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V Iv^ V V>

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EBSTERCOliOONM

SOCIAL

ANTHROPOLOGY

ii^-

r--

RELIGION AND MYTH

BY THE

Rev. JAMES MACDONALD

ADTHOK OF
"UOHT IN APBICA," ETC. ETC'.

LONDON
DAVID NUTT, 270-271 STRAND

1893

M I2S

701198

# • •
• • • » •

• » •

» •

MY FRIEND

THE REV. JAMES STEWART, M.D.

OF LOVEDALE..

ADMIRATION OF HIS SERVICEB IN THE OAUSB

OF AFRICAN MISSIONARY WORK

AND CIVILIZATION

PREFACE

This volume is an effort to put into popular form a
number of facts connected with the religious oh-
servances and social customs of African tiilies, Ni i
attempt is made to treat the subject exhaustively,
and those who have made Ethnology a study will
find in it little that is absolutely new. But the
ordinary reader, who is interested in questions affect-
ing a people slowly eifaergiiig fi-om barbaiisni, may
have his sympathies quickeued.

When I first began the study uf Ethnology it
opened tr* me a new world of thought. Reading Mr.
J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough last winter, I found it
touched BO many subjects which long residence in
Africa had made familial- to me, that the idea of
putting the results of my own observations into
permanent foim took shape. This has been supple-
mented by facts gleaned from such authorities as
were at hand, and the result is the present volume.

I have, in foot-notes, acknowledged my indebted-
ness to various authore.

viii PREFACE

The facts liave Ijeen ^thered chieHy from Mr.
Frazer'a volumes ; Bishop Callaway's Nurstjry Tales,
Traditions cnid Histories of thv Zuhis ; Miss C. G.
Gordon-Cummiiig's In the Neiv Hehndc.s ; W.
Mannhai-dt's Antike Wald-nnd Feld Kidtc and his
other works ; Winterbotham's The N'if/t'r and Laire.
Trihi's; 'RovAey's Africa Unveiled; Dutf Macdonald's
Africana ; Schweiiifurth's The Heart of Africa ;
('halmei-s' Tiyo Soga; Brownlee's MS. notes; Felkiii's
Fotir Tribea of Central Africa; Ramseyer's and
Kiihne's Four Years in Ashantee ; Ashe's T^vo Kings
vf Uganda; Arnot's (raranganze ; the missionarieB
New and Krapf, G. M. Theal, and several others,
without whose works my book could not have been
written.

Thoujrh living " at the back of the north wind,"
I still feel the African fever ; that is to say, the
charm which it has to draw back to itself all who
have tasted its bitters and sweets.

My object throughout has been to stimulate an
interest in African peoples.

If the book serves this puii)ose, 1 shall be amply
vewaided for the labour bestowed upon it ; in the
fullest sense a labour of love.

JAMES MACDONALD.

Re AT Fkbe Manse,
Dhristni

CONTENTS

CHAY. PAGE

I. Primitive Man and thb Supernatural . i-iq

1. Religion defined i

2. Incarnate gods 2

3. Sympathetic magic 3

4. Rain-making 10

5. Dangers of seeing divine persons 12

6. All property and sabjects owned by mler . 14

7. Lubare of Uganda 15

8. Departmental kings 17

II. Guarding Divinity 20-32

1. Danger to man-god from exposure .... 20

2. The Mikado 21

3. Kings of Shark Point and Congo .... 23

4. Divine king may be deposed .... '24

5. Restrictions placed on king and heir to throne . 25

6. Separation of civil and divine functions ... 27

7. Killing the god 28

III. Evolution op Deity 33-^

1. Doctrine of souls 33

2. Dangers of the soul . , 35

3. Worship of ancestors 36

4. Other spirits than souls 37

5. Fetish 38

6. Sengero selling of women 39

7. Confusion of seasons 39

8. Offerings to spirit of vegetation 40

9. Offerings to goddess of fecundity 42

X CONTENTS

OKA p. rAOC

III. Evolution op Dkity— «w//«w<»rf.

10. Muansa 43

11. Rites at puberty 44

12. Souls dwelling in objects 47

13. Toad day 49

14. Origin of national festivals 50

15. Khond sacrifices to Tari 56

16. Story of Balder 57

1 7. Midsummer fires 57

IV. Sacbifick 61-83

1. Putting king to death 61

2. Substitution 63

3. Soul of ancestor entering person 64

4. Kaffir methods of directing courKC of nature 65

5. Propitiation 66

6. Thanksgiving 67

7. Substitution for murderer 71

8. Offerings to Lubare 73

9. Parading victim before sacrifice 76

10. Festival and sacrifices of Bantama .... 78

11. Messages to spirit-land 79

12. Descent of priest to the lower world . . . 81

V. Taboob 84-98

1. Charms against witchcraft 84

2. Banning by curses 85

3. Sprinkling to exorcise evil 86

4. Eating in private 87

5. Position of divine persons 88

6. Power of superstition 89

7. Ceremonial purity 90

8. Objections to iron 90

9. Power of iron against evil 92

10. Sanctity of objects belonging to sacred persons . 93

CONTENTS xi

CHAP. FAOB

V. Taboob— continued ,

1 1. Dangers of barber's art 94

12. Rise of evil spirits 97

VI. Expulsion of Demons 99-112

1. Taboos insafficient protection 99

2. Animals messengers of evil loi

3. Stone-throwing and cursing 102

4. Expulsion of guile 103

5. Expulsion by carrying out in wicker baskets 105

6. " Raising '' the devil 108

7. ** Laying '* the devil no

VII. WiTCHCBAPT . . . , 1 13-135

1. Grime of witchcraft 114

2. Persons presumed to practise the art . .115

3. Power of witchcraft 116

4. Methods of practising the art 117

5. Witch-doctoring 118

6. Prophetess as discoverer of witches 121

7. Magic roots 123

8. Witchcraft prosecutions by ordeal .126

9. Mosaic trial by ordeal 128

10. History of witchcraft 129

11. Fairyland 130

12. Growth of idea of supreme spirits .132

VIII. Harvest Festivals 136-145

1. Yam festival 136

2. Pondo festival of first-fruits 137

3. Honour done to powers of nature 138

4. Maize mother 139

5. The " Maiden " a survival 140

IX. Pbophecy 146-172

I. The office and its development 146

xii CONTENTS

OKAP. PAOI

IX. Pbopukcy — continued,

2. Causes of its gradual decay 149

3. False prophets 150

4. Converse with the unseeD 152

5. Second sight , ... 153

6. Foretelling events 1 54

7. Guarding against soul-snatching 155

8. Funeral rites . . , . . .156

9. Guilds and sacred orders 157

10. Reading omens 160

11. Heresies 164

12. Reforms among the order 166

13. Prejudices against religious teachers . • .170

X. Social Usages .173-

1. Ceremonial acts

2. Seeking a lady's hand

3. Succession to the throne

4. Courtesies to guests

5. Sanctuaries

6. Eating and drinking

7. Friendship

XL Acts of Devotion— Mythh 180-

1. Acts of ordinary lift^ — religious

2. Caring for the soul

3. Soul dwelling apart from body

4. Giants and their souls

5. Sacred animals and objects

6. Mermaids ashore

1i
74
75
76

77
78

93
80

85
86

XII. Woman . 194-203

1. Woman's position 194

2. Woman as regent 195

3. Danger of touching woman's blood . . .195

4. Dangers of girlhood 197

CONTENTS xiii

CHAP. PAOI

XII. Woman — continued,

5. UncleanDess 198

6. Woman's influence 199

7. Aggressiveness 200

8. Dog language 202

9. Public morality 203

XIII. C0UBTE8IES OP Life— Dress 204-213

1. Hospitality 204

2. Loyalty to chief 205

3. Right and wrong 206

4. Cannibalism 208

5. Clothing 209

6. Ceremonial courtesy 210

7. Tein-egin 212

8. Jujn and the fairy bull 213

XIV. Refoums 214-234

1. Man's tenacity in holding fast all he started with 214

2. How wide a gulf between savage and civilised 215

3. Blankets, Bibles, or work 215

4. Claims of commerce 216

5. Influence of clothing 219

6. Work and conditions of soil 220

7. Missions and how conducted 224

8. Jews and ancients 225

9. DiflSculty of understanding new ideas .... 229

10. Ideas become common as thought advances 232

Index 235-240

1 REL1C4I0N AND MYTH

royal title with priestly functions was common. Atfl
Rome tlie tradition was, that the sacrificial king had j
been appointed to perform sacred functions formerly |
belonjjing to the ruling monareh, after the overthrow I
of the ancient dynasty and the expulsion of the |
kings.* In republican Athens the second niaj^istrato 1
of the city was called King, and his wife Queen. The (
functions of both were religiouat Other examples J
will occur to readers familiar with the classics. {
Such traditions and usages leave no doubt but in t
very early times kings were not only civil rulers,
but also the priests who offered the sacrifices and
stood l>etween the worshippers and the unseen
world.

The king would thus l>e revered as the ruler and
father of his people who protected and cared for
them. He would be also alternately feared and
loved as the ghostly intercessor of men, and re-
gai'ded as himself pai-taking of the ghostly nature,
for the divinity which hedged a king in those days
was no empty title, hut a sober fact. He was re-
garded as able to bestow or withhold blessings ; to
bring blight and curse, and remove them ; and so,
being above and beyond the control of his subjects,
reverence and fear would easily pass into adoration
and woi-ship. To us this may apjiear .strange, but it
is quite consistent with savage thought. To the
savage African or South Sea Islandei- the world is
ily, if not exclusively, worked by su])ernatural
agents, and these act on impulses similar to those
which move and influence men, and with which he

• Ll»y. t J. Q, Frainr, Goldea Bough.

PRIMITIVE MAX AND THE SUPERNATl'RAL 3

is familiar in himself and others. Where the forces
of natui-e are un<ler the conti'ol of the king-priest,
the worshipper see^i no hmit to his power aud the
influence he can exeit on the course of nature, or
even upon tlie material universe itself, as when a
man's father's spirit shakes the earth because the
kin^ hurt his toe. He holds converse with the gods.
From them come abundant crops, fecundity, success in
war, and kindred blessings, and the king who bestows
these is regarded as having the god residing in his
own person ; to the savage man he is himself divine.
There is another way by which the idea of a man-
god may be reached. In all countries we find traces
of a system of thought which attributed to sympa-
thetic magic events which can only happen In the
ordinary course of nature, but which are supposed to
be pi-oduced by will-power through some object. One
of the leading principles of this sympathetic magic
is, that any effect may be produced by the imitation
of it.* Perhaps the most familiar illustration of this
is the Highland " Corp Creadh." This consisted, or
consists — for it is said the practice is not extinct — of
a clay image of the pei-son to be bewitchetl being
made and placed on a door, taken ofT the hinges,
before a large and constantly replenished fire.
Sharp thorns, pins and needles, were jmshed into
it; oaths and imprecations were uttered over it,
the victim writhing in agony the while ; elf an-ows
were darted against it, and the fire stirred to a
blaze as the image was turned and toastefl to make
the sufferer feel all the torments of the damned.

• J. G. Krater, Go&ieii Bouijh.

RELIGION AND MYTH

CHAPTER I

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL'

Religion in the widest sense may be defined as
man's attitude towards the unseen, and the earliest
forms of human thought furnish the clue from which
must be traced the development of those great
systems of religion that have at different periods
been professed by the majority of men. Under the
term religion we must include, not only beliefs in
unseen spiritual agencies, but numerous customs,
superstitions, and myths which have usually been
regarded, by both travellers and students, as worth-
less and degrading, till within a comparatively recent
period. Only by taking account of such, and com-
paring usages common among tribes far removed
from the influence of civilisation with survivals in
other parts of the world, can we arrive at any definite
knowledge regarding the world's earliest systems of
thought.

In both ancient Greece and Italv the union of

•1

4 RELIGION A2>D MYTH

Finally, the " Corp Creadli " was broken to pieces,
wheu the patient died a liorrible death, blue flames
issuing from his mouth. In Africa a small bundle,
with a charm, tied to a pigeon's leg, keeps the per-
son bewitched nervous and restless as the bird flits
from twig to twig. If no accident happens to the
charm or the bird that carries it, there is no hope
for tlie patient's recovery ; he will sunply be worried
to death, '

This magic sympathy goes farther. It is sup|xised i
to exist between a man and any portion of his per-
son that may be severed from the body, as cut nails,
hair, saliva, or even the impression left when he sits
down on the grass. The same sympathy exists
between persons hunting, fishing, on a journey, or
at war, and those left beliind. If those who remain
at home break any of the prescribed nales, disaster
or failure overtakes those of their friends who are
absent. According to tlie same superstition, animals,
fowls, and crops may ije influenced through tufta of
hair, feathers, or green leaves of corn as the case
may be, and among savages elaborate precautions
are taken for their protection and preservation.
"Medicine" poured out on the path by which a
man usually approaches his dwelling affects him,
should he return by that path, as if he had swal-
lowed it. A hau- fi'om a cow's tail steeped in the
virus of any disease prevalent among cattle will
affect the animal from which it was taken, and
through it the herd. A gi'een leaf of corn scorched
against a fire, or placed where it will mildew, will
pi-oduce drought or blight in the field or district

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPEENATUEAL 5

I fi-om which it was taken. These are illustrations of
the evils that may be pi-oduced by sympathetic
magic, but it is capable of being applied to good
purposes also.

A South African, in calliug a village to a hunt,

gt>es from hut to hut imitating the movements of

some well-known animal of the chase. The villagers

pelt him with cow-dung, which he does his best to

avoid. Should he be well Iiespattered when he has

finished his rounds, the hunt will be successful ; if

not, it will be entered upon in a heartless manner,

as all will expect failure. In Niass when a wild

pig falls into a snare it is taken out and rubbed with

- nine fallen leaves, the belief being that this will

cause nine other pigs to fall into the pit.* A South

Sea Islander when unsuccessful with his nets walks

about as if ignorant of their existence, till caught

himself, after which he goes home assured of success

" on the morrow. As a boy, when fishing about Loch

Aline, we often, when luck went against us, used to

[ make pretence of thi-owing one of the fellows over-

boai*d and hauling him out of the water. After

I that trout or sillock began to nibble, according as

I we were on fresh water or salt. These superstitions

[ are world-wide. Actions are ]>erformed or avoided

j by all peoples because they entail results similar to,

L or in some way connected with, the action. So it is

t that a fashionable lady will throw a pinch of salt

f over her shoulder when any has been spilled.

Another foi-m of this superstition is securing
I certain desirable qualities of animals or objects

• J. G. Fraier, 'ioli/en Bouijh-

8 KEUGION AND MYTH

ruler and priest liave been separated. I have
scores of times watched South Afi'ican magicians
fighting the storm, and when successful the tone of
proud arrogance assumed by tlie priest was most
amuKing, es}>ecially to those who did not Iwlieve in
his power, and who at times included his own
})atron and chief.

This same Iiellef In regarti to the power of man to
influence the wind by means of magic is found in
all jjarts of the world. The Yakut takes a stone,
found inside an animal or fish, and ties it to a stick
with a horsehair. This he waves again and again
round his head, and a cool breeze springs up.* The
New Briton throws burned lime into the ail" when
he wishes to make wind. Highland witches sold wind
to credulous skippers in knots : one knot opened and
a gentle wind blew ; a second brought a snoring
breeze ; the third a full gale. A simple method of
raising wind to retard the progress of a vessel was
to draw the cat through the fire.t How it came to
be supposed that the suffering of poor pussy had an
effect on the wind the author quoted failed to ascer-
tain. It is well known that a cat scratching table
01' chair legs is raising wind, and T once heard a
Scotch matron order her daughter to " drive out
that beast ; do ye no see she's making wind, and
we'll no get a wisp o' hay hame the day gin she
goes on." Our Highland friends, too, could sink a
ship at sea by placing an egg-shell in a tub of
water and raising tiny wavelets to sink it. By
sympathy the doomed ship sank.

• J. G. Fraier, tlolJen Itoi'uh. + A. Poison, Uatlie fix-ltJij Menmirt.

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL 9

Mariners the world over whistle foi- wind — by
courtesy to Neptune in modern times ; formerly, as
an act or exercise of power. I tried it once but
that was long ago — I am wiser now — and did raise
wind ; a hurricane of it, but it was from the skipper,
who cursed me by all the gods he knew, and a good
many he did not know, for " interfering with what
ye know nothing about." The feai- of that man has
haunted me ever since. Hottentots cause the wind
tfj drop by hanging a fat skin on a pole. The
Kaffir raises it by exposing his posterior to the
clouds. An Austrian during a storm will open his
window and throw out a handful of meiU, saying :
"There, that's for you : stop."* Wind-bound fisher-
men in the Western Isles of Scotland believe that
walking sunwise round the Chapel of Fladda, and
jjouring water on a particular stone, will bring a
favouraljle breeze. If a mariner in the same i-egion
ties knots on a cow-hair tether, he may venture to
sea, even during a violent gale, as he can, by means
of his tether and knots, control the wind at will
Bedouins of East Africa go out to make war on the
desert whirlwind, and drive their weapons into the
dusty column to drive away the evil spirit that is
believed to be riding on the storm. The Australians
kill their storm-demons with boomerangs ; while the
Breton peasant, when a wisp of hay is lifted by the
wind, throws a knife or fork at the wizard that is
supposed to be disporting hunself there.

Other powers of nature are similarly treated by
the savage, and the custom is continued by his

• J. G. Frazer, Oolileu Bowjk.

lo RELIGION AND MYTH

civillsetl brother without any clear conception of the
sigTiificiiiice (if hisown actions. It is unnecessary to
discuss the details of locust cursing and the banning
of frosts, liut the methods of making and prevent-
ing rain occupy such a large place in savage hfe that
a detailed account is necessary if we are to under-
stand man's early habits of thought, and how
primitive usages developed into elaborate systems nf
ritual and religion.

The appi-oved methods of rain-making vary con-
siderably according to the fancies of the professors
of the art. In Russia, men used to climb lofty trees
M'ith a vessel full of water. While seated on their
airy perch, two firebrands were struck together to
imitate lightning, and a drum beat as a substitute
for thunder, during which the rain-maker sprinkled
water from his vessel on all sides to produce a
miniature shower in sympathy with which rain fell
copiously.* This system of producing rain by imita-
tion and sympathy is common in parts of >South and
South-east Africa, as among Hlubies and Hwazies.
The rain-doctor goes to a river, from which, with
much mystic ceremony, he draws water, which he
carries to a cultivated field. He then throws jets
from his vessel high into the air, and the falling
spray draws down the clouds and causes rain to
fall in sympathy. In time of severe drought the
Zulus look out for a " heaven bii'd," which is
ordinarily sacretl, kill it, and throw it into a pool of
water. Then the skies melt in pity for the Ijird and
rain down tears of sorrow upon the earth. + The

* W. Mannhardt. f Bi»l;op Callnwoj.

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL ii

Lubare of the Wagogo is lord of" heaven and of
earth, aiid gives or withholds rain according as men
conduct themselves towai-ds it. New Caledonians
dig up a body recently buried, and after tliey have
removed and cleaned the bones they rejolnt them
ajid place the skeleton over taro leaves ; water is
then poured over it, which the spirit of the man who
owned the skeleton takes up and showers down in
plenteous rain.* The same motive comes out clearly
in the mode of making rain common among peoples
of South-eastern Europe. " In times of drought,
the Servians strip a girl, clothe her in gi'ass, herl)s,
and flowers, even her face being hidden with them.
Thus disguised, she is called the Dodola, and goes
through the village with a troop of girls. They
stop before every house ; the Dodola dances, while
the other girls form a ring round lier singing one
of the Dodola songs, and the housewife pours a pail
of water over her." t Similar customs are observed
by Greeks, Bulgarians and othei-s.

These illustrations, which might be multiplied to
any extent, show us clearly that the savage does not
place any limitations to his own power over nature,
and that early customs, once firmly rooted in the
tribal or national mind, are observed by civilised
men long after the faith that gave them birth has
been forgotten and replaced by systems which, in the
interval, may have lieen changed or modified many
times — customs which one moment's reflection
shows to be as absurd as they aie childish. But
absurd as such actions may appear to us, there is

• Tnmer, liamoa. + J. G. Frazer.

1« RELIGION AND MYTH

behior] them a philosophy, and Irom them we \mm
the processes of the human muid, as, gitjping afW"
knowledge, it proceeded on the i-oad to the fliscovei-y
of all the facts which make up the sum of the world's
acquirements. Though at fii-st sight the action of
the savage seems as if based on the assumption that
nature is a series of caprices, a closer study con-
vinces us that his reasoning is Ixised on the con-
stancy of nature, or, as we would say, the ]jei-sistency
of natural laws. The savage expects the same
causes to produce the same results at all times, how-
ever inadequate the cause may actually be, and the
universality of this belief proves that it is no mere
local philosophy, which is false root and bmnch, but
a universal craving after knowledge on the basis of
a philosophy where the premisses iire false, but
where, this defect apart, the conclusion Is Imsed on
sound reasoning. What we call natural law the
savage ascribes to his own power over the forces of
the jihysical world.

The rea-son of this boundless confidence In himself
on the part of primitive man is, that at tii-st super-
natural agents are not regarded as gi-eatly superior
to himself, and that at any time he may become
one. These supernatural agents dwell in man, and
their presence make him divine. To liiin acts of
homage ai*e paid. As the system develops, sacrifices
are offered to him, and he is worahipped as a god.
The office he holds is, or tends to become, hereditary;
in anv case, it is elective, and persons holding it are
always sacred, frequently divine. Thus, the nominal
King of the Monbutto is divine, a veritable man-god.

PIUMrTlVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL 13

He may not lie seen to eat by any one. What he
leaves is thrown mto a pit set apart for the pui-pose.
Whatever he handles is sacred and may not again be
usefl for any puipose. A guest of even the highest
rank and honour may not light his pipe with an ember
from the fire that burns l)efore him. To do so would
be punished by instant death.* What the results
of shaking hands with his majesty would be it is
hard to conjecture ; probably a trenior reacliing to
the outermost circle of the universe.

When the Pun-a, or high priest of the Bulloms,
West Afi'ica, goes to a place, all women must, on
paiu of instant death, keep indoors or hide in the
depth of the jungle ;t they must keep up a continual
clapping of hands while he is pleased to remain, and
shoiJd any of them be known to have a peep at the
Purra, even through a chink, she would be executed
instanter for her presumption in gazing on divinity.
Jaggfus, like many other East African peoples, regaixl
their king as divine,* and all his people do him
reverence. Before a visitor can be admitted to his
presence, he must be sprinkled with medicine by the
magician. On ail occasions his person Is guarded
with the most jealous care, and whatever touches
him or comes from his person is sacretl and must be
treated with the utmost reverence; 5 as something
differing from what was the king's simply, rather as
having in Itself the elements of divinity from its
having belonged to one who is himself a man-god.

Engai — that is, the i-ain-cloud — placed the father of

• Schireinfurtli. + Wioteibothwa.

t Krapf. 5 lli't.

14 RELIGION AND MYTH

the Wakuati mi the snow mountain, Klllimaiijtu'o.
This fii"st ancestor was an incarnation of Engai him-
self, and was exalted above all men. His children
were demi-gods and the ancestors of the present
ruling chiefs.* From him, or his incarnations,
radiates everything, even the bodies of his subjects,
for he is their god. This same form of king adoration
and homage exists in Shoa, Abyssinia. The Wadoe
address their king as " Lion of Heaven."f When
his majesty coughs or sneezes, all within hearing
say " Muisa," which means, Lion or Loi-d of Heaven.
Tlie Gingane, nr high priest of certain Congo tribes,
is divine.t His person is sacred, and he is always
accompanied by a novice who, in the event of his
death, will receive or catch the divine element or
soul which belongs to him in virtue of his office,
and which, hut for the novice's presence, might be
lost or stolen.

Among the Baralongs all property belongs to the
chief, as do also the bodies of his subjects. He acts
as bis own chief priest ; is invariably called father,
often lord. Zulus and Galekas acknowledge the
chief as iiniversal owner, and regaixl themselves as
his, body and soul. The Kings of Dahomey and
Ashantee are veritable gods, without any gilding to
conceal their glory ; as is also the Grand Lama of
Thibet. Men pronounce the King of Dahomey's
name with bated breath, fearing the very walls may
whisper of the gi-eat name being used profanely.S
Among South African tribes there is a marked aver-
sion to pronouncing the chiefs name, and it is never

• Knipf. t Ibid. t Tucker. § Howlej.

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPEBNATURAL 15

doiie when it can by any possibility be avoided by
them.

Makusa, the spirit par excellence of the Wagogo
aud Waganda, leaves his quarters in Lake Nyaiiza
at intervals, and takes up his abotle in a man or
woman, who becomes Lubare,* or, in other words, a
god. The Lubare is supreme, not only in matters of
faith and sacritice, but in questions of war and
state policy. When councillors were questioned by
Mackay regarding the nature of the Lubare, or
Makusa who dwelt in the Lubare, they replied that
the Lubare is a bull — this because the Lubare repre-
sents the principle of universal life. Again, the
Lubai'e was described as a wandering spirit, and
finally, as a man who becomes a Lubare. The first
is probably the more general belief regai-ding the
Lubare as possessed by Makusa.

When Makusa enters a man he becomes a Lubare,
and is removed, by Makusa presumably, alx)ut a
mile and a half from the margin of the lake, and
there waits the advent of the new moon l>efore
beginning operations. When the first faint cres-
cent is discerned the king and all his subjects are
from that hour under the orders of the Lubare.
The king orders a flotilla of canoes to start on a
trading expedition ; the Lubare heai-s of it ; coun-
termands the king's instructions, and is obeyed.
Whatever the divine man orders must be done. If
he takes a fancy for a trifle of five hundred heads as
a sacrifice, the king's executioners must i)ost them-
selves on the highways to catch wayfarers till the

* Mackaf of Uganda.

If. REIJGION AND MYTH

re(|uisite number is made up. Or shoulrl liis fanc^
suggest the extenuination of a weak neighbouring
tribe, the watTiors must be called by iaeat of drum,
and be on the war-jiath before the dawn of day.
The king, absolute, despotic, tyrannical as he is,
becomes for the time being the agent through whom
the executive is carried on by the Luhave.

The chief Lakouga, at the south end of the lake^
calls himself a god, and is treated as such by hia
people * who ju-ostrate themselves befoie him as
they approach, and perform such acts of worship as
are rendered to true divinity. At times, however,
there are rival claimants as being descended from
the same god ancestor long before, which Is a little
confusing, and has tended to bring the office into
disrepute. Still, the fact remains that the present
ruler claims divinity, and his claim is acknowledged,
though odd sceptics may exist, especially among
those who supported the claims of rivals.

In Laongo the king is worshipped as a god, and
is aJled Samliee and Pango, words which mean
god.+ When min falls and crops are plentiful they
load him with gifts and honours. If the seasons are
bad, so that ci'op.s fail and fish cannot be caught, he
is accused of having a bad heart and is deposed ; but
this belongs rather to the practice of killing the god,
which falls to be discusse<l in another connection.
Traces of the same kingly divinity can still be found
lingering among the Celtic races of Eui-opp. The
extraordinary sanctity of the chiefs person among
Scottish Highlanders of a past generation seems to

• Mackaj of I'gandn. t J. O. Frazer.

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL 17

lave been iiotlting else than a lingering survival of
divinity in tlie head of the clan.

From this rapid and fragmentary survey of the
isition occupied in the world's earliest rehgious
dinances by the king or ruler, we may safely infer
that the claims put forwai-d to divine and super-
natural powers by great monarchs like those of
ancient Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Japan, and Chaldea,
} in the time of Daniel, waa not so much the pride
ft£ power and the vanity of men accustomed to ful-
lome flattery and adulation, as a survival of a belief
nee universal among men. The union of sacred
notions and claims to divinity with civil and
lolitical power meets us at every turn. It goes to
wnfirm the traditional account given of the sacri-
ficial king at Rome and the origin of the priestly
kings in republican Greece, nor does the multi-
plicity of gods in classical times present the same
difficulties which might at first sight be supposed,
' among primitive men we find kings who are
;arded as divine presiding ovei' particular depart-
ments of nature ; departmental kings, as Mr. Frazer
them.* At the mouth of the Congo resides
Namvula Ruma as " king of the rain and etorm."
His functions do not extend beyond his own depart-
-jnent, but there he reigns supreme, and is regarded
B divine by mariners and agriculturists. In Abys-
nla an office exists known as " the priesthood of
he Alfai," which is hereditary and kingly. He, too,
s a king of rain, and is supposed to avert drought
nd produce necessary showei-s. Should he in this

• J, 0. Fraier, Gollen Hough.

|8 RELIGION AND M\TH

disappoint the people's expectations, he is
death, aud a successor chosen ; no easy tasl
Iieavens are as brass and the ground as i
offices pei-forraed by the mysterious kings of fire and
water in the backwoods of Cambodia, seem to have
a close resemblance to those of the king of rain and
storm at the Congo and the priest of the Alfai in
Abyssinia. Of the mysterious Camlxxlian monarchs
not much is known, and their existence might have
passed as a mytli, but for the real king exchanging
presents with them annually. No one travelled to
their domains, and the gifts were passed on from
tribe to tribe till they reached their destination,
after which the return present of a wax candle and
two calabashes began an erratic pilgi'image to the
king who had despatched the gifts to bis mysterious
subjects and equals, or more than equals. The func-
tions of tlie kings of fire and water were purely
spiritual. They claimed no civil power or political
authority, and lived simply as j)ea8ant8. They lived
apart, and gifts were brought furtively and left
where they could find them. Their offices are here-
ditary and last seven yeain, but owing to the hard
and solitary life many are said to die during their
term of office. Naturally the dignity is not coveted,
and like the Alfai priesthood there is difficulty in
finding suitable candidates from among those w\w
are eligible for office.

Did the scope of our inquiry permit, a king of
the wood and of the sea could lie found among
primitive men, but enough lias been said to show
the general relations subsisting between man, as he

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL 19

first began to look out on the world and wander
hither and thither over the face of the globe, and
the supernatural, which to him was an utterly
unknown world. We shall now turn to the con-
sideration of the cai*e man bestowed on those who,
according to his conception of the constitution of
the universe, were its supernatural agents or
divinities.

CHAPTER II

GUARDING DIVINITY

We have seen in the preceding chapter that the
king or divine ruler was endowed with supernatuial
powers, by means of which he was able to regulate
rain and sunshine, the gi'owth of crops and the
capture of bird, beast, and fish. His power over
nature was analogous to that which he exercised
over his subjects. He had but to will in order to
have his purpose accomplished, neither nature nor
subject having a choice in the matter. But with
strange contradiction of thought, while the course
of nature was dependent upon and subject to the
king s will, phenomena were often supposed to be
not only independent of him, but inimical to his
interests and dangerous to his life, as were also
certain objects, should he touch or even see them.
His will was supreme in regard to all conditions of
wind and weather, sunshine and shadow ; but his
iDody occupied the anomalous position of at once
influencing the forces of nature and being liable to
take harm from the simplest elements. His divine
organism was so finely balanced that a movement
of head or hand might disturb the equilibrium of
the universe, and if in an evil moment ho gave
hidden forces a wrong impulse, it might entail such

GUARDING DIVINITY ai

wholesale destruction as the falling of the sky or
the hurling the world away into liraitleaa space.
Even such a simple act as drinking a glass of wine
in the presence of another was so fraught with
danger that the spectator had to be jmt to death.
One case is on I'ecord in which the king's son, a
boy of twelve, saw his father drink accidentally.
He was seized, finely arrayed, and killed. After
that his I)ody was quartered and sent about with
a proclamation tliat he had seen the king dnnk,*
No more was needed.

Of this class of divine rulers is the Mikado of
Japan, a descendant of Izaugi, who gave birth to
the god of fire. After her death, her spouse, who
was her own brother, purified himself by bathing
in a stream of running water. Aa he threw his
garments on the bank — -the gods seem to have been
familiar with the modern tailor's art in those days
— fresh deities were born from each article. From
his left eye emerged the goddess of the Sun, who
was the ancestress of all the divine generations of
nilers.t The following account of the Mikado was
written about two hundred years ago :\

" Even to this day princes descended of this
femily, more particularly those who sit on the
throne, are looked upon as persons most holy in
themselves, and as popes by birth, Aud in order
to preserve those advantageous notions in the minds
of their subjects they are obliged to take uncom-
mon care of their sacred pei-sons, and to do such

• J. G. Frazer, Oo?,/<r« Bomjh.

% Kaempfer, "History of Japan," i

+ Chamberlain, Thingt Jopaneae.
. Finkerton's Voyagti and VVatwb.

■9 RELIGION AND MYTH

things which, examined accordinjj to tlie cuBtoms
of other nations, would be thought ridiculous and
iinpwtinent. He thinks that it would be very pre-
judicial to hi« di^'iiity and holiness to touch the
gi'ound with his feet; for this reason, when he
intendn to go anywhere lie must be carried thither
on men's shoulders. Much less will they Kuffer
that he should expose his sacred perstjn to the oj>en
air, and the sun is not thought worthy to shine on
his head. There is such a holiness ascribed to
all the parts of his body that he dares to cut oft'
neither his hair, nor his beard, nor his nails. How-
ever, lest he should grow too dirty, they may clean
him in the night when he is asleep, because, they
say, that which Is taken fi-om his body at that
time hath Iwen stolen from him. and that such a
theft does not prejudice his holiness or his dignity.

In ancient times he was obliged to sit on the
tlirone for some hours every morning with the impe-
rial crown on his head, but to sit altogether Hke a
statue, without stirring either hands or feet, nor,
indee{l, any part of his htxly, because by this
(neans it was thought that he could ((reserve peace
and tmnquillity in his empire, for if, unfortunately,
he turned himself on one side or other, or if he
looked a g«Hxl while towaids any part of his
dominions, it was apprehended that war, famine,
fii-e. or some great misfortune was near at hand to
desolate the country. But it having l)een after-
wards discovered that the Imperial crown was the
pnlladinm which by its mobility could presei-ve peace
in tlic cmpii'e, it was tliuught expe<lient to deliver

GUARDING DIVINrrY 33

his imperial person, consecrated only to Idlen&ss
and pleasures, from tliis biu'tliensome duty, and
therefore the crown is at present placed on the
throne for some hours every morning. His victuals
must be (bussed every time in new pots, and
served at table in new dishes, both very clean and
neat, but made only of common clay, that with-
out any considerable exjiense they may be laid
aside, or broken, after they have served once. They
are generally broken for fear they should come into
the hands of laymen ; for they believe religiously
that if a layman should presume to eat his food out
of these sacred dishes, it would swell, and inflame
his mouth and throat." So much for the Mikado's
habits of life.

But this guarding of kings is not confined to an
advanced cult. Among primitive peoples we find
priestly perscms and divine kings guarded with equal
jealousy and care. At Shark Point, West Africa,
the king lives alone in a wood. He may never leave
his house. He may not touch a woman. On no
account must he quit his royal chair, even to sleeps
for in that case the wind would die down and all
navigation would be stopped.* The supreme ruler at
Congo is such another. Regarded as a god ou earth,
no subject would, on any consideration, taste the
uew crop till an oliering of it is made to him. When
he leaves his residence to visit other parts of his
territory, all married peraons are under obligation
to observe stringent laws of continence, any violation
of which would prove immediately fatal to Chitome.

• J, G. Krazer, fliAden Bough.

94 RELIGION AND MYTH

Were he to die a natural deatli, the world would be
annihilated.*

Illustrations might be multiplied, but whether in
Africa, Japan, or the South Sea Islands, the order
and regularity of nature is bound up with the life of
the ruler. It is evident he must be regaided by his
people as at once a source of untold bleHsing and
inexpressible danger to society. The care of his
person must be their first consideration in their
home and foreign policy, for any accident, through
oversight or lack of vigilance, might jtrove fatal to
the State. If he gives them rain, sunshine, genial
warmth, successful hunting and fisliing, he can also
withhold these ble-ssings and reverse the order of
nature. When the working of visible phenomena
is so closely bound up with his person that hurting his
toe might set up such a tremor as would overthi-ow
the foundations of the earth, the care liestowed on
his safe keeping must be infinite. For their own
safety his subjects must surround bini witli restric-
tions and safeguards. Tliere must be set and ac-
curate rules for the regulation of bis conduct both
public and private. So it happens that bis life is
valuable only in so far ae he discharges the functions
for which he exists.

When he fails to order the course of nature so as
to benefit his people, his dejxisition is not only a
duty but a necessity. The homage and worship he
received is turned into contempt and hatred, for he
is not only usele.s8. he is now positively hurtful.
Disgraced as a ruler, he is disgraced as a god, and

* J. G. Ffttxer, (|uollng I.abiit.

GUARDING DIVINITY 25

then put to an ignominious death. During liis life,
or at least his reign, lie lives hedged in by such
restrictions and limitations that he ceases to be
a fi'ee agent, even when his people prostrate
themselves before liira, and offer to him the most
coatly gifts and sacrifices, perhaps theb' sons or
daugliters.

Of the divine King of Loango it is said that the
gi'eater his divinity the more restrictions or taboos
he must observe. These regulate all his actions, his
■walking and his sitting, his eating and drinking, his
sleejnng and waking.* To the same i-estrictions the
heir is subjected from infancy, only that the uumb«r
of ohsen'ances during cliildhood ai-e comparatively
few, but increasing in number, till on his i-eaching
manhood he is lost in the swaddling-clothes of taboos.
The kings of ancient Egvpt were, and in fact all rulers
now worshipped as divine are, subject to the same life
of immobility and inaction. King Egbo, West Africa,
when he went abroad was concealed iji an ark as
became a divine and supernatural being. This was
carried on the shoulders of men who were set apart
for the sacred office, and were themselves sacred
persons.+ The sacred Ijearers still remain, but when
Egbo, who has left the palace to the actual ruler,
and now lives in a sacred grove that none may
enter or explore, goes abroad, the ark contains
but a dummy which is followed by the reigning
monarch walking on foot. The king prefers the
advantages of substantial power to the honours of
divinity, and so does homage to the ghost of liis

RELIGION AND MYTH

own divinity, rather than enter the saci-ed box him-
Helf, to be the toy of party politicitins.

When the office of ruler gi-ew to ht*. at oiice so
Ijinxleiisome and so useless there cimld be but one
result. Men of action closed up the god in a bos
and went on foot. Contenting themselves with the
substance of power, they left the honour and sem-
blance to some nerveless aspirant to the priestliood
who was satisfied with homage and honour in his
sacred retreat, while his rival ruled the kingdom.
This in course of time would lead to a separation
Ijetween the offices of ruler and high priest, and so
we gradually reach a farther stage in the develop-
ment of human thought and the evolution of deity
as that presented itself to primitive man. So bur-
densome did the office of king become, in the days
when kings wei-e divine, that we find in West Africa,
when a king dies, a family council secretly held to
elect his successor. The hapless victint is seized,
bound hand and foot, and then thrown into the
fetish-house till he consents to accept the kingly
honours thus forced upon him. The Gallas of the
East elect their king once in eight years. They
are selected from five families who are royal, and
through whom the succession to the throne is care-
fully kept up. They have a custom called Rab
which compels the four families out of office to
desti-oy all their children ; those reigning for the
time being allowed to rear theirs.* It is doubtless
from such exam[)le3 being common, that facts such
as those recorded in the Book of Exodus regai'ding

GUARDING DIVINITY 27

the drowning of infants became possible as a politi-
cal precaution. Powerful kings like those of ancient
Egypt, or of Dahomey and Ashantee in modern
times, may succeed in combining a vigorous policy
with sacred functions and the idea of a man-god,
but the tendency is towards degeneration and ex-
tinction. When a man ceases to move from his
royal chair, to see any of his subjects except those
whose interests it is to tell him only what suits
their own purpose ; when a movement of hand or
head is dangerous to the stability of the world, and
that he must give all needed blessings while care-
fully wrapped up in the swaddling-bands of taboo,
his final disap])earance cannot be long delayed. His
memory lasts, but it becomes a shadow merging into
ancestor worship, or kept in a closed ark in the
fetish-house.

