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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE' ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY
HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
Cornell University Library
BL310.L26 M19 1901
3 1924 029 075 451 olin
Cornell University Library
The
original of this
book
is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright
restrictions
the United States on the use of the
in
text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029075451
MAGIC AND EELIG-ION
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. ANGLING SKETCHES. BALLADS OP BOOKS.
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[Out of print.
Svo.
THE MAKING OF EELIGION. LONGMANS, GREEN, &
6d.
2s.
MODEEN MYTHOLOGY. Svo. 9s. MONK OF FIFE. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. MYTH, EITUAL, AND EELIGION. 2 OLD FRIENDS.
8vo. Bs. dd.
Fcp. Svo. 2s. Gd. net.
LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHOES.
PICKLE THE SPY.
M.
Crown
Svo. 5s. net.
CO., 39 Paternoster Row,
New York and Bombay.
London
Magic and Religion
BY
ANDREW LANG AUTHOR OF 'CUSTOM AND MYTH* ETC.
MYTH, RITUAL, AND liELIGION
'
LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND 39
PATEENOSTEE EOW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1901
ill
V
i
yhts
1-
eserVe
d
CO.
^,
\sxb%Q
PREFACE Recent
years have brought rich additions to the materials
and myth.
for the study of early religion, ritual, magic,
In proportion to the abundance of information has been
The
the growth of theory and hypothesis. this collection,
first
essay in
Science and Superstition,' points out the
'
danger of allowing too ingenious and imaginative hypotheses to lead captive our science. As, like others,
I
provisional theory of
have not long since advanced a
my
own, the second and third essays
are designed to strengthen
my
that perhaps the earliest traceable relatively high,
and that
it
The theory is form of religion was
position.
was inevitably lowered
during the process of social evolution. opinion
may be
in tone
Obviously this
attacked from two sides.
may
It
be said
that the loftier religious ideas of the lowest savages are
borrowed from Christianity or Islam. to be the theory of
This I understand
Mr. E. B. Tylor.
It is
with
much
difUdence that I venture, at present, to disagree with so
eminent and sagacious an authority, while av/aiting the publication of Mr.
My reply to his by him,
will
Tylor's Aberdeen Gifford Lectures.
hypothesis, so far as
it
has been published
be found in the second essay,
of Loan-Gods.'
Secondly,
my
position
'
may
The Theory be attacked
by disabling the evidence for the existence of the higher elements in the religion of low savages.
Mr. Frazer,
MAGIC AND KELIGION
VI
Golden Bough,' has advanced an hypothesis of the origin of reUgion, wherein in
the second edition of his
'
the evidence for the higher factors
may
Probably he
account.
not taken into
is
consider the subject in a later
Should I live to complete the works for which I have collected and am collecting materials, I dare to think that they will clear
work, to which he alludes in his Preface.
'
me of any suspicion of treating the early history of religion from a single narrow point of view.' ^ Meanwhile, however, Mr. Frazer has advanced a theory of the origin of religion wherein evidence which attention receives
I think deserving of
I hope, therefore, that evidence, or
some
of
it
is
not premature to state the
which I do
it,
no recognition.
Magic and Eeligion.' Fourth comes a long criticism hypotheses, which are combined
in the third essay,
'
of
Mr. Frazer's many
into his theory of the
origin, or partial origin, of the belief in the divine character
of Christ.
This argument demands very minute, and,
fear, tedious
examination.
has not, after It
all,
I fear
still
more that
I
my labour
been sufficiently minute and accurate.
seems to be almost impossible to understand clearly and
represent fairly ideas with which one does not agree.
have
failed in these respects
it is
If I
unconsciously, and I shall
gratefully accept criticism enabling
me
to recognise
and
correct errors. Fifthly,
I
examine, in 'The Ghastly
nected with the fugitive slave '
near Aricia.
Mr.
Bough of Virgil as conwho was King of the
Frazer's theory of the Golden
Wood
Priest,'
'
I offer a conjecture as to the origin
of his curious position,
which seems to me simpler, and
not less probable, than Mr. Frazer's hypothesis that this outcast
'
lived
and died as an incarnation '
Golden Bough,
i.
xvii, 1900.
of the
supreme
PREFACE Aryan god, whose life was But my conjecture bough.' which, I think,
we have not
There follow an essay,
'
Vll
in the mistletoe is
golden
or
only a guess at a problem
the
means
of solving.
South African Eeligion,' and
another on the old puzzle of the
Cup and Eing
'
on rocks and cists and other objects
all
marks
'
over the world.
Next I consider the subject of Taboos,' with especial An essay reference to the theory of Mr. F. B. Jevons. rite the Fire Walk, of with the follows on the singular '
alleged
immunity
This curious topic
of the performers.
I have treated before, but
now add
fresh evidence.
Of these essays the second, in part, appeared in the
The Ghastly Priest was published in The Fortnightly Review,' while Cup and Eing first saw the light in The Contemporary '
Nineteenth Century,' and most of
'
'
'
'
'
My
Eeview.'
thanks are due to the Editors of those
periodicals for permission to republish. '
Fire
Walk was '
in the
'
The
essay on the
Proceedings of the Society for
Psychical Eesearch,' though the topic does not appear to
be
'
psychical.'
All the other papers are new,
and three
Appendices on points of detail are added.
The design on the cover is drawn by Mr. Donnelly, the discoverer of the Dunbuie and Dumbuck sites and relics,
from an Australian design,
Gillen's
'
For permission to
in Messrs.
Spencer and
Native Tribes of Central Australia.' to
reproduce this drawing I have
thank the kindness of Messrs. Macmillan
&
designs of feet, on the back of the volume
found in Australia), and
(common
to Scotland
Co. (a
The
subject
the 'Jew's harp' ornament and Hindostan), are also by Mr.
Donnelly, from Scottish rock carvings.
Corrigenda and Addenda Page
for story read storey, /or stories recul storeys.
4, lines 24, 25,
Page 13, line 7, compare and Bishop Salvado. Page
17, line 24, fm-
p.
297, the second paragraph, as to
Motagon
1871 read 1873.
names oi writers who support the idea of an Australian added that of Dr. John Mathew, in Eaglcliawk and Crow, p. 147 (1899), I was once of opinion that notions about a divinity had been derived from the whites and transmitted among the blacks hither and thither, but I am now convinced that this idea was here before European Page
To
44.
the
religion should be '
But
occupation.'
(pp. 130, 131) Dr.
Mathew
gives his reasons for thinking
importation from Indian mythology possible. But as they rest on his decipherment of certain marks, which may be meant for characters, in Sir George Grey's copy of an Australian wall-painting, the evidence is weak. (Grey, North-west
and
Westei'n Australia,
characters to be Sumatran,
Sumatra do represent
it
58, line 6, for rights read rites.
Page
7.5,
i.
note
1,
201
Supposing the
et seq.).
to
show that the people
their otiose deity as in the painting copied
Page
ture,
i.
would be necessary
for Primitive Culture,
i.
of
by Grey.
379, 1871, read Primitive Cul-
419, 1873.
Page 112, note
But
have been informed M. Cumont gives good reasons for holding that the martyrdom of St. Dasius in 303 was on record between 362 and 411 (Man, May 1901, No. 53). 1.
'
so there were in 1000 a.d.'
I
that there was no special fear of the end of the world in 1000 a.d.
Page 200
B.C.
120. '
;
'
who is about Herodotus.
Ctesias flourished rather earlier than Berosus,
for 200 read 260.
Ctesias
was a contemporary
of
CONTENTS PAGE I.
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION
II.
THE THEORY OP LOAN-GODS
1
OR BORROWED RELIGION
;
...
...
III.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
IV.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN EAITH
V.
76
.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY I. THE EVOLUTION OF GODS
82 82
.
II.
ANNUAL RELIGIOUS REGICIDE
V.
VII.
85 94
... .... ...
THE SATURNALIA THE GREEK CRONIA THE SACiEA .
.
.
.
ATTEMPTS TO PROVE THE SACjEAN CRIMINAL DIVINE I.
II.
III.
IV. V.'
VII.
....
RELIGIOUS REGICIDE
IV.
VI.
VI.
THE ALLEGED MORTALITY OF GODS
III.
SACRIFICE BY HANGING.
DOES IT EXIST
?
.
100 108 115
118 123
127
.
STAGES IN MR. FRAZER's THEORY
132
A POSSIBLE RECONCILIATION
136
THE SACEA SUDDENLY CHANGES
ITS
DATE
137
VARIOUS THEORIES OF THE VICTIM
ZAKMUK, SAC«A, AND PURIM I.
15
46
HISTORICAL DIFFICULTY
.
... ....
138 141
144
PERSIANS ARE NOT BABYLONIANS
147
III.
ORIGIN OF PURIM
147
IV.
IS
II.
V.
VI. VII. VIII.
IX.
PURIM PRE-EXILIAN OR POST-EXILIAN
150
.
THEORY OF A HUMAN VICTIM AT PURIM CONTRADICTORY CONJECTURE
....
A NEW THEORY OF THE VICTIM NEW GERMAN THEORY OF PURIM
ANOTHER NEW THEORY.
155 156
.
HUMMAN AND THE
153
158 VICTIM
159
'
MAaiC AND RELIGION
X
PAGE VIII.
MORDECAI, BSTHEE, VASHTI, AND HAMAN 1.
II.
11.
III.
IV.
XI.
XII. XIII.
XIV.
XV.
167
•
.
.
.
172
•
WHY WAS THE MOCK-KING OF THE SAC/EA WHIPPED AND HANGED ? I.
X.
161
...
167
A HELPFUL THEORY OF MY OWN
III.
IX.
ESTHER LOVED BY MORDECAI THE PERSIAN BUFFOON
.
PERIODS OP LICENCE
...
THE DIVINE SCAPEGOAT MORE PERIODS OF LICENCE
.
.
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
185
.
.
189
.
.
193
.
THE SAC/EA AS A PERIOD OF LICENCE
CALVARY
182
•
...
....
...
CUP AND RING
' :
AN OLD PROBLEM SOLVED
FIRST-FRUITS AND TABOOS
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
200 205 224
SOUTH AFRICAN RELIGION '
196
,
.
.
.
.
.
.
257
.
...
241
.
270
APPENDICES A.
MR. TYLOB's THEORY OF BORROWING
B.
THE MARTYRDOM OF DASIUS
C.
THE RIDE OF THE BEARDLESS ONE
INDEX
.
.
...
.
295 298
.
.
.
.SOI
.
307
•
MAGIC AND EELIGION I
SCIENCE AND SUPEB8TITI0N
We
know what we mean by science 'organised common sense.' Her aim is the all
;
of reasoned
it
is
is
acquisition
Presented with a
and orderly knowledge.
collection of verified facts,
science
the part of science to
reduce them to order, and to account for their existence -
in accordance with her recognised theory of things.
cannot be
facts
or altered
;
for
need
fitted into
there
is
The
'
colligation
may
not, at the
The
able.
the theory,
we must admit for '
that,
if
it
of facts
moment
deflections of
demands hypotheses, and these of their construction, be verifi-
a planet from
body
The
hypothesis
to exist,
is
its
apparently
by the hypothesis
for
of the attraction of another heavenly
known
must be expanded
the facts are verified,
change and expansion in the theory.
normal course may be accounted covered.
