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BOANERGES 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

iLoitHon: FETTER LANE, E.G. 

C. F. CLAY, Manager 




ffiUinburflt: loo, PRINCES STREET 

Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. 

l,cipjtg: F. A. BROCKHAUS 

0,tia gotft: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

ISombag anlr Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 



^/l rights reserved 



BOANERGES 



BY 



J^,v^^s RENDEL HARRIS 




Cambridge : 
at the University Press 

1913 






<', 



(fTambritigc : 

FEINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. 
AT THE tINIVEESITY PRESS. 



CHAP. 
I. 
II. 
III. 
IV. 
V. 

VI. 
VII. 
VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 
XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 
XX. 
XXI. 



CONTENTS 



Preface 
Errata 
Introduction 



Boanerges .... 
The Parentage of the Twins 
The Thunder-bird . 
The Red Robes of the Dioscuri 
The Twin-Cult in West Africa 
The Twin-Cult in South Africa 
The Twin-Cult in East Africa 
The Twin-Cult in Madagascar 
The Twin-Cult in South America 
The Twin-Cult amongst the North 
Indians 



American 



Of Twins in Ancient Mexico . 

The Twin-Heroes of North and South America 

The Twin-Cult in Saghalien, Northern Japan, 

and the Kurile Islands .... 
Of Twins in Burma, Cambodia, and the Malay 

Archipelago 

The Twin-Cult in Polynesia, Melanesia, and 

Australia 

The Twin-Cult in Assam, etc. 

The Twin-Fear in Ancient India . 

The Twin-Cult in Central Asia Minor . 

Why did the Twins go to Sea? 

The Twins and the Origin of Navigation 

The Twins in Phoenician Tradition 



PAGES 

vii — ix 

X 

xi — xxiv 

1—12 

13—19 

20—30 

31—48 

49—97 

98—107 

108—128 

129—131 

132—141 

142—151 
152—154 
155—159 

160—164 

165—170 

171—178 
179—181 
182—190 
191—194 
195—204 
205—215 
216—220 



VI 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. PAGES 

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 



PEEFACE 

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 



Vm 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. B. 



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 fif. 

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. 

h 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 Laviur) are 

with care regarded as the patron saints of horses, which led to the 

o orses; ^^^^^ 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. 

Ah 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 
T» , . Helen, 

iiyzantium. 

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 g^^^^a, 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 

A 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 
^Tlwmas'^ 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 ^mongele- 
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, to^ng, 
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 iur 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 Romulus 
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 clianged 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 

1 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/remwerujit gentes? 
' " Texte u. Untersuch. xxxvin. 3, p. 40. 

^ 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) fipovrrj (Orig. Philoc. XV. 18) is heard in 
Gospel, Epistles, and Apocaljrpse.' 

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 qvum proadme 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^l 
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. yjUage not far from Jaffa, marked by the name of Ibn Ahraq 
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 

1 M. Junod's work, Les Ba-ronga, 6tude ethnographique sur les indigenes- 
de la Baie de Delagoa, was published at Neuch&tel in 1898 in vol. 10 of 
Bulletin de la Soci6t€ Neuchateloise de Geographic. 



l] BOANERGES 3 

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 Oath-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- 
bar-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 modern 
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. Cyrenaica 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 author of 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 f 

and Dorian after. In the same way the Twins of Bn6 
Barqa may be Palestinian first and Philistian or Phoeniciaij 
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 Jaffa, 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 
Per'u, 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 sacrilega 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 Johii 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, from 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 Espaiia, 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 Indies llaman 
Illapa, o Eayo, 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 
visitaes 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 {Gottemamen, 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] ; : '! BOANERGES 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, sebedaei-stones or 
s'hedaei; 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-Biones. 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-stone^. At Klakring, in the district 
of Vejle, they were called spadejo-stoneB, 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 spadeje 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', 

' 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 „q^ 
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 I 
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 Keirat Bava>v [/3ao-tXeto9] IT^/co? o koI 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 

1 Aristophanes, Aves, 478. 



16 THE PARENTAGE OP THE TWINS [cH. 

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 
The A. B. Cook, in a series of remarkable papers on the European 

Oak.° ^^ 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 
The in the West the most common form of the axe is known to 

Thunder- ^g ^^ ^^le 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^. 

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. 



axe 



it] the parentage of 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 fi:'om 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-BIED 

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. 
Thunder For example, among the Den^ Indians in the north-west 

Eed°^ of Canada, known as the Hare-skin Ddnds, there is a belief 
Indians, 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 

^ Pettitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, Ligendes et 
Traditions des Detii 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 voAte celeste, bien loin, au Pied-du- 
Ciel, dans I'ouest sud-ouest. Mais lorsqu'il fait chaud de nouveau, lorsque 
le gibier ail^ 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 les 
Eclairs 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 jlash 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. 



Xn^ 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*8,3. 
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 ^^^^ ^^^^ 
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 ^^^°2fs?" 
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. ni. 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 Art of the 
Esquimaux, pi. 72, where a picture of the thunder-bird, 
from the Escjuimaux' point of view is given. 

The AmoiDgst 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. n. pp. 329-36. * Vol. m. pp. 51-4. 

* Miiller, Amerikanische Urreligionen. 



Brazil 
ians. 



Ill] THE THUNDER-BIRD 25 

It is suflficient 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 ^ 

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 
mings'^.' 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 

. • • Zulus 

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 bird^ 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^jg 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. 

1 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 

1 Moffat, Missionary Labours in S. Africa, 4th ed. p. 338. 
" p. 119. 



28 THE THUNDER-BIRD [CH. 

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. 

Thunder- Crossing to Madagascar, we might suppose that we had 

Mada-° passed outside the area of belief in the thunder-bird ; there 

gascar. 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 
Yoruba 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 Yoruba-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. 
Eye- '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. 



Ill] 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 ^. ^ak^^^^^- 
I give the account at length. ' Foudre (nkuba) — Comme 
la plupart des Negres, les Bakerewe personifient la foudre ; 
c'est 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 towards or firom 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 

bjrd,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 bill, 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 tw^o 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 ruby- " ^^"^* 
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 plum,age^.' 

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. 

- Teit, The lliovipxon Indians of British Columbia, pp. 3^8-99. 

3 Teit, The Shustcap (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 35 

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 fi-om 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 
l3een 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 w^as ^uit 
honoured as Picus Feronius, and associated with the early ^?'^^^^^ 
history of Romulus and Remus. It assisted the wolf in 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. 

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 (Teut. 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 you.' 
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 
were these words spoken than the woman was changed into Gertrude's fowU 



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. 

1 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. 



93 THE RED 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 
bi^d- 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 

^ 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. lig^tninR^'' 
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 
where 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 Museums, p. 113, etc. 

2 See S. Eeinach, Mythes, Cultes et Beligions, 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 

i^-iu^ 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 c©uple 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 orindian 
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 <ii"*^i^'^- 
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^^us* ^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 ^^l^^^^ 
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, Religious 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- qj.q given in charge when they are bom. He wears a head- 

among the band, generally of the bark of Eleagnus argentea, into which 

InciianT°° 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 Eomanos 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-representing 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 
Satumian 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. Met. 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 rjeturn 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 ^^g 
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 
('XXa/jLv8a<i 7rop(f>vpd<;, tr. red cloaks) riding on gallant steeds, 
with caps (ttiXoi) 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^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 
' 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 go 
the Twins. . % , . _ , i rv, 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 gi-avati, auxilium 
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 Lacedae- 
mone nuntiata est victoria.' 

^ The story will be found in Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus, xxv. eW oi /jUv 
iTn\j/av(Ta.i, \iyovTa.i. r^s vTrriv7]s avrov rotv x^po^v drp^fia /uetStwcrey i] 5e eidvi 
iK fieXalvTji rptx^s eU wippav /xera/SaXoOco, ry fxkv Xbytp iri<TTiv, rifi S' dv5pi 
vapaffxet" iTrlKXTjciv tov. 'Arp/d^ap^ov, orrep earl xttX/cojrurywj'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, Br 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, Eespiih. 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 x)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 Thunder^god and the Twins came to 

The pome- visit Abraham. There is, however, another tree, the pome- 

Thunder- gr^nate tree, whose name, Rimraon, 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 

*f^® • 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, well er sonst sein GUick 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 Africa. 

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 Landscha/t 
Fetu. 



y] 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 gesehieht 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. xm. Paris, 1823. 



V] 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, infected 
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 Adams. 
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 ^^^comed 
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 River. 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 had 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 tivins 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 

Kingslev's ^°^^ which the twin-terror 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 ^^^^own (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. 



V] 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 t^e^cross 
Miss Kingsley refers, runs out into the Gulf of Guinea at Old River. 
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 : |.jq„ ^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- 
mother's 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 
tensi\y'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, pej-gons marked by the taint of a twin-birth \ These, and 
^ See Cult of the Heavenly Ttoins, 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 ^^"^5?^"^^" 
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 Twins, 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 woman 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, 
one is the product of the mothers intercourse with a man, and 



paternity. 



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 w^as 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- "^^^g^^^ 
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 ^^^s^^^ 

•^ * *^ 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). 



62 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 
amovg the Ibo or Brass men, of allowing one, always the 
first-horn 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 drovmed 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! l?.^^® 
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 

1 This striking variation in the treatment of twins by the coast tribes in 
the Bay of Benin, us thinlcing 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. 
Rites 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^ jj^a 

birth-right follows the younger child of the pair: the real primo- 

^ geniture 

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 bom. 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. 6 



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 iXhei' 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 Avith horror and 
disgusts' Onitsha is on the Niger river, half-way from 
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 twin-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. » 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-shoohra, meaning one of twins, Twin- 
or, as they would say, half a man : nam-a-shoobra 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,c. 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 Q)i, to beget, e;Y, 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 oriokiiTiy 
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 AFEICA 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 t^ins 
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. 

^ 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 ^onkeys° 
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 prdsage pour la 
sant6 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-speaking 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 

^ 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 from 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.) 

3 1.0. 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 fiTs'^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. 

2 The title is: Beitrag zur Ethnographie der Fo-neger in Togo. 



74 THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA [CH. 

Twins: both boys: Es6 and Esi, 

both girls: Huevi and Hues4, 
one boy and one girl: the boy Esi and the girl Esihue. 
Triplets (a known case) : 

boy, Ese : girl, 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 F6-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 
1 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 hoha 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, E)ve-Stavime, 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^lwe^ 
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 in 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 i,c. p. 914. 



Liberia. 



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, Avhile 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 

the 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 p^re 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 CathoUques, xxv. 1893, p. 346. 



•V] THE TWIN-CULT IN WEST AFRICA 79 

monde est la rdplique de la vie terrestre...,Quoiqu'il en 
soit, lea 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'etaient 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 Jit 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^ from 
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 

, 1 • I J. • it, ■ > colour of 

tnmgs be twm things. t^ing \ 

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 gi^grbj-o 

for Sierra Leone from what we find on the Guinea Coast, hinter- 

we will examine carefully what this writer (Mr T. J. Aid- ^.idridge 

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 
twins. 



of 



Magic 
twin- 
houses. 



Germs 
a twin- 
priest- 
hood. 



of 



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 hy 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/tY.... 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 J9urney 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 
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- qqj " 
ment on the day of my arrival. During the day two women 
were stationed at the door of the house vrith 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, tfie 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 countnes 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 j^ *^« ^^o^^go- 
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 

finTmid ^^^ present to the father of the children, spears and knives 

by the ^ j^ honour of the birth. These spears and knives are never 

relatives really reckoned as belonging to the father of the twins, and 

f°th ^^ ^OQQ 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^ 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 



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, 

suckling, 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 ghughu 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 

secluded jj^Q^ths and 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 o^^^ide 
twin. ot 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^®:, 
o _ 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 l^ck. 
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 anlestrj'^^* 
embete e Akongo (a wonder of God) and are sometimes ('o"^ 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 fuckTn*'^^ 
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 Ngombes. ^^^ 
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 '^snt 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 wAi^e, to avert evil fi'om 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 countir. 
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 a,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 Ttcins, 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 

^ U Ethnographic acttielle de VAfrique Miridionale, p. 935. 
2 Fetichism 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 Afi-ican 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 lightning- 
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 tenjple, 
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 (TCTdvofi). ' 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 ray colleague, Mr R. A. Aytoun. The pofef"^'^ 
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 ^°"g°- 
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 "nd^"*^^^ 
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 
*^"^" life, the 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 

"^ent gjjy from the natives I questioned. I obtained a few ad- 

tion with ditional somewhat insignificant facts. When twins are born 
The\win ^he 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. Ransom 
fishing-line, baskets, pots, anything, these they hold as a g^bangi ^ 
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 ^ooden 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 
quarrel. 



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 fi'om 
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 o,f 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 
offerings 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 Herero^ 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 Die Herero (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 Trie 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 ^^^g 
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 Afirica, 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 entertainment, 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 ^ ib""^ 
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 twins, 
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 offspring 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.' 

1 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 nanae 
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 amone t 
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 ^^jo^gg^a 
Matabele. 

1 Compare the way in whicli 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 
effectual.' 

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^ 
(Bootchua7ia 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 
^" ^^' 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 Joum. 
Anthrop. Imtit. 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 
les 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. 

TheWau- Amongst 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 K.outledge\ 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 born 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 2. 

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 

^ With a prehistoric People: The Akikuya of British East Africa, by 
W. Scoresby and Katharine Eoutledge (London : Arnold, 1910). 

2 Baumann, Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete, Berlin, 1891. Bondei 
is in lat. 5° 15' S. and long. 38° 45' E. 

3 Journal of Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902), p. 308. 



Africa. 



110 THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA [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 effect 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. 



1 Fighting the Slave Hunttrs 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. 

3 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. 

8 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 off 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 
shahatiy (ii) tuisago, (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'th^ 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 IN 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 ggmitic *> 
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 friendly, 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 °" ^^^rker. 
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 Beich, 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 
for the 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 



on Merker. 



VIl] THE TWIN-CULT IN EAST AFRICA 119 

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 the loiterer as above, for the third 
in a group of triplets. 

3 Uganda Protectorate, ii. 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, 
ut supra, IT. 878. According to HoUis, 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... ^hWsi 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. 

» p. 395. * i.e. p. 376. 



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 mahua 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. (1909), pp. 118 sqq. quoted by Fmzer, Totemism and 
Exogamy. 



VIl] THE 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 Ceve- 
day, both the mother and children must remain outside twin- 
until the father goes to the mandwa (priest) whom he b^''*' 
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 MutakaJ 

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 Joui'nal 

Bahima. ^y ^^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 

^ 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 "exes ^ ^ 
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 RatzeP. 

Of the Magungo who live near the Albert Nyanza we The 
learn that if twins are born of the same sex, the whole "'S^'^^^- 
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 fi-om 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 Eatzel (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. 



Ban 
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 Nabesse : 
Girls : Abuda 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. 

^ 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 
fonn 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 Gult, 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 
VAcademie 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 born 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. 

=* Durand, 'Etude sur les Tanalas d'Ambohimanga du Sud,' Notes, 
neconn. Expl. 1898, t. n. p. 1275. 

* G. Ferrand, 'Notes sur la region comprise entre les rivieres Mananjara 
et lavibola,' Extrait du Bull. Sac. Giogr. Paris, 1896, p. 14. Les Musulmans 
ft 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 

South 

America. 



Orinoco 
Indians. 



Now let us cross into South America, and see what customs 
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). 

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, 

' Saggio di Storia Americana, o sia Storia Naturale, Civile, e Sacra dei 
regni e delle provincie Spagnuole di Terra-ferma nelV America meridionale, 
descritta dalV abate Filippo Salvadore Gilii, vol. n. p. 261. Rom. 1781. 



CH. IX] THE TWIN-CULT 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 
'jhildren, 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 sittiadc 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. 



184 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 Cult^ 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 woman 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 Twins, 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 One 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 of pj^^.gjj|;_ 
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- ^win- 
births rare, and twin-murders amongst the Macusis and the births 

° . and twm- 

Waikas non-existent. He was, however, quite aware ot 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 Maeusis. 

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 

of Light- 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 Peru, published at 
Lima in 1621, a book as interesting to the ethnologist as 
it is rare*. 

^ Schomburgk, Reisen in Brituch Guiana, Leipzig, 1848. 

^ Miiller, Amerikanische Urreligianen, p. 370. 

* Arriaga, Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru, 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 atrevi5 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, ^^f^^' 
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 further 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'homme 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 Eastern hemisphere. 
We shall return to this subject later on. 



1 Vol. vra. p. 86 (Paris, 1781). 

2 Thouar, Kxiilorations dan« VAinirique du Siul, Paris, 1891. 

' Ehrenreich, Die Mytlien und Legenden der Sudamer. Urvolker. 
zur Zeitschrift fUr Ethnologie (Berlin, 1905, p. 44). 



Sappl. 



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 Bi'^^^ilian 

negroes. 
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 ^jtij 

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, jjjdians 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 
Call- 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 Calif omia, 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 ^/te 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 ' twiyis 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 weather. 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 Totemism and Exogamy, m. 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 
tvas 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 luas 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. Teif^. 

' 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 successful 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 Shustcap : 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 them..... Tvrins 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 leas.... Twins (p. 609) wei-e 

goo - uc . (.Qj^gifi^^Q^ ^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 power 

-• 1 Teit, The Tftoinpson Indians 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 ^ve^*t^her • 
upon as the real father of the twins, hut 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 man's 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 hirth of twins the parents moved some distance away four'yearT 
fi^om other people, and lived in a lodge made of fir-houghs 
and hark, 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 hear. Many say 

the grisly bear pitied the woman and made these children 

grow in her womb. The hushand of the woman was not the 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 ^y f^^^g built a lodge apart from the people, in which they 
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. 

ThuTuler ^^^ 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 q°^^^ 
Expedition. In the year 1824, John R. Jewett published 
at Edinburgh, an account of his Adventures and Sufferings 
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 J^^.^^^ 
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 tifunciei-. 
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. 



extant. 



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, t^^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 come^. 

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 
Nauvelle 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 veces, 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 veces 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, ii. 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, *^^''"-8od? 
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 Apostle 
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 OF 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^^'dianr" 

thunder. It seems clear that they had a Fire-bird, and equally l^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 ganzlich fehlende Gestalt ist 
der in Norden so bedeutsarae 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 

ie™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"*!t^ '" 
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 . - °, , . , • , , , p 

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. QYice 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 • n piegades. 

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 ... elements. 

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. 



CHAPTEK 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- fath er ; 
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 <iangerous. 
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 
tiwin 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^ggj., 
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^jjjjff 
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^i^ . 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 atid 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, dagger, 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 Zauberstab, 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, m. 32. 

2 Cabaton, in Hastings' Encyclop. Religion mid 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, [ 

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 hfive 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, deal 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 luckl 

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. Tijihchr. v. Neder. Ind. 1881, p. 262. 

2 Tijdschr. v. Ind. T.- L.- en Volkenktmde, deel xi. p. 24. 
s l7id. 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 
concerning 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, Etlmograplmche Beitrage iiber die Karoliiun-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 utero.... 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. orientate) 
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 1911 ^ 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 foraiula 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. 
« 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. 
jyological Institute for 1889^. 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 j^j^j 
killed ; if of opposite sexes, the girl was 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 

1 Nachrichten ilber Kaiser-Wilhelm^s Land und der Bismarck Archipel. 
p. 82. 

2 Vol. xvin. p. 292. » Vol. ii. p. 122. 
* Vol. I. p. 39. » Frazer, I.e. 

« Voyages dang 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, Melatiesiam, 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 tw^ins, 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 in 

constellations, and still more of the single stars. Mars they Hervey 

csWfetia ura,ve6. 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. '^"'^^S*^- 
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 
a,bout 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. Very often he gets out o/^^^^g^. 

^ 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 Ainu 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 .4^ Kamu, 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 Rig- 
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 f^'^^ ^ 
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 

Atfiarva-Veda a special section dealing with the question of ^{fj^g^^ 

averting the ill-luck caused by a twinning animal. The f>^om the 
. . . Atharva- 

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. XLil. 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 anneSs*^ 
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 bom 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, y^^i^^ 
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 A9vins, 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 AQvinaii {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 ^^*"°*" 
. . drivers, 

confused with horse riding ; the horse is driven in a chariot, 

and the A9vins are regarded as the inventors of the yoke 

^ Die A(;vins oder Arischen Dioskuren, Munchen, 1876. 



Nasatiya. 



188 TWIN- FEAR IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH. 

which controls their steeds. The Greek parallel for this is 
' horse-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 '^(OTrjp^ (saviour). Whether this be correct or 
not^, it is certain that the twin-brethren came to be regarded 

1 Brunnhofer, Von Aral bis zur Ganga, p. 99, the root being nas as in 
Gothic nas-jan, to save, to help. 

^ 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 nose 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 confinnation 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): 

(TWTrjpas T^Ke iraldas iinxOovLwv dvOpwiriav 
(hKVTrbpoiv re veQv Sre re (nrepx(^<Tiv aeXXat 
Xet/n^/)tai /card 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^J^nd ' 
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 different 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 twins 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. 
Eed the The colour of the Ayvins 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 A9vins 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 Agvins, the Persian religion also had The Twins 
its agpino yavino, the two youths, the Aypins. The obser- ^" 6J"sia. 
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 
ot 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 A^vin 
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 Ekiessan 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 yefc 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 ujjper 
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 
discoveiy 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 
larui-* 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 gxample, 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 

1 In what follows I make use of a paper read before the Oxford Congress 
of Religions in 1908, and published in the Contemporary Revietc 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 ^gg 
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 fi^om 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 

Mes^ine ^^ *^® 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, 
ninc^ 'Vfe should hsive exipected Sons of the Lightniiig. 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 Bns-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 (oaijiia), 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 Twdns 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 Jafifa 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, ra. 16. 2, 3. 

* Cyrene was, on the Greek side, a Dorian colony. 



XIX] WHY DID THE TWINS GO TO SEA.? i201 

stations and landmarks ; (6) lighthouses ; (c) dangerous Twins 
straits and harbours difficult of access ; (d) sandbanks etc. : ^^^^^ 
i.e. we should look for them in connexion with all such imrbouis, 
situations as would in modern times be occupied by light- shallows, 
houses and landmarks, with a view to the avoidance of^t<^- 
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. 

- liilxTTparos KviSioi Ae^Kpavovs Qeois 

HuTi^pcriv VTrep rCiv irXo'i^Ofx.ivijiv. 

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, Chron. 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 

Channel, of the British Channel, which culminate in 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, Tyndarida«, 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 SUDS habeat, nee minus ilia suos. Ovid, Tristia, ix. 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 Car m el, 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 Syrtis^ 

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 find 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 hei Griechen und Rlmern und ihr 
Fortlehen 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 Remo" 
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 evei'y direction, tlie highest being 
at S. Romolo, 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 corn- 
mean tibus 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 
Partus Herculu Mimoeci. 

* 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- 
from a passage in Aristophanes ^ where we are told that there ij^j^ ^dT 
was a time when Zeus was not, but Woodpecker (BpvoKo- 
\dirTq<i, 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 ancjJnt 
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 
y 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- oil ^^^ tomb of Minos-Zeus in Crete, there was an inscription 
pecker. that ' Here lies dead Picus, who is also Zeus\' Picus(n»7/co9)- 
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 wekeKav, 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 (TreXe/coi/e?) who 

• - ^ Suidas, s.v, H^koj- ivOASe Keirai dou>wv [/Saa/Xetos] II^koj 6 /cat Zei/y. 

3 In tije 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 thunder 
of the cult the principal, in addition to sacred trees and ^^ ^^^^ 
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, early^^ ^^ 
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 
Piluranus, 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 gi'eat 
pestle {pihim) 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. Roni. viii. 320 d, sKaripov ardfta rj XV^V 8ioiyu»f 
iverldei \l/d}nia/xa rrji iavrov rpoipiji airofiepl^uv. 

2 Ovid, Fasti, in. 37. 

^ It is perhaps the Donnerkeil which appears as Dunnerpil in Mecklen- 
burg, and as Dunnerpiler in Eiigen: see Blinkenberg, The Thunder -Weapon, 
p. 95. 

* Among the Badegas of South India, the stone-axes are regarded as a 
cure for barrenness. Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, vm. (199) quoted in Blinken- 
berg, p. 116. 

» Strabo, v. p. 240. 



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 JJo^!^* 
our words ' ship,' ' skiff,' are connected with the Latin scapha 
and the Greek a-Kd<f)o^, 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 tj-ee.^^ 
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. R. 
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 of 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 ofi" well and happy. If 
this be done, the worshipper will become rich, as well as very 

» 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 -V ; 

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, ^. 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 

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- 
ments 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. 



nician 



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 J^^ ^[^ 
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 {Ovaco). 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(^h in Syriac ; but this may mean either hunted or fished. Since gapha is 
a net, it is possible that hunting and fishing were both carried on by a net 
in the first instance. 

Eetuming 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 com-deity. So I think the statement in the text is the correct 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 analog 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-xehiav = 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.' ^^-{l ^^^ 

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.' 
' Perhaps Zeus Meilichios. 



220 THE TWINS IN PHOENICIAN TRADITION [CH. XXI 

Then we are told of Misor and Sydyk, that ia, 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 elpov).' 

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-^eSm? /cat TrXota crvvdevra), 
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 : Kabiri 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.? 



CHAPTEK 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 : 

'Apytb TO <TKd(pos elfil. Gey 5' dv^drjKev 'l^auv 
'ladfjiia Kal "Ntfiiois <rT€\j/dfiei'ov irirvaiv. 

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 from 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 ^.tso^ 
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- 
pbion. 



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 S 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, Gdtternamen, p. 20. According to Usener, Hyperasios is ex- 
panded from Hyperes, connected with Hyperion, and ultimately with a 
comparative fonned from Cirepoj, like Ctotoj from ivip. 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 °l^l^ 
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<i koX ^Aprjiot, vie Biavro'i, 
rfKvdov, t^6ifi6<; re Aea)BoKO<f, ov<i reKe Ilrjpci} 

' From Argos did sons of Bias, Areius and Talaus, come. 
And mighty Laodokus, fruit of Neleus' daughter's womb.' 

(i. 50) ovS" 'AXottt; /jbifivov irdXvXrjLOL '^p^eiao 

vlee<i, ev BeSafore SoXov^, "KpvTO^ koL 'K^icov 
Toiai ^' eVt TptTaro<i 'yvcoro^ Kie veiao/xevoco'iv 
Aida\LBr}(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, cameforthon thequest, 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 fi:"om 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 Amphidamas as a twin twice over, and we 
may not be able to count him at all. And the same might be 
said of Areios and Amphiaraos. As we have found in our lists 
the Spartan twins and the Messenian, the suggestion arises as 
to whether other pairs of twins, belonging to the Greek cities 
and states, may not be on board. What about the Moliones 
of Elis, the sons of Aktor? Their names are commonly given 
as Eurytos and Kleatos. Do they occur? And what shall 
we say of the Aloads of Boeotia, Otus and Ephialtes ? 

Apollonius^ introduces Aktor as sending his son Menoe- 
tios, who is accompanied by Eurytion, who is the son 
of Irus, the son of Aktor. The name Eurytos evidently 
belongs to the Aktorid circle: but we cannot make out a 
clear genealogy. All we can say is that there were some 
Aktorids on board, but whether they were the Moliones 
is somewhat doubtful. Of Otus and Ephialtes I see no trace. 

Reviewing the whole argument, and remembering that 
besides the cases discussed, there are a number of pairs 
of brothers, not necessarily nor probably twins, it will be 
admitted that the twin and brotherly element in the ship 
is very strong. 

There may be as many as eighteen twins on board 

The first Apollonius' ship. Even if the number should be much less, 

twin-ship, ^^ ^^ significant. Moreover, if we should sometimes fail to 

identify the second brother of a pair, as perhaps in the case 

of Herakles and Iphikles, yet when the twin motive has been 

recognised, the presence of a single brother out of a pair is 

significant. If Pollux only were to be found on board, Pollux 

is a heavenly twin, and to that extent the ship is Dioscurized. 

This is what our investigation has led us to, that since the 

ship Argo was largely manned by twins, and was partly made 

of holy oak, the nucleus of the myth of the building and 

voyaging of the Argo is that the first ship knoivn to the Greeks 

was an oak tree with twins on board, which is precisely the 

1 ApoU. I. 161. 2 Apoll. I. 69. 



XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 227 

same result as we arrived at for Romulus and Remus on the 
Tiber. 

Nor have we exhausted the matter by what has preceded. Asklepios 
Here is another point that might have been mentioned. °" ^oa^^d. 
ApoUonius says that there were on board Askalaphos and 
lalmenos, sons of Ares and Astyoche, the latter being herself 
a daughter of Aktor. There are several links in this with 
the twins; I only emphasize one, the presence of Askalaphos. 
Askalaphos is certainly a variant for Asklepios, and as we 
have already seen from the Phoenician traditions, Asklepios 
is closely related to the twins^ Thus we see again the twin 
motive running through the mythological development of the 
story. 

This naturally raises the question as to the first composition 
of the crew. We have Argos for the builder, who may be a 
mere disguise for the all-seeing Heaven, the parent of the 
twins in one point of view, but who are the original twins? 
Is Jason himself a twin, and if he should be one, who is the 
other ? 

Last of all, if we were correct in identifying the original 
Roman twins with the woodpecker, are there any traces of 
the woodpecker in the ship Argo, or in her crew? 

Let us return for a moment or two to Askalaphos, whom Was he 
we have assumed to be a variant of Asklepios. We have peckIr°or 
already made use of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the case oftlieowl? 
Picus, the king of Latium, whom Circe transformed into 
a woodpecker, and have pointed out that this was Ovid's way 
of telling backwards how a bird-cult of the woodpecker was 
transformed into a cult of a hero. Well : Askalaphos also 
appears in Ovid as a bird-transformation; he had borne 
witness to the plucking and eating of the pomegranate by 

^ Clement of Alexandria renainds us that Asklepios was on board the 
Argo. He says (Strom. I. 21) 'AcrKXriinds re Kal oi AtdcrKovpoi. crvvinXeov 
airoh, ws /maprvpel 6 'PoStos 'AiroWuivios iv roh 'ApyovavriKois, from which it is 
clear that Clement, or the person whom he is quoting, has identified 
Askalaphos and Asklepios. The same tradition is involved in Malalas, 
Chron. iv. p. 77, Cedrenus, i. pp. 104, 209, Cramer, Anecd. Paris, n. 
pp. 194, 195, Syncellus, i. p. 296. See Jessen, Prolegg. in Cat. Argonaut, 
p. 26. 

15—2 



228 THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON [CH. 

Persephone, and for that reason he was turned into a bird. 
Ovid says it was an owl : 

Ingemuit regina Erebi, testemqae profanam 

Fecit avem, sparsumque caput Phlegethontide lympha 

In rostrum et plumas et grandia lumina vertit. 

Ille sibi ablatus fulvis amicitur in alis, 

Inque caput crescit, longosque reflectitur ungues, 

Vixque movet natas per inertia bracchia pennas: 

Foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuntia luctus 

Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen. (Met. v. 543-550.) 

Thus Ovid, explaining in reverse order how the owl 
became Askalaphos. We are probably right in following his 
intimation that Askalaphos was a bird in disguise : but was 
he right in identifying it with an owl ? If he was, then we 
have probably another case of the Thunder-bird, the owl 
being a denizen of the hollow oak : in that sense it might 
easily, like the woodpecker, become the patron of those who 
go on the water in hollowed oaks, or of the Sons of Thunder, 
whose father lives in the oak. There is, however, an exception 
to be taken on the ground of etymology, and on the ground 
of insufficient verification. That Askalaphos is a bird is con- 
firmed by Aristotle^: but the form of the name suggests 
something different from an owl. If the root is aKaXtr-, we 
have apparently two derived stems (tkoX- and aKair-: the 
latter is well known as the root of a-Katrrai, to dig : but the 
former also appears in a-KdXi<i, a hoe, in the corresponding 
verb (TKaXK(o, in O.H.G. Scar = English (plough-sAare), and 
in a number of forms with a prefixed euphonic a, such as 
daKaXi^w, to hoe ; and it is said to lie at the base of a Latin 
talpa for primitive stalpa, the mole being naturally described 
as the digger. If this is on the right track, then daKoXa^o^ 
should be a digger-bird, and not exactly an owl. It is much 
more likely that the owl has appropriated a variant name of 
the woodpecker. 

This would mean that the woodpecker was on board the 
Argo in the shape of Askalaphos (= Asklepios), and certainly 
he is the digger-bird, and the one who has been credited with 
the invention of ship-building. Thus we explain at the same 

1 H. A. n. 17, 34. 



XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 229 

time the association which is so often found between Asklepios 
and the twins, his appearing with the Kabiri as if one of 
them, etc. 

We can now proceed to the reconstruction of the original Was Jason 
ship Argo, and ask the question whether Jason was a twin, * ^'"^ " 
and if so, who was his brother ? If we can show that Jason 
was a twin, then we have added two more proofs of twin-dom 
in the crew of the Argo, Jason and Askalaphos- Asklepios. 

Without discussing minutely the relation between Jason 
and Jftsios and Jftsion (Usener explains that Jason with a 
long a comes from the root "la/xai in the same way as Jasios 
with a short a comes from 'Idofiai, and that they may be 
considered equivalent), I am going to maintain the correctness 
of the tradition that the twin-brother of Jason is Triptolemos Tripto- 
(= Jasion ?), and that the reason why Jason goes to sea, and ^^^°^- 
Triptolemos stays on land, is that the common functions of 
the Twins have been divided \ We shall show presently that 
the Twins are patrons of the plough and of the ship; and 
if that be the case, as Triptolemos is well known in Attica 
as the inventor of the plough and the friend of Demeter the 
corn-mother, we can see why (a) Triptolemos remains on 
shore, and (6) why there are stories of Demeter falling in love 
with Jasion. In reality it was Jason's twin-brother to whom 
she was attached ; perhaps he had the name Jasion before 
he was called Triptolemos. 

If this explanation is correct, then Jason belongs to the 
Heavenly Twins, and discharges some of the functions 
proper to the Twins, leaving the agricultural duties to his 
twin-brother. 

We have now shown reason to believe that Askalaphos 
is an Oak-bird (either the owl or the woodpecker) and that 

^ The Greek tradition of the stars, which are called the Twins, is not a 
consistent one. Commonly they are called Castor and Pollux, but sometimes 
they are Janon (? Jasion) and Triptolemos, and sometimes Apollo and 
Herakles: there are also other combinations, such as Theseus and Herakles, 
Zethos and Amphion and the Kabiri of Samothrace. We shall see later on 
that Jason is a Kabir. As far as Triptolemos and Jasion go, this nomencla- 
ture of the originally nameless Twin Brethren can be traced back to 
Hermippos. (See Boll, Sphaera. p. 123.) See further in Additional Notes. 



230 THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON [CH. 

Jason is the twin who first, in Greek tradition, went to sea 

in a trunk of holy oak. Moreover, there is a connection 

between Jason the first navigator and Askalaphos the first 

,r ■ boat-builder. The ancients all say that Jason was the son 

■ of Aeson, but they betrayed, by the familiar sound of the 

name, that it was a mere invention of afterthought. As 

to Jason's mother, there are several variant traditions ; 

amongst them there is one preserved by Tzetzes^ that his 

mother was named Scarphe : Scarphe is only a variant for 

Scalphe and implies that Jason is a twin descended from 

the woodpecker (or conceivably the owl). There can be 

little room for doubt that we have traced the Argonaut story 

to its origin, we are behind the epos, and behind the saga, 

we have arrived at the first stages of man's explanation of 

the world and its phenomena and his own traditional 

practices. 

Was Jason It remains to be investigated whether the starting point 

a Semite ? ^£ ^j^^ story of ship-building is in Greece or in Phoenicia. 

Is Jason originally a Semite ? 

The first thing that suggests itself is that the name is 
commonly derived from the Greek 'lao/xat, to heal, and 
implies that Jason had leech-craft. The name would on this 
supposition be Greek and not Semitic. That, the Twins 
should be healers is well known, from the A9vins of India to 
Protasius and Gervasius the boni medici of Milan. To con- 
tradict this supposition we should have to say that they 
were healers indeed, but that the leech-craft had come in 
later, superposed upon the nautical-craft with which they 
came accredited, say, from Phoenicia. This is not im- 
possible, but inasmuch as leech-craft is early in the lore of 
the Twins, it is, to say the least, unlikely. 
"Was Jason It was G. F. Grotefend^ who first suggested the Phoenician 
Joshua? origin for Jason and equated it with Joshua. If the Septua- 
gint made Joshua into Jesus ('iTyo-oO?), why should not the 
Greeks of an earlier day have made Joshua into Jason 
(^\rja(ov), which we see staring at us in its Ionic form (with 

1 Lye. 872. 

2 Ersch and Gruber, Allgem. Encykl. s.v. lason. 



XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 231 

7) for long a) all over the pages of Apollonius Rhodius ? 
The hypothesis is certainly attractive enough : but where 
shall we find in Phoenicia, and amongst the Phoenician 
twins, the name of Joshua ? Does it underlie the name 
Ovaw, which we were discussing previously ? It is hardly 
likely. And if Joshua is the missing Semitic original, 
how does his name compounded with Jahu appear in 
Phoenician origins ? It will be seen that the hypothesis is 
beset with difficulties as far as Phoenicia is concerned. 

The name of Joshua does, however, become Graecized 
into Jason, in the time of Greek influence in Palestine, 
following on the invasion of Alexander. To take a single 
instance, we have in the second book of Maccabees (iv. 7-15) 
an account of how 'after the death of Seleucus, when 
Antiochus called Epiphanes took the kingdom, Jason the 
brother of Onias laboured underhand to be high-priest.' 
From Josephus (Antiq. xii. 1) we learn what might, indeed, 
have been almost guessed, that the real name of the priestly 
pretender was Joshua. So that while the LXX were ren- 
dering Joshua by Jesus ('It/o-oO?), the Graecizing population 
were altering the names into Jason. And it may be 
suspected that, whenever we find a bond fide Jew with the 
name of Jason, such as Jason of Gyrene, the historian, he 
was as probably a Joshua as if his name had been Jesus. 
This puts the whole matter in a different light. There is still 
a want of evidence on the side of Phoenicia, from which we 
have assumed that contact with Greek life by sea will be made, 
but the Grotefend proposition begins to acquire a degree of 
probability, that demands for it a close and careful enquiry. 

The actual language of Grotefend is as follows : ' Dass er Grote- 
ein Grieche war, deutet Homer mit den Homeriden durch jf" f 
keine Sylbe an ; sein Tauschhandel mit den Griechen scheidet thesis. 
ihn vielmehr als eine Fremdling aus, und vermuthlich ist 
sein Name ^Irjtrav nur eine griechische Nebenform von 
'It^o-oO?, was im N.T. Act vii. 45 : Heb. iv. 8 gleichbedeutend 
ist mit dem hebraische y^JHil^ oder Josua, Heiland, nach- 
gebildet dem weiblichen 'Idaco fiir die Gottin der Heilkraft. 
Phoniken waren es ja, welche zuerst die Inseln Lemnos, 



232 THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS OF JASON [CH. 

Imbros, Thasos besetzten Allein die Griechen eigneten 

sich, als sie die Phoniker aus ihren Meere verdrangten, auch 
die erste Fahrt in den Pontus zu, und wussten zuletzt auch die 
phonikischen Namen einer navis longa Argo aus griechischer 
Sprache zu deuten.' 

Grotefend, then, affirms that Homer and his followers 
know nothing of a Greek ancestry for Jason, and that it is, 
therefore, reasonable to interpret his name by Semitic 
analogies, which brings out Joshua as underlying Jason. 

The Phoenicians were the first to sail the Aegean and 
the Euxine, but the Greeks expelled them from their stations 
in the islands, and then ascribed to themselves the origin 
of ship-building, and the daring of the primitive navigator ; 
as the Phoenicians must have been a sea-going people long 
before the Greeks were heard of, it seems that Grotefend 
must be right in saying that Jason came from Phoenicia. 
We are not far, now, from the Lake of Galilee and can hardly 
avoid the question whether the Lake was navigated before 
the Mediterranean was ventured. If it was so dared, Jason 
may be Galilean before he was Phoenician. 

Grotefend's suggestion that Argo in Phoenician meant 
a long ship (Heb. Arha, = long) is not so convincing. I 
should rather have expected the first ship to be called oak, or 
thunder, or woodpecker. This point can be left in suspense 
with a strong mark of philological doubt. 

Is there anything that will confirm us in accepting 
Grotefend's judgement as to the meaning and origin of the 
Jason legend ? I think I have found such a confirmation. 
The first On an ancient gem, figured in King and Monro's illustrated 
ship m Horace, will be found a representation of the very pair of 
twins in a boat, whom our analysis detected at the back of 
the Argonaut legends. The two figures are seated in a boat, 
facing one another, and holding between them something 
like an amphora with handles: they have caps on their 
heads, but note that they are not the egg-shaped caps of 
the Dioscuri, but the conical caps of the Kabiri. So then, 
the verdict must be that the primitive sea-going twins were 
remembered as Kabiri in some quarters. Jason and his- 



XXIl] AND HIS COMPANIONS 233 

companion were a couple of Kabirs, which is the point that 
we wished to confirm. 

It is interesting to look a little more closely at the gem 
which King and Monro delineate, and at their comment upon 
it. The passage of Horace to be illustrated is Ode in. 29 : 

Turn me biremis praesidio scaphae 
tutum per Aegeos tumultus 
aura feret geminusque Pollux. 

Pollux is invoked to bear him safe over the troubled Aegean ; 
and his wish is illustrated by a ship, with a couple of Kabirs 
on board, who are companion saints of the Dioscuri. Upon 
this the editors remark: 'Two men, wearing conical pilei, 
seated in a galley with oars, and holding between them a 
tall amphora. This curious and unique design shows us the 
Cabiri, the great gods of Pelasgic, or pre-historic Greece, 
and her numerous colonies. They were worshipped as the 
inventors of all the useful arts of life, especially of navigation 
and agriculture, which character is very expressively alluded 
to by their attributes upon this gem. Their name is 
Phoenician, signifying " The Mighty Ones," and is literally 
translated by the Latin Divi Potes, by which title Varro 
mentions their worship at Rome.' 

It will be noticed that the passage contains an illegitimate 
equation between Pelasgic and Phoenician. The editors go 
on to explain that the Kabiri are described by Herodotus as 
being the sons of Hephaestos (ill. 37), and that their figures 
are like the Phoenician Pataeci, or like the pygmies, i.e. that 
they wear conical caps. They conclude by saying that the 
Kabiri were confounded by the later Greeks with the 
Dioscuri. We agree that the Kabiri are an earlier form of 
the Twins than the Dioscuri. Jason, then, is a Kabir, and we Jason a 
should say, perhaps a Phoenician. This is the same result as 
was arrived at by K. O. Miiller, in his book on Orchomenos^ 

1 K. 0. Miiller, Orchomenos u. die Minyer, p. 260, 'Denn was Jason's 
Namen und That betrifft, meinten sehon die Alten, dass der Zogling des 
heilkundigen Cheiron von der'Iacris benannt und Aison und Jason eigentlich 
derselbe Name sei. Jasos, Jason, und Jasion aber sind von Ursprung 
einerlei, wie sie auch hiiufig verwechselt werden; und so ist auch dem 
Namen nach der Samothrakische Kabir .Tasion.' 



CHAPTEE XXIII 

THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 

In the previous chapter the question was raised whether 
Triptolemos, the Attic inventor of the plough, was not a 
twin-brother of Jason, the captain of the first Greek ship : 
and this brings up the wider enquiry as to the association of 
the great Twin Brethren with the plough, their nautical skill 
having by this time been abundantly established. 
The Twins Amongst the many services supposed to have been 
tdouRh ^ rendered to mankind by the Heavenly Twins, one of the 
most important is the invention of ploughs and yokes : and 
it is interesting to enquire how this service came to be 
recognised as proper to them, and so actually performed by 
them. For it is certain that the functions of the Dioscuri 
are not thrown about at random, merely because they are 
the common benefactors of mankind and general saviours of 
the race, but in almost every case a careful examination will 
show that the function in question is related to the original 
taboo on twins, and to the recognition of the idealised twins 
as children of the Sky or of the Thunder. In many cases 
the reasons for some special form of Salvation and Well-being 
can be made out. 

Thus the idea of fertility, involved in the production of 
twins, and considered in their supposed relation to the Sky, 
led at once to the presidency of the Twins over the marriage 
chamber, and over the fruits of the field ; if rain was required, 
their connection with the Sky-god made them the proper 
court of appeal, and for similar reasons they became the right 
medicine men in the case of those whose physical powers 
were declining and who wished to become young again. 



CH. XXIIl] THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES ETC. 235 

These, and many other points, such as their care for the 
sanctity of oaths, and their wrath against the perjured (for 
they are the children of the all-seeing Sky, in whose presence 
sub Divo the Oath is actually taken), their interest in ships 
(which we have traced back to the holy oak and the sacred 
woodpecker), can for the most part be made sufficiently 
luminous when once we have the right point of view. Given 
the same intellectual limitations, and a similar stage of 
human evolution, we may be sure that we should have acted 
and thought much as did our far away ancestors. 

In the present chapter of our new science, we are to 
discuss the relation of the Heavenly Twins to the discovery 
of the plough and the invention of the yoke. 

As we shall see from the traditions that have come down 
to us, as well as from the nature of the case, the two discoveries 
are closely related, and they constitute an important stage in 
the history of man, almost comparable to the discovery and 
use of fire : so that we should naturally expect that races 
which study their own advance and realise their own ad- 
vantages, will have some story or other to tell us as to how 
high heaven caused the art to be known and the useful 
practice to be invented : in which connection it may be noted 
in passing, that it is one of the curious defects of the Hebrew 
religion that, old as it is, it has no myth of the origin of 
fire, or of the invention of the plough ^ though it has a 
sufficient record of the origin of clothes, and something to 
say on the subject of working in metals : many of the ancient 
myths must have disappeared before the time of the produc- 
tion of the book of Genesis. 

In the case before us, then, we have first of all to prove 
that the Twins had charge of the plough and the yoke : then 
we have to make suggestion as to how these came to be their 

1 This is the more remarkable as the Phoenicians had both. Sanchonia- 
thon (in Euseb. Praep. Evan. i. 10) tells us that the three children of Genoa 
found out the means of producing fire by rubbing pieces of wood against one 
another, and taught men the use thereof. 

He also tells us that Dagon was one of the sons of Ouranos and Ge: 
(Dagon signifying Bread-corn); and that Dagon, after he had found out 
bread-corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios. 



236 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [CH. 

province ; after which we may go on to consider the later 

stages of the cult and the traces of it which may survive in 

modem religion. 

The Twins That the Twins had charge of the plough and the yoke 

the'Biff-" appears in a number of ways. In the first case it is one of 

Veda. the functions attached to the Agvins or Twin-horsemen of 

the Rig- Veda. 

It may be noted in passing that the grounds on which 
some critics have doubted the identification of the A9vins 
with the Aryan Dioscuri are quite insufficient to discredit a 
hypothesis, so natural in itself, and so abundantly corro- 
borated. Some perplexity has been unnecessarily introduced 
over a passage in the Rig- Veda in which only one of the A9vins 
is said to be the son of the Sky ; the passage runs as follows : 

' One bom here, the other there, they strive together 
with unblemished bodies in their noble nature, victorious 
over the mighty ; one of you is a director, the other drives 
on, as the darling son of the Sky.' 

Max Mtiller's explanation of the Twins, as being bom 
' here and there,' is as follows : ' The A9vins are called ihdha 
gdtdii, bom here and there, i.e. on opposite sides, or in the 
air and in the sky. One is gishnu, victorious, he who bides 
in the air ; the other is subhaga, happy, the son of Dyu, or 
the Sky.' 

The difficulty arose from not seeing that the Rig- Veda is 
explaining that one is mortal, the other immortal, and the 
language naturally refers to the time when only one of the 
pair was considered heaven-bom, a stage which is also to be 
traced in the Greek legends, and in the taboos of savage 
peoples. 

With this explanation, and the direct statement of the 
Rig- Veda that one of the two is a child of the Sky, or 
Dioscure, we need not make any further difficulty over, the 
statement that one of the Twins is bom here and the other 
there : it only means earth-bom and sky-born. 

Returning to the evidence of the Rig- Veda as to the 
connection of the Twins with the plough, we have the 
following statements: 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 237 

' You, O A9vins, that lay enemies low, sow grain with the 
plough, and milk out the quickening streams of water for 
men.' Rig- Veda, i. 117, 21. 

' Inasmuch as ye were helpful to men, ye in former times 
sowed grain in heaven with the ploughs' lb. viii. 22, 6. 

The meaning of these passages is, that the twins, who have 
a general care for fertility, through their connection with 
the Sky, and through their exhibition of it in their own 
persons, have also especially cared for the crops by the in- 
vention of the plough. They have the credit for the fertility 
which the plough produces. 

Now let us go to a more barbarous region and see what 
the Scythians say of the origin of such civilization as they 
have. 

Here is a curious story from Herodotus^ : 

The Scythians say that they are the youngest of races Scythians 
and that they all sprung from a certain Targitaos, who was plough 
himself the son of Zeus and of the daughter of the river dropped 
Borysthenes : this Targitaos had three sons, named Leipoxais heaven. 
(AetTTo^ai'?), Arpoxais ('AjOTro^at?) and Kolaxais {KoXn^ai^}, 
the latter being the youngest of all. When these three 
brothers were ruling over Scythia, there fell down from 
heaven certain golden works of art, a plough and a yoke 
(dporpov T€ Kol ^vyov), and an axe {<ra'yapi<i), and a cup 
{<f>i,aX.r}). The first brother tried to seize them, but the gold 
caught fire on his approach ; so with the second ; the third 
brother quenched the fire and got possession of the golden 
ornaments ; and his brethren accepted the omen and handed 
over the kingdom to him. The gold ornaments were laid up 
in a temple and were the objects of a great annual religious 
festivals 

^ Literally, with the wolf: this may be an early name for the ploughshare 
on account of its biting and tearing the ground. See MyriantheuB, Die 
Agvins, pp. 123-125. 

2 Herod, rv. 5. 

* I have translated ffdyapis by 'axe,' because it appears to be the same 
implement or weapon described by Herodotus elsewhere (vii. 64), where the 
weapons of the Scythians are said to be bows, axe-sagars (d^lvas ffaydpn) and 
hand-daggers. 



238 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [CH. 

Now in connection with the foregoing we have an account 
of the discovery of the plough and the yoke, under the fiction 
that golden models of them fell down from heaven. We 
notice that the brethren who rule the country are a triad, 
with names made on a common model. Is this a Kabiric 
model ? May we compare Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal ? We 
need further light on the meaning of the names before we 
can answer the question ^ 

If the Scythian brothers were Dioscuric in character, 
we should read a meaning into their connection with the 
discovery of the yoke and plough. Perhaps the word ' axe ' 
may be involved in their names also. The Scythian story 
will at least show, what we shall presently confirm from other 
quarters, that the plough and the yoke are a single discovery 
to the ancient world, under celestial patronage. 
The battle We will now move further west, and examine a curious 
carty!° ^^* ^^ legendary history from the highlands of Scotland, the 
account of the battle of Luncarty. 