There was another, and perhaps a moi'e powerful,
reason among primitive men why those who were
men of action should decline the honours of
divinity, and that was the practice of killing the
god.* Ancient mythology has made us familiar
with the idea of the death of the gods, and if divine
and spiritual deities were subject to decrepitude,
I decay, and death, how much more the human gods
of primitive man ? It was natural that men In far-
away times should bestow the greatest care on their
divinities, and surround them with taboos and re-
strictions calculated to keep them out of harm's
way. But no care could make human gtxls im-
mortal, and the worshippers had to take account

aS RELIGION AND MYTH

oi' the stern fact mid meet it as best they
If the course of nature depended on the god, what
might not old age and imbecility bring upon the
nation ? Should his powers decay and his percep-
tions become dimmed, he miglit in a second precipi-
tate calamities which would jirove disastrous to
himself and his subjects. The world itself might
be thrown out of place, and projected no one knew
where, for in those days the powers of divine per-
sons were not restricted to " projecting " bits of
flimsy French paper in the form of letters with
indifferent spelling.

There was only one way open by which the danger
could be met, and that was by putting the god to
death while still in the full possession of liis facul-
ties or on the first appearance of outward symptoms
of decay, aa a grey hair or hollow tooth, and thus
secure the entrance of his soul or divinity into his
successor.* Should he die a natural death, even in
his prime, and before the dangers of decay ajipeared,
his soul might be stolen, or stray away into winter
and night to wander for ever. If the world were to
collapse on the King of Congo dying a natural
death, such a contingency could only be averted by
dispatching him to the land of shadows by violent
means. So it was that when a king fell ill his heir
and successor entered his house with a rope and
club, and either strangled or clubbed him to death.t
" The King of Quiteva, in Eastern Africa, ranked
with deity,"^ and this continued till one of the
kings lost a tooth, and feeling no disposition to

• J. G. Frnier. *

Men Doiiijh.

GUARDING DIVINITY 29

follow the practice of his predecessoi-s by quitting
tbe upper air on the appearance of the first bodily
defect, published to his people that he had lost a

F front tooth, in order that " when they might behold

i they might yet be able to recognise him." The his-
torian continues : '" He declared at the same time

[ that he was resolved on living and reigning as long

, as he could, esteeming his existence requisite for the
welfare of his subjects. He at the same time loudly
condemned the practice of his predecessors, whom

I he taxed with imprudence, nay, even with madness,
for condemning themselves to death for casual acci-

' dents to their pei-sons ; and abrogating this mortal
law, he ordained that all his successors, if sane,
should follow the precedent he gave, and the new

[ law established by him."*

This man, whose name is not given, was as bold a

I reformer as was Ergamenes of Meroe. There the

I tings wei'e woreblpped as gods, but whenever the
priests sent a message that the king must die, he
voluntarily submitted to be put to death. When
the summons came to Ergamenes he replied to it by

j putting the priests themselves to the sword, thus
reversing the order, and putting an end to the
practice once for all. In Unyoro the king is killed
by his own wives when seriously ill.

Nor is the custom of killing the divine king con-
fined to Africa. The King of Calicut could only

I rule twelve years, after which he must publicly com-
mit suicide according to an appi-oved method ; a

[method only a little less suggestive of the shambles

30 RELIGION AND MYTH

than the Harakiri of the Japanese. The first modi-
fication of the Calicut law of succession was made
towards the end of the seventeenth century, when at
the end of the twelve years a tent was pitched, and ■
the king had a great feast lasting ten or twelve
days, at the end of which any one might kill
him and gain the crown.* To do so he must
cut his way, sword in hand, through the king's
bodyguard to reach him in his tent. The des-
perate attempt was at times made but never with I

They were bold men who ventured on drastio
reforms in far-away days ; bolder still were those
who ventured to curb the power of the priests after
the otHces of ruler and liigh-prlest came to be sepa-
i-ated, as not a few Em-opean monarchs discovered to
their cost when kept standing, barefooted and bare-
headed, waiting the pleasure of an arrogant ecclesi-
astic. But limitations were not j)ut to the power of
the priesthood without a long penotl of transition,
during which many expedients were adopted to
preser\'e time-honoui-ed usage, and adjust that to
the inevitable, as represented by a truculent ruler
who wished to enjoy the upper air as long as nature
permitted him to do so, and who acquired awkward
habits of answering the arguments of philosophers
with sword-cut or gallows. To only one of such ex-
pedients can we refer, that of temporaiy kings or ,
substitutes.

Where kings were put to death at the end of fixed
periods or on the appearance of the first signs of

* HamiltoD. quotcrl b; J, Q. Fraxcr.

GUAEDINCi DIVINITY 31

decay, rulere would anxiously endeavour to discover
a means of evading the letter of the law while giving
such obedience to its spirit as would satisfy their
subjects and worshippere. Some boldly set the law
at defiance by refusing to submit to its requirements.
Others sought out substitutes, and introduced to
men's minds the idea of one taking, in a grave
crisis, the place of another, and being regai-ded as the
person he represented ; his own individuality being
lost in the act of self-surrender and substitution.
He became the king, the very man-god whom people
worshipped, in his office and act. The real king in
fact died, and in resuming the government it was a
new king who ascended the throne to reign for
another stated period. At first a relative of the
king would act as substitute, but this could not
continue long without the sense of justice inherent
in man revolting against such a barbarous practice,
and a slave or condemned criminal would be sub-
stituted for a brother or son. This substitute,
whether son or slave, was for a time clothed with
kingly authority and lived in regal state, while the
king retired into private life. Even the royal harem
might be invaded by the temporary king, a fact, wlien
we consider the exti-aordinary jealousy with which
they were guarded, which shows clearly that onlv for
the most weighty reasons could such a thing be per-
mitted. It could only be in orrler that the temporary
king should be invested with full regal authority
without i-estriction or limitation. At the end of the
time allowed, the temporary king was ])ut to death —
killed as a god — the king resuming office. The

32 RELIGION ANIJ MYTH

custom is in some places softened down still more,
and the substitute is not actually put to death, a
mock execution beiug sufficient. This latter custom
is observed in Cambodia, where the temporary king
receives the revenues during his three days of office,
as is also done by the same functionary in Siam, only
the latter seizes ships entering harbour, and holds
them till redeemed. At the end of his term of office
he goes to a field and draws nine furrows, where seed
is sown by old women. When the ninth furrow is
finished, the spectators rush to pick up the seed just
sown to mis with their own, and so secure a
plentiful crop. This temporary king is known aa I
" Lord of the Heavenly Host."* These customs, and
especially the killing of the king or his substitute,
introduce us to the eiirllest form of human sacrifice,
a system which developed to such gigantic propor-
tions as men's conception of the supernatural ad-
vanced from the ideas of human divinities to personal
spiritual existences, whether as the spirit of corn or
vegetation generally, the powers of nature or the
souls of departed ancestors. To the development
of this form of religion and worship we shall now
turn.

• J, G, Kraipr, qnotinn PuUegoix.

CHAPTER III

EVOLUTION OF DEITY

fTo form a correct conception of African and other
primitive peoples, it is necessary to have some
acquaintance with the doctrine of souls, as that is
understood by savage men. This throughout Afi-ica
is vague, and the results of inquiry are far from
I Batisfactory. One hears accounts of souls, differ-
j ing in all essentials, from men who observe the
' Bame forms of worship and are subject to the same
system of government. The facts on which all are
agreed are few and easily enumerated. All men
have souls, even idiots, though some deny this, and
I the departure of the soul from the body is death.
The soul is air, breath, wind, spiiit, or It may be
regarded as being all these, or having their essence.
It is invisible, but in miniatui'e an exact reproduc-
tion of the man. It is his shadow, reflection, what
speaks in him. During sleep, or when a man is in a
faint, his soul is absent from the body, but returns
with restored animation. Should a pei-aon in a faint
be removed from one place to another, as taking him
I out of his house into the open aii", he could not
[ recover, as the soul would return to the spot where
I the man fainted, and not finding him there, would
I go away. Again, a sleeper must not be rudely or

.U RELIGION AND MYTH

humedly awakened, lest his soul, like Baal of old,
should be on a journey, and have no time to return
to re-enter the body. In that case the man might
not die, but he would cease to be human, and go to
wander for ever in the forest like those coi-jises
raised by tlie art of witchcraft, and who are doomed
to an eternal wandering in mist and rain. The
sjjirit oi- soul, in the case of temporary absence,
leaves the body by the natural openings, especially
the nostrils, and must re-enter by the way it went ;
lience placing a handkerchief over the face of a
sleeper would be highly reprehensible, as it might,
jjrobaljly would, load to certain death. So would
closing the mouth, should the soul have left by that
door.

At death the 8<.iul leaves the body to return no
more. Its leaving is not regarded as voluntary, as
death — that Is, the expulsion of the soul — is most
frwjuently the work of wizards ; but in any case it
cannot re-enter that body " whose eyes shall never
see the sun again." Where does the soul go when
it leaves the body, either temporai'ily or perma-
nently ? During the alisence of sleep it may " visit
the sleeper's friend in a dream," or it may " flit about
the roof;" in either case its return is pi-ompt the
moment the slumberer begins to move his limbe.
" The soul hears even a long breath, should it lie
with my friend far away," said a Kaffir once to me
ill a moment of unwonted confidence. At death the
soul hovers near the body till the latter is buried,
and then takes up its abode in the great world
of spirits, except in those cases in which it

enters ^M

EVOLUTION OF DEITY

anitnal or object to watcli over the (loiii<,^s of

But souIh are almost as liable to danger from

*rnal circumstances as human divinities are.

tey may lie stolen, like a man's purse ; snatched

hiway in a whiff of whirlwind, or lost through care-

isiiess or neglect. Should a South African native

3 an Incante, his soul would be snatched away and

3 would die on the spot. When a "river calls," he

Bust enter it, but only to drown in its deep watexK

' The Hili living there demands his soul. He may be

bewitched by wizards, and his soul stolen, leaving

him a ghostly wanderer in fen and forest. A Zulu

^ill not look into a dark pool, as there is a creature

"behind the reflection" that will steal away his

hadow, and he dies. To all mln-ors and reflecting

trfaces there is the same objection. In either case

he soul is snatched away by the devil. So it hap-

lens that mirrors being "exjiressly invented by the

[evil for his purposes," people in civilised countries

K)ver up theirs whenever there is a death in the

To this day, in the Highlands of Scotland,

miiTors are carefully covered over with white

•loths the moment a person expii-es. The same Is

bne in Madagascar ; the custom is not extinct in

gland.

Such beliefs regarding the nature and habits of
loula linger in odd corners of Europe in a much
more distinct foi-m than the custom of covering
mirrors. In Greece, when a new house is being
built, they have a peculiar method of giving sta-
lity to the building. For this purpose a cock ia

3fi

RELIGION AND MYTH

killed and its bhxxl allowed to flow on the founda- '
tion-stone. Another and a more effectual method
is for the builder to entice a man, on some pretext,
to enter where the builders are at work and then
measure his shadow by stealth. This measure
placed under the foundation-stone, gi^'es the house
absolute stability. The person whose shadow was '
measured "dies within a year," but that is a second- j
ary matter with the contractor.* This is beyond i
doubt a survival of an ancient custom, and a belief ]
that a man's soul and his shadow were identical,
or in any case indissolubly bound to one another.
I remember hearing my father tell of an old High-
land tradition that those who jiractised the black I
art cast no shadow. They had sold their souls to I
the devil for supernatural power, and their immor-
tal part being his by right and possession, the
body cast no shadow from the sun, soul and shadow
being one. Another danger of the soul was slow i
expulsion by sorcery, but this belongs rather to the I
subject of witchcraft, under which it falls to b& j
considered.

Having thus seen the nature of the soul and i
few of its dangers as these are conceived by savage- I
men, we can the more easily proceed to the study
of spiritual divinities as distinguished from, or
evolved out of, incaraate gods. We shall begin with
South Africa. There every man worships the spiritft :
of his departed ancestors, especially those recently
deceased. In Africa, as elsewhere, old gliosts ar*
not of much account. The father's spirit must 1

■ J, G. Fraier, OMen Bov.jh.

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 37

be worshipped and his wants supplied l)y sacrifice ;
the grandfather's must be honoured and his known
wishes regarded, but the poor old great-grandfather
may sit in his horn in the corner and no one pay
any special regard to him, unless, indeed, he hap-
pened to be a noted man, as the founder of a family
or sept. The clans woi-ship in the same mamier the
spirits of their depai-ted chiefs, and where all the
clans composing a tribe are supposed to be descended
from a common ancestor, the spirits of depai'ted
tribal chiefs are a kind of supi-eme, or at least su-
perior, deities. When a tribe is composed of differ-
ent clans this powerful element of union, the worship
of a common ancestor, is wanting, as each clan looks
to its hereditary chief as its true divinity. They
have no very definite idea of the mode of existence
of theii' deities, only they inhabit the old places and
aj-e always at hand. A man cannot perform an
action unknown to the gods, though thieves disguise
themselves to deceive divinity. This, however, is
never effectual, as the wise men will say, "A thief is
always known, though we cannot say his name."

Closely connected with the doctrine of divinity
is that of other spirits than the souls of ancestors.
Those most commonly met with are water or river
spirits, inhabiting deep pools where there are strong
eddies and under-currents. These are wicked and
malevolent beings, and are never credited with
any good. Whatever they possess they keep, and
seize on anything which comes within their reach,
especially the souls of men. Other spirits reside
in forests, muuutains and rocky caverns. They

RELIGION AND MYTH

frequently leave their haunts and assume animal
fortu, as baboon, wolf, wild do^, snake, or lizard. This
is always for pure mischief, and their malevolent
desi^^ns can only be averted by the use of charms
prej)ared by a magician, and sacrifice. Moremo, the
god of the Bechuanas, was malicious and cunning.*
They never hesitated to express their indignation
when he disappointed them, by bitter invective and
cursing. This same method was suggested to Job
by his wife : " Cui'se God and die," said that viraga
When they had good crops, Moremo got all the
ci-edit of it, and was pati'onised as a generous, good-
natured kind of a god after all. Evidently, from
the accounts that have reached us, Bechuana re--
ligion is not very profound, nor is their god very
consistent.

As we move northwards we find the deities under-
going considerable modification, and along the west
coast we make the acquaintance of Fetish and'
Fetish idols, hai-dly a tiuce of which is to be found
in east and east-central Africa. These totems or
sacred animals become the clan badges, and from
the animals held sacred we can recognise scattered
i-emnants of tribes separated by hundreds of miles,
and having hardly any customs in common except
the sacred animal as their clan liadge. Throughout,
the whole continent we meet with customs, ritual,
ceremonial acts, and other obsen-ances which have
at first sight no appearance of Ijelng connected with
any religious belief, but which have a religious
significance. And this is consistent with savage

- Livingstone.

EVOLUTION OF DEITY

thought, which always connects the most insi^iiH-
cant action that is unusual with what is supernatural,
as a cock crowing in the evening* or a crane alighting
on a house-top. Actions done by individuals may
influence the whole policy of a tribe for generations
either for good or evil. For example, the natives of
Senjero, Abyssinia., sell only female slaves, never
men or boys, and any one selling a male would
bring upon himself the wrath of the gods, even if
he could hope to escape a visit from the executioner.
The origin of the custom is said to have been that a
king long ago, when kings were divine, had ordered a
man to kill his wife and bring him a piece of her flesh
for the cure of an ailment from which he suftered.
The man refused to comply with the king's order,
and saved his wife alive. She was next sent for and
told what had happened, after which she was asked
to slay lier husband and bring a piece of his flesh to
the king. This the ungrateful woman did, and
evei- since then a Senjei-o man may sell his daughter,
or even his wife, biit a man never.t Human sacri-
fices to their divinities are common among the people
of Senjero. This, so runs the legend, was introduced
long ago, when the seasons got confused, summer and
winter being so mixed up that no crops ripened.
The pi'iesta " oitlered many families to sacrifice their
firat-born," and the rulers of the town to raze a huge
iron pillar which stood outside the gate. The base

' A lad)' liTlng in the highlatida of SuoClaod a few yeum ago liad & covk
that crowed in the evening. Hei peasant neighbours urged her to kill it.
She consulted a local geotleumn, who replied lo her qnestion r " Ho, no,
Mrs. Brown, there is no harm in the creature, none whatever : bat I will
tell yon what, if 1 were in your place I would wring thai cook's neck."

+ Kravf.

40 EELTGION AND MYTH

of the ])illar, like "the stump of the roots" of the
tree in Nebuchadiiezzai-'s vision, was to be left, aud
it and the throne to be sprinkled with the blood of
the victims. After this was done the seasons re-
sumed their normal course ; * but in memory of the
event, and to prevent its recurrence, the sacrifices
are observed annually, and lx>th throne and the spot
where the pillar stood sprinkled with blood. This
myth, the iron pillar apart, is prolmbly a transcript
of what the historian witnessed with his own eyes.
These tfbscure practices and legends point back to a
time when the spirit of vegetation, or creative energy,
was worshipped and sacrifices offered to it. The
confusion of tlie seasons and their rea<ljustment by
sacrifice has undoubtedly a close connection with the
worship of the spirit of gi-owth. Another curious
custom in Senjero is the throwing of a slave into
Lake Umo by dealers in men when setting out on a
raiding expedition.t The sacrifice is to the deity of
the lake, in order that he may, from the victim
given as a seed-corn, give a plentiful ci^op.

Among the Gallas the priests occupy a position
distinct from the magicians or exorcists. They have
the highest place in all religious ceremonies, and
receive special honour and homage from their
votaries. Here we find trees and vegetation oc-
cupying a prominent place in all religious obser-
vances and acts of worshij). So marked is this
characteristic that it is more akin to the worship
and sacrifice of the Khonds of India than what we
are familiar with in most parts of Africa. The
• Krapr. I- Jhiil.

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 4>

Galla priest will sacrifice only under the woda-tree.
In it, spirit, " even a higher sph'it," dwells, and no
man dare fell a woda-tree. If he does so, he forfeits
his life.* The tree itself is sacred, and so too is the
woda-raabi, or gi-oves where it grows by the River
Hawash where the great yearly festivals are held.
At these gatherings the tree spirit is worshipped by
offerings and sacrifice.t Nor is the worship of tree
spirits peculiar to the Gallas. We meet with it in
Lithuania, in Bavaria, and in Southern Europe.
The Ovaons of Bengal have a festival in spring,
while the sill-trees ai-e in blossom, because they
think that at that time the marriage of earth is
celebrated, and sdl-flowera ai-e necessary for the cere-
mony. On the day appointed, the vUla^rs, accom-
panied by their priest, gather the flowers in a forest
where a goddess is supposed to dwell. Next day
the priest visits each house can-ying the flowers with
him. The women as he ap|)roaches bring out water
to wash his feet and do him obeisance. Then he
dances with them, placing flowers in their hair, after
which they drench him with water.J This ceremony
is supposed to have an influence upon the com'se of
the weather, especially the rainfall, and the spirit of
the sacred sdl-tree is represented by both the flowers
and the priest who brings them, introducing us to
the double representation of the spirit of vegetation,
by a person and object, as that survives in the
Grass king of Sommerberg or the May Bride of
Altmark.S

42 RELIGION AND MVTH

The Gallas have no idols, but levere objects and
auimals, serpents beini; specially sacred. One variety
of snake they regard as having l)eeii the mother of
the human family. This same l>elief was a prominent
feature of the ancient paganism of Abyssinia. The
supreme Galla deity is water ; under him, or her, are
two subordinate gods, a masculine, Oglie, to whom
cows are sacrificed in June and July, and his consort
Atetie, whose oft'erings are made in September, and
may consist of animals or fruits. She is tlie goddess
of fecundity, and women are her principal votaries ;
but as she can also make the eartli " prolific," offer-
ings are made to her for that purjmse.* These
divinities represent the creative and fructifying
jKPwers of nature, and this nature- worship meets us
under different forms In all parts of the Continent.
Even the Gold Coast moon-dance is an act of homage
done to the mother of all.

Passing from the Gallas to the Waganga, the
same essentials are met with in the national worship.
There a cocoa-nut is hung up at tlie village gate
while the crops are ripening. This, curiously enough,
is to prevent theft, as any one touching the fruits of
the earth while it Is there would l>e visited with the
vengeance of the earth goddess. A secondary object
served is the pi-otection of the crops from Injury.
An empty cocoa-nut shell is placed on giaves, and
filled now and then with tembo, for without this the
spirit could not exist. Temt)o to them represents
the spirit or essence of the earth's fruits : the
life-blood of nature,

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 43

Of tliis earth diviiiity the visible represeutative ia
the Muausa. This is simply a log of wood, hollowed
out ill a particular manner, 80 that when loibbed It
emits sounds resembling the roaring and hellowing
of wild animals.* It is earned about in solemn pi-o-
cession at all gi'eat festivals, for in it the god resides.
If at such times it were seen by women or children
they would fall down dead. Should a woman, after
seeing the Muansa, survive, she would become barren.
So, when the god roai*, women must hide in the
woods till it is cairied liack to its house. Besides
the great festivals, as that of first-fruits, the god
roars when the tribe sacrifices for rain, or when men
go to the forest to strangle a deibimed infant, which
is invariably done, as is the case also with a ci'oss-
birth Qr abnormal presentation. The Muansa is the
centre of the religious life of the tribe, and is a sur-
vival akin to the Egbo of the West C'oast. The
observances connected with it leave no tloubt as
U.> the intention of the institution, that is, the
deification of natui-e, especially com and vegetation
generally. To cut a cocoa-nut ti-ee is e(|uivaleut to
matricide : " The mother nourishes hei' infant : the
cocoa-nut tree men. Does an infant desti'oy its
mother ! Should a man kill the spirit of the tree
that is the bi-ead of the people f " Other Waganga
and Waneka religious observances will fall to lie
considei-ed under oaths and ordeals.

These illustrations of the religious beliefs of East
and Centi'al Africa are sufficient for our present
purpose, but before passing to the discussion of the
* Krupf.

: Aso mrwa

dmailincl' the Went CSoMt »*iya|iiiiii a
MB of a dMB at aodil eoitaM* estaa

tfeOipeaf Good Hope to tk hmim «r<fe3Eaiv

tlKM

variety of detaH in die i
auwe, I refer to tfae <
neeted with tbe initiitiott of j
nanliood and wwauAond at the age <if |i «harf .
In Sootli Afiiea c
omveraaL Tlie details of tlieae
bat the olgeet ie tbe auae in all Tlie i
eoDoected vrtfa aianaaAm ia as SoUawn: At de
fleaecm c^ tlie year when crops are hca giooii y to
ripoi, all tbe yuang men of a locality aie aramt-
deed by tbe village doctor, and are then inwJatwl in
bats, yrevUmaly prepared, at some distance from
tbe ordinan' dwellingB, geoerallr near tbe edge of a
<AaMitp tj( trees. Men are appointed to watdi oirer
tbe neophytes, and to prevent tbeu- baving inter-
ooarae of any kind whateoever with wMnen. Tbey
daab tbe young nteu all over witb a pure white
clay, which fcjr tbe period of probation is tbeir clis-
tingutsbing badge. During tbeir novitiate tbey are
suljjected Ut considerable privations. What butcher's
meat they receive they must steal, and as every
one is on tbe alert when "white bo>-8 " are about,
stealing is by no means a simple art, nor is fiuhire
in the attempt the end of the aflTair. For failure
they an? unmercifully beaten by their tutors, while
a successful foray is worthy of all ptaist. They are
compelled tf^ do vicrlent IxmIiIv exeitiise in dancing

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 45

and running, and ai-e often kept awake for several
consecutive nights. They are beaten ^vith saplings
and deprived of food, all of which is meant to render
them hardy and indifferent to i)ain, and also as a
privation before they receive that full license which
is an essential portion of their initiation. At the
close of these preliminary ceremonies tlie white clay
is washed off their bodies ; they receive new gar-
ments, and then repair to the residence of the chief,
where the elders of the tribe and a great concourse
of men and women have already assembled. Their
bodies are now anointed with oil. Hai'anguesby the
minister of war, magician, and bards follow as to
then- duties to their chief in peace and war. Arms
are put into their hands, and they thereby receive
the privilege of manhood. A great festival follows,
continued for several days and nights. The customs
sanctioned by law and usage at these festivals ai-e
generally described as obscene. They are certainly
such as to lead to the Inference that the whole
ceremony of initiation is based on the principle of
doing homage to the powers of nature.

In the lake region of Central Africa, and espe-
cially among the Wayao, the "mysteries" are per-
formed at a corresponding period of life, and there,
even more than In the South, it Is evident the
object is to honour the budding powers of nature
as a divinity. The corresponding ceremonies
through which young women pass do not admit of
description in a popular work ; the object is clearly
the same.

When we ask a native to explain the purjrose of

RELIGION AND MYTH

these cei-emoiiial usages, he leplies that without
them the young folk would always remain children,
and never could become men and women in the
pi-oper sense. There seems to be no distinct phi-
losophy to explain the custom ; " it was always so,
and if our people neglected it we would die ; " which
means, gi-adually decay and disappear as a people.
Only when the details are carvfully studied — tlie
ill-usage and privation of the preliminary stage,
the unchecked license of the festival, and manhood
not being attained without both — and compai-ed
with other customs common everywhere, do we
come to understand that the object is to do homage
to nature ; that the I:»eating8 and fastings may even
be symbolical of [mtting the person, or at least the
spirit of creative and reproductive energy, to death,
to V)e revived, honoured, almost worshij)[)ed, during
the festival which closes the ceremonies.

These ceremonies are performed while the crops
are still gi'een but approaching maturity, by saci-ed
peraons whose office is religious. Among some
tribes, as the Hottentots, circumcision must not be
jwi-fbrmed with a knife, but with a sharp bit of

uartz. Blood must be encouraged to flo'

to ,

certain extent. The festival marking the close of
tlie ceremonies must be held before harvest opera-
tions are officially commenced, and on the part of
the performers there must be a display of the
utmost vital energy in dancing, wrestling, and
other exercises. The homage due to the goddess
pre.siding over, or residing in, such ])ower8 is the
true significance of the customs and ritual belonging

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 47

to the period when youth emerges into manhood
and womanhood. Nor does this view lack contirm-
ation from the ussiges of other countries and times.
Harvest festivals are, and have been, akin to the
worship of Bacchus, with the rites of Venus added.
Men and women who are modest, well-behaved, and
in all respects reputtible members of society, abandon
themselves at the season of first-fruits to the gods
and goddesses of nature till satiety and disgust
recall them to their senses again. Such revels are
not the exclusive privilege of savages, for the con-
duct of the Israelites regarding the Midianites
whom they conquered is a case in point. So, too,
Under other and far different conditions, the wor-
ship of the Corinthian Venus and the practice
common in Indian temples show the same honours
and homage, even worship given to the powers of
nature. And this is nothing else than the worship
of the spirit of creative or reproductive energy in
the animal world, as we have already seen in
connection with the growth of trees, corn, and
vegetation geneially. The deity m Mother Earth ;
the worship, to ensure her good offices in continuing
her bounteous office of reproduction.

The West ('oast of Africa is the land of fetish.
How this system originated it is impossible to deter-
mine, but there are indications which seem to point
back to its beginnings as a separate religions system.
Among many African trit>es it is common to pre-
serve bones, and especially skulls, of ancestors as
[jrelics of the dead.* These were supposed to be the

* Rowley, -l/rka Pmielled.

48 RKLIGION AND MYTH

abode, temporary or periuaiient, of the dejjarted soul,
and were tended and ^maided with all the reverence
due to an ancestral sjtirit itself, Fi-om reverence
and filial piety the transition to worsliip would be
natural and easy. The soul dwelling in the skull
was able to give or withhold certain blessings, and
when treated with the respect due to it, could be of
great sei-vice to the devout descendants who kept
and tended it. In this way may have originated at
once the worship of fetish, and the well-known
African habit of giving the aged a help to leave the
world, on the assumption that their bones and dis-
embodied spirits would Ite of greater service to the
living than their bodily presence, when age and in-
firmity had rendered them helpless. The attention
bestowetl on an invisible spirit residing in a well-
cleaned skull, would not be more troublesome than
that required by an aged grandfather, while the
former in activity and [)ower to benefit his descend-
ants was vastly superior. At first each family
would pre8ei'\'e and tend its own relics, but with the
lapse of time their care would devolve on the
priests, and with the accumulation of bones suitable
receptacles would lie provided, developing gradually i
into special houses or temples consecrated for this
purpose, and sacred. From such i-elic-reverence and
worship to fetish would be such an easy transition
that no revolution in religious thought would be
needed to accomplish it, and once the departed
spirit could take up its alxjde in another object
than a bone of its original owner, the growth of
fetish objects would ])roceed apace, The magician.

EVOHJTION OF DELTY 49

by the exercise of las own supernatural power, could
impart to any object a sacred character and make it
the home of the soul. For a similar reason he
I could impart to objects, as necklets, virtues for the
I protection of the wearer, this object being but a
I lower form of fetish through which the supernatural
I influence for protection came to be imparted to the pos-
I aessor ; only, in this case its virtues were restricted
( to the person on whom the magician bestowed
I it. Where i-elic-worship became common the ob-
Iject charmed by the magician would naturally be
I supposed to i)e the home of a guardian spirit, and if
I rudely carved into the image of a man the coimec-
I tion between it and a departed ancestor needed no
demonstration. Once this principle became estab-
L lished there would be no limit to the multiplication
I of fetishes. And so it is tliat any object in nature
I may be the abode of spirits. An islet in a lake, a
I sharp pinnacle of rock, a stone above water in a
[ river, a Iiuman bone, a carved image, a ram's horn,
I or even a man's weapons, may be fetish and have
I spirits dwelling in them. Fetish brings victory in
I war, success in fishing, hunting, or trading. It
I cures all ailments fi-om insanity to sterility.* It
I preserves life or destroys it, according to the inten-
I tion of the votary and the nature of the ofFering.f
I Its uses are as wide as are the necessities of man,
I and it can be adapted to every circumstance of
I He.

I But this is not much worse than certain cus-
P toms still lingering in obscure corners of England.

I * Rowlej. t Wintecbolhom.

50 RELIGION AND MYTH

One of these, known as " Toad-day," seems to
carry us back to the days of the Druids, or even an
earher and pre-Aryan period. On Toad-day people
resort to a " wise man," or in other words a wizard,
to purchase a charm or fetish which is to protect
them and theirs fi-om injury for a year. This chann
consists of a leg torn from a living toad, wiiich the
purchaser devoutly wears ahout his person.* In
Scotland " wise women " cure rheumatism by giving
the patient a potato which he must carry in his
trousers pocket. While it is in his possession, and
carried according to prescription, he is exempt from
attack. I once heard a shrewd, long-headed farmer
Bay : " I ha'e haen a twinge o' rheumatics. I had a
tatie I got frae a wife, but I slipped it oot o' my
pouch amang a wheen twine." The potato being
lost or mislaid, his old enemy had returned.

We have seen how religion, when the king ceases
to be worahipped as a man-god, tends to pass over
to a deification of the powers of nature, associating
with these the reproductive energy of departed
priests or ancestors. These, or their spirit, may be
present in any object, or they may only occujiy the
position of an influence, as when an African says
when he escapes from danger, " The soul of my father
saved me." This tends to become pantheism — a dei-
fication of all nature. Such is the root idea of
Mlungu of the Zulus ; the father of the race of men
among the Sillocks on the Nile ;+ Loma of the Bongo;J i
heaven fire or lightning of the Mitto,§ and the Lubare ]
of the Lake region. |I This is a comparatively late

' Rowlej. i Scbweinlurtb. X 2bid. g Jbid. || MackAy.

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 5,

development, and can only be elaborated after reli^on
has passed through many phases, and man comes to
regard the supernatural as distinct from and inde-
pendent of his own will. The older forms may and
do persist after philosophy has arrived at the pan-
theistic idea, but they are on the wane, and preparing
to follow the systems which preceded Into the land
of forgetfulness. Before considering the doctrines of
substitution, sacrifice and sacrificial worship, we may
examine traces of nature-worahip under the form of
the creative or reproductive spirit, as that has sur-
vived in civilised lands in popular supei-stition, cere-
monial acts, and national festivals.

One of the most familiar of festivals is the village
May-pole, an undoubted survival from very ancient
times. We may the better understand its signifi-
cance if we compare the yearly merry-making on
the village green with the Galla festival of Woda,
or, better still, with the annual sacrifices to Tarl by
the Khonds of India. Our knowledge of this latter
festival is full and accurate. Major MacPherson,
who suppi-essed the custom now over forty years
ago, wrote an account of it in all its details, of
which what follows is a brief summary : — The
sacrifices were intended to ensure good crops and
avert accidents of all kinds in connection with the
fertility of the soil and yield of crops, as well as
fecundity and productiveness among the people.
The victim, or Meriah, was acceptable to the
goddess only in the event of being purchased or
being bom of a victim piirchased at a previous time.
To avoid accidents or difficulty in procuring a suit-

Sa llELIGION AND MYTH

able Meritih at the time of tlie festival, a numt>
were always kept on hand to be ready i" case, of
emergency. Of these, many were women, and, as
the victims could not be sacriticed if pregnant, many
of them managed to escape their fate for yeara.
Their children were, however, doomed as victims
from infancy, as were also children of a free woman
by a male Meriah. Even free people, Khonds them-
selves, at times sold their children as victims. To
sell a son or daughter was the highest virtue, as
"the child died that all the world might live."*
Tliese ghastly sacrifices were oft'ered by tribes and
sub-tribes, and were so arranged that each house-
holder got a shred of flesh to sow in his fields about
the time when the crop was laid down, or as the
coni already in the earth began to spi-out.

The sacrifices were performed in the following
manner : — Ten days before the festival the victim's
hair was cut oft' Thereafter came days of feasting,
dancing, and devili-y. On the day jireceding the
sacrifice the victim was di-essed in new and very
fine garments, and then led from the village in
grand procession, with every possible circumstance of
display and honour. With music, dancing, ex-
uberant merriment, and homage done to the victim,
the procession wended its way to the sacred grove,
at a distance from any dwellings, none of the
i of which might be felled or touclied with an
Arrived at the grove, the victim was lied to a
post, anointed witli a mixture of oil and turmeric,
and richly adorned with cut flowers. During the

EVOLUTION OF DEITY

■whole of that day a sj^iecies of reverence equivalent
to adoration was paid to the Meriah. There was a
constant struggle to obtain a flower, a particle of
the turmeric, even a spittle from the victim's person,
and these wei-e reijarded as sovereign and absolute
in all cases to secure the end sought by the wor-
shipper. ( )n the day of sacrifice the dance was
continued till noon, when it ceased, and the assem-
bled crowd — for young and old «'ere present — pi'o-
ceeded to the final act. The victim was again
anointed as before, and at times carried in triumjihal
procession from house to house. At this stage the
Meriah might not be bound nor matte any sign of
resistance. It was indeed essential that there should
be a voluntary surrender and sacrifice. To ensure
Buccess and perfect obedience with apparent willing-
ness, the priests might, and often did, break the
bones of both arms and legs, or, when this was not
done, they gave a dose of some narcotic, as opium.

The method of putting the victim to deatli was
sti-angulation, and that was performed in the fol-
lowing manner : — A green branch from a tree was
cleft for a length of a few feet, and the victim's
neck inserted into the fork thus formed, after which
the officiating priest closed and secured the free
ends. He then wounded the Meriah slightly with
his axe, when the ci'owd rushed forward with knives
and bill-liooks to tear the flesh from the bones in
shreds and fibres, leaving the head, thorax, and
abdomen intact. An alternative method was to
fasten the victim to the trunk of a womlen elephant
which revolved on a pivot. As it whirled round

RELiarON AND MYTH

and round the crowd cut strips of Hesh from thSkl
living Meriah. In each case the flesh was treated!
in the manner we shall presently see. In one dia^J
trict the method of death was slow roasting beforal
a large fire. In this case a low stage was forinedil
and on it the victim was placed. Fires were lighted!
and burning brands applied to make tht sacrifice -J
roll and wriggle as long as possible. The more the, J
victim rolled, and the more tears and cries, the mora]
plentiful would be the crop.

All this looks like a sacrifice to the goddess Tari„B
but when the treatment of the victim while heldl
captive, and the homage paid before being put to!
death, together with the use made of the shreds of*
flesh is considered, it is highly probable that the I
intention was the sacrifice of the gcKldesa herself ;J
the decaying powers of nature put to death is
order that the spirit of these powers might re-entei
the eai'th as a creative and reproductive power, i
the same manner as the spirit of the slain king:!
entered his successor and dwelt there. Confirma- 1
tion of this view is derived from the manner in
which the flesh was disposed of, which was as ])ecu-
liar as it is suggestive.

The strips and shreds of flesh cut ft"om the
Meriah were instantly carrietl away by ap)X)inted
persons to the sevei'al villages repi-esented at the
festival and sacrifice. To secure prompt arrival,
relays of rumiers were posted at sliort intervals
along the roads. Arrived at the village, the runner
deposited the flesh in the place of public assembly,

id there the ]iriest divided it into two portions.

EVOLUTIOK OF DEITY 5$

Une portion he buried In a hole in the ground, to
which, while he }}erformed the operation, he kept
his back carefully turned. Then each villager, all
having rigidly fasted till now, added a little earth
till the hole was tilled up. The other portion of
flesh tiie priest divided among heads of families,
who wrapped up each his shaie in gi'een leaves and
proceeded at once to bury it in their corn-fields.
■' For three days no house was swept, and silence
was generally observed. " * In three days corn
sown sprouts ; so, too, by inference, the spirit of corn
represented by the Meriah. The head and entrails
of the victim, which, as we have seen, had been left
intact, were watched by the priests for a night, and
next day burned with a whole sheep, and the ashes
scattered over the fields.

These observances clearly show that power was
ascribed to the victim other than is associated with
sacrifice to secure the favour of deity. But it may
be objected that there is no connection between such
bloody rites as those represented by Khond sacri-
fices and the merry-making on fine summer morn-
ings, as ruddy youths and fair maidens dance around
the village May-pole. To trace that connection we
must go back to a time when May-dav festivities
meant, not the exuberant energy and frolic of
youth, but the stern realities of a religion observed
by men in teirible earnest, and accompanied by the
sacrifice of quivering human beings to secure life and
favour from the gods. In order to understand this
we must trace briefly the history of another form

* Campbell.

56 RELIGION AND MYTH

of sacrifice and development of divinity common
among the Celtic tribes of Europe.