If the
body not yet
dis-
legitimate, for such bodies are
and to produce such
effects.
When
the
becomes a certainty. On the other hand, the hypothesis that some capricious and conscious agency pushed the planet into deflections would be illegitimate, for the existence of such a freakish is
discovered, the hypothesis
is not demonstrated. Our hypotheses then must be consistent with our actual knowledge of nature and of
agency
B
MAGIC AND RELIGION
2
human
and our
nature,
must be
causes
conjectured
adequate to the production of the
effects.
gradually acquires and organises
new
Thus, science
regions of know-
ledge.
Superstition
When we
call
word
is
a
a
man
'
of
much
that evidence which satisfies
We
him
see examples daily of the
One man
bias.
;
does not satisfy us,
in
that,' says the other.
'Then you
another
tells
sceptic reasoned
The
nature.
If the
disliked.
might be
be called
A man
retreating '
I
in
from a
don't believe
are a pro-Boer.'
from his general knowledge of
believer reasoned
from
his
judiced and mythopceic conception of people
believer
own
neither case would
be accepted by a jury.
position, buried their
The
com-
another, disbelieving the tale,
how the Boers, own wounded.
human
mean
dependence of belief on
evidence
satisfy the historian, or
a tavern
usually
narrative about the misconduct of our
Probably the
party.
we
a story about cruelties
believes
mitted by our adversaries credits a
meaning.
less definite
superstitious,'
own
pre-
whom
he
question had been one of religion the called superstitious
scientific, if
;
the sceptic might
he was ready to yield his doubts
to the evidence of capable observers of the alleged fact. Superstition, like like
science,
experience
is
she
science, has her hypotheses, and,
reasons
from
experience.
usually fantastic, unreal, or
if
But her
real capable
by causes other than those alleged by comes in at night, and says he has seen a ghost in white. That is merely his hypothesis
of explanation superstition.
A man
;
the existence of ghosts in white
You accompany him
is
not demonstrated.
to the scene of the experience,
prove to him that he has seen a post, not a ghost.
and His
experience was real, but was misinterpreted by dint of an
hypothesis resting on no demonstrated fact of knowledge.
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION
The hypotheses
You
Thus,
of superstition are familiar.
an event has happened hook.
3
say you have lost your button-
:
presently hear of a death in your family.
Ever afterwards you go anxiously about when you have
You
button-hook.
lost a
with a causal connection of
of facts
time
are confusing a casual sequence
style cause
and
effect.
Sequence in
facts.
we commonly
mistaken for sequence of what
is
In the same way, superstition
cherishes the hypothesis that like affects like.
smi
is
round, and a ball of clay
is
round.
Thus, the
Therefore,
an Australian native wishes to delay the course round sun in the heavens, he the bough of a tree
;
fixes a
round
ball of clay
full of
clay or
waxen image
pins or thorns.
He
of
enemy is
'
it
to suffer
suggestion
enemy knows about the image, he sometimes
and
dies.
This experience corroborates the super-
stitious hypothesis, is
man
a
the
if
falls ill
like,
an enemy, and sticks
expects his
agony in consequence, and so powerful that,
on
or so books on anthropology tell us.
Acting on the hypothesis that like affects
makes a
if
of the
and so the experiment with the image Everything is done, or at-
of world-wide diffusion.
tempted, on these lines by superstition. killing of foes or
them
Men
game, and expect, as a
imitate the
result, to
kill
war or in the chase. They mimic the gathering of clouds and the fall of rain, and expect rain to fall in consequence. They imitate the evolution of an edible grub from the larva, and expect grubs to multiply and in
;
so on. All this
is
quite rational,
of superstition.
Her
if
you grant the hypotheses
practices are magic.
We are later
men had magic before they had and only invented gods because they found that
to discuss a theory that religion,
magic did not work. Still later they invented science, which is only magic with a legitimate hypothesis, using u 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
4
real,
not fanciful, experience.
In the long run magic and and science is to have the
religion are to die out, perhaps,
whole
field to herself.
may be a glorious though
This surely it
is
above
all
But
a remote prospect.
things needful that our science should
She must not blink facts, merely because into her scheme or hypothesis of the nature of things, or of religion. She really must give as much prominence to the evidence which contradicts as to be
scientific.
they do not
fit
Not
that which supports her theory in each instance.
only must she not shut her eyes to this evidence, but she
must calls
diligently search for instantice
mass
of
it
must seek
contradictories,
theory which ignores hypothesis,
it,
them
since, if
is useless.
If
these exist, the
she advances an
must not be contradictory
human
experience.
If
what Bacon
for
of the
whole
science finds that her
hypothesis contradicts experience, she must seek for an
hypothesis which if
is in
accordance with experience, and,
that cannot be found, she
must wait
it
till
is
found.
Again, science must not pile one unverified hypothesis
upon another unverified hypothesis till her edifice rivals the Tower of Babel. She must not make a conjecture on and on 210 treat the conjecture as a fact. p. 35, p. Because,
if
one story in the card-castle
being proved impossible,
tumbling
after.'
It
all
is
destroyed by
the other stories will
seems hardly necessary, but
'
come
it is
not
superfluous, to add that, in her castle of hypotheses, one
must not contradict, and therefore destroy, another. We must not be asked to believe that an event occurred at one date, and also that it occurred at another or that an institution was both borrowed by a people at one period, and was also possessed, unborrowed, by the same people, at an earlier period. We cannot permit science to assure us ;
that a certain fact
was well known, and that the knowledge
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION
5
produced important consequences while we are no less solemnly told that the fact was wholly unknown, whence ;
it
would seem that the results alleged to spring from the
knowledge could not be produced. This kind of reasoning, with
its
inferring of inferences
from other inferences, themselves inferred from conjectures as to the existence of facts of
which no proof
is
adduced, must be called superstitious rather than scientific.
The results may be
interesting, but they are the reverse of
science. It is perhaps chiefly in the nascent science of the
anthropological study of institutions,
and above
religion,
that this kind of reasoning prevails.
attracts
ingenious and curious minds.
all
The
System
of
topic after
system has been constructed, unstinted in material, elegant been drifted by the careless
and has been vsrrecked, or winds to the forlorn shore
where Bryant's
its
in aspect, has been launched,
lies
in decay.
ark,
No
with
all
crew, divine or
human,
mortal student believes in the arkite
system of Bryant, though his ark, on the match-boxes of Messrs. Bryant and May, perhaps denotes loyalty to the ancestral idea.
The world
of
modern readers has watched
sun
myths, and dawn myths, and storm myths, and wind
myths come in and go out autant en emporte le vent. Totems and taboos succeeded, and we are bewildered by the contending theories of the origins of taboos and totems. Deities of vegetation now are all in all, and may it be far from us to say that any one from Ouranos to Pan, from the Persian King to the horses of Virbius, is not a :
spirit of
aspects '
life. Yet perhaps the deity has higher and nobler functions than the pursuit of his
vegetable
vapid vegetable loves
attention.
;
'
and these deserve occasional
MAGIC AND RELIGION
6
The
result,
hasty generaHsations origins
is
scurrying hypotheses and
however, of
that the nascent science of rehgious
is
We may review the brief
received with distrust.
history of the
modern
science.
Some twenty years ago, when the Sociology,'
Principles
of
by Mr. Herbert Spencer, was first Mind,' by the author
of
'
published,
the book was reviewed, in
'
That work, again, was published in 1871. In 1890 appeared the 'Golden Bough,' by Mr. J. Gr. Frazer, and the second edition of the book, with changes and much new matter, was given to the world in '
Primitive Culture.'
1900.
Here, then,
we have
thirty years, during
a
whole generation, a space
which English philosophers or scholars
have been studying the science of the Origins In the
latest edition of the
'
of Religion.
Golden Bough,' Mr. Frazer
has even penetrated into the remote region where neither had, nor wanted, any religion at
we have Twenty years
man
We naturally
all.
ask ourselves to what point labours of a generation.
ing Mr.
of
arrived after the ago,
when
review-
Spencer, Mr. Tylor said that a time of great
public excitement as to these topics
was
at hand.
The
clamour and contest aroused by Mr. Darwin's theory the Origin of Species and the Descent of
Man
of
would be
outdone by the coming war over the question of the Evolution of Eeligion. But there has been no general excitement
;
there has been
in these questions.
and
'
display of public interest
little
They have been
left to
'
the curious
the learned,' classes not absolutely identical.
'
Mr.
Frazer, indeed, assures us that the comparative study of
human
beliefs
and
institutions
is
'
fitted to
be
much more
than a means of satisfying an enlightened curiosity, and of furnishing materials for the researches of the learned.' '
Oolden Bough,
i.
xxi.,
1900.
'
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION
But enlightened
curiosity
7
seems to be easily
satisfied,
and
only very few of the learned concern themselves with these researches,
which Mr. Tylor expected
to
be so
generally exciting.
A member
of the University of Oxford informed
me
that the study of beliefs, and of anthropology in general, is
almost entirely neglected by the undergraduates, and
when I asked him Why ? he replied There is no money in it.' Another said that anthropology 'had no '
'
'
is no no demand. and even lite-
In the language of the economists there
evidence.'
supply provided at Oxford because there
is
Classics, philology, history, physical science,
rature, are studied, because
much money
there
is
money
indeed, but a competence,
if
in them,' not
the student
no demand, or very
handled, progress, tions
it
'
may become
if it
a powerful instrument to expedite
weak
lays bare certain
on which modern society spots,
spots in the founda-
We
built.'
is
progress (in the right direction),
weak
is
For the study of the evolution of beliefs there little. Yet, says Mr. Frazer, well
successful. is
'
we
all
all
desire
pine to lay bare
and yet we do not seem to be concerned about
the services which might be done for progress by the study of the evolution of religion.
and, in '
some
'
It is indeed a
respects, thankless task,' says
melancholy
Mr. Frazer,
to strike at the foundations of beliefs in which, as in a
strong tower, the hopes and aspirations
of
humanity
through long ages have sought a refuge from the storm
and are.
stress of '
life.'
'
Thankless,' indeed, these operations
Yet sooner or
later,'
Mr. Frazer adds,
evitable that the battery of the comparative
'
it
is
in-
method should
breach these venerable walls, mantled over with the ivy
and mosses and wild flowers sacred associations.
guns into position
;
of a thousand tender and At present we are only dragging the they have hardly yet begun to speak.'
MAGIC AND KELIGION
8
Mr. Frazer tion a
work
is
of
we may
three siege guns, calibre,
too modest
:
he has dragged into posi-
immense learning and eloquent
style
m
say, three volumes of the largest
and they have spoken about 500,000 words.
