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SPIRITISM
AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD
IN ANTIQUITY
•n^^>-
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS
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r
SPIRITISM
AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD
IN ANTIQUITY
BY
LEWIS BAYLES PATON, Ph.D., D.D.
NETTLETON PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS AND CRITICISM
HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
i?at 33.
V
Ifo. lo- 22-
J13eto gotfe
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1921
All rights reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Copyright, 1921,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and printed. Published October, 1921.
Press of
J. J. Little & Ives Company
New York, U. S. A.
TO
MY COLLEAGUES IN THE FACULTY OF
HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION
IN MEMORY OF THE YEARS OF
WORK AND FELLOWSHIP TOGETHER
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
During the last quarter of a century interest in the
phenomena of Spiritism, or Spiritualism as it is popu-
larly called, has been growing steadily throughout the
Western world. The Societies of Psychical Research
in England, Germany, France, and America have gath-
ered a vast body of data, and have subjected these to
searching criticism. The results of these investigations
have been published in the journals of the various socie-
ties, and have been popularized in the writings of such
authors as Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. F. W. H. Myers,
Professor James Hyslop, Professor William James.
Whereas formerly an attitude of Sadducean scepticism
toward all the alleged facts of Spiritism was maintained
by religion and by rationalism alike, at the present time
no doubt is felt concerning the existence of hypnosis,
somnambulism, automatic action, ecstasy, significant
dreams, visions, auditions, telepathy, telesthesia, mind-
reading, foreboding of the future, and all the other
abnormal phenomena of the psychical life. The only
difference of opinion is in regard to the interpretation of
these phenomena. Many scientific investigators think
that they can be explained completely by the influence of
living minds upon themselves and upon other minds;
other equally scientific investigators hold that this expla-
nation is unsatisfactory, and that the ancient theory of
the activity of disembodied spirits alone accounts for all
the facts.
The events of the recent world-war have awakened
widespread popular interest in the discussion of this
question. Millions of choice young men of all civilized
vii
viii PREFACE
lands have died in the conflict; and their mourning fami-
lies and friends have had to face anew the ancient ques-
tion, "If a man dieth, shall he live again?" Many who
are destitute of religious faith, or who have found their
faith unequal to the strain, have sought eagerly for
psychical evidence of the continued existence of their
beloved after death. Accordingly, the last five years
have witnessed a wave of popular enthusiasm for the
study of Spiritism. The lectures and the writings of such
literary men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir A. Conan Doyle,
and Mr. Maurice Maeterlinck, have been received with
enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic. The planchette,
the gazing-crystal, and the seance have been cultivated
by multitudes with extraordinary assiduity, in the hope
of obtaining through them scientific proof of immortality.
Under these circumstances it has seemed to the present
writer that it would be both interesting and timely to pre-
sent a study of similar psychical manifestations in
antiquity. All the occurrences that are associated with
modern Spiritism have been known from the earliest
times, and have been interpreted as due to the influence
of discarnate spirits. The great historic religions of
China, India, Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Israel, Greece,
and Rome are full of so-called "spiritistic" phenomena,
of beliefs based upon these facts, and of rites of worship
based upon these beliefs. No scientific study of the sub-
ject can be complete without taking into consideration the
ancient as well as the modern evidence. The aim of the
present work is to present in outline the main elements of
the ancient evidence.
In the fields of Semitic religion and of the religions of
Israel, Greece, and Rome, the author has been able to
work at first hand from the sources; in the cases of the
religions of China, India, Egypt, and some of the Indo-
European races, he has been obliged to depend upon the
researches of others. He has endeavoured to follow the
best authorities, whose works are cited in the footnotes;
PREFACE ix
and he has submitted his results to the criticism of special-
ists. In the chapter on Spiritism in China he gratefully
acknowledges the assistance of Rev. Lewis Hodous, B.D.,
Professor of Chinese in the Kennedy School of Missions
of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, and of Edward
K. Thurlow, B.D., missionary of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church in Wuhu, China. In the chapters on the Indo-
Europeans he has had the expert aid of Leroy Carr
Barrett, Ph.D., Professor of Sanskrit in Trinity College,
Hartford, Connecticut. The chapter on Spiritism in
Egypt would have been impossible without constant use
of the Ancient Records of Egypt, and the Development
of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, by James
Henry Breasted, Ph.D., Professor of Egyptology in the
University of Chicago. Dr. Breasted has also kindly
given the author the benefit of his criticism of this chap-
ter before publication. Thanks also are due the editors
of the Biblical World for permission to use certain mate-
rial on the Hebrew conception of the future life, by the
author of the present book, that appeared in successive
numbers of this journal from January to May, 19 10.
In matters connected with Armenian religion and
Armenian equivalents of Indo-European words much
help has been received from Professor Mardiros
Harootioon Ananikian, S.T.M., of the Kennedy School
of Missions. The chapters on "Immortality in Judaism"
and "Immortality in the Teaching of Jesus" have received
the valuable criticism of Professor Edward Everett
Nourse, D.D., and of Professor Melanchthon Williams
Jacobus, D.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary. In
all stages of the work the author has been assisted by his
wife, and without her aid this book could never have
been completed.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Spiritism in Primitive Religion .... I
II. Spiritism in China x 6
III. Spiritism among the Indo-Europeans . . . 60
IV. The Cult of the Dead among the Indo-
Europeans 114
V. Spiritism in Egypt 152
VI. Spiritism among the Early Semites . . . 200
VII. Spiritism in Babylonia and Assyria . . . 211
VIII. Earliest Hebrew Conception of the Dead . 232
IX. Babylonian Influence on Hebrew Concep-
tions of the Dead 240
X. Worship of the Dead by Israel .... 248
XL Early Opposition to the Worship of the
Dead by Israel 257
XII. Prophetic and Legal Denial of the Vitality
of Spirits 268
XIII. New Theories of Immortality in Post-Exilic
Judaism 280
XIV. The Teaching of Jesus in Regard to Im-
mortality 290
Index 309
SPIRITISM
AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD
IN ANTIQUITY
SPIRITISM AND THE CULT OF
THE DEAD IN ANTIQUITY
CHAPTER I
SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION
From the earliest period of human history no literary
records have come down to us. In lack of direct historical
evidence, accordingly, we are compelled to turn to the
indirect testimony of comparative religion. Beliefs and
rites that existed among all ancient peoples, and that
still exist among savages, may safely be regarded as
primitive. Applying this method to the study of the
earliest conception of the future life, we reach the follow-
ing conclusions :
a. The Distinction between Soul and Body. — Death
is the "king of terrors," yet it is the greatest teacher of
our race. Without it men could never have learned the
difference between body and spirit; and without the idea
of spirit, God could not have been conceived, and religion
would have been impossible. When men first began to
think, they were confronted with the fact of death. Their
companion, felled by a blow, or smitten by a disease, lay
prostrate before them. In outward appearance he was
the same, but he was unconscious of all that they did, and
he could not respond either by word or by motion. It
was evident even to the most rudimentary intelligence
that an invisible something had gone out of the man.
This intangible element the Zulus, some tribes of Ameri-
can Indians, and other savages identify with the shadow
cast by the body during life ; similarly the Greeks and the
2 SPIRITISM i
Romans spoke of the "shades." Closely allied is the
Egyptian conception of the ka, or "double," that accom-
panied the body during life as its exact counterpart. The
Andaman Islanders and some other equally low races
identify the immaterial part of man with the reflection
seen in still water, or with the image formed in the pupil
of another person's eye. The Australian bushmen regard
it as a sort of fog or smoke. Most primitive peoples
observed the fact that breathing ceases at death, and
therefore identified the vital principle with the breath.
In many languages the words for "spirit" denote pri-
marily "breath," or "wind," e.g., Skr., prdna; Gr.,
pneuma, anemos; Lat., spiritus, anima; Germ, and Eng.,
Geist, ghost, which are etymologically connected with
gust.
b. The Continued Existence of the Disembodied
Soul. — Primitive man believed not only in the distinction
between soul and body but also in the ability of the soul
to survive the catastrophe of death. The Paleolithic
cave-dwellers of the Quarternary period in Belgium and
France were contemporary with the mammoth, the cave-
lion, and the cave-bear. Their skulls show that they were
nearer the apes than any existing race of man. They
were dressed in skins, and armed only with the rudest
undressed stone implements; yet they placed with their
dead ornaments, tools, arms, and food for use in the
other life, and celebrated funeral feasts in their honour.
The same was true of the cave-dwellers of the
Neolithic age. 1 They buried their dead in caves ; or when
these were lacking, made dolmens, or box-like structures
of stone slabs to receive them. In the stone that covered
the entrance a small hole was drilled to allow the spirit
access to the tomb and egress from it. The corpse was
placed in the contracted position of an unborn child, with
its head resting upon its knees, thus perhaps expressing
the belief that death is birth into another life. In the
1 D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 14-19.
i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 3
caves of Mentone the bones are painted red with oligist
or cinnabar, probably as a substitute for blood, the idea
being widespread that blood infuses new energy into the
dead. In the Neolithic caves of France the skulls of the
dead are trepanned. Whether this was intended to
facilitate the entrance and egress of the spirit, or to make
an amulet for the survivors, it bears witness to some
sort cf cult of the dead. In the Neolithic caves of
Palestine, that were inhabited by a pre-Semitic race,
offerings of food and drink were deposited with the dead
and their bones were used as amulets. 2 Anthropologists
are agreed that no savage race exists which does not
believe in some sort of immortality and practise some
rites in honour of the dead. 3 In view of these facts, it is
evident that immortality was one of the original beliefs
of our race.
In the creation of this belief the phenomena of sleep
and of dreams must have played a large part. In sleep,
as in death, the soul apparently leaves the body; yet it
presently returns, and consequently must have continued
to live during the interval of unconsciousness. In dreams
one seems to visit distant regions. The universal savage
interpretation of this experience is that the soul actually
leaves the body and journeys to these places, for to the
savage dreams are just as real as waking experiences. It
is dangerous to waken one suddenly, for the absent spirit
may not have time to get back to the body. In swoons
also, or unconsciousness resulting from disease, the soul
apparently leaves the body; yet it returns, if the man
recovers. If the soul can survive such temporary separa-
tions from the body, why may it not survive a permanent
separation? The savage believes that it does. When
death occurs, he at first refuses to recognise anything
different from sleep or a swoon. He tries to coax the
3 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, pp. 347ff.
8 Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 69; Hastings, Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics, art. "Ancestor Worship."
4 SPIRITISM I
soul back; and only when dissolution begins, does he at
last admit that death has occurred. From this point of
view death differs from sleep or swoon only in the fact
that the soul has lost the power, or the wish, to return to
its body. It does not perish through death any more than
through transient states of unconsciousness. Primitive
man was unable to think of himself as ceasing to exist;
and, strictly speaking, it is impossible even for us of to-
day. In many languages there is no word for "die," only
for "be killed." In dreams also one saw the forms of
those who had died, and the inference was natural that
their spirits survived and returned to visit friends. All
the phenomena of apparitions, levitation, hypnotism,
clairvoyance, etc., that are known to modern psychical
research, and that are given a spiritistic interpretation by
many today, were known to primitive man, and doubtless
helped also to give support to the belief in the continued
existence of the disembodied spirit. 4
c. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — Although,
according to the antique conception, the dead lost their
physical powers, they lost none of their higher spiritual
powers of knowledge, feeling, and will. Ancestors re-
tained a keen interest in their posterity and actively inter-
vened in their affairs. Enemies preserved their original
hostility to their foes. The dead were conscious of events
that occurred on earth. Those who had met an untimely
fate remembered that fact and were unhappy in the other
world. The spirits of murdered men, of those that had
died in youth, of women that had died in childbirth, and
of those that had left no descendants, could not rest.
The belief was universal that, under certain conditions,
the dead had the power of appearing to the living. 5
When thus appearing, the spirits were believed to retain
the semblance of their bodies at the time of death. In
4 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times,* pp. 144ff. ; Tylor, Primitive Culture, ch. xi-xvii;
Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, p. 43ff. ; Frazer, Golden Bough*
i. p. 225 ff.
•Lang, The Making of Religion, p. 138.
I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 5
the Odyssey (xi. 40) those who have fallen in battle ap-
pear to Ulysses "mangled by the spear and clad in bloody
armour." The same belief lingers in the ghost-lore of
modern Europe, and even the most enlightened Christian
finds it impossible to think of his beloved dead otherwise
than as they last appeared in life. Returning spirits could
speak in audible tones, though with weak and trembling
voices that corresponded to their ethereal nature. Thus
in the Odyssey (xi. 43) the ghosts approach Ulysses
"with gibbering cries."
d. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — Spirits, al-
though haunting their bodies, were not restricted to them.
They could move at will with lightning-like rapidity to
any place where they wished to manifest themselves.
They also possessed the extraordinary power of entering
new bodies.
1. They Could Occupy Inanimate Objects. — Accord-
ing to primitive theology, spirits could use as their in-
struments material things, such as sticks and stones, caus-
ing in them motion, or endowing them with magical
powers. In this case a talisman was produced. They
could also animate an object by taking up their abode in
it. In this case the result was a fetish. The idea was
widespread that they preferred to occupy images made in
the likeness of their former bodies. Thus in Egypt
statues of the deceased were multiplied in tombs that his
ka, or "double," might find abundant opportunity to take
up its abode.
-2. Spirits Could Take Possession of Animals. — So
widespread was this belief among primitive peoples that
Wilken, Tylor, and other anthropologists have con-
jectured that it is the explanation of totemism, or the
worship of animals as the ancestors of tribes. 6
3. Spirits Could Occupy the Bodies of Living Men. —
This might take the form either of obsession, resulting
8 Crooke, in Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, art. "Ancestor
Worship," p. 430.
6 SPIRITISM i
in disease or insanity, or of possession, resulting in the
imparting of the higher knowledge, skill or power of the
spirit. Among all ancient peoples, it was believed that
spirits of the dead not only retained the knowledge
possessed by them in life, but also acquired new and
greater knowledge. The abnormal powers of the sub-
conscious soul, such as crystal-gazing, motor-automatism,
thought-transference, telepathy, telesthesia, and fore-
boding of the future, were ascribed to their influence. 7
They were therefore believed to be far wiser than mor-
tals, and they were consulted for guidance in the affairs
of life and for oracles concerning the future.
e. Powers Lost by the Soul in Death. — The identifi-
cation of the soul with the breath, shadow, reflection, or
echo of the living man, led naturally to the conception
that it was vague and unsubstantial. Early races and
savages have uniformly regarded the soul as a small,
feeble being, ordinarily invisible, inaudible, and intangi-
ble, that is unable to take care of itself, and that needs
to be sheltered and guarded until, so to speak, it "finds
itself" in the spirit-world. The sorcerers of Greenland
describe the soul as a pale, soft thing, without nerves,
without bones, without flesh; when one would seize it,
one feels nothing. 8 When Achilles would embrace the
shade of Patroclus, it passes through his hands like
smoke.
" 'Dost thou command me thus? I shall fulfil
Obediently thy wish; yet draw thou near,
And let us give at least a brief embrace,
And so indulge our grief.' He said, and stretched
His longing arms to clasp the shade. In vain;
Away like smoke it went with gibbering cry,
Down to the earth. Achilles sprang upright,
Astonished, clapped his hands, and sadly said,
'Surely there dwell within the realm below
Both soul and form, though bodiless.' " 9
• See Lang, The Making of Religion, chaps, iv-v.
• D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, p. 78.
• Iliad, xxiiL 95-104 (Bryant's translation).
I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 7
In like manner Ulysses finds the shade of his mother
wholly unsubstantial.
"She spake; I longed to take into my arms
The soul of my dead mother. Thrice I tried,
Moved by a strong desire, and thrice the form
Passed through them like a shadow or a dream.
• ••■•••
I spake, and then my reverend mother said: —
'Believe not that Jove's daughter Proserpine
Deceives thee. 'Tis the lot of all our race
When they are dead. No more the sinews bind
The bones and flesh, when once from the white bones
The life departs. Then like a dream the soul
Flies off, and flits about from place to place.' " 10
Even the souls of heroes are so feeble that they cannot
be roused to activity until they have drunk the fresh, hot
blood of victims poured into the sacrificial trench. 11
According to iElius Spartianus, 12 the Emperor Hadrian
shortly before his death described his soul as "a dear
little wandering being, the guest and companion of the
body." The belief that spirits are pale, unsubstantial
phantoms still lingers in the modern idea of ghosts.
/. Relation of the Disembodied Soul to Its Body. —
Another general belief of primitive peoples is that the
soul continues to maintain a relation to the dead body.
When the flesh has disappeared, the ghost clings to the
skull or the bones; and when these have vanished, it
haunts the grave where its ashes are buried. Survivals
of these ideas are seen in the veneration of relics of the
saints in Buddhist and Roman Catholic countries, and in
the belief that ghosts appear chiefly in graveyards, or in
places where murders have been committed. The idea
is wide-spread that an injury to a dead body is also an
injury to the departed spirit. Hence the universal cus-
10 Odyssey, xi. 204-221 (Bryant's translation).
11 Odyssey, xi. 95.
13 Hadrianus, Cap. 25, in Scriptores Historic Augusta.
8 SPIRITISM i
torn among primitive peoples and savages of mutilating
the corpses of enemies. Thus every one of the Greeks
who passes the body of Hector inflicts a blow upon it, 13
and Achilles drags it in the dust at the tail of his
chariot. 14
This connection of the spirit with the corpse explains
the vast importance attached by primitive races to burial.
The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and all other
ancient peoples believed that the soul could not rest unless
its body was properly entombed. 15 Refusal of burial was
an injury that was inflicted only upon criminals, or upon
the most hated enemies. Violation of a tomb insured
the disquieting of the spirit that dwelt within. 16
Closely connected with the idea that the ghost haunts
the corpse is the idea that it still needs food, drink, and
other necessities of life, and that these must be placed
either in the grave or upon it. From the earliest times
such offerings were deposited with the dead, and the cus-
tom still lingers in civilised lands in modified forms such
as jewelry, lights, flowers and wreaths.
g. The General Estimate of Death. — From the fore-
going survey it appears that primitive man believed that
the soul survived death, and that it gained such super-
human powers that it was to be classed with the gods
rather than with men, and was entitled to receive divine
homage; yet in spite of these facts, he did not look for-
ward with any satisfaction to death as an enlargement of
his powers. On the contrary, it was regarded by him as
an unmixed evil. So important was the body that exist-
ence without it seemed shadowy and worthless. Thus in
the Odyssey (xi. 487^.) Achilles says: "I would be a
labourer on earth, and serve for hire some man of mean
estate who makes scant cheer, rather than reign o'er all
who have gone down to death." Death was not a going
"Iliad, xxii. 371.
"Ibid. 39Sff.
» Odyssey, xi. 72.
18 De la Saussaye, Manual of the Science of Religion, p. 114.
i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 9
to the gods whom one had loved and honoured in life, but
a passing out of the sphere of their care and interest.
Their rewards and punishments were distributed in this
world. In the other world moral distinctions vanished,
and all were reduced to one common level of misery. The
primitive belief in spirits, accordingly, was not a belief
in immortality in any true sense. It was a belief in the
continued existence of the soul, but that existence was so
vague and shadowy that it was destitute of value. To
become a ghost could not be an object of desire for any
man. The conception of God needed to be deepened and
broadened immensely before an adequate idea of immor-
tality could be formed; nevertheless, these crude begin-
nings were the foundation on which the structure of a
better faith was destined to rise.
h. The Cult of the Dead. — Because of the powers that
have just been described the dead were regarded by all
ancient peoples as supernatural beings, to whom the same
sort of worship should be paid that was rendered to the
gods and to other classes of spirits. 17 Veneration of
spirits of the dead is seen in rites of mourning, in care
of the corpse, in bringing of sacrifice, and in offering of
prayers.
1. Removal of Garments. — The custom was wide-
spread in antiquity, and is still found among savages, of
removing the garments entirely, or in part, as a sign of
mourning. As to the meaning of this custom there is a
difference of opinion. Ewald, Leyrer and Kamphausen
regard it as a spontaneous expression of grief; but it is
hard to see any psychological connection between grief
and nakedness. Schwally thinks that it was the costume
of slaves and of captives, and hence was a token of
humility toward the spirits. Frey takes it as a sign of
submission to the gods who have sent death into the
17 See Spencer, Principles of Sociology, I. chaps, xx, xxv; Tylor, Primitive
Culture, chap, xiv; De la Saussaye, Manual of the Science of Religion, pp. 112 ff. ;
Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, chap, xv; Hastings, Encyclo-
pedia of Religion and Ethics, arts. "Ancestor-Worship," "Animism."
io SPIRITISM i
family. Frazer holds that it is intended to disguise the
survivors from the ghost of the dead, or to awaken its
pity, so that it will do no harm. Far more likely is the
view of Stade, Benzinger and Jastrow that nakedness, or
a simple loin-cloth, was the primitive dress of man that
was retained in mourning because it was a religious exer-
cise. Religion is naturally conservative, and the sacred
costume of the present is the everyday dress of the past.
In Egypt the priests of the Middle Empire wore the
dress of the Old Empire, and those of the New Empire,
that of the Middle Empire. The vestments of the
Roman Catholic clergy of today are the common gar-
ments of the later Roman Empire. Modern savages per-
form their religious rites in less clothing than they wear
on ordinary occasions, the reason being that this was the
sacred dress of their forefathers.
2. Covering the Head. — In singular contrast to the
custom of stripping the body was the other custom of
covering the head or mouth, or laying the hand upon the
mouth. The theory that this was due to a desire to
conceal one's grief from bystanders presupposes a mod-
ern Occidental point of view. Others think that it was
intended to disguise one from the spirits, or to protect
one's mouth and nose so that they might not enter into
one's body; but this assumes less intelligence in the spirits
than primitive man believed them to possess. Still others
regard it as a conventional substitute for cutting the
hair. 18 The most natural interpretation of this cere-
mony is that it was designed originally to protect one
from inadvertently seeing the ghost that lingered near
the corpse. Death might ensue if one saw a ghost just
as if one saw a god. 19
3. Cuttings in the Flesh. — As W. Robertson Smith
has shown 20 cuttings in the flesh, whether practised in the
18 See below, 4.
18 Cf. Ex. 33:20.
20 Religion of the Semites, pp. 322ff.
I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION n
name of gods or of spirits, were designed to make a sacri-
fice of blood, and so to establish a covenant. In the case
of ghosts such offerings were peculiarly acceptable as
supplying strength to their feeble forms. 21 Tattooing,
which often accompanied the letting of blood, was
designed to mark one as a permanent worshipper of the
spirit to which the blood was offered.
4. Cutting the Hair. — This rite cannot be regarded
as a natural expression of grief, nor can it have been
designed to deceive the ghost so that it would not molest
one, nor can it have been, as Frazer and Jevons think, a
process of disinfection from taboo, since it occurred
before the funeral. It can only be interpreted as an act
of worship to the dead. 22 Hair-offerings to deities are
common throughout the world, and are analogous to
blood-offerings, the strength being supposed to reside
in the hair. 23
5. Covering with Dust or Ashes. — In this case also
the theories of natural emotion, of humiliation, and of
disguising one's self from the spirits, are all inadequate.
This can be only a symbolic act designed to express the
thought that one wishes to be buried with the dead and so
to maintain communion with them. Jastrow 24 thinks
that dust or earth put on the head is a survival of the
custom of carrying earth on the head in baskets in order
to cover the corpse with a mound, but this will not explain
the frequent practice of wallowing in the dust as an act
of mourning.
6. Fasting. — Fasting as part of the ritual of mourn-
ing is another primitive human custom. Its origin is
difficult to trace. A natural reluctance to take food when
one is sorrowing does not explain the fasting of people
21 Cf. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 191ff.
22 Cf. Iliad, xxiii, ISOff., where Achilles shears his hair as an offering to
Patroclus.
28 Cf. Ju. 16:17.
21 "Dust and Ashes as Symbols of Mourning," Journ. Am. Orient. Soc, xx.
pp. 133ff.
12 SPIRITISM i
who are in no way related to the deceased, nor does it
explain the feast which often follows the burial. Frey
thinks that it is an act of humility, like the ritual fasts,
designed to propitiate the wrath of the gods who have
sent death into the family; but among most peoples the
uncleanness of death prohibits the worship of the gods in
connection with funeral ceremonies. Others think that
it is designed to awaken the pity of the spirits so that they
will not harm the survivors, but fear of the spirits of
relatives is by no means universal. Frazer, Jevons and
Griineisen hold that death in a house rendered every-
thing taboo, so that food could not be eaten until the
corpse was removed. W. R. Smith suggests that fasting
was a ritual preparation for the sacrificial feast that fol-
lowed, like the Roman Catholic fasting before com-
munion. Spencer, Lubbock, Tylor, and Buhl regard it
as a means of inducing ecstasy, in which one held inter-
course with the spirits. 25 In any case it is unquestionable
that fasting was a ritual act.
7. Disposal of the Corpse. — The belief noted above
in the continued connection of the disembodied soul with
its dead body led all primitive peoples to care for the
corpse as an act of homage to the departed spirit. Inhu-
mation, mummification, and cremation were the chief
methods of disposal of the dead. The first protected the
body from being devoured by beasts or birds, the second
preserved it as a permanent dwelling for the spirit, the
third etherealized it so that it might become a more
fitting habitation for its former tenant. With the dead
were buried, or burned, his food, clothing, utensils,
weapons and ornaments that he might use them in the
other world. The graves of ancestors were regarded as
holy spots where their descendants met at stated times
to perform religious rites in their honour.
8. Sacrifice. — By all primitive peoples sacrifices were
"Cf. Exod. 34:28; Dan. 9:3; 10:3.
i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 13
offered upon the grave in addition to the gifts of food,
drink, etc., that were buried with the corpse. Thus in
the Odyssey (xi. 28-46) Ulysses pours out to the shades
the blood of sheep, and makes libations of milk, honey,
wine, and water, on which white meal is sprinkled. 26
Intimately connected with sacrifices to the dead were
funeral feasts, in which one partook of the offerings,
and thus sealed one's communion with the spirits of the
departed. Such feasts have lasted down to modern times
in many countries where their original connection with
sacrifice has been forgotten.
Sacrifice to the dead explains the importance attached
by all ancient peoples to male descendants. Among the
Chinese, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and
other patriarchally organised races, the duty of sacri-
ficing to a father devolved upon his oldest son. If there
were no son, there would be no offerings, and the ghost
could not rest.
9. Prayer to the Dead. — Here belong laments, which
were more than mere cries of grief, being often elaborate
compositions addressed to the departed, deploring his
loss, and begging him to be near and to bless his family.
At the time of sacrifice at the grave regular prayers were
offered to the spirits as to other deities. Necromancy
also, which was universal in antiquity, was a form of
prayer in which the spirits were invoked to come and help
one with their superior knowledge or skill.
i. Relation of Ancestor-worship to Religion in General.
— From the foregoing survey it appears that the cult of
the dead is one of the most ancient and most widely-
spread forms of human worship. Starting with this fact,
a number of ancient writers formulated the theory that
ancestor-worship was the origin of all human religion.
This theory appears as early as Genesis, chapters 4-5.
Here both in J's and in P's lists of the descendants of
M See Jevons, Introduction, pp. Slff.; D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, p. 17; De la
Saussaye, Manual, pp. 114f.
14 SPIRITISM i
Adam Semitic gods are regarded as forefathers of man-
kind and as discoverers of the arts. The work De Syria
Dea, ascribed to Lucian, which certainly depends
throughout on Semitic sources, shows the same point of
view. The idea that the gods are all men who have been
deified after death for the services that they have ren-
dered to humanity was first given currency by Euhemerus,
a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and hence is
known as Euhemerism. It gained favour particularly
among the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era,
and found a fanatical advocate in Philo Byblius. This
theory has been revived by Herbert Spencer, 27 who is
followed by Grant Allen in his Evolution of the Idea of
God, but it has not won the approval of the majority of
students of comparative religion because in all early
and savage religions numerous nature-spirits are found
whose names and characteristics are entirely different
from those of spirits of the dead. 28 A truer view of the
relation of ancestor-worship to religion is that the con-
ception of spirit was first gained through the fact of
death, and was then extended to other beings than man.
The recognition of a distinction between soul and body
in man furnished a basis for the interpretation of nature
as a whole. Every striking physical object, everything
that could do something, or was believed to be able to
do something, was supposed to be animated by a spirit
that could leave it temporarily or permanently, just as the
soul left the body. Thus, besides spirits of the dead,
primitive man came to worship a multitude of other
spiritual beings that manifested themselves in all sorts
of phenomena. These nature-spirits were not conceived
as ghosts of the dead, but they were beings of a similar
character to disembodied spirits and might be called by
** Principles of Sociology, i. p. 411.
28 See Hartland, Legend of Perseus, i. 203; A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion,
1899, i. 308ff. ; W. Crooke, art. "Ancestorworship" in Hastings, Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics, i. p. 427.
I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 15
the same general names. Thus arose what is often called
Animism, but which is preferably called Polydaemonism,
or the worship of a host of demons {baifxoves) , or
minor divinities, in contrast to Polytheism, or the wor-
ship of a few great gods, and Monotheism, or the wor-
ship of one God.
CHAPTER II
SPIRITISM IN CHINA
a. Sources of Knowledge in Regard to Chinese An-
cestor-worship. — Our earliest sources of information in
regard to the religion of China are the five Classics and
the four Canonical Books. The first of the Classics
is the Shu-king, 1 or Book of Historical Documents.
It is a collection of incidents, addresses, counsels and
decrees beginning with Yao (traditional date 2356 B.C.),
and extending down through the Hsia dynasty (2205-
1766), Shang dynasty (1766-1122), Chou dynasty
( 1 122-249). The Shi-king, or Book of Poetry, contains
poems that date from the same early period as the Shu-
king. It is one of the most ancient and most precious
treasures of the world's literature. The Yih-king, or
Book of Permutations, is originally a collection of sixty-
four hexagrams, which in their turn are combinations of
eight trigrams, and of parallel lines partly whole and partly
broken. It was intended for purposes of divination; but
the manner of its use has been lost, although it has given
rise to much ingenious speculation. The Li-ki, or Rites
and Ceremonies, is a compilation of ritual texts, partly of
high antiquity, and partly of later origin, that was not
completed in its present form before the second century
of our era. K'ung Fu Tzu (Confucius) (551-478 B.C.)
is traditionally regarded as the compiler of three of
these works, and there is no reason to doubt the substan-
tial correctness of this belief. To Confucius h imsel f
is ascribed the writing of the fifth Classic, trie
1 In the transliteration of Chinese words an effort has been made to con-
form to the usage of H. A. Giles' Chinese-English Dictionary, London, 1912.
16
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 17
Ch'un-ch'iu, or Spring and Autumn, a brief history of
the state of Lu from 722 to 481 B.C. The Tso-
chuan is a commentary on the Ch'un-ch'iu. The Chou-li
is a record of the rites of the Chou dynasty. The I-li is
an ancient work on ceremonial and etiquette.
The four Books are the Lun-yii, or Sayings of Con-
fucius, a collection of questions, answers and discussions
between Confucius and his disciples, put together about
a century after Confucius, but containing a genuine tra-
dition; the Ta-hsioh, or Great Learning, a treatise on the
cultivation of wisdom in individuals as the sole means of
laying a secure foundation for the state ; the Chung-yung,
or Doctrine of the Mean, a more philosophic treatise on
awfypoavvt), or virtue as the balance between two vicious
extremes ; and Meng-tzii, the Teaching of Mencius, a
disciple of Confucius. 2
Other sources for the religion of China are the com-
mentaries on the Classics, the later literature, and the
existing customs of the people. 3
b. Distinction between Soul and Body. — The distinc-
tion between soul and body is fundamental to Chinese
thought. In sleep the soul is believed to leave the body
temporarily, wander around, and see the things that are
experienced in dreams. It comes back immediately when
the sleeper is awakened. In swoons the soul wanders
farther from its body and has more difficulty in finding
its way back. The relatives then wave a garment on a
2 The Canonical Books and the Classics are translated by J. Legge, The Chinese
Classics, 1861; the Li-ki, in Sacred Books of the East, xxvii-xxviii, 1885. The
I-li, or Conventional Rites, is translated by J. Steele, 2 vols., London, 1917. The
references in the following pages are to Legge's translations.
3 The most elaborate work on the subject is J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious
System of China, vi vols., 1892-1910 (devoted almost exclusively to ancestor-
worship). Another elaborate work is H. Dore, Recherches sur les Superstitions en
Chine, iv. vols. 1911-1912. Other useful works of a more popular character
are J. Legge, The Religions of China, 1880; J. Ross, The Original Religion of
China, 1909; W. J. Clennell, The Historical Development of Religion in China,
1917; J. Edkins, Religion in China, 2 1878; W. Grube, Religion und Kultus der
Chinesen, 1910; H. A. Giles, Religions of Ancient China, 1918; J. J. M. de
Groot, The Religion of the Chinese, 1910; G. F. Moore, History of Religions,
i. chaps, i-v.; E. W. Hopkins, The History of Religions, chaps, xiv-xv.
1 8 SPIRITISM ii
bamboo pole on the housetop and beat a gong to attract
the attention of the errant soul and help it to get its
bearings. If the swoon persists, still more strenuous
efforts are made to call the spirit back; and in case of
death, the shouting is not given up until it is certain that
all efforts are useless. An absent spirit of a living man
may appear as a phantom to another person, or even to
himself! and such an apparition is regarded as an omen
of impending death. 4
c. Continued Existence of the Soul after Death. —
The soul which can survive a temporary separation from
its body can also survive the permanent separation of
death. This is asserted repeatedly in the Confucian
literature, and is implied in the activity of spirits of the
dead and in the worship of the dead of which we shall
see more presently.
Apparently the most ancient name for "soul" is kuei.
The ideograph which represents this is a radical which
goes back to the very invention of Chinese writing. The
etymology and primitive meaning of the term are uncer-
tain. Native lexicographers connect it with kuei meaning
"to return." Kuei would then be the same as the French
term for "ghost," revenant, that is, a spirit that comes
back to its body. Like our word "soul," kuei is limited
to spirits of human beings either living or dead.
Another name for the soul is shen. The sign for this
is composite, and therefore belongs to a later stage of the
written language. This is the generic term for "spirit"
of every sort whether in nature or in man. Its funda-
mental meaning is also obscure. Its phonetic (repre-
sented again by a different sign) means "stretch out."
Out of these two words the compound kuei-shen is
formed which is the most frequent name for spirits of the
dead in the Confucian literature. The reverse compound
shen-kuei is of rare occurrence. Still another word for
*De Groot, i. p. 243; iv. p. 96; Dore, iv. 323-331.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 19
"spirit" is ch'i, "breath," which corresponds to the termi-
nology of other primitive races (see pp. 69ft. ), repre-
sented also by a composite sign. Still other terms are hun
and p'o, whose signs are derivatives from the radical
kuei; also ming, "light."
d. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — No one in
China seems ever to have questioned the continued exist-
ence of the soul after its separation from its body, but
doubts were often expressed whether it retained the
powers of knowing, feeling, and doing that it possessed
during life. Confucius himself maintained an agnostic
attitude on this subject, and discouraged questions about
it from his disciples. In the Sayings of Confucius, VII.
xx, it is recorded that he avoided speaking on four sub-
jects : prodigies, feats of strength, rebellions, and spirits.
In XL xi we read: "Chi Lu asked about serving the
spirits (of the dead). The Master said: 'While you
are not able to serve men, how can you serve their
spirits?' Chi Lu added: 'I venture to ask about death.'
He was answered, 'While you do not know life, how can
you know death?' " Another saying preserved by the
Chia Yii, or Talks of Confucius, II. Art. I, was
called forth by the question of Tzu-k'ung, whether or not
the dead knew the services that were rendered them.
Confucius replied: "If I were to say the dead have such
knowledge, I am afraid that filial sons and dutiful grand-
sons would ruin themselves in paying the last offices to
the departed; and if I were to say that the dead have
not such knowledge, I am afraid that unfilial sons would
leave their parents unburied." A similar utterance in
the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 3, says: "If we were to deal with
our dead as if life were really extinct in them, we should
be inhumane ; but if we were to treat them as if they were
quite alive, we should betray great ignorance ; and there-
fore neither may we do."
These utterances sound very sceptical, still Confucius
himself said, according to the Li-ki (VII. i. 7) : "They
20 SPIRITISM ii
look up to the sky, and bury the body in the earth.
The corporeal p'o goes downward, and the conscious
ch'i is on high." We are told of Confucius that "he sac-
rificed to the spirits as though the spirits were present,"
and he consistently enjoined the cult of the dead upon his
disciples. Whatever doubts the learned may have cher-
ished, the mass of the people in all ages have firmly
believed that the dead retain all the powers that they
possessed in life, that they are comfortable or uncomfort-
able in the tomb, that they know when offerings are
brought to them, and miss them when they are neglected,
that they are interested in the affairs of their descendants,
assisting the filial and good, and punishing the unfilial
and wicked. In a lament of Hsiian Wang the king
exclaims: "From above there is no hope, no help from
around us. The host of dukes and officials of the past
afford me no assistance. My father! My mother! My
ancestors! How can you endure to see this!" 5 The
whole ritual of ancestor-worship implies that the dead
have the same intellectual powers as the living. The
dead are thought to live much the same sort of life that
they have known on earth. They have the same social
and political organisation, and follow the same occupa-
tions. Emperors still rule, and are surrounded by their
officers and their courts, while men of low degree occupy
the same stations in the other world. 6
e. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — The belief
is universal in China that spirits of the dead enter upon
a higher form of existence and exert powers that they
did not possess during their earthly life. In the Doctrine
of the Mean, chap, xvi, Confucius says: "How abun-
dantly do spiritual beings display their powers! They
cause all men under heaven to fast and purify themselves,
and put on their richest dresses to engage in their sacri-
fices. Then like overflowing water they seem to be over
i Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 4.
• See de Groot, v. chap. xv.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 21
their heads, and on the right and left (of their worship-
pers)." In the Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 2, we are told:
"The spirits come, but when and where
No one beforehand can declare.
Therefore we should not spirits slight,
But ever live as in their sight."
Of the good King Wen the Shi-king, III. i. Ode 6, says :
"Unseen by men, he still felt seen
By spirits always near.
Unweariedly did he maintain
His virtue pure and free from stain." 7
Another passage says : "The approach of the shen cannot
be calculated, they should therefore never be regarded
contemptuously or treated with neglect." In another ode
we are told: "Our ancestors descend in their majesty.
Their shen enjoy the offerings, and their filial descendant
obtains their blessing. Him will they reward with great
bounties and endless life." "The shen come noiselessly,
and repay their host with great happiness and with life
for a myriad years." "The shen go away noiselessly." 8
These passages assert omnipresence and omniscience of
the shen, or at least multipresence and multiscience.
Some of the more important ways in which spirits mani-
fest their superhuman powers are as follows :
1. Spirits Can Occupy and Control Inanimate Ob-
jects. — Immediately after death a tablet or banner is
prepared inscribed with the name of the deceased. This
is believed to be occupied by his spirit, and is carried with
the corpse to the grave, where it is buried in order to se-
cure the residence of the spirit in its tomb. The tomb-
stone bearing the name of the departed is also regarded
as in a peculiar sense the abode of the spirit, and there-
fore is the centre of the posthumous rites celebrated at
7 Translation of J. Legge, Religions of China, pp. 94-95.
• Shi-king, II. vi. Ode 5, vss. 3, 5.
22 SPIRITISM ii
the grave. The ancestral tablet is another dwelling-place
of the spirit. This is mentioned as early as the Chou
dynasty, and probably existed long before that time.
The sign for ancestral tablet (shen-chu) is a combina-
tion of the radical for "stone" and the phonetic for
"lord" or "pillar." This suggests that it was originally a
miniature tombstone designed for ceremonies in the home
or in the ancestral hall instead of at the grave. The
modern form consists of a wooden base with a socket in
which is inserted an upright piece with a groove near the
top into which another upright piece is fitted. It bears
a close resemblance to the ordinary Chinese tombstone.
It has written upon it the words, "Seat of the Spirit,"
"Seat of the Soul," "Lodging-place of the Spirit," or
"Spirit Throne," also the name and titles of the owner
and the date of his birth. The inscription is left incom-
plete until after the interment, and then some high liter-
ary official adds a dot that is necessary to complete one
of the characters, and the tablet is placed in the shrine
along with those of other ancestors. Before these tab-
lets offerings are presented and announcement is made
of all important events in the life of the family. 9
Through the control of inanimate objects spirits of the
dead can reveal their will to men. The most ancient
form of omen-giving of this sort was through the tor-
toise shell. The inner side of the upper shell of a tor-
toise was coated with ink, and it was held over a fire until
cracks in the form of lines appeared in the pigment.
These were controlled by the spirits in order to disclose
their wishes. The sign for this sort of divination, pit,
is one of the primitive Chinese radicals. In combination
with k'ou, "mouth," this forms the sign for the interpre-
tation of the shell-oracles. This sort of divination is
first mentioned in the reign of Shun (2224 B.C.). When
he wished to select a successor to the throne, he con-
•Dore, i. 97-106.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 23
suited with his ministers and with the people, and they
unanimously nominated Yii. He then submitted the
matter to the spirits through the tortoise-oracle and they
confirmed the choice. 10 P'an-keng (1400 B.C.) used the
same method in determining the site of a new capital. 11
The Duke of Chou (1100 B.C.) used the tortoise shell
to find out whether his brother Wu would live, and
received a favourable answer. 12 He also used it to deter-
mine the site of a new capital. 13
Another method of communication used by the spirits
was through stalks of the shih, or yarrow plant. Through
the falling of pieces of different length and the diagrams
that they formed omens were given. The interpretation
of these omens seems to have been the main purpose of
the Yih-king, or Book of Permutations. 1 * This form of
divination was used by Shun in connection with the tor-
toise shell mentioned above. Both of these oracular
media have long since gone out of use.
A favourite method of divination at the present time
is by the drawing of lots marked with answers out of an
urn. These lots are believed to be controlled by the
spirits. Another form of lot is the chiao which consists
of two pieces of stone or of wood shaped like the two
halves of a bean. These are thrown into the air in the
presence of the ancestral tablets. Two convex sides up
mean no answer. Two flat sides up mean a negative
answer. One flat and one convex side up mean an affirma-
tive answer. This method of divination was in existence
at least as early as 300 B.C.
Spirit-writing has been known in China at least since
the beginning of our era. The instrument which corre-
sponds to the planchette is called chi. It consists of a
bough with two long branches and one short branch.
10 Shu-king, II. ii. ch. ii. 18.
n Ibid., VI. vii. Pt. iii, 7.
12 Ibid., V. vi. 9.
18 Ibid., V., xii. 2.
14 See p. 16.
24 SPIRITISM ii
The long branches are held as handles by two persons;
and the short branch writes on paper, or on sand spread
upon a table. It is thus an analogue to the divining rod
of western lands. It is commonly made of peach or of
willow wood, because these are distasteful to evil spirits,
in order to prevent its control by the wrong sort of
ghost. Like the planchette it is a means of automatic
writing on the part of the persons who hold it. The
spirit is invoked to enter it. He is said to "descend into
the chi," "to go up into it," "to adhere to it," "to have
contact with it." When he comes, the chi falls upon the
table with a bang, and is apparently uncontrollable by
the persons who hold it. It begins to write furiously, and
in reply to questions will state the name of the spirit
that is using it, his birthplace, the time when he lived, and
other particulars. Occasionally the wrong sort of a
spirit gets on the line and "plays fast and loose with the
chi." This causes great confusion as long as it lasts,
which usually is not for a great length of time. Spirits
may even write letters without the use of the chi, and
drop them down from the sky for the guidance of men. 15
2. Spirits Can Take Possession of Animals and Con-
trol the Action of These Creatures. — Thus men who have
been devoured by wild beasts cannot escape from the
bodies of these animals until another victim has been
eaten. A man-eating tiger is always possessed by a kuei
which urges it to attack some person. "Real tigers,"
says one authority, "devour no men; it is men transformed
into tigers who do so, for they are ashamed of their own
race and hate it." Kuan, the minister of the ancient King
Yao, in damming up the inundating waters "disarranged
the five elements." For this he was imprisoned for life,
and after his death his soul passed into an yellow bear. In
534 B.C. this same bear appeared in a dream to the
ruler of Tsin. In 693 B.C. a certain P'eng-sheng was put
"See de Groot, vi. p. 1295; Dore, ii. 354; cf. 2 Chr. 21:12, where a writing
comes to Jehoram from the dead Elijah.
II
SPIRITISM IN CHINA 25
to death for the murder of Hsiian, the ruler of Lu. He
appeared in the form of a wild boar to Hsiang, the ruler
of Ts'i, and soon after the latter was assassinated. The
spirits of drowned men were likely to enter into the
bodies of aquatic animals. Yuen, king of Sung (530-
516 B.C.), dreamed that a man with dishevelled hair
appeared to him, saying, "A fisherman named Yu Tsii has
caught me." A diviner interpreted this to mean, "This
is a tortoise possessed by a shen." Next day the king
interrogated the fisherman, and he reported that he had
caught a white tortoise, as oval-shaped as a basket, and
five feet broad.
Animals which inhabit graves are naturally regarded
as possessed by spirits of the dead. Such are wolves,
hyenas, jackals, foxes, rats, bats, owls and serpents. All
of these are demonic animals that have the powers of
speech and of helping or hurting men. Birds also are
frequently possessed by spirits of the dead. A certain
Wei was about to kill a cock that belonged to him, when
to his amazement the bird cried out, "I am Wang, your
old chum in the army." The prefect, hearing of this,
summoned Wei and the bird before him. The cock
repeated its statements before the magistrate, and con-
cluded with the words: "Now, since I, a domestic fowl,
have divulged matters of the World of Darkness without
authorization, I must die." It stretched out its neck and
expired. The prefect ordered it to be buried in a tomb
that bore the inscription "Tomb of the Man-cock."
Friends and lovers are specially likely to turn into birds
after death. Wen-hsiu and Lo Tzu-chung were great
friends. They died the same night, and were buried
seven miles apart. "Wen-hsiu's soul changed into a cock,
and that of Tzu-chung into a pheasant; and the melan-
choly tones of their shrill voices resound there to and fro
continually." The heir-apparent of Ts'i died, and his
bride grieved so that she soon followed him to the grave.
Her bridal matron drummed on the tomb with the lute
26 SPIRITISM n
that the girl had been accustomed to play, and two
pheasants came forth out of it. Mandarin ducks are
famous in China for their conjugal affection. It is said
that a duck will even follow a drake into the cooking
pot. It is not surprising, therefore, that loving couples
after death enter into the bodies of these birds. 16
3. Spirits Can Enter into Dead Bodies. — They may
re-animate their own bodies long after death. De Groot
reports one hundred and twenty-seven cases in literature
before the tenth century of our era. At other times the
spirits may re-animate the corpses of other persons.
This happens when their own bodies have decayed, or
have been destroyed so as to be no longer usable. After
spending a dozen years in the other world, a certain
Chuh Chi-ching returned to earth in the body of his
recently deceased neighbour, Chao Tzu-huo, and lived
happily with his own family for a number of years. An
unknown kuei animated the body of a dead girl, and she
lived for a long time as the wife of a man. Such tales
are almost as numerous as those of resurrection. 17
4. Spirits Can Be Reborn in New Bodies. — Still an-
other method of returning to life is to enter into the womb
of a mother and become the soul of an unborn babe.
When such persons are born and begin to grow up, they
remember their former existence. A certain learned man
named Pao Ching who lived under the Tsin dynasty re-
membered that in his previous existence he had been
drowned in a well at the age of nine. Search in the well
confirmed the correctness of his statements. Yang Hu,
when he was five years old, asked for a ring with which he
used to play. When he was told that he never had one, he
went to a mulberry tree in a neighbour's yard, and pulled
out a ring that had been lost by a dead child of that fam-
ily. Rebirths were also recognised by scars, or other
marks on the body of a child, that corresponded to similar
16 See de Groot, iv. pp. 156-252; v. 542-651; Dore, ii. 380 sq.
» See de Groot, iv. 123.
n SPIRITISM IN CHINA 27
marks on the body of the deceased. In taking a second
body a spirit might change its sex. A girl named Ts'ai-
niang was reborn as a son of her own mother. As soon
as the boy began to talk he demanded the concealed play-
things that had belonged to his sister. 18
5. Spirits Can Obsess the Bodies of Living Men. —
The belief has been universal in China since the earliest
times that diseases are caused by spirits which enter into
the bodies of living men. These malignant spirits are of
different classes and bear many names, but among them
spirits of the dead play an important part. Ghosts of
the unburied, or of those improperly buried (see below
under /), are wont to vent their spite by obsessing the
living. Weapons buried with the dead may become dan-
gerous to the living. The wife and the daughters of the
prefect of Hsin-tu suffered from violent headaches and
palpitations of the heart. Inquiry of the famous sooth-
sayer Kuan Lu elicited the response : "On the west side
of the hall two dead men lie, one with a spear, and the
other with a bow and an arrow; their heads lie inside the
wall and their feet outside; the one with the spear pierces
the heads of your family, and this is why their heads ache
so that they cannot raise them; the other aims at their
breasts, whereby their hearts feel so anxious and pained
that they cannot eat or drink; in the daytime these beings
soar about, but at night they come and make people ill,
striking them with fright and anxiety." On hearing this,
the prefect had the skeletons exhumed and buried else-
where, and the women promptly recovered. Chinese
beliefs on this subject are identical with those of the
ancient Sumerians in Babylonia which are discussed on
page 212. 19
6. Spirits Can Possess the Souls of Living Men. —
Not merely the bodies of men, but also their souls can be
occupied by spirits of the dead, who then control their
18 See de Groot, iv. 143.
» Ibid., v. 675.
28 SPIRITISM ii
thoughts and actions. Insanity is caused by spirits, and
is therefore akin to inspiration. Ghosts of the murdered,
or of those who have been injured in their lifetimes, enter
into their oppressors, compelling them to divulge their
crimes, or driving them to madness. Candidates for
literary honours are often given by kindly spirits super-
human intelligence in their examinations, while others
are so bewildered by malicious ghosts that they make
utter failures. Sometimes instead of his examination
paper a candidate is constrained to write out a confession
of a crime that he has committed. Dreams are believed
to be caused by spirits, and spirits frequently appear to
people in dreams. Somnambulism, trance, and hypnosis
are also caused by their activity.
A curious form of the belief in spirit-possession
appeared in the Chou dynasty (iioo B.C.) in the "per-
sonators" of the dead at the funeral feasts. Descendants
of the ancestors were chosen, and were arrayed in cere-
monial garments. The ancestors were invoked to be
present in them, they sat solemnly in state, ate of the
food, drank of the liquors, received the prayers of the
family through a "prayer-officer," revealed the will of
the ancestors, and pronounced their blessing upon the
"filial descendant" because of his generous sacrifice. One
of the odes of this period says: "We invite the 'imper-
sonator' of the dead to be seated that we may secure great
happiness. . . . The full ceremonial is carefully ob-
served, and every word and smile is as it ought to be. . . .
When the service is finished, all the actors are exhausted,
having carried out the ceremonial without mistake. The
'prayer-officer' announces to the 'filial descendant' that
his filial sacrifice has been fragrant. . . . The ceremo-
nial being thus finished, the bells and drums strike up, and
the 'filial descendant' returns to his own seat. The
'prayer-officer' declares that the shen have drunk to
satiety. The august 'personator' of the dead then arises,
II
SPIRITISM IN CHINA 29
and is escorted away to the sound of bells and drums.
The shen go away noiselessly." 20
This strange institution of the "personator" has not
existed since the Chou dynasty, but "mediums" of other
sorts have lasted down to the present time. People in an
hypnotic or ecstatic condition are regarded as possessed
by spirits. Such persons are called wu. They are akin
to the shamans and medicine-men of other races. Wang
Ch'ung, the sceptical philosopher who lived at the close
of the first century of our era, says: "Among men the
dead speak through living persons whom they throw into
a trance ; and the wu, thrumming their black chords, call
down souls of the dead, which then speak through the
mouths of the wu." Individuals thus possessed indicated
the fact by convulsive motions of the face and limbs,
shivering, groaning and sobbing, or by uncontrollable
running or jumping. Sometimes they manifested such
power that the strongest men could not hold them. In
order to induce the prophetic ecstasy they made use of
dancing and singing, like the Sons of the Prophets in
1 Samuel 10:5, and the priests of the ba'al in 1 Kings
18 '.26. This practice is mentioned as early as the Shang
dynasty in the eighteenth century B.C. So infectious was
this enthusiasm that bystanders were caught by it and
prophesied with the wu. Young boys were often associ-
ated with them that they might participate in their inspira-
tion. We are reminded of the way in which the youthful
Saul prophesied with the Sons of the Prophets ( 1 Samuel
10:10-12; 19:20-24). The wu might belong to either
sex; but, as among other races, they were chiefly women.
A male wu was known also as chi.
When controlled by the spirits, the wu uttered oracles
in their name. The Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty
frequently consulted a female wu who was inspired by the
20 Shi-king, II. vi. S ; Cf . the Roman custom, pp. 75, 80.
3 o SPIRITISM ii
deceased princess Shen. Of her the chronicler records:
"Whatever she said he ordered to be written down. Her
orders were called written law, but merely told things
which even ordinary people knew, and they contained
nothing extraordinary; nevertheless, the Son of Heaven
extended an exclusive preference to them. They were
kept secret, and the world at that time knew nothing of
them." Under Emperor Chao, son of Wu of the Han
dynasty, his brother Hsii aspired to the throne, and con-
sulted a female wu named Li Nu-hsii. "He ordered her
to bring down a shen and make incantations. Nii-hsii
burst into tears as she said, 'The Emperor Hsiao Wu
descends into me' ; and while all the bystanders prostrated
themselves, she exclaimed, 'It is my strict order that Hsii
shall become the Son of Heaven.' " This ability of the
wu to bring messages from revered ancestors, or from
beloved relatives or friends, gave them great influence
over the credulous.
The wu possessed also clairvoyant powers which
enabled them to discover lost articles, or to tell where
things were hidden. In the reign of King Kuei-ming
(264 A.D.) two wu identified the grave of a princess by
describing the clothes in which she was buried. The grave
was opened, and the garments were found as described.
Ch'en Kuah of the eleventh century says of a female wu:
"She proved able to reveal anything that my uncle wished
to know from her about things in this human world, even
though they were more than a thousand miles off."
The wu were able also to read the minds of other peo-
ple. Of the same female wu just mentioned Ch'en Kuah
says : "She even knew the thoughts arising in others.
Guests who were just then playing draughts held in their
hands some black or white draughtsmen which they had
previously counted, and asked her how many there were,
and she gave the answer correctly every time; but then
they took handfuls without counting them, and she could
not mention their numbers. It was thus evident that she
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 31
could know what others knew, but not what others did
not bear in their minds." Because of these powers
emperors and princes were accustomed to make use of
the wu in order to discover sorcerers, or rebels who were
conspiring against their authority. The wu were able to
tell people what they had dreamed, even when they them-
selves had forgotten it. In 580 B.C. the ruler of Chin
dreamed that he saw a tall demon with dishevelled hair
reaching to the ground, which beat its breast and stamped
on the ground, saying, "You have killed my grandsons
unjustly, but I have had my request granted by the Celes-
tial Emperor." A female wu repeated this dream to the
king and told him that it meant his impending death. 21
When possessed by the spirits, the wu could predict
the future. Of one of these mediums Chuang-tzu says:
"In Ching there was a wu animated by a shen, whose
name was Chi-hsien. He knew everything about the
birth and death of men, the continuation and cessation
of their lives, their misfortunes and happiness, and
whether they would die at a great age or prematurely."