The story of the death of Balder, the good
and beautiful god, is familiar to all readei-s of Pro-
fessor Rhys'. Celtic Heathenism. The goddess Frigg
obtained an oath from fire, water, metals, trees,
beasts of all kinds, birds, and creeping things, that
they would not touch or injure Balder. When this
was done the god was regarded as invulnerable and
immortal. Loke, the evil-worker, was displeased
at what Frigg had done, and sought to discover if
anything had been omitted fi:'om the oath by which
he could injure or kill the god. He discovered that
the mistletoe had not been included, as being too
young to swear. So Loke went and pulled the
mistletoe, which he brought to the assembly of the
gods. A twig of it was given to Hodur, who made it
into an arrow, which he shot at Balder. It pierced
him through the heart and he fell down dead. The
assembled gods stood speechless for a great space,
and then lifted up their voices and wept, for the
best and bravest had fallen. Then Balder's ship
was launched by a giantess who came riding on a
wolf, and his body placed on board on a funeral pile.
When his wife Nanna saw what was done her heart
burst for sorrow and she died. Her body was laid
beside her husband, and so too were his horse and
trappings. The ship having been fired, was sent to
sea with its sad freight, and so ended the life of
Balder. This is briefly the story which in the
original Edda is told with great amplification of

EVOLUTION OF DEITY

Its

Y minuteness su
" rayths which e

I that i

circumstance.

e invented to
explain ritual ; for a myth is never so graphic as
when it is a transcript of what the narrator has
seen.* The main incidents are : tii-st, the jmlling of
the mistletoe ; and secondly.the death and burning of
the god. B<.ith these incidents appear to have fomietl
an essential part of Celtic observances, as cut flowers
and the death of the Meriah did of the ritual of the
Khonds. We may now turn to May-day customs.
In all parts of Europe the peasantry, from time
immemorial, have been in the habit of kindling fires
and pei-forming ceremonial acts on certain days of
the year. It is a universal custom to dance round
Midsummer fires, leap over them, and treat them as
in a manner sacred. These customs can be traced
back to the time of the Druids. They, in various
forms, survived all and every change, and still ])er-
sist, though thousands of years have elapsed since
the reasons which gave them birth have passed
away from the public mind. In Caithness, within
the last seventy years, each family in the neighbour-
hood of Watten carried l>read and cheese, before
sunrise on May morning, to the top of a hill called
Heathercow, and left it there.t After sunrise the
cowhei"ds might take away the spoil for their own
use. No one could explain the origin of the prac-
tice ; it was unlucky to neglect it, that was all.
Here we have a survival of an offering to the earth
goddess, which in Druldlcal times was accompanied

t Ker. A. Gudd, HS. Notes.

58 RELIGION AND MYTH

with blocxly ritefi and sacrifices, in which the sacred
luistletoe played an important part. It seems to
cnrrv us back to the davs of Balder, when men killed
the spirit of vegetation and creative energy in the
person of their goil, that it might re-enter the growing
corn and make the earth fiiiitful once more. In
the Western Isles the people on a given day poured
out libations to the sea-god Shony, and then held
a festival with curious rites, which were observed
not more than two centuries ago. There is an
account of the practice, written about 1690, as per-
formed at that date, and with which the writer
seems to have l>een familiar : — " The inhabitants of
this island (Lewis) had an ancient custom to sacri-
fice to the sea-god called Shony at Hallowtide, in
the manner following. The inhabitants round the
island came to the Church of St. Malvay, having
each man his })rovision along with him ; every
family furniHhed a peck of malt, and this was
brewed into ale. One of their number was picked
out to wade into the sea up to the middle, and,
standing still in that posture, cried out with a loud
voice : * Shony, 1 give you this cup of ale, hoping
that you'll \)e so kind as to send us plenty of sea-
ware for emiching our land for the ensuing year ;'
and so threw the cup into the sea. At his return to
the land, they all went into the church, where there
yfns a caudle burning uiK>n the altar ; and then,
gtauding silent for a time, one of them gave a signal
gl which the candle was put out, and immediatelv
Jt of them went to the fields, where thev fell
aJrinkimr their ale, and sj^ent the remainder of the

EVOLUTION OF DEITY 59

night in dancing, singing, &c."* One would very
much like to know what the worthy chronicler
meant to convey by " &c.," and whether here, as in
savagedom generally, the worship of Venus formed
au essential part of the ceremony as performed at
that time. He does tell us that the reformed
jmstors had spent years trying to suppress the prac-
tice, but with indifferent success. Corresponding
acts of devotion, now re|)resented by ceremonial
usages, were performed by the Celts in early spring
and at Midsummer.

SiniUar customs are common in every country
in Europe. For example. In Bohemia the Spring
Queen is dressed with garlands and crowned with
flowers. She then, accompanied by a band of girls,
who whirl round her continually, singing as they go,
pi-ooeeds from house to house announcing that spring
has come, and wishing them the blessings of the
year. " In Ruhea, as soon as the trees begin to
grow gi-een in spring, the children assemble on
Sunday and go out into the woods, where they
choose one of their playmates to be the Little Leaf
Man. They break brauches from the trees and
twine them about the child till only his shoes peep
out from the leafy mantle. Singing and dancing,
they take him from house to house asking for gifts
of food. Lastly, they sprinkle the Leaf Man with
water, after which they feast on the food they have
collected." t A somewhat similar custom is observed
in England, where a chimney-sweep walks about
encased in holly and ivy, and accompanied by his

• Martin. + J- G. Yraier. quoting Matinhardt.

'>o RELIGION AND MYTH

f'ellow-crartsiiieii, wlio collect money with which to
have a carouse.

These customs, which might be illustrated indeti-
iiitely, are all analogous to the setting uj) and
decoration of the village May-pole. Fonnerly it
had to be renewed from year to year, the carrying
of the new pole into the town being accompanied by
crowds ill holiday attire, who kept up a continual
singing and clapping of hands with wliirling and
dancing. The object of the custom undoubtedly was
to bring in the fructifying spirit of vegetation newly
awakened, and for this purpose a newly cut ])ole and
freshly gathered flowei-s were necessary. As the
ancient Druidical sacrifices were abolished under the
influence of an advancing conception of divinity, the
festivals remained, merely changing their outwaitl
form and expression. What was stern reality
liecame a pleasant pastime, and so came to be
continued thivjugh the centuries, after men had
forgotten the object served by them in a ruder age.
And this affords an illustration of how among a
savage people customs change so slowly. Two or
three generations of literature do more to change
thought and obliterate myth than thousands of
years of .tradition. Hence it is that in Africa,
Australia, parts of India, and the South Sea Islands,
M'e have at present time conditions similar to what
obtained in Europe long before the rise of the Greek
Republic. From this long digi-ession we must now
return to the consideration of African sacrifices,
substitutionary and pmpitiatory.

CHAPTER IV

We have already seen that the earliest form of
human sacrifice was associated in the minds of men
with killing the god himself. The divine King of
Congo was put to death by his successor. In the
Fiji Islands old people are burned alive. When a
king of Kabouga is near his end tlie magicians
quietly strangle him. Certain trills of East Africa
put their kings to death as soon as wrinkles or gi'ey
hairs appear.* A modification of the custom of king-
kilHng was introduced when the expedient of tem-
poraiy kings was reached. These could Ije ]}ut to
death at stated intervals. We have met with
examples of this in Soiala and Calicut. Ancient
Babylonia affoi-ds another illustration. There, when
the time drew near that the king should be put to
death, he abilicated for a few days, during which a
temporary monarch reigned and suffered Jn his
stead. " A prisoner condemned to death was
dre-ssed in the king's i-obes, seated on the king's
thi-one, allowed to issue whatever commands he
to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, and to lie

with the king's concubines.

• Isaacs, Trattlt and Adve

But at the end of the

REUHION AND MYTH

five days he was stripped of his royal robes, 8Com*g«]
and crucified." * This same custom, softened down,
is observed in Cambodia, where the king abdicates
annually for a few days. The substitute performs
all functions of State, and receives the revenues for
the time he rei^'us. At the close of his brief term of
office he goes and does homage to the king, and
then, as his last act, orders the elephants to trample
the "mountain of rice." This is a large scaffold hung
round with rice-sheaves. When they are trampled
down the people gather up the rice, each man taking
home a portion to mix with his seed-corn and so
secure a good harvest. ^

Once the Idea of substitution was reached, sacri-
fice as an institution would develop rapidly, and the
curious thing is, that a trace of the original system of
killing the god has remained to tell the world of an
older and ruder conception of divinity. To the
ancient raan-god it was so convenient to have
another take his place, that we can fancy the inno-
vation being hailed with joy by the mling castes,
who by It were freed from the uncertainties of
popular discontent and the accidental advent of
signs of decay. But the doctrine of substitution
had its disatlvantages, and these in course of time
would be felt and have far-reaching effects. Under
the old order men were accustomed to offer homage
to the living king ; and their supreme and final act
of worship was when he was put to death that his
spirit might enter his successor as the creative,
fructifying and preserving power of tlie world.

* J, O. Frazer, quoting AtboiiicaB. t Ajmoiiiur.

SACRIFICE

Worshippers who associated such ideas with sacrifice
could not be prevented from viewing the real victim
offered, even as a substitute, as in some sort divine
by inherent right. If divine by inherent right, the
question of the spu'it's return to the real king might
be raised. Advanced thinkexB would ask whether
the spirit of the god, or the god-hfe, left the king to
enter the substitute, slave or criminal, when the
former abdicated, and if so, whether other causes
might not lead to the same result ? Could a suc-
cessful revolt, headed by a bold and fearless man,
secm'e to the usurper the god-life the moment the king
was deposed or slain ? If so, revolt and revolution
might be, if not lawful, at all events possible, with-
out the collapse of the world. Again, was there a
true transference of divinity to the temporai-y king,
his mean and common spirit taking the place of the
god in the hereditary monarch ^ If so, might not
men of ambition Ijecome substitutes, and at the last
act rally their friends in oixler to retain the divine
spirit permanently ? Would the substitute's spirit,
which dwelt in the king, give place to the returning
god-spirit, " poor fluttering tbing," after the victim
was slain ? With such questions pressing for solu-
tion — and for a question to be raised among savage
men is to find an answer — kings and their advisers
would naturally seek to foster faith in an hereditary
principle of divinity apart from the actual sacrifice
of the god himself We call this the divine right of
kings. When this conception of hereditary divinity
was reached, men would sacrifice to the king-god as
a personal and hereditary spirit— a spirit dwelling

r,4

RELIGION AND MVTII

in the king in virtue of his office, or whom
seiited to men — ratlier than to the spirit of creative
and reprotluctive enei-gy and vegetation which, in
an earlier and ruder age was undoubtedly the
wivage's conception of hie divine king. He was
divine, not because he was a personal immortal
spirit, but because in liim was contained that spirit
or power which ensured the orderly continuance of
tiie course of nature.

The sacrifice made in former days of the king
himself by the priests, would, under the advance of
thought, be made in the first instance to the king,
and the more costly the sacrifices, and the more
elaborate the ritual, the greater would be the virtue,
and by consequence his influence and power. Kings
attaining to gi'eat eminence as conquerors and
a^lministrators would be greatly honoured with
sacrificial offerings during their lives, and revei'ed
after their death. Their successors, especially if
weaker men, would, in order to secure the continued
allegiance of their people, pay respect to their
memory. This, without any revolution of thought,
would take the foim of offerings, prayer, and sacri-
fice. Then the spirit of the departed king visited
liis successor in dreams and visions. At such times
lie entered his person ; hence the common saving,
'■ He got the spirit of his father." By such means
he kept his successor informed of his wishes, which
were respected and obeyed ; thus enabling a weak-
ling to retain power which otherwise would have
dropped from his nerveless grasp. That this is no
phantasy is clearly proved by beliefs common among

SACHIFICE 6s

Afiicans at the present day. A Kaffir who has a
remarkable dream will be^iii to tell it next day by
saying : " My father's soul was within me last
night." Prophets claim to be god-jioasessed, or,
in other words, to have within them the souls of
departed priests or chiefs. In this case they work
themselves into, or through long practice assume, a
state of semi-coma. Dm-ing their jmroxysma and
the succeeding unconsciousness they are treated as
objects of worship ; in other words, they are truly
divine for the time being.

Let us now proceed to illustrate these general
statements by an examination of the sacrificial system
common throughout the continent, and in doing bo
it will be well to select a few places, widely apart, as
typical illustrations. The natives of South Africa
discontinued human sacrifices before they had much
contact with Europeans, and, being of mixed origin,
■we study their religious institutions at a disad-
vantage. But an examination of their system of
thought leads us up to a time when their rites and
sacrifices differed in no essential from what is com-
mon to the vast majority of the tribes inhabiting
the continent, from io° of north latitude to the
farthest promontory of the south.

When the course of nature is not to a Kaffir's
mind, as during drought, floods, sickness among
men or cattle, misfortune In war, failure in hunting
or a visitation of locusts, he offers propitiatory sacri-
fices to the offended deities. Each man sacrifices to
his own ancestors ; each clan, through the magician,
to the heads of the clan ; the tribe to t\m ancestors

RELIGION AND MYTH

of its ciiief ; but in the latter case the sacrifice can
only be offered bv the tribal priest, or by the chief
in those rare instances in which he is not only the
ruler but the high priest also. I am not aware of
any ruler at present in South Africa being his own
high priest, but the combination is not unknown.
The chief Makoma used to offer the aacrifices on
important occasions himself.

Here we have the curious anomaly of sacrifices to
minor divinities made by ordinary householders,
while those to superior deities can only be offered by
the high priest if they are to be acceptable to the
god. Those whose function it is to stand between
men and the unseen, approach divinity with an
offering for men's sins, They stand there as repre-
sentatives or substitutes, taking the place of the
worshippers. For a tribal offering may be made by
the priest without a muster of the tribe or even the
army. The sacred functions belong to sacred per-
sons, and they determine how and when these ai-e
to be performed, and only obey certain general prin-
ciples, without which no sacrifice is a genuine
ofieriug. One of these is that all sacrifices must
be made by fire. Unless portions of the animal
slain are burned, there has been no true offering,
and the gods view the whole ceremony in grief and
anger. Another is, that the animal must be honestly
come by, A man may purchase a sacrifice, but this
is raie, and, I think, regarded as irregular ; but no
man would sacrifice a beast that had been stolen.
The moat acceptable sacrifice is that whicli is a
man's very own. There Is also one phrase In the

SACRIFICE

dedicatory pi-ayer which is never omitted. It is
this : " We do not oft'er the dead ; it is blootl. We
offer life. Behold, O ye hosts." During the time
when the sacrifice is offei-ed the priest stands as
intercessor for the people in room of the chief. His
orders are obeyed as the chief's, and his deHverances
accepted as the very oracles of God,

it may at first sight be difiicult to connect this
doctrine of propitiatory sacrifice with that of substi-
tution, as we have seen that in the case of the
killing of the temporary king. And If this pro-
pitiai-y system of sacrifice were our only guide, it
would be impossible to do so. But there Is another
system, complete in all its parts and distinct from
the idea of propitiation, observed by the same people
alongside of this doctrine. It is that of thank-
offering and sacrificial thanksgiving. For every
supposed benefit a man makes a thank-offering. It
may be but a single grain of com, or even an ai-ticle
of no value, as a tuft of grass, but it is never
omitted. When a father offers a sheep as a thank-
offering for the birth of a child, his idea is not only
to recompense the soul of his father for good offices
by so much burning fat, but to "give to those who
were before" the keeping of the child's soul ; giving
the soul to them in homage and thankfulness. This
is undoubtedly the dedicatory oft'ering of the soul
by the .sacrifice of a sheej) as a substitute for the
firstboni, a custom with which we are only too
femiliar elsewhere. Besides, the first child of a
widow who remarries, should her husband have
fallen in war, is put to death : offered to the gods

■ oSe

■ oft

RELIGION AND MYTH

the child of the assegai." * In making thank-
offeriiigs for good offices a man adds to the portion
of the sacrifice that is burned something from his
own person, and men have been known to cut off a
finger or toe for this purpose, to enhance the value
of the offering. The Israelitish practice of shaving,
as a sign of liaving made a vow oi' formed a resolve,
is not unknown.t Adopting peculiar garments as a
head-dress, in token of anything remarkable having
happened to a man, is common.

When a tribe is at war, or jireferably iwfore
entering upon hostilities, if an enemy can be caught
he is put to death. The wamors eat his heart
raw.J Various parts of his body, supposed to be the
6ea.t of particulai' vii-tuee, are used in the prepara-
tion of the compound known as war medicine,
while shi'eds of fat from his kidneys are burned in
the fire. Much the same is done in the case of a
slain enemy who has distinguished himself for
bravery and feats of strengtli.j Tliis, though the
people do not say so, is undoubtedly an offering
made to the gods. The explanation given is, " Our
people always did so," and that war medicine, with-
out the fat buruiiig in the fire while it is being
prepared, would not act.|| For the true significance
of such acts we must seek an explanation, not from
the ])eople, who can give none, but from analogy,,
and their resemblance to other acts performed by
the same people, or by others having customs in
common with them. The fat burned in the fire

• J. Su'.ton, MS. notej. t Ibid, J G. M, Theal, Boeri and Bantu.

§ Ibid. y J. Sutton. MS. notes.

SACRIFICE

when oxen are sacrificed in time of war, drought, or
the great annual festival of firstfruits, is avowedly
a gift to the gods,* the odour of which they inhale ; +
and when we find the hurning of human fat in
almost identical circumstances— i.e., war — and the
preparation of a magic decoction into which calcined
human flesh largely enters, and on which depends
its efficacy, the conclusion is forced upon us that
here we have the last lingering tracee of human
sacrifice. Nor is this the only use made of portions
of the human body in connection with the religious
ritual of the people. The dried fingers of a man's
hand is an essential portion of a magician's outfit
when he gcjes to curse his chiefs enemies.^ Wizards
deal largely in human flesh.^

The multiplication of sacrifices is acceptable to all
the gods tl of heathendom, and one case is on record
in which tribes killed every hoof of cattle and
destroyed every peek of corn to secure the favour of
their ancestora. Ti-ue, the priest who ordered this
to be done promised that there should be a general
resurrection of both ancestors and cattle on a given
day, that of full moon ; but this only adds to the
completeness of the faith reposed in his predictions
as the oracles of God. On the appointed day
thousands of men and women gathei-ed for a moon
dance ; folds had been erected for the cattle that
were to rise ; stores for the com which men were
to gather ; houses for the ancestors who were to
come clad in armour. In honour of the great event

* Chalmers, J. Sotioo. Hon. C. Browntee. t Chalmeni.

X Hod. C. BrowDlee, Chrijiti'in Eiprtn. | Dr. Elnulie, MS. notcft.

li J. SattoD, MS. Dotes.

RELIGION AND MYTH

the

sun was to rise

double

I the resurrection morn-

ing. During that night sounds of revelry

heai-d t'ai* and r

, but when day c

3 the R

r came t
alone while his companion lagged behind. Black
fear entered every heart. Starvation stai'ed men in
the face. Umlanjeni declared they had mistaken
the day of full moon, and urged a resumption of the
dance with assured triumph on the raoiTow. But
men had no heart left, and the next twenty-four
houi'S were but a sorry time. Once more the sun
rose in lonely majesty, and men's worst fears were
realised ; the gods had betrayed them. By such
experiences did men lesirn to difFerei\tiate the natui-al
and 8U]»eniatural.

When a chief dies, one at least, or It may be
many persons are put to death for having killed
the king by the exercise of the unlawful art of
witchcraft ; but this falls rather under magic and
divination than under sacrifice. The only connec-
tion it has with the latter Is, that among most
tribes the chief is never allowed " to go alone." k.
few of his wives, servants and slaves must lie killed
to accompany him and attend to his wants. It
may also be noted that the ruling chief may oi-der,
even in the case of accusations of having caused his
father's death, the substitution of an ox for the
condemned person.* The ox is sacrificed, not killed,
as a criminal substitute for the wizard, who is set at
liberty. This seems to point to the victims of ,
witchcraft, whom we generally regard as criminals
under native law, being in reality a sacrifice to the

• Hon, C. Brownlec, MS. i

SACRIFICE ;•

gotls. The substitution of an animal, which is killetl
as a sacrifice, is common In cases where the patient
has I'Bcovered, though causing sickness with inteiit
to kill is a capital crime.

When we leave South Africa and pass into the
Lake region all doubt about substitutionary human
sacrifice is set at rest. If a Wayao murderer is
caught he may make compensation by giving a few
slaves to be put to death, so that they may accom-
pany the murdered man, taking his place to attend
upon him.* Should the mm-derer escape, one of his
relatives is caught and treated as if he were the
murderer. The object here is not so much the
punishment of crime as an offering to the deceased^
whose spirit would naturally be enraged at his own
relatives were they not to pay due honour to it by
Bending, either the murderer to be his slave, or such
of his relatives or slaves as may make amends for
his absence. Of departed spirits some have con-
siderable influence among the gods. Matanga of
the Wayao has many powei-ful servants, and ar-
ranges most of the details of the spirit world in
that region,^ He is capricious and easily offended,
but can be coaxed by judicious flattery. Men having
ghostly relations with him, or with lesser divinities
through him, can compound for personal service by
substitution. So, instead of betaking themselves to
the land of shades, as in duty bound, when a rela-
tive to whom they owe allegiance dies, they send a
number of slaves as their representatives to do duty
by proxy.

* Rev. Duff MacDooald. f J!-"'-

■J 2 RELIGION AND MYTH

But it is when we enter the ten-itories of power-
ful kings, like Mr. Stanley's friend Mtesa, that we
can study primitive sacriBcial institutions to best
advantage. Broken and scattered trilies like those ,
round Lake Nyassa, or bands of marauding warriors
like the ancestors of the tribes inhabiting South
Africa, do not retain the institutions of their fore-
fathers in their unblemished splendour. In the one
case, jjoverty, oppression, and the constant fear of
death or captivity, slowly but surely undermine and
modify original institutions. In the latter, darinj^
warriors learn by degrees to defy even the gods, or
at least neglect them. That stout old Roman who
threw the sacred chickens into the sea was not a
Iwlder reformer than the Zidu monarch who gave
battle to the army of Moselekatse when all the
omens of heaven and earth warned him of defeat.
More fortunate than the Roman, a decisive victory
saved both his own head and his country's freedom.

Among the Wagogo the simplest form of human
sacrifice is when the magician comes to the palace
with two hunches of grass dipped in the blixxl
of a victim slain quietly and without ostentation.*
These he lays on the lintel or threshold, whei-e they
are touched by the king, and so offered to the gods.
Of these gods the principal is Makusa, who, as we
have seen, claims a right higher than the king over
the Liike, as the embodiment of the powers of
nature. He it is that is personified by the Lubare,
who is the real object of worship. Makusa as a
sort of Neptune is but a chief Lubare.t He enters

• Mnckay. of I'gnniia. + Kelkin.

SACRIFICE

a person ; that person is god, and to hir
are offered. Closely bound up with the woi-ship of
the Lubare is the care of the place where the king's
predecessors are kept, or rather of these predecessora
themselves, for the Lubare holds converse with the
dead as with the living.*

Associated with, or suboi-dinate to the Lulmre
are Neiide, Kajangeyewe, and Kubuka, who are a
kind of national guardian spirits. These appear in
persons who are god-po-ssessed, and such persons are
always accomjmnied by magicians, priests, and exe-
cutioners ; t that is to say, those who slay victims for
the sacrifices. The god-possessed person has but to
demand a victim, when a wayfarer is caught, bound,
beheaded, and offered in sacrifice. Every |>erson
holding the saci-ed office of priest or magician claims
to have the spirit of the king dwelling In him, or at
least visiting him at intervals.| The head wife
of every gi-eat man's harem is called " Ruda
Lubare "§ — ie., slave of the spirit, meaning one In
whom the god dwells. The same terms are applied
to the child of a woman long baiTen, and who
offered sacrifice and prayed to the Lubare for off-
spring. This is a true dedication of issue at the
shrine when the otl'ering is made. Of this we have
an illustration, in widely difiereut circumstances,
when Hannah said : " O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt
indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and
give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will
give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,"||

• Felkin.

74 BKLIGION AND MYTH

which vow Eli, worthy man, thought t<' be hut tlie
mviii^H of a (U'uiiken votary,

Meiiti<iii has been made of the tombs of the king's
predecessors. Tliis is a large hut, of comparatively
slight const miction, and needing frequent repair or
renewal. Connected with it is a laige college rjf
sorceresses, whose chief duty it is to tend the spirits
of the departed and guard the sacred place. When
the king decides that it must be repaired, he issues
his ordei's to the members of this college, who see
the work done, and report when it is completed.
Offerings must now be matle to their majesties as a
kind of solatium for the ti'ouble they weie put to,
owing to the disturbance in connection with the
repair of their quarters. As many as two thousand
victims have Ijeea offered on such occasions. These
are to the Lubare as the earth god, i-ather than to
the kings, for the Lubare is the genius of the
country, tlie object of universal worship. So general
is the worship of Lu>»are that no one leaves his hut
in the morning without first throwing out an offer-
ing, as a wisji of gi'ass, saying, " Here, Lubare, take
that.*

To them Katonga, or Creator, and Lubare mean
the same, for every phenomenon is subject to
Lubai-e. Crojis, famine, food, rain, thunder, stomis
on the lake, day, night : everything in nature has
its Lubare, and still Lubare is one and not many.
It is the spirit of Makusa, who is all and is every-
where—a kind of univei-sal deification of nature as
animate. When sacrifices are ofiered to the Lubare,

* Mui'kav, Uganda,

SACRIFICE

as on the completion of repaira of the " house of
the king's ancestors " or the death of a gi-eat man,
the method of jH-ocuring victims is at once simple
and sufBcient. If victims were selected by choice
from the sub-tribes and clans, difficulties of no
ordinary kind would be met with in the case of a
sudden demand for a pai-cel of five himdred or a
thousand ; if chosen by lot, expedients would be
adopted to avoid the ordeal. All these inconveni-
ences are avoided by the executioners, of which a
small army is kept, posting themselves on the great
highways approaching the capital and seizing
travellers on theii' way to the palace. At such
times the gods send the pi-oper victims, and when a
sufficient number has been caught the sacrifices are
offered. These victims go as royal messengei's,
or more pi-operly pages, to attend on the king's
ancestors.

Turning to West Africa, where all religious m-
stitutions aie modified by Fetish, the systems at
first seem distinct, not only in details, but in
original conception of what is due to divinity. A
cloaei" examination shows that the conceptions of
Central and West Africa regarding the unseen
world are substantially the same, and that the
intention in sacrifice is the same- From killing the
god they i)as6ed to substitution, thence to propitia-
tory sacrifice and thank-offerings. Each kingdom
has its own pai'ticular customs and yearly festivals,
presenting an infinite variety of detail, but in their
general features the same ; marking the steady
advance of thought from the i-ude conceptions of

ERUUION AND MYTH

the days when the world was young, to a conception
of divinity akin to Pantheism, and [mssing over into
that system at various points.

In Goraba, when a sacrifice is offered, the victim
is paraded about the streets after the manner of the
Tiord Mayor's show. He is decked out in finery,
adorned with jewels, and wearing a crown and other
insignia of royalty. Fi'om being a slave, he becomes
something more than a king; he becomes a demi-
god. He may do wliatever he pleases and have all
he fancies, should his tastes be like those of the
damsel who asked tlie Baptist's head. Nothing is
denied him, as long as it does not imply his escaping
his doom at the appointed hour. As he parades the
streets he receives and accepts the Iiomage due to
a god, and when slain, men prostrate themselves
liefore the body. The Iwxly itself is taken up by
the women, decorated and honoured as divine, and
finally treated more as god than an offering to a
god. The object seems to be, not so much an offer-
ing to the gnd as the killing of tlie god himself by
substitutionary sacrifice. The King of Ashantee,
when holding the great annual Fetish festival, calls
it the festival of his fathers,* and is himself for the
time regarded as the personification of the gods.
His actions are not so much that of their delegate,
which he claims at all times to be, but their actions,
their words, and their very movements. If the king
nses, the gods stand ; if he reclines, they sleep ;
should he dance, they too caper about with the
movements of his arms and legs, For the festival

* Ramspycr mid Kllhno.

SACRIFICE

he arrajrs himself with scrupulous care aud with
extraoitiiiiaiy grajideur. Whatever of wealth and
splendour his [lalace holds is wi'apped round his
person or attached to his garments. He is literally
loaded with precious gems and the most costly orna-
ments. The drums that ai-e to accompany him in
procession are decorated with human skulls, while
soldiers, priests and executioners deck themselves
with what is acceptahle to the gods and on which
they love to gaze. During the festival, sheep, goats,
and human beings ai-e indiscriminately sacrificed. The
king, during the pageant procession, is carried by the
priests, and must on no account walk or even touch
the gi'ound. He receives homage on behalf of his
fathers, and it is impossible to determine bow much
the intention is to sacrifice to them or to the king
himself. They reside in him as the god in the
Fetish, and in virtue of such possession he is divine.
But the gi'eat festival of the year is the yam
festival. Before the day appointed for the king to
eat firesh yams there are processions, reviews, dances,
and general rejoicing, in which the king takes an
active part. On the fifth day of the festival a
human sacrifice is offered, or, to be con-ect, a
" messenger " is despatched by the king to the spirit
world. As this messenger is not designed for any
of his ancestors, nor charged with any commission
to them, the inference is that like the Khond sacri-
fices to Tari, the sacrifice is to the world of life and
reproduction. After the sacrifice is made, the king
eats fresh yams fiom a dish held by the chief cook^
who keeps stirring the contents with a gold fork.

78 RELIGION AND MYTH

while the nobles stand before him uncovered.* At
this and the palm-wine festival the honoui-s of
adoration are all done to the king, and the progress
of the festival is consecrated by any stray person
about the palace doors being seized and slain as an
act of reverence to his majesty. t The treatment o*
such victims after execution ts thus described by
KUhne, who frequently witnessed such scenes.

" One took a linger, another an arm or foot, and
whoever obtained the head danced in crazy ecstasy,
painted its forehead reel and white, kissed it on the
mouth, laughing, or with mocking words nf pity,
and finally hmig it round his neck or seized it with
his teeth. Another took out the heart and washed
it, carried it in one hand and a loaf of maize bread
in the other, and walked about as if he were eating
his breakfast.

" In the evening they brought the skulls of their
most important enemies from the mausoleum at
Bantama, and placed them, in the stillness of the
night, in front of the Fetish. Among them was the
skull of Sir Charles Macarthy, kept in a brass basin

and covered with a white cloth On the next

day all laws were abrogated, and every one drinking
freely was iierniitted to do what was good in his
own eyes. Even funerals were celebrated for those
who had suffered capital punishment."

Here we have, in the extreme west, the common
Pondo custom of the abrogation of all law at the
feast of firstfruits. From the last sentence, which
Kllhne does not explain, it is to he infen-ed that

* Ramsejcr ami Kubne. ■^ Jbiil,

SACRIFICE

holding fiiiierals for pei-sons executed is, according
to Ashaiitee uotions, the farthest extreme ()f' license
to which men can go.

The festival of Bantama affords the kiug an
opportunity of sending a messenger to his fathers.
He delivers his charge slowly and deliberately, as if
giving a diplomatic commission, and then the execu-
tioners cut off the victim's head, a knife having been
previously i-un through his cheek and left there.
Should tlie king i-eraember anything he wished to
say after the victim is slain, he orders another to be
brought, and sends hlra with a hurried postscript
lest his ancestors should be offended at the matter
not being refeiTed to in the original communication.

Bantama is the resting-place or mausctleum of
the depai'ted kings, and when Kiihne was in Ashan-
tee there were fourteen of the king's predecessors
within its walls. It is a long building, divided into
small cells, each of which contains the skeleton of a
king ;* the coffins containing these, as well as the
skeletons themselves, being connected together with
gold wires. Each cell contains such articles as the
tenant loved best during his life. At the festival
of Bantama the skeletons are placed on cliairs in
the audience hall to receive the royal visitor. This
they do In the order of seniority. The king on enter-
ing offei-s each skeleton food, and as he does so, pass-
ing from one to another, the victim selected for each
is decapitated in the approved manner by the exe-
cutioner's. During the succeeding night, and after
the monarchs are returned to tlieir cells and coffins.

8o RELIGION AND MYTH

victims are slain at iiiter\'a]s by Wat of drum or
sound of horn. With thy i-egularity of the minute-
gun, the horn sounds a double blast, which means
"death" ; then three rapid blasts, which signify an
order to cut otf a victun's head ; followed by one long-
blast to tell that thf head has dropped. When
the building needs repair, the king pays it a visit of
inspection, after which the same ritual as we saw
among the Wagogo Is ol)served, the victims being
counted by hundreds. Should the king dance with
his wives, a messenger must be sent to his fathers
to explain why he is at that particular time engaged
in the light pastime,*

But it is not iiecessai-y to go so far afield as
Ashantee to fiiid illustration of messages being sent
to the spiiit world. My father, who over seventy
years ago resided foi- some yeai-s in the Highlands
of Perthshire, used to tell how at that time the
people of" Glenlyon and Glendochart charged their
dying relatives with messages beyond the grave,
and that people came long distances to ask, as an
extreme favour, that their wishes should lie made
known " beyoud " alxiut certain particulars, one of
the most common requests being to explain away
sha<ly transactions : " If you meet such an one, tell
him how we are, and all that is going on. I
gave every penny he left to his daughter. Mind
you tell him the dun horse, which I kept to get a
better price for, died." Such wei-e the commis-
sions entrusted to the dying by pious Calvinists as
late as the second decade of the present century ;

SACRIFICE 8r

oommissions from which even elders of the kirk were
not exempt. If this may happen in the green tree
of Puritanism, what may not be done in the dry
tree of Paganism.

In Dahomey the customs observed are in their
main characteristics identical with those ofAshan-
' tee and other West African kingdoms. One pecu-
liarity of Dahomeyan religion is — and in this, so far
[ as I know, it is singular — that the Fetish priest is
I supposed to be able to visit the regions of the dead
tm prop7'ia pei'gona, as the substitute or representa-
Itive of the living, and there act for them as if they
I were themselves present in the land of shades.*
I For example, a man falls ill and beheves that he is
F- being warned by some ancestral spirit that his pre-
sence is required beyond the Ixjurne. He consults
the priest, who on receipt of a suitable fee agrees
to descend and make reconciliation on his behalf, so
|that he may continue to enjoy the upper air for a
Ifcrther period. When this is done the patient
wvers ; if not, he is killed by evil persons ; the
jspirits never called at all, for the intervention of the
I jffiest is, within limits, eft'ectual in all cases when
Ithe matter is in the hands of the gods. But this
I leads us to the verge of the doctrine of devils, which
I IB an advanced form of savage religious thought ;
] the worship of devils being a late development as
[ compared with that of the beneficent gods. After
j spirits were multiplied, men, in seasons of drought
I and times of disaster and stress of cii'cumstances,
t would endeavour to conciliate the demon that

82 RELIGION AND MYTH

brouf(ht calamity. Hence it is that demon worship '
is always propitiatory, while the worship of the
gods is devotional and sympathetic, as in thank-
offerings and tokens of goodwill and fellowship
towards the unseen, whether regarded as personal or
as the earth-god, nature, the mother of all. When
a king of Dahomey dies he must enter the lower
world in such regal state as became his dignity
while he lived. The number of victims is almost
incredible in order to make a grand procession.
During his life he sends substitutes and messengers
to spirit-land on the most slender pretext, or on nu
pretext at all.

Similar illustrations of the doctrine of substitu-
tion by sacrifice might be given from the observ-
ances of American Indians, South Sea Islandei-s,
ancient Mexicans, and the Teutonic peoples of
Eurojie. In tracing the system we have seen how
the original practice of killing the god, as the apirit
of vegetation and creative energy, passed into the
form of substitution. Even in propitiatory sacrifice
we see the same idea of the earth spirit reappearing
whenever we can catch a glimpse of society under
primitive conditions. Sacrifices to kings or Fetish
are more to the earth-goddess than to the object to
which they are immediately presented ; that is, to
the powers of nature as in vegetation and repro-
duction generally. This points back to the time
when the divine element of natural force resided in
kings, and was sacrificed to ensure a new resun'ec-
tion with the opening year. Our inquiry has led u
away from that original conception of primitive

SACRIFICE 83

man to a more elaborate system of thought, which,
gradually expanding, included within its range
factors and forces, spirits personal and impersonal,
and conceptions of man himself, of which the earlier
philosophy took no account. To understand the
further development of human thought, and how
spirits came to be classified as good and bad, we
must consider the restrictions under which divine
and sacred persons were placed, and the reasons
for such restrictions so far as these may be dis-
covered.

CHAPTER V

We have already seen how the Mikado of Japan
and the divine King of Laoiido lived surrounded
with safeguards and restrictions. The dangers to
which souls are exposed have also laeen touched
ujjon. We shall now consider how these were
guarded, and the fresh dangers to which taboos
gave rise as restrictious were multiplied.

To the savage, as we know him, the gi-eat danger
of existence is witchcraft and the action of charms
and spells ; and to secure himself against these he
adopts sucli precautions as the nature of the case
suggests. But witchcraft itself is a system wliich
must have had an origin, and developed, from one
or more simple conceptions, to be an art practised
by persons who claimed to have communication with
the unseen world. With the art we generally
associate the ideas of pure mischief, but it was
capable of being turned to good account, and the
Scotch witches who banned rats fi'om fanners' Imrns
were thought worthy of a night's quarters and a
suljstantial honorarium for their service. It has
been hastily inferred that they learned the art from
ecclesiastics, who, with bell, book and candle could
ban the devil himself; Init it is far more llkelv that

priests learned the art of banning fi-om an older
cult coniiug down from the ages before the Flood.

With great persuasion I once induced an old
woman to repeat to me a form of words for the
t)anning of rats, which she had learned from " a
woman that had the second sight and could do
things." It is many years since I heard the dog-
gerel, and can remember but one sentence of it,
which, wedged in between imprecations and curses,
was, that they should " shed the hair off their
skulls " if they did not betake themselves to other
quarters. This freed the farmer of the pest, but
unfortunately the same power could be turned
against any one who offended the witch. She in
that case brovight an army of rats down upon him,
" to eat his com and cut his sacks, and teach him to
rue the day that he shut his door on Shoanad."
This I lieard from a Morven woman nearly thirty
years ago, when quite a boy. If Andrew Lang,
who in those days was a frequent visitor at Ard-
tornish, had but known Gaelic, we should have had
a store of legends, rhymes and charms preservetl to
ns which are now finally lost. I have travelled in
all parts oi" the Highlands of Scotland, but no-
where have I met with such variety and richness
of legend and myth as along the shores of the
Sound of Mull.