No
man, to continue the metaphor, is better supplied than he with the ammunition of learning, with the knowledge of facts of every kind. Yet the venerable walls, with their pleasing growth of ivy, mosses, wild flowers, and other mural vegetation, do not, to myself, seem in the least degree impaired by the artillery, and I try to show cause for
Why which
my is
lives
opinion.
and why
this,
is
the portion of the public
within or without the venerable walls mainly
indifferent ?
Several sufficient reasons might be first
place
many
other grounds
In the
given.
people have, or think they have, so for
disbelief,
that additional
many
grounds,
provided by the comparative method, are regarded rather as a luxury than as supplying a felt want.
Again, but very
power of mind enough to follow an elaborate argument through fifteen hundred pages, not to speak of other works on the same
few persons have
leisure, or inclination, or
Once more, only a minute minority are capable of testing and weighing the evidence, and criticising the tangled hypotheses on which the argument rests, or in which it is involved. But there is another and perhaps a sounder argument theme.
for indifference.
The
learned are aware that the evidence
for all these speculations is not of the nature to
which
they are accustomed, either in historical or scientific
More and more the age insists on strictness in appreciating evidence, and on economy in conjecture. But the study of the evolution of myth and belief has always been, and still is, marked by an extraordinary use.
studies.
SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION
The
or abuse, of conjecture. supposes,' the
As
in too
hypothesis
is
'
we may
we must infers are countless. much of the so-called Higher Criticism piled, by many anthropologists, upon hypo'
wrong, the main argument is
perhapses,' the
'
'
guess upon guess, while,
thesis,
it
'
9
only one guess
if
is
Moreover,
pieces.
falls to
the easiest thing, in certain cases, to explain the
by a counter hypothesis, not a complex hypothesis, but at least as plausible as the many combined conjectures of the castle architects, though perhaps as far from the truth, and as incapable of verification. Of these alleged facts
statements examples shall be given in the course of this book.
We
are
all,
we who work
at these topics,
engaged in
man, or rather we are painfully
science, the science of
We are
labouring to lay the foundations of that science. all
trying
'
to expedite progress.'
expedite progress therefore,
if
our science
is
But our not
science cannot
We must,
scientific.
however pedantic our process
may
seem, keep
which is not valid, on the sparing use of conjecture, and on the futility of piling up hypothesis upon unproved hypothesis. To me insisting
it
on the rejection
of all evidence
seems, as I have already said, that a legitimate hypo-
thesis
must
'
it must do so more any counter hypothesis, and that it
colligate the facts,' that
successfully than
must, for every link in
its
chain, have evidence
which
will
stand the tests of criticism.
But the
chief cause of indifference
of our evidence.
We
—not
only
people say learned
say—among
barbarous races.
is
the character
can find anything we want to fihd '
the
man
in the street
'
but the
reports of the doings of savage and
We
we do not want we
find
what we want, and to what blind. For example,
are often
nothing in savage religion
is
better vouched for than the
MAGIC AND RELIGION
10
belief in a being
Creator
who
whom
holds
narrators of every sort call
in his power.'
all
instance of this kind that comes to Tylor's
'Primitive
Culture.'
the natives of Canada ever,
date
'
call "
I take the
hand
a
'
first
Mr.
in opening
The being is he whom Andouagni," without, how-
having any form or method of prayer to him.'
The
obvious
that
of
evidence
this
Andouagni
(to
is
1558.
It
is
take one case out of a multitude) was not
invented in the despair of magic. called the despair of philosophy,
Mysticism has been
and Mr. Frazer, as we
shall see, regards religion as the despair of magic.
man,
his theory
originally without religion,
By
and trusting
by experience that magic could not really Man therefore control the weather and the food supply.
in magic, found
dreamed that there were other beings, '
far stronger,'
could not control.
now
like himself,
but
who, unseen, controlled what his magic '
To
addressed himself
.... man
these mighty beings
....
beseeching them of their
^ mercy to furnish him with all good things But nobody beseeched Andouagni to do anything. The Canadians had no method or form of prayer to him.' ^ Therefore Andouagni was not invented because magic failed, and therefore this great power was dreamed .
.
.
.'
'
and his mercy was beseeched with prayers for good That was not the process by which Andouagni
of,
things.
nobody prayed to him in 1558, nor have we reason to believe that any one ever did. From every part of the globe, but chiefly from among
was
evolved, because
very low savage and barbaric races, the existence of beings
powerful as Andouagni, but. like him, not addressed in prayer,
or
but
seldom so addressed,
'
G. B.
^
Tylor, Prim. Cult.
i.
is
reported
by
77. ii.
309, citing Thevet, Singularitez de la France
Antarctique, Paris, 1558, oh. 77.
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION
many
travellers of
The
ages, races, creeds,
and professions.
existence of the belief in such beings, often not ap-
proached by prayer or theories of the origin
offer,
But
of religion.
these
and corroborated by the undesigned coincidence
testimony from every
quarter,
want
not what
are
most
to find.
Therefore these
have been ignored or hastily slmTed
over, or the beliefs
students in this science facts
modem
sacrifice, is fatal to several
and evolution
on the best evidence w^hich anthropology
facts, resting
can of
11
are ascribed to
Christians
European or Islamite
Yet,
influence.
first,
with the god they introduced
or Islamites,
would introduce prayer to him, and prayer, in many cases, there is none. Next, in the case of Andouagni, what missionary influence could exist in Canada before 1558? Thirdly,
if
missionaries,
amateur or professional, there
were in Canada before 1558 they would be Catholics, and would introduce, not a Creator never addressed in prayer, but crosses, beads, the Madonna, the Saints, and such
Cathohc
rites as
In spite of
would leave material
all
traces.
am
these obvious considerations, I
un-
acquainted with any book on this phase of savage religion,
and scarcely know any book, except Mr. Tylor's Primiwhich the facts are prominently stated. '
tive Culture,' in
The evidence for the
facts, let
me
repeat,
is
character that anthropology can supply, for
of the best it
rests
on
testimony undesignedly coincident, given from most parts of the world
and
by men
of every
kind of education, creed,
Contradictory evidence, the denial of the ex-
bias.
istence of the beliefs,
is
also
abundant
:
to such eternal
must make up and examine, in each inthe witness, if he has a bias, and his
contradictions of testimony anthropology
her mind.
We
can only
stance, the bias of
test
opportunities of acquiring knowledge. exist,
it
can seldom attest
itself,
If the belief does
or never,
by material
MAGIC AND RELIGION
32
such as
objects,
idols, altars, sacrifices,
Andouagni
prayers, for a being like
propitiated
:
one proof that he
is
is
and the sound of not prayed to or
not of Christian intro-
duction. We have thus little but the reports of Europeans intimately acquainted with the peoples, savage or barbaric, and,
possible,
if
with their language, to serve as
a proof of the existence of the savage belief in a
maker or
being, a
supreme
creator of things.
we
This fact warns us to be cautious, but occasionally
have such evidence as
is
supplied by Europeans initiated
Our
the mysteries of savage religion.
into
however,
of
the
neglected belief, that
existence
is
Columbus, and the
W.
traders visiting America, to that of Mr. A.
mystes of the
Australian Eleusinia, or
travellers
among
scarcely
contaminated
If
'
we can
best proof,
exalted,
usually
the coincidence of testimony, from
the companions of
of
this
of
of
earliest
Howitt, a the
latest
the Fangs, the remote Masai, and other '
races.^
raise, at least, a case for consideration in
favour of this non-utilitarian belief in a deity not ap-
proached with prayer or
sacrifice,
we
also raise a
presump-
tion against the theory that gods
were invented, in the
despair of magic, as powers out of
whom
could be got
ful
:
powers with good things in their
men were ceasing by their own magical
things which obtain
something usegift,
to believe that they could
machinery.
The strong
primal gods, unvexed by prayer, were not invented as recipients of prayer.
To
ignore this chapter of early religion, to dismiss
as a tissue of borrowed ideas
—though
its
existence
it
is
by the first Europeans on the spot, and its originality is vouched for by the very absence of prayer, attested
'
Journal of Anthropological Institute, Oct.-Dec. 1900 andN.S.
1, 2, p. 85.
II.,
Nos.
SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION and by observers and
Sir
A.
theory of
'
B.
like
loan-gods
'
—
who
Howitt, Miss Kingsley, but withdrew, a
proposed,
not
is
My own early readings me
W.
Mr. A.
Ellis,
13
scientific.
in early religion did not bring
acquainted with this chapter in the book of
When
I first noticed an example of
beliefs.
in the reports of
it,
the Benedictine Mission at Nursia, in Australia, I con-
some mistake had been made in 1845, by the missionary who sent in the report.^ But later, when I began to notice the coincidence of testimony from many ceived, that
quarters, in
many
ages,
then I could not conceal from
myself that this chapter must be read.
It is in conflict
with our prevalent theories of the development of gods out of worshipped ancestral spirits
:
for the
things, not approached in prayer as a rule,
where ancestral
But
spirits are
is
maker
of
said to exist
not reported to be worshipped.
science (in other fields) specially studies exceptional
and contradictory instances, and all that seems out accord with her theory. In this case science has
cases,
of
glanced at what goes contrary to her theory, and has explained reporters,
by bias in the reporters, by error in the and by the theory of borrowing. But such it
coincidence in misreporting
is
a dangerous thing for
damages her evidence in general. Again, the theory of borrowing seems to be contradicted by the early dates of many reports, made prior to the arrival of missionaries, and by the secrecy in which the beliefs are often veiled by the savages as also anthropology to admit, as
it
;
by the absence
most potent being. We are all naturally apt to insist on and be prepossessed in favour of an idea which has come to ourselves unexpectedly, and has appeared to be corroborated by wider research, and, perhaps, above all, which runs of prayer to the
'Max
Miiller,
Eibbert Lectures,
p. 16.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
14
We
contrary to the current of scientific opinion.
new
pet of the relatively
mythology in a disease importance of totems
totemism find
;
We
where
it
it
or the vast religious
'
or our theory of the origin of
;
not
—in
fact,
we
are very
human,
very unscientific, very apt to become one-idea'd.
even more natural that
by
on the idea too exclusively
insist is
a
be the origin of
let it
;
or the tremendous part played in religion
;
gods of plants.
we
idea
of language
'
make
we
It is
should be regarded in this
by our brethren (est-il embetant avec son Eire Supreme !) whose ovsti systems will be imperilled if our
light
,
favourite idea can be established.
when
I risk this interpretation
what
?
—that
the chapter
beings
superior
Not
deserves perusal.
systems as
than
if
or unworshipped
Eeligion
Early History of
to cut its pages, to go
did not exist,
it
scientific,
the
in
'
I keep maintaining
otiose
of
is,
'
on making
I venture to think, less
For
and borders on the superstitious.
to
build and defend a theory, without looking closely to
whatever
may
superstitious
imperil
it,
is
precisely the fault of the
Khond, who used to manure
his field with a
thumb, or a collop from the flank of a human victim, and did not try sowing a field without a collop of to see
what the comparative crops would
of this
kind
is
like
Don
man's
be.
Or
flesh,
science
Quixote, who, having cleft his
helmet with one experimental sword-stroke, repaired but did not test
it
again.