In the year 888 a wu said to Lo Hung-hsin: "An old
grey-haired man sends me to you with the expression of
his gratitude; you are destined to become the owner of
this earth." Hung-hsin subsequently became emperor.
About 1000 A.D. a wu predicted to Chau Tsu, the ances-
tor of the House of Kin, the birth of four children, and
described accurately their characteristics.
Under the influence of the spirits the wu possessed not
only supernatural knowledge but also the power of work-
ing miracles. The life of Hsia T'ung during the Tsin
dynasty gives the following account of two beautiful
female wu in his day: "They chanted and danced excel-
lently, and they could render themselves invisible. The
first evening was opened by them with bells and drums,
the noise of which they alternated with music of stringed
"Compare the cases of Joseph, Gen. 40-41; and of Daniel, Dan. 2.
32 SPIRITISM ii
instruments and bamboo pipes. Then Tan and Chu drew
knives or swords, cut their tongues therewith, swallowed
the swords, and spat fire, a cloud hiding them from
view, from which streams of light flashed like lightning.
. . . Dancing with light steps, and whirling round and
round, they uttered a language of spirits and laughed like
spectres, causing basins to spin and fly against each other,
and with gestures as though flying invited one another to
drink. Hsia T'ung stood horror-stricken; off he ran, not
through the gate, but right through the fence, and went
home." When the witch Nu-hsii, who has been men-
tioned before, made her incantations, "the red leaves on
some ten branches of a jujube tree in the palace-park
turned as white as silk, and in the pond the water became
red and the fish died, and rats hopped about in full day-
light in erect attitude in the queen's courtyard."
Other mediums under the influence of the spirits pro-
duced wonderful literary compositions. About 1035 A.D.
a spirit descended into a girl in the family of Wang Lun,
Doctor in the Court of Sacrificial Worship. "That girl
thereupon was able to write literary compositions of
exquisite beauty, which even now are circulating in the
world under the title of Collected Works of the Female
Immortal. She wrote in several styles, and manifested
the greatest artistic skill in the use of the pencil; but
never did she write the seal characters or square charac-
ters that are used in this world." 22
7. Spirits Can Appear to Men. — Such apparitions
are not limited to professional seers, but may happen to
anyone. Ghosts that thus reveal themselves retain the
form of their bodies at the time of death. Ghosts of chil-
dren return as children; ghosts of the aged, as aged.
Ghosts of those who have been beheaded show themselves
headless; and after an execution fire-crackers are set off to
drive the ghost away from the place, and the mandarin
"See de Groot, vi. pp. 1187-1341; Dore, i. 139-142.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 33
who superintends the execution passes through a smoke at
the door of his house to prevent the headless spectre from
entering with him. As in other lands, ghosts are most
likely to appear at the time of their death, or soon after.
Many families have had experience of the return of
deceased relatives to their homes. In the Classics men-
tion is made of the custom of fasting and meditating for
three days before celebrating the worship of an ancestor.
The "filial descendant" was required to recall the looks
of the person whom he wished to honour, how he had
stood and sat, how he had smiled and spoken, what had
been his favourite thoughts and occupations. On the
third day, through self-hypnotisation, the ancestor
appeared to the worshipper and spoke to him. Whether
a ghost could appear in person or had to depend upon a
medium depended upon the degree of energy that it pos-
sessed. In the year 825 a female wu said to Li Hsiang,
prefect of Meng Chou : "I am a spectre-seer who can
summon spirits by calling them hither. There are two
kinds of spirits, those which enjoy happiness and blessing,
and others which are poor and mean; the former have a
vital spirit which is so vigorous and healthy that it enables
them to speak with men from time to time, while the
latter have a breath which is so weak and a shin which
is so exhausted that they are obliged to employ me as
their mouthpiece."
Ghosts appeared more frequently to professional wu
than to ordinary men; in fact, they could often be seen
by the wu when they were invisible to others. An inter-
esting account has come down of a seance of Li Hsiang
with the wu just mentioned. She said to the prefect,
"Under a tree in front of this hall I see a man in a red
robe. He says he is Lu Tsung-shi, late Second Superin-
tendent of the Boards. Go to welcome him." Li Hsiang
went accordingly, and politely invited the spirit to enter.
"The Superintendent is coming in," said the medium. A
voice was then heard in the air saying, "Lu Tsung-shi
34 SPIRITISM ii
was strangled with a bow-string in this very hall. He
hates such strings, therefore please remove the bow that
hangs above your divan." Li Hsiang did so and sat
down. The medium then cried, "You have shown a
great discourtesy to the Superintendent who is of higher
rank than you in sitting down first, and he is going away
in anger. Run after him and stop him." Li Hsiang
hastened to make apologies, and heard a voice up in the
air saying, "So gross a mistake, you presumed to sit down
in my presence!" After repeated entreaties the wu
announced that the Superintendent had at last consented
to return. "What has the gentleman to ask?" said a
voice in the air. "He most humbly begs to be favoured
with a word telling him whether glory or distress shall
be in store for him," said the wu. The voice in the air
answered, "He shall be welcomed at the capital by many
people; in a month after his arrival in the city he shall be
prefect of Wu-chou." The voice in the air was evidently
the product of ventriloquism, and this is a common
accomplishment of Chinese mediums.
Mediums had the power of "materialisation" of
spirits, that is, of making them visible to other people.
The so-called History of the South records that under
the Emperor Hsiao Wu (A.D. 454-465) "there was a
wu who could see spirits, and who assured the Emperor
that it would be possible to make his deceased secondary
consort appear. The Emperor was very glad of it, and
bade him evoke her. In a few minutes she was actually
seen on a curtain in the shape which she had had when
alive. The Emperor desired to speak with her, but she
remained silent; and just as he would fain have grasped
her hand, she vanished." The same girl-medium men-
tioned above, who wrote such beautiful literary compo-
sitions, also possessed powers of "materialising" spirits.
"In that house the spirit occasionally showed its shape,
and then it was perceived that above the loins it was like
an attractive woman; but below the loins it was always
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 35
veiled as if by a cloud. She could play beautifully on the
lute; and when her voice chimed in, it was so sweet and
pleasant that all who listened forgot their cares." 23
/. The Abode of Disembodied Spirits. — Like all
other ancient peoples, the Chinese believed that spirits of
the dead maintained a close connection with the bodies
that they had formerly occupied. Just as they returned to
these from sleep or from swoons so they returned to them
from death. Consequently, it was necessary that the
body should be preserved intact in order to serve as a
habitation for the soul. Injuries to the body inflicted
corresponding injuries on the soul. Criminals who had
been beheaded wandered about as headless ghosts; and
when the heads had disappeared, wooden substitutes were
buried with the corpses in the hope that this would lay
the spectres. The dynasty of Chou excluded from the
tombs of the kings all members of the family who had
died a violent death. Teeth that had come out during
life and nail parings were carefully preserved in order
that they might be buried with the dead. Mutilation of
the corpse was the worst penalty that could be inflicted
upon criminals. An ancient law reads : "Whoever mur-
ders three members of one family, shall be slowly cut up
with knives till death ensues. His corpse shall be chopped
to pieces, and his head exhibited on a stake as a warning
to the public." Bodies of offenders were often exhumed
in order that punishment might be inflicted on them.
Shih Lih, a pretender to the throne, burned the body of
the general who had fought against him and who had
died in 311 A.D. In a chronicle of the Hsiao-chuang
period (525-528 A.D.) it is narrated: "Liu Thing had
already expired; but the Empress, remembering his
crimes, had his grave opened and his body destroyed,
that his ghost might be deprived of everything in which
to take refuge." So dreadful a disaster to the dead is
M See de Groot, vi. pp. 1212-1341; Dore, i. 132-138.
36 SPIRITISM ii
mutilation of their corpses that it is prohibited under
heavy penalties by the Legal Code: "Whoever mangles
or destroys the corpse of a member of another family, or
casts it into the water, shall be punished with one hundred
blows with the long stick, and shall be transported for life
to a country three thousand miles distant."
The grave is the dwelling-place of the dead, and with-
out a grave they have no home. The unburied dead are
ghosts who roam the earth and haunt the living. Such
are those who have been drowned, lost in the mountains
or deserts, devoured by wild beasts, or who have no
relatives to provide for their interment so that their
bodies are cast out like carrion, or the spirits of infants
that have been exposed by their parents. It is considered
a pious deed to care for bodies of the unburied, and
benevolent societies exist which provide coffins and small
sums for funeral expenses for the worthy poor. It is
also one of the functions of the Government to see that
no dead remain unburied.
Improper burial is almost as bad as no burial, for the
dead cannot rest. Officers who offended the Emperor
were punished in ancient times by being condemned to a
poor and mean burial. When tombs became ruinous, the
shades became restless and haunted the living until
repairs were made. A certain governor named Wen
Ying had a dream in which a man appeared to him who
said: "Ere now my parents buried me hereabouts, but
when the tide rises it flows over my grave; the coffin
being submerged, it becomes half full of water, so that I
possess nothing wherein to keep myself warm." There-
upon the spectre lifted up its clothes to show Wen Ying
that they were wet through. "Where is your coffin?"
asked Ying. "Ten pu to the north," said the ghost,
"under a withered willow tree on the bank of the river."
The next day Ying looked for the place, found the con-
ditions to be as the ghost had described them and
removed the coffin to a dry spot.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 37
This association of the spirit with the corpse is the
reason why members of the same family are buried
together. It is felt that occupancy of the same tomb
secures reunion in the other world. The earliest records
bear testimony to the conveying of bodies from a distance
to be interred in the family grave, and down to the pres-
ent time the bones of Chinese who have died in America,
or in other remote lands, are sent home for burial. In
cases where, for one reason or another, bodies could not
be brought back, provision was made in ancient times for
the burial of their souls with their ancestors. Graves
were prepared, the spirits were invoked to return, and
soul-tablets bearing the name of the deceased, and gar-
ments that had belonged to them were interred with the
usual ceremonies. The placing of gifts in the grave and
the offering of sacrifices at the grave, on which more
will be said later, also bear witness to the belief that
spirits of the dead inhabit the grave. 24
In sharp contrast to this is the idea which is found
already in the Canonical Books and Classics that spirits
of the dead are "in the sky" or "on high." Thus one of
the ancient odes of the Shi-king says:
"Kings die in Chou, and others rise,
And in their footsteps tread.
Three there had been, and all were wise,
And still they ruled, though dead.
Tai, Chi, and Wen were all in heaven,
When Wu to follow them was given." 25
When Wu, the first king of the Chou dynasty, was sick,
his brother invoked the spirits of the three nearest ances-
tors as follows: "Your principal descendant is suffering
from a grievous illness. If you three kings in the sky
have charge of him, take me as a substitute for his per-
son." 26 Of King Wen of the Chou dynasty it is said in
21 See de Groot, i. 342-355; ii. 378-381; iii. 829-934.
38 Ski-king, III. i. Ode 9; translated by Legge, Religions of China, p. 77.
38 Shu-king, V. vi. 5.
38 SPIRITISM ii
the odes : "After death he went to rest on high, enshrined
in light." "The spirit of Wen could rest in peace in the
sky." 27 This conception of the abode of the soul arises
apparently from the idea that it is breath, wind, or light,
and hence is allied to the celestial powers. It may also
be due to the fact that the same word shen is applied to
spirits of the dead and to heavenly spirits so that confu-
sion between the two is possible. The same confusion of
thought is found in many other early religions. 28
At a very early date the Chinese philosophers tried to
explain this inconsistency by the theory of two souls in
man. The universe was regarded as the result of a union
of two opposite principles Yang and Yin. Yang showed
itself in heaven, light, day, south, summer, male, etc.;
and Yin in earth, darkness, night, north, winter, female,
etc. Human nature was composed of the same two ele-
ments. Thus the Li-ki (VII. iii. i) says: "Thus it is
that man consists of the beneficial substances that com-
pose the Heavens and the Earth, of the co-operation of
the Yin and the Yang, and of the union of a kuei with a
shen." In XXL ii. I of the same work we read: "Tsai
Ngo spoke : 'I have heard the terms kuei and shen, but I
do not know what they mean' ; on which Confucius said
to him: 'The ch'i is the full manifestation of the shen,
and the p'o is the full manifestation of the kuei; the
union of the kuei with the shen is the highest among all
tenets. Living beings are all sure to die, and as they
certainly return {kuei) to the Earth after their death, the
soul (which accompanies them thither) is called kuei.
But while the bones and flesh moulder in the ground and
mysteriously become earth of the fields, the ch'i issues
forth and manifests itself on high as a shining ming
(light).' These statements are mere philosophical
speculations that have nothing to do with the actual popu-
lar beliefs. As a matter of fact, in ordinary linguistic
"Ski-king, III. i. Ode 1.
M See pp. 107, 128, 172.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 39
usage the shen and the ming are connected with the grave
quite as often as the kuei. The gravestone, or the ances-
tral tablet, is occupied by the shen; the pagoda which
shelters the tombstone is called "tower of the ming" ;
objects buried in tombs are called "implements for the
ming," and grave-clothes are called "coats and petticoats
for the ming." All this shows that originally no distinc-
tion of two spirits in man was made, and that this refine-
ment has left no impression upon popular thought or
language. The double abode of the dead remains, there-
fore, an unexplained mystery. 29
g. Deification of the Dead. — In view of the mysteri-
ous powers that spirits of the dead possess it is not
surprising that they are regarded by the Chinese as
belonging to the class of gods rather than of men. They
are a species of the genus shen, which embraces a multi-
tude of spirits of all kinds. At the head of the hierarchy
stands T'ien, "the Sky," commonly translated "Heaven."
A synonymous term is Shang-ti, "High Ruler." This is
the nearest that the Chinese religion comes to the idea
of God. Next in importance to the Sky-spirit are the
other celestial spirits who preside over astronomical and
atmospheric phenomena. They are called by the generic
name shen, or "spirits." Beneath them stand spirits of
the earth called ch'i. The compound shen-ch'i expresses
the totality of spirits in heaven and earth, like the
Sumerian AN-KI. The great mountains and rivers also
have their tutelary spirits, which are known as the kuei-
shen of these places. Spirits of the soil are called she,
and spirits of the crops chi. The compound she-chi
designates the collective gods of agriculture. There is
no difference of kind between these spirits and spirits of
the dead. They differ only in rank and in functions.
h. Worship of the Dead. — At the very beginning of
authentic history the right to worship the spirits of
" See de Groot, iv. pp. 1-9.
40 SPIRITISM ii
Heaven and of Earth was taken from the common people
and made a function of the Government. The ordinary
citizen was allowed to worship only his own ancestors
and the numen of the threshold or of the oven. Repre-
sentatives of the clan were allowed to worship the pre-
siding genius of its fields; and representatives of the
families in a village, to worship the local guardian of the
soil. The magistrate worshipped the spirits of his dis-
trict; the prefect, those of his department; the governor,
those of his province. The great feudal princes sacri-
ficed to the presiding spirits of their states, to the rivers
and mountains within their territories, and to the gods of
fertility within the same boundaries. The Emperor
alone had the right to sacrifice to Heaven and Earth, the
great rivers and mountains of the empire, and to the
spirits of agriculture of the entire realm. For any other
man to perform these functions was an act of rebellion.
Confucius himself said: "For a man to sacrifice to a kuei
not his own ancestor is presumptuous flattery." 30
Being debarred from the worship of nature-spirits,
people in general knew no other religion than ancestor-
worship. Thus it came about that this particular cult
attained a development in China that is without a parallel
in other parts of the world. Other races have practised
ancestor-worship as a subsidiary rite alongside of the
worship of gods and nature-spirits; but the Chinese have
exalted it to the first place, and have made all other forms
of religion secondary. As early as the classical books
ancestor-worship had become the chief religion of the
nation; and in spite of the spread of Taoism and
Buddhism, it holds its own down to the present time.
The ideograph for "filial piety," hsiao, is one of the
oldest signs in the language. It is composed out of the
combined signs for "old man" and "son." In regard
to this piety Confucius says: "The services of love and
*° Sayings of Confucius, II. xxiv.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 41
reverence to parents when alive, and those of grief and
sorrow for them when dead: — these completely discharge
the fundamental duty of living men." 31 "The service
which a filial son does to his parents is as follows : — In his
general conduct to them he manifests the utmost rever-
ence; in his nourishing of them his endeavour is to give
them the utmost pleasure; when they are ill, he feels the
greatest anxiety; in mourning for them when dead, he
exhibits every demonstration of grief; in sacrificing to
them, he displays the greatest solemnity. When a son
is complete in these five things, (he may be pronounced)
able to serve his parents." 32
Ordinarily only the three immediate ancestors of the
head of the family are worshipped, the great-grand-
father, grandfather, and father. Remoter forefathers
receive only a collective homage once a year.
Higher officers of the government and emperors, who
have the privilege of worshipping other spirits besides
those of the dead, nevertheless agree with the common
people in regarding ancestor-worship as the chief duty in
religion. The Shu-king, II. i. iii. 6, says of Shun (2254
B.C.) : "Thereafter, he sacrificed specially, but with
the ordinary forms, to Heaven; sacrificed purely to the
six Honoured Ones (i.e., ancestors) ; offered their ap-
propriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers; and extended
his worship to the host of spirits." Here the ancestors
of the reigning dynasty rank next after Heaven, and
before the sun, moon and all other spirits. The Chou
dynasty added Earth after Heaven; and, with this modi-
fication, this order of imperial sacrifices lasted down to
the fall of the late Manchu dynasty. The sacrifices to
Heaven and Earth were celebrated only at the summer
and winter solstices and on a few other special occa-
sions, while ancestor-worship went on at all times. This
explains why it is mentioned in the imperial chronicles
81 Hsiao-king, chap, xviii.
32 Ibid., chap. x.
42 SPIRITISM ii
and odes far more frequently than any other royal cult.
Under the Chou dynasty the emperor fiad seven an-
cestral shrines: one for the "great ancestor," or founder
of the family; another for Wen, Duke of Chou, the
father of Wu; another for Wu, the founder of the dy-
nasty; and the rest for the four immediate ancestors of
the emperor. When an emperor died, the spirit-tablet
of his great-great-grandfather was removed to the hall
of the remote ancestors, the tablets of his three imme-
diate ancestors were moved up one space, and his own
tablet was set up in the last shrine. The tablets of
the consorts of the emperors were placed beside those
of their husbands. The moral character of a deceased
ruler made no difference in the homage that was paid
him. The prosperity of the empire depended upon the
proper celebration of the ancestral rites. Confucius
says: "By their ceremonies in the ancestral temple
they worshipped the forefathers. He who should un-
derstand the great sacrificial ceremonies, and the mean-
ing of the ceremonies in the ancestral temple, would find
it as easy to govern the empire as to look upon the
palm of his hand."
The feudal dukes had five ancestral shrines: that
of the "great ancestor" and those of the four imme-
diate forefathers. High officials had three shrines: that
of the "great ancestor," grandfather, and father. When
a man was ennobled, his ancestors also were ennobled by
imperial decree so that they might become suitable ob-
jects of worship for the new dignitary; and if he were de-
graded, his ancestors were degraded also. Lower offi-
cials were allowed only one shrine, that of the imme-
diate forefather.
Besides the ancestors of the reigning house the state
religion paid homage to the discoverers of arts or sci-
ences, to sages, statesmen, deliverers from calamities,
and other public benefactors of the past. Thus the
Li-ki in the last section of the book on sacrifice says:
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 43
"The rule observed by the sage kings in instituting sac-
rifices was this »— that those who had legislated for the
people should be sacrificed to, also those who had died
in the diligent discharge of their duties, those whose
toils had established states, and those who had warded
off, or given succour in great calamities." Such persons
were known as "Assistants of Heaven." Among these
were Shen-nung, a prehistoric emperor who taught his
people to till the ground and to cultivate grain; Hou-tsi,
the original ancestor of the dynasty of Chou, born of a
virgin who became pregnant by "treading in a footprint
of the Lord (TV')," the conqueror of the nine provinces.
Confucius himself belonged to this class. It is said
that the Prince of Lu, Confucius' native state, built a
shrine in his honour after his death where sacrifices
were offered four times in the year. The first emperor
of the Han dynasty in 194 B.C. visited the grave of
Confucius in Shan-tung and sacrificed a pig, a sheep,
and a bullock. Fifty years later a temple was built to
Confucius in his native city of Ch'ufu, and in A.D. 59
Emperor Ming-ti ordered that offerings be made to
Confucius in all state schools. In A.D. 72 the same
Emperor ordered the tablets of the seventy-two disciples
to be set up and offerings to be made to them. In
286 it was decreed that sacrifices should be offered to
him four times in the year on the imperial altar and on
the altar of his own temple. In 55 it was ordered that
a temple should be built to him in the capital of every
district. At the present time temples of Confucius are
found in all the larger cities, and he has become the object
of an extensive national cult.
i. Rites Preparatory to Burial. — Immediately be-
fore death a person is removed from his bed and placed
on a sort of bier consisting of three boards, where he
is washed and his head shaved in order that he may
make a good appearance on entering the world of spirits.
As soon as death occurs the whole family break out
44 SPIRITISM ii
in loud howlings and laments, begging the dead to re-
turn and expostulating with him for leaving them. Then
follows the curious custom of the "recall of the soul"
referred to on p. 18. The relatives now unbraid their
cues, and let their hair fly loose (cf. Leviticus, 21:10),
and put on garments of coarse brown sackcloth which
they wear whenever any funeral rites are being cele-
brated. The eyes of the corpse are then closed, and the
body is washed with water brought from a well into
which coins have been thrown as an offering to the
indwelling numen. Certain jewels that give life are
placed in the mouth. A light is kept burning near the
body at night, and dishes of food and cups of drink
are placed near it, so that if the soul returns, it may at
once find nourishment.
The next day the deceased is dressed in an undergar-
ment of cotton or linen, lined with an expensive sort
of silk velvet designed to give comfort in the grave, and
in new outer garments such as were worn on official occa-
sions during life. A lunch is set out on a table, and a
temporary soul-tablet is brought to be occupied by the
spirit after the body is placed in the coffin. At the bot-
tom of the coffin a quantity of rice paper is strewn, over
this a loose board with seven holes, then a mattress,
then a mat, and a small pillow for the head. The body
is laid in the coffin, and with it are put a few personal
articles such as a pipe, fan, or pen, or in the case of a
child, a toy. The remaining space in the coffin is stuffed
with "spirit" paper money for use in the other world,
the cover is put on and is hermetically sealed. 33
;'. Graves, Tombs, and Mausolea. — In the very
earliest times, apparently, the Chinese lived in caverns
excavated in the clay cliffs along the banks of their
rivers. When a member of the famly died, his body
was left in the cave that he had inhabited during life,
and it was abandoned by the rest of the household. In
»»See de Groot, i. pp. 1-240; Dore, i. 41-46.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 45
a slightly more advanced stage of civilisation huts of
branches were constructed and plastered with clay, and
these also were given up if a death occurred. Out of
these two primitive forms of houses all later types of
Chinese tombs have developed. They are either sub-
terranean excavations {mil), or tumuli {fen) that simu-
late the shape of the ancient huts. When expensive
and comfortable houses began to be built, they were
no longer surrendered to the dead, but these were pro-
vided with abodes of the prehistoric type. In the south
of China graves predominate at the present time. In
the central and northern provinces hemispherical mounds
are more common. These frequently have a stone slab
carved to represent a closed door inserted in the front.
This is an architectural survival of the primitive hut
door. Graves are commonly constructed by digging
and packing in earth mixed with lime which forms a
solid vault. Tumuli are built up over the coffin which
is placed at or near the surface of the ground.
The more elaborate tombs of the wealthy tend to
imitate houses. The tumulus corresponds to the central
back room of the house. In front of this is a wall
bearing the gravestone, which corresponds to the an-
cestral tablets in the home. In front of this is the
"grave hall" which corresponds to the main hall of the
house. This contains an altar for offerings to the shades
which corresponds to the table in the house on which
offerings are placed before the ancestral tablets. In
front of the hall is the "grave court" which corresponds
to the court in front of the house. These fundamental
architectural elements are capable of indefinite elabora-
tion in proportion to the wealth or the rank of the
deceased. The most splendid sepulchral monuments of
Chinese antiquity that have come down to us are the
tombs of the emperors of the Ming dynasty ( 1368-
1643 A.D.). Here the tumulus has become a costly
mausoleum, the "soul-tower." The "spirit hall" has
46 SPIRITISM ii
been developed into a temple, and the court into a mag-
nificent avenue of approach flanked with colossal stone
images of animals.
k. Rites of Burial. — The poor usually bury their
dead on the day after decease. More prosperous people
wait until the third day. The wealthy wait sometimes
weeks or months in order to determine an auspicious
day or an auspicious place for the burial. The art of
determining such matters is known as Feng-shui. It is
in the hands of experts who demand high fees for their
services. It is so difficult to secure proper places for
burial that coffins are often stored for years in receiving
vaults where they pay rent until a grave can be found.
The coffin is carried to the grave on a catafalque borne
on the shoulders of fellow-villagers or clansmen. A cop-
per coin is placed in each corner of the grave, and five
kinds of cereals and some iron nails are strewn over the
bottom. The professor of Feng-shui performs certain
rites calculated to render the spiritual climate salubrious,
and the coffin is lowered into the grave, amid firing of
guns, beating of drums, gongs and cymbals, and howls
of lamentation. The permanent soul-tablet is laid upon
the coffin, and the sons exclaim, "Father (or Mother),
arise !" The spirit thereupon enters into the tablet as its
perpetual abiding place. The tablet is removed from
the grave, and the temporary tablet, or spirit-banner is
put in its place, also slate tablets engraved with a biogra-
phy of the deceased, and the censer and candlesticks that
were used during the funeral services. All these rites
which are practised in modern China can be traced back
to a high antiquity. 34
In ancient times all sorts of gifts were placed with the
dead in the graves. The Li-ki, XIX. ii. 36, says that
parched grain, fish, and dried meat were deposited with
the dead in the period of the Chou dynasty. The I-li,
speaking of the same period, enumerates the following
•* Dore, i. S3-S7.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 47
articles that were buried with ordinary officials: "Two
baskets of meat, three hampers of millet, panicled millet
and wheat, three earthen pots with pickled meat, pre-
served meat, and sliced food, two earthen jars with must
and spirits." In the case of princely or imperial burials
enormous quantities of food were placed in the graves.
Other articles deposited in the grave during the Chou
dynasty were pieces of silk, costly garments, armour,
weapons, jewelry, tools, and vessels of various sorts.
Huge treasures were interred in the tombs of emperors
and feudal princes, and this often led to their rifling in
later ages. To prevent this stringent laws were passed
and garrisons of troops were stationed to guard the tombs
against marauders. Favourite animals were also killed
and buried with their owners so that they might be used
in the other world.
Human sacrifice was not infrequent in ancient times.
The earliest recorded case is in 619 B.C. when one hun-
dred and seventy persons were buried with the prince of
Ts'in. About 600 B.C. a certain Wei Wu-tzu gave orders
before his death that a favourite concubine should be
buried alive with him. In 587 B.C. several living persons
were interred with Wen, the ruler of Sung. A certain man
gave two of his daughters to be buried with the emperor
as a sign of gratitude for favours conferred upon his
father. In 210 B.C. all childless wives of the emperor
were buried with him. Cases of this sort are reported
as late as the Ming dynasty (1300 A.D.), and it is said
to have happened at the funeral of a Manchu emperor
in 1 66 1. This custom is unquestionably a survival of a
primitive rite that was practised by all ancient peoples,
and that still lingers among savages. Closely akin is the
custom of suicide of wives or betrothed maidens, which
existed until within a few years.
The waste of property and of life which these sacrifices
involved early called forth protests and efforts to substi-
tute less valuable articles. Even under the Chou dynasty
48 SPIRITISM n
the bows and arrows placed with the dead were unfit
for real use. About 650 B.C. Huan, king of Ts'i, com-
plained that all woven stuffs were made up into grave-
clothes and shrouds, and all timber into coffins and grave-
vaults. He forbade expensive funerals under penalty
that the dead should be mangled and the mourners
beaten. According to the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 22, the phi-
losopher K'ang Tzu-kao said: "I have never been
of any use to others during my life, and may I do them
no harm by my death. When I die select a plot of
ground that does not produce any food and bury me
there."
"Confucius discouraged the burial of costly articles
with the dead. "When his disciples wished to give Yen
Yuen a costly burial at his death, the Master advised
them not to do any such thing, nevertheless they buried
him in rich style. 35 In the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 3> we read:
"If we were to treat the dead as if they were quite alive,
we should betray great ignorance. For this reason the
bamboo instruments are not quite fit to use, those of
earthenware cannot well be washed, nor can those of
wood be carved. The citherns and lutes are strung, but
not tuned; the mouth-organs and Pandean pipes are in
good order, but not attuned to the same key; there are
also bells and sonorous stones, but no stands to suspend
them from. These things are called instruments for the
manes, because they are for the use of human souls."
According to the Li-ki, II. ii. i. 44> "Confucius also
said: 'Those who make such implements for the manes of
the dead show that they are acquainted with the right
method of conducting funeral rites; for those implements,
although ready at hand, are unfit for actual use. The
carts of clay and straw images of men and horses, which
have been in vogue since ancient times, are founded on
the same principle as the implements for the manes.'
88 Lun-yii, xi. 10.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 49
This shows that long before the time of Confucius the
custom had appeared of placing imitations instead of real
persons and things with the dead. Little by little this
custom displaced that of burying wives, slaves, and ani-
mals with their master. Images of stone, wood, clay, or
even of straw were substituted in their stead. In course
of time paper imitations of all the articles formerly buried
with the dead were prepared, and instead of being placed
in the grave they were burned at the home during the
funeral ceremonies, and the ashes were carried to the
grave and deposited there. The custom of placing food
and other offerings in the tomb has entirely disappeared
from modern China. Under the Chou dynasty, when
the burial was completed, an "impersonator" was ap-
pointed who, as the representative of the dead partook
of food that was set before him. With this "sacrifice
of repose," we are told, "the service of him as living
ceases, and that for him in his ghostly state begins." 36
/. Ancestral Shrines and Temples. — The grave is not
the only sanctuary of the dead. Besides this there is the
place in which the soul-tablets of the ancestors are depos-
ited. In poorer families this consists of a shelf in the
main hall of the house directly opposite the front door
on which the tablets are placed immediately after the
funeral. Wealthier families have special shrines or tem-
ples designed for the housing of these tablets. These
were the first temples in China. The nature-spirits had
only open-air sanctuaries, but spirits of the dead had
houses. When a new capital was to be built, the first
care was to erect a temple for the ancestors of the reign-
ing house. The new building was consecrated with the
blood of victims slain in a dedication sacrifice. In 2258
B.C. 37 Yao resigned the throne to Shun in the temple of
the Accomplished Ancestor. At the beginning of his
reign Shun sacrificed a bullock in the temple of the Culti-
36 See de Groot, ii. pp. 361-473; 659-827; Dore, i. 109-113.
* 7 Shu-king, II. i. 4.
5 o SPIRITISM n
vated Ancestor. 38 Shun invested Yii as his successor in
the temple of the Spiritual Ancestor. 39 Under Shun a
special officer had charge of the rites in the ancestral
temple. 40 In regard to the arrangement of the shrines
in the ancestral temple see p. 42. When 'a dynasty
came to an end its ancestral temple was closed and sacri-
fices were suspended. The reigning monarch proved his
right to the throne by erecting a new temple in which
his forefathers who had given him the sovereignty en-
joyed supreme homage. Frequent mention is made of
virtuous descendants who repaired the temples of their
ancestors.
m. Rites of Mourning for the Dead. — In the earliest
period known to history the Chinese were accustomed to
mourn for the dead by leaving their houses and dwelling
in sheds, wearing scanty and coarse garments, and
fasting. All three of these customs are alluded to in
the Li-ki, XXXII. 3: "The shabby coat with its
edges roughly cut off, and the mourning staff; dwelling
in a shed reared against the wall; eating rice gruel there,
and sleeping on straw or matting with a clod of earth
for a pillow — these things are the outward signs of the
deepest grief." De Groot thinks that these rites have
grown out of the surrender of property to the dead men-
tioned above. When the house was abandoned to the
corpse, temporary shelters had to be erected for the rela-
tives. When garments and food were buried in the
grave, nothing but rags and remnants were left for the
survivors. Later, when cheap substitutes were placed in
the grave, the ancient forms of poverty were retained
through religious conservatism. For other explanations
of these ceremonies, which are found among all primi-
tive peoples, see p. gi. The requirements of mourning
were graded according to the nearness of relationship
*» Shu-king, II. i. 8.
"Ibid., II. ii. 19.
"Ibid., II. u 23.
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 51
to the deceased. In some cases it lasted as long as
twenty-seven months, the rigours being slowly abated as
time went on.
n. Sacrifices to the Dead. — In addition to the offer-
ings that were placed in the grave at the time of burial,
offerings were also placed upon the grave at stated times
subsequently. In proportion as the burial sacrifices de-
clined the other sorts of sacrifice gained in importance.
According to the Li-ki, chap. V. ii. 19, Confucius, when
asked what the son of a concubine ought to do if the son
of the principal wife were away, said: "He shall erect
an altar in front of the grave, and sacrifice there at each
of the four seasons." Mencius speaks of people who
lived by picking up the remnants of sacrifices to the dead.
Other sacrifices were offered at the ancestral shrines
or temples where the soul-tablets were preserved. These
are mentioned with great frequency in the Canonical
Books. The Emperor Shun (2255-2205 B.C.), when-
ever he returned from his tours through the provinces,
sacrificed a bullock at the temple of the Cultivated An-
cestor. 41 I-Yin, chief minister of T'ang, founder of the
Shang dynasty, "in the twelfth month of the first year
sacrificed to the former king, and presented the heir to
the throne reverently before his ancestor." 42 Wu, the
founder of the Chou dynasty, gave as a reason for over-
throwing Shou, the last king of the Shang dynasty: "He
neglects the temple of his ancestors and does not sacri-
fice in it. The victims and the vessels of millet all be-
come the prey of wicked robbers." 43 Of King Wen,
the ancestor of the house of Chou, it is said: "He never
offended against the laws enacted by his ancestors, and
he offered to them the red bull in sacrifice. 44 Sacrifices
were offered to Wen himself by his successors. "To the
virtuous King Wen, worthy of glory and honour, princes
« Shu-king, II. i. 8.
42 Ibid., IV. iv. 1.
"Ibid., V. i. Pt. i. 6.
"Shi-king, III. i. Odes 5 and 6.
52 SPIRITISM ii
and officials offer the red bull with great devotion." 45
Concerning Wu, the founder of the Chou dynasty, we
read: "On the day ting-wei he sacrificed in the ancestral
temple of Chou, when the chiefs of the imperial domain,
and of the tien, hou, and wei domains all hurried about
carrying the dishes." 46 The Odes also narrate: "King
Wu offered sacrifices to his meritorious father and accom-
plished mother. A bull was offered, and the praises of
Wen were sung, whose wisdom in peace and might in
war gave repose even in high heaven." 4T King Ch'eng,
the successor of Wu, "led his brilliant assembly of min-
isters and princes to the shrine of his father, to whom
he made his offerings and accomplished his filial duty." 48
Deceased emperors were also worshipped at the time
of the annual sacrifice on the altar of Heaven. On the
top of the altar on the north side the tablet of Heaven
was placed. On the east and west sides stood the tablets
of the imperial ancestors. Before each tablet offerings
of food were spread, the emperor burned sticks of in-
cense, laid before each a piece of jade and a roll of silk,
presented a bowl of broth, and poured out a libation of
rice wine. This sacrifice was in existence in the time of
the Emperor Shun, and it lasted down to the fall of the
late Manchu dynasty. The sacrifice offered to Heaven
was known as chiao, that to the ancestors as yin.
The materials of sacrifice included every sort of food
that was acceptable to men. These are enumerated in
the odes of the Shi-king and in the ceremonial directions
of the Li-ki. Bullocks, sheep and swine were the animals
commonly offered. They were slain inside the gate of
the ancestral temple, the fat was burned in a furnace for
a sweet savour, and the meat was cooked and presented
on platters before the ancestral tablets. Meat broth was
also served, or poured out to the spirits as libations. One
" Shi-king, IV. i. Odes 1-10.
" Shu-king, V. iii. 3.
"Shi-king, IV. i. ii. Ode 7.
" Ibid., Ode 8.
II
SPIRITISM IN CHINA 53
of the odes of the Chou period says: "Oxen and sheep
without blemish are brought in an orderly and reverent
manner for the sacrifices in autumn and winter. Some
men are deputed to cut up the flesh, others to boil it;
some divide the meat, others set it out in order. Inside
of the gate of the ancestral temple the officiating person
presents his sacrifice. In its variety the service is com-
plete and splendid in its general effect." 49 Fish of all
sorts were presented to the deified emperors in the an-
cestral temple at the time of the winter sacrifices. Fruits
and vegetables also were offered. Cooked dishes in end-
less variety were prepared by the ladies of the imperial
harem to add to the sacrificial meats. In the earliest
times water was the only liquid offered to the shades in
libations (as in ancient Babylonia), and it retained its
place in the ritual down to late times; but after the dis-
covery of distillation it was thought that strong drink
was more acceptable to the spirits. "Morning and eve-
ning King Wen never wearied in teaching that strong
drink must be used in sacrifice." This liquor was dis-
tilled from various kinds of millet and rice, and was
flavoured with different sorts of herbs and spices. Be-
sides food and drink precious objects of any sort might
be offered to the ancestors, such as gems, jade stones,
precious metals and pieces of silk. To sum it all up,
there was nothing valued by man that was not suitable
in sacrifice to the dead.
The sacrifices were accompanied with music, singing,
and dancing. As one of the odes says: "The flute play-
ers dance to the organ and the drum, the instruments all
playing in harmony. This is done to gratify the merito-
rious ancestors." 50 These dances were solemn panto-
mimes exhibiting scenes in the lives of the famous fore-
fathers. During the Chou period a favourite subject
was Wu's victory over Shou, the last king of the Shang
"Shi-king, II. vi. Ode 5,
m Ibid., vii. Ode 6, 2.
54 SPIRITISM ii
dynasty. Target practice was another ceremony "to
give pleasure to the august personators of the dead."
"The great target is set up, the bows and arrows are
ready for the archers, who are matched in classes. 'Show
your skill,' shouts one. 'I shall hit the mark,' responds
the other, 'and then you will have to drink the cup.'
The purpose of all these offerings is to provide the
dead with the same things that they have enjoyed on
earth. They need these things, and if they have no
descendants to supply them, they suffer from the lack.
When these offerings are presented, they draw near to
enjoy them, they are pleased with the filial piety that is
shown, and they bless the sacrifices
Sacrifices were at the same time feasts in which the
living shared the viands with the dead and thus held
communion with them. They were great family re-
unions to which all the descendants and friends of the
honoured dead were invited. One of these memorial
feasts is described in the odes as follows: "When the
guests first go to sit on their mats, they take their seats
orderly on the left and the right. The dishes of bamboo
and of wood are set out containing sauces and kernels.
The liquors are blended and good. The guests drink
with reverence. . . . The company is happy and full
of joy, each exerting himself to the full extent of his
ability. A guest draws the liquor, which an attendant
takes in a cup. The full cup is handed to the guests —
the cup of requiem (cf. Jeremiah, 16:7). . . . When
the guests first take their seats on the mats they are har-
monious and reverent. In manner they are dignified be-
fore they have drunk too much; but after they have
drunk too much their dignity disappears and their man-
ners become frivolous. They leave their seats and dance
and caper around. . . . Had they gone out before
drinking so deeply, both host and guest would have been
happier." At the conclusion of the feast the assembled
guests praised the king who had invited them, saying:
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 55
"On account of your filial piety in offering sacrifices to
the spirits of your ancestors, Heaven will protect and
establish you, making you very strong and conferring
upon you all happiness." 51
These sacrificial feasts for the dead were celebrated
regularly at the summer and winter solstices and at the
vernal and autumnal equinoxes. "Once every season
worship was performed. . . . They repaired and
beautified the temple of their ancestors, set forth the
vessels that had belonged to them, displayed their vari-
ous robes, and presented the offerings of the several
seasons." 52 Ch'eng-I, a famous scholar of the eleventh
century of our era, had a temple connected with his
house and furnished with the spirit-tablets of his an-
cestors. "Before these on the first day of each month
he set forth fresh offerings. He observed the seasonal
services in the second month of each season. At the
winter solstice he sacrificed to his remotest ancestor; in
the beginning of the spring, to his grandfather; and in
the third month of autumn, to his father. On the anni-
versary of a death, he removed the tablet of the in-
dividual to the principal adytum of the temple, and there
performed a special service; for the rites of the service
of the dead ought to be observed more liberally than
the duty of nourishing the living." 53 In the temple of
the imperial ancestors there were also sacrifices on special
occasions such as a time of drought or a time of war.
The so-called Ti sacrifice was offered every fifth year to
the remote ancestors of the emperor. On the fifteenth
day of the seventh moon a sort of All Soul's Day was
observed for the benefit of "hungry ghosts" who had no
relatives to provide for them. On this day people gen-
erally made offerings to these "orphan spirits" to ap-
pease them and to keep them from troubling the living
81 Shi-king, II. vii. Ode 6.
52 Doctrine of the Mean, Chap. xix.
63 Legge, The Religions of China, p. 86.
" See p. 141f.
54
56 SPIRITISM ii
The value of the sacrifice depended largely upon the
minute and punctilious performance of the traditional
ceremonial, there was therefore a Minister of Ritual
who had charge of all the services at the temple of the
imperial ancestors. I-Yin, the minister of T'ang, said:
"It is difficult to serve the spirits by sacrifice. The offer-
ing must be made orderly and with reverence. If pre-
sented in a disorderly and irregular fashion, it indicates
a spirit of irreverence. If the ceremonial connected with
it is troublesome or irritating, it causes disorder." At
the same time with all this ritualism we find utterances
concerning the nature of true worship that remind us of
the Hebrew prophets. The same I-Yin just mentioned
said also: "The ancestral spirits accept the sacrifices
only of the sincere in heart." Another classical passage
says: "The incense of good conduct is more acceptable
to them than the most costly spices burnt in a censer."
"The fragrant incense which moves the shen and the
bright ones arises from perfect government and not from
the sacrifice of millet"; with which may be compared I
Samuel 15:22, "Behold to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams." In the Li-ki it is
said that sacrifice, being a fixed custom handed down from
past ages and to be carried out in definite forms, should
not be accompanied with prayer, or be offered in the hope
of deriving any personal benefit therefrom. Confucius
quoted this opinion with approval, but it is contrary to
the spirit of the ancient Chronicles and of the Odes,
where the rule is do ut des, and the expectation is that
the sacrificer will receive a rich reward for his filial
service.
o. Prayer to the Dead. — All important events, such
as births, marriage engagements, deaths, business under-
takings, journeys and returns, are solemnly announced at
the "family altar" before the ancestral tablets. In the
Li-ki, V. i. 1, we are told: "Tseng-tzu asked: 'When
a successor to the throne is born after the demise of
ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 57
the ruler of the state, how is one to act?' Confucius
said: 'The highest nobles, great officers and ordinary
officers shall take a position behind the minister who
administers the empire ad interim, at the south side
of the western steps, turning their faces to the north.
The Great Invoker, in his court robes and cap, bearing
rolls of silk in his hands, shall then go up to the top of
the western steps; and there, without entering the hall,
he shall, when the wailers have been ordered to stop their
cries, call three times (to the soul) and make announce-
ment to it, saying: "The son of such-and-such a lady has
been born; I presume to inform thee of this event." ' "
At all sacrifices the ancestors are invoked to be present,
and the hymns that are sung are largely praises of their
virtues. The quality most celebrated in the forefathers is
their filial piety toward their own ancestors. Petitions
for blessing were presented to the shades in connection
with all sacrifices; and in times of war, famine, pestilence,
or other distress special litanies were addressed to them.
The most famous instance of prayer to the dead in
the ancient literature is the supplication of the Duke of
Chou in behalf of his brother, King Wu. "He made
three altars of earth on the same cleared space; and
having made another altar on the south, facing the north,
he there took his own position. The convex symbols
were put on their altars, and he himself held his mace,
while he addressed the kings T'ai, Chi and Wen. The
historian wrote on tablets his prayer as follows: 'Wu,
your chief descendant, is suffering from a severe and
dangerous sickness. If you three kings have in heaven
the charge of watching over him, the great son, let me,
Tan, be a substitute for his person. I have been lovingly
obedient to my father. I am possessed of many abilities
and arts which fit me to serve spiritual beings. Your
chief descendant, on the other hand, has not so many
abilities and arts as I, and is not so capable of serving
spiritual beings. Moreover, he was appointed in the
58 SPIRITISM ii
celestial hall to extend his aid to the four quarters of the
empire so that he might establish your descendants in
this lower world. The people of the four quarters stand
in reverent awe of him. Oh! do not let that precious
Heaven-conferred appointment fall to the ground, and
our former kings will also have a perpetual reliance and
resort.' " 55 One of the finest poems of the Shi-king 56 is a
prayer of King Hsiian to his ancestors in time of drought.
The spirits were believed to be specially attentive to
prayers of an unselfish character. "The prayers of the
men who strive after friendship will be heard by the
shen, who will bestow upon them peace and harmony."
Kings prayed therefore that their minds might be en-
lightened so that they might follow the good example of
their forefathers and bring peace and prosperity to their
people.
p. Exorcism of Spirits of the Dead. — This discussion
would not be complete without some mention of the
methods of driving away hostile spirits. As early as the
Classics mention is made of the no or yang sacrifice to
ward off evil spirits. This was performed three times
in the year: in the last month of spring, in mid-autumn,
and in the last month of winter. Victims were cut in
pieces and placed in the city gates in order to ward off
unpropitious influences. These sacrifices were occasions
of noisy demonstration to frighten away the restless
ghosts. In the Li-ki (IX. i. 16) it is recorded of
Confucius, "When his fellow-citizens celebrated the
yang, he put on his court robes and took position on the
eastern steps, in order to shield his household gods."
Evidently Confucius was afraid that the din of the yang
might frighten away his ancestral spirits as well as the
demons for which it was intended.
The chief methods of exorcising evil spirits are offer-
ings such as are presented to friendly spirits, and in addi-
65 Shu-king, V. vi. 6-7.
M Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 4.
II
SPIRITISM IN CHINA 59
tion prophylactic rites such as are not needed in the case
of good ghosts. Among the latter noises of every sort
occupy a conspicuous place. Fire-crackers are exploded,
gongs and drums are beaten, and trumpets are blown in
order to terrify the spectres. Since evil demons belong
to the Yin, or realm of darkness, they are successfully
combatted with light, fire, and fire-works, which belong
to the Yang principle of the universe. Devils are driven
out of sick men by cauterizing them, or by giving them
nasty drugs to drink. Peach wood has extraordinary
virtue in warding off demons, hence twigs of this tree,
or amulets made of its wood, are extensively used as
charms. Pictures or images of tigers or of cocks are
also efficacious. Weapons of various sorts when dis-
played in conspicuous ways frighten the spirits away
from houses. Written charms, especially passages from
the Classical Books, are suspended at the doors of houses,
or are worn on the person to avert evil influences. The
wu, whom we have met already as mediums possessed
by the spirits, act also as exorcists to drive away hostile
ghosts. This is also the main function of the Taoist and
Buddhist priests. In general it may be said that fear
of evil spirits occupies quite as large a place in the
Chinese mind as reverence for good spirits.
CHAPTER III
SPIRITISM AMONG THE INDO-EUROPEANS
a. Distribution and Characteristics of the Indo-Euro-
peans. — By Indo-Europeans we mean a group of races
extending from Northern India to the Atlantic, which
speaks kindred languages and possesses similar religions
and social institutions. To this group belong: —
I. The Aryans of Northern India. — In the second
millennium B.C. this race began to push through the
passes of the Himalayas and to settle in the Punjab. It
drove the older Dravidian population before it, until
they were expelled from Hindustan and were concen-
trated in the Deccan, with the exception of slaves and
low castes that were assimilated by the invaders. The
language of the Aryans was Sanskrit, and in the Rig
Veda we have a collection of their earliest hymns dating
from about 1000-800 B.C. Later Sanskrit literature
includes the remaining Vedas, the two great epics, the
Mahabharata and Ramayana, the philosophic writings
of the Brahmanas and Upanishads, the Laws of Manu,
and many other works.
2. The Iranians of Media and Persia. — The Irani-
ans and the related nomadic tribes which the Assyrians
called Gagu (Heb. Gog) and Umman Manda, and the
Classical writers grouped under the general name of
Scythians must have entered the ancient kingdom of
Elam about the same time that the Aryans entered India.
Their language Iranian, or Zend, appears in the inscrip-
tions of the Achcemenian kings of the sixth century B.C.
and in the Jvesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrian
religion. Zoroaster, the prophet-reformer of Iran, who
60
hi SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 61
is believed to have flourished in the seventh century
B.C., has left his teaching in the Gathas, the oldest por-
tion of the Avesta. The other parts of the Avesta con-
tain the later traditional development of his teaching.
The Avesta has been preserved by the Parsees of the
Bombay Presidency in India, who are the sole-remaining
adherents of the ancient Zoroastrian religion. The lan-
guage of the Achaemenian inscriptions and of the Avesta
is as nearly related to Sanskrit as Spanish is to Italian.
3. The Phrygians and Armenians of Asia Minor and
Armenia. — Here the dominant class that gave its lan-
guage and its institutions to the nation was akin to the
Aryans of Persia and India, while the lower classes that
eventually mixed with the conquerors were the aboriginal
populations of the land. No ancient literature has come
down from these peoples, but survivals of folk-lore
among the Armenians throw light upon their primitive
religious conceptions.
4. The Hittite-Mitanni Group. — The Hittites are
first mentioned in a Babylonian chronicle as invading
Babylonia during the reign of Samsuditana, the last king
of the first dynasty of Babylon ( 1956-1926 B.C.). From
that time onward they play an important part in the
history of Western Asia until their destruction by the
Assyrian Empire after 1000 B.C. The excavation by
Winckler of Boghazkeui, the ancient Hittite capital, dis-
closed a large number of tablets written in Babylonian
cuneiform characters but in the Hittite language. Since
the death of Winckler these have been studied by F.
Hrozn^, 1 who maintains that their dialect belongs to
the so-called centum, or western group of Indo-Germanic
languages, which includes Greek, Italic, Germanic, and
Celtic, in which the word for 'hundred' is centum (pro-
nounced kentum) or a cognate; in distinction from the
satem, or eastern group, in which the word for 'hun-
1 Mittheilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, lvi, 1915; xxx, 1920;
Boghaskoi-Studicn, 1920.
62 SPIRITISM m
dred' is satem or a cognate. Its nearest affiliations are
with Latin.
The Mitanni people of Northern Syria, who first
appear in the Tell el-Amarna letters, written to the
Egyptian Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV
about 1400 B.C., were closely connected with the Hit-
tites. Documents discovered at Boghazkeui show that
the ruling dynasty in Mitanni worshipped the Aryan
gods Varuna and Mithra. They called themselves Harri,
which perhaps is identical with "Aryans." 2
5. The Slavs. — The eastern branch of this race in-
cludes the Great Russians of Russia proper, the White
Russians of Western Russia who live along the upper
waters of the Dnieper River, the Little Russians of the
Ukraine and of Austria-Hungary where they are called
Ruthenians, and the Cossacks of the Crimea and east-
ward. The northern branch includes the Letts who in-
habit the Russian provinces of Vitebsk, Livonia and
Courland on the eastern side of the Baltic; the Lithu-
anians south of the Letts; and the Prussians, who until
the tenth century inhabited the lowlands at the mouths
of the Niemen, Vistula and Oder. Later they were con-
quered and Germanized by the Teutonic Knights. The
western branch includes the Poles, whose kingdom was
partitioned during the eighteenth century between Rus-
sia, Austria, and Prussia, but which has been reconstituted
as a result of the recent World-War; the Wends who
dwell in the Spreewald on the upper waters of the River
Spree in Saxony and Prussia; the Czechs, or Bohemians,
together with the Slovaks to the east and the Moravians
to the south, who speak practically the same language,
and are now united in the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia.
The southern branch, or Jugo-Slavs, includes the Slo-
venes, Slavonians, Dalmatians, Montenegrins, Serbians
2 See H. Winckler, Mittheilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, xxxv, 1908;
E. Meyer, "Das erste Auftreten der Arier in der Geschichte," Sitsungsbericht
d. kbnig. preuss. Akademie, Berlin, 1908, pp. 14ff.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 63
and Bulgarians, who occupy a broad belt running from
west to east, south of Austria-Hungary and Roumania.
The Slavs have left no ancient literary records, but
they have retained old ideas and institutions more per-
fectly than any other branch of the Indo-European race.
The White Russians have preserved ancestor-worship of
a most primitive type in full force down to the present
time. The North Slavic languages, Lettish, Lithuanian,
and old Prussian, disclose some very early features of
Indo-European speech. On one side they are closely
related to Sanskrit, on another side to the West Slavic
dialects; and they are nearer to Latin than they are to
Celtic or Teutonic. They occupy a unique place in Indo-
European philology. Among the North Slavs heathen-
ism lasted longer than in any other part of Europe, so
that their early institutions have remained unchanged
almost down to the present. As late as 1550 the Lutheran
pastor Jan Maleki (Meletius, or Menecius) reported in
regard to the heathenism that still existed among the
Prussian peasants, and about 1660 another Lutheran
pastor, Matthaeus Praetorius, found the conditions un-
changed. The Northern Slavs occupy much the same place
among the Indo-Europeans that the Arabs do among the
Semites. They have best preserved the primitive culture
of their race. Consequently, students of comparative re-
ligion go to them to find the earliest forms of rites that
have been elaborated in India, Persia, Greece, and Italy.
6. The Greeks. — As early perhaps as 1500 B.C. the
Achaeans and Ionians had begun to settle in Northern
Greece, and in the following centuries they gradually
pressed southward, dispossessing or assimilating the older
non-Aryan, Mediterranean race which was akin to the
Berbers and Egyptians of North Africa. These abori-
gines were called Pelasgians by the invaders. They were
the originators of the splendid ^Egean civilisation in
Crete and at Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns that reached its
culmination about 1500 B.C. The earliest Greek civili-
64 SPIRITISM in
sation is known to us only from archaeological remains,
but the period from iooo B.C. onward is represented by
the Homeric epics, which originally were transmitted
orally, but which subsequently were committed to writ-
ing about 700 B.C. From this time onward an un-
broken stream of literature testifies to the beliefs of the
ancient Greeks in regard to spirits of the dead. The
Greek language and some elements of the Greek race
survive among the modern Greeks and the Albanians.
