to answer these questions at present: we shall, how-
ever, find something like the same observation amongst the
Australian tribes ^
We have already referred to the opinions of the natives
of St George's Sound in S. W. Australia with regard to the
violation of the law of exogamy by boy and girl twins.
Twins on Traces of the twin-cult may be found elsewhere in Australia,
of Aus- ^^d occasionally with the same curious explanation. Thus
tralia. Spencer and Gillen report '^ that 'twins, which are of
extremely rare occurrence, are usually immediately killed
as something which is unnatural ; but there is no ill-treat-
ment of the mother, such as is described as occurring in the
case of certain West African peoples by Miss Kingsley. We
cannot find out what exactly lies at the root of this dislike of
twins, in the case of the Arunta and other tribes. Dr Fison
once suggested that it might be due to the fact that the
Violation idea of two individuals of the same class being associated so
closely was abhorrent to the native mind, that it was, in
fact, looked upon much in the light of incest. In the case
of the twins being one a boy, and one a girl, this might
account for it, but when they are both of the same sex it is
difficult to see how any feeling of this kind could arise.
Possibly it is to be explained on the simpler ground that the
parent feels a not unrighteous anger that two spirit in-
dividuals should think of entering the body of the woman
at one and the same time, when they know well that the
mother could not possibly rear them both, added to which
^ Ellis does not, I think, explain the meaning of the word ainanu.
* Native tribes of Central Australia (1899), p. 52.
of exo
gamy
XV] MELANESIA, AND AUSTRALIA 177
the advent of twins is of rare occurrence, and the native Dread of
always has a dread of anything which appears strange and ^^^°^'
out of the common."
The foregoing remarks are suggestive, though confessedly
inadequate : it is true, as Dr Fison suggested, that the fear
of an actual or potential violation of the law of exogamy has
been operating on the savage mind: it is clear from the
illustrations already given of the existence of such suspicions,
that the exogamous practice has re-acted on the twin-cult :
but, as Spencer and Gillen see clearly, it is not a sufficient
explanation of the twin-cult itself Neither is it sufficient to
say that twins are hard to bring up, and that food is scarce :
the same terrors prevail where food is plentiful, and life fairly
easy. The last sentence comes nearest to an explanation;
the dread of the abnormal. Apparently this explanation was
the one that Spencer and Gillen found most satisfactory, for
in their next great book, published in 1904, on the Northern
Tribes of Central Australia (p. 609), they allude to the
matter again in the following terms : ' Twins are usually
destroyed at once as something uncanny, but apparently they
are of very rare occurrence. In the Binbinga and Coastal
tribes a child will be killed if it has been causing the mother
much pain before birth. In every instance it must be re-
membered that the spirit part of the child returns at once to
the Alcheringa home, and may very soon be born again,
entering, very likely, the same woman.'
The infrequency of twins, which is supposed by Spencer
and Gillen to accentuate the sense of their abnormality, is
contradicted for S. E. Australia by Dawson, in his Australian
Aborigines (p. 39), 'Twins are as common among them as
among Europeans : but as food is occasionally very scarce,
and a large family troublesome to move about, it is lawful
and customary to destroy the weakest twin-child, irrespective
of sex. It is usual, also, to destroy those that are malformed.'
In confirmation of this theory of the twin-cult, Dawson goes
on to explain that when a woman finds her family increasing
too rapidly, she consults her husband as to the destruction
H. B. 12
178 TWIN-CULT IN POLYNESIA, ETC. [CH. XV
of one of them, and that this naturally means killing one of
the girls.
What we learn from Dawson is that in S. E. Australia,
also, the practice of twin-murder, with partial modification,
prevails. And it is probable that we might generalise some
such statement for the whole of Australia, in view of what
has already been stated.
CHAPTER XVI
THE TWIN-CULT IN ASSAM, ETC.
There is a tribe in Assam called the Khasis which has Twins in
the twin superstition in a form presenting striking analogies '^^^*™-
with what we have noticed in S. W. Australia and elsewhere ^
A twin-birth is sang or taboo. The Khasis argue that as The
there is but one Ka lawbei (first ancestress), and one U Thaw- *^^^'
lang (first ancestor), so one child, male or female, should
be born at a time. A twin-birth is accordingly regarded as
a visitation by God for some sang or transgression, committed
by some member of the clan. When the twins are of oppo-
site sexes, the sang is considered to be extremely serious, the
Khasi idea being that defilement has taken place within the
womb. The case is treated as one of Shong kur, or marriage
within the clan, and the bones of the twin cannot be placed
in the sepulchre of the clan.
Amongst the Ao-nagas in Assam we have a story of the The
origin of lightning which is charged with Dioscuric features. *'"'^^8*^-
This story, which I find in Anthropos (vol. iv. p. 154), comes
from a traveller named Molz, who describes a visit paid to the
Ao-nagas, and the works and ways of the people. The myth
about the lightning is to the following effect :
Many years ago there lived upon earth Two Divine TheBreth-
Brethren, who were always at loggerheads with one another, quarrel
One day, after they had been fighting, the elder changed the
younger into a squirrel, after which he left the earth and went
away to Heaven. The squirrel left behind on the earth now One
makes a cry in a wailing tone : and this irritates the Divine divine ?
Brother in Heaven, because he thinks that the cry of the who
squirrel is a declaration of war. Vei^y often he gets out of^-^^l^^
1 Gurdon, The Khasis.
12—2
180
TWIN-CULT IN ASSAM
[CH.
patience and hurls down the lightning. That this account is
Dioscuric is certain ; two brothers, one of whom resides in
Heaven, the other on earth ; the language not quite clear as
to whether one brother is mortal for they are both described
as Divine : a constant quarrel between the two brothers, as
in the case of Romulus and Remus, or Esau and Jacob ; and
since one brother is turned into a squirrel, must we not
assume a sacred tree for the earth brother to live in ? And
the control of the lightning makes the brother in Heaven
a thunder-boy, and the tree which he strikes a lightning-tree.
Surely these savages in Assam have either inherited or
evolved the Dioscuric tradition of the great Brethren, who
are the assessors of the thunder-god. But in that case the
squirrel must be the cult-animal, which is something new.
Squirrel as The cult-animal for Thunder is commonly a bird, though we
animar have found cases of bear-ancestry, wolf-ancestry, and the like,
where the thunder is more or less involved, to say nothing of
a possible intrusion of the beaver (Castor) in the story of the
Spartan Dioscuri. These cases, however, are all obscure, and
are not sufficient to explain the presence of the squirrel in
the Ao-naga cult. It is possible that the explanation may
lie in another direction. It may be a flying squirrel that is
at the bottom of the myth, the flying squirrel being re-
garded by savages of low culture as a bird. Let us turn to
Mr Batchelor's account of the Ai^iu and their folk-lore, and
see what the Ainu say about the flying squirrel.
Bird-cult exists among the Ainu in a variety of forms : the
most important instance being the reference, upon which
we shall enlarge later, to the Woodpecker as a boat-builder,
and a consequent semi-religious taboo of the bird. The
Ainu have a great regard for the flying squirrel ; Mr Batchelor
says : ' I find that the flying squirrel holds a very high place
in the cult practised amongst this people. The Ainu place
this animal amongst the birds, but this is because they fly;
and we will not quarrel with them because they are a little
out in some of their ornithological notions. In cases where
there is lack of family issue, the men, after earnestly appealing
to the goddess of fire and her consort, for help, often place
Cult of
flying
squirrel,
amongst
the Ainu
XVl] TWIN-CULT IN ASSAM 181
their hopes on the flying squirrel.... The name by which the
flying squirrel is known is At Kaniu, and that is said to
mean, the divine prolific one. It is so called because it is
said to produce as many as thirty young at a birth. When
partaken of, the flesh is supposed to convey power, in some
unexplained way, to generate children.' Mr Batchelor need
not have found a difficulty in so simple a case of sympathetic
magic as this.
The animal is sacrificed and eaten secretly, no one being
allowed to know of it except the husband and wife who are
involved in the plot.
It will be seen that amongst the Ainu, the flying squirrel
is considered as a bird (is it perhaps a thunder-bird ?) and
actually discharges a Dioscuric function ; it has the patronage
of fertility. If the flying squirrel should be the cult-animal
in rites of the Ainu, there is no reason why the ordinary
squirrel should not be so amongst the Ao-nagas, even if they
do nob exactly recognise him as a bird. The case would be
easier if we could have the assistance of colour. A red
squirrel would be a very good representative of the thunder.
The gray squirrel is, I believe, the Indian variety, but I am
not sure about this. If we could recognise the squirrel as
the cult-animal in a thunder-myth, then, since the earth-
brother in the myth of the Ao-nagas is changed into him, we
should have both brothers as thunder-boys, one through his
transformation into the Thunder-bird (or quasi-bird) the
other because he actually wields the lightning.
As we have said, the Ao-naga myth must be classed as
Dioscuric.
Among the Todas, it is the custom to kill one of a pair of
twins, even if both should be boys. If they should be girls,
it is probable that both would be killed^.
1 Eivers, The Todas, p. 480.
CHAPTER XVII
ON THE TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA
Twins in
India.
Twin-
taboo in
the Eig-
Veda;
as among
Bechu-
anas,
in Peru,
and in
Wales.
We are now come to the frontiers of India, and are to
enquire into the traces of twin-fear or twin- worship in the
ancient Indian civilization. We have, in reality, been on
the borders of the subject already, when we were discussing
the case of influence from Hindustan upon the natives of the
Dutch East India islands. We found a complete caste
system on the Indian model, associated with a twin-cult,
which was savage for the two lower castes, but modified into
approbation for the two higher castes, so that the priests
and warriors preserved their twin-children, while the lower
orders destroyed theirs. It was a natural suggestion that
we had caught the original custom of geminicide in the act
of transformation from twin-hate to twin-honour. It will be
well to keep this in mind, in case an Indian twin-cult at
home should show the same features in the peninsula, as we
detect in the islands.
The first fact to be brought to notice is that the Vedic
literature shows the existence of a twin-taboo, not only on
men, but upon the higher animals, kine, horses, and asses.
We are dealing with the ill-luck of a twinning (major)
animal.
Now this is not quite new to us. We have already
quoted John Campbell's observation (at the beginning of
last century) that the Bechuanas not only kill one of twin-
children, but if a cow should have two calves, one of them
must be either killed or driven away. In Peru, the twin-
fear affects llamas as well as men. And it was pointed out
that in Wales at the present day, where the twin-cult for
children survives in the form of approbation and a sense of
CH. XVll] TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA 183
good-luck and fertile influences, a man will sell a cow which
brings forth two calves because the luck is gone from her.
This means that the taboo has been reversed in the case of
human beings, the original view being that both cases, twin-
men and twin-cattle, meant ill-luck. No one would want to
change the taboo on animals from good-luck again to ill-luck.
How lucky twin-children have become in Wales may be seen
from the following communication from my friend Miss Hilda
M. Stranger, of Plymouth : ' My house-keeper tells me that
at her home in a village of Glamorganshire, twins are much Welsh
in request for weddings. They have twin girls in their |^^'w jf
family, who are often asked as bridesmaids to ensure luck human :
to the wedded pair.'
That is, of course, thoroughly Dioscuric, but it is not the and un-
view of the man with twin-calves, who sees nothing but bovine,
ill-luck in his twins.
