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FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
MACMILL.\N' AND CO., Limited
LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCLTTTA • MADRAS
MELEOCRNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
DALLAS • SAN FKANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lttx
TOKONTO
FOLK-LORE L\
THE OLD TESTAMENT
STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION
LEGEND AND LAW
EY
Sir JAMES GEORGE FRAZER
H05. D.c.i_, oxroav; hon. j-L-d., Glasgow; hok, litt.d., Durham
FELLXJW OF TKIKITV COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. Ill
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1919
COPYRIGHT
First Edition 1918
Rejirinted 1919 (fwice)
CONTENTS
PART III
THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES AND THE KINGS
{Continued)
CHAPTER XII
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD
The Keepers of the Threshold in the temple at Jerusalem
Modern Syrian superstition about treading on a threshold
Keepers of the Threshold at Peking in the Middle Ages .
Not to tread on the threshold of a Tartar prince's hut
Respect for thresholds of caliphs of Baghdad and kings of Persia
Respect for thresholds of Fijian chiefs
Respect for thresholds in Africa ....
Respect for thresholds among aborigines of India and the Kalmuks
Conditional prohibitions to touch the threshold
Practice of carrying a bride over the threshold
Practice of carrying a bride over the threshold among Aryan peoples
The practice not a relic of marriage by capture .
Sanctity of the threshold ....
Belief that the threshold is haunted by spirits
Custom of burying'the dead at the doorway
Stillborn children buried under the threshold to ensure rebirth
Abortive calves buried under the threshold in England .
Sanctity of the threshold and the theory of rebirth
Sacrifice of animals at thresholds
Brides stepping over blood at the threshold
Sacrifices to the dead at the threshold among the Bambaras
Sacrifices to the sun at the threshold among the Gonds
Sacrifices at the threshold among the South Slavs
Sanctity of the threshold in relation to spirits
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FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
CHAPTER XIII
THE BIRD-SANCTUARY
Birds nesting on the altars at Jerusalem .
Birds unmolested in the sanctuary of Apollo
Aesculapius and the sparrows
The Syrian goddess and the pigeons
Immunity of birds in sacred places
CHAPTER XIV
ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS
Elijah and the ravens at the brook Cherith
The scenery of the Wady Kelt, the traditionary Cherith
The ravens at Jerusalem
The ravens at the Dead Sea
Prophetic power ascribed to ravens
The sagacity of the raven
Popular respect for a raven in ancient Rome
The raven's power of imitating the human voice
The raven as a bird of prey
Hyenas revered as devourers of the dead in Africa
Kinship of men with beasts and birds of prey
CHAPTER XV
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
The oak and the terebinth in Palestine .
Three species of oaks in Palestine
The oak woods of Sharon, Tasso's Enchanted Forest
The oak woods of Zebulun and Asher
The oak woods of Banias at the springs of the Jordan
The oak woods of the Decapolis and Bashan
The oak woods of Gilead
The oak woods of Mahanaim. Absalom and the oak
The ruined castle of Hyrcanus
Veneration for oaks in Palestine .
Abundance of oaks in Palestine .
Sacred oak groves in Northern Syria
Sacred oaks beside the tombs of Mohammedan saints
The Wely or reputed tomb of a saint under a sacred tree
These shrines [Mtikdms) the real objects of worship in Palestine
Description of these shrines ....
CONTENTS
Mode of worship at the shrines .
Sanctity of the trees at the shrines
Antiquity of the worship at these " high places '
Modern examples of these local sanctuaries
Sacred oak trees hung with votive rags .
Daughters of Jacob associated with oaks .
Hebrew words for oak and terebinth
Terebinths in Palestine .
Sacred terebinths hung with votive rags .
The spirit or saint ( Wely) in the tree
The oak predominantly the sacred tree of Palestine
Worship of oaks denounced by Hebrew prophets
Bloody sacrifices to sacred oaks .
Bloody sacrifices to sacved trees in Africa
Jehovah associated with sacred oaks or terebinths
The oracular oak or terebinth at Shechem
The oak associated with the king
The oak or terebinth of Mamre .
The three angels worshipped at the tree .
The three gods in the holy oak at Romove
Church built by Constantine " at the oak of Mamre'
Annual festival at the terebinth or oak of Mamre
The end of the Jewish nation at the terebinth or oak of Mamre
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CHAPTER XVI
THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL
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The high places formerly legitimate seats of worship . . .62
Abolition of worship at the high places . . . . -63
Green trees a prominent feature of the high places . . .64
Wooded heights still seats of religious worship in Palestine . . 65
Sacred groves, relics of ancient forests, on high places among the Akikuyu 65
Sacred groves, relics of ancient forests, among the Mundas . . 67
Analogy of the grove deities to the Baalim . . . .68
Sacred groves, relics of ancient forests, on high places among the Afghans 68
Sacred groves, relics of ancient forests, on high places among the Cheremiss 69
The Baalim of Canaan probably old woodland deities . . -7°
The sacred pole [askerah) and its analogue in Borneo . • .70
CHAPTER XVn
THE SILENT WIDOW
Restrictions laid on mourners for fear of the ghost
Silence perhaps imposed on Hebrew widows
Silence of widows in Africa and Madagascar
viii FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Silence of widows among North American Indians
Silence of widows in some tribes of North Australia
Silence of widows among the Arunta of Central Australia
Silence of widows among the Unmatjera and Kaitish
Silence of widows and other female mourners among the Warramunga
Silence of widows among the Dieri ....
The motive for silence a fear of the ghost
Confirmation from position in which widow stands to her deceased husband'
younger brother ......
Similar customs and beliefs perhaps in ancient Israel
CHAPTER XVIII
JONAH AND THE WHALE
Jonah swallowed by a great fish and vomited up . . . .82
A New Guinea parallel to the tale . . . . -83
CHAPTER XIX
JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS
Assyrian settlers in Israel protected against lions by Israelitish priest . 84
In Celebes strangers employ native priests of the land . . -85
In Senegal the priesthood of Earth held by aborigines . . -85
Ceremonies for repression of tigers performed by aboriginal priests in India 87
Deities to be judged by the moral standard of their time . , .90
PART IV
THE LAW
CHAPTER I
THE PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY
Late date of Pentateuchal legislation in its present form . . .93
Law a gradual growth . . . . . . -93
Legislation and codification . . . . . -95
Many Hebrew laws older than the date of their codification . . 95
Historical reality of Moses, the founder of Israel . . . .96
Three bodies of law in the Pentateuch . . . . .98
The Book of the Covenant . . . . . -99
The Deuteronomic Code . . . . .100
CONTENTS ix
PAGE
Josiah's reformation : written code substituted for oral tradition . . loi
The religious effect of the substitution ..... 102
Date of the composition of the Deuteronomic Code uncertain . -103
Ethical and religious character of Deuteronomy . . . .104
Theoretical inadequacy and practical inconvenience of the one sanctuary . 105
Destruction of local sanctuaries perhaps regretted by the peasants . 106
The reformation powerless to avert the national ruin . . . .107
The second reformation after the Exile, resulting in the Priestly Code 108
CHAPTER II
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN ITS MOTHER S MILK
" Not to seethe a kid in its mother's milk " one of the original Ten Com
mandments .......
The original version of the Ten Commandments ...
Contrast between the ritual and the moral versions of the Decalogue
The ritual version the older of the two . . .
Suggested explanations of the command not to seethe a kid in its mother'-
milk .......
Aversion of pastoral tribes in Africa to boil milk for fear of injuring the
cows .......
The aversion based on sympathetic magic
Parallel superstitions as to oranges and lees of wine
Objection to boil milk among pastoral tribes of Central and East Africa
Traces of similar beliefs in Europe ....
The Hebrew command perhaps similarly explicable
The boiling of flesh in milk thought to injure the cows .
Other rules of sympathetic magic observed by pastoral peoples
Milk-vessels not to be washed with water
Pastoral Bahima will not wash themselves with water
Cows thought to be affected by the material of milk-vessels
Menstruous women not to drink milk for fear of injuring the cow^s
Menstruous women not to approach cattle among the Kafirs
Fear of tainting cows' milk with blood ....
Wounded men not to drink milk ....
Women in childbed not to drink milk ....
Milk of special cows reserved for mothers of twins and women with child
Women forbidden to milk cows in many African tribes
Women forbidden to milk cattle among the Todas
Women allowed to milk cows in some tribes
Mourners not allowed to drink milk ....
Widow given boiled milk to drink among the Bechuanas
Custom of boiling cow's first milk in certain cases
Persons in a kraal struck by lightning not allowed to drink miik .
Conjuring milk from cows among the Kabyles
Sexual intercourse forbidden while cattle are at pasture .
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Continence of sacred dairymen among tlie Todas .
Fresh milk drunk only by the young or very old .
Rules as to drinking cow's first milk after calving
Chastity of king's herdsmen and herdboy among the Banyoro
Sympathetic relation of king's herdboy to king
The use of sour curds among pastoral tribes of Africa
The use of butter among pastoral tribes ....
Objection of pastoral tribes to let milk touch flesh
Flesh and milk not to be eaten together in pastoral tribes
Jewish rule not to eat flesh and milk together
Vegetables and milk not to be eaten together in pastoral tribes
Pastoral tribes discourage agriculture for fear of hurting their cattle
Some pastoral tribes eschew the flesh of certain wild animals for fear
hurting their cattle ......
Aversion of pastoral tribes to game perhaps due to fear of hurting their
cattle .......
Pastoral tribes eat such wild animals as they think resemble cattle
Hebrew law of clean and unclean animals perhaps based on their supposed
likeness or unlikeness to cattle ....
Hebrew customs as to milk and flesh diet probably derived from pastoral
stage of society
Rules of pastoral peoples as to drinking milk intended to benefit the cattle
not the people .......
Rites of pastoral peoples in regard to cattle originally magical, not religious
CHAPTER III
BORING A servant's EAR
Boring the ear of a slave who refused to go free .
The meaning of the custom uncertain ....
Custom of piercing ears and wearing ear-rings in antiquity
Ear-boring from superstitious motives ....
Woman's ears pierced after the birth of her first child
Ears of child whose elder brothers or sisters have died are pierced in some
African tribes .......
Children whose elder brothers or sisters have died are thought to be ex
posed to special danger from evil spirits
I'recautions taken to guard such children by disguises, mutilations, bad
names, etc. ......
Precautions to guard such children in Annam and China .
Precautions to guard such children in Celebes and Borneo
New-born children ofi'ered to demons in Laos
Pretence of exposing children and buying them back from strangers to
deceive demons ......
Children, whose elder brothers or sisters have died, given to strangers to
bring up .
CONTENTS
African devices to save the lives of such chihiren
Siberian devices to save the lives of such children
Indian devices to save the lives of such children by giving them bad
names, boring their noses, etc.
Mock sales of such children in Assam
111 names given to such children in India
Exorcism employed to protect such children
Goats sacrificed as substitutes for such children .
Boring the noses of boys to disguise them as girls
Begging gold or rags for children whose elder brothers or si.siers have die<
Pretence of burying such children .
Leaving unshorn the hair of such children
Interpretation of African treatment of such children
African custom of boring the ears of such children
Other African devices to save the lives of such children
111 names given in Africa to children whose elder brothers or sisters hav
died .....
Such children buried in ashes or dung
Heads of such children shaved in peculiar ways .
Ears of such children bitten or cut
Bracelets and rings worn as amulets by such children
Special doorways cut for such children .
Faces of such children scarified .
Hottentot custom of amputating a finger-joint of a child whose elder
brothers or sisters have died ....
Conflicting accounts of mutilation of fingers among Hottentots .
Amputation of finger-joints of children among the Bushmen
Amputation of finger-joints of children in the Gaboon and Madagascar
Amputation of finger-joints of girls in Australia .
The amputated finger-joints thrown into the sea to make girls good fisher
women .......
Navel-strings of children thrown into the sea for the same purpose
Navel-strings of children hung on trees to make them good climbers
Australian amputation of finger-joints a magical rite
African amputation of finger-joints for other purposes
Amputation of finger-joints in Africa as a cure for sickness
Amputation of finger-joints for the benefit of others
Amputation of finger-joints for sick relatives in Tonga
Amputation of finger-joints for sick relatives in Fiji and
Amputation of finger-joints as a religious rite in Mysore
Various accounts of the custom .
The occasion of the amputation .
The scene of the amputation
Finger-joints of mothers amputated, ears of children bored
Substitutes for the amputation of finger-joints
Legend told to explain the origin of the custom .
The amputation of the mother's finger-joints perhaps a sacrifice to save
her child . . ' ,
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American
Amputation of finger-joints of sick people in Tonga
Sacrifice of finger-joints among the Mandan Indians
Sacrifice of finger-joints antong the Crows and other Indians
Sacrifice of finger-joints among the Blackfoot Indians
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning among the North
Indians ......
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning among the South
Indians ......
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning in Africa
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning in the Nicobar Islands
Notching house-pillar instead of destroying house in mourning
House destroyed or deserted after a death for fear of the ghost
Camp shifted after a death for fear of the ghost .
Nicobarese mourners disguise themselves from the ghost
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning in New Guinea
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning in Polynesia
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning in Fiji .
Sacrifice of foreskins in mourning in Fiji
Amputation of finger-joints in mourning perhaps a sacrifice to the ghost
Orestes and the Furies of his murdered mother .
Mutilating dead children whose elder brothers or sisters have died
Custom in Bengal of cutting off nose or ear of stillborn child after several
similar births ••....
West African custom of mutilating or destroying dead children whose elde
brothers or sisters have died ....
Idea of reincarnation associated with such mutilations
Bambara custom of mutilating dead children whose elder brothers or sister;
have died .......
These mutilations intended to induce the soul to remain in life at its nex
incarnation .......
Mutilation of dead children to prevent their reincarnation in Annam and
North America ......
Mutilation of living children, whose elder brothers or sisters have died
perhaps intended to prevent them from dying
Piece of child's ear swallowed by mother, perhaps to secure its rebirth ii
her womb .......
European treatment of children whose elder brothers or sisters have died
Pretended exposure and sale of such children in Macedonia
Devices to save the lives of such children in Albania
Russia ......
Expedient to save the lives of such children in Scotland .
Esthonian mode of burying such children
Saxon and German treatment of such children at baptism
Blood drawn from ears as offering to the dead
Pieces of ears cut off by mourners
Blood drawn from ears as an offering to the gods in Mexico
Ears and noses bored to secure happiness in the other world
Noses bored from superstitiovis motives in Australia
Bulgaria, and
CONTENTS
All customs of mutilating the human body probably originated in super
stition ......
Ears of animals cut off in sacrifice
Ewe custom to prevent a slave from running away
Magical intention of boring a servant's ear
Wolof custom of cutting the ear of a new master .
Intention of the custom perhaps to form a blood-bond
Toradja custom of burning the hair of a new master's child
Magical use of blood or hair in these customs
Toradja custom of cutting off a piece of a buffalo's ear to keep the buffal
from straying ......
Hebrew custom of boring a servant's ear perhaps a magical rile .
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CHAPTER IV
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Hebrew customs of cutting the body and shearing the hair in mourning . 270
Similar Philistine and Moabite customs . . . . .271
The customs forbidden in the Deuteronomic code . . .271
The customs forbidden in the Le\'itical code .... 272
Both customs common in mourning throughout the world . . 273
Arab custom of scratching the face and shearing the hair in mourning . 273
Similar mourning customs in ancient Greece .... 274
Assyrian, Armenian, and Roman custom of scratching faces in mourning . 274
Faces gashed and hair shorn by mourners among Scythians, Huns, Slavs,
and Caucasian peoples . . . . . -275
Bodies scratched and hair shorn by mourners in Africa . . . 276
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners in Indian tribes of North
America . . . . . . . . 277
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners in Indian tribes of South
America ........ 2S2
Bodies lacerated by mourners among the Turks and tribes in Sumatra, New
Guinea, and the New Hebrides ..... 283
Hair shorn and offered to the dead by mourners in Halmahera . . 284
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners in Tahiti . . . 285
Bodies lacerated by mAurners in Hawaii ..... 287
Bodies lacerated by mourners in Tonga ..... 288
Bodies lacerated in mourning in Samoa, Mangaia, and the Marquesas
Islands . . . . . . • .289
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners among the Maoris . . 290
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners among the Australian
aborigines . . . . . . • .291
Blood of mourners applied to the corpse or the grave . . . 296
Severed hair of mourners applied to the corpse .... 297
Bodies lacerated and hair shorn by mourners among the Tasmanians . 297
Body lacerated and hair shorn perhaps as disguise against ghost . . 297
xiv FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Fear of ghost shown in Australian mourning customs
Desire to propitiate ghost shown in Australian mourning customs
Offerings of blood and hair to the dead .
How the blood may be tliought to benefit the dead
How the hair may be thought to benefit the dead
Customs of cutting the body and shearing the hair in mourning evidence of
a worship of the dead ......
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CHAPTER V
THE BITTER WATER
§ I. The Ordeal of the Bitter Water in Israel
Hebrew ordeal for the trial of an adulteress
The mode of procedure in the ordeal
Probable antiquity of the ordeal ....
§ 2. The Poison Ordeal in Africa
The ordeal by drinking poison in Africa .
Bark of Erythrophleinn guineense used in the poison ordeal
Diffusion of the poison ordeal in Africa .
Different species of Erythrophleum in Africa
Diffusion of Erythrophleum compared with diffusion of the poison
The poison ordeal among the Balantes of Senegal
The ordeal among the Bagnouns of the Casamance River
The ordeal among the Sereres of Senegambia
The ordeal among the Landamas and Naloos of Senegal
The ordeal among the Mossi of Upper Senegal .
The water of the ordeal tinctured with sacred earth
Ordeal of poisoned arrows among the Kassounas-Fras
Use of a sacred bough to detect a culprit .
Ordeal of poisoned arrows among the Bouras
Use of a sacred bough and hair to detect a culprit
Corpse questioned as to the cause of its death
The poison ordeal in Sierra Leone
Clothes and nails of the corpse used in interrogatory
The red water .....
Comparison with the bitter water of the Hebrews
The poison ordeal in Liberia
The poison ordeal among the Kru negroes
Hair and nails of the corpse used in interrogatory
The poison ordeal among the Neyaux of the Ivory Coast
The poison ordeal on the Gold Coast
The poison ordeal in Togoland
The poison ordeal on the Slave Coast
The poison ordeal at Benin
Calabar bean in the poison ordeal in Southern Nigeria
ordeal
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CONTENTS
The poison ordeal at Calabar
Devastating effects of the ordeal .
Action of the poison on the human body .
The poison ordeal among the Kagoro of Northern Nigeria
General account of the poison ordeal in Upper Guinea
Intelligence ascribed to the red water
The poison ordeal on the Cross River in Cameroons
The ordeal among the Bayas of French Congo
The ordeal among the Fans of the Gaboon
Power of divination thought to be conferred by the poison
Personification of the poison
The ordeal among the Otandos of the Gaboon
The test of dropping poison in the eye
The poison ordeal in the Congo valley
The poison ordeal in Loango
The universal belief in witchcraft
Drinking the poison by proxy
Merolla on the poison ordeal in Congo .
Proyart on the poison ordeal in Loango and Congo
The poison ordeal in the Congo State
The two poisons employed in the ordeal in Loango
Superstitions about the poison-tree
The poison ordeal among the Bakongo
The ordeal among the Bangala .
The ordeal among the Ababua, Nyam-nyam, and Mambuttus
The ordeal among the Bambala . . . ,
The ordeal among the Ba-yaka, Ba-huana, and Bangongo
The ordeal among the Bashilange and Baluba
The ordeal among the Balunda .
The ordeal in Angola ....
The ordeal among the Songos of Angola .
General absence of the poison ordeal in South Africa
The poison ordeal among the Zulus
The ordeal among the Bawenda of the Transvaal
The ordeal among the Thonga
The ordeal in Sofala and Manica
The ordeal on the Zambesi
The ordeal in British Central Africa
The ordeal among the Tumbuka
Sorcery, poisoning, and cannibalism associated
The ordeal among the Awemba of Rhodesia
Ceremony at obtaining the bark from the poison-tree
Sorcery, poisoning, and cannibalism associated in Nyanja-speaking tribe:
of British Central Africa
The poison ordeal in these tribes
Native Nyanja account of the poison ordeal
The medicine-man's song
The ordeal among the Bantu tribes of German East Africa
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The ordeal among the Wafipa ....
The ordeal among the Wanyamwesi, Wagogo, and Wahehe
The ordeal among the tribes of British East Africa
Ordeal by drinking blood among the Masai and Suk
The poison ordeal among the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo
The poison ordeal among the Basoga
The poison ordeal among the Baganda
The poison ordeal among the Banyoro
The poison ordeal among the Wawira
The poison ordeal among the Gallas
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The Poison Ordeal in Madagascar
The poison extracted from the tagena tree
The procedure in the ordeal
Prayers addressed to the god in the poison
Animals as proxies in the ordeal .
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§ 4. The Poison Ordeal in India
Judicial ordeals in ancient Indian law
Various kinds of ordeal ....
The laws of Vishnu on the poison ordeal .
Prayer addressed to the poison .
Other ancient Indian accounts of the poison ordeal
Prayer addressed to the poison .
Aconite the poison employed in the ordeal
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§ 5. The Geographical Diffusion of the Poison Ordeal
The poison ordeal seemingly confined to Africa, Madagascar, and India
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§ 6. The Meaning of the Poison Ordeal
The poison ordeal apparently assumes the personality and intelligence of
the poison ........
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§ 7. The Drinking of the Written Curse
Written curses washed off into the bitter water
Practice of drinking water into which writing has been washed
The practice in Africa .....
The practice in Madagascar, Tibet, China, Annam, and Japan
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CHAPTER VI
THE OX THAT GORED
Homicidal ox to be stoned to death
Blood revenge extended by Kukis to animals and trees
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CONTENTS
Trees that have caused a death felled by Ainos
Homicidal weapons destroyed or rendered useless
River that has drowned a man stabbed by the Kachins
Homicidal buffaloes put to death in Malacca and Celebes
Arab treatment of homicidal animals
Punishment of worrying dog in the Zeitd-Avesta .
Trial of animals and things in ancient Athens
Trial of animals and things recommended by Plato
Trial and punishment of things in Thasos
Statues punished at Olympia and Rome .
Animals punished in ancient Rome
Trial and punishment of animals in modern Europe
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over wild animals and vermin
Mode of proceeding against animals in ecclesiastical courts
Examples of the prosecution of animals in Europe
Lawsuit brought by St. Julien against coleopterous insects
Lawsuit against rats at Autun
Proceedings taken by the Stelvio against tield-mice
Proceedings taken by Berne against vermin called inger
Proceedings against Spanish flies at Coire and leeches at Lausanne
Proceedings against caterpillars at Villenose and Strambino
Proceedings against caterpillars in Savoy .
Proceedings against anls in Brazil
Proceedings against rats and mice in Bourantou .
Trial and punishment of domestic animals by the civil power
Trial and execution of a homicidal sow at Savigny
Execution of sows at various places
Execution of other animals in France
Execution of a cock at Bale for laying an egg
Execution of dogs in New England
Animals cited as witnesses in Savoy
The bell of La Rochelle punished for heresy
The English law of deodand
Adam Smith on the punishment of lifeless objects
The primitive personification of things reflected in primitive law
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CHAPTER VII
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Jewish priest's robe hung with golden Jiells
Sound of the bells perhaps intended to drive off demons
Clash of bronze to drive away spirits in antiquity .
Use of church bells to drive away evil spirits
Longfellow on church bells in The Golden Legend
The Passing Bell ....
The Passing Bell rung to baaish demons .
446
446
447
448
449
450
451
xviii FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Dante on the Vesper Bell .....
Bret Harte on the Angelus .....
Renan on the bells of Rome and Venice ....
Importance of the emotional side of folk-lore
Church bells rung to drive away witches ....
The bellman and his benediction .....
Milton, Herrick, and Addison on the bellman
Church bells rung to drive away thunderstorms .
Consecration of bells : inscriptions on bells
Delrio on the consecration and ringing of church bells
Bacon on the ringing of bells in thunderstorms
Famous bells .
The bells of Caloto in South America ....
Bells used by the Bateso to exorcize thunder and lightning
Gongs beaten by the Chinese in thunder-storms .
Church bells thought by New Guinea people to ban ghosts
Bells used by the Pueblo Indians in exorcism
Gongs beaten by the Chinese to exorcize demons .
Bells used by the Annamese in exorcism ....
Religious use of bells in Burma .....
Bells and metal instruments sounded at funerals and in mourning among
primitive folk ......
Gongs and bells used in Borneo to drive off demons
Bells attached to an honoured visitor among the Dyaks .
Bells worn by priests in India and children in China
Bells worn by children in Africa to keep off demons
Bells rung to keep demons from women after childbirth .
The infant Zeus and the Curetes .....
Evil spirits kept off at childbirth by armed men among the Tagalogs of the
Philippines ......
Evil spirits kept off at childbirth by armed men among the Kachins o
Burma .......
Evil spirits kept off at childbirth by clash of metal, etc., among various
peoples .......
Precautions against Silvanus at childbirth among the Romans
Tinkling anklets worn by girls among the Sunare
Bells used by girls at circumcision among the Nandi
Bells used to ward off demons on the Congo and the Victoria Nyanza
Use of bells by priests, prophets, and medicine-men in Africa
Function of the Jewish priest's golden bells
INDEX .,..,... 481
PART III
THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES AND THE
KINGS
(CONTINUED)
CHAPTER XII
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD
In the temple at Jerusalem there were three officials, appar- The
ently priests, who bore the title of Keepers of the Threshold.^ fnh^^
What precisely was their function ? They may have been Threshold
mere doorkeepers, but their title suggests that they were some- [l^^^^^ ^t
thing more ; for many curious superstitions have gathered Jerusalem.
round the threshold in ancient and modern times.^ The
prophet Zephaniah represents Jehovah himself saying, " And
in that day I will punish all those that leap on the threshold,
which fill their master's house with violence and deceit."^
1 Jeremiah XXXV. 4,lii. 24; 2 Kings
xii. 9, xxii. 4, xxiii. 4, xxv. 18. In
all these passages the English Version,
both Authorized and Revised, wrongly
substitutes "door" for "threshold."
The number of these oflkials is men-
tioned in Jeremiah lii. 24, and 2 Kings
xxv. 18. That they were priests seems
to follow from 2 Kings xii. 9.
2 The fullest collection of such super-
stitions is given, along with some un-
tenable theories, by H. Clay Trumbull
in his book T/te Threshold Covenant,
Second Edition, New York, 1 906. See
also G. Tyrrell Leith in Patijab Notes
and Queries, ii. 75 •^^•. §§ 459. 460 ;
Ernst Samter, Ceburt, Hochzeii tmd
Tod (Leipsic and Berlin, 191 1), pp.
136-146 ; F. D. E. van Ossenbruggen,
" Het primitieve denken," Bijdragen
tot de Taal- Land- en Volkettkunde van
A'ederlandsch- Indie, Ixxi. (1915) pp.
211 sqq. As to the threshold in Ger-
man folk-lore, see C. L. Rochholtz,
Deutscher Glaube und Branch (Berlin,
1867), ii. 156 sqq.
3 Zephaniah i. 9. The , Revised
VOL. HI
Version wrongly renders "over the
threshold." The phrase is rightly
translated in the Authorized Version.
The English revisers and E. Kautsch
in his German translation of the Bible
(Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, 1894)
have done violence to the proper sense
of the preposition '75; (" upon "), appar-
ently for the purpose of harmonizing
the passage with 1 Samuel v. 5. S. R.
Driver also thought that the prophet is
here denouncing a heathen practice of
jumping over the threshold (note on
Zephaniah i. 9 in The Century Bible),
and Professor R. H. Kennett writes to
me that he inclines to take the same
view. Similarly W. Robertson Smith
held that the men whom the prophet
referred to were the Philistine body-
guards, who leaped over the threshold
in conformity with Philistine custom
(The Old Testament in the Jewish
Church, Second Edition, London and
Edinburgh, 1892, pp. 261 sq.). It
might be a nice question of casuistry to
decide whether a jumper who clears a
threshold has committed a more or less
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part in
Modern
Syrian
supersti-
tion about
treading on
a threshold.
Keepers
of the
Threshold
at Peking
in the
Middle
Ages.
From this denunciation it would appear that to jump on a
threshold was viewed as a sin, which, equally with violence
and deceit, drew down the divine wrath on the jumper. At
Ashdod the Philistine god Dagon clearly took a similar view
of the sinfulness of such jumps, for we read that his priests
and worshippers were careful not to tread on the threshold
when they entered his temple.^ The same scruple has per-
sisted in the same regions to this day. Captain Conder tells
us of a Syrian belief " that it is unlucky to tread on a
threshold. In all mosques a wooden bar at the door obliges
those who enter to stride across the sill, and the same custom
is observed in the rustic shrines," ^ These rustic shrines are
the chapels of the saints which are to be found in almost
every village of Syria, and form the real centre of the peasant's
religion. " The greatest respect is shown to the chapel,
where the invisible presence of the saint is supposed always
to abide. The peasant removes his shoes before entering,
and takes care not to tread on the threshold." ^
This persistence of the superstition in Syria down to
modern times suggests that in the temple at Jerusalem the
Keepers of the Threshold may have been warders stationed
at the entrance of the sacred edifice to prevent all who entered
from treading on the threshold. The suggestion is confirmed
by the observation that elsewhere Keepers of the Threshold
have been employed to discharge a similar duty. When
Marco Polo visited the palace at Peking in the days of the
famous Kublai Khan, he found that " at every door of the
hall (or, indeed, wherever the Emperor may be) there stand
a couple of big men like giants, one on each side, armed with
staves. Their business is to see that no one steps upon the
deadly sin than one who lights on the
top of it. In either case many people
will find it hard to understand the in-
dignation of the deity on the subject.
1 I Samuel v. 5. In the Babylonian
Talmud {'Abodak Zarah " b) jt is said
that " they let alone the Dagon [the
statue of the god] and worshipped the
inifta)i [the threshold], for they said his
princes [genius] had left the Dagon and
had come to sit upon the miftait."
And in the Palestinian Talmud {'Abodak
Zarah, iii. 42 '•^) it is said that they
revered the threshold more than the
Dagon (statue). See Martin A. Meyer,
History of the City of Gaza (New York,
I907)> P- 123 {Cohimbia University
Oriental Studies, vol. v.), from which
I borrow these references to the
Talmud.
- C. R. Conder, Heth and Moah
(London, 1883), pp. 293 sq.
3 C. R. Conder, Tent Work in
Palestine, NewEdition (London, 1885),
p. 306. As to these chapels see below,
pp. 39 sqq.
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 3
threshold in entering, and if this does happen they strip the
offender of his clothes, and he must pay a forfeit to have
them back again ; or in lieu of taking his clothes they give
him a certain number of blows. If they are foreigners
ignorant of the order, then there are Barons appointed to
introduce them and explain it to them. They think, in fact,
that it brings bad luck if any one touches the threshold.
Hovvbeit, they are not expected to stick at this in going forth
again, for at that time some are like to be the worse for
liquor and incapable of looking to their steps." ^ From the
account of Friar Odoric, who travelled in the East in the early
part of the thirteenth century, it would appear that sometimes
these Keepers of the Threshold at Peking gave offenders no
choice, but laid on lustily with their staves whenever a man
was unlucky enough to touch the threshold.^ When the
monk de Rubruquis, who went as ambassador to China for
Louis IX., was at the court of Mangu-Khan, one of his com-
panions happened to stumble at the threshold in going out.
The warders at once seized the delinquent and caused him
to be carried before " the Bulgai, who is the chancellor, or
secretary of the court, who judgeth those who are arraigned
of life and death." However, on learning that the offence
had been committed in ignorance, the chancellor pardoned
the culprit, but would never afterwards let him enter any of
the houses of Mangu-Khan.^ The monk was lucky to get
off with a whole skin. Even sore bones were by no means Capital
the worst that could happen to a man under these circum- JJ^^'t ^^
stances in that part of the world. Piano Carpini, who travelled treading
in Tartary about the middle of the thirteenth century, a few °h"reshoid
years before the embassy of de Rubruquis, tells us that any of a Tartar
one who touched the threshold of the hut or tent of a Tartar or tent.
prince used to be dragged out through a hole made for the
purpose under the hut or tent, and then put to death without
mercy.'* The feeling on which these restrictions were based
1 The Book 0/ Ser Marco Polo, ixz.ns,- ^ "Travels of William de Rubru-
lated by Colonel Henry Yule, Second quis," in John Pinkerton's General
Edition (London, 1875), i. 336. Collection of Voyages and Travels
2 Colonel Henry Yule, Cathay and (London, 1808-1814), vii. 65-67.
the Way thither (Hakluyt Society,
London, 1866), i. 132. The friar's * Jean du Plan de Carpin, Relation
travels began between 1216 and 1 218, des Mongoles on Tartares, ed. D'Avezac
and ended in 1230. ' (Paris, 1838), cap. iii. § 2.
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD
Respect
for the
thresholds
of the
cahphs of
Baghdad
and the
kings of
Persia.
Respect
for the
thresholds
of Fijian
chiefs.
is tersely expressed in a Mongol saying, " Step not on the
threshold ; it is sin." ^
But in the Middle Ages this respect for the threshold
was not limited to Tartar or Mongol peoples. The caliphs
of Baghdad " obliged all those who entered their palace to
prostrate themselves on the threshold of the gate, where they
had inlaid a piece of the black stone of the temple at Meccah,
in order to render it more venerable to the peoples who had
been accustomed to press their foreheads against it. The
threshold was of some height, and it would have been a crime
to set foot upon it."^ At a later time, when the Italian traveller
Pietro della Valle visited the palace of the Persian kings at
Ispahan early in the seventeenth century, he observed that
"the utmost reverence is shewn to the gate of entrance, so
much so, that no one presumes to tread on a certain step of
wood in it somewhat elevated, but, on the contrary, people
kiss it occasionally as a precious and holy thing." Any
criminal who contrived to pass this threshold and enter the
palace was in sanctuary and might not be molested. When
Pietro della Valle was in Ispahan, there was a man of rank
living in the palace whom the king wished to put to death.
But the offender had been quick enough to make his way
into the palace, and there he was safe from every violence,
though had he stepped outside of the gate he would instantly
have been cut down. " None is refused admittance to the
palace, but on passing the threshold, which he kisses, as I have
before remarked, he has claim of protection. This threshold,
in short, is in such veneration, that its name of Astane is the
denomination for the court and the royal palace itself" ^
A similar respect for the threshold and a reluctance to
touch it are found among barbarous as well as civilized
peoples. In Fiji, "to sit on the threshold of a temple is
tabu to any but a chief of the highest rank. All are careful
not to tread on the threshold of a place set apart for the
gods : persons of rank stride over ; others pass over on their
hands and knees. The same form is observed in crossing
1 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, ix2.i\s- s.v. "Bab," citing as his authority
lated by Colonel Henry Yule, Second Khondemir, in the Life of Mostasem.
Edition (London, 1875), '• 372- ^ Pietro della Valle, "Travels in
2 B. d^Yiexht\oi, Bibliofhegite Orien- Persia,"in J. Pinkerton'sC^we/'a/ Co//^^.
tale, i. (The Hague, 1777) p. 306, tion of Voyages and Travels, \x. 26, 't^i^
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 5
the threshold of a chief's house. Indeed, there is very Httle
difference between a chief of high rank and one of the second
order of deities. The former regards himself very much as
a god, and is often spoken of as such by his people, and, on
some occasions, claims for himself publicly the right of
divinity." ^ In West Africa " at the entrance to a village the Respect
way is often barred by a temporary light fence, only a narrow [^^Jshoid
arched gateway of saplings being left open. These saplings in Africa,
are wreathed with leaves or flowers. That fence, frail as it
is, is intended as a bar to evil spirits, for from those arched
saplings hang fetich charms. When actual war is coming,
this street entrance is barricaded by logs, behind which real
fight is to be made against human, not spiritual, foes. The
light gateway is sometimes further guarded by a sapling
pinned to the ground horizontally across the narrow threshold.
An entering stranger must be careful to tread over and not
on it. In an expected great evil the gateway is sometimes ,
sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificed goat or sheep." "
Among the Nandi of British East Africa, nobody may sit
at the door or on the threshold of a house ; and a man
may not even touch the threshold of his own house or any-
thing in it, except his own bed, when his wife has a child
that has not been weaned.^ In Morocco similarly nobody is
allowed to sit down on the threshold of a house or at the
entrance of a tent ; should any person do so, it is believed that
he would fall ill or would bring ill luck on the house.* The
Korwas, a Dravidian tribe of Mirzapur, will not touch the
threshold of a house either on entering or on leaving it." The Respect
Kurmis, the principal class of cultivators in the Central Pro- [^J^gg'^^i^j
vinces of India, say that " no one should ever sit on the among the
threshold of a house ; this is the seat of Lakshmi, the goddess ^ribes^oT
of wealth, and to sit on it is disrespectful to her." *" The India and
Kalmuks think it a sin to sit on the threshold of a door,
7 Kalmuks.
^ Thomas Williams, Fiji and the ^ W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of
Fijians, Second Edition (London, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh
i860), i. 233. (Calcutta, 1896), iii. 333.
2 R. H. Nassau, Fetichisin in West ^ R. V. Russell, Tribes and Casies
Africa (London, 1904), p. 93. of the Central Provinces of India
3 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi {OxtoxA, (London, 1916), iv. 89.
1909), pp. 17, 66. ^ Benjamin Bergmann, Nomadische
* Edward Westermarck, Marriage Streife7-eien unter den Kalrniiken (Riga.,
Ceremonies in Morocco {'London, 1914), 1804), ii. 264.
p. 220, note ^.
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
Condi-
tional
prohibi-
tions to
touch the
threshold.
Practice
of carrying
a bride
over the
threshold
at her first
entrance
into her
new home.
Practice
of carrying
a bride
over the
threshold in
Palestine,
China,
Russia,
Java, and
Africa.
In most of these cases the prohibition to touch or sit on
a threshold is general and absolute ; nobody, so far as appears,
is ever allowed to touch or sit on it at any time or under any
circumstances. Only in one case is the prohibition temporary
and conditional. Among the Nandi it seems that a man is
only forbidden to touch the threshold of his own house when
his wife has a child at the breast ; but in that case the pro-
hibition is not confined to the threshold but extends to every-
thing in the house except the man's own bed. However,
there are other cases in which the prohibition expressly refers
only to certain particular circumstances, though it might be
unsafe to infer that its scope is really so limited, and that
under all other circumstances people are free to use the
threshold at their discretion. For example, at Tangier,
when a man has returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, it is
customary for his friends to carry him over the threshold and
deposit him on his bed.' But from this usage it would be
wrong to infer that in Morocco, at all other times and under
all other circumstances, a man or a woman may be freely
deposited, or may seat himself or herself, on the threshold of
a house ; for we have seen that in Morocco nobody is ever
allowed under any circumstances to sit down on the threshold
of a house or at the entrance of a tent. Again, in Morocco
a bride at marriage is carried across the threshold of her
husband's house, her relatives taking care that she shall not
touch it.^ This practice of carrying a bride across the
threshold on her first entrance into her new home has been
observed in many parts of the world, and the custom has
been discussed and variously interpreted both in ancient and
modern times. It may be well to give some instances of it
before we inquire into its meaning.
In Palestine at the present time " a bride is often carried
over the threshold that her feet may not touch it, to do so
being considered unlucky." ^ The Chinese precautions to
prevent a bride's feet from touching the threshold are more
elaborate. Among the Hakkas, for example, when the bride
1 Edward Westermarck, The Moor- pp. 219 sq., 324; id.. The Moorish
ish Conception of Holitiess (iielsmg^oxs. Conception of Holiness, p. 134.
19 16), p. 134.
'^ Edward Westermarck, Marriage ^ C. T. Wilson, Peasant Life in the
Ceremonies in Morocco {X-on^on, 1 914), Holy Land {'LonAon, 1 906), p. 114.
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 7
arrives at the door of her husband's house, she " is assisted
from her chair by an old woman acting in the man's interests,
and is handed by her over the threshold, where is placed a
red-hot coulter steeped in vinegar." ^ The usage perhaps
varies somewhat in different parts of China. According to
another account, which probably applies to Canton and the
neighbourhood, when the bride alights from her sedan-chair
at the door of the bridegroom's house, " she is placed on the
back of a female servant, and carried over a slow charcoal
fire, on each side of which are arranged the shoes which were
borne in the procession as a gift to her future husband.
Above her head, as she is conveyed over the charcoal fire,
another female servant raises a tray containing several pairs of
chop-sticks, some rice, and betel-nuts." "' Among the Mord-
vins of Russia the bride is, or used to be, carried into the
bridegroom's house in the arms of some of the wedding
party.^ In Java and other of the Sunda Islands the bride-
groom himself carries his bride in his arms into the house.^
In Sierra Leone, when the bridal party approaches the bride-
groom's town, the bride is taken on the back of an old
woman and covered with a fine cloth, " for from this time she
is not allowed to be seen by any male person, till after con-
summation. Mats are spread on the ground, that the feet of
the person who carries her may not touch the earth ; in this
manner she is carried to the house of her intended husband." ^
Among the Atonga, a tribe of British Central Africa, to the
west of Lake Nyasa, a bride is conducted by young girls
to the bridegroom's house, where he awaits her. At the
threshold she stops, and will not cross it until the bridegroom
1 " Hakka Marriage Customs," mentioned by J. N. Smirnov in his ac-
China Review, viii. (Hongkong, 1 879- count of the marriage customs of the
1880) p. 320. Mordvins, thoughhenoticeswhathesup-
2 J. H. Gray, China (London, 1878), poses to be traces of marriage by capture
i. 205. Compare J. F. Davis, The among the people {Les Populations
Chinese, New Edition (London, 1845- Finnoises des bassins de la Volga et de
1851), i. 267, "The bride is carried /a A awa. Premiere Partie, Paris, 1 898,
into the house in the arms of the pp. 341 sqq.).
matrons who act as her friends, and * G. A. Wilken, " Plechtigheden en
lifted over a pan of charcoal at the Gebruiken bij Verlovingen en Huw-
door." elijken," De verspreide Geschrifteit
•^ Hon. John Abercromby, " Mar- (The Hague, 19 12), i. 498.
riage Customs of the Mordvins," Folk- ^ John Matthews, A Voyage to the
lore, i. (1890) p. 442. The custom River Sierra-Leone (London, 1791)1
seems now to be obsolete, for it is not p. 118.
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
Practice of
carrying
a bride
over the
threshold
among
Aryan
peoples
from
India to
Scotland.
has given her a hoe. She then puts one foot over the threshold
of the doorway, and her husband gives her two yards of
cloth. After that, the bride puts both feet within the house
and stands near the doorway, whereupon she receives a
present of beads or sonae equivalent.^
In these latter accounts the avoidance of the threshold at
the bride's entrance into her new home is implied rather than
expressed. But among Aryan peoples from India to Scotland
it has been customary for the bride on such occasions care-
fully to shun contact with the threshold, either by stepping
over it or by being carried over it. Thus, for example, in
ancient India it was the rule that the bride should cross the
threshold of her husband's house with her right foot foremost,
but should not stand on the threshold.^ Exactly the same
rule is said to be still followed by the southern Slavs at Mostar
in Herzegovina and the Bocca di Cattaro.^ Among the
Albanians, when the bridal party arrives at the bridegroom's
house, the members of it take care to cross the thresholds of
the rooms, especially that of the room in which the bridal
crowns are deposited, with the right foot foremost."* In
Slavonia the bride is carried into the bridegroom's house by
the best man.^ Similarly, in modern Greece, the bride may
not touch the threshold, but is lifted over it.*^ So in ancient
Rome, when the bride entered her new home, she was for-
bidden to touch the threshold with her feet, and in order to
avoid doing so she was lifted over it. In recording the
custom, Plutarch, like some modern writers, interpreted it as
a relic of a practice of forcibly capturing wives.^ A Cala-
^ Sir Harry H. Johnston, British
Central Africa (London, 1897), p.
413-
2 The Grihya-Siitras, translated by
H. Oldenberg, part ii. (Oxford, 1892)
pp. 193, 263 [The Sacred Books of the
East, vol. XXX.) ; M. Winternitz, Das
altindische Hochzeitsritiiell nach dem
Apastamblya - Grihyasutra (Vienna,
1892), pp. 23, 72 {Denkschriften der
Kaiser. Akademie der WissenscJtaften
in Wien, Philosoph.-HistorischeClasse,
xl.).
3 F. S. Krauss, Sitte und Branch
der Sildslaven (Vienna, 1885), pp. 430,
431-
* J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische
Studien (Jena, 1854), i. 146.
^ Ida von Diiringsfeld und Otto
Freiherr von Reinsberg - Diiringsfeld,
Hochzeitsbitch {LGi-psic, 1871), p. 84.
^ C. Wachsmuth, Das alte Griechen-
land ivi neuem (Bonn, 1864), p. 97.
'' Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae,
29 ; Catullus Ixi. 166 sq., with Robin-
son Ellis's commentary ; Plautus,
Casina, iv. 4. I ; Varro, cited by Ser-
vius on Virgil, Eclog. viii. 29 ; Lucan,
Pharsalia, ii. 359. Compare J. Mar-
quardt, Das Privatleben der RiJmer^
(Leipsic, 1886), p. 55.
CHAP, xii THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD g
brian bride at the present day is careful not to stumble on the
threshold when she enters her husband's house, for such a mis-
hap would be deemed of evil omen.^ In some parts of Silesia
the bride is carried over the threshold of her new home.^
Similarly, in country districts of the Altmark it is, or used to
be, customary for the bride to drive in a carriage or cart to her
husband's house ; on her arrival the bridegroom took her in
his arms, carried her into the house without allowing her feet
to touch the ground, and set her down by the hearth.^ In
French Switzerland the bride used to be met at the door of
her husband's house by an old woman, who threw three hand-
fuls of wheat over her. Then the bridegroom took her in his
arms, and so assisted her to leap over the threshold, which
she might not touch with her feet.^ The custom of carrying
the bride over the threshold into the house is said to have
been formerly observed in Lorraine and other parts of France.^
In Wales " it was considered very unlucky for a bride to place
her feet on or near the threshold, and the lady, on her return
from the marriage ceremony, was always carefully lifted over
the threshold and into the house. The brides who were
lifted w^ere generally fortunate, but trouble was in store for the
maiden who preferred walking into the house." ^ The usage
seems to have been similar in Lincolnshire, for we read that
" on this same bride being brought by her husband to his
home in Lincolnshire, at the end of the honeymoon, the
custom of lifting the bride over the threshold was observed ;
the bride and bridegroom got out of the carriage a few yards
from the house, and he carried her up the steps, and into the
hall." ^ In some parts of Scotland, as late as the beginning
of the nineteenth century, when the wedding party arrived
at the bridegroom's house, " the young wife was lifted over
1 Vincenzo Dorsa, La Tradiziotie Hochzeitsbtich (Leipsic, 1871), p. 106.
Greco-LatinanegliUsienelleCredcnze 5 i^a von Duiingsfeld und Otto
Popolari della Calal,ria Citeriore {Co- preiherr von Reinsberg-Duringsfeld,
senza, 1S84), p. 87. „ , , Hochzeilsbuch, pp. 251, 258.
2 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Branch und ^^
Volks<;laubeinSchlesien(l.^m%xc,ic)OZ- "^ Mane Trevelyan, Folk-lore and
1006) i 264 Folk-stones of Wales (London, 1909),
3 J.' D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen P- 273-
der Altmark (Berlin, 1839), p. 73. ^ Cotttity Folk-lore, v. Lincolnshire,
* Ida von Duringsfeld und Otto collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel
Freiherr von Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Peacock (London, 1 90S), pp. 233 j^-.
lo THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
the threshold, or first step of the door, lest any witchcraft or
ill ee should be cast upon and influence her." ^
improba- What is the meaning of this custom of lifting a bride
the'theorv °^^'' ^^^ threshold of her husband's house ? Plutarch
that the suggested that at Rome the ceremony might be a reminis-
thebdde cence of the rape of the Sabine women, whom the early
over the Romans carried off to be their wives.^ Similarly some
threshold , . , i i . ,i •, • i-
is a relic of modern writers have argued that the rite is a rehc or
marriage survival of an aucicnt custom of capturing wives from a
hostile tribe and bringing them by force into the houses of
their captors.^ But against this view it may be observed
that the custom of lifting the bride over the threshold can
hardly be separated from the custom which enjoins the bride
to step over the threshold without touching it. In this
latter custom there is no suggestion of violence or con-
straint ; the bride walks freely of her own accord into the
bridegroom's house, only taking care that in doing so her
feet should not touch the threshold ; and, so far as we
know, this custom is at least as old as the other, since it is
the one prescribed in the ancient Indian law-books,"* which
say nothing about lifting the bride over the threshold.
Accordingly we may conclude that the practice of carrying
a wife at marriage into her husband's house is simply a pre-
caution to prevent her feet from coming into contact with
the threshold, and that it is therefore only a particular
instance of that scrupulous avoidance of the threshold which
we have found to prevail among many races of mankind.
If any further argument were needed against bride-capture
1 James Napier, Folk Lore, or Super- and L. von Schroeder i^Die Hochzeits-
stitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland gebniiiche der ^j-/e«, Berlin, 1888, p.
-within this Century (Paisley, 1879), p. 92). On the other hand, it has been
51. CompareJ. G. Dalyell, 77^i? Z>«r/&^r rightly rejected by E. Tyrrell Leith
Superstitions of Scotland (Edinburgh, {Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. 76, §
1834), p. 291, "The bride was lifted 460), M. Winternitz (Das Indische
over the threshold of her husband's Hochzeitsrituell, p. 72), W. Crooke
house, in imitation of the customs of (" The Lifting of the Bride," Folk-lore,
the ancients." xiii. 1902, pp. 242 sqq.), H. C. Trum-
9 ™ . u .^ . r, bull [The Threshold Covenant, p. 36),
^ Flutarch, Quaest. Roman. 29. t- c- .. ,^-i tt 1. ■, j 4- j
' ^ ^ E. Samter {Geburt, Hochzeit und I od,
3 F. B. Jevons, PlutarcKs Roviane pp. 136 sqq.), and E. Westermarck
Questions (London, 1S92), pp. xcv. {Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, p.
The same explanation is favoured by 220 note ^).
Lubbock (Lord Avebury) (The Origin * The Grihya-Stitras. See above,
of CivilisatioJi,^ l^ondon, 1882, p. 122) p. 8 note -.
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD ii
as an explanation of the practice, it would seem to be
supplied by the marriage customs of Salsette, an island
near Bombay, where the bridegroom is first himself carried
by his maternal uncle into the house, and afterwards lifts
his bride over the threshold.^ As no one, probably, will
interpret the carrying of the bridegroom into the house as a
relic of a custom of capturing husbands, so neither should
the parallel lifting of the bride over the threshold be inter-
preted as a relic of a custom of capturing wives.
But we have still to ask, What is the reason for this The
reluctance to touch the threshold ? Why all these elaborate ^^0'^-^"'=^
■^ of contact
precautions to avoid contact with that part of the house ? with the
It seems probable that all these customs of avoidance are seems°to'^
based on a religious or superstitious belief in some danger indicate a
which attaches to the threshold and can affect those who srnctity
tread or sit upon it. The learned Varro, one of the fathers of the
of folk-lore, held that the custom of lifting the bride over
the threshold was to prevent her committing a sacrilege by
treading on an object which was sacred to the chaste
goddess Vesta.^ In thus referring the rite to a religious
scruple the Roman antiquary Varro was much nearer the
truth than the Greek antiquary Plutarch, who proposed to
deduce the ceremony from a practice, or at all events a
case, of capturing wives by force. Certainly in the opinion Sanctity
of the Romans the threshold appears to have been invested °hrl^^oid
with a high degree of sanctity ; for not only was it sacred to among the
Vesta, but it enjoyed the advantage of a god all to itself, ^°"^^"^-
a sort of divine doorkeeper or Keeper of the Threshold,
named Limentinus, who was roughly handled by the Chris-
tian Fathers, his humble station in life laying him open to
the gibes of irreverent witlings.^
Elsewhere the threshold has been supposed to be BeUef
haunted by spirits, and this belief of itself might suffice to [^resh^M
account for the reluctance to tread or sit upon it, since such is haunted
acts would naturally disturb and annoy the supernatural y^t*""^-
1 G. F. D'Penha, " Superstitions vh\s^nitatein calcent rem Vestae, id est
and Customs in Salsette," The Indian nianini castissimo, consea-atatn."
Antiquary^ xxvii. (1899) p. 117.
- Varro, cited by Servius on Virgil, ^ Tertullian, De Idolatria, 15;
Ed. viii. 29, " Quas [scil. sponsas] Arnobius, Adversus Natioves, i. 28,
etiam ideo limen ait non tangere, ne a iv. 9, 1 1 and 1 2 ; Augustine, De
sacrilegio iiu/ioarent, si deposititrae Civitate Dei, vi. 7.
12 THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
beings who have their abode on the spot. Thus in Morocco
people believe that the threshold is haunted by jinn, and
this notion is apparently the reason why in that country
the bride is carried across the threshold of her new home.^
In Armenia the threshold is deemed the resort of spirits,
and as newly wedded people are thought to be particularly
exposed to evil influences, they are attended by a man who
carries a sword for their protection and who makes a cross
with it on the wall over every door." In heathen Russia
the spirits of the house are said to have had their seat at
the threshold ; ^ and consistently with this tradition " in
Lithuania, when a new house is being built, a wooden cross,
or some article which has been handed down from past
generations, is placed under the threshold. There, also,
when a newly-baptized child is being brought back from
church, it is customary for its father to hold it for a while
over the threshold, ' so as to place the new member of the
family under the protection of the domestic divinities.' . . .
A man should always cross himself when he steps over a
threshold, and he ought not, it is believed in some places, to
sit down on one. Sick children, who are supposed to have
been afflicted by an evil eye, are washed on the threshold of
their cottage, in order that, with the help of the Penates
who reside there, the malady may be driven out of doors." ^
A German superstition forbids us to tread on the threshold
in entering a new house, since to do so " would hurt the
poor souls" ;^ and it is an Icelandic belief that he who sits
on the threshold of a courtyard will be attacked by spectres.^
In the Konkan, a province of the Bombay Presidency, it
is customary to drive iron nails and horseshoes into the
^ Edward Westeimarck, Marriage berg {^€\mzx, 1858), p. 146.
Ceremonies i7l Morocco ^O'CV^OX^flQXi,), s aj ir-mr ./i r-> i . i ir n
\ . i- t/> 5 Adolf Wuttke, Z>£rdfe?</j-<:/i£ Volks-
^^9 T.t ^ Ai_ 1- T^ ■ 1 abersrlazibe'^ (Berlin, 1869), p. -^72,
•^ Manuk Abeghian, Der armemsche 0^0 tt ■ c^■^ • .
„ „ , , ,T ■ • o ^ §605. However, in Silesia a contrary
y 0 Iksg/atioe (l^eipsic, 1899), p. 91. ,.,• • • . i, /
o T? ^ „^ .' ,/'' Y J superstition enioins you to be sure to
^ P. von Slenin, " Ueber den , ^ , ,,,,,111.
„.^ , , . r> , J ,> ^r z. tread on the threshold when you enter
Geisterglauben in Russland, Globus, , , •, • .1 1 . 1 .
, •■ I o ^ z: a new house ; lor it is thought that
Ivii. 1890) p. 269. , . -I, ,. • • .'
d 1X7- T> c r> 1 .. c j: ^1 otherwise you will not remain m tne
4 W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the , ' c d -r. u 1 c-./
„ . n .7 o ] T-j-.- ;t house a year, bee F. Drechsler, .i?//e,
Russian People, Second Edition (Lon- „ , ■' ■, jr ,, , , ■ c , , ■
, o > /- T c- Branch una Volks?laube in Schlesien
don, 1872), pp. I •^6 sq. In Sonnen- ,, . . 'V, ■•
, . u-ij I .u V • (Leipsic, 1903-1906), 11. 2 sq.
berg when a child has the cramp it is ^ 1 > ? j ? /. 1
laid on the door - sill. See August ^ F. Liebrecht, Zur Volksknnde
Schleicher, Volkstiiniliches aiis Sonne- (Ileilbronn, 1879), p. 370.
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 13
threshold at full moon, or on the evening of the last day of
the month, for the purpose of preventing the entrance of
evil spirits.^
Sometimes, though not always, the spirits who haunt Custom of
the threshold are probably believed to be those of the ^I^Jdefd
human dead. This will naturally happen whenever it is at the
customary to bury the dead, or some of them, at the door- ofT-hoLa.
way of the house. For example, among the Wataveta of
East Africa " men who have issue are as a rule interred at
the door of the hut of their eldest surviving wife, whose duty
it is to see that the remains are not disturbed by a stray
hyena. The Muinjari family and the Ndighiri clan, how-
ever, prefer making the grave inside the wife's hut. Women
are buried near the doo.rs of their own houses. People who
are not mourned by a son or a daughter are cast into a pit
or trench which is dug some little distance from the cluster
of huts, and no notice is taken even if a beast of prey should
exhume and devour the corpse." " Again, in Russia the Stni-born
peasants bury still - born children under the threshold ; ^ turkd^"
hence the souls of the dead babes may be thought to haunt under the
the spot. Similarly in Bilaspore, a district of the Central j^ Qj-der to
Provinces of India, " a still-born child, or one who has passed secure their
away before the Chhatti (the sixth day, the day of purifica-
tion) is not taken out of the house for burial, but is placed in
an earthen vessel (a gJiara) and is buried in the doorway or
in the yard of the house. Some say that this is done in
order that the mother may bear another child." * So in the
Hissar District of the Punjab, " Bishnois bury dead infants
at the threshold, in the belief that it would facilitate the
return of the soul to the mother. The practice is also in
vogue in the Kangra District, where the body is buried in
front of the back door." ^ And with regard to Northern
India generally, we read that "when a child dies it is
1 R. E. Enthoven, "Folklore of i^z/J^/a;; /\i'^//c.', Second Edition, p. 136.
the Konkan," The Indian Antiquary, * E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk-tales
xliv. (191 5), Snpplemeiit, p. 64. (London, 1908), p, 49 ; R. V. Russell,
- Claud Hollis, "Notes on the Tribes and Castes of the Central Pro-
History and Customs of the People of vinces 0/ India (L,OT\dor\, 1916), ii. 413.
Taveta, East Africa," Journal of the ^ Census of India, igii, vol. xiv.
^■(/WVaw i'ofiV/)', No. I (October, 1901), Punjab, Part i. Report, by Pandit
p. 121. Harikishan Kaul (Lahore, 191 2), p,
3 \V. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the 299.
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD
Abortive
calves
buried
under the
threshold
of the
cowhouse
in England.
usually buried under the house threshold, in the belief that
as the parents tread daily over its grave, its soul will be
reborn in the fainily." ^ A similar belief in reincarnation
may explain the custom, common in Central Africa, of
burying the afterbirth at the doorway or actually under the
threshold of the hut ; '" for the afterbirth is supposed by
many peoples to be a personal being, the twin brother or
sister of the infant whom it follows at a short interval into
the world.^ By burying the child or the afterbirth under
the threshold the mother apparently hopes that as she steps
over it the spirit of the child or of its supposed twin will
pass into her womb and be born again.
Curiously enough in some parts of England down to
modern times a similar remedy has been applied to a similar
evil among cows, though probably the persons who practise
or recommend it have no very clear notion of the way in
which the cure is effected. In the Cleveland district of
Yorkshire " it is alleged as a fact, and by no means without
reason or as contrary to experience, that if one of the cows
in a dairy unfortunately produces a calf prematurely — in
local phrase 'picks her cau'f — the remainder of the cows
in the same building are only too likely, or too liable, to
follow suit ; of course to the serious loss of the owner.
The old - world prophylactic or folklore - prescribed pre-
ventative in such a contingency used to be to remove the
^ W. Crooke, Natives of Northern
hidia (London, 1907), p. 202. A
somewhat different explanation of the
custom is reported by Colonel Sir R. C.
Temple {Panjab Notes and Queries, i.
123, § 925), "A case occurred in
Ambala Cantonments, in which a
humble couple, Jaiswaras, in, for
them, comfortable circumstances, were
arraigned for concealing the birth of a
child. It was found buried under the
threshold. It turned out that infanti-
cide was the last thing the parents
intended, for it was a first-born son,
and that the infant had died about nine
days after birth, and had been buried,
where it was found, in order that in
constantly stepping over it the parents
would run no risk of losing any sub-
sequent children that might be born.
They said it was the custom of the
caste so to bury all children that died
within fifteen days after birth."
- Fr. Stuhlmann, Mit Etnin Pascha
ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894),
pp. 391, 674 ; Emi7t Pasha iti Central
Africa, being a Collection of his Letters
and Journals (London, 1888), p. 84;
J. A. Grant, A Walk across Africa
(Edinburgh and London, 1864), p.
298 ; John Roscoe, The Northern
Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 43, 45,
123, 214, 282; C. G. Seligmann,
" Some Aspects of the Hamitic Prob-
lem in the Anglo -Egyptian Sudan,"
Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 658 sq.
^ See the evidence collected in The
Magic Art and the Evolutio}i of Kings,
\. 182-201 {The Golden Bough, Third
Edition, Part i.).
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 15
threshold of '.he cowhouse in which the mischance had
befallen, dig a deep hole in the place so laid bare, deep
enough, indeed, to admit of the abortive calf being buried
in it, on its back, with its four legs all stretching vertically
upwards in the rigidity of death, and then to cover all up
as before." ^ A shrewd Yorkshireman, whom Dr. Atkinson
questioned as to the continued observance of this quaint
custom, replied, "Ay, there s many as dis it yet. My au'd
father did it. But it's sae mony years syne, it must be
about wore out by now, and I shall have to dee it again." -
Clearly he thought that the salutary influence of the buried
calf could not reasonably be expected to last for ever, and
that it must be reinforced by a fresh burial. Similarly the
manager of a large farm near Cambridge wrote not many
years ago, " A cowman (a Suffolk man) lately said to me
that the only cure for cows when there was an epidemic of
abortion was to bury one of the premature calves in a gate-
way through which the herd passed daily." ^ The same
remedy was recorded more than a hundred years ago by an
English antiquary : " A slunk or abortive calf buried in the
highway over which cattle frequently pass, will greatly pre-
vent that misfortune happening to cows. This is commonly
practised in Suffolk." ^ Perhaps the old belief may have
been that the spirit of the buried calf entered into one of
the cows which passed over its body and was thus born
again ; but it seems hardly probable that so definite a
notion as to the operation of the charm should have survived
in England to modern times.
Thus the glamour which surrounds the threshold in Possible
popular fancy may be in part due to an ancient custom of of fl!r'°"
burying dead infants or dead animals under the doorway, sanctity
But this custom cannot completely account for the super- threshold
stition, since the superstition, as we saw, attaches to the ^|'"^ ^^^
thresholds of tents as well as of houses, and so far as I am rebirth,
aware there is no evidence or probability of a custom of
1 Rev. T- C. Atkinson, Forty Years ^ Rev. J. C. Atkinson, op. cil. pp.
ilia Moor/and Parish (Lox\(\ou, 1891), 62 sg.
p. 62. Compare County Folk-lore, ii. ^ Folk-lore, xvi. {1905) p. 337.
North Riding of Yorkshi?-e, Yor/c, and * Francis Grose, A Provincial Gloss-
the Ainsty, collected and edited by aty. New Edition (London, 1811),
Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), p. 68. p. 288.
i6 THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
burying the dead in the doorway of a tent. In Morocco it
is not the spirits of the dead, but the jinn, who are supposed
to haunt the threshold.^
Sacrifice of The sacrcdness of the threshold, whatever may be the
^hrShoids. ^xact nature of the spiritual beings by whom it is supposed
to be enforced, is well illustrated by the practice of slaying
animals in sacrifice at the threshold and obliging persons
who enter the house to step over the flowing blood. Such
Custom a sacrifice often takes place at the moment when a bride is
of brides about to enter her husband's house for the first time. For
stepping
over blood example, among the Brahuis of Baluchistan, " if they are
Se!"new^ folk of means, they take the bride to her new home mounted
home. on a camel in a kajdva or litter, while the bridegroom rides
along astride a horse. Otherwise they must needs trudge
along as best they may afoot. And as soon as they reach
the dwelling, a sheep is slaughtered on the threshold, and
the bride is made to step on the blood that is sprinkled, in
such wise that one of the heels of her shoe is marked there-
with. A little of the blood is caught in a cup, and a bunch
of green grass is dropped therein, and the mother of the
groom stains the bride's forehead with the blood as she steps
over the threshold." ^ So at marriages at Mehardeh, in Syria,
they sacrifice a sheep outside the door of the house, and the
bride steps over the blood of the animal while it is still
flowing. This custom is apparently observed both by Greeks
and Protestants.^ Similarly " in Egypt, the Copts kill a sheep
as soon as the bride enters the bridegroom's house, and she
is obliged to step over the blood flowing upon the threshold,
at the doorway." * Among the Madis or Morus, a tribe of
the Upper Nile, the father of the bridegroom constructs a
new hut for his son ; a sheep is killed at the door, and bride
and bridegroom enter over the body and blood of the animal.^
The custom is similar among the Latukas, another tribe of
the same region. A house is built for the wedded couple ;
a goat or a sheep is slaughtered, and over its blood the
* Above, p. 12. Bedouins and Wahabysi^oT\CiOx\,\^yS),
'^ Denys Bray, T/ie Life-History of i. 265 note"'*'.
a ^rrt/iMf (London, 1913), p. 76.
3 S. I. Curtiss, Priniitive Semitic ^ Robert W. Felkin, " Notes on the
Religiojt To-day (Chicago, 1902), p. Madi or Moru Tribe of Central Africa,"
204. Proceedings of the Royal Society of
* J. L. Burckliardt, Notes on the Edinburgh, xii. (1S82-1S84) p. 322.
CHAP. XII THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD 17
bridal pair pass into their new home.^ Among the Bambaras Sacrifices
of the Upper Niger sacrifices to the dead are generally ^° [JjJ'^^^^
offered on the threshold of the house, and the blood is threshold
poured on the two side-walls of the entrance. It is on the HaSras^
threshold, too, that the shades of ancestors are saluted by
the child who is charged with the duty of carrying the seed-
corn from the house to the field at the ceremony of sowing.'^
These customs seem to show that in the opinion of the
Bambaras the souls of their dead dwell especially at the
threshold of the old home.
Among the Gonds of the Central Provinces in India the Sacrifices
sun or, as they call him, Narayan Deo, is a household deity, ^^^^l^ the
" He has a little platform inside the threshold of the house, threshold
He may be worshipped every two or three years, but if a Qondf.
snake appears in the house, or any one falls ill, they think
that Narayan Deo is impatient and perform his worship. A
young pig is offered to him and is sometimes fattened up
beforehand by feeding it on rice. The pig is laid on its back
over the threshold of the door, and a number of men press
a heavy beam of wood on its body till it is crushed to death.
They cut off" the tail and testicles, and bury them near the
threshold. The body of the pig is washed in a hole dug in
the yard, and it is then cooked and eaten. They sing to
the god, ' Eat, Narayan Deo, eat this rice and meat, and
protect us from all tigers, snakes and bears in our houses ;
protect us from all illnesses and troubles.' Next day the
bones and any other remains of the pig are buried in the
hole in the compound, and the earth is well stamped down
over it." ^ Thus among the Gonds the sun is apparently
conceived as a guardian deity, who keeps watch and ward
at the threshold of houses to prevent the ingress of wild
beasts, sickness, and any other evil thing.
Among the South Slavs a sacrifice is sometimes offered Sacrifices
at the threshold on a different occasion. When children JJrShoid
have died one after the other in a house, and the priest is among the
reciting the funeral service in the parlour for the last departed, ^^l
the head of the house strikes off the head of a cock or of a
1 Franz Stuhlmann, Mit Emin star i. W., 1910), pp. 91, 234.
Pascha ins Hers von Afrika (Berlin, 3 r. v. Russell, Tribes and Castes
1894), pp. 790 sq. of the Central Provinces of India
' Jos. Henry, Les Bambara (Miin- (London, 1916), iii. loi sq.
VOL. Ill C
i8
THE KEEPERS OF THE THRESHOLD part hi
The
sanctity
of the
threshold
probably
derived
from the
spirits
which are
supposed
to haunt it.
cake on the threshold, buries the head under the threshold,
and lays the body on the threshold, in order that the priest, on
quitting the parlour, may step over it. The popular explana-
tion of the sacrifice is as follows : " The dead head under the
threshold, that the living (head) may remain above the
threshold ; but the body on the threshold is to take the
place of other bodies in the same house to which in future the
priest's robe would have come." ^ In other words, the sacri-
fice of the cock is vicarious ; the death of the fowl serves as
a substitute for the death of human beings who would other-
wise have perished in the house, and over whom the priest
would in due course have performed the funeral rites. On
the principles of popular superstition the explanation is prob-
ably correct ; for we shall see later on that repeated deaths
of children in a family are commonly set down to the malice
of demons, and many quaint devices are resorted to for the
purpose of balking the fiends.^
All these various customs are intelligible if the threshold
is believed to be haunted by spirits, which at critical seasons
must be propitiated by persons who enter or leave the house.
The same belief would explain why in so many lands people
under certain circumstances have been careful to avoid con-
tact with the threshold, and why in some places that avoid-
ance has been enforced by warders stationed for the purpose
at the doorway. Such warders may well have been the
Keepers of the Threshold in the temple at Jerusalem, though
no notice of the duties which they discharged has been pre-
served in the Old Testament.
^ F. S. Krauss, Volksglaiibe und re-
Ugioser Branch der Siidslaven (Munster
i. W., 1890), p. 154.
2 See below, pp. 169 sqq.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BIRD-SANCTUARY
In the eighty-fourth Psalm we read, " How amiable are thy Birds
tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even [heaitfrSat
fainteth for the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh Jerusalem.
cry out unto the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found
her an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she
may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my
King, and my God."
These words seem to imply that birds might build their Birds
nests and roost unmolested within the precincts and even J^n^the''^^'^'^
upon the very altars of the temple at Jerusalem. There is sanctuary
no improbability in the supposition that they were really ° ^° °'
allowed to do so ; for the Greeks in like manner respected
the birds which had built their nests on holy ground. We
learn this from Herodotus. He tells us that when the rebel
Pactyas, the Lydian, fled from the wrath of Cyrus and took
refuge with the Greeks of Cyme, the oracle of Apollo com-
manded his hosts to surrender the fugitive to the vengeance
of the angry king. Thinking it impossible that the god
could be so merciless, we may almost say so inhuman, as to
bid them betray to his ruthless enemies the man who had
put his trust in them, one of the citizens of Cyme, by name
Aristodicus, repaired to the sanctuary of Apollo, and there
going round the temple he tore down the nests of the sparro,ws
and all the other birds which had built their little houses
within the sacred place. Thereupon, we are told, a voice
was heard from the Holy of Holies saying, " Most impious
of men, how dare you do so ? how dare you wrench my sup-
pliants from my temple ? " To which Aristodicus promptly
19
THE BIRD-SANCTUARY
Sacred
sparrows at
Athens and
pigeons at
Hierapolis.
Free
entrance of
birds into
ancient
temples.
Immunity
of birds in
sacred
places.
retorted, " So you defend your own suppliants, O Lord, but
you order the people of Cyme to betray theirs ? " ^
Again, we read in Aelian that the Athenians put a man
to death for killing a sacred sparrow of Aesculapius." In
the great sanctuary of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis on
the Euphrates, the pigeons were held to be most sacred, and
no man might touch, far less molest or kill them. If any
person accidentally touched a pigeon, he was deemed to
be in a state of ceremonial pollution or taboo for the
rest of that day. Hence the birds became perfectly tame,
entering into people's houses and picking up their food
on the ground.^ We must remember that in antiquity
the windows of temples as well as of houses were unglazed,
so that birds could fly freely out and in, and build their
nests, not only in the eaves, but in the interior of the sacred
edifices. In his mockery of the heathen, the Christian Father,
Clement of Alexandria, twits them with the disrespect shown
to the greatest of their gods by swallows and other birds,
which flew into the temples and defiled the images by their
droppings.^ To this day in remote parts of Greece, where
windows are unglazed, swallows sometimes build their nests
within the house and are not disturbed by the peasants. The
first night I slept in Arcadia I was wakened in the morning
by the swallows fluttering to and fro in the dark overhead,
till the shutters were thrown open, the sunlight streamed in,
and the birds flew out.
The reason for not molesting wild birds and their nests
within the precincts of a temple was no doubt a belief that
everything there was too sacred to be meddled with or
removed. It is the same feeling which prompts the abori-
gines of Central Australia to spare any bird or beast that
has taken refuge in one of the spots which these savages
deem holy, because the most precious relics of their fore-
fathers are there deposited in the holes and crannies of the
rocks.^ The divine protection thus extended to birds in
the ancient world and particularly, as it would seem, in the
* Herodotus i. 157-159. ^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
2 Aelian, Vm: Hist. v. 17. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central
3 Lucian, De dea Syria, 54. Australia (London, 1899), pp. 134 sq.
* Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. As to these holy spots see above, vol. ii.
iv, 52, p. 46, ed. Potter. pp. 508 sq.
CHAP. XIII THE BIRD-SANCTUARY 21
temple at' Jerusalem, lends fresh tenderness to the beautiful
saying of Christ/ " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ?
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father." We may, perhaps, please ourselves by imagining
that these words. were spoken within the sacred precinct at
Jerusalem, while the temple sparrows fluttered and twittered
in the sunshine about the speaker.
1- Matthew x. 29.
CHAPTER XIV
ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS
Elijah fed
by ravens
beside the
brook
Cherith.
The brook
Cherith
tradition-
ally identi-
fied with
the Wady
Kelt.
The
scenery of
the glen.
According to the Hebrew historian, the first mission en-
trusted by God to the great prophet Elijah was to go to
Ahab, king of Israel, and announce to him that neither
dew nor rain should fall on the land for several years.
But having discharged his divine commission, the ambas-
sador of the deity was not left to perish in the long
drought. For the word of the Lord came to him, say-
ing, " Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide
thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it
shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook ; and I have
commanded the ravens to feed thee there." So Elijah went
and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And
the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening ; and he drank of the brook.
But it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up,
because there was no rain in the land.^
The brook Cherith has been traditionally identified with
the Wady Kelt, which descends eastward from the high-
lands of Judea and opens out on the plain of the Jordan
not far from Jericho. Whether the identification is historic-
ally correct or not, there can be no doubt that the scene is
eminently appropriate to the legend. The glen is one of
the wildest and most romantic in Palestine. It is a tremend-
ous gorge cleft through the mountains, shut in by sheer
precipices, and so narrow that the bottom scarcely measures
twenty yards across. There the stream forces its way
through brakes of cane, rushes, and oleanders, the strip of
' I Kings xvii.
22
CHAP. XIV ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS 23
verdure contrasting with the nakedness of the rocky walls
on all sides. In its depth and narrowness the ravine
reminds the traveller of the famous defile which leads
through the red cliffs to Fetra. A magnificent view into
the glen is obtained from some points on the road which
leads down from Jerusalem into the valley of the Jordan.
After traversing for hours the almost total desolation which
marks that long descent through the bare, torrent-furrowed
limestone hills, the wayfarer is refreshed by the sight of the
green thread far below, and by the murmurous sound of
water which comes up, even on autumn days after the parch-
ing drought of summer, from the depths of the profound
ravine. Peering over the giddy brink he may see ravens,
eagles, and huge griffon-vultures wheeling beneath him.
To this wild solitude, where water seldom fails through- The ravens
out the year, the prophet Elijah may well have retired to J"^^3°JJj.^''
wear out the years of drought which he foresaw and foretold, the glen.
and there he may have tarried with no neighbours but the
wild beasts and the wild birds. The glen and its inhabitants
can have changed but little since his time. The ibex still
haunts its rocks ; the kingfisher still flutters over its deep
pools ; the wild pigeon still nests in the clefts of the crags ;
and the black grackle still suns its golden wings above them.
But if the prophet was the first, he was not the last anchorite
who has sought a refuge from the world in the depths of
this savage ravine. Here and there, in seemingly inaccess-
ible situations, the face of the cliffs is pierced with caverns,
once the homes of pious hermits but now tenanted only by
ravens, eagles, and vultures.
The great gorge opens abruptly on the plain of the The view
Jordan through a natural gateway composed of a conical roadlt^the
peak of white chalk on either hand. Here a turn in the mouth of
road from Jerusalem suddenly unrolls one of the finest ^ ^^°'"S^-
panoramas in Southern Palestine, It is the point at which
the road begins to wind steeply down the last descent into
the plain. At his feet the traveller beholds a verdant forest,
its rank luxuriance fed by the water of the glen and by
some copious springs which burst from the limestone rock a
little farther to the north. That forest of living green, the
haunt of innumerable nightingales and of birds of gorgeous
The
ravens at
24 ELIJAH AND THE RA VENS tart hi
plumage — the Indian blue kingfisher and the lovely little
sun-bird, resplendent in metallic green and purple and blue
— occupies the site of Jericho, the City of Palms. Beyond
it stretches the long brown expanse of the desolate plain,
broken in the distance by a dark green line of trees, which
marks the deep bed of the Jordan. Still farther off rise the
verdurous wooded slopes of Moab, with the long, even range
of the mountains standing out sharp and clear above them.
To the north is seen Mount Ouarantana, the traditional site
of the Temptation, a conical hill ascending in rocky terraces
and crowned by a ruined chapel. Away to the south stretch
the calm blue waters of the Dead Sea shut in by its
desolate mountains. If, on quitting his hermitage in the
glen, the prophet Elijah set his face to go to Jerusalem, such
must have been the prospect which met his gaze, when, after
toiling up the steep winding path, he paused to rest and look
behind him, before continuing the long ascent to the city.^
The story of the feeding of Elijah by the ravens may
jerusaieiii. ^^'^11 \\-a.v& been suggested by the presence of the birds in
the Wady Kelt, for ravens, as we have seen, still make their
nests in the gorge and can be seen sailing above it. Indeed
the bird appears to obtrude itself on the attention of the
traveller all over the desolate region which extends from
Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, " Of all the birds of Jerusalem,"
says Canon Tristram, " the raven tribe are the most charac-
teristic and conspicuous, though the larger species is quite
outnumbered by its smaller companion, Corvus timbriniis.
They are present everywhere to eye and ear, and the odours
that float around remind us of their use. The discordant
jabber of their evening sittings round the temple area is
deafening. The caw of the rook and the chatter of the
jackdaw unite in attempting to drown the hoarse croak of
the old raven, but clear above the tumult rings out the rrtore
musical call-note of hundreds of the lesser species. We
used to watch this great colony as, every morning at day-
1 Edward Robinson, Biblical Re- Tristiam, The Land of Israel, Fourth
searches in Palestine, Second Edition Edition (London, 1882), pp. 194 sqq.,
(London, 1856), i. 557 sq. ; A. P. 501 ; C. R. Conder, Tent Work in
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine (Lon- Palestine, New Edition (London,
don, 1856), pp. 303 sqq.; W. AL 1885), pp. 2IO sq. ; K. Baedeker,
Thomson, The Land and the Book Syria and Palestine, Fourth Edition
(London, 1859), p. 622 ; IF B. (Leipsic, 1906), p. 126.
CHAP. XIV ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS 25
break, they passed in long lines over our tents to the north-
ward ; the rooks in solid phalanx leading the way, and the
ravens in loose order bringing up the rear, far out of shot.
Before retiring for the night, popular assemblies of the most
uproarious character were held in the trees of Mount Olivet
and the Kedron, and not until after sunset did they with-
draw in silence, mingled indiscriminately, to their roosting-
places in the sanctuary.
" Even at the south end of the Dead Sea, where the The ravens
ancient fortress of Masada overlooks a waterless, lifeless Dead Sea.
wilderness of salt-hills, the three species of raven were to be
found ; and during our sojourn under Jebel Usdum, the salt
mountain, we constantly saw the great ravens perched on
the salt cliffs ; though what, save a love of desolation, could
have brought them there, it were hard to guess. Once, on
the east side of the Dead Sea, close to a recent battlefield,
the sun was not above the horizon, when we watched a
steady stream of carrion eaters, who had scented the battle
from afar, beginning to set in from the south. ' Wheresoever
the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together,'
and the ravens also, for all the vultures, kites, and ravens of
North Arabia seemed to be rushing to the banquet." ^
But there was a special propriety in the employment of Prophetic
ravens to minister to the prophet in the wilderness ; for the ascribed to
raven has often been regarded as a bird of omen and even ravens,
as itself endowed with prophetic power. Thus the Greeks
esteemed the bird sacred to Apollo, the god of prophecy,
and Greek augurs drew omens from its croaking.^ More-
over, persons who desired to gain the power of divination
used to eat the hearts of ravens, believing that they thereby
acquired the raven's prophetic soul.^ The Romans thought
that a raven, stalking up and down on the sands and croak-
ing, was calling for rain.* In some parts of Europe the
raven is still deemed ominous of death.^ The Lillooet
1 H. B. Tristram, The Natural lore and Provincial Naines of British
History of the Bible, Ninth Edition Birds (London, 1886), pp. 89 sq.
(London, 1898), pp. 200 sq. •• The raven himself is hoarse
• Aelian, De nattira animalitim, i. That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
48. Under my battlements."
3 Porphyry, De absliiuiitia, ii. 48. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act i. Scene 5.
* Virgil, Geoi-gits, i. 3SS sq. Speaking of the " philosophick finan-
'• Rev. Charles Swainson, The Folk- ciers" of the French Revolution, Burke
26
ELIJAH AND THE RA VENS
The
sagacity of
the raven
and its
relation to
man.
Popular
respect for
a raven in
ancient
Rome.
Indians of British Columbia imagine that he who has a
raven for his guardian spirit possesses the gift of prophecy,
and that he can especially foretell death and the weather.^
Indeed the raven is the principal figure in the myths current
among the Indian tribes of North- Western America.^
The sagacity and solemn deportment of this sable bird
may have had much to do with throwing a glamour of
mystery and sanctity about it. According to an eminent
authority the raven is " probably the most highly developed
of all birds. Quick-sighted, sagacious, and bold, it must
have followed the prehistoric fisher and hunter, and generally
without molestation from them, to prey on the refuse of
their spoils, just as it now waits, with the same intent, on
the movements of their successors ; while it must have like-
wise attended the earliest herdsmen, who could not have
regarded it with equal indifference, since its now notorious
character for attacking and putting to death a weakly
animal was doubtless in those days manifested. Yet the
raven is no mere dependent upon man, being always able
to get a living for itself; and, moreover, a sentiment of
veneration or superstition has from very remote ages and
among many races of men attached to it — a sentiment so
strong as often to overcome the feeling of distrust not to say of
hatred which its deeds inspired, and, though rapidly decreas-
ing, even to survive in some places until the present time." ^
Pliny tells a story which strikingly illustrates the venera-
tion in which the raven was popularly held at Rome, when
Rome was at the height of her glory. Under the reign of
Tiberius it happened that a pair of ravens had built their
nest on the roof of the temple of Castor and Pollux. One
says that "their voice is as harsh and
as ominous as that of the raven " (Re-
flections on the Revolution in France,
in The Works of Edmund Burke, New
Edition, London, 1 801-1827, vol. v.
p. 466).
1 James Teit, The Lillooet Indians
(Leyden and New York, 1906), p. 283
( The Jesup North Pacific Expeditio7t,
vol. ii. Part v. Metnoir of the American
Museum of Natiiral History, New
York).
2 See for example A. Krause, Die
Tlinkit-Indianer (Jena, 1 885), pp.
253 sqq. ; Franz Boas, hidianische
Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kiiste
Amerikas (Berlin, 1895), pp. 76 sqq.,
105 sqq., 170 sqq., 208 sqq., 232 sqq.,
241 sqq., 272 sqq., 306 sqq., 31 1 sqq.
2 Alfred Newton, Dictionary oj
Birds (London, 1893-1896), p. 766.
On the destructive habit of ravens, see
P. J. Mackay, The Keepers Book'^^
(Glasgow and London, 1917), pp.
137 sq.
CHAP. XIV ELIJAH AND THE RA VENS 27
of the young birds in time flew down, stalked into a shoe-
maker's shop, and took up its quarters there, the shoemaker
not venturing to molest a creature which he looked upon
with religious awe, partly perhaps for its own sake and
partly for the sake of the holy place where it had been
hatched. Every morning the sagacious bird flew out of the
shop, perched on the rostra in the forum, and there in a
distinct voice saluted the emperor and his two sons, Drusus
and Germanicus, by name, after which he greeted in an
affable manner the people passing to their business. Having
discharged these offices of civility he returned to the shop.
This he continued to do regularly for many years, till at
last another shoemaker in the neighbourhood killed the bird,
either out of spite, as was suspected, at the custom which
the raven brought to his rival, or, as the shoemaker himself
alleged, in a fit of passion because the bird had befouled the
shoes in his shop. Whatever his motive, it was a bad day's
work for him ; for the people, thunderstruck at the death of
their old favourite, rose in their wrath, drove the corbicidal
shoemaker from his shop, and never rested till they had the
miscreant's blood. As for the dead raven, it received a
public funeral, which was attended by thousands. The bier
was supported on the shoulders of two Ethiopians as black
as the corpse they carried ; a flute-player marched in front
discoursing solemn music, while wreaths of flowers of all
sorts, carried in the procession, testified to the general respect
and sorrow for the deceased. In this impressive manner the
funeral cortege made its way to the pyre, which had been
erected two miles out on the Appian Way. The historian
concludes by remarking that the bird received a grander *
funeral than many a prince before him, and that the death
of the fowl was more signally avenged than the murder of
Scipio Africanus.^
Among the qualities which have procured for the raven Theraven's
a certain degree ot popular veneration may be its power of fn'^ltadncr
imitating the human voice. That power is attested not only the human
by Pliny's anecdote but by modern writers. Thus Gold-
smith affirms that " a raven may be reclaimed to almost
every purpose to which birds can be converted. He may
1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 121-123.
28 ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS part in
be trained up for fowling like an hawk ; he may be taught
to fetch and carry like a spaniel ; he may be taught to
speak like a parrot ; but the most extraordinary of all is,
that he can be taught to sing like a man. I have heard a
raven sing the Black Joke with great distinctness, truth, and
humour." ^ And Yarrell, in his Histoiy of British Birds,
writes, " Among British birds, the power of imitating the
sounds of the human voice is possessed in the greatest per-
fection by the raven, the magpie, the jay, and the starling.
In proof of this power in the raven, many anecdotes might
be repeated ; the two following, derived from unquestion-
able authorities, are perhaps less known than many others :
' Ravens have been taught to articulate short sentences as
distinctly as any parrot. One, belonging to Mr. Henslow,
of St. Alban's, speaks so distinctly that, when we first heard
it, we were actuajly deceived in thinking it was a human
voice : and there is another at Chatham which has made
equal proficiency ; for, living within the vicinity of a guard-
house, it has more than once turned out the guard, who
thought they were called by the sentinel on duty.' " "
The raven It is possible, too, that the raven's habit of preying on
of prey. the human dead may have helped to invest it with an
atmosphere of mystery and awe ; for as savages commonly
suppose that they themselves can acquire the desirable pro-
perties of the dead by eating some part of their corpses, so
they may have imagined that birds of prey, which batten on
the slain, absorb thereby the wisdom and other qualities
which the dead men possessed in their lifetime. Similarly,
Veneration the superstitious veneration in which the hyena is held by
African many tribes of East Africa appears to arise in large measure
tribes for from the custom, which these tribes observe, of exposing
as the their dead to be devoured by hyenas. - For example, the
animal Nandi, who follow that practice, hold hyenas in great
devours respcct, and believe that the animals talk like human beings
their dead. ^^^ converse with the spirits of the dead. When several
children in one family have died, the parents will place a
newly-born babe for a few minutes in a path along which
* Oliver Goldsmith, History of the ^ \s;\\\\2imYa.rxii\\, History of British
Earth and of Animated A^ature^DuhWn, Birds {London, 1843), ''• 68 .f^.
1776), V. 226.
CHAP. XIV ELIJAH AND THE RA YENS 29
hyenas are known to walk, hoping that the brutes will
intercede for the child with the spirits of the dead and
induce them to spare its life. If such a child lives, it
receives the name of Hyena.^ Similarly the Bagesu and
the Wanyamwesi, two other tribes of East Africa who throw
out their dead to be devoured by hyenas, regard these
animals as sacred and often take the cry of a hyena in the
evening to be the voice of the last person who died in the
neighbourhood. The Wanyamwesi say that they could not
kill a hyena, because they do not know whether the creature
might not be a relation of theirs, an aunt, a grandmother, or
what not.^ These beliefs appear to imply that the souls of Kinship
the dead are reborn in the hyenas which devour their bodies, g^^'^oggj
Thus the practice of exposing the dead, combined with the to exist
belief in the transmigration of human souls into animal Jl'rTr!!i
<~> men ana
bodies, may suffice to establish an imaginary kinship between the beasts
men and beasts and birds of prey, such as hyenas, eagles,
vultures, and ravens. How far its predatory habits have
contributed to surround the raven in particular with that
degree of respect which it enjoys among the vulgar, is a
question which might be worth considering.
^ A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Ox- John Roscoe. In his account of the
ford, 1909), pp. 7, ",0 sq. Bagesu {The Northern Bantu, Cam-
bridge, 191 5, pp. 159 sqcj.) Mr.
2 Totemisni and Exogamy, iv. 305, Roscoe has omitted to record these
from information furnished by the Rev. beliefs concerning tlie hyena.
and V)u-ds
of prey
which
batten on
corpses.
CHAPTER XV
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
The oak
and the
terebinth in
Palestine.
Three
species of
oaks in
Palestine.
The prickly
evergreen
oak
( Quercus
pseudo-
coccifera).
Among the sacred trees of the ancient Hebrews the oak and
the terebinth seem to have held a foremost place. Both are
still common in Palestine. The two trees are very different
in kind, but their general similarity of appearance is great, and
accordingly they appear to have been confused, or at least
classed together, by the ancient Hebrews, who bestowed
very similar names upon them. In particular passages of
the Old Testament it is not always easy to determine
whether the reference is to an oak or to a terebinth.^
Three species of oaks are common in Palestine at the
present time.^ Of these the most abundant is the prickly
evergreen oak {Quercus pseudo-cocciferd). In general appear-
ance and in the colour of its leaves this oak closely resembles
the holm oak of our own country, but the leaves are prickly
and very different in shape, being more like holly leaves.
The natives call it sindzdn, while bailout is their generic
name for all the species of oak.^ This prickly evergreen
oak " is by far the most abundant tree throughout Syria,
covering the rocky hills, of Palestine especially, with a dense
brushwood of trees 8-12 feet high, branching from the base,
thickly covered with small evergreen rigid leaves, and bear-
ing acorns copiously. On Mount Carmel it forms nine-tenths
of the shrubby vegetation, and it is almost equally abundant
on the west flanks of the Anti-Lebanon and man};- slopes
^ A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine,
Second Edition (London, 1856), pp.
139. 515 ^^'1- '■> H- B. Tristram, The
Natural History of the Bible, Ninth
Edition (London, 1898), p. 367.
2 (Sir) J. D. Hooker, "On Three
Oaks of Palestine," Transactions of the
Liniiaean Society of London, xxiii,
(1862) pp. 381-387.
^ n. B. Tristram, The Natural His-
tory of the Bible, pp. 36S, 369 sq.
30
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 31
and valleys of Lebanon. Even in localities where it is not
now seen, its roots are found in the soil, and dug up for fuel,
as in the valleys to the south of Bethlehem, Owing to the
indiscriminate destruction of the forests in Syria, this oak
rarely attains its full size." ^
The second species of oak in Palestine is the Valonia The
oak {Queracs aegilops). It is deciduous and very much \^^^^
resembles our English oak in general appearance and growth, [Quercus
never forming a bush or undergrowth, but rising on a stout "'^'' ''^'''
gnarled trunk, from three to seven feet in girth, to a height
of from twenty to thirty feet. The foliage is dense, and the
trees, occurring for the most part in open glades, give a park-
like appearance to the landscape. Rare in the south, it is
very common in the north. It is scattered over Carmel,
abounds on Tabor, and forms a forest to the north of that
mountain. In Bashan it almost supplants the prickly-leaved
evergreen oak, and is no doubt the oak of Bashan to which
the Hebrew prophets refer as a type of pride and strength ;^
for in that country the tree attains a magnificent size,
especially in the lower valleys. Its very large acorns are
eaten by the natives, while the acorn cups are used by dyers
under the name of Valonia and are largely exported.^
The third species of oak in Palestine {^Quercus infectorid) Third
is also deciduous ; its leaves are very white on the under of^oaT
surface. It is not so common as the other two species, but [Q
it grows on Carmel and occurs in abundance near Kedes,
the ancient Kedesh Naphtali. The abundance of spherical
galls, of a deep red-brown colour and shining viscid surface,
make the tree very conspicuous. Canon Tristram saw no
large specimens of this oak anywhere and none at all south
of Samaria.^
It may not be amiss to illustrate the distribution, and to Disuibu-
some extent the luxuriance, of the oak woods of modern *'°," "^^ ,
' oak woods
Palestine by a -few quotations from writers who travelled in in modern
that country during the nineteenth century and described
1 (Sir) J. D. Hooker, "On Three H. B. Tristram, The Natural History
Oaks of Palestine," Transactions of tlie of the Bible, p. 370.
Linnaean Society of London, xxiii.
(1862) p. 382. •* (Sir) J. D. Hooker, op. cit. p. 384 ;
'^ Isaiah ii. 13 ; Zechariah xi. 2. H. B. Tristram, The Natural History
3 (Sir) J. D. Hooker, op. cit.'^. 385 ; of the Bible, p. 371.
uercus
infectoria \.
32 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part hi
what they saw. These descriptions may help to correct the
common conception of the Holy Land as an arid and almost
treeless region.
The oak Thus, for example, speaking of the plain of Sharon, which
Sharon°the ^^ interposed between the inhospitable sandy shore of the
Enchanted Mediterranean and the hills of Samaria, Thomson says,
TasS °^ " '^^^ sandy downs, with their pine bushes, are falling back
towards the sea, giving place to a firmer soil, upon which
stand here and there venerable oak-trees, like patriarchs of
by-gone generations left alone in the wilderness. They are
the beginning of the largest and most impressive oak forest
in western Palestine, It extends northwards to the eastern
base of Carmel, and, with slight interruptions, it continues
along the western slopes of Galilee quite to the lofty Jermuk,
west of Safet. I have spent many days in wandering through
those vast oak glades. The scenery is becoming quite park-
like and very pretty. The trees are all of one kind, and
apparently very old. The Arabic name for this species of
oak is sindian — a large evergreen tree whose botanical name
is Quercus pseudo-coccifera. There are other varieties of the
oak interspersed occasionally with these, but the prevailing
tree everywhere is the noble, venerable, and solemn sindian.
. . . On one occasion I spent a night, for the sake of pro-
tection, at a village a few miles north-east of these mills called
Sindianeh — the name no doubt derived from the oak woods
which surround it. I had a delightful ramble early the next
morning in those grand old forests, and then understood per-
fectly how Absalom could be caught by the thick branches
of an oak. The strong arms of these trees spread out so
near the ground that one cannot walk erect beneath them ;
and on a frightened mule such a head of hair as that vain
but wicked son polled every year would certainly become
inextricably entangled." ^ In antiquity these woods of Sharon
were known as the Forest or the Oak Forest, and they are
the Enchanted Forest of Tasso."
1 W. M. Thomson, The Land and in Palestine, New Edition, London,
the Book, Southern Palestine atid Jem- 1885, p. 367).
salem (London, 1881), pp. 60 sq. ;
compare id., p. 79. " A thick forest 2 (gir) George Adam Smith, The
of oak extends between Carmel and Historical Geography of the Holy Land
Nazareth" (C. R. Conder, Tent Work (London, 1S94), pp. 147 sq.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 33
Again, referring to the Wady 'Abilin on the confines of The oak
Zebulun and Aslier, Thomson says, " It is conducting us zci^uiy°'^
through a grand avenue of magnificent oaks, whose grateful and Asher.
shade is refreshing to the weary traveller. They are part of
an extensive forest which covers most of the hills southward
to the plain of Esdraelon. There is hardly a more agreeable
ride in the country than through this noble oak wood from
Shefa 'Omar to Seffurieh. Many of the trees are very large,
and by their great age indicate that this region was not much
cultivated." ^ As to this forest Canon Tristram writes, " The
scenery was park-like, though man was wanting everywhere,
and we often cantered through open glades, under noble oaks
and wild olives, or over shelving rocks of limestone. This
was the first time we had met with any natural forest of
old timber, and accordingly the black-headed jay {Garmlus
nielanocephalus, Bp.), and the pretty spotted woodpecker
{Picus syriacus, H. and Ehrenb.) were added to our list.
Perhaps nothing could give the naturalist a clearer idea of
the scarcity of large timber in Syria than the fact that this
is the only species of that cosmopolitan genus, the wood-
pecker, which has been discovered in the country." ^ The
northern side of the Mount of Precipitation, near Nazareth,
" is well clad with forest ; its southern is only sparsely dotted
with shrubby trees, nowhere crowded, generally the dwarf
oak {Querciis aegi/o/^s, L. var.), with a {c\w evergreen ilices
interspersed." ^
Again, the romantic scenery of Banias, the Syrian Tivoli, The oak
where the Jordan bursts full-born from the red sandstone B°°Js°!|t
cliff at the foot of the snow-crowned Mount Hermon, owes the source
much of its charm to forests and clumps of grand oaks.^ Jordan.
Canon Tristram describes an evergreen oak at the village of
Libbeya in this neighbourhood as the most magnificent tree
1 \V. M. Thomson, 77ie Land and 3 h. B. Tristram, The Land of
the Book, Central Palestine and Plioe- Israel,^ p. 121.
nicia, p. 302. However, since Thorn- * \V. M. Thomson, The Land and
son wrote, the destruction of the forests the Bool;, Central Palestine and Phoe-
in Western Palestine would seem to nicia, pp. 440, 464, 467, 469, 470,
have advanced apace. See II. B. 473, 481, 484, 485, 494 ; H. B.
Tristram, The Natural History of the Tristram, The Land of Israel,^ pp.
Bible^^ p. 7. 572, 573. 577> 578. For the scenery,
- H. B. Tristram, The .Land of compare A. P. Stanley, Syria and
Israel,^ p. 116. Palestine, pp. 392 sqq.
VOL III D
34
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
Oak woods
to the
east of the
Jordan.
The oak
woods
of the
Decapolis.
The oaks
of Bashan.
he ever remembered to have seen. At a little distance he
and his friends could hardly believe that it was a single tree.
" Abraham's and the Penshanger oaks are shabby in com-
parison. It is one symmetrical tree in the heyday of its
prime ; its wide - spreading roots gather together into a
pedestal, which at the height of six feet sends forth more
than a dozen lateral branches, each a fine piece of timber
in itself At four feet from the ground, the narrowest part,
where its waist is tightly and most fashionably compressed,
it measured thirty-seven feet in circumference. The branches
extend with perfect symmetry, forming a true circle and a
dome without flaw or break, covering a circumference of
ninety-one yards, everywhere reaching down to within five
feet of the ground, as though trimmed artificially to that
height by the browsing of cattle." ^
Passing now to the east of the Jordan, we are told of
Ard el Bathanyeh, the ancient Batanea, that " the whole of
the province is exceedingly picturesque. The mountains are
well wooded with forests of evergreen oaks, and the sides
terraced." ^ Again, in describing the Decapolis, Thomson
writes, " We have been following along the remains of a
Roman road, and now we are entering a beautiful forest of
evergreen oaks which seems to extend a great distance over
the range of Jebel Hauran. Kunawat itself is surrounded
by it, and many of the ruins are embowered beneath wide-
spreading sindian trees, as these scrub-oaks are called by
the natives, and here and there some of the columns are
seen rising above the dense foliage." ^ Farther on he says :
"The country between our line of travel and the valley of
the Jordan northward and westward is wild and mountainous,
and in some parts it is well wooded with noble oak forests. It
is the region of the ancient Decapolis."^ Of the land beyond
Jordan eastward Tristram writes, " In the north, we find an
open plain eastward, extending to the Lejah (Trachonitis),
and farther Bashan, and westward the range is dotted with
1 H. B. Tristram, The Land of the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and
Israel,"^ pp. 594 sq .
2 Dr. Porter, quoted by W. M.
Thomson, The Land and the Book,
Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond Jor-
dan, p. 441.
3 W. M. Thomson, The Land and
beyond Jordan,
494, 497-
p. 481 ; compare pp.
■* W. M. Thomson, The L^and and
the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and
beyond Jordan, p. 546.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 35
noble oaks, rather park-like than in the form of dense forest,
deciduous in the lower grounds, and evergreen on the higher
ranges. Among these roam the flocks and herds of the
wandering Bedouin. Next, in Gilead, we come to a more
densely-wooded region, a true forest in places, the tops of
the higher range covered with noble pines ; then a zone of
evergreen oaks, with arbutus, myrtle, and other shrubs inter-
mixed ; lower down, the deciduous oak is the predominant
tree, mixed with wild olive {Celtis Azistralis), and many other
semi-tropical trees, which, in their turn, yield, as we descend
into the Jordan valley, to the jujube, or ZizypJuis, the oleaster,
and the palm." ^
Of these beautiful woods of Gilead, where the famous The oak
balm was obtained, Thomson says, " We have now reached Qiiead.
the regular road from el Husn to Suf and Jerash, and will
have the shade of this noble forest of oak, pine, and other
trees for the rest of the ride. There is not a breath of air
in these thick woods, and the heat is most oppressive both
to ourselves and our weary animals. . . . Up to this point —
an hour and a half from el Husn — much of the country is
cultivated, but from this on to Suf the forest is uninterrupted,
and is composed mostly of evergreen oaks, interspersed occa-
sionally with pines, terebinth and hawthorn. . . . F"rom Um
el Khanzir to Suf is nearly two hours, and in spring nothing
can be more delightful than a ride through these forests, the
grandest in this land of Gilead ; and we need not wonder at
the encomiums lavished by all travellers that have passed this
way on the beautiful woodland scenery of these regions, for
even the most enthusiastic have not said enough in its
praise." '" " After leaving the olive groves of Suf we shall
be overshadowed by an uninterrupted forest of venerable oak
and other evergreen trees for more than an hour to 'Ain-
Jenneh. . . . These forests extend a great distance to the
north and south, and a large part of the country might be
brought under cultivation by clearing away the trees. The
substratum is everywhere limestone, the soil is naturally
fertile, and in the spring of the year the surface is clothed
1 YL.'S,.l!\\i,X.t2Lxa, The Natural His- beyond Jordan, p. 555. Compare
tory of the Bible,^ p. 8. J. L. Burckhardt, Travels ii\ Syria
2 W. M. Thomson, The Land and and the Holy Land (London, 1822),
the Book, Lebanon, Datiiascus, and p. 348.
36 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part in
with luxuriant pasture. 'Jebel Ajlun,' says Dr. Eli Smith,
' presents the most charming rural scenery that I have seen
in Syria ; a continued forest of noble trees, chiefly the ever-
green oak, sindian, covers a large part of it, while the ground
beneath is clothed with luxuriant grass, a foot or more in
height, and decked with a rich variety of wild flowers.' " ^
" Next day we left Tibneh. Our course lay over the highest
tract of Gilead, Jebel Ajlun, leaving the peak to our right,
and descending into the upper waters of the Jabbok. We
had a magnificent ride through forests of Turkey and ever-
green oak, interspersed with open glades here and there, and
crowned with noble pine-trees {Pimis carica, Don.) on the
higher parts. Everywhere the ground was covered with rich
herbage and lovely flowers ; wood pigeons {Columba palum-
bus, L.) rose in clouds from the oaks, and jays and wood-
peckers screamed in every glade. There seem to be five
varieties of oak, two deciduous and three evergreen, but they
may all be reduced to two species {O.uercus pseiido-coccifera
and Q. aegilops). The latter predominated, and generally the
different species were grouped in separate clumps, giving the
whole the effect of one vast park. The trees were often of
great size, and in the outskirts of the glades of noble pro-
portions, with wide-spreading branches." " " Then we rose
to the higher ground, and cantered through a noble forest
The of oaks. Perhaps we were in the woods of Mahanaim.
Mahanaim. Somcwhcre a little to the east of us was fought the battle
Absalom ^vith the rebellious Absalom, and by such an oak as these
oak. was he caught. How we realised the statement, ' The battle
was there scattered over the face of all the country, and the
wood devoured more people that day than the sword de-
voured,' ^ in picturing the broken lines and a rout through
such an open forest. As I rode under a grand oak-tree, I
too lost my hat and turban, which were caught by a bough.
The oaks were just now putting forth their catkins and
tender leaves."^ "Immediately beyond Khirbet Sar we
began to descend into Wady es Seir by a very steep path,
^ W. M. Thomson, The Land and Israel,^ p. 463.
the Book, Lclianon, Damascus, and o c, , •■■ o
, , T 1 2 hamuel xvm. s.
beyond Jordan, pp. 574 sq. ; compare
p. 582. •* H. B. Tristram, The Land of
^ n. B. Tristram, The Land of Israel,^ pp. 453 sq.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 37
through a magnificent forest of large oak-trees. That valley-
is very beautiful, and the mountains rise higher and higher
on either side, covered to their summits with thick groves of
evergreen oaks, terebinths, and other trees." ^
Not far off, in a rocky amphitheatre commanding a wide The mined
prospect westward, and backed on all other sides by wooded Hyrcanus
hills and jagged lirnestone crags, are the ruins of the castle
which Hyrcanus, one of the Maccabean princes, built for
himself and adorned with spacious gardens, when he retired
in dudgeon to live in rural solitude far from the intrigues
and tumults of Jerusalem. He was a wise man to choose
so fair a spot for his retirement from the world. The neigh-
bouring glen, the cliffs, the hill-sides wooded with oaks and
terebinths, and the green undulating slopes below, make up
a lovely landscape, especially in spring when the oleanders
convert the bed of the purling stream into a sheet of rosy
bloom.^
The oaks which thus abound in many parts of Palestine Super-
are still often regarded with superstitious veneration by the ^,
peasantry. Thus, speaking of a fine oak grove near the of oaks
StltlOUS
eneration
" These oaks under which we now sit are believed to Oaks
be inhabited by Jan and other spirits. Alm-ost every be°"f|^ntld
village in these wadys and on those mountains has one or by spirits.
more of such thick oaks, which are sacred from the same
superstition. Many of them in this region are believed
to be inhabited by certain spirits, called Bendt Ya'kob — Oaks
daughters of Jacob — a strange and obscure notion, in
inhabited
by the
regard to which I could never obtain an intelligible explana- daughters
tion. It seems to be a relic of ancient idolatry, which the
stringent laws of Muhammed banished in form, but could
not entirely eradicate from the minds of the multitude.
Indeed, the Moslems are as stupidly given to such super-
stitions as any class of the community. Connected with Saints
this notion, no doubt, is the custom of burying their holy under the
men and so-called prophets under those trees, and erecting ^^ees.
^ \V. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and
the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond Jordan, p. 596 ; H. B. Tris-
beyond Jordan, p. 594. tram, T/ie Land of Israel,^ pp. 517
sqq. As to Hyrcanus and his castle,
2 W. M. Thomson, The Land and see Josephus, Antiqtiit.Jud. xii. 4. ri.
38 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part in
muzars [domed shrines] to them there. All non-Christian
sects believe that the spirits of these saints love to return
to this world, and especially to visit the place of their
tombs. ... I have witnessed some ludicrous displays of
daring enacted about such old trees by native Protestants
just emancipated from this superstition ; and I can point to
many people who have been all their lives long, and are
still, held in bondage through fear of those imaginary
spirits.
The oak " Scarcely any tree figures more largely in Biblical
and the narrative and poetry than the oak ; but I observe that
terebinth : ir j t
abundance Certain modern critics contend that it is, after all, not the
oak'^ki o-ak, but the terebinth. The criticism is not quite so sweep-
Paiestine. ing as that. It is merely attempted to prove, I believe,
that the Hebrew word eldh, which in our version is generally
rendered oak, should be translated terebinth. Allan, they
say, is the true name of the oak. The Hebrew writers
seem to use these names indiscriminately for the same tree
or for different varieties of it, and that tree was the oak.
For example, the tree in which Absalom was caught by the
hair is called eldh, not the allon ; and yet I am persuaded it
was an oak. The battlefield on that occasion was on the
mountains east of the Jordan, always celebrated for great
oaks. I see it asserted by the advocates of this render-
ing that the oak is not a common or very striking tree in
this country, implying that the terebinth is. A greater
mistake could scarcely be made. Besides the oak groves
north of Tabor, and in Gilead, Bashan, Hermon, and
Lebanon, there are the forests, extending thirty miles at
least along the hills west of Nazareth to Carmel on the
north, and from there southward beyond Caesarea Palestina.
To maintain, therefore, that the oak is not a striking or
abundant tree in Palestine is a piece of critical hardihood
tough as the tree itself." ^
Sacred oak At the romantic village of Bludan, a favourite retreat of
nort^hern" ^^^ people of Damascus in the heat of summer, there are
Syria. " remains of an old temple of Baal ; and the grove of
aged oaks on the slope beneath it is still a place held in
1 W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, Central PaJestine and Phoenicia,
PP- 474-476.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 39
superstitious veneration by the villagers." ^ " In the W.
Barado, near Damascus, where certain heathenish festival
customs do yet remain amongst the Moslemin, I have
visited two groves of evergreen oaks, which are wishmg-places
for the peasantry. If anything fall to them for which they
vowed, they will go to the one on a certain day in the year
to break a crock there ; or they lay up a new stean in a
little cave which is under a rock at the other. There I
have looked in, and saw it full to the entry of their yet
whole offering-pots : in that other grove you will see the
heap of their broken potsherds." ^ Another sacred grove of
oaks is at Beinu in northern Syria. A ruined Greek church
stands among the trees.^ Again, we are told that " in a
Turkish village in northern Syria, there is a large and very
old oak-tree, which is regarded as sacred. People burn
incense to it, and bring their offerings to it, precisely in the
same way as to some shrine. There is no tomb of any
saint in its neighbourhood, but the people worship the tree
itself" ^
Very often these venerated oaks are found growing Sacred
singly or in groves beside one of those white-domed chapels °^^ ^^' ^
or supposed tombs of Mohammedan saints,_ which may be supposed
seen from one end of Syria to the other. Many such white Mohan°-
domes and green groves crown the tops of hills. " Yet no medan
one knows when, by whom, or for what special reason they
first became .consecrated shrines. Many of them are
dedicated to the patriarchs and prophets, a few to Jesus and
the apostles ; some bear the names of traditionary heroes,
and others appear to honour persons, places, and incidents
of merely local interest. Many of these ' high places ' have
probably come down from remote ages, through all the
mutations of dynasties and religions, unchanged to the
present day. We can believe this the more readily because
some of them are now frequented by the oldest communities
in the country, and those opposed to each other — Arabs of
the desert, Muhammedans, Metawileh, Druses, Christians,
and even Jews. We may have, therefore, in those ' high
1 11. B. Tristram, The Land of ^ g j Curtiss, Friftiidve Semitic
Israel^, p. 614. Relipon to-day (Chicago, 1902), pp.
2 C. M. Doughty, Travels- in Arabia 138 sq.
Dcserta (Cambridge, 1888), i. 450. * S. I. Curtiss, op. cit. p. 94.
40 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part in
places under every green tree upon the high mountains and
upon the hills/ not only sites of the very highest antiquity,
but existing monuments, with their groves and domes, of
man's ancient superstitions ; and if that does not add to our
veneration, it will greatly increase the interest with which
we examine them. There is one of these 'high places,'
with its groves of venerable oak-trees, on the summit of
Lebanon, east of this village of Jezzin. The top of the
mountain is of an oval shape, and the grove was planted
regularly around it." ^
The Weiy To the Same effect another writer, who long sojourned
or reputed j^ ^j^^ j^^j L^^^^ observes, "The traveller in Palestine
tomb of a -' ' '
Moham- will often See a little clump of trees with the white dome of
safnt^under ^ ^'^^^ stone building peeping out of the dark-green foliage,
an oak and on inquiring what it is will be told that is a Wely^ or
sacred tree, saint — that is, his reputed tomb. These buildings are
usually, though not invariably, on the tops of hills, and can
be seen for many miles round, some of them, indeed, forming
landmarks for a great distance. Who these Oidiah were is
for the most part lost in obscurity ; but the real explanation
is that they mark the site of some of the old Canaanitish
high places, which we know, from many passages in the
Old Testament, were not all destro}ed by the Israelites when
they took possession of the land, becoming in subsequent
ages a frequent cause of sin to them. There is generally,
but not always, a grove of trees round the Wely. The oak
is the kind most commonly found in these groves at the
present day, as would appear to have been also the case, in
Bible times, especially in the hill country. Besides the
oak — which is invariably the evergreen kind, and not the
deciduous species of our English woods — the terebinth,
tamarisk, sidr, or nubk (the ZizypJius-spina-Christi, some-
times called DoDi by Europeans), and other trees, are to be
seen as well. Occasionally the grove is represented by one
large solitary tree under whose shade the Wely nestles.
The shrine itself usually consists of a plain stone building,
for the most part windowless, but having a Mihrdb, or
prayer-niche. It is kept in fair repair as a rule, and white-
1 W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond
Jordan, pp. 169- 171.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 41
washed from time to time both inside and out. Occasionally
a grave is to be found inside, under the dome, an ugly erec-
tion of stone plastered over, about three feet high, and
frequently of abnormal length ; that of the so-called grave of
Joshua, near Es Salt, east of the Jordan, is over thirty feet
in length." ^
In like manner Captain Conder, speaking of the real. These
not the nominal, religion of the Syrian peasantry at the /]j/'"J|,„^\
present day, writes as follows : " The professed religion of under their
the country is Islam, the simple creed of 'one God, and one areThe'reai
messenger of God'; yet you may live for months in the objects of
out-of-the-way parts of Palestine without seeing a mosque, veneration
or hearing the call of the Muedhen to prayer. Still the among the
, . , ,..,.,, . peasantry
people are not without a religion which shapes every action of
of their daily life. ... In almost every village in the Palestine,
country a small building surmounted by a whitewashed
dome is observable, being the sacred chapel of the place ; it
is variously called KubbeJi, 'dome'; Mazdr, 'shrine'; or
Mukihn, 'station,' the latter being a Hebrew word, used in
the Bible for the ' places ' of the Canaanites, which Israel
was commanded to destroy ' upon the high mountains, and
upon the hills, and under every green tree' (Deut. xii. 2.).
Just as in the time of Moses, so now, the position chosen
for the Mukdm is generally conspicuous. On the top of a
peak, or on the back of a ridge, the little white dome gleams
brightly in the sun ; under the boughs of the spreading oak
or terebinth ; beside the solitary palm, or among the aged
lotus-trees at a spring, one lights constantly on the low
building, standing isolated, or surrounded by the shallow
graves of a small cemetery. The trees besides the Miikanis
are al\va}'s considered sacred, and every bough Vv'hich falls is
treasured within the sacred building.
" The Mukdms are of very various degrees of im- Descrip-
portance ; sometimes, as at Neby Jibrin, there is only a plot ^/^^-jL^or
of bare ground, with a few stones walling it in ; or again, shrines,
as at the Mosque of Abu Harireh (a Companion of the
Prophet), near Yebnah, the building has architectural pre-
tensions, with inscriptions and ornamental stone-work. The
^ Rev. C. T. Wilson, reasiml Life in the Holy Land (London, 1906),
pp. Z^sq.
42 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part hi
typical Mukain is, however, a little building of modern
masonry, some ten feet square, with a round dome, carefully
whitewashed, and a Mihrab or prayer-niche on the south
wall. The walls round the door, and the lintel-stone are
generally adorned with daubs of orange-coloured henna, and
a pitcher for water is placed beside the threshold to refresh
the pilgrim. There is generally a small cenotaph within,
directed with the head to the west, the body beneath being
supposed to lie on its right side facing Mecca. A few old
mats sometimes cover the floor, and a plough, or other
object of value, is often found stored inside the Mtikdm,
where it is quite safe from the most daring thief, as none
would venture to incur the displeasure of the saint in whose
shrine the property has thus been deposited on trust.
Power " This Mukdin represents the real religion of the
the"a^nt^° peasant. It is sacred as the place where some saint is
or sheik of supposed once to have ' stood ' (the name signifying ' stand-
iMi^dm). ing-place '), or else it is consecrated by some other connec-
tion with his history. It is the central point from which
the influence of the saint is supposed to radiate, extending
in the case of a powerful Sheikh to a distance of perhaps
twenty miles all round. If propitious, the Sheikh bestows
good luck, health, and general blessings on his worshippers ;
if enraged, he will inflict palpable blows, distraction of mind,
or even death. If a man seems at all queer in his manner,
his fellow-villagers will say, ' Oh, the Sheikh has struck
him ! ' and it is said that a peasant will rather confess a
murder, taking his chance of escape, than forswear himself
on the shrine of a reputed Sheikh, with the supposed
certainty of being killed by spiritual agencies.
The mode " The cultus of the MukdiH is simple. There is always
of worship ^ cruardian of the building ; sometimes it is the civil Sheikh,
at the ^ . .
shrine or elder of the village, sometimes it is a Derwish, who lives
( // 'am), j^g^j.^ ^y^ there is always some one to fill the water-pitcher,
and to take care of the place. The greatest respect is
shown to the chapel, where the invisible presence of the
saint is supposed always to abide. The peasant removes
his shoes before entering, and takes care not to tread on
the threshold ; he uses the formula, ' Your leave, O blessed
one,' as he approaches, and he avoids any action which
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 43
might give offence to the munen of the place. When
sickness prevails in a village, votive offerings are brought
to the Mukdnt, and I have often seen a little earthenware
lamp brought down by some poor wife or mother, whose
husband or child was sick, to be burnt before the shrine.
A vow to the saint is paid by a sacrifice called Kod, or
' requital,' a sheep being killed close to the Mukdm, and
eaten at a feast in honour of the beneficent Sheikh." ^
The fallen branches of the sacred trees, whether oaks. Sanctity of
terebinths, tamarisks, or others, which grow beside these JheshrSe!!
local sanctuaries, may not be used as fuel ; the Moham-
medans believe that were they to turn the sacred wood to
such base uses, the curse of the saint would rest on them.
Hence at these spots it is a curious sight, in a country where
firewood is scarce, to see huge boughs -lie rotting on the
ground. Only at festivals in honour of the saints do the
Moslems dare to burn the sacred lumber. The Christian
peasants are less scrupulous ; they sometimes surreptitiously
employ the fallen branches to feed the fire on the domestic
hearth.'
Thus the worship at the high places and green trees, Antiquity
which pious Hebrew kings forbade and prophets thundered "^q^sW at
against thousands of years ago, persists apparently in the these
same places to this day. So little is an ignorant peasantry pi^cfs ••
affected by the passing of empires, by the moral and
spiritual revolutions which change the face of the civilized
world.
To take, now, some particular examples of these local Modem
sanctuaries. On a ridge near the lake of Phiala in northern ^fin^P'^^s
° of these
Palestine, there is a knoll "covered with a copse of noble locals;
oak trees, forming a truly venerable grove, with a deep
religious gloom." In the midst of the grov^e stands the
' C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Arabs is frequently stored near one of
/'a/t'j/?Mg, New Edition (London, 1885), these tombs, and is as safe as if it were
pp. 304-306. On these shrines, the under lock and key. No theft is ever
supposed tombs of saints {ivelies), and committed within those sacred pre-
the custom of depositing property at cincts. If a person should dare do
them for safety, see further Selah such a thing, ministers of vengeance
Merrill, East of the Jordan (London, from the unseen world would follow
1881), p. 497; F. Johnson, "Some him all the days of his life."
Bedouin Customs," Man, xviii. (19 18)
p. 7. Of these writers, the' former 2 q x. Wilson, Peasant Life in the
observes that "the projjcrty of the J/o/y Land (London, 1906), p. 28.
mc-
tuaries.
44 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part iii
wely or slirine of Sheikh 'Othman Hazury ; ii- is merely a
common Moslem tomb surrounded by a shabby stone wall.
Just below, on one side of the knoll, is a small fountain
which takes its name from the saint.^ Again, on the
summit of Jebel Osh'a, the highest mountain in Gilead, may
The tomb be Seen the reputed tomb of the prophet Hosea, shaded by
o osea. ^ magnificent evergreen oak. The tomb is venerated alike
by Moslems, Christians, and Jews. People used to come
on pilgrimage to the spot to sacrifice, pray, and feast. The
prospect from the summit is esteemed the finest in all
Palestine, surpassing in beauty, though not in range, the
more famous view from Mount Nebo, whence Moses just
before death gazed on the Promised Land, which he was
not to enter, lying spread out in purple lights and shadows
across the deep valley of the Jordan.'^
The tomb Again, the reputed tomb of Abel, high up a cliff beside
the river Abana in the Lebanon, is surrounded by venerable
oak trees. It is a domed structure of the usual sort, and is
a place of Mohammedan pilgrimage.^ A similar associa-
"The tion of tombs with trees is to be found at Tell el Kadi,
the'judge" "the mouud of the judge," the ancient Dan, where the lower
at the springs of the Jordan take their rise. The place is a
source of '^ ^ , r i • • ^ r t • 1
the Jordan, natural mouud of hmestone rock some eighty feet high
and half a mile across. It rises on the edge of a wide
plain, below a long succession of olive yards and oak
glades which slope down from Banias, where are the upper
sources of the Jordan. The situation is very lovely. On
the western side of the mound an almost impenetrable
thicket of reeds, oaks, and oleanders is fed by the lower
springs of the river, a wonderful fountain like a large
bubbling basin, said to be the largest single fountain not
only in Syria but in the world. On the eastern side of the
1 Edward Robinson, Biblical Re- Lebanon, Damasais, and beyond Jor-
sea7'ckes in Palestine, Second Edition dan., pp. 585 sq.; C. R. Conder,
(London, 1856), iii. 401 ; W. M. Heth and Moab (London, 1883), pp.
Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1S1-3. For the view from Mount
Central Palestine and Phoenicia, p. Nebo, see H. B. Tristram, The Land
473. of Lsrael,^ pp. 524-7 ; id., The L.and
2 J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Syria cf Moab, Second Edition (London,
and the LJoly Land (London, 1822), 1874), pp. 325 sq.
PP- 353 •*■?•; H. B. Tristram, The ^ W. M. Thomson, The Land and
Land of Israel,'^ pp. 546 sq.\ W. M. the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and
Thomson, T/ie Land and the Book, beyond Jordan, p. 350.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 45
mound, overhanging another bright feeder of the Jordan,
stand side by side two noble trees, a hohn oak and a
terebinth, shading the graves of Moslem saints. Their
branches are hung with rags and other trumpery offerings.^
Even when the hallowed oaks do not grow beside the Sacred oak
tombs or shrines of saints they are often thus decorated withfvotiv^
with rags by the superstitious peasantry. Thus at Seilun, rags,
the site of the ancient Shiloh " is a large and noble oak
tree called Balutat-Ibrahim, Abraham's oak. It is one of
the ' inhabited trees ' so common in this country, and the
superstitious peasants hang bits of rags on the branches to
propitiate the mysterious beings that are supposed to ' in-
habit ' it." - " Some distance back we passed a cluster of
large oak trees, and the lower branches of one of them were
hung with bits of rag of every variety of shape and colour.
What is the meaning of this ornamentation ? That was
one of the haunted or * inhabited trees,' supposed to be the
abode of evil spirits ; and those bits of rags are suspended
upon the branches to protect the wayfarer from their
malign influence. There are many such trees in all parts
of the country, and the superstitious inhabitants are afraid
to sleep under them." ^ One of these haunted trees may be
seen on the site o{ Old Beyrout. It is a venerable ever-
1 H. B. Tristram, The Land of round the finger ; others that the rag
Israel,'^ pp. 572 sq.; W. M. Thomson, taken from the ailing body of the sup-
The Land and the Book, Central pliant, and tied to one of the branches,
Palestine and Phoenicia, p. 459 (who is designed to transfer the illness of
does not mention the species of the the person represented by the rags to
trees). Baedeker- speaks only of an the saint, who thus takes it away
oak {Palestine and Syria,'^ p. 259). from the sufferer and bears it vicari-
'^ W. M. Thomson, The Land and ously himself. Sometimes the man
the Book, Central Palestine and Phoe- wlio is ill takes a rag from the tree, as
nicia, p. 104. Of this custom, as one tears off a bit of the pall from the
practised in Syria, the late Professor cenotaph of the shrine, and carries
S. I. Curtiss wrote as follows {Priini- it about on his person, and so enjoys
tive Semitic Religion To-day, p. 91) : the advantage of virtue from the
"There are many trees, apart from saint." The custom of hanging rags
shrines, which are believed to be on sacred trees is observed in many
possessed by spirits, to whom vows lands, though the motives for doing
and sacrifices are made. Such trees so are by no means always clear. See
are often hung with rags or bits of E. S. Hartland, The Legend of Perseus
cloth. It is not easy to determine (London, 1894-1S96), ii. 175 sqq.
the significance of the rags. Some
say they are intended to be a constant ^ W. M. Thomson, The Land and
reminder to the saint of the petition the Book, Central Palestine and Phoe-
of the worshipper, like a string tied nicia, pp. 171 sq.
46
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
' Daughters
of Jacob
associated
with oaks.
The
Hebrew
words for
oak and
terebinth.
green oak growing near the edge of a precipice. The
people hang strips of their garments on its boughs, beheving
that it has the power to cure sickness. One of its roots
forms an arch above ground, and through this arch persons
who suffer from rheumatism and lumbago crawl to be
healed of their infirmities. Expectant mothers also creep
through it to obtain an easy delivery. On the twenty-first
of September men and women dance and sing all night
beside the tree, the sexes dancing separately. Thi^ oak is
so sacred that when a sceptic dared to cut a branch of it,
his arm withered up.^
In various parts of the upper valley of the Jordan there
are groves of oaks and shrines dedicated to the daughters of
Jacob. One of these shrines may be seen at the town of
Safed. It is a small mosque containing a tomb in which the
damsels are supposed to live in all the bloom of beauty.
Incense is offered at the door of the tomb. A gallant and
afterwards highly distinguished officer, then engaged in the
survey of Palestine, searched the tomb carefully for the ladies,
but without success.^ The association of the daughters of
Jacob with oak-trees may perhaps point to a belief in Dryads
or nymphs of the oak.
The Hebrew words commonly rendered " oak " and
" terebinth " are very similar, the difference between them
being in part merely a difference in the vowel points which
were added to the text by the Massoretic scribes in the
Middle Ages. Scholars are not agreed as to the correct
equivalents of the words, so that when we meet with one or
other of them in the Old Testament it is to some extent
doubtful whether the tree referred to is an oak or a terebinth.^
which depends in part only upon the
punctuation, and the special sense of
which is not perfectly certain : Gesen-
ius, after a careful survey of the data,
arrived at the conclusion, which has
been largely accepted by subsequent
scholars, that 'el, 'elah, "clon denoted
properly the terebinth, and \illah,
'alldn the oak. The terebinth (or tur-
pentine tree) in general appearance
resembles the oak (though it grows
usually alone, not in clumps or forests) ;
and both trees are still common in
Palestine " (S. R. Driver, The Book of
1 F. Sessions, "Some Syrian Folk-
lore Notes gathered on Mount Leb-
anon," Folk-lore, ix. (1898) pp. 915
sq. ; W. M. Thomson, The Land and
the Book, Central Palestitte and Phoe-
nicia, p. 190.
2 W. M. Thomson, The Land and
the Book, Cetitral Palestine and Phoe-
nicia, pp. 222, 445 scj. See also above,
P- 37-
2 "There are five similar Hebrew
words — W [only in the plural V/fw],
'eldh, 'elon, 'alldh (only Joshua xxiv.
26), and 'allon — the difference between
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 47
The terebinth {Pistada terebintJms) is still a common tree in The
Palestine, occurring either singly or in clumps mingled with a'^common
forests of oak. The natives call it the hitni tree. It " is tree in
not an evergreen, as is often represented ; but its small
feathered lancet-shaped leaves fall in the autumn, and are
renewed in the spring. The flowers are small and followed
by small oval berries, hanging in clusters from two to five
inches long, resembling much the clusters of the vine when
the grapes are just set. From incisions in the trunk there
is said to flow a sort of transparent balsam, constituting a
very pure and fine species of turpentine, with an agreeable
odour like citron or jessamine, and a mild taste, and harden-
ing gradually into a transparent gum. In Palestine nothing
seems to be known of this product of the Butm." ^ The tere-
binth " is a very common tree in the southern and eastern
part of the country, being generally found in situations too
warm or dry for the oak, whose place it there supplies, and
which it much resembles in general appearance at a distance.
It is seldom seen in clumps or groves, never in forests, but
stands isolated and weird-like in some bare ravine or on a
hillside, where nothing else towers above the low brushwood.
When it sheds its leaves at the beginning of winter, it still
more recalls the familiar English oak, with its short and
gnarled trunk, spreading and irregular limbs, and small twigs.
The leaves are pinnate, the leaflets larger than those of the
lentisk, and their hue is a very dark reddish-green, not quite
so sombre as the locust tree. . . . Towards the north this
tree becomes more scarce, but in the ancient Moab and
Ammon, and in the region round Heshbon, it is the only one
Genesis, Tenth Edition, London, 1916, ' holy tree,' as the place, and primitively
p. 147). Canon Tristram held that the object of worship, without regard to
^chih denoted the terebintli, but that the species" {Critical and Exegelical
all the other words in question applied Commentary on Judges, Second Edition,
to acorn-bearing oaks. According to Edinburgh, 1903, pp. 121 sq.).
him, 'allon probably stands for the ever-
green oak, and 'elon for the deciduous ' Edward Robinson, Biblical Ke-
sorts {The Natural History of the searches in Palestine, Second Edition
Bible^ p. 367). In regard to the (London, 1856), ii. 222 sq. Compare
words in question, Professc)r G. F. W. M. Thomson, The Land and the
Moore maintains that " there is no real Booh, Central Palestine and Phoenicia,
foundation for the discrimination ; the pp. 19 sq., who also says that the resin
words signify in Aramaic 'tree' simply ; is not extracted from the tree by the
in Hebrew usually, if not exclusively, natives of Palestine.
rasfs.
48 . SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part iii
which relieves the monotony of the rolling downs and bound-
less sheep-walks ; and in the i^w glens south of the Jabbok
we noticed many trees of a larger size than any others which
remain west of Jordan." ^ Fine specimens of the tree may
be seen standing solitary in various places ; for example, one
in the Wady es Sunt on the way from Hebron to Ramleh,
another at the north-west corner of the walls of Jerusalem,
another on the supposed site of the city of Adullam, and
another at Shiloh,^ And beautiful forests of mingled tere-
binths and oaks clothe some of the glens of the Lebanon, the
hills of Naphtali and Galilee, and form a great part of the
rich woodlands on the eastern side of the Jordan.^
Sacred Yet if we may judge from the comparative frequence of
terebinths illusions to the two trees in the descriptions of travellers, the
in Palestine ^ '
hung with terebinth is less common in Palestine than the oak,'' and is
^"^'^'^ apparently less often the object of superstitious regard. How-
ever, instances of such veneration for the tree are not un-
common. Canon Tristram tells us that " many terebinths
remain to this day objects of veneration in their neighbour-
hood ; and the favourite burying-place of the Bedouin sheikh
is under a solitary tree. Eastern travellers will recall the
' Mother of Rags ' on the outskirts of the desert, a terebinth
covered with the votive offerings of superstition or affection " ; ^
and elsewhere the same writer mentions a terebinth hung
with rags at the source of the Jordan.^ Again, Captain
Conder writes that " among the peculiar religious institutions
1 H. B. Tristram, 'The N'atiiral largest we saw in Palestine, stretching
History of the Bible,^ pp. 400 sc], their gnarled and twisted boughs over
^ Edward Robinson, loc. cit. ; W. the path " (II. B. Tristram, The Land
M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, of Israel,'' ^. 531).
Southern Palestine and Jerusalem, p. * Compare the number of the refer-
229; id.. Central Palestine and /'hoe- ences to oaks and terebinths respectively
nicia, pp. 19 sq., 49 sq., 478; H. B. in the indices to W. M. Thomson's The
Tristram, The Land of Israel,^ p. 1 59. Land and the Book (the edition in three
3 W. M. Thomson, The Land and volumes). From that work' I have
the Book, Central Palestine and Phoe- adduced only Part of the evidence for
nicia, pp. 224, 257, 324, 551, 558, the prevalence of the oak^ but most of
559 ; id.. The Land and the Book, the evidence for the prevalence of the
Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond Jor- terebinth. No modern writer, prob-
dan, pp. 282, 295, 502, 555, 578, ably, has known Syria and Palestine
594> 596, 604 sq. See above, pp. so well as Thomson, who spent forty-
35, 40, 41, 45. On the road from five years of his life in the country.
Heshbon to Rabbatli Ammon, "we '^ H. B. Tristram, The Natural
rode up a narrow glen, rocky and History of the Biblc,^ p. 401.
rough, with fine terebinth-trees, the ^ See above, p. 45.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 49
of the country are the sacred trees, which are generally oaks,
or terebinths, with names taken from some Sheikh to whom
they belong. They are covered all over with rags tied to the
branches, which are considered acceptable offerings." ^ In Sacred
Moab " the sacred trees — oak, evergreen oak, terebinth, locust- Sn'Moab.^
tree, olive, the particular kind is unimportant — are found
under a double aspect, either attached to a sanctuary or
isolated. In the first case they appear not to have an origin
independent of the holy place which they shade, nor to have
any function distinct from the influence ascribed to the saint
{wely) who caused them to grow, and who vivifies and protects
them. . . . The second sort of sacred trees does not enjoy
the benefit of a sanctuary in the neighbourhood ; they grow
solitary, near a spring, on a hill, or at the top of a mountain.
. . . Near Taibeh, not far from Hanzireh, to the south-west of
Kerak, I passed near a sacred terebinth, with thick green
foliage, covered with rags and much honoured by the Arabs of
the district. I asked where was the tomb of the saint {ively).
' There is no tomb here,' replied an Arab who was finishing
his devotions. ' But then,' I continued, ' why do you come
here to pray ? ' ' Because there is a saint,' he answered The spirit
promptly. ' Where is he ? ' ' All the ground shaded by the ( weiy) in
tree serves as his abode ; but he dwells also in the tree, in '^"^ '''^^•
the branches, and in the leaves.' " ^ Again, among the ruins
of a Roman fortress called Rumeileh, in Moab, there grows
a verdurous terebinth, of which no Arab would dare to cut a
bough, lest he should be immediately struck by the spirit of
the saint {wely), who resides in the tree and has made it his
domain. On being asked whether the saint lived in the tree,
some Arabs answered that it was his spirit which lent its
vigour to the tree, others thought that he dwelt beneath it,
but their ideas on the subject were vague, and they agreed
that " God knows." Father Jaussen, to whom we owe these
accounts of sacred terebinths in Moab, informs us that " the
spirit or zvely who is worshipped in the tree has his abode
circumscribed by the tree ; he cannot quit it, he lives there
as in prison. His situation thus differs from that of the saint
1 C. R. Conder, Tent Work in 2 Antonin Jaussen, Contiimes des
Palestine, New Edition (London, Arabes an pays de Moab {^zitx?,, \<)o'i>),
TS85), p. 313- pp- 331 ^q-
VOL. Ill E
50 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part in
(zuelj), properly so called, and from the ancestor, who are not
confined to one spot, but can transport thennselves to the
places where they are invoked by their worshippers. When
from motives of devotion a Bedouin, to obtain a cure, sleeps
under one of the sacred trees, the spirit or the saint izvely)
often appears to him by night and charges him with a com-
mission or incites him to offer a sacrifice. He is always
obeyed." ^
The saint In these latter cases the saint in the tree is probably neither
{^■eiy) in j^Qj-g j^qj- jggg ^-j^^j^ ^j^ q\^ heathen tree-spirit, who has sur-
tne tree ^ '
probably a vived, in a hardly disguised form, through all the ages of
an'^oid^tree- Christian and Mohammedan supremacy. This is confirmed
spirit. by the account which Father Jaussen gives of the superstitious
veneration entertained by the Arabs for these trees. " The
magnificent group of trees," he says, " called Meiseh, to the
south of Kerak, enjoys the same renown and the same worship.
Similarly, the tree of ed-De 'al does not cover any tomb of
a saint {ively), nevertheless its reputation is very great and
its power considerable. I found it impossible to ascertain
whether there is a saint {wely) ; to the thinking of the
persons with whom I conversed it is the tree itself that is to
be feared. Woe to the Arab who would dare to cut a branch,
a bough, or even a leaf ! The spirit or the virtue of the tree
would punish him at once, perhaps it might cause his death.
A Bedouin had deposited a bag of barley, for a few hours
only, under its protection. Two goats, straying from a flock
in the neighbourhood, found the bag and ate up the barley.
The tree sent a wolf after them, which devoured them that
evening. It is indeed the tree itself which punishes, as it is
the tree itself which bestows its benefits. In the touch of its
leaves there is healing. At Meiseh, at ed-De 'al the Bedouins
never fail to pass a green bough over their faces or arms in
order either to rid themselves of a malady or to acquire fresh
vigour. The mere touch communicates to them the virtue
of the tree. It is under its shade that the sick go and
sleep to be healed of their infirmities. It is to its branches
that the rags are tied which can be seen in such number and
variety. The day that the cloth is tied to the tree the sick-
ness must pass out of the body of the patient, because, as
^ Antonin Jaussen, oj^. cit. pp. 333 sq.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 51
they have assured me, the sickness is thus fastened to the
tree. Others, with a dash of rationalism, hold that the rag
is nothing but a memorial of a visit paid to the tree.
Sometimes an Arab, passing near a tree, ties a piece of
cloth or leaves his staff under the tree, in token of respect,
or to secure its favour for himself in time to come. It is not,
in fact, uncommon to meet with Arabs who knot a scrap of
red or green cloth (never black, rarely white) to the boughs
of a sacred tree for the purpose of ensuring the health of a
favourite child. ... At Meiseh I found, fastened to a branch,
several locks of hair. My companion gave me the following
explanation : ' It is a sick woman who has paid a visit to
the tree; she has shorn her hair in token of veneration for
the tree.' " ^
In the warm and dry climate of Moab the terebinth is The oak
the principal tree, while the oak flourishes more in the cooler JfomLamiy
and rainier districts of Gilead and Galilee in the north.^ It the sacred
is, therefore, natural that the terebinth should be predomi- paiertine
nantly the sacred tree of the south and the oak of the north ; ^^^" .'^^
but throughout Palestine as a whole, if we may judge by the
accounts of travellers, the oak appears to be the commoner tree,
and consequently, perhaps, the more frequently revered by
the peasants. Accordingly, when we consider the tenacity
and persistence of identical forms of superstition through the
ages, we seem justified in concluding that in antiquity also
the oak was more generally worshipped by the idolatrous
inhabitants of the land. From this it follows that when a
doubt exists as to whether in the Old Testament the Hebrew
word for a sacred tree should be rendered " oak " or " tere-
binth," the preference ought to be given to the rendering
" oak." This conclusion is confirmed by the general practice
of the old Greek translators and of St. Jerome, who, in
translating these passages, commonly render the doubtful
word by " oak," and not by " terebinth." ^ On the whole,
then, the revisers of our English Bible have done well to
^ Antonin Jaussen, CoitUuites des ^ go far as I see, there are some
Ambes an pays de Moab (Paris, 1908), eighteen to twenty passages in the Oltl
pp. 332 sq. Testament where a reference is made
- H. B. Tristram, The Natural His- to an oak or terebinth, which, from the
toiy of the Bible,'^ pp. 8, 400, 401. context, may be thought to have been
See above, p. 47. sacred. In thirteen of these passages
52
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
translate all the words in question by " oak " instead of by
" terebinth," except in the two passages where two of these
words occur in the same verse. In these two passages the
revisers render ^allon by " oak," but 'elah by " terebinth."
Elsewhere they render 'eldh by " oak " ; but in the margin
they mention " terebinth " as an alternative rendering. I
shall follow their example and cite the Revised Version in
the sequel.
That the idolatrous Hebrews of antiquity revered the
oak tree is proved by the evidence of the prophets who
denounced denounced the superstition. Thus Hosea says, " They sacri-
The
worship
of oaks
by the
Hebrew-
prophets.
fice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon
the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the
shadow thereof is good : therefore your daughters commit
whoredom, and your brides commit adultery. I will not
punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor
your brides when they commit adultery, for they themselves
go apart with whores, and they sacrifice with the harlots." ^
The prophet here refers to a custom of religious prostitution
which was carried on under the shadow of the sacred trees.
Referring to the sacred groves of his heathenish countrymen,
Ezekiel says, " And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when
their slain men shall be among their idols round about their
the Septuagint renders the doubtful
word by " oak" (S/jus or ^dXavos), and
in five by "terebinth"; in the other
passages the rendering is neutral. In
eleven out of the eighteen to twenty
passages St. Jerome, in his Latin Ver-
sion (the Vulgate), renders the doubtful
word by "-oak" {q7cer'ats), and in four
by " terebinth " ; in the other passages
the rendering is neutral. The passages
in question are Genesis xii. 6, xiii. 1 8,
xiv. 13, xviii. i, xxxv. 4 and 8 ; Deu-
teronomy xi. 30 ; Joshua xxiv. 26 ;
Judges vi. II and 19, ix. 6 and 37;
I Samuel x. 3 ; i Kings xiii. 14 ;
I Chronicles x. 12 ; Isaiah i. 29, Ivii.
5 ; Jeremiah ii. 34 (where the Hebrew
text should be corrected by the Septua-
gint and the Peshitto ; see below, p.
53, note*) ; Ezekiel vi. 13; Hosea
iv. 13. In a number of these passages
the English Authorized Version is quite
incorrect, rendering the doubtful word
neither by "oak " nor by " terebinth."
The English reader should consult the
Revised Version. In two passages
(Isaiah vi. 13; Hosea iv. 13) two of
the doubtful words {'elak and ^alloii)
occur in the same verse. In the former
passage the Septuagint renders ^elah by
"terebinth," and 'allon by "oak"
{^aXo.vo'i) ; in the latter passage it
renders ^ allon by "oak " and ^elah by
" shady tree." In both passages the
Vulgate renders ^elah by "terebinth"
and ^allon by "oak." J\Iy ignorance
of Syriac prevents me from comparing
the renderings of the Peshitto. I have
to thank my friend Professor F. C.
Burkitt for kindly communicating to
me the rendering of the Peshitto in
Jeremiah ii. 34.
Hosea
13 sq.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 53
altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains,
and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the
place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols." ^
Again, Isaiah, speaking of the sinners who have forsaken the
Lord, says, " P^or they shall be ashamed of the oaks which
ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens
that ye have chosen." " Again, the author of the later
prophecy which passes under the name of Isaiah, in denoun-
cing the idolatry of his day, says, " Ye that inflame your-
selves among the oaks, under every green tree ; that slay the
children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks." ^ The
sacrifice here referred to is, no doubt, the sacrifice of children
to Moloch. Jeremiah alludes to the same practice in a pas- Bloody
sionate address to sinful Israel : " Also in thy skirts is found toTacred
the blood of the souls of the innocent poor : I have net found o^ks.
it at the place of breaking in, but upon every oak." ^ Thus
it would seem that the blood of the sacrificed children was
smeared on, or at least offered in some form to, the sacred
oaks. In this connexion it should be remembered that the
victims were slaughtered before being burned in the fire,^ so
that it would be possible to use their blood as an unguent
or libation. The Gallas of East Africa pour the blood of Bloody
animals at the foot of their sacred trees in order to prevent the to^acred
trees from withering, and sometimes they smear the trunks trees in
and boughs with blood, butter, and milk.*^ The Masai of '
^ Ezekiel vi. 13. For "oak" the ever, Professor Kennett writes to me
Revised Version has " terebinth " in that he believes the textual corruption
the margin. in Jeremiah ii. 34 to be too deep to be
- Isaiah i. 29. For "oaks" the healed by the slight emendation I have
Revised Version has "terebinths" in adopted. He conjectures that the last
the margin. clause of the verse is defective through
3 Isaiah Ivii. 5. the omission of a word or words.
4 Jeremiah ii. 34, where the mean- ' Genesis xxii. ; Ezekiel xvi. 20 sq.,
ingless nk- ("these") of the Massoretic ^-^•"- 39 ; p- F. Moore m Encyclo-
, "Vj , , • t paedia Biohca, lu. '5184 sq., s.v.
text should be corrected mto n^kx or f. ^^^^^^^^ Moloch."
nSx ("oak" or "terebmth")m accord- « p^. Paulitschke, Ethnographie
ance with the readings of the Septuagint Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der
(iirl Trdar, dpvt) and of the Syriac Yer- Danakil, Galla ititd Somdl (Berlin,
sion. The change is merely one of 1896), pp. 34 sq. ; id., Ethnographie
punctuation ; the original Hebrew text Nordost-Afrikas, die maierielle ' Cidtur
remains unaffected. The vague sense der Dandkil, Galla und Somdl (Bex\m,
of the preposition Vy leaves it uncertain 1893), p. 152. Compare O, Baumann,
whether the blood was smeared on the Usatiihara und seine Nachbargebiete
trees or poured out at their foot. • How- (Berlin, 1891), p. 1^2.
54
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
Worship of
the oak or
terebinth
apparently
ancient
in Israel ;
association
of Jehovah
with the
trees.
East Africa revere a species of parasitic fig which gradually
envelops the whole trunk of the original tree in glistening
whitish coils of glabrous root and branch. Such trees the
Masai propitiate by killing a goat and pouring its blood at
the base of the trunk.^ When the Nounoumas of the French
Sudan are sacrificing to Earth for good crops, they pour
the blood of fowls on tamarinds and other trees." The
Bambaras, of the Upper Niger, sacrifice sheep, goats, and
fowls to their baobabs or other sacred trees, and apply the
blood of the victims to the trunks, accompanying the
sacrifice with prayers to the indwelling spirit of the tree.^
In like manner the old Prussians sprinkled the blood of their
sacrifices on the holy oak at Romove ; ^ and Lucan says
that in the sacred Druidical grove at Marseilles every tree
was washed with human blood.^
But if, in the later times of Israel, the worship of the
oak or the terebinth was denounced by the prophets as a
heathenish rite, there is a good deal of evidence to show that
at an earlier period sacred oaks or terebinths played an im-
portant part in the popular religion, and that Jehovah himself
was closely associated with them. At all events, it is remark-
able how often God or his angel is said to have revealed
himself to one of the old patriarchs or heroes at an oak or
terebinth. Thus the first recorded appearance of Jehovah
to Abraham took place at the oracular oak or terebinth of
Shechem, and there Abraham built him an altar.® Again,
we are told that Abraham dwelt beside the oaks or tere-
binths of Mamre at Hebron, and that he built there also an
altar to the Lord.^ And it was there, beside the oaks or
' Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda
Protectorate, Second Edition (London,
1904), ii. 832. The Masai name for
this parasite fig is retete.
2 L. Tauxier, Le Noir dii Soudan
(Paris, 19 12), p. 190.
3 Jos. Henry, Les Baiiihara (Miin-
ster i. W., 19 10), pp. 109 j-^., 117 sq.,
120.
* Chr. Hartknoch, Alt ttiid Neiies
Preussen (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684),
P- 159-
^ Lucan, Pharsalia, iii. 405.
* Genesis xii. 6-9. The " oak of
Moreh" (Revised Version, "terebinth,"
margin) is the " directing oak " or
" oak of the director " ; where the refer-
ence is to oracular direction given either
by the tree itself or by the priests who
served it. Oracular oaks or terebinths
(oaks or terebinths of Moreh) are men-
tioned also in this neighbourhood by
the author of Deuteronomy (xi. 30).
See S. R. Driver, The Book of Genesis,
Tenth Edition (London, 1916), pp.
146 sq. ; /(/., Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on Deuteronomy, Third
Edition (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 134.
"^ Genesis xiii. 18, xiv. 13.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 55
terebinths of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in tlie
heat of the day, that God appeared to him in the Hkeness of
three men, and there under the shadow of the trees the Deity-
partook of the flesh, the milk, and the curds which the
hospitable patriarch offered him.^ So, too, the angel of the
Lord came and sat under the oak or terebinth of Ophrah,
and Gideon, who was busy threshing the wheat, brought him
the flesh and broth of a kid and unleavened cakes to eat
under the oak. But the angel, instead of eating the food,
bade Gideon lay the flesh and cakes on a rock and pour out
the broth ; then with a touch of his staff he drew fire from
the rock, and the flame consumed the flesh and the cakes.
'After that the heavenly, or perhaps the arboreal, visitor
vanished, and Gideon, like Abraham, built an altar on the
spot.^
There was an oracular oak or terebinth near Shechem The
as well as at Mamre ; ^ whether it was the same tree under °'=^cuiar
' oak or
which God appeared to Abraham, we do not know. Its terebinth at
name, " the oak or terebinth of the augurs," seems to show s^^'^^'^"'-
that a set of wizards or Druids, if we may call them so, had
their station at the sacred tree in order to interpret to
inquirers the rustling of the leaves in the wind, the cooing
of the wood-pigeons in the branches, or such other omens as
the spirit of the oak vouchsafed to his worshippers. The Tree-
beautiful vale of Shechem, embosomed in olives, orange- ^^^''^hip "i
' . . 'he vale of
groves, and palms, and watered by plenteous rills, still Shechem.
presents perhaps the richest landscape in all Palestine,^ and
of old it would- seem to have been a great seat of tree-
worship. At all events in its history we meet again and
1 Genesis xviii. 1-8, with S. R. Israel,^ pp. 135, 147. The modern
Driver's note on verse 8. name of Shechem is Nahlus. The
2 Tudtres vi 11-24. town "has the mulberry, the orange,
the pomegranate, and other trees grow-
3 Judges 1X-. 37, "the oak of i^g amongst the houses, and wreathed
Meonenim" (Revised Version), "the .^^^j festooned with delicious perfume
.augurs' oak or terebinth (Revised ^^,.j„g ^^e months of April and May.
Version, margin). Compare G. F. There the bulbul delights to sing, and
-Moore, Critical and Exegetical Com- h^.^jreds of other birds unite to swell
mentary on Judges, Second Edition ^^^ ^^^^^^^_ ^.j^^ p^ pf j^^^lus
(Kdmburgh, 1903), p. 260. We read .^^intain that theirs is the most musical
of a man ot God sitting under an oak ^^jj -^^ Palestine, nor am I disposed
(I Rings x.u. 14) ; but the tree need ^^ contradict them" (W. M. Thomson,
not have been oracular. , ^y^^ ^^^^^ and the Book, Central Pales-
^ n. B. Tristram, The Land of tine and Phoenicia, p. 143).
56 SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part in
again with the mention of oaks or terebinths which from the
context appear to have been sacred. Thus Jacob took the
idols or " strange gods " of his household, together with the
earrings which had probably served as amulets, and buried
them under the oak or terebinth at Shechem.^ According
to Eustathius, the tree was a terebinth and was worshipped
by the people of the neighbourhood down to his own time.
An altar stood beside it on which sacrifices were offered.^
Again, it was under the oak by the sanctuary of the Lord
at Shechem that Joshua set up a great stone as a witness,
saying to the Israelites, " Behold, this stone shall be a
witness against us ; for it hath heard all the words of the
Lord which he spake unto us : it shall be therefore a witness
Association against you, lest ye deny your God." ^ And it was at " the
with^thT^ oak of the pillar " in Shechem that the men of the city made
king. Abimelech king.* The oak or terebinth may have been
supposed to stand in some close relation to the king ; for
elsewhere we read of a tree called " the king's oak " on the
borders of the tribe of Asher ; ^ and according to one account
the bones of Saul and of his sons were buried under the oak
or terebinth at Jabesh.^ So when Rebekah's nurse Deborah
died, she was buried below Bethel under the oak, and hence
the tree was called the Oak of Weeping." The Oak of
Weeping may perhaps have been the very oak at which,
according to the directions of Samuel the prophet, Saul
shortly before his coronation was to meet three men going
up to sacrifice to the Lord at Bethel, who would salute him
Suggestion and give him two of their loaves.^ This salutation of the
spiri'tin" ^uture king by the three men at the oak reminds us of the
triple form, meeting of Abraham with God in the likeness of three men
under the oaks of Mamre. In the original story the greet-
ing of the three men at the oak may have had a deeper
meaning than tran.spires in the form in which the narrative
has come down to us. Taken along with the coronation of
1 Genesis xxxv. 4, with S. R. ^ Joshua xix. 26, where Allamelech
Driver's note. means " the king's oak."
2 Eustathius, quoted by H. Reland, ^ i Chronicles x. 12. According
ya/ai?j/;«fl (Trajecti Batavorum, 1714), to another account (i Samuel xxxi. 8)
p. 712. the tree under which the royal bones
3 Joshua xxiv. 26 sq. were buried was a tamarisk.
* Judges ix. 6 (" terebinth," Re- " Genesis xxxv. 8.
vised Version, margin). 8 j Samuel x. 3 sq.
CHAP. XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 57
Abimelech under an oak, it suggests that the spirit of the
oak, perhaps in triple form, was expected to bless the king
at his inauguration. In the light of this suggestion the
burial of Saul's bones under an oak seems to acquire a fresh
significance. The king, who at the beginning of his reign
had been blessed by the god of the oak, was fittingly laid to
his last rest under the sacred tree.
But of all the holy trees of ancient Palestine by far the The oak or
most famous and the most popular was apparently the oak or Mamre'^°^
terebinth of Mamre, where God revealed himself to Abraham,
the founder of the Israelitish nation, in the likeness of three
men. Was the tree an oak or a terebinth ? The ancient testi-
monies are conflicting, but the balance of evidence is in favour
of the terebinth.^ Josephus tells us that in his day many Ancient
monuments of Abraham, finely built of beautiful marble, were testimonies
' -' 'to the
shown at Hebron, and that six furlongs from the town grew survival
a very large terebinth, which was said to have stood there s",^ctity of
since the creation of the world.^ Though he does not the tree.
expressly say so, we may assume that this terebinth was the
one under which Abraham was believed to have entertained
the angels. Again, Eusebius affirms that the terebinth
remained down to his own time in the early part of the
fourth century A.D., and that the spot Vv'as still revered as
divine by the people of the neighbourhood. A holy picture angeiV"^*^^
represented the three mysterious guests who partook of worshipped
Abraham's hospitality under the tree ; the middle of the place.
three figures excelled the rest in honour, and him the good
bishop identified with " Our Lord Himself, our Saviour,
whom even they who know Him not adore." ^ All three
angels were worshipped by the people of the peighbourhood.*
^ The passages of ancient authors bius, speaking of Hebron, mentions
which refer to the tree are collected both the oak of Abraham and the
by H. Reland, Palaestina ex viomi- terebinth : r/ 5pCs 'A(ipad/x, Kal to /xvrjfia
mentis veteribiis illustrata (Trajecti omtoOl dewpdrai, Kal dprja-Ket^ieTai etn-
Batavorum, 1714), pp. 711-715, and (pavuis irpos tQv exOpQf [sic] -i] Ofpe^ei^eos
by Valesius in his commentary on «■«' <>' "^V 'A^paap. iwi^evwdevTes dyyeXot
Eusebius, Fi/a Comtantiiii, iii. 53 (Eusebius, Ortomasticoti, s.v. 'Ap^<i.
(Migne's Patrolo^a Graeca, xx. 11 13 PP- 54, 56, ed. F. Larsow and G.
sag.). Parthey). In this passage we must
2 Josephus, Bell.Jud. iv. 9. 7. apparently read irXTjffcoxci/swj', or €7xw-
3 Eusebius, Danonslratio Evan- P^"^"' o"" «o™e such word, for ix^pQv.
gelica, V. 9 (Migne's Patrologia Graeca, 4 Eusebius, Onoinasticon, s.v. 'Ap^dj.
xxii. 384). In his Onornasticon Euse- See the preceding note.
58
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
The three
gods in the
holy oak at
Roniove.
Church
built by
Constan-
tine ' ' at
the oak of
Mamre. "
They curiously remind us of the three gods whose images
were worshipped in the holy oak at Romove, the religious
centre of the heathen Prussians,^ Perhaps both at Hebron
and at Romove the tree-god was for some reason conceived
in triple form. A pilgrim of Bordeaux, author of the oldest
Itinerary of Jerusalem, writing in the year 333 A.D., tells us
that the terebinth was two miles from Hebron, and that a
fine basilica had been built there by order of Constantine.
Yet from the manner of his reference to it we gather that
*' the terebinth " was in his time merely the name of a
place, the tree itself having disappeared.^ Certainly Jerome,
writing later in the same century, seems to imply that the
tree no longer existed. For he says that the oak of
Abraham or of Mamre was shown down to the reign of
Constantine, and that " the place of the terebinth " was wor-
shipped superstitiously by all the people round about,
because Abraham had there entertained the angels.^
When Constantine determined to build a church at the
sacred tree, he communicated his intention in a letter to
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, who has fortunately preserved
a copy of the letter in his life of the emperor. I will
extract from it the passage which relates to the holy tree :
" The place which is called ' at the Oak of Mamre,' where
we learn that Abraham had his home, is said to be polluted
by certain superstitious persons in various ways ; for it is
reported that most damnable idols are set up beside it, and
that an altar stands hard by, and that unclean sacrifices are
constantly offered. Wherefore, seeing that this appears to
be foreign to the present age and unworthy qf the holiness
of the place, I vyish your Grace to know that I have written
to the right honourable Count Acacius, my friend, command-
ing that without delay all the
■ 1 Chr. Hartknoch, AH uiid Neties
Preiissen (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684),
pp. 116 sq.
2 " Itinerarium Burdigalense," in
Itinei'a Hierosolyiititana, rec. P. Geyer
(Vienna, 1898), p. 25, " /«r/e Tere-
bintho milia viii. Ubi Abraham habi-
tavit et piiteum fodit sub arbore tere-
bintho et cum angelis locutus est et
cibum sumpsit, ibi basilica facta est
-•iissu Constantini mirae pulchritudinis.
idols found at the aforesaid
Inde ierebintho Cebron mi/ia ii."
^ Jeionie, Liber de situ et noininibus
locoriim Hebraicorum, s.v. " Arbo "
(Migne's Patrologia Latina, xxiii. 862).
This treatise of Jerome, which is sub-
stantially a translation of the Onomas-
ticoii of Eusebius, was written about
38S A.D. It is printed in the con-
venient edition of the latter work by
Larsow and Parthey.
SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS
59
place shall be committed to the flames, and the altar over-
turned ; and any one who after this decree may dare to
commit impiety in such a place shall be deemed liable to
punishment. We have ordered that the spot shall be
adorned with the pure building of a basilica, in order that it
may be made a meeting-place worthy of holy men." ^
In this letter it will be observed that the emperor speaks Doubt
of the sacred tree as an oak, not as a terebinth, and it is whetherthe
called an oak also by the Church historians Socrates^ and oak or a
Sozomenus.^ But little weight can be given to their testi- terebinth.
mony since all three probably followed the reading of the
Septuagint, which calls the tree an oak, not a terebinth.^
It is probably in deference to the authority of the Septua-
gint that Eusebius himself speaks of " the oak of Abraham "
in the very passage in which he tells us that the terebinth
existed to his own time.^ The Church historian Sozomenus
has bequeathed to us a curious and valuable description of
the festival, which down to the time of Constantine, or even
later, was held every summer at the sacred tree. His
account runs thus : —
" I must now relate the decree which the Emperor Con- Annual
stantine passed with regard to what is called the oak of f*^s''vai
^ ° held in
Mamre. This place, which they now call Terebinth, is antiquity
fifteen furlongs north of Hebron and about two hundred and ^^ ^\^. ,
^ terebinth
fifty furlongs from Jerusalem. It is a true tale that with or oak of
the angels sent against the people of Sodom the Son of God ^^^"^'■^•
appeared to Abraham and told him of the birth of his son.
There every year a famous festival is still held in summer
time by the people of the neighbourhood as well as by the
inhabitants of the more distant parts of Palestine and by
the Phoenicians and Arabians. Very many also assemble
for trade, to buy and sell ; for every one sets great store on
the festival. The Jews do so because they pride themselves
on Abraham as their founder ; the Greeks do so on account
^ Eusebius, Vita Conslantini, iii. ii. 4 (Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Ixvii.
51-3 (Migne's Patrologia Graeca, xx. 941, 944). Yet while he speaks of
1 1 12 sqq.). " the oak called Mamre," this historian
2 Socrates, Hisioria Eccksiasiica, i. tells us that the place itself was called
18 (Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Ixvii. Terebinth.
124), who seems to draw his informa-
tion from VM'Achms'&LifeofCoitstantine
3 Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica, ^ See above, p. 57 note-''
* Genesis xiii. 18, xiv. 13,
6o SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS part iii
of the visit of the angels ; and the Christians do so also
because there appeared at that time to the pious man One
who in after ages made himself manifest through the
Virgin for the salvation of mankind. Each, after the
manner of his faith, does honour to the place, some praying
to the God of all, some invoking the angels and pouring
wine, or offering incense, or an ox, or a goat, or a sheep, or
a cock. For every man fattened a valuable animal through-
out the year, vowing to keep it for himself and his family
to feast upon at the festival on the spot. And all of them
here refrain from women, either out of respect to the place
or lest some evil should befall them through the wrath of
God, though the women beautify and adorn their persons
specially, as at a festival, and show themselves freely in
public. Yet there is no lewd conduct, though the sexes
camp together and sleep promiscuously. For the ground is
ploughed and open to the sky, and there are no houses
except the ancient house of Abraham at the oak and the
well that was made by him. But at the time of the festival
no one draws water from the well. For, after the Greek
fashion, some set burning lamps there ; others poured wine
on it, or threw in cakes, money, perfumes, or incense. On
that account, probably, the water was rendered unfit to
drink by being mixed with the things thrown into it. The
performance of these ceremonies according to Greek ritual
was reported to the Emperor Constantine by his wife's
mother, who had gone to the place in fulfilment of a vow." ^
Association Thus it appears that at Hebron an old heathen worship
with'the^'^*^ of the sacrcd tree and the sacred well survived in full force
beginning dovvn to the establishment of Christianity. The fair which
end orthe ^as held along with the summer festival appears to have
Jewish drawn merchants together from many quarters of the Semitic
world. It played a melancholy part in the history of the
Jews ; for at this fair, after the last siege and destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans under Hadrian in the year
119 A.D., a vast multitude of captive men, women, and
children was sold into slavery.^ So the Jewish nation came
1 Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica, xxxi. (Migne's Patrologia Latina, xxiv.
ii. 4 (Migne's Patj-ologia Graeca, Ixvii. 877) ; Chronicon Pasckale, ed. L.
-941, 944). Dindorf, i. 474.
- Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah,
CHAP, XV SACRED OAKS AND TEREBINTHS 6i
to an end on the very spot where it was traditionally said
to have been founded by Abraham, at the sacred oak or
terebinth of Mamre. The tree, or rather its successor, is
shown to this day in a grassy field a mile and a half to the
west of Hebron. It is a fine old evergreen oak {^Quercns
pseudo-cocciferci), the noblest tree in southern Palestine. The
trunk is twenty-three feet in girth, and the span of its
spreading boughs measures ninety feet. Thus in the long
rivalry between the oak and the terebinth for the place of
honour at Mamre the oak has won. There is not a single
large terebinth in the neighbourhood of Hebron.^
1 Edward Robinson, Biblical Ke- Oaks of Fa.\esUne," Transacliosts of l/ie
searches in Palestine, Second Edition Linnaean Society of London, xxiii.
(London, 1856), ii. 8 1 j'^.;W.M. Thorn- (1862) Plate 36. According to Tris-
son, 71ie Land and the Book, Sotitkern tram {The Land of Israel,* p. 383)
Palestine and fernsakm, pp. 282-4; the tree is "no representative or de-
ll. B. Tristram, The Laiid of Israel,'^ scendant of the famed oak of Mamre,
pp. 382-4 ; id.. The Natural History which was a terebinth {Pistacia tere-
of the Bible,^ p. 369 ; K. Baedeker, hinthus), but a mere substitute, and in
Palestine and Syria, '^ p. 1 15. A view a different direction from Hebron, west
of the tree, as it appeared in i860, is instead of north."
given by Sir J. D. Hooker, " On Three
CHAPTER XVI
THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL
The high
places,
with their
oaks or
terebinths
and sacred
emblems
(a pillar
and a
pole), were
formerly
the
recognized
seats of
religious
worship in
Israel.
Poly-
theistic
tendencies
of worship
at the high
places.
From many passages in the Old Testament we learn that
in ancient Israel the regular seats of religious worship were
situated on natural heights, which were often, perhaps gener-
ally, shaded by the thick foliage of venerable trees. For the
most part these sanctuaries appear to have been unenclosed
and open to the sky, though sometimes perhaps gay canopies
of many colours were spread to protect the sacred emblems,
a wooden pole and a stone pillar, from the fierce rays of the
summer sun or the driving showers of winter rain.^ Thither
for many ages after the Israelites had settled in Palestine
the people resorted to offer sacrifice, and there, under the
shadow of ancient oaks or terebinths, their devotions were
led by pious prophets and kings, not only without offence, but
with an inward persuasion of the divine approbation and
blessing. But the multiplication of sanctuaries is apt to foster
in ignorant worshippers a belief in a corresponding multiplica-
tion of the deities who are worshipped at the shrines ; and
thus the doctrine of the unity of God, dear to the higher
minds in Israel, tended to be frittered away into a tacit
acknowledgment of many gods or Baalim, each the lord of
his own wooded height, each dispensing the boons of sun-
^ Compare Ezekiel xvi. i6 ; Hosea
ix. 6 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. In this last
passage the " hangings " (literally
*' houses ") may possibly be the tents
mentioned by Hosea and woven of
the many-coloured stuffs with which,
according to Ezekiel, the high places
were decked. As to the " high places,"
with their wooden poles (asherim) and
stone pillars {inasseboth), see G. F.
Moore, in Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol.
ii. coll. 2064 sqq., s.v. " High Place " ;
B. Stade, Biblische Theologie des Alien
Testaments (Tubingen, 1905), pp. 106
sqc].. Ill sqq. ; I. Benzinger, Hebrdische
Archdologie'^ (Tubingen, 1907), pp. 312
sqq.
62
CHAP. XVI THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL 63
shine and rain, of fruitfulness and fecundity, to a little circle
of hamlets, which looked to him, as Italian villages look to
their patron saints, to bless and prosper them in their flocks
and herds, their fields and vineyards and oliveyards. The
facility with which a theoretical monotheism could thus in-
sensibly slide into a practical polytheism excited the appre-
hension of the prophets, and the anxiety with which they
viewed this theological decadence was quickened into a fiery
glow of moral indignation by some of the lewd rites of which Lewd rites
these fair scenes, though consecrated, as it might seem, by on die^'high
nature herself to purity and peace, to heavenly thoughts and places,
pensive contemplations, were too often the silent and, we may
almost add, the ashamed and reluctant witnesses. And these
religious and ethical considerations were reinforced by others
which we might call political, though to the ancient Hebrew
mind, which beheld all things through a golden haze of
divinity, they wore the aspect of judgments threatened or
executed by the supreme disposer of events against sinners
and evil-doers. The rising power of the great Assyrian and Prophetic
Babylonian empires first menaced and then extinguished the [fj^'^'lj"
liberties of the little Palestinian kingdoms ; and the coming abolition of
catastrophe was long foreseen and predicted by the higher ^7[he'^
intelligences in Israel, who clothed their forecasts and pre- high places
dictions in the poetical rhapsodies of prophecy. Musing on Jea/o/'"
the dangers which thus threatened their country, they thought foreign
, ... r ^ •! • 1 invasion.
that they discovered a prmcipal source of the peril in the re-
ligious worship of the high places, which by their polytheistic
tendencies infringed the majesty, and by their immoral seduc-
tions insulted the purity, of the one true God. The root of
the evil they believed to be religious, and the remedy which
they proposed for it was religious also. It was to sweep
away the worship of the high places, with all their attendant
debaucheries, and to concentrate the whole religious cere-
monial of the country at Jerusalem, where a more regular
and solemn ritual, cleansed from every impurity, was by its
daily intercession, its savoury sacrifices and sweet psalmody,
to ensure the divine favour and protection for the whole
land. The scheme, bred in the souls and hearts of the great
prophets, took practical shape in the memorable reformation
of King Josiah ; but the measure, so fondly planned and so
prophetic
denuncia-
tions it
64 THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL part iii
hopefully executed, proved unavailing to stay the decline and
avert the downfall of the kingdom of Judah. From the day
when the high places were abolished and the temple on
Mount Zion was constituted the one legitimate national
sanctuary, hardly a generation passed before Jerusalem
opened her gates to the enemy and the flower of her sons
was led away captive to Babylon.
From the Our knowledge of the local sanctuaries on which, accord-
ing ta the religious interpretation of Jewish history, the destiny
of the nation was believed in great measure^ to turn, is partly
thaTgreen ^rawn from the denunciations of them by the prophets, in
trees were a whose invectivcs the frequent association of high places with
fouure of green trees suggests .that the presence of trees, especially
the high perhaps of evergreen trees, was a characteristic feature of
paces. i-^ggg sacred eminences. Thus Jeremiah, speaking of the
sin of Israel, says that " their children remember their altars
and their sacred poles {asherint) by the green trees upon the
high hills." ^ And again, " Moreover the Lord said unto me
in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which
backsliding Israel hath done ? she is gone up upon every
high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath
played the harlot." ^ And Ezekiel, speaking in the name of
God, writes as follows : " For when I had brought them into
the land, which I lifted up mine hand to give unto them, then
they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they
offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the
provocation of their offering, there also they made their
sweet savour, and they poured out there their drink offerings." ^
And in Deuteronomy, which is generally believed to be
substantially the " book of the law " on which King Josiah
founded his reformation,* the doom of the high places and
their idolatrous appurtenances is pronounced in these words :
"Ye shall surely destroy all the places, wherein the nations
which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high
mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree :
and ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their
pillars, and burn their sacred poles {ashcrini) with fire ; and
ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods ; and ye
1 Jeremiah xvii. 2. 3 Ezekiel xx. 28.
* Jeremiah iii. 6, compare ii. 20. * 2 Kings xxii. 8 sqq.
CHAP. XVI THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL 65
shall destroy their name out of that place." ^ At an earlier
period, when these verdant hilltops had not yet fallen into
disrepute, we hear of King Saul seated on one of them
under the shade of a tamarisk tree, grasping his spear as the
symbol of royalty and surrounded by a circle of courtiers
and councillors.^
We have seen that in Palestine down to the present Heights
time many such heights, crowned by clumps of venerable "J^™'''^
trees, particularly evergreen oaks, still receive the religious clumps of
homage of the surrounding peasantry, though their old s'Jji the
heathen character is thinly disguised by the tradition that seats of
a Mohammedan saint sleeps under their solemn shade. It wor^'ship in
is reasonable to suppose with some modern writers, who Palestine.
The trees
have long sojourned in the Holy Land, that many at least maybe
of these shady hilltops are the identical spots where the [.^,^J^''qj.
ancient Israelites sacrificed and burned incense, and that ancient
in spite of the zeal of reformers and the hammers of icono- f°'^^s'^-
clasts the immemorial sanctuaries on these belvederes have
continued through all the ages to be the real centre of the
popular religion. Perhaps we may go a step farther and
conjecture that these wooded eminences, standing out con-
spicuously from the broad expanse of brown fields and grey-
blue oliveyards, are the last surviving representatives of the
old primeval forests which once clothed the country-side for
miles and miles, till the industry of man had cleared them
from the lowlands to make room for tilth, v/hile his supersti-
tion suffered their scanty relics to linger on the heights, as
the last retreat of the sylvan deities before the axe of the
woodman. At least sacred groves appear to have originated
in this fashion elsewhere, and their analogy supports the con-
jecture that a similar cause may have produced a similar
effect in Palestine.
For example, the Akikuyu of British East Africa " are Sacred
essentially an agricultural people, and have but few cattle, fei°cJof*^*^
1 Deuteronomy xii. 2 sq. Yox other (N'oies on the Hebreto Text and the ancient
prophetic denunciations of the high Topography of the B^oks of Samuel, forests on
places, see Hosea iv. 13 ; Ezekiel vi. Second Edition, Oxford, 1913, p. 180), ^^^^^ ^^1^
13, botli quoted above, pp. 52 sq. Dean Kirkpatrick {The First Book of ^^^^^^ ^f
^ I Samuel xxii. 6, where for "in Samuel, Cambridge, 1891, p. 187, in 'y^^^^ '
Ramah" (nona) we should read "on The Cambridge Bible for Schools and ^f^^^.^
the height "'(no33) with the Septuagint Colleges),iaxid Professor A. R. S.Kennedy
{iv ^aixa), appVoved by S. R. Driver (Samuel, p. 151, in The Century Bible).
VOL. TTI . F
66 THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL tart hi
but there are goats in every village, and often sheep too.
To make their fields, acres of forest land must have been
cut down, the burning of which has made the soil so fertile.
At one time probably the forests of Kenya joined those of
the Aberdares and the whole of this area was forest land.
The only sign of this now extant are various little tree-
topped hills dotted all over the country. Such hills are
sacred, and the groves on their top must not be cut. It is
this that has preserved them from the fate of the rest of the
forest." ^ The hill Kahumbu " is one of the hills topped by
sacred groves, of which there are so many in Kikuyu-land.
As neither the trees nor the undergrowth may be cut, for
fear of sickness visiting the land, these hills are generally
surmounted by large trees arising out of a dense mass of
undergrowth. This undergrowth is at Kahumbu the retreat
of a number of hyenas to whom the surrounding bare and
cultivated country affords little other cover. At the top of
the hill is a flat spot surrounded by a thicket. This is the
sacrificial place, and is called atJmri aliakuru. When there
is a famine or want of rain it will be decided that a sacrifice
should be resorted to. Everybody remains in their huts,
there being no leave to go out, with the exception of fourteen
old men (zvazuri). These, the elected priests of the hill,
ascend with a sheep ; goats are not acceptable to Ngai
(God) on such an occasion. At the top they light a fire,
and then kill the sheep by holding its mouth and nose till
it dies of suffocation. It is then skinned, the skin being
subsequently given to and worn by one of the old men's
children. The sheep is then cooked, a branch is plucked
and dipped into the fat which is sprinkled on to the leaves
of the surrounding trees. The old men then eat some of
the meat ; should they not do this the sacrifice is not
acceptable. The rest of the flesh is burnt in the fire, and
Ngai comes to eat it afterwards. Directly this function is
completed, even while the old men are descending the hill,
thunder rolk up and hail pours down with such force that
the old men have to wrap their clothes round their heads
and run for their houses. Water then bursts forth from the
1 Captain C. H. Stigand, The Land of Zinj, being an Account of Briiish East
Africa (London, 19 13), p. 237.
CHAP. XVI THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL 67
top of the hill and flows down the side." ^ So on the wooded
top of Mount Carmel the sacrifice offered by the prophet
Elijah is said to have ended the drought which had parched
the land of Israel for years ; hardly was the rite accom-
plished when a cloud rose from the sea and darkened all
the sky, and the idolatrous king, who had witnessed the
discomfiture of the false prophets, had to hurry in his chariot
down the hill and across the plain to escape the torrents
of rain that descended like a waterspout from the angry
heaven."
The Mundas of Chota Nagpur, in Bengal, "make no Sacred
images of their gods, nor do they worship symbols, but they fgikrof^^^
believe that though invisible to mortal eyes, the gods may, ancient
when propitiated by sacrifice, take up for a time their abode am^ngthe
in places especially dedicated to them. Thus they have Mundas of
their ' high places ' and ' their groves ' — the former, some ^"^^ '
mighty mass of rock to which man has added nothing and
from which he takes nothing, the latter, a fragment of the
original forest, the trees in which have been for ages carefully
protected, left when the clearance was first made, lest the
sylvan gods of the places, disquieted at the wholesale felling
of the trees that sheltered them, should abandon the locality.
Even now if a tree is destroyed in the sacred grove {^Jdhird
or Sarna) the gods evince their displeasure by withholding
seasonable rain." ^ Every Munda village " has in its vicinity
a grove reputed to be a remnant of the primeval forest left
intact for the local gods when the clearing was originally
made. Here Desauli, the tutelary deity of the village, and
his wife, Jhar-Era or Maburu, are supposed to sojourn when
attending to the wants of their votaries. There is a Desauli
I Captain C. H. Stigand, op. cit. p. tion to the sacred groves, which are
242. The writer adds, " I always usually found on hilltops, a certain
narrate such customs as they were told species of giant forest tree is considered
me by the natives. They are the more sacred and is always preserved. It is
interesting unshorn of miraculous or un- known as the niti-ti vni-gu, and is a
likely events." As to the sacred groves form of ficus. These trees may be
of Kikuyu-land, see also W. Scoresby destroyed by grass fires, but are never
Routledge and Katherine Routledge, intentionally cut down."
With a Prehistoric People (London, 3
I Kings xviii. 19-46.
1910), p. 38, "Woodland is, generally
speaking, non-existent, the country ^ ]?_ x. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno-
having been denuded of trees, but there logy of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), pp.
are the following exceptions. In addi- 185 sq.
68 THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL part iii
for every village, and his authority does not extend beyond
the boundary of the village to which his grove belongs ; if a
man of that village cultivates land in another village, he must
pay his devotions to the Desauli of both. The grove deities
are held responsible for the crops, and are especially honoured
at all the great agricultural festivals. They are also appealed
to in sickness," ^ To the same effect another writer tells us
that " although the greater portion of the primeval forest, in
clearings of which the Munda villages were originally estab-
lished, have since disappeared under the axe or under the
y^r^-fire,^ many a Munda village still retains a portion or
portions of the original forest to serve as Sarnas or sacred
groves. In some Mundari villages, only a small clump of
ancient trees now represents the original forest and serves as
the village-Sarna. These Sarnas are the only temples the
Mundas know. Here the village-gods reside, and are periodic-
ally worshipped and propitiated with sacrifices." ^
Analogy of We may suppose that these local Desaulis, who reside
deUi^s°o^ in sacred groves, the remnants of the primeval forest, and
theMundas are held responsible for the crops, answer closely to the
Baalim Baalim of Canaan, who in like manner dwelt among the
of the trees on the hilltops adjoining the villages, and there received
the first-fruits of the earth, which the peasants of the neigh-
bourhood brought them in gratitude for bountiful harvests
and the refreshing rain of heaven.
Sacred Again, on the borders of Afghanistan and India " the
groves,- the frontier hills are often bare enough of fields or habitations,
relics of . ° . '
ancient but ouc cannot go far without coming across some syarat,
hTh'^la°es °'" ^^^^ shrinc, where the faithful worship and make their
among the VOWS. It is very frequently situated on some mountain top
Afghans. ^^ inaccessible cliff, reminding one of the 'high places' of
the Israelites. Round the grave are some stunted trees of
tamarisk or ber {Zizyphus jujubd). On the branches of these
are hung innumerable bits of rag and pieces o£ coloured
cloth, because every votary who makes a petition at the
shrine is bound to tie a piece of cloth on as the outward
1 E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno- of cultivation, see above, vol. i. pp.
logy of Bengal, p. i88. 442 sqq.
2 " By XS\^ jara system, land is pre- ^ Sarat Chandra Roy, The Mundas
pared for cultivation by burning down and their Country (Calcutta, 1912),
portions of jungles," As to this mode pp. 386 sq.
CHAP. XVI THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL 69
symbol of his vow." One famous shrine of this sort is on
the Suliman Range. " Despite its inaccessibihty, hundreds
of pilgrims visit this yearly, and sick people are carried up
in their beds, with the hope that the blessing of the saint
may cure them. Sick people are often carried on beds,
either strapped on camels or on the shoulders of their
friends, for considerably more than a hundred miles to one
or other of these zyarats. . . . Another feature of these
shrines is that their sanctity is so universally acknowledged
that articles of personal property may be safely left by the
owners for long periods of time in perfect confidence of
finding them untouched on their return, some months later,
exactly as they left them. One distinct advantage of these
shrines is that it is a sin to cut wood from any of the trees
surrounding them. Thus it comes about that the shrines
are the only green spots among the hills which the im-
provident vandalism of the tribes has denuded of all their
trees and shrubs." ^
These Afghan zyarats, or mountain shrines, clearly bear Analogy
a close resemblance to the modern zvelys of Palestine.^ [he^^^^"
Both sets of sanctuaries are commonly situated on hilltops mountain
and surrounded by trees which may not be felled or lopped ; Afghan"
both are supposed to derive their sanctity from the graves istan and
of Mohammedan saints ; at both it is customary to deposit
property in perfect assurance that it will remain inviolate ;
and at both it is common for pilgrims to leave memorials
of their visit in the shape of rags attached to the branches
of the trees.
Once more, among the Cheremiss of Russia " at the Sacred
present time isolated groves serve as places of sacrifice and fJi°csof' '^
prayer : these groves are known under the name of kjus-oto. ancient
But in former days it was in the depths of the forest that ^Igh^ places
the Cheremiss sacrificed to their gods. Some manifestation among the
of the divine will, for example the sudden welling-up of a of Russia!
spring, generally marked out the places of prayer to be
selected by the people. The Cheremiss of Ufa sought out
by preference heights in the neighbourhood of brooks ; and
even after the axe of the woodman had stripped the sur-
• T. L. Pennell, Among the Wild Edition (London, 1909), pp. 34 sq.
Tribes of the Afghan Frontier, Second ^ gee above, pp. 39 sqq.
70 THE HIGH PLACES OF ISRAEL part hi
rounding country of its trees, these heights continued to be
sacred." ^
The Baalim To judge by thcse analogies the sacred groves of
probably" Palestine in antiquity, which gave so much offence to the
the old later prophets, may well have been remnants of a primeval
deities, forest, green islets left standing on solitary heights as refuges
whose last for the rustic divinities, whom the husbandman had de-
trees were m i /• i • i i
spared on Spoiled oi their broad acres, and to whom, as the true
the heights, owners or Baalim of the land, he still believed himself
bound to pay tribute for all the produce he drew from the
soil. The sacred pole itself {asherah), which was a regular
adjunct of the local sanctuaries,^ may have been no more
than the trunk of one of the holy trees stripped of its
boughs either by the hand of man or by natural decay. To
Analogy this day we can detect such religious emblems in process of
sacred oie ^o^'iTiation among the Kayans of Borneo. These savages
[asherah) believc in the existence of certain dangerous spirits whom
Kayans of they Call Tok ', and when they clear a patch of jungle in
Borneo. which to SOW Hcc, " it is usual to leave a few trees standing
on some high point of the ground in order not to offend
the Toh of the locality by depriving them of all the trees,
which they are vaguely supposed to make use of as resting-
places. Such trees are sometimes stripped of all their
branches save a few at the top ; and sometimes a pole is
lashed across the stem at a height from the ground and
bunches of palm leaves hung upon it ; a ' bull-roarer,' which
is used by boys as a toy, is sometimes hung upon such a
cross-piece to dangle and flicker in the breeze." ^
^ J. N. Smirnov, Les Populations translated "grove," "groves."
Finnotses des hassins de la Volga et
de la Kama, Premiere Partie (Paris, ^ Charles Hose and William McDou-
1898), p. 180. gall. The Pagan Tribes of Borneo
2 G. F. Moore, in Encyclopaedia (London, 1912), ii. 23. Compare
Biblica, i. 330^^(7., s.v. "Asherah"; Ivor H. N. Evans, "Notes on some
I. Benzinger, Hebriiische Archdologie ^ Beliefs and Customs of the ' Orang
(Tubingen, 1907), pp. 325 j^^. In the Dusun ' of British North Borneo,"
English Authorized Version the word Journal of the Royal Atithropological
asherah (plural asherim) is incorrectly Institute, xlvii. (1917) p. 154.
CHAPTER XVII
THE SILENT WIDOW
Among many, if not all, peoples of the world the occurrence Restric-
of a death in a family has entailed on the survivors the on
obligation of observing certain rules, the general effect of mourners
,."",. .... . , . . ... . , for fear of
which is to limit in various directions the liberty enjoyed the ghost,
by persons in ordinary life ; and the nearer the relationship
of the survivor to the deceased, the more stringent and
burdensome are usually the restrictions laid on his or her
freedom. Though the reasons for imposing these trammels
are often unknown to the people who submit to them, a
large body of evidence points to the conclusion that many,
perhaps most, of them originated in a fear of the ghost and
a desire to escape his unwelcome attentions by eluding his
observation, repelling his advances, or otherwise inducing or
compelling him to acquiesce in his fate, so far at least as to
abstain from molesting his kinsfolk and friends.^ The
ancient Hebrews observed many restrictions on the occur-
rence of a death, which are either expressly enjoined or
incidentally referred to in the Old Testament.^ To the list
of rules for the conduct of mourners, which can thus be
collected from Scripture, may perhaps be added one which,
' Elsewhere I have given examples with the commentary of G. B. Gray
of such restrictions and attempted to (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 241 sqq. On
explain them on the principle men- the subject generally, see Fr. Schwally,
tioned in the text. See " On certain Das Leben jiach dem Tode (Giessen,
Burial Customs as illustrative of the 1892), pp. 9 sqq. ; C. Gruneisen, Der
primitive Theory of the 'io\\\^'' Journal Altiiciihiltiis mid die Urreligion Israels
of the Anthropological Institute, xv. (Halle a. S., 1900), pp. 61 sqq. ; A.
(1 886) pp. 64 sqq. Compare Taboo Lods, Za Croyance a la Vie Future et
and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 165 le Culte des Marts dans lAntiquiti'.
sqq. ; Psyche's Task, Second Edition, Israelite (Paris, 1906), i. 77 sqq., 88
pp. Ill sqq., especially pp. 142 sqq. sqq., 175 sqq.
2 See particularly Numbers xix.,
71
72
THE SILENT WIDOW
Silence
perhaps
imposed on
Hebrew
widows as
on widows
in many
lands.
Silence
imposed
on widows
in Africa
and Mada-
Silence
imposed
on widows
in some
tribes of
North
American
Indians.
though it is neither inculcated nor alluded to by the sacred
writers, is suggested by etymology and confirmed by the
analogous usages of other peoples.