Like other martyrs
of science, I
must expect
thought importunate, tedious, a fellow of one that idea wrong. of
To
to be
and would show great want lack of knowledge of human idea,
resent this
humour, and a plentiful Meanwhile, I am about to permit myself
nature.
criticise
it,
some recent hypotheses
to
in the field of religious
origins, in the interests of anthropology,
not of orthodoxy.
16
II
THE THEORY OF L0AN-60DS ; OB BORROWED RELIGION
The
study of the origins of religion
impossibility subject.
obtaining
of
we examine
If
impeded by the
is
historical
evidence on the
the religious beliefs of
extant
races, the lowest in material culture, the best representa-
tives of palaeolithic
beginnings of
man, we are
human
still
a long
way from
the
Man must
speculation and belief.
have begun to speculate about the origins of things as soon as he was a reasoning animal. isolated
Arunta,
If
we
look at the
and backward tribe of Central Australia, the
we have
the advantage of perhaps the best and
most thoroughly
scientific
study ever
made of such
a race,
the book by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.'
Here we watch a people
so
'
primitive
'
that they are
said to be utterly ignorant of the natural results, in the of progeny, of the
union of the sexes.
Yet, on the
way
same
authority, this tribe has evolved an elaborate, and, grant-
ing the premises, a scientific and adequate theory of the evolution of our original
stock
of
species, spirits
and the nature is
constantly
of
life.
An
reincarnated
by records in the shape of oval decorated stones, and it seems that a man or woman of to-day may be identified as an incarnation of a soul, whose adventures, in earlier incarnations, can be
spiritual pedigrees are preserved
traced back to the Alcheringa, or mythical heroic age of '
Natives of Central Australia, London, 1899.
-^
MAGIC AND RELIGION
16
Their marriage laws are already in advance
the people.
of those of their neighbours, the Urabunna, and their only magistracy, of a limited and constitutional kind,
descends in the male
Thus the Arunta
line.
are socially in advance of the Pictish
whose crown descended in the female line, no king being succeeded by his son. Manifestly royal family in Scotland,
the religious or non-religious ideas of such a people, unclothed, houseless, ignorant of metals
and
of agriculture,
without domesticated animals though they
is
a peculiar philosophy, worked out by thoughtful
men, and elaborated so
room for a life
and
must be
The Arunta philo-
ideas with a long history behind them.
sophy
are,
artfully that there
god, nor for the idea of a future
of successive reincarnations.
for us to argue that lative career
mankind
life,
except the
It is therefore impossible
in general
began
specu-
its
with the singular and apparently godless
philosophy of the Arunta.
sympathetic magic
whom
belief in
seems neither
;
Their working science
is
to the Great Spirit, with a trace of
they are credited, they are not said to
and he seems to be either an invention of the seniors, for the purpose of keeping the juniors and women
pray in
;
order,
belief in
we
or
whom
a being
originally
has died out
higher
of
among
character,
the adults.
To him
return in another essay.
As
historical information about the early or late evolu-
tion of the idea of a superior (not to say supreme) being is
thus unattainable, thinkers both ancient and modern
have derived the idea of conception
of
a
God from
powerful
worshipped by his children,
that of ghost. of
spirit is
a
dead
The
father,
supposed to have been
gradually raised to the power of
a
god.
Against this
theory I have elsewhere urged that superior beings are
found among races who do not worship ancestral
spirits
;
THE THEOEy OF LOAN-GODS
17
and again that these superior beings are not envisaged as spirits,
but rather as supernormal magnified men, of un-
bounded power (an idea often contradicted in savage as in Greek mythology) and of
The
reply to
me
limitless duration.
takes the form of ignoring, or dis-
abling the evidence, or of asserting that these superior
beings
are
'
loan-gods,'
Europeans or Islamites.
from
savages
savage superior beings are disguised borrowings
these
from missionaries, explorers,
now
by
borrowed
It is to the second theory, that
address
difficulties to
last resort,
traders, or squatters, that I
These
myself.'
beings
cause
certainly
the philosophy which derives gods, in the
from ghosts.
It is probable
that these difficulties have for
some
time been present to the mind of Mr. E. B. Tylor (one
may a
drop academic
scholar).
When
speaking of so celebrated
titles in
Mr.
Tylor publishes
the
Gifford
Lectures which he delivered some years ago at Aberdeen,
we
shall know his mature mind about this problem. Meanwhile he has shown that the difficulty, the god where no god should be, is haunting his reflections. For
example, his latest edition of his (1891) contains, as
'
Primitive Culture
we shall show, interesting modifications
what he wrote in the second edition (1871) There are three ways in which friends of the current theory that gods are grown-up ghosts may attempt to escape from their quandary. (1) The low races "with the high gods are degenerate, and their deity is a survival from of
a loftier stage of lost culture. course,
knows too much
stone age, as degenerate.
Mr. Tylor, however,
(2)
The evidence
Miiller) is that of prejudiced missionaries.
With a case of ignoring the evidence Magic and Religion. '
of
to regard the Australians, in the
I
is
bad or
(Fr.
But Mr. Tylor
deal in the following essay,
18
MAGIC AND RELIGION
knows that some
of the evidence is excellent, and, at its
on missionary testimony. (3) The high gods of the low races are borrowed from missionary teaching. This is the line adopted by Mr. Tylor. best, does not repose
I recently pointed out, in (1898), the
The Making
'
of Eeligion
many difficulties which beset the current
theory.
therefore alarmed on jfinding that Mr. Tylor had
I was mined the
soil
my own
under
His theory of
hypothesis.
borrowing (which would blow mine sky-high if is
expounded by Mr. Tylor in an essay,
Savage Religion,' published in the pological Institute
'
it
exploded)
The Limits
of
Journal of the Anthro-
'-
1892).
(vol. xxi.,
'
I propose to examine
own
Mr. Tylor's work, and to show that his
witnesses
demonstrate the unborrowed and original character of the gods in question.
Mr. Tylor
opposes the loose popular notion that
first
over North America the Indians believed in a being
all
named Kitchi Manitou,
He
I do not defend.
or
Great
'
says
' :
a notion which
Spirit,'
The
historical evidence
is
that the Great Spirit belongs, not to the untutored, but to the tutored
mind
of the savage,
and
preserved for us
is
in the records of the tutors themselves, the Jesuit missionaries of Canada.'
^
Now
as to the
word Manitou,' '
spirit,
Mr. Tylor quotes Le Jeune (1633) By this word "Manitou," I think they understand what we call an :
'
some powerful being.' ^ Again The Montagnets give the name " Manitou " to everything, whether good or bad, superior to man. Therefore, when we speak angel, or
of God, they
while
sometimes
when we speak
Bad Manitou."'^
call
Him
Op.
cit. p.
When
284.
The Good Manitou," him " The
then, ninety years later,
' '
"
of the Devil, they call
1724, Pere Lafitau dilates on '
'
:
'
The Great
Le Jeune, Relations,
Hid., 1637,
p. 49.
Spirit,'
'
1633, p. 17.
in
The
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS Great Manitou,'
we
19
are to see that in ninety years the
—
term which the Indians used for our God their translahas taken root, become acchmatised, le ion dieu
—
tion of
and
flom:ished.
raised the capital 0,
Lafitau, according to Mr. Tylor, has also
Huron word which he
Le Grand
tion is solely due to Lafitau
were granted,
If all this
Okki, with a
for spirit, oki, to
calls
The
Esprit.
eleva-
and other Christian teachers. indeed from proving
all this is far
was borrowed by
that the idea of a beneficent Creator
the Indians from the Jesuits between 1633 and 1724.
Mr. Tylor's own book, of the
began
colonise
to
of 1632)
Him
:
'
'
Primitive Culture,' enables us to
Here he quotes Captain Smith, from
correct that opinion.
an edition
'
History of Virginia
'
Smith
of 1632.
He
Virginia in 1607.
Their chief god they worship
says (edition is
the Devil.
Okee (Okki), and serve him more of fear than love.' Mr. Tylor cites this as a statement by a half-educated and whole-prejudiced European about they
call
'
'
'
savage
deities,
which, from his point of view, seem of a
wholly diabolic nature.' on,
'
'
The word oki/ Mr. Tylor goes
apparently means "that which
in fact, a general
The
name
is
above," and was,
for spirit or deity.'
chief deity of the Virginians then (in 1607, before
missionaries came), vsdth his temples and images,
being whose
name
apparently meant
'
that which
is
was a above.'
Moreover, Father Brebeuf (1636) describes an oki in the
heavens
who
rules the seasons, is dreaded,
and sanctions
treaties.
Consequently Lafitau did not, in 1724, a
spirit,
into Okki, a god.
first
make
oki,
That had been done in Virginia
before any missionaries arrived, by the natives themselves,
long before 1607. cited,
For
this
we
have, and Mr. Tylor has
the evidence of Smith, before Jesuits arrived. '
Prim. Cult.
ii.
What
310. c 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
20 is
yet
to the purpose, "William Strachey, a successor
more
of Smith, writing in 1611-12, tells us that spells the
(as
world, and
he the
word) was only a magisterial deputy of (the priests tell them) who governs all the '
God
great
Okeus
to shine, creatyng the
makes the sun
sun and
his companions, [him] they call Ahone. The good and peaceable God requires no such duties [as are paid to Okeus], nor needs to be sacrificed to, for he
moone
.
intendeth
.
.
He
good unto them.'
all
Strachey remarks
that
the
native
has no image."-
priests
vigorously
Christianity. They certainly borrowed neither Okeus nor Ahone, the beneficent Creator who is without sacrifice, from Jesuits who had not yet arrived.
resisted
Do we Speaking of
need
New
If so, here it is. more evidence ? England in 1622, Winslow writes about
among
the
he dwells
far
the god Kiehtan as a being of ancient credit natives.
He
'
made
all
the other gods
westerly above the heavens, whither
all
;
good men go when
die.' Thus Mr. Tylor himself (loc. cit.) summarises Winslow, and quotes They never saw Kiehtan, hut they
they
'
:
hold
it
a great charge and dutie that one age teach another.
And
to
him they make
and
victorie, or
feasts,
anything that
and cry and sing is
for plentie,
good.'
Thus Kiehtan, in 1622, was not only a relatively supreme god, but also a god of ancient standing.
missionaries
was therefore
impossible.
Mr. Tylor then added, in 1871 is plausible,
that this Kiehtan
(Kittanitowit, Great
Borrowing from
Living
is
:
'
Brinton's etymology
simply the Great Spirit
Spirit,
an Algonquin word
compounded of Kitta= great, manitou = spirit, termination, wit, indicating
life).'
Historic of Travaile into Virginia. By William Strachey, Gent, (a companion of Captain Smith). Habluyt Society. Date circ. 1612-1616. See Myth, Ritval, and EeUgion, i. xx-xxxix, 1899. '
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS But
this
all
etymology Mr. Tylor omitted in his
no longer thinking
edition of 1891, probably
He
1891
however, say in
did,
21
(ii.
plausible.
it
342)
'Another
:
famous native American name for the Supreme Deity
is
Oki.'