When we turn to the Indian literature, we find in the Spells for
AtTiarva-Veda a special section dealing with the question of ^jfj^g^^
averting the ill-luck caused by a twinning animal. The ^^°^ *^^
section is translated in Griffith's Hymns of the Atharva-Veda veda.
(pp. 122, 123), and Griffith notes acutely that the ' same
superstition is found at the present time in uncivilized
parts of Africa.' It is also translated by Weber, Indische
Studien (xvii. 297 ff.), and by Bloomfield in the Sacred
Books of the East (S.B.E. XLII. pp. 145, 359). I transcribe
Bloomfield's rendering, and some of his notes.
p. 145. III. 28. Formula in expiation of the birth of
twin-calves.
1. Through one creation at a time (this) cow was born
when the fashioners of the beings did create the cows of
many colours. (Therefore), when a cow doth beget twins
portentously, growling and cross she injure th the cattle.
2. This (cow) doth injure our cattle : a flesh-eater,
a devourer, she hath become. Hence to a Brahman we shall
give her : in this way may she be kindly and auspicious !
3. Auspicious be to (our) men, auspicious to (our) cows The
and horses, auspicious to this entire field, auspicious be to us ^nneSs"
right here ! the cow.
184 TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH.
4. Here be prosperity, here be- sap ! Be thou here one
that especially gives a thousandfold ! Make the cattle prosper,
thou mother of twins !
5. Where our pious friends live joyously, having left
behind the ailments of their bodies, to that world the mother
of twins did attain : may she not injure our men and our
cattle !
6. Where is the world of our pious friends, where the
world of them that sacrifice with the agnihotra, to that world
the mother of twins did attain : may she not injure our men
and our cattle !
p. 359. (Bloomfield's comment on above.)
Contrary to modern superstitions which regard the birth
of twins as auspicious, and prize animals born in pairs, the
prevailing Hindu view is that the birth of twins is an ominous
occurrence to be expiated by diverse performances, and that
the cattle itself is, as a rule, to be given to the Brahmans.
But there are not wanting indications that a favourable view
of such events also existed, and one may suspect shrewdly
that the thrifty Brahmans, who stood ever ready to gather in
all sorts of odds and ends (cf. the elaborate oratio pro domo,
XII. 4, in connection with the vasa), gave vigorous support to
any tendency towards superstitious fear which might show
its head in connection with such occurrences. Weber,
Indische Studien, xvii. 298 ff., has assembled quite a number
of passages which represent the Hindu attitude towards twins.
Cf. also Tait, S. ii. 1. 8. 4.
The hymn is rubricated thrice in the Kausika, in the
thirteenth book, which is devoted to expiatory performances
(prayusA;itti) in connection with all sorts of omens and por-
tents. It is employed in chapters 109, 5 ; 110, 4; 111, 5 on
the occasion of the birth of twins from cows, mares, asses.
Exorcism and women. The practices consist in cooking porridge in
ning ^^® milk of the mother, offering ghee, pouring the dregs of
animals : ghee into a water vessel and upon the porridge. Then the
animal and its young are made to eat of the porridge, to
drink of the water, and they are also sprinkled with the same
water. The mother is then given to the Brahmans, and in
XVIl] TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA 185
the case of the human mother, a ransom " according to her Eansom
value, or, in accordance with the wealth (of the father)," is mo\hei'
paid. Cf. Weber, Omina und Portenta, p. 377 ff.
Stanza 1. Since the mother of twins was born under an
arrangement which made a separate act of creation necessary
for each individual, the birth of two at a time is apartu,
" unseasonable, portentous."
Stanzas 5, 6. The mother of twins is invited to enter
the world of the blissful which is described in all its attrac-
tiveness, and yet, implicitly, is not desired for the time being
by the owner of the cow. In yamini, " a mother of twins,"
there is a pun, " fit for Yama the god of heaven, and death " :
this makes it still more appropriate that she shall go
there — '
This deprecatory ritual is full of suggestive points. It is
interesting to see how the taboo is raised or re-interpreted. It
is not really raised : but it ceases to affect the Brahman and
his cows; just as in the Dutch East Indies the taboo on
human twins does not touch the higher castes, who are
clearly immune. The Brahman, in fact, is in the position
of advantage of the African witch-doctor, who can handle
tabooed property which would be fatal to meaner mortals.
The Brahman takes the cow, and removes the risks from the Twin-cult
owner by transferring the risks, and the cow, to himself; ^^ ^ ^*
and this proceeding suits all classes. When we compare it compared
with the action of the self-willed and ungoverned Welshman, ^gjgjj
who sells the cow and transfers the ill-luck to someone else, custom,
we see that we are on a different plane of religious life. The
one person shuffles out of his dangers and responsibilities,
and leaves them on another man's shoulders, the other nobly
transfers them to his own; — for the consideration that the
cow should go along with the taboo : evidently the Brahman
is the more religious person of the two, and the better
endowed, for he is better off by a cow, even if he is worse off
by the possible incidence of a taboo, which would not normally
affect him. Wise Brahman ! Brave Brahman ! It is in-
teresting too, that the Brahman also confiscates the offending
186 TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH.
woman, in the parallel case, and her husband has to redeem
her !
Then it is noteworthy that the cow herself, whose action is
deprecated by the chant and the accompanying ritual, is also
appealed to positively, as being by sympathetic action the
symbol and cause of fertility. She attains an almost celestial
rank, and is the object of prayers. She is appealed to in
a somewhat similar manner and is employed to the same
ends as the hypothetically fertile flying squirrel of the Ainu.
One sees how important the twins and their mother are,
consequently, to be reckoned in the quest of fertility. This
cow in Indian life, with its two calves, corresponds to the
Uganda twin-mother, whose body can fertilize banana trees ;
so that although the cow is disliked, she is also liked, and if
dangerous, is also helpful. It is natural that the theme of
fertility should become in time a leading motive in the
interpretation of twins. As we have seen, in South Wales,
where the cow is still dangerous, human twins are altogether
beneficent. The stages of the evolution can be traced. We
shall see, moreover, that when the Indian twins attain
celestial rank, they carry over with them their powers of
fertilization, and will preside over weddings just as potently
as if they were little twin-girls in modern Wales. The
bride-chamber and the birth-chamber will be their natural
places of resort.
This piece of old Indian ritual has now been sufficiently
explained.
The In the next place, something must be said with regard to
^°the°^^" the two Agvins, or Celestial Horsemen, in whom the twin-
Rig-Veda. cult has finally expressed itself. The exact process by which
the dreaded or approved twin-children become dread or
beneficent powers, may not be easy to describe : it is, how-
ever, clear from the analogies of other religions, that it is not
uncommon to find the cult of the earthly twins develop into
or be accompanied by the cult of the heavenly twins. In
Peru, for instance, where the Spaniards found the Indians
worshipping twins under the title of Children of the Thunder^
they worshipped also a pair of thunder and lightning twins,
XVIl] TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA 187
Apocatequil and Piguerao. The thunder itself had come to
be regarded as duplicate, no doubt under a reflex influence
from the belief that twins on earth were related to the
thunder. The earthly twins had become celestial and sat by
their sire. We need not be surprised at this, for from another
point of view, the West African beliefs suggest that a twin
which was dangerous in life, might be dangerous after death, in
which case images of them would naturally be made, supplies
of food and drink would be offered to them, and deprecatory
prayers addressed. Where the twins were friendly, they
might equally be expected to keep up their interest after
they had ceased to be visible, and to be still helpful to men.
The A9vins occupy a very prominent place in the ancient
Indian religion, and the Vedas are constantly referring to
them. It would take a volume to discuss the character and
function of these twin-brethren (such a volume would be
something like Dr Myriantheus' book Die Agvins^), but the
importance of the factor in the Aryan religion makes it
necessary to repeat a little of what is already well known to
the students of Indian religion and comparative theology.
The A9vins, or twin-horsemen, are mentioned more than
400 times in the Rig- Veda, and are celebrated in more than
50 complete hymns, as well as in parts of others. Their
name Agvinau {Equines in the dual), refers to a connection
between themselves and horses. One strand of the myth is
that they were born from horse parentage (gods transformed
into horses), for which the parallel is the swan parentage of
Castor and Pollux. As they are also described as children of
the Sky-god, for which we have the Dioscuric parallel, and
the Children of Tilo among the Baronga, it is probable that
the horses in question are cult animals connected with the
worship of the Sky, in the same way as the woodpeckers in
early Greek and Roman religion.
In the Rig- Veda the twins are no longer thought of as The twins
horses and are commonly horse-drivers, which must not be ^'^.*'^i°*"
. . drivers,
confused with horse riding ; the horse is driven in a chariot,
and the A9vins are regarded as the inventors of the yoke
^ Die Agvins oder Arischen Dioskuren, Miinchen, 1876.
Nasatiya.
188 TWIN- FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH.
which controls their steeds. The Greek parallel for this is
' hoi-se-taming Castor ' of Homer, where again we are not to
think of the horse as tamed for riding. The Dioscuri who
ride on horses, as Castor and Pollux at the battle of the Lake
Regillus, are a later stage of development. The Agvins,
without the name, and perhaps without the horses, may
go back to pre-Vedic days : it is better to think of them
simply as the great Twin-Brethren, without special names or
descriptions in the first instance.
Called In the Vedic literature they are also called by the name
Nasatiya, the meaning of which is uncertain : no etymology
that has been suggested for the name is entirely satisfactory :
the name must be kept in mind, not only because it is one
of the terms by which we recognise the A9vins in the Vedic
literature, and define their activities, but because the name
itself appears to be persistent. A statement has recently
been circulated that the Nasatiya with other Indian deities
have been found in the Hittite tablets. If this should turn
out to be correct, it will be a fact of the first importance in
determining the connection between Indian and Greek
religious ideas.
Amongst the interpretations which have been given to
the word Nasatiya, one makes it practically equivalent with
the Greek 1.(OTrjp^ (saviour). Whether this be correct or
not^, it is certain that the twin-brethren came to be regarded
' Brunnhofer, Von Aral his zur Ganga, p. 99, the root being nas as in
Gothic nas-jan, to save, to help.
2 Brunnhofer rejects peremptorily the suggestion that the twins were
called Nasatiya because they had long noses ! But perhaps he may be wrong
in this. We have traced the twins back to a bird ancestry in ever so many
places, and sometimes we have come across the traditional form as they pass
from birds to men. For example, among the Dacotahs, the thunder-bird
which was killed had a face like a man, with a none like an eaglets bill.
There is then, nothing impossible in the supposition that between the
bird-twin and the human-twin, a bird-man should have occurred, in which
case the word Nasatiya becomes intelligible. The confirmation of this
explanation from the artistic side may be seen in the representation of the
Chinese Thunder-god to which we have already alluded (see p. 30) as
having wings, claws and beak attached to a human form. The Nasatiya
might be thus Beak-men. For Sanskrit confirmation see Additional Notes
at the end of this volume.
XVIl] TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA 189
as the typical saviours of persons in disability and in distress. The
The list of their benevolences is long and definite ; they have gaviours!
an especial interest in the blind, whose eyes they open, in
the infertile or sexually disabled, in the traveller and the
sailor; they preside over the nuptial chamber, supply the
agriculturist with rain, teach him the use of the plough, and
so on.