When I published my first researches into the history 
and diffusion of the Cult of the Twins, I was made sport of 
by a reviewer, whose personality was not very difficult to 
recognise, who wished to know why I had not proved Dioscuric 
intervention in the battle of Luncarty. The situation was, 
I suppose, meant to be a critical reductio ad absurdum. 
However, since then, the matter has been moved out of the 
region of ridicule by Mr A. B. Cook's researches on the 
European Sky-God, who dwells in the sacred tree. Mr Cook 
approached the Luncarty legends from another side, and 
found traces of the same ancient cult as prevailed at Dodona 
and at Nemi. And as we shall come to nearly the same 
point in our investigations, it may after all become a 
tenable theory that the battle of Luncarty was the scene 

1 A parallel case would be three deities worshipped at Samothrace, named 
Axiokersos, Axiokersa and Axieros. Here we are on Dioscuric ground, for 
Samothrace is headquarters for both Dioscuri and Kabiri. But here again the 
names are hard to explain. Mr A. B. Cook has sought to connect them with 
the worship of the double axe, and to explain them as (1) he that cleaves 
with the axe, (2) she that is cleft by the axe, and (I suppose) (3) he to whom 
the axe is sacred. See A. B. Cook, Oxford Congress for Hist. Bel. p. 194. 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 239 

of a Dioscuric intervention. What then was the battle 
of Luncarty and why does it become of interest in this in- 
vestigation ? 

When Milton was preparing for himself a list of subjects, 
suitable for possible dramatic or poetical treatment (the 
jottings of which are preserved among his manuscripts at 
Trinity College, Cambridge), he took a number of sugges- 
tions from the Scottish history of Hector Boece, which is 
printed along with Holinshed's Chronicles. Amongst these 
subjects we find the following : 

' Hay the Ploughman, who with his two sons at plough. Hay the 
running to the battle that was between the Scots and the ^^^ " 
Danes in the next field, stayed the flight of his countrymen, 
etc' The subject was a very curious one for Milton to have 
selected, but he was reading Holinshed carefully and no 
doubt Boece : moreover his interest was especially awakened 
in the battle of Luncarty; for, as his biographer Masson has 
shown, his first preceptor. Young, came from the very parish 
of Luncarty, where the battle was fought. It is easy to 
infer that the story had impressed him at a very early date. 

It had also impressed Shakespeare, who, as Mr A. B. Cook 
reminds us, uses it in the fifth Act of Gymbeline. 

The story of the Battle of Luncarty is summed up in 
Burke's Armoury in connection with the pedigree of Hay 
(Earl of Errol) as follows : and as we shall have to refer 
particularly to the coat of arms of the Earls of Errol, 
which form a basis for part of the legends, or are closely 
connected with them, I transcribe the Heraldic account, 
after which we will see what Boece himself says on the 
matter. 

Burke, Armoury. Hay (Earl of Errol). 

' In the reign of Kenneth III,' says Douglas, about 980, 
' the Danes having invaded Scotland were encountered by 
that king near Loncarty in Perthshire : the Scots at first 
gave way, and fled through a narrow pass, where they were 
stopped by a countryman of great strength and courage, and 
his two sons, with no other weapons than the yokes of their 
ploughs; upbraiding the fugitives for their cowardice he 



240 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [CH. 

succeeded in rallying them ; the battle was renewed, and the 
Danes totally discomfited. It is said that after the victory 
was obtained the old man lying on the ground wounded and 
fatigued, cried " Hay, Hay," which word became the surname 
of his posterity: the king, as a reward of that signal 
service, gave him as much land in the Corse of Gowrie, as a 
falcon could fly over before it settled: and a falcon being 
accordingly let off, flew over an extent of ground six miles 
in length, afterwards called Erroll, and lighted on a stone, 
still called Falconstone : the king also assigned three shields 
or escutcheons for the arms of the family, to intimate that 
the father and the two sons had been the three fortunate 
shields of Scotland. This legend, first told by Hector Boece, 
was invented to explain the arms, which are at least as old 
as 1292, and in turn suggested the crest, motto and 
supporters. 

Arms. Three escutcheons, gu. 

Crest. A Falcon rising ppr. 

Supporters : two men in country habits, each holding an 
ox-yoke over the shoulders. 

Motto : Serva Jugum.' 
Luncarty As intimated above, the story is to be sought in Boece 's 

Chronicles of Scotland, to which we now turn. 

Book XI. ' This day had been the utter extermination 
of Scottis, wer not ane landwart man, namit Hay, with his 
two sons, of strong and rude bodies, howbeit they were of 
maist nobill curage, come haistelie in support of Kenneth 
and his nobillis, efter they were neir vincust with their 
enemies. This Hay, havand na wappinis bot the yok of ane 
pleuch, and seand the middilward quhair Kenneth was 
fechtand agains the Danes, nakit of baith the wingis, thocht 
naithing so honorable as to de vailyentlie amang so many 
nobill men. Than, wes ane strait passage, nocht far fra 
the battall, quhare gret noumer of Scottis were slane, 
miserabillie fleing. This Hay, traisting nathing so guid as to 
stop the fleing of the Scottis, abaid in this strait passage, 
with his two sonnis, and slew baith Danes and Scottis quhom 
he fand fleand, with his yok...... Sic things is done, Kenneth 



in Boece 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 241 

retumit to the castel of Bertha and commandit this Hay 
and his sonnis to be clothed with rich claithis and to follow 
him to the said castel. Bot Hay, nathing desiring thereof, 
come with his sonnis, in their auld and rusty habit, strinklit 
with dust and sweit of battal, in the samin manner as they 
faucht; reddy to do what charges he might, at the king's 

pleisir Hay, accumpanit with huge pepil in this wise, 

enterit in the King's palice, berand the yok on his shoulders, 
in the same manor as he faucht agains the Danis.' 

Then follows the story of the falcon and the coat of arms. The sacred 
Mr A. B. Cook shows that this legend of the eponymous ^^^i 
ancestor of the Hays of Errol contains in it elements which 
involve the ancient belief of the connection between men 
and trees, in the matter of vital sympathy. For there was 
in former times a wizard oak not far from the Falcon Stone, 
which delimited the estate of Errol, and with this oak and 
its mistletoe the fortunes of the Hay family were connected. 
The legend of the oak is told by John Hay Allen in a note 
to one of his poems ^ entitled ' Lines written upon coming in 
sight of the Coast of Scotland.' ' Among the Low Country 
families the badges are now almost generally forgotten : but 
it appears by an ancient MS, and the tradition of a few old 
people in Perthshire, that the badge of the Hays was the 
mistletoe. There was formerly in the neighbourhood of 
Errol, and not far from the Falcon Stone, a vast oak of an 
unknown age, and upon which grew a profusion of the 
(mistletoe) plant : many charms and legends were connected 
with the tree, and the duration of the family of Hay was 
said to be united with its existence. It was believed that a 
sprig of the mistletoe cut by a Hay on Allhallowmas Eve 
with a new dirk, and after surrounding the tree three times 
sun-ways and pronouncing a certain spell, was a sure charm 
against all glamour or witchery, and an infallible guard in 
the day of battle. A spray gathered in the same manner 
was placed in the cradle of infants, and thought to defend 
them from being changed into elf-bairns by the fairies. 

^ J. H. Allen, llie Bridal of Caolchairn and other poems, London, 1822, 
p. 97. 

H. B. 16 



242 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [CH. 

Finally, it was affirmed, that when the root of the oak had 
perished, " the grass should grow in the hearth of Errol, and 
a raven should sit in the falcon's nest." The two most 
unlucky things which could be done by one of the name of 
Hay, were to kill a white falcon, and to cut down a limb 
from the oak of Errol. When the old tree was destroyed 
I never could learn. The estate has been some time sold out 
of the family of Hay, and of course it is said that the fatal 
oak was cut down a short time before.' 

Upon which legend and associated cult Mr Cook remarks 
that ' the fortune of the Hays was bound up with an imme- 
morial oak. And the white falcon that haunted the spot 
was very probably regarded as an ancestral spirit in bird- 
form Both Greeks and Latins connected the mistletoe 

with the sun : it is a priori probable that the insular Celts 

did the same The mistletoe was cut on Allhallowmas Eve 

from the oak at Errol by a Hay, who surrounded the tree 
three times sun-ways. We can hardly deny that the cutting 
of such a plant on such an occasion in such a way had a 
definitely solar significance.' 

In other words, the ritual of the oak at Errol was the 
survival of the ancient ritual of the European Sky-god, who 
lived in an oak covered with mistletoe, the plant in which 
the solar virtue was believed to be concentrated. 

Now let us approach the same series of legends from 
a Dioscuric standpoint, according to which the oak-deity 
had two assessors, whose closest parallel, if we may judge 
from Tacitus' account of the Lithuanian religion (of the 
Naharvali, to be more exact), lies in the worship of Castor 
and Pollux by the Romans. We have at once the parallel of 
the old man and his two sons with the Oak-god and his two 
assessors : then we have the familiar feature of the appearance 
of the Dioscuri and (in this case) of their sire, when the tide 
of battle has to be turned; and their sweating and dusty 
figures in the Scottish legend can be compared with the 
young horsemen who appeared and washed themselves and 
their horses at the Fountain of Juturna in the Forum. 

But last of all, and most important of all for our purposes. 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 243 

there is the appearance of the plough among the memories 
of the day. Boece says the old man fought with his yoke. 
And the supporters of the Hay coat of arms are two country- 
men, each holding an ox -yoke over his shoulders : while the 
motto ' Serva Jugum ' points the same way. 

I should imagine that the plough-coulters, or at any rate 
the ox-goads, were also in evidence : the primitive plough- 
coulters do not differ much from ox-goads. But whether it 
Avas one or both, all the symbols involved are Dioscuric, and 
belong to those who invented the plough and the yoke. 

A suspiciously parallel case occurs in the Book of Judges, Shamgar 
when Shamgar, the son of Anath, slays 600 Philistines with hero!"^ 
an ox-goad \ 

Shamgar is, then, a solar hero of the same type as the 
Hays of Errol, Perhaps his name is an abbreviation for 
Shamash-garam (Xafi-s^tyepa/j.o'i), of Northern Syria. That 
he is the son of Anath is clear enough : Anath is the feminine 
of Anu, the Babylonian Sky-god : she has recently turned up 
as either a consort or an assessor of Jahu in the Elephantine 
Papyri. 

We see then that the stories involved have a cyclical 
element in them : and we conclude that the Hay family 
have incorporated legends of the holy oak, of the Oak-god 
and his children in their family history : their coat of arms 
uses the legend much in the same way as noble families at 
Kome put the Dioscuri on their coins. Luncarty may be 
placed, for folk-lore purposes, in the neighbourhood of the 
Lake Regillus. 

There is, however, another close parallel between the The 

Hays of Errol, the Shamgar-story, and the Dioscuri. There herolt 

is a curious tradition that the Greeks were aided at the Marathon. 

Battle of Marathon by an unknown warrior, whose weapon 

was a ploughshare (dporpov). After the fight was won, he 

mysteriously disappeared, and when the Greeks consulted 

^ The Hebrew certainly suggests 'ox-goad,' but the LXX interpret 
•' plough-coulter ' (apa-TpoTrodi tGiv /Sow*') , and Jerome follows them with 
vomere. It seems that the primitive pointed plough and the ox-goad were 
hardly differentiated. Hence one could fight with a ploughshare, if neces- 
sary ; it is mot so easj to see how to fight with a yoke. 

16—2 



244 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [cH* 

the Oracle at Delphi about him, they could get no information 
as to who he was, but only an instruction to ' Care for no 
man at all, but say just this: We praise one helpful man 
whom we call the holder of the ploughshare.' The story 
will be found in Pausanias, as follows^ : 

' Now it befell, they say, that in the battle there was 
present a man of riistic aspect and dress, who slaughtered 
many of the barbarians luith a plough, and vanished after the 
fight. When the Athenians enquired of the god, the only 
answer he vouchsafed was to bid them honour the hero 
Echetlaeus ('E;;^eTXato9).' The name is supposed to be 
derived from i'x^erXr), the plough-handle. It seems that this 
story is a piece of folk-lore, exactly parallel on the one hand 
to the story of the Hays of Errol (except for the number of 
persons involved and the substitution of yoke for plough- 
share), and to the story of Shamgar (with the variation 
between ploughshare and ox-goad in the weapon employed) : 
while on the other hand it is Dioscuric in character on 
account of the mysterious and anonymous intervention of 
the strangely armed warrior, whose weapon is itself one of 
the Dioscuric symbols, and his equally mysterious disappear- 
ance. For the latter point we may compare what Dionysius 
of Halicarnassus says of the appearance of the Twins after 
the Battle of the Lake Regillus. The crowd that gathered 
round the pool of Juturna enquired if they brought news 
from the camp. They related to them how the day had gone, 
and that the Romans won. Then they withdrew from the 
Forum, and were seen no more, though the governor left in 
charge of the city caused diligent search to be made for them^ 

The abruptness of their withdrawal is brought out by 

Macaulay in his Battle of the Lake Regillus ; who describes 

their disappearance thus : 

'They washed their horses in the well 
That springs by Vesta's fane, 
And straight again they mounted, 
And rode to Vesta's door: 
Then like a blast, away they passed, 
And no man saw them more.' 

1 Pans. I. 32, 3 (tr. Frazer). 2 cf Djon. Antiq. Rom. vi. 13.. 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 245 

We have the same abrupt disappearance in the account of 
the battle at the Sagras, where the Dioscuri took the side of 
the Locrians\ 

In the Marathon legend we have an earlier and humbler 
conception of the Dioscuri than in the Roman story. Between 
the stage where the Dioscure could be a ploughman and 
fight with his plough-coulter, and the time when he was 
a splendid horseman and used a spear, there is a wide space 
of evolutionary history. Even in India, the horse stage was 
not reached before the time of Eukratides when, as the coins 
show, the riding knights came back from the West : in the 
old time they drove chariots : before they drove chariots, 
they drove the plough. But the stages of the popular 
belief are all closely linked, Marathon with Luncarty, and 
both of them with the Lake Regillus. 

Our next instance of the connection of the Heavenly 
Twins with the plough shall be taken from the early Christian 
literature. It has been shown that in certain quarters, there 
was a belief that the Apostle Thomas, whose name means 
twin, was the twin-brother of Jesus. 

This belief was especially strongly held in the old Sjnnan Twin-cult 
church of Edessa, which city was the centre of a heathen cult ^^ ^^^^' 
of the Sun and the Heavenly Twins, the two latter being 
probably identified with the Morning and Evening Stars. 
The reasons for this surprising statement are largely drawn 
from the Acts of Thomas, the mythical founder of the 
Edessan Church : and these Acts, which are of Syrian origin, 
make Thomas play the part of the double of Jesus, in all 
kinds of peculiar situations, and they make Jesus and Thomas .Jesus and 
do many things which can at once be explained if they were ^°™*^- 
looked on as Dioscures ; moreover on several occasions, 
Thomas is definitely addressed as the Twin of the Messiah. 
For the proofs and elaboration of this theme, I must refer to 
my two tracts, the Dioscuri in Christian Legend, and the 
Cult of the Heavenly Twins : but we must not suppose that 



1 Justin XX. 3, ' pugnare visi sunt, nee ultra apparuerunt, quam pugnatum 

est.' 



246 



THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES 



[CH. 



Judas 

Thomas 

makes 

ploughs 

and 

yokes. 



the belief is limited to a single Church, planted in a centre 
where Twin-worship was rife as a part of a solar cult. The 
Roman Breviary itself is in evidence for the belief, and 
contains sentences for St Thomas' day which, in their un- 
corrected form, tell us plainly that Thomas is the twin-brother 
of Jesus. These sentences in the Breviary can be traced 
back to St Isidore of Seville, and it is quite possible that 
they may be ultimately due to the westerly migration of 
the Acts of Thomas. Even if this should turn out to be 
the case, it appears as if a long time had elapsed before the 
statements in question were recognised as heretical. And 
this naturally leads to the belief that the gulf in theological 
thought between the far East and the near West was not so 
deep as might, at first sight, be imagined. 

When we turn to the opening sentences of' the Acts of 
Thomas, we have the well-known situation where Jesus sends 
Thomas to preach in India; and after some opposition on 
the part of Thomas (who, by the way, is always Judas Thomas 
in the Acts), Jesus sells him as a slave to an Indian 
merchant named Habban, who had been commissioned to 
King Gundaphar to bring him a skilful carpenter. 

As soon as Habban had got Judas on board ship, he 
proceeds to interrogate him : 

' What is thy art that thou art skilled in practising ?' 

And Judas replies : ' Carpentering and architecture : the 

business of the carpenter.' 
Habban enquires further : 

' What dost thou know to make in wood, and what in 
hewn stone ?' 

And Judas replies : ' In wood and stone I have learned to 
make ploughs and yokes and ox-goads ; and oars for ferry- 
boats, and masts for ships : and in stone, tombstones and 
monuments and temples and palaces for kings.' 

'Just the sort of man I want,' says Habban, who is 
thinking of the commission with which he has been entrusted 
by King Gundaphar, who has the building of a new palace in 
mind. 

When they arrive in India, the same catechism is repeated 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 247 

by King Gundaphar, who is very well pleased with the 
recapitulation of Judas Thomas' qualifications. 

Now these qualifications are characteristic of the Dioscuri. 
I have shown that one of their early Greek titles was 
Lapersai, or stone-workers, and legend has been busy with 
their names in this connection by making them the founders 
and builders of famous cities. Take for example, the building 
of Thebes by Zethos and his twin-brother Amphion\ But 
if we credit the Dioscuri with the art of the architect and 
the building of temples and cities, we must remember that 
in the earliest times the art of the architect was not differ- 
entiated from that of the carpenter. The man who could 
work in wood could also build a house. The re'xyiT'q<i and 
the Br}fitovpy6<i of the city could be one and the same 
person^. 

We see some consciousness of this unity of function in 
the Acts of Thomas, where it is not thought strange that 
Thomas should know how to make oars for a boat, and at 
the same time to design and build a king's palace. 

It appears, then, that the skill of Judas Thomas is Judas 
expressed in terms that are absolutely Dioscuric. Even the Dioscure. 
reference to the equipment of a boat or a ship goes back into 
the early belief that the Twins were the patrons of navigation 
and of sailors. The reasons for this belief have already been 
pointed out. 

Now let us look again at the qualifications of Judas the 
Twin when he is sent to India : the first statement that he 
makes concerns his ability to make ploughs, yokes, and 
ox-goads. If, on other grounds, the general qualifications of 
Judas have enabled us to recognise him as a Dioscure, or 
Heavenly Twin, then we are entitled to include these special 
qualifications in the Dioscuric equipment : thus we say that 
in certain districts, notably at Edessa, the Heavenly Twins 
were the patrons of agriculture, and the inventors of ploughs, 
yokes, and ox-goads. These three implements go together ; 
we have already pointed out that the ox-goad is, in primitive 

' Amphion, as stated, = Twin. 
2 Ep. ad Heb. xi. 10. 



248 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES [CH. 

times, merely the ploughshare detached : it is very nearly so, 
to-day, in the East : and ploughing began as an art, when 
men had learned how to harness and yoke cattle. So the 
three inventions really belong together, and the Twins, 
including Thomas, are credited with the manufacture of 
them. 

Now let us turn to a curious statement made by Justin 
Martyr. 

In the 88th chapter of Justin's Dialogue with Trypho, we 

find as follows : 

Jesus ' When Jesus came to the Jordan, and was supposed to 

"loughs ^® *^® ^*^^ ^^ Joseph the Carpenter and appeared without 

and comeliness, as the Scriptures had foretold of him, and was 

■^° ^^' supposed to be a carpenter (for these works of a carpenter 

were wrought by him when he was among men, namely, 

ploughs and yokes, by which he taught the symbols of 

righteousness and the strenuous life), at that time, and for 

the sake of men, as I said before, the Holy Spirit fluttered 

down upon him in the form of a dove, etc' 

Here we have a definite statement that Jesus was a 
carpenter, and that he made ploughs and yokes. Now this 
statement is very important, (1) because of its antiquity, 

(2) because it goes beyond our canonical gospels, which say 
nothing of Jesus Christ's carpentering beyond the bare 
admission of the fact, and usually do not go beyond the 
statement that he was believed to be the son of a carpenter, 

(3) because it is definite to such a degree that it must at 
least incorporate a tradition. Possibly, though this is a 
mere speculation, Justin is here using an uncanonical gospel, 
as he certainly is when he describes the ' fluttering down ' of 
the Holy Spirit, which recurs elsewhere, and may, perhaps, be 
due to the influence of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 

Whatever the origin of the statement, it is significant. 
Something like it can be traced elsewhere in the Apocryphal 
Gospel of Thomas, where the incident of Christ's helping 
Joseph to make a wooden bed is introduced by the statement, 
' His father was a carpenter and was occupied at that time 
in the manufacture oi ploughs and yokes': a statement which 



XXIIl] OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 249 

must be compared with that of Justin, and may come from 
the very same source. 

Another reason for believing that the statement and the 
Avords in which it is expressed, do not come from Justin's 
own brain, lies in the fact that, when casually mentioning 
them, he throws in a bit of mystical commentary, which 
betrays the fact that what he is giving us is text that has 
already been used for purposes of edification. Justin, then, 
has given us a tradition which was probably extant in 
writing. 

But this tradition credits Jesus with the same occupation 
with which the Acts of Thomas credit Judas Thomas. We 
can hardly prove Thomas, then, to be a Dioscure, without 
admitting that Jesus also was believed, in some quarters of 
the East, to be also a Dioscure. For, on the one hand, the 
Acta Thomae make Jesus to be Thomas' twin-brother, and, 
on the other hand, the Apocryphal Evangelical tradition 
makes Jesus do the same things that Judas Thomas the 
Dioscure does. 

Probably, then, over a wider area than the principality of 
Osrhoene, or the city and suburbs of Edessa, Jesus was 
included with Thomas under the title of the Heavenly 
Twins. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE TWIN-CULT AT 
EDESSA 

Our last chapter brought us back again to Edessa ; and 
it seems reasonable before we take up the further study of 
the Aryan Dioscurism in Europe, that we should throw 
some additional light on the nature of the Twin-cult in 
Edessa. 

That Edessa was a twin-centre has been proved in a 
number of ways ; they may be classified as follows : 
Twin-cult (1) The Acts of Thomas, an undoubtedly Syriac com- 
■ position, probably composed in Edessa, have represented 
Jesus and Thomas as twin brothers on the model of the 
Dioscuri. It is reasonable to conclude that this presenta- 
tion is due to the historical fact that in Edessa Jesus 
and Thomas displaced the Dioscuri as objects of worship in 
certain circles. 
Morning (2) This agrees with archaeological and other evidence 

Evenine which makes Edessa the home of a Solar cult, in which the 
Stars sun was adored, along with two assessors named Monim and 
Aziz. Monim and Aziz have been, on good grounds, identified 
with the Morning and Evening Stars, considered as twin-stai-s 
by the ancients. 

(3) The numismatic evidence from Edessa shows con- 
stant recurrence of the two stars referred to in the foregoing, 
in a manner which reminds one of the stars attached to the 
Dioscuri in coins of Asia Minor or of Rome. 

(4) The most conspicuous monument in Edessa to-day 
is a pair of lofty pillars standing on the edge of the Acropolis, 
one of which bears an inscription that it was made in honour 



CH. XXI V] THE TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 251 

of Princess Shalmath and refers to a carving upon the shaft 
(now cut away by Moslem hands), which has been conjectured 
to have been a representation of the Twins. 

In the present chapter, I propose to make a re-statement 
of the first two points, and to leave the numismatic and 
existing archaeological evidence on one side for the present. 
Those who wish to study the problem of the twin pillars* 
will find the material, collected in my two previous books, 
Dioscuri and Cult, to which must be added Prof Burkitt's 
treatment of the subject in the Proceedings of the Society of 
Biblical Archeology. Prof Burkitt does not think the twins 
are specified in the inscription. It would be a good thing 
if some excavation could be made at the base of the columns 
in order to find the fragments of the destroyed carving, as 
well as to determine whether the pillars have always stood 
isolated, or whether they are the remains of an ancient 
temple. As I am not able, at present, to undertake this 
enquiry, it seems best to let the matter of the pillars stand 
over for a while. 

As to the numismatic evidence, there is some slight 
confusion owing to the occurrence of a star and crescent, as 
well as of the two stars, on Edessan monies. I have no 
doubt myself that as the planet Venus, originally considered 
as a pair of twin-stars, was an object of Edessan worship, 
that the same instinct which represents upon Eastern coin- 
ages the chief symbols of their religion, would operate in 
Edessa to the representation of the Morning and Evening 
Stars : but as we are going to discuss this star-cult on another 
line of research, I am disposed to leave it on one side for the 
present, so far as the numismatic evidence is concerned. 
The numismatics of Dioscurism is a very wide subject. We 
now propose to make a brief re-statement of the fundamental 
Dioscurism of the Acts of Thomas, and then to discuss the 
hypothesis of the worship of the Morning and the Evening 
Star. 

^ In which connection tlie pillars (Jachin and Boaz) in Solomon's Temple 
must not be forgotten, nor the similar pillars in the temple at Paphos, and 
elsewhere, nor the pillars set up at Antioch by Tiberius in honour of 
Zethos and Amphion. 



252 SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE [CH. 

IheActs The Acts of Thomas are, as we have said, a Syriac 

are Syri'ac composition. The evidence is cumulative, and, I believe, 
in origin, irresistible. The very first page would show it to the eye of 
an expert scholar, who compared the Syriac text with the 
Greek. In the Syriac, Judas Thomas is introduced as sold 
away by his master to go to India with an Indian merchant, 
in order to build a palace for King Gundaphar. One of the 
qualifications of the slave who has been sold, turns out to be 
his ability to work in wood, and especially to make ploughs 
and yokes. We have already been discussing in a previous 
chapter the invention of ploughs and yokes by the Dioscuri, 
and have given striking parallels from sacred and profane 
literature. 

The Greek translator of the Acts, however, not under- 
standing the connection between ploughs and yokes, has 
interpreted the Syriac word for yokes by a double trans- 
lation, and has advertised Thomas accordingly as a maker 
of ploughs and yokes and balances ! The mistake has been 
widely followed, as in the Ethiopic Contendings of the 
Apostles, by versions of the story which follow the Greek. It 
obscures the meaning of the tale at the very start to have 
such an introduction of the balance along with the yoke^. 

In the same way it can be seen that the Syriac version 
must be assumed to be the original, if we are to explain how 
later correctors have got rid of the undoubted statements of 
the Acts as to the twinship of Jesus and Thomas. This 
twinship is affirmed both in the Syriac which calls Thomas 
the Twin of the Messiah, and in the Greek which addresses 
hira as o Bi8v/j,o<; rov %/9<o-to{). But when the statement is 
corrected away, we find in the Greek an expression like the 
Abyss of the Messiah, which has no relation whatever to the 
Greek word Didymus, but is the very slightest modification 
for the Syriac word for Twin (Tehoma for Tauma). It 
follows from this that our Greek Acts of Thomas are derived 
from a Syriac original, in which the process had already 
begun of removing the offensive relation between Judas 
Thomas and his master. 

^ See further on this in Additional Notes. 



XXI V] TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 253 

One or two simple instances like these will throw into 
relief the dependence of the Greek upon the Syriac, and 
closer and continuous examination will abundantly confirm 
the hypothesis. This does not mean that the Greek text 
can never be right as against the Syriac : here as in the 
New Testament itself, the version will sometimes be found 
to justify itself against the original language. We are 
dealing, then, with a document composed in some early 
Syrian Church. 

The story opens with the statement that Judas Thomas Thomas 
is chosen by lot for the Apostolate of India, when the known apostle of 
world is divided up among the twelve disciples. The division India, 
of the world in this way for aggressive religious work is 
parallel to the astrological division of the world under the 
twelve signs of the Zodiac : and I have shown reason for 
believing that the reason why Judas Thomas, the Twin, got 
India as his portion is because, astrologically, India lies 
under the spell of the sign Gemini. If that should be the 
case, we start with the Dioscuri in the very opening sentences, 
and have the key in our hands at the start for the elucidation 
of the Acts. I stated the case as follows in Dioscuri, p. 40. 

' If we turn to the article on the Zodiac in the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica (ed, ix), we shall find the following state- 
ment : 

' The influence of the signs, though secondary, was over- 
mastering : India called them deduv BuvdfMet,^, and they were 
the objects of a corresponding veneration. Cities and king- 
doms were allotted to their parentage on a system fully 
expounded by Manilius: 

Hos erit in fines orbis pontusque notandus, 
Quem Deus in partes per singula dividit astra, 
Ac sua cuique dedit tutelae regna per orbem 
Et proprias gentes atque urbes addidit altas, 
In quibus exercent praestantia sidera vires. 

Manil. Astron. iv. 696. 

' Syria was assigned to Aries, and Syrian coins frequently 
bear the image of a ram : Scythia and Arabia fell to Taurus, 
India to Gemini.' 

Here, then, we have the explanation of Thomas' supposed 



254 SOME FUKTHER LIGHT ON THE [CH. 

journey to India. It is a subordination of the ecclesiastical 
division of the world to the astrological. 

The story, then, opens with a Dioscuric allusion ; Judas 
Thomas is, as we say, a Dioscure. He proceeds to tell us 
the same in the opening chapter. After he has made 
passionate protests against being sent to India, our Lord 
sells him right away to an Indian merchant named Habban, 
and as soon as they are on board ship, at Jaffa or at Caesarea, 
Judas explains to Habban that he can make instruments of 
wood, and buildings of stone; ploughs and yokes and ox- 
goads, and the furniture of ships and pontoons, oars and 
masts; and in stone, tombs, temples, and palaces. We 
have already pointed out the relation of the Heavenly Twins 
to the agriculture and navigation of antiquity : the building 
of stone monuments and edifices is also one of the well-known 
Greek characteristics of the Twins ; nor could Judas have 
more clearly said that he was one of the Heavenly Twins, 
short of using the actual title. Thus the opening of the 
book is conclusive as to the motive that underlies it : the 
writer's mask is off in the very first sentences. 

The book is then arranged for us in a series of dramatic 
Acts, in which Judas, with the assistance of Jesus, who is 
accompanying his disciple, unseen, fi-om place to place, does 
notable thaumaturgy, casting out devils and raising the 
dead. The last and longest of these Acts appears to me to 
The con- be a later edition to the book ; it contains the account of the 
version of conversion of Mygdonia, the wife of a general of King Mazdai, 
^Nisibis. under the preaching of Judas Thomas. The piece is alle- 
gorical, and transparent : for Mygdonia is the name of the 
district of which Nisibis is the centre, the river of Nisibis 
being called by the same name ; and Nisibis was both ecclesi- 
astically and politically the battle-ground between the West 
and the East for many a day. The conversion of Mygdonia 
stands for the conversion of Nisibis, which is attributed to 
Judas Thomas : King Mazdai representing, for the purposes 
of the allegorist, the Persian religion. 

Now I think it will be found that every one of these 
Acts of Thomas has the Dioscuric mark on it; that is, in 



XXI Vj TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 255 

every one we shall be reminded that Jesus and Judas are 
twins, being exactly alike, and mistaken constantly the one 
for the other ; or we shall find that Judas is addressed as the 
Twin of the Messiah, or spoken of as the brother of the 
Messiah ; or in some way the Dioscuric emphasis is laid upon 
the story. 

The opening story is very significant : Judas and his jesus and 
master land at a city, where a marriage is being made by ^yg^^j^g ^ 
a king for his son ; and after a series of preliminary adven- 
tures, Judas is invited by the king to come to the marriage 
ehamber and pray for a blessing on the young couple. It 
needs but a very slight acquaintance with the tradition of 
the Twins to realise that the presidency of the Bridechamber 
and the Birthchamber is amongst the most widely diffused 
of Dioscuric honours.' We have already made frequent 
allusion to the part which twins play in marriage ceremonies, 
■down to our own time and in our own country : so that if we 
are to understand the opening Act of the series called Acts 
of Thomas, we must read the matter in a Dioscuric light. 
As we have said, the writer never loses sight of this motive 
in the whole of his work. If we remove the twins from the 
fabric of the story, by erasing whatever is naturally explained 
by Dioscuric motives, the composition will be reduced to 
a heap of meaningless shreds. The Acts of Thomas are 
fundamentally Dioscuric. Perhaps that will be sufficient at 
this point. I hope to deal with it again, more at length, in 
an introduction which I am planning to write for the Acts in 
-question. 

Now let us pass on to the question of the two sub-solar Monim 
■deities of Edessa, Monim and Aziz. As we have already said, ^j^^ ^^'^ 
Edessa is a meeting point of races and of religions ; it is so Edessan 
to-day ; here the Arab, the Armenian and the Syrian meet ; 
and such a conjunction occurred in ancient times, when the 
early Greek colonists were mixed with the Syrians and the 
Parthians, and when one whole quarter of the city appears to 
have been occupied by Jews. Such a situation in early days 
was very favourable to religious syncretism. 

Our first enquiry relates to the names, Monim and 



256 SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE [CH. 

Aziz. Aziz has a very Arabian appearance, and is still a 
common Arabian (and hence Turkish) name ; it means strong, 
mighty. 

Can this be the name of either the Morning Star or the 
'Aziz= Evening Star? The name is very like that of the goddess 
Venusr Al-'Uzza, which was worshipped at Mecca, against whom 
Mohammed rails in his 53rd Sura, Mohammed had himself 
in early days sacrificed to 'Uzza, the daughter of Allah, 
according to the Moslem traditions. Now Isaac of Antioch, 
writing in the first half of the fifth century, bears witness to 
the worship of 'Uzza [Uzzi] by the Arabs of that period, so 
that we do not need to go all the way to Mecca in search 
of her^ In another passage Isaac identifies 'Uzza with the 
planet Venus^. Now this is very important, for we are further 
informed that the Arabs swore by the two 'Uzzas, 'presumably 
referring to (the planet) Venus as the morning and as the 
evening star.' It is a case of swearing by twins ! May we, 
then, consider 'Aziz as an equivalent of the Arabian 'Uzza ? 

Here is an interesting piece of further evidence, in the 
commentary of 'Isho'dad on Acts vii. 43, we find as follows : 

'Instead of Saturn your image, the Hebrew and Greek 
say, the star of your god Re/an. The name of Refan is 

^ Isaac of Antioch (Bickell's translation), i. 210, 211 : 
Nee incolumem servaverunt eum Persae, 
qui cum ipsis solem adorat, 
nee pepercerunt ei Arabes, 
quia Uzzim sacrificiis cum ipsis colit : 
see also pp. 220, 221 : 

(Arabes) pueros et puellas 
Stellae Veneris immolaverunt : 
and pp. 246, 247 : 

Huic stellae Veneris sacrificia obtulerunt 
tribus Hagarenorum...postquam autem 
mulieres Arabum solem justitiae cognoverunt, 
renuntiaverunt stellae illi Veneris, quam 
inani spe coluerant. Onagri illi se jugo 
subjecerunt. 
- Noldeke in R.E. i. 660. We shall also find traces of 'Uzza in Petra: 
for example, in Dalman's collection of inscriptions from Petra (Neue Petra- 
Forschungen, p. 96) we have in No. 85, ' These are the millstones of El 
•Uzza and of the Lord of the House which Wahbullatu, the caravan-guide, 
the son of Zaidan, has made.' 



XXIV] TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 257 

Egyptian; but Refan and Kewan and Kronos and the star 
Venus, are the same. What some say of 'Uzza is declared 
not to be true, because 'Uzza and Nanaea and Balthi and 
Astarte and the Morning Star are the same.' 

The passage requires a slight correction. 'Isho'dad has 
an elliptical way of introducing matter, and of refuting 
statements, which is often perplexing: and he does not 
always tell us from what author he is quoting. In the 
first half of the passage he has wrongly placed the words 
'and the planet Venus,' which clearly belong at the end: and 
this much is evident, that he has definitely identified the 
Arabian 'Uzza with the Morning Star, conceived of as 
feminine. We may add this testimony to what precedes 
from Isaac of Antioch. 

It is probable, then, that Aziz stands for either the 
Morning Star or the Evening Star at Edessa. 

It is also probable that this Arab name may have a close 
relative in the Hebrew Uzzah and Uzziah, commonly ex- 
plained as Jahu is my strength, but equally capable of 
interpretation as 'Uzza is Jahu (compare such names as 
Hadad-Rimmon, Anat-Jahu etc.). 

It should further be noted that Noldeke has offered an 
explanation through the two 'Uzzas, of the ' two pillars or Two 
obelisks... smeared with blood, which appear in connection jj^ ^j-^^tjj^j^ 
with human sacrifices offered by a king of Hira.' It is 
possible, then, that Aziz may stand for the planet Venus, and 
answer to the Greek (f}(oa-<f)6po<; or eo-Trepo?. 

What of the other name, Monim ? Can that be explained 
on Arabic analogies ? 

In Hippolytus, Philosophumena, Bk viu., we have the 
refutation of a heretic named Movo'l/jlo^ ; this must be the 
same name as we are discussing; and we note that he is 
significantly called Movoifxot 6"Apayjr, Mono'imos the Arabian; 
we must, then, allow that we have found the name Monim 
in an Arabic form, slightly different from the spelling as 
given above. From Monoimos we remove the case-ending, 
and we see that the initial m is a participial prefix, and that 
a root-letter has disappeared between o and *'. 

H. B. 17 



258 SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE [CH. 

This suggests an exact transliteration in one of the 
forms 

or > 

writing Hebrew characters instead of Arabic or Syriac, for 

convenience. Of these forms, the second appears to be 

preferable, on the ground that the form DVJD and the Greek 

forms Movifiof;, M6v€fio<i, M6vi]fio<i were found amongst the 

Safaite inscriptions (see Dussaud, Missio7is dans les regions 

desertiques de la Syne Moyenne, Nos. 35, 220, etc.). Dussaud 

explains (p. 58) that, in accordance with the above spelling, 

and the theory of Arabic influence, the name Monimos 

(Moun'im) means ' the good,' ' the benevolent.' 

Aziz and Thus both the names Monimos and Aziz may be of 

are Arabian origin, and in that case we must refer them to 

Arabic. Arabic influence wherever, as in Edessa, Palmyra, Baalbec 

or elsewhere, they can be recognised in the monuments or 

the inscriptions. 

We see, then, that Edessa has religiously been Arabised 
at some period in its history : in fact, the very name (Abgar) 
of its ruling dynasty can be found amongst the inscriptions 
from which we were just now quoting. 

It is natural to ask what were the names of the Twins, 
or of the Morning and Evening Stars, before this Arabic 
influence was in operation, or amongst the Babylonians or 
the Greeks. With regard to their possible Parthian names, 
it is natural to suggest that the key is to be sought in the 
interpretation of Cautes and Cautopates, the names of the 
two figures on the Mithra monuments; but this is still an 
unsolved riddle. For the Babylonian forms, we shall suggest 
that they were originally known as the Ishtar-Nebo or the 
two Nebos ; and last of all, we shall suggest that in Hel- 
lenising circles the Morning and Evening Stars were known 
in Edessa by the name of Paracletes (a mysterious term 
preserved for us in the New Testament). 

The last of these statements, if established, will be of 
the highest interest; for, as is well known, the Johannine 



XXI V] TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 259 

writings speak of two Paracletes of Christian Theology ^ Are they 
We should thus discover in the Fourth Gospel a new p^^^rj^^^ 
Dioscuric statement framed on a different line from the cletes? 
Edessan twin-ship of Jesus and Judas Thomas (and perhaps 
meant to avoid that suggestion), namely, that the real 
Paracletes or Divine Assessors are Jesus and the Holy 
Spirit. 

We may present the suggested parallels to the eye as 
follows : 

There are two Para- who are Monoim and who are the two 'Uzzas, 
cletes Aziz 

One of whom is the suspected to be the one of whom is identi- 
Morning Star and the Morning and Evening fied with the Morning 
other, by consequence, Stars. Star; and the other, 

the Evening Star. by consequence, with 

the Evening Star. 

At this point our incomplete argument has to face some 
objections: for according to Julian (Orat. iv. p. 195), who 
took a great interest in Edessa on account of its Solar 
worship, the Edessenes worshipped along with the Sun two 
irapehpoL named Monim and Aziz. These assessors he 
identifies with Hermes and Ares respectively 2. He admits 
that he makes this identification on the faith of Jamblichus, 
and Cumont points out, in an article on the Mithra-cult in 
Edessa^, that it is merely a hasty Neo-Platonic identification 
on the part of Jamblichus. 

A little further on in the same Oration (p. 200) Julian 
informs us that Ares (the Aziz of Jamblichus) is said by 
the Edessenes to march in front, or be the herald of the 
Sun*, which, if we leave Ares out of account, means that 

1 John xiv. 16, 'Another Paraclete,' and 1 John ii. 1, »We have a 
Paraclete.' In this connection it may, perhaps, be lawful to quote also 
John xvi. 7 ('If I go not away, the Paraclete will not come; if I go away, I 
will send him to you'). See further on p. 263 for the identification. 

2 I.e. ol TTj;/ "ESecrcrai' oiKovvre^, iepbv e| at'w^'oj "HXiof x^p^oj', M.dvi/x.oi' aunf 
/cat "Afif^OJ' (jvyKadeSpeijovaiv, aiviTrecxdai, (prjcnv, lafi^Xcxos . . .ilis 6 jxev M.dvi/J.os 
'^p/jL^s eiT], "A^tfos 5e ' KprjH, "BXlov irdpedpoi, iroXXa Kal dyada ri^ irepl yiji' 
eTToxereiJOVTes. 

^ Cumont, in Revue Archeologique, 1888, pp. 95 sqq. 

* ' Ap7]s, 'Afiioj \ey6/x€i>os virb tuov oiKoiivTWV ttjv 'Ede(T<rav "Siipwv 'HXt'oi/ 
irpowofj.ire'uei. 

17—2 



260 



SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE 



[CH. 



Evolution 
of astron- 
omy. 



Mercury 
late. 



Venus re- 
garded as 
double. 



Aziz is the Morning Star, and confirms our previous 
explanation. 

Cumont, after clearing away the difficulty introduced 
by Jamblichus, comes to the conclusion that Monim and 
Aziz are to be identified with the Morning and Evening 
Stars, and with the torch-bearers upon the monuments of 
Mithras. 

At this point I think we may take the matter up for a 
closer consideration, for there is room for more to be said on the 
subject, probably from the standpoint of ancient Babylonian 
and Arabian astronomy. Very possibly we have to start from 
an astronomy, which has for its principal figures the Sun, 
the Moon, and the Hesper-Phosphor dyad. These deities 
vary in sex, being sometimes male, and sometimes female, 
as we work from Babylonian, Old Arabic, or Syrian 
material. 

Let us first imagine to ourselves what the evolution of 
astral deities is likely to have been in ancient Babylonia or 
Arabia, and then compare the hypothetical evolution with 
the recorded facts as disclosed by the monuments and the 
literature. 

It is clear that such an insignificant planet as Mercury 
can never have occupied a place in the first astral pantheon. 
It is difficult to observe, so difficult, that very few, of ordinary 
people, have ever seen it : and I believe this has been stated 
to be the experience of so great an astronomer as Copernicus ; 
but, even if seen, it is rarely seen, and is inconspicuous, 
and it can therefore hardly have had a place in the first 
astral pantheon, or, indeed, a prominent place in any 
pantheon. 

On the other hand, the planet Venus is one of the most 
conspicuous objects in the heavens, and was certain to have 
religious attention, after the Sun and the Moon. 

More than that, it is practically certain that the first 
observers did not know that the Morning Venus was the 
same as the Evening Venus, and they commonly explained 
their similarity by the idea that they were twins, the 
assessors or heralds of the Sun : it will follow from this that 



XXI V] TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 261 

the first stage of the astral worship was inclusive of three 
heavenly bodies disguised as four, viz. the Sun, the Moon 
and Hesper-Phosphor, a triad regarded as a tetrad : and, as 
we have said, from this triad it will be a long stage to a 
subsequent tetrad, if the next addition to the astral pantheon 
is to be the planet Mercury. 

Here, then, we begin to ask for verifications: and at first Is Nebo 
we run our heads against a flat contradiction; for it is cer- Mercury? 
tain that in the ordinary Babylonian astronomy the planet 
Mercury is represented by Nebo, and Nebo as a god is 
anything but insignificant, nor are there any signs of his 
being a later acquisition to the company. When, therefore, 
we say that the nature of the case requires the absence of 
Mercury, the reply is that Mercury is there ; and when we 
say that Mercury must, in any case, be of slight import- 
ance, we have to face the fact that Mercury is of great 
importance, for he is Nebo or Nabu, the companion of the 
great god Bel. 

How is this contradiction to be met, unless by the Or is he 
assumption that the name of Nabu has been transferred venusT^ 
to the planet Mercury from some more prominent star ? 
It is natural to suggest that behind the Babylonian 
tetrad 

Sun, Moon, Ishtar and Nabu 

there lay a triad 

Sun, Moon, and Ishtar-Nabu, 

where the divine son and daughter have been found in the 

twin Morning and Evening Star, so that if Nebo is the 

Morning Star, Ishtar is the Evening Star, or conversely. In 

order to verify this hypothesis, we may turn to the astronomy 

of the ancient Arabian kingdoms ; we have already had Mercury 

reason to suspect that the Meccans worshipped the Evening ^^° Early^" 

Star as Al'Uzza, or as the 'Uzzas ; and this naturally suggests Arabia. 

that we should examine the theology of the ancient Minaean 

and Sabaean kingdoms, of which so many valuable and early 

monuments have been recovered by Bent, Glaser, and others. 

Here is an important statement in Nielsen's book on the 



262 SOME FURTHER LIGHT ON THE [CH. 

Moon-religion of early Arabia: 'In the Minaean and Sabaean 
theologies Mercury is eliminated and the four divinities have 
become three^.' Again: 'Venus, instead of being feminine, 
as is usually the case, is masculine, and Mercury is elimi- 
nated.' 

It would be more correct to say, not that Mercury has 
been eliminated, but that it has not yet been introduced : 
and that the three divinities, which appear as four, have not 
yet become four in reality. 

Thus the common form of enumeration of deities in 
Southern Arabia^ involves three or four objects of worship : 
the following is a typical group : 

The Moon (masc). 
The Sun (fem.), 
and 'Athtar (= Ishtar) (masc), 

to which the people of Hadramaut add Haul, whom Hommel 

identifies with Mercury, and the Katabanians add Anbaj, 

who is clearly parallel to the Babylonian Nabiu, except that 

his name has a suspiciously plural appearance about it, and 

may be taken to represent Mercury, or perhaps a pair of 

transferred Nebos from another place. 

Evolu- From the S. Arabian peoples, then, we learn how the 

s^A^b" astronomical evolution took place. It began with Sun and 

astron- Moon, as amongst the Babylonians, where the Sun is male 

^^^' and the Moon female, or with the Moon (male) and Sun 

(female), as amongst the Arabs from Harran to the Indian 

Ocean : to this pair were added two sons of the primal pair : 

they must have been sons because even Ishtar is male in 

Southern Arabia, and they were perhaps known as the two 

Nebos. The name Nabu is closely related to the Arabic for 

prophet (naby), and means in this connection the herald of 

the Sun. Both Mercury and Venus have the appellation 

1 Nielsen, Die altaraUsche Mond-religion, p. 22. 

2 For Northern Arabia we have the Teima Inscription, which again 
has three astral deities (see Lidzbarski, Handbiich der Nordsemitischen 
Epigraphik, pp. 445, 447). This inscription is referred to the fifth century 
before Christ. 



XXIV] TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA 263 

DilbatS which, according to Jensen 2, has the same heraldic 
force. It appears, then, that Jamblichus was not altogether 
wrong when he identified the Edessan twins with Ares and 
Hermes ; he was right as regards Hermes, for Hermes is the 
conventional equivalent of Nebo : he was wrong about Ares, 
and ignorant, as ourselves until lately, that Nebo as Mercury 
was a displacement. 

This theory of the gradual development of the planetary Nebo a 
astronomy of the Babylonians, helps us to understand a go^^jn^^*^ 
curious neglect of the god Nebo, which went on in the time Babylonia, 
of Hammurabi. As Jastrow points out^ Hammurabi exalts 
Marduk and depreciates Nebo ; in fact, he seems to ignore 
the latter deity, and appears to transfer his title, nahiu Ann 
(the herald of Anu), to the former god. This is perfectly 
intelligible, if it was found out in Hammurabi's time that 
the two heralds were one and the same. Ishtar retains one 
of the Nebo dignities, the other goes begging : it is trans- 
ferred at first to Marduk, and ultimately is given to the 
smallest of the planets. 

When we have recognised that changes have occurred in 
the names of the planets, as well as in their sexes and relative 
rank, we are able to connect our new results with what went 
before, when we explained the equivalence of Monim and 
Aziz with the Morning and Evening Stars, with the 'Uzzas 
of Arabic tradition, and with the Paracletes of the New 
Testament : for we can connect Nebo and the Paraclete Nebo as 
directly from the pages of the New Testament itself. l\ete^^^' 

It will be remembered that when Barnabas is reported Barnabas 
in the Acts of the Apostles^ to have joined the Apostolic ^^eto"^" 
company, something occurred with regard to his name : there 
can be little doubt that Barnabas stands for an original Bar- 

^ For Venus as Dilbat and as the Herald (Nabu), see E. Brown, Primitive 
Constellations, 11. 96 from W.A.I, v. xlvi. 201: 
Kakkab Dil-bat | Na-ba-at. Kakkabu. 

The planet Venus | She announces ( = the Proclaimer). A star(-name). 
Again on p. 217 (from W.A.I, n. xlix. No. 4) : 

Kakkab Nabi (' The Star of the Proclaimer ') = Venus. 
■■' Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 71, 98, 117-33. 
■* Die Religlonen Bahijloniens and Assyriens, i. 119. 
* Acts iv. 36. 



264 THE TWIN-CULT AT EDESSA [CH. XXIV 

Nabu, and that the name is of pagan origin^ The explanation 
is, however, given that the Apostles called him Barnabas, i.e. 
u/o9 Trj<; TrapaKXija-ewf, a son of Paraclesis, or son of consola- 
tion, or son of exhortation. Now it stands to reason that they 
never called him anything of the kind ; Avhat they did was 
to modify the heathen connotation of his name, and make 
it ecclesiastically decent. See how close they came to 
actually calling him a son of the Paraclete. Thus the Acts 
of the Apostles help us in our previous identification of the 
Paraclete with one or other of the Hesper-Phosphor pair. 
Now if this argument is substantially correct, it follows that 
Para- the original meaning of Paraclete is not Comforter but 
Herald. Herald, Prophet (Nabi), or, one might almost say. Fore- 
runner, 

Strange as the foregoing suggestion of the twin-ship of 
Jesus and Jesus and the Holy Spirit may at first sight appear, there is 
Spirit^ ^ evidence that the belief was current in Gnostic circles. In 
in the the Pistis Sophia (ed. Schwartz and Petermann, p. 77) the 
Sojihia. Virgin Mary explains to Jesus that the prophecy in the 
Psalm about the meeting of mercy and truth had been ful- 
filled in him, when yet a child, before the Spirit came upon 
him, when occupied in the vineyard with Joseph. ' The 
Spirit came from on high, entered my house in thy likeness, 
and I knew him not, supposing him to be thyself: and the 
Spirit said to me. Where is Jesus my brother ? ' The Virgin 
then binds the Spirit-child to the bed, and goes out in search 
of Joseph and Jesus. When they return, the similarity of 
the two children is evident ! So the Gnostics of the Pistis 
Sophia have preserved for us the peculiar form of Twin- belief 
which we have been discussing. 

^ It is actually found on a Palmy rene Inscription : see De Vogii6, Syrie 
Centrale, no. 73. 