The Hebrew word for a widow is perhaps etymologically
connected with an adjective meaning " dumb." ^ If this
etymology is correct, it would seem that the Hebrew name
for a widow is " a silent woman." Why should a widow be
called a silent woman ? I conjecture, with all due diffidence,
that the epithet may be explained by a widespread custom
which imposes the duty of absolute silence on a widow for
some time, often a long time, after the death of her husband.
Thus among the Kutus, a tribe on the Congo, widows
observe mourning for three lunar months. They shave
their heads, strip themselves almost naked, daub their bodies
all over with white clay, and pass the whole of the three
months in the house without speaking." Among the
Sihanaka in Madagascar the observances are similar, but
the period of silence is still longer, lasting for at least eight
months, and sometimes for a year. During the whole of
that time the widow is stripped of all her ornaments and
covered up with a coarse mat, and she is given only a broken
spoon and a broken dish to eat out of. She may not wash
her face or her hands, but only the tips of her fingers. In
this state she remains all day long in the house and may
not speak to any one who enters it.^ Among the Nandi, of
British East Africa, as long as a widow is in mourning she
is considered unclean and may not speak above a whisper,
though she is not absolutely forbidden to speak at all.* In
describing the Nishinam tribe of Californian Indians, a
writer who knew these Indians well, as they were in the
third quarter of the nineteenth century, mentions that
^ Alemanah (hjcSn), " a widow,"
perhaps connected with illem (d^n),
" dumb." The etymology appears to
be favoured by the authors of the Ox-
ford Hebrew dictionary, since they
class both words together as derived
from the same root. See Heh-eiv and
Ettglish Lexico7i of the Old Testament,
by Fr. Brown, S. R. Driver, and Ch.
A. Briggs (Oxford, 1906), p. 48.
2 Notes Analytiques sur les Collec-
tions Ethnographiques du Mtisee du
Congo, tome i., fascicule 2, Religiofi
(Brussels, 1906), p. 185.
2 Rabesihanaka (a native Malagese),
" The Sihanaka and their Country,"
The Afitananarivo Annual and Mada-
gascar Magazine, Reprint of the First
Foitr Numbers (Antananarivo, 1885),
p. 326.
4 A. C. Mollis, The Nandi (Oxford,
1909), p. 72.
CHAP. XVII THE SILENT WIDOW 73
" around Auburn, a devoted widow never speaks, on any
occasion or upon any pretext, for several months, sometimes
a year or more, after the death of her husband. Of this
singular fact I had ocular demonstration. Elsewhere, as on
the American River, she speaks only in a whisper for several
months. As you go down towards the Cosumnes this
custom disappears." ^ Among the Kwakiutl Indians of
British Columbia, for four days after the death of her hus-
band a widow must sit motionless, with her knees drawn up
to her chin. For sixteen days after that she is bound to
remain on the same spot, but she enjoys the privilege of
stretching her legs, though not of moving her hands.
During all that time nobody may speak to her. It is
thought that if any one dared to break the rule of silence
and speak to the widow, he would be punished by the death
of one of his relatives. A widower has to observe precisely
the same restrictions on the death of his wife." Similarly
among the Bella Coola Indians of the same region a widow
must fast for four days, and during that time she may not
speak a word ; otherwise they think that her husband's
ghost would come and lay a hand on her mouth, and she
would die. The same rule of silence has to be observed by
a widower on the death of his wife, and for a similar reason.^
Here it is to be noted that the reason assigned for keeping
silence is a fear of attracting the dangerous and indeed
fatal attention of the ghost.
But by no people is this curious custom of silence more silence
strictly observed than by some of the savage tribes of Central on wfdows
and Northern Australia. Thus, among the Waduman and in some
Mudburra, two tribes on the Victoria River in the Northern Nonhrm
Territory, not only a man's widows but also the wives of Australia,
his brothers are under a ban of silence for three or four
weeks after his death. In the interval the body is placed
on a platform of boughs built in a tree, and there it remains
^ Stephen Powers, Tribes of Cali- Meeting, i88g, p. 43 (separate reprint).
foriiia (Washington, 1877), p. 327. 3 Franz Boas, in "Seventh Report
2 Franz Boas, in " Fifth Report of of the Committee on the North-West-
the Committee on the North-Western em Tribes of Canada," Report of the
Tribes of Canada," Report .of the British Association for the Advance-
British Association for the Advance- ment of Science, Cardiff Meeting, iSgi,
went of Science, Newcastle-7ipon-Tyne p. 13 (separate reprint).
74 THE SILENT WIDOW part in
till all the flesh has disappeared from the bones. Then the
bones are wrapt in bark and carried to a special camp, where
the members of the tribe sit round them and weep. When
this ceremony of mourning has been performed, the bones
are taken back to the tree and left there finally. During
the whole time which elapses from the death to the final
deposition of the bones in the tree, no one may eat the
animal or plant which was the totem of the deceased. But
when the bones have been laid in their last resting-place
among the boughs, one or two old men go out into the
bush and secure some of the animals or plants which were
the dead man's totem. If, for example, the deceased had
the flying fox for his totem, then the old men will catch
some flying foxes and bring them into the camp. There
a fire is kindled and the flying foxes are laid on it to cook.
While they are cooking, the women who have been under a
ban of silence, that is to say, the widows of the dead man
and his brothers' wives, go up to the fire and, after calling
out " Yakai ! Yakai!" put their heads in the smoke.
An old man then hits them lightly on the head and after-
wards holds out his hand for them to bite a finger. This
ceremony removes the ban of silence under which the women
had hitherto laboured ; they are now free to use their
tongues as usual. Afterwards the cooked flying foxes are
eaten by some of the male relatives of the deceased ; and
when that has been done, all the people are free to partake
of the flesh.^
Silence Again, in the Arunta tribe of Central Australia a man's
imposed widows smcar their hair, faces, and breasts with white pipe-
on widows _ _ _ ^ ^
among the clay and remain silent for a certain time, until a ceremony
Central °^ has been performed which restores to them the use of their
Australia, tongucs. The ccrcmony is as follows. When a widow wishes
the ban of silence to be removed, she gathers a large wooden
vessel full of some edible seed or small tuber, and smears herself
with white pipeclay at the women's camp, where she has been
living ever since her husband's death. Carrying the vessel,
and accompanied by the women whom she has collected for
the purpose, she walks to the centre of the general camp,
1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, A'ative Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia
(London, 1914), pp. 249 sq.
CHAP. XVII THE SILENT WIDOW 75
midway between the two sections occupied by the two halves
of the tribe. There they all sit down and cry loudly, where-
upon the men, who stand to them either in the actual or in
the classificatory relationship -^ of sons and younger brothers
of the dead man, come up and join the party. Next, these
men take the vessel of seeds or tubers from the hands of the
widow, and as many as possible laying hold of it, they shout
loudly, " Wah ! wah ! zvah ! " All the women, except the
widow, stop crying and join in the shout. After a short time
the men hold the vessel of seeds or tubers close to, but not
touching, the widow's face, and make passes to right and left
of her cheeks, while all again shout " IVa/i ! wah ! ivah ! "
The widow now stops her crying and utters the same shout,
only in subdued tones. After a few minutes the vessel of
seeds or tubers is passed to the rear of the men, who now,
squatting on the ground and holding their shields in both
hands, strike them heavily on the ground in front of the
women, who are standing. When that has been done the
men disperse to their camps and eat the food brought in the
vessel by the widow, who is now free to speak to them,
though she still continues to smear herself with pipeclay.^
The significance of this curious rite, by which an Arunta Signifi-
widow recovers her freedom of speech, is explained as follows f^"'^^ °^.
^ ' ^ the rite by
by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen : " The meaning of this which a
ceremony, as symbolised by the gathering of the tubers or reje^ed^
grass seed, is that the widow is about to resume the ordinary from the
occupations of a woman's life, which have been to a large silence
extent suspended while she remained in camp in what we among the
may call deep mourning. It is in fact closely akin in feeling
to the transition from deep to narrow black-edged paper
amongst certain more highly civilised peoples. The offering
to the sons and younger brothers is intended both to show
them that she has properly carried out the first period of
mourning, and to gain their goodwill, as they, especially the
younger brothers, are supposed to be for some time displeased
with a woman when her husband is dead and she is alive.
In fact a younger brother meeting the wife of a dead elder
* As to classificatory relationships, Gillen, T/ie Native Tribes of Central
see above, vol. ii. pp. 227 sq'q. Atistralia (London, 1899), pp. 500-
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. 502.
76
THE SILENT WIDOW
Silence
imposed
on widows
among the
Unmatjera
andKaitish
of Central
Australia.
Silence
imposed
on widows
and many
other
female
relations
of the
deceased
among the
Warra-
munga of
Central
Australia.
brother, out in the bush performing the ordinary duties of a
woman, such as hunting for ' yams,' within a short time of
her husband's death, would be quite justified in spearing her.
The only reason that the natives give for this hostile feeling is
that it grieves them too much when they see the widow, because
it reminds them of the dead man. This, however, can scarcely
be the whole reason, as the same rule does not apply to the
elder brothers, and very probably the real explanation of the
feeling is associated, in some way, with the custom according
to which the widow will, when the final stage of mourning is
over, become the wife of one of these younger brothers whom
at first she has carefully to avoid." ^
Again, among the Unmatjera and Kaitish, two other
tribes of Central Australia, a widow's hair is burnt off close
to her head with a firestick, and she covers her body with
ashes from the camp fire. This covering of ashes she renews
from time to time during the whole period of mourning. If
she did not do so, it is believed that the spirit of her dead
husband, who constantly follows her about, would kill her and
strip all the flesh from her bones. Moreover, her late hus-
band's younger brother would be justified in severely thrash-
ing or even killing her, if at any time he were to meet her
during the period of deep mourning without this emblem of
sorrow. Further, she must also observe the ban of silence
until, usually many months after her husband's death, she is
released from it by her husband's younger brother. When
this takes place she makes an offering to him of a very con-
siderable quantity of food, and with a fragment of it he
touches her mouth, thus indicating to her that she is once
more free to talk and to take part in the ordinary duties of
a woman.^
But among the Warramunga, another tribe of Central
Australia, the command of silence imposed on women after
a death is much more comprehensive and extraordinary.
With them it is not only the dead man's widow who must
be silent during the whole time of mourning, which may last
for one or even two years ; his mother, his sisters, his
1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central
Australia, p. 502.
- (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
Gillen, The Noi-thern Tribes of Central
Attstralia (London, 1904), pp. 507 sq.
THE SILENT WIDOW
77
daughters, his mother-in-law or mothers-in-law, must all
equally be dumb and for the same protracted period. More
than that, not only his real wife, real mother, real sisters, and
real mothers-in-law are subjected to this rule of silence, but a
great many more women whom the natives, on the classifica-
tory principle, reckon in these relationships, though we should
not do so, are similarly bound over to hold their tongues, it
may be for a year, or it may be for two years. As a conse-
quence it is no uncommon thing in a Warramunga camp to
find the majority of women prohibited from speaking. Even
when the period of mourning is over, some women prefer to
remain silent and to use only the gesture language, in the
practice of which they become remarkably proficient. Not
seldom, when a party of women are in camp, there will be
almost perfect silence, and yet a brisk conversation is all the
while being conducted among them on their fingers, or rather
with their hands and arms, for many of the signs are made
by putting the hands or elbows in varying positions. At
Tennant's Creek some years ago there was an old woman
who had not opened her mouth, except to eat or drink, for
more than twenty-five years, and who has probabl)^ since then
gone down to her grave without uttering another syllable.
When, however, after a longer or a shorter interval of absolute
silence, a Warramunga widow desires to recover her liberty to
speak, she applies to the men who stand to her in the classifica-
tory or tribal relationship of sons, to whom, as is customary in
such cases, she has to make a present of food. The cere-
mony itself is a very simple one ; the woman brings the
food, usually a large cake of grass seed, and in turn bites
the finger of each of the men who are releasing her from
the ban of silence. After that she is free to talk as much
as she likes. It only remains to add that in the Warra-
munga tribe a widow crops her hair short, cuts open the
middle line of her scalp, and runs a burning firestick along
the gaping wound. The consequences of this horrible mutila-
tion are sometimes serious.^
Again, in the Dieri tribe of Central Australia a widow silence
was not allowed to speak until the whole of the white clay, "]|''^"fdows
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer arid F. J. Australia, ^'p. t,2^ sq.; iid.. The Native Dieri."
Gillen, The Northern Tribes of Central Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 500 sq.
78
THE SILENT WIDOiV
The motive
for the
silence of a
widow is
probably
a fear of
attracting
the
attention
of her
husband's
ghost.
Confirma-
tion of
this view
from the
practice
of some
Australian
tribes.
which she had smeared on her body in token of mourning,
had crumbled and fallen away of itself During this inter-
mediate period, which might last for months, she might
communicate with others only by means of the gesture
language.^
But why should a widow be bound over to silence for a
longer or a shorter time after the death of her spouse ? The
motive for observing the custom is probably a dread of
attracting the dangerous attentions of her late husband's
ghost. This fear is indeed plainly alleged as the reason by
the Bella Coola Indians, and it is assigned by the Unmatjera
and Kaitish as the motive for covering the widow's body with
ashes. The whole intention of these customs is apparently
either to elude or to disgust and repel the ghost. The widow
eludes him by remaining silent ; she disgusts and repels him
by discarding her finery, shaving or burning her hair, and
daubing herself with clay or ashes. This interpretation is
confirmed by certain particularities of the Australian usages.
In the first place, among the Waduman and Mudburra
the custom of silence is observed by the widow only so long
as the flesh adheres to her late husband's bones ; as soon as
it has quite decayed and the bones are bare, she is made free
of the use of her tongue once more. But it appears to be a
common notion that the ghost lingers about his mouldering
remains while any of the flesh is left, and that only after the
flesh has wholly vanished does he take hia departure for the
more or less distant spirit-land." Where such a belief pre-
vails it is perfectly natural that the widow should hold her
tongue so long as the decomposition of her husband's body
is still incomplete, for so long may his spirit be supposed to
haunt the neighbourhood and to be liable at any moment to
be attracted by the sound of her familiar voice.^
1 A. W. Hewitt, Native Tribes of
South-East Australia (London, 1904),
pp. 724 sq. Compare Samuel Gason,
" Of the tribes, Dieyerie, Auminie,
Yandrawontha, Yarawuarka, Pilla-
ds.^?i," Joitrnal of the Anthropological
Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 17 1.
^ I have collected some evidence
in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul,
p. 372, with note^. But the matter
requires further investigation.
3 The same fear of attracting the
attention of the ghost by speaking
aloud might naturally be felt, though
probably in a lesser degree, by other
relatives and friends in the time im-
mediately following a death. Hence
we can understand why among some
Australian tribes on the Lower Murray
River all mourners were forbidden to
CHAi'. XVII THE SILENT WIDOW
79
In the second place, the relation in which among the Further
Arunta, the Unmatiera, and the Kaitish the widow stands to '^.°"fi'^'"*-
•' tion of
her late husband's younger brother favours the supposition this view
that the motive of the restrictions laid on her is the fear of posTtion^in
the ghost. In these tribes the younger brother of her late which the
husband appears to exercise a special superintendence over '''^J^^^^l^
the widow during the period of mourning ; he sees to it that towards
she strictly observes the rules enjoined by custom at such husbatfds
times, and he has the right severely to punish or even to kill younger
her for breaches of them. Further, among the Unmatjera in some
and Kaitish it is the younger brother of the deceased who "Australian
tribes.
finally releases the widow from the ban of silence, and thereby
restores her to the freedom of ordinary life. Now this special
relationship in which the widow stands to her late husband's
younger brother is quite intelligible on the supposition that
at the end of mourning she is to become his wife, as regularly
happens under the common form of the levirate which assigns
a man's widow to one of his younger brothers.^ This
custom actually obtains in all the three tribes — the Arunta,
the Unmatjera, and the Kaitish — in which the widow
observes the rule of silence and stands in this special relation
to the younger brothers of her late husband. In the Arunta
it is the custom that on the conclusion of mourning the
widow becomes the wife of one of her deceased husband's
younger brothers ; " and with regard to the Unmatjera and
Kaitish we are told that " this passing on of the widow to a
younger, but never to an elder, brother is a very character-
istic feature of these tribes." ^ Similarly in the Dieri tribe,
which enforced the rule of silence on widows during the
period of mourning, a man's widow passed at his death
to his brother, who became her husband, and her children
called him father.^ But among rude races, who believe that
speak for ten days, while the corpse Gillen, The N^orthern Tribes of Central
was being reduced to a mummy over a Australia, p. 510.
slow fire. See G. F. Angas, Savage
Life and Scenes in Australia and New * Samuel Gason, "Of tlie tribes,
Z£a/(Z«(/ (London, 1847), i. 95. Dieyerie, Auminie, Yandrawontha,
* See above, pp. 276, 294, 295, Yarawuarka, Pilladapa," Journal of
296, 297, 298 sq., 303. the Anthropological Institute, xxiv.
2 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. (1895) p. 170, "The elder brother
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central claims her [the widow] as she is the
Australia, p. 502. ' wife of his brother " ; A. W. Howitt,
s (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. " The Dieri and other kindred tribes
8o
THE SILENT WIDOW
Similar
customs
and beliefs
may have
prevailed
among the
ancient
Hebrews.
a man's ghost haunts his widow and pesters her with his
unwelcome attentions, marriage with a widow is naturally
thought to involve the bridegroom in certain risks arising
from the jealousy of his deceased rival, who is loth to
resign his spouse to the arms of another. Examples of such
imaginary dangers attendant on marriage with a widow have
been cited in an earlier part of this book.^ They may help
us to understand why, among the Australian tribes in question,
a man keeps such a vigilant watch over the conduct of his
deceased elder brother's widow. The motive is probably not
so much a disinterested respect for the honour of his dead
brother as a selfish regard for his own personal safety, which
would be put in jeopardy if he were to marry the widow
before she had completely got rid of her late husband's
ghost by strictly observing all the precautions usually taken
for that purpose, including the rule of silence.
Thus the analogy of customs observed among widely
separated peoples supports the conjecture that among the
ancient Hebrews also, at some early time of their history, a
widow may have been expected to keep silence for a certain
time after the death of her husband for the sake of giving
the slip to his ghost ; and further, perhaps, that the observ-
ance of this precaution may have been particularly enforced
by her late husband's younger brother, who, in accordance
with the custom of the levirate, proposed to marry her when
the days of her mourning were over. But it should be
observed that, apart from analogy, the direct evidence for
of Central Australia," Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891)
p. 62, "Besides these marital relations
which exist between the groups of Dilpa
malis there are such also between men
and their brothers' wives and women
and their sisters' husbands, but in these
cases it is sub rosa, and not an open
and recognized connection as is that of
the Dilpa mali. A man is the Nubia
[husband] of his wife, and the Nubia-
Kodimoli of his brother's wife. When
the brother dies the former ceases to be
the Kodimoli of the widow, and be-
comes her Nubia [husband], and her
children call him father." From Ga-
son's statement it might be inferred
that on a man's death his elder brother
succeeded to the widow. But as this
would be contrary to the general rule
of the levirate we may suppose that by
"the elder brother" Gason means the
eldest of the surviving brothers, who
might, and in ordinary circumstances
probably would be, younger than the
deceased. Dr. Howitt's statement,
which I have just quoted, furnishes a
clear example of that type of communal
marriage between a group of brothers
and a group of sisters which I have
postulated as the original from which
both the levirate and the sororate have
been derived by a process of fission.
See above, vol. ii. pp. 304 sqq.
1 Vol. i. pp. 523 sqq.
CHAP. XVII THE SILENT WIDOW 8i
such an enforced silence of widows among the Hebrews is
no more than a doubtful etymology ; and as all inferences
from etymology to custom are exceedingly precarious, I
cannot claim any high degree of probability for the present
conjecture.
VOL. Ill
CHAPTER XVIII
JONAH AND THE WHALE
How the We have all been familiar from childhood with the story of
?onah^was ^^^ prophet Jonah, who, fleeing from the presence of the
swallowed Lord, took passage in a ship for Tarshish, where he evidently
and ^^^^^^ expected to be beyond the reach of the deity. However, he
vomited miscalculated the power of the Lord ; for while he was still
up again. ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Lord sent a great wind in pursuit of him, and the
storm was such that the ship, in which the runagate prophet
had taken his passage, was like to be broken in pieces. But,
amid all the tumult of the tempest, Jonah slept soundly in
his bunk down below, till the skipper came and, waking him
from his slumber, bade him betake himself to his knees as
the only way to save the ship. However, when he came on
deck, the prophet found that the question with the crew was
not so much one of prayer as of pitching somebody over-
board as a sort of propitiatory offering to the raging waters,
or to the god who had lashed them into fury. So they
drew lots to see who should perish to save the rest, and the
lot fell upon Jonah. Accordingly with his consent, indeed
at his own urgent request, and not until they had very
humanely exhausted every effort by hard rowing to make
the land, they took up the now conscience-stricken prophet
and heaved him over the gunwale into the foaming billows.
No sooner did he fall with a splash into the water than the
sea went down, and a great calm succeeded to the great
storm. But the Lord had mercy on the repentant prophet,
and prepared a great fish which swallowed up Jonah ; and
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three
nights. And Jonah prayed to the Lord out of the fish's
82
CHAP. XVIII JONAH AND THE WHALE 83
belly, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited up
Jonah, safe and sound, on the dry land.^
With this picturesque narrative we may compare a less a New
artistic, but equally veracious, story told by the natives of ^^^'"j^^^
Windesi, on the northern coast of Dutch New Guinea, the story.
They say that the inhabitants of the island of J op formerly
dwelt at Batewaar. One day five of them rowed in a canoe
across to Waropen to fetch sago. But out on the high sea
a whale swallowed them, canoe and all, and they sank with
the fish to the bottom. As they sat in the fish's belly, they
cut slices of its liver and guts, hacked the canoe in pieces,
and, lighting a fire, roasted the liver and guts and ate them.
But the fish, thus mangled in its vitals, died, and its carcass
drifted to shore. Thereupon, the men, sitting in the fish's
belly, heard the cry of a hornbill. They said, " Is that
land ? " They opened the fish's snout, they saw that it was
land, and they went forth. Then the bird came to them
and said, " I did it ; it is my doing that you people are still
alive. Go now home ; fetch your people and dwell on this
island." So to sea they went, fetched their people, and took
up their abode on the island. That is why the inhabitants
of the island of Jop do not eat any hornbills.^
1 Jonah i., ii. that the age of the bird can be deter-
mined by their number. See Fran-
2 J. A. van Balen, " Windesische cois Valentijn, Ond en Nieiiw Oost-
\e.xh2i\Qn" Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- Indien, iii. (Dordrecht and Amster-
en Volkenkiinde vati Nederlandsch- dam, 1726) pp. 301 sq. ; and on
Indie, Ixx. (1915) p. 465. The horn- hornbills in general, Alfred Newton,
bill gets its Dutch name oi jaarvogel A Dictionary of Birds (l^ondon, 1893-
("year bird") from the extraordinarj' 1896), pp. 432 sqq. I am indebted to
bony excrescence or protuberance on Mr. A. H. Evans, of Clare College,
the upper side of its bill, which is Cambridge, and to Mr. J. H. Hessels
said to grow by a half- ring every for identifying theyaa/^ijf^/ for me and
year, these half-rings being distinguish- referring me to Valentijn's description
able from each other by grooves, so of it.
CHAPTER XIX
JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS
Assyrian
colonists
in Israel,
attacked
by lions,
appeal to
a native
Israelitish
priest to
intercede
for them
with the
god of the
land.
When after a long siege the Assyrians had taken Samaria
and carried away the Israelites into captivity, the king of
Assyria sent colonists from Babylonia and Syria to people
the desolate cities of Israel. But in their new home the
settlers continued to worship their old gods instead of paying
their devotions to Jehovah, the god of the land. To punish
them for this disrespect, Jehovah sent lions, which mauled
and killed some of the idolaters. However singular the
choice of such missionaries to the heathen may seem to us,
it answered the purpose perfectly. The colonists at once
recognized in the ferocious animals the ministers of vengeance
despatched by the deity to chastise them for their infringe-
ment of his lawful rights ; and not knowing how to appease
his anger, they sent word to the king of Assyria, saying,
" The nations which thou hast carried away, and placed in
the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the
land : therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold,
they slay them, because they know not the manner of the
God of the land." Then the king of Assyria commanded,
saying, " Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought
from thence ; and let him go and dwell there, and let him
teach them the manner of the God of the land." So one of
the Israelitish priests, whom the Assyrians had carried away
from Samaria, came and dwejt in Bethel, and taught them
how they should worship Jehovah.^ After that we hear no
' 2 Kings xvii. 24-2S. In verse 27
I read " let him go and dwell " instead
of " let them go and dwell " (3r;i 7]Jp;i
instead of nc'n I3^.'.i), with some ancient
versions, approved by C. F. Burney
(Notes on the Hebre~v Text of the Books
of Kings, Oxford, 1 903, p. 336), R.
Kittel {Biblia Hebraica, i. 535), and
Principal J. Skinner {Kings, p. 380,
The Century Bible').
84
CHAP. XIX JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS 85
more of the lions. The historian leaves us to infer that their
visitation ended with the institution of services in honour of
Jehovah, though he or a later editor informs us that side by
side with their worship of the god of Israel the colonists
continued to worship the national gods whom they had
brought with them from their native lands.^
The incident illustrates the ancient Semitic belief that So among
every land has its own local deity, who can only be pro- Toradjas
pitiated by the natives of the country, since they alone are of Celebes
acquainted with the particular form of religious ritual which invoke
he expects and requires his worshippers to observe." Similar ^^e help
.,, , ^ .,, , ,. , , of native
ideas have been entertamed by other peoples m regard to the priests of
gods of a land. For example, the Toradjas of Central ^^^^ '^"'^•
Celebes believe that " every district has its own earth-
spirit, or rather earth-spirits, which can only be invoked
by members of the tribe which inhabits the district."
Hence, when a man has obtained leave to lay out a rice-
field in the territory of another tribe, and the time comes for
him to make an offering to the earth-spirit Toompoo ntana,
" Owner of the Ground," " the stranger always invites for that
purpose the help of one of the garden-priests of the tribe in
whose land he has come to dwell, because they say that such
a stranger does not know how he ought to invoke the spirit
of that land ; he is not yet accustomed to that earth-spirit." ^
Again, among the aboriginal tribes of the Upper Niger so among
valley, the Earth is a very important deity, whose worship is th'^ tnbes
cared for by a priest called the Chief of the Earth. Each Upper
village, as a rule, has its Chief of the Earth, who is the reli- ^5!'^ If^
t> ' ' ' duties of
gious, but not the political, head of the community, being thepriestof
charged with the duty of offering sacrifices to Earth and the performed,
other local deities, and of acting generally as the indispens- not by the
able intermediary between the gods and the people. For an'd con.
example, it is his business to sacrifice for good crops at querors,
rr t -i rr • r i r ^ but by
sowmg, to offer thank-ofifenngs after harvest, to perform the descend-
ants of the
' 2 Kings xvii. 29 - 33. These ^ Compare W. Robertson Smith, qI^j ^bori-
verses have perhaps been added by a The Religion of the Semites, New ginal and
Deuteronomic editor. So E. Kautsch Edition (London, 1894), pp. 92 sqq. conquered
thinks [Die heilige Schrift des Alten race.
Testatnenis, Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, ^ N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De
1894, i. 413), and more doubtfully, Bare' e-sprekendeToradj ex's van Midden-
Principal J. Skinner {Kings, pp. 380 Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 233,
sq.). 245 sq.
86 JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS part in
rites necessary for procuring rain in seasons of drought, and'
to make atonement whenever Earth has been offended by the
spilling of human blood on the ground, whether in murder or
in simple assault and battery.^ Moreover, as representative
of the Earth -deity, and therefore himself master of the
earth, it is the prerogative of the priest to grant permis-
sion to dig graves and to prescribe their dimensions." Now
this important priesthood of Earth, invested with purely
religious functions and divested of all political power, con-
tinues to be filled by members of the old aboriginal race
under the rule of an alien people, the Mossi, who have
invaded and conquered a large part of the country. " The
existence of these Chiefs of the Earth among the Mossi is
explained very probably by the superposition of the conquer-
ing on the conquered race. When the Mossi invaded and
conquered the country, in proportion as they spread their
dominion they put men of their own race at the head of aJl
the villages and cantons to ensure the submission of the
vanquished population. But they never thought — and this
is a notion to be found in the whole of West Africa — that
they were qualified to offer sacrifices to the Earth-god of the
place and the local divinities. It was only the vanquished,
the ancient owners of the soil, with which they continued in
good relations, who were qualified for that. Hence the old
political head of the aborigines was bound to become natur-
ally a religious chief under the rule of the Mossi. Thus we
have seen that the king {Moro-Naba) never himself offers the
sacrifices to Earth at Wagadugu, nor does he allow such
sacrifices to be offered by his minister of religion, the Gand6-
Naba. He lays the duty on the king of Wagadugu ( Waga-
dugu-Naba), the grandson of the aborigines, who as such is
viewed favourably by the local divinities. Similarly, when
he sacrifices to the little rising-grounds in the neighbourhood
of Wagadugu, he commits the charge of the offerings and
sacrifices to the local chief. But what the king {Moro-Naba)
1 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Sondati, 290, 291, 293, 309 sq., 313, 314 sq.,
pays Mossi et Gourotmsi (Paris, 1912), 318, 323, 324, 325, 327, 349, 351 sq.,
pp. 60, 64, 71 sq., 73, 75, 104, 105, 357, 358. 371, 373> 375> 376, 388.
154, 176, 177, 178, 180, i<)\ sq., 193,
197, 203, 227, 228, 229, 230, 237, 2 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan,
240, 241, 242, 263, 270, 273, 289, pp. 267, 268 sq., 310, 320.
CHAP. XIX JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS 87
actually does now at Wagadugu, the Mossi kings {naba)
doubtless did formerly, more or less everywhere after the
conquest, as soon as the submission of the aborigines was
assured. Hence the institution of the Chiefs of the Earth
{Tensoba)." ^
The ancient historian has not described the rites and cere-
ceremonies by which the Israelitish priest at Bethel succeeded monies
1 r I . ,. performed
m staymg the ravages of the man-eatmg lions ; we can, by abori-
therefore, only compare the intention, but not the form, of ^'"^\ .
^ J sr > J priests in
the rites and ceremonies which a priest of one of the ab- India
original tribes in India at the present day performs for the repression
purpose of staying the ravages of man-eating tigers and of man-
laying the ghosts of such persons as have fallen victims to tigers^
the ravening maw of these dangerous brutes. The Baigas The
-r> ri Ml ri •••t^-i- Baigas and
or Bygas are one ot the wildest 01 the primitive Dravidian their
tribes that roam the dense sal forests which clothe the hills country.
of Mandla in the Central Provinces of India. They are very
black, with an upright, slim, but exceedingly wiry frame and
features somewhat less coarse than those of the other hill
tribes. Almost destitute of clothing, with long, tangled coal-
black hair, and armed with bow and arrow and a keen little
axe hitched over his shoulder, the Baiga is the very model of
an aboriginal mountaineer. He scorns all tillage except in
the patches which he clears for temporary cultivation on the
mountain-side, pitching his neat abode of bamboo wicker-
work, like an eagle's eyrie, on some hilltop or ledge of rock,
far above the valleys and the pathways that penetrate them ;
and he ekes out the fruits of the earth by the unwearied
pursuit of game. Full of courage, and accustomed to depend
on each other, they do not hesitate to attack every animal
of the forest, including the tiger himself, and in their contests
with these foes they are aided by the deadly poison, an
extract of the root of Aconitum ferox, with which they tip
their arrows. They lead a very secluded life in the wilder-
ness, and down to the middle of the nineteenth century,
when they first came under the exact observation of English
officers, they were even more solitary and retired than they
1 L. Tauxier, Le Noir dti Soudan, "master or chief of the earth," is
PP- 594 ^^- -As to the Mossi kings opposed to naba, which means a mili-
(Moro-N'aba), see id., pp. 461 si]., tary chief or king. See L. Tauxier,
567 sq. The title Tensoba, meaning op. cit. p. 595 ; compare p. 587.
JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS
How a
Baiga
priest lays
the ghosts
of men
who have
been killed
by tigers,
and so
checks the
ravages
of the
ferocious
animals.
are now. Their villages, it is said, were only to be found in
places far removed from all cleared and cultivated country.
No roads or well-defined paths connected them with ordinary
lines of traffic and more thickly inhabited tracts ; but perched
away in snug corners of the hills, and hidden by projecting
spurs and thick woods from the country round about, they
were invisible at a distance and were seldom visited except
now and then by an enterprising moneylender or trader.
Indeed, without a Baiga guide, many of the villages could
hardly be discovered, for nothing but occasional notches on
the trunks of trees distinguished the tracks leading to them
from the tracks worn by the wild beasts of the jungle. The
forests in which these wild people dwell remote from the world
are composed for the most part of the sal tree {Shorea robusta),
almost the only evergreen forest tree in India. Throughout
the summer its glossy dark-green foliage reflects the light in
a thousand vivid tints ; and just at the end of the dry season,
when the parched vegetation all around is at its lowest ebb,
and before the first rains of the monsoon have refreshed the
thirsty earth, the sal tree bursts out into a fresh garment of
the brightest and softest green. The traveller who has
lingered late in the highlands is charmed by the approach
of a second spring, and, with the notes of the cuckoo and
the deep musical cooing of pigeons in his ear, he might
almost fancy himself in England, if it were not for the light
feathery foliage of the bamboo thickets, which remind him
that he is in India.^
In the country where the Baigas dwell they are regarded
as the most ancient inhabitants and accordingly they usually
act as priests of the indigenous gods." Certainly there is
reason to believe that in this part of the hills they are pre-
decessors of the Gonds, towards whom they occupy a
position of acknowledged superiority, refusing to eat with
them and lending them their priests or enchanters for the
performance of those rites which the Gonds, as newcomers,
could not properly celebrate. Among these rites the most
dangerous is that of laying the ghost of a man who has been
^ Captain J. Forsyth, The High- inces of India (London, 1916), ii. 77,
lands of India (London, 1871), pp. 80.
357 sq-, 359 sqq. ; R. V. Russell,
Tribes and Castes of the Central Prov- ^ R. V. Russell, op.cit. ii. 78
CHAP. XIX JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS 89
killed by a tiger. Man-eating tigers have always been
numerous in INIandla, the breed being fostered by the large
herds of cattle which pasture in the country during a part
of the year, while the withdrawal of the herds for another
part of the year, to regions where the tigers cannot follow
them, instigates the hungry brutes to pounce from their
covers in the tall grass on passing men and women. When
such an event has taken place with fatal results, the Baiga
priest or enchanter proceeds to the scene of the catastrophe,
provided with articles, such as fowls and rice, which are to
be offered to the ghost of the deceased. Arrived at the
spot, he makes a small cone out of the blood-stained earth
to represent either the dead man or one of his living
relatives. His companions having retired a few paces, the
priest drops on his hands and knees, and in that posture
performs a series of antics which are supposed to represent
the tiger in the act of destroying the man, while at the same
time he seizes the lump of blood-stained earth in his teeth.
One of the party then runs up and taps him on the back
with a small stick. This perhaps means that the tiger is
killed or otherwise rendered harmless, for the priest at once
lets the mud cone fall into the hands of one of the party.
It is then placed in an ant-hill and a pig is sacrificed over it.
Next day a small chicken is taken to the place, and after a
mark, supposed to be the dead man's name, has been made
on the fowl's head with red ochre, it is thrown back into the
forest, while the priest cries out " Take this and go home."
The ceremony is thought to lay the dead man's ghost, and
at the same time to keep the tiger from doing any more
harm. For the Baigas believe that if the ghost were not
charmed to rest, it would ride on the tiger's head and incite
him to fresh deeds of blood, guarding him at the same time
from the attacks of human foes by his preternatural watch-
fulness.^
If v/e cannot suppose that the Israelitish priest at Bethel Man-
performed a similar pantomime for the repression of man- ^^^^^-^^
eating lions among the woods of Samaria, we shall perhaps Samaria
be justified in assuming that the rites which he did celebrate e."jin'r^""
1 Q.i.-^\.z:\Xi].Yox%y\\\, The Highlands 362 sq.-, R. V. Russell, The Tribes i',fji^'"
of Central India (London, 1871), pp. and Castes of Central India, ii. 84.
90
JEHOVAH AND THE LIONS
Deities to
be judged
by the
ethical
standard
of their
human
contem-
poraries.
were neither less nor more effectual than those which the
jungle-priests of Mandla still observe for a like purpose over
the blood-stained earth in their native forests. At all events,
with these parallels before us we can better appreciate
the gross religious impropriety of which the foreign settlers
in Palestine were guilty, when they began by completely
ignoring the old god of the land ; it is no wonder that he
was nettled at such treatment and took strong measures
to impress his claims on the attention of the newcomers.
Whether the despatch of lions to devour dissenters was the
best possible means to promote the cause of pure religion is
a question which might, perhaps, admit of discussion ; but
even if such a demonstration of religious truth should appear
to modern minds rather forcible than convincing, it would be
unreasonable to blame Jehovah for complying with, or even
sharing, the current ideas of his time. A god, like a man,
can only be fairly judged by the standard of the age to which
he belongs ; for experience seems to show that the ethical
code of a deity is seldom superior, and may be distinctly
inferior, to that of his human contemporaries.
PART IV
THE LAW
I
CHAPTER I
THE PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY
Before we pass to an examination of some particular Place of
Jewish laws, it may be well briefly to consider the place L^.-g^j^^ '"
which the Law as a whole occupies in the history of Israel, history.
so far as that place has been determined by the critical
analysis of modern scholars.
The most important and. the best attested result of Late date
linguistic and historical criticism applied to the Old Testa- p^^ta-
ment is the proof that the Pentateuchal legislation, in the teuchai
form in which we now possess it, cannot have been pro- ^^^^^^ '°"
mulgated by Moses in the desert and in Moab before the present
entrance of the Israelites into Palestine, and that it can
only have assumed its final shape at some time after the
capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 586
B.C., when the Jews were carried away into exile. In
short, the legal portion of the Pentateuch, as we now have
it, belongs not to the earliest but to a late date in the
history of Israel ; far from having been promulgated before
the nation took possession of the Promised Land, very little
of it appears to have been written and published till near
the end of the national independence, and the bulk of it,
comprising what the critics call the Priestly Code, seems
to have been composed for the first time in its present
form and committed to writing either during or after the
captivity.^
But it is necessary to distinguish carefully between the Law a
age of the laws themselves and the dates when they were |ro\vai.not
first given to the world in the shape of written codes. A a sudden
creation.
1 For reference to the aulliorities see below, p. 98, note'.
93
94 PLACE OF THE LA W IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
very little thought will satisfy us that laws in general do
not spring armed cap-a-pie into existence like Athena
from the head of Zeus, at the moment when they are
codified. Legislation and codification are two very different
things. Legislation is the authoritative enactment of certain
rules of conduct which have either not been observed or
have not been legally binding before the acts enforcing them
were passed by the supreme authority. But even new laws
are seldom or never complete innovations ; they nearly
always rest upon and presuppose a basis of existing custom
and public opinion which harmonize more or less with the
new laws, and have long silently prepared for their recep-
tion in the minds of the people. The most despotic
monarch in the world could not force upon his subjects
an absolutely new law, which should run counter to the
whole bent and current of their natural disposition, out-
raging all their hereditary opinions and habits, flouting
all their most cherished sentiments and aspirations. Even
in the most seemingly revolutionary enactment there is
always a conservative element which succeeds in securing
the general assent and obedience of a community. Only a
law which in some measure answers to a people's past has
any power to mould that people's future. To reconstruct
human society from the foundations upward is a visionary
enterprise, harmless enough so long as it is confined to the
Utopias of philosophic dreamers, but dangerous and possibly
disastrous when it is attempted in practice by men, whether
demagogues or despots, who by the very attempt prove their
ignorance of the fundamental principles of the problem
they rashly set themselves to solve. Society is a growth,
not a structure ; and though we may modify that growth
and mould it into fairer forms, as the gardener by his art has
evolved blooms of lovelier shape and richer hue from the
humble flowers of the field and the meadow, the hedgerow
and the river-bank, we can as little create society afresh
as the gardener can create a lily or a rose. Thus in every
law, as in every plant, there is an element of the past, an
element which, if we could trace it to its ultimate source,
would lead us backwards to the earliest stages of human
life in the one case and of plant life in the other.
CH. I FLA CE OF THE LAW IN JE WISH HISTOR V 95
And when we pass from legislation to codification, the Distinction
possible antiquity of the laws codified is so obvious that it legislation
seems almost superfluous to insist upon it. The most and codi-
famous of all codes, the Digest or Pandects of Justinian,
is a compilation of extracts from the works of older Roman
jurists in the very words of the writers, all of whom are
carefully named in every separate citation ; thus the code is
not a series of new laws, it is simply a new collection of the
old laws which had obtained in the Roman Empire for
centuries. Of modern codes the most celebrated is the
French code issued by Napoleon, but though it superseded
that immense number of separate local systems of juris-
prudence, of which it was observed that a traveller in
France changed laws oftener than he changed horses, it by
no means formed an entirely novel body of legislation ; on
the contrary, it is " the product of Roman and customary
law, together with the ordinances of the kings and the laws
of the Revolution."^ But to multiply modern instances
would be superfluous.
In the Semitic world the course of legislation has Many of
probably been similar. The most ancient code in the Jawffer'^''
world which has come down to us is that of Hammurabi, more
king of Babylon, who reigned about 2 1 00 B.C. ; but there ^ha^the
is no reason to suppose that the enactments which it contains date when
were all brand-new creations of the royal legislator ; on the codified!^^
contrary, probability and evidence alike favour the view that
he merely erected his structure of law upon an old foundation
of immemorial custom and usage, which had come down
to him, at least in part, from the ancient predecessors of the
Semites in Babylonia, the Sumerians, and had for long ages
been consecrated by popular prejudice, sanctioned by
1 Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth en comptant les petites villes et menie
Edition, vi. (Edinburgh, 1887) p. 105, quelques bourgs, qui derogent aux .
s.v. "Code." \n\n% Siecle de Louis usages de la juridiction principale;
XV (chap. xlii. ) Voltaire arraigns the dc sorte qu'un hotmne qui court la poste
multipHcity and confusion of French en France change de lois plus souvent
systems of law before the Revolution. quHl ne change de chevaux, covime on
After speaking of the forty thousand Pa d^ja dit, el qiCun avocat qui sera
Roman laws which claimed authority tres savant dans sa ville ne sera qti'un
in France, he proceeds: ^^ Outre ces ignorant dans la ville voisifie" (V'ol-
quarante niillcs lois, dont on cite tou- taire, Siccles de Louis XIV ct de
jours quelqu' tine an hasard, nous avons Louis XV, Paris, 1S20, iv. 182).
cinq cent quarante coutuvies dijferentes.
g6
PLACE OF THE LA W IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
Historical
reality of
Moses
assured,
even if no
particular
laws can be
definitely
traced to
his legisla-
tion.
kings, and administered by judges.^ Similarly the critics
who assign the great bulk of the so-called Mosaic legislation
to the ages immediately preceding or following at no long
interval the loss of national independence, fully recognize
that even in its latest form the Law not only records but
enforces customs and ceremonial institutions, of which many,
and among them the most fundamental, are undoubtedly far
older than the time when the Pentateuch received its
final form in the fifth century before our era.^ This
conclusion as to the great antiquity of the chief cere-
monial institutions of Israel is amply confirmed by a com-
parison of them with the institutions of other peoples ; for
such a comparison reveals in Hebrew usage not a few
marks of barbarism and even of savagery, which could not
possibly have been imprinted on it for the first time at the
final codification of the law, but must have adhered to it
from ages which probably long preceded the dawn of history.
A {q.vj such marks will be pointed out in the sequel ; but
the number of them might easily be much enlarged. Such
customs, for example, as circumcision, the ceremonial un-
cleanness of women, and the employment of scapegoats have
their analogues in the customs of savage tribes in many parts
of the world.^
What I have said may suffice to dissipate the misappre-
hension that, in assigning a late date to the final codification
of Hebrew law. Biblical critics implicitly assume a late origin
for all the laws embodied in the code. But it may be well
before going farther to correct another possible misconception
1 C. H. W. Johns, Babylonian and
Assyrian Lazvs, Contracts, and Letters
(Edinburgh, 1904), pp. 39 sqq. ;
Stanley A. Cook, The Laws of
Moses and the Code of Hammurabi
(London, 1903), p. 42,
2 See for example W. Robertson
Smith, The Old Testament in the
Jewish Church, Second Edition (Lon-
don and Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 344
sq., 382 sq. ; S. R. Driver, Introduc-
tion to the Literature of the Old
Testament, Ninth Edition (Edinburgh,
1913), pp. 142 sqq., 151 -154; J.
Estlin Carpenter and G. Harford -
Battersby, The Hexatetich (London,
1900), i. 141 sqq. ; A. T. Chapman,
Introduction to the Pentateuch (Cam-
bridge, 191 1), pp. 183, 186 sqq.;
W. H. Bennett, Exodus, pp. 3 sq.
( The Century Bible).
•^ For evidence of the diffusion of
circumcision among savage and other
races, see R. Andree, Eihnographische
Parallelen wid Ve7-gleiche, Neue Folge
(Leipsic, 1889), pp. 166-212. The
evidence might be considerably en larged .
As to the ceremonial uncleanness of
women among savages, see Balder the
Beautiful, i. 22 sqq. As to the employ-
ment of scapegoats by savages and
others, see The Scapegoat, pp. 31 sqq.
CH. I PLACE OF THE LA W LN JEWISH HISTORY 97
which might arise in regard to the critical doctrine. Because
Httle or nothing of the so-called Mosaic legislation in the
Pentateuch can be proved to have emanated from Moses,
it by no means follows that the great lawgiver was a mere
mythical personage, a creation of popular or priestly fancy,
invented to explain the origin of the religious and civil con-
stitution of the nation. Any such inference would do violence,
not only to the particular evidence which speaks in favour of
the historical reality of Moses, but to the general laws of
probability ; for great religious and national movements
seldom or never occur except under the driving force of
great men. The origin of Israel and Judaism without
Moses would be hardly more intelligible than the origin
of Buddhism without Buddha, the origin of Christianity
without Christ, or the origin of Mohammedanism without
Mohammed. There is, indeed, a tendency in some quarters
at the present day to assume that history is made by the
blind collective impulses of the multitude without the
initiative and direction of extraordinary minds ; but this
assumption, born of or fostered by the false and pernicious
doctrine of the natural equality of men, contradicts both
the teaching of history and the experience of life. The
multitude needs a leader, and without him, though it
possesses a large faculty of destruction, it possesses little
or none of construction. Without men great in thought,
in word, in action, and in their influence over their fellows, no
great nation ever was or ever will be built up. Moses was such
a man, and he may justly rank as the real founder of Israel.
Stripped of the miraculous features, which gather round the
memory of popular heroes, as naturally as moss and lichens
gather round stones, the account given of him in the earlier
Hebrew histories is probably in substance correct : he rallied
the Israelites against their oppressors in Egypt, led them to
freedom in the wilderness, moulded them into a nation, im-
pressed on their civil and religious institutions the stamp of
his own remarkable genius, and having guided them to Moab,
he died in sight of the Promised Land, which he was not to
enter.^
' This appears to be substantially modern critics. See, for e.xample,
the view taken of Moses by the best J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the Hh-
VOL. Ill H
98
PLACE OF THE LA W IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
Three
bodies of
law dis-
tinguished
in the Pen-
tateuch,
viz., the
Book of
the Cove-
nant, the
Deutero-
nomic
Code, and
the Priestly
Code.
In the complex mass of laws which compose a large
part of the Pentateuch critics now generally distinguish at
least three separate groups or bodies of law, which differ
from each other in character and date. These are, in
chronological order, the Book of the Covenant, the Deutero-
nomic Code, and the Priestly Code. A brief notice of these
documents may help the reader to understand the place
which each of them occupies in the history of Jewish legis-
lation, so far as it has been determined by the investigations
of the critics. The arguments in support of these conclu-
sions are too numerous and complex to be cited here ; the
reader who desires to acquaint himself with them will find
them fully stated in many easily accessible works on the
subject.^
to>'y of Israel^ translated by J. Suther-
land Black and Allan Menzies (Edin-
burgh, 1885), pp. 429 sqq., particularly
438 sq. : " The historical tradition
which has reached us relating to the
period of the judges and of the kings
of Israel is the main source, though
only of course in an indirect way, of
our knowledge of Mosaism. But within
the Pentateuch itself also the historical
tradition about Moses (which admits of
being distinguished, and must carefully
be separated, from the legislative, al-
though the latter often clothes itself in
narrative form) is in its main features
manifestly trustworthy, and can only
be explained as resting on actual facts.
From the historical tradition, then, it
is certain that Moses was the founder
of the Torah. But the legislative tradi-
tion cannot tell us what were the posi-
tive contents of his Torah. In fact it
can be shown that throughout the whole
of the older period the Torah was no
finished legislative code, but consisted
entirely of the oral decisions and in-
structions of the priests ; as a whole it
was potential only ; what actually ex-
isted were the individual sentences given
by the priesthood as they were asked
for. Thus Moses was not regarded as
the promulgator once for all of a national
constitution, but rather as the first to
call into activity the actual sense for
law and justice, and to begin the series
of oral decisions which were continued
after him by the priests. He was the
founder of the nation out of which the
Torah and prophecy came as later
growths. He laid the basis of Israel's
subsequent peculiar individuality, not
by any one formal act, but in virtue
of his having throughout the whole of
his long life been the people's leader,
judge, and centre of union." Compare
W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testa-
ment ill the Jewish Church, Second
Edition, pp. 304 sq. ; S. R. Driver,
Introduction to the Literature of the
Old Testament, Ninth Edition, p. 152 ;
R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel,
Zweite Auflage (Gotha, 1909-1912),
i. 546 sqq. ; K. Budde, Geschichte der
althebrdische Litte7-atur (Leipsic, 1 906),
p. 94 ; E. Kautsch, " Religion of
Israel," in J. Hastings' Dictionaij of
the Bible, Extra volume (Edinburgh,
1909),- pp. 624 sq.
1 The literature on the subject
is large. The following works will
probably suffice to give most stu-
dents all the information they need :
J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the
History of Israel, translated by J.
Sutherland Black and Allan Menzies
(Edinburgh, 18S5), pp. I sqq. ; W.
Robertson Smith, The Old Testament
in the Jeivish Church, Second Edition
(London and Edinburgh, 1892), pp.
226 sqq. ; S. R. Driver, Introdtiction
to the Literature of the Old Testament,
Ninth Edition (Edinburgh, 1913), pp.
PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY
99
The oldest code in the Pentateuch is generally acknovv- The Book
ledged to be what is called the Book of the Covenant, com- cdMant
prising Exodus xx. 22-xxiii. 33. This has been named
the First Legislation.^ Closely related to it is Exodus xxxiv.
11-27, which is sometimes called the Little Book of the
Covenant.^ The Book of the Covenant is embedded in the
Elohistic document, which is generally believed to have been
written in northern Israel not later than the early part of the
eighth century B.C. The Little Book of the Covenant is
embedded in the Jehovistic Document, which is generally
believed to have been written in Judea somewhat earlier
than the Elohistic document, perhaps in the ninth century
B.C.^ But the laws themselves probably existed as a separ-
ate code or codes long before they were incorporated in
these documents ; and even before they had been codified
the laws may be assumed to have been generally observed
as customary regulations, many of them perhaps from a
time beyond the memory of man. As a whole the Book
of the Covenant reflects life in the days of the early kings
and judges. " The society contemplated in this legislation
ir6 sqq. ; (Bishop) H. E. Ryle, The
Canon of the Old Testament (London,
1892), pp. 22x^^.5 E. Kautsch, "Abriss
der Geschichte des alttestamentlichen
Schrifttums," in Die Heilige Schrift des
Alten Testanients iibersetzt (Freiburg
i. B. and Leipsic, 1894), ii. 136 sqq. ;
J. Estlin Carpenter and G. Harford-
Batiersby, The Hexateitch (London,
1900), i. 23 sqq. ; G. B. Gray, "Law
hherzUne,'' £/!(jctopad/a Biblica (Lon-
don, 1S99-1903), iii. 2730 sqq. ; C.
F. Kent, IsraePs Laws and Legal Pre-
cedents (New York, 1907), pp. 8 sqq.;
W. H. Bennett and W. F. Adeney,
A Biblical Introduction, Fifth Edition
(London, 1908), pp. 15 sqq. ; K.
Budde, Geschichte der althebrdisclie
Litferatnr (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 32 sqq. ;
A. T. Chapman, An hitrodiution to
the Pentateuch (Cambridge, 1911)-
The critical conclusions are also ac-
cepted and for the most part clearly
stated and explained in the introduc-
tions to the various volumes of the
Pentateuch in The Cambridge Bible
for Schools and Colleges and . The
Century Bible. While a general agree-
ment appears now to have been reached
by the best crftics as to the character
and historical order of the various
documents which compose the Hexa-
teuch, difference of opinion still exists
on a number of subordinate questions,
such as the oldest version of the
Decalogue, the precise date of the
Deuteronomic Code, the question
whether the Holiness Code (Leviticus
xvii.-xxvi.) preceded or followed Eze-
kiel, and the question whether the
" book of the law of Moses," which
Ezra read to the congregation, com-
prised the whole Pentateuch or only
the Priestly Code. But these miner
differences do not invalidate the general
conclusions as to which agreement has
been attained.
1 W. Robertson Smith, The Old
Testament in the Jewish Church,
Second Edition, p. 318.
- A. T. Chapman, Introdtiction to
the Pentateuch, pp. 1 10 sq.
^ As to the Elohistic and Jehovistic
Documents, see above, vol. i. pp. 131,
iZa,sqq.
loo PLA CE OF THE LA IV IN JE WISH HIS TOR V
The
Deutero-
nomic
Code pro-
mulgated
by King
Josiah in
621 B.C.
is of very simple structure. The basis of life is agricultural.
Cattle and agricultural produce are the elements of wealth,
and the laws of property deal almost exclusively with them.
The principles of civil and criminal justice are those still
current among the Arabs of the desert. They are two in
number, retaliation and pecuniary compensation. Murder
is dealt with by the law of blood-revenge, but the innocent
manslayer may seek asylum at God's altar. With murder
are ranked man-stealing, offences against parents, and witch-
craft. Other injuries are occasions of self-help or of private
suits to be adjusted at the sanctuary. Personal injuries fall
under the law of retaliation, just as murder does. Blow for
blow is still the law of the Arabs, and in Canaan no doubt,
as in the desert, the retaliation was usually sought in the
way of self-help." -^
The second code which critics distinguish in the Penta-
teuch is the Deuteronomic. It includes the greater part
of our present book of Deuteronomy, with the exception of
the historical introduction^ and the closing chapters.^ Modern
critics appear in general to agree that the Deuteronomic
Code is substantially the " book of the law " which was
found in the temple at Jerusalem in the year 621 B.C., and
which King Josiah took as the basis of his religious refor-
mation.^ The main features of the reform were, first, the
suppression of all the local sanctuaries or " high places "
throughout the land, and, second, the concentration of the
ceremonial worship of Jehovah at the temple in Jerusalem
by a Jew or Jews of Palestine in the
generation which closed about 520
B.C. ; thus in his view the composition
of the book fell about a century later
than is commonly supposed. See R.
H. Kennett, "The Date of Deutero-
nomy," T/ie Jour7ial of Theological
Studies, vii. (Oxford, 1906), pp. 481-
500; id., in J. Hastings' EncyclopcEdia
of Religion and Ethics, vii. (Edinburgh,
1914), s.v. "Israel," pp. 447 sqq.
His arguments deserve, and doubtless
will receive, careful consideration from
Biblical critics, but it would be out of
place to discuss them here. For the
purpose of this work I must be con-
tent to follow the general consensus of
scholars.
1 W. Robertson Smith, The Old
Testament in the fezvish Church,
Second Edition, pp. 340 sq. As to
the Book of the Covenant see further
W. H. Bennett, Exodus, pp. 13 sqq.
(The Century Bible) ; S. R. Driver,
The Book of Exodus (Cambridge, 1 9 1 1 ),
pp. Ixi-lxiii, 202-205.
2 Chapters i.-iii.
' Chapters xxix.-xxxiv.
■*' 2 Kings xxii.-xxiii. 24. How-
ever, the now generally accepted
identification of the Deuteronomic Code
with Josiah's "book of the law" is
rejected by Professor R. H. Kennett,
who holds that Deuteronomy is a work
of the Exilic period, having been written
CH. I PLACE OF THE LA VV IN JEWISH IIISTORY loi
alone. These measures are strongly inculcated in Deutero-
nomy ; and from the lessons of that book the reforming
king appears to have derived both the ideals which he set
himself to convert into realities and the warm religious zeal
which animated and sustained him in his arduous task.
For the deep impression made on his mind by the reading
of the book is easily accounted for by the blessings which
the writer of Deuteronomy promises as the reward of
obedience to the law, and by the curses which he denounces
as the punishment of disobedience.-'
The reformation thus inaugurated by Josiah was of import-
great importance not only for the measures which it enforced jos^i°s
but for the manner in which they were promulgated. It reforma-
was the first time, so far as we know, in the history of written
Israel that a written code was ever published with the '=°'^*=
, . r 1 11 1 /- ,.,- substituted
authority of the government to be the supreme rule of life for oral
of the whole nation. Hitherto law had been customary, not ''■amnion,
statutory ; it had existed for the most part merely as usages,
with which every one complied in deference to public .opinion
and from force of habit ; its origin was either explained by
ancient tradition or altogether lost in the mists of antiquity.
It is true that some of the customs had been reduced to
writing in the form of short codes ; at least one such volume
is known to us in the Book of the Covenant. But it does
not appear that these works received any official sanction ;
they were probably mere manuals destined for private circu-
lation. The real repositories of the laws were apparently
the priests at the local sanctuaries, who handed down orally
from generation to generation the ordinances of ritual and
religion, with which in primitive society the rules of morality
are almost inseparably united. On all points of doubtful
usage, in all legal disputes, the priests were consulted by the
people and gave their decisions, not so much in the capacity
of ordinary human judges, as in that of the mouthpieces
of the deity, whose will they consulted and interpreted b\'
means of the lots or other oracular machinery. These oral
decisions of the priests were the original law of the land ;
they were the Torah in its proper significance of authorita-
tive direction or instruction, long before the application of
' Deuteronomy x.\viii.
I02 PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISLI HISTORY part iv
that word came to be narrowed down, first to law in general,
and afterwards to the written law of tHe Pentateuch in par-
ticular. But in its original sense of direction or teaching,
the Torah was not limited to the lessons given by the
priests ; it included also the instructions and warnings
which the prophets uttered under impulses which they and
their hearers believed to be divine. There was thus a
prophetic as well as a priestly Torah, but in the beginning
and for long ages afterwards the two agreed in being oral
and not written.^
The The publication of the Deuteronomic Code in written
hiTo'f''^^^ form marked an era in the history not only of the Jewish
religion people but of humanity. It was the first step towards the
on"uie"^" canonization of Scripture and thereby to the substitution of
change the Written for the spoken word as the supreme and infallible
tradition to rulc of couduct. The accomplishment of the process by the
a written completion of the Canon in the succeeding centuries laid
thought under shackles from which in the western world it
has never since succeeded in wholly emancipating itself.
The spoken word before was free, and therefore thought was
free, since speech is nothing but thought made vocal and
articulate. The prophets enjoyed full freedom both of
thought and of speech, because their thoughts and words
were believed to be inspired by the deity. Even the priests
were far from being hide-bound by tradition ; though God
was not supposed to speak by their lips, they no doubt
allowed themselves considerable latitude in working the
oracular machinery of lots and other mechanical devices
through which the deity vouchsafed to manifest his will to
anxious inquirers. But when once the oracles were com-
mitted to writing they were stereotyped and immoveable ;
from the fluid they had solidified into the crystalline
form with all its hardness and durability ; a living growth
had been replaced by a dead letter ; the scribe had
ousted the prophet and even the priest, so far as the
1 J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the Second Edition, pp. 298 sqq. ; I.
History of Israel, translated by J. Benzinger, Hehraische Archaolo^ic^
Sutherland Black and Allan Menzies (Tubingen, 1907), pp. 346 sqq. ; A.
(Edinburgh, 1885), pp. 393 sqq., 435 'Y.Qh.z.'^va^iXi, Introduction to the Penta-
sq. ; W. Robertson Smith, The Old teuch, pp. 256 sqq.
Testament in . the Jeivish Church,
PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY
103
functions of the priest were oracular and not sacrificial.
Henceforth Israel became the " people of the book " ; the
highest wisdom and knowledge were to be obtained not by-
independent observation, not by the free investigation of man
and of nature, but by the servile interpretation of a written
record. The author must make room for the commentator ;
the national genius, which had created the Bible, accom-
modated itself to the task of writing the Talmud.
While we can ascertain with a fair degree of assur-
ance the date when the Deuteronomic Code was pub-
lished, we have no information as to the date when it was
composed. It was discovered and promulgated in the
eighteenth year of Josiah's reign (621 B.C.),^ and it must
have been written either in the preceding part of the
king's reign or under his predecessor Manasseh ; for internal
evidence proves that the book cannot be older, and that its
composition must therefore have fallen some time within the
seventh century before our era. On the whole, the most prob-
able hypothesis appears to be that Deuteronomy was written
in the reign of Manasseh, and that under the oppressive and
cruel rule of that bajd king it was concealed for safety in the
temple, where it lay hid till it came to light during the repairs
of the sacred edifice instituted by the devout Josiah." It has,
The exact
date of the
composi-
tion, as
distin-
guished
from the
promulga-
tion of the
Deutero-
nomic
Code is
uncertain.
1 2 Kings xxii. 3 sqq.
2 This is the view of Principal J.
Skinner (Kings, p. 412, in The Cen-
tury Bible), and E. Kautsch (" Abriss
der Geschichte des alttestamenllichen
Schrifttums," in Die Heilige Schrift des
Alien Testaments, Freiburg i. Baden
and Leipsic, 1894, ii. 167 sq.). In his
Introduction to the literature of the
Old Testament, Ninth Edition (Edin-
burgh, 19 1 3), pp. 86 sq., S. R. Driver
argued that Deuteronomy was not later
than the reign of Manasseh ; but in his
Commentary on Deuteronomy, Third
Edition (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. xlix
sqq., he seems to leave it an open
question whether the book is to be
assigned to the reign of Manasseh or
to the reign of Josiah. Bishop Ryle
inclines to hold that "the book was
compiled in the latter part of Heze-
kiah's, or in the early part of Manasseh 's,
reign " ( The Canon of the Old Testa-
ment, London, 1892, p. 56). "By
others, on the contrary, the calm and
hopeful spirit which the author displays,
and the absence even of any covert
allusion to the special troubles of
Manasseh's time, are considered to be
objections to that date : the book, it
is argued, is better understood as the
direct outcome of the reforming tend-
encies which the early years of Josiah
must hav'e called forth, and as designed
from the first with the view of promot-
ing the ends which its author labouis
to attain " (S. R. Driver, Critical and
Exegetical Commentary on Deuter-
onomy, Third Edition, pp. liii sq.).
This last view is preferred by Pro-
fessor C. H. Kent {Israel's Laivs and
Legal Precedents, New York, 1907,
p. 33), and more doubtfully by H.
Wheeler Robinson {Deuteronomy and
Joshua, Edinburgh, 1907, p. 16, in
The Century Bible).
I04 PLACE OF THE LA W IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
indeed, sometimes been suspected that the book was a forgery
of the temple priests, who contrived by a devout fraud to palm
it off as a work of hoar antiquity on the guileless young king.
But that the suspicion is as unjust as it is uncharitable will
perhaps appear to any one who candidly considers the liberal
provision which the new code made for the reception at
Jerusalem of the rural clergy whom the destruction of the
local sanctuaries had stripped of their benefices. These dis-
established and disendowed priests, reduced to the level of
homeless landlopers, had only to come up to the capital to
be put on a level with their urban colleagues and enjoy all
the dignity and emoluments of the priesthood.^ We shall
probably be doing no more than justice to the city clergy
by supposing that they held firmly to the good old maxim
Beati possidentes, and that except under the cruel compulsion
of the law they were not very likely to open their arms and
their purses to their needy brethren from the country.
The ethical Whoever was the unknown author of Deuteronomy, there
religious ^an be no question that he was a disinterested patriot and
characterof reformer, animated by a true love^ of his country and an
nomy. houest zcal for pure religion and morality, which he believed
to be imperilled by the superstitious practices and lascivious
excesses of the local sanctuaries. Whether he was a priest
or a prophet, it is difficult to judge, for the book exhibits a
remarkable fusion of priestly, or at all events legal, matter
with the prophetic spirit. That he wrote under the inspiring
influence of the great prophets of the eighth century, Amos,
Hosea, and Isaiah, seems certain ; ^ accepting their view of
the superiority of the moral to the ritual law, he propounds
a system of legislation which he bases on religious and ethical
principles, on piety and humanity, on the love of God and of
man ; and in recommending these principles to his hearers
and readers he falls naturally into a strain of earnest and
even pathetic pleading, which is more akin to the warmth
and animation of the orator than to the judicial calm and
1 Deuteronomy xviii. 6-8, compared in Jerusalem. Compare W. Robertson
with 2 Kings xxiii. 8 sq. From the Smith, The Old Testament in the
latter of these passages we learn that, Jewish Church, Second edition, p. 363.
contrary to the provision made for
them in the Deuteronomic code, the ^ Compare A. B. Davidson, The
priests of the old defiled sanctuaries Theology of the Old Testament (Edin-
were not allowed to minister at the altar burgh, 1911), pp. 360 j-^.
CH. I PLACE OF THE LA VV IN JEWISH HISTORY 105
gravity of the lawgiver. The impression which he makes
on a modern reader is that of a preacher rolHng out the
stream of his impassioned eloquence to a rapt audience in the
resounding aisles of some vast cathedral. We seem almost to
see the kindling eyes and the eager gestures of the speaker,
to catch the ring of his sonorous accents echoing along the
vaulted roof and thrilling his hearers with alternate emotions
of comfortable assurance and hope, of poignant remorse and
repentance, of overwhelming terror and despair. And it is
on a high note of awful warning, of fierce denunciation of the
wrath to come on the sinful and disobedient, that the voice
of the preacher finally dies away into silence.^ In sustained
declamatory power, as has been well observed by an eminent
critic, the orator's peroration stands unrivalled in the Old
Testament."
Yet though the reform was unquestionably advocated Doubts rs
from the purest motives and carried through on a wave of theoretic
genuine enthusiasm, the philosophic student of religion and
may be allowed to express a doubt whether, contemplated vafueof the
from the theoretical standpoint, the centralization of reforma-
worship at a smgle sanctuary did not mark rather a retro- some of its
gression than an advance ; and whether, regarded from the '"^^pects.
practical standpoint, it may not have been attended by some
inconveniences which went a certain way to balance its
advantages. On the one hand, to modern minds, habituated Theoretical
to the idea of God as bounded by no limits either of space oftheone^
or of time, and therefore as equally accessible to his sanctuary,
worshippers everywhere and always, the notion that he
could be properly worshipped only at Jerusalem appears
childish, if not absurd. Certainly the abstract conception
of an omnipresent deity finds a fitter expression in a
multitude of sanctuaries scattered over the length and
breadth of the land than in one solitary sanctuary at the
capital. And on the other hand, considered from the side Practical
of practical convenience, the old unreformed religion possessed lenceoT
some obvious advantages over its rival. Under the ancient t'^e one
system every man had, so to speak, his God at his own door,
»
'■ Deuteronomy xxviii. 68. The ^ §_ r_ Driver, Critical and Exe-
original book seems to have ended at gctical Cotuntcntary on Deuteronomy,
this point. See above, p. 100. Third Edition, p. 303.
io6 PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
to whom he could resort on every occasion of doubt and
difficulty, of sorrow and distress. Not so under the new
system. To reach the temple at Jerusalem the peasant
might often have to travel a long way, and with the en-
grossing occupations of his little farm he could seldom afford
time for the journey. No wonder, therefore, if under the
new dispensation he sometimes sighed for the old ; no wonder
if to him the destruction of the local sanctuaries should have
appeared as shocking a sacrilege as to our own peasantry
might seem the demolition of all the village churches in
England, and the felling of the ancient elms and immemorial
yews under whose solemn shade " the rude forefathers of the
hamlet sleep." How sadly would our simple rustic folk miss
the sight of the familiar grey tower or spire embosomed among
trees or peeping over the shoulder of the hill ! How often
would they listen in vain for the sweet sound of Sabbath
bells chiming across the fields and calling them to the iiouse
of prayer, where they and their forefathers had so often
The gathered to adore the common Father of all ! We may
orthetocai suppose that it was not essentially different with the peasant
sanctuaries of Judca when the reformation swept like a hurricane over
regreued ^^^ country-side. With a heavy heart he may have witnessed
by the the iconoclasts at their work of destruction and devastation,
peasanry. ^^ ^^^ there, on youder hilltop, under the shade of that
spreading thick-leaved oak that he and his fathers before
him had brought, year after year, the first yellow sheaves of
harvest and the first purple clusters of the vintage. How
often had he seen the blue smoke of sacrifice curling up in
the still air above the trees, and how often had he imagined
God himself to be somewhere not far off — perhaps in
yon rifted cloud through which the sunbeams poured in
misty glory — there or somewhere near, inhaling the sweet
savour and blessing him and his for the gift ! And now the
hilltop was bare and desolate ; the ancient trees that had so
long shaded it were felled, and the grey old pillar, on which
he had so often poured his libation of oil, was smashed and
its fragments littered the ground. God, it seems, had gone
away ; he had departed to the capital, and if the peasant
would find him, he must follow him thither. A long and a
weary journey it might be, and the countryman could only
cii. I PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWISH HISTORY 107
undertake it at rare intervals, trudging over hill and dale
with his offerings to thread his way through the narrow
crowded streets of Jerusalem and to mingle in the noisy
jostling throng within the temple precincts, there to wait
with his lamb in a long line of footsore, travel-stained
worshippers, while the butcher -priest, with tucked -up
sleeves, was despatching the lambs of all in front of him ;
till his turn came at last, and his lamb's spurtling blood
added a tiny rivulet to the crimson tide which flooded
the courtyard. Well, they told him it was better so, and
perhaps God really did prefer to dwell in these stately build-
ings and spacious courts, to see all that blood, and to hear
all that chanting of the temple choir ; but for his own part
his thoughts went back with something like regret to the
silence of the hilltop, with the shade of its immemorial trees
and the far prospect over the peaceful landscape. Yet no
doubt the priests were wiser than he ; so God's will be done !
Such may well have been the crude reflections of many a
simple country soul on his first pilgrimage to Jerusalem after
the reformation. Not a few of them, perhaps, then beheld
the splendour and squalor of the great city for the first time ;
for we may suppose that the rustics of Judea were as stay-
at-home in those days as the rural population in the remoter
districts of England is now, of whom many live and die
without ever having travelled more than a few miles from
their native village.
But in the kingdom of Judea the reformation had a very inadequacy
short course to run. From the time when Josiah instituted reformation
his measures for the religious and moral regeneration of the to stay the
country, a generation hardly passed before the Babylonian catastrophe
armies swept down on Jerusalem, captured the city, and "•^''^^^ ''
carried off the king and the flower of his people into intended
captivity. The completion of the reforms was prevented 'o avert,
by the same causes which had hastened their inception.
For we cannot doubt that the growing fear of foreign con-
quest was one of the principal incentives which quickened
the consciences and nerved the arms of the best Jews to set
their house in order before it was too late, lest the same fate
should overtake the Southern Kingdom at the hands of the
Babylonians which had overtaken the Northern Kingdom a
ic8 PLACE OF THE LA W IN JEWISH HISTORY part iv
century before at the hands of the Assyrians, The cloud
had been gradually rising from the east and now darkened
the whole sky of Judea. It was under the shadow of the
coming storm and with the muttering of its distant thunder
in their ears that the pious king and his ministers had laboured
at the reformation by which they hoped to avert the threatened
catastrophe. For with that unquestioning faith in the super-
natural which was the strength, or the weakness, of Israel's
attitude towards the world, they traced the national danger
to national sin, and believed that the march of invading
armies could be arrested by the suppression of heathen
worship and a better regulation of the sacrificial ritual.
Menaced by the extinction of their political independence,
it apparently never occurred to them to betake themselves
to those merely carnal weapons to which a less religious
people would instinctively turn in such an emergency. To
build fortresses, to strengthen the walls of Jerusalem, to arm
and train the male population, to seek the aid of foreign
allies, — these were measures which to the Gentile mind
common sense might seem to dictate, but which to the Jew
might appear to imply an impious distrust of Jehovah, who
alone could save his people from their enemies. In truth
the ancient Hebrew as little conceived the action of
purely natural causes in the events of history as in the
fall of the rain, the course of the wind, or the changes
of the seasons ; alike in the affairs of man and in
the processes of nature he was content to trace the finger
of God, and this calm acquiescence in supernatural agency
as the ultimate explanation of all things presented almost
as great an obstacle to the cool concerting of political
measures in the council-chamber as to the dispassionate
investigation of physical forces in the laboratory.
The second Nor was the faith of the Jews in their religious interpreta-
tionTaer ^^°" °^ history in the least shaken by the complete failure of
the Exile, Josiah's reformation to avert the national ruin. Their con-
iheVriestiy fidcncc in the virtue of religious rites and ceremonies as the
Code, the prime necessity of national welfare, far from being abated by
latest body the collapsc of reformation and kingdom together, was to
of law ^\ appearance rather strengthened than weakened by the
Pentateuch, catastrophc. Instead of being led to doubt the perfect
CH. I PLACE OF THE LAW IN JEWLSH HISTORY 109
wisdom of the measures which they had adopted, they only
concluded that they had not carried them out far enough ;
and accordingly no sooner were they settled as captives in
Babylonia than they applied themselves to devise a far more
elaborate system of religious ritual, by which they hoped to
ensure a return of the divine favour and a restoration of the
exiles to their own land. The first sketch of the new system
was drawn up by Ezekiel in his banishment by the river
Chebar. Himself a priest as well as a prophet, he must
have been familiar with the ritual of the first temple, and
the scheme which he propounded as an ideal programme
of reform for the future was no doubt based on his experi-
ence of the past. But while it embraced much that was old,
it also advocated much that was new, including ampler, more
regular, and more solemn sacrifices, a more awful separation
of the clergy from the laity, and a more rigid seclusion of
the temple and its precincts from contact with the profane.^
The contrast between Ezekiel, who followed, and the great
prophets who preceded, the exile, is extraordinary. While
they had laid all the emphasis of their teaching on moral
virtue, and scouted the notion of rites and ceremonies as the
best or the only means by which man can commend himself
to God,^ Ezekiel appears to invert the relation between the
two things, for he has little to say of morality, but much to
say of ritual. The programme which he published in the
early years of the captivity was developed by later thinkers
and writers of the priestly school among the exiles, till after
a period of incubation, which lasted more than a century, the
full-blown system of the Levitical law was ushered into the
world by Ezra at Jerusalem in the year 444 B.C. The docu-
ment which embodied the fruit of so much labour and thought
was the Priestly Code, which forms the framework of the
Pentateuch. With it the period of Judaism began, and the
transformation of Israel from a nation into a church was
complete. The Priestly Code, which set the coping-stone
to the edifice, is the third and last body of law which critics
1 Compare W. Robertson Smith, Amos v. 21-24; Micah vi. 6-8 ; Hosea
The Old Testament in the ^e^vish vi. 6; Jeremiah vii. 21-23. Compare
Church, Second Edition, pp. 3105^., W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testa-
374 sqq. ' meat in the Jewish Chiorh, Second
2 See for example Isaiah i. 11-17; Edition, pp. 293 scjg.
no PLACE OF THE LA W hY JEWISH HISTORY pakt iv
distinguish in the Pentateuch. The lateness of its date is
the fundamental doctrine of modern criticism applied to the
Old Testament.^
1 W. Robertson Smith, The Old V/. Robertson Smith, op. cit. pp. 442-
Testament in the/ewishChiirck, Second 449; J- Wellhausen, Prolc;^ome7ia to
Edition, p. 421. As to the Priestly the fJistory of Israel, translated by
Code, see above, vol. i. pp. 131 sqq.; J. Sutherland Black and Allan Menzies
and as to the development of the ritual (Edinburgh, 1885), pp. 404 sqq.
system between Ezekiel and Ezra, see
CHAPTER II
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN ITS MOTHER'S MILK
A MODERN reader is naturally startled when among the The
solemn commandments professedly given by God to ancient -"^noTto
Israel he finds the precept, " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in seethe a
its mother's milk." ^ And his surprise is not lessened but motiiers
greatly increased by an attentive study of one of the three milk" one
passages in which the command is recorded ; for the context original
of the passage seems to show, as some eminent critics, from ^^^
. , , . . . Command-
Goethe downwards, have pomted out, that the mjunction not ments.
to seethe a kid in its mother's milk was actually one of the
original Ten Commandments.^ The passage occurs in the
thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus. In this chapter we read an
account of what purports to be the second revelation to Moses
of the Ten Commandments, after that, in his anger at the
idolatry of the Israelites, he had broken the tables of stone
on which the first version of the commandments was written.
What is professedly given us in the chapter is therefore a
second edition of the Ten Commandments. That this is so
1 Exodus xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26; Deu- torischen Biicher des Alten Testatiients'^
teionomy xiv. 21. The late Professor (Berlin, 1889), pp. 86 sqq., 327-33;
T. K. Cheyne proposed to correct, or K. Budde, Geschichte der althebrdisclie^i
rather to corrupt, all three texts so as Litteratiir (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 94-6;
to read, "Thou shall not clothe thy- W. E. Addis, '\x\ Encydopadia Biblica,
self with the garment of a Yerahme'elite i. 1049 sqq., s.v. "Decalogue";
woman." See his l^raditiotis and G. F. Moore, in Encyclopedia Biblica,
Beliefs of Ancient Israel (London, ii. I445 sqq., s.v. "Exodus"; G. B.
1907), p. 565. ' t'ray, in Encyclopedia Biblica, iii.
2734, s.v. "Law Literature"; B.
2 Professor Julius Wellhausen reached Stade, Biblische Theoloi^ie des Alten
this conclusion independently before he Testaments (Tiibingen, 1905), pp. 197
found that he had been anticipated by sqq. ; C. F. Kent, IsraeFs Lavs and
Goethe. See J- Wellhausen, ZJ/i? Cow- Legal Precedeiits (New York, 1907),
position des Hexatetichs und der hts- pp. 16 sqq.
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
The
original
version of
the Ten
Command-
ments.
appears to be put beyond the reach of doubt by the
verses which introduce and which follow the list of
commandments. Thus the chapter begins, " And the
Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like
unto the first : and I will write upon the tables the words
that were on the first tables, which thou brakest." ^ Then
follows an account of God's interview with Moses on Mount
Sinai and of the second revelation of the commandments.
And at the close of the passage we read, " And the Lord
said unto Moses, Write thou these words : for after the tenor
of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with
Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and
forty nights ; he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And
he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten
commandments." ^ Thus unquestionably the writer of the
chapter regarded the commandments given in it as the Ten
Commandments.
But here a difficulty arises ; for the commandments
recorded in this chapter agree only in part with the com-
mandments contained in the far more familiar version of the
Decalogue which we read in the twentieth chapter of Exodus,^
and again in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy.* Moreover, in
that professedly second version of the Decalogue,with which we
are here concerned, the commandments are not enunciated with
the brevity and precision which characterize the first version,
so that it is less easy to define them exactly. And the diffi-
culty of disengaging them from the context is rather increased
than diminished by the occurrence of a duplicate version in the
Book of the Covenant,^ which, as we saw, is generally recog-
nized by modern critics as the oldest code in the Pentateuch.*^
At the same time, while it adds to the difficulty of disen-
tangling the commandments from their setting, the occurrence
of a duplicate version in the ancient Book of the Covenant
furnishes a fresh guarantee of the genuine antiquity of that
version of the Decalogue which includes the commandment,
*' Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk."
As to the great bulk of this ancient version of the Deca-
1 Exodus xxxiv. i.
2 Exodus xxxiv. 27, 28.
3 Exodus XX. 3-17.
■* Deuteronomy v. 7-21.
.^ Exodus XX. 22-xxiii. 33.
° See above, pp. 99 sq.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 113
logue critics are agreed ; they differ only with regard to the The
identification of one or two of the ordinances, and with regard "ei-sSon of
to the order of others. The following is the enumeration of the Ten
the commandments which is given by Professor K. Budde memTac-
in his Histoty of Ancient Hebrew Literature} It is based on cording to
the version of the Decalogue in the thirty-fourth chapter of and
Exodus, but in respect of one commandment it prefers the )• Weii-
hausen.
parallel version of the Decalogue in the Book of the
Covenant : —
1. Thou shalt worship no other god.
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. All the firstborn are mine.
4. Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh day thou
shalt rest.
5. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep in the
month when the corn is in ear.
6. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the
firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of in-
gathering at the year's end.
7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with
leavened bread.
8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until
the morning.^
9. The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt
bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.
The enumeration of the commandments proposed by
VVellhausen is similar, except that he omits " Six days shalt
thou work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest," and
inserts instead of it, " Thou shalt observe the feast of in-
1 K. Budde, Geschichte des althe- feast shall not remain all night until
brdischen Litteratur, p. 95. The the morning," and substitutes for it,
same restoration of the primitive " Three times in the year shall all thy
Decalogue is adopted, with slight males appear before the Lord God, the
variations in the order of the com- God of Israel."
mandments, by Professor C. Y. Kent,
IsraePs Laws and Legal Precedents 2 The version of the commandment
(New York, 1907), p. 21. A similar given in Exodus xxiii. 18 is here pre-
enumeration of the commandments is ferred to the different version in the
given by Professor W. H. Bennett in parallel passage, Exodus xxxiv. 25,
his commentary on Exodus, p. 255 (in "Neither shall the sacrifice of the
The Ccntuiy Bible), except that he feast of the passover be left unto the
omits the command, ''The fat of my morning."
VOL. Ill I
114
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
The
original
version of
the Ten
Command-
ments
according
to R. H.
Kennett,
gathering at the year's end " as a separate ordinance instead
of as part of another commandment/
In general agreement with the enumerations of Budde
and Wellhausen is the Hst of commandments adopted by-
Professor R. H. Kennett ; but he differs from Budde in
treating the command of the feast of ingathering as a
separate commandment ; he differs from Wellhausen in
retaining the command of the seventh day's rest ; and he
differs from both of them in omitting the command to make
no molten gods. His reconstruction of the Decalogue, like
theirs, is based mainly on the version of it in the thirty-
fourth chapter of Exodus, departures from that version
being indicated by italics. It runs as follows : — "
1. / a7n Jehovah thy God, thou shalt worship no other
God {y. 14).
2. The feast of unleavened cakes thou shalt keep : seven
days thou shalt eat unleavened cakes {v. i 8).
3. All that openeth the womb is mine ; and all thy
cattle that is male, the firstlings of ox and sheep
{v. 19).
4. My sabbaths shalt thou keep ; six days shalt thou
work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest
{v. 21).
5. The feast of weeks thou shalt celebrate, even the
firstfruits of wheat harvest {v. 22).
6. The feast of in -gathering thou shalt celebrate at the end
of the year {v. 22).
7. Thou shalt not sacrifice {lit. slay) my sacrificial blood
upon leavened bread {y. 25).
8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the
morning (as in Exodus xxiii. 1 8). Exodus xxxiv.
25^ limits this law to the Passover.
' J. Wellhausen, Die Composition
des Hexaieuchs unci der historischen
Biicher des Allen Teslanienls^ pp. 331
sq. Wellhausen distinguishes twelve
commandments in Exodus xxxiv., but
he reduces them to ten by omitting ( i ) the
command of the seventh day's rest, on
the ground that it is out of place in the
cycle of annual feasts, and (2) the com-
mand that all males should appear
before the Lord thrice in the year
{v. 23), on the ground that it is merely
a recapitulation of the three preceding
laws. Compare Encyclopedia Biblica,
i. 1050.
- R. H. Kennett, B.D.. "History
of the Jewish Church from Nebuchad-
nezzar to Alexander the Great," in
Essays on some Biblical Questions of
the Day, by Members of ike University
of Cambridge, edited by H. B. Swete,
b.D. (London, 1909), pp. 96-98.
CHAP. 11 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 115
9. The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt
bring into the house of the Lord thy God {y. 26).
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk
_ ico. 26).
Whichever of these reconstructions of the Decalogue we Contrast
adopt, its difference from that version of the Decalogue with the^rkji'ii
which we are familiar is sufficiently striking. Here morality and the
is totally absent. The commandments without exception "ers^ns
refer purely to matters of ritual. They are religious in the of'he
strict sense of the word, for they define with scrupulous,
almost niggling, precision the proper relation of man to God.
But of the relations of man to man, not a word. The attitude
of God to man in these commandments is like that of a
feudal lord to his vassals. He stipulates that they shall
render him his dues to the utmost farthing, but what they do
to each other, so long as they do not interfere with the pay- "
ment of his feu-duties, is seemingly no concern of his. How
different from the six concluding commandments of the other
version : " Honour thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt do
no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not
steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh-
bour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is
thy neighbour's." ^
If we ask which of these two discrepant versions of the The ritual
Decalogue is' the older, the answer cannot be doubtful. It ^y^'°"
° ' of the
would happily be contrary to all analogy to suppose that Decalogue
probably
older than
precepts of morality, which had originally formed part of an
ancient code, were afterwards struck out of it to make room the moral
for precepts concerned with mere points of ritual. Is it
credible that, for example, the command, " Thou shalt not
steal," was afterwards omitted from the code and its place
taken by the command, "The fat of my feast shall not remain
all night until the morning " ? or that the command, " Thou
shalt do no murder," was ousted by the command, " Thou
shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk"? The whole
course of human history refutes the supposition. All prob-
ability is in favour of the view that the moral version of the
' Exodus XX. 12-17.
ii6
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
Suggested
explana-
tions of the
command
not to
seethe a
kid in its
mother's
milk.
Decalogue, if we may call it so from its predominant element,
was later than the ritual version, because the general trend
of civilization has been, still is, and we hope always will be,
towards insisting on the superiority of morality to ritual. It
was this insistence which lent force to the teaching, first, of
the Hebrew prophets, and afterwards of Christ himself. We
should probably not be far wrong in surmising that the
change from the ritual to the moral Decalogue was carried
out under prophetic influence.^
But if we may safely assume, as I think we may, that
the ritual version of the Decalogue is the older of the two,
we have still to ask, Why was the precept not to seethe a kid
in its mother's milk deemed of such vital importance that it
was assigned a place in the primitive code of the Hebrews,
while precepts which seem to us infinitely more important,
such as the prohibitions of murder, theft, and adultery, were
excluded from it ? The commandment has^ proved a great
stumbling-block to critics, and has been interpreted in many
different ways." In the whole body of ritual legislation, it
has been said, there is hardly to be found a law which God
more frequently inculcated or which men have more seriously
1 In assuming the ritual version of
the Decalogue to be older than the
moral version, I agree with Professors
Wellhausen, Budde, andKennett (11. cc),
W. E. Addis (Encyclopedia Biblica, i.
1050, s.v. "Decalogue"), G. B. Gray
(Encyclopcedia Biblica, iii. 2734, s.v.
"Law Literature"), and B. Stade
(Bihlische Theologie des Alteji Testa-
ments, Tubingen, 1905, pp. 197 sqq.,
248 sq.). That the moral Decalogue
was composed under prophetic influ-
ence is the opinion also of Addis and
Stade (ll.cc); it is "scarcely earlier
in origin than the prophets of the
eighth century" (G. B. Gray, I.e.).
On the other hand, the moral Deca-
logue is held by some to be earlier than
the ritual Decalogue, and to be indeed
the oldest body of laws in the Penta-
teuch, lying at thefoundation of all later
Hebrew legislation. See (Bishop) H. E.
Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament
(London, 1892), pp. 23 sqq., 42 ; R.
Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel^
(Gotha, 1909-1912), i. 552 sq. ; J. P.
Peters, The Religion of the Hebrews
(Boston and London, 19 14), pp. 96
sqq. Some scholars, again, deny that
ten commandments can be extracted
from Exodus xxxiv., contending that
the words in verse 28, "the ten com-
mandments," are a gloss. This is the
view of G. F. Moore (Encyclopcedia
Biblica, ii. 1446, j.t'. "Exodus"), and
K. Marti (Geschichte der Israelitischen
Religion,* Strasburg, 1903, pp. 1 10
sq.). S. R. Driver seems to leave the
question open (The Book of Exvdus,
Cambridge, 1911, p. 365).
2 Some of these interpretations have
been stated and discussed by the learned
John Spencer, Master of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, in his treatise, Dc
legibtis Hebracorum ritiialibus (Hagae-
Comitum, 1686), i. 270 sqq., and by
the learned French pastor Samuel
Bochart in his Hierozoicon (Leyden,
1692), i. 634 sqq. See also August
Dillmann's note on Exodus xxiii. 19
(Die Biicher Exodus iind Leviticus,
Leipsic, 1880, pp. 250 sq.).
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 117
perverted than the prohibition to boil a kid in its mother's
milk.^ A precept which the deity, or at all events the law-
giver, took such particular pains to impress on the minds of
the people must be well worthy of our attentive study, and
if commentators have hitherto failed to ascertain its true
meaning, their failure may be due to the standpoint from
which they approached the question, or to the incompleteness
of their information, rather than to the intrinsic difficulty of
the problem itself The supposition, for example, which has
found favour both in ancient and modern times, that the
precept is one of refined humanity,^ conflicts with the whole
tenor of the code in which the command is found. A
legislator who, so far as appears from the rest of the primitive
Decalogue, paid no attention to the feelings of human beings,
was not likely to pay much to the maternal feelings of goats.
More plausible is the view that the prohibition was directed
against some magical or idolatrous rite which the lawgiver
reprobated and desired to suppress. This theory has been
accepted as the most probable by some eminent scholars
from Maimonides to W. Robertson Smith,^ but it rests on no
positive evidence ; for little or no weight can be given to the
unsupported statement of an anonymous mediaeval writer, a
member of the Jewish Karaite sect, who says that " there was
a custom among the ancient heathen, who, when they had
gathered all the crops, used to boil a kid in its mother's milk,
and then, as a magical rite, sprinkle the milk on trees, fields,
gardens, and orchards, believing that in this way they would
render them more fruitful the following year." * So far as this
explanation assumes a superstition to lie at the root of the
prohibition, it may well be correct ; and accordingly it may be
worth while to inquire whether analogous prohibitions, with
* ] . S'^QUccr , De legibus Hebraeomm (Hierozoicon, i. 637 sq.) in modern
ritualibus, i. 270, " E toto Legum times.
ritualiiim miviero Legem vix tillam ^ See J. Spencer, De Irgibus Hcbiae-
i-epcri7-e possnmiis,qua7}i Deus freqiien- ornm ritualibus, i. 272 sqq. (who
tilts iiuiikavit, ant homines a sensu argues at length in favour of the theory) ;
gentiino riiagis detorscrunt." A. Dillmann, Die Biicher Exodus tind
2 This was the view of Clement of Leviticus (Leipsic, 1880), p. 251 ; W.
Alexandria in antiquity (.SVrw/. ii. 18. Robertson Smith, The Religion 0/ the
94, p. 478, ed. Potter), and it has Semites, New Edition (London, 1894),
been shared by some Jewish writers p. 221, note.
(J. Spencer, De legibtis Hebraeonim * Quoted by J. Sj^encer. De legihu.
ritualibus, i. 270 sq.) and by S. Bochart Hebraeoruiii ritualibus, i. 271.
n8 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
the reasons for them, can be discovered among rude pastoral
tribes in modern times, for on the face of it the rule is
likely to be observed rather by people who depend on their
flocks and herds than by such as subsist on the produce of
their fields and gardens.
Aversion of Now among pastoral tribes in Africa at the present day
fribSTn there appears to be a widely spread and deeply rooted
Africa to avcrsiou to boil the milk of their cattle, the aversion being
fo°rfrarof fouudcd on a belief that a cow whose milk has been boiled
injuring yfj\\\ yield no morc milk, and that the animal may even die
of the injury thereby done to it. For example, the milk and
butter of cows form a large part of the diet of the Moham-
m.edan natives of Sierra Leone and the neighbourhood ; but
" they never boil the milk, for fear of causing the cow to
become dry, nor will they sell milk to any one who should
practise it. The Bulloms entertain a similar prejudice
respecting oranges, and will not sell them to those who
throw the skins into the fire, ' lest it occasion the unripe
The fruit to fall off.' " ^ Thus it appears that with these people
the objection to boil milk is based on the principle of
sympathetic magic. Even after the milk has been drawn
from the cow it is supposed to remain in such vital con-
nexion with the animal that any injury done to the milk
will be sympathetically felt by the cow. Hence to boil the
milk in a pot is like boiling it in the cow's udders ; it is to
dry up the fluid at its source. This explanation is con-
firmed by the beliefs of the Mohammedans of Morocco,
though with them the prohibition to boil a cow's milk is
limited to a certain time after the birth of the calf. They
think that " if milk boils over into the fire the cow will have
a diseased udder, or it will give no milk, or its milk will be
poor in cream ; and if biestings happen to fall into the fire,
the cow or the calf will probably die. Among the Ait
Waryagal the biestings must not be boiled after the third
day and until forty days have passed after the birth of the
calf; if they were boiled during this period, the calf would
die or the milk of the cow would give only a small quantity
1 Thomas Winterbotham, M.D., enough, these people abhor the milk
An Account of the Native Africans in of goats, though they eat the flesh of
the Neighbourhood of Sierra l^one the animals.
(I^ndon, 1803), pp. 69 sq. Curiously
aversion
based
on the
principle of
sympa-
tlietic
magic.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 119
of butter." ^ Here the prohibition to boil milk is not
absolute but is limited to a certain time after the birth of
the calf, during which the cow may be thought to stand ip a
closer relation of sympathy than ever afterwards both to
her calf and to her milk. The limitation of the rule is
therefore significant and rather confirms than invalidates the
explanation of the prohibition here suggested. A further
confirmation is supplied by the superstition as to the effect
on the cow of allowing its milk to fall into the fire ; if such
an accident should happen at ordinary times, the cow or its
milk is believed to suffer, but if it should happen shortly
after the birth of its calf, when the thick curdy milk bears
the special English name of biestings, the cow or the calf is
expected to die. Clearly the notion is that if at such a
critical time the biestings were to fall into the fire, it is
much the same thing as if the cow or the calf were to fall
into the fire and to be burnt to death. So close is the
sympathetic bond then supposed to be between the cow,
her calf, and her milk. The train of thought may be Parallel
illustrated by a parallel superstition of the Toradjas in ^^p^''^^!-
Central Celebes. These people make much use of palm- the lees of
wine, and the lees of the wine form an excellent yeast in ^^^'^nJ'the
the baking of bread. But some Toradjas refuse to part Toradjas
with the lees of the wine for that purpose to Europeans, ° eebes.
because they fear that the palm-tree from which the wine
was extracted would soon yield no more wine and would
dry up, if the lees were brought into contact with the
heat of the fire in the process of baking." This reluctance
to subject the lees of palm-wine to the heat of .fire lest the
palm-tree from which the wine was drawn should thereby
be desiccated, is exactly parallel to the reluctance of African
tribes to subject milk to the heat of fire lest the cow from
which the milk was extracted should dry up or actually
perish. Exactly parallel, too, is the reluctance of the Bulloms
to allow orange-skins to be thrown into the fire, lest the tree
from which the oranges were gathered should be baked by
the heat, and its fruit should consequently drop off.^
1 Edward Westermarck, The Moor- Bare' e-sprekende Toradja' s van Middcn-
jsk Conception of Holiness (\ie\s\v\ghxs, Celebes {hAi^iVia., 19 1 2-1 9 14), ii. 209.
1916), pp. 144 sq.
2 N. Adriani en A. C. Kruijt, De ^ See above, p. 118.
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
The
objection
to boil
milk for
fear of
injuring
the cows
among
pastoral
tribes of
Central
nnd
Eastei-n
Africa.
Tlie Masai.
The
Baganda.
The objection to boil milic for fear of injuring the cows
is shared by pastoral tribes of Central and Eastern Africa.
When Speke and Grant were on their memorable journey
from Zanzibar to the source of the Nile, they passed through
the district of Ukuni, which lies to the south of the Victoria
Nyanza. The king of the country lived at the village of
Nunda and " owned three hundred milch cows, yet every
day there was a difficulty about purchasing milk, and we
were obliged to boil it that it might keep, for fear we should
have none the following day. This practice the natives
objected to, saying, ' The cows will stop their milk if you do
so.' " ^ Similarly Speke tells us that he received milk from
some Wahuma (Bahima) women whom he had treated for
ophthalmia, but he adds, " The milk, however, I could not
boil excepting in secrecy, else they would have stopped their
donations on the plea that this process would be an incanta-
tion or bewitchment, from which their cattle would fall sick
and dry up." ^ Among the Masai of East Africa, who are, or
used to be, a purely pastoral tribe depending for their sus-
tenance on their herds of cattle, to boil milk " is a heinous
offence, and would be accounted a sufficient reason for mas-
sacring a caravan. It is believed that the cattle would cease
to give milk." ^ Similarly the Baganda, of Central Africa,
believed that to boil milk would cause the cow's milk to cease,
and among them no one was ever permitted to boil milk except
in a single case, which was this : " When the cow that had
calved was milked again for the first time, the herdboy was
given the milk and carried it to some place in the pasture,
where according to custom he showed the cow and calf to
his fellow-herdsmen. Then he slowly boiled the milk until
* J. A. Grant, A Walk across Africa
(Edinburgh and London, 1864), p. 89.
2 J. H. Speke, Journal of the Dis-
covery of the Source of the Nile (Lon-
don, 1912), ch. vi. p. 138 {Everynnan'' s
Library).
3 Joseph Thomson, Throtigh Masai
Zrt«<^ (London, 1885), p. 445. Com-
pare " Dr. Fischer's Journey in the
Masai Country," Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society, New Series,
vi. (1884) p. 80; P. Reichard, Dcutsch-
Ostafrika (Leipsic, 1892), pp. 287 sq.
However, milk mixed with blood and
heated is given by them to the wounded.
But this practice is said to have been
borrowed from outside. See O. Bau-
mann, Durch Massailand zur Nil quelle
(Berlin, 1894), p. 162. Compare M.
Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, 1904), p.
32, who says that among the Masai,
while milk is always drunk unboiled,
either fresh or sour, by persons in
health, boiled milk, generally mixed
with the powdered grains of Maesa
lanceolata, is the diet of the sick.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 121
it became a cake, when he and his companion partook of
the milk cake together." ^ Among the Bahima or Banyan- The
kole, a pastoral tribe of Central Africa, both the rule and ^^^'-^a-
the exception are similar. " Milk must not be boiled for
food, as the boiling would endanger the health of the herd
and might cause some of the cows to die. For ceremonial
use it is boiled when the umbilical cord falls from a calf,
and the milk which has been sacred becomes common.
Milk from any cow that has newly calved is taboo for
several days, until the umbilical cord falls from the calf ;
during this time some member of the family is set apart to
drink the milk, but he must then be careful to touch no
milk from any other cow." ^ So, too, anriong the Thonga, The
a Bantu tribe of South-Eastern Africa, " the milk of the first thonga.
week after a cow has calved is taboo. It must not be
mixed with other cows' milk, because the umbilical cord of
the calf has not yet fallen. It can, however, be boiled and
consumed by children as they do not count ! After that
milk is never boiled : not that there is any taboo to fear,
but it is not customary. Natives do not give any clear
reason for these milk taboos." ^ It is possible that the
Thonga have forgotten the original reasons for these
customary restrictions on the use of milk ; as their lands
are situated on and near Delagoa Bay in Portuguese terri-
tory, the tribe has for centuries been in contact with Euro-
peans and is naturally in a less primitive state than the
tribes of Central Africa, which till about the middle of the
nineteenth century lived absolutely secluded from all
European influence. On the analogy, therefore, of those
pastoral peoples who in their long seclusion have pre-
served their primitive ideas and customs with little change,
we may safely conclude that with the Thonga also
the original motive for refusing to boil milk was a fear of
sympathetically injuring the cows from which the milk had
been extracted.
To return to the Bahima of Central Africa, they even The
say that " if a European puts his milk into tea it will kill the °o boiUiiik
1 John Roscoe, The Baganda (l.ow- (Cambridge, 1915), p. 137. among the
don, 191 1), p. 418. 3 Henri A. Junod, The Life of a Bahima.
South African Tribe {^^\xc\\i.X.e^, 1912- P^nyoro,
"- ]o\\x\^oiZO&, The rforthern BauUi 1913), ii. 51. bom ah, etc.
122 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
cow which gave the milk." ^ In this tribe " strange notions
prevail as to the knowingness of cows as to the disposition
of their milk ; one gets quite used to being told by one's
cow-herd such fables as that a certain cow refuses to be
milked any more because you have been boiling the milk ! " ^
This last statement probably implies a slight misunderstand-
ing of native opinion on the subject ; to judge by analogy,
the flow of milk is supposed to cease, not because the cow
will not yield it, but because she cannot, her udders being
dried up by the heat of the fire over which her milk has
been boiled. Among the Banyoro, again, another pastoral
tribe of Central Africa, it is a rule that " no milk may be
cooked nor may it be warmed by fire, because of the harm
likely to happen to the herd."^ Similarly among the
Somali of East Africa " camel's milk is never heated, for
fear of bewitching the animal." '' The same prohibition to
boil milk is observed, probably for the same reason, by the
Southern Gallas of the same region,^ the Nandi of British
East Africa,'' and the Wagogo, the Wamegi, and the
Wahumba, three tribes of what till lately was German East
Africa." And among the tribes of the Anglo- Egyptian
Sudan " the majority of the Hadendoa will not cook milk,
and in this the Artega and the Ashraf resemble them." ^
Relics of a similar belief in a sympathetic relation
^ Major J. A. Meldon, "Notes on three tribes,
the Bahima of Ankole,"yb?/?7^rt/ <?/ ^/ifi * C. G. Seligmann, "Some aspects
African Society, No. 22 (January of the Hamilic problem in the Anglo-
1907), p. 142. Egyptian SnAzn," Journal of the Rcyal
2 Rev. A. L. Kitching, On the Anthropological Institute, xliii. (191 3)
Backtvaters of the Nile iJ^nnAon, \(j\2), p. 655. However, the prohibition
p. 122. to boil milk is not universal among
3 John Roscoe, 7y^ciVi7;'///tv-;^ i>a;?///, pastoral tribes. Thus among the
p. 67. . Wataturu of East Africa, who used
4 (Sir) Richard F. Burton, />'ri'/'/^i5(7/- to live mainly on flesh and milk, the
steps in- East Africa, or, an Explora- practice of boiling milk was always
//^« (j/'/^fl'^a^- (London, 1856), p. 151;. quite common. See O. Baumann,
5 C. G. Seligmann, "Some aspects Diirch Massailand znr Nilqnelle (Ber-
of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo- lin, 1894), p. 171. And the modern
Egyptian S\xA&n," Journal of the Royal Bedouins of Arabia and Moab seem to
Anthropological Institute, xliii. (19 1 3) boil milk without scruple. See J. L.
p. 655. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and
6 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, Wahdbys (London, 1831), i. 63; C. M.
1909), p. 24. Doughty, Arabia Deserta (Cambridge,
7 This I learn from my friend the 1888), ii. 67 ; Antonin Jaussen, Les
Rev. J. Roscoe, whose information is Arabes au pays de Moab {^z.x\%, 1908),
derived from personal contact with all p. 68. *
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 123
between a cow and the milk that has been drawn from her Traces of;
are reported to exist among some of the more backward ^iJ j^
svm-
peoples of Europe down to the present time. Among the thesy
Esthonians, when the first fresh milk of a cow after calving rdatfon
is to be boiled, a silver ring and a small saucer are laid between a
under the kettle before the milk is poured into it. This is \Z^x\&
done " in order that the cow's udder may remain healthy, among
European
and that the milk may not be bad." Further, the Esthonians peoples,
believe that " if, in boiling, the milk boils over into the fire,
the cow's dugs will be diseased." ^ Bulgarian peasants in
like manner think that " when the milk, in boiling, runs
over into the fire, the cow's supply of milk is diminished
and may even cease entirely." " In these latter cases,
though no scruple seems to be felt about boiling milk, there
is a strong objection to burning it by letting it fall into the
fire, because the burning of the milk is supposed to harm
the cow from which the milk was extracted, either by injur-
ing her dugs or by checking the flow of her milk. We have
seen that the Moors of Morocco entertain precisely similar
notions as to the harmful effect of letting the milk in a pot
boil over into the fire.^ We need not suppose that the
superstition has spread from Morocco through Bulgaria to
Esthonia, or in the reverse direction from Esthonia through
Bulgaria to Morocco. In all three regions the belief may
have originated independently in those elementary laws
of the association of ideas which are common to all human
minds, and which lie at the foundation of sympathetic
magic* A like train of thought may explain the Eskimo
rule that no water should be boiled inside a house during
the salmon fishery, because " it is bad for the fishery." ^
We may conjecture, though we are not told, that the boiling
of the water in the house at such a time is supposed
sympathetically to injure or frighten the salmon in the river
and so to spoil the catch.
^ F. J. Wiedemann, Aus dein in- * On the relation of sympathetic
neren und iUisseren Lehen der Ehsten magic to the laws of the association of
(St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 480. ideas, see The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings, i. 52 sqq. {The
Golden Bough, Third Edition, Part i.).
,, , . , ^ , ^ W. H. Dall, " Social Life among
Bulgaria, 2nd December 1907. . ^^^ Aborigines," The American Natur-
3 Above, p. 118. • //5/, xii. (187S) p. 4.
2 Dr. G. Kazarow, in a letter to me
ritten in German and dated Sofia,
124 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
The A similar fear of tampering with the principal source of
^mmand Subsistence may well have dictated the old Hebrew com-
not to mandment, " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's
kldinks milk-" On this theory an objection will be felt to seething
mother's or boiling a kid in any milk, because the she-goat from which
bebaseY the milk had been drawn would be injured by the process,
on a belief whether she was the dam of the boiled kid or not. The reason
in the syni- i > mi • • n • i
pathetic vvhy the mothers milk is specially mentioned may have
relation of ^ggf^ either because as a matter of convenience the mother's
a she-goat
to its milk milk was more likely to be used than any other for that
and Its kid. p^j-pose, or becausc the injury to the she-goat in such a case
was deemed to be even more certain than in any other.
For being linked to the boiling pot by a double bond of
sympathy, since the kid, as well as the milk, had come from
her bowels, the mother goat was twice as likely as any other
goat to lose her milk or to be killed outright by the heat and
ebullition.
The But it may be asked, " If the objection was simply to the
bimS^ °^ boiling of milk, why is the kid mentioned at all in the corn-
flesh in mandment ? " The practice, if not the theory, of the Baganda
supposed seems to supply the answer. Among these people it is
by the recognized that flesh boiled in milk is a great dainty, and
to^be" ' naughty boys and other unprincipled persons, who think
injurious to more of their own pleasure than of the welfare of the herds,
will gratify their sinful lusts, whenever they can do so on
the sly,^ heedless of the sufferings which their illicit banquet
inflicts on the poor cows and goats. Thus the Hebrew
commandment, " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's
milk," may have been directed against miscreants of this sort,
whose surreptitious joys were condemned b}^ public opinion
as striking a fatal blow at the staple food of the community.
We can therefore understand why in the eyes of a primitive
pastoral people the boiling of milk should seem a blacker
crime than robbery and murder. For whereas robbery and
murder harm only individuals, the boiling of milk, like the
poisoning of wells, seems to threaten the existence of the
^ So I was privately informed some sly, and even cooked meat in it, but
eleven years ago by my friend the this practice was considered to be
Rev. J. Roscoe. Compare his book, fraught with serious danger to the
The Baganda (London, 191 1), p. 419, cows."
" Boys sometimes boiled milk on the
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 125
whole tribe b}' cutting off its principal source of nourishment.
That may be why in the first edition of the Hebrew
Decalogue we miss the commandments, " Thou shalt not
steal " and " Thou shalt do no murder," and find instead the
commandment, " Thou shalt not boil milk."
The conception of a sympathetic bond between an Other rules
aiiimal and the milk that has been drawn from it, appears °'^^^''^^d
, ' ^^ by pastoral
to explain certain other rules observed by pastoral peoples, peoples
for some of which no sufficient explanation has yet been explained
suggested. Thus milk is the staple food of the Damaras bythesym-
or Herero of South-West Africa, but they never cleanse bond'"^
the milk-vessels out of which they drink or eat, because supposed
they firmly believe that, were they to wash out the vessels, between an
the cows would cease to give milk.^ Apparently their animal and
, ,. r \ .,, r its milk.
notion is that to wash out the sediment of the milk from ^^
The pro-
the pot would be to wash out the dregs of the milk from hibition to
the cow's udders. With the Masai it is a rule that " the ^lUkl^"^
milk must be drawn into calabashes specially reserved for vessels with
its reception, into which water is not allowed to enter — ^^^'^1.
cleanliness being ensured by wood-ashes." ^ But though the
Masai will not wash their milk-vessels with water, they
regularly wash them with the urine of cows. As a reason
for preferring that liquid for the purpose the women, whose
duty it is to cleanse the vessels, allege curiously enough that
the use of water would give a bad smell to the vessels, and
would prevent the milk from curdling so uniformly as it
does through an application of cows' urine.^ While this is
the reason they put forward to strangers for what to
' (Sir) Francis Galton, Nar7-ative of Za;/(f (London, 1885), p. 445.
an Explorer in Tropical South Aft-ica,
Third Edition (London, 1890), p. 85 ; ^ M. Marker, Die Masai (Berlin,
C. J. Andersson, Lake Ngami, Second 1 904), p. 37. To correct the pungent
Edition (London, 1856), p. 230; J. smell of the vessels so cleansed, the
Hahn, " Die Ovaherero," Zeitschrift Masai perfume them or fumigate them
derGesellsihaflfiirErdkiindezii Berlin, with scented twigs. Compare S. L.
iv. (1S69) p. 250. A similar super- Hinde and H. Ilinde, The Last of the
stition perhaps formerly prevailed in Masai (London, 1901), p. 58 note,
Scotland ; at least in that country it " Handfuls of burning grass are em-
used to be thought unlucky to wash ployed to clean these gourds. ... A
out the churns. See Henry Grey certain liquid concoction of herbs is also
(jvaham, The Social Life of Scotland in employed for the cleansing of milk and
theEighteenth C£«/?<;j (London, 1909), cooking vessels." This " certain liquid
pp. 179, 215 note*. concoction " is probably what Captain
Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Merker more bluntly calls cows' urine.
126 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
Europeans must appear a disgusting habit, the true one
may possibly be that the urine which emanates from a cow's
body is less apt to injure her sympathetically than a foreign
substance like water. The train of reasoning will not bear
a rigorous examination, but neither does any part of the
vast system of sympathetic magic which has entangled in
its meshes, at one time or another, the greater part of the
human race.
Abstinence As the pastoral Hereros refrain from washing the milk-
vessels with water out of regard for their cows, so the
of the
pastoral
Bahima pastoral Bahima abstain for a similar reason from washing
washing themselves. " Neither men nor women wash, as it is con-
themseives sidered to be detrimental to the cattle. They therefore use
a dry bath for cleansing the skin, smearing butter and a
kind of red earth over the body instead of water, and, after
drying the skin, they rub butter well into the flesh." Water
applied by a man to his own body " is said to injure his
cattle and also his family."' The train of thought is here
still more obscure than in the reluctance to apply water to
milk-vessels ; for how can the application of water to a
man's person be supposed to injure his cows ? Here again
the substitution of butter for water as an abstergent suggests
that, as in the substitution of cow's urine for water in cleansing
the milk-vessels, the use of a substance which emanates
from the cow is somehow conceived to be less fraught with
danger to the animal's sensitive organism than the use of an
alien substance. Whatever be the explanation, the Bahima
clearly assume that between a man and his cattle there
exists a relation of sympathy so close that an action which
to us might seem purely self- regarding, such as washing his
body, directly affects the animals. In other words, a bond
of sympathetic magic, like that which is certainly believed
to exist between a cow and her milk even after she has
parted with it, is apparently supposed to exist also between
a cow, her master, and his family ; for Bahima women as
well as men are discouraged from indulging in ablutions
which might prove detrimental to the herd.
Moreover, some pastoral tribes believe their cattle to be
sympathetically affected, not only by the nature of the sub-
1 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, pp. 103 sq., 137.
niilk-
{ vessels are
made.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 127
stance which is employed to clean the milk-vessels, but also The cows
by the material of which the vessels are made. Thus among be°affected
the Bahima " no vessel of iron is allowed to be used for by the
milk, only wooden bowls, gourds, or earthen pots. The ^f^^'*j[ich
use of other kinds of vessels would be injurious, they believe,
to the cattle and might possibly cause the cows to fall
So among the Banyoro the milk-vessels are almost all of
wood or gourds, though a few earthen pots may be found in
a kraal for holding milk. " No metal vessels are used ;
pastoral peoples do not allow such vessels to have milk
poured into them lest the cows should suffer." ' Similarly
among the Baganda " most milk-vessels were made of
pottery, a few only being made of wood ; the people
objected to tin or iron vessels, because the use of them
v/ould be harmful to the cows " ; ^ and among the Nandi
" the only vessels that may be used for milk are the gourds
or calabashes. If anything else were employed, it is believed
that it would be injurious to the cattle." ^ The Akikuyu
often think " that to milk an animal into any vessel other
than the usual half calabash, e.g. into a European white
enamelled bowl, is likely to make it go off its milk." ^ Strict
rules as to the proper materials for milk-vessels appear to
be observed also by the tribes of the Anglo- Egyptian
Sudan. On this subject Dr. C. G. Seligmann writes, " None
of the Beja tribes with whom I am acquainted milk into a
clay vessel or put milk into one of these, in spite of the
fact that many of the Hadendoa make pots. Nor would
it be permissible to milk into one of the modern tin bowls
which Europeans have recently introduced into the country.
Gourds and basket vessels, especially the latter, are con-
sidered the appropriate receptacles for milk, though skin
vessels, girba, may be used." ^ The motive for thus limit-
ing the materials which may be used in the making of milk-
vessels is not mentioned by Dr. Seligmann, but it probably
^ John Roscoe, The /Vorthern Baittti ^ W. Scoresby Routledge and Kath-
(Cambridge, 1915), p. 106. erinc Routledge, Wi/h a Prehistoric
- ]ohn^QS,con,7yie Northern Baiitn, People (London, 1910), p. 46.
pp. 65, 66. ^ C. G. Seligmann, " Some aspects
2 John Roscoe, The Baganda (Lon- of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo-
don, 1911), p. 419. Egyptian SniXa.n,'' Journal of the Royal
* A. C. Hollis, The A^'andi [0\iox(\, Anthropological Institute, xliii. (1913)
1909), p. 21. p. 654.
128 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
is, or was originally, a fear that the employment of certain
materials might be injurious to the cattle. In general the
materials preferred for this purpose would naturally be those
with which the people had been familiar from time im-
memorial, while on the contrary the materials condemned
as unsuitable would be those with which they had only in
recent times made acquaintance. The conservative savage
is a slave to custom, and tends to look upon every innovation
with deep and superstitious distrust.
Menstni- Again it is a rule with many cattle-keeping tribes of
not allowed ■^fi'ica that milk may not be drunk by women during men-
to drink struation, and in every case the motive for the prohibition
the cows appears to be a fear lest, by virtue of sympathetic magic,
should be the womeu should exert a baneful influence on the cows
'.hereby. i'com. which the milk was extracted. Thus with regard to
the tribes of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan we are told that
" no menstruous woman drinl-:s milk lest the animal from
which it was drawn should suffer, and the Bedawib say that
any infringement of this rule would render sterile both the
woman and the animal from which the milk was taken ; nor
may a menstruous woman drink semn (butter)." ^ Among
the Banyoro of Central Africa " during menstruation the
wives of wealthy cattle owners were given milk to drink
from old cows which were not expected to have calves again ;
wives of men with only a limited number of cows were pro-
hibited from drinking milk at all and had to live on vege-
table food during the time of their indisposition, because
their condition was considered harmful to the cows, should
they drink milk. After living on a vegetable diet a woman
fasted at least twelve hours before she ventured to drink
milk again." Moreover, all the time of her monthly period
a woman took care not to touch any milk-vessels.' The
milk of the old cow, on which a rich woman at such seasons
was allowed to subsist, had to be kept separate from the
common stock of milk and reserved for the patient alone.^
C. G. Seligmann, "Some aspects of the White Nile {op. cit. p. 656).
of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo-
Egyptian 'P^nd^.n" Jotn-nal of the Royal
Anthropological Iiistitttte, xliii. (1913)
2 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu,
p. 42.
p. 655. Among the tribes which ob- ^ ]o\\n'9:0%zo&,Thc Northern Bantu.,
serve the prohibition are the Dinkas p. 67.
CHAP. 11 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 129
Among the Bahima of the same region the customs are
similar. A menstruous woman may neither drink milk nor
handle the milk-vessels ; she eats vegetables and drinks beer
all the time of her sickness, unless her husband happens
to be a rich man, who may give her the milk of an old cow
that is past the age of bearing. " Should a woman con-
tinue to drink milk during her indisposition it is thought
she would injure the cows, especially their generative
powers." ^ So, too, at a Bahima girl's first menstruation her
father provides her with milk from an old cow, and she may
not drink the milk of other cows or handle any milk-vessels
for fear of thereby harming the cattle.^ The condition
attached by the Banyoro and Bahima to the drinking of
milk by menstruous women is significant ; the cow from
which the milk is drawn must be past the age of bearing a
calf, and as she will soon lose her milk in any case, it does
not matter much if she loses it a little sooner through the
pollution of her milk by the menstruous woman. Among
the Baganda, also, no menstruous woman might come into
contact with any milk-vessel or drink milk till she had
recovered from her sickness.^ Though the reason for the
prohibition is not mentioned, we may safely assume that
it was the same belief in the noxious influence which
women at such times are thought to exercise on milch
cows.
A mong the Kafir tribes of South Africa in like manner milk Menstm-
is forbidden to women at menstruation ; should they drink it notaTiowed
the people believe that th? cattle would die.* Not only a to drink
Kafir girl at her first menstruation but the maidens who wait approach
on her are forbidden to drink milk, lest the cattle should die ; ^i^^ cattle
among the
Kafirs of
1 ]ohr\'Ro5coQ, The Northertt Bantu, Compare L. Alberti, De Kaffe7-s aan South
pp. 109, 122. de Zuidkust van Afrika (Amsterdam, Africa.
•^ ]oVx.^o.co^,TheNorthern Bantu, ^^lo), pp. 102 .^.; Col. Maclean,
■', Compendium of Kafir Laws and Cus-
P" ^^ ■ tans (Cape Town, 1866), pp. 91, 122.
3 John Roscoe, Tke Baganda, p. xhese latter writers mention the pro-
419- hibition without giving the reason. It
* Rev. J. Macdonald, " Manners, is for a like reason, probably, that
Customs, Superstitions, and Religions among the Bacas of South Africa a
of South African Tribes," Jouynal of woman at menstruation is not allowed
the Anthropological l7tstitute,-xyi. (i?)<)i) to see or touch cow's dung (Rev. J.
p. 138; id.. Light in AJrica, Second Macdonald, '\n Journal of the Anthro-
Edition (London, 1 890), p. 221. pological Institute, x-x.. (i^<)\) ■p. 119).
VOL. Ill K
I30 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
the period of seclusion and taboo to which the damsels must
submit on this occasion may last from one to two weeks.^
Among the Thonga, about Delagoa Bay, not only is a men-
struous woman forbidden to drink the milk of cows, she may
not even approach the cattle kraal or look at the animals,^
If a Kafir woman infringes the rule by drinking milk during
her monthly period, her husband may be fined from one to
three head of cattle, which are paid to the chief. Formerly
this time of abstinence from milk lasted for seven or eight
days a month.^ Further, among the Kafirs menstruous
women are forbidden to cross those parts of the kraal which
are frequented by the cattle ; for if a drop of their blood
were to fall on the path, " any oxen passing over it
would run great risk of dying from disease." Hence women
have to m.ake circuitous paths from one hut to another,
going round the back of the huts in order to avoid the for-
bidden ground. The tracks which they use may be seen at
every kraal. But there is no such restriction on the walks
of women who are past child-bearing, because they have
ceased to be a source of danger.* Among the Kaniyans of
Cochin, in Southern India, a woman at menstruation may
neither drink milk nor milk a cow.*
Supersti- The disabilities thus imposed on women at menstruation
o°taimincr are perhaps dictated by a fear lest the cows whose milk
cows' milk they drink should yield milk mingled with blood. Such a
fear, Mr. Roscoe tells me, is much felt by the pastoral tribes
of Central Africa. In some parts of Europe peasants resort
to superstitious remedies when the milk of their cows is
^ L. Alberti, De Kaffers aan de Africainsetleurs tabous," ^^/wctf'^^y^-
Zuidkust van Afrika (Amsterdam, nographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p.
1910), pp. 78 sq. ; H. Lichtenstein, 139. Compare id.. Life of a South
Reisen im siidlichen Africa (Berlin, ^/j'«Va« /^-/(^^(Neuchatel, 1912-1913),
1811-1812), i. 428; George Thomp- ii. 51.
%on. Travels and Adventures in Sotit hern ^ Mr. Brownlee's Notes, in Col.
Africa (London, 1827), ii. 354; Mr. Maclean's Compendium of Kafir Laws
Warner's Notes, in Col. Maclean's and Customs (Cape Town, 1866), p.
Compendium of Kefir Laws and Cus- 122.
toms (Cape Town, 1866), p. 98 ; G. * V>vA\t^Y:\6A,The Essential Kafir,
M'Call Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore (Lon- pp. 238 sq. ; Mr. Warner's Notes, in
don, 1886), p. 218; Dudley Kidd, Col. Maclean's Compendium of Kajit
The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), Zajcj a«(/ Cmj/ootj (Cape Town, 1866),
p. 209. Only the last of these writers p. 93.
mentions the reason for the custom. ^ L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer,
2 Henri A. Junod, " Les concep- The Cochin Trides and Castes [MadrsiS.
tions physiologiques des Bantou Sud- 1909-19 12), i. 203.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 131
similarly polluted. In the Mark of Brandenburg the cure
is, or was, to milk the cow through a natural hole in a piece
of oak-wood.^ In Masuren a " thunderbolt," that is, a pre-
historic flint implement, is used instead of a piece of oak-
wood for this purpose ; or the bloody milk is poured into a
potsherd and set on a fence, where it stays till a swallow
flies over it, which is thought to restore the purity of the
milk.^ The same fear of infecting cows' milk with blood Wounded
may explain the Zulu custom which forbids a wounded man avowed to
to drink milk until he has performed a certain ceremony, drink milk.
Thus when an Englishman, serving with the Zulus, was
wounded in action and bled profusely, a young heifer was
killed by order of the medicine-man, and its small entrails,
mixed with the gall and some roots, were parboiled and
given to the sufferer to drink. At first he refused the
nauseous dose, but the medicine-man flew into a passion
and said " that unless I drank of the mixture, I could not
be permitted to take milk, fearing the cows might die, and
if I approached the king I should make him ill." Further,
the sufferer was forced to swallow an emetic, consisting of a
decoction of roots, for the purpose of clearing his stomach.*
Similarly among the Nandi of British East Africa persons
who have been wounded or are suffering from boils or ulcers
may not drink fresh milk,* probably from a like regard for
the welfare of the herd. This fear of injuring the cows
through the infection of blood may perhaps explain a
Bechuana custom of removing all wounded persons to a
distance from their towns and villages.*
Women in childbed and for some time after it are believed Women in
by many savages to be a source of dangerous infection, on ^o^ allowed
which account it is customary to isolate them like lepers from to drink
the rest of the community.*^ Hence it is not surprising to
find that among the Thonga a woman may not drink any
1 Adalbert Kuhn, Mdrkische Sagen 1909), p. 24 note i.
und Marc ken (Berlin, 1843), p. 379.
* Robert MoStit, Missionary Labours
2 M. Toeppen, Abe7-g/auben aus ^^ ^^^^^^ .^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^.^^ Lon
Masuren^ (Danzig, 1867), p. lOO. ^g g j3^_ ^^^^^
3 Nathaniel Isaacs, 7;W. and ^^^^^ ^^^ >^J^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^
AdvenUires in Eastern Africa (London,
o ^> • /-^ T-v ji custom.
1836), 1. 203-205. Compare Dudley
Kidd, The Essential iT^r (London, « Taboo and the Perils of the Sotil,
1904), pp. 309 sq. pp. 147 sqq. {The Golden Bough^ Third
* A. C. Hollis, The .VawflT/ (Oxford, Edition, Part ii.).
132 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
milk from the birth of her child till the infant has been
formally presented to the moon, which takes place usually
in the third month after her delivery. Afterwards she is
allowed to drink only the milk of cows which have calved
many times.^ Among the Banyoro " a woman at childbirth
may drink milk, but, if the child is a boy, she is given the
milk from a cow that has lost her calf ; whereas, if the child
is a girl, she is free to drink the milk from any cow." ^ The
restriction thus imposed on a woman who has given birth to
a male child points to a fear that she might injure ordinary
Milk of cows if she were suffered to drink their milk. The same
cowT^'^"^ fear is apparently entertained in a high degree by the Nandi,
reserved whenever a woman has given birth to twins. For among
oTtwins"^'^ them "the birth of twins is looked upon as an inauspicious
and event, and the mother is considered unclean for the rest of
women? ^^r life. She is given her own cow and may not touch the
milk or blood of any other animal. She may enter nobody's
house until she has sprinkled a calabash full of water on the
ground, and she may never cross the threshold of a cattle
kraal again." ^ If a mother of twins even approaches the
cattle-pen, the Nandi believe that the animals will die.* The
Suk, another tribe of British East Africa, seem to entertain
a like dread of pregnant women, for among them a woman
during her pregnancy lives on the milk of a cow set apart
for her use. The animal must never have suffered from any
sickness, and no one else may drink its milk at the same
time.^ Banyoro herdsmen believe that the entrance of a
nursing mother into their houses or kraals is in some way
harmful to the cows, though in what the harm is supposed
to consist has not been ascertained.*^ Perhaps the notion
may be that the milk in the woman's breasts is so much
milk abstracted from the udders of the cows. If that
is so, it might explain why a nursing mother is the
totem of several Banyoro clans, and why in such clans
no woman who is nursing a child may enter a kraal or a
* Henri A. Junod, Life of a South (London, 1902), pp. 39 sq.
African Tribe, i. 51, 190, ii. 51. ° Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk,
* ]6hn'Roscoit, The N'orthern Bantu, their Language and Folklore (Oxford,
p. 67, compare p. 44. 1911)) P- 22.
^ A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, ^ Toteniisni and Exogafny, ii. 521
1909), p. 68. note ^, from information supplied by the
* C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda Rev. John Roscoe.
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
133
house.^ The explanation of the curious taboo may be
that a woman in these circumstances is conceived to draw
away, by sympathetic magic, the milk from the bodies of
the animals into her own.
The same dread which the natural functions of woman Women
inspire in the breast of the ignorant and superstitious savage °°^^\'r^^''
probably lies at the root of the stringent rule which among cows in
many African tribes, especially of the Bantu family, forbids ^]^^^^^^
women to milk or herd the cows and to enter the cattle-yard." tribes.
For example, in regard to the Kafir tribes of South Africa
we are told that "the care of the cattle and dairy is the
highest post of honor amongst them, and this is always
allotted to the men. They milk the cows ; herd the oxen ;
and keep the kraals or c-attle yards. The women are never
(under the pain of heavy chastisement) permitted to touch a
beast : even the young calves and heifers are tended by the
lads and boys, and should a woman or girl be found in or
near the cattle, she is severely beaten. A curious custom
prevails amongst them in connection with this usage. If a
1 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 516
sqq., 521 ; John Roscoe, The North-
ern Bantu, pp. 28 sqq.
2 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir,
pp. 59, 238 ; John Campbell, Travels
in South Africa, Second Jotirney (Lon-
don, 1822), ii. 213 ; E. Casalis, The
Basutos (London, 1861), p. 125 ; Rev.
Francis Fleming, Kaffraria, and its
Inhabitants (London, 1853), pp. 98
sq. ; A. Kranz, Natur- tend Kultur-
leben der Zulus (Wiesbaden, 1880),
pp. 81 sq. % James Macdonald, Light
in Africa, Second Edition (London,
1890), p. 221 ; F. Lichtenstein, Reisen
im Siidlichen Afrika (Berlin, 1811-
181 2), i. 441 ; H. Schinz, Deulsch-
Siidwest- Afrika (Oldenburg and Leip-
sic, N.D.), p. 296 ; L. Grout, Zululand
(Philadelphia, N.D.), p. ill; John
Mackenzie, Ten Years North of the
Orange River (Edinburgh, 1 871), p.
499 ; G. Fritsche, Die Eingcbonncn
Siid-Afrikas (Breslau, 1872), pp. 85,
183 ; Sir H. H. Johnston, British
Central Africa (London, 1897), p.
431 ; C. Gouldsbury and H, Sheane,
The Great Plateau of Northern Rho-
desia (London, 191 1), p. 305 ; H. Cole,
" Notes on the Wagogo of German East
Ainlia," Journal of the Anthropological
Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 337 ; C. T.
Wilson and R. W. Felkin, Uganda and
the Egyptia7i Soudan (London, 1S82),
i. 164; R. W. Felkin, "Notes on the
Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa,"
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, xii. ( 1 882- 1 S 84) pp. 306 sq. :
Robert P. Ashe, Two A'ings of Uganda
(London, 1889), p. 340 ; John Roscoe,
The Baganda, p. 416; id. , The Nor-
thern Bantu, pp. 66, 107 sq., 118,
236, 290 ; Emin Pasha in Central
Africa (London, 1S88), pp. 88, 149,
238, 343 ; W. Munzinger, Sitten und
Recht der Bogos (Winterthur, 1859), pp.
77 sq. ; id., Ostafrikanische Studien
(Schaffhausen, 1864), p. 325; Diedrich
Westermann, The Shilluk People, their
Language and Eolklore (Philadelphia,
1912), p. xxix ; C. G. Seligmann,
" Some aspects of the Hamitic problem
in the Anglo-Eg)'ptian Sudan, "y<7?/77/a/
of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
xliii. (1913) p. 655. However, it
deserves to be noticed that among the
Bechuanas, while cows are always
milked by men, goats are always milked
by women (J. Campbell, loc. cit.).
134 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
woman has necessity to enter a cattle kraal, she is obliged,
if married, to bring her husband with her, or nearest male
relative, if not, to the gate of the enclosure. He then lays
his assegai on the ground, the point being inside the entrance,
and the woman walks in on the handle of the weapon. This
is considered as a passport of entrance, and saves her from
punishment : but, even in this case, strict inquiry is made as
to the necessity for such an entrance, nor are the men very
willing to grant, too frequently, such an indulgence to them." ^
v^omen Amougst the Todas, a pastoral tribe of the Neilgherry Hills
to*miik^^ i" Southern India, the business of milking the cattle is per-
cattie formed by men only, who are invested, according to their
among the , . , . , _ . , , ° ,
Todas of rank, with various degrees of sanctity, and have to observe
Southern strict rules of ceremonial purity. Toda women take no part
in the ritual of the sacred dairy nor in the operations of
milking and churning which are there carried on. They
may go to the dairy to fetch butter-milk, but they must
approach it by an appointed path and stand at an appointed
place to receive the milk. Only under very special conditions
is a woman or girl permitted to enter a dairy. Indeed during
the performance of certain ceremonies at the dairy women
are obliged to leave the village altogether.^ Among the
Badagas, another tribe of the Neilgherry Hills, if a family
has cows or buffaloes yielding milk, a portion of the inner
apartment of the dwelling is converted into a milk-house, in
which milk is stored, and which no woman may enter. Even
males who are polluted, by having touched or passed near
persons of an inferior caste, may not enter the milk-house
till they have purified themselves by a ceremonial bath.^
However, this sedulous seclusion of women from cattle
is not practised by all cattle-breeding tribes. For example,
^ Rev. Francis Fleming, Southern the family, however, have free ingress
Africa (London, 1856), pp. 214 sq. and egress, and much of the business
2 W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas of the dairy is performed by them "
(London, 1906), pp. 56 sqq., 83 sqq., (Henry Harkness, Description of a
231 sqq., especially 245 sq. Speaking Singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting
ofoneof the sacred dairies of the Todas, the Neilgherry Hills, London, 1832,
which he rightly enough calls a temple, p. 24). The exception in favour of
Captain Harkness says, " Their women boys, presumably under puberty, is
are not allowed to enter this temple, significant.
nor are the men at all times ; but only 3 Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tnbes
when they are in that state which is of Southern India (Madras, 1909), i,
considered to be pure. The boys of 75.
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
135
the cows are milked by women among the Hottentots, Women
Korannas, and Herero of South Africa ; ^ among the Masai,^ ^ik' covvs
Akamba,^ and Turkana* of East Africa; and among the in some
Fulahs of West i\frica.^ So far indeed are the Namaquas, Africa°aud
a Hottentot tribe, from sharing the superstition as to the ^^ia.
disastrous influence of menstruous women on milk and cattle
that among them, when a girl attains to puberty, she is led
round the village to touch the milk-vessels in the houses and
the rams in the folds for good luck.® With this custom we
may compare a practice of the Herero. Among them the
fresh milk of the cows is brought by the women to the chief
or owner of the kraal, at the sacred hearth or sacrificial altar,
and he tastes and thereby hallows the milk before it may be
converted into curds. But if there happens to be a lying-in
woman in the kraal, all the fresh milk is taken to her, and
she consecrates it in like manner instead of the chief/ Among
the Suk of British East Africa cows are milked by women,
children, and uncircumcised boys.^ Among the Nandi, another
tribe of British East Africa, the milking of the cows is usually
done by boys and girls.^ Among the Dinka of the White
Nile " cows should be milked by boys and girls before puberty ;
in case of necessity a man might milk a cow, but this is not
a desirable practice, nor should old men do so even when
they are past sexual relations." ^° Perhaps, however, the rule
1 Peter Kolben, The Present State
of the Cape of Good Hope (London,
1738), i. 171, 172 ; Theophilus Hahn,
Tsun!-\\Goam, the Supreme Being of the
Khoi-Khoi (London, i88i), p. 20;
John Mackenzie, Ten Years North of
the Orange River (Edinburgh, 1 871),
P- 499 ; J- Irlc, Die Herero (Giitersloh,
1906), p. 121. Among the Hottentots
the milk of cows is drunk b)' both sexes,
but the milk of ewes only by women
(P. Kolben, op. cit. i. 175).
2 S. L. Llinde and H. Hinde, The
Last of the Masai (London, 1 901), p.
81 ; A. C. HoUis, The Masai (Oxford,
1 905)) P- 290. But while women milk
the cows, young boys milk the goats
(S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, I.e.).
^ Hon. Charles Dundas, "History
of Y^\X.\x\" Journal of the Royal Antliro-
pological Institute, xliii. (1913) p. 502.
« Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk,
their Langtcage and Folklore (Oxford,
1911), P;33-
° Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan
(Paris, 1912), p. 623.
^ Sir J. E. Alexander, Expedition of
Discovery into the Interior of Africa
(London, 1838), i. 169.
^ Rev. E. Dannert, " Customs of the
0%'aherero at the birth of a Child,"
(South African) Folk-lore Journal, ii.
63 sq. ; J. Irle, Die Herero (Giitersloh,
1906), pp. 79, 94.
8 Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk,
their Language and Folklore (Oxford,
1911), p. 9-
9 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford,
1909), p. 21.
^^ C. G. Seligmann, " Some aspects
of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo-
Eg)'ptian SuAsn," Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, xliii, (1913)
p. 656.
136
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
varies somewhat in this tribe ; for according to Emin Pasha
" the Dinka are the only negroes in our province among
whom women are allowed to milk the cows." ^ Among the
Bagesu, an agricultural tribe of British East Africa, who keep
some cattle, cows are milked either by men or by women ;
for women are under no restrictions in dealing with the
The
pollution of
death a bar
to the
drinking of
milk.
Mourners
forbidden
to drink
milk in
some
African
tribes.
are milked by men and lads only, but the sheep and goats
are milked by women.^ Among the Arabs of Moab also it
is the women who usually milk the sheep and the goats."*
Among the Kalmuks and Khirgiz of Siberia it is the busi-
ness of the women to milk the cattle," and among the Lapps
the reindeer are milked by men and women indifferently.*^
The pollution of death is also with some people a bar to
the drinking of milk. Thus, in the Rowadjeh and Djaafere
tribes of Arabs, near Esne in Egypt, " if any person of the
family die, the women stain their hands and feet blue with
indigo ; which demonstration of their grief they suffer to
remain for eight days, all that time abstaining from milk,
and not allowing any vessel containing it to be brought into
the house ; for they say that the whiteness of the milk
but ill accords with the sable gloom of their minds." ^
Among the Dinka the near relatives of a dead man may
not touch milk during the first few days after the death,
that is, during the time that they sleep near the grave.^
With the Banyoro of Central Africa mourning lasted from
1 Einin Pasha in Central Africa,
being a Collection of his Letters and
Journals (London, 1888), p. 343.
Elsewhere, referring to the Latuka,
another tribe of the Egyptian Sudan,
the same writer observes (p. 238),
"Cattle are only milked by men ; the
dirty habit practised by the Dinka,
Bari, and others, of washing the milker's
hands and face, as also the cow's udder
and the milk-pot, with urine does not
exist here."
2 John Roscoe, The Noi-thern Bantu,
p. 168.
3 C. M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia
Deserta (Cambridge, 1888), i. 261 sq. ;
J. L. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins
and Wahdbys (London, 1831), i. 239.
* Antonin Jaussen, Coutumes des
Arabes an pays de Moab (Paris, 1908),
pp. 67 sq.
^ P. S. Pallas, Rcise durch verschie-
dene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs
(St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), i. 314;
Arved v. Schultz, " Volks- und wirt-
schaftliche Studien im Pamir," Peter-
tnantts 3Iitteiluftoen, Ivi. (Gotha, 19 10)
Halbband i. , p. 252.
^ J. Scheffer, Lapponia (Frankfort,
1673). P- 331-
^ J. L. Burckhardt, Notes on the
Bedouins and Wahdbys (London, 1 83 1 ),
i. 280 sg.
^ C. G. Seligmann, " Some aspects
of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo-
Egyptian SwddLii,'' Journal of the Royal
Ayithropological histitute, xliii. (1913)
p. 656.
CHAP. 11 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 137
two to six months, and all that time the mourners were for-
bidden to drink milk, the relatives and friends of the deceased
meanwhile providing them with oxen to eat and beer to
drink.^ Some of the tribes of British East Africa expose
their dead to be devoured by hyenas, and among them the
persons who have handled the corpse and carried it out to
its last resting-place, there to await the wild beasts, are sub-
ject to various taboos ; in particular they are forbidden to
drink milk. For example, among the Nandi the men who
have discharged this office bathe in a river, anoint their bodies
with fat, partially shave their heads, and live in the hut of
the deceased for four days, during which time they may not
be seen by a boy or a female. Further, they may not touch
food with their hands, but must eat with the help of a pot-
sherd or chip of a gourd, and they may not drink milk.^
zAimong the Akikuyu of the same region the relative who The
has exposed a corpse returns to the house of the deceased, amonTthe
but he may not enter the village by the gate ; he must break Akikuyu.
a way for himself through the village fence. The reason for
this singular mode of entrance is not mentioned, but we may
conjecture that the motive for adopting it is a wish to throw
the ghost off the scent, who might pursue his relative back
to the house through the familiar gateway, but is brought
short up at the hole in the fence. Having reached the house,
the man who has discharged the last duty to the dead must
live alone in it for eight days. Food is set down for him by
his kinsfolk in front of the door. It consists exclusively of
vegetables, for flesh and especially milk he is forbidden to
partake of When eight days have passed, an old woman
comes and shaves the hair of his head, for which service she
receives a goat. After that he breaks out through the village
fence, probably with the fear of the ghost still before his eyes
or behind his back, and betakes himself to the elders and
medicine-men, who are assembled outside of the village.
They sacrifice a goat and besmear him from head to foot
with the contents of the animal's stomach. A medicine-
man gives him a particular beverage to drink, and having
quaffed it the man is clean once more ; he may now enter
^ ]Q\\\\\\o%cot,T/uNorlhern.Banlu, ^ A. C. Ilollis, T/tc N'andi {Oxioid,
p. 59. 1909), p. 70.
138
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
Among the
Zulus and
Kafirs
milk is not
drank in a
village
after a
death until
a ceremony
of purifica-
tion has
been
performed.
Milk
forbidden
lo
mourners
in some
parts of
India.
The
prohibition
of milk to
mourners
probably
due to
a fear of
killing the
cows.
the village in the usual way by the gate, and he is again free
to drink milk.^ When a death has taken place in a Zulu
village, no milk is drunk nor are the cattle allowed to be
milked on that day.^ And with regard to the Kafirs of
South Africa in general we are told that after a death " the
people in the kraal are all unclean. They may not drink
milk, nor may they transact any business with other kraals,
until the doctor has cleansed them. Those who touched the
dead body are specially unclean, and so is every implement
which was used to make the grave with, or the dead body
touched. Those who touched the dead body, or the dead
man's things, have to wash in running water. A doctor is
called in, and he offers a sacrifice to cleanse the cows, the
milk, and the people ; yet for several months the people are
not allowed to sell any oxen. The doctor takes some
medicine and mixes it with milk, making all the people
drink the decoction ; this is done at a spot far away from
the kraal." ^ An earlier authority on the Kafirs of South
Africa tells us that with them no person ceremonially un-
clean may drink milk, and that among such persons are a
widow and a widower, the widow being unclean for a month
and the widower for half a month after the death of husband
or wife respectively.'* Similarly among the Todas of Southern
India, who are a purely pastoral people, a widower and a
widow are forbidden to drink milk for a period which may
extend for many months.^ In the Konkan, a province of
the Bombay Presidency, the use of milk is prohibited during
the period of mourning.^
No satisfactory motive is assigned for the common pro-
hibition thus laid on mourners to partake of milk ; for the
reason alleged by Arab women in Egypt, that the whiteness
1 J. M. Hildebrandt, " Ethnograph-
ische Notizen liber Wakamba und ihre
Nachbarn," Zcitschrift fur Ethnologie,
X. (1878) pp. 404 sq.
2 A. F. Gardiner, Narrative of a
Journey to the Zoohi Country in South
Africa (London, 1836), p. 81.
2 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir
(London, 1904), p. 249, compare p.
246. Compare Stephen Kay, Travels
and Researches in Caffraria (London,
1833), p. 199, " When death has
occurred in a village, all its inhabitants
fast, abstaining even from a draught of
milk the whole of that day, and some-
times longer."
* L. Alberti, De Kaffers aan de Zuid-
kust van Afrika (Amsterdam, 18 10),
pp. 102 sq.
5 W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Lon-
don, 1906), p. 241.
6 R. E. Enthoven, " Folklore of the
Konkan," The Indian Antiquary, xliv.
(191 5) Supplement, p. 69.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 139
of the milk would not comport with the blackness of their
sorrow, is clearly a fanciful afterthought. In the light of the
evidence which has come before us, we may conjecture that
in all cases the original motive was a fear lest the cows
might die, if their milk were drunk by a man or wom.an who
was thus deeply tainted with the pollution and infection of
death. Yet in apparent contradiction with this fear is the Bechuana
treatment of a widow among the Bechuanas. " When a ^^*°™ °
woman's husband is dead, she may not enter a town, unless boiled milk
she has been under the hands of a sorcerer. She must c^o\™'tcra^
remain at some distance from the town ; then a little milk widow to
from every cow is taken to her, which mixture of milk she
must boil with her food. Dung from the cattle pens is also
taken to her, and with this, mixed with some molemo, she
must rub herself If this ceremony be not gone through, it
is thought that all the cattle in the town will surely die." ^
How these ceremonies prevent the cattle from dying is not
clear to the untutored mind of the European ; but at least
we can see that the milk and dung are both believed to
remain in sympathetic connexion with the animals, since the
use of them by the widow is supposed to save the herd alive.
Perhaps an essential part of the ceremonies is the boiling of Custom of
the milk before it is drunk by the widow ; for we have seen cow'slirst
that, while the boiling of milk is generally forbidden by milk in
pastoral tribes, it is allowed and even enjoined by them in speda"
the particular case of biestings, that is, the first milk drawn cases,
from a cow after casting her calf ^ Another instance of this
remarkable treatment of biestings is furnished by the Bagesu
of British East Africa. Among them, " when a cow calves,
the calf has the milk on the first day ; on the second day
the cow is milked and the milk is slowly boiled until it
forms a cake, and the owner of the cow with his wife and a
few relatives eat this cake. The day after this ceremony the
cow is milked at the ordinary milking-times, and the milk is
added to the common supply." ^ Probably the boiling and
eating of the milk in this case is supposed somehow to
^ Miss J. P. Meeuwsen, "Customs Dudley Kidd, The Essevtial Kafir
and Superstitions among the Betshu- (London, 1904), p. 252.
-xxi-x,^' {South African) Folklore Journal, ' Above, pp. \20 sq,
i. ( I S79) p. 34. The word molemo means 3 j^ Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, p.
both poison and medicine. Compare 168.
140
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
AmoDg the
Kafirs of
South
Africa
persons in
a kraal,
where a
man or
a beast
has been
killed by
hghtning,
may not
drink milk
until they
have been
purified
by the
medicine-
man.
benefit the cow and her calf, just as the boiling and eating
of the milk by the widow is certainly supposed by the
Bechuanas to benefit the cattle, which otherwise would
perish ; but in what precisely the saving virtue of the cere-
mony consists is as obscure in the one case as in the other.
Among the Kafirs of South Africa it is a rule that when
lightning has struck a kraal, killing man or beast, no person
in the kraal may drink milk until a medicine-man has come
and performed certain purificatory ceremonies over all the
inhabitants. He begins by tying a number of charms round
the neck of every person in the place for the avowed purpose
of giving them power to dig the grave of the man or animal
who has been killed ; for if the victim is a beast, it is always
buried and never eaten. When the burial is over, an animal
is killed in sacrifice, and a fire is kindled, in which certain
charms of wood, or roots, are burned to charcoal and then
ground to powder. Next, the medicine-man makes incisions
in various parts of the bodies of every one in the kraal, and
rubs a portion of the powdered charcoal into the cuts ; the rest
of the powder he puts into sour milk and causes all the people
to drink the mixture. After that they are free to drink milk
again in the usual way, and their heads being shaved, they
are pronounced clean and may quit the kraal and asso-
ciate with their neighbours, neither of which they might do
until the ceremony of purification had been performed.^ The
essence of the ceremony appears to be a kind of inoculation
designed to guard the inmates of the kraal against a repeti-
tion of the thunder-stroke. Till the rite has been duly
carried out, the inhabitants are seemingly supposed to be
electrified by the shock, and to be capable of discharging the
electricity with fatal effect on any persons with whom they
may come into contact. Hence the precaution of isolat-
ing or (in electrical language) insulating them from all their,
neighbours, till the man of skill has, so to say, tapped the
electricity and allowed it to run off safely into the grave of
the victim. If this interpretration of the rite is correct, we
can easily understand why in their electrified condition
the inhabitants of the kraal were forbidden to drink milk.
1 Mr. Warner's Notes, in Col. Maclean's Compendium of Kafir Law and
Custom (Cape Town, 1 866), pp. 83 sq.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK \^\
For on the principles of sympathetic magic, which are as
plain to the savage as the multiplication table is to us, the
drinking of milk by an electrified person would infallibly com-
municate an electric shock to the cow from which the milk
was extracted ; and nothing, humanly speaking, could save
the life of the poor creature but the direct interposition of
the medicine-man.
Another curious example of sympathetic magic applied Belief as
to the milk of cattle may here be mentioned, though it does conjuring
not fall in with the instances hitherto cited. The Kabyles ofmiik
--,,.-.,,. , , • r ^ from cows
of North Africa believe that whoever gets possession of the among the
herdsman's staff can conjure the milk of the herd into the Kabyies.
udders of his own cows. Hence when he retires to his house
in the heat of the day, a herdsman takes care not to let his
staff go for a moment. To sell the staff or allow another to
get hold of it during the siesta is an offence which is punished
with a fine.^
Among the Akamba and Akikuyu of British East Africa Among the
intercourse between the human sexes is strictly forbidden so ^^^"^^
long as the cattle are at pasture, that is, from the time when Akikuyu
the herds are driven out in the morning till the time when East'^Afrira
they are driven home in the evening.^ This remarkable intercourse
prohibition, first reported by a German observer some thirty the'human
years ago, might appear to an educated European to be sexes is
r , , • 1 r 1 J 11.- r forbidden
founded on a simple sense of decency and a calculation of while the
practical utility ; but any such interpretation would totally "^^"^^ ^'^
misread the working of the native African mind. Subse- because
quent inquiries proved that, as I had conjectured,^ the inter- f^fg^course
course of the human sexes is supposed to be in some way is believed
injurious to the cattle while they are at grass. An investiga- f° ^^^s ^^
tion was instituted by Mr. C. W. Hobley, and he found that the cattle.
" this custom still exists and is still strictly followed, but it
refers only to the people left in the kraal, and does not apply
to the herdsmen ; if "the people in the kraal infringed this
prohibition it is believed that the cattle would die off, and
also that the children would sicken : no explanation was
^ J. Liorel, Kabylie du Jurjura x. (1S78) p. 401.
(Paris, N.D.), p. 512. ^ " Folk-lore in the Old Testament,"
2 J. M. Hildebrandt, " Ethiiograph- Anthropological Essays presented to
ische Notizen liber Wakamba und ihrc Edward Burnett Zj'/or (Oxford, 1907),
Nachbarn," Zeitsckrift fiir Ethnoloqie, p. 162.
142 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
offered as to why the herdsmen were exempt" ^ Among
the Akamba in particular it is believed that " if a man
cohabits with a married woman in the woods while the cattle
are out grazing, it brings inakwa [a curse] upon the cattle
and they will die. The woman, however, is generally afraid
of evil falling on the precious cattle, and confesses. The
cattle are then taken out of their kraal, medicine is placed
on the ground at the gate, and they are then driven back
over the medicine, and this lifts the curse. The woman also
has to be ceremonially purified by an elder." ^ Moreover, for
eight days after the periodical festival which the Akikuyu
hold for the purpose of securing God's blessing on their flocks
and herds, no commerce is permitted between the human
sexes. They think that any breach of continence in these
eight days would be followed by a mortality among the flocks.^
Continence The belief that the cohabitation of men with women is,
dliTmen ""^er Certain circumstances, injurious to the cattle, may
among the explain why the most sacred dairymen of the pastoral Todas
Todas. must avoid women altogether."* An idea of the same sort
may underlie the Dinka custom which entrusts the milking of
cows to boys and girls under puberty,^ and the Kafir custom
In some which restricts the use of fresh milk to young people and very
tribeTfresh old people ; all other persons, that is, all adults in the prime
milk may q{ jjfe^ may usc Only curdled milk. Thus we read that " milk
only by forms a favourite part of a Kafir's diet, and is preferred to all
young other food except flesh. Generally it is used only in a
or very old ^ i i i i
persons. curdled state, young people and very old ones alone drinking
1 C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A- into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious Be-
Kamba and other East Africaii Tribes Wtk and Cnsiom?," Journal of the Royal
(Cambridge, 1910), p. l66. Compare Anthropological Institute, xli. (1911)
Hon. Charles Dundas, "History of p. 412.
YjAvS.,^'' Journal of the Royal Anthropo- ^ H. R.Tate, "Further Notes on
logical Institute, xliii. {1913) p. 501, the Kikuyu Tribe of British East
"One of the strictest rules forbids a Ahica.," Journal of the Anthropological
man to cohabit with a woman while histitute xxxiv. (1904) p. 261.
the cattle are out grazing"; id., * W. 'H. R. Rivers, The Todas
"The Organization and Laws of some (London, 1906), p. 236. Compare F.
Bantu Tribes in 'Ed.si Ainca.," Journal Metz, The Tribes Inhabiting the Neil-
of the Royal Anthi-opological Institute, gherry Hills (Mangalore, 1864), p.
xlv. (1915) p. 274, " It was believed 20; W. E. Marshall, Travels Amongst
that if men and women cohabited during the Todas (London, '1873), P- '^Zl '■>
the hours in which the cattle were out J. W. Breeks, An Accotmt of the Primi.
grazing this would cause the stock to live Tribes and Monuments of the N'ila-
die." giris (London, 1873), p. 14.
2 C.W. Hobley, "Further researches ^ Above, p. 135.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 143
fresh milk." ^ " Sweet milk is but food for babies, and
only a few tribes would drink it. But clotted sour miik is
food for men." ^ " In the south of Africa, it is only the
children who drink milk in a sweet state ; it is generally
left to get sour in large earthen pans, or in bottles of quagga-
skin. After two or three days the whey is carefully separated
from the congealed mass, and in its stead they add a little
sweet milk or cream, to allay the sourness of the curds." *
Among the Ovambo of South-West Africa " milk is drunk
quite fresh only by small children, probably never by grown
persons." ^ Among the Baganda of Central Africa " milk
was drunk curdled or clotted ; no grown-up person cared to
drink it fresh ; it was, however, given fresh to young chil-
dren and infants." ^ The Akikuyu of British East Africa make
much use of the milk both of cows and goats, but only
children drink it fresh.^ Among the Bechuanas " there are Special
two months in the year, at the cow-calving time, which is d'^jnkinV"
generally about the month of October, when none but the the miik
uncircumcised are permitted to use the milk of cows that °hat°have
have calved." ^ As the uncircumcised would usually be J^' calved
,., , , . -r-, 1 , . in Africa
under puberty, it seems likely that this Bechuana rule is and India.
based on the idea that the intercourse of the human sexes
may injuriously affect a cow in the critical time when she has
lately dropped her calf We have seen that in other tribes the
first milk of a cow after calving may not be used in the
ordinary way, but is either made over to boys or children, or
is reserved for the use of one particular person who may
drink no other milk.^ Similar precautions are taken by the
Badagas of* Southern India to guard the first milk of a cow
after calving from abuses which might conceivably endanger
the health of the animal. Among them, we are told, a cow
or buffalo which has calved for the first time has to be treated
in a special manner. For three or five days it is not m.ilked.
1 Rev. Joseph Shooter, The Kafirs of (London, 191 1), p. 418.
Natal and the Zuht Country (London, e h. R. Tate, " Further Notes on
1857), p. 28 . , ,. , the Kikuyu Tribe of British East
2 Dudley K.dd, The Essential A afcr ^f^j^^^„ y^„,.„^^ ,f tj,. Anthropological
(London, 1904), P- 59- Institute, xxxiv. (1904) p. 259.
3 E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, ' \ ^ "^i v :>'^
1861) p. I4S- ^ ^^^" 1°'''" Campbell, Travels itt-
* Hermann Tcinjes, Ovamboland South Africa, Second Jotirney {London,
(Berlin, 19 li), pp. 69 sq.
1822), ii. 202.
John Roscoe, The Baganda ® Above, pp. 120 sq.
144
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
Chastity
observed
by the
persons
in charge
of the
king's cows
among the
Banyoro.
A boy is then chosen to milk it. He may not sleep on a
mat or wear a turban, and instead of tying his cloth round
his waist, he must wear it loosely over his body. Meat
is forbidden to him, and he must avoid and abstain from
speaking to menstruous women and classes, such as Irulas
and Kotas, whose contact is deemed to involve pollution.
On the day appointed for milking the animal, the boy bathes
and proceeds to milk it into a new vessel, which has been
purified by smearing a paste of Mcliosma leaves and bark
over it and heating it over a fire. The milk is taken to a
stream, and a small quantity of it is poured into three cups
made of y^r^ma leaves. The cups are then put into the
water, and the remainder of the milk in the vessel is also
poured into the stream. In some places, especially where a
Madeswara temple is close at hand, the milk is carried to the
temple and given to the priest. With a portion of the milk
some plantain fruits are made into a pulp and given to an
Udaya, who throws them into a stream. The boy is treated
with some respect by his family during the time that he
milks the animal, and he is given food first. This he must
eat off a plate made of Argyreia or of plantain leaves.^ The
intention of these elaborate rules is not stated, but we may
conjecture that they all aim at safeguarding the cow or
buffalo from the dangers to which at such a time the indis-
criminate use of her milk by profane persons might, on the
principle of sympathetic magic, expose the animal. And
that the milk is entrusted here in India, as in some African
tribes, to a boy rather than to an adult may be due to a
belief in the injurious influence which the intercourse of the
human sexes is apt to exercise on cattle.
The obligation of chastity laid in certain circumstances
on persons who have charge of cows is strikingly illustrated
by the account which Mr. John Roscoe gives of the care
taken of the sacred cows from which the king of the Banyoro
drew his principal source of nourishment. The account
presents so many points of interest that I will subjoin it in
the writer's words : —
" The king's diet was strictly regulated by ancient custom.
^ Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Soziiherii India (Madras, 1 909), i.
88 J^.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 145
He subsisted on milk and beef, but chiefly on milk. Vege- The sacred
tables and mutton he might not touch, and for his use a f°^^ °J.\^^
° ' king of the
special herd of cows was kept. These were sacred animals Banyoro.
which had to be guarded against coming into contact with
other cows, and no one was permitted to drink the milk from
them save the king and his servant appointed for the duty.
The sacred herd of cows had special men to herd them and
to attend to them constantly in order to prevent them from
mixing with other cattle. They were kept in a part of the
country where they could be kept from contact with the large
ordinary herds of the king, and from mingling with the cattle
of chiefs. From this herd nine cows were taken to the
capital to provide milk for the king's use, the animals chosen
being young cows with their first calves. When a cow was
ready to travel after giving birth, she was taken to the royal
residence to join the select number, and one of the nine was
then removed to the general body of the sacred herd in the
country. This most sacred herd of nine was called Nkorogi,
and had to be jealously guarded against contact with a bull.
The period for which each cow was kept in the Nkorogi herd
was about two months, during which time both cow and calf
had to be maintained in perfect condition. At the end of
two months her place was taken by another cow, and she was
removed, as already stated, to the country, and there kept for
her milk to make butter for the king's use and for breeding
purposes : she never returned to supply the king with milk.
" The Nkorogi cows had three special men to care for Rules of
them, in addition to a boy who brought them from the oj^^ggj-^g^
pastures daily. These men had assistants who took charge by the men
of the cows during the day when they were out at pasture, ^^^h^'^ad"^
The boy chosen for the office of driving the cows to and from charge of
the pasture and of drinking the surplus milk from the king's cotvronhe
supply was known as the ' Caller,' so named because he had king of the
to call out to warn people to leave the path, as he passed
along with the cows. He thus announced their presence and
gave people time to escape out of the way of the herd. He
was taken from the Abaitira clan, had to be a strong healthy
boy seven or eight years old, and retained the office of ' Caller '
until he was old enough to marry, that is to say about
seventeen years old, when the king ordered the Abaitira
VOL. Ill L
145 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
clan to bring another young boy. The former boy, who was
now deposed, was given a wife by the king and settled to
Strict ordinary pastoral life. Should the boy fall sick during his
chastity of ^gj.j^ Q^ office, and the medicine-man consider the illness to
herdboy. be of a serious nature, he would be strangled ; or, again,
should he have sexual relations with any woman, he would
be put to death. He had to guard against scratching his
flesh or doing anything that might draw blood. On this
account he was not allowed to go into tall grass, nor might
he leave the path when going to bring the cows from the
pasture lest he should prick or scratch himself. To strike
this boy was an offence punishable with death, because the
boy's life was bound up with that of the king, and anything,
that happened to him was liable to affect the king. Each
afternoon before sunset the boy went for the Nkorogi cows,
which were brought from the pastures to some place about
a mile distant from the royal residence, when they were
delivered to the boy, who then began to drive them thither,
raising, as he did so, his cry to warn people from the path.
Men and women now hurriedly hid in the grass and covered
their heads until the herd had passed. The cry was repeated
from time to time until the boy reached the kraal at the royal
residence, where one of the three cow-men awaited him.
Another important duty of the boy ' Caller ' was to drink up
the milk left by the king from his daily milk supply. No other
person but this boy was permitted to drink any of the milk
from the sacred cows, nor was the boy allowed any other food.
The three milk-men in charge of the cows had special titles,
Mukologi^ Mwiyuivanga, and Muigimbirwa. Each day before
Strict going to milk the cows they purified themselves by smearing
t^he^ '^^ ° their heads, arms, and chests with white clay, and during their
herdsmen, term of office, which lasted a year, they observed the strictest
rules of chastity. They were never allowed to wash with
water, but had to rub their bodies over frequently with butter,
and any infringement of these rules was punishable with
death." ^
The rule of strict chastity thus obligatory, under pain of
1 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, ceremony of the milk. The members
pp. 10-12. Among the Banyoro "it of the royal family and the great chiefs
is a mark of high distinction and do not enjoy such an honour. The
of great trust to be admitted to the having performed heroic deeds in war,
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 147
death, on all who had to do with the most sacred cows, was Reasons
probably dictated primarily by a regard for the health of the ^^^^^^y of
cows, which might be thought to suffer in themselves and in the kings
their milk from any breach of it. The probability is con- ^^^ ^^^^
firmed by the parallel rule that the three sacred milk-men herdboy.
might not wash themselves with water, but were allowed, or
rather obliged, to smear themselves frequently with butter ;
for among the pastoral Bahima, as we have seen,^ men and
women never wash, but smear themselves with butter instead,
because they believe that water applied by a man to his body
injures his cattle and his family to boot. But probably a
breach of chastity committed either by one of the sacred
milk-men or by the boy 'Caller' was thought to harm not
only the cows but the king, who was in a relation of intimate
sympathy with the animals through drinking so much of
their milk. Certainly the boy ' Caller ' was supposed to stand Sym-
in such a relation to the king, no doubt through drinking up ^Jiatfon
the leavings of the king's milk ; for we are expressly told o^ the
that " the boy's life was bound up with that of the king, and the king. °
anything that happened to him was liable to affect the king."
Hence the minute precautions which the boy had to take
against scratching himself or drawing his blood were probably
by no means purely selfish ; we can hardly doubt that they
were enforced on him from a belief that every scratch on his
body entailed a corresponding scratch on the king's body,
and that every drop of his blood shed drew a corresponding
drop from the veins of his majesty. Nor was the rule of
the having shown an unalterable fidelity G. Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria .
to the king, and, still more, the being (London and New York, 1891), ii. 53.
in sympathy with him, are reasons To drink the king's milk was probably
which may admit men to this highest thought to form a physical bond, like
of all distinctions in the kingdom. the bond of the more familiar blood
Night having fallen, and the king's covenant, between the drinker and the
tables being set, those invited to the king ; and as, on the primitive theory
ceremony enter the grand hall of the of such covenants, each of the cove-
royal mansion ; the drums beat, the nanters has power over the life of the
fifes whistle the royal march ; the king other in virtue of the common substance,
takes a vase full of milk, drinks, and whether milk or blood, which has
then passes it on to those present, who been taken into their bodies, it is
in turn drink also. When the cere- natural that the king of Unyoro should
mony is finished, the doors are opened, have admitted to the privilege of sharing
and the friends of the great men are his milk only such men as he could
admitted to the daily entertainment of absolutely trust,
getting intoxicated on copious libations,
the king setting the example." See ' Above, p. 126.
148
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
The sym-
pathetic
bond
between a
cow and
her milk is
apparently
thought
to be
weakened
when the
milk is
converted
into sour
curds or
butter ;
hence
pastoral
tribes are
less
scrupulous
in dispos-
ing of sour
curds and
butter than
of milk.
chastity limited to the human guardians of the sacred cows ;
it was observed by the animals themselves all the while that
their milk was drunk by the king, for we are told that during
that time they " had to be jealously guarded against contact
with a bull." This compulsory continence of the cows was
in all probability dictated by a regard not so much for the
animals themselves as for the king, who by drinking their
milk was joined to them by a bond of such intimate sympathy
that whatever happened to them necessarily affected him.
Perhaps the practice of eating milk in the form of sour
curds, which prevails among the pastoral tribes of Africa,^
may spring not altogether from a preference for curds, but
^ (Sir) Francis Galton, Narrative of
an Explorer in Tivpical South Africa,
Third Edition (London, 1890), p. 85,
" Sweet milk can hardly ever be ob-
tained, because Damaras, like all other
milk -drinking nations, use it only when
sour " ; F. Fleming, Southern Africa
(London, 1856), pp. 218 sq. ; id.,
Kaffraria and its Inhabitants (London,
1853), pp. 108 sq. ; L. Albert!, De
Kaffers aan de Zuidkiist van Afrika
(Amsterdam, 18 10), p. 36 ; E. Casalis,
The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 145 ;
Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir
(London, 1904), p. 59 ; F. Speck-
mann. Die Hermannsburger Mission
in Afrika (Hermannsburg, 1876), pp
107 sq. ; E. Dannert, " Customs of
the Ovaherero," [South African) Folk-
lore Journal, ii. (1880) p. 63 ; Sir H.
H. Johnston, British Central Africa
(London, 1897), p. 431 ; H. R. Tate,
" Further Notes on the Kikuyu Tribe
of British East Africa, "_/<??<;-««/ of the
Anthropological Institute, xxxiv. (1904)
p. 259. According to F. Fleming
{Southern Africa, -g. 219), "their use
of curded, instead of sweet milk in
their food, is founded on experience,
the most violent internal inflammation
being rapidly engendered, in that
country, by the indiscriminate use of
sweet milk." But this can hardly be
the true reason, since in some tribes
children are allowed to drink fresh
milk freely, though adults abstain from
it. See above, pp. 142 j^. As to the
process of converting the fresh milk
into sour curds, see F. Fleming,
Kaffra7-ia, pp. 108 sq., "For milk-
pails they use baskets, which are
woven by the women of twisted grass,
closely plaited together. As a speci-
men of native manufacture, these milk-
baskets are very cleverly made, being
quite waterproof. . . . From the
baskets, the milk is all collected, and
passed into a leathern bottle. These
bottles are made of the skin of an
animal, usually a small calf or sheep.
The body being drawn through the
neck, the legs cut off, and the orifices,
so caused, sewn up, they form com-
plete bags or bottles, without a seam,
the neck being used as a mouth. . . .
In these bottles is always left about a
quart of the old store of the previous
day, on which the new milk is poured ;
and this, in the heat, soon avails to
turn all into sour curds." Compare
Dudley Kidd, I.e. ; H. Tonjes, Ovatn-
boland (Berlin, 1911), p. 70. The
latter writer says that fresh milk is
converted into sour through exposure
to the strong rays of the sun. On the
other hand the Bechuanas, the Masai,
and the Nandi drink milk both fresh
and sour (John Campbell, Travels in
South Africa, .Second Journey, London,
1822, ii. 218 ; M. Merker, Die Masai,
p. 32 ; A. C. Hollis, The Nojtdi, p. 24),
and the Bahima drink it only fresh (John
Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, pp. 108
sq.). The Bedouins of Arabia "drink
no whole-milk save that of their camels ;
of their small cattle they drink but the
butter-milk " (C. M. Doughty, T7aveli
in Arabia Desej-ta, i. 325).
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 149
partly at least from a superstitious notion that the sympathetic
bond between the cow and its milk is weakened or severed
when the milk has been turned into curds or buttermilk,
and that accordingly you run less risk of sympathetically
hurting the cow when you eat curds than when you drink
fresh milk. Such an idea at all events might explain why
in some tribes the drinking of fresh milk is confined to
children and old people, that is, to the classes who are
physically unable to endanger the supply of the precious
fluid by sexual commerce. The Bahima seem to suppose
that the sympathetic bond between the milk and the cow
is severed when the milk is converted into butter ; for,
whereas they will not sell the milk lest it should fall into
the hands of persons who might injure the cows by drinking
it, they never had any objection to parting with butter.^
The Bahima, it is to be observed, use butter chiefly as an
unguent to anoint their bodies, though at times they also
eat it." But the butter which a man applies to himself
externally is probably not conceived to form so close a link
between him and the animal as the milk which he takes
internally ; hence any improper use he may make of butter
is less likely, on the principles of sympathetic magic, to
injure the cow than an improper use of her milk, and accord-
ingly it is less needful to guard against the abuse of butter
than against the abuse of milk. Among the Todas the
milk of the sacred herd may be freely consumed by the
most holy dairymen, but what they leave over must be con-
verted into clarified butter {nei) before it is sold ; it may
not be drunk by the profane in its original form as it
came from the cow.^ From all this it appears that any
1 Major J. A. Meldon, " Notes on p. 108.
the Bahima of AnVole," Journal of the
African Society, '^o. 22 (January 1907), '■'■ W. E. Marshall, Travels atnongst
p. 142, " In the old days before rupees the Todas (London, 1S73), p. 145.
and kauri-shells were introduced, butter On the other hand, it is said that the
was a common currency, but they could village dairyman {varshaly, wursol),
not sell the milk itself for fear that it who does not rank with the most holy
might be drunk by some one who was dairj-man {palaul, palol), is not allowed
forbidden to drink it." The conse- to taste milk during his period of
quence of the milk being drunk by office, but may help himself to as much
such a person is supposed to be injurious clarified butter (ghee) as he likes. See
to the cattle, as the writer explains in F. Metz, The Tribes inhabiting the
the same passage. ' Neilgherry Hills (Mangalore, 1S64),
2 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, p. 37.
ISO
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
Objection
of pastoral
tribes to
allowing
milk to
come into
contact
with flesh,
because
such
contact is
believed to
injure the
cows.
process which converts milk into another substance, such
as curds, butter, or cheese, may be regarded, though
it need not necessarily be regarded, as snapping, or at
all ev^ents weakening, the link which binds the milk to
the cow, and, therefore, as enabling the milk in its new
form to be used by the profane without injury to the
cattle.-^ Among tribes which hold such views the opera-
tions of the dairy aim, so to say, at disenchanting the
milk for the benefit of the cow, at breaking the tie which
binds the two together, lest it should drag the animal down
to death.
The theory that a cow remains in direct physical sym-
pathy with h6r milk, even after she has parted with it, is
carried out by some pastoral tribes to the length of for-
bidding the milk to be brought into contact either with
flesh or with vegetables, because any such contact is believed
to injure the cow from which the milk was drawn. Thus
the Masai are at the utmost pains to keep milk from touch-
ing flesh, because it is a general opinion among them that
such contact would set up a disease in the udders of the
cow which had yielded the milk, and that no more milk
could be extracted from the animal. Hence they can
seldom be induced, and then only most reluctantly, to sell
their milk, lest the purchaser should make their cows ill by
allowing it to touch flesh. For the same reason they will
not suffer milk to be kept in a pot in which flesh has been
cooked, nor flesh to be put in a vessel which has contained
milk, and consequently they have two different sets of pots
set apart for the two purposes.^ The belief and practice of
the Bahima are similar. Once when a German officer,
encamped in their country, offered them one of his cooking-
pots in exchange for one of their milk-pots, they refused to
Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), pp.
1 Wlien the Wanyamwesi are about
to convert milk into butter, they mix
it with the urine of cows or of human
beings. The reason they gave to
Stuhlmann for this practice was that it
made the butter more saleable ; but he
believed, probably with justice, that
the real motive was a fear that the
cows would lose their milk if this pro-
cedure were not followed. See F.
Stuhlmann, Mit Eniin Pascha ins
2 M. Marker, Die Masai (Berlin,
1904), p. 33 ; Max Weiss, Die Vdlke?--
stdmme im Norde7i Detitsch-Ostajrikas
(BerHn, 1910), p. 380; Paul Reichard,
Deutsch'Ostafrika (Leipsic, 1892), p.
288. The last of these writers does
not ifiention the reason for the pro
hibition.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
i?i
accept it, alleging that if milk were poured into a pot in
which flesh had been boiled, the cow that had yielded the
milk would die.^
But it is not merely in a pot that milk and flesh may Rule of
not come into contact with each other ; they may not meet l^'j^besTn
in a man's stomach, because contact there would be equally Africa that
dangerous to the cow whose milk was thus contaminated. mlL may
Hence pastoral tribes who subsist on the milk and flesh of "ot be
their cattle are careful not to eat beef and milk at the same TheTame
time ; they allow a considerable interval to elapse between *'"'^-
a meal of beef and a meal of milk, and they sometimes even
employ an emetic or purgative in order to clear their
stomach entirely of the one food before it receives the other.
For example, " the food of the Masai consists exclusively The rule
of meat and milk : for the warriors cow's milk, while goat's f"^°"S ^^
^ Masai.
milk is drunk by the women. It is considered a great •
offence to partake of milk (which is never allowed to be
boiled) and meat at the same time, so that for ten days
the Masai lives exclusively on milk, and then ten days solely
on meat To such an extent is this aversion to bringing
these two things into contact entertained, that before a
change is made from the one kind of food to the other, a
Masai takes an emetic." ^ These rules of diet are par-
ticularly incumbent on Masai warriors. Their practice is
to eat nothing but milk and honey for twelve or fifteen
days, and then nothing but meat and honey for twelve or
fifteen days more. But before they pass from the one diet
to the other they take a strong purgative, consisting of blood
mixed with milk, which is said to produce vomiting as well
as purging, in order to make sure that no vestige of the
previous food remains in their stomachs ; so scrupulous are
they not to bring milk into contact with flesh or blood.
And we are expressly told that they do this, not out of
regard to their own health, but out of regard to their cattle,
because they believe that the cows would yield less milk
if they omitted to observe the precaution. If, contrarj- to
1 M. Weiss. " Land und Leute von p. 46.
Mpororo (Nordwestecke von Doutsch- ^ " Dr. Fischer's Journey in the
Ostafrika)," Globus, xci. (1907) p. Masai Country," Proceedings of the
157 ; id.. Die Volkerstdmtne im N^or- Koyal Geographical Society, New
den Dentsch-Ostafrikas (Berlin, 19 10), Monthly Series, vi. (1884) p. 80.
152
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
custom, a Masai should be tempted to eat beef and drink
milk on the same day, he endeavours to avert the ill con-
sequences of the act by tickling his throat with a stalk of
grass so as to produce vomiting before he passes from the
The rule One article of diet to the other.^ Similarly the Washamba
among the _ ^^ German East Africa never drink milk and eat meat at
Washamba
the same meal ; they believe that if they did so, it would
infallibly cause the death of the cow from which the milk
was obtained. Hence many of them are unwilling to dis-
pose of the milk of their cows to Europeans, for fear that
the ignorant or thoughtless purchaser might kill the animals
The rule by mixing their milk with flesh meat in his stomach.^ Again,
BThtaa*^ the Bahima are a pastoral people and live chiefly on the
milk of their cattle, but chiefs and wealthy men add beef to
their milk diet. But " beef or other flesh is eaten in the
evening only, and beer is drunk afterwards. They do not
eat any kind of vegetable food with the beef, and milk is
avoided for some hours : usually the night intervenes after
a meal of beef and beer before milk is again drunk. There
is a firm belief that the cows would sicken should rrjilk and
^ Joseph Thomson, Through Masai
Land (London, 1885), pp. 429-431 ;
(Sir) H. H. Johnston, " The People of
Eastern Equatorial Africa," Journal
of the Anthropological Institute, xv,
(1886) p. 15 ; Paul Reichard, Deutsch-
Ostafrika (Leipsic, 1892), pp. 287 sq. ;
Oscar Baumann, Durch Massailand
zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), pp. 16 1
sq. ; M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin,
1904), p. 33 ; Max Weiss, Die Volker-
stdmme im Nor den Deutsch-Ostafrikas
(Berlin, 1910), p. 380. Baumann
and Merker give a rationalistic ex-
planation of the rule not to eat boiled
flesh and milk on the same day. They
say that the Masai always cook flesh
with the seasoning of a certain acacia
bark called mokota (Albizzia atithel-
mintica), which, taken with milk,
causes severe diarrhoea or dysentery,
and that the observation of this effect
is the reason why the Masai do not
partake of flesh and milk together.
But that this is not the true explana-
tion of the custom is strongly suggested
by (i) Merker's own statements, on
the same page, that the Masai "avoid
most carefully bringing milk into con-
tact with flesh, because according to
the universal opinion the udder of the
cow which yielded the milk would
thereby be rendered permanently dis-
eased," and that " if a man has eaten
boiled flesh one day, he drinks some
blood next morning before drinking
milk, not on considerations of health,
but because he believes that were this
custom not observed the cattle would
give less milk " ; (2) the fact that the
same rule is observed by other tribes
who are not said to use the mokota
bark, and with regard to some of
whom (the Banyoro, Bahima, and
Washamba) it is expressly affirmed
that they believe the mixture of meat
and milk in the stomach to be injurious
to the cattle. Hence we^iay con-
fidently conclude that the same belief
is the motive of the same custom with
the Masai and with all the other
pastoral tribes of Africa who observe
the rule.
2 A. Karasek, " Beitrage zur Kennt-
nis der Waschambaa," Baessler-Archiv,
iii. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) p. 102.
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 153
meat or vegetable meet in the stomach." ^ So, too, the
pastoral Banyoro abstain from drinking milk for about
twelve hours after a meal of meat and beer ; they say that
such a period of abstinence is necessary, because " food
eaten indiscriminately will cause sickness among the cattle." ^
Among the Nandi of British East Africa " meat and milk The luie
may not be taken together. If milk is drunk, no meat may ^°^f *'^*'
be eaten for twenty-four hours. Boiled meat in soup must
be eaten first, after which roast meat may be taken. When
meat has been eaten, no milk may be drunk for twelve
hours, and then only after some salt and water has been
swallowed. If no salt, which is obtained from the salt-licks,
is near at hand, blood may be drunk instead. An exception
to this rule is made in the case of small children, boys and
girls who have recently been circumcised, women who have
a short while before given birth to a child, and very sick
people. These may eat meat and drink milk at the same
time, and are called pitorik. If anybody else breaks the
rule he is soundly flogged." ^ Among the pastoral Suk of The rule
British East Africa it is forbidden to partake of milk and ^^°"S the
meat on the same day.* Although no reason is assigned
for the prohibition by the writers who report the Suk and
Nandi rules on this subject, the analogy of the preceding
tribes allows us to assume, with great probability, that among
the Suk and Nandi also the motive for interdicting the
simultaneous consumption of meat and milk is a fear that
the contact of the two substances in the stomach of the
consumer might be injurious, if not fatal, to the cows.
Similar, though somewhat less stringent, rules as to the Rule of the
separation of fles'h and milk are observed by the Israelites fjeshand'
to this day. A Jew who has eaten flesh or broth ought milk may
not to taste cheese or anything made of milk for an hour ^^^^ at
afterwards ; strait-laced people extend the period of abstin- t^e same
ence to six hours. Moreover, flesh and milk are carefully
kept apart. There are separate sets of vessels for them,
each bearing a special mark, and a vessel used to hold milk
1 John Roscoe, T/ieJVor^Aern Ban/i(, 1909), p. 24.
p. loS.
2 John Roscoe, TheNorthern Bantu, < Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk,
pp. 64, 67, 71, their language and Folklore (Oxford,
'3 A. C. HoUis, The Nandi {Oxford, 191 1), p. 9.
154 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
may not be used to hold flesh. Two sets of knives are also
kept, one for cutting flesh, the other for cutting cheese and
fish. Moreover, flesh and milk are not cooked in the oven
together nor placed on the table at the same time ; even the
table-cloths on which they are set ought to be different.
If a family is too poor to have two table-cloths, they should
at least wash their solitary table-cloth before putting milk
on it after meat.^ These rules, on which Rabbinical subtlety
has embroidered a variety of fine distinctions, are professedly
derived from the commandment not to seethe a kid in its
mother's milk ; and in view of all the evidence collected in
this chapter we can hardly doubt that the rules and the
commandment in question do belong together as parts of a
common inheritance transmitted to the Jews from a time
when their forefathers were nomadic herdsmen subsisting
mainly on the milk of their cattle, and as afraid of diminish-
ing the supply of it as are the pastoral tribes of Africa at
the present day.
Rule of But the contamination of milk with meat is not the only
utbe'sTn danger against which the pastoral tribes of Africa, in the
Africa that interest of their cattle, seek to guard themselves by rules of
and^miiiT ^'^^^- They are equally solicitous not to suffer milk to be
may not be contaminated by vegetables ; hence they abstain from drink-
the same i^g milk and eating vegetables at the same time, because
time. they believe that the mixture of the two things in their
among the stomachs would somehow be harmful to the herd. Thus
Bahima. among the pastoral Bahima, of Ankole, " various kinds of
vegetables, such as peas, beans, and sweet potatoes, may
not be eaten by any member of the clans unless he fasts
from milk for some hours after a meal of vegetables. Should
a man be forced by hunger to eat vegetables, he must fast
some time after eating them ; by preference he will eat
plantains, but even then he must fast ten or twelve hours
before he again drinks milk. To drink milk while vegetable
food is still in the stomach is believed to endanger the
health of the cows." ^ So the Bairo of Ankole, " who eat
sweet potatoes and ground-nuts, are not allowed to drink
1 J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica iv. cap. ii. pp. 25 sq.
(Bale, 1661), pp. 594-6; J. C. G. ^ ]o\\n'KoscoQ, The A^orlkern Bantu,
Bodtn%cha.iz,Kirchltcke Verfassung der p. 137; compare id., p. 1 08 (quoted
heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), Theil above, pp. 152 .f^.).
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 155
milk, as it would then injure the cattle."^ When Speke
was travelling through the country of the Bahima or
Wahuma, as he calls them, he experienced the incon-
venience of this scruple ; for though cattle were plentiful,
the people " could not sell their milk to us because we ate
fowls, and a bean called maharagiie" " Since we had entered
Karagu6 we never could get one drop of milk either for love
or for money, and I wished to know what motive the Wahuma
had for withholding it. We had heard they held superstitious
dreads ; that any one who ate the flesh of pigs, fish, or fowls,
or the bean called maharaguey if he tasted the products of
their cows, would destroy their cattle." Questioned by
Speke, the king of the country replied that "it was only
the poor who thought so ; and as he now saw we were in
want, he would set apart one of his cows expressly for
our use." ^ Among the Banyoro " the middle classes The rule
who keep cows and also cultivate are most careful in ^^^^^^^'
their diet not to eat vegetables and to drink milk near
together. Persons who drink milk in the morning do
not eat other food until the evening, and those who
drink milk in the evening eat no vegetables until the
next day. Sweet potatoes and beans are the vegetables
they avoid most of all, and each person, after eating such
food, is careful to abstain from drinking milk for a period of
two days. This precaution is taken to prevent milk from
coming into contact with either meat or vegetables in the
stomach ; it is believed that food eaten indiscriminately will
cause sickness among the cattle." ^ Hence in this tribe " no
stranger is offered milk when visiting a kraal, because he
may have previously eaten some kind of food which they
consider would be harmful to the herd, should he drink milk
without a fast to clear his system of vegetable food ; their
hospitality is shown by giving the visitor some other food
such as beef and beer, which will prepare him for a meal of
milk on the following morning. Should there be insufficient
milk to supply the needs of the men in the kraal, some of
1 Major J. A. Meldon, "Notes on covery of the Source of the Nile (London,
the Bahima of Ankole," Journal of 1912), chapters vii. and viii. pp. 14S,
the African Society, No. 22 (January 169 {Everyman'' s Library).
1907), p. 142. ^ iohnRoicot, The A'orthern Bantu,
2 J. II. Speke, y(?«;-«a/ of the Dis- pp. 70 sq.
156 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
them will be given vegetables in the evening and fast until
the following morning. Should there be no plantains and
the people be reduced to eating sweet potatoes, it will be
necessary to abstain from milk for two days after eating
them, until the system is quite clear, before they may again
drink milk."^ Indeed in this tribe vegetable food is entirely
forbidden to herdsmen, because " it is said to be dangerous
to the health of the herd for them to partake of such food." ^
Coming as he does perpetually into contact with the herd,
the herdsman is clearly much more liable than ordinary folk
to endanger the health of the animals by the miscellaneous
contents of his stomach ; common prudence, therefore,
appears to dictate the rule which cuts him off entirely from
a vegetarian diet.
The rule Among the Baganda " no person was allowed to eat
vegetables beaus or sugar-cane, or to drink beer, or to smoke Indian
and milk hemp, and at the same time to drink milk ; the person who
^ten°at ^ drank milk fasted for several hours before he might eat or
the same drink the tabooed foods, and he might not drink milk for a
among the similar period after partaking of such food." ^ Among the
Baganda, gy]^ ^^y uj^j^ ^\^q chcws raw millet is forbidden to drink
Masai. milk for seven days.* No doubt, though this is not stated,
in both tribes the prohibition is based on the deleterious
influence which a mixed diet of the people is supposed to
exercise on their cattle. Similarly among the Masai, who
are so solicitous for the welfare of their cattle and so con-
vinced of the sufferings inflicted on the animals by boiling
milk or drinking it with meat,^ warriors are strictly pro-
hibited from partaking of vegetables at all. A Masai
soldier would rather die of hunger than eat them ; merely
to offer them to him is the deepest insult ; should he so far
forget himself as to taste the forbidden food, he would be
degraded, no woman would have him for her husband.^
Pastoral peoples who believe that the eating of vege-
1 ]ohxv'Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, 191 1), p- 9-
p. 67. ^ Above, pp. 120, 151 sq.
2 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, ^ Joseph Thomson, Through Masai
p. 64. Land (London, 1885), p. 430 ; Paul
3 John Roscoe, The Baganda, p. Reichard, Deutsch-Ostafrika (Leipsic,
418. 1892), p. 288 ; Oscar Baumann, Durch
* Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk, Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin,
their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1894), p. 161.
CHAP. 11 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN AIITK 157
table food may imperil the prime source of their subsistence Pastoral
by diminishing or stopping the supply of milk are not likely di'scourare
to encourage the practice of agriculture ; accordingly it is agriculture
not surprising to learn that "in Bunyoro cultivation is of injuring
avoided by the pastoral people : it is said to be harmful for their cattle.
a wife of a man belonging to a pastoral clan to till the
land as, by doing so, she may injure the cattle." ^ Among
the pastoral clans of that country " women do no work
beyond churning and washing milk-pots. Manual work
has always been regarded as degrading, and cultivation of
the ground as positively injurious to their cattle." " Even
among the Baganda, who, while they keep cattle, are
diligent tillers of the soil, a woman might not cultivate her
garden during the first four days after one of her husband's
cows had been delivered of a calf ; ^ and though the reason
of the prohibition is not mentioned, we may, in the light of
the foregoing evidence, surmise that the motive fbr this
compulsory abstinence from agricultural labour was a fear
lest, by engaging in it at such a time, the woman should
endanger the health or even the life of the new-born calf
and its dam.