We should compare the language of the Homeric Hymns
(xxxiii. 16):
(TWTTJpas TeKe waiSas eirixSoviojv avOpdiiruv
(hKvirbpwv re veQv Sre re (nrepxoiaiv dteXXai
Xei/ii^/jtat Kara ttovtov dfielXixov,.,.
The question as to what natural powers of phenomena
are represented by the A9vins has met with very various
solutions : the difficulty of the determination arises from
not putting the emphasis on the fundamental feature of the
cult which necessarily underlies later developments. It is
certain from the Vedas that the A9vins are twins, and we
know enough about twin-cults by this time to see how the
peculiarities of the great Twin-Brethren can be derived from
or associated with the primal Fear.
We should, further, be on our guard against the natural
desire to find one consistent explanation of everything that
might be called A9vinism ; what we have before us is a
number of evolutionary strands tangled up together, a number
of overlapping strata of belief. That the Twins are Sky-
children is certain ; the Vedas say so clearly in a number
of places : but there is no consensus, either in the Vedic
hymns, or in the minds of their interpreters, as to what will
follow from their relation to the Sky. Could they be, for The Twins
example, the Sun and Moon ; or the morning and evening f^Jand '
twilights, or the constellation which in later days is definitely evening
named after them, or are they the morning and evening or mom-
stars ? If there is one solution which must be adopted to ^"^ ^J^^
... ^ evening
the exclusion of the others, it is the latter: for (1) it is stars?
characteristic of primitive man to regard the morning and
evening star as two diiferent stars, exactly equal and similar,
and therefore to be described as twins, and even the Greeks
190 TWIN-FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH, XVII
only came slowly to realise that they were the same star;
(2) the comparison of the Indian myths with the Lettish
traditions and folk-songs, shows, as Mannhardt pointed out,
the same twin-brethren or their horses identified with the
morning and the evening stars. This means that when
the twans became stars, they were in the first instance
known as Hesper and Phosphor, and of these one was up
and the other down at the same time, which furnished the
Greeks with the material for their story of the alternate
immortality of Castor and Pollux. The supposition explains
at once why the twins are always invoked at the Dawn, and
why they are so closely connected with the maiden Surya,
who is either the Sun, or the daughter of the Sun. Here
again the Greek parallel comes to our aid ; for Castor and
Pollux have also a female figure associated with them, their
sister Helena: and in the Lettish myths, the Sons of God
(diva deli) ride on their horses to assist the daughter of the
Sun. Folk-lore will furnish us with other stories of the
Twin-Brethren, who rescue the imprisoned maiden ; all these
stories go back into a very primitive stratum of the twin-cult
as known to our Indo-Germanic ancestors.
Red the The colour of the A9vins is red, and this means probably
of the ^'^^ ^^® Vedic literature the red of the dawn, though it may
Apvins. have regard also to the colour of the lightning, seeing that,
like Indra, the twins are rain-makers. For the former inter-
pretation we have the known connection of the Agvins with
morning and evening light ; in this connection, Myriantheus
has pointed out^ that the A9vins sometimes drive a team of
gray asses, instead of their regular red or white steeds,
the reference being to the gray of the early morning light.
The suggestion is ingenious, and while not quite outside
doubt, is extremely probable. We shall find a parallel for
it, later on, in the Acts of Thomas.
' I.e. p. 74. ' Aus dem Grauen des Morgens, welches der gewohnlichen
Farbe des Esels entspricht, hat sich auch ohne Zweifel die Vorstellung
gebildet dass der Wagen der Apvins von einem oder zwei Eseln gezogen wird.'
CHAPTER XVITI
THE TWIN-CULT IN CENTRAL ASIA MINOR
We have been discussing Indian deities, and may now
remind ourselves that some of these, such as Mithra, are
common both to Persia and India : and if the Vedas give
such prominence to the A^vins, the Persian religion also had The Twins
its agpino yavino, the two youths, the Aypins. The obser- ^" ^rsia.
vation is important for the twins ought to appear in Persia
if we are really dealing with the religion of our Aryan
ancestors : if the twin-cult is as primitive as we suppose, it
cannot be studied upon the isolated soil of India.
Can we trace it on its westward way from the frontiers
of Persia and India ? It is at this point that Winckler's
discovery of Aryan deities (including the Twins) amongst
the Hittite tablets, becomes so important. The importance The Twins
of the discovery was emphasized in the Expository Times for ^u^u^
August 1910 in the statement that 'the supreme surprise of tablets,
the Boghaz Koi tablets (is) that the royal house of Mitanni
in the time of Hatti domination, invoked gods who have
familiar Aryan names, Indra, Mithra, Varuna, and the A9vin
Twins.'
The editor was quoting from a statement made by
Hogarth at the Winnipeg meeting of the British Association
in 1909. It was quite right to express ' supreme surprise.'
The quotation might have been a little longer with advan-
tage. From Hogarth we learn that Winckler ' clearly states
his belief that the Mitanni were in the mass ethnically kin
to the Hatti, worshipping the same supreme god Teshup.
192 TWIN-(^ULT IN CENTRAL ASIA MINOR [CH.
Nor is he disturbed in this belief by what is perhaps the
most startling of the revelations made by the Boghaz Koi
tablets etc' {ut supra).
The Aryan gods in question appear as the sponsors in
treaties made between Subbiluliuma and Mattiuaza, the son
Aryan of Tushratta, the king of Mi tannic They appear along with
amongst ^^^ gods of Mitanni, of whom Teshub is the supreme, and the
the Harri. population for whom these gods are responsible when oaths
are taken, are called Harri, lying to the east and north of
the kingdom of Mitanni. Winckler boldly claims these
Harri as Aryans, and justifies his equivalence by the Achae-
menid Inscriptions, where the Aryans appear as Har-ri-ja.
The Mitanni lie in Mesopotamia, and a people in alliance
with them on the north and east would occupy Armenia,
including perhaps the city of Malatiya and the plain of
Harput. This, then, is the region in which the Aryan
people were still united and powerful, in the time of the
supremacy of the Hittites. If Winckler can maintain these
positions, we shall have begun to build the ethnological
bridge between our own European ancestors, and their
cognates in Persia and India. And there seems little doubt
that the Aryan deities have actually been found.
Are the There is another direction in which the result is im-
^n^s*'^ portant: it makes it easier for us to recognise the Aryan
Aryan? twins and the Aryan people in the complex population and
ancestry of the city of Edessa. We shall probably be able
to show that they worshipped the morning and evening stars
as assessors of the Sun in Edessa, down to the very time of
the conversion of Edessa to Christianity and even later. If
so, we have in evidence twins of the Indian type in the
religion of that city, unless it can be shown that there are
Semitic twins of the very same type. It is practically at
this point that the difficulty will arise : the Edessan twins
are named Monim and Aziz, and it can be shown that both
of these are Arab names. So far as the names go, the
evidence is against the belief that the Edessan twins are
1 See Winckler, MDOG. nr. 35, and id. Orientalische Lit.-Zeitung for
July, 1910.
XVIIl] TWIN-CULT IN CENTRAL ASIA MINOR 193
Aryan. The argument is not final, and we leave the matter
at this point undecided.
The history of the Abgar dynasty has yet to be un-
ravelled. On the one hand there is a steady affirmation
on the part of the citizens, as represented in the Syriac
literature, that Edessa is Parthian ; on the other hand the
name Abgar and some other names associated with the
dynasty are suspiciously transjordanic and Nabataean. As
far as I have yet gone with the problem, it appears to me
that a Nabataean prince succeeded to the Edessan kingdom,
without altogether displacing a previous Parthian rule :
this might easily have happened if, for example, a Nabataean
ruler had come in by marriage. The case would be some-
thing like the connection of Aretas with Herod by the
marriage of the daughter of the former. In this way we
might account for the Semitic character of the names of the
Edessan twins \
The question of the Edessai^twins is, therefore, one that
requires closer study. It belongs, in part, to the Prolego-
mena to the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, which we shall
show to have been thoroughly Dioscurized, and probably
by an Edessan hand.
Meanwhile the case stands thus: Edessa, which is The Twins
probably not far removed from the centre of the Mitanni u|)per
government, shows conclusive evidence that a twin-cult Euphra-
existed there ; to the north and east, the same side of the
Euphrates, lay, if Winckler is correct, the Aryan allies of
the Mitanni, also worshippers of twins. Suppose we go
a little further to the north, and follow the upper arm of
the Euphrates till we come to the canon, just below the
modern city of Egin, we find at the dangerous spot where
the river enters the canon, a sanctuary of the Twins. This
makes three cases of twin-worship, two certain and the other
probable, placed right across the centre of Asia Minor : the
combination of the evidence is certainly striking. With
regard to the sanctuary at the Egin rapids, we have at the
present day, only a ruined chapel of S. Cosmas and S. Damian.
^ See further on this matter in Additional Notes.
H. B. 13
194 TWIN-CULT IN CENTRAL ASIA MINOR [CH. XVIII
This I discovered in 1903 when I was preparing to navigate
the canon in question on a raft (kellik) floated on goatskins
in the manner that can be seen on the Assyrian monuments.
Cosmas and Damian are certainly twins, and they must be
recognised as discharging the usual functions of twins towards
those who navigate the rapids. There is not the least doubt
that they have displaced an earlier pair of twins at the point
in question : the navigation of the Euphrates and its dangers,
are not things of yesterday : the kelliks came down the
caiion before Cosmas and Damian were thought of: and
the custom of prayer to guardian spirits, or of placating
river spirits in dangerous places, is known all over the world.
The spirits who were appealed to, or appeased at the canon
of the Euphrates, are seen, by the substitute which the
Church offered for them, to have been the Heavenly Twins.
These must have had a strong hold on the populations of
Asia Minor.
CHAPTER XIX
WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA ?
In the previous chapter we were examining the traces of
twin-cult in ancient times for the central part of Asia Minor
and for Northern Mesopotamia, and we found reason to
believe that twin-worship prevailed in the district of Edessa,
perhaps in the district of Malatiya (Melitene) and Harpoot,
and on the upper branch of the Euphrates. These three
suggestions provoke further enquiries in three directions :
the Edessan cult requires to be re-stated as regards the
extent to which it is involved in the Acts of Thomas, or to
which it has parallels in early Arabian or Palestinian religion;
the supposed Aryan settlement in Armenia suggests that
we now follow the Aryans westward into Europe ; and the
discovery of the twins acting as river-saints in the very heart
of the country, raises the question as to how they came to be
sea-saints, having presumably been river-saints in the first
instance. Which of these roads of enquiry shall we take ?
they are all open, and all interesting : in each case the results
will be important, whether we start for Lithuania, for Central
Arabia or for the sea. As, however, the Edessan problem
opens up some of the most important questions in religious
tradition, it will perhaps be better to leave that for a later
investigation ; and, in the same way, the Lettish folk-songs,
which supply a parallel with Edessa, in that the tradition
of both districts involves the worship of the morning and
evening star, considered as twins, may be set on one side for
a little while. We will, therefore, proceed with the third
point, the appearance of the twins as river-saints on the
13—2
196 WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA? [CH.
Euphrates and the consequences which flow from that
observation'.
Twins are We will begin with the observation that the twins were
Saints River-Saints before they were Sea-Saints. One advantage
which accrues from having detected the primitive taboo
which underlies Dioscurism, is that we can rapidly reach
conclusions which, otherwise, might require much collecting
and sifting of evidence. For example, when we observe that
in Graeco-Roman times, the Twins were the patrons of sea-
faring men, and wish to know whether this is one of their
Twins primitive characteristics, the taboo tells us at once that it
land-* had originally nothing to do with the Sea, and that, there-
taboo, fore, the protection of sailors cannot be its first intention, a
result which would be borne out by the study of Greek
Literature, and might, indeed, have been derived from it.