7. The Latins. — As early as the Achaean migration
into Greece other Indo-European tribes penetrated Italy,
driving before them the aboriginal Alpine and Mediter-
ranean inhabitants of the peninsula. These tribes were
eventually united under the rule of Rome, and Latin
became the speech of the entire peninsula. It is nearly
related to Greek on the one side and to Celtic on the
other.
8. The Celts. — In Classical times the Celts occupied
the northern part of Italy, the Alps, and the regions west
of the Alps, where they had dispossessed more or less
completely the Picts, Ligurians, Iberians and other non-
Aryan peoples. They were conquered by the Romans,
and adopted the Latin language; so that the funda-
mentally Celtic Walloons of Belgium and the Gauls
speak French, and the Celto-Iberians of the Spanish
peninsula speak Spanish and Portuguese, all of which are
descendants of Latin. In the British Isles the Celts were
conquered by Teutons, and here their languages have
given place to English, a Teutonic tongue. Only in
isolated corners of the old Celtic world have Celtic dia-
lects survived. The Goidelic group includes the Gaels of
northern Scotland, the Manx of the Island of Man, and
the Irish. The Brythonic group includes the Welsh, the
last survivors of the ancient Britons; the Cornish of
Cornwall, which has become extinct within the last cen-
tury; and the Bretons of Brittany in the northwest
corner of France. The Celtic languages bear a much
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 6s
closer affinity to Latin than they do to any other Indo-
European dialects. These languages possess no ancient
literatures; still, in all the regions where they survive,
exceedingly primitive beliefs and institutions have been
preserved.
9. The Teutons. — The original seat of this branch
of the Indo-European race was in the Scandinavian pen-
insula. Before the beginning of the Christian era they
had forced their way in between the Celts and the Slavs,
dispossessing or absorbing tribes of both races, and
occupying the whole region north of the Alps between
the Rhine and the Oder rivers. They menaced the Celts
west of the Rhine, and Julius Caesar had to make a cam-
paign against them in order to prevent their invasion of
the Roman province of Gaul. In the fourth century
under pressure of the Huns the Teutons again began to
push westward and southward. After the downfall of
the Huns under Attila in 451, the Teutons entered into
their heritage. In 476 Odoacer, chief of the Heruli,
sacked Rome and forced the last emperor to abdicate.
In the course of the following century all the former
provinces of the Roman Empire fell into the hands of
the Vandals, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks and
Saxons, branches of the Teutonic race, and it looked as
though the Teutonizing of Europe would be complete;
but the Celto-Roman civilisation of the Empire eventu-
ally absorbed the conquerors, and the Teutonic lan-
guages and institutions remained limited to the areas that
had been occupied at the beginning of the Christian era.
The present Teutonic peoples are the Icelanders, Nor-
wegians, Swedes, Danes, Frisians, Dutch, Flemings, Brit-
ish, and Germans.
These then are the main branches of the Indo-Euro-
pean race. It is frequently called the Aryan race, though
less correctly, since this name belongs properly to the
Indo-Iranians. No other race in history has spread so
widely and has preserved its language and its institu-
66 SPIRITISM
in
tions so tenaciously. No other race has played so large
a part in the development of civilisation. It began its
career later than the Hamites or the Semites, but it
absorbed all that was best in their attainments and far
outstripped them. Aryan civilisation now dominates the
world; and the Arabic, Chinese, and other ancient Ori-
ental cultures are rapidly disappearing before it. It is
the most gifted race that humanity has produced, and it
has lived in the most favourable environment.
b. Civilisation of the Primitive Indo-Europeans. —
The close resemblances of all the languages of the
branches of this race prove that it must once have been
a single people dwelling within a more contracted area.
Its original home was probably the steppes of Eastern
Russia and Western Asia. This region lies at the centre
of the present Indo-European world, and is the natural
cradle for a race of wanderers and conquerors. These
steppes support only a nomadic population and yield
only a scanty sustenance. When pasture and water be-
come scarce, some tribes have to move out and seek new
homes. The physical characteristics of this region are
thus similar to those of Central Arabia, the cradle of
the Semitic races, and to Central Asia, the cradle of the
Turanian races. Here as early as 3000 B.C. there wan-
dered over a vast area a group of tribes speaking similar
dialects and possessing a similar degree of culture. Com-
parative philology and archaeology reveal much of their
primitive language and institutions. They knew the
use of copper (or bronze), for the word for this metal
is found in widely separated Indo-European languages;
on the other hand, they did not know gold, silver, or
iron, for these metals have different names in the differ-
ent languages. Stone was still used for most of the
weapons. They had clubs, axes, daggers, spears and
lances, bows and arrows, but no swords or armour. They
had cattle, sheep and goats, and also horses, which they
used both for riding and for drawing carts and chariots.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 67
Swine, geese, and other domestic fowl were as yet un-
known to them. Agriculture was known to them, for
the words for field, plough, sow, reap, grind, are common
to most of the languages. They possessed the arts of
spinning and weaving, they used boats, and they had huts
and houses, and built folds for their cattle. They were
patriarchally organised, and the house-father was both
ruler and priest of his household. Groups of kindred
families united under the leadership of an elected chief-
tain called vis-pati, or 'lord of the settlers,' a name that
still survives in the Lithuanian wiez-pati, or 'governor.'
The most prominent feature in the religion of the
primitive Indo-Europeans was the worship of the bright
powers of nature. The most general name for 'god'
was deivos, 'heavenly,' from which comes Skr. devd,
Lat. dens, Ir. dia, Lith. diewas, and Old Nor. tivar.
Chief among the heavenly ones was dyeus, 'the sky,'
from which comes Skr. Dydiis, Gr. Zeus, Lat. Jup-piter
(i. e., 'sky-father'), Old Nor. Tyr, Old High Germ.
Ziu, A. Sax. Tiu (from which comes Tues-day). In Skr.
Dydiis has retained its primitive appellative meaning
'sky,' in the other languages its etymology has been
forgotten and it has become the personal name of the
chief god of the pantheon. On the contrary, ouranos has
retained in Greek its primitive meaning 'sky,' while in
Sanskrit Varuna has become a great god. Other objects
of worship were the sun, Skr. surya, Iran, hvar, Ar.
arev, Gr. hel'ios, Lat. sol, Celt, heul, Lith. sdule, Goth.
sauil; the moon, Skr. mas, Iran, mah, Armen. lusin, Gr.
mene, Lat. luna, Lith. menu, Goth, mena; the dawn, Skr.
us has, Iran, ulah, Gr. eds, Lat. aurora, Lith. auszra.
The thunder-god was worshipped by all the Aryans, but
under different appellations. In India and Mitanni he
was known as Indra; among the Celts as Torannos, Irish
Torann, Welsh Tarann, Cornish Taran; among the Teu-
tons as Tonar, O. Nor. Thorr, O. H. Germ. Donar,
Germ. Donner, Eng. Thunder. These Celtic and Teu-
68 SPIRITISM in
tonic names are all connected with Skr. standyati, Lat.
tonat, 'it thunders.' Among the Lithuanians he was
called Perkunas, which is the same as Slavic Perun and
Sanskrit Parjanya, and probably also Armenian Erkin.
There was also a lightning (fire) -god, Skr. Agn'i,
Lat. ignis, Lith. ugnis, Slav. ogni. In Latin and
in Slavic the name retained its primitive meaning, but in
Sanskrit the original signification was obscured, and
therefore Agni developed into a great god. Besides
these there was a vast number of so-called "departmental
gods" who presided over different realms of nature or
sections of human life. Comparative philology shows
that the great gods are all later developments of par-
ticular Aryan religions, and that the primitive faith had
not risen above the level of so-called Animism or Poly-
dEemonism.
A second main feature of Indo-European religion was
the worship of spirits of the dead. Over against the
"heavenly ones," the bright powers of the upper world,
stood a host of subterranean divinities, among whom
spirits of the dead occupied the most conspicuous place.
These two classes of divinities, nature-spirits and spirits
of the dead, were distinct in their origin, in their func-
tions, and in their manner of worship. The second of
these must now receive our more detailed consideration. 3
8 On ancestor-worship among the Indo-Europeans in general see H. Usener,
Gotternamen, 1896; E. Meyer, Gcschichte dcs Altertums,- 1909, vol. i, part 2,
pp. 754-838; O. Schrader, art. "Aryan Religion" in Hastings, Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics, ii, 1910, pp. 11-57, and the literature given in both of these
works; G. F. Moore, History of Religions, i, 1913; E. W. Hopkins, The History
of Religions, 1918.
On India, see Rig Veda, translated in Sacred Books of the East, xxxii, and xlvi,
1891, 1897; Atharva Veda, translated by Whitney and Lanman, 1905; A.
Barth, The Religions of India, translated by J. Wood, 1882; E. W. Hopkins, The
Religions of India, 1895; W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of
Northern India, 1896; M. Bloomfield, The Religion of the Veda, 1908; W.
Crooke, art. "Ancestor-worship (Indian)" in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., i, pp.
450-454.
On Persia, see The Avesta, translated by Darmesteter and Mills in Sacred Books
of the East, iv, xxiii, xxxi, 1880-1897; A. V. W. Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of
Ancient Iran; E. Lehmann, art. "Ancestor-worship (Iranian)" in Hastings, Enc.
Rel. and Eth., i. pp. 454f . ; J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, 1913.
On Armenia see M. Abeghian, Der Armenische Volksglaubc, 1899.
On the Greeks, see L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896-1909;
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 69
c. Indo-European Names for Spirits. — The early-
Aryans, like other ancient peoples, conceived of the soul
as breath, wind, vapour, smoke, shadow, power; and
these meanings underlie all the later words for soul or
spirit. Thus Skr. at man, 'soul' = Germ, athem and Ir.
athach, 'breath.' Skr. mdnas, 'soul' =Gr. menos, 'force,'
which reappears in Lat. Minerva from Menes-ova. In
the Vedas the collective term for spirits of the dead is
pitdras, 'forefathers' = Lat. patres. In the Avesta
spirits of the dead are called fravashis. The word fra-
vashi means 'expression,' or 'confession,' and is so used
because the soul is the inner nature of a man. This is
probably a theological development of Zoroastrianism
which has displaced a simpler terminology. In Armen-
ian the word for 'soul' and 'spirit' is ogi = Skr. dtmdn
and Germ, athem, 'breath.'
In Gr. pneuma means primarily 'breath,' and then
'soul' ; psitche likewise means 'breath, spirit,' and in
Homer is used exclusively of the discarnate spirit.
Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 1903; E. Rohde,
Psyche, Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen* 1907; E. G. Sihler,
Testimonium Animie, 1908; A. Fairbanks, Handbook of Greek Religion, 1910;
W. Ridgeway, Origin of Tragedy, 1910; H. M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age, 1912; G.
Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, 1912; Miss J. E. Harrison, Themis, A
Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion; L. R. Farnell, art. "Greek Re-
ligion" in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., vi, 1914, pp. 392-425; C. H. Moore,
The Religious Thought of the Greeks, 1916.
On the Romans, see F. Granger, The Worship of the Romans, 1895; W. W.
Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, 1899; J. B. Carter,
The Religion of Numa, 1906; J. B. Carter, art. "Ancestor-worship (Roman)" in
Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., i, 1908, pp. 461-466; W. W. Fowler, The Religious
Experience of the Roman People, 1911.
On the Celts, see J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, 1888; J. A. Macculloch, The
Religion of the Ancient Celts, 1911; G. Henderson, Survivals in Belief among
the Celts, 1911; A. Macbain, Celtic Mythology and Religion, 1917.
On the Slavs, see Peter of Dusburg in Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum, vol. i;
Joannes Menecius, de sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarum-
que vicinarum gentium, in Scriptores Rcrum Livonicarum, ii; M. Praetorius, Deli-
cice Prussica:, odcr preussische Schaubiihne, ed. W. Pierson, 1871; F. S. Krauss,
Sitte und Branch der Siidslaven, 1885; J. W. E. Mannhardt, Antike Wald-und
Feldkulte aus nordeuropaische Ueberlieferung erlautert, 1875-7, 2d ed. 1905; H.
Usener, Gotternamen, 1896, pp. 79-122; L. Leger, La Mythologie Slave, 1901;
art. "Ancestor-worship (Slavonic)" in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth. i, 1908, pp. 466.
On the Teutons, see E. H. Meyer, Gcrmanische Mythologie, 1891; P. D.
Chantepie de la Saussaye, The Religion of the Teutons, 1902; F. B. Gummere,
Germanic Origins, 1892; W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie,
1895.
7 o SPIRITISM in
Thumos, which is used by Homer as a synonym of psuche,
is the same as Skr. dhihnd, Lat. fumus, 'smoke.' Another
ancient Greek term for 'spirit' is ker, which is the same
as ker, 'heart.' This is used because the heart, as the
chief receptacle of blood in the body, is regarded as the
seat of the soul. 4 In Homer the collective body of the
departed is known as nekues, 'the dead,' or en{f)eroi
= Lat. inferi, 'those beneath' ; but instead of these ex-
plicit terms later writers preferred euphemisms such as
aoroi, 'the untimely,' or chrestoi, 'the beneficent.'
In Latin anima means 'breeze, breath, life,' and anima
is used of spirits of the dead. Animus is 'soul' and is
identical with Greek anemos, 'wind.' The Latin concep-
tion of the genius is peculiar. Genius is derived from
gigno, 'beget,' and the marriage-bed is known as lectus
genialis. Every man has his genius and every woman
her juno. On the birthday rites of worship were paid to
one's genius or juno as the case might be. The celebrant
clad in white, with a garland on his head, offered incense,
cakes and wine and prayed for protection during the
coming year. Buildings, regions, towns, cities, trades,
and other groups of men, were thought to have their
genii. The genius, accordingly, seems to have been a
guardian-spirit, who was born with a man, and who
shared his experiences in life and in death. The concep-
tion was thus similar to the Egyptian ka, and may have
been derived from the pre-Latin inhabitants of Italy,
who probably belonged to the same Mediterranean race
as the Egyptians. r * Spirits of the dead were grouped
under the collective name of di manes, 'kind gods,' a
euphemism designed to avoid actual mention of their
names. They were also known as inferi, 'those beneath'
and umbra, 'shadows, shades.' Apparently the lares
were guardian-spirits of the hearth and of the home, who
were honoured with domestic rites, and were originally
*See p. 201. ;
•See p. 155. IJ
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 71
the ancestors of the family who watched over its in-
terests. Etymologically the word is connected with larva,
'ghost,' and with larentalia, the festival of the dead.
The Celts of Gaul, according to Augustine, 6 and Isi-
dore, 7 called spirits of the dead dusii. The word is con-
nected with Lith. dwdse, 'breath' 'spirit,' and diisas,
'vapour,' and with Old Slav, duchu, 'breath,' 'spirit,'
and dusa, 'soul.' In the same series probably belongs Gr.
theos, 'god,' from an original th(f)esos.
Among the Slavs the peasants of Great Russia speak
of the dead as roditeli, 'parents,' and those of White
Russia as dzjady, 'grandfather.' These terms are ap-
plied to deceased relatives of both sexes and even to
children. They correspond to the Sanskrit pitdras.
The Goths, according to Jordanis (chap. 13), called
their deified ancestors anses. This is probably connected
with Skr. dsu, 'breath,' life,' and with Skr. dsura and
Avest. ahura, 'god,' 'lord,' which appears in Ahura-
mazda, the supreme God of the Avesta. The Norse
equivalent asen denoted the highest gods of the pantheon.
On the other hand, in Ang. Sax. the word ese was de-
graded to mean 'elves.' The Norse word for 'soul' is
fylgja, 'follower.' It is evidently developed out of the
shadow which follows a man, and it corresponds to the
Latin umbra. Our word soul, German Seele, probably
means 'lively,' 'active,' like the Skr. mdnas. Our word
ghost, German Geist, 'spirit,' as in Old English and in
the combination Holy Ghost, is etymologically connected
with gust.
These names show that the primitive Indo-Europeans
did not conceive the spirits of the dead as immaterial,
but as having an ethereal substance like the living body.
This view is confirmed by narratives of the appearances
of ghosts. In all cases they have shadowv or vaporous
Civ, Dei, xv. 23.
''Lib. Etymol. viii. 11, 103.
72 SPIRITISM m
forms that resemble those in which they appeared on
earth.
d. Powers Retained by the Dead. — The future life
was conceived by the Indo-Europeans as essentially sim-
ilar to the present life. The dead dwelt in communities
and carried on the same occupations that they had fol-
lowed on earth. They still needed food, clothing and
shelter; and, strange to say, they were unable to provide
these for themselves, but depended on the generosity of
the living. Hence everywhere the need was felt for sons
to keep up the ancestral cult; and if there were no sons,
others were adopted to perform their functions.
In the Rig Veda the dead still require food, and come
back to their former homes to demand it. If they are
not fed, they will vent their wrath upon their families.
In the Ramayana sons are considered necessary in order
that they may make the proper offerings to the shades of
their fathers. In the modern cremation ritual the Brah-
man says: "Unwillingly do the manes of the deceased
taste the tears and rheum shed by their kinsmen; then do
not wail, but diligently perform the obsequies of the
dead." 8
In the Avesta® we read: "We invoke the good, the
mighty, the holy fravashis of the righteous, who descend
to the villages at the time of the Hamaspathmaedaya, and
return thither every night for ten nights to ask for help.
Will anybody praise us? Will anybody pay homage to
us? Who will accept us among his own? Who will
bless us? Who will receive us with a handful of meat,
and a garment, and sacred reverence?" The passage
goes on to say that the person who will fulfil these obli-
gations shall be richly blessed during the coming year.
In Greece food was placed in graves and upon them, and
in some parts of the land tubes were inserted in graves
through which the blood of sacrifices could flow down
8 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, p. 245.
• Yasht, xiii. 49-52.
m SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 73
to the dead. In the Odyssey 10 the shades eagerly lap
the blood that Odysseus has poured into the sacrificial
trench, and he has to drive away with his sword those
whom he does not wish to consult.
On Roman tombstones the dead beg for offerings.
"Travellers who crown me and offer me flowers," says
Victor Fabianus, "may ye find the gods propitious." A
little child asks its playmates to come to its grave, bring-
ing cups of wine, and to pray that the earth may lie light
upon her. The jus manium, or dues of the dead, formed
an important topic in early Roman law. The funda-
mental principle was that the offerings to ancestors should
not be remitted: perpetua sacra sunto. Cicero 11 cites
an ancient law: "Let private sacrifices continue forever,"
"Keep sacred the laws concerning the divine dead." The
first duty of an heir was to care for these offerings, and
their expense constituted a first lien on the estate. The
adoption of an heir always involved abjuring of the
ancestral obligations of his own clan. This required the
consent of the Comitia Curiata, and was not permitted
unless there were other persons capable of carrying on
the ancestral cult in the family which was abandoned.
e. Powers Gained by the Dead. — 1. Spirits of the
Dead Possess Superhuman Powers of Motion. — They
are capable of moving at will with great rapidity from
place to place. In the Avesta 12 it is said that when the
fravashis are summoned, "they come flying like a well-
winged bird." Odysseus says to the ghost of Elpenor: —
"How earnest thou
Elpenor, hither into these abodes
Of night and darkness? Thou hast made more speed,
Although on foot, than I in my good ship." 13
10 xi, 34ff.
11 De Legibus, ii. 22.
12 Yasht, xiii. 70.
1S Odyssey, xi. 57 S.
74
SPIRITISM in
The assumption among all the Indo-Europeans that
spirits of the dead can come when called to receive the
offerings that are made by the living presupposes ex-
traordinary powers of locomotion.
2. Spirits Show Themselves in Winds. — Since they
were themselves "breath" and "wind," it was natural
that they should reveal themselves in atmospheric phen-
omena. In India and in Persia "good" and "bad" winds
were distinguished. "Good" winds were the souls of
the friendly dead, while "bad" winds were the restless
ghosts of those for whom the proper funeral rites had
not been performed. Similarly in Greece the winds were
sometimes favourable spirits to whom white sheep were
sacrificed, and sometimes hostile spirits to whom black
sheep were offered. The Harpies were destructive wind-
spirits who wrecked ships and snatched away men's souls
to Hades. They were represented in art as human-
headed birds, precisely like the representations of souls.
Deadly winds were habitually called by euphemistic
names such as Euraquilo or Euroclydon. Penelope prays:
"I would that thou wouldst send into my heart
A shaft to take my life, or that a storm
Would seize and hurl me through the paths of air,
And cast me into Ocean's restless stream,
As once a storm, descending, swept away
The daughters born to Pandarus." 14
A Harpy was the mother by Zephyros of the horses
of Achilles. Stormy winds were regarded as troops of
restless ghosts coursing through the air with Hekate,
a goddess of the Underworld. 15 Similar conceptions in
Teutonic mythology are Woden, "the Wind," the wild
huntsman who rushes through the sky with the host of
spirits of the dead; the Valkyries, who correspond to the
Greek Harpies, the snatchers of souls; and the "Wind-
14 Odyssey, xx. 61ff.
16 Iliad, xvi. 150; see Rohde, Psyche* i, 72; ii, 83f., 264.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 75
bride" of Germanic folk-lore who steals away the souls
of men.
3. Spirits Occupy Inanimate Objects. — Among the
low caste tribes of India small images are prepared to
receive spirits of the dead. The Roman noble kept in
his atrium the imagines, or portraits of his forefathers,
which were originally portrait-masks that covered the
faces of the dead. These were probably fitted on to
statues or busts, and at funerals were worn by actors
who impersonated the dead. These masks were perhaps
a development out of primitive statues that were in-
habited by the spirits. Among the Celts standing stones
were the dwelling-places not only of gods but also of the
manes, 16 and among all the Indo-Europeans the tomb-
stone was felt to stand in a peculiarly intimate relation
to the soul of the dead so that offerings were placed upon
it.
Lots were controlled by ghosts as well as by gods, so
that they were consulted for information in regard to the
present and the future. Traces of this custom are found
among all the Aryan peoples, but in Italy the institution
attained its greatest development. The sortes, or 'lots'
(from severe, 'string'), were small plates bearing in-
scriptions that were strung together on a cord. One of
these tablets was drawn, and the inscription upon it was
interpreted as an answer to the inquiry. Such lots were
found at various sanctuaries, but the most famous were
those at Praeneste, which are described in detail by
Cicero. 17 The lots, which were discovered in dim an-
tiquity, were inscribed on oak tablets, and were kept in a
chest of olive wood. They were drawn by a boy. Cicero
carefully distinguishes between lots of this sort "which are
endued with a divine instinct and afflatus," and ordinary
lots which are used in playing games. The Roman state-
religion made no official use of the lots, which probably
16 Henderson, Survivals in Belief among the Celts, pp. 198ff.
17 De Divinatione, ii, 41ff.
76 SPIRITISM m
indicates that they were not associated with the great
gods of the state, but with lesser spirits of the dead.
4. Spirits Occupy Plants or Animals. — Among the
Greeks and the Romans it was customary to plant trees
upon graves, and it was thought that the souls of the
dead inhabited these trees. Mountain nymphs planted
elms upon the mound of Eetion. 18 When iEneas up-
rooted a myrtle on the grave of Polydorus, the tree bled
and he heard a voice from the mound saying: "Why, O
iEneas, do you hurt wretched me? Spare now the
buried. Refrain thy reverent hands from guilt." 10 Vergil
tells us that in the open space at the entrance to Orcus a
mighty elm tree stands. It spreads its aged branches
with their deep shadows over a vast space. Men say
that deceitful dreams take up their abode here, and
cling to all the leaves. 20 Here souls of the dead are con-
ceived both as dreams and as birds, and they inhabit the
elm. This is evidently a fragment of old Italic folk-lore.
The re-incarnation of spirits in the bodies of animals
or of men we shall consider later in connection with
the doctrine of metempsychosis. 21
5. Spirits Obsess Living Men. — In India even the Rig
Veda contains a strong infusion of demonology, and the
Atharva Veda is full of it. In viii. 6 it gives a lengthy
enumeration of ghosts and goblins of every sort, among
whom are restless spirits of the dead. There are also
a number of exorcisms of evil spirits that have entered
into men, for instance, in ix. 8 the bhuts, or 'spooks,' lurk
everywhere, ready to jump into men on the slightest op-
portunity; and when they have entered they afflict their
victims with all sorts of diseases. In the Mahabhdrata,
iii. 96, we are told of a particular demon called dditeya
that had the habit of cooking its younger brother and
serving him up as meat to saints. After the saint had
18 Iliad, vi. 419f.
"Mneid, iii. 19-68.
20 Ibid., vi. 282ff.
21 See p. 98.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 77
partaken of the tempting dish, the demon called his
brother who came out bursting the saint asunder.
In the Persian religion of the Avesta all diseases are
evil spirits of one sort or another that have entered into
men. They stand in the service of Ahriman, and are
opposed by Ahura Mazda and the good spirits who seek
to deliver men from their wiles.
In Greece the host of Hekate as it courses through
the air brings to men uncleanness, mischief, distressing
dreams, nightmares, frightful visions, epilepsy, and in-
sanity. The keres, or 'ghosts,' are often described as
bringing diseases to men. Hesiod tells of a golden age
when
"Of old the tribes of mortal men on earth
Lived without ills, aloof from grievous toil,
And catching plagues which keres give to men.
• •••••
The woman with her hands took the great lid
From off the cask and scattered them, and thus
Devised sad cares for mortals.
• ••••*
For other myriad evils wandered forth
To man, the earth was full, and full the sea.
Diseases, that all round by day and night
Bring ills to mortals, hovered, self-impelled,
Silent, for Zeus, the Counsellor, their voice
Had taken away." "
Pandora is the earth-goddess, and the cask which she
opens is the pithos, or jar, in which the ancient Greeks
were buried, from which spirits of the dead emerge. In
a vase-painting Hermes, leader of souls, is represented
as opening such a pithos, from which the keres emerge as
little winged figures. Plato says, 23 "There are many
fair things in the life of mortals, but in most of them
there are as it were adherent keres which pollute and
disfigure them." As prophylactic measures against the
22 Hesiod, Works and Days, 90S.
23 Laws, xi. 937.
7 8 SPIRITISM in
keres, pitch was spread on doors to catch them as they
tried to flutter in, and buckthorn was chewed so as to
expel them by its cathartic qualities. The gods were
invoked for protection against their ravages. Thus in
an Orphic hymn to Herakles we read: —
"Come, blessed hero, come and bring allayments
Of all diseases. Brandishing thy club,
Drive forth the baleful fates; with poisoned shafts
Banish the noisome keres far away." 24
In general the dead are regarded as hostile to the
living, jealous of their health and well-being, and anxious
to bring others into the same condition as themselves.
In the Vedic period in India the dead are more feared
than loved, and are believed to be constantly seeking
new recruits for the kingdom of Yama. In Homer the
costly ceremonies of cremation are designed to secure
that spirits of the dead may descend to Hades where
they will no more trouble the living. The ghost of
Patroclus says to Achilles: "Nevermore shall I return
to earth when once the fire shall have consumed me." 25
The Romans believed that spirits of the dead wan-
dered by night seeking to smite the living with fatal
diseases. The grave-inscriptions frequently speak of the
manes as having come to fetch the living. Thus an
inscription from Corduba says: "The manes have taken
Abullia." 26 At the festival of the Compitalia dolls in
human form were hung up for the lares, "that they
might spare the living and be satisfied with trifles and
images." 27 The chief motive for sacrifice to the dead
was the fear that they would avenge themselves if they
were neglected. Ovid tells how "once upon a time the
great feast of the dead was not observed, and the manes
failed to receive the customary gifts, the fruit, the salt,
24 See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 165-175.
26 Iliad, xxiii. 75.
28 Corpus Inscriptionum Lat. ii. 2255.
27 Festus, s. v. pilm, ed. Dacerius, p. 346.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 79
the grain steeped in unmixed wine, the violets. The
injured spirits avenged themselves on the living, and
the city was surrounded with the funeral fires of their
victims." 28 So fearful were men that they had not per-
formed the rites of the dead properly that every year
before the reaping of harvest a sow (porca pracidanea)
was sacrificed to the subterranean deities "by him who
had not given the dead his due," lest they should cause
the failure of crops. The manes punished with special
rigour any crimes that impaired the vigour of the family
because these interfered with the regular performance
of the ancestral rites. A law ascribed to Romulus
enacted that a man who sold his wife should be dis
manibits sacer f "devoted to the divine shades." The
reason for this was that he would have no children to
keep up the ancestral rites. A child who struck his
parent, or the violator of a grave, was also given over
to the dead. 29 The manes punished with death all
breaches of the mos maiorum, "the tradition of the
elders." When the Potitii, who had charge of an ances-
tral cult at the Great Altar, shifted their responsibility
to the public slaves, "the whole family of the Potitii
was blotted out within a short time, and the vengeance
of heaven was visited upon the censor Appius, upon
whose advice they had acted, for a few years after
he lost his sight." 30
In similar manner the modern peasants of White
Russia are filled with dread "lest at the commemora-
tion festival any mistake should be made. Then, to
speak in the language of the peasants, the feast would
be no feast. It would mean that they did not respect
the memory of the person in whose honour the feast
was instituted. As a punishment for disrespect for the
dead there would follow at once family discord, death
!8 Fasti, ii. S49-SS4.
"Plutarch, Romulus, 22; Festus, s. v. parici, CIL. x. 43SS.
"OLivy. ix. 29.
80 SPIRITISM in
of cattle, failure of crops; in short, mountains and hills
would fall upon the living."
6. Spirits Possess Living Men. — In India the feed-
ing of Brahmans at funeral feasts and other rites of
ancestor-worship is regarded as identical with feeding
the pitaras. Throughout Northern India large numbers
of Brahmans live exclusively from the funeral offerings.
In White Russia beggars take the place of the Brahmans.
They repeat their songs and prayers, and are bountifully
fed in return. At Roman funerals impersonators were
chosen to represent the ancestors. They wore their
death-masks that were preserved in the family atrium,
were dressed in their garments, wore their insignia of
office, and sat in state in their ivory chairs of office.
They received the new-comer into their company, and
partook of the funeral meats that were laid before
them. When the ceremony was over, the masks were
returned to their boxes in the atrium and continued to
share in the life of the family. 31 They bore a strong
resemblance to the impersonators of the dead in China,
and can be explained only on the supposition that they
were possessed by ancestral spirits. 32
Dreams were widely regarded as due to possession
by the dead. In various parts of Greece there were
chasms which were believed to communicate with the
Underworld, through which the shades could arise.
Here there were sanctuaries at which dream-oracles were
given. The inquirer offered a sacrifice and slept within
the sacred enclosure, the dead then appeared to him. A
famous sanctuary of this sort was at Thesprotia. Here
Herodotus records that Periander, tyrant of Corinth,
"consulted the oracle of the dead upon the Acheron con-
cerning a pledge which had been given him by a stranger;
and Melissa appeared, but refused to speak or to tell
where the pledge was — she was chill, she said, having no
81 Polybius, vi. S3.
82 See p. 28.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 81
clothes; the garments buried with her were of no man-
ner of use, since they had not been burnt." Periander
then stripped the women of Corinth of their finest
apparel and burnt the clothes in a pit. "This done, he
sent a second time to the oracle, and Melissa's ghost told
him where he would find the stranger's pledge." 33 There
was a similar oracle at Phigalia in Arcadia. 34
The soul of Patroclus appears to Achilles in a dream. 35
Penelope says: —
"Of dreams, O stranger, some are meaningless
And idle, and can never be fulfilled.
Two portals are there for their shadowy shapes,
Of ivory one, and one of horn. The dreams
That come through the carved ivory deceive
With promises that never are made good;
But those that pass the doors of polished horn,
And are beheld of men, are ever true." 36
This is imitated by Vergil 37 at the end of his descrip-
tion of Hades: "There are twin gates of Sleep, whereof
the one is said to be of horn. By this an easy exit is
afforded to the true shades. Another gleams with the
polish of dazzling ivory. By it the manes send false
dreams to heaven." The meaning is that dreams which
come through the gate of ivory (the teeth), that is,
which one hears, are less reliable than those which come
through the gate of horn (the cornea of the eye), that
is, which one sees. Both passages connect dreams with
spirits of the dead. In this connection mention should
be made of the passage in Vergil cited above in which
dreams are compared to birds that roost in the elm
tree at the gate of Hades. 38
Tertullian records that among the Celts those who
83 Herodotus, v. 92; Pausanias, ix. 30, 3.
84 Pausanias, iii. 17, 8f.
86 Iliad, xxiii, 65ff.
88 Odyssey, xix, 5S9ff.
37 Mneid, vi. 893ff.
38 See p. 76.
82 SPIRITISM m
sought hidden knowledge slept on graves, hoping to be
inspired by the spirits of the dead. 31 '
A higher form of spirit-possession is that in which a
man's mind is controlled by the indwelling spirit so that
he becomes a medium through whom the thought and
the will of the spirit are communicated. This is akin
to the inspiration of prophets by the gods. The phe-
nomena of telepathy and telesthesia, of mind-reading
and foreboding, of hypnotism and divided personality,
were explained by all the Indo-Europeans as due partly
to possession by gods and partly to possession by spirits
of the dead.
The following instances of mediumship in India are
given by W. Crooke : 40 "A man enters with his legs
girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to scare
away the malevolent spirits which are present at
the time of a death. He advances with short steps,
rolling his eyes and staggering to and fro, sawing
the air with two short sticks which he holds in his
hands, and thus works himself into a frenzied state
of inspiration, while the mourners wail and ask why
the dead has been taken from them. Presently a con-
vulsive shiver attacks the medium, who staggers more
violently, and at last falls to the ground. He tries to
support himself by holding one of the poles of the funeral
shed, when he gasps out disjointed sentences which are
taken to be the voice of the god." "A girl becomes pos-
sessed by the spirit, and talks and acts, it. is said, just
like the person who has lately died, calling the children,
relatives, and friends by name, and giving commands for
the future conduct of the surviving members of the
family. After this the spirit is severed from earthly
trammels and attains heavenly bliss."
In Greece we have a case of spirit-possession in the
second-sight of Theoklymenos: —
80 De Anima, 57.
40 Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, x. 130.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 83
"Then spake the godlike Theoklymenos : —
'Unhappy men ! what may this evil be
That overtakes you? Every brow and face
And each one's lower limbs are wrapped in night,
And moans arise, and tears are on your cheeks.
The walls and all the graceful cornices
Between the pillars are bedropped with blood,
The portico is full, these halls are full
Of shadows, hastening down to Erebus
Amid the gloom. The sun is blotted out
From heaven, and fearful darkness covers all.' " 41
The Pythia at Delphi received her inspiration in his-
toric times from Apollo ; but Apollo had dispossessed an
earlier serpent-god, and the Pythia became ecstatic by
inhaling a vapour that rose through a fissure in the earth.
Evidently she was originally possessed by a chthonic
deity. Lucan 42 tells how the god penetrated her body
and forced her to yield to his guidance, how she shook
the sacred garlands from her head and overturned the
vessels of the temple in her efforts to escape the divine
afflatus, how finally she succumbed and uttered words
that were not her own but those of the god who con-
trolled her.
The Sibyls of Italy seem to have been similar mediums
through whom the dead communicated with the living.
In the iEneid Vergil represents the Cumaean Sibyl as
conducting iEneas into the Underworld. She lives in a
cave, and near by is Lake Avernus, the entrance to
Hades. Vergil describes her ecstasy: "Even as she
spoke neither her features nor her complexion remained
the same, nor was her hair confined within its braid; her
bosom heaved, and her wild heart was swollen with
frenzy; her stature was larger to the sight, her voice no
longer human: so soon was she inspired by the breath of
the god as it came ever nearer. ... At length, no longer
submitting herself to Phoebus, the prophetess rages
«• Odyssey, xx. 35 Iff.
42 V. 161ff.
84 SPIRITISM in
furiously in her cavern, if so be that she may succeed
in flinging off the mighty god from her bosom. All the
more he plies her frenzied mouth, subduing her wild
heart, and fashions her to his will by constraint." Here,
in imitation of the Pythia, the Sibyl receives her inspira-
tion from Apollo, but it is evident that originally she
was conceived as a spirit-medium. 43
This Cumaean Sibyl was the reputed author of the
famous Sibylline Books in which her ecstatic predictive
utterances were collected. According to the legend, she
offered nine books for sale to King Tarquinius Priscus.
When the King refused her price, she burnt three of
the books, and still asked the same price for the re-
mainder. When he refused once more, she burnt three
more books, and continued to demand the same price.
The King now became alarmed, and bought the remain-
ing three at the full price. These books were kept in
the temple on the Capitoline Hill, and were consulted
in all times of national crisis.
Among the Celts mediums possessing the power of
second-sight have existed from the earliest times down
to the present. "A great obnubilation was conjured
up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and things
magic-begotten were shown him to enunciate, apparently
in his sleep. This was called "illumination by rhymes,"
and a similar method was used in Wales. When con-
sulted, the seer roared violently until he was beside him-
self, and out of his ravings the desired information was
gathered. When aroused from this ecstatic condition,
he had no remembrance of what he had uttered. Giral-
dus reports this, and thinks, with the modern spiritualist,
that the utterance was caused by spirits. The resem-
blance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods
used by savages is remarkable, and psychological science
a &neid, vi. 45ff.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 85
sees in it the promptings of the subliminal self in
sleep." 44
Among the Teutons we find trolls, witches and wise
women, all of whom were mediums controlled by spirits.
They worked themselves up into the hypnotic trance by
incantations, and then either fared forth on the wings
of the storm to visit distant places, or were inspired
to reveal hidden things and to predict the future. The
Norse Volves were professional mediums who enjoyed
high esteem. They had magic chairs, magic wands, and
a company of boys and girls who chanted the songs that
induced the prophetic trance. In the winter season when
the spirits were abroad they journeyed from farm to
farm in pursuit of their art, and were everywhere hos-
pitably received.
7. Spirits Appear to Men in Bodily Form. — Appari-
tions of the dead to the living are well known in all
parts of the Indo-European world. This happens fre-
quently, though not necessarily, in the presence of a
medium who has the power of "materialising" spirits.
Such ghosts belong as a rule to three main classes: first,
those who have died untimely deaths, namely miscar-
riages, children that have died in infancy, youths and
maidens who have died unmarried, married persons who
have died without children, and women who have died
in childbirth; second, those who have died violent deaths,
namely the murdered, suicides, and those who have fallen
in battle; third, those who have not received funeral rites,
or have not received the proper rites. All these troubled
spirits fail to enter the Underworld in peace, are envious
of the living, and are likely to appear and make demands
upon them. 45
In India these three classes are known as preta, from
the root pre, 'depart,' ; bhuta, 'demon' ; and pisdcha, 'flesh-
44 Macculoch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, p. 249.
46 On the unburied see above, pp. 8, 36.
86 SPIRITISM in
eater.' They appear in the forms that they wore on
earth, or with small, thick, red bodies and horrible
faces with lions' teeth. They come to blows with men,
and carry them off to remote places. They assault
women, and women are reported to have become with
child by them. They operate chiefly at night, but noon
is also a dangerous time, when women especially should
not go about unprotected. They speak a "goblin speech,"
which is a sort of gibberish uttered in a high nasal tone. 46
In Persia such unhappy spirits are classed under the
general name daeva, which includes evil spirits of all
sorts that are in the service of Ahriman. Etymologically
the word is identical with Sanskrit deva, 'god,' and Latin
divus, 'divine' ; but in the Zoroastrian religion it is ap-
plied only to evil spirits, just as in Judaism and Chris-
tianity the gods of the ancient world have been degraded
to the position of devils. Among the daevas must be
included spirits of the dead, since they love foulness and
decay and are specially numerous in the vicinity of the
dakhmas, or towers of silence, where corpses are exposed.
They appear in human form, they come at night, and
they vanish at the rising of the sun. 47
In Greece the three main classes of appearing ghosts
were known as dorol, 'the untimely,' that is, those who
had met untimely deaths; biothdnatoi, those who had
met violent deaths; and dtaphoi, 'the unburied.' In the
eleventh book of the Odyssey all the ghosts who appear
to Odysseus have met untimely or unhappy ends.
"Souls of the dead from Erebus — young wives
And maids unwedded, men worn out with years
And toil, and virgins of a tender age
In their new grief, and many a warrior slain
In battle, mangled by the spear, and clad
In bloody armour, who about the trench
Flitted on every side, now here, now there,
With gibbering cries, and I grew pale with fear."
" E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vi. p. 230.
" Yasna, be. 15; Yasht, vi. 3f.
m SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 87
These ghosts appeared in the same forms in which
Odysseus had known them on earth, and spoke with
audible voices, but they were inaccessible to the sense of
touch.
The Erinyes were originally the souls of the murdered
who demanded vengeance. Althaea summons the Erinyes
out of Hades to avenge the death of her brothers. 48 In
i^schylus 49 we read: "CEdipus' holy shade, black
Erinys, verily mighty art thou." Io, maddened by the
apparition of earth-born Argus, cries:
"O horror! he is coming, coming nigh,
Dead, with his wandering eye.
Uprising from the dead,
He drives me famished
Along the shingled main." 50
In the Eumenides , 46ft., the priestess describes these
spectres of the slain that she has seen in the temple: —
"Fronting the man I saw a wondrous band
Of women, sleeping on the seats. But no!
No women these, but Gorgons — yet methinks
I may not liken them to Gorgon-shapes.
Once on a time I saw those pictured things
That snatch at Phineus' feast, but these, but these
Are wingless — black, foul utterly. They snore,
Breathing out noisome breath. From out their eyes
They ooze a loathy rheum." 51
A more horrible conception of the ghosts of the mur-
dered, worse than Gorgons, and worse than Harpies,
which are themselves spirits of the dead, could hardly be
imagined.
There are many allusions in Greek literature to ap-
pearances of ghosts, particularly in connection with
« Iliad, ix. 571S.
49 Seven against Thebes, 988.
60 Prometheus Bound, 566ff.
" See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 213-232.
88 SPIRITISM m
necromancy, or the calling up of the dead. 52 Lucian in
his Philopseudes, or 'Liar,' gives a rich collection of
stories of this sort. It is satire, of course, still it reflects
popular beliefs on the subject. Pliny 53 tells perhaps the
best Greek ghost-story that has come down to us. In
Athens there was a haunted house, where rattling of
chains was heard, and where the ghost of an old man
appeared with chains on his wrists which he kept shaking.
People who tried to live in the house died from fright,
and nobody was willing to hire the place. Finally the
philosopher Athenodorus, attracted by the cheapness of
the rent, and by a love of psychical research, took the
place and settled down in his study to await develop-
ments. He heard the rattling of the chains, and finally
the ghost appeared to him and beckoned him to follow.
The philosopher, with extraordinary presence of mind
under the circumstances, followed the phantom into the
yard where it suddenly vanished. He made a heap of
leaves at the spot where it had disappeared, and the
next day reported the matter to the magistrates and had
the place dug up. A skeleton was discovered bound in
chains; and when this had been freed and properly
buried, the ghost no more appeared in the house.
Roman ideas about ghosts were similar to those of
the Greeks. Souls of the unhappy dead were apt to
appear to the living. After the murder of the mad
Emperor Gaius his corpse was only half-burned and half-
buried. The Lamian villa where the tragedy had oc-
curred was haunted by his ghost, and every night there
were dreadful sights and sounds until the house was
burned. 54 Nero, after the assassination of his mother
Agrippina, could not sleep because of her phantom that
appeared to him. From the surrounding hills the sound
of a trumpet was heard and wailings from Agrippina's
02 See p. 151.
M Epistles, vii. 27.
" Suetonius, Gaius, 59.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 89
grave. 55 On the night when Galba was assassinated,
Otho started up from his bed with groans, and was found
lying in a swoon on the ground. 56 Ovid 57 threatens to
haunt his enemy after death: "However death may
come to me, I will strive to break from the borders of
the river of Hades, and in vengeance I will lay my cold
hands on your brow. Waking, you shall look upon me;
in the still shadow of night I will seem to come and
shatter your slumbers. Whatever you do, I will fly
before you in your sight. I will raise my lament. You
shall not find rest anywhere. Knotted lashes shall sound
in your ears. Torches entwined with snakes shall always
smoke before your guilty countenance. You shall be
driven on by the furies in life and in death, for life is
too short for your chastisement."
Roman ghosts appeared mostly at night. Propertius
represents them as saying: "At night we wander far
and wide, for night frees the shades from their prison.
Our laws compel us to return to the Lake of Forgetful-
ness by daybreak." They also appeared occasionally at
noon-time when the intense summer heat drove men off
of the streets to take their siestas in their homes. Thus
the phantom of a woman appeared at noon in an African
town to Curtius Rufus informing him that he should
return to the province as pro-consul. 58 It was dangerous
to see ghosts, as this often foreboded death, but fortu-
nately the spirits avoided being seen by men quite as
much as men avoided looking upon them.
Among the Celts the realistic conception of a bodily
existence in the other world made it easy to believe that
the dead could manifest themselves to the living. Such
apparitions could hardly be called ghosts since they were
clothed in flesh and blood and looked the same as when
" Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 10.
68 Suetonius, Otho, 7.
" Ibis, 15 Iff.
88 Tacitus, Annals, xi. 21.
9 o
SPIRITISM m
they were alive on earth. 59 Celtic literature is full of
accounts of manifestations in which the living are un-
conscious that they are talking with the dead. The
Classical writers mention a class of Celtic spirits of the
dead called dus'ii (cf. Gr. tfeos) who were so corporeal
that they entered into marital relations with men and
women as incubi and succubi. 60
Teutonic conceptions of ghosts are so familiar to us
from our English folk-lore that they require no special
elaboration in this connection.
8. Spirits of the Dead Possess Superhuman Knowl-
edge. — They are far wiser than mortals. They know
what is taking place on earth among their relatives.
They know when offerings are prepared for them and
when they are invoked to be present. They know the
prayers that are addressed to them by their descendants.
They also know the future. In Homer all the ghosts
who appear to the living deliver prophetic oracles. The
entire eleventh book of the Odyssey is devoted to the
predictions which the shades make to Odysseus. In all
parts of the Indo-European world the dead exercise the
same oracular functions.
9. Spirits of the Dead Are Able to Bless the Living.
— Although the dead are dangerous when angry, yet
when properly appeased, they reward their filial descend-
ants. The Vedas frequently speak of the "fathers" as
blessing their posterity. In connection with the offering
of food to ancestors in India the sacrificer prays:
"Honour, pitaras, for your comfort, honour for your
living sap, honour for your living power, honour for your
gentleness, honour for your life, honour for your vigour,
Svahd to you, honour to you, pitaras, honour! This
water is yours, pitaras, this is our and your life-bringing
element; may we who are here be quickened." The
husband then gives the sacrificial cake to his wife to
" See pp. 4f., 32f.
00 Augustine, de Civ. Dei, xv. 23; Isidore Lib. Etymol. viii., 11, 103.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 91
eat, saying, "Give me a male child, pitaras," and the wife
replies, "Insert fruit in me, pitaras, a lotus-wreathed boy,
that he may be uninjured."
In Persia the fravashis took such a keen interest in
the welfare of their descendants that in time of drought
they hurried to the heavenly lake Vourukasha and fought
with one another for water, "each for his own family,
his own village, his own tribe, his own country." 61
In Greece the bride before leaving her home sacri-
ficed to her ancestors in order to secure fertility and a
blessing upon her home. 62
/. Powers Lost by the Dead. — Notwithstanding the
resemblance of the other world to the present world,
and notwithstanding the superhuman powers that were
gained through death which raised one to the rank of
a god, the future life was regarded by most of the Indo-
Europeans as a dim, shadowy existence that was most
undesirable. The loss of the body involved the loss
of all the active powers and all the pleasures that made
life worth living. The disembodied soul was only a
feeble reflection of its former self. In all the Indo-
European languages the soul is described as breath,
wind, vapour, smoke, shadow. These names emphasize
its unsubstantial character. Accordingly, with the loss
of the body one lost all that made existence worth while.
One did not enter upon immortality in any true sense
of the word, but only upon a ghost-existence, which is a
very different matter. In Homer the psuche, or 'breath,'
is only an eidolon, or 'image,' of its former self. It is
a 'smoke,' 63 or a 'shadow,' 64 and it passes like air
through the hands of those who try to seize it. For this
reason the dead are unhappy, and regard the humblest
lot on earth as superior to the highest rank among the
n Avesta, Yasha, xiii, 64ff.
62 See below, p. 137f.
83 Iliad, xxiii. 100.
84 Odyssey, x. 495; xi. 207; see p. 7.
92 SPIRITISM m
shades. 65 Greek and Latin grave-inscriptions take the
same pessimistic attitude toward the future life; and
however much higher conceptions may have prevailed
in mystic brotherhoods and philosophic circles, these did
not affect the primitive beliefs of the multitude.
Among the Celts alone a more cheerful conception
prevailed. Like the ancient Egyptians, they seem to have
conceived of the dead as re-animating their bodies in
the other life, and therefore as not leading a ghost-
existence. 66 Lucan, 67 says of the Druids: "From you
we learn that the bourne of man's existence is not the
silent halls of Erebus; in another world the spirit ani-
mates the members. Death, if your lore be true, is but
the centre of a long life." For this reason, he adds, the
Celtic warriors had no fear of death. Valerius Maxi-
mus 68 records that they lent money on the promise to
pay it back in the next world. This certainly implies a
vivid conception of its reality and of its physical char-
acter. In Celtic folk-lore the dead do not appear as
ghosts but as living men of flesh and blood. 69 In the
Welsh tale of Pwyll mentioned later, Arawn, King of
Hades, is able to take Pwyll's place for a year among
the living. Marriages of the living with the dead are a
frequent theme of Celtic legends. The Celtic other
world was a place of eating, drinking, fighting, and mak-
ing love, like the present world at its best, so that it is
not surprising that suicide was frequent in order to enter
more speedily into its joys. Diodorus Siculus 70 records
that letters were thrown upon funeral pyres in the belief
that thus they were carried to departed friends.
g. The Abode of the Dead. — Indo-European concep-
tions of the dwelling-place of departed spirits corres-
65 See p. 8f.
86 See p. 163.
87 Pharsalia, i. 455ff.
88 II. 6, 10.
68 See p. 106.
70 V. 28.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 93
pond to the three methods of disposal of the dead that
were practised by them, namely, exposure, burial and
cremation.
1. Spirits Roam Without Any Fixed Habitation. —
This corresponds to the primitive custom of exposure of
corpses. When the flesh was devoured by beasts and
birds and the bones were scattered, the body no longer
served as a seat of the soul's activity. The discarnate
spirit had no abode to which it could return, but "passed
through waterless places, seeking rest and finding
none." 71 Like the living, the primitive Aryan ghosts
were nomads. This conception lasted among all the
Indo-Europeans in the belief that the unburied or un-
cremated dead could not rest but haunted the living. In
India and in Persia spirits for whom the last rites had
not been performed roamed about and formed a dan-
gerous class of evil demons. In the Iliad, 72 the ghost of
the unburied Patroclus says to Achilles:
"Thou dost neglect me dead. O, bury me
Quickly, and give me entrance through the gates
Of Hades; for the souls, the forms of those
Who live no more, repulse me, suffering not
That I should join their company beyond
The river, and I now must wander round
The spacious portals of the House of Death.
Give me thy hand, I pray; for never more
Shall I return to earth when once the fire
Shall have consumed me."
Smiliar conceptions meet us in Euripides, 73 Sopho-
cles, 74 and iEschylus. 75 In Homer burial is refused to
fallen enemies, but in later times it was considered a
sacred duty to perform the last rites even for foes. The
laws of Solon enacted that, if a father had hired his
"Matt. 12:43; Luke 11:24.
72 Iliad, xxiii. 71ff., Bryant's translation.
"Hecuba, 31-50; Troades, 1081.
71 Antigone, 1070.
75 Eumenides, 269ff.
94 SPIRITISM HI
son out for vicious purposes, the son was absolved from
the obligation to feed and shelter him, yet was required
to perform the funeral rites for him. If a man had no
relatives, or if they failed to perform their duty, the
head of his deme attended to the interment. Only ex-
ceptional sinners, such as traitors, temple-robbers, and
suicides, were refused burial.
Similar ideas existed at Rome. The shades of those
who had been drowned, or carried off by beasts, or who
had not received proper burial or cremation, wandered
about without fixed abode and were a menace to the
living. Tertullian 7<5 says: "It was believed that the
unburied did not descend to the world below before they
had received their due." Consequently, it was an im-
perative duty of relatives to care for their dead; and if
they failed, the state assumed the responsibility. As
Quintilian remarks: 77 "Even upon unknown dead we
heap earth, and no one is ever in too great a hurry to
honour an unburied body by putting earth, be it ever so
little, upon it." Burial was refused only to exceptional
criminals, to suicides, and to those who had been struck
by lightning.
Among the pagan Slavs it was believed that souls of
the unburied wandered in forests, but that souls of the
buried travelled by the beaten road to the realm of the
dead.
2. Spirits Occupy the Bodies of Animals. — Closely
connected with exposure of the dead is the idea that their
spirits enter into the bodies of various animals. When
the dead were devoured by beasts and by birds, it was
natural to think that their souls might inhabit these
creatures; thus, alongside of the idea that ghosts of the
unburied roam the earth, we find at an early date the
conception of re-incarnation in lower forms of life. The
most widely spread conception among the Indo-Euro-
79 De Anima, 56.
77 Declamationes, v. 6.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 95
peans was that souls entered into birds. This seems to
be connected with the devouring of corpses by vultures.
In early Greek art the soul is depicted as a human-headed
bird, like the ba in Egyptian art. 78 This is evidently a
conventionalised form that has grown out of an earlier
representation of a simple bird. The human-headed
birds lingered in art as Harpies, Sirens and Erinyes,
whose functions show that they were developed out of
spirits of the dead; but the anthropomorphic tendency
of later Greek art caused spirits in general to be repre-
sented as winged human figures. 79
In Italy the belief appears in bird-omens and augury.
In Plautus 80 a slave rejoices when he sees a woodpecker
and a crow on his left, and a raven and a screech owl on
his right. When the woodpecker begins to drill, he takes
this as a sign of a beating that is in store for him. When
the raven is seen on the left, and when it taps the earth
once with its claws, it makes the heart of the spectator
leap within his breast. Bird-divination was a function
of the state, and the art was in the hands of augurs who
belonged to the patrician order. Birds were divided
into the classes of the 'singers,' oscines, which included
the owl, the crow, and the raven; and the 'flyers,'
prapetes, which included the larger birds of prey. Aus-
pices were drawn from the number and the positions
in which these birds appeared and from their cries. As
a rule it was favourable to have a bird appear on the left
of the observer. Birds of prey were considered most
important, as was natural, considering their primitive
connection with the dead. 81
In Celtic folk-lore spirits of the dead are frequently
represented as birds. Thus in the Voyage of Maelduin,
an Irish monkish tale, the terrestrial paradise is described
78 See p. 155.
79 The most elaborate discussion of this subject is that of G. Weicker, Der
Seelenvogel in der alten Litteratur und Kunst, 1907.
*• Asinaria, ii. sc. 1.
11 For similar Greek ideas see Iliad, xii. 200ff.; x. 2743.
96 SPIRITISM in
as a place where the first forefather lives, surrounded by
the souls of his descendants who have the form of song-
birds. In the legend of Saint Maelsuthain his pupils
appeared to him after death as birds. In Cornwall King
Arthur is thought to live in the form of a raven, and in
Wales the souls of the wicked become ravens. In
Brittany souls of unbaptised infants flit about as birds,
and in all Celtic countries the souls of drowned sailors
or fishermen become sea-gulls. By an association of
ideas butterflies, moths, and bats are also regarded as
spirits of the dead. 82
Next to birds snakes are most frequently associated
with spirits of the dead in Indo-European religions.