Not content with Okeus, arrival of missionaries
etymology
1871)
(in
'
apparently
before the arrival of Jesuits in '
and
capital
before the
all,
not content with Kiehtan, whose
;
means
'
'
Great
New England,
Spirit,'
Mr. Tylor, in
Primitive Culture,' adds to these deities the Greenlanders' '
Torngarsuk, or Great Spirit
name is an augmentative of
(his
"tomgak," "spirit" [in 1891 "demon"]),' before the For, says Mr. Tylor, he seems no arrival of missionaries figure derived from the religion of Scandinavian colonists, '
!
ancient or modern.
supreme deity
.
.
.
He
so clearly held his place as
in the native
many
missionary alleges,
mind
was
their
Now,
ancient or
modern
;
later identified, not foible
'
in 1891, Mr. Tylor dropped out
from the religion
of
God
on the idea that
fall
Torngarsuk who was meant.'
figure derived
Cranz the
Greenlanders, hearing of
and His Almighty power, were apt to it
as
that,
'
he seems no
Scandinavian colonists,
and he added that Torngarsuk was
'
with our God, but with our Devil
may
I
characteristic,
say
— as
concerning Captain Smith and Oki
Mr.
— of
'
:
a
Tylor said
a half-educated
and whole-prejudiced European.' For the Algonquin Indians Mr. Tylor cited Father Le Jeime (1633) When the missionary talked to them of an almighty creator of heaven and earth, they began to say to one another :
Atahocan, Atahocan.'
But
his
name had
contempt and a verb, Nitatahocan, meant fanciful story.'
Indians
with
In 1558 Thevet belief '
in
'
a
Frim. Cult.
fallen
I tell
credits the
creator ii.
'
p. 308.
'
'
into
an old
Canadian
Andouagni,
not
MAGIC AND RELIGION
22
None
approached with prayers.
of these beings
It will presently be seen
been borrowed from Europeans.
of
a Great
sceptical as
became
that between 1871 and 1892 Mr. Tylor to the records
can have
But he
America.
Spirit in
Supreme Deity.
retained Oki in the sense of
Here, then, from Virginia to Greenland, Mr. Tylor presented in 1871 evidence for a being of supreme power,
bynames which, perhaps, mean Great
called
and his evidence there
Great
for a
earlier
nor
Spirit,
He now
he has changed his mind.
In
Spirit.'
'
his essay of 1892 he does not refer to his
tell
work
why
us
attributes the Great
"We naturally ask in what evidence on which he
Spirit to missionary influence.
respect he has found the early
Mr. Tylor, in
previously relied lacking in value.
mitive Culture,' others
for a
'
made
all
gives a yet earlier reference than the
Virginian
author of 1586). things,
Pri-
'
He
Creator.
Heriot
cites
(an
'They believe in one who but pay him no honour,' writes Pere Again:
L'Allemant in 1626, in a region where
'
il
n'y
ait
point eu
de religieux.'
In 1871 Mr. Tylor said
' :
It
has even been thought
that the whole doctrine of the Great Spirit
by the savages from missionaries and this
view will not bear examination.
made
for mis-rendering of savage
of white
men's thoughts,
it
was borrowed But
colonists.
After due allowance
answers and importation
can hardly be judged that a
whose characteristics are so unlike what European intercourse would have suggested, and who is heard of by such early explorers among such distant divine being,
tribes,
could be a deity of foreign origin.'
view will not bear examination
we
the deity, '
'
are told,
Prim. Cult. Prim. Cult.
'
'
is
^
deleted
In 1891
—
why ?
'
this
— and
could hardly be altogether of
ii.
pp. 309, 310 (1873
ii.
p. 308.
and 1891).
THEORY OF LOAN-GODS
TPIE
He
foreign origin.'
could not be,
23
when found by
the
first
had the creed been borrowed, have been borrowed with it. would prayer to the being Now, in his essay of 1892, Mr. Tylor never, I think, European
discoverers, and,
own evidence of 1873, or even of 1891, in favour of a Red Indian creator, evidence earlier than the Jesuits (1558, 1586, 1612-16, 1622, and of Le Jeune, 1633). alludes to his
In the essay of 1892 that authentic evidence early explorers
among such
conception of the Creator
is
distant tribes
not cited.
The
'
of
•
such
to a savage
coincidence of
testincLony is the strongest possible evidence to the
nature
and unborrowed character of the being. Such coincidence in fact, Mr. Tylor's own touchstone of trustworthy testimony. Yet in 1892 the Jesuits receive the whole
is,
credit of introducing the idea.
know why
the early
The
untrustworthy.
would be interesting to suddenly become 1892 ought, of course, to be It
has
evidence
essay of
Yet we are anxious to learn made Mr. Tylor leave his evidence out of though republished by him only the year before he
regarded as only a sketch. the reasons which sight,
put forth his tractate in favour of borrowing from Jesuits. I turn to another point on
which I cannot accept Mr.
Tylor's arguments.
In his essay
of
1892 Mr. Tylor dates the
Why?
Deluge legend as not before 1700.
Mandan Because
Catlin (in 1830-1840) found iron instruments used rituaUy
Mystery Play
in the native
supposed to represent the tools vessel wherein
the
Mandans
'
the only
man
'
did not get iron
Indians, however,
we
iron tools, and, in
modern
iron instead
flint
of
Mystery Play.
reply,
They were employed in making the escaped drowning. But tools before 1700. The
of the Flood.
had canoes before they had
times,
might naturally employ
instruments
They might do
(discarded)
this,
in
spite
in
the
of
the
MAGIC AND EELIGION
24
marked preference for stone tools in ritual. Perhaps they had none. It must here be observed that Catlin does not use the word ark (as Mr. Tylor does) for the '
'
Catlin always says 'the big
vessel of 'the only man.'
Even
canoe.'
Mandans whites,
'
we admit (which we do
does not follow, as Mr.
it
Great Spirit
'
'
Tylor argues, that
appears in the Deluge legend,
cannot claim greater antiquity
Mr. Tyler's
first place, as, in
not) that the
Deluge legend from
necessarily borrowed their
because the
he
if
'
In the
than 1700.
earlier statement, Canadians,
Algonquins, Virginians, Massachusetts, and Greenlanders
had a Great
Spirit before Christian influences began, the
Mandans may have been equally fortunate. seem safe to argue, like Mr. Tylor, that Spirit figures in a (hypothetically)
Nor does if
it
the Great
borrowed myth, therefore
the conception of a Great Spirit was necessarily borrowed
That more recent myths are constantly
same time.
at the
being attached to a pre-existing god or hero nised fact in mythology. (1)
myth
that Biblical
myth, and
myths death
(2)
that
('
the Fall
'),
man
out of clay, the origin of
and the tradition
of the
by savages from the
Australian and American
the
Nor can mythologists argue a modified survival of savage
indeed, to argue in a vicious circle.
earlier '
a recog-
such natural and obvious savage
as the kneading of
necessarily borrowed is,
is
is
myth
Deluge are
Bible.
This
Again, was the
of a race of wise birds,
than man, borrowed from the famous chorus in
Birds
'
of Aristophanes ?
Is the
Arunta theory
of
evolution borrowed from Darwin, or their theory of re-
incarnation from
Buddhism ? Borrowing of ideas seems when savage ideas resemble more or
only to be in favour
less those of Christianity.
Mr. Tylor remarks that Prince Maximilian, who knew Mandanese better than Catlin, found among them no
THE THEORY OF I,OAN-GODS '
Great Manitou
'
— so
But he
called.
whose name means Lord
25
did find a Creator
Was He
borrowed would savages who remained so utterly un-Christian as the Mandans, adopt from missionaries just one myth the Deluge and of Earth.'
'
from the whites
on
Finally,
?
this point,
—
—
make
that the central feature in their national ritual ?
Indeed this seems very improbable conduct
more conservative than
We
that
:
is
proved, by his
is
North
America,
own
that
is
notorious.
do not follow Mr. Tylor into South America.
our case for
ritual
Nothing
!
If
not repudiated authorities,
suffices
We
us.
turn
to
Australia.
Let us
first
take the typical Australian case of Baiame,
Pei-a-mei, or Baiamai, at present alleged by Mr. Howitt
and others
to be the
moral creative being of
and served, without
tribes,^
their mysteries.
in
sacrifice,
many
Mr.
Tylor first finds him mentioned as a creator by Mr. Horace Hale, whose book
was spoken
of
is
of 1840.^
by a native
to
Next, in 1850, Baiame some German Moravian
missionaries as a being who, according to their or doctors,'
was
to
made
all
'
was easy to anger, and Thus he was accepted by conservative class, the class most things, but
be appeased by dances.
the most notoriously
jealous of missionary influence, the sorcerers. for the
sorcerers
moment
a later description of
a black devotee in a vision, of the origin of this god.
we
Baiame
Omitting as seen
by
turn to Mr. Tyler's theory
Mr. Eidley (who began his
missionary career in Victoria in 1854) gives a pleasing
account of Baiame as a creator, with a paradise for the good.
According to Mr. Eidley,
by Mr. Greenway '
''
to
'
Baiame
be derived from baia,
'
'
is
discovered
to make,'
Howitt, Journal of Anthropological Institute, 1884, 1885. United States Exploring Expedition. Ethnology and
p. 110.
and
Philology
MAGIC AND RELIGION
26
he concludes that called
God
Mr. avers,
now
Tylor '
unknown
for ages
'
the Maker.'
'
the blacks have
'
^
asks,
'
Was
who
Baiame,'
near 1840 so prominent a divine figure
the Australians,
earher?'
He
'unknown
to
known decides
to
them
that
at
before
well-informed
(white)
all
he
is,
among
few years
a
1840 Baiame was This,
observers.'
would not prove that Baiame was unknown As for the observers, who are three number, one, Buckley the convict, in spite of his
of course,
to in
the blacks.
thirty-two years with the blacks,
man who
cannot trust a Australia he
'
is
of
no
speared salmon
'
!
and often saw the fabled
book was made up by a Mr. Morgan out Buckley (p. 57),
says,
'
.
.
.
say that in
Buckley could not read, and
monster, the Bunyip.^
and memoranda,
We
real value.
lied so freely as to
of
his
rough notes
'
and by conversation.'
If,
then, as
they have no notion of a Supreme Being
we may discount
'
that; Buckley's idea of such a
being was probably too elevated.
Moreover he never
mentions the confessedly ancient native mysteries, in one
which among certain
of
Mr.
tribes the being
Tyler's next well-informed observer
Mr. Backhouse, a Quaker, takes his the third witness, Mr. Threlkeld of them,
and
it
is true,
Buckley being out copy
of
;
is
revealed.'
before 1840,
facts straight
he admits
it
for
from
some
in this matter, of all of them.*
of court,
and Backhouse being a mere
Mr. Threlkeld, what has Mr. Threlkeld to say
What follows is
curious.
?