Moreover, since the twin-cult is based on elementary fears in
connection with the propagation of the species, it is only after
long reflection on the part of our distant ancestors that the
Twins come to be regarded as human benefactors and
saviours; and since man travels by land for ages before he
ventures on the sea {illi robur et aes triplex) the Dioscuri
will be protectors of land travellers before they become the
patron saints of sailors, and since, when man does venture on
the water, he begins with river transport before he ventures
on the great deep, the Twins must be river-saints before
they become sea-saints. All of this lies in the nature of the
case, and does not need, or hardly needs, to be reinforced by
Twins on literary investigations or archaeological research. If, for
t e Seine g^ample, a votive altar is found in Notre-Dame at Paris with
a dedication from the boatmen on the Seine, accompanied by
images of Castor and Pollux, we have no reason to suppose
that this Cult of the Twins, which we recognise to exist in
Gaul, has moved up the river from Havre de Grace ; it is
much more likely to be on its way downstream : and in the
' In what follows I make use of a paper read before the Oxford Congress
of Religions in 1908, and published in the Contemporary Revieic in 1909; for
permission to make use of this paper, as in similar cases, I am indebted to
the editorial managers of the magazine.
XIX] WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA? 197
same way the cult of the twins on the rapids of the Euphrates and on the
is, of necessity, a much older cult than the same worship tes
paid by Tyrian or Sidonian voyagers in the Mediterranean.
So the river-saints come first, because the river- navigation
comes first, and because river-dangers precede sea-perils
experimentally. If it should be objected that some of the
lowest specimens of humanity, say in Polynesia, are sea-
going people, and spend all their time on the sea, the
answer is easy; they did not originally belong to those
islands or seas, where we find them, but they and their ships
have made an easterly migration from India or the Malay
Peninsula, and they learned ship-building and navigation
on the continent, which brings us back to the position from
which we started.
The twins, then, preside over the dangers of river-
navigation, whether of very dangerous waters, like the
Euphrates, or of less perilous streams, like the Seine ; we
need not hesitate to believe that they were once in evidence
on the Tiber, not indeed under the names of Castor and and on the
Pollux, which are probably due to Greek influence upon -'-'"®''-
neighbouring Latin peoples, but under the names of Romulus
(Romus) and Remus, which we know to belong to the earliest
civilization on the banks of the river; and we shall show
presently that Romulus and Remus not only presided over
their home waters, but that they actually put to sea and
contended there for naval supremacy with Castor and Pollux.
What is wanted, then, is a laying-down of the general
lines on which the Heavenly Twins arrived, by long evolution,
at their final position among the chief benefactors of the
human race, and on those general lines, the filling-in of the
various factors of the evidence which go to make up a
complete demonstration : for, happily, thanks to the persis-
tence of savage life on the one hand, and of ecclesiastically
modified paganism on the other, we have almost all the links
in the evolutionary chain before us, and we know what to
look for in countries and amongst peoples where, at first
sight, the evidence has, until now, been deficient or obscured.
If, for example, we start from the observation that the
198 WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA? [CH.
Greeks regard Twins as the children of Zeus, the sky-god,
and the Baronga tribe as the children of Tilo (the sky), and
the ancient Peruvians as children of the Thunder, we have
to examine what is known about the Sky-god and the
Thunder-god, and we soon find out that for the Mediterranean
and middle-European peoples, the Thunder-god is also an
Oak-god. This leads on to the registration of all the forms
of the cult of the Oak-god, whether ancient or modern, and
the correlation of those cults with the worship of the
Thunder: for it is the two assessors of the Oak-god or
Thunder-god that are going to take charge of our ships for
us, and protect our sailors from the dangers of the streams,
the shallows, or the deep : the dangers must also be classified,
because they will make the places of worship of the Twins,
considered as human helpers and saviours. Let us take up
again an instance, to which we drew attention in a previous
chapter.
Twins in In the Survey-map of Western Palestine, we shall find
Mestine ^^ *^® neighbourhood of Jaffa, a place whose modern name
is Ibn Abraq or Ibraq, lying somewhere to the east from
Jaffa, at a distance of about four or five miles, a little to the
north of the road that runs from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The
as Sons name means Son of Lightnings ; our attention is attracted,
nine^ '^Q should hay e exipected Sons of the Lightning. On turning
to the Book of Joshua (xix. 45), we find a list of places in
the tribe of Dan, and amongst them, Jehud and Bn£-Baraq,
and Gath-Rimmon. Here we have the desired plural forma-
tion. Sons of Lightning, and curiously the thunder-god, as
Rimmon, is himself in the neighbourhood.
We turn in the next place to the great inscription of
Sennacherib, and we find (col. ii. 66) the same name Bana-
ai-bar-qa in connection with Joppa and Beth-Dagon. So
here again we have the same plural formation, and the three
witnesses prove that there was a town in western Palestine
named after the Heavenly Twins. It does not appear to be
in any sense a Greek name or a later importation or modern
translation : it is as old as the literature and the monuments
can make it: and its form is exactly parallel to the term
ning.
XIX] WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA? 199
Boanerges, by which Jesus designated two of his most
active and enthusiastic disciples. We shall be able to point
out other cases of Palestinian Dioscurism, and it will become
clear in the course of the investigation that the Heavenly
Twins were worshipped in Palestine from the earliest times,
and that the cult prevailed in some form or tradition down
to the Christian era, and that we must not emphasize
Jewish monotheism so strongly as to obscure this fact.
Returning to the Sons of the Lightning, or Dioscuri, Palestine
as we may now call them, we ask what they are doing in the t^J^navT
place where we found them ; for, to judge from analogy, they gators.
should have been rendering some service. The answer must
surely be connected with the harbour of Jaffa and its
dangers. If we move the modern village of Ibn Abraq a
little further north, we are on the high ground overlooking
the harbour of Jaffa, and we, therefore, conjecture that the
place was either a landmark or a signal-station for sailors
leaving or approaching Jaffa. The Twins are there because
the danger is there, as anyone knows who has tried to land
at Jaffa in rough weather. It is a case like Strabo describes
when he tells us of the erection of the Pharos at Alexandria, Twins pre-
and its dedication to the twins : ' for as the coast on either ^^^ °^®^
side is low and without harbours, with reefs and shallows. Pharos
an elevated and conspicuous mark was required to enable andria.
navigators coming in from the open sea to direct their course
exactly to the entrance to the harbour*.'
Now let us go a step further ; if we are right that the
Bne-Baraq are the Dioscuri, what shall we say of the city
Barca in N. Africa, one of the great cities of the Libyan
Pentapolis ? It is sometimes said that this is a Libyan name, Twins in
but this will not do, because we have it as a cognomen of ^^^*
Hamilcar the Carthaginian, on whom they conferred the
title Barcas, apparently because of his rapid action in war,
and this title must be Punic, i.e. Semitic : we have a some-
what similar case in the hero Baraq in the Book of Judges.
Moreover, the town of Barcelona in Spain was originally
1 Strabo, xvii. 1. 6.
200 WHY DID THE -TWINS GO TO SEA? [CH.
called Barkinon, and Ausonius says^ that Barcelona was an
original Punic colony : the name of the city Barca appears
also in the Syriac lists of the bishops of the Nicene Council,
spelt Barqes (aixaia), from which it is clear that the word
is derived from the lightning^.
So we conjecture that Barca has something to do with
the Lightning, and that it may be compared with the Bne
Baraq. Is there any evidence that would naturally connect
Protecting Barca with the Twins ? What should the Twins do there ?
from the The answer is, the great Syrtis. Both Cyrene and its colony
Syrtis. Barca honoured the Dioscuri, and had a sufficient local reason
for doing so, Barca even more than Cyrene. Take up a coin
of Cyrene, you will find, on one side of it, the silphium plant,
which was sacred to the Twins: take a coin of Barca, and
you will probably find on one side of it the head of Jupiter
Ammon, and on the other the silphium plant. Then turn to
Pausanias^ and read how the Dioscuri came from Cyrene to
Sparta* in search of hospitality which was refused them by
Phormio who occupied their ancient dwelling, and how next
morning the daughter of Phormio had disappeared, and on
the table in her room there stood a silphium plant to show
who were the visitors that had carried her off, and to
intimate that people should not be unmindful to entertain
strangers, lest they should fail to entertain the Dioscuri
themselves.
So there can be no doubt that the Cyrenaica (and Barca
in particular) was under the protection of the Dioscuri, and
the reason for this emphasis upon the protectors of the
Dorians must surely be the Syrtis, just as at Jaffa it is the
ugly reef of rocks outside the town, and at Egin on the
Upper Euphrates it is the broken water of the rapids.
From these observations we conclude generally that,
since the Twins preside over navigation, on shore as well as
at sea, we shall expect them to have charge of (a) signalling
^ Ep. XXIV. 68, 69, me Punica laedet Barcino.
2 B. H. Cowper, Analecta Nicaena, 7.
3 tr. Frazer, ni. 16. 2, 3.
* Cyrene was, on the Greek side, a Dorian colony.
XIX] WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA.? 1201
stations and landmarks ; (6) lighthouses ; (c) dangerous Twins
straits and harbours difficult of access ; (d) sandbanks etc. : ^^ei
i.e. we should look for them in connexion with all such imibours,
situations as would in modern times be occupied by light- shallows,
houses and landmarks, with a view to the avoidance of^^^c.
danger and the reduction of the risks of navigation. Let us
see whether this generalisation can be confirmed.
We understand from Strabo^ that the Pharos at Alex-
andria had an inscription that Sostratus the Knidian the
son of Dexiphanes had erected it to the Saviour-gods on
behalf of those who made sea- voyages^ : here we have the
definite statement that the Pharos was under the care of the
Dioscuri. It would be easy to show parallel cases to this;
for instance, the castle of S. Elmo at Naples, and a similar at Malta,
one at Malta may be put in the same category : for S. Elmo ^^ ^^'
is one of the residuary legatees of the Dioscuri, and probably
the cult of S. Cyrus and S. John at Abukir (i.e. father Cyrus) Abukir,
is due to a displacement of the Dioscuri at another point of ^ ^'
the Egyptian sea-board : a pretty case of dedication to the
Twins by a harbour- master was found at Kreusis in Boeotian and in
The Twins were evidently his natural patrons. °®° ^^
I have shown in Cult of the Heavenly Tivins* that the
channel of the Bosporus for sailors going up or down the and on
strait was marked on either side by shrines of S. Michael, ^^*^ ^g ^®
and since the tradition connected with these shrines suggests'' porus,
that Michael had on a certain occasion fought with Amykus,
the king of the Bebryces, which is really the business of
Pollux the Argonaut, we may be sure that the shrines of
Michael on the Bosporus, are connected with early shrines of
the Twins*: the real danger, however, for timid Mediterranean
i xvn. 16.
- 'ZiilxTTparos Kj't'Stos Ae^Kpavovs Qeois
^UTi/ipcnv virep rCiiv nKo'C^oixivwv.
3 C. I. G. VII. 1826, quoted by Jaisle in Die Dioskuren aU Better zur See,
p. 14.