If men need to guard against witchcraft in Scot-
land, how much more necessary nmst it be to do so
in savagedom. Lives of great importance to the
community we may expect to find guai'ded with
special care, in the same way as we guard royalty

8Ci RKLKUON AND MYTH

ill Europe, from attack by evil-disjiosed pei-sons,
sane and insane. There ai'e not only the dangefs
which may lurk uiiBeen near at hand, but also
unknown dangers from a distance, and which are
associated with the arrival of forei^^ners. Besides,
there are districts specially charged with such
malign influences, and any one visiting these must
lie puiged and purified Iwfore he has any coniinuni-
cation with otliers. Thus the missionary New and
his party were, on their return from Killimanjaro,
sprinkled by a " professionally prejiaved liquor " on
airiviag on the l>orders of the inhabited country.
This was done by the priest, and before they had
had any communication with the tribe. In the
Yoruba country there is a custom of keeping
strangers standing outside the gate of the town till
sundown, lest evil spirits should enter with them if
a<lmltted during tlie <lay.* In South Africa the
tmveller must halt at a distance from tlie " gi'eat
place," and is invited to the chiers jwesence only
after the magician has performed the necessaiy
incantations. Dinka and Bongo tribes on the Nile,
take the like precautions against the advent of evil
spirits when visited by strangers.t The South Sea
Islanders subject those landing on tlieir shores to a
pi*oc6BS of pul-gation to expel any evil which may
hang about them. These are all general precau-
tions taken for the benetit of the community. But
do what he may, the savage cannot al)Bolutely ex-
clude evil from the tribe. Spirits do enter in the
most unexpected manner, and witches will prowl

t Srlmuilifiirlli,

TABOOS 87

about and follow their unlawful calling while men
sleep. So he takes special precautions to guard
those whose lives are of great value ; precautions
which, in their own language. " cannot be taken for
commoners."

The arts of witchcraft are so subtle that those
marked for its victims can be affected through the
food they eat, if the wizard can but get his fingers
into it, or even see it ; through articles taken from
their pei-sons, as cut nails, hair, arms, ornaments,
saliva, and also through all those articles which
sacred persons may not see or touch. Thus it
happens that those whose lives are so guarded may
not eat in public, nor must their food be seen except
by trusted personal attendants. In Gondokoro a
guest asked to a marriage sends a present of food,
hut it must be carefully covered with a napkin to
protect it from the influence of wizards and witches,*
through whom the whole bridal party might be
affected. A Wanyoro will not return by the way
he went; his very footprints may in the interval be
I)ewitched. The King of Loango may not be seen
eating or drinking, on pain of death. In Dahomey
the same law exists, and Cameron in his walk across
Africa paid men to let him see them eat or drink.

By judiciously extending these taboos life may be
made a bui-den too grievous to be borne by the
]>er8ons so guarded, and a day comes when, utterly
wearied and goaded to madness, the king defies the
gods and asserts his own independence. Such defi-
ance is the herald of reform and a further advance

88 RELIGION AND MYTH

of thought. Those having charge of sacred mys-
teries must adapt their teaching to the stern facts
of life, and adopt such ritual as will be submitted
to by those who have the civil power in their hands.
And tliis illustrates a curious trait of rehgious life
tlie world over, viz., that reforms are forced on sacred
persons fi'om without. From witliin it does not
come. They cling to tradition and usage, and
when a custom or dogma lias outlasted its time,
instead of boldly throwing it aside, an attempt is
made to piop and buttress it up by fresli legislation
and more extended ritual, till some one comes and
shivers the structure, and it falls crumbling to dust
and nothingness by its own weight.

But tliere is another side to this mystery of
taboos, for If the sacred person nmst be guarded
from harm from without, so must others be pi'o-
tected from receiving hurt from him. He is neither
in heaven nor on earth, and it is men's interests
that he should be suspended as evenly as may be
between the two. His divinity will be injured by
too much contact with earth and with men ; but
then this very divinity is a source of danger should
men be brought, in the ordinaiy relations of life,
into too close contact with him. He is a source of
blessing under proper conditions, but let these be
violated, and his tlivinity becomes a source of
greatest danger ; a fire whicli, if touched, will buret
forth to scorch and bum. Should any one wear
the Mikado's clothes without his leave, he would
have swellings all over his body.* Nor is this

• Kaempfer.

TABOOS 89

confined to Japan. The fol]owin<j quotation from
J. G. Frazer, quoting the authority of W. Browu
and a Paheka Ma/lri, illustrates the lengths to
■which taboos were carried in New Zealand.

" It happened that a New Zealand ctiief of hi^h
rank and great sanctity had left the remains of liis
dinner by the wayside. A slave, a stout hungi-y
fellow, coming up, saw the unfinished dinner, and
eat it U|) without asking any questions. Hardly
had he finished when he was informed by a horror-
stricken spectator that the food of which he had

eaten was the chief's ' No sooner did he

hear the fatal news than he was seized by the most
extraordinary convulsions and cramp in the stomach,
which never ceased till be dietl about sundown the
same day. He was a strong man. In the jirime of
life, and should any one have said he was not killed
by the taboo of the chief, he would have been
listened to with feelings of contempt far liis ignor-
ance and inability to understand plain and du-ect
evidence.'" This is not a solitary case, Mr. Frazer
quotes several others, and in each case it is plain
the persons died of sheer fright, so all-poweiful can
a fixed belief become among an ignorant and super-
stitions people.

With such results before his eyes, it is not to be
wondered at if we find the savage placing sacred
pei-sons among the dangei-ous classes, and that he
should extend taboos to persons and things supposed
to be dangerous. Those who t»jucb the dead are, in
New Zealand and Africa, unclean till purified by
magicians. Indeed, the rules of ceremonial purity

(JO

RELIGION AND MYTH

are so strict amon^ some tribes that cases are on
record where men have killed their wives for
lying down on their mats at forbidden periods,*
Hence it is that at such times women are secluded,
as also after child-birth. In the former case they
may be even rolled up in mats and suspended as in
a hammock for a period of six or seven days, to be
imstrapped and conveyed to a stream of water for
necessary sanitary purposes.

" The rules of ceremonial purity observed by
divine kings, chiefs, and priests ; by homicides,
women at child-birth, and so on, are in some
respects alike. To us these classes of persons appear
to differ totally in cliaracter and condition. Some
of them we should call holy, others unclean and
polluted. But the savage makes no such moral

distinction between them To him they are

dangerous and in danger, and the danger in which
they stand and to which they expose others is what
we . should call spiritual or supernatural — that is,
imaginary." ^ One of the substances most com-
monly tabooed by savages is iron. No iion may
touch a sacred person's body. He may die when
a simple incision might save his life, but the incision
nmst not be made. A Hottentot priest never uses
a knife in performing the operation of circumcision ;
he uses a sharp bit of quartz instead. Gold Cloast
natives remove all iron from their persons when
consulting Fetish.J Scottish Highlanders never use
iron nails or hammers in making the fire-wheel

* Journiil Anihro/i, ix. f J. G. Via

I C. J. Qordon Ctimniing.

apparatus for the celebration of certain Yule fes-
tivals ; they use wooden pegs and stone hammers
instead. The Jews used no iron tools in building
their Temple in Jerusalem, nor in making an altar.

The objection to iron arose in all probability when
the metal was new and scarce, and so regarded
with superstitious awe and reverence. But soon,
daring spirits like Lamech arose, who, defying
custom and taboo, and believing only in the strength
of his own arm and the trusty weapons his son had
forged for him, turned the dreaded metal to good
account. A substance charged with such power
that spirits could not endure it in their presence,
and before which kings might fall down dead, put
into men's hands a terrible weapon which could be
used with disastrous effects even against the gods
themselves. But if iron could be used against the
■ gods, they in turn could use it against evil-doers,
and the priesthood would not be slow in availing
themselves of so potent a weapon. Apart from its
obvious utility as an arm, wlien properly forged and
shaped, it would be regai-ded as having magic and
miraculous power, when properly used, for the expul-
sion of evil. And so we find Iron, and the metals
generally, occupying a prominent place in thf
superstitions of all countries. When a Scottish
fisherman hears "the unclean animal" — a pig — men-
tioned, he feels for the nails in hisljixtts and muttei's
" cauld iron," So, too, if one of the crew utters
certain oaths or curses when at sea. He bans the
devil of ill-luck and disaster by nailing a horse-
shoe, preferably that of a stallion, to the stern of

92 HE1-K!I0K AND MYTH

liis boat. A (Jolspie fisherman a few years ago
had a amall lioat with which he had an extraordinary
run of luck in the prosecution of his calling. Inside
the stem was nailed an entire horse's shoe, given to
him by " a wise person " As lie prospered his
ambition giew till he pui'chased a larger boat,
selling the small one and its belongings to a neigh-
bour. From the first day he went to sea with his
new boat luck, forsook him, nor would fickle fortune
be wooed. He bethought him of his horse-shoe,
and went to his neighbour to demand restitution.
This was denied, the new owner contending success-
fully that he had purchased tlie " boat and its
gear."* To this day that man believes that to
parting wJtli an old shoe was due the entire failure
of his season's fishing. Whether returning luck —
for he still lives and prospers — had an educative
effect upon his mind, I do not know.

Sutherlandshii'e crofters and cottars ban, or expel,
the spirit of death from a house after one dies, by
placing bits of iron in the meal chest, the butter jar,
whisky bottle, and other articles of food, without
which precaution they would speedily " go to rotten-
ness and corru])tion." Whisky not treated so has been
known to turn white as milk and curdle. Among
savages iron is held in the same venemtion. The
Baralongs, who are famous smiths, regard the black-
smith's trade as a sacred art. Furnaces are placed
at a distance from the houses, and none dare
approach when the metal begins to flow, except
those versed in the mysteries of the craft.

• Rev. A. MuckBji MS. notes.

But in Afi'ica it is on articles from the person, or
whicli have belonged to one vegai-ded as sacred, that
the greatest care is bestowed. This is common to
the Zulu and the Dinka, to the Galla and Dahomeyan,
We meet with it in every possible relation of life.
For example, a young Zulu soldier, who was travel-
ling to join his regiment with a companion, ai'rived
at a village where they were to spend the night.
They were directed to the " travellers' hut," where
they found a mat such as natives sleep upon. The
soldier took the mat and unrolled it, when, to his
dismay, he found it contained head ornaments and
other articles of female dress, such as is only used
by the king's household. Seeing this, he rolled the
mat up again and put it aside. It belonged to a girl
of the kiug's harem, on her way to the capital, who
had stayed there a few nights before. She had for-
gotten her mat and ornaments. On annving at
headquarters he was at once detailed for cattle-
guard, but on his return in the evening he was met
by a young man of his regiment, who told him his
companion had been put to death, and that he was
to be killed for having touched articles belonging to
saci-ed persons.* He fled, but was overtaken and
put to death. If touching ornaments is a capital
offence, stepping over the head of a recumbent
African is a yet more serious crime, if the sleeper be
a person sacred in virtue of position or office. The
head is peculiarly sacred, and to step over it is the
most grievous offence that a man can commit, if it
be not excelled in enormity by pulling his hair.

• Hon. C, BrowQlee.

94 RELIGION AND MYTH

Wlien this sanctity of the head and the consequent
difficulty of disposing of shorn locks is borne in
mind, it will be seen that the barber's vocation is,
if an honourable one, a dangerous office. Suppose
an ai-tist is called to jjerforni a necessary office for
his chief, whose ample locks have become too secure
a retreat for the colonies that take shelter under
them, he must be first purified with sprinkling, and
have the tools of his craft cleansed by the magi-
cians. He then proceeds to the royal residence, and,
in [>re8ence of the king's guards and officers of State,
removes the mass close to tlie skull. If after the
operation the king takes a chill the poor barber is
accused of something more than neglect of duty ;*
he bewitched the king, or he may have given a hair
to his friend the wizard to enable the latter to do
the evil deed. In either case the barber must
stand his trial, in the first case as a principal, in
the second as an accessory, and failing his divulging
the wizard's name, must take the consequences of
his guilt if the magicians decide the case as one of
bewitching.

But should he honestly perform his office and no
imtoward events follow, there remains the difficulty
of disposing of the shorn locks. Burn them, says
common sense ; but to the savage conuuon sense
often is what the law was to the elder Weller, " a
hass." To bum shorn locks would be to invite all
the demons of a locality to secure and treasure up
the very essence they are in seai-ch of in the ascend-
ing smoke. To them the smell of burning hair or

• J, Sutton, MS. notes.

TAbOOS

nail clippings is what the carcase is to the vulture.
Nor is it safe to keep them by one, for who can
guard against rats and white ants, not to sjieak of
accidents of fire, war, and theft. The only prudent
course is to bury them.* But how and where !
And here the sacred and lawful art of the magician
comes to the aid of the perplexed. Sacred spots
are set apart for such purposes — a kind of conse-
crated ground where the chief can bury his shorn
locks and cut nails, as well as dispose of other neces-
sary superfluities in the most approved fashion
prescribed in Deuteronomy xxiii. 1 3 ; there as a wise
sanitary precaution ; in Africa as a sacred function ;
at the lowest as a precaution against the works of
the devil.

And here I may say that those who had charge
of my own youth were moat remiss in a necessary
and most important particular, evidence of which I
have to go before any jury of Celts over seventy
years of age with. One of my earliest recollections
is having my hair cut by an Itinerant tailor, who
combined tlie art of clothing one's limbs with that
of unclothing the head. I remember him still : a
gaunt, lean-looking man, with hollow eyes and a
sepulchral voice. When the operation was finished
he directed that the severed locks should be gathered
up and burned, because, should the birds — it was
spring-time, and the danger was real— get the
smallest particle, even a single hair, to build
their nests, I should lie grey at twenty-one. This
he insisted upon with the strongest asseveration

• LiTiDgstoae.

96 RELIGION AND MVTH

of its truth ; while I. evil imp as I imist have been,
gathered up a handful of hair, which I threw over
the window for the robins. The deed was done.
The artist stood aghast, and now, though a good
decade from the time when grey hairs should appear,
I carry the evidence of my own folly to kirk and
market.

The gotls of the Dakota Indians ai'e mortal, and
propagate their kind. Their Onkteri resemble a
bull, and can extend their tails and horns to the
sky, the seat of their power.* The earth is believed
to be animated liy the spirit of the female Onkteri,
while the water and the earth l>eneath the water is
the abode of the male god. The Onkteri have power
to issue from their bodies an essence, signifying a
god's aiTow, which can work wholesale destruction.t
The priests possess or claim ail the power ascribed
to the gods, and are believed to pass through a
series of Inspirations by which they receive the god-
spirit. They lay hold on all that is mysterious,
predict events, and declare that they bring about
events of which they made no prediction. They have
duplicate souls, one of which remains with the body,
while the other wanders at will. Clearly it is neces-
sary that sucli persons should be surrounded by such
restrictions as will en.sure the peace and safety of the
community. And so we find in Africa, America, Asia,
and the South Seas the same system of taboo ; the
same objections to certain objects and animals, and
the same sanctity of others, running Into clan badges
and totems, which are at once sacred and to be cared

• Schookraft. t Betlatiy.

ior, while they atFoitl protection to those whose
symbols tliey are.

But let men guai-d as they may ; let them sur-
round divinities with restrictions, and take every
precaution against evil persons getting possession
of objects dangerous to their lives, accidents will
happen and evils will accumulate, M'ith a correspond-
ing increase among those spirits who cause them. So,
as we have a process of evolution going on among the
gods, we have also a development of the doctrine of
devils. This I do not propose to trace fully, but it
is necessary to refe-i' to the subject iu general terms
before we consider the methods adopted for their
expulsion.

How man anived at the idea of good and evil
spirits as personal beings is impossible to determine
■with accuracy. It is probable after he reached the
conception of a soul separate from the body, per-
sonal and immortal, or at least capable of existence
in a distinct spirit-world, he began to attribute
to such souls the same character as was borne by
the man while he lived. The soul of a seditious
man would foment sedition on earth among those
whom he could influence after his death. So, too,
the soul of a murderer, a thief, or a contentious man
would incite to similar crimes. These would be
regarded as evil spirits, to be dealt with as men of
like disposition are dealt with. To secure society
against their influence, only two ways were open to
primitive man : one, to defy them, as is often done
in the case of men of evil disposition, and so make
them practically outcasts ; another to concdiate

98 RELIGION AND MYTH

them, and so by acts of bribery and flattery secure
their goixl offices, or at least their neutrality,
Both these methods are found wherever savage man
dwells. Devils are cursed, defied, expelled the
country, and treated as we do our dangerous classes.
At other times thoy are flattered, cozened, and
feasted with sacrifice, in order that the largeness of
the offering may be a sufticient inducement for them
to refrain from evil. We shall in the present inquiry
meet frequently with devil-worship, but here it
may be well to inquire how primitive man sought
to rid himself of spirits which he both feared and
hated.

CHAPTER VI

EXPULSION OF DEMONS

When man found his steps dogged by demons, he
sought for means by which he could rid himself of
those imps of evil which rendered his life an insup-
portable burden. His first impulse was to surround
himself with safeguai'ds, as a warrior in mail ai'mour.
But this necessitated an increase of restrictions each
time evil spirits or daring men discovered means of
breaking through his taboos. With the discovery of
gunpowder mail annour became useless. Bullets
could only be resisted by an increase in the weight
and thickness of the protecting coat of mail, and
wan'iors found it necessary to cliange their methods.
So the savage whose taboos are rendered useless by
a Lamech, finds it necessary to re-examine the whole
surrounding. Must he add to the numljer of re-
strictions, to the weight of the already over-
burdenetl taboos, till they become like swaddling
clothes in which he cannot move or breathe!' Are
his movements to be restricted as dangers multiply?
Does the advent of each fresh enemy necessitate a
re-adjustment of his whole philosophy ?

The savage, feehng the awkwardness of his position
by ever-increasing restrictions, arrived at the eon-
<jeptiou that, by a supreme effort made periodically.

RELIGION AND MYTH

or as occasion might aiise, he could rid himself,
for a time at least, of the evils which sun-ounded
him. And when we come to this doctrine of devils
and their expulsion, we amve at a point which
marks a distinct advance iii thought. Under the
earlier forms the king or earth spirit did good or evil
according to humour or caprice ; but with the con-
ception of personal spirits, divided into a good class
and a bad, we find men projecting into the super-
natural what they experienced in the natural world.
Their philosophy, crude as it was, was based on
observation, and embodied the results of experience
so far as savage man could formulate his experience
into a system. When taboos failed to meet the case,
men adopted the bolder policy of making war on
devils. Nor is the savage singular in the methods
adopted to expel evils. When fasts and prayers
failed the inhabitants of European cities in the
expulsion of the devils of epidemic diseases, they
made war upon them In sewers and cellars, and
to far better ])urpose than by the older and more
pious method of priestly intercession. A comparison
of the methods adopted for the expulsion of evils in
Africa, and survivals amongst ourselves, gives one
the impression that popular imagination is not yet
far removed from the age of Balac, whose only hope
lay in having a powerful magician, like the prophet
Balaam, to curse his enemies liefore he joined his
forces In battle with theirs.

Taking South Africa — with the practice of which
I was long familiar — firet, it may be said in a general
way that no " commoner " dare interfere with spirits

EXPULSION XJF DEMONS loi

either good or bad, beyond offeDn'g such saciifices
as are sanctioned by custom. Demons mfl.y. haunt a
man, and render his life a burden, but- be-" must
submit to their machinations until the case is' taken .
in hand by the proper authorities. A baboon may
be the messenger of evil spirits, and perch itself on
a tree within easy gunshot, or regale itself in his
maize field ; but to pull a trigger at the brute would
be worse than suicide. As long as the man remains
a solitary sufierer he has little chance of redress. It
is assumed he has been guilty of some crime, and
that the ancestors have in their wrath sent the
demon to torment him. But should his neighbours
suffer ; should the baboon from choice or necessity —
for men do pluck up courage to scare the brutes —
select a fresh field in which to glean its sujjper, or
another man's barn roof for its perch, the case altern
its complexion. The magicians now take the matter
up seriously. One man may be visited by the
anceetora with severe reproof, as being haunted by
a demon, but a whole community Is another matter.
Clearly in that case there is something amiss, and a
remedy must be found. To shoot the babtwn will
not serve the purpose. African spirits are not amen-
able to powder and lead, as Scottish witches are to
powder and silver bullets, and to kill the balxxtn
would only be to enrage the demon and increase the
danger. The first thing to do is to discover where
the devil has his permanent abode. This is generally
a deep pool of water with overhanging banks and
dark recesses. There the villagers gather with
priests and magicians. Under the direction of their

loa RELIGION^; A^rD MYTH

ghostly counsellor^' 0ad secured from harm by their
presence^ ntjerij^ women, and children pelt the demon
wit^i si;qn&.* * Drums are beaten and horns blown at
^ ^ottrxrdh, and when all are worked up into a frenzy
' oF excitement, as one after another catches a glimpse
of the imp as he tries to avoid the missiles, he takes
his flight at a single bound, and the village is ft^e
from his influence for a time. Baboons may now
be killed and crops protected. While the stone
throwing goes on, all present, and especially the
women, hurl the most abusive epithets at the object
of their fear and vengeance.

There is no periodic purging of devils, nor are more
spirits than one expelled at a time. I have noticed
frequently a connection between the quantity of grain
that could be spared for making beer, and the
frequency of gatherings for the purging of evils and
other necessary piu^ses. No large gathering can
be held in Africa without feastmg and drinking,
especially the latter. Like the Scotch factor,
anxious to let a barren moor with hardly a feather
on it, to an Englishman, as " one of the finest bits o*
groimd i' the north," and who after the second
tumbler of "toddy," suggested a third before closing
the bargam, on the ground that "it's dry wark
talking," the African finds all public ftmctions, even
his devotions, " dry wark," and needs his pombe. If
this is not to be had, the assured result is failure.

There are demons who are not amenable to stone-
throwing and abuse. Such methods would only give
them further opportunity for mischief by an increased
knowledge of village afiairs. They in that case could

EXPULSION OF DEMONS

adapt their methods tr> the new conditions, and the
end of that place would be worse tlian the first, for
they would enter it clean swept of all effectual means
of defence. So the Dinka and Bongo expel their
devils by guile.* There the exorcist begins by
holding a conversation with the demon. He ascer-
tains his name ; how long he baa been there ; where
he belongs to ; his permanent residence ; kinsfolk,
acquaintances, and other particulars, all the while
disguising bis own identity as a devil-doctor. When
he ascertains all he wishes to know, he hurries to the
woods to collect such medicines as are eriectual for
the expulsion of demons of the class to which the one
in question belongs. After this his course is clear :
he sends the evil one beyond the bounds of his
diocese by bell, book, and candle, or, to be literal,
by horn, calabash, and torch.

The Wazeramas, more tender of heart towards
their demons, expelled them by gentler means than
a showei' of stones or a drastic purge. Suppose a
patient is devil -possessed, he is taken out of his hut
and propjied up against a tree in presence of the
assembled villagers. An ancient crone ladles out
beer to all who wish a draught. When she has
completed her round of the crowd, drums are beaten,
horns blown, and all manner of musical instruments
played. The demon, captivated by the music, has
his senses — " 'cuteness " — dulled for the time, and at
the auspicious moment, when the noise has reached
a maddening pitch, the magician entices him to enter
a stool, wooden pillow, or any other object that can

* Schweinfurth,

I04 RELIGION AND MYTH

be easily carried about.* This he conveys to a safe
place, where he can deal with the demon at will
and prevent his re-entering thtf patient. He, poor
beggar, standing on one leg propjied against the tree,
is either killed outright by noise and excitement, or
by a process of reaction obtains sleep, and frequently
recovers within a few days or even hours.

When a Galla exorcist is called upon to exercise
his powers over the unseen world, against any one
of the eighty-eight demons that haunt the tribe.t he
kills a goat, the entrails of which he hangs about
his neck. Thus arrayed, he carries in one hand a
bell, which he rings " to waken the demon," and in
the other a wliip. After he has capered about for
a time ringing hie liell, he suddenly raises his whip,
with which he gives the patient several sharp cuts.
The demon, not liking such treatment, takes to his
heels ; a final flourish of the whip in the air as the
demon flies past completes the [)rocess, and the
magician goes his way carrying his fee along with
him, which is the only guarantee against the demon's
return. I recommend this method to European
physicians whose accounts are of long standing 1

Of all methods employed for the expulsion of evil
spirits that found among the Wanika is the gentlest
I have met with. There they are treated with the
care and consideration with which ladies of quality
were treated when they walked abroad a century
ago. This method may be illustrated by taking the
case of a patient who is devil-possessed, as has been
done with the preceding. A mortar filled with water

* J. ThomBon. t Knipf.

EXPULSION OF DEMONS log

is placed at his bedside. Next a gaudily-coloured
stick, richly ornamented with beads, bits of glass,
and ornaments. Is stuck in the ground close at hand.
A boy dips a bundle of twigs in the water, with
which he sprinkles the head of the patient. The
people beat drums, dance, sing, and play as if round
a May-pole. The demon loves music, and he loves
beads and gewgaws. As the merriment proceeds he
thinks people are off then* guard, and he looks at
the stick. As he looks he becomes fascinated and
leans towards it. Finally, he leaves the patient and
enters the stick, when it is promptly pulled from the
ground by the magician.* What he does with the
demon so tenderly treated the historian does not
record. He probably mat's all his previous kindness
by throwing the stick, devil and all, into lake or
river.

But the demons of South and East Africa are as
water to whisky when compared to those of the
West Coast, where their expulsion wholesale, at
stated intervals is a necessity of existence. So
potent are they for evil that the people of Dahomey,
who may in a few weeks thereafter expel them
wholesale, sacrifice sheep and goats to them before
sowing their crops.''' If they neglected this pre-
caution, so powerful are evil spirits, no corn would
ripen, even should every demon be expelled Ijefore
it comes into ear. Along the coast, where large
towns have to be purged, the ceremonies are both
elaborate and protracted. Rude wicker figin'es of
elephants, tigers, cows, and other animals are raadf^

■ Krapt. ( Winterbolhaio.

IlKLIOION AND MYTH

through millenniiiras ofyeare, to I^elieve in the power
of their religious teachers on the one hand, anil of
their wizards and witches on the other, to control
demons and influence nature, is one of those curious
])henomena which show how narrow are the limits
which divide savage man from civilised, and make us
pause to ask, how much of truth, absolute truth, we,
any of us, know concerning ourselves, and the
mysterious, unsatisfied yearnings of our souls for a
fuller, truei", and clearer knowledge of the unseen.

Not more than a century ago it was no uncommon
thing to appeal to priest or presbyter to visit this
village or that to " lay the devil," and the curious
thing is, that men of education and experience of the
world went through the mummeries supposed to
have that effect. A priest of the Braes of Lochaber
"laid" the devil alxiut what is now Spean Bridge,
and the Reformed faith proceeded no farther up the
glen of the Spean. A successor of his, however,
doubted whether he had but lialf laid him in
Inveroy, the next district to Spean Bridge, the
inhabitants of which, according to the worthy father,
did justice neither to God nor man. This "laying"
of the devil was i-endered necessary through his
being " raised " by persons who had that power
being in league with him, and without whose aid he
" could not leave his hole." How this was done I
have failed to discover with certainty. The "lay-
ing" was by bell, book and candle, or within Refor-
mation times " by prayer and the exercise of the
power nf prayer," a phrase aa difficult of intei-pi-eta-
tion as any African oracle of them all. Prayer one

EXPUL8I0K OF DEMONS 109

can understand, but what is the " power of prayer "
as applied to the " laying " of the devil ? As to the
" raising " of his majesty, one old man told me the
following incident, for the truth of which he vouched
on personal knowledge, " for," said he, " it happened
when I was a good bit o' a caliant." I give his own
words as nearly as I can remember.

" It's a long time since, but I mind it as if it were
yesterday. The boys were having a wild night.
Two old men had just finished wi' a pickle malt for
the new year like, and there was plenty going.
About the middle of the night, at the turn as you
would say, one of the young men began to cuise and
swear awful. He called on the devil, and said lie
might come and take him. Some o' them were a
wee sober, and bade him keep quiet, but he gaed
worse, and defied a' the devils in hell, and said he
would like to smell their brimstone. That moment
there was an awful flash of lightning, and a woman,
said no to be canny, or the likes o' her, came down
the chimney and stood afore him. She stood facing
him, and said : ' Ye want to see the devil : he may be
here sooner nor ye think.' Sorry a word more did .she
say when the house was filled wi' burning brimstone,
and something going up and down in a blue flame on
the crook" — {^i.e., the chain for hanging pots over the
fire]. " Then it made a noise such as the like was
never heard, and gaed out o' slglit. The gun-
barrels in the house were twisted and broken, and
the next day the smell o' brimstone was strong on
their clothes. None of them could ever tell right
how it happened, but there's nae doubt about it.

no HELIGION AND MYTH

It's as true as j^nspel." And then the old man pro-
ceeded to detail other experiences of his youth, and
to bemoan the scepticiam of the age, which was sure
to bring the curse of God down upon the world.
This was not an ignorant man, but one fau'Iy well
informed ; a man who knew his Bible, and could
curi-ect preachers on points of C'alvinistic theology.
I knew him well, and lie represented current opinion
among middle-aged and old jieople In parts of the
Highlands about twenty yeai-s ago. How the devil
was " laid " in this case my informant did not re-
member, but he was fully informed how it was done
in other cases, and believed as fij-mly as he did in his
own existence that the art " was known to many of
the godly in olden times."

There is a woman of my acquaintance in Reay who
can " do things." Some yeare ago she atsked a
coach-driver for a " sail " in his vehicle. He re-
fused. " Very well," said Annie ; " I will be in
Thui'so laefore you." A mile larther on cine of his
horses fell stone dead, and he had the mortification
of seeing the witch pass with an air of triumjih. The
owner has never refused her a " sail " since then.

A former minister of the parish of Reay in Caith-
ness, a Mr. Pope, was a man of more than local re-
putation. He came to the parish when the people
were largely pagan, and being a man of herculean
strength, used gentle jthysical persuasion by means
of an oaken cudgel, known as the "bailiff," to bring
liis parishioners to church. His feats of strength,
and especially his having first thrashed, and then
driven Ijefoi-e him Ui clnirch, a local cliaracter re-

EXPULSION OP DEMONS iii

gai*ded >vith dread as a giant in strength and a tiger
in temper, gave him an extraordinary influence over
his unruly flock. Supernatural powers were fi-eely
attributed to him, and this for reasons of his own he
may have encouraged. Among other powers he
possessed he was regarded as being able to " lay the
devil " at will. It so happened that the people of
Strathy, in the neighbouriug parish, "raised" tlie
fiend but could not get hini " laid " again. In dire
extremity they went to Mi'. Pope, and on some pre-
text induced liini to visit Strathy. When Hearing
the place " he got the smell of the fiend," and knew
why they had sent for him. He was excessively
angry, but having gone so far he proceeded to the
place, and so effectually did he dispose of their
troublesome visitor, that, as I was told last summer,
"the devil has never since been raised in the district."
Did the scope of our inquiry permit, illustrations
ofthe same practice of expelling the devil could be
drawn from the usages of the Teutonic peoples of
Europe. This Is represented by such practices as
are observed among the Finns of Eastern Russia.
There on the last day of the year a band of yonng
girls march through the streets and stop at each
house corner, which they beat with wands they carry
for the purpose. As they beat each house they say
in chorus, " We are driving Satan out of the village."
After they have in this mamier visited all the
houses, they march in procession to the river, singing
as they go, and when they ari'ive there throw their
wands, devils and all, into the water to float away
down stream. "At Brunnen, in Switzerland, the Iwys

.12 RELIGION AND MYTH

^o about in procession on Twelfth Night, carrying
torches and lanterns, and making a great noise with
horns, cowbells, and whips. This Is said to frighten
away two female spirits of the wood — Strudeli and
Stratteli."* These are but illustrations of tht! simpler
forms of a custom observed by all the peoples of
Europe ; a custom which in many cases became
grafted on to the services of the Christian Church,t
no man can tell how, but which clearly carry us Imok
to an age when the peoples of Europe were, by
painful experience, groping their way towards a
knowledge of truth, as the Central African of to-day
is undoubtedly doing, For what are all leligions
but a searching after truth ; the expression of man's
desire to attain to a true and final knowledge of
causes, and his own relation to these ?

« Usener, quoted by J. G. Fraier.

t In RoBs-sbire there is & comman cnitom when drlnktng from a road-
aide Hpriog to tie a bit of rag to a bretich or ttift of grass. This I have
beard erplaioed as an olTeHng to the spirit of the spring, nhllo others say
it is to ban evil from tbc water. In either cose It Is a survival of a long-
(orgotton past — a simple action, carrying us back to a time when spirits
inhabited evotj grove and running stream.

CHAPTER VII

WITCHCRAFT

When man reached the conception of good and evil
spirits as personal and separate existences— that is
to say, beings capable of being influenced by him
and having an influence over him— it needed but the
advent of a Milton to set the gods by the ears. But
before the Miltonic conception was reached there
was a long transition period during which the gods
set men by the ears. We have seen that kings and
divine priests claimed to have in their own persons :
first, the spirit of the creative and reproductive
powers of nature ; next, that of their ancestors and
predecessors, this lattei' passing over to the idea of
an impei'sonal god. These were the beneficent
patrons of men, who gave them rain, sunshine,
crops, fecimdity, successful hunting, and kindred
blessings. During the world's youth the want of
these was attributed to the negligence of the king,
and with the lapse of time, perhaps to his malice or
ill-wiU, as when the king was said " to have a bad
heart." It was no uncommon experience for the
king to be called sharply to task when the course of
nature got into confusion and disorder, and men
began to feel the pinch of want or the inconvenience
of having to travel far afield for game. With the

EELIGION AND MYTH

qdveiit of evil spirits the blame could be laid on
their shoulders for all the ills that afflicted humanity.
Evil persons were supposed to be in league with
those evil spirits, and to be their agents in carrying
out their nefarious purposes. As the goofl spirits
acted for men's benefit through the king or tribal
priest, so other malign spirits acted thi-ough persons
whose whole object was pure mischief for its own
sake, except when bribed to do good actions by
large gifts. The expulsion of spirits had not yet
occurred to man ; propitiation did not always suit
his purpose ; and yet the case required that drastic
remedies should be adopted. It was obviously a
matter of the first importance that means should be
discovered for the detection and extermination, if
possible, of the class of persons who brought the ills
from which men suffered upon them.

In earlier times the king himself was frequently
put to death when he failed to oitler the coui-se of
nature regularly, and give the blessings expected
from him, and if so, there could be no hesitation or
doubt about the art of those who wilfully disturbed
the course of nature being a capital crime, or rather
the capital crime Ijeyond all others even by com-
parison. For to savage man thei'e is no crime com-
parable to witchcraft in malignity of purpose and
object. Here, then, we have the origin of that system
of jurisprudence and religious ritual which, project-
ing itself into civilised and Christian times, pursued
its victims, under the sanction of civil kw and
church judicatories, as persons who ought nut to
live. Primitive faith, or superstition as we call it

WITCHOKAFT 115

now, clung for genei'ations to men professing to be
disciples of Him who came to show the higher and
better way, so tenaciously that they could, without
pity or compunction, see their fellows amidst blazing
faggots for an Imaginary crime. If the gi-owth of
thought has been so slow within historic times, and
among a people with a written language, what must
it have been among pi'imitive men 'f When religion,
with all the sanction it received fi-om the sacred
books of Christianity, took so many centm-ies to
realise such elementary facts regarding man's rela-
tion to the supernatural, do we wonder that millen-
niums pass without any appreciable difierence tn
custom and myth among savages ?

But how were wizards and witches to be dis-
covered when the world was young, and before men
learned to recognise the " witch's mark ? " Spii-its
bent on evil gave no outwaixl token of their
presence so far as that could possible be avoided.
These spirits would only be harboured by pei-sons of
the most malignant disposition, or who for some
reason had a gnidge against their kind. So the
spirits sought out those who, through neglect or ill-
treatment, bad been soured and rendered bitter in
heart against their fellows.* Thus it happened
that deformed persons, and those who thi-ough any
infirmity were unable to take their place and act
their part iu life like their fellows, were believed to
be possessed of- the devil, or, in other words, were
wizai-ds and witches. Dwai-fs, dumb persons, women
who never were sought in marriage, and those with

nfi RELIGION AND MYTH

any facial peculiarities or defects which made them
conspicuous, were most frequently legarded as the
iucarnatioii of the evil spirit of the world. From
them it was impossible to expel or allui'e the demon
as in the case of a patient who was devil-possessed,
for, unlike the sick, the devil dwelt within the
wizards by their own will and choice. They were
themselves devils incarnate as the king or high
priest was incarnate gctd. Such being the case, the
only hope of safety, the sole means of security, lay
in the rigid enforcement of that curious Mosaic
enactment : " Thou shall not suft'er a "witch to
live."*

Let us now consider how man, as he groped his
way towards a higher conception of truth and the
facts with which be found himself surrounded in the
world, sought to protect himself against the malign
influences exercised liy those persons who entered
into league with evil spirits, for the purjxise of
injuring their kind. And here it will be lietter to
begin with the southern portion of Africa, with the
customs of which I am familiar, and which have
been studied and lecoided with a greater degi-ee of
minuteness than those of any other part of the
continent. In any study of witchcraft it must Ije
borne in mind that the wizard's power is unlimited,
or only bounded by such limitations and restrictions
as the gods are subject to. Evil spirits are as
powerful as good ; hence it follows that the good
must have assistance fi-om man himself, if they are
to cope successfully with evil. Man and the goda
• Exod. «iii. 18.

WITCHCRAFT 117

may keep evil in check. Either of them alone would
be mieqiial to the task. Can the beneficent god
give rain ? The wizard can thwart his pin'pose by
the simplest of expedients. Can he make domestic
animals prolific ? The wizard has but to get a hair
out of a cow's tail to bring murrain among them.
Does the " father of men " give easy delivery to
mothers ? The wizard causes death in childbed
or blights the offspring with a curse. Throughout
the whole circle of social and domestic life the good
designs of Providence and the gods can be fnistrated
by the art of witchcraft, and, indeed, the wizard may
in a sense, be said to be more powerful than the
gods. To them belong the initiative ; all things
ai'e under their control and ordered by them ; and
the wizard has but to lie in wait till the gods act,
and then, by the practice of his art, frustrates their
intentions by marring theii' work. He, on the other
hand, is safe from assault by the gods, for he never
initiates any original woik on his own account. His
business is to watch their doings, and when they
favour men to bring calamity and death.

So the Hottentot priest, when he sacrifices for
any purpose, takes the most extraordinary precau-
tions against malign influences. He keeps his
purpose a profound secret, lest his intentions should
become known to some " suspect person." At the
sacrifice none must be present except such as can be
fully tiTisted. And here lies his chief difficulty.
Wizai'ds are as cunning as are evil spirits themselves,
and adopt every kind of disguise so as to remain
unsuspected. He can guai-d against the presence of

RELIGION AND MYTH

reputed wizai-ds and suspect ])ersons. But these
have " friends " who are neither kiiowii nor sus-
pected, and should one of them be present to inform
the wizard of what goes on, and convey to liim as
much as a single hair from the sacrifice, or even a
blade of grass from the spot on wliich an important
person, as the chief or priest, sat, he can acconip
all the evil that he cttuld have done by his presence
among the crowd. For some reason, which I never
could discover, suspect persons cannot be, or at all
events are not, put on trial till specific acts can be
charged against them before a properly consti-
tuted tribunal. They cannot even l)e shut up by
such methods as we have often found so convenient
beyond St. George's Channel.