The serpent-cult of modern India is distinctly connected
with ancestor-worship. On Greek tombs snakes are con-
stantly represented as the embodiment of the spirit of
the dead. In the so-called "hero reliefs" a large bearded
serpent appears behind the seated hero. In "banquet
reliefs" a serpent appears twisted about a tree, or drinks
from a cup in the hero's hand. In vase pictures serpents
are often depicted at the foot of burial mounds. The
meaning of these representations is clear from a pas-
sage in Plutarch 83 who states that when Cleomenes, King
of Sparta, had been executed by Ptolemy, King of Egypt,
and impaled in public, "a huge snake wound about the
head and hid the face so that no bird of prey should light
on it. Thereupon a superstitious fear fell upon the
King, and such a dread that it started the women on
purification ceremonies." Cecrops, the oldest Athenian
hero, was worshipped originally as a snake, subsequently
as a half-human, half-serpentine being. Erechtheus, his
son, was also a snake. Herodotus, viii. 41, describing
the Persian invasion, says: "The Athenians say that
they have in their acropolis a huge serpent, which lives
in the temple, and is the guardian of the whole place.
82 See Macculloch, o. c, pp. 360; Henderson, o. c, pp. 76ff.
** Life of Cleomenes, xxxix.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 97
Nor do they only say this, but, as if the serpent really
dwelt there, every month they lay out its food, which
consists of a honey-cake. Up to this time the honey-cake
had always been consumed; but now it remained un-
touched. So the priestess told the people what had
happened; whereupon they left Athens the more readily,
since they believed that the goddess had already aban-
doned the citadel." In like manner the hero Trophonius
dwelt as a snake in a cave at Lebadea, and Asklepeios
also was originally a snake, and later was represented
with a snake twining about his staff. 84
In Italy serpents were regarded as the embodiments
of the spirits of ancestors and as the guardian-heroes of
places. Pliny 85 says that snakes were protected and fed
in Roman houses. They became so numerous that they
would have become an unbearable nuisance, but for the
fires which frequently consumed parts of the city. On
tomb-reliefs snakes are represented, as in Greece, as
embodiments of the dead. A fresco in Herculaneum
represents a snake twisted around an altar and eating
cakes from the top. The accompanying inscription
reads, genius hunts loci montis. In the JEneid, v. 84ff.,
Vergil tells how iEneas, having arrived in Sicily, prepared
to celebrate the anniversary of his father's death with
sacrifices and games. A magnificent serpent appeared
which tasted of the sacrificial viands and silently disap-
peared beneath a mound. ^Eneas is "uncertain whether
to think it the genius of the place or the familiar spirit
of his father." 86
The cult of ancestors under the form of serpents
among the pagan Lithuanians is well attested. Menecius,
the authority on these matters, says: "Moreover the
Lithuanians and the Samagitas keep snakes in their
"See Rohde, Psyche* pp. 120, 133, 136, 142, 196, 242, 244; J. E. Harrison,
Themis, chap, viii; Lippert, Die Religionen der europdischen Kulturvblker p 42ff'
™Nat. Hist., xxix. 72.
M See W. Wissowa, Religion und Cultus der Rbmer, p. 155; F. Granger, The
Worship of the Romans, pp. S6-S9.
98 SPIRITISM in
houses under the hearth, or in a corner of the oven
where a table stands. Reverencing these as manifesta-
tions of spirits, they call them forth at a certain time
of the year with prayers to the sacrificial table. They
come forth through a hole, and climbing up by a cloth,
they lie on the table; where, having tasted the dishes
one by one, they descend and hide themselves in their
caves. When the snakes have gone, the men eat with joy
all the dishes that they have tasted, and hope that in
that year all sorts of good things will happen to them.
If, however, the snakes do not come forth at their
prayers to partake of the sacrifices, or do not taste
of the dishes that are placed on the table, they believe
that they will meet with great misfortune in the ensuing
year." Lascowski (Lasicius) also records: "They
cherish also as household gods certain fat snakes of a
black colour which they call Ghioitos {i.e., Lith. gyvate,
'serpents'). iEneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II (1458-64),
says of the Lithuanians: "They used to reverence
snakes: each head of a family had a snake in the corner
of his house to which he offered food and sacrifice." 87
Other animals, such as dogs, wolves, hares, etc., appear
as the embodiments of spirits in Indo-European folk-lore,
but much less frequently and universally than birds and
serpents.
Out of this belief in re-incarnation of souls in animal
forms there arose in a few parts of the Indo-European
world the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration.
This is not yet found in the Vedas, but in the Ramayana
it is stated that the wicked are punished by being reborn
in lower stages of existence. In later Brahmanism and
in Buddhism the doctrine is fully developed that men
are reborn in accordance with the law of Karma, or retri-
bution for the deeds done in a previous existence. All
the philosophic systems and Buddhism are efforts to free
the soul from this dread necessity of rebirth through
,T See F. Solmsen, in Usener, Gdtternamen, p. 91, s.v. Gyvati.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 99
absorption of the individual soul into the universal as
"the dew-drop slides into the shining sea."
A similar movement of Greek thought begins with
Orphism, a development of Thracian Dionysiac cults,
which first appears in the sixth century B.C. It is known
to us chiefly from eight inscribed gold tablets, six of
which were found near Sybaris, one at Rome, and one in
Crete, which were deposited in the tombs of members
of Orphic brotherhoods; 88 also from the later descrip-
tions of Empedocles and Plato. From these sources we
learn that the fundamental doctrine of Orphism was the
heavenly origin of the soul. Each individual soul once
dwelt in the celestial regions and partook of the divine
nature. Because of sin in this first existence it is con-
demned to mortal life on earth. The body is the
"prison," or even the "grave" of the soul, according to
Orphic authorities. For ten thousand years it is con-
demned to the "circle" or "wheel of generation." That
is, it must be born and reborn in lower or higher forms
of life according as it has done ill or well in its previous
existence. One Orphic poet says: "Hitherto I have
been a boy, a girl, a bush, a bird, and a scaly fish in the
sea." 89 The aim of Orphism is redemption from the
"circle of necessity," that is, the compulsion to be reborn.
This is accomplished by "purity" both moral and cere-
monial. Sin must be avoided, and at the same time one
must abstain from animal food, and must practise a
large number of cleansing rites. Adherence to this rule
of life secures rebirth in continually higher forms, until
at last the soul is ready to leave the "circle of genera-
tion" and return to the heavenly abode from which it
fell. During the intervals between the various rebirths
the soul is confined in Hades. Here the good are happy,
while the wicked are punished with all sorts of tortures.
Orphism bears so many points of resemblance to
M See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 573-600; 660-674.
"•Abel, Orphica, 1885, fr. 117.
100
SPIRITISM m
Buddhism in its doctrines of metempsychosis, asceticism,
abstinence from animal food, purgatory, and redemption,
that it seems highly probable that it drew its original
inspiration from Indian sources; but it has received a
characteristically Greek development, and its belief in
individual immortality is very different from the Buddhis-
tic Nirvana. The one is the product of Greek individual-
ism and optimism; the other, of Indian pantheism and
pessimism.
A similar phenomenon to Orphism is seen in the
Eleusinian mysteries that were celebrated at Eleusis near
Athens. Here, by means of purificatory rites, initiation,
and the drinking of some sort of sacramental cup, the
recipients were made partakers of the very nature of
the goddess, so that they were privileged to see and
hear sacred mysteries of the other world, and were
assured deliverance from rebirth and a happy immor-
tality. The antiquity of these rites is proved by the
"Homeric" Hymn to Demeter, composed as early as
600 B.C., in which the whole Greek world is invited to
come to Eleusis for initiation. The promise of immor-
tality which these ceremonies gave attracted all the
Greeks who could afford it, and subsequently many of
the Romans, to accept the invitation of the poet.
Pythagoras (ca. 582-500 B.C.) held the Orphic doc-
trines of the divine origin of the soul, of its incarnation
through sin, of transmigration, ultimate redemption
from the necessity of rebirth, and reunion with the divine.
He founded a brotherhood with a rigid "way of life"
which spread into all parts of the Greek world and
exerted a powerful influence upon Greek thought.
Heraclitus (ca. 535-475 B.C.) seems also to have
come under Orphic influence, if we may judge from a
fragment 90 which says, "The living and the dead, the
waking and the sleeping, the young and the old are the
same; for the latter when they have changed are the
90 Bywater, Heraclite Ephesii Reliquur, LXXVIII.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 101
former, and the former when they have changed are the
latter."
iEschylus (525-456 B.C.) teaches in the main the
Homeric doctrine of Hades, but with the important
difference that for him there are rewards and punish-
ments in Hades. In this respect apparently he shows
Orphic influence. 91
Pindar (522-443 B.C.) adopts all the main features
of the Orphic theology. He teaches re-incarnation, ret-
ribution in Hades, and ultimate deliverance from the
"wheel of rebirth."
Empedocles (ca. 490-430 B.C.) also accepted the
Orphic beliefs. In one of his fragments he teaches that
in the last rebirth before attaining its redemption the
soul becomes a prophet, poet, physician, ruler, or some
other benefactor of mankind. Then at death it becomes
a god, and rises to the fellowship of the gods.
Sophocles (495-406 B.C.) and Euripedes (480-406
B.C.) take a sceptical attitude toward all theories of
immortality; when they speak of death, they use or-
dinarily the old Homeric language; but Socrates (470-
399 B.C.) and his disciple Plato (429-347 B.C.) carry
the doctrine of the future life to the highest development
attained in the Classical world. They teach that the soul
is an eternal, uncreated substance. In consequence of a
fall from the life of pure reason in an earlier state of
existence, it has been confined in the body as a prison,
where it is subjected to the temptations of the flesh. If
it resists these, it passes at death to the fellowship of
the gods. If it succumbs, it is born again upon earth.
If after repeated rebirths it does not reform, it is cast
into Tartarus.
Classical writers assert also that the doctrine of met-
empsychosis existed among the Celts. Caesar 92 states:
"The Druids in particular wish to impress this on them
91 See -Bschylus, Eumenides, 269ff.; cf. Supplices, 226ff.; 416-435.
- De Bello Gallko, vL 14.
102 SPIRITISM m
that souls do not perish, but pass from one to another
(ab aliis . . . ad alios) after death, and by this
chiefly they think to incite men to valour, the fear of
death being overlooked." Diodorus Siculus 93 says:
"Among them the doctrine of Pythagoras prevailed that
the souls of men were immortal, and after completing
their term of existence, they live again, the soul passing
into another body." Valerius Maximus 94 adds: "They
would fain make us believe that the souls of men are
immortal. I would be tempted to call these breeches-
wearing folk fools, if their doctrine were not the same
as that of the mantle-clad Pythagoras." Similarly
Lucan. 95 All these statements probably go back to one
original, and it is doubtful whether the authority that
they followed was correct. So far as native sources in-
dicate, the Celts believed that spirits entered into the
bodies of animals, but had no developed doctrine of the
transmigration of souls such as Pythagoras taught. Some
historian has been misled by a superficial resemblance of
the far more primitive Celtic beliefs to the ideas of
Greek philosophy.
3. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Graves. — Out of the
second main method of disposing of the dead among the
Aryans, namely burial, arose the widespread idea that
souls haunted the places where their bodies were buried.
According to this conception, the ghosts were no longer
nomadic, like the earliest Aryans, but had become seden-
tary, like the later Aryans.
Among the Greeks the members of a family were
buried together outside the city walls in order that they
might be near to one another and to their living rela-
tives. In earliest times there are traces also of burial
within houses. Innumerable graves of heroes were the
seats of cults in all parts of Greece. At graves periodic
" V. 28.
"II. 6, 10.
"Pharsolia, L 454-458.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 103
offerings were made to the shades. Over the royal
graves in the citadel at Mycenae an altar was placed for
the reception of sacrifices. The bones of heroes received
the greatest reverence, and were frequently transported
from one place to another in order to secure the pres-
ence of their owner. In 476 B.C. the Athenians brought
the reputed bones of Theseus from Scyrus and deposited
them in the Theseum at Athens. From that time on-
ward the spirit of Theseus dwelt in the Theseum. Sim-
ilarly in 437 B.C. the Athenians under Hagnon brought
the bones of Rhesus from the Troad to Amphipolis. 96
Among the Romans identical beliefs prevailed. In the
JEnead? 1 iEneas at the grave of Polydorus says : "We
lay the spirit in the grave"; and Horace 98 says to Tor-
quatus: "We, when we have descended whither righteous
.^Eneas, whither Tullus and Ancus have gone, are but
dust and shadow." Gifts were placed upon the graves,
and the bones of a victorious general were scattered in
the city in order to secure the presence and aid of his
spirit. The skull was regarded as particularly the
seat of the spirit, hence apparently in earliest times
it was preserved in the home as a means of com-
municating with an ancestor. This is the origin of the
os resectum, or bone cut off before cremation. Originally
the head was removed for preservation, later a finger, or
some other part of the body was substituted. The wax
masks of ancestors preserved in the atrium of Roman
nobles were probably conventional substitutes for the
primitive skull. 99
Among the Celts also spirits of the dead were thought
to live in the grave and to issue from it as ghosts. Hence
offerings of food were placed on tombs, and national
assemblies were held at them. The tomb of King Cottius
in the Alps was holy, Irish kings were crowned at an-
»» Rohde, Psyche* p. 161.
"III. 67.
88 Odes, IV. vii. IS.
" Granger, Worship of the Romans, pp. 53ff.
io 4 SPIRITISM in
cestral tumuli, and Irish gods were frequently associated
with burial barrows. Tertullian 10 ° narrates that the
Celts went by night to the tombs of great men to obtain
oracles, so much did they believe that they were still
living there. In many parts of the Celtic world the open-
ings that are left into cairns or barrows are intended
to give the spirit means of egress and ingress. In Ireland
it is still believed that the spirit of the one last buried
has to watch in the graveyard until another is placed
there. 101 In the churches of Brittany "at the east end
are the heavy, brightly-painted images; in other parts
of the church and in the porch, set up on shelves, each
in a small black box pierced and surmounted by the cross,
are the skulls of those who have worshipped there, taken
out of their graves when their flesh has perished, and
placed on high with their names — Cy est le Chef de N . —
in the sight of their children when they come to pray.
They are churches of the dead as well as of the liv-
ing." 102
Identical conceptions are found among the Slavs and
the Teutons. In one Russian dialect the cemetery is
called roditeliskoje mesto, i.e., "place of the ancestors,"
and in Norse the family burial-mound is known as atthan-
gar, "hill of the tribe." In all Teutonic folk-lore ghosts
are associated with graves. In this respect the belief of
the Indo-Europeans was the same as that of all other
primitive races.
4. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in an Underworld. —
Out of the individual graves some of the Indo-Europeans
developed the idea of a Nether World that was a sort of
generalised concept of the grave. The same process is
seen in the Egyptian Dewat and the Semitic Sheol and is
found also among African and American tribes. 103 The
names for the realm of the dead differ in the various
100 De Anima, 21.
101 Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland, pp. 82f.
102 Granger, o. c, p. 54.
108 See pp. 169, 215, 240f.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 105
Indo-European languages, so that it is probable that
the conception was developed by them independently
after their separation from the parent stem. In India
and Persia the idea of Hades seems to have existed
in early times, and in Greece the doctrine of Hades is
already fully developed in Homer. The name £8i?s,
in Homer AiSijs, is derived from a-fi8a "un-seen," i.e., "the
invisible world." It is also personified as the ruler of
the Underworld. Homer speaks frequently of this dark
abode beneath the earth to which all spirits of the dead
descend, and from which they come forth to appear to
the living in dreams and in visions. In the eleventh book
of the Odyssey he gives an elaborate account of Ulysses*
visit to this region and his interviews with its inhabitants.
It is probable that this is not an original part of the Epic;
nevertheless, it gives an admirable picture of early Greek
thought on this subject. Ulysses sails westward to the
extreme limit of the Ocean, the land of the Cimmerians
who dwell in eternal cloud and darkness. Here he finds
the entrance to Hades. The souls of the unburied meet
him first because they are unable to join their relatives
in the Underworld. Then he encounters the great mul-
titude of the buried dead, great and small, good and bad,
who throng the vast cavern. The punishments of Tityos,
Tantalos, and Sisyphos are late Orphic additions. This
remained the orthodox Greek conception of the other
world down to Christian times.
The corresponding conception among the Romans was
Orcus, which etymologically is connected with Gothic
aurahi, 'tomb.' The entrance to Orcus was through a
mundus, i.e., 'earth,' or 'pit.' In the center of every
newly founded town such a pit was dug and was covered
with a stone slab. Through this spirits of the dead de-
scended into the nether world, and through it they
ascended. Into it offerings to the dead were cast at
stated seasons. Macrobius 104 says: "When the mundus
104 Saturnalia, I. xvi. 16-18.
106 SPIRITISM m
is open, the door of the sad gods of the Underworld is
open." The oldest mundus at Rome was that on the
Palatine hill. Other similar trenches that were estab-
lished later were in the Forum, the Lacus Curtius, and
the "grave of Tarpeia." All Latin accounts of Orcus
are so strongly coloured with features derived from the
Greek conception of Hades that it is impossible to deter-
mine the primitive Italic idea. Vergil's narrative of
iEneas's descent to the Lower World in the sixth book,
of the Alneid is an imitation of Ulysses' descent in the
eleventh book of the Odyssey, nevertheless, it doubtless
contains many elements of old Latin folk-lore.
The Classical writers assume that Celtic conceptions
of the Underworld are identical with their own. Lu-
can 105 calls it orbis alius; Valerius Maximus 106 speaks
of the dead Celts as inferi; Pomponius Mela 107 speaks
of them as going ad manes; and Plutarch 108 represents
Camma as descending to her dead husband. There are
numerous tales in Welsh and Irish folk-lore of living
men who descended to this region and returned, just as
Odysseus descended to Hades. According to the Welsh
story, Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, one day met a strange
huntsman with a pack of curiously spotted hounds. He
proved to be Arawn, one of the kings of Annwn, or
Hades. He offered to change places with Pwyll for a
year in order that Pwyll might smite his rival Havgan,
another king of Hades, whom he as a spirit could not
injure. Pwyll accepted the offer, spent a year in Hades,
conquered Havgan, and returned to his own kingdom,
which he found had been governed excellently by Arawn
during his absence, who had exactly simulated his ap-
pearance, so as to deceive even his wife. 109
The Slavs called the subterranean abode of the dead
306 Phorsalia, L 457 S.
106 II. vi. 10.
107 III. 2, 19.
108 Virt. Mul. 20.
10 »Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, pp. 337-360.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 107
Nav, which is connected with Lettic nave, 'dead,' Greek
nekus, 'dead person,' Gothic naus, 'corpse.' The Polish
chronicler Dlugosz says that the pagan Slavs call Pluto
"Nya," and pray him after death to grant them better
places in Hades.
The general Teutonic name for the Underworld was
Hell; Gothic, Halya; Norse, Hel; Anglo-Saxon, Hell;
Old High German, Hella; German, Holle ; which is con-
nected with Gothic and Old High German helan, Anglo
Saxon helan, German hehlen, and Old English heal, 'to
hide.' It had thus exactly the same original meaning as
Hades, 'the invisible world.' Only in Norse did the
term come to be used also for the goddess of the Under-
world. Hell was originally not the place of punishment
that it has become in Christian theology as a result of its
use in Biblical versions to translate the Jewish-New
Testament word Gehenna. It was the underground
abode of the dead, good and bad alike, like the Greek
Hades and the Hebrew Sheol. The translation of
Sheol by Hell in the Old Testament was originally cor-
rect, but has become misleading for the modern mind
through the confusion of Gehenna and Sheol. 110
5. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Paradise. — If the the-
ory be correct that cremation was originally performed
only in the case of kings, chieftains, or heroes, and that
the purpose was to restore their spirits to the gods from
whom they had sprung; then there must have been from
the beginning a House of Lords among the dead. In
nearly all branches of the Indo-Germanic race traces are
found of a Paradise to which aristocratic souls go in-
stead of to the plebeian abode of Hades. The later ten-
dency everywhere is to democratize this Paradise and to
extend its privileges to an ever increasing number. This
development keeps pace with the granting of the priv-
ilege of cremation to the plebeians.
In India the Vedas know of the realm of Yama, be-
110 See pp. 287ff.
108 SPIRITISM in
yond the western mountains. Yama, the son of Vivas-
vant, was the first man (although he had a father), who
reigned on earth in the Golden Age. "He might have
lived as immortal, but he chose to die, or rather he in-
curred the penalty of death, for under this choice a fall
is disguised. He was the first to traverse the road from
which there is no return, tracing it for future genera-
tions. It is there, at the remotest extremities of the
heavens, the abode of light and of the eternal waters,
that he reigns henceforth in peace and in union with
Varuna. There by the sound of his flute, under the
branches of the mystic tree, he assembles around him the
dead who have lived nobly. They reach him in a crowd,
conveyed by Agni, guided by Pushan, and grimly scanned
as they pass by the two monstrous dogs who are the
guardians of the road. Clothed in a glorious body, and
made to drink of the celestial soma, which renders them
immortal, they enjoy henceforward by his side an end-
less felicity, seated at the same tables wirh the gods, gods
themselves, and adored here below under the name of
Pitris, or fathers. At their head are, of course, the first
sacrificers, the minstrels of other days, Atharvan, the
Angiras, the Kavyas, the Pitris by pre-eminence, equal
to the greatest of the gods, who by their sacrifice de-
livered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun, and
kindled the stars." 1X1 In the Rig Veda 112 the prayer is
offered: "Where all pleasures and bliss, where enjoy-
ment and gratification, where all wishes are attained,
there let me be immortal."
In Persia, in the A'vesta, Yama appears as Yima (in
later Persian legend Jemshid), the son of Vivanhant; and
his sister Yimi, as Yimek, or Yime. At first he ruled
over men in a paradise on earth. "There a year is as a
day, and there are lights created and uncreated. And
111 Barth, The Religions of India, pp. 22f.
112 IX. 113, 7ff.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 109
once in forty years are born a male and a female to every
couple; and there men live the happiest life; and there is
neither cold nor heat nor death." Yima was unfaithful
to his trust and died, and in the oldest form of the pre-
Zoroastrian Iranian tradition his paradise became the
abode of the noble dead.
The Greeks knew of a similar abode of the distin-
guished dead which they called Elysium. In the Odyssey
Proteus, the prophetic sea-god, says to Menelaus:
" 'Tis not decreed that thou shalt meet thy fate
And die, most noble Menelaus, where
The steeds of Argus in her pastures graze.
The gods will send thee to the Elysian plain,
And to the end of earth, the dwelling-place
Of fair-haired Rhadamanthus. There do men
Lead easiest lives. No snow, no bitter cold,
No beating rains, are there; the ocean-deeps
With murmuring breezes from the West refresh
The dwellers. Thither shalt thou go: for thou
Art Helen's spouse, and son-in-law of Jove." 113
The common derivation of } R\v<nov, Elysium, from the
root eleuth, 'come, arrive,' is unsatisfactory. Others
have suggested that it is connected with Earu (Aalu),
the Egyptian paradise, and that Rhadamanthus equals
Ra-Amenti, or Ra (the sun-god) of the Egyptian
Hades. 114 Both of these etymologies are most unlikely.
A more probable explanation is that of A. N. Veselov-
skij, followed by O. Schrader, that* elusion is for f elusion,
and is connected with Lithuanian weles, 'spirits of the
dead,' and the Lithuanian goddess of the dead Vielona;
Norse valr, 'slain,' and val-holl, Valhalla, 'hall of the
slain' ; Anglo-Saxon wal, 'the dead on the battlefield' ; Old
High German wal, wuol, 'slaughter.' According to this,
Elysium was identical with Valhalla, and was originally
118 Odyssey, iv. 560ff., Bryant's translation, iv. 717ff.
114 See p. 170.
no
SPIRITISM m
the dwelling-place of the souls of heroes who fell in
battle. Thither also living men might be translated
without tasting death.
Pindar 115 (522-443 B.C.) gives a beautiful descrip-
tion of the joys of Elysium. "Ever through nights, and
ever through days the same, the good receive an un-
laborious life beneath the sunshine. They vex not with
might of hand the earth or the waters of the sea for food
that satisfleth not, but among the honoured gods, such
as had pleasure in keeping of oaths enjoy a tearless life;
but the others have pain too fearful to behold. Howbeit,
they who thrice on either side of death have stood fast
and wholly refrained their souls from deeds unjust,
journey on the road to Zeus to the tower of Cronus,
where the ocean-breezes blow around the islands of the
blest, and flowers gleam bright with gold, some on trees
of glory on the land, while others the water feeds; with
wreaths thereof they entwine their arms and crown their
heads." 116
In Italy there is nothing to correspond to Elysium,
except in writers who borrow directly from Greek
sources. Among the Celts, however, the idea is highly
developed. Welsh legends tell of the land of Avallon
beyond the western seas whither heroes are transported,
and where they lead a life of perfect bliss. Tennyson has
caught the true spirit of the Welsh bards when in the
Passing of Arthur he describes this land : —
"But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seest — if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt) —
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."
ni Olympian, ii. 6 Iff.
118 Translation of James Adam, in Religious Teachers of Greece, p. 132.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 1 1 1
Here Arthur still lives on, destined one day to return
and deliver his people from the rule of the Saxons.
The Irish stories of Elysium are of three sorts. In
one a fairy from this land tempts a mortal to leave this
world and join her in the Islands of the Blessed. After
a blissful stay of hundreds of years homesickness leads
him to return to Erin. He is allowed to go, but is bidden
not to set foot on the shore. Breaking this command, he
turns instantly to ashes. In another form of the story
the hero, like Odysseus, visits the Islands in quest of in-
formation, or to recover a lost wife. He is ferried over
in a bronze skiff, the counterpart of Charon's boat over
the Styx, and of the ferryman in Egyptian mythology. In
a third type of narrative voyagers to the West accident-
ally discover the Blessed Isles, and bring back reports of
what they saw and heard there. 117
The Teutonic counterpart of these ideas is Valhalla,
'the Hall of the Slain,' which, as we saw above, is per-
haps etymologically connected with Elysium. 118 This is
Gladhsheimr, 'the home of joy.' Its walls and roof are
built of shields and spears. Before its door a wolf-skin
hangs, and over it hovers an eagle. Within sits Odhin,
who welcomes most cordially the one who has slain the
greatest number of enemies. Thither go the souls of
those heroes who are able to shout, "Laughing I die,"
escorted by the Valkyries, who there wait upon and serve
them with beer "immer noch ein's." It is a thoroughly
Germanic, militaristic, and aristocratic paradise. This
region also lay beyond the sea, so that in Scandinavia it
was customary to ship the Viking to it in the bark with
which in life he had sailed the main.
6. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Tartarus. — In ancient
Indo-European thought only two realms of the dead were
known, Hades for the commoners, and Elysium for the
nobles; but subsequently logical consistency created in
111 See p. 170.
«• See p. 109.
ii2 SPIRITISM m
some parts of the Aryan world a place of punishment
for the conspicuously wicked. The Rig Veda prays al-
ready: "Indra and Soma, hurl the evil-doer into the
prison, into fathomless darkness, whence none shall come
out again ! So shall your stern might constrain them" ;
"Beneath the earth shall all they dwell who by day and
night contrive deceit against us" ; "Those who roam like
brotherless maidens, who lead an evil life like wives that
deceive their husbands, who are wicked, faithless, false —
such have prepared for themselves that deep place." 119
In later Brahmanism and in Buddhism the doctrine of
Hell had a great development.
Zoroastrian dualism also developed a Hell as the
abode of Ahriman, the Prince of Darkness, and of all
evil spirits, over against the Heaven of Ahura Mazda
and the good spirits; and the later parts of the Avesta
contain elaborate descriptions of the tortures of this In-
ferno, but this formed no part of early Iranian belief.
Homer knows a place called Tartarus, far beneath the
lowest depths of Hades, to which conspicuous sinners
are condemned. Thus Zeus says of the god who shall
presume to break his command: —
"Back to Olympus, scourged and in disgrace,
Shall he be brought, or I will seize and hurl
The offender down to rayless Tartarus,
Deep, deep in the great gulf below the earth,
With iron gates and threshold forged of brass,
As far beneath the shades as earth from heaven." 120
The closing lines of the eleventh book of the Odyssey
which describe the tortures of Tityus, Tantalus, and
Sisyphus are, as remarked above, probably an Orphic
interpolation. Hesiod, like Homer, knows Elysium for
a few great heroes of antiquity, Tartarus for a few speci-
ally heinous sinners, and Hades for the vast majority
"• Moore, Religions, p. 268.
130 Iliad, viii. 13ff.
in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 1 13
of men. Orphism, probably in dependence upon Ori-
ental thought, greatly developed the idea of rewards
and punishments in the other world in the intervals be-
tween re-incarnations, but the idea of a place of punish-
ment is not found elsewhere in the Indo-European world,
and is evidently a relatively late and sporadic develop-
ment.
CHAPTER IV
THE CULT OF THE DEAD AMONG THE INDO-EUROPEANS
a. Deification of Spirits of the Dead. — Because of
their superhuman powers the dead were regarded by all
the Indo-European peoples as belonging to the class of
gods. They were not confused with the bright powers
of nature, and there is no evidence that gods were de-
veloped out of ghosts, nevertheless, spirits of the dead
formed a distinct class of superhuman beings alongside
of nature-spirits. In the Vedas the devas, or 'gods,' and
the pitaras, or 'ancestors,' are carefully distinguished,
but both are divine, both are invited to the sacrifices, and
both partake of the offerings. In Greece they are the
deol 7rarpaJoi, 'the ancestral gods.' In Rome they are the
di parentes, 'the parental gods,' the di manes, or divi
manes, 'the good gods.' Among the peasants of White
Russia they are the svjaty dzjady, 'the sacred grandfath-
ers.' The sacrifices offered to the dead, which were
similar to those offered to the gods, prove that they be-
longed to the same general class of superhuman beings.
b. The Cult of the Dead. — In the ordinary Aryan
family individual worship of the dead did not extend be-
yond three generations of ascendants. The great-grand-
father, grandfather, and father were the only ancestors
that one knew, and these alone were honoured by name
after death. In India "to three ancestors is the water
offered, to three is the pinda given; the fourth (i.e., the
worshipping descendant) gives it to the three; the fifth
(i.e., the great-great-grandson) has nothing to do with
it." x Similarly the Greek goneis, or 'begetters,' include
1 Laws of Manu, ix. 1S6.
114
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 115
the three generations that precede a man. "The beget-
ters are the mother and father, the grandfather and
grandmother, and their mother and father, for these are
the origin of the family." 2 The same holds true of the
Latin parentes. "In common language parens means
father and mother, but in legal terminology the grand-
father and great-grandfather, the grandmother and
great-grandmother are also called parentes." 3 In sim-
ilar manner the peasants of Great Russia use the term
roditeli, 'parents,' and the peasants of White Russia, the
term dzjady, 'grandfathers,' as including three genera-
tions of ascendants.
Beyond these immediate relatives whom one had
known in life there was no individual cult of the dead.
Remoter ancestors faded away into the indiscriminate
mass of discarnate spirits. In India these were known
by the general term pitaras, or 'forefathers.' They were
invited collectively to be present at the sacrifices, but
they were not invoked by name. They were identical
with the Greek deol waTpqoi, 'the ancestral gods,' and
with the Roman di manes. Only occasionally was the need
felt for preserving the memory of a remote ancestor as
a basis of unity for a tribe or a community; or an in-
dividual was honoured because of some distinguished
service that he had rendered in war or in peace. Thus
arose hero-worship, through which individual forefathers
escaped the oblivion that befell most of the ancients.
This is found in India, Persia and among the Celts. It
had a great development in Greece, but it was unknown
in Italy before the intrusion of Greek influence.
The cult of the dead was thus primarily a family af-
fair {sacra privata) as opposed to public worship {sacra
publica) of the great gods of the State. Only when a
tribe or community was united in the worship of a com-
mon ancestor or hero did worship of the dead take on
! Isaeus, viii. 32.
* Festus, s. v. parens.
n6 SPIRITISM iv
a national character. It was the duty of the State also
to provide offerings for spirits of the dead who had left
no descendants, and to this extent offerings to the di
manes became sacra publica.
c. Preparation for Burial. — Among all the Aryans it
is customary to remove a sick person from his bed and
place him on the ground when death is expected. In
India "a dying man, when no hopes of his surviving re-
main, should be laid upon a bed of kusa grass, either in
the house or out of it, if he be a Sudra, but in the open
air if he belong to another tribe." In Europe from Ire-
land to the Caspian Sea it is usual to lay a dying man
upon the earth or upon straw. The probable reason for
this is to prevent pollution of the bed through contact
with the corpse which is tabu. When the dying man is
taken out of the house, the purpose is the same, to pro-
tect it from the infection of uncleanness. A similar mo-
tive leads to the pouring out of water and other liquids
that are contained in vessels at the time of a death in
the house. The liquids can absorb tabu, and thus render
the vessels unfit for use.
In many parts of th^e Indo-European world religious
rites are performed to assist the soul in leaving the body
and to facilitate its entrance into the other world. In
India the dying man is sprinkled with water from the
Ganges, and his body is smeared with clay from the same
sacred stream. In Persia the haoma, which is identical
with the Indian soma, the fermented juice of a sacred
plant, is given to the dying like the Eucharist in extremis.
In all parts of Europe the peasants are accustomed
at the moment of death to open a door or window, or to
remove a tile from the roof, in order to allow the spirit
an easy means of escape from the house. The opening
is left for only a moment, and then is closed to prevent
the return of the spirit to haunt the house. A still more
primitive custom, which is attested among the Greeks
and Romans, is for a near relative to receive the last
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 117
breath of the dying into his mouth, and thus become
possessed by the discarnate spirit.
The moment that death occurs the relatives break out
into loud lamentation, and this lasts until the funeral
ceremonies are complete. The laments comprise calls to
the dead to return, expostulations with him for forsaking
those who love him and are dependent upon him, praises
of his virtues, and promises to avenge him if he has been
killed in battle or by sorcery. They develop into elabo-
rate dirges that are handed down traditionally with
variable collects that are suitable for all sorts of cases.
They are usually recited or chanted by the women of the
family; but, as among the Semites, professional mourn-
ers are often hired for the occasion. When the news of
Patroclus' death was brought to Achilles,
"Grasping in both hands
The ashes of the hearth, he showered them o'er '
His head, and soiled with them his noble face.
They hung in dark lumps to his comely vest.
Prone in the dust of earth, at his full length,
And tearing his disordered hair, he lay.
Then wailed aloud the maidens whom in war
He and Patroclus captured. Forth they came,
And thronging round him smote their breasts and swooned." 4
Similarly at the funeral of Patroclus,
"When the maid
Briseis, beautiful as Venus, saw
Patroclus lying gashed with wounds, she sprang
And threw herself upon the dead, and tore
Her bosom, her fair cheeks and delicate neck;
And thus the graceful maiden weeping said:
'Patroclus, dear to my unhappy heart!
I left thee in full life, when from this tent
They led me; I return and find thee dead,
O chieftain of the people! Thus it is
That sorrow upon sorrow is my lot.' " 5
* Iliad, xviii. 22ff.
'Iliad, xix. 282ff.
n8 SPIRITISM iv
When Priam brings the body of Hector back to Troy,
"On a fair couch they laid the corse, and placed
Singers beside it, leaders of the dirge,
Who sang a sorrowful, lamenting strain,
And all the women answered it with sobs.
White-armed Andromache in both her hands
Took warlike Hector's head, and over it
Began the lamentation midst them all:
'Thou hast died young, my husband, leaving me
In this thy home a widow, and one son,
An infant yet.' " 6
So violent were the expressions of grief that early
lawgivers found it necessary to check them by legislative
enactment. Solon directed that only the women nearest
of kin to the deceased should take part in the mourning,
that they should abstain from violent outbursts and from
mutilating themselves, and that they should not use set
forms of dirges. 7
Precisely similar customs exist among the Russian
peasantry at the present time. "The room of the peas-
ant's house in which the dead body lies re-echoes with the
weeping mourning of relatives, neighbours and acquaint-
ances. In such a case the women naturally distinguish
themselves by special ecstasies of feeling, their wailing
and moaning and their despair at times reaching such
a pitch that, on looking at them, one involuntarily begins
to be apprehensive not only for the health, but even for
the life of some of them." 8
Among all the Aryans great care was bestowed upon
the last toilet of the dead. The eyes were closed, and
weights were placed upon the lids to keep them down.
The probable reason was the desire to keep the spirit
which still haunted its body from casting an evil eye upon
the living. The body was washed, sometimes before
"Iliad, xxiv. 719ff.
' Plutarch, Solon, 21.
8 P. V. Sejn, Materials for a Knowledge of the Life and Language of the
Russian Population of the North-lVest, quoted in Hastings, Enc, Rel. and Eth.,
ii. p. 19 b.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 119
death occurred, so as to avoid the tabu of contact with
the corpse, and was dressed in its best clothes, sometimes
in garments specially prepared for the purpose. Sandals
or shoes were provided for the long journey to the other
world. In earliest times all the ornaments and jewelry
that had belonged to the living were put upon him, and
all his implements, weapons and other personal property
were laid beside him. In later times motives of economy
led to the substitution of a single typical ornament and
the placing of a small coin (Charon's penny) in the
hand, or in the mouth of the deceased. Originally the
body was tied up in the so-called "embryonic" position
with the knees under the chin, as among savage peoples
in all parts of the world. Some anthropologists explain
this as a symbolic expression of the thought that death
is birth into another life; others, as merely an imitation
of the squatting position in which men rested before
stools or chairs were invented. In later times the body
was extended at full length, the position in which men
were accustomed to sleep upon beds or couches.
After the corpse was prepared for burial it lay in
state, usually until the third day after death. Among the
Greeks it was placed on a bier in the middle of the house
or tent with its feet toward the door. 9 The same custom
survives today among the peasants of White Russia.
"The lying in state takes place in the 'corner' (kutu),
which in this case does not mean the 'corner' under the
sacred images, but the bench opposite the entrance door."
"They lay the dead body on a long broad bench, or on a
frame specially prepared for it in the middle of the room,
with the head towards the sacred images." "The White
Russian peasant wishes to lie on his own 'bench' after his
death; he has not died 'decently' if he has lain in the
'corner' in a stranger's house." 10 In some places the
lying in state was extended over a second night, or even
» Iliad, xix. 2f2.
10 P. V. isejn, in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., ii. p. 19 a.
120 SPIRITISM iv
longer. Thus among the Romans in the case of high
dignitaries it lasted for seven days.
The custom was wide-spread of keeping lights burning
at night during the laying out of the corpse. In India
this was kept up for ten days after death, and was said
to be done in order to light the spirit on its journey to
the other world. This custom survives in all parts of
modern Europe in the lighting of candles at the head and
the feet of the dead.
During the night, or nights, in which the body was
lying in state it was expected that the relatives and friends
would sit up with it. This was the "wake" which was
once universal in Europe, is still familiar in Ireland, and
has not yet entirely disappeared from England and Scot-
land. The explanation commonly given of this world-
wide custom is that the spirit remains with its body until
burial; and that if one falls asleep, it may enter into
him, causing sickness or death. Among the Slavic Wends
of the Spreewald, not only the family, but even the cattle
are kept awake, and seed-grain is stirred so long as the
corpse remains in the house. Food and drink were pro-
vided for the relatives and friends who sat up with the
dead, and games were played to while away the time.
Thus "wakes" easily degenerated into drunkenness and
brawling. Food was also set out for the dead in order
that he might share in the festivities with the living.
These food-offerings still survive in many parts of Eu-
rope. In Russia a piece of bread is laid upon the head
of the deceased, and a bowl of water is placed beside
him. In the department of Loir-et-Cher, France, all the
food that is found in the house is thrown into the room
in which the dead is laid out. In Greece both bread and
water are placed upon the bier. In India a dish of rice
and a bowl of water are set out in the house for ten days
after death. In many parts of Europe all that survives
of the feast is a dish of water. 11
11 E. S. Hartland, in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., iv. pp. 415, 418.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 121
Coffins were unknown during the Stone Age, and are
not found in any of the oldest cemeteries of Greece,
Italy, or of northern Europe. Even in the Mycenaean
period of the Bronze Age in Greece they did not yet
appear. In the time of Lycurgus the Spartans were
wrapped in a purple shroud, and buried upon branches
of palm and olive. 12 Subsequently in "dipylon-graves"
of the "geometric" period the dead are buried in huge
pithoi, or water-jars. Still later coffins and sarcophagi
were introduced from Egypt and from the Orient. The
earliest race that has left records in the Campagna in
Italy enclosed its dead in hollow trunks of trees. The
same custom appeared in northern Europe during the
later Bronze Age. It still survives among some Slavonic
tribes and religious sects. The modern coffin, a box
constructed out of boards, is of Christian origin, and
spread throughout Europe with the diffusion of Christi-
anity.
The funeral procession was an important feature in
the obsequies of all the Indo-Europeans. In India "the
corpse is carried out by r the southern gate of the town,
if the deceased were a Sudra; by the western, if he were
a Brdhmdna; by the northern, if he belonged to the mili-
tary class; and by the eastern portal, if he sprang from
the mercantile tribe. Should the road pass through any
inhabited place, a circuit must be made to avoid it; and
when the procession has reached its destination, after
once halting by the way, the corpse must be gently laid
with the head towards the south on a bed of kusa, the tips
of which are pointed southward." 13 In Persia the Avesta
prescribes that the funeral procession must take place in
the day time and in dry weather. The body is carried on
an iron bier (iron has special prophylactic powers against
tabu) by professional bearers who guard against de-
filement of themselves or others. In Greece the ekphord,
« Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 226, notes 2. 3.
13 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vii. p. 241.
122
SPIRITISM iv
or carrying from the house to the grave or pyre, as de-
scribed in Homer, was an elaborate ritual. It is often
depicted upon ancient dipylon-vases. The body is car-
ried upon an open bier or upon a waggon drawn by two
horses, while men with drawn swords march at the side,
and a host of mourning women beating their heads with
their hands. 14 In Rome the dead man was carried out
of the house feet first in order that he might not see
which way he was going and be able to find his way back.
The masks of the ancestors were brought out, and were
worn by impersonators, and the procession moved to
the Forum, where the dead man was made to stand erect
on the tribunal visible to all. The relatives and citizens
gathered round him, and the nearest relative pronounced
a eulogy in his honour, if he were a noble. 15
d. Disposal of the Dead Among the Indo-Europeans.
— i. Exposure. — The earliest Indo-European custom
seems to have been exposure of the dead to be devoured
by beasts and birds. Herodotus, i. 140, says: "The
body of a male Persian is never buried, until it has been
torn either by a dog or bird of prey. That the Magi
have this custom is beyond a doubt, for they practise it
without any concealment." Strabo also relates, xi. 11, 3,
that exposure of the dead was the rule in East Iran. This
has been usual among nomadic tribes in all parts of the
world. The practice has survived in orthodox Zoroas-
trianism, which requires that bodies shall not be buried
for fear of polluting the earth, or burned for fear of
polluting the sacred fire. In antiquity the dead were laid
on dry ground far from the dwellings of men, but subse-
quently towers called dakhmas were constructed to re-
ceive them. Such towers were common in Persia before
the triumph of Islam, and they are still used by the
Parsees in India. The bodies are laid upon iron bars,
and the flesh is devoured by vultures. The bones then
14 Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 222, 224, 226.
16 Granger, Worship of the Romans, p. 65.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 123
fall through between the bars into a pit in the centre.
In India, even in Vedic times, exposure of the dead was
known, although burial and cremation were more com-
mon; and in the Ramayana, i. 90, 17, it is said, "When a
man dies he is buried, or burned, or exposed." Down to
the present time it is customary to cast bodies into the
Ganges. These survivals prove that once exposure was
the habit of the Aryans in India as well as of the closely
related Iranians.
The same thing is proved by the connection of dogs
with the dead in Indo-European mythology and ritual.
In the Rig Veda mention is made of the dogs of Yama,
the King of the Underworld. In x. 14 they are called
"thy guardian dogs, O Yama, the four-eyed ones who
guard the path, who look on men . . . broad-nosed,
dark messengers of Yama, who run among the people."
In vii. 5$, 2, they are described as spotted and as barking.
In the Avestan religion a dog with "four eyes," that is
with white spots over the eyes, must be brought in to
gaze upon the corpse when it is laid out; a dog also
meets the soul on the bridge over which it must pass to the
other world. Homer (//. viii. 368 ; Od. xi. 623) knows a
dog that guards the entrance to Hades, but does not name
him. Hesiod (Theog. 311) calls him Kerberos; and
says that he greets new-comers with wagging tail, but
devours those who try to escape from Hades. The name
Kerberos has been compared with Sanskrit Qdrvara,
'spotted.' Even Hermes, the conductor of souls in Greek
mythology, seems to be etymologically identical with
Sdrameyas, the son of Saramd, the bitch of the gods in
the Veda. Hekate, a goddess of Hades, was repre-
sented originally with a bitch's head, 16 and was attended
with a pack of hounds. Dogs were also frequently de-
picted on Greek tombstones. 17 Among the Celts Hades
was conceived as a monstrous dog that devoured the
16 Usener, Gottemamen, p. 325.
"Rohde, Psyche,* i. 242; ii. 83 n.
124 SPIRITISM iv
dead, and the King of the Underworld hunted with a
pack of spotted dogs. 18 Among the Slavs, as among the
Persians, a dog was necessary to catch the soul of the
dying; or, according to later conceptions, to accompany
it into the other world. 19 All these widely scattered
conceptions point to a time when corpses were exposed
to be devoured by dogs.
2. Burial. — When the Aryans abandoned the noma-
dic life and began to become agriculturalists, exposure of
the dead gave place to burial. Comparative philology
shows that this custom goes back to a time prior to the
separation of the branches of this race.
In India cremation was the rule in Vedic times, but
burial also was known. In the Rig Veda, x. 15, 14, the
pitaras are divided into "those who have been burned
with fire and those who have not been burned with fire."
Also in the Atharva Veda, xvii. 2, 34, "buried and cre-
mated" are distinguished among the pitaras. The Ma-
habharata also knows the burial of adults. In modern
India infants are buried, and the bones of adults who
have been cremated are buried for a few days and are
then thrown into the Ganges — a curious mixture of three
methods of disposal.
The Iranian Scythians practised burial only, according
to Herodotus, iv. 71 ff. In i. 140 he narrates that, while
the Magi exposed their dead, the rest of the Persians
buried them in a covering of wax. Archaeology shows
that the Achasmenian Persian kings were buried in their
tombs at Persepolis. Apparently the prohibition of
burial in the Vendidad was not yet known; the Gathas,
the earliest part of the Avesta, do not contain it.
In Greek thapto (root taph) means both 'bury' and
'burn,' and taphos means both 'grave' and 'funeral cere-
mony' ; but the original meaning is 'bury,' as is shown by
the Armenian parallel damban, 'grave,' and old High
18 Hopkins, Religions, p. 132; Macbain, Celtic Religion, p. 138.
18 Hopkins, Religions, p. 145.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 125
German tunc, 'pit.' In the Mycenaean age in Greece
burial alone was the custom, but it is possible that the
Mycenaeans belonged to an earlier pre-Greek race. Un-
questionably Greek cemeteries, however, disclose a pre-
ponderance of burials over cremations. Out of nineteen
"dipylon-graves" of the "geometric" period discovered
in the earliest Athenian cemetery only one contained an
urn with ashes and burnt bones. Even when the body
was cremated, it was usual to bury the bones. Burial,
accordingly, seems to have been the primitive custom.
In Latin the original meaning of sepelio is unques-
tionably not 'burn' but 'bury.' It is connected with Sans-
krit sapary, 'honour,' and indicates the primitive ritual
significance of burial. Latin orcus, 'underworld,' is also
probably the equivalent of Gothic aiirahi, 'sepulchre.'
Excavations in Italy show that the oldest cemeteries con-
tain burials only, in higher levels urns of ashes begin to
appear along with burial, and these become more fre-
quent until Christian times, when burial again becomes
the only method. Roman tradition recorded a law of
the regal period which forbade that a pregnant woman
should be buried until the unborn child had been cut out
of her. This implies burial as the only method of dis-
posing of the dead. The Law of the Twelve Tables, x.
1, reads, "Let no one bury or burn a dead man in the
city"; and x. 8, 9, "Nor let one bestow gold on one who
eats with teeth joined with gold, either let one bury or
burn him with it." Cicero 20 says: "To me that kind of
burial seems most ancient which Cyrus employed, ac-
cording to Xenophon. In it the body is returned to
earth. We are told also that King Numa was buried by
the same rite in that tomb which is near the Altar of
the Fountain, and it is well known that the clan of the
Cornelii have used this mode of sepulture down to our
time." According to Pliny, 21 "Cremation was not an
20 De Legibus, ii. 22.
21 Hist. Nat., vii. 187.
126 SPIRITISM iv
ancient custom among the Romans; they deposited in the
ground. . . . Nevertheless, many families have pre-
served the ancient rites, as, for instance, the Cornelian
clan, where it is handed down that no one was cremated
before the Dictator Sulla." Even when cremation became
common, the ashes were always buried; and the custom
of the os resectum, in accordance with which a finger, or
some other part of the body was buried, even when the
rest was burned, indicates burial as the more primitive
usage.
Among the Celts, Teutons, and Slavs archaeology
shows that the primitive method of disposal of the dead
was inhumation, and this conclusion is confirmed by com-
parative philology which shows that the words for 'bury'
and 'grave' in the languages of these peoples are found
in all the other Indo-European dialects. Classical writ-
ers mention only cremation among them, but this is to
be regarded as an innovation, as in Greece and Italy.
3. Cremation. — Alongside of burial cremation is
found at a very early date in all Indo-European lands.
In the Vedas it is regarded as the usual method, and it
is the only one for which ritual forms are provided. This
custom has lasted down to modern times in India. The
sons of the deceased prepare a pyre in a ceremonially
clean spot, preferably near a sacred river, and the body
is laid upon it. The pyre is lighted with "clean" fire,
and burns until the skull cracks, when it is believed that
the spirit escapes from the body. If this does not take
place at the proper time, the skull is fractured with a
club in order to facilitate the egress of the soul. When
a person has died away from home, or when for any
reason the body has disappeared, an effigy is prepared
which is cremated in the place of the real corpse. 22
In Persia cremation was common among the non-Zoro-
astrian tribes, as is evident from the prohibitions of the
Avesta. Even the name dakhma, which is applied to the
22 See H. T. Colebrcoke, Asiatic Researches, vii. 1803, pp. 241ff.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 127
towers on which the dead are exposed, means originally
'burning-place.'
In Greece cremation was the rule in the Homeric age
as appears from Iliad, xxiii. 114!!., where the Greeks go
to the mountains to obtain logs for the funeral-pyre of
Patroclus. Later Greek writers show that cremation
was the usual, although by no means the exclusive prac-
tice, among the upper classes, and this testimony is borne
out by archaeology.
In Rome, in cemeteries of the Iron Age, cremations
and inhumations appear side by side. The Laws of the
Twelve Tables, as noted above, sanction both burning
and burial. Latin writers are full of allusions to cre-
mation.
Among the Celts cremation is known from the testi-
mony of Caesar, 23 and Pomponius Mela, 24 and also from
the discoveries of archaeology. In the Hallstatt ceme-
tery, which is probably of Celtic origin, four hundred
and fifty-five ash graves are found with five hundred and
twenty-five burial graves.
Cremation among the Slavs of the lower Danube is
attested by the Arab historians Mas'udi, Ibn Dustah and
Ibn Fadhlan. The last of these represents a Russian as
saying: "You Arabs are indeed a stupid people: you take
him who is the best beloved and the most highly honoured
among men and cast him into the earth, where the creep-
ing beasts and worms feed on him. We, on the other
hand, burn him in an instant, so that he goes directly,
without delay, into Paradise." 25 Early Church Fathers
and canons inveigh against this practice. In a treaty
between the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians and the
Teutonic Knights from the year 1249 it is stipulated that
the former shall no longer continue the heathenish cus-
tom of burning the dead. Peter of Dusburg also gives
a De Bello Gallico, vi. 19.
34 Chorographia, iii. 19.
M Ibn Fadhlan, ed. and trans, by C. E. Frahn, St. Petersburg, 1828.
128 SPIRITISM iv
detailed accounts of cremations of people of rank among
the North Slavs.
Teutonic cremation is recorded by Tacitus, 26 and is
presupposed by the Edda, Nibelungenlied, and Beowulf.
As late as A.D. 785 Charlemagne issued a decree against
the Saxons: "If any one, in accordance with the custom
of the Pagans, shall commit the body of a dead man to
the flame to be burned, or shall reduce his bones to ashes,
he shall suffer capital punishment." In Scandinavia cre-
mations were common alongside of burials during the
Iron Age. In Northern Norway the corpse was some-
times burned in the ship in which during life its owner
had sailed. 27
From the foregoing facts it is clear that, while burial
was probably the older custom among the Indo-Euro-
peans, cremation was found in all branches of the race,
and was of high antiquity. To explain the origin of this
new method of disposing of the dead several theories
have been proposed. E. Rohde, 28 S. Miiller, 29 and R.
Much 30 think that it arose out of a desire to free the
soul from its connection with the body. According to
ancient belief it clung to its dead body and continued to
haunt the tomb in which this was buried. The purpose
of burial was to preserve the body as long as possible as
a habitation for the discarnate spirit. On the contrary,
the aim of cremation was to destroy the. body as rapidly
as possible so that the soul might be free to enter upon
a celestial existence. According to these scholars, the
dogma of cremation arose in one branch of the Indo-
European race, and spread to other branches of the race.
The chief difficulty with this theory is the antiquity of
cremation — it goes back to the Bronze Age — which sug-
gests that it was practised by the Aryans before their sepa-
! ° Germania, 27.
" See Hastings, End. Rel. and Eth., ii. ( p. 17.
28 Psyche, 1 pp. 27-36.
28 Nordische Altertumskunde, i. pp. 363ff.
80 Anzeiger fur deutsches Altertum, xlviii. pp. 315ff.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 129
ration; it is also improbable that a dogma of this sort
should spread from race to race, when there is no evi-
dence that other dogmas have spread in a similar way.
W. Ridgeway 31 modifies the theory by the claim that
cremation originated among the Celts, and was spread
by them through conquest to Italy, Greece, and even as
far as Persia and India; but of such a conquest we have
no evidence apart from the appearance of cremation in
all Indo-European lands.