CHAPTER XXV 

FURTHER TRACES OF THE TWINS IN ARABIA 
AND IN PALESTINE 

The foregoing chapter was almost entirely concerned 
with elementary Eastern Astronomy ; it stated how the first 
students of the skies, and the first worshippers of the 
heavenly bodies, evolved their pantheon gradually out of 
a primitive rmcleus, and with primitive misunderstandings. 
A great deal has become clear to us from the recognition of 
the fact that the early observers revered the Morning Star 
and the Evening Star as a pair of twins. Thus, when the 
idealised twin-brethren appear in the visible heaven, they do 
not appear as a constellation, or as a sign of the Zodiac, but 
as a single misunderstood planet. It may, however, be 
asked whether this widespread duplication of the planet 
Venus is necessarily connected with a twin-cult on the 
earth-plane, such as we have traced from its first gross forms 
among the African savages. It will not be easy to answer 
such a question right ofif, because we have not yet been able 
to investigate the twin-cult for ancient Babylonia, or ancient 
Arabia, nor is it at all easy to make such an investigation 
apart from the religion or the astronomy of the peoples 
involved. We can, however, say that just as the African 
cults emerge into a cult of the Sky-god and his twin-children, 
and in that emergence become parallel to what we know of 
early Greek and Roman religion, so amongst the Babylonians 
and the Arabians we have the same Sky-parentage, either 
in the form of Anu, the Sky-god, or in the variant forms of 



266 



FURTHER TRACES OF THE TWINS 



[CH. 



The 

Thunder- 
bird in 
Arabia. 



The 

Qawari- 

birds. 



the Sun-god, or the Moon-god, according as either of the 
latter acquires the more prominent position : so that there is. 
nothing against the belief, and there is analogy for the belief^ 
that a human twin-cult may underlie the worship of the 
great Semitic peoples : and if we find traces of the Sky-god 
as a tree-god, and of his twin-children associated with a cult 
of holy trees or birds, we shall be able to connect together 
the various forms in which the cult appears, and in the end 
be certain that Twins, whether Indian, Semitic, or Germanic, 
or Celtic, or Graeco-Roman, do all derive their dignity from 
an aboriginal terror, such as that which we have been studying 
in the previous pages. 

Suppose we make an enquiry into the existence of the 
Thunder-bird in Arabia. Is the woodpecker lucky or un- 
lucky ? Is the woodpecker or any other bird the repre- 
sentative of the sky or the thunder ? The enquiry is almost 
outside of my own personal field of study, but I have had 
the valuable help of my friend Fritz Krenkow, of Leicester, 
an Arabist of the first rank. From his researches I derive 
the following account of what looks very like the thunder- 
bird in the Arabic literature. The book from which I am 
quoting is named : Talwlh fl Shark al-Faslh, by Abu Sahl 
Muhammad Ibn 'Ali al Harawi, a commentary on the 
philological work al-Fasih by the celebrated Arabic Gram- 
marian Tha'lab (ed. Cairo, 1907, p. 86): 

' You call this bird Qariyah and the plural is qawarin. 
It has short legs, and a large beak and a green back, the 
Bedouins love it and consider it a good omen. Note that 
the Bedouins consider it a good or a bad omen. As regards 
the good omen, because it announces rain when it comes and 
there is just an indication of clouds in the sky. Hence 
al Ga'di (a poet contemporary with Muhammad) has said : 
" Then did not cease to pour water over them and over their 
country a thundering cloud which drives along tfte Qawarl 
birds." As for the bad omen : If any one of them were to 
meet on his journey a single bird of this kind, and there were 
no clouds and no rain, he considers it a bad omen. A poet 
has said, " Was it on account of the repeated scratchings of 



XXV] IN ARABIA AND IN PALESTINE 267 

the Qariyah-bird, that you threw away the women made 
captives and returned home with terror?" He makes fun of 
certain people who made a raid on which they took much 
spoil. Then, when they were on their march home they 
heard the voice of a Qariyah-bird, they abandoned their 
booty and fled.' 

A similar explanation is found in Lisan-al-'Arab (ed. 
Bulaq, vol. xix. p. 41) where a verse of another contemporary 
of Muhammad is quoted as follows : 

' Ibn Muqbil has said : On account of a flash of lightning 
from the North land (i.e. Syria) have I been kept awake ; 
whenever I said, it has abated, it Jiai'ed again, and the 
green Qawdrl birds were flying close to the ground in the 
darkness! 

Here we have something like a thunder-bird : it does 
not, however, appear to be the black woodpecker. 

There is another bird which is considered by the Bedouin 
as of especially evil omen, but here again it is not clear what 
the bird is. Its name is al Ahyal, but whether it is a wood- The bird 
pecker or a falcon or some other unknown species, must ^ -^^ ' 
remain obscure ; I should hardly expect to find the wood- 
pecker in Southern Arabia : and it does not seem as if we 
should get much further light on the subject from the Arabic 
writers. 

The net result is that we do seem to have recovered an 
Arabian storm-bird or thunder-bird. 

Amongst the Babylonians we also find traces of storm- 
birds, e.g. the great Zu-bird; but I do not pursue this subject The great 

p , r Zu-bircl in 

further. Babylonia. 

It is interesting to note that we are not entirely without 
evidence on the subject of the Babylonian beliefs with regard 
to twin-births. It is noted by Jastrow^ that the Babylonian Twins in 
priests regard it as an evil omen for the king, if a woman * '^ °^^^' 
bears twins of opposite sexes ; but that twins are of good 
omen if they appear in the royal house-. This agrees with 

1 Religion of Assyria and Babylonia, 385 sqq., 391, 396. 
"^ See V. Negelein, Die aherglauhische Bedeutung der Zicillingsgehurt in 
Archivf. Rel. v. 271. 



268 FURTHER TRACES OF THE TWINS [CH. 

what we have observed in so many places, that twins of 
opposite sexes are peculiarly detestable : the raising of the 
taboo in the royal house corresponds to what we observed 
among the Brahmans and elsewhere, the taboo and its omens 
being reversed for the upper classes, and left in force among 
the vulgar, who can pay toll to the upper classes for the 
dangers which they introduce to the community. It is said 
that the same thing can be traced in Egyptian history. 

There is a curious tradition, which I have not succeeded 
Ninus the in analysing, according to which Ninus, the first king of 
of Picus ? -A.ssyria, is a brother of Picus who is also Zeus : does this 
mean that the woodpecker was known as a cult bird in 
Babylonia ? The passage to which I refer is in Diodorus vi. 
5, where it is restored from the Excerpta ex Joannis Chronicis 
apud Cramer, Anecd. Paris, vol. ii. p. 236. 

It begins thus : 

6 he dhek^o<i l^lvov, Ii iKo<i, 6 koI Tiev'^, e^a(ri\evae t?;? 
'IraX-Za? err] pic Kparcov rfj-^ Svcre(o<;...ea')(^e 8e 6 avTO^; TltKO<i, 
Kol Zeu?, vlov ovofiart, ^avvov, ov koX ' Epfjbrjv eKciXeaev et'? 
ovojiia Tov TrXavr/Tov aaTepo<^. 

It is probable that this identification of Ninus the first 
king of Nineveh with the brother of Picus, Woodpecker, is 
due to some confusion between Ninus and Minos, in which 
case the Woodpecker is no Babylonian or Assyrian bird, 
but our old friend Picus of Crete — as we might have 
expected from the repeated formula ' Picus, who is also 
Zeus.' 

In the same way Moses of Khorene (i. 15), along with an 
account of the death of Ninus, has an alternative story that 
he escaped to Crete: here again we suspect confusion between 
Ninus and Minos. 

The further statement about Picus being the father of 
Faunus is taken from the Roman mythology, where they 
are closely connected. But why does he equate Faunus and 
Hermes ? 

If we have failed to follow Diodorus in connecting Picus 
with Ninus, we need not banish the sacred woodpecker from 
Assyria; for, as we have shown elsewhere, he is called Hedad 



XXV] IN ARABIA AND IN PALESTINE 269 

in the Arabic of N.W. Africa, which is a survival from the 
Amorite and Assyrian Hadad, or Adad, the thunder-god. 

Returning northward, we may remind ourselves that 
both in the history and geography of the Holy Land, we 
have already found an abundance of Dioscuric traces; we 
have, for instance, discussed the Boanerges of Galilee and 
the place named Ibn Abraq in the S.W., which is the 
geographical counterpart. We have also shown that the 
Phoenician traditions were saturated with Dioscurism. We 
may add another Thunder-shrine close to Jerusalem ; there is 
a ruin to the N. of the city and almost due E. of Ramallah, 
called Khurbet Ibn Baraq (Ruin of the Son of Lightning). 
Nor is Jerusalem to be exempt ; the twins were honoured in Twins 
Jerusalem in the time of the supremacy of the Syrian kings, gaiem" 
as we see by the story of Heliodorus in the second book of 
the Maccabees \ From the Talmud we have the suspicious 
reference to a pair of sacred cedars, which stood in the 
Temple courts, from which it is suspected that the Kedron 
derived its name (valley of the Cedars), and after the fall of 
the city, the Dioscuri were locally honoured on the coins of 
the restored city, Aelia Capitolina. 

In the present chapter I only wish to establish one 
point further, viz. that the geography of Palestine shows 
traces of Dioscurism in connection with the sea of Galilee. 
First of all with regard to Beth-Saida, and second for 
Choraziu. 

When we were discussing the Phoenician traditions, as Twins on 
preserved by Sanchoniathon, we found a pair of twin an- of ^Galilee 
cestral heroes, named Halieus and Agrieus (the Hunter and 
the Fisher): and it wag pointed out that these were probably 
modifications of an original Semitic root, meaning either to 
hunt or to fish. One of the names was certainly connected 
with the Phoenician personal name Sid (as in Sid-Melqart, 
etc.), and the place name of Sidon (modern Saida). It is 
quite impossible to detach these names from the Galilean 
Beth-Saida, which should naturally mean the place of worship Beth- 
of Saida, the twin fisher-hunter. It does not mean House of^^^^^' 

1 2 Mace. iii. 22-30. 



270 TWINS IN ARABIA AND IN PALESTINE [CH. XXV 



Chorazin. 



Its name 
is dual. 
'The Two 
Heralds. 



Fish. It is the place of honour of the patron saint of fishing; 
there is no reason to believe it to be a fish-god^ Thus, if 
there is one Beth-Saida, there is one Dioscuric centre ; if 
there should be two there will be two such centres : one 
would suppose that a natural place for such sanctuaries would 
be the shore of the Lake. In Central Syria, to the S. of 
Damascus, Dussaud notes a village named Saida, which was 
at one time the residence of Ghassanid princes. One may- 
suppose this to be a shrine of the patron deity of hunting^. 

So much for Beth-Saida. Now for Chorazin. Here we 
have again a Lake town, which is the centre of twin-worship. 
The name is not Hebrew. It is Aramaic or Syria c; it means 
The Heralds, and, as we have already seen, this was one of 
the titles of the Twins in Mesopotamia and in Arabia. 
Chorazin may be regarded as a variant of the Nebos. Now 
notice a curious and impressive textual variation: the Codex 
Bezae does not call it Chorazin but Chorozain, which is a 
dual formation, and means the Two Heralds or the Two 
Preachers. The reading of the Codex Bezae must be original, 
and is a striking testimony to the existence of Dioscuric 
ideas in Galilee, especially on the shore of the Lake^ There 
is nothing that need surprise us in this ; for in any case we 
shall have to allow for strong Aryan elements in the ancestry 
of the Galileans, and where the Aryans are we have seen 
that the Twins are sure also to turn up. This result is of 
the highest importance. It gives us the necessary point 
d'appui for applying Dioscuric tests to the criticism of 
historical accounts, and enables us to explain (and sometimes 
to explain away) a good deal of perplexing matter : but of 
this more later on. 



1 Saida is a personal name in Palmyrene: see de Vogiie, 76-. 

2 See Dussaud, Mission dans la Syrie Moyenne, p. 39. 

^ For a parallel to illustrate the way in which a dual sanctuary can be 
formed, we may take the tombs of the two Kazims. They are 'situated 
about three miles N. of Baghdad, and constitute one of the principal places 
of pilgrimage of the Shi'ites. Around them has grown up a considerable 
town, chiefly inhabited by Persians, known as Kazirneyn,' Browne, Episode 
.of the Bab, p. 85 n. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



ON THE TWIN-CULT IN EGYPT 



We have spoken briefly in the previous chapter on the Twin-cult 
twin-cult in Palestine, and more at length on the same ^^^ ' 
subject from the standpoint of the Arabians and the Baby- 
lonians ; it may be as well to say a word or two about the 
Egyptian view of the matter : and the first word is one of 
<3aution : we must not expect to find twins honoured as Twins not 
thunder-boys, in a country where there is no thunder, nor as ^jg j^ " 
rain-makers, where no rain descends. Accordingly it is re- Egypt. 
cognised by archaeologists, who do not however know the 
reason for the observation, that ' the double axe is a form 
■altogether foreign to Egypt ^' How could there be a thunder- 
axe, where thunder is unknown^ ? Nor shall we be likely 
to find the twins in evidence with their sire in an oak-tree, 
or the neighbourhood of an oak-tree, for the thunder-tree 
will also be absent ; we cannot have an Egyptian Mamre or 
an Egyptian Romovo. The evolution of the cult must be on 
different lines in Egypt, even from what it was in Arabia 
or Babylonia. The natural suggestion is, that if the twins 
are credited to the sky-parentage at all, it will be as having 
mantic powers rather than meteorology. The parent, if any, 
should be the Sun, or the Sky, and not the thunder. 

Now we can actually trace something of this kind, i.e. we 

1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, xrv. 1894, p. 304. 

2 Prof. Newberry in Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology of the 
University of Liverpool, suggests that a certain Egyptian sign is the symbol 
for a thunderbolt, and that it belongs to the god Min (= Amon), the thunder- 
god. The identification is very doubtfu 



272 ON THE TWIN-CULT IN EGYPT [CH. 

can find plenty of traces of ordinary twin- worship, and we 
can find divine twins, in the Zodiac and elsewhere. For 
instance, we shall find that Shu is the first-bom son of Ra, 
and Hathor, and that he has for his twin-brother the lion- 
headed Tefnut'; and in the book of the Dead, Tefnnt, the 
divine consort of Shu, is classed together with him, and with 
Turn as a ruler of Heliopolis — ^.later texts refer both Shu and 
Tefniit to the Zodiac as the Twins. Then there is another 
pair of Heavenly Twins that preserves the feature of mutual 
hostility, which has been so often noted, as in Jacob and 
Esau, in Romulus and Remus, etc. These are Horus and 
Set", who are described as twins and adversaries ; in the 
great hymn to Amen Ra, the god is described as ' Thou who 
judgest the dispute between the twins in the great hall,' 
where it is said that Horus and Set are intended. 

These cases are suggestive that the same problem has 
been before the Egyptians of interpreting the twin-taboo 
that we have found everywhere else. We may confirm the 
suggestion by the consideration of a twin element in the 
Twin- priesthoods of the great temples. From the Serapeura at 
P"f?*^^^^^ Memphis we have a collection of documents belonging to the 
phis. Ptolemaic period, which deal with petitions lodged with the 

government by Taues and Taous, the twins in the Serapeum, 
who complain that they have been defrauded by the officials 
of their normal and just allowance of corn and oil. The 
story is an interesting one when the documents are grouped 
together : we see the Egyptian Circumlocution Office finally 
outwitted, and the Twins restored to their rights. For our 
purpose the important thing to note in the story is that the 
young ladies are Egyptians, and that they plead precedent 
against defaulting authorities, asking that they may have 
the same allowances as the twins who were in office before 
theni\ In other words, there was a line of Egyptian Twin- 
priestesses at Memphis, and no better proof could be given 

' Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 32. 
" Wiedemann, p. 116. 

5* e.g. Pap. Mus. Britt., xxii., KaOics Kai raij irpovirapxoiKrais rjfiQv iv ry 
rbvi^ aWais 5idvfj.ats ey^vtro, which suggests a long succession. 



XX Vl] ON THE TWIN-CULT IN EGYPT 273 

of the prevalence and sway of the twin-cult in Egypt. 
Whether the girls in question were the earthly representa- 
tives of a pair of great Twin-sisters is not so easy to prove 
in a final manner ; but it looks extremely probable in view 
of the fact that the priest in such cults commonly personates 
his deity; we might compare, for example, the priest at 
Antioch, named Amphion', who was instrumental in setting 
up the pillars to Zethos and Amphion in that city. The Twins at 
same suggestion may be made for the Egyptian Thebes, 
though not in quite so striking a degree : here we have a 
document called ' The Money-bill from Thebes ' (published 
by the Palaeographical Society), in which the financial obli- 
gations are discussed of two young ladies, who are Ibis- 
wardens; their names are Tathautis and Taeibis: here again 
we are dealing with Egyptians, and when we remove the 
feminine prefix (ta), we have clearly the name of the god 
Thoth, and of his cult-bird the Ibis. The names are, 
therefore, probably twin-names, and the young ladies are 
twins, attached to the service of Thoth. That is sufficient to 
suggest to our minds the existence of a service of twin- 
priestesses at Thebes. 

Possibly we may take the argument a step further, for 
here we have an actual case of the priestess taking the name 
of the deity. Thoth answers to Hermes and to the Baby- 
lonian Nebo : is it conceivable that, as in Babylonia, Thoth 
was at one time honoured in twin-fashion ? At all events. Twins in 

a measure of twin-cult has been made out : and it has been ^syp* 

sometimes 

made out for ancient Egypt, and not for a Greek immigrant from 
population. When we come to the Greek settlers, or to ^^Jj^g 
Egyptians who adopt Greek customs, we find twin-worship, 
and actual temples of the Dioscuri all over the country, and, 
as we suggested a while back, we find the Twins engaged in 
mantic and medical service". 

There is also evidence that the Twins were sometimes Twins 
attached to the worship of the greater gods and goddesses : ^Q^^^g 
for example, we have from Oxyrhynchus the following im- greater 
portant statement, showing that the Dioscuri were worshipped 
J Cf. John Malalas, p. 234. 
H. B. 18 



274 ON THE TWIN -CULT IN EGYPT [CH. XXVI 

in that city in a.d, 20, apparently in some connection with 
Isis. The document is a census paper of the date mentioned, 
and begins as follows': 

' To Eutychides and Theon, topogrammateis and komo- 
grammateis, from Horion, the son of Petosiris, priest of Isis, 
the most great goddess, of the temple called that of the Two 
Brothers, situated by the Serapeum at Oxyrhynchus, in the 
Myrobalanus quarter etc' 

The Two Brothers can hardly be anything else but the 
Dioscuri ; we find them served by a priest of Isis, and 
apparently in a joint temple of Isis and the Twins. 

Wherever the population of an Egyptian town is made 
up, wholly or in part, of Greek colonists, we shall find plenty 
of dedications to the Dioscuri : but these do not help us 
with the history of an Egyptian cult : one has only to turn 
to the indices of the volumes of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, or 
to Prof Petrie's volume on Naukratis, to see how much the 
Twins are in evidence in the religion of the people. The 
difficulty is in deciding whether these dedications and the 
involved names cover an original Egyptian worship. We 
have, however, said enough to show that there was such 
a twin-cult in some of the greatest Egyptian temples. As 
we have said, it was probably mantic, and had associated 
with it the practice of incubation and the interpretation of 
dreams ; for not even immigrant Greeks could use the Twins 
for functions which involved the weather in a country which, 
in the strict sense of the word, has no weather. 

1 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. ir. p. 214. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



THE STORY OF ESAU AND JACOB INTERPRETED 

We now proceed to use the results of our enquiry for the 
interpretation of the legends of the Old Testament. The The Twins 
book of Genesis, in particular, is heavily Dioscurized, and ^ook of 
needs a fresh commentary in the light of the facts which we Genesis. 
have collected from all over the world. In some cases the 
matter to be discussed amounts to little more than a collo- 
cation of names, as Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain, the nomad, 
the musician, and the smith (for Tubal-Cain is described as 
the inventor of iron and brass work, and the name Cain, by 
itself, means smith ^). If we had not the occupation stated, 
we should have suspected from the assonances that we were 
dealing with a Kabiric triad (plus their sister Noema, as in r •^ 
the case of Castor and Pollux with Helen) : but with the 
occupations we note the suspicious resemblance of Jubal the 
lyrist to Amphion of Thebes, or to Apollo the divine twin of 
Delos. 

The case of Cain and Abel (Qabil and Hebel of the Story of 
Arabs) is more difficult. They are marked out as twins in /bel-^'^ 
one striking feature, that of the hostility between the two 
brothers, and the fact that one of them kills the other, of 
Avhich we have found numerous traces in the history of the 
twin-cult. The matter needs further confirmation before we 
can make a strong statement on the subject: it is not 
uncommon for the first children, in the legendary births from 
the first pair of human beings, to be thought of as twins. 

One of the clearest and most instructive cases of a 

' That is, the derivation from the Hebrew word Qana', to acquire, in 
Gen. iv. 1, is a misbegotten piece of bad etymology. 

18—2 



276 



ESAU AND JACOB INTERPRETED 



[CH. 



of Abra- 
ham and 

his 

heavenly 
guests : 



the story 
of Esau 
and 
Jacob : 



Dioscurized narrative is the story of the visit of the three 
angels to Abraham at the sacred oak of Mamre, and the 
subsequent destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha 
by two of these angels. Every detail in this story is 
Dioscuric : the sacred oak which is the scene of the theophany, 
the thunder-god and his two sons ; the promise of rejuven- 
escence and of offspring to the aged patriarch and his wife, 
in recompense for his ready hospitality ; the reward meted 
out to the inhospitable men of Sodom, partly by blinding of 
individuals, and collectively by the raining of fire and brim- 
stone from heaven, — all these points can be illustrated from 
the Rig- Veda ^, and the Greek mythologies ; and, as I said in 
another place, the story, if it were translated into the terms 
of Greek life, would be at once recognised as fundamentally 
Dioscuric. As I have already explained this in the Cult of 
the Heavenly Twins, I do not repeat the matter at greater 
length. 

Now let us come to another Biblical incident, or series of 
incidents, the story of the fortunes of Esau and Jacob : let 
us read this story in the light of what we know of the 
Dioscuri, and let us see what has to be subtracted from the 
accounts in Genesis on the ground of legendary accretion, or 
mythological foundation. The case is, in one respect, simpli- 
fied for us by the admission that the two brothers are twins. 
If they are twins, are they also Dioscures ? Do they- quarrel ? 
Does one kill the other ? 

The answer is that the quarrel between the two brethren 
is the leading motive of the story, so much so that it is even 
described as antenatal : the mother obtains a divine oracle, ex- 
plaining to her the meaning of the mutual fraternal hostility. 



' As, for example, in the kindness of the Apvins to the aged Cyavana. 

Eig-Veda, i. 116. 10, ' You, Nasatya, took off the body of the aged 
Cyavana, like a cloak.' 

I. 117. 13, 'You, A9vins, through your help made the aged Cyavana 
young again.' 

So in I. 118. 6 ; vii. 71. 5 ; v. 74. 5 ; x. 39. 4. 

Especially note v. 74. 7, ' You took from the aged Cyavana his bodily 
covering, like a garment, then you made him young again, and women again 
provoked his desire.' 



XXVIl] ESATJ AND JACOB INTERPRETED 277 

The quarrel is a mortal one for the major part of the Esau 
action. Esau means to kill Jacob, and it is a design which jac^b- 
he cherishes for a large section of their common lifetime. It 
maybe objected that the story stops short of the culminating 
action as we have it in Romulus and Remus. There are, 
however, different ways of telling the same story : and in the 
case of Esau and Jacob we have one story in Genesis, where 
Esau determines to kill Jacob and just doesn't kill him ; and 
at the same time there is quite another story current in the 
Jewish traditions, according to which Jacob decides to kill 
Esau and actually does so. The story will be found in the Jacob kills 
book of Jubilees, as follows (Jubilees xxxviii. 1): 

' And after that Judah spake to Jacob his father, and 
said unto him : " Bend thy bow, father, and send forth thy 
arrows, and cast down thy adversary, and slay the enemy : 
and mayst thou have the power, for we shall not slay thy 
brother, for he is such as thou, and he is like thee: let us give 
him this honour," And Jacob bent his bow and sent forth 
his arrow, and struck Esau his brother on his right breast 
and slew him.' 

As we have said, this is a variant of the Genesis story, 
and in fact it varies in two ways ; first in making Jacob kill 
Esau, and secondly in describing the twin brothers as exactly 
alike, instead of, as in Genesis, diverse. 

The two traditions are combined, as far as the murder is 
concerned, in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs^, 
where it is explained that Esau came back, eighteen years 
after his reconciliation with Jacob, to make war with him, 
along with a strong and numerous contingent of fighting 
men ; and then Jacob struck Esau with an arrow, and he 
was taken up dead in Mount Seir. The reference to Mount 
Seir shows that it was Jacob who had gone to make war with 
Esau, and not conversely. 

There are, then, two traditions, both of which contain the 
Dioscuric motive that one brother should kill the other. 

Return to the book of Genesis : we find that when the Jacob and 
twins were born, one of them was rough and hairy, and the 

* Text. Judah, ix. 



278 



ESAU AND JACOB INTERPRETED 



[CH. 



parallel to 
Zethos 
and 
Amphion : 



Esau the 
Eed man. 



f 



'Esau the 
Thunder- 
child. 



The 

meaning 
of Jacob's 
frauds. 



Other was smooth, and their characters corresponded, for one 
of them was a hunter and the other a shepherd. 

We need hardly stay to draw the parallel between the 
Biblical twins and the Theban twins, Zethos and Amphion, 
of whom Zethos is the hunter with the dog, and Amphion, 
the gentler soul, with the lyre. We may, if we please, com- 
pare also the twins of Delos, of whom Artemis is the huntress, 
and Apollo the musical genius. 

We come in the next place to a very important point ; 
the older brother Esau, is not only hairy, he is also red : and 
this redness is clearly one of the leading ideas of the legend, 
for it comes up in a later name given to Esau, where he 
is called Edom, or the Red Man, and a ridiculous story is 
told of the cheating of the tired hunter by his astute brother, 
over a dish of red lentils. As we have said, such a story is 
ridiculous; if there had been food of that kind or of any 
kind in the tent when Esau came home empty-handed, he 
would not have hesitated to help himself, nor would Jacob 
have tried to prevent him. The story is a mere peg on 
which to hang an explanation of the name Red Man, whose 
meaning has been forgotten. We are at no loss as to the 
meaning of this fundamental note ; we have already ex- 
plained what rerf means in twin-legends; it means thunder, 
and Esau the Red is the Thunder-man, the immortal one of 
the pair ; Jacob, and Jacob only, is the son of Isaac. Thus 
our story goes back to a time when one twin, and one only, 
was of divine ancestry. The description is entirely mythical. 

We come now to the story of Jacob's frauds. They are 
two in number; first, he robs his brother of his birthright, 
by means of the cooked lentils, then of his father's blessing, 
by dressing himself in the mask of Esau. The story is illus- 
trated by the etymology of Jacob, and the turning of the 
expression^ for following on the heels of any one into a state- 
ment that he supplants him. The name Jacob is, however, 
a typical name for the second of twins, and no etymology 
that goes beyond this is valid. There is no fraud suggested 
in being called Number Two. 

^ Heb. ^Aqab. 



XXVIl] ESAU AND JACOB INTERPRETED 279 

Now look at the story more closely; one suspects that 
the double fraud, the birthright fraud and the blessing fraud, 
are variants of the same theme. The birthright is another 
way of saying the inheritance, and cannot easily be detached 
from the blessing. What, then, does the story mean ? It is 
an explanation of the perplexing fact that the younger of 
a pair of twins is the heir ; for which abnormal custom 
explanation has to be made. That this is the real meaning of 
the elder serving the younger we shall now be able to demon- 
strate, in the following way. It is actually the case that 
there are tribes that transfer birthright from the elder of 
twins to the younger. 

Suppose we turn to Leonard, The Loiver Niger and its The 

Tribes^ : we shall find the following statements about the ^.^j^ jg 

birth of twins in Igarra-land. Here we find that ' the first the 

senior ! 
of the twins to arrive, strange as it may appear... is looked 

on as the younger, while the second occupies the position of 

elder. The reason which is assigned by the people for this 

curious reversal of the natural order is the assumption... that 

the younger is sent out first of all by the elder, in token of 

his inferiority, or rather, in acknowledgment of his brother's 

superiority.' 

We shall find an echo of the same belief in the Greek 

story of Proitos and Akrisios, of whom it is said that even in 

the womb they were quarrelling with one another"^. The name 

Proitos suggests at once, after the fashion of the twin names, 

that he is the elder ; and the legend says that the elder 

brother is beaten and expelled by the younger. So that the 

maxim 'Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated,' is of 

wider application than the original Palestinian pair. This 

exactly explains the legend in Genesis, which is an attempt 

to find a reason for the existing practice of the conferring 

of the right of primogeniture upon the younger of twin 

children. Now the curious thing is that the same difficulty 

turns up again in the same book at a later place, where 

1 pp. 458 sqq. 

^ ApoUonius, Bihl, ii. 2, Kara yaarphs fi^v ?tl ovres effraffla^ov wpbs ciXXtj- 
Xoi/s. 



280 ESAU AND JACOB INTERPRETED [CH. XXVII 

there is evidently another problem in primogeniture. This 
time it is the case of Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons of 
Joseph : Manasseh is definitely stated to have been the elder, 
but by a curious transference of the grandfather's hands in 
benediction from the head of one child to the head of the 
other, Ephraim obtains the rights of the first-born, so far as 
these are carried by the benediction, and it is evidently 
intended that they should be so carried. Now it is not 
stated that Ephraim and Manasseh are twins : if they are 
not, the problem is a wider one, and the thing to be ex- 
plained is the law of primogeniture in the younger child of 
a family, such as we know to prevail in certain countries^ ; 
if, however, the facts have been obscured that Manasseh and 
Ephraim are twins, the case reduces itself to the previous 
category, and the problem is one of primogeniture of twin- 
children. Such a problem was likely to arise, as soon as the 
dual paternity had come into view. In either case, a stoiy 
is told to explain the obsolescent custom. 

All that we really learn from these stories is that there 
was formerly a custom of primogeniture in the younger child 
of a pair: the rest is all romance. We have now much 
reduced the story of Jacob and Esau : all the details of the 
birth-story, all the conflicts between the brothers and the 
divine election, have disappeared. Whether what is left is 
history remains to be seen; legend commonly needs some- 
thing to which it can attach itself: our first duty is the 
removal of the legends from the traditional account. What 
is left is a mere trifle compared with what we started from. 

There are other twin-stories in Genesis, such as the 
Pharez and Zara story, which are capable of illumination 
from folk-lore sources. 

1 For instance it is an old English custom, known by the name of 
Borough English, prevailing in many places, e.g. in the town of Nottingham. 
It is also said to occur in Germany and in Mongolia. Such a custom pre- 
vailed in certain Semitic circles, if we may judge from the story of Ephraim 
and Manasseh. It prevails to this day among the Khasis of Assam in the 
form of inheritance through the youngest daughter. See Additional Notes 
at the end of the volume. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

FURTHER TRACES OF DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

Now let us turn to the New Testament and examine The Sea of 
for further traces of Dioscnric influence, either upon the 
geography of Palestine, or upon the New Testament records. 
We have already shown that there is a high probability that 
Beth Saida was the cult-centre of a twin-god, allied to the 
divinity of Sid on, and that Chorazin (originally Chorozain) 
was a shrine of the Heavenly Twins. 

Let us approach the matter from another point of view, a centre 
We will show that there are special reasons why the ^^jj. . 
Twins should be in evidence on the Sea of Galilee, and it 
is likely that, if they are there, they will be found acting 
in a particular manner. 

We have often noticed that the cult of the Twins is 
developed in dangerous positions on rivers, and in straits and 
dangerous shallows or seas : it is, then, a -priori likely that its 
the Sea of Galilee, with its peculiar liability to sudden storms ^^^^'"^ • 
of wind (Mark calls these gusts by the name of XalXa^^), 
which rush down the steep valleys like funnels, should be a 
centre of Twin worship. The Sea itself receives its name, 
perhaps, from its stormy waves, rather than from a meaning- 
less Hebrew word for circle. The underlying root may be 
the Aramaic (Syriac) word for waves (galele) ^ : the name 
reminds us of the dangers, and the dangers suggest the depre- 
catory cult, which will allay the storms or protect from them. 

1 The form Galil (circle, roller) will be a later perversion of this; but 
the underlying roots are very nearly the same. 



282 DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE [CH. 

Those causes which coloured the Phoenician religion sa 
strongly with Dioscuric features would operate in a similar 
manner on the inland sea. Indeed, we have suggested that- 
there was a common element in the beliefs of the Phoenicians, 
who sailed and rowed on the great Sea, and the Galileans 
who navigated the inland sea, which Luke, more exactly,, 
the calls the Lake. Suppose, then, that Dioscurism prevailed 

nece"sa^-r ^^ *^® Lake of Galilee : let us admit it, for it was inevitable : 
we have now the cult, or at least the cult-centre. 

Now let us go back to the origin of twin-cults, and we- 

and shall find that it is an extremely common view to regard 

use u ; twins as being useful in hunting and fishing. For instance,. 

among the Kwakiutl Indians, twins are nothing but dis- 

they catch guised salmon who have assumed human shape, and in that 

guise are able to bring their brothers and sisters into the 

fisherman's net. 

Among the Ngombe tribes on the Congo, ' if men go- 
hunting and one of the number curses a twin, and the twin 
or hinder responds by stating that the hunt will be in vain, it may be 
capture- abandoned, the others 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 bless a fishing or hunting party, it is sure to 
be successful.' 

Among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, 
' twins who had the deer for their protector were always 
successful in hunting ; in like manner, those who had the 
grisly bear for protector, could always find bears and kill 
them easily.' 

While the twins are quite little, they serve to diagnose 
the success of the hunt. ' Their mother can see by their 
play whether her husband, who is out hunting, is successful 
or not. When the twins play about and feign to bite each 
other, he will be successful ; if they keep quiet he will come 
home empty handed'.' 

The Tsimshian Indians, from the same part of the world, 
fear twins, ' as they can harm the man whom they hate ' ; 

^ Boas, ut nupra. 



XXVIIl] DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 283 

but they believe that the ' twins can call the olachen and 
the salmon and are therefore called Sewihan = making 
plentiful.' 

Here, then, are a number of cases in which twins, con- Thunder- 
sidered as lucky, are especially useful in hunting and fishing. ^^^^^ ^^ 
The same thing is true of their symbols ; in Western Europe, fishing. 
we have shown the importance of the thunder-stone, and how 
it conserves the powers and potencies of the thunder ; and 
since the twins are, in Europe as well as in Palestine and 
elsewhere, the children of the Thunder, it is only natural 
that the thunder-stone, which is a visible child of the 
thunder, should also be lucky in hunting and fishing. On 
this account the Danish fisherman regards the Zebedee-stone 
as attracting good luck, so he uses it as a sinker in his 
fishing net. A peasant in Vermland thought he had ob- 
served that the fish came with greater readiness into those 
nets for which stone axes (i.e. thunder-stones) were used as 
sinkers \ We shall find that the thunder-stones can do 
many of the things that are normally credited to the Sons of 
the Thunder. For instance, they are employed as birth- 
helps by women. 

We shall not be surprised, then, if we should find on the 
Sea of Galilee stories of great fishing feats, attributed more 
or less directly to the Heavenly Twins, or their earthly 
representatives. 

In another direction, also, their activity may be expected Twins 
to be recorded. We have alluded to the power which they s^o^ms- 
possess, as Children of the Sky, of controlling the storm, and 
of the influence which the thunder-stone, as representing the 
Sons of Thunder, has in protecting the person who is so 
fortunate as to possess one. 

Thus the Skgomic of British Columbia regard the birth in British 
of twins as a very special event, twins always possessing, as j^°^"°^" 
w^as believed, supernormal powers, the commonest of which was 
control of the wind^. If at any time wind was required for 

^ Blinkenberg, ut supra, p. 90: quoting from Montelius, Sveriges forntid, 
p. 161. 

2 C. Hill-Tout, ut mpra. 



284 



DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 



[get. 



in 

Brittany : 



sailing, the bodies of the twins would be rubbed with oil or 
grease, after which, it is said, the wind would immediately 
rise. The same belief prevailed among the Shuswap Indians, 
who held twins to be ' endowed with power over the elements, 
especially over rain and snow'.' Of the Tsimshian Indians, 
Boas tells us that it is their belief that ' twins control the 
weather; therefore they pray to wind and rain, " Calm doivn, 
breath of the Tiuins"^." ' Of the Kwakiutl, it is said that 
twins, while children, are able to summon any wind by 
motions of their hands, and can make fair or bad weather. 

The same belief in the control of the weather by twins 
can be traced, in survival, in Western Europe : in Finistere, 
they allay the wildest tempest by means of a talisman 
preserved in the hollow of an oak tree, which consists of 
two apples, growing on one stem, to which prayers are 
addressed ^ The talisman is significant : we have the hollow 
oak where the thunder strikes, and where the thunder-stone 
itself is often supposed to be hidden : the twin-apples are the 
symbol of the twin-children of the Thunder. 

Traces of the same in the form of an influential thunder- 
stone controlling the weather, but apparently without the 
introduction of the Children of the Thunder, may be found 
in the French colonies of the far East. In Annam the 
thunder-stone protects against thunder, and in a storm, one 
puts such a stone among the silk-worms to protect them 
from damage. This belief is not far removed from the 
control of the weather by the Boanerges; certainly in the 
districts where the thunder is personally represented by 
twins, we shall expect them to discharge the duties which, in 
the places where the representation is inanimate, are per- 
formed by stones or twin-apples. 
The Greek In the Greek literature the power of the twins to calm 
cahn'the *^^ storm is expressed almost in Biblical language ; take, for 
storm: example, the Homeric Hymn (xxxiii. 15-18): 



Thunder- 
stone prO' 
tects 
against 
storms in 
Indo- 
china. 



' Teit, The Shuswap Indians, pp. 586, 587. 

2 Boas, Report Brit. Ass. 1889, p. 847. 

•■' L. F. Sauve in Rev. Celtique, v. (?), 82, 83. 



XXVIIl] DIOSCtlRISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 285 

avTiKa 5' dpyaXiuv dvi/j.b)y Kar^Trauffav diWas, 
Kiz/xaTa 5' iffTopeaav Xei'/ciys dXos if ireXayeaaiv, 
va&rais ff-qixa/ra KoKa. 

' So they allayed the storms of troublous winds, 
And planed the whitening waves upon the main : 
Fair signs to shipmen.' 

Or we may turn to Theocritus (xxii. 1. 17-21). 

dW ^jxiras vfieis ye Kal iK ^vdoO ^X/fere vdas ' 
avTo'iCiv vavTaiaiv dio/xivois daviecdai' 
al\j/' dTToKijyovTai 5' dvefioi, Xnrapd 5^ ■^aXoVa 
dfi 7r^Xa7os v€<pe\al 5k Sii5pa/iov dXKvdis dXXai. 

'Nathless when sailors deem the tide their grave, 
Ye draw the foundering bark from out the wave; 
Soft murmur winds that erst were howling loud. 
And far and wide recedes the vagrant cloud.' 

The parallel between the Greek conception of the Stilling Possible 
of the Storm by the Twins, and the Gospel story of a similar parallels 
miracle, is very close. Whether it is more than an acci- 
dental parallel will depend upon the extent to which we 
regard Dioscurism to be already established as a factor by 
which to explain incidents in the Gospels, or in the Early 
Church history. We may, at any rate, use Theocritus' 
language about ' sailors who think to die ' as an explanatory 
illustration of ' Master ! save us, we perish,' and his ' assuaged 
winds ' and ' glassy calm ' side by side with the ' great calm ' 
ot the Gospels. 

It may therefore be concluded that we ought not to be 
surprised, and may even have a right to expect, that control 
of the weather by twins will be a belief on the shores of the 
Sea of Galilee. 

From these considerations we naturally pass to another Do the 
question, as to whether walking on the sea should be in- ^y^/^^j^g 
eluded amongst the Dioscuric powers. The answer seems to sea? 
be that there are not a few traces of an early belief in the 
possibility of walking upon water, but that they do not seem 
to be generally connected with the Twins. For instance, in 
Roman legend, we have the swift Camilla, who 

' Flies o'er the unbending corn or skims along the main',' 

but there is no reason to suppose that Camilla has absorbed 

' Pope, Ensay on Criticism. 



286 DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE [CH. 

a Dioscuric function. Amongst the Argonauts, as described 
by Apollonius Rhodius, we have the case of Euphemus whom 
Europa bore to Poseidon ; Euphemus was the swiftest of 
men, and could run on the salt surge of the sea without 
merging his feet^. There seems no reason to identify him 
with the Dioscuric company. 
Water- In the Indian literature, too, we have traces of water- 

in Indian walking, and here it is interesting to notice that the power 
literature: fg j^q^ merely physical, but that it has a moral side, and 
seems to be ascribed to virtue in the water-walker. Hopkins 
has pointed out an important case in the Brahmin Mahabha- 
rata^ : he says, ' Water is especially associated with truth, 
because truth is verbal purity. Consequently, a very good 
man can walk over water, or even drive his battle-car over 
water without sinking into it, as was the case with Prthu 
Vasinya, and with Ditlpa, who was a speaker of truth.' 

It will b^ said that this does not exclude the A9vins, and 
that the Twins have as one of their functions the guardian- 
ship of truth, but it does not include them. If the A^vins 
can walk on water, we shall probably find the feat alluded to 
in the Rig- Veda, where there are constant references to their 
help in saving shipwrecked or storm-driven mariners. One 
of the most interesting cases is that of a certain Bhujyu, the 
son of Tugras, who had been abandoned by his friends, and 
apparently by his own father, to a watery death. After 
three days and three nights in the deep (one naturally com- 
pares the Jonah legend) the A9vins rescued him in a ship 
with a hundred oars. Sometimes the Twins are said to have 
saved him on a flying chariot with a hundred horses^. It 
does not appear that they walked on the sea to save him. 
On the other hand it should be noticed that the rescued 
Bhujyu himself walked on the sea, and was safely taken on 
board the chariot of the Ayvins. The passage is as follows : 
I. 117. 15, 'The rescued son of Tugras cried to you and he 

1 ApoU. Argonaut, i. 180-185. 

2 Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 1900, p. 38. 

3 Are the chariot and the sliip originally equivalent as in Syriac? cf. 
Odes of Solomon, 38. 



XXVIIl] DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 287 

walked on the water without wavering: you, mighty ones, 
brought him in safety on your chariot, well harnessed and 
swift as thought.' 

To this there is an obvious Biblical parallel, but it does 
not exactly establish that the Ayvins were thought of as 
walking on the sea. 

There is one passage in the Acts of Thomas which may, a parallel 
perhaps, be interpreted Dioscurically in view of the proved ^ * , 
influence of Dioscurism right through the fabric of the Acts. Thomas. 
In the seventh Act, when Judas is addressing the people in 
words of farewell, and commending them to the care of his 
deacon Xenophon, he says that, ' when you go on board ship and 
are in danger, and no man can help you, then he (Jesus) will 
walk upon the waters and support your ships.' The diffi- 
culty is to decide whether this is a reflex from the Gospel 
narrative, or whether it is a genuine Dioscuric trait. If it is 
the latter, then we add the Walking on the Sea in the Gospel 
to the other cases of Dioscuric action. The references to the 
care of ships in the opening chapter of the Acts are certainly 
Dioscuric ; the only question is whether we ought to extend 
the statement to the passage quoted from the seventh Act. 
Reviewing the arguments of the whole chapter, it must at least 
be admitted that a case has been made out for some Dioscuric 
influence in the records and legends of the Sea of Galilee. 

At this time it may be as well to reflect on the cumula- Dio- 
tive results of the argument : we find places, literatures and ^^"fiaces 
peoples impregnated with Dioscuric ideas. The names of peoples 
the places betray the reverence and even the actual worship ntera- 
paid to the Twins; this argument will be more and more*"'"®^- 
forcible according as we find more names of places that are 
susceptible of Dioscuric explanation. In literature we find 
whole books which are coloured by the beliefs of the Twin- 
cult: the most striking case is that of the Acts of Thomas, the Acts 
but the second book of Maccabees is, in its way, as decidedly Thomas • 
Dioscuric ; the book of Genesis is frankly unintelligible with- 
out the assistance of the illumination thrown on it by the the 
Twin-cult. As for popular beliefs, we find that there are book"of 

very few races that do not hold the leading beliefs of the Macca- 

bees. 



288 DIOSCURISM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE [CH. XXVIII 

Dioscuric superstition ; these beliefs are not exclusively 
Aryan nor Semitic : we come across traces of them in Arabia, 
as well as in Greece and Rome, and in Palestine as well as in 
Mesopotamia. Of the persistency of these beliefs there can 
be no reasonable doubt. The second book of Maccabees is a 
book which was written as late, perhaps, as the first years of 
the Christian era: it is decidedly Dioscurized : if the objec- 
tion be made that it simply incorporates the work of Jason 
of Cyrene, the answer is that in that case we do not push 
Jewish Dioscurism back to an earlier date than about 
100 B.C., and the events described are not themselves much 
earlier. So we bring Dioscurism practically down to our 
Lord's time, and this means that Dioscuric explanations 
cannot be wholly ruled out of the interpretation of events 
recorded in the Gospels, if, on other grounds, such explana- 
tions should appear to be the most natural. 

That the Boanerges are the Heavenly Twins can, more- 
over, be established on the Gospel's own admission, in the 
earliest known form of the Gospel, as well as in a variety of 
other ways. We are obliged to admit of the existence of the 
Dioscuric environment, to allow for the permeation of Judean 
society by the Dioscuric ideas. How far such ideas may 
have actually coloured the narrations is another question : 
our first business is to clear the ground, to get rid of false 
ideas of Palestinian religion ; we shall then be able to judge 
with greater certainty as to the relative credibility or in- 
credibility of the different parts of the narrative. 

We have alluded above to the Dioscurism of the second 
book of Maccabees : and this may be the best place for com- 
pleting the proof of such Dioscurism, over and above the 
story of Heliodorus. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE DIOSCURIC ELEMENT IN II MACCABEES 

We have already shown that the second book of Mac- The 
cabees opens its transferences from the pages of Jason of 2 Macca- 
Cyrene with an account of the defeat of Heliodorus in his l^^^s. 
attempt to plunder the Temple at Jerusalem. Three 2 Mace, 
heavenly beings, splendidly horsed and armed and richly "^* ^^^' 
dight, opposed his entrance to the sanctuary, and two of 
them scourged him mercilessly with their whips, so that he They 
was carried out more dead than alive. The Dioscuri, with Helio- 
their sire, protected the Holy Place of the Jews. The dorus. 
meaning of the story was recognised by Fairweather in his 
article on the ' Development of Doctrine in the Apocryphal 
Period ' in Hastings' Bible Dictionary (vol. v. p. 287), where 
it was referred to as ' almost a repetition of the old Roman 
legend of Castor and Pollux mounted on white steeds, and 
appearing at the head of the Jewish armies.' There is, 
however, another story of the same kind a little later in the 
book. Fairweather speaks of it as ' a somewhat similar tale,' 
but does not follow up the clue. As it stands, the legend is 
as follows : 

When Timotheus came against Judas Maccabaeus to 2 Mace. v. 
revenge himself for a former defeat, with a horde of foreign 
troops and Asiatic cavalry, he was minded to take all Judea 
captive. The Jews, however, besought the Lord to come to 
their aid, and to be an adversary to their adversaries, as he 
had promised in the Law. When battle was joined, the 
answer to their prayers came in the appearance from heaven 
of five horsemen, with golden bridles, two of whom became 

H. B. 19 



290 DIOSCURIC ELEMENT IN II MACCABEES [CH. XXIX 

They the leaders of the Jews, riding one on each side of Mac- 
Judas cabaeus, and discharging arrows and thunderbolts upon the 

Macca- enemy. Moreover the adversaries were struck blind, fell 
baeus in . . , ^ ^ ^ , i 

battle, into disorder, and were slaughtered on a great scale. 

That this is Dioscuric is clear not only from the princely 

pair, who protect the Maccabee, and are evidently, from the 

using missiles which they throw, 8ons of the Thunder, but also 

Dioscuric fj,Qjjj ^jjQ blindness which falls on the enemy, which is one of 

weapons . 

and the punishments proper to the twins, and is parallel to the 

judgement of the men of Sodom in the book of Genesis at 
the hands of the two angels. The only difficulty is with 
regard to the number of the heavenly allies. They are said 
to be five, of whom two undertook the actual leadership of 
the Jews in battle. I suspect that the word five is an error : 
we should read three ; some one who did not see that the 
three included the two, has replaced three by five, so as to 
give the exact total. The number should clearly be the 
same as in the story of Heliodorus. Even if we do not 
correct the text, the two who rush with the Jews into 
battle are described in such terms as hurling thunderbolts 
{Kepavvov<i e^eppLTrrov) and with such results to the enemy 
that they are struck with blindness and thrown into con- 
fusion (a-vyxv6€VT€<i dopacrici), that we cannot doubt them to 
be the Dioscures. And we are entitled to say that in the 
time of the Maccabean wars, the Dioscuri had not yet been 
displaced by the holy angels. These results are of the first 
importance ; for the author of second Maccabees cannot be 
much earlier than the Christian era, and the author from 
whom he borrows is hardly earlier than 100 B.C., the events 
Dios- that are described prohibiting a much earlier date. So we 
PalestinT ^ave brought Dioscurism into Palestinian history at a time 
till the which nearly coincides with the time of production of the 
era. Gospels. The importance of this will be evident. It is a 

companion result to the proof of Dioscurism in Mesopotamia, 
which we derived from the Acts of Thomas. Each proof has 
a legitimate re-action on the New Testament. 



CHAPTER XXX 

ON THE NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWIN CHILDREN 

As there seems to be a very widespread custom of 
indicating twinship by the names given to the children or Names of 
of specifying by their names either the order in which they 
were born or some peculiarity attaching to them, it seems 
to be worth while to collect some of the principal varieties 
of nomenclature which occur in our investigation. 

The first classification that comes to one's hand is the 

giving of a name which shall indicate twinship. The express 

importance of this will be evident, for as soon as twins are 

allowed to live, they live as marked persons, either for good 

or evil fortune ; and when they acquire dignity this dignity 

is often transmitted to their offspring, or to a priesthood 

operating for the deceased or deified twins, and representing 

them. In this connection, the first names that occur to one 

are 

Thomas 

Didymus 

Geminus, 

respectively in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Then in German 
there is Zwilling. In English a variety of names can be 
traced to this source : over and above the obvious Twinn we 
have Twysse (for twice). Twist (for Twiced) ; in my immediate 
neighbourhood a doctor named Gummow betrays an original 
French Jumeau, and amongst my students a Scotch lady 
named Gemmell answers to an original Latin Gemella, 
perhaps through the French. 

19—2 



292 ON NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWINS [CH. 

In Greek we have also the form Amphion, which, as 
we have pointed out, means Twin, and is the equivalent of 
Amphigenes. 

Amongst savage tribes we also find the custom of calling 
a child simply Twin : e.g. in Fanti land, all such children 
are called Attah, i.e. twin. Amongst the Yorubas it is 
common to call them simply Ibeji, i.e. twins. Traces of this 
custom of giving a common name to twins and triplets can 
be found in our own mythology : see Saxo Grammaticus 
(Bk V. 122) for three brothers named Grep^. 
indicating The next grouping of the names should be of those that 
birtli '^ indicate that one is the first-born and the other the second. 
Thus, in the pair Esau-Jacob, the first name has not yet 
been explained, but the second clearly means the follower, 
and intimates that the person bearing the name is not the 
first-bom. In the same way the Greek twins Proitos and 
Akrisios, who quarrel antenatally, like Esau and Jacob, and 
one of whom expels the other from Argos, must surely 
conceal priority under the name of Proitos. The same thing 
is true of the Milanese twins, Protasius and Gervasius. 
Amongst African tribes we see constant attempts at indi- 
cating the order of birth : thus amongst the Basoga-Batamba 
tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, we have the following 
scheme : 

Boy and girl, Waiswa and Babilye, 
Two boys, Waiswa and Kato, 

Two girls, Uja and Babilye, 

where, since twins generally are called bana-babili (= two- 
children) it is clear that Babilye means the second of 
a pair. 