Under such circumstances it is necessary to have
a niethiHl by which guilt can Ije easily and surely
brought home to those practising the unlawful art.
This is done by a class of men known as witch-
doctors. These are really magicians or priests, who,
because of the dignity of their calling, occupy a
premier position among the religious teachers of
Africa. They are permitted to have armed retainers,
and to rank on an equality with heads of clans.
Their places of i-esidence are sanctuaiies ; they
hold court and try causes ; their pei-sons are
sacred, and in virtue of their office they are entitled
to receive fees in connection with all cases and trials.
The following may l>e taken as illustrative of the
witch-doctor's method of procedure : — When any
one, say a man in middle life, falls ill, his friends,
believing him to be bewitched, repair to the witch-

WITCHCRAFT

doctor's house, and sit down outside in a waiting
attitude. After a brief interval the doctor appears,
says " Good morning," and then sitting down, takes a
leisurely pinch of snuff. If the visitors ask for
tobacco, he knows it is but an ordinary call, and
enters into conversation on current topics. If they
do not ask a pinch, he retires to his house, and
returns with a dry hide and a small bundle of sticks
which he throws down before his visitors. He then
says, " You have come about a child 1 "

They, beating softly on the hide, reply : " We
agi'ee. "

The doctor proceeds : " You are going to speak
about a woman ? "

"We agree," aay_the strangers, while they con-
tinue their gentle beating.

"The man you have come about is very ill," may
he the doctor's next remai'k.

"We agi-ee, we agree," cry out the visitors, this
time beating violently.

On such lines the doctor proceeds till he lias
learned all he wishes to know : the man's age ;
whether of a strong or weakly constitution ; how
long he has been ill ; whether he has any known
enemy, and his means. After this he sits a long
while in silence, and then says, oracularly, " You are
being killed." When asked how and by whom, he
replies that he cannot tell ; they must return on the
following day, and meantime the gods may divulge tf)
him the secret. He mentions hia fee, generally an
ox, as a retainer, and this must be brought when
they return next day, otherwise no revelations will

RELIGION AND MYTH

made

hi:

. the :

servaut of the gods,
and what is given to him is offered to them. The
deputation then retire, and when they go home a
trusted friend receives a hint as to whom they sus-
pect of bewitcliing the patient. This neighbour
goes at dea<:l of night, and has an interview with
the doctor, who is now in a position to act. A muster
of villagers is duly called, attendance at which is
compulsory on pain of confessed guilt. The accused
marches, in ignorance of his doom, with the caval-
cade On the way he may be casually asked,
" What does the person bewitching our brother
deserve ? " and he of course promptly replies, " He
must die."

The ritual followed at the meeting varies, but the
following is one method. All the villagera give up
their arms to the doctor's guard, and then seat them-
selves in a semicircle. The doctor sings, dances,
capei-s and mutters incantations within the circle of
expectant sitters ; then rushing up to the doomed
man cries out, " This is the wizard who bewitched
so and so, the gofls name him." He then runs in
among his armed guards, and all the people jump up,
leaving the culprit sitting alone. He must not
move, nor will any one go near him. No one Is
allowed to plead his cause even if they wished. His
friends are disarmed and cannot strike a blow for
him. The man's doom is inexorably fixed, and his
only chance of escape is the somewhat slender one
of the chief ordering an ox to be substituted and
offered as a sacrilice ; this, or a clean pair of heels, if
he can show them. On crossing the border of

>f the M

WITCHCRAiT lai

tnbal territory he is safe, there beiug no extradition
treaty for wizards.

As we move northwards we find tlie same or
even greater precautions taken agauist wit43hcrait,
but the system of jurisprudence is modified. In the
Nyassa region, for example, the office of discovering
persons who practise the illegal art falls not to the
priest, but to the prophetess, who is fi-equently the
principal wife of the chief, and one of the most for-
midable and justly dreaded persons met with in
Africa. It is to the prophetess the ancestral spiiits
make known the will of the gods. When she sees
these face to face, which always liappens at the dead
hour of night, she begins by raving and scream-
ing, which she continues till the whole village is
astir, and she herself utterly i)ro8trated by her
exertions ; she then throws herself on the ground in
a kind of trance, during which the villagers gather
round her, awe-stricken, waiting for the oracle of the
god, for she is now god-possessed. After such posses-
sion and revelations she may impose impossible tasks
on men, and these they will attempt without ques-
tion as their destiny.* She may demand human
sacrifices, and no one dare deny her victims.
Suppose she declares a victim must be ofiered to a
mountain deity — for there are gods of the valleys and
gods of the hills, deities of the river and of tlie forest
— the victim is conducted to the spot indicated and
bound hand and foot to a tree, If during the first
night he is killed by beasts of prey, the gods have
accepted the sacrifice ; If not, he is left to die of

* Rev. DuR HacdoDald.

KKUdlUN ANI> MVTI!

Btarvatioii or thrown into a pool. The slave was not
worthy the jj^o(1'h acceptance ; he is of" no further use
to any one.

It is, however, as a detective of wizards and
witches thw prophetess is in most constant demand.
When slie travels on such duty she is accompanied
hy a strong giiard ; and when she orders a meeting
of a clan or tril>e attendance is compulsory. When
all are assembled, our friend, who is chid with a
scanty loin cloth and literally covered frotn hearl to
heels with rattles and fantasies, nishes alx»ut among
the crowd in the most frantic manner. She shouts
and raves and rants like one demented. After
which, aRSuming a calm judicial manner, she goes
from one to another touching each (arson's hand.
As she touches the hand of the l)ewitcher, she starts
tmck with a loud shriek and yells, " This is him, the
murderer. Blood is in his hand."* Having discovered
the culprit, she next proceeds to pi-ove his guilt.
This she does hy " finding the horns " he used in the
prosecution of the unlawful art. These are generally
the horns of a small 8i)ecieB of antelope which are
par exct'Uence "witches' horns." She finds the
horns by going along the bank of the stream from
which the family of the bewitched person got water.
At intervals she lifts water fi-om the stream, which
she pours upon the ground, and then stoops to listen.
Spirit voices direct her to the wizard's hiding-place,
Arrived there, she Iregins to dig with a hoe she car-
ries, muttering incantations as she works, and there
Bhe finds the incriminating horns. +

Itcv. DutT Macilonal'l, t Ib^

WITCHCRAFT

Now, how does the prophetess find the horns?
B}' what devil's art does she hit upon the spot
where they are concealed ? The explanation is to
us veiy simple, but the African has not yet
discovered it, or if he lias, no one has dared
to say so. Wherever she is employed she must
spend a night at the village before she Iregins
operations. She does not retire to rest with the
other villagers, but wanders about the live-long
night listening to spirit voices. If she sees a villager
outside his door after the usual hour for retiring, she
brings that up against him next day as evidence
of guilty intention, and that, either on his own
account or the wizard's, he meant to steal away
to dig up the horns. The feai- of such consequences
keeps all persons within doora, and leaves the
prophetess free to aiTange for the tableau of the
next day. So far is the fear of witchcraft carried,
that whole villages have been known to pai-take of
the ordeal poison in order to root out evil persons.*
If a man is guilty, he dies ; if not guilty, even if
caught in the act red-handed, he recovers^ — he was in
that case not a thief, lie was bewitched to make him
steal. Such is tlie Wayao philosophy of trial by
ordeal.

Among the Bongo on the White Nile no communi-
cation can l)e had with the sj>irit world except by
means of certain i-oots which are known to the
magician8.t These are of service, not only in hold-
ing communication with the gods, but in warding
off all evil influences. Had the secret been kept, the

• Hev. Duff Macdonald. ^ Schweinfurth.

RELIGION AND MYTH

) would have been the happiest people uud
the sun, but in an evil hour some noted wizard
discovered It and made tlie world unhappy. With
this knowledge in their possession, old people may ap-
parently be lying peaceably in their beds while their
sjjirits range the forest by moonlight in search of the
magic roots.* These spirits assume animal form,
which remind us of the familiar stories of farmers
wounding hares, and hearing of old women in the
next village having broken arm or leg mysteriously,
which they set and dressed without aid of doctor ;
asaured sign that the fear of his seeing the bullet-
mark prevented their seeking his aid.

The Bongo priest who has obtained the coveted
i-oots, can only hold communication with the gods in
the approved manner by falling into a trance and
receiving their commands in dreams and visions. The
wizard, wielding equally potent spells, and restricted
by no canons of custom, can leave the visible body,
as the soul does in sleep, his only risk being the
body being stolen during the spirit's absence, enter
a hytena, and range over mountain and plain,
working evil as he goes. When a people are
exposed to such dangers, to exorcise ghosts, demons,
wood goblins, and all evil spirits and persons, must
ever be their chief religious duty. When the destiny
of a nation depends on guarding against evil in-
fluences of a spiritual nature, that people must
be regarded as deeply religious, however little their
rites may attract the attention of those who visit
them.

■ Scliweinfurth.

WITCHCRAFT

Dr. Schweinfurth, who is one of our best authori-
ties on the usages of tribes living on the upper
reaches of the Nile, says that some of them have
hardly any religion. The Niam-niam, he says, have
no religion, and use for divinity the woixl for
lightning/ It is curious so observant a traveller
should have been so far misled as to what constitutes
religious observances. We are familiar in Zululand,
Nyassa region, and in Uganda with the use of the
term for lightning — in each case a different woi-d — ■
for heaven, thunder, or the god, and these jjeoples
are among the most religious communities in Africa.
When a man cannot knock his foot against a tree
stump without attaching to it a supernatural sig-
nificancet that man is I'ellgious whether he has a
separate word for his god or not. The statement
seems all the more inexplicable when we find the
doctor himself saying that the sanieNlam-niam, who
have no i-eligion, "have a word for prayer"; that
they practise augury, and believe in goblins, ghosts,
and witches, the latter of which are treated by them
as they have always been by persons with properly
constituted minds — that is, by getting rid of them in
the manner most approved for the extermination of
the pestilent race. If the Niam-niam have no i-eli-
gion, to whom do they pray ? Whence came their
goblins ? How do their witches attain their power
except by spirit agency ? These are questions which
must be satisfactorily disposed of before we can
accept a general statement that a people have

ijf. RELIGION AND MYTH

been iijuiii] who have no religion — that is, no faith la
rej^ard to sujiernatural powers or aj^euts.

If the Nile tribes conduct their witch pi-osecutiona,
and i-elij^ious sei-vices generally, in so perfunctory a
manner as to attract the attention of travellers hqt
slightly, their deficiency is more tlian made up by the
Bullora tribes of the West (Joast. When they drink
lieer they pour out a feAv drops as a religious act ;
when they eat, particles of food are allowed to
fall on the ground for the same jiurpose.* They
can neither walk nor sit, sow nor reap, hunt nor
fish, without ])erfonning acts of devotion and duti-
ful obedience to the gods. They move amoug
divinities, and these may be disturbed by loud
laughter, by improper movements, or by words which
can Imply disparagement of the gods or their works.
Each day has Its own religious duties, but it IB
in the " witch i)alaver " their true devotion and
fidelity to the will of the gods is seen to beat
advantage.

Their three great palavera are, " sauce palaver,"
" woman palaver," and " witch palaver." + In
the first, which refei'S to all ordinary otlences, the
case is conducted according to the ordinary rules
of evidence, either by witnesses or the ordeal. The
accused is held as guilty, and he must pnive his
innocence. If he have witnesses, good ; if not, then
the poison bowl. The same remarks apply to
"woman palaver," only that in this case the accused
must submit to the oi-deal. What that ordeal is we

• Walker. t WinUrbotham.

WITCHCRAFT

shall see in another coimectioii ; our present liusiness
is with the " witch palaver." In this case the
accused can prove his innocence by 'no other means
than the oi-deal. When the ott'ence was committed
he may have heeu on a journey, at sea, asleep, sick
and unable to move, on the war path ; in any con-
dition or ch'cumstances. None of these things can
be admitted in evidence nor in mitigation of sentence.
Persons who have the powei' of transforming them-
selves into animals or insects, feigning sleep, or even
death, so perfectly as to deceive the very elect — that
is to say, the authoritative i-eligious guides of the
community — are not to be trifled with. So it is,
when a suspect is on trial foi' specific acts of witch-
craft, a red hot-h'on is applied to his skin, partly to
jog his memory, but principally that the brand may
be examined to determine how much skin adheres
to the hot metal, whether the wound bleeds, and
how its edges " cm-l."* To each of these signs great
importance is attached in determining presumption
of guilt. This ordeal may be final and satisfactory,
but the probabilities are against it. The show is
too good to be over so soon, and the red-hot poker
is succeeded by a jar of oil, which is placed on the
fii'e till it boils. Into this boiling oil a stone, made
red hot In the fii-e, is now dropped and the culprit
directed to fish it out with his naked hand.t
According to the condition of the hand after the
ordeal is the presumption of guilt or innocence. If

128 RELIGION AND MYTH

these means do not conclusively prove the case, he
must drink " red water." * This is a decoction which
is prepai'ed by the priest in public from poisonous
substances. After the preparation is made the priest
washes his hands, as well as the mortar and pestle
used, as a ceremonial act. The accused for a similar
reason must rinse his mouth with clean water. He
is then given a quantity of boiled rice which he must
eat ; after it he drinks the poison. If the red water
acts as an emetic, and that vomiting continues till
he brings up particles of rice, he is innocent and
escapes ; the red water ran away from him. When
it does not act as an emetic, even if the man does not
die from the effects of the poison, he is guilty ; the
red water clung to him. Sometimes the drug causes
purging. In this case the culprit has " spoiled the
red water " ; the augury is doubtfiil, and to remove
all difficulties he is sold — out of the territory, it is
needless to say.

This latter form of ordeal is common in cases of
supposed adultery among many tribes of the West
Coast, as well as throughout the whole of the Lake
region of Central Africa, and is specially worthy of
note because of its close resemblance to, if not
identity with, the practice of trial by ordeal for the
same offence among the Jews : " If a man's wife go
aside, and commit a trespass against him, and a man
lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes
of her husband, and be kept close .... And the
spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous
of his wife, and she be defiled ; or, if the spirit of

• Winterbotham.

WITCHCRAFT 129

jealousy come upon him, aud he be jealous of his
wife, and she be not defiled, then shall the man bring
hia wife unto the priest .... And the priest shall
take holy water in an earthen vessel ; . . . . And
the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water
that causeth the curse .... And the priest shall
write three curses in a book, and he shall blot them
out with the bitter water, and he shall cause the
woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the
curse. . . . And when he hath made her to drink the
water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled,
and have done trespass against her husband, that
the water that causeth the curse shall enter into Iier
and become bitter, and tier belly shall swell, and her
thigh shall rot, and the woman shall be a cm-se
among her people. And if the woman be not defiled
but be clean, then she shall be free."* The connec-
tion between this enactment in the Mosaic legisla-
tion and the practice among primitive men, it is not
my province to trace in the present essay, but the
resemblance is so striking that the inference seems
plain enough.

Turning to the history of witchcraft among
civilised peoples, we have in it perhaps the best
illustration of the persistency in popular imagina-
tion of the belief in the supreme power of evil
spirits, and in man's power to influence the course of
nature by necromancy and magic. It would be easy
to cite examples from every coimtry in Europe to
show how the same I>elief in the power of evil,
personified in wizards and witches, influenced the

I30 RELIGION AND MYTH

whole domestic and social life of the people. In Jut-
land a rowan growing out of the top of another tree
is exceedingly efficacious against witchcraft.* This
tree has the same virtue in Scotland, and I knew a
worthy farmer's wife, who died only a few years ago,
and who annually, in early summer, had a St.
Andrew's cross made of rowan twigs, which she
placed in the cowhouse as a talisman against the
ai*ts of witches. German farmers use the mistletoe
for a similar purpose. In the island of Rum it was
believed that if one of the family of Lachlin — a local
family of note — shot a deer on the mountain of
Finchra, he would either die on the spot or contract
a distemper from which he could not recover, t
This may belong to the class of totems rather than
to witchcraft. Traces of clan totems are frequently
met with in the north and west of Scotland.

Confining ourselves to this country, we have ample
evidence, in the witch and fairy cult still current,
of the ancient belief in man's power to influence
nature and the lives of his fellow-men. And not the
least curious thing is, that the persons accused of
witchcraft oft^en 6kfl$aied to possess the power
ascribed to them, though this meant an alternative
between faggots and a deep pool. Among savage
men, on the contrary, denial is all but universal
when one is ^tecused of having communication with
evil spirits, or exercising the art of witchcraft.
Among Scottish witches and fairy folk we get
glimpses of persons of different grades, some of them
holding high office and directing the affairs of the

* Kmmp. t Martin.

WITCHCRAFT

peculiar community to which they belong. Thus, in
the confessions of Isabella Gowdie, indicted for witch-
craft at Nairn in 1662, we have a King and Queen of
Fairyland. " I was," said Isabella when in the
dock, " in Dowuie hill, and got meat from the Queen
of the Fau'iea, and more that I could eat. The queen
is brawly clothed in white linen and in white and
brown cloth ; and the king is a braw man, well-
favoured and broad-faced. There were plenty of
elf bulls, rowtiug and skoyling up and down, and
afeighted me."* Mr. Kirk, from whom I quote,
adds, that on the authority of local tradition, fairy-
land is well supplied with musical instruments and
lx)oks of history, travel, plays, novels, biography,
but no Bibles — the lack of the latter owing to the
fairy folk being in league with the devil, from whom
they receive their government and power.

Before our familial- fairy cult was evolved, the evil
spirits of primitive man had crystallised into a
personal devil, supreme and all-powerful, with
numerous attendant angels or messengers, and it is
curious to note that something very nearly akin to
this is met with in Ashantee, where the king has a
thousand " Kra," orsouls-l The Kva are the king's
spies, a kind of secret service guild, and are called the
king's souls, because when he dies they are all put
to death that they may attend upon him In the land
of shades. To strike, or even touch a Kra, is not
only a deadly insult, but a serious capital crime. It is
doing it to the king himself ; and it is quite consistent
with savage thought to regard a powerful king and his

• Kirk. t Kiilitie and Ramejei

132 RELIGION AND MYTH

Kra as still actively engaged in connection with the
world's affairs long after they have quitted the upper
air. He is chief dictator, and each of his souls do
his behests in the affairs of men. This is the
common doctrine of witchcraft as that lives in
popular imagination. The black art is something
carried on under the direction of a supreme evil
spirit, who is assisted by a countless host of minor
devils or angels ; that is to say, messengers, Kxa, or
souls. This doctrine must have been developed
when man reached the conception of a supreme
spirit of good, opposed by a supreme spirit of
evil. But in tracing the growth of the idea /)f
one supreme spirit of good, or god, we are met by
greater difficulties than in tracing the doctrine of
devils, for the latter took shape and colour from the
former. When man found a supreme spirit among
the gods, he had to account for the fact that he did
not, or could not, at all times order events for the good
of man. Evil still persisted ; so he concluded there
must be a supreme and personal devil, who com-
manded such agencies in the unseen world as were
at the disposal of the good god himself

The difficulty of tracing the growth of the idea of
a supreme god arises from the impossibility of deter-
mining with certainty what was originally a local
or tribal deity, and what a spirit regarded
generally as supreme. We have seen that the Zulu
term Mlungu, and its equivalents may mean, great
ancestor, lightning, the powers of nature generally^
or god, and we have at least one instance which
seems to show how such ideas as that of Mlimgu first

WITCHCRAFT 133

take hold of the popular imagination, and become
almost universal myth, for myth it is when all has
Ijeen said, but myth which describes a sober fact of
human faith and the progress of thought. The Rev,
Duff Macdonald, a careful obsei-ver, who lived several
years in Central Africa, says of the Wayao, that
they not only worship their own ancestors, as is
common to most Afi'icans, but also invoke by prayer
and sacrifice the gods of the country who were
worehipped by the people they expelled. The older
inhabitants were compelled to retire before the
advance of the Wayao, but their great god Kan-
gomba remained, undisturbed on Mount Socki, nor
\tould he be displaced by the newer divinities
1.11' the arts of magic* So it is that the present
chief, Kapeni, when making annual supplication and
sacritice, asks some noted Wanyasa priest to
come to his assistance. The Wanyasa are related
to the people whose god Kangomba originally was,
and their presence is acceptable to him. Such a god
as this, though originally a local tribal deity^ — ^some
I'einote ancestor of a chief — graduallv gathers more
tlian a local reputation. The Wanyasa priests
officiating at his annual festivals will carry his fame
to their own people, and bring the Wanyasa tribe,
through association with the Wayao at his festivals,
to worship him in times of stress and trial at
their own homes. If he giiints their prayer his
reputation will speedily spread as both powerful and
good. Besides, every Afiican who returns from a
journey exaggerates all his experiences, and adorns

• Rov. DiifT Mmdonald.

134 REUfilON AND MYTH

his narratives witli gorgeous imagery. In this way
Kangomba will lose nothing of his glory and power
by distance. He will be spoken of in every Wanyasa
village as great beyond all local deities, and may,
in a few generations, occupy a place second only to
Mluugu himself.

Such probably was the origin of Mlungu when
first men worshipped him, and if so, it furnishes us
with the key we have been striving to find as to how-
primitive men amved at tlie idea of a supreme god,
and from that deduced the doctrine of a supreme
devil, on which he hangs all the traditions he has
regai-ding witchcraft and kindred evils. It will also
help us to understand nnich with which we have
long been familiar, though we may not have under-
stood the relation af facts to one another. Such
conceptions of deity and of evil are consistent with
the acknowledgment of Nebuchadnezzar, that the
God of Daniel was supreme among the gods — greater
than thfise of the mighty empire itself.

We have now arrived at an advanced period of
the world's progi-ess in thought. If the theoiy
suggested is correct, the African, starting with the
crude idea that men could influence tlie course of
nature, and that the power to do so was vested in
liisking, who wasgod — tlie iiersonificsition ofnatui-e
herself — advanced a long way when he conceive<l
his chief, whose body he had buried or burned, still
living and taking an active Interest In the world's
affairs. As thought progi-essed and man began to
differentiate more accurately, he reached the doctrine
of all human souls living in a land of spirits, thus

WITCHCRAFT 135

making his way towards the conception of
iinmoi-tality, and that instead of the world's forces
being I'egnlated by caprice, thei-e were good and evil
spirits at work. To secure success to the good, good
men sought for means of thwarting the evil. The evil,
on the other hand, not to be baulked of their object,
soiight out agents on whom they confen'ed super-
natiu'al powers. This war of good and evil could
not long continue before certain of the good spirits,
or evil, attained to a place of supreme power. In
tracing the history of witchcraft and the methods
adopted to eradicate its votaries, we find hownaturally
man came to believe in persons possessing super-
natui-al [Ktwers for evil. We have also seen, casually,
the growth and development of another order,
magicians and prophets; but before endeavouring to
trace the history of prophecy among primitive
peoples, it may be best to consider some of their
festivals, as those of first-fi-uits and harvest, where
magicians or prophets are seen to best advantage In
the exercise of their functioiLS ; after which we can
the better undei-stand the development of the order
and the importance attached to the office.

CHAPTER VIII

HARVEST FESTIVALS

The festivals and ceremonial acts of any people
give a clue to the original form of their institu-
tions, and when these can be compared with what
still exists, in its original form, among untutored
nations, it affords evidence which is of the first im-
portance in tracing the development of religion and
the growth of civilisation.

The Yam festivals, as observed in Ashantee, were
referred to in considering substitutionary sacrifice,
and we saw how closely bound up with the religious
life of the people are all the facts relating to the
ripening of crops and the gathering in of the harvest.
Nor is this peculiar to Ashantee. Everywhere the
feasts of first-fruits ai-e intimately associated with
the religious observances of the people and the
homage which they render to the gods. Among
savages this homage is to the powers of nature,
whose efforts are crowned with success when the
creative and reproductive spirit of vegetation yields
its increase to man. When a Pondo chief is to hold
the feast of first-fruits, some of his people procure
a ripe plant of the gourd family, pumpkin or cala-
bash, from another tribe. This is cooked ; the
inside cleaned out, and the rind made ready for use

HARVEST FESTIVALS

as a vessel. It is then presented to the chief with
much ceremony.* The first-fiTiits are now brought
forward, and a saci-ifice, generally a young bull, is
offered, after which the feast commences. The
chief issues certain onlers for the conduct of the pro-
ceedings, tastes the fruits which are served in the
gourd dish with which he has been presented, and then
abdicates all his functions while the festival lasts.

The cattle from all the ueighboui-ing viUages are
collected in the vicinity, and now they are brought
together, and the bulls incited to fight to determine
which is to be king among them for the nest year.
The young people engage in games and dances, feats
of strength and running. After these are over the
whole community give themselves over to disorder,
debauchery', and riot. In their bull-fights and games
tiiey but did honour to the powers of nature, and
now, as they eat and drink, the same powers are
honoured in another form and by other rites. There
is no one in authority to keep order, and every man
does what seems good in his own eyes. Should a
man stab his nelghlx)ur he escapes all punishment,
audso too with all other crimes against the pei-son,
pi-operty, and morality. People are even permitted to
abuse the chief to his face, an offence which at any
other time would meet with suminary vengeance
and an unceremonious dispatch to join the ancestors.
While the feast contiimes a deafening noise is kept
up by drumming, shouting, hand-clapping, and eveiy
kind of Instrument that can be made to emit sound.
Men advance to the chief and explain their origin,

RELIGION AND MYTH

and also tlie object they Iiold sacred, b}' imitating
the sounds and movements of tbeir most sacred
animal. This is the person's totem. Others imitate
the gurgling; made by an enemy when stabbed in
the throat. Those who adopt this latter emblem are
known as "children of the spear."

When the ceremonies, revels, and mummeries are
ended, the chief repairs to his accustomed place, and
sitting down there, by that act resumes his kingly
functions. He calls the biuvest of his braves before
him, who is immediately clothed and decomted with
skins of animals suggestive of courage and strategy.
He perfonns a dance amid the frenzied shouting of
the multitude, after which the chief declares the
festival at an end and harvest commenced.*

The facts desei-ving of special notice here are the
sacrifice, the fighting of the bulls, and the honour
done to the reproductive powers of nature. These,
and the alxlication of the chief, would lead to the
inference that the festival is a true survival of what,
in earlier times and under a ruder system, existed
when a temporary king was appointed and killed as
a sacrifice, the incarnate god himself being slain that
nature might revive in spring. Whether from such
facts men came at last to infer a resurrection of
the IxkIv, it is impossible to determine. The Pondoa
are not singular in their observance of harvest
customs. The Hos of North-east India have a

notion that at this period men and «'omen are
so overcharged with vicious propensities that it is
absolutely necessary to let off steam bj' ailowing

HARVEST FK.STIVALS

for a time full vent to their passions.* For the time
they give themselves up to feasting, drinking, and
debauchery. The men lose all respect for tlie women
and for themselves, and the women all notions of
modesty. Usually the Hos are a quiet, reserved,
and well-hehaved moral people, but at the harvest
festival all th is is reversed, and theii' nature seems to
undergo a complete change. The curious thing is,
that when all is over they settle down into their old
steady, sober habits as if nothing had happened.

But what is most peculiar about harvest festivals
and feasts of first-fruits is, their close resemblance to
one another among all peoples the world over, and
bow near those of civilised man are to the savage ;
differing not in kind, but only in the manner of con-
ducting them ; thus showing to us, that they are
among the most ancient and primitive of man's ritual
and customs. For example. The Peruvians believe
that all useful plants are animated by a divine
being, that is spirit, who causes their growth. +
These divine beings are named after the particular
plant, as the Maize mother, the Rice mother, or the
Potato mother. Figures of these mothers made from
the stalks of the respective plants, and dressed in
women's clothes, are worshipped. As the mother,
these figures had power of giving birth to or pro-
ducing much rice, maize, or potatoes, as the case
might be,| and in this acted according as they were
treated. The Peruvian mother of the Maize was
kept a whole year, and burned at the time of harvest :

tjnoted by J. G. Fraier.
J Man nh aril t.

140 KELIGION AND MYTH

when a fi:*esh one took her place. During the
festival, eating drinking and general rejoicing goes
on. In Ashantee all laws are abrogated for one
day at the Yam festival, and for the time every man
does whatever he pleases. One custom observed is
to bring out, to be placed before the fetish house,
the skulls of noted enemies killed in war, and it is
said the skull of an English baronet did duty for
many years — in fact, was still in existence, kept in a
brass basin, when the late king's power was over-
thrown by the English. The people during the day
of liberty give themselves up to dancing and revelry.
Executioners caper about, ornamented with necklets
made from the jaws of victims they slew as offer-
ings or king's "messengers" to the nether world,
and with girdles of skulls. Before eating the new
yams the king bathes in fetish water as a ceremonial
act ; when all is over he resumes his authority as
we saw done by the chief of Pondoland.

These customs, of which examples might be
multiplied from every region of Africa and the
heathen world generally, differ in no essential
feature, and are singularly like the survivals we have
in Europe. In Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the last
sheaf cut, or " maiden," is carried home in merry pro-
cession by the harvesters. It is then presented to
the mistress of the house, who dresses it up to be
preserved till the first mare foals. The maiden is
then taken down and presented to the mare as its
first food.* The neglect of this would have untoward
effects upon the foal, and disastrous consequences

* M)8s J. i^igertwood, MS. notes.

HARVEST FES'I'IVALS

upon fami operations generally for the season. In
(Caithness the person who cuts the last sheaf is
called " winter," and so remains till next hai-vest.
The sheaf itself is carefully preserved till it is dis-
placed by another the following year. The Celts of
the west country attached great importance to
cutting the last sheaf. All the harvesters stood
round in a circle while the youngest girl among the
I'eapers cut a few straws left standing at the corner
<>f the field for that purpose. This sheaf was
ultimately used, as I have been assured by old
people, for making Briid's bed, which was as fol-
lows : — On Candlemas day the mistress and servants
of each family take a sheaf of oats, and dress it
up in women's apparel. They put it in a large
basket, and beside it a club of wood. They then
cry three times in chorus, " Britd is come, Briid is
welcome," This is done just before they retire to
i-est, and in the morning they examine the ashes ;
expecting to find among them the mark of Briid's
club. If they do, it is an indication of a prosperous
year and good crops ; if not, the opposite.*

In the district of Lochaber, where dancing and
merry-making on the last night of harvest used to be
universal, and is still generally observed, the cere-
monies without the " maiden " would be like a
wedding without the bride. The maiden Is ean*ied
home with tumultuous rejoicing, and after being
suitably decorated is hung up in the barn, where
the dancing usually takes place. After supper,
which is served in the barn ball-room, and before

142 RELIGION AND MYTH

dancing begins, one of the company, generally the
oldest man present, fills himself a glass of whisky,
which he drinks, after he has turned his face to the
suspended sheaf and said : " Here's to the maiden."
The company follow his example, each in turn drink-
ing to the " maiden." This I have seen done more
than once. Shall I add that I have myself done it ?
Very similar to this is the custom observed in
the neighbourhood of Dantiz, as recorded by Frazer,
who follows Mannhardt. He says : " When the
winter corn is cut and mostly bound up in sheaves,
the portion which still remains to be bound is divided
amongst the women binders, each of whom receives
a swath of equal length to bind. A crowd of
reapers, children, and idlers gathers round to witness
the contest, and at the word ' Seize the old man,'
the women fall to work, all binding their allotted
swaths as hard as they can. The spectators watch
them narrowly, and the woman who cannot keep
pace with the rest, and consequently binds the last
sheaf, has to carry the ' old man ' (the last sheaf)
to the farm-house and deliver it to the farmer with
the words : * Here I bring you the old man.' At
the supper which follows the ' old man ' is placed
at the table and receives an abundant portion of
food, which, as he cannot eat it, falls to the share of
the woman who carried him. Afterwards the ' old
man ' is placed in the yard, and all the people dance
round him. Further, the woman who bound the
last sheaf goes herself by the name of the ' old man '
till the next harvest ; and is often mocked with the
cry, ' Here comes the old man.'''

HARVEST FESTIVALS

In Bavaria each reaper, as they are about to finisli,
has a patch to cut. They reap as fast as they can,
and he who has to cut the last few handfuis " drives
out the old man." Near Stettiu the woman who
binds the last sheaf has " the old man," and bears
the nickname for a vear. Formerly she was herself
dressed ujt in pease-straw and carried home, when
the harvestei-s danced with her till the straw fell
off.

These examples illustrate the contests in reajiing
and binding, as well as the subsequent treatment of
the sheaf and the pei-son cutting it ; and when it is
remembei'ed that the person who is last at reaping
represents the corn spirit, the idea is fully expressed
by diessing him in corn straw. That it is the corn
spirit that is repi-esented is clearly seen from the
customs of parts of Germany, where a man and
woman, called the "oats' wife" and the "oats'
man " dance at the harvest festival, after which the
corn stalks are plucked from their bodies till not a
particle is left. In these cases the idea is that the
corn spirit — the "old man " — the woman, or maiden,
is the last sheaf, and that the spirit lives in the
barn during the winter. At sowing cime it goes out
to the tields again to resume its functions And, as
we saw, in the giving of the maiden to the first mare
that foals, in Abeitleenshire, and as is done in parts
of the West Highlands, where it is distributed
among the cows at Christmas, these functions
include reproduction among cattle as well as growth
of corn.

This points to our harvest customs as being a

r44 RELIGION AND MYTH

survival from primitive times, and that in one form
or another they have passed down from generation
to generation, adapting themselves to all conditions
of life and of faith. They carry us back to the wild
revelry that surrounded the man-god when he gave
his people the gifts of harvest. They still have an
ech(i — faint it may be but real — of the days when the
chief abdicated for a time that he and his i)eople
might do homage to the corn spii'it, and to other
darker rites when a victim was slain as the personi-
fication of that spirit, to ensure a resurrection in
spring. Kven in Christian times, and liefore our
forefathers had freed themselves from the lingering
customs of paganism, they preserved the maiden as
an act of faith and religious duty. What is now
a pleasant ending to the labours of the season was
formerly a serious fact, a rite which, if omitted,
might entail the entire subversion of the order of
natui-e for the season. Formerly the god was
jn-esent among men, and could give or withhold
blessings, and on that account hie rites could not be
neglected with impunity. Man has travelled far in
his conceptions of divinity since then, but the facts
of the present connect the life and knowledge of
modern times with along-forgotten past, which carries
us back to the youth of the world, when man first
began to make his way, by slow and painful steps,
to an understanding of the facts of the universe
around him, and the supernatural which he felt must
exist somewhere. The significance of his acts has
changed, and the ideas which are associated with
them have no resemblance to what an earlier people

HARVEST FESTIVALS 145

conceived, but the acts remain. They are the same
substantially the world over. It is impossible they
could have been so universally borrowed, and the
only conclusion is, that they existed from earliest
times.

CHAPTER IX

Thb office of magician is to primitive man what that
of prophet is to a more advanced people. He is the
teacher of the ignorant ; he delivers to men the
oracles of the gods ; he foretells events, and exjjlaina
what is mysterious. The term magician, as that is
ordinaiily understood, does not cover the idea savage
man has regarding his religious teachers. His con-
ception is that of one possessed of supei-natural know-
ledge, wisdom, and power ; power which he has in
virtue of his office, and which he can exercise in the
discharge of it. He is in reality what the prophets
of Israel were to the Jews ; so I adopt the terms pro-
phet and prophecy i-ather than magician and magic.

Under witchcraft frequent reference was made to
magicians and recognised diviners. These magicians,
or prophets as we shall call them, are among primitive
men a distinct class, who, dating their origin from
the very Iieginniugs of society, developed into guilds
or colleges with the growth of thought and early
human institutions. As man's conceptions of deity
and the physical facts around him expanded, the
necessity of special insight into the spiritual sphere
was felt. The king was no longer the only god ; he
had ceased to be god at all ; his father, and the-

PBOPHECY 147

fathers of countless thousands, passed in long array
before the worshipper's imagination as objects of
worship ; true divinities, whom he was boimd to
honour and obey on pain of dire physical calamity.
But while under the necessity of doing homage to
departed ancestors, he knew nothing of their condi-
tion, could hold no converse with them, nor ascertain
their wants and wishes. The more he longed for a
glimpse beyond the portals of this mortal life, the
denser the darkness closed around him. The king,
content with temporal power and a more secure
tenure of oiSce than in former days, left such matters
to those who might find it more easy to quit the
upper air, should the gods call. In any case, it
was more convenient for him that they should enter
the home of the gods, than that he himself should
be compelled to change substantial and tangible
honours, even if necessarily temporary, for those
shadowy if permanent glories of which he knew
little and understood less.

The cireumstances demanded men of boldness of
conception and clearness of vision. The necessities
of the case were urgent, and could not be met by
half measures or halting compromises. Men must
know something of the unseen, and if their just
aspirations were to be met, a new departure was the
only alternative to the collapse of all institutions and
the overthrow of the physical universe. This being
the condition of society in those far-away times of
transition, there is no doubt but the earlier prophets
were simply men who could see farther than
their fellows, and who, piecing together the meagre

RELIGION AND MYTH

Iiliilosophies of the past, Ixildly struck out a new
system, and appealtjd to men as the interpreters of
all that was eKsential and permanent in the [mat.
The temporary and passing they abolished, as they
understood it, while they retained what was truth
and permanent. At first their efforts would be
wholly devoted to giving an explanation of the facts
of life and natural phenomena as these from time to
time presented themselves. An attempt would be
made to reconcile man's original conception of deity
and providence with the changed conditions and
more advanced thought. For a time this would be
sufficient, and the religious teachers would flatter
themselves, as lias so often been done in the history
of the church, that they had arrived at a complete
and final solution of all questions regarding both
gods and men. But this could not be. Fiesh compli-
cations would arise, and each, as it pressed on men's
minds, necessitated fresh explanations. The succes-
sive oracles needed to be consistent with i'act and with
one another, which, as they accumulated, they were
not. The prophets themselves needed to be inter-
preted as well as the facts they sought to explain.

Besides, new claimants would arise, outbidding the
old for popular favour and official recognition. The
office, at fiist liereditary, or at least confined to a
close guild or college, would become vulgarised as
dishonest or ignorant men found their way into
office. Apai-t from this, daring and speculative
spirits among the community would not be per-
manently silenced. Sooner or later tlieir conclusions
would reacli the multitude, and the new thoughts,

PROPHECY 149

stniggling for recognition, would compel the pro-
phets to adjust their system to tliat which men had
discovered independently of their order. Should
the oracles delivered by two pereons claiming the
prophetic gift differ, the bolder or leas scrupidous of
the two would natiirally asseit that he had held
communication with the gods, and that his oracle
must be accepted as final. But this would establish
a dangerous precedent, and the next time a difficulty
arose his rival would be prepared with a revelation
at the initial stage. Here we have two elements
which would of necessity lead to a vast extension of
the order in point of numbers, and a great widening
of the scope of prophecy itself, tending to convert
what began as a philosophy into an occult art.
This in process of time would lead to a subdivision
of function ; one would become the prophet or doctor
of war ; another of rain ; a third of witchcraft : a
fourth of lightning. The multiplication of offices
and prophets to fill them would be regulated by
man's necessities on the one hand, and his ability to
support such an army of ghostly co\mcillors on the
other; these being periodically thinned out, when,
as in the case of the King of Babylon's vision, it was
made abundantly plain that the whole college was a
huge imposition and fraud.

If this is a correct or even probable explanation of
the origin and development of the office, it would be
natural to infer a steady and sustained deterioration
or degra<lation of the order both in character and
influence. And this is what we do find. For while
among those tribes &rthest removed from civilisation

I50 RELIGION AND MYTH

the prophet is sacred, and his every word received
as the oracle of heaven, among those who have
advanced in their philosophy a chief has been known
to sacrifice his whole college in one holocaust. The
King of Moreo, referred to in an earlier chapter, is a
case in point. Nebuchadnezzar would have been
another but for the timely intervention of Daniel ;
while we have recent examples in Zululand and in
the country pf Moselekatse of the same thing.