Mr. Threlkeld (1834-1857) does
Eidley, Kamilaroi Vocabularies, p. 17 (1875). Also in an earlier Grammar, 1866. ^ The Life and Adventures of William Btickley, 1852, pp. 40-48. ' Howitt, J. A. I., 1885. The Kurnai tribe. * Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, 1843, p. 555. Compare Threlkeld, An Australian Language, 1892, p. 47. This '
is
a reprint of Mr. Threlkeld's early works of 1831-1857.
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS
27
name Baiame, but speaks of a big supernatural black called Koin, who carries wizards up to the sky,
not
man,
inspires sorcerers, walks about with a fire-stick,
To honour him
on.^
and so
boys' front teeth are knocked out
in the initiatory stages.
As soon
as I read this passage I perceived that Mr.
Threlkeld was amalgamating such a goblin as the Kurnai
Brewin with the high God of the Mysteries. In 1881, when Mr. Howitt, with Mr. Fison, wrote Kamilaroi call
'
'
'
and Kurnai,' he knew no higher being among that tribe than the goblin Brewin. But, being initiated later, Mr. Howitt discovered that the God of the Mysteries is
=
Mungan-ngaur
'
Our Father
value of negative evidence)
'
(this
shows the
Women know about
.
slight
Brewin,
the goblin master of sorcerers, but the knowledge of
Mungan-ngaur is hidden from them under awful penalties.^ Not only I, biTt Mr. Horace Hale (1840), came to this opinion that Koin is a goblin, Baiame a god, as we shall see. In the same way, where Baiame is supreme, Daramulun is sometimes a gobhn or fiend. :
Mr. Threlkeld very properly did not use the name of the fiend Koin as equivalent to God in his translation of the '
Gospel of
He
there
'
Luke into the native tongue (1831-1834). used for God Bloi, and no doubt did the same in St.
his teaching
he also
;
the word Jehovaka-birvrj.
tried
Neither word has taken with the blacks
;
neither
word
The word, though forced on them, has not been accepted by them. That looks ill for the theory of borrowing. occurs in their traditions.
Here, then, of Mr. Tylor's three negative witnesses, who, before 1840, knew not Baiame, Mr. Threlkeld alone is
of value.
1857) the '
Op.
As Mr. Hale
first
cit. p.
says,
Mr. Threlkeld was (1826-
worker at the dialects of those Baiame-
47.
^
Journal Anthrop.
Inst., 1885.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
28
worshipping Valley,
in
the Kamilaroi of
tribes,
But whence
Victoria.
did
the "Wellington Mr. Hale get
what Mr. Tylor cites, his knowledge in 1840 of Baiame ? He, an American savant on an exploring expedition, not
could
well
out
find
I
native secrets.
esoteric
Baiame
shall prove that Mr. Hale got his knowledge of from Mr. Tylor's own negative witness, Mr. Threlkeld.
Mr. Hale says that
'
when
the missionaries
first
came
to
Baiame was worshipped with songs. There was a native famous for the composition of these songs or hymns, which, according to Mr. Threlkeld, were passed on,' &c. Mr. Hale thus declares (Mr. Tylor probably Wellington,'
'
overlooked the remark) that
came
to
when
Wellington (where Baiame
found Baiame there before them Threlkeld not name Baiame ? says that Baiame's
name and
!
the missionaries
the Creator) they
is
Then,
^
first
why
did Mr.
I think because Mr. Hale
sacred dance were brought
by natives from a distance, and (when he is writing) had fallen into disuse.^ Had, then, a missionary before 1840 evolved Baiame from Kamilaroi baia, to make (for that is Mr. Tylor's theory of the origin of the word Baiame ') and taught the name to distant natives as a word for his own God and had these proselytising
in
'
'
'
,
;
distant dancing natives brought Baiame's
Wellington?
to
Are
missionaries
They would teach prayer and dances
are
no
part of
missionary influence here
name and dance
dancing
masters?
kneeling, or give rosaries
our religion.
we must
To demonstrate
find a missionary, not
Mr. Threlkeld, who was studying and working on the There was no such Kamilaroi tongue before 1840. missionary.
Finally,
Mr. Hale runs counter to Mr. Tylor's
He was supposed to live on an island, on fish probably a childlike answer to a tedious questioner. ^ Exploring Expedition of U. S., 1846, p. 110. '
wMoh came
at his call,
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS
29
theory of borrowing from whites, though Mr. Tylor does not
The
quote his remark.
ideas of
Baiame may
'
possibly
though,' says Mr. Hale, the which the natives always evince to
be derived from Europeans, great unwillingness
'
'
adopt any custom or opinion from them militates against
such a
So strong
supposition.'
is
this
reluctance to
borrow ideas from the whites, that the blacks
of
the
centre have not even borrowed the idea that children are
a result of the intercourse of the sexes
Here, then, in
!
part of the district studied by Mr. Threlkeld in 1826-1857,
an American savant (who certainly received the facts from
Mr. Threlkeld) testifies to Baiame as recently brought from a distance by natives, but as prior to the arrival of
most unlikely
missionaries, and
to
have been borrowed.
came Baiame ? Mr. Tylor evidence points rather to Baiame being the translation of the word "creator," used in lesson books for God.' But by 1840, when Whence,
then,
'
confessedly
'
Now
Kamilaroi tongue. creator
'
(or
missionary missionary
Baiame
is
so prominent a divine figure,' Mr. Threlkeld's
were the only translations and grammatical
'
thinks the
anything
tracts in the
Mr. Threlkeld did not translate
else)
by
'
Baiame
; '
he used
'
Eloi
and Jehova-ka,' and the natives would have neither of these words. Where is Mr. Tylor's reason, then, for holding that before 1840 (for it must be prior to that date if it is going to help his argument) any missionary ever '
rendered creator by
no
'
observer
'
'
Baiame
'
He
?
has just argued that
then knew the name Baiame, so no observer
name Baiame which he did not was the name Mr. Hale found it there.
could have introduced a
know
;
yet there
;
Mr. Tylor's argument seems to be that Mr. Eidley in 1866, and again in 1877, printed extracts, in which occurs
Baiame = God, from the Missionary Primers prepared '
the Kamilaroi.'
We might
have expected Mr. Tylor
for at
MAGIC AND RELIGION
30
least to give the dates of the
ex hypothesi, introduced dates,
Missionary Primers
who
He gives
Baiame before 1840.
no
Thus they must be posterior to 1840, and Baiame was prior to missionaries
when Mr. Tylor first notes his Thus, by Mr. Tylor's own evidence, Baiame time
at "Wellington, at the
appearance.
not shown to be a missionary importation to Australia,
practically
over
all
not denied by Mr. Tylor that
the
continent the blacks possess
that the institution of these mysteries cases, attributed
by the blacks
to a
is
It
is
not denied
now, in many
moral creative being,
whose home is in or above the heavens.
name now
the reverse.
;
is
it
religious mysteries of confessed antiquity.
his
that,
them.'
cites
the Baiame of
As
'
and the primers are of 1856 and are written by Mr.
Eidley,
is
'
It is not denied that
usually means, in different dialects,
Maker
(Baiame), Master (Biamban), and Father (Papang, and
many
other words)
this being
is
It
.
is
not denied that the doctrine of
now concealed from
on the other hand
children and
women, and
Bora, or initiatory mysterj^^
revealed to lads at the
(as
I understand
But,
Mr. Tylor), while
initiatory rites are old (they certainly existed
when Dam-
pier touched at the Australian coast in 1688-1689), the
names
their
of
excellencies
(?),
and his creative
The
missionary influence. in pre-missionary days, or leader,
To
Spencer
attributes, are all
—that
it
is
would only be a dead
not
'
head-man
even alleged
the Australians
any ghosts
of
'
little
'
denied
by Mr. Herbert
steadily
dead men.
is
propitiate
or
'
Plow can they ?
Kamilaroi, or Kamilaroi Sayings. Sydney, 1856. book, with illustrations and Bible stories. Howitt, Journal Antlwop. Institute, ut supra. Gii/rre
scarce
due to
original founder of the Bora,
now religiously regarded. we first demur. It is not shown — it
sacrifice at all to
^
Maker), his moral
this
by Waitz, and
'
(Father,
institutor
It
is
a
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS The name
dead
of the
tabooed, and even where there
is
in one instance an eponymous tribe, that
31
human patronymic
Now,
patronymic alters in every generation.
among such
is
of a
a ghost-worshipping people as the Zulus, the
most recently dead father gets most worship. In Australia, where even the recent ghosts are unadored, ancient mysteries ?
the opinion
is,
likely
or at least was, that of Mr. Howitt.
among some
The
of these tribes
makes against an ancient a male ancestor where even now ancestors are
(though paternity of
it
is
mere institution of female kin worship
is
remembered as founder of the This is beyond our belief, though
that some remote ghost
is
recognised)
unworshipped.
As
Baiame, Mr. Tyler preHowitt by a native, of how
to the aspect of this god,
sently cites a story told to Mr.
with his father he once penetrated in the spirit to Baiame's
home, and found him to be a very great old man with a long beard,' and with crystal pillars growing out of his '
shoulders which support a supernal sky. birds '
and
These
were around him.
beasts,
details
are,
it
His
'
people,'
Mr. Tylor says
have been noticed, in some
will
respects of very native character, while in others recalling
conventional Christian ideas of the Almighty.'
The of
'
Christian
'
idea
is,
naturally, that of the old
Blake and Michael Angelo
man
with the beard.'
Is
— Hartley likely
it
seen _any_ such representations?
Baiame
as an old
man
Coleridge's
man '
old
thatthe savages had
Again,
is
the idea of
not natural to a race where respect
of age is regularly inculcated in the mysteries
in practice ?
'
and prevails Among the Kamilaroi about Bundurra,
Turramulan [another name
for this or a lower god] is
represented [at the mysteries] by an old all
the laws.'
'
.
'
Greenway,
J.
A.
I. vii. p.
243.
man
learned in
\ *
MAGIC AND EELIGION
32
As for
early as 1798 Collins found that the native
New
'father' in
blacks as a
title of
South Wales was applied by the
reverence to the Governor of the nascent
now in many native
It is used
colony.'
word
tribes as the
name
Supreme Being, and Mr. Tylor thinks it of misManifestly, this idea of age and paternity
of their
sionary origin.
in a worshipped being
congenial to the natives,
is
is illus-
and customs, need not be borrowed, and is rather inevitable. The vision of Baiame, we may add, was narrated to Mr. Howitt by a native fellow-initiate. To lie, in such cases, is an unheard-of thing,' says Mr. trated in their laws
'
The
Howitt. practice
him
to
a crystal.
narrator, all of
was
vision
crystal
of
'
manner
a
result
The
gazing.
When
I
the world-wide
of
father handed
seer's
looked at
it,'
says the
of visions appeared, including that
Baiame.^ It is manifest,
we
think, that
when
the natives attach
the attributes of fatherhood and antiquity to Baiame, they
need not be borrowing from Christian art notions so natural, nay, so inevitable, in their
Though
in
many cases reckoning
own
stage of society.
kinship through women,
they quite undeniably recognise paternity ih^fact. ~T^hus the paternal reverence.
title
It
had no need
was
lies
is
deeply initiated, writes
the mysterious
and powerful being who
is
which
who
in
' :
Beyond
of that great
all is
Taramulan
known by
is
Mangun-ngaur, Our Father.'