E. Meyer 32 holds that cremation was a primitive
Aryan custom alongside of inhumation, but that it was
performed originally only in the case of heroes, chief-
tains, or kings, who were believed to partake of the
divine nature and therefore were returned by fire to the
celestial regions. Subsequently the rite was extended to
ordinary persons, just as in Egypt royal funeral rites
eventually became the property of private citizens. 33
This theory seems best to explain the facts. In India
young children are not burned. In Homer only heroes
are laid on the pyre; there is no evidence that common
people or slaves were cremated, except when they ac-
companied their lord. The cremations among the Celts
and Teutons which Caesar and Tacitus describe were
evidently of nobles on account of the costly offerings that
accompanied them. This distinction among the dead is
found among widely scattered savage peoples. The Al-
gonkins, for instance, burn the great, but bury ordinary
people. 34
e. Rites of Burial. — 1. The Place of Burial. — The
oldest usage apparently was to bury the dead in the
houses in which they had lived. The houses were then
abandoned by the other members of the family. The
memory of this custom still lingered among the Greeks
in the Classical period. When the body of Phocion was
81 The Early Age of Greece, i, chap. vii.
82 Geschichte des Altertums, 2 ii. p. 771.
33 See p. 174.
84 Hopkins, Religions, p. 89.
130 SPIRITISM iv
burned in a foreign land, his wife placed the bones that
remained in her bosom, carried them home, brought them
in by night into his house, and buried them alongside of
the hearth. 35 Servius 36 says that the original Roman
custom was to bury in the house. As late as the Laws of
the Twelve Tables people were still buried in the court-
yard, and in the Classical period infants less than forty
days old were buried in niches in the wall under the over-
hanging eaves. The early sepulchral urns from Latium
found at Alba and on the Esquiline are imitations of the
huts in which the primitive inhabitants of the region
dwelt. The Roman cult of the lares is closely connected
with the interment of ancestors in the family dwelling.
The earliest Celts also apparently buried beside the fam-
ily hearth, and this custom lasted among the iEdui down
to a late date.
In the earliest times, when the house was a mere wig-
wam, it was possible to abandon it to the dead; but with
advancing civilisation this became impracticable, and it
was necessary either for the living to share the abode
with the dead, or to remove the dead from the house.
Both methods were in use, but the latter prevailed. The
dead were then laid in graves beside roads, or paths,
or at cross-ways. Roads served as boundaries between
families and clans, and where the departed were placed
on the edge of the estate they protected it from intrusion
by outsiders. This custom is attested in India, Greece,
Italy, and among the Slavs; and the monuments of the
Roman nobles still line the main thoroughfares leading
to the Eternal City.
The primitive Aryan grave was merely a shallow
trench over which after burial a tumulus, or mound, was
heaped, varying in size according to the importance of
the individual. In the Homeric poems tumuli are reared
" Plutarch, Phocion, 37; cf. [Plato], Minos, 315 D.
84 Ad Mn., v. 64; vi. 162.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 131
over the ashes of heroes, and similar "barrows" are
found among the Celts and the Teutons. The elaborate
"bee-hive" tombs of the Mycenaean period are probably
pre-Aryan, and the dolmens, cromlechs, and other mega-
lithic sepulchral monuments of northern Europe are also
pre-Aryan. Down to the latest times the common people
continued to be interred in simple graves. The rock-
hewn tombs and mausolea of the Greek and the Roman
aristocracy were imitations of Egyptian and Oriental
fashions.
2. Offerings Placed in the Grave. — Archaeology
shows that from the beginning of the Neolithic age on-
ward food and drink, weapons and ornaments, and even
favourite animals, slaves, and wives, were buried with
the dead in all parts of Europe. The original idea seems
to have been that all the personal property of the de-
ceased must go with him into the other world, and that
he must be abundantly supplied with provisions for the
journey. When inhumation gave place to cremation, the
gifts were either buried with the ashes or were consumed
on the funeral pyre.
According to the Rig-Veda, x. 18, the ancient Aryans
in India laid his bow in the hands of the dead warrior on
the pyre, and then took it away from him. They also
laid his wife upon the pyre, and then lifted her off. This
is evidently a commutation of an original burning of the
bow and of the widow. In modern India offerings of
food and of water are made in connection with the cre-
mation ceremonies, and the sati of widows has lasted
down to modern times.
The tombs at Mycenae, Tiryns, and other ancient cen-
tres in Greece, which are perhaps pre-Aryan, were filled
with food, treasures and weapons. At the cremation of
Patroclus Achilles and his friends cut off their hair and
laid it upon the bier.
132 SPIRITISM iv
"With sorrowful hearts they raised and laid the corse
Upon the pyre. Then they flayed and dressed
Before it many fatlings of the flock,
And oxen with curved feet and crooked horns.
From these magnanimous Achilles took
The fat, and covered with it carefully
The dead from head to foot. Beside the bier,
And leaning toward it, jars of honey and oil
He placed, and flung, with many a deep-drawn sigh,
Twelve high-necked steeds upon the pile, nine hounds
There were, which from the table of the prince
Were daily fed ; of these Achilles struck
The heads from two, and laid them on the wood,
And after these, and last, twelve gallant sons
Of the brave Trojans, butchered by the sword." 37
Pausanias, ii. 21, 7, preserves tradition of a time when
it was customary for Greek wives to die with their hus-
bands. So costly were the offerings that were deposited
with the dead by the ancient Greeks that the living were
impoverished, and early legislators found it necessary
to check the practice by prohibitions. Early Roman
codes also forbade the burial of gold with the dead.
The primitive lavishness of gifts to the dead lasted
among the Celts down to a late date. Caesar narrates:
"Their funerals are magnificent and costly, considering
their civilisation; and all that they think was dear to
them when alive they put into the fire, even animals; and
shortly before this generation the slaves and dependents
that they were considered to have loved, were burned
along with them in the regular performance of funeral
rites." 38 Pomponius Mela confirms this testimony:
"They burn and bury along with the dead whatever is
of use to them when alive : business accounts and pay-
ments of debts were passed on to the next world, and
there were some who of their own free will, cast them-
selves on the funeral piles of their relatives, expecting
" Iliad, xxiii. 166ff.
38 De Bello Gallico, vi. 19.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 133
to live along with them." 39 These customs lasted well
down into Christian times, and are often mentioned in
Welsh and Irish chronicles. The literary evidence is
confirmed by archaeology. "Over the whole Celtic area
a rich profusion of grave-goods has been found, con-
sisting of weapons, armour, chariots, utensils, ornaments,
and coins. Some of the interments undoubtedly point to
sacrifice of wife, children, or slaves at the grave. Male
and female skeletons are often in close proximity, in one
case the arm of the male encircling the neck of the fe-
male. In other cases the remains of children are found
with them. Or, while the lower interment is richly pro-
vided with grave-goods, above it lie irregularly several
skeletons, without grave-goods, and often with head sep-
arated from the body, pointing to decapitation, while in
one case the arms had been tied behind the back." 40 In
the ancient Celtic cemetery of Hallstatt 525 graves con-
tained skeletons; and 455, ashes of the cremated. The
same sorts of gifts were found in both, namely, orna-
ments, implements, weapons, and vessels for food and
drink.
Slavic graves of the pagan period disclose the same
sorts of offerings, and among the modern Slavs they have
lasted with singular tenacity. Among the peasants of
Lithuania and of Great Russia and White Russia, it is
customary to bury with a man his pipe and tobacco,
flint and steel, snuff-box and purse, pocket-knife and a
little bag of copper buttons; also, if he were specially
addicted to it, a bottle of vodka. It is not unusual for
grave-diggers to find such bottles by accident when they
dig in the vicinity of old graves, and they consume the
contents with avidity. Women receive needles and
thread, thimbles, scissors, mirrors, and toilet articles;
and both sexes are provided with a clean handkerchief
tucked into a pocket in the shroud. Among the Wends
89 Chorographia, iii. 19.
40 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, p. 337.
134
SPIRITISM iv
and Kashubs, Slavic tribes of Northern Germany, fruit
and eggs are placed in the hands of the dead, and tobacco
and liquor are deposited with the men. As late as 745
A.D. a Wendish wife was burned with her husband. The
Arab historians Mas'udi and Ibn Fadhlan record the old
Slavic custom of killing wives at their husbands' graves.
As late as 931 A.D. there is record of a girl being buried
with a man to accompany him into the other world.
Among the Teutons also human sacrifice at the graves
of chieftains was frequent. So Brynhild says: "Make a
pyre for the Hun, my husband, and for them dying with
him; cover it with human blood and burn me there."
Among the Norse it was customary to burn the Vikings
in their ships with their horses and their slaves.
When men died unmarried, it was a primitive Aryan
custom to provide them with wives for the other world.
Thus the Trojan maiden Polyxene was slain at the grave
of Achilles. In later times in Attica the loutr-ophoros, or
bridal pitcher, was placed on the grave of the unmarried
as a symbolic representation of a death-marriage. Such
marriages were still prevalent among the Slavs in the
time of the Arabic historians Mas'udi and Ibn Fadhlan.
Among the modern Slavs imitation marriages are cele-
brated in which a bride or a bridegroom is assigned to
one who has died unmarried; but these persons are, of
course, no longer put to death, although it may be ex-
pected that the dead will soon claim them and they will
follow their spouses. A survival of this custom is still
found in Hesse in Germany, where "wreathed girls"
accompany the coffins of unmarried men to the grave
and wear mourning for them for four weeks. 41
The same tendency which led to the modification of
human sacrifice into symbolic rites led also to the com-
mutation of costly gifts into inexpensive substitutes. In
old Attic graves of the "dipylon period" the same offer-
ings are found that are mentioned in Homer: jars of
43 See O. Schrader, Totenhochzeit, Jena, 1904.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 135
food and drink, bones of sacrificed bullocks, pottery,
weapons, ornaments, and implements. In later graves
the offerings decline steadily in extent and in value. In
the sixth and the fifth centuries B.C. hardly anything but
decorated vases (lekythoi) are found; and still later the
men receive only a few vessels of small value ; the women,
a few ornaments; and the children, their toys. Still
later wreaths of myrtle or of asphodel took the place of
all other gifts. The same development took place in
Rome, where the primitive costly grave-goods slowly de-
clined until only flowers remained. This custom passed
over to the Christian Church, and is the origin of the
modern flowers at funerals.
3. The Funeral-feast. — Sacrifice to the dead neces-
sarily involved a sacrificial meal in which the living par-
took of the food and so communed with the departed.
Originally the feast took place at the grave, subsequently
it was transferred to the house after the return of the
mourners. Neolithic graves frequently show traces of
such feasts in burnt coals and broken bones. In Homer
a feast follows the cremation ceremonies. In later
Greece, "having returned from the funeral, the members
of the family undergo a religious purification, and then,
crowned with wreaths, attend the funeral feast (before
this they have abstained from wreaths). This also was
a part of the cult of souls. The soul of the deceased
was regarded as present, as their host; and dread of the
invisible companion gave rise to the custom of alluding
to him only eulogistically during the feast. The funeral
feast was a repast for the living relatives given at the
house of the dead person." 42 At Argentiere, Depart-
ment des Hautes Alpes, France, it was recently the cus-
tom to place a table upon the grave, at which the cure and
the family dined after the funeral. In most parts of
France the feast is now held at the house of the deceased.
In Ille et Vilaine neither wine, cider, nor liqueur is served
"Rohde, Psyche,' i. 23l£.
136 SPIRITISM iv
at the meal. The conversation is carried on in a low
voice, and as the guests finish they retire. Among the
Slavic and the Teutonic peasants of Northern Europe
these feasts are still kept up with great strictness. Of
these feasts among the Russians Sejn says: "All the
rest of the company return (after the funeral) to the
peasant's house, with the priest at their head, in order
to celebrate the funeral feast. By this is meant a com-
memoration meal for the dead person which lasts from
two to four hours." "To this day I cherish the greatest
respect for this burial feast, at which rude speaking,
slander, dispute, disagreement, strife, wanton jests, and
everything that usually accompanies gatherings of peas-
ants, had no place. The large gathering spoke with re-
straint, not raising their voices, and the conversation,
whether of individuals or of the whole company, confined
itself to the deceased, his actions, and the most trivial
details of his life. They recalled the talk and instruc-
tions of the dead man, especially those in which the good-
ness of his heart shone forth." 43
4. Funeral Games. — Among all the Aryans it was
usual to close the funeral feast with athletic sports in
honour of the dead. Thus at the funeral of Patroclus
Achilles instituted chariot races, boxing, foot races and
gladiatorial contests, and .^Eneas instituted similar games
at the tumulus of Polydorus. 44 Gladiatorial games were
celebrated at the funerals of distinguished Romans, and
the funeral of Attila was accompanied with a spectaculum
admirandum. It has been suggested that these contests
are commutations of original human sacrifice at the grave,
but this explanation hardly seems to cover all the sports
or the dances that occur at the same time. A more prob-
able view is that, like the feast, they are designed, as the
Chinese say, "to give pleasure to the meritorious ances-
tors." 45 In modern Europe these games have degener-
*» Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., ii. 20; iv. 434f.
"Iliad, xxiii. 257ff.; JEneid, iii. 62ff.
« See p. S3.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 137
ated into fights with cabbage heads, songs, dances, mas-
querades, or games of cards.
/. Cult of the Dead after Burial. — 1. Sacrifices of
Food. — It was not sufficient merely to place food in the
grave, supplies must be provided regularly at later times
in order that the spirits might consume them. In India
the Institutes of Manu, iii. 267-271, declare: "The an-
cestors of men are satisfied a whole month with sesamum,
rice, barley, black lentils or vetches, water, roots, and
fruit, given with prescribed ceremonies; two months with
fish, three months with venison, four with mutton, five
with the flesh of such birds as the twice-born may eat, six
months with the flesh of kids, seven with that of spotted
deer, eight with that of the deer or antelope called Etta,
nine with that of the Ruru deer; ten months are they
satisfied with the flesh of wild boars and wild buffaloes,
eleven with that of hares and tortoises, a whole year
with the milk of cows and food made of that milk; from
the flesh of the long-eared white goat their satisfaction
endures twelve years. The pot herb Ocimutn sanctum,
the prawn, the flesh of a rhinoceros or of the iron-col-
oured kid, honey and all such forest grains as are eaten
by hermits, are formed for their satisfaction without
end." According to this, while the ancestors require
regular feeding, a little food goes a long way with them.
This is the general view of all the Aryans. Food must
not be remitted, but it may be given in small quantities
at long intervals. The Avesta prescribes regular offer-
ings of food to the frctvashis, and the custom lasted in
Persia well down into the Middle Ages. Odysseus sacri-
fices to the shades black cattle and sheep, milk and honey,
wine, water and meal. 46 Black animals were regarded
by the Greeks and Romans as belonging to the dark pow-
ers of the Underworld. Swine also that rooted in the
ground were regarded as proper sacrifices to the chthonic
deities. In later times animal sacrifices to the dead were
"Odyssey, xi. 23fi.; cf. x. 517-520.
138 SPIRITISM iv
discontinued, and only libations of milk, honey, wine, and
water were made to them.
Honey appears in all parts of the Aryan world as a
food sacred to the dead. It was either offered pure, or
was mixed with rice or barley water to form mead. In
India the pitaras, "tormented with hunger and making
known their own sins, demand rice-soup mixed with honey
from their sons and grandsons." This corresponds with
the kanunii, a mead of barley water and honey, that is
served to the ancestors by the peasants of White Russia.
In both the Greek and the Roman cults of the dead honey
appears as an essential ingredient.
Another universal article of food for the dead is little
cakes or wafers. In India these appear as the pinda,
or rice balls, that are offered to the ancestors. The term
saphida, 'cake companion,' has come to be the technical
term for one upon whom devolves the duty of ancestor-
worship. In Greece the melitoutta, or honey cakes, were
given to the dead, and were popularly believed to appease
the ferocity of Kerberos, the watch-dog of Hades. 47
These cakes still survive among the Lithuanian and
Russian peasants as the kleck'i, or 'wafers,' that form an
essential part of every funeral feast or commemorative
banquet. "To eat wafers" is the technical expression
for "celebrate funeral rites," and of a person who is so
sick that his recovery is not expected they say: "He
will very soon have to enjoy cakes."
Beans also were sacred to the dead in all parts of the
Aryan world. This is the reason for their prohibition
as ordinary food in the Vedas. They were a favourite
offering to the dead in ancient Greece, and for this reason
were forbidden to his followers by Pythagoras. Pliny
says that beans are used in sacrificing to the dead because
the souls of the dead are in them, and Ovid says that
the witch put beans into her mouth when she tried to
call up spirits. At the feast of the Lemuria the Roman
"Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 305.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 139
householder cast black beans behind him as an offering
to the manes, and the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to
eat, or even to mention beans, because of their connection
with the shades. In modern Polish Russia we are told:
"The foods at the commemoration feasts consist of beans
and peas which are cooked in honey-water."
As libations for the dead we find water and milk among
all the Indo-Europeans. Fermented liquors also were
in universal use, the material varying according to the
region. In India the soma was used, in Persia the cor-
responding haoma, in Greece and Italy wine, and among
the Slavs and the Teutons beer, mead, and, later, distilled
spirits.
Human sacrifice to the dead at other times than at
burial or cremation appears among the Romans in the
devotio, or ban, which bears a close resemblance to the
Semitic herem. 48 In this a person is surrendered to the
dl manes in order that a victory may be won over enemies.
Thus in 340 B.C., at the battle of Vesuvius, Decius the
elder devoted himself to the dl manes for death in order
that the Roman army might be victorious. The same
thing was done by his son Decius in 295 B.C. at the battle
of Sentinum, and by his grandson Decius in 279 B.C.
at the battle of Asculum. 49 Of the Celts also Caesar
records 50 that those afflicted with disease, or engaged in
battle or danger, offer human victims, or vow to do so,
because unless man's life be given for man's life, the
divinity of the gods cannot be appeased. After a defeat,
which showed the gods to be hostile, the wounded or
feeble were slain, or warriors committed suicide as a
voluntary sacrifice, or a general devoted himself after
the manner of Decius. 51 There is little doubt that the
gods to whom these sacrifices were offered were the same
as the di manes to whom the Roman devotio was offered.
*»Cf. Judges, xi. 30ff.
* 9 Livy, viii. 6, 8-16; 9, 1-11.
50 De Bello Gallico, vi. 16.
61 Diodorus Siculus, xxii, 9; C. Jullian, Hist, de la Gaulc, ii. 158.
i 4 o SPIRITISM iv
Among the Celts it was also customary to bring prisoners
of war to the graves of ancient chieftains, and there
behead them and suspend the heads on poles round about
the tumulus. 52
2. Places of Sacrifice to the Dead. — The original
and most natural place of sacrifice was at the grave where
the bodies or the ashes of the dead were buried. Among
the Greeks and the Romans a regular cult was kept up
at graves, and sacrifices and libations were offered upon
them. At Tronis in Phocis a channel led down into the
grave of the hero, and daily offerings of sacrificial blood
and other libations were poured down it. 53 Many Greek
and Roman tombs have been found containing similar
tubes through which liquids may be sent down to the
dead. These posthumous offerings on the grave have
lasted in one form or another in all parts of Europe down
to the present time. Sometimes there is nothing more
than flowers or wreaths, at other times offerings of food
continue to be made. The Celts of Brittany put cakes
and sweetmeats on graves, and even in the great ceme-
teries of modern Paris one may see cakes on the graves
on All Saints day. Amelineau, the Egyptologist, relates
that he knew a widow at Chateaudun who placed a cup
of chocolate on her husband's grave every day for over
a year after his death. In Bulgaria wine and water are
poured on the grave for three days after the interment.
On the fortieth day a woman goes with a priest, carrying
cakes and wine, and the priest digs a hole in the grave
and buries the food and pours the wine upon it. On all
anniversaries wine and water are poured out as libations,
and widows have been known to pour libations of coffee
daily into a hole in the mound when their husbands were
particularly fond of this beverage. In Croatia bread,
eggs, and apples are laid on the grave for a number of
days after burial. Of the peasants of White Russia
E
52 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, pp. 165, 234f.
M Pausanias, x. 4, 7.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 141
&ejn says: "At the close of the banquet they all repair
to the burying-ground, taking with them vodka, "bliny,"
and barley. There each family prays at the graves of its
relatives for the peace of their souls. Then they eat and
drink, pouring out a little vodka on the grave and throw-
ing some morsels from each dish on it."
A ritual substitute for the grave as a place of sacrifice
was the trench. In ancient India three trenches were
dug, one for each of the three immediate forefathers;
on these grass was scattered, and cakes were spread as an
offering. In Greece sacrifices to the dead were cast into
the bothros, or pit. Thus in the Odyssey, xi. 25, et al. }
Odysseus digs such a trench before sacrificing to the
shades. This method of sacrifice which was used only
for chthonic deities was sharply distinguished from the
ritual of sacrifice to Olympian gods. A similar institution
among the Romans was the mundus, or sacrificial trench,
which was located in the centre of every city. It bore
the same relation to the inferi as the altar bore to the
superi. 54
A third seat of the cult of the dead was at the family
hearth. This may have been a survival of primitive
burial in the house, or it may have been due to the feeling
that the spirits would naturally return to the scenes
familiar to them in life. At family meals the custom
was universal to scatter food and drink on the table for
the ancestors, and to place the fragments that were left
in jars to be consumed by them later. Bits that fell to
the floor were left for the ghosts of those who had no
relatives. This practice is attested in Greece by Diog.
Laert. viii. 34 : "Aristophanes declares that the things
that drop from the table belong to the heroes, saying
that the heroes get nothing except what falls from the
tables"; and by Athenaeus, x. 427 e, "For the departed
their friends set aside the fragments of food that fall
from the tables." The Celts of Brittany to the present
"See above p. 105.
142 SPIRITISM iv
day build up the fire and leave the fragments of their
supper on the table for the souls of their relatives who
come to visit them during the night. Of the Lithuanians
and Prussians Menecius says: "If by chance anything
falls from the table to the ground, they do not pick this
up but leave it, as they say, as food for the forsaken souls
who have neither relatives nor friends from whom they
can receive entertainment." Similarly of the White Rus-
sians Sejn says: "If at the time of the banquet any part
of the food falls on the seat or on the floor, they dare
not lift it up. 'That,' they say, 'someone will eat.' "
"After they have prayed at the grave, they all separate
and go to their homes, where they seat themselves once
more at the table, on which the wives place pancakes
and mead. They throw morsels of the pancakes into
the mead. Each member of the family (with the excep-
tion of the children) must invariably sup three spoonfuls
of this dish. Some of this mixture they leave intention-
ally in a soup-bowl for the 'grandfathers.' After the
pancakes they eat the other prepared courses. When
they have supped and prayed to God, they lie down to
sleep, placing the remains of the mixture on the window
sills. The remains of the other foods they divide out
into small dishes, which in the same way are placed here
and there beside the window. Bread and spoons are left
on the table the whole night. The doors in the peasants'
rooms are not locked during this night, but are left a
little ajar, so that the dead may come in." 55
3. Times of Sacrifice to the Dead. — Among all the
Aryans special importance is attached to the third, sixth,
and ninth days after interment. The three-days interval
between these commemorations corresponds to the three
days that usually elapse between death and burial.
Menecius records that the heathen Prussians and Lith-
uanians celebrated feasts for the dead on the third, sixth,
and ninth day after the funeral. Sejn says of the peasants
" Hastings, Eric. Rel. and Eth., ii. p. 27.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 143
of White Russia: "Special feasts are celebrated, in the
circle of the family and near relatives, for each individual
who has died in the course of the year; and they take
place at stated intervals, though not on the same days
or in the same months, but on the third, sixth, ninth,
twentieth, and fortieth days, reckoning from the day of
the burial, during a period of six months, and periodically
thereafter in the course of the year till the date of the
death. These commemoration feasts take place without
the co-operation or the blessing of the Church. They
are a relic of primitive pre-Christian customs." These
reappear in Greece as the rpha and evara the third and
ninth days after burial, on which a meal was spread upon
the grave. The belief was general among the Greeks
that the restless ghosts of the unburied, those who had
died untimely deaths, and the unmarried, appeared to
the living on the ninth day after death, i.e., the sixth
after the funeral, if this had occurred. 56 In Rome also
we find a celebration on the third day, and a specially
important one on the ninth day, the novendialis. 57 The
attendance of members of the family during these nine
days of mourning was considered so important that mili-
tary conscripts were exempted from service, and even
high officials were excused from their duties. The rites
ceased on the ninth day with offerings of food to the
dead and a banquet, the cena no'uendialis; and in the case
of the wealthy, with funeral games, the lud'i novendiales.
When these ceremonies were over the manes were re-
garded as safely domiciled in Orcus, and not likely to
trouble the living by their return.
In India the nine-day celebration for the dead has been
rounded off into a ten-day feast, the so-called Ekoddishta
Sraddha, which immediately follows the cremation. At
the time of the cremation libations of water are poured
out to alleviate the heat and extreme thirst of the spirits
"Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 232; ii. p. 392.
" Vergil, Mneid, v. 46f., 105.
i 4 4 SPIRITISM iv
whose bodies are being consumed. The first night after
the cremation the nearest relatives make a cake of three
handfuls of boiled rice, mixed with fruits of various
sorts, honey, milk, butter, and present this to the de-
ceased, saying, "May this first funeral cake, which shall
restore thy head, be acceptable unto thee." "During ten
days funeral cakes, together with libations of water and
tila, must be offered, as on the first day, augmenting,
however, the number each time, so that ten cakes, and
as many libations of water and tila be offered on the tenth
day, with this further difference, that the address varies
each time. On the second day the prayer is, 'May this
second cake, which shall restore thy ears, eyes, and nose,
be acceptable.' On the third day, 'this third cake, which
shall restore thy throat, arms, and breast.' On the fourth,
'thy navel and organs of excretion'; on the fifth, 'thy
knees, legs, and feet'; on the sixth, 'all thy vitals'; on
the seventh, 'all thy veins' ; on the eighth, 'thy teeth,
nails, and hair'; on the ninth, 'thy manly strength'; on
the tenth, 'may this tenth cake, which shall fully satisfy
the hunger and thirst of thy renewed body, be acceptable
to thee.' ' 5S During this ten-day period lights are kept
burning to light the spirit on its journey to the other
world. The purpose of these rites is to provide the soul
with a new body that shall fit it to enter the realm of the
pitaras. Without this it will continue to haunt its former
home as an unhappy preta. 59 This doctrine of the "ele-
vation of the fathers" appears as early as the Atharva
Veda. By these masses for the repose of their souls the
dead secure admission to the heaven of Yama that they
could not gain in any other way.
The Iranian equivalent of these ceremonies is the
dfringdn, or 'homage,' which is rendered the dead after
exposure. Cakes of meat and of flour are presented and
priests perform ceremonies for the repose of their souls.
88 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vii. p. 247.
M For similar ideas among the Egyptians see p. 166.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 145
Friends and the poor are invited to share in the feast.
This celebration has lasted among the Armenians down
to the present time. Among the Teutons there are traces
of sacrifice to the dead on the third and seventh days
after burial.
Besides the nine-day offerings that immediately fol-
lowed interment or cremation later offerings were made
on fixed dates. Among the Indians, Greeks, Romans,
and Teutons the thirtieth day after burial was such a
time of sacrifice to the manes. Among the Lithuanians
the thirtieth day marks the conclusion of the widow's
period of mourning. Among the White Russians, Lith-
uanians and Prussians the twentieth and fortieth days
take the place of the thirtieth as days of commemoration.
Perhaps we may suppose that the primitive Aryan custom
was to follow the nine days of making a new body for
the deceased with a feast on the tenth day, and then
every succeeding tenth day until the end of the month.
After this the commemoration occurred monthly until the
end of the year. The anniversary of burial (or of death)
was a great occasion among all the Aryans, that was
celebrated each year with offerings to the dead and a
funeral feast. The observance of the birthday of the
deceased was a Greek innovation.
In addition to these private family celebrations there
were public, national sacred seasons of the dead. In
Rome the nine dies parentales were observed from the
thirteenth to the twenty-first of February. During these
days tombs were repaired and ornamented, food was
spread out for the dead, the temples of the celestial gods
were closed, marriages might not be contracted, and
officials laid aside their insignia of office. The ninth
day was known as Feralia (from Dkvesdlia, 'feast of
ghosts') and was the holiest of all. The Greek equiva-
lent was the Anthesteria festival, which also occurred in
February. The name is plausibly connected etymolog-
ically with Latin Inferi, 'subterranean deities'; and the
146 SPIRITISM iv
primitive meaning of the feast is shown by the Greek
proverb, "Out of doors! ye keres (shades); it is no
longer Anthesteria." This shows that the Anthesteria,
like the Feralia, was originally a season of public placa-
tion of ancestors. 60 The Hindu general Sraddha in
honour of the manes is of similar origin. The Iranian
counterpart of this celebration is the Hamaspathmaedaya
feast which lasts from March tenth to the twentieth.
The Roman Lemuria was observed on May ninth,
eleventh, and thirteenth. Lemures equal larva, 'ghosts,'
and the Lemuria are the days when the ghosts walk forth
and need to be appeased. On these days, according to
Ovid, 61 the house-father passed through the house bare-
footed at midnight, casting black beans behind him, and
saying nine times, "These I give, and with these I redeem
myself and my family." Then he clashed cymbals, and
said nine times, "Manes exite paterni, Go forth ye spirits
of my forefathers." The similarity of the formula to
that used by the Greeks at the Anthesteria is noteworthy.
The Roman Larentalia was observed on the twenty-
third of December. The lares were ancestors regarded
as protecting spirits. The name is connected etymolog-
ically with larva, 'ghost.' The festival was a sort of
All Souls' Day in which offerings were made to all the
dead, particularly to those who had no relatives to pro-
vide for them. This corresponds to a general autumnal
propitiation of the manes in India known as the Astaka
festival. The Iranian equivalent was Farvardigan, a
propitiation of all the dead, that was kept on the last
ten days of the year, and included the five intercalary
days that were necessary to equalise the civil year of 360
days with the solar year. In the opinion of several Old
Testament scholars this is the origin of the Jewish feast
of Purim. 62
80 See Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, chap. ii.
61 Fasti, v. 419ff.
62 See L. B. Paton, Esther, International Critical Commentary, pp. 85-87, 91.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 147
The Celtic Samhain feast was also held at the winter
solstice. The time when vegetation lay in the sleep of
death seemed most appropriate for the commemoration
of spirits of the dead. Food was laid out for all the
hungry spirits, and bonfires were kindled to warm them.
These customs still survive in Ireland and in Brittany.
The yule-log is probably a survival of the ancient fire
kindled on the hearth in honour of the ancestral spirits. 63
This All Souls' festival has survived in a peculiarly
primitive form among the Slavs. It is observed in No-
vember. "At this feast the dead are invited to come
forth from their mounds to a bath and a banquet. Chairs,
napkins, and garments are provided for all that are
summoned in a cottage that is selected for the purpose.
The table is loaded with food and drink. Returning
to their own houses, they celebrate a three-day banquet,
after which they leave all the relics of the food and the
drink at the tombs, and bid the shades farewell." "The
feast is a banquet to which they invite the god Ezagulis,
saying, 'Come with the dead to eat our dainties.' "
"Vielona, god of the dead, to whom an oblation is then
offered, they entertain with the dead. They are accus-
tomed to give them fried cakes cut a little in four places
opposite to one another. These they call 'wafers of
which Vielona is very fond.' ' 64 It is probable that the
ancient Teutons also had a general feast of the dead at
Yule-tide. These various forms of the Larentalia have
been transformed by the Church into All Saints' and All
Souls' Days, which fall on November first and second.
They have been removed from the winter solstice in
order to avoid conflict with Christmas. Popular super-
stitions about the ghosts coming forth on Halloween are
survivals of ancient pagan ideas in regard to the placating
of the spirits at the winter festival.
g. Prayer to the Dead. — Invocation of the ancestors
88 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, pp. 169f.
•* Lasicius, De Diis Samagitarum, pp. 48-51,
148 SPIRITISM iv
accompanied every act of homage done to them. The
lament addressed to the dead is such an invocation, and
formed a regular part of the mortuary ritual. 05 During
the funeral ceremonies the dead man was continually
addressed, and his descendants explained what they were
doing for him. Thus while the body was being cremated,
and the libation of water was being made, the Hindu said,
"May this oblation reach thee." With each offering that
was presented during the ten days that followed crema-
tion he said, "May this be acceptable unto thee." 66
Among all the Aryans it was customary to give the
ancestors a solemn invitation to be present at the com-
memorative feasts in their honour. In India, after
offering the pinda, or cake, the descendant said: "May
our progenitors, who eat the moon plant, who are sancti-
fied by holy fires, come by paths which gods travel.
Satisfied with ancestral food at this solemn sacrifice,
may they applaud and guard us." "Ye pitaras, may this
be savoury to your taste, may each one enjoy his share."
Similarly in the Iranian cult the fravashis are invited to
attend the feasts that are celebrated in their honour:
"We invoke the souls of the dead, the fravashis of the
righteous, the fravashis of all our kinsmen that have died
in this house, the fravashis of men and women, of both
sexes we invoke." 67 The same invocation existed among;
the pagan Lithuanians. Menecius records: "They in-
vite the spirit of the dead man to these feasts by praying
before the door." The peasants of White Russia still
entreat the forefathers to be present at the memorial
feasts, saying,
"Ye sacred grandfathers, we call you ;
Ye sacred grandfathers, come to us!
Here is all that God has given.
Ye sacred grandfathers, we implore you,
Come, fly to us."
•« See p. 13.
- See p. 144.
" 7 Avesta, Yasna, xxvi. 7.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 149
While present at the feast, the ancestors were en-
treated to grant all sorts of material blessings to their
descendants. Thus in the Rig Veda the manes are in-
voked: "O fathers, may the sky-people grant us life;
may we follow the course of the living!" "Come hither
with blessings, O fathers, may they come hither, hear us,
address us and bless us. . . . Do not injure us for what-
ever impiety we may as men have committed!" "Hom-
age to you, O fathers; give us a house, ye fathers!"
"May we have, ye fathers, wherewith to offer you!"
In the Yashts of the later Avesta there is a voluminous
collection of prayers to the fravashis for all sorts of
blessings. In Attica people prayed to the ancestors at
the time of a marriage for blessings upon the young
couple and the gift of children. Of the White Russians
Sejn says: "On every possible occasion the peasant ex-
presses his worshipful remembrance of his 'grand-
fathers.' He does so in his daily prayer, in conversation
in the family and in company, as well as on the different
festive occasions. There are, too, weighty considerations
which compel him to regard this as his duty. He is per-
suaded that all good fortune on the farm and in life is
produced by the continuous exertions of his ancestors,
and is sustained by means of their blessings and their
prayers to the Supreme Being (the latter is a modern
idea)." 68
Still another form of prayer found among all the
Aryans is the request to the ancestors to depart after
they have partaken of the funeral feast. In India after
the presentation of the cakes the descendant says:
"Depart, ye lovely pitaras, to your old mysterious ways,
give us riches and good fortune, grant us abundant pos-
session in men." In Greece the ancient formula was
"Qbpafa Krjpes, ovk It, 'Av^earrjpia" "Be off, ye spirits, the
feast of the dead is over." In Italy at the conclusion
of the Lemuria the householder said: "Manes exite
u See above p. 141.
i 5 o SPIRITISM iv
paterni, Depart, ye ancestral shades." Of the pagan
Lithuanians Menecius records: "After the feast is over
the ministrant rises from the table and sweeps the house
with a broom, the souls of the dead he drives out like
chickens with the dust, and he intreats them, saying,
'Beloved spirits, you have eaten and drunk, now go out
of doors, go out of doors.' " Similarly the modern
White Russians, at the close of the memorial banquets,
politely dismiss their forefathers, saying:
"Ye sacred grandfathers, ye have flown hither,
Ye have eaten and drunk,
Now fly away home again !
Tell us, do you wish anything more?
But better is it that you fly heavenwards.
Akysu, Akysnt"
The last is a noise made by the peasants to drive away
fowls. This curious entreaty to depart is a survival from
very ancient times when the dead were more feared than
loved, and when the feasts in their honour were intended
rather to placate them than to cultivate fellowship with
them.
Necromancy, or the calling up of the dead by magical
arts in order to obtain their advice or aid or to learn the
future from them, does not seem to have been a primitive
Aryan institution. The early Aryans were too afraid of
the dead to wish to encounter them more than was neces-
sary. In Classical times, however, necromancy invaded
the Grseco-Roman world from the Semitic Orient. 159
The eleventh book of the Odyssey, which is commonly
regarded as a late addition to the Homeric cycle, gives
an elaborate account of the methods by which Odysseus
called up the ghosts of Elpenor, of his mother, Anticleia,
of Tiresias, the Theban seer, of Agamemnon, Achilles,
and numerous other illustrious dead, who foretold the
future and advised him in regard to his voyage. At all
••See pp. 210, 231, 256.
iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 151
of the supposed entrances to the Underworld in Greek,
lands psychomancy, or evocation of the dead, was prac-
tised alongside of the cultivation of dream oracles.
There were psychagogues also who professed to be able
to call up the spirits in other places besides these sanctu-
aries. Euripides, Alcestis, ii3of., alludes to such arts.
Lucian in the Philopseudes gives a long list of stories of
necromancy. 70 These narratives bear the closest resem-
blance to the Babylonian evocation of the ghost of
Enkidu by Gilgamesh, and to the raising of the ghost of
Samuel by the Witch of Endor.
That psychomancy was not a primitive Roman insti-
tution is shown by the fact that it was regarded with
strong disapproval by the Government as a menace to
the well-being of the State. The worst thing that Cicero
could say of Vatinius was that he practised strange for-
eign rites, sacrificing boys to the shades in order that he
might call them up and inquire of them. Piso was accused
of having buried human bodies under his house which he
had sacrificed in order to bring back the dead. Others
were accused of evoking the spirits by the sacrifice of a
cock, or by the chanting of hymns. Horace has left a
vivid description of the way in which two witches prac-
tised necromancy in a cemetery on the Esquiline. At the
new moon they crept in barefoot with their robes tucked
up and their hair flowing. They gathered bones and
poisonous plants. They scooped a sacrificial trench in
the ground with their nails, rent a black lamb in pieces
with their teeth, and let the blood fall into the trench.
Their cries of invocation frightened the neighbours. The
ghosts then came to drink the blood and were interro-
gated by the witches. It is clear that we are dealing
here with foreign arts of Oriental origin that found their
way into Rome in the days of her decline.
70 See Rohde, Psyche* i. 37, 213; ii. 87, 363ff. See above p. 88.
CHAPTER V
SPIRITISM IN EGYPT
a. Sources of Information. — Our knowledge of the
beliefs of the ancient Egyptians in regard to the dead is
derived chiefly from archaeological remains, such as
tombs and temples, inscriptions and papyri. Excavations
have disclosed the fact, that as early as 5000 B.C. Egypt
was already inhabited by the same race that occupied it
in later times, and that the main features of its civilization
were already established. The Sothic astronomical cycle,
marked by the heliacal rising of Sirius, was probably al-
ready instituted in the year 4241 B. C. This was eight
centuries before Menes, the first king of Manetho's
first dynasty. Since 1894 many remains of the pre-
dynastic period have been found in Upper Egypt, that
carry us back certainly into the fifth millennium B.C.
The Thinite kings of Manetho's first and second
dynasties (3400-2980 B.C.), which were formerly sup-
posed to be mythical, are now known to be historical.
Objects bearing their names have been found in various
parts of Upper Egypt, their inscriptions are carved on
the rocks of the traditional Sinai, and the tombs of most
of them have been discovered at Abydos. The tomb of
Menes, the founder of the first dynasty, was excavated
by De Morgan at Naqada in 1 897. 1
The kings of dynasties III-VI (2980-2475 B.C.) have
left the great pyramids, and inscriptions at the copper-
mines of Mount Sinai. In the pyramids of the Vth
1 See Petrie, Naqada and Ballas, 1896; Diospolis Parva, 1900; Abydos, 1902-4;
De Morgan, Ethnographie prehistorique, pp. 142-202; Maciver and Mace, El
Amrah and Abydos, 1902; Quibel, Elkab, 1898; Hierakonoplis, 1900ff.; Garstang,
Makasna and Bet Khallaf, 1903.
I5 2
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 153
and Vlth dynasties are inscribed the so-called Pyramid
Texts. These were discovered by Mariette in 1880, and
were published by Maspero in 1894. A critical edition
of the text by K. Sethe appeared in 191 1, and a Ger-
man translation by the same author has been promised.
Translations of parts of these texts by Sethe, Erman,
Schafer, and others, have appeared in the Zeitschrift fur
Agyptologie, and by Breasted in his Religion and
Thought in Ancient Egypt. These are the oldest re-
ligious texts in the world; and have come down to us,
not in copies made by generations of later scribes, but in
the originals, just as they were carved nearly five thou-
sand years ago on the walls of the royal sepulchres.
They deal entirely with ceremonies performed for the
benefit of the dead.
From the Middle Empire of dynasties XI-XII (2160-
1788 B.C.) we have the memorial stelae at Abydos, the
biographies in the tombs of Benihassan, and the royal
inscriptions in Nubia, at Sinai, and in the quarries. In
this period literary papyri and private documents begin
to become fairly plentiful. The tombs are sumptuously
constructed, and elaborately adorned with reliefs. The
coffins are covered with the so-called Coffin Texts, which
are similar to the Pyramid Texts. They also deal en-
tirely with funerary ceremonies.
Under the New Empire of dynasties XVIII-XX (1580-
1 150 B.C.) the historical sources become more abundant.
There are now extensive temple and tomb inscriptions
with accompanying reliefs. Officers of the king construct
elaborate tombs with reliefs, frescos and inscriptions.
Papyri and private documents of all sorts are numerous.
In this period it becomes customary to inscribe the walls
of tombs with religious texts preparing the deceased for
entrance into the other world. These compose the so-
called Book of Him Who Is in the Nether World. 2 Be-
sides this, papyrus rolls containing various selections of
2 See G. Jequier, Le livre de ce qu'il y a dans I' Hades, Paris, 1894.
154 SPIRITISM v
funerary ritual were deposited with the dead. These
form the so-called Book of the Dead.
From the period of Egyptian decline ( 1 150-663 B.C.)
monuments are rarer; still, they do not fail us entirely,
and they are supplemented by Classical sources.
In 1822 Champollion began the decipherment of the
Egyptian writing on the basis of the "Rosetta Stone,"
an inscription in Hieroglyphic and Demotic Egyptian and
in Greek. In the century that has elapsed since that time
the science of Egyptology has been so perfected that to-
day an ordinary Egyptian text can be read with ease and
certainty. An admirable English translation of the most
important historical documents is given by J. H. Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt (5 vols., Chicago, 1906-7).
The Book of the Dead has been published by E. A. W.
Budge, London, 1895; C. H. S. Davis, New York,
1894; and by P. Le Page Renouf, continued by E.
Naville. 3
h. Egyptian Conceptions of the Soul. — The ancient
Egyptians, like so many other primitive peoples, regarded
the 'breath,' du, as the vital principle in man. Its chief
seat was the heart, or the entrails. At death this sepa-
rated itself from the body, and became a ba, or 'spirit.'
The distinction between du and ba, accordingly, is similar
to that which we make between 'soul' and 'spirit.' The
ba is not said to exist until after death; in fact, the de-
ceased is said to be made a ba by the ceremonies that are
performed at his funeral by the officiating priests. In
art the ba was represented by a human-headed bird with
' The most important modern works based upon these ancient sources are:
J. G. Wilkinson, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 2 1883;
J. H. Breasted, A History of Egypt (1908); E. Meyer, Geschichte des
Altertums- (1909); A. Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (Lon-
don, 1897); A. Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907);
E. Naville, The Old Egyptian Faith (London, 1906); G. Steindorff, The
Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New York, 1905); J. H. Breasted, Develop-
ment of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York, 1912); W. M.
Flinders Petrie, article "Egyptian Religion" in Hastings, Encyclopadia of Religion
and Ethics (Edinburgh, 1912); G. F. Moore, History of Religions, Chapters viii.,
ix. (New York, 1913); E. W. Hopkins, The History of Religions, Chapter xvii.
(New York, 1918).
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 155
arms, holding in one hand a sail, the ideograph for 'wind,'
or 'spirit,' and in the other hand the 'ankh, or emblem of
'life.' This spirit-bird is often depicted in tombs, and on
coffins and mummies, as hovering over the dead, or as
perching in a tree and interestedly watching its own
funeral. This conception of the ba has evidently close
affinities with Hamitic and Semitic ideas of the disem-
bodied spirit. 4
Another Egyptian conception that has given rise to
much discussion is the ka, or 'double.' Formerly this
was regarded as a second ethereal soul that rose at death
to the celestial regions, while the animal ba remained
with the corpse in the grave. 5 The Egyption anthro-
pology would then hold to a trichotomy of human nature
into body, soul and spirit. More recent investigators
reject this view, and hold that the ka was a tutelary spirit,
like the Roman genius, who accompanied and guarded a
man from birth through life and into the hereafter. 6
It was thus roughly a counterpart of the "guardian angel"
of later Jewish and Christian theology. Originally ap-
parently only kings had such guardians, but later the idea
was extended to private citizens. In the temple of Luxor
the infant Amenhotep III is represented accompanied by
his ka, which is the exact counterpart of himself. The
ka, accordingly, was conceived as the invisible, spiritual
duplicate of a man that was born with him and shared
his fortunes from that time onward. When he died he
was said to "go to his ka," or to "be with his ka." The
ka protects the dead man from enemies in the other
world, introduces him to the gods, provides food for
him; and in the Pyramid Texts, § 1357, he and his ka
are represented as dining together at the same table.
In ancient texts the pair of uplifted arms that form the
hieroglyph for ka are frequently combined with the stand-
ard that bears the names of gods. This conception must
* See p. 201.
5 Compare the Chinese idea, p. 88.
•See p. 70.
i 5 6 SPIRITISM v
have an entirely different origin from that of the ba, or
'breath.' It seems to have been developed out of the
'shadow', which plays an important part in other early
religions, and is possibly of aboriginal African rather
than Hamitic or Semitic origin. A synonymous term
for ka was y'hw (often vocalised as khu) , that is 'glori-
ous one.' 7 It appears, accordingly, that the Egyptians
did not believe in a plurality of souls, but only in one
soul, ba, that went by a variety of other names; and in
one companion spirit, ka, that also had a number of
synonymous names.
c. Survival of the Soul After Death. — The possible
existence of the soul after death was a fundamental
article of Egyptian belief in all ages. Only occasionally
do we find some philosopher taking a sceptical attitude
toward the question. Thus during the Middle Kingdom
a song was composed, which must have been popular in
later times, since two recensions have come down to us,
one on the wall of the tomb of Neferhotep at Thebes,
the other in a papyrus manuscript bearing the title :
"Song which is in the house (tomb) of King Intef, the
justified, which is in front of the singer with the harp."
From this title the song is often called "the Song of the
Harper." Parts of this read as follows :
"No one cometh from yonder
That he may describe their existence;
That he may tell their affairs,
That he may satisfy our heart;
Before we also depart
To the place whither they have gone.
• ••••••
Increase still more thy pleasure,
Let not thy heart grow weary.
Manage thine affairs on earth
According to the wishes of thy heart,
For the day of mourning is coming for thee,
When he whose heart is still hears not the laments,
'Compare the Hebrew use of "glory" for "spirit," Gen. 49:6; Psa. 7:5; 16:9;
108:1.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 157
Nor he who is in the tomb perceives the weeping.
Celebrate the glad day,
Do not cease therein.
Behold, no one taketh anything with him,
And no one returneth that hath gone thither." 8
In similar vein an epitaph of the Greek period says:
"O father, husband, relative, priest, cease not to drink,
to eat, to drain the cup of pleasure and of love, and to
hold joyous festival; follow thy heart day and night
through all the years thou shalt spend on earth. For the
West is a land of sleep and darkness, an oppressive abode
for those who dwell in it. They sleep, they are motionless
forms, they never wake again to look on their brethren;
they know not their father or their mother; their heart
yearns not for their spouses or their children." 9
Such thoughts made no impression upon the mass of
the Egyptian people. They continued to embalm their
mummies, build their tombs, and make their offerings to
the dead, in the confidence that the spirits still lived, and
were benefited by these things.
d. Powers Retained by the Dead. — The future life,
whether in the tomb, in Hades, or in Heaven, was con-
ceived as essentially identical with the present life. The
king remained a king, dwelling in his palace, ruling over
his subjects, waited upon by his officials and his slaves.
The noble continued to be a noble, with his broad estates,
his large family, and his retinue of serfs. The head of
the house still maintained his authority over his wives,
children, and slaves. In the Pyramid Texts the king is
assured that he shall not lack wives in the other world.
His royal revenues shall also be paid to him promptly.
His table shall lack none of the dainties to which he
has been accustomed on earth. "Thy thousand of young
antelopes from the highland, they come to thee with
bowed head, thy thousand of bread, thy thousand of
beer, thy thousand of incense that came forth from the
8 W. M. Muller, Liebespoesie der alten Agypter, pp. 29-37.
8 E. Naville, The Old Egyptian Faith, p. 205.
158 SPIRITISM v
palace hall, thy thousand of everything pleasant, thy
thousand of cattle, thy thousand of everything thou
eatest, on which thy desire is set, bread which cannot dry
up, and beer which cannot grow stale." "Raise thee up!
Arise ! Sit down to thy thousand of bread, thy thousand
of beer, thy thousand of oxen, thy thousand of geese,
thy thousand of everything on which the god lives." 10
In order to secure these good things in the other world
they were placed with the dead in the tomb, or were
sacrificed upon it, whence they were transported to
Heaven by the god Thoth, by the celestial ferryman,
or by Re himself in the solar barque. In later times
pictures of articles placed in tombs were believed by
sympathetic magic to cause their reproduction in the
abode of the departed.
Even prayer for the dead was regarded as efficacious
in keeping them from hunger. A form repeated on
countless tombs was : "An offering which the King gives ;
Horus of Edfu, Osiris and Isis, may they give bread,
beer, oxen, geese, everything good and pure for the ka
of the deceased." n The passer-by is begged for "that
breath of the mouth (prayer) which is of use to the dead,
and also not difficult, even as thou desirest that thy gods
shall love and reward thee, and that thou shalt bequeath
thy offices to thy children, even as thou lovest life and
hatest death." 12 A mortuary prayer on the tomb of
Senmut, who lived under Thutmose III, reads: "The
oblations in the South for the ka of the magnate of the
South and North, Senmut. May she (Mut) give the
food-offerings in the Northland to the ka of the greatest
of the great, noblest of the noble, Senmut. May she
give all that comes forth from her table in Karnak, in
the temples of the gods of the South and North to the ka
of the master of secret things in the temple, Senmut.
May she give the mortuary offering of bread, beer, oxen,
10 Breasted, Religion, pp. 131-2.
11 Breasted, Records, ii. 111.
12 Erman, Religion, p. 125.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 159
geese; and to drink water at the living stream; to the ka
of the chief steward of Amon, Senmut." 13
To those who will make offerings the dead promise
that they will intercede with the gods on behalf of the
donors. Thus Ptahshepses, who lived under Nuserre
of the Vth dynasty, says: "I have made this tomb as a
just possession, and never have I taken a thing belonging
to any person. Whosoever shall make offerings to me
therein, I will do it for them; I will commend them to
the god for it very greatly; I will do this for them, for
bread, for beer, for clothing, for ointment, and for grain,
in great quantity." 14 Even for prayer in their behalf
the shades will show similar gratitude. Harkhuf, who
lived under Mernere of the Vlth dynasty, promises:
"O ye living, who are upon earth, who shall pass by this
tomb, whether going down-stream or going up-stream,
who shall say: 'A thousand loaves, a thousand jars of
beer for the owner of this tomb'; I will (intercede) for
their sakes in the Nether World. I am an excellent,
equipped spirit, a ritual priest, whose mouth knows." 15
e. Powers Gained by the Dead. — In spite of all these
materialistic features that have been described which
made the future life resemble the present life, the ancient
Egyptians, like all other early races, regarded the dead
as beings akin to the gods, and therefore possessed of
transcendent intelligence and might. At first the king,
and subsequently all the deceased, were identified with
Re and later with Osiris. They rode with him in the solar
barque through the sky, descended with him into Hades
during the night, and rose triumphant with him in the
morning. Like the gods, they were unrestricted by condi-
tions of space or time. Whether in the Grave, in Hades,
or in Heaven, they could come at the call of their wor-
shippers to enjoy the sacrifices that had been prepared
for them. From the sepulchral chamber in the heart of
18 Breasted, Records, ii. 355-6.
" Ibid., i. 252.
» Ibid., i. 329.
160 " SPIRITISM v
the pyramid the spirit of the Pharaoh could pass through
hundreds of feet of solid masonry, through the massive
false door that adorned the fagade of the pyramid, and
appear in the mortuary chapel to receive the homage
and the offerings of the priests. In the New Empire the
tombs of kings and of nobles were hidden deep in caverns
in the rock, and their chapels were miles away; but this
did not prevent them from coming to enjoy their cult.
Even Hades and Heaven were not so remote that they
could not return to earth on frequent occasions. For
this reason they were spoken of as "those who go in and
go out of the Nether World." They were also called
the "glorious ones," the "imperishable ones," the
"mighty," the "triumphant," the "victorious." The
superhuman powers that they possessed were the same
that we have found already in primitive religion and in
the religion of China.
i. Control of Physical Objects. — Spirits of the dead
were believed to occupy statues, just as gods were believed
to occupy images. In tombs of nobles of the Old Empire
the mummy was placed in a rock-hewn chamber at the
bottom of a vertical shaft. The shaft was filled in with
stones, and above it was built a stone or brick truncated
pyramid known by the Arabic name of mastaba, or
'bench.' Within this was a small chapel for presenting
offerings; and behind this, separated by the false door, a
walled-in chamber, known in Arabic as serddb, or 'cellar,'
containing a portrait-statue of the deceased. He was
thought to occupy the statue, and to receive through
the false door the gifts that were presented to him.
Occasionally a slit or hole was made in the masonry
to allow the spirit egress and ingress. When later the
mortuary chapel was separated from the tomb and was
elaborated into a temple, the statue of the deceased was
moved with it. The inscriptions contain frequent mention
of the setting up of such statues in tombs and in temples.
Many authors speak of these as "statues of the ka,"
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 161
but there is no foundation for this term either in the
tomb texts or in the inscriptions placed upon these
statues. 16
Spirits of the dead were able to control these statues
so as to reveal their will through them. An inscription
discovered at Sakkara in 1898 relates that in the reign
of Ahmose I (1580-1557 B.C.) a certain Nesha received
from the king an estate which he bequeathed to his
descendants, stipulating that it should not be divided. In
the reign of Ramses II, three hundred years later, the
courts permitted the division of the estate; but Pasar,
son of Mesmen, appealed the case to the statue of the
deified Ahmose as it was being carried in procession,
and the statue by nodding confirmed his claim to the
estate. 17 Similar accounts are given of gods controlling
their statues. Thus in the time of Ramses II the prince
of Bekhten in Mesopotamia had given his daughter in
marriage to the Pharaoh. When her sister fell ill, he
requested that the miracle-working statue of Khonsu-the-
Plan-Maker might be sent to heal her. The king sub-
mitted the matter to the decision of two images of
Khonsu. "Then they led Khonsu-in-Thebes-Beautiful-
Rest to Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker, the great god, smiting
the evil spirits. Then said his majesty before Khonsu-in-
Thebes-Beautiful-Rest : 'O thou good lord, if thou in-
clinest thy face to Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker, the great god,
smiting the evil sprits, he shall be conveyed to Bekhten.'