Nor is the explanation offered inconsistent with
the history of the Jewish prophetic order as given in
the sacred books of the Hebrews themselves. The
older prophets are giants, men both before apd above
their time, and who left the impress of their own
character on the life and institutions of their country.
The later prophets, like the later judges, mark a fatal
deterioration. Whole schools of them fell from their
own standard of office, and sought to bear the name of
prophet when everything but the name had perished.
Those the sacred writers describe uniformly as " false
prophets." They were men who sought office not be-
cause they had a message for men, but because they
could calculate on the ignorance and credulity of the
people for gain. To such prophets it is said : " Will
ye pollute Me among My people for handfuls of barley
and pieces of bread ? " * Not content with such
imposition as false prophecy, as understood in their
own day, they fell back on older superstitions, and
appealed to lingering beliefs which had long passed
away. They revived the primitive doctrines regard-
ing human souls and the power of divine or sacred

* Bsek. ziiL 19.

PROPHECY 151

pei-sons over these ; Ibi- it is matle clear that, like
their ancestors m the primeval jungle, they professed
to catch and retain souls. " Woe to the women that
sew pillows to all aiinholes, and make kerchiefs upon
the head of every stature to hunt souls. Will ye hunt
the souls of My people, and will ye save the souls alive
that come unto you ? " * Compare this with the
following account of a common custom in the South
Seas ; " Two young wizards were passing a house
where a chief lay very sick ; they saw a company
of gods from the mountains sitting In the doorway.
They were handing from one to another the soul of
the dying chief. It was wTapped in a leaf, and had
been passed from the gods inside the house to those
at the doorway. One of the gods handed tlie soul
to one of the wizai'ds, taking him for a god in the
dark, for it was night. Then all the gods rose up
and went away ; but the wizard kept the chiefs
soul. In the morning some women went with a
present of very tine mats to fetch a famous phy-
sician. The wizards were sitting on the shore as
the women passed, and they said to the women ;
' Give us the mats, and we will heal him.' So they
went to the chief's house. He was very ill; his jaw
hung down and his end seemed very near. B\it the
wizards undid the leaf, and let the soul into him
again, and forthwith he brightened up again and
lived." +

The false Hebrew prophets thus carry us back to
a practice which existed in early days — for wizards
could steal as well as restore — when souls were

* Kiek. xiii. t J. G. Krnier, quoting G. Turner : •'iajnoa.

152 EELiaiON AND MYTH

hunted and caught ; a clear proof that the office had
fallen so low that its orig^inal conception was lost or
forgotten. Of this we shall see farther illustration
when considering the duties of prophets among
primitive men, and how these were performed
at various stages of culture during the world's
progress.

Every prophet claims to hold convei'se with the
world of spirits, and to act In discharge of his sacred
functions only in obedience to the will of the gods.
Does he carry the soul of a sick person back to
the invalid's bedside ? ' It is because the gods
reveal to him that the sick is to recover. Does
he offer sacrifice tor rain ? He does it to appease
the wrath of the offended ancestoi-s, or Itecause
they are hungry and are crying out for food.t
When he, by his arts, secures places and persons
against the thunderbolt, after lieing stnick by
lightning, he assuages the anger of the gods, who
have visited their children with affliction because of
some neglect of filial duty. Should the prophet be
called upon to discover a witch or wizard, he "smells
them out " ; but it is the gods who reveal to him who
they are, a knowledge which they deny to all others.

The subject of prophecy and magic is too wide for
fall discussion in a single chapter, and can lie l>eat
illustrated by selecting one or two particulars, as the
treatment of the sick and the methods adopted to
detect crime. We have already seen the methods
by which wizards are detected when considering
the subject of witchcraft. Other criminals are

PROPHECY 153

discovered by means of a magic horn.* This may be
the horn of a domestic sheep or that of an antelope,
and the pi-ophet, by looking into it and examining
its contents, can discover a thief or murderer. By
the same means he is supposed to know the where-
abouts of the stolen property, if not removed beyond
the tribal boundaries — a necessary qualification in
this branch of the profession. Readers of Highland
traditions will recognise in this the well-known
" second sight " of Celtic legend. Those possessing
this gift could foretell events, especially deaths and
calamity, and in doing so usetl the shoidder-blade of a
sheep, through which they looked, and saw the future
in panorama before them. I once met, at Pailile,
North Uist, a man who was said to "see things."
The old man, who derived his living, partly at
least, from propitiatory gifts, had quite a reputation
for prophecy, and if he suggested to any one by a
dark hint that he had seen a shroud, that family
was plungetl into giief, knowing that he referred to
one of their number, though no name was mentioned.
The prophet, among savage men, explains the
cause of drought and floods, and must devise a
remedy for these visitations. Among the Zulu
tribes, if the spring rains are late, a black ox is sent
to the doctor, who being warned of the approaching
visit, sits in his hut covered with a thick layer of
mud. If there are no indications of rain, he may
direct them to come after the lapse of a few days ;
but if things are propitious, he at once orders a
nmster of the tribe. There is much feasting and
dancing, mystic ceremonies are performed, sacrifices

RELIGION AND MYTH

are offered, and then the pixjphet aonounces that
l>efore a giveu day rain will fall. Should the predic-
tion prove correct, well ; if not, the pi-ophet must
account for his failure. This he does by charging
some one high in authority, as the chief's principal
wife, with working against him, and raising a dry
wind which drives the clouds away. This she does
by exposing her posterior to the skies.

In time of war the pi'ophet has to perform rites to
ensure victory. Among the Waganda, when the
case is urgent, a child is flayed and placed on the
path, and the warriors made to step over it,* or a
child and a fowl are placed on a grating over a pot
with water in it. Another pot, inverted, is used as
a cover, and a fire kindled to heat the water. Aiter
a given time the contents are examined, and if found
dead the war must be delayed as the omen is against
the expedition.^

But the prophet's services are not confined to the
living ; they extend to the dead. In Akra when
a young person dies the body is placed on a
bier. This is raised on two men's heads, and carried
to a place indicated by the prophet, who accora-
panies the procession, Arrived at the spot, he takes
his stand in front of the corpse. He holds in his
liand a magic reed, which he shakes over the body,
and at the same time asks the queMion, " Was your
death caused by age and infirmities ? " If this is
answered in the affirmative by the body impelling
the bearers forward, no more is said, and the funeral
pixjceeds ; if not, the prophet continues : " Was it
caused by your bad actions ! " Corpse answers
• Spoke. \ Ibid.

PEOPHECY 155

"No" by remaining perfectly still. "By whose
witch was it caused, so and so, or so and so ? "
naming the head men of the district.* When the
right name is mentioned the dead impels the bearers
forward. It is the duty of the head man indicated,
or rather his magicians, to discover the culprit by
the approved methods.

The dangers to the dead are not over when the
soul has left the body, and the Angoui prophet must
see to it that the devil, to use a Highland plirase, is
cheated of his own. DIrl evil spirits know a man's
grave in that unhappy laud, they would undoubtedly
steal his soul to be educated in their own evil
college. So every precaution must be taken for the
repose of the departed. Till burial the soul of an
Angoni hovers near the body, seeking an opportunity
to re-enter its former abode. A soul does not at
first know death. To it death is sleep. " Death
and sleep," said a Kaffir once to me, " are one woi-d,"
This being tlie case, a lay figure is made before the
funeral. At the hour announced this figure is carried
out, followed by a great concourse of people, who
weep and wail, mourning for the dead. As soon as
the cortege leaves the house drums are beat, liorns
blown, and guns fired to drive away evil spirits.
These, kept back by the noise, hover about the out-
skirts of the crowd, lured on by the signs of mourn-
ing, till the grave is reached. There the figure is
bm-ied with all the respect and honour due to the
departed, and as the crowd disperse the devils swoop
down upon the grave to snatch away the soul, but
only to find they have been outwitted and betrayed.

* Wiuterbotham.

156 KELIGION AND MYTH

Meantime the corpse has been quietly and expe-
ditiously buried without beat of drum or sound of
horn.* By using such precautions the prophets
outwit the devil, and do an important service to the
dead and the ancestral spirits, who wait the annval
of theii- brother spirit with much anxiety.

When a Wahunga chief dies, his prime minister is
killed and buried with him, to tje his councillor in the
dangers of the passage. All his wives are also killed
except one. For her a pit is dug in the ground, just
large enough to hold her. In this she is placed and
covered over witli earth, a small breathing aperture
being left. A spear is passed down this hole,
which she holds in her hand ; if at the end of
the second day she is alive and holds the spear, she
is taken out and allowed to live. If her fingers
are too nerveless to gi*asp the sjiear, no farther
ceremony is needed; she is buried already."*"

The Congo natives keep the bodies of their chiefs
for years, wrapping them in successive layers of cloth
till the mass is so heavy as to be hardly portable.
The same was done in the case of the queen-mother
of Uganda, foi" whom Mackay made the famous
copper coffin, and with whom, within and around her
three coffins, ^1500 worth of cloth and copper was
buried ; a fact which proves that the Waganda do
not wish royal personages to be restricted in the
matter of apparel in ghostland.

When King Eyambo (Congo) died, the prophets
ordered thirty of his wives to be burned the first
day,J and V>efore the funeral rites were over several

Dr. ElmBlie. US. r

hundi-eds were seut to accompany him. Should he
have gone without a respectable foUowiug, or with
only a few, the spirits would ask, " What poor slave
is this who is coming alone ?" and on the discovery
that it was a king, his people would be visited
with every form of calamity for having allowed
their monarch to go from them like an unknown
waif

Pi-ophets regulate functions of government, and
in some cases determine the succession to the
throne. In Uganda three chiefs or councillors, who
are magicians or serai-divine, elect the new king
from among the late monarch's sous, and generally
select a young son — tf an infant so much the better —
for the regency is theirs, and the younger the king
the longer will be their term of office. The elder
sons are kept In confinement till the heir is of age,
and then burned, except two or thi'ee reserved with
the view of keeping up the succession should the
young king die without Issue.* This, though in
theory an excellent system to prevent disputes, was
apt to lead to awkward consequences for the three
who held the regency. A son, when his father fell
sick, might retire to another tribe, and, returning
suddenly seize supreme power and send the regents
to join their late master. This was done by the
Batetwa chief Dingiswayo.t who fled to the ' Cape
Colony, to return in a few years to claim his rights
with direst results to his rival's [latrons.

Prophets experiencing such vengeance now and
then, sought to secure their order against untimely
accidents by organising guilds or colleges, the

* WilsoQ. + O. M. Thcal, Boeri and Bantu.

15S RELIGION AND MYTH

meml>era of wliich were regarded as sacred in virtue
of their office. Under sucli a system a king might be
slain by a rival, but the magicians were sacred, and
their divinity would Iw respected. The rules of
their order peiinitted them to be the supportere of
the de facto king, apart from oaths of allegiance to
one who might be a fugitive. Thus the Bulloms
have an institution binding its members to keep the
sacred mysteries secret for ever, and to yield pi-onipt
and unquestioning obedience to the superior of the
order ; * rules which raise a doubt as to whether
Loyola's conceptions were marked with that degree
of originality which is generally attributed to them.
New niemljers are admitted after a long novitiate,
during which the most severe tests are put upon
their loyalty and resolution. Even then they can-
not be admitted till friends of theirs, already
memlwrs, bind themselves by an oath to put the
novice to death instanter, should he make known
any forbidden secret. The manner of execution is
as secret as it is expeditious and effective. There
is no escaping the oixlea! of the guild. Similar
institutions, with local modifications, exist among
the SooBoms, Timraanes, Basutos, and many other
tribes. Among the Timmanes a woman prophetess
is general of the order, and a kind of inquisition or
confessional exists among them. To the care of this
hag fathers and husbands confide their daughtera
and wives, and the methods puraued by her and her
college is highly characteristic. When a penitent
appears she is smeared with white clay, and asked

* Winlerbotliam.

to confess, on paiu of death. If her confesslou is
deemed satisfactory she is dismissed with an admoni-
tion, and injunctions to perfonn certain acts, unless
her sin is witchcraft, in which case she is sold into
slavery. If any one lefuse to confess, nothing more
is heard of her. Should the confession I)e unsatis-
factory in itself, a decoction is given to force a fuller
statement fi'om the penitent. This, if the confession
was not full, causes Intolerable pains which can only
be relieved by the priestess. If pains foUow, she
proceeds to discover the concealed crime by means of
divination. The penitent is then charged with it,
and asked to plead. If she deny the crime, she is
sold ; if she refuse to plead, she is poisoned.*

These guilds exist wherever religion has deve-
loped into a system. The chief priest assumes
functions to himself which belong to royalty, and
BO reduces the kingly office to a shadow. This is
the case with the Egbo of Calabar,+ the Lubare of
Uganda, J and the Moro of the Waneka.§ The same
abnormal development of the power of the priestly
office took place in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The temptation and danger of all religious systems
is to claim power and authority over men's Hves and
actions outside its own proper sphere. The result
in such cases has always been a degrading of the
sacred office, and ultimate disaster to the sy.stem
itself.

But there is another permanent function of pro-
phecy, important in itself, and universal among
savage men, which has Ijeen touched upon only

■ Winterbotham. + Waddell. t Mackay. % New.

iiicidentallv

RELIGION AND MYTH

foretell i I

1 future.

When a tribe goes to war a great many details
cannot be arranged by the chief and his councillors ;
they must be determined by augury. Such details
seem to us to be of tlie very essence of practical
affairs, to Ije decided by generals, but to savage men
the case presents itself in an entirely different
aspect. The prophet must decide the strength of
the expedition, the clans who are to send their
contingents, the sacred place where the army is to
be charmed, and the route that is to be taken. Nor
can a general go into action, even against a handful,
should the oracles be unfavourable. In 1 879, during
a period of disturbance in South Africa, a chief,
Umhlonhlo, was marching leisurely across country
with his whole army. The day was hot, and not a
cloud could be seen. Presently the magicians, ever
on the alert for omens, noticed a peculiarly shaped
cloud on the horizon. It rose rapidly in one mass,
and was observed "to roll upon itself" Its progress
was intently watched till it reached the zenith and
passed over the sun. This was an evil omen. The
spirits were offended, and had passed in shadow
over the chief and his army. Their hacks were
turned upon their children. There was, however,
no immediate danger, for their scouts had reported
that no soldiers were within many miles of
their line of march, and they could retire to some
sacred spot to have their warriors re-charmed.
While they were discussing which place to resort
to, the van of a small Cfilumu of cavalry ajipeared
unexpectedly over a rising ground. Dismay was

^K unexpectei

PROPHKCY i6i

written on every countenance ; black feai- was in every
heart. The war minister, one of the bravest of men,
urged the troops to fbim into order of battle. No
one answered his summons. A fatal paralysis had
crept over chief and people. He did his best to
organise an orderly retreat, but in vain ; not a blow
was struck ; every man took to his heels, and the
army never reassembled.

On another occasion a chief, Oba, led an army
against some people of the Fingoe tribe. He knew
their place of encampment, and sent a trusted spy
to find out all he could and report. This man crept
up close to their camp fires, and there saw a diviner
pronoimcing an incantation against Oba and his
army. This was reported to the chief who paid no
regard to it. But on the following morning two
ospreys flew over the army uttering piercing cries.
This the pn)phets declared to be an evil omen which
boded defeat, but Oba was not to be frightened
by Fingoe curses or the screams of birds, and
advanced boldly. From the crest of a hill thev
saw the Fingoe camp, and a number of cattle
grazing between. Six men tended the heixl, and
these advanced shouting "Basolieve," meaning "they
are cursed." Qwarana was ordered to advance,
which he did at the head of his men. When quite
near the Fingoes fired a volley, shooting Qwarana
through the body. This was enough ; the army
turned and fled. Oba did his best to stay the
panic ; he begged his soldiers to act like men, he
called them cowards and women. It was in vain.
They had been warned by the ospreys, and now a

1 62 KELIGION AND MYTH

body of nearly two thousand warriors fled in panic
before six cowherds.

But the future cannot be left to such acci-
dents as a midday shadow, or the flight of eagles.
Methods that can be resorted to at any time must
be found. These differ among most tribes, but the
following may be taken as illustrative. The Bongo
consult the oracle thus : — rA stool of a particular
wood is made, the surface of which is rubbed per-
fectly smooth, a block of the same wood is then
prepared to lie flat on the stool. When a response is
wanted a few drops of water are placed between the .
stool and the block, the latter is then moved back-
wards and forwards. If it moves easily, and begins
to glide without friction, the oracle is favourable ; if
not, the undertaking proposed cannot prosper. Or
an oily fluid from the bengeye-tree is given to a
hen. If the bird dies there will be misfortune ; if
not, success.* Another method, which the same
observer records, is to dip a cock again and again in
water till it is senseless. It is then left in the sun,
and should it revive the augury is favourable. By
such means men determine war and peace, as well as
the guilt or innocence of accused persons.

The Bullom tribes determine the future by '* cast-
ing the sand." t This may be to discover if a sick
person is to recover or not. The diviner takes a goat-
skin on which he carefully spreads a layer of fine dry-
sand ; he then shuts his eyes, and with the three first
fingers of his right hand makes lines and dots in
the sand. According to the position of these, the

^ Schweinfurtb. f Winterbotbam.

PROPHECY 163

patient will live or die. The same result may be
obtained by taking a number of palm nuts, and
arranging them in groups with the eyes closed.
Gallas divine fi-om the appeai'ance of the entrails of
slaughtered animals,* while almost every action a
Basuto or Baralong performs is determined by the
fall of dice. So It happens, that when a man goes
to commit a crime, he lays aside his tetish, and
does not consult the oracle, as he could not in that
case obtain a favourable I'esponse. He covers his
god with a cloth, that he may not know what the
worehipper is doing.t The Wayao determine the
future by a flour cone. When a man has determined
on an undertaking, as a journey, his magician takes
a quantity of flour, and lets it fall in a steady stream
at the head of his bed. If it forms a perfect cone as
it falls, the omen is good ; if not, that is an end of
the matter by the flour-cone test. Should the cone be
perfect, it is covered by an inverted pot and left for the
night. In the morning, when the pot is removed,
the cone is examined, and if found perfect, there is
nothing further needed beyond ofl'ering the custo-
mai'y sacrifice. But if there has been a falling down
of the flour, even a small slip, it is a sign not to be
disregarded. ■ An equally effective method Is to pour
out beer on the ground, which if it sinks at one spot
is a good omen, but if It runs along the ground, bad.J
Three bits of stick may be laid on the ground, two
parallel and one across. If found, after an interval of
.some hours, in position as left, the oracle has granted
the worshipper's prayer.

• Krapf. + Tufifcer. t Duff SlaotlonaM.

i64 RELIGION AND MYTH

When prophecy descended to such trivialities as
those represented by the auguries and observances
referred to, it was doomed as a system. While it con-
tented itself with exposition, purgation of demons,
expanding philosophic conceptions and the enuncia-
tion of principles in an abstruse form, it commanded
men's respect, and the prophet was regarded as a
divinely commissioned messenger. But when it de-
scended to the petty details of village life, it could
not escape the fate of any great institution which is
hopelessly vulgarised. When the prophet became
little better than the court fool he could only receive
a fool's treatment. When a man who hurt his toe
against a stump could command the services of the
expounders of the supernatural to explain the fact,
it was not surprising that other men, despising at
once tree stumps and prophets, should introduce a
new and more vigorous, if less reverent, form of
government.

As men's conception of divinity expanded fix)m
the crude unformed idea of a divine king to local
deities, reaching gradually towards one supreme god»
the world needed a philosophy to correspond with
the new-bom faith. This, prophecy did not as a
system supply. Instead of advancing with the
growth of thought to a higher and truer conception
oflife, it pursued a course which could only lead to-
deterioration and final extinction. But though
prophecy as a system became moribund, and so
continues among savage men, it was from it the new
philosophy took its rise. This philosophy springing
out of what was once a system in advance of current

PROPHECY

thought, led to the development of the ^i-eat
religious systems which at different periods became
world wide. While the old-world prophet " cast the
sand," or fumbled among the entrails of an expiring
cock, there were men among his disciples who con-
ceived bolder notions, and only waited for a favour-
able opportunity to give practical effect to their
thoughts. They bad to wait many weary years,
generations, centuries, but their opportunity came
at last. Such men in the early days could do little
beyond raising a protest against the most glaring
abuses among their own order and in society. Even
in this they would meet with treatment similar to
that experienced by the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah,
and many of them would share the fate of all bold
reformers — the gallows or the fire. One after
another would quietly disappeai- as unworthy of their
office and subverters of the faith of men. But the
ashes of such men do more to fertilise the soil of
human thought than their wisdom while they live.
Like the dragon's teeth, they produce a fresh and
ever-increasing number of souls with like thoughts
and aspirations. The words of such men are
treasured by a few. They are pondered, digested,
made fruitful of new thoughts. As the yeai-s pass,
and the angry passions raised by the heretic's teach-
ing die away, men fii-st view him as one who meant
well, next as a true prophet, and finally as a sacred
being whose memory is cherished as a divine heri-
tage. Posterity places him among the gods. He
was incarnate.

No sooner is the popular mind led to regard such

i66 RELIGION AND MYTH

men as saints and martyrs, than a web of romance
is woven round their lives, and the philosophy they
taught becomes a new religion. Those of their suc-
cessors who cherish their memories and keep their
teaching alive, seize the opportunity, and boldly
claim divine sanction for their doctrine. This is one
way. There is another. All such reformers do not
share the martyr's fate. A powerfiil king, weary
of the inanities taught and practised by his college
of magicians ; weary too of the endless sacrifices
and the ever-deepening stream of human blood ;
blood it may be, as in the case of a king of Ashantee,
in which to float the royal canoe,* throws the pro-
tection of his strong arm over the reformer, as the
king of Babylon did to Daniel, and so encourages
the movement. Or, it may be, the reformer, finding
the ciurent too strong, retires to a lonely place
where he lives a life of meditation and privation.
Such a man, especially after the invention of writing,
formulates doctrines into aphorisms. These, brief,
wise, practical, as they must be in his circumstances,
he communicates to the few &tithful disciples
admitted to his sanctuary and confidence. They
carry them from hamlet to hamlet, thence from
house to house, where they pass into the current
language of the people. These, when received with
favour, the popular imagination connect with a
direct revelation from the gods ; ultimately it deifies
the man who utters them.

Such a life as this would lead a man to introspec-
tion and a comparison between himself, with his

*Kiihne»

PROPHECY

half-uttered wisdom, and the folly of popular beliefs.
There was nothing more natural than for him to
conclude that he was god-possessed, and that his
words and actions were those of the god. When
this was asserted and boldly proclaimed, men in a
primitive age, when the old order and the worship
of ancestral spirits was discredited, and the new still
unsettled and fluctuating, would readily seize upon
the idea as giving a clue to the solution of the per-
plexities with which they were surrounded. The very
multiplicity of ancestral gods complicated the
situation. The presence of demons, as ]>owerful and
more subtle than the gods themselves, made matters
worse. The great, or one god, was too shadowy
and remote to be approached, and his existence, if
he did exist, gave no relief to the pious. Thus
the incarnation of divinity, in the person of a
prophet, would be hailed as giving a hope that the
mysteries of the spirit world would at length be
solved.

But we are now approaching a stage of develop-
ment which canies us beyond the bounds of our
inquiry. In Africa there has been no gi-eat incarna-
tion of deity as in Brahmanism and in Buddhism. An
examination of these, however brief, would lead to
the discussion of Vedic religion, which is foreign to
my present purpose. The fact to be noted is, that
earlier forms led to the incarnation of the founders
of the respective systems, and that myth surrounded
them with a halo which makes It impossible to dis-
tinguish the true from the false, so as to get at the
man and the philosophy he taught in its simplicity

ifj& RELIGION AND MYTH

and ti'iitli. For it Is the truth which those systema
contained that has given them vitality to exist
through so many thousands of years.

Thus, fi'om the rude conception of a divine kmg
who ruled nature, thought advanced to a doctrine
of souls, thence to se|>arate and personal divinities,
filowly gravitating towards the idea of one supreme
god, unknown and unknowable. Pursuing its
inquiries, never resting for a moment, the human
mind reached the conception of the one god becom-
ing incarnate in time. And here it is curious to
note, that those in whom deity became incarnate, so
far as we can discover, put forward comparatively
modest cluims, and that these were expanded by
their disciples into a cumbrous mass of doctrinal
teaching whicli, in some cases, fell to pieces by the
very weight of its ritual and ordinances. Men
could not bear the burden.

In Africa, always excepting ancient Egypt and
the ©.mntries bordering upon it, there is nothing
which corresjxjnds with the Asiatic development of
religion. The art of writing being unknown would,
apart from other causes, have made that impossible.
But our inquii'ies have, so far, tended in the direction
of a development not unlike that through which the
great systems ttf the east must have passed. Tradition
does not preserve the words of wise men, as is done
wliere there is a literature. The words may be said
to remain, or a faint echo of them, but tradition g
them a local setting and myth adapts them to local
circumstances. Still, the position cwcupied by the
God of the Wayao, as the God of the original

PROPHECY

inhabitante, and his reputation as a beneficent and
powerful deity, points to a deification of a prophet
whose soul was developed into a principal god.
Mlungu is doubtless such another. A great man
whose memory has waxed dim, and whose words
cannot be recalled as those of Brahma may. Myth
itself has almost died away in the course of ages, yet
Mlungu lives as a faded memory though the tradi-
tions of his life have perished.

The sketch attempted of the gi-owth and decay of
the prophetic oi-der is consistent with what we are
familiar with. In a highly developed state of society
the prophetic function ceases to be exercised as we
meet with it in primitive times. But it is still pre-
sent. The wise men of a nation are its prophets.
Its poets, philosophers, preachere, reformers, scien-
tists, and discoverers, are astmly tlie guides of men's
thoughts and actions as were the magicians of Ancient
Egypt or Chaldea. They are the descendants of
humble ancestors who determined the fate of indi-
viduals and nations by casting the sand, or bv the
spots found on the entrails of a decapitated cock.
Men may imagine themselves independent of all
external ch-cumstances, but we are the creatures of
our surroundings as were those who sacrificed their
god that his spirit might enter his successor. We
may make it our boast that we have freed oureelves
from the thraldom of superstition, but there are
still curious survivals among us. And of these, one
of the most remarkable is the suspicion with which
religious teachers are regarded in popular ima-
gination.

I70 RELIGION AND MYTH

There is a deeply rooted pi-ejudice against religious
teachers among the i)easantry of Europe, and not
uiifrequently those who are most devout in the dis-
charge of their own reHgious duties, have the most
pronounced superstitions regarding clergymen.
Fishermen will not go to sea with a minister on board,
as in that case no success would attend their laboui's ;
they will not even have one enter their boats, if
possible, as that is apt to take the boat's luck away.
Skippers fear to have them as passengers, and
voyagers expect contrarv winds if a priest should
happen to be among their fellow voyagers, I
remember one, Rob MacLauchliii, the owner of a
smack that plied between Oban and Morven, having
on one occasion a veiy boisterous passage, to the
intense alarm of his passengers. On his arrival one
of the villagers remarked on the state of the weather
and how suddenly the storm had sprung uj). Rob,
who had had a sail carried away and was in no good
htunour, replied, garnishing his sentences with exple-
tives which I shall omit, " How could we escape
wind with three ministers on board." These worthies
were on their way to a local meeting of Presbytery.
One of them, ignorant of seamen and their ways,
offered a remonstrance, and tried to enlighten the
skipper, but had to beat a hasty retreat. Rob knew
all about it by long experience, and all his prede-
cessors, fi'om the days of Jonah at least, had been
conversant of the fact. That was final and admitted
of no appeal, and the villagers to a man sympathised
with tlie skipper who was compelled to carry such
cargo.

PROPHECY

Nor is this feai- confined to traditions of
the sea. The minister is feared because he can
bless or ban, and village childj-en regard him
as a being to l)e avoided when that is
When at play, if he happens to pass, there is
a hurried and fearful whisper of " Thei-e's the
minister," and play ceases till he is well out of
reach. If they must pi'esent themselves before this
august presence, they cease to be childi'en as by
instinct, and a word or movement becoming the age
of five or six meets with the awful matenial reproof,
" Do ye no ken that's the minister ? " Clergymen
themselves ai-e, perhaps, largely to blame. The
Church has played so niauy parts on the stage of
European politics and social life that much of the
present suspicion may be owing to her arrogance and
avarice. But tliis is not all. Like our haivest customs,
this superstitious levei-ence and fear, is doubtless a
survival from primitive times, when the magician
was a being to be at once feared and honoured. The
primitive man who oft'ended one of tliose power-
tul beings who directed all his life's actions, might
expect to be the next victim when a case of witch-
craft had to be disposed of, or, if no case cropped up
the gods might retjuire his presence among them,
and so demand him as a sacrifice. And so it is that
in spite of respectability, unblemished reputation,
great services to mankind, honour, place and influence,
religious teachera have never been able to free them-
selves from the suspicion and fear with which their
humble ancestors, the priests of the jungle, were
regarded in popular imagination.

172 RELIGION AND MYTH

This is perliaps an extreme instiuice of the persis-
tency of «ai'ly beliefs, but it {^oes to show how slowly
the human mind parts with ideas once universal,
and the vast intervals that must elapse beibre a
complete revolution in thought is |K)ssible under the '
most favourable circumstances. Thei-e could be no
condition more likely to obliterate the ]>!L8t thaa
that ci'eated by Christianity, and yet these customs,
myths, and sujtei-stitious fears have lived through
milleuniunis of literature and careful oral teaching.
The process has been slow, and is not yet completed.
And what has taken Europe from the dawn of
history to accomplish, with the aid of literaturOj
philosophy and Christianity, could not be done
by the Afi-ican gi-oping his way thi-ough oral
tradition and univeraal usage through many
thousands of years. The customs which we study
to-day, and which at tirst sight appear to be. local
or tribal, carry us back in their original form to a
periotl long anterior to the first dawn of traiUtional
history in the East. They bring us into contact
with the condition of the world Iwfore the families
of men began to scatter themselves hither and
thither over the face of the eai-th. They are our
only I'ecord of the condition of the world when it
was young, and of man in his fii'st struggles with
the problenis with which he found himself sur-
rounded as he began to look out ui)oii the works of
nature as these could be seen in his immeiliate
locality.

CHAPTER X

SOCIAL USAGES

It may at first appear as if there were no connec-
tion between the religion of primitive peoples and
their social usages. The latter, according to Euro-
pean ideas, have so little of the nature of religious
rites that they are seldom associated with piety and
devotion to the gods. Some men spend their lives
among savages and never look below the surface,
nor do they 8U8i>ect that those whom they daily
meet have any foi-ms of religious observance, I was
once told by a missionary of twenty years' standing
in Africa that certain ceremonial acts performed by
natives had no religious significance. In fact, he
went so far as to say, " These people have no reli-
gion ; they live a purely animal existence ; whatever
they do is just custom." How the worthy man, for
he was a truly pious soul, could ever get into sym-
pathy with them, or make any impression upon their
minds, I have often wondered. I have long ceased
to wonder how a man of such unblemished life and
absolute devotion to duty, but so totally blind to
the facts of savage life, should have to confess with
a sigh and the shadow of a life's son-ow, that " the
people about here are very hardened ; few of them
have come under the influence of the Gospel, It is

"ri :

.-L.r?

.».n

SOCIAL USACfES 175

decide the matter between them. This she does,
not by choosing one, for that would be to despise
another equally worthy suitor whose hide in the
end might prove the toughest. The matter must bo
decided in a more excellent way. It is done thus :—
The coy maiden straps a knife to each of her arms,
the blades projecting an inch or two below her
elbows. She then sits down on a log, a suitor on
either side sitting close beside Iier. At a given
signal she raises her arms from the elbows, and lean-
ing slowly forward rests her weight upon the young
men's thighs, into which she steadily presses the
knife blades. He who does not wince, or winces
least under the ordeal, wins the bride and carries
her off triumphant.

In Unyoro, the relatives of the late king fight foi-
the throne. Here, too, it is a case of the toughest
skin, but it is no vulgar contest, but a sacred function
conformable to the will of the gods who delight in
manly vigour. A Mitto chief warns those entering
his country of war being made upon them, should
they persist, by displaying on a tree near the path,
an ear of corn, a feather and an aiTow.* He who
touches corn or cock will receive an arrow, In that
country, too, a man wishing to marry applies to his
chief for a wife. If thought worthy one is bestowed
upon him, as all persons and property within the
territory belong to the king. Both Mitto and Niani-
Niam bury their dead, with strict regard to the
points of the compass ; men being buried with the
face towards the east ; women looking to the westt

* Schweintnrth. t Jbid.

176 RELIGION AND MYTH

This is conformable to the rule that women must eat
alone, and not come near men at meals, unless it be
to attend upon them. When a Waneka arrives at
the age of puberty, he is smeared with white clay
and decorated, after which he betakes himself to the
woods, either alone or in company with others of his
own age. There they must remain till they meet
and kill a man, after which they wash off their clay
and return home to be feasted and honoured.* They
are now men, not boys. A Waneka prophetess
begins operations at midnight by fi^ntic screams.
When all are astir she declares, "Roma, i.e., spirit
or the god, is here, and demands the sacrifice of a
black ox." This is at once provided, and men heave
a sigh of relief to find it is not a more costly victim.
The men of Jagga spit on a departing guest as
an act of courtesy, and to bid him God speed. By
so doing, they bestow on him their highest mark
of honour, for it is a religious act. A Wakamba
must carry away his bride by strategy, and for this
purpose may have to lie in wait for months. Before
he begins his vigil he pays the parents the dower.
Hottentots preserve a certain membrane at birth, a
bit of which is worn through life. Its loss would
entail evil here and hereafter.t Common people in
Dahomey may not grow grain except for domestic
purposes, as all property belongs to the king. So,
too, the persons of his subjects. At certain annual
festivals he holds a sale of marriageable young
women.;}: Court favourites receive wives free, but all
others pay. Unlawful wounding is an injury done

* Kiapf. t Moody. t Rowley.

SOCIAL USAGES 177

to the king's person in that of his subject. All things
merge in him as the heatl of the State and the object
of reverence. To his people he is divine.

The house of the Bodio or high priest of the
Kroomen is a sanctuary to which criminals may flee
for refuge. From it they cannot be removed except
by his oi-ders, and. as he gives no reason for his
decision, he shelters a large number of ruffians, who,
more secure under his protection than ever Jew was
in a city of refuge, live and enjoy themselves, doing
all the dirty work and throat-cutting for the Bodio
in their nightly prowlings. A Manganga magician,
<ir"even wizard, can soar aloft on the wings of the
wind like a Highland beldam on her broomstick.
The prophet among the same people can discover a
criminal in the following manner. He calls a muster
of the tribe, and then taking a bundle of reeds in
his hand rushes round the circle of the assembled
tril>esmen. If the criminal is among them, one of
the reeds flies out of his hand as he approaches him.
This reed he picks up, as the magic reed, and lays
tlie bundle aside. He then presses it against the
man indicated, when, if he is guilty, the rod revolves
in his hand.* When an earthquake occuired at
Accra, the king issued a proclamation that his father's
spirit was giving the earth a shake, because the
children were not obeying the customs, and giving
due reverence to the reigning monarch. After this,
he called for three of his principal chiefs, gave each
a drink of rum, dehvered to them a message for his
father to the efl'ect that his wishes would be attended

• Klmslb. Krapf, Vmry.

ijB RELIGION AND MYTH

to, and then had them beheaded. Thirty-
were enclosed in jar-like baskets, their
jecting fi-om the neck. These were broiif
by one and promptly l>elieaded, to go as an escort 1
with the chiefs who carried the king's dutiful '
message. He then retired to his gardens, satisfied
he had done an act of most reverent devotion. His
conduct will not seem so strange and horrible as
at first sight appears, when it is borne in mind that
as late as 1230 human sacrifices were oft'ered iii
Prussia in honour of the goddess of corn and fruits.*
When old King Choji of Calabar drank, a chief
held his gi-eat toe. The chief of Old Town kejit
his soul in a sacred grove near a spring of water.
Some Europeans, in frolic or Ignorance, cut down part
of thegi'ove, to the intense indignation of the spirit,
who, accoi-ding to the king, would visit them with
all manner of evil,+ A successor is not choseu till
the king is buried and all the ceremonies completed.
These are elaborate and protracted. What becomes
of the soul in the gi-ove 1 do not know ; i)robably it
enters the new king, who in tuni deposits it in the i
wood for safe keeping. For, after all, this is the gi-eat
object of savage man in guarding divinity, and if a
pei'fectiy safe place could be found for the purpose of
depositing the soul there, he would be supremely
happy. But as love laughs at locksmiths, so do
wizards at man's arts in concealing the whereabouts
of souls. To enter the council of government among-
the Waneka, the candidate is placed in an enclosure
where he lies down as if stone dead. His head

• Dr. Mflclear, t Now.

SOCIAL USAGES

then covered with a thick layer of mud, A mixture
of clay and hair is spread over his face. Horns are
mounted over his eyes, and his body decked with
feathere. He is then led to the edge of the forest,
where he wanders till he has killed a man, after which
he i-etums and has a ring of rhinoceros hide placed
upon his arm as a badge of office and to indicate
that he is now a sacred person.* Some tribes regard
twins as the greatest good luck, i">thers as monsters to
}je killed — the harbingers of calamity. Most, if not
all Africans have some sacred animal which they do
not kill, and with which their Hves are in some way
bound up. This is in reality fetish, totem or clan
badge, acconling to the stage of civilization at
which a people has arrived. Among the Majanie
strangers are received in the tbUowing manner : — A
goat is bi-ought forward by the tribal priest, which
the chief takes by the horns and spits on its fore-
hetul, saying, "As this stranger has come into om-
land, and says he is our friend ; if he lies may he
jierish, he and all his caravan." The stranger then
takes the goat, and doing as the chief has done, says,
" If I practise any evil against Maganine, him or his
people, his cattle or his lands, may I utterly perish,
and this caravan." + The goat's head is then cut off
" that blood and saliva may mingle." The skin of
its forehead is divided into two parts and one given
to each of the parties to the contract, A small slit
is made in this and worn as a ring on the middle
finger in token of brotherhood. The Wagorengo
of the same region practise blood brotherhood to
• New. + Myer.

i8o RELIGION AND MYTH

cement friendship.* The people of Kiwendo never
sacrifice a goat, but at their great religious meetings
thev turn one adrift to wander where it will. The
animal has a collar of cowries tied round its neck, bv
which it is distinguished from a strayed animal, t
This is the only approach to the idea of a scapegoat,
as understood by the Jews, I know of in Afirica.
The goat is devoted to Lubare. Of old, when a
Scottish king gave an unjust judgment his neck
took a twist, and so remained till justice was done.
African chiefs have boils j in such a case as this.

These customs I have set down at random, select-
ing them from the observances of peoples widely
apart. My object is not to trace the development
of any idea, but to show that all these are in the
savage mind associated with religion and the
worship of the gods. This will be better understood
if we now consider acts of devotion, and the object
aimed at by the performance of these acts.

* Ashe. t Ibid. t Grant Stewart.