* p. 132.
5 The tradition is preserved by John Malalas, Chran. iv. 78, and in
Sozomen (H. E. 11. 3).
The interesting case of the displacement of the Twins in Italy by
202 WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA? [CH.
and in the sailors going to the Euxine, was the supposed Symplegades,
gea. and it is interesting to note that when Ovid pronounces a
benediction on voyaging friends, one of whom is about to pass
the Symplegades, while the other was leaving Tomi for the
north, he commends them to the Dioscuri'.
It is reasonable to suppose that the heroes who had
sailed to Colchis with the Argonauts, would not desert
. shipmen on entering the Euxine after protecting them
through the preliminary strait. As a matter of fact, the
Twins are at home everywhere in the Black Sea.
Twins in Let US come a little nearer home : think of the dangers
the British -r. • • i /->ii i • i i • • /^ i •
Channel, 01 the British Channel, which culminate m the Goodwin
Sands, 'a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases
of many a tall ship lie buried.' The county of Kent,
surrounded as it is on three sides by the sea, and marked by
numerous points of danger, must have been a natural ground
especially for the development of Dioscuric ideas by sailors. Suppose
o" Ken".^ ^^ ^^^^ *^^^ ^y ^^ examination of the saints who were
honoured in the Kentish churches before the Reformation.
We can do this fairly well by means of Hussey's Testamenta
Gantiana which consists of extracts from Kentish Wills
relating to Church Building and Topography.
The four saints who are most in demand, as judged by
the benefactions for the maintenance of candles at their
altars and the like, are Nicholas, Erasmus, Cosmas and
Damian, Crispin and Crispian. Nicholas is supposed to be
the substitute for Zeus-Poseidonios to whom sailors prayed
at Myra : he is a historical character : Erasmus is a substitute
for the Heavenly Twins, and may, conceivably, be a real
person, though we have something further to say on this:
S. Michael was noted during the last great eruption of Vesuvius, when the
Church of S. Michael, which had formerly been a sanctuary of Castor and
Pollux, was overwhelmed.
^ Vos quoque, Tyndaridae, quos haec colit insula, fratres,
Mite precor duplici numen adesse viae!
Altera namque parat Symplegadas ire per artas,
Scindere Bistonias altera puppis aquas.
Vos facite, ut ventos, loca cum diversa petamus,
Ilia sues habeat, nee minus ilia suos. Ovid, Tristia, rx. 45 — 50.
XIX] WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA ? 203
the other two groups are the Twins, thinly disguised, and
have no claim to real human existence \
When we examine the Kent churches and their benefac-
tions in the period referred to, we find that Nicholas has
22 churches dedicated to him, and that he is mentioned in
benefactions 133 times. Erasmus, who seems to have been
very popular in east Kent, has no churches dedicated to him,
but he is mentioned in 57 benefactions. Nicholas is evi-
dently the older saint, but Erasmus runs him hard in
popularity. Then we have Cosmas and Damian, who have
two churches dedicated to them, and an occasional altar
(five benefactions noted), while for Crispin-Crispian there
are no churches dedicated (perhaps because they are late-
comers), but several cases of altars, images, and lights.
Now it is particularly interesting in this connection to Twins at
take the case of the harbour of Sandwich, which decayed
through the encroachment of the Goodwin Sands, and was
the nearest place of importance to that great danger of
Channel navigation.
In Sandwich there was a Carmelite Friary, dedicated to
Our Lady of Mt Carmel, and in the church was an altar of
S. Crispin and S. Crispian : in the same Church was an altar
of S. Cosmas and S. Damian.
So here were the twins, duplicated, and working double
tides. There seems good reason for referring this activity to
the neighbouring Syrtisl
The English Channel, then, is under the care of the
Heavenly Twins, the Goodwin Sands being in this respect
parallel to the Great African Syrtis, and to the marine
difficulties at Jaffa or at the entrance to the Bosporus.
^ For these saints, see Cult, pp. 73, 96.
2 Test. Cant. p. 293.
'To the light of S. Cosmas and S. Damian in the Church of the
Carmelite Friars, 4 lbs. of wax. W. Harrison of S. Peter's, 1489.
To the light of S. Cosmas and S. Damian in the Church of the
Carmelite Friars, a lb. of wax. To the Friars 20d. to celebrate for my soul.
Wm Tanner of the Parish of S. Peter, 1493.
Light of S. Crispin and S. Crispianus in the Church of the Friars
Carmelite, 6 lbs. of wax. Wm Mountford Cordiner of S. Peter's Parish,
1479.'
204 WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA ? [CH. XIX
Enough has been said to show that the Twins are the
constant protectors of travellers by land or water, by river or
sea. They went to sea, because they had been in the habit
of navigating the rivers that flow into the sea. The next
step will be to enquire why they appear in the navigation of
rivers.
CHAPTER XX
THE TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION
In the foregoing chapter it was shown that the Heavenly The Twins
Twins had accompanied sailors into all places of difficulty nav^ga- °
and danger in which they could be found, and, in their tion.
general character of Saviour-gods, had undertaken to light
the entrance to harbours, to direct the navigation of dangerous
channels, to divert the lightning, and to still the storm.
They did this as an evolved art, which was found in its
simpler form in shallow waters and in running streams.
And if we are to trace the cult to its origin, we have to
leave the deep and coast along the shore, to leave the shore
and ascend the rivers. To take a single instance, it was
stated that Romulus and Remus had come down the Tiber,
and had become protectors of sailors in the Mediterranean.
A few words in explanation of this unexpected phenomenon
may be in order.
It was pointed out in the previous chapter that one of
the patron saints of sailors in the Mediterranean was
Erasmus. Another is S. Elmo, well known in the Mediter- S. Elmo's
ranean, and well known to tradition, because S. Elmo's fire, ^^'
which sometimes appears on the masts and yards of ships
during storms, is the exact continuation of what the Romans
recognised as the fire of the Heavenly Twins or of Helen
their sister. It was considered in ancient times a good omen
if the light was double, as indicating the presence of the
Dioscuri, while a single discharge was ominous and was
credited to their sister. So that, whatever the origin of his
name, S. Elmo became the patron saint of sailors in the west
of the Mediterranean, in a true Dioscuric succession, and
206 TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION [CH.
Elmo or
Erasmo ?
Komulus
and
Eemus
on the
Riviera.
disputed the spiritual empire of the sea with Nicholas of
Myra, and some lesser worthies.
Who, then, is S. Elmo ? Is he the same as S. Erasmus ?
Or is he a masculine substitute for Helena ? The difficulty
arises that the name of the new patron saint occurs in
a variety of forms ; we ifind him called S. Heremo, S. Hermen,
S. Helm, S. Telmo, S. Anselmo, and S. Erasmus. It is not
likely that all these names are substitutes for Helena. Some
of them can be explained away : for instance, Telmo arises
out of Sant-Elmo, by a common error of division. Anselmo
is a corruption of San Elmo. But there are difficulties in
connection with the forms Eremo, Elmo, and Erasmo.
Dr Karl Jaisle, of Tubingen, who has written a very able
dissertation on the relation of the Dioscuri to navigations
examines the evidence of mediaeval writers, and following
the lead of the Bollandists, decides that the original was
Erasmus, and so puts the electric fire under the care of
a famous bishop of the time of Diocletian, who belonged to
the neighbourhood of Antioch, but travelled, living or dead,
in Italy. He is, however, frank enough to confess, that
neither in modern Greek nor in late Latin would the s of
Erasmus naturally fall away before m ; and the instances
by which he tries to justify the change are not convincing.
I propose to show that he is on a wrong track, and that he
should have begun much higher up. As I stated previously,
there is reason to believe that Romulus and Remus did get
to sea and contend with Castor and Pollux for naval pre-
dominance. True that Castor and Pollux were at Ostia as
well as at Rome, and might seem to have the control of the
Tiber ; but then we have S. Remo in the Riviera. Now it
has been pointed out to me by Mr Karl Walter, of Bordighera,
who is engaged in the study of the topography and an-
tiquities of S. Remo, that close in the neighbourhood of the
city is the hermitage of S. Romolo, situated where it can be
a landmark to sailors making for the place, and at a height
above the town of more than 2500 feet^
^ Die Dioskuren als Better zur See bei Griechen und Romern utid ihr
Fortlebeii in christlichen Legenden.
* See Baedeker, Guide-book to Northern Italy : ' Country houses and
XX] TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION 207
So here we have Romulus and Remus together ^ More
than this, the ancient name of S. Remo, or of one of its
suburbs, was Matuta ; so here is the mysterious Mater
Matuta^ from Rome giving her name to a colony on the
Riviera^
The explanation which the clergy give of the curious S. Eremo
canonisation of one of the Roman Twins is that S. Remo is ^^^-^^
a mistake for S. Eremo (the holy hermit), and that Romulus
has nothing to do with him. But this is clearly an evasion,
for on their own showing, it is Romulus that occupies the
hermitage ; the suggestion, however, of S. Eremo indicates
to us where we are to look for the origin of S. Ermo and
S, Elmo. If we go to Portugal, we find up the Tagus
beyond Lisbon, the same saint appearing as Santarem^
All these forms, then, come from an original Remus, and
Erasmus is one more deliberate modification of the same.
It is the failure to recognise that the Roman Twins went
to sea that made the difficulty. Moreover, we see now why
S. Elmo belongs so distinctly to the western half of the
Mediterranean. If he had really been, in the first instance,
S. Erasmus, he would, by his Antioch ancestry, have disputed
with S. Nicholas and others the control of the Levant ; but
he does not appear to do so. This does not mean that
Erasmus himself was a fiction ; we have not discussed that
question. Perhaps it may suffice to say in passing that, as
his body is preserved in eleven different places, we have
what may be called a cumulative argument for his real
existence.
churches peep from ancient olive groves in every direction, the highest being
at B. Bomolo, to which the few visitors who remain throughout the Summer
resort, in order to escape from the heat. '
1 The Two are commemorated as Sancti Romuli on Oct. 11.
2 Cf. Arnobius, 3, 23, "per maria (Mater Matuta) tutissima praestat com-
meantibus navigationem " : which implies that Mater Matuta had functions
to exercise beyond the Tiber.
•^ I cannot find S. Remo in ancient itineraries. Vintimiglia, its next-door
neighbour, is Alhium Intemelium, and Monaco, a little further west, is
Portus Herculis Mmioeci.
* Which the Bollandists wish to make a corruption of S. Irene. It is
simply a slight modification of Santo Remo.
208 TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION [CH.
Twins as
River-
Saints.
Twins as
children
of the
Sky, the
Thunder,
the Oak.
We are indebted to the conservatism of sailors who keep
up ancient customs long after they have disappeared else-
where, that we are able to find so many traces of the
Heavenly Twins along the coasts of the Mediterranean and
the English Channel.
We are now going to leave the open sea, and with the
Twins still on board, ascend the rivers where the Twins have
been shown to be at home.
One possible explanation of the interest of the Twins in
sailors disappears when we take this step. It was natural to
suppose that it was the power of the Twins, as children of
the Sky-god, to control the weather, that made them, in the
first instance, to be appealed to by those who sail on the
stormy seas. In river-navigation the weather counts for
very little, and so this explanation is not the real one : it
belongs to a later stage of the evolution of the cult. Cosmas
and Damian, on the Euphrates, are not weather-saints, they
are river-saints : and the tutelary spirits of the sea must find
their origin and their function, either in the dangers of
elementary navigation, or in the invention of the art, or in
both : the weather may be ruled out as an explanation.