Twin- In the Sherbro Hinterland (Sierra Leone), twins are 

names in „ , . , . -. 

W. Africa, called irrespective oi sex 

Sau and Jina. 

I do not pretend to know the interpretation of these 
languages. 

^ See Cult, p. 58 sqq. 



XXX] ON NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWINS 293 

Among the Ewe-speaking tribes, we have consistently 

Atsu = first-bom, 
Tse = second-born, 

and a male bom after these is called Dosu. 

For West African tribes, Dr Nassau has noted that in 
Benga the twins are called 

Ivaha = a wish, 

and Ayenwe = unseen, 

while among the Egbas the names are 

Taiwo = the first to taste the world, 
Kehende = the one who comes last^. 
From one of the Baptist Mission stations on the Congo, 
the late Dr Bentley informed me that the names given to 
twins in that region were Nsimbe and Nzuzi, 

Among the Nilotic Kavirondo, the first of twins is called in 
Apio (the one who comes quickly), the other is called Adongo 
(the one who is delayed). We note again the parallel with 
Jacob (the follower). 

Among the Warundi, the elder of twins is called Wukuru, 
Wuwiruke ; the younger, Witoyi, Wusinya, Shakati. I do not 
know the meaning of these names. 

On the Albert Nyanza, special names are given to the 
first and last of a pair of twins. 

In the Unyoro country, the first is called Singonia, the 
second Kato. 

In Monbottuland, twin boys are called 
Aburi and Nabesse, 
and twin girls 

Abuda and Tindade. 

On the White Nile beyond Bedden, the names for twins 
are Keniy and Mundia. 

In Togo-land, the case is as follows : 

Boys = Ese and Esi, 
Girls = Huevi and Huese, 
Boy and girl = Esi and Esihue. 

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, p. 206. 



294 ON NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWINS [CH. 

The children of twins have also their parentage indicated : 
first bom, boy] _ Dosu, 
girlj Devi, 
second born, boy) Dosavi, 
girl) Dohnevi, 
third born, boy] _ Donyo, 
girl] Dosevi. 

No doubt these names are, as Pindar would say, (fxovdvTa 
avveTolcnv. 
Twin- With the foregoing comes the case in which, one twin 

Sipiying ^^viiig heen spared, his election to life is intimated in his 
selection, name. For example, on the Brass River in the Niger 
territory, one child is killed : the one that is spared is called, 
if a boy, Isele, if a girl Sela, both names meaning 'the 
selected one.' This case is interesting on account of a 
suspicion that something of the kind can be traced in our 
own national ancestry. Thus the name Joicey is really a 
past participle and is a disguise of the French choisi \ much 
in the same way as the English surname Chance, which, as 
its American form Chauncey shows, is again a past participle, 
and means a child who has been changed {changd) by the 
fairies. On this hypothesis Joicey would be the twin child 
saved out of a pair, 
or origin, The next classification would be that in which the twins 

are named collectively or individually by their powers and 
potencies. The most striking examples of this will be, when 
the twins are called children of Zeus (Dioscuri), or children 
of the Thunder (Boanerges), or children of the Sky-Thunder 
(Bana ba Tilo) or the like ; or we may have cases in which 
or quality, the twins are simply named after the luck they bring in 
hunting or fishing, as for instance among the Tsimshian 
Indians, who call twins Sewihan, i.e. making plentiful ; or as 
amongst the ancient Phoenicians, where the names of a pair 
of brothers appear in Greek translation as Halieus, and 
Agrieus. In Uganda, as Mr Roscoe informs me, twins are 
named after the god of plenty, so that any male twin is 
called Mukasa, any female twin Namukasa. 



XXX] ON NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWINS 295 

For names derived from the Thunder, I suspect that we Thunder- 
have a good many names, in English and in Scotch, that go ^tvins ^^^ 
back either directly to the Thunder, or to the Thunder-god 
Thor. For instance, a very old Scotch name is Livingstone, 
whose Latin form is de Villa Levini, which suggests that the 
place-name was originally Levin's Town and involves the 
Levin or thunderbolt. As a personal name Liveing, it was 
the mark of a celebrated Cambridge Professor of Chemistry 
in the present generation \ Of names formed from Thor, 
it is certain that we have plenty, many of them being place- 
names, which have become personal names. On this point 
we must not linger ; no doubt, if such names exist, as I 
believe to be the case, some one, with wider philological 
knowledge than my own, will before long deal with them 
exhaustively. 

Of all the names given to twins, the most perplexing is Meaning 

that which is collectively e^iven to Castor and Pollux. They 0/ Tynda- 
•^ o J rides. 

are commonly called Tyndarides, after their supposed human 
parent, Tyndareus. The earliest form of the name appears 
to be Tindarides; but no clue has yet been found for the 
meaning of the name. It was tempting to suggest that 
perhaps Tyndarides was only another way of saying Sons of 
Thunder, on the assumption that, as in our own language, an 
intrusive d has slipped into an original Tanar, from which 
in the Saxon form thunor we get our thunder : there is no 
difficulty in such an intrusion of the consonant in Greek, as 
we see in the Greek duBp6<; for dvep6<i ; but the vowels resist 
the identification ; and however seductive the hypothesis, it 
must be abandoned. If the word for thunder is not involved 
in the Tyndarids, we must either look for some other twin- 
parentage (say the oak or the woodpecker)^ or be satisfied 
to leave Tyndareus as the name of an unknown and 

^ It is a rare name, but it can still be seen on the main street of 
Birmingham: so that Sons of Thunder can be found here as well as in 
Palestine ! 

* The suggestion has been made that the form we are in search of may- 
be related to the Latin tundit (Sanskr. tuddti, Eng. thud). In that case the 
word describes either the hammering of the woodpecker, or the crashing of 
the thunder. 



296 ON NAMES COMMONLY GIVEN TO TWINS [CH. XXX 

unexplained person, in whose family twins appeared, who were 
ultimately raised to celestial rank. It is with regret that I 
set the problem on one side as still unsolved. 
Mean- The pair of twins in question are also known as Castor 

c'astor. ^^^ Polydeuces ; and collectively as the Castors, or beavers. 
It has been suggested to me that the name ' beavers ' is 
a companion to ' woodpeckers,' and has come in by way of 
the first ship-yard, because if the woodpeckers hollow the 
tree, the beavers fell it^. Moreover, a scrutiny of early 
Greek ships in works of art will show that the steering-oar, 
or rudder (the German ruder shows that the rudder was 
originally an oar, perhaps the oar), was modelled on the tail 
of the beaver. A similar oar is still in use on the rafts that 
come down the Euphrates and Tigris. 
Sky- Of the names of twins that betray quality or assume 

Twins. origin, the most important are those which express kinship 
with the bright sky, as Hilaeira and Phoebe, the twin-sisters 
of Sparta, or Phoebus Apollo; or which imply powers that 
are borrowed from the sky, such as Idas and Lynceus. Of 
Zethos and Amphion, the former is, I believe, still obscure : 
the latter has already been explained as being simply Twin. 

^ See Wood, Natural History, p. 92, 'As many beavers live together in 
one society, the formation of a dam does not take very long. By their 
united efforts they rapidly fell even large trees by gnawing them round the 
■ trunk, and always taking care to make them fall towards the water, so that 
they can transport the logs easily.' The suggestion as to the beavers is due 
to my friend Jowett Wilson. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

ON THE TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS, 
AND ON THE HOLY OAK 

We now follow the Aryan migration westward, and are 
able to note the re- appearance of a number of beliefs in 
regard to twins, which we have previously detected in Indian 
and Anatolian folk-lore. 

The most important of such discoveries for our purpose The Twins 
are contained in Mannhardt's famous studies of the Lettish Lettish 
folk-songs, which were published in the seventh volume of folk- 
the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. I should have liked, had 
space permitted, to have reprinted these famous articles in 
an English translation : they are still far too little known ; to 
say that they are amongst the finest of Mannhardt's work is 
to carry praise to a point where it can hardly go further. 
Fortunately for English readers, a brief summary of Mann- 
hardt's position and an appreciation of the value of his 
results, can be found in Schrader's noble article on the 
Aryan religion in Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and 
Ethics. 

In my first study on the diffusion of the Dioscuric 
legends, I found the starting point of the ancient European The Twins 
Dioscurism in a passage of Tacitus, in which he speaks of NThafvall. 
the beliefs of the Naharvali, who may probably be located in 
Lithuania, or in the country of the Vandals. As the passage 
has become a classical one in this investigation, it is proper 
once more to transcribe it : 

Tacitus, Germania, c. 43, ' Apud Naharvalos antiquae religionis lucus 
ostenditur. Praesidet sacerdos muliebri omatu: sed deos interpretatione 
Eomana Castorem Pollucemque memorant: ea vis numini, nomen Alois; 
nulla simulacra, nullum peregrinae superstitionis vestigium : ut fratres tamen, 
ut juvenes, venerantur.' 



298 ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS [CH. 

According to Tacitus, we have among the tribes whom he 
describes, an archaic cult of a pair of young heroes, who were 
brethren of the type of Castor and Pollux ; the priest, clad 
in women's garments, officiated in a sacred grove ; but there 
was no foreign superstition imposing itself upon the original 
worship (Tacitus is, perhaps, speaking feelingly, in recol- 
lection of the foreign religious invasions at Rome) : the name 
of the deities worshipped was Alois. The name Alois has 
not yet been explained : Schrader thinks it means ' hired 
labourers,' and points out that there was a Lithuanian deity 
named AJgis (see Lasicius, Be Diis Samagitarum, p. 47). 
However that may be, it is clear, without any further 
parallels, that if Tacitus' observations are correct, we have 
recovered the twin-cult of the ancient Aryans among the 
Naharvali ; and if we have recovered the ancient Twin-cult, 
Tacitus is correct in drawing the parallel with the worship 
of the Heavenly Twins at Rome. For it stands to reason 
that, if the original Aryans started with a twin-cult, they 
did not afterwards invent another independent twin-cult. 
The worship in the grove of the Naharvali is the evolution 
of the original cult of the Sky-god, or Thunder-god, as the 
Aryan tribes made their westerly migration. So much 
The Twins for the underlying necessary connection between the worship 
Oak-god. of the Naharvali and that of ancient Rome, This worship 
in a grove was the cult of a god Perkunas (the ancient 
Lithuanian god) along with two young assessors : and as it 
is clear that we must connect Perkunas with the Latin 
quercus and with the Hercynian forest, we are to consider 
the ancient worship as detected in Europe to be the worship 
of a tree-god (who may also be a thunder-god) and the 
Twins. 
Mann- Now for the connection with the eastern forms of the 

dfscoveries Aryan religion : it is at this point that Mannhardt's re- 
in Lettish searches become so important ; for they show again, from 

folk-lore •/ o 

the survivals of ancient beliefs in the Lettish folk-songs, that 
there was a pair of heavenly beings, named dewa deli, 
i.e. sons of god ; these sons of god are identified with the 
Morning Star and the Evening Star so that it is certain that 



XX Xl] ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS 299 

they are a pair of twin-gods ; they are trying to liberate the 
daughter of the Sun. We have thus the same connection, 
as we found in the Vedas, of the twin-brethren with the 
sunrise, while it is equally clear that they are connected 
also with Castor and Pollux and their sister Helena. 

It is very surprising that so much can have been pre- 
served in folk-songs out of the immemorial past. Here is a 
verse from one of the Lettish songs : 

' Why stand the gray horses 
At the housedoor of the Sun? 

They are the gray horses of the Son of God The gray 

Who sets free the daughter of the Sun.' horses of 

the Sun, 

Here the only change that has occurred for ages in the 
subject matter appears to be the turning of ' Sons of God ' 
from the plural into the singular. Making only this slight 
correction, we recover the pair of heavenly horsemen of the 
Rig- Veda. In the same way, from the identification of 
the twin-brethren and their horses, with the Morning and 
the Evening Stars, we find ourselves in close agreement with 
the ancient worship of Edessa, viz. of the Sun with the 
Morning and the Evening Stars for his assessors. 

In the Lettish songs the gray horses of the dawn are 

sometimes said to belong to the moon : e.g. or of the 

moon; 

' Whose are the gray ponies 
At the housedoor of the little god? 
Those are the moon's ponies 
Who set free the daughter of the Sun,' 

and in the following verse the moon's ponies are expressly 
identified with the Morning and the Evening Stars : 

'For as folks say, 

The moon has no pony of its own : 

The morning star and the evening star, The Twin 

They are the ponies of the moon.' horses as 

Morning 

It will be seen that the Morning and Evening Stars are Evening 
clearly distinguished, and that they are at the same time Stars. 
identified with the Sons of God, who liberate the daughter 
of the Sun. 



300 ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS [CH. 

Now let us turn to another point which comes out very 
clearly in the early European mythology, the identification 
Perkunas of the sky-god or thunder-god with the tree-god (oak-god), 
oak-tree. ^^^ instance, the name Perkunas (= Perkuno), which we 
identify as an oak-name in Lithuanian, is also the name of 
the thunder. The thunder is animistically in the oak : in 
that sense it is the oak. 

Now one does not have to go far in the story of Dioscurism 
before one comes upon the sacred tree : in Northern Europe 
it is the oak-tree ; at Sparta, there is some reason for 
believing that the Heavenly Twins (and therefore their 
sire) were lodged in the wild pear-tree ^ When Castor 
was killed in the conflict which he and his brother had 
with the Messenian twins, Idas and Lynceus, he was hidden 
in a hollow oak-tree, where he was detected by Lynceus and 
shot^. 

Nor was the case different in Palestine, where the most 
sacred tree, in a land where many trees were sacred, was the 
oak at Mamre, where Abraham had entertained the three 
angels. The cult-representations of the twins involved 
Twin- commonly a pillar or a pair of pillars (as amongst the 
pillars Phoenicians, and, under their direction, in the temple at 
trees. Jerusalem, or in the temple at Paphos) : and, as is now 
commonly recognised, such a pillar would be the representa- 
tive of the sacred tree. When a sacred bird is perched on a 
sacred pillar*, it will commonly be the thunder-bird on the 
thunder-tree. Thus, when at Picenum (Woodpecker-town) 
they worshipped a woodpecker on a pillar, the name of the 
town shows that we are dealing with Dioscuric matter. In 
all probability Picenum was an ancient twin-town, just like 
Rome itself. 

As we have already pointed out, the great Cretan 
sarcophagus, discovered by the Italians at Hagia Triada, 
tells the same tale of twin-cult and thunder-cult; for here 
we have represented, perhaps 1500 years before Christ, 

^ It may have been only an occasional manifestation. 

* See Pindar, Nem. x. 61, Spvbs iv oreX^x" v/J-evov. 

3 For woodpecker on pillar, see Dion. Hal. i. 14 ; Strabo, v. 240. 



XXXl] ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS 301 

a pair of cult pillars surmounted by birds and double axes, 
every part of the symbolic representation being written in 
the Dioscuric language. 

We have shown in a previous chapter the importance 
of the Holy Oak in the story of the making and manning of 
the first ship, when the twins learnt from the woodpeckers 
(or knew because they themselves were woodpeckers) how to 
make the original dug-out canoe in which man first made 
his voyage on the water. The suggestion is that the hollow 
oak is higher in sanctity than the unhollowed tree. It 
discharges religiously a greater variety of functions. 

This hollowed oak is not merely the first ship (Gk vav^) The oak 
but, as Schrader points out, it is also the original temple ^^^^T 
(va6<i). Here the primitive man looked for his thunder- temple, 
bolts, and here he preserved them\ 

We have already alluded to the belief in Brittany that 
the worst storms can be allayed by means of twin-apples 
which are preserved in a hollow oak. Here the twin-apples 
are a vegetable representation of the Twins, and they are 
kept in the oak, because the hollow oak is the sanctuary of 
the Thunder-god and his two children. 

It is, perhaps, from the same quarter that we get The oak- 
the explanation of a point which has perplexed me not a ^ee^.^fve 
little, the connection between the Twins and honey. There 
is certainly some explanation required, for the A^vins 
in the Rig- Veda are constantly spoken of in a way 
which shows that they have something to do with honey. 
Macdonell, in his Vedic Mythology, sums the matter up as 
follows (p. 49) : 

' Of all the gods the A9vins are most closely connected The Twins 
with honey (madhu) with which they are mentioned in honey, 
many passages. They have a skin filled with honey, and 
the birds which draw them abound in it (4. 45 ^' *). They 
poured out a hundred jars of honey (1. 117^). Their 

1 In Belgium in the province of Limbourg ' belemnites are regarded as 
pierres de tonnerre; the peasants assert that they are found in hollow trees, 
and are thrown down there by the lightning.' Rev, des trad, populaires 
(quoted in Blinkenberg, p. 102), xvii. p. 416. 



302 ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS [CH. 

honey-goad (1. 122^- 159*), with which they bestrew the 
sacrifice and the worshipper, is peculiar to them.' 

The explanation which I suggest is that the sacred tree 
makes the connection between the Dioscuri and the honey. 
The hollow tree was the first bee-hive as well as the first 
ship. To this very day in all parts of England, a bee-hive is 
called a skip, which means a naturally or artificially hollowed 
tree\ Thus the bees are to be found in the neighbourhood 
of the twins and the thunder, and this is a sufficient 
explanation of the recurrence in the Rig- Veda of references 
to the twin-horsemen and honey. In Latin the bee-hive is 
alveus, the very name given to the hollowed trunk in which 
Romulus and Remus were set adrift. Vergil poetically uses 
alveus sometimes for ship\ 

It is natural to suppose that in very early times, man 
did not have the trouble of making his own bee-hive ; it was 
made for him by nature : he did not even cut it down : 
accordingly Hesiod tells us that, amongst the blessings 
that attend the upright, we may include the plentiful pro- 
duction of food from the earth, abundance of acorns from 
the top of the mountain-oak, and bees^ from the midmost 
bark. Here the tree is hollow but still standing, and the 
bees occupy the interior. The tree is already an alveus or 
a skip. In Palestine, the bee-hive remains unknown for 
a very long while. Honey is found but not produced : as 
in the case of Samson, and in the proverb, ' Hast thou found 
honey ? ' 
Th® It has already been pointed out* that we may look in the 

oak and direction of the sacred and hollow oak for the meaning of 
the beaver. ^^^ Greek name Castor, given collectively sometimes to the 
Twins, as the Castors. No satisfactory explanation has ever 
been given of this name ; perhaps the most plausible was to 

1 See further on this point, on p. 328 infra. 

^ Aeneid, vi.-412. 

3 Op. et Dies, 232—3, 

Tolffi (p^pei ixiv yata iroKiiv ^lov, oOpecri 5^ Spvs 
aKpri pAv T€ ipipei. ^aXdvovs, p,i<T<rri bk /ieXlaaas. 

* Supra, p. 296. 



XXXl] ON TWINS IN THE LETTISH FOLK-SONGS 303 

connect it with a gloss of Hesychius; according to which 
Kearope was explained as ' brothers.' 

Since, however, the art of felling trees might be said to 
be learned from the beaver in the same way as the art of 
hollowing them from the woodpecker, the very same causes 
which would identify the twins with a pair of woodpeckers 
might lead to their being styled a pair of beavers. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

OE THE HEAVENLY TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN 
TRADITION 

Graeco- A COMPARISON of the Twin-cults of the various Greek 

^^^° and Roman cities and states shows remarkable independence, 
cults. and at the same time fundamental agreement. Every place 
has twins amongst its heroes and demi-gods but every place 
appears to name them diiferently. The twins of Rome are not 
borrowed from Sparta in the first instance, Romulus (Romus) 
Differ- and Remus have nothing to do with Castor and Pollux, except 
agree- ^^ to be displaced by them ; yet they agree with them in the 
ments. peculiarity that one of them is of human parentage, and one 
of divine, even if they do not agree exactly as to the defi- 
nition of the divine parent, whether he is Jupiter or Ares. 

In the same way, the twins of Messene, though next 
door neighbours to Sparta, are not the same ; their names 
vary, and Idas and Lynceus are mortal enemies of Castor 
and Pollux. The twins of Elis, the Moliones, appear to be 
altogether pre-Dorian, and out of the current of the Laconian 
tradition : and as for Thebes, the Boeotian twins agree with 
the Spartan chiefly in the fact that, in either pair, one of 
them is a man of violence and force, and the other a relatively 
more gentle creature, so that Zethos and Amphion may be 
compared on the one hand with Castor and Pollux, and on 
the other with Esau and Jacob. Yet the Thebans swear by 
their twins (vr) tod aio)) just as the Spartans by theirs. 
More might be said on the mixture of agreement and 
difference presented by these various pairs ; but enough has 
been said to show that many tribes and clans must have 



CH. XXXIl] TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION 305 

brought down the twin-tradition out of the past, and that 
the twins of remote time were probably without personal 
names, being known as the Great Twin Brethren, or the Sons 
of the Thunder, or some such terms, and acquiring special 
names as time went on, and as their functions became more 
clearly recognised or appealed to. Thus Idas and Lynceus 
are twins expressing the idea of far-sight and sharp-sight, 
and it is easy to see that they have obtained their titles as 
children of the all-seeing Sky. 

One of the points that comes out most clearly in the Physi- 
Graeco-Roman traditions is the belief in the double pater- twin- 
nity of twins. On this point it may be convenient to make birth, 
a few notes. In the first place, it is physiologically possible, 
though not physiologically necessary. Twins may arise from Two kinds 
the development of two ova, or from the unusual segmentation ° ^^^^' 
of a single ovum. In the former case we shall, especially if 
a second parent be introduced, have a prospect of unlike 
twins ; in the latter an almost exact likeness, and of the 
same sex. The question has recently been discussed by 
Mr R. Clement Lucas in his Bradshaw lecture on Some points identical, 
in Heredity^. The latter are known as identical twins : the 
former may be called coincident twins. How striking the and co- 
identity can be may be seen from a tale which Mr Lucas tells 
of twins who entered as medical students at the same date, 
and passed the examinations of the Royal Colleges and those 
of the M.B. and M.S. Lond., at the same time. The totals 
of their marks turned out to be almost identical. In the 
opinion of seventeen examiners their abilities were indistin- 
guishable or identical. 

Now the primitive anthropologist knows nothing of the 
physiology of the matter, but he has his eyes open to see The 
what occurs in his family, and he describes twins according ^^^^^l' 
to these two groups. Some are identical and some variant, double 
Castor and Pollux are identical in appearance, at least when ^ ^' 

they are transferred to coins ; but in Greek legend Pollux is 
the fighter, and Castor the cab-driver ; that is, they are not 

i See Lancet for Dec. 23rd, 1911. 
n. B. 20 



306 TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION [CH. 

really identical. With the A9vins, we get general identity, 
but here again difference of function can be detected by the 
statement that ' one was bom here and the other there.* 
The question to be asked in any case is whether they are 
both sky-born, or one from the sky and the other from the 
earth. Now the Graeco-Roman tradition, as we have said, is 
emphatic for double paternity. It is always stated, or else 
can be inferred from the difference of form and function. 
Let us take a few cases. 

Pindar tells us in a fine passage that Zeus disclosed the 

2eus parentage of Castor, when Pollux pleaded that he might be 

disowns restored to life or promoted after death ^ : 

' Quickly back to his mighty brother came the hero 
Polydeuces, and found him not yet dead, but shuddering and 
gasping in his breath. Then weeping hot tears, with groans 
he lifted up his voice aloud. " O father Zeus son of Cronos, 
what deliverance is possible from my sorrow ? Send death 
to me also, O King, along with him. For honour is gone 
from a man bereft of friends, and few are faithful in affliction, 
to share our burdens therein." And Zeus came to meet him, 
. and uttered these words : " Thou art my son, but as for 
this man, a hero-husband begat him from thy mother. But 
come ! I offer thee a choice between two lots. If thou wilt 
escape death and hateful old age, and dwell in Olympus 
with me and with Athena, and with Ares of the dark spear, 
this fortune is thine. But if thou strivest for thy brother, 
and art minded to portion out to him an equal share in all 
things, then half the time thou mayest draw thy breath with 
him beneath the earth, and half the time he may dwell with 
thee in the golden halls of heaven." Thus spake Zeus, and 
Polydeuces set no divided counsel in his mind, but straight- 
way unsealed the lips and then the eyes of bronze-clad 
Castor^' 

In the same way the parentage of Zethos and Amphion 
is declared to be diverse, half human and half divine: 

^ Pindar, Nem. x. 

2 Pindar, Nem. x., quoted by Clapp in the Hibbert Journal for Jan. 
1910. I correct the translation where necessary. 



XXXIl] TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION 307 

Amphion being in this case the divine twin, born of 
Zeus and Antiope : so Pausanias, quoting from the poet 
Asius^ 

In the Cypriaca (quoted by Clement of Alexandria^) 
Castor is affirmed to be mortal and Pollux immortal : 

K.da-TO)p fiev OvrjTo^, Oavdrov he ol alaa ireirpwraL' 
Avrap o y d6dvaro<i Y\.d\vhevK7]<i' 

against which Clement protests, saying that Homer is much 
more to be trusted, who makes both the twins mortal. 

In the Roman legend, the divine sire has assumed the The 
parentage of both twins, but that this is a later development ^^^^ 
appears from the fact that only one of them is immortal, 
viz. Romulus, and the other, Remus, very decidedly mortal. 
Accordingly Ovid represents Jupiter as promising immor- 
tality to one of the children of Mars : 

'Unus erit, quem tu tolles in caerula caeli' 

Tu mihi dixisti: sunt rata dicta lovis: 
Juppiter annuerat. Fasti, ii. 487. 

This means that only one of the young gentlemen was 
expected in Heaven, and entitled to admission. 

The story of the exposure of Romulus and Remus on the 
Tiber, and the killing of their mother, is the lowest stratum 
of all, as can be seen by the African parallels. The story 
of the Vestal Virgin, however, who was unfaithful to her Twin- 
calling, is a later stage of the mythology : the tradition as unchaste? 
to ' immortality for one ' implies that there was not only a 
divine sire, but a human parent somewhere, whose wife had 
been unfaithful to him, or who had come under some second 
influence : i.e. she was not a Vestal. We have seen how 
widespread this belief is amongst savage peoples. It is not 
confined to people of low civilisation. I see it stated that 
* even in mediaeval Scotland it was considered impossible 
that the mother of twins could have been faithful to her 



1 Pausanias, quoted in Dioscuri, p. 18. 

2 Protrept. (p. 26, ed. Potter). 

20—2 



308 TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION [CH. 

husband, for two children implied two fathers^' The same 
belief is proverbial in Denmark : there it is said 

'Foder Kvinde to. 
Giver God tilkende at hien er sin mand utro.' 
' If a woman gives birth to two, 
God shows she is to her man untrue 2.' 

The Greek legend as to the divided immortality which 
Zeus conferred on the two brethren is, perhaps, the reason 
why, in art, the Heavenly Twins have become exactly like. 
It seems pretty clear that originally they were diverse. 
Indeed, we may expect that divine-human twins will be 
diverse. The most striking case will be Herakles and 
Iphikles, the former a hero of the first water, the latter 
a mere weakling. 
Twins like When it is a question of fine art, the representation of 
Tn Art twins to the eye will often require diversity of treatment, 
and result in decided variations. In such cases they will 
become unlike from like : a good instance will be the case 
of Hypnos and Thanatos, to which Miss Harrison has drawn 
my attention. That Death and his brother Sleep should be 
twins, is a beautiful poetical conception^ : but in the treat- 
ment of the subject we find that Death and Sleep, who 
are twins in Homer, begin to be differentiated on Attic 
lekythoi by the beginning of the fifth century B.C. (See 
Roscher, s.v. Hypnos.) Hypnos is young and beardless. 
Thanatos, adult and bearded. On another line of evolution, 
Hypnos became an ancient man who holds the sleeper in his 
arms. On sarcophagi, he becomes an old man leaning on 
a sticks Although Homer does not recognise the divine 
parentage of Pollux, he is very decided that when a god 
does condescend to amalgamation with the human race, 
twins are likely to result. So perhaps Homer knew more 
than he cared to tell. The following instances will show his 

^ Hastings, Encyc. Relig. and Ethics, i. 4, sub voce Abandonment. 

2 gee Troelsund, Daglig Liv I Nordm, vin. 22, reference kindly given by 
Dr Feilberg. 

3 »We thought her dying when she slept. 

And sleeping when she died.' — Hood. 
* For further suggestions on twin-diversity, see CiUt, p. 91. 



XXXIl] TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION 309 

mode of treatment ; they are taken from a hundred lines in 
the eleventh book of the Odyssey, and seem to show that 
when a god intervenes, twins are to be expected : 

11. 235 — 257. The case of Tyro : re^et? dy\aa reKva. 

11. 260 — 265. Case of Antiope, mother of Zethos and 
Amphion. 

11. 266 — 270. Case of Alkmena ; only Herakles is men- 
tioned, but Iphikles turns up in 1. 290. 

11. 298 — 304. Case of Leda, with Castor and Polydeuces. 
(Perhaps this case should be ex- 
cluded as they are both said to be 
children of Tyndareus.) 

11. 305 — 320. Case of Iphimedeia, koX p ereKcv hvo 
iralSe, viz. Otus and Ephialtes. 

In all these cases, the intervention of a god results in twins; 
this is Homer's way of saying that when twins have occurred, 
it is reasonable to assume that a god has intervened. 

Here is one particularly interesting case which forms the 

basis of one of the lost tragedies of Euripides, the Melanippe. 

According to the story, Melanippe was the wife of Hellen ; The case of 

but during the absence of her husband who was in exile. ^^^^- 

. ' nippe. 

expiating a murder, she had brought forth twins to the god 

Poseidon. Poseidon advised the exposure of the children, 
and they were accordingly given to the herdsmen to make 
away with. They were, however, defended by one of the 
bulls of the herd, and suckled by a cow, a theme with which 
we are familiar. The ox-herds, suspecting bovine parentage, 
report the matter to the king, as being of the nature of a 
portent. The king consults Hellen, who has now returned, 
and on his advice directs that the twins shall be burnt alive. 
So the play opens with Melanippe's protests. The story is 
interesting, because both the twins are supposed to belong 
to Poseidon, and because we have the two stages of treat- 
ment of twins in view at once. At first sight you would say 
that Poseidon is acting in a very ungodlike as well as 
unfatherly manner, in directing the exposure of the children. 



310 TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION [CH. 

On the contrary, he stands for mercy : and the normal 
treatment, combustion, is represented by Hellen. We have 
the two stages side by side\ 

The next subject that seems to require attention is the 
totemistic features associated with twin-birth. For instance, 
we have in the case of Romulus and Remus, as pseudo- 
Twins and parents, the Wolf and the Woodpecker. Of these the 
o 6™^' Woodpecker has been explained, he is the original parent of 
the twins, and while he has evolved into Zeus, they have 
become men. No explanation, as far as I know, has yet 
been forthcoming for the wolf Castor and Pollux show 
a suspicious intrusion of a beaver-cult : and I have made 
a suggestion that the beaver and the woodpecker might 
belong in the story together. 
Greek But what shall we say of the swan-parentage of Castor 

totems ^^^ Pollux ; for their mother Leda was a swan-maiden, and 
wooed by Zeus as a swan. Is there any clue to the origin 
of this piece of mythology ? The swan can hardly be a 
thunder-bird, and still less can a goose, which appears in some 
ancient monuments as Leda's partner. Or is it possibly the 
totem or clan animal of the Dorians, or of one of their tribes ? 
These questions are not easy of solution. I will venture a 
few remarks in favour of a belief in the existence of totems, 
and of bird-totems especially, among the ancient Greeks. 
Here is a case that deserves study and careful consideration. 
It has been conjectured by Fick that the Leleges, 
of whom Homer speaks, a mysterious and elusive race, 
were the real founders of Sparta and the patrons of the 
Fick's Tyndaridae^ He argues that it is very difficult to explain 
that^he ^y Greek analogies a great number of names which occur in 
Leleges ancient Greece, and that such names should be referred to 

WGr6 • . • • • j-^t 

European prehistoric migrations, of Pelasgians, Leleges, Cretans, etc. 

as well as rpj^^ Leleges, in particular, were in close connection with the 
Hittites of Asia Minor, and especially with the Lycians: 
they occupied the west side of the Aegean from Epirus to 

1 For the argument of the play and the opening verses see Babe, aus 
Rhetor en-Handschrif ten, in Rhein. Mus. lxiii. 1, pp. 145, 146. 
* !^ick, Vorgriechische Ortsnanieti, p. 58. 



XXXIl] TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION 311 

Cape Malea. He assumes that they had come over Parnassus, 
and had swarmed into Euboea and Megaris, occupied the 
Cyclades and the coast of Asia Minor as far as Lycia. An 
examination of place names, east and west of the Aegean, 
suggests a connection between two parallel movements on 
opposite sides of the sea\ 

Now Mr A, B. Cook has suggested that the mysterious Leleges 
Leleges are only another name for the Pelasgi, and that the peiasgi. 
Pelasgi may be interpreted as an ancient form of Pelargi, 
in which case they are simply storks. We may, if we please, 
say that the storks were the totem of the clan, or explain it 
in some other way. 

Now with regard to the supposition that the Pelasgi are The 
storks, it can be rendered very probable by the observation are^torks* 
that Pelargos is a Greek name for the stork, and that to this 
day the Arabs of North Africa call the stork by the name of 
Bellarij, which is only a slight dislocation of Pelargi'K The 
name Pelargi would therefore seem to have been widely 
current in the Mediterranean : and as Pelasgi can be equated 
philologically with Pelargi, we have the meaning of the 
name with reasonable certainty. It has left its mark on 
the Mediterranean, 

Now return to the Leleges. If Mr Cook is right in The 
identifying the Pelasgi with the Leleges, may we take the are storks 
further step and say that the Leleges are storks also ? 

The answer is in the affirmative : any one who has 
travelled in the East and has watched the storks and heard 
their note (which is almost exactly lek-lek), will understand 
why the Asiatic Arabs call them by the name of Laq-laq. 
For Leleges, then, we write an earlier Greek form Legleges, 
and translate the word as storks. The dropping of the first 
g sound can be observed to this day in Asia Minor. On a 
recent journey I noticed that at Ancyra they call the stork 
leylek; and the same pronunciation was recorded in Phil- 
adelphia, where the storks build on the ruined city walls, 
and walk about the bazaars unmolested, their red beaks and 

1 Fick, I.e. pp. 134 sqq. 

2 See Dozy s.v. cigogne, and note the varieties of spelling and vocalisation 
of the word. 



312 TWINS IN GRAECO-ROMAN TRADITION [CH. XXXII 

red legs being very conspicuous. The Modern Greek name 
for the stork is XeXe/ct, which agrees closely with the 
foregoing observations \ It follows that the Pelasgi and 
the Leleges are the same bird-tribe of the same migration 
from the north. This is an important point gained. But 
are they the original founders of Sparta ? We are now on 
less certain ground ; Fick presses the occurrence of certain 
religious cults, which occur in Leukas, Megara, and Ikaria. 
He thinks they worshipped either the Sun, or a Sun-bird ; 
over and above their solar cult, they had a great reverence 
for twin-deities, and Fick proceeds to identify cult-centres of 
such deities ; for example, he recognises, as we have done in 
Cult of the Heavenly Twins^, that Amphissa, the capital of 
the Western Locrians, was a centre of twin- worship, and, 
having made that discovery, without positively saying that 
the twin-centres are the places of the Leleges, he suggests 
that the twin-worship of Sparta belongs to the same people, 
and that the Tyndaridae are patron-saints of the Leleges. 
On Fick's theory, the original Spartans were worshippers of 
the Sky-bird (Solar-bird) and his two assessors, the so-called 
Tyndaridae. To this there are some objections; first of all, 
The the Tyndarids, if they belong to a, bird-clan at all, are of the 

^e^eges swan-clan and not of the stork-clan ; and next, it has been 
Spartan, abundantly shown that twin-worship does not belong to any 
special race or tribe, but that it is the common characteristic 
of practically all the races of mankind. It seems to be more 
likely that the swan migration is independent of the stork 
migration. 

I have spent some time in drawing attention to Fick's 
researches, because they are marked by great learning and 
insight. Even where they do not reach final conclusions 
with regard to the early Hellenic migrations, they point the 
way for them^ 

^ See Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 127. 

2 p. 139. 

^ Since writing the foregoing chapter, I find that I have been anticipated 
in my explanation of the Leleges by Gleye, Die ethnologische Stellung der 
Lykier, p. 8, 'Die Namen vieler Volker des Altertums auf Vogelnamen 
zuriickgehen. Ich verweise auf den Namen der Leleger (assyr. lakalaku, 
Storch), etc' 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

SOME FURTHER POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN 
GRAECO-ROMAN BELIEFS AND SAVAGE LIFE 

The attempt which we made to collect and classify the 
beliefs of African tribes with regard to the worship of the 
thunder, and the danger or helpfulness of twin children, has 
at least this advantage, that it brings out parallels of all sorts 
with similar European beliefs and customs, and helps us to 
understand the evolution of the latter in a way that we could 
not have done without the African parallels. 

The most striking case was one of the first that we Parallels 
detected, the equivalence of the Bana-ba-tilo of the Baronga, amcTh 
with the Greek Dioscuri and the Palestinian Boanerges, and 
There are, however, many minor parallels. For instance, Twin- 
Mr Dudley Kidd tells us that in certain parts of South ''"^*'^- 
Africa, in war-time, it is the custom to send twins in advance 
of the main line of the army. ' In war-time, a twin used 
to be hunted out, and made to go right in front of the 
attacking army, some paces in front of the others. He 
was supposed to be fearless and wild\' One thinks of the 
Spartan army marching with the Dokana or emblems of the 
twins carried in front of them, as well as of the presence 
of the two Spartan kings, who were the civil and military 
representatives of Castor and Pollux. The Roman tradition 
that the consuls must go to war is on the same line. The 
consuls also represent the twins, and must do duty for 
them. 

A more interesting case is the persistence of early ideas Twins and 
as to what makes valid swearing and effective cursing. The '''^'^"^• 

^ Dudley Kidd, Savage Childhood, pp. 45 sqq. 



314 FURTHER POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN [CH. 

oath is a very early feature of human life, and it was probably 
necessary as well as ancient. I have shown in Cult the care 
which the twins take over truth, and those who, under suit- 
able conditions, speak the truth : and I have pointed out 
that it is on account of their relation to the all-seeing sky 
and the all-dreaded thunder, that an oath which involves 
an appeal to the twins is effective. To punish the perjurer 
was indeed a high calling; to perform one's vows, or be 
made to perform them, has a high place in the evolution 
of ethics. 

There are West African savages, to whom lying is as 
easy — 'as easy as lying\' — who would never perjure them- 
selves if a thunderstone were in the neighbourhood : the 
'all-dreaded thunderstone' of Shakespeare involved the dread 
of being found out by the Thunder himself who inhabited 
the stone ^. Is it a mere accidental coincidence, then, that 
Liars makes the Roman swear by Jupiter Lapis ? Blinkenberg 
thunder-^ points out excellently that ' the most solemn oath of the 
stone. Romans was that sworn by the name of Juppiter Lapis....' 
The sacred stone was used in Rome when the Fetiales took 
the oath and made sacrifice upon the formation of a new 
alliance with a foreign power. Such an alliance, according 
to the Roman view, received its highest sanction from the 
lightning- god himself ^ 

From these, and other examples of swearing by the 
thunder, the antiquity and continuity of the practice can 
be inferred'*. The same note of antiquity is heard in the 
cursings and in the blessings which men invoke on one 
another and on themselves. Here we find the twins in 
evidence at a very early period of human living. It was 
Symbolic pointed out by de Cardi, in his paper on Ju-ju laws and 
w'^Airica <^"*^o^* ^'^ ^^^ Niger Delta, that we had in West Africa, not 
only curses in vocal form, but also symbolic actions : one of 

^ Shakespeare, Hamlet. 

2 Monrad, Skildriruf af Gitinea-Kysten, p. 115, quoted in Blinkenberg, 
p. 8. 

' Vergil, Aen, xii. 200, 'audiat ha«c genitor, qui foedera fulmine sancit.' 
* See Blinkenberg, Thiinder-iceapon, pp. 31, 106, 111. 



XXXIIl] GRAECO-ROMAN BELIEFS AND SAVAGE LIFE 315 

these actions consists in holding up two fingers to a woman, 
and means, ' may you become the mother of twins,' and in- 
volves the imprecation of the terrible fate that awaits the 
woman who brings forth twin children \ 

But it is not only women who can have the twin-curse 
put over them. We have already reported how Captain 
Smith records his observations in the Gulf of Guinea on the 
same subject. To call a man a twin was the greatest insult. 
Smith saw an unhappy slave cursed by the chief of the tribe 
by two fingers of his extended arm, and explains the terror 
of the situation. To revile a man as being a twin is near 
neighbour to cursing him that he may, in his offspring, be- 
come twins ; and, from the curse in which twins are assumed 
hateful, we easily pass over to the stage in which the twins, 
as demigods, become the court of appeal in the matter of 
a vengeance desired, or a justification demanded. Nor need 
we be surprised that the simple and expressive symbol of Oaths by 
the two fingers has become permanent. It is one of the Twins, 
forms under which a Roman Catholic considers himself 
under moral obligation to tell the truth; and not only 
Roman Catholics, but Protestants also make use of the 
symbol. In Holland it is the custom to raise two fingers 
of the right hand in the court of law, and say, ' As truly may 
help me Almighty God.' It is a modified twin-oath. 

It might have been anticipated that the Church would 
not have been less conservative than the law : in fact, our Blessings 
ecclesiastical superiors, when they give the benediction, do ^ *^® 
it with two fingers raised, which means either (1) May you 
all have twin children ! or (2) May the twins themselves 
bless you and take care of you ! We can take our choice 
between the explanations. All these customs are survivals 
and developments from the ways of the primitive savage man, 
approximately as we find him in West Africa. 

Swearing by the twins is certainly very ancient and very 
widespread. I have written on this at some length in Dioscuri Syrians 
and in Cult. Here is a striking example which has not, ^^^^ 
I think, been cited before, of oaths by St Thomas among Thomas 
^ Joiirn. Anthrop. Soc. 1899, p. 57. 



316 GRAECO-ROMAN BELIEFS [CH. XXXIII 

the Syrians of Mesopotamia, which will serve as one more 
illustration of the place of St Thomas in the succession of 
the Heavenly Twins. 

Isaac of Antioch tells us in one passage, in which he 
reproves the Christians for preferring an oath by St Thomas 
to any other, that ' if it is a question of giving or accepting 
an oath, we scorn to take it in the Church, but the other 
refuses to recognise it, saying, " I will not believe you, unless 
you swear in the chapel of Thomas the Apostle^." ' In the 
beginning of the fifth century, then, Thomas was the residuary 
legatee of the Heavenly Twins among the Mesopotamian 
Christians. 

If Thomas was the saint to swear by in Mesopotamia, 
the great substitute for the twins in the Greek and Latin 
Churches was St Polyeuctes of Melitene in Armenia. I have 
or by Poly- explained in Dioscuri^ the reason for the sudden emergence 
euc es. ^^ Polyeuctes into public honour as a referee in disputed 
matters, and have shown that he is only Polydeuces slightly 
disguised. Since then there have been attempts made to 
show that he is something more than a mere ecclesiastical 
double of Pollux, and to retain historic semblance for his 
fleeting shade ; it has, however, come out that the real reason 
for the connection of Polyeuctes with Melitene is that he 
belonged to the famous Legio XII Fulminata, which was 
quartered there, over which there has been so much dispute 
in the Church's history. Naturally a thunder-struck legion 
is under the patronage of the Sons of Thunder, and has the 
duty and credit of obtaining rain when wanted : and therefore 
Pollux, the pagan saint of the situation, has to be got rid 
of in that legion, when the legion itself becomes Christian. 
Hence his transformation from Polydeuces to Polyeuctes. 

1 For the Syriac text, see Isaac of Antioch, Hymns (ed. Bickell), pp. 
188—191. 

2 p. 55. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

SOME FURTHER REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS 
AND TWIN-SANCTUARIES 

It has been conclusively shown that there was a natural Twin- 
tendency in some parts of West Africa towards the formation formed 
of twin-towns and twin-sanctuaries. As soon as ever the 
taboo on twins was modified, so as to spare the life of either 
the mother or the twins, and to substitute for death an 
expulsion in the form of a banishment to some special place, 
we have the conditions for the formation of a twin-town, 
and such towns can actually be seen in process of formation 
in West Africa at the present day. Any one who will share 
the taboo of the expelled women and children, as, for example, 
a runaway slave, will find shelter which no one will dare to 
invade, and sanctuary rights which no one will dispute. The 
secret of sanctuary is taboo, and here we have a sufficiently 
potent taboo to hand. 

It is, however, a curious point in the development of not always 
which we speak, that it becomes arrested if the taboo should manent. 
be so far raised as to become terminable. 

If the woman has a right to return after a lapse of a given 
number of months or years, or if the children, after a sufficient 
absence and purification, can be claimed by the male parent 
(supposed not banished), then the building of the twin-village 
is arrested, except in so far as a succession of expelled or 
isolated twin-mothers finds its way to the same spot. So 
the modification of the taboo, if carried far enough, arrests 



318 REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. [CH. 

the development of the twin-town. I suppose this is the 

Not com- reason why we have not traced such settlements in East 

E. Africa, Africa; they could not arise where twins were regarded 

favourably, and where the taboo was reduced to a mere 

formal purification by the witch doctor. It will follow with 

great probability that if in European countries we find 

abundant traces of twin-towns, we may infer that the period 

of savagery in the twin-cult was longer amongst our own 

but com- ancestors than is the case for many Bantu tribes to-day. 
mon in ™, „ t • i ^ , • , 

Europe. J^"© custom 01 permanent banishment oi the twin-mother 

must have been long continued, and must have operated 
over a wide area. 

How, then, shall we recognise the surviving traces of 
such twin-towns ? 

The first and simplest way is when a place is called 
Twin-town, either directly, or by a very slight modification. 
We need have little hesitation in saying that Didyma was 
Twin- an original twin-town. When in later times its name was 
recognised changed to Branchidae, and a great sanctuary was built to 
Apollo, the god was known as Apollo Didymaeus, or Apollo 
by name, of Didyma. As Apollo is himself a twin, and often, as at 
Delos, has twins preceding him in his cult centre, there is no 
difiiculty in the statement that Apollo of Branchidae dis- 
places an earlier cult of twins. 

Less obvious is the case when the twin-element of the 
place-name is obscured. We have, however, shown so 
conclusively that in human names the prefix Amphi means 
' twin,' that we can hardly avoid the extension of the inter- 
pretation to place-names. In this way we at once recognised 
Amphissa and Amphipolis. Fick's researches confirmed our 
interpretation as to Amphissa. There is, however, another 
by cult- direction of confirmation, viz. the discovery of traces of a 
■ twin-cult in the twin-town. 

For example, we have shown that Amphion is an 

equivalent form of Amphigenes, and means ' twin.' What 

shall we say then of Amphigeneia, which was one of 

Amphi- Nestor's cities. Strabo says the city was situated in 

geneia. Macistia near the river Hypsoeis, and that in his time 



XXXIV] REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. 319 

there was a temple of Leto in the place. That is to 
say, there was a surviving twin-cult, for Leto is a twin- 
mother. 

Of Amphissa Pausanias tells us that the place was a Amphissa. 
centre of a cult of the "Aya/cre?, which may mean either the 
Dioscuri, or the Kabiri or the Kuretes ; Pausanias^ says that 
people were not agreed as to which of these ancient cults 
was represented in Amphissa. From our point of view they 
are all originally twin-cults. With regard to the origin of 
Del OS as a sanctuary, I fancy that I have not carried all my Delos. 
critics with me in affirming it to be an original twin- 
sanctuary. It must be admitted, however, that the case is 
a strong one. As we said just now, Leto is a twin-mother : 
according to the myth, no other island would receive her, 
which is very much like saying that the island is a twin- 
island. Apollo and Artemis discharge some of the regular 
functions of twins : he is the musician and answers to 
Amphion of Thebes, and she is the huntress and answers to 
Zethos and to Esau. If we could believe that Apollo had an 
Eastern origin, and could accept Hommel's derivation of him 
from the Semitic Jubal, the case would practically be proved. 
There is, hoAvever, still something more to be said on this 
score : for Apollo is not exactly a secondary god, like Palaimon 
of Corinth for Baal Yam (Lord of the Sea). There is, how- 
ever, another direction of evidence. Apollo and Artemis have 
displaced a pair of white maidens from the north, named 
Hyperoche and Laodike, whose male counterparts, a pair 
of great brethren, have a prominent place in the sanctuary 
of Apollo at Delphi. Where twins displace twins, it is not 
absurd to say that the island where the cult changes is 
originally a twin-island. I have not laid stress on the 
proofs that the Dioscuri were actually worshipped at Delos, 
because that may be the natural devotion of a sea-faring 
people, or an importation from some famous twin-centre 
outside Delos. For example, a Delian inscription^ speaks of 
the Samothracian Great Gods, the Dioscures, the Kabirs. 

1 Pausanias, x. 38, 7. ^ Dittenberger, Sylloge 430. 



320 REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. [CB. 

The inscription is valuable for the equation of the Dioscuri 
with the Kabiri, and for giving us the translation of Kabiri, 
and for identifying them with the Samothracian cult, but it 
proves nothing for Delos, except the migration of a ritual 
from its normal centre. 
Delphi? Does a similar reasoning apply to Delphi? I do not 

know yet whether Delphi is the same as Adelphi : so that 
I cannot say more than that Delphi is a shrine of the twin 
Apollo, has two sets of twin heroes in its enclosure, and is 
geographically dominated by twin peaks. Whether any of 
these facts explains Delphi, I am not at present able to 
decide. 

Before leaving the Apollo and Artemis shrines, it is 
worth noting that the custom of liberating slaves in the 
temple of Artemis is a natural sequence to the fact that 
slaves who had sought sanctuary escaped from their masters 
in the original twin-towns. 

We must not assume that every centre of Kabiric or 
Dioscuric worship is an original twin-town; but where we 
find that such a cult centre is also a recognised sanctuary, 
with a powerful overshadowing taboo, it is reasonable to 
believe that we are on the track of the twin-town, and 
especially in the case of island sanctuaries we may believe 
that we have penetrated to the origin of the cult; for we 
learnt from our West African observations that an island 
in a river is one of the favourite places of exportation of 
twin-brothers, and such islands become undoubted sanc- 
tuaries. 
Samo- Perhaps this covers the case of Samothrace, one of the 

tw^n^^ ^ great sanctuaries of antiquity, and one of the great sane- 
island? tuaries of Dioscuric-Kabiric worship. See what I have said 
on this in Ctdt, c. xvii. 

Note further that Jason, whom we have shown reason to 
believe to be an original Kabir, has connecting links both 
with Lemnos and with Samothrace. One form of the variant 
tradition tells us that Jasion with his twin brother Dardanos 
came to Samothrace, and that here Jasion, who had become 
enamoured of Demeter, was struck by lightning for some 



XXXIV] REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. 321 

insult done to the goddess, whereupon Dardanos, in grief, 
migrated to Troas\ 

The intrusion of Dardanos is peculiar; we can hardly Dardanos 
detach Jasion from Jason. The thunderbolt is also deserving jasion. 
of study : it is an explanation of something in an earlier 
cult. Aesculapius is also fulminate and there are parallel 
cases. 