There was a violent nodding. Then said his majesty:
'Send thy protection with him, that I may cause his
majesty (the idol) to go to Bekhten, to save the daughter
of the prince of Bekhten.' " This nodding image of
Khonsu is mentioned again by Hrihor of the XXIst
dynasty. A nodding image of Amon is mentioned by
Merneptah of the XlXth dynasty, by Hrihor of the
XXIst dynasty, and by Menkheperre of the XXIst
18 See G. Steindorff, Zeitschrift fur agyptische Sprache, 48, 1S2-9.
"A. Moret, in Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Inscriptions, 1917, pp. 157-165.
162 SPIRITISM v
dynasty. 18 If spirits could do such things as this, it is
probable that they possessed in Egypt all the powers of
levitation and of control that they manifested elsewhere,
although we have no explicit records to this effect.
2. Control of Animals. — The ancient belief that
spirits of the dead entered into animals, particularly
those that prowled about tombs, existed also in Egypt.
The Coffin Texts of the Middle Empire already contain
magical formulas by which the deceased may transform
himself into certain birds or animals. These charms are
greatly amplified in the texts of the New Empire which
constitute the so-called Book of the Dead. Thus in the
recension of the Book of the Dead found in the Papyrus
of Ani, edited by Budge, chapter lxvii treats of "changing
into a golden hawk"; lxxvii, "changing into a divine
hawk"; lxxxi, "changing into a lotus"; lxxxiii, "changing
into a bennu bird"; lxxxiv, "changing into a heron";
lxxxvi, "changing into a swallow"; lxxxviii, "changing
into a crocodile." In another recension the dead man
becomes a serpent by saying: "I am the serpent whose
years are long. I lie down and am born every day. I
am the serpent at the ends of the earth. I lie down,
then I am born, I am re-established, I grow young every
day."
This is the basis on which Herodotus 19 asserts:
"The Egyptians were the first to broach the opinion
that the soul of man is immortal, and that, when the
body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is
born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal
into another, until it has circled through all the forms
of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water,
and the air, after which it enters again into a human
frame, and is born anew. The whole period of the trans-
migration is, they say, three thousand years. There are
Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a later date,
who have borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians,
"Breasted, Records, iii. 440, 444, 580; iv. 615, 617, 655-6, 658.
19 II. 123.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 163
and put it forward as their own." This opinion is not
sustained by the evidence of the Egyptian monuments.
These show something far simpler than the philosophic
doctrine of transmigration. The Egyptian idea is the
same that we find among all ancient races and among
modern savages, that the discarnate spirit can enter tem-
porarily into the bodies of animals. Out of this primitive
zoomorphism the doctrine of transmigration, as a means
of explaining the problem of evil and of securing retribu-
tion, was evolved in India, whence it travelled to Greek
thinkers such as Pythagoras and Plato. 20
3. Re-animation of Dead Bodies. — The belief in a
possible resurrection of the flesh that we found in China 21
has not certainly been discovered in Egypt. The spirit
inhabits the mummy, and it is most important for the
welfare and peace of the soul that its body be preserved,
but it does not revive the body. The Egyptian doc-
trine of resurrection was apparently a resurrection of the
spirit from the sleep of death rather than a resurrection
of the flesh. It was akin to Paul's conception of resur-
rection in I Corinthians, 15:35 sq.: "It is sown a nat-
ural body; it is raised a spiritual body. . . . Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption." 22 No case of physical
resurrection is recorded in any Egyptian text, nor is a
future resurrection of the body anticipated. Several
competent scholars, however, think differently on this
matter, and hold that such passages from the Pyramid
Texts as are quoted below under /, which call upon the
Pharaoh to arise and receive his food, refer to a literal
resurrection of the flesh. The idea of rebirth in a new
body, which is found in so many other parts of the world,
is also wanting in Egypt.
4. Obsession of Living Men. — The dead were be-
lieved to be envious of the living, and therefore to enter
30 See p. 99f.
21 See p. 26.
" See p. 296.
1 64 SPIRITISM v
into the bodies of men causing disease and death. In
the Book of the Dead (ed. Naville, 92, 10) the gods
are adjured to "shut up the shadows of the dead, and
the dead who work evil to us." An officer who had lost
his wife, and who had fallen ill soon afterwards, was
told by a soothsayer that his wife was lonely without
him, and that she was trying to kill him. Accordingly
he wrote a letter to her, which he deposited in her grave :
"What evil have I ever done thee that I am now in
such misery? What have I done to thee that now thou
layest hands upon me ? From the time that I became thy
husband, up to this day, have I ever done aught that I
would have hidden from thee? . . . When I was ap-
pointed to all manner of offices, I was still by thy side, I
left thee not, and brought no grief into thy heart. . . .
When thou didst sicken with the sickness which thou hast
suffered, I went to the chief physician; he prepared medi-
cines for thee, and did all that thou didst desire of him.
(After thy death) I besought Pharaoh and came hither
to thee and mourned thee greatly with my people before
my house." 23 The princess of Bekhten mentioned above,
who was cured by the image of Khonsu, was obsessed by
an evil spirit, probably of the dead, although this is not
expressly stated. A series of exorcisms used by mothers
to drive malignant ghosts away from their children has
come down to us. One of these reads as follows :
"Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth,
His nose behind him, his face turned backward, who loseth that
for which he came.
Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth,
Her nose behind her, her face turned backward, who loseth that
for which she came.
Comest thou to kiss this child? I will not let thee kiss him.
Comest thou to soothe him ? I will not let thee soothe him.
Comest thou to harm him? I will not let thee harm him.
Comest thou to take him away? I will not let thee take him
away.
" Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. lSlf.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 165
I have made his protection against thee out of efet-herb which
hurts,
Out of onions which harm thee;
Out of honey which is sweet to (living) men, and bitter to those
who are yonder ;
Out of the evil (parts) of the ebdu-fish, out of the jaw of the
meretj
Out of the backbone of the perch." 2i
The reference to honey as "bitter to those who are yon-
der" shows that the evil spirits who are dreaded are
those of the dead.
5. Possession of Living Men. — The same princess
of Bekhten who was obsessed by an evil spirit also spoke
under the influence of this spirit. "Then said this spirit
which was in her before Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker-in-
Thebes, 'Thou comest in peace, thou great god, smiting
the barbarians. Bekhten is thy city, its people are thy
servants, I am thy servant. I will go to the place whence
I came to satisfy thy heart concerning that on account
of which thou comest. Let thy majesty command to
celebrate a feast-day with me and with the chief of
Bekhten.' " This indicates that spirits of the dead con-
trolled mediums, just as the gods inspired prophets. Un-
fortunately our information on this subject is not so com-
plete as we could wish.
/. The Abode of the Dead. — 1. The Grave. — In
no land was the disembodied spirit associated more closely
with the corpse than in Egypt. It was believed that the
ba constantly returned to the body as its proper dwelling-
place; and that if the body perished, the soul would
eventually perish also. Hence the mummification of
corpses in order to preserve them, hence also pyramids
and secret tombs to guard them from molestation or
destruction. In case that any accident happened to the
mummy, statues of the deceased were placed in the tomb
in order that the soul might occupy one of these. The
inscriptions on tombs frequently contain curses upon
** Erman, Zauberspriiche fiir Mutter und Kind, Berlin, 1901, p. 12f.
1 66 SPIRITISM v
anyone who shall violate them. Thus Harkhuf, who
flourished under Mernere of the Vlth dynasty, says:
"As for any man who shall enter into this tomb as his
mortuary possession, I will seize him like a wild fowl;
he shall be judged for it by the great god." 25 The
restoration of mummies was a pious act that was fre-
quently undertaken by later generations. Thus under
Ramses XII of the XXth dynasty Hrihor, the high priest
of Amon, restored the mummies of Ramses II and of
Seti I that had been damaged by tomb-robbers, and left
a record of this fact on their coffins. Paynozen I of the
XXIst dynasty also accumulated much merit by repairing
the damaged mummies of his predecessors. 26
The soul was believed to share in the unconsciousness
of the body produced by death, and from this it must be
roused by magical ceremonies before it could enter upon
its new existence. The Pyramid Texts contain numerous
incantations, doubtless recited by the priests, that are
intended to rouse the spirit from the sleep of death.
"Ho, King Unis! Thou hast not departed dead, thou
hast departed living"; "Thou hast departed that thou
mightest live, thou hast not departed that thou mightest
die"; "Thy bones perish not, thy flesh sickens not, thy
members are not distant from thee"; "Raise thee up,
King Pepi, receive to thee thy water, gather to thee thy
bones, stand thou upon thy two feet, being a glorious
one before the glorious. Raise thee up for this thy bread
which cannot dry up, and thy beer which cannot become
stale." 21 Here we have a process of resurrection that
takes place immediately after death, and that is effected
through the sacramental activities of the survivors. This
is what is called "making a man a ba." If these cere-
monies are neglected, the presumption is that the soul will
not survive the catastrophe of death, and will not return
to occupy its mummy. These rites are apparently an
28 Breasted, Records, i. 330.
28 Ibid., iv. 592-4; 634-47.
31 See Breasted, Religion, pp. 57, 58, 91.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 167
evolution out of ancient efforts to recall the soul at the
moment of death.
The most primitive belief in Egypt, as in other lands,
was that spirits of the dead inhabited their tombs. This
was an inevitable inference from the close connection be-
tween the ba and the mummy. For this reason tombs
of the wealthy were constructed like houses, and were
filled with all good things that the deceased had used in
life. Even the poor were not buried without food, drink,
clothing, ornaments and tools. The tomb was known as
the "eternal house," as in the Phoenician inscriptions and
in Ecclesiastes 12:5. A certain Zau, son of Zau, who
flourished under Pepi II of the Vlth dynasty, records
in his inscription: "Now, I caused that I should be
buried in the same tomb with this Zau, in order that I
might be with him in one place; not, however, because
I was not in a position to make a second tomb; but I
did this in order that I might see this Zau every day, in
order that I might be with him in one place." 28 The
prosperous saw to it that tombs were constructed for
themselves during their lifetimes; and if they failed to
complete the task, this was a solemn responsibility that
rested upon their sons. In order to secure maintenance
of their tombs and regular presentation of the necessary
offerings of food and drink, the rich were accustomed to
leave endowments in perpetuity. As early as the IVth
dynasty we find deeds recorded on the walls of tombs
conveying lands and whole villages of serfs to certain
guilds of priests on condition that they keep up the cult
of the donor on certain specified days. Such mortuary
endowments were often accompanied with curses upon
the person who should presume to violate the conditions
of the trust. Thus the deed of Amenhotep III of the
XVIIIth dynasty concludes with the words: "As for
the general and scribe of the army who shall follow
after me and shall find the &#-chapel beginning to decay,
M Records, i. 383.
1 68 SPIRITISM v
together with the male and female slaves who are culti-
vating the field for my endowment, and shall take away
a man therefrom in order to put him to any business
of Pharaoh, L. P. H., or any commission, may his body
be accursed." To similar effect Seti I of the XlXth
dynasty says: "As for anyone who shall avert the face
from the command of Osiris, Osiris shall pursue him, Isis
shall pursue his wife, Horus shall pursue his children,
among all the princes of the necropolis, and they shall
execute their judgment with him." 29
The aim was to make these endowments perpetual,
and to care for the tomb, the mummy, and the mortuary
offerings, as long as the world should endure; of course,
this hope was not realized. Endowments were usually
respected as long as the dynasty lasted under which they
were made, but when a new dynasty came to the throne
they were confiscated and the tombs were neglected.
There were, however, cases in which the trusts were kept.
The dark period of civil strife and decline that intervened
between the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom ob-
literated ancient trusts. When Egypt once more rose to
glory under the Xlth dynasty ( 2 1 60 B. C. ) , the tombs of
the first kings at Abydos and the pyramids of the later
kings were already in ruins. The endowments had lapsed,
the priests had departed, and the offerings to the dead
had ceased. A thousand years had elapsed since the first
of the great pyramids had been built, and five hundred
years since the last one, and this had been sufficient to
reduce them to a desolation similar to that which they
present today. The futility of these efforts to secure a
physical immortality impressed itself even upon poets
who lived four thousand years ago. In the so-called
"Song of the Harper" the bard laments:
"The gods who were of old,
Who rest in their tombs,
The mummies and the shades together,
"Records, ii. 925; iii. 194.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 169
Interred in their tombs,
Who built their sanctuaries,
Their place is no more.
What is it that has been done to them?
I have heard the words of Imhotep and of Hardedef,
Who were famous for their utterances.
What has becomes of their places?
Their walls are torn down,
Their place is no more,
As though they had never been." 30
Imhotep was the architect of the stepped pyramid of
Zoser of the Hid dynasty, and Hardedef was the son of
Khufu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid.
The tombs of these famous men had already disappeared
2000 B.C.
Numerous attempts were made by pious persons to
repair certain tombs. Thus a certain Intef, prince of
Hermonthis, during the Middle Kingdom boasts: "I
found the chamber of offerings of the prince Nekhti-
oker fallen down, its walls were old, all its statues were
broken, there was no one who heeded it. Thus it was re-
built, its site was enlarged, its statues were renewed, and
its door built of stone, so that his place surpassed that
of other noble princes." Such sporadic efforts were
useless, however, to check the ravages of time.
2. The Dead Dwell in an Underworld. — This was
the teaching of the religion of the god Osiris which
developed in pre-dynastic times in the Delta. Its origi-
nal seat was Dedu, in Greek times known as Busiris.
Before the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under the
rule of Menes (3400 B.C.) it had already spread into
the hostile southern kingdom, and had established itself
at Siut, and then at Abydos which subsequently became
its chief centre.
The Osirian religion taught that there was an Under-
world, into which the sun descended through the gate of
30 W. M. Mtiller, Die Liebespoesie der alien Agypter, Leipzig, 1899, p. 29.
i 7 o SPIRITISM v
the West, which he traversed during the night, and from
which he emerged in the East in the morning. This was
the abode of spirits of the dead. The belief is identical
with the Babylonian conception of Aralu (see chapter
vii), and with the Hebrew conception of Sheol (see chap-
ter ix) , and it is possible that its appearance in Egypt may
be due to Semitic influence. Similar beliefs, however,
have arisen independently in other parts of the world,
so that it may be a purely Egyptian development.
This region was known as Earn, 'the Field of Rushes.'
It was a counterpart of the Delta with its numerous
canals and reedy swamps. Here the dead tilled the soil,
as in life, and the wheat grew higher than their heads.
Another name was Amenti, 'the West.' Its inhabitants
were known as "Westerners," or "Children of the West."
To "go West" was a euphemism for death, a phrase that
has had a strange revival during the recent World-War.
Still another name was Dewat, the 'Nether World.' It
was pictured as a subterranean counterpart to Egypt, with
the river Nile flowing through the midst, and cliffs on
either side in whose caverns the shades dwelt as they
dwelt in their tombs on either side of the terrestrial Nile.
In the daytime this is a land of darkness and desolation;
but at night, when the sun descends into this world, "the
departed, who are in their halls, in their caverns, praise
the sun, their eyes are opened, their heart is full of felicity
when they behold the sun; they shout for joy when his
body is over them."
In order to reach the gate of the West through which
the sun and the spirits of the dead entered the Nether
World it was necessary to cross the sea. In order to
pass this there was need of the ferryman "Look Behind,"
or "Face Backward," so called because he poled his barge
facing backward like a Nile boatman. 31 With reference
31 Compare the Babylonian conception p. 217, and Charon's ferry across the
Styx.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 171
to this voyage "landing" and "mooring" were used as
euphemisms for death.
The ruler of the Underworld was Osiris, who bore the
title Khenti-Amentiu, "First of the Westerners." He
was a personification of the reproductive energy of nature
that snowed itself in the annual overflow of the Nile, in
the fertile soil that it deposited, and in the vegetation
that grew upon the soil. He died annually with the
ripening of the crops in summer, and came to life again
with theinundation of the autumn. The myth of Osiris has
come down to us completely only in the late Greek form
preserved by Plutarch in his treatise De hide et Osiride,
but nearly all the elements of this story can be traced
back as far as the Pyramid Texts. In ancient times he
reigned righteously and peacefully over the land of Egypt,
he taught the people agriculture, and gave them laws
and civilization. He was slain by his wicked brother Set,
and cast into the waters of the overflowing Nile, where
he drifted, according to Plutarch, as far as Byblos
(Gebal) in Phoenicia. His sister-wife Isis and his sister
Nephthys searched for him throughout the world, until
at last they found him, mourned over him, and embalmed
him. He was laid in a tomb in Abydos, and a sycamore
tree grew and enclosed his body. Then through inter-
course with his mummy, according to the oldest version
of the story in the Pyramid Texts, Isis conceived and
brought forth Horus, a personification of the Sun, who
through his radiance awakens the dead vegetation to new
life. When Horus grew up, he fought with Set to avenge
his father's death. He lost an eye in the conflict, but
finally overthrew his foe. By means of his torn-out eye
he roused the spirit of his father, and made him a ba.
Set was then tried before a tribunal of the gods, and
was convicted, while Osiris was vindicated. As a reward
of his virtue he received the sovereignty of the Under-
world. "He entered the secret gates in the splendid
172 SPIRITISM v
precincts of the lords of eternity, at the going down of
him who rises in the horizon, upon the ways of Re in the
Great Seat." 32
Osiris was thus a prototype of the experience of every
mortal. He was the "first born from the dead." Fol-
lowing his example, men also might hope to attain to
the spirit-life that he enjoyed in Hades. If the same
rites were performed for them that were performed for
him, the same magic words uttered, the same funereal
ceremonies observed, they would be as efficacious as they
had been in his case. Osiris thus became pre-eminently
the god of the dead; and the human elements of his cult,
his death, the mourning of his wife and his sister, the
self-sacrifice and filial devotion of his son, and his resur-
rection, appealed so strongly to the imagination, that al-
ready in pre-dynastic times he became the favourite god
of the common people throughout the whole of Egypt. In
process of time the worshipper was identified so com-
pletely with the god that his disembodied spirit was
addressed as Osiris. Through the proper sacramental
rites he had become one with Osiris, and shared in all
his post-mortem experiences. This conception of the ex-
istence of the dead in the Nether World is irreconcilable
with the more ancient belief that they live in the tomb,
but both beliefs flourished side by side throughout the
whole course of Egyptian history.
3. The Dead Live in the Sky. — This was the doctrine
of the Solar theology that had its chief centre at Heli-
opolis. Here the sun-god Re was the supreme divinity.
As early as the IVth dynasty his name appears as an
element in the names of the kings Dedef-Re, Khaf-Re,
Menku-Re. The pyramid was his sacred emblem, and
the tombs of the kings of this dynasty were, therefore,
pyramidal in form. From the Vth dynasty onward the
Pharaohs assumed the title "Son of Re," and claimed
82 For the later forms of the myth of Osiris and for its Oriental parallels see
J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, London, 1907.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 173
to be physically descended from the sun-god. For per-
sons of this celestial origin an abode in the Underworld
was inappropriate, hence the priests of Heliopolis de-
veloped the doctrine that the deceased monarch did not
enter the gloomy realm of Osiris, but joined his father
Re in the sky. This is the message of the Pyramid Texts.
The pyramid is adjured not to admit Osiris or any of
his company when they come "with an evil coming." To
the dead king it is said : "Thou lookest down upon Osiris
commanding the glorious dead. There thou standest,
being far from him; for thou art not of them (the dead),
thou belongest not among them." "Re has freed King
Teti from Kherti, he has not given him to Osiris." In
this theology the basis of the hope of resurrection is
not the revival of vegetation, as in the Osirian system,
but is the daily rising again of the sun from the death
into which he sinks during the night. "This King Pepi
lives as lives Re, who has entered the west of the sky,
when he rises in the east of the sky." The home of the
soul is no longer in the west where the sun goes down,
as in the Osirian theology, but in the east where the
sun rises.
In order to reach the abode of Re the deceased mon-
arch has to be ferried across the "Lily Lake" eastward,
just as those who go down to Dewat have to be ferried
westward. In case that the ferryman is unwilling to
carry him over, the king is provided by the Pyramid
Texts with all sorts of arguments and charms to compel
him; or if these are unsuccessful, he may cross on a pre-
historic catamaran, or may fly over like a wild goose.
Arrived on the eastern side, he finds the ladder on which
the sun-god climbs up from the horizon to the zenith.
Up this he ascends, supported on the arms of assisting
gods. At the zenith he finds the palace of his father
Re, whose gates open wide before him. Heralds an-
nounce his coming, and he is admitted to the fellowship
of his heavenly father. He becomes mystically one
i 7 4 SPIRITISM v
with Re, so that he himself is addressed as Re, and
shares in all the sun-god's experiences.
In the Pyramid Texts the solar hereafter is limited to
the king who has the blood of Re in his veins. The de-
scriptions of his beatification are found only in the royal
pyramids. The nobles of the Old Empire made no
use of these texts in their tombs. In the Middle Empire,
however, other persons besides the monarch began to
employ these liturgies, and the hope of a solar immor-
tality eventually became the possession of all Egyptians.
These three heterogeneous and irreconcilable concep-
tions of the future life, that it was spent in the Grave, in
the Underworld, and in the Sky, lasted side by side
down to the latest times, and mingled with one another
in the mortuary texts in the wildest confusion. Even
as early as the Pyramid Texts Osirian elements intruded
themselves into the Heliopolitan doctrine of the Solar
hereafter of the Pharaoh. The dead monarch is ad-
dressed as "Osiris, lord of Dewat." At the beginning of
sections he is called Osiris, King Unis, Osiris, King Pepi,
etc., although in the body of the utterances there is no
mention of Osiris or of his realm, but the contents are
entirely Solar. Some passages are found in the earliest
pyramids that are purely Solar, but in later pyramids
they have been Osirianised. Evidently the king wished
to take no chances in the future life. If any benefit
was to be derived from the Osirian ritual, he wished to
enjoy it in conjunction with that received from the Solar
ritual. The Pyramid Texts show as a whole the Solar
theology with a strong tincture of the Osirian. The
Coffin Texts of the Middle Empire, and the Book of the
Dead of the New Empire, on the contrary, show a
fundamentally Osirian doctrine with the intrusion of
numerous Solar elements. The one point of contact be-
tween the two systems is that the sun goes down into the
Underworld at night. On this small foundation rest all the
attempts that are made to combine theoretically the
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 175
Solar and the Osirian eschatologies. The primitive doc-
trine that the soul remains with the body in the tomb
persists both in the Solar and in the Osirian faiths and
in all combinations of the two. The only attempts at
harmonization are the picturing of the future life,
whether in Heaven or in Hades, in terms of the existence
of the mummy in the tomb. Order is never introduced
into the confusion, but the picture of the future life re-
mains to the end a wild, unorganized phantasmagoria.
g. Deification of the Dead. — From the earliest times
the Egyptian kings were deified during their lifetimes.
In no country of the world did emperor-worship attain
such a magnificent and consistent development as in
Egypt. The cults of living kings in Babylonia, among
the Greeks in the Seleucid period, and in Rome, were
but feeble imitations of the Egyptian model. Already in
the Old Empire the King was regarded as the physical
off-spring of the sun-god. The only distinction between
him and the other gods was that they were called "great
god," while he was called "good god." The noble of
the period spoke of himself as "beloved of his god,"
meaning the Pharaoh. The king was regarded as an
incarnation of the sun-god on earth. His palace was
called the "horizon," when he appeared in public he was
said to "rise," and when he died he was said to "set";
but he had no temples dedicated to him, and received no
sacrifices at the hands of priests, at least in the early
period.
In foreign countries, however, that were conquered by
Egypt, such as Nubia and Syria, temples were built to
him alongside of his father Re, and a regular sacrificial
cult was kept up. In the famous Tell el-Amarna letters,
that were written by kings in Canaan to the Egyptian
kings Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV about 1400
B.C., we learn that the image of the Pharaoh was set
up in certain cities together with that of Amon-Re; and
that on stated occasions the Syrian princes were required
176 SPIRITISM v
to pay homage to it. The writers of these letters address
the king as "my lord, the lord of the lands, my father,
my sun, the sun of heaven, the sun of the lands, my god,
the breath of my life." The worship of the king seems
to have consisted chiefly in the burning of incense; hence
when a beleaguered town wished to surrender, it signi-
fied this by holding up a lighted censer on its battlements. 33
These deified monarchs naturally remained deities after
death, and even rose to the higher rank of "great god"
by becoming one with Re or Osiris. The cult of ancient
kings is mentioned repeatedly in the inscriptions of their
successors. A text of Sesostris III of the Xllth dynasty
at Mount Sinai reads: "Ameni, favourite of Hathor,
mistress of the malachite country, of Soped, lord of the
East, of Snefru, lord of the highlands, and of the gods
and goddesses who are in this land." Here King Snefru
of the Hid dynasty, one of the earliest monarchs to mine
copper at Sinai, is regarded as a god of the region on an
equal footing with Hathor and Soped. He appears in the
same capacity in an inscription of Amenemhet III of the
Xllth dynasty. 34
Besides the kings, ancient worthies who were distin-
guished for their wisdom or for their virtue were deified
by posterity. Among these was Imhotep, the architect
of King Zoser of the Hid dynasty, who was famous also
as a physician. His tomb near the step-pyramid of his
royal master at Sakkara was early visited by the sick
who sought healing from him. In Greek times a temple
was built on this site, and a complete cult was instituted
in honour of the sage. The priests regarded him as
a son of Ptah, and the Greeks identified him with
Asklepios, their god of healing. His worship spread over
all Egypt, even as far as the island of Philae on the
Nubian frontier. 35 Another deified hero was Amenhotep,
son of Hapi, who flourished under Amenhotep III of
"See Breasted, Records, ii. 893-8; iii. 173, 502, 504.
"Ibid., i. 722.
*• See K. Sethe, Imhotep der Asklepios der Aegypter, Leipzig, 1902.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 177
the XVIIIth dynasty. He was a descendant of the an-
cient nomarchs of Athribis, and held the office of chief
prophet of that district. He filled high positions under
the king and left a number of mortuary inscriptions.
He lived over eighty years, and became so famous for
his wisdom that an inscription on the temple of Der
el-Medineh at Thebes says of him: "His name shall
abide forever, his sayings shall not perish." In the time
of the Greek king Ptolemy Euergetes II he was wor-
shipped as a god, and the Egyptian historian Manetho,
as quoted by Josephus, 36 says of him: "He seemed
to partake of a divine nature, both as to wis-
dom and knowledge of the future." In the case of both
these heroes the first clear evidence of their worship
comes from the Greek period, still this was probably
only a survival of ancient custom. 37
Even ordinary mortals in course of time came to be
identified with Osiris or with Re at death, and therefore
were entitled to divine homage at least on the part of
their descendants. Children and children's children unto
the third and fourth generation felt it incumbent upon
them to care for the tombs and to keep up the offerings
to the forefathers. The princes of Hermopolis under
the Xllth dynasty restored the tombs of ancestors who
had lived six hundred years earlier, and recorded their
filial piety as follows: "He made it as a monument for
his fathers, who are in the necropolis, the lords of the
promontory; restoring what was found in ruin and re-
newing what was found decayed, the ancestors who were
before not having done it." 38 Ancestor-homage never
attained the proportions in Egypt that it did in China
because it was overshadowed by the cult of the great
gods, still it held its own as an important part of the
national religion down to the latest times. The rites
36 Against Apion, i. 26.
87 See Breasted, Records, ii. 911-927.
38 Ibid., i. 689.
178 SPIRITISM v
that are described in the following paragraphs are evi-
dence of the deification of the dead.
/;. Preparation of the Corpse for Burial. — Recent
excavations have shown that in the pre-dynastic period
the Egyptians took no such elaborate care of the bodies
of the dead as was the custom in later times. They were
usually buried without covering or coffin, rarely with
a skin or linen wrapping. They were placed in the so-
called "embryonic" position, with the knees drawn up
closely under the chin, lying on the right side, with
the head turned toward the north, and the face toward
the east, the region of the rising sun.
This lasted under the Thinite kings of the first two
dynasties, but under the pyramid-builders of the Old
Kingdom the practice of embalming came into general
use. The entrails were removed, and were placed in four
so-called "canopic" jars, whose covers were respectively
the head of a man, of an ape, of a jackal, and of a hawk,
representing four genii, the children of Horus, who
guarded the dead. The body was soaked in salt water,
and was dipped in bitumen. The abdominal cavity was
stuffed with cloths saturated with various preservative
substances. The body was then wrapped in numerous
bandages, and the process of mummification was com-
plete. Embalming varied all the way from the simplest
pickling in the case of the poor to the long and expensive
treatment that was bestowed upon kings and nobles.
Sebni, a noble who lived under Pepi II of the Vlth
dynasty (c. 2500 B.C.), records how his father, Mekhu,
perished in an expedition against Nubia; how he set out
with troops and with one hundred asses loaded with gifts
in order to secure his father's body for embalmment. He
succeeded in pacifying the country and in rescuing the
body. As he was coming down the river, he was met
by an official who brought "embalmers, the chief ritual
priest, . . . the mourners and all offerings of the
White House. He brought festival oil from the double
V SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 179
White House, and secret things from the double w'bt
house, . . . from the 'h' house, clothing of the double
White House, and all the burial equipment which is
issued from the court, like the issuance for the hereditary
prince, Meru." 39 It was the custom of the kings to
make gifts for embalming to deserving subjects. A certain
Zau records that at the death of his father Pepi II "be-
stowed a coffin, clothing, and festival perfume for this
Zau. His majesty caused that the custodian of the royal
domain should bring a coffin of wood, festival perfume,
sft-oll, two hundred pieces of prime linen, and of fine
southern linen, taken from the double White House of
the court for this Zau." 40
From this time onward embalming continued to be
the custom until the triumph of Christianity in Egypt.
Mummies are frequently mentioned in the inscriptions,
and the Old Testament narrates how the bodies of Jacob
and of Joseph were embalmed in Egypt in order that
they might be carried to Canaan. 41
Thousands of mummies of kings, of nobles, and of
private citizens of all periods have lasted down to the
present time, and are preserved in the museums of Egypt,
Europe, and America. During the unsettled period of
the XXIst dynasty when the decline of Egypt had begun,
the authorities were no longer able to protect the tombs
of the ancient Pharaohs, and they were frequently rifled.
To prevent further desecration the mummies of the great
kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties were
removed from their resting places, and were secreted
in a rocky cleft near Der el-Bahri. Here they were
discovered in 1871 by modern tomb-robbers, who man-
aged to keep their secret from the Government until
1 88 1, when they were tracked, and the royal mummies
were discovered and placed in the museum at Cairo.
Here one may now look upon the face of Thutmose III,
39 Breasted, Records, i. 370
« Ibid., i. 382.
"Genesis, 50:1-3, 13, 26; Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32.
180 SPIRITISM v
the Asiatic conqueror (1500 B.C.); Thutmose IV, his
grandson; Seti I, of the XlXth dynasty; Ramses II, his
son, the Pharaoh who oppressed the children of Israel.
At the various times when these mummies were trans-
ferred from one hiding-place to another, inscriptions were
placed upon them by the later kings who attended to the
business. Thus the mummies of Ahmose I, Amenhotep
I, Thutmose II, Seti I, Ramses II, and Ramses III all
bear dockets of Paynozem I, Menkhepperre, or Payno-
zem II of the XXIst dynasty. 42
Enclosed in the wrappings of the mummies was the
most costly jewelry. Specimens that have been recov-
ered from the Middle Kingdom show an excellence
of workmanship that has scarcely been surpassed in
modern times. Among the treasures of the Cairo Museum
are the ornaments of the princess Sit-Hathor (Xllth
dynasty), princess Khnumet, and princess Ita. The
largest and most extraordinary collection was found with
the mummy of Queen Ahhotep, the mother of Ahmose
I. 43 The confession of a tomb-robber under the XXth
dynasty states: "We found the august mummy of this
king There was a numerous list of amulets and
ornaments of gold at its throat; its head had a mask
of gold upon it; the august mummy of this king was over-
laid with gold throughout. Its coverings were wrought
with gold and silver, within and without; inlaid with
every splendid costly stone. We stripped off the gold
which we found on the august mummy of this god, and
its amulets and ornaments which were at its throat, and
the coverings wherein it rested."
Herodotus, ii. 86-88, gives an elaborate account of
embalming as it was practised in Egypt in his day (484-
424 B.C.). He says that there was a professional
class of embalmers who prepared first, second, or third
class mummies according to the price paid. "The mode
"Breasted, Records, iv. 637-642, 644-647, 663-668.
43 Baedeker, Egypt,'' pp. 82-83.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 181
of embalming according to the most perfect process is
the following: — They take first a crooked piece of iron,
and with it draw out the brain through the nostrils, thus
getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the
rest by rinsing with drugs ; next they make a cut along the
flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole
contents of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, wash-
ing it thoroughly with palm-wine, and again frequently
with an infusion of pounded aromatics. After this they
fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia,
and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and
sew up the opening. Then the body is placed in natrum
for seventy days and covered entirely over. After the
expiration of that space of time, which must not be ex-
ceeded, the body is washed, and wrapped round from
head to foot with bandages of fine linen cloth smeared
over with gum, which is used generally by the Egyptians
in the place of glue. . . . Such is the most costly way
of embalming the dead." He then goes on to describe
the second and the third class methods of embalmment.
In all probability this method had been transmitted with
punctilious exactness from high antiquity. The pro-
cesses of manufacturing and of transporting mummies as
depicted in the reliefs on the tombs may be seen in Wilkin-
son's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,
vol. iii. chap. xvi.
The process of mummification was accompanied at
every point with recitation of ritual texts for the benefit
of the spirit of the deceased. Inscriptions of the Old
Kingdom mention along with the embalmers the chief
ritual priest and two subordinate classes of religious func-
tionaries whose duties are not clearly understood. The
ritual of embalming has come down to us only in a late
form. Apparently the priests impersonated the gods
who embalmed the body of Osiris, and the texts recited
affirmed the identity of the departed with Osiris.
In the Old Kingdom it was customary to enclose the
1 82 SPIRITISM v
mummy in a wooden coffin within a stone sarcophagus.
This was generally a simple polished chest with a flat
cover; or else, probably in imitation of the coffin of Osiris,
it had four corner posts and a dome-shaped cover. Some-
times it was decorated to represent a tomb of the earliest
period with a number of doors. Opposite the face of the
mummy a pair of eyes was often painted so as to enable
it to behold the rising sun. The tomb inscription of
Weshptah, who flourished under Neferirkere of the Vth
dynasty, states that the king presented him with an ebony
coffin. Hotephiryakhet under the next monarch states
that the king honoured him with a stone sarcophagus.
Nezemib a little later also received a sarcophagus, and
a relief that accompanies the inscription shows the heavy
sarcophagus and its lid being transported across the river
on a barge. Uni, a servant of Mernere of the Vlth
dynasty, narrates: "His majesty sent me to Ibhet, to
bring the sarcophagus (named) 'Chest of the Living,'
together with its lid and the costly, splendid pyramidion
for the pyramid (called) 'Mernere Shines and is Beauti-
ful' of the Queen." 44
In the Middle Kingdom the coffins were elaborately
decorated with paint, and the insides were covered with
religious texts similar to the Pyramid Texts designed
to facilitate the entrance of the deceased into the other
world. Before the coffins were put together the boards
were hastily and carelessly covered by a scribe with a selec-
tion of passages furnished by the local priests. Chap-
ters were often repeated, and in one case the same chapter
is found five times in a single coffin. The chief thought
seems to have been to cover the surface with some sort
of a religious text. Among these are passages taken
from the Pyramid Texts which originally were intended
only for the king, but were now applied also to the aris-
tocracy. Other passages were taken from more popular
Osirian funerary rituals, and were the forerunners of the
" Breasted, Records, i. 247, 253, 27Sf., 321.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 183
material that subsequently made up the Book of the Dead.
No two coffins agree in the selections that are made and
new texts are constantly being discovered. 45
In the New Empire the fashion arose of shaping the
outer sarcophagus in the form of a mummy. The
face was shown, and was sometimes a portrait of the
deceased. It was decorated with imitation bandages in
the form of lattice work, and the intervening spaces were
filled with pictures of the gods, scenes from the other
world, and fragments of texts. Some of the earlier
mummy-cases look as if they were wrapped in wings.
The symbolism refers to the myth of Isis who enveloped
the dead Osiris with her wings. These mummy-cases
were manufactured by the wholesale, and spaces were
left on them to be filled in with the name of the deceased.
In a number of cases the undertakers have neglected to
fill up this space.
i. Graves and Tombs. — The graves of the common
people in the pre-dynastic period were simple shallow
trenches in which the body was placed in the "embryonic"
position, lying on its side with its face toward the east.
The trench was filled in with sand, and a small heap of
sand and stones was reared over it. Care was taken to
place graves above the annual inundation of the Nile,
and a preference was shown for the west bank of the
river, the region in which the sun went down into the
Underworld; hence the name "Westerners" for the dead.
Ancient cemeteries are found all along the edge of the
desert in Upper Egypt, and thousands of these prehis-
toric sepulchres have been excavated in recent years.
Slightly more elaborate forms of burial are to roof the
grave over with branches, to invert a large pottery bowl
over the body, to place it inside of a jar, or to line the
tomb with brick and place a flat stone slab over it. A
still finer method was to sink a short shaft in the rock,
" A large collection of these so-called "Coffin Texts" has been published by
Lacau, Textes religieux, Recueil de travaux, vol. 26 sq.
1 84 SPIRITISM v
excavate a small chamber in one side for the body, wall
up the opening, fill the shaft with rocks, and build a
tumulus over it.
Out of the tumulus the mastaba was developed. It
was a truncated pyramid of brick through which the
tomb-shaft ran up to the top. After the body had been
deposited in the burial chamber at the bottom this was
filled up with stones and sealed. On the eastern side
was a false door without any opening through which the
spirit passed out and in. In front of this was a shelf
or table for receiving offerings that were brought by the
descendants of the deceased. A further development
of the mastaba was the construction within of a doorless
chamber for the portrait-statue of the owner of the tomb,
and a chapel for the presentation of offerings instead of
the primitive shelf. The mastaba of Menes, the first
historic king, contained a central chamber for the body
of the king, surrounded by four other chambers. The
nobles of the Old Kingdom continued to enlarge the
mastabas until they became veritable houses with apart-
ments for every purpose. The tomb of one official of the
Vlth dynasty had as many as thirty-one rooms. The
evident idea was to provide the dead man with a palace
such as he had occupied during his life.
When the mastabas, which at first were only royal
tombs, began to become popular among the nobles, the
Pharaohs commenced constructing pyramids for them-
selves. The first known pyramid is the step-pyramid
of Zoser of the Hid dynasty (2980 B.C.) at Sakkara.
It marks the transition architecturally from the mastaba
to the true pyramid, and is the first royal tomb to be built
of stone. Beginning with a mastaba of the usual type, he
gradually enlarged this as his reign went on, until at the
end he had a structure like a ziggurat of ancient Babylonia
in six stages with a height of one hundred and ninety-five
feet. This is the first great architectural undertaking
in stone that is recorded by history. The later kings of
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 185
the Hid dynasty probably constructed the stone pyramids
of Dahshur, which are the earliest specimens of this type
of architecture. They bear witness to the wealth and
power as well as the engineering skill of this dynasty.
Snefru, the last monarch of the Hid dynasty, probably
built the terraced pyramid at Medum, and also the pyra-
mid with a double slope at Dahshur.
Khufu, the founder of the IVth dynasty (c. 2800
B.C.), the Cheops of the Greeks, was the builder of the
Great Pyramid of Gizeh near Cairo, the largest struc-
ture ever reared by the hand of man. Originally this
covered an area of about thirteen acres. The length
of each side was about 755 feet. The height was about
481 feet. The altitude of each sloping side was about
619 feet. It contained originally about 3,277,000 cubic
yards of masonry. Professor Flinders Petrie estimates
that there are in it 2,300,000 separate blocks of stone,
each containing 40 cubic feet. These blocks, which rise
like giant steps, are about three feet in height. The whole
was covered with a casing of dressed stones fitted together
so closely that a knife-blade could not be inserted between
the joints. Herodotus, ii. I24f., describes the building
of this colossal edifice. "He closed the temples, and for-
bade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice, compelling them
instead to labour, one and all, in his service. Some were
required to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile, from
the quarries in the Arabian range of hills; others received
the blocks after they had been conveyed in boats across
the river, and drew them to the range of hills called
the Libyan. A hundred thousand men laboured con-
stantly, and were relieved every three months by a fresh
lot. It took ten years oppression of the people to make
the causeway for the conveyance of the stones, a work
not much inferior, in my judgment, to the pyramid itself.
This causeway is five furlongs in length, ten fathoms
wide, and in height, at the highest part, eight fathoms.
It is built of polished stone, and is covered with carvings
1 86 SPIRITISM v
of animals. It took ten years to make the causeway, the
works on the mound where the pyramid stands, and the
underground chambers, which Cheops intended as vaults
for his own use. These last were built on a sort of island,
surrounded by water introduced from the Nile by a
canal. The Pyramid itself was twenty years in build-
ing." These traditions which Herodotus gathered from
the Egyptians bear witness to the awful cost of human
labour and suffering at which these "eternal habitations"
of the ancient Pharaohs were built.
The two other pyramids at Gizeh, which are smaller
than that of Khufu, were erected by Khafre and Men-
kure, later kings of the same dynasty. The kings of the Vth
and of the Vlth dynasties also reared pyramids, less mag-
nificent than those of their predecessors, but still extra-
ordinarily great. In spite of the five thousand years
that have elapsed since the first of these was built, and
all the depredations of succeeding generations, the
pyramids of the Old Kingdom still stand in a line sixty
miles long on the margin of the western desert as awe-
inspiring as when they were first erected, the monuments
of a titanic effort to conquer death by securing an eternal
preservation of the body.
This form of architecture was chosen by the kings
probably because the pyramid was the emblem of their
father Re, the sun-god. In his sanctuary at Heliopolis
the most sacred object was an ancient pyramidal fetish
stone called the ben. The pyramidal tops of obelisks
were also solar emblems. It was fitting that the dead
Pharaoh, who looked for a solar immortality, should lie
in a tomb that was itself a symbol of the sun-god, and
whose top stone was a pyramidion of special sanctity.
Architecturally the pyramid was nothing more than an
evolution of the primitive tumulus. It contained merely
the burial chamber hidden in its depths, access to which
was closed by huge blocks of stone as soon as the body
was placed within it, while false passages were constructed
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 187
to lead astray would-be intruders. There was no mor-
tuary chapel in the pyramid itself. Instead of this a
temple was erected on the east side of the pyramid, where
there was a false door before which offerings were
presented, and through which the spirit of the royal
dead could pass. From this temple a long causeway
led to the Nile, with another temple at its eastern end.
The sepulchral chamber and passages of the older
pyramids were unadorned, but under the Vth and Vlth
dynasties they were inscribed with the so-called Pyramid
Texts. 46 These contain myths of the gods, hymns, and
other fragments of extremely ancient ritual, magical
charms to rouse the spirit of the dead and to give it
vitality in the other world, a ritual of mummification
and of burial, a ritual for the presentation of offerings
at the tomb pyramid, and collections of prayers to the
gods on behalf of the dead. The material is divided
into sections, each introduced with the formula, "Recite
the words." The pyramid of Unis contains two hun-
dred and twenty-eight of these utterances. The later
pyramids bring the number up to seven hundred and four-
teen. In the printed edition of Sethe they fill a thousand
and fifty-one quarto pages. Their purpose was to facili-
tate the attainment of solar immortality by the dead
Pharaoh.
The Old Kingdom ended in ruin and civil strife, in-
duced perhaps by the exactions of the monarchs for
building these costly tombs. When, three hundred years
later, the nation revived under the Xlth dynasty (2160
B.C.), no attempt was made to rival the efforts of the
past. The kings of this dynasty left small pyramids of
sun-dried bricks on the edge of the desert west of Thebes.
They were still in good condition in the time of Ramses
IX of the XXth dynasty when they were entered by tomb-
robbers, but they have disappeared at present. The
great kings of the Xllth dynasty contented themselves
" See p. 1S3.
1 88 SPIRITISM v
also with modest brick pyramids, all of which show the
most elaborate devices of false passages and trap-doors
designed to frustrate the efforts of tomb-robbers. These
pyramids still extend from the entrance of the Fayum as
far as Memphis, but all are in a very ruinous condition.
Around the pyramid of the sovereign were grouped
the mastabas of his nobles and of the royal princes and
princesses. These lay in regular lines on streets, and
formed a veritable city of the dead. The necropolis was
in charge of an army of mortuary priests, custodians, and
workmen, the so-called "children of the cemetery."
During the Middle Kingdom the nobles began to aban-
don the mastaba tomb and to hew out sepulchres for
themselves in the cliffs that wall in the Nile valley. The
finest of these are at Benihasan in Middle Egypt. 47
The architectural features of these tombs are as follows:
first, a court open to the sky in front of the tomb, then
a vestibule cut out of the solid rock with pillars supporting
the roof, behind this a large hall, also excavated out of
the rock, and also having its ceiling supported by pillars,
and back of this a small chamber for the statue of the
owner. The sepulchral chamber was reached by a shaft
from the hall of columns. The walls of the tomb were
decorated with scenes from domestic life and with in-
scriptions recounting the life of the deceased. 48
During the New Empire the kings abandoned the
pyramids and adopted the rock-tombs of the nobles of
the Middle Kingdom. These hypogaea differed consider-
ably, however, from the older type. A long passage
through the rock led to a series of chambers, and beyond
these, or beneath them with a concealed entrance, was the
"gold house" in which the sarcophagus was placed that
contained the royal mummy. All the mighty rulers of
the XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth dynasties were buried in
such rock-tombs excavated in a narrow mountain gorge
47 See Baedeker, Egypt? p. 197.
14 S<.e Newberry, Bini Hasan; Breasted, Records, i. 619 sq.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 189
west of Thebes now known as Biban el-Muliik. The walls
of the chambers were no longer covered exclusively with
domestic scenes, as in the earlier rock-tombs, but also
with religious ritual similar to the Coffin Texts. 49 The
mortuary chapels were no longer connected with the
tombs but were developed into splendid temples on the
other side of the mountain at Der el-Bahri or in the plain.
Several private tombs have successfully eluded discovery
down to recent times, and have been found by archaeol-
ogists with all their treasures intact.
;'. Deposits in Tombs. — In the pre-dynastic period
there were buried with the dead jars and bowls of food
and drink that he might not hunger in the other world,
flint knives and harpoons so that he might hunt and de-
fend himself, clothing and ornaments, slate palettes for
grinding green malachite face-paint, a bag for holding the
pieces of malachite, and even a draught-board for his
amusement. Already at this early period models were
deposited in graves instead of real articles, the idea
being that they were magically converted into the spiritual
counterparts needed by the deceased. Thus we find
models of boats, of cattle, of hippopotami, of servants,
and of steatopygous women gaily painted, presumably
the Houris of the other world. 50
The chambers of the royal mastabas of the 1st dynasty
were furnished with couches of ivory, inlaid and carved
tables and chairs of the most artistic workmanship, and
marvellous jars made of the hardest stone worked out
with stone tools until their walls were as thin and trans-
lucent as glass. There were also stores of food of all
sorts, and jars of beer and of wine sufficient to last the
spirit of the dead king for many days. A large memorial
stone bearing in huge hieroglyphics the name of the king
was also set up in the tomb. In small chambers around
the monarch were buried the bodies of his wives, his
49 See Baedeker, Egypt,* pp. 262, sq.
60 See p. 48f.
1 9 o SPIRITISM v
guards, his dwarfs, and even his dogs, with small tablets
bearing their names. The suspicion is strong that, as
among so many other primitive peoples, these were slain
in order to accompany their lord into the spirit-world.
The same intellectual processes which in China led to
the substitution of imitations instead of real gifts to the
dead, led also in Egypt to the gradual disappearance of
tomb-deposits. In the mastabas of nobles of the Old
Kingdom contemporary with the great pyramids of the
Hid to the Vlth dynasties the food-dishes were reduced to
tiny conventional substitutes; and in place of the costly
furniture and provisions, the walls were decorated with
pictures of the things that the deceased might need in
the future life. By "sympathetic magic" these pictures
produced the corresponding spiritual equivalents. They
showed the noble in a skill with his wife, hunting wild
fowl with a boomerang, or spearing a hippopotamus with
a harpoon. Peasants tilled the fields with yokes of oxen,
reaped the grain and threshed it. Cattle were brought
in herds and were butchered. Women ground the wheat
into flour, made bread and baked it, and prepared all the
other dishes for the noble's table. All the scenes of a
busy agricultural and commercial civilization were rep-
resented, and these pictures form an inexhaustible mine
of information in regard to the life of the Old Kingdom.
By these means the noble hoped to secure the same crea-
ture-comforts in eternity that he had enjoyed in time.
He could take nothing out of the world, but by this simple
process he provided himself with a letter of credit that
was negotiable in the "land of no return." This same
custom continued in the mastabas and rock-tombs of the
Middle Kingdom.
In tombs of the New Empire, as we have seen, these
pictures of daily life are replaced by religious texts and
scenes from the Underworld. These form the so-called
"Book of Him Who is in the Nether World." This
describes the journey of the sun-god through twelve cav-
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 191
erns of Hades which correspond to the twelve hours
of the night. It tells of the monsters and perils that
are there to be encountered, and how they may be escaped
by the judicious use of magical formulas so that one may
complete the journey with the sun-god and rise with him
in newness of life in the East. The material is similar
to that of the Coffin Texts and to that found in the
papyrus rolls containing the Book of the Dead. 51
Even under the New Empire the burial of food and
furniture with the dead did not cease. The tombs of
Yuya and Thuya, the parents of Tiy, the queen of Amen-
hotep III, which were discovered untouched by Mr.
Theodore M. Davis of Newport, R. I., in 1905, con-
tained sumptuous furniture of all sorts. The same was
true of the untouched tomb of Amenhotep II. The ac-
counts of tomb-robberies under the XXth dynasty also
report that the thieves "had stolen their articles of house-
furniture which had been given them."
A curious survival of the ancient custom of burying
models of persons and things with the dead is seen in
the so-called ushebtis, little glazed pottery figures that
have been found in vast numbers in tombs of the New
Empire. These are mostly in mummy form, and carry
sacks and hoes, or other tools, over their shoulders. The
inscription on them reads: "O, thou ushebti, when I am
called, and when I am required to do any kind of work
which is done in Hades . . . and when I am required
at any time to cause the fields to flourish, to irrigate the
banks, to convey sand from the east to the west, thou
shalt say, Here am I." These figures are mentioned in
the Book of the Dead in the chapter entitled "Causing
that the Ushebti Do the Work of a Man in Dewat." The
idea evidently was that King Osiris might call upon his
subjects to work in the Elysian Fields. The aristocrat,
who had no taste for this sort of labour, provided for the
emergency by having great numbers of ushebtis on hand
H See G. J£quier, Le livre de ce qu'il y a dans VHades, Paris, 1894.
192 SPIRITISM v
who through the power of the magic formula inscribed
upon them would take his place when they were sum-
moned.
Another peculiarity of the mortuary customs of the
New Empire was the burial of numerous amulets and
other magical objects with the deceased. One of these
was the "Horus-eye," an imitation in blue or green enamel
or in precious stone of the plucked-out eye of Horus with
which he had resuscitated his father Osiris. Another was
the so-called heart-scarab, which was designed to take
the place of the heart of the dead man when it was
weighed in the judgment before Osiris. These scarabs
were inscribed with the words: "O heart that I have
from my mother! O heart that belongs to my spirit!
Do not appear against me as a witness, do not oppose me
before the judges, do not contradict me before him who
governs the balance." Still another magical object was
the small stone pyramid that was frequently placed in
tombs of the New Empire. It was made with two doors
on opposite sides, in which the deceased was represented
adoring the rising and the setting sun. Through this
solar emblem it was hoped that the soul would be united
with the sun-god in his rising as well as in his setting.
Besides these there were pectorals placed on the breast
of the mummy, sceptres, crowns, head-dresses of the gods,
head-rests, squares, levels, staircases, etc. A late text
enumerates one hundred and four articles of this sort
that are necessary for the repose of the soul. 52
Of similar character were the papyrus rolls containing
magical texts that during this period were deposited with
the dead. The rolls contained a few fragments of the
Pyramid Texts, large selections from the Coffin Texts,
and additional material from other sources. There was
no standard edition in this period, but the scribes made
at pleasure excerpts from the sources at their disposal.
Some rolls were eighty feet long, and contained one
* 2 See Erman, Religion, pp. 140-147.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 193
hundred and thirty chapters; others were small, and con-
tained only the most important chapters. These con-
stituted the so-called Book of the Dead. It was a sort
of guide-book to the Underworld, and contained the
charms that were necessary to bring one safely through
the perils of that realm. The liner rolls were magnifi-
cently illustrated with coloured vignettes depicting scenes
in Hades. These help to explain the obscure text, and
are a rich mine of information in regard to the mythologi-
cal conceptions of the ancient Egyptians.
The wealth that was buried with the dead in all periods
was a constant temptation to rob graves, in spite of the
heavy legal penalties and the terrors of religion. Most
of the tombs of the Old Kingdom were violated during
the period of disorder that followed the Vlth dynasty;
those of the Middle Kingdom, during the period of the
Hyksos; and those of the New Kingdom, during the de-
cline that followed the XXth dynasty. Sporadic robbery
went on all the time, so that it is a rare event when an
unviolated tomb is discovered by an archaeologist. Even
the Pharaohs Ramses II and Merneptah did not scruple
to steal the mortuary furniture of their predecessors.
Under Ramses IX of the XXth dynasty there was an
epidemic of robberies at the royal tombs in the necrop-
olis of Thebes, in which even officials of the Government
were involved. The Papyrus Abbott contains a record
of the royal investigations and legal proceedings at this
time. After a detailed report of individual tombs ex-
amined, there follows this summary: "These are the
tombs and sepulchres in which the nobles, the . . ., the
Theban women, and the people of the land rest, on the
west of the city; it was found that the thieves had broken
into them all, that they had pulled out their occupants
from their coverings and coffins, they (the occupants) be-
ing thrown upon the ground; and that they had stolen
their articles of house-furniture, which had been given
them, together with the gold, the silver, and the orna-
i 94 SPIRITISM V
merits which were in their coverings." 53 The culprits were
found and were punished at this time, but the tomb-rob-
beries continued, and the Government was powerless to
prevent them. It was this miserable state of affairs that
led to the removal of the royal mummies from their tombs
and concealment in the rock cleft near Der el-Bahri, where
they were found in 1 88 1 .
k. Shrines for the Cult of the Dead. — The earliest
holy place was the grave itself on which offerings were
laid and ceremonies were performed. The next stage
of development was a shelf in front of the false door
of the mastaba on which gifts for the occupant of the
tomb were placed. A further evolution carried the false
door back into the interior of the tomb so as to leave
a small mortuary chapel in front of it. Still later the
chapel was separated from the tomb in the form of an
independent edifice built against the east side, as was the
case in the royal pyramids. The final stage of the de-
velopment was the erection of a mortuary temple at
some distance from the tomb, as was the practice of the
Pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The temples in front
of the great pyramids of Gizeh were no less remarkable
than the pyramids themselves, if we may judge from the
scanty remains that excavation has disclosed. The
kings of the Middle Empire, in proportion as they de-
creased the size of their pyramids, increased the magnifi-
cence of their mortuary temples. The nobles of the same
period, who constructed the rock-tombs, had, besides the
chapels in these tombs, also mortuary chapels in their
native towns for the easier celebration of the rites of their
worship.