Collins,
J.
a
to multiply evidence
Account of the Colony of
^
which
New South
is
provided by
Wales, 1798, vol.
p. 544. 2
of
the equivalent of the only one used by the Kurnai,
Now, not '
home
Bunjil, Baiame, or
in different tribal languages, but
name
borrowed as a word
so used before missionaries came.
Mr. Howitt, who the vaulted sky
to be
A.
I. xvi.
pp. 49, 50.
'
Op.
cit.,
1885, p. 54.
ii
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS
33
other observers as to Central Australia (not so central as
and the North, Mr. Tylor
the Arunta country)
confronted with this problem regard a povs^erful being, their ancient mysteries,
1840 or
since
Have
:
Baiame
or another, as founder of
borrowed his name and
from whites with Ts
so,
in hostile relations?
co nsta ntly
having hypothetically picked
up
they were
'"probable
that,
from Christians '
priests
'
the
and
over most of
initiators instantly disseminated that idea it
attributes,
whom it
notion of a moral Father in heaven, their
the continent, and introduced
is
all the tribes v^ho
most
into their
secret
and most conservative ceremonies ? Would they be likely to restrict so novel a piece of European information to the
men ? Mr. Dawson, in his writes
'
:
corpse)
is
fellows'
Yet
m
all,
(p. 51),
'
intelligent old aborigines as "
derided by
gammon
rivals
Aborigines of Australia
recent custom of providing food for
"
!
Mr, Tylor's
class of
where
The
'
Thus do they estimate
'
theor,y_it.Js _the -most
(a
novelties
!
conservative
the medicine-men and learned elders
and opponents
it
white
—every— who
of Christian doctrine
pick up the European idea of a good, powerful father or
name for him (we have shown that the name, Baiame, is not of missionary origin), and introduce him in precisely the secret heart of the master, borrow a missionary
mysteries.
This knowledge
women
is
hidden,
under
terrible
what purpose ? Do missionaries teach only the old rams of the flock, and neglect the ewes and lambs ? Obviously the women and children must know any secret of divine names and penalties,
attributes
from
atrd^children
:
imparted by missionaries.
to
Again,
probable that having recently borrowed a
new
the whites the blacks would elaborately hide authors, the Europeans.
So well
is it
it
is
not
idea from it
from
hidden that,
till
D
its
he
MAGIO AND RELIGION
34
was formally
Mr. Howitt had no suspicion of
initiated,
its
existence.^
Mr. Tylor may
rest in his hypothesis of borrowing,
we think
but for the reasons assigned
impossible in
it
and inconceivable as an explanation of the Australian phenomena. Finally, Mr. Tylor candidly adduces a case in which and
our,
North American
selected
his,
cases,
Mr. Dawson, taking great and acknowledged trouble to
from the blacks that they had whose voice
collect evidence, learned
believed in a benevolent being, Pirnmeheal, is
the thunder,'
Europeans,' heal.'
the existence of
have given them a dread
'
from
'
Omeo
of
Pirnme-
Shoalhaven River, from the coast
to
to Yass Gundagai,' concerning
maintained that
was
it
they themselves,
now
whom
old
men
strenuously
men
so before the white
initiated
age of fourteen.'
In the same essay
came,'
'
and made men of
'
1885
at about the *
Mr. Howitt
him as to who would the white men
native whose grandfather initiated
tells of a
an all-seeing personality, Bunjil, his conduct.
'
black,
a
men came
'
up
there,'
This was said before
Melbourne
to
Beiruk,
'
aged, having only learned the secret
when they were
mark came
of
'
We add Mr. Howitt's testimony to a supreme being
^
ruling
who
knew
before they
'
'
was
(1835) called
'
Bunjil,
.
our father
said '
'
William
before white
to Melbourne.'
might give other evidence in favour of the unborrowed character of Australian belief in some such I
Thus Mrs. Langloh Parker,
being as Baiame. careful collector of
'
Australian Legendary Tales,'
herself interested in the question. '
For concealment from
women and
Dawson, Ahorigines of Australia,
»
J".
*
Op.
A.
I. xiii.
cit.
children, see Howitt, J. A.
p. 49.
1885, p. 142.
p. 194.
^
Two
the
was
She approached the
p. 192. ^
'
volumes.
Nutt.
I.
xiii.
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS
35
subject as a disciple of Mr. Herbert Spencer,
hardly a germ of religion to the Australians.
what she
who allows On hearing
did hear, as to Baiame, from the tribesmen, she
asked one of them whether the idea was not borrowed
from Europeans.
The
were so the young
men would Know most
warrior answered that
old
if
it
about Baiame.
But they know nothing, apparently because the old rites Nor are they much of initiation have fallen into disuse. more familiar with Christian doctrine. This black man had logic in him. Mrs. Langloh Parker came, contrary to her prepossessions, to the same opinion as our best Mr. Howitt, that the
authority,
Australian
belief
is
unborrowed. This lady,
who has taken
very great pains in
ing and collecting her evidence, kindly sent of
Mr. Manning's from
New
Society of
The Journal
'
South Wales,'
Manning was an
me
criticis-
an essay
the Eoyal
of
vol. xvi. p. 159,
Mr.
1883.
early settler in the north border of the
southern colony.
About 1832 he was
in Europe,
and met
Goethe, whose undiminished curiosity, he being then
about
eighty-five,
examine Australian
made
induced
him
to
beliefs.
He
did,
1845-1848.
in
recovered,
instead of
Mr. Manning
bid
but lost his notes,
In these notes, which he later
Manning used making a verbatim
Mr.
Christian
terminology,
Struck by the
report.
certainly singular savage idea of a son (begotten in cases, in others a kind of
'
emanation
')
being, he employed theological phrases. story,
some
of the superior
The
son, in his
sprang from a liquid like blood, which
Boyma
(Baiame) placed in a vessel within a crystal oven.
myth
of
to Zulus
such a birth, as Mr. Hartland remarks,
and Eed Indians.^
be of European origin. '
is
The
familiar
It is therefore not likely to
But Mr. Manning's
Legend of Perseus,
i.
evidence,
97.
D 2
36
BIAGIC
AND RELIGION
despite its terminology, so far agrees with Mrs.
Parker's account of the extant
Baiame
Langloh
belief as to
'
make
so Mr. Hartland concedes. no more.^ Thus Mr. Manning has BaUima, Mrs. Langloh Parker has BuUimah, for a kind of floral
a case for further inquiry
'
;
I ask for
paradise of souls, very beautifully described in the lady's
More Australian Legendary Tales.' Both authorities mention prayers for the dead Mrs. Langloh Parker quotes what Mr. Hartland calls very in'
;
'
teresting funeral rites '
and prayers
He
for the dead.'
adds
:
We want to be assured whether these are usual, by means
of
an accurate description
of the
customary ceremonies, and
that she does not give us.'
I shall
make inquiry; but what
matter whether the
rites, in
the overthrow of native
does
it
manners, are
new
the
now
usual or not
generation, as
then, cannot be usual. in 1845,
Baiame
?
unknown
is
to
we have seen. Prayers to him, The point is that Mr. Manning
and Mrs. Langloh Parker in 1898, both mention
the prayers for the dead, certainly not borrowed from
There
Protestants.
unnamed runaway fellows in
is
a similar account, only that of an
convict
North-Western
who
lived
with the black
Australia.^
By
a mythical
contradiction, the soul of the hero Eerin, prayed for in
Mrs. Langloh Parker's
tale,
now
inhabits a
little bird.
Another curious point needs to be considered by the advocates offers
of the theory of borrowing. Mr. Hartland some deserved censures on Mr. Manning's termi-
nology in his report of Australian religion (1845-1848). Mr. Manning says They believe in the existence of a '
:
Son
God, equal with him in omniscience, and but slightly inferior to his Father in any attribute. Him of
they call " Grogoragally." His divine ofBce
is
the actions of mankind, and to bring to
all '
Folk
Lcrre,
March
1899, p. 55.
^
Eidley, J. A.
to
watch over
life I.,
the dead
1872, p. 282.
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS judgment
to appear before the
37
seat of his Father,
who
alone pronounces the awful judgment of eternal happiness in
heaven (Ballima) or eternal misery
which
Son
,
.
the place of everlasting
is
"Oorooma"
(hell),
(gumby).
The
fire
acts as mediator for their souls to the great
.
whom
God, to
in
the good and bad actions of
As Mr. Hartland
truly says,
'
this
Even Mr. Manning's
scientific account.'
all
are knovm.'
not an accurate
is
'
capital letters
'
are censured.
Probably the native theologian really said something like this
'
:
Boyma
Him sit on big glass
man.
man very budgery Him son Grogoragally
(Baiame) big
'
stone.
;
can see everything and go everywhere.
man,
like
him
;
see
devil devil.
man no likes bad man he growl too Budgery man die, Grogoragally tell Boyma
Likes budgery
much.
See budgery
bad man, plenty too much ;
Boyma
say,
place.'
Bad man
:
Take him Ballima way, plenty budgery die; Boyma say, Take him Oorooma way, plenty too hot, him growl there.' Grogoragally plenty strong, him not so strong as Boyma. This, or something like this, would be the actual '
'
statement of the dusky theologian. into
Mr. Manning's terminology
;
It
is
easily rendered
but at the same time
the native, in his rude lingua franca, or pidgin English,
could hardly do justice to his creed.
It
was
his creed
Mr. Hartland himself recognises the original character of the native version of the Supernatural Birth.'
Here
are certainly
'
Biblical analogies,' as Mr. Tylor
recognises, but they are as certainly unborrowed.
Now is
let
us fancy that a traveller, not a Greek scholar,
storm-driven to a hitherto
a race of heathen white
'Despite
their '
men.
polytheism,
island. He finds He describes their religion.
unknown
they have
Folk Lore, March 1899, pp.
52, 53.
certainly
been
MAGIC AND EELIGION
38 visited
by Christian missionaries, or are descended from a colony. They believe in a supreme being
Christian
whom
they
call
Phoebus Apollon,
has a son named ApoUon or
He
Zeus. vs^ho is
all-knowing and all-seeing.
He
acts as a kind of mediator between Zeus and men, to whom, as one of the native hymns says, he " delivers the This counsels of the Father, and his unerring will." Apollo is consulted through an hysterical woman, who lives in a cave.
After being convulsed, like other savage
mediums, she speaks in a kind
Her
of verse.
advice
is
often obscure and ambiguous, but generally of a moral
tendency. '
This son of Zeus
is
believed to be the only god
knows the future and the will of There is another son, Hermes, one of whose really
his
who
father.
duties
is
to
conduct the souls of the dead into the presence of their judge, '
who
There
is is
not Zeus, but another god. also a son of Apollo,
a kind of double of that god his worshippers as a serpent '
:
;
whom
I take to be only
be sometimes appears his
name
is
to
Asclepius.