We have assumed above that Dardanos and Jasion were 
twin-brethren, belonging to the Samothracian mysteries. 
Servius, the commentator on Vergil, says definitely that 
Dardanos was sprung from Jove, and Jasios from Cory thus ^ 
Here, then, Dardanos is the Heavenly Twin, Jasios the 
earthly one. Corythus appears to be the crested wren, which 
is another form of thunder-bird. 

Islands at the mouth of rivers will, as we have said, Islands 
frequently betray signs of Dioscurism, and will suggest centres. 
primitive sanctuary ; only we must be on our guard against 
confounding the Dioscureion to which sailors pray on leaving 
port, and its associated lighthouse and look-out station, with 
an original twin-settlement. We know that Rome is an 
original twin-sanctuary; the traditions as to its foundation 
betray the fact ; several layers of twin-tradition lie one over 
the other, the destruction of the twins and their mother, the 
exile of the twins, the twins as creators of sanctuary ; all 
of these can be easily made out. Curiously, the sanctuary is 
not where we should have expected it, on the island between 
the bridges, but on the Capitoline Hill. No doubt, however, 
exists that Rome is a twin-town. The identification is multi- 
form and manifold. 

Down the river at Ostia is another island; it is sacred to Twin-culf 
the Dioscuri, and has an annual festival in their honour. In ' 
this neighbourhood twin-tradition accumulated. 

When Minucius and his friends discuss Christianity at 

1 Apollod. Bibl. III. 12. 1 : 'HX^KTpai de ttjs "ArXauroi Kai Aibs 'laaiuv /cat 
Adpdavos eyivouro. 'lacxiwi' /xev ovv epacrdels Arifirjrpoi Kai d^Xwv Karaiffxvvai 
Tr]v dehv Kepawovrai, Adpda.vos 5^ iirl T(f dav6,T(^ rod d8eX<pov XvTrov/jLevoi, 'Ea/xo- 
6p(}K7)v d.TroXtTrwj' ei's rrtv avTiiripa -rJTreipov TjXdev. 

2 Servius in Verg. Aen. in. 167: 'Dardanus de Jove, Jasius de Corytho 
procreatus est.' 

H. B. 21 



322 REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. [CH. 

Ostia, Cecilius points out^ as an evidence for the ancient 
religion, that they are on the very spot where the Dioscuri 
from their panting horses announced the victory over King 
Perses. It would, however, be precipitate to identify Ostia 
or its island as a twin-sanctuary because it is a centre of 
twin-worship ; for every great sea-port has its shrine of the 
Heavenly Twins, round which legends readily gather. 

We shall be on safer ground inland, where the disturbing 
influence of sailors' religion is not felt. Among Italian names, 
we may be fairly sure that the district of Picenum is an 

Picenum. original twin-sanctuary, for its name contains the Wood- 
pecker (Picus), and its legendary history says that the 
founders of the state were guided in their migrations by a 
Woodpecker, and that this was why they worshipped a Wood- 
pecker on a pillar. We easily recognise in this account the 
familiar features of twin-cult, the tree, the thunder-bird, the 
sanctuary. 

The case of Picenum suggests to us that when we find a 
town named after the Woodpecker (or other thunder-bird) 
we have at least a presumption that the town is a twin-town. 
For instance, Pausanias tells us^ that Keleos, the old king of 

Keleai. Eleusis, lived at Keleai. Now Keleos (^eX-eo?) is the green 
woodpecker : we must, therefore, speak of him as King 
Woodpecker, just as Ovid speaks of King Picus. Keleai is, 
then, the exact parallel to Picenum ^ It is a Woodpecker- 
town, because Keleos is the green Woodpecker, and it is a 
twin-town because tradition actually makes Keleos the father 
of Triptolemos. The case is so important that we will devote 
a special chapter to it. 

Praeneste. Praeneste is, perhaps, a similar case ; for here, too, the 
original worship was that of Divi Fratres, apparently without 
any names in the first instance, and accompanied, like Castor 
and Pollux, by their sister \ 

^ I.e. c. 7. ^ Pausanias, ii. 14. 2. 

3 Miss Harrison (Themis, p. 101) suggests that Keleos is a rain-bird, as 
commonly in Northern legends : he is equally a thunder-bird. 

* The reference is to Servius ad Aeneid. vii. 678: ' Praeneste... ibi erant 
pontifices et dii indigetes sicut etiam Eomae: erant autem illic duo fratres 
qui divi appellabantur : horum soror dum ad focum sedebat, etc' 



XXXI V] REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. 323 

Tibur, also, knew the twins, as we see from Vergil, Tibur. 
Aen. VII. 670, and so did Tusculum, where Cicero^ tells us Tuscu- 
that a thunderbolt once fell in their temple ; but this does ^"™- 
not necessarily identify either Tibur or Tusculum as an 
original twin-town. 

We may expect to find many more of such centres of 
early twin-worship, and some of them will certainly be 
sanctuaries. 

Occasionally we shall find a mere rock in the sea with 
Dioscuric appellation, where it is almost certain that no real 
Dioscuric worship can have been practised, nor can a Dios- 
cureion have existed ; in such cases, the rock has probably 
been used for the exposure of twin-children. 

Thus Pliny tells of a small island named Dioscoros^ The island 
The name is suspicious : an island called Heavenly Twin 
ought, naturally, to be what we call a twin-island. Such 
islands, if they are twin-islands, represent an earlier stratum 
of practice than that which underlies the formation of 
sanctuaries. 

Pausanias* tells a tale of a rock named Pephnos, where The rock 
the Dioscuri were said to have been born : " From Thalamae ^•'Ph'^°^- 
it is a distance of twenty furlongs to a place on the coast 
called Pephnos. Off it lies an island also called Pephnos, no 
bigger than a large rock, and the people of Thalamae say 
that the Dioscuri were born upon it. I know that Alkman 

also says so in a song In the islet are bronze images of 

the Dioscuri, a foot high : they stand under the open sky ; 
but the sea that breaks over the rock in winter will not wash 
them away." The persistent belief that the Twins are born 
on an island will be remarked. 

How far such twin-centres can be traced in the West of 
Europe it is difficult to say. Twin-cult can be made out all 
over France, by means of its survival in the saint-worship of 
the Roman Catholic Church ; but towns actually named from 
twins are not easy to identify. There is, however, a town 
Jumeaux, in the Puy de Dome, not far from Clermont 

^ De Divinatione, i. 43. 98. 

2 Pliny, H. N. m. 96. ^ Tr. Frazer, iv. 26. 2, 

21—2 



324 REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. [CH. 

Ferrand, and a similarly named Jumelle in Belgium, and no 
doubt others will be located. 
Tomi as a There is one case in the geography of the East which 
town? raises some interesting questions. Not far from the mouth 
of the Danube we have Tomi: the visitor to Costanza will be 
reminded by a statue in the middle of the town that he is 
near the place of exile of Ovid the poet. It is an ancient 
settlement of the Milesians^ if not of the Phoenicians. It 
was also an ancient centre of t win- worship ^ and the twins 
appear on the local coins. One of the forms of the Argonaut 
story brings Jason and his company on their return journey 
to Tomi, and actually takes them up the Danube. 

The name is peculiar, in Greek it appears as Tomi, or 
Tomis, or Tomae. It is certainly not a Greek name ; is it 
Scythian or Phoenician ? One would readily suggest that it 
was the Semitic for ' twins ' (Thomim), if it were not for the 
fact that the first vowel, in Greek and in Latin, is certainly 
short: and this seems to exclude the Phoenician solution. 
From the fact that the coins of Tomi sometimes bear the 
figure of an Amazon, I should suspect Scythian influence. 
We have referred above to the occurrence of the Twins on 
the local currency : on these coins they are commonly 
accompanied by the Mother of the Gods^ In an inscrip- 
tion from Tomi, a sacrifice is ordered to be performed 
every year in honour of the Mother of the Gods and the 
Dioscuri*. 

The Black Sea is well supplied with twin-centres, for 
the most part connected with Jason or later navigators. 
Wherever sailors go, the twins must accompany. 

We were speaking a little while back of the identification 
of Woodpecker-towns, such as Keleai or Picenum. 

It is interesting to note that the same occurrence of 

1 Ovid, Trist. iii. vni. 4. 

2 Ovid, Trist. i. x. 45: 

Vos quoque, Tyndaridae, quos haec colit insula, fratres, 
Mite precor duplici numen adesse viae. 
Notice again the island as the Dioscuric centre. 

9 See Beschreibung d. Berl. Miis. Mllnzen, i. 89', 92i2.«, 94«. 
* See Dittenberger, Sylloge, 529. 



names in 



XXXI V] REMARKS ABOUT TWIN-TOWNS, ETC. 325 

personal or place-names derived from the Woodpecker can Wood 
be detected in the British Isles. For example, the name of ^^^ 

^ ' name, 

reake, and its cognate Picton, are Woodpecker names. In Great 

the same way the Peckover family are derived from an ^^*"''" 
ancestor named after the Green Woodpecker, the French 
Picvert = the Italian Pico verde^ 

Not far from Bridlington, in Yorkshire, there is a village 
named Speeton, on the edge of the Speeton sands, which are 
named after it. That this stands for an original Specht- 
town (Specht = Woodpecker in German) appears in several 
ways. First of all, there is in Barbados a place named 
Speightstown, which is either a direct transference and 
migration of an English original, or else it is a town named 
after a man called Speight, who is in that case a member of 
the Woodpecker clan. Second, it happens that Speeton is a 
very ancient place; it occurs in Speed's map of the beginning 
of the seventeenth century as Speeton chapel, but in the 
Domesday Book it is once written Spetton and once Speeton, 
which is very nearly the required form, and once Spreton^ 
The name Speght is well known in English history; for 
instance there is Thomas Speght, one of the early editors of 
Chaucer : he is said to have been of a Yorkshire family. At 
the present moment there are four maiden ladies in Brid- 
lington named Speight. Curiously, I do not think there is a 
single person in all Birmingham who bears the name. 

' The designers of the Peckover coat-of-arms supplied, humorously, 
a pair of Woodpeckers for the support of the shield; apparently without 
knowing the meaning of the name. 
2 Domesday Book, p. 19a : 

Bretlinton = Bridlington. 

Frestintorp. 

Bouinton. 

Speeton. 
Again, pp. 86b, 87a: Marton. 

Bretlinton = Bridlington . 

Bouintorp. 



Spetton. 
Again, p. 4a: Bouintone. 

Grendale. 

Spretone. 
See J. Horsfall Turner, Yorkshire Place Names, pp. 50, 158. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



THE CASE OF KING KELEOS 



We alluded in the previous chapter to the possibility 

Keleos, of identifying twin-towns by means of the Woodpecker, after 

Eleusis whom they were sometimes named, and after discussing the 

case of Picenum, in which etymology and tradition combined 

to lead us to a centre of worship of King Picus, we pointed 

out that there was a Greek parallel in the case of King 

was the Keleos of Eleusis, who ruled over a city named Keleai, for 

Wood- Keleos is the Greek name for the green woodpecker. Keleai 

pecker. is therefore a woodpecker-town. 

It was also a twin-town, for tradition says that when 
Demeter came to Eleusis, and had been hospitably received 
by King Keleos, she confided to Keleos and his family the 
His son sacred mysteries of Eleusis, and took Triptolemos under her 
ptolemos special protection. This is intelligible enough, since Tri- 
ptolemos is the Heavenly Ploughman, and Demeter the Com 
Mother. One tradition says that Demeter attempted to 
make him immortal, another that Keleos, for some un- 
explained reason, wished to kill him. Another tradition 
tells of Jasion, who must be one of the Jason-Triptolemos 
pair, and how he became the darling of Demeter, and 
was thunderstruck as a punishment for his too great 
familiarity. 

It seems quite clear that the co-ordinating factor in these 
traditions is to be sought in the twin-cult, in which case, 
Keleai a when we have identified the Woodpecker, the Twins and 



twin- 



town, th® Thunder, we can hardly refuse to call Keleai a twin- 



CH. XXXV] THE CASE OF KING KELEOS 327 

town. We thus establish the formation of a twin-town in 
ancient Attica. 

Now let us go a step further with the traditions 
concerning King Keleos. We are now going to show that 
the parallel between King Keleos and King Picus goes 
further than the names. We have already drawn attention 
to the story which Ovid tells of the transformation of King 
Picus into a woodpecker, and have explained the story as an 
artificial converse of the turning of the woodpecker into 
King Picus when the Thunder Bird became Thunder Man. 
We will now show that there was a similar transformation 
in the case of King Keleos, and point out some important 
results which follow from the interpretation of the parallel 
legend. Antoninus Liberalis has preserved for us (from Keleos 
Boios) the Cretan tradition of a visit paid by a certain q^^^.^ ° 
Keleos and his companions to the holy birth-cave of Zeus, 
with the irreverent intention of stealing the honey of the 
sacred bees, who had nourished the infant god. The 
Thunder-god would have promptly struck the intruder dead, 
but Themis and the Moirai intervened, and pointed out to 
Zeus that the cave was a sanctuary, where no blood might to the cave 
be shed. So Zeus simply made Keleos into a Green Wood- ° ^"^' 
pecker, just as Circe had done to Picus. His companions 
had a similar fate. 

The meaning of the tradition is written clearly across its Meaning 
face:— Keleos is the Old Thunder, who has been displaced ll^f^°^' 
by the New: the ancient sanctuary, the Hollow Oak, has 
been replaced by a new sanctuary, the Hollow Rock, better 
suited to the now anthropomorphic Thunder; Keleos is 
informed that he is no longer the genius of the sanctuary : 
Zeus tells him plainly that ' this house will not hold thee 
and me,' and bids him begone. So much is clear: but with 
the explanation there come fresh questions requiring a 
further solution. We have to find out the meaning of the 
sacred bees, why they nurtured Zeus, and why Keleos wished Bees nur- 
to steal their honey. The first point to be noted is that, if 
the bees are there in the new sanctuary, they must have 
come from the old sanctuary. There is no difficulty in 



328 THE CASE OF KING KELEOS [CH. 

this, for although bees may naturally find their nests in 
a hollow oak, they are equally at home in the crevices of a 
rock-cave \ 
Bees and The bees, then, pass over with the Thunder to the new 

Oak. Sanctuary. We did not know before that they were a part 

of the apparatus of the twin-cult and in the service of the 
Thunder, but it seems clear that such must be the case. 
We are studying a time which is earlier than bee-keeping 
in the modern sense : the hollow that makes the hive is 
natural, not artificial, just as it is still in many savage 
countries, where the natives get the honey by climbing for 
it, and in no other way. 

Why then did the infant Zeus, and the intruding Keleos, 
both want the honey ? The answer must be, since they are 
The both of them the Thunder, that there is a connection 

bird and between Thunder and Bees ; this connection is stated by 
the Bees, the tradition in the form that the Thunder-bird likes honey 
and so does the Thunder-man who displaces him. So we 
must go further afield, and find out whether there is such a 
connection between the Bird and the Bee, as seems necessary 
: for the explanation of the new Cretan legend. We pointed 

out just now that such a legend antedates bee-keeping, in 
the modern sense of a bee-hive ; the term skip^, by which 
the country people denote a hive, betrays by its etymology 
that the first hive is a hollowed tree, just in the same way 
as the words ship and skiff betray the original dug-out 
canoe. Only there is this difference ; if one wants a canoe, 
The first the tree must come down ; if one wants a bee-hive it can 
stay up: and the evidence of customs of uncivilized or half- 
civilized people is conclusive that it stayed erect for a much 
longer period than would have been suspected. In the Ural 
Mountains and the Eastern provinces of Russia, the peasants 

^ Mr A. B. Cook in an article on ' The Bee in Greek Mythology' [Journal 
of Hellenic Society, 1895, p. 18) quotes from the Scholiast on Nicander the 
remark that 'before bees had been domesticated, they used to construct their 
combs in the holloivs of tlie oak-tree and they do so still on occasion.' 

2 We get almost the exact expression in Theocritus, Idyll, v. 58 : Srao-w 
3* 6KTi)) fxev yavXui r(f Havl 'yaXaKTOS, 'Oktu de (rKa</>ldas fiiXtros ir\^a Krjpl 



XXXV] THE CASE OF KING KELEOS 329 

artificially hollow the trees at a considerable height above 
the ground, and use the hollows thus made for the keeping 
of bees. They find, however, that they are obliged to protect 
their artificial bees' nests from the Woodpecker, who is as 
much interested in bee-keeping as themselves! If we can Wood- 
find out the reason for this, we shall solve the mystery of destroy 
Keleos and the Sacred Bees in Crete. First let us collect ^®^'*- 
the facts: — a reference to Latham's General History of 
Birds^ will tell us something about the Woodpecker and his 
ways. 

' The Great Black Woodpecker is so very destructive to 
bees that the Baschurians in the vicinity of the river Ufa, as 
well as the inhabitants of other parts, who form holes in the 
trees, twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground, where the 
bees may deposit their store, take every precaution to hinder 
the access of the bird, and in particular to guard the hive 
with sharp thorns ; notwithstanding which the Woodpecker 
finds means to prove a most formidable foe, and is most 
numerous where the bees are in the greatest numbers.' 

To this account there is appended the following valuable 
note: 

' At Dschiggertau, on the Ural Mountains, there is a 
bee-hive almost on every one of the tallest pine-trees, and 
in these parts the Black Woodpecker abounds exceedingly, 
being attracted no doubt by the inhabitants of the hives.' 

Now in what does the attraction consist ? We see that 
the Woodpecker abounds where bees are plentiful, but why ? 
The Greek legend suggests that the Woodpecker wants their 
honey ; the ornithologist, on the other hand, suggests that it 
is the bees themselves. A little observation of the interior 
of the Woodpecker should settle that question, and prove 
that both suggestions are wrong. The Woodpecker is not a They eat 
bee-eater (like the Merops) nor is it a honey-eater. What ^^ '^^^ae, 
the Woodpecker is after is the larvae of the bees. We can 
see this by a reference to Gould, Birds of Europe, vol. ill. 
where the food of the Great Black Woodpecker is described 

^ Vol. ni. p, 339: — quoted also in Gould's Birds of Great Britain, s.v. 
Great Black Woodpecker. 



330 THE CASE OF KING KELEOS [CH. 

as consisting of ' the larvae of ivasps, bees and other insects : 
in addition, however, it devours fruits, berries and nuts with 
avidity.' 

' In the same way the food of the Green Woodpecker 
[our friend Keleos] consists of insects, ants, snails, worms, 
etc., nor will it refuse fruits, walnuts and berries.' 

The Great Spotted Woodpecker feeds on 'Larvae and 
coleopterous insects in the bark of trees.' The same con- 
clusion is arrived at, with great scientific detail, by the 
American Commission for enquiring into the food of the 
Woodpecker ^ So it seems clear that it is the larvae of 
not the the bees and not their honey that the woodpecker is 
oney. trying to get at. Apparently the Greeks did not observe 
the case closely enough to see this. The Woodpecker, then,, 
and the Bees, find their home in the same hollow tree, and 
their connection with the tree, and with the Thunder, who 
animates the tree, is now made out. 

In solving the Cretan riddle, we have dissipated incident- 
ally a perplexity which occurred in the legends of the book 
of Judges in the Old Testament. It was natural to suggest 
that in the story of Baraq there might lurk a reference to 
the Lightning after whom he was named ; and when it is 
noted that he is connected with a prophetess named 
Deborah Deborah (the Bee), who judges Israel under a sacred tree, 
the Bee. ^^^q question arises whether the tree may not have been a 
Lightning Tree. In that case, what was Deborah doing 
there ? The difficulty is removed by the previous investiga- 
tion, which shows that the proper place for the Bee is the 
Sacred Tree. 

We will conclude this chapter by returning to our own 

country and examining a little further into the names of 

'^'ood- places and persons which show descent from, or connection 

pface^-'^and with, the Woodpecker. It is important to do this if we are 

person- to find out twin-towns covered by Woodpecker names, like 

Picenum and Keleai. We must first find out the popular 

names by which the Woodpecker is known in various parts 

1 Beal, Food of the Woodpeckers of U.S.A. 1911 (U.S. Depart, of Agri- 
culture, Biol. Survey, Bull. 37). 



names. 



XXX V] THE CASE OF KING KELEOS 331 

of the country ; we have already alluded to Speeton Speight, 
(= Speight-town) and to Picton. If we turn to Swainson's Pick, 
Folk-lore and Provincial Names of British Birds we shall 
find a number of curious popular names\ 

For example, the Green Woodpecker is called Sprite in 
Suffolk, and it is called Woodspite in Norfolk. Spite is, 
evidently, the same as Specht, and Sprite is a corruption 
of it : but the variant is worth noting ; for it explains why 
Speeton is called Spreton in one passage in the Domesday 
Book. 

The bird is also called Woodspack, both in Norfolk and Spack, 
Suffolk ; and here the variation in the spelling enables us to 
identify Spaxton in Somerset (near Bridgewater) as a Wood- 
pecker-town. It is the exact equivalent of Speightstown 
in Barbados, though this latter is not really a Woodpecker- 
town, but simply a settlement named after an early colonist 
named Speights 

In Oxfordshire the Woodpecker is called Eccle, which Eccle, 

Swainson connects with the name Hecco given to the bird in 

Drayton's poem on the Owl : 

* The Crow is digging at his breast amain 
And sharp neb'd Hecco stabbing at his brain.' 

It seems to mean Digger, and may be connected with the 
German Hack and Hackel. English names formed from it. Hack, 
betraying Woodpecker ancestry, are Eccles^ Eccleston, Hack Hatch, 
and Hatch. 

In Lincoln the bird is actually called the Wood-hatch. 
In Essex the name for the bird is Whetile, which we may whitall, 
connect with whittle, and, as Swainson suggests, with the 
Saxon thwitan, to cut. This form of the bird's name under- 
lies the proper names Whitwell, Whitall, etc. 

1 I.e. pp. 99, 100. 

'^ This is certain, for the geography of Barbados shows also a Speights 
Bay, and in a list of the inhabitants of Barbados, who in the year 1638 
possessed more than ten acres of land, I find the name of William Speight. 

3 Mr Horsfall Turner, in his Yorkshire Place Names, shows that these 
forms occur in Yorkshire, and that they have nothing to do with Ecclesia, 
p. 258, 'Ecalt, Ekil, Eccles, Ecles, Egles, Aikils, Eggles, Ayles, Eglus. 
It cannot be traced to Ecclesia, as the places never had or belonged to a 
church, with one exception.' 



832 



THE CASE OF KING KELEOS [CH. XXXV 



It was also known in ancient times as the Wood-awl, 
from its boring propensities, which explains the name 
Woodall. Woodall; Swainson connects this with the Woodweele in 
the ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. 

'The Woodweele sang and wold not cease, 
Sitting upon the spraye 
Soe lowde he wakened Kobin Hood, 
In the greenwood where he lay.' 

In Yorkshire and elsewhere he is known as the Yaffle 
and the Pickatree, names to which I have not found any 
Beowulf, parallels in persons or places. In the Anglo-Saxon litera- 
ture the name of one of the most famous heroes is borrowed 
from the Woodpecker; he is called Beowulf, or the Bee- 
Wolf We have already explained how common was the 
belief among the early European peoples that the Wood- 
pecker used to catch and eat the bees. 

It seems to result from the foregoing enquiries that the 

Woodpecker was revered quite as much in Great Britain in 

early times as in Italy or in Greece. It was, no doubt, more 

abundant than at present, and attracted more attention. If 

Wood- we may take Woodpecker-towns to be, for the most part, 

towns twin-towns, it would seem that twin-towns, of the sanctuary 

twin- type, occurred also in Great Britain. 
towns ? *' ^ 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES 

It was pointed out in a previous chapter that the passage The 
of the Symplegades or Clashing Rocks, at the entrance to ^^^^f '^' 
the Euxine, by Jason and his companions, was not an incident found 
that could be limited to the supposed first Greek voyage of ^haninthe 
discovery. The Clashing Rocks occurred elsewhere, which Euxine. 
showed that they had really nothing to do with the Euxine, 
nor anything to do with Jason, imagined to be a definite 
historical character. The Clashing Rocks, as we have said, 
occur elsewhere : we found them, for example, in South 
America, which does not exactly lie on the Euxine. In a 
modified form, they appear as Clashing Doors, in which the 
passer through may be caught and perhaps destroyed, or 
split trees which come together again and imprison the un- 
wary. The theme is clearly the same : there is an attempt 
on the part of some one or more persons to force a passage 
into somewhere or after somebody, and a little study of the 
various stories of heroes who, usually in pairs, make attempt 
to pass the Clashers, will show that it is the Sky-boys or 
Thunder-boys who are gone in search of the Sun, lost for a 
time to mortal view in the Western Sea, or which is the 
same thing, swallowed for a time by the Dragon and the 
Darkness. Into this underworld the heroes will penetrate 
in order to liberate the captive Sun. This theme is one 
that is well known to us. Sometimes it is varied, and the The Solar 
theme is the wooing of the Daughter of the Sun. The ^^^^^ ^^^^ 
change could be explained, but it is not necessary at this them, 
point ; what is necessary is to register the facts, and then in 



334 



JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES 



[CH. 



to rescue 
the Sun, 



or to 
woo his 
daughter. 



the light of the facts, to simplify the involved problems. 
For example, without going into North or South America, we 
know from the folk-songs of Lithuania, that our own ancestors 
believed in Sons of God {deiua deli) who rode upon a chariot 
in order to woo the daughter of the Sun. 

The matter stands thus in Mannhardt's translation : 

'Warum stehen die grauen Bosse 
An der Hausthiir der Sonne? 
Es sind des Gottes Sohnes graue Eosse 
Der freit um die Tochter der Sonne*,' 

where the only modern trait that needs removal is the 
description of the Son of God in the singular, where it 
evidently stood originally as dewa deli, in the plural. The 
song goes on to identify the owners of the gray horses, or 
rather, the gray horses themselves, with the Morning and 
Evening Stars; so that we need have no hesitation in believing 
that we are dealing with one of the simplest features of 
a Solar Cult, the disappearance of the Sun or the Solar 
Splendour and its ultimate recovery and reappearance. 

In the same way it is said that the A^vins delivered 
Surya the daughter of the Sun, and the Tyndarids delivered 
Helen; and, as we shall show, the Theban Twins, Zethos 
and Amphion, rescue their mother Antiope. Nor must we 
forget the story of the Signs of the Zodiac, which is told by 
Jerome of Prague, and how they liberated the Sun, who had 
been imprisoned in a dark tower, using for this purpose 
a huge hammer with which they broke into the tower and 
battered it down^ Here the signs of the Zodiac evidently 
stand for the Heavenly Twins. These and similar cases all 
arise out of the same theme, that the Sun (or the daughter 
of the Sun) has been carried off, or swallowed or imprisoned, 
and must be recovered. The Twins, who are the children of 
the Sky, undertake the search and the recovery. Naturally 
one will go East and the other West; naturally, too, they 
become identified with the Morning Star and the Evening 
Star. When this is made clear, we do not need to explain 

1 Mannhardt, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, vol. vn. 1875, vide supra, p. 299. 

2 See Cult of the Heavenly Twins, p. 85. 



XXX Vl] JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES 335 

the Syraplegades as real rocks, nor interpret the passage of Symple- 
them rationalistically. It has been suggested, for example, reaf rocks 
that the danger of the rocks at the entrance of the Euxine 
led to the sending on in advance of a ship's boat, named the 
Dove, to test the openness of the passage : and it resulted that 
where the Dove, the ship's boat went, the Argo could follow. 
This is mere dreary rationalism, trying to get rid of a miracle. 
The rocks are not real rocks : the passage is not into the 
Euxine but into another world. The Twins run the risk of 
being swallowed like their sire. The real Symplegades are 
the Clashing Doors of the mouth of the great Dragon of the 
Dark. Our heroes run a risk indeed in venturing into the 
interior of that dragon and making him disgorge. This is 
expressed by the Argo losing the end of its rudder, the dove 
which has been sent in advance its tail feathers ; and Jason, 
perhaps, his sandal. We may treat these incidents as poetical 
embellishments but we must not explain them away rational- 
istically in the hope of retaining a real voyage by ordinary 
people in the story. The value of the incident of the Sym- 
plegades is that it enables us to see that we are following 
the working of the human imagination engaged in the 
explanation of a simple natural phenomenon, the recurrence 
of Day and Night. As this is an important result, we must 
not say with Medea's nurse in Euripides, that we wish Jason 
had never passed the Symplegades : 

ecd^ w(f>€\' 'Ap70i)<f fir} BvaTTTaadaL (rKd(f>o<i 
KoX'^oov e<? alav Kvavea^ "ZvfiTrXrjydSas. 

(Where the passage of the Argo, following the trial passage 
by the dove, is aptly compared to the flight of that bird.) 
On the contrary, we are very glad that the Symplegades are 
imagined to be there (though a mere incident in the story) 
and that they help us to correlate the legend of the Argonauts 
with the Solar folk-lore of America. It is curious that, 
although as we have said, the Symplegades do not seem, on 
first study, to be a necessary nor a cardinal part of the legend, 
they are in some form or another of universal diffusion 
wherever solar myths can be traced. 



336 JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES [CH. 

Before leaving this point, which Ehrenreich has excellently 
emphasized and summarized \ it is only fair to state that he 
has also given an accurate description of many of the leading 

Ehren- features of the Twin-cult, though apparently without any 

twin- °" suspicion of the primal Fear from which Twin-cult proceeds. 

quarrels, jTqj. example, he explains that the Twin Brethren quarrel 
amongst themselves : 

' Bruderzwist. Ein ziemlich weitverbreiteter Zug der 
Zwillingsmythen ist der Streit, der zwischen beider Briidern 
ausbricht, nachdem sie ihre Mission erfiillt und die Welt 
unter sich geteilt haben, Es endet damit, dass einer den 
anderen erschlagt, oder beide sich trennen, wobei der eine 
nach Osten, der andere nach Westen zieht, um im Reiche 
der untergehenden Sonne, also der Unterwelt, zu herrschen. 
Ausser zur Sonne treten dann gewohnlich auch Beziehungen 
zu Morgen- und Abendstern hervor, die weiterhin mythisch 
ausgesponnen worden.' 

According to Ehrenreich, then, the twin brothers, when 
they have accomplished their mission of finding and restoring 
their lost father, fall a-quarrelling among themselves, so that 
one kills the other, or they mutually separate. 

The foregoing statement is suggestively near to the 
account of the Twin-myth which we have been working out. 
It might, perhaps, be questioned whether the hostility be- 
tween the Twins is not, on this view, developed too late in 
their history : we found it to be even ante-natal in some 

and twin- cases, both Biblical and Hellenic ! Ehrenreich also detected 
the tendency to describe the Twin Brethren as opposed, not 
only in temper, but in actual form. We have explained the 
existence of the Rough and Smooth Brethren, and have 
given the Biblical and the Greek parallels. On this point 
Ehrenreich gives some further parallels from South America, 
and sums the matter up as follows : 

* In der urwuchsigen Mythe wird der Gegensatz zwischen 
beiden durch die Verschiedenheit der Charaktereigenschaften 
erklart. Der eine erscheint stiirmischer, kiihner, gewalt- 

1 Die Mythen und Legenden der Sildamerikanischen Urvdlker, pp. 50, 51. 



diversi- 
ties, 



XXXVl] JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES 337 

tatiger aber auch intelligenter, der andere ist milderen Sinnes 
aber auch weniger tatkraftig und schlau.' 

We have the Twins differentiated in character as well as 
in appearance. Esau, Zethos and Artemis are more violent 
and more capable than Jacob, Amphion and Apollo. 

As we have said, these observations coincide very closely 
with our own. I am glad to find myself so well supported. 



H. B. 



22 



CHAPTER XXXVII 



JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS 



The 

Twins as 
plough- 
men, 



Tripto- 
lemos for 
instance, 



and 
Jason? 



When we were discussing the functions of the Twins, 
from the point of view of their beneficences to the human 
race, we were able to show that they had been credited, 
inter alia, with the invention of the plough and the yoke : 
and this discovery is one of the fundamental traits of twin- 
legend in its European development : even when the twins 
have become heroized, the ancient symbols are still attached 
to their cult, often in the form of weapons which they use, 
or instruments which they are imagined still to manu- 
facture. 

In the case of Triptolemos it was quite easy to detect 
the plough in his cult. He is the Attic father of the 
plough, and it is in his honour that three ploughs are carried 
in the festival of the Thesmophoria ; tradition made him the 
darling of De meter, to whom he had been entrusted by his 
father King Keleos. Keleos, being the Green Woodpecker, 
was naturally the parent of the Heavenly Twins, and Demeter, 
the Corn-Mother, was with equal propriety made the guardian 
of the Heavenly Ploughman, attached to her service either 
as an adopted child, or received into her companionship as a 
friend and perhaps a lover. 

In dealing with the relationship of Jason and Triptolemos, 
it was suggested that in the case of Jason the emphasis had 
been laid on the Twin as ship-builder and navigator, while 
in the case of Triptolemos, the stress was on the Twin as 
agriculturist. It looked like a case of divided functions. 
No doubt this is a convenient way of studying the question, 
and is a not unfair summary of the legends. We must, 



GH. XXX VIl] JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS 339 

however, admit that the division of function is not as com- 
plete as it appears. In the first place, Triptolemos is not 
bounded altogether by the limits of his ploughed field. At 
Antioch he was honoured with a festival on Mount Cassius, 
and Philo of Byblus tells us that the shrine on Mount 
Cassius was commemorative of a shipwreck near by of certain 
descendants of the Dioscuri : from which it was easy to see 
that there was a Dioscureion on Mount Cassius, and that 
shipmen prayed there or thitherward, using the name of 
Triptolemos where we should have expected Jason. 

In the next place, Jason is not so exclusively nautical jason as 
that he can rid himself of connection with agriculture. It ^^^^^n 
may, perhaps, at first sight, seem to be an undue stretch of Colchis. 
the imagination to take the hero of Colchis back into the 
humbler arts of life, with which war has apparently nothing 
to do. We cannot, however, ignore the prominence which is 
given in the story of the Golden Fleece, to the labours 
assigned to Jason by the father of Medea. He must yoke 
fire-breathing bulls and plough with them ; then he must 
sow dragons' teeth, and overcome the brood of armed men 
that will arise. The last feature of the conflict is one which 
recurs again in the story of Kadmos, so closely connected in 
many ways with that of Jason. Does it not seem as if 
the starting point for the growth of the legend as to the 
dragons' teeth was to be found in the simple statement that 
the Heavenly Ploughman or Twin taught us how to yoke 
cattle and attach them to the plough ? Let this story lose 
its simplicity and become heroized ; we have then the material 
for some at least of the exploits of Jason. If this explanation 
be correct (I owe it in part to Miss Harrison), then Jason is 
still a Ploughman, even when he has become High Admiral 
of the first Greek fleet ; in other words, the division of 
function between Jason and Triptolemos was not as complete 
as, at first sight, it might appear to be. 

The relations between the legend of Kadmos and that of 
Jason are still obscure. I do not, at present, see how to 
elucidate them. Probably it is better to work away on the 
line where we discovered Jason, the evolutionary line of a 

22—2 



340 JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS [CH. 

twin-cult, and leave Kadmos for further study in the light of 
rapidly increasing mythological knowledge. 
Dissection On the whole it appears that the perplexing mass of the 
naut Argonautic legends is beginning to break up into strata: 

legends, ^e have shown that there is a stratum of twin-cult revealed 
by the invention and use of the plough and yoke, another 
stratum which betrays the origin and development of ship- 
craft, a third in which the Twins appear as heroes, after the 
manner of the twin-cults in North and South America, where 
the prominent idea is that of sending the Sky-children or 
Thunder-boys in search of their lost father the Sun. This 
last stratum of belief ought to end in the evolution of a cult 
of the Morning Star and the Evening Star; amongst its 
leading themes is that of a devouring dragon on the one 
hand, and an imprisoned solar splendour on the other. 
Jason not It may be noticed in passing that the common explana- 
Heale" ^ ^^^^ ^^ Jason as the Great Healer, does not seem to be 
warranted by the Argonautic story: nor does there seem to be 
any special development of mantic art which is so commonly 
allied with medicine in early times. In the case of the 
Argonaut expedition the mantic element is supplied from 
other quarters ; Mopsus, for example, in the ship ; Phineus 
on the land. The medical and magic part, including the 
peculiarly Dioscuric art of rejuvenescence, appears to have 
been transferred to Medea. This does not mean that Jason 
was inexpert in such arts ; there are occasional suggestions, 
I believe, to the contrary ; but these are not the features by 
which Jason impressed himself on the men who fashioned the 
great Argonautic tradition. For them he was not, first and 
foremost, the healer or the prophet : he was the daring sailor, 
the solar hero, and in a lesser degree the Heavenly Plough- 
man. He cannot be understood, however, either in his 
greater or lesser functions, without the aid of the twin- 
cult. 
Twins In confirmation of the foregoing belief that original 

t!!!?^ functions have been heroized in the Jason story, let us look 
more closely at the ploughing of Jason as it appears in the 
verses of ApoUonius Rhodius. Miss Hari'ison points out to 



XXX VIl] JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS 341 

me that Jason is assisted in the yoking of the bulls by the 
Tyndarids, so that we have a case of the Twin being assisted 
by the Twins. The meaning is that the task of yoking the 
team requires two, and since Jason's twin is not on hand, it 
has been arranged in advance that Castor and Polydeuces 
shall come to his assistance, as soon as by one mighty effort 
he has forced the fire-breathing bulls to their knees. The 
language of ApoUonius is significant. 

o'i S' apa T€t(o<; 
TvvSapiSaL — St) yap a(f)i, nrnKai 7rpo7r6(f)paSfxevov rjev — 
nyy^^LfioXov ^vyd oi ircBoOev Soaav dfi(f)i^aXecrdai. 

Apoll. Rhod. III. 1313—1315, 

The parenthetic sentence shows the intention : since Jason 
is alone, another pair of twin yokers will come to his 
assistance. Thus the Spartan Dioscuri are also connected 
with the plough and the yoke, and it is a fair question 
whether this may not after all be the meaning of their cult 
symbols, the Dokana or sacred cross-beams. 

In the course of the analysis we have brought out Twins 
another point, which might have been suggested to us by j||"J|g 
the nature of the case : the Twins who are responsible for 
the plough and the yoke must also be answerable for the 
taming of the beasts who are to bear the yoke and drag the 
plough. The bull is tamed for this very purpose. Now we 
were well aware that Castor is the primitive horse-breaker, 
under which title he occurs constantly in Homeric and other 
verse : we now see that the Twins are bull-tamers as well 
as horse-tamers, otherwise they would invent the yoke and 
plough in vain. We add this to their other functions, and 
assume that the appearance of the Tyndarids at this point 
in the Argonaut story is a part of the fonctional heroization 
of the legend. 

In this connection we may now draw attention to a Story of 
parallel case in which the Twins handle the wild bull, xwins. 
without any special reference to an ultimate ploughing. 
This part of the heroization is preserved for us in the story 
of the Theban Twins, Zethos and Amphion. Zethos and ^ . 



342 JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS [CH. 

Amphion were the twin children of Antiope, their natural 
parent being Epopeus and their supernatural sire Zeus him- 
self. It is one of the typical cases of twin-birth, from two 
male parents, human and divine. In the legend we are told 
that Antiope's father died of chagrin at what had happened, 
leaving it as a legacy to his brother to punish Antiope. 
Meanwhile the children had been exposed on Mount Cithae- 
ron, just as they would be in West Africa to-day, and they 
were brought up by a friendly shepherd, who finds out the 
secret of their birth. They grow up in time to intervene 
between their mother and a certain Bacchant named Dirce 
who is on the point of killing her. They rescue Antiope, 
and apparently treat Dirce to the very same death which 
she was planning for their mother, by attaching her to the 
horns of a wild bull. There is some variation in the legendary 
details, but this will suffice to introduce the matter. 

Every one who is familiar with Greek art knows the 
magnificent group at Naples which passes under the name 
of the Farnese Bull, the work of the Trallian sculptors 
Apollonius and Tauriskos. It represents the Theban Twins 
controlling the motions of the wild bull, to whom tradition 
says their mother, Antiope, had been bound by the order of 
the jealous Dirce ; the Twins, however, being advised that 
Antiope is their mother, prepare for Dirce, as we have said, 
the death designed for the other. 

The key to the sculpture, and to the underlying legends, 
lies in the recognition of two functions, belonging to Twin- 
life, which are here heroized. 

The first of these is that Twins are the inventors of the 
plough and yoke, which includes the subordinate statement 
that 

They tame (a) Twins tame«the wild bull : 

buH^^^^ the second is the duty that belongs to the Twins as Children 
of the Sky, to recover the lost luminary, and one form of this 
duty is stated as follows : 

(b) Twins liberate the Daughter of the Sun. 

they When we superpose one of these functions on the other, and 

Antiope. ^U ^^ interpret them in the heroic language, we easily 



XXX VIl] JASON AND TRIPTOLEMOS 343 

understand that the Famese group is concerned in the first 
instance with the liberation of Antiope and not with the 
punishment of Dirce. The bull-taming twins have rescued 
their mother. The only obscurity remaining is the intrusion 
of Dirce into the legend. This I am not able at present 
satisfactorily to explain : it appears to constitute a third 
stratum of cult, but I do not see its meaning. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



THE WOODPECKER AND THE PLOUGH 



Jason a 
Heavenly 
Plough- 
man. 



The 
Wood- 
pecker as 
Plough- 
animal. 



In the story of Jason and Triptolemos, we were able to 
detect a pair of Twin Brethren, who were also the Patrons of 
the Art of Ploughing. At first sight it seemed as if Jason 
had left his plough on the shore, when he went to sea : but 
when he arrives at Colchis, we find the craft resumed in a 
heroic fashion, which leaves Triptolemos far behind. So 
Jason also was a Heavenly Ploughman, and the division of 
labour between him and his brother is superficial. They are 
really one in an art which requires two persons, if we may 
judge from the way the Tyndarids come to the help of Jason 
in the Argonaut legend, and put the yokes on the necks of 
the bulls whom Jason had brought to the ground. The 
heroization of the story of the taming of oxen for the plough 
(no small feat in the history of man) may now be regarded as 
intelligible. 

So much being clear, we come to a more curious folk- 
belief, which must be connected with that of the Heavenly 
Ploughman ; the Woodpecker also is credited with the art of 
ploughing, and a variety of tales is told to explain how the 
art passed out of his hands, and became an affair of men and 
cattle. It will be perhaps said at once, that this is really 
only a variant of the previous stories of the invention of the 
plough by the Heavenly Twins, due to the tradition that the 
Heavenly Twins are the children of the Thunder, that is, 
of the Woodpecker. When we examine the traditions more 
carefully we shall find that such a statement does not disclose 
all that may be learned from the supposed variant tradition. 
Let us then see what people say of the Woodpecker as a 
Heavenly Ploughman. 



CH. XXXVIIl] THE WOODPECKER AND THE PLOUGH 345 

The first story we shall quote relates how the Woodpecker 
became a ploughman, and how, in consequence of his ill- 
success in the craft, he got his red head. It comes from the 
Lettish population in Polish Livland, and will be found in 
Dannhardt's Natiirsagen (i. 193), to the following effect : 

Once upon a time God and the Devil were good fellows Lettish 
in the world together, and each of them had a field to plough. Qq^ "the 
The Devil was ploughing with horses, but God with a Devil 
woodpecker. By day's end the Devil had ploughed much Wood- 
ground and God very little ; so at night God took the Devil's pecker. 
horses and got his field ploughed. When the Devil saw the 
result next morning, he said, ' Goodman God, let us change 
over : you take the horses and give me your woodpecker.' 
For he thought it would be less trouble to feed a woodpecker 
than a pair of horses. The exchange being made, the Devil 
harnessed his woodpecker, who couldn't stir the plough. 
Enraged the Devil struck at him and broke his head. So 
the Woodpecker's head is red, even to this day. 

Another form of the story S again from Lettish sources. Wood- 
tells that the Woodpecker was the Devil's herdsman and had \^^^^^_ ^^ 
charge of his cattle ; God came one day to see the Devil, man. 
who was, in those days, much richer than himself ; he found 
out that the Devil's servants had white bread, and milk 
soup ; so he suspected that the Devil had a herd of cattle 
somewhere, and made a stratagem to drive them into his own 
cattle-sheds by means of a swarm of tormenting insects. 
The Devil goes afield, and finds his chief herdsman, the 
Woodpecker, asleep on a tree and the cattle almost all of 
them disappeared. He beats him bloody over the head, and 
to this day, for pain, the Woodpecker has never had time to 
get the blood off his head. He cries for his hurt and to call 
back his lost cattle. 

These tales are very instructive, coming, as they do, He loses 
from a primitive people, who have preserved Aryan and ^^^ cattle. 
prae-Aryan legends in very early forms. 

The Woodpecker is credited with the performance of two 

1 Dannhardt, Naturmgen, i. 189, 599. 



346 THE WOODPECKER AND THE PLOUGH [CH. 

duties, which he is set to discharge : the care of cattle and 
the handling of the plough. He is ploughman in one story, 
herdsman in the next. As to his ploughing, we are expressly 
told that it breaks down ; it was so slow as to become im- 
possible; it was displaced by something more effective. We 
have to try and explain these curious traditions. 
Evolution The way to understand them is to ask how the human 
ploughing, ''*^ce came to plough. It is not sufficient to say that the 
Twin Brethren are the children of the Thunder, that is, of 
the Woodpecker; for this still leaves the question before us, 
as to the link between the Thunder and the Plough, Does 
it simply mean that the Twins are the symbol of fertility 
and hence the patrons of the plough ? That has been our 
explanation up to the present, but let us look into the matter 
a little more closely. How did the human race come to 
plough ? Did they arrive at the invention per saltum ? The 
answer must surely be in the negative. The observation of 
savage tribes will tell us that the hoe precedes the plough, 
and the scratching of the ground is earlier than its tearing. 
Well, the scratching of the ground is Woodpecker craft : it 
means that what the bird is seen to do in a tree, man learns 
to do in the field. To this day we call the instrument that 
from pick he uses a pick, that is to say, W^oodpecker (Picus). So we 
o P oug , ggg ^Yyq reason why the Lettish stories carried the origin of 
the art of ploughing behind the Twins to the Woodpecker, 
and made a ploughman of the bird. 

We see more than this : we have found the real reason 
why the Twins, as children of the Woodpecker, came to be 
credited with the art of taming cattle and using them for • 
ploughing. The Woodpecker, who showed men how to hoe, 
became in the story the Devil's ploughman and likewise his 
herdsman : the Twins took over the art of ploughing from 
from him and the poor old Woodpecker was agriculturally displaced 

WOOQ- • ■ 

pecker by his offspring. Thus we find the link in the evohition of 

k) the ideas by which the Twins became the Inventors of the 

Plough : the missing link is the hoe, or the digging-stick, 

that is the Woodpecker. We have, in fact, a graphic account 

of the break-down of the old system of agriculture, and the 



XXXVIIl] THE WOODPECKER AND THE PLOUGH 347 

arrival of the new. The old system is what the Germans, 
I believe, call Hackenbau, where Hack, again, like Pick, is 
one of the names of the Woodpecker. In the Lettish stories, 
the Devil stands for the Old Thunder displaced by the New, 
just as Keleos stands in the story of his expulsion from the 
birth-cave of Zeus, as we explained in a previous chapter. 
In one sense, the Devil, an old Thunder-god in most cases, is 
the Woodpecker itself; but in the tale he becomes the owner 
of the unsuccessful Woodpecker, upon whom, in a fit of rage, 
he takes his revenge. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE KORYBANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS 

We may now advance a step further in our knowledge 
of the Zeus-cult and its evolution from the primitive cult 
of the Thunder in the Hollow Oak. We have shown why 
King Keleos w^as not allowed to enter the sanctuary-cave in 
Crete, and why the infant- thunder was not permitted to blast 
with his bolts the intruding Woodpecker. The important part 
which the bees play in the myth of the Holy Oak has also 
been recognised : we see nature looking out at us through the 
forms of art, and when the mythologist begins his tale of the 
way the bees fed the infant Zeus in the sacred cave, we are 
able to write the simpler story that once upon a time, very 
long ago, our ancestors believed that the Woodpecker (who 
was the Thunder-bird) used to eat honey of the bees that 
made their nests, and stored their vegetable and floral spoils 
in his hollowed tree. We have shown the reasons for this 
mistake; the Woodpecker actually ate the larvae of the bees, 
but that does not mean that he ate the bees or their honey. 
In Roman times, we find from Vergil's Georgics that 
Enemies various birds and beasts were recognised as hostile to bees, 
such as the Merops (or bee-eater), and the swallow ; whether 
the Woodpecker is involved in the general term, 'other birds' 
which hurt the bees, is not quite clear. Then there was the 
lizard who had to be kept out of the hive: the passage in 
which Vergil groups the influences is as follows: 
' Absunt et picti squalentia terga lacerti 
Pinguibus a stabulis, meropesque aliaeque volucres, 
Et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis: 
Omnia nam late vastant ipsasque volantis 
Ore ferunt dulcem nidis in mitibus escam.' 

Georgics rv. 12 — 16. 



CH. XXXIX] KORYBANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS 349 

The description does not necessarily include the Woodpecker ; 
it refers principally to birds who catch the bees flying. It 
is quite possible that, by Vergil's day, the belief that the 
Woodpeckers stole the honey had altogether disappeared in 
Italy ; he does not even suggest that Picus does any special 
harm. It is Procne, not Picus, that is at fault. In Vergil's 
time we may also assume that wild honey had disappeared; No wild 
the bees were so carefully husbanded and hived, that the y^^^i ^^ 
cultivated broods had displaced the wild ones. Hence, when 
Vergil writes of wild swarms of bees, he does so on the ground 
of tradition only, and not of observation: if rumour tells true, 
says he, bees have hived both in hollow rocks and hollow 
trees ; but apparently they did not in North Italy find wild 
honey, any more than we do in England to-day. The language 
of Vergil is as follows : 

' Saepe etiam effossis, si uera est fama, latebris, 
Sub terra fouere larem, penitusque repertae 
Pumicibusque cauis exesaeque arboris antro.' 

Georgics iv. 42 — 44. 

' And often, if the tale be true, contrive 
Snug homesteads in some burrow underground, 
Or find a harbour in the caverned rocks, 
Or in the hollow of time-eaten trees.' 

(Burghclere's translation.) 

It will be observed that Vergil calls the hollow of the tree 
by the name of antrum, or cave. 

And now I want to pass on from these considerations 
to the interpretation of the rites of the Kuretes and the 
Korybantes, who are also traditionally connected with the 
infant Zeus. 

Every student of mythology knows the way in which 
Zeus is rescued from being devoured by his father Kronos : The 
his mother Rhea deceived Kronos by giving him a stone to ^'^^'^''^'^• 
swallow, and then the Kuretes drown the cries of the newly- 
born child by making a hideous clatter on their shields, until 
an arrangement can be made for the removal of the child to 
a place of safety. 



350 THE KORYB ANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS [CH. 



The 

Kory- 

bantes, 



Meaning 
of their 
dances. 



In the case of the Korybantes we have the Phrygian rite 
that corresiponds to the Kuretes of Crete : here the mother is 
named Cybele, and the child is protected by the noises made 
by a varying number of Korybantes who clash their cymbals ; 
they dance around the babe, who is generally seated on the 
ground, and quite uninterested in the measures that are being 
taken for his protection and deliverance. 