CHAPTER XI

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS

To the savage who is constantly surrounded with
spiritual beiugs, and whose life is dependent on secur-
ing their continued favour, no actions can be per-
formed witliout a religious significance. He has not
arrived at tli« idea of natural law apart from agents
which regulate phenonieua. To these agents he owes
allegiance, because of the benefits he receives at
their hands, and according to his conceptions of
tlieir wants and wishes, their tastes and fancies, will
his life and actions be ordered. At first sight it
would appear as if the whole business of religion
were left to its avowed professoi-s, for these are in
evidence in connection with every event which
happens. B\it there could be no gi-eater error than
to conclude tliat the magician's vocation i-epresents
the domestic religious life of the jteople. We may
take it as a general rule that the magician's services
are required only in comiection with wliat is unusual
in village life, as births, marriages, deatlis, accidents,
evil omens or any circumstance the meaning of
which may l>e doubtful. The religion of ordinaiy
life, of eating and drinking, sleepiog and walking,
working and talking is conducted by each individual
according to the Jijipifjved metliod of the tribe. In

i82 RELIGION AND MYTH •

the details of this religion he has been instructed
from childhood. His intellectual faculties lie dor-
mant, but the ritual of life has been burned into his
very soul and become part of his being. An
African is no more likely to forget the minutest
detail of private devotion than a European is to
forget to undress when he retires to rest. The
chief, as in the case of the Barotsi, may be a demi-
god,* and his people flock to his village for protection
during a thunderstorm, but it would be an error to
suppose the Barotsi devoid of a religion and ritual,
because of this simple childish trust in the divinity of
the chief They have a peculiar method of present-
ing their offerings. A sacred horn is stuck into the
gi'ound, and when they sacrifice they pour the blood
of the victim over the horn. It is also customaiy
to tie pieces of cloth devoted to the gods round it.
The horn is generally placed in a sacred grove, and
is really an altar to which the worshipper repairs to
do his private devotions."**

There seems but little religion in a number of
love-sick swains battering one another with slave
whips, nor in a maiden running knife-blades into
their thighs, but in a land where the bull is the
emblem of universal life the gods rejoice to see a
display of vigour and virile power. That and heroic
endurance are the cardinal vii'tues. A free fight
with bare sabres for a crown is not consistent with
our ideas of succession, and the suggestion of
weapons of war banishes all thoughts of devotion
fix)m our minds. But he who is to sit upon the

* Amot, Onratiffanze^ f Ibid.

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS

183

tlirone favoured by the gods must, as au act he
owes to them, win his position by giving evidence
of the physique as well as mental vigour necessary
fur upholding the dignity of the tribe. A chief
hanging on to the toe of old King Chop as he
regaled himself with trade rum is not suggestive of
altar's and incense, but then King Chop himself was
divine and represented the god-Hfe to his people.
To hold his toe was a saci-ed office, an act of dutiful
obedience to the gods. Who could tell but, as he
jioured the " devil water " down hts thix)at, the god
spirit might escape by his toes if these were not
held by a sacred person :' The Waneka who
H'aiidered in woods with murderous intent during
his novitiate believed himself to Ije doing a religious
duty of the most sacred nature, and that without
this preliminary the gods would never give him
wisdom in council nor strategy in war. By
obedience he was qualifying himself to advise
regarding the aft'airs of gods and men, so different
are savage man's conceptions of qualification for
office from ours.

The King of Dahomey while doing homage to
the gods would to us appear to be engaged in a pro-
fitable conmiercial transaction, and but for his being
himself divine there would be a strong suspicion
tliat considerations of profit influenced him. All
the women of the country are his by divine right.
It is an act of divine favour to bestow a wife on a
subject, and when he does fjestow one he expects
handsome black mail. It is he who gives to men
all they possess. They must toil for the corn which

1 84 RELIGION AND MYTH

the king gives through regulating the course of
nature, and if they must pay by toil for the low^er
gifts, it would be impiety not to labour also for the
higher— that is, for their wives. The king has
given his subjects fecundity ; they in return must-
reward him for the blessing, else the younger genera-
tion of women will be barren.

Thus we see that many acts, which according to
Western ideas are far removed from the region of
devotion and worship, are in reality parts of a life
every act, word, and movement of which has a signi-
ficance in a religious sense. I have seen natives of
Africa perform acts of devotion before the eyes of
men who declared that they had no idea of worship
nor of gods. When a native glances at the sun or
moon, he prays ; when he drops a small particle of
food on the ground before he begins to eat, he offers
an oblation ; if he throws a tuft of grass, a bit of
stick, or a stone, out of his hut door in the morning*
before he emerges himself, he has said matins.
Nor does he neglect to sing vespers when he turns
his face to the bright constellations overhead be-
fore rolling himself up in his skin blanket for the
night. These are all acts of devotion, and represent
forms of worship common among a large proportion
of primitive men. They are performed by each
individual on his own account, apart from the more
formal religious rites which are the proper functions
of the magician. And this is consistent with what
we know of the growth of religious ritual among
those nations where the evolution of religion can be
best studied. The earliest forms of devotion of

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS

'85

which we have an account among the Jews were
very simple and acts uf sacrifice were exceptional
and rare. With the development of the religious
life of the people different orders sprung up, and
these confined themselves to particular functions.
But though we know but little of domestic and
individual religion among the mass of the people,
such indications as we have go to show that oach
man did perform acts of devotion iiowever simple
these might be.

We have seen that the king of Old Town kept his
soul ill a sacred grove, and that this was an act of
devotion. It, however, gives the clue to a class of
myths which are common from the Ganges to the
Atlantic, and that is the soul dwelling apart from
the body. It is difficult to classify the legends and
tblk-lore tales in which these myths are met with.
They partake of magic certainly ; but are more of
the nature of devotion, and the caring for the soul's
welfare by placing it in such safe keeping as to defy
the enemies of mankind to obtain access to it.

In a former chapter reference was made to the
soul's absence during sleep or fainting. Some of the
dangers of soul-snatching by ghosts, wizards, and
evil spirits have also been noticed. The dangers of
the soul during its temjx)rary absence were consider-
able. While resident in a man's body it was com-
paratively safe ; but even then there were dangers,
and dangers of such nature as to be difficult to
guai-d against. While a man remained in sound
vigorous health his soul was safe, but should he le
taken ill his soul was then in danger, for it could

RELIGION AND MYTH

We reached and injured, perhajis stolen, through his I
Ixidy, as in the case of the soul which the wizard

ifot a

s handed about )

: the ETods at the

; among 1

sick man's door. This being an admitted and recog'-
ulsed fact, it would be of the utmost importance for
a man to have a place of safe keeping where he could
deposit his soul iu time of danger, and if this place
were very secure, it would be a manifest advantage
to have his soul kept there permanently. This
would make a man independent of wiziirds on the
one hand and of magicians on the other. The former
Could no longer hm-t him ; the latter he could dis-
jiense with when freed from the fear of witchcraft.
Such a man could boldiv strike out a new course,
and become a reformer by a defiance of the powera
of evil, and a total neglect of the gods. Hence it ia
that such men, in popular imagination, are regai'ded.
as giants, monsters of impiety, cruel and cuiming,
regardless of all interests except their own, and
oppressing all who come into their power. Evidence
of this is found in the folk-lore tales taken from the
traditions of peoples living widely apart, and the
number and variety of such tales is proof that, at
one time, this was a sober belief widely diffused
throughout the world, and is a faithful reflection of
tlie facts of life, in relation to the unseen, as these
appeared to primitive man. These tales would in
the first instance be preserved and recited as a
ti-ue statement, of the facts, and, handed down
through millenniums of years, told at one time to
warn the impious, at another as nursery rhymes, or
l)y the fitful light of a blazing log on a winters

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS 1S7

night, to amuse the curious, thev would preserve
much of their original form, though places and cir-
cumstances would change.

Such was the story of " Headless Hugh," of my
own nursery days. 1 still, when the winds howl
ahout the gables and among the trees, find my mind
running back to the time when Headless Hugh was
a real living man, who on stormy nights rode along
the sea shore " between wave and sand,'' and
watched whether little boys went to sleep quietly.
If they did not he took them away on " the grey
Hlly that never had a bridle." It must be nearly
thirty years since I heard old Betty Miles tell the
story. I could repeat it word for word now, so per-
sistent are the impressions of childhood, especially
when accompanied by a wholesome state of terror.

Hugh was a prince of Lochlin, and was long held
captive by a giant who lived in a cave overlooking
the Sound of Mull, and known by his name to this
day. For many years Prince Hugh lived in the
dismal recess of this grotto. One night there was
a violent altercation between the giant and his wife,
and Hugh who lay very still listening, knowing that
he would be killed and eaten if it was known that
he overheard their conversation, discovered that the
giant's soul was in a great pearl- — literally precious
gem- — -which he always wore on his forehead. The
prince watched his opportunity, seized the pearl, and
having no means of escape or concealment, hastily
swallowed the gem. Like the lightning from the
clouds, the giant's sword flashed from its scabbard
and flew between Hugh's head and his body to

RELIGION AND MYTH

iiiteice]>t the ^ein before it could be swallowed. It
was too late, and the giant fell down, swurd in hand,
and expired without a gasp. Hugh had lost his head,
but having the giant's soul in his body, saved his
life and gained his liberty. He took the giant's
sword, slew his wife, and then with the trusty
weapon buckled to his side he mounted " the grey
tilly that never had a bridle, and swifter than the
east wind," and made his way home unconscious of
the loss of his heail. His friends did not i-ecognise
him, declared he was a ghost, and refused to admit
him to the palace, and so " he wanders in shades of
darkness forever, riding the grey filly faster than the
east wind." On stormy nights he is seen riding along
the shore " Ijetween waves and sand." He has takeu
many boys who would not go quietly to bed, and
none of them have ever returned. This is the outline
of a story I often heard from an old beldam who
made my young life a long-continued torment while
she had the opportunity of doing it.

Compared with it, the following Hindoo tale
betrays a common origin in the days when such facts '
were soberly believed. The story is of a giant or '
magician who had held a l)eautiful queen captive for
twelve yeaiu At last the queen's bi-other came to
visit her, and they both spoke the magician fair.
He told them, in a moment of confidence, that he
kept his soul thousands of miles away m a desolate
ctjuntry covered with jungle. In this jungle there
was a circle of palm trees ; within the circle six
water tanks, piled one above another ; under the
lowest a birdcage with a small gieen parrot in it.

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS 189

The parrot was his soul, or rather he kept his soul
in the parrot. The queen's brother hearings this
sought out the jungle, and at last found the cage
which he brought to the magician's palace. When
the magician saw it, he cried, " Give me mv parrot."
The boy tore otf a wing ; the magician lost an arm.
In this way he was torn limb fi-om limb, and, finally,
when the parrot's neck was wrung he fell down
dead, his neck broken.* In another Hindoo story
the soul is in a necklet. In a well-known High-
land story the giant says : " There is a great flag-
stone under the threshold ; under the flagstone
is a wether ; in the wether's belly is a duck ; in
tlie duck's crop an egg, and that egg contains my
soul." + The egg, as usual. Is found and crushed
and the captive is set free. The giant dies, of
course.

The same form of superstition and myth is common
to Teutons, Norse, Slavonians, Ancient Greeks, and
Jews. The history of Samson, ^ as recorded in the
Book of Judges, is a case in point. He remained
invulnerable till, through the wiles of his wife, he was
shorn of his locks, and then his strength departed.
The variations in this case from the Hindoo and
Celtic tales is nothing more than might be expected,
when the national characteristics of the Jews and
their peculiar history is taken into account. This
form of myth is as wide as humanity. I was on one
occasion sitting in a Hlubi chiefs house waiting for
the appearance of the great man, who was doing his
toilet, to hold a palaver. Several of his chiefs and

• Uary Frere, Old Diecaii Doiji

t Campbell.

t Judges

■ 90 RELIGION ANI> MVrH

Councillors were present, and entered freely into con-
versation with my attendants. I did not pay any ]
particular attention to what passed till one of ray
own people said, in English, " Ntame has his soul in ]
these horns," at the same time pointing to a pair of I
magnificent ox-horns placed in the roof by the
lightning doctor to protect the house and its in-
mates from the thunderbolt. The horns were those
of an animal offered in sacrifice and were sacred. I ,
took the statement at the time to mean that to hold
a palaver with Ntame was equivalent to holding con- ;
verse with an ox, and made no farther inquiries.
Whether my factotum spoke a parable, or stated a
sober fact gathered fi'om the councillors present, I
cannot say. He addressed me in English, which he
spoke fluently, and as no one else present understood ,
a word of what he said I took his statement to be
a hint to be careful what I said, and how I received
our host's promises and professions of friendship. I
have had no opportunity of verifying the statement,
but the idea is In no way foreign to South African
thought. A man's soul there may dwell in thereof
of his house,* in a tree, by a spring of water, or oa |
some mountain scaur.

This form of superstition leads by an easy trau- >
sition to totemisni, and it is on this account I regard
It as more religion than magic or witchcraft. The
object where the soul dwells is sacred, and it gets
its sanctity because it is the home of the soul. Thia
may be a bird, as the tufted crane among Kaflirs ; an
animal, as the crocodile, among Bechuanas ; an insect,

■ J, Sutton, MS. notes.

ACTS OF DEVOTION -MYTHS U)i

as among the Hottentots, who regai-d the inantia
religiosa as a divinity. All these objects are sacred
because either a person's life is bound up with a
particular specimen, or the tribal life with a class.
The horns of a lightning sacrifice are sacred, and
must not Ije touched except by the doctor, but this
does not extend beyond the family in whose interests
the sacrifice was offered, while animals that are
sacred to the tribe are sacred to each individual
member of it. To shoot a crane would be a more
heinous ofience than to shoot a fox before the
hounds. Again, tribes are named after animals or
objects, as the elephant people, the swimmers, men
of the wood, and such other names or titles de-
scriptive of supposed qualities as tradition has

In Sutherlandshire at the present day there is a
sept of Mackays known as "the descendants of the
seal," These claim as their ancestor a laird of
Borgie, who married a mermaid, and as the legend
has never been in print, I give it here as recently
told me by one well versed in north-country
mythology.* It is as follows : — The laiid was in the
habit of going down to the sea rocks under his castle
to bathe and drink salt water. One day he saw a
mermaid close in shore, combing her hair and
swimming about as If anxious to land. After
watching her for a time, he noticed her cowl on the
rocks beside him, and knowing she could not go to
sea without it he carried it up to the castle, hoping
she would follow him. This she did ; but he refused

191 KELIGION AND MYTH

to jjive up the cowl aud detained the maid lierself
wliom he made his wife. To this alie consented with
great reluctance, and told liim her life was bound up
with tlie cowl, and if it rotted or was destroyed she
would instantly die. The cowl was placed for
safety in the centre of a \a.vge hay-stack, and there it
lay for years. One day, during the imister's absence,
the sorvauts were working among the hay and found
the cowl. They showed it to the lady of the house,
not knowing what it was. She took it, and then,
strapping her child securely in its cot, she left and
went to sea never to return again to Borgie. For
years she used to come close in shore that she might
see her hoy, and then she would weep l)ecause he was
not of her own kind so that she might have him at
sea with her. The boy grew to be a man, and his
descendants have always been exempt from drowning.
They are famous awimmei'S, and are known locally
to this day as " SHochd an i-oin," that is, the descen-
dants of the seal.

It is difficult to give an explanation of such myths
as this, but when I fii-st heard it I began to make
inquiries, and discovered that there are floating
traditions of shipwrecked crews having settled
down among the native population, and I have
thought that the Borgie mermaid may have been a
cast-away maiden. If so, was she detained against
her will '^ Did she make her escape ? Were there
negotiations about the custody of her child between
her friends and the wild septs of the Reaj' countiy f
And did local tradition weave these facts into the
legend as it was current half a century ago ? An

ACTS OF DEVOTION— MYTHS 193

answer to these questions is made all the more diffi-
cult by the existence of other local traditions. There
is a sept known as " the men of the hide " in the
same district, and the tradition regarding their
name, if not their origin, is this : — The devil visited
the district to get the names of all those who were
willing to aid him. The laird of Cobachy met the
stranger, whom he found a "nice-spoken gentleman,"
albeit he was attired in a bull-hide with the horns
attached. The laird noticed that his visitor kept
liis feet concealed, but in leaping a bog he got a
glimpse of the cloven hoof, and to get rid of him
recommended a visit to Melness. The devil put
to Sea in his bull-hide, and raised the Kyle of
Tongue into foam and fun-ow as he crossed. After
an intei-val he returned, and called to pay his
respects to his friend C-obachy. The latter asked
how he had succeeded. " Oh," said he, " that is
the place to go to ; I have covered my hide with
names. I got so many that some are marked on
the horns."* The men of the district are known
as Fir-na-Sioch — the men of the hide. This the
present generation resent, and are apt to fly to their
fists if buU-hides are mentioned.

CHAPTER XII

In any inquiry into the religion of primitive men,
it is necessary, if we are to understand the signifi-
cance of many actions and familiar customs, to take
account of woman's position and her true sphere ia I
savage life. Many ti-avellers describe woman I
among untutored tribes as a beast of buixlen pure I
and simple; an animal to be driven while it lasts and |
can do useful work ; then left neglected to die, Bome- j
times of hunger, but oftener by means still more I
equivocal. There could be no greater erroi- than to I
accept such statements as correct, or as giving a ]
clue to woman's position and influence among the |
community. That labour, which, according to j
western ideas, belongs exclusively to men, falls to I
the lot of women is true. Nor do they have a voice I
in village councils and palavers. Even domestic 1
ai'rangements as brewing beer, the food for the day,
washing and the like are regulated by the men, but I
this is largely accounted for by the system of poly-
gamy. It is, however, this outward and appareub A
j>ositiou of woman, which makes her appear to the f
stranger of so little consequence in the aifairs of the J
community. Slie seems to be a mere drudge ; a beast I
of burden with intelligence, and whose duty it is to j

WOMAN

I9S

labour for hor husbaud ; beai- children and rear them,
but take nothing to do with the produce of her own
lalwur or the training of her offspring.

We have ah-eady seen the prophetess at her work
in the Lake Region. We might find a woman
regent in South Africa. The wife of the noted chief
Makoma acted as regent during the minority of her
son, Sandili, and with conspicuous success. A
woman was once war doctor to Hiiitsa, and among
the Khonds a woman is not supposed to be unworthy
of representing the god life of creative energy and
reproduction. But it is more in the code of restric-
tions or taboos to which women are subject that we
learn the important place assigned to them in the
moral and religious codes of savage men. Indivi-
dual women rising to eminence might prove too much
if that were taken by itself, but when we place such
facts beside the general treatment they receive, we
see how important is the place they occupy and the
influence they have on national life and religion.
For example. Among the objects placed under taboo
is blood, and especially woman's blood. So great is
the dread of its touching any part of the peraon,
and especially the head, which, in savage philosophy
is peculiarly sacred, that an Australian will not pass
under a leaning tree or the rails of a fence lest a
woman should have been on it, and that blood from
her, resting on the tree, might fall on him.* The
Siamese think it unlucky to pass under a rope on
which women's clothes are suspended. In New
Zealand the blood of women Is supposed to have
. • J. G. Frszer, qootiog E. M. Curr.

RELIGION AND MYTH

disastrous effects upon males. If a South AfHoi
touches the blood of woman at certain periods
bones become soft. If a woman ste])S over hii
or even over his spears he cannot hit his enemy 1
in battle. In Burmah it is an indignity to hav&l
a woman overhead In a house of more than one J
story, hence it Is that most houses have but onftl
floor. In a house raised on piles, a sei-vant will I
not go In below the house for any purpose lest a |
woman should lie in the rooms over his head.

With divine and sacred persons a number of rules I
have to Ije observed for their own safety and the!
safety of the community. One of these is that the 1
sun may not shine upon them. The Mikado might I
not touch the ground with his foot, nor was the sua J
thought worthy to shine on his royal head. The help J
to the throne of Bogota forfeited his right to the suo- 1
cession if the sun shone direct ujK)n him. In SogomoBO I
the heir-appai'ent is shut up in seclusion for seveal
years without seeing the light of the sun.* Now,j
it Is remarkable that girls at puberty and women
at regular intervals and after delivery are subjected
to the same rule of restrictions during a variable
period. In Laondo, a purely negro State, girls at J
puberty are confined in separate huts, and may onl
no account touch the giound during the period wittkl
any pai-t of their body. Among the Zulus and J
kindred tribes, when the firet signs of womanhoodl
show themselves, a girl, should she lie walking orl
working in the fields, runs to the river and hides her- J
self for the day among the reeds that she may not I

' J. G. Kraier, qugtinj; AJouzo de Zurtta.

seen by men. Her head she covers with her blanket
that the sun may not shine on it and shrivel her up
into a withered skeleton, an assured result of any
disregard of custom. At night she returns home
and is closely secluded for a period of seven days.
She then resumes her work. New Ireland girls are
confined for four or five years in small cages and
kept in the dark.*

Customs akin to these are world-wide, and have
left in the folk-lore of all nations evidence of their
being once universal. For example, A Greek story
warns a princess to be careftil in her fifteenth year
lest the sun should shine on her. A Tyrolese legend
tells how a lovely maiden was doomed to be trans-
ported to the belly of a whale, Jonah fashion, if ever
a sunbeam fell upon her. Old Highland women,
when I was a Iwy, always made a great ado if girls
went, say to a hayfield, with bare heads. Boys
might, but it was not good for girls. It was not
altogether because they would get sunburned.
There were " other things," all of which was con-
veyed to them in hints of Delphic ambiguity, but
which was very awful to our youthful imagination.

The ground of this seclusion and guarding from
sunlight lies In the dread primitive man has of
woman's blood. Hence a woman must live apart
during the period ; she is then unclean, and, should
any one come near her inadvertently, she must give
them warning not to approach. Similar restrictions
are imposed on women after delivery, when they
are secluded and guarded for weeks. Nor are

' Rev. B. )^aol(B.

198 RELIGION AND MYTH

i-estrictions confiacn! to the periods referred
Precautions must \ie taken against accidents, as
these may happen at any moment. Scoi-es of times
did I put the question to South Africans : " Why
do your women never enter the village by the paths
the men follow ? " before I could get a satisfac-
tory answer. I was told it was custom ; women
must l>e taught obedience ; people always did it;
or that the master made rules and all must obey;
that it was to keep wives from quarrelling If they ,
saw the head of the village walking frequently w-ith
a favourite wife ; because men are gi'eater, that is,
more sacred, than women ; " the woman is to a man
a child." Gradually and indirectly I came to know 1
that the restriction was designed to avoid accidents 1
such as might happen with the advent of woman-
hood unexpectedly. The object of all such restrictions
is to neutralise the dangerous Influences which are
supposed to be connected with women at certain
periods. Tlie woman is viewed as charged with ,
certain properties ; properties productive of evil ia 1
themselves, and which, in certain circumstances, she i
can use with infinite power for mischief These
must lie kept within bounds. If not, they may
pmve destructive to the woman herself, as in the
Zulu shi'ivelling up, and to all with whom she comes
into contact.

The uncleaimesa of woman and the sanctity of the '
sacred or divine man do not, to primitive men, difier
from one another. Both must be guarded against
and avoided when that is possible. Botli must be
surrounded by taboos for this oljject as well as for

their own sakes, bo that their properties, which are
good or bad as they are directed, may be guided to
be conducive of good to man.

Persons charged with such projierties, and having
at their disposal such powers for good or evil, cannot
be without influence upon the community. Where
every action has a supernatural significance, it is
impossible to have any force in existence without
its tending to give colour to all tlie institutions
existing among men.

In a land where a woman may not touch a cow's
udder* on pain of direst results, we may expect to
find her wielding power however harshly she may
be treated. Even from the most closely guarded
harem come influences which go to make or mar the
state. The Lubare of Uganda may be under the
direction of a prophetess. In the Lake Region, the
prophetess is all powerful, and may determine peace
or war, as she often does in the south. The women
of most African tribes are modest and retiring, and
seldom address strangers except when they bring
articles for sale, and even then it is not uncommon
to find a husband or father accompany the woman
to do the actual trading while she caiTies the burden.
But this is not universal. There are tribes where
the women are bold, aggressive and self-assertive.
The Monbutto women are independent, obtrusive
and immodest.t They do the field work as is done
by all African women, but in other respects assert
their independence in a manner rarely met with.
The Monbutto are an island of hmnanity, in the very

■ Felkin. t achweintorth.

20Q RELIGION AND MYTH

heart of Africa, difl'erin^ in customs and habits from '
all the surrounding tribes. Their laws and observ-
ances resemble, and especially the aggressive im-
modesty of their women, those of certain minor
tribes inland fi'om Inhambane more than that of any
other African people. Dr. Schweinfurth does not
give in detail an account of their Ijehaviour, but
leaves the reader to infer that as i-egai-ds public
morality there is much to be desired. Our informa-
tion regarding the Inhambane triljes referred to 18
also meagre. A few years ago, a Lieut. Underwood
and a German missionary were travelling together
through the country, Botli were new to African
travel, and tbeir ignorance of the language may
have prevented their understanding the meaning of
facts which came under their notice with painful
prominence. So obtrusive did they find the women
that they were compelled to get some of their own
Swazi women camp-followers to mount guax-d over
their persons in their tents while they slept.*
Whether this was a natural aggressiveness of
character, or the ordinary coiu"tesies of the country
I do not know. It is common enough for a chief
to ordei' one of the members of his harem to be
given to a distinguished stranger during his stay,
but the women will only repair to his tent at night
and as if by stealth. Though not objecting to a,
temporary change of husband, they cannot effect the
change during the day lest the gods should be
otfended.t When Dr. Felkln pressed King Mtesa
to i-eplenish the mission larder, the king ■

• UndecwoorJ, MS, notes. t Winterbolham.

WOMAN 20I

with similar demands and anxious to settle the
question once for all, sent the doctor a parcel of
eighteen wives to attend upon him, and supply his
wants. The ungrateful man refused the kingly gift.
The subject of public morality it is impossible to
discuss in a popular work. But though not suitable
for the pages of a book intended for general readers,
its value hi forming an estimate of the people's
character is considerable, and the man whose lot is
cast in Africa, cannot, without grave loss to his own
usefulness, dispense with an intimate acquaintance
with much that is unsavoury. To indicate the diffi-
culty of dealing with this, I transcribe the first note
I made in cotlectiiig material for a separate chapter
on the subject. It is as follows: — " Before a Kordufan
girl consents to marry, she stipulates how many free
nights |)er week she may enjoy, and generally secures
every fourth night to do as she pleases." So
different are African standards from ours that
any thing said could only be suited for the pages of
a scientific journal, as is illustrated by the following
incident : — A missionary was one day a^ildressing a
crowd of natives, many of whom had taken part in a
regular saturnalia held in the vicinity a few days
before. As he proceeded to denounce their customs
and their doings, I noticed a curious restlessness
among them. The climax was reached when he com-
pared their behaviour, in search of drink and other
enjoyments, to that of strange dogs arriving at a
village, and snifling about the places frequented by
local curs. To the natives this was not preaching ;
it was moral turpitude, and their feelings were tersely

I
I

ao2 KELIGION AND MYTH

expi-essed by an old chief, wlio, when outside, uttered ]
the single woi-d " filth," and walked away. The J
reason of thiH was plain. If there is one thing
beyond all others against which the soul of an |
Afi'ioan rebels, it is to be compared to a dog, or to j
have it suggested that there can be anything in (
common Ijetween himself and his dog. A thief, it is j
true, is a wolf, hut then thieves like wolves am made
t*> be destntyed. So far is the aversion caiTied that ■
there is a distinct "dog language," and the words
composing it are never applied to men, except in
defiance, or as the language of insult. To bid a man
begone by the use of the woi-d one applies to a dog,
would be equivalent to throwing a glass of wine in
a gentleman's eyes in the days when Irish steeple-
chasing was in its glory. In a land where cowdung .
and urine are necessaiy requisites of the toilet, bury-
ing a dog would prevent the growth of the season's
crops.* It is by a knowledge of such customs and
prejudices we can i-each the minds of such peoplei
and come to have an understanding of their domestic
life. By l)eginning with what they can understand^
we can gradually advance leading them to higher
conceptions Ixith of man and of God.

But while it is impossible to discuss the details of
their nioi-al code, there are broad outlines common to
all primitive peoples which help us to an undei'stand-
ing of the progress of thought among them. The
harem and zenana we may regard as a compara-
tively late develo])ment ; ttie pnxluct oi' an advancing
civilisation, and the growth of exclusive political

• SciUocks and Dlnkn.

power in the hands of the chief. The exclusiveness
and sanctity of the harem could only Ije the pi-oduct
of settled government, pei-maueut I'esidence, and
suitable buildings. Among a nation of huntei's,
wandering from place to place, a zenana would l>e an
impossibility. Seclusion of any considerable number
of persons would entail settled residence. At the
same time, we find among primitive i-aces that
infidelity on the pai-t of any of the king's wives is a
capital oft'ence, even if the custom is all but universal
among the lower orders. To them a lapse on the
part of a member of the royal household is a serious
crime, while their opinion regarding other ordera is
faithfully expressed in the reply of theKaffii' to whom
his missionary said, " I know many of you spend
yom- nights roaming about after otlier men's wives."
"No, master," he answered, "we do not do that, we
have our own wives at night ; it is during the day our
people go to see other women they love."* Another
Scotch parson was asketl, " How many wives have
you," and on his replying that he had none, his
inten'ogator asked sympathetically, " Was that
because you could not get the cattle ? "

CHAPTER XI 11

COURTESIES OF UFE — PRESS

A MORE savoury subject than public moi-ality ts
courtesy, which in Africa is all that could be desired.
Hospitality hardly knows any lx)unds, and the chief
who receives a stranger as his guest treats him with
courtesy and kindness. Many chiefs, on the great
caravan routes, are now demoralised quite, and
demand blackmail as one enters their territory, a
demand sure to be repeated as he leaves. Man in
the eai'ly days of the world regarded his neighbour as
having a claim upon him, and in the age of hunting,
food, while it lasted, was practically common
property. To tins day In times of great scarcity
Ibod is hardly ever stoi-etl up by families for their
own use ; they share it with their more needy neigh-
bours. They reason in this way : — The gods are
good to men. They give them their food. They
watch over the actions of their children, and as the
fathers, who are now above, were good and kind to
the stranger and the poor, it is their will that their
children should obey custom. The whole of the
past is wrapped in a halo of glory which myth
weaves round it, and eacli man feels that he falls
short of the ideal life if the stranger leaves his house
hungry or empty-handed. When the native Ijards

COURTESIES OF LIFE— DRESS

sing the piaises of the mighty dead, their deeds of
valour occupy a secoudary place, as if that were
the necessary accompaniment of hospitality and the
courtesies of life to the hungrj' wayfarer.

The king, as the father of his people, is responsible
for village hospitality, and by a kind of fiscal ar-
rangement he levies a tax for this purpose on those
of his people best able to bear a buitlen. His acts
of kindness to strangers are representative acts, aud
any failure on his part is a disgrace to the tribe.* I
remember once visiting a man of some local standing.
He sent me a fowl for my supper, and the councillor
who brought it seemed to be ashamed of his com-
mission. Little was said, but I felt the reception I
met with did not promise success to my mission. I
was mistaken. After the clatter of tongues by the
camp fire ceased and all was still, the door of the hut
I occupied was cautiously opened, and the councillor
who had brought the fowl entered. In a low whisper
he said, " Here Is meat," at the same time taking a
whole sheep's carcase from a young man who accom-
panied him. I asked what it meant ; and the old
man's reply I shall never forget, " It is," he said
" nothing. You have bought it. Brandy has killed
my chief" Here was loyalty ; loyalty to a chief whose
whole soul was in strong drink, to the neglect of all
the functions of royalty. He, as a councillor, could
not offer to do what his chief neglected, but his sense
of honour, and particularly the honour of his chief
and tribe, prompted him to do by stealth what he
felt was necessary to uphold ancient tradition, though
* J. SuttiDD, M.S. notes.

2o6 RELIGION AND MYTH

by doing it he put his neck in some danger. Very
pathetic too were his words, *' Brandy has killed my
chief." The chief had not changed ; had not neg-
lected the stranger ; did not forget the honour of
his tribe. No. He was dead, that was all, and for
his dead chief this loyal man did the courtesies of
hospitality.

Philosophers and traditional theologians never
weaiy of discussing the savage s moral sense and his
innate ideas of right and wrong. They find it diffi-
cult to agree as to whether conscience is an inherent
faculty, uniform in its manifestations among all
classes and conditions of men, or an education of the
moral sense which is capable of development accord-
ing to man 8 stage of progress. I am not a
philosopher nor a professed theologian. I am simply
an observer of facts as these are met with every day
in Savagedom. But as an observer I have often
puzzled over the philosopher s right and wrong, and
the ideas attached to these terms ; over his uniform
manifestations, and the theologian's sweeping
generalisations regarding all classes and conditions
of men. I have wondered whether the philosopher's
ideas of right and wrong are based on our Western
conceptions — saturated as we have been by centuries
of Christian ethics — of a well-ordered state and social
system, or whether he would admit the Mosaic code
as a correct expression of the innate ideas of right
and wrong among the Jews at that time. And if
so, whether conscience as such, apart from education,
can have anything to say to such questions as
arise about a plurality of wives, for example ? I

COURTESIES OF LIFE— DKESS 307

have asked in vain if the traditional theologian
would admit within the sphere of men acting
according to their conscience, those who give their
property, theii- subjects, and even their children to
propitiate gods which to us are purely imaginary ?
Or whether we must i-egard them as wilfully violating
the most saci'ed Instincts of human nature in
olDedience to i-equirements which their sense of
rigiit and wrong calls vanity ? Here again one asks,
and asks in vain. No light is offered, or it is deeper
than the mirk .

The one thing of which I am certain is this : —
That these African races, whose religion we have
been studying, not only profess their faith in its
doctrines but really regulate their conduct by them,
and that down to the minutest details of life. Their
philosophy may )je crude, but it is a philosophy.
Nor is it altogether a false philosophy. It is the
pi-emises that are wrong, not the conclusion. It is
their want of knowledge, not their lack of moral
purpose. Their religion may be worae than none,
but it is the form of it and the channels in which it
runs which vitiate it, for the sincerity of the wor-
shippers is iiifinitely more real than that of men who
meet in Christian temples or worship God by proxy.
The code of ethics practised by primitive man may
shock our sensibilities, but he has i-eaehed it slowly,
painfully, and prayerfully notwithstanding. To him
religion is no pastime with whicli to amuse himself,
but a matter of the most terrible reality ; a matter
on which depends his present fortune and his future
place among the ancestors. Does he bring his women

2o8 EELIGION AND MYTH

to market f He knows no lietter way, and must
observe the prescribed rule for his own protectiou
and tlieii-6. Is his slain enemy's heart found in his
broth pot ? This is not necessarily for love of himiaa _
ilesh, but to give him qualities which will ensure his I
own and his tribe's safety in war. Cannibalism I ]
regard as a late development relatively ; a taste •]
acquii'ed in times of famine when men died like
sheep and were devoured by their famished com- j
panions. This opinion 1 base on the partial distri- 1
bution of the practice and its entire absence among I
most of the older races with which we have,
recent times, been brought into contact. Fot ]
example : —

The Monbutto have no domestic animals, except I
dogs, and they are among the most pronounced 1
cannibals In Africa. Such a people would suffer
terribly if the crops failed even for a single season,
and a succession of Imd harvests would reduce them ■
to actual starvation. "What more natural than that |
this practice should have originatetl during a jienod
of dire distress and want, and so became a national
habit almost unconsciously. Stanley's forest canni-
bals seem, so far as we know, to depend entirely on ■
vegetable substances for food. To them a few sea.- '
sons of drought might mean extermination if they
did not resort to human carriou. Abnontial develop-
ments do not belong to the ordinary progress of 1
thought as I have attempted to trace it ; and the
acts to which necessity has driven civilised men I
should warn us against hasty conclusions. Especially '
should it warn us against assuming tliat cannibalism

COURTESIES OF LIFE— DRESS 109

was derived i'rom any system of pliilosophy rather
than from necessity and dire distress.

When primitive men walk abroad in nature's robea,
and women adorn themselves with a tail of grass
behind their backs as their sole garment after the
manner of the Baris,* we are shocked at their im-
modesty, and cry out that they must be devoid of
all sense of morality. This is exactly what a Mon-
butto mother would say to her daughter, if she
appeared arrayed in the ample loin cloth woi-n by
her brother rather than in her own bit of leaf
attached lightly to her girdle. These are nature's
own children doing nature's own bidding. They are
advancing by steps so slow as to be imperceptible,
by the same road by which our ancestors travelled
thousands of years ago. They are at a stage of
development now corresponding to that of the
remote ancestors of the Ancient Greeks. To the
primitive European, as to the primitive African, a
simple code of morals was not only sutKcient, it was
complete, wise, and good ; the will of the gods. Only
as he advanced did his moral perceptions grow, and
so too will the primitive African's ; only let not the
European expect too much, or look for permanent
good on a large scale from a precocious and abnormal
development of an individual here and there. Such
individuals may do something within the sphere of
their personal influence to raise their fellow country-
men. But only when new conceptions come to
permeate the mass of the people, and the new philo-
sophy commends itself as true for all classes, can

• PelWn.

RELIGION AND MYTH

there be a general upward movement. Such mov«
ments, when permanent, are by way of evolutia
rather than revolution.

We are far from exhausting the religious asp
of custom and myth when we have disposed of^
pubUc moi'als and the relation of the sexes. Religioi
enters into the prosecution of the industrial arts and
even the amusements of life. The hunter has his
religious rites which lie performs before he entersJ
the forest, and after he kills the first animal of thea
chase. His return from a successful exj)edition must
be signalised by perfonning ceremonial acts. Even
the manner of carrying home the game is prescribed
by rituaL

When iron ore is dug and smelted, the smit]
must observe certain rules and conform to
necessary religious observances.* His forge must]
be placed at a distance from the village dwellings,]
and no one dai-e approach at the critical momenta
when the molten metal begins to flow, except thoS(
versed in the mysteries of tlie art. t The fi«
used to cook first-fruits must not be kindled by {
vulgar brand snatched from the domestic hearth,!
but must be sacred fire made by the magician in ther
time-honoured way.J While the crops are growing,!
and before the feast of first-fruits is held, no fores^
tree may be cut, as that would be to wound thrf
spirit of vegetation, which, to primitive man, wouldl
be equivalent to wounding the god.

The sanctity of fire I have touched upon onlyl
incidentally, but in connection with it there f

Myer, KiUimanjaro. + G. M. TheaL I J. Sutton, MS. notes.

COURTESIES OF LIFE— DRESS iii

elaborate ritual and endless restrictions. Fire as such
is venerated. To kindle fire in an enemy's country
duriny war is to invite sunshine and prosperity on
one's foes. The sun is regai-ded as the father of fii'e.
The moon too has her votaries and the devil dances
of the Daraaras are usually observed when the moon
is full. So too the moon dances of West Africa,
where their devil-houses are roofed with human
skulls.* Daiices before engaging In war are lield
during moonlight, and must not be neglected on
pain of defeat and dire calamity. These and a
thousand other minute observances enter into the
daily religious life of the African, as they do into
that of all primitive peoples. And the cm'ious thing
is, not that they resemble customs once common
among civilised men, for the human mind in its
search for knowledge works by the same methods
in all lands, but that so much of what is ancient,
dating back far beyond historic time, should survive
among the nations of Europe.