Amenhotep I of the XVIIIth dynasty was the last king
to construct a mortuary chapel in front of his tomb. His
successors, in order to escape desecration of their graves,
concealed them in the Biban el-Muluk near Thebes on
the west side of the cliffs that enclose the Nile valley,
53 Breasted, Records, iv. 499-556.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 195
at a distance of two miles from the river, and accessible
only by a circuitous path. The temples for their worship
were erected in the plain on the east side of the mountain.
Thus the orientation of the ancient tombs was preserved,
although a long distance separated the grave from the
sanctuary. The magnificent unfinished temple of Queen
Hatshepsut at Der el-Bahri opposite Thebes, the finest
of all the cliff-temples of Egypt, was built for the post-
humous cult of the Queen and of her father. The walls
were decorated with scenes from the life and the expedi-
tions of the only female Pharaoh. 54 All the temples
that cover the plain on the west side of the river opposite
Thebes (Luxor) were designed for the worship of de-
ceased monarchs of the XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth
dynasties. They are as splendid as any of the temples
that were erected for the gods.
/. Mourning for the Dead. — The rites of embalm-
ment and of burial were attended with an elaborate ritual
of mourning. Thus the Tale of Sinuhe, a noble who
flourished under Amenemhat I of the Xllth dynasty,
narrates:
"In year thirty, second month of first season, seventh day,
Departed the god (Pharaoh) into his horizon,
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sehetepibre.
He ascended to heaven, joined with the sun;
The divine limbs were mingled with him that begat him.
In the court silence. . . .
The great double doors were closed,
The court sat in mourning,
The people bowed down in silence."
in the case of Kheti, a noble under the Xth dynasty,
it is recorded after his death: "Then mourned the king
himself, all Middle Egypt, and the Northland." 56 Gen.
50:3, 10 narrate that the Egyptians mourned seventy
" See Baedeker, Egypt, 6 pp. 278-283.
66 Breasted, Records, i. 491.
"Ibid., i. 414.
196 SPIRITISM v
days for Jacob after his death, and seven days at the time
of his burial.
An important part of the mourning was the recitation
of formal laments. The model for these was the la-
ment of Isis over Osiris, a late form of which has come
down to us. Part of this reads as follows: "Come to
thy house, come to thy house, O god On ! Come to thy
house, thou who hast no enemies! O beautiful stripling,
come to thy house that thou mayest see me ! I am thy
sister whom thou lovest; thou shalt not abandon me. O
beauteous youth, come to thy house. ... I see thee not
and my heart fears for thee, mine eyes long for thee. . . .
Come to her who loves thee, who loves thee, Wennofre,
thou blessed one ! Come to thy sister, come to thy wife,
thy wife, thou whose heart is still ! Come to her who is
mistress of thy house ! I am thy sister, born of the same
mother, thou shalt not be far &om me. Gods and men
turn their faces toward thee, and together they bewail
thee. ... I call to thee and weep, so that it is heard
even to heaven, but thou dost not hear my voice, and
yet I am thy sister whom thou lovedst upon earth ! Thou
lovedst none besides me, my brother, my brother!" 57
A lament sung by the Theban women as the boat
floated across the Nile bearing the mummy to its last rest-
ing-place in the great necropolis called "Place of Beauty"
ran as follows :
"Turn to the West, to the Land of the Righteous!
The wives in the boat weep bitterly, bitterly.
In peace, in peace to the West,
O praised one, come in peace !
When the day shall dawn to Eternity,
Then shall we see thee again." 58
As in other Oriental lands, the family was assisted in
these laments by professional mourning men and mourn-
ing women. 59
67 Erman, Religion, p. 33.
88 Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 320.
08 Breasted, Records, i. 370.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 197
m. Sacrifice to the Dead. — The gifts of food placed
in the grave could not be expected to last the dead man
forever, consequently, his descendants were expected to
bring additional offerings regularly. The tomb-inscrip-
tions frequently pray that the deceased may not be left
without the necessities of life. Thus Nezemib of the
period of the Vth dynasty intreats: "O ye living who
are still upon earth, who pass by this tomb; let water be
poured out for me, for I was a master of secret things.
Let a mortuary offering of that which is with you come
forth for me, for I was one beloved of the people. Never
was I beaten in the presence of any official since my birth;
never did I take the property of any man by violence; but
I was a doer of that which pleased all men." 60
Pious descendants record that they fulfilled these filial
obligations. Thus the son of a royal favourite of the
IVth dynasty says: "Her eldest son, the field-judge,
built (this chapel) for her to make mortuary offerings to
her therein." 61 Ahmose, the founder of the XVIIIth
dynasty, is represented as saying: "It is I who have
remembered the mother of my mother, and the mother
of my father, great king's-wife and king's-mother,
Tetisheri, triumphant. Although she has already a tomb
and a mortuary chapel on the soil of Thebes and Abydos,
I have said this to thee, that my majesty has desired to
have made for her also a pyramid and a house in Tazeser,
as a monumental donation of my majesty. Its lake shall
be dug, its trees shall be planted, its offerings shall be
founded, equipped with people, endowed with land,
presented with herds, mortuary priests and ritual priests
having their duties, every man knowing his stipula-
tion. . . . Never did former kings the like of it for
their mothers." 62
As a rule, however, the Egyptians could not be trusted
to show the filial piety that was displayed by the Chinese
60 Breasted, Records, i. 279.
"Ibid., i. 18S.
™lbid., ii. 36-37.
198 SPIRITISM v
in keeping up the regular sacrifices to the dead; accord-
ingly, the wealthy were in the habit of leaving endow-
ments for the maintenance of their mortuary offerings
as well as for the upkeep of their tombs. This practice
began in the Old Kingdom, and lasted down to the latest
times. 63 One of the most interesting cases is that of
Hepzefi, Count of Siut, under Sesostris I of the Xllth
tercalary days"; according to the second contract, "white
the priests of Siut to provide offerings to his departed
spirit. According to the first contract, he is to receive
"a white loaf per individual priest for his statue which
is in the temple of Anubis, on the first of the five in-
tercalary days" according to the second contract, "white
bread from each of them for his statue which is in charge
of the mortuary priest, on New Year's Day"; according
to the third contract, "there shall be given to him bread
and beer in the first month of the first season, on the
eighteenth day, the day of the Wag-feast, namely, twenty-
two jars of beer, two thousand two hundred flat loaves,
and fifty-five white loaves"; according to the fourth con-
tract, "a white loaf per each individual among them for
his statue which is in the temple, in the first month of
the first season, on the eighteenth day, the day of the
Wag-feast"; according to the fifth contract, "three wicks
with which the fire is kindled for the god"; according to
the sixth contract, "the roast of meat which is due upon
the altar, which is placed upon the oblation-table, for
every bull which is slaughtered in the temple; and one jar
for every jar of beer, every day of a procession, which
shall be due every future superior prophet"; according to
the seventh contract, "three wicks due to him, with which
the fire is kindled in the temple of Anubis, on New Year's
Eve, New Year's Day, and the night of the Wag-feast."
The remaining contracts are similar in contents. 64
Among the articles of food offered to the dead the
M See above, p. 167f.
•* Breasted, Records, i. 535 sg.
v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 199
inscriptions mention: grain, bread and cakes of various
materials and sizes, fruit of all sorts, honey, wild, and
domestic cattle, sheep, goats, and game of wild animals,
geese and other birds and fish. As libations we find
water, milk, beer and wine. Incense also was offered to
the dead, as to the gods. The reliefs that accompany the
inscriptions often depict the dead enjoying the dainties
that are set before them. Thus the tomb of Nekonekh
under the Vth dynasty represents him seated at a table,
while eight mortuary priests serve him with viands. Evi-
dently the ancient Egyptians had no intention of going
hungry in the other world.
The foregoing survey makes it evident that in all es-
sential particulars the beliefs of the Egyptians in regard
to disembodied spirits were identical with those of the
Chinese and of other early races.
CHAPTER VI
SPIRITISM AMONG THE EARLY SEMITES
In the Book of Genesis the Hebrews first appear as a
nomadic race entering Canaan from the east. From the
period prior to this migration no records or traditions
have come down to us; nevertheless by means of the sci-
ences of comparative philology and comparative religion
it is possible to gain considerable information concerning
the theology of that remote age. In language, customs
and beliefs the Hebrews were closely akin to the Canaan-
ites, Aramaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabs, Ethiop-
ians and other races that are grouped by ethnologists
under the general name of "Semitic." * Ideas and in-
stitutions that are found among all these races must have
been possessed by their forefathers in the primitive home
in the Arabian desert, where they dwelt together before
their dispersion. Applying this comparative method of
research, we may sketch in outline the main features of
early Semitic belief concerning the future life.
a. The Conception of Spirits. — The primitive Semitic
conception of spirits was in all its main features similar
to that of other primitive races throughout the world.
Man was believed to consist of two elements, 'flesh,'
(Heb. basar) and 'breath' (Heb. Phoen. nefesh, Arab,
nafs, Eth. nafas, Syr. nafsha, Bab. Ass. napishtu). The
'breath' was the seat of knowledge, appetite, emotion,
and activity; accordingly it was identical with the person.
In all the Semitic dialects nafshi, 'my breath,' means
'myself.' The 'breath' was supposed to inhere in the
1 From Sem, the Greek and Latin form of Shem, the assumed ancestor of these
peoples in Gen. 10:21-31.
200
vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 201
blood, because it was observed that when the blood was
shed life went out of a man. The ancient Arabs spoke
of the nafs as flowing out of a man who was dying of
wounds, and all the Semites were afraid to eat the blood
of slaughtered animals for fear that they might be pos-
sessed by the spirits of these animals. The heart, as the
chief receptacle of blood in the body, was also regarded
as the abode of the 'breath' and as the centre of its
intellectual faculties. At death the 'breath' with all its
powers went out of a man.
Another word for 'spirit' found in several of the
Semitic languages is ruh (Heb. ruah, Aram, ruha)
'wind.' In Arabic this word has only the meaning
'wind,' except in late usage borrowed from the Syriac,
and it is not found in Assyro-Babylonian; accordingly,
it is probably not such a primitive word for 'spirit' as
nefesh, although it must have been in use before the
separation of the Hebraeo-Canaanite and the Aramaean
branches from the parent Semitic stock. It is practically
a synonym of nefesh, but it emphasizes more the energy
of the soul.
b. Existence of Spirits After Death. — Among the
Semites belief in the continued existence of the disem-
bodied nefesh or ruah existed from the earliest times.
The ancient tombs at Nippur and Tello in Babylonia
contain the usual offerings to the dead. 2 In the oldest
tombs of Palestine 3 the dead were commonly depos-
ited in the contracted position of an unborn child, in
witness to the faith that death was birth into another
life; and with them were placed offerings of food and of
other useful articles. In Babylonian the napishtu, or
'breath' is said to "go out" of a man, but the disem-
bodied spirit is not called napishtu, as in the other
Semitic dialects, but etimmu (not ekimmu as the name
2 Peters, Nippur, II. 173; Maspero, The Dawn of Civilisation, p. 686; Jastrow,
Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 598f.
3 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, pp. 3Slff.; 1903,
pp. 1411.
202 SPIRITISM vi
was formerly read), or its Sumerian equivalent utukku. 4
In Rabbinical writings the Hebrew equivalent of etimmu
is ruah.
The statement of the Our' an (Sura xxxix. 43) "Allah
takes the souls to himself when they die, and those who
have not died (He takes) in their sleep," shows that the
ancient Arabs believed that the soul left the body in
sleep, and that death differed from sleep only in the fact
that the soul failed to return to its former residence.
In some passages of the Qur'an Muhammad speaks as
if the heathen Arabs believed that the soul perished with
the body, but this is exaggeration due to the contrast
between the lower ideas of the heathen and his own
higher doctrine of immortality. By all the Arabs the
nafs or 'breath' was supposed to live on ; and nafs, or
in later usage ruh, 'wind,' was the common name for
'ghost.' According to Wellhausen 5 the Jinn, or 'hidden
beings' of the Arabs, who were for the most part nature-
spirits, also included spirits of the dead. Like other
primitive peoples, the pre-Muhammadan Arabs buried
the dead with care, provided for their needs in the other
world, invoked their assistance, and even swore by their
life. 6
c. Powers Retained by Spirits of the Dead. — Spirits
of the dead were believed to retain in large measure their
former intellectual powers. Those who had led unhappy
lives on earth or who had come to untimely ends grieved
over their misfortunes in the other world and returned
to take their revenge upon the living.
d. Powers Gained by Spirits of the Dead. — The
Semites also believed in the acquisition of new and super-
human powers by disembodied spirits. They could move
at will from place to place. As a Babylonian exorcism
says:
* Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, i. p. xxiy.
* Reste arabischen Heidentums? pp. 148ff.
6 Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 185; Noldeke, in Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion,
art. "Arabs," p. 672.
vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 203
"The highest walls, the thickest walls, like a flood they pass
From house to house they break through.
No door can shut them out, no bolt can turn them back.
Through the door like a snake they glide,
Through the hinge like the wind they blow." 7
They could take possession of inanimate objects and
use these as they would their own bodies. Among the
Arabs a heap of stones, or a standing stone (nusb = Heb.
massebd), was placed upon the grave, and was believed
to be occupied by the dead just as really as similar stones
in sanctuaries were occupied by the gods. 8 In Nabataean,
Palmyrene, and Aramaic nefesh, 'soul,' means also
'tombstone.' The Babylonians provided statues at the
entrances to temples and houses as residences for the
ghosts. 9 Among the Arabs ghosts and Jinn frequently
appeared in the forms of beasts and birds, particularly
of serpents and owls. 10 The same was true in Baby-
lonia. 11
Spirits could also take possession of living men. The
Arabs believed that while the soul was absent in sleep
the Jinn could easily occupy its body. They caused all
manner of diseases and insanity. The name for 'insane'
was majnun, i. e., 'possessed by Jinn.' They were also
the cause of remarkable ability and prophetic inspira-
tion. 12 The spirit that revealed himself to a medium was
known as ra'i, the same word as the Hebrew ro' eh,
'seer.' The Babylonians believed that the troubled
ghost of the unburied, or of one who had died an un-
natural death, might enter the body of any person with
whom it had established chance relations in life, and
might then cause disease and pain. 13 It could be driven
out only by powerful incantations in the name of the
T Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, 1. 53.
8 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. 180, 184.
9 Jastrow, Die Religion Bab., p. 281 ; see also the representations in Thompson,
Devils, I, frontispiece, PI. II; and Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia, p. 147.
10 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. 152, 157, 185.
11 Thompson, Devils, i. pp. L, 51; Jastrow, Die Rel. Bab., p. 281.
12 Wellhausen, Reste, 2 pp. 155-168.
13 Thompson, Devils, I, xxxiv.
2o 4 SPIRITISM vi
great gods, and by threats that it should be deprived of
food and drink.
A Babylonian exorcism mentions the following classes
of troubled ghosts: —
<r VVhether thou art a ghost that hath gone forth from the earth,
Or a phantom of night that hath no couch,
Or a woman (that hath died) a virgin,
Or a man (that hath died) unmarried,
Or one that lieth dead in the desert.
• •••••#
Or one that hath been torn from a date-palm,
Or one that cometh through the waters in a boat,
Or a harlot (that hath died) whose body is sick,
Or a woman (that hath died) in travail,
Or a woman (that hath died) with a babe at the breast,
Or a weeping woman (that hath died) with a babe at the
breast." 14
Among the Arabs the soul of a murdered man was
believed to thirst for the blood of his slayer. If his
clansmen did not speedily avenge him, he appeared in
the form of an owl, crying, "Give me to drink." 15
Among the Babylonians ghosts frequently appeared
in houses and omens were drawn from these manifesta-
tions. 16 In the Gilgamesh Epic (tablet xii) the ghost
of Enkidu comes to Gilgamesh, talks with him, and
answers his questions. Among the Arabs ghosts were
more easily perceived by animals than by men (a wide-
spread belief; cf. Balaam's ass, Num. 22:23), but they
were also seen by men under favourable conditions. They
spoke in whispers or in mysterious murmurs in the desert.
Their voice was known as sadd, 'echo.' When they
were addressed by the living, they replied out of their
graves. When a woman named Laila doubted whether
her dead lover could answer her, as he had promised he
14 Thompson," Devils and Evil Spirits, I. 39ff.
15 Noldeke, in Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, art. "Arabs," p. 672.
10 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, I. xxxv.
vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 205
would do, an owl flew out of his grave and struck her
in the face. 17
e. Powers Lost by Spirits of the Dead. — The ancient
Semites agreed with other primitive peoples in thinking
that with the loss of the body the soul lost many of its
powers. Disembodied spirits were conceived as feeble,
intangible beings, bereft of the sense-perceptions that
belong to the physical organism. The names "breath,"
"wind," "shadow," "echo," that were applied to ghosts
suggested their ethereal nature. In Babylonian incanta-
tions they are described as "wind-gusts that come forth
from the grave." "In heaven they are unknown, on
earth they are not understood; they neither stand or sit,
nor eat nor drink." "They are the roaming wind-blasts;
no wife have they, no son do they beget. Sense they
know not. They are as horses reared among the hills." 18
In the Gilgamesh Epic the ghost of Enkidu issues "like
a wind out of the follow in the earth." 19
/. The Dwelling-Place of the Dead. — The ancient
Semites believed that the disembodied spirit continued to
maintain a relation with its dead body, so that the corpse,
or the grave, continued to be the chief seat of its activity.
In Babylonia the etjmmu, or 'ghost,' is constantly
spoken of as coming forth from the grave. Thus in an
incantation we read: —
"The gods which seize upon man have gone forth from the grave,
The evil wind-blasts have gone forth from the grave,
To demand the paying of rites and the pouring of libations,
They have gone forth from the grave.
All that is evil in their hosts like a whirlwind
Hath gone forth from the grave." 20
In Arabia the name hamd, 'skull,' applied to the
departed indicates that they were associated with their
mortal remains. Many of the Jinn live in graveyards
"Wellhausen, Reste, pp. ISOf., 183.
18 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, I. xxix, 75.
18 Gilgamesh Epic, tablet xii, col. iii; = Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI, 263.
20 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, II, 131.
206 SPIRITISM vi
or in regions where all the inhabitants have died. They
love decay and foul smells. 21
Without burial the spirits of the dead could not rest.
In the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (tablet xii, col. 6)
the ghost of Enkidu says to Gilgamesh: "He whose
corpse has been thrown out into the desert — thou hast
seen, I have seen it — his spirit resteth not in the earth."
Among the numerous classes of evil spirits in Babylonia
none were more dreaded than ghosts of the unburied: —
"He that lieth in a ditch ... he that is covered by no grave . . .
He that lieth uncovered, whose head is uncovered with dust,
The king's son that lieth in the desert, or in the ruins,
The hero whom they have slain with the sword." 22
By both Babylonians and Assyrians burial was refused
to enemies, and their bodies were cast out to be devoured
by beasts and birds. The graves of dead enemies also
were often violated. In the stele of Eannatum (c. 2700
B.C.) the corpses of enemies are depicted as being de-
voured by vultures. Of the Babylonians who supported
his brother Shamashshumukin in a revolt Ashurbanipal
says: "I slew there those people. Their cut-up flesh I
gave as food to dogs, swine, vultures, eagles, birds of
heaven and fish of the sea." 23 After his conquest of
Elam Ashurbanipal records: "The tombs of their kings,
the former and the latter, who had not feared Ashur
and Ishtar, my lords, and who had opposed the kings
my fathers, I destroyed and wasted and let the sun behold
them. Their bones I carried to Assyria. I allowed their
spirits no rest. I deprived them of their food and their
libations of water." 24
Among the Arabs burial was a necessity, without
which the soul could not rest. Cremation was regarded
as no less dreadful than the burning of the living body.
21 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. ISOf. ; Doughty, Arabia Deserta I, 259, 448.
22 Haupt, Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte, p. 86.
23 Annals of Ashurbanipal, IV, 7ZS..; VII, 45.
M Ibid., VI, 70ff. ; see Jeremias, Die babylonisch-assyrischen Vorstellungen von
Leben nach dem Tode, pp. 46ff.
vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 207
Only the corpses of enemies were cast out to be de-
voured. 25 Graves of friends were carefully covered with
heavy stones so that they might not be entered by hyenas.
In marked contrast to this conception of the connection
of the disembodied spirit with its corpse is the belief
found among the Babylonians and expressed in many
parts of the Old Testament that the dead live together
in a subterranean abode known as Sheol. This idea is
not found among the Arabs, nor among several other
races allied to the Hebrews; it cannot therefore be primi-
tive Semitic. Other races think of the soul either as
remaining with the body, or as going to a realm beneath
the earth, on a mountain top, beyond the ocean, or in
the sky. This variety shows that the conception of a
spirit-world is secondary, and that the primitive belief
was that the soul remained in the neighbourhood of the
body. This also was doubtless the original Semitic idea,
and the doctrine of Sheol is a later development.
g. General Conception of Death. — In their estimate
of the worth of spirit-life the Semites did not rise above
the general level of other primitive races. In pre-
Muhammadan Arab poetry the thought is continually
repeated that death is the end of happiness, therefore
"Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." No
consolation is derived from the belief that the soul con-
tinues to exist and possesses superhuman powers. The
only comfort offered is that death is the universal lot of
men. In Babylonia long life was regarded as an evidence
of the favour of the gods, and death as a sign that they
had forsaken a man. It was dreaded as a fearful and
inevitable disaster, and was known as "the day of dis-
tress," or "the day that lets no one go." The lot of the
dead was most unhappy. "Dust is their food, mud their
victuals. They see not the light, they dwell in darkness
They are clothed like birds with a covering of wings." 26
" Wellhausen, Reste, p. 177; Noldeke, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, I, 672.
" Descent of Ishtar, line 8.
208 SPIRITISM vi
When Gilgamesh appeals to the ghost of Enkidu to tell
him what the other world is like, Enkidu at first refuses
for fear that his friend cannot bear the terrible descrip-
tion; and when at last he consents, he bids Gilgamesh
prepare to weep over the things that he will hear. 27
The great gods whom men loved and adored were
gods of the upper world and of the living; their sway
did not extend into the dark abodes of the dead. They
aided men against the ghosts and evil demons who sought
to destroy them. When death came it was a sign that
their favour was withdrawn, or that they were unable
to help against the powers of darkness. The disembodied
spirit passed out of their jurisdiction into that of divini-
ties with whom in life it had established no friendly
relations. Such a conception of immortality was quite as
devoid of religious or ethical value as were the spiritistic
beliefs of other primitive races.
h. The Cult of the Dead. — The rites of mourning
among the Semites were similar to those among other
primitive peoples and bear witness to a similar cult of
the dead. Among the ancient Arabs it was customary
to strip one's self when mourning. Women exposed not
only their faces and breasts, but sometimes their entire
bodies. Messengers that brought tidings of death ap-
peared naked or half-naked. 28 The custom had a re-
ligious origin, since the Arabs used to make the circuit of
the Ka'ba naked, and even today perform it without
shoes and in a simple loincloth. In Babylonian monu-
ments of the earliest period the worshippers are depicted
naked; in later times they wear a kilt. 29 Cutting one's
flesh as a means of establishing a blood-covenant with
the dead was common among the ancients. 30 Women
also cut off their hair, and men sheared the head and the
beard. The casting of dust upon the head or the body
27 Gilgamesh Epic, tablet xii, col. 4.
28 Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums,- pp. 177, 195.
29 Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 666.
80 Wellhausen, Reste, p. 181.
vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 209
was another mourning custom. 31 Analogous was the
habit of drinking water mixed with dust from the
grave. 32 Fasting on the day of death, or for a longer
period, was also a common practice.
Burial was the universal Semitic custom; indeed, the
word kabar, 'bury,' is common to all the Semitic lan-
guages". By the ancient Arabs graves were surrounded
with a hima, or sacred inclosure, and were provided with
ansdb, or standing stones, like the sanctuaries of the gods.
They were also asylums where criminals found refuge.
At them all the rites of sacrifice went on that were usual
in the worship of the gods. 33
Among the Arabs the cooking-pot and dishes of the
deceased were broken, and his camel was lamed and
tethered near the grave to die of starvation. About
1 1 00 A.D. certain Arabs of Northern Yemen honoured
a dead chief by breaking a thousand swords and three
hundred bows and by laming seventy horses. Not merely
at the time of burial, but also subsequently camels were
slain. An early poet laments that he cannot sacrifice his
camel to his friend because it is the only one he possesses.
Besides blood, libations of water and of milk were poured
upon graves, and the wish was expressed that much rain
might fall upon them. In some parts of Arabia fragrant
wood was burned as incense. These customs have lasted
down to the present day both among the Bedawin and
among the Arabs of Syria. 34
Prayer to the dead is well attested among the ancient
Semites. Among the Arabs the women broke out in a
shrill wail when any member of the family died, and
continued this until the period of mourning was over.
This was accompanied with frequent ejaculation of the
S1 Wellhausen, Reste,- p. 177.
32 Ibid., p. 163; Jastrow, "Dust and Ashes as Symbols of Mourning," Jour. Am.
Orient. Soc, XX, 133f.
33 Wellhausen, Reste, 1 p. 184.
34 Ibid., pp. 177-84; Noldeke, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics, I, 672; Burckhardt, Beduinen und Wahaby, pp. 84f. ; Doughty, Arabia
Descrta, I, 240, 354, 442, 450 ff.; Curtiss, Ursemitische Religion, chap. xix.
210 SPIRITISM vi
name of the deceased, and with the entreaty, "Be not
far away!" Poets also composed extended laments ad-
dressed to the dead. The belief that spirits of the dead
could be called up by magic arts to assist the living, or
to reveal the future, was held by the Semites in common
with other ancient peoples. The Arab magician had his
tabV, or 'follower,' i.e., his familiar spirit. In Baby-
lonia "raiser of the departed spirit" was the standing
title of the necromancer. In the Gilgamesh Epic (tablet
xii, col. 3) we have an account of how Gilgamesh raised
the ghost of Enkidu and held converse with him.
CHAPTER VII
SPIRITISM IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
About 5000 B.C. a race appeared in Babylonia whose
remains survived in consequence of the fact that it built
its towns on artificial mounds raised above the level of
the river floods. This race is called Sumerian because
its earliest monuments have been found in Sumer, the
ancient name for Southern Babylonia. In the lowest
levels of the mounds inscriptions have been discovered
in an extremely primitive character that approximates
picture-writing. In these characters we see the beginning
of the Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform, or wedge-
writing, that remained in use almost down to the begin-
ning of the Christian era. About 3500 B.C. the invasion
of Babylonia by the Semites began. In process of time
the Sumerians were conquered, and their language gave
place to a dialect akin to Hebrew, but their civilization
left an indelible impression upon the conquering Semites.
Sumerian remained the sacred language of Babylonia,
just as Latin remained the sacred language of the Roman
Church; and an immense body of Sumerian literature was
transmitted by the priests down almost to the beginning
of our era. It is certain that none of this material was
invented by the Semites, but that it was merely inherited
from their Sumerian predecessors. From this literature,
contained chiefly in tablets discovered in the library of
the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (626 B.C.), it is possible
to derive a full and accurate conception of Sumerian
beliefs in regard to the future life.
a. Activity of the Dead. — Unlike China, where an-
cestors were believed to bless their descendants and re-
211
212 SPIRITISM vii
ward their filial piety, in Babylonia and Assyria the
activity of spirits of the dead was entirely maleficent.
Nowhere are they said to bless and help men, nowhere
are they invoked for aid. They come forth from the
grave to kill and to destroy. The best that can be hoped
of them is that they will be placated by the offerings made
at their tombs, will remain at rest, and will refrain from
harm. Positive good is never expected from them. Good
things come from the gods, who are the protectors of men
against the depredations of the ghosts. Prayers, there-
fore, are addressed only to the gods, ghosts are appeased
or are exorcised. 1
The Sumerians, or primitive Babylonians, believed that
all disease was caused by the obsession of malignant
spirits that entered into the bodies of men. Three classes
of evil spirits were recognized, first, ghosts of those who
had died unnatural deaths, or had remained unburied;
second, vampires that were half-human and half-demon;
third, fiends who were of the same nature as the gods.
These are all enumerated at the beginning of a hymn to
the sun-god:
"He on whom an evil Spirit hath rushed,
He whom an evil Demon hath enveloped in his bed,
He whom an evil Ghost hath cast down in the night,
He whom a great Devil hath smitten,
He whose limbs an evil God hath racked ( ?),
He — the hair of whose body an evil Fiend hath set on end,
He whom ... a Hag-demon hath seized,
He whom a Ghoul hath cast down,
He whom a Robber-sprite hath afflicted,
He whom the Handmaid of the Night-Phantom hath wedded,
The man with whom the Handmaid of the Night-Phantom
hath had union." 2
1 See L. W. King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, 1896; R. C. Thompson, The
Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, 1913; S. Langdon, Babylonian Magic, 1914;
E. Kuchler, Beitrage zur Kentniss der Assyrisch-Babylomschen Medizin, 1904;
F. von Oefele, numerous articles on Keilschriftmedizin; M. Jastrow, "The Medi-
cine of the Babylonians and Assyrians," Proceedings of the Royal Society of
Medicine, March, 1914.
1 Thompson, I. p. xxvii.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 213
Of these various demons an incantation says:
"Through the gloomy street by night they roam,
Smiting sheepfold and cattle-pen ;
Shutting up the land as with door and bolt.
Rending in pieces on high, bringing destruction below,
They are the Children of the Underworld.
Loudly roaring above, gibbering below,
They are the bitter venom of the gods.
They are the great storms directed from Heaven,
They are the owls which hoot over a city.
Knowing no care, they grind the land like corn,
Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind,
They spill their blood like rain,
Devouring their flesh and sucking their veins.
• •••••
They are demons full of violence,
Ceaselessly devouring blood." 3
Different demons were the causes of different diseases.
Ahhazu caused liver troubles; Ashakku, tuberculosis;
Ti'u, headache; Labartu, the death of women or children
in child-birth. One of the most curious tablets that has
come down to us is the description of the way in which
a devil known as "the toothache worm" obtained from
the Creator permission to live in the teeth of men. It
reads as follows : —
"After Anu had created the Heavens,
The Heavens created the Earth,
The Earth created the Rivers,
The Rivers created the Canals,
The Canals created the Marshes,
The Marshes created the Worm.
Came the Worm (and) wept before Shamash,
Before Ea came her tears: —
'What wilt thou give me for food,
What wilt thou give me for my devouring?'
'I will give thee dried bones,
(And) scented . . . -wood.'
'What are these dried bones to me,
And scented . . . -wood!
8 Thompson, I. p. xlvi.
2i 4 SPIRITISM vn
Let me drink among the teeth,
And set me on the gums;
That I may devour the blood of the teeth
And of their gums destroy the strength ;
Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.' " *
When, as here, disease is caused by a specific being that
takes up its abode in a particular tissue of the human
body, we do not seem to be far away from the modern
germ-theory of disease.
The ancient Sumerians believed that at certain times,
or in certain places, one was peculiarly in danger of being
entered by the demons. Contact with a dead body, or
wearing the clothes of the dead, or intimate association
with a man during the days that preceded his death,
rendered one liable to obsession by his ghost.
"Whether thou art a ghost that hath come from the earth,
Or a phantom of night that hath no couch,
Or whether thou be one with whom on a day [I have eaten],
Or with whom on a day [I have drunk],
Or with whom on a day I have anointed myself,
Or with whom on a day I have clothed myself,
Or whether thou be one with whom I have entered and drunk,
Or with whom I have entered and anointed myself,
Or with whom I have entered and clothed myself,
Or whether thou be one with whom I have eaten food when I
was hungry,
Or with whom I have drunk water when I was thirsty." 5
Here there seems to be knowledge of the danger of con-
tagious diseases. It was also observed that devils dwelt
most frequently in places that had been abandoned by
men :
"O evil Spirit, get thee forth to distant places,
O evil Demon, hie thee unto the ruins,
Where thou standest is forbidden ground,
A ruined, desolate house is thy home." 6
♦Thompson, II. p. 161.
1 Ibid., I. pp. 39, 43.
'Ibid., p. 139.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 215
Such spots were doubtless the seats of malaria, or of
other germ diseases, and this was the reason why they
had been forsaken by their original inhabitants.
b. The Abode of the Dead. — The Sumerian popu-
lation of Babylonia had already reached a high stage of
civilization before the Semites arrived on the scene.
Primitive conceptions of the dead as resting with their
kinsmen in the family grave the Sumerians had outgrown.
They conceived of the shades as dwelling together in a
mighty realm, and as socially organized after the manner
of an ancient Babylonian kingdom. 7
For this realm the usual Sumerian name is Aralu, of
which the etymology is unknown. Its common Hebrew
name is Sheol, of which also the meaning is uncertain.
Jeremias and Jastrow think that Sheol appears in Baby-
lonian as Shu'dlu, but this is denied by Jensen and
Zimmern. Another Sumerian name is "Land of the
Dead," or "Death." Still another name is "Earth."
Thus in the epic fragment known as Ishtars Descent to
Hades (rev. line 5) we read, "Ishtar has gone down to
the Earth, and has not come up." 8 In the Gilgamesh
Epic (XII, iv, 1) Gilgamesh asks Enkidu after "the law
of the Earth," meaning as the sequel shows, the nature of
the other world. 9 Closely similar in meaning is the
Sumerian word Kigal, 'Great Beneath,' or 'Under-
world,' which passes over into Semitic as Kigallu. Since
this region is regarded as a vast cavern, it is called Nakbu,
'the Hollow,' 10 or 'the Hole of the Earth.' "
From these names it is evident that the ancient
Babylonians regarded Sheol as situated in the depths of
7 On the Babylonion conception of Hades see Jeremias, Die babylonisch-
assyrischen Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode (1887); Jensen, Die Kos-
mologie der Babylonier (1890); Jeremias, "Holle und Paradies bei den Baby-
loniern," in Das Alte Orient, 1900, Part 3; Zimmern, in Schrader's Keilinschriften
und das Alte Testament' (1903); Warren, The Earliest Cosmogonies (1909).
» Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 87.
9 Ibid., 263.
10 S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous Texts, 16.
11 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 262.
216 SPIRITISM vii
the earth. One is said to "go down" to Aralu, or to
"come up" from it. The gods of Aralu are also the gods
who cause vegetation to spring out of the ground. When
the Babylonian kings wish to describe the depth to which
they carried the substructures of their mighty edifices,
they say that they laid the foundations "on the breast
of Aralu" or "of Kigallu." The tower-temples of an-
cient Babylonia were regarded as counterparts of E-kur,
'the mountain house' or inhabited earth, and beneath
these the dead were buried, to correspond with the way
in which the shades dwelt beneath the abode of the
living. 12 In the inscriptions the tops of these tower-
temples are said to be as high as the mountains, and their
bases as low as the Underworld. From these expressions
it appears that the Babylonians regarded Sheol as a vast
cavern under the ground, the subterranean counterpart
of the space included between the earth and the celestial
dome of the "firmament."
Sheol could be entered directly through a gap in the
earth, but such a route was unusual. Ordinarily it was
entered through a gate in the western horizon. The
myths of the descent of Ishtar (Venus) and other astral
deities indicate that the road to the Underworld was
that followed by the celestial bodies. The west was the
region of darkness and death, as the east was the region
of light and life. A man haunted by a ghost prays, "Unto
the setting of the sun may he go." 13
The habitable earth was regarded as an island lying
in the midst of the ocean; consequently, in order to reach
the entrance of Sheol at the setting of the sun, it was
necessary to cross the sea. In the Gilgamesh Epic,
Gilgamesh, who has set out to seek his ancestor
Ut(Pir Sit?)-napishtim, after crossing the Syrian desert
and passing the mountains of Lebanon, reaches the shore
of the Mediterranean, and inquires of a goddess how he
" Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands, 465.
13 King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, p. 119, line 19.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 217
may cross the sea. She replies: "There has never been
any ford, Gilgamesh, and no one who since the days of
yore has arrived here has ever crossed over the sea. The
sun, the hero, has crossed over the sea, but except the
sun, who has crossed? Hard is the passage, difficult the
way, and deep are the Waters of Death that lie before it.
Where, Gilgamesh, wilt thou go over the sea? When
thou comest to the Waters of Death, what wilt thou do?"
Presently, however, she shows Gilgamesh where he may
find a ferryman who will carry him over the waters.
Together they make a forty-five days' journey to the
western end of the Mediterranean. Then they enter
upon the "Waters of Death," or the ocean beyond the
straits of Gibraltar. After terrible perils they succeed
in passing this, and land in the farthest west on the shore
where Ut-napishtim dwells. 14 This ferry over the Baby-
lonian Styx is alluded to also in an incantation, where
the priest says, "I have stopped the ferry and barricaded
the dock, and have thus prevented the bewitching of the
whole world," i.e., I have prevented the spirits of the
dead from coming back across the ocean to molest men. 15
Because of this necessity of crossing the "Waters of
Death" the Babylonian Sheol received the epithets mat-
nabalkattu, 'land of crossing over,' and irsitu ruktu,
'distant land.' In order to reach this land spirits of the
dead assumed the form of birds and flew to their desti-
nation. In Ishtar's Descent (obv. 10) we read of the
shades, "They are clothed like a bird in a garment of
feathers." 16
For the ancient Babylonians there were seven heavens
presided over by the sun, moon, and the five planets.
There were also seven stages of the tower-temple of the
earth. In like manner Aralu was conceived as containing
seven divisions separated by walls. These walls were
pierced by seven gates, which had to be passed in suc-
14 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 217-23; Jensen, Gilgamesch Epos, 28-33.
15 Jeremias, Holle und Parodies, 15.
16 See p. 95; Weicker, Der Seelenvogel in der alien Litteratur und Kunst (1907).
218 SPIRITISM vii
cession by the goddess Ishtar before she reached the
lowest depth (Ishtar's Descent, obv. 37-62). These
gates were fastened with bars, and there was a porter
who opened them to newcomers.
Sheol was primarily a cosmological conception, and
had nothing to do with the grave as the abode of de-
parted spirits, but the Babylonians were unable to keep
the two ideas apart. The result was that Sheol was
pictured as a vast tomb in which all individual tombs
were included. The same ideogram was used both for
grave and for Aralu. In the incantations the ghosts are
said interchangeably to come forth out of the grave and
out of Aralu. Everything that the heart delights in on
earth is eaten by worms in the Underworld. 17 Hence the
conception that Sheol is dark (in spite of the fact that
the sun goes down into it). Thus in Babylonian one of
its epithets is "dark dwelling." In Ishtar's Descent (obv.
7) it is called "the house where he who enters is deprived
of light," and in line 10 it is said, "they see not the
light, they dwell in darkness." 18 For the same reason
Sheol is conceived as a place of dust. In Ishtar's De-
scent 19 it is said, "Dust is their food, clay their nourish-
ment. . . . Over door and bar dust is strewn." 20
The Babylonian Sheol is under the rule of the god
Nergal or Irkalla (a personification of Irkallu, 'great
city,' one of the names of Aralu), and his wife Eresh-
kigal, 'mistress of the Underworld.' In their service
stand Namtaru, the death-demon, and a host of evil
spirits who roam over the earth, afflicting men with all
sorts of diseases and seeking to win new subjects for
their masters. To the attacks of these demons man
sooner or later succumbs. "He who at eventide is alive,
at daybreak is dead." "The day of death is unknown,"
" Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iv. 7f.
"Cf. Gilgamesh Epic, VII. iv. 35.
39 Obv. 9, 11.
20 Cf. Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iv. 10.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 219
but none the less it is certain; for it is "the day that lets
no one go."
Two instances are known in Babylonian literature of
persons who escaped death, and were translated to the
abode of the gods. Ut(Sit? Pir?)-napishtim, the Baby-
lonian Noah, after narrating the story of the Flood to
Gilgamesh, concludes: "Bel went up into the ship,
grasped my hands, and led me out, led out my wife also,
and caused her to kneel down at my side. He touched
our shoulders, stood between us, and blessed us, saying,
'Formerly Ut-napishtim was a man, now shall Ut-napish-
tim and his wife be like gods, and Ut-napishtim shall
dwell afar at the mouth of the streams.' " 21 Adapa just
missed immortality by declining the bread and the water
of life, 22 which shows that it was considered possible
for men to escape death. Such cases, however, were the
rare exception.
Babylonian theology knows of a distinction in the fates
of those who enter Aralu. One "rests in his chamber
and drinks clean water"; another "eats what is left in
the pot, the remnants of food that are cast out into the
street." 23 When Ishtar incurs the wrath of Ereshkigal,
the queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal bids her ser-
vant Namtaru: "Shut her in my palace, loose upon her
sixty diseases." 24 The Gilgamesh Epic 25 seems to speak
of a judgment in the other world: "After the Watch-
demon and the Lock-demon have greeted a man, the
Anunnaki, the great gods, assemble themselves; Mam-
metu, who fixes fate, determines with them his fate; they
establish death and life."
On this basis, Jeremias and Delitzsch 26 found the
theory that the Babylonians distinguished a Paradise and
a Llell in the Underworld. The facts do not justify this
21 Gilgamesh Epic, XI. 198-204.
22 Adapa Myth, II. rev. 24-34.
23 Gilgamesh Epic, XII. vi. 1-12.
24 Ishtar's Descent, obv. 68f.
26 X. vi. 35-38.
28 Babel und Bibel, 38ff.
220
SPIRITISM vii
view. In the passage which speaks of the different fates
of the dead, the context shows that these fates depend,
not upon moral distinctions, but upon the manner of
burial. The one who "rests in his chamber and drinks
clean water" is he who has enjoyed the honourable in-
terment of a hero. The one who eats refuse is he "whose
corpse has been cast out upon the field, whose ghost has
no one to care for him." This is nothing more than a
survival of the primitive animistic belief that the repose
of the spirit depends upon the proper burial of the body.
The "clean water" is not the "water of life," but the
libation poured by a son upon the grave. The judgment
pronounced by Mammetu and the Anunnaki is not a
judgment upon character, that determines eternal life or
eternal death, but is merely a decision whether or no a
man is to die. Through severe illness his soul is brought
down to the very gates of Aralu, and is greeted by the
watchman; then the gods decide whether he is to remain
in the Underworld or is to return to life. This explains
the following line, "But the days of death are not re-
vealed." So, after it has been decreed that Ishtar is
not to remain in Hades, the Anunnaki are assembled to
pronounce her release, and to sprinkle her with the water
of life that she may return to the upper world. 27 The
distinction in Aralu is merely one of relative comfort, it
is not a distinction of place. In numerous passages the
dead of all ages and all degrees are described as dwelling
together in one common habitation. Thus in an epic
fragment belonging to the Gilgamesh cycle the ghost of
Enkidu says:
"In the house that I have entered, my friend, . . . crowns
lie upon the ground. There dwell the wearers of crowns, who of
old ruled the land, for whom Bel and Anu have appointed name
and memory. Cold dishes are served up to them, and they drink
water out of skins. In the house that I have entered, my friend,
dwell Enu-priests and Lagaru-priests. There dwell enchanters
27 Ishtar's Descent, rev. 37f.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 221
and magicians. There dwell the anointed priests of the great gods.
There dwell the heroes Etana and Ner. There dwells the queen
of the Underworld Ereshkigal. There dwells Belit-seri, the scribe-
goddess of the lower world crouching before her." 28
By the Babylonians Sheol was conceived as a land, a
city, or a house, in which all classes of men dwelt together
as on earth. Life went on much the same as in the upper
world, only all was shadowy. This conception was simply
a survival of primitive beliefs concerning the existence of
the dead that were combined with the later doctrine of
Sheol. 29
When once a man had entered Sheol the Babylonians
believed that it was impossible for him to return to life
again. The Underworld was "the land of no return," 30
or "the enduring dwelling." 31 Its watchman, the "Lur-
ker of Nergal," does not release when once he has seized
a man. 32 Speaking of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh says:
"My friend whom I loved has become like clay . . .
Shall I not also like him lay me down to rest, and not
arise for evermore?" 33 This denial that the dead can
return means only that they cannot return to life, not that
they may not leave Sheol to haunt the living, or to re-
spond to the summons of a medium. The ancient belief
in ghosts and in necromancy continued alongside of the
belief in Sheol. 3 *
Whether the Babylonians believed in the possibility of
a resurrection is a disputed question. A number of gods,
particularly Marduk, bear the title muballit mituti,
'quickener of the dead.' In a hymn it is said, "He whose
corpse has gone down to Aralu thou bringest back." 35
On the strength of these passages it has been claimed
28 Jeremias, Holle und Parodies, 16.
59 See pp. 6, 104, 169.
30 Ishtar's Descent, obv. 1, 6, 41.
"Ibid., rev. 31.
32 Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iii. 18.
33 Ibid., VIII. v. 36f.
34 See pp. 212ff., 226-231.
35 King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, No. 2, 22.
222
SPIRITISM vii
that the Babylonians believed in a resurrection, 36 but the
evidence is insufficient. All that this language means is
that the god in question raises up to life a man who is
sick unto death. According to the primitive conception,
the soul left the body in illness, or in unconsciousness, and
drew near to the Underworld. For a time it was doubt-
ful whether it would remain with the shades or return
to earth. The god who prevented its final separation
from its body was called "quickener of the dead," but
that there could be any resurrection after the body had
been buried and dissolution had set in there is no evi-
dence; in fact, this idea seems to be directly contrary to
the statements just quoted that there is no return for one
upon whom Mammetu and the Anunnaki have pronounced
sentence of death, but only for one whose entrance to
Aralu they postpone. The "water of life" that is guarded
by the Anunnaki in Aralu does not serve to bring back the
dead, but only to restore those who have gone down alive
to Shcol. It is given to Asushunamir, the messenger of
the gods, that he may return to heaven; and is sprinkled
on Ishtar that she may go back to the upper world. 37
Gilgamesh is washed with it that he may be cleansed from
his leprosy, 38 and Adapa has it offered to him that he may
attain immortality. 39 In these cases the dead are not re-
stored to life, but the living are prevented from dying.
The "water of life" is the divine counterpart of the holy
water with which the priest sprinkled the sick man to keep
the death-demons from dragging him down to Aralu. In
only one passage is the possibility of a real resurrection
suggested. When Ishtar is refused admission to Aralu,
she says to the porter : "If thou openest not thy gate and
I come not in, I will break down the door, I will shatter
the bolt, I will break through the threshold and remove
the doors, I will bring up the dead, eating, living; the
38 Jensen, Kcilinschrifiliche Bibliothek, VI. 480.
37 lshtar's Descent, rev. 19, 34, 38.
88 Gilgamesh Epic, XI. 2S4ff.
3 » Adapa Myth, II. rev. 26.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 223
dead shall be more numerous than the living." 40 This
seems to refer to a restoration of the dead to life. From
this it follows that the Babylonians regarded it as possi-
ble for the great gods to empty Aralu, if they saw fit; but
there is no evidence that they believed that this power
would ever be exerted.
c. Deification of the Dead. — Names for spirits of
the dead in Babylonian and Assyrian texts are regularly
preceded with the determinative for 'god,' Sumerian
dingir, Semitic ilu, the same etymologically as the Hebrew
word el, 'god.' This shows that they were regarded as
belonging to the class of superhuman beings, or "powers,"
just as in 1 Samuel 28:13 the ghost of Samuel rising out
of the earth is called "a god." In the incantations they
are often called "evil gods." An Assyrian king calls
them "princes, spirits of the earth, gods who inhabit
the grave."
The deification of dead kings in ancient Babylonia is
peculiarly well attested. Some of these kings were
already deified during their lives, and their worship
naturally continued after their deaths. The first king
of whom this is known with certainty is Naram-Sin of
the dynasty of Agade (c. 2750 B.C.) who had the de-
terminative for "god" prefixed to his name during his
lifetime. The same was true of his successor Sargani-
sharri (c. 2720 B.C.). The kings of the dynasty of Ur,
namely Ur-Engur (2469 B.C.), Dungi (2451 B.C.),
Pur-Sin (2393 B.C.), Gimil-Sin (2384 B.C.), and Ibi-Sin
(2377 B.C.), were all canonized while alive, except
Ur-Engur, the founder of the dynasty. The worship of
these kings persisted under their successors, just like the
worship of royal ancestors in China and in Egypt. In
succeeding generations their names were used like names
of gods to form proper names. Thus we find such names
as Dungi-ilu, 'Dungi is god,' and Dungi-bani, 'Dungi
<°Ishtar's Descent, obv. 16-20.
224 SPIRITISM vii
is my creator.' A large number of such names has been
collected by Huber. 41 Dungi records that he built a
temple for his father Ur-Engur, and a temple of Dungi
is often mentioned. An officer of King Gimil-Sin records :
"For Gimil-Sin, beloved of Enlil, the king, whom Enlil
has chosen as his beloved, the mighty king, king of Ur,
king of the four quarters of the world, his god; Lugal-
ma-gur-ri, captain of the fortress, patesi of Ur, his
servant, built his beloved temple." 42
d. Burial of the Dead. — The excavations that have
been carried on in the mounds of Babylonia and Assyria
show that the inhabitants of these lands exercised the
greatest care in the disposal of the corpses of the dead.
The poor were buried in ordinary great water-jars, lined
with bitumen, about a metre in height. The well-to-do
were buried in clay coffins shaped like a baby's bath-tub,
also about a metre in length. In order to insert them
into these small receptacles the bodies were doubled
together or were divided through the middle. The coffins
were frequently covered with wood and were enclosed in
a tomb of unburned brick. The bodies were dressed in
their best garments, and were provided with weapons,
armour of bronze and iron, jewelry, bronze mirrors, and
other toilet articles. With them were placed vessels
containing food, drink, and ointments. Many of these
vessels were the choicest specimens of the potter's art.
Seals, cones, cylinders, and other written records were
also added occasionally. All these customs indicate that
the dead had need in the other life of these objects with
which they were supplied by the piety of the survivors. 43
Herodotus, i. 198, narrates of the Babylonians: "They
41 Die Personennamen in den Keilschrifturkunden, 1907.
42 E. Thureau-Dangin, Sumerische und Akkadische Konigsinschriften, pp. 200,
231, notes. For further information on this subject see S. A. Mercer, "Emperor-
Worship in Babylonia," Jour Atncr. Oriental Society, 1917, p. 360; S. Langdon,
"The Cult of Deified Kings in Ancient Sumer," Museum Journal, Univ. of Penn'.
1917, p. 165; and Proceed. Soc. Bibl. Archccology, 1918.
43 See J. P. Peters, Nippur, ii. 214-234.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 225
bury their dead in honey, and have funeral lamentations
like the Egyptians." 44
e. Offerings to the Dead. — Among the Babylonians
sacrifices and libations were offered periodically at tombs.
The regular pouring out of libations of water was a duty
that devolved upon the oldest son, or the legal heir, and
that might not be neglected without incurring the wrath
of the deceased. 45 In order to secure regular offerings
to his spirit a Babylonian who had no son adopted one.
Women also adopted daughters under similar circum-
stances. Thus in a tablet of the Cassite period 46 we
read : "Ina-Uruk-rishat . . . had no daughter, there-
fore she adopted Etirtu. ... So long as Ina-Uruk-
rishat lives Etirtu is to show her honour. If Ina-Uruk-
rishat dies, then shall Etirtu, as though she were her
daughter, make libations of water for her." An ancient
bronze tablet represents a dead man lying on a bier, with
priests surrounding him, and an altar for burning incense
near his head. 47
Sacrifices to dead kings of the dynasty of Ur are often
mentioned in the temple accounting-tablets and receipts,
which have been found in such vast numbers at Drehem
and Jokah in southern Babylonia. One of these tablets,
for instance, reads: "One dead sheep for god Dungi,
one for god Pur-Sin, one for god Gimil-Sin, one for god
Gimil-Sin a second time : offerings at the festival. Con-
veyed on behalf of the house of the cattle. Month
pap^ii-e, year when god Ibi-Sin became king." 48 A king
of Assyria, whose name is missing, records how he cele-
brated the obsequies of his father, and closes with the
words : "Gifts unto the princes, unto the spirits of the
44 See G. Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. p. 263 sq., with notes on the burial customs
of the Babylonians.
46 Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia, p. 559.
46 Clay, Documents Dated in the Reigns of Cassite Rulers, No. 40.
4T King, Babylonian Religion, p. 39.
** See S. Langdon, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archeology, 1918, pp. 50-52.
226 SPIRITISM vii
earth, and unto the gods who inhabit the grave, I then
presented." 49 King Ashurbanipal also records that he
invoked the shades of his ancestors, and poured out liba-
tions in their honour: "The prescriptions for the sacri-
fices and the libations of water for the shades of the
kings, my predecessors, which had ceased to be observed,
I introduced afresh. To gods and men, to the dead and
the living I did good." 50
/. Exorcism of the Dead. — Besides the offerings
which were designed to placate the dead and keep them
from harming the living, there were other rites which
were intended to drive away the ghosts when they became
troublesome.
1. Invocation of the Gods. — As the chief helpers
against the shades the gods were invoked to come to the
aid of the sufferer. Since it was not known which of the
gods would be the greatest help, it was customary to
invoke all of them, not only the chief divinities of the
Babylonian pantheon, but also many other minor deities
who are known to us only from the magical texts.
2. The Divine Prescription. — In many of the texts,
after the invocation of the gods, we read how the god
Marduk is taught the proper remedy by his father Ea,
the god of wisdom:
"Marduk hath seen him (the sick man) and
Unto the house of his father Ea hath entered and spoken:
'Father.'
Twice he hath said unto him,
'What this man shall do he knoweth not,
Whereby he may be assuaged.'
Ea hath answered his son Marduk:
'O my son, what dost thou not know,
What more can I give thee?
O Marduk, what dost thou not know,
How can I add unto thy knowledge?
What I know thou knowest also.
Go, my son Marduk.' " 51
*»King, op cit., p. 49.
* M. Streck, Assurbanipal, ii. p. 250.
Thompson, II. p. xxiL
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 227
Then Ea gives his son Marduk specific directions what
to do for the recovery of the sick man. Thus the cere-
monies of the priest come with divine authority and have
sacramental efficacy. The priest who knows what Ea,
the father, has revealed through Marduk, his son, comes
to the patient as the representative of the gods. He says :
"The man of Ea am I !
The man of Damkina am I!
To revive (N.N.) the sick man,
The great lord Ea hath sent me;
He hath added his pure spell to mine,
He hath added his pure voice to mine,
He hath added his pure spittle to mine,
He hath added his pure prayer to mine." 82
3. Magic Rites. — The directions which Ea gives
Marduk for the cure are almost exclusively magic cere-
monies. A common form is the provision of an animal
into which the evil spirit may enter when it leaves the
man. Thus in one text we read:
"Give the pig in his stead,
And give the flesh as his flesh,
The blood as his blood,
And let him take it ;
Its heart (which thou hast set on his heart)
Give as his heart,
And let him take it." B3
This reminds us of the story in Matt. 8:28-34 of how
the demons went out of the man and entered into a herd
of swine which they caused to rush violently down a
precipice to destruction. Birds also were used, the idea
being that the demons would enter into them and fly away
with them when they were released. Thus one incanta-
tion reads :
"A raven, the bird that helpeth the gods,
In my right hand I hold;
A hawk, to flutter in thine evil face,
»' Devils and Evil Spirits, Vol. I, Tablet III, 1, 65ff; II. p. xxv.