It is common to regard these dances as ritual dances, 
accompanied by songs of a religious character, and not a few 
attempts have been made to expound the dances and the ritual 
songs and music. The latest attempt is that of Miss Jane 
Harrison, in her book called Themis, in which it is suggested 
that the ceremony of the Kuretes is the initiation of the 
boys (Kovpoc) of a clan into tribal fellowship, for which 
parallels are to be sought in African and Australian initia- 
tions of the present day. ' The Kouretes are young men who 
have been initiated themselves and will initiate others, will 
instruct them in tribal duties and tribal dances, steal them 
away from their mothers, conceal them, make away with 
them by some pretended death, and finally bring them back 
as new-born, grown youths, full members of their tribe\' 

Without entering into a detailed discussion of Miss 
Harrison's interesting hypothesis, it has occurred to me that 
in one direction a simpler explanation might be found, an 
explanation as close to the life of primitive man as that 
which is so ably represented in Themis. My suggestion is 
They call that the noise made by the Kuretes with their shields and 
the Korybantes with their cymbals, which gave rise to the 
myth that it was intended to distract the attention of Kronos 
from his infant son, is in reality a rude music meant to call 
the swarming bees to a new hive. We connect, that is, the 
rattling of the shields of the Kuretes, and the clashing of the 
cymbals of the Korybantes, with the noise of tin pans and 
kettles which may be heard in the neighbourhood of any 
cottage in the country when the bees are swarming. 

Let us see what Vergil says on the matter. The fourth 

1 Theinix, pp. 19, 20. 



the bees, 



XXXIX] KORYBANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS 351 

book of the Georgics will tell us all that he knew about bee- 
culture and its mythology. When the bees swarm, we are 

told 

' hue tu iussos asperge sapores, 
Trita melisphylla et cerinthae ignobile gramen, music of 

Tinnitusque cie et Matrix quote cymhala circum; cymbals. 

Ipsae consident medicatis sedibus, etc' 

Georgics iv. 62 — 65. 

' Strew there the subtle odours I ordain, 
Such as bruised balm-leaves, humble honey-wort, 
Clashing the cymbals of great Cybele, 
That they shall settle of their own free will 
On the charmed spot.' 

(Burghclere's translation.) 

Here we learn two things, (1) that cymbals were used to 
draw the bees ; (2) that Vergil makes the parallel with the 
cymbals of the Korybantes, in a way that is very suggestive 
of a real connection between the two musics. 

This is not all that Vergil says on the subject ; having 
made the parallel with the music of the Korybantes, he 
makes later on another connection, even more direct, with 
the Kuretes. 

'Nunc age, naturas apibus quas Juppiter ipse 
Addidit expediam, pro qua mercede canoros 
Curetum soiiitus crepitantiaque aera secutae 
Dictaeo caeli regem pauere sub antro.' 

Georgics iv. 149 — 152. 

' So prithee, to our bees and you shall learn 
The wondrous instinct that controls their race, 
By Jove omnipotent of old vouchsafed. 
This was in truth the guerdon that they sought. 
When, marshalled by the clamorous melodies 
And clashing cymbals of the Corybants, 
They found and fed the infant King of heaven 
Among the Cretan hills.' 

(Burghclere's translation.) 

Here Vergil expressly says (unless we have altogether mis- 
understood him) that the bees who made honey in the 
Dictaean cave, had been attracted thither by the music of 
the Kuretes, and that they were suitably rewarded for 
coming to the call. If this be correct, Vergil has made the 



352 THE KORYB ANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS [CH. 

bee-keeper's cymbals the direct descendant of primeval music 
made by primitive man to allure the bees to some fresh home 
in rock or tree or elementary hive. The translator has sub- 
stituted Korybants for Kuretes, but his freedom is allowable, 
for it is Vergil's own, who, as our previous quotation shows, 
makes no difference between them. Either group may be 
described as primitive bee-keepers. 

Now this is not an unconfirmed or unwarranted exercise 
of the imagination : for amongst the ancient traditions as to 
the origin of bee-keeping and the invention of honey, we 
find several which take us back directly to the Kuretes : 
thus Diodorus says that 'it is related that the Kuretes 
taught the art of bee-keeping,' 

KovprjTa<i...Ta irepl ra? fi€\trTovp<yLa<i Karahel^ai 

Diodorus, v. 65, 

and from Pompeius Trogus (Justin, xiv. 4) we find that the 
most ancient king of the Kuretes, named Gargoris, discovered 
the art of collecting honey. 

It was, therefore, quite natural that the Kuretes should 
in ritual be represented as calling the bees. In view of 
these corroborative traditions, it must be clear that Vergil's 
reference to the bee-keeper's cymbals as comparable with 
those of the Kuretes was not a mere poetic parallel : it arose 
out of the fact that the Kuretes were the patrons of bee- 
keeping ; the modern cymbals and the ancient were the same. 
The whole matter is much simplified from our point of view : 

Twins are attached to the Hollow Oak, 

for 
Twins are children of the Thunder 
and the Thunder is the Woodpecker. 
The Kuretes are (originally) Twins (and Woodpeckers) ; 
Bees are attached to the Hollow Oak ; 
Woodpeckers like honey and bees : 
The Kuretes are, therefore, patrons of bee-keeping: 
Therefore they clash the sacred cymbals. 

The call It remains for us to enquire in what way the act of 

I"^ calling the bees in the early spring acquired a ritual 

ritual, significance and developed ultimately a mythology. The 



XXXIXJ KORYBANTES AND THE INFANT ZEUS 353 

investigation is, at present, somewhat obscure. The mythology 
has a curious inconsistency on its face ; it makes the Kuretes 
the guardians of the infant Zeus ; yet it seems that the and a 
Kuretes cannot be dissociated from the Thunder, and if so, ™L^ °' 
they are the Sons of the Thunder, and the Thunder is — Zeus 
himself: at least Zeus is the New Thunder. It appears 
therefore that there is something more in the curious 
mythology and perplexing ritual than the calling of the 
bees. One thing is clear, that we cannot overestimate the 
importance of the bee in civilization's advance ; honey was 
the sugar of the ancients and the keeping of bees soon 
became an art comparable with agriculture itself. Hence 
there is nothing out of proportion in Vergil's giving a whole 
book of his Georgics to the subject of bee-keeping; it would 
hardly occupy a page in the handbook of the modern farmer. 
Miss Harrison has commented and laid great stress on the Ritual 
hymn of the Kuretes discovered at Palaiokastro in Crete ; it \ylT^ ^^ 
is interesting to note that in this hymn, undoubtedly of ritual Kuretes.. 
significance, the worshippers acting as a band of Kuretes, 
address Zeus as the greatest Kouros, and pray for annual 
prosperity in wine and wool and fruitful field and in 
honey. 

^ h.\^ixiv dope, /ce? crra]/jbi>i,a, 

Kal 66p evTTOK e[9 Trol/xvia, 

/c€<? X7]'ia KapTTWv dope, 

Ke<i reX€(j[(j}6pov<i aifi^Xovi]. 

'To us also leap for full jars, and leap for fleecy flocks, and 
leap for fields of fruit, and for hives to bring increase.' 

Assuming this restoration of the inscription to be correct, 
the place of the bees in the invocation would seem to require 
a corresponding ritual act, which may easily be the clashing 
of the cymbals. At this point, then, we leave the matter for 
further enquiry and criticism. If we are wrong that at the 
base of all the myth and all the legend lies the still existing 
custom of calling bees in spring to the noise of tin pans, it 
will be easy for Miss Harrison or Mr A. B. Cook to point out 
our mistake. 

H. B. 23 



CHAPTER XL 



BEES AND THE HOLY OAK 



Sanctity It has been sufficiently shown in a previous chapter that 

Hollow the sacred bees, whom we find in the birth-cave of Zeus in 
Oak. Crete, belong really to the Holy Oak, which is, when we 

examine it more closely, a hollow oak : and it must be in- 
creasingly clear in the process of our argument, that the 
hollow oak occupies a front place in the history of culture 
and of religion. It was the home of the thunder-stone, of 
the woodpecker, and of the sacred bees : it was the original 
sanctuary, the first ship, and perhaps the most ancient place 
of sepulture. Its branches were oracular, its mistletoe berries 
had magic powers. We now resume the discussion of the 
Oak as the first beehive. It might, perhaps, be supposed 
that after researches into the place of bees in ancient history, 
such as those of Mr A. B. Cook and of Robert-Tornow, there 
would not be much to say upon this subject that was not 
mere repetition. This is not exactly the case ; we are ap- 
proaching the matter from new points of view ; we have 
before us connecting links with Twin-cult and Thunder-cult, 
which may be of importance in the interpretation of some 
of the matters to which eminent scholars that preceded us 
have drawn attention. Especially we shall employ our 
previous results to illustrate the passages on bee-lore in 
Robert-Tornow's book entitled Be Apium Mellisque Signifi- 
catione. In this interesting and valuable dissertation, we 
shall see that the connection between bees and the oak can 
be made out, though the writer seems to have little idea 
of the evolution of bee-keeping, and an interpretation can 
also be attached to a point which he noticed, but did not 



CH. xl] bees and the holy oak 355 

succeed in explaining, that the ancients regarded it as a mark 
of the Golden Age that the earth flowed with milk and the 
trees dripped honey. 

First of all, we remark that the ancients recognised a Bees and 
congruity between bees and the oak. Theophrastus S for 
example, observes that ' honey is found especially on the 
leaves of the oak, and that there is some connection 
(ot/cetftxrt?) between bees and oaks.' No doubt this is the 
case, though Theophrastus does not realise in what the 
congruity consists, nor does he know that the oak was at 
one time much more richly endowed with honey than the 
moisture which he had noticed on the leaves, which is not 
really honey at all. 

The ancient writers commonly refer the discovery of 
honey and the invention of the beehive to a mythical hero Aiistaeus 
named Aristaeus, who is sometimes spoken of as Zeus bee- 
himself, Zeus Aristaeus. May we paraphrase his name as keeper. 
Goodman Thunder, as the Lettish peasants talk of Goodman- 
God ? 

The tradition says that Aristaeus took his bees from 
the oak-tree : thus Oppian {Cyneget. iv. 269 sqq.) says of 
Aristaeus, 

'TrpcoTO'i eKelvo<i...TTOT\ aLfjL^Xovi 

CK 8pv6<i dei,pa<i dyavdi; iveKXeiae fi€\Lcraa<i. 

Aristaeus was the first to shut up the gentle bees in hives, 
having removed them from the oak-tree. Strabo says that 
beehives are actually made in the trees (eV toU BivSpeac 
a/iirjvovpyeiaOat), which is very like what we noticed in 
the Ural mountains, and is only one degree removed 
from the time when the beehives were the trees them- 
selves ^ 

The oak-tree was, then, the original beehive, as we see 
also from what Hesiod said of the wealth of its midmost 
bark for the reward of good people. It need not be empha- 
sized further that oak, in this connection, means hollow oak. 

1 Eobert-Tornow, I.e. pp. 77, 78. 

2 Prol. § 14, lib. XI. c. 1, quoted in Eobert-Tornow, p. 78. 

23—2 



356 BEES AND THE HOLY OAK [CH. 

We shall see this abundantly as we come to another point, 
the wealth of honey in the Golden Age. 
The One of the favourite themes of Roman poets is the 

Age ^" Golden Age, whose passing away they mourn, and for whose 
return they pine, when the restitution of all things shall 
bring back the kingdom of old Saturn. Of these good old 
times, for instance, Vergil and Horace, Ovid and Tibullus, 
all write ; and, more remarkable still, th«y all say substan- 
tially the same things. One of the themes is that there 
was no need then of the plough, and the ploughman's toil ; 
the earth brought forth abundantly, automatically : nor was 
there any need of agriculture, of education in the keeping 
of bees, of legal enactments against placing your hive too 
near to your neighbour's, to his detriment ; the honey dripped 
from the trees in the good old times : thus Vergil {Eel. X. 30) 
an age of tells how, when the good days return, and time's wheel has 
^'^^^^ made its full circle, ' the sturdy oaks shall drip with honey- 
dew,' 

' durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella ' ; 

Horace sings of the land flowing with wine, milk and 
honey, and says that the honey ' drops from the hollow tree- 
trunks,' 

' Fas pervicaces est mihi Thyiadas 
Vinique fontem, lactis et uberes 
Cantare rivos atque truncis 
Lapsa cavis iterare mella.' 

Od. 11. 19. 9—12. 

In another passage he longs for the happy isles, ' where 
from the hollow oak the honies drop,' 

' arva beata 
Petamus arva, divites et insulas, 
Keddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis 

Et imputata floret usque vinea, 
Germinat et numquam fallentis termes olivae 

Suamque' puUa ficus ornat arborem ; 
Mella cava manant ex ilice.' 

Epod. 16. 41—47. 

Ovid, too, tells of Saturn's days, before the share had 



xl] bees and the holy oak 357 

touched the soil, and when honey could be found in the 

hollow oak, 

' At cum regna senex caeli Saturnus haberet, 
Omne lucrum tenebris alta premebat humus: 



At meliora dabat; curvo sine vomere fruges, 

Pomaque et in quercu mella reperta cava: 

Nee valido quisquam terram scindebat aratro....' 

Avior. III. 8. 35—40. 

And again he describes the days of Saturn, before Jove 

took the kingdom, when milk and nectar flowed in streams, 

and the yellow honey dropped from the ilex : 

' Flumina iam lactis, iam flumina nectaris ibant, 
Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella. 
Postquam Saturno tenebrosa in tartara misso 
Sub Jove mundus erat.' Met. i. iii. 

In the Silver Age, honey was not to be found that way, 
plentifully and without price. Tibullus tells 

' How bonnily they lived in Saturn's day, 
The very oaks had honey.' 
' Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege 



Ipsae mella dabant quercus.' El. i. 3. 35, 43. 

When we ask why such prominence is given to honey in Folk- 
the Golden Age, the way to the answer is to realise oneself l^^t™"^^ 
in days before Zeus was king. In those days, Woodpecker poets. 
was king as well as Saturn ; his throne was the hollow oak, 
as against the later Olympus, and the oak-tree was the only 
beehive, just as the trees are to-day in the Australian bush, 
where the natives find what they call 'sugar-bag.' What 
we have stumbled on in the later poets is just a case of folk- 
memory set to music. These honey-bearing oaks had ceased 
to be : the old-world beehive had been replaced by an arti- 
ficial structure, as it will be in Australia, where they will 
one day sing (if enough of the black fellows survive to sing), 

Oh! for the days we climbed for sugar-bag, 

And found it high in every hollow tree. 

Before the white man came and marred our joy. 

Thus will sing the Australian poet of the twenty-first century, 

and the song may be headed 

Kedeant Saturnia regna. 



CHAPTER XLI 



THE TWINS IN WESTERN EUEOPE 



Twins in 
Western 
Europe : 



A PREVIOUS chapter brought to our notice some survivals 
of the Twin Cult among the Celts of Brittany and in France 
generally : it will be interesting to recover further traces of 
that cult of the Dioscuri, which, according to Strabo, was one 
of the prevalent characteristics of the Western Celts. 

We obtain some information from the existing folk-lore, 
in which we see evidence of the sanctity of the hollow oak, 
and of its associations with the Thunder and the Twins. 

Much more knowledge can be derived from a careful study 
of the Acts of the French Saints in the Calendar of the 
Church, many of whom are the thinnest disguise for an 
original sacred dyad or triad, betraying by their names, by 
their miracles, and in other ways that they are the Great 
Brethren, who protect some city, or have been, frorri time 
immemorial, honoured in some tree or sanctuary. 

Archaeological research comes also to our aid, as in the 
case of the recovered altar, found in Notre Dame, containing 
a dedication by the boatmen of the Seine to certain Celtic 
deities, including the Heavenly Tiuins. Note that the sanctuary 
is, again, on an island in the river. 

If, again, we travel a little further north, we find 
traces of prehistoric life, which belong to our investigation, 
at Court- in the excavations at Court-St-Etienne, in Belgium, con- 
ducted by Count Goblet DAlviella\ In these excavations a 
number of funeral urns were found, of a small size, too small 
for the incineration of an adult, and these small urns were 



in Notre 
Dame, 



St- 
Etienne. 



1 Antiques Protohistoriqttes de Court-St-Etienne, p. 
Bulletins de I'Acad^mie Royale de Belgique, Jan. 1908. 



24. Extrait des 



CH. XLl] THE TWINS IN WESTERN EUROPE 359 

inserted in a larger one. It was suggested by the explorer 
that- we had here the conservation of the remains of a child, 
dying with its mother. Now came the surprise of the 
situation. The small urns were sometimes in pairs, enclosed 
in the larger urn. Count D'Alviella conjectured that this 
was a case of twin-burial, and that the mother and her twins 
had been put to death. His description of these double jars 
of supposed infant-burial is as follows: 'Ici, en effet, ne 
s'agirait-il pas de jumeaux? Chez la plupart des non-civilises, 
la naissance de jumeaux a toujours pass^ pour un fait sur- 
naturel ou au moins suspect, un malefice qui entraine 
I'immolation des enfants et frequemment de la mere, alors que, 
parmi les populations plus avanc^es, on se contente de les 
tabouer, c'est a dire qu'on les expulse ou qu'on les met en 
quarantaine, afin d eviter que toute la peuplade n'en soit 
contaminee. Mais chez les non-civilises, on confond aisement 
dans le surnaturel, les notions d'impuretd et de saintet^, de 
ndfaste et de propice. Par cela meme que les jumeaux sont 
census une procreation de la puissance surhumaine, on tend 
a se concilier leur influence et on leur rend des honneurs 
divins apres leur mort. II n'y aurait done rien de surprenant 
a ce que nos pr^decesseurs eussent a la fois immole et ven^r^ 
certains de leurs nouveau-nes jumeaux en compagnie de leur 
mere.' 

The date of these funeral deposits goes back to the be- 
ginning of the Iron Age : we may say that in Belgium the 
custom of twin-murder prevailed, at least, down to 500 B.C., 
and it is probable that a similar statement would hold for 
Western Europe generally. On this matter archaeological 
verification should be forthcoming, now that we know what 
to look for. 

The burials at Court-St-Etienne should be compared with 
the child burials discovered by Mr McAlister in the ancient 
Canaanite stronghold at Gezer. 

Outlying and isolated populations will often conserve for 
us beliefs with regard to twins which will betray the original 
prehistoric view, even though no cruel treatment is at the 
present day meted out either to the twins or their mother. 



360 THE TWINS IN WESTERN EUROPE [CH. XLI 

Twins in For an example from Eastern Europe we might take the 
pathians. Huzuls, a Ruthenian people, living on the N.E. slope of the 
Carpathian mountains. They dread the birth of twins, on 
the ground that it portends the early death of one of the 
parents, or the decline in the prosperity of the family. Some 
of them say that the birth of twins or of triplets is a direct 
punishment from God^ We find traces of the same fear of re- 
action of the twins on the life of the parents among S. African 
tribes. We noted it also in the island of Nias^. 

There is a good deal of further research to be made in 
European countries both with regard to the twin-fear, and its 
associated cult of the Thunder. In particular, we want to 
know more about the mind of the Scandinavians on the 
subject of Twins, and of the peoples who inhabit the Spanish 
peninsula. As regards our own ancestors there is more to 
be recovered. I have not attempted to decide whether 
Hengest and Horsa are mythical or not ; their names and the 
White Horse of their banners suggest twins (Hengst= stallion) ; 
on the other hand they appear to be historical character, 
even if their names are suspicious. So this matter must also 
stand over for further investigation. The same thing must 
be said with regard to the Irish folk-lore, a region in which 
I am not at home. 

1 Kaindl. Die Huzulen, p. 4. ^ gupra, ch. xiv. p. 169. 



CHAPTER XLII 



DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 



Now let us turn to what was, perhaps, the most difficult 

and the most obscure part of our investigation, the extent to 

which Twin-cult can be traced in Palestine. 

It will be remembered that for Dioscurism generally we Twins in 

. Palestine. 
have accumulated many striking instances all over Palestine, 

beginning with the Boanerges of the Gospels ; we traced the 
Twins in Jerusalem at several historical periods, and we found 
them located to the North of Jerusalem and in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jaffa. We found the Phoenician legends strongly- 
marked with Dioscurism, and the same thing could be said 
of the geography of Galilee. In the Old Testament, Twins 
were constantly to be recognised from Genesis to the second 
book of Maccabees ; and it was, therefore, clear that we had 
to discuss the possibility of Dioscurism in the New Testa- 
ment : if a hypothesis of folk-lore influence was so powerful 
in elucidating the legends of Genesis, we could not refrain 
from examining whether it might not also clear up some ob- 
scurities in the Gospels. So we admit Dioscurism as a vera 
causa in the New Testament legends also. 

Along with this established occurrence of the combined 
cults of Twins and the Thunder, we also detected unex- 
pectedly a subordinate branch of Dioscurism, to which we 
may give the name of Jasonism. The way in which we 
came across it was this: in proviag the Twins to have 
been connected in Graeco-Roman myth with the origin of 



362 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. 

navigation, we were obliged to examine the legend of the 
building and sailing of the first Greek ship the Argo, under 
the captaincy of Jason. And in this enquiry it became clear 
that the ship Argo was an evolution of a rudimentary ship 
which had twins on board. 

Jason in From this recognition two questions were started, (i) was 

a es ine . jj^g^jj^ then, a twin ; and (ii) was he of Greek or some other 
nationality ? The first question was readily answered in the 
affirmative, by the finding of his twin-brother; the other 
question was answered by showing that Jason was a Kabir 
(or Semitic Dioscure), and this was almost equivalent to sug- 
gesting that he came fi-om Phoenicia, a country whose legends 
we had already shown to be saturated with Dioscurism, or at 
all events from the N.E. angle of the Mediterranean. And 
since it could not be denied that in the Hellenistic period, 
Jason was the recognised equivalent for the Semitic Joshua, 
we had before us the possibility that in much earlier times, 
when Phoenicia was influencing Greece and not Greece 
Phoenicia, Joshua may have been the original form of the 
name of the Argonautic hero. Moreover, in that case, Jason 
may have come from inland to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, 
since the name Joshua appears to be Hebrew rather than 
Canaanite or Phoenician. This is a matter that requires closer 
investigation, and we do not know yet whether the problem 
is capable of a definite solution. Let us, however, see how 
far we have travelled. We have established the general 
diffusion of Dioscurism in Palestine and in Syria, and now 
along with Dioscurism, there appears to be emerging a 
secondary and subordinate form of Dioscurism, which we 
may call Jasonism, if we can find evidence that Jason was 
honoured with shrines, games or worship in the sense in 
which the Dioscuri were commonly honoured. 

Jasoneia This, then, is one of the first points to be established. 

as cult- ^j,g there Jasoneia in the same sense as there are Dios- 
centres. 

cureia, and do such Jason-sites involve any form of public 
worship ? 

Strabo affirms that there are a multitude of such Jason- 
centres, and uses them to rebut the doubts of persons as to 



XLIl] DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 363 

the reality of Jason himself! He tells us that all through 
Armenia and Media and the neighbouring lands you will find 
Jasoneia\ In another passage he argues that Jason himself 
must have visited places ; for it is said that Jason came to 
many places in Armenia and Media, as is testified by the 
existence of the Jasoneia'*. He recurs to the point again in 
another passage in which he affirms that the Jasoneia are 
Heroa, in memory of Jason, and very much held in esteem by 
barbarous peoples'. According to this the Jason-centre is 
a Heroon, or a place of honour of a cult-hero. Once more 
Strabo repeats his argument that the Jasoneum is a proof of 
the historicity of Jason and the Argonautic expedition ; for 
there are many such shrines which give testimony on the 
point, some of which have been set up by rulers of states, in 
the same way that Parmenio established the temple of Jason 
in Abdera*. Notice that Abdera is a city, which, in early 
times, struck coins with Phoenician inscriptions. (See Eckhel 
1. 13.) 

This time we have actual temple worship ascribed to 
Jason. Without pressing the reference to the temple too 
far, it is clear that Jason is a cult-hero, honoured in very 
much the same way as the Dioscuri themselves ; he is, as we 
have said, a subordinate Dioscure, a particular member of a 
great family. Unless Strabo is hopelessly inaccurate this 
Jason-cult is Asiatic as well as Greek. In Greek centres we 
have certainly games in honour of Jason ^, and naval contests. Games 
Whether there were dramatic representations or religious ^^ts°af ' 
mysteries involved is not known : it is at least lawful to con- Jasoneia. 
jecture that the great variety of treatment of Jason, Medea, 
and the Argonauts by Greek dramatists makes it likely that 
simpler forms of rustic drama may have preceded or accom- 
panied the more stately monuments of the Attic muse : for 
the story was one which furnished, as we have said, a variety 
of situations which were favourable to popular treatment, 

1 Strabo 45. 2 id. 503. 

3 id. 526. * id. 531. 

** See note at the beginning of ch. xxi, where Jason is credited in an 
epigram with the foundation of Isthmian games. 



Leranos. 



364 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. 

such as the landing of the Argonauts on the woman-in- 
habited and woman-governed island of Lemnos, the fight 
between Pollux and Amycus, and the exciting scenes in the 
courtship of Jason and Medea and the capture of the Golden 
Fleece. 

We note, in passing, that the dramatic representations of 
the Jason story furnish us with an additional proof of the 
correctness of Grotefend's derivation of Jason from Phoenicia; 
for Aeschylus, when he writes on the Argonauts, calls his 
play by the name of the Kabiri. The play is lost, but we 
know from Athenaeus^ that in this play Jason and his com- 
Jason in panions were drunk when they landed on Lemnos ; so there 
can be no doubt that Jason was known to have been a Kabir, 
and that the play involved himself and his companions. For 
it seems clear that with the women ruling on Lemnos and 
the men absent, the Kabiri referred to can only be Jason 
and his crew\ As, however, it has been commonly understood 
in the opposite sense, that the inhabitants of Lemnos were 
the Kabiri of Aeschylus' play, it may be worth while to 
examine the matter more closely. 

First of all we learn from the Scholiast on Pindar- that 
Sophocles in his play called The Women of Lemnos, and 
Aeschylus in his Kabiri, makes a list (KaTuXeyet) of all the 
crew of the Argo. Here we must clearly correct the text, so 
as to read that Sophocles, with Aeschylus, makes sport of 
(KarajeXa) the Argonauts. For Athenaeus tells us that 
Aeschylus was the first to mingle comedy with tragedy by 
bringing the drunken seamen on the stage : 

TT/acwTO? yap eKelvo<i, Kal ovk &)<? eviol (paaiv, ^vpiirihrj^, 
irapriyaye rr)v twv fiedvovTcov oyfriv 6t? rpaywhiav iv yap 
Tolq Ka0eLpoi<i eladyei tou? Trepi rov ^lacrova iJie9vovTa<i. 

Plutarch* appears to me to say the same thing, that the 
Kabiri, in Aeschylus' play, when they landed on Lemnos, 
threatened ' to drink the house dry ' : 

' Deipn. 10, p. 428. 

2 Schol. Find. Pyth. 4. 303: see Nauck, Frag. Gk. Trag. (ed. ii. p. 31). 

:* Quaest. Conviv. 2. 1. 7, p. 632 f. 



^ 
^ 



XLIl] DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 365 

€1 Ti? (ivTiaTpe-^a^ aiTcwro tov<; At(r^v\ov Ka^eipov<: 
6^ov<i (T7ravL^€iv Bciyfia iroirjaavra^, wairep avrol 7ral^ovre<; 
riireiXriaav. 

Surely the Kabiri, here, are not the inhabitants of Lemnos, 
welcoming the strangers, but the visitors making themselves 
very much at home^ 

We have now confirmed Grotefend's view as to the Semitic Jason 
origin of Jason, and we must examine, in view of the possible ®"" '^ ' 
linguistic equation between Jason and Joshua, whether we 
can take Jason further inland. I have explained that the 
equation in question must be allowed to be a probable hypo- 
thesis, but I have established Jason as a Kabir independently 
of the linguistic argument or a definitely Phoenician origin. 
The hypothesis is probable, because we actually find Hellen- 
istic Jews substituting the name Jason for their original 
Joshua. At the same time it must be remembered that 
there may be other origins for the name Jason. For example 
in Dal man's list of Nabataean inscriptions from Petra, we shall perhaps 
find (no. 3) such a name as Abd-Ijasi (^D^{<'^ny), which J^^^^' 
suggests a deity whose name is Ijasi. The same name 
turns up in no. 93, ' Peace be upon Abdijasi the son of — ' : 
and Dalman draws attention to the forms Ijasi CK^'^^) and 
Ijasu (ItJ^'X) in Dussaud's inscriptions from Mid-Syria. In 
no. 15 Dalman gives the name Ijasu detached, and apparently 
not divine (' Gaddu, son of Ijasu, peace upon him '). 

We should reserve our final judgement as to the necessary 
equivalent of Joshua and Jason, in view of this new form, 
which actually occurs in Dussaud in its Greek dress as 
'I aero?. We may, perhaps, take Jason inland without linking 
him to Joshua, or making him pass through Phoenicia. 

It should be noted further that the Nabataean form Ijasu or South 
occurs also in Ethiopic; thus in the Scriptores Aethiopici 
(Corp. Scr. Chr. Or.) we have the annals of two kings named 
lyasu, which shows that the name is South Semitic rather than 
North. The observation is an important one if, for other 
reasons we should identify the name with the Greek Jason. 

* Lobeck, Aglaoph. 1207 has misunderstood the passage. 



366 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. 

It might mean that Jason came up from S. Arabia, instead 
of from Phoenicia, in which case any reference to Joshua as 
the original cult-hero may be dropped ^ 

Is it conceivable that we might find in Palestine any of 
those Jasoneia which Strabo says were so common in Media 
and Armenia ? The mixed racial character of the population 
of Northern Israel renders it a not unlikely hypothesis. 
Suppose we move out of the districts and cities that are 
Paneas altogether Phoenician into the frontiers of Phoenicia, where 
monu- th® population is mixed; such a city as Paneas (better known 
ments. ^g Caesarea Philippi) will be a good centre for antiquarian re- 
search. Its name Paneas, and its sacred grotto of Pan, show 
Greek influence, its devotion to a succession of Caesars, from 
Augustus to Nero, and perhaps to Julian, supplies Roman 
influence; Eusebius, however, tells us that it was a Phoenician 
city and is strongly supported in the statement. So that we 
have in Paneas a meeting point of religions and of cultures, 
the Phoenician having the mark of predominance in early 
times. 

Now Eusebius tells us^ a curious archaeological story with 
regard to Paneas, namely, that it was the place of residence 
of the woman whom the Lord healed of a twelve-years' sick- 
ness, and that she had, in gratitude for healing, erected, near 
A famous her own house, a monument on a lofty pedestal, representing 
sculpture, herself in the attitude of a suppliant with outstretched hands, 

^ For convenience we add some of Dussaud's notes as they occur in 
Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientijiques, Tom. x. 1902 (Paris). 

Amongst the Nabataean inscriptions we have No. 10 from Sabha : 
Hasbou fille de lyasou. 

'lyasou est connu ; notre grecque No. 112 (1. 113) en donne la tran- 
scription 'lacros, en safaitique D^N. 

The Greek inscription referred to is as follows : 113 from Sabha 

"A/xpos 'laaov iT[(Jov~\ le'. 
Amongst the Safaitic inscriptions we find No. 13, fx-om Es-soummaqiyat 

i.e. Bem, el fils de Ausou. 

It is not quite clear that this is the same name as 'Ifio-os or related to it; 
but it has especial interest, because Justin Martyr when transliterating the 
original name of Joshua (Hoshea) for Greek readers, uses the form Auses. 

2 H. E. VII. 18. 



XLIl] DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 367 

receiving the blessing of the Lord who stood erect with his 
hand extended towards her, Eusebius also tells us that there 
was growing on the pedestal a magic herb, which reached as 
high as the hem of the Lord's robe, and was capable of healing 
all sorts of diseases. These statements of Eusebius, who tells 
us that anyone who visited Paneas could see the bronze 
statues for himself, were copied by subsequent writers, who 
added what might be thought necessary to the description of 
the statuary and its marvels. For instance, Sozomen^ follows 
Eusebius in calling the city a Phoenician city ; and Theo- 
phanes^ adds that the image of our Lord had been thrown 
down by the Emperor Julian, who set up his own statue in 
its place: Julian was, in fact, angry at the cures wrought by 
the magic herb. The Christians are said to have rescued the 
dejected statue, and placed it in their Church ! 

Now with regard to this story of Eusebius, it would 
probably be safe to say that no reasonable person believes it : 
indeed, Eusebius himself does not appear to have seen the 
figures. It is evidently a case of converted monuments such 
as we recognise when Jupiter Capitolinus is set up as S. Peter 
in the Church of the Vatican, or when the pilgrim from 
Aquitaine was told by her guides that a pair of Egyptian 
statues which she saw were those of Moses and Aaron. 

The question then arises as to whose statue it was, if it Whose 
was not a representation of Jesus. Robinson, in his Biblical ^as it ? 
Researches^, suggested that it was an imperial statue, which 
would agree with and express a devotion proper to a city 
which honoured the Roman emperors and was named after 
them. Only in that case, two things remained unexplained, 
the kneeling woman and the magic herb ; two-thirds of the 
monument is left obscure. Now we may suspect that the 
herb is not a real herb, but a part of the sculpture ; it must 
be there, because Eusebius relates that it reached the hem of 
the Lord's diplois, and it is implied that this herb communi- 
cated virtue to the garment ; that is the herb helped the 

1 H. E. V. 21. 

2 Chronographion, p. 41: quoted in Keland, Palestina, p. 918. 

3 I.e. III. 410 V. 



368 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. 

identification of the woman with the well-known Gospel 
character. Now if the herb was a part of the sculpture, then 
it is quite an inadequate explanation to say that the monu- 
ment was an imperial bronze. Let us try a more natural 
Jason and solution. Assume it to be a statue of Jason and Medea ; we 
^'^"" then explain the herb in the representation, it is part of 
Medea's magic. When Medea made medicine for the pro- 
tection of Jason, she took for a chief ingredient the saffron 
from a crocus-like plant which had been fed with the ichor of 
the suffering Prometheus : 

' And the flower of it blossomed a cubit the face of the earth above, 
As the glow of the crocus Corycian, so was the hue thereof, 
Upborne upon pale stalks twain, and below in its earthly bed 
The root thereof as flesh new severed was crimson red.' 

(A. S. Way.) 

Tov S' ijToi dv0o<; fxev ocrov tttj^viov virepdev 

KavXotaiv StSv/noiaiv iirrjopov rj 8' evl yatrj 
aapKi veorfi7]T(t) evaXiyKit] eirXero pt^a. 

Apoll. Rhod. III. 853 — 856. 
This flower about a cubit high may very well be the plant 
which Eusebius describes. Eusebius expressly says that it 
grew at the Lord's feet, upon the column itself: later writers, 
like Theophanes, say that it grew underneath the basis 
of the statue, which appears to be a misunderstanding of 
Eusebius. 

The correctness of our own interpretation may be inferred 
from the fact that the Greek artists did represent the flower. 
On a Neapolitan vase, where the capture of the Golden 
Fleece is delineated, the flower may actually be seen 
growing near the root of the tree on which the Fleece is 
suspended, between Medea, who is charming the snake, and 
Jason who is seizing the Fleece. The vase-painting may be 
seen as copied in Roscher from a study of Heydemann's\ 

Assuming, then, that we have here a statue of Jason and 

Medea, we can now see why the people of the place came to 

say it was a statue of Jesus ; for the known equivalence of 

^ Roscher, Griech. u. Rom. Mythologie, s.v. Jason; Heydemann, Hall. . 
Winckelmavnspi-ogr. 886, Taf. 3. 



XLIl] DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 369 

Jason Cl->]<TQ)v) and Jesus made such an identification per- 
fectly natural. It was not an arbitrary guess, and when 
Jesus was identified, it was easy to identify the woman, with 
the aid of the gospel. 

We need not be surprised at finding a statue of Medea 
in Paneas; when Domitian adorned Antioch with monuments 
and sanctuaries, he established a temple of Asklepios, and 
built public baths in honour of Medea, whose statue was 
there set up. It seems clear that the latter statue had a 
religious as well as an artistic intention. If Medea was an 
object of devotion in Antioch in the first century of the 
Christian era, as well as Triptolemos, there is no reason why 
Jason and Medea should not have been honoured as healers 
and helpers at Paneas ^ 

We have now conjecturally restored Jason into close Jasonism 
geographical contiguity with Jesus. Each of them also is ^^^^ 
a twin, and their names are capable of a close parallelism : curism. 
one of them is a Kabir, the other has been shown to be 
a Dioscure. If it was lawful to suggest Dioscurism as an 
interpreting factor in the legends of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, then Jasonism, as a subordinate form of Dioscurism, 
may equally be invoked. This suggestion, however, raises 
some difficult historical problems. For example, one of the The 
best remembered points in the Argonaut story was that of^jason^ 
Medea, inflamed with love for Jason, provided him with an 
unction that should preserve him from the fire-breathing 
bulls and from the death-dealing dragon whom he had to 
face, before he could capture the Golden Fleece. In 
Apollonius' account, Medea gives Jason the medicament, 
and tells him to anoint his whole body with it, as if with 
ointment. Later writers represent Medea as herself acting 
as dXeiTTTr]'}. Thus Horace says'^ 

' ut Argonautas praeter omnes candidum 
Medea mirata est ducem, 
ignota tauris illigaturum iuga 
perunxit hoc lasonem,' 

and it is not uncommon in representations of the scenes at 

* For this statue at Antioch see Malalas, p. 263. ^ Epod. in. 9 — 12. 

H. B. 24 



370 DIOSCDRISM AND JASONISM [cH. 

Colchis to introduce Medea carrying her box of medicament 
with her. There can be little doubt that the statement 

Medea anointed Jason 
was very familiar in literature and in art. 

When Apollonius tells us the story in the Argonautica, 
Medea produces from her sash or breast-band (fj,LTpa) the 
protective charm, offers it to Jason, who gladly receives it ; 
and then she stands before him, and in a flood of tears 
declares her love, and beseeches that he will remember 
Medea when he is gone, 

' She, with a downcast glance, and maiden fear, 
Bedewed her cheek divine with many a tear: 
Grieving that he, her love, ere long would be 
Far from her gaze, and wandering o'er the sea. 
O'er virgin modesty her eyes prevailed 
And with a troubled speech she him assailed; 
Eemember me, she said, and took his hand, 
If e'er thou comest to thy fatherland; 
Thy poor Medea, far remote, will pay 
Thy memory with remembering alway.' 

ft)? dp* €(j)r), KoX al'ya ttoSoov irdpo<i ocrcre ^akovaa 
OeairecTiov \Lapolcn TraprjiBa SaKpvai Bevev 
fjLvpofjiivT], or efieWev d-TroTrpodi ttoWov eoio 
irovTOv eTTtTrXdy^eadat' dviTjpS 8e fiiv dvTrjv 
i^avTL<i fjivdo) 7rpoa€(f)(ov66V, elXe t€ ^e^po? 
Be^iT€prj<i' Bt) ydp ol dir 6<f)6a\fiov'i \i7rev alBa)<;' 
fxvooeo B\ rjv dpa Brj Trod' virorpoTro'i ocKaS' tKrjai, 
ovt'ofjua MrjBeirjs' w? 8' avT eyw dfKpU i6vT0<; 

fiVTjcrofiai. 

Apoll. Rh. III. 1062—1070. 

Here we have the unction and the weeping woman. Notice, 
too, that in the Paneas monument also it is a weeping 
woman: for Malalas tells us that he visited Paneas, and 
found there, in possession of a converted Jew, named Bassus, 
a copy of the petition which the woman presented to Herod, 
in which she tells the story of her appeal to the Lord : ' I, 
falling before him, flooded the ground luith my tears, confessing 
my daring ^' 

1 See Malalas, lib. x. pp. 304 — 308 for the Eusebian story and the 
traditions which he gathered at Paneas. 



XLIlJ DIOSCUmSM AND JASONISM 371 

Is it possible that the Gospel itself has been Jasonized Was the 
by the insertion of a story in imitation of or in parallelism to j^^^^^. 
this of the anointing of Jason ? We remember the beautiful i^ed? 
account of the woman who washed our Lord's feet with tears 
and anointed him with costly unguent. What makes the 
story suspicious is that it was told at different places and 
times, and apparently of different people. Mark's story* is 
of a woman who comes in with costly unguents into the 
house of Simon the leper at Bethany, who was entertaining 
Jesus. John^, who evidently knows the Marcan story, de- 
liberately corrects Mark, and maintains that it was Mary 
of Bethany who anointed the Lord. Luke* transfers the 
whole story to the house of a Pharisee named Simon, who, in 
a somewhat supercilious manner, was entertaining Jesus at 
dinner, and declares that the woman was a great sinner. We 
take it for granted that so extraordinary an incident did not 
occur twice. So does the author of the fourth Gospel. The 
discrepancies in these accounts certainly lend a colour to the 
suggestion that we are dealing with legendary matter that is 
trying to make itself historical. If that should be the right 
interpretation, there is no likelier quarter in which to seek 
for the origin of the story than in the tale of Jason and 
Medea. 

The difficulty, however, at once suggests itself that the Mary and 
cases are not really parallel : it is easy to write down the two 
sentences 

Medea anointed Jason, 
Mary anointed Jesus, 

and to point out their literary parallelism ; but in the latter 
case the unguent is of surpassing sweetness, and fills the 
house with odour; in the former case, if tradition can be 
trusted, it was an evil-smelling compound. When Horace 
had some unusually strong garlic at one of Maecenas' dinners, 
he compared the smell of it to the medicine with which 
Medea anointed Jason, and to the horrible poison which she 

1 Mark xiv. 3—9. " John xii. 1—8. 

3 Luke vii. 35—50. 

24—2 



372 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. 

prepared for the daughter of Creon : in the passage which we 
have already quoted, 

' ut Argonautas praeter omnes candidum 
Medea mirata est ducem, 
ignota tauris illigaturum iuga 

perunxit hoc lasonem; 
hoc delibutis ulta donis paelicem 
serpents fugit alite.' 

Epod. ni. 9—14. 

We may suspect also that its taste was as detestable as 
its smell ; for there was a tradition, preserved to us on a 
single monument, an Attic vase from Caere, which represents 
Jason as actually swallowed by the dragon, and subsequently 
disgorged \ It is natural to suggest that just as the fire- 
breathing bulls did not like the smell of Medea's medicine, 
so the dragon did not like the taste of it. We can hardly, 
then, compare the Medean unguent with the spikenard of 
the Gospel. 
Limits of We are now faced with the problem of the determination 

influence. ^^ *^^ limits of a possible Dioscuric influence. It is clearly 
one thing to be able to explain or remove a miracle, with 
which an account has been surcharged, by the hypothesis of 
popular Dioscuric influence ; but it is quite another to relegate 
to the region of artificial legend an incident which is altogether 
free from miraculous elements, and the description of which 
is marked by the vividness of a story that is truly told. A 
true history becomes more credible when its miraculous accre- 
tions are removed ; but a history, whose fundamental events 
are subtrahible, ceases, even if it be vividly told, to have the 
confidence of the reader. Such, at least, is the impression 
which is at first produced, by the application of Dioscurism 
(including Jasonism) as an elucidating factor to the GospeL 
We proceeded on the hypothesis that we had discovered in 
Dioscurism a critical vera causa : this was certainly the case 

^ For the emerging Jason see Koscher, or Miss Harrison, Themis, p. 476. 
That the Dragon is the Night is suggested by Sadi in his Gulistan (trans, by 
Platts, p. 10), 

' The sun's orb disappeared in darkness, 
Jonah entered the mouth of the fish.' 



XLIl] DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM 373 

in the legends of Genesis, and in the freely-handled narration 
of the second book of Maccabees ; whether our application of 
the same methods of explanation to the New Testament is 
illicit, is the question that we must try to decide. Certainly 
there can be no a priori exclusion of the Dioscuric hypo- 
thesis : it has explained for us too many situations to be 
treated with critical contempt. On the other hand, it is 
quite likely that the method is applied by us in the New 
Testament sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly. It is 
surely right when it is explaining Boanerges, and perhaps 
right when it explains that the young disciples who bore 
that name wished to invoke the doom of Sodom on the 
inhospitable Samaritans ; for the angels in the story of 
the Destruction of Sodom are clearly Dioscures. Here the 
parallel is perfect, and can be reinforced from a Dioscuric 
incident in the second book of Maccabees, where the story of 
Sodom can again be seen to furnish a parallel to the narra- 
tive. Possibly, also, the twice told tale of the miraculous 
haul of fish may be credited to popular Dioscuric beliefs ; 
though here there are objections that will readily be felt^: 
on the other hand, such accounts as the marriage in Cana (in 
spite of the involved miracle), and the anointing of the Lord, 
are so simple and natural, that one hesitates to cover them 
with the hypothesis of the invention of a folk-lorist. It 
would be foolish to speak dogmatically of our results at this 
stage of the investigation : we have certainly resolved some 
riddles, but whether we have carried our explanations into 
regions that did not need such elucidation, let the reader 
judge, who is occupied with ourselves in the evaluation of 
the Biblical story. It may be proper to remark at this point No room 
that we have not followed the methods nor incorporated the astrology 
results of those who regard the Christian story as a disguised 
astrology, based on the supposed knowledge of the Babylonians 
with regard to the signs and constellations in the heavens, 
and the supposed diffusion of this knowledge among all sorts 

' As for instance, that if the Dioscures bring the fish, there were other 
twins on board the ship, before Jesus appeared. Why did not they bring 
the luck? 



Zodiac. 



374 DIOSCURISM AND JASONISM [CH. XLII 

and conditions of men. We proceed from the ' solid ground 
of nature,' to which Wordsworth refers us, and our folk-lore 
combinations antedate by thousands of years the Babylonian 
astronomy, which, in any case, has been credited with an 
impossible antiquity; as we have already pointed out, the 
last thing that happens to the Twins is that they get into 
or for the the Zodiac. Hence the Zodiac does not constitute their true 
explanation : how could two special stars in the sky explain 
an age-long and universal Fear ? or a Babylonian school of 
astrologers, in relatively modern times, instruct the farthest 
Hebrides ? A particular instance will, perhaps, explain the 
point more clearly. The monuments of Mithra present at 
first sight a decidedly Zodiacal appearance ; the central figure 
of the god slaughtering the bull is ringed by the twelve 
signs in many of the sculptures that have come down to us. 
It is equally clear that the Heavenly Twins are in the 
central part of the sculpture as the two Torch-bearers, 
Cautes and Cautopates. Thus we have the Twins twice 
over, Twins being superposed on Twins. Evidently the 
bordering Zodiac is a later accretion to the original repre- 
sentation of Mithra and the Twins : in other words, Mithra 
has a great deal to do Avith the Twins, but very little, 
if anything, to do with the Zodiac. We must, therefore, 
subtract the Zodiac from the Mithra monuments if we are to 
understand Mithraism ; and in the same way we subtract the 
stars Castor and Pollux from the argument, if we wish to 
understand the meaning and evolution of the Dioscuri. 



CHAPTER XLIII 

SOME FURTHER REMARKS UPON GRAECO-ROMAN 
DIOSCURISM 

We have shown in a variety of ways that the Twin-cults 
of Greece and Kome are closely linked to the savage beliefs 
which attach to the Fear of the Thunder and the Fear of 
Twins. It is clear, however, that much still remains obscure 
with regard to the tradition of the cult and the meaning of 
its chief symbols. If, for example, we were to return to the The 
study of the great votive monument of Argenidas at Verona, rg/jeYof 
crowded as it is with Dioscuric suggestions, we should pro- Argenidas. 
bably feel that we were beginning to understand it, but that 
there was not a little to be said by way of further elucidation. 
The first glance at the inscription and at the returned ship The ship, 
lying in harbour informs us that the Dioscuri had protected 
Argenidas on a sea-voyage. Probably the sculptured pig at 
the base of the altar is an intimation that he has paid his 
debt ritually as well as artistically. The two figures on the The twins, 
left of the sculpture are evidently the Twins themselves, not 
here represented as horsemen, nor sensibly pourtrayed as 
heroes, but as grave and reverend men, perhaps dead men. 

On the rocks over the harbour is perched a cock ; we The cock, 
have traced him as the Persian substitute for the original 
Graeco-Roman thunder-bird, the Woodpecker ; the sculpture, 
therefore, reminds us of the link between Twins and the 
Thunder, or, in Graeco-Roman language, that the Twins are 
the children of Zeus. 

There remain, however, two parts of the sculpture which The 
require further study: (1) the Dokana or Sacred Beams, House, 
which appear in the right hand corner, with a superscription ^^^^^^^ 
suggesting that they adom an Anakeion or House of the 



376 SOME FURTHER REMARKS UPON [CH. 

Anakes : (2) the two tall amphorae, from one of which an 
The emerging snake is finding its way to the Anakeion. The 

amphorae, twin-ness of these two symbols is evident : the Dokana have 
been resolved into a pair of equal and similar H-shaped 
symbols ; and the amphorae are also equal and similar, only 
The differing in the fact that one of them has a snake visible and 

^^^ ®' emerging from it, and the other not. It is common to 
explain the Dokana as representing the entrance to a tomb, 
and so to give the cult a Chthonian character and to repre- 
sent the Twins as the spirits of the dead : a parallel to the 
structure of the combined Dokana has been found in the 
conventional gateway to a Chinese pagoda ; and certain 
parallels have also been adduced, from Greek literature, for 
the worship of the Twins as being worship at a tomb. 

Those who make this explanation commonly go on to 
point out the Chthonian significance of the snake in con- 
nection with the amphora. On Roman denarii it is not 
unusual to have a pair of amphorae entwined with snakes. 
The vessels certainly denote the Twins. In the representa- 
tion to which we alluded of the two primitive Kabirs in the 
boat, they are seen on the carved gem to be grasping an 
amphora which stands between them, and this amphora, 
though single, must have a similar explanation to what 
we find in the votive monument of Argenidas. It is by no 
means clear why the Twin-sailors of antiquity should be 
hugging this amphora on the gem in question, or why they 
should be represented by Argenidas as standing behind the 
pair of amphorae with the snake. 
Votive In the Annual of the British school at Athens for 1906 — 7 

balT- ° ^® have a description by Mr Wace of a relief set up by 
players, successful ball-players as a votive offering to the Dioscuri. 
As this description brings out the connection between the 
Dioscuric symbols, and their supposed funerary character, it 
will be interesting to transcribe a passage : Mr Wace tells us 
that 'above the inscription is a representation of the Dioscuri 
in low and rather flat relief They stand facing one another 
in exactly symmetrical attitudes, wearing irlXoc and cariying 
long lances. Their only garment is a chlamys, which hangs 



XLIIl] GRAECO-ROMAN DIOSCURISM 377 

loosely over the elbows and passes behind the back, leaving 
the body quite nude. Their hair is long and curly. A tall 
amphora with a conical lid stands on a square base between 
them, while above it, and apparently resting on its handles, are 
the hoKava. These consist of two vertical joined by two hori- 
zontal beams in the middle and at the top. The uppermost 
horizontal beam, which projects beyond the vertical ones, is 
decorated with an egg between two snakes.... 0/^/ie attributes 
of the heroes we have here the funereal amphora, which refers to 
the legend that they were buried near Sparta (Alkman, fr. 5 ; 
Pindar, Nem. x. 56 ; Homer, II. in. 243 ; Od. xi. 301) and 
the So /cai'a.... Here, as in the two other reliefs we have 
snakes in connection with the hoKava, and this belief seems 
to confirm the arguments advanced in the Sparta Museum 
Catalogue that the Dioscuri were worshipped as dead heroes.' 

In these words, Mr Wace brings out the commonly 
accepted belief that the cult of the Twins was Chthonian in 
character ; and confirms the belief that the leading Dioscuric 
symbols have something to do with the dead. 