Suppose we leave the river for a little while, and think of
the Twins as being a part of the religious belief of primitive
man. In Europe and in Western Asia, the Twins are the
children of the Sky-god, who is also the Thunder-god. More-
over, as Mr A. B. Cook has so convincingly shown in a series
of papers in Folk-Lore'^, the Sky-god of our ancestors is also
the Oak-god. The simplest case of Dioscuric worship is the
cult of the Thunder-god and his assessors, residing in a sacred
tree or grove. The suggestions of the connection of the
Dioscuri with a sacred tree, or a sacred pillar (the equivalent
of a tree), are abundant. Nor is it merely in Greek and
Roman antiquity that this sacred tree of the Thunder-god
and his twin children occurs : we should find it in the
Hebrew and Christian Scriptures ; in the latter through the
term ' Sons of Thunder,' in the former, in actual appearance
of the Thunder- god and his two assessors, in connection with
' Folk-Lore for 1904.
XX] TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION 209
the sacred oak at Mamre. The antiquity of such ideas need
not be further emphasized. A more difficult question, how-
ever, arises as to what precedes the Thunder-god, as we
know him anthropomorphically in Greek, Roman or He-
brew mythology. Is there anything to add to the suggested
identities,
Sky-god = Thunder-god = Oak-god,
before we come to Zeus with the thunder-bolt, or double axe,
or to Thor with his hammer ?
The first suggestion that comes to us in this direction is Wood-
£rom a passage in Aristophanes S where we are told that there ij-^i^ ^dT
was a time when Zeus was not, but Woodpecker (BpvoKo-
XttTTT?;?, the Oak-tapper) was king.
Now this is a surprising suggestion ; one would have
expected, if a bird- divinity were to ante-date Zeus, that it
would be the eagle and not the woodpecker. For the eagle
is the right thunder-bird, and has the bolts in his claws like
Zeus himself.
But if Woodpecker is the original king, he must be the
original thunder-bird which does not at first sight seem
likely.
Moreover, the problem of bird-cults generally will be
raised, if we have to allow for a woodpecker displaced by
an eagle, that is for two stages of the cult of Thunder in
bird-form, before we come to Zeus and the human form.
The problem of bird-cults was raised by Miss Jane
Harrison at the Oxford Congress of Religions in 1908, in
connection with the splendid sarcophagus discovered by the
Italian excavators at Hagia Triada in Crete. On this sarco- Thunder-
phagus was represented a worship both of sacred birds, and ancient
of sacred pillars ; we have, in fact, the pillars, surmounted by Crete.
a pair of double axes, on which was perched a bird of black
colour, ' possibly a pigeon, or, as Dr Evans suggests, a wood-
pecker.' And Miss Harrison pointed out that ' the pillar, as
Dr Evans has clearly shown, and as is evident from the Hagia
Triada sarcophagus, stands for a sacred tree.' At this point,
however, Miss Harrison went astray ; she imagined that the
^ Aristophanes, Aves, 480.
H. B. 14
210 TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION [CH.
bird and the tree represented the marriage of Heaven and
Earth ; for 'if the tree is of the Earth, the bird surely is of the
Heaven.' In the bird brooding upon the pillar, she says, ' we
have, I think, the primal form of the marriage of Ouranos and
Gaia.' Miss Harrison had forgotten those double axes, which
represented to the ancient mind the actual thunderbolts of
Zeus, identified with stone celts, such as were used for primi-
tive axes and hammers. The double axes betray the thunder,
and tell us that the tree is a thunder-tree, and the bird is
a thunder-bird. But how came the woodpecker, if the Cretan
bird was a woodpecker, to be made into a thunder-bird or
a sky-bird, and matched with a thunder-oak or a sky-god ?
Let us return for a moment to the statement that the wood-
pecker preceded Zeus as an object of worship.
Zeus was In this connection we have the statement of Suidas that,
Wood- on the tomb of Minos-Zeus in Crete, there was an inscription
pecker. that ' Here lies dead Picus, who is also Zeus^' Picus(n^«o9)-
answers to the woodpecker of Aristophanes, and so we are
again brought to the conclusion that the primitive Cretans,
of whatever race they ultimately were, worshipped a wood-
pecker, and, as we have suggested above, the woodpecker as
a thunder-bird.
In order to understand how this belief arose, turn back to
our third and fourth chapters, on the Thunder-bird, or the
Red Robes of the Dioscuri, and to the proofs there given that
it was the red-head of the male woodpecker that caused it
to be recognised as the incarnation of the thunder-.
We have now enlarged our series of identities between
Sky-god, Thunder-god, and Oak-god, to include the wood-
pecker as Thunder-bird. We might also add that it is an
axe-bird, or ireXeKav, the axe being the thunder-axe as seen
on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus, and elsewhere. The pelican
has wrongly inherited this name: it belonged originally to
the woodpecker. It was the woodpeckers {irekeKaves) who
.- 1 Suidas, s.v, n^^cos- ivddde Keirai davwv [^aalXeioi] II^koj 6 koI Zeh.
3 In tiie Hagia Triada sarcophagus, the red-head is wanting. I conjecture
that it was originally painted with minium, which gives no permanent
colour.
XX] TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION 211
acted as the clever carpenters who hewed out the gates in the
City of Cloud-cuckoo-borough in the birds of Aristophanes :
the name Axe-bird may represent to us the woodpecker
which uses its bill in making holes in trees, or it may be
a collocation of the Thunder-bird with the Thunder-axe. All
of these conceptions, the Sky-god, the Thunder-god, the
Lightning-god, the Thunder-oak, the Thunder-bird, the
Thunder-axe, precede the anthropomorphic conception which
the Greeks call Zeus, and the Latins Jupiter.
But what has this bird and thunder-cult to do with the
Twins ?
Dr Evans, in describing the Cretan sarcophagus to which Worship
we have been alluding, says : 'Amongst the... fetish objects Ti^under
of the cult the principal, in addition to sacred trees and a^s Bird
pillars, was the double axe. An actual scene of worship of in Crete.
a pair of double axes... is represented to us in the wonderful
painted sarcophagus discovered by the Italian Mission at
Hagia Triada. There are seen two double axes — significant
of a dual cult — between which a priestess pours a libation...
the result of the offerings and incantations is visible in the
birds — perhaps the sacred black woodpeckers of the Cretan
Zeus, settled on the apex of the double axes, and indicating
the descent into these... objects of the spirits of the
divinities.'
Observe the words ' a dual cult ' as used of the thunder-
axes and thunder-birds, and see how near we are to the
Heavenly Twins. The fact is the Twins, who are boys of
Zeus, when Zeus is in her man form, are naturally a pair of
woodpeckers or other birds when Zeus is in the form of the
thunder-bird.
The connection between the Twins and the woodpecker Wood-
comes out clearly enough in the old Roman mythology, garly^^ ^^
First of all, we have the legend that Romulus and Remus Koman
were suckled by a she- wolf, and then the not so familiar Italian
legend that the wolf was seconded in its maternal care by °^ ^^"
a woodpecker. So Plutarch tells us in his account of the
birth and fortunes of Romulus, to wit, that the woodpecker
used to open the mouths of the twins and feed them from its
14—2
212 TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION [cH.
own beak^ To which it should be added that Ovid makes
Rhea Sylvia dream of the woodpecker along with the wolf ^
We may compare the idea of the women amongst the
American Indians, that a woman who dreams of the grisly
bear will have twins, who are in some way, perhaps
totemistically, connected with that quadruped.
That the woodpecker played an important part in early
Roman religion may be seen from its survival in cults
related to that .of the Heavenly Twins : for instance, there
is a pair of Roman birth-helpers, named Picumnus and
Pilumnus, whose names suggest the twin-relation, and whose
occupation is one of the best known twin-functions. Picumnus
is evidently derived from Picus the woodpecker, and his
companion is supposed to derive his name from a great
pestle {piliim) which he carries, I am inclined to believe
that the pilum is not really a pestle (or something euphemis-
tically so described) but a thunder-bolt, or thunder- weapon ^
If that could be made out, we should have both the thunder-
bird and the thunder-weapon represented, twin-fashion, at
a Roman births
The same cult of the woodpecker is involved in the name
of the town Picenum, whose inhabitants worshipped a wood-
pecker on a pillar (the bird on the sacred tree) and related
a myth that their ancestors had been guided to the site of
the town by a woodpecker, the bird that was sacred to Mars^
The connection of Mars with the Twins, in the Roman legend,
will at once occur to the mind. The natural explanation is
that Picenum was a twin-town, like Rome itself, a point
to which we must return later. We have also the story of
the metamorphosis of king Picus by Circe, to which reference
' Plutarch, De Fort. Rom. vm. 320 d, eKaripov arbfia tj xi^V Siolywy,
iverldei \l/(ibfjLiaiJ.a riji iavrov TfXHpijs dxofiepl^uv.
2 Ovid, Fasti, iii. 37.
^ It is perhaps the Donnerkeil which appears as Dunnerpil in Mecklen-
burg, and as Dunnerpiler in Biigen: see Blinkenberg, The Thunder-Weapon,
p. 95.
* Among the Badegas of South India, the stone-axes are regaided as a
cure for barrenness. Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, vni. (199) quoted in Blinken-
berg, p. 116.
' Strabo, v. p. 240.
I
XX] TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION 213
has already been made : the origin of the saga lies in the
time when ' woodpecker was king.'
So much having been said by way of preliminary with
reference to the Sky-god and the woodpecker, let us now
return to the problem of navigation, and work our way up-
stream to the origin of the tradition which makes the Twins
the patrons of the navigation of rivers.
The first thing to be observed is the character of the Origin of
navigation itself. It has been pointed out by Dr Tylor that JJj^!^
our words ' ship,' ' skiff,' are connected with the Latin scapha
and the Greek (TKd<lio<;, and imply, in the first instance,
a dug-out canoe (from aKatrrm to dig). We observe too,
says Mr Walter Johnson, in his book on Folk-Memory'^, ' how
closely the rude punts of our inland waters resemble the
channelled trunk of oak, or other forest tree, used
"When first on streams the hollowed alder swam."
Vergil {Georgics, i. 136).'
If, then, the interest of the Dioscuri in navigation belongs to The
the earliest period of human culture, then it must have been tree.°^
the dug-out canoe in which they were interested, such as we
find in southern seas, or, at all events, the hollow oak, which
has been made into a boat, or the hollowed alder of Vergil.
But how shall we convict them of any such interest either
in primitive naval architecture, or in primitive navigation ?
That they were associated in early legend with the first
great marine ventures of the Greeks, appears from the
Argonaut legends, in which they play so prominent a part, The Argo
both on sea and land. But if Castor and Pollux were among g^cred^
the Argonauts, then we are reminded that the Argo itself Oak.
was made in part at least from the sacred oaks at Dodona,
and so here also the legend throws us back on the primitive
cult of the Oak, with which we know the Dioscuri to have
been connected. May we carry the maritime interests of the
Dioscuri back to the earlier ships that never ventured into
the open sea, or dared the voyage to far away Colchis with
1 I.e. p. 113, with reference to Tylor, Anthropology, p. 253 ; J. E.
Larkey in Ightham, the story of a. Kentish Village, by F. J. Bennett (1907) ;
Pitt-Rivers, Evolution of Culture, p. 186.