A number of the observances referred to have
been illustrated by survivals in civilised countries.
These could be multiplied almost indefinitely.
Even the Pondomise law forbidding the cutting of
green wood while the crops are gi'owuig, has, or had
recently, its corresponding custom in the remote
Highlands of Scotland. I recollect hearing a Gaelic
rhyme which enumerated the trees which might not
be cut after " the opening of the leaf," The moun-
tain ash, if to be used as a talisman, must be cut
"while the leaf is in the bud." The willow must

Ill EELIGIUN AND MYTH

nut lie touched " after April day." I have Di>
meaiiH of" recovering the rhyme, hut the wonmn wlio
used to repeat It declared tluit in her youn^-r days
its directions were always observed by " wise
people," hut were now neglected by " a generation
whose end was near." The worthy matron had the
reputation of" knowing more than othere."

Another custom which survived in Scotland till
within the last seventy years, and which was doubt-
less a survival from veiy early times, was the
Tein egin or forced tire. This was kindled on May-
day, and each villager, all domestic fii-es having
been extinguished the previous evening, received a
brand from the sacred pile with which to kindle
their domestic hearths. Men who had failed to pay
their debts, or had been guilty of notorious acts of
meanness were refused the sacred fii-e, and this was
eijuivalent to expulsion from one's club. It was for
the time social ostracism. Nor were our Highlanders
ignorant of trial by ordeaL They tied their witches
hand and foot, after which they tossed them into a
])ond. If they floated they were taken out as the
oracle proclaimed their innocence, l)ut those of them
who sank were allowed to drown. No farther trial
was needed, foi- the ordeal never lied. So, too, the
Felata of West Africa ascertains if tlie king's death
was caused by his own wives by giving each member
of the harem a dose of poison. These same Felata
women, should they see the Juju or great fetish,
when carried in procession, had such accidents
as occasionally happen to pregnant niothere, and
Iwcaine sterile from that time. A similar fate

COURTESIES OF LIKE— DRESS 213

happened to Highland women who saw the iairy
bull. Blood bi-otherhood, which is so common in
Africa, bears a close resemblance to foster bi'other-
hood as Ijetween the heir to the chieftainship and
the clansman with whom he was reared. But to
eimmerate more of such minor customs would be
tedious. Their general tendency is all in one direc-
tion, and goes to show how slow is the process of
evolution through which religious thought must
pass before it reaches the higher conception of one
supreme God, and the substitution of a single Incar-
nation, revealing the will of God to man, for the
multitude of piviphets who claim to hold couvei-ae
with the unseen. From the ranks of these prophets,
as the oi-der recedes fi'om its original ideal and
purpose, meu arise who strike into new paths and
lead their fellows into the light of a higher concep-
tion of human life and the deetiny that awaits
humanity.

CHAPTER XIV

li EFOHMS

The foregoing pages are but the barest outline of i
subject of absorbing interest, not only to the eth.4
nologistj but to all who wish to have an acquaintatioi
with early processes of human thought. Tlie facti
ai'e culled from the litei-ature of Africa with <
Bioiial reference to the customs of other countriecLA
These are few in number, and detached from thewp
local setting, but they go to show that most of th«
customs that have survived must at one time havi
been common to the human family. From th(
days of tiie great dispersion, man has wandei-ed
hither and thither over the face of the earth, but
he has never relaxed his hold of the few facts with .
which he started. To his little stock-in-trade i
ideas he has clung with a tenacity only equalled bj^
that with which he clung to life. He has added t
his knowledge, adapted his ideas to new circuj
stances, discovered new facts and taken poseessia
of them, but parted with nothing. This of itself
shows how equally balanced his knowledge and hifl
necessities must have been in the early days,
could part with nothing, and continue to exist tiB
he had replaced it by something higher and bettel
The inventive faculty with which lie was endowei

enabled him to widen his knowledge, and call to his
aid factors and forces which has made a gulf between
savage men and civilised which is almost, if not
altogether, absolute and impassable.

But is the gulf unfathomable, or even as deep as
it appears to many earnest students to be? Is
there not much common to both which seems to
bind them, over a long-forgotten past, into one
whole ? May not the present gulf be bridged, and,
if bridged, how ? By what means can civilised man
most easily and speedily bring within reach of his
savage brother's understanding those facts which
constitute the difference between them ? How is pri-
mitive man to be persuaded that those forces which
civilised man calls to his aid are natural forces, con-
trolled by industrious application of what is ready
to any man's hand, rather than a more powei-fiil
species of magic ? Is it possible to convince an
African railway stoker that he is not generating
magic as he shovels coals into the fii-e-box ? And,
if possible, how is it to be done ?

" Supply him with blankets and flannel shirts,"
says one. In other words, extend European com-
merce to the remotest foi-est hut in Africa, and the
farthest headland of the northern seas, so that by a
mutual exchange of the African's ivory and gums,
and the Lapp's oil and tallow, tor our manufactures,
tliey may, wearing our garments, be endowed with
our spirit. " Send him Bibles," says a second, and
make known to him the revealed Will of G!od.
You only demoralise him by your trade ; he
ceases to be nature's nobleman, and he does not

2i6 RELIGION AND MYTH

become a creature of civilisation. Your trade and
dress do not suit his condition ; his only hope is in
being supplied with mental food and that food Divine
truth." " Leave him to himself," says a third ; " he
got on very well before the Bristol merchant found
him out and plantations yearned for his presence
among the sugar-canes. Besides, he made good pro-
gress in the interval until the Manchester spinner
re-discovered him, and the Hamburg rum merchant
began to pity his thirst." It is the old story of
too many physicians. Like the Sick Man on the
Bosphorus, every nation in Europe has a remedy,
but the patient is seldom consulted, if at all.

The last class of physicians may be summarily
dismissed. No man, if he be not a dreamer of im-
possible dreams, imagines it possible for one moment
for civilised man to leave savage man alone. The
inexorable evolution of events has brought them
together after thousands of years of separation and
wandering. Brothers still, re-united by a common
destiny, they stand face to face, and on the races
who know most, who can command agents to do
their will, and who can calculate the probable cur-
rents of the fixture, will depend the fate of those
who are still in the throes of the early struggles of
the human mind. The cry out to leave savage man
alone is but the language of ignorance or unchris-
tian sloth. The apathy it implies is foreign to the
healthy pulse of public opinion, and it may be left)
to the oblivion it deserves.

Of those who advocate commerce and industry
apart from mental and moral training, or moral

and religiouB iustructiou divoiced from industry and
commerce, each is earnest in the advocacy of the
methods which appear to jiromise success, and be-
lieves that in the adoption of its theories a panacea
would be found for all the ills that afflict savagedom.
Make him work, says tlie latest gospel, and then he
will come to feel his need of Euiopean commodities
and luxuries. This will extend our commerce and
benefit the savage, for then uui* business men and
gi-eat capitalists will have an interest in him. These
are not the exact words of introduction used by
men preaching this gospel, but they express its
purpose and meaning much more clearly than the
approved definitions. 1 should be sorry if anything
I may say should be construed against commercial
enterprise and the introduction of a knowledge of
the industrial arts into savage lauds. On the con-
trary, I believe in both as powerful factors in the
elevation of the human race, and that the spirit of
persevering industry and trade, when it lays hold of
a people, spurs them on towards both material and
mental development. But it is well to look at the
conditions fairly, and estimate things at their true
value. The savage is nature's own child. He may
have the cunning of the fox and the keenness of the
lynx's eye when in his native forest, but bring him
to a factory, and the glitter of a handful of glass
beads fills his imagination with dreams of wealth.
It may be that, being given to pombe, he asks for a
stimulant. The principal articles of barter being
trade rum and Holland scjuare-face, he i.s treated to
a drink of one of tliese, and tastes the fiery flavour.

ai8

EELIGION AKD MYTH

He feels their prompt action, and from that day be
is a doomed man. He has not the moral resolution
to resist this demon of devil-water, which is nioi-e
powerful than all his ancestral ghosts. In fact, he
does not know the meaning of moral control a^iiist
such a foe, and can see no good reason why he
should not indulge in a daily carouse. He has sat
by his chief's pombe-pot for hours and hours, and,
beyond a slight drowsiness, felt no other ill-effects,
and he does not understand why he should i-estrict
himself to a limited measure of the drink provided
by bis friend the white man, whose commerce is to
elevate him to take his place in the comity of
nations. The evil is done, and the man who visits
the factory adds one more life to the victims which
must be slain that ourcommei-ce may extend, and an
outlet be found for our siu'plus stock of bad siiirits.

Nor is this all. The tratfic that is cairied on with
drink as the medium of Imrter has far i-eaching eftects
beyond the moral deterioration of the native i-aces.
For nim a man will [lart with all he possesses, and
the tribe where the trade is introduced is speedily
reduced to beggary. This puts an end to profits, for
there is nothing to exchange for our commodities.
Where there was a loaring trade and men con-
gratulated themselves on the advent of prosj^erous
times, the fountains of supply suddenly dry ujj, and
the only evidence of European influence left is moral
ruin — this and a few blackened brick walls. It
is the old nursery fable of the goose that laid the
golden egg, only in Afi'ica it is no fable but stern fact.

But ruin apart, and admitting trade to be carried

on in the most appi-o^-etl manner with useful goods
and ornamental articles, is savage man likely to Ije
improved by it to the extent the advocates of this
exclusive gospel of comniei-ce seem to exjiect ?
There is a distinct limit to the influence the glitter of
heads and even cotton loincloths have. The former
please only till they become common ; the latter,
though an undoubted improvement upon bark cloth,
is but an indifterent substitute for a comfortable skin
garment, while it is less durable. As to Industry
prospering to a large extent under present condi-
tions, every man who knows Africa knows that is
impossible. To suppose that there is a moral virtue
in European garments, or in elaborate clothing of
any kind, as compai-ed with a scanty covering of bark
cloth or skill, is to make the same mistake as was
made by the Government of the good King George,
when they concluded thei-e must be a connection
between loyalty and breeches, and so put the High-
landers in trews by Act of Parliament. *

So far as our knowledge of African peoples goes,
the kind and amount of clothing worn does not seera
to have any influence on public morals. The
Waganda clothe fix>ni head to foot, and put a man
to death if lie walks alxiut naked in a ])ublic place,
but their morahty is very low, and offences against
the Seventh Comraandment are common every-
where". The Baris go almost naked, and they ai'e
in no way noted for immodesty, but rather the
opposite. The Gowane are exceptionally well clad,
but this does not prevent their having a custom that

220 RELIGION AND MYTH

a girl may not marry till she has borne a child. The
paternity of this child is not inquired into. That is
her own affair, and the husband has nothing to do
with it. The child is sold as a slave. Among the
Dyoor, with their scanty aprons, hardly equal to fig
leaves, domestic affection is very marked, and the
Bongo, who wear little clothing beyond a tail hang-
ing down behind, limit their men to a maximum of
three wives, a rare virtue in Afirica.

It seems then that the gospel of cloth is not likely
to raise the Afirican to a perceptibly higher level
than he is at present, if it be not accompanied by
other influences more* real and lasting, even if these
cannot be measxu^ out in fathoms or weighed by
pounds avoirdupois.

And it is those other influences which in the
ultimate result go to widen the market for European
commodities, and to make the demand steady and
sustained. Provinces which have been brought
under a measure of Christian influence are our best
customers. Every man who discards the savage
life has wants which only civilised men can supply.
These multiply as Christianity spreads, and when
it has gained something more than toleration for
itself, the influence it has upon the community is in
proportion to the general appreciation of the changed
conditions. The newly created wants develop new
industries, and these go to build up the general
prosperity of the community. This is not merely
speculative opinion as to what we might expect, but
a fact which has again and again been verified, and
of which Basutoland is a conspicuous example.

But there is the great gospel of work. Teach the
African to work ; compel him to labom-, and then
the products of his country will flow into our ware-
houses, iron and coffee, i-ubber and coal, copper and
cotton, nuts and oils, all valuable pi-oducts which lie
ready to his hand if he would only believe the gosjjel —
of work. It is of no consequence that his wants are
few, and that he can supply them with little labour ;
that he neither knows our luxuries nor desires to
become acquainted with them. If he only takes
to labour as the love of his soul, all these things will
adjust themselves to our satisfaction and his own
benefit. His soil has the habit of yielding crops
with little labour and hardly any tillage, but this is
only the greater reason why he should be taught the
dignity of steady agricultural labour. And when
the land is barren ; where rain seldom falls and
crops cannot be gi'own except in a few favoured
spots — well, make him work ; give him a spade and
teach him to till the land. The sober truth is that
this gospel of work taken by itself is an-ant nonsense.
Men must have a motive for work before they exert
themselves, and when that is present no people fail
to respond to the calls of duty. The Ancient
Greeks worked and that to some purpose, but they
were the most civilised people in the world, and
worked in response to the ideas which were cuiTent
among them. Englishmen work, and so do
Americans, but do Englishmen manufacture cloth
simply because they have the spinning and
weaving instinct ? Do they refrain from build-
ing baths such as the Romans built because the

222 RELIGION AND MYTH

architectural instinct is lying dormant? Do they
not manufacture because of an ulterior motive, the
acciunulation of wealth? And are not our cities
without such baths as the Ancients had, simply
because we do not wash so often, and there is not
the same demand for them ? These things we do,
and refiuin from doing, not from any instincts or
love of work for its own sake, but because it suits
our purposes so to act.

So the African can and does work when there is
an adequate motive to spur him on. He can labour
for Europeans when such labour is within his reach,
and when he sees that he can procure what is of
value in his eyes with the product of his laboiu*. He
can produce articles of commerce when these can
be disposed of to advantage. But suppose the
Waganda, in obedience to the call to work, produce
thousands of tons of surplus grain annually, will
their labour benefit either Europe or Africa ? Cer-
tainly not. It will simply rot, and even Waganda
are not mad enough for that. Or, if Mr. Stanley's
pigmies collect ground-nuts by the ton ; what next ?
Is each little man to walk a thousand miles, carry-
ing three or four nuts, worth about a groat, to
market, and run the risk of being eaten for his
pains ? Should the Baralongs produce iron to build
a fleet, what is to become of it ? Or of the ships
should they build them ? Lie on the stocks by the
edge of the forest waiting for a second Noah's
Deluge to float them ? When we talk of the African
being taught to work, our ideas somehow run along
the coast line, and apply not so much to Africa as

such as to Africa in relation to our own commerce
and profit. We forget that we labour because power-
ful motives impel us, and that these motives are
within ; the result of thought, and our appreciation
of the true proportions of things. Such motives are
absent in Africa, and the intelligence to understand
as we do is abluent. That we must first supply. I
once asked a steady and active farm-labourer if he
was fond of work, when the following colloquy took
place.

" I likes master weel enow, and tha'es geye guid
neeps."

" Yes," I replied ; " but do you like just to be
at work, because you do not want to sit at home ; to
get up in the morning and come out to the field."

" We's never axed, we hae our oors o' wark,"
was his laconic reply. No farther information was
to be had, so I bid my friend good morning, aud
tried a group of women working in the next field
with even more disappointing results. "Would
a nation of such men practise all the industrial
virtues the gospel of work expects, nay, demands in
the African ? Before men exert themselves in
industrial work they must realise that by such
means it is possible for them to advance in domestic
comfort, political importance, and national wealth.
And they must have ati understanding that these
are desirable things to possess. In the case of the
African this last question is an important one. Does
he know or understand a condition of domestic
comfort higher than being allowed to live at peace
and cultivate his fields ? Do his ideas of political

224 RELIGION AND MYTH

importance go beyond his tribe being in a position
to make raids with safety and success upon his
neighbours ? And as for national wealth, when that
consists of cattle liable to be stolen or driven awav
wholesale before his very eyes, he is not likely to
exert himself, as is demanded of him, to increase their
number. Only after a long preliminary training,
extending over several generations, will men living
in primitive simplicity understand the value of
labour as civilised men have learned to under-
stand it.

Thought has always preceded material imiprove-
ments, and these have often come halting centuries
behind. The man who gave birth to the new
thought saw his contemporaries despise his wisdom,
while they looked upon himself as a fanatic or mad-
man. Seventy years ago it was proposed to fertilise
soil by means of electricity. The project was turned
to ridicule by a practical farmer who described the
process as '*muckin' the Ian' wi' thunner." It is
now admitted tardily that there was truth in the
thinker's idea, though he did not understand much
of the practical mysteries of" muckin' Ian'." At the
present day the gospel of work is to the African
simply " muckin' the Ian' wi' thunner."

Another method for the elevation of the savage is
to send him the Bible, or in other words to preach to
him the doctrines of the various Eiu'opean Churches,
using the Bible as an authoritative text-book fix>m
which there can be no appeal, and whose every
precept must be accepted once for all on pain of
Heaven's displeasiu:*e. " Teach him," say they, " the

Woi"d of Grod and leave it to work its own purposes.
It is the leaven, the only leaven, that can afl'ect for
good the whole lump of heathenism." Let it be
candidly admitted that such statements contain
important truth. Let not tlie place occupied by
Holy Scripture in the moral and spiritual elevation
of mankind be minimised or disparaged. It is the
only objective revelation of God we have, and the
experience of two thousand years has showu it to
be adapted to the needs of the human conscience.
What philosophy faOetl to do has been done by
the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth ; teaching at
once so simple and sublime that no other has ever
approached it- It stands unrivalled among all
systems as He stands peerless among men. In
any attempt made to raise men to a higher and
purer life, the Gospel, in the full catholic sense,
must ever be the chief factor. Without it civilisa-
tion lacks the most powerful of motives, and is apt
to be but a thin veneer hiding unsightly rents and
scars. But though the statement contains an im-
portant truth, it is not the whole truth. It is
true, no doubt, we have the Apostles who preached
the doctrines of the Gospel in their entii'ety, and
insisted on an immediate and full acknowledgment
of their lofty claim. Nor did they, to any con-
siderable extent, insist on other branches of know-
ledge. These were, however, assumed. But with
all this, few of their converts reached the Ideal of
the Christian life as the Apostles understood it,
and as it Is accepted in modem times.

Then the Apostles addressed, not jirimltive men

226 RELIGION AND MYTH

still in the shackles of barbarism, but the most
advanced and cultured peoples on the face of the
earth. The Jews had a unique history and
experiences, and the lofty morality taught by their
prophets put them in a position to understand, even
if they did not appreciate, apostolic doctrines and
the purity of life demanded by the teaching of the
founder of Christianity. They were widely scat-
tered throughout the East. Their sacred books
were known everyivhere, and thus the Apostles had
the nucleus of an attentive congregation wherever
they went. They invariably entered into the
Jewish synagogue on their arrival in a strange
town.

There they found an audience already familiar
with prophetic revelation, and eagerly waiting for
a farther development of it. No Jew regarded
Old Testament Scripture as having reached finality.
They were, besides, saturated with the civilisation of
the East. A long captivity made them familiar
with Babylonian astronomy. It gave them that
taste for trade and finance which is still charac-
teristic of their race ; an illustration of the per-
sistency of ideas when once firmly rooted in the
national mind.

The influence of Jewish thought and literature
must have been considerable, and men in no way
friendly to Messianic hopes would be influenced by
it less or more. When a new form of religion was
presented to such men they would, in the first
case at least, give it a respectful hearing and care-
fully weigh its claims. The civilised habit of

thought current at the time would ensure a full
measure of discussion fi^oni the philosophical stand-
point. This gave it an undoubted advantage.
Truth seeks the Hght and courts discussion, and
the more the teaching and claims of Jesus were
subjected to criticism and discussed on their merits,
the wider would the sphere of His usefuluess
become.

Then the Apostles made it their business to
thoroughly know the peoples they addressed.
Whether Jews, Greeks, Syrians, or Homans, the
early teachei-s of Christianity met them on their
own gi'ound, and adapted their methods to suit
the pecuharities of each district or town. Their
writings clearly show that they made themselves
familiar with the diought, religion, and superstitions
of those they sought to influence, and when they
advanced the claims of their Master to universal
dominion over the hearts of men, it was to displace
beliefe the folly of which they were able to show.

Nor was this all. The Greeks, who ruled the
world of thought, were the most learned people in
the world. Poetry, art, sculptui'e and architecture
attained among them a degree of excellencv which
has never been surpassed, while their philosophy
commands the admiration of the world after a lapse
of thousands of years. A philosophy which lives
still. Such were the people to whom the apostles
-addressed the message they had for the world. A.
people saturated with religious and philosophic
thought, and fully alive to all the advantages of
civilised habits of life.

k '^»1

328 RELIGION ANr> MYTH

Veiy dift'eretit were those to whom M«
addressed his prophetic measage when he went |
from Horeh to dehver them out of lx)iida^. But
even they were far removed from the stage at which
the savage stands to-day. If they had loet the
early traditions of their own race they were
familiar with all that Egyptian i-ellgion and ritual
could teach them, and knew what of civilisation the
land of their sojourn contained. They were at that
stage of development when new ideas would be
seized upon, and held tenaciously by a large number,
and so become in time part of the national thought.
At an earlier period and in a ruder age, the father
and founder of the Hebrew nation, moved by
impulse which struggled for expression, left his own
country and became a wanderer in obedience to this
conviction which he had. What thoughts of deity
struggled within him and found expression in wortk
seem to have been lost or forgotten by liis descend-
ants, till revived by Moses, whose ethical teaching' j
during the early days of the wildeniess journey was
of the most elementary kind. " Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is one God,"

Round this ceutml truth he grouped his doctrines
and expanded their conceptions of deity. These were
the spirituality of God ; His purity and Itoliuess. i
The cloud and the fire were the familiar emblems of!
his teaching. By such means did lie lead their J
minds away from the Egyptian worship to a truerJ
and higher conception of the One God.

Now to savage man these are aljsolutely new con-
ceptions, but they are such as he can leach by way '

REFORMS 329

of analogy and comparison. His own ideas of public
and individual mumlity, on certain lines, help him,
and his conceptions of the splints of greatly revered
ancestors lead up to an appreciation of the idea of a
holy, just, and upright God. " The ancestors never
do wrong" is a cai-dinal article of African fiiith.
Beyond this he cannot travel unaided. A man god
he can undei-stand, and one may develop any day
under his very eyes. A God man is beyond his
mental vision. Nothing corresponding to this was
ever known to happen. Nor did the Hebrews for
many a weary generation after the Exodus reach
the point at which we expect to find the savage
ready to join us. It is true many embrace Chris-
tianity, and are in some respects patterns worthy of
om- imitation, because they regulate their conduct by
the religion they profess, but as regai'ds an intel-
lectual undei-standuig of, or an attempt at under-
standing, the conceptions of deity common in Europe,
few attain to that on first emerging from savage life
and the faith of millenniums. The form of their
thought is something hke this : — " Tlie Loixl Jesus
was holy, pure, sinless, good. God loved him above
all other men. The spirit of God was his, God dwelt
in him, and he speaks to us the words of God." If In
this estimate of the conceptions of the Incarnation
by men emerging from the savage life, I can be shown
to be in eiTor, no one will be better pleased than I
shall be myself. That many native Christians can
glibly repeat our church formulas I am aware, and
the missionary who is content with that as an
evidence of an understanding of Christian doctrine is

I
I

230 RELIGION AND MYTH

a happy man. He will bum with indignation at J
native Christians being traduced, as he will feel J
certain they are, by what has been said. But if ho I
will take the trouble to occupy the same hut, with I
half a dozen of his deacons or other office-bearers on (
a Sunday night, and, pretending to be fast asleep,
listen to a discussion of his own sermon, he will ]
get a rude awakening. The oftener he does this the
clearer will lie hi.s light if the greater his surprise.
By such means, and by casual questions to men off
their guard, did I learn what little I know of native
thought pure and unadulterated. The results of my
experience I have faithfully portrayed so far as that
could be done in a few sentences.

Standing face to face with such facts the questions
which meet us on the threshold are not to be
answered in the airy manner suggested by those who J
would send Bibles in countless thousands to sava
lands, or who would supjdy each man with a pick and I
a mattock. To make an impression on any people it \
is necessary to reach down to their level (rf |
thought, and become literally what St. Paul pro- J
fessed to be, "all things to all men." If we are to J
win primitive man to a higher and better life,
in other words, if he is to escape extermination, I
we must first of all know him. It is said there is 1
bit of the savage in every man, but this has been I
covered over with so many layers of lacquer that!
the child of the forest fails utterly to recognise as 8
brother his civilised visitor.

When we have arrived at such knowledge of thoA
savage's thought as we can attain to, our next caref

REFORMS

IB to bring before hie mind such conceptions as he
can appreciate. The gulf between civilised man
and savage is too great for the latter to realise at a
bound, that it is possible for him to attain to all that
the former has attained to. We, on the other hand,
are so impatient of results that we expect the native
to take kindly, in a single generation, to what it has
taken us millenniums to reach. We forget how long
it took the world to make a sewing-machine, and that
we live in the age of Singers', while the African
represents that of awls and sinews.

But if the first facts and truths presented to savage
man must be simple, they must be none the less
practical on that account. It is not necessaiy to
denounce his customs as wrong and all wi-ong, for in
■ point of fact they are not. There are certain facts
and ideas common to all men, and these can be made
the basis of instruction. For example. All natives
regard theft as an evil and a crime ; theft from a
fellow tribesman, or su]3erior being a special ag-
gravation indicative of deepest depravity. So, too,
are acts leading to war, arson, murder, and many
more. Here we have something with which to begin.
A moral foundation, based on a native philosophy,
which all admit as true. But even here the savage
has to learn much. It is wrong for a neighbouring
tribe to cross the border and steal his cattle, but it
somehow does not occur to primitive man that it is
wrong for himself to cross that same border and
steal his neighbour's cattle.

Passing from the moral code to conceptions of
deity, we are on less solid ground, and opinions may

232 RELIGION AND MYTH

differ as to tlie best raethotk to lie followed. Ifc
seemB to accoixl witli reason that the same steps
should be followed as in the moral code. One God,
supreme, and omnipotent. Men responsible to Him,
and their actions having a moral value ai'e Idei
which the savag'e can readily gi'asp. When we come
to deal with the future, and the connection between
this life and man's destiny, we are on less familiar
^■ound, and primitive man is utterly at sea. The
ideas are new, and nothing in his philosophy helps
to explain them. The whole is a " white man's
thing." The white man has, unfortunately, so many
incomprehensible "things," some of them wise, some
foolish, that this is apt to be tbe end of ai-gunieut and
of effort. If it is a " white man's thing," pure and
simple, it is no use to try, for his magic is the more
powerful. An intelligent and, I believe, truly pious
man once said to me, " Master tells us to do, do; try
again till we can be like the white man, we, or our
grandchildren. How can that beT I heard my
missionary say many times we are the race of Ham,
and in the Bible a cui-se was upon them. That cut-se
is on us. That is why we are not like the white
men. It is no use to try." These were his exacfc
words, and if they prove nothing else they prove
this : — That ethnology is not a suitable study for
primitive man, nor for some missionaries. Perhaps,
it is not suitable for public preaching to civilised man
or savage. It may prove too much or too little.

With the gi'owtli of thought, when new ideaa
become connuon property, primitive men will raovft

forwaitl with the progress of the world. The pixi-
giuBS should now be much more rapid than when the
Greek niiud worked its way to a philosophy which
still lives. The results and experience of the past
affords an immense levera^, and what we need is,
that the Christian thought of the Western world,
and with it, the ideas of life, private and national
which are consistent with such thought, should be
presented to the savage mind In the form most
attractive to men, and as they advance the dawn of
a new intelligence will come with the opening up of
a new world of thought and work. As new ideals
fill the mind, the old wUl be displaced and forgotten,
as has already happened to systems which crumbled
under then- own weight. The traces of these
vanished systems carry us back to a [leriod so remote,
and conceptions so simple, that the philosophy of
the Africa of to-day is an advanced system com-
pared to it.

Much of this work will fall to the lot of the
Christian Chiux;h, and on her- wisdom, and the pru-
dence and practical sagacity of her agents, the
progress of the native races largely depends. Eth-
nology may not be a suitable study tor savage man,
but he who would t«ach his primitive brother can
have no better mental equipment than a thorough
understanding of the processes by which nations
develop, and the paths that have in the past led to
progi-ess. The Church that first adopts for her
intending missionaries the study of Comparative
Religion as a substitute for subjects now taught, will

234 RELIGION AND MYTH

lead the van in the path of true progress in that
department of Christian work which has in it the
greatest possibilities for the fiiture of the world. It
will save the missionary years of comparatively use-
less labour in the discovery of facts for himself, and
from the first bring him into touch with the thought
of savage men.

INDEX

Abyssinia, priest of Alfai, 17 ; Paganism in, 42

Accra, king's father's spirit causes earthquakes, 177 ; consequent sacri-
fices, 178

Acts of worship, 184

Africans regulate conduct by faith, 207

Alfai, priest of, 17, 18

Ancestors, worship of, 36

Animals, sacred, middng compact by, 179

Ashantee, annual festivals of, 76 ; messengers to spirit land, 77 ; dances
and abrogation of law, 78

Athens, 2

Australians, 9

Austrian, 9

Balaam, 100

Babylonia, temporary king crucified, 61

Bacchus worship, 47

Balac, 100

Balder, death of, 56

Bantama, festival, 79 ; mausoleum of kings, 79 ; messages to spirit land, 80

Baralongs, subjects, persons the king's, 14 ; oracles, 163

Barber's art, its dangers, 94

Burds sing of valour, 204

Baris, no clothing, 209

Bavaria, tree worship, 41

Bechuanas, 6 ; religion, 38

Bedouins, fighting wind, 9

Bible, 224

Black art, votaries cast no shadow, 30

Bodio, bouse of sanctuary, 177

Bongo, expulsion of demons, 124 ; oracle, 163

Borne, mermaid of, 191

Branmanism, 167

Breton, fiffhtinK wind, 9

Briid's bed, mwng, 141

Buddhism, i67

Bulgarians, making rain, 1 1

Bullfights, 137

BuUom, oracles, 162

Burmah, woman's position, 196

Calicut, king killed every twefth year, 29
Cannibalism, acquired taste, 208
Cattle-killing, mania, 69
Ceremonial, purity, 90

CircDmciBloo, 44 ; not performed nitb knife, 46, 90
ClothltiK, influence of, 1:9
Cam BpTrit:, killed, 144
Oorp Creadh, 3, 4
Courtesies, 204

Daiiomev. king's name not mentioned, 14; prieat desconds to lower
regioDii, St ; klne ontets tower world in state. 82; demoDB driven out
wholeflale, loj ; bestowing wives, i8j _

Dakota, gods of mortal, 96 ^M

Dancus, moon, 42; Ashaatee, 76 ; warrior, 138 ^M

Daatli and sleep itame, 34 H

DeiScation of king, 6 m

Hcmons, enter animals, toz; expelled bj magi<

Devils, dootrlDB of. 81 ; " laid," Jo8 ; '■ rais
girls, HI ; incarnate. n6; water, 3iS

Didne man, killed to prevent loss of god spirit, 38

Diviner, incantations, tear of. j6i

Dinka, gaardlng against evils, 86 ; expel demons b; gaile,

Doctor, witch. :i8; rain, 10

Dodola, II

Dongolowa IwUc. liow Hougbt in marriage, 174

Dreatn, KalBr, 65

Dreiis, Monbutto. 209

Drinkine, King Chop. 17S

Druids, Midsummer fires, 57

BOBO, concealed In nn ark, 35

Faisiek, 130

Feoaaditj-, 6; goddoas of, 42
Festivals, ,yam. 136 : Pondo, 136
Fetlsli, human skulls, 47 ; power. 49
Fiona, girls drive out devil, 1 1 1
Kre, sacred, not kindled, 311
Fladda, 9

Funerals, mook. cheating the devil, 155 ;
wives, 156

Dallas, idll the king every eight years, 26 ;

men. 40; sacrifloes, 41 sacred anim^, 4I'

bj horse- whipping. 104
GiDgaoe, high pnest, 14
Ood man, 339

Oods, compounding with, 71
Oomba, sacrifice paradod. 76
Gondokoro. food bewitched, 87
Oowone marriage. 219
QrasB, king, 41

Greece, i ; house-building, 35
Greeks, ii ; legend, 197; ruled thonght, 217
Ouilds, secret, 158; priest!;, tj9

Congo. Uganda. tdlUsg of

Ham, 132

Hannab, ber prayer, 73

Harvest festivals, aaideo, 140-143

Head, BBnctity of. 93 ; uuictity of bail, 94

Headless Hugh, story of, 1S7

Hebrews, prophets of, ijo

Hiii, rirer spirit, calls soals, 35

H1abie», 10

Hob, CDStoms, 158

Hospitality, king reaponsible for, zoS

Hottentots, 9; sacrifices, 117

Hunt, 5

INCAKTI, river spirit, 35

Incarnation, of founders of rsliglc

Intemo, descent to, 81

Iron, its dangers, 90 ; utility, 91 ; smelting,

Kapfib, 6, 9 ; dreams, 65
Kangomba, god of Mount Socid, 133
Kaejangeyeme, 73
Khonds, 40

EiUlnianjaro, 14 ; witchcraft, S6
King, 2; divine monaiohs, 17
Jirinity, 26

delicacy of organism, :

Eordufan marriages, a

Kra, kings' spies or souls, 131

Kada Lnbare, bead wife of great barems, 73

Labour, 222 ; love of, 223

Lakonea, succession law, 16

Lnmech, 91 : defied taboo, 99

Laongo, king worshipped called God, iSj his restriotions, 25 ; may not be

seen eating, Sj
Lightning, doctor of, 149
Lithuania, tree worship, 41
Loch Aline, 5
Loma, God of Bongo, 50

Lubare, 1 1 ; person possesfied by Maknsa, 15 ; offerings to, 74
Lack, 5

Masic, K: roots, 123

Ha^cian, 7S ; Manganga can soar in air, detect by divination, 177

Maiden, Scottish, 140; Lcchaber, 141; Dantii, 142; Bavaria, 143

MakesB, spirit of Nyanza, 15

Man-god, 3 ; sacrificed, 62 ; substitution, 63

Mariners, 8

Marriage, eattb, 40; Dongolwa, 174; Eordufan. aoi ; price of wives.

May-pole, a survival, 51

238 INDEX

Hen of hiiie, devil bought, 193
UoiUb, sacriBoe to Tari, 51 ; how offered, 52
Mermaid, deaoendant of. 191

Alikado, descent of, 11 ; sanctit; of olothea, SS ; of food, S9; [
ground, 196

Mirrors, d

Hitto. burial, dgns, 175

Mlungu, 50; anoeator, god, i^_

MnDbQttu, Icing divine, ii ; women oggreiiBive, 199 ; do domestic aniia

CQDiiibalisni, 20S
Horalitj, 30l

Morema, Beclinana i^od, cunning', 3X
Moreo, king of. 150
Hoses, tMohing, 228

Mteia, his aDcestors' tombB, 74 ; hia gt'norositj, 200
Muanto, earth divinltr, 43
Harder, compounding lor, 71

Nanna, wife of Balder, 56

Nende. 73

Neptune, 9

New Briton, H

New Zealand, superstition of, 87

NLam-Niam, no religion, 125 ; bnria! custom, 175

Old Towk, king's soul kept in grove, 17S ; devotion, 185

Omens, Zuln, ^^^ogo, 70

Ornclen, Bongo, Bullom, 162 ; Gallas, Baralong, Wajao, 163

Ordeal, trial by, 123-126

OvaoDti, tree worsbip. earth marriage, 41

pAtAVBR, witch, woman, wuce, 126

Perthshire, messages to spirit land. So

Peruvians, 139

Pig. S

Pondo, abcogatloD of law, 78 ; festivals, 136

Priest, 7

Prophetess, detective of wizards, 122 ; Wanika, 176 ; majdirect IjUbftre, 199 \

Prophets, God-possessed, 65 ; ghoetlf coansellers, 66 ; growth of order, 146;
rivalry, 14S ; fnuotlons, 148; Jewish, 150* false, 150; foretelling
events. 153, 160; practising augury, 154; duty to dead, 154 ; wise men
of nation, 169; prejudice a^cainst, 170

Pvirm, processions ot, 13

QuBEH, spring, of Bohemia, 59

Rab, Galla custom. a6

Haln-dootor, 10; Servian, 11

Rat hair, 6 ; banning rats, 84

Reforms, works, blankets, Bibles, 215

Religion, i ; none, 125 ; acts of, 126 ; ordinary life,

Rice, mother, Peruvian, 139

Roots, m^o, 123

INDEX 239

Ross-shire, rag on branoh bans evil from water, 112
Rabea, little leaf man of, 59
Russia, 10

Sacred Animals, 38

Sacred horn, 182

Sacrifice, haman« 39 ; animal, 66 ; thank-offering, 67 ; Qomba, 76 ; Hot-
tentot, 117

Samson, 189

Savage, 6^ 11

Second sight, 153

Senjero, women only sold as slaves, 39 ; iron pillar, 39; slave drowning, 41

Servians, rain-making, 1 1

Shark Point, king of, secluded, 23

Shoa, worship of king o^ 14

Shony, Celtic god, 58

Siamese, 195

Sleep and death same, 34

Sogomoso, heir secladed, 196

Sorcery, expulsion of soul, 36

Soul, stolen or strayed, 28, 35 ; journeying, 34 ; selling, 36 ; expulsion, 36 ;
danger of, 185 : safe keeping, 186 ; in pearl, 188 ; in parrot, 189 ; in

^ egg, 189

South Sea islander, 2, 5

Spirits, worship of, 36 ; inhabiting rivers, 37 ; evil, 37

St. Paul, 230

Stimulant, 217

Substitutes, sought by kings, 31

Swazies, 10

Sympathetic magic, 3, 4, 6

Talisman, for witchcraft, 130

Tari, goddess of Khonds, 51

Tein egin, customs connected with, 212

Theft, prevention, 42

Thieves, 6 ; disguises, 37

i;hunder, 7

Toad-day, 50

Tornado, 7

Totems, 38, 190

Tradition, persistency of, 170

Transformation to animals, 127

Trees may not be cut, 210; customs of Scotland, 211

Trial by ordeal, 123, 126

Tyrolese legend, 197

Uganda, funerals, 156 ; succession, 157

Unyoro, king killed by his wives, 29 ; claimants fight for sucoession, 175

Urine, 7

Vedic, religion, 167

Waoanda, omens, 154 ; clothing, 219
Wagogo, II ; omens, 72

240 INDEX

WahQDga, killiDg councillors to accompany dead chief, burying wife
alive, 156

Wakamba, steal brides, 176

Waneka, expel devils by music, 104 ; arrival at manhood, 176 ; pro-
phetess, 176 ; entering council, 178

Wanyoro, bewitched by footmarks, 87

War, enemies' heart eaten, 68 ; odour of sacrifice inhaled by gods, 69

Wanior, dance, 138

Water, red, 128 ; bitter, 129

Wathen, Druid offerings, 57

Wayao, oracles, 16^

Wazeramas, expel demons by music, 103

Witchcraft, causing death, 70 ; punishment, 70 ; dangers of, 84

Witches, 8 ; who were? 115 ; doctors, 118 ; palaver, 126; trial, 212

Wizard, 9; discovered, 115, 120

Woman, palaver, 1^6, 194 ; regents, war doctor, may represent god-life, 195 ;
danger of blood, 196

Work, panacea for ills, 217

Tam festivals, Ashan tee, 136; laws abrogated, 140

Yatuk, 8

Yoruba, evil spirits kept outside gates, 86

Zbnana, 202

Zulus, 10 ; subjects' persons the king's, 14; dread of reflecting surfaces, 35 ;
omens, 72 ; girls, 196

I'KIMKD BY BALLANTYNB, HANSON AND CO.
LONDON AND KDINBUKCH.

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