So the question arises whether we can do anything further 
to explain these symbols. They are clearly fundamental in 
the Graeco-Roman cult. How do they arise and at what 
point, in the evolution of Dioscurism from its primitive 
nucleus in savage Fears ? It may be conjectured that the 
explanation lies in the following directions, if our theory of 
the origin of Dioscurism be correct. 

The amphorae must go back into primitive pots of native Meaning 

manufacture in savage communities ; now we have seen all °^ ^^^ 

. o ' amphorae, 

through Africa the occurrence and recurrence of such pots. 
We found in West Africa that they were used for burying 
the unfortunate child-victims of the primeval fear. When 
one child dies, or is put to death, its twin-ship is emphasized 
by the burying or exposing of a second pot along with it ; 
this is to intimate that both children are to be regarded as 
buried, though one of them has been spared^ The parallels 

^ The very same thing occurs in the Peruvian treatment of Twins, as 
Arriaga tells us : the dead twin is placed in a pot and kept within the house 
as a sacred thing: see Arriaga, Extirpacion de la Idolatria, p. 16. 



378 



SOME FURTHER REMARKS UPON 



[CH. 



Burial 
of the 
placenta. 



The 
maduka. 



to these customs are the dual amphorae with pair of snakes, 
the single amphora, or the pair of amphorae with single 
snake. We notice further the custom which prevails on the 
Congo and in the Uganda Protectorate of burying or exposing 
the placenta of one twin, or of both, in an earthen pot. The 
devotion of the savage to the twin-placenta or to the placenta 
of a king is extraordinary: these things are taboo of the 
front rank. I imagine the explanation to lie in the following 
direction. The reverence for the twin-placenta arises from 
the fact that the life of the twin has been spared, and a 
substitute for it found. The placenta is a twin of the twins. 
Accordingly the placenta is buried or exposed instead of the 
child ; it has its own earthen pot for burial or exposure y 
according to the degree in which the taboo has been lifted, 
whether from one child or from both, there should be one 
tabooed pot with relics or a coupled 

Now we begin to see daylight on one or two other prac- 
tices which are reported from the Congo region, where we 
have the twin-cult in a very interesting state of transition. 

If we turn back to Mr Kenred Smith's account of the 
superstitions of the Congolese we shall see the importance 
of the maduka, or earthen pot containing the placenta. 
These madukas are exposed on forked branches of trees by 
the way side, each planted branch having three or four 
prongs, upon which the maduka can rest. So far, so good. 
Dr Girling sends me a photograph of such a maduka in mid- 
air, poised on its inverted three-prong branch 2. The bare 
branches represent the lightning, and the nearest analogue is 
the Greek or Assyrian trident, which we have already ex- 
plained as standing for the split lightning. Here then we 
have the twins given back symbolically to their parent, the 
Thunder : in cases where the placenta is buried or laid in the 



^ The reverence for the placenta of a king does not mean that the king 
has died or ought to die, but merely that, in a secondary sense, the placenta 
has come to be regarded as the king's double. It is actually called by the 
name Twin among the Baganda. Mr Eoscoe acutely suggests the Egyptian 
parallel of the Ba and the Ka. 

2 Mr Howell gives me a similar picture of a pair of madukas, each 
bearing a pot, on opposite sides of a road. 



XLIIl] GRAECO-ROMAN DIOSCURISM 379 

bush, we have a substitution for the actual burial of the 
twins, which burial is accomplished symbolically in the burial 
of the placenta. 

Dr Girling, as we have seen, gives us further information. 
Among the tribes whom he describes it is common to erect 
the madukas (or, as I call them, lightning trees), on opposite 
sides of the road. He also tells us that there are some 
tribes which erect a rude shed and bury the twins at the 
corners. Here we have the clue to the origin of the Dokana. 
The Dokana arise out of these rude burial structures, either 
by the setting up of a single shed with uprights and cross 
beams, or by the laying of a connecting bar across a pair of 
maduka trees on opposite sides of the road. This would ex- 
plain at once the apparently funerary character of the Dokana 
at Sparta, and their attachment to the grave of the Twins. 

We may find, I think, other traces of these elementary 
Dokana in African savage life. Du Chaillu tells us that in 
the French Congo, the house where twins are born is tabooed 
by the erecting of tall poles at the door and planting between 
them a number of pegs painted white ; and there are also 
accounts of other forms of twin structure, such as rudimentary 
huts in the forest, all of which must be classed with the 
symbolic Dokana and related to them. 

If, then, we are correct in our explanation of the Dioscuric 
symbols, almost every one of them is derived from primitive 
savage customs, closely parallel to those which prevail to-day 
in the African forests. The Chthonian character of the cult 
arises from the rule that Twins were formerly killed. This 
is remembered, even when twin-killing has disappeared. One 
or both of them is killed in symbol, as is shown by the 
amphorae and the snakes. 

Under the guidance of these considerations, the Argenidas 
relief becomes quite an illuminated document ; the Twins 
and the Thunder are clearly revealed, and a number of the 
stages through which the Twin-cult passed, before it became 
the religion of such as sail on stormy seas. 

It is, therefore, a religious monument of the first im- 
portance. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

ARE THE TWIN- MYTHS ONE OR MANY ? 

Are Twin- In the present chapter we propose to ourselves a question 
myths one ^^^ ^^^^ answer to which may not be immediately forth- 
coming, as to whether the forms of the Twin-legend which 
have come down to us are interconnected, or whether we are 
to regard them as independent products of the evolution 
of human thought. Every student of folk-lore is aware of 
the perplexity which is caused by the appearance of what is 
substantially the same folk-story or folk-custom in places 
that are widely remote from one another on the surface of 
the earth. It seems impossible that such ideas or practices 
can have originated independently, in view of their singular 
coincidence in detail ; and, on the other hand, it seems 
almost as impossible to find an explanation for their transfer 
from a common origin to the places where they are actually 
discovered. 
The bull- A well-known instance, which the late Andrew Lang 

roarer. discoursed on at some length, is the connection between the 
bull-roarer of the savages in Central Australia, and the 
rhombus which is used in the Greek mysteries and initia- 
tions. Here it is not merely that the ancient Greeks and 
the black tribes in Australia had discovered that a flat piece 
of wood with pointed ends can be whirled round by a string 
in such a way as to produce a humming noise, but that both 
Greeks and Australians employ the invention religiously, 
with the object of sanctifying the initiation of boys into 
tribal fellowship, or of inducing the good offices of the 
thunder-god. Is it a fact that it is not so far off from 
Greece and Phrygia to Central Australia as it seems to 
be on the map? 



CH. XLIV] ARE THE TWIN-MYTHS ONE OR MANY ? 381 

The question, thus simply raised, is made even more 
perplexing by the fact that boys in Aberdeenshire make 
a toy that is practically the equivalent of the bull-roarer 
and designate it by the name of a ' thunner-spelL' Are we 
to connect Scotland also with Central Australia ? I imagine 
the answer will have to be in the affirmative. What shall 
we say, then, if we bring on the scene a number of not very 
dissimilar weather rattles employed by North American 
Indians for the purpose of making weather, or calling fish or 
the like'. Is the world really one, and do all its tribes 
betray in their customs a common origin and an originally 
united tribal life ? We should hesitate to make such broad 
conclusions, until we have expanded the premises on which 
we make them. 

Something of the same perplexity turns up in the Twin Diffusion 
problem upon which we have been engaged. We were con- • ^ 
fronted with the frequent attribution to the Twins of a filial nerges. 
relation between themselves and the Sky or the Thunder 
and the Lightning. It Avas not a little surprising that this 
religious belief occurred in Europe, in East Africa, and in 
Peru. Did the Baronga get the belief from the Aryans or 
the Semites ? Have the Peruvians an ancestry that reaches 
across to India or Greece or Africa ? Or are all these beliefs 
independent attainments of the advancing mind of man, 
making similar guesses at whatever is obscure or uncanny in 
the world around him ? In order to bring the matter a little 
more into relief, I propose to examine some curious develop- 
ments, which suggest that the Twin-cult in certain quarters 
became a Dualist Religion of far-reaching effect. 

We begin by the common folk-lore belief that there Ante-natal 
is supposed, by many peoples, to be an ante-natal strife ^^|^g °^ 
between twins which marks them out as opposites. We are 
familiar with this in the Biblical account of Esau and Jacob, 
and the trouble which they caused their mother before, as 
St Paul says, they had done either good or evil. We have 
the same feature in the Greek story of Proitos and Akrisios 

^ We shall also find traces of the bull-roarer in W. Africa. See Additional 
Notes. 



382 ARE THE TWIN -MYTHS ONE OR MANY ? [CH. 

and in other places : it appears somewhat modified in the post- 
natal feature of a rooted hostility between the Twins, accord- 
ing to which one of them persecutes, exiles, or kills the other. 

The Twins We notice, in the next place, that the same thing is told 

Dualism • ^^ ^^^ Twin-Heroes of the Hurons in North- America. They 
quarrel before birth, and their mother hears them at strife. 

among the One of them is a good twin, the other is bad. They are 
called Juskeha the Good and Tawiskara the Bad. Once 
in the world they operate as Good and Evil Principles, one of 
them being responsible for all the good creatures and pro- 
ducts of the world, and the other being the author of 
everything unpleasant and bad. It is easy to see that under 
favourable circumstances such beliefs might grow into a 
dualistic theology : and the strange thing is that the greatest 
dualistic theology the world has known appears to have 
arisen in this very way. For example \ when Eznik, the 
Armenian, comes to write the account of the Persian cosmo- 
gony in his book against Heresies, he tells us that Zervan 
for a thousand years offered sacrifice in the hope of obtaining 
a son : at the end of the time his faith became affected by 
doubt ; and when his wife conceived, the faith asserted itself 

and in as Ormuzd and the doubt as Ahrimanl Before they were 
born, Ahriman was jealous of his brother and determined 
to outwit him. He heard his father say, that he would give 
the rule to whichever son was bom first, and he obtained 
the boon ; the dark, ill-favoured brother came to birth first, 
and for 9000 years he has the authority over his luminous 
and sweet-savoured brother Ormuzd. As is well known, 
Ormuzd and Ahriman are the two opposing principles of the 
Persian Dualism, which is seen to rest, in popular opinion, 
upon an interpretation of Twin-births. 

^ I owe the references to Dannhardt, Natursagen, i. p. 10 etc. 

^ In this connection we must not forget that there is something similar 
in the story in the Protevangelium Jacobi (ch. 17) where Mary, now near to 
the Nativity, is observed to be alternately sad and gay. She explains the 
situation in language borrowed in part from the book of Genesis which 
suggests that the details belong to an original twin-birth that ' she sees with 
her eyes two peoples, one weeping and wailing and the other gladsome and 
exultant.' 



Persia. 



XLIV] ARE THE TWIN-MYTHS ONE OR MANY ? 383 

What are we to think, then, of this parallelism between 
the beliefs of the Huron Indians and the ancient Persians ? 
Dannhardt says, unhesitatingly, that the stories have a 
oommon origin, and that the dualism of the American Indians 
has migrated from Iran eastward^. We have, however, 
already intimated that the pairs of twin-heroes, who turn 
up in the legends of North and South America, must be the 
product of a common myth-making element, in which case it 
will not be easy to avoid a generalisation which would make 
the whole body of American legends (Indian, Mexican, 
Peruvian, and Brazilian) dependent, in part, from the same 
source which underlies the Iranian traditions. Such are 
some of the suggestions which present themselves, as we 
carry out our enquiry into the eftect of Twin-cults in pro- 
ducing Dualistic religious beliefs. The coincident twins, as 
distinguished from the identical twins, make for Dualism. 

We must not, however, unify the world too rapidly, nor 
comprehend all similar anthropological developments too 
hastily under the terms of a single formula, without a good 
deal more enquiry into the varieties of religious thought and 
expression. It seems, however, to be quite likely that the 
study of the Twin-cult may be a powerful solvent in the 
mythologies of Persia and Central Asia, as well as in those 
of Greece, Rome and Syria. 

In this connection we may remember that it is commonly 
believed that there has been some reaction from Persian 
Dualism upon both Judaism and Christianity, a probability 
which makes it thg more incumbent upon us to detect, if 
we can, the underlying strata of belief in the Iranian 
religion ; for if we succeed in our analysis so far as to say 
to the ancient Persians, ' These be thy gods, Iran ! ' we 
may also find the formula returning to the hand that hurled 
it, sent back with the added legend inscribed upon it, 

' mutato nomine de te 
Fabula narratur.' 

1 Dannhardt, I.e. p. 79. 



CHAPTER XLV 

TWINS IN THE BRIDAL-CHAMBER AND IN THE 
BIRTH-CHAMBER 

The beneficent influence of the Dioscuri and of the tradi- 
tional twins whom they represent upon the Bridal-chamber 
and the Birth-chamber, is one of their earliest recognised 
characteristics. It is also one of the extant surviving traits 
by which they are known. We have already remarked that 
it is, in S, Wales, considered lucky to have the presence of 
twins at a wedding. The Agvins were the groomsmen at the 
marriage of Soma to their sister Surya^ : and appeal is made 
to them, along with other deities, to confer fertility on the 
bride I They even give the wafe of the eunuch a child and 
make the barren cow yield milk^: they give a husband to 
the old maid^ 

In the same way we find the Twins as marriage helpers 
in the Roman households, either as Castor and Pollux, or 
in the form of Picumnus and Pilumnus; these latter are 
becoming more intelligible, since we have found the con- 
nection between the Roman twins and the Woodpecker, the 
original Roman thunder-bird (Picus). His companion Pilus 
(Pilumnus) I have sought to connect, not with the big pestle 
that he has been credited with, but with the thunderstone in 
one of its ancient forms. Whether this be correct or not, it 
is certain that his brother who bears the name of the Wood- 
pecker is a thunder-man ; it is equally certain that thunder- 
stones are in many cases used as charms by women on the 
verge of child-birth. Blinkenberg points out that ' flint 
arrow-heads (i.e. thunderstones) are used (in Poland) as a 

1 Eig-Veda, 10. 85. 9. See Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 51. 

a lb. 10. 184. 2. 3 jj,, i, 112. 3. * lb. 1. 116. 1. 



CH. XLV] TWINS IN THE BRIDAL-CHAMBER, ETC. 385 

help for women in labour^' In such a case it is not unnatural 
to suppose that the thunderstones stand for the Twins, con- 
sidered as the children of the Thunder. We have referred 
above to the employment of thunderstones by the Badegas 
of Southern India, as a cure for barrenness^. The transition 
from the idea of the Twins as conferring blessing on the 
Bride-chamber to the Twins as assisting in the Birth-chamber 
is perfectly natural and logical. 

In this connection we can find some illustrations firom 
Greek monuments and from savage customs. There is, for 
example, in the Museum at Sparta, a marble groups where 
a woman kneeling, apparently in the act of child-birth, is 
flanked by two much smaller male figures, who apparently 
are assisting her, one of them by the pressure of the hand 
upon the body, and the other by making signs or sounds to 
drive away the evil spirits. Hiller von Gartringen explains 
the groups as 'Mother with the Twins.' Marx thinks they are 
the Dioscuri. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff calls them (I do not 
quite know why) Nikomachos and Gorgesos^ The descrip- 
tion, which I have taken from Samter, is accompanied by the 
important parallel from the island of Bali in the Dutch 
Indies, preserved in the Berlin Museum filr Volkerkunde, in 
which a parturient woman is assisted by one or two male 
figures and threatened by a horrible demon figure. It is 
natural to regard this case also as being an illustration of 
the protection given by Twins at the time of child-birth. 

Returning to the benediction of the Bride-chamber, we 
remember that this is the motive for the opening scenes in 
the Acts of Thomas, where the Apostle Judas Thomas, the 
Twin of the Messiah, finds himself at the marriage feast of 
a king's daughter and is invited by the king to come into 
the bride-chamber and bless the young people. The situa- 
tion is the more interesting, because the Christianity which 

* Cracow, Revue des traditions popiilaires, vi. 36. 

2 Supra, p. 212, n. 4. 

^ See Marx, Athen. Mittheilungen, x. (1885), pi. vi. 

•» Thera, iii. 163. 

' See Samter, Geburt, Hochzeit, Tod, p. 9 £f. 

H. B. 25 



386 TWINS IN THE BRIDAL-CHAMBER [CH. 

Judas Thomas preaches, involves the abstinence from and 
abandonment of the marriage state ; celibacy, as a counsel 
of perfection, was strongly emphasized in the early Syrian 
Church. So Judas, accompanied by his alternate, comes 
into the bride-chamber with a benediction the very opposite 
of that which the Dioscuri usually bring, and, in fact, he 
persuades the young people to begin a life of marriage that 
was not to be marriage. As we have said, the incident 
shows how closely the author of the Acts keeps to the 
Dioscuric ideas upon which he bases his work. As his 
Apostle is a Twin, he will discharge all the twin-functions. 
The story acquires a peculiar importance when we re- 
member that the author of the Fourth Gospel also makes his 
exordium of the public works of Jesus, with an invitation to a 
marriage. 'Both Jesus was called and his disciples to the 
marriage.' Upon this occasion he wrought his ' beginning of 
miracles.' 

What shall we say of this ? Must it be added to the 
suspicious Dioscuric miracles in other parts of the Gospels ; 
or is it the case that the author of the Acts of Thomas has 
imitated the Fourth Gospel in making the Apostle Judas 
the unexpected guest at a wedding feast ? Even in the 
latter case, we should have to admit that the story of what 
happened at Cana of Galilee suggested to him a Dioscuric 
imitation which is an admission that the narrative was not 
far removed from a Dioscuric legend. We may be able to 
see the relation of the two stories more clearly as time goes 
on, and the subject becomes better understood. We must 
not be satisfied to regard the problem of the evaluation of 
the Biblical accounts as an unresolved riddle. 

It is natural that women who come under special twin- 
influences should themselves bear twins; we find many 
popular beliefs of this kind, such as the bearing of twins as 
the result of eating a twin-fruit^ : they are, however, equally 
well explained by the association of ideas and by sympathetic 
magic. Thus a woman in Denmark will bear twins, if she 

1 See above, p. 168. 



XLV] AND IN THE BIRTH-CHAMBER 387 

eats twin-fruit^ : and in Sweden if she looks upon a woman 
with two aprons^. 

In Brittany, however, as we have seen*, the two apples, 
preserved in a hollow oak, represent the children of the 
thunder and can still the storm : what shall we say, then, 
when we find that in Poitou a woman who eats a double nut 
will have twins, or when, as in Mentone, the pregnant woman 
who only finds such a double fruit is fated* ? 

For a similar tale of twin-birth from eating two fruits or 
grains, we may refer to a story told by Radloff, ' from Altaic 
tribes in South Siberia, concerning a girl, who, when married, 
was found to be already pregnant. On being questioned, her 
account of the matter vvas that she had picked up a lump of 
ice, which had fallen with a heavy rain, and on breaking it 
in pieces, she had found inside and eaten two grains of wheat. 
When her time came, she bore twin boys^' 

In Scotland the well of St Mungo is credited with similar 
fertilising powers: I do not know how St Mungo comes to 
the possession of these Dioscuric influences. 

There is an amusing story told of Hogg, the Ettrick 
Shepherd, in this connection, ' One day Hogg took the 
Johnstones (John Johnstone, editor of the Inverness Courier) 
to one of those innumerable wells that bear the name of the 
seemingly bibulous saint Mungo, and taking up a glassful of 
the enchanted water, he handed it to Mrs Johnstone, saying 
with a delicacy that was all his own, and fortunately that of 
nobody else : " Noo, mem, drink this : every leddy that takes 
-a tumblerfu' o' this is sure to ha'e twins." "Indeed," 
Mrs Johnstone with cautious hesitation answered, " then, — 
I — think — i'U — take only half a glass." ' As I have said, 

1 Skatter/rai-eren, iv. 68 (i.e. Digger after hidden treasures). 

2 Sundblad in Gammeldags Seder og Bruk, p. 150 (i.e. Old Time Customs 
mid Usages). 

I owe this reference and the preceding to Dr Feilberg, 
^ Supra, p. 284. 

* Sebillot, Folk-Lore de France, iii. 391. 

" I give the story from Hartland, Perseus, i. 78; and have verified it from 
Eadloff. 

25—2 



388 TWINS IN THE BRIDAL-CHAMBER, ETC. [CH. XLV 

I do not quite see why St Mungo (St Kentigern) is connected 
with twins. 

There is a curious Russian survival of the belief that the 
Twins bring good luck to the birth-chamber and the newly 
bom. It is still the custom in Russia to bring a present ta 
the newly arrived child, in the form of a toy woodpecker. 
This is said to be for luck. The meaning of the gift is clear 
enough in the light of the relation between the Woodpecker 
and the Twins, nor need we doubt that the Woodpecker is 
involved in the Picumnus, who appears as birth-helper in. 
a Roman family. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 

Page 8. Single Thunder-Births. 

In the Northern Territory of Australia, as we learn from 
traditions recently collected by Professor Spencer, and published 
by the Melbourne Government ^ we find that it is common to 
believe that children are due to ancestry outside their own 
parents : such children may be referred to Snake-parentage, 
Honey-comb-parentage, Thunder-parentage, or Rainbow-parent- 
age. In each case the intrusive parent has a number of spirit- 
children whom he takes with him, and who are on the look-out for 
the right lubras (black girls) into whom to enter. Thus we are 
informed of Namaran, a Thunder-man of the Mungarai tribe^ 
"that he had plenty of children, ...that he went into the water- 
pool, ...where he kept the children, coming out every now and 

then to make rain and thunder and lightning If a Gnaritibellan 

woman comes and puts a foot into the water, a spirit child at 
once goes up her leg into her body ; if she drinks water, it goes 
in by her mouth. The child is thunder, like the old Namaran 
man." 

P. 12. The name Zahdai. 

It should be noticed that there is a Beth-Zabdai on the banks 
of the Tigris, to the north of Mosul. Apparently it is an alter- 
native name for Jezira. Thus in a Syriac MS. in my possession, 
there is a story of some Indians who came to visit the Catholicos 
Mar Simeon at Jezira, which is Beth-Zabdai (or perhaps Jezira 
of Beth-Zabdai). 

The name is an ancient one, whether it belongs to the place 
or the district. For instance, it occurs frequently in the history 
of John Bar Penkaye (edited by Mingana). In the current form 
it might seem to suggest a sanctuary ; on the other hand it may 
be a Biblical transference, or the intimation of a Jewish Settlement. 

1 Report of the Preliminary Scientific Expedition to the Northern Terri- 
tory. Melbourne, 1912. 

2 I.e. pp. 43, 44. 



390 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

Again, in the history of S. Simeon Bar Sabba'e^ we are told 
that Sapor built a city named Karka-d-Ledan, and settled in it 
many captives whom he had taken from Arabia and Singara 
and Beth-Zahdai and Arzum and Kardu and Armenu. Here it 
appears in the 4th century as the name of a district. 

Enquiry eHcits the information that the name Beth-Zabdai is 
not now current on the Tigris, but that to this day whenever 
an official letter is written from Deir Zaaferan, the seat of the 
Jacobite bishop in the Tur Abdin, or from the Patriarchate at 
Mardin, to the priest residing at Azakh (some six hours west of 
Jezira on the way to Midyat), he is addressed as residing at 
Beth-Zabdai. This is the ecclesiastical name of Azakh, but it is 
only known to the clergy, and to those who are familiar with 
Syriac literature. It appears that the name belongs really to 
the whole district west of Jezira. Its chief villages were Finnik, 
Arjool, Ausen, Azakh, and Themanoon, while Arzoon (now a 
ruin) is said to have been a walled city as large as Diarbekr ! 

In the first book of Maccabees, Zabdai is reckoned as an 
Arab name: e.g. I Mace. xi. 17, 'Zabdiel the Arabian.' xii. 31, 
' The Arabians who are called Zabedaeans.' 

P. 12, J'he Thunderstone amongst the Celts. 

That the Celts had the same belief with regard to the potency 
of the thunderstone, and that they called such stones after the 
thunder, as we have noticed in other parts of the world, begin- 
ning with Denmark, may be seen from the occurrence of flint 
axes in the dolmens in Brittany. Thus le Rouzic describes 
such axes as follows': — "Axes or celts generally in hard stone, 
generally in rare stone. Some of these are pierced... to allow of 
their being suspended. Several, from 10 — 42 centimetres long, 
are wonderfully perfect. They do not appear to have been used, 
and can only have been votive axes : even at the present day 
our peasants consider them valuable talismans and call them 
Men-Gurun, or Thunder-bolts [' Men ' means stone in Breton]." 

P. 14. Is the trident forked-lightning or a fish-spear? 

There has been some controversy as to the correct interpreta- 
tion of the trident in Greek art, e.g. the trident of Poseidon, or 
the trident set up at the stern of ships. On one side it has been 
regarded as the archaic fish-spear, on the other, as the Babylonian 

1 Pat. Syr. n. 832. 

^ Megalithic monuments of Carnac and Locmariaquer, by le Bouzic, tr. by 
W. M. Taff, p. 26. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 391 

sign of forked-lightning. Probably cases can be found coming 
under either head. It should, however, be noted that the 
occurrence of the trident amongst cert;iin Himalayan tribes, 
suggests a non-marine deity (see Atkinson : Himalayan Districts, 
Vol. II. Allahabad, pp. 826 sqq.): in these cases it appears to 
be the symbol of a fire-god. 

The lightning symbol in Babylonian and Assyrian art can be 
traced not only in the form of the trident, but in the simi)ler 
form of the fork with two teeth : as such it is the symbol of 
Adad the Thunder-god. A reference to King, Rock- Inscriptions 
of the JUdi Dagh (in S.B.A. xxxv. 2, p. 75), will show the con- 
ventional form of the symbol by which Adad is i^epresented. 

P. 15. Picus who is also Zeus. 

For the cult-translation from Picus to Zeus, we have a some- 
what confused, but extremely valuable, piece of mythological 
genealogy in the Chronicles of John Malalas^ It runs as 
follows: "Now the aforesaid Thestios had three daughters, to 
wit, Leda and Klytia and Melanippe : Leda her father Thestios 
bestowed in marriage on a certain TyndarioSj from which union 
with Leda the aforesaid Tyndaros (sic) had a daughter named 
Klyteinnestra ; when she was grown up, she became the wife of 
Agamemnon, king of Mycene : Leda had immoral relations with 
a youth of senatorial rank, named Kyknos, the son of Ederion, 
king of Achaia, whose descent was reckoned from Picus Zeus 
{rov Karayofxivov Ik tot) ttlkov Ato's), though Tyndarios, the husband 
of Leda, was entirely unaware of what had occurred. 

" So Leda, in an airy mind, withdrew to a citadel of her own 
near the Eurotas river, where she brought forth as the result of 
her union with Kyknos, the son of king Ederion, three children, 
to wit. Castor and Polydeuces and Helena." Malalas concludes 
by quoting Palaiphatos to the effect that it is mere idle talk of 
the poets to represent Zeus as having become a swan (Kyknos) 
and deflowered Leda. The real story is what Malalas has 
recorded. 

The interest of the foregoing genealogy lies in the way in 
which Zeus is taken out of the twin-myth, and Kyknos left in : 
the key of the perplexity is left in the lock, for Kyknos, who is 
the double of Zeus, is now made to be the son of Ederion, and to 
be descended from Zeus. Thus Zeus is got rid of in two ways, 
first by being made the ancestor of Kyknos, second by the 

J p. 82 (ed. Niebuhr). 



89^ ADDITIONAL NOTES 

intrusion of a royal pedigree and a special royal person between 
Zeus and Kyknos. 

The next thing we observe is that it is not really Zeus who is 
the ancestor, but Picus Zeus, i.e. Pious who is also Zeus. So 
here we have a definite tradition that the Spartan twins also, 
and not merely Romulus and Remus, are of woodpecker ancestry. 
This is interesting and important ; the woodpecker cult is seen 
again to underlie the twin cult. 

The name Ederion is a corruption of Aitherion, and suggests 
a relation with the sky. 

P. 16, Why is the Oak the Thunder-tree? 

Professor Fraser Story of the Forestry Department in the 
University College of N. Wales kindly informs me through Sir 
Oliver Lodge, as follows : — " That lightning strikes oak more 
frequently than any other species, is, I think, fairly well proved. 
Hess of Giessen, for example, had records kept over many years 
in a mixed forest where beech predominated. He found that the 
following were struck, 

Oaks, 310, 

Scots pine, 108. 

Beech, 33. 

Others, smaller numbers. 
" Hellmann declares that the difference is even greater. 

Oaks, 54, 

Conifers, 15. 
• Beech, 1. 

*' My own observation quite confirms this. In North Germany 
one certainly sees many pines struck by lightning, but then it is 
the prevailing tree. In England, Oak, I should say, easily has 
the distinction." 

P. 18. The Thunder in Bird-form. 

Probably we should have expanded this brief summary of the 
chief animal representatives of Fire and of Thunder by some 
reference to the case of the Wren, which is a companion of the 
Robin Redbreast, and has a cult of its own, being hunted, 
captured, and sacrificed at the winter-solstice. A good account of 
the killing of the Wren in Brittany and elsewhere will be found 
in Swainson's Folk-lore of British Birds, from which I transcribe 
a few sentences : 

P. 42. "This custom (of killing the wren) is undoubtedly 
sacrificial in its origin, the wren, as lightning bird, being sacred to 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 393 

Donar, the lightning god. The time also of its celebration — at 
the commencement and end of the first twelve nights of the sun's 
return from the winter solstice- points in the same direction. 
Moreover, in North Germany, the squirrel is hunted at Easter 
<Wolf, Beitrage, i. 78), and Simrock (D.M. 553) tells us that in 
some parts of the same country a dead fox is carried about by 
the village boys at Midsummer. Both these animals, Jrom their 
red colour, were under the protection of the same deity." 

Both the wren and the robia were Fire-birds as well as 
Lightning-birds. The particular wren that provoked the identi- 
fication may have been the crested wren, to whom Tennyson 
alludes in the lines : 

"Look, look, how he flits, 
The fire-crowned king of the wrens, from out the pine." 

Tennyson. The Window. 

It will be noticed from the foregoing passage (a point which 
we have referred to elsewhere) that the squirrel is counted in 
with the Thunder and Lightning-animals. 

The wren is a fire-bird amongst certain Australian tribes : 
see Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 52. 

P. 22. Thunder as Bird and Man. 

In Parkman's Jesuits (p. L56) there is a statement concerning 
the belief of the Hurons about the thunder ; based on Brebeuf, 
Relation des Hurons (pp. 114 sqq.). 

" Thunder is a man in the form of a turkey-cock. The sky is 

his palace, and he remains in it when the air is clear The 

lightning flashes whenever he opens his eyes and closes his wings. 
If the storm is more violent than usual, it is because the young 
are with him, and aiding in the noise as well as they can." 

That the significant point about the turkey-cock was his 
colour may be seen from another incident, also reported by Park- 
man, where a " renowned rain-maker (amongst the Hurons) 
seeing his reputation tottering under his repeated failure, be- 
thought him of accusing the Jesuits, and gave out that the red 
colour of the cross which stood before their house scared the bird 
of thunder and caused him to fly another way." The Jesuits 
promptly had the cross painted white, and thus rid themselves of 
the suspicion that they had captured the thunder. 

P. 35. The Roman Cult of the Woodpecker. 

Plutarch, in his invaluable Quaestiones Romanae discusses the 
reasons for the peculiar sanctity of the Woodpecker among the 



394 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

Romans (see Qu. 21) : I quote the Elizabethan translation of 
Philemon Holland instead of the original. 

" What is the reason that the Latines doe so much honour 
and reverence the Woodpecker, and forbeare altogether to do 
that bird any harme 1 Is it for that Picus was reported in old- 
time, by the enchantments and sorceries of his wife, to have 
changed his owne nature and to be inetamorphized into a Wood- 
pecker, under which form he gave oracles, and delivered answers 
unto those who propounded to him any demand? 

" Or rather, because this seemeth a meere fable and in- 
credible tale : there is another storie reported, which carieth 
more probabilitie with it, and soundeth neerer unto trueth. 
That when Romulus and Remus were cast forth and exposed to 
death, not only a female woolfe gave them her teats to sucke, 
but also a certaine Woodpecker flew unto them, and brought 
them food in her bill, and so fedde tliem ; and therefore haply it 
is, that ordinarily in these dales wee may see, as Nigidius hath 
well observed, what places soever at the foot of an hill covered 
and shadowed with oakes or other trees a Woodpecker haunteth, 
thither continually you shall have a woolfe to repaire. Or perad- 
venture, seeing their maner is to consecrate unto every god one 
kinde of birde or other, they reputed this Woodpecker sacred 
unto Mars, because it is a couragious and hardy bird, having a 
bill so strong, that he is able to overthrow an oke therewith 
after he hath jobbed and pecked into it as farre as to the very 
marrow and heart thereof." 

P. 36. 2%e Woodj)ecker named Hadad or Ileddad 

in N. Africa. 

According to Wahrmund, the West African name for the 
Woodpecker is Hadad or Heddad, ^IjJk. Professor Rene Basset, 
however, says that it should be spelt with a hard h, ilji*., in 
which case the Woodpecker is called the Smith. Sometimes he 
is called, no doubt from his persistent hammering, the father of 
the smith : and Professor R^ne Basset says that it is the black 
Woodpecker that is so described. He says : "En Kabyle et en 
Arabe, on donne le nom de ilj^*- jJb ^1 a la charbonniere ou 
grosse Misanga (i). Je ne connais pas de forme itjuk, qu'indique 
Wahrmund." It seems to me extremely likely that the smith 
was actually named after the Woodpecker from their common 
hammering : the connection with the thunder-god Hadad is 
extremely probable. Walirmund's spelling may be taken from 
the Bictionnaire Frangais- Arabe of Bocthos, 2nd edn., Paris 1882, 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 395 

where on p. 601 we find >ljJk pic (oiseau) : (Barbaric). For 
a parallel to the equation made above between the Woodpecker 
and the Smith, we may take this from the Philippine Islands : 
" the Spaniards call the Philippine Woodpecker Herrero or 
Blacksmith, on account of the great noise it makes with its 
bill in striking the trees, to be heard at 300 paces distance" 
(Latham, General Hist, of Birds, iii. 351). 

P. 38. 7'A(? Rohin Redbreast as Thunder-bird. 

Mannhardt in Roggenwolf, p. 43, points out two curious 
German traditions which connect the Robin with the Thunder 
and Lightning. According to one, if the Robin builds its nest 
in a roof, the lightning will strike the house ; according to the 
other, where Robins nest, the house is secure against lightning. 
Mannhardt compares the contradictory statements that when the 
lightning flashes, a thunderbolt falls in the house, and if there is 
a thunderstone on the hearth, the house will never be struck. 
In the case of the Robin, it is assumed that there is an affinity 
between the bird and the thunder, in consequence of this the 
thunder will strike or not strike the house where the thunder- 
bird is. Perhaps there may be a similar explanation of thunder- 
god and thunder-boys being thunderstruck, as Aesculapius or 
Jasion. 

P. 48. The Pomegranate {Rimmon) and the Thundergod 
(Rimmon, Ramman). 

The Pomegranate can be seen in sculpture on the top of the 
great Stele of Shamshi- Ramman in the British Museum. 

When the Pomegranate is inverted it becomes a bell ; and 
when we read in the Pentateuch that the High Priest's robe was 
bordered with alternate bells and pomegranates, this is only saying 
twice over that he carries the symbols of the Thundergod. 

For Pomegranates on Pillars see some important observations 
by A. J. Evans in the Journal of the Hellenic Society, 1901, 
p. 144. 

" We are expressly told of the brazen pillars set up by 
Solomon at the porch of the temple that they were provided 
with capitals adorned with a network of pomegranates and 'lily' 
shape. ...Free-standing columnar impersonations of the deity 
often supporting pomegranates are frequent on Carthaginian 
stelai^" 

1 Copied by me (A. J, E.) in the Museam at Carthage. Cf. Perrot and 
Chipiez, t. iv. Figs. 167, 168, pp. 324, 325. 



396 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

It is difficult to deny that in these representations the pome- 
granate has a cult significance. 

P. 91. Red Colour and the Thunder in Australia. 

An interesting confirmation of the connection between these 
will be found in Mrs Aeneas Gunn's delightful book, the Little 
Black Princess, p. 6. "If you (a girl) had on a red dress when 
there was a thunderstorm, the Debbil-debbil who made the 
thunder would 'come on' and kill you 'dead-fellow...,' 

" This debbil-debbil is a fanny sort of person, for although he 
gets furious if he sees a lubra (i.e. black girl) dressed in red, it 
pleases him wonderfully to see an old blackfellow with as much 
red as he can find. Do you know if this Thunder Debbil-debbil 
is roaring dreadfully and happens to catch sight of an old man 
with plenty of red handkerchiefs and scarves of red feathers tied 
round him, it puts him into such a good temper, that he can't 
help smiling, and then nobody gets hurt. But sometimes even 
a black fellow with yards of red stuff round him can do nothing 
to quiet this raging Debbil-debbil ; then everybody knows that 
the lubras have been wearing red dresses. Such wicked selfish 
people deserve to be punished, and it is quite a comfort to think 
that very soon Mr Thunder Debbil-debbil will get hold of them 
and kill them dead-fellow. Of course if anyone gets killed by 
mistake, it will be their own fault, for they (should) have given 
all their red things to their husbands." 

It is interesting to note the hostility between the thunder 
and the woman who wrongly tries to talisman herself by wearing 
red. A parallel custom is the exclusion of women from the 
ceremonies where the ' bull-roarer ' is used. 

P. 91. Red for Thunder, White for Lightninc/. Spencer and 

Gillen, Across Australia, 1912, ii. 277 — 8. Ceremonies of 

the Arunta Tribe. 

The Waninga, a banner-like structure consists of " central bar 

with one or two smaller ones at right angles to it and strands of 

strings so arranged as to form a flat expanded surface. Strands 

of human hair strings were strung lightly and as close together 

as possible For the space of about an inch and a half up each 

side, indicated by a white band, the human hair string was 
replaced by opossum fur string whitened with pipe-clay. On the 
inner edge of this a band of the human hair string was red- 
ochred. The white transverse bands seen in the illustration as 
well as the bands on the bodies of the two performers, were 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 397 

made of white down, and each end of the cross-bars, and the top 
of the spear, were ornamented with a tuft of the red-barred tail- 
feathers of the black cockatoo, a bird often associated with rain 
ceremonies, for the simple reason that, in Central Australia, a 
flock of black cockatoos always indicates the presence of a water- 
pool'." 

" Each of the various parts of the Waninga has a special 
significance, but it must always be remembered when dealing 
with sacred objects such as this, or the Nurtinga, that the same 
decoration has different meanings in different totems. 

On this particular Waninga, the red string represented thunder^ 
the white longitudinal hands lightning^ and the black siring 
rain falling. The white down represented clouds, and the red 
of the feathers and also a number of wood-parings smeared with 
blood and worn on the heads of the performers, represented the 
masses of dirty brown froth which float on the top and gather on 
the sides of a stream in flood.", 

P. 91. The Australian Bull-roarer painted red and white. 

Here is another case which points in the same direction. 
All students of anthropology know the importance in early 
culture of the rhombus, or bull-roarer, a piece of wood with 
pointed ends, which can be whirled round rapidly in the air by 
an attached string, so as to produce a peculiar and mournful 
sound. This toy of to-day was a part of the religion of primitive 
man, if we may judge of the prevalence of it among modern 
Australians, the Ancient Greeks and Anatolians, the modem 
Scotch-boy (who calls it a ' thunner-spell ') and cei tain tribes of 
American Indians. Its close connection with the thunder comes 
out almost everywhere. Now the Department of External 
Affairs at Melbourne, Australia, has recently published a bulletin 
containing information with regard to the customs of certain 
tribes in the Northern territory. In this bulletin there is a 
detailed description of the annual initiation of the boys of the 
Larrakia tribe to the privileges and duties of manhood. In the 
course of the proceedings, "the men, four or five in number, 
who are to swing the bull-roarers, go away into the bush and 
paint themselves where they cannot be seen by the boys. The 
bidl-roarers are ornamented with alternate lines of red and while. 

^ Quite unnecessary suggestion : the tail-feathers are enough to make a 
rain-bird without any adjacent pool. 



398 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

They are called Bidu-bidu, and may on no account be seen by 
Women, or by the uninitiated." 

Here we have again the alternate striping of the thunder-toy, 
and are able to suggest a similar explanation to that which we 
have given above'. 

P. 93. Twins in the Congo Region. 

My friend, John H. Harris, who has worked so nobly for the 
redemption of the Congo natives, has discussed the twin-problem 
briefly in his new book^. As Mr Harris is a first hand authority, 
I quote his statements on the Twin question, leaving the reader 
to complete and correct them by the greater variety of informa- 
tion which we have collected. There is a fine photograph in the 
book of a pair of ' madukas,' on opposite sides of a forest road. 

P. 69. " It is a mistake to assume, as some writers do, that the 
taboo on twins is a prevailing custom among West African tribes. 
The distribution of the taboo is extremely erratic. Twins are 
unwelcome in the Northern territories of the Gold Coast, yet the 
reverse is the case amongst the Egbas of Nigeria. In the Congo 
territories, twins cause the greatest joy to a tribe and the mother 
is lauded wherever she goes, whilst amongst the tribes of the oil 
rivers of Nigeria, the birth of twins is regarded as the most 
fearful calamity which can fall upon the community." 

" In the Upper Congo regions, the traveller may frequently 
see two earthenware pots hoisted on forked stakes which have 
been driven in the ground, one on either side of the path, and 
these are in honour of twins born in the ne>arest compound. 
Every person passing by those pots will religiously pluck two 
leaves, and throw one at the foot of each forked pole as a votive 
offering to 'Bokecu' and 'Mboyo,' as all good twins are named " 

The formation of twin-towns in Nigeria is alluded to in the 
following words : 

P. 70. " Not only are the children killed, but the mother is 
immediately driven from home. ...In some districts, however,... 
the mothers of twins are allowed to form isolated villages and to 
engage in trade. Some tribes, again, whilst driving them from 
the homes of their husbands, permit them to engage in agricultural 
pursuits upon the husband's lands." 

1 The document quoted is analysed iu the Manchester Guardian for Sept. 
10th, 1912. Tlirough the courtesy of the President of the Department of 
External Affairs, I have been supplied with copies of these valuable and in- 
teresting reports. 

- Dawn in Darkest Africa. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1912. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 399 

P. 93. The Sanctity of the Placenta. 

The following passage from Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 126, will 
show the importance which savage tribes attach to the preserva- 
tion of the placenta. 

"It is interesting to note that in the Barbar Archipelago 
between New Guinea and Celebes, the placenta is mixed with 
ashes, and put in a basket, which seven women, each of them armed 
with a sword, hang up on a tree of a peculiar kind... .The women 
carry the swords for the purpose of frightening the evil spirits, 
otherwise the latter might get hold of the placenta and make the 
child sick. Mr C. H. Pleyte, lecturer on Indonesian Ethnology 
in the Gymnasium William III, at Batavia, who has most 
courteously furnished me with some interesting information on 
this subject, states that it is especially in the Southern Moluccas 
that the placenta is mixed with ashes and hung on a tree. 
Widespread is the custom of placing the after-birth on a small 
baraboo-raft on a river, 'in order that it may be caught by 
crocodiles, incarnations of the ancestors, who will guard it till 
the person to whom it has belonged dies : then the soul of the 
placenta is once more united with that of the dead man and 
together they go to the realms of the dead. During lifetime the 
connection between men and their placentas is never withdrawn.' " 

P. 97. Twins in Angola. 

We add here an interesting statement with reference to Twins 
in Bihe (Angola) from that charming missionary book by Mr 
Crawford, entitled Thinking Black. 

P. 72. " Enters a young slip of a girl who has been beaten 
for no fault of hers, yet never a tear does she shed : no tears, 
mark you, and no crime did she commit. On plying them with 
questions, I find that far from her innocence being conjectured 
they bluntly admit she did nothing worthy of stripes. Yet she 
got them all, forty plus more, and the curiously candid confession 
is that because she was innocent therefore was she beaten with 
many stripes. It now comes out that the African can wriggle out of 
even this injustice, the explanation being that the girl is a twin, 
and as her sister did the deed they must be beaten in pairs ; not 
either nor neither but both or none. Twins they were born, and 
twins they live and die. So mad are the Africans on this twiu- 
subject that even when Miss First gets married, the bridegroom 
is forced to marry her twin-sister, Miss Second, on the same day. 
(Although these sisters are slim little things, yet literally their 



400 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

names are Miss Elephant and Miss Hippo, all twins being forced 
to take these two traditional titles.) There was a case here 
where twin-brothers were forced to marry the same lady, so 
inexorably operates this dogging law. Right up from birth, 
each has ever haunted the other, their food being scrupulously 
divided into two, the twin bairns with twin portions. 

" In proffering them a gift you must sternly make it a two- 
handed one, simultaneously holding out both arms to both 
recipients. When a twin sickens mortally no doctor may be 
called, nor any medicine administered, all moaning being de- 
precated. God, they say, did this deed of creating 'terrible 
twins,' and God must kill or cure them. The only way to wish 
them well is by cursing them, and these cursings the complacent 
twins receive as choice compliments. The hapless father and 
mother get likewise all the town abuse, each vituperation being 
a sort of upside-down blessing." 

P. 109. Twins among the Akikuyu. 

The statement about the Akikuyu can be supported and 
extended by a reference to Hildebrandt, Ethnographische Notizen 
ilber Wakamba und ihre Nachharn: Z. fiir Ethn. x. 1875, where 
we find that " Children who are born in an unusual position, the 
second-born of twins, and children whose upper teeth appear 
before the lower, are... exposed by the Akikuyu." 

Here nothing is said about repeated twin-birth : apparently 
the Routledges have misunderstood a statement about the 
second-born of twins, the extra child who makes the troubla 
This explains also the sentence in which the Routledges speak 
of the bad luck attaching possibly only to the last one of a pair 
of twins. 

P. ] 28. Twins on Lake Chad. 

It appears that twins are considered lucky among the 
Buduna. In Olive Macleod's book, The Buduna on Lake Chad, 
it is stated that " a man gives his wife a cow at the birth of each 
child, and at the birth of twins prayers are offered, and there is 
great rejoicing." 

The prayers suggest the averting of evil that may still be 
associated with the thought of twins. 

P. 129. Malagasy Superstitions re launder and Tivins. 

While these pages are passing through the press, I have 
received a number of valuable notes from my friend Dr Standing, 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 401 

•who has discovered the Thunder-bird in the form of a cock, and 
has also come across a trace of the twin town. As these are very 
important additions to our knowledge, I transcribe some of his 
observations, with occasional reference to corresponding pages of 
the present work. 

In the central province of Madagascar it is, believed that 
when the lightning strikes it takes the form of a cock. (See 
pp. 27, 29.) 

The primitive native houses of the better class were usually 
adorned with two long poles or " horns " over each gable. It was 
frequently the practice to place a small image of a bird near the 
end of each of these horns. (See p. 39.) 

Twins are universally considered unlucky in Madagascar. It 
was formerly the practice to put one or both of them to death. 
The reason given by the Sakalava for killing girl twins is the 
fear lest, if allowed to live, they should again give birth to twins, 
and so perpetuate the ill-luck. 

A boy and girl twin are considered specially unlucky, such 
infants being regarded as immoral. (See p. 173.) 

The name Twin-town (Ambohikambana) certainly exists in 
Imerina, though I am unable, without further enquiry, to explain 
the origin of the name. (See pp. 56, 57, 317, 325.) 

Eggs with double yolks are considered unlucky. I have 
found such offered in sacrifice at a sacred shrine. A similar 
superstition exists with regard to twin-fruits. A native woman 
admonished my wife not to eat a twin-fruit "lest she should 
bear twins." (See p. 129.) 

P. 139. Hie Peruvian Sons of Thunder. 

Brinton : Myths of the New World. New Y ork. 1868. p. 1 5 2 . 

"Throughout the realm of the Incas the Peruvians vener- 
ated a creator of all things, maker of heaven and earth, and 
ruler of the firmament, the god of Ataguju. The legend was that 
from him proceeded the first of mortals, the man Guamansuri, 
who descended to the earth and there seduced the sister of certain 
Guachemines, rayless ones, or Darklings, who then possessed it. 
For this crime they destroyed him, but their sister proved preg- 
nant, and died in her labour, giving birth to two eggs. From 
these emerged the twin brothers, Apocatequil and Piguerao. 
The former was the more powerful. By toucldng the corpse of 
his mother he brought her to life, he drove off and slew the 
Guachemines, and directed by Ataguju, released the race of 

H. B. 26 



402 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

Indians from the soil by turning it up with a spade of gold. 
For this reason they adored him as their maker. He it was, 
they thought, who produced the thunder and lightning by hurling 
stones with his sling ; and the thunderbolts that fell, said they, 
are his children. Few villagers were content to be without one 
or more of these. They were in appearance small, round, smooth 
stones, but had the admirable properties of securing fertility to 
the fields, protecting from lightning, and by a transition easy to 
understand, were also adored as gods of the Fire, as well material 
as of the passions. 

" Apocatequil's statue was erected on the mountains with 
that of his mother on the one hand, and his brother on the 
other. 

" In memory of these two brothers, twins in Peru were 
esteemed always sacred to the lightning, and when a woman or 
even a llama brought them forth a fast was held, and sacrifice 
offered to the two pristine brothers, with a chant commencing, 

A cliuchu cachiqui, 
i.e. thou who causest twins." 

Brinton refers for the myth of Apocatequil to LeAtre sur les 
superstitions du Ferou, pp. 25 sqq., and Montensinos, Ancien 
Ferou, chaps, ii, xx. 

P. 175. Tuoin-Murder in Folynesia. 

Ellis states definitely that twin-murder, at least the destruc- 
tion of one of the pair, was formerly common in Polynesia. 

Foli/nesian Researches, vol. i. p. 251 (1832). 

"The first missionaries have published it as their opinion that 
not less than two- thirds of the children were murdered by their 
parents. Subsequent intercourse with the people authorises the 
adoption of this opinion as correct. The first three infants, they 
observed, were frequently killed ; and in the event of twins being 
horn, both were rarely permitted to live." 

P. 183. TJie ill-luck of the twinning cow. 

This peculiar feature, which we discovered in the ancient 
Indian ritual, and of which traces remain in "Wales and in 
S. Africa to-day, can also be paralleled in France. Sebillot 
reports in his Folk lore de France (iii. 83) : " Dans le bocage 
vendeen une vache qui a plusieurs veaux d'une portee, doit etre 
vendue ou abattue, pour detourner le malheur de la maison." 

He referred to J. Baffie in Le Chasseur Frangais for June 1st, 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 403 

1904; and Jehan de la Chesnoye in Rev. des trad, populaires, 
t. XVIII. p. 463 ; which I have not been able to verify. 

P. 188. The Ndsatiya as Beak- men. 

The following reference to Monier-Wil Hams' Sa7iskrit- English 
Dictionary (Oxford, 1899) will throw some light on the meaning 
of Nasatiya. 

" Nasakya, any nasal sound : 

dual, the two Asvins ( = Nasatyau) L : 



Nasa-chinni, feminine, a species of bird with a divided beak, 
L," where the reference to L (lexicographers) denotes a word or 
meaning, which, though given in native lexicons, has not yet 
been met with in any published text. 

P. 192. T'/te Ndsatiya and the Hittites. 

For Winckler's discovery of the treaty (written in Babylonian) 
between the Hittites and Rameses the second, a summary state- 
ment may be found by Jeremias in Roscher, s.v. Ramman, The 
gods to whom reference is made in the treaty are described as 
follows : 

ilani (!) mi-it-ra-si-il ilani u-ru-w-na-as-si-el 
ilu (!) in-dar ilani na-sa-a (t-ti-ia-a) n-na, 

upon which Jeremias notes : 

"So! Mithra, Varuna, Indra (with determinative ilu as supreme god), 
and the Nasatiyai, i.e. the indogermanic supreme deities along with the 
Nasatiyai." 