" Thompson, II. p. xxxiii.
228 SPIRITISM vii
In my left hand I thrust forward ;
With the sombre garb of awe I clothe thee,
In sombre dress I robe thee." 54
With this we may compare the ritual of the release of
the bird in Lev. 14 .-4-7.
Demons could be transferred not only to living crea-
tures but also to inanimate objects. With the proper
ceremonies they could be induced to take up their abode in
vessels of water, which then were broken, scattering their
contents, and driving away their occupants. In one
magical text we read:
"The evil Spirit (and) Ghost that appear in the desert,
O Pestilence that hast touched the man for harm,
The Tongue that is banefully fastened on the man,
May they be broken in pieces like a goblet,
May they be poured forth like water." 55
Demons could also be induced to enter images of wax or
of clay which were then destroyed. Thus we read :
"Go, my son (Marduk),
Pull off a piece of clay from the deep,
Fashion a figure of his bodily form (therefrom) and
Place it on the loins of the sick man by night,
At dawn make the 'atonement' for his body,
Perform the Incantation of Eridu,
Turn his face to the west,
That the Plague-demon which hath seized upon him
May vanish away from him." 56
Another favourite magical act was the tying and loos-
ing of cords. The tying represented the binding of the
man by the demon, the loosing, the release from its
clutches. Compare Luke 13:16, "Ought not this woman
. . . whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to
have been loosed from this bond?" One direction of this
sort reads:
•* Thompson, I. p. 135.
K Ibid., I. p. 151.
<*Ibid., II. p. 101.
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 229
"Weave thou a two-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid
and from the wool of a virgin lamb,
Upon the limbs of the king, son of his god, bind it." 5T
4. Drugs. — Drugs served originally a magical pur-
pose, just as charms and spells. In the medical texts they
are introduced with the same formula as the magical
rites, and they are mingled with them. The theory that
led to their use was either allopathic or homoeopathic.
Some drugs were so bitter or nauseous that they would
drive out any self-respecting devil. This was allopathic
treatment. Other drugs resembled the demons or the
organs of the body, and therefore rendered them
propitious and mitigated their attacks. This was
homoeopathy.
The allopathic remedies included all the nasty sub-
stances that the ancient Sumerians could discover. Among
these are enumerated "a green frog, pestilence root with
a claw of a black dog, a thorn plant with earth taken
from the 'outer gate,' a green vegetable of some kind
with the dust of a man's foot, swine's fat, swine's tail,
dog's dung, the neck of a dog, the foot of a small insect,
the fat of a serpent, excrement of man, and urine, the
hair of a virgin goat, human bone." 58
The homoeopathic remedies included plants or roots
whose fantastic forms suggested a resemblance to the
demons of disease, or plants whose leaves, or roots, or
fruits, resembled organs of the human body. The
ginseng root has no medicinal value, still it is dug ex-
tensively in New England and exported to China, where
it is highly prized as a remedy, because its grotesque
forms are supposed to resemble various devils, and there-
fore to be a powerful aid in expelling them. We still find
traces of this theory of medicine in some modern popular
botanical names such as liver-wort, spleen-wort, blood-
root, etc.
"Thompson, I. p. 101.
•* Jastrow, o. c, p. 158.
2 3 o SPIRITISM vn
5. Adjuration. — When the gods had been placated,
and the magic rites had been performed, and the magic
drugs had been administered, the time had come for the
solemn adjuration of the demon to leave the body of the
sick man. Like all primitive peoples, the Sumerians be-
lieved in the magical power of the right form of words.
The priest knew the proper ritual in the case of every
disease; and when these words were uttered in connec-
tion with the prescribed ceremonies, the demon could not
withstand their power, but must leave the body of the
sufferer. In order to get control of the demon it was
important that his name should be mentioned in the ex-
orcism. As this was not always known, it was usual to
enumerate every variety of devil so that no one might
slip through by inadvertence. These exorcisms, accord-
ingly, are valuable sources of information in regard to
Babylonian demonology, they are a sort of "Who's Who
in Hell." After the demons are enumerated, the usual
formula of exorcism in Sumerian is u Zl AN-NA KAN-
PA ZI KI-A KAN-PA," or in Semitic translation "Ina
shame sibit ina irsitim sibitma" that is, "By Heaven be
thou exorcised, by Earth be thou exorcised." Other
gods are invoked and other forms of exorcism are used.
Then it is expected that sooner or later the demon will
yield to the spell and leave the man.
In the adjuration to the demon a curious argument is
often introduced. He is told that he shall have no food
or water until he comes out. This is an allusion to the
belief that the ghosts could not rest unless they received
their customary food-offerings and libations. They have
entered into the sick man because of lack of these offer-
ings, and they are told that they shall not receive them
until they go out again. Thus in one tablet we read :
"From the man, the son of his god,
Thou shalt have no food to eat,
Thou shalt have no water to drink,
Thou shalt not stretch forth thy hand
vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 231
Unto the table of my father Bel, thy creator.
Neither with sea-water, nor with sweet water,
Nor with bad water, nor with Tigris water,
Nor with Euphrates water, nor with pond water,
Nor with river water shalt thou be covered." B9
g. Necromancy. — The Babylonians and the Assyrians
believed that it was possible by certain magic rites to call
up spirits of the dead to answer questions or to injure
enemies. The person who possessed this power was
known as "raiser of the departed spirit." In the
Gilgamesh Epic 60 we are told how Gilgamesh applied
first to the god Enlil for help to bring up the ghost of
his dead friend Enkidu (Eabani), but received no answer.
He then applied to the moon-god, but equally unsuccess-
fully. Finally he applied to Enki (Ea), god of the
ocean, the master of magic arts, and obtained his request.
"Father Ea heard his prayer,
Spoke to the mighty one, the hero Nergal,
Mighty one, hero Nergal, hear his prayer!
Open at once the hole of the earth,
Let the ghost of Enkidu ascend out of the earth,
Let him tell his brother the law of the earth!
The mighty one, the hero Nergal . . .
Opened at once the hole of the earth,
And the ghost of Enkidu ascended like a wind out of the earth."
Gilgamesh then says to Enkidu:
"Tell me, my friend, tell me, my friend,
The law of the earth that thou hast seen."
The whole narrative bears a striking resemblance to
the account of the raising of the ghost of Samuel by the
witch of Endor in 1 Samuel, chapter 28.
•• Thompion, I. p. 61.
••Tablet xii. col. 3.
CHAPTER VIII
EARLIEST HEBREW CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEAD 1
From the period prior to the conquest of Canaan no
written records of the Hebrews have come down to us,
nevertheless, by means of the science of comparative
religion their earliest beliefs in regard to the nature and
destiny of the soul may be determined with a high degree
of certainty. When in the later writings of the Old
Testament we discover conceptions that are identical with
those of the other Semites and of primitive races through-
out the world, we are justified in inferring that these are
survivals from the earliest period of the religion of Israel.
a. The Distinction Between Soul and Body. — The
early Hebrews, like all the other Semites, regarded man
as composed of two elements, basar, or 'flesh,' and nefesh,
or 'breath.' The basar was the material element that
at death returned to dust. The same word was used for
the "meat" of slaughtered animals. Men were called
"flesh" and "all flesh" was used as a synonym for "man-
kind" to emphasize the transitory, perishable side of
human life. The nefesh or 'breath' was an ethereal
substance that inhabited the basar. It was identical with
the life. 2 It was the seat of knowledge, appetite, emo-
1 The most important works on Spiritism among the Hebrews are: Stade,
Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1881), I, 387ff.; Biblische Theologie (1905), 185ff.;
Schwally, Das Leben nach dent Tode nach den Vorstellungen des alten Israels
(1892); Frey, Tod, Seelenglaube und Seelenkult im alten Israel (1898); Charles,
A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (1899); Griineisen, Der
Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels (1900); Guerinot, "Le culte des morts
chez les Hebreux," Journal Asiatique, 1904, pp. 441-85; Lods, La croyance d la
vie future et le culte des morts dans I'antiquite israelite (1908); Margoliouth,
"Ancestor- Worship (Hebrew and Jewish)," Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion
and Ethics, I, 444-50, 457-61; Torge, Seelenglaube und Unsterblichkeitshoffnung
im Alten Testament (1909); Burney, Israel's Hope of Immortality (1909).
*Gen. 44:30 J; Ex. 21:23 E.
232
vni EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 233
tion, and activity. 3 In composition with the pronominal
suffixes nefesh had the meaning of 'self,' e. g., nafshi,
'my breath,' equals 'myself.' It resided in the blood,
hence the commandment, "Be sure that thou eat not the
blood, for the blood is the nefesh, and thou shalt not eat
the nefesh with the flesh; thou shalt pour it upon the
earth as water." 4 The heart as the chief receptacle of
blood in the body was also identified with the nefesh,
hence throughout the Old Testament "heart" is used in-
terchangeably with "breath" where we should say "mind"
or "soul." Death was caused by the departure of the
"breath." 5 Resurrection was the return of the "breath"
into the body. 6 Ruah, 'wind,' was used in the early
period practically as a synonym of nefesh, 'breath.'
b. The Continued Existence of the Disembodied
Soul. — The early Hebrews, like the other Semites, be-
lieved that the nefesh, or 'breath,' persisted after death.
The most ancient Hebrew tombs in Palestine contain
precisely the same deposits that are found in other
Semitic tombs, and bear witness to the same conception of
immortality that was held by the other Semitic peoples. 7
Nefesh is used as the name of the disembodied spirit. 8
Belief in the continued existence of the dead is strikingly
exemplified in the narrative of the appearance of the
ghost of Samuel to Saul. 9
c. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — The
Hebrews believed that the dead retained a large measure
of their former intellectual and emotional faculties.
The shades are represented as rejoicing at the downfall
of the king of Babylon. 10 Pharaoh is comforted when
8 E.g., I Sam. 2:16; Gen. 34:3 J; II Sam. 5:8.
♦Deut. 12:23f.; cf. Lev. 17:10; Gen. 9:4.
8 Gen. 35:18 J.
•I Ki. 17:21f.
7 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1904, pp. 328ff.
8 Cf. Lev. 19:28; 21:1; 21:11; Num. 5:2; 6:6; 6:11; 9:6f.; 9:10;
19:llf.; Hag. 2:13.
»I Sam., chap. 28.
10 Isa. 14:9£.
234 SPIRITISM vm
he sees the hosts of the dead that have preceded him. 11
Rachel mourns over the captivity of her children. 12 From
Isa. 63:16 it appears that some of the nation believed
that Abraham and Israel continued to care for their de-
scendants. According to I Sam. 28:16-19, Samuel re-
members his relations with Saul, and continues to feel
concern in the welfare of Israel. The blood of murdered
Abel cries to Yahweh from the earth, 13 that is, the soul
that resides in the blood is conscious of the wrong done
to it and demands vengeance. Compare Job 24:12:
"From out of the cities the dead groan, and the soul of
the slain crieth out"; also Enoch 9:10: "Now, behold,
the spirits of the dead cry out, and lament even unto the
gates of heaven"; and Rev. 6:9, where the souls under
the altar cry out: "How long, O Master, the holy and
true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell
on the earth?" A father's blessing or curse operates
after his death because he himself sees to its fulfilment.
Hence the exaggerated reverence for parents and the
aged that we find among the ancient Hebrews.
In contrast to these passages, which ascribe to the dead
a continuance of those powers of thought and feeling
that they enjoyed on earth, another view appears in the
later writings of the Old Testament, according to which
the dead have lost memory, knowledge, and desire. This
view, as we shall see more fully later, was a result of the
conflict of the religion of Yahweh against primitive
animism and ancestor-worship. The other conception,
which ascribed to the dead large powers of thought and
feeling, was, as comparative religion shows, the original
Hebrew belief. 14
d. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — The gen-
eral Semitic belief in the superhuman powers of disem-
bodied spirits was shared by the ancient Hebrews.
"Ezek. 32:31.
u Jer. 31:15.
18 Gen. 4:10.
" Charles, Eschatalogy Hebrew and Christian, p. 41.
viii EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 235
Ghosts, like gods, could take possession of stones or
images. Heaps of stones were placed over the graves
of Achan and of Absalom that their ghosts might remain
in them and trouble Israel no longer. 15 A massebd, or
'standing stone,' stood upon Rachel's grave 'unto this
day.' 16 This was doubtless a beth-el, or 'house of
deity,' as were all the other masseboth. 11 Masseboth
of this sort must have been the seats of cult of the dead,
since no exception is made in their favour in the sweeping
condemnation of later legislation. 18 The view of Stade,
Schwally, Budde, Holzinger, Nowack, and Charles that
the teraphim were images of ancestors cannot be dem-
onstrated, but is nevertheless exceedingly probable in view
of the facts that they were not images of Yahweh, 19 that
they represented the human form, 20 that they were house-
hold gods, 21 and that they were used for obtaining
oracles. 22 Etymologically the word may be connected
with rephaim, 'shades,' or with Bab. tarpu, 'spectre.'
It is interesting to note that Wisd. Sol. 14:15 connects
the origin of idolatry with images of the dead.
Of the belief that spirits could take possession of
animals we find no trace in the Old Testament, unless it
be in the list of unclean beasts Lev., chap. 1 1, and Deut.,
chap. 14. It is noteworthy that the animals and birds
here pronounced unclean are precisely those which the
other Semites regarded as most often possessed by spirits.
From Exod. 20:4 (cf. II Kings 18:4; Ezek. 8:10) we
learn that the early Hebrews worshipped images of
animals, which shows that they regarded animals as the
abodes of spirits.
Of the idea that spirits could take possession of men,
causing disease, insanity, or inspiration, a survival is seen
"Josh. 7:26; II Sam. 18:17.
"Gen. 35:20; cf. II Sam. 18:18.
"Gen. 3S:14f.
"Exod. 23:24; 34:13; Lev. 26:1; Deut. 7:5; 12:3; 16:22.
"Gen. 35:2, 4, E; cf. 31:19, E.
20 1 Sam. 19:13, 16.
"Gen. 31:30, 34; Judg. 17:5; I Sam. 19:13, 16.
"I Sam. 15:23; II Kings 23:24; Ezek. 21:21; Zech. 10:2.
236 SPIRITISM vm
among the Hebrews in the fact that diseases such as
leprosy rendered one ceremonially unclean. Being caused
by rival spirits, they roused the jealousy of Yahweh, and
excluded the sufferer from his cult. In later times they
were ascribed to the activity of Yahweh himself, who thus
absorbed the functions of the ancient lesser spirits; 23
but, with curious inconsistency, the diseases still remained
unclean. The insanity of Saul was due to "an evil spirit
from Yahweh that terrified him," 24 and such insanity
protected a man from injury, because, as in the modern
Orient, he was regarded as inspired. 25 To stir up trouble
between Abimelech and the Shechemites, God sent an
evil spirit into them; 26 and in order that Sennacherib
might depart, Yahweh sent a spirit into him. 27 In the
developed Hebrew theology all extraordinary talents or
powers were ascribed to possession by the spirit of
Yahweh; 28 but this idea was due to absorption by
Yahweh of the functions of originally independent spirits,
as is shown by the survival in the Hebrew language of
such expressions as "spirit of wisdom, spirit of might,
spirit of jealousy, spirit of error, spirit of deep sleep."
Spirits of the dead possessed greater knowledge than
living men. When the ghost of Samuel appeared to Saul,
he predicted to him his impending death and the defeat
of Israel. 29 Hence when these spirits took possession
of men they induced clairvoyant powers. Such a pos-
sessing spirit was called yidde'oni, 'the knowing one,'
or as our version renders it, 'familiar spirit.' 30 Another
name is 'obh, the etymology and exact meaning of which
are unknown. 31 Because of these superhuman powers
"Num. 12:10; I Sam. 25:38; I Kings 17:20.
21 1 Sam. 16:14.
26 I Sam. 21:12-15; 24:7.
28 Judg. 9:23.
"II Kings 19:7.
28 Exod. 28:3; 31:3; Num. 27:18; Judg. 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14;
I Sam. 11:6.
28 I Sam. 28:19.
3 »I Sam. 28:3, 9; Isa. 8:19; 19:3; II Ki. 21:6; 23:24; Deut. 18:11; Lev.
19:31; 20:6; 27.
"I Sam. 28:7f.; Isa. 29:4.
viii EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 237
the Hebrews, like the other Semites, applied to ghosts the
name elohim, 'gods.' 32
The dead were believed to retain the semblance of
their former bodies, and to be able to appear not only
to one another but also to the living. The ghost of
Samuel was recognized by Saul because he appeared as
"an old man covered with a robe." 33 The kings of the
earth still wore their royal apparel and sat on thrones
in the other world. 34 The dead of all the different
nations were recognizable by their features and their
costumes. The warriors "had their weapons of war
and laid their swords under their heads." The uncir-
cumcised remained uncircumcised; those pierced with the
sword still showed the fatal gash. 35 Hence wounded
warriors committed suicide that they might appear in
the other world to have died as heroes. 36
In the Old Testament appearances of ghosts are rarely
mentioned, because the religion of Yahweh was opposed
to necromancy and the cult of the dead; still there is the
classical instance of the raising of Samuel. 37 In post-
biblical literature apparitions of the dead are more fre-
quently mentioned. Thus in II Mac. 15:12-16 the high
priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah appear to Judas
Maccabasus on the eve of the battle with the Syrians,
and in Josephus 38 Alexander appears to his widow
Glaphyra.
e. Powers Lost by the Soul in Death. — The Hebrews,
like the other Semites, thought of the soul as losing its
physical powers in parting from the body. For them it
was only "breath" or "wind." The common name for
ghosts is rephaim, 'feeble ones.' 39 In Isa. 14:10 the
ghosts say: "Art thou also become weak as we?" In
82 I Sam. 28:13.
33 I Sam. 28:14.
84 Isa. 14:9.
S5 Ezek. 32:21-32; cf. 28:10; 31:18.
86 Judg. 9:54; I Sam. 31:4; II Sam. 17:23.
"I Sam., chap. 28; cf. Job 4:15.
88 Ant. XVII, 13:4; War, II, 7:4.
89 Job 26:5; Ps. 88:11 [10]; Prov. 2:18; Isa. 14:9; 26:19.
238 SPIRITISM vm
Ps. 88 :4 the sick man says: "I am like to them that go
down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help."
According to Isa. 59:10 they "grope as those that have
no eyes, and stumble at noon as in the twilight." 40 Such
statements show that the Hebrews inherited from their
forefathers the general belief of primitive man in the
shadowy, unsubstantial nature of disembodied souls.
/. The Abode of the Disembodied Spirit. — Among
the Hebrews, as among the other Semites, the soul was
believed to retain a close connection with its dead body.
The corpse and everything connected with it rendered
one who touched it taboo. Originally this was a sacred
taboo due to the presence of the revered spirits in the
body; subsequently, in consequence of the opposition of
Yahwism to the cult of the dead, it was regarded as
an unclean taboo. 41 The cult of the patriarchs and
heroes that was carried on at their graves proves that
they were supposed still to haunt their bodies. The
voice of Rachel weeping for her children was heard in
Ramah on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem where
her body was buried. 42 Similarly, in Mark 5 :5, the man
possessed by the unclean spirit dwelt among the tombs.
Injuries to the body were still felt by the soul. Job
14:2 if., while denying that the dead man cares anything
about his sons, yet affirms, "Only for his own body he
feels pain, and for his own soul he mourns," Hence
mutilation of the corpses of enemies was practised by
the Hebrews as by other ancient peoples. 43
Among the Hebrews there existed the same horror of
remaining unburied that was felt by the other Semites.
Fathers on their deathbeds solemnly charged their sons
not to neglect the last rites. 44 When the prophet de-
clared, "They shall not be gathered nor buried, they
««Cf. Ezek. 26:20f.
"E.g., Num. 19:11 P.
«Jer. 31:15; Gen. 35:16-20.
*»I Sam. 17:51ff.; 18:25, 27; II Sam. 4:12; 20:22.
"E.g., Gen. 47:30.
vin EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 239
shall be as dung upon the face of the ground," 45 this
was a fearful curse. Still more terrible was the thought
of being devoured by beasts. 46 So dreadful did it seem
to refuse burial that this was accorded even to crim-
inals, 47 or to those who committed suicide. 48 Only the
bodies of foreign enemies, or of the most heinous offend-
ers were left unburied, 49 or were burnt. 50 Violation of
tombs and burning of their contents were regarded as
terrible calamities. 51
Not merely burial but also burial in the family grave
was earnestly desired by the Hebrews. Jacob required
of Joseph that he should bury him in the burying-place
of his fathers. 52 Of nearly all the kings of Judah it is
recorded that they were buried with their fathers in the
city of David; hence the euphemistic expressions for
burial, "gather unto one's fathers," "gather unto one's
kin," "lie with one's fathers." Exclusion from the family
tomb was a severe punishment. 53 All this shows that
the Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, believed that the
soul lingered with the corpse, and that by burial in the
family tomb it enjoyed the fellowship of its relatives.
This explains why offerings to the dead were placed
either in or upon their graves. Hebrew tombs in Pales-
tine contain the same sorts of deposits that are placed
in the earlier Canaanite tombs, and offerings to the dead
are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament.
54
"Jer. 25:33; cf. Isa. 14:18f.; Jer. 22:19; 36:30.
"II Sam. 21:10; I Kings 14:13; II Kings 9:35ff.
"Deut. 21:22f.; Josh. 7:24-26.
"Josephus, War, III, 8:5.
*»I Sam. 17:44; Ezek. 29:5.
Isa. 30:33; Gen. 38:24; Lev. 20:14; Josh. 7:15.
"Am. 2:1; I Kings 13:2; II Kings 23:16, 20.
"Gen. 47:30; cf. 50:25; II Sam. 17:23; 19:37; 21:14.
"II Sam. 18:17; I Kings 13:22; II Kings 21:18; II Chron. 28:27.
"Deut. 26:14; Jer. 16:7; Ezek. 24:17, 22; II Chron. 16:14.
CHAPTER IX
BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE ON HEBREW CONCEPTIONS OF
THE DEAD
In the previous chapter we considered those conceptions
of the future life which the Hebrews held before their
migration out of their primitive home in the Arabian
desert. We must now consider the new elements that
entered their eschatology in consequence of the conquest
of Canaan.
The Canaanites were a Semitic people, closely akin
to Israel; and their original beliefs concerning the soul,
as archaeology shows, were identical with those of the
other Semites; but, as a result of long-continued Babylo-
nian influence, these beliefs had undergone many im-
portant modifications during the two millenniums that
preceded the Hebrew conquest. 1 Babylonian ideas of
the other world were adopted by the Canaanites, and
were passed on to the Hebrews who settled among them
and amalgamated with them. As a result of this process
the Old Testament contains not only primitive Semitic
beliefs about the future life, but also another diverse
cycle of ideas which goes back ultimately to a Babylonian
origin.
The Hebrew conception of Sheol is in every particular
the counterpart of the ancient Babylonian conception of
Aralu as described in chapter vii. As among the
Babylonians, so also in the Old Testament "Death" or
"the Dead," is used frequently in poetic parallelism with
Sheol. 2 As among the Babylonians, so also in the Old
1 Paton, Early History of Syria and Palestine, chap. iv.
'E.g., II Sam. 22:Sf.; Hos. 13:14; Ps. 115:17.
240
ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 241
Testament "Earth" is a frequent synonym of Sheol. 3 To
the Babylonian conception of the "Great Beneath" cor-
responds the Hebrew Eres-tahtiyd (or tahtiyoth), which
our version renders "the lower part of the earth" but
which more properly means "Lower Land" or "Under-
world." 4 The Babylonian idea of "the Hollow" appears
in the Old Testament in the name B6r, 'the Pit,' 5 or
the synonymous Shahath. 6
As in Babylonia so also in the Old Testament one
"goes down" or is "brought down" to Sheol, 7 and the
sick man who barely escapes death is said to be "brought
up" from She 61* How literally this language is meant
is shown by the story of Koran and his company who
"went down alive into Sheol" 9 or Amos 9:2, which
speaks of "digging into Sheol." Isa. 7:11 speaks of
"going deep unto She 61" ; Isa. 29 :4 of the shade as
speaking "deep from the earth" ; Isa. 57 :g t of "descending
deep unto Sheol." Sheol is called the "under part of
the earth," 10 and both Sheol and the Pit have the ad-
jective "beneath" attached to them. 11 Ecclus. 51:5
speaks of the "depth of the belly of Hades." Sheol is
lower than the foundations of the mountains. 12 Beneath
the earth are the "waters under the earth," 13 but Sheol is
lower than these. 14 The deepest thing conceivable is
said to be "deeper than Sheol," 15 and the depths of Sheol
are often contrasted with the heights of heaven. 16
3 Exod. 15:12; Isa. 14:9; 29:4; Eccles. 3:21; see Gunkel, Schopfung und Chaos,
p. 18.
4 Ezek. 26:20; 31:14; 32:18, 24.
5 Ezek. 26:20; 31:14, 16; 32:18, 23; Isa. 14:15, 19; 38:18; Ps. 28:1; 30:3;
40:2; 88:6; 143:7; Prov. 1:12; 28:17; Lam. 3:53, 55.
«Job 33:18, 24, 28, 30; Isa. 38:17; 51:14; Ezek. 28:8.
7 Ps. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4; 107:26; 143:7; Isa. 14:19; 38:18; Ezek. 26:20;
31:14, 16; 32:18f.
8 I Sam. 2:6; Jos 33:24, 28, 30; Ps. 9:13; 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13; Lam.
3:53, 55; Jonah 2:6; Wis. 16:13; Tob. 13:2.
8 Num. 16:30-33; cf. Ps. 55:15; Prov. 1:12.
J0 Ps. 63:9; 139:15; Isa. 44:23.
11 Deut. 32:22; Ps. 88:6; Lam. 3:55.
15 Deut. 32:22; Jonah 2:6.
- 3 Gen. 49:25; Exod. 20:4; Amos 7:4.
"Job 26:5; Lam. 3:53; Jonah 2:3f.
"Job 11:8.
"Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Isa. 7:11; Amos 9:2.
242 SPIRITISM ix
Like the Babylonians, the Hebrews believed that Sheol
was ordinarily entered through a gate in the western
horizon by which the sun, moon, and stars went down.
In Enoch 22:1-4 the entrance to Sheol is described as
lying in the distant west. The Hebrews conceived of
the earth as surrounded by water, and therefore spoke
of the "ends of the earth." To reach Sheol one had to
pass across, or through the waters. II Sam. 22:$i.
(=Ps. i8:4f.) reads: "The waves of Death compassed
me, the floods of Belial made me afraid, the cords of
Sheol were round about me, the snares of Death came
upon me" ; and Jonah 2 :2-5 : "Out of the belly of Sheol
I cried . . . for thou didst cast me into the depth, into
the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me;
all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. . . . The
waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep
was round about me; the weeds were wrapped about my
head." 17 Deut. 30:i2f. contrasts "crossing the sea"
with "going up into heaven," and in Rom. 10:7 "crossing
the sea" is interpreted as "descending into the abyss."
Of the ferryman across the "Waters of Death" there is
no trace in the Old Testament. Spirits are supposed
rather to "fly away" to their abode. 18 The bird-like
form assumed by the soul for its journey was a wide-
spread belief of antiquity, and appears probably in the
word "twitter" that is used of the voice of ghosts. 19
The Babylonian conception of the seven divisions of
Sheol is familiar to Jewish Theology. 20 They are first
mentioned in II Esdras 7.80 ff., but the idea is certainly
much more ancient. Prov. 7 127 knows of the "chambers
of Death" and Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 32:23 of the "recesses
of the Pit." The gates of Sheol are referred to in Job
38 :i 7; Ps. 9:13; 107:18; Isa. 38 :io; Wis. 16:13; Matt.
16:18; and their bars in Job 17:16; Jonah 2:6. The
"Cf. Job 36:16f.; Ps. 88:7; 107:26; 124:3-5; Lam. 3:54; Amos 9:2£.
"Ps. 90:10.
19 Isa. 8:19; 29:4.
10 Eiaenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, II, 328ff.
ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 243
Greek text of Job 38:17 speaks of the "gatekeepers of
Sheol."
The same confusion between the grave and Sheol that
existed in Babylonia is found also in the Old Testament.
Sheol and the grave are used interchangeably in a great
number of passages. 21 Isa. 14:11 says, "Thy pomp is
brought down to Sheol . . . the worm is spread under
thee, and worms cover thee." Ezek. 32:17-32 speaks
of all the nations as lying in graves in the midst of Sheol.
Like the Babylonians, the Hebrews regarded Sheol as a
place of darkness. In Job 10:2 if. it is called "The land
of darkness and of deep gloom, the land of thick dark-
ness like darkness itself, the land of deep gloom without
any order, and where the light is as darkness." 22 As
among the Babylonians, so also in the Old Testament
"dust" is a synonym of Sheol. 23
The Babylonian belief in a king of Sheol who ruled
over a host of malignant spirits is found also in the Old
Testament. Sheol is frequently personified as a hungry
monster opening its jaws to devour men. 24 It seems to
have been worshipped as a deity by the Canaanites, to
judge from certain place-names in Palestine. 25 Muth,
'Death,' was deified by the Phoenicians. 26 He appears
in the Hebrew personal name Ahi-Moth, 'Death is a
brother,' and probably in several place-names. In the
Old Testament Death is often personified and is used in
parallelism with Sheol. 27 He appears as the ruler of
Sheol in Ps. 49:14: "They are appointed as a flock for
Sheol, Death shall be their shepherd" ; and in Job 18:14:
"He shall be brought to the King of Terrors." Another
demon of the Underworld is apparently Belial
(B e liya'al) , which the scribes have fancifully vocalized
n E.g., Gen. 37:35; Ps. 88:3, 5, 11.
S2 Cf. Job 17:13; 38:17; Ps. 88:6, 12; 143:3; Ps. of Sol. 14:19.
M Job 7:21; 17:16; Isa. 29:4.
"Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5; Jonah 2:2; Prov. 1:12; 27:20; 30:15f.
25 H. P. Smith, in Studies in Memory of W. R. Harper, I, 55.
M Ibid, 61.
"Job 30:23; 38:17; Ps. 107:18.
244 SPIRITISM ix
as though it meant 'without use,' but which may mean
'the god who swallows' (Bdli'el). 28 Similar is the
"destroyer" of Exod. 12:23, or the "destroyers" of Job
33 :22. Diseases are often personified as the evil demons
of Sheol: "Terrors shall make him afraid on every
side, and shall chase him at his heels. His strength shall
be hunger-bitten, and Calamity shall be ready at his side.
It shall devour the members of his body, yea the First-
born of Death shall devour his members"; 29 "Shall I
ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem
them from Death? Hither with thy plagues, O Death!
Hither with thy pestilence, O Sheol!"; 30 "The pangs
of Death compassed me, and the pains of Sheol got
hold upon me." 31 The death-angels of later Judaism
are simply the degraded gods of the Underworld of an
earlier period.
The inevitableness of Sheol was keenly felt by the
early Babylonians, and similarly the ancient Hebrews
said, "I go the way of all the earth"; 32 "I know that
thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the house appointed
for all the living"; 33 "What man is he that shall live
and not see Death, that shall deliver his soul from the
hand of Sheol?" 34 "Remember the sentence upon him,
for so also shall thine be; yesterday for me, and today
for thee." 35 Only a few Babylonian heroes escaped
going down to Sheol by being translated to the gods. In
the Old Testament we have the similar cases of Enoch 36
and Elijah. 37 Such translations were, however, so rare
that they constituted no basis for hope that men in
general would escape the common doom of humanity.
"Nah. 1:15; II Sam. 22:5 (=Ps. 18:5).
"E.g., Job. 18:11-13.
w Hos. 13:14.
»Ps. 116:3; cf. II. Sam. 22:6.
"Josh. 23:14; I Kings 2:2.
»Job 30:23.
**Ps. 89:48.
"Ecclus. 38:22.
M Gen. 5:24.
• T II Kings 2:11.
ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 245
Like the Babylonian literature, the Old Testament
knows of a distinction in the fate of the dead in Sheol.
Ezek. 31:16 speaks of the kings of the earth as "the
trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, that drink
water and are comforted in the nether parts of the
earth." Ezek. 32:23; Isa. 14:15, 19 speak of those who
go down to "the recesses of the Pit" or the "stones of
the Pit" ; but in both of these cases their sad fate is not
due to sin, but to the fact that they are "cast forth from
the sepulchre like an abominable branch ... as a
carcase trodden under foot." Lack of burial prevented
rest in Sheol, and lack of burial in the family tomb ex-
cluded one from the society of his relatives, 38 but there
is no trace in the Old Testament of a division of the dead
on the basis of character. The sinner is threatened with
Sheol as a punishment, but never with a particular section
of Sheol. 39 The righteous Samuel says to the wicked
Saul, who has been rejected by the Lord, "Tomorrow
shalt thou and thy sons be with me." 40 Jacob says, "I
shall go down to the grave unto my son mourning," in
spite of the fact that he supposes Joseph to have been
devoured by a beast, and therefore to be unburied. 41
The Old Testament thinks far more frequently of the
miserable lot of all the shades than of distinctions that
exist among them. Isa. 14:9-23 and Ezek. 32:18-32
speak of all men of all races as dwelling together in Sheol,
and Job 3 :I3-I9 says:
"Now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have
slept; then had I been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the
earth who built tombs for themselves, or with princes that had
gold, who filled their houses with silver: or as a hidden untimely
birth I had not been: as infants which never saw light. There
the wicked cease from troubling ; and there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice
" See p. 239.
-Cf. Prov. 2:18; 21:16.
40 I Sam. 28:19.
"Gen. 37:33, 35 J.
246 SPIRITISM ix
of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there; and the
slave is free from his master."
The Babylonian laments over the impossibility of re-
turning from Sheol find their echo in the Old Testament.
David says, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return
to me"; 42 and the wise woman of Tekoa, "We must
needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which
cannot be gathered up again" ; 43 "As the cloud is con-
sumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to
Sheol shall come up no more. He shall return no more
to his house, neither shall his place know him any
more." 44
Like the Babylonian literature, the Old Testament
holds that in severe illness the soul leaves the body and
begins its journey to the Underworld. Thus Job 33 119-22
says: "He is chastened with pain upon his bed, and with
continual strife in his bones. His flesh is consumed away
that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen
stick out. Yea his soul draweth near unto the Pit, and
his life to the Destroyers." Similarly Ps. 88 :3f. : "My
soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth near unto
Sheol. I am counted with them that go down into the
Pit." Isa. 29:4 speaks of half-dead Judah as speaking
like a ghost out of the ground. When Yahweh, like the
Babylonian "Quickeners of the Dead," takes pity on the
sufferer and restores him to health, he is said to bring
him back from Sheol. Thus Hezekiah, when cured of his
dangerous illness, says: "Thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the Pit of Beli[al?]." 45 In none of
these passages is a resurrection referred to, or even a
blessed immortality for the disembodied spirit, but only
a release from impending death. The doctrine of a resur-
rection of the body does not appear in the Old Testament
"II Sam. 12:23.
"II Sam. 14:14.
"Job 7:9f.; cf. 10:21; 16:22; Eccles. 12:5; Ecclus. 38:21; Wis. 16:14.
"Isa. 38:17; cf. I Sam. 2:6; Job 33:24, 28, 30; Ps. 9:13; 16:10; 30:3; 49:15;
86:13; Lam. 3:53, 55; Jonah 2:6; Wis. 16:13; Tob. 13:2.
ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 247
until after the Exile, and therefore has no connection
with ancient Babylonian beliefs. Three cases are re-
corded in pre-exilic literature of a raising of the dead
to life. The first is Elijah's raising of the widow's son, 46
the second is Elisha's raising of the son of the woman of
Shunem, 47 and the third is the raising, of a dead man
through contact with the bones of Elisha. 48 In all these
cases apparent death had just occurred, but the body had
not yet been buried, so that one may question whether
the connection between soul and body had been com-
pletely severed. These restorations do not differ ma-
terially from the preceding instances in which the souls
of the dangerously ill are brought back from the gates
of Sheol. Pre-exilic literature does not know a single
instance in which reanimation occurs after dissolution has
set in.
From the foregoing study it appears that the Old Tes-
tament doctrine of Sheol is the counterpart in every par-
ticular of the Babylonian doctrine of Aralu, and there can
be no doubt that, directly or indirectly, it has been derived
from Babylonia. When we consider the fact that this belief
appears in the earliest Hebrew literature we must assume
that it was acquired soon after the conquest of Canaan;
and that probably it was acquired from the earlier
inhabitants of the land, who, as is known from recent
archaeological discoveries, had become thoroughly Baby-
lonianized long before the arrival of the Hebrews.
"I Kings 17:21ff.
« II Kingg 4:32ff.
"II Kings 13:21.
CHAPTER X
WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL
The mourning and funeral rites of the ancient Hebrews
were closely similar to those of the other Semites, and
have also many analogies in the customs of primitive
and uncivilized races throughout the world. There can
be no doubt, therefore, that they belonged to the earliest
period of the religion of Israel. They all point to an
original cult of the dead.
a. Removal of Garments. — As soon as death oc-
curred, or news of it was received, the Hebrews "tore
off" (A. V. "rent") their garments. 1 Originally, doubt-
less, the mourner remained naked as long as the funeral
rites lasted; but, with advancing civilization, this was
felt to be indecent; and therefore, after the garments
had been torn off, sackcloth was usually girded on. 2 The
"sackcloth" was merely a kilt of goat or camel's hair,
such as had been worn by the forefathers in the desert.
It was the nearest approach to nakedness that propriety
would allow. Bare feet were unobjectionable, and
therefore remained a sign of mourning down to late
times. 3 In the post-exilic period the Jews were satisfied
with merely tearing off the upper garment. 4 By the time
of Christ the custom was conventionalized into a mere
tearing of a small piece out of the robe, or a baring of
the arm and shoulder. 5
x Cf. Mic. 1:8, 11; Isa. 20:2.
»Gen. 37:34; II Sam. 3:31; I Kings 21:27; II Kings 6:30; 19:1; Esther 4:1.
•II Sam. 15:30; Ezek. 24:17.
*Ezra 9:3; Num. 14:6.
• Buchler, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, XXI, 81-92;
Jastrow, "The Tearing of Garments as a Sign of Mourning," Journal American
Oriental Society, XXI, 23.
248
x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 249
The custom had a religious origin. The case of Saul,
who stripped off his garments when he prophesied, and
lay all night naked, 6 shows that in early times nudity was
regarded as the proper condition for a seer. Even in
later days the prophets wore the primitive skin apron
( "hairy mantle" ) ? Sandals were removed from the feet
when entering holy ground. 8 Similarly one stripped one's
self and removed one's sandals when mourning because
one was about to take part in the cult of the dead. 9 This
rite was forbidden to the high priest 10 as it was an act
of worship to another deity than Yahweh.
b. Covering the Head. — The Hebrews had also the
custom of covering the head or mouth, or laying the hand
on the head as an act of mourning. 11 The most natural
interpretation of this ceremony is suggested by Exod.
3 :6 ; I Kings 19:13, where the prophets cover their heads
in the presence of Yahweh so as to protect themselves
from death if they looked upon him. 12
c. Cuttings in the Flesh. — These are referred to by
Jeremiah as established forms of mourning to which
the prophet does not object. 13 In Lev. 19:28 they are
associated with tattooed marks. The fact that they are
prohibited by Lev. 19:28; 21:5, and Deut. 14:1 shows
that they are known to be religious rites in honour
of the dead. Lev. 19:28 states expressly that they are
made "for a spirit." The interpretation of the custom
is furnished by I Kings 18 :2 8, where the prophets of Baal
cut themselves in honour of their god.
d. Cutting the Hair. — In mourning the Hebrews
shaved the head, 14 made a "bald spot between the
•I Sam. 19:24.
'II Kings 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6.
8 Exod. 3:5; Josh. 5:15.
8 See Jastrow, "The Tearing of Garments as a Symbol of Mourning," Jour.
Am. Orient. Soc, XXI, 23ff.
30 Lev. 21:10.
"II Sam. 13:19; 15:30; 19:4; Esther 6:12; Ezek. 24:17, 22; Mic. 3:7.
"Exod. 33:20.
ls Jer. 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; 48:37.
"Mic. 1:16; Isa. 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 16:6; 47:5; 48:37; Deut. 21:12; Lev. 21:5.
250 SPIRITISM x
eyes," 15 or shaved off the beard. 10 In later times a
little of the hair was plucked out as a ceremonial
equivalent. This performance also must be interpreted
as an act of worship to the dead. The hair of the nazirite
was dedicated to Yahweh, and was presented as a sacrifice
when his vow expired. 17 The prohibition of cutting the
hair for the dead 18 shows also that it was regarded as
a religious ceremony.
e. Covering with Dust or Ashes. — The Hebrews,
when mourning, seem originally to have wallowed in the
dust. 19 Subsequently they sat in the dust, 20 or put dust
upon their heads. 21 The rite is evidently a symbolic act
of communion with the dead.
/. Fasting. — Fasting usually lasted until the evening
of the day of death. 22 When it was continued over a
longer period, e.g., seven days, 23 food was taken only
after the sun had set, as in the Muhammadan feast of
Ramadan.
g. Burial. — Immediately after death the eyes of the
corpse were closed, 24 probably also the mouth, though
this does not happen to be mentioned before the Mishna.
The body was then washed, 25 anointed with perfumed
oils, 26 dressed in its best attire, and bound up in the
position of an unborn child, as we know from the remains
in early Hebrew tombs in Palestine. 27 These customs
are not mentioned in the Old Testament, but their an-
tiquity is proved by the fact that they existed also among
" Deut. 14:1.
"Isa. 15:2; Jer. 41:5; 48:37.
"Num. 6:5, 18; Judg. 13:5; 16:17.
" Lev. 21:5; Deut. 14:1.
,9 Mic. 1:10; Jer. 6:26; Ezek. 27:30; Esther 4:3.
2u Isa. 26:19; 47:1; 52:2; 58:5; Ezek. 28:18; Job 2:8; Jonah 3:6.
"Josh. 7:6; I Sam. 4:12; II Sam. 1:2; 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:12; Lam.
2:10; Ezek. 27:30; II Mace. 10:25; 14:15; Rev. 18:19.
"II Sam. 1:12; 3:35; 12:21.
28 I Sam. 31:13.
"Gen. 46:4.
"Acts 9:37.
"Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 12:3, 7; 19:40
"Cf. Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53.
x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 251
the Babylonians and the Arabs. 28 As in the modern
Orient, the interment probably took place in the evening
of the day of death, which explains why fasting usually
lasted until the evening. 29 The body was carried to the
grave on a bier, 30 and coffins were unknown in the early
period. The poor were laid on the ground, or in a
shallow trench, and were covered with a mound of earth.
The rich were buried in caves or in artificial tombs that
they had hewn out for themselves during their lifetime. 31
In pre-exilic days these tombs were entered by holes in
the roofs, and the dead were deposited one above the
other in layers on the floor. 32 On the importance attached
to burial in the family tomb see pp. 238, 245. With the
dead were deposited food and drink, pottery, lamps,
implements, weapons, ornaments, amulets, and images of
various sorts. 33 Many of the articles were broken, the
idea being doubtless to liberate their spirits so that they
might join the spirit of the dead.
h. The Sanctity of Tombs. — The Book of Genesis
and the other early historical books record the burial
places of the forefathers with the same interest that they
show in tracing the origin of the numerous holy springs,
holy trees, holy mountains, and holy stones. That they
enjoyed a similar sanctity is proved by numerous refer-
ences to them as seats of worship. At Hebron, the burial
place of Sarah and Abraham, 34 the chiefs made a cove-
nant 35 and Absolom paid his vows. 36 It was a "city of
refuge" 37 and a city of the priests. 38 According to
Sozomen, 39 religious rites were kept up here as late as
28 King, Babylonian Religion, pp. 48ff. ; Wellhausen, Reste, 1 p. 178.
89 II Sam. 1:12; 3:35; 12:21; cf. Deut. 21:23.
60 II Sam. 3:31.
"Gen. 23:9; II Kings 23:16; Isa. 22:16.
83 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1904, pp. 328ff.
**lbid., pp. 332-35.
"Gen. 23:19; 25:9.
"II Sam. 5:3.
"II Sam. 15:7, 12.
"Josh. 20:7.
"Josh. 21:11.
•• Histor. eccl., II, 4.
252 SPIRITISM x
Christian times. The Haram, or 'sanctuary,' that
covers the supposed cave of Machpelah is still one of the
chief holy places of Islam, and Jews come thither from all
parts of the world to pray to Abraham and Sarah. At
Ramah, the burial place of Rachel, 40 there was a holy
stone upon her grave. On the grave of Deborah below
Bethel there stood a tree known as Allon-bdkhiith, 'the
holy tree of weeping.' 41 The burial place of Miriam was
Kadesh, 'the sanctuary.' 42 Shechem, the burial-place
of Joseph, 43 was the site of a holy tree called "the oak of
the oracle," or "the oak of the diviners," 44 of a holy
stone, 45 of an altar 46 and of a temple. 47 It was also a city
of refuge. 48 Of similar character as sanctuaries were
probably the graves of the heroes Tola, 49 Jair, 50 Ibzan, 51
Elon, 52 and Abdon. 53
The Book of Kings records with equal care the burial
places of the kings of Judah. Ezek. 43 17-9 shows clearly
that in his day these were seats of worship. The words
"whoredom" and "abomination" that he applies to them
are the ones that are commonly used by the prophets for
the cult of strange gods. Isa. 65 :?,{. speaks also of
people who provoke Yahweh to his face continually,
"who dwell among the graves and lodge in the vaults."
The "uncleanness" of graves in the later Hebrew re-
ligion is additional proof that originally they were places
of worship. Among ancient peoples everything connected
with death was "taboo," i.e., it could not be touched with-
*°Gen. 35:19; I Sam. 10:2; Jer. 31:15.
11 Gen. 35:8.
"Num. 20:1.
"Josh. 24:32.
"Gen. 12:6; Deut. 11:30; Judg. 9:37.
"Josh. 24:26f.
"Gen. 12:7; 22:9.
"Judg. 9:4, 46.
"Josh. 20:7.
*»Judg. 10:lf.
60 Judg. 10:3-5.
"Judg. 12:8-10.
"Judg. 12:llf.
"Judg. 12:13-15.
x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 253
out falling under the influence of a spirit. 54 Among the
Semites the word for taboo was kddlwsh, which we com-
monly render "holy." Into the religion of Yahweh many
ancient Semitic taboos were taken up, and continued to
be regarded as "holy." Other taboos were felt to belong
to inferior spirits or to rival gods, and were now pro-
nounced "unclean." Thus foreign rites make Yahweh's
land "unclean," 55 and alien worship makes the Temple
"unclean." 56 Now, as we have just seen, the graves of
the patriarchs and heroes were at first regarded as
"holy," and were favourite places of sacrifice. Archae-
ology shows that in pre-exilic times the dead were buried
without hesitation within the city walls or even in
houses, 57 but in later literature dead bodies and graves
render anyone who touches them ceremonially "un-
clean." 58 Bones of the dead defile the altar of Yah-
weh. 59 This change from "holy" to "unclean" can be
explained only as due to a growing consciousness that
the ancient sanctity of tombs was inconsistent with the
sole authority of Yahweh. Hence corpses and every-
thing connected with them were placed under a ban.
That this is the correct interpretation of the taboo is
shown ( 1 ) by the fact that it is called "uncleanness for
a spirit" (nefesh), G0 which shows that the uncleanness
does not come from the corpse but from the spirit as-
sociated with it; (2) by the fact that priests, who are
specially connected with the worship of Yahweh, are
allowed to "defile themselves for a spirit" only in a few
exceptional cases, 61 and that nazirites are not allowed to
defile themselves at all. 62
H Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, chap. vi.
55 Jer. 2:7, 23; 3:2, 9; Ezek. 36:18.
"Jer. 7:30; Ezek. 43:7, 9.
87 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, p. 347. This cus-
tom is also attested by I Sam. 25:1; 28:3; I Kings 2:10, 34; 11:43; 14:31,
etc.; II Kings 21:18, 26; Ezek. 43:7f.
58 Deut. 26:14; Ezek. 43:7f.; Num. 19:11; Matt. 23:27.
69 1 Kings 13:2; II Kings 23:14, 16, 20.
60 Lev. 21:1, 11; 22:4; Num. 5:2; 6:6, 11; 9:6f., 10; 19:llf.; Hag. 2:13.
• J Lev. 21:1-4, 11.
" Num. 6:6.
254 SPIRITISM x
i. Sacrifice to the Dead. — Among the Hebrews the
persistence of sacrifice to the dead down to a late time
is attested by the confession in Deut. 26:14, "I have not
given thereof for the dead." According to Josephus, 63
the tomb of David was filled with treasures; and accord-
ing to II Chron. 16:14, Asa's tomb was filled with sweet
odours and spices, and they made a very great burning for
him. This was the usual custom at the burial of kings. 64
Ps. 106:28 declares of the forefathers, "They ate the
sacrifices of the dead." Tob. 4:17 commends offerings
to the dead: "Pour out thy bread on the tomb of the
just"; and similarly Ecclus. 7:33: "A gift hath grace in
the sight of every living man, so from a dead man keep
not back grace." 65 Others mention the cult of the dead
as practised in their day, but regard it as useless and
wicked. 66 In later Judaism the saying of the Kaddish
by the oldest son takes the place of the ancient sacrifices. 67
The existence of sacrificial funeral feasts among the
Hebrews is attested by Jer. 16:7: "Neither shall men
break bread for a mourner to comfort him for the dead,
nor shall one give him the cup of consolation to drink on
account of his father or his mother" ; also by Ezek. 24 117
(emended text) , "Eat not the bread of mourning." Since
eating these offerings involved participation in the wor-
ship of another god than Yahweh, it rendered one
"unclean." 68
Among the Hebrews the duty of bringing sacrifices and
libations rested upon the oldest son. Hence the double
portion given to the firstborn. 69 Childlessness was re-
garded as the greatest possible misfortune, 70 and the
proper blessing for a bride was, "Be thou the mother
"Ant., XIII, 8, 4; XVI, 7, 1; War, I, 2, 5.
"Jer. 34:5; II Chron. 21:19.
"Cf. II Mace. 12:42ff.
"Ecclus. 30:18 (in the Greek); Ep. Jer., vss. 31f.; Wisd. 14:15; 19-3; Sibylline
Oracles, viii. 382-384; Jubilees, 22:17.
87 Margoliouth, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I, 459.
"Hos. 9:4; Deut. 26:14.
•»Deut. 21:15ff.
'•Gen. 30:1; I Sam. 1:51
x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 255
of thousands of ten thousands." 71 Yahweh punished
men even in the other world by cutting off their pos-
terity, 72 and victors destroyed an enemy's children in
order that his ghost might receive no offerings. If a
man had no sons by his first wife, he took a second wife,
or his wife gave him her female slaves as concubines. 73
If these means failed, a slave, or some person outside
of the family, was adopted as a son, and was given the
inheritance on condition that he kept up the ancestral
rites. 74 If this device also failed, the nearest male rela-
tive of the deceased was required to take his widow and
raise up seed for him. 75 This painful anxiety to secure a
son is explainable only by the desire to obtain after death
those gifts without which one's soul could not rest.
;'. Prayer to the Dead. — Among the Hebrews the la-
ment was a regular and important part of the funeral cere-
monies. 76 In it the members of the family were assisted
by professional mourning men and women. 77 These
people had a stock of laments adapted to various occa-
sions that they chanted before the corpse. In the case
of important persons special dirges were composed. 78
Some lamentations are doubtless to be regarded as
natural expressions of grief, but this will not explain
official mournings in which the entire nation took part. 79
The only tenable theory is that such laments were acts
of homage paid to the departed. This view is confirmed
by the following facts : ( 1 ) the Hebrew laments, like
those of the ancient Arabs, were always addressed to the
dead; 80 (2) similar laments were customary in the
71 Gen. 24;60.
"Exod. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9.
73 Gen. 16:lf.
"Gen. 15:2f.
79 Gen. 38:16; Deut. 25:5; Ruth 2:20; 3:13; 4:5.
"Gen. 23:2; Deut. 21:13; II Sam. 19:4; I Kings 13:30; II Kings 13:14;
Jer. 16:6; 22:10, 18; 34:5; Ezek. 24:16; Acts 9:39.
"II Chron. 35:25; Jer. 9:17f.; Am. 5:16.
"II Sam. 1:17; 3:33.
"E.g., Gen. 50:7-10; Deut. 34:8; Num. 20:29; Judg. 11:40; I Sam. 25:1;
28:3; II Sam. 1:12; 3:32; Zech. 12:10-14.
*>Cf. II Sam. 1:26; 3:34; Jer. 22:18; 34:5.
256 SPIRITISM x
worship of the gods; 81 (3) lamentation, like other acts
of mourning, was repugnant to Yahweh as part of the
cult of rival divinities. 82 Isa. 63:16, "Thou art our
father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth
not acknowledge us," seems to imply invocation of the
patriarchs by some at least of the nation. This cult has
not completely died out even from modern Judaism.
Necromancy is a form of invocation of the dead. It
was common in the time of Saul, although it was re-
garded as inconsistent with the religion of Yahweh. 83
Isaiah still had reason to denounce it: "When they say
unto you, Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that
gibber and moan, give this answer: Should not a people
rather consult its God? On behalf of the living, should
men consult the dead?" 84 This practice flourished
in the time of Manasseh, 85 and Josiah made an effort
to abolish it. 86 It seems to be mentioned also in Isa.
57 :g; 65 14. The prohibition of necromancy by Deuter-
onomy 87 and by the Holiness Code 88 shows that it was
common in the latter days of the monarchy, but that it
was regarded by the religious leaders of the nation as irre-
concilable with the exclusive worship of Yahweh.
From the foregoing survey it appears that the earliest
Hebrew beliefs in regard to the soul were identical with
those of the other Semites, and that the cult of the dead
was one of the most ancient and most firmly intrenched
forms of religion among the Hebrews. The religion of
Yahweh encountered no more formidable rival, and cen-
turies of conflict were necessary before it was finally over-
come.
81 Cf. Judg. 11:40 with Ezek. 8:14; Zech. 12:11.
82 Deut. 26:14; Hos. 9:4; Am. 6:10.
83 I Sam. 28:7-9.
"Isa. 8:19; cf. 19:3; 28:15, 18; 29:4.
85 II Kings 21:6.
88 II Kings 23:24.
87 Deut. 18:11.
88 Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27.
CHAPTER XI
EARLY OPPOSITION TO WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL
In chapter VIII attention was called to the conception of
the soul which the Hebrews inherited from their Semitic
forefathers. In chapter IX it was shown how, through
the conquest of Canaan, the Babylonian doctrine of Sheol
was superimposed upon the ancient belief in spirits. We
must now consider how this inheritance of animistic ideas
from pre-Mosaic times was affected by the religion of
Yahweh.
a. The Primitive Conception of Spirits Was Unaffected
by Early Yahwism. — The Mosaic doctrine of God was
not monotheism but monolatry. It did not say, "Thou
shalt not believe that there are other gods/' but "Thou
shalt have no other gods besides me." The god of
Moses bore the personal name Yahweh, which shows
that he was only one of a cla 