Moreover, some pastoral tribes abstain from eating Some
certain wild animals on the ground, expressed or implied,- "^^^^^^
that if they ate of the flesh of such creatures, their cattle abstain
would be injured thereby. For example, among the Suk the"flesh'of
of British East Africa " there certainly used to be a supersti- certain
tion that to eat the flesh of a certain forest pig called kip- animals
torainy would cause the cattle of the man who partook of ^"^^.^ ^^
• 1 1 • 1 domg so
it to run dry, but since the descent mto the plams, where they should
the pig does not exist, it remains as a tradition only." * '"J^f^ *'^"'"
. ... . . cattle.
And in the same tribe it is believed that " if a rich man
eats fish, the milk of his cows will dry up." ^ Among the
Nandi " certain animals may not be eaten if it is possible to
obtain other food. These are waterbuck, zebra,, elephant,
rhinoceros, Senegal hartebeest, and the common and blue
duiker. If a Nandi eats the meat of any of these animals,
1 ]ohr\Yio?,coe, The Northern Ba7itu, 418.
p. 68. * Mervyn \V. II. Beech, The Stik,
2 John Roscoe, The ■ Northern their Language and Folklore (Oxford,
Bantu, p. 41. 191 1). P- 10.
3 John Roscoe, The Baganda, p. ^ ]VIcr\7n W. II. Beech, l.c.
158 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
he may not drink milk for at least four months afterwards,
and then only after he has purified himself by taking a
strong purge made from the scgetet tree, mixed with blood."
Only one Nandi clan, the Kipasiso, is so far exempt from
this restriction that members of it are free to drink milk
the day after they have eaten game. Among the animals
which, under certain limitations, the Nandi are allowed to
eat, the waterbuck is considered an unclean animal ; it is
often alluded to by a name (ckemakimwd) which means " the
animal which may not be talked about." And among wild
fowl the francolin or spur-fowl is viewed with much the same
disfavour as the waterbuck ; its flesh may indeed be eaten,
but the eater is forbidden to drink milk for several months
afterwards.^ The reasons for these restrictions are not
mentioned, but in the light of the foregoing evidence we
may assume with some confidence that the abstinence from
milk for months after eating certain wild animals or birds
is dictated by a fear of harming the cows through bringing
their milk into contact with game in the stomach of the
eater. The same fear may underlie the rule observed by
the Wataturu of East Africa, that a man who has eaten the
flesh of a certain antelope (called povu in Swahili) may not
drink milk on the same day.^
The Further, it may be worth while to consider whether the
pastoral aversion, which some pastoral tribes entertain to the eating
tribes to of ^me in general, may not spring from the same supersti-
of game in tious dread of injuring the cattle by contaminating their
general u\\\k with the flesh of wild animals in the process of digestion.
may be due ,,,,..,. . ,
to a fear of For example, the Masai m their native state are a purely
thS'cfttie pastoral people, living wholly on the flesh, blood, and milk of
by con- their cattle,^ and they are said to despise every sort of game,
taminating
their milk i A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (London, sole possessions ; and upon it they are
with the 1909), pp. 24, 25. entirely dependent, since it forms their
flesh of 2 Oscar Baumann, Dtirch Massai- staple food. They do not touch fish,
r^!l.„i. :„ ^^'^^ ^"'' I^^l^tielle (Berlin, 1894), P- birds, reptiles, or insects, and live
171. wholly upon the meat of their cattle,
3 S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, The together with the blood of their flocks
Last of the Masai (London, 1901), p. — which they are in the habit of drink-
77, •" The Masai are a nomadic race, ing — and milk. In times of famine,
wandering over hundreds of miles of grain and flour are occasionally ob-
country in search of pasturage for their tained by their women from the Waki-
flocks and herds. Apart from their kuyu, but these form no part of their
weapons, this live-stock represents their ordinary diet."
animals
the
stomachs
of the
eaters.
CHAP. 11 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 159
including fish and fowl.^ " The Masai," we are told, " ate
the flesh of no wild animals when in olden days they all
had cattle ; but some of those who have lost all their cattle
are now beginning to eat venison." ^ As they did not eat
game, and only hunted such fierce carnivorous beasts as preyed
on their cattle, the herds of wild graminivorous animals grew
extraordinarily tame all over the Masai country, and it was
no uncommon sight to see antelopes, zebras, and gazelles
grazing peacefully, without a sign of fear, among the domestic
cattle near the Masai kraals.^ Yet while in general the Particular
Masai neither hunted nor ate wild animals, they made two ^^jf^'^^ °
exceptions to the rule, and these exceptions are significant, animals are
" The eland," we are told, " is one of the few game animals ^he°Masai^
hunted by the Masai. It is driven, and then run down and and
^ 1 ii-R/r-i -ni Bahima to
speared. Strangely enough, the Masai also eat its flesh, be eaten,
since it is considered by them to be a species of cow." ■* because
Another wild animal which the Masai both hunted and ate thought
was the buffalo, which they valued both for its hide and its J^^^J'f "'^'^
flesh ; but we are informed that " the buffalo is not re-
garded as game by the Masai." ^ Probably they regard the
buffalo, like the eland, but with much better reason, as a
species of cow ; and if that is so, the reason why they kill
and eat buffaloes and elands is the same, namely, a belief
that these animals do not differ essentially from cattle, and
that they may therefore be lawfully killed and eaten by
cattle-breeders. The practical conclusion is probably sound,
though the system of zoology from which it is deduced
leaves something to be desired. The Bahima, another
pastoral tribe, who subsist chiefly on the milk of their cattle,
have adopted similar rules of diet based on a similar classi-
fication of the animal kingdom ; for we learn that " there
are a few kinds of wild animals they will eat, though these
are limited to such as they consider related to cows, for
1 M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, V^^eiss, Die Volkerstdmme im Norden
1904), pp. 33 sq.; Max Weiss, Die Deutsch-Ostafrikas, p. 354.
Volkerstdmme im Norden Deutsch- * S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, The
Ostafrikas (Berlin, 1 910), p. 380. Last of the Masai, pp. 84 sq.
2 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Ox- « S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, The
ford, 1905), p. 319. Last of the Masai, p. 84. According
3 S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, The to these writers (p. 120) the buffalo
Last of the Masai, pp. 84, 1 20 ; M. and the eland are the only two game
Merker, Die Masai, p. 1 70; Max animals which the Masai eat.
i6o
NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK
The
Hebrew
distinction
of clean
and
unclean
animals is
perhaps
based on a
classifica-
tion of
animals
according
as they
resemble
or differ
from
domestic
cattle.
example buffalo and one or two kinds of antelope, water-
buck, and hartebeest." ^ On the other hand, " the meat of
goats, sheep, fowls, and all kinds of fish is deemed bad
and is absolutely forbidden to any member of the tribe," "
apparently because these creatures cannot, on the most
liberal interpretation of the bovine genus, be regarded as
species of cows. Hence, being allowed to eat but few wild
animals, the pastoral Bahima pay little attention to the
chase, though they hunt down beasts of prey whenever these
become troublesome ; " other game is left almost entirely
to men of agricultural clans who keep a few dogs and hunt
game for food," ^ Similarly the flesh of most wild animals
is forbidden to the pastoral clans of the Banyoro, and
accordingly members of these clans hardly engage in hunt-
ing, except when it becomes necessary to attack and kill
the lions and leopards which prey on the herds ; " hunting
is therefore in the main limited to members of agricultural
clans and is engaged in by them for the sake of meat." ^
In all such cases it may well be that the aversion of
pastoral tribes to the eating of game is derived from a
belief that cows are directly injured whenever their milk
comes into contact with the flesh of wild animals in the
stomachs of the tribesmen, and that the consequent danger
to the cattle can only be averted, either by abstaining
from gfc.me altogether, or at all events by leaving a sufficient
interval between the consumption of game and the con-
sumption of milk to allow of the stomach being completely
cleared of the one food before it receives the other. The
remarkable exceptions which some of these tribes make to
the general rule, by permitting the consumption of wild
animals that bear a more or less distant resemblance to
cattle, suggests a comparison with the ancient Hebrew dis-
tinction of clean and unclean animals. Can it be that the
distinction in question originated in the rudimentary zoology
of a pastoral people, who divided the whole animal kingdom
into creatures which resembled, and creatures which differed
from, their own domestic cattle, and on the basis of that
1 John Roscoe, The Noj-thern Bantu,
p. 1 08.
2 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu,
p- 137-
3 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantt4,
p. 138.
* John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu,
p. 85.
cHAi'. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK i6i
fundamental classification laid down a law of capital im-
portance, that the first of these classes might be eaten and
that the second might not ? The actual law of clean and
unclean animals, as it is set forth in the Pentateuch, is
probably too complex to admit of resolution info elements
so simple and so few ; yet its leading principle is curiously
reminiscent of the practice of some African tribes which we
have been discussing : " These are the beasts which ye shall
eat : the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the
gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg,
and the antelope, and the chamois. And every beast that
parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof cloven in two, and
cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat."^
Here the test of an animal's fitness to serve as human food
is its zoological affinity to domestic ruminants, and judged
by that test various species of deer and antelopes are,
correctly enough, included among the edible animals, exactly
as the Masai and Bahima, on similar grounds, include various
kinds of antelopes within their dietary. However, the
Hebrew scale of diet is a good deal more liberal than that
of the Masai, and even if it originated, as seems possible, in
a purely pastoral state, it has probably been expanded by
successive additions to meet the needs and tastes of an
agricultural people.
Thus far I have attempted to trace certain analogies The
between Hebrew and African usages in respect to the boil- ^s[]^^'s -^^
ing of milk, the regulation of a mixed diet of milk and flesh, regard to
and the distinction drawn between animals as clean and ^flesh'diet
unclean, or edible and inedible. If these analogies are well probably
founded, they tend to prove that the Hebrew usages in all °rtfhe^*^
these matters took their rise in the pastoral stage of society, pastoral
si3£rc of
and accordingly they confirm the native tradition of the society.
Israelites that their ancestors were nomadic herdsmen,
roaming with their flocks and herds from pasture to pasture,
for many ages before their descendants, swarming across the
fords of the Jordan from the grassy uplands of Moab,
settled down to the stationary life of husbandmen and vine-
dressers in the fat land of Palestine.
The general purport of all the rules we have considered
' Deuteronomy xiv. 4-6 ; compare Leviticus xi. 2 sq.
VOL. Ill M
1 62 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
The rules in this chapter appears to be the protection of cattle, and
by^pastorai more especially of cows, against the harm which, on the
tribes in principles of sympathetic magic, may be done them by the
thf^*^ *° abuse or misapplication of their milk, whether that abuse
drinking consists in the boiling of the milk, in the bringing of it into
seem contact with alien substances, or in the drinking of it by
intended, persons whose condition is supposed to be, for one reason
on the ^ .
principle of or another, fraught with danger to the herds. The rules
sympath- ^^^ dictated by a regard for the health not of man but of
etic magic, / °
for the beast ; they aim at safeguarding the cow which yields the
?rt°tfe°^'^^ milk, not the person who drinks it. Indirectly, no doubt,
rather than they are believed to benefit the owners of the cows, who
peopkwho depend for their subsistence on the products of the herd,
drink the and who ncccssarily gain by the welfare and lose by the
deterioration of the animals. Yet primarily it is the cows,
and not the people, who are the immediate object of the
lawgiver's solicitude, if we may speak of a lawgiver among
tribes where immemorial custom takes the place of statutory
legislation. Hence we may surmise that the elaborate
ritual with which, for example, the Todas of southern India
have fenced the operations of the dairy ^ was originally
designed in like manner for the protection of the cows
rather than of their owners ; the intention, if I am right,
was not so much to remove a taboo from a sacred fluid for
the benefit of the people ^ as to impose a series of restric-
tions on the people for the benefit of the cattle. The aim of
the ritual was, in short, to ensure that the herds should not
be injured sympathetically through an abuse of their milk,
particularly through the drinking of it by improper persons.
That the Todas believe such injury to be possible appears
1 See Captain Henry Harkness, W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (London,
Description of a Singular Aboriginal 1906), pp. 38-248. The domestic
Race inhabiting the Neilgherry cattle of the Todas are buflfaloes, not
Hills (London, 1832), pp. 14, 16, 20 oxen.
sqq., 62 sqq.; F. Metz, The Tribes ^ As Dr. W. H. R. Rivers appears
inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, Second to think ("It seems most probable that
Edition (Man<;alore, 1864), pp. 17, 19 the elaborate ritual has grown up as a
sqq., 29 sq.y 35 sqq.;]. W. Breaks, An means of counteracting the dangers
Account of the Primitive Iribes and likely to be incurred by this profana-
Monuments of the Nilagiris (London, tion of the sacred substance, or, in
1873), pp. 8 sq., 13 sq.% W. E. other words, as a means of removing
Marshall, Travels among the Todas a taboo which prohibits the general
(London, 1873), pp. 128 sqq,, 135 use of the substance," The Todas, p.
sqq., 141 sqq., 153 sqq.; and especially 231).
CHAP. II NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK 163
from a remark made by a Toda to a missionary. Having
ascertained the names of the Toda deities, the missionary
was cited to appear before a headman to explain how he
had come by the information. " I told him," writes the
missionary, " that as he had no authority to judge me, I
should not answer his question, to which he replied : that I
had been drinking the milk of their buffaloes, on which
account many of them would die." ^ This answer seems to
imply that the milk of the buffaloes, even after it had been
drawn from the cows, remained in such a sympathetic rela-
tion with the animals that the mere drinking of it by a
stranger might cause their death. The implication agrees
with the express belief of pastoral tribes in Africa.
Surveyed as a whole the evidence which we have passed Rites in
in review suggests that many rites which have hitherto been ^l^^^^^
interpreted as a worship of cattle may have been in origin, wWch were
if not always, nothing but a series of precautions, based on magical in
the theory of sympathetic magic, for the protection of the intention
herds from the dangers that would threaten them through afterwards
an indiscriminate use of their milk by everybody, whether come to be
regarded as
clean or unclean, whether friend or foe. The savage who religious,
believes that he himself can be magically injured through ^"'^ ^^"'^^
''■'■' ^ may merge
the secretions of his body naturally applies the same theory in a
to his cattle and takes the same sort of steps to safeguard ^jjjjjg'^ °^
them as to safeguard himself. If this view is right, the
superstitious restrictions imposed on the use of milk which
have come before us are analogous to the superstitious
precautions which the savage adopts with regard to the
disposal of his shorn hair, clipped nails, and other severed
parts of his person. In their essence they are not religious
but magical. Yet in time such taboos might easily receive
a religious interpretation and merge into a true worship of
cattle. For while the logical distinction between magic and
religion is sharp as a knife-edge, there is no such acute and
rigid line of cleavage between them historically. With the
vagueness characteristic of primitive thought the two are
constantly fusing with each other, like two streams, one of
blue and one of yellow water, which meet and blend into a
I T. Metz, The Tribes inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, Second Edition
(Mangalore, 1864), p. 43.
I64 NOT TO SEETHE A KID IN MILK part iv
river that is neither wholly yellow nor wholly blue. But
the historical confusion of magic and religion no more dis-
penses the philosophic student of human thought from the
need of resolving the compound into its constituent parts
than the occurrence of most chemical elements in com-
bination dispenses the analytical chemist from the need of
separating and distinguishing them. The mind has its
chemistry as well as the body. Its elements may be more
subtle and mercurial, yet even here a fine instrument will
.seize and mark distinctions which might elude a coarser
handling.
CHAPTER Til
BORING A servant's EAR
The ancient Hebrew law enacted that when a purchased Hebrew
Hebrew slave had served his master for six years, he should borin'^thl
be set free in the seventh year; but if the slave refused to ear of a
accept his liberty because he loved his master and his master's si^v'f ^ho
house, then it was provided that his master should take an refused to
awl and thrust it through the slave's ear into the door, after ffter^
which the slave should serve him for ever.^ Such is the serving his
provision made for cases of this sort in Deuteronomy. In six years.
the early code known as the Book of the Covenant, which
is preserved in the Book of Exodus,^ a similar provision is
made in somewhat different terms as follows : " But if the
servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and
my children ; I will not go out free : then his master shall
bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or
unto the door-post ; and his master shall bore his ear
through with an awl ; and he shall serve him for ever." ^
In this latter and probably older form of the ordinance
several points remain obscure or doubtful. Was the
ceremony of boring the slave's ear to be performed at a
sanctuary or in the master's house ? On this question
the commentators are divided. Some hold that the cere-
mony took place at a sanctuary ;*■ others are of opinion
that it was performed at the door of the master's house.^
' Deuteronomy xv. 12-17. commentary on Deuteronomy (in The
• Exodus XX. 22-xxiii. 33. Century Bible) ; and J. Estlin Car-
^ Exodus xxi. 5 sq. penter and G. Harford-Battersby {The
* So Aug. Dillmann and A. H. Hexateuch, London, 1900, i. 55 sq.).
McNeile in their commentaries on ^ SqW. H. Bennett and S. R. Driver
Exodus ; H. Wheeler Robinson in his in their commentaries on Exodus.
165
1 66
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
meaning of
the custom
uncertain.
The
custom of
piercing
ears and
wearing
ear-rings in
antiquity.
Again, while in Deuteronomy it is clearly enacted that
the servant's ear is to be pinned to the door by the awl,
in Exodus it is merely provided that the ear is to be
pierced with an awl at the door or ^door-post, whether
of a sanctuary or of the master's house, but it is not
declared, though it may be implied, that the ear is to be
fastened or nailed to the door or door-post by means of
the awl.
The exact meaning of the ceremony also remains obscure
in spite of the efforts of the commentators to elucidate it.
Its general purport appears to be rightly given by Driver :
" The ear, as the organ of hearing, is naturally that of obedi-
ence as well ; and its attachment to the door of the house
would signify the perpetual attachment of the slave to that
particular household," ^ It is little to the purpose to com-
pare an enactment in the ancient Babylonian code of Ham-
murabi : " If a slave has said to his master, * You are not
my master,' he shall be brought to account as his slave, and
his master shall cut off his ear," ^ for this mutilation need not
necessarily have any reference to the ear as an organ of hear-
ing and obedience ; it may be merely a form of punishment
and a brand of infamy, as it continued to be in English law
down to the seventeenth century.^ Again, the commentators
point out that the piercing of the ears and the wearing of
ear-rings were common practices with men as well as women
among Oriental peoples in antiquity ; ^ for example, we know
that the custom prevailed among the Syrians,^ Arabs,^ Meso-
1 S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus
(Cambridge, 191 1), p. 211.
2 C. H. W. Johns, Babylonian and
Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters
(Edinburgh, 1904), p. 67, § 282 of
Hammurabi's code.
^ In the reign of Charles the First
the lawyer Prynne and the Scottish
divine Leighton were condemned by
the Star Chamber to lose their ears for
the supposed pernicious tendency of
their published writings. See H.
Hallam, Constitutional History of Eng-
land, ch, viii. vol. ii. pp. 37 sq. (Lon-
don, 1876).
* Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 136, " /«
Oriente quidem et vins aunini eo loco
[soil. auribus'\ gestare decus existi-
matur." As to the custom see J. E. B.
Mayor's note on Juvenal, Sat. i. 104 ;
G. B. Winer, Biblisches Realworter-
buch^ (Leipsic, 1833-1838), ii. 205
sq., s.v. " Ohrringe " ; A. Knobel,
quoted by Aug. Dillmann, Die Biicker
Exodus nnd Leviticus (Leipsic, 1880),
p. 227.
^ Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhon. iii.
203, p. 169 ed. Im. Bekker, to re
al(JX9^v iffTi, wapfvioLS bk tu>v ^ap^dpuv,
wa-rrep Kal ^ijpois, evyeveias earl avvdiqixa.
6 Petronius, Sat. 102, p. 70 ed. F.
Buecheler (Berlin, 1882), '' Pertunde
aures, ut imitemur Arabes."
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 167
potamians,^ Carthaginians," Libyans,^ Mauretanians,* Lydians/
Persians,'^ and Indians.^ But there is no evidence that among
any of these peoples the piercing of the ears and the wearing
of ear-rings was a badge of servitude ; on the contrary in
some of these races, particularly the Syrians, Persians, and
Indians, such trinkets appear to have been regarded as marks
of honour and good birth.^ Hence they can hardly throw
light on the Hebrew custom with which we are here con-
cerned, the less so because neither in Exodus nor in Deutero-
nomy is anything said about inserting ear-rings in the slave's
ears ; all that is laid down is, that his ear should be pierced
with an awl.
If the nailing of the slave's ear to the door of his master's Ear-boring
house was not, as it may have been, merely a symbolic act P""^^^"^^*^
emblematic of that attachment and devotion to his master's super-
service which the ceremony was designed to secure, it is ^ot^yeg
possible that superstition may have co-operated in some way
to strengthen the link between the two men. How it may
have done so remains obscure, but there are some cases of
ear-boring in which a superstitious motive appears to play
a part, and which may perhaps throw some light on the
Hebrew custom. Thus among the Gamants, a religious and Ears of
perhaps Jewish sect in Abyssinia and Shoa, when a woman ^1°^^^^^
has given birth to her first child, she bores the lobes of her after birth
of her first
1 Juvenal, Sat. i. 104 sq., '' Natus 6 Agathias, Hist. iii. 28, 'E\\6/3ia child.
ad Euphraten, molles quod in aure . . . ottoIols oi ivTifxarepoi tQv MtjScoi'
fenestras \^arguerint.'" ivayXai^ovrai (where " Medes " means
2 Plautus, Poetmlus, v. 2. 21, " /«- " Persians," as often in Greek writers).
cediint aim amdatis auribiis." We read of a Persian king who wore a
2 Macrobius, Saturn, vii. 3. 7, magnificent pearl in an ear-ring in his
" Octavius, qui natu nobilis videbatur, ear. See Procopius, De bello Persico,
Ciceroni recitanti ait : Non audio quae i. 4. 14.
dicis. Ille respondit : Certe solebas 7 e^ u 1
bene foratas habere aures. Hoc eo ' ^ -^"^^ ^^- \ 59, p. 7 12, ed.
dictu7n est quia Octavius Libys oriun- Casaubon, xpv^o<t>opov.Ta f.erpl^i i,
dus dicebatur, quihus mos est aurem ''°''J"''. ^^^^ P"P'.L°^ ^ ^''f !"^" /.
f^rare." Comoare Plutarch. Cicero. Q" ^urtius Rufus vui. 9. 21, " La^lh
/orare." Compare Plutarch, Cicero,
26.
ex auribus pendent : bracchia quoqtie et
4 Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom. Ixxviii. 'f^'^"' aurocolunt, quibus inter popu-
II, '0 5^ 5^ Ma/cpT.o! rh ^h -^i.os lares aut nobihtasaut opes eminent ;
MaOpos . . . Acai Tb od% rb ^repov Kara
rb Toh TToWoLS tQv Mavpuv iirix'^pi-ov
SieT^rpr)TO.
'd. , ix. 1 . 30, ' ' Pendebant ex auribus
insignes candore et magnitudine lapilli "
(of an Indian king).
^ Xenophon, Anabasis, iii. i. 31, . ^ ggg (he testimonies of Sextus Em-
'ETrei 670; avrbf eWov uKTirep Av86i> piricus, Agathias, Strabo, and Quintus
a/d^brepa to. SiTa nrpvirrifxivov. Rufus, cited above.
i68 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
ears and inserts wooden wedges in the holes, till the lobes,
extended by the weight, droop down so far as sometimes to
touch the shoulders. The writer who reports the custom
remarks that a similar custom is observed by the Botocudos
of Brazil and by some tribes of Murray Island in Torres
Straits ; but he probably means no more than that a similar
mode of distending the lobes of the ears was practised
generally by these tribes, without intending to imply that
the fashion was limited to women after the birth of a first
In some child.^ Among the Nilotic tribes, who call themselves Ja-Luo
m^bes^the ^"d inhabit the country of Kavirondo, at the north-eastern
ears of a end of Lake Victoria Nyanza, "if a woman has had two
whose children and they have both died, she will upon the birth of
elder the third child take it out of the village on a basket-work
sisters have tray and place it in the road ; an old woman who has had a
died are \{vi\\, of this will go and pick it up and take it to her house,
and a then the father of the child goes and buys it back for a goat ;
pretence is having recovered it the father bores the lobe of its rieht ear
made of . ^ , o
exposing and inserts a small ear-ring of brass wire. If the child is a
I'Jid'bmMng ^^^ ^^ ^^ henceforward called Owiti and if a girl it is called
t back Awiti, meaning the child that has been thrown away. The
old woman who picked up the child is afterwards called
mother in addition to the real mother." ^ Similarly among
the Wawanga of the Elgon District, in British East Africa,
" a mother, whose children are sickly or die, places the next
infant born to her out on the road leading to the village and
' E. Riippell, Reise in Abyssiiiien Reports of the Cambridge Anthropo-
(Frankfort-on-Main, 1838-1840), ii. logical Expedition to Torres Straits,
148-150. Among the Botocudos the iv. (Cambridge, 19 12) pp. 10 sqq.,
custom seems to have been universal 40 sq. The distension of the ears by
with men as well as with women ; the the insertion of weight is practised by
ears of children of both sexes were other tribes, for example by tlie Masai,
bored in their seventh or eighth year, Nandi, and Andorobo of East Africa,
and the apertures were gradually en- See M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin,
larged by the insertion of larger and 1 904), pp. 136 j-;/^.; Sir Harry Johnston,
larger cylinders of wood. See Maxi- The Uganda Protectorate, Second Edi-
milian Prinz zu Wied-Neuwied, Reise tion (London, 1904), ii. 805, 866 ;
nach Brasilicii (Frankfort -on -Main, A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford,
1820-1821), ii. 5 sqq. Among the 1909), p. 27.
natives of Torres Straits the custom
seems to have been similar, except that 2 c. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda
with them the lobe of the ear, after (London, 1902), p. 28. Compare Sir
being distended, was generally severed Harry Johnston, The Uganda Pro-
on the side nearer the face, so as to tectorate. Second Edition (London,
form a pendulous flesliy cord. See 1904), ii. 793, compare id. p. 748.
from
stranger
CHAP. HI BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 169
arranges with an old woman to pick it up and bring it back
to the village. Before doing so, the old woman pierces one
of its ears and fastens a bead or piece of iron wire in it,
which it wears till it is grown up. On arrival in the village,
she ties in its hair a wooden charm and a cowrie, which the
child keeps until its mother is again confined. If for any
reason it is found necessary to shave the child's head, the
lock of hair to which the charm is fastened is kept. The
lock of hair is finally cut off and the head shaved by the old
woman who picked it up on the road. Such a child is given
the name of Magokha, or Nanjira. For her services the old
woman is given a present of a fowl, some sim-sim and chiroko,
and a piece of beef" ^ According to another account, the
old woman who brings back the seemingly forsaken babe
to its mother " has to receive a present of a goat before
she will give up the child, and she is henceforward looked
upon as a sort of godmother to the child." ^ Under
similar circumstances a similar custom is observed by the
Wageia of East Africa, and among them also the person
who restores the forsaken babe to its family is rewarded
with a goat. But we are not told that the child's ear
is pierced.^
Why should the right ear of a child, whose elder brothers Children
or sisters have died, be bored and an ear-ring inserted in the eider
hole ? The answer is not obvious, but it will probably depend brothers or
' - , . , , sisters have
on the general meaning of the whole ceremony, of which the died are
piercing of the child's ear is only one part. Hence we must ||^°g^'^Q3|.'^
begin by asking, why should such a child be exposed on the to
public road, apparently for any one to pick up and carry ^^"^r'^*
away? Why should the father of the child be obliged to from the
buy back his own child from the finder by the payment oi ^^^^^^^^^
a goat ? Why should the woman who brings back the child supposed
to its mother be treated as the child's second mother or at c?u-ried off
least as its godmother? Fortunately the usages observed the eider
, . ..^ . . ^ % , , , children ;
under similar circumstances in many parts 01 the world ^ence
enable us to answer these latter questions with a fair degree special
1 Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The 2 c. W. Hobley, .Eastern Uganda,
Wawanga and other tribes of tlie Elgon p. 17.
District, British East Africa.,'' /oiinia/ ^ Max Weiss, Die Volkerstdmvie itn
of the Kcyal Anthropological Institute, Norden Deutsch - Ostafrikas (Berlin,
xliii. (1913) pp. 45 sq. 1910), p. 228.
I70 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
precautions of probability. Many people are of opinion that when a
S^sSe*" woman loses her children in infancy one after the other by
their lives, death, the infants have been carried off by demons or other
g?ving^ envious spirits, and that extraordinary precautions are neces-
them bad gary to save the life of the next child born to the mother,
disguising These precautions take various forms. Some of them are
o"" intended to render the child mean, contemptible, and disgust-
mutilating ..,,,.. f.~
them, in mg, m order that the spirits may not care to carry off so un-
order to prepossessing a brat. For this purpose the child is clothed
disgust the in rags, half buried in ashes or muck, and called by ugly,
demons. opprobrious, or filthy names which may be supposed to
excite the aversion of the spirits and so to prevent them
from meddling with the infant. Other measures which aim
at outwitting the demons are to disguise the child past
recognition, as by dressing it either as a girl if it is a boy,
or as a boy if it is a girl ; or again to pretend to bury it, in
order that the demons, imagining the child to be really dead,
may trouble no more about it. Apart from such devices,
the meaning of which is plain enough, the child is sometimes
subjected to certain mutilations, such as piercing an ear or
a nostril, cutting off a piece of an ear or a joint of a finger,
or scarring the face ; and the exact signification of these
mutilations is not always obvious, though their general in-
tention no doubt is to preserve the child's life by protecting
him or her from the assaults or the wiles of the dangerous
and insidious spirits who have already killed the infant's
elder brothers or sisters. Examples of these curious practices
will illustrate these general remarks and perhaps throw light
on the particular mutilation of the ears with which we are
here immediately concerned.
Annamites Thus among the Annamites of the Nguon-So'n valley,
caiierb '^^'^ when parents have lost several children in early youth, they
ill names, will somctimcs call the next child Xin, which means " begged "
smith's*^ '° or " beggar." This is done to deceive the demons {ina) who
and have have Carried off the elder children. Hearing such a name,
LuacheSo ^^^ demons will not imagine that a pretty little child is
their legs meant ; they will think it is something mean and con-
them^from tcmptible and will leave it alone. Sometimes, to complete
toeing the deception, the mother will take the child and go about
by'demo°nl with it begging from door to door. For a like reason some
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 171
children are called by filthy or grotesque names in order to
throw the prowling devils off the scent.^ Another con-
trivance which these same Annamites employ to guard
their newborn babes against evil spirits deserves to be men-
tioned, though we are not told that it is reserved for the
exclusive benefit of infants whose elder brothers and sisters
have fallen victims to the malignity of their spiritual foes.
When a child is born, the parents will sometimes sell it to
the village smith, who makes a little ring of iron and puts it on
the child's foot, commonly adding to the ring a small chain of
iron. No sooner has the infant been sold to the smith and
firmly attached to him by the chain, than the demon is
supposed to lose all power over it. When the child has
grown big and the danger is over, the parents ask the smith
to break the iron ring and thank him for his services. No
metal, it is believed, except iron will answer the purpose of
guarding the infant." In this case the precautions taken
against the demons are manifold. The sale of the infant
to the smith is probably designed to throw dust in the eyes
of the devils, who will now hastily conclude that the parents
are childless ; the ring and chain, by which the child is, so
to say, tethered to its adopted parent, clearly prevent the
insidious foe from snatching it away ; and the solidity of the
fetters is reinforced by the nature of their material, since iron
is notoriously a substance which devils and demons cannot
abide, and which accordingly forms an effectual barrier against
them.^ Among the Chinese, " a man who has only one son, Chinese
or who has lost sons by death, and now has another born, '^"!!°"! "
■' ' ' putting a
will endeavour to bind soul and body together, by a collar silver wire
of thick silver wire worn round the neck till the boy has □eck'to
save Its
1 Le R. P. Cadierc, " Coutumes the devil, overhearing the compliment, ^i^"^*
populaires de la vallee du Nguon-So'n," will carry the infant away." See
BtiUetin de P £cole Francaise d/Ex- " Lettre de M. Guerard, missionnaire
treme-Orient, ii. (1902) p. 357, An- apostolique au ^Tong-King," in Nou-
other French missionary says of the velles Lettres Edijiantes des Missions
Annamites, "They imagine also that de la Chine et des Indes Orienta!es,v\\.
if they gave their child a beautiful (Paris, 1823) pp. 194 sq.
name, the devil would think well of * Le R. P. Cadiere, op. at. pp.
the child and would carry it off; so 354 sq. ,
they give it the ugliest name they can ^ Qn iron in this connexion I may
find. If any one takes it into his head refer to Taboo and the Perils of the
to say that their child is pretty, they Soul, pp. 2^2 sqq. {The Golden Bough,
are angry, for they are persuaded that Third Edition, Part ii. ).
Pre-
cautions
taken by
parents in
Celebes
and
Borneo to
save the
lives of
children
whose
elder
brothers
and sisters
have died,
by giving
them ill
names,
making
black
marks on
their faces,
and callint
on the
demons to
take or
leave the
infants.
172 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
grown to the verge of manhood. In every village amongst
the hills of Chuki, lads are to be seen thus adorned." ^
Among the Gorontalo people of Central Celebes, when a
woman has had two sons who have died, and she gives birth
to a third son, a pretence is made of giving away the child
to some one in order to deceive the spirits who brought
about the deaths of the elder brothers. Similarly in Posso,
a district of Central Celebes, when a child is very sickly, a
new name is bestowed on it for the purpose of inducing the
spirits, who are causing the sickness, to suppose that the
child is not the same but another.^ Among the Bare'e-speak-
ing Toradjas of Central Celebes, as among many other peoples,
it is customary for a man to be named after his children as
" Father of so-and-so," and for a woman similarly to be
named after her children as " Mother of so-and-so." But
Toradja parents who have lost children, one after the other,
, by death, call themselves not father and mother, but
grandfather and grandmother, of the next child born
to them, in the belief that the spirits will now think them
childless, and that they will therefore spare the life of
the so-called grandchild.^ The Kayans of Borneo believe
that young children are peculiarly subject to the malevolent
influence of certain mischievous spirits whom they call Toh.
Hence parents who have lost several young children will
name their next child Dung or Birds' Dung or Bad, because
they imagine that such a repulsive name will give the child
a better chance of escaping the unwelcome attention of the
spirits. If for any reason they suspect that a child has
1 Ven. Arthur E. Moule, New China
and Old, Third Edition (London, 1902),
p. 231. Among the Bagobos of the
Davao district in Mindanao, who be-
lieve that a person's good spirit resides
on the right side of his body, " it is a
common thing when a child is ill to
attach a chain bracelet to its right arm
and to bid the good spirit not to de-
part, but to remain and restore the
child to health." See Fay-Cooper
Cole, Th^ IVild Tribes of Davao
District, Mindanao (Chicago, 1913),
p. 105 {Field Museum of Natural
History, Publication 170).
2 Alb. C. Kruijt, " De adoptie in ver
band met het matriarchaat bij de Tor-
adja'svan Midden-Celebes," Tijdschrift
voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volken-
kunde, xli. (1899) p. 86. As to chang-
ing a sick child's name for the purpose
of deceiving the spirits, see also N.
Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare'e-
sprekende Toradja s van Middeii-Celebes
(Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 67.
3 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De
Bare'e-sprekeJide Toradja! s van Midden-
Celebes (Batavia, 191 2-1 9 14), ii. 67
sq., 100. As to the custom of naming
parents after their children, see Taboo
and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 331 sqq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 173
attracted the notice of one of these fiends, they will make a
black mark with soot on the little one's forehead, consisting
of a vertical line with a horizontal bar just above the eye-
brows. Such a mark is believed so to disguise the child
that the spirit will hardly be able to recognize its victim.
Even adults sometimes adopt the same precaution when they
think they are particularly exposed to the assaults of demons,
for example, when they go away from the house. Under
similar circumstances the Sea Dyaks of Borneo sometimes
go a step farther. They place the newborn child in a small
boat and let it float down the river, while, standing on the
bank, they call upon all the evil spirits to take the child at
once, if they mean to take it at all, in order that the parents
may be spared the greater bereavement of losing their off-
spring some years later. If, after floating some distance
down stream, the child is found unhurt, the parents carry it
home, feeling some confidence that it will be spared to grow
up.^ Similarly in Laos, a district of Siam, when a child has Custom in
been born in a house, it is placed in a rice-sieve, and the ^^°^ °^
' ^ ' calling on
grandmother or other near female relative lays it at the head the demons
of the staircase or ladder by which the house is reached from n°^^!|3o^rn
the ground. There the woman calls in loud tones to the child or
spirits to come and take the child away or for ever to let it eTer^aione^
alone. However, lest they should accept the invitation in
good faith, strings are tied to the infant's wrists on the first
night after its birth, no doubt to prevent its abduction by the
spirits, just as in Annam for a similar purpose a newborn
babe is hobbled with a ring and chain fastened to one of its
feet. But " on the day after its birth the child is regarded
as being the property no longer of the spirits, who could have
taken it if they had wanted it, but of the parents, who forth-
1 Charles Hose and William McDou- 'How well it looks!' and so forth,
gall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo because in that way also the attention
(London, 191 2), ii. 24. Among the of the spirits would be directed to
Bare'e - speaking Toradjas of Central it. . . . We even know mothers who
Celebes, when a child is carried out of gave their children names like ' Dog's
the house for the first time, its face is penis' and ' Pig's dung,' and such like,
blackened with charcoal, "in order 'because otherwise the spirits would
that the spirits may not desire the wight fetch the children away.'" See N.
for themselves and make themselves Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare'e-
masters of its soul. For. the same sprekendeToradJa'svanMiddeti-Celebes^
reason you may not praise a child or ii, 63.
use such phrases as ' How fat it is ! '
174
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
pretence of
exposing
newborn
children
and buying
them back
from
strangers is
probably
an attempt
to deceive
the demons
who might
otherwise
carry them
off.
East
Indian
custom of
giving
children,
whose
elder
brothers
and sisters
have died,
to relations
or friends
to be
suckled
and
brought
up.
with sell it to some relation for a nominal sum — an eighth
or a quarter of a rupee perhaps. This, again, is a further
guarantee against molestation by the spirits, who apparently
are regarded as honest folk that would not stoop to take
what has been bought and paid for." ^
In view of these customs we can perhaps understand the
reasons why in some African tribes, as we saw, children whose
elder brothers or sisters have died are exposed on the public
road and afterwards bought back by their parents from, the
friends who have discovered and brought home the forsaken
infants.^ The exposure may be intended to give the spirits
an opportunity of carrying off the babes if they desire to do
so ; and the subsequent purchase may be a sort of reinsurance
of the child based on a confiding trust in the commercial
honesty of the spirits, who are presumed to be too honour-
able to appropriate what has been purchased, if not with hard
cash, at least with a solid goat. Concurrently with this train
of thought, or perhaps in conflict with it, is probably a wish
to conceal the true parentage of the infant by handing it over
temporarily to the care of a stranger, because, being thus
rendered apparently childless, the parents are more likely to
evade the scrutiny of the evil spirits. This is expressly
alleged as the motive for the Gorontalo practice of com-
mitting a newborn son, after the deaths of his two elder
brothers, to the care of some person other than the parents,
and it is with this fraudulent intention that a Toradja
father calls himself the grandfather of his own child.^ The
same motive may explain the custom observed in some East
Indian islands, as in Amboyna and Ceram, where parents,
who have lost several children by death, give the next-born
child to relations or friends to be suckled and nurtured.
When the child has reached a certain age, in some islands
his fifth year, he is restored to his parents, who are bound to
reward the foster-parents with a present of gongs or dishes."*
That the wish to put their child out of reach of the spirits
who have carried off his elder brothers and sisters is the real
motive with parents for thus parting with their offspring,
1 (ZzxX^ozV, Temples and Elephants * J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en
(London, 1884). pp. 258 sq. kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en
2 Above, pp. 168 sq. Papua (The Hague, 1886), pp. 75,
3 Above, p. 172. 136 sq., 327.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 175
perhaps for years, is strongly suggested by the precautions
which in some of these islands are avowedly adopted to guard
infants against the attacks of demons. Thus in Amboyna
and Ceram young children are seldom or never left alone,
lest evil spirits should molest them or carry off their souls ; ^
and in Amboyna, when an infant is born with a caul, that
natural appendage is sometimes dried, reduced to powder, and
given to the child to eat for the purpose of preventing him
from seeing the evil spirits ; for such children are credited
with the possession of second sight.^ Apparently the notion
is that, by eating the caul which blindfolded his eyes at birth,
the little one will be blinded to the horrible apparition of
spectres. Among the To Lalaoos of Central Celebes, when
parents fear that a newborn baby will die like its little
brothers and sisters before it, they arrange with a married
couple among their relations to play the following little
comedy. The parents expose the child near the entrance
to the village ; their relatives come strolling by, and, per-
ceiving the forsaken babe, they ask " Whose child is this ? "
A voice from the village answers, " We do not know." So
the kindly couple pick up the foundling, take it home, and
rear it as their own, until, all fear of its dying untimely being
over, it can return to its real parents.^ Here the intention
of thus concealing the true parentage of the infant is most
probably to deceive the spirits, by leading them to suppose
that the real father and mother are childless.
Among the Nandi of East Africa, " whenever several African
children in one family have died, the parents place a newly saving^the
born babe for a few minutes in a path along which hyenas I'^es of
are known to walk, as it is hoped that they will intercede whose
with the spirit of the dead, and that the child's life will be '^'^^^^
spared. If the child lives it is called chcpor or chemaket sisters have
(hyena)." * Perhaps by naming the child " hyena " the '^'^'^•
parents expect to deceive the ancestral spirits into imagining
that the little one is really a wild beast and not a human
child at all, and that, labouring under this delusion, they will
spare the infant's life. Another way of eluding the spiritual
' J. G. F. Riedel, op. cit. pp. 75, Bare' e-sprekendeToradjds van Middeii-
136. C^/e^tfj (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 100.
2 J. G. F. Riedel, op. cit. p. 74. * A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford,
5 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De 1909), p. 7.
176 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part vi
foe is adopted by the Bakongo of the Lower Congo. When
a woman has given birth to sickly children who have died
one after the other, she seeks to guard against a repetition of
the misfortune as follows. A medicine-man conducts her to
a cross-road, where he draws a chalk mark on the path, digs
a trench, and pours water into it. Then interlocking the
little finger of his right hand in the corresponding finger of
the woman, he helps her over the water three times. After
that it is believed that any children the woman may bear
will live and not die. The notion seems to be that the
spirits who carried off her former children cannot follow her
across the water, so that all her subsequent infants will be
safe.^
Siberian Among the rude races of Siberia similar fears prompt
^^^^^^^jII'J parents to adopt similar precautions for the safety of their
lives of progeny. Thus, for example, " among the natives of the
wtole^" Altai, if a person loses all his children, one after another, his
elder ncwbom child is given as ill-sounding a name as possible ;
sis°errhave for instance, It-koden (' dog's buttocks '), thus trying to deceive
died, by the Spirits which kidnap the soul, making them believe that
fhem ill it is really a dog's buttocks. In a similar manner, wishing
names, etc. |-q convince the spirits that the new-born child is a puppy,
the Yakut call the child It-ohoto, that is, ' dog's child.' The
Gilyak, on their way home after hunting, call their village
Otx-mif (' excrement country '), in the belief that evil spirits
will not follow them to such a bad village." ^ Among the
Goldi of the Amoor, when several children of a family have
died, a name of evil signification or of some reptile will be
bestowed on the next infant.^ But these savages do not
always trust to the cheap and easy device of ugly names; they
sometimes adopt more elaborate precautions. Thus among
the Uriankhai, a Buryat tribe in the Ulukhem district, when
the first children die young, the next child at birth is hidden
under the cooking cauldron, and on the top of the cauldron
are placed a fetish made from the skin of a hare and a figure
1 John H. Wteks, Among the Fri mi- Sibirien (Leipsic, 1S84), i. 3 1 6.
tive Bakongo (London, 19 14), p. 230.
2 Waldemar Jochelson, The Koryak "^ Tour du Monde, Nouvelle Serie,
(Leyden and New York, 1908), p. 61 iii. (Paris, 1897) p. 618, from Chez les
{The Jestip North Pacific Expedition, Bouriates de P Amour, par M. Chim-
vol. vi.). Compare W. Radloff, Aus kievitch, ch. iv.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 177
kneaded out of barley-meal, which represents the child. A
shaman is then called in and performs his incantations over
the dough puppet. According to the belief of the people,
the puppet by virtue of the enchantment comes to life, its
abdomen is cut open, blood begins to flow, and the sufferer
cries aloud. Its body is then cut into three parts and buried
far away from the house. This ceremony is supposed to
protect the child from death.^ How it is believed to effect ^
this beneficent purpose we are not told ; but in the light of
the foregoing evidence we may surmise that, whereas the real
child is hidden from the demons under the cooking cauldron,
the dough image of it is palmed off on them instead, while
to lend the utmost degree of verisimilitude to the deception
thus practised on the fiends the dummy is actually brought
to life by the skill of the magician. That this is the true Pretence of
explanation of the whole rite is made almost certain by a liv^chUcf
similar ceremony which the Diurbiut perform for a similar '« order to
purpose. Soon after birth an infant is stolen by some rela- demons.
tives and hidden under a cauldron, where it remains for three
days, well fed and tended. At the'same time these relatives
make an image of grass and throw it into the tent of the
parents, who, on finding it, pretend to see in it their own
dead child, and bewail and bury it with much ceremony.
This, we are informed, is done to persuade the evil spirit,
who wished to harm the child, that the infant is dead and
buried." Hence we may conclude that the burial of a dough
puppet by the Uriankhai is in like manner a fraud practised
on the ingenuous devils for the purpose of saving the life of
the child whom the puppet represents.
In India, where the fear of demons is rife, and super- Devices
stition flourishes with a rank luxuriance hardly surpassed indi^'^lo'"
elsewhere, similar motives have produced a rich crop of save the
similar practices. As a rule, Hindoo parents give their children
children the names of deities or of deified heroes whose whose
deeds are enshrined in the great national epics. But " a brothers or
strange practice prevails where a number of children have sistershave
been taken away by death. Instead of calling the later giving
arrivals by the names of the deities, one is called Dukhi (pain), ^^^^ ''^
•^ ' \r /? names,
^ M. A. Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia (Oxford, 1914), p. 140.
-^ M. A. Czaplicka, I.e.
VOL. Ill N
178 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
boring another Tiu Kauri (three cowry shells), Haran (the lost one),
nos'triis ^^*--' ^^^ ^^^^ being that when Yama, the god of Death, stalks
pretending by, noose in hand, seeking victims, and asks. Who goes
sell them, there ? hearing such names as these he will pass them as
etc. unworthy of notice. In after years, when the device has
served its purpose, they may be exchanged for others." ^
But in India, as elsewhere, parents are often too anxious and
fearful to trust to the efficacy of names alone to guard their
dear ones. They resort to a variety of other precautions,
some of them disagreeable and even cruel. Thus " in several
South Indian families the name of Kuppan or Kuppusvanu
is a)-very common one. The bearer of this name will always
have the right half of his nose bored, so much so that if ever
we come across a man with such a mark in his nose we can
call him Kuppusvanu. This name is given and the nose is
bored when the first child in the family dies. To preserve
the second child from the hands of death, its nose is pierced
as soon as it is born, and it is rolled in a heap of rubbish
that it may become distasteful to Yama, the god of death.
If the child is a male, it is named Kuppusvanu, the lord of
rubbish, and if female, Kupparchelu, the feminine of Kuppus-
vanu." ^ Here the rolling of the child in rubbish is clearly
intended to justify his name, " the lord of rubbish," and
thereby to impose the more effectually on the god of death.
Similarly " in the Mysore Province the custom of boring the
right side of the nostril of children whose elder brothers or
sisters died soon after their birth prevails. Such children
are called Gunda = Rock, Kalla = Stone, Hucha = Mad-
man, Tippa = Dunghill. The last name is given after some
rubbish from a dunghill has been brought in a sieve and the
child placed in it." ^ So, too, in the Central Provinces of
India " a woman who has lost her children repeatedly, either
soon after their birth or a year or two afterwards, will, with
the hope of preserving the next one, put the last newborn
infant on a place sprinkled with water, where dust and other
refuse are thrown. And then an old woman of the house
pierces its right nostril, with a golden wire, giving it an
' W. J. Wilkins, Modern Hinduism North Indian Notes and Queries, i.
(Calcutta and Simla, Preface dated No. 6 (September 189 1), p. 96, § 630.
1900), pp. 13 j^. 3 ffig Indian Antiquary, ix. (1880)
2 Pandit Natesa Sastri (Madras), in p. 229.
CHAP, in BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 179
opprobrious name, such as Pentiah = Dust-man, or Peni-
(^?;//7«(^z = Dust-woman ; also Pachk{iri=Y\\&-s\^€i\s, Dhaniria
— Ten-shells, Ddk{irt= Two-shells, and so on." ^ The mean-
ing of these latter names is explained by another writer on
the folk-lore of the Central Provinces : " When a mother has
lost several children, she will sometimes go through the
formality of selling her child to a neighbour before it is born
for the sum of five or ten shells or kouries. Since one
hundred and twenty shells make one farthing, the child is
supposed to be sold for one-twelfth, or one twenty-fourth of
a farthing. In such a case the child goes through life with
the name Pach-kour (five shells), or Das-kour (ten shells)." ^
The intention of such a mock sale is no doubt to circumvent
the evil spirits who are supposed to have kidnapped the
child's elder brothers or sisters ; by transferring the new baby
to another person they have apparently cancelled their rela-
tionship to it and so hope to elude the unwelcome attention
of the demons. That this is the real motive for the pretence
of selling children under these circumstances is made prob-
able by the explanation which another writer gives of the ob-
servance of a mock sale of children under similar circumstances
in Bombay. " Parents who have the misfortune to lose their
children young, resort to the following, among other, methods
of preserving the life of one or two. As soon as a child is
born, it is consigned to the arms of a Dhed (scavenger) or
other low-caste woman, with whom a previous understanding
has been iarrived at, through the back door. The woman
then reappears at the front door with the child in her arms,
and offers it for sale to the family as one of her own,
when the parents give the woman some money and grain,
and thus purchase it under the belief that since it is their
fate to lose children, they have saved the life of this child
by making believe that it is the scavenger's offspring." ^
Similarly among the Khasiyas and Bhotiyas of the
* M. R. Pedlow, "Superstitions 1916), iv. 224.
among Hindoos in the Central Pro-
vinces," The Indian Antiquary, xxix. ^ Paiijab Notes ami Queries, ill. No.
(1900) p. 88. 31 (April 1S86), p. 112, §491. Com-
2 E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk Tales pare R. E. Enthoven, " Folklore of
(London, 1908), p. 40. Compare R. the Gujarat," The huiian Antiquary',
V. Russell, Tribes and Castes of the xliv. (Bombay, 19 15), Supplement, p.
Central Provinces of India (London, lOI.
i8o BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
Almora district, in the United Provinces, when a woman's
children have died, she hopes to save the life of her next born
by giving him away to a religious ascetic {Jogi), " so that he
no longer belongs to her parents' household, and, therefore,
escapes any evil fortune connected with it." The ascetic
communicates his sacred formula to his pretended disciple
by whispering it in the infant's ear, and, to complete the
pretence of discipleship, he ties a bead of a certain sort
round the baby's neck. Thereupon the parents buy back
their offspring from the holy man for a sum of money.^
Devices Similar, prctcnces of Selling children for nominal sums to
Bengal to" their own parents are customary, for similar reasons, in Bengal,
save the and many of the names bestowed on the children record the
children prices paid for them, such as Ekhaudi,one shell ; Tinkaudi, three
whose shells ; Panchkaudi, five shells ; Satkaudi, seven shells ; and
brothers or Nakaudi, nine shells, even numbers being regularly omitted.
d-^d'\^^^^ Such names are very common in Bengal, and invariably
giving spring from the observance of this custom.^ In Bihar, a
them ill province of Bengal, the manifold precautions, taken to save
disguising the Hvcs of boys whose elder brothers are dead, include a mock
InT ^^^' ^^^^* " Such children are treated and dressed as girls, sold
pretending to the midwife for a few cowries, and brought back again
sell them. ^'""^ given opprobrious names, in order to induce the demon
of death to think them of small account and not worth
killing." ^ As elsewhere in India, so in Bihar the noses
of these infants are bored, no doubt (as we shall see
presently) * to make them pass for girls with the demons.
Such practices obtain among all castes in Bihar from Brah-
mans downwards, and the imagination of parents appears
to exhaust itself in the effort to devise terms of contempt
and derision by which to describe their offspring. From
these flowers of rhetoric it may suffice to cull a few choice
specimens, such as Famine-stricken, Blind, Dumb, Lame,
Goitrous, Benumbed, Afflicted, One-eyed, Having-the-nose-
bored, Sieve-shaped, Fire-place, Rags, Cricket, Grasshopper,
1 Penna Lall, M.A., "An enquiry mistake of the writer or of the printer
into the Birth and Marriage Customs for " his parents' household."
of the Khasiyas and the Bhotiyas of 2 The Indian A7itiqtiary, ix. (l88o)
Almora District, U.P.," The Indian p. 141.
Aniiqiiaiy, xl. (Bombay, 1911) p. * (Sir) George A. Grierson, Bihar
191. In the quotation the words " her Peasant Life {Ca.\c\\ii3., 1885), p. 387.
parents' household " seem to be a * See below, p. 185.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR i8i
Bear, Sparrow, Fly, Fool, Mad, Scoundrel, Alligator, Lizard,
Louse, and Dung-hill.^ In Orissa, another province of
Bengal, " there are often fictitious sales of children in order
to save them from a premature death. The parents sell them
at a small price to women belonging to such low castes' as
Dhoba, Hari, Dom, or Ghasi, and repurchase them at a higher
price. There is an actual, though momentary, transfer, for
the children are handed over to the low-caste woman, who
gives them back to the parents after anointing them with
turmeric powder mixed with water and oil. Similar sham
sales are effected at the shrines of gods and goddesses, the
priests in this case being the buyers. Among the middle
and low classes children are named after the caste of the
women to whom they are sold, so that a boy may be called
Dhobai, Hari, Pan, Ghasia, or Dom, and a girl Dhobani,
Hariani, etc. Such names are often given, too, by parents
without any fictitious sale. The belief underlying these
transactions is that the parents have committed some sin
which can only be expiated by the death of the child, and
that the low-caste woman takes the place of the parents and
acts as a scapegoat." "
Nor is the custom of these mock sales in India confined Mode sales
to Hindoos and Moslems ; it is shared by some of the hill "/hose"^"^^"
tribes of Assam who belong to the Tibeto-Burman family of elder
mankind. Among the Lushais, when several children of a or^'is^e^rs
family have died young, the parents will carry the next baby have died
and deposit it at a friend's house. Having left it there, they hiu°trfbes^
will afterwards return and ask, "Have you a slave to sell?" of Assam,
and buy back their own child for a small sum. This pro-
ceeding is supposed to deceive the demons ijiuais), whom the
Lushais believe to haunt hills, streams, and trees, and to whom
they attribute the causes of every illness and misfortune.
Children who have been sold for the sake of eluding these
dangerous devils always receive a name beginning with Stiak,
which means *' a slave " ; and as such names are frequent,
the custom of the fictitious sale appears to be common also.^
1 The Indiatt Antiquary, \\\\.{\%']oi) (Calcutta, 1913), p. 332.
pp. 321 sq. 3 Lieut. -Colonel J. Shakespear, The
2 Census of India, igr/; vol, v., Lnshei Kuki Clans (London, 1912),
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and Sikhirn, p. 82; as to the demons *(/""^")i see
Part i. Report, by L. S. S. O'Mallcy id., pp. 61, 65 sq.
l82
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
111 names
given to
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died,
in the
North-"
Western
Provinces
of India.
Ill names
given to
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died,
in the
Punjab
and
Bombay.
In the North-Western Provinces of India also " when a
first child dies, the next baby is given an opprobrious name
as a protection against the Evil Eye and demoniacal
influence generally. Such names are Tinkauri or Pachkauri
(' bought for three or five cowries ') ; Kanchheda (' ear-
pierced '), Nathua, Nakchhed, Chhidda (' nose-pierced ') ;
Bhika or Bhikari (' beggar ') ; Chhitariya, Ghasita, Kadhera
.(' one put in a basket immediately after birth and dragged
about the house ') ; Ghasi (' cheap as grass ') ; Jhau (' value-
less as tamarisk ') ; Phusa (' cheap as straw ') ; Mendu (' one
taken immediately after birth and partly buried on the
boundary of the field as if it were already dead ') ; Ghuri
(' thrown on the dung-hill ') ; Nakta ('without a nose'), and
so on. These practices are rarely employed in the case of
girls, who are considered naturally protected." ^ Similarly
on the north-western frontier of India, among the tribes of
the Hindoo Koosh, " when one or two children in a family
die, it is the custom to give the next born a mean name, such
as, ' the unclean,' ' old rags,' in order to avert misfortune." ^
In the Punjab also parental affection has recourse to
similar remedies for similar domestic sorrows, and there, too,
you may accordingly meet with persons who rejoice in such
names as Waste-Cotton, Rat, Tom-Cat, Dust, Well-rope,
Cowry, Donkey, and Dung-heap. The custom is not con-
fined to Hindoos, but is practised equally by Mussulmans,
Sikhs, and Sweeps ; for as death makes no distinction
between religions or castes, so the adherents of the various
religions and the members of the various castes, however
little they may agree in anything else, are unanimous in the
belief that they can keep off the arch-foe by bestowing these
unpleasant epithets on their infant progeny, especially when
the virtue of the epithet is illustrated and emphasized by an
appropriate ceremony. For example, the new baby will be
put into an old winnowing-basket, with the sweepings of the
house,, and then dragged with it and them into the yard.
After that he or she will bear the name of Winnowing-
basket {Chajju) or Dragged {Ghasita). But in the Punjab
^ W. Cfooke, Tribes and Castes of
the North- M'este>-n Provinces and Oiidk
(Calcutta, 1896), ii. 427 ; compare id..
ill. 99, 223.
2 Major J. Biddulph, Tribes of (he
Hindoo Koosh (Calcutta, 18S0), p. 99.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 183
it is generally sons, and not daughters, who are subjected
to such ceremonies and receive such names ; from which we
may perhaps infer that less trouble is taken to save the
lives of female than of male children.^ Again, in Bombay
a child whose elder brothers and sisters have died will some-
times receive the name of Sweep-back {KJiardte-pdthichd),
because with a view of saving his life the parents have set
him on a low stool and swept his back lightly with the
household broom,^ doubtless to make the spirits imagine
that the infant is no better than the dust and rubbish swept
out of the house. Once more, in similar circumstances a child
child will sometimes be called Konia, if he is a boy, or passed into
Konema, if she is a girl, both names being derived from through a
koni, " a hole," because " a hole {koni) is dug under the ^°'^ "^"^^"^
framework of the entrance door of the house where the doorway,
birth has taken place ; through this hole the newborn infant
is passed from the outside into the house, and the name is
pronounced."^ We may conjecture that the reason for thus
smuggling the baby into the house by a special opening
made for it under the door is a desire to escape the notice
of the evil spirits, who may be lying in wait for it at the
usual entrance.
Sometimes when the bestowal of even so repulsive a name Exorcism
as Blockhead, Donkey, or Dung-heap appears to be insuffi- ^/J^i^"'^
cient to guard a beloved child against the attacks of a demon, threaten
and sickness threatens to unite the little one in death with chtidre".°
his small brothers and sisters gone before, the anxious father
will resort to stronger measures. With the aid of an exorcist
he will attempt to carry the war into the quarters of the
spiritual foe who is causing the sickness. Accompanying
himself with taps on a drum, the wizard will first chant in-
vocations to all the unmarried men who died in the family.
Having further questioned the evil spirit, and learned from
him who he is and how he contrived to enter, he so far
works on the better feelings of the demon as to extract from
him a promise that he will depart on receipt of the usual
offering. Things having been brought to this point, the
1 (Sir) R. C. Temple, " Opprobri- 23 (August, 1885), p. 184, § 971.
ous Names," The Indian Antiquary,
X. (1881) p. 332. 3 it Proper Names," The Indian
2 Panjab Notes and Queries, iu No. Antiquary, x. (iSSi) p. 55.
1 84 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
afflicted child takes an old shoe between his teeth and repairs
to the abode of the spirit and thence to a pipal tree, at the
foot of which the devil goes out of him, leaving him senseless
on the ground. A nail driven into the tree suffices to bung
up the demon in the wood and to prevent him from returning
to torment his victim ; or the exorcist may shut him up in
a bottle and bury bottle and bottle-imp deep underground.''
Goat Among the Mehtars or Doms, the caste of sweepers and
asT ^^ scavengers in the Central Provinces of India, " if a woman's
substitute children die, then the next time she is in labour they
whose^" bring a goat all of one colour. When the birth of the child
elder takes place and it falls from the womb on to the ground no
si's°err OJ^^ must touch it, but the goat, which should if possible be
have died, of the same sex as the child, is taken and passed over the
child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat and the
after-birth to a cemetery, and here cut the goat's throat by
the haldl rite and bury it with the after-birth. The idea is
thus that the goat's life is a substitute for that of the child.
By being passed over the child it takes the child's evil destiny
upon itself, and the burial in a cemetery causes the goat to
resemble a human being, while the after-birth communicates
to it some part of the life of the child." ^ Apparently in
this case the parents attempt to outwit the demons, who
have a design on the life of the infant, by palming off a
goat upon them instead of the child. Perhaps a similar
notion of sacrificing a substitute for the infant may explain a
curious custom observed by the Kawars, a primitive tribe
who inhabit the hills in the Chhattisgarh districts of the
Central Provinces of India. When the children of a family
have died, the medicine-man or hedge-priest {baiga) will
take the parents outside of the village and break the stem
of some plant in their presence. After that, the parents
never again touch that particular plant, and it is believed
that any other children they may have will not die.^
Custom of From some of the foregoing accounts we learn that in
the'nos^triis I^dia children, whose elder brothers or sisters have died, not
of male only receive disparaging names but frequently also have their
1 Pa7ijab Notes and Queries, ii. No. of the Central Provinces of India
22 (July, 1885), pp. 169 sq., § 908. (London, 1916), iv. 223 sq.
2 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes ^ R. V. Russell, of. cit. iii. 401.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 185
right nostrils pierced. The writers whom I have thus far children
quoted say nothing as to the motive for piercing the nostrils, ^'j'^°^^
but the explanation is supplied by others. Thus we are brothers or
told that in the Punjab, among the derogatory names, such have'^died.
as Scavenger, Old Shoe, Sweepings, and so forth, which a '° order to
parent will bestow on his children after he has lost one or the^as
more by small-pox, there is one, namely Nathu, which S""'^-
signifies " Having a nose-ring {nath) in his nose " ; and the
reason for giving a child such a name is this. " If a man
has lost several male children, the nose of the next born is
pierced, and a nose-ring inserted in order that he may be
mistaken for a girl, and so passed over by the evil spirits." ^
Similarly among the Handi Jogis, a Telugu caste of Mysore,
" a son born after a number of deaths has his nose pierced and
a ring put on, to deceive Fate to let it alone as being only
a female." ^ And in the Central Provinces of India " a
mother whose sons have died will sometimes bore the nose
of a later-born son and put a small nose-ring in it to make
believe he is a girl. But in this case the aim is also partly
to cheat the goddess or the evil spirits who cause the death
of children, and make them think the boy is a girl and
therefore not worth taking." ^ Again, " another practice
very prevalent in the Firozpur district among all classes and
sects, but particularly among Sikhs and Hindus, is to dress
up a son born after the death of previous sons ^s a girl.
Such children have their noses pierced in signification of
their being converted into girls, the pierced nose being the
female mark par excellence. (The right nostril is the one
pierced, and sometimes also the cartilage between the nostrils.)
The mother makes a vow to dress up her boy as a girl for
from four to ten years, the hair is plaited, women's orna-
ments worn, etc., and naked little boy-girls, as it were, can
be seen running about in any village. Even where the
custom is not fully carried out, the nose is pierced and a
sexless name given," such as Nostril, Pierced, Nose-ring.*
* J. M. Douie, *' Opprobrious ^ R. V. Russell, The Tribes and
Names — Evil Eye," Panjab Notes and Castes of the Central Provitices of India
Queries, i. No. 3 (December, 1S83), (London, 1916), iii. 208.
p. 26, § 219.
2 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- * (Sir) R. C. Temple, " Opprobrious
graphical Sui-vey of Mysore, xxix., Names," The Indian Antiquary, x.
Handi Jogis (Bangalore, 1913) p. 3. (iSSi) p. 332.
i86 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
Custom of Sometimes in India the right ear as well as the right
^ofcfor^ nostril of such a child is pierced, and a knob of gold or a
rags for shell inserted in the hole.^ According to one account, the
whole^" gold which is to be used in making the golden knob and
elder ear-ring must be begged from rich and poor ; it is contrary
sis'tershave ^^ custom for the parents to make the ornament at their
died. own expense." The motive for begging the gold from
others is probably a fear of attracting the attention and in-
curring the envy of the evil spirits by an ostentatious dis-
play of wealth ; the parents desire to appear as poor and
insignificant as possible in order that the demons may
regard them as beneath their notice. For the same reason,
as we saw, some people call their child a beggar and act up
to the name by begging with it from door to door.^ Similarly
" it is a custom among some Hindu women, when they lose
their first two children, to beg of three persons three rags as
bedding for the third child. They also dig a grave, and
fill it in, or roll the child in the dust, or in a tray filled with
bran. Sometimes they beg for money instead of bran, and
with the money collected have a silver ornament made,
which they tie on to the neck of the child. This custom is
very common among the Telugus." * For a like reason " a
son is also clothed very shabbily if several of his elder
brothers have died, no doubt because it is hoped that he
will thu% escape the notice of the godlings." ^ Again, we
read that Sitala, the goddess of small-pox, " is the one great
dread of Indian mothers. She is, however, easily frightened
or deceived ; and if a mother has lost one son by small-pox,
she will call the next Kurria, he of the dung-hill ; or Bdhuru,
an outcast ; or Mara, the worthless one ; or Bhagwdna,
given by the great god. So, too, many women dress chil-
dren in old rags begged of their neighbours, and not of their
own house, till they have passed the dangerous age." ^ So
* The Indian Antiquary, \\. (i88o) 1906), p. 535.
p. 229; J. M. Douie, "Opprobrious ^ J. M. Douie, "Opprobrious
Names — Evil Eye," Panjab Notes and Names — Evil Eye," Panjab Notes and
Queries, i. No. 3 (December, 1883), Queries, i. No. 3 (December, 1883),
p. 26, § 219. p. 26, § 219.
- " Proper Names," Tlie Indian ^ (Sir) Denzil Jelf Ibbetson, Report
Antiquary, x. (1S81) p. 55. on the Revision of the Settlement of the
3 Above, pp. 170, 182. Panipai Tahsil and Karnal Parganah
* Edgar Thurston, Ethnographic of the Karnal District (Allahabad,
Notes in Soutliern India (Madras, 1883), p. 150.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 187
in the Punjab " parents who lose several children will turn
a subsequent child into a beggar by dressing it up in ragged
clothing borrowed of neighbours until it is five years of age
and calling it Mangta or Mangtu. As soon as possible it is
also betrothed and thus made another's for life. This is
done to children of both sexes in order to save their lives, the
idea being that the misfortunes of the parents are passed on
to those from whom the clothes, etc., are borrowed." ^ The
motive here assigned for the custom may perhaps secretly co-
operate with the desire to deceive the demons by shamming
poverty ; but if if were the common and notorious reason
for resorting to the practice, it is difficult to believe that
people would be willing to lend rags at the risk of incurring
the very misfortunes of which they relieved their neighbours.
The Telugu custom, mentioned above," of digging a Pretence of
grave for a third child when the first two children have died, ^Md^en
is probably, like the similar Siberian custom,^ an attempt to whose
put the demons off the scent of the new baby by leading breathers or
them to suppose that the infant is already dead and buried, sisters have
A more elaborate pretence of the same sort is made in the
same circumstances by the Brahuis of Baluchistan. "If some
poor mother has lost babe after babe, and is brought to bed
yet again, the wise old women will put their heads together
and will seek to save the life of the new-born in this fashion.
When the pains of labour come upon the woman, they cut
a slender twig off some green tree and place it by her side.
And as soon as the babe is born, they measure the length
of the twig against the measure of the babe, and whittle it
down till it is neither too long nor yet too short. Then
they raise the cry that the babe is dead. And they take
the twig and lay it out and wash it and wrap it in a shroud,
and bear it forth to the burial and lay it to rest in the grave-
yard, for all the world as if it were in truth a dead child.
So they return to the house, full sure that the evil spirits
have been befooled, and that the new-born is safe from their
malice." *
With a like beneficent intention Mohammedans in India
^ Indian Notes and Queries, iv. No. ^ .Above, p. 177.
45 (June, 1887), p. 164, § 595. ♦ Denys Bray, The Life-Hisfory of
^ P. 186. a Bra /liir (London, 191 3), pp. 9 ^Y-
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Custom of
leaving
unshorn
the hair of
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died.
Apparently
the child's
guardian
spirit or its
own spirit
is supposed
to reside
in the
unshorn
locks.
sometimes shave the hair of a child whose life they wish to
save, leaving only a single lock on one side of the head.
This is cd\\e.d pir ki stikh or propitiation of the patron saint.^
In Gujarat, " unfortunate parents, who have lost many
children, vow to grow the hair of their little children, if such
are preserved to them, observing all the time a votive
abstinence from a particular dish or betel-nut or the like.
When the children are three or five or seven years old, the
vow is fulfilled by taking them to a sacred place, like the
temple of Ranchhodji at Dakor, to have their hair cut
for the first time." " The custom of allowing the hair to
grow long in consequence of a vow is common to many
races, though the motives for it are not always obvious ; ^
but whatever the reason may be, the practice of keeping
unshorn the hair of children whose elder brothers or sisters
have died appears to be widespread. Thus in Java it is
customary to crop the hair of children quite close, to shave it
off completely, or to leave only one or two tufts on their
heads. But at a place called Wanasaba, in Central Java,
when parents have lost several children by death, they
will not clip or shave the hair of the next-born child, but
will suffer it to grow long, unkempt, and matted, till it
resembles an unwashed sheepskin. In the belief of the
people, this mode of wearing the hair serves to protect the
child from sickness and misfortune, and later in life to ensure
the success of his undertakings. At a subsequent time,
generally when the child has shed its milk teeth, the long
hair is cut off with a good deal of ceremony at a gathering
of the family and friends, and the shorn locks are carefully
buried.* Similarly, in the south and west of Madagascar the
natives allow their children's hair to grow for one, two, or
three years after birth, not only without cutting but even
without combing or dressing it in any way, until the tangled
' J. M. Douie, " Opprobrious
Names — Evil Eye," Panjab Notes and
Queries, i. No. 3 (December, 1883),
p. 26, § 219.
2 A. M. T. Jackson, "The Folk-lore
of Gujarat," The Indian Antiquary,
xl. (Bombay, 191 1), Supplement, p. 7
note*.
^ For examples see G. A. Wilken,
"Das Haaropfer," De versp7-eide
Geschrijten (The Hague, 19 1 2), iii.
491 sqq. ; Taboo and the Perils of the
Sotil, pp. 258 sqq. [The Golden Botigh,
Third Edition, Part ii. ).
* E. Jacobson, " Das Haaropfer in
Zentral-Java," Internationales Archiv
fiir Ethnographie, xxi. (Leyden, 1913)
pp. 197 sq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 189
locks have coalesced into a filthy clotted mass resembling
felt. They imagine that by this attention, or rather neglect,
they ensure for the infant the protection of certain goblins
or ancestral spirits, who will act as the child's guardian
angels and preserve it in good health. Finally the hair is
ceremonially cut by the father or mother or by the chief,
who offers prayers and thanks to the guardian deities or
spirits. The shorn locks are buried at the foot of a tree or
thrown into a torrent.^ In these cases the notion may be
that the child's guardian spirit actually resides in the hair,
and that to shear the head of the little one would be to
dislodge and banish its powerful protector. So among the
Hos of Togoland, in West Africa, "there are priests on
whose head no razor has come throughout their whole life.
The god who dwells in the man forbids the shearing of his
hair under threat of death. If the hair at last grows too
long, the owner must pray to his god to let him at least
clip the extreme ends of it. For the hair is conceived
as the seat and abode of his god ; were it cut off, the god
would lose his dwelling in the priest." 2 Other peoples leave
a i&'N locks of hair on a child's head as a refuge for its own
soul, to which that sensitive being may retreat before the
aggressive shears or razor when the rest of the hair is shorn
or shaved. Such is the practice of the Toradjas of Central
Celebes and the Karo-Bataks of Sumatra, and such is the
theory by which they explain it.^
Another possible, though perhaps less probable, motive Desire to
for treating in a special way the hair of a child whose elder ^^ifdren
brothers or sisters have died in infancy, might be a desire so whose
to disguise or disfigure the child that he should either escape brothers or
the notice or excite the aversion of those dangerous spirits sisters have
who had carried off the other babies. According to Sir treating
1 A. et G. Grandidier, Ethnographic iv. Reeks iii. (Amsterdam, 1899), [Q^^'^g^gjjg,
de Madagascar, ii. (Paris, 1914) pp. p. igSnoteS; N. Adriani en Alb C. ^"^y ^^n^'^
2^l-2()T [Histoire Physique, NatiireUe Krujt, De Bare'e-sprckende Toradja's ^^^^^^^^
et Poliiiqtie de Madagascar, \o\.\\.). van Midden-Celebes (Patavia, 1 9 1 2- tjjgy. ^oggg
„ . , , r, ■ y r^. T~ c:- 1914). ii- 64; K. Romer, •' Biidrage and ears
2 Jakob Sp.eth, Dte Ewe-Stamnu ^^^t ^^'geneeskunst der Karo-Batak^s/' "^ ''
(Berhn, 1906), p. 229. Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land-
3 A. C. Kruyt, " Het koppensnellcn en Volkenkunde, 1. (1908) p. 216.
der Toradja's," Verslagen- en Mede- Compare Taboo and the Perils of the
deeligen der Koninklijke Akadeinievan Soul, p. 263 i^The Golden Bough,
Wetenschapcn, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Third Edition, Part ii.).
I go BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
Richard C. Temple, this latter motive underlies the practice
of piercing the noses and ears of children whose elder
brothers or sisters have died. " These ear - boring and
nose-piercing customs," he tells us, " also arise from a wish
to spoil the ' perfection ' of the child. Unblemished or
beautiful children are supposed to be the special delight of
fairies, who walk off with them, and of the demons who
possess them." ^ A like train of thought may perhaps
further explain " an important class of customs which we
may call the mutilating customs always arising from the
idea of averting evil. In some cases the mother cuts off a
piece of the child's ear and eats it, which gives rise to the
name Btard, ' crop-eared.' ^ To this strange custom we shall
find a parallel in Africa, to which we now return.
interpreta- In the light of the foregoing evidence we can now inter-
AfHcan P^^^ '^\\^ morc Confidence the East African customs of
treatment piercing the ears of infants whose elder brothers or sisters
whose'^'^^" have died, and of temporarily transferring such children to
elder strangers, from whom the parents are obliged to buy them
sistershave back for a Small sum.^ It seems probable, if not certain,
died: the that in Africa, as in India, the nominal transference and
sale of such purchase of an infant in these circumstances is an attempt
children is ^o deceive the spirits, to whose malice the parents impute
intended to /- i - i , i m i -r* i • i m i
deceive the the deaths of their elder children. By purchasing the child
spirits who {^q^ ^ Stranger, who brings it to their door, they plainly
otherwise insinuate that the child is not theirs but the offspring of the
woman from whom they have bought it ; and accordingly
they imagine that the spirits, believing them to be childless,
will no longer visit their house with evil intentions, and that
if they deign to notice the purchased child at all, they will
be either too indifferent or too honest to meddle with an
article of property which has been fairly bought and paid for.*
1 (Sir) R. C. Temple, " Oppro- the Bakongo of the Lower Congo, but
brious Names," The Indian Antiquary, they apply it, not to the child, but to
X. (i88i) p. 332. As to the custom the mother who has lost several chil-
of ear-piercing among the Hindoos, see dren by death. She is sold for a
also R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes of nominal sum to a fetish-man, who by
the Cential Provinces of India CLonAon, removing a bunch of plantains, which
1916), iv. 528 sgq. the woman carries on her head, is sup-
2 (Sir) R. C. Temple, I.e. posed to confer on her the power of
8 See above, pp. 168 sq. bearing healthy children. See John
* The expedient of a mock sale is H. Weeks, Among the Pi-iviitive
sometimes adopted in similar cases by Bakongo (London, 1914), p. 228.
carry
them off,
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT't^ EAR 191
But while the African custom of selling children to their African
own parents under these circumstances is explained beyond '^^^'°'" of
the reach of reasonable doubt by the Indian parallels, it is the ears of
not clear that the African practice of piercing the children's ^^^hot?"
ears in such cases is explained by the similar Indian custom, elder
For whereas in India the operation is performed on boys or'sisters
for the purpose of assimilating them to girls and so of have died,
deceiving the spirits with regard to the sex of the children,
in Africa the operation is apparently performed alike on
boys and on girls, and cannot therefore serve to disguise the
sex of the child operated on. Hence we have still to inquire,
What is the meaning of the African custom of piercing
children's ears in this particular case ? Before attempting to
answer the question it may be well to consider the other
devices to which African parents resort for the purpose of
preserving the life of younger children whose elder brothers
or sisters have died. On the whole these devices differ
little from those which parental affection and superstitious
fear have suggested to anxious fathers and mothers in many
other parts of the world.
Among the Ewe tribes of Southern Togo, when a m names
woman's children die one after another at birth, the people ^P^l'^*^ ^°
say that she has borne them only for death. So when her whose
next child is born, the infant receives one of a special class brothers
of names called dzikudziku or " dying " names, which signify or sisters
something mean, disagreeable, or repulsive, " in order that among the
Death may feel no desire to meddle with the child," or " in Ewe tribes
order that Death may be deceived and fancy that these and the
children are not human beings at all." Thus a child will be ^ngio of
called Ati or " Tree," " in order that when Death sees the Guinea.
child, he may think it is a tree indeed and may not kill it."
Or a child will be called Pig's-trough or Pig's-basket, and,
in order to justify its name, it will be placed in a pig's trough
or in a basket used for carrying pigs, before it is given to
the mother. Or, again, the infant will be named after an
inferior sort of yam, to imply that it is not so fine a child as
its elder brothers and sisters, which resembled yams of the
best quality. Or it will be called Hairs-on-the-maize-cob,
because nobody eats these hairs but throws them away in
the bush, with the implication, that the child deserves to be
192
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
lU names
applied to
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died
in Mada-
gascar.
Ill names
applied to
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died
among the
Basutos.
cast away in like manner. Or the baby will receive a name
meaning " Short Maize-cob," whereby the mother means to
insinuate that the infant is not human at all, nothing but
a contemptible little maize - cob. Other names bestowed
on children whose elder brothers or sisters have died are
"Sweepings," "She-iias-thrown-him-away," "Death shall come
and kill this child also," and " The number of children that
die is greater than the number of those that remain in life."
These names are given to children for the purpose of pro-
longing their life, and in the belief that the names have
power to lengthen the span of their existence.^ So among
the Anglo people of Upper Guinea, " when parents lose
their children again and again by death, they generally
bestow depreciatory names on the next children in order
thereby, as they believe, to divert the evil spirits from them ;
for they believe that the evil spirits are deceived when
parents give their child a meaningless or hideous name." ^
Similarly, in Madagascar, " when parents have lost one
or several of their children, they are in the habit of giving
to those they have afterwards, at least during their early
years, the name of an animal, or some other vile, ill-sounding
name, for the purpose of averting the fate which has proved
disastrous to their firstborn, and of warding off the evil
spirits ; for they believe that the evil spirits will let alone
a child whom the parents think so lightly of that they
call him by so mean a name. Hence there are persons
known by such names as Mr. Beast, Mr. Little Dog, Mr.
Crocodile, Mr. Rat, Mr. Little Pig, Miss Mouse, and so forth,
or Miss Cow-dung, Mr. Rubbish-heap, Mr. Dunghill, Mr.
Muck, Mr. Nobody, Mr. Rascal, and so on."^
In like manner " the Basutos may call a girl Moselantja
(Diminutive, Mosele), which means the ' Tail of a Dog.'
This name is regarded as very repulsive, and it is given to
a baby when the previous children who died had been given
nice names. It is thought that were another nice name
1 J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stiinime (Ber-
lin, 1906), pp. 219 sq., 616-618, 696 ;
id., pie Religion der Eweer in Siid-
T^c.^w/Leipsic, 1911), .pp. 22<) sg.
2 G. Hartter (Missionar), " Sitten
und Gebrauche der Angloer (Ober-
Guinea)," Zeitschrifl fiir Ethnologic,
xxxviii. (1906) p. 41.
3 A. et G. Grandidier, Ethnographie
de Madagascar, ii. (Paris, 19 14) pp.
300 sq. [Hisloire Pliysique, Naturelle
et Politique de Madagascar, vol. iv.).
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
193
chosen this fresh child would also die. The spell is broken
by choosing a disgusting name." ^ The vague notion of
breaking a spell of bad luck is European rather than
African ; in giving bad names to his children the Basuto
probably has a much more definite conception in his mind,
namely, the notion of dangerous spirits who carry off
children, but who can be deceived or diverted from their
prey by the use of repulsive names. That this is the real
motive at the back of the Basuto mind appears from the
statement of a Catholic missionary who laboured in the
tribe. " The ancestors," he says, " play a great part in all
the concerns which interest the Kafir family. It is to them
that these poor people give the name of ' gods,' and to
whom they attribute good and especially evil fortune. If a
child is sick, it is its grandmother or such-and-such another
of its ancestors who is calling the feeble creature away, and
the spirit must be appeased by a sacrifice. If a child dies. Custom of
it will be necessary to resort to a stratagem in order to the^sex'of
preserve the life of the next born. He will be given a children
name capable of terrifying the insatiable divinity, or perhaps eider
he will be dressed in the garments of the other sex till he has brothers or
o ° sisters have
grown up. Thus the Basutos, like many Hmdoo parents, died.
do not always trust to the unaided efficacy of ugly names to
protect their offspring ; they sometimes disguise the sex of
the child as an additional precaution against the malice or
the affection of the spirits, who would draw away the little
one, like its dead brothers and sisters, to the spirit-land.
So in the Thonga tribe, about Delagoa Bay, when a mother
has lost three or four children by death, she will dress her
next born child, if it is a boy, in girl's clothing, and if the child
is a girl, the mother will clothe her as a boy. Another way Children
in which a bereaved Thonga mother seeks to ensure the eider^
life of her latest born is this. She carries the child to the brothers or
house of her own parents, and there buries it up to the neck died are
in the ash-heap. Then somebody runs to the village, takes sometimes
^ •' ° buried in
grams of maize and throws them at the child. Afterwards the ash-
the infant is dug up out of the ash-heap, washed, smeared Jj^^Jj^j^y'^^
1 Dudley Kidd, Savage Childhood, " Basutoland, Roma, i'^'" decembre
a Study of Kafir Children (London, 1879," in Aiinaks de la Propagation
1906), p. 36. dc la Foi, lii. (Lyons, 1880) p. 365.
2 Letter of Father Deltour, dated
VOL. Ill O
194 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
with ochre, and brought home. It is supposed that the per-
formance of this ceremony will put a stop to the death of
the woman's children.^ Here the notion probably is that
by burying the child in ashes you delude the ancestral
spirits into supposing that it is not a human being but mere
sweepings and refuse. Similar ceremonies, as we saw, are
performed for a similar purpose in India to preserve the
lives of infants whose elder brothers and sisters have died."
Among the Herero of South-West Africi we read of a
child called " He is in the dung " {^Komonibumbi), because,
three elder children of his father having died, the infant
had immediately after birth been carried to the cattle pen
and there covered up with dry cow's dung to save him from
a speedy death.^
Among the Similarly among the Hausas of North Africa, " when a
chHdren mother has had several children who have died young,
whoseeider special carc will be taken with the next, for it is recognised
sisters have that the woman is a wabi — ix. one fated to lose her off-
died are spring. One way is as follows. It is taken upon a cloth
a dunghill by the mother and placed disdainfully upon a dunghill, or
or ash- upon a heap of dust, and left there by her, she going home
the sides and pretending to abandon it. But immediately behind
of their j^ come friends, who pick it up, and take it back to her,
heads are _ ' r r> ^
shaved The child will have only one half of its head shaved alter-
alternately, j^^^gjy yj^tij ^^^ij.^ ^^^ ^jU |3g C2X\&^ Ajuji (Upon the.
Dunghill) or Ayashi (Upon the Dust-heap) according to the
place upon which it was placed. A mother who thinks this
procedure too drastic may call her child Angulu (Vulture)
and trust to luck. This dirty bird is said to disgust the
spirits. . . . The real explanation seems to be that the
spirits do not want the child because of itself, but merely to
punish the mother, and if so her best means of keeping it is
to convince them that she would be glad if it went. Brass
rings threaded on a string are worn around neck and waist
until the child is adult, and the mother will shave half or
the whole of her head, as already described, probably in
1 Henri A. Junod, The Life of a ^ Rev. E. Dannert, " Customs of
South African T;-ibe (Neuchatel, 19 12- the Ovaherero at the birth of a child,"
1913), i. 191 sq. (South Africati) Folk-lore /out nal, ii.
(1880) pp. 67 sq.; J. Irle, Die Herero
2 Above, pp. 178, 182, I S3, 186. (Giitersloh, 1906), p. 195.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 195
order to render her unrecognisable by the bori,'' ^ that is, by
the spirits.
The custom of shaving the tv/o sides of such a child's Custom of
head alternately is observed also by the Wolofs of Senegambia. a^pecula?
Among them " when a woman has lost several children, she wa)' the
hopes to save the life of the survivor by shaving alter- children
nately one side of the child's head so that the hair is never whose
of the same length on the two sides. This custom explains brothers
a peculiarity which often strikes a stranger on arriving for °^ ^"^'f'^^
the first time in Senegambia." ^ In similar cases the
Basutos shave the head of the surviving child, leaving a very
small tuft of hair at the back,^ and we have seen that under
like circumstances a like custom is observed by Moham-
medans in India, perhaps for the sake of disfiguring the
child and so inducing the spirits to turn away from it in
disgust*
The same explanation possibly applies to a curious Custom of
mutilation practised by the Tigre tribes of Abyssinia. cmUng""^
Among them, "if the mother of the babe has formerly lost off part of
1 1 • 1 1 • 1 -1 1 1- ' 'he ear of
children by death, she bites — lest this child die too — a a child
little piece off the rim of his ear-shell, and taking it with a whose
^ . . elder
little cooked butter she swallows it ; in this case a boy is brothers or
called Cerrum or Qetum, a girl Cerremet or Qetmet {i.e. ^^^^^""^'^
' bitten '). Or else she calls him with an ugly name or sur-
name." ^ A Hindoo mother likewise, as we saw, will
sometimes bite off and swallow a piece of the ear of the
child whose life she hopes thus to save.^ Yet if such a
practice were intended simply to make the infant unsightly
in the eyes of the spirits, why should the mother swallow
1 A. J. N. Tremearne, TAe Ban of "especially in cases where the children
M« ^orz (London, Preface dated 1914), in a family are short-lived." See R.
pp. 104 sq. E. Enthoven, " Folklore of the Kon-
2 L. J. B. Berenger-Feraud, Lcs
Peitpladesdela Shiigambie{ Paris, 1879),
kan," The htdian Aniiqnary, xliv.
(Bombay, 1915) Supplement, p. 63.
Here also the intention may be to dis-
^' ■ figure the child as a protection against
■i T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Kela- ^^^ dangerous admiration or malice of
tien d[un Voyage d" Exploratton ati spirits
Nord-est de la Colonic dti Cap de Bonne- 5 Enno Littmann, Publications of the
Espirance (Pans, 1842), pp. 493 ^9- Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia, vol.
* Above, pp. 187 j^. IntheKolhapur ii. Tales, Customs, Names and Dirges
district of the Konkan, in the Bombay of the Tigre tribes: English transla-
Presidency, it is customary to tattoo tion (Leyden, 1910), p. 1 19.
oneside of the bodies of female children, ^ Above, p. 190.
196
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Bracelets,
rings, or
other
trinkets
worn as
amulets by
children
whose
elder
brothers
or sisters
have died.
the portion of the car which she has bitten off? The act
appears meaningless on this hypothesis, and accordingly we
seem driven to look for another explanation. We shall
return to this point presently. Meantime it is to be noted
that a like mutilation is practised under like circumstances
by the Masai. "If a Masai woman gives birth to a boy
after the death of one of her sons, a small piece is cut off
the ear of the newly-born babe and he is called Nawaya,
i.e. from whom it has been snatched. When the child
grows up his name is changed to Ol-owara, which has the
same meaning. Sometimes children's ears are not cut, in
which case they wear a special kind of bracelet, called En-
daret, and a ring on one of their toes," namely, the second
toe of the right foot.^ Here the bracelet and toe-ring are
clearly substitutes for the mutilation of the ear, and they
are probably viewed as amulets which preserve the life of
the wearer. This interpretation of the trinkets is rendered
almost certain by a similar practice of the Nandi, a tribe
closely akin to the Masai ; for among the Nandi, " if a
person dies, his next younger brother or sister has to wear
a certain ornament for the rest of his or her life. This is
not a sign of mourning, but is to prevent the evil spirit or
disease from attacking the next member of the family.
Little girls generally have an arrangement of beads called
songoniet, which is attached to their hair and hangs over the
forehead and nose. Boys and girls wear a necklace made
of chips of a gourd {sepetaiik), and boys also at times wear
a garment made of Colobus monkey-skin instead of goat-
skin. Women wear an iron necklace, called karik-ap-teget,
and men an iron armlet, called asie/da." ^ Similarly a
Hindoo parent who has lost several children will attempt to
protect the survivor by loading him or her with amulets,
one of which is sometimes an iron ring.^ We saw that in
Annam for the same purpose an iron ring is put on a
child's foot.* Among the Swahili of East Africa, when a
mother has lost two children by death, she will call her next
child Runaway (^Mtoro) and tie a string round his neck and
1 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford,
1905). P- 306.
2 A. C. Hoilis, The Nandi (Oxford,
1909), p. 29.
3 W. Buchanan, in Panjab Notes
and Queries, iii. No. 35 (August,
1886), p. 186, § 777-
* Above, p. 171.
CHAP, in BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 197
waist, " in order that he may not run away (that is, die) as
his brothers or sisters have done before him." ^
Among the Bateso of the Uganda Protectorate " as soon Special
as we begin to investigate the significance of names, we find cut°forThe
that infant mortality is to the fore in the minds of many use of a
r^ , . . J ^v- • • child whose
parents. Opoloto is a common name, and this is given, ^-^^^^
Hke Wempisi, when many previous children have died at brothers
birth or soon after. At the same time a fresh doorway is ^^^^ ^ied.
cut in the side of the house for the use of the child ; on no
account must it be taken through the other, or allowed to
use it when old enough to walk. A young white fowl is
also selected and carefully kept ; when the child gets big
this fowl is killed and eaten by father and son together, the
white feathers being stuck all round the child's special
doorway. By this means it is thought evil will be averted
from the child so that it may not suffer the fate of its pre-
decessors." ^ The cutting of a special doorway in the side
of the house for the use of such a child is probably a
precaution intended to withdraw it from the observation
of spirits, who naturally lie in wait for their prey at the
ordinary doorway, never suspecting that their intended
victim is passing freely out and in through a new door-
way specially made for him in the wall. With a similar
intent to deceive demons, as we saw, it sometimes happens
that in India a special opening is made under the doorway
and the infant smuggled through it into the house.^
The Ewe negroes of Southern Togo are not content Face of
with bestowing ugly or misleading names on children whose e|)]|!^^^^°^^
elder brothers or sisters have died. As a further precaution brothers
to ensure the life of the latest born infant, the aunt or havg^Ted
grandmother, who names the child, marks it with seven cuts is marked
in the face, rubbing soot into the fresh wounds in order to cuts among
stop the bleeding. If it is desired to make the mark very ^^e Ewe
. . 1 r • • • J negroes of
conspicuous by raising scars, a salve of cactus juice mixed southern
wi
th gunpowder is smeared over the wounds. The cuts are '^°^°-
1 C. Velten, Silten tend Gebrduche considered wiser to give ill-sounding
der Sttaheli (Gottingen, 1903), pp. 22 names to children lest the spirits be
sq. roused to envy, hence the apparently
2 Rev. A. L. Kitcbing, On the Back- contemptuous title of ' the rat.' "
•waters of the Nile (London, 19 12), p.
179. Compare id., p. 181, "It is ^ Above, p. 183.
198 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
disposed in two groups of three radiating from each of the
eyebrows, with a single cut running obliquely across one of
the cheeks. Instead of the cuts over the eyebrows, many
children have two cuts extending obliquely over both
cheeks. As the woman makes these incisions in the face
of the newly born child, she turns to the spectators and
says, " It shall live ! " ^ According to another account, the
child receives as many cuts on the forehead as it has dead
brothers or sisters, and the cuts are made, not at birth, but
at the time when the child begins to crawl on the ground.^
The intention of this cruel, but no doubt kindly meant,
mutilation is perhaps to disfigure the child and so to save
its life by rendering it unalluring to the spirits, who might
otherwise have carried it off.
Hottentot Other races are reported to inflict, in similar cases, a
bidng or^ different and even more cruel mutilation on their children,
cutting off and if the report is correct the custom may be susceptible
k)int^of"a °^ ^ similar explanation. But the evidence as to the
chiidwhose observance of the custom by particular races appears to be
brothers or either too scanty or too conflicting to allow us to pronounce
sisters have with Confidence on the question. Thus an old Dutch writer
Boeving relates that " there are several Hottentots who
have mutilated fingers ; the cause of which is said to be
this. If a mother loses her first child by death, she bites
off a joint of a finger of her next born ; superstitiously
believing that that child becomes thereby more likely to live."^
Koiben's But the Dutch writer Peter Kolben, who reports this state-
conflictmg j^gjji- believed that Boeving had been misinformed. He
report ' o
concerning says, " This is a very strange whim and as oddly worded
in Boeving. He was impos'd on in the matter, as I was
for almost my two first years residence at the Cape, but in
another manner. The Hottentots about the Cape abus'd
me into a belief, and, for the time I have mention'd, I con-
tinu'd in it very stedfastly, that those amputations were
made to denote the pedigrees of the women ; that the
greater or more illustrious the family was from which a
Hottentot woman was descended, the more joints were cut
1 J. Spieth, Die Eive-Sidmme (Bar- Ixxix. (1901) p. 351.
lin, 1906), pp. 227 sq. 3 Peter Kolben, The Present State
2 " Namengebung und Hochzeits- of the Cape of Good Hope, Second
brauche bei den Togo-negern," Globus, Edition (London, 1738), i. 309.
the custom.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 199
off from her fingers : so that I look'd upon this practice as
the Hottentot heraldry, and on the mutilated fingers of the
women as coats of arms for the honour and distinction of
families ; imagining that the honour or nobility of Hottentot
families went only with the females. ... I was not un-
deceiv'd till I made a sally up into the country ; which I did
not till I had remain'd almost two years at the Cape Town.
The Hottentots who liv'd far from the Cape, and whose
simplicity had not been corrupted by vicious European
conversations, let me into the truth of the matter. And
the truth is, that a Hottentot woman, for every marriage
after her first, loses the joint of a finger, beginning at one
of the little fingers. The re-marrying women are call'd so
strictly to the observance of this custom, that there was not
in my time at the Cape any memory I could meet with
of its being evaded. After I had receiv'd this account of
the matter, I examin'd from time to time the hands of
abundance of Hottentot women, and never found any
mutilated fingers but upon the hands of such as had married
more than once. Not a mutilated finger is to be found
among the Hottentot men ; which must have been, were
Boeving's account here true. Father Tachart is the only
author that I know of who has hit upon the truth of this
matter before me." ^
A more modern writer on the races of South Africa G. Fritsch
tells us that among the Hottentots, and especially among Hottentot
the women, mutilated fingers are very common, that the custom of
most frequent mutilation is that of a joint of the little J^g togerl
finger, but that sometimes two joints of the little finger
are missing and sometimes also the last joints of the next
fingers. But he rejects Kolben's view as the exclusive
explanation of the custom, because children as well as
adults are undoubtedly to be seen with finger-joints want-
ing, which could not be the case if Kolben were right
in thinking that only widows at remarriage are subjected
1 Peter Kolben, op. cit. i. 309-31 1. time, must have the top joint of a
Compare C. P. Thunberg, "An finger cut off, and loses another joint
Account of the Cape of Good Hope," for the third, and so on for each time
in John Pinkerton's Voyages and that she enters into wedlock." But
Travels (London, 1808-1814), xvi. Thunberg may have simply borrowed
141, •' A widow, who marries a second from Kolben, whom he cites.
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Sonnerat
on the
custom.
Th. Hahn
on the
custom.
Custom of
mutilating
the little
finger
among the
Hill
Damaras.
to this mutilation. Indeed, he partly reverts to the opinion
which Kolben attempted to refute, observing that the
amputation, " as an old author (Boeving) quite rightly-
remarked, is performed on children to protect them against
injurious influences of any kind, not only, however, when
one child has previously died, but, like the Ubiilnnga of the
Kafirs, it is carried out by superstitious parents sometime
after the birth. Nevertheless the custom cannot be uni-
versal, since the finger-joints are often to be found entire,
and further there are no statements as to the reasons why
girls seem to be more regularly subjected to the operation
than boys." ^ To the same effect a French traveller of the
eighteenth century, speaking of the Hottentots, affirms that
" some of them superstitiously cut off a joint of their fingers
in their infancy, imagining that after the operation the evil
spirit has no more power over them." ^ And in agreement
with both writers it is observed by a modern authority on
the Hottentots that "the practice of cutting off a finger,"
as he calls it, " is done even to new-born children who are
not a day old. As all sicknesses are expected to come
from Gauna, or from his servants, the practitioners of witch-
craft, it appears that this custom is a kind of sacrifice or
offering to Gauna," an evil spirit who is supposed to cause
the deaths of human beings, and whom accordingly the
Hottentots try to propitiate by promises of offerings.^
Among the Hill Damaras, a tribe who speak a Hottentot
language but belong to a totally different race, it is customary
to cut off the first joint of the little finger of the left hand
of every child that is born, whether male or female ; indeed,
this mutilation is said to be the distinctive badge of the
tribe.*
1 Gustav Fritsch, Die Eingebore-
nen S/id-Afrika's (Breslau, 1872), pp.
332 sq.
2 Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orien-
tales et h la Chine (Paris, 1782), ii.
93-
3 Theophilus Hahn, Tstim-\\Goam,
the Stipreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi
(London, 188 1), p. 87. As to Gauna,
see id., pp. 85 sq.
* J. Irle, Die Herero (Gtitersloh,
1906), p. 155. According to this
writer (p. 151), the Hill Damaras,
though their language is Hottentot,
differ as far from the Hottentots in
colour, form, and mode of life as one
race can differ from another ; they are
also quite distinct from the Bushmen,
the Herero, and all the other Bantu
tribes by whom they are surrounded,
in fact they are pure negroes (p. 149).
The absolute distinction of the Hill
Damaras from the Hottentots, Herero,
and Bushmen is maintained also by
CHAP, in BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 201
From a comparison of these statements we may perhaps Conclusion
conclude that among the Hottentots a joint is often cut Hottentot
from the finger of a young child, whether male or female, custom of
for the purpose of prolonging its life, and that as children the fingers.
whose elder brothers or sisters have died are commonly
believed to be peculiarly liable to die also, the mutilation is
frequently, though by no means exclusively, performed on
such children with the benevolent intention of saving their
lives.
Among the Bushmen the custom appears to be similar. Custom of
Speaking of them, a French missionary writes that, " strangely |^^g fhfger-
enough, if a woman loses her first infant and gives birth to a joints of
second, she cuts off the tip of the little finger of the second among"the
child and throws it away." But he adds that, according to Bushmen,
one of his converts, who had grown up among the Bushmen,
the mutilation with some of them was " a badge of caste
and therefore common to all their children." ^ In harmony
vv^ith this latter statement is the account of the custom given
by another authority on the Bushmen. " The custom of
cutting off the first joint of the little finger was almost
universal among the Bushman tribes. The operation w^as
performed with a sharp stone, and they believed that by
this act of self-mutilation they secured to themselves a long
continued career of feasting after death. The 'Gariepean
Bushmen have the following myth upon the subject : one of
them stated that not only his own tribe, but many others
also, believed that at some undefined spot on the banks of
the Gariep, or Great river, there is a place called 'Todga, to
which after death they all will go ; and that to ensure a safe
journey thither they cut off the first joint of the little finger
of the left, or right hand, one tribe adopting the one fashion,
another the other. This they consider is a guarantee that
they will be able to arrive there without difficulty, and that
G\x%X2.yi Ymsoh {Die Emgeborenen Slid- herero," Zeiischrift det Geselhchaft
Afrikas, pp. 211 sqq.). The view fiir Erdkimde zu Berlin, iv. (1869)
that the Hill Damaras are a negro p. 229).
people, and spoke a negro language
before their contact with the Hotten- ^ T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Hela-
tots, vas held also by Josapliat Hahn, lion d'un Voyage d'Exploration au
who, however, confounds the Herero Nord-est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-
also with the Negroes ("Die Ova- Espirance {Vz.x\i, 1842), p. 493.
202 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
upon their arrival they will be feasted with locusts and
honey, whilst those who have neglected this rite will have
to travel upon their heads, beset the entire distance with
all kinds of imaginary obstacles and difficulties ; and even
after all their labour on arriving at the desired destination
they will have nothing given to them but flies to live upon." ^
However, according to a native Bushman account, reported
by Dr. W. H. I. Bleek, a writer of the highest authority on the
Bushmen, the mutilation is not universal ; it is inflicted on
little children of both sexes, boys losing the top joint of the
little finger of the right hand, and girls losing the corre-
sponding joint of the left hand, but some boys and girls are
not thus mutilated. The reason assigned by the native
informant for thus mutilating the right hand of boys was that
" they shoot with this hand " ; though why some boys and
girls should be exempt from the operation he does not
explain. Further, he said that " the joint is cut off with
reed. It is thought to make children live to grow up. It
is done before they suck at all." " According to Theophilus
Hahn, " the practice of cutting off a finger " of children before
they are a day old is common to the Bushmen with the
Hottentots and the Hill Damaras ; but he does not tell us
whether it is carried out on all the children or only on some.^
Conclusion From a comparison of these accounts we may conclude
Houentot ^^^^ among the Bushmen, as among the Hottentots, the
and practice of cutting off the joint of a young child's finger,
cus^tom^of whether boy or girl, is common but not universal, that it is
cutting off believed to benefit the child in some way, whether in this
finger- world or in the next, and that the mutilation is inflicted
joints. particularly, though not exclusively, on a child whose elder
^ George W. Stow, The Native told that "they never, to my know-
Races of South Africa {X'OXiAoVi., 1905), ledge, cut off the joints of the little
p. 129. Elsewhere (p. 152) the same fingers. None that I have examined
writer mentions a tribe of Bushmen, of were so mutilated, either amongst men
whom every one had the first joint of or women. They, however, knew that
the little finger cut off. it was a Bushman custom, and common
2 Specimens of Bicshman Folk-lore, amongst some tribes. " See Rev. S. S.
collected by the late W. H. I. Bleek, Durnan, "The Tati Bushmen (Masar-
Ph.D., and L. C. Lloyd (London, was) and their Language, "yi?z<;-«a/ of
191 1), pp. 329-331; compare W. the Royal Anthropological Institute,
H. I. Bleek, A Brief Account of xlvii. (19 17) p. 51.
Bushman Folk-lore (London, 1875), ^ Theophilus Hahn, Tsuni-\\Goam,
p. 17. Of the Tati Bushmen, called the Supreme Being of the Khol-Khoi
Masarwas by the Bechuanas, we are (London, 18S1), p. 87.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 203
brothers or sisters died in infancy with the hope of prolong-
ing the life of the survivor.
A similar custom is said to be practised by the Ba- Custom of
Bongo, a tribe in the upper valley of the Ogowe River, in the ^^"^"5 °^
French Gaboon. When a firstborn child has died, a joint joints of
of the little finger is cut off the hand, not only of the next, l^„"thr'^
but of all the children subsequently born in the family.^ Gaboon
In Madagascar it would seem that a like mutilation has at gascar.
least occasionally been resorted to for the purpose of saving
the life or improving the prospects of a child ; for we read
of a certain man, afterwards a famous prime minister, who
had had the first joints of the forefinger and little finger of
his left hand amputated in infancy for the purpose of avoiding
the evil fate under which he was supposed to have been born.^
Nor has this cruel mutilation of infant hands been practised
from kindly motives only by barbarous tribes of Africa and
Madagascar. We are told that in Iceland in former times
any woman who bit off her child's finger " in order that it
might live longer," was punished only with a fine.^
Similar amputations of finger-joints have been customary Amputa-
among some of the aboriginal tribes on the coasts of New f5„"g°.
South Wales, Queensland, and the Northern Territory of joints
South Australia, but the motive for the mutilation remains aborigines
obscure ; nowhere, apparently, is it said that the operation of
is designed to save the life of the child on whom it is
performed. So far as appears, the mutilation was confined
to women. For example, of the tribes which at the end custom of
of the eighteenth century occupied the territory about Port [5,'^''//,^^''
Jackson and Botany Bay we read that " the women are early fin'ger-
subjected to an uncommon mutilation of the two first joints j°J^^^g°
of the little finger of the left hand. This operation is children
performed when they are very young, and is done under an tribesmen '^
idea that these joints of the little finger are in the way when the coast of
they wind their fishing-lines over the hand. Very few were waiesand
1 Mgr. Le Roy " Las pygmees," in 277 (Histoire Physique, Naturelk, el ^^^^
Les Missions Catholiqnes, xxix. (Lyons, Politique de Madagascar, vol. iv.).
1897) p. 90. Mgr. Le Roy reports
the custom on the evidence of a native ^ Max Bartels, "Islandischer Brauch
traveller of Fernan-Vaz who had lived und Volksglaube in Bezug auf die
and traded among the Ba-B6ngo. Nachkommenschaft," Zeitschrift Jiir
2 A. et G. Grandidier, .£'/A«(7^rfl//;/> Elhvologie, xxxii. (1900) p. 81, citing
de Madagascar, ii. (Paris, 1 9 14) p. Olafsen as his authority.
custom
said to be
204 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
to be met with who had not undergone this ceremony, and
these appeared to be held in contempt." ^ The amputation
was effected by tying a hair tightly round the finger so as
to stop the circulation of the blood ; as a consequence
mortification set in and the joint dropped off.^ To the
same effect a voyager who visited the coast of New South
Wales at the beginning of the nineteenth century tells us
that among the natives, " whilst the female child is in its in-
fancy, they deprive it of the two first joints of the little finger
of the right hand ; the operation being effected by obstruct-
The ing the circulation by means of a tight ligature. The dis-
membered part is thrown into the sea, that the child may be
hereafter fortunate in fishing."^ In the Port Stephens tribe
J?a go^od o" '^^ co^s^ °^ N^^ South Wales, " a mother amputates the
fisher- little finger of the right hand of one of her female children
woman. ^^ ^^^^ ^^ .^ j^ born, in token of its appointment to the
office of fisherwoman to the family." * Among the natives
of Denwich Island, about forty-five miles south of Brisbane,
the men gash their arms, legs, breast, and back with shells,
in order to raise great scars, which they regard as orna-
mental. " As for the women, it is less the taste for ornament
than the idea of a religious sacrifice which leads them to
mutilate themselves. While they are still young, the end of
the little finger of the left hand is tied up with cobwebs ;
the circulation of the blood being thus obstructed, after a
few days the first joint is torn off and dedicated to the boa
serpent, to fishes, or to kangaroos." ^ Again, in the coastal
1 Lieutenant-Colonel [David] Col- Zealand (London, 1847), ii. 225 ;
\ms, An Accoitni of the English Colony J. D. Lang, Qtteensland (London,
in New South Wales, Second Edition 1861), p. 344; R. Brough Smyth,
, (London, 1804), pp. 358 sq. The first The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne
edition of Collins's book was published and London, 1878), i. p. xxiii; Edward
in 1798. His statement has been M. Curr, The Australian Race (Mel-
reproduced more or less fully by later bourne and London, 18S6-18S7), iii.
writers. See the following note. 406.
2 George Barrington, The History ^ John Turnbull, A Voyage ronnd
of New SoHfh Wales (London, 1 802), the World in the Years 1800, iSoi,
pp. 1 1 sq. In other respects Barring- 1S02, i8oj and 1S04, Second Edition
ton's account agrees with that of (London, 1813), p. 100.
Collins. Their evidence is reproduced "^ Robert Dawson, quoted by A. W,
by J. Dumont D'Urville, Voyage autoiir Hewitt, The Native Tribes of Soiith-
du Monde et a la recherche de la East Australia (London, 1904), p.
Ph-07ise (Paris, 1832- 1833), i. 406. 747.
Compare G. F. Angas, Savage Life '■' Annales de la Propagation de la
and Scenes in Australia and New Foi, xvii. (Lyons, 1845) pp. 75 Jf/-
cHAr. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 205
branch of the Turrbal tribe, which occupied the country in
the neighbourhood of Brisbane, " each woman had the two
joints of one Httle finger taken off, when a girl, by tying a
cobweb round it. When the joint mortifies, the hand is
held in an ant-bed for an hour or so, for the joint to be
eaten ofT. This is the fishing branch of the tribe, and this
is done to distinguish its women from those of the other
branches. It is not done to give them any power of catch-
ing fish." ^ So in the Mooloola tribe, between Brisbane and
Gympie, " mothers used to bind round, at the second joint,
the little fingers of the left hands of their daughters when
about ten years old with the coarse spiders' webs of their
country, so as to stop circulation and cause the two joints to
drop off." ^ The same custom obtained far along the coast
of Queensland both north and south of IMaryborough, where
the mutilation is said to have always been confined to the
women of the coast ; ^ and as it has been recorded still
farther north at Halifax Bay,* we may infer that the practice
was in vogue among the tribes who occupied a great extent
of the eastern seaboard of Australia. It is also found on Amputa-
the northern coast ; for in the Larakia tribe, near Port fi°"er-
Darwin, " the women have an extraordinary custom of joints of
mutilating the index finger of the left hand by. removing children
the terminal joint. It is either bitten off by the mother at '^^ 'he
a very early age or, at a later time, cobweb is tied so tdbeofthe
tightly round that the circulation is prevented and then the ^'orthern
joint rots off. The custom has nothing to do with initiation, Austral^.'
and the natives have no idea of what it means." ^
^ A. W. Howitt, T/ie Native Tribes land, see E. M. Curr, op. cit. i. 73 sq.,
of South- East Aitstralia, Y>^. 746 j^. ii. 425, iii. 119, 144, 223, 412; J.
2 R. V^estaway, in E. M. Curr's ^- ^ang, Queensland, p. 344 ; John
The Australian Race, iii. 139. Malhew, Eaglchawk and Omv (Lon-
3 H. E. Aldridge, cited by A. W.
don, 1899), p 120 ; id.. Two Represen-
tative Tribes of Queensland (London,
Howitt, The Native Tribes of South- 1910) p 108
East Australia, p. 747. 5 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, Native
4 James Cassady, cited by E. M. Tribes of the Northern Territory of
Curr, The Australiati Race, ii. 425, ^«^j^r«/?'a: (London, I9i4),p. 10. Com-
"The women have a joint of the first pare John Mathew, Eaglchawk and
finger amputated, and it is noticeable Cww (London, 1899), p. 120, "At the
that the same custom existed in the Daly River, in the Northern Territory,
Sydney tribe, as well as in some of the girls remove the first two joints of the
southern portions of Queensland." For right forefinger by tying round the
more evidence as to the prevalence of joint a thin skein of strong cobweb,
the custom among the tribes of Queens- which is left until the joint falls off" ;
2o6
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
custom of
throwing
the severed
finger-
joint into
the sea
to make
the girl
a good
fisher-
woman is
parallel
to the
custom of
throwing a
child's
navel-
string into
the sea for
the same
purpose.
Some of the reasons assigned for this particular mutila-
tion in Australia can hardly be accepted as satisfactory.
Few will believe that a woman can wind a fishing-line better
if she lacks the first joint of the little finger of her left hand ;
nor is it probable that the amputation is performed simply
for the purpose of distinguishing a fisherwoman, or, according
to another account, the wife of a fisherman,^ from other
members of the tribe or community. Yet it is curious that
the custom seems to be observed only by tribes who inhabit
the coast ; and if this limitation really holds good, it points
to some connexion of the custom with the sea. A clue to
the mystery is perhaps furnished by the statement that " the
dismembered part is thrown into the sea, that the child may
be hereafter fortunate in fishing " ; ^ for such a usage is
parallel to the disposition which many tribes in many parts
of the world make of the afterbirths and navel-strings of
infants with the express intention of fitting the children for
the careers which they are to follow in after life.^ For
example, some tribes of Western Australia believe that a
man swims well or ill according as his mother at his birth
threw his navel-string into water or not* In some parts of
Fiji, when a baby girl has been born, " the mother or her
E. M. Curr, The Australian Race,
i. 252, "The Larrakia and Woolna
tribes amputate some ©f the finger-
joints." This last statement, made on
the authority of Mr. Paul Foelsche,
Inspector of Police, who resided for
ten years in the Port Darwin District,
probably applies only to the women.
No authority, so far as I am aware,
mentions that this particular mutila-
tion was ever practised on Australian
males. The severe mutilations which
the men had to undergo at initiation
were of different kinds and varied in
different tribes. "The cutting off of
the last joint of the little finger of
females " is briefly mentioned as an
Australian custom by Major T. L.
Mitchell {Three Expeditions into the
hiterior of Eastern Australia, Second
Edition, London, 1839, ii. 345), but
without indicating the motive or the
district where the custom is observed.
1 John F. Mann, "Notes on the
Aborigines of Australia," Proceedings of
the Geographical Society of Australasia,
i. (Sydney, 1885) p. 39, "In the
coast districts the betrothal of a young
woman to a man who follows the occu-
pation of a fisherman compels her to lose
the first joint of the little finger of her
left hand. This operation is performed
by winding around the joint several
turns of the strong cobweb or gossamer
which is so frequently met with in the
bush. This is a slow and veiy painful
operation."
2 Above, p. 204.
3 For evidence, see The Magic Art
and the Evolution of Kings, i. 182 sqq.
{The Golden Bough, Third Edition,
Part i.).
■* G. F. Moore, Descriptive Voca-
bulary of the Language in Common Use
amongst the Aborigines of Western
Australia, p. 9 (published along with
the author's Diary of Ten Years'
Eventful Life of an Early Settler in
Western Australia, London, 1S84,
but paged separately).
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 207
sister will take the navel-string to the sea-water when she
goes out fishing for the first time after the childbirth, and she
will throw it into the sea when the nets are stretched in line.
Thus the girl will grow up into a skilful fisherwoman." ^ In
the Gilbert Islands the navel-strings of children are preserved
till the boy or girl has grown to be a lad or lass ; then the
lad's navel-string is carried out far to sea and thrown over-
board, whereupon the people in the canoes, who take part in
the ceremony, set themselves to catch as many fish as they
can. On their return to land they are met by the old woman
who helped at the lad's birth ; the first fish caught is handed
to her, and she carries it to the hut. The fish is laid on a new
mat, the youth and his mother take their place beside it, and
they and she are covered up with another mat. Finally, the
old woman walks round the mat, striking the ground with a
club and praying that the lad may be brave and invulnerable,
and that he may turn out a skilful fisherman.^ Among the
Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia the afterbirth of girls
is buried at high-water mark, in the belief that this will
render them expert at digging for clams.^ On the other Child's
hand, if parents wish to make their son a good climber, they "tri^l'^un"
will hang his navel-string on a tree, with the notion that on a tree to
when he grows up he will thus be the better able to clamber ^good ""
up trees and fetch down their fruit. This is done for this climber.
avowed purpose by the natives of Ponape,"* one of the Caroline
Islands, and by the Kai and Yabim tribes of New Guinea.^
With this intention the natives about Cape King William in
northern New Guinea attach a young boy's navel-string to an
arrow and shoot it up into a tree, where it remains hanging
among the branches. This is done at the time when the
boy begins to walk. " By that means the child is thought
to be rendered capable of climbing trees, in order that he
may afterwards be able to gather tree-fruits. Were that
1. The Rev. I.orimer Fison, in a print from the Report of the British
letter to me dated May 29, 1901. Association for the Advancement of
2 R. Parkinson, " Beitrage zur Eth- Science, Liverpool Meeting, iSgb).
nologie der Gilbertinsulaner," Inter- * Dr. Hahl, " Mittheilungen iiber
nationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie, Sitten und rechtliche Verhaltnisse auf
ii. (1889) p. 35. Ponape," Ethnologisches Notizblatt, ii.
3 Fr. Boas, in Eleventh' Report of Heft 2 (Berlin, 1901) p. 10.
the Comviittee on the North- Western ° '^.l^^\i}iiZ.\x%'=,,Deuisch Neu-Guiuea,
Tribes of Canada, p. 5 (separate re- iii. (Berlin, 1911) pp. 27, 296.
2o8
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
Australian
custom of
amputat-
ing the
finger-
joints of
female
children
and
throwing
tliem into
the sea is
a magical
ceremony
designed to
make the
girls good
fisher-
women.
Amputa-
tion of
finger-
joints for
other
purposes
in Africa.
not done, the man would be merely ' one who lived upon
the ground,' because his inward parts would be heavy." ^
In all such cases the intention seems to be to establish
a harmony between the child and the sphere of his or
her future activity, by depositing a portion of his or her
person either in the sea or on a tree, according as the
boy or girl is destined to become a fisher or a climber ; for
on the principles of sympathetic magic, which are assumed,
though not defined, by all savages, the severed portions of
a man's body remain, even after their severance, united with
it so intimately that he feels everything done to them
as if it were done to himself.^ Thus the girl whose
navel-string is thrown into the sea acquires, like it, a
maritime character which will enable her to catch fish
with ease ; and a boy whose navel-string has been hung on
a tree or shot up among the boughs, will acquire, so to say, an
arboreal character which will enable him to swarm up trees
and bring down coco-nuts and other fruits with the utmost
agility. In the light of these parallels the Australian custom
of amputating the finger-joints of girls and throwing them
into the sea becomes intelligible ; it is a magical ceremony
designed, as an old voyager rightly affirmed,^ to make the
girls successful fisherwomen. At least this explanation appears
more probable than the view of a Catholic missionary that
the mutilation is a religious sacrifice, the severed joint
being dedicated to serpents, fishes, or kangaroos ; ^ for
among the aborigines of Australia, while the practice of
magic was universally prevalent, the rudiments of religion
were rare.^
Thus, if my interpretation of it is correct, the Australian
custom of amputating a girl's finger to make her a good
1 R. Neuhauss, op. cit. iii. 254.
2 To give a single example ; with
the natives of Patiko, a district of the
Uganda Protectorate, "a matter of
supreme importance is the safe disposal
of the umbilical cord, which in the
hands of evilly disposed persons may
be a potent source of danger. If the
cord is found and burnt by an enemy
of the family, the child is bound to
die, so the mother is careful to bury it
in some obscure place away in the
jungle ; for any one to be suspected of
searching for the hiding-place is tanta-
mount to being suspected of attempted
murder" (Rev. A. L. Kitching, On the
Backwaters of the Nile, London, 1912,
p. 169).
^ John Turnbull. See above, p. 204.
•• Above, p. 204.
^ Compare Toteinism and Exogamy,
i. 141 sqq.; John Mathew, Two Repre-
sentative Tribes of Queensland (London,
1910), pp. 167 sqq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 209
fisherwoman differs essentially from the reported African
practice of amputating a finger-joint of a child, whose elder
brothers or sisters have died, for the sake of saving the
infant's life. The truth appears to be that, like many other
usages which resemble each other superficially, the custom
of mutilating the hand by removing some of the finger-joints
has been observed by different peoples, and even apparently
by the same people, from a variety of motives. For example, South
we are told of the Bushmen that "at every distemper which custom of
they experience they are wont to cut off the joint of a finger, amputat-
beginning with the little finger of the left hand as the least joints as "^
useful ; their notion in undergoing the operation is to allow a cure of
the morbid principle to flow away with the blood shed from
the wound." ^ Similarly among the Namaquas, a Hottentot
tribe, when a person is ill the sorcerer sometimes " cuts off
the first joint of the little finger of his patient, pretending
that the disease will go out with the blood. Of this we had
evident proof in the number of persons whom we saw who
had lost the first, and even the second, joint of the little
finger." ^ So, too, a traveller in South Africa in the first
quarter of the nineteenth century says that " the greater part
of the Corannas had a joint taken from their little finger,
which is done with a sharp stone. This operation is per-
formed merely for the purpose of bleeding, in order to remove
some pain." ^ Again, a traveller among the Hill Damaras
noticed that some of the women " had lost two joints of one
of their little fingers, which they said they had got (?bt off
when they themselves had been sick, or their children had
been ill." * With regard to the Kafirs, we are informed that
" in cases of debility in the muscles of the hand or fingers,
they are accustomed to cut off the first joint of the little
finger." "^ The Damaras " cut off the last joint of the little
finger, to give the child extra strength. Even in later life a
Kafir will sometimes mutilate his little finger if he finds his
^ L. Degrandpre, Voyage a la Cdte South Africa, Second Journey (London,
Occidentale d' Afrique (Vslus, 1801), ii. 1822), i. 48.
93 ^?- > John Barrow, Travels into the * Sir James Edward Alexander, Ex-
Interior of Southern Africa (London, pedition of Discovery into the Interior
1 80 1), i. 289. of Africa (London, 1838), ii. 135.
2 Barnabas Shaw, Memorials of South ^ George Thompson, Travels and
Africa (London, 1840), p. 43. Adventures in Southertf Africa (Lon-
3 Rev. John Campbell, Travels in don, 1827), ii. 357.
VOL. Ill P
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Washamba
custom of
amputat-
ing finger-
joints in
various
circum-
stances.
Amputa-
tion of
finger-
joints for
the benefit
of other
people.
hand growing weak : he thinks this adds to its strength." ^
The account which Mr. Dudley Kidd elsewhere gives of this
Kafir practice appears to show that in some cases at least it
flows from a magical superstition. " It is a common custom,"
he says, " in some tribes to cut off a joint of a finger, gener-
ally the little finger ; the blood is caught on a cake of cow-
dung, and the amputated joint is then hidden in the cowdung
and plastered up in the roof of the hut for luck. This cere-
mony counteracts the evil magic of enemies." "
Among the Washamba of East Africa, " when a mother
feared that her son or daughter was about to suffer from
leucoma, she would cause the tip of her own little finger to
be cut off, and would allow the blood to drip on the
ailing eye. When a man's hut collapsed over his head, and
he escaped without injury, the tip of his last finger was
cut off and buried and a goat was afterwards sacrificed." ^
In these latter cases it is evident that the motives which
prompt the amputation are superstitious, not medical. No
rational explanation can be given of the practice of cutting
off a piece of a man's finger when his house has tumbled
down on him and he himself has escaped without a scratch ;
and it would puzzle the College of Surgeons to say how
you can cure leucoma in a person's eye by cutting off a piece
of another person's finger. This latter mutilation, and the
statement of the Hill Damara women that they had amputated
joints of their own fingers when their children were ill,^
introduce us to quite a different class of mutilations of the
hand, that is, to mutilations which are performed, not for the
benefit of the sufferer, but for the benefit of somebody else.
If a faint colour of rationalism could be imparted to the
practice of mutilating the hands of men and women for their
own benefit by alleging, for instance, that " the morbid prin-
ciple" ran away with the blood, no such tinge can disguise
the naked superstition of mangling one person's hand to
benefit another. Yet that strange superstition has found
great favour with some races. Thus in regard to the Tonga
or Friendly Islands, as they were at the beginning of the
* Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir ^ A. Karasek, " Beitrage zur Kennt-
(London, 1904), p. 203. ni.ssderWaschambaa,"^a(;i-j'/£r-.4rc,4zV,
2 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, i. (Leipsicand Berlin, 191 1) p. 171.
p. 262. ' Above, p. 209.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 211
nineteenth century, we are told that " nothing is more common Amputa-
in these islands than the sacrifice of a little finger on occasion |-°"g°.
of the illness of a superior relation : insomuch that there is joints for
scarcely a grown-up person (unless a very great chief, who ^^^^^^^^^
can have but few superior relations) but who has lost the little relatives in
finger of both hands. Nor is there ever any dispute between isfands"^^
two persons with a view to get exempt from this ceremony ;
on the contrary, Mr. Mariner has witnessed a violent contest
between two children of five years of age, each claiming the
favour of having the ceremony performed on him, so little
do they fear the pain of the operation." ^ The amputation
was usually performed with a knife, axe, or sharp stone, the
finger being laid flat on a block of wood and the joint severed
with the help of a powerful blow of a mallet or heavy stone."
On one occasion in Tonga, when a sacred chief was seriously
ill, " every day one or other of his young relations had a little
finger cut off, as a propitiatory offering to the gods for the
sins of the sick man. These sacrifices, however, were found
of no avail ; greater, therefore, were soon had recourse to :
and accordingly three or four children were strangled, at
different times." ^ From this account it clearly appears that The ampu-
in Tonga the amputation of finger-joints in such cases was a a^sa"rifice
purely religious ceremony, the sacrifice being offered to offered to
propitiate the gods and so induce them to spare the life of for the ^
the sick person. This propitiatory or atoning intention of purpose of
1 • • 1 » 1 ,• • 1 • 1 r inducing
the rite is brought out no less distinctly in the account of a them to
somewhat later, but still early, observer of Tongan manners *Pt^^ ^^'^
1 T • T-i • o- . r ■ • • 1 1 sick person.
and religion. ihe infliction of injuries upon themselves
was another mode in which they worshipped their gods. It
was a frequent practice with the Sandwich Islanders, in per-
forming some of their rites, to knock out their front teeth ;
and the Friendly Islanders, to cut off one or two of the bones
1 William Mariner, An Account of portion of both little fingers." Mariner
the Natives of the Tonga Islands, spent four years with the natives
Second Edition (London, 1818), i. 439 of the Tonga Islands at a time when
note*; compare id., ii. 210 sc]., their customs and beliefs were quite un-
^'Tooto-ni/na, or cutting off a portion affected by European influence. His
of the little finger, as a sacrifice to the account of them is one of the best
gods, for the recovery of a superior descriptions we possess of a savage
sick relation. This is very commonly people.
done; so that there is scarcely a person , •nr.„- m • . „ •• .,.,
... , ^ • , , 1 . ' \\ illiam Manner, op. cit. 11. 211.
living at the Tonga islands but who ^
has lost one or both, or a considerable ^ William Mariner, op. cit. i. 43S jy.
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Amputa-
tion of
finger-
ioints for
the benefit
of sick
relatives in
Fiji and
Futuna.
of their little fingers. This, indeed, was so common that
scarce an adult could be found who had not in this way-
mutilated his hands. On one occasion the daughter of a chief,
a fine young woman about eighteen years of age, was stand-
ing by my side, and as I saw by the state of the wound that
she had recently performed the ceremony, I took her hand,
and asked her why she had cut off her finger ? Her affecting
reply was, that her mother was ill, and that, fearful lest her
mother should die, she had done this to induce the gods to
save her. ' Well,' I said, ' how did you do it ? ' ' Oh,' she
replied, ' I took a sharp shell, and worked it about till the
joint was separated, and then I allowed the blood to stream
from it. This was my offering to persuade the gods to
restore my mother.' When, at a future period, another
offering is required, they sever the second joint of the same
finger ; and when a third or a fourth is demanded, they
amputate the same bones of the other little finger ; and when
they have no more joints which they can conveniently spare,
they rub the stumps of their mutilated fingers with rough
stones, until the blood again streams from the wound." ^
A similar mutilation was practised for similar reasons by
the natives of Viti-Levu, one of the Fijian Islands. " If
they see their father or mother in danger of death, they do
not hesitate to cut off the first joint of their ring finger to
appease the wrath of their divinities. But if after this first
offering the health of the patient is not restored, they
mutilate themselves again and cut another joint at each
crisis, amputating successively all their fingers and even
the wrist, persuaded that after this last stroke the venge-
ance of the gods will be satisfied, and that the cure will
be infallible. It is ordinarily with a sharp stone or simple
1 John Williams, Narrative of Mis-
sionary Enterprises in the South Sea
Islands (London, 1838), pp. 470 sq.
The writer joined the mission of the
London Missionary Society in the
Pacific in the year 1817 {op. cit. p. 1 4).
The custom was still in full vogue at the
time of Dumont D'Urville's visit to the
islands ; he observed that women were
oftenersubjected than men to this barbar-
ous mutilation, the religious intention
of which he confirms. See T- Dumont
D'Urville, Voyage autour dit IMonde ei
a la recherche de laPh-ouse (Paris, 1832-
1833), iv. 71 sq. The practice lingered
on as late at least as the fifties of the
nineteenth century. See Father Jerome
Grange in Annates de la Propagation
de la Foi, xvii. (Lyons, 1845) p. 12;
Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, xxii. (1 852) p. 115; J. E.
Erskine, Journal of a Cruise among
the Islands of the IVestej-n Pacific
(London, 1853), p. 123.
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
213
shell that they perform this cruel operation on themselves.
Almost all the savages I saw at Viti-Levu were deprived of
one or two fingers." ^ Here also, therefore, the mutilation
was purely religious and not magical. Similarly among the
natives of Futuna, one of the New Hebrides, " in shaking
hands with these poor people, one notices almost always that
they have lost one or more finger-joints. In the time of
heathendom, on occasion of the sickness or death of their
relations, the custom was thus to mutilate the children in
order to appease the wrath of the gods." ^ That the mutila-
tion of the children in all these cases was a substitute for
putting them to death is strongly suggested by the Tongan
case, in which, when the amputation of children's fingers
failed to cure a sick chief, the strangling of a few others was
adopted as a more effective mode of ensuring the divine
favour.^ The custom of sacrificing children in order to save
the life of sick adults was not unknown in the Solomon
Islands ; the spirit who was supposed to be afflicting the
patient was invited to take the child and spare the man.*
Another example of the mutilation of the hand as a Ampma-
religious rite performed for the benefit of others is furnished Jjonof
by a practice of the Morasu caste in Mysore, a province of joints as a
Southern India. A principal object of worship with the religious
. ^ rite in the
caste "is an image called Kala-Bhairava, which signifies Morasu
the black dog. The temple is at Sitibutta, near Calanore, ^^30°/
about three cosses east from hence. The place being very Early
dark, and the votaries being admitted no farther than the onhe"'^
door, they are not sure of the form of the image ; but custom.
believe that it represents a man on horseback. The god
is supposed to be one of the destroying powers, and his
wrath is appeased by bloody sacrifices. ... At this temple
' Letter of the missionary Chevron, 394 sq. In Goodenough Island, to
dated 4th January 1840, in ^7/«rt/« ai? the south-east of New Guinea, Dr.
la Propagation de la Foi, xiv. (Lyons, I5rown noticed " the custom of anipu-
1842) p. 192. tating a joint or joints from the fingers
2 Letter of the missionary Poupincl, "![ relatives whenever any of their
dated 15th June 1858, in Anna/es de J^f^J^ ^'^'^ ''"'^'- ^t a village called
la Propagation dcla Foi, xxxii. (Lyons
i860) pp. 95 sq.
lakalova we saw people whose hands
had been thus mutilated — one woman
having one or two joints removed from
^ Above, p. 211. her first, third, and fourth fingers;
■' George Brown, D.D., Mclanesians many others, including mere children,
and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. were thus disfigured " {op. cit. p. 394).
214 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
a very singular offering is made. When a won:ian is from
fifteen to twenty years of age, and has borne some children,
terrified lest the angry deity should deprive her of her
infants, she goes to the temple, and, as an offering to
appease his wrath, cuts off one or two of her fingers of
the right hand." ^ The earliest account of this custom with
which I am acquainted is contained in the letter of a Catholic
missionary written in or about the year 1714. He says,
" I ought not to omit a very extraordinary custom, which is
observed nowhere but among those who belong to the caste
of which I speak. When the first child of a family marries,
the mother is obliged to cut off, with a pair of carpenter's
shears, the first two joints of the two last fingers of the hand ;
and this custom is so indispensable that failure to comply
with it involves degradation and expulsion from the caste.
The wives of the princes are privileged and may dispense
with it on condition that they offer two fingers of gold." ^
Some years later another Catholic missionary described the
practice of the caste as follows : " There obtains here a very
extraordinary custom in the caste of labourers. When they
are about to have their ears pierced or be married, they are
obliged to have two fingers of the hand cut off and to pre-
sent them to the idol. That day they go to the temple as
it were in triumph. There, in the presence of the idol, they
clip off their fingers with a snip of the scissors and immedi-
ately apply fire to stanch the bleeding. A person is dis-
pensed from this ceremony on presenting two golden fingers
to the divinity." ^
^ Francis Buchanan, " Journey from Edijiantes et Curieuses, Nouvelle Edi-
Madras through the Countries of My- tion, xii. (Paris, 1781) p. 371. The
sore, Canara, and Malabar," ch. v., letter is not dated, but it contains a
in John Pinkerton's General Col- narrative of events from 1710 to 1714
lection of Voyages and Travels (Lon- based on the writer's personal knowr-
don, 1808- 1814), viii. 66i. The ledge (pp. 314, 369). Father le Gac
temple stands on a small rocky was stationed at Devandapalle (p. 313),
hill called Sidhi Betta (^^//a = hill), which is probably identical with the
about twelve miles from Kolar in fort of Devanahalli, which figures in the
the Mysore State. See Fred. Fawcett, history of the Moiasu caste. See H. V.
"On the Berulu Kodo, a Sub-Sect of l>i2in]\iuAa.yy?L, The Ethnographical Sur-
the Moras Vokaligaru of the Mysore ciey of Mysore, xv. Morasu Okkahi
Province," Journal of the Anthrofo- (Bangalore, 1908), pp. 3 sq.
logical Society of Bombay, i. 458. ^ «' Lettre du Pere le Caron, Mis-
2 " Lettre du Pere le Gac, Mission- sionnaire de la Compagnie de Jesus,"
naire de la Compagnie de Jesus," Leitres Lettj-esEdifiantes ct Curieuses, Nouvelle
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 215
This barbarous custom persisted till far on in the nine- Persistence
teenth century and has been described in more detail by °^^^^ ,
■' _ ■' custom of
writers of that period. It was not confined to Mysore, but amputa-
was practised by the Morasu caste in various parts of the ^^^^ dunng
Madras Presidency, particularly in Cuddapah, North Arcot, nineteenth
and Salem.^ Down to about 1888 middle-aged and elderly ^'^"'"'7-
women of the caste who had been deprived of the last joints
of the third and fourth fingers of the right hand might be
seen any day in the streets of Bangalore, though the amputa-
tion had been forbidden by the Commissioner of Mysore
about twenty years earlier.""^ The Morasu caste belongs to
the Dravidian stock ; some of them speak the Canarese and
others the Telugu language. The Morasu Okkalu, a section
of whom observed the custom in question, are nearly confined
to the eastern part of Mysore and the adjoining British
territory. They are, and appear always to have been, an
agricultural people.^
In the first quarter of the nineteenth century the French Various
Abb6 J. A. Dubois recorded that " to the east of Mysore ^fX°''
there exists a tribe known under the name of Morsa-hokeula- custom.
makulou, in which, when a mother of a family gives her eldest
daughter in marriage, she is obliged to undergo the amputa-
tion of two joints of the middle and ring fingers of the right
hand. If the girl's mother is dead, the mother of the bride-
groom, or, failing her, one of the nearest female relations, is
ifcdition, xiii. (Paris, 1 781) p. 203. The garu of the Mysore Vro\'mce," Jotirnal
letter is dated " De la Mission de Car- 0/ the Anthropological Society of Bom-
nate, aux Indes ; ce 20 Novembre bay,\.a^/i,(jsq. In this paper (pp. 449-
1720." The writer refers to missions 474), which was read before the An-
established at Ballabaram (p. 200) and thropological Society of Bombay in
Devandapallc (p. 219), towns which September 1888, Mr. F. Fawcett gives
are repeatedly referred to by Father le a full account of the custom based on
Gac in the letter I have cited (Lett7-es his personal inquiries and accompanied
Adijiantes et Cnrieuses, xii. 316, 317, by extracts from earlier works. Com-
334) 336} 340, 354, 370, 371, etc.); pare Edgar Thurston, Ethnographic
so it seems clear that the two mission- Notes in Southern India (Madras,
aries refer to the practice of the same 1906), pp. 390-396; id.. Castes eutd
caste, though neither of them mentions Tribes of Southern India (IVIadras,
the name Morasu. 1909). v. 73-80 ; H. V. Nanjundajya,
, „, _, ^ ^ ^ J T -1. The Ethnographical Su7-<ey of Mysore,
' Y.CL^zx\\mx%\.Qrv, Castes and I noes ,, Aj 1 j it, 1 o-J
^ XV. Morasu Okkalu (Bangalore, 1 908),
of Southern India (Madras, 1909), v.
76.
pp. 5, 8-12.
^ H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno-
' Fred. Fawcett, "On the Berulu graphical Survey of Mysore, w. Morasu
Kodo, a Sub-Sect of the Moras Vokali- Okkalu (Bangalore, 1908), pp. 2 sq.
2i6 BOkiNG A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
bound to submit to this cruel mutilation."^ Down to 1883
at least the practice in the Salem district of the Madras
Presidency was that " when a grandchild is born in a family,
the eldest son of the grandfather, with his wife, appears at
the temple for the ceremony of boring the child's ear, and
there the woman has the last two joints of the third and
fourth fingers chopped off. It does not signify whether the
father of the first grandchild born be the eldest son or not,
as in any case it is the wife of the eldest son who has to
undergo the mutilation. After this, when children are born
to other sons, their wives in succession undergo the operation.
When a child is adopted, the same course is pursued." ^
Another report of this remarkable practice runs as",
follows : " A peculiar custom prevails among one branch of
the Morasu Wakaligas, by which the women suffer amputa-
tion of the ring and little fingers of the right hand. Every
woman of the sect, previous to piercing the ears of her eldest
daughter preparatory to her being betrothed in marriage,
must necessarily undergo this mutilation, which is performed
by the blacksmith of the village for a regulated fee by a
surgical process sufficiently rude. The finger to be ampu-
tated is placed on a block, and the blacksmith places a chisel
over the articulation of the joint and chops it off at a single
blow. If the girl to be betrothed is motherless, and the
mother of the boy has not been before subjected to the
operation, it is incumbent on her to perform the sacrifice." ^
F.Fawcetfs But the fullest account of the custom has been given by
^hecustoni. ^1"- Fi'cd. Fawcett, Officiating Superintendent of Police at
Bangalore, from inquiries which he made among women, who
had undergone the amputation, and' among senior men of the
caste, who were acquainted with the custom before it had
been modified by European influence. He tells us that
1 J. A. Dubois, Mceurs, Institutions give the fingers, from a curious custom
et Cirimonies des Peiiples de PInde which requires that, when a grandchild
(Paris, 1825), i. 5 sq. is born in a family, the wife of the
2 Manual of the Salem District eldest son of the grandfather must have
(1883), quoted by Edgar Thurston, the last two joints of the third and
Castes and Tribes of Southei-7i India fourth fingers of her right hand ampu-
(Madras, 1909), v. 76. To the same tated at a temple of Bhairava."
effect Mr. Thurston here quotes from
the Census Report of 1891 as follows : ^ Mysore and Coorg Gazette^ i. 338,
" There is a sub-section of them called quoted by PVed. Fawcett, op. cit. p.
Veralu Icche Kapuhi, or Kupulu who 474.
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
.\^
" before the ears and noses of children born in this sub-sect The
of the ryot caste were pierced (for ear-rings and other °^c^s'°"
ornaments), the performance of certain ceremonies was putation.
obligatory. In one of these, the last, or ungual phalanx
of the third and fourth fingers of the mother's right hand
were amputated. This was done on no other occasion, so
far as I can discover. Performance of the ceremonies on
account of every individual born in the caste was absolutely
necessary. There was no restriction as to the age within
which the ceremonies for male children should be performed,
but performance of them before marriage was obligatory.
For female children they were performed before puberty.
If they were not, the girls were unfit for marriage, and (as
my chief authority asserts) by the caste rules ' their eyes
should be sewn up and they should be turned adrift in the
jungle.' By this figurative expression he probably meant,
as they would not be fit for marriage, they would be good
for nothing, and no more account should be taken of them.
After they have arrived at puberty, the ceremonies could not
be performed for them. The ceremonies for children who
had lost their mothers were performed by one of the female
relatives of the father — not of the mother. The ceremonies
were usually performed before the children were eight years
old. The ceremonies were performed by each Daiyadi or
family every few years, for all the young children in the
Daiyadi at the same time. Mothers brought all their young
children, and children who were motherless were brought to
the place where the Daiyadi collected for the purpose of
performing the ceremonies. The village of the senior or
head-man of the Daiyadi, who was the high priest of the
occasion, was usually selected." ^
The amputation of the finger-joints, with the attendant The season
ceremonies, could only take place in the first month of the °„puta.
Hindoo year. If any niember of the family died in that tion.
month before the performance of the rite, the ceremonies
had to be postponed to the same month of the following
year. They were regularly preceded by a fast of several
^ Fred. Fawcett, "On the Berulu of tke Anthropological Societyof Bombay,
Kodo, a Sub- Sect of the Moras Vokali- i. 450 sq.
garu of the Mysore Vxo\\nc&" Journal
2i8 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
Preiimin- days and the worship of a mysterious deity named Dhana
oFDMn'r^ Devuru, who is unknown to the Hindoo pantheon. The
D^vuru at worship was offered at two sacred trees, a peepul tree
trees!^"^'^^'^ (i^z^TZ^j- religiosd) and a neem tree, growing close together
and surrounded by a raised platform, on which were set
upright stones with the figures of snakes carved on them in
low relief. Such pairs of trees, so surrounded, are very
common in this part of India ; the trees have been regularly
married to each other, and the places where they grow are
sacred. The peepul tree {Ficus religiosd) is worshipped by
women who desire to obtain offspring. On the occasion
when they were to suffer the amputation of their finger-joints
the mothers of the children brought new cloths, laid them
on the platform, and fed the sacred snake with milk, melted
butter, plantains, and so forth. If there was no snake, they
pressed the food into a hole. A fowl too was killed ; and
by some people small pieces of gold and silver to represent
snakes were put into the snake's hole, but by other people
this offering was omitted. The cloths were afterwards re-
moved from the platform and worn. However, the rites
varied somewhat in different families. Some people did not
worship at the trees, but performed all the ceremonies in the
house.^
The scene When these preliminaries had been duly observed for
amputa- ^^^° °^ more days, the culminating rite of the amputation
tionandthe took place on a Sunday. Early on the morning of the day
to*ir^^ °" a row of small temples, one for each child, was made out of
green branches in an open field or, according to others, in a
grove near the village. Carts of the old-fashioned type, with
wheels consisting each of a single flat piece of wood, were
washed and cleaned the same morning, and having been
covered with clean white cloth, ornamented with saffron,
they were yoked to bullocks or other cattle. There was
one such cart for each child. Accompanied by these
bullock-drawn carts, parents and children walked together
to the little leafy temples, the father and mother carrying
on their heads brass vessels which contained a small coco-
nut, betel leaves, saffron, water, flowers, and so forth. These
vessels were sacred, being deemed emblems of Bhairi Devuru,
* Fred. Fawcett, op. cit. pp. 451-453, 457 sq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 219
the god who was invoked at the amputation, and who seems
to be the great god Siva in one of his fierce moods.^ Every
child who was old enough to do so carried one of these
emblems on its head. Some say the children rode in the
carts, which otherwise were empty. Clean cloths were spread
on the ground the whole way from the village to the little
temples, and on these cloths the parents and children
walked.
On reaching the little verdant shrines in the field or the The ampu-
grove, the parents laid down in front of them the emblems the'^" °er-
of Bhairi Devuru which they had carried on their heads, joints of the
husband and wife depositing the emblems in front of the ^nd the
same temple. The head-man then put five, seven, or nine piercing of
clean stones of any kind in each temple and rubbed saffron of the
on each stone. If a Brahman happened to be present, he ^hiidreu.
would be called on to hold the religious service and to con-
secrate the temples ; in his absence these functions devolved
on the head-man. The mothers then sat down in front of
the temples, facing east. A goldsmith thereupon went to
each of them in turn, and while a male member of the
family held the woman's hand palm downward on a board,
the goldsmith nipped off first the last joint of the third
finger and then the last joint of the fourth finger with a
sharp chisel. As each woman was operated on, she stood ,
up, and the man who held her hand, without letting it go,
plunged the raw and bleeding ends of the fingers into boil-
ing oil. The fingers were then dressed with saffron and
tied up with a cloth. In fifteen or twenty days the dressing
was removed. The amputated finger-joints were put into a
snake's hole as an offering to Dhana Devuru. Some say
they were put into any snake's hole ; at any rate they were
always stowed away in a snake's hole without ceremony by
anybody. When the operation had been performed on all
the women, sheep or goats were sacrificed to Bhairi Devuru
in front of the little leafy temples, one for each child. All
this time the carts, from which the bullocks had not been
unyoked, stood at a short distance in front of the little
temples ; but no sooner had the sheep been sacrificed than
* H. V. Nanjundayj'a, The Ethnogi-aphical Survey of Mysore, xv. 3Iorasit
Okkalu (Bangalore, 190S), p. 8. *
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Substitutes
for the
amputa-
tion of
finger-
joints.
the carts were driven back to the village. The people
followed them after an interval, carrying the god's emblems
on their heads as before. In the evening they feasted on
the sacrificed sheep, and any one was free to partake of the
banquet. The ceremony over, no more account was taken
of the little temples. Next day the children, whose ears
were to be pierced, were made to sit on a board placed on
the ground in the yard of the head-man's house. Members
of the family brought fruits and so forth, and put them
into the children's cloths, which were spread out in front
of them. Also the children were sprinkled with tirtham,
and a jasmine flower was inserted in the ear of each of
them by the head-man. This concluded the ceremonies.
Afterwards the children's ears might be pierced at any time
and by anybody.^
Since the amputation of the finger-joints has been for-
bidden, it has been replaced by various substitutes, some of
which illustrate the transition from a real to a symbolic
sacrifice. For example, some women twist gold wire in the
shape of rings round their fingers, and the operator, instead
of chopping off the fingers, simply removes and appropriates
the rings.^ Others content themselves with putting on a
gold or silver thimble, which is pulled off instead of the
finger.^ Others stick gold or silver coins by means of flour
paste to their finger-tips, and then draw them off in like
manner. Others again tie flowers round the fingers which
used to be amputated, and then go through a pantomime of
cutting off the joints by applying a chisel to them, only,
however, to remove it without inflicting a scratch. Finally,
others merely offer small pieces of gold or silver as substi-
tutes for the amputation. In other respects the ceremonies
continue to be observed in the old way.'*
jundayya, Ethnographical SuiTey of
1 Fred. Fawcett, op. cit. pp. 454-
457. According to another account
the severed finger-joints were thrown,
not into a serpent's hole, but into an
ant-hill. See V. N. Narasimmiyengar,
" Marasa Vakkaligaru of Maisiir," The
Indian Antiquary, ii. (1873) p. 51 ;
Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tnbes of
Southern India, v. 78 ; id., Eth-
ttographic Notes in Southern India
^Madras, 1906), p. 394; H. V. Nan-
Mysore, xv. Morasji Okkalu (Bangalore,
1908), p. II.
^ V.N. Narasimmiyengar, "Marasa
Vakkaligaru of Maisiir," The Indian
Antiquary, ii. (1873) p. 52; Edgar
Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern
India, V. 77.
2 Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tribes
of Southern India, v. 80.
* Fred. Fawcett, op. cit. p. 457-
CHAP. Ill BORING yl SERVANT'S EAR 221
A legend told to account for the origin of the custom Legend
runs thus. By the practice of religious austerities a certain '°^^/° ,
J i- & explain the
giant or demon {raksJiasii) obtained from the great god origin of
Mahadeva or Siva the valuable privilege of immediately JJ^mputT-
reducing to ashes any person on whose head he laid his tion in the
right hand. Armed with this formidable power the ungrateful castT"
giant attempted to put it to the test by laying his impious hand
on his benefactor Siva himself. The great god fled in terror,
and after vainly attempting to conceal himself in a castor-oil
plantation, he contrived to elude his pursuer by taking refuge
in the red gourd of a certain shrub {Linga-tofide), which to
this day bears a singular resemblance to the deity's charac-
teristic emblem. As he peered about in search of the divine
fugitive, the giant perceived a Morasu man at work in a
neighbouring field, and asked him if he had seen the runaway.
Afraid alike to incur the wrath of the god and to excite the
rage of the giant, the prudent peasant said nothing, but
pointed silently with his forefinger to the bush in which the
mighty god was secreted. At that critical moment the great
god Vishnu came to the rescue of his brother deity by
assuming the likeness of a lovely maid, v^^hose charms created
so seasonable a diversion that the giant, in a moment of for-
getfulness, laid his hand on his own head and was, of course,
instantly consumed to ashes. Emerging from the bush, Siva
was about to take summary vengeance on the peasant by
cutting off the peccant finger which had betrayed the hiding-
place of the deity, when the man's wife threw herself at the
feet of the justly incensed divinity, represented to him the
certain ruin which would befall her family if her husband
were disabled from working at the farm, and besought the
god to accept two of her own fingers instead of her husband's
one. Pleased with this proof of conjugal affection, Siva con-
sented to the exchange, and ordained that her female posterity
in all future generations should sacrifice two fingers as a
memorial of the transaction and of their devotion to his
worship.^
1 V. N. Narasimmyengar, " JNIarasa India, v. 76 rq. ; H. V. Nanjundayya,
Vakkaligaru of Maisiir," The Indian Tlie Etlmographical Survey of J\[ysore^
Antiquary, ii. (1873) PP- ^'^sq. ; Fred. xv. Morasu Okkalti (Bangalore, 1 908),
Fawcett, op. cit. pp. 472 sq. ; Edgar pp. 8 sq.
Thurston, Castes and Trices of Southern
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The ampu-
tation
of the
mother's
finger-
joints is
perhaps a
sacrifice to
induce the
gods to
spare the
hfe of her
child.
The
piercing
of the ears
may also be
a sacrifice
to save the
child's life.
The
sacrifice
of finger-
joints in
sickness in
the Tonga
Islands.
The legend sheds little or no light on the origin of the
custom. If we ask why a mother should have two finger-
joints amputated before the ears of her children are pierced
as a preliminary to marriage, the only plausible answer sug-
gested in the preceding accounts is the one indicated by
Buchanan, namely that the woman offers the finger-joints
to the god in order to induce him to spare the life of her
children.^ On this view the cruel deity accepts the sacrifice
as a substitute for the death of a human being ; though why
the sacrifice should be required of a mother as an indispens-
able condition to her piercing the ears of her offspring, it is
difficult to perceive. Here again we are brought face to
face with that problem of the mutilation of the ears from
which we started. Can it be that the piercing of the ears
is itself a sacrifice to propitiate some hostile power and per-
suade him to acquiesce in this trifling mutilation instead of
exacting the life of the mutilated person } On this view
the piercing of the child's ears and the mutilating of the
mother's hand are both sacrifices designed to ensure the pre-
servation of a woman's offspring. If that is so, the mutila-
tion of a mother's hand in India to save her daughter's life
presents a curious parallel to the similar mutilation of a
daughter's liand in Tonga to save the life of her mother ; ^
and in general the Indian practice of mothers submitting to the
amputation of finger-joints for the benefit of their children
presents an exact counterpart to the Tongan and Fijian
practice of children submitting to the same operation for
the benefit of their parents or other elderly relations. The
similarity of the two customs favours the hypothesis that
they admit of a similar explanation. To the meaning of
the mutilation of the ears we shall return later on. Mean-
while it will be well to pursue the subject of the mutilation
of the hand by noticing some other cases of that extra-
ordinary custom.
When Captain Cook first visited the Tonga or Friendly
Islands in the Pacific, he noticed that the greater part of the
natives, both men and women, had lost one or both of their
little fingers. " Wq endeavoured," he says, " but in vain, to
find out the reason of this mutilation ; for no one would
1 Above, p. 214. 2 Above, p. 212.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 223
take any pains to inform us. It was neither peculiar to
rank, age, or sex ; nor is it done at any certain age, as I
saw those of all ages on ^ whom the amputation had been
just made ; and, except some young children, we found few
who had both hands perfect. As it was more common among
the aged than the young, some of us were of opinion that it
was occasioned by the death of their parents, or some other
near relation. But Mr. Wales one day met with a man,
whose hands were both perfect, of such an advanced age,
that it was hardly possible his parents could be living." ^
However, on a later visit to the islands Captain Cook learned
" that this operation is performed when they labour under
some grievous disease, and think themselves in danger of
dying. They suppose that the Deity will accept of the
little finger, as a sort of sacrifice efficacious enough to pro-
cure the recovery of their health. They cut it off with one
of their stone hatchets. There was scarcely one in ten of
them whom we did not find thus mutilated, in one or both
hands ; which has a disagreeable effect, especially as they
cut so close, that they encroach upon the bone of the hand
which joins to the amputated finger." " According to this
account, the amputation of a sick man's finger-joint was a
religious sacrifice which the patient offered in the hope that
the deity would spare his life, accepting the finger-joint as a
substitute for the whole man. The account is not necessarily
inconsistent with that of later and probably better informed
observers, who tell us that in Tonga such sacrifices of
finger-joints were offered vicariously by children and young
people to procure the recovery of elder relations.^ Both
customs may have been in vogue ; a sick man who could
^ The Voyaq^es of Caftaht James Cook above, pp. 210 scj. Captain Cook's
Round the World (London, 1809), iii. explanation of tlie custom agrees with
204. that of the later French voyager,
- The Voyat^es of Captain James Cook Labillardiere, who says of the Tongans
Round the World (London, 1809), v. that the men, " like the women, have
/\zi sq. The writer adds in a foot- the habit of cutting ofi one or two joints
note, " It may be proper to mention of the little finger, and sometimes of
here, on the authority of Captain King, the ring finger, in the hope of curing
that it is common for the inferior people themselves of serious maladies." See
to cut off a joint of their little finger, Labillardiere, Relation du I'oyage a la
on account of the sickness of the chiefs recherche de la Perotise (Paris, iSoo),
to whom they belong.' As to these ii. 176.
vicarious sacrifices of finger-joints, see ^ See above, pp. 210 sg.
224 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
induce or compel somebody else to mutilate himself on his
behalf would be under a strong temptation to make the
painful sacrifice vicariously rather than in his own person ;
but if he had none from whom he could exact this token of
affection, he might very well, with the fear of death before
his eyes, consent to have the operation performed on himself
In either case, according to our authorities, the amputation
bore the character of a religious sacrifice offered to a god,
who was believed to accept the finger-joint instead of a
human life.
The The amputation of finger-joints as a religious sacrifice
of'finger- appears to have been not uncommon in some tribes of North
joints American Indians. Every year the Mandan Indians held a
N^ndan ^ great religious festival, at which young men, who were about
Indians. to be admitted to the rank of warriors, submitted to a series
of excruciating tortures in a special hut called the Medicine
Lodge. They were hung from the roof by cords fastened
to splints, which were inserted through their flesh, and in
this painful posture they were made to revolve till they
swooned away. Afterwards, on being lowered to the ground
and released from the cords, each candidate, as he recovered
his senses, dragged himself to another part of the lodge,
where an Indian sat waiting for him, with a hatchet in his
hand and a dried buffalo skin before him. There the young
man, holding up the little finger of his left hand to the
Great Spirit, in the most earnest and humble manner,
expressed to the spirit his willingness to give it as a sacrifice ;
then he laid his finger on the buffalo skull, and the other
chopped it off with a blow of the hatchet. Some of the
candidates, immediately after the amputation of the little
finger, presented with a similar speech the forefinger of the
same hand to be amputated also, thus remaining with only
the thumb and the two middle fingers of the left hand,
which were deemed absolutely essential for holding the bow.
Indeed, some men went further and sacrificed also the little
finger of the right hand, which was thought to be a much
greater sacrifice than the amputation of both the others.^
* George Catlin, Letters and A'otes Fourth Edition (London, 1S44), i. 156,
Oft the Manners, Customs, and Condi- 170- 1 72.
tioh of the North American Indiatts,
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 225
Among the Crow Indians in like manner finger-joints were The
cut off as a religious offering when they held what they o^^finggr-
called a Medicine Lodge, which was a great ceremony of joints
their religion. It is said that in a basket hung up in a SJTcfow.
Medicine Lodge as many as fifty or even a hundred finger- Ankara.
joints have been collected on such an occasion.^ In the Assiaiboin
Arikara tribe of Indians it was customary for warriors to Indians.
practise austerities and to submit to torture before they set
out on the war-path. They fasted rigorously for four days ;
they had incisions made in their backs, passed wooden
skewers through the flesh, and suspended themselves by
thongs from a post over a deep ravine ; often, too, they cut
off one or two fingers and offered them as a sacrifice to the
Great Spirit, in order that they might return laden with the
scalps of their enemies.^ Every spring, at the first peal of
thunder, " the Assiniboins offer it sacrifices ; some burn
tobacco and present to the Great Spirit the most exquisite
pieces of buffalo meat by casting them into the fire ; while
others make deep incisions in the fleshy parts of their bodies,
and even cut off the first joints of their fingers to offer them
in sacrifice. Thunder, next to the sun, is their Great
Wah-kon." ^
Among the Blackfoot Indians the sacrifice of a finger or The
_ . . , . • T ii. • sacrifice
a finger-jomt was made on various occasions, in tneir offinger-
territorv there rises from the plain, like a huge pyramidal Jo'°ts
■' '■ among the
Blackfoot
1 'Ltw'is H. ^loxgOiXx, Aficieni Society tribesof the plains Indians, the Pawnees Indians.
(London, 1877), p. 160 note. had a certain special worship at the
2 J. de Smet, in Annales de la Pro- time of the first thunder in the spring.
pagation de la Foi, xiv. (Lyons, 1842) This first thunder warned them that
pp. 67 sq. winter was at an end and that the lime
3 J. de Smet, IVestertt Missions and of the planting was drawing near."
Missionaries (New York, 1863), p. The Assiniboin sacrifices, described in
135. The name Wah-kon is doubt- the text, have no doubt long been
less identical with the Dacotan word obsolete in the remainder of the tribe.
'wakan, which signifies "spiritual. They are not mentioned by Mr. Robert
sacred, consecrated, wonderful, incom- H. Lowie in his account of these
prehensible." See S. R. Riggs, Indians {The Assiniboine, New York,
Dakota- English Dictionary (Washing- 1909, Anthropological Papers of the
ton, 1890), pp. 507 sq.'. Taboo and American Museum of Natural History,
the Perils of the Soul, p. 225 note. vol. iv. Parti.). He mentions (p. 42)
As to the occasion of the sacrifice, the that "unlike the Crow, the Assini-
hearing of the first thunder in spring, boine did not cut off a finger in token
compare G. B. Grinncll, Pawnee Hero of mourning." As to the custom of
Stories and Folk-tales (New York, the Crow Indians in this respect, see
1889), p. 360, " Like some other below, pp. 228 sq.
VOL. Ill Q
226 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
mound, a conical hill some two hundred feet high, which
commands a wide view of the Red-Deer and Bow River
valleys. It is called Kekip-kip Sesoatars or " the Hill of
the Bloody Sacrifice." A natural platform crowns its
summit. At the northern end of the platform stands a
small rough boulder with the figures of a crescent moon and
a star carved out of its upper surface. A little basin is
hollowed out within the figure of the star. In times of
great private or public necessity, when extraordinary bless-
ings were desired, such as the successful return of the
warriors from an expedition, the cure of inveterate disease,
or the multiplication of game in the hunting grounds of the
tribe, the platform used to be thronged with worshippers ;
and sometimes a man would sacrifice a finger of his left
hand to the Morning Star at the first appearance of that
luminary on the horizon. He laid the finger on the top of
the stone, cut it off, and allowed the blood to ^ flow into the
basin. Then, throwing the sacrificial knife on the ground,
he held up the bleeding finger to the star, crying, " Hail !
O Episors, Lord of the Night, hail ! Hear me, regard me
from above. To thee I give of my blood, I give of my
flesh. Glorious is thy coming, all-powerful in battle, son of
the Sun, I worship thee ; hear my prayer. Grant me my
petition, O Episors ! " Then he laid the severed finger in
the basin of the star-like figure, descended the hill, and
returned to his village at sunrise. Among the Blackfeet
these self-inflicted wounds ranked equal with those received
on the battlefield, and were always mentioned first in the
public recital of the warriors' great deeds at the national
feast.^ The Blackfeet also worshipped the Sun, whom they
1 Jean I'Heureux, M.A., Govern- human sacrifices on that occahion at
ment Interpreter, Blackfoot Indians, the command of the Morning Star.
" The Keliip-Sesoators, or Ancient See Edwin James, Account of an Ex-
Sacrificial Stone, of the North-West pedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
Tribes of Canada," Journal of the Mountains (London, 1823), ii. 80 sq. ;
Anthropological Institute, xv. (1886) Spirits of the Corn atid the Wild, \. 2T,'&
pp. ^62 sq. The Morning Star figured sq. {The Golde}t Bough, Third Edition,
prominently in the religion and mytho- Part v.). The Morning Star is said to
logy of some Indian tribes of North be one of the chief gods of the Cora
America and Mexico. Among tribes Indians of Mexico ; the seed-corn is
which practised agriculture the worship presented to him with a prayer that he
of the star seems to have been particu- will render it fruitful. See Carl Lum-
larly associated with the fertilizing of holtz, Unknoivn Mexico (London,
the seed-corn. The Pawnees offered 1903), i. 511, 522, 525; K. Th.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 227
regarded as a beneficent being, very wise and kind to those
who do right. To him they made presents of clothing, fine
robes, or furs, and in extreme cases, when the prayer was for
life itself, they sacrificed to him a finger or, what they valued
still more, a lock of hair.-^ In this tribe women mourned
for dead relations by cutting their hair short. For the
loss of a husband or son, but not of a daughter, they
not only cut their hair, but often took off one or more
joints of their fingers, and always scarified the calves of
their legs.^
This custom of amputating finger-joints in mourning Amputa-
has been observed by many tribes, not only in America but ^°^,
in other parts of the world. For example, " cutting off a joints in
finger-joint on the loss of a child or of a beloved husband ™mong'the
was a frequent occurrence within certain northern Dene North
„ . „ , . American
tribes. I know, for mstance, a Sekanais woman who to Indians,
this day survives three self-inflicted mutilations, whereby
she lost two finger-joints and one ear." ^ Here apparently
the amputation of an ear is considered equivalent to the
amputation of a finger-joint ; both mutilations are practised
for the same purpose. Though the writer does not say so,
the custom was perhaps limited to, or at least chiefly practised
by, the women of the tribes. Thus of one tribe in the same
region we are told that " a singular custom prevails among
the Nateotetain women, which is to cut off one joint of a
finger upon the death of a near relative. In consequence of
this practice some old women may be seen with two joints
off every finger on both hands. The men bear their sorrows
more stoically, being content in such cases with shaving
the head and cutting their flesh with flints." * Among the
Beaver Indians of Western Canada, when death overtakes
Preuss, Die Nayarit-Expedition, i. McCHntock, The Old North Trail
Die Religion der Cora-Indianer (Leip- (London, 19 10), p. 150.
sic, 1912), pp. Ixi sqq., xcii sqq. ^ j>ev_ Father A. G. Morice, " The
1 G. B. Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Great Dene Race," Anthropos, i.
7a/«J (London, 1893), p. 258. (1906) p. 724. The Denes are the
2 G. B. Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge widespread Indian family of North-
Tales, p. 194. Compare Maximilian West America, whose name is more
Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das Innere usually spelled Tinneh.
Nord- America (Coblenz, 1839-1841). * H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of
i. 583. These mutilations seem now the Pacific States of North America
to be a thing of the past. See Walter (London, 1S75-1876), i. 127.
228 BORING A SERVANTS EAR part iv
any of them, their property " is sacrificed and destroyed ;
nor is there any failure of lamentation or mourning on such
occasion : they who are more nearly related to the departed
person, black their faces, and sometimes cut off their hair ;
they also pierce their arms with knives and arrows. The
grief of the females is carried to a still greater excess ; they
not only cut their hair, and cry and howl, but they will
sometimes, with the utmost deliberation, employ some sharp
instrument to separate the nail from the finger, and then
force back the flesh beyond the first joint, which they
immediately amputate. But this extraordinary mark of
affliction is only displayed on the death of a favourite son,
an husband, or a father. Many of the old women have so
often repeated this ceremony, that they have not a complete
finger remaining on either hand." ^ Among the Sioux or
Dacota Indians, " when a rich man loses a relative, as a
beloved wife or favourite daughter, he sometimes, in the
excess of his grief, destroys all his property, including his
lodge or tent, and kills all his horses, leaving himself utterly
poverty-stricken. For many days he holds no communica-
tion with any one, but sits bowed down with grief, and
alone. He bears his sorrow in silence. The squaws, on
the other hand, howl and make the most dismal sounds,
tearing their hair, and gashing their bodies with knives. I
have seen some Indians who even cut off the joints of their
fingers in the excess of their grief When Red Dog's son
died in March 1872, he sat beside the body the whole day,
naked, with his flesh cut and slashed, and blood running
from every wound." ^ Among the Crow Indians it was a
rule that if a person made a present to a friend and died,
•the beneficiary must perform some recognized act of mourn-
ing, such as cutting off the joint of a finger at the funeral,
or surrender the property to the clan of his benefactor.
This practice of amputating finger-joints in mourning used
to be very common among the Crows. At a Crow encamp-
ment on the Upper Missouri the eminent ethnologist Lewis
1 Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages ^ Col. Albert G. Brackett, U.S.
from Montreal, on the River St. Army, " The Sioux or Dakota Indians,"
Laurence, throtigh the Continent of Annual Report of tlie Board of Regents
North America (London, l8oi), p. of the Smithsotzian Institution for the
148. year iSy6 (Washington, 1877), p. 470.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 229
H, Morgan saw a number of women and men with their
hands mutilated by this practice.^ When Captains Lewis and
Clark were on their exploring expedition to the source of the
Missouri River, they were visited by the son of the grand
chief of the Mandans, who had his two little fingers cut off
at the second joints. On inquiring into the cause of this
mutilation they learned that it was customary to express grief
for the death of relations by some corporeal suffering, and
that the usual mode was to lose two joints of the little fingers,
or sometimes the other fingers.^ Another early traveller in
these regions records that " a cruel proof of heartfelt grief is
exhibited by some of the natives on the upper parts of the
Missouri ; they cut off joints of their fingers ; the individual
cuts the skin and ligaments of the joint with his common
eating knife, then places the joint between his teeth, and
twists it off with violence, the teeth performing at the same
time the offices of a wedge and a vice." ^
Speaking of the Charruas or Tscharos, as he calls Amputa-
them, of Paraguay, a Catholic missionary observes that l^°_
" they are almost as ferocious as the beasts among joints in
which they live. They go almost completely naked, arnong"the
and have hardly anything human except the shape. No ^o^th
American
other proof of their barbarity is needed than the strange i„dians.
custom which they observe at the death of their relations.
When some one dies, each of his kinsfolk must cut off the
end of the fingers of his hand, or even an entire finger, to
testify his grief; if so many people die that the hands of
their relatives are completed mutilated, they proceed to their
feet, amputating the toes in like manner, as death carries off
some of their relations." * A later traveller has described
the singular mourning customs of the Charruas in more
detail. According to him, when a father, husband, or adult
brother died, his daughters, sisters, and wife cut off a joint
or joints of their fingers, beginning with the little finger.
Further, they pierced their arms, breasts, and sides from the
1 Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society pedition from Pittsbiugh to the Rocky
(London, 1877), p. 160. Mountains (London, I023), ii. 3.
Lettre du Pere Antoine Sepp,
2 Lewis and Clark, History of the
Missionnaire de la Compagnie de Jesus,''
Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri ^^^^^^^ ^aifiantes et Curieuses, No^-
(repnnted, London, 1905), .. 171- ^^lle Edition, ix. (Paris, 17S1), p.
^ Edwin James, Account of an Ex- 369.
230
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Amputa-
tion of
finger-
joints in
mourning
in Africa.
waist upwards with the knife or lance of the deceased.
The husband, however, did not go into mourning for his
wife, nor the father for his children ; but on the death of
the father, if the children were grown up, they hid themselves
naked for two whole days in their hut, taking hardly any
food ; such food as they did eat, must be either eggs or
partridges. Then towards evening an Indian took a reed,
about a palm long, and ran it through the flesh of the
mourner's arm, so that the two ends projected at either
side ; then he inserted other reeds in like manner, till there
was a row of them, at intervals of about an inch, from the
wrist to the shoulder. In this state the mourner rushed
into the woods with an iron-spiked pole, wherewith he dug
a hole and plunged into it up to the breast. There in the
hole he remained standing all night. In the morning he
got out of the hole and went to a small hut prepared for
the purpose, where he drew the reeds out of his arm and
lay down to rest ; there, too, he passed two days without
eating or drinking. The next day and the following days
the children of the tribe brought him partridge or partridge's
eggs, left them at the door of the hut, and ran away without
saying a word to him. This seclusion of the mourner lasted
for ten or twelve days, at the end of which he rejoined his
friends.^ Among the Minuanes, another tribe of the same
region, a widow in mourning for her husband used to cut
off a joint of one of her fingers.^ And of the Indian tribes
of the Chaco in general we read that, " as a consequence of
their superstitions, they give themselves up, on the death of
a relative, to rigorous fasts or mutilate themselves in the
most barbarous manner, cutting off joints of their fingers,
covering their arms, their legs, their sides, even their
breasts, in the case of the women, with a great number of
wounds, the scars of which are never effaced." ^
In Africa, a Kafir woman will sometimes cut off a joint
of one of her finders in sorrow for the death of her child.'*
^ Felix de Azara, Voyages dans
rAmirique Mdridionale (Paris, 1809),
ii. 25 sqq. Compare Alcide d'Orbigny,
L Homme Amiricain {de F Amiriqiie
Miridionale) (Paris, 1839), i 238, ii.
90 j^.
2 Felix de Azara, op. cit. ii. 34.
3 Alcide d' Orbigny, UHonwie
Amdricain, ii. 24.
4 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir
(London, 1904), pp. 203, 262 sq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 231
A similar practice is said to prevail among the Bushwomen,
as we learn from the following account given by an English
traveller, who visited a Bushman kraal : " I met an old woman,
who, having heard that I was desirous of knowing every-
thing relative to their customs, very good-naturedly stopped
to show her hands, and bade me observe that the little
finger of the right hand had lost two joints, and that of the
left, one. She explained to me, that they had been cut off
at different times, to express grief or mourning for the death
of three daughters. After this, I looked more attentively
at those whom I met, and saw many other women, and
some of the men, with their hands mutilated in the same
manner ; but it was only their little fingers which were thus
shortened ; and probably the loss of those joints was found
to occasion no inconvenience." ^
In Car Nicobar, one of the Nicobar Islands, " when a Amputa-
man dies, all his live stock, cloth, hatchets, fishing-lances, ^""g^!
and, in short, every moveable thing he possesses is buried joints in
with him ; and his death is mourned by the whole village. i^°he"'"^
In one view, this is an excellent custom, seeing it prevents Nicobar
all disputes about the property of the deceased amongst his
relations. His wife must conform to custom, by having a Custom of
joint cut off from one of her fingers ; and, if she refuses ^Q^^/jfj^o.
this, she must submit to have a deep notch cut in one of one of °
the pillars of her house." ^ At the present day the custom pinarritT
of mutilating a widow's hand appears to be obsolete in the mourning
as a
itute
Nicobar Islands, though the custom of mutilating the house- su^sti
post persists in full vigour ; the practice is either to cut for destroy-
through one of the posts which support the house or house.
at least to notch it so deeply Jhat the post must be
renewed. We may conjecture that this is a substitute
for totally destroying the house. Certainly the " excellent
custom " of smashing all a dead man's moveable property
and dumping the fragments on the grave, which not only
contributes to domestic harmony by obviating all disputes
about the succession, but applies a healthy stimulus to
industry and trade, is still obligatory on mourners " as a
1 William J- Burchell, Travels in the tion of Carnicobar," Asiatick Re-
Interior of Southern Africa (London, searches, vol. ii. Fifth Edition (London,
1822-1S24), ii. 61. 1807), p. 342.
■■^ G. Hamilton, "A Short Descrip-
232
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Custom of
desertingoi
destroying
a house
after a
death for
fear of the
ghost.
propitiatory sacrifice to the ghost " ; ^ so if you can propitiate
a ghost by smashing his goods, why not by pulHng down
his house ? There is no accounting for tastes. Here, as
elsewhere, the intention of all such destruction is presumably
either to convey the broken property to the ghost in the
spirit land or to relieve him from all temptation to come
back and fetch it.
The custom of deserting or destroying a house in which
a death has taken place is very widespread ; " and the general,
^ Census of India, 1901, vol. iii.
TJic Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Report on the Census, by Lieut. -Col.
Sir Richard C. Temple (Calcutta,
1903)) PP- 208 sq. The account here
given of the Nicobarese funeral customs
is abridged from that of E. H. Man,
"Notes on the Nicobarese : Death
and Burial," The Indian Antiquary,
xxviii. (Bombay, 1899) pp. 253-262.
As to the breaking of the property of
the dead and depositing the fragments
on the grave, see E. H. Man, op. cit.
pp. 254, 259 ; as to the cutting through
or notching the house-post, see id. p.
260. According to Mr. Man, the
reasons assigned by the natives for
breaking the property of the dead- are
to show the sincerity of their grief and
to prevent unscrupulous strangers from
appropriating the articles, lest the ghost
should be angered by such misappro-
priation of his property and should
visit his wrath on his negligent rela-
tives who permitted it. The original
motive, however, was probably one or
other of those which I have suggested
in the text.
2 For examples see Stephen 'Kay,
Travels and Researches in Caffraria
(London, 1833), pp. 194 sq. ; Lionel
Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa
(London, 1898), pp. 79, 233 ; James
Macdonald, Light in Africa, Second
Edition (London, 1890), p. 168 ; Miss
Alice Werner, The Natives of British
Ceni}-al Africa (London, 1906), p. 165 ;
R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folklore
Stories and Songs in Chinya7ija
(London, 1 907), pp. 96 sq. ; Sir
Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protector-
ate, Second Edition (London, 1904),
ii. 554, 715 ■^^•> 749. 793 5 John
Roscoe, The Nor/ hern Bantu (Cam-
bridge, 1915), pp. 61, 129, 227, 267 ;
C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda
(London, 1902), p. 27 ; Jakob Spieth,
Die Ewe-Stiimme (Berlin, 1906), pp.
288, 758, 760 ; Major John Butler,
Travels and Adventures in the Pro-
vince of Assam (London, 1855), P-
228 ; W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden,
Pagan Races of the Malay Peninstila
(London, 1906), ii. 106, iii, 113,
116; Lambert, Maciirs et Superstitions
des N^o-Caledoniens (Noumea, 1900),
p. 235 ; F. de Castelnau, Expedition
dans les parties coitrales de PAnii^rique
du Sud (Paris, 1850-1851), iv. 385;
M. Dobrizhoffer, Historia de Abi-
ponibus (Vienna, 1784), ii. 300;
J. B. von Spix and C. F. Ph. von
Martius, Reise in Braeiden (Munich,
i823-i83i),iii. 1188; Robert Southey,
History of Brazil, iii. (London, 1819),
p. 396 ; (Sir) Everard F. Im Thurn,
Among the Indians of Guiana (London,
1883), p. 225 ; J. Chaffanjon, UOr^-
noqtie et le Catira (Paris, 1889), pp.
13 sq.; Alcide d'Orbigny, U Homme'
Amiricain (Paris, 1839), i. 362 ; Diego
de Landa, Relation des Choses de
Yucatan (Paris, 1864), p. 197 ; Carl
Lumholtz, Unknown DIexico (London,
1903), i- 384; Frank Russell, "The
Pima Indians," Twenty-Sixth Annual
Report of the Bureati of American
Ethnology (Washington, 1908), p. 194;
Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern
Maidu," Bulletin of the American
Museum of Natural History, xvii.
Part iii. (New York, 1905) p. 262;
James Teit, The Thompson Indians of
British Columbia, p. 331 {The Jesiip
North Pacific Expedition). For more
examples see G. A. Wilken, " Das
CHAP. HI BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 233
perhaps the universal, motive for the desertion or destruction
appears to be a dread of the ghost who may be prowl-
ing about his old home. Indeed, that motive is some-
times expressly alleged for the practice. For example,
among the Kai of New Guinea, " the house in which any one
has died is abandoned, because his ghost makes it unsafe by
night." ^ The wild Sakai of the Malay Peninsula " have so
intense a terror of the ghosts of the deceased that they burn
down the house, and even sometimes the village, in which a
death has taken place, and never return to it." ^ The Ainos of
Japan say that "in years long gone by the ancients used to
burn down the hut in which the oldest woman of a family
had died. This curious custom was followed because it was
feared that the spirit of the woman would return to the hut
after death, and, out of envy, malice, and hatred, bewitch her
offspring and sons- and daughters-in-law, together with their
whole families, and bring upon them various noxious diseases
and many sad calamities. ... So vicious and ill-disposed
are the departed spirits of old women supposed to be, and
so much power for evil are they said to possess. For this
reason, therefore, the ancients used to burn down the hut in
which an old woman had lived* and died ; the principal idea
being that the soul, when it returned from the grave to
exercise its diabolical spells, would be unable to find its
former residence, and the objects of its hatred and fiendish
intentions. The soul having been thus cheated of its
prey, and its malignant designs frustrated, is supposed
to wander about for a time in a towering rage searching
for its former domicile, but, of course, to no purpose." ^
Among the Ngoni of British Central Africa "the hut- of a
deceased adult is never pulled down. It is never again
used by the living, but is left to fall to pieces when the
village removes to another locality. They do not think the
Haaropfer," De verspreide Geschriften 1 Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben
(The Hague, 1912), iii. 402 sqq. In- der Kaileute,"in R. Neuhauss, Z^^^A^A
stances could easily be multiplied. I Nett-Guinea,\\\. (Berlin, ipiljp. 83.
have chosen only a few to illustrate the - W. \V. Skeat and C. O. Blagden,
wide diffusion of the custom. In another Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula
work I hope to deal more' fully with (London, 1906), ii. 96.
this and other primitive devices for ^ Rev. John Batchelor, The Ainu of
balking the ghost. Japan (London, 1892), pp. 222 sq.
234 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
spirit always lives in the hut but they think it may return to
its former haunts, and so the hut is left standing." ^ When
a Navaho Indian dies within a house, "the rafters are pulled
down over the remains, and the place is usually set on fire.
After that nothing would induce a Navaho to touch a piece
of the wood or ev-en approach the immediate vicinity of the
place ; even years afterward such places are recognized and
avoided. The place and all about it are the especial locale
of the tci'ndi, the shade or spirit of the departed. These
shades are not necessarily malevolent, but they are regarded
as inclined to resent any intrusion or the taking of any
liberties with them or their belongings." This custom, we
are told, had much to do with the temporary character of
Navaho houses, because no man cared to build a fine house
which he might have to abandon at any time.^ Among the
Dhanwars, a primitive tribe inhabiting a wild hilly district
of the Central Provinces in India, " when an elder man
dies, his family usually abandon their hut, as it is believed
that his spirit haunts it and causes death to any one
who lives there." ^ The Savaras or Saoras, an aboriginal
hill -tribe in Ganjam and Vizagapatam, burn a dead
man's personal property because, as one of them in-
formed an English inquirer, " If we do not burn these
things with the body, the ghost {kulbd) will come and
ask us for them, and trouble us." Moreover, they hold a
festival of the dead every second year, at which the ghosts,
after receiving an offering of food, are bidden to begone and
trouble the living no more. On this occasion every house
in which a death has taken place within the two preceding
years is burnt. After that, the ghost {kulba) " gives no more
trouble, and does not come to reside in the new hut that is
built on the site of the burnt one." * Near Dogura, in
South-Eastern New Guinea, " after a death has taken pilace
in a house it is usual for the house to be deserted and
allowed to fall to pieces ; but sometimes if it is so nearly
1 W. A. Elmslie, Among the Wild 3 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes
Ngoni (London, 1899), p. 71. of the Central Provinces of India
^ Cosmos Mindeleff, " Navaho (London, 19 16), ii. 498.
Houses," Seventeenth Annual Report * 'E.Aga.r ThnxsUm, Castes attd Tribes
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, of Southern India (Madras, 1909), vi.
Part 2 (Washington, 189S), p. 487. 304 sq., 325, 328.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 235
new that it is a pity to have to build another, the doorway
is closed up and a new doorway made in another wall and
the house still used. It seems that the spirit of the dead
one will haunt the place, but it can be deceived by this little
artifice. As people lie awake at night they will sometimes
say they have heard the spirit scratching along the wall
trying to find its way into the house." ^ Among the Alfoors Custom of
of Halmahera, a large island to the west of New Guinea, hacking
. . the house-
when a person has died in a house, it is customary for the posts in
members of his family, of both sexes, to rush about with "l^"'^'"^
-' ' _ ' with an
choppers, hacking great pieces out of the posts on which eye to the
the house is supported, while they also mar and spoil in a ^^°^'"
greater or less degree other articles of property which had
belonged to the deceased. Thus they express the violence
of their grief ; but we are told that " this ceremony serves
at the same time to make the ghost's parting from earthly
objects the easier, since the damage done more or less to
almost everything at which he laboured in life leaves him
with no longer any possession on earth for which he cared." ^
Hence we can hardly doubt that the similar practice of the
Nicobarese, who smash a dead man's goods and cut through
the prop on which his house rests, is similarly designed to
make his old home unattractive to the ghost and so to relieve
the survivors from his unwelcome visits. At an earlier
time, as I have suggested, the Nicobarese custom may have
been to break down and desert altogether the house in
which a death had occurred. Even nomadic tribes, who After a
erect no permanent dwellings, are moved to shift their nomadic
quarters by a like fear of encountering the apparitions of tribes shift
the recently departed. For example, among the rude quarters
savages of the Northern Territory of Australia, "as soon for fear of
as anyone dies, the camps are immediately shifted, because "^
the spirit, of whom they are frightened, haunts its old camp-
ing ground." ^ Similarly, among the primitive tribes of
1 Yio.Xiry'^^'^Xo'a, In Far New Guinea Geschriften (The Hague, 1912), iii.
(London, 1914), p. 227. ill, who reports the custom on Cam-
2 C. F. H. Campen, "Die Alfoeren pen's authority, but omits the motive
van Halmahera," Tijdschrifi voor assigned for it.
Nedei-landsch Indie, April. 1883, p.
293. Compare G. A. Wilken, " Met ^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, Native
aniniismc bij de volken van den Tribes of the Nortliern Terri/ory 0/
Indischen Archipel," Dt: verspi-eide Australia (London, 1914), p. 254.
*236 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
Central Australia, " as soon as burial has taken place, the
man or woman's camp in which death occurred is at once
burnt down, and all the contents are then destroyed — in
the case of a woman nothing whatever being preserved —
and the whole of the local encampment is shifted to a
new place " ; and for at least two years afterwards no camp
will be pitched near the grave for fear of disturbing the
ghost.^
Fear of That the Nicobarese practices which we have been con-
shown°by sidering really flow from a fear of the ghost is further
the suggested by certain quaint customs which these people
inThe pains observe in mourning, and in which the dread of the spirits
which they of the recently departed is expressed without ambiguity.
disguise Thus in the,, interval between death and burial a fire is kept
themselves burning at the foot of the house-ladder, partly, we are told,
from him. ^ . , ,. r , , , ,
to apprise people at a distance of what has happened,
but also " to keep the disembodied spirit at a distance." ^
Further, a priest commands the ghost to go quietly with the
corpse to the grave and to remain there until the first
memorial feast has been celebrated, after which he will be
expected to retire to the spirit-land ; in the meantime he is
exhorted not to wander about and frighten the living by his
ghostly presence. However, lest this exhortation should
fall on deaf ears, " with the further object of disguising
themselves so that the departed spirit may fail to recognise
them, and may do them no mischief, all the mourners shave
their heads, in addition to which the women shave their
eye-brows, and the men eradicate with tweezers any hair
they may have on their upper lips and chins. It is also
common for a mourner, for the same reason, to assume some
new name for him or herself, which, in a great measure,
accounts for the fact that some individuals have borne
several different names in the course of their lives. This
dread of the disembodied spirits of their departed relatives
and friends is induced by the conviction that they so keenly
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Antiquary, xxviii. (1899) p. 255 ;
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Ceftsus of India, igoi, vol. iii. The
Australia (London, 1899), pp. 498, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Report
499. on the Census, by Lieut. -Col. Sir
2 E. H. Man, "Notes on the Nice- Richard C. Temple (Calcutta, 1903),
barese. Death and Burial," Z/i^/Wia;? p. 209.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR . 237
desire to return to the scenes and associates of their earthly
existence that they are utterly unscrupulous as to the means
and methods they adopt for the purpose of attaining their
object." ^ Hence we may safely assume that the old Nico-
barese custom of amputating the finger-joint of a widow
was in like manner intended to safeguard her against the
dangerous ghost of her husband, whether by disfiguring her
and therefore rendering her unattractive in his eyes, by
glutting his ghoulish thirst for blood, or in some other way
depriving him either of the will or of the power to do her a
mischief.
Among the Mafulu, a tribe in the interior of British Amputa-
New Guinea, it is said to be a common, though not uni- ^'°" °^
versal, custom " for a woman who has lost a child, and joints in
especially a first-born or very dear child, to amputate the j^°Brit'ish
top end of one of her fingers, up to the first joint, with an New-
adze. Having done this once for one child, she will pos- ""^^^"
sibly do it again for another child ; and a woman has been
seen with three fingers mutilated in this way." ^ In the
Mekeo district of British New Guinea a similar mutilation
of the fingers is customary on the death of other relations.