P. 193. Kosmas and Damian on the Euphrates. 

The proof that Kosmas and Damian took charge of those who 
ventured into the rapids on the upper Euphrates, maybe confirmed 
by the observation that they exercised a similar function lower 
down the stream at Zeugma, where the road to the East was 
carried across the river on a bridge of boats : from this form of 
transit the name Zeugma is derived. There is a difference, 
however, between the risks run by the traveller who comes down 
the rapids from Egin on a Kellik, and the traveller who merely 
crosses the stream in a ferry-boat (as to-day) or on a bridge of 
boats (as formerly). The risk in the latter case is less, but not 
to be neglected, especially when the great stream is in flood. So 
the Twins were appropriately invoked at Zeugma. It is interesting 
to notice that when Justinian took the Twins under his protection 

26—2 



404 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

at Byzantium, he also extended his care eastward, and rebuilt 
the sanctuary at Zeuguia, which had fallen into decay. If we 
are right that this sanctuary at Zeugma is an ancient shrine of 
the Twins, at which travellers prayed when they crossed the 
stream, then we have one more centre of twin-cult in Asia Minor 
to add to those which we had already detected. 

P. 201. St Michael and the Tivins on the Bosporus. 

As the traditions gathered up by John Malalas are of great 
importance in proving that St Michael displaces the Twins, and 
particularly Pollux, I have written a special article on the subject 
of Twins in Byzantium, which will appear elsewhere. 

P. 214. 2%e Woodpecker as Boathuilder. 

That the Woodpecker is a boatbuilder comes out in a curious 
Singhalese story, according to which a Korawaka bird once 
brought sacks of betel nuts, gave them to a flock of geese to 
carry, and to put on board a boat which he had borrowed 
from the Woodpecker. The boat collapsed, and since then the 
Woodpecker has been searching for wood to make a new boat, while 
the Korawaka bird has been wailing over the loss of his betel 
nuts. See Indian Antiquary^ vol. xxxiii. p. 230. 

P, 219. Beth Saida as a place-name. 

We have indicated that the name can be best explained as 
the shrine of a god of fishing or hunting. It does not belong 
exclusively to the lake-shore. We find it not only in the trans- 
jordanic region, but even as far away as Adiabene the name can 
be traced, without any reason for supposing that it has been 
transplanted from the Gospels. Thus in the life of Sabriso of 
Beth-Koka, published by Mingana, we find (p. 262) that a saint 
named Maran-Ammeh cured a woman, troubled with a demon, 
from Beth §aida. No doubt other cases will be found. They 
can hardly all be reduced to the fishing category. 

P. 220. Sanchoniathon or Fhilo of Byblus. 

I have taken the text of Sanchoniathon, as transmitted by 
Philo of Byblus to Eusebius, without discussing the questions 
whether Sanchoniathon is mythical, or whether the legends are 
to be discredited. Sanchoniathon will probably survive the 
attacks made upon his existence and his integrity. For our 
purpose, the legends are almost as valuable, if they are from the 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 405 

notebook of Philo of Byblus, as if tliey came from an earlier 
Phoenician author. We simply transcribe them and interpret 
them, leaving the question of their literary origin or form to be 
discussed, and, if possible, settled by other people. 

P. 224. The Thehan Twins and the Argonauts. 

If Zetes the Boread, and his brother Calais, are not the same 
as Zethus and his twin-brother, it seems as if the framers of the 
Argonaut story had left out of their fabric a leading pair of 
twins. A reference, however, to Apollonius Rhodius will show 
Jason clothed in a robe upon which the Theban Twins are 
depicted, engaged in the building of the city\ They were not 
altogether forgotten ; perhaps Apollonius Rhodius had been 
struck by their absence and adopted this method of including 
them. 

P. 224. The twin-builders of Athens. 

Miss Harrison has pointed ouf^ that Athens, like Thebes, had 
a tradition of giant-builders. Pausanias described the fortifica- 
tion of the acropolis by the Pelasgians, under the direction of 
Agrolas and Hyperbios, who were said to have come from Sicily^ 
And it appears to be the same pair that are spoken of by Pliny, 
as having been the first to make brick-kilns and houses at 
Athens ; Pliny calls them Euryalos and Hyperbios ; and he adds 
the statement that they were brothers, which does not appear 
in Pausanias. The twins as brick-makers and city-builders 
have been sufficiently illustrated ; it is interesting to compare 
what Sanchoniathon says on the point : first of all he tells us 
that Chrysor, who is Hephaestus, had brothers who invented 
the art of building walls with bricks. Then he talks of two 
youths, named Technites and Geinos Autochthon, who found 
out how to mix stubble with clay, and to bake the constructed 
bricks in the sun ; they also invented the art of tiling. All of 

! Apoll. Rhod. I. 73G : 
"And there were the sons of Asopus' daughter Antiope set, 
Amphion and Zethus : and Thgbe, with towers ungirded as yet, 
Stood nigh them ; and lo ! the foundations thereof were they laying but now 
In fierce haste. Zethus liad heaved a craggy mountain's brow 
On his shoulders: as one hard straining in toil did the image appear. 
And Amphion the while to his golden lyre sang loud and clear, 
On-pacing: and twice so great was the rock that followed anear." 

(A. S. Way's tran.) 

2 Primitive Athens, pp. 24, 25, 3 Pausanias, i. 28. 3. 



406 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

the cases referred to appear to be cases of twin-cult ; and if this 
be correct, Athens had a pair of twin-builders very nearly on 
the Theban model. 

P. 229. Jason and Triptolemos as Ttoins. 

We have shown in chap, xxii that the Twinship of Jason and 
Triptolemos comes out incidentally in the fact that their names 
are alternative designations for the names Castor and Pollux, by 
which two leading Zodiacal stars are known. We have several 
times pointed out that the Zodiacal Twin-cult is the last stage of 
a long evolution, and that the two stars referred to have inherited 
their dignity from the Morning and Evening Stars, considered 
as Twins. Probably this is just as true of Jason-Triptolemos as 
of Castor and Pollux, in which case Jason will be the Morning 
Star, and Triptolemos his double. 

That we are not obliged simply to think of Triptolemos from 
the Attic point of view as the Holy Ploughman may be seen 
from another consideration. Philo of Byblus, as we have seen 
above^, reports Sanchoniathon as saying that the descendants of 
the Dioscuri, having constructed rafts and ships, put out to sea ; 
they were wrecked over against Mt. Cassius, and there they built 
a temple, which, as we have pointed out, must be a Dioscureion. 
Now we learn from Strabo^, that the Antiochenes were in the 
habit of going up to this very mountain to hold a festival in 
honour of Triptolemos. We can hardly separate this from the 
Dioscuric centre of worship of which Philo Byblius speaks : in 
other words, Triptolemos is a Dioscure, and his companion can 
hardly be any other than Jason. The result is interesting : we 
have almost taken Jason into Phoenicia ; at least we have found 
a Jasoneum in the Dioscureion on Mt. Cassius. 

The occurrence of a Jason cult in the neighbourhood of 
Antioch is surprising from one point of view : for in Antioch 
itself the Twins were revered as Zethos and Amphion, as we see 
from the erection of pillars in their honour by Tiberius, and from 
the existence of a priest named Amphion, whose name was, no 
doubt, theophoric. We can, however, see in another way that 
the Jason cult must have been at home in Antioch, from the fact 
that Domitian, when founding a temple of Aesculapius, and 
building public baths for the city, dedicated the baths to Medea, 
and set up her statue. Where Medea is proved to have been 
honoured, we need not be astonished to find Jason also revered. 

1 p. 220. 2 p. 175. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 407 

We have now found the twins three times over at Antioch, 
viz. : as Amphion and Zethos, on Mt. Cassius as Jason and 
Triptolemos, and implicitly in Antioch itself through the Medea 
cult. It is reasonably certain that Castor and Pollux must also 
be added, either in Antioch or in Seleucia. 

P. 235. The Hebrew Plough-Myth. 

It may, perhaps, be suggested that the Hebrews, entering 
Canaan from nomadic life, had no plough-myth. Even if this 
were so, they would incorporate the plough-myths of the settlers 
who preceded them, who were certainly not exterminated, just as 
they appropriated other forms of Canaanite folk-lore. 

P. 237. The Holy Ploughs of the Scythians. 

It would, perhaps, be more correct to say that the golden 
ploughs, etc. were laid up in the king's palace, which has sanctuary 
rights in days before the formal priestly sanctuary has been 
evolved : at all events, the language of Herodotus suggests 
something of the kind, tov h\ -^pvaov tovtov tov Ipov 4>^Xa(raov(TL oi 

P. 251. The Edessau Pillars. 

As any one can see from consulting the photograph of these 
pillars in Ctdt of the Heavenly Twins, these pillars are too lofty 
to be incorporated with a temple, in the sense that they are part 
of its framework. It may be interesting to register a few cases 
of these double (and triple?) pillars in ancient worship. 

We have alluded to Jachin and Boaz, the pillars in the 
Temple at Jerusalem : these were surmounted with capitals 
adorned with pomegranates, etc. The meaning of this is clear 
from the identification which we have made of the pomegranate 
(Rimmon) with the Thunder-tree. Of such columns supporting 
single pomegranates, there are examples in the museum at 
Carthage ^ 

These pillars appear again in the ideal temple of Ezekiel 
("pillars by the posts, one on this side and another on that side," 
Ezek. xl. 49). 

A. J. Evans notes a similar feature in the worship of the 
Arcadian Zeus: "the great Arcadian Zeus, whose only shrine 
was the oak-woods of Mt. Lykaeos, otherwise found his material 

1 Perrot and Chipiez, t. iv. Figs. 167, 168, pp. 324, 325, and A. J. Evans 
in Journal of Hellenic Society for 1901, p. 144. 



408 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

shape in the twin-columns that rose... in front of the mound that 
stood for his altar\" More exactly, the pillars were the material 
shape of the Sons of Zeus. 

Then we have the pillars of the temple of Paphos, as shown 
on the coins ; and a number of similar numismatic traces. 

P. 251. The Tudn-Pillars at Antioch. 

For the erection of these Twin-pillars by Tiberius we have an 
important statement from John Malalas (x. p. 160) as follows : 

^KTicre di Kal upbv ry Aiovvaij) Trpbs t(^ 6pei 6 aiirbs Ti^^pios ^affCKivs, ar-qcas 
Sijo ar-ffKai fieydXa^ rdv i^ ' Avribirrji yewrjOii'Twv AioffKOvpuv i^u tou vaoO, eli 
Tifx^v aiiTwv, 'Afi<piov6s re Kal ZifiOov. 

The description shows that the great Twin-pillars were in honour 
of the Theban Twins, that they were set up in front of a riewly 
erected Temple of Dionysos, and that they were not, architec- 
turally speaking, a part of that Temple. 

P. 252. 27ie Double Translations, in the Acts of Thomas. 

It is quite easy to show that the phenomenon of a double 
rendering, which meets us on the first page of the Greek Acts of 
Thomas, is characteristic of the whole translation. The instances 
are almost as frequent as the pages, and it is surprising that no 
one has noticed them. It would not be proper to take space in 
this book for making an exhaustive proof of the statement ; we 
must defer such an extended demonstration to the Introduction 
that we are hoping to write to the Syriac Acts. The proof will 
be cumulative and convincing. 

P. 2o5. Judas Thomas in Priscillian. 

There can be no doubt that Priscillian identified the Jude of 
the Catholic Epistles with Thomas of the Fourth Gospel, and 
made him the twin-brother of the Loi'd. The whole passage is 
as follows. Priscillian (ed. Schepss, p. 44, 1. 13) : 

" Ait Juda apostolus damans ille didymus domini, ille qui 
deum Christum post passionis insignia cum putatur temptasse 
plus credidit, ille qui uinculorum pressa uestigia et diuinae crucis 
laudes et uidit et tetigit ; prophetauit de his, inquid, septimus ab 
Adam Enoc, etc." 

Priscillian had no difficulty in combining the two ideas, that 
Christ was divine, and that he had a human twin-brother ! 

' This is from Pausanias, viii. 38, by way of Botticher, Der Baumkultus 
der Helleiien. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 409 

P. 255. On the likeness of Thomas and Jesus. 

Of the two classes of twins, to which we have made reference 
from the physiological point of view, one is marked by extra- 
ordinary resemblance between the twins ; and it is this class of 
twin that furnishes material for the ecclesiastical novelist who 
wrote the Acts of Thomas. For an instructive parallel where the 
names as well as the forms show the parallelism, we may take 
the case of the twin-brethren of Clement in the Clementine 
Homilies, where Clement says (xii. 8) : 

" Caesar himself gave a wife of his own family to my father, 
who was his foster-brother; and of her three sons of us were 
born, two before me, who were twins and veri/ like each other, as 

my father told me Of my brothers, one was called Faustinus, 

and the other Faustinianus." 

We may take as a parallel to these almost coincident names, 
the hagiologic Crispin and Crispian. 

P. 258. Aziz and Monim. 

Cumont, in Les Reliyions Orientales, p. 58, suggests that 
Aziz and Monim are commonly united in the inscriptions, and 
that they are fundamentally Arab. 

" Azizos et Monimos — 'Aziz et Moun'im — sont des appella- 
tions purement Arabes, inexplicable hors de I'Arabe... Azizos 
signifie le fort, le puissant, et Monimos le bon, le bienfaisant. 
Les deux personnages se trouvent souvent unis dans les inscrip- 
tions : le deus Bonus Puer Phosphorus ou Azizus Bonus Puer 
represente Azizos-Monimos et non Azizos seul." He means, if 
I understand him riglitly, that there are two Aziz deities, one of 
whom is called Monimos : but is the equation Monimos = Bonus 
so certain ? 

P. 269. Place-names in terms of the Lightning. 

We must examine, carefully the names of places and people 
which may betray Dioscurism by reference to tlie Lightning or 
the Thunder. Cases like Bne Baraq are obviously Dioscuric; but 
there are others where we cannot get beyond a suspicion. For 
example, there is a village near Aleppo, named El Buraq: is that 
a Lightning town % Mr Le Strange describes it in the following 
terms^: "There is a place of prayer where people go to pass the 
night ; they will see in sleep one who will say, ' Thy healing will 

^ Palestine binder the Moslems, p. 425. 



410 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

consist in such and such a thing,' or the one who appears will 
touch the sick part." 

Mr Le Strange does not seem to be aware that he is describ- 
ing Incubation as it was pra(3tised in the temples of Aesculapius 
and the Dioscuri. It seems likely that the village in question 
was, in ancient times, a shrine of either Aesculapius or of his 
companions the Sons of Thunder. Amongst personal names 
we have already referred to Hamilcar Barcas ; we might have 
coupled him with the Baraq of the Book of Judges. In the 
former case, it is generally explained as a term describing the 
rapidity of his military movements. A somewhat similar case is 
that of the Sultan Bajazet, who acquired the title of Yilderim, 
or "the Lightning," on account of his military prowess: Creasy, 
however, in his history of the Ottoman Turks ^, gives another 
explanation : he says that "according to some authorities it was 
from Bajazet's deadly rapidity in securing his accession by his 
brother' s death that he acquired the surname of Yilderim." This 
is much nearer Dioscurism than the former explanation. There 
is, however, so far as I know, no evidence that the brother was a 
twin. 

P. 270. Twins in the Transjordanic Region. 

In the country on the other side of Jordan we find a number 
of suspiciously dual formations in the names of places, for which 
no explanation has as yet been forthcoming. Such names as 
Mahanaim, Diblathaim, Kiriathaim are certainly dual formations. 
Diblathaim is peculiarly interesting because it occurs in the form 
Beth-Diblathaim, which very commonly connotes a sanctuary. 
One's first impulse is to correct the form to Dilbathaim, and 
explain the name by Babylonian influence, and the use of the 
term Dilbat to describe the morning and evening stars. Un- 
fortunately for this suggestion, the name Beth-Diblathaim is 
found on the Moabite stone, as well as in Jeremiah (xlviii. 22) 
and in Numbers (xxxiii. 47). 

Kiriathaim is easier to handle : it is exactly twin-town, and 
has an existing parallel in the town of Kuryateyn, between 
Damascus and Palmyra. But this does not necessarily mean 
twin-town in our sense of the word. 

P. 274, note, add: 

The editors observe that the Two Brothers are presumably 
the Dioscuri. 

1 p. 51. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 411 

P. 280. Inheritance in the Youngest Born. 

Among the Hos the youngest born male is heir to the father's 
property, on the plea of his being less able to help himself on the 
death of his parents than his elder brethren, who have had their 
father's assistance in settling themselves in the world during his 
lifetime. 

(Lieut. Tickell in Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, ix. 794 ; quoted in 
Spencer: Descriptive Sociology, p. 11.) 

P. 280. The Rule of Inheritance among the Khasis. 

This custom has a curious pai*allel, as we have said, amongst 
the Khasis of Assam. Here " All land acquired by inheritance 
must follow the Khasi law of entail, by which property descends 
from the mother to the youngest daughter, and again from the 
latter to her youngest daughter. Ancestral landed property must 
therefore be always owned by women \ The rule among the 
Khasis is that the youngest daughter 'holds' the religion.... Her 
house is called ' ka iing seng,' and it is here that the members 
of the family assemble to witness her performance of the family 
ceremonies. Hers is, therefore, the largest share of the family 
property, because it is she whose duty it is to perform the 
family ceremonies and propitiate the family ancestors." 

P. 284. Twin-apples calm the storm. 

The prayers that are chanted to the twin-apples are given by 
Sauve in Revue Celtique, vi. 81 £F. : 

"La race des charmeurs de vent n'a pas encore completement 
disparu. Conjurer les effets de la tourmente la plus implacable 
est pour eux un jeu d'enfant s'ils ont eu la precaution de 
mettre en reserve deux pommes jumelles etroitement unies et 
ayant conserve le lien unique qui les tenait suspendues au meme 
rameau. Si rare qu'elle soit, la chose n'est pas introuvable. Des 
que le vent commence a souffler en tempete, on retire de bahut 
du chene la petite boite qui renferme le talisman et on la depose 
sur la table. Au second coup de vent, on ouvre la boite, en 
faisant le signe de la croix. Au troisieme coup, on regarde 
attentivement les pommes, et, si elles remuent quelque peu, on 
se hate d'avoir recours a I'oraison que voici, 

Vent effroyable et dechaine, 

Par toi tout sera bouleverse. 

Ni dans la maison, ni au dehors, 

1 Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 82, quoted in Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 
p. 385 note. 



412 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

S6ret^ ne sera si tu continues, 
Et cependant, malgr^ tes menaces, 
Nous avons ici contre toi remede. 

Les assistants se passent alors de I'un a I'autre les deux pommes 
raerveilleuses, puis reprennent en choeur : 

Fruit bon et delicieux, 

Vous commandez an temps 

Aussi bien en ce pays qu'en tout quartier, 

Aux champs vous avez et^ form^. 

A la cime d'un arbre vous avez muri, 

Et tou jours vous avez pu faire la loi 

Au vent, si courrouc6 qu'il fut. 

A ce moment, les pommes circulent une seconde fois dans toutes 
les mains, apres quoi les voix s'elevent de nouveau : 

Au mois d'avril vous avez 6t^ en fleur, 

Au mois de mai, vous vous etes nou^ ; 

Vous avez traverse juin, juillet 

Sans 6prouver d'aucun vent dommage, 

Au mois d'aotit vous etes devenue rouge. 

En depit du vent maudit, 

Et en septembre, quand vous ^tes entre, 

Dans le main de I'homme vous vous etes jete. 

Ici encore le talisman fait le tour de I'assemblee, et I'oraison se 
termine ainsi : 

Maintenant done que nous avons le bonheur 
De vous posseder au milieu de nous, 
Nous demandons en votre nom 
A Saint Mathurin de Ponthon, 
Que d'une tourmente si impitoyable, 
Nous soyons comme vous preserves, 
Notre maison, notre grange et nos etables, 
Nos foins, le ble dans nos champs. 
Si tous (ces biens) nous sont conserves, 
Dans votre petite boite vous serez renferm^. 
Ainsi soit-il." 

P. 290. Judas Maccabaeus and the Dioscuri. 

If we have rightly shown that the Twin-children of the 
Thunder-god came to the protection of Judas Maccabaeus and 
the leadership of the revolting Jews, we have the interesting 
question raised, whether, in thus proving tlie persistence of the 
Dioscuric ideas among the Hebrew people, we have not found 
the clue to the meaning of the term Maccabee. The ancient 
interpretation of the word, as mejining Hammer or Hammerer, 
Avould be natural enough if Judas himself had been given a namfe 
implying the connection with the Hea,venly Twins, as Hammerers 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 413 

or Thunderers, and as having incorporated some of their potency 
in his own person. 

P. 298. Unity of Twin-Cult among Aryan peoples. 

The statement in the text, that the Aryan twin-cult should 
be regarded as a single cult, is premature, and the argument will 
require to be re-stated. It may be at once objected that even in 
Rome there are four separate twin-cults, Romulus and Remus, 
Castor and Pollux, Picumnus and Pilumnus, and perhaps Mu- 
tunus and Tutunus (not to speak of the Lares). It is not obvious 
that all these forms are reducible to a single origin. Why, then, 
it may be asked, should we assume parallelism between the Graeco- 
Roman worship of Castor and Pollux, and that of the Naharvali 1 

The answer appears to be that Tacitus, who may be assumed 
to be entirely free from the influence of our folk-lore speculations 
and deductions, has made the identificatiim for us, from the evident 
similarities in the two rituals. Whether, then, the Aryan twin- 
cults are reducible to a single original form or not, the two cults 
that we have been discussing must be recognised as closely 
related. 

P. 300. Dioscurism in the District of Picenum. 

It is interesting to observe that, in the famous diptych of 
Rambona, which belongs to the province of Picenum, the cruci- 
fixion is actually bordered at the foot with a representation of 
Romulus and Remus and the Wolf ! 

P. 312. The Leleges as Storks. 

Thompson (I.e.) says that Byzantios had already arrived at 
the equation between Leleges and Pelasgi. Creuzer also (Sym- 
bolik, HI. 217) has suggested that the Leleges were storks. In 
discussing the statement of the Samian chronicler Menodotus 
that the temple of Hera at Samos was built by the Nymphs and 
the Leleges, he thinks that the mythical character of the story 
would be evident, if we could regard the Leleges as symbolically 
under the name of Storks ! 

P. 312. Amphissa a Tioin-Town. 

The recognition of Amphissa as a Twin-town can be confirmed 
in the following manner. The eponymous hero or founder of Am- 
phissa is Amphissus, and if Amphissa is Twin-town, Amphissus 
should be a twin. Now according to the legends, Amphissus is 
the son of Dryope, whose father Dryops is the eponym of the 
Greek tribe the Dryopes, just as Amphissus is of the town 



414 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

Amphissa. How, then, does Dryope become the mother of 
Amphissus ? She is the daughter of Dryops, and Dryops is the 
Woodpecker. Of her Apollo became enamoured, and subsequent 
to her union with the god, she married Andraemon. We are 
expressly told that the result of her connection with Apollo was 
Amphissus. It is clear, then, that Amphissus was not only 
a twin, but a Heavenly Twin : and his mother was a woodpecker- 
maiden^. 

Almost every characteristic of the Twin-cult seems to be repre- 
sented in the story of Dryope and Amphissus, Sky-parentage, 
Holy tree, and Sacred bird. We need have no further hesitation 
that Amphissus was a twin, and that Amphissa was a twin-town. 

P. 318. The Kahiri in Miletus. 

We have suggested that the worship of Apollo at Branchidae 
was superposed on an earlier twin-cult. It is interesting to 
observe that in Miletus the ancient rites of the Kabiri were kept 
up till Roman times. There is an inscription of the first century 
A.D.^ in which a priest of the Kabiri prays the proconsul that the 
rites of these ancient deities may be kept up as aforetime : 

"KaiKLva JlaZToy avd6waTos 
MiKrjffluv dpxovai xitpeu'. 
'Evirvxe n.oi Ti/jLuv Mevi- 
ffTopos TToXelrrjs vfi^repov, 
iepeiis 6eQp a-e^aarQv Ka^ipuv 
airovfiepos to, irpoyoviKk 81- 
Kaia a Kai tois irpb avrov ffwu- 
pevaiv rjv ef idovs /ere. 

P. 320. Apollo and Artemis. 

It may perhaps occasion some difficulty that we speak of 
Apollo and Artemis as being in the series of the Sons of Thunder, 
when one of them is feminine ; and still more so when we suggest 
that at Delos they displaced a pair of Great Sisters, and not the 
Great Twin Brethren to whom we are most accustomed. How 
could a pair of such Sisters find a place in a Thunder-cult ? And 
how could a Brother and Sister Thunder come into being 1 In 
this connection we may remind ourselves that there was a 
feminine Goddess of Thunder, as well as a Zers Kcpavvios. Some- 

1 Not an oak-maiden, as A. B. Cook {Folk-Lore for 1904, p. 418) affirms, 
but an oak-bird. 

2 See Wiegand, Sechster vorlaufiger Bericht ilber Ausgrabungen in Milet 
und Didyma, p. 26. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 415 

times the male and female Thunder are invoked together, as in 
an inscription in La Bas-Waddington (n. 2739), 

KexoXcii/J-^vov tOxoi toD KepawioV 
av Tt[s] j3dX|; Kbwpia. 
KexoKuiJ.^vr]s rijxoi rrjf Kepawlas. 

(See Usener, Gotternamen, p. 36.) 

P. 321. Jason and Cory thus. 

The reference given to Servius, identifying Jasius as the son 
of Corythiis, while his twin-brother Dardanus is sprung from 
Jove, deserves a further investigation. For Corythus is the 
crested wren, and is a tire-bird, and probably a thunder-bird. 
We have explained that Jasius and Jasion are only modifications 
of Jason ; so that Jasius is either Jason or his twin-brother. If, 
then, Corythus is the Crested Wren, we have struck a fresh line 
of tradition, in which the Thunder is no longer identified with 
the Woodpecker, but with a much smaller bird. That Corythus, 
like Picus or Keleos, was known as King, appears from the 
survival of his cult in the modern practice of hunting the Wren 
as King on New Year's day. 

This raises a further question, more difficult to answer in our 
present state of knowledge.' What does Dardanus mean 1 We 
find him intruded into the Twin-cult along with Jason, in 
the Aegean Sea, perhaps at Samothrace, or in the Troad. Is 
Dardanus also the Thunder ? How is it to be proved, or 
disproved 1 

P. 326. Jason and Triptolemos as Sons of the 

Woodpecker. 

A similar origin for Triptolemos to that suggested in the 
text is given in Creuzer, Symholik, i. 152, from a Mythographus 
Vaticanus : "Eleusis ci vitas est Atticae provinciae, haud longe ab 
Athenis. In qua quum regnaret Celeus, et Cererem quaerentem 
filiam liberalissime suscepisset hospitio ; ilia, pro remuneratione, 
ostendit ei omne genus agriculturae ; filium eius Triptolemum, 
recens natum, per noctem igne fovit, per diem divino lacte 
nutrivit." 

Triptolemus is, in this writer's view, the son of the wood- 
pecker ; and we have already shown that the woodpecker is the 
Thunder, passim. Thus Jason and Triptolemus are a pair of 
Dioscuri or Boanerges. Now we see why the bright stars in the 
Zodiacal sign Gemini were known in certain quarters as Jasion 
and Triptolemus. 



416 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

P. 328. The Daughters of King Keleos. 

We learn from Pausanias (i. 38) that the first priestesses of 
Demeter at Eleusis were the daughters of King Keleos. They 
were named Me'Ato-crat, i.e. Bee-Maidens. Here again we have 
the connection between the Woodpecker and the bees brought 
out. It is the feminine parallel to the Kuretes as the first Bee- 
farmers. It is lawful to conjecture that these priestesses of 
Demeter were, in the first form of the cult, twin-sisters. 

P. 331. Names of the Woodpecker. 

Dr Feilberg kindly sends me the following Scandinavian, 
names for the Woodpecker. 

1 . Denmark. 

Sortspsette = picus martins (p.m.) 
gronspaette = picus viridis (p.v.) 
grSspsette = picus canus (p.c.). 
A popular name is Johan Lassen. 
In Jutland. 

flagspsette = flakspsette = flakstaer (p.v.). 
For all woodpeckers the name 

trapikku. 

2. Norway. 

Spsetr (Old Norse). 

Spetta X 

trepikka 

treklopp y Common names. 

vidkleppa 

kakspjot '' 

Gronspetta = p.v. 

Irtrusfugl} =P-°^' ^^(^^^'''"^"'^ ^^"1)- 

3. Sweden. 

Spatt or Spett. 
Skogskuarr, 
Gronspett or gronspik"! 
Goling or grongoling J 
SpelkrS,ka or Spillkr&ka = p.m. 

(Also known as traknarr.) 
Hackspett or Hackspik. 
Gjertrudsfugl = p.m. (?) 
The foregoing are interesting in view of what we have 
already collected in Yorkshire and elsewhere. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 417 

For instance the Scandinavian trepikka is clearly the same as 
the Yorkshire Pickatree. The Swedish hackspcett answers to the 
English hack and hatch. 

The forms Specht and Speight appear as Spcett and Spik in 
Scandinavian, which makes the fluctuations between Speeton and 
Specton intelligible, and shows in what direction we should look 
for the origin of the English name Speke. 

Flagspcette and Flakspcette mean the flecked or spotted 
Woodpecker. 

P. 332. Beowulf the Woodpecker. 

It may be asked whether the recognition of the Woodpecker 
as the Bee- Wolf may not lead us to the solution of the hitherto 
unsolved riddle as to the appearance of the Wolf as auxiliary 
parent in the story of Romulus and Remus. May it not be an 
artificial double of the bird, with whom it actually appears on 
the Roman denarii ? See the case figured by Miss Harrison, where 
the Twins and the Wolf in the foreground are accompanied by 
two Woodpeckers on the sacred tree (perhaps the Ficus Rumi- 
nalis) in the background. The objection to this explanation 
appears to be that the suckling wolf is a type that frequently 
recurs, with other animals, as mothers of exposed children; it 
would be unreasonable to imagine all these cases to be derived 
from the Roman Wolf : and if they exist independently, that 
Wolf belongs to that cycle of legend, and not to the woodpecker 
cycle. 

P. 337. Twins like and unlike. 

It is interesting to note the two divergent descriptions of the 
legendary twins in the same document ; when Ovid describes the 
birth of Romulus and Remus, he says almost in the same breath 
that the twins are equal and similar and that Romulus is the 
better man of the two : 

"At quam sunt similes! at quam formosus uterque ! 
Plus tamen ex illis iste vigoris habet." 

Fasti, II. 395, 396. 

P. 352. King Gargoris. 

It is not quite easy to attach an etymological meaning to 
Gargoris, but, perhaps, as he is the father of Bee-keeping, we may 
connect with yapyapa = (swarms), and call him King Swarm. 
Etymologies are, however, treacherous things. 

H. B. 27 



418 ADDITIONAL NOTES 

P. 352. The Cymbals as bee-charm. 

Lucan tells us in his Pharsalia (ix. 287 sqq.) that bees are 
chidden by the noise of the Phrygian brass and stopped from 
further flight ; the reference to the noise made by Phrygian brass 
is evidently to the cymbals of the Korybants in the worship of 
the Phrygian Great Mother. I do not, however, add this to the 
passage in Yergil, because Lucan is an imitator of Vergil and 
may have borrowed the figure from him. His exact language is 
as follows : 

Phrygii sonus increpat aeris, 
Attonitae posuere fugam, studiumque laboris 
Floriferi repetunt et sparsi mellis amorem. 

P. 354. Survival of Twin Fear in Mediaeval France. 

A curious case of the survival of Twin Fear, and of the 
explanation of twins by the supposed infidelity of the mother, 
will be found in one of the lays of Marie de France, entitled " Le 
Fraisne," or "The Ash-Tree." The original text may be found 
in Suchier, Biblioteca Normannica, vol. ill, pp. 54 sqq. The story 
opens by relating how two nobles lived near to one another, and 
the wife of one of them brought forth twins. At this the second 
lady was envious, for she had no child, and she commenced to 
slander the more fortunate mother of twin-boys. Having thus 
damaged her reputation, about a year later she herself produced 
twin-girls, and to avoid the reflex of her own thought, one of the 
girls she sent away and exposed in an Ash-Tree, at the gate of an 
Abbey. Here she grew up under pious care, and is known as 
Miss Ash. The story now lends itself to some pleasing matri- 
monial confusions. It can be read in English in a translation by 
Eugene Mason in Everyman's Library. The opening sentences 
of the French poem are as follows : 

Le Fraisne. 
En Bretaigne jadis maneient 
dui chevalier : veisin esteient. 
Riche hume furent e manant, 
6 chevalier pru e vaillant. 
Prochein furent, d'une cuntree. 
Chescuns femme aveit espusee. 
L'une des dames enceinta. 
Al terme qu'ele delivra, 
a cele feiz ot dous enfanz. 



Ele parle mult folement, 
e dist oant tute sa gent : 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 419 

' Si m'ait deus, jo m'esmerveil, 
u cist prozdum prist cest cunseil, 
qu'il a mand^ a mun seigneur 
sa hunte e sa grant deshonur, 
que sa femme a eiiz dous fiz. 
E 11 a ele sunt huniz. 
Nus savum bien qu'il i afiert : 
uniques ne fu ne ja nen iert 
ne n'avendra cele aventure, 
qu'a una sule porteiire 
une femme dous enfanz ait, 
se dui hume ne li unt fait.' 

P. 362. Wide diffusion of Jason Cult. 

The language of Strabo in reference to the prevalence of the 
Jason cult in Asia Minor is certainly remarkable. It is possible 
that he has included the Dioscureia in the Jasoneia, where we 
should have reversed the order. As to the actual existence of 
such cult-centres we have the evidence of Trogus (42, 3) that 
almost everywhere in the East divine honours were given to 
Jason, but that Alexander the Great, or his lieutenant^ suppressed 
the shrines : 

" itaque Jasoni totus ferme Oriens ut conditori diuinos honores 
templaque constituit, quae Parmenion, dux Alexandri Magni, 
post multos annos dirui iussit, ne cuiusquam nomen in Oriente 
uenerabilius quam Alexandri esset " ! 

P. 381. Tlie Bull-roarer in W. Africa. 

Mr P. Amaury Talbot, who is in the Nigerian Political 
Service, describes in his book In the Shadow of the Bush the 
country of the Ekoi tribes and their customs. On p. 284, in 
describing the secret societies of the natives, he tells us that in 
some clubs, the Enyara Akum, the dark things of the clubs, 
i.e. bull-roarers, are used. These were formerly only played in 
secret ; no woman was allowed to see them, or know the cause of 
the sound. "My wife," he says, "and her sister were the first 
women in this part of the world to whom the much prized secret 
was disclosed." 

The parallel with the Australian custom and its secrecy is 
very close. 

As the bull-roarer is connected with the thunder-cult it is 
interesting to note that, on p. 14 of the same book, the author 
remarks the occurrence of the double-axe among the Ekoi symbols. 



INDEX 



Abukir, 201 

Acosta, 10 n. 

Acts of Thomas, 193, 195, 245-7, 

250-5, 287 
A(?vins, 41, 186-90, 191 
Adad, 8 

Adams (Capt.), 53 
Agrieus, 218, 269 
Ahenobarbus, 46 
Ahts, 23 

Ainu, 160-2, 180, 181, 214 
Akikuya, 109, 400 
AkovievVe, 76, 77 
Aldridge, 79 
Alexandria, 199, 201 
Algonquins, 24 
Alkmena, 309 
Allen (J. H.), 241 
Amawanga, 119 
Amerinds, 142-51 
Amphiaraos, 225 
Amphidamas, 225 
Amphigeneia, 318 
Amphion, 224, 318 
Amphipolis, 318 
Amphissa, 312, 319, 413 
Amykus, 201 
Antiope, 309, 342 
Ao-nagas, 179 
Apis, 7 
Aponos, 82 
Arebo, 51 
Argenidas, 376 
Argo, 213, 335-6 
Argonauts, 159, 221-33 
Aristaeus, 355 
Aristophanes, 39 
Arnot, 87 
Aros, 61, 68 
Arpoxais, 237 
Arriaga, 9, 136, 137 
Aryans, 192 
Ashango Land, 81 
Askalaphos, 227 
Asklepios, 227 
Assam, 179 
Asterios, 224 
Atharva Veda (Twin-cult in the), 

183-5 
Australia (Twin-cult in), 176-8 
Axe-Bird, 211 



Aytoun, 91 
Aziz, 250-60, 409 

Badegas, 212, note 4 

Baganda, 123-5 

Bahima, 125 

Bakarewe, 29 

Bakena, 122 

Bali, 167 

Bana-ba-tilo, 4 

Bangala, 95 

Baraze, Padre Cypriano, 140 

Barber's pole, 91 

Barca, 6, 199 

Bar Hadad, 8 

Bari tribes, 126, 127 

Barkinon, 7 

Baronga, 4, 106 

Basoga-Batamba, 121 

Bassari, 72 

Bataks, 165, 166 

Batchelor, 180, 214 

Batito, 86, 91-4 

Baumann, 109 n. 

Bawenda, 106 

Bawumba, 95 

Bechuanas, 105 

Bees, 327-30, 348-53, 353-7, 417 

Ben Hadad, 8 

Benin, 50 

Bent, 105, note 1 

Bethsaida, 219, 270, 404 

Bismarck Islands, 173 

Blessing (see Cursing) 

Blinkenberg, 16, 48, etc. 

Blomert, 50 

Bloomfield, 183-5 

Bne-Baraq, 5, 199 

Boanerges, 1 

Boas, 42, 142 

Boaz {see Jachin) 

Boece, 239, 240, 241 

Boghaz Keui, 191 

Bolivia, 139 

Bonny, 53, 66 

Bosman, 51 

Bosporus, 201 

Brazilians, 24, 43, 141 

Brinton, 24 

British East Africa, 108, 109 

British Guiana, 134-6 



INDEX 



421 



Brown, Dr G,, 174 
Buduna, 400 
Bull-roarer, 397 
Burkitt, 251 
Burma, 165 
Burton, 82 

Cabiri (see Kabiri) 

Californian Indians, 142 

Callaway, 27, 32 

Cambodia, 165 

Cameron (Prof.), 117 

Cameroons, 81 

Camillus, 42 n. 

Campbell (J.), 105 

Caribs, 24 

Caroline Islands, 169 

Castor, 5, 9, 306 

Castor and Pollux, 223, 305, 391 

Catlin, 37 n. 

Cautes and Cautopates, 40, 374 

Central Africa, 110 

Chamberlain, 24 

Cherokees, 34 

China (Thunder-bird in), 15, 23 

Chiriguanos, 140 

Chorazin, 270 

Chuchos, 9 

Circe, 44 

Clerk, 72 

Condon, 121, 122 

Congo, 83-7, 91-7 

Cook (A, B.), 16, 39, 208, 354 

Corn Spirit, 19 

Corybantes {see Korybantes) 

Cosmas and Damian, 43, 91, 193, 

203, 403, 
Court St Etienne, 358, 359 
Crawford, 399 
Crete, 15, 209 
Crispin and Crispian, 203 
Cross River, 56 
Crotona, 45 
Crow (Capt. H.), 53 
Curi, 9 

Cursing by two fingers, 67, 315 
Cyrene, 6, 200 

Dakotas, 22, 23 

D'Alviella (Count Goblet), 358, 359 

Damara Land, 98 

Banks, 173 

Dapper, 50 

Dardanos, 320 

Decle, 105, note 1 

De Leon, 138 

Delessert, 173 

Delos, 320 

Delphi, 320 

D6n6 Indians, 20 



Deucalion, 224 
Dioscureia, 221 
Dioscuri, 4, 6, 9, 220, 284, 361- 

74 
Dirk^, 342 
Dolichenus, 43 
D'Orbigny, 139, note 2 
Du Chaillu, 81-3, 379 
Durand, 130, note 3 
Dyaks, 168 

Eastman, 22 

Eells, 24 

Edessa, 192-3, 250-64, 407 

Ehrenreich, 140, 155 

Ekoi, 419 

ElHs (W. Africa), 28, 69 

Ellis (Polynesia), 175 

Elmo (S.), 205 

Emin Pasha, 125 

Ephialtes, 309 

Esau and Jacob (Masai Story), 116 

Esau and Jacob, 275-80 

Eschlimann, 172 

Esquimaux, 24 

Essequibo Indians, 134 

Esthonia, 48 

Eukratides, 245 

Eusebius, 216-20 [see Philo Byblius) 

Eurydamas, 225 

Evans, 209 

Ewe tribes, 68, 76 

Fang tribes, 81 
Fasces, 89 
Feilberg, 11, 416 
Felchanos, 39 
Ferrand, 130, note 4 
Fick, 309-12 
F6-tribes, 73 
Frazer, 4 
Freer, 30, 217, note 1 

Garenganze, 87 

Gath-Eimmon, 5 

Gennep, 130 

German E. Africa, 109 

Gertrude's fowl, 36 n. 

Gilgake, 160 

Gilii, 132 

Girling, 86, 87, 91-4, 379 

Golahs, 78 

Gold Coast, 50, 77 

Goldie, 57, 58, 59 

Goodwin Sands, 202 

Gottschling, 106 

Grotefend, 230-2 

Guinea, Gulf of, 67 

Gurdon, 179 

Guyana, 133 



422 



INDEX 



Hadad, 8 

Hadad Ezer, 8 

Hagia Triada, 38, 209 

Halieus, 218, 269 

Harri, 192 

Harris (J. H.), 398 

Harrison (J. E.), 30, 90, 209, 350, 353 

Hays of Errol, 239-43 

Hazael, 8 

Hedad, 36, 394 

Hephaestus, 14 

Herakles, 223, 309 

Hereros, 98 

Hervey Islands, 175 

Hill-Tout, 144 

Hittites, 191 

Hobley, 119, 120 

Hoffmann, 24 

Hogarth, 191 

Hokusai, 30 

Holinshed, 239 

Hollis, 118 

Hollow Oak, 215 

Holy Spirit as Twin, 264 

Hommel, 115 

Honey, 356, 357 

Hottentots, 100, 102 

Howell, 94, 98 

Humboldt, 133 

Hurons, 21, 393 

Hyperasios, 224 

Hypnos and Thanatos, 308 

Hypsouranios, 217 

Ibeji, 68 

Ibn Abraq, 4 

Ibn Baraq, 269 

Ibos, 62, 66 

Igarras, 61, 65 

Ignace (Abbe E.), 43 

Illapa, 10 

Images of Twins, 69 

India, 182-90 

Indra, 41 

Inheritance of younger twin, 65, 411 

Iphikles, 223, 309 

Iphimedeia, 309 

Irle, 98 

Iroquois, 21, 151 

Ishogos, 81 

Isolation of twins, 98, 107, 149, 167 

Italmens, 163 

Jabal, 47 
Jachfn, 251 
Jacob (see Esau) 
Jaffa, 4, 5, 198 
Ja-Luo, 120 
James and John, 1 
Jasion, 229 



Jasios, 229, 321 

Jason, 221-33, 332-7, 338-43, 361- 

74, 406, 415 
Jasoneia, 221, 362, 419 
Jerome, 1 

Jesus (see Acts of Thomas) 
Jewett (J. E.), 149 
Johnson (Walter), 215 
Johnston (Sir H. H.), 108, 120 
Jubal, 47 

Judas Thomas (see Acts of Thomas) 
Junod, 4, 106 
Jupiter Capitolinus, 41 
Justin Martyr, 1 

Kabiri, 233, 414 

Kaffirs, 102 

Kalais, 225 

Kamschatka, 163 

Katanga, 87 

Kavirondo tribes, 119, 120 

Keleai, 322 

Keleos, 322, 325-32 

Kent, 202, 203 

Khasis, 179, 399 

Khurbet Ibn Baraq, 269 

Kidd (Dudley), 25, 102, 103 

King (Lieut.), 52 

King George's Sound, 173 

Kingsley (Miss), 56-9 

Klose, 72 

Kolaxais, 237 

Kolbe, 100 

Koler, 66 

Kolkar, 11 

Korybantes, 348-53 

Krascheninnikov, 161 

Kreusis, 201 

Kuni tribes, 173 

Kuretes, 349-53 

Kurile Islands, 161 

Kwakiutl Indians, 143, 282 

Lattuka, 126 

Leipoxais, 237 

Le Jeune, 21 

Leleges, 310-2, 412 

Lemnos (Jason in), 364, 365 

Leonard, 61-4 

Letteboer, 169 

Le Vaillant, 101, 134 

Liberia, 78 

Lightning-Sticks, 89 

Lillooet Indians, 22, 33, 147 

Locrians, 61-4 

Lucas (R. Clement), 305 

Lumbwas, 120 

Luncarty, 238-41 

Mabie (Dr Catharine), 97 



INDEX 



423 



Maccabees (Dioscurism) , 289, 290 

Macdonald (Major), 66 

Maeusis, 135 

Madagascar, 29, 129-31, 400 

Magungo, 125 

Mamre (Dioscurophany at), 300 

Manitoba Indians, 150 

Mannhardt, 297-303 

Marathon, 243 

Martron, 81 

Masai, 114-9 

Matabeleland, 103-5 

McTurk, 134, 135 

Medea, 368-72 

Meerwaldt, 166 

Melanesia, 174 

Melanippe, 309 

Melitene, 195 

Memphis (Twins at), 172 

Merker, 111, 115-9 

Messenians, 45 

Mexico, 152-4 

Michael, 201 

Mithra, 374 

Mithraism, 40 

Mockler-Ferryman, 59, 66 

Modigliani, 169 

Moffat, 27 

Mohalaka, 106 

Molz, 179 

Monbottuland, 126 

Monim, 250-60, 409 

Monrovia, 78 

Montagnais, 21 

Motolinia, 152 

Moxos, 140 

Muller (W. T.), 50 

Miiller, 136 

Nabu (Nebo), 261-3 

Nandi, 119 

Nasatiya, 188, 192, 403 

Nassau, 88 

Natal, 26 

New Guinea, 171 

Ngombe, 282 

Nias, 168 

Nootka Indians, 149 

Nyassa (Lake), 108 

Nyendal, 51 

Oak as Thunder-tree, 16, 392 

Ohoho, 73, 74 

Onitsha, 66 

Ophuijsen, 165 

Origen, 2 

Orinoco Indians, 132 

Ostia, 321 

Otus and Ephialtes, 309 

Ovid, 202 



Oxyrhyncus, 273 

Palestine, 198 

Paneas, 366-9 

Paraclete, 259-64 

Paris, 358 

Partridge (Major), 60, 68 

Pelasgi (S.), 311 

Pephnos, 323 

Persia, 191 

Peruvians, 35, 136, 401 

Philo Byblius, 216-20 

Phoenicia, 216-20 

Picenum, 38, 322 

Picumnus, 212 

Picus, 15, 44, 210, 268, 391 

Pious Feronius, 35 

Pilsudski, 160 

Placenta (of Twins), 126, 399 

Pollux {see Castor) 

Polynesia, 175 

Polynesians, 125, 402 

Pondoland, 26 

Porto Novo, 70 

Powers (S.), 142 

Promantheus, 14 

Prometheus, 14 

Qua Iboe (Eiver), 54 
Quetzalcoatl, 153 

Rainbow-taboo, 81 

Red for Thunder, 89, 396 

Eed Robes, 31 

Regillus (Lake), 46 

Reich, 117 

Remus {see Romulus) 

Rhodesia, 103-5 

Rimmon, 48, 395 

Riviero, 153 

Robin, 38, 395 

Romulus and Remus, 35, 206, 207, 

215, 307 
Roscoe, 122-5 
Roth (Ling), 53 
Rothbart, 38 

Routledge (Mr and Mrs), 109 
Rowan tree, 48 
Russwurm, 48 

Sabadios, 12 
Sabazios, 12 
Sabo Medicine, 78, 80 
Saghalien, 159 
Sagras (River), 45 
Sanchoniathon, 216-20 
Sandwich, 203 
Santiago, 10 
Scarphe, 230 
Schomburgk, 135 



424 



INDEX 



Schrader, 297, 301 

Scythia, 237 

Sebedei Stones, 11 

Shamgar, 243 

Shango, 28 

Sherbro, 79 

Shuswap Indians, 145, 282 

Sierra Leone, 79 

Sims (J.), 28 

Sinagolo, 171 

Skgomic Indians, 144, 283 

Slessor (Miss), 56 

Smith (J.), 67 

Smith (Kenred), 83-6, 378 

Smith (E. W.), 54 

Solar Twins, 159 

Spartans, 45-7 

Speeton, 325 

Speightstown, 325 

Spence (Lewis), 34 

Spieth, 76 

Squirrel, 180-1 

Standing, 129, 130 

Steggall, 118 

Sumatra, 168 

Swann, 110 

Sydyk, 220 

Symplegades, 159, 333-7 

Syrtis, 200, 203 

Taan, 25 

Teit, 34 n,, 37 n., 42 n. 

Thebes (Egypt), 273 

Thomas, 316 {see Acts of Thomas) 

Thompson Indians, 23, 34, 42, 146 

Thor, 13, 41 

Thoth, 273 

Thunder-axe, 16, 89 

Thunder-bird, 20-30, 209, 266-7 

Thunder-stone, 283, 284, 314 

Todas, 181 

Togo, 72 

Tomi, 324 

Tornow (Eobert), 354 

Torquemada, 152 

Triptolemos, 229, 322, 338-43, 406, 

415 
Tshi-speaking tribes, 70, 71 
Tsimshian Indians, 142, 282 
Tubal, 47 
Twin-cattle tabooed, 105, 139, 182-6, 

402 
Twin-heroes of N. and S. America, 

155-9 
Twin-houses, 80 
Twin kills Twin, 86 
Twin-names, 291-6 
Twin-pillars, 300 



Twin-priesthood, 80, 96 

Twins (names of), 73, 74, 80, 95, 

103, 112, 121, 126 
Twins and honey, 301, 302 
Twins and truth, 315 
Twins as ploughmen, 237-49, 328-43 
Twins as river saints, 196-8 
Twins buried at cross roads, 97 
Twins, children of thunder, 136 
Twins control weather, 142, 144, 

146, 147, 284, 411 
Twins in war, 313 
Twins quarrel, 96 
Twin-town, 56, 57, 64, 317-25, 410 
Tylor, 213 
Tyndareus, 9 
Tyndarides, 5 
Tyndaris, 5 

Usambara, 109 
Usener, 10 n. 
Uso, 217 
Uzza, 256-7 

van der Burgt, 111 
van Eerde, 168 
Vedas, 182-90 

Wace, 376 

Wadjagga, 111 

Waikas, 135 

Wakamba, 111 

Wales, 183 

Walking on sea, 286 

Wanyamwezi, 111 

Wanyora, 125 

Warundi, 111 

Waukonde, 108 

Wazaramo, 110 

Weber, 183 

White for lightning, 89, 396 

Williams (J.), 25 

Winckler, 191 

Wolf, 73 

Woodpecker, 209, 211, 212, 329-32, 

393, 404, 416 
Woodpecker and the plough, 344-7 
Wren, 392 

Yorubas, 28, 68 

Zabdai, 12, 389, 390 
Zebedee, 12 
Zebedee-stones, 11 
Zetes, 225 
Zethus, 9 
Zodiac, 18 
Zulus, 25, 27, 32 



cambbidoe: pbinteo by john clat, m.a. at the univebsity pbgss 



UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 
LIBRARY 




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Under Pat. " Ref. Index File." 
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