214 TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION [cH.
Jason ? Did the Dioscuri actually invent the ship, as they
are said to have invented the plough and the yoke, and the
chariot ? If they did, it was woodpecker craft that they
practised, and with which they were credited. So we ask
the question whether, among the less cultured races of man-
kind, there is any evidence of the belief that the art of
ship-building, such as is involved in the making of a dug-out
canoe, was learned from the woodpecker ?
^e In order to settle this point we go to the northern islands
pecker o^ Japan, where the Ainu live, a people who came across
buiWer ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ mainland of Kamschatka, or the island of
among the Saghalien. We have already alluded to this people and their
^°"* traditions, and to the labours amongst them by Mr Batchelor,
a heroic missionary, in what might seem at first a hopelessly
unfruitful field. Let us see what Mr Batchelor says of the
place of the woodpecker in the Ainu traditions :
' The woodpecker appears to be in a peculiar way the
boat-maker's bird. The name Chipta-Chiri, by which he
is known, means "the bird which digs out boats," and he
came by this designation because he is always to be found
pecking at the branches and trunks of trees with his bill in
the same way as the Ainu hack at them with their tools when
making their dug-outs. He is thought a good deal of by
some people, and his skin and head are kept for worship.
This fetich is supposed to make the possessor thereof rich as
well as clever in shaping out boats. Some Ainu say that he was
originally sent by God to teach them how to make boats \'
Then follows the Legend of the Woodpecker. 'The
Woodpecker was made by God upon this earth; when the
divine Aiona came down to the world of men, he caused
the woodpecker to come and help him hollow out a boat.
The bird did so well at this work that when he had finished
Aiona killed him and made him a great feast. The woodpecker
is a truly clever bird and a fine gentleman. And so it happens
that, if a person should kill one of this kind of bird, he must
make him a feast, and send his spirit off well and happy. If
this be done, the worshipper will become rich, as well as very
I The Ainu and their folk-lore, 1901, p. 451.
XX] TWINS AND THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION 215
skilful in making boats. The woodpecker ought, therefore,
to be treated with reverence.'
Here, then, we have evidence as to the origin of naviga-
tion as believed in by an outlying and scarcely surviving
tribe, in a very early stage of culture. They represent to us
the prehistoric ancestors of the Greeks and Romans ; we can
see the woodpecker in process of canonisation on account of
the services which he is supposed to have rendered to man,
as we see him actually canonised in Crete. He is the
primitive boat-builder, or rather, the primitive instructor in
boat-building. His virtues and talents are commemorated
among a people who obtain their living, for the most part,
from the sea and the rivers. What makes the woodpecker
sacred in northern Japan, made him sacred also on the banks
of the Tiber ; and there his connection with the sacred Twins
led to the patronage by the latter of the new arts of rowing
and sailing, and eventually to many other services rendered
by and honours accorded to the Dioscuri.
The woodpecker, then, and the hollow oak have an
important place in early religion ; each represents on one
side, the thunder, and on the other the primitive craft of"
navigation. When we read that Romulus and Remus were Romulus
put on the river in an alveus, the alveus is not a highly Remus in
finished product, but just the sort of hollowed trunk that we ^ t^^*
commonly see in domestic use amongst primitive peoples.
On the Tiber the first navigation was described as ' two boys \ ;
in a tub ! '
We may compare the description given by Wood^ of the
canoes of the Maories in New Zealand. ' The simplest form'
of the New Zealander's canoe is little more than the trunk of
a tree hollowed into a sort of trough. Being incapable of
withstanding rough weather, this canoe is only used upon
rivers'
^ Natural History of Man, -g. 170.
CHAPTER XXI
THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION
As we have now proved that there was a connection in
the mind of the primitive man between the elementary boat
and the twin thunder-boys (woodpeckers), it is proper to ask
whether this result is borne out by the examination of those
Mediterranean peoples who were eminent in the art of naviga-
tion, the Phoenicians and the Greeks. In order to test this
point, we must examine those traditions of Phoenician history
which have come down to us through the translations of
Greek historians, and we must also investigate the famous
Greek myth of the voyage of Jason to Colchis. In the
present chapter we confine ourselves to the former of the
two lines of enquiry.
Phoe- What do we know of the Phoenicians as to their early
legends history, and at what point do these great navigators of the
past affirm that they became a seafaring people ? In order
to answer these questions we turn to the fragments of
Sanchoniathon preserved in the Praeparatio Evangelica of
Eusebius. For our purpose, the matter will be found in
a convenient form with a translation in Cory's Ancient Frag-
Jf^ merits of the Phoenician, Chaldean, and other writers^. We
transcribe the important passages : p. 6, ' Hypsouranios in-
habited Tyre ; and he invented huts constructed of reeds and
rushes, and the papyrus. And he fell into enmity with his
brother Usous, who was the inventor of clothing for the body
which he made of the skins of the wild beasts that he could
1 pp. 3-18.
CH. XXl] THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION 217
catch. And when there were violent storms of rain and
wind, the trees about Tyre being rubbed against each other,
took fire, and all the forest in the neighbourhood was con-
sumed. And Usous having taken a tree, and broken otf its Uso the
boughs, was the first who dared to venture on the sea. And g^^d hL
he consecrated two pillars to Fire and Wind, and worshipped brother,
them, and poured out upon them the blood of the wild
beasts he took in hunting : and when these men were dead,
those that remained consecrated to them rods, and wor-
shipped the pillars, and held anniversary feasts in honour of
them.'
Here we make a halt ; we have seen something like this
before : two quarrelsome brothers, with no special reason
assigned for their quarrel, and one of them is a hunter. We
are familiar with the theme of the twins who quarrel ; the
Scripture parallel is Esau and Jacob, but there are parallels
outside the Scriptures ; the hunting twin is again Esau, or
if we prefer it, Zethos, or, if we take a feminine parallel,
Artemis. So we need not hesitate to recognise a pair of
twins in Hypsouranios and Usous. The name of the first
twin is a translation of one of the divine names, the name of
the other has had a Graecised termination added to it : its
Phoenician form must be Uso {Ova-co). Is that Esau ?
I should not like to affirm it : the names are not unlike, but
the vocalisation is different in the two cases.
Uso, then, whoever he was, took advantage of a great
thunderstorm, which had caused a forest fire in the neigh-
bourhood of Tyre, and from one of the fallen trees he made
himself a boat, perhaps a dug-out, and ventured in it on
the sea.
Then he instituted a form of worship : he set up pillars
to Fire and Wind. It is almost exactly the representation
which survives in China, where in painting and carvings
which go back to the stone work of the seventh century, we
have the Thunder-god accompanied by the Wind-god, who
sometimes actually stands by his side\ The matter is
therefore Dioscuric, and the Twins are now the Heavenly
^ I owe the information to Mr Freer of Detroit.
218 THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION [CH.
Twins, who are definitely stated to have been worshipped
after death.
Now let us return to Sanchoniathon^ ' And in times long
subsequent to these, were born of the race of Hypsouranios,
Agrieus Agrieus and Halieus, the inventors of the arts of hunting
Halieus. and fishing, from whom huntsmen and fishermen derive their
names.'
Here we strike a new line of tradition, which has no real
connection with the preceding, in spite of the allusion to
Hypsouranios (?Bel or Bel-Shamin). The art of hunting is
discovered over again, at a time long subsequent to what we
previously were studying, and with hunting comes fishing.
The names of these two brothers are twin-like in Greek, and
it seems likely that the translator is trying to render the
original gemineity of the names. We see this in the following
way. To the Semitic mind it is common to regard hunting
and fishing as the same craft, and to express them by the
same word. Thus in Syriac, from the original stem sod, we
form sayyodo, which may mean either hunter or fisher.
The equivalence comes out prettily in the fifth Sura of
the Koran : ' it is lawful for you to fish (sayodu) in the sea and
to eat what ye shall catch, as a provision for you, and for those
who travel ; but it is unlawful for you to hunt (sayodu) by land,
while ye are performing the rites of pilgrimage.' Here Mo-
hammed uses the same word exactly for hunting and fishing^
If, then, we have to find out which of the brothers of
1 I.e. p. 7.
2 In Hebrew, however, this does not hold; the Hebrew has distinct words
for fishing and hunting : e.g. in Jer. xvi. 16, ' I will send many fishers and
fish them.... I will send many hunters and hunt them' ; here the two crafts
are clearly distinguished : the fisher is dayyag, the hunter is sayyad. And
it is interesting to note that when the Syriac translator comes to this
passage, he uses the same word in both cases, showing that there was for
him no difference between the two crafts. There is an alternative term
g&ph in Syriac ; but this may mean either hunted or fished. Since gopha is
a net, it is possible that hunting and fishing were both carried on by a net
in the first instance.
Returning to the Hebrew usage, if this should be followed by the Phoeni-
cian, we should have two forms like Sidon and Dagon for the fishing and
hunting deities ; the objection would apparently be in the fact that Dagon is
a corn-deity. So I think the statement in the text is the con-ect one.
XX l] THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION 219
Tyre is Agrieus and which is Halieus, it is reasonable to
suppose that there is some modification in the vocalisation of
the root letters. We are obliged to guess what the original
Phoenician forms were, but it seems likely that one of the
brethren was named Sid, for we have Phoenician compound
names like Sid-jathan, Sid-melqart, Sid-thanit, Baal-sid,
Han-sid, etc.
Perhaps the other name may have been sayid or sayed :
for we have an Aramaic analogy in Beth-saida, which suggests
the sanctuary of some deity, presiding over fishing. What-
ever may have been the forms of the differentiated names that
underlie Halieus and Agrieus, we may be sure that the
brothers, with such closely related names, were Dioscures.
To return to Sanchoniathon : ' Of these were begotten
two brothers who discovered iron and the forging thereof.
One of these, called Chrysor, who was the same with He- Chrysor
phaestos, exercised himself in words, and charms and divina- brothers
tions; and he invented the hook, and the bait, and the
fishing-line, and boats of a light construction {a-)(€hiav = raft),
and he was the first of all men who sailed. Wherefore he
was worshipped after his death as a god, under the name of
Diamichius^ And it is said that his brothers invented the invent
art of building walls with bricks.' f^^^P^ ^"^^
Here we have again two brothers, who at the close of the walls.
paragraph are at least three. The whole of the passage is
full of Diosquric touches : the primitive smith is there, who
appears in the Bible as Cain and Tubal ; the art of naviga-
tion is moved on a stage ; the brothers are builders of walls :
we remember Romulus and Remus, Zethos and Amphion,
and the Babylonian representation of the Twins by an
unfinished brick wall.
The art of brick-making, which may be accepted as a
Dioscuric function, is carried a stage further by ' two youths,
one of whom was called Technites and the other Geinus
Autochthon. These discovered the method of mingling
stubble with the loam of bricks, and of baking them in the
sun ; they were also the inventors of tiling.'
1 Perhaps Zeus Meilichios.
220 THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION [CH. XXI
Then we are told of Misor and Sydyk, that is, Well-freed
and Just...* from Misor descended Taaut who invented the
The writing of the first letters:... but from Sydyk descended
ship- *^^ Dioscuri or Cabiri or Corybantes or Samothraces ; these
builders, (he says) first built a ship complete (irXolov evpov).'