On this subject the Government agent for the district
reports as follows : " In all the villages visited inland,
commencing at Vanua, I observed that the custom of
amputating, in some cases, the first, in others the second,
joints of the index and middle fingers is very common after
the death of a near relative. I could not ascertain the
rules in performing such amputations, but I understood that
a mother will cut off the first joint for her children and the
second for her husband, father, or mother. Only the
women indulge in this practice. The woman that has to
amputate a joint needs not an assistant. She places the
finger over a piece of wood, and with a single blow by
herself of a sharp stone edge the operation is ended." ^
Among the Pesegems, a Papuan tribe in the centre of Amputa-
Dutch New Guinea, the women were found by explorers to fipger-
1 E. H. Man, op. cit. pp. 258, 261. New Guinea (London, 1912), p. 247. Dutch New
Compare Sir Richard C. Temple, op. ^ A. Giulianetti, in Atimtal Report Guinea.
cit. p. 209. on British Neiv Guinea, ist July i8gg
2 Robert W. Williamson, The to 30th June igoo (Brisbane, 1901),
Mafulu, Mountain People of British p. 78.
238
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
have two joints of the middle and ring fingers missing ;
these joints are said to be lopped off the hand in a girl's
early infancy. If the mutilation is universally inflicted on
women in infancy, it can hardly be a mark of mourning,
but must be explained from some more general cause, such
as a superstition which applies to all females without dis-
tinction. However, the travellers noticed one woman who
had her fingers intact, and when they questioned her as to
the reason for her exceptional treatment, she endeavoured
to explain it by uttering repeatedly the word niorup.
Among the native men there were some who had the upper
part of the left ear shorn obliquely away, and these men
were also designated by the same word morup. This
suggests that among these people, as apparently among
others, there is some unexplained connexion between the
mutilation of the hand and the mutilation of the ear.^
At the funeral of a chief the natives of Wallis Island,
in the South Pacific, used to wound their faces with shells,
bruise and hack their heads with clubs and hatchets, and cut
off joints of their fingers, which they threw into the coffin.^ In
mutilations Samoa, also, a joint of a finger, or even a whole finger, was
ing in Sometimes amputated in mourning for a friend ; but the
Polynesia, custom has long been obsolete.^ At the death of a chief the
Tongans or Friendly Islanders used to lop off joints of their
fingers, and slashed their temples, faces, and bosoms with the
teeth of sharks ; * indeed, the custom of amputating two joints
of the little finger as a mark of sorrow for the death of a
relation or friend, as well as of a chief, is said to have been
common in Tonga.^ The Maoris of New Zealand are also
Amputa-
tion of
finger-
joints and
other
bodily
* J. C. van Eeide, " Fingermutilatie
in Centraal Nieuw-Guinea," Tijdschrift
van het Koninklijk A^ederlandsch
Aardrijkskimdig Genootschap, Tweede
Serie, xxviii. (191 1) pp. 49 sq.
2 Letter of Father Bataillon, dated
July 1838, in Atinales de la Propaga-
tion de la Foi, xiii. (Lyons, 1841) p.
20. Some six years later another
Catholic missionary remarked of the
natives of Wallis Island that ' ' they
have almost all lost the little finger of
the hand by amputation — a mutilation
which they inflicted on themselves in
honour of their gods. It is to-day the
only trace that remains of their ancient
superstitions." See Father Mathieu's
letter, dated 20th May 1844, in
Annales de la Propagation de la Foi,
xviii. (Lyons, 1846) p. 6.
3 Rev. John B. Stair, Old Samoa
(London, 1897), p. 117.
* William Ellis, Polynesian Pe-
searches. Second Edition (London,
1832-1836), iv. 177.
^ Voyage de la Perouse autoiir du
Monde, redige par M. L. A. Millet-
Mureau (Paris, 1797), iii. 254. In
Tonga the amputation of a joint of the
little finger "is still common, and was
CHAP, in BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 239
reported to have amputated finger -joints in mourning.^
Among the Fijians it was customary to cut off the little Amputa-
finger as a sign of mourning when relatives or great chiefs ^'°^°^
died. On such occasions the fourth finger was said to joints in
" cry itself hoarse in vain for its absent mate." ^ So common ™°p[^'"^
and so persistent was the practice that as late as 1908 few
of the older Fijians were to be found who had the fingers of
both hands intact ; most of them, indeed, had lost both
little fingers.^ According to one good authority, Fijian
mourners amputated the joints of the small toe as well as
of the little finger,^ but this is denied by another good
authority.^ When a wealthy family had suffered a bereave-
ment, poorer people would sometimes lop off joints of their
fingers and, as it is alleged, of their toes, and send the dis-
membered joints as a mark of sympathy to the mourners,
and the delicate attention, we are assured, never failed to
elicit a reward.^ When a king of Fiji died, these sacrifices
were not always voluntary. On one such occasion orders
were issued to amputate one hundred fingers, but in fact
only sixty were taken off; these were inserted in a slit
reed and stuck along the eaves of the late king's house.^
Nor were fingers the only parts of their persons which Sacrifice o!
Fijians might be required to sacrifice in honour of their foreskins in
•' ° '■ mourning
deceased rulers. At Muthuata, when a chief died, all the in Fiji,
boys who had arrived at a suitable age were circumcised,
and many boys suffered the loss of their little fingers. The
severed foreskins and fingers were laid in the chiefs grave ;
and that ceremony being over, the chief's relations presented
young bread-fruit trees to the circumcised and mutilated
boys, whose kinsfolk were bound to cultivate the trees till
the boys were able to do it for themselves. Afterwards the
formerly almost universal as a sign of ^ Basil Thomson, The Fijians (Lon-
mourning, or of deprecation of sickness don, 1908), p. 375.
or misfortune " (J. E. Erskine, Journal * Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the
of a Cniise among the Islands of the United States Exploring Expedition,
Western Pacific, London, 1853, p. New Edition (New York, 1851), iii.
123). loi.
1 William Brown, New Zealand and ^ Thomas Williams, Fiji and the
its Aborigines (London, 1845), P- I9- Fijians, Second Edition (London,
The writer adds that " tlijs is now i860), i. 198.
rarely done." '' Charles Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 101.
2 Lorimev Fison, I'ales front. Old 7 Thomas Williams, Fiji and the
Fiji (London, 1904), p. 168. Fijians, Second Edition, i. 19S.
240
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The ampu-
tation of
finger-
joints in
mourning
is perhaps
a sacrifice
offered to
the ghost
to induce
him to
spare the
survivors.
chief's wives were strangled that they might accompany
their dead husband to the spirit-land.^ For example, in
Somu-somu, one of the chief towns in Fiji, when the king's
youngest son, Katu Mbithi, was lost at sea, " all his wives
were strangled, with much form and ceremony. Some
accounts make their number as high as seventy or eighty ;
the missionaries stated it below thirty. There were various
other ceremonies, not less extraordinary. To supply the
places of the men who were lost with Katu Mbithi, the
same number of boys, from the ages of nine to sixteen,
were taken and circumcised. For this ceremony long
strips of white native cloth were prepared to catch the blood
when the foreskin was cut. These strips, when sprinkled
with blood, were tied to a stake, and stuck up in the
market-place. Here the boys assembled to dance, for six
or seven nights, a number of men being placed near the
stakes, with a native horn (a conch-shell), which they blew,
v/hile the boys danced around the stake for two or three
hours together. This dance consisted of walking, jumping,
singing, shouting, yelling, etc., in the most savage and
furious manner, throwing themselves into all manner of
attitudes. . . . After the circumcision of the boys, many of
the female children had the first joint of their little fingers
cut off. The ceremonies ended by the chiefs and people
being assembled in the market-place to witness the institu-
tution of the circumcised boys to manhood." ^
We have now to ask, what is the meaning of this
custom so commonly observed in mourning? Why do
people cut off their finger-joints on the death of a relation
or of a chief? That the custom was supposed in some way
to benefit the dead person seems to follow from the practice
in Wallis Island of throwing the amputated finger-joints
into the coffin," and from the practice in Fiji of depositing
them, along with the severed foreskins, in the grave.* Now
we have seen that in Fiji, Tonga, and Futuna, similar
sacrifices of finger-joints have been offered to the gods for
the purpose of inducing them to spare the lives of sick
1 Charles Wilkes, op. cit. iii. loO ;
as to the strangling of the wives and
the motive for it, see id., iii. 96.
' Charles Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 158 sq.
3 Above, p. 238.
^ Above, p. 239.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 241
people.^ Can it be that mourners in like manner sacrifice
their finger-joints to the ghost of the recently departed, in
the hope that he will accept the offering and spare their
lives ? We have seen that the Nicobarese, among whom
widows are said formerly in certain cases to have amputated
their finger-joints, stand in fear of ghosts and are at great
pains to elude them or keep them at a distance." A
similar dread of the spirits of those who have recently
departed from life is practically universal among mankind ;
these poor souls, prompted by envy or affection, are sup-
posed to be constantly on the look-out to draw away their
surviving friends and relations to the spirit land, and great
vigilance must be exerted and many strange devices
employed for the purpose of defeating their affectionate or
malignant purpose.^ It would, therefore, be quite in har-
mony with the working of the savage mind to suppose that
the sacrifice of a finger-joint in mourning is a mode of
propitiating the ghost and inducing him to accept the joint
instead of the person. On this view we can explain an old
Greek legend. It is said that the matricide Orestes, driven Orestes
mad by the Furies of his murdered mother, recovered his p^ries'Qf
senses on biting off one of his fingers ; and that when he his
had done so, the Furies, who had seemed black to him mothen
before, changed their aspect and appeared to him white.'*
As the Furies which were thought to haunt a murderer
were practically indistinguishable from the avenging ghost
of his victim,^ the purport of the legend is that the angry
ghost of Clytaemnestra, appeased by the sacrifice of her
murderer's finger, ceased to haunt him and so permitted
him to recover his wandering wits.
The same theory may perhaps explain the reported Custom of
practice of amputating the finger-joint of a child whose |",e'dead^
elder brothers or sisters have died.^ It is possible that in bodies of
children
1 Above, pp. 210-213. * Pausanias viii. 34. 3. ^m°^^
2 Above, pp. 236 sq 5 E^win Rohde, Psyche^ (Tubingen brothers
^ For examples of such devices I may j t • • \\ • --„ tr r,r cUt.^rc
, , ^ ,,„ . • T> • 1 and Leipsic, 1903), 1. 270. Hence or sisters
refer to my paper, " On certain Burial , ' • .. .u t- • c \■\■^\■(^ ■^Un
^ . -^J,, . ,. r ., T, • •.• _ such expressions as "the Furies of "^^'^ '^'so
Clytaemnestra" (Pausanias viii. 34. 4), '^'^'^•
Customs as illustrative of the Primitive
Theory of the Soul," Journal of the -y --"'"-— v; »uo..m,».., ,.^. j^. ^,
, ,, ■' , , . , , /., -^ , oo,;x the I*uries of Laius and Oedipus
Atithropoloncal Inshtuie, xv. 1886) ,r. • • , ,
^ _, ^, ' • V, , (Pausanias IX. 5. 15).
pp. 64 sqq. The theme might be ' j j>
amplified almost indefinitely. ^ See above, pp. 19S, 201, 203
VOL. TTT R
242 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
this case the finger-joint is offered to the ghosts of the dead
brothers or sisters, in the hope that they will accept it as
a ransom for the life of the surviving infant whom other-
wise they would call away to the spirit land. Yet the
custom of mutilating the hands and ears of such children
can hardly be wholly dissociated from another class of
mutilations which are practised in similar cases with a
similar intention, but with this important difference, that
they are inflicted not on a living but on a dead child whose
elder brothers ' or sisters have died. In all such cases the
practice seems to rest on a belief in the transmigration or
reincarnation of souls. The parents imagine that, when
their children die one after another, the soul which has been
born in them all is one and the same, which has contracted
a vicious habit of shuffling off its mortal coil almost as soon
as it has put it on. Hence in order either to know the
child again at its next incarnation, or to break it of its bad
habit and prevail on it to remain a little longer in the
world, they inflict a more or less slight mutilation on the
last dead baby, for example, by slitting an ear or breaking
a finger, in the expectation that at its next birth the
infant will exhibit the same bodily mark, and that in order
not to incur the pain of repeated mutilations the immortal
soul will consent to inhabit its mortal body for a reasonable
length of time, and thus will spare its parents the sorrow of
mourning its decease again and again. But if in spite of
these precautions the soul of the child obstinately persists
in dying as soon as born, the parents lose patience, and to
avoid all further experience of these domestic bereavements
they attempt to prevent the reincarnation of the flfghty and
volatile soul by cutting up or otherwise destroying the last
dead baby's body altogether. Such, when due allowance
has been made for the vagueness and inconsistency of
savage philosophy, appears to be the train of thought under-
lying the following practices, as they have been reported
and explained by competent observers.
Custom in In Bengal, " should a woman give birth to several still-
amfrT^off ^°^" children in succession, the popular belief is that the
the nose or same child reappears on each occasion, when, to frustrate the
ear of a (jggigns of the evil spirit that has taken possession of the
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 243
child, the nose, or a portion of an ear, is cut off, and the stillborn
body is cast away on a dunghill." ^ Here the soul of the seve^jjf'^'
child is interpreted as an evil spirit which has taken similar
possession of the infantile body; but the African evidence, thefamUy.
which I am about to adduce, suggests that in India also the
" evil spirit " may be no more than an ordinary human soul
which, out of sheer perverseness or malignity of disposition,
persists in disappointing the fond hopes of its parents by
dying as soon as born.
" Destroying the body by beating up, or by cutting up, West
is a widely diffused custom in West Africa in the case of ^^^^[^^^j.
dangerous souls, and is universally followed with those that mutilating
have contained wanderer-souls, i.e. those souls which keep up*^the'"^
turning up in the successive infants of a family. A child dead body
dies, then another child comes to the same father or mother, ° ^ose
and that dies, after giving the usual trouble and expense, ^'^er
A third arrives and if that dies, the worm — the father, I or sisters
mean — turns, and if he is still desirous of more children, he Jjf^^ ^^^^
just breaks one of the legs- of the body before throwing it
in the bush. This he thinks will act as a warning to the
wanderer-soul and give it to understand that if it will
persist in coming into his family, it must settle down there
and give up its flighty ways. If a fourth child arrives in
the family, ' it usually limps,' and if it dies the justly irritated
parent cuts its body up carefully into very small pieces,
and scatters them, doing away with the soul altogether." ^
Among the Ibibios of Southern Nigeria, children who die
between the ages of one and seven years are laid in the
grave on their right sides, as if sleeping, with hands folded
palm to palm and placed between the knees. But if
several children have died in a family, one after another, at
the age of from eight to ten, the next child to expire at that
age is buried face downwards, " so that he may not see the
way to be born again." It is thought that his spirit is one
of those mischievous sprites who are only born again to
1 (Sir) II. H. Risley, The Tribes this subject. Compare W. Crooke,
and Castes 0/ Bengal {(Zdi\cvL\.\.2i, 1892), Popular Religion and Folk-lore of
i. 211. The account is derived from Northern India (Westminster, 1896),
the information of midvvives imparted ii. 67.
to Dr. James Wise, who enjoyed special ^ Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in
opportunities for learning the truth on West Africa (London, 1S97), p. 4S0.
died.
2 -Hi BORING A SERVANTS EAR part iv
bring grief to parents, and who would never grow up to be
a comfort to them in later years. The mother or grand-
mother of such an ill-conditioned brat " usually breaks a
finger or slits an ear of the corpse before it is laid in the
grave, that, when it is born again, they may know it at once
because it will bear this mark. The spirits are said to
dislike this treatment so much ' that they often give up their
bad habit of dying, and on the next reincarnation grow up
like other people.' " ^
South Among the Efik of Southern Nigeria, when a mother
cuslo^m of has lost several children in rapid succession, she " burns the
burning the dead body of the last infant with a view of putting a stop
bodies of , ^ .. . ,a,-, •
children to the mortality. Among the Andoni the woman, actmg
whose more or less independently, takes the corpse in a canoe and
brothers or conveys it to some out-of-the-way spot, usually to one of
sisters have ^y^q many islands which are in their locality. There, having
collected sufficient wood, she makes a fire, in which she
burns it. The idea, of course, as in the case of the Efik, is
the same, ie. to prevent a recurrence of early dissolution in
the event of other children being born to her. But mark
well the principle — also identical in both cases — upon which
this act is based. In no sense does the fire destroy the
soul of the child, for this essence, according to their belief,
is apparently invulnerable when confined to the human
organism, but it is presumed that the soul, when it arrives
in spirit land — children being exempted from the burial
rites — will communicate the fact of the treatment accorded
to it by the woman to the spirit elders of the family. The
object of this communication is meant to be a warning to
' D. Amaury Talbot, Womati's to make a mark with soot or with oil
Mysteries of a Primitive People, the on the body of the deceased. When
Ibibios of Southern Nigeiia (London, children are born into the families of
etc., 1915), p. 221. OftheGondsof nearer relatives the birth-marks are
India we read that "sometimes they closely examined, and if any of these
make a mark with soot or vermilion on should have the faintest resemblance
the body of a dead man, and if some to the mark made on the deceased, it
similar mark is subsequently found on is believed that he has become rein-
any newborn child it is held that the carnated in the new-born ba!)e." See
dead man's spirit has been reborn in E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk Tales
it." See R. V. Russell, Tribes and (London, 1908), p. 51. These pass-
Casies of the Central Provinces of ages illustrate the practice of marking
India (London, 1916), iii. 94. In the dead for the purpose of identifying
Bilaspore, a district of the Central them at their next incarnation.
Provinces in India, "it is customary
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 245
the spirit members of the household, especially to those who
intend to return to this world through the agency of the
woman in question, to be prepared to live, and in this way
to avoid a similar disagreeable experience." ^
At Accra, on the Gold Coast of West Africa, in the Gold Coast
year 1845 an English missionary witnessed a scene which [hreatenina
he describes as follows : " I saw this morning a great live
number of women and children carrying a child about the ^q'^j ^^^
streets in a basket, shouting as loudly as they could. On mutilating
enquiry I learned that the mother had lost two or three children
children previously, who had died when about the age of ^'"^^^^
this. When such is the case they believe that the same brothers or
soul which was in the first child returns, and enters the s'stershave
died.
next, and that the child, of its own will through mere spite,
dies. Hence these steps are taken. The child while alive
is besmutted with charcoal, put into a basket, and carried
round the town, when the people take care to abuse it for
its wickedness, and to threaten it, should it die. Every
ill-usage that can be offered, short of murder, is shown it.
Should it afterwards die, its head is sometimes crushed with
stones, the body refused a burial, is thrown either into the
sea, or in the bush. These things are done to prevent its
coming again in another child. Some of the people have a
notion that such children belong to the orang-outangs, that
when they die this animal comes to claim them. These
make images and place them in the road that the beast
may take the image and spare the child." ^
In this last account the living child is smudged with The idea of
black and otherwise ill-treated, not for the purpose of dis- tion'^a[°he
figuring it and therefore rendering it unacceptable to spirits root of
which might otherwise carry it off, but to frighten the child mutilations
itself and so to break it of the bad habit of dying. The of dead
custom, therefore, differs materially from the practices
described above, of giving children foul names, clothing
them in rags, placing them among sweepings, and so forth,
1 Major Arthur Glyn Leonard, The West Africa, 1843- 1848," ^'-^"^Wj xii.
Lower Niger and its Tribes (London, (191 2) No. 74, p. 142. Compare A.
1906), p. 213. J. N. Tremearne, The Tailed Head-
2 Major A. J. N. Tremearne, "Ex- hunters of Nigeria (London, 1912),
tracts from the Diary of the late Rev. pp. 173 s^.
John Martin, Wesleyan Missionary in
246 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
for the purpose of deceiving the demons or other dangerous
spirits, who are prone to ravish away attractive children
from the arms of their parents.^ The distinction between
the two sets of observances springs from the presence of the
idea of reincarnation in the one set of customs and its
absence in the other.
Bambara Among the pagan Bambara of the Upper Niger the
custom of bgijgf \^ the reincarnation of human souls is universal. The
mutilating _ i j-
the dead soul of an mfant who dies at the breast, of a boy who dies
bodies of before circumcision, and of a girl who dies before the corre-
children ' , . °
whose elder spending rite of excision has been performed upon her, is
sis°err^°^ supposed to enter once more into the mother's womb and
have also to be bom again into the world. Hence such children are
^^^'^' buried in the fore court or even in the house in which they
were born, that their souls may not have far to go and may
not mistake their mother when their time comes to be re-
incarnated. But when such a child is buried, custom requires
that, in presence of the mother who bore it, the father should
break one of the infant's great toes. Many fathers do more.
They mark the child with a knife on its forehead, the nape
of the neck, the shoulders, and the arms, and they split the
upper lip or the tip of one ear. The ceremony naturally
makes a deep impression on the mother who witnesses it,
and accordingly Bambara women are said sometimes to give
birth to infants bearing bodily marks which resemble those
made by their husbands on the dead baby. Such marks
confirm the people in their belief that the soul of the last
child to die has been born again in the new one. For
example, at the village of Welengela, between Segou and
Sens, there was a man born with a harelip ; and the villagers
were unanimous in the explanation they gave of this personal
peculiarity. They said that his mother had given birth to
sickly and puny infants, who all died a few weeks after they
were born, till the father in a rage cleft the lip of the last
child with a cut of his knife. So the next time that child
came to life, it was born with a harelip, thus bearing on its
body the very mutilation inflicted by the father on its pre-
decessor.. Others are said to be born with tattoo marks on
the back, breast, and arms, and their relations stoutly affirm
1 See above, pp. l68 sqg.
next rein-
carnation.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 247
that these patterns were made by the father on the last dead
brother or sister of the person who exhibits them.^
The writer who records these Bambara customs and Such
beliefs is apparently of opinion that in mutilating or other- ^^,^'^'^^'°"^
wise marking his last dead child the father has no other intended to
object in view than that of recognizing the infant the next sou^oVthe
time it is born into the family.^ But in view of the explana- child to
tions given of the similar customs which are observed in [rrraHt's"
similar cases by tribes of Southern Nigeria and the Gold
Coast, we may surmise that the principal, if not the only,
object of such mutilations and scarifications is to induce the
infant at its next birth to remain in life, lest by dying again
it should again expose its dead body to the same cruel and
barbarous treatment.
A similar belief in the rebirth of souls has led to similar Mutilation
mutilations of dead children in other parts of the world. "hiMnm to
Thus in Annam, " the people believe in the transmigration prevent
of souls, and for that reason, when a little child dies, the ,,ar.yn,'"'
' ' ' carnation
parents sometimes cut the body in pieces, which they carry of their
away in different directions, fearing lest the child should enter Annam
again into its mother's womb the next time she conceives." ^ ^^^ ^o\\h
Among the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia, " if the
children of a couple always die while very young, the little
finger of the last child to die is wound with a string. A
notch is cut in the upper rim of the burial box, in which the
finger is placed. Then the cover is put on, and the finger is
cut off. It is hidden in the woods that nobody may find it.
The body of the child is placed on a new tree, not on the
tree on which other children are put." * No explanation of
these Kwakiutl customs is given by the writer who reports
them ; but in the light of the African parallels we may con-
jecture that by amputating the dead child's little finger and
1 L'Abbe Jos. Henry, IJAme d'lin naire apostolique a Tong-k'\ng"' N'cu-
peuple A/ricain, les Bambara {^Inwiitx velles Lettres Edi/iatites des Alisstons
\. W. 19 10), pp. 56 sgg., 216 sq. de la Chine et des Indes Orien/ales,
9 T>Auv'T TT ^ -^ ,- vii. (Paris, 1823) p. 194.
2 L Abbe Jos. Henry, op. cit. p. 57, , V x, • ,,Vm ,-u -d
,, r, J ^ , » /■ ^ • Franz Boas, in "Eleventh Report
" // a dans sa pens^e que r enfant gut , . „ ._ ^, ,, . ... ^
, . ,, ^ ■ , J. 11' J of the Committee on the Js 01th- \\estern
ltd succMera, sera animi par Vame du
Tribes of Canada," Report of the British
d^funt et tl ne n<!glts;e rien pour en . ._. r \i. aj ^ i
... , .-, , ,i Association for the Advancement of
avoi) , SI possible, la certitude . „. r ■ ,. , jir .■ o.-
^ Science, Liverpool Meeting, iSgo, p.
3 " Lettre de M. Gucnird, mission- 580 (p. 11 of the separate reprint).
248 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
hiding it apart from the body the parents desire to prevent
the infant from being born again of its mother and afflicting
her with a fresh sorrow by dying again in infancy. Certainly
the Kwakiutl are not strangers to the idea of reincarnation ;
for they believe that the soul of a deceased person returns
again in the first child born after his death.^ We have just
seen that in Annam the dead body of an infant is sometimes
cut in pieces and the pieces separated from each other for
the express purpose of preventing the child from playing the
same trick on its mother again.
Mutilation Thus it appears that the widespread belief in the re-
incarnation of human souls has given rise in many places to
a practice of mutilating the bodies of children who die young,
and that the aim of such mutilations is either to induce the
tion.
of dead
children in
connexion
with the
theory of
reincarna- soul of the child to remain longer in life at its next reincarna-
tion or to prevent it from being reborn altogether. Among
the mutilations performed for this purpose are breaking a leg
or a toe, scarifying the face and various parts of the body
with a knife, splitting a lip, amputating or breaking a finger,
and slitting or cutting off a portion of an ear. Of these
various injuries the laceration of the ear would seem to be
particularly frequent, since it is reported to be practised in
India and by two tribes of Africa ; ^ next to it, perhaps, in
respect of frequency is the mangling of a finger, which is
carried out both in Africa and America.^
The Do these mutilations of dead infants, performed with a
view to their future reincarnation, throw any light on the
mutilation
of living
children, similar mutilations of living infants whose elder brothers and
brothers ^^ sistcrs havc died } We have seen that just as the fingers
and sisters and ears of dead children are mutilated in order to prevent
mYy be ' them from dying at their next incarnation, so the fingers
intended to ^nd ears of living children, whose elder brothers and sisters
prevent , i- , ., ,
them from have died, are mutilated apparently for the purpose of pre-
dying. serving them in life.^ The parallelism of the customs suggests
that it springs from a parallelism of ideas. And as the belief
appears to be widespread that when the children of a family
1 Franz Boas, in "Sixth Report of of the separate reprint,
the Committee on the North-Western ^ Above, pp. 242 sq., 244, 246.
Trih&s. oiC3.na.^2i" Report of the B)-iitsh ^ Above, pp. 244, 247.
Association for the Advancement of ^ Above, pp. 190, 195, 198, 201,
Science, Leeds Meeting, iSgo, p. 59 203.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 249
die in rapid succession, they are nothing but one and the
same infant who returns again and again to his mother's
womb,^ it is natural to suppose that the mutilations practised
on a living child, whose elder brothers and sisters are dead,
may be intended to serve the very same purpose as the
similar mutilations practised on a dead child whose elder
brothers and sisters have died before him ; that is, they may
be intended to prevent the child from dying by frightening
him with the long course of bodily lacerations and injuries
which he will have to undergo if he persists in his uncon-
scionable practice of dying and being born again at short
intervals. This explanation of the curious custom of mutilat-
ing live children, whose elder brothers and sisters perished in
infancy, has a certain advantage over the alternative explana-
tion suggested at the outset of our inquiry, namely, that these
mutilations are intended to deform the infants and so to render
them unattractive to the spirits who are believed to have
carried off their elder brothers and sisters.^ For on this The
latter theory, as we saw,^ it is difficult to account for the o^fpj^^e"
singular fact that in some parts of India and Africa the of the
mother swallows the piece which she has amputated from by the ^"^
the ear of her infant. The act, almost unintelligible on the mother
hypothesis that the amputation is intended to guard the intended
child against spirits who have designs on its life, becomes ^° secure
,,..,, , , , . r • • r its rebirth
mtelligible on the hypothesis 01 remcarnation ; lor a in her
mother who, taught by sad experience, foresees the possi- ^omb.
bility or even the probability of the new baby following all
its predecessors along the dusty road of death, may not
unnaturally attempt to ensure its return to the maternal
womb by taking a morsel of its tiny body into her own.
Surely, she may think, at its next birth the baby will seek
for the missing portion of its ear in the body of its old
mother and not of a new one. That this is the true ex-
1 In addition to the evidence I have because the spirit of the former babe
already cited, I may quote the observa- has been transferred to the present
tions of Sir Richard C. Temple on one." See Census of India, 1901,
the beliefs of the Andaman Islanders : vol. iii. The Andaman and Nia)bar
"Every child conceived has had a Islands, Report on the Census hylAewX.-
prior existence, and the theory of Col. Sir Richard C. Temple (Calcutta,
metempsychosis appears in many other 1903), p. 63.
superstitions, notably in naming a ^ Above, pp. 1 89 sq.
second child after a previous dead one, ^ Above, pp. 195 sg.
2SO
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
European
treatment
of children
whose elder
brothers or
sisters have
died.
Pretended
exposure
and sale
of such
childien in
Macedonia,
Resem-
blance
of the
treatment
of such
children in
Macedonia,
Africa, and
India.
planation of the remarkable custom observed by some Indian
and African mothers, I am far from confidently affirming ;
but at least it suggests a reason, based on deep maternal
instincts, for conduct which to the civilized observer might
seem only cruel and absurd. Subsequent investigations may
serve either to confirm or to refute it.
Before we proceed to consider other cases of piercing or
mutilating the human ear, it may be of interest to observe,
that the curious devices, to which in various parts of the world
mothers resort for the sake of saving the lives of younger
children whose elder brothers and sisters have died, are not
without their parallels in Europe. Thus in Macedonia, " when
a mother loses child after child, the proper course for her to
pursue is to take her last-born and expose it in the street.
A friend, by previous arrangement, picks up the child and
clothes it. A {q-v^ days after she returns it to the mother,
and for three years it is clothed in strange clothes, that
is, clothes begged of relatives and friends. Sometimes, in
addition to this ceremony, the child's right ear is adorned
with a silver ring which must be worn through life. At
Liakkovikia the precautions are more elaborate still. The
family sponsor being dismissed, the midwife takes the new-
born infant and casts it outside the house-door. The first
person who happens to pass by is obliged to act as sponsor.
If, even after this measure, the children persist in dying, the
mother is delivered of her next in a strange house, surrounded
by all her kinswomen. As soon as the infant is born, the
midwife puts it in a large handkerchief and carries it round
the room, crying, ' A child for sale ! ' One of the women
present buys it for a {q\^ silver pieces and returns it to the
mother. Then forty women, who have been married only
once, contribute a silver coin apiece, and out of these coins
a hoop is made through which the child is passed. After-
wards this silver hoop is turned into some other ornament,
which the child must always wear." ^
Some of these quaint contrivances for preserving the
lives of children whose elder brothers and sisters have died
closely resemble devices which we have seen employed by
parents for a precisely similar purpose in Africa and India.
' G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folk-lore (Cambridge, 1903), pp. 137 sq.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 251
Such in particular are the pretences of exposing the infant
in the street and of selling it to a stranger, and the practice
of dressing it in borrowed clothes.^ To judge by analogy, The
these proceedings aim at deceiving the spirits who are supposed m^ent'on
to lie in wait for the new-born child ; they tend to impress treatment
on these dangerous but simple-minded beings a belief that the°s^^rkr
the infant belongs, not to its real parents, but to the person who are
who has bought or found it, or in whose clothes it is dressed. [ie°in^wa[t°
Thus by seeming to be childless the father and mother hope for the
to divert the attention of the spirits from their household,
and so to procure for their offspring, disguised as a stranger,
the means of growing up unmolested by those baneful in-
fluences which have already proved fatal to their elder
children. With a like intention, probably, the silver, which
is ultimately to be fashioned into an ornament for the child,
must be contributed, not by the infant's parents, but by forty
married women ; for, like the borrowed clothes, the borrowed
silver is likely to divert the attention of the demons or fairies
from the child's family to strangers. Similarly in India, as
we saw, the silver or gold used to make an ornament for a
child, whose elder brothers and sisters have died, must be
begged by the parents from other people.- The passage of
the baby through a silver hoop is clearly intended to put the
infant out of reach of its spiritual foes ; for similar passages
through hoops or other narrow openings are among the
commonest devices to which ignorant and superstitious people
in all parts of the world resort for the purpose of eluding the
pursuit of spirits.^ And the Macedonian custom of trans-
ferring an expectant mother, in the last resort, to a strange
house, there to be delivered of her latest born, is in all
probability a ruse to conceal the birth from the spirits, who
naturally expect the woman to be brought to bed in her
own house. Finally, the practice of dismissing the family
sponsor and replacing him by the first passer-by appears
to be another device to outwit the spirits by bestowing
on the child a wholly different name from that by which in
the regular course of things it would have been christened.
1 See above, pp. i6Z sq., 171, 175, ^ Yo\ instances see Ba/der (he Beauti-
179, 180, 181, 1865^.. 194. >/, ii. 168-195 (T/ie Golden Bough,
2 Above, p. 186. Third Edition, Part vii.).
252 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
How can the guileless spirits recognize the infant under its
new-fangled name?
Expedients In Albania expedients of the same sort are employed to
Albania '" effect the same benevolent purpose. When the children of
to save the a married pair die in rapid succession, the last-born child is
children passed through an iron tripod ; but if that measure also
whoseeider provcs unavailing, then a cross is made out of silver con-
sisters have tributed by nine women who must all bear the name of
died. Maro, and the child, decorated with the cross, is exposed at
a crossroad, where the first passer-by bestows a name upon
it.^ Here the passage of the Albanian child between the
legs of an iron tripod is no doubt intended to serve the
same end as the passage of a Macedonian child through a
silver hoop ; the silver cross to which nine Albanian women
must contribute resembles the silver ornament to which
forty Macedonian women must contribute, and like it the
cross is probably thought to protect the wearer against the
insidious attacks of demons ; and finally the exposure of the
child at a crossroad, and the imposition of a name on it by the
first passer-by, may be supposed in like manner to deceive the
spirits as to the parentage and personal identity of the infant.
Expedients So, too, in the Lom district of Bulgaria, when three
Bu°glrfa'° children of the same mother have died soon after baptism,
and Russia the parents conclude that the godfather was unlucky. Hence
live^rf ^ when a fourth child is born, the midwife exposes it immedi-
chiidren ately after birth at a crossroad, and hides herself close by to
brothers or sce who will find the child. The first comer, whether man
sisters have qj. woman, adult or child, must pick up the forsaken babe
died. ' i i.
and carry it straight to the church without looking behind
him. There the child is baptized by the name of its
accidental finder, who thus becomes a new godfather or
godmother.2 Similarly in Russia, when several children in
a family have died, and the next one is to be baptized, the
first person met in the street, even were he a beggar, is
fetched into the house to stand godfather to the infant.^
1 J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische (1894) pp. 194 sq.
Studioi (Jena, 1854), i. 149. ^ K. Awdejewa, " tjber den Aber-
glauben des russischen Volkes," in
2 F. S. Krauss, " Haarschurgod- Archiv fur •wissenschaftliche Kunde
schaft bei den Sudslaven,"/«/ijr«a/z'^«- von Russland, herausgegeben von A.
ales Ar-chiv fiir Ethnographic, vii. Erman, i. (1841) p. 626.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 253
The device of bestowing an unlooked-for name on a child Expedient
whose elder brothers or sisters had died, in the hope of avert- ^^^op'^^
' ^ in the
ing a similar fate from the survivor, was not unknown among Highlands
the Highlanders of Scotland. " If the children of a family "^^Svethe
were dying in infancy, one after the other, it was thought Uvesof
that, by changing the name, the evil would be counteracted. whoseTider
The new name was called a ' Road name' {Ainm Rathaid), brothers or
being that of the first person encountered on the road when dTed!^^
going with the child to be baptized. It was given ' upon
the luck ' {air sealbhaicJi) of the person met. The Mac-
Rories, a sept of the Mac-Larens in Perthshire, were de-
scendants of one who thus received his name. His parents,
having lost a previous child before its baptism, were advised
to change the name. They were on their way through the
pass, called Lairig Isle, between Loch Erne and Glen-
dochart, to have their second child baptized, when they
were met by one Rory Mac Pherson. He was an entire
stranger to them, but turned back with them, as a stranger
ought to do to avoid being unlucky, and the child was
called after him. Clann 'ic-Shimigeir, a sept of the Mac
Neills, have also a road name." ^
In some parts of Esthonia, when several children have died Esthonian
in a family, the last of them is placed in the coffin face down- (^°yfn5
ward and is buried in that posture, because if that is done, the dead child
people believe that the next children will be more fortunate.^ \a^^
Why subsequent children should live if the last one to die is brothers
buried face downward, does not appear at the first glance ; hav^dled
but a clue to the meaning of the custom is furnished by the before it.
practice of the Ibibios of Southern Nigeria, who in similar
cases, as we saw, bury the last child face downwards, " so
that he may not see the way to be born again." ^ We may,
therefore, assume with a fair degree of probability that the
same custom was originally observed by the Esthonians for
precisely the same reason, and that accordingly in Russia as
in Africa the real motive for the interment of a baby in
that posture is to prevent its soul from entering again into
1 John Gregorson Campbell, Super- wohnheiten, mit auf die Gegenzuart be-
stitions of the Highlands aiid Islands of ziiglicheti An7nerhtngen beleuchtet von
Scotland {QAzsgo-^, 1900), p. 245. Dr. Fr. R. Kreutzwald (St. Petersburg,
2 J. W. Boeder, Der Ehsteti aber- 1854), p. 18.
gldnhische Gebrduche, Weisen und Ge- 3 Above, p. 243.
German
treatment
of children
at baptism
254 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
its mother's womb and being born again into the world.
As no one is likely to suggest that the Esthonians borrowed
this mode of cheating destiny from the Ibibios of Southern
Nigeria, we may surmise that both peoples were led
independently to adopt this expedient by the combined
influence of parental affection, which is universal, and of a
belief in reincarnation, which has been widespread, if not
universal, among mankind.
Saxon and Among the Saxons of Transylvania, when a child whose
elder brothers or sisters have died is about to be baptized,
the parents do not carry the infant out of the house throuo-h
whoir'"" the door, but hand it through a window to the godparents,
elder who thereupon carry it to the church and after baptism return
brothers 111 11 • 1 • 1
or sisters the baby to the house m like manner. In this way they
have died, think they save the infant's life.^ The custom of passing
such children through a window instead of through the door
on their way to baptism appears to be common in Germany ;
it is reported from Pomerania, Masuren, Voigtland, and
Thuringia. In Pomerania they say that the child should be
passed out and in the window head foremost, and that the
godparents should be old.^ Similarly in some parts of
India, as we saw, when a name is bestowed on a child whose
elder brothers or sisters have died, the infant is passed into
the house, not through the door, but through an opening
made under it ;^ and among the Bateso of Central Africa a
fresh doorway is cut in the side of the house for the use of
such a child.* In all these cases the original intention
probably was to conceal the infant at a critical moment
from the spirits who were thought to have carried off its
elder brothers and sisters ; though in Europe the custom
1 Qi.lA\\\r^?:x,Volksthumlicher Branch mem (Posen, 1885), P- 156- M
und Glaube bet Gehiirt und Tatife im Toeppen, Aberglauben aits Masuren 2
Siebenbiirger Sachsenlande, p. 38. (Danzig, 1867), p. 82 ; T. A E
I possess a copy of this pamphlet with- Kohler, Volksbraiich, ' Aberglatiben,
out date or place of publication. It is Sagen tmd andi-e alte Uberlieferungen
apparently a programme of the High im Voigtlande (Leipsic, 1867), P- 247;
School {Gymnasium) at Schassburg in August Witzschel, Kleine Beiirdge ziir
Transylvania for the year 1876-1877. deutschen Mythologie, Sitten- ttnd Hei-
Compsive E. Geravd, T/te Land beyond matskunde (Vienna, 1866- 1878), ii,
the Forest (Edinburgh and London, 248 ; Jacol) Grimm, Deutsche Mytho-
1888), i. 196^4.. logie^ (Berlin, 1875 -1878), iii. 464,
2 Qtto Knoop, Volkssagen, Erzdh- No. 483.
lungen, Abcrg'tatihcn, Gebrdnche utid 3 Above, ]). 183.
Rliirchen ctus dem ostlichen Hintertoin- * Above, p. 197.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 255
may have dwindled into a traditionary rite of which the old
meaning is forgotten.
The practice of piercing or mutilating the ears, which Piercing or
formed the starting-point of the foregoing discussion, has JJe'^J"'^
been observed from religious or superstitious motives on from
other occasions, and sometimes the blood drawn from the n^ofj'veT
ears has been offered to a deity or to the dead. Thus, Blood
r ■, • 1 1 r T- f- • • drawn from
among the natives of the eastern islands of Torres Straits it the ears as
was customary, on the death of a near relative, to cut the ^" offering
lobes of the ears of youths who had lately been initiated dead.
and of girls who had arrived at puberty, and to let the
blood drip on the feet of the corpse " as a mark of pity or
of sorrow for the deceased." ^ Similarly among the natives
of New Caledonia, when a death has taken place, the nearest
relations tear the lobes of their ears and inflict large burns
on their arms and breasts.^ Among the Kai of German New
Guinea a mourner will express his grief with violent gestures
and wild shouts, and snatching up a knife will make as if he
would kill himself, but in fact he merely slits his ear, allows
the blood to trickle over his body, and falls as if exhausted
to the ground.^ Here it seems as if the blood from the ears
were offered as a substitute for the life of the mourner, in
order to convince the ghost of the genuine sorrow felt at his
decease and so to induce him to spare the survivors. In
Hawaii, on the death of a king or chief, it used to be
customary for people to cut one or both their ears and to
mutilate themselves in other ways, as by knocking out som.e
of their front teeth and tattooing black spots or lines on
their tongues.*
The Scythians in antiquity, when they mourned the Pieces of
death of a king, were wont to cut off pieces of their ears, ^^^j^y"'
gash their foreheads and noses, and run arrows through their mourners
left hands.^ To this custom Plutarch probably alludes when scjthfans
he says that some barbarians in mourning were wont to cut and in
^ ^ parts of the
1 Reports of the Cambridge Anthro- der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss, Deutsch Caucasus.
pological Expedition to Ton-es Straits, jVeu-Guitiea, iii. (Berlin, 1911) p. 80.
vi. (Cambridge, 1908) p 154- ^ 4 William Ellis, Polynesian Re-
2 Father Lambert JW^^«A;-- ^^^,.^_, gecond Edition (London,
stittons des N^o-CaUdomens {No\xmt3i, ,„,^ ,o-,/;\ ;,. ,^^0.,
1900), p. 235. f o h I -i
3 Ch. Keysser, " Aus dem Leben " Herodotus iv. 71.
256 BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
off their ears, noses, and other parts of their bodies, thinking
thereby to please the dead/ In some parts of the Caucasus
down to modern times, when a guardian survived his ward,
he inherited some of the moveable property and horses of
the deceased, but he was obliged to cut off half of each of
his ears. The ears of the favourite steed of the dead man
were also cut. Among the Koumuks of this region not
only was the guardian of a prince bound to cut off the half
of both his ears on the death of his ward, but the most
confidential of the courtiers were forced to submit to the
same mutilation. " Formerly the nurses were obliged to
tear out their hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and then to be
buried alive. For that purpose they were put in a per-
pendicular pit, their heads covered with pots in each of
which there was a hole. In this state they were given food,
but as they were obliged to remain there for several weeks,
most of them died in consequence. Even at the present
day all the women of the family assemble every day for
ten weeks, strip themselves naked to the girdle, and tear
their bodies with their nails. This ceremony took place at
Kisliar while I was there, on the death of a young princess,
daughter of prince Inal."^
Ancient No people appear to have cut their ears as a form of
Mexican sacrifice more frequently than the ancient Mexicans. The
custom of ^ -^
drawing occasions of offering the sacrifice and the gods to whom it
the°fa/s°a? ^^^^ offered were many and various. Sometimes the blood
an offering was exacted from the priests alone, sometimes from the
to the gods. ^^j^QJg pgQpig^ young and old, down to infants in the cradle.
Not uncommonly the sacrifice was offered to the sun. For
example, on a certain day all those who were born under
a particular sign, men, women, and children, cut their ears
and drew blood from them in honour of the sun, saying that
by so doing they recreated the luminary.^ Indeed, the
Mexican priests are said to have offered blood from their
ears every morning to the sun at his rising, while at the
same time they decapitated quails, and holding up the
1 '?\\iXzxz\s.,ConsolatioadApollonium, ^ Bernardino de Sahagun, Histoire
22. Ginirale des Choses de la Nouvelle-
2 Le Comte Jean Potocl<i, Voyage Espagne, traduite et annotee par D.
datis les steps d Astrakhan et du Jourdanet et Remi Simeon (Paris,
Caucase (Paris, 1829), ii. 121-123. 1880), p. 242.
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
557
bleeding bodies said, " The sun is already risen. We know
not how he will accomplish his course to-day. We know
not whether some mishap will befall the poor world." Then
addressing themselves directly to the sun, they prayed,
saying, " Our master and lord, accomplish thy course in a
way that shall be favourable to us." ^ Sometimes the
Mexicans offered the blood of their ears to ensure their
success in hunting deer.^ Again, the fourth month of the
Mexican year was called Hueitozoztli or " Great Watch,"
because, during that month, not only the priests but also the
nobility and populace kept watch. They drew blood from
their ears, eyebrows, nose, tongue, arms, and thighs, " to
expiate the faults committed by their senses," and dipping
leaves of the sword-grass in the blood they exposed them
at the doors of their houses. In this way they prepared
themselves for the festival of Centeotl, the goddess of maize.^
But while such austerities were practised occasionally by the
Mexican people in general, they were observed most frequently
by the Mexican priests, who endured these sufferings vicari-
ously for the public good. " The effusion of blood," we are told,
" was frequent and daily with some of the priests, to which
practice they gave the name of Tlainacazqiii. They pierced
themselves with the sharpest spines of the aloe, and bored
several parts of their bodies, particularly their ears, lips,
tongue, and the fat of their arms and legs. Through the
holes which they made with these spines, they introduced
pieces of cane, the first of which were small pieces, but every
time this penitential suffering was repeated, a thicker piece
was used. The blood which flowed from them was carefully
collected in leaves of the plant acxojatl. The}- fixed the
bloody spines in little balls of hay, which they exposed upon
the battlements of the walls of the temple, to testify the
penance which they did for the people. Those who exercised
such severities upon themselves within the inclosure of the
greater temple of Mexico, bathed themselves in a pond that
was formed there, which from being always tinged with
blood was called Ezapaji" *
1 B, de Sahagun, op. cit. p. 193. translated by Charles Cullen (London,
2 B. de Sahagun, op. cit. pp. 72, 1807), i. 298.
144. ■* Y.^.Q\2i\\g^xo, History of Mexico^
^ F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, i. 284 sq. For more evidence of the
VOL. Ill S
255
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Ancient
Mexican
custom of
piercing
the ears of
children.
The
Mexican
custom of
piercing
the ears of
children
associated
with a
ceremony
to make
them grow.
Further, " the Mexicans had also amongst them a kind
of baptism, the which' they did with ceremony, cutting the
ears and members of young children new born, counterfeiting
in some sort the circumcision of the Jews. This ceremony
was done principally to the sons of kings and noblemen ;
presently upon their birth the priests did wash them, and
did put a little sword in the right hand, and in the left a
target. And to the children of the vulgar sort they put the
marks of their offices, and to their daughters instruments to
spin, knit, and labour. This ceremony continued four days,
being made before some idol." ^ From other accounts we
learn that the ceremony of boring the children's ears was
not performed at birth, but at a festival which fell once in
every four 3^ears, when the ears of all the children born since
the last festival were pierced and rings inserted in them.
The children of both sexes had to submit to the operation,
and their parents on this occasion provided them with god-
fathers and godmothers, whom they called uncles and aunts,
and who had to be present at the rite. At the same time
they made an offering of flour, and as soon as a child had
been operated on, it was led round a fire by way of lustration.
Great, we are told, was the squalling of children on these
occasions under the hands of the operators. Feasting and
dancing filled up part of the day ; the godparents carried
their godchildren on their shoulders in the dance, and made
them quaff wine from little cups. On being carried home,
the children had to submit to another ceremony, which
consisted in taking them by the temples and lifting them
high up. This was supposed to promote their growth ;
hence one name for the festival was izcalli, which means
" growth." 2
Why the Mexicans pierced the ears of all their children,
we are not told ; but since among them the ceremony of
Mexican practice of. piercing the ears
in sacrifice see F. S. Clavigero, op. cit.
i. 286 ; B. de Sahagun, Histoire des
Choses de la NonveUe-Espagtie, pp. 60,
78, 87, 107, 150, 1S8, 194, 232.
1 Joseph de Acosta, The Natural
and Moral History of the Indies, trans-
lated by Edward Grimston (London,
1880), ii. 369 (Book V. chap. 27). I
have modernized the old translator's
spelling.
2 B. de Sahagun, Histoire des Chose';
de la Nouvelle-Espague, pp. 165 sq.
Compare id., pp. 76, 77 ; F. S. Clavi-
gero, History of Mexico, i. 313.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANTS EAR 259
piercing and drawing blood from the ears was a religious
rite perfornaed on many occasions by old and young, we may
assume with a fair dfegree of probability that the same opera-
tion performed on children had also a religious or superstitious
significance. The association of the rite with a ceremony
avov/edly intended to promote the growth of the children
suggests that perhaps the cutting of the ears of the infants
may have had a" similar intention, though why the boring of
holes in a child's ears should be supposed to make it grow
faster, I confess myself unable to perceive. It may be worth
while to observe that among some of the tribes of Central
Australia the first ceremony of initiation undergone by a lad
consists in being thrown up in the air, which is shortly fol-
lowed or preceded by the boring of his nasal septum in
order to enable him to wear a bone in the aperture. On
these occasions the lads between ten and twelve years of
age are assembled and are tossed, one by one, several times
in the air by the men, who catch them as they fall, while
the women dance round and round the group, swinging their
arms and shouting loudly.^ The reason for thus throwing
the lads up is not mentioned by our authorities, but on the
analogy of the Mexican rite we may conjecture that the
intention is to make the lads grow tall by tossing them high
in air.
Whatever may have been the precise motive which in Futuna
has led many peoples to pierce the ears of their children, p"fj°"'''
we may assume with some confidence that the custom rested New
originally on a superstition, though that superstition need pieJ"fng^of
not in every case have been the same. The natives of the ears or
Futuna, an island of the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, "hUdre^n is
used to bore the ears of their children and enlarge the thought to
aperture until a circular piece of wood, an inch and a quarter happiness
in diameter, could be inserted in it ; but some people pre- of \heir
, ,, . . ^ . . souls in
ferred to insert tortoise shell cut in strips or formed mto the other
chains. The custom, we are informed, was not simply ''■°''''^-
ornamental but religious. The Futunese believed that the
entrance to the spirit land was guarded by a god who lived
1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. zi%; coyw^^zx^iid. , The Northern Tribes
Gillen, The Native Tribes cj Central of Central Australia (London, 1904),
Australia (London, 1899), PP- 214- pp- 337 ■^i'-
26o BORING A SERVANT'S EAR part iv
in, or was represented by a great stone in the sea not
far from the beach, and when any person whose ears had
not been pierced in the usual way attennpted to steal
into the spirit world, the sentinel god rolled a stone on
the top of the intruder. Hence young people were afraid
to leave their ears unpierced.^ Similarly the natives oi
Motu, in British New Guinea, who pierce their children's
noses about the age of six years, believe that any child who
dies with his or her nose unpierced will go to a bad place
called Tageani in the other world, where there is little food
and no betel-nut, whereas all -who die with pierced noses go
to a good place called Raka, where there is plenty to eat.
Some say that the unfortunate child whose nose was un-
pierced in life had to go about in the spirit land with a
creature like a slow-worm dangling from its nostrils.
Hence in order to remedy, if - possible, the sad destiny
of their progeny in the other world, parents whose infants
have died before the performance of the indispensable
ceremony will have the operation performed on their dead
bodies."
The Yet we should probably err if we supposed that originally
modvefor the cars and noses of children in these tribes were pierced
piercing for no Other purpose than to secure for their departed spirits
and noses a more favourable reception or a higher rank among the
of children ^ead. It seems more likely that both customs were in-
probabiy a stitutcd with some entirely different object, and that the
supersti- supposed punishmcnt for dying with ears or nose unpierced
some sort, was an afterthought, which only occurred to the people when
both practices had been so long established among them that
any deviation from the one or the other must have appeared
to them a criminal eccentricity deserving of reprobation in
this world and of chastisement in the world to come. Thus
these particular superstitions can hardly be held to throw
light on the real origin of the customs of piercing the ears
or noses of all members of a tribe. However, there is
reason to think that the practice of piercing the septum of
the nose, like that of piercing the lobe of the ear, was not at
1 William Gunn, The Gospel in Neiv Guinea (London, 1887), p. 168 ;
Fuhma (London, etc., 1914), pp. C G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of
193 sq. BritishJVewGtn'nca(Camhiidge,igio),
2 James Chalmers, Pioneering in p. 190.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 261
first designed to be purely ornamental, but that it was
intended either to guard against some danger or to secure
some benefit which the measure was in reality powerless either
to avert or to attain ; in short, there is a certain amount of
evidence that this particular mutilation w^as based on a super-
stition of some sort. Thus the aborigines of Australia are
said to wear small bones or pieces of reed in their noses
at times when they apprehend danger,^ which implies that
they regard the presence of the bone or reed in their nostrils
as a protection. Again, in the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes of
Central Australia, as soon as a boy's nose has been bored,
he strips a piece of bark off a gum tree and throws it as far
as he can in the direction of the camp where the spirit, of
which his mother is believed to be the reincarnation, is said
to have lived in the remote times to which these natives
give the name of Alcheringa. This ceremony of bark-
throwing has a special name, and the boy is told to perform
it by men who stand to him in certain definite relationships,
which include what we should call grandfather, father, father's
brothers, and elder brothers. They tell him that the reason
for throwing the bark is that it will lessen the pain and pro-
mote the healing of the wound in his nose. When the nose
of a girl is bored, which is usually done by her husband very
soon after she has passed into his possession, she fills a small
wooden vessel with sand, and facing in the direction of the
camp where the spirit of her mother is supposed to have
dwelt in the far-off days of the Alcheringa, she executes a
series of short jumps, keeping her feet close together and her
legs stiff, while she moves the vessel as if she were winnow-
ing seed, until she gradually empties it. After that she
resumes her ordinary occupations. To explain the ceremony
the natives say that a girl who should fail to perform it
would be guilty of a grave offence against her mother."
It can hardly be said that these ceremonies explain the ah
real significance which the custom of piercing the nose pos
sesses in the minds of the Australian aborigines. Yet the the human
reference which they contain to the belief in reincarnation, probably
1 Major T. L. 'Mitchell, Three Ex- - (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
peditions into the Interior of Eastern Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central
Australia, Second Edition (London, Australia (London, 1899), p. 459.
1839), ii. 345.
customs of
mutilating
262 BORING A SERVANTS EAR part iv
originated vvhich is Universal in these tribes/ may perhaps serve to
in super- connect this particular mutilation with the other and more
stitions, of ^ " 1 • • • 1 • 1
which the serious mutilations of circumcision and submcision, which
Sniina- ^''^ performed on all male members of the tribes ; ^ for there
tion may are some indications that circumcision and subincision also
have been -^pj^ ^ reference to reincarnation, if they do not expressly
aim at ensuring the rebirth of the young men on whom they
are performed.^ But the subject of these and indeed of all
bodily mutilations practised by savages is still involved in
great obscurity and uncertainty ; we can only hope that
future investigations may clear up what is at present one of
the darkest places in the study of primitive man. If I may
hazard a conjecture on so difficult a problem, I venture to
anticipate that all customs of mangling and maiming the
human frame will be found to have originated in some form
or other of superstition, and that among the superstitions,
to which these extraordinary practices owe their rise and
popularity, the belief in reincarnation has been not the least
potent.
Custom of Before dismissing the practice of piercing the human
th"ea?s°<ff ear it may not be out of place to notice a few cases of cut-
animais in ting off the cars of animals in sacrifice. For example, among
the Oraons of Bengal, if a woman gets up on the thatch of
a house, the people anticipate disease and death to some
inmate or inmates of the house and misfortune to the village
in general, and a solemn ceremony has to be performed in
order to avert the threatened calamity. " In former times,
it is said, one of the ears of the offending woman used to be
cut off. But in our days it is only when a dog or a goat gets
up on the roof of a house that one of its ears is cut off. It is
believed that the sight of the blood of the severed ear serves
to appease the wrath of the offended spirit." * Some of the
wild tribes of Formosa, who attribute an epidemic of smallpox
1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Australia, pp. Z\% sqq.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central ^ I have collected and discussed
Atistralia (London, 1899), pp. 123 x\i& t.s\(i&^z&m Tlie Magic Art and the
sqq.', iid.. The Northern Tribes of Evolution of Kings, i. 94 sqq. [The
Central Australia (London, 1904), Golden Bough, T\-\\xAY.^\\:\ovi,Vzx\.\.).
pp. xi. 145, 174. * Sarat Chandra Roy, The Oraons
2 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Oj Chota Nagpur (Ranchi, 1915), p.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central 273.
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 263
to the agency of a devil, are said to conjure the foul fiend into
a pig and then to cut off the animal's ears and burn them,
imagining that in this way they render their spiritual foe incap-
able of further mischief^ Among the Tumbukas of British
Central Africa, when a party of hunters had killed an elephant,
they used to cut off one of its ears and carry it to the nearest
of the sacred wild-fig trees, under which it was their custom
to erect tiny huts for the accommodation of ancestral spirits.
To one of these spirits they offered the ear of the elephant
at the foot of the tree.' Among the Wawanga, of the Elgon
district in British East Africa, it is a common custom to
consecrate a young bull calf by cutting off its ears and
depositing them at certain holy stones, which are set up
in honour of male ancestors. From that time onward the
bull is a kind of sacred beast, and were it lost or stolen
some dire calamity would be expected to befall the family.
When the bull is full grow^n, the family assemble and
sacrifice the animal to the ancestral spirits, pouring out its
blood at the sacred stones.^ Once more, among the Arabs
of Moab, when an epidemic has broken out in a flock of
sheep or goats, the owner leads the flock to the tomb of a
saint {wely) and makes the animals walk round it. The
first of them to approach the tomb, or to mount on it, is taken
and sacrificed, because the x^rabs say that the saint has
chosen the animal and drawn it to himself. The ears of the
sheep or goat are at once cut off and the blood sprinkled
on the tomb ; but if the camp is at a distance, the victim is
conducted thither to be sacrificed under the tent.*
The Hebrew custom of boring the ear of a servant who The
had resolved not to quit his master, may be compared with ^tom^of
a custom observed by the Ewe negroes of Togoland in West boring a
Africa when they desire to prevent a slave from running ea7^"*^
away from them. For that purpose the master brings the compared
with a
^ \V. Mliller, " Uber die Wilden- Wawanga and other tribes of the custom
stamme der Insel Formosa," Zc;zV^67zr/// Elgon District, British East Africa," observed
fiir Etknologie, xlii. (1910) p. 237. Journal of the Royal Anthropological by the Ewe
2 Donald Eraser, Winning a Primi- Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 31 sq. negroes to
live People (London, 1914), p. 137- slavefrom
As to the sacred fig trees and the huts * Antonin Jaussen, Contiiiites des j.„njjjn_
for the spirits, see id., pp. 128 sq. Arabes an pays de Moab (Paris, 1908), ^wav
^ lion. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The pp. 35S sq.
264
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
Hebrew
custom
perhaps
intended
to give the
master
complete
magical
control
over his
servant by
means of
the blood
on the
doorpost.
slave before a fetish named Nanyo. There the priest pares
the nails of the slave's fingers and toes, shears some of the
hair of his head, and buries the parings of the nails and the
shorn hair, along with a fetish mark, in the earth. After
that the slave gives a promise that he will not run away,
and to confirm him in this good resolution the priest
administers to him a draught of fetish water, which is
believed to possess the virtue of killing the man out of
hand if he were to break his pledged word by deserting his
master.^ Here the deposition of the severed hair and nails
with the fetish seems clearly intended to give the fetish
the means of injuring the slave by working magic on these
portions of his person ; for it is a common article of the
magical creed that a man can be harmed sympathetically
through any harm done to his cut nails and hair.^ On this
principle the hair and nails deposited with the fetish serve
as a surety or bail for the slave, that he will not run away.
Exactly in the same way among the Nandi of British East
Africa, " to ensure a prisoner not attempting to escape the
captor shaves his head and keeps the hair, thus placing him
at the mercy of his magic." ^ In the light of these African
customs we may conjecture that among the Hebrews the
intention of pinning a servant's ear to the doorpost either of
his master's house or of the sanctuary was to give his
master or the deity complete magical control over the man
by means of his blood which adhered to the doorpost. We
have seen that there is some doubt whether the ceremony
was performed at the door of the master's house or at the
door of the sanctuary, the form of the commandment in
Deuteronomy favouring the former interpretation, and the
form of the commandment in the older Book of the Covenant
favouring the latter interpretation. The parallelism of the
Ewe custom, so far as it goes, supports tHe view that the
1 Lieutenant Herold, " Bericht be-
treffend religiose Anschauungen und
Gebrjitiche der deutschen Ewe-Neger,"
Mittheiluugeii von Forschmigsreisenden
titui Gelehrien aus deii Deutschen
SchiUzgebieten,v. Heft 4 (Berlin, 1892),
pp. 147 sq.
2 Taboo and the Pei-ils of the Soicl,
pp. 267 sqcj. {The Golden Bough, Third
Edition, Tart ii.).
3 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, their
Language and Folk-lore{Oxioxd, 1909),
pp. 74 sq., compare id., p. 30, " When
a prisoner of war is taken, his head is
shaved by his captor and his hair kept
until he is ransomed. The hair is
returned with the prisoner."
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 265
piercing of the servant's ear was done not at the master's
house but at the sanctuary ; for among the Ewe negroes
the slave is similarly taken to the shrine of the fetish, and it
is the fetish priest, and not the man's master, ^who performs
the ceremony of cutting the hair and nails and administering
the draught which is supposed to act as a fresh and binding
pledge of the slave's fidelity. On the strength of this
analogy we may surmise that among the Hebrews the bor-
ing of a servant's ear was originally performed as a solemn
religious or magical rite at the sanctuary, even though in
later days it may have degenerated into a simple domestic
ceremony performed by the master at his own house and
interpreted in a purely symbolical sense.
Among other tribes of West Africa the mutilation of an Among the
ear is actually performed as a means of ensuring the per- ^^^^fl^^^
manent attachment of a slave to his master, but in this case, off a piece
curiously enough, it is the ear, not of the slave, but of the ^^ \^^ ^^^
master that is mutilated. We read that " among the Wolofs, master
as among all the peoples of Senegambia and even among desires to
the Moors on the right bank of the river, there is observed serve.
a strange custom which at first seems very surprising. A
slave who wishes to escape from a master whom he dislikes,
chooses in his own mind some one whose captive he wishes
to become and cuts off a piece of his ear. If he cannot
make his way to the master whom he desires, he contents
himself with cutting the ear of the man's child or even of
his horse, and from that moment his old owner has not the
least right over him ; the slave becomes the property of
him whose blood he has shed. The moral intention of the
custom is plain enough ; the captive seems thus to say that he
prefers to expose himself to the just wrath of him whom he
has offended rather than remain at the mercy of a bad and
capricious master ; and as his new owner has a right of
reselling him to his old master for a variable price, called
* the price of blood,' we can understand that the captive is
bound to behave well, lest he should revert to the possession
of him from whom he wished to flee." ^
The explanation which the writer offers of the custom ap-
1 L. J. B. Berenger-Fcraud, Les Peuplades de la S^n^ganibie (Paris, 1S79),
P- 59.
266
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
The
shedding of
the blood
is perhaps
thought to
establish
a blood-
bond
between
master and
slave.
Even the
blood of a
horse may
suffice to
establish
such a
bond.
Among the
Toradjas of
Celebes a
slave may
transfer
himself to
a new
master by
cutting
pears accommodated rather to European than to African ideas.
More probably, perhaps, the shedding of his new master's blood
is supposed either to establish a blood relationship between
the slave and his proprietor or to give the slave at all events a
certain magical control over his master by means of the
blood which he has drawn from him. On this latter inter-
pretation the ceremony is to some extent the converse of the
Hebrew rite. The Hebrew law contemplates the case of a
master who desires to prevent his slave from running away,
and for that purpose draws blood from the slave's ear as a
guarantee of his fidelity ; the African rule contemplates the
case of a slave who desires to prevent his master from giving
him up, and for that purpose draws blood from his master's
ear as a guarantee of his protection. But in each case the
ear pierced is that of the party to the covenant whose loyalty
the other party has some reason to distrust, and whom accord-
ingly he seeks to bind by a tie of blood.
To this interpretation of the Wolof custom it may be
objected that the cutting of a horse's ear is permitted as a
substitute in cases where the slave cannot cut the ear either
of his new master or of his master's child. How, it may
pertinently be asked, can you establish a blood relationship
with a man by spilling the blood of his horse } To this it
may perhaps be answered that though the horse's blood
could hardly be thought to establish a blood relationship with
the owner, it might possibly be supposed to give the slave a
magical control over him, which would answer the same
purpose of securing him against the caprice and tyranny of
his master ; since the field over which magical influence can
be exerted to a man's prejudice is commonly held to be a
very wide one, embracing his personal possessions as well as
the severed parts of his body.^
If this explanation of the Wolof custom should be
thought too subtle, a simpler and perhaps more probable one
is suggested by a parallel usage of the Bare'e-speaking Toradjas
of Central Celebes. Among these people, we are informed,
slaves used to possess a remarkable privilege which ensured
them against ill-usas^e at the hands of their masters. When
1 For many examples see E.
1 894-1 896), ii. 86 sqq.
S. Hartland, The Legend of Perseus (London,
CHAP. Ill BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 267
a slave was not well treated, he would abandon his master off and
and seek refuge in the house of another, where he damaged or j^odToHiair
destroyed some article of property. His old master soon fol- from the
lowed him thither and demanded his surrender. But his new ^q^^
master refused to give up the runaway till he had received member
, , , r 1 1 1 of that
compensation from the old master for the damage or destruc- masters
tion wrought by the slave ; and this compensation usually family.
consisted in a buffalo. Thus it was to a master's interest to
treat his slaves leniently, since he could be obliged to pay
for an)^ damages to the doing of which his severity might
goad them. But if a slave was resolved never to return
to his old master, on reaching the house of the man into
whose service he desired to enter, he did not content himself
with damaging or destroying a single article of property, but
laid about him with such indiscriminate violence that he soon
ran up a bill for damages amounting to five buffaloes or even
more. So heavy a bill his old master seldom thought it
worth his while to discharge for the sake of getting back on
his hands an unwilling slave, who might play him the same
trick another day. Accordingly, the slave's old master
acquiesced in the loss of his services, and his new master
accepted those services as a compensation for the ravages
which the servant had committed in his house. However,
we are told that the surest measure which a slave could
adopt for the purpose of establishing himself irretrievably in
the house of a new m.aster was to cut off a lock of hair irom
a member of the family, generally one of the master's children,
and to throw it on the fire before the person from whom the
hair was abstracted could put himself on his guard or thwart
the intention of his assailant. This act of aggression, if
successfully perpetrated, was deemed so deep an insult that
no compensation could wipe it out ; and the slave therefore
remained permanently with his new master.^
Here the cutting of a lock of hair from some member of in these
the new master's family appears to be the equivalent of the t^eusTof
Wolof practice of cutting the ear either of the new master the blood
himself or of one of his children, and the effect of the act ^e based'
in both cases is precisely the same, namely, to render the °".*^.^, ,
^ •' pjmciple of
• 1 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, Be Bare'e-spreketzde Toradjds van Midden- sympathetic
Celebes (Batavia, 19 12-19 14), i- 19^ sq. magic.
268
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR
Toradja
custom of
cutting off
a piece of
a buffalo's
ear and
keeping it
to prevent
the animal
from
straying.
return of the slave to his old master impossible. But
though in Senegambia and Celebes these modes of transfer-
ring a slave permanently to a new master are described as if
they rested on a purely economic consideration of injury
done to property or honour, we may suspect that at
bottom both are magical, the blood of the ear in the one
case and the hair of the head in the other forming the
real guarantee on which the slave relies for security of
tenure in his new home, since by means of the blood
or the hair he can work magic on his master, and thus
through the influence of fear can restrain him from exercising
his rights of ownership in an arbitrary or cruel manner.
However, this explanation is open to the objection that the
slave does not preserve the lock of hair, as we should
expect him to do, but on the contrary destroys it by
throwing it on the fire. If this objection is not fatal to the
theory, we must apparently conclude that savage man, like
his civilized brother, does not invariably regulate his actions
in conformity with the laws of an inflexible logic.
The suspicion of a magical basis underlying both these
primitive forms of conveyancing is confirmed, so far as the
Toradjas of Celebes are concerned, by the explanation which
some of them give of a custom observed at the earmarking
of cattle. It is their practice to cut off" a piece from one or
both ears of every buffalo calf at birth, and the pieces of ears
are dried and hung from the roof Asked why they keep
these fragments of their buffaloes, most of the people can
give no reason at all ; but " some say that it is to prevent
the buffaloes from straying (a part of the animal, to wit the
tip of the ear, attracts the whole buffalo)." ^ This explana-
tion of the practice is probably the true one ; certainly it
fits exactly into that system of sympathetic magic which
at a certain stage of evolution has moulded man's thought
and cast the fluid material of custom into many quaint and
curious shapes. If that is so, we may conclude, with a fair
degree of probability, that the process which a modern
Toradja adopts to prevent his buffalo from straying is
essentially of the same sort as the process which an ancient
1 N. Adrlani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare' e-sprekende Toradja's van Midden-
Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 173 sq.
CHAP. Ill
BORING A SERVANT'S EAR 269
Hebrew adopted to prevent his servant from running
away : in both we may detect an old magical rite which was
thought to give a master as firm a hold on his man and on
his beast as if he actually held both of them by the ear.
Thus it appears that according to the laws of primitive The
logic you can ensure your control of a man by the simple ^^^"^^^^ r
process ot cutting his ear and drawing a few drops of his piercing a
blood. This conception may explain the treatment of a 27'"'^
Hebrew slave who professed his willingness to abide with explained
his master after his legal term of servitude had expired, but ofprimi^i've
on whom his master might not unnaturally desire to possess ^°§'<=-
some securer hold than the slave's own profession of good
will and attachment. The same notion of a relation of
dependence established by means of an incision in the ears
may possibly illustrate an obscure passage in a psalm, where
the psalmist, addressing the deity, declares, " Ears hast thou
dug (or pierced) for me." ^ Perhaps by this declaration the
worshipper desires to express his absolute submission to the
divine will, employing for that purpose a metaphor borrowed
from the proceeding by which in ordinary life a master bound
a servant to himself by a tie of the closest and most enduring
nature.
1 Psalm xl. 6, Revised Version, mar- thou opened " (Authorized and Revised
ginal reading. The Hebrew is, e;:in Versions) is rather a paraphrase than a
■h n-a. The rendering, " Mine ears hast translation of the sentence.
CHAPTER IV
CUTTINGS FOR THE DP:AD
Ancient
Hebrew
custom of
cutting the
body and
shearing
the hair in
token of
mourning
for the
dead.
In ancient Israel" mourners were accustomed to testify their
sorrow for the death of friends by cutting their own bodies
and shearing part of their hair so as to make bald patches
on their heads. Foretelling the desolation which was to
come upon the land of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah describes
how the people would die, and. how there would be none to
bury them or to perform the usual rites of mourning. " Both
great and small shall die in this land : they shall not be
buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves,
nor make themselves bald for them." ^ Again, we read in
Jeremiah how, after the Jews had been carried away into
captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar, " there came certain
from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore
men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent,
and having cut themselves, with oblations and frankincense
in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord." ^ To
mark their sorrow for the great calamity which had befallen
Judah and Jerusalem, these pious pilgrims assumed the garb
and attributes of the deepest mourning. The practice of
making bald the head, though not that of cutting the body,
is mentioned also by earlier prophets among the ordinary
tokens of grief which were permitted and even enjoined by
religion. Thus Amos, the earliest of the prophets whose
writings have come down to us, proclaims the doom of Israel
in the name of the Lord, " I will turn your feasts into
mourning, and all your songs into lamentation ; and I will
bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every
Jeremiah xvi. 6.
Jeremiah xli. 5.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR 'THE DEAD 271
head ; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son,
and the end thereof as a bitter day," ^ Again, we read in
Isaiah that " in that day did the Lord, the Lord of hosts, call
to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding
with sackcloth." " And Micah, prophesying the calamities
which were to overtake the southern kingdom, bids the
inhabitants anticipate their woes by shaving themselves like
mourners : " Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children
of thy delight : enlarge thy baldness as the eagle ; for they
are gone into captivity from thee." ^ The comparison is here
not with the eagle, as the English Version has it, but with
the great griffon-vulture, which has the neck and head bald
and covered with down, a characteristic which no eagle shares
with it.^ And even after these prophecies had been fulfilled
by the Babylonian conquest of Judah, the prophet Ezekiel
could still write in exile that " they shall also gird themselves
with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them ; and shame shall
be upon all faces,"and baldness upon all their heads." ^
The same customs of cutting the flesh and shaving part Philistine
of the head in mourning appear to have been common to the ^oabiie
Jews with their neighbours, the Philistines and the Moabites. custom of
Thus Jeremiah says, " Baldness is come upon Gaza ; Ashkelon body"and^
is brought to nought, the remnant of their valley ; how long shearing
wilt thou cut thyself?"^ And speaking of the desolation of n.ourning"
Moab, the same prophet declares, " Every head is bald, and fo"" ^'^^
every beard clipped : upon all the hands are cuttings, and
upon the loins sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and
in the streets thereof there is lamentation everywhere." ^ To
the same effect Isaiah writes that " Moab howleth over Nebo,
and over Medeba : on all their heads is baldness, every beard
is cut off. In their streets they gird themselves with sack-
cloth : on their housetops, and in their broad places, every
one howleth, weeping abundantly." ^
Yet in time these observances, long practised without Thecustom
offence by Israelites in mourning, came to be viewed as °he^bodv^
barbarous and heathenish, and as such they were forbidden »"d ^hear-
•' in" I
ing the hair
in moiirn-
2 Isaiahxxii. 12. s'Ezeidei vii.'is. L"!i°''"u
bidden by
the Deuter-
1 Amos viii. 10. don, 1898), p. 173.
■* Micah i. 16. ® Jeremiah xlvii. 5
^ H. B.Tristram, The Natural His- ' Jeremiah xlviii. ;
toi-y of the Bible, Ninth Edition (Lon- * Isaiah xv. 2 sq.
onomic
code.
272 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
in the codes of law which were framed near the end of the
Jewish monarchy, and during or after the Babylonian cap-
tivity. Thus in the Deuteronomic code, which was promul-
gated at Jerusalem in 621 B.C., about a generation before the
conquest, we read that " Ye are the children of the Lord
your God : ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness
between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people
unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be
a peculiar people unto himself, above all peoples that are upon
the face of the earth." ^ Here the prohibition is based upon the
peculiar religious position which Israel occupies as the chosen
people of Jehovah, and the nation is exhorted to distinguish
itself by abstinence from certain extravagant forms of mourn-
ing, in which it had hitherto indulged without sin, and which
were still observed by the pagan nations around it. So far
as we can judge, the reform originated in a growing refine-
ment of sentiment, which revolted against such extravagant
expressions of sorrow as repugnant alike to good taste and
to humanity ; but the reformer clothed his precept, as usual,
in the garb of religion, not from any deliberate considerations
of policy, but merely because, in accordance with the ideas
of his time, he could conceive no other ultimate sanction for
human conduct than the fear of God.
The In the Levitical code, composed during or after the Exile,
cuttTng the ^^^ Same prohibitions are repeated. " Ye shall not round the
body and comcrs of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of
thrSin thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for
mourning the dead, nor print any marks upon you : I am the Lord." ^
i^the "^^ Yet the lawgiver seems to have felt that it might not be easy
Levitical ^y a stroke of the pen to eradicate practices which were
deeply ingrained in the popular mind and had long been
regarded as innocent ; for a little farther on, as if hopeless
of weaning the whole people from their old fashion of mourn-
ing, he insists that at least the priests shall absolutely renounce
it: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests,
the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none
defile himself for the dead among his people, except for his
kin. . . . He shall not defile himself, being a chief man
among his people, to profane himself. They shall not make
' Deuteronomy xiv. i sq. 2 Leviticus xix. 27 sq.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 273
baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the
corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name
of their God." ^ Any doubts which the lawgiver may have
entertained as to the complete efficacy of the remedy which
he applied to the evil were justified by the event ; for many
centuries after his time Jerome informs us that some Jews
still made cuttings in their arms and bald places on their
heads in token of mourning for the dead."
The customs of cropping or shaving the hair and cutting Both
or mutilating the body in mourning have been very wide- common in
spread among mankind. In the preceding chapter I gave mourning
some instances of both usages, with particular reference to lhe°worid.'
the cutting or mutilation of the ears and hands. I propose
now to illustrate both practices more fully and to inquire into
their meaning.^ In doing so I shall pay attention chiefly to
the custom of wounding, scarifying, or lacerating the body
as the more remarkable and mysterious of the two.
Among Semitic peoples the ancient Arabs, like the ancient Arab
Jews, practised both customs. Arab women in mourning rent s^ra°chin<^
their upper garments, scratched their faces and breasts with the face
their nails, beat and bruised themselves with their shoes, and shearing
cut off their hair. When the great warrior Chalid ben al the hair it
Valid died, there was not a single woman of his tribe, the ™°"''"'°'=*
Banu Mugira, who did not shear her locks and lay them on
his grave.^ To this day similar practices are in vogue among
the Arabs of Moab. As soon as a death has taken place,
the women of the family scratch their faces to the effusion
of blood and rend their robes to the waist.'^ And if the
^ Leviticus xxi. 1-5. Wilken in a learned and elaborate
^ ']txon\Q, Commentary on Jeremiah, monograph. See G. A. Wilken,
xvi. 6 (Migne's Patrologia Latina, " Uber Das Haaropfer und undere
xxiv. col. 782), '■'■ Mos hie fuit apud Trauergebrauche bei den Volkern
veleres, et usque hodie hi quihusdain Indonesians, " De verspreide Geschrifteii
permanet Jtidaeoriim, ut in htctibiis (The Hague, 1912), iii. 399-550.
incidant lacertos, et calvitittm faciant, ^ J. Wellhausen, Resie arabischen
quod Job fecisse legivins.^' IJeidentiims' (Berlin, 1897), pp. 181,
•^ See above, pp. 227 .f^^. Both prac- 182; I. Goldziher, Mukainmedanische
tices have been described and illustrated Studien (Halle a. S. , 1888-1890), i.
by Richard Andree, Ethnographische 7.i,%; Q.]z.zo\i, Altarabisches Bedtiiiien-
Parallelen und Vergleiche (Stuttgart, /t'ff'gw^ (Berlin, 1897), pp. 139 -W-
1878), pp. 147-152. The custom of ^ Antonin Jaussen, Coutumes des
cutting the hair as a religious or super- Arabes au pays de Moab (Paris, 1908),
stitious rite has been discussed by G. A. p. 96; Selah Merrill, East of the Jordan,
VOL. HI T
274
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Ancient
Greek
custom of
scratching
the face
and
shearing
the hair in
mourning.
Assyrian,
Armenian,
and Roman
custom of
scratching
the face in
mourning.
deceased was a husband, a father, or other near relation,
they cut off their long tresses and spread them out on the
grave or wind them about the headstone. Or they insert
two stakes in the earth, one at the head and the other at
the foot of the grave, and join them by a string, to which
they attach their shorn locks/
Similarly in ancient Greece women in mourning for near
and dear relatives cut off their hair and scratched their cheeks,
and sometimes their necks, with their nails till they bled.^
Greek men also shore their hair as a token of sorrow and
respect for the dead. Homer tells how the Greek warriors
before Troy covered the corpse of Patroclus with their shorn
tresses, and how Achilles laid in the hand of his dead friend
the lock of hair which his father Peleus had vowed that his
son should dedicate to the river Sperchius whenever he re-
turned home from the war.^ So Orestes is said to have
laid a lock of his hair on the tomb of his murdered
father Agamemnon.* But the humane legislation of Solon
at Athens, like the humane legislation of Deuteronomy at
Jerusalem, forbade the barbarous custom of scratching and
scarifying the person in mourning ; ^ and though the practice
of shearing the hair in honour of the dead appears not to
have been expressly prohibited by law, it perhaps also fell
into abeyance in Greece under the influence of advancing
civilization ; at least it is significant that both .these modes
of manifesting distress for the loss of relations and friends
are known to us chiefly from the writings of poets who
depicted the life and manners of the heroic age, which lay
far behind them in the past.
Assyrian and Armenian women in antiquity were also
a Record of Travel and Obsei-vation hi
the Countries of Moal>, Gilead, and
^aj-^«« (London, 1881), p. 511. The
custom of scratching the face seems to
be confined to the Arabs of Belqa.
1 A. Jaussen, op. cit. p. 94.
2 Euripides, Electra, 145 sqq., He-
cuba, 650 sqq. ; Hesiod, Shield of
Hercules, 242 sq. ; Anthologia Graeca,
vii. 487 ; Lucian, Deluctu, 12. Com-
pare Ovid, Metainorph. xiii. 427 sq.,
where the poet represents the aged
Hecuba laying one of her grey locks
on the grave of Hector. Elsewhere
{Heroides, ix. 91 sq., 115 sq.) Ovid
refers to the custom of women scratch-
ing their cheeks in mourning and offer
ing locks of their hair at the grave ;
but we cannot say whether he is re-
ferring to Greek or Roman usage.
3 Homer, Iliad, xxiii. 135-153.
* Aeschylus, Cho'ephor. 4 sqq., 167
sqq. ; Sophocles, Electra, 51-53, 900
sq. ; Euripides, Electra, go sq., 513
sqq.
^ Plutarch, Solon, 21,
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 275
wont to scratch their cheeks in token of sorrow, as we learn
from Xenophon,^ who may have witnessed these demonstra-
tions of grief on that retreat of the Ten Thousand which he
shared as a soldier and immortalized as a writer. The same
custom was not unknown in ancient Rome ; for one of the
laws of the Ten Tables, based on the legislation of Solon,
forbade women to lacerate their cheeks with their nails in
mourning.^ The learned Roman antiquary Varro held that
the essence of the custom consisted in an offering of blood
to the dead, the blood drawn from the cheeks of the women
being an imperfect substitute for the blood of captives or
gladiators sacrificed at the grave.^ The usages of modern
savages, as we shall see presently, confirm to some extent
this interpretation of the rite. Virgil represents Anna dis-
figuring her face with her nails and beating her breasts with
her fists at the tidings of the death of her sister Dido on the
pyre ;* but whether in this description the poet had in mind
the Carthaginian or the old Roman practice of mourners may
be doubted.
When they mourned the death of a king, the ancient Cropping
Scythians cropped their hair all round their heads, made gathrnl^"
incisions in their arms, lacerated their foreheads and noses, the face or
cut off pieces of their ears, and thrust arrows through their m°ouming
left hands.^ Among the Huns it was customary for mourners ^imongthe
to gash their faces and crop their hair ; it was thus that Attila Huns,
was mourned, " not with womanish lamentations and tears, ^'^^'^j
but with the blood of men." ^ " In all Slavonic countries Mingreii-
great stress has from time immemorial been laid on loud Qsse^tef
expressions of grief for the dead. These were formerly of the
attended by laceration of the faces of the mourners, a custom ^^"^•'*^"^-
still preserved among some of the inhabitants of Dalmatia
and Montenegro." ^ Among the Mingrelians of the Caucasus,
when a death has taken place in a house, the mourners scratch
' Xenophon, Cyropaedia, iii. i. 13, ^ Servius on \ irgil, Acn. iii. 67 and
iii. 3. 67. xii. 606.
- Cicero, De legibiis, ii. 23. 59 ; * Virgil, Aeii. iv. 672 sq.
Festus, De verboriim signifuationc, ° Herodotus iv. 71.
ed. C. O. Miiller (Leipsic, 1839), p. ^ Jordanes, Ct'^/Va, xlix. 255, p. 124,
273, J. Z'. "Radere"; Wmy; Nat. Hist. ed. Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1882).
xi. 157; Fontes Juris Roinani Antiqui, ^ W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of
ed. C. G. Bruns, septimum edidit O. Russian People, Second Edition (Lon-
Gradenwitz (Tubingen, 1909), p. 36. don, 1872), p. 316.
276 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
their faces and tear out their hair ; ^ according to one account
they shave their faces entirely, including their eyebrows.^
However, from another report it would seem that only the
women indulge in these demonstrations of grief. Assembled in
the chamber of death, the widow and the nearest female rela-
tions of the deceased abandon themselves to the vehemence,
or at all events to the display, of their sorrow, wrenching out
their hair, rending their faces and breasts, and remonstrating
with the dead man on his undutiful conduct in dying. The
hair which the widow tears from her head on this occasion
is afterwards deposited by her in the coffin.^ Among the
Ossetes of the Caucasus on similar occasions the relatives
assemble : the men bare their heads and hips, and lash
themselves with whips till the blood streams forth ; the
women scratch their faces, bite their arms, wrench out their
hair, and beat their breasts with lamentable howls.^
Custom of In Africa the custom of cutting the body in mourning,
cutting the ^part from the reported practice of lopping off finger-joints,^
shearing appears to be comparatively rare. Among the Abyssinians,
the hair in j^^ ^ moumiug for a blood relation, it is customary to shear
mourning r o
among the the hair, strew ashes on the head, and scratch the skm of the
Africa! °^ temples till the blood flows.*' When a death has taken place
among the Wanika of East Africa, the relations and friends
assemble, lament loudly, poll their heads, and scratch their
faces.'^ Among the Kissi, a tribe on the border of Liberia,
women in mourning cover their bodies, and especially
their hair, with a thick coating of mud, and scratch
their faces and their breasts with their nails.^ In some
Kafir tribes of South Africa a widow used to be secluded
in a solitary place for a month after her husband's
1 A. Lamberti, " Relation de la Kaukasus tmd nach Georgien (Halle
Colchide ou Mingrellie," Recueil de and Berlin, 1814), ii. 604 sq.
Voyages an Nord, vii. (Amsterdam, ^ See above, pp. 230 sq.
1725), p. 153. ** E. Riippell, Keise in Abyssinien
2 J. M. Zampi, " Relation de la (Frankfort-on-Main, 1838-1840), ii.
Colchide et de la Mingrellie," Recueil 57.
de Voyages au Nord, vii. (Amsterdam, ' J. L. Krapf, Reisen in Ost-Afrika
1725) p. 221. (Kornthal and Stuttgart, 1858), i.
3 J. Mourier, " L'etat religieux de 325.
\a. W\\\z^i\\&" Revue de r Hisloire des * Dr. H. Neel, "Note sur deux
Religions, xvi. (Paris, 1887) pp. 90, peuplades de la frontiere Liberienne,
gj. ies Kissi et les Toma," L'Anthro-
^ Julius von Klaproth, Reise in den pologie, xxiv. (Paris, 1913) p. 458.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 277
death, and before she returned home at the expiration
of that period she had to throw her clothes away, wash
her whole body, and lacerate her breast, arms, and legs with
sharp stones/ When game was very scarce, certain Basuto
tribes, which lived partly by the chase, were wont to assemble
and invoke the spirit of a famous dead chief and other
ancestral deities. At these ceremonies they cut themselves
with knives, rolled in ashes, and uttered piercing cries. They
also joined in religious dances, chanted plaintive airs, and
gave vent to loud lamentations. After spending a whole
day and night in wailing and prayer, they dispersed next
morning to scour the country in search of the game which
they confidently expected the ghosts or gods would send in
answer to their fervent intercession.^ However, these Basuto
ceremonies, in spite ot their mournful character, appear to
have been designed rather to move the compassion of dead
ancestors than to lament their death ; hence they do not
properly belong to the class of mourning customs. They
may rather be compared with the frenzied rites of the
Canaanite priests of Baal, who hacked themselves with
knives and called aloud on their god to display his power
by sending rain in time of drought.^ Similarly the Israelites
themselves in seasons of dearth seem to have cut their bodies
with knives in order to move the pity of their god and per-
suade him to save the withering corn and the fading vines.^
On the other hand, the laceration of the body in mourn- Laceration
ing, if rarely practised in Africa, was common among the body and
Indian tribes of North America. Thus on the death of a cutting of
the hair in
1 L. Alberti, De Kaffers aan de we should probably read " they cut ™°Q!,°"Jhe
Zuidkust van Afrika (Amsterdam, themselves for corn and wine" with j^j^^
1910), p. 20I ; H. Lichtenstein, Reiseti the Revised Version, margin, approved tribes of
im sudlichen Africa (Berlin, 181 1- by T. K. Cheyne [Hosea, Cambridge, Xorth-
1812), i. 421 sq. ; Stephen Kay, 1899, p. 85) and by W. Nowack (in Western
Travels and Researches in Caffraria R. Kittel's Biblia Hchraica, Leipsic, America.
(London, 1833), pp. 199 sq. 1905-1906, ii. 837). The change of
2 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Re- "^t^J'"?' ^^ich is very slight in the
lation d^un Voja^^e d^ E.xploration an ^^^'^"^ ("T^'?: ^""^ "T^^:)' '^ supported
Nord-est de la" Colonie du Cap de ^y twelve Hebrew manuscripts and
Bonne. Esp^rance (Paris, 1842), pp. ^X ^^e Septuagmt, HI airv Kai ot^v
- Q KarerifivovTO. Compare Hebrew and
English Lexicon of the Old Teslament,
3 I Kings xviii. 26-28. by Fr. Brown, S. R. Driver, and Ch.
* Hosea vii. 14, where for "they A. Briggs (Oxford, 1906), p. 151,
assemble themselves for corn and wine " s.v. tij.
278
CUT77IVGS FOR THE DEAD
Laceration
of the
bo4y and
cutting of
the hair in
mourning
among the
Indians of
Washing-
ton and
Oregon
States.
relative the Tinneh or Dene Indians of North -Western
America used to make incisions in their flesh, cut off their
hair, rend their garments, and roll in the dust.^ Again, on
the occasion of a death among the Knisteneaux or Crees,
who ranged over a vast extent of territory in Western
Canada, " great lamentations are made, and if the departed
person is very much regretted the near relations cut off their
hair, pierce the fleshy part of their thighs and arms with arrows,
knives, etc., and blacken their faces with charcoal." ^ Among
the Kyganis, a branch of the Thlinkeet or Tlingit Indians of
Alaska, while a body was burning on the funeral pyre, the
assembled kinsfolk used to torture themselves mercilessly,
slashing and lacerating their arms, thumping their faces with
stones, and so forth. On these self-inflicted torments they
prided themselves not a little. Other Thlinkeet Indians on
these melancholy occasions contented themselves with burn-
ing or singeing their hair by thrusting their heads into the
flames of the blazing pyre ; while others, still more discreet
or less affectionate, merely cut their hair short and blackened
their faces with the ashes of the deceased.^
Among the Flathead Indians of Washington State
it was customary for the bravest of the men and women
ceremonially to bewail the death of a warrior by cutting
out pieces of their own flesh and casting them with
roots into the fire. And among the Indians of this
region, " in case of a tribal disaster, as the death of a
prominent chief, or the killing of a band of warriors
by a hostile tribe, all indulge in the most frantic demon-
strations, tearing the hair, lacerating the flesh with flints,
often inflicting serious injury."* With the Chinooks and
other Indian tribes of the Oregon or Columbia River it
was customary for the relations of a deceased person to
sources (Lonc^on, 1870), p. 417; H. H.
Bancroft, The Amative Races of the
Pacific States (London, 1875-1876),
1 E. Pelitot, Monographie des Deiie-
Ditidji^ {Vans, 1876), p. 61.
2 Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages
from Monti-eal through the Continent
of North America (London, 1801), p.
xcviii.
3 H, J. Holmberg, " Ueber die
Volker des Russischen Amerika," Acta
Sccietatis Scientiaritvi Fenjiicae, iv.
(Helsingfors, 1856), p. 324. Compare
William IL Dall, Alaska and its Ke-
1. 1 73. As to the relationship of the
Kyganis to the Thlinkeet see VV. H,
Dall, "Tribes of the Extreme North-
west," Contributions to North American
J,thnology, i. (Washington, 1877) p.
39-
•* H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races
of the Pacific States, i. 288.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 279
destroy his property, to cut their hair, and to disfigure and
wound their bodies.^ " To have seen those savages stream-
ing all over with blood, one would suppose they could never
have survived such acts of cruelty inflicted on themselves ;
but such wounds, although bad, are not dangerous. To
inflict these wounds on himself, the savage takes hold of any
part of his skin, between his forefinger and thumb, draws it
out to the stretch, and then runs a knife through it, between
the hand and the flesh, which leaves, when the skin resumes
its former place, two unsightly gashes, resembling ball
holes, out of which the blood issues freely. With such
wounds, and sometimes others of a more serious nature,
the near relations of the deceased completely disfigure
themselves." ""
Among the Indians of the Californian peninsula, " when Laceration
a death has taken place, those who want to show the rela- ^o^y^j^
tions of the deceased their respect for the latter lie in wait mourning
for these people, and if they pass they come out from their '''"'°"^
hiding-place, almost creeping, and intonate a mournful, plain-
tive Im, hu, hit ! wounding their heads with pointed, sharp
stones, until the blood flows down to their shoulders. Although
this barbarous custom has frequently been interdicted, they
are unwilling to discontinue it." ^ Among the Gallinomeras,
a branch of the Pomo Indians, who inhabit the valley of the
Russian River in California, " as soon as hfe is extinct they
lay the body decently on the funeral pyre, and the torch is
applied. The weird and hideous scenes which ensue, the
screams, the blood-curdling ululations, the self- lacerations
they perform during the burning are too terrible to be
described. Joseph Fitch says he has seen an Indian become
so frenzied that he would rush up to the blazing pyre,
snatch from the body a handful of burning flesh and devour
1 Alexander Ross, Adventures of the fornian Peninsula," Annual Report of
First Settlers on the 07-egon or Columbia the Board of Regents of the Smith-
River (London, 1849), p. 97. sonian Institution for the year 1S64.
{Washington, 1865), p. 387. Tlie
writer was a German Jesuit mission-
Indians of
California.
2 Alexander Ross, The Fur Hunters
of the Far PF^j-/ (London, 1855), i. 234,
ary, who lived among these Indians
compare 11. 1^9. The descnptuin seems , ■' , i ■ ^u ^a
■ , . -^^ . , , , ». ,1 . for seventeen years durmg the second
to apply m particular to the I\e/. Perce , ,, , ., .-', , .1 . tu
T J- riw I.- e . half of the eighteenth century. The
Indians of Washington btate. n 1 -r ^ » .u u u^, i'^
'' flock, if we may trust the shepnenl s
^ Jacob Baegert, "An Account of account, consisted for the most part of
the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Call- very black sheep.
28o
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Hair of
mourners
burnt on
pyre.
Laceration
of the
body in
mourning
among the
Snake and
Crow
Indians.
Laceration
of the
body and
cutting of
the hair in
mourning
among the
Comanchesj
Arapahos,
Dacotas,
and
Kansas.
it." ^ In some tribes of Californian Indians the nearest re-
lations cut off their hair and throw it on the burning pyre,
wliile they beat their bodies with stones till they bleed.^
To testify their grief for the death of a relative or friend
the Snake Indians of the Rocky Mountains used to make
incisions in all the fleshy parts of their bodies, and the greater
their affection for the deceased, the deeper they cut into their
own persons. They assured a French missionary that the
pain which they felt in their minds escaped by these wounds.^
The same missionary tells us how he met groups of Crow
women in mourning, their bodies so covered and disfigured
by clotted blood that they presented a spectacle as pitiable
as it was horrible. For several years after a death the poor
creatures were bound to renew the rites of mourning every
time they passed near the graves of their relations ; and so
long as a single clot of blood remained on their persons, they
were forbidden to wash themselves."* Among the Comanches,
a famous tribe of horse Indians in Texas, a dead man's horses
were generally killed and buried, that he might ride them to
the Happy Hunting Grounds ; and all the best of his prop-
erty was burnt in order that it might be ready for his use
on his arrival in the better land. His widows Assembled
round the dead horses, and with a knife in one hand and a
whetstone in the other they uttered loud lamentations, while
they cut gashes in their arms, legs, and bodies, till they were
exhausted by the loss of blood.^ In token of grief on such
occasions the Comanches cut off the manes and tails of their
horses, cropped their own hair, and lacerated their own bodies
in various ways.*' Among the Arapaho Indians women in
mourning gash themselves lightly across the lower and upper
arms and below the knees. Mourners in that tribe unbraid
their hair and sometimes cut it off; the greater their love
^ Stephen Powers, Tribes of Cali-
fornia (Washington, 1877), p. iSi.
2 H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races
of the Pacific States, i. 397, note^^-.
3 Le R. P. de Smet, Voyages aitx
Montagues Rocheiises (Brussels aud
Paris, 1873), p. 28. As to the Snake
Indians or Shoshones, see Alexander
Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far
West (London, 1855), i. 249 sqq. ;
F. W. Hodge, Handbook of American
Indians North of Mexico (Washington,
1907-1910), ii. 556 sqq.
* Le R. P. de Smet, op. cit. p. ()(>.
6 R. S. Neighbors, in H. R. School-
craft's Indian Tribes of the United
States (Philadelphia, 1 853-1856), ii.
133 ^^7-
6 H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races
of the Pacific States, i. 523.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 281
for their departed friend, the more hair they cut off. The
severed locks are buried with the corpse. Moreover, the tail
arid mane of the horse which bore the body to its last resting-
place are severed and strewn over the grave,^ After a
bereavement the Sauks and Foxes, another tribe of Indians,
" make incisions in their arms, legs, and other parts of the
body ; these are not made for the purposes of mortification,
or to create a pain, which shall, by^iverting their attention,
efface the recollection of their loss, but entirely from a belief
that their grief is internal, and that the only way of dispelling
it is to give it a vent through which to escape." ' The Dacotas
or Sioux in like manner lacerated their arms, thighs, legs,
breast, and so on, after the death of a friend ; and the writer
who reports the custom thinks it probable that they did so
for the purpose of relieving their mental pain, for these same
Indians, in order to cure a physical pain, used frequently to
make incisions in their skin and suck up the blood, accom-
panying the operation with songs,^ or rather incantations,
which were no doubt supposed to assist the cure. Among
the Kansas or Konzas, a branch of the Siouan stock who
have given their name to a State of the American Union, a
widow after the death of her husband used to scarify herself
and rub her body with clay ; she also became negligent of
her dress, and in this melancholy state she continued for a
year, after which the eldest surviving brother of her deceased
husband took her to wife without ceremony.^
The custom in regard to the mourning of widows Laceration
was similar among the Omahas of Nebraska, another 50^^^^^
branch of the Siouan family. "On the death of the cutting of
husband, the squaws exhibit the sincerity of their grief mourning"
by giving away to their neighbours every thing they among the
possess, excepting only a bare sufificiency of clothing to
cover their persons with decency. They go out from the
village, and build for themselves a small shelter of grass or
1 Alfred L. Kroeber, "The Ara- ^ \v_ n Keating, oJ>. cii. i. 433.
^zho,^'' Btiiletin of the American Mtiseiiiii * Edwin James, Accotmt of a7i Ex-
of Natural History, xviii. Part i. (New pedi lion from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
York, 1902) pp. 16 i-^. Mountains (London, 1823), i. 1 16,
As to the Kansas Indians see F. W.
2 William H. Keating, Narrative of Hodge, Handbook of American Indians
an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's North of Mexico (Washington, 1907-
/Vz/^r (London, 1825), i. 232. 'Qio), i. 653 sqq.
282 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
bark ; they mortify themselves by cutting off their hair, scari-
fying their skin, and, in their insulated hut, they lament in-
cessantly. If the deceased has left a brother, he takes the
widow to his lodge after a proper interval, and considers her
as his wife, without any preparatory formality." ^ But among
the Omahas it was not widows only who subjected themselves
to these austerities in mourning. " The relatives bedaub their
persons with white c\^.y^ scarify themselves with a flint, cut
out pieces of their skin and flesh, pass arrows through their
skin ; and, if on a march, they walk barefoot at a distance
from their people, in testimony of the sincerity of their
mourning." ^ Among these Indians, " when a man or woman
greatly respected died, the following ceremony sometimes
took place. The young men in the prime of life met at a
lodge near that of the deceased, and divested themselves of
all clothing except the breechcloth ; each person made two
incisions in the upper left arm, and under the loop of flesh
thus made thrust a small willow twig having on its end a
spray of leaves. With the blood dripping on the leaves of
the sprays that hung from their arms, the men moved in
single file to the lodge where the dead lay. There, ranging
themselves in a line shoulder to shoulder facing the tent,
and marking the rhythm of the music with the willow sprigs
they sang in unison the funeral song — the only one of its
kind in the tribe. ... At the close of the song a near relative
of the dead advanced toward the singers and, raising a hand
in the attitude of thanks, withdrew the willow twigs from
their arms and threw them on the ground."^ Further, as a
token of grief at the death of a relative or friend, the Omahas
used to cut off locks of their hair and throw them on the
corpse.^ Similarly among the Indians of Virginia the women
in mourning would sometimes sever their tresses and throw
them on the grave.^
Laceration Among the Indians of Patagonia, when a death
body in took place, mourners used to pay visits of condolence to
mourning
among the i Edwin Tames, op. cit. i. 222 sq. IQII), pp. ';Q2-i;q4.
Patagon- 2 Edwin Tames, ./. cit. ii. 2. , , " ' '^\ , ^ . ,
ans and 3 Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La ' '^''" ^- ^'^'^'^^' ^"^ ^'"''^"^^^ La
Fueguins. ^^^^^^^^ ., ^^^ ^^^_^^^^ ^^.^^^,, ^^_^^^^^_ Flesche, op. at. p. 591.
sc7'e)ith Annual Report of the Bureau ° Lafitau, Mcciirs des Sauvages
of American Ethnology (Washington, Ameriquai)is (I'aris, 1724), ii. 441.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 283
the widow or other relations of the deceased, crying, howl-
ing, and singing in the most dismal manner, squeezing out
tears, and pricking their arms and thighs with sharp thorns
to make them bleed. For these demonstrations of woe
they were paid with glass beads and other baubles/ As
soon as the Fuegians learn of the death of a relative or
friend, they break into vehement demonstrations of sorrow,
weeping and groaning ; they lacerate their faces with the
sharp edges of shells and cut the hair short on the crowns
of their heads." Among the Onas, a Fuegian tribe, the
custom of lacerating the face in mourning is confined to the
widows or other female relations of the deceased.^
The Turks of old used to cut their faces with Laceration
knives in mourning for the dead, so that their blood body in
and tears ran down their cheeks together.* Among mourning
^ r- 1 . ... ., 1-1 among tlie
the Orang Sakai, a primitive pagan tribe, who subsist by Turks and
agriculture and hunting in the almost impenetrable forests ^t^^''
° ^ • 1 r peoples.
of Eastern Sumatra, it is customary before a burial for
the relations to cut their heads with knives and let the
flowing blood drip on the face of the corpse.'' Again,
among the Roro-speaking tribes, who occupy a territory at
the mouth of St. Joseph River in British New Guinea, when
a death has taken place, the female relations of the deceased
1 1\\om2i%YzS^XY^x, A Description of sterdam and Utrecht, 1SS5), Tweede
Patagonia {\^^xt.ioxA, 1774), p. 118. Stuk, pp. 238 sq. ; H. A. Hijmans
2 Mission Scicntifique du Cap Horn, van Androoij, " Nota omtrent het rijk
vii. Anihropologie, Etlmoqrapliie, par ^^n Siak," Tijdschrift voor Indische
P. Ilyades, J. Deniker (Paris, 1891), Taal- Land-enVolkenk7mde,^^^.{x%^t;)
p 379 pp. 347-349- According to the latter
John M. Cooper, Analytical and
writer, the Orang Sakai of Sumatra
, . -! ' o -Y;. ^f ' ^ " "-^■'""; """ belong to the same stock as the Sakai
Lritical Bibhography oftheTrrbes of ^^ ^^^ Peninsula. They speak
urra del Fuego and adjacent territory ^ ^.^,^^^ ^^ ^ interlarded with
(\\ashin'ilon, IQI?), p. loo (bureau 1 r ^u • / i, »i,
^ . ? y- , ,,,,,- . > words of their own, except when they
of American hthno Oin', Bulletin o?). , , , <• v • .u
^ ■^-" -'' go out to search for camphor in the
■« Stanislas Julien, Documents His- forests ; for on such expeditions, like
toriques sur les Tou-Kioue (Turcs), other tribes of the Indian Archipelago,
tradiiits du C/iinois (Pans, 1877), i:>p. they employ a special language \>r
10, 28; Leon Cahun, Introduction a jargon. As to this camphor-speech, as
FHisioire de VAsie, Turcs et Mongols it ig called, see Taboo and the Perils oj
(Paris, 1896), p. 59. i/ie Soul, pp. 405 sqq. (The Golden
^ J. A. van Rijn van Alkemarde, Bough, Third Edition, Part ii. ). The
^^\l&ixi]k Ga.%%\-p,'" Tijdschrift van het name Orang means simply "men."
Nederlandsch Aardrijkskiindig Genoot- See W. W. Skcat and C. (). Blagden,
schap, Tweede Serie, Deel ii. Afdeel- Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula
ing : Meer uitgebreide artikelen (Am- (London, 1906), i. i<) sq.
284 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
cut their skulls, faces, breasts, bellies, arms, and legs with
sharp shells, till they stream with blood and fall down
exhausted.^ In the Koiari and Toaripi tribes of British
New Guinea mourners cut themselves with shells or flints
till the blood flows freely." So in Vate or Efate, an island
of the New Hebrides, a death was the occasion of great
wailing, and the mourners scratched their faces till they
streamed with blood.^ Similarly in Malekula, another island
of the New Hebrides, gashes are or were cut in the bodies
of mourners.'*
Hair The Galclarceze of Halmahera, an island to the west of
thJdetdby ^^^ Guinea, make an offering of their hair to the soul of a
mourners deceased relative on the third day after his or her death,
Gaieiareere which is the day after burial. A woman, who has not
recently suffered any bereavement in her own family,
operates on the mourners, snipping off merely the tips of
their eyebrows and of the locks which overhang their temples.
After being thus shorn, they go and bathe in the sea and
wash their hair with grated coco-nuts in order to purify
themselves from the taint of death ; for to touch or go near
a corpse is thought to render a person unclean. A seer, for
example, is supposed to lose his power of seeing spirits if he
incurs this pollution or so much as eats food which has been
in a house with a dead body. Should the survivors fail to
offer their hair to the deceased and to cleanse themselves
afterwards, it is believed that they do not get rid of the soul
of their departed brother or sister. For instance, if some
one has died away from home, and his family has had no
news of his death, so that they have not shorn their hair
nor bathed on the third day, the ghost {soso) of the dead
1 Le p. Victor Jouet, La Sociit^ des Report of the Second Meeting of the
Missionnaires du Sacre-Ccenr dans les Australasian Association for the Ad-
Vicariais Apostoliques de la Melan^sie vancement of Science, held at Melboin-jie,
et de la Micronisie (Issoudun, 1887), Victo?-ia, in January i8go (Sydney),
p. 292; Father Guis, "Les Canaques. pp. 316, 322.
Mort-deuil," Les Missions Catholiques, ^ George Turner, Samoa a Hundred
xxxiv. (Lyons, 1902) p. 186. As to Years Ago {^ox\Aov\, 1884), p. 335
, the territory of these tribes, see C. G. * Rev. T. Watt Leggatt, " Malekula,
Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Hebrides," Report of the Fourth
Nero Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), p. Meeting of the Australasian Association
I9S. for the Advancement of Science, held ai
'^ Rev. James Chalmers, " New Hobart, Tasmania, in January, i8g2
Guinea; Toaripi and Koiari Tribes," (Sydney), p. 700.
CHAr. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 2S5
man will haunt them and hinder them in all their work.
When they crush coco-nuts, they will get no oil : when they
pound sago, they will obtain no meal : when they are
hunting, they will see no game. Not until they have learned
of the death, and shorn their hair, and bathed, will the ghost
cease thus to thwart and baffle them in their undertakings.
The well-informed Dutch missionary who reports these
customs believes that the offering of hair is intended to
delude the simple ghost into imagining that his friends have
followed him to the far country ; but we may doubt whether
even the elastic credulity of ghosts could be stretched so far
as to mistake a few snippets of hair for the persons from
whose heads they had been severed.^
Customs of the same sort appear to have been observed Laceration
by all the widely spread branches of the Polynesian race in ^od^\i
the Pacific. Thus in Otaheite, when a death occurred, the mourning
corpse used to be conveyed to a house or hut, called iiipapozv, Poiynls!*^*^
built specially for the purpose, where it was left to putrefy a^s- The
till the flesh had wholly wasted from the bones. " As soon observed^
as the body is deposited in the tupapoiv^ the mourning is '" Tahiti.
renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door
by the nearest relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several
times into the crown of her head : the blood copiously Blood of
follows, and is carefully received upon pieces of linen, which "mourners
. deposited
are thrown into the bier. The rest of the women follow on the bier.
this example, and the ceremony is repeated at the interval
of two or three days, as long as the zeal and sorrow of the
parties hold out. The tears also which are shed upon these Tears and
occasions, are received upon pieces of cloth, and offered as ^^''' °^
11- r 1 mourners
oblations to the dead ; some of the younger people cut off offered to
their hair, and that is thrown under the bier with the other "^'^ ^^^'^•
offerings. This custom is founded upon a notion that the
soul of the deceased, which they believe to e.xist in a
separate state, is hovering about the place where the body
is deposited : that it observes the actions of the survivors,
and is gratified by such testimonies of their affection and
grief"" According to a later writer the Tahitians in mourn-
^ M. J. van Baarda, " Een apologia pp. 64 sq.
voor de dooden," Bijdragen tot de ^ The Voyages of Captain James Cook
Taal- Land- enVolke>ikunde van Neder- round the World (London, 1809), i.
landsch-Tndie, Ixix. (The Hague, 1913) 218 sq.
286 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
ing " not only wailed in the loudest and most affecting tone,
but tore their hair, rent their garments, and cut themselves
with shark's teeth or knives in a shocking manner. The
instrument usually employed was a small cane, about four
inches long, with five or six shark's teeth fixed in, on
opposite sides. With one of these instruments every female
provided herself after marriage, and on occasions of death it
was unsparingly used. With some this was not sufficient ;
they prepared a short instrument, something like a plumber's
mallet, about five or six inches long, rounded at one end for
a handle, and armed with two or three rows of shark's teeth
fixed in the wood, at the other. With this, on the death of a
relative or a friend, they cut themselves unmercifully, striking
the head, temples, cheek, and breast, till the blood flowed
profusely from the wounds. At the same time they uttered
the most deafening and agonizing cries ; and the distortion
of their countenances, their torn and dishevelled hair, the
mingled tears and blood that covered their bodies, their
wild gestures and unruly conduct, often gave them a frightful
and almost inhuman appearance. This cruelty was princi-
pally performed by the females, but not by them only ; the
men committed on these occasions the same enormities, and
not only cut themselves, but came armed with clubs and other
deadly weapons." At these doleful ceremonies the women
sometimes wore short aprons, which they held up with one
hand to receive the blood, while they cut themselves with the
other. The blood-drenched apron was afterwards dried in
the sun and given in token of affection to the bereaved
family, who preserved it as a proof of the high esteem in
which the departed had been held. On the death of a king
or principal chief, his subjects assembled, tore their hair,
lacerated their bodies till they were covered with blood, and
often fought with clubs and stones till one or more of them
were killed.^ Such fights at the death of a great man may
help us to understand how the custom of gladiatorial combats
arose at Rome ; for the ancients themselves inform us that
these combats first took place at funerals and were a sub-
1 William Ellis, Polynesian Re- J. h. Moerenhout, Voyages mix Ties
searches. Second Edition (London, dii Grand Ocean (Paris, 1837), i. 544.,
1832-1836), i. 407-410. Compare 5465^.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 287
stitute for the slaughter of captives at the tomb.^ At Rome
the first exhibition of gladiators was given by D. Junius
Brutus in 264 B.C. in honour of his dead father.'-
Annong the women of Otaheite the use of shark's teeth Laceration
as a lancet to draw blood from their heads was not limited on oTher"^^
to occasions of death. If any accident befell a woman's occasions
husband, his relations or friends, or her own child, she went
to work on herself with the shark's teeth ; even if the child
had only fallen down and hurt itself, the mother mingled
her blood with its tears. But when a child died, the whole
house was filled with kinsfolk, cutting their heads and
making loud lamentations. " On this occasion, in addition Hair of
mourners
shorn in
one part of their heads, leaving the rest long. Sometimes Tahiti.
this is confined to a square patch on the forehead ; at
others they leave that, and cut off all the rest : sometimes
a bunch is left over both ears, sometimes over one only ;
and sometimes one half is clipped quite close, and the
other left to grow long : and these tokens of mourning
are sometimes prolonged for two or three years." ^ This
description may illustrate the Israelitish practice of making
bald places on the head in sign of mourning.
In Hawaii or the Sandwich Islands, when a king or great Laceration
chief died, the people expressed their grief "by the most shock- ^}f^-
ing personal outrages, not only by tearing off their clothes mourning
entirely, but by knocking out their eyes and teeth with clubs '" H^^^-'^"-
and stones, and pulling out their hair, and by burning and
cutting their flesh." ■* Of these various mutilations that of
knocking out teeth would seem to have been on these occasions Teeth of
the most prevalent and popular. It was practised by both k^°\" ^^
sexes, though perhaps most extensively by men. On the death out.
of a king or important chief the lesser chiefs connected with
him by ties of blood or friendship were expected to display
their attachment by knocking out one of their front teeth
with a stone ; and when they had done so, their followers
felt bound to follow their example. Sometimes a man
1 Tertullian, De spectaculis, 12 ; Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean
Servius, on Virgil, Acn. x. 5i9. (London, 1799), pp. 352 sq.
2 Livy, Epitoffia, xvi. ; \'aleriu.s * C. S. Stewart, yi^/crwa/ of a J?esi-
Maximus ii. 4. 7. c^me m the Saiid-wich Islands (London,
^ Captain James Wilson, .l//V.w;/a;7 1828), p. 216.
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Laceration
of the
body in
mourning
in Tonga.
The
mourning
for Finow,
King of
Tonga.
broke out his own tooth ; more frequently, however, the
friendly office was discharged for him by another, who,
planting one end of a stick against the tooth, hammered the
other end with a stone, till the tooth was either knocked out
or broken off. If the men shrank from submitting to this
operation, the women would often perform it on them while
they slept. More than one tooth was seldom extracted at
one time ; but the mutilation being repeated on the death
of every chief of rank or authority, few adult men were to
be seen with an entire set of teeth, and many had lost the
front teeth on both the upper and lower jaw^ which, apart
from other inconveniences, caused a great defect in their
speech. Some, however, dared to be singular and to retain
most of their teeth.^
Similarly the Tongans in mourning beat their teeth
with stones, burned circles and scars on their flesh,
struck shark's teeth into their heads until the blood
flowed in streams, and thrust spears into the inner parts
of their thighs, into their sides below the arm-pits, and
through their cheeks into their mouths." When the cast-
away English seaman, William Mariner, resided among the
Tongans early in the nineteenth century, he witnessed and
has graphically described the extravagant mourning for
Finow, king of Tonga. The assembled chiefs and nobles
on that occasion, he tells us, evinced their grief by cutting
and wounding themselves with clubs, stones, knives, or sharp
shells ; one at a time, or two or three together, would run
into the middle of the circle formed by the spectators to
give these proofs of their extreme sorrow for the death, and
their great respect for the memory, of their departed lord
and friend. Thus one would cry, " Finow ! I know well
your mind ; you have departed to Bolotoo,^ and left your
people under suspicion that I, or some of those about you,
were unfaithful ; but where is the proof of infidelity ? where
is a single instance of disrespect ? " So saying, he would
inflict violent blows and deep cuts on his head with a club,
stone, or knife, exclaiming at intervals, " Is this not a proof
1 William Ellis, Polynesian Re-
searches, Second Edition (London,
1832- 1836), iv. 176. Compare U.
Lisiansky, A I'oyage round the World
(London, 1814), p. 123.
2 The Voyages of Captain Jaiuci
Cook (London, 1809), v. 420.
3 The land of the dead.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 289
of my fidelity ? does this not evince loyalty and attachment
to the memory of the departed warrior?" Another, after
parading up and down with a wild and agitated step, spinning
and whirling a club, would strike himself with the edge of it
two or three times violently on the top or back of the head ;
then stopping suddenly and gazing steadfastly at the blood-
bespattered implement, he would cry, " Alas ! my club, who
could have said that you would have done this kind office
for me, and have enabled me thus to evince a testimony of
my respect for Finow ! Never, no, never, can you again
tear open the brains of his enemies ! Alas ! what a great
and mighty warrior has fallen ! Oh ! Finow, cease to
suspect my loyalty ; be convinced of my fidelity ! " Some,
more violent than others, cut their heads to the skull with
such strong and frequent blows that they reeled and lost for
a time the use of their reason.^ Other men during the
mourning for Finow shaved their heads and burned their
cheeks with lighted rolls of cloth, and rubbing the wounds
with astringent berries caused them to bleed. This blood
they smeared about the wounds in circles of nearly two
inches in diameter, giving themselves a very unseemly
appearance ; and they repeated the friction with the berries
daily, making the blood to flow afresh. To show their love
for their deceased master, the king's fishermen beat and
bruised their heads with the paddles of their canoes. More-
over, each of them had three arrows stuck through each
cheek in a slanting direction, so that, while the points were
within the mouth, the heads of the arrows projected over the
shoulders and were kept in that position by another arrow
tied to both sets of heads at the fisherman's back, so as to
form a triangle. With this strange accoutrement the fisher-
men walked round the grave, beating their faces and heads
with their paddles, or pinching up the skin of the breast and
sticking a spear quite through it, all to prove their affection
for the deceased chiefs
In the Samoan islands it was in like manner customary Laceration
for mourners to manifest their grief by frantic lamentation body^in
mourning
1 William Mariner, An Account of 381-384. i'l Samoa,
the Natives of the Tonga Islands, - William Mariner, op. cit. i. 392 Mangaia.
Second Edition (London, 1818), i. j-^., 404 j-^. and the
Marquesa
VOL. Ill U Islands.
290
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Laceration
of the
body ajid
cutting of
the hair in
mourning
among the
Maoris.
and wailing, by rending the garments, tearing out the hair,
burning their flesh with firebrands, bruising their bodies
with stones, and gashing themselves with sharp stones, shells,
and shark's teeth, till they were covered with blood. This
was called an " offering of blood " {taulanga toto) ; but
according to Dr. George Brown, the expression did not
imply that the blood was presented to the gods, it signified
no more than affection for the deceased and sorrow for his
loss.^ Similarly in Mangaia, one of the Hervey Islands, no
sooner did a sick person expire than the near relatives
blackened their faces, cut off their hair, and slashed their
bodies with shark's teeth so that the blood streamed down.
At Raratonga it was usual to knock out some of the front
teeth in token of sorrow.^ So, too, in the Marquesas Islands,
" on the death of a great chief, his widow and the women of
the tribe uttered piercing shrieks, whilst they slashed their
foreheads, cheeks, and breasts with splinters of bamboo.
This custom has disappeared, at least in Nuka-Hiva ; but
in the south-eastern group the women still comply with this
usage, and, with faces bleeding from deep wounds, abandon
themselves to demonstrations of despair at the funeral of
their relations." ^
Among the Maoris of New Zealand the mourning
customs were similar. " The wives and near relations,
especially the female ones, testified their grief by cutting
the face and forehead with shells or pieces of obsidian,
until the blood flowed plentifully, suffering the stream-
lets to dry on the face, and the more perfectly it was
covered with clotted gore the greater the proof of their
respect for the dead ; the hair was always cut as a sign of
1 Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the 2 j^gv. W. Wyatt Gill, " .Mangaia
United -States Exploring Expedition, (Hervey Islands)," A'eport o/tAe Second
New Edition (Philadelphia, 1851),
139 ; George Turner, Samoa a Hundred
Years Ago (London, 1884), p. 144;
Rev. John B. Stair, Old Samoa (Lon-
don, 1897), p. 182; George Brown,
D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians
(London, 19 10), pp. 401 sq. ; Rev.
S. Ella, '■' Ssimos.,^' Rep07-t of the Fou7-th
Meeting of the Australasian Association
for the Advancement of Science, held at
Hohart, Tasmania, in fatiiiarj' i8g2
(Sydney), p. 640.
Aleetiitg of the Australasian Association
for the Advaticement of Science, held at
Melbourne, Victoria, in January i8go
(Sydney), p. 344.
^ Clavel, Les Marquisiens (Paris,
1885), p. 39 ; compare id., p. 44.
Compare Max Radiguet, Les derviers
Sauvages (Paris, 1882), p. 284; Vin-
cendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, lies
Marquises ou Nouka - hiva (Paris,
1843), p. 250.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 291
grief, the men generally cut it only on one side, from the
forehead to the neck." ^ According to another account, the
cuttings for the dead among the Maoris were by no means
confined to the face and forehead. " All the immediate
relatives and friends of the deceased, with the slaves, or other
servants or dependants, if he possessed any, cut themselves
most grievously, and present a frightful picture to a Euro-
pean eye. A piece of flint (made sacred on account of the
blood which it has shed, and the purpose for which it
has been used) is held between the third finger and
the thumb ; the depth to which it is to enter the skin
appearing beyond the nails. The operation commences
in the middle of the forehead ; and the cut extends, in a
curve, all down the face, on either side : the legs, arms,
and chest are then most miserably scratched ; and the
breasts of the women, who cut themselves more extensively
and deeper than the men, are sometimes wofully gashed." -
Nowhere, perhaps, has this custom of cutting the bodies Laceration
of the living in honour of the dead been practised more bo^in
systematically or with greater severity than among the rude mourning
aborigines of Australia, who stand at the foot of the social abor^giner
ladder. Thus among the tribes of Western Victoria a °f
widower mourned his wife for three moons. Every second Laceration
night he wailed and recounted her good qualities, and °^',^^.
^ & n ' bodv in
lacerated his forehead with his nails till the blood flowed mourning
down his cheeks ; also he covered his head and face with f"J°"§^J^^
tribes of
white clay. If he loved her very dearly and wished to Victoria.
express his grief at her loss, he would burn himself across
the waist in three lines with a red-hot piece of bark. A
widow mourned for her husband for twelve moons. She
cut her hair quite close, and burned her thighs with hot
ashes pressed down on them with a piece of bark till she
1 Rev. Richard Taylor, Te Ika A 1843), "• 62 (the nearest, relations
Maid, or. New Zealand and its In- " make deep incisions in their own
habitants. Second Edition (London, bodies with broken pieces of shells ") ;
1870), p. 217. William Brown, New Zealand and its
Aborigines (London, 1845), P- ^9'y
2 Rev. William Yate, An Account Arthur S. Thomson, The Story of New
of New Zealand (London, 1835), pp. Zealand (London, 1859), i. 186 ;
136 sq. On these cuttings among the Edward Tregear, " The Maoris of New
Maoris, see also Ernest DieiTenbach, Zealand," Journal of the Anthropo-
Travels in New Zealand (London, logical Instit2ite,y\Ti..{iZ()0)-^^. \0\ sq.
292
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Laceration
of the
body in
mourning
among the
tribes of
New South
Wales.
screamed with agony. Every second night she wailed and
recounted his good quahties, and lacerated her forehead till
the blood flowed down her cheeks. At the same time she
covered her head and face with white clay. This she must
do for three moons on pain of death. Children in mourning
for their parents lacerated their brows.^ Among the natives
of Central Victoria the parents of the deceased were wont
to lacerate themselves fearfully, the father beating and cutting
his head with a tomahawk, and the mother burning her
breasts and belly with a firestick. This they did daily for
hours until the period of mourning was over.^ Widows in
these tribes not only burned their breasts, arms, legs, and
thighs with firesticks, but rubbed ashes into their wounds and
scratched their faces till the blood mingled with the ashes.^
Among' the Kurnai of South-Eastern Victoria mourners cut
and gashed themselves with sharp stones and tomahawks
until their heads and bodies streamed with blood.* In the
Mukjarawaint tribe of Western Victoria, when a man died,
his relatives cried over him and cut themselves with toma-
hawks and other sharp instruments for a week.^
Among the tribes of the Lower Murray and Lower
Darling rivers mourners scored their backs and arms,
sometimes even their faces, with red - hot brands, which
raised hideous ulcers ; afterwards they flung themselves
prone on the grave, tore out their hair by handfuls,
rubbed earth over their heads and bodies in great pro-
fusion, and ripped up their green ulcers till the mingled
blood and grime presented a ghastly spectacle.^ Among the
Kamilaroi, a large tribe of Eastern New South Wales, the
mourners, especially the women, used to plaster their heads
and faces with white clay, and then cut gashes in their heads
with axes, so that the blood flowed down over the clay to
of South-East Australia (London,
1904), p. 459.
^ A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 453.
^ Peter Bevcridge, " Of the Abori-
gines inhabiting the Great Lacustrine
and Riverine Depression of the Lower
1 James Dawson, Australian Abori-
gines (Melbourne, Sydney, and Ade-
laide, 1 88 1), p. 66.
'^ W. Stanbridge, " On the Abori-
gines of Victoria," Transactions of the
Ethnological Society of London, New
Series i. (1861) p. 298.
•"^ R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines
of Victoria (Melbourne and London,
1878), i. 105.
* A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes
Murray, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower
Lachlan, and Lower Darling, "yi??/;7?(2/
and Proceedings of the Royal Society of
New South Wales for 1883 (Sydney,
1884), pp. 28, 29.
Teiritory.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 293
their shoulders, where it was allowed to dry.-' Speaking of a
native burial on the Murray River, a writer says that " around
the bier were many women, relations of the deceased, wailing
and lamenting bitterly, and lacerating their thighs, backs, and
breasts with shells or flint, until the blood flowed copiously
from the gashes." ^
In the Kabi and Wakka tribes of South-Eastern Queens- Laceration
land, about the Mary River, mourning lasted approximately body'^in
six weeks. " Every nisrht a treneral, loud wailing was sus- niourning
. ' , , . among the
tained for hours, and was accompanied by personal laceration tribes of
with sharp flints or other cutting instruments. The men ^IdTe''"'^
would be content with a few incisions on the back of the Northern
head, but the women would gash themselves from head
to foot and allow the blood to dry upon the skin." ^ In
the Boulia district of Central Queensland women in mourn-
ing score their thighs, both inside and outside, with sharp
stones or bits of glass, so as to make a series of parallel cuts ;
in neighbouring districts of Queensland the men make a
single large and much deeper cruciform cut in the correspond-
ing part of the thigh.* Members of the Kakadu tribe, in
the Northern Territory of Australia, cut their heads in mourn-
ing till the blood flows down their faces on to their bodies.
This is done by men and women alike. Some of the blood
is afterwards collected in a piece of bark and apparently de-
posited in a tree close to the spot where the person died.^
In the Kariera tribe of Western Australia, when a death
1 Rev. William Ridley, Kamilaroi tralian Race (Melbourne and London,
and other Australian Languages (Syd- 1886-1887), iii. 165; A. McDonald,
ney, 1875), p. 160; A. VV. Howitt, "Mode of Preparing the Dead among
The Native Tribes of South-East Aus- the Natives of the Upper Mary River,
tralia, p. 467. C.l\\&Qns\&n(}i," Joicrnal 0/ the Anthy-opo-
^ E. J. 'EytG, Journals of Expedi- logical Institute f\. {\'6T2)^^. 2.\6,iif).
tionsof Discovery into Central Australia * Walter E. Roth, Studies Among
(London, 1845), ii. 347. the N'orth-West-Central Queensland
3 John Mathevv, 7'tvo Representative Aborigines (Brisbane and London,
Tribes of Queensland (London, 1910), 1897), p. 164. The natives of the
p. 115. Elsewhere (p. 107) the writer Cloncurry district of Queensland, both
observes, "The women incised the men and women, also cut their thighs
front of the head for grief, the men the in sign of mourning. See W. E. Roth,
back of the head." But he says also op. cit. p. 165.
that after a night of mourning he has ^ {S\x)Ba.\Avi\n?>-^&nccr,Nati7e Tribes
seen the bodies of the women " marked of the Northern Territory of Australia
with small incisions from top to toe, (London, 1914), pp. 241 sq. The
with the dry blood still alxjut them." writer's account of the use made of the
Compare id., in E. M'. Curr, The Aus- collected blood is not quite clear.
294
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Laceration
of the
body and
cutting of
the hair in
mourning
among the
tribes of
Western
and
Southern
Austraha.
Laceration
of the
body and
cutting of
the hair in
mourning
in the
Arunta and
Warra-
munga
tribes of
Central
Australia.
has occurred, the relations, both male and female, wail and cut
their scalps until the blood trickles from their heads. The hair
of the deceased is cut off and preserved, being worn by the rela-
tives in the form of string.^ Among the Narrinyeri, a tribe of
South Australia, the bodies of the dead used to be partially
dried over a slow fire, then skinned, reddened with ochre, and
set up naked on stages. " A great lamentation and wailing
is made at this time by all the relations and friends of the
dead man. They cut their hair off close to the head, and
besmear themselves with oil and pounded charcoal. The
women besmear themselves with the most disgusting filth ;
they all beat and cut themselves, and make violent demon-
strations of grief. All the relatives are careful to be present
and not to be wanting in the proper signs of sorrow, lest they
should be suspected of complicity in causing the death. A
slow fire is placed under the corpse, in order to dry it. The
relations live, eat, drink, and sleep under the putrefying mass
until it is dried. It is then wrapped up in mats and kept in
the wurley. During the time in which it is drying the female
relatives relieve one another in weeping before the body, so
as to keep some women always weeping in front of it. All
this has very much the appearance of idolatry. The smoke
rising around the red sitting figure, the wailing women, the
old men with long wands, with a brush of feathers at the end,
anointing it with grease and red ochre — all these contribute
to give one this impression of the whole scene." "
In the Arunta tribe of Central Australia a man is bound
to cut himself on the shoulder in mourning for his father-in-
law ; if he does not do so, his wife may be given away to
another man in order to appease the wrath of the ghost at
his undutiful son-in-law. Arunta men regularly bear on their
shoulders the raised scars which show that they have done
their duty by their dead fathers-in-law.^ The female relations
1 A. R. Brown, "Three Tribes of
Western Australia," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Instittite, xliii.
(1913) P- 169. Compare E. Clement,
" Ethnographical Notes'on the Western
Australian Aborigines," Tnternatio7iales
Archiv fiir Ethnographic, xvi. (1904)
pp. 8 sq. According to the latter
writer, the hair of the dead person is
made into necklaces, which are worn
by the relatives for a year and then
discarded.
2 Rev. George Taplin, " The Nar-
rinyeri," in J. D. Wijods, The Native
Tribes of South Australia (Adelaide,
1879), p. 20. A wurley is a rude sort
of native hut.
3 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Centra,
Australia (London, 1899), p. 500.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 295
of a dead man in the Arunta tribe also cut and hack them-
selves in token of sorrow, working themselves up into a sort
of frenzy as they do so, yet in all their apparent excitement
they take care never to wound a vital part, but vent their
fury on their scalps, their shoulders, and their legs.^ In the
Warramunga tribe of Central Australia widows crop their
hair short, and, after cutting open the middle line of the scalp,
run firesticks along the wounds, often with serious conse-
quences." Other female relations of the deceased among the
Warramunga content themselves with cutting their scalps
open by repeated blows of yam-sticks till the blood streams
down over their faces ; while men gash their thighs more or
less deeply with knives. These wounds on the thigh are
made to gape as widely as possible by tying string tightly
round the leg on both sides of the gash. The scars so made
are permanent. A man has been seen with traces of no less
than twenty-three such wounds inflicted at different times in
mourning. In addition, some Warramunga men in mourning
cut off their hair closely, burn it, and smear their scalps with
pipeclay, while other men cut off their whiskers. All these
things are regulated by very definite rules. The gashing of
the thighs, and even the cutting of the hair and of the
whiskers, are not left to chance or to the caprice of the
mourners ; the persons who perform these operations on
themselves must be related to the deceased in certain definite
ways and in no other ; and the relationships are of that
classificatory or group order which is alone recognized by
the Australian aborigines.^ In this tribe, "if a man, who stands
in a particular relationship to you, happens to die, you must
do the proper thing, which may be either gashing your thigh
or cutting your hair, quite regardless of whether you were
personally acquainted with the dead man, or whether he was
your dearest friend or greatest enemy."*
It deserves to be noticed that in these cuttings for the
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. ^/wi-Zra/Za ( London, 1904), pp. 516-
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central 523; iid., Across Australia (London,
Australia, p. 510. 1912), ii. 426-430. As to the ciassi-
" (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, and F. J. ficatory or group system of relationship,
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central see above, vol. ii. pp. 227 sqq.
Australia, p. 500, note 1. * (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
3 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Across Australia (London,
Gillen, The Northern Tribes of Central 19 1 2), ii. 429.
296
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
Applica-
tion of the
blood of
mourners
to the
corpse or
to the
dead among the Australians the blood drawn from the bodies
of the mourners is sometimes applied directly to the corpse,
or at least allowed to drop into the grave. Thus among
some tribes on the Darling River several men used to stand
by the open grave and cut each other's heads with a boome-
rang ; then they held their bleeding heads over the grave, so
that the blood dripped on the corpse lying in it. If the
deceased was held in high esteem, the bleeding was repeated
after some earth had been thrown on the corpse.^ Similarly
in the Milya-uppa tribe, which occupied the country about
the Torrowotta Lake in the north-west of New South Wales,
when the' dead man had been a warrior, the mourners cut
each other's heads and let the blood fall on the corpse as it
lay in the grave." Again, in the Bahkunjy tribe at Bourke,
on the Darling River, " I was present at a burial, when the
widower (as the chief mourner chanced to be) leapt into the
grave, and, holding his hair apart with the fingers of both
hands, received from another black, who had leapt after him,
a smart blow with a boomerang on the ' parting.' A strong
jet of blood followed. The widower then performed the same
duty by his comrade. This transaction took place, I fancy,
on the bed of leaves, before the corpse had been deposited." ^
Among the Arunta of Central Australia the female relations
of the dead used to throw themselves on the grave and there
cut their own and each other's heads with fighting-clubs or
digging-sticks till the blood, streaming down over the pipe-
clay with which their bodies were whitened, dripped upon
the grave.* x'^gain, at a burial on the Vasse River, in
Western Australia, a writer describes how, when the grave
was dug, the natives placed the corpse beside it, then " gashed
their thighs, and at the flowing of the blood they all said, ' 1
have brought blood,' and they stamped the foot forcibly on
the ground, sprinkling the blood around them ; then wiping
the wounds with a wisp of leaves, they threw it, bloody as it
was, on the dead man." ^
1 F. Bonney, " On Some Customs of
the River Darling, New South Wales,"
Joitrnal of the Anthropological Institute,
xiii. (1884) pp. 134 sq.
2 James A. Reid, in E. M. Curr,
The Australian Race (Melbourne and
London, 1886-1887), ii. 179.
3 Greville N. Teulon, in E. M.
Curr, The Aitstralian Race, ii. 203 sq.
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central
Australia, pp. 507, 509 sq.
^ (Sir) George Grey , Journals of Tivo
Expeditions of Discovery in North-
^ IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 297
Further, it is deserving of notice that the Australian Appik
tion of the
vered
aborigines sometimes apply their severed hair, as well as
their spilt blood, to the bodies of their dead friends. Thus, hair of
Sir George Grey tells us that " the natives of many parts tTthT'''^
of Australia, when at a funeral, cut off portions of their corpse.
beards, and singeing these, throw them upon the dead body ;
in some instances they cut off the beard of the corpse,
and burning it, rub themselves and the body with the
singed portions of it." ^ Comparing the modern Australian
with the ancient Hebrew usages in mourning. Sir George
Grey adds, " The native females invariably cut themselves
and scratch their faces in mourning for the dead ; they also
literally make a baldness between their eyes, this being
always one of the places where they tear the skin with
the finger nails." "
Among the rude aborigines of Tasmania the mourning Laceration
customs appear to have been similar. " Plastering their bod^and
shaven heads with pipe-clay, and covering their faces with a cutting of
mixture of charcoal and emu fat, or mutton-bird grease, the mou^nln^"
women not only wept, but lacerated their bodies with sharp among the
shells and stones, even burning their thighs with a firestick. ^^""^mes
Flowers would be thrown on the grave, and trees entwined Tasmania.
to cover their beloved ones. The hair cut off in grief was
thrown upon the mound." ^
The customs of cutting the body and shearing the hair Can the
in token of mourning for the dead have now been traced S'he'bo^"'^
throughout a considerable portion of mankind, from the and the
most highly civilized nations of antiquity down to the the^hl^fbe
lowest savages of modern times. It remains to ask. What is intended to
disguise the
"" ~~ — mourner
West and Western Australia (London, pp. 229, 231 ; Edward Palmer, "Notes '^''^"^ '^^
1841), ii. 332, quoting a letter of a on some Australian Tribes," Journal S'^cist ?
Mr. Bussel. of thi Atithropological Institute, xiii.
> (Sir) George Grey, op. tit. ii. 335. (iSS4)p. 298; John F. Mann, "Notes
2 (Sir) George Grey, op. cit. ii. on the Aborigines of Australia," Fro-
335. For other evidence of cuttings for ceedings of the Geographical Society of
the dead among the Australian abori- Australasia, i. (Sydney, 1885) p. 47 ;
gines, see Major (Sir) T. L. Mitchell, E. I\L Curr, The Australian Face, i.
Three Expeditions into the Interior of 330, ii. 249, 346, 443, 465, iii. 21,
Eastern Australia, Second , Edition 29. The custom was apparently uni-
(London, 1839), ii. 346 ; John Eraser, versal among these savages.
"The Aborigines of New South Wales," ^ y^Hies Bonwick, Daily Life and
/ouriial and Proceedings of the Royal Origin of the Tasmanians (London,
Society of New South Wales, xvi. (1S82) 1S70), pp. 97 sq.
29S
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
The fear of
the ghost
as shown in
Australian
mourning
customs.
the meaning of these practices ? In the preceding chapter
we saw that the Nicobarese shave their hair and eyebrows
in mourning for the alleged purpose of disguising themselves
from the ghost, whose unwelcome attentions they desire to
avoid, and whom they apparently imagine to be incapable
of recognizing them with their hair cut.^ Can it be, then,
that both customs have been adopted in order either to
deceive or to repel the ghost by rendering his surviving
relations either unrecognizable or repulsive in his eyes ?
On this theory both customs are based on a fear of the
ghost ; by cutting their flesh and cropping their hair the
mourners hope that the ghost will either not know them, or
that knowing them he will turn away in disgust from their
cropped heads and bleeding bodies, so that in either case he
will not molest them.
How does this hypothesis square with the facts
which we have passed in review ? The fear of the
ghost certainly counts for something in the Australian
ceremonies of mourning ; for we have seen that among the
Arunta, if a man does not cut himself properly in mourning
for his father-in-law, the old man's ghost is supposed to be
so angry that the only way of appeasing his wrath is to
take awav his daughter from the arms of his undutiful son-
in-lc
Further, in the Unmatjera and Kaitish tribes of
The desire
to please
and pro-
pitiate the
ghost as
shown in
Australian
mourning
customs.
Central Australia a widow covers her body with ashes and
renews this token of grief during the whole period of mourn-
ing, because, if she failed to do so, " the atnirinja, or spirit of
the dead man, who constantly follows her about, will kill
her and strip all the flesh off her bones." ^ In these customs
the fear of the ghost is manifest, but there is apparently no
intention either to deceive or to disgust him by rendering
the person of the mourner unrecognizable or repulsive.
On the contrary, the Australian practices in mourning seem
to aim rather at obtruding the mourners on the attention of
the ghost, in order that he may be satisfied with their de-
monstrations of sorrow at the irreparable loss they have
sustained through his death. The /\runta and other tribes
* Above, p. 236.
- Above, p. 294.
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F.
Gillen, The Northern Tribes of Cen-
tral Australia (London, 1 904), p.
507.
i
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 299
of Central Australia fear that if the}' do not display a suffi-
cient amount of grief, the spirit of the dead man will be
offended and do them a mischief. And with regard to their
practice of whitening the mourner's body with pipe-clay, we
are told that " there is no idea of concealing from the spirit
of the dead person the identity of the mourner ; on the
other hand, the idea is to render him or her more con-
spicuous, and so to allow the spirit to see that it is being
properly mourned for." ^ In short, the Central Australian
customs in mourning appear designed to please or propitiate
the ghost rather than to elude his observation or excite his
disgust. That this is the real intention of the Australian Offerings
usages in general is strongly suggested by the practices of °;,^ ^° j. ^^
allowing the mourner's blood to drop on the corpse or into the dead,
the grave, and depositing his severed locks on the lifeless
body ; for these acts can hardly be interpreted otherwise
than as tribute paid or offerings presented to the spirit of
the dead in order either to gratify his wishes or to avert his
wrath. Similarly we saw that among the Orang Sakai of
Sumatra mourners allow the blood dripping from their
wounded heads to fall on the face of the corpse," and that
in Otaheite the blood flowing from the self-infiicted wounds
of mourners used to be caught in pieces of cloth, which were
then laid beside the dead body on the bier.^ Further, the
custom of depositing the shorn hair of mourners on the
corpse or in the grave has been observed in ancient or
modern times by Arabs, Greeks, Mingrelians, North Ameri-
can Indians, Tahitians, and Tasmanians, as well as by the
aborigines of Australia.* Hence we seem to be justified in
concluding that the desire to benefit or please the ghost has
been at least one motive which has led many peoples to
practise those corporeal mutilations with which we are here
concerned. But to say this is not to affirm that the pro-
pitiation of the ghost has been the sole intention with which
these austerities have been practised. Different peoples
may well have inflicted these sufferings or disfigurements on
themselves from different motives, and amongst these various
^ (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. 2 Above, p. 233.
Gillen, The N^ative Tribes of Central ^ Above, p. 285.
Australia (London, 1899), pp. 510, * Above, pp. 273, 274, 276, 280,
511. 280 sg., 282, 285, 297.
300
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
offering
of blood
supposed
to benefit
the dead ?
motives the wish to elude or deceive the dangerous spirit of
the dead may sometimes have been one.
How is the We have still to inquire how the offering of blood and
hair is supposed to benefit or please the ghost ? Is he
thought to delight in them merely as expressions of the un-
feigned sorrow which his friends feel at his death? That
certainly would seem to have been the interpretation which
the Tahitians put upon the custom ; for along with their
blood and hair they offered to the soul of the deceased their
tears, and they believed that the ghost " observes the actions
of the survivors, and is gratified by such testimonies of their
affection and grief." ^ Yet even when we have made every
allowance for the selfishness of the savage, we should prob-
ably do injustice to the primitive ghost if we supposed
that he exacted a tribute of blood and tears and hair
from no other motive than a ghoulish delight in the suffer-
ings and privations of his surviving kinsfolk. It seems
likely that originally he was believed to reap some
more tangible and material benefit from these demonstra-
tions of affection and devotion. An eminent scholar has
suggested that the intention of offering the blood of the
mourners to the spirit of the departed was to create a blood
covenant between the living and the dead, and thus to con-
firm or establish friendly relations with the spiritual powers.^
In support of this view he refers to the practice of some
Australian tribes on the Darling River, who, besides wound-
ing tlieir heads and allowing the blood from the wounds to
drop on the corpse, were wont to cut a piece of flesh from
the dead body, dry it in the sun, cut it in small pieces, and
distribute the pieces among the relatives and friends, some
of whom sucked it to get strength and courage, while others
threw it into the river to bring a flood and fish, when both
were wanted.^ Here the giving of blood to the dead and
the sucking of his flesh undoubtedly appear to imply a
relation of mutual benefit between the survivors and the
deceased, whether that relation is to be described as a
Robertson
Smith's
theory of
a blood
covenant
between
the living
and the
dead.
1 Above, p. 285.
2 W. Robertson Smith, The Religion
of the Sef)iiies, New Edition (London,
1894), pp. 322 SIJ.
3 F. Bonney, " On Some Customs
of the Aborigines of the River Darling,
New South Wales," Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1 884)
pp. 134 sq.
CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD
301
covenant or not. Similarly among the Kariera of Western
Australia, who bleed themselves in mourning, the hair of the
deceased is cut off and worn by the relatives in the form of
string.^ Here, again, there seems to be an exchange of
benefits between the living and the dead, the survivors
giving their blood to their departed kinsman and receiving
his hair in return.
However, these indications of an interchange of good The
offices between the mourners and the mourned are too {q.\n of'such a
and slight to warrant the conclusion that bodily mutilations covenant
and wounds inflicted on themselves by bereaved relatives '"^ ^°^^ ^'
are always or even generally intended to establish a covenant
of mutual help and protection with the dead. The great
majority of the practices which we have surveyed in this
chapter can reasonably be interpreted as benefits supposed
to be conferred by the living on the dead, but 'i&w or none
of them, apart from the Australian practices which I have
just cited, appear to imply any corresponding return of
kindness made by the ghost to his surviving kinsfolk.
Accordingly the hypothesis which would explain the cuttings
for the dead as attempts to institute a blood covenant with
them must apparently be set aside on the ground that it is
not adequately supported by the evidence at our disposal.
A simpler and more obvious explanation of the cuttings The blood
is suggested by the customs of some of the savages who to the
inflict such wounds on themselves. Thus we have seen that '-'-^■^^ "■'•'^>'
the practice of wounding the heads of mourners and letting to feed and
the blood drip on the corpse was prevalent among the strengthen
Australian tribes of the Darling River. Now among these
same tribes it is, or rather used to be, the custom that
on undergoing the ceremony of initiation into manhood
" during the first two days the youth drinks only blood from
the veins in the arms of his friends, who willingly supply the
required food. Having bound a ligature round the upper
part of the arm they cut a vein on the under side of the
forearm, and run the blood into a wooden vessel, or a dish-
shaped piece of bark. The youth, kneeling on his bed,
made of the small branches of a fuchsia shrub, leans forward,
while holding his hands behind him, and licks up the blood
* Above, pp. 293 sq.
302 CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD part iv
from the vessel placed in front of him with his tongue, like
a dog. Later he is allowed to eat the flesh of ducks as well
as the blood." ^ Again, among these same tribes of the
Darling River, " a very sick or weak person is fed upon
blood which the male friends provide, taken from their bodies
in the way already described. It is generally taken in a
raw state by the invalid, who lifts it to his mouth like jelly
between his fingers and thumb. I have seen it cooked in a
wooden vessel by putting a io-w red-hot ashes among it." ^
Again, speaking of the same tribes, the same writer tells us
that " it sometimes happens that a change of camp has to
be made, and a long journey over a dry country undertaken,
with a helpless invalid, who is carried by the strong men,
who willingly bleed themselves until they are weak and
faint, to provide the food they consider is the best for a sick
person." ^ But if these savages gave their own blood to
feed the weak and sickly among their living friends, why
should they not have given it for the same purpose to their
dead kinsfolk ? Like almost all savages, the Australian
aborigines believed that the human soul survives the death
of the body ; what more natural accordingly than that in
its disembodied state the soul should be supplied by its
loving relatives with the same sustaining nourishment with
which they may have often strengthened it in life ? On the
same principle, when Ulysses was come to deadland in the
far country of Cimmerian darkness, he sacrificed sheep and
caused their blood to flow into a trench, and the weak
ghosts, gathering eagerly about it, drank the blood and so
acquired the strength to speak with him.^
The hair But if the blood offered by mourners was designed for
tifedid° ^^^ refreshment of the ghost, what are we to say of the
may also be parallel offering of their hair? The ghost may have been
Itrengdir thought to drink the blood, but we can hardly suppose that
them, since
it is a ^ F. Bonney, "On some Customs explicitly mentioned in verses 98, 153,
common of the Aborigines of the River Darling, 232, 390. The view that the blood
notion that ]Sfew South Wales," Journal of the drawn from their bodies by mourners
a person's Anthropological Ins/itiile, xiii. (1884) was originally intended to feed the
strength is p_ J28. dead man has the support of Herbert
in his hair. % p_ gonney, op. cit. p. 132. Spencer, who compared the Homeric
3 F. Bonney, op. cit. p. 133. description of the blood-drinking ghosts.
•* Homer, Odyssey, xi. 13 sqq. The See his Priticiples of Sociology, i. (Lon-
drinking of the blood by the ghosts is don, 1904) pp. 265 sqq.
CHAP. IV CUTTINGS FOR THE DEAD 303
he was reduced to such extremities of hunger as to eat the
hair. Still it is to be remembered that in the opinion of
some peoples the hair is the special seat of its owner's
strength/ and that accordingly in cutting their hair and pre-
senting it to the dead they may have imagined that they
were supplying him with a source of energy not less ample
and certain than when they provided him with their blood
to drink. If that were so, the parallelism which runs through
the mourning customs of cutting the body and polling the
hair would be intelligible. That this is the true explanation
of both practices, however, the evidence at our command is
hardly sufficient to enable us to pronounce with confidence.
So far as it goes, however, the preceding inquiry tends The
to confirm the view that the widespread practices of cutting cuuin'^^the
the bodies and shearing the hair of the living after a death body and
were originally designed to gratify or benefit in some way thrhair in
the spirit of the departed ; and accordingly, wherever such mourning
customs have prevailed, they may be taken as evidence that evidence of
the people who observed them believed in the survival of a worship
. r of the dead.
the human soul after death and desired to mamtam friendly
relations with it. In other words, the observance of these
usages implies a propitiation or worship of the dead. Since
the Hebrews appear to have long cut both their bodies and
their hair in honour of their departed relations, we may
safely include them among the many tribes and nations who
have at one time or another been addicted to that worship
of ancestors which, of all forms of primitive religion, has
probably enjoyed the widest popularity and exerted ,the
deepest influence on mankind. The intimate connexion of
these mourning customs with the worship of the dead was
probably well remembered in Israel down to the close of
the monarchy, and may have furnished the religious re-
formers of that age with their principal motive for pro-
hibiting extravagant displays of sorrow which the)- justly
regarded as heathenish.
' For evidence, see above, vol. ii. pp. 484 sqq.
CHAPTER V
THE BITTER WATER
^ I . The Ordeal of tlie Bitter Water in Israel
Hebrew In the Pricstly Code it is ordained that when a man
iurpecSd^ suspects his wife of infidehty and desires to put her to the
adulteress proof, he shall bring her to the priest along with an oblation,
tesSd% consisting of the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal
obliging without the addition of oil or frankincense. This oblation
drink a is described as "a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering
bitter Qf memorial, brins^ing iniquity to remembrance. And the
water o o i. j
mixed with priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord:
^^^h^^*^ and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel ;
sanctuary and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the
the^ink'' priest shall take, and put it into the water : and the priest
with which shall set the woman before the Lord, and let the hair of
bera^^^'^ the woman's head go loose, and put the meal offering of
written. memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of
jealousy : and the priest shall have in his hand the water of
bitterness that causeth the curse : and the priest shall cause
her to swear, and shall say unto the woman, If no man have
lien with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to unclean-
ness, being under thy husband, be thou free from this water
of bitterness that causeth the curse : but if thou hast gone
aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and
some man have lien with thee besides thine husband : then
the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of
cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord
make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the
Lord doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to
swell ; and this water that causeth the curse shall go into
304
CH. V ORDEAL OF THE BITTER WATER IN ISRAEL 305
thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to
fall away : and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. And
the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall
blot them out into the water of bitterness : and he shall
make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causeth
the curse : and the water that causeth the curse shall enter
into her and become bitter. And the priest shall take the
meal offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall
wave the meal offering before the Lord, and bring it unto the
altar: and the priest shall take an handful of the meal offering,
as the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and after-
ward shall make the woman drink the water. And when he
hath made her drink the water, then it shall come to pass,
if she be defiled, -and have committed a trespass against her
husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter
into her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and
her thigh shall fall away : and the woman shall be a curse
among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but
be clean ; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed." ^
In this passage there appear to be certain repetitions The
which are most naturally explained on the hypothesis that p^ced '^
the text has been either interpolated or compiled from two in the
distinct but closely allied versions of the judicial procedure
to be followed in such cases. Thus the priest is twice said
to bring the woman before the Lord, and the woman is
twice said to drink the water of bitterness, both before and
after the meal offering has been presented to the Lord by
the priest.^ Disregarding these repetitions, we gather that
in its main features the ordeal of the bitter water was
administered as follows. The priest took holy water and
mixed in it dust swept from the floor of the sanctuary.
Then he set the woman before the Lord at the holy place,
loosened her hair, and put the meal offering in her hands.
While she held it, he, holding in his hand the holy water
mixed with the dust of the sanctuary, recited the curse
» Numbers V. 11 -28. G. Harford- Battersby, The Hexatetich
2 On the question of the composi- (London, 1900), ii. 191 so.; A. R. S.
tion of the text, see B. Stade', " Die Kennedy, Leviticti; and Numbers, p.
Eiferopferthora;"Zc//j-i-/ir(///«>-(«'zVa/A 214 (The Cenhiry Bible) ; G. B. Gray,
testament/iche Wissensc/ia/t,yi\\. (i2,()^) Critical and Exegetical Commentary
pp. 166-178 ; y. Estlin Carpenter and on Numbers (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 49.
VOL. Ill X
ure
ordeal.
3o6
THE BITTER WATER
The
Hebrew
ordeal of
the bitter
water is
probably
very
ancient
and has its
analogies
elsewhere.
which would befall her if, being unfaithful to her husband,
she wrongfully swore to her innocence and drank the bitter
water ; the curse was that the water, entering into her
bowels, should cause her belly to swell and her thigh to
fall away. The woman listened to the curse, and solemnly
assented to it by saying, " Amen, amen ! " Next the priest
wrote the curse on a slip of parchment,^ and washed off the
ink into the holy water. After that he took the meal
offering from the woman's hand, waved it before the Lord,
and burned a handful of it on the altar. Finally, he caused
the woman to drink the holy water, which, impregnated
with the dust of the sanctuary and the ink of the curse, had
become a powerful instrument to execute the curse upon
the guilty by causing the belly of the adulteress to swell and
her thigh to fall away.
The passage is interesting as the only record of a trial
by ordeal prescribed by Jewish law ; and though the
Priestly Code, in which it occurs, belongs to the period
after the Exile,^ we cannot doubt that the practice which
it enjoins was no novelty, but that on the contrary it had
been in vogue among the Israelites from time immemorial.
For trial by ordeal, wherever it flourishes, is a mode of
ascertaining guilt as barbarous as it is ineffectual ; and
though, by reason of the conservative nature of law and
custom, it may long linger even among peoples who have
attained to a considerable degree of civilization, it can only
take its rise in ages of gross ignorance and credulity.
The different forms of ordeal by which men have sought to
elicit the truth are many and well fitted to illustrate the
extent and variety of human folly.^ To describe, or simply
to enumerate them all, even if it were possible, would here
be out of place ; I shall confine myself to exemplifying a
form of ordeal which bears some analogy to the Hebrew
ordeal of the bitter water.
1 The Hebrew word sepher (isp),
here translated " book " in our English
Bible, denotes anything which can
receive writing, for example a slip of
parchment.
2 .See above, pp. 109 sq.
3 For examples see (Sir) Edward
B. Tylor in EncyclopcEdia Britannica,
Ninth Edition, xvii. (Edinburgh, 1884)
s.v. "Ordeal," pp. 818-820; C.
J. Leendertz, " Godsoordeelen en
Eeden," Tijdschrifi van het Kon.
Nederlandsch Aardrijkskimdig Genoot-
schap, Tweede Serie, V. Afdeeling :
Meer uitgebreide arlikelen (Leyden,
1888), pp. 1-29, 315-338.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 307
§ 2. The Poison Ordeal in Africa
In many parts of Africa it has been, and perhaps still The ordeal
is, customary to submit criminal charges, particularly poison in"^
accusations of witchcraft, to the test of poison : the accused, Africa.
and sometimes the accusers also, are compelled to swallow
a poisoned draught, and according to the result a verdict
of guilty or not guilty is returned. As a rule, a man is
declared innocent if he vomits up the poison, but guilty if
he either retains it or evacuates it by purging. Death from
the effect of the poison is regarded as a sure sign of guilt,
but often it is not awaited by the crowd of spectators, who,
as soon as it appears that the supposed culprit cannot eject
the poison in the approved fashion, rush on him and
despatch him with every symptom of rage and every refine-
ment of cruelty. This at least used to be the ordinary form
of procedure under native law, before the intervention of
civilized Europe laid African barbarism under some restraint.
It is probably carried out to this day in holes and corners,
where the blacks can practise their old customs without
being observed and called to account by their white rulers.
Although in what follows I shall often, following my authori-
ties, speak of these judicial murders as if they still took
place, we may probably assume that for the most part they
are happily obsolete.^
The poisons employed in the ordeal vary in different Bark of
parts of Africa, but the one which seems to have the widest ^1,//^^^.
range is procured from the bark of the tree known to Euro- p/iifum
pean botanists as ErythropJilenni guineense. It is a large %^^^^ •„
tropical tree belonging to the order of the Legujninosae, the "i>^' poison
sub-order of the Caesalpinioideae, and the tribe of the Dinior-
phandreae. The trunk is tall and, like the larger branches, is
covered with a rough, corrugated, and fissured bark of a ferru-
ginous red colour, while the bark of the lesser branches is
gre}'ish and smooth. The wood is exceedingly hard ; house-
1 African ordeals in general, and the ii. no sqq. The subject is discussed
poison ordeal in particular, are illus- from the medical and botanical side by
trated with copious examples by the Messrs. Em. Perrot and Em. Vogt in
late German ethnologist A. H. Post in Xhe'n v,'ox\<., Poisons de F/eches et Poisons
his useful work Afrikanische Juris- a'Epreuve (Paris, 1913), pp. 35 sqq.
prudenz (Oldenburg and Leipsic, 1S87),
3o8
THE BITTER WATER
Geographi
cal and
racial
diffusion
of the
poison
ordeal in
Africa.
timbers made of it do not take fire in conflagrations which
consume the rest of the building. It also resists damp
and is never attacked by white ants. Hence the wood is
much used on the Gambia, the Casamance, and the Upper
Niger for the building of houses and the fashioning of
household utensils,^ Administered to birds, a small dose of
the poison produces violent vomiting and irregular muscular
movements, with difficult respiration, followed by loss of
muscular power and death. In cats and dogs the symptoms
are restlessness, nausea, succeeded by violent vomiting,
spasmodic jerks of the limbs during locomotion, quickened
respiration, staggering gait, and death during a convulsion,
apparently connected with an attempt to vomit. Conscious-
ness seems to be preserved to the last. The temperature of
the body is not affected by the administration of the drug.
Applied to the eye, the poison has no effect on the pupil, nor
does it cause congestion of the conjunctiva or lachrymation.'
The poison ordeal has been commonly employed both
by the true negroes and by the Bantus, that is, by the two
black races which between them occupy the greater part of
tropical and southern Africa. It has been rampant from
the Senegal River and the Niger on the north to the
Zambesi on the south. On the other hand, it seems to be
rarer among the Bantu tribes to the south of the Zambesi,
and to be little known to the black race now commonly
called Nilotic, which, as the name implies, is principally
seated on the upper waters of the Nile, though it also
numbers some important tribes in Eastern Africa.^ In
1 William Procter, jun.. "On
Erythrophleiini judiciale (llie sassy
bark of Cape Palmas)," Phaimaceutical
Journal and Traftsactions, xvi. (1856-
1857) p. 234 (article reprinted from
Tke American Journal of Pharmacy) ;
Em. Perrot et Em. Vogt, Poisons de
Fleches et Poisons d' &preuve (Paris,
1 91 3), pp. 36 J^. I have corrected
Procter's account of the order, sub-
order, and tribe of the tree by infor-
mation kindly furnished to me by Dr.
O. Stapf, of the Royal Botanic Gar-
dens, Kevv. From him I learn that
the original and correct spelling of the
name is Erytkrophleuin, not Ery-
th7-ophlccmn, as it is commonly spelt,
the second part being derived from
^\iw, "to teem with," in reference to
the sap, not to the bark, of the tree.
2 Lauder Brunton and Walter Pye,
" Piiysiological action of the bark of
the Erythrophletini guineense (casca,
cassa or Sassy Bark)," Proceeding's of
the Royal Society of London, xxv.
(1877) pp. 172-174.
3 As to these outlying tribes of
Nilotics (Masai, Nandi, Turkana, and
Suk), see Sir Charles Eliot's Introduc-
tion to A. C. HoUis's The Nandi
(Oxford, 1909), pp. XV. sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 309
describing the ordeal as it is practised, with many variations
of detail, by these various peoples, I shall choose examples
which illustrate the geographical and racial distribution of
the custom. How far the limits of its diffusion have been
determined by the habitat of the trees and shrubs which
furnish the various poisons employed in this parody of
justice, is a question which for its investigation requires the
assistance of botanical and medical science. On this subject
I have consulted my learned friend. Sir David Prain,
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and from
him and his assistant, Dr. O. Stapf, I have obtained valu-
able information, which I shall here summarize, so far as it
bears on the prevalence of the poison ordeal.
The tree which in Africa has earned a sombre notoriety Different
through the innumerable deaths it has caused in the ordeal ^^^y^^Z
belongs to the genus Erythropkleu7!i, of which eight species pkieutn
are known. Of these species three are found in Africa, ^" "^"^^
namely E^ythrop /ileum guineense, Erythrophleum micranthnm,
and ErythropJileum piibistaniineum, and of the three-the two
former {E. guineense and E. inicranthuni) are definitely ^
known to be extremely poisonous to man, the poison being
the alkaloid erythrophleine. Both these deadly poisons
have been employed by the natives of Africa in the ordeal.
Of the two the ErytJiroplileum guineense appears to have Erytkro-
the wider range, extending right across Africa from Senegal Kutneense
on the west coast to Mombasa on the east coast, and from
there southward along the coast to the Zambesi. But
curiously enough the tree seems to avoid the basin of the
Congo ; at all events there is no botanical record of the
occurrence of any species of ErythropJileum in the vast
area of the Belgian Congo, except in the divisions of Lower
Congo and Boma near the mouth of the river.
The other species of Efythrophlcnm, which is also Erytkro-
used in the ordeal, namely £'r;'///r^/'///^?/;// niicranthinn, h&s Z'''^'"'^*"*'
' , cranthum.
a much more limited range. It is a denizen of the low
forest belt of the Guinea coast from about the Gold Coast
to the Gaboon. In northern Lower Guinea, the two species,
E. guineense and E. micrantkuni, are apparently mutually
exclusive; that is, in the Gaboon we find E. niic/antlunn,
but no E. guineense. On the other hand, in Upper Guinea
3IO
THE BITTER WATER
Erythro-
fhleiim
pubistam
Erythro-
phlevm
couminga.
Comparison
of the geo-
graphical
diffusion of
Erythro-
fhleiim in
Africa with
the geo-
graphical
diffusion of
the poison
ordeal
in that
continent.
the boundary between the two species is not so sharp ; for
while E. micranthum is confined to the coast belt, there is
no, doubt that E. guineense does sometimes come down very-
near to the sea. Yet on the whole it is approximately true
to say that E. gumeense is a tree of the higher and drier
inland forests, E. micranthum is a tree of the moister forests
near the coast.
The third African species of EiytJirophhtivi, namely
E. pubistamincum, occurs on the western coast southward
of the Congo, extending through ^Angola as far south as
Amboland, which seems to be the extreme southern limit
of the ErytJirophleum in Africa. It is very remarkable that
Welwitsch, who collected it in Angola, does not record its
use in the ordeal nor even mention its poisonous properties.
Indeed, we have no positive evidence that E. pubistamineum,
is poisonous, though on general grounds we may surmise
that it is so. This species occurs also in the basins of the
Chari and Bahr-el-Ghazal rivers, of which the former flows
into Lake Chad and the latter into the White Nile; but
the tree appears to be totally absent from the immense
intermediate area of the Congo basin. In regard to this
botanical lacuna. Sir David Prain tells me that " it is a well-
known phenomenon that many individual species are to be
met with both to the north and to the south of the vast
territory drained by the Congo that have never yet been
found in the Congo basin anywhere."
A fourth species of Erythrophlemn, namely ErythropJilenm
couminga, occurs in Madagascar and the Seychelles. It
is known to be extremely poisonous to man, the poison
being, as in the three African species, the alkaloid
erythrophleine.
If now we plot out on a map the area covered by the
various species of Erythrophleum in Africa and Madagascar,
we shall find that it forms a belt stretching right across
the continent and occupying the greater part of the tropical
regions, to the exclusion, however, of almost all the Nile
valley, Abyssinia and Somaliland. To be more preci.^^e,
the northern boundary of the tree runs from Senegal on
the west to Mombasa on the east and thence eastward into
the Seychelles : the southern boundary runs from Amboland
I
THE PJDISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA
311
on the west through the basin of the Zambesi and the
Shire Highlands to Madagascar, which it cuts through the
middle a good deal nearer to the northern than to the
southern extremity of the island.^ Now if we compare the
geographical area thus bounded, with the geographical area
occupied by the poison ordeal, we shall find that the two
nearly coincide ; for while the ordeal prevails, roughly
speaking, everywhere within these boundaries, it seems to be
either rare or totally absent both to the north and to the
south of them. Thus in respect of Southern Africa, where
the EryiJiropJileiwi does not occur at all, the ordeal has
rarely been reported from the eastern side of the continent
and never, so far as I know, from the western side ; indeed
in regard to the principal tribe of South- Western Africa,
namely the Herero, we are definitely informed by a good
authority that the poison ordeal is unknown among them.^
Similarly in the area outside the northern limit of the tree,
the poison ordeal appears to be nearly absent ; in particular
it is seemingly not practised by the Nilotic tribes of British
East Africa, though it is in common use among their
neighbours of the Bantu stock. The single reported
exception to the rule in this part of Africa is furnished by
the Gallas, who are said to employ the poison ordeal with
fatal results, though the nature of the poison used for the
purpose has not been ascertained.^ In the valley of the
Nile, except at its source, where the river issues from the
Victoria Nyanza Lake, the poison ordeal appears to be
unknown, and the same may be said of Abyssinia and of
the tribes bordering on it. And among the most northerly
of the Bantu tribes, at the sources of the Nile, namely the
Basoga, the Baganda, and the Banyoro, all of whom practise
or rather used to practise, the poison ordeal, the material
for this judicial form of murder is furnished not by the
Erythrophleuui but by the datura plant. The most northerly
tribe of East Africa, so far as my knowledge goes, who are
definitely reported to employ the Erythropklaun in the
1 In writing thus, I have before me, details, by Dr. O. Stapf of tlie Royal
throughthekindnessof Sir David Train, Botanical Gardens, Kew.
a sketcli map of the geographical 2 ggg below, p. 370.
distribution of Erythrophlcutii, drawn, ^ ggg below, p. 40 1.
and accompanied with full explanator/
of the
poison
ordeal in
Africa.
312 THE BITTER WATER part iv
ordeal, are the Wanyamwesi, a large tribe of German East
Africa to the south of the Victoria Nyanza. In the vast
basin of the Congo, where the ErythropJileuni is apparently
absent, the poison used in the ordeal is probably either
imported or derived from a native tree or plant of a different
sort.
Geographi- On a general survey of the distribution of the poison
raciar^ ordcal in Africa, we may say that the custom has very
boundaries definite boundaries both geographical and racial. Geo-
graphically, it is confined to the tropical area, with which it
nearly coincides except on the north-east ; racially, it is
confined to the Bantus and to the true negroes, while with
the single reported exception of the Gallas, it appears to be
unknown to the other native races of Africa, such as the
Bushmen, the Hottentots, the Nilotics, and the Abyssinians.
It is not a little remarkable that of Bantu and Nilotic tribes,
living side by side in East Africa, the former should
regularly practise, and the latter should regularly abstain
from, this fatal custom. The sharp distinction suggests,
that mere local contiguity and similarity of natural sur-
roundings do not always suffice to bridge the deep cleft
which racial instincts and habits form between different
peoples.
From these general considerations we may now turn to
the particular evidence for the practice of the poison ordeal
in Africa. In marshalling it, I shall follow the geographical
order, beginning with the west coast, where the poison ordeal
has prevailed from Senegal in the north to Angola in the
south, spreading also far into the interior along the great
valleys of the Niger and Congo.
The poison The Balantes are a tribe of pagan negroes now settled
ordeal ^^ ^j^^ ^^j-^ bank of the river Casamance in Senegal, not far
among the *=> '
Balantes of from Sedhiou. They are a race of invaders, who have
senega . descended from the highlands of the interior, driving feebler
tribes before them. A nation of freebooters, they regard
robbery and pillage as the noblest occupations of man.
For the most part they disdain the labour of agriculture,
and prefer to roam their vast forests in search of game,
attacking the wild beasts which abound there, gathering the
wax of the wild bees, and collecting the tusks of dead
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 313
elephants, which they barter for gunpowder and strong
waters. Their villages are filthy within, but viewed from
without they present a pleasing aspect, the palisades which
surround them being festooned with flowering creepers.
Inside the palisades are collected at night the herds of cattle,
which they love to possess, but the flesh of which they
seldom eat except at festivals and the funerals of great
men. Their religion is a gross system of fetichism, and
they stand in great fear of witches and wizards. Accusa-
tions of witchcraft are extremely common. A branch of a
tree or a bunch of flowers placed by night outside a hut is
enough to draw down on the owner a charge of witchcraft,
and he is forced to purge himself from the dark suspicion
by appealing to the poison ordeal. Not that his accuser is
exempt from danger; if it appears that his charge is base-
less, he in his turn may have to drain the poisoned cup or
be sold as a slave for the benefit of his intended victim.
Every person, whether man or woman, who is accused of
witchcraft must repair on a certain day, under the escort of
the notables, to the place appointed for the ordeal. Any
refusal to comply with this obligation, any attempt to evade
it, are crimes which society punishes by burning the culprit
alive. Arrived at the seat of judgment the accused receives
a cup of poison from the official whose duty it is to con-
duct the ordeal. The poison is brewed by pounding in a
mortar the bark of a certain tree, which the Balantes call
mansone or bourdane. Having drained the cup in the
presence of the notables, the accused hastens to a neigh-
bouring spring, where he gulps a great quantity of water,
while his friends souse his whole body with water drawn
from the fountain. His eyes are now staring, his mouth
gaping, sweat bursts in beads from every part of his skin.
If he can vomit up the poison, he is acquitted and suffers
no other ill consequences than a {^w days' indisposition ; if
despite all his efforts he is unable to rid himself of the
morbid matter, he falls into convulsions, and within twenty
or twenty-five minutes after drinking the draught he drops
to the earth like a stone. Succumbing to the effects of
the poison, the poor wretch is of course set down as a witch
or wizard who has richly deserved his or her fate ; and his
314 THE BITTER IVA TER part iv
goods, if he has any, are divided among the notables of his
village. This arrangement naturally leads to the frequent
detection, or at least accusation, of sorcery. However, the
rigour of the law is mercifully tempered by an appeal to
the pity or the pocket of the official whose duty it is to
brew and administer the poison ; for he proportions the
strength, or rather the weakness, of the dose to the value of
the considerations he has received from the accused or his
friends. For this purpose he, or rather she (for the poisoner
is generally an old woman), pays a series of domiciliary visits
in the village where the patient resides on whom she is
shortly to operate ; and entering into communication
with his kinsfolk she supplies them with good advice
or, what they appreciate still more, a powerful antidote,
according to the liberality with which they reward these
friendly advances. Thus mercy seasons justice among the
Balantes.^
A later From a later account we gather that this form of judicial
the°poison murder continued to enjoy the highest degree of popularity
ordeal among the Balantes down at least to near the end of the
Baiantes. nineteenth century. Like many savages in many parts of
the world, these people imagine that there is no such thing
as death from natural causes. All deaths and indeed all
misfortunes, such as epidemics, the failure of crops, the
ravages of locusts, and the outbreak of fires, are set down by
them to the nefarious arts of sorcerers, those wicked and
dangerous beings who have assumed the human form in
order to prey on human flesh. The poison ordeal, which
rid society of these pests, was therefore regarded as a public
benefit, and its administration was hailed with an outburst
of general joy and rejoicing. Everybody from the neighbour-
hood flocked as to a festival to witness and participate in
the ceremony. None dared to absent himself; for any who
shrank from the test would be branded with infamy, hounded
out by his own family, and banished the country, with the loss
^ L. J. B. Berenger-Feraud, Les the Erythrophleuin guineense, which,
Peuplades de la Shiigambie (Paris, as I learn from Dr. O. Stapf, of the
1879). PP- 299-306. The tree from Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, is
which the Balantes and other tribes of found all over this region, to the ex-
Senegal and the French Sudan obtain elusion, apparently, of any other species
the poison for the ordeal is probably of Erythrophlatni.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 315
of all his property. So the people came in crowds. Youths
and maidens, mothers with babies at the breast, men in the
prime of life, old men in their decline, all hastened to the
scene of action, carrying presents for the poisoner and eager
to demonstrate their innocence by drinking the poison.
Children of ten years came dancing with their parents to
brave death. For all were admitted to drain the fatal
cup, though all had to pay a fee equivalent to about two
and a half francs for the privilege. Poor people saved
up to buy the chance, about one in four, of dying in agony.
Some begged in the neighbouring villages, others worked for
white people to earn the price of the poison. Most of them,
unable to pay in cash, paid in kind with rice, silk, or cloth ;
some clubbed together to purchase a goat. Only the richest
could afford an ox. The ordeal took place in a clearing of
the forest at a distance from the village. The time was the
first hour of the day. The people arrived singing, from
various quarters, and grouping themselves in a circle round
the poisoner, who shone resplendent in his richest robes,
loaded with amulets and copper bracelets, they spread out
their offerings before him. As each drank the poison from
the calabash, he ran into the woods and sat down under
a tree. Some, seized by a fit of sickness, vomited up the
poison and were saved ; others expired, it is said, without
convulsions in a few hours. The victims became at once
the objects of public hatred and execration as the authors
of all the ills that had lately befallen the village. The
husband who had lost his wife, the father who had lost his
children, vented his rage on the lifeless bodies, which were
stripped and cast naked into the forest to be devoured by
vultures and hyenas. The survivors returned with songs of
triumph to their villages ; the happy day was celebrated
with the beating of drums and with banquets ; the poisoner
was loaded with presents as a reward for the murders he
iiad perpetrated ; and all rejoiced over the riddance of
the sorcerers, confident that the troubles which had so
long visited their homes were now over, and firm in
the belief that the dead, who but a few hours before had
been their dear friends or beloved and loving parents,
were no better than witches or wizards, who had come in
3i6 ' THE BITTER WATER part iv
human form to destroy and devour humanity. A fourth
of the population was computed to perish in these orgies
of poison.^
The poison The course of justice, or rather of injustice, is similar
araonlthe ^"^ong the Bagnouns, another tribe of negroes on the Casa-
Bagnouns mancc River, who are reputed to have been in former days
Casamance ^^ most powcrful pcoplc of this region. They are a peace-
River, able and honest folk, subsisting partly by agriculture and
partly by hunting, and excessively addicted to the pleasures
of intoxication. The brawls which result from their drinking
bouts tend to thin the surplus population, and entail little
or no practical inconvenience on the homicide, who shows a
clean pair of heels until his friends have succeeded in soothing
the grief, and satisfying the cupidity, of the victim's family.
Their religion is pagan, but they are not above purchasing
charms from Mohammedan marabouts, and crosses and
medals from Portuguese priests, which they employ with
equal faith and equal success in protecting themselves
against all the mischances of life on earth. Faith in witch-
craft is with them, as with practically all African peoples,
an article of their creed, and accusations of practising that
black art are promulgated under the shadow of night by a
personage known as Mumbo Jumbo, who parades the village
at unseasonable hours, his face hidden by a mask and his
body disguised with a mantle of leaves. All whom he
denounces as witches or wizards must demonstrate their
innocence or guilt, as the case may be, by an appeal to the
poison ordeal.^
The poison The Same ordeal is resorted to, though in a milder
among the ^ora^j by the Serercs, a people of mixed origin who inhabit
Sereres of the coast of Sencgambia from Cape Verd on the north
gambia. ^^ '^'^^ Gambia River on the south. Resisting alike the
allurements and the menaces of Mohammedan mission-
^ Em. Perrot et Em. Vogt, Poisons The poison ordeal is now forbidden,
de FUches et Poisons iV Ep}-euve (Paris, though it may still be carried out
I913), pp. 38-40, from notes made in secretly in remote districts.
1895. According to this account, the
poisoner employed by the Balantes was - L. J. B. Berenger-Feraud,Z(fj/ifw-
never a member of the tribe, but plades de la Sai^gambie, pp. 293-299.
always a stranger, usually a Diola. The writer gives Mamma Diotnbo as
With the extension of French influence the title of the masked personage. It
a check has been placed on the scourge, is obviously identical with our Mumbo
which was depopulating the country. Jumbo.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL JN AFRICA 317
aries, the Sereres have remained faithful to their own special
form of paganism. They adore two gods, one of whom, The God of
named Takhar, presides over justice ; while the other is the^GocT^f
charged with the more important, or at all events the more Property.
popular, function of presiding over property. From this we
may perhaps infer that among these benighted heathen the
spheres of justice and property do not coincide with that
rigid and inflexible accuracy which happily characterizes
them in Christian Europe. However, the two negro deities
have this much in common that they both reside in the
tallest trees of the forest. Hence the deep woods are for
the Sereres invested with religious awe, and immemorial
trees are their venerable sanctuaries. Thither the pious
repair and deposit their offerings in the solemn shade at the
foot of the giants of the forest. Of offerings to the God
of Justice we hear nothing, but offerings to the God of
Property appear to be frequent, if not always valuable.
Formerly, indeed, they were often of considerable value, and
by a mysterious dispensation of providence invariably dis-
appeared the very next night from the foot of the tree at
which they were deposited. Nowadays under the influence
of a barren and paralysing scepticism, which has spread its
ravages even into depths of the African wilderness, the
stream of offerings exhibits an alarming tendency to dry up,
and so far as it still flows it consists of little more than the
horns, hoofs, and offal of the sacrificial victims, of which the
flesh has been consumed by the worshippers. These ignoble
oblations, singularly enough, exhibit no propensity to dis-
appear either by day or by night, but gather in festering
heaps at the foot of the trees till they rot where they lie.
However, if little provision is made for the support of the
God of Justice, his priests are in a somewhat better case.
They are old men recruited in certain families and charged
with the lucrative business of judging all cases of theft and
witchcraft. In the discharge of his judicial functions the
priest contrives to discover the theft by playing on the
superstitious fears of the thief, and to detect the witchcraft
by administering the usual dose of poison to the suspected
witch. But the brew which he compounds for the latter
purpose is seldom strong enough to prove fatal ; the deaths
3i8 THE BITTER WATER part iv
which ensue from it, we read, are just frequent enough to
maintain in the minds of the vulgar a wholesome fear of
the divinity.^
The poison Among the Landamas, or Landoomans, and the Naloos,
amoncr the ^^^ pagan tribes, who inhabit the neighbourhood of the Rio
Landamas Nufiez in Senegal, there exists a secret society whose grand
of Senegal, master bears the title of Simo. He lives in the woods and
is never seen by the uninitiated. Sometimes he assumes
the form of a pelican, sometimes he is wrapt in the skins
of wild beasts, sometimes he is covered from head to foot
with leaves, which conceal his real shape." As usual, these
pagans " believe in sorcery and witchcraft ; whoever is sus-
pected of sorcery is forthwith delivered to the Simo, who
acts as chief magistrate. The accused is questioned, and if
he confesses, he is condemned to pay a fine ; if, on the other
hand, he maintains his innocence, he is compelled to drink
a liquor made with the bark of a tree which gives to water
a beautiful red colour. The accused and the accuser are
obliged to swallow the same medicine, or rather poison ;
they must drink it fasting and entirely naked, except that
the accused is allowed a white pagne, which he wraps round
his loins. The liquor is poured into a small calabash,
and the accuser and accused are forced to take an equal
quantity, until, unable to swallow more, they expel it or die.
If the poison is expelled by vomiting, the accused is innocent
and then he has a right to reparation ; if it passes down-
wards, he is deemed not absolutely innocent ; and if it
should not pass at all at the time, he is judged to be guilty.
I have been assured that {^.w of these wretched creatures
survive this ordeal ; they are compelled to drink so large
a dose of the poison, that they die almost immediately.
If, however, the family of the accused consent to
pay an indemnity, the unhappy patient is excused from
drinking any more liquor ; he is then put into a bath of
tepid water, and by the application of both feet to the
^ L.J. B. Berenger-Feraiid, Les Peu- Feraud, Les Peziplades de la Sdn^gavibie,
plades de la Sent'ganibie (Paris, 1879), pp. 341 sqq. ; and as to the two tribes,
pp. 273-278. id., pp. 313 sqq., 316 sq. According
2 Rene Caillie, T7-avels through to the latter writer, a considerable pro-
Cmtral Africa to Timbiictoo {'London, portion of the Naloos now profess Islam,
1830), i. 153 sqg. As to this secret though the rigidity of the creed is tern-
society, see also L. J. B. Berenger- pered by addiction to palm-wine.
CHAP. V THE POISON OH DEAL IN AFRICA 319
abdomen they make him cast up the poison which he has
swallowed." ^
The poison ordeal is found in a variety of forms among Thepoisor.
some tribes of Upper Senegal or the French Sudan; for °p'^ong ^^e
example, it occurs among the Mossi, a pagan people of Mossi of
mixed blood formed by the fusion of conquering invaders Senegal or
with subject aborigines, who occupy a vast plain in the great the French
bend of the Niger, a little to the north of the Gold Coast.
Their capital is Wagadugu (Ouaghadougou). Thus at
Dembo, in the district of Yatenga, when any young person
died unexpectedly, it was customary to make the whole'
population swear by the Earth that they had not killed him
or her by sorcery, and to attest their innocence they had
to drink a draught of water mixed with a red powder,
which was supposed to kill the guilty. The nature of
this red powder is not mentioned, but we may conjecture
that it was prepared from the pounded bark of the so-
called sass or sassy wood {ErytJiropJdeum guineense\ which
furnishes the poison employed in the ordeal over a great
part of Africa. In other villages of the same district the The water
draught which the accused must drink in order to refute a °j.(|g^i
charge of witchcraft was tinctured, not with the red powder, tinctured
but with earth taken from the sacrificial places. This is fromsacrw".
like the Hebrew custom of mixing the bitter water with places or
dust from the sanctuary. All who refused to purge them- ^vash the
selves by the ordeal were put to^eath. At Kabayoro, a hands of
Mossi village in the canton of Koumbili, when a man or
woman fell sick without any manifest cause, they laid the
sickness at the door of a witch or wizard ; and should the
patient die, they washed the hands of the corpse in water
and compelled the suspected sorcerer to drink the potion,
protesting his innocence and imprecating death on his own
head if he lied. If he were guilty, the corpse-tinctured
water was supposed to kill him ; but if he were innocent, it
did him no harm.^
In this last form of the ordeal the fatal effect of
^ Rene Caillie, Travels through Mossi and their country, see id., pp.
Central Africa to Timbuctoo (London, 9 sq., 24 sq., 451 sqq. The territory
1S30), i. 156 sq. occupied by them extends between 11"
- Louis Tauxier, Le Noir dii Soudan and 14° North latitude and between 2°
(Paris, 191 2), pp. 580 sq. As to the and 5° West longitude.
320 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
The the draught is clearly attributed, not to a vegetable poison,
mixWthe ^"^ ^° ^^^ deadly influence which the corpse is believed
water of to excrt ovcr the murderer. Among the tribes in this
wUi^sacred district of the French Sudan the ordeal by drinking
earth is water mixed with sacred earth is apparently common. In
among every case the earth employed for this purpose seems to be
tribes of drawn from the place where sacrifices are offered to Earth,
Sudan. a great divinity in these parts, and frequently the oath is
administered by the priest, who bears the title of Chief
of the Earth. For example, at Pissie, a village of the
Kassounas-Fras tribe, whenever any person died suddenly,
and his death was, as usual, ascribed to witchcraft, the chief
of the village, who was also the priest of Earth, compelled
all the adults of that particular ward, men and women, to
come forth from their houses and attend him to the place
where sacrifices were offered to Earth in the middle of the
village. There he took earth from the holy spot, and
putting it in water obliged all to swallow the draught and
to swear their innocence under pain of being killed by the
divinity. Sometimes, we are told, the guilty wretch who
denied his crime was slain by the Earth, to whose divinity
he had falsely appealed.^ Here the death of the criminal is
evidently supposed to be wrought by the particles of divine
earth which he has rashly taken into his stomach. Similarly
at Saveloo, a village of the Bouras, an aboriginal and primi-
tive tribe of the Gold floast, when a death occurred and
the relations of the deceased were of opinion that he had
been taken off by sorcery, the chief of the village forced
both the accuser and the accused to drink a potion contain-
ing dust and earth which had been taken from the sacrificial
place of the deified Earth. As they drank they swore,
praying that the draught might Jcill them if they forswore
themselves. One of the two was believed always to fall a
victim to the deadly power of the holy dust and earth in his
belly ; and the chief of the village thereupon confiscated or,
as the natives put it, " collected," the personal property of
the supposed culprit and seized his children as slaves.^
Among the Dagaris and Zangas, two heathen tribes whose
' L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, ^ L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan,
pp. 229 sq. p. 292.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 321
territories lie partly in the French Sudan and partly in the
British Gold Coast, the ordeal and oath were similar ; and
among them, it is said, the belly of the guilty person, who
had drunk the water and forsworn himself, would sometimes
swell up, so that he died. In such cases the deified Earth
was believed to have punished him for his crime,^ We may
compare the effect of the bitter water in the Hebrew ordeal,
which was thought to cause the belly of the adulteress to swell
and her thigh to fall away. In some villages of these tribes
the ordeal was conducted by the chief of the village and the
priest of Earth jointly, and both the accuser and the accused
were compelled to submit to it. The divine Earth was
always expected to kill the sorcerer ; and if, as sometimes
happened, both parties succumbed under the test, it was,
in the belief of the natives, because both were guilty of
witchcraft.^
Sometimes among the natives of this region a real Ordeai of
poison is made use of in the ordeal, but is administered to po'^oned
'■ ' arrows
the suspected person in a different way through the instru- among the
mentality of a poisoned arrow. Thus among the Kassounas- pra's^of^^he
Fras, when a family complained to the chief of the village French
that one of their members had perished through witchcraft, "'^^""
the chief used to assemble all the villagers with the excep-
tion of the children. A branch was next cut in the sacred Use of a
grove of the village, and the hair of the deceased was ^gy'^^^as
fastened to it. After that, a fowl was decapitated and its an instru-
head buried at a distance in the earth. Thereupon two dlvina'tion
young virgins took the branch on their shoulders and went
in search of the head of the decapitated fowl. In virtue of
its supernatural powers the branch was supposed always
to guide its bearers straight to the spot ; and having thus
demonstrated its infallibility the bough was next invited to
point out in like manner the witch or wizard whose wicked
arts had caused the death. In some villages the branch,
thus adjured, always designated several persons as the
culprits, and in order to ascertain the real criminal the
following expedient was adopted. The poisoned arrows
belonging to the deceased were laid on his grave, and after-
^ L. Tauxier, Le Noir dti Soudan, 2 l Tauxier, Le Noir dtt Sotidnjt
P- 375- p. 376. A-
VOL. Ill V ' '
c^^
Ux^'^l
322
THE BITTER WATER
Ordeal of
poisoned
arrows
among the
Bouras of
the Gold
Coast.
Use of a
sacred
bough and
of the hair
of the
deceased
as instru-
ments of
divination.
Question-
ing a
corpse as to
the cause of
its death.
wards the suspected sorcerers pricked themselves with the
infected blades. The guilty perished, the innocent survived
and felt no ill effects from the poison, thus demonstrating
the nice perception and delicate discrimination of the poison
beyond the reach of cavil.^ Among the Bouras of the Gold
Coast the course of justice was similar. When a man or
woman was believed to have been done to death by witch-
craft, which, as usual, happened whenever the deceased was
young and no obvious cause could be assigned for his or her
dissolution, the priest of Earth would cause some locks of
his or her hair to be cut and a branch of a holy tree to be
fetched from the sacred grove. Hair and branch were then
wrapt in an old mat and hung on a pole, which two young
virgins put on their heads and carried about, until the branch
led them to single out two men among the assembled
villagers. These two men, thus pointed out by the finger of
Providence, thereupon put the mat and its sacred contents
on their heads and pranced about in like manner until the
infallible branch bumped up against the sorcerer. If in the
course of its gyrations the bough collided with several of
the spectators, a doubt remained as to which of the persons
thus incriminated was really the miscreant. The doubt
was then solved by the ordeal of the poisoned arrows. The
accused pricked themselves with the blade of an arrow which
had been dipped in poison, and as they did so, they cried,
" May the arrow kill me if I am a sorcerer ! If I am a
sorcerer, may the poison slay me ! " As usual, the innocent
survived, and the guilty perished. If any man refused to
submit to the ordeal, his refusal was treated as equivalent to
a confession of guilt ; so without more ado they tied him up
in the blazing sun and left him there without food or drink
till death released him from his sufferings.^
In these cases it is probably the hair of the deceased
which, fastened to the sacred branch, is supposed to be
mainly instrumental in tracking down the guilty sorcerer.
^ L. Tauxier, Le Noir die Soudan,
p. 228.
2 L. Tauxier, Le Noir da Soudan,
p. 291. Among the Kassounas-Bouras
the ordeal of the poisoned arrows was
similar [id. , p. 3 1 5). The poison which
these people use in the ordeal may be
obtained either from Erytkrophleufn
guineense or from Erythrophleum mi-
cranthum, since both these species of
the tree occur on the Gold Coast. See
above, pp. 309 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 323
Among some tribes of Sierra Leone the delicate task of
detecting the murderer used to be laid upon the corpse.
Being stretched on a bier and hoisted on to the heads of
six young people, it was strictly questioned as to the cause
of its death, and gave its answers either by impelling its
bearers forward, which signified " Yes," or by lurching to the
side, which signified " No." The interrogatories were put to
the corpse by a relation or friend of the deceased, who acted
as coroner, holding in his hand a green bough, which we may
conjecture to have been cut from a sacred tree. When the
cross-examination reached the point at which it became
necessary to denounce the wizard whose wicked art had cut
short the thread of life, and the criminal happened to be one
of the dead man's own relations, the corpse, with a delicacy
of sentiment which did it honour, usually remained silent for
a time, as if ashamed to accuse its own flesh and blood. But
truth must out, and the coroner was pressing. Holding out
the bough towards the bier, he asked whether the corpse was
perfectly certain in its own mind of its murderer, and if so,
let it come forward like a man and strike the hand which
held the bough. Thus put on its honour, the dead body had
no choice but to comply with the injunction. It did come
forward, dragging its bearers with it, and bumped up against
the bough. To put the thing beyond a doubt, the bump was
repeated two or three times,^ What followed the detection
of the criminal may be described in the words of an English-
man who resided in Sierra Leone before the country became
a British Colony, and while the old pagan customs were still
strictly observed : —
" The culprit is then seized, and if a witch sold without The poison
fiirther ceremony : and it frequently happens if the deceased g-^^"^^ '"
were a great man, and the accused poor, not only he himself Leone.
but his whole family are sold together. But if the death of
the deceased was caused by poison, the offender is reserved
for a further trial ; from which, though it is in some measure
voluntary, he seldom escapes with life. After depositing the
^ John Matthews, A Voyage to the first colony was planted in 1787, but
River Sierra- Leone (London, 1791), the administration was not taken over
pp. 121 -124. The writer, a naval by the British Crown until 1807. See
lieutenant, resided in Sierra Leone in The Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth
the years 1785, 1786, 17S7. The Edition, xxii. (Edinburgh, 1887) p. 45.
324 THE BITTER IVA TER part iv
corpse in the grave, which is hung round with mats, and his
most valued clothes and necessaries put in with him, they
confine the accused in such a manner that he can release
himself; which signifies to him that he has transgressed the
laws of his country, and is no longer at libert}^ As soon as
it is dark he escapes to the next town, and there claims the
protection of the head man, who is supposed to be an im-
partial person ; informs him that the corpse of such a person
has accused him of causing his death by poison ; that he is
innocent, and desires that to prove it he may drink red water.
This request is always allowed, and the friends of the deceased
are sent for to be witnesses. At the time appointed the
accused is placed upon a kind of high chair, stripped of his
common apparel, and a quantity of plantain leaves are
wrapped round his waist. Then in presence of the whole
town, who are always assembled upon these occasions, he
first eats a little cold or rice, and then drinks the poisoned
water. If it kills him, which it is almost sure to do, he is
pronounced guilty ; but if he escapes with life after drinking
five or six quarts and throwing up the rice or cold unchanged
by the digestive powers of the stomach, he is judged innocent,
but yet not entirely so till the same hour next day. During
the interval he is not allowed to ease nature by any evacua-
tions ; and should he not be able to restrain them, it would
be considered as strong a proof of his guilt as if he had
fallen a victim to the first draught. And to prevent the
least possibility of the medicine's not operating, should any
remain in the stomach, they oblige the accused to join in
the rejoicings made for his escape, which consists in singing
and dancing all night. After being fairly acquitted by this
ordeal trial, he is held in higher estimation than formerly,
and brings a palaver, or, to speak in the professional language
of my friend, an action against the friends of the deceased,
for defamation or false imprisonment, which is generally
Variations compromised by a payment adequate to the supposed injury.
m the cere- _ ^ Though the ccremonies above related are constantly
monies of ° •'
the ordeal practised, yet the different tribes have different methods of
different performing them. The Suze6s carry the whole body, but
tribes of the Timmaneys and Bullams only the clothes the deceased
Leone. had on at the time of his death, and the nails of his hands
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 325
and feet, which they cut off immediately after he is expired, Use of the
and which they hold to have the same power to answer the nSis^nht
questions proposed, as if the whole body was present, in deceased
which no doubt they are right." The writer adds that in rogato"y!^'^
the interior parts of Sierra Leone the practice of drinking
red water upon every trifling occasion was attended with
such fatal consequences as threatened to depopulate the
country, and so strongly were the common people, particu-
larly the women, prepossessed in favour of its infallibility
that the ordeal could not be suppressed, though it had been
rendered much less frequent by a simple expedient. The
friends of both parties came " armed as in a Polish diet " to
the judgment seat, and the moment the poison had done its
work on the body of the accused, his partisans rushed at the
partisans of the accuser and took summary vengeance on
their persons for the death of their friend, if he died, and for
slander and defamation of character, if he did not. Thus^
the balance of justice was redressed by an appeal to club
law, and the fear of such an appeal seems to have operated
as a wholesome deterrent on the minds of the litigious.^
From this account of the judicial ordeal, as it used to be The use of
practised in Sierra Leone, we may infer that the custom in nails' of the
the French Sudan of employing the hair of the deceased to deceased
detect his supposed murderer is only a curtailment or extenua- rogatory is
tion of an older custom of employing the whole corpse for a substitute
1 T 111- 1 1 • 1 fo"" tl's use
the same purpose. Just as the corpse, by the impulses which of the
it communicates to its bearers, is believed to answer the corpse,
questions put to it by the man who holds the green bough,
so the hair of the deceased, attached to a sacred bough, im-
pels its bearers in the direction of the real or supposed
criminal ; and among the Timmaneys and Bullams, as we
have just seen, the clothes and cut nails of the dead man
are employed to work the oracle in a similar manner.
The ordeal of the red water has been more fully described Another
by another observer, who wrote before the administration of the*^po"s'on
Sierra Leone was taken over by the British Crown ; and as ordeal in
his description contains some interesting particulars, I will Leone,
quote it in full : —
" In the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, the most usual
' John Matthews, A Voyage to the River Siena- Leone, pp. 124-130.
326 THE BITTER IVA TER part iv
The red modc of trial resembles that by bitter water, formerly in use
water.
among the Jews, and is called red water by the Africans. A
person accused of theft or of witchcraft endeavours, if innocent,
to repel the charge by drinking red water. A palaver is first
held among the old people of the town, to whom the accusa-
tion is made by one party, and protestations of innocence by
the other ; and if they determine that it shall be settled by a
public trial, the accused fixes on some neighbouring town, to
which he repairs, and informs the head man of his wish to
drink red water there. A palaver is again held to determine
whether his request shall be granted ; if not, he must seek
some other town. In case of the head man's acquiescence,
the accused remains in the town concealed from strangers,
sometimes for two or three months, before the day of trial is
appointed. When that is fixed, notice is sent to the accuser
three days before, that he may attend with as many of his
friends as he chuses.
How the " The red water is prepared by infusing the bark of a
prepared.'^ tree, called by the Bulloms kzvon, by the Timmanees okwon,
and by the Soosoos millee} in water, to which it imparts a
powerfully emetic, and sometimes a purgative quality. In
some instances it has proved immediately fatal, which leads
to a suspicion that occasionally some other addition must be
made to it, especially as it does not appear that the delicate
are more liable to be thus violently affected by it than the
robust. To prevent, however, any suspicion of improper
conduct, the red water is always administered in the most
public manner, in the open air, and in the midst of a large
concourse of people, who upon these solemn occasions never
fail to assemble from all quarters, particularly the women, to
whom it affords as good an opportunity of displaying their
finery and taste in dress, as a country wake in England does
The to the neighbouring females. The accused is placed upon a
^rauon^of ^ind of stool about three feet high, one hand being held up
the poison, and the other placed upon his thigh, and beneath the seat are
spread a number of fresh plantain leaves. A circle of about
seven or eight feet in diameter is formed round the prisoner,
1 " This bark is the same which is ably the bark of the Erythrophleum
stated above to be used as an ordeal gidneense, which is a native of Sierra
on the Gold Coast." It is most prob- Leone.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 327
and no one is admitted within it but the person who prepares
the red water. The bark is publicly exposed, to shew that
it is genuine. The operator first washes his own hands and
then the bark, as well as the mortar and pestle with which
it is to be powdered, to prove that nothing improper is con-
cealed there. When powdered, a calibash full is mixed in a
large brass pan full of water, and is stirred quickly with a kind
of whisk until covered with a froth like a lather of soap. A
variety of ceremonies, prayers, etc., are performed at the same
time, and the accused is repeatedly and solemnly desired to
confess the crime with which he has been charged. A little
before he begins to drink the infusion, he is obliged to wash
his mouth and spit the water out, to shew that he has nothing
concealed in it : a little rice or a piece of kola is then given
him to eat, being the only substance he is allowed to take
for twelve hours previous to the trial ; and, in order to pre-
vent his obtaining anything else, he is narrowly watched
during that space of time by a number of people, who are
responsible for his conduct. After having repeated a prayer
dictated to him, which contains an imprecation upon himself
if he be guilty, the red water is administered to him in a
calibash capable of holding about half a pint, which he
empties eight, ten, or a dozen times successively, as quick
as it can be filled. It probably now begins to exert its The effect
emetic powers, but he must notwithstanding persist in drink- "^^^^^
ing until the rice or kola be brought up, which is easily seen
upon the plantain leaves spread below. Should vomiting
not be caused, and the medicine produce purgative effects
the person is condemned immediately ; or if it be suspected
that the whole of what he has eaten is not brought up, he is
permitted to retire, but with this reserve, that if the medicine
shall produce no effect upon his bowels until next day at the
same hour, he is then, and not before, pronounced innocent ;
otherwise he is accounted guilty. When the red water proves
purgative, it is termed * spoiling the red water.' The utmost
quantity which may be swallowed is sixteen calibashes full ;
if these have not the desired effect, the prisoner is not allowed
to take any more. When neither vomiting nor purging are
produced, the red water causes violent pains in the bowels,
which are considered as marks of guilt : in such cases they
328 THE BITTER WATER part iv
endeavour to recover the patient by exciting vomiting ; and
to sheathe the acrimony of the red water they give him raw
eggs to swallow. In some instances the person has died
after drinking the fourth calibash. If the rice or kola be
long in coming up, it is common for some of the culprit's
friends to come near, and to accuse him with great violence
of some trifling fault ; for they suppose, if anything pre-
judicial to his character were concealed, it would prevent
the favourable operation of the red water. Women at such
a time, when the trial is for witchcraft or some other crime
and not for adultery, have an excellent opportunity of proving
their chastity before the world, by publicly declaring that they
have proved faithful to their husband, and wishing that they
may be punished if they have spoken falsely : this is looked
upon as a most irrefragable proof of fidelity.
The verdict "When the accused is permitted to leave the tripod upon
sentence which he is seated, he is ordered to move his arms and legs,
to shew that he has not lost the use of them, and immediately
runs back into the town, followed by all the women and boys
shouting and hallooing. People who have undergone this
trial and have escaped, acquire from that circumstance addi-
tional consequence and respect. When acquitted, they dress,
particularly the women, in their best clothes, and visit all
their friends and acquaintances, who receive them with many
tokens of affection and regard. When the accused dies upon
the spot, which frequently happens ; or when the red water
is spoiled, and the party is too old to sell ; one of his family,
unless he can redeem himself by a slave, is taken and sold.
Sometimes, for want of a proper opportunity, the affair re-
mains unsettled for many years, and I knew an instance of
a young man having actually been sold as a slave, because
his grand-mother had spoiled red water many years before
he was born." ^
Comparison From this account we learn that negro women demon-
bitter water strate their fidelity to their husbands by drinking red water,
° , ^ ^Thomas Winterbottom, M.D. British rule. According to one account,
(Physician to the Colony of Sierra the accuser as well as the accused has,
Leone), An Account of the Native or had, to swallow the poisonous de-
Africans in the Neighbourhood of coction of akoii bark. See Northcote
Sierra Leone (London, 1803), pp. 129- W. Thomas, Anthropological Report on
133. The poison ordeal seems not to Sien-a Leone (London, 1916), i. 48.
be obsolete in Sierra Leone even under
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 329
just as Hebrew women of old demonstrated their domestic
virtue quite as conclusively by drinking bitter water and call-
ing down curses on their heads, or rather on their stomachs
and legs, if they lied. So like is human nature, or human
folly, all the world over.
Amongst the free negroes of Liberia, to the south of The poison
Sierra Leone, the poison ordeal is still in vogue, though it Liberia"
is said to be disappearing among the Kru people of this
region in consequence of the frequent intercourse which the
Kru men, as sailors and traders, maintain with Europeans.
The poison is prepared from the bark of the Erythrophleiim
guineense, a tall forest tree which grows commonly in West
Africa. In popular language the decoction is known as
sassy -wood. If the accused vomits up the poison, he is
deemed innocent ; if he dies under its influence, he is guilty ;
if he neither voids the poison nor dies, he is given an emetic
to relieve him and is advised to quit the village and
find a home elsewhere. Among the Grebo people of Liberia
there exists a secret society called Kwi-iru for the detection
and punishment of witches and wizards, and the persons
whom members of the society denounce are obliged to clear
themselves of the charge of witchcraft by submitting to the
poison ordeal in presence of* the assembled people. An
officer of the society pounds the bark in a mortar, pours
water on it, and having decanted the poisonous liquor into
a wooden bowl, he prays to God that if the accused be
innocent, he may vomit the poison, but that if he be guilty,
it may kill him. The suspected wizard or witch then drains
the draught, and according to its effect he or she is deemed
to have been rightly or wrongly accused.-^
A writer of the seventeenth century has described the The poison
poison ordeal as it was practised at that time by the Kru °J^ong
negroes in the kingdom of Quoja, on the coast of what is the Km
now Liberia. When the relations of a dead man suspected "^^'"°^^-
that his death had been brought about by foul play, they
questioned the ghost in order to discover the murderer or
magician who had done the deed. For this purpose they
' Sir Harry Johnston, Liberia (Lon- the poison is obtained in Liberia for
don, 1906), ii. 1064- 1 070. Dr. O. the ordeal may be either Erythro-
Stapf, of the Royal Kotanic Gardens, fhlevm guituense or Erythropldeitm
Xew, thinks that the tree from which micrantlnim.
330
THE BITTER WATER
The use of
the hair
and nails
of the
deceased
in the inter-
rogatory.
The poison
ordeal
among the
Neyaux
of the
Ivory
Coast.
The use of
the hair
and nails
of the
deceased to
detect his
supposed
murderer.
took the corpse, or one of the garments of the deceased,
together with cHppings of his hair and parings of his nails,
and adding some pieces or filings of certain woods, they
made the whole into a bundle, and fastened it to one of the
pestles used in pounding rice. The two ends of the pestle
were then laid on the heads of two men, who supported the
burden, while a third man questioned the ghost as to the
author of his death. The answers were given by the two
men who bore the corpse or his bodily relics ; according as
they nodded or shook their heads, the spirit was understood
to reply yes or no. If the person whom the ghost accused
of having murdered him denied his guilt, he was compelled
to undergo the ordeal called quony. " This quony is the bark
of a tree of the same name ; its juice is extracted in presence
of the friends of the accused without any tricker}\ Then
having scraped the outside of the bark into water, and
pounded the scrapings in a mortar, they give the liquor to
the accused to drink, after it has been allowed to stand and
the lees have sunk to the bottom. The taste of the liquor
is bitter. The accused gets about a potful of it to drink
fasting in the morning. If he dies, his body is burnt or
thrown into the river as that of a poisoner ; but if he escapes,
he is deemed innocent." ^
The procedure is, or was till lately, similar on the Ivory
Coast, which adjoins Liberia on the east The Neyaux of
that coast believe that no man dies naturally, and that all
deaths are the effect of witchcraft. Hence, in order to detect
the witch or wizard who has caused any particular death,
they take a garment of the deceased, a handful of his hair,
and some parings of his nails. These things, wrapt up in
vegetable fibres and reeds, are attached to a long bamboo,
which is then carried through the village by two men, who
invoke the spirit of the deceased, crying out, " Come with
us." They must prepare themselves for their office by a
fast of twenty-four hours and by passing a sleepless night,
during which they are excited to the highest pitch by music
and dancing. In carrying their burden they reel like
' O. Dapper, Description d\4frique to Kru. The name qtiony applied to
(Amsterdam, 1686), p. 263. The writer the bark is clearly the same as the
calls the natives of the country Carous kwon and akoii of other writers. -See
(p. 252), which I lake to be equivalent above, pp. 326, 32S note ^.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 331
drunken men. Thus impelled, as they allege, by the soul
of the dead man, they rush at the house inhabited by the
person who caused the death by witchcraft, and burst it
open by the impact of the bamboo which they carry. All
the inmates of that house are obliged to drink a decoction
prepared from the red bark of a tree which the natives call
bodiiru. Having swallowed it, they must run till the poison
takes effect ; if they are innocent, it is rejected by the
stomach ; if they are guilty, they die in agony and convul-
sions. The French writer who reports the custom adds,
" Evidently the chiefs make use of this ordeal in order to
rid themselves of whomsoever they dislike. Nevertheless
the natives have great confidence in the justice of ' the red
wood ' and drink it willingly." Indeed so common and
popular was the appeal to the ordeal in this tribe, that the
French had much difficulty in suppressing it. The practice
was visibly depopulating the country ; every natural death
entailed four or five deaths by poison. When a certain
chief named Mosess died, no less than fifteen persons, men
and women, succumbed in the ordeal.^
On the Gold Coast the wood which furnishes the poison The poison
for the ordeal is called odmn. The accused either drinks a °hf GoiT
decoction of the wood or chews a piece of the wood and Coast.
afterwards drinks a bowl of water. The poison acts both
as an emetic and as a purge : if the accused vomits it up,
he is acquitted ; if he does not, his guilt is established.
Women accused of adultery, for example, have to drink a
brew of this poison in presence of a priest ; the draught is
believed to have power to burst the belly of an adulteress.
Fear of the consequences, it is said, often leads unfaithful
wives to confess their guilt." But in these regions apparently
^ Gouver Element Ghi^ral de l' Afriqtie Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa
Occideutale Frani;aise, Notices piibli^es (London, 1887), pp. 198 sq., 20I ;
par le Gouvernement G^niral a Cocca- E. Perregaux, Chez les Achanti (Neu-
sion de r Exposition Coloniale de Mar- chatel, 1906), p. 150; Brodie Cruick-
seille : la C6te d'/zwire (Corhcil, S.-et- sliank. Eighteen Years on the Gold
O., 1906), pp. 570-572. The use of C^a^/ ^^/riVa (London, 1853),!. 287,
the poison ordeal at Great Bassam on ii. 187. The tree from which the
the Ivory Coast is mentioned by H. poison is procured for the ordeal may
Hecquard, Reise an die Kiiste und in be either the Erythrophkuin guineeme
das Innere von West-Afrika (Leipsic, or Erythrophleutn viicranthum, since
1854), p. 48. both these species are native to the
- (Sir) A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Gold Coast.
332
THE BITTER WATER
Bosman's
account of
the poison
ordeal on
the Gold
Coast.
a draught of the poison was used to clinch an obh'gation as
well as to demonstrate innocence ; in other words, it con-
firmed an oath as well as constituted an ordeal. On this
subject a writer of the seventeenth century, who served as
Chief Factor of the Dutch at Elmina on the Gold Coast,
tells us that, " when they drink the oath-draught, it is usually
accompanied by an imprecation, that the Fetiche may kill
them if they do not perform the contents of their obligation.
Every person entering into any obligation is obliged to drink
this swearing liquor. When any nation is hired to the
assistance of another, all the chief ones are obliged to drink
this liquor with an imprecation, that their Fetiche may
punish them with death, if they do not assist them with
utmost vigour to extirpate their enemy. ... If you ask
what opinion the negroes have of those who falsify their
obligations confirmed by the oath-drink, they believe the
perjured person shall be swelled by that liquor till he bursts ;
or if that doth not happen, that he shall shortly die of a
languishing sickness : the first punishment they imagine
more peculiar to women, who take this draught to acquit
themselves of any accusation of adultery ; and if I may be
allowed to make a comparison, this drink seems very like
the bitter wafer administered to the women in the Old
Testament by way of purgation from the charge of adultery." ^
In this account it will be observed that nothing is said of a
poison mingled with the liquor. Similarly a French traveller
who visited the Gold Coast in the early part of the eighteenth
century reports that " in certain cases an accused person is
allowed to purge himself by an oath, which he does by
drinking and eating his fetish, that is to say, by mixing
some scrapings of his fetish in what he drinks and eats in
presence of the judge and of his accuser. If he does not
die within twenty-four hours, he is deemed innocent, and his
accuser is condemned to pay a heavy fine to the king ; but
when there are several witnesses against an accused person,
he is not allowed to take the oath on his fetish." ^ In these
1 William Bosman, " Description of
the Coast of Guinea," in John Pinker-
ton's General Collection of Voyages and
Travels (London, 1808- 1814), xvi.
398.
- J. B. Labat, Voyage du Chevalier
Des Marchais en Guinie, Isles voisines,
et a Cayenne (Amsterdam, 1731), :.
328 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 333
cases the fatal result of the ordeal may have been due to
the superstitious fears of the accused rather than to any
poison inherent in the fetish.
The Atakpames, an agricultural and pastoral tribe of The poison
Togoland, who speak a Yoruba language, do not believe in °|^o,^' ,^,g
death from natural causes ; they think that every person Atakpames
who dies has been done to death by somebody. And they Togoiand
hold that the dead man can bring to justice the wicked
sorcerer who has cut short his thread of life. For this pur- The inter-
pose the priests and priestesses put a stick in the dead man's t^f corpse*^
hand and carry the corpse through all the streets of the
town. The person at whom the corpse is supposed to point
with the stick is suspected of having been the author of the
death and must submit to the poison ordeal. When the
body has been buried, the priestesses carry the head of a
bird about, and more people are generally arrested on sus-
picion. All the suspected persons are conducted to a secret
place in the forest, where there are two large stones distant
about ten paces from each other. A calabash containing
poison, brewed from the bark of a tree, is set on one of the
stones, and the accused takes his stand on the other, with a
small gourd-cup in his hand. On a signal given by the
priest, he goes up to the calabash, fills his cup with the
poison, drinks it, and returns to his place. This he must do
thrice. If the poison works, death follows in a few minutes,
preceded by breathlessness and violent cramps. He is then
declared guilty ; his heart is cut out, and his body is buried
on the spot. Ordinarily people are buried in their houses
according to the usual custom of Togoland. But if the
accused person vomits up the poison, his life is safe and he
is declared innocent. We are told, and can readily believe,
that this ordeal places an immense power in the hands of
the priests ; the lives of the people are practically at their
mercy. It is said that a single funeral is often the cause of
several deaths by poison.^
At Aneho, on the coast of Togoland, there is a certain The poison
fetish named Nanyo, who is appealed to in all cases of death °[|^^^ '"
parts of
1 Dr. R. Plehn, " Beitrage zur talische Sprachen zu Berlin, ii. Dritte Togoland.
Volkerkunde des Togo-Gebietes," ^\\\&X\\r\g, Afrikanische Sttidien (^tt-
Mittheihingen des Seminars fur Orien- lin and Stuttgart, 1S99), P- 97-
334 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
which are suspected to be due to poison. If the accused
denies his guilt, he must drink the fetish water. The priest
makes him sit down on a stool and digs a small hole in the
ground before him. Next he snips off some locks of the
suspected prisoner's hair, pares his nails, and buries the
clippings of the hair and the parings of the nails in the
hole, together with a small fetish object which he has brought
forth from the fetish hut. Having filled up the hole, the
priest next touches all the joints of the accused person's
body with a fetish stick, telling him that in these places he
will experience the first ill effects of his crime, if he for-
swears himself Then he hands a calabash of fetish water
to the accused, who takes it in his left hand and drinks
thrice out of it. This ends the ceremony, and all go home.
If after drinking the water the man dies within seven days,
he is supposed to have been killed by the fetish. The
priests carry his body out of the village and deposit it on a
scaffold, where it remains exposed to wind and weather. In
the swampy districts about Degbenu the bleaching skeletons
of many such victims of the ordeal may be seen.^ The
poison ordeal is also in vogue among the Bassari, an agri-
cultural and pastoral tribe of pagans in the north of Togoland.
The poison is brewed from the bark of a tree which is said
not to grow in their country. An accused person must
drink the poison in presence of the assembled people. If
he vomits it up, he is innocent, and his acquittal is celebrated
with public rejoicings. But if he cannot eject the poison,
his guilt is considered manifest, and before the drug has
time to take full effect, and while the sufferer is still in con-
vulsions, he is cut down.'^
The poison On the Slave Coast, as on the Gold Coast, the most
the Slave commou Ordeal is, or rather used to be, the drinking a
Coast. decoction of odum wood. The custom prevailed both among
1 Lieutenant Herold, " Bericht be- p. 505. For other references to the
trefFend religiose Anschauungen und poison ordeal in Togoland, see also J.
Gebrauche dor deutschen Ewe-Neger,'' Spieth, Die Religion der Eweer in
Mittheilungenvon Forschungsreisenden SUd-Togo (Leipsic, 19 1 1), pp. 1 1 5,
und Gelehrteti atcs den Detitschen 238 ; Fr. Wolf, " Totemismus, soziale
Schuizgebieten,v . Heft 4 (Berlin, 1892), Gliederung und Rechtspflegebeieinigen
p. 147; Yi.\slo'~,&, Togo unter deutsc her Stammen Togos (Westafrika),"^«/'//;-<7-
Flagge (Berlin, 1899), pp. 269 sq. pos, vi. (1911) p. 465.
2 H. Klose, Unler deiUscher Flagge,
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 335
the Ewe-speaking and the Yoruba-speaking peoples of this
region. The potion is, as usual, prepared by a priest, who
thus has it in his power to kill or save the accused accord-
ing to the strength or weakness of the dose which he infuses
into the liquor. If the poison is not at once rejected by
the stomach, it kills the drinker, and the fetish is considered
to have declared his guilt by slaying him. A guilty man
dares not undergo the ordeal, but the innocent submit to it
without fear, and indeed frequently demand it in order to
prove their innocence ; hence it is the guiltless who ordi-
narily perish.^
In Benin the poison employed in the ordeal was the The poison
bark of the tree Erythrophleum giiineense, popularly known ^^^^^ ^'
as sauce-wood, sass-wood, or sassy-wood. The adjective
sass is said to be a native word signifying " bad." The tree
has a hard wood and a tall unbranched stem, terminating in
a crown of boughs which bear small leaves. So firm was
the faith of the people in the justice of the ordeal that in
the consciousness of innocence they appealed to it volun-
tarily ; sometimes they vomited up the poison and escaped,
sometimes they retained it and perished. When the accused
person vomited, his vomit was examined to see whether " the
evil thing had come out." ^
In Southern Nigeria, particularly among the tribes about Use of the
Calabar, the poison employed in the ordeal is extracted Calabar
from the Calabar bean {Physostiguia venenosunt), which the the poison
natives call esere. The plant has a climbing habit, like the °J^oni.the
scarlet runner, and attains a height of about fifty feet. The tribes'of
pods, which contain two or three seeds or beans, are six or 'jsMaeria"
seven inches long ; the beans are about the size of a common
horse bean, but much thicker, with a deep chocolate-brown
colour. There is nothing in the aspect, taste, or smell of
the bean to reveal its deadly nature or to distinguish it
1 (Sir) A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba- fax, England, 1903), pp. 88 sq. As
speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of to the sass-wood tree, see Mary H.
West Africa (London, 1894), pp. 190 Kingsley, Tj-avels in West Africa
sq.; id.. The Eive-speaking Peoples of (London, 1S97), p. 464. It may, as
ike Slave Coast of West Africa (London, Dr. O. Stapf of Kew points out to me,
1890), p. 97 ; I'Abbe Pierre Bouche, be either the Erythrophlctim gidneense
La Cdte des Esclaves et le Dahomey or Erythi-ophleum micranthum, since
(Paris, 1S85), pp. 174-176. both these species of the tree are found
2 H. Ling Roth, Great Benin (Hali- in Southern Nigeria.
336 THE BITTER WATER part iv
from any harmless leguminous seed. The action of the
poison is very rapid.^ As to the prevalence of the ordeal
among the tribes and its fatal effect on the population, so
long as it was permitted to extend its ravages unchecked, I
will quote the evidence of a missionary who lived for many
years in the district : —
The poison " In the administration of their laws, or customs, which
Calabar. Stand in the place of laws, the Calabar people, when other
means fail, have recourse to ordeals and oaths. The ordeal
is supposed to detect and punish secret crime, which they
apprehend abounds amongst them. No death was con-
sidered natural except through extreme old age, so that in
the case of sickness or death it was supposed that some one
or other was practising witchcraft or wizardry against the
life of the sufferer. This dreaded power is called ifot, and
there is an internal organ always found in the leopard, it is
said, bearing this name, which, when an individual is pos-
sessed, gives the power of causing sickness or death at his
pleasure. On a death occurring, the juju [that is, fetish]
man might be asked to discover the guilty party, which he
was never at a loss to do, and those he denounced were
subjected to the ordeal of the poison bean, the Physostigma
venenosum of botanists, which has found a place in Materia
Medica. It is administered in every way in which poison
is given, and is held to be a test of the possession or non-
possession of the ifot. When the accused vomits the poison
draught, ifot is not found in the individual, and he is con-
sequently innocent of the crime with which he is charged ;
but if his stomach does not reject it, he dies, which is con-
clusive proof of his guilt. The ordeal is readily undergone
and even appealed to, all having firm faith that the result
will be according to truth, and all of course assume that
they are not possessed of the dreaded power. By their
Devastating faith in this superstition many destroy themselves." ^ " The
the indis- means of destruction which this superstition puts into the
criminate i Encyclopcedia Britannica, Ninth Periot et Em. Vogt, Poisons de Fleches
T^^^d'°l ^^''^°"' ^^- (Edinburgh, 1876) p. et Poisons d'Epreuve (Paris, 1913),
650. Compare Professor Chiistison, pp. 52 sqq.
in Monthly Journal of Medicine. March,
1855, quoted by Thomas J. Hutchin- ^ Hugh Goldie, Calabar and its
son, Impressions of Western Africa Mission, New Edition (Edinburgh and
(London. 1858), pp. 151 sq. ; Em. London, 1901), pp. 34 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 337
hands of the people, and which are so extensively used,
prevents the growth of population, and everything else
beneficial. Dr. Hewan, whose medical services the mission
formerly enjoyed, in visiting the Qua country behind Old
Town, where he then resided, came upon the ruins of a large
village. On inquiring the cause of this, he was informed
that the headmen mutually accused each other of ifot, and
in an appeal to the ordeal a number of them died. The
people, from dread of the ghosts of those thus self-destroyed,
deserted the place. Uwet, a small tribe from the hill-country,
had settled on the left branch of the river, where it narrows
into a rivulet. When we first visited the place, a consider-
able population, divided into three villages, occupied the
settlement. Since that time it has almost swept itself off
the face of the earth by the constant use of esere. At one
time two headmen contended for the kingship. He who
succeeded in gaining it fell sick, and of course accused his
opponent of seeking to destroy him, and insisted that his
competitors and adherents should test their innocence by
this ordeal. A number died, and the sickness of the suc-
cessful candidate also issued in death. The one disappointed
now attained the coveted honour, and in retaliation subjected
those of the opposite party to the test, and a number more
perished. On one occasion the whole population took the
esere, to prove themselves pure, as they said ; about half
were thus self-destroyed, and the remnant, still continuing
their superstitious practice, must soon become extinct." ^
The action of the poison on the human frame was The effects
lucidly explained by a native gentleman of Calabar, while °''^^l^ ^n
to illustrate his remarks he imitated the writhings of the the human
sufferer with a life-like fidelity which left nothing to the ^"^^^
imagination. " Him do dis," said he, " soap come out of
him mout, and all him body walk," which is said to be a
perfect description of the ebullition of foam from the mouth
and the convulsive twitchings of the whole man. The
Englishman, to whom this information was imparted, tells
us that according to some people the poison of the nut
could be extracted by boiling it in water, and that accord-
ingly accused persons who were rich enough to bribe the
1 Hugh Goldie, Calabar and its Mission, New Edition, pp. 37 sq.
VOL. Ill Z
338
THE BITTER WATER
The poison
ordeal
among the
Kagoro of
Northern
Nigeria.
General
account of
the poison
ordeal in
Upper
Guinea.
The red
water.
medicine-man generally passed through the ordeal without
suffering much inconvenience.^
Among the Kagoro, a war -like tribe of Northern
Nigeria, the poison ordeal is also in vogue. The poison
is extracted from the pith of a tree, which is pounded
and soaked in water. Having drunk the poisoned draught,
the accused has to walk round the empty calabash ;
if he vomits, he is as usual deemed innocent, but if
he fails to eject the poison, he dies the same day. A
powerful man can submit to the ordeal by deputy in the
shape of a fowl, which drinks the poison for him. It is
said that not many years ago the chief of Ungual Kaura,
accused of the murder of his wife, demonstrated his innocence
i-n this manner to the entire satisfaction of his fellow towns-
men. However, the testimony of the fowl was not accepted
as conclusive evidence by the English magistrate who tried
the case ; he obstinately preferred to rely on the depositions
of witnesses who had seen the ruffian beat in the woman's
head with a stool."^
Before we trace the poison ordeal farther southward, it
may be well to quote here a general account of it which
applies to the whole of Upper Guinea, from the Ivory Coast
to the delta of the Niger. The account was written by a
missionary who spent eighteen years in the country at a time
when as yet European civilization placed few or no checks on
the excesses of African superstition, and it mentions some par-
ticulars which are not noticed in the preceding descriptions.
" Terrible as witchcraft is," says the writer, " there is a
complete remedy for it in the ' red-water ordeal' This,
when properly administered, has the power not only to wipe
^ Thomas J. Hutchinson, Itnpres-
sions of Western Africa, pp. 152 sq.
As to the poison ordeal in Southern
Nigeria, see further William Allen and
T. R. H. Thomson, Narrative of the
Expedition sent by Her Majesty's
Govern?nent to the Niger in 1841
(London, 1S48), i. 1 19 (ordeal by
" sassy water ") ; Mary H. Kingsley,
Travels in West Africa (London,
1897), p. 464; A. F. Mockler-Ferry-
man, British Nigeria (London, 1902),
pp. 237 sq. ; A. G. Leonard, The
Lower Niger and its Tribes (London,
1906), p. 4S0 ; P. Amaury Talbot,
In the Shadow of the Bush (London,
19 1 2), pp. 165 sqq. ; Em. Perrot et
Em. Vogt, Poisons de Fteches et Poisons
d'Epreuve (Paris, 1913), p. 53.
^ A. J. N. Tremearne, The Tailed
Head-hunters of Nigeria (London,
191 2), pp. 200 sq. The tree from
which the poison is procured for the
ordeal is most probably the Erythro-
phleum gtiineense, since that tree, as I
learn from Dr. O. Stapf of Kew, is a
native of Northern Nigeria.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 339
off the foulest stain from injured innocence, but can detect
and punish all those who are guilty of practising this wicked
and hateful art. And from the results of this ordeal there
is and can be no appeal. Public opinion has long since
acknowledged its perfect infallibility, and no man ever thinks
of gainsaying or questioning the correctness of its decisions.
The ' red-water ' is a decoction made from the inner bark of
a large forest tree of the mimosa family. The bark is
pounded in a wooden mortar and steeped in fresh water,
until its strength is pretty well extracted. It is of a reddish
colour, has an astringent taste, and in appearance is not
unlike the water of an ordinary tan vat. A careful analysis
of its properties shows that it is both an astringent and a
narcotic, and, when taken in large quantity, is also an emetic.
"A good deal of ceremony is used in connection with The
the administration of the ordeal. The people who assemble arthe^""^^
to see it administered form themselves into a circle, and the oideai.
pots containing the liquid are placed in the centre of the
inclosed space. The accused then comes forward, having
the scantiest apparel, but with a cord of palm-leaves bound
round his waist, and seats himself in the centre of the circle.
After his accusation is announced, he makes a formal
acknowledgment of all the evil deeds of his past life, then
invokes the name of God three times, and imprecates his
wrath in case he is guilty of the particular crime laid to his
charge. He then steps forward and drinks freely of the
' red-water.' If it nauseates and causes him to vomit freely,
he suffers no serious injury, and is at once pronounced
innocent. If, on the other hand, it causes vertigo and he
loses his self-control, it is regarded as evidence of guilt, and
then all sorts of indignities and cruelties are practised upon
him. A general howl of indignation rises from the surround-
ing spectators. Children and others are encouraged to hoot
at him, pelt him with stones, spit upon him, and in many
instances he is seized by the heels and dragged through the
bushes and over rocky places until his body is shamefully
lacerated and life becomes extinct. Even his own kindred
are required to take part in these cruel indignities, and no
outward manifestation of grief is allowed in behalf of a man
who has been guilty of so odious a crime. . .
340 THE BITTER VVA TER part iv
Intelligence " The people entertain singular notions about the nature
*e"ed ^° ^"*^ power of this ordeal, and sometinaes use it in other
water. cascs than those where a man is accused of witchcraft. They
are not fond of examining witnesses, or scrutinizing the
evidences that may be adduced in ordinary cases of litigation.
They suppose that the ' red-water ' itself possesses intelligence,
and is capable of the clearest discrimination in all these
doubtful cases. They suppose that when taken into the
stomach, it lays hold of the element of witchcraft and at
once destroys the life of the man. This power, or instrument
of witchcraft, they suppose to be a material substance ; and
I have known native priests, after a /ci-/-?«cir/^;;2 examination,
to bring forth a portion of the aorta, or some other internal
organ which the people would not be likely to recognize as
belonging to the body, as proof that they had secured the
veritable witch." ^
The poison The negrocs of the Cross River, in the Cameroons, believe
among the ^^at a sorccrer has in his body, near his heart, an evil spirit
natives of in the shape of an owl, which can quit his body at night
Rive/inThe S-^d suck the blood of men or women, thus causing their
Cameroons. death. When a man is accused of keeping such a foul
fiend in his body, he is compelled to submit to the poison
ordeal in the presence of the whole village. The poison is
prepared from the Calabar bean, which grows wild in the
district. First, the accused receives from the priest one of
the beans, and must swallow it whole. Next he is handed
a calabash of water, in which ten of the poisonous beans
.have been steeping for an hour. If within three hours of
drinking the draught he vomits up both the bean and the
water, he is declared innocent ; in the interval he sits before
the house under strict guard. Sometimes the poison proves
fatal in two hours. The German writer, who reports the
custom, was accidentally let into the secret of a mode of
working the oracle which allows the accused to escape with
his life and without a stain on his character. One day he
met in the street his interpreter, dressed as a woman, with
strings of beads about his neck, body, and arms, and rings
round his ankles. On inquiring into the reasons for this
singular attire, he learned that the man had that morning
' Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, Western Africa (London, 1856), pp. 224-22S.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 341
voluntarily undergone the poison ordeal in order to clear
himself from the imputation of having the spirit of witch-
craft in his body. This foul accusation he had success-
fully rebutted by vomiting the poison ; and in compliance
with established custom he was thereafter obliged to dress
himself as a woman and to exhibit himself in that guise up
and down the village. Further inquiries elicited the method
by which the supposed culprit had been enabled thus to
acquire the fame and assume the garb of injured innocence.
The night before the ordeal he had taken the precaution of
cracking the beans, boiling them in water, and pouring off
the poisonous decoction ; so that next morning the faint
flavour of poison which remained in the beans only sufficed
to furnish a decent emetic. The discovery seemed to prove
that the medicine-man always had it in his power to kill or
save the accused by employing boiled or unboiled beans in
the ordeal ; and accordingly the German authorities hence-
forth forbade this travesty of justice under pain of a long
term of imprisonment.^
The Bayas, who inhabit the right bank of the Kadei river The poison
in French Congo, on the borders of the Cameroons, cannot °|^oq'„ (he
understand how any but old people can die from natural Bayas of
causes. All other deaths they imagine to be due to spells q^^II^'^
cast on the deceased persons by women. Accordingly
when a man in the prime of life has died, all his women-
kind, and especially his wives, are assembled and obliged to
submit to the poison ordeal. The poison consists of an
infusion of a certain bark called banda in water. As usual,
innocence is demonstrated by vomiting up the poison, and
guilt is proved by dying of it. The body of the culprit is
opened by the medicine-man, and the source of the witch's
magical power is supposed to be found within it in the form
of a bird.'-
1 Alfred Mansfeld, Urwald-Doku- latter writer, when the accused did not
tnente, Vier Jahre unter den Cross- succeed in proving his innocence by
flussnegern Kameruns (Berlin, 190S), vomiting the poison, he was at once
pp. 178 sq. On the use of the poison cut down,
ordeal, in cases of sorcery, among the
negroes of the Cameroons, see also ^ ^^ Poupon, " Etude ethnogra-
Bernhard Schwarz, Kameruii, Reise in phique des Baya de la circonscription
die Hinterlande der Kolonie (Leipsic, du M'Bimou," U Anthropologie, xxvi.
1886), p. 175. According to this (Paris, 1915) pp. 113, 130, 133.
342
THE BITTER WATER
The poison The poison ordeal also obtains, or used to obtain, among
amon^o- the ^^ Fans of the Gaboon/ The poison used for this purpose
Fans of the is obtained sometimes from the bark of the Erythrophleum
^ °°°" micranthum tree, which the natives call elmi, sometimes from
the bark and roots of a shrub which the natives call one or
o?iai, and which is said to be a species of Strychizos, and some-
times finally from the roots of another shrub, which the natives
call kwea, and which is reported to be another species of Strych-
nos {Sirychnos ikajd)? The latter shrub, the name of which
is also given as nkazya or ikaja, is said to be a small shrub, not
unlike a hazel bush, with a red root.^ Another native name
for the plant from which the poison is extracted is inboundou.^
Probably the name applied to the plant varies in different
parts of the country. As usual the ordeal is resorted to for
the purpose of detecting a witch or wizard, whose baneful
spells are supposed to have caused sickness or death. The
effect of the poison brewed from the red roots of the plant
is said to be even more powerful than that produced by
the red bark of the Erythrophleum giiineense. " A person
1 The name of these people is
variously spelt Fan, Fang, Pahouin,
M'Pongos, Mpongwes, and Pangwes.
I have chosen the simplest form.
2 H. Trilles, Le Toldmisme chez les
Fdn (Mtinster i. W., 1912), p. 563;
G. Tessmann, Die Pangwe (Berlin,
1913), ii. 241 sq. The latter writer
mentions only the elun, which he
identifies with the Erythrophleum
gtiineense. But the tree is rather the
Erythrophleum micranthum, which
occurs in the Gaboon, while the Ery-
throphleum guineense apparently does
not, as I learn from Sir David
Prain and Dr. O. Stapf. See above,
p. 309. As to the shrub from which
one of the poisons [mboundoti] is pro-
cured in this region, see Em. Perrot et
Em. Vogt, Poisons de Fleches et Poisons
d'Epreuve (Paris, 1913), pp. 81 sqq.
3 Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, Weste7-n
Africa (London, 1856), p. 225 note*;
(Sir) Richard F. Burton, Ttvo Trips to
Gorilla Land (London, 1876), i. 103.
As Sir David Prain has pointed out to me,
the word ikaja is no doubt only a differ-
ent spelling, or represents a slightly dif-
ferent pronunciation, of the native word
which is variously rendered as nkazya,
nkassa, nikesi, kassa, etc. See pp. 351,
352 j-^., 354. With regard to the identi-
fication of the plant or plants from
which nkassa is obtained. Sir David
Prain writes to me, "It is manifest
from your account that ncassa is not
always the same plant. But there is
this difference between Erythrophleum
and Strychnos in Africa, that whereas
you have only three species of Ery-
throphleum, you have some four score
species of Strychnos. When you are
dealing with ncassa you may be pretty
certain from the locality whether it is
E. giii7ieense or E. micranthum that
is your plant. When you are dealing
with tnboundon it is equally clear, to
my mind, that you are not always face
to face with the same plant. But what
the species, in a given instance, may
be, I should not like to have to say,
and I am sure you have done wisely in
merely indicating it as a Strychnos."
■• Paul B. du Chaillu, Explorations
and Adventures hi Equatorial Africa
(London, 1861), pp. 256 sq. ; id., A
fourney to Ashango-Land (London,
1867), p. 175; (Sir) Richard F. Burton,
Ttvo Trips to Gorilla Land, i. 103 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 343
is seldom required to drink more than half a pint of the
decoction. If it acts freely as a diuretic it is a mark of
innocence ; but if as a narcotic, and produces dizziness or
vertigo, it is a sure sign of guilt. Small sticks are laid
down at the distance of eighteen inches or two feet apart,
and the suspected person, after he has swallowed the draught,
is required to walk over them. If he has no vertigo, he
steps over them easily and naturally ; but, on the other
hand, if his brain is affected, he imagines they rise up before
him like great logs, and in his awkward effort to step over
them, he is very apt to reel and fall to the ground. In
some cases this draught is taken by proxy ; and if a man
is found guilty, he is either put to death or heavily fined
and banished from the country. In many ca,s,es post-viortem
examinations are made with the view of finding the actual
witch. I have known the mouth of the aorta to be cut out
of a corpse and shown as unanswerable proof that the man
had the actual power of witchcraft. No one can resent the
death of one under such circumstances. He is supposed to
have been killed by the awkward management of an instru-
ment that was intended for the destruction of others, and it
is rather a cause of congratulation to the living that he is
caught in a snare of his own devising." ^
When Du Chaillu was staying at Goumbi, a town of the Du Chaiiiu
Camma, Commi, or Gommi tribe in the Gaboon, he witnessed °VJ^
the employment of the poison ordeal for the detection of ordeal
witchcraft. The tribe was then ruled by a king named cTm^ma','^''
Quengueza, a brave hunter and warrior and a man Commi.
of unusual intelligence, but much afraid of witchcraft, tdbe^of the
About this time a suspicion had apparently got abroad Oaboo:i.
that some one was trying to bewitch the king. What
followed may best be described in Du Chaillu's own
words. " The next morning I heard a great commotion
on the plantation, and learned that an old doctor, named
Olanga-Condo, was to drink the niboundou. This is an
intoxicating poison, which is believed by these people Power of
to confer on the drinker— if it do not kill him— the '^^^^^'^^^^
power of divination. It is much used in all this part of to be
the country to try persons accused of witchcraft. A poor by"the^^
1 Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, Wesleni Africa, pp. 398 sq. poison.
344 THE BITTER WATER part iv
fellow is supposed to have bewitched his neighbour, or the
king, and he is forced to drink mboundou to establish his
innocence. If the man dies he is declared a witch. If he
survives he is innocent. This ordeal is much dreaded by
the negroes, who often run away from home and stay away
all their lives rather than submit to it. The doctors have
the reputation of being unharmed by the mboundou ; and I
am bound to admit that Olanga drank it without serious
consequences. Nevertheless, it is a deadly and speedy
poison. I have seen it administered, and have seen the
poor drinker fall down dead, with blood gushing from his
mouth, eyes, and nose in five minutes after taking the dose.
I was told by a native friend that sometimes, when the
inboundou-Ax\x\V&x is really hated, the dose is strengthened
secretly ; and this was the case, I suppose, in those instances
where I saw it prove fatal. I have also been assured by
negroes that sometimes the veins of the person who drinks
it burst open. This time I overlooked the whole operation.
Several of the natives took the root and scraped it into a
bowl. To this a pint of water was poured. In about a
minute fermentation took place : the ebullition looked very
much like that of champagne when poured into a glass.
The water then took the reddish colour of the cuticle of the
mboundou root. When the fermentation subsided, Olanga
was called by his friends. The drinker is not permitted to
be present at the preparation of the mboundou, but he may
send two friends to see that all is fair.
The diviner "When Olanga came he emptied the bowl at a draught.
under the j^^ about five miuutes the poison took effect. He began
influence of '^ °
the poison, to stagger about. His eyes became bloodshot. His limbs
twitched convulsively. His speech grew thick ; ^ and other
important symptoms showed themselves, which are considered
as a sign that the poison will not be fatal. The man's
whole behaviour was that of a drunken man. He began to
babble wildly ; and now it was supposed that the inspiration
was upon him. Immediately they began to ask him whether
1 "A frequent and involuntary dis- death. The very words employed by
charge of the urine is the surest indica- the men M'hen any one drinks the poison
tion that the mboundori- will have no seem to imply what are its usual con-
fatal effect, as it proved with Olanga, sequences."
otherwise it is generally followed by
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 345
any man was trying to bewitch Quengueza. This question
was repeated several times. At last he said, ' Yes, some
one was trying to bewitch the king.' Then came the query,
' Who ? ' But by this time the poor fellow was fortunately
hopelessly tipsy, and incapable of reasonable speech. He
babbled some unintelligible jargon, and presently the palaver
was declared over. While he was being questioned, about
one hundred people sat around with sticks in their hands.
These they beat regularly upon the ground, and sung in a
monotone,
' If he is a witch^ let the mboundou kill kim.
If lie is 7iot, let the mboundou go out.'
The whole ceremony lasted about half an hour ; and when
it was over the people dispersed, and Olanga, who had by
that time partially recovered, lay down to sleep. I was told
that this old Olanga could drink the poison in very consider-
able quantities and at frequent intervals, with no other ill
effect than this intoxication. This gave him, of course, a
great name among these superstitious people." ^
This use of the poison as a mode of inspiration is Personi-
remarkable, and is the first instance of the kind we have thTpdson
met with in Africa. In the case described the poison was
administered, not to the supposed witch, but to the medicine-
man who was engaged to detect the witch. But whether
employed in the one way or the other, the efficacy of the
drug is probably thought to be derived from its personal
character ; the poison is believed to be endowed with super-
human knowledge, which enables it either to detect and
punish the crime in the stomach of the criminal, or to reveal
his name to the medicine-man, who will bring the miscreant
to justice.
On another occasion, when he was staying among the Du Chaiiiu
on the
1 Paul B. du Chaillu, Explorations the Loganiaceae ; and, from the poison
and Adventures in Equatorial Africa peculiar veining of the leaves, it is ordeal
(London, l86l), pp. 256-259. The probably a species of 6/r)r/^;/<7j belong- a^mong the
writer submitted some of the leaves ing to that section of the genus which '^" °^
and root of the mboundou to Professor includes .S'. nox vomica " (op. cit. p. p ^^
John Torrey, of New York, for chemi- 257, note*). This identification of
cal analysis. The professor wrote in the plant in question as a species of
reply that "the mboundou pretty cer- Stiychnos is confirmed by Dr. O. Stapf
tainly belongs to a natural order that of Kew.
contains many venomous plants, viz.
346 THE BITTER IV A TER part iv
Otandos, a tribe of the Gaboon, Du Chaillu saw the poison
drunk both by the suspected wizards and by the medicine-
man whose office it was to expose them. It happened that
the king, whose name was Mayolo, had been aihng for some
time, and while he was in this state his favourite wife and
one of his nephews fell sick of smallpox. Such an accumu-
lation of ailments, in the king's opinion, could be due to no
other cause than the nefarious arts of some sorcerer, who
was bewitching him and his family and seeking to cause
their deaths. To detect the villain or villains a celebrated
witch-doctor was fetched from a distance, and on his appear-
ance he declared, after going through a certain amount of
hocus-pocus, that the wizards who were doing all the mis-
chief were resident in the village. The announcement struck
consternation into the inhabitants : they all began to look
askance at each other : even the nearest relatives were tor-
mented by mutual suspicions. The king thereupon stood
up and exclaimed excitedly that his subjects must drink the
poison ; and he appointed the following morning for the
ceremony, because the people had already eaten food that
day, and the poison must be drunk on an empty stomach.
Accordingly next morning at sunrise the village was empty.
All the inhabitants had gone to a little meadow, encircled
The by woods, where the ordeal was to take place. When the
accusation, tj-avellcr entered the assembly, he found that the suspicions
of the people had fallen on three of the king's nephews, who
as his heirs were charged with a design of anticipating the
scythe of time and mowing down their royal uncle by magic
art. It was in vain that they protested their innocence and
stigmatized their accusers as liars. There was no help for
it, but they must drink the poison. So putting the best
face they could on a bad business, they declared that they
were not afraid to drink it, for they were no wizards and
would not die. Some people, accompanied by relatives of
The the accused, thereupon retired to a little distance to brew
brewing ot ^^ poisou. Roots of the shrub were produced and scraped
into a bowl ; water was next poured upon the scrapings ; it
fizzed and reddened, which showed that it was fit to kill any
witch or wizard. All was now ready. The three accused
men were brought forward, and round them gathered an
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 347
excited crowd of spectators, armed with knives, axes, and
spears with which they were prepared and eager to cut
and hack the supposed wizards to pieces, if they should
succumb under the ordeal. With all eyes intently fixed on The
them, they drained the poisoned cups boldly amid a breath- o""h»'^^
less silence ; even the whispering of the wind, we are told, poison,
could be heard among the leaves of the forest, while the
lives of three human beings hung in the balance. But the
silence did not last long. Hardly was the poison swallowed
when the crowd began to beat the ground with their sticks,
shouting, " If they were wizards, let the mboundou kill them ;
if innocent, let it go out ! " These words they continued to
repeat so long as the suspense endured. The struggle was
severe ; the eyes of the three men were bloodshot, their
limbs trembled convulsively, every muscle in their bodies
seemed to be twitching. And the acuter their sufferings, the
louder roared the mob, as if thirsting for their blood. At The
last the crisis came ; there was a sudden shiver, an involun- ^'^q"'"^'*
tary discharge, and the first of the intended victims was
saved. The same thing soon happened to the second and
the third. All three gradually came to themselves, but in a
state apparently of great exhaustion. The trial was now
over. To close the proceedings the witch-doctor himself
drank an enormous quantity of the poison, and discharged
it in the same way as the accused had done before him.
But under the influence of the drug he appeared quite tipsy,
and among his wild incoherent utterances he declared that
the sorcerers who had bewitched the king and brought sick-
ness on the people did not belong to the village. This
verdict of acquittal was greeted with a shout of acclamation.
The king was greatly relieved to learn that the wicked
witches and wizards, who compassed his death, were not his
own subjects. The people went wild with joy ; guns were
fired, and the day, which had threatened to close so tragic-
ally, ended happily with the beating of drums, and singing,
and dancing.^
Among some of the Fan tribes a man who has drunk Th-; test of
the poison has to walk along a pole stretched like a bridge ^ poie.^ °°
1 Paul B. du Chaillu, yc«; «<;;' to Ashango-Land (London, 1867), pp. 172-
177-
348
THE BITTER WATER
The test of
dropping
poison in
the eye.
The poison
ordeal in
the valley
of the
Congo.
Andrew
Battel on
the poison
ordeal in
Loango.
across a brook or simply laid on the dry ground. Should
he stumble and fall, the spectators rush on him, kill him
with clubs, and eat him on the spot, if he is an ordinary
criminal ; but if he is a wizard, they burn him alive. Even
such as succeed in walking along the pole or tree without
stumbling are obliged to pay a heavy fine, on the principle
that there is no smoke without fire, or, as the natives put it,
no rat's hole without a rat.^ It is said that among the Fans
women are never subjected to the ordeal of drinking poison ;
though when they are accused of witchcraft, they are com-
pelled to undergo an ordeal of a different kind by having
the juice of a certain euphorbia dropped into one of their
eyes. If the eye takes no harm, the accused is innocent ;
but if it bursts, as generally happens, the woman is declared
guilty and hurried away into the forest, where she is burnt
and eaten. The charge is said to be frequent and the
punishment to follow immediately on conviction.^
Nowhere, perhaps, in Africa has this barbarous method
of detecting an imaginary crime been applied more exten-
sively or with greater rigour than among the tribes which
inhabit the vast valley of the Congo River and its tributaries.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century and at the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century an English seaman, a native
of Leigh, in Essex, spent eighteen years in Portuguese West
Africa, and he has described the poison ordeal as it was
practised in Loango, the province which is bounded on the
south by the lower course of the Congo : —
" When any man is suspected for an offence, he is carried
1 H. Trilles, Le Totimisme chez les
Fan (Mtinsteri. W., 1912), p. 564. Ac-
cording to this writer, the poison of the
eltift {Erythrophleinn micranthum) is
ejected by making water, and the poison
of the ikaja plant (a species oi Sijyc linos)
by vomiting. This is just the reverse of
what is stated by all the other authori-
ties whom I have consulted, and is
probably incorrect. Compare the same
writer's article, " Mille lieues dans
I'inconnu ; a travers le pays Fang,"
Les Missions Catholiques, xxxv. (1 903)
pp. 472 sq.
2 H. Trilles, Le Totimisme chez les
Fan, p. 565. It is not clear how a
witch can be both burnt and eaten.
Perhaps we are to understand that she
is roasted first and eaten afterwards.
The ordeal which consists in dropping
a corrosive liquid into the eyes of the
accused is common in Africa For
some examples of it, see below, pp.
35 5> 360. The poison ordeal among
the M'Pongos (Fans) of the Gaboon
is briefly mentioned by H. Hecquard,
Reise an die Kiiste und in das Innere
von West-Afrika (Leipsic, 1854), p. 8.
The account of the ordeal given by the
German writer G. Tessmann in his
elaborate monograph on the Fans [Die
Pangwe, Leipsic, 1913, ii. 241 sq.)
adds nothing of value to the accounts
of previous writers.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 349
before the king, or before Mani Bomma, who is a judge
under the king. And if he denies matters, not to be proved
except by their oath, then this suspected person swears
thus : They have a kind of root which they call Imbando ;
this root is very strong, and is scraped into water. The
virtue of this root is, that if they put too much into the
water, the person that drinketh it cannot avoid ^ urine : and
so it strikes up into the brain, as if he was drunk, and he
falls down as if he was dead. And those that fall are
counted guilty, and are punished. In this country none on
any account dieth, but they kill another for him : for they
believe they die not their own natural death, but that some
other hath bewitched them to death. And all those are
brought in by the friends of the dead whom they suspect ;
so that there many times come five hundred men and women
to take the drink, made of the foresaid root Imbando. They
are brought all to the high-street or market-place, and there
the master of the Imbando sits with his water, and gives
every one a cup of water by one measure ; and they are
commanded to walk in a certain place till they make water,
and then they are free. But he that cannot urine presently
falls down, and all the people, great and small, fall upon him
with their knives, and beat and cut him into pieces. But I
think the witch that gives the water is partial, and gives to
him whose death is desired the strongest water, but no man
of the bye-standers can perceive it. This is done in the
town of Longo, almost every week throughout the year," ^
Fuller particulars as to the mode in which the ordeal Dapper on
was administered in Loango are furnished by the Dutch JJ^eaHn"
geographer Dapper, who in the second half of the Loango.
seventeenth century composed a general description of
Africa, which is based on good authorities. According
to him, an accused person who desired to attest his
innocence in a formal manner was obliged to drink a cup
of bondes, which were scrapings of a reddish root mixed
' That is, void, discharge. and the banda of the French Congo.
- " The Strange Adventures of An- See above, pp. 341, 342, 343 sgq.
drew Battel," in John Pinkerton's The town of Longo is no doubt Loango,
General CoUectioii of Voyages, and the capital of the province of that name.
7>-az;£/5(London, i8o8-i8i4),xvi.334. It was situated fifteen leagues to the
The root called /w/w/(/o is probably the northward of Zaire on the Congo
same as the viboundou of the Gaboon (Andrew Battel, op. cit. p. 319).
3SO THE BITTER IVA TER part iv
in water, over which the medicine - man had pronounced
The curses. For these poor blinded heathen, he tells us,
b"iie7hf imagine that no calamity befalls a man which is not caused
witchcraft, by the fetishes or charms of his enemy. If anybody, for
example, falls into the water and is drowned, they will say
that he was bewitched. If he is devoured by a wolf or a
leopard, they will affirm that the wolf or the leopard was his
foe, who by his enchantments had transformed himself into
a wild beast. If he tumbles from a tree, if his house is burnt
down, if the rain lasts longer than usual, all these misfortunes
have been brought about by the sorceries of some wicked
man, and it is a mere waste of time to attempt to disabuse
them of their folly : to do so is only to incur their ridicule
and contempt. Nothing can set their doubts at rest but
recourse to the ordeal. The accuser presents himself to the
king and begs him to appoint a judge to conduct the ordeal
of the bondes, on payment of the usual fee. The king's
council usually nominates nine or ten judges, who take their
The seats in a semicircle on the highroad. The hour of the day
administra- jg j^q^- earlier than three o'clock in the afternoon, because
tion of the . . , , , i , , . ,
ordeal. custom requires that the trial should take place in the open
air, and in that torrid climate the heat of the sun at an earlier
hour would be too oppressive. The accused and the accuser
present themselves before the judges, both of them attended
by all their relations and neighbours, because in order to
detect the culprit it is customary to subject to the ordeal all
the inhabitants of the quarter where the suspected person
resides. While the accused persons are drinking the cup of
bondes, the judges beat drums. When all have drunk and
resumed their places, the judges throw small sticks at the
accused and command them to fall down if they are guilty,
but to make water if they are innocent. Next the judges
take up these sticks, cut them in pieces, and scatter them
before the accused, who stand up and walk to and fro upon
the fragments. Any of the accused who succeeds in making
water on the broken sticks is conducted home in triumph
amid applause and cries of joy ; but if any man among
them stumble and fall, the horror and consternation of the
crowd find vent in shrieks and shouts, which stun him and
deprive him of the power of regaining his feet. His guilt is
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 351
now deemed manifest, and if his crime is a capital one, or he
has many enemies, he is immediately led awaj^ to a place on
the highroad about a mile from the town, where he is cut to
pieces. If his offence is not a capital one, or if for any
reason it is desired to save his life, he is given an antidote
to annul the effect of the poison, but often, we are told, the
antidote proves more fatal than the bane it is designed to
counteract, and the man whom the poison had spared falls
a victim to the remedy. Rich people do not care to incur
the risk of the ordeal, and prefer to employ their slaves as Drinking
proxies, who drink the poison for them. But if the proxy L^proxy."
is convicted by falling down, the man whom he represents
is bound to swallow the deadly draught in his own person.
Another way of passing through the ordeal unscathed is to
bribe the judges, and this may explain a circumstance, which
otherwise might seem singular and unaccountable, that in
these countries it is almost always the poor who are found
guilty. Execution speedily follows conviction, and though
the consent of the king is necessary to carrying it out, the
crowd of both sexes and all ages anticipates the royal man-
date by mauling and mangling the condemned, till death
put* a period to his sufferings.^
The credulous and uncritical Capuchin missionary, Jerom Meroiiaon
Merolla da Sorrento, who travelled in the kingdom of Congo ordiIT^°"
in the latter part of the seventeenth century, has left us an in the
account of the various sorts of ordeal which were in use of"con^o.
among the natives at that time. As to the poison ordeal
he tells us that " to discover who has been dealing with the
devil, they make the following experiment : The root of a
certain tree called Ncassa is dissolved in water ; and, after
dissolution, that water is put up in vessels, and given to the
person accused to drink. Afterwards he is delivered into
the hands of several strong men to misuse, and shake about
in a manner, that in a very short time he falls down in a
swoon ; some imagine that this is rather occasioned by
poison given him instead of the said root. This tree is
pretty tall, and of a red colour, and has a wonderful virtue
1 O.V>z.\>'i^&x, Description deVAfrique of Battel and the mbouvdou of Du
(Amsterdam, 1686), pp. 325 sq. The ChaiUu and Burton. See above, pp.
poison which Dapper calls bondes is 342, 343 sqq., 349.
probably the same with the imhando
352 THE BITTER WATER part iv
for curing the tooth-ache and sore gums. It is Hkewise
extremely pernicious to birds, who fly from it ; for if they
should once settle on its boughs, they would immediately fall
down dead to the ground." ^ " When any one dies under their
hands, they affirm that there were other occasions of his
death than those of his distemper, which puts the parents
upon divers cursed methods of finding out the supposed
murderers, they being generally of opinion that nobody dies
a natural death." ^ "They have another sort of oath which
they call Orioncio : the way of administering this is, by
putting exceeding strong poison into the fruit called Nicesi,
sufficiently spoken of before, and afterwards giving that fruit
to the supposed guilty person to eat : he has no sooner tasted
of it, but his tongue and throat begin to swell to that excess,
that if the wizard did not speedily apply an antidote, he
must inevitably soon perish under the experiment, and
though innocent he commonly remains tortured for many
days." ^ With regard to the Nicest fruit, which was em-
ployed in this ordeal, the Capuchin informs us that when
it is cut through the middle, or any way except in length,
it shows a sort of sketch or rough draught of a crucifix
with the figure of our Saviour easily discernible on the
cross.*
Proyart on The abbe Proyart, who composed a history of Loango,
ordeaiTn" Congo, and the adjoining provinces in the latter part of the
Loango eighteenth century, has described the poison ordeal as
an ongo. f^^jQ^g . « When any one is accused of a crime of which
they cannot convict him, they permit him to justify himself
by drinking the kassa. The kassa is prepared by infusing
in water a bit of wood so called. This potion is a true
1 Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, " Voy- gests Erythrophleum, not Strychnos.
^e to Congo," in John Pinkerton's But Brother Jerom is not the only one
General Collection of Voyages and who has got confused over the names,
Travels, xvi. 222. As to the friar's I fear."
testimony, Sir David Prain writes to 2 jerom Merolla da Sorrento, op. cit.
me, "Your uncritical friend Jerom n 221;
Merolla da Sorrento seems to be par- ' ,, , r-
ticularly confused, for his Ncassa comes ^ Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, op. cit.
from the 'root' of a plant, which ?• 2^"*
should indicate that he had a Strychnos, * Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, op. cit.
not an Erythrophleum, in mind. Yet p. 203. Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, in-
further on the statement that the tree forms me that this description might fit
is pretty tall and has a red bark sug- Strychnos.
THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA
353
poison to weak stomachs, which have not the strength to
throw it up immediately. He who stands the proof is de-
clared innocent, and his accuser is condemned as a slanderer.
If the fault of which the pretended culprit is accused does
not deserve death, as soon as they perceive him just ready
to expire they make him take an antidote, which excites
vomiting, and brings him back to life ; but they condemn
him as a culprit to the penalty fixed by law. The inhabit-
ants of the country have the greatest faith in this cordial.
The princes and lords sometimes ' cause kassa to be taken
in order to clear up their suspicions, but they must first
obtain the king's permission to do so, which is not difficult
when the suspicions are of weighty concern. About two
years ago, a prince of the kingdom of Kakongo, who sus-
pected that a design had been entertained of poisoning him,
caused all the people of his household to take kassa ; a great
number of them died, and among others, a man of his officers
whom he most loved, and who passed in the country for the
honestest man in his service." ^
To this day trial by ordeal survives among the tribes of The poison
the Congo. The ordeals are various, but the most popular ^^^"^ '°
° ' ^ -"^ the Congo
and widespread of all is the poison ordeal, which is reported State,
to prevail throughout nearly the whole extent of the Congo
State. Like the other ordeals, it is resorted to on a great
variety of occasions, at judicial trials, funerals, religious
assemblies, lunar incantations, and so forth, whenever justice
or injustice demands the detection and punishment of a real
or imaginary criminal. In this region, as in many other
parts of Africa, sickness and death, public calamities and The belief
private misfortunes are regularly attributed to the machina- '" ^'^'"^^^^
tions of sorcerers, and the assistance of the medicine-man or
witch-doctor {nganga) is invoked to find a remedy for the
evil or to bring the wrongdoer to justice. Sometimes the
person whom the medicine-man denounces as the witch or
wizard is put to death or otherwise punished without any
^ Proyart, " History of Loango, practised in these regions during the
Kakongo, and other kingdoms in eighteenth century, see J. B. Labat, Re-
Africa," in John Pinkerton's General lation de VEthiopie Occidentale (Paris,
Collection of Voyages aiid Travels, x-^. 1732), i. 268 sq. ; L. Degrandpre,
582 sq. PrOyait's work was published Voyage a la cSte occidentale d'A/riqtte
in French at Paris in 1776. For other dans les ann^es 1786 et 1787 (Paris,
notices of the poison ordeal, as it was 1801), i. 52.
VOL. Ill 2 A
354
THE BITTER WATER
Plants
which
supply the
poison for
the ordeal.
further formalities ; but generally the accused, who energetic-
ally denies his guilt, is given an opportunity of clearing his
character by drinking poison, and strong in the conviction of
his innocence the suspected wizard submits to the ordeal.
Throughout a considerable part of the Congo the poison
employed for this purpose is called by the natives nkassa,
whence among Europeans the ordeal goes by the name of
cassa or casca. The potion is prepared and administered by
the medicine-man in presence of a crowd who have assem-
bled to witness the trial. If the accused dies on the spot,
he is naturally regarded as guilty of the witchcraft laid to
his charge ; if he escapes with his life, his character as an
honest man and no wizard is established. Should the sup-
posed culprit be a man of property or conscious of guilt, he
will often, in the interval between the accusation and the
trial, seek out the medicine-man and induce him by con-
vincing arguments, or a sufficient bribe, to mix the dose so
that it shall not be mortal. The draught is generally pre-
pared either from the root of a plant belonging to the genus
Strychnos, or from the bark of a tree ; but sometimes it is
made from the juice of a euphorbia or a decoction of boiled
ants. The root or bark is scraped into water, which is
thereupon boiled ; the strength or weakness of the dose
naturally varies with the amount of poison infused into the
water. In different parts of the Congo valley the poison
employed in the ordeal goes by different names. Thus in
the Lower Congo it is called muavi, among the Upotos it is
named bundi, and among the Azandes it goes by the name
of dawa. Among the Bangalas one poison known as nka
or mbonde is prepared by scraping the red root of a shrub of
the genus Strychnos ; the powder thus produced is infused
into cold water, and the potion is then drunk by the accused,
who is supposed to die infallibly if he is guilty, but merely
to suffer from indisposition if he is innocent. The first effect
of the drug is to produce a state resembling intoxication.
Some people accused of witchcraft offer voluntarily to drink
the poison in order to demonstrate their innocence. Among
the Bangalas there is another ordeal of the same sort known
by the name of viokungu. The poison is a juice extracted
from the bark of a tree called mukungii, which grows com-
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 355
monly in the forests, and perhaps belongs to the family of
acacias. This ordeal is generally reserved for women, who Poison
do not drink the juice, but are obliged to drop a little of it ^^l^^
under the eyelid of one of their eyes. If the woman is eye.
guilty, the eye bursts ; if she is innocent, she takes no harm.
Slave women who have lost one eye in this way are not
uncommon in Bangala villages. In some tribes the accused
may procure a proxy in the person of a slave or a friend to Proxies in
drink the poison for him ; a friend will readily perform this 0'^^^^'^°'^'^"
good office, confiding in the other's innocence and his own
immunity. If the accused should fail to eject the poison,
without dying from the effect of it, he is put to death with
every refinement of cruelty and barbarity. In the country
of the Azandes the ordeal assumes a milder form. The
poison idawd) is usually administered in the first instance to Fowls as
fowls in order to discover the criminal, who, on being de- P''°^'"-
tected, must undergo the ordeal in his own person or pay
the forfeit. Among the Abarambos, for example, the poison
is given by the chief to three fowls, and a ritual dance
follows, until the effect of the drug upon the birds becomes
apparent. If one only of the fowls succumbs, there has been
no witchcraft ; but if two or three 'perish, it is a clear case
of sorcery.^
" The peoples of the Congo do not believe in a natural other
death, not even when it happens through drowning or any "he poison
other accident. Whoever departs this life is the victim of ordeal on
witchcraft or a spell. His soul has been eaten. He must ^ ^ °"^°'
be avenged by the punishment of the person who has com-
mitted the crime." Accordingly, when a death has taken
place, the medicine-man or witch-doctor {ganga Jikissi) is
sent for to discover the culprit. He pretends to be possessed
by a spirit, and in that state of exaltation he names the
wretch who has caused the death by sorcery. The accused
must submit to the poison ordeal by drinking a decoction of
the bark of the Erythrophleum giiinecnse. If he vomits up
the poison, he is innocent ; but if he fails to do so, the crowd
rushes on him and slaughters him with clubs and knives.
1 Notes analyiiques sur les collec- Em. Perrot et ifem. Vogt, Poisons de
tions ethnographiques du Musde du Flkhes et Poisons d'£preuve (Paris,
Congo, I. Les Arts, Religion (Brussels, 191 3), pp. 85 sqq.
1902-1906), pp. 188-193. Compare
356
THE BITTER WA TER
The poison
ordeal in
Loango.
The two
poisons
employed
called
tnbOutidou
(a species of
Strychnos)
and nkasia
(Erytkro-
phleum
guineense
or micran-
thum).
Supersti-
tions
attaching
to the
poison tree.
The kinsfolk of the supposed culprit must, moreover, pay an
indemnity to the family of his supposed victim.^ To the
same effect another writer on the region of the Congo tells
us that " death, in the opinion of the natives, is never due to
a natural cause. It is always the result either of a crime or
of sorcery, and is followed by the poison ordeal, which has to
be undergone by an innocent man whom the fetish -man
accuses from selfish motives." "
In Loango, the province immediately to the north of the
lower reaches of the Congo, the poisons employed in the
ordeal are of two sorts, but both vegetable. The one is
mboundou, derived from a shrub of the genus Strychnos, with
slender roots which vary in colour from pale to dark red.
The plant grows in clumps, like dogwood, in the forests on
the coast of Loango, and is said to occur commonly in the
mountains. Farther north it is found in the Gaboon, the
Cameroons, and the delta of the Niger. The poison is
obtained by scraping the red root into water, which assumes
a correspondingly red hue. In the stomach the effect of the
drug is to cause a discharge of urine. This is the poison
used for the purpose of the ordeal in Yumba and the neigh-
bouring districts of Loango. In the other parts of the
Loango coast and far southwards of the Congo the poison
employed in judicial proceedings is the nkassa, the bark of
the tree of the same name {Erythrophleiim guineense, or
perhaps rather Erythrophleum micranthum), which grows
to a considerable height on damp ground in the thick
forests. The boundary between the regions devoted to the
ordeal by mboundou and the ordeal by nkassa respectively is
said to be the Kuilu River, though the demarcation is not
absol'ute.^ Many superstitions attach to the poison-tree
1 Father Campana, "Congo, Mission
Catholique de Landana," Les Missions
Catholiques, xxvii. (Lyons, 1895) pp.
102 sq. The district of Landana de-
scribed by the writer of this article is
situated on the coast of Portuguese
West Africa, a little to the north of
the Congo, but the account of the
poison ordeal seems intended to apply
to the Congo natives in general. As the
Erythrophleum apparently does not
grow in the valley of the Congo, except
near the mouth of the river (see above,
p. 309), if the wood of the tree is here
employed for the poison ordeal, it must
be imported for the purpose.
- Th. Masui, Guide de la Section de
PEtat Ind^pendant du Congo a P Ex-
position de Bruxelles- 7^ervueren en i8gf
(Brussels, 1897), P- 82. The writer
here refers specially to the tribes of
the Stanley Pool district.
3 E. Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango-
Expeditioii, iii. 2 (Stuttgart, 1907),
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 357
{Erytlu'ophleiun guineense or Erythrophletim viicranthuni) in
the minds of the natives. They say that it bears neither
blossoms nor fruit, that the air about it is poisonous,
and that he who sleeps in its shade wjll never wake
again. The poison resides in the bark, and its strength
is beheved to be greatest at the waxing of the moon, and
the speed of its action to vary according to the time and
place of the cutting of the bark, whether at morning, at noon,
or at evening, whether on the western or the eastern side of
the trunk. The medicine-men are reported to prepare them- Mode of
selves for procuring the bark by abstaining from rum and fhe bark^
women for twenty-four hours : they approach the tree only fro™ the
in pairs, accoutred with all their fetishes : they wave lighted
torches to purify the poisoned air, and in the act of detach-
ing the bark from the trunk they protect their heads with
cloths or masks. The bark so obtained is dried in the sun,
pounded, and ground between two wooden plates into a
powder which resembles coffee in appearance, but has a
noisome smell. In preparing this powder the medicine-men
are said to observe strange ceremonies and to wear cloths or
masks on their faces. Three tablespoonfuls of the powder
form a dose. If the accused vomits the whole up without
delay, his innocence is taken to be proved. If the result of
the first draught is doubtful, the ordeal is repeated and is
reinforced by magical rites. The natives believe that in the
person of a witch or wizard there lurks an evil principle,
which the poison searches out and destroys, killing the culprit
at the same time. If there is no such evil principle in a
person, the poison does him no harm.^ Should the accused
pp. 418-421. Compare R. E. Den- micranthum rather than the Eryth70-
nett, Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort phleum guineense ; for from informa-
(French Congo) (London, 1898), p. tion given me by Sir David Prain and
112, "The bark named Mmmdti is Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, I gather that
given to the man who owns to being a E. micranthtim, but not E. guineense,
witch, but denies having killed the per- occurs in the forests of this region and
son in question. Thai of Nkassa is indeed of the whole coast of Lower
given to those who deny the charge of Guinea from the Bight of Biafra south -
being witclies altogether." This dis- ward to the Congo,
tinction in the use of vtbundu and ' E. Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango-
nkassa appears not to be borne out by Expedition, iii. 2. pp. 421-423. Com-
our other authorities. The tree from pare Adolf Bastian, Die deutsche Ex-
which the nkassa poison is here pro- pedition an der Loango- Kiiste (Jena,
cured is probably the Erythrophleuni 1874), i- 204-207.
3S8 THE BITTER JVA TER part iv
eject the poison by purging, he is deemed guilty, and is
either cut to pieces by the crowd on the spot or dragged
away into the forest and burned.^
The poison Some further particulars as to the employment of the
amon^ the PO^son ordeal among the Bakongo, or natives of the Lower
Bakongoof Congo, are furnished by an experienced missionary who
Congr^^'^ laboured among the people for many years. The only poison
which he mentions as employed for the purpose is the bark
of the nkassa tree (probably Erythrophleuin micranthimi). He
tells us that the poisonous pov/der obtained by pounding the
bark of the tree is sometimes mixed with water, sometimes
placed dry in the mouth of the accused and washed down
with palm-wine. The tree is never cut for any purpose except
Ceremony to furnish bark for the ordeal. The medicine-man, who
in ^the"'^' conducts the ordeal, is alone at liberty to strip the tree of its
bark for the bark, and in doing so he must address the tree in a set form
the ue^""^ of words ; for the natives believe that it is not the medicinal
properties of the bark which affect the stomach of him who
partakes of it, but that there is a spirit in the tree which
reveals the guilt or innocence of the suspected witch or
wizard. The words which the medicine-man speaks to the
tree before he strikes his axe into it are these : " I wish to
procure a portion of your bark ; and if the person for whom
I am cutting is really a witch, let my axe bend when I strike
you ; but if he is not, let my axe enter you, and the wind
stop blowing." It often happens that the air is very still,
not a leaf stirring, for several hours before a storm, and this
solemn stillness is believed by the natives to be caused by
somebody cutting the poison tree. Having procured the bark,
the medicine-man, accompanied by a crowd, conducts the
accused to the bare top of a hill, where they build a hut of
Mode of palm-froads. Twenty-seven heaps of the poisonous powder
hfgthe^^^'^ are placed on a stone and pushed towards the accused. With
ordeal. them, onc after the other, the medicine-man feeds the accused,
who must spread out his hands and refrain from touching
anything. If he vomits up four doses successively, he has
proved beyond all doubt that he is no witch. The people
then lead him back to the town, singing songs in his praise,
* A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedi- R. E. Dennett, Notes on the Folklore
tioji an de7- Loatigo-Kiiste, i. 206, 207 ; of the Fjort (London, 1898), p. 17.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 359
and they dress him in fine clothes to testify their joy at his
acquittal. He is also entitled to exact a heavy fine fi-om his
accuser. But if the accused man does not vomit, or if he
vomits, and blood or green matter be detected in the vomit,
or finally, if he discharges the poison by purging, he is known
to be a witch. So they take him from the hut and kill him,
and leave his body on the hill-top to be devoured by wild
beasts, eagles, and crows. Even when an accused person
has passed through the ordeal successfully by fulfilling all the
tests ordinarily imposed on such occasions, yet if he is very
unpopular, and the people are set on killing him, they will
put him to other severe tests. While the poor wretch is still
dazed by the poison which he has swallowed, the bystanders
will take twigs of six different sorts of trees and throw them at
him in quick succession, requiring him to name the tree from
which each twig was plucked. If he names them rightly,
they will ask him to name the various kinds of ants that are
running about on the ground ; and if he again answers
correctly, he is called upon to name the butterflies and birds
that flit by through the air. Should he fail in any one of
these tests, he is pronounced a witch and pays the penalty
with his life, for a witch is the most hateful thing in all
Congoland.^
The same writer has given us an account of the poison The poison
ordeal as it is practised by the Bangalas or Boloki, a cannibal °n,ong the
tribe of the Upper Congo. The poison which they use for Bangaia
.,,,,, , , . , . , . , or Boloki
this purpose is called by them nka, which is the equivalent of the
of the term nkassa employed on the Lower Congo. It is Upper
procured from the outer reddish skin of the rootlets of a tree
which grows on the Lulanga River, a tributary that flows
into the Congo from the south some forty miles below the
Monsembe district. When it has been scraped from the
rootlet the drug is very fluffy and of a deep scarlet colour.
Two medicine-men prepare equal quantities of it ; for the
poison must be drunk, or rather eaten, by both accuser and
accused. Each of them chews his portion of the drug and
then washes it down with sugar-cane wine. The effect of
the poison on the person who has swallowed it resembles
1 John H. Weeks, Among the Piimitive Bakoiigo (London, 19 14), pp- 262-
264.
360
THE BITTER WATER
Poison
dropped
into the
Ordeal of
drinking
from a
magical
bell
intoxication ; it blurs the vision, distorting and enlarging all
objects, makes the legs tremble, the head giddy, and causes
a sensation of choking in the throat and chest. He who
first succumbs to the virulence of the poison by falling down
loses his case, and he who resists it for the longest time and
remains upright wins his case. While the decision still hangs
in suspense, the two parties are not allowed to sit down, nor
to lean against anything, nor even to touch anything with
their hands, and they are further tested by being required to
step clean over plantain stalks without touching them with
their feet. The use of this ordeal is not confined to cases of
witchcraft ; it may be employed in civil cases in which
damages are claimed for loss of property. In any case the
unsuccessful party to the suit has to pay heavy damages ; for
it appears that in this tribe the poison ordeal neither proves
fatal of itself nor entails the execution of the defeated suitor.
However, it is reserved for very complicated civil cases and for
serious accusations of witchcraft. Other ordeals are employed
for minor charges of witchcraft and various other offences.
For example, the juice from the bark of one of two trees, the
epoini and the mokungu, is squeezed out and dropped into
the eye of the accused ; if the sight is destroyed, the man is
guilty. The epomi juice is the more powerful of the two ; it
is used, like the nka, in cases of witchcraft and serious charges
of theft and adultery. Whichever of the juices is employed,
the accused may refuse to submit to the ordeal unless the
accuser undergoes it also ; hence the juices of these trees are
rarely employed. But when a medicine-man charges a person
with being a witch, the accused cannot demand that the
medicine-man should support the accusation by himself abid-
ing the ordeal. Sometimes when a person is very ill or has
lost a relative by death, he may accuse the members of his
family of having caused the illness or death by witchcraft.
If they deny the charge, which they ordinarily do with equal
justice and indignation, the accuser challenges them to drink
water out of the magical bell of a medicine-man. Should
any one refuse to accept the challenge, he or she is deemed
guilty of witchcraft. But if all accept the proposal, a
medicine-man, who operates with a magical or fetish bell, is
called in, dips up water in his bell, and offers it to each of
CHAi>, V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 361
the suspected persons to drink. It is firmly believed that he
or she who has practised witchcraft will soon die from the
effect of drinking water out of the magical bell, but that the
innocent will suffer no harm thereby.-^
Among the Ababua, another tribe of the Upper Congo, The poison
deaths are regularly attributed to the magical arts of witches °|^onL the
or wizards, who have cast a spell on the deceased or caused Ababua of
an evil spirit {likundii) to enter into his body. Hence when congo^^^"^
a chief dies, a medicine-man is called in to detect the criminal
or criminals. All the wives of the dead man are obliged to
undergo the ordeal by swallowing a poison extracted from
the root of a plant. Those who fall down under the influ-
ence of the drug are killed and eaten. When an ordinary
freeman or freewoman dies, the medicine-man accuses some
one in the village of having caused the death, and the accused
has to submit to the poison ordeal in the usual way. If he
passes through it unscathed, his innocence is demonstrated,
and he receives from the medicine-man a slave by way of
compensation. When the accused has died or been killed,
the corpse is often opened in order to detect the magical
substance or evil spirit {likundu), by which the witch or
wizard wrought his foul enchantments. The substance or
spirit is commonly produced in the shape of a rounded
body containing a dark liquid ; it is probably the gall-
bladder. Such judicial murders are frequent among the
Ababua.^ Among the Nyam-nyam or Azandes, to the Fowls as
north of the Ababua, the poison ordeal appears to be ^[g ordeal,
practised only on fowls, which act as proxies for the The poison
human parties. An oily fluid, extracted from a red wood among the
called bengye, is administered to a hen, which represents Nyam-
the suspected criminal or witch, and the innocence or guilt "^^"^
of the accused is determined according as the bird survives
the ordeal or perishes under it. Omens of victory or defeat
in war are drawn from the fate of fowls in like manner.^ The
Mambuttus, another tribe of the same region, are said to The poison
1 John H. Weeks, Among Congo Analyliques sur les Collections Ethno- °^ ^^^ ,
Cannibals (London, 1913), pp. 186- graphiques du Musie du Cottgo, i. Les ^i^m^buttus
191, 292. Arts, Religio7i (Brussels, 1902-1906),
2 Joseph Halkin, Quelques peuplades pp. 165 sq.
du district de I'Uel^, i. Introduction, 3 Qeorg Schweinfurth, The Heart
les Ababua (Liege, 1907), pp. 95 sq. of Africa, Third Edition (London,
As to the likundu, see further Notes 1878), i. 297.
362 THE BITTER WATER part iv
ascribe every accident and misfortune, however trivial or
natural its cause, to the malice of an ill-wisher or sorcerer.
Sickness, death, the ravages of a storm, the burning of a hut,
are all indifferently traced to the same fatal agency. Accord-
ingly the suspected sorcerer is compelled to submit to one
of several ordeals according to the gravity of the charge.
One of these ordeals is the drinking of an infusion of poison-
ous herbs. If the accused is innocent he will vomit up the
poison ; but if he is guilty he dies, and his expiring agonies
are greeted with shouts of approval and delight.^
The poison Further, the poison ordeal is in vogue among the tribes
among the ^^° occupy the valleys of the great tributaries which flow
Barabaia. into the Congo from the south. Thus among the Bambala,
a Bantu tribe inhabiting the tract of country between the
Inzia (Sale) and Kwilu Rivers, the ordeal is resorted to in
cases of alleged witchcraft, parricide, or minor offences. In
a dispute either party may propose to establish his case or
prove his innocence by drinking poison {putu) ; but the test
is most frequently applied when a person is accused of being
possessed by an evil spirit {inoloki) which has caused the
death of somebody. Such accusations are usually brought
against persons who are old and rich, or, for som.e reason,
unpopular ; men do not hesitate to denounce their nearest
relatives. The poison is prepared from the bark of the
Erythrophleum guineense^ or more probably the Erythro-
phleum inicrantJnwi, which is imported for the purpose
from the mouth of the Kwango River. The scraped bark is
ground into a fine powder and mixed with a little water to
form a thick paste. Five large pellets, about the size of an
almond, are formed of the paste and administered to the
accused, one after the other, while the bystanders call on the
evil principle or evil spirit (inoloki) to come forth. These
invocations last some ten or fifteen minutes, the time usually
required for the operation of the drug. The poison acts in
one of three ways : it causes death, evacuation, or vomiting.
Death is the usual result, and is accepted as a conclusive
^ G. Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria Congo, to the west of the Albert Lake.
(London and New York, 189 1), i. 164. See Franz Stuhlmann, Mit Emin
The poison ordeal, in its ordinary form, Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin,
is also in use among the Wawira, an- 1894), p. 394.
other tribe of the upper valley of the
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 3^3
proof of guilt. If the accused voids the poison by evacua-
tion, he is still deemed guilty and must dig his own grave,
in which, after eating a fowl and drinking himself drunk on
palm-wine, he is buried alive to prevent the evil principle or
evil spirit {inoloki) from escaping with his last breath. A
large fire is kept burning on the grave for two days, after
which the body is exhumed and eaten. But if the accused
succeeds in vomiting up the poison, his innocence is estab-
lished ; he is decorated with beads and carried about the
village in great triumph for several days, and his accuser
must give him a pig as damages for defamation of character.
Only if the unsuccessful accuser happens to be a witch-doctor
does he escape the necessity of paying this tribute to injured
innocence.-^
Similar beliefs and practices in regard to the poison The poison
ordeal prevail among two neighbouring Bantu tribes, the °mong the
Ba-Yaka and the Ba-huana.^ They occur also among the Ba-Yaka,
Bangongo, a tribe which inhabits the angle between the and
Lubudi and Sankuru rivers, and belongs, like the Bambala, Bangongo.
to the Bushongo, or, as it is called by Europeans, the
Bakuba nation. In this tribe, when any one dies a natural
death without any apparent cause, the death is set down to
the maleficence of a demon acting through the agency of a
person who is possessed, consciously or unconsciously, by the
evil spirit. The brother of the deceased commonly accuses one
of the villagers, generally an old man or old woman, of having
in this way killed his departed relative; and a witch-doctor,
who bears the title of Miseke, is summoned to administer the
poison ordeal to the accused. The poison is extracted from
a plant called ephumi, and is kept for the purpose of the
ordeal in a miniature hut of straw, about two feet high, in
the middle of the principal street A cup of the poison
being presented to the accused, he says, " If I have killed
1 E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, 2 g. Torday and T. A. Joyce,
" Notes on the Ethnography of the " Notes on the Ethnography of the
lRa.-'M.ha.]a.," Journal of the Anthropo- Ba-Yaka," Journal of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, XXXV. (1905) pp. 416 logical Institute, xxxvi. (1906) pp. 48
sq. ; E. Torday, Camp and Tramp in sq.; iid., "Notes on the Ethnography
African Wilds (London, 1913), p. 97. of the Ba-huana,"y(?«r-«a/ of the An-
As to the species of tree from which the thropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906)
poison is obtained, see above, p. 309, p. 291.
note.
364 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
So-and-so, if I have killed So-and-so, if I have killed So-and-
so, may you kill me," smiting his hands together thrice,
" but if I am innocent, prove it." He then runs towards the
forest, pursued by all the villagers, the friends of the deceased
crying, " You have killed So-and-so, and you will die," while
his friends, on the contrary, encourage him by shouting,
" Prove that you are innocent! Prove that you are inno-
cent ! " The witch-doctor {Miseke) runs by the side of the
fugitive, striking him on the head with a child's bell, and
saying continually, '■' Ephumi^ ephumi^ kill the molokt\" that
is, " Poison, poison, kill the man possessed of the devil," for
in this tribe it appears that the name moloki is applied, not
so much to the demon himself, as to the person of whom he
has taken possession. If the accused is seized with a fit of
vomiting, he is considered innocent, and his accuser must pay
him several thousands of cowries as damages. If he cannot
rid himself of the poison by vomiting, he dies, and his guilt
is thought to be fully demonstrated.^
The poison Among the Bashilange, a tribe which borders on the
among the Bakuba or Bushongo nation, when two persons have
Bashilange. quarrelled and one of them refuses to accept the decision
of a third whom they have chosen to arbitrate between
them, the arbitrator may order the recalcitrant party to
undergo an ordeal by drinking the infusion of a certain
bark. The draught is prepared by a medicine-man in the
presence of the arbitrator, but no drowned fly may float on
the surface of the liquid, and no menstruous woman may
ever have been in the house where the potion is com-
The poison pounded.^ Another considerable tribe of the same region,
among the ^^^ Baluba, also employ the poison ordeal as a test of guilt
Baiuba. or innoceuce in alleged cases of sorcery, when a man is
accused of having killed another by witchcraft. The trial
is conducted by the medicine-man in full barbaric pomp,
his head adorned with a tuft of blood-red feathers, his body
painted with white ochre, his loins girt with many skins,
* E. Torday et T. A. Joyce, Notes Pogge's Tagebtichern," Mittheilungen
Ethnographiques siir les peuples com- der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in
muniment appelis Baktiha ainsi que Deutschland, iv. (1883-1S85) p. 258.
stir les peuplades appareiitdes. Les The smoking of hemp is practised by
Btiskongo (Brussels, 1910), pp. "]% sq. some of the Bashilange as a judicial
ordeal instead of the poison ordeal {op.
2 " Mittheilungen aus Dr. Paul cit. p. 257).
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 365
and his hands grasping three spears, a whisk made of an
antelope's tail, an axe, and an executioner's knife. Having
raised a little hillock of earth and covered it with leaves,
he causes the accused to take his seat on it, then crushes
and pounds the red bark of the poison tree, and throws
the crushed pieces into a jar of boiling water. When
the liquid is reddened sufficiently, it is decanted, and the
accused must drink a full pint and a half of it, with as
much warm water afterwards. The action of the poison is
rapid. If the accused vomits it up, the accusation is false,
and the accuser must fly for his life, since he is liable to be
cut to pieces on the spot by the relatives of the man whom
he has calumniated. Moreover, the accuser's family must
give two slaves or their equivalent to the accused as com-
pensation for the wrong that has been done him by the
accusation. On the other hand, if the suspected sorcerer
cannot vomit the poison, he sinks to the ground, and this is
accepted as a clear proof of his guilt. At once the relatives
of the deceased, whom he is supposed to have destroyed by
his witcheries, fling themselves upon him, sever his head
from his body, cut off his arms and legs, and throw the still
palpitating limbs into a great brazier in order utterly to
annihilate the witch. Often at such scenes there is present
a cannibal, who purchases the mangled remains of the
criminal and carries them off to furnish the materials for a
banquet.^
Similar beliefs have led to similar practices among the The poison
tribes of the Kasai river and its affluents, which flow into °J^ong j^^.
the Congo from the south. Among these tribes an im- Baiunda.
portant place is occupied by the Baiunda, who down to
recent times were ruled by a great potentate called the
Matiamvo or Muata-Yamvo. A fatal influence, we are told,
is exercised over these people by the soothsayers. Sick-
ness, misfortune, and death are set down by them, not to
natural causes, but to the machinations of an enemy, and to
discover the culprit the services of a soothsayer are called
in. This personage generally smears clay on his own brow,
temples, corners of the mouth, and breast, to indicate that
it is not he himself but the great spirit Hamba who now
1 Sir Harry Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo (London, 1908), ii. 661 sq.
366 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
speaks through him. After a long preliminary course of
singing and rattling he may declare that the sickness or
death has been caused by the magic of some person
deceased. To appease the malignant ghost offerings or
articles of food are brought to an appointed place, where
the ghost fetches them away under cover of night. Some-
times, however, the diviner accuses a living person of having
done the mischief, and then the accused has to prove his
innocence, if he can, by drinking m'bambu, which is a
decoction of the bitter bark of the Erythrophleum. As
usual, the accused is innocent if he vomits up the poison,
and guilty if he dies from the effect of it. The people
fully believe that an innocent man can drink the stuff with
impunity, and in the consciousness of their innocence they
will offer to subject themselves to the ordeal.-^
The poison Southward of the vast region of the Congo and its
a'^^oiV" tributaries, the poison ordeal, with all its attendant super-
stitions and iniquities, is or was till lately rampant in
Angola, where under Portuguese rule the tribes have been
in contact with European civilization and the Christian
Livingstone religion for centuries. But " the intercourse which the
°".*'^ natives have had with white men, does not seem to have
poison '
ordeal in much ameliorated their condition. A great number of
in ngoa. pgj.gQj^g ^j-g reported to lose their lives annually in different
districts of Angola, by the cruel superstitions to which they
are addicted, and the Portuguese authorities either know
nothing of them, or are unable to prevent their occurrence.
The natives are bound to secrecy by those who administer
the ordeal, which generally causes the death of the victim.
A person, when accused of witchcraft, will often travel from
distant districts in order to assert her innocency and brave
the test. They come to a river on the Cassange called
Dua, drink the infusion of a poisonous tree, and perish
unknown. A woman was accused by a brother-in-law of
being the cause of his sickness while we were at Cassange.
She offered to take the ordeal, as she had the idea that it
1 H. Wissmann, L. Wolf, C. von id., p. loi ; David Livingstone, Mis-
Francois, H. Muller, Ijn Innern sionary Travels and Researches in South
Afrikas, die Erforschung des Kassai Africa (London, 1857), pp. 457 sqq.;
(Leipsic, 1888), pp. 143 sq. As to Paul Pogge, Im Reiche des Muata
the Matiamvo or Muata- Yamvo, see Jamwo (Berlin, 1880), pp. 227 sqq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 367
would but prove her conscious innocence. Captain Neves
refused his consent to her going, and thus saved her life,
which would have been sacrificed, for the poison is very
virulent. When a strong stomach rejects it, the accuser
reiterates his charge ; the dose is repeated, and the person
dies. Hundreds perish thus every year in the valley of
Cassange." -^
A writer who was intimately acquainted with Angola Monteiro
has given the following instructive account of the poison poison
ordeal as it is, or used to be, observed in that country : ordeal in
" All these sources of slaves for shipment were but a fraction °^° ^'
of the number supplied by their belief in witchcraft. Witch-
craft is their principal, or only belief; every thing that
happens has been brought about by it ; all cases of drought,
sickness, death, blight, accident, and even the most trivial
circumstances are ascribed to the evil influence of witchery
or fetish. A fetish man is consulted, and some poor un-
fortunate accused and either killed at once or sold into
slavery, and, in most cases, all his family as well, and every
scrap of their property confiscated and divided amongst the
whole town ; in other cases, however, a heavy fine is im-
posed, and inability to pay it also entails slavery ; the option
of trial by ordeal is sometimes afforded the accused, who
often eagerly demand it, such is their firm belief in it.
" This extremely curious and interesting ordeal is by The poison
poison, which is prepared from the thick, hard bark of a ^^Ihe'^^'^
large tree, the Erythrophlmivt giiineense. . . . Dr. Brunton ordeal,
has examined the properties of this bark, and finds that it
possesses a very remarkable action. The powder, when
inhaled, causes violent sneezing ; the aqueous ^extract, when
injected under the skin of animals, causes vomiting, and has
a remarkable effect upon the vagus nerve, which it first
irritates and then paralyses. The irritation of this nerve
1 David Livingstone, Missionary Congo, Ba-Congo, Ba-Ngala, Bin-
Travels and Researches in Scnith bunda, etc., the poison ordeal is
^/r^Va (London, 1857), p. 434. Com- employed as a means of discovering
pare E, Torday and T. A. Joyce, the malign influence which is supposed
"Notes on the Ethnography' of the to be responsible for every natural
Ba-Mbala," Joiamal of the Anthro- death : the poison appears to be the
pological Institute, xxxv. (1905) p. same, and the guilt or innocence of the
400. " Throughout practically the accused is decided in a similar way."
whole of Angola, among the Muslii-
368 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
makes the heart beat slowly. ... It is called casca by the
natives. . . . Casca is prepared by the bark being ground on
a stone to a fine powder, and mixed with about half a pint
of cold water, a piece about two inches square being said
to be a dose. It either acts as an emetic or as a purgative ;
should the former effect take place, the accused is declared
innocent, if the latter, he is at once considered guilty, and
either allowed to die of the poison, which is said to be
quick in its action, or immediately attacked with sticks and
clubs, his head cut off and his body burnt.
Effect of " All the natives I inquired of agreed in their descrip-
the poison. ^^^^ ^^ ^^ effect produced on a person poisoned by this
bark ; his limbs are first affected, and he loses all power
over them, falls to the ground, and dies quickly, without
much apparent suffering. It is said to be in the power of
the fetish man to prepare the casca mixture in such a
manner as to determine which of the effects mentioned
should be produced ; in case of a dispute, both parties
drink it, and according as he allows the mixture to settle,
and gives one the clear liquid and the other the dregs,
so does it produce vomiting in the former, and acts as a
purgative in the latter case. I have very little doubt that
as the fetish man is bribed or not, so he can and does pre-
pare it. The Portuguese in Angola strictly prohibit the use
of casca, and severely punish any natives concerned in a
trial by this bark, but it is nevertheless practised in secret
everywhere.
Mode of " The occasion of the test is one of great excitement,
rm^thT'^'^ and is accompanied by much cruelty. In some tribes the
ordeal. accused, after drinking the potion, has to stoop and pass
under half-a-dozen low arches made by bending switches
and sticking both ends into the ground ; should he fall
down in passing under any of the arches, that circumstance
alone is sufficient to prove him guilty, without waiting for
the purgative effect to be produced. Before the trial the
accused is confined in a hut, closely guarded, and the night
before it is surrounded by all the women and children of
the neighbouring towns, dancing and singing to the horrid
din of their drums and rattles. On the occasion of the
ordeal the men are all armed with knives, matchets, and
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 369
sticks, and the moment the poor devil stumbles in going
under one of the switches, he is instantly set upon by the
howling multitude and beaten to death, and cut and hacked
to pieces in a few minutes. I was at Mangue Grande on
one occasion when a big dance was going on the night
before a poor wretch was to take casca. I went to the
town with some of the traders at that place, and we offered
to ransom him, but to no purpose ; nothing, they said,
could save him from the trial. I learnt, however, that he
passed it successfully, but I think 1 never heard such a
hideous yelling as the four hundred or five hundred women
and children were making round the hut, almost all with
their faces and bodies painted red and white, dancing in a
perfect cloud of dust, and the whole scene illuminated by
blazing fires of dry grass under a starlit summer sky.
" The most insignificant and extraordinary circum- Accusa-
stances are made the subject of accusations of witchcraft, wkchcraft.
and entail the usual penalties. I was at Ambrizette when
three Cabinda women had been to the river with their pots
for water ; all three were filling them from the stream
together, when the middle one was snapped up by an
alligator, and instantly carried away under the surface of
the water, and of course devoured. The relatives of the
poor woman at once accused the other two of bewitching
her, and causing the alligator to take her out of their midst !
When I remonstrated with them, and attempted to show
them the utter absurdity of the charge, their answer was,
' Why did not the alligator take one of the end ones then,
and not the one in the middle ? ' and out of this idea it was
impossible to move them, and the poor women were both to
take casca. I never heard the result, but most likely one or
both were either killed or passed into slavery." ^
Among the Songos, in the interior of Angola, dis- The poison
ordeal
^ Joaahim John Monteiro, Angola gather that the tree in question is more among the
and the River Congo (London, 1875), likely to be the Erythrophleum micran- Songos of
i. 60-66. With regard to the tree thion than the Erythrophleuni guine- Angola,
from which the poison is procured, the ense, since the latter species appears
writer refers to Oliver, Flora of Tropical not to extend so far south as Angola.
Africa, ii. 320, and to Brunton, in Another species of Erythrophleiirn,
Proceedings of the Royal Society. As namely, E. pubistamineum, occurs in
to the latter authority, see above, p. Angola, but it is not known to be
308. From Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, I poisonous, though it may be so.
VOL. Ill 2 B
South
Africa,
370 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
putes about property are referred to the Soba or chief of
the town, but if the litigants refuse to accept his decision,
they have recourse to the poison ordeal. In this tribe the
Proxies in poison is usually drunk, not by the suitors themselves,
the ordeal. -^^^ ^^ their children or their dogs, who act as proxies for
their parents or owners respectively. The poison is ad-
ministered weak, so that death seldom results from it. The
person whose child or dog first vomits the dose wins his
case ; but if before that happens, one of the champions,
whether child or dog, collapses under the influence of the
drug, the party whom he or she represents is cast in the
suit.^
General Among the tribes which inhabit the western regions of
^h^^"Ts°n ^'^'^^^^ irov^ Angola southward the practice of the poison
ordeal in ordeal has not, so far as I am aware, been recorded ; among
the Herero, the chief Bantu tribe of South-West Africa, it
is definitely said to be unknown." Indeed, throughout the
whole southern extremity of the continent, from Angola
and the Zambesi on the north to the Cape of Good Hope
on the south, the poison ordeal has been seldom described,
from which we may perhaps infer that it has been little
The poison practised. However, it was formerly in vogue among the
ordeal Zulus of Natal at the time when they were governed by the
among the y & j
Zulus. tyrant Chaka in the early part of the nineteenth century.
In those days, whenever a person had died and been buried,
his or her relations regularly had recourse to a diviner in
order to discover the man who, through the agency of an
evil spirit, had caused the death of their friend. Having
consulted his magical instrument, which might be a horn of
oil or a pot of boiling water, the diviner denounced some-
body as the culprit, often fastening the guilt on a man or
woman whom he knew to be at enmity with the family of the
deceased. The person thus accused was at once taken into
custody, and next morning before sunrise he had to swallow
a mixture made from the bark of the moave tree and certain
^ Paul Pogge, Im Reiche des Muata Traveller's Life in Western Africa
y^wwo (Berlin, 1880), pp. 36.?^. As (London, 1861), ii. 128 sq. Accord-
to the poison ordeal in Angola, see ing to Magyar {of. cit. p. 136) the
also Ladislaus Magyar, Reisen in SUd- poison draught is made from manioc
Afrika, i. (Bucia-Pesth and- Leipsic, and maize.
1859) pp. 119 123, 136; Francisco ^j j^Ie, Die Herero (Gutersloh,
Travassos Valdez, Six Years of a 1906), p. 141.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 371
powders, the whole being made up in three bails, each of
the size of a lemon. Before taking the poison he was
stripped naked, lest he should conceal anything that might
counteract the effect of the drug, and he knelt with his
hands crossed before the man who administered the dose.
While the accused was engaged in swallowing the poison,
his relations and the kinsfolk of the deceased continued to
beat the ground with sticks, while one of them cried out,
" If this man or woman has communicated with evil spirits,
may the moave burst him ! " to which all responded in
chorus, " Burst him ! " Then the first speaker went on, " If
this man or woman who has been the death of So-and-So,
has been falsely accused, and has not communicated with
evil spirits, then may the moave spare him ! " to which all
answered, " Spare him ! " These prayers and responses
they kept repeating till the accused vomited, which, we are
told, happened only through the roguery of the man in
charge of the ordeal, who had been bribed by the relations
of the supposed culprit to diminish the dose. Yet the
deluded victims, strong in the confidence of their innocence,
seldom desired to take an antidote, having been bred up in
the belief that the poison could affect only such as really
held converse with evil spirits, and that it would spare all
others.-'
Among the Bawenda, a Bantu tribe which inhabits the The poison
north-eastern corner of the Transvaal, between the Limpopo amon" the
and Levuvu Rivers, no case of death or illness occurs with- Bawenda
out some living person being suspected or accused of having Transvaal,
caused it by sorcery ; for in the opinion of the Bawenda,
as of many other savages, nobody dies a natural death.
1 " Mr. Farewell's account of the name is a general word which in-
Chaka, the King of Natal," appended eludes a variety of vegetable poisons
to Captain W. F. W. Osven's Narra- all employed for this purpose. Com-
iive of Voyages to explore the Shores of pare Iim. Perrot et ^^m.^Vogt, Poisons
Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar {L,(d\\- de Pleches et Poisons d'Epreuve (Paris,
don, 1833), ii. 398-400. Compare 1913), pp. 122 sq. If the tree from
Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir which the Zulus procured the poison
(London,' 1904), p. 185. The term for the ordeal was the Erythrophleum,
moave, nniavi, or f?nuavi is applied to whether E. guineense or E. micran-
the poison used in ordeals by many thtiin, it would seem, as Dr. O. Stapf
tribes of Eastern Africa, some of them suggests to me, that they must have
far distant from each other. The imported the bark ; since no species of
poison is said to be sometimes furnished Etythrophleiim is found in South-
by the Parkia Bvssei; but probably Eastern Africa.
372 THE BITTER IVA TER part iv
Hence when any such misfortune has befallen them, the
family of the sick or of the dead engage a witch-doctor to
detect and bring to justice the witch or wizard {moloi), who
is supposed to be the author of the calamity. If the witch-
doctor lays the blame on two persons, and it cannot be
determined by ordinary methods which of the two is in
fact the criminal, recourse is had to the poison ordeal.
Both of them are given a strongly poisonous potion to
drink, and the one who is intoxicated thereby is clearly the
guilty party and suffers the penalty of his crime by being
clubbed to death.-^
The poison The Thonga, a Bantu tribe of Portuguese East Africa,
amSg the ^ho inhabit the country about Delagoa Bay, stand in great
Thonga of fear of witchcraft. They believe that witches and wizards
EasSfca. ipaloyt) by their fell arts can rob, kill, or enslave their
fellows ; nay more, that they not only murder their victims
but devour their flesh in the darkness of night Hence the
Thonga adopt many precautions against these dangerous
beings, and resort to many expedients for the sake of detect-
ing and punishing them. The supreme means of unmasking
a witch or wizard is the poison ordeal. The poison {mondjo)
used for this purpose is obtained from a plant of the Solaneae
family which possesses' intoxicating properties. However,
the use of the ordeal is not limited to cases of witchcraft.
Any person accused of any crime may appeal to it to
demonstrate his or her innocence. A woman charged with
adultery, for example, may say to her accuser, " Let us
go and drink the poison." Accordingly, they repair to a
medicine-man, whose business it is to prepare the decoction ;
he administers a little of the drug in a potion to both the
accused and the accuser, and the one who, after swallowing
the draught, shows symptoms of intoxication or loses con-
sciousness, is declared guilty. Resort to the poison ordeal
is compulsory after the death of a great chief in order to
bring to light the sorcerer who by his spells has deprived
the tribe of its head. But at any time the reigning chief
may command his people to drink the poison with the
intention of ridding the country of those public pests, the
^ Rev. E. Gottschling, "The Bawenda," /(3?<r«a/ of the Anthropological
Institute, xxxv. (1905) pp. 375, 377 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 373
witches and wizards. In the district of Nondwana the
ceremony is performed as follows : —
When it has been decided at the capital that all subjects Mode of
shall undergo the ordeal, the chief sends word to the Shihahu f^^^J^'"''
folk to make ready the poison. These people are a small poison
clan inhabiting the left bank of the Nkomati River not far ""^^^^^^ ^^^
from the sea. Their medicine-men cultivate the poison Thonga.
plant, though they have not a monopoly of it. They know
also the secret of compounding the potion, which, among
other strange ingredients, is said to contain the fat of a
leper long since deceased, or a little of his powdered bones.
To test the efficacy of the draught, the Shihahu folk experi-
ment with it on the person of a certain man named Mudlayi,
who is esteemed the very chief of all the wizards of the
country. If the decoction produces in him the characteristic
symptoms of intoxication, then it is judged fit for the pur-
pose ; but if it fails to intoxicate him, a fresh brew must be
prepared, until the potion has acquired the requisite degree
of strength. When that has been ascertained, messengers
are despatched to all the subordinate chiefs, bidding them
assemble, with all their people, at a certain time on the
banks of a lake. In this general assembly every man and
woman must defile before the owners of the decoction, and
each of them receives and swallows a small mouthful of the
hellbroth, tepid, from a particular vessel. At this stage of
the proceedings some who have imbibed the poison are con-
science-stricken and cry out, "I am a caster of spells ! "
All who thus confess their crime are collected together and
placed on one side under a tree. The rest sit down in a
row exposed to the fierce glare of the noonday sun, and
receive strict orders to remain motionless, without stirring a
limb or scratching their persons. While they sit there stiff The dance
, ,. , ... ... of the
and stark m a long Ime, the prmcipal medicme-man, medidne-
Mudlayi, begins to dance up and down in front of th^m, a "i^"-
large feather nodding from his head. All eyes are fixed
intently upon him, and he returns the looks of all with a
peculiar stony glare. . Suddenly somebody scratches his
arm. The medicine-man at once pounces down on him or
her, and stooping over the culprit allows his nodding plume
to rest on the forehead of the seated person. The man.
374 THE BITTER WATER part iv
who has betrayed himself by scratching his arm, now attempts
to seize the feather on the medicine-man's head and pull it
out ; but if the poison has begun to work on him, he can-
not grasp the feather and only clutches the empty air
instead. One after another, men and women exhibit the
same symptoms of intoxication ; one after another they are
detected and exposed in the same way by the medicine-
man, who continues to prance up and down the line, blowing
his trumpet. All of the convicted culprits betray themselves
still further by struggling to rise, then clutching at the grass
to assist them, and finally collapsing in a heap or crawling
feebly about on the ground. Their spittle dries up : their
jaws are locked : they try to speak, but can only stammer.
They are picked up, carried off, and deposited under the
tree with such as had already confessed their guilt When
a number of witches and wizards have thus been eliminated,
the seated crowd is bidden to rise. Jumping to their feet
they must run at full speed to the lake and there bathe.
On the way some, who have hitherto controlled themselves,
are overcome by the effects of the poison ; they jostle each
other, tumble, and remain on the ground, unable to regain
their feet. Some even fall down in the water. All such
are witches and wizards. The rest who have passed through
the ordeal successfully, return from the water, and are set at
liberty after having received three pinches of a special
powder to cleanse them from the defilement which they
have contracted by drinking the hellbroth. As for the con-
victed criminals, the next thing is to wring a confession of
their guilt from such as have not yet made a clean breast.
To restore their lost power of speech, a beverage prepared
from a certain herb is poured into their mouths, and they
are rubbed with leaves on the cheeks and all over their
bodies. Their tongues are now loosed ; the truth comes
out, and many lies with it. " Yes," they say, " I devour
men ! I ate So-and-so, and I still have some of his flesh in
store ! I hate So-and-So, and I would like to kill him, but
I haven't done so yet. I bewitched the maize to hinder its
growth." The penitents receive a severe reprimand. " Cease
your witchcraft and enchantments," they are told, " remove
your spells from the cereals, let them grow properly, or we
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 375
will kill you." In former days these wretches did not Punish-
escape so lightly. Among the Thonga, as among the J^rmei
ancient Hebrews, death was the penalty denounced against inflicted on
witchcraft. A certain chief named Shiluvane prohibited found"^
the crime in a decree which ran as follows : " I do not %^^'^y hy
allow anybody to die in my country except on account of orde^u^°"
old age. So let the witches and wizards {baloyi) at once
cease their enchantments, or I will kill them all." The con-
demned criminals were executed by hanging, impalement,
or drowning, according to the case ; those whose offence was
deemed less heinous were let off with a flogging or banish-
ment. Nowadays witches and wizards are free to resume
their nefarious calling on paying a paltry sum of ten or
fifteen shillings, half of which is reported to stick in the
pockets of the chiefs who condemn them, and who thus
combine the satisfaction of justice, or the perpetration of
injustice, with a substantial addition to their civil list. As
to the medicine-man who mixes the potion and conducts
the ordeal, he is said to be clever or sceptical enough not
to leave the decision entirely to chance, but to proportion
the strength of the dose to the presumed guilt of the
drinker ; while by his dance and waving plume and stony
glare he so hypnotizes some of the crowd that they fall
into a true cataleptic state. The native theory, however, as
expounded by an old Thonga man, is that, after drinking
the decoction, the witches or wizards are intoxicated by the
human flesh which it contains ; for they have thus done by
day what they are accustomed to do by night, which is to
prey on the bodies of their victims.^
Farther to the north, among the tribes of Sofala and The poison
Manica, in Portuguese East Africa, the poison ordeal seems sofaiaand
to be resorted to only in cases of suspected sorcery or Manica.
cannibalism. A man accused of injuring or killing another East^^ica*
by spells or magic must undergo the ordeal. The poison is
concocted and administered by the nganga or witch-doctor,
on whose ill or good will the life of the accused depends.
The poison is extracted from pieces of the bark of the
1 Henri A. Junod, The Life of a 487 ; id., Les Ba-Rouga (Neuchatel,
South African /"r/^^ (Neuchatel, 19 12- 1S9S), pp. 433-436.
1913), i. 416 sq., ii. 460 sqq., 483-
376 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
Erythrophleum, which are ground to a coarse powder and
placed in a sn:iall calabash of water. The blood of a fowl
is added to the mixture, and the draught is heated by red-
hot pieces of quartz crystal dropped into the water. If the
accused vomits the drug, he is innocent and safe ; if he does
not, he dies a painful death, while the bystanders heap all
sorts of indignities and insults on him, as he lies writhing
The witch- in agony on the ground. The supposed culprit is detected
dance^ by the witch-doctor, who dances about arrayed in the skins
of animals and with a sort of tiara of reedbuck horns upon
his head. In the course of this dance he draws out suspected
persons from the throng of spectators, till he at last pounces
on the doomed man.^
Dos Santos The use of the poison ordeal among the Bantu tribes of
poison Sofala was recorded long ago by the old Portuguese historian,
ordeal in Friar JoSo dos Santos. He says, " These Kaffirs have
three kinds of most terrible and wonderful oaths which they
make use of in trying cases, when a Kaffir is accused of any
grave crime of which there is not sufficient proof, or when a
debt is denied, and in other similar cases when it is necessary
to leave the truth to be proved by the oath of the accused,
when he is ready to take it in proof of his innocence. The
first and most dangerous is called the oath oi lucasse, which
is a cup of poison that the accused is called upon to drink,
with the assurance that if he is innocent the poison will
leave him safe and sound, but if he is guilty he will die of
it. Therefore those who are guilty when the time comes
that they are obliged to take this oath generally confess
their guilt, to avoid drinking the poison ; but when they are
innocent of the charge brought against them they drink the
poison confidently and it does them no harm ; and upon
this proof of their innocence they are acquitted, and their
accuser in punishment of the false testimony borne against
them becomes the slave of him whom he falsely accused, and
forfeits all his property and his wife and children, half going
to the king and the other half to him who was accused." ^
^ R. C. F. Maugham, Portuguese Eastern Africa, vii. (1 901) p. 204.
East Africa (London, 1906), pp. 276- Compare id., in John Pinkerton's
278. General Collection of Voyages and
2 J. dos Santos, "Eastern Ethiopia," Travels (London, 180S-1814) .xvi.
in G. McCall Theal's Records of South- 690.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 377
Passing still northward we con:ie to the Zambesi. Among The poison
the Bantu tribes which inhabit the valley of this great °n f^e
river and the regions north of it, now comprised within Zambesi
Northern Rhodesia and British Central Africa, the poison Northern
ordeal flourishes, or used till lately to flourish, in rank ^^o'^J^^'^ ,
' . .. and British
luxuriance. On this subject a well-mformed writer tells us central
that " on the Zambesi the poison ordeal is a great institu- ^*^^'^^-
tion. When a death has occurred in a village through an
accident with a lion or a crocodile, the diviner is called in
to smell out the sorcerer. When suspicion is fixed on a
person he has to undergo the poison ordeal, the theory of
which is this : people use magic so as to eat human flesh
without being detected. By magic they change themselves
into crocodiles or lions, and lie in wait for the person they
wish to eat ; having eaten the person, they change them-
selves back into human beings again by magic. Now, it is
supposed that if a person has human flesh in his stomach
the poison will work inwardly and kill the person, for it
combines with the human flesh he has eaten. If, however,
he has eaten no human flesh the poison will be vomited up.
Thus, a person who is accused of eating human flesh will
say: 'I am quite certain I have eaten no human flesh, and so
the poison will be at once rejected by my stomach. Yes: give
me the poison, that I may prove that I am innocent' People
have been known to beg for this ordeal when they m.ight have
sought British protection. Their faith in the theory was so
absolute that they preferred to demonstrate their innocence to
all. There is a saving clause in the ordeal occasionally. A Animals as
hen or a goat may be substituted for the man, and the poison [j^e ordeal,
is then given by proxy to the animal ; if it dies under the
test the man is declared guilty, but not otherwise. This ordeal,
of course, is strictly forbidden in British territory ; but the
policing of the country is so inadequate that it probably still
goes on secretly, though not so frequently as of old. The
people would never inform against their own kith and kin."^
When Livingstone was descending the Zambesi, he Livingstone
visited the village of a chief named Monina, situated on the ^ison
river some distance above Tete, between the 32° and 33° ordeal in
c n T . , the valley
of east longitude. "As we came away from Monina s of the
1 Dudley ICidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), pp. 185 sq. Zambesi.
378 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
village," says the traveller, " a witch-doctor, who had been
sent for, arrived, and all Monina's wives went forth into the
fields that morning fasting. There they would be compelled
to drink an infusion of a plant named goJio^ which is used
as an ordeal. This ceremony is called jnuavi, and is per-
formed in this way. When a man suspects that any of his
wives have bewitched him, he sends for the witch-doctor,
and all the wives go forth into the field, and remain fasting
till that person has made an infusion of the plant. They
all drink it, each one holding up her hand to heaven in
attestation of her innocency. Those who vomit it are con-
sidered innocent, while those whom it purges are pronounced
guilty, and put to death by burning. The innocent return
to their homes, and slaughter a cock as a thankoffering to
their guardian spirits. The practice of ordeal is common
among all the negro nations north of the Zambesi. This
summary procedure excited my surprise, for my intercourse
with the natives here had led me to believe, that the women
were held in so much estimation that the men would not
dare to get rid of them thus. But the explanation I received
was this. The slightest imputation makes them eagerly
desire the test ; they are conscious of being innocent, and
have the fullest faith in the muavi detecting the guilty alone ;
hence they go willingly, and even eagerly, to drink it.
When in Angola, a half-caste was pointed out to me, who is
one of the most successful merchants in that country ; and
the mother of this gentleman, who was perfectly free, went,
of her own accord, all the way from Ambaca to Cassange,
to be killed by the ordeal, her rich son making no objection.
The same custom prevails among the Barotse, Bashubia, and
Animals as Batoka, but wlth slight variations. The Barotse, for instance,
theonieai. pou^ the medicine down the throat of a cock or of a dog,
and judge of the innocence or guilt of the person accused,
according to the vomiting or purging of the animal." ^
1 David Livingstone, Missionary Livingstone, The Last Journals (Lon-
Travels and Researches in South Afi-ica don, 1874), i. 134 sq. As to the
(London, 1857), pp. 621 sq. Com- ordeal among the Barotse, see Eugene
pare David and Charles Livingstone, Beguin, Les Ma-rots^ (Lausanne and
Narrative of an Expedition to the Fontaines, 1903), pp. 127 sq. ; Lionel
Zambesi and its Tributaries (London, Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa
1865), pp. 120 (as to the Manganja), (London, 1898), p. 76,
and p. 231 (as to the Batoka) ; David
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 379
Among the A-Louyi of the Upper Zambesi, a suspected Poison
sorcerer must first plunge his hands into a cauldron of boil- ^^^^^"^
^ ° among the
ing water, and if they are scalded he is then subjected to A-Louyi.
the poison {inwati) ordeal. Should he fail to prove his
innocence by vomiting the poison, he is placed on a sort of
scaffold ^nd burnt alive. A chief accused of sorcery may
undergo the ordeal by proxy, the poison being swallowed
for him by a slave or a fowl.^
Among the Bantu tribes of British Central Africa the The poison
poison ordeal is, or rather was, commonly employed for the among the
detection of witchcraft ; and with these people witchcraft is tribes of
closely associated with cannibalism. The witch or wizard central
is called " an eater of men." This need not imply that he Africa.
,..-,., Association
has actually eaten anybody ; it merely signifies that he has of witch-
caused, or has tried to cause, the death of some person for craft and
' ' ^ cannibal-
the purpose of battening on the corpse. Such an imputa- ism.
tion is, as has been pointed out, just the reverse of the
vampire superstition, according to which the dead rise from
the grave in order to suck the blood of the living. But,
unlike the belief in vampires, the belief in cannibals need
not be a mere superstition, it may correspond to a real
practice. It is said that cannibalism of this sort is actually
prevalent among the Anyanja, one of the tribes of this
region, that among the Yaos, another tribe of British
Central Africa, there exist secret societies which indulge in
cannibalistic orgies, and that such practices have been
spreading of late years.^ The task of detecting the witch
or wizard is commonly entrusted to a witch-doctor {inabisalila Thewitch-
or maviimbula), a woman who dances up and down in a dance! ^
state of frenzy before the assembled people, smelling their
hands to discover the scent of the human flesh they are
thought to have consumed, till she proclaims aloud the
name of the supposed culprit. The enraged crowd usually
kills the accused on the spot.^ But if for the time being he
escapes with his life, he may be compelled to submit to the
poison ordeal. However, that ordeal is not confined to
cases of witchcraft ; it is a regular form of judicial procedure
' E. Jacottet, &tttdes sur les langues Tnbes of British Central Africa (Lon-
du Haut-Zamlieze, Troisieme Partie, don, 1906), pp. 84 sq., 98 note.
Textes Loiiyi (Paris, 1901), pp. 155 sq.
2 Miss A, Werner, The Native ^ Miss A. Werner, op. cit. pp. 89 sq.
38o
THE BITTER WATER
Faith of
the natives
in the
justice of
the ordeal.
The poison
employied
in the
ordeal in
British
Central
Africa.
for the discovery of crime, such as theft or other offences.
And the intervention of the witch-doctor is not necessary to
put the ordeal in operation. Anybody who feels himself
under a cloud of suspicion may demand it in order to clear
his character. So firm is the belief of the natives in the
powerlessness of the poison to harm the innocent, that none
except conscience-stricken criminals ever seem to shrink from
the trial. On one celebrated occasion at Blantyre, when the
life of the accused was saved by an impetuous Scotsman,
who rushed into court and kicked over the pot of poison at
the critical moment, the rescued man bitterly resented the
intervention and owed his rescuer a grudge for the rest of
his life. He complained that, by thus tampering with the
source of justice at the fountain-head, the Scotsman had
prevented him from vindicating the spotless purity of his
character, which must thenceforth languish under the cold
shade of popular suspicion and distrust.^ Indeed, faith in
the infallibility of the poison ordeal is said to be the most
deeply rooted article in the creed of these people ; if they
believe in anything, it is in this ordeal.^
Throughout British Central Africa the poison employed
in the ordeal is extracted from the pounded bark of the
tree Erythrophleum guineense, and is popularly known as
muavi, mwavz, or mwai. It is prepared by a special official
called the " pounder " {inpondela or maponderd), who is not
always identical with the witch-doctor. When it has been
decided to hold a trial by ordeal, this personage is sent for
and brews the deadly stuff in presence of the assembled
people by pounding the bark, steeped in water, in a small
wooden mortar with a pestle, which has a cover fixed round
it to prevent the liquid from splashing out. The infusion
so produced is red in colour and very bitter in taste. Its
effect is fatal within an hour or two, unless it causes sickness
and vomiting, which are accordingly accepted as signs of
innocence, while death under the influence of the drug is,
as usual, regarded as an incontrovertible proof of guilt.
However, so many who have drunk the poison escape with
1 Miss A. Werner, op. cit. pp. 90,
169 sq., 174.
2 Rev. Duff Macdonald, Africana,
or the Heart of Heathen Africa (Lon-
don, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, 1882),
i. 160.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 381
their lives that presumably the dose varies in strength,
whether by accident or design. Certainly the " pounder "
has ample means of diluting the poison in accordance with
his own inclinations or the convincing nature of the argu-
ments supplied by the parties to the suit. The usual dose
is about half a pint ; the accused come up one by one to
drink, and then sit down on the ground to await results.
Hut in cases where public feeling is strongly against the
accused, the onlookers do not wait till the poison has pro-
duced its full effect, but despatch him as soon as it appears
that he cannot vomit. Sometimes the poison is taken by Animals as
proxy, being administered to a dog or a fowl, instead of to fjjg ordeal,
the accused man or woman, and according as the animal or
bird survives or perishes, so is the accused innocent or guilty.
To indicate or to establish the relationship between the two,
each dog or fowl is tethered by a string to the person whom
it represents. This mode of demonstrating innocence or
guilt by deputy is, or was, often resorted to among the
Angoni and Mokololo. when the somewhat despotic chiefs
of these tribes commanded the inhabitants of a whole village
or even district to submit to the ordeal for the purpose of
discovering a real or imaginary criminal. In one famous
case, consequent on the suicide of a chiefs mother, so many
fowls were employed, and the verdicts they gave were so
contradictory, that it passed the wits of the natives to
reconcile them in a higher unity, and the trial had to be
abandoned altogether. Persons who» die under the ordeal
are not usually buried, but cast out into the wilderness to
be devoured by wild beasts. On the other hand those who
come out unscathed are entitled to receive compensation
from their accusers for the danger, discomfort, and obloquy
to which they have been subjected by false and malicious
accusations.^
So much for the poison ordeal in general, as it is prac- The poison
tised among the tribes of Northern Rhodesia and British parUcuiar
Central Africa. But as the custom varies somewhat from tribes of
... , 1. . 1 ,1 • 1 Northern
tribe to tribe, it may be well to supplement this general Rhodesia
1 Miss A. Werner, The Natives of Heathen Africa (London, 1882), i. 45. c"entS''^^
British Central Africa {X'OX^^ox^,\^Q^), \iy^ sq., 200, 204 sq. ; Sir Harry H. ^fj."^,^
pp. 90, 170 sqq., zb'isq.; Rev. Duff ]o\m=Xov^., British Central Africa {^on-
Macdonald, Africana, or the Heart of don, 1897), pp. 441, 468.
382
THE BITTER WA TER
The poison
ordeal
among the
Tumbuka
of British
Central
Africa. •
Confusion
of sorcery
and
poisoning.
Sorcery
associated
with
cannibal-
ism.
account by particulars drawn from the usages of different
tribes in this region.
For example, the Tumbuka employ the poison ordeal
to detect crimes which they class under the general head of
witchcraft or sorcery (ufwitt)^ but which Europeans would
distinguish as sorcery, poisoning, and cannibalism. In the
first place, they think that death or disease may be caused
either by sorcery or by poisoning, and, like the ancient
Greeks, they confound these two very different things under
one name. In their language the sorcerer and the poisoner
are designated by one and the same term, nifiviti, just as in
Greek the two are designated by the single term pJiarmakeus
This confusion of different crimes under one name has led to
some confusion of law under British rule ; for in their deter-
mination to put down the constant charges of sorcery {ufwiti),
which were doing much harm in the villages, the authorities
made it a criminal offence for one person to charge another
with ufwiti, not noticing that thereby they were forbidding all
accusations of poisoning {iifwiti) also, which is by no means,
like sorcery, a purely imaginary crime, but on the contrary
is a very real and dangerous one. For there is no doubt
that several deadly poisons are known to the natives, and as
little doubt, apparently, that among them bad men do some-
times employ these drugs to kill their fellows. The two
poisons of which the Tumbuka, rightly or wrongly, stand
most in fear are the gall of the crocodile and the gall of the
hartebeest ; and accordingly when either of these two beasts
is killed, great and public care is taken to place the poison
out of the reach of any ill-disposed person. For example,
whenever the missionary who records these beliefs shot a
hartebeest, his men always brought the gall publicly to him,
and requested him to dispose of it with his own hands.
They forbore to hide it themselves, lest afterwards a suspicion
might attach to any one of them that, knowing where it
was, he had returned, dug it up, and made use of its baneful
properties.^ But the name of sorcery {ufwiti) was also
given to another real, not imaginary, offence against society,
which consisted in devouring the bodies of the dead. " When
a man became possessed by that form of 7ifwiti which must
' Donald Fraser, Winning a Primitive People (London, 1914), pp. 143 sq.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA • 383
have been madness with cannibalistic tendencies, retribution
soon followed. He was the worst type of sorcerer. He
became restless, and every night left his house and wandered
about in the bush. He dug up corpses from the graves and
ate them. He danced, naked, among the cattle at night,
and did many other unmentionable things. If any one
caught him at his sport, he killed him, in very cruel fashion,
and the body was thrown aside. Neither the avenger nor
any of the villagers spoke about the cause of his death, for
it was an unmentionable shame to the whole community.
But sometimes men were suspected of being nifwiti, though
no one saw them in the act of their vile behaviour, and then
the suspected man was made to drink a strong mixture of
poison. After he had drunk it, he was not allowed to sit
down until it acted ; should he vomit, he proved his in-
nocence, and his accusers had to pay him compensation, but
if he died his body was burned in a great fire outside the
village, and a heap of stones was thrown over him." ^ So
incessant was the use of the ordeal in the Tumbuka and
Tonga tribes, that in nearly every hut a bundle of the
poison-bark might be found hidden away in the roof, ready
to be used when occasion should serve. For domestic
quarrels as well as public differences were settled by an
appeal to this infallible touchstone."
In the Awemba tribe of Northern Rhodesia the poison The poison
{mwavi) used in the ordeal is generally obtained from the among the
bark of the Ervthrophleum s-uineense tree, which the Awemba Awemba
• 7 7 , • • • r • 1 1 1^ 1 ofNorthern
call wikalampiingu, but sometimes it is furnished by the Rhodesia,
bark of other trees. When the case to be tried is a serious Ceremony
one, the chief used to send some of his people into the forest jj^^ ^^^^
to obtain the fatal bark. With them they took the medicine- from the
man and a naked child. On reaching the tree they prayed p'^json
and laid down some small white beads, apparently as an ordeal,
offering to the spirit who resides in the tree. Having thus
paved the way for their depredations, they proceeded to
beat the trunk of the tree with a stout log till the bark fell
off in strips. Only such flakes as dropped off under their
blows might be used to brew the poison. They were tied
1 Donald Fraser, Winning a Primi- 2 w. A. Elmslie, Among the Wild
five People, pp. 164 sq. N,i;oni (London, 1899), p. 64.
384
THE BITTER WATER
Mode of
procedure
poison
ordeal.
up in a bundle of grass and placed in the hands of the
naked child, who carried them back to the village, riding on
the shoulders of an old man ; for the child's feet might
touch neither water nor mud, and the old man who bore
him must avoid molehills and fallen logs on the way. How-
ever, the bundle of poison was not carried into the village,
but deposited outside and there guarded by the medicine-
man and one of the chief's retainers. The accused had to
sleep that night outside of the village under close guard.
As he was taken to the place where he was to pass the
anxious hours till daybreak, the villagers would intone the
Song of Witchcraft, singing, " The mwavi tree desires the
father of sorcery," and repeating the usual formula, " If you
have not done this thing, may you survive ; but if you are
guilty, may you die ! " Early next morning the suspected
person was stripped naked, except for a girdle of leaves.
Should he still persist in protesting his innocence, he was
given the poisoned cup, which was sometimes handed him
by a young child. If on swallowing the draught he swelled
up without vomiting, it was regarded as proof positive of
his guilt, and unless the chief relented, the culprit's doom
v/as sealed ; he died with all the symptoms of violent poison-
ing. In the more serious cases, such as accusations of
witchcraft, the poison was almost invariably allowed to take
its course. The body was afterwards burnt by the medicine-
man, lest the dead wizard or felon should rise again as an
evil spirit to plague the village. Sometimes, before it was
burnt, the corpse was chopped into small pieces. The
children, and sometimes the whole family of the executed
criminal, were sold by the chief as slaves to the Arabs. If
the accused were lucky enough to vomit up the poison, the
chief would give him the Prayer of Absolution and declare
him innocent. But before he received this solemn absolu-
tion, he had to go naked into the forest and there clothe
himself in leaves only, until the chief sent him a present of
cloth to wear instead of the costume of our first parents.
Those who had accused him falsely had to pay a heavy
fine in slaves, cattle, or goods, which went to the chief,
though that dignitary bestowed a part of them on the injured
man. A good deal of trickery is said to have crept into
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 385
the administration of the ordeal. Sometimes the accused
might contrive to swallow an emetic just before gulping the
poison, and sometimes the medicine-man is reported to have
mixed an emetic with the draught, in consideration of a
bribe which he had accepted from the accused or his friends.
When the accused was a man of importance or a relative of Fowls as
the king, he might, as a particular favour, be allowed to fj^gordeai
drink the poison by deputy, a cock appearing as usual in
the character of his proxy at the bar of justice.^
It deserves to be noticed that among the Awemba, as AssodatioD
among the neighbouring tribes of British Central Africa, the pofson^fn^'
crimes of sorcery, poisoning, and cannibalism appear to be and canni-
compounded, or confounded, in the native mind. That the
sorcerers sometimes reinforced their enchantments by the
use of deadly poisons, which they administered to their
victims in porridge or beer, is said to be certain ; and the
belief that they further indulged in ghoulish banquets among
the graves is deeply rooted. As the Awemba are an
offshoot from the cannibal tribe of the Waluba, it is not
incredible that certain depraved wretches should gratify
their hereditary craving after human flesh in this disgusting
manner.^
Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of British Central Association
Africa the conceptions of sorcery, poisoning, and cannibalism poiso^nrng,'
seem also to run into each other. In many cases of illness, and canni-
and in all which prove fatal, the sickness is ascribed to the amon-^'the
machinations of a sorcerer {mfiti), who may compass the Nyanja-
death of his victim by placing magical stuff at the door of tHbL'of
the man's hut, or burying it in the path along which he ^'"'''sh
must pass, or slipping it into the beer which he is about to Africa.
drink, all for the purpose of killing the poor wretch first and
' Cullen Gouldsbury and Hubert through Equatorial Africa, from the
Sheane, Tlie Great Plateau of Northern Congo to the Zambesi (London, 1S91),
Rhodesia (London, 1911), pp. 54 -f^-. p. 276. Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, suggests
61 sq. ; J. C. C. Coxhead, The to me that the poison used by the
Native Tribes of North-Eastern Rho- Awemba may be procured from tlie
desia, their Laws and Customs (Lon- Erythrophleu7n pubistamineutn rather
don, 1914), p. 16. The poison ordeal, ih&n ixomihtErj'throphleumguineense.
as it is practised by the Awemba See above, p. 310.
(Wawemba), Wakondes, and Wawiwa ' Cullen Gouldsbury and Hubert
of this region, is briefly noticed by Sheane, The Great Plateau ofA'orthem
H. von Wissmann, My Second Journey Rhodesia, p. 91.
VOL. HI 2 C
386 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
eating his body afterwards ; for apparently in the opinion
of these people a poison which you step over in the door-
way or the path is quite as fatal in its operation as one
which you have taken into your stomach. Some sorcerers,
it is said, do not prey on the bodies of their victims, but
most of them commit murder for the express purpose of
glutting their cannibal appetites. On the night when the
murdered man is buried, his murderer is believed to beat
a drum and light a fire near the grave, to attract the atten-
tion of his fellow witches and wizards, who come flocking
like vultures to carrion. Common folk, indeed, cannot see
these ghouls, but they sometimes catch sight of their fires
twinkling in the darkness of night. The cannibals are
supposed to gather at the grave, men, women, and children,
it may be, to the number of fifty or sixty, and to call on
the dead man by his child-name. Up he comes to the
surface of the ground, and being restored to life he looks
about, but he cannot speak. Sometimes to facilitate his
ascent they dig away the earth. Having resuscitated him,
they kill him a second time with the tail of a black-tailed
gnu, and cut up his body, which in the process appears to
be miraculously multiplied, for sometimes the flesh fills no
less than one hundred baskets. This crime, real or imaginary
of devouring the dead is said to be the only vice for which
the natives have a genuine abhorrence. When a death has
. taken place, the blame of it is commonly laid at the door of
a relation, who has brought it about by sorcery in the native
sense, which, as we have seen, may signify either witchcraft
The poison or poisoning. To discover the actual culprit, the chief
hi these commands all the relations to drink the poison (inwavi).
tribes. Sometimes apparently all the inhabitants of a village must
submit to the ordeal. The medicine-man comes to the
village the night before the trial is to take place, and he
brings with him the little wooden mortar, into which he
chips the bark. A man and a woman are appointed by the
chief to stand by while the bark is being chipped. If in
the process of pounding the bark a chip flies out towards
the woman, then women will die under the ordeal ; but if it
flies out towards the man, then men will die. When the
bark has been triturated, the medicine-man sends people to
I
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 387
fetch water, and when they bring it, he pours it into the
mortar. Then, after walking round the crowd, he dips a
small cup into the poison, brings it up half full, and passes
it to the man and woman who stand next him ; and they
say, " If we are witches or wizards {infiti), let this kill us ;
but if not, may we vomit before the sun grows hot." After
that, all drink, the men and women standing in line, a
woman behind each man. The headman of the village
drinks first, and each man drinks with a woman, generally
man and wife. After they have drunk they sit down.
Those who are going to vomit kneel with their hands on
the ground in front. Those who are going to die sit still
and do not talk ; they throw their heads from side to side,
and fall backward in convulsions. Death follows in ten or
fifteen minutes. There is no beating of drums, and the
medicine-man looks on in silence. When all is over, the
dead are dragged out of the village and burnt. The medi-
cine-man is paid with the calico stripped from the corpses,
and immediately takes his departure.^
The ordinary procedure on such occasions is minutely Native
described in a native Nyanja account of the poison ordeal, orthe^''°°
which I here reproduce in a literal translation, because in its poison
pathetic simplicity and directness it brings home to us, better among the
than any laboured rhetorical description could do, the tragedy Nyanja-
of those scenes in which, over a great part of Africa, super- tribes,
stition under the mask of justice has from time immemorial
claimed and carried off innumerable victims.
"In the event of a chief's wife dying, or perhaps his The
child, the chief holds a consultation with the village elders, "^edicine-
' o ' man
saying, ' You at the village here, we wish to consult the summoned
oracle.' At the * chief's ' ordeal they summon all the head-
men, but in the case of the ' people's ' ordeal, every one
partakes of the poison. When they see that people are often
dying, they talk it over with the headmen, saying, ' Look here
at the village, here people are dying and we wish to summon
the medicine-man, that he may follow up the clue for us at
the village.' So they send one youth to summon the medicine-
' H. S. Stannus, "Notes on some tute, xl. (1910) pp. 293, 299, 301 sq.,
tribes of British Central Africa, "yi?//;-- 305.
nal of the Royal Anthropological Insti-
388
THE BITTER WATER
The ordeal
announced.
The people
assemble to
drink the
poison.
The
medicine-
man
prepares
the poison.
man. He arrives very late in the evening. They put him
in some hut, without people knowing that he has come. In
the morning a young man gets up, and goes and stands at
the open space in the village [where the men sit and talk,
and where the different disputes are settled], and when he
has climbed on an ant-hill, that all men may hear, he says,
' Do you hear, you must not eat your nsima porridge to-
day ; he who is asleep let him arise that he may himself
hear. They are saying you all must bathe, you taste a little
of the beer that is not sweet, to-day.'
" He who was about to have his morning sup, pushes
aside his flour against the hut wall, he begins to hide his
household goods, for, says he, ' How do we know we shall
return from there ? ' And all their beads are taken off.
When they see the sun is beginning to rise, every one
assembles. And then they begin to pick out some strong
young men, saying, 'So-and-so must stay behind, and So-
and-so, they must look after their companions and keep guard
over the village, lest the medicine-man's children begin to
pillage the property of them who do not die.' And then they
begin to set out to go to the spot the poison is to be drunk
at, and they carry in readiness a grain mortar and a pestle
(just any mortar), and follow the path in single file, and come
to where the witch-doctor is, and he begins to arrange them
in a line ; they do not turn their backs to the sun, the women
spread out in one line, the men in another. The place is
black with people. The medicine-man has his feather head-
dress on, and goat's-hair bands are round his wrists. And
then some old man gets up to present that for which the
medicine is pounded, perhaps a goat, and this is for opening
his bag [where he keeps the poison].
" Thereupon the doctor says, ' Give to me the spirit of
the dead.' Then that old man gets up, and going up to the
village chief, tells him, ' The doctor is seeking the spirit of
the dead.' And the chief speaks, saying, ' Well, and know
you not them who have died here ? ' And then the old man
gives him, the doctor, the spirit, saying, ' Here So-and-so
and So-and-so have died, and it is on their account we summon
you.' Then the pounder of the poison says, ' Give to me the
partakers of human flesh who have eaten these ones you
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 389
name.' And then they call up two people, a man and a
woman, saying, ' Let her of the race of the Hills, and him of
such and such a clan come here.' And they whom they thus
called come and stand near the mortar. Then the pounder
of the ordeal poison opens his monkey-skin wallet, pulls out
the poison bark, and breaks it off into the mortar with a
hippo's tooth. When he is chipping it off, he does not finish
all the bark he has in his hand, he chips off a little and
leaves the rest. When he is doing this the bark jumps, and
falls on the left, and again on the right. They surely know
that here to-day wonders will befall and that men will die
and women. Then the medicine-man says, ' Give us men to
go and draw water.' Then the old man asks, ' How many
men shall we bring ? ' And perhaps he says, ' Bring three,
because the people are many,' and the doctor tells them,
' You must not glance behind, but just draw the water and
return.' (Lest they give warning to the flesh-eaters.) When
he has finished cutting down the bark, he bids his attendant
' begin to pound.' They do not pound the poison bark as
they would grain, they pound, thud ! thud ! and turn the
pestle in the hands. While the attendant is pounding, the
pounder of the bark keeps tapping rat, tat, tat, on the mortar,
with his monkey-stick [which the monkeys use for digging
roots], and chants —
" You have heard mother of children^ The song
Mother of children of Ku/idajiiva. of the
Indiscriminate slaughter is the gatne war plays, mtn"^'"*^'
// sleiu the baboon at Bongwe.
When you slay let your victims fall backward not forward.
Bag, make the poison hear my words.
You are come i?tto the village, you are their advocate.
They say, that here so and so and so and so have died.
It is to plead for them you have been summoned.
There they are, she of the house of the Hills, and he of So and So's
clan.
She of the Hills, it is she who has taken the basket.
He, the man, took the little sharp knife.
If it be not you, on the spot, on the spot, you >nust vomit.
If it be you.
Oh slay, slay, slay.
" When they come with the water, the medicine-man takes The water
a water-jar full, and pours it into the mortar. You can hear u°e"poison.
390
THE BITTER WATER
PART IV
the froth come foaming up, and then he draws a cup of the
poison and struts about stirring it with his monkey-stick, and
uttering this incantation —
The
medicine-
man's
incantation.
" Pick them out, pick them out, pick them out.
You see only the morning's sun, its rays -when sinkijtg in the ivest
you must not see.
A re you not that one f
You ivent to Zomba,
You beat the drum.
It was heard in the ' Never-reach-there coufttry ' oj the fly^
The spurred fly.
There is a squint-eyed lizard there.
If it were not you who beat that drum.
You must vomit.
If it were you,
You must die.
" You went into the regions of the air,
You captured a ray of the sun.
You likened it unto a girdle.
Saying, ^ Do you be my strength.
That when the poison cotnes.
You will give me the mastery over it,
I shall win.
This girdle do you sever, sever, sever.
You sivallowed the egg of a fish-eagle.
That the poison when it came might becojne as naught,
This egg you must smash.
** You took the spleen of a crocodile,
You laid it in your heai-t.
You took a pythoji^s belly,
You swallozved it, that power might be yours.
Do you [my poison bark'\ rend these.
" You took wax,
You smeared it on your feet.
Going in your ?ieighbours' fields.
Going with stealthy tread to gather up his grain,
To djist ofi" again in your own garden.
Your companions are in want,
You have wealth to overflowing.
When you see your neighbours child.
You say, ' Why should he walk thus at large ?
But surely I had better have eaten him}
He who thinks thus shall enter here [into the mortar].
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 391
" The broken gourd-cups off the grave you beat together^ that they
might turn into snakes.
Was it not you %uho sang the song, saying,
' If it be large and heavy, if it be large and heavy, if it be large and
heavy.
They go about rolling it.
If it be small and light, they just lift it' [the corpse].
Was it not you who sang so f
I seem to think I heard you.
*' That little razor have you brought it now ?
'■No, I have forgotten if [supposed answer\
" Maiden, beautiful maiden, E ! E ! E .'
You took the arm-bones of the children of men.,
You used to go and da?ice with them,
The squint-eyed lizard is on his seat, and
Sounding the drum, ,
Wheeling ever one way.
Now in the opposite direction, see they have rent the drum.
" There is a thing that walks by night.
There is sotnething that comes by day.
It has seen hitn.
"'No, to-day we have met each other, the boundary is The
there, from the east to the zenith is yours, from the zenith '^an'"'^^"
to the west is mine alone.' He kneels down where one of administers
the human flesh-eaters is, he does not address the demon "^ ^°'^
himself, but talks with another who is next him, and says,
* My child, where did you get your black magic ? Did you
get it that you might be all-powerful, you alone ? ' When
he gets up he exclaims, ' I have got you, you must not
escape, you must go in there, in there, you must enter here '
[into the mortar]. When he sees that his attendant has
finished pounding the poison, he takes some water and pours it
into the mortar, and stirs it, and removes the dregs and takes
two gourd-cups, and fills them with the poison. The woman
and the man, they are the first to drink. Then the doctor
makes every one else do so. Two men drink, he draws again,
and gives two women. And so on until all have partaken.
"Then the witch-finder says, 'That beer I had great The effects
trouble in buying, you must not waste it, no, you there, we p^j^^J, .
only told vou to sip it, do not you see it is a small pot ? ' how the
r' . , , . r ji_ people die.
Then he knocks down the mortar with his foot, and beats
392
THE BITTER WATER
The test of
innocence.
Stripping
the dead.
The spirits
of the dead
driven
awaj'.
The guilt
of the
medicine-
man.
together two pieces of metal. When he sees that one hun:ian
flesh-eater is dead, he says he has caused the mortar to fall.
Some, when dying, cry out [like a hyena], ' Uwi, uwi ' ; and
people know he u.sed to transform himself into that animal ;
should he roar like a lion, they know he was at times that
mighty beast. Others again, when dying, clench their hands.
Should they clench one hand, it is known they have eaten
five people ; if they clench both, men know their victims
have been ten. When all have vomited, he causes the
survivors to jump over the path. When he sees a man
has jumped, he knows that one is an ordinary person and
not an eater of human flesh, and the reason the doctor knows
this is because he has washed the poison with a medicine
made from the siswiri mouse [and it cannot cross a path and
live]. Then the medicine-man says, ' Let them return to the
village now, where a tree has fallen you cannot hide the fall
thereof.' Any one who has withstood all these tests, on
seeing the grass tuft on his hut, dies. When the doctor
hears a man has died, he goes to the place to strip him of
his cloth and cut off the belt of beads from his waist. Of
them who die at the drinking- place and who are free born,
their friends make some payment to the doctor, saying,
' Let me go and bury them.' Should the dead man be a
slave they burn the body. They who remained behind at
the village will drink on the morrow. The pounder of the
poison, on returning to his home, is given a goat, perhaps a
slave whose father has died from the poison. Anything the
dead human flesh-eaters may have worn, the doctor takes
home with him and washes his poison bark with it, that it
may still retain its virtue. In the case of a man who dies
from drinking the poison, his spirit is not brought back to
the village, but is driven out into the bush." ^
This naive account of the poison ordeal sheds quite
unconsciously a very sinister light on the part played in it
by the medicine-man, for it shows that he has a personal
and sentences. I have restored the
sense by altering the order of some
words and sentences, without adding or
subtracting anything. On the last line
but one of p. 86 I have corrected a
grammatical slip ("them" for "they
whom ").
1 R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folk-
lore Stones and Songs in Chinyanja,
with English translation and notes
(London, 1907), pp. 85-92. In this
passage the last seven lines at the foot
of p. 91 are in some confusion through
the accidental transposition of words
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 393
interest in killing as many of the people as possible, since
he appropriates their clothes and ornaments ; in fact, he is
paid in direct proportion to the number of murders he com-
mits. Accordingly each one of these public poisoners has
a pecuniary motive for fostering and confirming in the minds
of the deluded people that faith in the discriminative power
of the poison from which he derives a part, perhaps the most
considerable part, of his income. We may charitably hope
that not all members of the profession are actuated by the
basest motives and are wholly callous to the suffering which
they inflict ; but the analogy of the criminal classes in
civilized society makes it probable that among African
medicine-men there are not a few ruthless wretches who
take to the lucrative business of poisoning as an easy
means of earning a livelihood, and who are as indifferent
to the agonies of their victims as to the infamy of their
own behaviour.
The use of the poison ordeal is familiar also to the The poison
Bantu tribes of German East Africa. Thus in the dis- °;^Jng the
trict of Mkulwe or Mkurue, to the south of Lake Rukwa, Bantu
when the sickness of a chief, or the death of important German
people in rapid succession, is traced by the medicine-man to East
witchcraft, that powerful personage requires that every in-
habitant of the village shall prove his innocence or guilt by
drinking a decoction of the poisonous moavi {inwavi) bark.
As usual, innocence is proved by vomiting up the poison,
and guilt by retaining it in the stomach and dying from its
effect. The use of the ordeal is now forbidden under heavy
penalties, but it is still sometimes resorted to in secret, and
most of the natives retain their faith in its infallibility. When
the young wives of old men are suspected of adultery, they
are allowed to clear their character by a milder form of the
ordeal. A piece of the bark is thrown into boiling water,
and the accused must twice dip both hands slowly into the
seething fluid. If she is scalded, she is guilty and must
name her paramour, who is obliged to pay a heavy fine,
while as a rule the woman escapes with nothing worse than
scalded hands.^
^ Alois Hamberger, "Religiose Uberlieferungen und Gebraucheder Landschaft
Mkulwe," Anthropos, iv. (1909) p. 315.
394 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
The poison Again, among the Wafipa, who occupy the country on
amon^o- the ^^ south-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, between 7° and
Wafipa of 8° of south latitude, when a man has been accused of a
Eas™^"^ crime, and the testimony adduced against him appears to the
Africa. judges insufficient to establish his guilt, the prosecutor may
demand that the accused shall undergo the poison ordeal.
This demand he has a legal right to make, and if he insists
on it, the tribunal cannot refuse to grant him this satisfaction.
However, to prevent litigants from lightly and heedlessly
pushing matters to an extremity, the plaintiff in such cases
is required to pay down caution money to the value of about
six francs, and is warned that if the ordeal should go against
him he will be liable to the payment of a heavy fine. The
poison imwavi) to be employed in the trial is extracted from
the bark of a tall and handsome tree, of which the natives
distinguish two species. The action of the poison derived
from the one tree is almost instantaneous ; the action of the
poison derived from the other is less rapid and violent. It
is the latter poison which is used in the ordeal. The day
before the parties submit their case to this final arbitrament,
they present themselves before the judges, each of them
bringing his mattock in his hand. There they throw their
mattocks in the air and observe anxiously on which side they
fall. He whose mattock falls with the convex side up will
win his case ; and he whose mattock falls with the concave
side up will lose his case. If the omen is against the accused,
he accepts it as a prognostic of his approaching doom, and
bursts into loud lamentations, while the accuser on the other
hand experiences a corresponding elevation of spirits. Next
morning, in presence of the whole village, the bark of the
poison tree is pounded to fine powder in a mortar, and two
pinches of the powder are thrown into a cup of water, which
is given to the accused to drink. Having drained the cup
he paces up and down the public place of the village, gesticu-
lating violently in his effort to vomit the poison, and for the
same purpose he is allowed to swallow from time to time
some mouthfuls of cold water handed to him by a child.
But a watch is kept on him, for within twenty-four hours he
must either vomit or die. If he vomits, he is, as usual, de-
clared innocent, and his accuser is bound to pay a sum equal
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 395
to, or greater than, the accused would have had to pay if his
guilt had been established. If he dies, his family must either
pay a fine or be seized as slaves. Fear of these serious con-
sequences induces some caution in making appeals to the
poison ordeal ; often, in the uncertainty of the event, the
relations both of the accuser and of the accused take to
flight before the fateful day, lest in the case of an adverse
verdict they should be sold into slavery. In recent times Mitigated
some of the native tribunals have mitigated the form of the o^dLi!
ordeal. The fruit of the mwavi tree is thrown into a vessel of
boiling water, and the accused must draw the fruit iloukousoii)
twice from the water with his hand. If his hand shows no
burns, he is declared innocent. Both sorts of ordeal may be
undergone by proxy in the person of a friend, a brother, or
a slave, unless the charge is one of sorcery. In that case
justice is never tempered with mercy : the poison cup is
always fatal to a sorcerer : his body is mangled by the
people with their spears and reduced to ashes on a pyre.^
The poison ordeal is also in vogue among the Wan- The poison
ya'mwesi, a large tribe who occupy an extensive country °mong the
of German East Africa to the south of the Lake Victoria Wanyam-
Nyanza. Here, too, the poison consists of an infusion wagogo.
of mwavi bark, which has been pounded between stones ; a-n^
. - - . Wahehe
here, too, to vomit the poison is a proof of mnocence, of German
and to retain it in the stomach is at once a demon- ^ast
Africa.
stration of guilt and a cause of death. Sometimes the
medicine-man (jngauga) administers the poison in the first
instance to a hen, which appears as proxy for the defendant.
But if all parties are not satisfied with the result of the ex-
periment on the fowl, there is no help for it but the defendant
must swallow the poison in his own person.^ Among the
Wagogo, another tribe of the same region, whose country
lies to the eastward of that of the Wanyamwesi, the custom
1 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aiix rives du not attempted to ilkistrate it in tliis
Tauganika (Algiers, 1913), pp. 104- essay. For some examples see A. H-
107. The name of the fruit {loukousou) Post, AfrikanischeJuHsprudiiiz(Q\Atn
here employed in the ordeal resembles burg and Leipsic, 1887), ii. 122 sq.
the name ' {lucasse) applied by Dos 2 (Sjr) Richard F. Burton, The Lake
Santos to the poison used in the Regions of Central ^/^vVa '(London,
ordeal in Sofala. See above, p. 376. i860), ii. 357 ; Franz Stuhlmann, yl///
The ordeal of boiling water or oil Emin Pascha ins Herz von Ajrika
is common in Africa, but I have (Berlin, 1894), p. 93.
396 THE BITTER WATER part iv
of the poison ordeal was similar, and in light cases it was
similarly permissible to administer the poison to a fowl
instead of to the accused. The poison was, as usual, an in-
fusion of the pounded bark of the mwavi tree {Erythrophleum
guineense)} Among the Wahehe, who occupy the country
to the east of the Wagogo, the ordeal was again similar, and
similarly in lighter cases the poison might be administered
to a dog or a fowl instead of to the accused. The German
officer, who reports the practice, was unable to ascertain the
precise nature of the poison employed in the ordeal ; but he
tells us that it was imported from Ungoni, and that to meet
the cases as they occurred the sultan or head chief used to
procure a supply of the poison in advance.^
^deai"''"'' Among the Wa-Giriama, a Bantu tribe of British East
among the Africa who inhabit a strip of country some miles inland from
ariama of ^^^ ^°^^^' ^letween Kilifi and the Sabaki River, when a person
British apparently in good health dies suddenly, the relations consult a
Africa. medicine-man {inganga) as to whether the death was due to
natural causes or not. If the man of skill, after due investiga-
tion, decides that the deceased was killed by somebody, he will
further denounce the murderer by name, and if the accused
denies his guilt, he is compelled to submit to the poison
ordeal. The medicine -man, accompanied by an assistant,
goes out into the forest and there collects the roots and
leaves of a certain plant called mbareh. These he places in
a wooden mortar, and pouring water on them beats them to
pieces with a pestle. Some of the infusion is then decanted
into a coco-nut and given to the accused to drink, while at
the same time he is informed that, if he is innocent, the potion
will do him no harm, whereas if he is guilty, he will die.
Should he refuse to drink, he is put to death by the relations
of the man whom he is alleged to have murdered.^ Among
Jrdea^i°''°" ^^^ Wanika of British East Africa, who include a number oi
among the tribes or sub-tribes inhabiting the country a little way inland
Sdsh'' °^ ^^°"^ ^'^^ ^^^ ^" ^^^ south-eastern part of the territory, murder
East 1 Heinrich Claus, Z>/V W^a'^^^f^ (Leip- iv. (1913) p. 109.
Africa. sic and Berlin, 1911), pp. 55 sq.
{Baessler-Arckiv). 3 Captain W. E. H. Barrett, " Be-
2 E. Nigmann, Die Ha/ieke {BerVm, liefs of the Wa-Giriama, etc., British
1908), pp. 71 sq. Compare Otto East Africa," Journal of the Royal
Dempwolff, " Beitrage zur Volksbe- Anthropological Instiiute, xli. (1911)
schreiljungder Hehe,"^aejj'/£;--^r<r/42z;, p. 23.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 397
and sorcery are capital crimes, and if the evidence is inade-
quate or conflicting, a decision is obtained by recourse to an
ordeal. One of the ordeals in use consists in compelling the
accused to eat a piece of poisoned bread ; if he escapes un-
injured, he is deemed innocent, otherwise he is pronounced
guilty and punished accordingly.^ Among the Wawanga of The poison
the Elgon District, in British East Africa, when two persons "J^^^^^g ^j^^
have a dispute which they cannot settle peaceably between ^^■awaIlsa
themselves, a medicine -man will sometimes administer a £^st
potion to both of them, and the one who falls down in- Africa,
sensible after drinking the stuff loses his case and often his
life, being belaboured by the winner with sticks, which com-
plete the work begun by the draught. If both parties fall
down impartially, it is judged that the medicine or charm
has failed to work. Though we are not told, we may infer
that poison is one of the ingredients in the potion. This is
a general form of trial for all offences, and the results which
it yields are presumably in every case equally satisfactory."
The poison ordeal appears not to be employed by the Ordeais by
Nilotic tribes of British East Africa, though some of them bf^od"^
resort to ordeals by drinking in various forms. Thus among among the
the Masai, if a man is accused of having done a wrong, he su^of '
drinks blood given him by the accuser and says, " If I have British
done this deed, may God kill me." If he has really com- Africa.
mitted the offence, he is supposed to die, but to go unharmed
if he is guiltless.^ The Suk in like manner believe that blood
from a goat's neck, mixed with milk, will cause the death of
the liar who drinks it after laying a false claim to stolen
property ; also that water drunk from a stolen article will
cause the death of the thief or of a person who has borne
false witness in the case.*
At the present time the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo, a The poison
'^ Charles New, Life, Wanderings. * Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk,
ordeal
among
the
and Labours in Eastern Africa (Lon- their Language and Folklore (Oxford, g^ntu
don, 1883), pp. Ill J^. 1911)1 P- 28. Among the Akikuyu tribes of
tlie elders arrange a forced trial by Kavirondo.
ordeal of mining the urine of the two
parties, which both drink. The guilty
Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The
Wawanga and other tribes of the Elgon
District, British East Mnca.,"Joiirtial ^ V,, ,. . „,„„,u . :r „^;,v,/.-
/■ .r r, 1 A ^1 ^ 7 _• -/ i...i:i..i. ^^^ \\\\\ die in a month ; 11 neither
die 'both have told lies.'" See W.
of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
:liii. (1913) P- 42.
3 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford
[905), p. 345. (London, 1910), p. 213,
xliii. (1913) P- 42. Scoresby Routledge and Katherine
3 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, Routledge, With a Prehistoric People,
398 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
district situated at the north-eastern corner of Lake Victoria
Nyanza, have recourse to trial by ordeal only for the purpose
of settling cases of homicide, real or imaginary. They do
not acknowledge that death can take place through natural
causes. No sooner, therefore, has somebody died than some-
body else is suspected of having killed him either by casting
a spell over him or by secretly administering a dose of poison.
The witch-doctor of the tribe is accordingly sent for and re-
ceives an account of the symptoms which attended the sick-
ness and death of the deceased. Having maturely considered
them and consulted his colleagues, the sage denounces some
person as the murderer, and summons him to stand his trial.
If the accused admits his guilt, condemnation follows, and
the customary fine is imposed. But if he steadfastly protests
his innocence, the accuser challenges him to undergo the
ordeal. The mode of conducting the ordeal among these
tribes is as follows. The witch-doctor prepares a poisonous
concoction, which he mixes in native beer, and the chiefs
and their followers are invited to witness the proceedings.
In a circle formed by the crowd of spectators the accuser
and the accused stand facing each other and partake in
equal measure of the poisonous draught. If- the accused is
the first to fall senseless to the ground, he is declared to be
guilty. Judgment is there and then pronounced against him,
and confiscation of his goods follows. If he dies from the
poison, all funeral ceremonies are denied him ; his body is
thrown into the high grass to be devoured by wild beasts,
and his relations must pay compensation. Should the accuser
be the first to succumb under the action of the poison, another
trial is arranged to take place after a lapse of three days, and
in the meantime search is made for a substitute. These
dilatory tactics are persisted in until the patience of the
accused is exhausted and he admits his guilt and pays the
damages demanded of him. Should he, however, not only
deny his guilt but refuse to submit to the ordeal, his cattle
and other domestic animals are seized, his crops and fruit-
trees are cut down and destroyed, his huts are burned to the
ground, and he himself is driven forth from the society of
his tribesmen. None will admit him into their company, or
afford him food and shelter. If he removes farther off and
CHAP, V THE POISON ORDEAL IN AFRICA 399
builds a new hut, they follow him up and treat him again
in the same rigorous manner as before, until, worn out by-
persecution, he either sullenly professes his guilt or reluctantly
consents to undergo the ordeal. Sometimes, when the sup-
posed criminal proves recalcitrant, he is seized, pinned to
the ground by strong forked sticks pressed on his neck,
arms, and legs, and in this helpless position has the draught
forced down his throat.^ According to another account, the Proxies in
accuser and the accused in these ordeals may be represented "^ ""^^ •
by proxies, who swallow the poison for them ; and if the
plaintiff's proxy is the first to collapse, the case is quashed.^
The poison ordeal is also in use among the Basoga, a The poison
Bantu people who inhabit a district on the northern shore of °5,^^^g ^^^
Lake Victoria Nyanza. It is commonly resorted to in cases Basoga.
of doubt and difficulty. Accuser and accused drink a liquid
prepared from the madudu, a narcotic plant Or they may
depute the disagreeable task to their slaves, who swallow the
potion for them. The final appeal, however, is said to be to
the chief.^
Among the Baganda, a powerful Bantu nation, whose The poison
country adjoins that of the Basoga on the west, the poison °|^o^g ^^^^
ordeal was resorted to in cases where neither of two dis- Baganda.
putants could prove himself to be in the right, or where one
of them was dissatisfied with the judgment given by the
king. The poison was administered by a priest attached
to the temple of the war-god Kibuka. It bore the native
name of inadudu and was obtained by boiling the fruit of
the datura plant. A cup of the decoction was handed by
the priest to each of the parties, who after drinking it were
made to sit down until the drug should take effect. Mean-
time the priest also seated himself on the ground at a little
distance. When he thought that the poison had had time
to act, he bade the disputants arise, step over a plantain
stem, and come to him. If one of them was able to do
so, and could reach the priest, kneel, and thank him for
• Father Francis M. Burns (of the Sir Harry H. Johnston, The Uganda
Congregation of Mill Hill, Nyenga, Protectorate, Second Edition (London,
Uganda), "Trial by Ordeal among 1904), ii. 751.
the Bantu-Kavirondo," Anthropos, v. 3 ]\i. x. Condon, "Contribution to
(19 10) p. 808. the Ethnography of the Basoga-
2 C. \V. Hobley, Eastern Uganda Batamba, Uganda Protectorate," An-
(London, 1902), p. 21. Compare Mr^/^j, \n. (191 1) p. 3S2.
400
THE BITTER WATER
The poison
ordeal
among the
Banyoro.
Fowls as
proxies in
the ordeal.
The poison
ordeal
among the
Wawira.
settling the case, judgment was given in his favour. If
both contrived to reach the priest, they were thought to be
equally in the right ; if neither of thenn succeeded in reach-
ing him, they were considered to be equally in the wrong.
The immediate effect of the drug resembled intoxication,
but its consequences were frequently fatal. If one or both
of the suitors died from drinking the poison, their death
was accepted as the judgment of the god. A long period
of illness often followed the use of the drug, even when the
patient ultimately recovered.^
Among the Banyoro, another powerful Bantu nation,
whose territory adjoins that of their rivals the Baganda on
the west, the poison ordeal was similar. " When the king
was in doubt as to the rights of a case which had been
brought before him for trial, or should the parties appeal
to what was deemed the final test, the poison ordeal was
resorted to. The poison-cup contained a mixture made
from the seeds of the datura plant, which were boiled and
the water from them given to each of the litigants to drink.
After drinking the potion, the men sat for a time until the
drug had taken effect, when they were called upon to rise
and walk to the judge to hear his decision and thank him
for it. The person who was able to rise and walk to the
judge won the case. It was seldom that both men could
rise and walk, indeed in most cases one of them was un-
able to move and usually both of them suffered from a
long illness afterwards, and often one or other died. The
property of the person who died was confiscated, a portion
of it was given to the successful person, and the remainder
was given to the king." ^ Among the Banyoro, as among
many other African tribes, the poison was sometimes ad-
ministered to two fowls, which acted as proxies for the
human litigants.^
The Wawira, who inhabit the open grass-lands and dense
^ John Roscoe, The Bagatida (Lon-
don, 191 1), p. 341. The use of the
poison ordeal (muavi) among the Ba-
ganda is briefly mentioned by L. Decle,
Three Years in Sewage Africa (London,
1898), p. 450.
^ John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu
(Cambridge, 1915), pp. 23 sq.
^ Einin Pasha in Central Africa,
being a Collection of his Letters and
Journals (London, 1888), pp. 88 sq.
According to this account, the potion
was made from red wood, and the
ordeal went by the same name [madudu)
as in Uganda.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN MADAGASCAR 401
forests to the west of the southern end of Lake Albert
Nyanza, believe that death is always caused by sorcery.
Suspicion generally falls on the wives of a deceased man ;
hence on the death of a husband the widows commonly take
to flight. If the suspected witch is apprehended, she must
clear herself by the poison ordeal or perish in the attempt.
As ordinarily happens, to vomit up the poison is a proof of
innocence ; to retain it is at once a demonstration of guilt
and a cause of death.^
The poison ordeal is reported to be in vogue also The poison
among the Gallas of Eastern Africa, a race entirely dis- °J^ong the
tinct from the Bantus ; but particulars with regard to the Gaiias.
poison employed and the mode of procedure appear to be
wanting. Poisonous plants abound in the Galla country,
and the venom used for the perpetration of these judicial
murders is probably extracted from one of them. Unless
the judges favour the accused, the result of the ordeal is
generally fatal.^
§ 3. The Poison Ordeal in Madagascar
Many different ordeals were in use among the tribes of The poison
Madagascar, but of them all the poison ordeal was the most Mada-'"
famous. The poison was derived from the kernel of the gascar.
/-•/-t /^ T • • -^ a \ The poison
fruit of the tagena tree {Tanghima venemfera or venenejizia), used in the
a small and handsome tree which grows in the warmer ordeal
parts of the island. Used in small quantities, an extract of
the nut acts like an emetic, but in larger doses it is a
virulent poison. It was employed chiefly for the detection
of infamous crimes, such as witchcraft and treason, when
ordinary evidence could not be obtained. The people
believed that some supernatural power, a sort of " searcher
of hearts," inhered in the fruit, which entered into the sus-
pected person and either proved his innocence or established
his guilt. A portion of two kernels was rubbed down in
water or in the juice of a banana, and the accused had to
drink the infusion, having previously eaten a little rice and
1 Franz Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Nordost - Afrikas, die geistige CuUur
Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, der Dandkil, Galla und Somdl (EcxWn,
1894), pp. 377, 394. 1896), p. 54.
2 Philipp Paulitschke, Ethnographie
VOL. Ill . 2D
402
THE BITTER WATER
Faith of the
people in
the justice
of the
ordeal.
Form of
procedure
in the
ordeal.
Prayers
and curses
addressed
to the god
who resides
in the fruit
of the
poison tree.
swallowed three small pieces of fowl's skin. After a few
minutes tepid water was administered to him to cause
vomiting, and if he succeeded in throwing up the three
pieces of fowl's skin uninjured, he was deemed innocent.
Even when the ordeal was fairly administered, • it was
dangerous ; but often it was employed for the purpose of
getting rid of obnoxious persons, and in such cases it could
easily be manipulated so as to produce a fatal result. Yet
the people retained a firm faith in the supernatural virtue
of the ordeal, and often, strong in the consciousness of their
innocence, demanded of the authorities to have the poison
administered to them for the purpose of clearing their char-
acter from every shadow of suspicion. Sometimes the
inhabitants of whole villages drank the poison, and the
consequent mortality was very great. It was computed that
about one-tenth of the population took the poison in the
course of their lives, and that upwards of three thousand
perished by it every year. As the property of persons con-
victed by the ordeal was wholly confiscated, part of it
falling to the sovereign, part to the judges, and part to the
accusers, the pecuniary advantage w^iich a prosecutor reaped
from a successful prosecution served as a powerful incentive
to base and callous natures to swear away the lives of their
innocent fellows ; and many people afifirmed that the whole
institution rested at bottom on the vile passions of avarice
and unscrupulous greed. ^
When a person was accused of sorcery and had to
undergo the ordeal, he was taken out of doors and his head
was covered with a mat, after which he was led to the house
where the ordeal was to take place. Then the official who
presided at the trial prayed to the deity named Raimana-
mango, who was supposed to reside in the egg-shaped fruit
of the tangena tree. He said : " Hear, hear, hear, and
hearken well, O thou Raimanamango, searcher, trier, or test ;
thou art a round ^^'g made by God. Though thou hast no
eyes, yet thou seest ; though thou hast no ears, yet thou
hearest ; though thou hast no mouth, yet thou answerest \
1 Rev. William Ellis, History of 1880), pp. 281-283; Em. Perrot et
Madagascar (London, Preface dated i.m.Yogt, Poisons de Fleckes et Poisons
1838), i. 458-487 ; Rev. James Sibree, d'Eprettve (V&x'xs,, 1913), pp. 1/^2 sqq.
The Great African Island (London,
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN MADAGASCAR 403
therefore hear and hearken well, O Raimanamango ! " Next,
the presiding official solemnly cursed the accused if he
should be found guilty of sorcery, saying, " If thou findest
that he has the root of sorcery, or the trunk of sorcery, or
the leaves of sorcery, then kill him immediately, kill him
instantly, let him die forthwith, tear his flesh, wring or twist
his bowels, tear them into pieces. For thou, Raimana-
mango, art God, who wilt not permit sorcerers, that murder
people, to live ; therefore, if thou findest that he is guilty of
sorcery, kill him." Next he cursed the accused if he should
have a secret charm or antidote to counteract the effect of
the poison, saying, " Now though he flatters himself secure
while confiding in these, suffer not thyself, O Tangena, to
be conquered by them, for thou art God ; therefore, if he
is a sorcerer, kill him quickly, kill him immediately, let
him die forthwith ; kill him without delay, burst him and
tear his flesh, and tear his arms into pieces ; break his
heart, burst his bowels. Oh kill him instantly, kill him in
a moment," and so forth. And to provide for the case of
the accused proving to be innocent, the god was prayed to
as follows : " Therefore, if he be innocent, let him live
quickly, preserve his heart without delay ; let him greatly
rejoice, let him dance and run about merrily, like one
who has drunk cold water ; let him become like cold
water, which is refreshing ; let flesh return to him, if thou
findest that he has no sorcery or witchcraft to kill persons
with. Now, take care then, and forget not to return
back through the same door through which I made thee
enter into him." The curses which preceded the drinking of
the poisoned draught in this Malagasy ordeal may be com-
pared with the curses pronounced by the priest in adminis-
tering the bitter water of the Hebrew ordeal.
When the accused person failed to establish his innocence Punishmen
by vomiting the three pieces of skin, he was beaten to death tJe'g2jy "
with a rice-pestle, strangled, or suffocated, unless the poison
had already proved fatal. Sometimes his body was hastily
buried, but often it was merely dragged to a distance from
the house or village and left a prey to dogs and birds.
Many of the victims seem to have been buried or
abandoned before life was extinct ; for their murderers were
404 THE BITTER WA TER part iv
in too great haste to finish their bloody business, escaping
from the house as soon as they imagined the spirit to be
departing, lest they should encounter it in its flight. Such
was the fate reserved for freemen convicted by the ordeal.
But slaves found guilty might always be sold, unless they
belonged to a member of the royal family, for in that case
there was no help for it but they must die. When a
member of a family fell ill, all the slaves in the household
had often to submit to the ordeal, since they were suspected
of causing the sickness by witchcraft. Should the sovereign
himself be indisposed, not only his slaves but all persons in
personal attendance on him might be compelled to attest
their loyalty and innocence by drinking the poison.^
Animals In Madagascar, as in many African tribes, accuser and
a^prox^s accused oftcn deputed the painful duty of drinking the
in the polson to two fowls or two dogs, which acted as their proxies ;
ordeaL S-"*^ the guilt or inuoccncc of the principal was decided
according to the vomit of his four-footed or feathered
deputy. When the dog had swallowed the dose, and
the court was anxiously awaiting the infallible verdict, the
following solemn prayer was addressed to the poison then
working in the animal's stomach : " Hear, hear, hear, and
hearken well, O thou Raimanamango. Thou art now
within the stomach of the dog, which is the substitute of
eyes, life, feet, hands, and ears, for the accused. The dog
in whose stomach thou art is thus like him. If thou findest
that the accused is not guilty, but is spitefully and
maliciously accused, let this dog live quickly ; let this dog,
which is a substitute for the accused, which has feet and
hands like him, live quickly ; yea, let this dog, which is
his substitute, live quickly ; and return back through the
same door through which thou hast entered into it, O
Raimanamango. But if thou findest that the accused is
truly guilty, kill this dog, whose eyes, life, feet, hands, etc.,
are his substitute, without delay kill it quickly — destroy it
1 Rev. William Ellis, History of 260 sq. In the text I have much
Madagascar, i. 463-472, 477-479; abridged the long formula of adjuration
James Cameron, " On the Early In- as it is reported by Ellis. Even that
habitants of Madagascar," The Anta- report, which fills between five and six
naiiarivo Annual and Madagascar pages, is said to be only a summary of
Magazine, Reprint of the First Four the original, which was four or five
Numbers (Antananarivo, 1885), pp. times as long.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN INDIA 405
instantly — burst its heart — tear it and kill it immediately,
igo." ^
S 4. The Poison Ordeal hi htdia
Apart from its prevalence in Africa and Madagascar Judicial
the poison ordeal seems to have had a very limited range sanSoned
in the world. It has been practised, however, in India by Indian
from time immemorial. Ancient Indian lawgivers record it
along with other kinds of ordeal which were employed
according to circumstances, and in modern times native
writers on Indian law have recognized its validity.^ Thus
in the latter part of the eighteenth century a certain Ali
Ibrahim Khan, Chief Magistrate of Benares, laid down the
traditionary doctrine on the subject as follows : —
" The modes of trying offenders by an appeal to the
deity, which are described at large in the Mitdcsherd, or
Comment on the Dherma Sdstra, in the Chapter of Oaths ^
and other ancient books of Hindu law, are here sufficiently
explained, according to the interpretation of learned Pandits,
by the well-wisher to mankind, Ali Ibrahim Khan.
" The word Divya^ in Sanscrit, signifies the same with
Paricshd, , or Parikhyd, in Bhdshd, Kasam, in Arabick, and
Saucand in Persian ; that is, an oath ; or the form of invok-
ing the Supreme Being to attest the truth of an allegation ;
but it is generally understood to mean the trial by ordeal,
or the form of appealing to the immediate interposition of
the Divine Power.
" Now this trial may be conducted in nine ways. First, by Various
the balance ; secondly, by fire ; thirdly, by water ; fourthly, ^^^^^J^^
1 Rev. William Ellis, History of Emil Schlagintweit, Die Gottesurtheile
Madagascar, i. 479 sq. der hider (Munich, 1866) ; George
2 On ordeals generally in India, see Buhler, " A translation of the Chapter
Ali Ibrahim Khan, " On the Trial by on Ordeals, from the Vydvahdra of
Ordeal among the Hindus," Asiatick Mayukha," Journal of the Asiatic
Researches, vol. i. Fifth Edition (Lon- Society of Bengal, xxxv. Part i. (Cal-
don, 1806), pp. 389-404; J. '■^- cutta, 1867) pp. 14-49 ; Julius Jolly,
Dubois, Afaurs, Listitutiofis. et CM- Rechi und Sitte (Strasburg, 1896),
monies des Penplcs de Plnde (Paris, pp. 144-146 (in G. Biihler's Grund-
1825), ii. 546-554; A. F. Stenzler, riss der Indo • Arischen Philologie
"Die'lndischen Gottesurtheile," Z«V- und Altertumskunde) \ Edgar Thur-
schrift der deutschen morgenldndischen ston. Ethnographic Notes in Southern
Gesellschaft, ix. (1855) pp. 661-682; India (Madras, 1906), pp. 421 sqq.
4o6
THE BITTER WATER
The poison
ordeal.
The Cdsha
ordeal.
The Laws
of Vishnu
on the
poison
ordeal.
by poison ; fifthly, by the Cosha, or water in which an idol
has been washed ; sixthly, by rice ; seventhly, by boiling
oil ; eighthly, by red-hot iron ; ninthly, by images. . . .
" There are two sorts of trial by poison. First, the
Pandits having performed their homa, and the person
accused his ablution, two rcttis and a half, or seven barley-
corns, of vishandga, a poisonous root, or of sanchyd (that is,
white arsenick) are mixed in eight nidshds, or sixty-four
rettis, of clarified butter, which the accused must eat from
the hand of a Brahman. If the poison produce no visible
effect, he is absolved ; otherwise, condemned. Secondly,
the hooded snake, called ndga^ is thrown into a deep earthen
pot, into which is dropped a ring, a seal, or a coin. This
the person accused is ordered to take out with his hand ;
and if the serpent bite him, he is pronounced guilty ; if not,
innocent.
" Trial by the Cosha is as follows : The accused is made
to drink three draughts of the water in which the images of
the Sun, of Devi, and other deities, have been washed for
that purpose ; and if within fourteen days he has any sick-
ness or indisposition, his crime is considered as proved." ^
The ancient Indian lawbook which passes under the
name of Vishnu, but which in its final form can hardly be
earlier than about the year 200 A.D.,^ recognizes and de-
scribes the ordeals by the balance, by fire, by water, by
poison, and by sacred libation, that is, by drinking water
in which the images of gods have been dipped.^ The rules
which the code lays down for the administration of the
poison ordeal are as follows : —
" All (other) sorts of poison must be avoided (in admin-
istering this ordeal), except poison from the 5rznga tree,
which grows on the Himalayas. (Of that) the judge must
give seven grains, mixed with clarified butter, to the defendant.
If the poison is digested easily, without violent symptoms,
he shall recognise him as innocent, and dismiss him at the
1 " On the Trial by Ordeal among
the Hindus," by All Ibrahim Khan,
Chief Magistrate at Banares, com-
municated by Warren Hastings, Esq.,
Asiatick Researches, vol. i. Fifth
Edition (London, 1806), pp. 389,
391.
2 A. A. Macdonell, in The Impei-ial
Gazetteer of hidia. The Indian Empire
(Oxford, 1909), ii. 262.