So at last we come to a definite statement that the
invention of the ship was due to the Dioscuri. What was
the original term for them in Phoenician was not clear,
perhaps it was Kabirim, which the Greek translator has
furnished with all possible equivalents.
Then follows the account of the marriage of Gaia and
Ouranos, and the Phoenician counterpart of the story of
Kronos, after which we are told that 'at this time the
descendants of the Dioscuri, having built some light and
other more complete ships (o-^eSia? xai trkola crvvdevre^),
put to sea ; and being cast away over against Mount Cassius,
there consecrated a temple.' So we are told, about as plainly
as a legend can tell us, that there was a Dioscureion on
Mount Cassius.
Last of all (p. 16) we learn that the ' Kabiri were the
seven sons of Sydyk, and that their eighth brother was
Asklepios.' That the Kabiri were not so many in ancient
times is known from other sources, for they are often inter-
changed with the Dioscuri : for Asklepios we have also links
with the Heavenly Twins \
When we review the various statements made by San-
choniathon, with regard to the art of naval architecture, we
can say positively that every one of his statements is Dios-
curic in character, either directly or by allusion to other arts
practised by the ship-builders which are assigned elsewhere
to the Twins.
The Phoenician ship-builders were originally Dioscures.
^ It is unfortunate that we have not the Phoenician forms, nor always a
transliteration : Kabii'i is near enough to be counted exact, and Sydyk can be
restored with sufficient approximation, but we would like to know what stood
for Asklepios. Was it something like the Greek form, and did Asklepios
come from Phoenicia, like Palaimon of Corinth (Baal- Yam), etc.?
CHAPTER XXII
THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON AND
HIS COMPANIONS
Now we come to the Greek legends of ship-building and
of navigation : if we could assume that the Greeks learnt the
art of navigation from the same source as they learnt the
alphabet, we might infer the Dioscuric origin of their ship-
building from what has preceded: but this is just what a
nautical people like the Greeks would be very slow to admit,
even if it were pointed out that Tyre and Sidon were a
thousand years older than Athens. So we must discuss the
matter de novo, and see if we can find a meaning in the story
of Jason and the first ship Argo, of which he was the captain.
The story of the voyage to Colchis is the most popular Jason
of all the Greek myths; it gave rise to a literature of its own, ^^ ^^^
which we comprehensively denominate Argonautica, and from nauts.
the prevalence of games in honour of Jason (Jasoneia^) and
associated religious rites, we may conjecture that the story
of Jason and his argonauts supplied many a dramatic enter-
tainment, quite apart from the magnificent treatment given
to the subject by Euripides. The story was one that invited
popular drama; there was the landing at Lemnos, where the
women had organised a republic of their own, to the exclusion
of their own husbands and kin, whom they appear to have
^ It is not quite clear that games are always involved : the Jasoneion is
something like Dioscureion, a place where Jason was honoured. The
epigram on the returned Argo certainly says that Jason instituted games :
'Apyib rb <rKd(pos eifil. Gey 5' aviBrjKev 'J-^awv
'Iffdfjua Kal Ne/ti^otJ (TTexj/Afievov iriTvaiv.
Orph. Frag. 80 (ed. Abel).
222 THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON [CH.
killed; the fight between Pollux and the King of the Bebryces,
which is described vividly enough by Apollonius Rhodius,
and still more so by Theocritus; and then the adventures in
Colchis, the taming of the fiery bulls, the capture of the
golden fleece from the dragon who guarded it, and the sub-
sequent adventures of Medea, her rejuvenescence of the aged
father (some say, of Jason also, as though Jason were an
elderly man), and their subsequent elopement to Corinth; —
all of these things are capable of dramatic treatment, and
some of the greatest Greek poets have been busied with them.
In modern times the story of Jason has been studied
chiefly with a view to the elucidation of the mythology that
is involved in the story: it was one of the most successful
hunting grounds of the scholars in search of Solar Myths;
here at all events, there does seem to be a naturalistic
explanation of the popular Greek story: for the golden fleece,
which had to be rescued firom the dragon, was a not inapt
figure of the Sun which had been swallowed up by the
Demon of the Dark, and must be recovered from the far
eastern land beyond the Black Sea. Thus Jason becomes
a solar hero, and the rescuer of the imprisoned luminary,
and Medea is his attendant maiden of the Dawn. However
much the mythological school to which we refer may be
justly discredited, there is nothing impossible in the ex-
planation of the Argonaut saga by their methods. There
is, however, another method of approaching the subject
which will yield us results which are much more certain,
and may be far-reaching in the mythological problem itself
Suppose we leave Colchis, and the Golden Fleece, and Medea
on one side for the present, and begin at the other end, with
the building, launching, and navigation of the good ship Argo.
She is popularly believed to have been the first Greek ship
that was ever launched. Argo, her builder, had Athena
standing by him to direct his skill ; the goddess has furnished
him with some talismanic boards of Dodona oak, to incorporate
with his Thessalian pine. She will watch over the launching
of the ship, and will appear for the help of the voyagers in
difficult situations.
XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 223
How was the ship manned? Here we have to work
through a variety of traditions, contained in the Argonautic
literature : according to the Pseudo-Orphic tradition, she was
a ship of fifty oars. Pindar, however, has only a crew of ten The crew
heroes, along with Mopsus their seer. Other estimates run 2.rgo^
even higher than fifty. Apollonius Rhodius, who is, almost
certainly, the source of the Pseudo-Orpheus, counts fifty-five.
It' must be obvious that the ship has been enlarged since it
was built ! How could such a ship be the first ship launched,
or the voyage to Colchis her trial trip ? If there is anything
primitive about the Argonaut tradition, we must reduce the
size of the ship and the length of her voyage. We must
work out successive strata of the mariner's skill and daring,
as we were able to do in the Phoenician legends, and see :
what lies at the bottom of the imposing mass of traditions. .'
Suppose we take the story as we find it in Apollonius
Rhodius. Here we have a long galley propelled by oars, the
rowers being no doubt placed two by two on each thwart.
Jason is the captain, Tiphys the steersman, Mopsus (shall
we say?) the chaplain.
As the rowers are arranged in pairs, it is not surprising Brothers
that the catalogue of the able seamen should also fall into '^^^ "^j^g
pairs, in an extraordinary degree. In fact, the greater part
of the crew are pairs of brothers, and of the brothers, most
are twins. Sometimes this is positively stated, and some-
times it can be inferred. In such cases it is natural that
they should sit side by side. The only difficulty will arise .
where the one brother is very strong, and the other very
weak. For instance, Herakles is on board, and unless we
are much mistaken, Iphikles is there too. Now, Iphikles,
if he were on board, would be no match for Herakles. Herakles,
Apollonius tells us, in fact, that they had to put the
strongest man in the ship against Herakles, who rows so
hard that he actually breaks his oar, and has to go ashore
in search of another.
Then, as is well known, Castor and Pollux are on board. Castor
Pollux being the boxing champion of the company, who will poiiux.
presently have his hands full in a match with Amykos, the
224
THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON
[CH.
Idas and
Lyneeus.
The
meaning
of Am-
phion.
Deucalion
Asterios.
Iphikles?
king of the Bebryces. Not only are the Heavenly Twins
on board in their conventional form,
'the great Twin-Brethren
To whom the Dorians pray,'
but their deadly enemies, the Messenian twins, Idas and
the far-seeing Lyneeus, are there. In ordinary mythology,
Idas and Lyneeus fight with Castor and Pollux over certain
maidens whom they have appropriated, and they kill Castor,
the mortal-bom twin, when he is hiding in a hollow oak.
We understand about the oak-tree, what we do not understand
is how the two pairs of twins are so amicably settled in the
same oak-built ship.
The next thing we notice is that there are a number
of other twins on board. The name Amphion betrays them,
and the occurrence of names compounded with Amphi. For
Amphion is only a shorter form of Amphigenes, and is not
in the first instance a name at all. It simply means ' twin-,
born.' Thus it does not necessarily connote the Theban
brother of Zethus; it may be anybody's twin-brother.
Keeping this simple point before our minds, we under-
stand that if Deucalion, the son of Minos, is on board, and
Amphion his brother, they are twin-brethren; and the same
will be true of Asterios the son of Hyperasios and his brother
Amphion; this last case is interesting, because Hyperasios
is the same name as Hyperion ^ and means the Sky-god.
Asterios and his brother were Sky-children.
So far we have the twin-brethren, the only doubtful case
being Iphikles. There is some confusion in the tradition
about Iphikles. The form appears to be Iphiklos, which
would make little difficulty if it were not that he is described
as son of Phylakos. Another tradition makes him the son
of Eurytos, and there are also Argonaut lists which contain
Iphitos and Iphis. It seems to me to be most natural to
^ Usener, Gotternamen, p. 20. According to Usener, Hyperasios is ex-
panded from Hyperes, connected with Hyperion, and ultimately with a
comparative formed from (hrepos, like Citotoj from vir^p. Thus Hyperion is
the ' one above,' probably the Sun.
XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 225
assume a primitive Iphikles, brother of Herakles, and then
to allow for the corruption of the name.
Our next pair is Zetes the Boread, and Kalais his brother.
Apparently this is not the Theban Zethos; that the brothers
are twins is definitely stated by Ovid.
For names involving Amphi in composition, we have Names
Eurydamas and Amphidamas, Areios and Amphiaraos. These ^{^^^^
are not quite certain, because Apollonius adds their parentage, Amphi-.
as though they were not brothers. Thus Eurydamas is the
son of Ktimenos ; and Amphidamas the son of Aleos, Areios
and Amphiaraos are credited to different fathers, but as they
are both from Argos, I suspect them to be brothers, and the
Amphi prefix in the case of the second brother shows them
to be twins. In fact, I should say that Amphidamas was
a twin in any case; the doubtful point is whether Eurydamas
is his brother. This will come up again when we examine
more closely the lists of heroes in Apollonius Rhodius. We
shall find cases in which Apollonius registers three brothers as
being Argonauts, putting two of them together, and adding
the third as a postscript. For example,
(i. 118) ^Apyodev av TaXao? Kal 'A/OT^to?, vie 3iavTo<i,
rfkvOov, t(f)0i/ii6<; re AewSo/co?, ov<? reKe Ylijpo}
' From Argos did sons of Bias, Areius and Talaus, come,
And mighty Laodokus, fruit of Neleus' daughter's womb.'
(i. 50) ovS" 'AXottt; fii/xvov TrdXvXrjLOL '^p^eiao
vUe<i, ev hehaSire BoXov^, "I^pvTO? koL 'E^^twi/'
rolat ^' eVt TpLraro^ yvoyro^ Kie veiaoixevotaiv
Aida\iB7)<i.
' Neither in Alope tarried Echion and Erytus, sons
Of Hermes, wealthy in corn-land, crafty-hearted ones.
And their kinsman the third with these , came forth on the quest , as they hied ,
Aithalides.' (A. S. Way's translation.)
When we examine these passages, we suspect that there
is a special reason for the coupling of the two brothers,
distinct from the third. Is it a mere literary trick ? Or
does it mean that they were twins ? But what becomes of
H. B. 15
226 THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON [CH.
our previous suggestion that Amphidamas is the twin of
Eurydamas, if we find him the closely attached brother of
Kepheus^ ? so that, if we are interpreting Apollonius Rhodius,
we must not count Amphida 