3 The Institutes of Vishnu, trans-
lated by Julius Jolly (Oxford, 1880),
chapters ix.-xiv. pp. 52-61 {The Sacred
Books of the East, vol. vii. ).
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN INDIA 407
end of the day." And while the judge administered the Prayer
poison to the defendant, he was to recite the following j'o'tl"^^
prayer : " On account of thy venomous and dangerous poison.
nature thou art destruction to all living creatures ; thou,
O poison, knowest what mortals do not comprehend. This
man being arraigned in a cause, desires to be cleared from
guilt. Therefore mayest thou deliver him lawfully from this
perplexity." ^ But the poison ordeal might not be adminis-
tered to lepers, bilious persons, and Brahmans, nor might
recourse be had to it during the rainy season.^
And in regard to the administration of the ordeal by The ordeal
sacred libation, the same code lays down the following ^^J^l^^
rules : libation.
" Having invoked terrible deities (such as Durga, the
Adityas or others, the defendant) must drink three handfuls
of water in which (images of) those deities have been bathed,
uttering at the same time the words, * I have not done this,'
with his face turned towards the deity (in question). He to
whom (any calamity) happens within a fortnight or three
weeks (such as an illness, or fire, or the death of a relative,
or a heavy visitation by the king), should be known to be
guilty ; otherwise (if nothing adverse happens to him), he is
freed from the charge. A just king should honour (with
presents of clothes, ornaments, etc.) one who has cleared
himself from guilt by an ordeal." ^
This account of the poison ordeal, as it was practised Other
in antiquity, is supplemented by other ancient authorities. \^^^^^
Thus according to the lawgiver Narada, the poison was to accounts
be administered by a Brahman fasting, with his face turned ''^^Kon
to the north or east, and the quantity of poison in the dose ordeal,
should vary with the season. In the cold season the amount
should be seven barleycorns, in the hot season five, in the
rainy season four, and in autumn three;* which seems to
1 The Institutes of Vishnu, trans- p. 55-
. lated by Julius Jolly, chapter xiii. ^ fjig Institutes of Vishnu, trans-
p. 60. If the 6;7nga was the Aconi- lated by Julius Jolly, chapter xiv. pp.
turn, as seems probable (see .below, p. 60 sq.
409), it is incorrectly described in the * George Biihler, "A translation of
text as a tree ; it is a herb, as Sir David the Chapter on Ordeals, from the
Prain reminds me. Vydvahara of Mayukha," Journal of
2 The Institutes of Vishnu, trans- the Asiatic Society of Bengal, xxxv.
lated by Julius Jolly, chapter ix. 27, 28, Part i. (Calcutta, 1S67) pp- 42 sq.
THE BITTER WATER
Prayer
addressed
to the
poison.
imply that in the opinion of the ancients the virulence of
the poison varied with the season, so that at certain times
of the year a smaller dose sufficed to produce the same
effect which at other times could only be brought about by
a larger. According to the lawgiver Katy&yana, the poison
should be given in the forenoon in a cool place, mixed with
thirty times as much clarified butter, well pounded. Narada
prescribed that the person who had drunk the poison should
sit down in the shade and be watched for the rest of the
day, without being allowed to eat food.^ The lawgiver
Pitamaha recommended that in order to prevent fraud the
accused should be carefully guarded for three or five days
before the ordeal, lest he should take drugs or practise
charms and enchantments which might counteract and annul
the effect of the poison.^ According to one account, which
claimed the authority of the lawgiver Narada, the effect of
the full dose of poison was only to be observed in the space
of time during which the judge could clap his hands five
hundred times ; while the rule that the accused was to be
kept under observation for the rest of the day applied only
to cases in which smaller quantities of the poison had been
administered.^ The symptoms produced by the drinking of
the poison are thus described in the Vishatantra : ' The
first attack of the poison causes the erection of the hair (on
the body), (then follow) sweat and dryness of the mouth,
after that arise (frequent) changes of colour, and trembling
of the body. Then the fifth attack causes the immobility
of the eyes, loss of speech, and hiccoughing. The sixth,
hard breathing and loss of consciousness, and the seventh,
the death of the person."* According to Yajnavalkya, the
person who was about to undergo the ordeal prayed to the
poison as follows : " O poison, thou art Brahman's son, firm
in the duty of (making known the) truth, save me, according
to truth, from this accusation ; become ambrosia to me." ^
According to a modern authority, the priest who administers
^ George Blihler, op. cit. p. 43.
* A. F. Stenzler, " Die Indischen
Gottesurtheile," Zeitsckrift der deut-
schen nio7-genlandischen Gesellschaft, ix.
(185s) p. 675.
^ A. F. Stenzler, op. cit. pp. 674
sq. ; Eniil Schlagintweit, Die Gottes-
urtheile der Indier (Munich, 1866), p.
30 ; G. Blihler, op. cit. p. 43.
* G. Biihler, op. cit. p. 43.
6 G. Buhler, op. cit. p. 43 ; E.
Schlagintweit, Die Gottesurtheile der
Indier, p. 29.
CHAP. V THE POISON ORDEAL IN INDIA 409
the ordeal addresses the poison in the following terms :
" Poison, thou art a maleficent substance, created to destroy
guilty or impure creatures ; thou wert vomited by the great
serpent Bashooky to cause the guilty giants to perish. Here
is a person accused of an offence of which he professes to be
innocent. If he is really not guilty, strip thyself of thy
maleficent properties in his favour, and become nectar for
him." And according to the same authority the proof of
innocence consists in surviving the drinking of the poison for
three days.^
All the ancienc lawgivers seem to agree in prescribing The poison
the poison of the j-r/riga as the proper one for use in the f^f^e^^"^
ordeal, though two of them, namely Katyayana and Indian
Pitamaha, permitted the employment of the vatsan- seenJtobe
dbha also for that purpose.^ The j-rznga is said to an aconite.
be the root of one of the poisonous Himalayan species
of Aconitum, generally referred to as Aconitum ferox,
which is found in the Himalayas to a considerable height.
The venom resides in the root, and is as dangerous when
applied to a wound as when taken internally. Hence all
along the Himalayas, before the introduction of fire-arms,
the poison used to be smeared on arrows ; and the wild
tribes of the Brahmaputra valley, such as the Abors, Daphlas,
and Akas, employed it in war as well as in hunting tigers.
The natives believe that even the exhalation of the plant has
power to poison the air, and the Gurkhas allege that by
means of it they could so infect the rivers and springs that
no enemy would be able to penetrate into their country.^
1 J. A. Dubois, Mocurs, Institutions Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
et Ciritnonies des Peuples de Plnde xxiv. (1895) p. 57; 6m. Perrot et
(Paris, 1825), ii. 554. The Arab 'Em. Vogi, Foisofis de Fliches et Poisons
geographer and scholar Albiruni, a?' ^/r^wz'tf (Paris, 1913), pp. 167 j^y.
whose work on India was written According to E. Schlagintweit ('.c.)
about 1030 A.D., gives an account of and Messrs. Perrot and Vogt the Naga
the ordeals as they were then practised tribes of Assam also use poisoned
in the country. But his description of arrows, but this is doubted by Sir
the poison ordeal is slight and vague. David Prain, who lived among them.
See ^/^^rwMj'j/'W/fj, an English Edition He writes to me that the Nagas whom
with Notes and Indices by Dr. Edward he knew did not employ arrows, and
C. Sachau (London, 1888), ii. 159 sq. that he believes the whole people to
- A. F. Stenzler, op. cit. p. 674. be ignorant of the use of aconite as a
^ E. Schlagintweit, op. cit. p. 29, poison. On the other hand, in his
note*3; L. A. Waddell, '-Note on monograph on the Naga tribes of
the Poisoned Arrows of the Akas," Manipur, Mr. T. C. Hodson writes
410
THE BITTER WATER
S 5 . The Geographical Diffusiott of the Poison Ordeal
The poison Outsidc of Africa, Madagascar, and India, so far as I am
seemfngiy aware, the use of poisons in judicial ordeals has not been
confined to recorded.^ It appears to be unknown in the Malay regions
Mada- and Polynesia, and its absence in these quarters becomes all
gascar, and j-j^g more remarkable when we remember its prevalence in
Madagascar, since the Malagasy belong to the same stock
as the Malays and Polynesians. The natural inference
appears to be that the Malagasy did not import the
practice when they first migrated to their present island
home, but that they borrowed it at some subsequent time
either from India or, more probably perhaps, from Africa.
As the Sakalavas, who occupy a large part of Madagascar,
are almost pure Bantu negroes, the immigrants could easily
have learned the custom from them, whether they found
these negroes already in possession of the island or after-
wards introduced them from the neighbouring continent.^
In Java disputes as to the boundaries of lands are sometimes
settled by an appeal to an ordeal which bears a superficial
resemblance to those which we have been considering. The
claimant is required to eat some product of the land to
which he alleges a claim ; if the land really belongs to him,
that "the weapons of offence in
common use throughout the hills are
the spear, the dao, and the bow and
arrow"; and he adds, "It is said
that the Southern Tangkhuls used
poisoned arrows. If this is true they
may have been borrowed from the
Marrings, who use a vegetable extract."
See T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes
of Manipur (London, 1911), pp. 35,
36. While Sir David Prain's testi-
mony may be accepted as conclusive in
regard to the particular tribes among
whom he lived, it is possible that other
tribes of the group may be acquainted
both with arrows and with the poison
of aconite, though the evidence is
hardly sufficient to justify us in affirm-
ing it. As to the species of aconite
which furnishes the poison, Dr. O.
Stapf, of the Royal Botanical Gardens,
Kew, refers me to his treatise, " The
Aconites of India," Ann. Bot. Card.
Calc. X. ii. 115 sqq.
1 I cannot agree with my learned
and ingenious friend, M. Salomon
Reinach, in his attempt to prove the
use of a poison ordeal at Rome from
a narrative of Livy (viii. 18). See
S. Reinach, "Une ordalie par le poison
a Rome," Culies, Mythes et Religions,
iii. (Paris, 1908) pp. 254 sqq.
2 As to the races of Madagascar, see
J. Deniker, The Races of Man (Lon-
don, 1900), pp. 469 sqq. ; and especi-
ally A. Grandidier et G. Grandidier,
Ethnographie de 3Iadagascai; i. (Paris,
1 90S) pp. I sqq. The latter writers,
who are the highest authorities on the
subject, hold that the great bulk of the
Malagasy are of Indo-Melanesian origin,
and have been but little affected by
African influence.
CHAP. V THE MEANING OF THE POISON ORDEAL 411
the food will do him no harm, but if it does not, he will
swell up and burst. The writer who mentions the custom,
adds that this is the only instance he has found among
Malayo- Polynesian peoples of an ordeal like the poison
ordeal of Africa.^
§ 6. TJie Meaning of the Poison Ordeal
The practice of the poison ordeal appears to be based The use of
on a theory that the poison is an animated and intelligent ordeaT^°"
being, who, on entering the stomach of the accused person, seems
readily detects the symptoms of his guilt or innocence ^ theory
and kills or spares him accordingly. This personification ^^^^ the
r 1 - • 1 • 1 1-1 1-1 poison is a
of the poison is plainly assumed in the prayers which are personal
addressed to it in India, Madagascar, and some parts of ^°'^„. .
„ ' o J r intelligent
Africa, and it is further indicated by the ceremonies which being,
sometimes accompany the act of procuring the poisonous ^^tg^^^ajjd
bark from the tree.^ The same ascription of superhuman punish
knowledge to the poison comes out also in the belief that, the"person
when the drug does not kill the drinker, it confers on him of the
the power of divination, in virtue of which he is able to *="'"'"^-
detect and expose the guilty witch or wizard.* On the
same theory we can perhaps explain why persons who
undergo the ordeal are commonly regarded as innocent if
they vomit the poison, but guilty if they either retain it or
discharge it by evacuation of the bowels. As an intelligent
being, the poison is apparently supposed to quit the body
of the accused as soon as, by ocular inspection of the man
or woman's interior, he is satisfied of his or her innocence,
and in that case he takes his departure by the same door
by which he entered the body, namely by the mouth, thus
retracing his steps and thereby acknowledging that his
services as an executioner were not wanted.^ But should
he on the contrary discover in the culprit's stomach the
1 C. J. Leendertz, " Godsoordeelen 3 Above, pp. 357, 358 383.
en Eeden," Tijdschrift van het Kon. * Above, pp. 344 sq.
N^ederlandsch Aardrijksktindig Gcnoot- ^ We have seen (above, pp. 403,
schap, Tweede Serie, v. Afdeeling : 404), that in Madagascar the poison
Meer uitgebreide artikelen (Leyden, was adjured, in case it found the ac-
1888), p. 19. cused guiltless, to return back through
2 Above, pp. 364, 402 sq., 404 sq., the same door by which it had entered
407, 408 sq. ; compare pp. 340, 401. his body.
412 THE BITTER WATER part iv
clear evidence of guilt, which is supposed to exist there in
a material shape, he either remains in the person of the
criminal for the purpose of killing him or her, or quits it by
a different channel from that by which he effected his
entrance, thus implicitly passing sentence of condemnation
on the accused, since he has failed to pronounce an acquittal
by retracing his steps.
Guilt While this is perhaps the general theory of the poison
ejected in grdeal, it seems in some cases to be either combined or
a material '
shape from confuscd with a notion that in vomiting the poison the
onhe°^^ culprit simultaneously rids himself of his guilt, which comes
criminal, out of him in a material form and can be discovered in his
vomit. That apparently is why sometimes the evil principle
or evil spirit is exhorted to come out from the accused,^
and why sometimes the vomit of the alleged witch or
wizard is scrutinized for evidence of his or her guilt.^
§ 7. The Drinking of the Written Curse
The It must apparently remain doubtful whether the bitter
bitter water y^g-ter of the Hebrew ordeal contained any poisonous in-
Hebrew gredients or derived its supposed virtues purely from the
ordeal was ^^^j. ^^ ^j^^ sanctuary, with which it was mixed, and from
innocuous the curscs which were pronounced over it and washed off
fts'^forcT^ into it. If it was really, as seems probable, innocuous in
only from itself and deleterious only through the superstitious fears
stidour"^' which it excited in the mind of the guilty woman who
fears of the drank it, the imaginary powers which it was supposed to
^^' ^' acquire from the dust of the sanctuary may be compared
with the imaginary powers which in Africa and India the
water of the ordeal has sometimes been thought to acquire
either from the sacred earth with which it is mixed or from
the images of the gods which have been dipped in it.^ In
all such cases superstition comes to the aid of morality, and
supplies the material vehicle of justice with that punitive
force which on purely physical principles is lacking.
Thewritten Whatever may have been the actual composition of the
wTs^hed off bitter water, there can be no doubt that the ceremony of
into the
bitter ^ Above, p. 362. 2 Above, pp. 324, 327, 340, 359.
water 3 Above, pp. 319, 320 sg., 406, 407.
CHAP. V THE DRINKING OF THE WRITTEN CURSE 413
washing off the written curses into it, and then giving the
water to the accused woman to drink, was a superstition
pure and simple, which could not possibly produce the sup-
posed effect on an adulteress, while it left a faithful wife
unharmed. The notion, that the magical influence of a Common
written charm, whether for good or evil, can be com- Sdnking^i
municated to any person by making him or her drink the a charm
water into which the characters have been washed off, is info'^^htch
widespread among superstitious people at the present time ^v-ritten
and has no doubt been so since the days of antiquity, have been
In Senegambia a native Mohammedan doctor will write cashed off.
passages of the Koran in Arabic characters on a wooden practice in
board, wash off the characters in water, and then give the Africa,
infusion to the patient to drink, who thus absorbs the blessed
influence of the holy words through the vehicle of the dirty
water.^ In Morocco a person who desires to secure the
love of another, will buy of a priest a love-charm written on
paper, soak the paper in water, and give the water to be
drunk by the unsuspecting object of his or her affection,
who is expected to conceive a passion accordingly for the
charmer.^ In North Africa a doctor will write his magical
formula on a cake of barley or on onion peel, and give his
patient the cake or the peel to eat. Sometimes he will
write the words on the bottom of a plate, efface the writing,
and then cause the sufferer to eat out of the plate. Eggs
are often employed for the same purpose. The prescription,
or rather the spell, is scrawled on the shell of an ^g^ ; the
egg is then boiled and eaten by the sick person, who is
supposed to benefit by the magical virtue thus infused into
his body.^ Similarlv in Egypt the most approved mode The
' ,. ., .. ^ . practice in
of charmmg away sickness or disease is to write certam Egjpt.
passages of the Koran on the inner surface of an earthen-
ware cup or bowl, then to pour in some water, stir it
until the writing is quite washed off, and finally to let the
patient gulp down the water, to which the sacred words,
with all their beneficent power, have been transferred by
1 L. J. B. Berenger-F^raud, Les ^ Arthur Leared, Morocco and the
Pettplades de la Sc'n^gambie (Paris, Moors (London, 1876), p. 272.
1879), p. 69; L. Ausline Waddell, ^ 'EAmonADoMii^, Magie ciRcH^'on
The Buddhism of Tibet {l^ondoTi, 1895), dans PA/i-ique du Nord {Mg\cxs, 1908),
p. 401, note 2. p. 109.
414
THE BITTER WATER
The
practice in
Mada-
gascar.
The
practice in
Tibet,
China,
Annam,
and Japan.
The bitter
water
reinforced
by the
written
curses.
this simple process.^ Among the descendants of Arab immi-
grants in South-Eastern Madagascar, when a person was ill, it
used to be custom to write prayers in Arabic characters on a
piece of paper, steep the paper in water, and give the water
to the patient to drink.^ To eat a paper on which a charm
has been written is a common cure for disease in Tibet ; and
a more refined, yet equally effective, way of ensuring the
same happ)^ result is to reflect the writing on a mirror, wash
the mirror, and give the washings to the sufferer to imbibe.^
So in China spells " are used as cures for sick persons, by
being either written on leaves which are then infused in
some liquid, or inscribed on paper, burned, and the ashes
thrown into drink, which the patient has to swallow." * In
Annam the priests are in possession of diverse cabalistic
signs, which they similarly employ, according to circum-
stances, for the cure of diverse diseases. For example, if a
man suffers from colic, accompanied by inflammation of
the bowels, the priest will paint the corresponding signs in
red letters on yellow paper, burn the paper, and throw the
ashes into a bowl of cold water, which he will give the
patient to drink. In the case of other diseases the paper
will be red and the signs black, but the manner and the
efificacity of the cure will be identical.^ In Japan it is
said to have been customary in some cases to cause an
accused person to drink water in which a paper, inscribed
with certain peculiar characters, had been steeped, and it
was believed that the water thus tinctured would torment
the culprit in his inward parts till he confessed his guilt.^
With these parallels before us we can fully understand,
even if we cannot entirely believe, the powerful accession of
force which the bitter water of the Hebrews was supposed
to receive from the curses pronounced over it and washed
into it by the officiating priest.
* John Francis Davis, The Chinese
(London, 1845), ii. 215.
1 E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs
of the Modern Egyptians (Paisley and
London, 1895), p. 263.
2 G. Grandidier, " La Mort et las
Funerailles a Madagascar," UAnth^-o-
pologie, xxiii. (Paris, 1912) p. 321.
3 L. Austine Waddell, The Buddk-
isvi of Tibet (London, 1895), p. 401.
^ E. Diguet, Les Annamites, Society,
Coutumes, Religions (Paris, 1906), p.
282.
^ Adolph Bastian, Der Metisch in
der Geschichte (Leipsic, i860), ii. 211.
CHAPTER VI
THE OX THAT GORED
In the Book of the Covenant, the oldest code of laws in the
embodied in the Pentateuch/ it is laid down that " if an ox ^^^'^'^"^^
gore a man or a woman, that they die, the ox shall be surely ordained
stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten ; but the owner of Intma"
the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were wont to gore in which has
killed a
time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he man shau
hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or ^ p^' ^°
a woman ; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall
be put to death." 2 in the much later Priestly Code^ the The
rule regulating the punishment of homicidal animals is stated a'^parfor
more comprehensively as part of the general law of blood- the general
revenge which was revealed by God to Noah after the great ^lood-
flood : '•' And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will revenge.
I require ; at the hand of every beast will I require it ; and
at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother,
will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
by man shall his blood be shed." *
The principle of blood-revenge has been carried out in The
the same rigorous manner by savage tribes ; indeed some of of'^igod.
them have pushed the principle of retaliation yet further by revenge
destroying even inanimate objects which have accidentally ^y'^he*^
caused the death of human beings. For example, the Kookies Kukis of
or Kukis of Chittagong, in North-Eastern India, " like all to anfmais^
savage people, are of a most vindictive disposition ; blood ^nd trees,
must always be shed for blood ; if a tiger even kills any of
them, near a village, the whole tribe is up in arms, and
goes in pursuit of the animal ; when, if he is killed, the
^ See above, pp. 99 s^. ^ See above, pp. 108 s^^.
2 Exodus, xxi. 28 sg. * Genesis, ix. 5 s^.
415
4i6
THE OX THAT GORED
The Ainos
of Japan
cut down a
tree which
has fallen
on and
killed a
man.
family of the deceased gives a feast of his flesh, in revenge
of his having killed their relation. And should the tribe
fail to destroy the tiger, in this first general pursuit of him,
the family of the deceased must still continue the chace ;
for until they have killed either this, or some other ' tiger,
and have given a feast of his flesh, they are in disgrace in
the village, and not associated with by the rest of the
inhabitants. In like manner, if a tiger destroys one of a
hunting party, or of a party of warriors on an hostile
excursion, neither the one nor the other (whatever their
success may have been) can return to the village, without
being disgraced, unless they kill the tiger. A more striking
instance still of this revengeful spirit of retaliation is, that if
a man should happen to be killed by an accidental fall from
a tree, all his relations assemble, and cut it down ; and
however large it may be, they reduce it to chips, which they
scatter in the winds, for having, as they say, been the cause
of the death of their brother." ^
Similarly the Ainos or Ainu, a primitive people of
Japan, take vengeance on any tree from which a person has
fallen and been killed. When such an accident happens,
" the people become quite angry, and proceed to make war
upon the tree. They assemble and perform a certain cere-
mony which they call niokeush rorumbe. Upon asking
about this matter the Ainu said : ' Should a person climb
a tree and then fall out of it and die, or should a person
cut the tree down and the tree fall upon him and kill him,
such a death is called niokeush, and it is caused by the
multitude of demons inhabiting the various parts of the
trunk and branches and leaves. The people ought there-
fore to meet together, cut the tree down, divide it up into
small pieces and scatter them to the winds. For unless
that tree be destroyed it will always remain dangerous, the
John Macrae, "Account of the or, in the Kookie language,' IChooah.
Kookies of Lunctas," Asiatic He-
searches, vii. (London, 1803) pp. 189
sq. In quoting this passage I have
substituted the word "village" for the
word Parah, which means the same
thing. "The Kookies choose the
steepest and most inaccessible hills to
build their villages upon, which, from
being thus situated, are called Parahs,
Every Parah consists of a tribe, and
has seldom fewer than four or five
hundred inhabitants, and sometimes
contains one or two thousand " (J.
Macrae, op. cit. p. 1S6). The Kookie
law of blood-revenge is briefly men-
tioned by A. Bastian ( Vdlkerstamme
am Brahmaputra, Berlin, 1 883, p.
35), who apparently follows Macrae.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 417
demons continuing to inhabit it. But if the tree is too
large to be cut up fine, it may be left there, the place being
clearly marked, so that people may not go near it.' " ^
Among the aborigines of Western Victoria the spear or Weapons
other weapon of an enemy which had killed a friend was ^•j,"^!' '^^^*^
always burnt by the relatives of the deceased." Similarly people are
some of the natives of Western Australia used to burn the l^endTred^'
point of a spear which had killed a man ; and they ex- useless, or
plained the custom by saying that the soul of the slain man awa^by
adhered to the point of the weapon and could only depart ^o"^^
to its proper place when that point had been burnt.^ When ' '^
a murder has been committed among the Akikuyu of British
East Africa, thS elders take the spear or sword with which
the crime was perpetrated, beat it quite blunt, and then
throw it into a deep pool in the nearest river. They say that
if they omitted to do so the weapon would continue to be
the cause of murder.'* To the same effect a writer who has
personally investigated some of the tribes of British East
Africa tells us that "the weapon which has destroyed human
life is looked upon with awe and dread. Having once
caused death it retains an evil propensity to carry death
with it for ever. Among the Akikuyu and Atheraka, there-
fore, it is blunted and buried by the elders. The Akamba
pursue a different method, more typical of their crafty
character. The belief among them is that the arrow which
has killed a man can never lose its fateful spirit, which
abides with the one who possesses it. The bow also is
possessed of the same spirit, and hence as soon as a
Mkamba^ has killed any one he will induce another by
deceitful means to take it. The arrow is at first in posses-
sion of the relatives of the person killed ; they will extract
it from the wound and hide it at night near the murderer's
1 Rev. John Batchelor, The Ainu 336; "A Benedictine Missionary's
and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), Account of the Natives of Australia
pp. 384 J^. ^nAOcta.n\z.," Journal of the AnthroJ'O'
„ ^ „ ^ , ,■ Ak logical Institute, vii. (1878) p. 289.
2 James Dawson, ^«./r«/,a;.^^- \^ ^ ^ " Further Re-
.;-^^,,MMelDourne, Sydney, and Ade- ^^^^^^^^ .^^^ ^.^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^
laide, 1S8I), p. 53- li-jious Beliefs and Customs," >/^/-«a/
3 Rudesimo Salvado, M^moires his- of the Roya! Anthropological Institute,
toriques sur V Anstralie, traduits de xli. ( 1911) p. 424.
ritalien en Fran9ais par I'Abbe Falci- ^ Mkaniba is the singular form of
magne (Paris, 1854), pp. 260 sq., Akamba, the plural.
VOL. Ill 2 E
4i8
THE OX THAT GORED
River
which has
drowned
a man
punished
by the
Kachins of
Burma.
Buffaloes
which have
killed
people are
put to
death in
Malacca
and
Celebes.
village. The people there make search for it, and, if found,
either return it to the other village, or lay it somewhere on
a path, in the hopes that some passer-by will pick it up and
thus transfer to himself the curse. But people are wary of
such finds, and thus mostly possession of the arrow remains
with the murderer." ^
The Kakhyens, Kachins, or Chingpaws of Upper Burma
are said never to forget an injury. A dying father be-
queaths to his sons the duty of avenging his wrongs, and
the sons bide their time till they can obey the paternal
behest. Generally old scores are settled once a year, and
on such occasions even inanimate objects are remembered
and requited. For example, if a friend or relative has been
drowned in crossing a river, the avenger repairs once a year
to the banks of the stream, and filling a bamboo vessel with
the water, he hews it through, as if he were despatching a
living foe.^ In the Malay code of Malacca there is a section
dealing with vicious buffaloes and cattle, and herein it is
ordained that " if the animal be tied in the forest, in a place
where people are not in the habit of passing, and there gore
anybody to death, it shall be put to death." ^ Among the
Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes " blood-revenge
extends to animals : a buffalo that has killed a man must be
put to death." * This is natural enough, for " the Toradja
conceives an animal to differ from a man only in outward
appearance. The animal cannot speak, because its beak or
snout is different from the mouth of a man ; the animal runs
on all fours, because its hands (fore-paws) are different from
human hands ; but the inmost nature of the animal is the
same as that of a man. If a crocodile kills somebody, the
family of the victim may thereupon kill a crocodile, that is to
say, the murderer or some member of his family ; but if more
^ Hon. Charles Dundas, " The already cited this latter custom in a
Organization and Laws of some Bantu
Tribes in East Africa," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, xlv.
(19 1 5) pp. 269 sq. Compare id.,
" History of Kitui," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii.
(1913) p. 526.
- Clement Williams, Through Bur-
ma to Western China (Edinburgh and
London, 1868), pp. ^\ sq. I have
different connexion (vol. ii. p. 421).
3 T. J. Newbold, Political and
Statistical Account of the British Settle-
ments in the Straits of Alalacca (Lon-
don, 1839), ii. 257.
* N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt,
De Bare'e - sprekende ToradjcCs van
Midden-Celebes (Hatavia, 1912-1914),
i. 182.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 419
crocodiles than men are killed, then the right of revenge
reverts to the crocodiles, and they are sure to exercise their
right on somebody or other. If a dog does not receive his
share of the game, he will refuse next time to join in the
hunt, because he feels himself aggrieved. The Toradja is
much more sensible than we are of the rights of animals ;
in particular he deems it highly dangerous to make fun of a
beast. He would utter a lively protest and predict heavy
storms and floods of rain if, for instance, he saw anybody
dress up an ape in human clothes. And nobody can laugh
at a cat or dog with impunity." ^ Among the Bogos, a tribe
on the northern outskirts of Abyssinia, a bull, or a cow, or
any head of cattle that kills a human being is put to death.^
At the entrance of a Bayaka village, in the valley of Thieving
the Congo, Mr. Torday saw a roughly constructed gallows, fn Afdcf^*^
on which hung a dead dog. He learned that as a notorious
thief, who had been in the habit of making predatory
raids among the fowls, the animal had been strung up to
serve as a public example.^ Among the Arabs of Arabia Arab
Petraea, when an animal has killed a man, its owner must ^'?^""^°'
' _ _ ' of an
drive it away, crying after it " Scabby, scabby ! " He may animal
never afterwards recover possession of the beast, under pain kji^e^r
of being compelled to pay the bloodwit for the homicide man.
committed by the brute. Should the death have been
caused by a sheep or a goat in a flock, as by sending a
heavy stone hurtling down a steep slope, but the particular
animal which set the stone rolling be unknown, then the
whole flock must be driven away with the cry, " Away from
us, ye scabby ones ! " *
Similar principles of retributive justice were recognized Punishment
in antiquity by other nations than the Jews. In the Zend- °*^^ .
^ J J -' _ worrying
Avesta, the ancient lawbook of the Persians, it is laid down dog
that if " the mad dog, or the dog that bites without barking, ^^"yf„'^
smite a sheep or wound a man, the dog shall pay for it as Avesta.
for wilful murder. If the dog shall smite a sheep or wound
a man, they shall cut off his right ear. If he shall smite
1 N. Adriani en All). C. Kriiijt, c/. ^ E. Torday, Camp and Tramp in
cit. iii. 394 sq. African Wilds (London, 1913), p.
2 Werner Munzinger, Sitten und 142.
Rech; der Bogos (Winterthur, 1859), * Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea, iii.
p. 83. (Vienna, 1 90S), p. 36S.
420
THE OX THA T GORED
Trial of
animals
and
inanimate
objects in
the court
of the
town-hall
[prytan-
eiim) at
Athens.
another sheep or wound another man, they shall cut off his
left ear. If he shall smite a third sheep or wound a third
man, they shall cut off his right foot. If he shall smite a
fourth sheep or wound a fourth man, they shall cut off his
left foot. If he shall for the fifth time smite a sheep or
wound a man, they shall cut off his tail. Therefore they
shall tie him to the post ; by the two sides of the collar
they shall tie him. If they shall not do so, and the mad
dog, or the dog that bites without barking, smite a sheep or
wound a man, he shall pay for it as for wilful murder." ^
It will be generally admitted that in this enactment the old
Persian lawgiver treats a worrying dog with great for-
bearance ; for he gives him no less than five distinct chances
of reforming his character before he exacts from the
irreclaimable culprit the extreme penalty of the law.
At Athens, the very heart of ancient civilization in its
finest efflorescence, there was a court specially set apart for
the trial of animals and of lifeless objects which had injured
or killed human beings. The court sat in the town-hall,
{prytaneum), and the judges were no less than the titular king
of all Attica and the four titular kings of the separate Attic
tribes. As the town-hall was in all probability the oldest
political centre in Athens, if we except the fortress of the
Acropolis, whose precipitous ' crags and frowning battle-
ments rose immediately behind the law-court, and as the
titular tribal kings represented the old tribal kings who bore
sway for ages before the inhabitants of Attica overthrew
the monarchical and adopted the republican form of govern-
ment,^ we are justified
assuming that the court held in
this venerable building, and presided over by these august
judges, was of extreme antiquity ; and the conclusion is
confirmed by the nature of the cases which here came up
for judgment, since to find complete parallels to them we
have had to go to the rude justice of savage tribes in the wilds
of India, Africa, and Celebes. The offenders who were here
placed at the bar were not men and women, but animals
• The Zend - Avesta, pnrt. i. The
Vetididild, translated by James Dar-
mesteter (Oxford, 1880), pp. 159 sq.
(Fargard, xiii. 5. 31-34) {The Sacred
Books of the East, vol. iv.).
2 On this subject I may refer to my
article, " The Prytaneum, the Temple
of Vesta, the Vestals, Perpetual Fires,"
The Journal of Philology, xiv. (18S5)
pp. 145 sgg.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 421
and implements or missiles of stone, wood, or iron which
had fallen upon and cracked somebody's crown, when the
hand which had hurled them was unknown. What was
done to the animals which were found guilty, we do not
know ; but we are told that lifeless objects, which had
killed anybody by falling on him or her, were banished
by the tribal kings beyond the boundaries.^ Every year
the axe or the knife which had been used to slaughter
an ox at a festival of Zeus on the Acropolis was
solemnly tried for murder before the judges seated on
the bench of justice ; every year it was solemnly found
guilty, condemned, and cast into the sea." To ridicule
the Athenian passion for sitting on juries, the comic
poet Aristophanes has described in one of his plays a
crazy old juryman trying a dog, with all legal formalities,
for stealing and eating a cheese.^ Perhaps the idea of
the famous scene, which was copied by Racine in his
only comedy, Les Plaideurs, may have occurred to the
Athenian poet as he whiled away an idle hour among the
spectators in the court-house, watching with suppressed
amusement the trial of a canine, bovine, or asinine prisoner
at the bar charged with maliciously and feloniously
biting, goring, kicking, or otherwise assaulting a burgess
of Athens.
Strangely enough the great philosopher of idealism, The tri.-ii
Plato himself, cast the mantle of his authority over these punishmen;
quaint relics of a barbarous jurisprudence by proposing to of animals
incorporate them in the laws of that ideal state which he inanimaie
objects
1 T)&rao%'Cn&n^%, Contra Aristooatem, was introduced at Athens by Draco; reconi-
76, p. 654 {Or. xxiii.); Aeschines, but for the reasons indicated in the mended by
Contra Ctesiph. p. 636, § 244 ; Aris- text we may assume the custom to be ^l^''^. '"
X.oi\&^ Constitution of Athens, 57; Julius very much older than the time of that
Pollux, f;7(7waj-//(w;,viii. 90, 120; Pau- legislator.
sanias, i. 28. 10, vi. 11. 6. Aristotle, or ^ Pausanias i. 24. 4, i. 28. 10 j
rather the author of the Constitution of Porphyry, De Abstintntia, ii. 29 sq. ;
Athens, is the only ancient writer who Aelian, Var. Hist. viii. 3. Accord-
mentions that animals were tried in ing to Pausanias it was the axe which
the court of the Prytaneum. It is was tried and condemned ; according
from him and Pollux that we learn the to Porphyry and Aelian it was the knife.
dignity of the judges who presided For more details I may refer the
over the courts. According to Pau- reader to Spirits of the Com and of
sanias (vi. 1 1. 6) the practice of trj-ing the Wild, ii. 4 sq. ( The Golden Bough,
and punishing inanimate objects for Third Edition, Part v.).
the accidental deaths of human beings ^ Aristophanes, lloips, 835-10S2.
422 THE OX THA T GORED part iv
projected towards the end of his life. Yet it must be con-
fessed that, when he came to compose The Laws, the tremu-
lous hand of the aged artist had lost much of its cunning,
and that, large as is the canvas on which his latest picture
is painted, its colours pale beside the visionary glories of The
Republic. Few books bear more visibly impressed upon
them the traces of faded imaginative splendour and of a
genius declined into the vale of years. In this his
latest work the sun of Plato shines dimly through the
clouds that have gathered thick about its setting. The
passage, in which the philosopher proposed to establish
a legal procedure modelled on that of the Athenian
town-hall, runs as follows : ^ " If a beast of burden or any
other animal shall kill any one, except it be while the
animal is competing in one of the public games, the relations
of the deceased shall prosecute the animal for murder ; the
judges shall be such overseers of the public lands as the kins-
man of the deceased may appoint ; and the animal, if found
guilty, shall be put to death and cast beyond the boundaries
of the country. But if any lifeless object, with the excep-
tion of a thunderbolt or any such missile hurled by the
hand of God, shall deprive a man of life either by falling on
him or through the man's falling on it, the next of kin to
the deceased shall, making expiation for himself and all his
kin, appoint his nearest neighbour as judge ; and the thing,
if found guilty, shall be cast beyond the boundaries, as hath
been provided in the case of the animals."
The trial The prosecution of inanimate objects for homicide was
punish- "°^ peculiar to Athens in ancient Greece. It was a law of
ment of the island of Thasos that any lifeless thing which fell down
ob^ec^^for ^"^ killed a person should be brought to trial, and, if found
homicide guilty, should be cast into the sea. Now in the middle of
the city of Thasos there stood the bronze statue of a cele-
brated boxer named Theagenes, who in his lifetime had won
a prodigious number of prizes in the ring, and whose memory
was accordingly cherished by the citizens as one of the most
shining ornaments of their native land. However, a certain
base fellow, who had a spite at the deceased bruiser, came
and thrashed the statue soundly every night. For a time
' Plato, Laws, ix. 12, pp. S73 D-S74 A.
in Thasos.
CHAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 423
the statue bore this treatment in dignified silence, but at last,
unable to put up with it any longer, it toppled over, and,
falling flat on its cowardly assailant, crushed him to death.
The relations of the slain man took the law of the statue,
and indicting it for murder, had it convicted, sentenced, and
thrown into the sea.^ A similar law prevailed, or at all statues
events a similar scruple was felt, concerning homicidal statues cHympk^*
at Olympia. One day a little boy was playing there under and Rome,
the bronze image of an ox which stood within the sacred
precinct ; but suddenly rising up, the little fellow knocked
his head against the hard metallic stomach of the animal,
and, after lingering a few days, died from the impact. The
authorities at Olympia decided to remove the ox from the
precincts on the ground that it was guilty of wilful murder ;
but the Delphic oracle took a more lenient view of the case,
and, considering that the statue had acted without malice
prepense, brought in a verdict of manslaughter. The verdict
was accepted by the authorities, and in compliance with the
direction of the oracle they performed over the bronze ox
the solemn rites of purification which were customary in
cases of involuntary homicide^ It is said that when Scipio
Africanus died, a statue of Apollo at Rome was so much
affected that it wept for three days. The Romans con-
sidered this grief excessive, and, acting on the advice of the
augurs, they had the too sensitive statue cut up small and
sunk into the sea.^ Nor were animals at Rome always Animals
exempted from the last severity of the law. An ancient arRome.
statute or custom, which tradition ascribed to the royal
legislator and reformer Numa, directed that if any man
ploughed up a boundary stone, not only he himself but the
oxen which had aided and abetted him in the commission
of the sacrilege should be sacred to the God of Boundaries ;*
in other words, both the man and his beasts were placed
1 Dio Chrysostom, Or. xxxi. vol. i. ed. C. O. Miiller (Leipsic, 1839), p.
p. 377, ed. L. Dindorf {Leipsic, 1857); 368, '^'^ Termino sac)ofacid'ant,<jiiod in
Paiisanias vi. 11. 6; Eusebius, Prac- ejus tutela fines agrorum essf piita-
paratio Evangelii, \. 34. bant. Deniqtic Nunia Pompilius stntuit,
2 Pausanias v. 27. 10. eum, qui lenninuiii e.xarasset, et ipsum
3 Dio Cassius, Historia Roinana, ct boves sacros ase.'" Compare Dionysius
xxxvi. 84, vol. i. p. 129, ed. L. Din- Halicarnasensis, Aniiqutt. Roman, ii.
dorf (Leipsic, 1863). 74, who mentions the outlawry of the
* Festus, De verboruni sigiiifi<.alione, human, but not of the bovine, offenders.
424
THE OX THA T GORED
Trial and
punishment
of animals
on the
continent
of Europe
in modern
times.
Ecclesias-
tical
jurisdiction
over wild
animals
and
vermin.
outside the pale of the law, and anybody might slay them
with impunity.^
Such ideas and the practices based on them have not
been limited to savage tribes and the civilized peoples of
pagan antiquity. On the continent of Europe down to com-
paratively recent times the lower animals were in all respects
considered amenable to the laws. Domestic animals were
tried in the common criminal courts, and their punishment
on conviction was death ; wild animals fell under the juris-
diction of the ecclesiastical courts, and the penalty they
suffered was banishment or death by exorcism and excom-
munication. Nor was that penalty by any means a light
one, if it be true that St. Patrick exorcized the reptiles
of Ireland into the sea or turned them into stones,^ and
that St. Bernard, by excommunicating the flies that
buzzed about him, laid them all out dead on the floor of
the church.^ The prerogative of trying domestic animals
was built, as on a rock, upon the Jewish law in the Book of
the Covenant. In every case advocates were assigned to
defend the animals, and the whole proceedings, trial, sentence,
and execution, were carried out with the strictest regard for
the forms of justice and the majesty of the law. The
researches of French antiquaries have brought to light the
records of ninety-two processes which were tried in French
courts from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. The last
victim to suffer in that country under what we may call the
Jewish dispensation was a cow, which underwent the extreme
penalty of the law in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and forty. On the other hand, the title of
the ecclesiastical authorities to exercise jurisdiction over wild
* Festus, De verboriim significatione
ed. C. O. Miiller (Leipsic, 1839)
p, 318 s.v. " Sacratae leges"; Mac
robius, Saturn, iii. 7; Dionysius Hali
carnasensis, Antiqiiit. Roman, ii. 74
G. Wissowa, Religion itnd Ktiltns der
Romer"^ (Munich, 19 12), p. 388.
2 (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, Primitive
Culture, Second Edition (London,
1873), i. 372. Another Irish saint
(St. Yvorus) is said to have cursed and
banished rats, and another (St. Nannan)
to have operated similarly on fleas.
SeeGiraldus Cambrensis, "Topography
of Ireland," chapters xxxi., xxxii., in
The Historical Works of Giraldus Cam-
brensis, edited by Thomas Wright (Lon-
don, 1887), pp. 95 sq.
3 H. H. Milman, History of Latin
Christianity, iv. (London, 1905), p.
313, noteP; " Proces contre les
Animaux," La Traditiofi, ii. No, 12,
15 Decembre, 1 888, p. 363, quoting
Sanctus Guillielm Abbas, Vit. S. Bern.
lib. x. cap. 12.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 425
animals and vermin, such as rats, locusts, caterpillars, and the
like, was not altogether, at least at first sight, so perfectly
clear and unambiguous on Scriptural grounds, and it had
accordingly to be deduced from Holy Writ by a chain of
reasoning in which the following appear to have formed the
most adamantine links. As God cursed the serpent for
beguiling Eve ; as David cursed Mount Gilboa on account of
the deaths of Saul and Jonathan ; and as our Saviour cursed
the fig-tree for not bearing figs in the off season ; so in like
manner it clearly follows that the Catholic Church has full
power and authority to exorcize, excommunicate, anathema-
tize, execrate, curse, and damn the whole animate and inani-
mate creation without any exception whatsoever. It is true This
that some learned canonists, puffed up with the conceit of mere disputed^"
human learning and of philosophy falsely so called, presumed by some
to cavil at a line of argument which to plain men must '^''^"°"'^^^-
appear irrefragable. They alleged that authority to try and
punish offences implies a contract, pact, or stipulation between
the supreme power which administers the law and the subjects
which submit to it, that the lower animals, being devoid of
intelligence, had never entered into any such contract, pact, or
stipulation, and that consequently they could not legally be
punished for acts which they had committed in ignorance of
the law. They urged, further, that the Church could not
with any show of justice ban those creatures which she
refused to baptize ; and they laid great stress on the pre-
cedent furnished by the Archangel Michael, who in contending
with Satan for possession of the body of Moses, did not
bring any railing accusation against the Old Serpent, but
left it to the Lord to rebuke him. However, such quibbles
and chicane, savouring strongly of rationalism, were of no
avail against the solid strength of Scriptural authority and
traditional usage on which the Church rested her jurisdic-
tion. The mode in which she exercised it was generally as
follows.
When the inhabitants of a district suffered from the Mode of
incursions or the excessive exuberance of noxious animals or aga^nstanU
insects, they laid a complaint against the said animals or maisorver-
msects in the proper ecclesiastical court, and the court ecciesiasti-
appointed experts to survey and report upon the damage cai courts.
426 THE OX THA T GORED part iv
that had been wrought. An advocate was next appointed
to defend the animals and show cause why they should not
be summoned. They wei:e then cited three several times,
and not appearing to answer for themselves, judgment was
given against them by default. The court after that served
a notice on the animals, warning them to leave the district
within a specified time under pain of adjuration ; and if they
did not take their departure on or before the date appointed,
the exorcism was solemnly pronounced. However, the courts
seem to have been extremely reluctant to push matters to
extremity by proclaiming the ban, and they resorted to
every shift and expedient for evading or at least deferring
the painful necessity. The motive for this long delay in
launching the ecclesiastical thunder may have been a tender
regard for the feelings of the creatures who were to be
blasted by it ; though some sceptics pretended that the real
reason was a fear lest the animals should pay no heed
to the interdict, and, instead of withering away after the
anathema, should rather be fruitful and multiply under it, as
was alleged to have happened in some cases. That such
unnatural multiplication of vermin under excommunication
had actually taken place the advocates of the ecclesiastical
courts were not prepared to deny, but they attributed it, with
every show of reason, to the wiles of the Tempter, who, as
we know from the case of Job, is permitted to perambulate
the earth to the great annoyance and distress of mankind.
The Nqj. again, could the curse be reasonably expected to
onkhe" operate for the benefit of parishioners whose tithes were in
regarded as arrcar. Hcucc One of the lights of the law on this subject
the surest , . , . , ^ . . , , ^ , . .
way of laid it down as a first principle that the best way of driving
driving off ^^ locusts is to pay tithes, and he supported this salutary
doctrine by the high authority of the prophet Malachi,^ who
represents the deity as remonstrating in the strongest terms
with the Jews on their delay in the payment of his tithes,
painting in the most alluring colours the blessings which he
would shower down on them, if only they would pay up,
and pledging his word that, on receipt of the arrears, he
would destroy the locusts that were devouring the crops.
The urgency of this appeal to the pockets as well as to
1 Malachi iii. 7- 1 2.
THE OX THAT GORED
427
the piety of his worshippers is suggestive of the low ebb
to which the temple funds were reduced in the days of
the prophet. His stirring exhortation may have furnished
the text of eloquent sermons preached under similar circum-
stances from many a pulpit in the Middle Ages/
So much for the general principles on which animals were Examples
formerly tried and condemned in Europe. A few samples °^'^^ .
•' i- f prosecution
1 As to the trial of animals in
ecclesiastical and civil courts in various
parts of Europe, but particularly in
France, see M. Delrio, Disqidsitionum
Magicarum libri sex (^logwnlidie, 1624),
lib. iii. pars, ii quaest. iv. sect. viii.
pp. 460 sq. ; Pierre le Brun, Histoire
Critique des Pratiques Superstitieuses
(Amsterdam, 1 733-1736), i. 242 sq. ;
Berriat-Saint-Prix, " Rapport et Re-
cherches sur les Proces et Jugemens
relatifs aux Animaux," Mimoires et
Dissertations publiies par la Sociiti
Royale des Antiqicaires de France, viii.
(Paris, 1829) pp. 403-450; Leon
Menabrea, " De TOrigine de la Forme
et de I'Esprit des Jugements rendus
au Moyen-Age contre les Animaux,"
M^moires de la Soci^ti Royale Aca-
dhnique de Savoie, xii. (Chambery,
1846) pp. 399-557 ; F. Noik, Die
Sitten und Gebrauche der Deutschen
und ihre Nachban'blker (Stuttgart,
1849), pp. 941 sqq. ; S. Baring-Gould,
" Queer Culprits," Curiosities of Olden
Times (London, N.D., preface dated
1869), pp. 50-71 ; R. Chambers, The
Book of Days (London and Edinburgh,
1886), i. 126-129; 6douard Robert,
•' Proces intentes aux Animaux," Bul-
letin de r Association Ginirale des Etu-
diants de Montpellier, i. No. 6, l^rjuin
188S (Montpellier, 1888), pp. 169-181 ;
" Proces contre les Animaux," La
Tradition, ii. No. 12, 15 Decembre,
1888 (Paris), pp. 362-364 ; Karl von
Amira, " Thierstrafen und Thierpro-
cesse," Mittheilutigen des Instituts fiir
Oesterreich ische Geschicktsforsch ung
(Innsbruck, 1891), pp. 545 - 601 ;
Edward Westermarck, The Origin and
Dez'elopmentofthe Moral Ideas (London,
1906-190S), i. 254 sq. ; E. P. Evans,
The Criminal Prosecution and Capital
Punishment of Animals (London,
1906), pp. I-192, 257-371 ; Edward
Clodd, " Execution of Animals," in
J. Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion of animals
atid Ethics, v. (Edinburgh, 1912) pp. '" Europe.
628 sq. The subject is treated most
6jllyby Berriat-Saint-Prix, L. Menabrea,
K. von Amira, and E. P. Evans.
The most important collections of
original documents are those of Berriat-
Saint-Prix and L. Menabrea ; they
are reprinted by E. P. Evans, who
adds a list of cases (pp. 313-334) and
a copious bibliography (pp. 362-371).
As to the right of the Church to curse
and excommunicate animate and in-
animate objects, and the deduction of
that right from the texts of Scripture,
see Delrio, I.e. ; L. Menabrea, op. cit.
pp. 420 sqq., 480 sqq., 50S sqq.; K.
von Amira, op. cit. pp. 561-564, 570-
572 ; E. P. Evans, op. cit. pp. 25 sq.,
53-55' Canonists seem to differ as to
the exact degree of damnation which
the Church is empowered to hurl at
these poor creatures. The celebrated
case of the Archangel Michael v. the
Devil is recorded in the Epistle of
Jude, V. 9. Compare L. Menabrea,
op. cit. p. 533. That the best way of
getting rid of caterpillars was to pay
tithes was stated in so many words
C P>-aecipuum re medium abigendi
locus tas est decimas sohere") by the
great French lawyer Earth. Chassent'e
or Chasseneux in his classical treatise
on the subject. Consilium prim urn,
quod Tj-aclalus jure diet potest, . . .
ubi luculcnter ct accurate tractatur
quistio ilia de excommunicatione ani-
malium insectorum (Lyons, 1531 ;
reprinted Lyons, 15SS). As to that
treatise, see Berriat-Saint-Prix, op. cit.
pp. 404 sqq. ; I^. Menabrea, op. cit.
pp. 512 sqq. ; E. P. Evans, op. cit.
pp. 21 sqq. The dictum as to the
payment of tithes is quoted by L.
Menabrea (p. 503). Compare E, P,
Evans, op. cit. pp. 37, 39.
commune
of St.
Julien
428 THE OX THAT GORED part iv
of these cases, both civil and ecclesiastical, will help to set the
sagacity of our ancestors in a proper light, if not to deepen
our respect for the majesty of the law.
Lawsuit A lawsuit between the inhabitants of the commune of
bv'ti^ ^ ^^' Julien and a coleopterous insect, now known to natural-
ists as the Rhy7ichites auratus, lasted with lucid intervals for
more than forty-two years. At length the inhabitants,
against weary of litigation, proposed to compromise the matter by
coieopter- giving up, in perpetuity, to the insects a fertile part of the
ous insects country for their sole use and benefit. The advocate of
fifteenth the animals demurred to the proposal, which would have
century. greatly restricted the natural liberty of his clients ; but
the court, overruling the demurrer, appointed assessors to
survey the land, and as it proved to be well wooded and
watered, and in every way suitable to the insects, the eccle-
siastical authorities ordered the conveyance to be engrossed
in due form and executed. The people now rejoiced
at the happy prospect of being rid both of the insects
and of the lawsuit ; but their rejoicings were premature.
Inquiry disclosed the melancholy truth that in the land
conveyed to the insects there existed a mine or quarry
of an ochreous earth, used as a pigment, and though
the quarry had long since been worked out and exhausted,
somebody possessed an ancient right-of-way to it which he
could not exercise without putting the new proprietors to
great inconvenience, not to speak of the risk they would run
of bodily injury by being trodden under foot. The obstacle
was fatal : the contract was vitiated ; and the whole process
began afresh. How or when it ended will perhaps never
be known, for the record is mutilated. All that is quite
certain is, that the suit began in the year 1445, and that it,
or another of the same sort, was still in process in the year
1487; from which we may infer with great probability
that the people of St. Julien obtained no redress, and that
the coleopterous insects remained in possession of the field.^
• L. Menabrea, " De TOrigine de la Chambers, The Book of Days, i. 127 ;
Forme et de I'Esprit des Jugements 'E.V.'EvaxiS, The Criminal Frosecution
rendus au Moyen-Age centre les Ani- atid Capital Punishment of Aiiivials
niaux," Mhnoires de la Soci^ti Royah (London, 1906), pp. 37-50, 259-285.
Acadiiniqite de Sanjoie, xii. (ChambL-ry, The original records of the case are
1S46) pp. 403-420, 544-557 ; R. still preserved in the ancient episcopal
CHAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 429
Another lawsnit carried on against the rats of the diocese Lawsuit
of Autun in the early part of the sixteenth century acquired t'samsirais
great celebrity through the part taken in it by Bartholomew diocese of
de Chasseneux, or Chassen^e, as he is more commonly |)^"j,""
named, a famous lawyer and jurisconsult, who has been sixteenth
called the Coke of France, and who laid the foundation of chS-
his fame on this occasion by his brilliant advocacy of the "^^^^s
rats. It happened that the rats had committed great depre- oflhrrlts.
dations on the crops, devouring the harvest over a large part
of Burgundy. The inhabitants lodged their complaint, and
the rats were cited to appear in court to answer to it. The
summonses were perfectly regular in form : to prevent all
mistakes they described the defendants as dirty animals,
of a greyish colour, residing in holes ; and they were served
in the usual way by an officer of the court, who read out the
summons at the places most frequented by the rats. Never-
theless, on the day appointed the rats failed to put in an
appearance in court. Their advocate pleaded on behalf of
his clients that the summons was of too local and individual
a character ; that as all the rats in the diocese were interested,
all should be summoned from every part of the diocese. The
plea being allowed, the curate of every parish in the diocese
was instructed to summon every rat for a future day. The
day arriving, but still no rats, Chasseneux urged that, as all
his clients were summoned, young and old, sick and healthy,
great preparations had to be made, and certain arrangements
carried into effect, and accordingly he begged for an extension
of time. This also being granted, another day was fixed,
but still no rats appeared. Their advocate now objected to
the legality of the summons, under certain circumstances. A
summons from that court, he argued with great plausibilit)-,
implied a safe-conduct to the parties summoned both on
their way to it and on their return home ; but his clients, the
rats, though most anxious to appear in obedience to the
summons, did not dare to stir out of their holes, being put in
bodily fear by the many evil-disposed cats kept by the
city of St. Jean-de-Mauiiciine. They Mr. E. P. Evans (<;/. tV/. pp. 259-2S4).
were printed for the first time in full The commune of St. Julien is situatrd
by L. Menabrea (op. cit. pp. 544-557), at the foot of a high mountain on the
and they have since been reprinted by road to the pass over Mt. Cenii.
43°
THE OX TEA T GORED
Criminal
proceeding
instituted
against
moles
by the
commune
of the
Stelvio in
1519-
plaintiffs. " Let the plaintiffs," he continued, " enter into
bonds, under heavy pecuniary penalties, that their cats shall
not molest my clients, and the summons will be at once
obeyed." The court acknowledged the validity of the plea ;
but the plaintiffs declining to be bound over for the good
behaviour of their cats, the period for the attendance of the
rats was adjourned sine die}
Again, in the year 15 19 the commune of the Stelvio in
the Tyrol instituted criminal proceedings against the moles
or field-mice {Lutmduse), which damaged the crops " by
burrowing and throwing up the earth, so that neither grass
nor green thing could grow." But " in order that the said
mice may be able to show cause for their conduct by
pleading their exigencies and distress," an advocate, Hans
Grienebner by name, was charged with their defence, " to the
end that they may have nothing to complain of in these
proceedings." The counsel who appeared for the prosecution
was Schwarz Mining, and the evidence which he led, by the
mouths of many witnesses, proved conclusively the serious
injury done by the defendants to the lands of the plaintiffs.
The counsel for the defence, indeed, as in duty bound, made
the best of a bad case on behalf of his clients. He urged
in their favour the many benefits they had conferred on
the community, and particularly on the agricultural interest,
by destroying noxious insects and grubs, and by stirring
up and enriching the soil, and he wound up his plea by
expressing a hope that, should his clients lose their case
and be sentenced to depart from their present quarters,
another suitable place of abode might be assigned to them.
He demanded, furthermore, as a simple matter of justice,
that they should be granted a safe-conduct securing them
against harm or annoyance from cat, dog, or other foe.
' J. A. Thuanus (de Thou), Histoj-iae
sui Temporis (London, 1733), i. 223
sq., lib. vi. anno 1550; Berriat-Saint-
Prix, " Rapport et Recherches sur les
Proces et Jugemens relatifs aux Ani-
maux," Mimoires et Dissertations ptib-
li^es par la Soci^ti Royale des Anti-
quatres
de France, viii. (Paris, 1829)
pp. a,OdfSqq. ; L. Menabrea, op. cit. pp.
497 ^Ql- '> ^- Chambers, T/te Bool' of
Days, pp. 127 sq. ; Alfred de Nore,
Coutuines, Mythes et Traditions des
Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons,
1846), p. 301 ; S. Baring.Gould, Czn-io-
sities of Olden Times, p. 60 ; E. Robert,
op. cit. pp. 178 sq. ; E. P. Evans, op.
cit. pp. 18 sq. The report of this case
is said to be found in the Martyrologe
des Protestants.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 431
The judge acknowledged the reasonableness of this last
request, and with great humanity not only granted the safe-
conduct, but allowed a further respite of fourteen days to all
such mice as were either with young or still in their infancy.^
Again, in the year 1478 the authorities of 'Berne took Legal pro.
legal proceedings against the species of vermin popularly tak"^'"^^
known as inger, which seems to have been a coleopterous against
insect of the genus BrycJms, and of which we are told, and vermin
may readily believe, that not a single specimen was to be called ?«_f^er
found in Noah's ark. The case came on before the Bishop of authodties
Lausanne, and dragged out for a long time. The defendants, '^'^ ^erne in
who had proved very destructive to the fields, meadows, and
gardens, were summoned in the usual way to appear and
answer for their conduct through their advocate before His
Grace the Bishop of Lausanne at Wifflisburg on the sixth
day after the issue of the summons, at one of the clock
precisely. However, the insects turned a deaf ear to the
summons, and their advocate, a certain Jean Perrodet of
Freiburg, appears to have displayed but little ability or
energy in defence of his clients. At all events, sentence
was given against them, and the ecclesiastical thunder was
launched in the following terms : " We, Benedict of
Montferrand, Bishop of Lausanne, etc., having heard the
entreaty of the high and mighty lords of Berne against the
.inger and the ineffectual and rejectable answer of the latter,
and having thereupon fortified ourselves with the Holy
Cross, and having before our eyes the fear of God, from
whom alone all just judgments proceed, and being advised
in this cause by a council of men learned in the law, do
therefore acknowledge and avow in this our writing that the
appeal against the detestable vermin and iiiger, which are
harmful to herbs, vines, meadows, grain and other fruits, is
valid, and that they be exorcised in the person of Jean
Perrodet, their defender. In conformity therewith we charge
and burden them with our curse, and command them to be
obedient, and anathematize them in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that they turn away
from all fields, grounds, enclosures, seeds, fruits, and produce,
1 E. F. Evans, The Criminal Prose- u^t/ima/s (Lom\on, 1906), pp. 11 11 13,
cation and Capital Punishment of 307 sq.
432 THE OX THA T GORED part iv
and depart. By virtue of the same sentence I declare and
affirm that you are banned and exorcised, and through the
power of Almighty God shall be called accursed and shall
daily decrease whithersoever you may go, to the end that of
you nothing shall remain save for the use and profit of
man." The verdict had been awaited by the people with
great anxiety, and the sentence was received with corre-
sponding jubilation. But their joy was short - lived, for,
strange to say, the contumacious insects appeared to set the
ecclesiastical thunder at defiance ; and we are told that they
continued to plague and torment the Bernese for their sins,
until the sinners had recourse to the usual painful, but
effectual, remedy of paying their tithes.^
Proceedings In the thirteenth century the inhabitants of Coire, the
Sml^sh capital of the Grisons in Switzerland, instituted proceedings
flies at against the green beetles called Spanish flies in the Electorate
of Mayence. The judge before whom the insects were cited,
out of compassion for the minuteness of their bodies and their
extreme youth, granted them a guardian and advocate, who
pleaded their cause and obtained for them a piece of land to
which they were banished. " And to this day," adds the
historian, " the custom is duly observed ; every year a
definite portion of land is reserved for the beetles, and there
they assemble, and no man is subjected to inconvenience
Proceedings by them." ^ Again, in a process against leeches, which was
fe^hes at ^^^^^ ^^ Lausanne in 145 i, a number of leeches were brought
Lausanne, into court to hear the notice served against them, which
admonished all leeches to leave the district within three
days. The leeches, however, proving contumacious and re-
fusing to quit the country, they were solemnly exorcized.
But the form of exorcism adopted on this occasion differed
slightly from the one which was in ordinary use ; hence it
was adversely criticized by some canonists, though stoutly
defended by others. The doctors of Heidelberg in particular,
then a famous seat of learning, not only expressed their
* E. P. Evans, op. cit. pp. 113- of Olden Times, ^^.bi sq.;^.Y.Y.\2LXi.%,
121, 309 sq. A full report of this op. cit. pp. no sq. The original
case is said to be given by an old authority, to whom all these writers
Swiss chronicler named Schilling. refer, is Felix Malleolus (Hemmeilein),
2 Berriat- Saint -Prix, op. cit. pp. in his Tractatus de Exo7xismis. The
411 j^. ; L. Menabrea, op. cit. pp. passage from Tract, ii. is quoted and
488 sq. ; S. Baring Gould, Curiosities translated by Menabrea (I.e.).
CHAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 433
entire and unanimous approbation of the exorcism, but im-
posed silence on all impertinent meddlers who presumed to
speak against it. And though they candidly acknowledged
that it deviated somewhat from the recognized formula made
and provided for such purposes, yet they triumphantly
appealed to its efficacy as proved by the result ; for immedi-
ately after its delivery the leeches had begun to die off day
by day, until they were utterly exterminated.^
Among the animal pests against which legal proceedings Proceedings
were taken, a plague of caterpillars would seem to have been cfrerpiiiars
one of the most frequent. In the year 15 16 an action was atviiienose
brought against these destructive insects by the inhabitants
of Villenose, and the case was tried by the Provost of Troyes,
who, in giving judgment, admonished the caterpillars to retire
within six days from the vineyards and lands of Villenose,
threatening them with his solemn curse and malediction if
they failed to obey the admonition.^ In the seventeenth Proceedings
century the inhabitants of Strambino, in Piedmont, suffered cSr"pinars
much at the hands of caterpillars, or gatte, as they called a'
1 1 11 Strambino
them, which ravaged the vineyards. When the plague had \^
lasted several years, and the usual remedies of prayers, pro- Piedmont,
cessions, and holy water had proved of no avail to stay it,
the insects were summoned in due form by the bailiff to
appear before the podesta or mayor in order to answer the
claim against them for the damages they had done in the
district. The trial took place in the year 1633, and the
original record of it is still preserved in the municipal
archives of Strambino. The following is a translation of
the document : —
"In A.D. 1633 on the 14th February judicially before
the most illustrious Signor Gerolamo San Martino dei
Signori and the Signori Matteo Reno, G. M. Barberis,
G. Merlo, Consuls of Strambino on behalf of everybody.
Whereas for several years in March and during the spring
1 M. Delrio, Disqiiisitionum Magi- this case appears to be Felix Malleolus,
carum libri sex (Moguntiae, 1624), p. Tractatus de Exonismis.
460; Berriat-Saint-Prix, op. cit. pp. « pjgrre Le Brun, Histoire Cnti.jue
423, 429 ; L. Menabrea, op. cit. 499 des Pratiques Superstitieuses (Amster-
sqq.', R. Chambers, T/ie Boo^o/Dajf's, dam, I733-I736), i- 243; Alfred de
i. 128; S. Baring Gould, Curiosities Nore, Coutumes, A/jt/ies et Traditions
of Olden Times, p. 61; E. P. Evans, des Froz'inces de France (Paris and
op. cit. pp. 27 sq. The authority for Lyons, 1S46), pp. 301 sq.
VOL. Ill . 2 F
434 THE OX THA T GORED part iv
of each year certain small animals come out in the shape of
small worms, called gatte, which, from their birth onwards,
corrode and consume the branches of the budding grapes in
the vineyards of the said Signori and of commoners also.
And whereas every power comes from God, whom all
creatures obey, even unreasonable ones, and in divine piety
recur to the remedy of temporal justice when other human
aid is of no avail. We claim, therefore, to appeal to the
office of your Excellency in this emergency against these
destroying animals, that you may compel them to desist from
the said damage, to abandon the vineyards, and summon
them to appear before the bench of reason to show cause
why they should not desist from corroding and destroying,
under penalty of banishment from the place and confiscation.
And a declaration of execution is to be proclaimed with
shouts and a copy to be affixed to the court.
" Whereas these things having been proved, the Signor
Podesta has ordered the said offending animals to appear
before the bench to show cause why they should not desist
from the aforesaid damage. We, Girolamo di San Martin o,
Podesta of Strambino, with these presents, summon and
assign the animals called gatte judicially to appear on the
5 th instant before us to show cause why they should not
desist from the damage, under penalty of banishment and
confiscation in a certain spot. Declaring the execution of
the presents to be made by publication and a copy to be
affixed to the bench to be made valid on the 14th February
1633. (Signed) San Martino (Podesti)." ^
Proceedings In the neighbouring province of Savoy, from the sixteenth
carerpiiiars ccutury ouwards, " there was one very curious old custom,
in Savoy, whereby, when caterpillars and other insects were doing
serious damage, they were excommunicated by the priests.
The cure went to the ruined fields and two advocates pleaded,
the one for the insects, the other against them. The former
advanced the argument that as God created animals and
insects before man, they had the first right to the produce
of the field, and the latter answered him that so much
damage had been done the peasants could not afford the
' Estella Canziani and Eleanour Rohde, Piedmojit (London, 19 13), pp
168 sq.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 435
depredations, even if the insects had the first right. After
a lengthy trial, they were solemnly excommunicated by the
priest, who ordered that they should stay on a particular
piece of ground which was to be allotted to them." ^
The practice of taking legal proceedings against destruc- Proceedings
tive vermin survived into the first half of the eighteenth against
century, and was transported by the Church to the New ants by
World. In the year 171 3 the Friars Minor of the province Minorin
of Piedade no Maranhao, in Brazil, brought an action against Piedade no
1 -J j'j Maranhao
the ants of the said territory, because the said ants did a province
feloniously burrow beneath the foundations of the monastery of BrazU.
and undermine the cellars of the said Brethren, thereby
weakening the walls of the said monastery and threatening
its total ruin. And not content with sapping the founda-
tions of the sacred edifice, the said ants did moreover
burglariously enter the stores and carry off the flour which
was destined for the consumption of the Brethren. This was
most intolerable and not to be endured, and accordingly after
all other remedies had been tried in vain, one of the friars
gave it as his opinion that, reverting to the spirit of humility
and simplicity which had so eminently distinguished their
seraphic founder, who termed all creatures his brethren or
his sisters, as Brother Sun, Brother Wolf, Sister Swallow,
and so forth, they should bring an action against their sisters
the ants before the divine tribunal of Providence,, and should
name counsel for defendants and plaintiffs ; also that the
bishop should, in the name of supreme Justice, hear the case
and give judgment.
This sapient proposal was approved of, and after all The case
arrangements had been made for the trial, an indictment piai.uitis.
was presented by the counsel for the plaintiffs. As it was
contested by the counsel for the defendants, the counsel for
the plaintiffs opened his case, showing cause why his clients
should receive the protection of the law. He showed that
his virtuous clients, the friars, lived upon the public charity,
collecting alms from the faithful" with much labour and per-
sonal inconvenience ; whereas the ants, whose morals and
manner of life were clearly contrary to the Gospel precepts
1 Estella Canziani, Costumes, Traditions and Songs of Savoy (London, 19' 0»
pp. 128 sq.
436
THE OX THAT GORED
The case
for the
defendants
Judgment
given
against
the ants.
and were therefore regarded with horror by St. Francis, the
founder of the confraternity, did subsist by pillage and fraud ;
for that, not content with acts of petty larceny, they did go
about by open violence to bring down the house about the
ears of his clients, the friars. Consequently the defendants
were bound to show cause or in default to be sentenced to
the extreme penalty of the law, either to be put to death by
a pestilence or drowned by a flood, or at all events to be
exterminated from the district.
On the other hand, the counsel for the ants argued that,
having received from their Maker the gift of life, they were
bound by a law of nature to preserve it by means of the
natural instincts implanted in them ; that in the observance
of these means they served Providence by setting men an
example of prudence, charity, piety, and other virtues, in
proof of which their advocate quoted passages from the
Scriptures, St. Jerome, the Abbot Absalon, and even Pliny ;
that the ants worked far harder than the monks, the burdens
which they carried being often larger than their bodies, and
their courage greater than their strength ; that in the eyes
of the Creator men themselves are but worms ; that his
clients were in possession of the ground long before the
plaintiffs established themselves there ; that consequently it
was the monks, and not the ants, who ought to be expelled
from lands to which they had no other claim than a seizure
by main force ; finally, that the plaintiffs ought to defend
their house and meal by human means, which the defendants
would not oppose, v\^hile they, the defendants, continued their
manner of life, obeying the law imposed on their nature and
rejoicing in the freedom of the earth, in as much as the earth
belongs not to the plaintiffs but to the Lord, for " the earth
is the Lord's and the fulness thereof"
This answer was followed by replies and counter-replies,
in the course of which the counsel for the prosecution saw
himself constrained to admit that the debate had very much
altered his opinion of the criminality of the defendants. The
upshot of the whole matter was that the judge, after carefully
revolving the evidence in his mind, gave sentence that the
Brethren should appoint a field in the neighbourhood suitable for
the habitation of the ants, and that the insects should immedi-
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 437
ately shift their quarters to the new abode on pain of suffer-
ing the nnajor excommunication. By such an arrangement,
he pointed out, both parties would be content and reconciled ;
for the ants must remember that the monks had come into
the land to sow there the seed of the Gospel, while the ants
could easily earn their livelihood elsewhere and at even less
cost. This sentence having been delivered with judicial
gravity, one of the friars was appointed to convey it to the
ants, which he did by reading it aloud at the mouths of
their burrows. The insects loyally accepted it ; and dense
columns of them were seen leaving the ant-hills in all haste
and marching in a straight line to the residence appointed
for them.^
Again, in the year 1733 the rats and mice proved very Proceedings
troublesome in the village and lands of Bouranton. They andmicT^
swarmed in the houses and barns, and they ravaged the '" ^^^
<-r^t Til village and
fields and vineyards. The villagers accordmgly brought an lands of
action against the vermin, and the case was tried before the Bouranton.
judge, Louis Gublin, on the seventeenth day of September
1733- The plaintiffs were represented by the procurator-
fiscal, and the defendants by a certain Nicolas Gublin, who
pleaded on behalf of his clients that they too were Gx)d's
creatures and therefore entitled to live. To this the counsel
for the prosecution replied that he desired to place no
obstacle in the way of the said animals' life ; on the contrary
he was ready to point out to them a place to which they
could retire and where they could take up their abode. The
counsel for the rats and mice thereupon demanded three
days' grace to allow his clients to effect their retreat. Having
heard both sides, the judge summed up and pronounced
sentence. He said that, taking into consideration the great
damage done by the said animals, he condemned them to
retire within three days from the houses, barns, tilled fields,
and vineyards of Bouranton, but that they were free to betake
themselves, if they thought fit, to deserts, uncultivated lands,
and highroads, always provided they did no manner of harm
to fields, houses, and barns ; otherwise he would be com-
1 S. Baring Gould, Curiosities of AiTc-rt /7i?r^.f/a (Lisboa, 1728, according
Olden Times, pp. 64-71 ; E. P. Evans, to Baring Gould; I747i according to
op. cit. pp. 123 sq., citing as their Evans),
authority P. Manocl Bernardes, in his
438 THE OX THAT GORED part iv
pelled to have recourse to God by means of the censures of
the Church and the process of excommunication to be pro-
nounced against them. This sentence, engrossed in due
form, was signed by the judge Louis Gublin, with his own
hand.^
Why It is easy to understand why in all such cases the
wCTe dealt Gxecution of the sentence was entrusted to the ecclesiastical
with by the rather than to the civil authorities. It was physically
asticai' impossible for a common executioner, however zealous, active
authorities and robust, to hang, decapitate, or otherwise execute all the
animals by rats, micc, ants, flies, mosquitoes, caterpillars, and other
the civil vermin of a whole district ; but what is impossible with man
authorities. . i • i j • i /^ i i t i •
is possible and mdeed easy with Cjod, and accordingly it was
logically and reasonably left to God's ministers on earth to
grapple with a problem which far exceeded the capacity of
the civil magistrate and his minister the hangman. On the
other hand, when the culprits were not wild but tame
animals, the problem of dealing with them was much
simplified, and was indeed well within the reach of the
civil power. In all such cases, therefore, justice took its
usual course ; there was no difficulty at all in arresting the
criminals and in bringing them, after a fair trial, to the
gallows, the block, or the stake. That is why in those
days vermin enjoyed the benefit of clergy, while tame
animals had to submit to all the rigour of the secular arm.
Case of a For example, a sow and her litter of six, belonging to a
sLx^iitt'ie certain Jehan Bailli, alias Valot, were indicted at Savigny in
pigs tried 1457 on a charge that they had "committed murder and
homicide homicidc ou the person of Jehan Martin, aged five years, son
at Savigny. of Jehan Martin of the said Savigny." On a full considera-
tion of the evidence the judge gave sentence " that the
sow of Jehan Bailli, alias Valot, by reason of the murder and
homicide committed and perpetrated by the said sow on the
person of Jehan Martin of Savigny, be confiscated to the
justice of Madame de Savigny, in order to suffer the extreme
penalty of the law and to be hanged by the hind feet to
a bent tree." The sentence was carried out, for in the
record of the case, which is still preserved, we read that " We,
1 The French document is printed Hon, ii. No. 12, 15 Decembre, 1888.
by Augustin Chaboseau in La Tradi- pp. 363 sq.
CHAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 439
Nicolas Ouaroillon, judge aforesaid, make known to all, that
immediately after the aforesaid proceedings, we did really
and in fact deliver the said sow to Mr. Etienne Poinceau,
minister of high justice, resident at Chalons-sur-Saone, to
be executed according to the form and tenor of our said
sentence, which deliverance of that sow having been made
by us, as hath been said, immediately the said Mr, Estienne
did bring on a cart the said sow to a bent tree within the
justice of the said Madame de Savigny, and on that bent
tree Mr. Estienne did hang the said sow by the hind feet,
executing our said sentence, according to its form and tenor."
As for the six little pigs, though they were found to be
stained with blood, yet " as it did by no means appear that
these little pigs did eat the said Jehan Martin," their case
was deferred, their owner giving bail for their reappearance
at the bar of justice in case evidence should be forthcoming,
that they had assisted their homicidal parent in devour-
ing the said Jehan Martin. On the resumption of the
trial, as no such evidence was forthcoming, and as their
owner refused to be answerable for their good conduct
thereafter, the judge gave sentence, that "these little pigs
do belong and appertain, as vacant property, to the said
Madame de Savigny, and we do adjudge them to her
as reason, usage, and the custom of the country doth
ordain." ^
Again, in the year 1386 a sow tore the face and arm of Execution
a boy at Falaise in Normandy, and on the principle of " an S!4,aiJe'i,r
eye for an eye " was condemned to be mutilated in the same Nommtniy
manner and afterwards hanged. The criminal was led to
the place of execution attired in a waistcoat, gloves, and a
pair of drawers, with a human mask on her head to com-
plete the resemblance to an ordinary criminal. The execu- Cost of the
tion cost ten sous, ten denicrs, and a pair of gloves to the of"!)^ "'^JJ."
executioner, that he might not soil his hands in the dis-
charge of his professional duty.^ Sometimes the execution
1 Berriat-Saint-Prix," Rapport et Re- P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution
cherches sur les Proces et Jugemens and Capital Punishment of Animals
relatifs aux Animaux," Mimoires et (London, 1906), pp. 153 .f^., 346-351-
Dissertations publit'es far la SoeiM 2 g, Robert, " Proces intentes aux
Royale des Antiquaires de France, viii. Animaux," Bulletin de V Association
(Paris, 1829) pp. 428, 441-445; E. Gdnirale des Etudiants de Montpcllicr.
440
THE OX THA T GORED
Execution
of other
animals in
France.
6 sols
54 sols
6 sols
. 2 sols, 8 deniers
2 deniers^
of animals was a good deal more expensive. Here is the
bill for the execution of a sow which had eaten a child at
Meulan, near Paris, in 1403 : —
To the expenditure made for her whilst in jail .
Item. To the executioner, who came from Paris
to Meulan to carry out the said execution
by command and order of the bailiff and
the King's Procurator
Ite7n. To a cart for conducting her to execution
Item. To cords to tie and bind her
Item. To gloves
In 1266 a sow was burned at Fontenay-aux-Roses, near
Paris, for having devoured a child ; the order for its execu-
tion was given by the officers of justice of the monastery of
Sainte-Genevi^ve.^
But sows, though they seem to have frequently suffered
the extreme penalty of the law, were by no means the only
animals that did so. In 1389 a horse was tried at Dijon,
on information given by the magistrates of Montbar, and
was condemned to death for having killed a man. Again,
in the year 1499, the authorities of the Cistercian Abbey
of Beaupr^, near Beauvais, condemned a bull " to the
gallows, unto death inclusively," because it "did furiously
kill a young lad of fourteen or fifteen years, in the lord-
ship of Cauroy, a dependency of this abbey." On another
occasion a farmer at Moisy, in I3I4> allowed a mad bull
to escape. The animal gored a man so severely that he
only survived a few hours. Hearing of the accident,
Charles, Count de Valois, ordered the bull to be seized and
committed for trial. This was accordingly done. The
officers of the Count gathered all requisite information,
received the affidavits of witnesses, and established the
guilt of the bull, which was accordingly condemned to
death and hanged on the gibbet of Moisy-le-Temple. An
appeal against the sentence of the Count's officers was after-
i. No. 6, i^r Juin, 1888, p. 172 ; S.
Baring Gould, Curiosities of Olden
Times, p. 52 ; E. P. Evans, op. cit.
pp. 140 sq., 335-
1 Berriat-Saint-Prix, op. (it. pp.
433 sq. ; S. Baring Gould, Curiosities
of Olden Times, 53 sq.\ E. P. Evans,
op. cit. pp. 141 sq., 3 38 sq.
2 Berriat-Saint-Prix, op. cit. p. 427 ;
S. Baring Gould, Curiosities of Olden
Times, p. 52 ; E. P. Evans, op. cit.
p. 140.
CHAP. VI THE OX THAT GORED 441
wards lodged with the parh'ament ; but parh'ament rejected
the appeal, deciding that the bull had got its deserts, though
the Count de Valois had exceeded his rights by meddling in
the affair. As late as the year 1697 a mare was burned
by decree of the Parliament of Aix.^
At Bale in the year 1474 an aged cock was tried and Execution
found guilty of laying an &%g. The counsel for the prosecu- °t Baie'^L
tion proved that cock's eggs were of priceless value for 1474 for
■ - • • • , ^- ^y. ^ laving an
mixmg m certam magical preparations ; that a sorcerer ^gg
would rather possess a cock's egg than be master of the
philosopher's stone ; and that in heathen lands Satan em-
ploys witches to hatch such eggs, from which proceed animals
most injurious to Christians. These facts were too patent
and notorious to be denied, nor did the counsel for the
prisoner attempt to dispute them. Admitting to the full
the act charged against his client, he asked what evil intent
had been proved against him in laying an ^^gl What
harm had he done to man or beast? Besides, he urged
that the laying of an &gg was an involuntary act and, as
such, not punishable by law. As for the charge of sorcery,
if that was brought against his client, he totally repudiated
it, and he defied the prosecution to adduce a single case in
which Satan had made a compact with any of the brute
creation. In reply the public prosecutor alleged, that
though the devil did not make compacts with brutes, he
sometimes entered into them, in confirmation of which he
cited the celebrated case of the Gadarene swine, pointing
out with great cogency that though these animals, being
possessed by devils, were involuntary agents, like the prisoner
at the bar when he laid an &g% nevertheless they were
punished by being made to run violently down a steep place
into the lake, where they perished. This striking precedent
apparently made a great impression on the court ; at all
events, the cock was sentenced to death, not in the character
of a cock, but in that of a sorcerer or devil who had assumed
the form of the fowl, and he and the ^g% which he had laid
were burned together at the stake with all the solemnity of
1 Berriat-Saint-Prix, op. cit. pp. 428 Times, pp. 52 sq. ; E. P. Evans, op.
sq. (as lo the bull at Cauroy) ; S. cit. pp. 160-162.
Baring Gould, Curiosities of Olden
442
THE OX THA T GORED
Execution
of dogs in
New
England.
Animals
produced
in the
witness-
box in
Savoy.
a regular execution. The pleadings in this case are said to
be voluminous.^
If Satan thus afflicted animals in the Old World, it
could not reasonably be expected that he would spare them
in the New. Accordingly we read without surprise that in
New England " a dog was strangely afflicted at Salem, upon
which those who had the spectral sight declared that a
brother of the justices afflicted the poor animal, by riding
upon it invisibly. The man made his escape, but the dog
was very unjustly hanged. Another dog was accused of
afflicting others, who fell into fits the moment it looked
upon them, and it also was killed." ^
In Savoy it is said that animals sometimes appeared in
the witness-box as well as in the dock, their testimony being
legally valid in certain well-defined cases. If a man's house
was broken into between sunset and sunrise, and the owner
killed the intruder, the act was considered a justifiable
homicide. But it was deemed just possible that a wicked
man, who lived all alone, might decoy another into spending
the evening with him, and then, after murdering him, might
give it out that his victim was a burglar, whom he had slain
in self-defence. To guard against this contingency, and to
ensure the conviction of the murderer, the law sagaciously
provided that when anybody was killed under such circum-
stances, the solitary householder should not be held innocent,
unless he produced a dog, cat, or cock, an inmate of his
house, which had witnessed the homicide and could from
personal knowledge attest the innocence of its master.
The householder was compelled to make his declaration of
innocence before the animal, and if the beast or bird did
not contradict him, he was considered to be guiltless, the
law taking it for granted that the Deity would directly inter-
pose and open the mouth of the cat, dog, or cock, just as he
1 R. Chambers, The Book of Days,
i. 129. Compare Berriat-Saint-Prix,
op. cit. p. 428 ; S. Baring Gould,
Curiosities of Olden Times, p. 55 ;
E. P. Evans, op. cit. p. 162 ; Carl
Meyer, Der Aberglaube des Mittel-
alters (Bale, 1884), p. 73. From the
last of these writers we learn that the
cock had attained the comparatively
patriarchal age of eleven years, which
made his indiscretion in laying an egg
all the more singular. The case seems
to have been reported by Felix Malle-
olus (Hemmerlein) and recorded in the
chronicles of the city.
2 Thomas Wright, Narratives of
Sorcery and Magic (London, 185 1 ), ii.
309.
c-HAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 443
once opened the mouth of Balaam's ass, rather than allow a
murderer to escape from justice.^
In modern Europe, as in ancient Greece, it would seem Thebeii
that even inanimate objects have sometimes been punished ^o^heiie
for their misdeeds. After the revocation of the edict of punished
Nantes, in 1685, the Protestant chapel at La Rochelle was ^°'" '^^^^^y-
condemned to be demolished, but the bell, perhaps out of
regard for its value, was spared. However, to expiate the
crime of having rung heretics to prayers, it was sentenced to
be first whipped, and then buried and disinterred, by way of
symbolizing its new birth at passing into Catholic hands.
Thereafter it was catechized, and obliged to recant and
promise that it would never again relapse into sin. Having
made this ample and honourable amends, the bell was recon-
ciled, baptized, and given, or rather sold, to the parish of St.
Bartholomew. But when the governor sent in the bill for
the bell to the parish authorities, they declined to settle it,
alleging that the bell, as a recent convert to Catholicism,
desired to take advantage of a law lately passed by the king,
which allowed all new converts a delay of three years in
paying their debts.^
In English law a relic of the same ancient mode of thought The
survived till near the middle of the nineteenth century in the ^^^^^^
doctrine and practice of deodand.^ It was a rule of the deodand.
common law that not only a beast that killed a man, but any
inanimate object that caused his death, such as a cart-wheel
which ran over him, or a tree that fell upon him, was deodand
or given to God, in Consequence of which it was forfeited to
the king and sold for the benefit of the poor. Hence in all
indictments for homicide the instrument of death used to be
valued by the grand jury, in order that its money value
might be made over to the king or his grantee for pious uses.
Thus in practice all deodands came to be looked on as mere
forfeitures to the king. Regarded in that light they were
1 R. Chambers, The Book of Days, mentaries on the Laws of England,
i. 129, referring to the testimony of Eighteenth Edition (London, 1S29),
"a distinguished Sardinian lawyer." i. 299 sqq. ; (.Sir) Edward B. Tylor,
2 S. Baring Gould, Curiosities of Primitive Culture, Second Edition
Olden Times, pp. 63 sq., quoting from (London, 1873), '• 2S6 sq. ; Evcyelo-
Benoit's Histoire de PEdit de Nantes, padia Britannica, Ninth Edition, vii.
vol. V. p. 754. (Edinburgh, 1877) pp. 100 j^.
3 Sir William Blackstone, Com-
444
THE OX THA T GORED
The
punishment
of animals
and
inanimate
objects
explained
by Sir
Edward
Tyler and
Adam
Smith.
very unpopular, and in later times the juries, with the con-
nivance of the judges, used to mitigate the forfeitures by-
finding only some trifling thing, or part of a thing, to have
been the occasion of the death. It was not till the year
1846 that this curious survival of primitive barbarism was
finally abolished by statute. So long as it lingered in the
courts it naturally proved a stumbling-block in the path of
philosophical lawyers, who attempted to reduce all rules of
English law to the first principles of natural reason and
equity, little wotting of the bottomless abyss of ignorance,
savagery, and superstition on which the thin layer of modern
law and civilization precariously rests. Thus Blackstone
supposed that the original intention of forfeiting the instru-^
ment of death was to purchase masses for the soul of the
person who had been accidentally killed ; hence he thought
that the deodands ought properly to have been given to the
church rather than to the king. The philosopher Reid opined
that the aim of the law was not to punish the animal or thing
that had been instrumental in killing a human being, but " to
inspire the people with a sacred regard to the life of man." ^
With far greater probability the practice of deodand and
all the customs of punishing animals or things for injuries
inflicted by them on persons, have been deduced by Sir
Edward Tylor from the same primitive impulse which leads
the savage to bite the stone he has stumbled over or the
arrow that has wounded him, and which prompts the child,
and even at times the grown man, to kick or beat the lifeless
object from which he has suffered.^ The principle, if we may
call it so, of this primitive impulse is set forth by Adam
Smith with all his customary lucidity, insight, and good
sense. " The causes of pain and pleasure," he says, " what-
ever they are, or however they operate, seem to be the objects,,
which, in all animals, immediately excite those two passions
of gratitude and resentment. They are excited by inani-
mated, as well as by animated objects. We are angry, for a
^ Thomas Reid, Essays on the Pozvers
of the Human Mind (Edinburgh, 1812),
iii. 113. Headds, " When the Parlia-
ment of Paris, with a similar intention,
ordained the house in which Ravilliac
was born, to be razed to the ground,
and never to be rebuilt, it would be
great weakness to conclude, that that
wise judicature intended to punish the
house."
2 (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, Primitive
Culture, Second Edition (London,
1873), i. 285 sqq.
CHAP. VI THE OX THA T GORED 445
moment, even at the stone that hurts us. A child beats it,
a dog barks at it, a choleric man is apt to curse it. The
least reflection, indeed, corrects this sentiment, and we soon
become sensible, that what has no feeling is a very improper
object of revenge. When the mischief, however, is very great,
the object which caused it becomes disagreeable to us ever
after, and we take pleasure to burn or destroy it. We should
treat, in this manner, the instrument which had accidentally
been the cause of the death of a friend, and we should often
think ourselves guilty of a sort of inhumanity, if we neglected
to vent this absurd sort of vengeance upon it." ^
Modern researches into the progress of mankind have The
rendered it probable that in the infancy of the race the natural personifi^.
tendency to personify external objects, whether animate or cation of
inanimate, in other words, to invest them with the attributes objec'tsis
of human beings, was either not corrected at all, or corrected reflected in
• r- ^ T o • ^ ^• ' primitive
only m a very imperfect degree, by reflection on the distinc- legislation,
tions which more advanced thought draws, first, between the
animate and the inanimate creation, and second, between
man and the brutes. In that hazy state of the human mind
it was easy and almost inevitable to confound the motives
which actuate a rational man with the impulses which direct
a beast, and even with the forces which propel a stone or a
tree in falling. It was in some such mental confusion that
savages took deliberate vengeance on animals and things that
had hurt or offended them ; and the intellectual fog in which
such actions were possible still obscured the eyes of the
primitive legislators who, in various ages and countries, have
consecrated the same barbarous system of retaliation under
the solemn forms of law and justice.
* Adam Smith, The Theory of the Chapter i. (vol. i. pp. 234^^., Seventh
Moral Sentiments, Part ii. Section iii. Edition, London, 1792),
CHAPTER VII
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Violet robe
of Jewish
priest hung
with golden
bells.
The sound
of the bells
perhaps
intended
to drive
away evil
spirits.
In the Priestly Code it is ordained that the priest's robe
should be made all of violet, and that the skirts of it should
be adorned with a fringe of pomegranates wrought of violet
and purple and scarlet stuff, with a golden bell between each
pair of pomegranates. This gorgeous robe the priest was
to wear when he ministered in the sanctuary, and the golden
bells were to be heard jingling both when he entered into
the holy place and when he came forth, lest he should die.^
Why should the priest in his violet robe, with the fringe
of gay pomegranates dangling at his heels, fear to die if the
golden bells were not heard to jingle, both when he went
into, and when he came forth from the holy place ? The
most probable answer seems to be that the chiming of the
holy bells was thought to drive far off the envious and
wicked spirits who lurked about the door of the sanctuary,
ready to pounce on and carry off the richly apparelled
1 Exodus xxviii. 31-35. The He-
brew word (nVpn) which in the English
Version is regularly translated " blue,"
means a blue-purple, as distinguished
from another word (ipj"iN) whichmeans
red-purple, inclining to crimson, as the
other shades into violet. See F.
Brown, S. R. Driver, and Ch. A.
Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexi-
con of the Old Testament (Oxford,
1906), pp. 71, 1067 ; W. Gesenius, He-
brdischesund Aranidisches Handworter-
buck Uber das Alte Testament'^^ (Leipsic,
1905), pp. 56 sq., 803 ; and the com-
mentaries of A. Dillmann, W. H.
Bennett, A. H. McNeile, and S. R.
Driver on Exodus xxv. 4. It might
be doubted whether the pomegranates
of violet, purple, and scarlet stuff were
embroidered on the hem of the robe or
hung free from it, like the bells. But
a single consideration seems decisive
in favour of the latter interpretation.
For if the fruits had simply been em-
broidered on the skirt, the purple and
scarlet pomegranates would indeed
have been conspicuous enough, but the
violet pomegranates would have been
hardly, if at all, distinguishable, on the
violet background. Hence it seems
better to suppose that the pomegranates
hung like heavy tassels from the hem
of the robe, forming with the golden
bells a rich fringe to the garment.
446
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 447
minister as he stepped across the threshold in the discharge
of his sacred office. At least this view, which has found
favour with some modern scholars/ is strongly supported by
analogy ; for it has been a common opinion, from the days
of antiquity downwards, that demons and ghosts can be put
to flight by the sound of metal, whether it be the musical
jingle of little bells, the deep-mouthed clangour of great
bells, the shrill clash of cymbals, the booming of gongs,
or the simple clink and clank of plates of bronze or iron
knocked together or struck with hammers or sticks. Hence
in rites of exorcism it has often been customary for the
celebrant either to ring a bell which he holds in his hand, or
to wear attached to some part of his person a whole nest of
bells, which jingle at every movement he makes. Examples
will serve to illustrate' the antiquity and the wide diffusion
of such beliefs and practices.^
Lucian tells us that spectres fled at the sound of bronze Clash oj
and iron, and he contrasts the repulsion which the clank of ^"^^"^^
these metals exerted on spirits with the attraction which the drive away
chink of silver money wielded over women of a certain class.^ anUquity
At Rome, when the ghosts of the dead had paid their
annual visit to the old home in the month of May, and had
been entertained with a frugal repast of black beans, the
householder used to show them the door, bidding them,
" Ghosts of my fathers, go forth ! " and emphasizing his
request or command by the clash of bronze.^ Nor did such
^ J. Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen 2 q^ the folk-lore of bells, see P.
Heidentumes (Berlin, 1887), p. 144; Sartori, " Glockensagen und Glocken-
W. H. Bennett, Exodus, p. 225 ('J7ie aberglnube," Zeitschrift des Vereinsfiir
Century Bible); A. H. McNeile, The Volkshmde, vii. (1S97) pp. 1x3-129,
Book of Exodus (London, 1908), p. 270-2S6, 358-369, viii. (1898) pp.
185 ; Anton Jirku, Die Ddmonen und 29-38 ; Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, A Book
ihre Abwehr im Allen Teslament about Bells (London, preface dated
(Leipsic, 1912), p. 85. In the second 1898), pp. 170 sqq. The German
edition of his Ees/e Arabischen Heiden- writer's copious collection of evi-
tnnies (Berlin, 1897, p. 165) Wellhau- dence is drawn mostly from Europe.
sen tacitly omitted this explanation of The evidence from classical antiquity
the bells of Jewish priests, but retained is collected and discussed by my
it for the bells of Jewish horses as friend Mr. A. B. Cook in his learned
described by the prophet .Zechariah article, " The Gong at Dodona,"
(xiv. 20). But surely the priests were Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxii.
not less exposed than the horses to the (1902), pp. 5-28.
impious attacks of demons and needed 7 t ■ r,- •, ,
• . u » 1 . . 1 ■ ^ Lucian, Pinlopseudes, 1 1;,
quite as much to be protected against ^ ' •'
them. * Ovid, Fasti, v. 419-444.
448 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
notions as to the dislike which spirits entertain for the tinkle
of metal expire with expiring paganism. They survived in
full force under Christianity into the Middle Ages and long
afterwards. The learned Christian scholiast, John Tzetzes,
tells us that the clash of bronze was just as effective to ban
apparitions as the barking of a dog,^ a proposition which
few reasonable men will be inclined to dispute.
Use of But in Christian times the sound deemed above all
beiirto others abhorrent to the ears of fiends and goblins has
drive away been the sweet and solemn music of church bells. The first
spins. Yxov'mz\^\ Council of Cologne laid it down as an opinion of
the fathers that at the sound of the bells summoning Chris-
tians to prayer demons are terrified and depart, and the
spirits of the storm, the powers of the air, are laid low.
However, the members of the Council themselves apparently
inclined to attribute this happy result rather to the fervent
intercession of the faithful than to the musical clangour of
the bells.- Again, the service book known as the Roman
Pontifical recognizes the virtue of a church bell, wherever
its sound is heard, to drive far off the powers of evil, the
gibbering and mowing spectres of the dead, and all the
spirits of the storm.^ A great canonist of the thirteenth
century, Durandus, in his once famous and popular treatise
on the divine offices, tells us that " bells are rung in pro-
cessions that demons may fear and flee. For when they
hear the trumpets of the church militant, that is, the bells,
they are afraid, as any tyrant is afraid when he hears in his
land the trumpets of a powerful king, his foe. And that,
too, is the reason why, at the sight of a storm rising, the
Church rings its bells, in order that the demons, hearing
the trumpets of the eternal king, that is, the bells, may be
terrified and flee away and abstain from stirring up the
1 J. Tzetzes, Scholia on Lycophron, Hum, quin potiiis precibus ipsis territi
77 (vol. i. p. 368, ed. C. G. Miiller, abscedant, spiritus procellarum, et
Leipsic, 1 8 1 1 ). aerae {sic) potestates prosternantitr. ' "
2 Jean-Baptiste Thiers, Traitcz des
Cloches {VslUs, 1721), p. 145, " Le pre- 3 n m ttbiciimque sonuerit hoc iiti-
tnier Conciie Provincial de Cologne le tinnabuliun proctil recedat virtus in-
dit encore plus nettement, scion lapens^e sidiantium, umbra phantasmatum,
desSS. Peres: 'Patresalibrespexerunt, otnnisgue spiriJus procellarutn," quoted
videlicet ut daemones timiiiu campa- by J. B. Thiers, Traitez des Clochez,
narum Christianas ad preces concitan- p. 144.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 449
tempest." ^ On this subject the English antiquary, Captain
Francis Grose, the friend of the poet Burns,^ writes as
follows: "The passing-bell was anciently rung for two
purposes : one, to bespeak the prayers of all good Christians
for a soul just departing ; the other, to drive away the
evil spirits who stood at the bed's foot, and about the
house, ready to seize their prey, or at least to molest
and terrify the soul in its passage : but by the ringing
of that bell (for Durandus informs us, evil spirits are
much afraid of bells), they were kept aloof ; and the soul,
like a hunted hare, gained the start, or had what is by
sportsmen called Law. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the
additional labour, was occasioned the high price demanded
for tolling the greatest bell of the church ; for that being
louder, the evil spirits must go farther off, to be clear of its
sound, by which the poor soul got so much more the start of
them : besides, being heard farther off, it would likewise
procure the dying man a greater number of prayers. This
dislike of spirits to bells is mentioned in the Golden Legend,
by W. de Worde. ' It is said, the evill spirytes that ben in
the regyon of th' ayre, doubte moche when they here the
belles rongen : and this is the cause why the belles ben
rongen whan it thondreth, and whan grete tempeste and out-
rages of wether happen, to the ende that the feindes and
wycked spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the
movynge of tempeste.' " ^
In his poetical version of The Golden Legend Longfellow Longfellow
has introduced this picturesque superstition with good ^ng'],"'^^^^
effect. In the prologue he represents the spire of Strassburg Golden
Cathedral in night and storm, with Lucifer and the powers of
the air hovering round it, trying in vain to tear down the
cross and to silence the importunate clangour of the bells.
1 Q.Ximzxy^w's,, Rationale DivinoniJu fire-shovel and fender, a part of the
Officioruin, lib. i. cap. 4. 14 sq. (vol. i. anatomy of Balaam's ass, and a brass-
p. 21, Lugdunum, 1584). As to Du- shod broomstick of the witch of Endor.
randus (Durantis or Duranti), see En- See the verses On the late Captain
cyclopirdia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Grose's Peregrinations thro' Scotland.
vii. (Edinburgh, 1S77) p. 552.
2 According to the poet, Captain ^ Francis Grose, A Provincial G.'oss-
Giose's valuable collection of antiqui- ary, with a Collection of Local Pro-
ties comprised, among other items, a verbs ajid Popular Superstitions, New
cinder of Eve's first fire, Tubalcain's Edition (London, 181 1), pp. 297 sq.
VOL. Ill 2 G
Legend.
450 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
^^^ Lucifer. Lower! lower!
Hover dcnunward !
Seize the loud vocifej-ous bells, and
Clashing, clanging, to the pavement
Hurl themfrotn their windy tower.
^'Voices. All thy thunders
Here arc harmless !
For these bells have been anointed,
And baptized with holy water !
They defy our utmost powerj'
And above all the tumult of the storm and the howling of
the infernal legion is heard the solemn voice of the bells : —
" Defunct OS ploro !
Pes tern fugo !
Festa decoro ! "
And again,
" Funera plango
Fulgura frango
Sabbata pango,"
until the baffled demons are fain to sweep away in the dark-
ness, leaving behind them unharmed the cathedral, where
through the gloom the Archangel Michael with drawn sword
is seen flaming in gold and crimson on the panes of the
lighted windows, while, as they recede into the distance,
they are pursued in their flight by the pealing music of the
organ and the voices of the choir chanting
" Node surgentes
Vigilemus omnes ! "
The Of the two reasons which Grose assigns for the ringing
Beu.'"" of the Passing Bell we may surmise that the intention of
driving away evil spirits was the primary and original one,
and that the intention of bespeaking the prayers of all
good Christians for the soul just about to take its flight
was secondary and derivative. In any case the ringing
of the bell seems formerly to have regularly begun while
the suff"erer was still in life, but when his end was
visibly near.^ This appears from not a few passages which
antiquarian diligence has gleaned from the writings of old
1 This appears to follow conclusively Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, A Book about
from the evidence collected by John Bells, pp. 191 sqq. ;• H. B. Walters,
Brand, Observations on the Popidar Church Bells of England (London,
Antiquities of G7-eat Britain (London, etc., 1912), pp. l$i\ sqq.
1882-1883), ii. 202 sqq. Compare
THE GOLDEN BELLS
451
authors. Thus in his Anatoviie of Abuses Stubbes tells of
the dreadful end of a profane swearer down in Lincolnshire :
" At the last, the people perceiving his ende to approche,
caused the bell to toll ; who, hearing the bell to toll for him,
rushed up in his bed very Vehemently, saying, ' God's bloud,
he shall not have me yet ' ; with that his bloud gushed out,
some at his toes endes, some at his fingers endes, some at
hys wristes, some at his nose and mouth, some at one joynt
of his body, some at an other, never ceasing till all the bloud
in his body was streamed forth. And thus ended this
bloudy swearer his mortal life." ^ Again, when Lady
Catherine Grey was dying a captive in the Tower, the '
Governor of the fortress, perceiving that his prisoner was
about to be released from his charge, without any royal
warrant, said to Mr. Bokeham, "Were it not best to send to
the church, that the bell may be rung ? " And she, feeling
her end' to be near, entered into prayer, saying, " O Lord !
into thy hands I commend my soul : Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit ! " ^ Thus for her, as for many, the sound of the
Passing Bell was the Nunc dimittis. Once more, a writer
in the first half of the eighteenth century, speaking of the
dying Christian who has subdued his passions, says that, " if
his senses hold out so long, he can hear even his passing-
bell without disturbance." ^
That the real purpose of the Passing Bell was to dispel The
maleficent beings hovering invisible in the air rather than to ^ffr^u^cr
advertise persons at a distance and invite their prayers, is to banish
strongly suggested by the apparently primitive form in which
the old custom has here and there been kept up down to
modern times. Thus in some parts of the Eifel Mountains,
a district of Rhenish Prussia, when a sick person was at the
point of death, the friends used to ring a small hand-bell,
called a Benedictus bell, " in order to keep the evil spirits
away from the dying man." ■* Again, at Neusohl, in northern
1 Philip Stubbes, The Anatomie of of England (edition of 1732), p. 144,
^i5Mie^,reprintedfromlhe Third Edition quoted by J. Brand, op. cit. ii. 206.
of 1 585 (London and Edinburgh, 1836), I have not found the passage in the
p, 153. 24th edition of Nelson's book published
, - -^ J ^ ., .. , at London in 1782.
2 T. Brand, op. at. \\. 206. 4 t i_t c u •• o-^^ j r, ■■ j.
■' ^ * ]. H. iscnmiKz, iitttenunaBrauche,
3 Robert Nelson, A Compatiion for Lieder, Spriichworter ttnd Rdthsel des
the Festivals and Fasts of the Church EiflerVolkes (Treves, i856-iS58),i. 65.
452
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Dante on
the vesper
bell.
Gray on
the curfew
bell.
Hungary, it is said to have been usual to ring a small hand-
bell softly when a dying man was near his end, " in order
that the parting soul, lured away by death, may still linger
for a few moments on earth near its stiffening body." When
death had taken place, the bell was rung a little farther off,
then farther and farther from the bod}-, then out at the door,
and once round the house " in order to accompany the soul
on its parting way." After that, word was sent to the sexton
that the bell of the village church might begin to toll.^ A
similar custom is said to have prevailed in the Bohmerwald
mountains, which divide Bohemia from Bavaria.^ The motive
assigned for it — the wish to detain the parting soul for a few
moments by the sweet sound of the bell — is too sentimental
to be primitive ; the true original motive was doubtless, as
in the case of the similar custom in the Eifel Mountains, to
banish the demons that might carry off the poor soul at
the critical moment. Only when the little bell has per-
formed this kindly office, tinkling for the soul at its setting
out, does the big bell in the steeple begin to toll, that its
sonorous tones may follow, like guardian angels, the fugitive
on its long journey to the spirit land.
In a famous passage of the Purgatory Dante ^ has
beautifully applied the conception of the Passing Bell to the
sound of Jhe Vesper Bell heard afar off by voyagers at sea,
as if the bell were tolling for the death of day or of the sun
then sinking in the crimson west. Hardly less famous is
Byron's imitation of the passage : —
*' Soft hour ! which wakes the wish and melts the heart
Of those who sail the seas, on the first day
When they from their sweet friefids are torn apart ;
Or fills with love the pilgrim Ofi his way
As the far bell of vesper makes him start,
Secfning to weep the dying day's decay T *
And the same thought has been no less beautifully applied by
our own poet Gray to the curfew bell heard at evening among
the solemn yews and elms of an English churchyard : —
" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. '^
1 Theodor Vernaleken
Brduche des Volkes i
(Vienna, 1859), p. 311.
2 C. L. Rochholtz, Dentscher Glaube
^fythen tind
Osterreich
und Branch (Berlin, 1867), i. 179.
2 Purgatorio, Canto v-iii. vv. 1-6.
■• Byron, Don Jtiati, Canto i
Stanza cviii.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 453
There is, indeed, something peculiarly solemnizing and
afifecting in the sound of church bells heard at such times
and places ; it falls upon the ear, in the language of Froude,
like the echo of a vanished world.^ The feeling was well
expressed by the American poet Bret Harte," when he Bret Hane
heard, or rather imagined that he heard, the Angelus rung ^ngeius.
at evening on the site of the long-abandoned Spanish
mission at Dolores in California : —
" Bells of the Past, whose long-forgotten music
Still fills the wide expatise^
Tingeing the sober twilight of the Present
With colour of Romance !
" / hear your call, and see the sim descendittg
On rock and wave and sand,
As down the coast the Missiott voices, blending^
Girdle the heathen land.
" Within the circle of your incantation
No blight nor mildew falls j
Nor fierce ufirest, nor lust, nor low ambition
Passes those airy walls.
" Borne on the swell of your long waves receding^
L touch the farther past, —
/ see the dying glow of Spanish glory.
The sunset dream and last.
" O solemn bells / whose consecrated masses
Recall the faith of old, —
0 tinkling bells ! that lulled with twilight music
The spiritual fold ! ''
A like sense of the power of bells to touch the heart and Renan on
attune the mind to solemn thought is conveyed in a charac-
teristic passage of Renan, in whom 'the austere convictions
of the religious sceptic were happily tempered by the delicate
perceptions of the literary artist. Protesting against the
arid rationalism of the German theologian Feuerbach, he
exclaims, " Would to God that M. Feuerbach had steeped
himself in sources of life richer than those of his exclusive
1 ]. K.YxoMdt, History of England, aeval age, which falls upon the ear
New Edition (London, 1875), ^'°1- '• like the echo of a vanished world."
p. 62, chapter i., "The sound of church - The Angelus, heard at the Mission
bells, that peculiar creation of medi- Dolores, 1868.
church
bells.
454
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Import-
ance of the
emotional
side of
folk-lore.
Church
bells rung
to drive
away
witches
and
wizards.
and haughty Germanism ! Ah ! if, seated on the ruins of
the Palatine or the Coelian Mount, he had heard the sound
of the eternal bells lingering and dying over the deserted
hills where Rome once was ; or if, from the solitary shore of
the Lido, he had heard the chimes of Saint Mark's expiring
across the lagoons ; if he had seen Assisi and its mystic
marvels, its double basilica and the great legend of the
second Christ of the Middle Ages traced by the brush of
Cimabue and Giotto ; if he had gazed his fill on the sweet
far-away look of the Virgins of Perugino, or if, in San
Domenico at Sienna, he had seen Saint Catherine in ecstasy,
no, M. Feuerbach would not thus have cast reproach on
one half of human poetry, nor cried aloud as if he would
repel from him the phantom of Iscariot ! " ^
Such testimonies to the emotional effect of church bells
on the hearer are not alien from the folk-lore of the subject ;
we cannot understand the ideas of the people unless we
allow for the deep colour which they take from feeling and
emotion, least of all can we sever thought and feeling in
the sphere of religion. There are no impassable barriers
between the conceptions of the reason, the sensations of the
body, and the sentiments of the heart ; they are apt to
melt and fuse into each other under waves of emotion, and
few things can set these waves rolling more strongly than
the power of music. A study of the emotional basis of
folk-lore has hardly yet been attempted ; inquirers have
confined their attention almost exclusively to its logical and
rational, or, as some might put it, its illogical and irrational
elements. But no doubt great discoveries may be expected
from the future exploration of the influence which the
passions have exerted in moulding the institutions and
destiny of mankind.
Throughout the Middle Ages and down to modern times
the sound of church bells was also in great request for the
purpose of routing witches and wizards, who gathered unseen
in the air to play their wicked pranks on man and beast.
There were certain days of the year which these wretches set
apart more particularly for their unhallowed assemblies or
1 Ernest Renan, " M. Feuerbach et d Histoire ReUgieuse,Y\.vci'i\hxne.'ki}!^\\\oxi
ia nouvelle Ecole Hegelienne," Etudes (Paris, 1897), pp. 408 sq.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 455
Sabbaths, as they were called, and on such days accordingly
the church bells were specially rung, sometimes the whole
night long, because it was under cover of darkness that
witches and warlocks were busiest at their infernal tasks.
For example, in France witches were thought to scour the air
most particularly on the night of St. Agatha, the fifth of
February ; hence the bells of the parish churches used to be
set ringing that night to drive them away, and the same
custom is said to have been observed in some parts of Spain.^
Again, one of the most witching times of the whole year was
Midsummer Eve ; and accordingly at Rottenburg in Swabia
the church bells rang all that night from nine o'clock till
break of day, while honest folk made fast their shutters, and
stopped up even chinks and crannies, lest the dreadful beings
should insinuate themselves into the houses.^ Other witches'
Sabbaths used to be held at Twelfth Night and the famous
Walpurgis Night, the eve of May Day, and on these days it
used to be customary in various parts of Europe to expel
the baleful, though invisible, crew by making a prodigious
racket, to which the ringing of hand-bells and the cracking
of whips contributed their share.^
But though witches and wizards chose certain seasons of The
the year above all others for the celebration of their unhol}' ^^''"^^'^•
revels, there was no night on which they might not be
encountered abroad on their errands of mischief by belated
wayfarers, none on which they might not attempt to force
their way into the houses of honest folk who were quiet,
but by no means safe, in bed. Something, therefore, had to
be done to protect peaceable citizens from these nocturnal
alarms. For this purpose the watchmen, who patrolled the
streets for the repression of common crime, were charged
with the additional duty of exorcizing the dreaded powers
of the air and of darkness, which went about like roaring
lions seeking what they might devour. To accomplish this
object the night watchman wielded spiritual weapons of two
different sorts but of equal power ; he rang a bell, and he
chanted a blessing, and if the sleepers in the neighbourhood
1 Jean Baptiste Thiers, Traiti des 1861-1862), i. 278, § 437.
Superstitious (Paris, 1679), p. 269. ^ 77^^ Scapegoat, pp. 159, 161, 165,
^ Anton Birlinger, Vo/ksthiimliches 166 {T/te Golden Bough, Thixd'E.diXUon,
aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, Part vi.).
456
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Milton
on tlie
bellman.
Herrick
on the
belluiau.
Addison
on the
bellman.
were roused and exasperated by the jingle of the one, they
were perhaps soothed and comforted by the drone of the other,
remembering, as they sank back to sleep, that it was only,
in the words of Milton,^
" the bellmarCs drowsy charm
To bless the doors from nightly harin."
The benediction which thus broke the stillness of night was
usually cast in a poetical form of such unparalleled atrocity
that a bellman's verses have been proverbial ever since.^
Their general tenor may be gathered from the lines which
Herrick puts in the mouth of one of those public guardians,
from whose nightly orisons the poet, like Milton himself,
must have often suffered : —
" THE BELL-MAN.
From noise of scare-fires rest ye free,
Fro7n murders Benedicitie ;
Fro7n all mischances that may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the flight ;
Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The goblin from ye, zvhile ye sleep.
Past one aclock, and almost two.
My 7nasters all, ' Good day to you? " 3
Addison tells us how he heard the bellman begin his mid-
night homily with the usual exordium, which he had been
repeating to his hearers every winter night for the last twenty
years,
" Oh / mortal ??ian, thou that ai't born in sin ! " ^
And though this uncomplimentary allocution might excite
pious reflexions in the mind of an Addison, it seems calculated
to stir feelings of wrath and indignation in the breasts of
more ordinary people, who were roused from their first sleep
only to be reminded, at a very unseasonable hour, of the
doctrine of orifjinal sin.
^ // Pevseroso, 83 sq.
2 R, Chambers, The Book of Days
(London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 496
sq. Macaulay speaks of " venal and
licentious scribblers, with just sufficient
talent to clothe the thoughts of a pandar
in the style of a bellman "' (" Milton,"
Critical and Hisloiical Essays, i. 31,
Temple Classics Edition).
3 Robert Herrick, Works (Edin-
burgh, 1823), i. 169.
* The Tatler, No. cxi., Saturday,
24th December, 1709; Joseph Addison,
Works, with notes by Richard Hurd,
D.D. (London, 181 1), ii. 272 sq.
THE GOLDEN BELLS
457
spirits of
the storm.
We have seen that according to mediaeval authors Church
church bells used to be rung in thunderstorms for the '^^^'f.''""s
. to drive
purpose of driving away the evil spirits who were sup- away the
posed to be causing the tempest/ To the same effect an
old German writer of the sixteenth century, who under the
assumed name of Naogeorgus composed a satirical poem
on the superstitions and abuses of the Catholic Church, has
recorded that ,
" If that the thuttder chmmce to rore, afid stormie tempest shake, Nao-
A wonder is it for to see the wretches howe they quake, georgns
Howe that no fayth at all they have, nor trust in any thing, supersti-
77?^ clarke doth all the belles forthzvith at once i?i steeple ri?ig: tious use of
With wo7idrous sound and deeper farre, than he was woont before, bells in the
Till in the loflie heavens darke, the thunder bray no inore. Catholic
For in these cht istned belles they thinke, doth lie such powre and mighty ^^'^ '
As able is the tempest great, and stotme to vanquish quight.
I sawe 7ny self at Numburg once, a town in Taring coast,
A bell that with this title bolde, hir self did prowdly boast,
' By 7ia7ne I Mary called am, with sound I put to flight
The thunder crackes, and hurtfull stormes, a?id every wicked spright.'
Such things whetias these belles can do, no wonder certaittlie
It is, if that the Papistes to their tolliiig alwayes flie.
When haile, or any raging storme, or tempest cones in sight.
Or thu7tder boltes, or lightning fierce that every place doth S77iight.'" -
In the Middle Ages, we are told, all over Germany the church
church bells used to be rung during thunderstorms ; and [jj^dri™""
the sexton received a special due in corn from the away
parishioners for his exertions in pulling the bell-rope in s^ormr
these emergencies. These dues were paid in some places as
late as the middle of the nineteenth century.^ For example, at
Jubar in the Altmark, whenever a thunderstorm burst, the
sexton was bound to ring the church bell, and he received
from every farmer five " thunder-sheaves " of corn for the
pains he had been at to rescue the crops from destruction.*
1 Above, pp. 448 sq. Aberglatiben, Sageti iind andre alte
2 Thomas Naogeorgus, Ilie Popish Ueberlieferimgen (Leipsic, 1867), p.
Kingdome, Englyshed by Barnabe 431 ; G. A. Heinrich, Agrai-ische
Googe, reprint, edited by K. C. Hope Siiten tmd Gebrdtuhe tmter den
(London, 1S80), fT. 41 sq. Sachsen Siebenhiirgens (Ilermannstadt,
3 Heino Pfannenschmid, Gernia- 1S80), p. 13 ; Ulrich Jahn, Die deut-
nische Erntefesie (Y{a.v\o\nr, 1878), pp. schen Opfergebrduche bei Ackerbau wid
90 sq., 394 sq., 396 sq. ; \V. Mann- Viehzucht {'^xffi\3M, 1884), pp. 56 sq.
hardt. Die Gottet-welt der detit:chen ^ A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Nord-
undnordischen Vdlker, i. (Berlin, i860) dcntsche Sagen, Mdrcheii und Gebrduche
p. 93 ; J. A. E. Kdhler, Voiksbrauch, (Leipsic, 1848), p. 454.
458 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
Writing as to the custom in Swabia about the middle of
the nineteenth century, a German author tells us that " in
most Catholic parishes, especially in Upper Swabia, the bells
are rung in a thunderstorm to drive away hail and prevent
damage by lightning. Many churches have special bells
for the purpose ; for instance, the monastery of Weingarten,
near Altdorf, has the so-called ' holy Blood-bell,' which is
rung during a thunderstorm. In ^Wurmlingen they ring
the bell on Mount Remigius, and if they only do it soon
enough, no lightning strikes any place in the district.
However, the neighbouring villages, for example Jesingen,
are often discontented at the ringing of the bell, for they
believe that with the thunderstorm the rain is also driven
away." ^ With regard to the town of Constance, in
particular we read that, when a thunderstorm broke, the
bells of all the parish churches not only in the city but in
the neighbourhood were set a-ringing ; and as they had been
consecrated, many persons believed that the sound of them
furnished complete protection against injury by lightning.
Indeed, in their zeal not a few people assisted the sexton
to pull the bell-ropes, tugging at them with all their might
to make the bells swing high. And though some of these
volunteers, we are informed, were struck dead by lightning
in the very act of ringing the peal, this did not prevent
others from doing the same. Even children on such occa-
sions rang little handbells made of lead or other metals,
which were adorned with figures of saints and had been
blessed at the church of Maria Loretto in Steiermerk or at
Einsiedeln.^ Under certain feudal tenures the vassals were
bound to ring the church bells on various occasions, but
particularly during thunderstorms.^
1 Ernst Meier, Deutsche Sagen, 184, 417; J. H. Schmitz, Sitten titui
Sitten und Gebrduche aus Schwaben Sagen, Lieder, Spriichivorter und
(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 260 sq. Rdthsel des Eifler Volkes (Treves,
'■i Anton Birlinger, Volksthiiinliches 1 856-1 858), i. 99; L. Strackerjan,
aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, Aberglaube und Sagen ajis dein Her-
1861-1862), ii. 443; compare id., zogthzim Oldenburg {Q\&ex\h\xxz, x'ib']),
i. 147 sqq. And for more evidence of i. 63.
the custom in Swabia and other parts ^ H. Pfannenschmid, Germanische
of Germany, see id., Aus Schwaben Erntefeste (Hanover, 1878), p. 609;
(Wiesbaden, 1874), i. 118 sq., 464; Xi. ]3hu, Die deutschen Opfergebrduche
Fr. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutscken bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht (Breslau,
Mythologie (Munich, 1S48-1855), ii. 1884), p. 57.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 459
The bells were solemnly consecrated and popularly sup- Consecra-
posed to be baptized by the priests ; certainly they received ^^^^^^
names and were washed, blessed, and sprinkled with holy oil inscriptions
" to drive away and repel evil spirits." ^ Inscriptions engraved °" ^^ ^'
on church bells often refer to the power which they were
supposed to possess of dispelling- storms of thunder, lightning,
and hail ; some boldly claim such powers for the bells them-
selves, others more modestly pray for deliverance from these
calamities ; for instance, a bell at Haslen bears in Latin the
words, " From lightning, hail, and tempest, Lord Jesus Christ
deliver us ! " ^ Speaking of St. Wenefride's Well, in Flint-
shire, the traveller and antiquary Pennant in the eighteenth
century tells us that " a bell belonging to the church was also
christened in honour of her. I cannot learn the names of
the gossips, who, as usual, were doubtless rich persons. On
the ceremony they all laid hold of the rope ; bestowed a
name on the bell ; and the priest, sprinkling it with holy
water, baptised it in the name of the Father, etc. ; he then
clothed it with a fine garment. After this the gossips gave
a grand feast, and made great presents, which the priest
received in behalf of the bell. Thus blessed, it was endowed
with great powers ; allayed (on being rung) all storms ;
diverteci the thunderbolt ; drove away evil, spirits. These
consecrated bells were always inscribed. The inscription on
that in question ran thus :
' Sancta Wenefreda, Deo hoc commendare memento,
Ut pietate sua nos set-vet ab hoste cruetito'
And a little lower was another address : —
' Protege prece pia quos convoco, Virgo Maiia' " ^
However, the learned Jesuit Father, Martin Delrio, who Deiiio
published an elaborate work on magic early in the seven- consecra-
tion and
ringing
MUtelalUrs uud der ndchstfolscnden , ^^^j ^^^^^^ ^_^_ Abcrglaube der church
' Carl Meyer, Der Aberglatibe des manische Erntefeste, pp. 90, 395. • ringing of
fitlelallers uvd der ndchstfolscnden ^ ^^^j ^ ^^.^. Uerdatibe der churc
>/.r/.W.r/.(Bale 1S84), pp. 1S6 .^.; ^^./,,^^^, ^ ',8 ; „. Pfannen- be"^-
W. Smith and S. Cheethani, Dictionary - - > ff o y »_
of Christian Antiquities (London, 1 875-
[880), i. 185 sq., s.v. " Bells" ; H. 15.
schmid, Germanische Erntefeste, p.
395-
Walters, Church Bells of England ^ Quoted by J. Brand, Observations
! London, etc., 191 2), pp. 256 sqq. on the Fo/ular A^itiquities of Great
Compare H. Pfannenschmid, Ger- Britain, ii. 215.
460
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Bacon
on the
ringing of
bells in
thunder-
storms.
Bells famed
for their
power of
driving
away
thimder.
teenth century, indignantly denied that bells were baptized,
though he fully admitted that they were named after saints,
blessed, and anointed by ecclesiastical authority. That the
ringing of church bells laid a wholesome restraint on evil
spirits, and either averted or allayed the tempests wrought
by these enemies of mankind, was, in the opinion of the
learned Jesuit, a fact of daily experience too patent to be
denied ; but he traced these happy results purely to the
consecration or benediction of the bells, and not at all to
their shape or to the nature of the metal of which they were
founded. He spurned as a pagan superstition the notion
that the sound of brass sufficed of itself to put demons to
flight, and he ridiculed the idea that a church bell lost all its
miraculous virtue when it was named — he will not allow us
to say baptized — by the priest's concubine.^ Bacon con-
descended to mention the belief that " great ringing of bells
in populous cities hath chased away thunder, and also dissi-
pated pestilent air " ; but he suggested a physical explana-
tion of the supposed fact by adding, " All which may be also
from the concussion of the air, and not from the sound." ^
While all holy bells no doubt possessed in an exactly
equal degree the marvellous property of putting demons and
witches to flight, and thereby of preventing the ravages of
thunder and lightning, some bells were more celebrated
than others for the active exertion of their beneficent powers.
Such, for instance, was St. Adelm's Bell at Malmesbury
Abbey and the great bell of the Abbey of St. Germains in
Paris, which were regularly rung to drive away thunder and
lightning.^ In old St. Paul's Cathedral there was a special
endowment for " ringing the hallowed belle in great tempestes
1 M. Delrio, Disquisitionum Magi-
carum libri sex (Moguntiae, 1624), lib.
vi. cap. ii. sect. iii. quaest. iii. pp.
1021-1024. The library of the Middle
Temple, London, possesses a copy of
an earlier edition of this work, pub-
lished at Lyons (Lugdunum) in 1612 ;
but even this is not the first edition,
for it is described on the title-page as
Editio Postrema, quae ut audior casti-
gatiorque ceteris, sic et Indicibus per-
necessariis prodit hodie illustrior. I
have a copy of the 1624 edition. By a
curious oversight Sir Edward B. Tylor
appears to have supposed that Delrio's
book was first published in 1720. See
Encyclopcidia Briiannica, Ninth Edi-
tion, vii. (Edinburgh, 1877) p. 62, s.v.
" Demonology."
- Francis Bacon, "Natural History,"
cent. ii. 127, T/ie l^Vorks of Francis
Bacon (London, 1740), iii. 35.
^ John Aubrey, Remaities of Gen-
tilisme andjudaisme (1686-87), edited
and annotated by J. Britten (London,
1881), pp. 22, 96.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 461
and Hghteninges." ^ However, the feats of European bells in
this respect have been thrown into the shade by the bells of The beiis
Caloto in South America ; though probably the superior fame °^ somh°
of the bells of Caloto is to be ascribed, not so much to any America,
intrinsic superiority of their own, as to the extraordinary fre-
quency of thunderstorms in that region of the Andes, which
has afforded the bells of the city more frequent opportunities
for distinguishing themselves than fall to the lot of ordinary
church bells. On this subject I will quote the testimony of
an eminent Spanish scholar and sailor, who travelled in
South America in the first half of the eighteenth century.
The jurisdiction of Popayan, he informs us, is more subject
to tempests of thunder and lightning and earthquakes than
even Quito ; " but of all the parts in this jurisdiction Caloto
is accounted to be the most subject to tempests of thunder
and lightning ; this has brought into vogue Caloto bells,
which not a few persons use, being firmly persuaded that
they have a special virtue against lightning. And indeed so
many stories are told on this head, that one is at a loss what
to believe. Without giving credit to, or absolutely rejecting
all that is reported, leaving every one to the free decision of
his own judgment, I shall only relate the most received
opinion here. The town of Caloto, the territory of which
contains a great number of Indians, of a nation called Paezes,
was formerly very large, but those Indians suddenly assault-
ing it, soon forced their way in, set fire to the houses, and
massacred the inhabitants : among the slain was the priest
of the parish, who was particularly the object of their rage,
as preaching the gospel, with which they were sensible their
savage manner of living did not agree, exposing the folly
and wickedness of their idolatry, and laying before them the
turpitude of their vices. Even the bell of the church could
not escape their rancour, as by its sound it reminded them
of their duty to come and receive divine instruction. After
many fruitless endeavours to break it, they thought they
could do nothing better than bury it under ground, that, by
the sight of it, they might never be put in mind of the pre-
cepts of the gospel, which tended to abridge them of their
liberty. On the news of their revolt, the Spaniards in the
1 H. B. Walters, Church Bells of England (London, etc., 1912), p. 262,
462
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Bells used
by the
Bateso of
Central
Africa to
exorcize
thunder
and
lightning.
neighbourhood of Caloto armed ; and, having taken a smart
revenge of the insurgents in a battle, they rebuilt the town,
and having taken up the bell, they placed it in the steeple
of the new church ; since which the inhabitants, to their
great joy and astonishment, observed, that, when a tempest
appeared brooding in the air, the tolling of the bell dispersed
it ; and if the weather did not everywhere grow clear and
fair, at least the tempest discharged itself in some other
part. The news of this miracle spreading everywhere, great
solicitations were made for procuring pieces of it to make
clappers for little bells, in order to enjoy the benefit of its
virtue, which, in a country where tempests are both so
dreadful and frequent, must be of the highest advantage.
And to this Caloto owes its reputation for bells." ^
The great discovery that it is possible to silence thunder
and extinguish the thunderbolt by the simple process of
ringing a bell, has not been confined to the Christian
nations of Europe and their descendants in the New World ;
it has been shared by some at least of the pagan savages of
Africa. " The Teso people," we are informed, " make use of
bells to exorcise the storm fiend ; a person who has been
injured by a flash or in the resulting fire wears bells round
the ankles for weeks afterwards. Whenever rain threatens,
and rain in Uganda almost always comes in company with
thunder and lightning, this person will parade the village for
an hour, with the jingling bells upon his legs and a wand of
papyrus in his hand, attended by as many of his family as
may happen to be at hand and not employed in necessary
duties. Any one killed outright by lightning is not buried
in the house according to the usual custom, but is carried to
a distance and interred beside a stream in some belt of forest.
Upon the grave are put all the pots and other household
utensils owned by the dead person, and at the door of the
hut upon which the stroke fell, now of course a smoking
ruin, is planted a sacrifice of hoes which is left for some days.
It is interesting to note the efficacy attributed to bells and
running water, as in some old European superstitions." ^
1 Don George Juan and Don Antonio ^ j^gv. A. L. Kitching, On the Back-
de Ulloa, Voyage to South America, 'waters of the Nile (London and Leipsic,
Fifth Edition (London, 1807), i. 341- 1912), pp. 26/^ sq.
343-
CHAP, vn THE GOLDEN BELLS 463
As it seems improbable that the Bateso learned these
practices from the missionaries, we may perhaps give them
the undivided credit of having invented for themselves
the custom of exorcizing the storm-fiend by bells and molli-
fying him by presents of pots and hoes laid on the scene of
his devastation and the grave of his victim. The Chinese Gongs
also resort to the use of gongs, which for practical purposes ^v^l^e
may be regarded as equivalent to bells, with a view of com- Chinese in
bating the ill effects of thunder ; but the circumstances under s^orms^
which they do so are peculiar. When a person has been
attacked by smallpox, and the pustules have come out, but
before the end of the seventh day, whenever it thunders,
some member of the family is deputed to beat on a gong or
drum, which is kept in readiness for the emergency. The
beater has the assistance of another member of the family to
inform him when the thunder has ceased, for the operator
himself makes far too much noise to be able to distinguish
between the peals of thunder and the crash of his gong or
the roll of his drum. The object, we are told, of this goug-
ing or drumming is to prevent the pustules of the smallpox
from breaking or bursting ; but the explanations which the
Chinese give of the way in which this result is effected by
the beating of a gong or a drum can hardly be regarded as
satisfactory.^ On the analogy of the European theory we
may conjecture that originally the bursting of the pustules
was supposed to be brought about by the demon of thunder,
who could be driven away by the banging of a gong or the
rub-a-dub of a drum.
l^ut while savages seem quite able of themselves to hit church
on the device of scaring evil spirits by loud noises, there is "^f^^ ,
. , thought
evidence to show that they are also ready to adopt from by natives
Europeans any practices which, in their opinion, are likely ^uj^^ ^q
to serve the same purpose. An instance of such borrowing drive away
is recorded by two missionaries, who laboured among the s^°^'^-
natives of Port Moresby, in British New Guinea. " One
night during a thunderstorm," they say, " we heard a terrible
noise in the village ; — the natives were beating their drums
and shouting lustily in order to drive away the storm-spirits.
1 Rev. Justus Doolittle, Social Life the Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1S6S),
of the Chinese, edited and revised by p. 114.
464 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
By the time their drumming and vociferation ceased, the
storm had passed away, and the villagers were well satisfied.
One Sabbath night, in a similar way, they expelled the
sickness-producing spirits who had occasioned the death of
several natives ! When the church bell was first used, the
natives thanked Mr. Lawes for having — as they averred —
driven away numerous bands of ghosts from the interior.
In like manner they were delighted at the bcirk of a fine
dog domesticated at the mission house (the dingo cannot
bark), as they felt certain that all the ghosts would now be
compelled to rush back to the interior. Unfortunately, the
ghosts got used to the bell and the dog ! So the young
men had to go about at night — often hiding in terror behind
trees and bushes — well armed with bows and arrows, to shoot
down these obnoxious spirits." ^ Thus the savages of Port
Moresby entirely agree with the opinion of the learned
Christian scholiast, John Tzetzes, that for the banning of
evil spirits there is nothing better than the clangour of bronze
and the barking of a dog.^
Bells used Some of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona exorcize witches
Pueblo ^y '^^ sound of bells ; but probably they borrowed the
Indians practice from the old Spanish missionaries, for before the
mirpcTse of coming of Europeans the use of all metals, except gold and
exorcism, silver, and hence the making of bells, was unknown among
the aborigines of America. An American officer has de-
scribed one of these scenes of exorcism as he witnessed it
at a village of the Moquis, perched, like many Pueblo villages,
on the crest of a high tableland overlooking the fruitful
grounds in the valley below : —
" The Moquis have an implicit belief in witches and
witchcraft, and the air about them is peopled with maleficent
spirits. Those who live at Oraybe exorcise the malign in-
fluences with the chanting of hymns and ringing of bells.
While with General Crook at that isolated and scarcely-
known town, in the fall of 1874, by good luck I had an
opportunity of witnessing this strange mode of incantation.
The whole village seemed to have assembled, and after shout-
ing in a loud and defiant tone a hymn or litany of musical
' James Chalmers and W. Wyatt Guinea (London, 1885), pp. 259 sq.
Gill, Work and Adventure in New ^ Above, p. 448.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 465
sound, emphasised by an energetic ringing of a bell, advanced
rapidly, in single file, down the trail leading fronn the crest
of the precipice to the peach orchards below. The per-
formers, some of the most important of whom were women,
pranced around the boundaries of the orchard, pausing for a
brief space of time at the corners, all the while singing in a
high key and getting the worth of their money out of the
bell. At a signal from the leader a rush was made for the
trees, from which, in less than an hour, the last of the deli-
cious peaches breaking down the branches were pulled and
carried by the squaws and children to the village above." ^
The motive for thus dancing round the orchard, to the loud
chanting of hymns and the energetic ringing of a bell, was
no doubt to scare away the witches, who were supposed to
be perched among the boughs of the peach-trees, battening
on the luscious fruit.
However, the use of bells and gongs for the purpose of Gongs
exorcism has been familiar to many peoples, who need not fheChinese
have borrowed either the instruments or the application of to exorcize
them from the Christian nations of Europe. In China " the '^'^"^°°^-
chief instrument for the production of exorcising noise is the
gong. This well-known circular plate of brass is actually
a characteristic feature of China, resounding throughout the
empire every day, especially in summer, when a rise in the
death-rate induces an increase in devil-expelling activity.
Clashing of cymbals of brass, and rattling of drums of wood
and leather, intensify its useful effects. Very often small
groups of men and even women are beating on gongs,
cymbals, and drums for a succession of hours. No protest
is heard from their neighbours, no complaint that they dis-
turb their night's rest ; such savage music then must either
sound agreeable to Chinese ears, or be heard with gratitude
as a meritorious work, gratuitously performed by benevolent
folks who have at heart the private and public weal and
health." ^ In Southern China these solernn and public
ceremonies of exorcism take place chiefly during the heat of
summer, when cholera is rampant and its ravages are
1 Jolin G. Bourke, The Snake-dance '^ J. J. M. de Groot, Tlie Religious
of the Moquis of Arizona (London, System of China, vi. (Leyden, 1910)
18S4), pp. 258 sq. p. 945.
VOL. Ill , 2 H
466
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Bells used
by the
Annamese
popularly attributed to the malice of demons hovering un-
seen in the air. To drive these noxious beings from house
and home is the object of the ceremonies. The whole affair
is arranged by a committee, and the expenses are defrayed
by subscription, the local mandarins generally heading the
list of subscribers with goodly sums. The actual business
of banishing the devils is carried out by processions of men
and boys, who parade the streets and beat the bounds in
the most literal sense, striking at the invisible foes with
swords and axes, and stunning them with the clangour
of gongs, the jangle of bells, the popping of crackers, the
volleys of matchlocks, and the detonation of blunderbusses,^
In Annam the exorcizer, in the act of banning the
demons of sickness from a private house, strums a lute and
in jingles a chain of copper bells attached to his big toe, while
exorcism, j^.^ assistants accompany him on stringed instruments and
drums. However, the chime of the bells is understood by
the hearers to proceed from the neck of an animal on which
a deity is galloping to the aid of the principal performer."
Religious Bells play a great part in the religious rites of Burma. Every
iirBurina ^ lai'ge pagoda has dozens of them, and the people seem to be
much attached to their sweet and sonorous music. At the
present day their use is said to be, not so much to drive
away evil spirits, as to announce to the guardian spirits that
the praises of Buddha have been chanted ; hence at the
conclusion of his devotions the worshipper proclaims the
discharge of his pious duty by three strokes on a bell.^
However, we may conjecture that this interpretation is one
of those afterthoughts by which an advanced religion justifies
and hallows the retention of an old barbaric rite that was
originally instituted for a less refined and beautiful purpose.
Perhaps in Europe also the ringing of church bells, the
sound of which has endeared itself to so many pious hearts
1 J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious
System of China, vi. 981-986.
^ E. Diguet, Les Aiinavtites, Sociiti,
Cotitumes,Religion{V:i.x\9,, 1906), p. 280.
^ Shway Yoe (Sir J. George Scott),
The Bur/nan, his Life and Notions
(London, 1882), i. 241 sqq., especially
244. Compare Adolf Bastian, Die
Voelker des Oestlichen Asien (Leipsic
and Jena, 1866-1871), ii. 33, 105 sq. ;
Cecil Headlam, Ten Thousand Miles
through India and Burma (London,
I903)> P- 284. In Japan we hear of a
temple of Buddha provided with a bell
" which is rung to attract the god's
attention." See Isabella L. Bird, Un-
beaten Tracks in Japan (London, 191 1),
p. 27.
CHAP, vn THE GOLDEN BELLS 467
by its own intrinsic sweetness and its tender associations,^
was practised to banish demons from the house of prayer
before it came to be regarded as a simple means of sum-
moning worshippers to their devotions in the holy place.
However, among ruder peoples of Asia the use of bells Sound of
in exorcism, pure and simple, has lingered down to modern metlf"'^
times. At a funeral ceremony observed by night among vessels at
the Michemis, a Tibetan tribe near the northern frontier of amHn ^
Assam, a priest, fantastically bedecked with tiger's teeth, mourning
many-coloured plumes, bells and shells, executed a wild pdm^tfve
dance for the purpose of exorcizing the evil spirits, while Peoples.
the bells jingled and the shells clattered about his person.^
Among the Kirantis, a tribe of the Central Himalayas, who
bury their dead on hill-tops, " the priest must attend the
funeral, and as he moves along with the corpse to the grave
he from time to time strikes a copper vessel with a stick,
and, invoking the soul of the deceased, desires it to go in
peace, and join the souls that went before it." ^ This beat-
ing of a copper vessel at the funeral may have been intended,
either to hasten the departure of the ghost to his own
place, or to drive away the demons who might molest his
passage. It may have been for one or other of these pur-
poses that in antiquity, when a Spartan king died, the
women used to go about the streets of the city beating a
kettle.* Among the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo, in Central
Africa, when a woman has separated from her husband and
gone back to her own people, she deems it nevertheless her
duty on his death to mourn for him in his village. For that
purpose " she fastens a cattle bell to her waist at the back,
collects her friends, and the party proceeds to the village at
^ Compare Cow per, The Task, bk. Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on.
vi. I sqq. : — With easy force it opens all the cells
Where memory slept. Wherever I have
" There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, heard
And as the mind is pitched the ear is A kindred melody, the scene recurs,
pleased And with it all its pleasures and its
With melting airs or martial, brisk or pains."
grave ■,, , , u ^ Letter of the missionary Krick, in
Some chord inums07i wit k what we hear . , , , „ . ^ , , ,. .
fs touched within us, and the heart ^'"."^f/ ^^ ^^ Propagation de la lot,
replies. ^^^'^- (Lyons, 1S54) pp. S6-8S.
How soft the music of those village bells, ^ ^"=1" Houghton Hodgson, Mis-
Falling at intervals upon the ear cellaneoiis Essays relating to Indian
hi cadence sweet ! now dying all away. Subjects (London, 1S80), i. 402.
Now pealing loud again, and louder still, * Herodotus vi. 58.
468 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
a trot, the bell clanking in a melancholy manner the whole
way." ^ Here, again, the sound of the bell may be intended
to keep the husband's ghost at a safe distance, or perhaps
to direct his attention to the dutifulness of his widow in
sorrowing for his death. In the south-eastern districts of
Dutch Borneo it is customary with the Dyaks to sound
gongs day and night so long as a corpse remains in the
house. The melancholy music begins as soon as a dying
man has breathed his last The tune is played on four
gongs of different tones, which are beaten alternately at
regular intervals of about two seconds. Hour after hour,
day after day the melody is kept up ; and we are told that
nothing, not even the Passing Bell of Catholic Europe, is
more weird and affecting to a listener than the solemn notes
of these death-gongs sounding monotonously and dying
axvay over the broad rivers of Borneo.^
Sound of Though we are not informed why the Dyaks in this
gongs^used P^^^ ^^ Borneo beat the gongs continuously after a death,
by the we may conjecture that the intention is to keep off evil
Borneo to Spirits rather than simply to announce the bereavement
keep off to friends at a distance ; for if the object was merely to
evil spirits. , . ... . , , , . , ,
convey the mtelligence of the decease to the neighbour-
hood, why sound the gongs continuously day and night so
long as the body remains in the house ? On the other hand
we know that in Borneo the sound of metal instruments is
sometimes employed expressly for the purpose of exorcizing
demons. An English traveller in North Borneo describes how
on one occasion he lodged in a large house of the Dusuns,
which was inhabited by about a hundred men with their families :
'* As night came on they struck up a strange kind of music
on metal tambourines. A mysterious rhythm and tune was
apparent in it, and when I asked if this was main-main {i.e.
larking), they said no, but that a man was sick, and they
must play all night to keep away evil spirits."^ Again, the
Dusuns of North Borneo solemnly expel all evil spirits from
their villages once a year, and in the expulsion gongs are
beaten and bells rung to hasten the departure of the demons.
1 C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda Bommel, 1870), pp. 220 sq.
(London, 1902), p. 17. 3 Yrsin\ilia.\.io\\ North Ecrneo{'Lon-
2 M. T. H. Perelaer, Ethnogra- don, 1SS5), pp. 162 sq.
phische Beschrijviug der Dajaks (Zalt-
ciiAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 469
While the men beat gongs and drums, the women go in
procession from house to house, dancing and singing to the
measured clash of brass castanets, which they hold in their
hands, and to the jingle of little brass bells, of which bunches
are fastened to their wrists. Having driven the demons
from the houses, the women chase or lead them down to the
bank of the river, where a raft has been prepared to convey
them beyond the territories of the village. Figures of men,
women, animals, and birds, made of sago-palm leaf, adorn
the raft, and to render it still more attractive offerings of
food and cloth and cooking pots are deposited on the planks.
When the spiritual passengers are all aboard, the moorings
are loosed, and the bark floats away down stream, till it
rounds the farthest reach of the river and disappears from
sight in the forest. Thus the demons are sent away on a
long voyage to return, it is fondly hoped, no more.^
When Sir Hugh Low visited a village of the Sebongoh Beiis
Hill Dyaks, in August 1845, he was received with much "S^T^^tJ^
ceremony as the first European who had ever been seen in of an
^ - ,,.... ^ -1 honoured
the place. Good-naturedly jommg m a prayer to the sun, ^-^^^^^^
the moon, and the Rajah of Sarawak, that the rice harvest among the
might be plentiful, the pigs prolific, and the women blessed ^^"'
with male children, the Englishman punctuated and em-
phasized these petitions by throwing small portions of yellow
rice towards heaven at frequent intervals, presumably for the
purpose of calling the attention of the three deities to the
humble requests of their worshippers. Having engaged in
these edifying devotions on a public stage in front of the
house. Sir Hugh returned to the verandah, where the chief
of the village, in the visitor's own words, " tied a little hawk-
bell round my wrist, requesting me at the same time to tie
another, with which he furnished me for the purpose, round
the same joint of his right hand. After this, the noisy gongs
and tomtoms began to play, being suspended from the
rafters at one end of the verandah, and the chief tied another
of the little bells round my wrist : his example was this
time followed by all the old men present, each addressing
1 Ivor n. N. Evans, "Notes on Districts, British North Borneo," yi>7/r-
the Religious Beliefs, etc., of the nal of the Royal Atithropological In-
Dusuns of the Tuaran and Tempassuk stitjtte, xlii. (191 2) pp. 382-3S4.
470
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Bells worn
by priests
and
ascetics in
India.
Bells worn
by children
in China.
Bells worn
by a
celebrant
at a
religious
rite among
the Yezidis.
a few words to me, or rather mumbling them to themselves,
of which I did not understand the purport. Every person
who now came in, brought with him several bamboos of
cooked rice ; and each, as he arrived, added one to the
number of my bells, so that they had now become incon-
veniently numerous, and I requested, as a favour, that the
remainder might be tied upon my left wrist, if it made no
difference to the ceremony. Those who followed, accord-
ingly did as I had begged of them in this particular," ^
Though Sir Hugh Low does not explain, and probably did
not know, the meaning of thus belling an honoured visitor,
we may conjecture that the intention was the kindly one of
keeping evil spirits at bay.
The Patari priest in Mirzapur and many classes of
ascetics throughout India carry bells and rattles made of
iron, which they shake as they walk for the purpose of
scaring demons. With a like intent, apparently, a special
class of devil priests among the Gonds, known as Ojhyals,
always wear bells.'^ It seems probable that a similar motive
everywhere underlies the custom of attaching bells to various
parts of the person, particularly to the ankles, wrists, and
neck, either on special occasions or for long periods of time :
originally, we may suppose, the tinkle of the bells was
thought to protect the wearer against the assaults of bogies.
It is for this purpose that small bells are very commonly
worn by children in the southern provinces of China and
more sparingly by children in the northern provinces ; ^ and
silver ornaments, with small bells hanging from them, are
worn by Neapolitan women on their dresses as amulets to
guard them against the Evil Eye.* The Yezidis, who have
a robust faith in the devil, perform at the conclusion of one
of their pilgrimage festivals a ceremony which may be
supposed to keep that ravening wolf from the fold of the
faithful. An old man is stripped and dressed in the skin
of a goat, while a string of small bells is hung round his
1 (Sir) Hugh Low, Sarawak, its
Inhabilants and Productions (London,
1848), pp. 256-258.
2 W. Crooke, Popular Religion and
Folk-lore of Northern India (West-
minster, 1896), i. 168.
3 N. B. Dennys, The Folk-lore of
C/^?«a! (London and Hongkong, 1876),
P- 55-
* Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The
Evil Eye (London, 1895), pp. 356-
358, 368.
cHAr. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 471
neck. Thus arrayed, he crawls round the assembled pilgrims
emitting sounds which are intended to mimic the bleating
of a he-goat. The ceremony is believed to sanctify the
assembly,^ but we may conjecture that it does so by encirc-
ling believers with a spiritual fence which the arch enemy
is unable to surmount. With a like intention, probably, a Bells worn
Badaga priest in Southern India ties bells to his legs before prie^^tn^'^
he essays to walk barefoot across the glowing embers of a fire-waik.
fire-pit at a solemn ceremony which is apparently designed
to secure a blessing on the crops.^
In Africa bells are much used by the natives for the The use of
purpose of putting evil spirits to flight, and we need not Africa'to
suppose that the custom has always or even generally been put evil
borrowed by them from Europeans, since the blacks have fjght!
believed in spirits and have been acquainted with the metals,
particularly with iron, from time immemorial. For example,
the Yoruba-speaking people of the Slave Coast believe that Bells worn
there are certain wicked spirits called abikns, which haunt among'thT
the forests and waste places and, suffering much from hunger, Yorubas to
are very desirous of taking up their abode in human bodies, demons.
For that purpose they watch for the moment of conception
and insinuate themselves into the embryos in the wombs of
women. When such children are born, they peak and pine,
because the hungry demons within them are consuming the
better part of the nourishment destined for the support of
the real infant. To rid the poor babe of its troublesome
occupant, a mother will offer a sacrifice of food to the
demon, and while Jie is devouring it, she avails herself of
his distraction to attach small bells and iron rings to her
child's ankles and iron chains to its neck. The jingling
of the iron and the tinkling of the bells are thought
to keep the demons at a distance ; hence many children
are to be seen with their feet weighed down by iron
ornaments.^ Among the Baganda and Banyoro of Central Bciis worn
by children
1 W. B. Heard, "Notes on the Religion des Negres de la Guinee," among the
Yezi'Ws" Journal of the Royal A7ithro- Les Missions Catholiqucs, xvi. (1884) Baganda
pological Institute, xli. (1911) p. 214. p. 249; P. Bouche.Za Cole dcs Esclaves and the
o ^j T-i- . /- / J T ■• <^^ ^^ Dahomey (Paris, 1885), pp. 215 Banyoro.
2 Edpr Thurston C../...,/^7-,v... ^> ^ g,,'. ^J^ ^\^^_^^^l
ofSouthem India (Madras, 1909), .. ^p.^kingPeophs of the Slave Coast of
9^ ■*'/• West Afnea (London, 1894), pp.
3 Le R. P. Baudin, "Le Felichismt, 112 sq.
472 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
Africa young children learning to walk used to have small
bells attached to their feet, and the reason alleged for the
custom was that the bells helped the child to walk or
strengthened its legs ; -^ but perhaps the original motive was
to deliver the little one at this critical time from the un-
welcome attentions of evil spirits. With the same intention,
possibly, among the Baganda parents of twins wore bells
at their ankles during the long and elaborate ceremonies
which the superstitious beliefs of their country imposed upon
husband and wife in such cases ; and special drums, one
for the father and another for the mother, were beaten
continually both by day and by night.^
Use of Among the Bogos, to the north of Abyssinia, when
childbirth ^ woman has been brought to bed, her female friends
among the kindle a fire at the door of the house, and the mother with
°^°^' her infant walks slowly round it, while a great noise is made
with bells and palm-branches for the purpose, we are told,
of frightening away the evil spirits.^ It is said that the
Brass dish Gonds of India " always beat a brass dish at a birth so that
childbirth ^^ noisc may penetrate the child's ears, and this will
among the remove any obstruction there may be to its hearing." * The
reason here assigned for the custom is not likely to be the
original one ; more probably the noise of the beaten brass
was primaril}/ intended, like the sound of bells among the
Bogos, to protect the mother and her newborn babe against
Greek the assaults of demons. So in Greek legend the Curetes
the^infant ^^^ ^^^^ ^° have danccd round the infant Zeus, clashing
Zeus and their spears against their shields, to drown the child's
squalls, lest they should attract the attention of his un-
natural father Cronus, who was in the habit of devouring
his offspring as soon as they were born.^ We may surmise
' John Roscoe, The Baganda (Lon- (where, in verse 54, we should par-
don, 191 1), p. 444 ; id.. The Northern haps read Kvv^dovro% with Meineke
Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), p. 46. for Kovpi^ovTos) ; Apollodorus, Biblio-
2 John Roscoe, The Baganda, p. theca, I. i. 7 ; Hyginus, Fab. 139.
65. The legend was a favourite subject
^ Werner Munzinger, Sitteii und with ancient artists. See J. Overbeck,
Recht der Bogos (Winterthur, 1859), Griechische Kunsttnythologie, i. (Leip-
P- 37- sic, 1871) pp. 328, 331, 335-337;
* R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes W. H. Roscher, AusfUhrliches Lexikon
of the Central Provinces of India der griechischen und rbmischett iMytho-
(London, 1916), iii. 88. logic, ii. (Leipsic, 1890-1897) coll.
^ Callirnachus, Hymn i. 52-55 idoz sq.
\
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 473
that this Greek legend embodies a reminiscence of an The legend
old custom observed for the purpose of protecting babies Probably
against the many causes of infantile mortality which primi- an old
tive man explains by the agency of malevolent and ^"^^^|^ °^
dangerous spirits. To be more explicit, we may conjecture off evil
that in former times, when a Greek child was born, the chUdbirth
father and his friends were wont to arm themselves with
spear or sword and shield and to execute a war dance
round the child, clashing their spears or swords against
their shields, partly in order to drown the cries of the
infant, lest they should attract the attention of the prowling
spirits, but partly also to frighten away the demons by
the din ; while in order to complete the discomfiture of
the invisible foes they brandished their weapons, cutting and
thrusting vigorously with them in the empty air. At least
this conjecture is supported by the following analogies.
A Spanish priest, writing towards the beginning of the Evil spirits
eighteenth century, has described as follows the practices by^^rmed^
observed by the Tagalogs of the Philippine Islands at the men at
birth of a child. " The patianak, which some call goblin (if amon'i^he
it be not fiction, dream, or their imagination), is the genius Tagalogs
or devil who is accustomed to annoy them. . . . To him phiiip.
they attribute the ill result of childbirth, and say that to do P'^es.
them damage, or to cause them to go astray, he places him-
self in a tree, or hides in any place near the house of the
woman who is in childbirth, and there sings after the manner
of those who go wandering, etc. To hinder the evil work
of the patianak, they make themselves naked, and arm them-
selves with cuirass, bolo, lance, and other arms, and in this
manner place themselves on the ridgepole of the roof, and
also under the house, where they give many blows and
thrusts with the bolo, and make many gestures and motions
ordered to the same intent." ^ According to another version
* Fletcher Gardner, " Philippine single copy being known to be in
(Tagalog) Superstitions," Journal of existence. The l>olo is a broad-bladed
American Folk-Lore, xix. (1906) pp. knife or sword. See Albert Ernest
192 sq. This account of Tagalog Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Manila,
superstitions is translated ffom La 1905), p. 130 {Department of the
Practica del Minesterio, by Padre Interior, Ethnological Survey Publica-
Tomas Ortiz, Order of Augustinians, tions, vol. i.); Otto Scheerer, The
published at Manila in 17 13. The Nahaloi Dialect (Manila, 1905), p.
original is said to be very rare, only a 153 {^Department of the Interior,
474
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Evil spirits
warded off
by armed
men at
childbirth
among the
Kachins
of Burma.
of the account, the husband and his friends arm them-
selves with sword, shield, and spear, and thus equipped
hew and slash furiously in the air, both on the roof of the
house and underneath it (the houses being raised above the
ground on poles), for the purpose of frightening and driving
away the dangerous spirit who would injure the mother
and child.^ These armed men, repelling the demon from
the newborn babe by cut and thrust of their weapons,
appear to be the savage counterpart of the ancient Greek
Curetes.
Similar beliefs concerning the dangers to which infants
are exposed from spiritual enemies have led the wild Kachins
of Burma to adopt very similar precautions, for the sake of
guarding a mother and her offspring. " At the instant of
birth the midwife says ' the child is named so-and-so.' If
she does not do this, some malignant nat or spirit will give
the child a name first, and so cause it to pine away and die.
If mother and child do well, there is general drinking and
eating, and the happy father is chaffed. If, however, child-
birth is attended with much labour, then it is evident that
nats are at work and a tuinsa or seer is called into requisition.
This man goes to another house in the village and consults
the bamboos {chippazvt) to discover whether it is the house-
nat who is averse, or whether a jungle nat has come and
driven the guardian nat away. These jungle nats are termed
sawn, and are the spirits of those who have died in childbirth
or by violent deaths. They naturally wish for companions,
Etlniological Su)-vey Piiblications, vol.
ii. Part ii.). The spirit patianak,
whom the priest calls a goblin or
devil, is probably the ghost of a
woman who has died in childbed.
Such ghosts are commonly known by
similar names {poniianak, kuntianak,
matianak, etc.) in the East Indies and
are greatly dreaded by women in child-
bed. See G. A. Wilken, " Het ani-
misme bij de volken van den Indischen
Archipel," Dc vcspreide Geschrifteji
(The Hague, 1912), iii. 222-230;
Alb. C. Kruijt, Het aiiiniisvte in den
Indischen Archipel (The Hague, 1906),
pp. 245-251. Both these writers
believe that the patianak of the
Philippines is probably identical with
i\\<t poiitianak of the Malay Archipelago,
though there is seemingly no positive
evidence of the identity.
^ Ferd. Blumentritt, " Der Ahnen-
cultus und die religiosen Anschauungen
derMalaiendesPhilippinen-Archipels,"
Mittheilungen der Wiener geographi-
schen Gesellschaft, 1882, p. 178 (refer-
ring to Fray Ortiz and other writers as
his authorities) ; id., Verstich einer
Ethnographie der Philippinen (Gotha,
1882), p. 14 {Peter man n's Mittheilu7i-
gen, Ergdnzungsheft, No. 67). Com-
pare J. Mallat, Les Philippines (Paris,
1846), p. 65.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 475
and so enter the house and seize the woman and child. If
the bamboo declares that it is the house-;?^/ who is angry,
he is propitiated by offerings of spirits or by sacrifice in the
ordinary manner. If, however, it appears that a sawn has
taken possession, then prompt action is necessary. Guns
are fired all round the house and along the paths leading
into the village, arrows are shot under the floor of the house,
dhas [swords or large knives] and torches are brandished
over the body of the woman, and finally old rags, chillies,
and other materials likely to produce a sufficiently noisome
smell are piled under the raised flooring and set fire to,
thereby scaring away any but the most obstinate and per-
tinacious spirits." ^ To the same effect a Catholic missionary
among the Kachins tells us that in the case of a difficult
birth these savages " accuse the sawn (ghosts of women who
died in childbed) of wishing to kill the mother, and they
make a regular hunt after them. They rummage in every
corner of the house, brandishing spears and knives, making
all sorts of noises, of which the least inodorous are the most
effectual ; they even strip themselves beside the sufferer in
order to horrify the evil spirits. In and outside the house
they burn stinking leaves, with rice, pepper, and everything
that can produce a foul smell ; on every side they raise cries,
fire muskets, shoot arrows, strike blows with swords, and
continue this uproar along the principal road in the forest,
as far as the nearest torrent, where they imagine that they
put the sazvn to flight." "
When a Kalmuk woman is in travail, her husband Evil spirits
stretches a net round the tent, and runs to and fro beating ^fj-'at^^
the air with a club and crying, " Devil avaunt ! " until the childbirth
child is born : this he does in order to keep the foul fiend nfet'anic in^
at bay.° Among the Nogais, a tribe of Tartars, " when a strumems,
boy is born, everybody goes to the door of the house with drum"?
kettles. They make a great noise, saying that they do so firing gi'"s.
in order to put the devil to flight, and that he will have no various
1 (Sir) J. George Scott and J. P. p. 869. peoples.
Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma ^ P. S. Pallas, Reise durch vtrschie-
and the Shan States {^zxi^oox\, 1 900- dene Provinzen des Kussischen Reichs
1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 399. (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), i. 360.
2 Le P. Ch. Gilhodes, " Naissance Compare J. G. Georgi, Beschreibting
et Enfance chez les Katchins (Bir- alter Nationeti des Russischen Reichs
manie)," Authropos, vi. (Vienna, 191 1) (St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 412.
476 THE GOLDEN BELLS part iv
more power over the spirit of that child." ^ In Boni or
Bone, a princedom of Southern Celebes, when a woman is
in hard labour, the men " sometimes raise a shout or fire a
gun in order, by so doing, to drive away the evil spirits who
are hindering the birth " ; and at the birth of a prince, as
soon as the infant has been separated from the afterbirth, all
the metal instruments used for expelling demons are struck
and clashed " in order to drive away the evil spirits." ^ For
the sam'e purpose drums are beaten in the Aru islands, to
the south-west of New Guinea, when a delivery is unduly
delayed.^ The spirit of a certain stream, which flows into
Burton Gulf, on Lake Tanganyika, is believed by the natives
of the neighbourhood to be very unfriendly to women with
child, whom he prevents from bringing forth. When a woman
believes herself to be suffering from his machinations, she
orders sacrifices to be offered and certain ceremonies to be
performed. All the inhabitants of the village assemble, beat
drums near the hut where the patient is confined, and shout
and dance " to drive away the evil spirit." * Among the
Singhalese of Ceylon, when a birth has taken place, "the
cries of the babe are drowned by those of the nurse, lest the
spirits of the forest become aware of its presence and inflict
Precau- injury on it."^ So the ancient Romans believed that a
a°ainst woman after childbirth was particularly liable to be attacked
Siivanus at by the forest god Silvanus, who made his way into the house
among the ^Y "ight on purposc to vex and harry her. Hence during
ancient the night three men used to go round the thresholds of
omans. ^^^ housc, armed respectively with an axe, a pestle, and
a besom ; at every threshold they stopped, and while the
first two men smote it with the axe and the pestle, the third
man swept it with his broom. In this way they thought
1 " Relation du Sieur Ferrand, least they are played by being clashed
Medecin du Kan des Tartares, touchant together {op. cit. p. Ii8).
la Krime'e, les Tartares Nogais, etc." ^ J. G. F. Riedel, ZJej/wZ/J- enkroes-
Recueil de Voyages au Nord, Nouvelle harige rassen tusschen Celebes en Paptia
ifcdition (Amsterdam, 1731-1738), iv. (The Hague, 1886), p. 265. Compare
524. id., p. 449.
2 <' Het leenvorstendom Boni," * Letter of Father Guilleme, in
Tijdschrijt voor Indische Taal- Land- Annales de la Propagation de la Foi,
en Volkenkwide, xv. (Batavia and the Ix. (Lyons, 1888) p. 252.
Hague, 1865) pp. 40, 117. The * Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of
instruments (called pabongka setangs) Singhalese Social Life," The Indian
appear to be a sort of cymbals; at Antiquary, xxxi. (1902) p. 379.
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 477
to protect the mother from the attacks of the woodland
deity.^
Similarly we may suppose that in ancient Greece it was Application
formerly customary for armed men to protect women in paraikis
childbed from their spiritual foes by dancing round them to the
and clashing their spears or swords on their shields, and ^eus and
even when the old custom had long fallen into abeyance 'heCuretes.
among men, legend might still tell how the rite had been
celebrated by the Curetes about the cradle of the infant
Zeus.
But from this digression we must return to the use of Tinkling
bells as a means of repelling the assaults of ghosts and ^orn by
demons. Among the Sunars, who are the goldsmiths and gWs
silversmiths of the Central Provinces in India, children and sunars of^
young girls wear hollow anklets with tinkling bells inside ; Cenuai
but when a married woman has had several children, she
leaves off wearing the hollow anklet and wears a solid one
instead. " It is now said that the reason why girls wear
sounding anklets is that their whereabouts may be known,
and they may be prevented from getting into mischief in
dark corners. But the real reason was probably that they
served as spirit scarers." ^ Among the Nandi of British
East Africa, when a girl is about to be circumcised, she Use of
receives from her sweethearts and admirers the loan of ^1^"^^^' '^^
large bells, which they usually wear on their legs, but cision of
which for this solemn occasion they temporarily transfer f^ong the
to the damsel. A popular girl will frequently receive Nandi,
as many as ten or twenty bells, and she wears them all
when the painful operation is performed upon her. As
soon as it is over, she stands up and shakes the bells
above her head, then goes to meet her lover, and gives
him back the borrowed bells.^ If we knew why Nandi
warriors regularly wear bells on their legs, we should prob-
ably know why girls wear the very same bells at circum-
cision. In the absence of positive information we may
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, vi. 9. 3 a_ q Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford,
Augustine's authority is probably Varro, 1 909), pp. 58 j^. , 88. Compare C. W.
to whom he repeatedly refers by name Hobley, " British East Africa, Anthro-
in this chapter. pological Studies in Kavirondo and
2 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes Nandi," Journal of the Anthropohgi-
of the Central Provinces of India cal Institute, rxxiii. (1903) pp. 351,
(London, 1916), iv. 527. 352.
478
THE GOLDEN BELLS
Use of
bells to
ward off
demons on
the Congo
and the
Victoria
Nyanza.
Use of
bells by
priests,
prophets,
and
medicine-
men in
Africa.
surmise that the bells are regarded as amulets, which protect
both sexes against the supernatural dangers to which each,
in virtue of its special functions, is either permanently or
temporarily exposed.
In the Congo region the natives fear that demons may
enter their bodies through the mouth when they are in the
act of drinking ; hence on these occasions they make use of
various contrivances in order to keep these dangerous beings
at a distance, and one of the devices is to ring a bell before
every draught of liquid. A chief has been observed to
drink ten pots of beer at a sitting in this fashion, shaking
his magic bell every time before he raised the beaker to his
lips, while by way of additional precaution a boy brandished
the chief's spear in front of that dignitary to prevent the
demons from insinuating themselves into his stomach with
the beer.^ In this region, also, bells which have been en-
chanted by the fetish-man are worn as amulets, which can
avert fever, bullets, and locusts, and can render the wearer
invisible.^ Among the Bakerewe, who inhabit Ukerewe,
the largest island in Lake Victoria Nyanza, it is customary
to fasten a bell immediately over the door of every house,
and every person on entering the dwelling is careful to
ring the bell by knocking his head against it, not, as in
Europe, to warn the inmates of his arrival, but to ward
off evil spirits and to dispel the enchantments of sorcerers.^
In West Africa the jangling of bells helps to swell the
general uproar which accompanies the periodic banishment
of bogies from the haunts of men.*
But in Africa the carrying or wearing of bells is particu-
larly characteristic of priests, prophets, and medicine-men in
the performance of their solemn ceremonies, whether for the
expulsion of demons, the cure of sickness, or the revelation of
the divine will to mortals. For example, among the Akamba
1 Notes Atialytiques sur les Collec-
tions Ethnographiques da Mus^e du
Congo, i. Les Arts, Religion (Brussels,
1902-1906), p. 164.
2 Notes Analytiques sur les Collec-
tions Ethnographiques du Mus^e du
Congo, i. Les Arts, I\eligion (Brussels,
1902-1906), p. 161.
3 P. Eugene Hurel, "Religion et
Vie domestique des Bakerewe," An-
thropos, vi. (191 1) p. 74.
* Rev. James Macdonald, Religion
and Myth (London, 1893), p. 106.
As to these periodic expulsions of
demons in West Africa see further
The Scapegoat, pp. 203 sqq. ( The Golden
Bough, Third Edition, Part vi.).
CHAP. VII THE GOLDEN BELLS 479
of British East Africa magicians carry iron cattle -bells
attached to a leathern thong, and they ring them when they are
engaged in telling fortunes ; the sound of the bell is supposed
to attract the attention of the spirits. One of these medicine-
men told Mr. Hobley that he had dreamed how God told
him to get a bell ; so he made a special journey to Kikuyu
to buy the bell, and on his return he gave a feast of beer
and killed a bullock to propitiate the spirits.^ Among the
Gallas of East Africa the class of priests {Ltcbas) is distinct
from the class of exorcists {Kalijos), but both priests and
exorcists carry bells in the celebration of their peculiar
rites ; and the exorcist is armed in addition with a whip,
which he does not hesitate to lay on smartly to the patient
for the purpose of driving out the devil by whom the sick
man is supposed to be possessed.^ Again, among the Fans
of the Gaboon a witch-doctor, engaged in the detection of a
sorcerer, wears a number of little bells fastened to his ankles
and wrists, and he professes to be guided by the sound of
the bells in singling out the alleged culprit from the crowd
of anxious and excited onlookers.^ The Hos of Togoland,
in West Africa, believe in the existence of a sort of " drudg-
ing goblin " or " lubber fiend," who miraculously multiplies
the cowry-shells in a man's treasure-chamber and the crops
in his field. The name of this serviceable spirit is Sowlui,
and curiously enough the Hos bestow the very same name
on the sound of the little bells which Ho priests, like Jewish
priests of old, bind on the lower hem of their robes.* Among
the Banyoro of Central Africa the god of Lake Albert com-
municated with mortals by the intervention of a prophetess,
who wore a fringe of cowry-shells and small iron bells on
her leather garment, and as she walked the fringe undulated
like the waves of the lake.^ In the same tribe the god of
plenty, by name Wamala, who gave increase of man and
cattle and crops, was represented by a prophet, who uttered
oracles in the name of the deity. When the prophetic
1 C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of 3 jj. Trilles, Le Tothnisme chez les
A-Kamba and other East African /^J« (Miinster i. W., 1912), pp. 563 j^.
rr/*.. (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 99 sq. , Ewe-Stamnu
2 J. Lewis krapf, 7><2Z'£/x, A'tfj-^a;Y//«, ^ .-'. ^ '
and Missionary Labours during an ^ ' " '' "' ''' "'
Eighteen Years' /Residence in Eastern ° ]6bn Roscoe, The JVorthern Bantu
Africa (London, i860), pp. 76-78. (Cambridge, 1915), p. 92.
48o
THE GOLDEN BELLS
The bells
of Jewish
priests
were
probably
intended
either to
repel
demons or
to attract
the atten-
tion of the
deity.
fit was on him, this man wore bells on his ankles and two
white calf-skins round his waist, with a row of little iron
bells dangling from the lower edge of the skins,-^
These instances may suffice to show how widespread
has been the use of bells in magical or religious rites, and
how general has been the belief that their tinkle has power
to banish demons. From a few of the examples which I
have cited it appears that sometimes the sound of bells is
supposed, not so much to repel evil spirits, as to attract the
attention of good or guardian spirits,^ but on the whole the
attractive force of these musical instruments in primitive
ritual is far less conspicuous than the repulsive. The use
of bells for the purpose of attraction rather than of
repulsion may correspond to that more advanced stage of
religious consciousness when the fear of evil is outweighed
by trust in the good, when the desire of pious hearts is not
so much to flee from the Devil as to draw near to God.
In one way or another the practices and beliefs collected
in this chapter may serve to illustrate and perhaps to
explain the Jewish custom from which we started, whether
it be that the priest in his violet robe, as he crossed the
threshold of the sanctuary, was believed to repel the assaults
of demons or to attract the attention of the deity by the
chime and jingle of the golden bells.
1 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu,
p. 90. For more evidence of the use of
bells by African priests or medicine-men,
see J. H. 'ii^eke. Journal of the Discovery
of the Source of the Nile (London, 1912),
ch. xviii. pp. 419 sq. {Everyman's
Library) ; Notes Analytiques sur les
Collections Eth7tographiques du Musie
du Cotigo, i. Les Arts, Religion
(Brussels, 1902- 1906), pp. 188,
300 ; Sir Harry Johnston, George
Grenfell and the Congo (London, 1908),
ii. 663 sq. ; A. Bastian, Die deutscke
Expedition an der Loango-KUste (Jena,
1874), i. 46; Paul B. du Chaillu,
Explorations and Adventures in Equa-
torial Africa (London, 1 861), pp. 253
sq. ; P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow
of the Bush (London, 1912), p. 328;
E. Perregaux, Chez les Achanti (Neu-
chatel, 1906), p. 269.
2 Above, pp. 466, 479.
INDEX
Aaron, shrine of, on Mount Hor, ii.
409
Ababua, of the Congo, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 361
Abana, the River, iii. 44
Abarambos, of the Congo, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 355
Abbeville, suit of, against Bishops of
Amiens, i. 501 sq.
Abdemon, a Tyrian, propounds a riddle
to Solomon, ii. 566
Abdication of king on birth of a son, i.
55°
Abederys, of Brazil, their story of a
great flood, i. 260
Abel, the reputed tomb of, iii. 44
and Cain, i. 78, loi
Abigail and David, ii. 504 sq.
Abimelech, his murder of his brethren,
ii. 471 ; made king at an oak, iii. 56
Aboriginal race, priests of Earth ap-
pointed by conquerors from among
the, iii. 86
Aborigines of India favour the marriage
of cross-cousins, ii. 100 sqq.
Abors, their poisoned arrows, iii. 409
Abortive calves buried under the thresh-
old of the cowhouse, iii. 14 sq.
Abraham, his negotiations with the sons
of Heth, i, 134 ; his migration from
Ur, 371, 374 ; the Covenant of, 391
sqq.; his migration to Canaan, 392;
his interview with three men at the
oaks of Mamre, iii. 54 sq., 56, 57;
in relation to oaks or terebinths, 54
sq. , 57 sqq.
Abraham's oak, iii. 45
Absalom, his treatment of his father's
concubines, i. 541 «.* ; caught in an
oak, iii. 32, 36
Abyssinia, the Tigre tribes of, iir. 195
Abyssinians, their mourning customs, iii.
276
Acagchemem Indians of California, their
story of the creation of man, i. 24 ;
their story of a great flood, 288
VOL. Ill 481
Acca Larentia, foster-mother of Romulus
and Remus, ii. 448, 449
Acheron, the River, ii. 527
Achewas, cousin marriage among the, ii.
151 sq.
Achilles, his ghost evoked by Apol-
lonius of Tyana, ii. 531 ; his offering
of hair to the dead Patroclus, iii.
274
Achin, consummation of marriage de-
ferred in, i. 509
Ackawois, of British Guiana, their story
of a great flood, i. 263 sqq.
Aconitum ferox used to poison arrows,
iii. 87, 409 ; in the Himalayas, 409
Acrisius, King of Argos, father of Danae,
ii. 444 ; killed by Perseus, 445
Adam, man, i. 6 ; made of red clay,
29
Adainah, ground, i. 6, 29
Addis, W. E. , on the ritual and moral
versions of the Decalogue, iii. 116 n^
Addison, on the bellman, iii. 456
A din a cordifolia, i. 21 n.^
Admiralty Islanders, their story Uke that
of the Tower of Babel, i. 383 sq.
Admiralty Islands, story of the origin of
death in, i. 69 sq.
Adonai substituted for Jehovah in read-
ing the Scriptures, i. 136
Adonijah, set aside by David, i. 433
Adoption, ceremony of, among the
Gallas, ii. 6 sq. ; fiction of a new birth
at, 28 sqq.
Adullam, iii. 48
Adultery, accusation of, tested by ordeal,
iii. 304 sqq., 331, 332, 372
Aegisthus said to have been suckled by a
she-goat, ii. 446
Aelian, on Tempe, i. 173 n.^ ; on the
extraction of the aglaophotis or peony
by a dog, ii. 388 sq. ; on the death of
a sacred sparrow, iii. 20
Aenianes, of Thessaly, their worship of
a stone, ii. 60
Aerolite venerated, i. 380
.*^'
482
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Aeschylus on murder of Agamemnon, i.
82 ; on vengeful gore, 102 n."^ ; his
description of the evocation of the
ghost of Darius, ii. 530 sq.
Aesculapius at Epidaurus, cures effected
in dreams at the sanctuary of, ii. 44
sqq. ; plant named after, 396 ; his
sacred sparrow, iii. 20
Aesop's fables of the rivalry of the trees,
ii- 473
Afghans, sacred groves among the, iii.
68 sq.
Africa, stories of the creation of man in,
i. 22 sq. ; stories of a great flood in, 329
sqq. ; no clear case of flood story in ,
333 ; stories like that of the Tower of
Babei in, 377 sq. ; peace-making cere-
monies in, 394 sqq., 400 ; ultimo-
geniture in, 476 sqq.\ consummation
of marriage deferred in, 513 sq.\
primogeniture in, 535, 547, 553 sq.\
superiority of first wife of a poly-
gamous family in, 536 sqq. ; cities
of, drowned in great flood, 567, 568 ;
marriage of cousins in, ii. 149 sqq.;
totemism and the classificatory system
in, 242 sq. ; the sororate and levirate
in, 275 sqq. ; economic character of
the levirate in, 340, 341 ; serving for
a wife in, 368 sqq. ; oaths on stones
in, 406 ; oracles of dead kings in,
53.3 -W- ; aversion to count or be
counted, 556 sqq. ; respect for the
threshold in, iii. 5 ; sacrifices to sacred
trees in, 53 sq.; pastoral tribes of,
object to boil milk, 118 sqq.; lacera-
tion of the body and shearing of the
hair in mourning in, 276 sq. ; the
poison ordeal in, 307 sqq.; use of
bells to put evil spirits to flight in,
471 sq., /i,Tj sq.
, British Central, the poison ordeal
among the tribes of, iii. 379 sqq.
, British East, the Wawanga of, iii.
263 ; the poison ordeal in, 396 sq.
, East, tribes of, whose customs
resemble those of Semitic peoples, ii.
4 sqq. ; their use of skins of sacrificial
victims at transference of government,
■zssq.
, German East, the poison ordeal
in, iii. 393 sq.
, North, drinking or eating written
charms in, iii. 413
. , West, stories of heavenly ladders
in, ii. 52 ; traps set for souls by witches
in, 512; custom of mutilating dead
infants whose elder brothers or sisters
have died in, iii. 243 sqq.
African tribes, custom of son inheriting
his father's wives in, i. 541, ii. 280;
their superstitious awe of smiths, 20
sq. ; father paying for his children to
his wife's father or maternal uncle in
some, 356
Africanus, Julius, i. 108 n.; on date of
flood of Ogyges, 158 sq.
Afterbirth buried at the doorway, iii. 14 ;
supposed to be the infant's twin, 14 ;
of girls, the disposal of, 207 ■
Agamemnon, murder of, i. 82 ; his mode
of swearing the Greeks, 393 ; his
libation, 401 ; offering of hair at his
tomb, iii. 274
Agasas, marriage with a cross-cousin or
a niece among the, ii. 113
Age, people reluctant to tell their, ii.
561 sq.
Age-grades, ii. 318 sqq.; of the Nandi,
25 sq., 328 sqq.; in New Guinea, 318
sqq. ; in British East Africa, 322 sqq. ;
among the Masai, 323 sq.; among
the Wataveta, 324 sqq. ; among the
Wakuafi, 325 n. ; among the Akamba,
332 ; among the Akikuyu, 332 sq. :
among the Suk, 333 sq.; among the
Turkana, 334 .f^'.; among the Gallas,
335 ; in Wadai, 335 ; among the
Makonde, 335 n.'^ ; associated with
sexual communism, 335 sq.
Agharias, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Aglaophotis, the peony, its extraction by
a dog, ii. 388 sq.
Agni Purdna, story of a great flood in
the, i. 192 sq.
Agriculture discouraged by pastoral
peoples, iii. 156 sq.
Agrippina, her ghost evoked by Nero, ii.
532
Ahab, Elijah's prophecy to, iii. 22
Ahirs, the sororate and levirate among
the, ii. 294
Ahoms of Assam, their story of a great
flood, i. 199 sq.
Ainamwanga of Rhodesia, superiority
of the first wife among the, i.
542
Ainos of Japan, cousin marriage among
the, ii. 139 ; used to burn a hut in
which a death had occurred, iii. 233 ;
cut down trees which have caused
deaths, 416 sq.
Ait Tameldu of Morocco, consummation
of marriage deferred among the, i.
514
Aix, the Parliament of, orders the execu-
tion of a mare, iii. 441
Akamba, of British East Africa, their
story of the origin of death, i. 60 sqq. ;
their language and affinity, ii. 4 sq.,
5 K.^ ; birth ceremony among the, 7 ;
their use of sacrificial skins in cove-
nants, \'i sq.; their custom of anoint-
INDEX
483
ing a certain stone, 76 ; age-grades
among the, 332 ; their mode of
swearing on stones, 406 ; their re-
luctance to count their cattle or tell
the number of their children, 557 ;
allow women to milk cows, iii. 135 ;
sexual intercourse forbidden while
cattle are at pasture among the, 141
sq. ; their disposal of weapons which
have killed people, 417 sq. ; iron cattle-
bells worn by magicians among the,
478 sq.
Akas, their poisoned arrows, iii. 409
Akbar Khan, his attempt to discover the
primitive language, i. 376
Ake, a Polynesian sea-god, i. 246 sq.
Akikuyu of British East Africa, their
notion of the pollution caused by
homicide, i. 81 sq. ; their most solemn
oath, 404 sq. ; their custom as to a
last-born son, 565 ; their language
and affinity, ii. 4 sq., 5 n.^ \ their
ceremony of the new birth, 7 sqq.,
332 sqq. ; birth ceremony among the,
7, 26, 27, 28 ; their two guilds, 9 ;
circumcision among the, 11 ; their
use of sacrificial skins at covenants,
15 ; their use of skins of sacrificial
victims at expiations, 23 sq. ; their
use of goatskins at ceremonies, 26 ;
cousin marriage forbidden among the,
161 sq. ; age-grades among the, 332 ;
think it unlucky to tell the number of
their children, 557 sq. ; their sacred
groves, iii. 65 sq. ; their rule as to
milk-vessels, 127 ; customs observed
by persons who have handled corpses
among the, 137 sq. ; sexual intercourse
forbidden while the cattle are at pasture
among the, 141 ; their custom of con-
tinence at a festival, 142 ; their rule
as to drinking fresh milk, 143 ; blunt
weapons which have killed people,
417 sq.
Alaska, stories of the creation of man in,
i. 24 ; stories of a great flood in, 327 ;
the Tlingits and Koniags of, 560 ; the
Eskimo of, ii. 546
Alba Longa, ii. 447
Albania, expedients to save the lives of
children whose elder brothers or sisters
have died in, iii. 252
Albanians, their custom in regard to
crossing thresholds, iii. 8
of the Caucasus, their rite of puri-
fication, i. 408
Albans, their treaty with the Romans, i.
401
Albiruni, on Cashmeer, i. 206 «.^ ; on
Indian ordeals, iii. 409 n}
Albizsia anthelmintica, iii. 153
Alcheringa, iii. 261
Alcmaeon, the matricide, pursued by his
mother's ghost, i. 83 sq.
Alcmena and Jupiter, ii. 411
Aleian plain, i. 83 n.^
Aleus, king of Tegea, father of Auge, ii.
445
Aleuts, cousin marriage among the, ii.
141
Alexander, Sir James E. , on primogeni-
ture among the Namaquas, i. 479
Alexander the Great in Turkish tradition,
i. 567 ; and the mandrake, ii. 390 ;
his passage through the Pamphylian
Sea, 457 sqq.
ALfoors of Halmahera, their mourning
customs, iii. 235
Algeria, aversion to count or be counted
in, ii. 558
Algonquin Indians, stories of a great
flood among the, i. 295 sqq. ; stories
of a flood, their wide diffusion, 337
Ali Ibrahim Khan, on judicial ordeals in
India, iii. 405 sq.
Alligators, why they have no tongues, ii.
264 sq. •
Almora district of the United Provinces,
cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 129
district, the Bhotiyas of the, ii. 212
A-Louyi of the Upper Zambesi, their
story of the origin of death, i. ^j sq.;
their story like that of the Tower of
Babel, 377 ; the poison ordeal among
the. iii. 379
Alraun, German name for the man-
drake, ii. 383
Alsace, ultimogeniture in, i. 438 ; the
Tobias Nights in, 503
Altai, natives of the, give ill names to
children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 176
Altars, birds allowed to nest on, iii. 19 ;
at sacred oaks or terebinths, 54
Altmark, bride carried into her hus-
band's house in the, iii. 9
Alungu, cousin marriage prohibited
among the, ii. 155 sq.
Ambir Singh and Bir Singh, in Santal
deluge legend, i. 197
Amboyna, men descended from trees
^nd animals in, i. 36 ; serving for a
wife in, ii. 358 ; belief as to a person's
strength being in his hair in, 484 sq. ;
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died in, iii.
174 sq-
Ambrym, marriage with a grandmother
in, ii. 248 ; dead ancestors consulted
oracularly by means of their images in,
537 sq.
America, stories of the creation of man
in, i. 24 sqq. ; stories of a great flood
in. 254 sqq. ; diluvial traditions wide-
484
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
spread in, 333 ; superiority of first
wife of a polygamous family in, 559
sqq. ; marriage of cousins in aboriginal,
ii. 140 sqq. ; the sororate and levirate
among the Indians of, 266 sqq. ;
serving for a wife in, 366 sqq.
American Indians, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 514
sqq. ; weeping as a salutation among
the, ii. 87 sqq. ; reported prohibition
ofcousin marriage among the, 148 ; the
classificatory system among the, 242.
See also America, North America, North
American Indians, South America
Amiens, ultimogeniture in districts about,
i. 436 ; the Bishops of, and the jus
primae noctis, 501 sq.
Ami, of Formosa, their stories of a great
flood, i. 226 sqq.
Ammizaduga, King of Babylon, i. 119,
120 w.i
Amos, on rites of mourning, iii. zjo sq.
Amoy, evocation of the dead in, ii. 548 sqq.
Amphiaraus, sanctuary of, at Oropus, ii.
42 sqq. -
Amphitryo. how he overcame Pterelaus,
king of Taphos, ii. 490
Amputation of finger-joints in .Africa, iii.
198 sqq. , 208 sqq., 230 sqq. ; in Mada-
gascar, 203 ; in Australia, 203 sqq. ;
in Tonga, 210 sqq., 222 sqq. ; in Fiji,
212 sq., 239; in Mysore, 213 sqq. ;
among the American Indians, 224
sqq.; in the Nicobar Islands, 231 ; in
New Guinea, 237 sq. ; in Polynesia
and Fiji, 238 sq. ; meaning of the
custom, 240 sqq.
of finger -joints to make girls good
fisherwomen, iii. 206 sqq. ; to cure
sickness or weakness, 209 sq. ; for the
benefit of other people, 210 sqq. ; in
mourning, 227 sqq.
Amram, father of Moses, ii. 454
Amulets, souls of children conjured into,
ii. 508
Amulius, King of Alba Longa,ii. 447^^(7.
Anal clan, their story of an attempt to
scale heaven, i. 378 sq.
Anals of Assam, their story of a great
flood, i. 199
of Manipur, ultimogeniture among
the, i. 445 «.* ; superiority of the first
wife among the, 555
Ancestors, souls of, in stones, ii. 65 ;
stones in honour of, iii. 263 ; the wor-
ship of, the most widely diffused and
influential form of primitive religion,
303
Ancestral spirits, sacrifices to, ii. 16 ;
supposed to reside in rivers and lakes,
415 j^. ; consulted in China, ^^7 sqq. ;
small huts for, iii. 263
Andalusia, the Moors of, their name for
the mandrake, ii. 390
Andaman Islanders, their story of a great
flood, i. 233 ; weeping as a salutation
among the, ii. 86
Anderson, Dr. John, on ultimogeniture
among the Shans, i. 455
Andhs, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 126
Andree, Richard, on flood stories, i. 105,
259 «.i ; on cuttings for the dead, iii.
273 «.3
Aridropogon tnuricatus, i. 21 «.2
Aneityum, story of the origin of death in,
i. 70 sq. ; worship of stones in, ii. 62
Angamis, ultimogeniture among the, i.
445 sq. ; their permanent system of
agriculture, 446 ; landed property
among the, 452 «.2 ; consummation
of marriage deferred among the,
508
Angel of the Lord, his interview with
Gideon, ii. 465 sq. , iii. 55
, the Destroying, seen over Jerusa-
lem in time of plague, ii. 555
Angelus, Bret Harte on the, iii. 453
Anglo people, of Guinea, give bad names
to children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 192
Angola, superiority of the first wife in, i.
539 ; the poison ordeal in, iii. 366 sqq.
Angoni, superiority of first wife among
the, i. 542 j^. ; cousin marriage among
the, ii. 151 sq. ; their ceremonies at
crossing rivers, 420 ; the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 381. See also tigonx
Ankole, the Bahima of ii. 5, iii. 154
Animal, marriage of widower to, in
India, i. 525, 526
Animals, savage belief in descent of men
from, i. 29 sqq. ; supposed to exact
blood revenge, 102 sq. ; in the ark,
discrepancy as to clean and unclean,
137 sq. ; cut in pieces at ratification
of covenants and oaths, 392 sqq. ;
sacrificed at the threshold, iii. xSsqq.;
punished for killing or injuring persons,
415 sq., ^T^sqq.; personified, 418 j^.;
as witnesses in trials for murder, 442 j^.
, wild, pastoral tribes abstain from
eating, iii. 157 sqq. See also Clean
Anna, her mourning for Didc , iii. 275
Annacus or Nannacus, and the flood, i.
15s
Annam, story of the origin of death in,
i. 75 sq. ; bodies of children cut up to
prevent their reincarnation in, iii. 247 ;
drinking written charms in, 414; the
use of bells at exorcisms in, 466
Annamites, their treatment of children
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, iii. 170 sq.
INDEX
485
Annuki, Babylonian mythical personages,
i. 115, 357 w.a
Anointing sacred stones, ii. 72 sqq.
Ant-hill in story of creation, i. 18
Antilles, story of a great flood in the, i.
281
Antiquity of man, i. 169 n.'^
Ants prosecuted by the Friars Minor in
Brazil, iii. 435 sqq.
Anu, Babylonian Father of the gods, i.
113 n.^, 115, 117, 123
Anuppans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 117
Anyanjas, superiority of first wife among
the, i. 543 ; of British Central Africa,
cannibalism among the, iii. 379
Aokeu, Polynesian rain-god, i. 246, 248
Aornum, in Thresprotis, oracle of the
dead at, ii. 526
Aos, of Assam, consummation of mar-
riage deferred among the, i. 508 sq.
Apaches, the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 268
Apamea Cibotos in Phrygia, legend of
flood at, i. 156 sq.
Apes, men descended from, i. 35 ; re-
spected, 35 sq.
Apesas, Mount, i. 148 «.^
Aphrodite, the Paphian, ii. 73
and the mandrake, ii. 373 n., 375
Apion, a grammarian, said to have
evoked the ghost of Homer, ii. 531
Apollo, his wrath at Hercules, i. 164^(7. ;
the raven sacred to, ii. 25 ; and the
laurel, 474, 475 ; at Cyme, his pro-
tection of the birds in his sanctuary,
iii. 19 ; statue of, punished at Rome,
423
Carinus, at Megara, ii. 5o
Apollodorus, his story of Deucalion's
flood, i. 146 sq.
Apollonius of Tyana, his evocation of the
ghost of Achilles, ii. 531
Apuleius Platonicus, on the extraction of
the mandrake by means of a dog, ii.
387 sq-
Arab traveller, his discussion of Noachian
deluge with Chinese emperor, i. 215 sq.
women, their custom of scratching
their faces and shearing their hair in
mourning, iii. 273
Arabs, their worship of stones, ii. 59 ;
cousin marriage among the, 255 sqq. ;
their preference for marriage with a
cousin, particularly the father's brother's
daughter, 255 sqq. ; father-kin among
the, 263 ; their descriptions of the man-
drake, 377, 390 ; their ear-rings, iii.
166
Egyptian, women in mourning ab-
stain from milk among the, iii. 136
of Arabia Petraea, their treatment
of animals that have killed persons,
iii. 419
Arabs of Moab, their notion of blood
crying from the ground, i. 102 ; their
ceremony of redeeming the people,
409, 425 ; their preference for mar-
riage with a cousin, ii. 257 sq. ; their
veneration for terebinths, iii. 49 sq. ;
their custom as to milking, 136 ; their
sacrifice at a saint's tomb in time of
epidemic, 263 ; their mourning cus-
toms, 273
of Sinai, herd girls among the, ii. 82
of Syria averse to counting their
tents, horsemen, or cattle, ii. 563
Arafoos, of Dutch New Guinea, their
attack on the sea, ii. 423
Araguaya River, i. 257, 258
Arakan, the Kumis of, i. 17 ; the Kamees
of, 457 ; the Chins of, ii. 135
Aramaic version of The Book of Tobit, i.
517 sq-
Arapahoes, the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 270 ; their mourning
customs, iii. 280 sq.
Ararat, Mount, i. 109 w.^
Araucanians of Chili, their story of a
great flood, i. 262 sq. , 350 ; superior-
ity of the first wife among the, 559 sq.
Arawaks of British Guiana, their story of
the origin of death, i. 67 ; their story
of a great flood, 265 ; serving for a
wife among the, ii. 367
— — - of Guiana, cousin marriage among
the, ii. 149
Arcadian legend of a flood, i. 163 sqq.
Archons at Athens, their oath on a stone,
ii. 405
Areopagus, the oath before the, i. 393
Argyleshire story of the King of Sorcha
and the herdsman of Cruachan, ii.
496 sq.
Argyreia leaves, iii. 144
Ariconte, hero of a Brazilian story, i.
254 sq.
Arikara Indians, their sacrifice of fingers
to the Great Spirit, iii. 225
Aristinus, his pretence of being born
again, ii. 31
Aristodicus, how he upbraided Apollo for
inhospitality, iii. 19 sq.
Aristophanes, in Plato, his account of the
primitive state of man, i. 28 ; on Zeus
making rain, 236 ; on the trial of a
dog, iii. 421
Aristotle, on Deucalion's flood, i. 148 ;
on mandragora, ii. 386 ; on the trial
of animals in the court of the Pryta-
neum, iii. 421 n.^
Arizona, the Hopis of, i. 26 ; the Pima
Indians of, 27 ; stories of a great flood
in, 281 sqq.
486
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Ark in story of great flood, i. 126 sqq.
of bulrushes, Moses in the, ii. 437
sqq.
Armed men repel demons from women
in childbed, iii. 473 sqq.
Armenia, precautions against demons
at marriage in, i. 522 sq. ; threshold
thought to be haunted by spirits in,
iii. 12
Armenian story like that of Tobias, i.
501 n.'^
women scratched their faces in
mourning, iii. 274 sq.
Armenians, their superstitions as to
bryony, ii. 395 ; their fables of the
; rivalry of the trees, 476 sq. \ their
superstition about counting warts, 562
Arnobius, on date of Deucalion's flood,
i. 158 n.^ ; on worship of stones, ii. 73
Arras, ultimogeniture in districts about,
i. 436
Arrian, on the passage of Alexander the
Great through the sea, ii. 457
Arrow offered to river-spirit, ii. 415
Arrows, poisoned, iii. 87, 409 ; ordeal of
the poisoned, 321, 322
Arsaces, king of Armenia, his treason
detected, ii. 408 sq.
Artega, their objection to boil milk, iii.
122
Artois, ultimogeniture in, i. 436
Aru Islands, women protected from
demons at childbed in the, iii. 476
Arunta, of Central Australia, their story
of the origin of man, i. 42 sq. ; their
precautions against the ghosts of the
slain, 97 sq. ; their system of eight
exogamous classes to prevent the
marriage of cross-cousins, ii. 237 sq. ;
their terms for husband and wife,
314 ; silence of widows among the,
iii. 75 sqq., 79; ceremony at nose-
boring among the, 261 ; their bodily
lacerations in mourning, 294 sq., 296,
298
Aryan peoples of Europe, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 439
Aryans, their settlement in the Punjab,
i. 183 ; practice of carrying a bride
over the threshold of her husband's
house among the, iii. 8 sqq.
in India, their opinion as to mar-
riage of cousins, ii. 99
in the Punjab, ii. 99, 130
Ashantee story of the origin of death, i.
59 •ff-
story like that of the Tower of
Babel, i. 378
Ashdod, Dagon at, iii. 2
Asherah (singular), Asheritn (plural),
sacred poles at the "high places" of
Israel, iii. 62 «.', 64, 70
Ashes sn.eared on body in sign of mourn-
ing, iii. 76 n. , 298
Ashochimi Indians of California, their
story of a great flood, i. 290
Ashraf, their objection to boil milk, iii.
122
Ashurbanibal, his librar}', i. 110 j^., 118
Ashur-nirari, king of Assyria, i. 401
Asia, maiTiage of cousins in, ii. 134 sqq.
Eastern, stories of a great flood in,
i. 208 sqq.
North- Eastern, ultimogeniture in,
i. 473 sqq.
Southern, ultimogeniture in, i. 442
sq.
Asmodeus, a demon, i. 499, 500 ; over-
come by smell of fish's liver, 518
Ass, mandrake torn up by an, ii. 393
Assam, stories of a great flood told by
tribes of, i. 198 sqq. ; story like
that of the Tower of Babel in, 383 ;
stories of the origin of the diversity of
languages in, 384 sq. ; peace-making
ceremonies in, 398 sq. ; the Lushais of,
420; ultimogeniture in, 442 sqq.\ con-
summation of marriage deferred among
the hill tribes of, 508 sq. ; superiority
of the first wife in, 555 sq.; worship of
stones in, ii. 66; cross-cousin marriage
in, 132 sq. ; systems of relationship
among the hill tribes of, 241 n."^ ; serv-
ing for a wife in, 348 sqq. ; oaths on
stones in, 406 sq.
Assamese, the sororate among the, ii.
291 sq. ; serving for a wife among the,
349
Assiniboins, their story of a great flood,
i. 310 n.^ ; the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 270 ; their sacrifice of
finger-joints, iii. 225
Assisi, its basilica, iii. 454
Association of ideas, sympathetic, magic
based on the, iii. 123
Assyrian colonists in Samaria attacked by
lions, iii. 84
oath of fealty, i. 401 sq.
women scratched their faces in
mourning, iii. 274 sq.
Astarte at Hierapolis, i. 153
Astrolabe Bay, i. 36
Astyages, king of the Medes, grandfather
of Cyrus, ii. 441, 443
Astydamia, slain by Peleus, i. 408
Asurs, their story of the creation of man,
i. 19 n."-
Atakpames, of Togoland, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 333
Atas, of Mindanao, their story of a great
flood, i. 225
Athapascan family of American Indian
languages, i. 309 ; stock of Indians,
568
INDEX
48?
Athena Said to have created men afresh
after the flood, i. 155
Athenians said to be colonists from
Egypt, i. 159
avenge the death of a sacred spar-
row, iii. 20
Athens, grave of Deucalion at, i. 152 ;
festival of water-bearing at, 152 ;
sanctuary of Olympian Zeus at, 152 ;
stone used to swear on, at, ii. 405 ; trial
and punishment of animals and inani-
mate objects in, iii. 420 sq.
Atheraka, of British East Africa, their
ceremony of reconciliation, i. 405
Athletes at Olympia, their oath, i. 393
Athos, Mount, Deucalion said to have
landed on, i, 151
Atkinson, Rev. J. C. , on the burial of
abortive calves under the threshold in
Yorkshire, iii. 14 sq.
Atonement for human blood spilt on the
ground, iii. 86
Atonga, their ceremony at the passage of
a bride over the threshold, iii. 7 sq.
Atossa, wife of Xer.xes, her evocation of
the ghost of Darius, ii. 530 sq.
Atrakhasis, hero of Babylonian flood
story, i. 117, 118 sq. , 120
Atropa belladonna, ii. 375 n.^
Attic law concerning homicides, i. 80
Attica, amatory properties attributed to
mandrakes in, ii. 376
Ogyges, king of, i. 158
Attila, the mourning for, iii. 275
Auchmithie, in Forfarshire, the fishwives
of, their aversion to be counted, ii. 561
Auge, mother of Telephus by Hercules,
ii- 445
Augurs, Greek, drew omens from croak-
ing of ravens, iii. 25
"Augurs, the oak or terebinth of the,"
iii- 55
Augustine, on deluges of Ogyges and
Deucalion, i. 157 n.^
Aunt, marriage with an, ii. 149
Australia, stories of the descent of men
from animals in, i. 41 sq.\ stories of a
great flood in, 234 sqq. ; the marriage
of cousins in, ii. 186 sqq. ; the sororate
and levirate in, 303
aborigines of, consummation of
marriage deferred among, i. 512 j^. ;
the lowest of known savages, ii. 186
sq. ; economic value of wives among
the, 194 sq., 198; procure wives by
exchange of sisters or daughters,
195 sqq., 202 sqq.; group marriage
among the, 203 ; classificatory system
of relationship among the, 228 ; their
marriage systems of two, four, or eight
exoganious classes, 231 sq.; totemism
and the classificatory system among
the, 244 sq. ; classificatory terms for
husband and wife among the, 312
sqq.; the levirate among the, 341;
amputation of finger-joints of women
among the, 203 sqq. ; their custom
of shifting their camp after a death,
235 sq. ; nose-boring among the, 261 ;
bodily lacerations in mourning among
the, 291 sqq.
Australia, Central, i. 41, 42 ; story of
resurrection from the dead in, 72 ; the
ckuringa or sacred sticks and stones of
the aborigines of, ii. 508 sqq. ; sanctu-
aries for wild beasts and birds in, iii.
20 ; ceremony of throwing lads up in
the air at initiation in, 259 ; Central
and Northern, silence of widows and
other women after a death among the
tribes of, 73 sqq.
Western, i. 41 ; natives of, burn
spears which have killed men, iii. 417
Australian story of the creation of man,
i. 8
Austric family of speech, i. 467
Autun, lawsuit against rats in the diocese
of, iii. 429
Avebury, Lord, on lifting bride over the
threshold, iii. 10 «.*
Aversion, of people to count or be
counted, ii. 556 sqq. ; growing, to
marriage of near kin, 182, 226, 236,
245 -f^-
Avicenna, on medical use of the man-
drake, ii. 385
Avoidance of mother-in-law, ii. 180 ;
of wives of younger brother, 276,
■^06 sq., 20^ sq.; of wife's elder sister,
283 ; of wife's sister, 300
mutual, of persons of opposite
se.xes, a precaution against improper
intercourse, ii. 160 sq. ; of cousins,
160 j^., 164, 178, 181, 183
Awemba, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 153
Awisa, prohibition of cousin marriage
among the, ii. 155
Awiwa of Rhodesia, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 542
Awome of Calabar, their ceremonies at
peace-making, i. 400
Axe or knife, sacrificial, annually pun-
ished at Athens, iii. 421
Aye-aye revered by the Betsimisaraka, i.
33
Azandes, the poison ordeal among the,
iii- 354. 355. 361
Aztecs, their custom of cropping the hair
of witches and wizards, ii. 486
Baal, the Canaanite priests of, their
bodily lacerations to procure rain, iiL
277
488
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Baalim, the lords of wooded heights, iii.
62, 68, 70
Baaras, a mysterious plant described by
Josephus, ii. 390 sqq.
Babacoote revered by Malagasy, i. 32 sg.
Babar Archipelago, consummation of
marriage deferred in the, i. 510 sq.
Bab el Asbat, a gate at Jerusalem, ii. 568
Babel, the Tower of, i. 362 sqq. ; later
Jewish legends concerning the, 364 ;
similar story in the Loyalty Islands,
569
Babelon, E. , on Phrygian tradition of
flood, i. 157 n} and ^
Babil, temple-mound at Babylon, i. 365
sqq.
Ba-Bongo, of the Gaboon, their custom
of mutilating the fingers of children,
iii. 203
Babylon, ruined temples at, i. 365 sqq.
Babylonia, annual floods in, i. 353
Babylonian captivity, iii. 64, 107, 109
conception of creation of man, i. 6
cosmogony, i. 175
practice of marriage with two sisters
in their lifetime, ii. 264
story of great flood, i. 107 sqq.
Bachelors' halls among the tribes of
463
1, Lord, on mandrakes, ii. 379 ; on
the ringing of bells in thunder storms,
iii. 460
Badaga priest wears bells at fire-walk,
iii. 471
Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills, ultimo-
geniture among the, i. 472 ; their
offerings to rivers at crossing them, ii.
419 ; do not let women enter the milk-
house, iii. 134 ; their rules as to the
first milk of a cow after calving, 143
sq.
Baegert, Jacob, on the Californian
Indians, iii. 279 «.•'
Bafioti, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii- 157
Baganda, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 513 ; their
way of pacifying a husband's ghost at
marriage of his widow, 524 ; superior-
ity of the first wife among the, 540 ;
firstborn son of chief among the, put
to death, 562 ; cousin marriage pro-
hibited among the, ii. 159 sq.; traces
of marriage with a mother's brother's
wife among the, 251 n." ; the soro-
rate among the, 279 ; their cere-
monies at crossing rivers, 417 ; their
worship of rivers, 417 sq. ; ghosts of
dead kings consulted as oracles among
the, 533 sq. ; their objection to boil
milk, iii. 120 ; practice of boiling flesh
in milk on the sly among the, 124 ;
their rule as to milk- vessels, 127 ; their
rule as to menstruous women and
milk, 129 ; do not eat vegetables and
milk together, 156 ; the poison ordeal
among the, 399 sq. ; bells worn by
children among the, 471 sq. ; bells worn
by parents of twins among the, 472.
See also Uganda
Bagesu of British East Africa, their
customs in regard to homicide, i. 87 ;
their ceremony at peace-making, 395 ;
the sororate among the, ii. 279 ; re-
gard hyenas as sacred, iii. 29 ; their
custom as to the milking of cows, 136 ;
rule as to the boiling of milk among
the. 139
Baghdad, flood at, i. 354 sq. ; vicarious
sacrifices for men at, 427 ; the Caliphs
of, reverence for the threshold of their
palace, iii. 4
Bagnouns, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 316
Bagobos, their story of the creation of
man, i. 17 ; of Mindanao, superiority
of the first wife among the, 558 ;
serving for a wife among the, ii. 359
sq. ; their treatment of sick children,
iii. 172 n.^
Bahaus. See Kayans
Bahima or Banyankole, consummation
of marriage deferred among the, i.
513 j^. ; of Ankole, their ethnical
affinity, ii. 5 ; their form of adoption,
30 ; their divination by water, 432 ;
their objection to boil milk, iii. 120,
121 sq.\ will not wash themselves for
fear of injuring the cows, 126 ; their
rule as to milk-vessels, 127 ; their
customs as to menstruous women and
milk, 129 ; their use of butter, 149 ;
their rule to keep milk and flesh
apart, 150 j^. ; do not eat meat and
milk together, 152 .r^. ; do not eat
vegetables and milk together, 1545^.;
eat only a few wild animals, 159
Bahkunjy tribes, mourning custom in
the, iii. 296
Bahnars of Cochin China, their story of
the origin of death, i. 73 sq. ; their
story of a great flood, 209 sq.
Bahnas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Ba-huana, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 363
Baigas or By gas, their worship of Tha-
kur Deo, ii. 67 «.^; a primitive Dra-
vidian tribe of India, iii. 87 sq. ; act
as priests of indigenous gods, 88 ;
their ceremonies to lay the ghost of a
man killed by a tiger, 88 sq.
Bairo of Ankole, do not drink milk with
vegetables, iii. 154 sq.
INDEX
489
Baitylos, baiiylion, ii. 76
Bakalai, rule of inheritance among the,
ii. 281 n^
Bakerewe, their use of bells to ward off
evil spirits, iii. 478
Baker-Penoyre, J. ff., on Lake of
Pheneus, i. 166 w.^
Bakongo, of the Lower Congo, their
custom in regard to executioners, i.
89 ; their dislike to being counted or
counting their children, ii. 556 ; their
precaution to prevent a woman's chil-
dren from dying, .iii. 176 ; their mock
sale of mother who has lost several
children, 190 n* ; the poison ordeal
among the, 358 sq.
Bakuba or Bushongo nation, iii. 363,
364
Bakundu, of the Cameroons, custom of
father paying for his own children to
his wife's father among the, ii. 356 n."^
Balantes, of Senegal, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 312 sgq.
Baldness, artificial, in sign of mourning,
iii. 270 sqq., 287, 297
Bale, cock tried and e.\ecuted at, iii. 441
sq.
Baluba, of the Congo, their ceremony at
initiation of a new sorcerer, ii. 91 ; the
poison ordeal among the, iii. 364 sq.
Baluchistan, consummation of marriage
deferred in , i. 507 sq. ; the Brahuis of,
ii. 130, iii. 187; exchange of daughters
in, ii. 213 ; bride stepping over blood
at threshold in, iii. 16
Balunda, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 365 sq.
Rambala, of the Congo, their story like
that of the Tower of Babel, i. 377 ;
custom of father paying for his own
children to his wife's father among the,
ii. 356 n.- \ their mode of drinking
water on the march, 467 ; the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 362 sq.
Bambaras, of the Upper Niger, offer
sacrifices to the dead on the threshold,
iii. 17 ; their sacrifices to sacred trees,
54 ; their custom of mutilating dead
children whose elder brothers or sisters
have died, 246 sq.
Banaro of New Guinea, their custom in
regard to a woman's first child, i.
534 n.^ ; exchange of sisters in mar-
riage among the, ii. 217
Bancroft, H. H., on Mexican manu-
scripts supposed to refer to the flood,
i. 274 n.'^
Bangalas, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 354 sq. , 359 sqq. See Boloki
Bangerang, cousin marriage prohibited
among the, ii. 192
Bangkok, the Meinara River at, ii. 421
Bangongo tribe, the poison ordeal in the,
iii. 363 sq.
Ba-Ngoni, ultimogeniture among the, i.
479 -f?-
Banias, the Syrian Tivoli, iii. 33, 44
Banks' Islands, stories of the creation of
man in the, i. 12 ; story how men
used not to die in the, 68 ; worship of
stones in the, ii. 60 sq. ; cousin mar-
riage prohibited in the, 182 sq. ; mar-
riage with the widow or wife of a
mother's brother in the, 248
Bankton, Lord, on merchetae miilierum,
i. 492
Bannavs of Cochin China, their story of
a great flood, i. 210
Bantu tribes of Africa, their story of the
origin of death, i. 63 sqq. ; principal
wife of a polygamous family in, 547 ;
cousin marriage among the, ii. 149
sqq. ; totemism and the classificatory
system among the, 242 sq. ; their use
of the poison ordeal, iii. 308, 312
Kavirondo, the sororate among
the, ii. 278
Banyais, serving for a wife among the,
ii. 370 sq.
Banyoro, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 514 ; cousin
marriage forbidden among the, ii.
159 sq. ; the sororate and levirate
among the, 279 sq. ; custom of father
paying for his own children to his
wife's father among the, 356 n."^ ;
their sacrifice at crossing a river, 418 ;
ghosts of dead kings consulted as
oracles among the, 534 ; their objec-
tion to boil milk, iii. 122 ; their rule
as to milk-vessels, 127 ; as to men-
struous women and milk, 128, 129 ;
as to women at childbirth in relation
to milk, 132 ; as to nursing mothers,
132 sq. ; mourners abstain from milk
among the, 136 sq. ; king of the, rules
concerning his milk diet and sacred
cows, 144 sqq. ; do not eat vegetables
and milk together, 155 sq.\ the pas-
toral, abstain from the flesh of most
wild animals, 160 ; the poison ordeal
among the, 400 ; bells worn by chil-
dren among the, 471 sq. ; iron bells
worn by prophetess among the, 479
Baobabs, sacrifices to, iii. 54
Baoules, of the Ivorj' Coast, chiefs soul
shut up in a box among the, ii. 512
Bapedi, of South Africa, their story of a
great flood, i. 329 sq.
Baptism of children whose elder brothers
or sisters have died, peculiar customs
at, iii. 250, 251, 252, 253, 254
Barabinzes, Tartar people, serving for a
wife among the, ii. 366
490
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Barais, of India, mock marriage of
widower among the, i. 527
Bare'e-speaking Toradjas. See Torad-
jas ^
Barefoot, dancing, at a younger sister s
wedding, ii. 288
Bans, Mount, i. 110
Barley harvest in Palestine, time of, ii.
372 n.^
Baroda, marriage of cousms in, ii. 127
sq.
Barolong, of South Africa, their mode of
making peace, i. 397, 409 ; cousin
marriage among the, ii. 151 n.^
Baronga, story of the origin of death
among the, i. 65 ; marital rights of a
man over his mother's brother's wife
among the, ii. 251 w.^
Barotse, souls of dead kings consulted as
oracles among the, ii. 536 sq. ; the
poison ordeal among the, iii. 378
Barren women supposed to conceive
through attending the ceremony of
circumcision, ii. 329 ; supposed to get
children by the dead, 331 ; supposed
to conceive through eating mandrakes,
372 sqq.
Barricading the road against the souls of
the dead, ii. 57
Bartering women for wives among the
Australian aborigines, ii. 195 sqq.,
202 sqq. ; in Sumatra, 219. See E.x-
change
Bartle Bay, in British New Guinea, age-
grades among the natives of, ii. 321 sq.
Bashan, the oaks of, iii. 31, 34, 38
Bashilange, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 364
Basoga, cousin marriage prohibited
among the, ii. 159 sq. ; the sororate
and levirate among the, 279 ; souls of
dead chiefs consulted as oracles among
the, 534 sq. ; the poison ordeal among
the, iii. 399
Bassari, of Togoland, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 334
Bastar, cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 120,
123 ; the levirate in, 295 ; the shaving
and torture of witches in, 486
Basutos, their story of the origin of
death, i. 65 m.^ ; purification of man-
slayers among the, 93 ; superiority of
the first wife among the, 545 sq. ;
cousin marriage among the, ii. 151 w.i ;
the levirate among the, 277 sq. ; their
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 192
sq., 195; their ceremonies to procure
abundance of game, 277
Bataks or Baltas of Sumatra, their de-
scent from their totems, i. 35 ; their
story of a great flood, 217 sqq.; their
mode of ratifying a covenant, 402 sq.\
their rule of inheritance. 472 ; superi-
ority of the first wife among the, 558 ;
their story of former connexion be-
tween earth and heaven, ii. 53 sq.\
cross-cousin marriage among the, 165
sq. ; totemism and the classificatory
system among the, 243 ; their rule
that younger brother may not marry
before elder, 290 ; the sororate and
levirate among the, 298 sq. ; serving
for a wife among the, 355 ; their evo-
cation of the dead, 545 sq.
Batara Guru, high god of the Bataks, i.
217 sq.
Bateso, cousin marriage prohibited among
the, ii. 159 sq. ; their treatment of
children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 197, 254 ; their
customs in regard to persons who have
been struck by lightning, 462
Batlapin, cousin marriage among the, ii.
151 «.i
Batlaro, cousin marriage among the, ii.
151 «.i
Battas. See Bataks
Battell, Andrew, on the poison ordeal in
Loango, iii. 348 sq.
Baudhayana, his date, ii. 99 n.- ; on
marriage of younger before elder
brother, 286
Baumann, O., on not eating flesh and
milk together, iii. 152 w.i
Bavaria, superstitions as to counting
loaves and dumplings in, ii. 562 sq.
Bavuris, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 118
Bawenda, of the Transvaal, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 371 sq.
Ba-Yaka (Bayaka), in the Congo valley,
their precaution against ghosts of the
slain, i. 92 sq. ; bride-price among the,
496 ; the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 363 ; their execution of a thieving
dog, 419
Bayas, of French Congo, superiority of
the first wife among the, i. 539 ; their
story of a miraculous passage through
a river, ii. 461 sq. ; the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 341
Bayle, P. , on alleged jus primae noctis,
i. 496 ;z.2
Beans, black, offered to ghosts at Rome,
iii. 447
Bears, why they have short tails, i. 326
Beaver, men descended from, i. 30 ; in
stories of a great flood, 300, 306, 307
sq., 308, 310, 311, 312, 314
Indians, their cuttings of their
bodies and hair and amputation of
finger -joints in mourning, iii. 227
Beavers respected, i. 30
INDEX
491
Bechuanas, their story of the origin
of death, i. 65 ; their mode of making
a covenant, 397 sq. ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 150 ; the sororate and
the levirate among the, 277 ; their
custom of removing the wounded to
a distance, iii. 131 ; their rules as to
milking cows and goats, 133 «.- ;
treatment of widows among the, 139 ;
their customs as to drinking milk, 143,
148 n.^
Bedai-s, of Southern India, their sacred
stones, ii. 74
Bedawib do not let menstruous women
drink milk, iii. 128
Bedouins, their tribal badges, ;i. 79; tlic-ir
custom as to drinking milk, 148 «.^ ;
strained relations of a father to his
grown sons among the, 483 ; their
preference for marriage with a cousin,
ii. 256 sq. ; have no scruple about
boiling milk, iii. 122 «.*; their
custom as to the milking of cattle,
136
Beef not to be eaten with milk, iii. 151
sqq.
Beetle creates man out of clay, i, 28
Beetles supposed to renew their youth, i.
67
Beggars, children dressed as, to deceive
demons, iii. 186, 187
Begging in order to deceive spirits, iii.
170, 186, 251
Beja tcibes, their rule as to milk-vessels,
iii. 127
Bekos, Phrygian for bread, i. 375, 376
Bel, or Marduk, Babylonian god, i. 6,
113 n.^, 124, 366, 370; the world
fashioned out of his body and blood,
175
Bell, ordeal of drinking from a magical,
iii. 360 sq. ; of Protestant chapel of
La Rochelle punished for heresy, 443
, the Curfew, iii. 452
, the Passing, iii. 449, 450 sqq.
, the Vesper, iii. 452
Bella Coola Indians, their story of a
great flood, i. 320 ; silence of widows
and widowers among the, iii. 73
Bellman, the, iii. 455 sq.
Bells, the golden, iii. 446 sqq.; golden,
attached to robes of Jewish priests,
446 sq. , 480 ; thought to drive away
demons, 446 sq. ; used in exorcism,
447 sqq. , 454 sqq. , 462 sqq. ; worn as
a protection against lightning, 462 ;
fastened to person of honoured visitor,
469 sq. ; worn by ascetics and priests
in India, 470, 471 ; by Neapolitan
women, 470 ; by children in China,
470 ; by children in Africa, 471 sq. ;
worn by children among the Sunars,
477 ; rung to prevent demons from
entering the body, 478 ; worn by
priests, prophets, and medicine-men
in Africa, 478 sqq. ; their repulsive
and attractive force in religious ritual,
480. See also Church bells
Belshazzar, i. 373, 373 n.^
Ben Jonson's "rosy wreath ' borrowed
from Philostratus, ii. 515 «.^'
Bendt Va'kob, the daughters of Jacob, iii.
37
Benedictus bell, iii. 451
Benfey, Th. , i. 123 n.^
Bengal, the Santals of, i. 19, ii. 217,
305 ; cross-cousin marriage in, 131
sq. ; special names for children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died
in, iii. 180; mutilation of stillborn
children in, 242 sq.
Benin, the poison ordeal in, iii. 335
Benjamin, "son of the right hand," i.
432 ; his meeting with Joseph, ii. 83
Bennett, Dr. W. H., on Jacob and the
mandrakes, ii. 374 n.^
Benua-Jakun, of the Malay Peninsula,
their story of a great flood, i. 211
Benzinger, A., on masseboth, ii. tj n.*
Bergelmir, giant in Norse legend, i. 174
Bering Strait, the Eskimo of, i. 561, ii.
141
Berne, the authorities of, prosecute a
species of vermin called inger, iii, 431
sq.
Berosus, his account of the creation of
man, i. 6; on the flood, 107 sqq.,
124, 140 ; on Babylonian cosmogony,
17s ; on Cannes, 336 n.'^
Besisi, of the Malay Peninsula, their
soul-ladders, ii. 58
Besthas, of Mysore, the sororate and
levirate among the, ii. 293
Bethel, Jacob at, ii. 40 sqq. ; the sanc-
tuary at, 58; " the house of God, "76;
oak at, iii. 56 ; Assyrian colonists in,
84
Bethels In Canaan, ii. 76
Betrothal of children in infancy among
the Australian aborigines, ii. 208 sq.
Betsileo, their sacred stones, ii. 75
Betsimisaraka, the, of Madagascar, their
reverence for the aye-aye, i. 33 ; their
story of a cable between earth and
heaven, ii. 54
Bevan, Professor A. A., on the "bundle
of life," ii. 506 w. '
Beyrout, Old, haunted tree at, iii. 45
Bghais, cousin marriage among the, ii.
138
Bhdgavata Pin ana, story of a great
flood in the, i. 190 sqq.
Bhaiiias, their worship of Thakur Deo,
ii. 67 «.^
492
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Bhairl D^vuru, the god invoked at the
amputation of finger-joints, iii. 218 sq.
Bhatras, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 123
Bhils of Central India, their story of a
great flood, i. 192 iq. ; their mode of
life, 470 sq. ; ultimogeniture among
the, 471 sq. ; their custom of torturing
witches and shearing their hair, ii. 486
Bhotiyas or Bhotias, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 555 ; cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 129,
134; exchange of sisters in marriage
among the, 212; their treatment of
children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 179 sq.
Bhuiyas, survival of group marriage
among the, ii. 310 sq.
Bhumias, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 119
Bhunjias, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 121 sq.
Biestings, rules in regard to, iii. 118, 119,
139
Bihar, treatment of children wliose elder
brothers and sisters have died in, iii.
180 sq.
Bila-an, their story of the creation of
man, i. 16 sq
Bilaspore, India, weeping as a salutation
in, ii. 86 sq. ; still-born children buried
in the doorway in, iii. 13 ; custom of
marking the dead to know them at
their next birth in, 244 n.^
Biloxi, the sororate and levirate among
the, ii. 271
Binbinga terms for husband and wife, ii.
314
Bint-'amm, father's brother's daughter,
ii. 256, 258
Bird-sanctuary, the, iii. 19 sqq.
Birds allowed to nest on the altars at
Jerusalem, iii. 19
Birdwood, Sir George, on the original
home of the orange, i. 466 n.^
Bir-hors, their story of the creation of
man, i. 19 «.^
Birs-Nimrud, ruined temple at Borsippa,
i. 365 sq. , 369 sqq.
Birth, of chiefs heir concealed, i. 549,
562 ; supernatural, in legend, ii. 454
-ceremonies among the Patagonian
Indians, i. 4135^.; among the Akamba
and Akikuyu, ii. 7
the new, among the Akikuyu, ii.
7 sqq., 26, 27, 28, 332 sq.; rite of,
27 sqq. ; fiction of, at adoption, 28 sqq. ;
fiction of, enacted by Brahman house-
holder, 32 sq. ; fiction of, as expiation
for breach of custom, 33 sqq. ; enacted
by Maharajahs of Travancore, 35
sqq. See also Born again
Bisayas, of the Philippine Islands, serv-
ing for a wife among the, ii. 359
Bisection, of sacrificial victims at cove-
nants, oaths, and purifications, i. 392,
394 ^I'l- ' 398, 399 sqq. , 408, 409 sqq. ;
of human victims, 416 sqq. ; deliberate
and repeated, of Australian com-
munities, ii. 231 sqq.; intended to bar
the marriage of various degrees of kin,
232 sqq.
Bisharin, their preference for marriage
with the father's brother's daughter,
ii. 258
Bishnois bury dead infants at the thresh-
old, iii. 13
Bismarck Archipelago, story of the origin
of death in the, i. 66 sq.
Bison, sacrificial, in oath of friendship,
i. 405
Bissagos Archipelago, custom of spitting
in the, ii. 93
Bitch as wife of man, i. 279 ; married by
man, ii. 135 ; said to have suckled
Cyrus, 444
Bitter water, ordeal of the, iii. 304 sqq.
Black antelope skin, in fiction of new
birth, ii. 32 ^q.
beans oflfered to ghosts at Rome,
111- 447
— bull
sacrificed to the dead,
dog used to uproot an orchid.
396
of
lamb sacrificed at evocation
ghosts, ii. 532
marks on children to disguise them
from demons, iii. 173
ox or sheep sacrificed to the dead,
ii. 17
ox sacrificed for rain, ii. 17
ram as sacrificial victim, ii. 17, 18,
19 ; its skin used to sleep on, 51
Sea, flood said to have been caused
by the bursting of the, i. 168 sqq.,
567 sq.
stone at Mecca, ii. 59
stones anointed, ii. 74 ; in lona,
used to swear on, 405
Black, Dr. J. Sutherland, on T/ie Book of
Tobit, i. 517 7i.^
Blackening the face in mourning, iii. 278,
290, 294, 297
faces or bodies of manslayers, i. 96,
97
Bkickfoot Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 308 ; the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 268 sq. ; their sacrifices
of fingers or finger-joints, iii. 225 sqq.
Blackstone, Sir William, on ultimogeni-
ture, i. 439 sq., 482 ; on mercheta,
440, 487 ; on the law of deodand, iii.
444
INDEX
493
Bleek, Dr. W. H. I., on the Buslimaii
custom of mutilating the fingers, iii.
202
Blessing of Isaac, how secured by Jacob,
ii. I sqq.
Blindfolded men at ceremony of recon-
ciliation, i. 405
Blindness supposed consequence of sacri-
lege, i. 40
Blood, of gods used in creation of man,
i. 6 ; of murdered man cries for venge-
ance, 79, loi sqq.\ of m.urdered man
supposed to poison the ground, 79 ;
executioners taste the blood of their
victims to guard against their ghosts,
90 ; not to be left uncovered, 102 ;
deluge of, 174 sq., 323 ; of giant used
to make the sea, 175 ; the bursting
forth of, in sacrifice, 426, 427 ; poured
on stones, ii. 66, 67, 75, 76 ; of sacri-
ficial victims in expiation, 170, 171,
172, 173 sq. ; given to ghosts to drink,
526 ; of sheep on threshold, bride
stepping over, at entering her new
home, iii. 16 sq.; fear of tainting milk
with, 130 sq.; drawn from the ears as
an offering to the dead or the gods,
255, 256 sq. ; of mourners allowed to
drip on corpse, 255, 283, 296, 299 ;
offered to the dead, 255, 275, 283,
296, 299, 300, 302 ; of friends drunk
by youths at initiation, 301 sq.; of
friends drunk by sick or weak persons,
302 ; offered to ghosts to strengthen
them, 302 ; ordeal of drinking, 395
covenant, i. 412, 414 sq., 419;
with the dead, theory of a, iii. 300 sq.
revenge exacted by animals, i.
102 sq. ; the law of, revealed to Noah,
iii. 415
— ■ wit, custom of the Yabim in regard
to, i. 91 sq.
Bloodshed, expiation for, ii. 23, 24
Bloody sacrifices to sacred trees, iii. 53 .rj^.
Bludan, village near Damascus, iii. 38
Blue River, modern name of the Jabbok,
ii. 410
Boar, use of, in oaths, i. 393 sq., 401
Boas, Dr. Franz, on cousin marriage
among the Eskimo, ii. 142 ; on cousin
marriage among the Shuswaps, 147
Bobos, of Senegal, their customs in re-
gard to bloodshed and homicide, i. 84
Bocche de Cattaro, continence after mar-
riage on the, i. 504 sq.
Bochart, Samuel, on the prohibition of
seething a kid in its mother's milk, iii.
ii6«.*, 117 «.-^
Bochica, a great South American god,
i. 267
Bodies of dead dried over a slow fire, iii.
294
Bodo, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 119
tribes of Assam, marriage by ser-
vice in the, ii. 349
Boece, Hector, Scottish historian, i. 488,
489
Boeotia, called Ogygian, i. 157
Bogoras, W. , on serving for a wife among
the Chukchee, ii. 361 sqq.
Bogos, their mode of life, i. 476 sq.\
their rules of succession, 477 ; their
custom of swearing on a stone, ii. 406 ;
kill cattle that have killed persons, iii.
419 ; bells rung to frighten away evil
spirits from women after childbirth
among the, 472
Bogota, legend of flood at, i. 267
Bohmerwald Mountains, the Passing Bell
in the, iii. 452
Boiling the milk supposed to injure the
cows, iii. 118 sqq.
of milk in certain cases, iii. 139 sq.
water, ordeal of, iii. 393, 395
Bokor, a creator, i. 12
Bolaang Mongondou, expiation for cousin
marriage in, ii. 171 sq.
Bolivia, story of a great flood in, i.
272 sq.
Boloki, or Bangala, of the Upper Congo,
their custom in regard to homicide, i.
88 ; the sororate among the, ii. 281 ;
their dislike to counting their children,
556 ; the poison ordeal among the, iii.
359 ^^1- ^^^ Bangalas
Bombay, precaution against demons at
marriage in, i. 521 ; mock sale of
children in, iii. 179
Presidency, sacred stones in the,
ii. 73 sq. ; cross-cousin marriage in
the, 120
Bone, woman created out of a man's
bone, i. 9
Bones of dead deposited in trees, iii. 74 ;
ghost supposed to linger while flesh
adh^es to his, 78
Bonfire, cattle driven into, ii. 17
Boni or Bone, in Celebes, evil spirits kept
from women in childbed by clash of
metal instruments in, iii. 476
Bonnach stone in Celtic story, ii. 495
Bonney. T. G., on belief in a universal
deluge, i. 341 «.^
Boobies, of Fernando Po, serving for a
wife among the, ii. 369 sq.
Book of the Covenant, iii. 98 sq., loi,
112, 165, 415
Bor, a Norse god, i. 174 sq,
Borina Gallas. See Gallas
Boring a servant's ear, iii. 165 sqq.
noses of children whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, iii. 178 sq.., 180
184 sqq., 190
494
FOLK-LORE IN TLIE OLD TESTAMENT
Born again, ceremony of being, among
the Akikuyu, ii. 7 sqq., 332 sq.\
persons supposed to have died, pre-
tend to be, 31 sqq.\ from a cow,
ceremony of being, 34 sqq.
" Born of a goat," ceremony among the
Akikuyu, ii. 7 sqq. , 38 sq.
Borneo, the Dyaks of, i. 14, 34 ; stories
of a great flood in, 220 sqq. ; the Kayans
of, 407 ; consummation of marriage
deferred in, 511 ; precaution against
demons at marriage in, 521 ; form of
adoption in, ii. 29 sq.; Dusun in, 55,
65; cousin marriage in, 172 sqq.; the
Kayans or Bahaus of, 358, 533, iii. 70;
evocation of the dead in, ii. 542 sqq. ;
the Sea'Dyaks of, 542 sq. ; the use of
gongs, bells, and other metal instru-
ments at exorcisms in, iiii. 468 sqq.
, Dutch, punishment of incest in, ii.
174. See also Dyaks
Bornholm, privilege of the youngest son
in, i. 438
Borough English, i. 433 sqq. , 450 ; Sir
William Blackstone on, 439 sqq. ;
Robert Plot on, 485 sq. ; Dr. Samuel
Johnson on, 495
Borromeo, Carlo, on the Tobias Nights,
i. 498
Borsippa, ruins of Birs-Nimrud at, i.
365 sq. , 369 sqq.
Bosman, William, as to the poison ordeal
on the Gold Coast, iii. 332
Bosphorus, flood said to have been
caused by the opening of the, i. 168
sqq. , 567 sq.
Botocudos, their custom of distending
the lobes of the ears, iii. 168
Bottadas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 119
Bougainville, exchange of women in
marriage in, ii. 220 n.^
Boulia district of Queensland, mourning
custom in the, iii. 293
Boundary stones, Roman law concerning
the removal of, iii. 423
Bouranton, the inhabitants of, prosecute
rats and mice, iii. 437 sq.
Bouras, of the Gold Coast, the ordeal
of poisoned arrows among the, iii.
322
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, editor of Popol
Vuh, i. 277 n.
Bourke, John G. , on the exorcism of
witches by bells among the Pueblo
Indians, iii. 464 sq.
Boy and girl cut in two at making a
covenant, i. 423 sq.
Boys, cows milked by, iii. 135, 144
dressed as girls, i. 549, 550, iii.
170, 180, 185, 193 ; dressed as
women at circumcision, ii. 329 sq.
Bowditch Island, story of' creation ol
man in, i. 10 ; stone worshipped in,
ii. 64 sq.
Box, soul caught in a, ii. 512
Bracelets as amulets, iii. 196
Bracton, on marchetum, i. 486
Brahma, the repose or night of, i. 190,
191
Brahman householder, his fiction of a
new birth, ii. 32 sq.
marriage ceremony, use of a stone
in, ii. 404
Brahmanas, i. 183 t?.^
Brahmans, of Southern India, cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. loi,
iT-qsq.
Brahmaputra, its valley a line of migra-
tion, i. 465
Brahuis of Baluchistan, cousin marriage
among the, ii. 130 sq. ; their custom
of making bride step over blood on
threshold of her new home, iii. 16 ;
their pretence of burj'ing a child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
187
Bramble, in fable of the trees, ii. 472
473. 476
Branch of sacred tree used in divination
to detect a witch, iii. 321, 322, 323,
325
Brandenburg, custom as to milking cows
1 in, iii. 131
Brazil, Tupi Indians of, i. 90, ii. 87 ;
stories of a great flood among the
Indians of, i. 254 sqq. ; superiority of
the first wife among the Indians of,
559 ; serving for a wife among the
Indians of, ii. 367 sq.
Breach of treaty, mode of expiating, i.
397
Breaking a dead man's property in
pieces, iii. 231 sq.
Bret Harte, on the Angelus, iii. 453
Bride, disguised at marriage to widower,
i. 527 ; custom of her returning after
marriage to the house of her parents,
533 ; carried over threshold, iii. 6
sqq., 12; stepping over blood of sheep
at threshold of her husband's house,
16 sq.
and bridegroom not allowed to
sleep on their wedding night, i. 521
capture, supposed relic of, iii. 10
sq.
price among the Kirghiz, i. 557 ;
among the Bataks, 558 ; paid for
children of marriage, ii. 356, 358 sq.,
371
Bridegroom carried over threshold at
marriage, iii. 11
Bridesmaids and bridesmen, their original
function, i. 516
INDEX
495
British Central Africa, superiority of first
wife in, i. 542 sqq. ; the Atonga of, iii. 7
Columbia, stories of a great flood
in, i. 319 sqq., 568 j^. ; the sororate
among the Indians of, ii. 273 sq. ;
Indians of, silence of widows and
widowers among the, iii. 73 ; the
Kwakiutl Indians of, 207, 247
East Africa, age-grades among the
tribes of, ii. 322 sqq. ; the dead ex-
posed to hyenas among the tribes of,
iii. 137. See also Africa
Brittany, ultimogeniture in, i. 436 ; the
Tobias Nights in, 503
Bronze Age, i. 146
, the clash of, used to drive away
spirits, iii. 447 sq.
weapons in Palestine, i. 417
Brooke, Sir Charles, on prohibition of
consanguineous marriages among the
Dyaks, ii. 172
Broom, plant, in fable of the trees, ii.
478 sq.
Brother, elder, avoids younger brother's
wife, ii. 276, 306 sq. ; younger, widow
married by her deceased husband's,
294 sqq., 298 sq., 303, 317 ; 3-ounger,
makes free with elder brother's wife,
307. See also Elder arid Younger
and sister, marriage of, after the
flood, i. 227, 228 sq.
Brothers, a man's earliest heirs in the
evolution of law, ii. 281 ; younger,
not to marry before the eldest, 285
sqq. ; group of, married to group of
sisters, 304 sqq. ; younger, of dead
man, in special relation to his widow,
iii. 75 sq., 79. See also Elder and
Younger
and sisters, ortho-cousins call each
other, ii. 178 sq.; their marriage
prevented by the dual organization,
233
Brown, A, R. , on the Kariera tribe, ii.
189 «.2, 206 sq.; on the Mardudhun-
era tribe, 192 n.; on the classificatory
system of relationship among the
Australian aborigines, 228 n.^
Brown, Dr. George, on the " offering of
blood " in raoiirning, iii. 290
Brutus, D. Junius, his e.\hibition of
gladiators, iii. 287
Bryce, Lord, i. 109 w.^
Bryony a substitute for the mandrake,
iii- 379. 384, 395 ; Armenian super-
stitions about, 395
Buchanan, Francis, on a custom of ampu-
tating finger-joints, iii. 213 sq., 222
Buchanan, George, Scottish historian, i.
490
Buckland, William, on evidence of uni-
versal deluge, i. 340
Budde, Professor K., on the original
Ten Commandments, iii. 113
Buddha, bells in the worship of, iii. 466
Buffalo clans of Omahas, i. 31
sacrificed in purification, i. 411
Buffaloes, men descended from, i. 31, 35
Bugineeze of Celebes, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 511 ;
cousin marriage among the, ii. 169
Buhler, G., as to date of Baudhayana, ii.
99 «,2 ; on date of Vasishtha's laws,
287 n.^
Buin district of Bougainville, ii. 220 n. ^
Bukaua of New Guinea, trace their
descent from animals, i. 36
Bulgaria, form of adoption in, ii. 29 ;
custom of marrying in order of seniority
in, 288 ; pretended exposure of chil-
dren whose elder brothers and sisters
have died in, iii. 252
Bulgarians, their superstition as to boil-
ing milk, iii. 123
Bull, its use in oaths, i. 393 ; sacrificed
to river, ii. 414 ; sacrificed to the sea,
414 ; black, sacrificed to the dead,
529 ; sacrificed to the dead, 553 ;
mad, tried and hanged, iii. 440
dance, i. 293 sq.
Bullams or Bulloms, their objection to
throw orange skins into the fire, iii.
118, 119; the poison ordeal among
the, 324 sq. , 326
Bullock, sacrificial, in oath, i. 403
Bulloms. See Bullams
Bulls, sacred, among the Wawanga, iii.
263
Buvdahis, Pahlavi work, i. 180
Bundjel, an Australian creator, i. 236
Bundle of life, ii. 503 sqq.
Bunun of Formosa, their story of a great
flood, i. 232 sq.
Bunyoro, cultivation avoided by pastoral
people in, iii. 157. See also Banyoro
Burckhardt, J. L. , on relations of grown-
up sons to their father among the
Bedouins, i. 483 ; on preference of the
Bedouins for marriage with a cousin,
ii. 256 sq.
Burial, solemn, of animals, i. 33; of the
dead at doorway of house, iii. 13 sq.;
of children face downward to prevent
their rebirth, 243, 253 .r^. ; of children
so as to ensiu-e their reincarnation,
246
pretended, of children at birth, iii.
177, 186, 187
Buriats, primogeniture among the, i. 476
Burke, Edmund, on the credulity of
dupes, ii. 554 n."^
Burkitt, Professor F. C, iiit 52 n.
Burma, the Shans of, i. 90 ; stories of a
great flood in, 208 sq.; story like that
496
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
of the Tower of Babel in, 383 ; capital
of, rendered impregnable by human
sacrifices, 420 ; superiority of the first
wife in, 556 ; the Karens of, ii. 66 ;
marriage of cousins in, 135 sqq. ;
residence of newly married pair with
the bride's parents in, 351 sq.\ the
Kachins of, iii. 418, 474 ; bells in
religious rites in, 466
Burmese, the classificatory system among
the, ii. 242
Burney, C. F. , on 2 Kings (xvii. 27),
iii. 84 n.^
Burton Gulf, in Lake Tanganyii<a,
women protected from evil spirit at
childbed by natives of, iii. 476
Burton, John Hill, on Regiam Majestatem,
i. 492 n.
, Sir Richard F. , on Arab preference
for marriage with father's brother's
daughter, ii. 256
Bum, island, symbolic oath in, i. 406 n.
Bushmen, their stories of the origin of
death, i. 53 sq. , 56 sq. ; their custom
of mutilating the fingers, iii. 201 sqq.,
209
Bushongo or Bakuba nation, iii. 363,
364
Bush-turkey, why it has red wattles, i.
264
Bushwomen, their aniputaiion of finger-
joints in mourning, iii. 231
Busoga,. in Central Africa, worship of
rocks and stones in, ii. 68 sq.
Butm tree, the terebinth, iii. 47
Buttmann, Ph., on Nannacus, i. 156 n.^
Butter, an ogre whose soul was made of,
ii. 499 sq.
as an unguent, iii. 146, 147, 149 ;
rules of pastoral tribes as to the use of,
149 sq.
Bworana Gallas, ceremony at attainment
of majority among the, ii. 12
Byron, on the vesper bell, iii. 452
Cable connecting earth and heaven, ii. 54
Caesar's use of mandragora, ii. 386
Cain, the mark of, i. 78 sqq.
Caingangs or Coroados, their story of a
great flood, i. 256 sq.
Cairn, the covenant on the, ii. 398 sqq.\
personified as guarantor of covenant,
401 sq.
Cairns as witnesses in Syria, ii. 409
Calabar, story of the origin of death in,
i. 63 ; the poison ordeal at, iii. 335 sqq.
bean [Physostigma venenostan) , used
in poison ordeal, iii. 335 sq. , 336
Calabars, the New, their ceremonies at
peace-making, i. 400
Calabria,, bride not to stumble on thresh-
old in, Hi, 8 sq.
Calchas, the soothsayer, i. 393 ; his dream
oracle, ii. 51
California, stories of the creation of man
in, i. '2\sqq.; stories of a great flood
in, 288 sqq. ; the Maidu Indians of,
386
Californian Indians descended from the
coyote, i, 29 ; the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 272 ; silence of widows
among the, iii. 72 sq. ; laceration of
the body in mourning among the,
279 sq.
Caliphs of Baghdad, reverence 'for the
threshold of their palace, iii. 4
Callao, inundations of, i. 347 sqq.
Callaway, H., i. 64 n.^
Callimachus on the rivalry of the laurel
and the olive, ii. 473 sqq.
Callirrhoe, the modern Zerka Ma'in, in
Moab, ii. 391, 402, 403
Caloto, in South America, its church bell
famous for driving away thunder-
storms, iii. 461 sq.
Calotropis procera, i. 525
Calves, abortive, buried under the thresh-
old of the cowhouse, iii. 14 j-(^.
golden, worship of, ii. 58
of the legs, birth from, in legend,
i. 211
Cameroons, the Bakundu of the, ii.
356 n."^; the poison ordeal in the, iii.
340 sq.
Cames, Brazilian Indians, i. 256, 257
Cambodia, the Rodes of, ii. 297 ; newly
married pair resides for some time with
wife's parents in, ii. 352 ; mode of
drinking water in, 468
Cambyses, father of Cyrus, ii. 441
Camp shifted after a death, iii. 235 sq.
Camphor-speech, iii. 283 n.^
Canaanite priests of Baal, their bodily
lacerations to procure rain, iii. 277
race, i. 417, 420 n.^
sanctuaries, sacred stones at, ii. 59,
77
women, aversion of Jews to mar-
riage with, ii. 95
Canada, the Indians of, stories of a great
flood among, i. 295 sqq. ; consumma-
tion of marriage deferred among, 516
Canal system in Babylonia, i. 353
Canarese-speaking castes, marriage with
a cross-cousin or a niece, the daughter
of a sister, among the, ii. 113 sqq.
or Kannada language, ii. 117
Canaris, of Ecuador, their story of a
great flood, i, 268 sq.
Cannibalism associated with witchcraft or
sorcery, iii. 379, 382 sq., 385 sq.
Canoes kept ready against a flood, i. 240,
351
Canon, the completion of the, iii. 102
INDEX
497
Canton, necromancy at, ;i. 546 sq. ;
custom of handing a bride over a char-
coal fire at, iii. 7
Capellenia moiuccana, i, 36
Capitoline Museum, bronze statue of wolf
in the, ii. 447
Captivity, the Babylonian, i. 131, iii.
64, 107, 109
Capture of women for wives comparatively
rare in aboriginal Australia, ii. 199 sq.
Capturing wives, supposed relic of a
custom of, iii. 10
Car Nicobar, one of the Nicobar Islands,
amputation of finger-joints in, iii. 231
Caracalla evokes the ghosts of Severus
and Commodus, ii. 532 sq.
Carayas, of Brazil, their story of a great
flood, i. 257 sqq.
Caribs, their story of a great flood, i. 281 ;
cross-cousin marriage among the, ii.
148 sq.
Carmel, Mount, its oak woods, iii. 30, 31,
32, 38 ; Elijah's sacrifice for rain on,
67
Caroline Islands, descent of men from
animals and fish in the, i. 40 ; story of
the origin of death in, 72 ; the sororate
and levirate in, ii. 302
Carp, men descended from, i. 31
clan of Ottawa Indians, i. 31
Carpini, Piano, as to touching the thresh-
old of a Tartar prince, iii. 3
Carthage, the fourth Council of, i. 497
Carthaginians, their ear-rings, iii. 167
Casamance River, the Bagnouns of the,
iii. 316
Casca, poison used in ordeal, iii. 354, 368.
See Nkassa
Cascade Mountains, i. 324
Cashmeer, the valley of, said to have
been formerly a lake, i. 204 sqq.
Cassange River, iii. 366, 367
Cassel, ultimogeniture in districts about,
i. 436.?^.
Cast skin, story of the, i. 66 sqq. , 74 sqq.
Castle of Oblivion, ii. 409
Castration of goat at peace-making, i. 395
Cat, in story of a great flood, i. 224 ;
killed at peace-making, 399
Caterpillars, lawsuits against, iii. 433 sqq.
Catholic Church, its authority to exorcize
animals, iii. 425
Catlin, George, on the Mandan story of
the great flood, i. 292 sq.; on stories
of a gieat flood among the American
Indians, i. 294
Cattle, unlucky to count, ii. 556 sq., 557,
558, 560, 563 ; at grass supposed to
be injured by intercourse of human
sexes, iii. 141 sq.\ supposed to be
injured by the abuse of their milk, 162 ;
the earmarking of, 268 ; killed for
VOL. Ill
killing people, 418. See also Cow,
Cows
Caucasus, the Ossetes of the, i. 407, iii.
276 ; the Albanians of the, i. 408 ; the
Ingouch of the, ii. 68 ; mourning cus-
toms in the, iii. 256, 275 sq. ; the
Mingrelians of the, 275 sq.
Caul, superstition as to, in Amboyna,
iii. 175
Cayor, in Senegal, the king of, not to
cross a river or the sea, ii. 420
Cayiu-ucres, Brazilian Indians, i. 256,
257
Cayuses, their story of a great flood, i,
325
Cedar and water, i. 321
Celebes, stories of the creation of man
in, i. 13 sq. ; stories of the origin of
death in, 66, 70 ; stories of a great
flood in, 222 sq.; consummation of
marriage deferred in, 511 ; precaution
against demons at marriage in, 517 ;
the Toradjas of, ii. 52, 55, 65, 355,
420, 423, 463, 512, 5i4«.-', 530, 542,
555 n.*, iii. 85, 119, 172, 189, 266,
268, 418 ; cousin marriage in, ii. 169 ;
serving for a wife in, 355 sqq. ; woman's
soul at childbirth stowed away for safety
in, 507 sq.; contests of wit between
rival rajahs of, 566 sq. ; the Gorontalo
people of, iii. 172
, Central, younger sister not to marry
before elder in, ii. 291
■■ — , Minahassa, a district of, ii. 507
Celtic parallels to the story of Samson
and Delilah, ii. 495 sqq.
Celtis Australis, wild olive, iii. 35
Celts, the ancient, said to have attacked
the waves of the sea, ii. 422 ; said to
have tested the legitimacy of their
children by throwing them into the
Rhine, 455
Census, the sin of a, ii. 555 sqq.; super-
stitious objections to, 555, 560, 561,
563 ; permitted by Jewish legislator on
payment of half a shekel a head, 563
Centeotl, Mexican goddess of maize, iii.
257
Central America, stories of a great flood
in, i. 273 sq.
Provinces of India, treatment of
children whose elder brothers and sisters
have died in the, iii. 178 sq. , 185
Centralization of the worship at the one
sanctuary, its theoretical inadequacy
and practical inconvenience, iii. 105
sqq.
Cephissus, the Boeotian, i. 7
Ceram, men descended from animals in,
i. 36 ; story of a great flood in, 223 ;
cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 167, 168 ;
the sororate in, 299 ; serving for a
2 K
498
FOLK-LORE LN THE OLD TESTAMENT
wife in, 358 sq. ; belief in, as to a per-
son's strength being in his hair, 485 ;
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died in, iii.
174 sq.
Ceramlaut, serving for a wife in, ii. 359
Ceremonial institutions of Israel, their
great antiquity, iii. 96
use of rings made from skins of
sacrificial animals in East Africa, ii.
T sq.
Ceremonies at procuring the poison bark
for the ordeal, iii. 357, 358, 383 sq.,
411
Ceylon, the Singhalese of, ii. 102 ; the
Veddas of, 102
Chaco, the Lenguas of the, ii. 88 ; Indian
tribes of the, their bodily mutilations in
mourning, iii. 230
Chaeronean plain, i. 8
Chaibasa (Chaibassa), in India, i. 468,
469
Chain on child's foot or arm as amulet,
iii. 171, 172 «.i
Chaka, the Zulu tyrant, iii. 270
Chameleon charged with message of im-
mortality to men, i. 57 sq., 61, (32,sqq.\
hated and killed by some African tribes,
64, 65
and lizard, story of the, i. 63 sqq.
and thrush, story of, i. 60 sq.
Chandnahe Kurmis, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 126
Charruas or Tscharos, their cuttings of
their bodies and amputation of finger-
joints in mourning, iii. 229 sq.
Chasseneux or Chassen^e, Bartholomew,
his treatise on the excommunication
of insects, iii. 427 n.^ ; his defence of
rats, 429 sq.
Chastity, ordeal of, ii. 430 sq. See Con-
tinence
Chauhans, of India, weeping as a saluta-
tion among the, ii. 87
Cheiivmys }nadagascarie?isis, i. 33
Cheremiss, their story of the creation of
man, i. 22 ; their story of a scarf con-
necting earth with heaven, ii. 54 ;
marriage with a deceased wife's sister
among the, 298 ; their sacred groves,
iii. 69 sq.
Cherith, the brook, Elijah at, iii. 22 ;
identified with the Wady Kelt, 22
Cherokee Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 294 sq. ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 147 ; their reasons for
cutting out the hamstrings of deer,
423 sq.; their unwillingness to count
fruit, 559 sq.
Cheros, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 128
Cheyne, T. K. , on deluge legend, i.
342 n.^ ; his proposed corruption of
three te.xts, iii. iii n.'^
Chhattisgar, worship of stones in, ii. 67
Chief medicine-man among the Nandi,
ii. 331 sq.
of the Earth, a priest in Upper
.Senegal, i. 85, iii. 85 sqq., 320
reluctant to look on his grandson,
i. 479, 480 j^., 548 sqq.\ reluctant to
look on his son, 549 sq.
Chiefs, perhaps formerly deposed or killed
on birth of a son or grandson, i. 550 ;
infringement of forbidden degrees by,
ii. 184 sq. ; in Madagascar forbidden to
cross rivers, 420 ; ghosts of dead, con-
sulted as oracles in Africa, 534 sqq.,
536
Chieftainship, descent of, regulated by
primogeniture, i. 469
Child passed through ring of sacrificial
skin, ii. 27 ; naked, employed to pro-
cure poison bark for ordeal, iii. 383 j$f.
Childbirth, protection of women after, i.
410 .y^. ; ceremonies to facilitate, 420 ;
woman's soul extracted and stowed
away for safety at, ii. 507 sq. ; women
at, protected from demons by bells,
armed men, etc. , iii. 472 sqq.
Childless women, stones anointed by, in
order to procure offspring, ii. 75
Children, sacrifices for, i. 4265^.; borne
by a woman after her daughter's mar-
riage put to death, ii. 327 sq. ; named
after the dead and thought to be
guarded by them, 330 ; bought by
their father from his wife's father or
maternal uncle, 356, 358 sq., 371;
their souls stowed away for safety in
receptacles, 508 ; superstitious dislike of
counting, 556; buried under the thresh-
old to ensure their rebirth, iii. 13 -y^. ;
in a family dying, remedy for, 28 sq.;
sacrificed to Moloch, 53 ; whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, special
treatment of, i68 sqq.; custom of bor-
ing the ears of, 168, 169, 186, 190,
191, 216 sq., 220, 222; dying in in-
fancy thought to be carried off by
demons, 170 ; disguised from demons,
170, 173 ; called by bad names to de-
ceive demons, 170 sq., 172, 176, 177
sqq., 191 sqq.; their hair left unshorn,
187 sqq.; sacrificed to save the lives
of sick adults, 213 ; the mutilation of
dead, 242 sqq. ; the mutilation of
living children whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, 248 sq.
Chili, story of a great flood in, i. 262
China, Nestorian Christianity in, i. 213
sq.; the Kachins of, 452; the Shans
of, 455 ; migration of Mongoloid tribes
from, 465 sq. ; the Miao-kia of, ii. 67 ;
INDEX
499
the Miaos of, 138 ; marriage of chil-
dren in order of seniority in, 290 ;
necromancy and evocation of the dead
in, 546 sqq. ; drinking written charms
in, iii. 414 ; the use of gongs at ex-
orcisms in, 463, 465 sq.
China, South- Western, ultimogeniture in,
i. 465
Chinese, their tradition of a great flood,
i. 214 ; have no tradition of a universal
flood, 332 sq. ; their precautions to
prevent bride's feet from touching the
threshold, iii. 6 sq.; their custom of
putting a silver wire on a child's neck,
171 sq.
Encyclopaedia, i. 217
Chingpaws. See Singphos, Kachins
Chinigchinich, a Californian deity, i. 288
Chinna Kondalus, marriage with a cross-
cousin or a niece among the, ii. 117
Chinook Indians, customs observed by
manslayers among the, i. 97 ; their
mourning customs, iii. 278 sq.
Chins, their ceremony at taking an oath
of friendship, i. 405 ; their sacrifice of
a dog in time of cholera, 410, 413 ;
their personification of cholera, 410 ;
ultimogeniture among the, 456 sq. ;
their legend of the origin of men, ii.
135 ; cross-cousin marriage among
the, 135 sq.
Chippeway or Salteaux Indians, their
story of a great flood, i. 297 sq.
Chiriguanos, of Bolivia, their story of a
great flood, i. 272 sq.
Chisholm, Dr. J. A., on prohibition of
cousin marriage in Rhodesia, ii. 155
Chittagong, i. 17, 509 ; the Tipperahs
of, ii. 350 ; the Kukis of, iii. 415
Choctaws, traces of marriage with a
mother's brother's wife among the, ii.
251 «.i
, the Crawfish clan of the, i. 30
Cholera personified, i. 410
Cholula, in Mexico, the pyramid at, i.
379 sq. ; story like that of the Tower
of Babel told concerning, 380 sq.
Chota Nagpur, i. 19, 196, 467 fq. ;
cross -cousin marriage in, ii. 131;
the Mundas of, iii. 67
Christ, his saying about sparrows, iii. 21
Christianity, Nestorian, in China, i. 213
sq.\ among the Tartars, i. 214 n.^
Chronicle of the Abbey of Kinlos, i.
492 n.
Chuhras, of the Punjab, superiority of
the first Wife among the, i. 554 sq.;
their ceremony of initiation, ii. 90 sq.
Chukchee, ultimogeniture among the, i.
475 ; superiority of the first wife
among the, 556 sq. ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 139 ; their classificatory
system of relationship, 242 ; serving
for a wife among the, 361 sqq.
Church bells rung to drive away thunder-
storms, iii. 448 sq., 457 sq.; used to
drive away evil spirits, 448 sqq. ; rung
to drive away witches and wizards,
454 sq. ; the consecration of, 459 sq.
Churinga, sacred sticks and stones of
the Central Australian aborigines, ii.
508 sqq.
Cicero on sanctuary of Pasiphae or Ino
in Laconia, ii. 51 «.^
Cinnamomum cassia, i. 453
Cinnamomum caudatiim, i. 453
Circe, the mandrake the plant of, ii, 375
Circumcision among the Akikuyu and
Wachaga, ii. 11, 15 J^.; among the
Masai, 323 ; among the Nandi, 328
sqq. , iii. 477 ; among the Wataveta,
ii. 326 ; supposed to fertilize barren
women, 329 ; perhaps intended to
ensure a subsequent reincarnation,
330 ; among the Suk, 333 sq. ; its
wide diffusion, iii. 96 «.•*; in Fiji,
239 sq. ; in Australia, 262
Cithaeron, Mount, Oedipus exposed oa,
ii. 446
Clallam Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 324
Clark, W. G., on Lake of Pheneus, i.
166 «.2
Classes, exogamous, in Banks' Islands,
ii. 182 sq. ; in New Ireland, 183 ; in
Australia, 187 sqq., 221 sg., 231 sqq.;
bar the marriage of ortho-cousins,
221 sq.
Classificatory or group system of relation-
ship, ii. 227 sqq. ; cousin marriage
bound up with the, 155 ; originated
in and expresses a system of group
marriage, 230 sqq. ; based on the
primary bisection of a community into
two exogamous classes, 232 ; its geo-
graphical diffusion, 240 sqq. ; terms
for husband and wife in the, 311 sqq.
Clavigcro, F. S., on Mexican story of a
great flood, i. 274
Clay, men fashioned out of, i. 8 sqq.;
novices at initiation coated with, 39 ;
bodies of manslayers coated with, 95 ;
daubed on bodies of mourners, iii.
281, 282, 292, 297
, white, smeared on body in sign of
mourning, iii. 74, 75, 77 sq.
Clean and unclean animals in the ark,
i. 137 sq. ; suggested explanation of
the Hebrew distinction between, iii.
160 sq.
Clement of Alexandria, on the disrespect
shown by birds to the heathen gods,
iii. 20 ; on the prohibition of seething
a kid in its mother's milk, 117 «.'"
500
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Cleomenes, King of Sparta, his sacrifices
to a river and the sea, ii. 414
Cleonice, her ghost evoked by Pausanias,
ii. 528
Cleveland district of Yorkshire, burial of
abortive calves under the threshold in
the, iii. 14 sq.
Climber, navel-string of boy hung on
tree to make him a good, iii. 207 sq.
Clodd, Edward, on modern necro-
mancy, ii. 554 n.^
Cloncurry district of Queensland, mourn-
ing custom in the, iii. 293 n.*
Clytaemnestra, her ghost haunting
Orestes, iii. 241
Cochin, consummation of marriage de-
ferred in, i. 507 ; marriage of cross-
cousins in, ii. 102 sq.
Cochin China, the Bahnars of, i. 73 ;
stories of a great flood in, 209 sq.
Cock, sacrificial, in oath of purgation, i.
403 sq.\ sacrifice -of, after childbirth,
410 ; sacrificed to counteract witch-
craft, ii. 20 ; used to uproot bryony,
395 ; sacrificed on the threshold, iii.
17 sq, ; eggs of, their value in magic,
441 ; tried and executed for laying an
egg, 441 sq.
Cockle, men descended from a, i. 31 ;
married by raven, 319
Cocks, as pro.xies in the poison ordeal,
iii. 378, 385
Code of Napoleon, iii. 95
Codex Chimalpopoca, story of a great
flood in the, i. 274 sq.
Codification and legislation distinguished,
iii. 94
Codrington, Dr. R. H. , on the levirate,
ii. 301
Cohabitation of deceased wife's sister
with the widower, ii. 282 ; of the heir
with the widow, 282 sq.
Coire, lawsuit brought against Spanish
flies by the inhabitants of, ii. 432
Colimas of New Granada, consummation
of marriage deferred among the, i. 514
Collectivism and savagery versus indi-
vidualism and civilization, ii. 227
Cologne, Provincial Council of, i. 498 ;
on the spiritual power of bells, iii.
448
Columbia River, i. 325
Columella on the mandrake, ii. 377
Comanches, their mourning customs, iii.
280
Commi or Gommi tribe, of the Gaboon,
the poison ordeal in the, iii. 343
Commodus, his ghost evoked by Cara-
calla, ii. 532 sq.
Communal groups among the Santals,
ii. 309
houses, i. 453
Communal marriage of a group of brothers
to a group of sisters, ii. 309 j^., iii. 80 «.
ownership of land among the
Kachins, i. 450 sq.
terms for husband and wife based
on communal marriage, ii. 315 ; in
Australia, 315 ; in Melanesia and
Polynesia, 315 sq. ; among the Gilyaks,
316 j^.
Communism, se.xual, ii. 309 ; in New-
Guinea, 322 ; among the Masai, 323
sq. ; among the Wataveta, 326 ; asso-
ciated with age-grades, 335 sq.
Conception of children through eating
mandrakes, ii. 372 sqq. ; in women
thought to be promoted by an orchid,
396
Concubinage with tenant's wife, supposed
right of, i. 440
Conder, Captain C. R. , as to unlucki-
ness of treading on a threshold, iii. 2 ;
on the shrines [Mukams] of Moham-
medan saints in Syria, 41 sq. ; on
sacred trees in Syria, 48 sq.
Condors, men descended from, i. 32
Confession of sins, at crossing a river,
ii. 420 ; regarded as a physical purge,
420 «.°
Confusion of tongues, stories of the, i. 11,
363. 364. 381 sqq.
Congo, the poison ordeal in the valley
of the, iii. 348 sqq. ; the kingdom of,
351 sq. ; bells rung to prevent demons
from entering the body at drinking in
the region of the, 478
, the French, the Bayas of, ii. 461,
iii. 341
, the Lower, tradition of a great
flood on, i. 329
State, the poison ordeal in the, iii.
353 sqq-
, the Upper, i. 88
Conjugal group of husbands who are
brothers and of wives who are sisters,
ii. 310
Conquerors of a country employ priests
of the aboriginal race, iii. 84, 86
Consanguineous marriages forbidden
among the Dyaks, ii. 172
Consecration of church bells, iii. 459 sq.
Constable and Salvator Rosa, ii. 411 «.^
Constance, church bells rung during
thunderstorms at, iii. 458
Constantine, the Emperor, his church at
the oak of Mamre, iii. 58 sq. ; his letter
to Eusebius, 58 sq.
Consummation of marriage defen-ed in
India, i. 505 sqq. ; in the Indian Archi-
pelago, 509 sqq. ; among the aborigines
of Australia, 512 jy. ; in Africa, 513
sq.\ among the American Indians, 511
sqq. See also Continence
INDEX
501
Contagious magic, ii. 92
Continence for several nights after mar-
riage enjoined by the Catholic Church,
i. 497 sq.
after marriage in India, i. 505 sqq. ;
after marriage probably based on fear
of demons, 519 sqq. See also Con-
summation
at religious festival, iii. 60 ; while
cattle are at pasture, 141 sq.\ at a
festival, 142 ; of sacred dairymen
among the Todas, 142 ; of king's
herdsmen among the Banyoro, 146,
147 sq.; of sacred cows, 148
Convevancing, primitive forms of, iii.
268'
Cook, A. B. , on bells in antiquity, iii.
447 n.^
Cook, Captain James, on the mutilation
of fingers in the Tonga Islands, iii.
222 sq.
Copaic Lake, i. 7 ; its annual vicissi-
tudes, 160 sq.
Copts, their custom of making a bride
step over sheep's blood on entering
her new home, iii. 16
Cora Indiaift, their story of a great flood,
i. 279 sq.
Corannas, their custom of mutilating the
fingers, iii. 209
Coroados. See Caingangs
Corpse questioned as to cause of its
decease, iii. 323, 330, 333
Corpses, rules observed by persons who
have handled, iii. 137 sq.
Corythus, King, adopts Telephus, ii.
445
Cosmogony, Norse and Babylonian, i.
Cossypha imolaens, i. 62 n.^
Counting grain, modes of, in .Algeria
and Palestine, ii. 558 sq.
people or things, superstitious aver-
sion to, ii. 556 sqq.
Cousins, cross-cousins and ortho-cousins,
ii. 98 ; obliged to avoid each other,
160 sq., 164, 178, 181, 183; double-
cross, 205, 206, 207, 209 ; their rela-
tionship conceived in a concrete form,
246. See also Cross-cousins
, the marriage of, ii. 97 sqq. ; in
India, 09 sqq. ; in Asia, 134 sqq. ; in
America, 140 .f^^.; in Africa, \a,^sqq.;
in the Indian Archipelago, 165 sqq.\
in New Guinea and Torres Straits
Islands, 175 sqq.\ in Melanesia, 177
sqq. ; in Polynesia, 184 sqq. ; in Aus-
tralia, 186 sqq.\ among the Arabs,
255 sqq.\ bound up with classificatory
system of relationship, 155; expiation
for, 156, 159, 162, 163, 165, 170,
171, 171 sq., 173 sq., 246; marriage
of second cousins allowed in certain
cases, 159 jy., 184, 185, 190, 191;
growing aversion to marriage of first,
182 ; probably older than recognition
of physical paternity, 205 sq.
Cousins, marriage of, prohibited in some
African tribes, ii. 151, 154, 1555(7. ,159
sqq. ; in some parts of Celebes, 171 ;
in some parts of Melanesia, 182 sq.\
in some Australian tribes, 189 sqq.
Covenant, ratified by cutting sacrificial
victim in two, i. 392 sq. ; spittle used
at forming a, ii. 92, 93
of Abraham, i. 391 sqq.
, the Book of the, iii. 98 sqq.
on the cairn, ii. 398 sqq.
Covenants, use of sacrificial skins at, ii.
13 sqq.
Cow that has just calved, its milk not to
be drunk by newly married women, ii.
22 sq.
, ceremony of being born again
from a, ii. 34 sqq.
dung not to be seen or touched
by menstruous women, iii. 129 «.*;
smeared on widows, 139
, golden or bronze, in fiction of new
birth, ii. 34 sqq. See also Cows
Cowper, William, on the music of church
bells, iii. 467 n.^
Cows, supposed to be injured by the
boilingof their milk, iii. 11 8 j^^.; not to
be milked by women, 133 .r^^.; believed
to be injured if their milk is brought
into contact with flesh or vegetables,
150 sqq., 154 sqq.; supposed to be
injured by the abuse of their milk, 162
, sacred, of the king of the Banyoro,
iii. 144 sqq.
Co.xhead, J. C. C. , on prohibition of
cousin marriage in Rhodesia, ii. 155
Coyote, descent of Californian Indians
from, i. 29 ; in story of the creation
of man, 24 sq. ; prophesies the coming
of a great flood, 282 ; repeoples the
world after the flood, 290 ; in story of
great flood, 322
Crab in story of creation, i. 21 ; in story
of the origin of death, 67 sq.; crabs
supposed to renew their youth by cast-
ing their skins, 67 sq. ; in stories of a
great flood, 209, 219, 232
Crane or stork in story of origin of man,
i. 37 sq.
clan of the Ojibways, i. 31
Cranes, men descended from, i. 31
Crantz, D. , on Greenlanders' story of
a great flood, i. 328 ; on cousin mar-
riages among the Greenlanders, ii.
142
Craven, C. H., on group marriage
among the Santals, ii. 306 sqq.
502
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Crawfish, descent of men from, i. 30
clan of Choctaws, i. 30
Creation of man, i. 3 sqq.
Creation and evolution combined in
stories of origin of man, i. 22, 40 sq.,
43
and evolution, different theories of
the origin of man, i. 44
Creator in the shape of a beetle, i. 28
Creeper connecting earth and heaven, ii.
52 sq.
Crees or Knisteneaux, their story of a
great flood, i. 297, 309 sq. ; the soror-
ate among the, ii. 274 ; their mourn-
ing customs, iii. 278
Croatia, continence after marriage in,
J- 505
Crocodiles, men descended from, i. 33,
36. 37
Cronica General, ii. 29
Cronus, his habit of devouring his off-
spring, iii. 472
and Zeus, Greek story of, i. 563
Crooke, W. , on lifting bride over the
threshold, iii. 10 n.'
Cross-cousins, ii. 98 ; obliged to avoid
each other, 160 sq.
, marriage of, economic motives for,
ii. 118 sq., 121, 124, 125 sq., 146,
194 sqq., 210 sq., 220, 245, 254, 263
sq.; forbidden under pain of death,
160 ; prohibited in certain Australian
tribes, 189 sqq.; why it is favoured,
193 sqq. ; a consequence of the ex-
change of sisters in marriage, 205,
209 sq.; in relation to totemism and
the classificatory system, 223 sqq. ;
prevented by the eight-class system of
exogamy, 237 sq. ; an alternative ex-
planation of, 246. See also Cousins
Cross River, in the Cameroons, the
poison ordeal on the, iii. 340 sq.
Crossing rivers, ceremonies at, ii. 4145^^.
the threshold right foot foremost,
iii. 8
Croton sp. , ii. 329
Crow Indians, the sororate among the,
ii. 270 ; their sacrifice of finger-joints,
iii. 225 ; their amputation of finger-
joints in mourning, 228 sq. ; bodily
laceration of women in mourning
among the, 280
Crows not killed by Haida Indians, i. 31
Crystal pavement in story of Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba, ii. 567 sq. ;
in story of Duryodhana in the Maha-
bharata, 568 sq.
Cultivation, the migratory system of, i.
442, 447, 450 sqq. ; the permanent
system of, 446, 448, 450 sqq.
of rice, the dry system and the wet
system of the, i. 451
Cumanus, liis shaving of witches, ii. 485
Cup, Joseph's, ii. 426 sqq. ; as instru-
ment of divination, 426 sq., 432 sq.
Curdled milk, use of, iii. 142 sq.
Curds, milk eaten in the form of, iii. 148
Cures revealed in dreams at sanctuaries,
ii. 43 sqq.
Curetes protect the infant Zeus, iii. 472
^q-< 477
Curfew bell, iii. 452
Curr, E. M. , on aversion of Australian
aborigines to marriage with near kin,
ii. 193 ; on exchange of women for
wives, 195 sq. ; on capture of women,
199
Curses at concluding treaties, swearing
allegiance, etc., i. 395, 396, 399 .f^j'- ;
blotted into water, iii. 305, 306
Curtiss, S. I., on vicarious theory of
sacrifice, i. 425 sq.; on the custom of
hanging rags on trees, iii. 45 w.^
Customary law in Israel, iii. loi
Cuts made in face of child whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 197
sq.
" Cutting a covenant," " cutting oaths,"
i. 392 sq.
Cuttings of the body in mourning for the
dead, iii. 227 sqq. , 270 sqq.
Cynodon dactylon, i. 21 n.'^
Cynus, home of Deucalion, i. 147 sq. |
Cyrus, his revenge on the River Gyndes, '
ii. 422 ; story of the exposure and ^
preservation of, 441 sqq. ; suckled by V
a bitch, 444 '
Czaplicka, Miss M. A. , on ultimogeniture
in Russia and Mongolia, i. 438, 439,
441 n.^ ; on primogeniture in Siberia,
476 i
Daesius, Macedonian month, i. 108 >
Dagaris, judicial ordeal among the, iii.
320 sq.
Dagon, worshippers not to tread on the
threshold of his temple, iii. 2
Dahomey, superiority of the first wife in,
i- 538
Dairy, ritual of the, iii. 162
Dairyman, sacred, of the Todas, rules as
to his crossing rivers, ii. 420
Dalmatia, laceration of the face in mourn-
ing in, iii. 275
Dalton, E. T. , on supposed Munda tra-
dition of a deluge, i. 196 «.^ ; on the
Hos, 467 n.^
Damaras ( Hereros) refrain from cleansing
their milk-vessels, iii. 125; their custom
of mutilating the fingers, 209
Damascus, iii. 38, 39
Dan, the ancient, iii. 44
Danae, mother of Perseus by Zeus, ii
444
INDEX
503
Danakil, ornaments as amulets among
the, ii. 514
Dance, the Bull, i. 293 sq.\ of circum-
cised boys, iii. 240 ; ritual, 355 ; of
medicine-man at poison ordeal, 373
sq-, 376, 379
Dances, in honour of animals, i. 40 ;
at harvest festivals, 224 ; religious, iii.
• 277
Dancing barefoot at a younger sister's
marriage, ii. 288
in a hog's trough at the wedding of
a younger brother or sister, ii. 289 ;
"in the half-peck" at the wedding of
a younger brother or sister, 289 sq.
Danger Island, souls of sick people caught
in snares in, ii. 511 sq.
Dante on the vesper bell, iii. 452
Dao, knife or sword, i. 398 n.'^
Daphlas, their poisoned arrows, iii. 409
Dapper, O. , on the poison ordeal in
Loango, iii. 349 sqq.
Dardanelles, flood said to have been
caused by the opening of the, i. xd^sqq.,
567 sq.
Dardania, or Troy, founded by Dardanus,
i. 167
Dardanus, the great flood in his time, i.
157. 163, 167, 174; born at Pheneus,
163 ; migrates to Samothrace, 163,
167 ; drifts to Mt. Ida and founds Trov,
167
Darfur, consummation of marriage de-
ferred in, i. 514
Darius, his ghost evoked by Atossa, ii.
53° sq.
Darjeeling, i. 198
Darling River, mourning customs of the
aborigines on the, iii. 292, 296, 300,
301
Darmesteter, James, on myth of Yima,
i. 182 n.'
Darwin, Charles, on man's loss of his tail,
i. 29
Date-palm in fable of the trees, ii. 476 sq.
Datura plant used in the poison ordeal,
iii. 311, 399, 400
Daughters preferred in inheritance under
mother-kin, i. 460 sq.
exchanged for wives among the Aus-
tralian aborigines, ii. 195 sqq. , 202 sqq. ;
in India, 210 sqq., 217 sq.\ in New
Guinea, 214 sqq.; in Africa, 218; in
Sumatra, 218 j^. ; in Palestine, 219
sq.
of Jacob, oak spirits in Palestine,
iii. 37, 46
Daulis, its ruins, i. 7
David, King, a youngest son, i. 433 ;
and Jonathan, their meeting, ii. 83 ;
and Abigail, 504 sq. ; his sin in taking
a census, 555
Davis, A. W. , on landed property among
the Nagas, i. 452 n."^
Dawson, G. M. , on Haida story, i. 31,
321 «.i
Dawson, Sir J. W. , on flood story in
Genesis, i. 340, 341 n.^
Day-horse destroys the first clay men,
i. 20
Dead, ladders for the use of the souls of the,
ii. 56 sqq. ; stones erected in memory
of the, 68 ; worship of the unmarried,
74 ; evocation of the, in ancient
and modern times, 525 sqq. ; oracles
of the, 526 sq., 533 sqq. ; represented by
their images, which are employed at
consulting their spirits, 537 sq. ; buried
at doorway of house, iii. 13 sq. ; sacri-
fices offered to the, on the threshold,
17 ; reborn in hyenas, 29 ; exposed to
hyenas, 137; destroying the property
of the, 231 sq., 278 sq.; festivals of
the, 234 ; blood offered to the, 255,
275, 283, 296, 299, 300, 302 ; cut-
tings for the, 270 sqq. ; hair offered to
the, 274, 276, 280, 281, 282, 284 J^^.,
285, 297, 299, 302 sq. ; worship of the,
303
chief invoked to send game, iii. 277
man supposed to beget a child on
his widow, i. 529 n."^
person represented by a living kins-
man, ii. 551 sqq.
, person supposed to have been,
obliged to pretend to be born again,
ii. 31 sq.
Dead Sea, ii. 504, iii. 24, 25
Death, stories of the origin of, i. 52 sqq. ;
the pollution of, a bar to drinking milk,
iii. 136 sqq.; from natural causes not
recognized, 314, 330, 352, 355, 356,
363. 365. 371
Deaths, all, attributed to witchcraft or
sorcery, iii. 314, 330, 371
Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, buried under
an oak, iii. 56
Decalogue, the original, iii. 11 1 sqq.;
contrast between the ritual and the
moral versions of the, 115 sq.; the
moral, composed under prophetic in-
fluence, 116. 5?tf fl/ro Ten Command-
ments
Decapolis, the, iii. 34
Deceased wife's sister, marriage with, ii.
264, 265, 266, 270 sqq. ; expected to
cohabit with widower, 282
wife's younger, but not elder, sister,
permission to marry, ii. 293, 296,
297
Decken, Baron von, his covenant with the
Wachaga, ii. 14
Deer, the hamstrings of, cut out by some
North American Indians, ii. 423 sq.
S04
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Defloration of brides by men other than
their husbands, i. 531 sqq.
Defoe, Daniel, on the angel of the plague,
''• 555
Dejanira and Hercules, ii. 413
Delagoa Bay, iii. 372
Delaware Indians, their respect for rattle-
snakes, i. 31 sq. ; their story of a great
flood, i. 295
Delilah and Samson, ii. 489 sqq.
Delphi, oracle at, i. 83, ii. 31, 444, 445,
446, 447 ; the tripod at, i. 165 ; stone
anointed at, ii. 73 ; laurel wreath the
prize at, 475
Delrio, Martin, on the consecration of
church bells, iii. 459 sq.
Demon lover, i. 520
Demons, feared by the newly married, i.
520 sqq. ; thought to lie in wait for
children, 550; supposed to carry off
children, iii. 170, 174 sq. ; fear of, in
India, 177 ; repelled by armed men
from women in childbed, 473 sqq.
Demosthenes on mandragora, ii. 386
D6ne tribes, amputation of finger-joints
in mourning among the^ iii. 227. See
also Tinnehs
Denmark, unlucky to count eggs,
chickens, blossoms, and fruit in, ii.
562
Deodand, English law of, iii. 443 sq.
Derby, Borough English in, i. 434
Desasta Brahmans, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 119
Desauli, tutelary deity of Munda village,
iii. 67 sq.
Descent of men from animals, savage
belief in, i. 29 sqq.
Destruction of the property of the dead,
iii. 231 sqq., 278 sq.
Deucalion, his grave at Athens, i. 152 ;
said to have founded the sanctuary
and a commemorative service at Hiera-
polis on the Euphrates, 153 sq. ; his
flood associated with Thessaly, 171
and the flood, i. 146 sqq.
Deuteronomic code, iii. 98, 99 «., 100
sqq. ; its prohibition of cuttings for
the dead, 272
Deuteronomy, promulgation of, i. 136 «. ;
on the abolition of the " high places,"
iii. 64 sq., 100 sq.; date of, 103;
ethical and religious character of,
104 sq.
DevandapalW, Devanahalli, iii. 214 n."^,
215 n.
Devangas, marriage with a cross-cousin
or a niece among the, ii. 115 sq.
Dhana D^vurii, an Indian deity, tii. 218,
219
Dhanwars abandon a hut in which a
death has occurred, iii. 234
Dhobas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 122
Dichotomies, successive, of Australian
communities, ii. 231 sqq. ; intended to
bar the marriage of various degrees of
kin, 232 sqq.
Dido, the mourning for, iii. 275 "
Diels, Professor Hermann, on a poem
of Callimachus, ii. 474 ?/.i
Dieri of Central Australia, their stories
of the origin of man, i. 41 sq. ; rules
as to cousin marriage among the. ii.
189 sq.\ contrast of their rules with
those of the Urabunna, 190, 236 sqq. ;
their terms for husband and wife, 314 ;
silence of widows among the, iii, "j-j
^q-< 79
Diffusion, of customs and beliefs, i. 106
sq. ; geographical, of flood stories,
332 sqq. ; of the poison ordeal in
Africa, iii. 308 sqq. ; geographical,
of the poison ordeal, 410 sq.
Diguefio Indians of California, their
story of the creation of man, i. 25 sq.
Dijon, trial and condemnation of a horse
at, iii. 440
Dillon, Captain P., on weeping as a
salutation, ii. 85 sq.
Diluvial traditions. See Flood
Dimas, son of Dardanus, i. 163
Dinka, their rules as to the milking of
cows, iii. 135 sq., 142 ; mourners ab-
stain from milk among the, 136
Diodorus Siculus on fiction of new birth
at adoption, ii. 28
Dioscorides, manuscript of, containing
illustrations of mandrakes, ii. 378 ; on
the peony, 389
Disguise against ghosts, i. 99 ; assumed
by mourners for fear of ghost, iii. 236,
298
Disguising children from demons, iii.
170, 173
Diurbiut, their pretence of burying a
new-born child, iii. 177
Divination, by water, ii. 426 sqq. ; by a
cup, 426 sq. ; power of, supposed to
be conferred by the drinking of poison,
iii. 343 J^?., 411. See also Ora^Yi%
Diwata, a creator, i. 17
Dobu, homicides secluded in, i. 80 sq.
Dodona, sanctuary at, found by Deu-
calion, i. 148 j^.
Dodwell, E. , on the Lake of Pheneus, i.
166
Doe said to have suckled Telephus, ii.
445
Dog, in stories of the creation of man, i.
18 sq., 22 ; in story of the origin of
man, 38 ; brings message of mortality
to men, 54 sq.; in stories of the origin
of death, 62, 63; foretells a great flood.
INDEX
505
295 ; sacrificial, in oaths of friendship,
395' 398, 406 sq., 407; sacrificial,
nsed in rites of purification, 408 ;
sacrificed in time of plague, 410; em-
ployed to uproot the mandrake, ii.
381 sq., 387 sq., 390; to uproot the
aglaophotis, 388 sq. ; to uproot the
baaras, 391 ; to uproot an orchid, 396
Dogrib Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 310
Dogs, as proxies in the poison ordeal, iii.
370, 378, 381. 396, 404; trial and
punishment of, 419 sq., 421, 442
Dolmens in Palestine, ii. 402 sq.
Doms or Mehtars, their treatment of a
child whose elder brothers and sisters
have died, iii. 184
Dooadlera, a creator, i. 13
Doorway of house, the dead buried at
the, iii. 13 sq.; the afterbirth buried
at the, 14 ; children passed into house
through a hole under the, 183, 254 ;
special, used by child whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, 197,
254 ; new, made in a house after a
death to exclude the ghost, 235
Dooy, hero of a flood story, i. 224 sq.
Dori, his production of water from a
rock, ii. 463 sq.
Dorsetshire, divination by water in, ii.
432
Dorsey, Rev. J. Owen, on the sororate
and levirate among the Omahas, ii.
267 n.'^
Douai, ultimogeniture in districts about,
i- 436
Double-cross cousins, ii. 205, 206, 207,
209
Dove let out of ark, i. 116, 128, 155,
297. 331. 332
and raven in North American
Indian story of a great flood, i. 312
Doves said to have preserved Semiramis,
ii. 440
Dragon whose strength was in a pigeon,
story of, ii. 494 sq.
Dravidian tribes of India, custom of
serving for a wife among the, ii. 347
Dravidians, marriage of cross-cousins
among the, ii. 102 sqq., 211 sqq. ;
totemisin and the classificatory system
among the, 241 ; evidence of the dual
organization among the, 241
Dream, Jacob's, ii. 40 sqq.
Dreams of the gods, ii. 42 sqq.
Drinking, demons supposed "to enter the
body at, iii. 478
out of a skull as a mode of inspira-
tion, ii. 533
the water into which written curses
or charms have been blotted, iii. 305,
306, 412 sqq.
Drinking water, different modes of, il
467 sqq.
Drium, in Apulia, dream oracle of
Calchas at, ii. 51
Driver, S. R. , on Bab)'lonian origin of
Hebrew story of the flood, i. 141 ; on
belief in a universal deluge, 341 n.^ ;
on the patriarchs, 391 «.^ ; as to leap-
ing over a threshold, iii. i «.^ ; on the
Hebrew words for oak and terebinth,
46 n.^ ; on the date of Deuteronomy,
103 «.2 ; on boring a servant's ear,
166
Dropsy, Greek custom in regard to death
by, i. 80 «.2
Drowning as punishment for incest, ii.
171. 174
, sacrifice to river after a death by,
ii. 416 ; mode of avenging a, 421
man, fear to save a, ii. 416,
417
Druidical grove at IMarseilles, iii. 54
Drummond, Rev. H. N., on marriage
with a grandmother, ii. 248 n.^
Drums beaten to driveawaystorm-spirits,
iii. 463 sq. ; to ^keep demons from
women in childbed, 476
Du Chaillu, P. B. , on a man's heirs
among the tribes of the Gaboon, ii.
281 71.^ \ on the poison ordeal in the
Gaboon, iii. 343 sqq.
Du Halde, on ultimogeniture among the
Tartars, i. 440, 441
Du Pratz, Le Page, on the Natchez story
of the creation of men, i. 27 ; his
account of the Natchez story of the
flood, i. 291 sq.
D'Urville, J. Dumont, on the mutilation
of fingers in Tonga, iii. 212 n.^
Dual organization, the system of two
exoganious classes, ii. 222 sqq. ; prob-
ably at one time coextensive with the
prohibition of the marriage of ortho-
cousins, 222 sq. ; former prevalence of
the dual organization attested by
toteniic exogamy and the classificatory
system of relationship, 223 sqq. ; intro-
duced to prevent the marriage of
brothers with sisters, 233, 236 ; its
relation to cousin marriage, 240, 245 ;
its area probably at one time coexten-
sive with that of the cross-cousin mar-
riage, 240 sq.
Dubois, J. A., on the custom of serving
for a wife in India, ii. 347 ; on the
mutilation of the fingers of women in
India, iii. 215 sq.
Duck charged with message of immor-
tality to men, i. 58 ; in story of a
great flood, 312
Dudaiyn, " love apples," Hebrew name
for mandrake, ii. 372 n.^
5o6
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Dugong-hunting, ceremonies before, ii.
63
Dumbarton, the castle of, the prison of
Lx3rd Soulis, ii. 489 sq.
Du-mu, the hero of the Lolo flood story,
i. 213
Dunbar, Dr. Wilhain, on rules of in-
heritance among the Coles (Kols), i.
469 sq.
Dundas, Hon. K. R., on the Akikuyu,
ii. 5 n?-
Dung, cow's, used in expiation, ii. 159 ;
not to be seen or touched by menstru-
ous women, iii. 129 n.^ ; smeared on
widows, 139
Dungi, king of Ur or Uru, i. 372, 373
Duran, Diego, on a Mexican story Ijke
that of the Tower of Babel, i. 380 sq.
Durandus, G. , on the virtue of church
bells, iii. 448 sq.
Duryodhana and the crystal pavement in
the Mahabharata, ii. 568
Dusun, the Dyaks of, ii. 55, 65
Dusuns of British North Borneo, their
story of the origin of death, i. 66 ;
their use of bells .and other metal in-
struments to drive away evil spirits,
iii. 468 sq.
Dyak stories of a great flood, i. 220 sqq.
Dyaks of Borneo, their story of the
creation of man, i. 14 sq.; their de-
scent from a fish, 34 ; their ladders
for spirits, ii. 55 ; their worship of
stones, 65 sq. ; cousin marriage for-
bidden among the, 172 sq. ; expiation
for cousin marriage among the, 173 sq.
of Dutch Borneo, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 511 ;
their precaution against demons at
marriage, 521 ; beat gongs while a
corp e is in the house, iii. 468. See
also Borneo, Sea Dyaks
Ea, Babylonian god ot wisdom, i. 113,
114, 117, 118, 119, 122, 124, 367 ;
a water deity, represented partly in
fish form, 336
Eabani, the ghost of, called up by Gil-
gamesh, ii. 525
Eagle foretells a great flood, i. 282 sq.
Eagles supposed to renewtheir youth, i. 50
Ear, of goat, rings made out of, ii. 20 ;
boring a servant's, iii. 1655^^.; mutila-
tior of, as punishment, 166 ; of child,
part of, cut or bitten off and swallowed
by mother, 190, 195 sq., 24$; of
master cut by slave who wishes to serve
him, 265
Ear-rings worn by Oriental peoples in
antiquity, iii. 166 sq.
Ears, custom of distending the lobes of
the, iii. 168 ; bored of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
168, 169, 186, 190, 191, 250; of girls
before marriage, 216 sq., 220, 222;
of dead infants cut, 243, 244, 246 ;
cut in mourning for the dead, 255 sq.\
blood drawn from ears as sacrifice
among the Mexicans, 256 sq. ; of chil-
dren pierced among the Mexicans,
258 ; of children pierced in Futuna,
259 ; of animals cut off in sacrifice,
262 sq. ; of buffaloes cut to prevent
them from straying, 268
Earth, polluted by bloodshed, i. 82 sqq. ;
sacred, mi.xed with the water drunk as
ordeal, iii. 319, 320
, an important deity among the tribes
of the Upper Niger, iii. 85
."chief of the, title of a priest, i. 85,
iii. 85 sqq., 320, 321, 322
deified, iii. 320, 321
doctor, a creator, i. 283 sqq.
, oath by the, iii. 319
, Olympian, her precinct at Athens,
i. 152
worshipped by tribes of Upper
Senegal, i. 84 sqq.
Earth-Initiate, a Californian creator, i.
■z\sq.
, the Maidu creator, i. 386
Earthquake, ceremonies performed to ap-
pease evil spirits at an, i. 357
waves as causes of floods and of
flood stories, i. 238 ; as causes of great
floods, 347 sqq.
Earthquakes caused by monster who sup-
ports the earth, i. 218
Earth-spirits, in rock and stones, ii. 65 ;
worshipped by native garden-priests,
iii. 85
Earth-worm in story of creation, i. 21
Eating food on stones, magical effect of,
ii. 403
Ecclesiastical courts, their jurisdiction
" over wild animals, iii. 424 sqq.
Echinadian Islands, Alcmaeon in the,
i. 83
Economic basis of the levirate in Melan-
esia, ii. 301
forces, their uniform action, ii. 220
motives for marriage with a cross-
cousin, ii. 118 sq., 121, 124, T2^sq.,
146, \<^\sqq., 210 sq., 220, 245, 254,
263 sq. ; for the exchange of sisters or
daughters in marriage, 210 sq., 214,
215 sq., 217 sqq., 245, 254; for
marriage with the father's brother's
daughter, 263
value of wives among the Australian
aborigines, ii. 194 sq., 198; of wives
in New Guinea, 216 ; of wives in
general, 343 ; of husband's services
to wife's parents, 353
INDEX
507
Ecuador, stories of a great flood in, i.
260 sqq. , 268 sq.
Edda, the Younger, story of a deluge of
blood in, i. 174
Edeeyahs, of Fernando Po, serving for a
wife aiBong the, ii. 369 sq.
Eden, the Garden of, i. 45 sq.
Efik, of Southern Nigeria, burn the bodies
of dead children whose elder brothers
or sisters have died, iii. 244 sq.
Egede, Hans, on marriages with relatives
among the Greenlanders, ii. 142
Egg, life of wizard in an, ii. 492, 493,
496
Eggs, human beings hatched from, i. 21,
ii- 135
Egypt, Athenians said to be colonists
from, i. 159 ; absence of flood stories
in, 329, 355 ; cousin marriage in, ii.
157 ; preference for marriage with
cousins in, 258 ; modern, divination
by water or ink in, 427 si/g. ; custom of
bride stepping over blood on threshold
in, iii. 16; drinking written charms in,
413 sq.
Egyptian kings, ladders for use of dead,
ii. 56
notion of the creation of man, i. 6
priests on deluges, i. 149
Egyptians marry their children in order
of seniority, .ii. 290 ; the ancient,
placed models of houses in the tombs,
514 n.*
Ehrenreich, P., on flood stories, i. 258
sq.
Eifel Mountains, the Benedictus bell in
the, iii. 451
Eight-class system of exogamy introduced
to prevent the marriage of cross-cousins,
ii. 232, 237 sq.
Ekoi of Southern Nigeria, their story of
the origin of death, i. 58 ; superiority
of the first wife among the, 538 sq. ;
serving for a wife among the, ii. 368 sq.
E-kua, temple at Babylon, i. 368, 369
Elder and younger sisters discriminated
in respect of marriage, ii. 109, 113
sgq., 187, 277 ; and younger brothers
discriminated in respect of marriage,
187. 276
. brother forbidden to marry de-
ceased younger brother's widow, ii.
265, 276, 295, 296, 297, 298 sq., 303,
317, 338 sq. ; avoids younger brother's
wife, 276, 306 sq.
• sister of wife, prohibition to marry,
ii. 277, 283, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297,
338
sister's daughter, marriage with, ii.
109, 113 sqq., 318
Elephant, blood revenge for slaughter of,
i. 103
Elephant hunters, custom of, iii. 263
Elgon Mount, i. 87, 395
Elijah on Mount Horeb, God's revelation
of himself to, ii. 413 ; and the ravens,
iii. 22 sqq. ; his sacrifice for rain on
Mount Carmel, 67
Eliot, John, on ultimogeniture among the
Garos, i. 465
Elisha and the child of the Shunamniite,
'• 5
.Ellis, William, on Tahitian story cf
creation, i. 9 sq. ; on Polynesian flood
stories, 241 sq., 245, 338
Elohim, the divine name in Hebrew, i.
137
Elohistic Document, i. 136 «., ii. 457//.^,
iii. 99
writer, ii. 96
Elopement in aboriginal Australia, ii. 200
Elton, Charles, on Borough English, i.
434 «-^
Elysius, his consultation of an oracle of
the dead, ii. 529 sq.
Emin Pasha, on women as milkers, iii,
136
Empedocles, his evolutionary hypothesis,
i. 44
Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia,
their story as to the origin of languages,
i. 386 sq. ; e.xchange of women for
wives in the, ii. 196
Endeh, district of Flores, consummation
of marriage deferred in, i. 510; cross-
cousin marriage in, ii. 168
Endor, the witch of, ii. 517 sqq.; the
village of, 522 n.^
Engano, island, story of a great flood in,
i. 219 sq. ; marriage with a deceased
wife's sister in, ii. 299
Engedi, the springs of, ii. 504
England, ultimogeniture in, i. 433 sqq. ,
485 sqq. ; reminiscence of custom of
marrying in order of seniority in, ii.
288 sqq. ; divination by tea-leaves and
coffee-grounds in, 433 ; superstitious
objection to count lambs in, 561, 562
English law of deodand, iii. 443 sq.
Enki, Sumerian god, i. 113 «.*, 122, 124
Enlil, Babylonian god, i. 113, 114, 117,
118, 121, 122, 123, 124
Enoch and Anuacus or Nannacus, i. 155
Enygrus, a kind of snake, thought to be
immortal, i. 67
Eoliths, i. 169 n.^
Ephraim, the lowlands of, ii. 42
and Manasseh, Jacob's blessing of,
i- 432
Epidaurus, cures effected in dreams at
the sanctuary of Aesculapius at, ii.
44 sqq-
Epimetheus, i. 146
Erasinus, the River, sacrifice to, ii. 414
5o8
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Eriphyle and Alcmaeon, i. 83
Erythrina tonieniosa, ii. 19
Erythrophleum, the poison-tree of Africa,
iii. 307 sq. ; its African species, 309 sq. ;
its geographical diffusion compared
with that of the poison ordeal, 310 sqq.
— couminga, iii. 310
guineense, iii. 307 sq. , 309 sq. ,
314 «.i, 319, 329, 331 n.'\ 335, 342,
355. 356 -y^-. 362, 367, 371 w.^ 380,
383. 396
micranthum, iii. 309 ?</. ,329^.^,
331 '■'■^ 335 «-'^. 342. 348 «.^ 356 J?..
358, 362, 371 ;/.!
pubistami}iL'um, iii. 309, 310, 369/^^
385 «•'
E-sagil or Esagila, temple at Babylon,
i. 366. 368 sq., 372, 373
Esau defrauded by Jacob, i. 429 sq.
Esere, the Calabar bean, iii. 335, 337
Eskimo of Alaska, thfeir stories of the
creation of man, i. 24 ; their customs
as to manslayers, 97 ; stories of a
great flood among the, 326 sqq. ; superi-
ority of the first wife among the, 561 ;
cousin marriage among the, ii. 141
sqq. ; the classificatory system among
the, 242 ; serving for a wife among
the, 366 ; divination by water among
the, 431 ; their belief that human souls
can be extracted by photography, 506
sq. ; souls of sick children stowed away
in medicine - bag among the, 508 ;
necromancy among the, 546 ; their
objection to boil water during the
salmon fishery, iii. 123
Espiritu Santo, marriage with a grand-
mother in, ii. 248
Esthonia, mode of burying child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died in,
iii- 253
Esthonians, continence after marriage
among the, i. 505; their superstition
as to boiling milk, iii. 123
Etemenanki, great temple at Babylon,
i. 367, 368, 369
Ethical code of a deity seldom superior
to that of his human contemporaries,
iii. 90
Ethiopian race of East Africa, ii. 5
■ and Semitic usage, similarities of,
ii. 6
Etna, Mt. , Deucalion said to have landed
on, i. 151
Euphrates, bull sacrificed to the, ii.
414
Europe, ultimogeniture in, i. 433 sqq. ;
divination by molten lead or \va.\ in,
ii. 433 ; treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died in,
iii. 250 sqq. ; trial and punishment of
animals in, 424 sqq.
European stories of a great flood, i.
174 sqq.
Eurydice and Orpheus, ii. 526
Eusebius on the flood, i. 107 n.^ ; on the
dates of the floods of Ogyges and Deu-
calion, 159; on the terebinth at Hebron,
iii. 57 ; letter of Constantine to, 58 sq. ;
on the oak of Marare, 59
Eustathius, on the terebinth of Mamre,
iii. 56
Evans, A. H., iii. 83 n."^
Evans, E. P., on the trial and punish-
ment of animals, iii. 427 7/.^
Eve, the Polynesian, i. 10
Evenus or Eugenius, king of Scotland, i.
486, 488, 489, 490
Evergreen oak in Palestine, iii. 30 sq.
Evil eye, boys dressed as girls as protec-
tion against the, i. 550 71.'^
Evocation of the dead in ancient and
modern times, ii. 525 sqq. ; by means
of familiar spirits, 550
Evolution of man, savage stories of the,
i. 29 sqq.
and creation, combined in stories of
the origin of man, i. 22, 40 sq., 43 ;
different theories of the origin of man,
44
Evolutionary hypothesis of Empedocles,
i. 44
Ewe-speaking tribes of Togo-land, their
story of the creation of man, i. 23 ;
superiority of the first wife among the,
537 sq. ; evocation of the dead among
the, ii. 537 ; give bad names to chil-
dren whose elder brothers and sisters
have died, iii. 191 sq.; cut the faces
of such children, 197 sq.\ their cere-
mony to prevent a slave from running
away, 263 sq.
-speaking people of West Africa,
cross-cousin marriage among the, ii.
157 ; the poison ordeal among the, iii.
334 ^q-
Exchange of sisters in marriage, ii. 104 ;
the source of cross-cousin marriage,
104, 205, 209 sq.; economic motive
for the, 210 jy., 214, 2155^., 2zjsqq.,
245, 254 ; the pivot of the dual or-
ganization, 233 sq.; a possible source
of group marriage, 317
of sisters or daughters for wives
among the Australian aborigines, ii.
195 sqq., 202 sqq.; in India, 210 sqq.,
217 sq.; in New Guinea, 2145^^.; in
Africa, 218 ; in Sumatra, 218 sq.; in
Palestine, 219 sq.
of women in marriage, ii. 216
E.xecution of animals, iii. 415, 418, 419,
420, 422, 438 sqq.
Executioners guarded against ghosts of
their victims, i. 89 sq.
INDEX
509
Exiles, the returned Jewish, at Jerusalem,
ii. 95 sq.
Exoganious classes in Banks' Islands, ii.
182 sq.\ in New Ireland, 183; in
Australia, 187 sqq., 221 sq., 231
sqq.
classes bar the marriage of ortho-
cousins, ii. 221 sq.
Exogamy, totemic, ii. i^'z.sqq. ; of totemic
clans a consequence of a former system
of two-class exogamy, 223 sqq. ; less
comprehensive than the system of two-
class exogamy, 223 sqq. ; a parasitic
growth on two-class exogamy, 226 sq.;
the two-, four-, and eight-class systems
of exogamy in Australia, 231 sq.
Exorcism of spirits who threaten the lives
-of children, iii. 183 sq.; of wild ani-
mals by the Catholic Church, 424 sqq.
, bells used in, iii. 447 sqq. , 454 sqq. ,
462 sqq.
Expiation for homicide, i. 86 sqq. ; for
breach of treaty, 397 ; for slaughter of
man by tiger, 411 ; for breach of
custom by fiction of new birth, ii. 33
sqq.; for cousin marriage, 156, 159,
162, 163, 165, 170, 171 sq., 173 sq.
246 ; for incest, 170 sq.
Expiations, use of the skins of sacrificial
victims at, ii. 20 sqq.
Exposure of famous persons in their
infancy, legends of, ii. 439 sqq. ;
pretended, of children to save their
lives, iii. 168 sq., 250 sq., 252
Expulsion of ghosts of slain, i. 98
, annual, of witches and wizards, iii.
455 ; annual, of evil spirits, 468 sq.
Eye, poison dropped into the, as ordeal,
iii- 348, 355. 360
Ezekiel, on Jerusalem the bloody city, i.
loi sq. ; his denunciation of the women
who hunted for souls, ii. 510 sq.\ on
the worship of trees, iii. 52 sq. ; on the
worship at the " high places," 64 ; his
proposed reforms, 109 ; on riles of
mourning, 271
E-zida, ruined Babylonian temple at Bor-
sippa, i. 366, 369, 370, 372, 373
Ezra, his promulgation of the ' ' book of
the law of Moses," i. 136 «., iii. 99 w. ;
his promulgation of the Levitical law,
109
Fables of the rivalry of the trees, ii. 472
sqq.
Fairies supposed to eat cakeg that have
been counted, ii. 563
Fakaofo or Bowditch Island. See Bow-
ditch Island
Falaise, in Normandy, execution of a
sow at, iii. 439
Fall of man, i. 45 sqq.
Falls of the Nile, sacrifice of kids at the,
ii. 418
Familiar spirits, evocation of the dead
by means of, ii. 550
Fans of West Africa, their story of the
creation of man, i. 23 ; the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 342 sq. ; bells
worn by witch-doctors among the,
479
Father obliged to pay for his children to
his wife's parents or maternal uncle,
ii- 356, 358 sq., 371
-in-law's name not to be men-
tioned by his son-in-law, ii. 355
kin, ii. 262 ; among the Arabs,
263
Father's brother in classificatory system,
ii- 155
brother's daughter, marriage with,
ii. 130 sq., 151, 157 sq. ; preference
for marriage with, 255 sqq.
elder sister's daughter, marriage
with, ii. 187, 318, 337 sq.
sister, marriage w-ith, ii. 179 sq.
sister's daughter, marriage with,
allowed or preferred, ii. 98 sqq., 102
sqq., 105 sqq., 112 sqq., 119 sqq.,
127 sqq., 131 sqq., 138, 149 sq. , 151
sqq., is6sq., 168, 177 sqq., 187 sqq.;
forbidden, 118, 124, 126, 128, 136,
139. 165, 166, 167, 168
wives, custom of son inheriting his,
in African tribes, i. 541 «.-^, ii. 280
Faunus, oracle of, ii. 51 ; caught by
Numa, 414
Faust and the mandrake goblin, ii.
383
and Mephistopheles in the prison,
ii. 411
Faustulus, foster-father of Romulus and
Remus, ii. 448, 449
Fawcett, Fred. , on the mutilation of
fingers in the Morasu caste, iii. 215 n.^,
216 sq.
Fear of ghosts, iii. 71, 78, 233 sqq., 241,
298
Feathers, men created afresh from, after
the flood, i. 290
Fedou, vicarious sacrifice, in Syria, i.
425 sqq.
Fellaheen of Palestine, i. 417, 425
Female costume worn by boys after cir-
cumcision, ii. 329 sq.
Fernando Po, story of heavenly ladder
in, ii. 52 ; the Boobies or Edeeyahs
of, 369
Ferrerius, Johannes, an unhistorical his-
torian, i. 492 n.
Festival, animal, at the oak of Mamre,
iii. 59 sq.
Festivals of the dead, iii. 234
Feuerbach, Renan on, iii. 453 sq.
5IO
FOLK-LORE LN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Fiction of new birth, in early law, ii. 28
sqq.\ enacted by persons supposed to
have died, 31 sq.; enacted by Brah-
man householder, 32 sq.; an expia-
tion for breach of custom, 33 sqq. ;
enacted by Maharajahs of Travancore,
■ 35 -f?^-
Fiais religiosa, the peepul tree, i. 525 ;
worshipped by women desirous of off-
spring, iii. 218
Fife, green garters at wedding of younger
sister in, ii. 290
Fights of subjects at death of king, iii.
286
Fig-tree, in legend, ii. 53 sq. ; in fables
of the trees, 472, 476, 477
, sacred, i. 86, ii. 55, iii. 263 ;
sacrifices to, ii. 20
Field-mice, lawsuit against, iii. 430 sq.
Fiji, treatment of manslayers in, i. 98 ;
marriage of cross-cousins in, ii. 180
sqq.\ traces of totemism in, 244; the
classificatory system in, 244 ; navel-
strings of girls thrown into the sea in,
iii. 206 sq.
, amputation of finger -joints for the
benefit of sick relations in, iii. 212
sq., 222 ; in mourning in, 239 sq.
Fijian chiefs, reverence for the thresholds
of, iii. 4 sq.
practice of catching souls of crimi-
nals in scarves, ii. 511
Fijians, their story of the origin of death,
i. 73 ; their expulsion of ghosts, 98 ;
their story of a great flood, 239 sq. ;
keep canoes ready against a flood,
240, 350 sq.
Fillets used to catch souls, ii. 510 sq.
Fingers, custom of mutilating the, iii.
198 sqq.\ of dead children cut off,
247
Finger -joints, the amputation of, iii. 198
sqq. ; of female infants cut off and
thrown into the sea that the children
may become good fisherwomen, 204,
206, 208 ; sacrificed as substitutes for
human beings, 222 sqq.
Fingoes, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 151 ; the levirate among the,
276
Finnish mythology, youngest son in, i.
563 «.^
Finow, king of Tonga, the mourning for,
iii. 288 sq.
Fire, story of the origin of, i. 38 ; how
fire was obtained after the flood, 221,
230 sq., 233, 273, 289 sq,\ how fire
was discovered from the friction of a
creeper on a tree, 221 ; obtained from
the moon after the flood, 289 sq. ; cus-
tom of carrying bride into house over
a charcoal, iii. 7
Fire -boards held sacred, i. 475, 476,
564
walk among the Badagas, iii. 471
Fires kept burning between death and
burial, iii. 236
Firstborn, custom of killing the, i. 480
sq., 562
child thought to be a menace to
father's life, i. 562
First wife in polygamous families, her
superiority, i. 536 sqq.
Fish, men descended from, i. 33 sq., 36,
40 ; in gipsy story of a great flood,
177 sq. ; in ancient Indian story of a
great flood, 183 sqq.; in Bhil story of
a great flood, 193 sq.; miraculous, in
flood stories, 336 ; heart and liver of,
used in fumigation, 500 ; unlucky to
count, ii. 560, 561 ; not to be eaten,
iii. 157, X'^^ sq., 160
Fisher-folk in Scotland, their aversion to
counting or being counted, ii. 560 sq.
Fishermen and fisherwomen, severed
finger-joints and navel-strings of boys
and girls thrown into the sea to make
the boys and girls skilful as, iii. 206
sqq.
Fish-incarnation of Vishnu, i. 192 sq.
Fison, Lorimer, on avoidance of ortho-
cousins in Fiji, ii. 18 1 sq.
Fladda, one of the Hebrides, blue stone
on which oaths were taken in, ii. 405
Flathead Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 325 ; the sororate among the,
ii. 272 ; their bodily lacerations in
mourning, iii. 278
Flesh not to be brought into contact with
milk, iii. 150 sqq.
Flies excommunicated by St. Bernard,
iii. 424
Flint knife used in sacrifice, i. 401
Flints, worked, of supposed Pliocene
date, i. 169 n.'^
Flood, the Great, i. 104 sqq., 567 sq.
, Babylonian story of, i. 107 sqq. ;
Hebrew story of, 125 sqq. ; discrepancy
as to the duration of the, 138 ; ancient
Greek stories of a great, 146 sqq. ;
shells and fossils as arguments in
favour of a great, 159, 217, 222,
328, 338 sqq. ; European stories of
a great, 174 sqq. ; Welsh story of a
great, 175 ; Lithuanian story of a
great, 176 ; supposed Persian stories
of a great, 179 sqq. ; ancient Indian
stories of a great, 183 sqq. ; modern
Indian stories of a great, 193 sqq.
, stories of a great, in Eastern Asia,
i. 208 sqq. ; in Australia, 234 sqq. ; in
New Guinea and Melanesia, 237 sqq.;
in Polynesia and Micronesia, 241 sqq.;
in South America, 254 sqq. ; in Central
INDEX
511
America and Mexico, 273 sqq. ; in
North America, 281 sqq. ; in Africa,
329 sqq. ; geographical diffusion of,
332 sqq. ; their relation to each other,
333 -f??-; their origin, 338 Jf^j-.; partly
legendai-y, partly mythical, 359 sqq.
Flood, annual commemoration of the, i.
293 sq.
, Song of the, i. 289
Floods caused by risings of the sea, i.
346 sqq. ; caused by heavy rains, 352
sq.
Flores, story of a great flood in, i. 224
sq. ; harvest festival in, 224 sq. ; con-
summation of marriage deferred in,
510 ; cousin marriage in, ii. 168 sq.
Folk-lore, in relation to the poets, ii.
397, 516 ; the emotional basis of, iii.
454
Fontenay-aux-Roses, execution of a sow
at, iii. 440
Food not to be touched with the hands
for some days after circumcision, ii.
329 ; not to be touched with the hands
by persons who have handled corpses,
iii. 137
Forbes, James, on fiction of new birth in
Travancore, ii. 35
Forbidden degrees. See Prohibited
degrees
Fords, water-spirits propitiated at, ii.
414 sq.
Foreskins at circumcision, disposal of, ii.
329
sacrificed in mourning in Fiji, iii.
239 sq.
Formosa, stories of a great flood in, i.
225 sqq. ; the aborigines of, akin to
the Malayan family, 226 sq. ; the
Taiyals of, 565 ; the wild tribes of,
their custom of cutting off a pig's ears
in time of smallpox, iii. 262 sq.
Fossil shells as evidence of the Noachian
deluge, i. 159, Zl^ sqq.
Fossils as evidence of great flood, i. 159,
338 sq. , 360
Foundation sacrifices among the Fijians,
i. 421 sq. ; among the Shans, i. 422 n. ^
Four-class system of exogamy introduced
to prevent the marriage of parents
with children, ii. 232, 238 sq.
Fowls as proxies in the poison ordeal,
iii- 355. 361. 377. 378, 379. 381. 385.
396, 400, 404
France, ultimogeniture in, i. 436 sq.;
bride carried over the threshold in,
iii. 9 ; before the Revolution, local
systems of law in, 95 ; church bells
rung to drive away witches in, 455
Fraser Island, Queensland, consumma-
tion of marriage deferred among the
aborigines of, i. 512
Frederick the second, Emperor of Ger-
many, ii. 376
French fishermen, their use of mandrakes
as talismans, ii. 387
Fresh milk, rules as to the drinking of,
iii. 142 sqq.
Friars Minor, in Brazil, their prosecution
of ants, iii. 435 sqq.
Friesland, ultimogeniture in, i. 437
Fritsch, Gustav, on Hottentot custom of
mutilating the fingers, iii. 199 sq.
Frog, in stories of the origin of death, i.
58, 62 sq.; great flood caused by a,
23s
and duck, story of, i. 58
Froude, J. A., on the sound of church
bells, iii. 453
Fruits, mankind created afresh from,
after the flood, i. 266 sq.
of the earth supposed to be blighted
by incest, ii. 170 sq., 173 sq.
Fuegians, their story of a great flood, i.
273 ; their mourning customs, iii. 283
Fulahs allow women to milk cows, iii.
• 135
Funeral ceremonies for hyenas, i. 32
Funerals, gladiatorial combats at, iii.
286 sq. ; metal instruments beaten at,
467
Furies, the sanctuary of the, il. 31 ; Nero
haunted by the, 532 ; Orestes and the,
iii. 241
Futuna, worship of stones in, ii. 62 sq. ;
cross-cousin marriage in, 178 sq.;
the sororate in, 301 ; amputation of
finger-joints for the benefit of sick
relations in, iii. 213 ; ears of children
bored in, 259 sq.
Gaboon, superiority of the first wife in
the, i. 539 ; rules of inheritance among
the tribes of the, ii. 281 n.^ ; the
poison ordeal in the, iii. 342 sqq. ; the
Fans of the, 479
Gadarene swine, the case of the, tii. 441
Gaikas, a Kafir tribe, do not observe the
levirate, ii. 276
Gait, Sir E. A. , on the Semas, ii. 67 «.^ ;
on cross-cousin marriage among the
Kachins, 137 ; on obligation to marry
a mother-in-law, 254 n.
Galelareeze, of Halmahera, their offering
of hair to the dead, iii. 284 sq.
Gall used to anoint manslayers, i. 93
of crocodile or hartebeest regarded
as poisons, iii. 382
Gallas, iheir story of the origin of death,
i. 74 sq.; their oath of purgation, 403
sq. ; their ethnical affinity, ii. 5 sq. ;
their ceremony at adoption, 6 sq.;
age-grades among the, 335 ; orna-
ments as amulets among the, 514 «.*;
5i:
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
think it unlucky to count cattle, 558 ;
their sacrifices to trees, iii. 53 ; their
objection to boil milk, 122 ; the poison
ordeal among the, 311, 401 ; bells
carried by priests and exorcists among
the, 479
Gallas, the Borana, paint the faces of
manslayers, i. 95
Gallinonieras, their mourning customs,
iii. 279 sq.
Gallows, the mandrake supposed to
grow under a, ii. 381
Gaman, island, miniature houses placed
on graves in, ii. 514 «.^
Gamants, their custom of piercing the
ears of a woman after childbirth, iii.
167 sq.
Game not eaten by pastoral peoples, iii.
157 sqq.\ abundant in Masai country,
159
Gandas, cross -cousin marriage among
the, ii. 123
Gangamma, river god of the Badagas,
ii. 419
Garden-priests, native, employed to wor-
ship earth-spirits, iii. 85
Gardiner, Professor J. Stanley, on mar-
riage of second cousins in Rotuma,
ii. 185
Garos of Assam, their Mongolian origin,
i. 462 ; their husbandry, 462 sq. ; their
villages, 463 ; their mother-kin, 463
sq. ; ultimogeniture among the, 464
sq. ; cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 132 sq.\ exchange of daughters in
marriage among the, 213 ; marriage
with the mother's brother's widow
among the, 252 sqq. ; marriage with a
mother-in-law among the, 253 sq. ;
the sororate among the, 292 ; their
oaths on stones, 406 ; their divination
by water, 432
Gason, S. , on the Mura-Mura, i. 42 n.^
Gaster, Dr. M. , on The Book of Tobii, i.
517 n.2, 519
Gateofvillage, not to be entered by person
who has handled a corpse, iii. 137
Gavaras, marriage with a cross-cousin or
niece among the, ii. 116
Gayos, of Sumatra, serving for a wife
among the, ii. 353 sq.
Gazelle Peninsula, in New Britain, i. 75
Geelvinks Bay, i. 511
Genesis, the account of the creation of
man in, i. 3 sqq. ; story of the Fall of
Man in, 45 sqq. ; the authors or editors
of, their literary skill, ii. 394 ; the
narratives in, compared with the
Homeric poems, 394
Geographical diffusion of flood stories, i.
332 sqq. ; of the poison ordeal, iii.
410 sq. See also Diffusion
Geology and the stories of a universal
flood, i. 341 71.'^, 343
Georgia, Transcaucasian province, ulti-
mogeniture in, i. 472 sq.
Gerarde, John, on mandrakes, ii. 376,
384 sq.
Tripas, "old age " and "cast skin," i.
SO «.i
Gerizim, Mount, ii. 471, 472
Gerland, G. , on flood stories, i. 105 n.^;
on Noachian deluge, 342 «.•*
German belief about counting money, ii.
562
folk-lore, the mandrake in, ii. 383
law as to mandrakes, i. 564
superstition as to crossing the
threshold, iii. 12
Germany, ultimogeniture in, i. 437 j-^. ;
the Tobias Nights in, 504 ; custom of
passing a child through a window on
its way to baptism in, iii. 254 ; church
bells rung during thunderstorms in,
457 sq.
Gesture language employed by women
after a death in Australia, iii. jj, 78
Gezer, in Palestine, human sacrifices at,
i. 416 sqq.\ sacred pillars at, ii. -jj
Ghaikhos, their stories of the creation of
man and the confusion of tongues, i.
II ; their story like that of the Tower
of Babel, 383
Ghasiyas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 128
Ghost of murdered man or woman
thought to haunt the murderer, i. 83,
86 sqq. ; of dead husband or wife sup-
posed to haunt widow or widower at
marriage, 523 sqq. ; of husband sup-
posed to haunt the man who marries
his widow, ii. 282 ; supposed to linger
while flesh adheres to his bones, iii. 78
of a man who has been killed by a
tiger, precautions against the, i. 527 sq. ;
rites to lay, iii. 88 sq.
houses on bank of river, ii. 418 sq.
Ghosts, disguises against, i. 99, iii. 236,
298 ; as causes of sickness, ii. 18 sq.;
troublesome, how disposed of, 18 sq.\
given blood to drink, 526 ; fear of, iii.
71, 78, 233 sqq., 241, 298; sacrifice
of finger-joints to, 241 sq. ; certain
mourning customs designed to pro-
pitiate the, 298 sqq. ; strengthened by
drinking blood, 302
of slain animals supposed to avenge
breaches of oaths, i. 407 ; of the un-
married dead worshipped, ii. 74 ; of
dead kings consulted as oracles in
Africa, 533 sqq.
of the slain, precautions taken by
slayers against the, i. 92 sqq. , driven
away, 98
INDEX
513
Gibraltar, Turkish tradition as to the
piercing of the Strait of, i. 567 sq.
Gideon, his interview with the angel, ii.
465 sq., iii. 55 ; how he defeated
Midian, ii. 466 sq.
Gideon's men, ii. 465 sqq.
Gilbert Islands, sacred stones in the, ii.
65 ; navel-strings of boys thrown into
the sea in the, iii. 207
Gilead, the wooded mountains of, ii.
399, 410, iii. 35 ; rude stone monu-
ments in, ii. 402
Gilgamesh and the plant that renewed
youth, i. 50 sq.; learns the story of
the great flood from Ut-napishtim, 112
sq. ; story of his exposure and preserva-
tion, ii. 440 sq.
epic, i. 50, III ; necromancy in
the, ii. 525
Gilgit, its situation and rulers, ii. 452 ;
an ogre king of, whose soul was made
of butter, 497 sqq. ; annual festival of
fire at, 500 sq.
Gill, Rev. VV. Wyatt, on cousin mar-
riage in Mangaia, iii. 185 sq.
Gillen, F. J. See Spencer, Sir Baldwin.
Gilyaks, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 138 sq.\ the classificatory sys-
tem among the, 242 ; communal terms
for husband and wife among the, 316
sq. ; attempt to deceive evil spirits, iii.
176
Gipsies of Transylvania, their story of a
great flood, i. 177 sq.; their way of
protecting women after childbirth, 410
sq., 415 ; their mode of procuring the
boy-plant by means of a black dog, ii.
397
Giraldus Cambrensis, on the inaugura-
tion of an Irish king, i. 415 sq.
Girls dressed as boys, iii. 170, 193
Gla or Goulas, ruins of, i. 161 sq.
Gladiatorial combats at Roman funerals,
iii. 286 sq.
Gladwyn, how to cut, ii. 396
Glanville, Ranulph de, i. 491 «.^
Gloucester, Borough English in, i.
434
Goat brings message of immortality to
men, i. 59, 60 ; in deluge legend, 230;
in ceremonies of peace-making, 395 ;
cut in pieces at oath of fealty, 401 sq. ;
sacrificial, in oath, 404 sq. ; skin of
sacrificial, used in ritual, ii. 7 sqq. ;
ceremony of being born from a, 7 sqq. ,
39 ; liver of, used in expiatory cere-
mony, 163 ; said to have suckled
Aegisthus, 446 ; sacrificed as sub-
stitute for child, iii. 184
skin in ritual, use of, i. 88, 94, 95
Goats as proxies in the poison ordeal,
iii. 377
VOL. Ill
Goblin personated by man at a woman's
marriage, i. 534 n.^
child, supposed, i. 534 «.'
Godagulas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 117 sq.
God's message of immortaUty to men, i.
59 sqq. ; revelation of himself to Elijah
on Mount Horeb, ii. 413
Gods, dreams of the, ii. 42 sqq.; to be
judged by the standard of the age to
which they belong, iii. 90
Goethe, on the original Ten Command-
ments, iii. Ill
Gold Coast, the Tshi-speaking peoples
of the, i. 33, ii. 368 ; story of the
origin of death told by negroes of the,
i. 58 sq. ; treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died on
the, iii. 245 ; judicial ordeals on the,
320 sqq.. 331 sqq.
Golden bells, the, iii. 446 sqq.
calves, worship of, ii. 58
cow in fiction of new birth, ii. 34
sqq.
hair, a person's hfe or strength
said to be in, ii. 490 sq.
model of ship in memory of great
flood, i. 225
Golden Legend, The, on the virtue of
church bells, iii. 449 sq.
Goldi give ill names to children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 176
Goldie, Hugh, on the poison ordeal in
Calabar, iii. 336 sq.
Goldsmith, Oliver, on the raven, iii. 27
sq.
Gollas or Golars, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 115, 127
Gomme, Sir Laurence, on ultimogeniture,
i- 535 •
Gonds, their precautions at the marriage
of a widow, i. 527 ; cross - cousin
marriage among the, ii. 120 sq.; the
sororate and levirate among the, 295 ;
serving for a wife among the, 343 sq.,
345 sq. ; offer sacrifices to the sun on
the threshold, iii. 17 ; mark the dead
to know them at their next birth,
244 «.i
Gongs, the use of, at exorcisms in
China, iii. 463, 465 sq. ; in Borneo,
468 sq.
beaten while corpse is in house, iii.
468
Goniocephalus, i. 67
Goodenough Island, the amputation of
finger -joints for the benefit of sick
relations in, iii. 213 «.■*
Gorontalo people, their treatment of a
child whose elder brothers have died,
iii. 172, 174
2 L
514
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Goropius, on the language of Paradise,
i. 374 sq.
Goulas or Gla, ruins of, i. i6i sq.
Gouldsbury, C, and Sheane, H., on
cross - cousin marriage among the
Awemba, ii. 153 sq.
Gourds, mankind created afresh from,
after the flood, i. 203
Gowaris, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Grain, modes of counting, in Algeria
and Palestine, ii. 558 sq.
Granddaughter, marriage with a, ii. 247
sqq.
Grandfather, the rattlesnake called, i.
31 sq.
supposed to be reborn in his grand-
child, ii. 330 sq.
Grandidier, A. and G., on marriage of
cousins among the Malagasy, ii. 158 j^.
Grandmother, marriage with a, ii. ^i^jsqq.
Grandson, chief not allowed to see his,
i. 479 sqq. , 548 sqq.
Grass or sticks offered at crossing rivers,
ii. 417
Grave, sacrifice at a chiefs, ii. 17 ; cere-
mony at, for disposing of troublesome
ghost, 185^.; hair of mourners offered
at, iii. 274, 282, 297, 299 ; property
of the dead deposited on the, 231 ;
severed foreskins and fingers deposited
as sacrifice in chiefs grave, 239, 240
of ancestor, dances at harvest
festival round, i. 224
Graves, ladders placed in, ii. 56 sqq.;
oracular dreams on, 530
Gray, .\rchdeacon J. H., on necromancy
in China, ii. 546 sq. ; on the evocation
of the dead in China, 550
, G. B. , on the ritual and moral
versions of the Decalogue, iii. 116 «.^
, Thomas, on the curfew bell, iii.
452
Great men, the need of them as leaders,
iii. 97
Great Bassam, on the Ivory Coast, i.
536
Spirit, i. 31 ; sacrifice of fingers or
finger-joints to the, iii. 224 sq.
Grebo people, of Liberia, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 329
Greece, ancient, the fiction of a new
birth in, ii. 31 ; mourning customs
in, iii. 274
, modern, superstitions as to the
mandrake in, ii. 376, 387 ; bride not
to touch the threshold in, iii. 8
Greek flood stories not derived from
Babylonian, i. 335
herbalists, ancient, their directions
for cutting certain plants, ii. 396
legend of the creation of man, i. 6
Greek legend, stories of the exposure and
preservation of heroes in, ii. 444 sqq.
mode of ratifymg oaths, i. 393
stories, ancient, of a great flood, i.
146 sqq.
superstition about counting warts,
ii. 562
tales of persons whose life or
strength was in their hair, ii. 490 sq.
Greeks, the ancient, their notion of the
pollution of earth by bloodshed, i. 83
sq. ; their belief as to the ghosts of the
slain, 86 ; their legend as to the origin
of the diversity of languages, 384 ;
their worship of stones, ii. 60, 73 ;
their notions as to the mandrake,
375 •^^■' 385 sq.; necromancy among
the, 525 sqq.; their respect for ravens,
iii. 25
and Trojans, their ceremonies at
making a truce, i. 401
Greenlanders, their story of a great flood,
i. 328 ; superiority of the first wife
among the, 561 ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 142
Green stockings or garters at weddings
in Scotland, ii. 288 ; green unlucky at
marriage, 289
Grey, Lady Catherine, in the Tower, iii.
45 1
, Sir George, on the mourning
customs of the Australian aborigines,
iii. 297
Grihya-Sutms, on continence after mar-
riage, i. 505 sqq.
Grisons, ultimogeniture in the, i. 438
Grose, Captain Francis, on the Passing
Bell, iii. 449 ; his reputed collection
of antiquities, 449 n.^
Group marriage among the Polynesians,
ii. 316 ; among the Dieri, iii. 80 n.
marriage to individual marriage,
progress of society from, ii. 203 sq.
marriage the origin of the classifi-
catory system of relationship, ii. 230
sqq. ; origin of the sororate and levirate
m, 304 sqq., 317; a form of, based
on barter of women between families,
317
or communal marriage expressed
by communal terms for husband and
wife, ii. 315
Groups, intermarrying, in Australia, ii.
231 sq.
Groves, sacred, the last relics of ancient
forests, iii. 65 sqq.
Growth of law, iii. 93 sq.
of young people, ceremonies to
promote the, iii. 258 sq.
Gruagach stones in the Highlands of Scot-
land, ii. 72
Grubs, men developed out of, i. 40
INDEX
515
Guancas, Peruvian Indians, their story
of a great flood, i. 272
Guatemala, story of a great flood told
by Quiches of, i. 276 ; the Quiches
of, 387
Guaycurus, custom of residing in house
of wife's parents among the, ii. 368
Guiana, Indians of, their stories of great
floods, i. 352 sq.\ their custom of
residing with wife's parents, ii. 367
, British, stories of a great flood in,
i. 263 sqq. ; superiority of the first
wife among the Indians of, 559
Guinea, tradition of a great deluge in,
i. 329 ; superiority of the first wife in,
537
, Upper, the poison ordeal in, iii.
338 sqq.
Gujarat, hair of children left unshorn in,
iii. 188
Gunkel, H., on Jacob and the man-
drakes, ii. 374 n?-
Gurdon, Colonel P. R. T., as to systems
of relationship among the hill tribes of
Assam, ii. 241 n.''
Gurkhas, on the use of aconite, iii. 409
Gurukkals, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107
Gyndes River punished by Cyrus, ii. 422
Gythium in Laconia, Zeus Cappotas at,
ii. 60
Hadendoa, their objection to boil milk,
iii. 122
Hadrian, his siege and destruction of
Jerusalem, iii. 60
Hahn, Theophilus, on the Namaquas, i.
479 «.•*; on the custom of mutilating
the lingers, iii. 200, 202
Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands,
their descent from a cockle, i. 31 ;
their story of a great flood, 319
Haidas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 146 n.'
Hailes, Lord, on jus primae noctis, i.
485 ». ^ ; on Regiam Majestatem, 492 n. ;
on merchet, 493 ; on continence after
marriage in Scotland, 505
Hainault, ultimogeniture in, i. 436
Hair, the strength of people supposed to
be in their, ii. 484 sqq. \ of persons
who have handled corpses cut off, iii.
137 ; of children left unshorn, 187
sqq. ; guardian spirit or god supposed
to reside in the, 189 ; soul supposed
to reside in the, 189 ; of priests un-
shorn, 189 ; cut in mourning for the
dead, 227, 228, 236, 270 sqq., 278
sq., 280 sqq. ; magical use of cut,
264 ; cut, used by slave in order to
change his master, 267 ; oflfered to
the dead, 274, 276, 280, 281, 282,
284 sq., 285, 297, 299, 302 sq.; of
mourners offered at grave, or buried
with corpse, 274, 276, 281, 282, 297,
299 ; of mourners thrown on the
corpse, 282 ; of the dead worn by sur-
viving relatives, 294 ; of mourners
applied to corpse, 297, 299 ; of the
dead used in divination to ascertain the
cause of his death, 321, 322, 325, 330
Haka Chins, ultimogeniture among the,
i- 457
Hakkas, their custom of handing a bride
over the threshold, iii. 6 sq.
Halbas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 123
Hale, Horatio, on Fijian story of a great
flood, i. 351
Half skeletons of human victims at Gezer,
i. 416 sq., 418, 419 sq., 421, 422,
423 sq.
Halice, on the Epidaurian tablets, ii. 47,
48 n.^, 49
Hall, C. F., on Eskimo story of a great
flood, i. 328
Halmahera, younger sister not to marry
before elder in, ii. 290 ; the Alfoors
of, their mourning customs, iii. 235 ;
the Galelareeze of, 284
Hamba, a great spirit, supposed to speak
through a human representative, iii.
365 -f?-
Hamlet and the ghost, ii. 411
Hammer, smith's, thought to be endowed
with magical virtue, ii. 21
Hammurabi, king of Babylon, i. 121,
125, 142 «.^ ; the code of, iii. 95 ;
the code. of, on punishment of dis-
obedient slave, 166
Hamstrings of deer cut out and thrown
away by North American Indians, ii.
423
Hand of glory, mandragora, ii. 387
Hands, food not to be touched with the,
after circumcision, ii. 329 ; food not to
be touched with the, by persons who
have handled corpses, iii. 137
Happy hunting grounds, iii. 280
Haran, Jacob's joiu-ney to, ii. 94
Hare brings message of mortality to men,
i. 52 sq. , 56 sq. ; origin of the, 54 ;
and insect, story of, 55 sq, ; and tor-
toise, story of, 56 sq. ; and chameleon,
story of, 57 sq.
Hareskin Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 310 sqq.
Harlequins of history, ii. 502
Harpagus, grand vizier of Astyages, ii.
441. 443
IlaiTis, Dr. Rendel, on Aphrodite and
mandrakes, ii. 372 n.^
Harrison, Miss J. E., on the Aleian
plain, i. 83 «'.
Si6
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Hartland, E. S. , on haunted widows, i.
529 nr'; on stories of men attacking
rivers and sea, ii. 423 n?-
Haruku, cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 167
Harvest festival in Rotti to commemorate
great flood, i. 224 ; in Floras round
grave of ancestor, 224
Has and Hasin, mythical birds, i. 20, 21
Haupt, Paul, on the Anunnaki, i. 357 n?
Hausas of North Africa, their story of
the origin of death, i. 65 «.® ; superi-
ority of the first wife among the, 538 ;
cross-cousin marriage among the, ii.
157 ; their treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 194 sq.
, the Mohammedan, their right to
marry the daughter of the father's
brother, ii. 260 ; the sororate among,
283
Hawaii, stories of a great flood in, i.
245 sq. ; terms for husband and wife
in, ii. 316 ; ears of mourners cut in,
'.ii. 255 ; laceration of the body in
mourning in, 287
Head-hunting, legendary origin of, i. 230
Heap of witness, ii. 401, 402
Hearts of ravens eaten to acquire pro-
phetic power, iii. 25
Heaven and earth, stories of former con-
nexions between, ii. 52 sqq.
Heavenly ladder, ii. 52 sqq.
Hebron, iii. 54, '^j, 59, 60, 61
Hebrew supposed to be the primitive
language of mankind, i. 374
Hebrew custom of the levirate, ii. 265,
340
distinction of clean and unclean
animals, suggested explanation of, iii.
160 sq.
• mode of ratifying a covenant, i.
392 sq.
prophets denounce the w-orship of
trees, iii. 52 sq. , 64 sq.
• story of the flood, i. 125 sqq.; its
composite character, 136 sqq. ; com-
pared with the Babylonian, i^gsqq.;
later Jewish additions to, 143 sqq.
usages in regard to milk and flesh
diet, their origin in pastoral stage of
society, iii. 154, 161
words for oak, iii. 38, 46 «.', 51 sq.
Hebrews, the ancient, their lack of a
sense of natural laws, iii. 108 ; their
worship of ancestors, 303
Heckewelder, J., quoted, i. 32
Heidelberg, opinion of the doctors of, on
a case of exorcism, iii. 432 sq.
Heir expected to cohabit with the widow,
ii. 282
Heirs, the order of their succession in
the evolution of law, ii. 281
Heirship of Jacob, i. 429 sqq.
Helen, the suitors of, how they were
sworn, i. 393
Helicon, Mount, grove of the Muses on,
ii- 445
Hellanicus, on Deucalion's flood, i. 147
Hellas, ancient, i. 148
Hellespont punished by Xerxes, ii. 422
Hemp, the smoking of, as a judicial
ordeal, iii. 364 n.^
Hennepin, L. , on weeping among the
Sioux, ii. 88
Hephaestus, the creator of man, i. 7 n.
Hera, Greek name for Astarte at Hiera-
polis, i. 153 ; her adoption of Hercules,
ii. 28
Heraclea, in Bithynia, oracle of the
dead at, ii. 528
Hercules in the lion's skin, i. 32 ; carries
off tripod from Delphi, 165 ; his oaths
with the sons of Neleus, 394 ; cere-
mony of his adoption by Hera, ii. 28 ;
represented by a stone, 60 ; his wrest-
ling with Achelous for Dejanira, 413 ;
father of Telephus by Auge, 445
Herdboy of the king of the Banyoro,
rules observed by him, iii. 145 sq.
Herdsman's staff, conjuring away milk
with a, iii. 141
Herdsmen not allowed to wash them-
selves with water, iii. 146, 147 ; strict
chastity observed by, 146, 147 sq.;
not allowed to eat vegetables, 156
Herero, disguise against ghosts among
the, i. 99 ; superiority of first wife
among the, 544 sq. ; rules of inherit-
ance among the, 545 ; primogeniture
among the, 545 ; cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 150 ; the sororate
and levirate among the, 278 ; refrain
from cleansing their milk-vessels, iii.
125 ; allow women to milk cows, 135 ;
their custom as to the consecration of
milk, 135; their treatment of children
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, 194 ; the poison ordeal unknown
among the, 370
Hermes said to have introduced the
diversity of languages, i. 384
Hermon, Mount, iii. 33, 38
Herodotus, on the draining of Thessaly
through Tempe, i. 171 sq.; on Baby-
lonian temples, 366 n.'^ ; on primitive
language of mankind, 376 ; on the
birth and upbringing of Cyrus, ii. 443,
444 ; on the protection of wild birds
in Greek sanctuaries, iii. 19
Herrera, A. de, on the flood stories of
the Peruvian Indians, i. 271 sq.
Herrick, on the bellman, iii. 456
Hervey Islands, superstition as to young-
est of a family in the, i. 564 sq.
INDEX
517
Herzegovina, continence after marriage
in, i. 504 ; custom in regard to bride
crossing the threshold in, iii. 8
Heshbon, iii. 47
Hesiod on the creation of man, i. 7 «. ;
on ceremony to be observed at fording
a river, ii. 414
Hessels, J. H., iii. 83 «.2
Hexateuch, iii. 99 n. ; the composition
of the, i. 136 n.
Hidatsas or Minnetarees, the sororate
and the levirate among the, ii. 267 sq.
Hide of o.x in oaths, i. 394
Hierapohs on the Euphrates, the sanc-
tuary at, said to have been founded by
Deucahon, i. 153 ; the water of the
flood said to have run away at, 154 ;
ceremony commemorative of the flood
at, 154 ; sacrifice of sheep at, ii. 414 ;
the Syrian goddess at, her sacred
pigeons, iii. 20
"High places" of Israel, iii. 39 sq.,
62 sqq.; abolished, 63 sq., 64 j^. , 100
sq. ; denounced by Hebrew prophets,
64 ; Deuteronomy on, 64 sq. ; still the
seats of religious worship in Palestine,
65
Highlanders of Scotland, their Gruagach
stones, ii. 72; "road names" among
the, iii. 253
Highlands of Scotland, unlucky to count
people, cattle, or fish in the, ii. 560
Hill Damaras, their custom of mutilating
fingers, iii. 200, 209, 210 ; their lan-
guage and affinity, 200 n.*
Hilprecht, H. V., i. 120
Himalayas, landslides in the, i. 354 n.
Hindoo Koosh, sacred stones among the
tribes of the, ii. 67
Hindoo law, marriage of cousins forbidden
by, ii. 99 sq.; the levirate in, 340
Hindoos, their objection to marriages
with near relations, ii. 99 sq., 131; their
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 177
sqq.
Hippolytus, on tricks of ancient oracle-
mongers, ii. 431
Hiram, King of Tyre, his wager with
Solomon, ii. 566
Hiuen Tsiang, Chinese pilgrim, i. 205
Hiw, one of the Torres Islands, cross-
cousin marriage in, ii. 179 sq.
Hka Muks, Hka Mets, Hka Kwens,
serving for a wife among the.ii. 352
Hkamies. See Kamees.
Hlubis, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 151
Hobley, C. W. , on Kikuyu oath, i.
404 sq. ; on the Akamba, ii. 5 «.' ; on
Kikuyu rite of new birth, 9 ; on a
Kikuyu custom, iii. 141 sq.
Hodson, T. C, on ultimogeniture among
Naga tribes, i. 447 ; on the weapons
of the Nagas, iii. 409 ti.^
Hog's trough, dancing in a, at the wed-
ding of a younger brother or sister, ii.
289
Holeyas, marriage with a cross-cousin or
a niece among the, ii. 115
Holiness code, iii. 99 n.
Holland, great floods in, i. 344 sqq.
HoUis, A. C. , on the Masai and
Nandi, ii. 5 sq. ; on se.xual communism
among the Masai, 324 ; on exogamy
among the Masai, 325 n.
Homer on ceremony at truce, i. 401 ; the
ghost of, evoked by Apion, ii. 531 ;
on the offering of hair to the dead, iii.
274
Homeric poems compared with the narra-
tives in Genesis, ii. 394
Homicide, purification for, i. 86 sqq., 93
sqq. , ii. 25
Homicides shunned and secluded or ban-
ished, i. 80 sqq.
Hooker, Sir Joseph, on the Khasi table-
land, i. 466 n.^; on the oaks of Pales-
tine, iii. 30 sq.
Hoop, custom of passing a child through
a, ii. 27 ; silver, child passed through,
iii. 250, 251
Hooper, Lieutenant W. H. , i. 297
Hopi or Moqui Indians of Arizona, their
story of the creation of man, i. 26 sq. ;
cross-cousin marriage among the, ii.
146 «.2
Hor, Mount, the shrine of Aaron on, ii,
409
Horace on bronze tower of Danae, ii.
445 «.^ ; on the evocation of the dead
by witches, 532
Horeb, Mount, God's revelation of him-
self to Elijah on, ii. 413
Hornbill in a Papuan story, iii. 83 w.^
Horse, its use in oaths, i. 393 ; ear of,
cut by slave who wishes to serve the
horse's master, iii. 265, 266 ; tried and
condemned, 440
Horse-mackerel family on the Gold Coast,
'• 33 sg-
Horses destroy first clay men, i. 19
sq. ; white, sacrificed to river, ii. 414 ;
ears of, cut in mourning, iii. 256 ;
of dead man killed, 280 ; manes and
tails of, cut off in mourning, 280,
281
Horseshoes nailed into threshold in Kon-
kan, iii. 12 sq.
Hos or Larka Kols, of Bengal, their
story of a great flood, i. 195 ; their
language and racial affinity, 467 sq. ;
their country and mode of life, 468 sq. ;
, their rules of descent, 469 sq.
518
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Hos of Togoland, priests with unshorn
hair among the, iii. 189; their priests
wear Uttle bells on their robes, 479
Hose, Ch. , and McDougall, W. , on for-
bidden degrees among the Dyaks, ii.
172 sq.
Hosea, on sacred pillars, ii. 59 ; tomb
of the prophet, iii. 44 ; on the worship
of trees, 52
Hottentots, their stories of the origin of
death, i. 52 j^., 55 jj'. ; think it unlucky
to count people, ii. 558 ; allow women
to milk cows, iii. 135 ; their custom of
mutilating the fingers, 198 sqq., 209
House, sacrifice at occupying a new, i.
426 ; inherited by youngest son, 435,
438, 439, 445 «.3, 446, 447, 472, 477,
478, 479 ; souls of family collected
in a bag at moving into a new, ii. 507 ;
deserted or destroyed after a death, iii.
232
Houses, communal, i. 453 ; little, for the
souls of the dead, ii. 514 «.*
" Houses of the soul," denounced by
Isaiah, ii. 513 sq.
Howitt, A. W. , on Australian modes
of procuring wives, i. 195, 200, 202 w.^;
- on Dieri rule of marriage, ii. 191 «.^ ;
on the intention of the exogamous
classes in Australia, 238 n.^ ; on the
origin of the levirate, 304 n}- ; on com-
munal marriage among the Dieri, iii.
' 80 n.
Huacas, |idols of the Peruvian Indians,
i. 271
Hudson's Bay, the Eskimo of, i. 561
Island, story of a great flood in, i.
249 sq.
HueitozozUi, "Great Watch," fourth
month of Mexican year, iii. 257
Huichol Indians, their story of a gieat
flood, i. 277 sqq.
Human sacrifice as purification, i. 408 ; at
Gezer, 416 sqq. ; at laying foundations,
421 sq. ; at making a covenant, 423
i victims cut in two, i. 408, 418 sqq.
Humboldt, A. de, on flood stories
among the Indians of the Orinoco, i.
266 sq., 338
Humming-bird in flood story, i. 276
Hungary, ultimogeniture in, i. 439
Huns, their mourning customs, iii. 275
Hunters commanded to cover the blood
of their victims, i. 102
Hunting for souls, a practice denounced
by Ezekiel, ii. 510 sq.
Huron Indians of Canada, their worship
of rocks, ii. 69 sq.
Husband, ghost of, supposed to haunt
the man who marries his widow, ii. 282
Husband's brother, and sister's husband,
denoted by the same term in some
forms of the classificatory system of
relationship, ii. 312 sqq.
Husband's brother called husband, ii. 301
Hut of Romulus, ii. 448
Hut-urns in ancient graves, ii. 514 «.*
Huxley, T. H. , his essay on the flood, i.
104 ; on alleged flood caused by open-
ing of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles,
168 sqq.\ on the gorge of the Peneus,
173 «.2 ; on flood story in Genesis,
356
Huxley lecture, i. 104
Hydromantia, ii. 427
Hyenas revered by the Wanika, i. 32 ;
revered by tribes of East Africa, iii. 28
sq.\ the dead exposed to, 28, 137;
spirits of the dead reborn in, 29 ; new-
born children placed in path of, 175
Hyrcanus, the castle of, iii. 37
Ibibios, of Southern Nigeria, witch and
her youngest child among the, i. 564 ;
their treatment of dead children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died, iii.
243. 253
Ibn Beithar, on the mandrake, ii. 390,
392
Ibn Wahab, Arab traveller in China, i.
215
Ibos of Southern Nigeria, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 477 sq. ; their sacrifices
to rivers, ii. 419
Iceland, mutilation of children's fingers
in, iii. 203
Icelandic belief as to sitting on a thresh-
old, iii. 12
story of a deluge of blood, i. 174 sq.
Iconium, mankind recreated after the
flood at, i. 15s
Identification of man with sacrificial vic-
tim, ii. 26 sq.
Idigas, of Mysore, exchange of daughters
in marriage among the, ii. 211
Ifot, witchcraft, iii. 336, 337
Iguanas supposed to be immortal through
casting their skins, i. 67
Ilpirra tribe, of Central Australia, cere-
mony at nose-boring in the, iii. 261
Im Thuin, Sir E. F., on flood stories
among the Indians of Guiana, i. 352
sq. ; on residence of husband with wife's
family among the Indians of Guiana,
ii. 367
Image, widower married to an, i. 527
Images of dead ancestors used at the con-
sultation of their spirits, ii. 537 sq.
Imbando, root used in the poison ordeal,
iii- 349
Imitative magic, i. 407
Immortahty, man's loss of, i. 47 sqq.;
spiritual, apparently supposed to be
effected by circumcision, ii. 330
INDEX
519
Imprecations at peace-making, i. 400 sqq.
Inanimate objects punished for causing
the death of persons, iii. 415 sqq.
Inapertiva, rudimentary human beings,
i. 42
Inauguration of an Irish king, i. 415 sq.
Incas of Peru, their story of a great flood,
i. 271
Incest, expiation for, ii. 170 sq. ; punished
with death, 171, 174
India, stories of the creation of man in,
i. 17 sqq. ; stories of a great flood in,
193 sqq. ; continence after marriage
in, 505 sqq. ; precautions against
demons in, 521 sq. ; precautions against
ghost of dead husband or wife at mar-
riage of widow or widower in, 524 sq. ;
mock marriages of widowers and widows
in, 525 sqq. ; superiority of the first
wife in, 554 sqq. ; worship of stones
in, ii. 67 ; weeping as a salutation in,
86 sq. ; marriage of cousins in, 99 sqq. ;
exchange of daughters or sisters in
marriage in, 210 sqq. ; brothers and
sisters marrying in order of seniority
in, 285 sqq., 291 sqq. ; the levirate in,
293 sqq., 340, 341 ; form of divina-
tion by water for the detection of a
thief in, 431 sq. ; fear of demons in,
iii. 177 ; treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died
in, 177 sqq.; custom of leaving chil-
dren's hair unshorn in, 187 j^.; the
poison ordeal in, 405 sqq.
, ancient, stories of a great flood in,
i. 183 sqq. ; flood story in, not derived
from the Babylonian, 335 sqq. ; the
fiction of a new birth in, ii. 31 sqq. ;
custom of bride stepping over the
threshold in, iii. 8
, the Mohammedans of, cousin mar-
riage among, ii. 130 sq., 255
, Northern, children buried under
the threshold to ensure their rebirth
in, iii. 13 J^f.
Indian Archipelago, stories of a great
flood in the, i. 217 sqq.\ consumma-
tion of marriage deferred in the, 509
sqq. ; superiority of the first wife in the,
557 ^i-\ marriage of cousins in the,
ii. 165 sqq.; serving for a wfe in the,
353 m-
Indians, their ear-rings, iii. 167
■ , the American, their stories of the
creation of man, i. 24 sqq. ; expel
ghosts of the slain, 98 ; weeping as a
salutation among the, ii. 87 sqq. ; the
sororate and levirate among the, 266
sqq. ; cut out and throw away the
hamstrings of deer, 423
of British Columbia, their objection
to a census, ii. 560
Individualism and civilization versus col-
lectivism and savagery, ii. 227
Indo-China, serving for a wife among
the aboriginal tribes of, ii. 352
Indonesia, totemism and the classifica-
tory system of relationship in, ii. 243
sq.
Infanticide and ultimogeniture, i. 562 sqq.
Infertile, marriage of near relations sup-
posed to be, ii. 163 sq.
Infringement of prohibited degrees by
chiefs, ii. 184 sq.
Inger, a species of vermin, prosecuted
by the authorities of Berne, iii. 431 sq.
Ingouch, of the Caucasus, their worship
of stones, ii. 68
Initiation of a sweeper in the Punjab, ii.
90 sq. ; of a sorcerer among the Baluba,
91 ; blood of friends drunk by youths
at, iii. 301
Ink, divination by, ii. 428 sq.
Innes, Cosmo, on viejxhet, i. 492 sq,
Ino or Pasiphae, sanctuary of, in Laconia,
ii. 50 sq.
Inoculation against lightning, iii. 140
Inspiration, poison as a source of, iii. 345
Institutions of Israel, the ceremonial,
their great antiquity, iii. 96
Intercourse, sexual, forbidden, while
cattle are at pasture, iii. 141 sq.
lolcus, sack of, i. 408, 419
lona, the black stones in, ii. 405
Ipurina, of Brazil, their story of a great
flood, i. 259 sq.
Irakis, cross-cousin niatriage among the,
ii. 128
Ireland, inauguration of a king in, i.
415 sq.; divination by molten lead in,
ii. 433 ; divination by coals in water
in, 434; reptiles of, exorcized by St.
Patrick, iii. 424
Irish legend of one who forbade the tide
to rise, ii. 422 sq.
Iron age, i. 149
bells worn by magicians and pro-
phets, iii. 479 sq.
rings as amulets, iii. 171, 197
weapon to drive away demons, i.
521
Iroquois, the Turtle clan of the, i. 30 ;
the sororate and levirate among the,
ii. 270 sq.
Irragal, Babylonian god of pestilence, i.
"5
Irrawaddy, its valley a line of migration,
i. 465 sq.
Irrigation, sacrifices at, ii. 17 sq.
Isaac, how cheated by Jacob, ii. i sqq. ;
his evening meditation, ii. 40
and Ishmael, i. 431 sq.
Isaiah, on worship of smooth stones, ii.
59; his denunciation of "houses 0/
520
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
the soul," 513 sq.\ on the worship of
oaks, iii. 53 ; on rites of mourning,
271
Isanna River, in Brazil, marriage with
cousins, nieces, and aunts among the
Indians of the, ii. 149
Ishii, Shinji, his record of Formosan
flood stories, i. 226
Ishmael and Isaac, i. 431 sq.
Ishtar, Babylonian goddess, i. 115
Isidore of Seville, on the three great
floods, i. 159
Isidorus, Neoplatonic philosopher, ii. 426
Iskender-Iulcarni, Alexander the Great,
in Turkish tradition, i. 567
Islay story of a giant whose soul was in
an egg, ii. 495 sq.
Ismailiyeh of Syria, their sacrifices for
children, i. 427
Ispahan, reverence for the threshold of
the king's palace at, lii. 4
Israel, ultimogeniture in, i. 429 sqq. ;
practice of putting the firstborn to
death in, 563 ; the " high places" of,
iii. 62 sqq. ; great antiquity of the
ceremonial institutions of, 96 ; its un-
questioning faith in the supernatural,
108 ; cuttings for the dead in, 270 sqq.
Israelites, their ancestors nomadic herds-
men, iii. 154, 161 ; their custom of
lacerating their bodies in time of
dearth, 277
Israelitish priest teaches Assyrian colo-
nists how to worship Jehovah, iii. 84
Issini, on the Gold Coast, custom of
executioners at, i. 89 sq.
Itala, i. 517
Italy, ancient, dream oracles in, ii. 51 ;
oracle of the dead in, 529 .j^.
Ituri River, ceremony at crossing the, ii.
418 sq.
Ivory Coast, superiority of the first wife
on the, i. 536 sq. ; the Baoules of the,
ii. 512 ; the poison ordeal on the, iii.
330 ^1-
Jabbok, Jacob at the ford of the, ii.
410 sqq.
Jabesh, Saul buried under an oak or
terebinth at, iii. 56
Jackson, John, on foundation sacrifices
in Fiji, i. 421 sq.
Jacob, the character of, i. 429 ; the
cheats he practised on his brother and
father, 429 sqq. ; the heirship of, 429
sqq. ; his blessing of Ephraim and
Manasseh, 432 ; and the kidskins, ii.
I sqq.; at Bethel, 40 sqq.; his dream,
40 sqq. ; his ladder, 41 ; at the well,
78 sqq. ; his marriage, 94 sqq. ; his
service for his two wives, 342 ; and
the mandrakes, 372 sqq. ; his departure
from Haran, 398 sqq.; his dispute
with Laban, 399 sqq.; at the ford of
the Jabbok, 410 sqq. ; his sinew that
shrank, 423 ; Mexican parallel to the
story of his wresthng, 424 sq. ; the
daughters of, oak spirits in Palestine,
iii. 37, 46
Jacob and Esau, ii. i sqq.
and Joseph, i. 432
Jacobs, Joseph, on ultimogeniture, i. 431
Jain parallel to the story of the judg-
ment of Solomon, ii. 570 sq.
Ja-Luo, their precautions against the
ghosts of the slain, i. 94 ; their treat-
ment of a child whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, iii. 168
Jakun of the Malay Peninsula, their soul-
ladders, ii. 58
James IV. of Scotland, his attempt to
discover the primitive language, i.
376 sq.
Japan, earthquake waves in, i. 349, 350;
the Ainos of, ii. 139 ; drinking written
charms in, iii. 414
Japanese have no tradition of a universal
flood, i. 333
Jastrow, M. , on Hebrew flood story, i.
142 «.^ ; on Babylonian flood story, 353
Jaussen, Father Antonin, on the venera-
tion for terebintlis among the Arabs of
Moab, iii. 49 sqq.
Java, cultivation of rice in, i. 451 ; con-
summation of marriage deferred in,
510; precautions taken against demons
at marriage in, 520 sq. ; mythical
Rajah of, said to have acquired his
strength from a stone, ii. 403 sq. ;
bride carried by bridegroom into house
in, iii. 7 ; hair of children left unshorn
in, 188 ; judicial ordeal in, 410 sq.
Javanese, cousin marriage forbidden
among the, ii. 172 ; marry their chil-
dren in order of seniority, 290
Jawbones of dead kings preserved by the
Baganda, ii. 533 ; of dead chiefs pre-
served among the Basoga, 535
Jealousy, greater in the male sex, ii. 304,
310
Jebel Osh'a, iii. 44
Jehovah, diversity in the use of the name
in the Pentateuch, i. 136 sq.; in rela-
tion to sacred oaks and terebinths, iii.
54 sqq. ; worship of, taught to Assyrian
colonists in Bethel, 84 ; and the lions,
84 sqq.
Jehovistic Document, i. j\sq., 122, 131,
134 sqq., ii. 457 «.\ iii. 99
version of the flood story, i. 136 sqq.
— — writer, i. 29, 45, 51, ii. 95, 96
Jeremiah on the worship of oaks, iii. 53;
on sacred poles [asherim), 64 ; on
rites of mourning, 270, 271
INDEX
Jericho, iii. 24
Jeroboam, institutes worship of golden
calves at Bethel, ii. 58
Jerome, on The Book of Tobit, i. 517 J(,-.;
as to oak and terebinth, iii. 51; on the
oak at Mamre, 58 ; on cuttings for
the dead among the Jews, 273
Jerusalem denounced by Ezekiel, i. loi
sq. ; only legitimate altar at, 139 ; the
returned exiles at, ii. 95 ; the fine
ladies of, denounced by Isaiah, 513
sq. ; legend of Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba at, 568 ; Keepers of the
Threshold in the temple at, iii. i ;
birds allowed to nest on the altars at,
iii. 19 ; ravens at, 24 sq.\ its destruc-
tion under Hadrian, 60 ; concentra-
tion of the worship at, on suppression
of local "high places," 63, 100 sq.\
provision for the disestablished priests
of the " high places " at, 104
Jeshimmon, the wilderness of Judea, ii.
504
Jevons, F. B., on lifting bride over the
threshold, iii. 10
Jewish colony at Apamea Cibotos in
Phrygia, i. 156 sq.
history, place of the Law in, iii.
93 •f^'?-
law of ordeal, iii. 306
story, later, of Reuben and the
mandrakes, ii. 393
tradition, later, as to Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba, ii. 564 sqq.
Jews, their aversion to marry Canaanite
women, ii. 95 ; in America, their
belief in fertilizing virtue of the man-
drake, 376 sq. ; their rule not to eat
flesh and milk or cheese together, iii.
153 ^1-
Jhuming or jooming, a migratory sys-
tem of cultivation, i. 442, ii. 348,
349 n.
Jibaros, of Ecuador, their stories of a
great flood, i. 260 sqq.
Joan of Arc, accused of keeping a man-
drake, ii. 383 sq.
Jocasta, marries her son Oedipus, ii.
446 sq.
Jochelson, W. , on Koryak sacrifices, i.
410 n.'^
John the Baptist, ii. 391
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, on Borough Eng-
lish, i. 495
Johor, in the Malay Peninsula., i. 211
Jonah and the whale, iii. 82 sq.
Jordan, the region beyond, rude stone
monuments in, ii. 402 sq.\ its springs,
iii- 33. 44
Joseph, his meeting with his brethren, ii.
83 ; his meeting with Jacob, 83; con-
ceived by his mother Rachel through
eating mandrakes, 373 ; his cup, 426
sqq.
Joseph and Jacob, i. 432
Josephus, on Jewish colony at Apamea
Cibotos, i. 157 «.^ ; on the baaras, ii.
390 sq. ; on the mandrake, 392 ; on
the passage through the Red Sea, 457 ;
on the terebinth at Hebron, iii. 57
Joshua, the grave of, iii. 41 ; and the
stone of witness, 56
Josiah, King of Judah, his reformation,
i. 136 n., 139, iii. 64, 100 sq., 107,
108 ; and Deuteronomy, iii. 103
Jotham's fable, ii. 471 sqq. ; in the
Middle Ages, 478 sq.
Jou7-nal of a Citizen of Paris on man-
drakes, ii. 386
Jubar, in the Altmark, the church bell
rung during thunderstorms at, iii. 457
Judea, the wilderness of, ii. 503 sq.
Judges and kings, times of the, ii. 435
sqq.
Judgment of Solomon, parallel in Jain
literature to the, ii. 570 sq.
Jujiir, barter of women in marriage in
Sumatra, ii. 219
Junior-right. Ste Ultimogeniture.
Junius evokes the dead by incantations,
ii- 532
Junod, Henri A., on prohibition of
cousin marriage among the Ba-Ronga,
ii. 162 «.^; on ancestral spirits sup-
posed to reside in lakes and rivers, 416
Juok, the Shilluk creator, i. 22
Jupiter, appealed to at making a treaty,
i. 401 ; drawn down from the sky, ii.
414 ; Capitoline, the Elder Scipio's
communion with, 461
and Alcmena, ii. 411
Juris, of Brazil, superiority of the first
wife among the, i. 559
Jus primae noctis in relation to ultimo-
geniture, i. 485 sqq. ; true nature of
the, 497, 501 sqq., 530
Theelacticum, i. 437
Justice, the god of, iii. 317
Justin, on the exposure and upbringing
of Cyrus, ii. 443
Justinian, the Digest or Pandects of, iii.
95
Jutland, North, mice, lice, fleas and
vermin not to be counted in, ii. 562
Kabadi, in New Guinea, story of a great
flood in, i. 237
Kabi, a tribe of Queensland, cross-
cousin marriage in the, ii. 188 ; their
mourning customs, iii. 293
Kabuis of Manipur, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 447
Kabyles, conjuring away milk from a
herd among the, iii. 141
522
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Kacharis, consummation of marriage de-
ferred among the, i. 509
Kachcha Nagas of Assam, their story of
the origin of the diversity of languages,
i. 384 sq.\ the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 296
Kachhis, the sororate among the, ii.
292 <:q.
Kachins (Kakhyens, Chingpaws, Sing-
phos), their Tartar origin, i. 449 ;
ultimogeniture among the, 449 sq. ;
their agriculture, 452 sqq. ; their com-
munal houses, 453 ; their Mongolian
origin, 454 ; ultimogeniture among the
Chinese, 454 ; their migration, 465 sq. ;
consummation of marriage deferred
among the, 509 ; cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 136 sqq. ; the levirate
among the, 297 ; ward off demons
from women at childbirth, iii. 474 sq.
See also Kakhyens, Singphos
Kadei, the River, miraculous passage
through, ii. 462
Kadirs, of Southern India, superiority of
the first wife among the, i. 555 ; of
Cochin, marriage of cross - cousins
among the, ii. 103
Kafir chiefs, their three principal wives,
i. 551 sq.
Kafirs said to have allowed only one
son of a chief to live, i. 562 sq. ; their
law permits man t"o marry two sisters,
ii. 275 ; younger brothers not allowed
to marry before the elder among the,
284 sq. ; their ceremonies at crossing
rivers, 415 ; their customs as to men-
struous women in relation to milk and
cattle, iii. 129 sq. ; forbid women to
milk cows and tend cattle, 133 ; ab-
stain from drinking milk after a death,
138 ; their custom of purifying persons
in a kraal that has been struck by
lightning, 140 ; their custom as to the
drinking of fresh milk, 142 sq. ; their
custom of mutilating the fingers, 209
sq. ; their amputation of finger-joints
in mourning, 230 ; mourning of widows
among the, 276 sq.
Kagoro, of Northern Nigeria, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 338
Kai tribe of New Guinea, their story of
the origin of death, i. 69 ; disposal of
a boy's navel-string in the, iii. 207 ;
desert the house after a death, 232 ;
ears of mourners cut among the, 255
Kaiabara terms for husband and wife, ii.
313 ^q-
Kaikaris, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Kaitish tribe of Central Australia, their
story of the origin of death, i. 72 ;
customs observed by widows among
the, iii. 76, 79 ; mourning of widows
in the, 298
Kakadu tribe, the levirate in the, ii. 303 ;
their bodily lacerations in mourning,
iii. 293
Kakhyeen, their mode of avenging a
death by drowning, ii. 421. See
Kakhyens
Kakhyens, Kachins, or Chingpaws, their
punishment of a river which has
drowned a friend, iii. 418. See
Kachins
Kala-Bhairava, the black dog, an image,
iii. 213
Kalhana, Cashmeerian chronicler, i. 205
Kalians, of Madura, marriage of cross-
cousins among the, ii. 104 sq. ; their
use of a grinding- stone at marriage
ceremony, 404
Kalmuks, their respect for the threshold,
iii. 5 ; let women milk the cattle,
136 ; demons kept off from women in
childbed among the, 475
Kalpa, a mundane period, i. 190
Kamars of Central India, their story of
a great flood, i. 195 ; marriage of
cross-cousins among the, ii. 122
Kambinana, the Good Spirit, i. 75
Kamchadales, their story of a great
flood, i. 216 sq. ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 139 ; the classifica-
tory system among the, 242 ; the
sororate and levirate among the,
297 ; serving for a wife among the,
360 sq.
Kamees or Hkamies, of Arakan, rule of
inheritance among the, i. 457
Kamilaroi, their terms for husband and
wife, ii. 313; their mourning customs,
iii. 292 sq.
Kammas, of Southern India, consumma-
tion of marriage deferred among the,
i- 507
Kaniyans of Cochin, do not let men-
struous women drink milk, iii. 130
Kansas or Konzas, the sororate and
levirate among the, ii. 266 sq. ; mourn-
ing customs of widows among the, iii.
281
Kant, on universal primeval ocean, i.
343
Kanyaka Purana, on marriage with a
mother's brother's daughter, ii. no
sqq.
Kappiliyans, cross - cousin marriage
among the, ii. 117
Karagwe, in Central Africa, worship of
large stone in, ii. 68
Karaite sect, the Jewish, reported magical
rite of, iii. 117
Karamojo, of East Africa, their way of
ratifying an oath, i. 395
INDEX
^^~l
Karans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 131 sq.
Karayas of Brazil, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 515
Karens of Burma, their story of the
creation of man, i. 10 sq. ; their story
of a great flood, 208 ; their story like
that of the Tower of Babel, 383 ; their
ceremonies at peace-making, 406 sq. ;
their worship of stones, ii. 66 ; cousin
marriage among the, 138 ; the classi-
ficatory system among the, 242 ;
husband lives for years with bride's
parents among the, 351 sq.
Kariera tribe, cross-cousin marriage in
the, ii. 188 sq., 206 sq.\ the sororate
and levirate in the, 303 ; their terms
for husband and wife, 315 ; their
mourning customs, iii. 293 sq. , 301
Kama, son of the Sun - god by the
princess Kunti or Pritha, ii. 451 sq.
Karo-Bataks leave some locks of child's
hair unshorn as refuge for its soul,
iii. 189
Kasai River, tributary of the Congo, iii.
365
Kaska Indians of British Columbia, their
story of a great flood, i. 568 sq.
Kassa, poison used in ordeal, iii. 352,
353. See also N kassa
Kassounas Fras tribe, of the French
Sudan, judicial ordeals in the, iii.
320, 321 sq.
Kasyapa, father of the Nagas, i. 204 sq.
Kataushys, of Brazil, their story of a
great flood, '. 260
Kathlamet-speaking Indians, their story
of a great flood, i. 325 j^.
Katif^, Queen of Smyrna, in Turkish
tradition, i. 567
Kaurs, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 131
Kaviaks, of Alaska, the sororate among
the, ii. 274
Kavirondo, Bantu tribes of, their pre-
cautions against the ghosts of the
slain, i. 93 sq. ; their mode of swearing
friendship, 394 sq. ; their use of skin
of sacrificial goat, ii. 25 ; the sororate
among them, 278 sq. ; the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 397 sqq. ; use
of a cattle bell by widows among the,
467 sq.
, the Nilotic, iii. 168. See Nilotic
Kavirondo.
Kawiirs, of India, mock marriage of
widower among the, i. 527 ; the soro-
rate and levirate among the, ii. 294 ;
practice of serving for a wife among
the, 344 ; their treatment of a child
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, iii. 184
Kaya-Kaya or Tugeri, of Dutch New
Guinea, age-grades among the, ii. 318
sqq.
Kayans of Borneo, their story of the
origin of man, i. 34 ; their forms of
oath, 407 ; marriage of near kin for-
bidden among the, ii. 174 sq. ; their
belief in reincarnation, 330 sq. ; custom
of residing with wife's parents after
marriage among the, 358 ; their evoca-
tion of the dead, 543 ; their custom of
leaving trees for spirits, iii. 70 ; their
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, 172 sq.
Kedesh Naphtali, iii. 31
Keepers of the Threshold, iii. i sqq.
Kei Islands, story of the creation of man
in the, i. 12 sq. ; consummation of
marriage deferred in the, 511 ; sacred
stones in the, ii. 74 ; cross -cousin
marriage in the, 167 ; souls of infants
stowed away for safety in coco-nuts
in the, 508
Keith, Arthur, on antiquity of man, i.
169 n^^
Kekip-kip Sesoatars, "the Hill of the
Bloody Sacrifice," iii. 226
Kelantan, story of a great flood in, i.
211 sq.
Kenai, of Alaska, serving for a wife
among the, ii. 366
Kenites, i. 78 n."^
Kennett, Professor R. H., on Genesis
(vii. 2), i. 138 ». ; as to leaping over
a threshold, iii. i «.^ ; on Jeremiah
(ii- 34). S3 ; on the date of Deutero-
nomy, 100 «.■•; on the original Ten
Commandments, wa, sq.
Kent, Professor C. F., on the primitive
Decalogue, iii. 113 w.^
Kent, Borough English in, i. 434
Kerak, in Moab, iii. 49, 50
Khamtis, of Assam, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 555
Khands, cousin marriage among the, ii.
130
Kharias, cross-consin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Kharwars, of Mirzapur, superiority of
the iirst wife among the, i. 555
Khasis of Assam, i. 458 sqq. ; their story
of the creation of man, 18 ; their
language, 458 ; affinities, 459 ; agri-
culture, 459; their mother-kin, 459
sq. ; ultimogeniture among the, 460 ;
cross-cousin marriage among the, i .
133
Khasiyas, their treatment of children
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, iii. 179 sq.
Khnoumou, Egyptian god, the creator of
men, i. 6
524
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Khonds, their purification after a death,
i. 411 ; serving for a wife among the,
ii- 344
Khoras, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 131
Khyoungtha, of Chittagong, consumma-
tion of marriage deferred among the,
i- 509
Kibuka, the war-god of the Baganda, iii.
399
Kid severed at peace-making, i. 396 sq. ;
used to uproot bryony, ii. 395 ; in its
mother's milk, not to seethe, iii. 11 1
sqq.
Kidd, Dudley, on Kafir custom as to
chiefs sons, i. 563 «.^; on ancestral
spirits, residing in rivers, ii. 415 sq. ;
on the Kafir custom of amputating
finger-joints, iii. 210
Kidskins, Jacob and the, ii. i sqq.
Kilimanjaro, Mount, i. 513, ii. 4, 6, 22
"Killing the relationship," custom ob-
served at marriage of cousins, ii. 162,
163 «.i, 165
King, L. W. , on date of Ammizaduga,
i. 120 n.^ ; on Babylonian temples,
366 «.3
King compelled to abdicate on birth of a
son, i. 550 ; Norse custom at the elec-
tion of a, ii. 403 ; not to cross river or
sea, 420
Kingfisher procures fire after the great
flood, i. 233 ; in a story of a great
flood, 299, 305
Kinglake, A. W. , on divination by ink
in Egypt, ii. 429
" King's oak," iii. 56
Kings, ghosts of dead, consulted as oracles
in Africa, ii. 533 sqq. ; in relation to
oaks, iii. 56 sq.
Kingsley, Mary H. , on African stories of
heavenly ladders, ii. 52 ; on witches
hunting for souls in West Africa,
512
Kirantis, serving for a wife among the,
ii. 346 ; beat copper vessels at funerals,
iii. 467
Kirghiz, superiority of the first wife among
the, i. 557
Kissi, souls of dead chiefs consulted as
oracles among the, ii. 537 ; their
mourning customs, iii. 276
Kittel, R., on Genesis (vi. 17 and vii. 6),
i. 359 «.i ; on the moral and ritual
versions of the Decalogue, iii. 116 n.^
Kiwai, exchange of women in marriage
in, ii. 216
Klemantans, of Borneo, their form of
adoption, ii. 29 sq.
Knisteneaux. See Crees
Kohlis, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 126
Koiari, of British New Guinea, marriage
of near kin forbidden among the, ii.
175 sq. ; their bodily lacerations in
mourning, iii. 284
Koita, of British New Guinea, marriage
of near kin forbidden among the, ii. 176
Kolarian or Munda race, i. 467, 470
Kolben, Peter, on Hottentot custom of
mutilating the fingers, iii. 198 sq.
Koldeway, R. , on Babylonian temples,
i. 366 «.^
Komatis, marriage with a cross-cousin,
the daughter of a mother's brother,
favoured by the, ii. no sqq.
Kombengi, the Toradja maker of men,
i- 13
Konga Vellalas, marriage of cross-cousins
among the, ii. 106
Koniags, of Alaska, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 560 sq.
Konkan, in Bombay Presidency, mock
marriage of widower in, i. 527 ; stones
anointed in, ii. 73, 74; custom of
driving nails and horseshoes into
threshold in, iii. 12; milk not drunk by
mourners in, 138 ; custom of tattooing
female children in, 195 «.■*
Konkani Brahmans, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 120
Kookies, of Northern Cachar, their use
of a stone at marriage ceremony, ii. 404
Kootenay Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 323
Koran, on marriage with cousins, ii.
130 n.^ \ story of Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba in the, 567 sq. ; pass-
ages of the, used as charms, iii. 413
Korannas allow women to milk cows, iii.
135
Koravas, Korachas, or Yerkalas, cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 108 sq.
Korkus , their story of the creation of man,
i. 18 sq.; their fiction of a new birth,
ii. 33 sq. ; the sororate and levitate
among the, 294 sq. ; serving for a wife
among the, 344 sq.
Korwas, their respect for the threshold,
iii. 5
Koryaks, their way of averting plague, i.
410, 413 ; ultimogeniture among the,
476 ; superiority of the first wife among
the, 556 ; cousin marriage among the,
ii. 139 sq.; the classificatory system
among the, 242 ; the sororate and
levirate among the, 297 ; serving for
a wife among the, 361
Koshchei the Deathless, Russian story of,
ii. 491 sqq.
Kottai Vellalas, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 107
Kotvalias, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 127
INDEX
525
Koumuks, of the Caucasus, mutilation
of ears of mourners among the, iii.
256
Kru people of Liberia, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 329
Kublai Khan, iii. 2
Kuinmurbura terms for husband and wife,
ii- 314
Kuki clans, the old, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 551
Lushai tribes of Assam, their oath
of peace, i. 406 n. ; the sororate and
levirate among the, ii. 296 ; serving for
a wife among the, 348 sq.
Kukis of Manipur, their story of the
origin of the diversity of language, i.
385 ; of Chittagong, their law of blood
revenge, iii. 415 sq.
Kuklia in Cyprus, sacred stone at, ii. 73
Kulamans, of Mindanao, serving for a
wife among the, ii. 360
Kulin tribe, cousin marriage prohibited
in the, ii. 192
Kulu, cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 130
Kumaon, fiction of a new birth in, ii. 32
Kumis, their story of the creation of man,
i. 17 sq.
Kunamas, rule as to widow marriage
among the, ii. 281 71.^
Kunbis, of India, their precautions against
ghost of deceased husband at marriage
of his widow, i. 528 sq.\ cross-cousin
marriage among the, ii. 124 sq.
Kunjras, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 128
Kunti or Pritha, mother of Kama by the
Sun-god, ii. 451
Kunyan, the hero of a flood story, i. 310
Kurmis, their respect for the threshold,
iii. 5
Kurnai of Victoria, their story of a great
flood, i. 234 ; their terms for husband
' and wife, ii. 313 ; their bodily lacera-
tions in mourning, iii. 292
Kurnandaburi terms for husband and
wife, ii. 314
Kurubas, marriage with a cross-cousin or
a niece among the, ii. 116; the soro-
rate among the, 292
Kurukkals, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107
Kutus, on the Congo, silence of widows
among the, iii. 72
Kyganis, their bodily lacerations in
mourning, iii. 278
Kwakiutl Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 320 sq. ; silence of w idows and
widowers among the, iii. 73 ; their dis-
posal of the afterbirth of girls, 207 ;
their treatment of dead child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
247
Laban, his dispute with Jacob, ii. 399 i^.
Labillardiere, on the mutilation of fingers
in the Tonga Islands, iii. 223 «."
Labrador, the Eskimo of, ii. 546
Lacerations of the body in mourning, iii.
227 sqq. , 270 sqq.
Laconia, sanctuary of Ino in, ii. 50 ;
Gythium in, 60
Ladder, Jacob's, ii. 41 ; the heavenly,
52 sqq.
Ladders to facilitate descent of gods or
spirits, ii. 55 sq. ; in graves for use of
the ghosts, 56 sqq.
Ladon, the River, i. 164
Lai, a Toradja god, i. 13
Laius, King of Thebes, slain by his son
Oedipus, ii. 446
Lake Albert, the god of, and his pro-
phetess, iii. 479
Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, iii. 5
Lall, Panna, on the levirate in India, ii.
340 n.^
Lamarck, on universal primeval ocean, i.
343
Lamas, their ceremonies during an earth-
quake, i. 357
Lambs, unlucky to count, ii. 561, 562
Lamgang, of Manipur, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 555
Lam pong, district of Sumatra, superiority
of the first wife in, i. 558 ; serving for
a wife in, ii. 353
Lavisena, the practice of serving for a
wife, ii. 343 sq.
Land, private property in, i. 443, 452
Landak, district of Dutch Borneo, penalty
for incest in, ii. 174
Landamas, of Senegal, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 318
Lane, E. W. , on Arab preference for mar-
riage with father's brother's daughter,
ii. 256, 258
Language, story of the origin of, i. 38,
362 ; the primitive, of mankind, at-
tempts to discover, 375 sqq. ; the diver-
sities of, stories of their origin, 384 sqq. ,
569
spoken in Paradise, theories as to
the, i. 374 sq.
Laos, newly married pair resides for some
time with wife's parents in, ii. 352 ;
treatment of newborn children in, iii.
173 -f?-
Lapps unwilling to count themselves, ii.
560 ; their custom as to milking rein-
deer, iii. 136
Larakia tribe, of Australia, their custom
of mutilating the fingers, iii. 205
Larka Kols, or Lurka Coles, their story
of a great flood, i. 195. See Hos
La Rochelle, bell of the Protestant chapel
at, punished for heresy, iii. 443
526
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Lasch, R. , on oaths, i. 407
Latham, R. G., on ultimogeniture, i.
465 «.i
Latukas, of the Upper Nile, cause a
bridal pair to step over sheep's blood
on entering their new home, iii. 16 sq.
Laubo Maros, a chief whose life was said
to be in a hair of his head, ii. 486 sq.
Laurel and olive, fable of their rivalry, ii.
474 sqq-
Lausanne, the Bishop of, his trial and
condemnation of a sort of vermin called
inger, iii. 431 sq. ; leeches prosecuted
at, 432 sq.
Law, primogeniture in Kafir, i. 553 sq. ;
German, as to mandrake, 564 ; legal
fiction to mark a change of status in
early, ii. 28 ; Mohammedan, as to
marriage with relations, 130 ; how a
new, comes into operation, 235 ;
Arabian, of marriage with father's
brother's daughter, 255 ; order of heirs
to be called to the succession in the
evolution of, 281 ; a gradual growth,
not a sudden creation, iii. 93 sq.\ of
ordeal, Jewish, 306 ; of blood-revenge
revealed to Noah, 415
, Hindoo, on privileges of first wife,
i. 554 ; as to marriage of cousins, ii.
99 sq. ; the levirate in, 340
, the, of Israel, iii. 91 sqq. ; its place
in Jewish history, 93 sqq.\ originally
oral, not written, loi sq.
Laws, new, rest on existing custom and
public opinion, iii. 94 ; local, in France
before the Revolution, their multiplicity
and diversity, 95
directed against the marriage of near
kin, three stages in the evolution of, ii.
238
Laws of Manu on cousin marriage, ii.
100 ; on younger brother who marries
before his elder brother, 286
Lead, divination by molten, ii. 433
Leah and Rachel, Jacob's marriage with,
ii. 97
and the mandrakes, ii. 373
Leaping over the threshold, iii. g
Lebanon, the oaks of, iii. 30 sq., 38, 48
Leeches prosecuted at Lausanne, iii.
432 sq.
Lees of palm-wine not allowed to be
heated, iii. 119
"Left-hand wife," i. 551 sqq.
Legend and myth distinguished, i. 359 ;
told to explain the custom of ampu-
tating finger-joints, iii. 221
Legislation, primitive, reflects the tend-
ency to personify external objects, iii.
445
and codification distinguished, iii. 94
Legislative changes, how effected, ii. 235
Legitimacy of infants tested by water
ordeal, ii. 454 sq.
Leibnitz on universal primeval ocean, i.
343 ; on Hebrew as the supposed
primitive language, 374
Leicester, Borough English in, i. 434
Leith, E. Tyrrell, on lifting bride over
the threshold, iii. 10 n.^
Lemur, revered by Malagasy, i. 32 sq.
Lengua Indians, their story of the crea-
tion of man, i. 28 ; weeping as a saluta-
tion among the, ii. 88
Lenormant, Fr., on supposed Persian
story of a deluge, i. 182 «.^
Leopard, river-spirit conceived as a, ii.
417 sq.
Lepchas of Sikhim, their story of a great
flood, i. 198 ; their womanly faces,
454 ; cousin marriage among the, ii.
134 ; serving for a wife among the,
347 -f?-
Lepers, their special garb, 1. 85
Letourneau, Charles, on ultimogeniture,
i. 441 n.^
Leucoma, an African cure for, iii. 210
Levirate, among the Hebrews, ii. 265,
340 ; limited in respect of seniority, 276,
317 ; forbidden, 292 ; in modern India,
293 sqq. ; its economic basis in Melan-
esia, 301 ; two later types of, the
economic and the religious, 339 sqq. ;
among the Australian aborigines, 341
and sororate, ii. 263 sqq. ; seem to
have originated in group marriage, 304,
317
Levitical code, its prohibition of cuttings
for the dead, iii. 272 sq.
law as to covering up blood, i. 102;
and the altar at Jerusalem, 139 ; pro-
mulgated by Ezra, iii. 109
Lewin, T. H., i. 17
Lewis and Clark, on the amputation of
finger-joints in mourning, iii. 229
Libanius on the creation of man, i.
Libanza, African god, i. 73
Libations to stones, ii. 59, 72
of milk, honey, water, wine, and
oil at a tomb, ii. 531
Liberia, the poison ordeal in, iii. 329
Libyans, their ear-rings, iii. 167
Lichanotus brevicaudatus, i. 32
Life, the bundle of, 503 sqq.
Lifu, one of the Loyalty Islands, story of
a great flood in, i. 568 ; story like that
of the Tower of Babel in. 569
Lightning, milk not to be drunk by per-
sons in a kraal struck by, iii. 140 ;
customs in regard to persons who have
been struck by, 462
Lille, ultimogenitiu^e in districts about,
i. 436 sq.
INDEX
527
Lillooet Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 321 sq. ; their notion about
ravens, iii. 25 sq.
Limboos, of Sikhim, serving for a wife
among the, ii. 348
Limentinus, Roman god of threshold, iii.
II
Lincolnshire, unlucky to count lambs in,
ii. 561 ; bride lifted over the threshold
in, iii. 9
Ling-lawn, a Shan storm-god, i. 200 sqq.
Lion, river-spirit conceived as, ii. 418
Lions, Jehovah and the, iii. 84 sqq.
Lip-long, the hero of a Shan deluge
legend, i. 201 sqq.
Lips of dead children cut, iii. 246
Lithuania, divination by molten lead in,
ii. 433 ; superstitions as to the thresh-
old in, iii. 12
Lithuanian story of a great flood, i. 176
Little Book of the Covenant, iii. 99
Gallows Man, German name for
the mandrake, ii. 381, 382
• Wood Women, Bavarian belief as
to, ii. 563
Littleton on Borough English, i. 440
Liver of goat used in expiatory ceremony,
ii. 163
Livingstone, David, on a flood story in
Africa, i. 330 ; on an African story
likethat of the Tower of Babel, 377; on
the poison ordeal, iii. 366 sq. , 377 sq.
Livy, on Roman mode of making a treaty,
i. 401 ; on the temple of Amphiaraus
at Oropus, ii. 43
Lizard, in story of the creation of man,
i. 23 ; brings message of mortality to
men, 63 sq. ; and chameleon, story of
the, 63 sq.
Lizards, men developed out of, i. 41 sq. ;
hated and killed by Zulus, 64 ; sup-
posed to be immortal through casting
their skins, 67, 74
Lkuiigen Jndians, the sororate and levi-
rate among the, ii. 273
Llama, speaking, in a flood story, i. 270
Llion, lake of, i. 175
Loango, the poison ordeal in, iii. 348 sqq.
Locusts got rid of by the payment of
tithes, iii. 426
Loftus, W. K. , on flood at Baghdad, i.
354 sq.
Lolos, aboriginal race of Southern China,
i. 212 jy. ; their story of a great flood,
213 ; ultimogeniture among the, 458 ;
said not to recognize first child of mar-
riage, 531
Lorn district of Bulgaria, ii. 252
Long Bio, a magical tree, i. 73 sq.
Longevity communicated by sympathetic
magic, i. 566 ; of the Hebrew patri-
archs, ii. 334
Longfellow on church bells in The Golden
Legend, iii. 449 sq.
Looboos, of Sumatra, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 166 j^.; serving for
a wife among the, 354
Loon in story of a great flood, i. 295,
300, 303 sq. , 308
Loowoo, the Rajah of, his contests of
wit with the Rajah of Mori, ii. 566 sqq.
Lorraine, bride carried over the thresh-
old in, iii. 9
Lotus-flower, golden, fiction of birth from,
ii- 35
Loucheux, their story of a great flood, i.
315 sq-
Louisiade Archipelago, the sororate and
levirate in the, ii. 300
Louisiana, the Natchez of, i. 27
Low, Sir Hugh, on use of bells in Borneo,
iii. 469 sq.
Lowie, Robert H., on the Assiniboins,
iii. 225 n,^
Loyalty Islands, story of a great flood in
the, i. 568
Lubeck, the Republic of, privilege of the
youngest son in, i. 438
Lucan, on the evocation of the dead
by a Tliessalian witch, ii. 531 sq. ;
on Druidical sacrifices to trees, iii.
54
Lucian on Deucalion's flood, i. 148, 153
sq. ; on the sanctuary at Hierapolis,
153 ; on worship of stones, ii. 73 ; on
mandragora, 386 ; on the sound of
bronze and iron as a means of repelling
spectres, iii. 447
Lucullus, sacrificesa bull to theEuphrates,
ii. 414
Lugal, Babylonian god, i. 115
Luisieno Indians of California, their story
of a great flood, i. 288 sq.
Lummi Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 324
Luo Zaho, supreme god in Nias, i. 15
Lupercal, the rites of the, ii. 448
Lurbing or Lurbeng, a water-snake, the
rainbow, i. 196 with note ^
Lurka Coles. See Larka Kols
Lushais of Assam, their ceremonies to
facilitate childbirth, i. 420 ; their
migratory system of cultivation, 442
sq.\ their villages, 443 jy.; ultimogeni-
ture among the, 444 sq. ; mock sales
of children to deceive demons among
the, iii. 181
I.ushei Kuki clans of Assam, their oath
of friendship, i. 399
Lyall, Sir Charles, as to systems of rela-
tionship among the hill tribes of Assam,
ii. 241 «.'
Lycorea on Parnassus, i. 148, 152
Lydians, their ear-rings, iii. 167
528
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Lyell, Sir Charles, on argument for uni-
versal deluge drawn from shells and
fossils, i. 339 sq.
Lyon, Captain G. F., on cousin marriage
among the Eskimo, ii. 142
Lysippus, his image of Love, ii. 60
Macalister, Professor Alexander, on
skeletons at Gezer, i. 420 «.^
Macalister, Professor Stewart, on human
sacrifices at Gezer, i. 416, 421
Macassars of Celebes, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 511 ;
cousin marriage among the, ii. 169
Macaulay, on a bellman's verses, iii.
456 71.'^
Macaw as wife of two men, 1. 269
Macdonald, Rev. Duff, on tribes of
British Central Africa, i. 544 n.^
Mac-Donald, king of the Isles, his oath
on the black stones, ii. 405
Macdonell, Professor A. A., on date of
Baudhayana, ii. 100 n.
Macedonia, divination by coffee in, ii.
433 ; pretended exposure and sale
of children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died in, iii. 250
Macedonian rite of purification, i. 408
Macgregor, Major C. R. , on cross-cousin
marriage among the Singphos, ii. 137
Machaerus, the castle of, ii. 391
Machiavelli's comedy Mandragola, ii.
376
Mackenzie, H. E., on Algonquin story
of a great flood, i. 297
McLennan, his derivation of the levirate
from paternal polyandry, ii. 341 n.
M'Quarrie, chief of Ulva, i. 495
Mac Rories, the origin of their name, iii.
253
Macusis, of British Guiana, their story
of a great flood, i. 265 sq. ; the soror-
ate among the, ii. 275
Madagascar, belief that dead man can
beget a child on his widow in, i. 529 n?- ;
ceremony of passing through a ring or
hoop in, ii. 27; the Betsimisaraka of,
54 ; sacred stones in, 68, 74 sqq. ; the
sororate and levirate in, 284 ; use of
stone as talisman in, 404 sq. ; the
Sakalava of, 420 ; the Sihanaka of,
iii. 72 ; hair of children left unshorn in,
188 sq.\ bad names given to children
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died in, 192 ; mutilation of fingers in
infancy in, 203 ; the poison ordeal in,
401 sqq. ; drinking written charms in,
414. See also Malagasy
Madigas, marriage with a cross-cousin
or a niece among the, ii. 114 sq.\ ex-
change of daughters in marriage
among the, 210
Madis or Morus, their custom of causing
bridal pair to step over a sacrificed
sheep at entering their house, iii. 16
Madura, marriage of cross-cousins in, ii.
104 sqq., 117
Madureeze of Java, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 510
Mafulus, of British New Guinea, pro-
hibited degrees among the, ii. 176 ;
their amputation of finger-joints in
mourning, iii. 237
Maghs, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 132
Magians sacrifice white horses to river,
ii. 414
Magic, imitative, i. 407 ; mimetic, ii. 63 ;
contagious, 92
, sympathetic, i. 414, 425, 566, ii.
424, iii. 126, 144, 162, 163, 208, 268;
based on the association of ideas, iii.
123
and religion combined, ii. 63, iii.
163 sq.
Mirror, a mode of divination, ii.
427 sqq., 431
of strangers, dread of the, i. 418 sq.
Magical use of cut hair and nails, iii. 264
and religious aspects of oaths on
stones, ii. 407
Mahabharata, story of a great flood
in the, 185 sqq., 204; story of the
exposure and preservation of Prince
Kama in the, ii. 451 sq. ; story of
King Duryodhana and the crystal
pavement m the, 568 sq. ; its date,
569 W.2
Mahadeo creates man, i. 18 sq.
Mahadeva or Siva, invoked at oaths, ii.
406 ; in relation to the custom of am-
putating finger-joints, iii. 221
Mahafaly, in Madagascar, their chiefs
not to cross certain rivers, ii. 420
Maharbal, Carthaginian general, his use
of mandragora, ii. 386
Mahars, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126 ; serving for a wife among
the, 345
Maidu Indians of California, their story
of the creation of man, i. 24 sq. ; their
story of a great flood, 290 sq. ; their
story of the origin of the diversity of
languages, 386 ; the sororate and
levirate among the, ii. 272
Maimonides, on the prohibition of seeth-
ing a kid in its mother's milk, iii. 117
Maineti and madelstad, succession of the
youngest, i. 436
Maitland, F. W., on Borough English,
i. 435 J^.; on mercket a.ud jus pnmae
noctis, 487 sq., 493 sq.
Makonde, age-grades among the, ii.
335 «-^
INDEX
529
Makunaima, a creator, i. 265, 266
Malacca, Malay code of, its provision as
to cattle that have killed people, iii.
Malachi, on the payment of tithes, iii.
426
Malagasy, stories of descent from animals
among the, i. 32 sq. \ their mode of
swearing allegiance, 403 ; their sacred
stones, ii. 74 sqq. ; cousin marriage
among the, 1^7 sqq., 255; theii Malay
or Indonesian origin, 2S4. iii. 410.
See also Madagascar
Malanaus of Borneo, their form of oath,
i. 407 W.-
Malay Peninsula, the Mentras of the,
i. 71 ; stories of a great flood in the,
211 sq. ; the Besisi and Jakun of the,
i. 58 ; the Sabimba of the, 13S ;
divination by water in the, 430
fable of dispute between plants for
precedence, ii. 477 sq.
poem recording Noah and the ark,
i. 223
region, trace.s of ultimogeniture in
the, i. 472 sq.
wizards catch souls in turbans, ii.
512
Malcolm III., Canmore, King of Scot-
land, i. 486, 48S, 489
Malekula, story of the creation of man
in, i. 12 ; bodily lacerations in mourn-
ing in, iii. 284
Malin Budhi, the Santal creator, i. 20
Malinowski, Bronislaw, on ignorance of
physical paternity in the Trobriand
Islands, ii. 204 n."^
Mails, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 119
Malleolus, Felix, his Tractatus de Exor-
cismis, iii. 432 «.^, 442 n.^
Malo, marriage with a grandmother in,
ii. 248
Malwa, Western, the Bhils of, i. 471
Mamberano River in New Guinea, i. 237
Mambuttus, the poison ordeal among
the, iii. 361 sq.
Mammoths and the great flood, i. 328 sq.
Mamre, the oaks or terebinths at, iii. 54
sq., },■] sq., 59, 61
Man, creation of, i. 3 sqq. ; the Fall of,
45 sqq. ; antiquity of, 169 «.' See also
Men
Man, E. H., on mourning customs in
the Nicobar Islands, iii. 232 «.^
Manas, of India, their precautions against
ghost of deceased husband at marriage
of his widow, i. 529 ; cross-cousin
marriage among the, ii. 123
Manasseh, King. Deuteronomy perhaps
written in his reign, iii. 103 ; his
revival of necromancy, 523
VOL. Ill
Mandace, mother of Cyrus, ii. 441
Mandadan Chettis, serving for a wife
among the, ii. 346
Mandailing, in Sumatra, story of descent
of men from tigers in, i. 35 ; cross-
cousin marriage in, ii. 166 sq. ; the
Looboos of, 166, 354
Mandan Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 292 sqq. ; their oracular stone,
ii. 70 ; the sororate among the, 269 sq. ;
their sacrifice of fingers to the Great
Spirit, iii. 224 ; their custom of am-
putating finger-joints in mourning, 229
Mandayas, of Mindanao, their story of a
great flood, i. 225
Mandla, cross-cousin marriage in, ii.
120 sq. ; the levirate in, 295 ; the
Baigas of, iii. 87 ; jimgle-priests of,
Mandragora officinal um or officinalis, ii.
372 «.2
Mandragoritis, epithet of Aphrodite, ii.
375
Mandrake inherited by youngest son, 1.
564, ii. 382 ; manlike shape of root
of, 377; folk-lore of the, 377 n.'- ;
geographical distribution of the, 378
sq. ; distinction of sexes in the, 378 ;
depicted in human form, 378, 388 ;
Turkish and Arabic names for, 380 sq. ;
extracted by dog, 381 sq. ; supposed to
grow from drippings of a man on a
gallows, 381 sq.; its shrieks at being
uptorn, 381, 384, 385 ; thought to
bring riches, 382, 383, 384, 386 j^. ;
narcotic property attributed to the, 385
sq.; danger of uprooting the, 394 sq.,
395 ^1-
goblin, ii. 383
Mandrakes, Jacob and the, ii. 372 sqq. ;
artificial, 378 sqq. ; as talismans, 387 ;
later Jewish version of the story about
Reuben and the, 393 ; supposed to
make barren women conceive, iii. 372
sqq.
Man-eating lions and tigers, rites to pre-
vent the ravages of, iii. 87, 88 sqq.
Mangaia, story of a great flood in, i.
246 sqq. ; cousin marriage in, ii. 185
sq. ; the sororate in, 302 ; mourning
customs in, iii. 290
Mangars of Nepaul, their ladders for the
dead, ii. 56 sq.
Manica, in Portuguese East Africa, the
poison ordeal in, iii. 375
Manipur, ultimogeniture in, i. 446 sq,\
superiority of the first wife in, 555 sq.
Manjhis or Majhwars, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 128
Alankie, chief, i. 469, 470
Mansela, district of Ceram, cousin mar-
riage in, ii. 168 ; the sororate in, 299
2 M
530
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
" Mantle children," adopted children,
ii. 28
Mantras. See Mentras
Manu, the hero of the ancient Indian
story of a great flood, i. 183 sgq., 336
.Manu, Laws of, on cousin marriage, ii.
100 ; on younger brother who marries
before his elder brother, 286
Mdnvantara, a mundane period, i. 189
Mao tribes of Manipur, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 446 sq.
Maoris, their story of the creation of
man. i. 8 sq.; their stories of a great
flood, 250 sqq. ; superiority of chiefs
first wile among the, 558 sq.\ weeping
as d salutation among the, ii. 84 sqq. ;
evocation of the dead among the,
538 sqq. ; their amputation of finger-
joints in inourning, iii. 238 sq. ; bodily
lacerations in mourning among the,
290 sq.
Marars, serving for a wife among the,
"■ 345
Maratha country, the South, cross-cousin
marriage in, ii. 120
Brahmans, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 124
Marathas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 126
Maravars or Maravans, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 107
Marawat, a Melanesian creator, i. 12
Marcheta mulierum, i. 486. See Mer-
chet.
Marco Polo, on defloration of brides in
Tibet, i. 531 sq. ; on keepers of the
threshold at Peking, iii. 2 sq.
Mardudhunera, rules as to cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 191 ; terms for
husband and wife, 315
Marduk, Babylonian god, i. 366, 367,
368, 369, 370. See also Merodach
Mare, child at birth placed inside a, i.
413 ; cut in pieces at inauguration of
Irish king, 416 ; executed by the
Parliament of Aix, iii. 441
Margaret, Queen of Scotland, i. 489
Marie de France, her fables, ii. 478
Marindineeze of New Guinea, their story
of the origin of man, i. 37 sqq. ; their
mysteries, 39 ; their evocation of the
dead, ii. 542
Mariner, William, on the Tonga Islands,
iii. 211 «.^ ; on bodily lacerations of
the Tongans in mourning, 288 sq.
Mark of Brandenburg, custom as to
milking cows in, iii. 131
Mark of Cain, i. 78 sqq.
Marking the bodies of the dead to know
them at their next birth, iii. 244, 247
Marks incised on executioner's body, i.
90, 91
Marndi tribe of Santals,
t96, 197,
Marquesas Islands, Nukahiva, one of
the, ii. 331 ; bodily lacerations of
women in mourning in the, iii. 290
Marriage, the practice of continence
after, i. 497 sqq. ; mock, of widowers
and widows in India, 525 sqq. ; use of
sacrificial skins at, ii. 12 j^r. ; Jacob's,
94 m-
by capture comparatively rare in
aboriginal Australia, ii. 199 sq.; sup-
posed relic of, iii. 10
of cousins, ii. 97 sqq. ; supposed to
blight the rice, 171 ; probably older
than recognition of physical paternity,
205 sq. ; among the Arabs, 255 sqq.
of cross-cousins, why favoured, ii.
193 sqq. ; a consequence of the ex-
change of sisters in marriage, 205,
209 sq. ; in relation to totemism and
the classificatory system, 223 sqq.
of near kin, growing aversion to,
ii. 182, 226, 236, 245 sq.; stages in
the evolution of laws directed against,
238
of widow or widower, precautions
against ghost of deceased husband or
wife at the, i. 523 sqq. ; with a niece,
the daughter of a sister, ii. 105, 109,
1135^^.; with elder sister's daughter,
109, 113 sqq., 118; with father's sister's
daughter forbidden, 118, 124, 126,
128, 136, 139, 165, 166, 167, 168 ;
of near relations supposed to be in-
fertile, 163 sq.; of first cousins, grow-
ing aversion to, 182 ; of brothers with
sisters, prevented by the dual organiza-
tion, 233 ; with a grandmother, 247
sqq. ; with a granddaughter, 247 sqq. ;
with a mother-in-law among the
Garos, 253 sq. ; with the father's
brother's daughter, 255 j^^. ; regulated
by seniority or juniority, 317 sq., 336
sqq. ; ceremony, use of stones in, 404
with the wife of a mother's brother
in Melanesia, ii. 247 sqq. ; traces of
it in Africa and America, 251 «.^ ;
among the Garos, 252 sqq.
Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus,
ii. 447 sq.
Marsden, W. , on marriage customs in
Sumatra, ii. 218 sq.
Marseilles, Druidical grove at, iii. 54
Marti, K., on the supposed original Ten
Conmiandments, iii. 116 n.^
Masada, fortress of, iii. 25
Masai, the bodies of manslayers painted
by the, i. 95 sq. ; reported tradition of
a great flood among the, 330 sq. ; their
mode of ratifying an oath, 395 ; supe-
riority of the first wife among the, 541 ;
INDEX
531
their ethnical aflRnity, ii. 5 ; their use
of victim's skin at sacrifices, 18 ; their
custom of spitting as a salutation, 92
sq. ; cousin marriage forbidden among
the, 164 ; age-grades among the, 323
sq. ; their ceremony at crossing a
stream, 417 ; will not count men or
beasts, 556 sq. ; their sacrifices to
trees, iii. 53 sq. ; their objection to
boil milk,* 120 ; their custom as to
cleaning their milk-vessels, 125 ; allovvf
women to milk cows, 135 ; their cus-
tom as to drinking milk, 148 n.^ ;
their rule to keep milk and flesh apart,
150, 151 sq.; warriors not allowed to
eat vegetables, 156 ; formerly ate no
game or fish, 158 sq.\ country, abund-
ance of game in the, 159 ; their treat-
ment of boy whose elder brother has
died, 196 ; their ordeal of drinking
blood, 397
Masks or cowls worn by girls after cir-
cumcision, ii. 330
Masmasalanich, a North American
creator, i. 320
Massachusetts, incident in the war of,
with the Indians, ii. 469
Masseboth, sacred stones in Canaanite
sanctuaries and "high places" of
Israel, ii. 77, iii. 62 n.^
Massim of British New Guinea, their
treatment of manslayers, i. 97
Massorets, the, i. 358
Masuren, remedies for milk tainted with
blood in, iii. 131 ; baptismal custom
in, 254
Matabele, the sororate among the, ii.
278 ; custom of father paying for
his own children to his wife's father
among the, 356 w.^
Mati'ilu, prince, his oath of fealty, i.
401 sq.
Matthews, John, on the poison ordeal
in Sierra Leone, iii. 323 sqq.
Matthioli, Andrea, on artificial man-
drakes, ii. 379
Maundrell, Henry, on mandrakes in
Palestine, ii. 374
Mauretanians, their ear-rings, iii. 167
Mauss, Marcell, on cousin marriage
among the Eskimo, ii. 143 n.^
Mawatta, in British New Guinea, ex-
change of sisters in marriage in, ii.
214 sqq.
Mazatecs, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 515 '
Mazovian legend of a celestial ladder, ii.
Mboundou, poison used in ordeal, iii.
342. 343. 344. 345. 347. 348 «.*.
349 «-^ 351 «•^ 356
Mecca, the Black Stone at, ii. 59
Medasor Medaras, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 113 ; the sororate
among the, 292
Medicine-men, or witch-doctors employed
to detect witchcraft, iii. 353, 355, 357,
358, 359. 361. 364 -f?-. 372 sqq., 379,
385 ^'7-. 387 ^qq- 393. 395. 396. 397.
398, 479
Medium, human, of rock-spirit, ii. 69
Mediums, human, representing dead
kings and chiefs, ii. 533 sqq.\ their
faces whitened in order to attract the
attention of the spirits, 536 ; who
communicate with the dead, 543 sqq.
Megara, Apollo Carinus at, ii. 60
Megarians, their story of Deucalion's
flood, i. 148
Megarus, son of Zeus, in Deucalion's
flood, i. 148
Meinam River at Bangkok, com-
manded by the king to retire, ii.
421
Meitheis of Manipur, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 448 ; superiority of the
first wife among the, 555 sq.
Mekeo district of British New Guinea,
cousin marriage in the, ii. 175, 176 ;
amputation of finger-joints in mourning
in the, iii. 237
Melanesia, stories of a great flood in, i.
239 sqq.\ worship of stones in, ii. 60
sqq.; the marriage of cousins in, 177
sqq. ; exogamous classes in, 222 ; the
classificatory system in, 244 ; anomal-
ous forms of marriage in, 247 sqq.\
the levirate in, 301
Melanesian stories of the creation of man,
i. 12 ; of the origin of death, 68 sqq.,
75
Meliosma leaves, iii. 144
Melissa, her ghost consulted by Peri-
ander, ii. 526 sq.
Melville Island tribe, their terms for
husband and wife, ii. 315
Men descended from animals, i. 29 sqq. ;
supposed to have been formerly im-
mortal through casting their skins, 68
sqq. ; produced from eggs, ii. 135. See
also Man
Menaboshu, Ojibway hero of a great
flood, i. 301 sqq.
Menado in Celebes, i. 35
Menander, on the passage of Alexander
the Great through the sea, ii. 457
Menangkabaw Malays of Sumatra, the
sororate and levirate among the, ii.
299
Minarikam, custom of marriage with
a cross-cousin, the daughter of a
mother's brother, ii. no, 113, 116
118
Menelaus and Proteus, ii. 412 sq.
532
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Menkieras, of the French Sudan, their
sacrifices to rock and stones, ii. 69 ;
the sororate among the, 283 sq.
Menstruous women not to drink milk or
come into contact with cattle, iii. 128
sqq.\ not to touch cow's dung, 129 w.*
Mentawei Islands, symbolic oath in the,
i. 406
Mentras or Mantras of the Malay Penin-
sula, their story of the origin of death,
i. 71 sq.
Mephistopheles and Faust in the prison,
ii. 411
Mefcket, mercketa, marcheta,marchetiim,
due paid to a feudal lord on the mar-
riage of a tenant's daughter, i. 440,
486 sqq., 530
Meribah, the waters of, ii. 463 sq.
Marker, M. , on the drinking of milk
among the Masai, iii. 120 n.^ ; on not
eating flesh and milk together, 152 n.^
Merodach (Marduk), Babylonian god,
'• 37O1 37ii 371 '^-^ See also Marduk
Merolla da Sorrento, Jerom, on the
poison ordeal in Congo, iii. 351 sq.
Mesopotamians, their ' ear-rings, iii. 166
sq.
Message, story of the Perverted, i. 52
sqq. , 74 sqq.
Messou, hero of a flood story, i. 296
Meteoric stones, oaths on, ii. 406
Mexican parallel to the story of Jacob's
wrestling, ii. 424 sq.
Mexicans, the ancient, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 515 ;
their custom of drawing blood from
their ears, iii. 256 sqq.
Mexico, story of the creation of man in,
i. 27 ; stories of a great flood in, 274
sqq.
Meyer, Ed., i. 120 w.^, 121 n."^ ,
Miao-kia of China, their worship of
stones, ii. 67 sq.
Miaos, of Southern China, cross-cousin
marriage among the, ii. 138
Mice, lawsuits brought against, iii. 430
sq. , 437 sq.
Michael, the Archangel, his contention
with Satan for the body of Moses, iii.
425, 427 M.i
Michemis, a Tibetan tribe, use of bells at
exorcism among the, iii. 467
Michoacans, their story of the creation of
man, i. 27 ; their story of a great
flood, 275 sq.
Micronesia, story of a great flood in, i.
253 ^^^
Midas and his ass's ears, i. 123 ; how he
caught Silenus, ii. 413
Midianites defeated by Gideon, ii. 466 sq.
Midsummer Eve or Day, the time for
gathering the mandrake, ii. 382, 387 I
Midsummer Eve, divination on, ii. 432 ;
a witching time, iii. 455
Migration of Mongoloid tribes from China
into Burma and Assam, i. 465 sq.
Migratory system of agriculture, i. 442,
447. 450 -f?-
Mikirs of Assam, their story like that of
the Tower of Babel, i. 383 ; cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 132 ;
traces of the classificatory System among
the, 241 ; serving for a wife among
the, 349 sq.
Milanos of Sarawak, their evocation of
the dead, ii. 543 sqq.
Milas, marriage with a cross-cousin or a
niece among the, ii. 116
Milk offered to stones, ii. 72 ; poured on
sacred stones, 74 ; poured at tombs,
531, 536 sq.; offered to trees, iii. 53 ;
not to seethe a kid in its mother's,
III sqq. ; not to be boiled for fear of
injuring the cows, 118 sqq.\ the first,
of a cow after calving, special rules as
to the disposal of, 120 sq., 123, 139
sq., 143 sq. ; superstitious remedies
for milk tainted with blood, 130 sq. ;
to be boiled in certain cases, 139 sq.;
fresh, rules as to the drinking of, 142
sq.; curdled, use of, 142 sq.; bond
between persons who have drunk milk
together, 147 n.; eaten in form of
sour curds, 148 ; not to be brought
into contact with flesh, 150 sqq.; not
to be eaten with beef, 151 sqq. ; not to
be brought into contact with vege-
tables, 150, 152.?^., i^^ sqq.; offered
to sacred snakes, 218
and cow, rules of pastoral people
based on a supposed sympathetic bond
between, iii. 125 sqq.
not to be drunk by menstruous
women, iii. 128 sqq. ; not to be drunk
by wounded men, 131 ; not to be
drunk by women in childbed, 131 sq.;
not to be drunk by mourners, 136 sqq.
of cow that has just calved, expia-
tion for newly married woman who has
drunk the, ii. 22
vessels not to be washed, iii. 125 ;
their materials supposed to affect the
cow, 126 sqq.
Millaeus, on the shaving of witches, ii.
485
Milton, on the Ladon, i. 164 ; on the
bellman, iii. 456
Milya-uppa tribe, cut themselves in
mourning, iii. 296
Mimetic magic, ii. 63
Minahassa, in Celebes, story of the crea-
tion of man, i. 13 sq.; descent of men
from apes in, 35 ; story of a great
flood in, 222 sq. ; cousin marriage in.
INDEX
533
ii. 171 j^.; souls of a family collected
in a bag at housewaimiug in, 507
Mindanao, one of the Philippines, stories
of the creation of man in, i. 16,
17 ; stories of a great flood in, 225 ;
the Bagobos of, 558, ii. 359 ; the
Kulamans of, 360
Mingrelians of the Caucasus, their mourn-
ing customs, iii. 275 sq.
Minnetarees, their oracular stone, ii. 70
sq. ; traces of marriage with a mother's
brother's wife among the, 251 n."^ ;
the sororate and levirate among the,
267 sq.
Minos and Scylla, the daughter of Nisus,
ii. 490
Minuanes, their amputation of finger-
joints in mourning, iii. 230
Miranhas, of Brazil, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 559
Mirzapur, the Kharwars and Parahiyas
of, i. 555 ; cross-cousin marriage in,
ii. 128 ; the Korwas of, iii. 5
Mishmees, serving for a wife among the,
ii. z^osq.
Mithan, kind of bison, i. 399 n.^
Mizpah, the Watch-Tower, ii. 402
Mkulwe, in East Africa, story like that
of the Tower of Babel in, i. 377 sq.
Moab, the Arabs of, i. 102, 409, 425, iii.
49 sq., 136, 263, 273; their prefer-
ence for marriage with a cousin, ii.
257 sq. See also Arabs
terebinths in, iii. 47 sqq. ; rites of
mourning in, 271
• Moave, inuavi, mwavi, poison used in
ordeal, iii. 354, 370, 371 n.^, 378,
380. 383. 384. 386, 393. 394. 395.
396
Mock marriages of widowers and widows
in India, i. 525 sqq.
Moffat, Robert, on absence of flood stories
in Africa, i. 330
Mohammedan law as to division of pro-
perty among sons, i. 484 ; as to mar-
riage with relations, ii. 130
saints in Syria, the tombs of, iii.
39 m-
Mohammedans of Ceylon, marriage of
cross-cousins among the, ii. 102
of India, cousin marriage among
the. ii. 130 sq., 255
of Sierra Leone and Morocco, their
superstitions as to boiling milk, iii. 118
sq., 123
Mois, serving for a wife among the, ii.
352
Moisy, mad bull tried and hanged at, iii.
440 sq.
Mokololo, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 381
Mole sacrificed in purification, ii. 25
Molina, J. I., on Araucanian story of a
great flood, i. 262 sq.
Moloch, sacrifice of children to, iii. 53
Molossians, their mode of swearing an
oath, i. 394
Molten lead or wax, divination by, ii. 433
Moluccas, stories of descent of men from
animals in the, i. 36
Mondarus, marriage with a cross-cousin
or a niece among the, ii. 116
Mondis, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107
Money, German belief about counting,
ii. 562
Mongolian tribes of Eastern India, cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 132 sq.
type, i. 454
Mongoloid peoples, their migration from
China into Burma and Assam, i. 465 sq,
tribes, ultimogeniture among, i.
441 ; of Assam, traces of totemism and
the classificatory system among the,
ii. 241 ; of North-Eastern India, the
custom of serving for a wife among
the, 347
Mongols, their story of a great flood, i.
217 ; their superstition as to an earth-
quake, 357 ; ultimogeniture among
the, 441
Montagnais Indians of Canada, their
stories of a great flood, i. 295 sqq.
Monteiro, J. J. , on the poison ordeal in
Angola, iii. 367 sqq.
Montenegro, continence after marriage
in, i. 504 ; laceration of the face in
mourning in, iii. 275
Montezuma, hero of a flood story, i. 282
Mooloola tribe of Queensland, their
custom of mutilating the fingers of
women, iii. 205
Moon, the creation of the, i. 15, 25 ;
savage theory of the phases of the, 52 ;
sends messages of immortality to men,
52 sqq. ; associated with idea of resur-
rection, 71 sqq. ; fire obtained from
the, after the flood, 289 sq.; the ark
interpreted as the, 342 ; temple of the,
408
Moore, Professor G. F. , on the Hebrew
words for tree, iii. 47 n.; on the sup-
posed original Ten Commandments,
116 «.i
Moors of Morocco, their notion of pollu-
tion caused by homicide, i. 82 ; of
Andalusia, their name for the man-
drake, ii. 390
Mopsus, the soothsayer, his oracle in
Cilicia, ii. 528 sq.
Moqui Indians. See Hopi
Moquis, of Arizona, their use of bells to
exorcize witches, iii. 464 sq.
Moral standard, change in the, i. 430
534
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Morasu caste, amputation of finger-joints
as a religious rite in the, iii. 213 sqq.
• Okkahis, marriage with a cross-
cousin or a niece among the, ii. 114 ;
a section of the Morasu caste, iii. 215
Wakaligas, iii. 216
Mordvins, marriage with a deceased
wife's sister among the, ii. 298 ; evoca-
tion of the dead among the, 551 sqq.\
their custom of carrying a bride into
the house, iii. 7
Morgan, Lewis H., on the sororate
among the Indians of North America,
ii. 266 ; on origin of the sororate,
304 n.^ \ on the amputation of finger-
joints in mourning, iii. 228 sq.
Morgenstern, Julian, i. 50 «.'^, 51 n.^
Mori, the Rajah of, his contests of wit
with the Rajah of Loowoo, ii. 566 sq.
Morice, Father A. G., on cousin mar-
riage among the Western Tinnehs, ii.
144 sq.
Morning Star, sacrifice of fingers to the,
iii. 226 ; in the religion of North
American Indians, 226 n.^ ; seed-corn
offered to, 226 n.^
Morning-Star Woman, the first woman,
i. 25
Morocco, notions as to pollution of homi-
cide in, i. 82 ; consummation of mar-
riage deferred in, 514 ; precautions
against demons at marriage in, 523 ;
reported defloration of bride by men
other than their husbands in, 534 71.^ ;
preference for marriage with the father's
brother's daughter in, ii. 259 ; super-
stitious respect for the threshold in, iii.
5, 6, 12, 16 ; superstitions as to boil-
ing milk in, 118 sq., 123 ; drinking
written charms in, 413
Mortality of man, account of its origin,
i. 47 sqq.
Mortlock Islands, the sororate in the, ii.
302
Mosaic legislation, the so-called, its late
date, iii. 96, 97
Moses, said to be a contemporary of
Ogyges, i. 159 ; the historical character
of, ii. 437 sq. , iii. 97 ; in the ark of
bulrushes, ii. 437 sqq. ; the infant,
found and brought up by Pharaoh's
daughter, 439 ; offspring of a mar-
riage afterwards deemed incestuous,
454 ; and the waters of Meribah, 463
Moslems, Indian, their vicarious sacri-
fices at Baghdad, i. 427
Mosquito Indians, superiority of first
wife among the, i. 560
Mossi, exchange of daughters in marriage
among the, ii. 218 ; divination by
water among the, 430 ; conquerors,
employ aboriginal priests of Earth, iii.
86 sq. ; the poison ordeal among the,
319
Mota, story of the creation of man in,
i. 12
Mother assimilated to sheep, ii. 9, 10
in-law, avoidance of, ii. 180 ; mar-
riage with, among the Garos, 253
kin among the Khasis, i. 459 sq. ;
among the Garos, 463 sq. ; a man's
sister's son his heir under, ii. 220 ?i.'^
" Motherhoods " among the Garos, i. 464
Mother's brother, his right of disposing of
his sister's children, ii. 203 sqq.; mar-
riage with the wife of, in Melanesia,
247 sqq. ; traces of it in Africa and
America, 251 n.^ ; among the Garos,
252 sqq.
brother's daughter, marriage with,
allowed or preferred, ii. 97 sqq., loi
sqq., 109 sqq., 126 sqq., 131 sqq., 139,
143 sqq.. 149 ^i-?-. 165 .f;??., 177 sqq.,
187 sqq.
elder brother's daughter, marriage
with, ii. 187, 318, 337 sq.
sister in classificatory system, ii. 155
Motley, J. L. , on great inundation of
Holland, i. 344 sqq.
Motu, in British New Guinea, noses of
children bored in, iii. 260
Moulton, J. H., on the " bundle of life,"
ii. 506 n.^
Mountain, stories of a moving, i. 261, 262
Mourners abstain from drinking milk, iii.
136 sqq. ; assume new names, 236 ;
disguise themselves from the ghost,
236, 298
Mourning of murderer for his victim, i.
88 ; costume perhaps a disguise against
ghosts, 99 ; amputation of finger-joints
in, iii. 227 sqq. ; for the dead, the cus-
toms of cutting the body and the hair
in, 227 sqq. , 270 sqq. ; hair cut in, 236,
270 sqq. ; customs of Australian abori-
gines designed to propitiate the ghosts,
298 sq.
M'Pengos of the Gaboon, superiority of
the first wife among the, i. 539
Mrus, ultimogeniture among the, i. 466
sq. ; serving for a wife among the, ii.
3SO
Muato-Yamvo, an African potentate, iii.
36s
Muavi, moave, viwavi, poison used in
ordeal, iii. 354, 371 n.^, 378, 380, 383,
384, 386, 393, 394, 395, 396
Mud, head of manslayer plastered with,
i. 96 ; plastered on bodies of mourn-
ers, iii. 276
Mudarra, his adoption by his stepmother,
ii. 29
Mudburra tribe of Northern Australia,
silence of widows in the, iii. 73 sq. , 78
INDEX
535
Mujati, Babylonian god, i. 115
Muka Doras, cross - cousin marriage
among the, ii. 113
Mukams, shrines or tombs of reputed
Mohammedan saints in Syria, iii. 41
sqq.
Mukjarawaint, their bodily lacerations in
mourning, iii. 292
Mumbo Jumbo, iii. 316
Munda or Kolarian race, i. 467, 470
Mundas or Mundaris, their story of the
creation of man, i. 19 ; their story of
a great flood, 196 ; their sacred groves,
iii. 67 sq.
Mura-Muras, mythical predecessors of
the Dieri, i. 41
Muratos, of Ecuador, their story of a
great flood, i. 261 sq.
Murray Island, Torres Straits, custom of
distending the lobes of the ears in, iii.
168
River, mourning customs of the
aborigines on the, iii. 292, 293
Muses, grove of the, on Mount Helicon,
»• 445
Musk-rat brings up pnrt of drowned
earth after the flood, i. 296, 304, 306,
308, 309, 310 «.^, compare 311, 312,
315. 326
Musos of New Granada, consummation
of marriage deferred among the, i. 514
Mutilations of children to save their lives,
iii. 170, 190, 195 J^., 197 J^?.; of the
fingers, 198 sqq.; bodily, in mourning,
227 sqq. ; of dead infants, 242 sqq. ;
of human body probably superstitious
in origin, 262 ; certain corporeal, to
please the ghosts, 299 sq. See also
Amputation
Mutton not to be eaten by the king of
the Banyoro, iii. 145
Muyscas or Chibchas, of Bogota, their
story of a great flood, i. 267
Mwavi, muavi, nioave, poison used in
ordeal, iii. 354, 371 n.^, 378, 380, 383,
384, 386, 393, 394, 395. 396
Mysore, marriage with a cross-cousin or
a niece, the daughter of a sister, in, ii.
113 sqq. ; cross-cousin marriage in,
210 sq.\ exchange of daughters in
marriage in, 210 sq. ; the sororate in,
292 ; treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died in,
iii. 178, 185 ; the Morasu caste of,
213 sqq.
Mysteries, dramatic representations at,
i- 39
Myths of observation, i. 174, 360
Nabal and David, ii. 505
Nablus, its situation, ii. 471 sq. ; the
ancient Shechem, iii. 55 «.■»
Nabonidus, king of Babylon, his inscrip-
tions, i. 372 sq.
Nabu, Babylonian god, i. 367, 370
Naga tribes of Assam, peace-making
ceremonies among the, i. 398 sq.,
401 ; their worship of stones, ii. 66 sq.;
cross-cousin marriage among the, 133 ;
serving for a wife among the, 350
— — ■ tribes of Manipur, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 446 sq. ; consummation
of marriage deferred among the, 508 ;
superiority of the first wife among the,
556
Naga Padoha, a monster who supports
the earth, i. 217 sq.
Nagartas, marriage with a niece among
the, ii. 116 ; the sororate among the,
292
Nagas, the Cashmeerian, i. 204
, their reported use of poisoned
arrows, iii. 409 n.^
Nages, a people of Flores, i. 224
Nails, magical use of cut, iii. 264 ; of
deceased person used in divining the
cause of his death, 324 sq., 330
Nakawe, goddess of earth, i. 277
Naloos, of Senegal, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 318
Nftmaquas, their story of the origin of
death, i. 52 sq. ; ultimogeniture re-
ported among the, 479 ; their mode
of drinking water, ii. 467 sq. ; cause
milk-vessels to be touched by a girl at
puberty, iii. 135
Names of wife's parents and relations
not to be mentioned by her husband,
ii- 355. 370
, bad, given to children to deceive
demons, iii. 170 sq., 172, 176, 177
sqq., 191 sqq.; changed to deceive
demons, 172 ; new, assumed by
mourners, 236
Namesakes, spirits of the dead supposed
to be reborn in their, ii. 330
Namoluk, story of the creation of man
in, i. II n.^
Nanaboujou, an Ottawa hero of a flood
story, i. 308
Nanchinad Vellalas, marriage of cross-
cousins among the, ii. 106
Nandi, their story of the origin of death,
i. 54 sq. ; their treatment of man-
slayers, 96 ; their modes of making
peace, 395, 399 ; superiority of the
first wife among the, 540 sq. ; their
ethnical affinity, ii. 5 ; their use of
sacrificial skins at marriage, 13 ; their
periodical transference of power from
older to younger generation, 25 sq. ;
their age-grades, 25 sq. , 328 sq. ; their
use of spittle in making a covenant,
92, 93 ; their totemic clans, 328 ; the
536
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
classificatory system among the, 328 ;
their ceremonies at circumcision, 329
sq. ; their respect for the threshold, iii.
5,6; their beliefs and customs about
hyenas, 28 sq. ; silence of widows among
the, 72 ; their objection to boil milk,
122 ; their rules as to a mother of twins,
132 ; as to milking of cows, 135 ; do
not let wounded men drink milk, 131 ;
taboos observed by persons who have
handled corpses among the, 137 ; their
custom as to drinking milk, 148
«.^; do not eat meat and milk to-
gether, 153 ; do not eat certain wild
animals, 1,57 sq. ; their treatment of a
child whose elder brothers and sisters
have died, 175 ; their treatment of
persons whose elder brother or sister
has died, 196 ; their magical cere-
mony to prevent a prisoner from run-
ning away, 264 ; use of bells at cir-
cumcision among the, 477
Nannacus, king of Phrygia, and the
flood, i. 155
Naoda, caste of ferrymen, their precaution
against demons at marriage, i. 521 sq.
Naogeorgus, Thomas, on the use of
church bells to drive away thunder-
storms, iii. 457
Napoleon, his code, iii. 95
Narayan Deo, the sun, pigs sacrificed to
him on the threshold, iii. 17
Narrinyeri, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 512 ; superiority
of the first wife among the, 559 ; cousin
marriage prohibited among the, ii.
192 sq. ; exchange of women for wives
among the, 196 sq. , 203 ; their mourn-
ing customs, iii. 294
Nasamones, of Libya, their oracular
dreams on graves, ii. 530
Nasilele, the moon, i. 57
Natchez Indians of Louisiana, their story
of the creation of man, i. 27 ; of the
Lower Mississippi, their story of a
great flood, 291 sq.
Nateotetain women cut off finger-joints
in mourning, iii. 227
Nattamans or Udaiyans, marriage of
cross-cousins among the, ii. 105
Nattukottai Chettis, marriage of cross-
cousins among the, ii. 106
Natural laws hardly recognized by the
ancient Hebrews, iii. 108
Nature, primitive tendency to personify,
ii. 396 sq.
Naubandhana Mountain, i. 187, 204
Naudowessies, serving for a wife among
the, ii. 366
Nauplius exposes Telephus, ii. 445
Navahos destroy a house in which a
death has occurred, iii. 234
Navel-strings, the disposal of, supposed
to affect the character and abilities of
their owners, iii. 206 sqq. ; hidden for
safety, 208 n.'^
Nayindas, marriage with a cross-cousin
or a niece among the, ii. 114
Ndengei, great Fijian god, i. 239
Nebo, Babylonian god, i. 370
, Mount, iii. 44
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his
capture of Jerusalem, i. 131 ; inscrip-
tions of, 366, 368 sq.
Necklaces as amulets, iii. 196
Necromancy among the ancient Hebrews,
ii. 522 sqq. ; among the ancient Greeks
and Romans, 525 sqq.\ in Africa, 533
sqq. ; in Polynesia, 538 sqq. ; in the
Indian Archipelago, 542 sqq. ; in China,
546 sqq. ; among the Mordvins of
Russia, 551 sqq.
Negroes, totemism among the, ii. 243
Nelson, E. W. , on cousin marriage
among the Eskimo, ii. 141 sq.
Nelson, J. H., on cousin marriage, ii,
105 n?-
Nemea in Argolis, to which Deucalion
escaped, i. 148
Nenebojo, hero of an Ojibvvay flood
story, i. 305 sq.
Neoptolemus, his grave at Delphi, ii. 73
Nepaul, the Mangars of, ii. 56
Neptune, how he helped the Romans at
the siege of New Carthage, ii. 459,
460
Nergal, Babylonian god of the dead, ii.
525
Nero, his evocation of the ghost of Agrip-
pina, ii. 532
Nestorian Christianity in China, i. 213
sq.; among the Tartars, i. 214 n.^
Nets to keep off demons from women in
childbed, iii. 475
Neubauer, A. , his edition of The Book of
Tobit, i. 517 «.i
Neufville, J. B. , on ultimogeniture among
the Kachins, i. 450
Neuhauss, R. , on flood stories in New
Guinea, i. 238 sq.
Neusohl, in Hungary, the passing bell
at, iii. 451 sq.
New birth, ceremony of the, among the
Akikuyu, ii. 7 sqq., 26, 27, 28, 332 sq.\
the rite of the, 27 sqq. ; fiction of, at
adoption, 28 sqq. ; fiction of, enacted
by Brahman householder, 32 sq. ;
fiction of, as expiation for breach ot
custom, 33 sqq. ; enacted by Maha-
rajahs of Travancore, 35 sqq.
grain first eaten by youngest boy of
family, i. 565
New Britain, story of the origin of death
in, i. 75 sq.
INDEX
S2.7
New Caledonia, cross-cousin marriage
in, ii. 177 sq. ; mode of drinking water
in, 468 ; ears of mourners cut in, iii.
255
Carthage, passage of the Romans
through the sea at the siege of, ii.
459 ^?-
England, execution of dogs in, m.
442
Guinea, stories of the descent of
men from animals in, i. 36 sqq. ; story
of the origin of death in, 69 ; stories
of a great flood in, 237 sqq. ; consum-
mation of marriage deferred in, 511
sq. ; the Nufors of, 523 ; the Banaros
of, 534 n.,^ ii. 217 ; cousin marriage
in, 175 sq. ; exchange of women in
marriage in, 214^^5'.; age-grades in,
318 sqq. ; divination by water in, 430;
mode of recovering strayed souls of
children in, 508 ; navel-strings of boys
hung on trees in, iii. 207 sq. ; houses
deserted after a death in, 234 sq. ;
amputation of finger-joints in mourning
in, 237 sq.
Guinea, British, the Massim of, i.
97 ; mourning customs in, iii. 283 sq.
Guinea, Dutch, the Kaya-Kaya or
Tugeri of, ii. 318 sq. ; the Arafoos of,
423 ; the Marindineeze of, 542 ; the
Pesegems of, iii. 237
Guinea, German, the Kai of, iii.
255
Hebrides, the creation of man in
the, i. 12 ; story of the former immor-
tality of men in the, 68 ; story of a
great flood in the, 240 sq. ; worship of
stones in the, ii. 60, 62 sq. ; cross-
cousin marriage in the, 178 sq. ; mar-
riage with the widow or wife of a
mother's brother in the, 248 ; the sor-
orate and levirate in the, 300 sq. ;
modes of drinking water in the, 468 sq.
Ireland, marriage of first cousins
forbidden in, ii. 183
Mexico, story of a great flood in, i,
287 sq.
South Wales, exchange of women
for wives in, ii. 197 ; custom of muti-
lating the fingers of women in, iii.
203 sq.; the Karoilaroi of, 292
Zealand, weeping as a salutation
among the Maoris of, ii. 84 sqq. See
Maoris
Neyaux, of the Ivory Coast, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 330 sq.
Nez Perces, their story of a great flood,
i. 325 ; the sororate among the, ii. 272
Ngai, God, sacrifices for rain to, iii. 66
Nganga, medicine-man or witch-doctor,
employed to detect witchcraft, iii. 353,
375
Ngarigo, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 187 sq.
Ngoni ( Angoni) of British Central Africa,
story of the origin of death among the,
i. 65 ; their custom of painting the
bodies of manslayers, 95 ; desert a ■
hut in which a death has occurred, iii.
233 sq. See also Angoni
Nias, story of the creation of man in, i.
15 ; story of the origin of death in,
67 sq. ; story of a great flood in, 219 ;
way of ratifying an oath in, 402 ;
younger sister not to marry before
elder in, ii. 291 ; story told in, of a
chief whose life was in a hair of his
head, 486 sq.
Nicaiagua, story of a great flood in, i.
274
Nicholson, Dr. Br. , on ultimogeniture, i.
535
Nicobar Islands, mourning customs in
the, iii. 231 sq., 236 sq., 298. See
also Car Nicobar
Nicolaus of Damascus on the flood, i.
no
Niece, sister's daughter, marriage with,
ii. 105, 109, 113 sqq.; marriage with
a, 149
Niger, the Lower, custom of executioners
on, i. 90
Upper, worship of the earth among
the tribes of the, iii. 85
Nigeria, Northern, the Kagoro of, iii.
338
Southern, superiority of the first
wife in, i. 538 sq. ; the Ibibios of, 564,
iii. 243, 253 ; the Ekoi of, ii. 368 ; the
Ibos of, 419 ; the poison ordeal in, iii.
335 -f?^-
Nikunau, Gilbert Islands, sacred stones
in, ii. 65
Nilamata Purdna, i. 204
Nile, the Karuma Falls of the, sacrifice
at crossing, ii. 418 ; King Pheron
said to have thrown a dart into the,
421 sq.
Nilotic family, ii. 164
Kavirondo, their ideas about sneez-
ing, i. 6 n.^ ; seclusion and purifica-
tion of murderers among the, 87 sq. ;
their precautions against the ghosts of
the slain, 94 ; the sororate among the,
ii. 279 ; their treatment of a child
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, iii. 168
tribes of East Africa do not prac-
tise the poison ordeal, iii. 311, 312,
397
Nineveh, excavations at, i. no
Ninib, Babylonian messenger of the
I gods, i. 113, 115
' Nippur, excavations at, i. 120
538
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Nishinam tribe of California, silence of
widows in the, iii. 72 sq.
Nisir, mountain, i. 116
Nisus, king of Megara, and his purple
or golden hair, ii. 490
Njamus, of British East Africa, their use
of victim's skin at sacrifices, ii. 17 sq.
Nkassa, nkazya, tiikesi, kassa, casca, etc.,
iii. 342 M.3, 352, 353, 354, 356, 357 n.,
358, 359. 368
Noachian deluge not the source of all
flood stories, i. 334 ; argument in
favour of, from marine shells and
fossils, 338 sqq.
legend, reminiscences of, i. 276
Noah and the flood, i. 126 sqq., 216;
on coins of Apamea Cibotos, 156 ; and
the ark in a Malay poem, 223 ; the
law of blood-revenge revealed to, iii.
415
Nogais, a Tartar tribe, demons kept from
women in childbed among the, iii.
475 ^1-
Nol, hero of a flood story in Lifu, i. 568
Nomadic tribes shift their quarters after
a death, iii. 235 sq.
Nootka Indians, of Vancouver Island,
consummation of marriage deferred
among the, i. 515 sq.
Normandy, precaution against demons
at marriage in, i. 523
Norse cosmogony, i. 175
custom at the election of a king, ii.
403
North America, stories of a great flood
in, i. 281 sqq.
American Indians, the sacrifice of
finger-joints among the, iii. 224 sqq. ;
their lacerations of the body in mourn-
ing, 227 sqq., 277 sqq. See America,
American Indians
Berwick, Satan in the pulpit at, ii.
485
North- West Frontier Province, cousin
marriage in the, ii. 130 sq.
Norway, sacred stones in, ii. 72
Norwich, flood, at, i. 352
Nose-boring among the Australian ab-
origines, iii. 261
Noses bored of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 178,
180, 184 sqq., 190; of dead infants
cut off, 243 ; cut in mourning for the
dead, 255, 275; of children bored in
Motu, 260
Notches cut in house-pillars in mourn-
ing, iii. 231, 235
Nottingham, Borough English at, i. 434
Nounoumas of Senegal, their customs in
regard to bloodshed and homicide, i.
84 sq. ; the sororate among the, ii. 283 ;
their sacrifices to trees, iii. 54
Ntcinemkin, hero of a Lillooet flood
story, i. 321
Nuers, of the White Nile, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 477
Nufors of New Guinea, consummation
of marriage deferred among the, i.
511 sq. ; their precautions against
husband's ghost at marriage of widow,
523
Nui, story of the creation of man in, i. 11
Nukahiva, belief in reincarnation in, ii.
331 ; evocation of the dead in, 541 j^.
Numa, how he caught Picus and Faunus,
ii. 414 ; his divination by water, 427 ;
his law concerning boundary stones,
iii. 423
Numitor, grandfather of Romulus and
Remus, ii. 447 sqq.
Nursing mothers, their entrance into a
cattle kraal supposed to injure the
cows, iii. 132
Nusawele, in Ceram, the sororate in, ii.
299
Nussa Laut, East Indian island, cross-
cousin marriage in, ii. 167
Nyambe, the sun, i. 57 ; an African sun-
god, 377
Nyam-nyam or Azandes, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 361. See
Azandes
Nyanja-speaking tribes of Rhodesia,
cousin marriage among the, ii. 151 sq. ;
of British Central Africa, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 385 sqq.
Oak, Hebrew words for, iii. 38, 46 w.^,
^1 sq. ; the worship of the, denounced
by Hebrew prophets, 52 sq. ; in rela-
tion to kings, 56 sq. ; spirit in triple
form, 57, 58
of weeping, the, iii. 56
Oaks in Palestine, iii. 30 sqq. ; three dif-
ferent kinds, 30 sq. ; distribution in
Palestine, 31 sqq. ; regarded with super-
stitious veneration by the peasantry,
' 37 ^gg-
Cannes, Babylonian water-god, i. 336 n.^
Oaths sworn on the pieces of animals, i.
393 sq.\ Greek modes of ratifying, 393 ;
of friendship, ceremonies at taking,
394 sqq. ; symbolic, 406 n.
taken on stones, ii. 67, 68, 405 sq. ;
religious and magical aspects of, 407
Obassi Osaw, a sky-god, i. 58
Oblivion, the castle of, ii. 409
Observation, myths of, i. 174, 360
Ocean, theory of a universal primeval, i.
343
Odenwald, ultimogeniture in the, i. 438
Odin, i. 174
Odoric, Friar, as to the keepers of the
thrc-shold at Peking, iii. 3
INDEX
539
Odum, a wood used in the poison ordeal,
iii. 331. 334
Odyssey, evocation of the dead by Ulysses
in the, ii. 526
Oedipus, his exposure and preservation,
ii. 446 ; kills his father and marries
his mother, 446 sq.
Offerings to stones, ii. 59, 61, 62, 63, 64,
65. 69, 73
Og, king of Bashan, and Noah's ark, i.
M4. 145
Ogieg or Wandorobo, their mode of
drinking water, ii. 467
Ogyges, or Ogygus, the great flood in
his time, i. 157 sgg.
Ogygian, epithet applied to Boeotia and
Thebes, i. 157
Oil poured on sacred stones, ii. 41, 72 sqq.
Ojibway story of a great flood, i. 301 sqq.
Ojibways or Chippewas, the sororate and
levirate among the, ii. 269
, the Crane clan of the, i. 31
O-kee-pa, annual festival of the Mandan
Indians, i. 294
Old men monopolize the women in
aboriginal Australia, ii. 200 sqq.
Old Testament, traces of ultimogeniture
in the, i. 431 sqq.
Oldenberg, Hermann, on the custom of
continence after marriage, i. 520
Olive-tree in Jotham's fable, ii. 472
Olive and laurel, fable of their rivalry, ii.
474 m-
Olivet, Mount, iii. 25
Olmones in Boeotia, Hercules at, ii. 60
Olympia, Zeus the God of Oaths at, i.
393 ; olive-wreath the prize at, 475 ;
punishment of homicidal image at, iii.
423
Olympiad, the first, i. 158
Omahas, seclusion of homicides among
the, i. 88 .r^.; the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 267 ; unwilling to
number the years of their lives, 560 ;
their mourning customs, iii. 281 sq.
, Buffalo clans of the, i. 31
Omanaitos, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. .119
Omens drawn from ravens, iii. 25. See
also Divination
Omeo tribe, cross-cousin marriage in the,
ii. 188
Onas, of Tierra del Fuego, the sororate
and levirate among the, ii. 275 ; their
custom of lacerating the face in mourn-
ing, iii. 283
Ontario, story of a great flood among the
Ojibways of, i. 305 sq.
Ophrah, Gideon and his sons at, ii. 471 ;
the oak or terebinth at, iii. 55
Opus, first city founded after the flood,
i. 147
Oracle-mongers, ancient, their tricks, ii.
431
Oracles imparted in dreams, ii. 42 sqq. ;
given by human mediums of river-
spirits, 418 ; of the dead in ancient
Greece, 526 j^j^.; in Africa, 533 J^^.
Oracular dreams on graves, ii. 530
stones, ii. 70 sq.
Oral law older than written law in Israel,
iii. loi sq.
Oran, mode of counting grain at, ii.
S58 sq.
Orang Sakai, of Sumatra, their bodily
laceration in mourning, iii. 283
Orange, home of the, i. 466 n."^
Oraons, of Bengal, their precautions
against demons at marriage, i. 520 ;
ears of offending dogs or goats cut off
among the, iii. 262
of Chota Nagpur, tradition of their
immigration, i. 468
Orchid uprooted by dog, ii. 396 ; sup-
posed to promote conception in women,
396
Ordeal of chastity, ii. 430 sq. ; by water
to test the legitimacy of infants,
454 sq.\ of the bitter water in Israel,
iii. 304 sqq. ; of poison in Africa, 307
sqq.\ by drinking water mixed with
sacred earth, 320 sq. ; of poisoned
arrows, 321 sq.\ of boiling water, 393,
395 ; of drinking blood, 395 ; by the
balance, 405 ; by fire, 405 ; by water,
405 ; by water in which an idol has
been dipped, 406 ; by rice, 406 ; by
boiling oil, 406 ; by red-hot iron, 406;
by images, 406
Oregon, North-Western, superiority of
the first wife among the Indians of, i.
560
, the sororate and levirate among the
Indians of, ii. 272 sq.
or Columbia Rjver, iii. 278
Orestes and Zeus Cappotas, ii. 60 ; and
the Furies of his mother, iii. 241 ; his
offering of hair to the dead Agamem-
non, 274
Origin of death, stories of the, i. 52 sqq. ;
of stories of a great flood, 338 sqq.\
of language, 362 ; of ultimogeniture,
481 sqq.
Origiti of Species, The, i. 44
Orinoco, flood stories among the Indians
of the, i. 266 sq.
Orissa, cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 131 ;
pretended sales of children in, iii.
181
Oriya language, ii. 117
speaking castes, cross-cousin mar-
riage among, ii. 117 sqq.
dpKia Ti/xveiv, i. 393
'Ornaments as amulets, ii. 514, =;i4 "-■*
540
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Oropus, sanctuary of Amphiaraus at, ii.
42 sqq.
Orpheus and Eurydice, ii. 526
Ortho-cousins, the children of two brothers
or of two sisters, ii. 98, 129, 133, 134,
13s, 152, 154, 156, 157, 161, 179, 180,
181, 182, 183, 187, 188, 189, 191, 221
sqq. , 255, 260, 261, 263, 268 ; call each
other brothers and sisters, 178 sq.\
regarded as brothers and sisters, 180 ;
their marriage barred by exogamous
classes, 191, 221 sq.\ why their mar-
riage is forbidden, 221 sqq. ; preference
for marriage with an ortho-cousin, the
daughter of the father's brother, 260
sqq.
Osage Indians, their descent from snail
and beaver, i. 30 ; the sororate among
the, ii. 266
Osborn, H. F., on antiquity of man, i.
169 n.'^
Ossetes of the Caucasus, their form of
oath, i. 407 ; their bodily lacerations
in mourning, iii. 276
Ostiaks, primogeniture among the, i.
476 ; cousin marriage among the, ii.
140 ; the sororate among the, 297 sq.
Oswals, the sororate among the, ii.
293
Otaheite, mourning customs in, iii. 285
sqq. See Tahiti
Otandos, of the Gaboon, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 345 sqq.
Ot-Danoms of Borneo, their story of a
great flood, i. 222
Othrys, Mount, Deucalion said to have
drifted to, i. 171
Ottawa Indians, the Carp clan of the, i.
31 ; their story of a great flood, i. 308
Otter in story of great flood, i. 296, 300,
306, 308, 310, 312
Ovambo, superiority of first wife among
.the, i. 545 ; primogeniture among the,
545 ; their rule as to drinking fresh
milk, iii. 143
Ovid, his description of Deucalion's flood,
i. 149 sqq.\ on mourning rites, iii.
274 «.2
Ownership of land, communal and indi-
vidual, among the Kachins, i. 450 sqq.
Ox, sacrificial, in oaths, i. 394, 395, 397 ;
that gored, the, iii. 415 sqq.
Oxen sacrificed to rivers, ii. 415 ; out-
lawed at Rome for ploughing up
boundary stones, iii. 423
Pacific, earthquake waves in the, i. 3495^^.
Pactyas, a fugitive from Cyrus, iii. 19
Pacurius, king of Persia, how he de-
tected the treason of a vassal, ii. 408 sq.
Paidis, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 118
Paihtes or Vuites, cousin marriage among
the, ii. 133
Painting the bodies of manslayers, i. 93,
95 -f?- . 97 sq-
Palatine Hill, the hut of Romulus on the,
ii. 448
Palembang, district of Sumatra, serving
for a wife in, ii. 353 sq.
Palestine, its reddish soil, i. 29 ; the races
of, 417, 419 ; wells in, ii. 79 sqq. ; ex-
change of daughters in marriage in,
219 sq.\ time of harvest in, 372
n.^ ; mandrakes thought to make
women conceive in, 374 ; mode of
counting grain in, 559 ; bride carried
over ;he threshold in, iii. 6 ; the "high
places ' ' still the seats of religious wor-
ship in modern, 65
Pallas, her discovery of the olive, ii, 475
Palol, the most sacred dairyman of the
Todas, iii. 149 n.^
Palsy, a Samoan god, i. 68
Pamarys, of Brazil, their story of a great
flood, i. 260
Pampa del Sacramento, tradition of a
great flood in the, i. 294
Pamphylian Sea, passage of Alexander
the Great through the, ii. 457 sqq.
Panama, story of a great flood in, i. 273 sq.
Pandarus at the sanctuary of Aesculapius
at Epidaurus, ii. 45 sq.
Pandects of Justinian, iii. 95
Pandion Haliaetus, i. 36
Pandora, the first woman, i. 146
Panoi, the region of the dead, i. 71
Panopeus, scene of the creation of man,
i. 6 sq.
Pantutun, John, on marriage with a
granddaughter, ii. 248 n."^
Papagos of Arizona, their story of a great
flood, i. 281 sq.
Paraguay, the Lengua Indians of, i. 28
Paraiyans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107 sq.
Parents and children, their marriage pre-
vented by the four- class system of
exogamy, ii. 238 sq.
named after their children, iii. 172
Parian chronicler, on the date of
Deucalion's flood, i. 149
Paris, flood at, i. 352
Parkia Bussei, iii. 371 n.^
Parkinson, John, on the mandrake, ii.
379 sq-
Parnassus, Deucalion said to have landed
on, after the flood, i. 146, 150, 151
Parrots as totems, i. 36 ; as wives of
men, 261
Parthenius, Mount, Telephus exposed on,
ii- 445
Pasiphae or Ino, sanctuary of, in Laconia,
ii. 50 sq.
INDEX
541
Passage between severed pieces of sacri-
ficial victim, i. 392 sqq. ; interpretation
of the rule, 411 sqq., 423 sqq., 428
through the Red Sea, the legend of
the, ii. 456 sqq.
Passes, of Brazil, superiority of the first
wife among the, i. 559
Passing Bell, the, iii. 449, 450 sqq.
Pastoral peoples, ultimogeniture among,
i. 440 sq., 482 sq.; their rules based
on a supposed sympathetic bond be-
tween a cow and its milk, iii. 125 sqq.;
their rule not to let milk come into con-
tact with flesh or vegetables, 150 sqq.,
154 sqq.; discourage agriculture, 156
sq. ; abstain from eating wild animals,
157 sqq.
tribes of Africa object to boil milk
for fear of injuring their cattle, iii.
118 sqq.
Patagonian Indians, birth - ceremonies
among the, i. 413 ; their mourning
customs, iii. 282 sq.
Paternity, physical, unknown in some
Australian tribes, ii. 203 j^.; unknown
in the Trobriand Islands, 204 n."^ ; the
recognition of physical, as determining
the heirs to be called to the inherit-
ance, 281 ; physical, ignorance of, 371
Pathian, the creator, i. 199
Patiko, in the Uganda Protectorate, dis-
posal of navel-strings in, iii. 208 n.'^
Patlias, serving for a wife among the, ii.
345
Patriarchal age, the, i. 389 sqq. ; mar-
riage customs of the Semites in the, ii.
371 ; the end of the, 437
Patriarchs, long-lived, of the Lolos, i.
213 ; the Hebrew, their traditional
longevity, ii. 334
Patroclus, the offering of hair to the
dead, iii. 274
Pausanias, on the Ladon, i. 164 ; on
the valley of Pheneus, 165 ; on the
Epidaurian tablets, ii. 48 n.^ ; on the
sanctuary of Ino, 50 ; on the trial and
punishment of inanimate objects at
Athens, iii. 421 n.^
, king of Sparta, his evocation of a
ghost, ii. 528
Pawnees, traces of marriage with a
mother's brother's wife among the, ii.
251 «.2
Peace-making, ceremonies at, i. 394 sqq.
Peepul tree {Ficus religiosa), worshipped
by women desirous of offspring, iii. 218
Peking, keepers of the threshold in the
palace at, iii. 2 sq.
Peleus and Astydamia, i. 408, 419 ; and
Thetis, ii. 413 ; his vow, iii. 274
Pelew Islanders, their story of the crea-
tion of man, i. 11 sq.
Pelew Islands, story of a great flood in
the, i. 253 sq.
Pelicans, why they are black and white,
i. 234 sq.
Pelopia, mother of Aegisthus, ii. 446
Pennant, on St. Wenefride's bell, iii. 459
Pentateuch, late date of the legal part of
the, iii. 93, 96 ; three bodies of law
comprised in the, ()2, sqq.; position of
the priestly code in the, 109 sq.
, law of clean and unclean animals in
the, 161
Pentecost, island of the New Hebrides,
marriage with a granddaughter in, ii.
248
Pentiyas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 119
Pepi II., king of Egypt, ii. 56
Perez and Zerah, i. 433
Pergamus, Telephus a national hero at,
ii- 445
Periander, tyrant of Corinth, consults
his dead wife Melissa, ii. 526 sq.
Perigundi Lake, i. 41
Permanent system of agriculture, i. 446,
448, 4.50 sqq.
Perrot, Em. , and Em. Vogt on the poison
ordeal, iii. 307 n.^
, Nicolas, on weeping as a salutation
among the Sioux, ii. 89
Perseus, the story of his birth and up-
bringing, ii. 444
Persian kings, reverence for the threshold
of their palace, iii. 4
religion, worship of water in the
old, ii. 427
— stories of a great flood, supposed,
i. 179 sqq.
Persians adepts in water-divination, ii.
427 ; their ear-rings, iii. 167
Persians, The, tragedy of Aeschylus, ii.
530
Personification of nature, primitive, ii.
396 sq. ; of water, 423 ; of poison, iii.
345, 411 ; of animals, 418 sq. ; of
external objects reflected in primitive
legislation, 445
Peru, stories of a great flood in, i. 269
sqq.
Perugino, the Virgins of, iii. 454
Peruvian Indians, their story of the
creation of man after the flood, i. 28 ;
descended from pumas and condors,
32 ; their offerings to river-gods, ii.
414
Perverted Message, story of the, i. 52
sqq. , 74 sqq.
Pesegems, of Dutch New Guinea, their
amputation of finger-joints, iii. 237 sq.
Petrie, W. M. Flinders, on absence of
flood stories in ancient Egypt, i.
, 329 «.^
542
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
\
Phaedrus, mediaeval fables based on, ii.
478
Pharae, in Achaia, sacred stones at, ii.
60
Phaselis, in Lycia, inarch of Alexander
the Great through the sea from, ii. 458
Pheneus, the Lake of, i. 163 sqq.
Pheron, king of Egypt, said to have
thrown a dart into the Nile, ii. 421 sq.
Phiala, the Lake of, iii. 37, 43
Philippine Islands, stories of the creation
of man in the, i. 16 sq.\ stories of a
great flood in the, 225 ; consumma-
tion of marriage deferred in the, 511 ;
the Tagales of the, ii. 359 ; the Bisayas
of the, 359 ; the Tagalogs of the, iii.
473 sq-
Philippson, A., on the Lake of Pheneus,
i. 166 «.2
Philistine bodyguards, iii. i «.^ ; mourn-
ing rites, 271
Philistines, Samson and the, ii. 480 sqq.
Philostratus, copied by Ben Jonson, ii.
515 «.•* ; on the ghost of Achilles, 531
Phoroneus, king of Argos, i. 159, 384
Photography, belief that human souls
can be extracted by, ii. 506 sq.
Phouka, iVIount, i. 148
Phrygian legends of a great flood, i. 155
sqq.
Phrygians supposed to be the oldest race
of men, i. 375 sq.
Physosligma venenosum, the Calabar
bean used in the poison ordeal, iii.
335. 336
Picardy, ultimogeniture in, i. 436
Picus caught by Numa, ii. 414
Piedade no Maranhao, a province of
Brazil, iii. 435
Pig, sacrificial, in ratifying an oath, i. 402
sq.; as purification, 411. SeealsoVigs
Pigeons sacred to the Syrian goddess at
Hierapolis, iii. 20
Pigs, men descended from, i. 36 ; blood
of, in expiation for incest, ii. 170, 173
sq.; sacrificed to the sun, iii. 17. See
also Pig
Pillars, sacred, at Canaanite sanctuaries,
»• 59
Pima Indians of Arizona, their story of
the creation of man, i. 27 ; seclusion
of manslayers among the, 96 ; their
stories of a great flood, 282 sqq. ; the
sororate among the, ii, 271
Pinches, T. G. , i. 373 «.^
Pindar on Deucalion's flood, i. 147
Pinus carica, iii. 36
Pistacia terebinthus, iii. 47, 6i 71.^
Plague, the Great, of London, ii. 555
Plant that renewed youth, i. 50 sq.
, marriage of widower to, in India,
i- 527
Plato, in the Symposium, on the primi-
tive state of man, i. 28 ; on the ghosts
of the murdered, 86 ; on Deucahon's
flood, 149 ; on mandragora, ii. 386 ;
on the trial and punishment of
animals and inanimate objects, iii. 421
sq. ; his Laws compared with The
Republic, 422
Playfair, Major A., on the Garos, i.
464
Pleiades, two stars removed from the, i.
143 sq-
Pleistocene period, man in the, i. 169
Plighting Stone, the, at Lairg, ii. 405 sq.
Pliny, on the Lake of Pheneus, i. 165 ;
on the evocation of the ghost of
Homer, ii. 531 ; his story of a raven
at Rome, iii. 26 sq.
Pliocene period, flints of the, i. 169 n.^
Plot, Robert, on the origin of Borough
English, i. 485 sq.
Plover in story of origin of man, i. 40 ;
in a story of a great flood, 312
Plutarch on Deucalion's flood, i. 155 ;
on a flood at Pheneus, 164 sq. ; on
Greek rites of purification, 408 «.^ ;
on the woodpeclcer in the Romulus
legend, ii. 449 «.' ; on oracles of the
dead, 528 .r^. ; on custom of carrying
bride into house, iii. 8, 10, 11 ; on
bodily mutilations in mourning, 255 5j'.
Poebel, Arno, i. 121 n.'^
Poets in relation to folk-lore, ii. 397,
516
Point Barrow, i. 24, 327
Poison ordeal in Africa, iii. 307 sqq.;
geographical diffusion of the ordeal
in Africa, 311 sq. ; in Madagasoar,
401 sqq. ; in India, 405 sqq. ; geo-
graphical limits of the, 410 sq. ; the
meaning of the, 411 sq.
supposed to confer the power of
divination, iii. 343 sqq., 411; per-
sonified, 345, 411 ; dropped into the
eye as ordeal, 348, 355, 360
-tree, superstitions attaching to
the, iii. 356 sq., 358, 383 sq.
Poisoned arrows, iii. 409 ; ordeal of,
321 sq.
Pole, ordeal of walking along a, iii. 347
sq.
Pollock, Sir Frederick, on jus primae
noctis, i. 488
Pollution, ceremonial, expiation for, ii.
23 sq.; of death a bar to drinking
milk, iii. 136 sqq.
caused by hojnicide, i. 79 sqq.
Pollux, Julius, i. 80 w.^
Polyandry, relics of, ii. 307, 311 ; among
the Wataveta, 327
Polybius, on the Roman capture of New
Carthage, ii. 460
INDEX
543
Polj'gamous families, superiority of first
wife in, i. 536 sqq.
Polygamy and ultimogeniture, i. 534 sqq. ;
tends to promote primogeniture, 562
Polyhistor, Alexander, i. 108 n.
Polynesia, stories of a great flood in, i.
241 sqq. ; succession to kingdom in,
550 ; marriage of cousins in, ii. 184
sqq. ; the classificatory system in, 244 ;
traces of totemism in, 244 ; amputa-
tion of finger-jomts in mourning in,
iii. 238 sq.
Polynesians, group marriage among the,
ii. 316 ; lacerations of the body and
shearing of hair in mourning among
the, iii. 285 sqq.
Pomerania, baptismal custom in, iii. 254
Pomo Indians, of California, mourning
customs of the, iii. 279
Ponape, descent of men from animals
and fish in, i. 40 ; disposal of a boy's
navel-string in, iii. 207
Pondos marry no near relative, ii. 151
«.i ; the levirate among the, 276
Pontianak, ghost of woman who has
died in childbed, iii. 474 n.
Ponto-Aralian Mediterranean, i. 168 sqq.
Poole, Francis, on Haida Indians, i. 31
Popol Vuh, story of a great flood in the,
i. 276
Port Darwin, iii. 205, 206 n. '
Essington tribe, their terms for
husband and wife, ii. 214 sq.
Moresby, in New Guinea, noises
made by the natives to drive away
storm-spirits and ghosts at, iii. 463 sq.
Porto Novo, custom of e-xecutioner at, i.
89
Poseidon said to have opened the gorge
of Tempe, i. 171 ; how he made
Pterelaus immortal, ii. 490
Posse, Lake, in Celebes, ii. 65 ; district,
treatment of sickly children in, iii.
172
Post, A. H. , on superiority of first wife
in Africa, i. 544 n.^ ; on African
ordeals, iii. 307 w.^
Pottawatamies, the sororate and levirate
among the, ii. 269
Prain, Sir David, on Erythrop/ikum, iii.
309, 310, 311 «.i. 342 n.'^, 3S7 «•;
on Strychnos, 342 «.^, 352 n.^ \ on
aconite among the Nagas, 409 n.^
Prajapati, i. 185, 187, 189
Pramzimas, a Lithuanian god, i. 176
Praxiteles, his image of Love, ii. 60
Prayers addressed to the poison in the
poison ordeal, iii. 402 sq., 404 sq.,
407, 408 sq., 411
Precautions taken by slayers against the
ghosts of the slain, i. 92 sqq. ; against
demons at marriage, 520 sqq. ; against
ghost of dead husband or wife at
marriage of widow or widower, 523
sqq.
Pregnant sheep sacrificed in cattle dis-
ease, ii. 17
Prestwick, Sir Joseph, on evidence for a
great flood, i. 341 «.i
Pretence of exposing children and buy-
ing them back from strangers, iii. 168
sq., 174, 250 sq.
Priest, the Jewish, his violet robe and
golden bells, iii. 446
Priestly Code, ii. 563 n.^, iii. 93, 98,
99 71., 109 sq., 304, 306, 415, 446
Document, i. 4, loi, 122, 131 sqq.,
ii. 457 «.i
version of the flood story, i. 136 sqq.
writer, ii. 94, 96
Priests, native, employed by alien settlers
to worship the god of the land, iii.
84 sqq. ; whose hair may not be shorn,
189 ; wear bells in Africa, 478 sqq.
of Earth chosen from aboriginal
race by foreigners and invaders, iii.
86 sq.
Primogeniture replacing ultimogeniture,
i- 445. 457 ^q-^ 484. ii- I sq. ; regu-
lating descent of chieftainship, i. 469 ;
among Siberian tribes, 476 ; among
the Ibos, 478 ; in Africa, 535, 547,
553 sq.; among the Herero and the
Ovambo, 545 ; in Kafir law, 553 sq. ;
promoted hy polygamy, 562
Proca, king of Alba Longa, ii. 447
Procopius on the detection of the traitor
Arsaces, ii. 408 sq.
Progress of society from group marriage'
to individual marriage, ii. 203 sq.
Prohibited degrees, among the Hindoos,
ii. 100 ; among the Dyaks, 172 sq. ;
among the Mafulus, 176 ; infringed
by. chiefs, 184 sq. ; tendency to ex-
tend the, 190 sq.
Prohibition of cousin marriage in some
African tribes, ii. 151, 154, 155 sq.,
159 sqq. ; in some parts of Celebes,
171 ; in some parts of Melanesia,
182 sq. ; in some Australian tribes,
189 sqq.
of the marriage of cross-cousins
in certain Australian tribes, ii. 189
sqq.
Prometheus, the creator ot man, i. 6,
155; father of Deucalion, 146
Property, the god of, iii. 317
of the dead broken in pieces and
deposited on the grave, iii. 231 sq.
, private, in land, i. 443, 452 ; in
moveables, 473
Prophet, the, ousted by the scribe, iii. 102
of W'amala, the Banyoro god of
plenty, iii. 479 sq.
544
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Prophets, Hebrew, denounce the wor-
ship of trees, iii. 52 sq., 64; their
freedom of thought and speech, 102
Prophetess of the god of Lake Albert,
iii. 479
Prophetic reformation of Israehtish re-
hgion, iii. 63 sq.
Propitiation of water-spirits at fords, ii.
414 sqq. ; of ghosts, iii. 298 sqq.
Prosecution of animals in ancient Greece,
iii. 420 sqq. ; in modern Europe,
424 sqq.
Prostitution, religious, denounced by
Hebrew prophets, iii. 52
Proteus and Menelaus, ii. 412 sq.
Proxies in the poison ordeal, iii. 351,
355. 361, 370. 377. 378, 379- 381.
385, 396, 399, 400, 404
Proyart, oa the poison ordeal in Loan go,
iii. 352 sq.
Prussians, the heathen, their worship of
the oak at Romove, iii. 54, 58
Prytaneum, or town-hall, court of the,
at Athens, iii. 420 sq.
Psalm xl. 6, " Ears hast thou dug for
me," iii. 269
Psammetichus, king of Egypt, his attempt
,; to discover the primitive language, i.
375
Psophis, Alcmaeon at, i. 83 sq.
Pterelaus and his golden hair, ii. 490
Pudunattu Idaiyans, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 106 sq.
Pueblo Indians, of Arizona, their use of
bells to exorcize witches, iii. 464
Pumas, men descended from, i. 32
Punaluan family, Morgan's theory of a,
ii- 305
Pund-jel, an Australian creator, i. 8
Punishment of animals that have killed
persons, iii. 415 sq., 418 sqq. ; of in-
animate objects which have caused
the death of persons, 415 sqq.
Punjab, settlement of the Aryans in the,
i. 183 ; precaution against demons at
marriage in the, 521 ; precautions
against ghost of dead husband or wife
at marriage of widow or widower in
the, 525; mock marriages of widowers
in the, 525 sq. ; the Chuhras of the,
554, ii. 90 sq. ; the Aryans in the, 99,
130 ; cousin marriage in the, 129 sq. ;
brothers and sisters marry in order of
seniority in the, 285 sq. ; the sororate
and levirate among the Hindoos of the,
295 sq. ; dead infants buried at thresh-
old to ensure their rebirth, in the, iii.
13 ; treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died in the,
182 sq., 185
Puppet to save child's life, iii. 177
Pur anas, i. 187 sq.
Purification for homicide, i. 86 sqq.,
93 sqq- . ii- 25
of mother of twins, ii. 25 ; of in-
habitants of a kraal that has been
struck by lightning, iii. 140
, public, by passing between pieces
of a victim, i. 408
Purificatory, sacramental, or protective
theory of sacrificing victims at cove-
nants, i. 399, 411 sq., 421, 424 sq.
Purifying the country from disease,
Kikuyu custom, i. 565
Purums, ultimogeniture among the, i.
445 n.^
Purus River, in Brazil, stories of a great
flood told by the Indians of the, i.
259 sq.
Puyallop Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 324
Puynipet, one of the Caroline Islands,
the sororate in, ii. 302
Pyramid Texts, the, ii. 56
Pyrrha, wife of Deucalion, i. 146, 147,
149, 150, 151
Pythagorean philosophy in great part
folk-lore, ii. 377
Pythagoreans on the mandrake, ii. 377
Qat, Melanesian hero and creator, i. 12,
68, 240 sq.
Quarantana, Mount, iii. 24
Queen Charlotte Islands, the Haida
Indians of, i. 31, 319
Queen of Sheba and Solomon, ii. t^t^sqq.
Queensland, story of a great flood told
by natives of, i. 236 ; rules as to
cousin marriage among the aborigines
of, ii. 188,. 193 ; the sororate in, 303;
group marriage in, 305 ; custom of
mutilating the fingers of women in,
iii. -20^ sq.; mourning customs in the
tribes of, 293 *
Querciis pseudo-coccifera, iii. 30, 32, 36,
61 ; infectoria, 31 ; aegilops, 31, 33,
36
Quiches of Guatemala, their Popol Vuh,
i. 276 ; their story of the origin of the
diversity of languages, 387
Quoirengs of Manipur, ultimogeniture
among the, i. 447
Quoja, kingdom of, the poison ordeal in
the, iii. 329
Rabhas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 132
Rachel and Leah, Jacob's marriage with,
ii. 97
and the mandrakes, ii. 373 ; her
theft of her father's household gods,
399
Racine, his comedy, Les Flaideurs, iii
421
INDEX
545
Ragoba and his ambassadors to Eng-
land, ii. 34
Rags hung on trees by Syrian peasants,
iii. 45, 48 sq. ; on trees by the sick in
Afghanistan, 68 sq.
Raiatea, story of a great flood in, i.
243 sq.
Raimanamango, deity supposed to reside
in the poisonous fruit of the tangena
tree, iii. 402 sq. , 404 sq.
Rain, sacrifices for, iii. 66 sq. ; rites to
procure, 85 sq. ; bodily lacerations to
pr(?cure, 277
Rainbow after the flood, i. 130, 176,
196
Rajamahall, the sororate and levirate
among the inhabitants of the hills
near, ii. 296
Rajjhars, of India, their precautions
against demons at marriage, i. 522
Raka, Polynesian god of the winds, i.
247
Rakaanga, story of a great flood in, i.
249
Ram, its use in oaths, i. 393 ; black,
as sacrificial victim, ii. 17, 18, 19 ;
sacrificial, sleeping on skin of, 43,
51
Rama and the great flood, i. 194
Ramaiyas, the levirate among the, ii.
295
Ramman, Babylonian storm-god, 1. m,
"5. 367
Ranghol tribe, marriage by service in
the, ii. 349
Rangi, hero of a flood story in Mangaia,
i. 247 sq.
Rape of Lewes, Borough English in, i.
434
Rape of women for wives comparatively
rare in aboriginal Australia, ii. 199 sq. ;
of the Sabine women, iii. 10
Raphael, the archangel, guides Tobias,
i. 499 sq.
Raphael's picture of Jacob at the well, i.
135. ''• 78
Raratonga, teeth knocked out in mourn-
ing in, iii. 290
Rat in story of a great flood, i. 300,
304 ; lawsuits brought against rats,
iii. 429 sq. , 437 sq.
Ratification of covenant by cutting sacri-
ficial victim in two, i. 392 sqq.
Rattan, the Rolled-up, connecting earth
and heaven, ii. 53
Rattlesnakes respected, i. 31 sq^
Raven makes first woman, i. 24 ; in
mythology of North- Western America,
31; let out of ark, 116, 128, 297;
in Tinneh stories of a great flood, 315
sqq. ; how the raven restored mankind
after the great flood, 315 sq., 318;
VOL. Ill
in Haida mythology, 319 ; a bird of
omen and endowed with prophetic
power, iii. 25 sq. ; its sagacity and
ferocity, 26 ; Pliny's story of a raven
at Rome, 26 sq. ; its power of imitat-
ing the human voice, 27 sq. ; as a bird
of prey, 28
Raven and dove in North American
Indian story of a great flood, i. 312
Ravens in Palestine, iii. 24 sq.
Rawan, a demon king, i. 18
Rawlinson, Sir Henry, on the Gilgamcsh
epic, i. Ill ; on temple of Bel at
Babylon, 370 ; on Cyrus's treatment
of the River Gyndes, ii. 422 w.^
Razaka, the stone of, sacred, ii. 76
Raziel, the angel, i. 143
Rebirth in a child or grandchild, i. 480
sq. ; of the dead in hyenas, iii. 29 ;
of human souls, precautions to pre-
vent, 243, 245, 247 sq.
, circumcision perhaps intended to
ensure a subsequent, ii. 330 ; children
buried under the threshold to ensure
their, iii. 13 sq. See also Reincarna-
tion
Receptacles for the souls of infants, ii.
508
Reconciliation, sacrifice at, i. 427 sq.
Red clay or earth, men fashioned out of,
i. 9, 12, 18 sq., 29 ; water, ordeal of
the, iii. 324, 325 sqq., 338 sqq.
Red Sea, the legend of the passage
through the, ii. 456 sqq.
Redemption of people, i. 409, 425
Reformation of King Josiah, i. 136 n.,
139, iii. 64, 100 sq., 108; prophetic,
of Israelitish religion, 63 sq.
Regiam Majestatem, i. 491
Reid, Thomas, on the law of deodand,
iii. 444
Reinach, Adolphe, i. 156 «.^,' 157 «.^
Reinach, Salomon, on a supposed poison
ordeal at Rome, iii. 410 n.^
Reincarnation, belief in, among the
Australian aborigines, ii. 204 n.^ ;
of souls and the mutilation of dead
infants, iii. 242 sqq. ; the belief in,
universal among the tribes of Central
Australia, 261 sq. See also Rebirth,
Transmigration
Rejangs, of Sumatra, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 167
Reland, H. , on the oak or terebinth of
Mamre, iii. 57 ;/. '
Relationship, the classificatory or group
system of, ii. 227 sqq. ; systems of,
among the hill tribes of Assam, 241
«.^ ; between cousins conceived in
concrete form, 246
Religion and magic, iii. 163 sq. ; com-
,bined, ii. 63
2 N
546
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Religious and magical aspects of oaths on
stones, lii. 407
Reluctance of chief to see his grandson,
i. 479 sqq., 548 sqq. ; to see his son,
549 ^i-
Rembau, a Malay Stale, ultimogeniture
in, i. 472
Remigius, Mount, bell rung in thunder-
storms on, iii. 458
Renan, E. , on the Massorets, i. 35B nP';
on Feuerbach, iii. 453 sq.
Reptiles, exorcized by St. Patrick, iii.
424
Respect for human life fortified by super-
stition, i. 103
Resurrection after three days, i. 71 sqq.
associated with new moon, i. 71 sqq.
Retributive theory of sacrificing victims
at covenants, i. 399 sqq., 411, 424 sq.
Reuben and the mandrakes, ii. 372,
393
Rhea, how she saved the infant Zeus
from Cronus, i. 563
Rhea Sylvia, mother of Romulus and
Remus, ii. 447
Rhine, ordeal of legitimacy by the, ii.
455
Rhodesia, superiority of first wife in, i.
542 ; the Wabemba or Awemba of,
ii. 281 ; Bantu tribes of, spirits of
dead chiefs consulted as oracles among
the, 535 sq.
, North- Eastern, the Achewas and
Angonis of, ii. 151 sq.; the Awemba
of. 153
, Northern, the poison ordeal in,
iii. 381, 383
Rhys, Sir John, on Welsh legend of a
deluge, i. 176 n.
Rib, woman created out of man's, i. 3 sq. ,
10 sq.
Rice, the dry and wet systems of culti-
vating, i. 451 ; supposed to be blighted
by the marriage of cousins, ii. 170 sq.,
173 sq.
Richards, F, J., on cross-cousin mar-
riage, ii. 220 n."^
Riches, mandrake thought to bring, ii.
382, 383, 384, 386 sq.
Ridgeway, Professor W. , on the relation
of jewellery to magic, ii. 515 n.
Right foot foremost at crossing the
threshold, iii. 8
hand, son of the, title of the heir,
i- 432
" -hand wife," i. 551 sqq.
Ring of sacrificial skin, child passed
through, i. 27
on child's foot as amulet, iii. 171,
196
Rings made of skins of sacrificial animals,
Ji. 7 sqq.
Rink, H.,on cousin marriage among the
Eskimo, ii. 142
Rios, Pedro de los, i. 380
Risley, Sir Herbert H. , on cross-cousin
marriage, ii. 131
Ritual, sacrificial skins in, ii. 4 sqq. ;
the use of bells in primitive, iii. 480
of the dairy among the Todas, iii.
162
Rivalry of the trees in fable, ii. 473 sqq.
River, the spirit or jinnee of the, ii. 412
punished for drowning a man, iii.
418
of Death, voyage down the, ii. 544
spirits conceived as animals, ii.
417 sq. ; give oracles by human
mediums, 418
Rivers, ceremonies observed at the pass-
age of, ii. 414 sqq.\ sacrifices to, 414,
415, 416, 418, 419 ; thought to be
inhabited by ancestral spirits, 415 sq.\
regarded as gods or the abodes of
gods, 419
Rivers, Dr. W. H. R. , on ultimogeniture
among the Badagas, i. 472 ; on mar-
riage of cousins in India, ii. 99 n.^,
126 n.^ \ on the Todas, 103 n.'^ \ on
cross-cousin marriage in America,
146 n."^ ; on cousin marriage, 206 ;
on the origin of the classificatory
system of relationship, 230 n.^ ; on
the origin of cross-cousin marriage in
Melanesia and Polynesia, 246 sqq. ;
on marriage with a granddaughter, a
grandmother, and the wife of a mother's
brother, 248 sqq. ; on the dairy ritual
of the Todas, iii. 162 n."^
" Road names" among the Highlanders
of Scotland, iii. 253
Robinson, Edward, on the terebinth, iii.
a,b sq.
Rock-crystals worshipped, ii. 66
spirits, malevolent, ii. 69
Rocks, worship of, ii. 68, 69 sqq.
Rodes, of Cambodia, thesororate among
the, ii. 297
Rokoro, Fijian god of carpenters, i. 240
Roman emperors, their evocation of the
dead, ii. 532 sq.
Pontifical, on the virtue of church
bells, iii. 448
Romans, their mode of making a treaty,
i. 401 ; their passage through the
sea at the siege of New Carthage, ii.
459 sq. ; their way of protecting women
at childbirth from Silvanus, iii. 476 sq.
Rome, ancient, bride carried into her
new home in, iii. 8 ; story of a raven
at, 26 sq. ; laws of the Ten Tables at,
275 ; gladiatorial combats at, 286 sq. ;
punishment of animals at, 423 ; the
annual expulsion of ghosts at, 447
i
INDEX
547
Remove, the sacred oak at, iii. 54,
58
Romulus and Remus, story of their
exposure and upbringing, ii. 447
sqq.
Rook, island, i. 238
Rope severed at peace-making, i. 396 sq.
Roro-speaking tribes of New Guinea,
their bodily lacerations in mourning,
iii. 283 sq.
Roscoe, Rev. John, on absence of flood
stories in Africa, i. 330 ; on superiority
of first wife among the Baganda, 540 ;
on social intercourse of cousins, ii.
160 n.^ ; on the objection of African
tribes to boil milk, iii. 122 «.'', 124 n.^ ;
on African scruples as to bloody milk,
130 ; on the sacred cows of the king
of the Banyoro, 144 sqq.
Rottenburg, in Swabia, church bells
rung to drive away witches at, iii. 455
Rotti, island, story of a great flood in,
i. 223 sq.
Rotuma, marriage of second cousins in,
ii. 185
Roucouyen Indians, the sororate among
the, ii. 274 sq.
Routledge, W. Scoresby and Katherine,
on the Akikuyu, ii. 5 w.' ; on the
Kikuyu rite of new birth, 8, 10
Rovere, noble family in Piedmont, its
sWegQd jus priniae noctis, i. 496 n.'^
Roy, Sarat Chandra, i. 19 w.-
Ruahatu, Polynesian sea-god, i. 243 sq.
Rubble drift, i. 341 w.i
Rubus pintgens, ii. 170
Rubruquis, De, as to the warders of the
threshold at the court of Mangu-Khan,
iii. 3
Rude stone monuments in the region
beyond Jordan, ii. 402 sq.
Rudolph, the emperor, patron of occult
sciences, ii. 380
Russia, the Cheremiss of, i. 22 ; ultimo-
geniture in, 438 sq. ; soul-ladders in,
ii. 57 sq. ; heathen, the threshold the
seat of house spirits in, iii. 12 ; still-
born children buried under the thresh-
old in, 13 ; treatment of child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died in,
252
Russian story of Koshchei the Deathless,
ii. 491 sqq.
Russell, R. v., on cross-cousin mar-
riage, in the Central Provinces of
India, ii. 120 sqq. ; his Tribes and
Castes of the Central Provinces of
India, 241 n.'^
Ryle, Bishop, on the patriarchs, i. 391 m.^ ;
on the date of Deuteronomy, iii. 103
«.^ ; on the moral and ritual versions
of the Decalogue, 116 «.i
Saato, Samoan rain-god, ii. 64
Sabbath of the Lolos, i. 213
Sabbaths, the witches', iii. 455
Sabimba, of the Malay Peninsula, cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 138
Sabine women, rape of the, iii. 10
Sacramental or purificatory theory of sacri-
ficing victims at covenants, i. 399, 411
sq., 421, 424 j^.
Sacred groves the last relics of ancient
forests, iii. 65 sqq.
oaks and terebinths, iii. 30 sqq.
stones, ii. 58 sqq.
Sacrifice, vicarious theory of, i. 425 sqq. ;
at occupying a new house, 426 ; at re-
conciliation, 427 sq. ; principle of sulj-
stitution in, 427 sq. ; at a chiefs grave,
ii. 17 ; to remove impediment to mar-
riage of cousins, 159, 162, 163, 165,
170, 171, 173 sq.; of a bull to the
dead, 553 ; of animals at the thresh-
old, iii. 16 sqq.; vicarious, 184; of
finger-joints for the benefit of the sick,
211 sqq., 222 sqq.; of finger-joints as
a religious rite among the North
American Indians, 22^ sqq. ; of children
to save the lives of sick adults, 213
Sacrifices for children, i. 426 sq. ; to
ancestral spirits, ii. 16 ; to stones, ii.
60, 66, 67, 68, 69 ; to rivers, 414,
415, 416, 418, 419 ; to the dead on
the threshold, iii. 17 ; to trees, 20,
53 sq. ; for rain, 66 sq.
Sacrificial skins in ritual, ii. 4 sqq.
victim, identification of man with,
ii. 26 sq.
Saghalien, the Gilyaks of, ii. 139
Sahara, oracular dreams on tombs in the,
ii- 530
St. .Adelm's bell at Malmesbury Abbey,
rung to drive away thundei", iii. 460
St. Agatha, church bells rung on the
night of, to drive away witches, iii. 455
St. Bernard, his e.xcommunication of
flies, ii. 424
St. George in Palestine, i. 426
St. Germains, the Abbey of, at Paris, its
great bell rung to dri\e away thunder,
iii. 460
St. John, Sir Spencer, on prohibited
degrees among the Dyaks, ii. 172
St. Juan Capistrano, in California, i. 288
St. Julien, the commune of, its lawsuit
against coleopterous insects, iii. 428
St. Mark's, at Venice, the bells of, iii.
454
St. Nannan, his banishment of fleas, iii.
424 «. 2
St. Omer, ultimogenitiu-e in neighbour-
hood of, i. 436 sq.
St. Patrick, his exorcism of reptiles, iii.
• 424
548
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
St. Paul's Cathedral, the bell of old,
rung in thunderstorms, iii. 460 sq.
St. Wenefride's Well in Flintshire, holy
bell at, iii. 459
St. Yvorus, his banishment of rats, iii.
424 «.2
Sainte-Palaye, on mandrakes, ii. 386
Saints, Mohammedan, their tombs in
Syria, iii. 39 sqq.
Sakai, burn a house in which death has
occurred, iii. 233
Sakalavas of Madagascar, their chiefs
not to cross rivers, ii. 420 ; their negro
affinity, iii. 410
Sal tree, Shorea robusta, iii. 88
Salampandai, aDyakgod, maker of men,
i. 14
Sale, pretended, of children, to save their
lives, iii. 171, 173 sq., X7<)sqq.,i.go ; of
mother who has lost several children,
190 «.*
Salsette, bride and bridegroom carried
over the threshold in, iii. 11
Salt, manslayers not allowed to eat,
i. 96
Salteaux or Chippeway Indians, their
story of a great flood, i. 297 sqq.
Salutation, weeping as a, iii. 82 sqq.\
spitting as a, 92 sq.
Salvator Rosa and Constable, ii. 411 n.^
Samaria, Assyrian colonists in the cities
of, iii. 84
Samaritans at Nablus, H. Maundrell's
visit to the, ii. 374
Samoa, story of a great flood in, i. 249 ;
worship of stones in, ii. 63 sq. ; the
sororate and levirate in, 301 sq.; am-
putation of finger-joints in mourning
in, iii. 238; bodily lacerations in mourn-
ing in, 289 sq.
Samoan oath on a stone, ii. 406 sq.
story of the origin of man, i. 40 ;
of the origin of death, 68
Samoans, traces of totemism among the,
ii. 244 ; their mode of drinking water,
468
Samothrace, Dardanus at, i. 163, 167 ;
great flood at, 167 sq.
Samoyeds, primogeniture among the, i.
476
Samson, his character, ii. 480 sq. ; his
home country, 481 sq. ; his strength in
his hair, 484
— — and Delilah, ii. 480 sqq.
Samter, E. , on lifting bride over thresh-
old, iii. 10 n.^
Samuel in relation to Saul, ii. 517 sqq. ;
his ghost evoked by the witch of Endor,
521 sq.
Sanchuniathon on the serpent, i. 50
Sanctuary, the law of the one, i. 139,
iii. 100 sq., 105 sqq.
Sanctuaries for men, animals, and plants
in Central Australia, ii. 509
Sangos, of German East Africa, superi-
ority of the first wife among the, i. 541 ;
cross-cousin marriage among the, ii.
156 sq. ; a younger sister not to marry
before an elder among the, 291
Santa Maria, story of creation of man in,
i. 12
Santal system of group marriage com-
pared with the Thonga system, ii.
309 sq.
Santals of Bengal, their story of the
creation of man, i. 19 sqq. ; their
stories of a great flood, 196 sqq.; ex-
change of daughters in marriage among
the, ii. 217 sq.; brothers and sisters
married in order of seniority among
the, 286 ; group marriage among the,
305 sqq. ; the sororate and levirate
among the, 308 ; serving for a wife
among the, 346 ; their custom of shoot-
ing and cutting the water of a tank
before drawing it at a marriage, 421
Santos, J. dos, on the poison ordeal in
Sofala, iii. 376
Sanyasis, marriage with a cross-cousin
or a niece among the, ii. 114
Saoras, the sororate and levirate among
the, ii. 293 sq.
Saparua, cross-cousin marriage in, ii.
167
Sarah, wife of Tobias, i. 499 sqq., 517,
519
Sarawak, the Dyaks of, ii. 172 sq. ; the
Milanos of, 543
Sarcees, their story of a great flood, i.
314 sq.
Sargon, king of Babylonia, the story of
his exposure and preservation, ii. 450
Sarnas, sacred groves of the Mundas,
iii. 68
Sartori, P., on the folk-lore of bells, iii.
447 «-^
Sass or sassy wood [Erythropkleum gui-
neense), bark of, used in poison ordeal,
iii. 319, 329, 335
Satan, his sermon at North Berwick, ii.
485 sq.
Satapatha Brahmana, story of a great
flood in the, i. 183 sqq.
Saul, institution of the Hebrew mon-
archy under, ii. 473 ; his character
and his relation to Samuel, ^17 sqq.;
his interview with the witch of Endor,
519 sqq.; his interview with three men
before his coronation, iii. 56 ; buried
under an oak or terebinth at Jabesh,
56, 57 ; on one of the "high places,"
6S
Saoras or Savaras burn houses in which
deaths have occurred, iii. 234
INDEX
549
Savagery and collectivism, ii. 227
Savars, of India, their precautions against
demons at marriage, i. 522
Savaras, of India, their way of appeasing
a husband's ghost at his widow's mar-
riage, i. 524
Savigny, a sow tried and executed at, iii.
438 j^.
Savoy, supposed relics of the flood in, i.
179 ; legal proceedings against cater-
pillars in, iii. 434 sq.\ animals as wit-
nesses in, 442 sq.
Saxo Grammaticus, on Norse custom at
election of a king, ii. 403
Saxons of Transylvania, their treatment
of child at baptism whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, iii. 254
Scandinavia, divination by water in, ii. 429
Scapegoats, iii. 96
Scarf connecting earth and heaven, ii. 54
Scarves, souls of criminals caught in, ii.
5"
Scent-bottles as receptacles of souls, ii.
515
Scepticism, the ravages of, iii. 317
Schmidt, K. , on jus primae noctis, i.
485 «.i
Schroeder, L. von, on lifting bride over
threshold, iii. 10 n.'^
Scipio, the elder, his stratagem at the
siege of New Carthage, ii. 459 sq. ;
his mysticism, 461
Scleria scrobiculaia, ii. 170
Scott, Sir J. George, on ultimogeniture
among the Kachiiis, i. 450 ; on systems
of ownership among the Kachins, 450
sq. ; on cross-cousin marriage among
the Kachins, ii. 137
Scotland, continence after marriage in,
ii. 505 ; Gruagach stones in, ii. 72 ;
green stockings or garters at weddings
in, 288 sq. ; divination by tea-stalks in,
432 sq. ; divination by molten lead in,
433 ; objection to count or be counted
in, 1^0 sq.; the north-east of, cakes not
to be counted in, 563 ; bride lifted
over the threshold in, iii. 9 sq. See
also Highlands, Highlanders
Scratching the face in mourning, iii. 273,
274 sq. , 284
Scylla, how she betrayed her father Nisus,
ii. 490
Scythians, their mode of swearing oath
of fealty, i. 394, 414 ; their bodily
mutilations in mourning for a king,
iii. 255, 275
Sea, risings of the, as causes of great
floods, i. 346 ; attacked with weapons,
ii. 422 sq. ; finger -joints of female in-
fants thrown into the, iii. 204, 206,
208 ; navel-strings thrown into the,
206 sq.
Sea Dyaks of Borneo, their story of the
creation of man, i. 14 sq.; their story
of a great flood, 220 sq. ; place minia-
ture houses on graves, ii. 514 n.^ ;
their invocation of the dead, 542 sq. ;
their treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 173.
See also Dyaks
Sebongoh Hill Dyaks, use of little bells
among the, iii. 469 sq.
Seclusion of homicides, i. 80 sqq. ; of
warriors who have slain enemies, 93
sqq.
Second cousins, marriage of, allowed or
enjoined in certain cases, ii. 159 sq.,
184, 185, 190, 191
Secret societies practising cannibalism,
iii. 379
Seilun, the ancient Shiloh, iii. 45
Seligmann, Dr. C. G. , on rules as to
milk vessels in the Sudan, iii. 127 ;
and Mrs. C. G. , on the Veddas, ii.
102 W.2
Selli, the, in ancient Hellas, i. 148
Semas, the, ii. 67 n.^
Semiramis, the story of her exposure and
preservation, ii. 440
Semites preceded by Sumerians in Baby-
lonia, i. 120 ; swarmed from Arabian
desert, 124 ; in the patriarchal age,
their marriage customs, ii. 371
Semitic and Ethiopian usage, their simi-
larities, ii. 6
peoples, resemblance of their cus-
toms to those of certain tribes of Eastern
Africa, ii. 4 sqq.
Senegal, the Balantes of, iii. 312 ; the
Naloos of, 318
, Upper, worship of Earth in, i. 84
Senegambia, the Wolofs of, iii. 195, 265 ;
the Sereres of, 316 ; drinking written
charms in, 413
Seniority, children expected to marry in
order of, ii. 285 sqq. ; and juniority in
marriage regulations, 317 sq., 236 sqq.
Senoufos, exchange of daughters in mar-
riage among the, ii. 218
Sensitiveness attributed to plants, ii. 396
sq.
Serbian custom of marrying in the order
of seniority, ii. 287 sq.
story of a warlock whose strength
was in a bird, ii. 493 sq. ; of a dragon
whose strength was in a pigeon, 494 sq.
Sereres, of Senegambia, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 316 sqq.
Servant, Hebrew law as to boring the ear
of a, iii. 165 sq., 264 sq., 266, 269
Serpent and the Fall of Man, i. 45, 46,
48, 49 sqq. ; supposed to renew its
youth by casting its skin, 50
king in flood story, i. 302 sq.
550
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Serpents supposed to be immortal be-
cause they cast their skins, i. 50, 66
sqq. , 75 sq. ; in cures of the sick, ii.
47. 50
Serving for a wife, i. 467, ii. 342 sgt/.
Servius, on deluges of Ogyges and Deu-
calion, i. 157 «.3
Seuechoras, king of Babylon, ii. 440
Severus, his ghost evoked by Caracalla,
ii. 532 sq.
Seven, the number, its prominence in
Hebrew and Babylonian stories of the
flood, i. 140
Sexes created by Zeus, i. 28
Sextus Pompeius, his consultation of a
Thessaiian witch, ii. 531 sq.
Se.xual communism, ii. 309 ; in New
Guinea, 322 ; among the Masai, 323
sq. ; among the Wataveta, 326 ; asso-
ciated with age-grades, 335 st/.
intercourse forbidden while cattle
are at pasture, iii. 141 sq.
Shakespeare on bride's elder sister danc-
ing barefoot at her younger sister's
marriage, ii. 288 ; on the mandrake,
385
Shamash, Babylonian sun-god, i. 114,
367
Shamsher, a prince in a folk-tale of Gilgit,
ii. 497 sqg.
Shan race of Indo-China, i. 199 ; their
story of a great flood, 199 sqq.
States, human sacrifices at laying
foundations in the, i. 422 n.^
Shans of Burma, custom of executioners
among the, i. 90 ; of China, ultimo-
geniture among the, 455 ; or Tai,
their distribution and affinities, 455 J^.;
their agriculture, 456
Shantung, ancestral spirits consulted in,
ii- 547
Shape-shifting of spirits, ii. 413
Shaving heads of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii. 194,
19s
Shechem, the modern Nablus, ii. 471 ;
Jotham's address to the men of, 471
sq. ; sacred oaths or terebinths at, iii.
54, 55 sq.; the vale of, 55
Sheep brings message of immortahty to
men, i. 60 ; in story of origin of death,
63 ; widower married to, in the Punjab,
526 ; woman assimilated to, ii. 9, 10
and goat, stories of, i. 58 sqq.
sacrificed in peace-making cere-
mony, i. 400; in ceremony of redemp-
tion, 409; in expiation, ii. 23 sq.,
162 ; at threshold when bride enters
her new home, iii. 16
black, sacrificed to the dead, ii. 17 ;
pregnant, sacrificed in cattle disease,
17
" Sheep of God," bird charged with mes
sage of immortality to men, i. 74 sq.
Shekiani tribe, of the Gaboon, superiority
of the first wife among the, i. 539
Sliellfish supposed to be immortal through
casting their skin, i. 68
Shells, fossil, as evidence of the Noachian
deluge, i. 159, 338 sqq.; marine, as
evidence of a great flood, 217, 222,
328 ; souls of enemies caught in, ii.
Shetland Islands, dwelling-house inherited
by youngest child in the, i. 435 ; ob-
jection to count animals or things in
the, ii. 560 sq.
Shilluks, their story of the creation of
man, i. 22 sq.
Shiloh, iii. 45, 48
Shivalli Brahmans, cross - cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 119 sq.
Shorea robust a, iii. 88
Shortlands Islands, story of the origin of
death in the, i. 69 ; leaves for roof of
chiefs house not to be counted in the,
ii- 559
Shri Badat, an ogre king of Gilgit, whose
soul was made of butter, ii. 497 sqq.
Shropshire custom of dancing barefoot at
a younger sister's wedding, ii. 288 ;
dancing in a hog's trough at the
marriage of a younger brother or sister
in, 289 ; divination by water in, 432
Shurippak, a Babylonian city, destroyed
by flood, i. 113, 355 ; excavations at,
124 sq.
Shuswaps, cousin marriage among tlie,
ii. 147
Siam, superiority of the first wife in, i.
556 ; the sororate in, ii. 297 ; the
king of, commands the Meinam River
to retire, 421
Siassi Islands, i. 238, 239
Siberia, treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died in,
iii. 176 sq.
, North-Eastern, cousin marriage in,
ii. 139 sq.
Sibree, James, on cousin marriage among
the IVialagasy, ii. 157 sq.
Sick persons fed with the blood of their
friends, iii. 302
Sickness caused by ghosts, ii. 18 sq.
Sienna, iii. 454
Sierra Leone, superiority of first wife in,
i. 536 ; bride carried into the house
in, iii. 7 ; objection to boil milk in,
118 ; the poison ordeal in, 323 sqq.
Sieve, child at birth placed in a, iii. 173
Sigu, hero of a flood story, i. 263 sqq.
Sihai, the first man in Nias, i. 15
Sihanaka of Madagascar, silence of
widows among the, iii. 72
INDEX
551
Sikhim, the Lepchas of, ii. 347 ; the
Limboos of, 348
Silavantulus, cross - cousin marriage
among the, ii. 113
Silence imposed on widows for some
time after the death of their husbands,
iii. 72 sqq.
Silent widow, the, iii. 71 sqq.
Silenus caught by Midas, ii. 413
Silesia, ultimogeniture in, i. 437 ; bride
carried over threshold in, iii. 9
Silvanus, women in childbed protected
against, iii. 476 sq.
Simo, the grand master of an African
secret society, iii. 318
Simpang-impang, a half-man, i. 221
Sin, Babylonian moon-god, i. 373
Sin of a census, ii. 555 sqq.
Sinai, herd girls among the Arabs of, ii.
82
Sindian, the evergreen oak in Palestine,
iii. 30, 32, 34, 36
Sinew that shrank, ii. 423 sq.
Singbhum, in Bengal, i. 195, 196, 467
Sing Bonga, the creator, i. 195, 196
Singbonga, the Munda sun-god, i. 19
Singhalese, marriage of cross - cousins
among the, ii. 102 ; the classificatory
system among the, 241 ; children at
birth protected against forest spirits
among the, iii. 476
Singphos of Assam, their story of a
great flood, i. 198
or Chingpaws of Burma, their
story of a great flood, i. 208 sq.
or Kachins, cross-cousin marriage
among the, ii. 136 sqq. See also
Kachins
Sioux or Dacota Indians, weeping as a
salutation among the, ii. 88 sqq. ; their
cuttings of their bodies and hair and
amputation qf finger -joints in mourn-
ing, iii. 228
Sippar, Babylonian city, i. 108, no, 119,
125
Sirma Thakoor, the creator, i. 195
Sister, younger, not to marry before
elder, ii. 97, 264, 277, 285 sqq. See
also Elder, Younger
Sister's daughter, marriage with, ii. 105,
109, 113 sqq.
son, special regard for, ii. 123 ; a
man's heir under mother-kin, 220 n.'^
sons as a man's heirs, their place
in the evolution of law, ii. 281
Sisters, marriage with several, ii. 97,
264 sqq. ; elder and younger, of a wife,
distinction in husband's behaviour
towards, 276 ; group of, married to
group of brothers, 304 sqq. ; younger,
of wife, made free with by husband,
307. See also Elder and Younger
Sisters, exchanged in marriage, ii. 104 ;
among the Australian aborigines, 195
sqq., 202 sqq.; in India, 210 sqq.,
217 ; in New Guinea, 214 sqq. ; in
Africa, 218 ; in Sumatra, 218 sq.; in
Palestine, 219 sq.
j Siva or Mahadeva, i. 18 ; in relation to
the custom of amputating finger -joints,
iii. 221
Skene, Sir John, legal antiquary, i. 490,
491
Skin, story of the cast, i. 66 sqq. , 74 sqq. ;
of sacrificial sheep in ritual, 414. See
also Skins
Skinner, Principal J., i. 78 n.'^, 137 «.*,
138 «., 142 «.^; on the patriarchs,
391 n.^ ; on 2 Kings (.xvii. 27), iii.
84 «.^, 85 «.^ ; on the date of Deutero-
nomy, 103 n.'^
Skins of lions (pumas), men dressed in,
i. 32 ; of sacrificial victims, persons
wrapt in, 414, 427, 428 ; sacrificial,
in ritual, ii. 4 sqq.
Skull, drinking out of a, as a mode of
inspiration, ii. 533
Skulls of dead chiefs preserved, ii. 534
sq.
Skye, sacred stones in, ii. 72
Slave, Hebrew law as to boring the ear of
a, iii. 165 sq., 264 sq., 266, 269 ; cere-
mony to prevent a slave from running
away, 263 sq. ; cuts ear of master
whom he wishes to serve, 265 ; cere-
monies by which a slave can transfer
himself to another master, 265 sqq.
Coast, superiority of the first wife
on the, i. 537, 538 ; the poison ordeal
on the, iii. 334 sq. ; the Yoruba-speak-
ing people of the, 471
Indians, their story of a great flood,
i. 310
Slavonia, bride carried into husband's
house in, iii. 8
Slavonic countries, laceration of the face
in mourning in, iii. 275
parallels to the story of Samson
and Delilah, ii. 491 sqq.
Slavs, the South, custom of continence
after marriage among, i. 504 ; form
of adoption among, ii. 29 ; their
custom of marrying in order of
seniority, 287 ; custom among them
in regard to bride crossing the thresh-
old, iii. 8 ; their sacrifice of a cock
on the threshold, 17 sq.
Sleeping in sanctuaries in order to re-
ceive revelations in dreams, ii. 42 sqq.
Smith regarded with superstitious awe
by African tribes, ii. 20 sq. ; expiation
for cohabitation with the wife of a,
23 ; pretended sale of children to, iii.
171
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Smith, Adam, on the punishment of in-
animate objects, iii. 444 sq.
Smith, George, his discovery of the
Gilgamesh epic, i. iii
Smith, Sir George Adam, on the ford of
the Jabbok, ii. 411 71} ; on Samson's
home country, 481 sq. ; on the solar
theory of Samson, 482 n.^
Smith, W. Robertson, i. 138 «. ; on
the mark of Cain, 78 ; on the Mas-
sorets, 358 ; on sacramental or puri-
ficatory interpretation of covenant, 408,
412, 414, 415, 424 ; on preference for
marriage with the daughter of the
father's brother, ii. 261 sq. ; on hunt-
ing for souls, 511 ;?.!; as to leaping
over a threshold, iii. i «.*; on the
Book of the Covenant, 99 sq. ; on the
prohibition of seething a kid in its
mother's milk, 117; on the offering
of blood to the dead, 300
Smith River Indians, in California, their
story of a great flood, i. 289
Smoking to oracular stone, ii. 70
— — as a means of inducing prophetic
trance, ii. 533 ; of hemp as a judicial
ordeal, iii. 364 w.^
Snail, men descended from, i. 30
Snake Indians get fire from the moon, i.
289 sq. ; their bodily lacerations in
mourning, iii. 280
Snake, in story of the creation of man, i.
18
Snakes, water-spirits in the shape of, ii.
420 ; sacred, fed with milk, iii. 218
Snares to catch souls, ii. 511 sq.
Sneezing as a symptom of life, i. 6, 9
Snorri, Sturluson, i. 174
Socrates, church historian, on the oak
of Mamre, iii. 59
Sofala, the poison ordeal in, iii. 375 sq.
Solar theory of diluvial traditions, i.
342 «.i
Sole-fish in story of creation, i. 21
Sollas, W. J., on antiquity of man, i.
169 n.^
Solomon, King, a younger son, i. 433 ;
and the mandrake, ii. 390 ; as judge
in dispute between plants, 478 ; and
the Queen of Sheba, 564 sqq. ; his
wager with Hiram, king of Tyre, 566 ;
the judgment of, 570 sq.
Islands, the sacrifice of children in
the, iii. 213
Solon, his legislation as to mourning
customs, iii. 274
Somali, ornaments as amulets among
the, ii. 514 n.^ \ their objection to
heat camel's milk, iii. 122
Somavansi Kshatriyas, of Bombay, their
precaution against husband's ghost at
marriage of his widow, i. 524
Son inherits his father's wives in many
African tribes, i. 541 n.'^, ii. 280. See
also Sons
-in-law residing after marriage with
his wife's parents, custom of, ii. 355
^M-< 367. 368
"Son of the right hand," title of the
heir, i. 432
Song of the Flood, i. 289
of Songs, the smell of the man-
drakes in the, ii. 375
Songos, of Angola, the poison ordeal
among the, iii. 369 sq.
Sonjharas, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 122
Sons, the last heirs to be called to their
father's inheritance in the evolution of
law, ii. 281. See also Son
Sorcha, the king of, and the herdsman
of Cruachan, an Argyleshire story, ii.
496 sq.
Sorcery, all deaths set down to, iii. 314,
371. See also Witchcraft
Sororate among the Indians of North
America, ii. 266 sqq. ; among the
Indians of South America, 274 sq.
limited in respect of seniority, ii.
317
and levirate, ii. 263 sqq. ; comple-
mentary, 265 ; seem to have originated
in group marriage, 304, 317
Soosoos, of Sierra Leone, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 326
Soul of grandfather thought to be re-
born in his grandchild, ii. 330 sq.
, belief that a man's soul can be
extracted from his body in his life-
time, ii. 506 sq.
supposed to reside in the hair, iii.
189. See also Souls
Soulis, Lord, a reputed wizard, his
traditionary end, ii. 488 sqq.
Souls of the dead, ladders for the use of
the, ii. 56 sqq. ; of ancestors in stones,
65 ; of dead relatives supposed to be
reborn in their namesakes, 330 ; tied
up for safety in a bundle, 506; human,
extracted and stowed away for safety,
507 sqq. ; caught in traps by witches
and wizards, 510 sqq. ; the transmi-
gration of, in relation to the mutila-
tion of dead infants, iii. 242 sqq.
Sour curds, milk eaten in the form of,
iii. 148
South America, stories of a great flood
in, i. 254 sqq. ; the sororate and
levirate among the Indians of, ii.
274 sq. See also America a«a? American
Indians
Sowing, sacrifices before, ii. 17 ; sacri-
fices at, iii. 85
Sows tried and executed, iii. 438 sqq.
INDEX
553
Sozomenus, church historian, on the oak
of Mamre, iii. 59 ; his account ot the
festival at the oak, 59 sq.
Spaco, the nurse of Cyrus, ii. 444
Spain, form of adoption in, ii. 28 sq. ;
church bells rung to drive away witches
in, iii. 455
Spanish flies prosecuted by the inhabit-
ants of Coire, iii. 432
Sparrow, sacred, of Aesculapius, iii. 20
Sparrows protected by Apollo, iii. 19 ;
Christ's saying about, 21
Spartan kings, kettles beaten at funerals
of, iii. 467
Speke, Captain J. H., on worship of
stone, ii. 68 ; on water ordeal in
Central Africa, 455 ; on scruples of
Bahima in regard to milk, iii. 155
Capt. J. H., and J. A. Grant, on
the objection to boil milk in Africa,
iii. 120
Spelman, Sir Henry, legal antiquary, i.
490
Spencer, Sir Baldwin, on ignorance of
physical paternity in aboriginal Aus-
tralia, ii. 204 n.^
Spencer, Sir Baldwin, and F. J. Gillen,
on Arunta tradition of the origin of
man, i. 43 ; on marriage by capture
in Australia, ii. 199 sq.\ on the chnr-
inga of the Central Australian ab-
origines, 509 ; on the release of widows
from the rule of silence among the
Arunta, iii. 75 sq. ; on the mourning
customs of the central Australian
aborigines, 298 sq.
, Herbert, on the offering of blood
to the dead, iii. 302 n.^
, John, on the prohibition of seeth-
ing a kid in its mother's milk, iii.
116 «.^, 117 «.i, 117 w.^
Sperchius, hair of Achilles vowed to the
river, iii. 274
Spider in story of creation of man, i. 19
Spiegel, Fr. , on supposed Persian stories
of a great flood, i. 180 «.'^, 182 «.*
Spirits, stones sacred to, ii. 60 sqq. ;
ancestral, supposed to reside in rivers
and lakes, 415 sq. ; evil, supposed to
be driven away by the sound of bells,
iii. 446 sq. , 448 sqq. See also Demons
Spitting as a salutation in East Africa,
ii. 92 sq. ; at crossing rivers, 415
Spittle swallowed as bond of union, ii.
91 sq. ; used in forming a. covenant,
92. 93
Spokanas, their story of a great flood, i.
325
Sponsor, stranger as, iii. 250, 251, 252,
253
Sprenger, inquisitor, his practice of shav-
ing the heads of witches, ii. 485
Spring, worship at hearing the firsf
thunder in, iii. 225, 225 n.^
Srihga, tree, or rather plant (Aconitutn),
used in the poison ordeal in India, iii.
407, 407 «.i, 409
Stade, B. , on the mark of Cain, i. 78 n.^ ,
on the Tower of Babel, 363 «.'
Stafford, Borough English in, i. 434
Stake run into grave of troublesome
ghost, ii. 18 sq.
Stamford, Borough English in, i. 434
Stapf, Dr. O. , on Erythrophhtim,
iii. 308 n.^, 309, 311 «.^ 314 «.i, 329
n.^, 335 «-^ 342 «.2, 357 «.. 369 «-^
371 n.^, 385 n}\ on S/rychr/os, 345 w.',
352 H.* ; on aconite, 410 n.
Statues and statuettes representing the
dead, employed at the consultation of
their ghosts, ii. 537 sq.
Status in early law, legal fiction at change
of, ii. 28
Steggall, Rev. A. R., on polyandry
among the Wataveta, ii. 327
Stein, Sir Marc Aurel, on legends of
Cashmeer, i. 206, 207
Stelvio, the commune of, its lawsuit
against moles or field-mice, iii. 430 sq.
Stepping over sacrificed animals, ii. 418
Stiengs, serving for a wife among the,
ii. 352 sq.
Stigand, Captain C. H., on different
modes of drinking water in Africa, ii.
467
Stone monuments, rude, in the region
beyond Jordan, ii. 402 sq. ; circles in
Palestine, 403
Stone, the Black, at Mecca, ii. 59
, the Plighting, at Lairg, ii. 405 sq.
Stones, men created afresh out of, after
the flood, i. 147, 151, 266 ; souls of
ancestors in, ii. 65 ; oaths taken on,
67, 68, 405 sqq. ; erected in memory of
the dead, 68 ; oracular, 70 sq. ; their
magical effect in ratifying covenants,
403 sq. ; employed in marriage cere-
monies, 404 ; in honour of ancestors,
iii. 263
, sacred, ii. 58 sqq. ; oil poured on,
41, 72 sqq.
Stork or crane in story of origin of man,
'• 37 sq.
Strambino, in Piedmont, the inhabitants
of, prosecute caterpillars, iii. 433 sq.
Strangers, dread of the magic of, i.
418 sq.; employ native priests to wor-
ship the gods of the land, ii. 84 sqq.;
as sponsors or godfathers of children
whose elder brothers and sisters have
died, iii. 250, 251, 252, 253
Strassburg, the bells of the cathedral at,
iii. 449 sq.
. Strathclyde, Lord, i. 492 «.*
554
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Strato, on the opening of the Bosphorus I
and of the Straits of GibraUar, i. 170 ]
sq.
Strength of men, especially of witches
and warlocks, supposed to be in their
hair, ii. 484 sqq.
Strepsiades in Aristophanes, i. 236
Strychnos, roots of, used for poison
ordeal, iii. 342, 345 w.^, 348 n^,
352 w.i, 356 ; ikaja, 342
Strymon, the river, white horses sacri-
ficed to, ii. 414
Stubbes, in Anatomie of Abuses, on the
passing bell, iii. 451
Subincisiou in Australia, iii. 262
Substitutes for the amputation of finger-
joints, iii. 220
Substitution in sacrifice, principle of, i.
427 sq.
Subterranean waters, flood caused by the
bursting of, i. 227 sq. , 356 sq.
Succession to kingdom in Tahiti, i. 550
Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian, objection to
boil milk in, iii. 122 ; rules as to
milk - vessels in, 127 : menstruous
women not to drink milk in, 128
, the French, the Menkieras of, ii.
69 ; exchange of daughters in mar-
riage in, 2x8 ; the sororate in, 283 ;
the Zangas of, 369 ; the Mossi of,
430 ; the Nounoumas of, iii. 54 ; the
poison ordeal in, 319 sqq.
Suess, E. , on floods caused by earth-
quake waves, i. 351 n.'^ \ his theory
of the flood story in Genesis, 356 sqq.
Suffolk, dancing in a hog's trough at the
marriage of a younger brother or
sister in, ii. 289 ; burial of abortive
calves in a gateway in, iii. 15
Suk, of British East Africa, their rule of
succession to property, i. 477 ; their
custom of spitting, ii. 93; the pastoral,
do not eat meat and milk together,
153 ; age-grades among the, 333 sq.\
their totemic clans, 334 ; allow women
to milk cows, iii. 135 ; do not eat
millet and milk together, 156 ; do
not eat a kind of wild pig, 157 ; their
ordeal of drinking blood, 397
Sultan, the Great, i. 103
Sumatra, stories of descent of man from
animals in, i. 35 ; stories of a great
flood in, 217 sqq. ; the Bataks or
Battas of, 402, 472, ii. 53, 165 sq.,
243, 290, 298, 355, 545 ; consum-
mation of marriage deferred in, i.
509 ; superiority of the first wife in,
558 ; the Looboosof, ii. 166, 354 ; the
Rejangs of, 167 ; exchange of sisters
or daughters in marriage in, 218 j^.;
younger brother or sister not to marry
before an elder in, 290, 291 ; the
sororate and levirate in, 299 ; serving
for a wife in, 353 sqq. ; the Karo-
Bataks of, iii. 189 ; the Orang Sakai
of, 283
Sumerian trinity, i. 113 «.*
version of the flood story, i. 120
sqq.
Sumerians, the, i. 107, 120 sq.
Sun, the creation of the, i. 15, 25 ; the
ark interpreted as the, 342 ; marries a
woman, ii. 52 sq. ; supposed to de-
scend annually into a fig-tree, 55 ;
pigs sacrificed to him on the threshold,
iii. 17 ; fingers sacrificed to the, 226 sq. ;
re-created by blood of his worshippers,
256 ; Mexican offerings of blood to
the, 256 sq.
god creates man, i. 19; an African,
•• 377; Ra or Atum^ Egyptian, ii. 56;
father of Kama by the princess Kunti
or Pritha, 451
Sunars, the sororate among the, ii. 293 ;
bells worn by children and girls among
the, iii. 477
Sunda, story of the Noachian deluge in,
i. 223
Sundaneeze of Java, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 510
Superiority of first wife in polygamous
families, i. 536 sqq.
Supernatural birth in legend, ii. 454
Superstition a temporary prop of morality,
i. 103
Superstitions about youngest children, i.
564 sqq. ; attaching to the poison-tree,
2,S(^ sqq., 358, 383 J-^.
Surakarta in Java, i. 521
Surrey, Borough English in, i. 434
Sussex, Borough English in, i. 434
Susu, of Sierra Leone, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 157
Suze^s, of Sierra Leone, the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 324 sq.
Swabia, ultimogeniture in, i. 438 ; church
bells rung to drive away thunderstorms
in, iii. 458
Swahili, their treatment of children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 196 sq.
Swanton, J. R. , on cross-cousin mar-
riage among the Haidas, ii. 146 «.-
Swazies, the levirate among the, ii. 276
Swearing allegiance, Malagasy mode of,
i. 403
on stones, ii. 405 sqq.
Sweden, divination by molten lead in,
ii. 433
Swettenham, Sir Frank, on divination
by water in the Malay Peninsula, ii.
430
Switzerland, the Tobias Nights in, i.
504
INDEX
555
Switzerland, French, custom of bride
leaping over the tlireshold in, iii. 9
Symbolic oaths, i. 406 n.
Sympathetic magic, i. 414, 425, 566,
ii. 424, iii. 126, 144, 162, 163, 208,
268 ; based on the association of ideas,
123
Symposium of Plato, i. 28
Syncellus on the flood, i. loS ;/.
Syria, vicarious theory of sacrifice in, i.
425 sqq. ; artificial mandrakes as
charms in, ii. 380 ; cairns as witnesses
in, 409 ; the Arabs of, averse to count-
ing certain things, 563 ; bride step-
ping over blood in, iii. 16 ; tombs of
Mohammedan saints in, 39 sqq.
Syrian belief that it is unlucky to tread
on a threshold, iii. 2
goddess, sacrifice of sheep to, i.
414, 428 ; at Hierapolis, her sacred
pigeons, iii. 20
Syrians, their ear-rings, iii. 166
Systems of relationship among the hill
tribes of Assam, ii. 241 n.'^
Szeukha, hero of a flood story, i. 282 sq.
Taanach, sacred pillars at, ii. ^^
Taaoroa, chief god of Tahiti, i. 9 ;
Polynesian creator, 242
Tabernacle in the wilderness, i. 133
Taboos observed by persons who have
handled corpses, iii. 137
Tabor, Mount, ii. 520, iii. 31, 38
Tagales, of the- Philippine Islands, serv-
ing for a bride among the, ii. 359
Tagalogs, of the Philippines, ward off
demons from women at childbirth, iii.
Tahiti, story of creation of man m, 1.
9 sq. ; stories of a great flood in, 242
sqq.; succession to kingdom in, 550;
mode of divination by water in, ii. 429
sq. ; lacerations of the body in mourn-
ing in, iii. 285 sqq. , 300
Tai. See Shans
Tail, how man lost his, i. 29 sq.
Tails, artificial, worn by women, ii.
24
Taiyals of Formosa, their custom as to
youngest boy eating the new grain, i.
56s
Tajan, district of Dutch Borneo, penalty
for incest in, ii. 174
Takhar, an African god of Justice, iii. 317
"Taking the death off the. body" of a
widow or widower, ii. 282
Talbot, P. Amaury, on peace-making
ceremonies in S. Nigeria, i. 400 n.^
Talmud, the Babylonian and Palestinian,
as to Dagon and the threshold, iii. 2 //.^
Tamanachiers, their story of the origin
of death, i. 67
Tamanaques, of the Orinoco, their story
of a great flood, i. 266 sq.
Tamar and her twins, i. 432
Tamendonare, hero of a Brazilian flood
story, i. 254 sq.
Tamil language, ii. 104
speaking peoples, marriage of
cross-cousins among the, ii. 104 sqq.
Tane, the Maori creator, i. 9 ; Polynesian
creator, 250, 251
Tangaloa, a Samoan god, i. 40
Tanganyika, Lake, superiority of a first
wife among the tribes on S.E. of, i.
541 sq.; the Wafipas of, ii. 461
Tangena tree, iii. 401, 402 ; prayer
addressed to the tree, 403
Tanghinia venenifera, the poison-tree of
Madagascar, iii. 401
Tangier, custom observed at, on return
from pilgrimage, iii. 6
Tangkhuls, polygamy among the, i. 556 ;
their oath on stones, ii. 406 ; their re-
ported use of poisoned arrows, iii.
410 n.
Tanna, cross-cousin marriage in, ii. 179
Tarahumares, of Mexico, their story of
a great flood, i. 280 sq.
Tartar prince, his threshold not to be
touched on pain of death, iii. 3
Tartars, the Bedel, their story of the
creation of man, i. 11
, ultimogeniture among the, i. 440
Tasmania, mourning customs of the
aborigines of, iii. 297, 299
Tasso, the Enchanted Forest of, iii. 32
Tattooed, manslayers, i. 93, 97
Tattooing bodies of female children, iii.
195 «.•»
Tawhaki, hero of Maori story of a great
flood, i. 252 sq.
Tawney, C. H., on a story in tlie
Mahabharata, ii. 569 «.i
Taygetus, Mount, ii. 50, 51 w.^
Tcaipakomat, a creator of man, i. 25 sq.
Tchapewi, hero of a flood story, i. 310
Tchiglit Eskimo, their story of a great
flood, i. 327
Tchuds, the Northern, ultimogeniture
among, i. 439
Tea-leaves, divination by, ii. 432 sq.
Tears of mourners offered to the dead,
iii. 285
Teeth of mourners knocked out, iii. 255,
287 sq., 290
Teit, James, on cousin marriage among
the Thompson and Shuswap Indians,
ii. 147
Telach Bela, the Hill of the Axe, ii. 422
Telephus suckled by a doe, ii. 445 ; the
story of his birth and upbringing, 445
Tehs, the sororate and levirate anying
the, ii. 294
556
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Telugu language, iii. 104, no
speaking peoples, cross-cousin mar-
riage among the, ii. 109 sqg,
Tembus marry no near relative, ii. 151 n.^\
do not observe the levirate, 276
Tempe, the gorge of, i. 171 sqq.\ the
laurel cut at, ii. 474, 475
Temple, Sir Richard C, on piercing the
noses and ears of children, iii. 189 sq.
Temple-tombs, oracular, ii. 537
Temples, Babylonian, i. 365 np'
Ten Commandments, the original, iii.
Ill sqq. See also Decalogue
Tables, laws of the, on mourning
rites, iii. 275
Teng'ger Mountains in Java, i. 509 sq.
Tenggeres of Java, husband resides with
his wife's father among the, ii. 357
Tequendama, waterfall of, legend of its
origin, i. 267 sq.
Terebinths in Palestine, iii. 30, 38, 40,
41, 43, 45, 46 sqq.; venerated by the
peasants and Arabs, 48 sqq.
Tertullian on sea-shells as evidence of a
great flood, i. 338 5^.
Tessmann, G., on the Fans (Pangwes),
iii. 348 «.2
Teuthras, king of Mysia, adopts Tele-
phus, ii. 445
Tezcatlipoca, Me.xican god, his nocturnal
rambles, ii. 424
Tezpi, hero of a flood story, i. 275
Thahu, ceremonial pollution among the
Akikuyu, i. 81, 86, ii. 162
Thakur Deo, Indian village god, ii. 67
or Thakur Jiu, mythical being in
Santal story of creation, i. 19 sqq.,
195, 198
Thasos, the trial and punishment of in-
animate objects in, iii. 422 sq.
Theagenes, a bo.\er, punishment of his
statue, iii. 422 sq.
Theal, G. M'Call, on cousin marriage
among the Bantu tribes of South-East
Africa, ii. 150 sq.
Thebes, in Boeotia, great antiquity of, i.
157. 158
Theophrastus on worship of stones, ii. 73;
on mandragora (mandrake), ii. 375 «.■*;
on the mode of digging up the peony,
389
Theopompus, on the Egyptian origin of
the Athenians, i. 159
Theraka, their use of sacrificial skins at
marriage, ii. 12 sq.
Thespiae, Love worshipped at, ii. 60
Thessalian witch, her evocation of the
dead, ii. 531 sq.
Thessaly, mountains of, parted in Deu-
calion's flood, i. 146, 171 ; submerged
in the deluge, 158 ; said to have been
originally a lalce, 171
Thetis, caught by Peleus, ii. 413
Thevet, Andr6, on a flood story of the
Indians of Brazil, i. 254 ; on weeping
as a salutation among the Tupis, ii.
88 «.i
Thief, divination to detect a, ii. 429 sq.,
431 ^1-
Thlinkeet. See Tlingit
Thomas, N. W. , on rules of succession
among the Ibos, i. 478 sq.
Thompson Indians of British Columbia
blacken the faces of manslayers, i. 96 ;
their story of a great flood, 322 sq. ;
consummation of marriage deferred
among the, 516 ; cousin marriage
among the, ii. 147
Thomson, Basil H. , on cross-cousin mar-
riage in Fiji, ii. 180 sqq. ; on prohibi-
tion of cousin marriage in Polynesia,
184 sq.
Thomson, W. M., on the ford of the
Jabbok, ii. 411 «.i; on the oaks of
Palestine, iii. 32, 33, 34. 35 sqq.,
48 n.*
Thonga, their precautions against the
ghosts of the slain, i. 93 ; their rule as
to grandson of reigning chief, 479 sqq. ,
548 sqq. ; superiority of first wife of a
commoner among the, 547 ; the prin-
cipal wife of a chief among the, gener-
ally not the first wife, 548 ; cousin
marriage forbidden among the, ii. 162 ;
the sororate and levirate among the,
sq. 276 ; system of group marriage
compared with the Santal system, 309
sq. ; their objection to boil milk, iii.
121 ; their rules as to menstruous
women in relation to milk and cattle,
130; do not allow a woman to drink milk
after childbirth, 131 sq. ; their treat-
ment of children whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, 193 sq. ; the
poison ordeal among the, 372 sqq.
Three angels worshipped at Hebron, iii.
57
days, resurrection after, i. 71 sqq.
men, interview of Abraham with,
at the oaks of Mamre, iii. 54 sq., 56,
57 ; interview of Saul with, before his
coronation, 56
Threshold, sinful or unlucky to tread on
a, iii. I sqq. ; the Keepers of the, i
sqq. ; bride at maiTiage carried over,
6 sqq. ; supposed to be haunted by
spirits, II sqq.; sacrifice of animals at
the, 16 sqq.
Thresholds, ceremony performed at, to
keep out Silvanus, iii. 476
Thrush charged with message of immor-
tality to men, i. 61 sq.
Thucydides on wanderings of Alcmaeon,
i. 83
INDEX
557
Thunder, the first, in spring, worship at
hearing, iii. 225, 225 n.'^
" Thunderbolt," a prehistoric flint imple-
ment, iii. 131
"Thunder-sheaves," dues paid to sexton
for ringing the church bell in thunder-
storms, iii. 457
Thunderstorms, church bells rung to
drive away, iii. 457 sq.
Thuringia, baptismal custom in, iii. 254
Thurston, Edgar, on cousin marriage in
Southern India, ii. loi
Thyestes, father of Aegisthus, ii. 446
Tiahuanaco, mankind created at, i. 28
Tibet, defloration of brides in, reported
by Marco Polo, i. 531 sg. ; eating or
drinking written charms in, iii. 414
Tibetan story of a great flood, i. 198
form of oath, i. 394
Tibetans, cousin marriage among the, ii.
134
TibuUus, on the evocation of the dead,
ii- 532
Tibur, oracle at, ii. 5T
Tickell, Lieut., on ultimogeniture among
the Kols, i. 470
Tierra del Fuego, story of a great flood
in, i. 273 ; the sororate and levirate in,
ii. 275. See also Fuegians
I iger, expiation for slaughter of man by,
i. 411 ; precautions against the ghost
of a man who has been killed by a,
527 sgr. ; rites to lay the ghost of a man
killed by a, iii. 88 sq.
Tigers, men descended from, i. 35 ; killed
on principle of blood-revenge, iii. 4155$^.
Tigr6 tribes, of Abyssinia, their treatment
of children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 195
Tigris in flood, i. 354
Tiki, the Maori creator, i. 9
Timagami Ojibways, their story of a great
flood, i. 307 sq.
Times of the judges and kings, ii. 435 sqq.
Timmaneys or Timmanees, of Sierra
Leone, the poison ordeal among the,
iii. 324 sq., 326
Timor, disguise against ghosts in, i. 99 ;
way of ratifying an oath in, 402 ; wor-
ship of stones in, ii. 65
Tinguianes, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 511
Tinneh Indians, their observances after
manslaying, i. 96 sq. ; their stories of
a great flood, 310 sqq. ; their mourning
customs, iii. 278
Tinnehs or D^n^s, Indian nation of
North-West America, i. 309
, the Northern, the sororate among
the, ii. 274
, the Western, cross-cousin marriage
among, ii. 143 sqq.
Tinnevelly, cross-cousin marriage in, ii.
104, 107, 117
Tipperahs, serving for a wife among the,
ii- 350
Tiresias, his ghost evoked by Ulysses, ii.
526
Tistar, a Persian angel, i. 180
Tithes, the payment of, the best way of
banishing locusts, iii. 426
Tlingit or Thlinkeet Indians, their stories
of a great flood, i. 316 sqq.; superi-
ority of the first wife among the, 560 ;
their mourning customs, iii. 278
of Alaska, their story of the origin
of the diversity of languages, i. 318,
387 ; consummation of marriage de-
ferred among the, 516
Tmolus, Mount, ii. 474
Toaripi tribe, of New Guinea, their bodily
lacerations in mourning, iii. 284
Tobacco offered to rocks and stones, ii.
69 sq., 71
Tobias and his wife Sarah, story of, i.
499 sqq., 517, 519; his meeting with
Raguel, ii. 83 sq.
Nights, enjoined by the Catholic
Church, i. 498 sqq. ; their sur^ ival in
Europe, 503 sqq. ; their insertion in
Tke Book of Tobit, 517 sqq.
Tobit, the Book of, \. 498, 504, 505, 517
sq., ii. 83
Toboongkoos, of Central Celebes, younger,
sister not to marry before elder among
the, ii. 291
Todas, their worship of stones, ii. 74 ;
marriage of cross-cousins among the,
103 ; the classificatory system among
the, 241 ; group marriage among the,
305 ; ceremonies performed by them
at crossing rivers, 419 sq.; do not let
women milk cattle, iii. 134 ; widows
and widowers do not drink milk among
the, 138 ; continence of sacred dairy-
men among the, 142 ; their use of
butter, 149 ; their elaborate ritual of
the dairy, 162
Todjo-Toradjas of Central Celebes', their
story of the origin of death, i. 66
Toes of dead children broken, iii.
246
Togoland, the Ewe-speaking tribes of,
i. 23 ; story of the origin of
death in, 62 ; superiority of the first
wife in, 537 ; the Ewe tribes of, iii.
191, 197, 263 ; the poison ordeal in,
333 ^9- ; the Atakpames of, 333 ;
the Bassari of, 334 ; the Hos of,
479
To Koolawi of Celebes, their story of the
origin of death, i. 70
To Korvuvu, charged with message of
immortality to men, i. 75
558
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
To Lalaoos, of Celebes, their treatment
of children whose elder brothers and
sisters have died, iii. 175
Toltecs, their story like that of the Tower
of Babel, i. 382
Tombs, oracular dreams on, ii. 530 ;
royal, as oracles, 536 sq. ; of Mo-
hammedan saints in Syria, iii. 39
sqq.
Tomoris, of Central Celebes, younger
sister not to marry before elder among
the, ii. 291
Tonga, or Friendly Islands, trace of
cross-cousin marriage in the, ii. 184 ;
amputation of finger-joints for the bene-
fit of sick people in the, iii. 210 sqq.,
222 sqq. See also Tongans
Tonga tribe of British Central Africa,
the poison ordeal in the, iii. 383
Tongans, their amputation of finger-
joints in mourning, iii. 238 ; their
bodily lacerations in mourning, 288
sq. See also Tonga
Toompoo-ntana, "Owner of the Ground,"
an earth-spirit, iii. 85
Toradjas of Celebes, their legend of the
creation of man, i. 13 ; their stories of
a creeper or rattan connecting earth
and heaven, ii. 52 sq. ; their ladders
for gods, 55 ; their worship of stones,
65 ; expiation for incest among the,
170 sq.\ a j'ounger sister not to niarrj'
before an elder among the, 291 ;
serving for a wife among the, 355 sq. ;
their way of deceiving water -spirits,
420 sq. ; said to have attacked the
tide with weapons, 423 ; their story
of a hero who produced water by
smiting a rock, 463 sq. ; their mode of
catching the souls of enemies in shells,
512 sq.\ their priestesses make little
houses for the souls of the dead , 5 1 4 ??. * ;
their oracular dreams on graves,
530 ; their evocation of dead chiefs,
542 ; strangers among the, employ
native priests to worship the earth-spirits
of the land, iii. 85 ; cousin marriage
among the, 169 sqq.; their objec-
tion to heating the lees of palm-wine,
119; custom of parents who have
lost children among the, 172, 174 ;
leave some locks of child's hair un-
shorn as refuge for its soul, 189 ;
ceremony by which a slave could
transfer himself to another master
among the, 266 sq. ; their earmarking
of cattle, 26S ; kill buffaloes that have
killed men, 418 ; their personification
of animals, 418 sq.
the Mohammedan, their belief in
spirits who cause sickness by sword
cuts, ii. 555 n.^
Torah, oiiginally the oral decisions of
the priests, iii. loi sq.
Torres Straits Islands, worship of stones
in the, ii. 63 ; marriage of cross-
cousins in the, 179 sq.
Straits, Eastern Islands of, the
levirate in the, ii. 300 n.'^ ; ears of
mourners cut in the, iii. 255
Straits, Western Islands of, cousin
marriage in the, ii. 177 ; exchange
of sisters in marriage in the, 214 ;
the sororate and levirate in the, 299
sq.
Torrey, Professor John, on mboundou,
iii. 345 «.i
Tortoise in story of creation, i. 21 ;
brings message of immortality to men,
^6 sq.
Totem, descent of the, in paternal or
maternal line, ii. 152
Totemic clans of the Arunta, their tradi-
tional origin, i. 43
exogamy, ii. 152 sqq. ; a conse-
quence of two -class exogamy, ii.
223 sqq.
tribes, their belief in descent from
the totems, i. 29, 30 sq.
Totemism in relation to cross-cousin
marriage, ii. 223 sqq. ; older than the
two-class system of exogamy, 245 m.^
Totems, identity of, a bar to marriage,
ii. 152
of the Dieri, their traditional origin,
i. 41
Tottiyans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 112 sq.
Toulouse, trial for witchcraft at, ii.
48s
Tower of Babel, i. 362 sqq., 568 sq.
Trakhan, king of Gilgit, story of the
exposure and preservation of, ii.
452 sqq.
Tralles, in Caria, water divination at, ii.
427
Transference of children to strangers to
deceive demons, iii. 190 ; of slave to
new master, ceremonies to effect the,
265 sqq.
, periodical, of power from older to
younger generation, ii. 25 sq. ; of the
government among the Nandi, ii.
331 sq.
Transmigration of men into animals, i.
35 ; theory of, 480 sq. ; of human
souls into animals, iii. 29 ; of souls
and the mutilation of dead infants,
242 sqq.
Transmission or independent origin of
beliefs and customs, question of, i.
106 sq.
Transylvania, gipsies of, their story of
a gieat flood, i. 177 sq. ; custom ob-
INDEX
559
served by women after childbed among
the, 410, 415 ; their superstitions about
the boy-plant, ii. 396
Transylvania, the Saxons of, iii. 254
Travancore, the Maharajahs of, their
fiction of a new birth, ii. 35 sqq. ;
cross-cousin marriage in, 106, 107
Treaty of peace, modes of concluding, i.
394 ^qq-
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
i. 45 sqq. ; of life, 46 sqq.
, marriage of widower to, in India,
god in triple form, iii. 57, 58
spirit jabbed with spears, ii. 19
Trees, man descended from, i. 36 ;
sacrifices to, ii. 20 ; seeking a king,
Jotham's fable of the, 472 ; rivalry
between the, in ^sop's fables, 473 ;
sacred, bloody sacrifices to, iii. 53 sq. ;
bones of dead deposited in, 74 ; navel-
strings of boys hung on, 207 sq. ; as
sanctuaries, 317 ; cut down which
have caused the death of persons,
416 sq.
Tremearne, Major A. J. N. , on avoid-
ance of wife's sisters, ii. 283
Trial and punishment of animals in
ancient Greece, iii. 420 sqq. ; in
modern Europe, 424 sqq.
Trichinopoly, cross-cousin marriage in,
ii. 105, 106
Trilles, H., on the poison ordeal, iii.
348 n.^
Trinity, the Sumerian, i. 113 n.^
Tripod, iron, child passed through, iii.
252
Tristram, Canon H. B. , on mandrakes
in Palestine, ii. 374 sq. ; on the baaras,
391 sq. ; on rude stone monuments in
Palestine, 402 sq. ; on the ford of the
Jabbok, 411 «.i; on ravens in Pales-
tine, iii. 24 sq. ; on the oaks of Pales-
tine, 31, 33 sqq., 36, 38 j^. ; on the
Hebrew words for oak and terebinth,
47 n. ; on the terebinth, 47 sq., 48,
61 «.i
Trobriand Islands, cross-cousin mar-
riage in the, ii. 177 ; physical paternity
unknown in the, 204 n."
Trow, the hero of a Dyak flood story, i.
221
True Steel, Serbian story of a warlock
called, ii. 493 sq.
Trumbull, H. C. , on lifting, bride over
the threshold, iii. lo n.^
Trumpeter-bird, why it has spindle
shanks, i. 264
Tshi-speaking people of the Gold Coast,
the Horse-mackerel family among the,
i. 33 ; serving for a wife among the,
ii. 368
Tsimshian Indians, their story of a great
flood, i. 319 sq.
Tsuwo, head-hunters in Formosa, their
stories of a great flood, i. 229 sqq.
Tu, the Maori creator, i. 9
Tuaregs, of the Sahara, their oracular
dreams on graves, ii. 530
Tubetube, cousin marriage in, ii. 176 sq.
Tucapacha, the Michoacan creator, i. 27
Tui, hero of Maori story of a great flood,
i. 250
Tuirbe Tragmar, said to have forbidden
the tide to rise, ii. 422 sq.
Tukoiab, sister or brother in the classi-
ficatory sense, ii. 299 sq.
Tumbainot, hero of Masai flood story, i,
330 sq.
Tunibuka, cousin marriage among the,
ii. ie,2 n.^ ; serving for a wife among
the, 370 ; custom of elephant hunters
among the, iii. 263 ; the poison ordeal
among the, 382 sq.
Tungus, primogeniture among the, i.
476
Tupi Indians of Brazil, custom of execu-
tioners among the, i. 90 sq. ; weeping
as a salutation among the, ii. 87 sq.
Turbans, souls caught in, ii. 512
Turia, a Samoan god, ii. 63
Turkana, age-grades among the, ii. 334
sq. ; allow women to milk cows, iii.
135
Turkish nation, the founder of, suckled
by a wolf, ii. 450
tradition of a great flood, i. 567 sq.
Turks, ultimogeniture among the, i. 441 ;
their form of adoption, ii. 29 ; their
bodily lacerations in mourning, iii. 283
Turnbull, John, on succession to kingdom
in Otaheite, i. 550 n.^
Turner, Captain Samuel, on Tibetan
flood story, i. 198
, Dr. George, on worship of stones,
ii. 62
Turrbal tribe of Queensland, their custom
of mutilating the fingers of women,
iii. 205
Turtle in story of a great flood, i. 295
clan of Iroquois, i. 30
fishing, stones supposed to give
success in, ii. 63
Turtles, descent of men from, i. 30
Turungs, of Assam, serving for a wife
among the, ii. 350
Twanas, their story of a great flood, i.
324
Twelfth Night, witches' Sabbath on, iii.
455
Twins, purification of mother of, ii. 25 ;
rules as to the mother of, iii. 132 ;
parents of, wear bells at their ankles
among the Baganda, 472
i;6o
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Two-class system of exogamy introduced
to prevent the marriage of brothers
with sisters, ii. 232, 233
Tylor, Sir E. B. , on myths of observa-
tion, i. 174, 360 ; on the legend of
Cholula, 381 sq. ; on the law of deo-
dand, iii. 444
Tyndareus, his mode of swearing the
suitors of Helen, i. 393
Tzetzes, John, on the clash of bronze as
a means of banning apparitions, iii.
448, 464
Uassu, hero of a flood story, i. 260
Uaupes of Brazil, superiority of the first
wife among the, i. 559
Udaiyans, marriage of cross - cousins
among the, ii. 105
Uganda Protectorate, cousin marriage
prohibited in some tribes of the, ii.
159 sqq.', spirits of rivers conceived in
animal forms in the, 417. ^eeBaganda
Ukuni, objection to boil millc in, iii. 120
UUoa, G. J. and A. , on the church bell
of Caloto, iii. 461 sq.
Ulster, inauguration of a king in, i.
415 sq.
Ultimogeniture or junior-right, i. 429 sqq. ;
in Europe, 433 sqq. ; F. W. Maitland
on, 435 sq. ; question of its origin, 439
sqq. , 474 sq. , 481 sq. ; in Southern Asia,
442 sqq. ; being replaced by primo-
geniture, 445, 457 j^., 484, ii. I sq.;
in North-Eastern Asia, i. 473 sqq. ;
in Africa, 476 sqq. ; and Jus primae
noctis, 485 sqq. ; not based on illegiti-
macy of the firstborn, 530 sqq.; and
polygamy, 534 sqq. ; and infanticide,
562 sqq. ; not produced by preference
for youngest wife in a polygamous
family, 562
and primogeniture, compromise be-
tween, i. 457 sq.
Ulva, ntercheta mnlierum in, i. 495 sq.
Ulysses, his evocation of the ghosts, ii.
527 ; his offering of blood to the
dead, iii. 302
Uncleanness of women, the ceremonial,
iii. 96
, ceremonial, caused by a death, iii.
138
Ungambikula, two Australian creators,
i. 42 sq.
Universal primeval ocean, theory of a,
i- 343
Unkulunkulu, the Old Old one, sends
message of immortality to men, i. 63
sq.
Unlucky to count or be counted, ii. 556
sqq. ; to tread on a threshold, iii. 2
Unmarried dead, spirits of the, wor-
shipped, ii. 74
Unmatjera, customs observed by widows
among the, iii. 76, 79 ; mourning of
widows among the, 298
Upotos of the Congo, their story of
the origin of death, i. 73 ; the poison
ordeal among the, iii. 354
Upparas of Mysore, marriage with a
niece among the, ii. 116 ; the sororate
among the, 292
Uppilyans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107
Uproar made to drive away ghosts, i. 98
Urabunna, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 187 ; contrast of their rules as
to cross-cousin marriage with those of
the Dieri, 190, 236 sqq. ; terms for
husband and wife among the, 314
Uriankhai, a Buryat tribe, their treat-
ment of a child whose elder brothers
and sisters have died, iii. 176 sq.
Uru, or Ur of the Chaldees, city of
Babylonia, i. 371 sqq.
Ur-uk, king of Ur, i. 372, 373
Ururi, in Central Africa, water ordeal
in, ii. 455
Usambara, consummation of marriage
deferred in, i. 513
Usener, H. , on flood stories, i. 105 71. 1 ;
on Apamean story of flood, 157 n.'^ ;
on Lithuanian story of flood, 176 «.i
Ut-napishtim and the plant which re-
newed youth, i. 50 ; tells the story of
the flood, 112 sqq. ; the hero of Baby-
lonian flood story, 112 sqq., 336
Utopias, political, iii. 94
Vaca, Cabe9a de, on weeping as a salu-
tation among the American Indians,
ii. 88
Vaddas, marriage with a cross-cousin or
a niece among the, ii. 113 sq.
Vainumas, of Brazil, superiority of the
first wife among the, i. 559
Vallambans, marriage of cross-cousins
among the, ii. 105 sq.
Valle, Pietro della, on the reverence for
the threshold of the Persian king's
palace, iii. 4
Valmans, of New Guinea, their story of
a great flood, i. 237
Valonia oak in Palestine, iii. 31
Vannans, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 107
Vanua Lava, one of the New Hebrides,
terms for husband and wife in, ii. 316
Vara, enclosure of Yima, in the Zend-
Avesta, i. 181
Varanus indicus, i. 67
Varro, on the antiquity of Thebes in
Boeotia, i. 157, 158 ; on the date of
the great flood, 158 ; on Pheneus as
the birthplace of Dardanus, 163 ; on
INDEX
561
the custom of lifting a bride over the
threshold, iii. 11 ; on scratching the
face in mourning, 275
Vasconcellos, Simon de, on a flood story
of the Brazilian Indians, i. 255
Vasishtha on marriage of younger before
elder brother or sister, ii. 287
Vasse River, Western Australia, mourn-
ing custom on the, iii. 296
Vate or Efate, mourning customs in, iii.
284
Vayu Pur ana, story of a great flood
in the, i. 188 sqq.
Veddas of Ceylon, marriage of cross-
cousins among the, ii. 102 ; the classi-
ficatory system among the, 241 ; the
sororate and levirate among the, 293
Vedic practice of continence after mar-
riage, i. 520
hymns, no story of a great flood in
the, i. 183
Vegetables not to be eaten by king of the
Banyoro, iii. 145 ; not to be brought
into contact with milk, 150, 152 sq.,
154 sqq. ; not to be eaten by herds-
men, 156 ; not to be eaten by Masai
warriors, 156
Veiling the bride, a precaution against
demons, i. 522
Veiullot, L. , on jus primae noctis, i.
485 «.i
Vellalas, marriage of cross-cousins among
the, ii. 106, 107
Venezuela, tradition of a great flood in,
i. 294
Veniaminoff, Father Innocentius, on
cousin marriage among the Aleuts, ii.
141
Ventriloquism in necromancy, ii. 524
Ventron, in the Vosges, marriage custom
at the, ii. 290
V'erona, petrifactions at, i. 339
Vesper bell, iii. 452
Vesta, threshold sacred to, iii. 11
Vicarious sacrifice, theory of, i. 425 sqq. ,
iii. 184 ; of a cock, 18 ; of children,
213 ; of finger-joints, 222 sqq.
Victims, sacrificial, in ratification of cove-
nants and oaths, i. 392 sqq.
Victoria, exchange of women for wives
in, ii. 197 sq. , 202 ; the aborigines of,
the sororate and levirate among, 303 ;
mourning customs among the tribes of,
iii, 291 sq.
Western, consummation of mar-
riage deferred among the aborigines
of, i. 512 j^.; the aborigines of, burn
weapons which have killed their friends,
iii. 417
Villenose, the inhabitants of, prosecute
caterpillars, iii. 433
Vine, in fables of the trees, ii. 472, 477
VOL. Ill
Vinogradoff, Professor Paul, on jus
primae nocfis, i. 488 ; on merchet,
494 ^1-
Violet robe of Jewish priest, iii. 446
Virgil, on Anna's mourning for Dido,
iii. 275
Virginia, the Indians of, their offerings
of hair in mourning, iii. 282
Vishnu, the fish-incarnation of, i. 1925^.;
his combat with a water-demon, 205 ;
the laws of, on the poison ordeal, iii.
406 sq.
Vishnu, the Institutes of, on marriage of
a younger brother or sister, ii. 287
Vitu-Levu, amputation of finger-joints
for the benefit of sick relations in, iii.
212 sq.
Vizagapatam, cross-cousin marriage in,
ii. 108, 113, 116, 117, 118
Voguls, their story of a great flood, i.
178 sq. ; primogeniture among the, 476
Voigtland, baptismal custom in, iii. 254
Voltaire, on the multiplicity of French
systems of law before the Revolution,
iii. 95 «.i
Vosges, custom at the marriage of a
younger sister in the, ii. 290
Vuatom, story of the origin of death in,
i. 66 sq.
Vulgate, The Book of Tobit in the, i.
517 sqq.
Vulture, why it is black and white, i.
260 ; in flood story, 331
Wabemba, or Awemba, cousin marriage
forbidden among the, ii. 164 ; the soror-
ate and levirate among the, 281
Wabende, of East Africa, their story of
the origin of death, i. 66
Waboungou, of East Africa, their story
of blood calling for vengeance, i.
103
Wachaga, of East Africa, their way of
making peace by severing a kid and a
rope, i. 395 sqq., 399 ; war-baptism of
lads among the, 414 sq. ; their custom
of cutting boy and girl in two at mak-
ing a covenant, 423 ; circumcision
among the, ii. 11, 15 J^'.; their use of
sacrificial skins at covenants, x^ sqq.;
their use of victim's skin at sacrifices,
16, 20 sqq. ; their use of spittle at
making a covenant, 92
Wadai, age-grades in, ii. 335
Waduman tribe, of Northern Australia,
silence of widows in the, iii. 73 sq. , 78
Wady Kelt, scenery of the, iii. 22 sqq.
Wafipa, of East Africa, their story of the
origin of death, i. 66 ; their story of a
miraculous passage through a lake, ii.
461 ; the poison ordeal among the, iii.
394 -f?.
2 O
562
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Wagadugu, capital of the Mossi, 111.
319 ; sacrifices to Earth at, 86
Wageia, their treatment of a child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 169
Wa-giriama, of British East Africa, their
use of sacrificial skins at marriage, ii.
13 ; the poison ordeal among the, iii.
396
Wagogo paint the faces of manslayers, i.
96 ; their use of victim's skin at sacri-
fices, ii. 17 ; cross-cousin marriage
among the, 156 ; their objection to
boil milk, iii. 122 ; the poison ordeal
among the, 395 sq.
Wahehe, cross-cousin marriage among
the, ii. 156 ; the poison ordeal among
the, iii. 396
Wah-kon, the Great, iii. 225
Wahorohoro, cousin marriage forbidden
among the, ii. 164
Wahumba, their objection to boil milk,
iii. 122
Wakka tribe, their mourning customs,
iii. 293
Wakuafi, age -grades among the, ii.
32s n.
Wales, Borough English in, i. 435 ;
custom of dancing shoeless at wedding
of youngest member o*" family in, ii.
288 ; superstitions as to the mandrake
in, 384 ; bride lifted over the threshold
in, iii. 9. See also Welsh
Wallis Island, bodily mutilations and
amputation of finger-joints in mourn-
ing in, iii. 238, 240
Walpurgis Night, witches' Sabbath on,
iii- 455
Wamala, the god of plenty, and his
prophet among the Banyoro, iii. 479 sq.
Wamegi, their objection to boil milk, iii.
122
Wandorobo, their mode of drinking water,
ii. 467
Wanika, their reverence for hyenas, i.
32 ; their mourning customs, iii.
276 ; the poison ordeal among the,
396 sq.
Wanyamwesi, their precaution against the
magic of strangers, i. 419 ; superiority
of the first wife among the, 541; regard
hyenas as sacred, iii. 29 ; the poison
ordeal among the, 312, 395
Warahs, of India, their worship of a
stone, ii. 73
War-baptism of Wachaga lads, i. 4145(7.
Warramunga, their terras for husband
and wife, ii. 314 ; silence of widows
and other women after a death among
the, iii. "jSsq.; their mourning customs,
295
Warriors guarded against the ghosts of
their victims by marks on their bodies,
etc., i. 87, 92 sqq.
Warts, superstition about counting, ii. 562
Warwickshire, unlucky to count lambs
in, ii. 563
Wa-Sania, of British East Africa, their
story of the origin of death, i. 65 n.^ ;
their story of the origin of the diversity
of languages, 384 ; their dislike of
being counted, ii. 557
Washamba do not eat meat with milk,
iii. 152 ; their custom of mutilating
fingers, 210
Washington Estate, stories of a great flood
in, i. 323 sqq. ; the Flathead Indians
of, iii. 278
Western, superiority of first wife
among the Indians of, i. 560
Wataturu, their practice of boiling milk,
iii. 122 n.^ ; their rule as to eating a
certain antelope, 158
Wataveta, consummation of marriage
deferred among the, i. 513 ; age-
grades among the, ii. 324 sqq. ; kill all
children borne by a woman after her
daughter's marriage, 327 ; their burial
customs, iii. 13
Water perspnified, ii. 423 ; worshipped
in old Persian religion, 427 ; ordeal to
test the legitimacy of infants, 454 sq. \
different modes of drinking, 467 sqq. ;
the bitter, ordeal of, iii. 304 sqq.; red,
ordeal of, 324, 325 -f^?-. 330. 338 sqq. ;
boiling, ordeal of, 393, 395
bearing, festival of the, at Athens,
i. 152
-divination, ii. 426 sqq.
lynxes, mythical animals in a flood
story, i. 298 sqq.
spirits shift their shapes, ii. 413 ;
propitiated at fords, 414 sqq. ; in the
shape of snakes, 420 ; mode of deceiv-
ing, 420 sq.
Water of death, i. 112
Watering the flocks in Palestine, ii. 79 sqq.
Waters of Meribah, ii. 463 sq.
Wathi-Wathi terms for husband and
wife, ii. 313
Watubela Islands, serving for a wife,
in the, ii. 359
Watu-Watu terms for husband and wife,
ii- 313
Wawanga, sacred bulls among the, iis.
263 ; the poison ordeal among the, 397
Wawanga of British East Africa, their
precautions against the ghosts of the
slain, i. 93 ; their use of sacrificial
skins at marriage, ii. 12 ; their use of
victim's skin at sacrifices, 17, 18 sqq..
24 sq. ; their treatment of a child whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 168 sq.
INDEX
S63
Wawiiii, the poison ordeal among the, iii.
362 n., 400 sq.
Wax, divination by molten, ii. 433
Wazirs, of the Punjab, consummation of
marriage deferred among the, i. 507
Weapons which have killed persons de-
stroyed or blunted, iii. 417
Weeping as a salutation, ii. 82 sqq. ;
among the Maoris, 84 sqq.; among
the Andaman Islanders, 86 ; in India,
86 sq. ; among the American Indians,
87 sqq.
at the meeting of friends in the Old
Testament, ii. 83 sq.
Well, Jacob at the, ii. 78 sqq.
Wellhausen, J. , on the historical reality
of Moses, iii. 97 n.^ \ on the original
Ten Commandments, iii «.^, 113 sq.\
on bells of priests and horses, 447 «.^
Wells in Palestine, ii. 79 sqq.
Welsh custom at crossing water after
dark, ii. 414 sq.
legend of a deluge,, i. 175. See
also Wales
Wely, reputed Mohammedan saint, or
his tomb, in SjTia, iii. 40, 44, 49, 50,
69, 263
Werner, Miss Alice, on tribes of British
Central Africa, i. 544 11.^
Westermarck, Dr. Edward, on pollution
of homicide in Morocco, i. 82 ; on
relative position of wives in polygamous
families, 554 ; on preference for mar-
riage with the father's brother's daughter
in Morocco, ii. 259 ; on lifting brides
over the threshold, iii. 10 n.^
Westphalia, ultimogeniture in, i. 437
Whale, ceremonies observed for the kill-
ing of a, i. 97
W'heat harvest in Palestine, time of, ii.
372 «.i
thrown over bride at threshold, iii. 9
White bullock, sacrifice of a, ii. 331
clay smeared on body in sign of
mourning, iii. 74, 77 sq.
- — - horses sacrificed to river, ii. 414
Whitening bodies of mourners with pipe-
clay, iii. 292, 299. See also Clay
the faces of mediums in order to
attract the attention of the spirits, ii. 536
Whitethorn, in fable of the trees, ii. 478
Widow, precautions against her husband's
ghost at her marriage, i. 523 sqq. ;
belief that she can get a child by her
husband's ghost, 529 n.- \ of mother's
brother, marriage with, among the
Garos, ii. 252 sqq. ; of deceased younger
brother, prohibition to marry, 265, 276,
295, 296, 297, 298 sq., 303, 338 sq. ;
cohabits with her deceased husband's
heir, 282 ; marries her deceased hus-
band's younger, but not elder, brother, •
294 sqq., 298 sq., 303, 317; the
silent, iii. 71 sqq. ; married by her
deceased husband's brother, 281, 282;
haunted by her husband's ghost, 298.
See also Widows
Widower, precautions against his wife's
ghost at his marriage, i. 523 sqq. ; co-
habits with his deceased wife's sister,
ii. 282 ; not to drink milk, iii. 138
Widows inherited by brothers or sons of
the deceased, ii. 280 sq. , 298 ; obliged
to observe silence for some time after
the death of their husbands, iii. 72 sqq.\
in special relation to the younger
brothers of their deceased husbands,
75 sq. , 79 ; haunted by their late hus-
bands' ghosts, 78 sqq. , 298 ; not to
drink milk, 138 ; treatment of, among
the Bechuanas, 139. See also Widow
Wied, Prince of, on oracular stone of
the Mandans, ii. 71 n.^
Wiedemann, A., on Egyptian bek, i.
376 «.^
Wife, the great, i. 535, 536, 544, 545,
546, 547. 551 -f?'/-. 556; the first, in
polygamous families, her superiority,
536 sqq.; the " right-hand wife " and
the "left-hand wife," 551 sqq.; of
elder brother makes free with his
younger brothers, ii. 307 ; serving for
a, 342 sqq. See also Wives
Wife's sister, and brother's wife,
denoted by the same term in some
forms of the classificatory system ol
relationship, ii. 312 sqq.
Wife's elder sister, prohibition to marry,
ii. 277, 283, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297,
338 ; avoided lay husband, 283
elder and younger sisters, distinc-
tion in husband's behaviour towards,
ii. 276 sq.
father paid for his daughter's chil-
dren l>y the children's father, ii. 356 n."^
parents, their names not to be men-
tioned by their son-in-law, ii. 355, 370;
custom of residing with, after marriage,
355 s^l" 367, 368
sister, avoidance of, ii. 300 ; called
wife, 301
younger sisters, man makes free with,
ii. 307
younger sister, but not her elder
sister, husband free to marry, ii. 317
Wild animals, pastoral tribes abstain
from eating, iii. 157 sqq.
Wilderness of Judea, ii. 503 sq.
Wilken, G. A., on preference for mar-
riage with the daughter of the father's
brother, ii. 261 ; on the sacrifice of
hair, iii. 273 n.'^
\\'illiams, John, on the mutilation of
fingers in Tonga, iii. 211 sq.
564
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Wilson, C. T. , on soil of Palestine, i. 29 ;
on wells in Palestine, ii. 79 s(jq.
Wilson, Rev. J. Leighton, on the poison
ordeal in Guinea, iii. 338 sgq.
Winainwanga, cousin marriage forbidden
among the, ii. 154, 155
Windesi, in New Guinea, story like that
of Jonah and the whale told by the
natives of, iii. 83
Window, passing a child through a, on
way to baptism, iii. 254
Winnowing-basket, newborn child placed
in a, iii. 182
fan as a protection against demons,
i. 522
Winterbottom, Thomas, on the poison
ordeal in Sierra Leone, iii. 325 sqq.
Winternitz, M., on flood stories, i.
105 n} ; on lifting bride over the
threshold, iii. 10 w.*"
Wise, Dr. James, on cutting up dead
infants, iii. 243 n.'^
Wis-kay-tchach, a medicine-man, hero
of an Algonquin flood-story, i. 297
sqq.
Wissaketchak, hero of a flood story, i.
309^^.
Witch of Endor, ii. 517 sqq.
Witchcraft or sorcery, accusations of,
tested by poison ordeal, iii. 313 sqq. ;
sickness and death attributed to, 314,
319, 320, 321, 330 5^., 336, 340, 341,
3.S3. 3SS. 356. 362, 363. 364. 365.
366, 371 ; associated with cannibalism,
379, 382 sq., 385 sq. See a/so Sorcery
Witches, ancient, their evocation of the
dead, ii. 531 sq.
and wizards, their power sup-
posed to reside in their hair, ii. 485 sq.;
catch human souls in traps, 510 sqq.;
church bells rung to drive away, iii.
454 -s?-
Witness, the Heap of, ii. 401, 402 ; the
stone of, iii. 56
Witnesses, cairns as, in Syria, ii. 409
Wives, the three principal, of a Kafir
chief or commoner, i. 551 sqq.; mono-
polized by old men in aboriginal
Australia, ii. 200 sqq. ; of younger
brother avoided by elder brother, 276,
306 sq. ; strangled after husband's
death, iii. 240
procured in exchange for sisters or
daughters among the Australian ab-
origines, ii. 195 sqq., 202 sqq.; in
India, 210 sqq., 217 sq., in New
Guinea, 214 sqq.; in Africa, 218; in
Sumatra, 218 sq.; in Palestine, 2ig sq.
, their economic value among the
Australian aborigines, ii. 194 .y^., 198;
in New Guinea, 216 ; in general, 343.
See also Wife
Wlislocki, H. von, on gipsy story of a
great flood, i. 178
Wolf, Romulus and Remus suckled by
a, ii. 447 sq. ; founder of the Turkish
nation suckled by a, 450. See also
Wolves
Wolgal, cross -cousin marriage among
the, ii. 188
Wolofs, of Senegambia, superiority of
first wife among the, i. 536 ; their
treatment of children whose elder
brothers and sisters have died, iii.
195 ; ceremony performed by a slave
who wishes to change his master
among the, 265
Wolves in Algonquin story of a great
flood, i. 296, 297 sqq., 301 sq. See
also Wolf
Woman created out of man's rib, i. 3 sq. ,
10 sq. ; man dressed as, iii. 340 sq.
See also Women
Womandrakes, ii. 378
Women, newly married, not allowed to
drink the milk of a cow that has just
calved, ii. 22 sq. ; their economic value
as labourers, 194.?^., 216, 220; their
commercial value as articles of ex-
change, 198 ; exchanged in marriage,
195 sqq. (see Daughters, Exchange,
Sisters) ; monopolized by old men in
aboriginal Australia, 200 sqq. ; as
mediums or interpreters of ghosts, 534
sq., 536 ; as mediums to communicate
with the dead, 546 sqq.; the cere-
monial uncleanness of, iii. 96 ; men-
struous, not to drink milk or come
into contact with cattle, 128 sqq.; in
childbed not allowed to drink milk,
131 sq.; forbidden to milk cows and
enter the cattle-yard, 133 sq. See also
Woman
Woodpecker said to have fed infant
Romulus, ii. 448 ; in Syria, iii. 33
and peony, superstition concerning
the, ii. 389
Wordsworth, on the sensitiveness of
plants, ii. 397
Worship of stones, ii. 58 sqq. ; of cattle
in relation to sympathetic magic, iii.
163 ; of the dead, 303 ; of ancestors
the most widely diffused and in-
fluential form of primitive religion,
303
of rivers, ii. 414 sqq. ; among the
Baganda, 417 sq.
Wotjobaluk of Australia, their story of
the origin of death, i. 72 ; cousin
marriage prohibited among the, ii.
192 ; their terms for husband and
wife, 313
Wounded men not to drink milk, iii.
i3»
INDEX
565
Wren in story of the creation of man, i.
26
Written code substituted for oral tradi-
tion at Josiah's reformation, iii. loi
sqq.
■ ciu-se, drinking the, iii. 412 sqq.
W'urmhngen, church bell rung during
thunderstorms in, iii. 458
Wiirtemberg, ultimogeniture in, i. 437
sq.
Wurunjeri terms for husband and wife,
ii- 313
Wyse, William, on the unluckiness of
counting lambs, ii. 562
Xelhua, the architect, i. 380
Xenophon on mandragora, ii. 386 ; on
scratching the face in mourning, iii. 275
Xer.xes, his sacrifice of white horses to
the river Stryrnon, ii. 414 ; his punish-
ment of the Hellespont, 422
Ximenes, Francisco, discovers the Popol
Vuh, i. 277 n.
Xisuthrus, king of Babylon, hero of flood
story, i. lo-jsqq., 119, 124, 154".^
Xosas marry no near relative, ii. 151 n.'^
Yabim of New Guinea, their custom in
regard to the blood-wit, i. 91 sq. ;
cousin mairiage among the, ii. 175 ;
marriage with a deceased wife's sister
among the, 300 ; disposal of a boy's
navel-string among the, iii. 207
Yahgans, of Tierra del Fuego, the soror-
ate and levirate among the, ii. 275
Ya-itma-thang, cross -cousin maiTiage
among the, ii. 187 sq.
Yakuts, primogeniture among the, i.
476 ; give ill names to children whose
elder brothers and sisters have died,
iii. 176
Yama, the god of Death, iii. 178
Yao, Chinese emperor, i. 214, 215
Varrell, W. , on the raven's power of
imitating the human voice, iii. 28
Yehl or the Raven in the flood stories of
the Tlingits, i. 316 sqq.
Yellow River, its inundations, i. 215
Yerkalas or Yerukalas. See Koravas
Vezidis, bells worn by priest among the,
iii. 471
Yima, legendary Persian sage, i. 180
sqq.
Ymir, giant in Norse legend, i. 174 sq.
Yorkshire, green or blue at weddings in,
ii. 289; dancing "in the half- peck "
at the marriage of a younger brother
or sister in, 289 sq.
Yoruba-speaking peoples, superiority of
the first wife among the, i. 538 ;
cousin marriage prohibited among the,
il 165 ; the poison ordeal among the.
iii. 334 sq. ; of the Slave Coast, bells
worn by children among the, 471
Younger brother marries deceased elder
brother's widow, ii. 265, 276, 294,
295, 296, 297, 298 sq., 303, 338 sq.\
wives of, avoided by elder brother,
276, 306 sq. ; marries his deceased
elder brother's wife, 276, 317 ; widow
married by her deceased husband's,
294 sqq., 298 sq., 303, 317; makes
free with elder brother's wife, 307 ;
not to marry before an elder brother,
318, 336 sq. ■
brothers of dead man in special
relation to his widow, iii. 75 sq. , 79
sister not to marry before elder,
ii. 97, 264, 277, 285 sqq., 318, 336
sq.
sisters of wife, liberties taken by
husband with the, ii. 276 sq. , 307
Youngest boy of family must first eat the
new grain, i. 565
children, superstitions about, i. 564
sqq.
— daughter the heir among the Khasis,
i. 460, and among the Garos, 465 ;
reason of the custom, 482
of family, god supposed to take up
his abode in the, i. 564 sq.
son as heir, i. 431, see Ultimo-
geniture ; inherits the mandrake, ii.
382
Younghusband, Sir Francis, on Baby-
lonian flood story, i. 353 n.^
Youth supposed to be renewed by eating
a plant, i. 50 ; by casting the skin,
50, 66 sqq.
Yucatan, serving for a wife among the
Indians of, ii. 366 sq.
Yuga, a mundane period, i. 189
Yukaghirs, their customs in regard to
property, i. 473 ; ultimogeniture among
the, 473 sqq. ; cousin marriage among
the, ii. 140 ; serving for a wife among
the, 365 sq.
Yuin, cross-cousin marriage among the,
ii. 188 ; terms for husband and wife,
313
Yule, Sir Henry, on custom reported by
Marco Polo, i. 532 n.^
Zacynthus, belief in, as to the strength
of the ancient Greeks, ii. 491 «.•*
Zambesi, the poison ordeal among the
tribes of the, iii. 377 sqq.
Zangas, of the French Sudan, serving
for a wife among the, ii. 369 ; judicial
ordeal among the, iii. 320 sq.
Zayeins or Sawng-tung Karens, cross-
cousin marriage among the, ii. 138
Zechariah on the bells of Jewish horses,
iii. 447 «.'
566
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Zend-Avesta, supposed flood story in
the, i. i8o sqq.\ its punishment of a
worrying dog, iii. 419 sq.
Zephaniah, on those who leap on the
threshold, iii. i
Zeus divides the sexes, i. 28 ; causes the
flood, 146 ; the God of Escape, 146 ;
the DeHverer, 148 ; his sanctuary at
Dodona, 148 sq. ; Olympian, his sanc-
tuary at Athens, 152 ; Rainy, 152 ;
how he made rain, 236 ; his primitive
rule over mankind, 384 ; the God of
Oaths, 393 ; and his father Cronus,
Greek story of, 563 ; persuades Hera
to adopt Hercules, ii. 28 ; father of
Perseus by Danae, 444 ; the infant,
protected by the Curetes, iii. 472 sq. ,
477
Zeus Aphesios, i. 148 n.^
Cappotas, ii. 60
Ziugiddu or Ziudsudda, hero of Sumerian
flood story, i. 122 sqq.
Zizyphus, iii. 35
jujuba, i. 525, iii. 68
spina-Christi, iii. 40
Zulus, their story of the origin of death,
i. 63 sq. ; consummation of marriage
deferred among the, 513 ; the sororate
and levirate among the, ii. 275 sq. ;
their story of oxen sacrificed to rivers,
415 ; do not let wounded men drink
milk, iii. 131; the poison ordeal among
the, 370 sq.
Zuni, Indians of, their story of a great
flood, i. 287 sq.
Zuyder Zee, origin of the, i. 344
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STUDIES IN GREEK SCENERY, LEGEND AND
HISTORY. Selected from his Commentary on
Pausanias. Globe Svo. 5s. net.
GUARDIAN. — " Here we have material which every one who has visited Greece,
or purposes to visit it, most certainly should read and enjoy. . . . We cannot imagine
a more excellent book for the educated visitor to Greece."
LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER. Chosen and
Edited, with a Memoir and a few Notes, by Sir J. G.
Frazer. Two vols. Globe Svo. ios.net. [Eversiey Series.
Mr. Clement Shorter in the DAILY CHRONICLE.— ''The mixodnciory
Memoir, of some eighty pages in length, is a valuable addition to the many appraise-
ments of Cowper that these later years have seen. ... Dr. Frazer has given us two
volumes that are an unqualified joy."
ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. Chosen and
Edited, with a Preface and a few Notes, by Sir J. G.
Frazer. Two vols. Globe Svo. IOS.net. iEversley Series
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.
i
FRAZEH, SIR JAl^S GEORGE
Folic-lore in the Old
Testoinent.
Volmne III
B3
625
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