This reminds us of what Winslow writes about the
Red Indians
New
They have a supreme being, Kiehtan, whose son, Hobamok, appears in their assemblies as a serpent. Ridley has the same story about of
England.
the blacks of Australia. this island
I infer, then, that the natives of
have inherited or been taught some elements
of Christianity, as in the
between Zeus and men they
call
;
case of Apollo, the mediator
and Hermes, the Guide
of Souls as
him, psychopompos in their language.
But they
have mixed up all this with degrading superstitions.' Of course our traveller has arrived among Greeks, and quotes the Homeric
hymn
to Apollo.
But the Greeks,
being prior to Christianity, did not borrow from traveller supposes.
On
it, as our the other hand, the Greek beliefs
THE THEORY OP LOAN-GODS
39
which he describes resemble Australian and American beliefs
more
closely
than Australian and American
reserdble the creed taught
by
Mr. Tylor nor any other friend
beliefs
Yet neither
missionaries.
borrowing theory
of the
Americans borrowed their
asserts that the Australians or
tenets from Greece.
The
truth seems to be that where j|_supreme being
regarded as top remote and impassive, he
is
naturally
is
supplied with a deputy. Ahone has Oki, Kiehtan has Hobamok, Boyma has Grogoragally, Baiame has Tundun, or in places Daramulun Nyankupon, in West Africa, has ;
Bobowissi.
Sometimes, as in the Australian Noorele's
supreme being.
case, these active deputies are sons of the
No
borrowing
is
needed to explain ideas so natural to
men, believing in a supreme being remote and
early
retired, little
concerned with mundane
through a deputy or deputies.
affairs,
and acting
In other cases, as of the
Finnish Num, or the Zulu Unkulunkulu, or the Algonquin Atahocan, the being is quite neglected in favour of spirits
who
receive sacrifices of
work on
meat or
Human
grease.
which
similar lines, without borrovsdng,
alleged in the case of Christianity to account
which do not
beliefs
fit
the
'
ghost theory
'
minds is
only
for the
of
modern
speculators.
The as
it
is
secrecy
essential point of
by
maintained
informants. perish said to
if
the
Mr. Manning's report, injured
his impossible terminology,
on
They used
women
these
points
is
by
to believe that the
heard of their dogmas.
the extreme his
savage
world would
Thus a man
Mr. Howitt (whose competence as a witness
indisputable)
' :
woman were
If a
we tell the boys, I would kill her.' Mr. Manning's witnesses slunk into a wooden
hear what
'
'
'
J.
A.
is
to hear these things, or
I. vol. xiv. p. 310.
One
of
fireplace,'
MAGIC AND RELIGION
40
whence he whispered his behefs. He had previously examined doors and windows in search of hsteners. A man who reported these creeds would, if they became
among the women,
divulged
obliged to
be
his
kill
wiie. If the religious ideas
were borrowed from missionaries,
the women would know them as well as the men. They would not be reserved for initiates at the mysteries, through which Mr. Howitt derived his most esoteric knowledge of creeds, whereof, in 1881, he was absolutely ignorant.' If the beliefs were of missionary origin, the young men, not the old men, would know most about Baiame. For similar beliefs in North-West Central Queensland I
may
being
;
The being Mulkari
Mr. Eoth.^
cite
Mr. Both as
'
incomprehensible.'
supernatural power
who makes
Mulkari
is
the
is
a good, beneficent
His home
is
in the skies.
low myths So writes Dr. Eoth,
also a medicine-man, has the usual
about him, and invented magic.
who knows missionary. his
'
everything which the
blacks cannot otherwise account for; he person, and never kills any one.'
He was
described by
omnipresent, supernatural
a benevolent,
anything
is
the local Pitta Pitta language
Eoth
Dr.
is
— and
is
not a
pursuing his researches, and
remarks are only cited provisionally, awaiting con-
firmation.
Sometimes European observers do not see the trend of own reports. In 1845 Mr. Eyre described 'the
their
origin of creation
'
as narrated to
on the Murring Eiver. unbegotten sons,
lives
A
him by Australian blacks
being, Noorele, with
up among the
clouds.
He
three is
'
all
Mi-. Fison'a Kamilaroi and Etirnai, 1881. North-West Central Queensland Aborigines, pp. 14, 36, 116, 153, 158,
See his and 165.
THE THEORY OF LOAN- GODS
He made
powerful and of benevolent nature.
He
trees, water, &c.
umbra)
of the natives,
the earth,
receives the souls (lad]co
who
join
him
in the skies
Yet Mr. Eyre adds
never die again.'
41
' :
A
= shades, and
will
Deity, a Great
First Cause, can hardly be said to be acknowledged.'
What is Noorele Among some
if
not a
Great First Cause
'
tribes Bunjil,
merely a
'
?
authority,
title of
meaning master, lord, headman, is a name of the superior being. Abundance of the mythology of Bunjil, often ludicrous or degrading, the being showing as a supernormal medicine-man, may be found in Mr. Brough
But no evidence can be better which proves a higher aspect native poetry,
Smyth's great than that of
collections.^
of Bunjil.
A Woiworung bard
an aged singer to tears by
and Tupper not
It
Usually
so.
'
'
the spirits
'
'
song was inspired by Bunjil himself,
this
moved
a song which
the melancholy which the
'
was an inspired song, for ourselves, would think Tennyson inspired
words conveyed to him.' the natives, like
made
of old
inspire singers
who
'
;
" rushes
down
" into the heart of the singer,' just as Apollo did of
old.
It is a dirge of the native race
We
go
all
The bones
of all
Axe shining white. In this Dulur land The rushing noise Of Bunjil, our Father, I
Sings in my breast, This breast of mine
1
The missionaries do not inspire these songs. They put them down. The white man,' says Mr. Howitt, knows '
'
pp. 355-357.
''
Eyre, vol.
'
Aborigines of Victoria.
'
Arranged in lines from the
idiom.
ii.
Howitt, J. A.
I. vol. xvi.
literal translation,
pp. 330, 331.
preserving the native
MAGIC AND RELIGION
42
One of Mr. Manning's informants (1845) was angry when asked for the Hymn to Baiame (Boyma) He said that Mr. Manning knew too much already.
little
or nothing of the black fellows' songs.'
.
I have dwelt specially on Australia, because there, as
the natives do not worship ancestral spirits (the names of the dead are tabooed), their superior being cannot have I have expressly
been evolved out of ghost worship.
avoided the evidence of missionaries, except the early
by some writers fact, on other points
Jesuits, because missionaries are believed
to be biassed on this point, though, in
As Mr. Tylor
they are copiously cited by anthropologists.
and often martyred Jesuits of 1620-1660 worth quoting, I have therefore admitted Father Le Jeune's testimony to the existence of Atahocan before finds the saintly
with Father Brebeuf's Oki, or whose anger is feared and who sanctions treaties.
their arrival in America,
un
'
It
Oki,'
is
impossible to
me to understand how the savages
borrow from Europeans the
beliefs
found extant when they arrived. case of Africa.
I
which the Europeans have not touched the
In The Making of Eeligion '
I argued against Sir A. B.
could
EUis's
'
(pp. 222-228),
elaborate
theory of
borrowing
a god, in the case of the Tshi-speaking races.
I did not
know
his
theory,
that this exact writer had repudiated
which was
also
rejected
Mary
by Miss
Kingsley.
As
to Australia, in face of the evidence (which settled
Mr. Howitt's doubts as
to the
borrowing of these
can any one bring a native of age and credit that Baiame, under any name,
who
ideas)
has said
was borrowed from the
Mr. Palmer is perfectly satisfied that none of these ideas were derived from the whites.' He is speaking of the tribes of the Gulf of Carpentaria, far away
whites
?
indeed from Victoria and
'
'
New South
Wales.
'
There
is
no
TPIE greater
authority
THEORY OP LOAN-GODS among
anthropologists
43
than
Waitz,
rejects the hypothesis that the higher
and Waitz
Aus-
trahan rehgious behefs were borrowed from Christians.'
To smn
up,
we have proved, by evidence of
1558, 1586,
1612-16, and 1633, that a sort of supreme creative being
was known
North America before any missionary inAs to fluence reached the regions where he prevailed. the Australian god Baiame, we have shown out of the mouth of Mr. Tylor's own witness, Mr. Hale, that Baiame in
preceded the missionaries in the region where literary evidence of his creed
first
"We have given Mr.
occurs.
Hale's opinion as to the improbability of borrowing.
have
left
it
'
Creator
Baiame while showing the
— of
And Mr. !
—I
think the im-
any Kamilaroi
discovering
before Mr. Threlkeld.
not introduce Baiame
'
difficulty
'
possibility
who, by the Kamilaroi word
to Mr. Tylor to find the missionary
before 1840, translated '
We
We have
philologist
Threlkeld certainly did
proved that, contrary to
Mr. Tylor's theory of what a missionary can do, Mr. Threlkeld could not introduce his
own names
Eloi and Jehovah-ka, into Kamilaroi practice.
for
God,
We note
the improbability that highly conservative medicine-men
would unanimously thrust a European idea into their ancient mysteries. We have observed that by the nature of
Mr. Tylor's theory, the hypothetically borrowed divine
names and aries)
attributes
must
(if
taken over from mission-
have been well known to the
women and
children
from
whom
We
have demonstrated the worthlessness of negative
they are concealed under dreadful penalties.
evidence by proving that the facts were discovered, on
by a student (Mr. Howitt), confessedly in the rank, though he, during many years, had been ignorant their existence. We show that the ideas of age and
initiation, first
of
'
Anthropologie,
vi. p.
798.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
44
an object of reverence, are natural and
paternity, in
habitual to Australian natives, and stood in no need of
We suggest
being borrowed.
to a powerful being
We
show
borrowing
that the absence of prayer
to the theory of borrowing.
is fatal
that direct native evidence utterly denies the
names and attributes, and strenuously Europeans came to Melbourne (1835)
of divine
asserts that before
they were
revealed in the
secret
doctrine of ancient
This evidence again removed the doubts
initiatory rites.
which Mr. Howitt had entertained on the point, and Mr. Palmer and Mr. Dawson agree with Mr. Howitt, Mr. Eidley, Mr. Gunther, and Mr. Greenway,
studying the blacks on the spot. of the
same
experts,
all
In the study, Waitz
Australian religion
opinion.
all
is
It is rare, in anthropological speculations, to light
a topic in which verifiable dates occur.
is
unborrowed.
The
on
dates of the
and other Europeans, the dates of Mr. Threlkeld's books, of Mr. Eidley's
arrivals of missionaries
Mr. Hale's book, primer,
While
are
of
definite
facts,
this array of facts
not conjectures in the
air.
remains undemolished, science
cannot logically argue that the superior beings of low savage belief are borrowed from Christian teachers and
That idea is disproved also by the esoteric and hidden nature of the beliefs, and by the usual, though travellers.
The absence
not universal, absence of prayer. again, and
of
sacrifice,
of prayer
proves that gods not bribed or
implored were not invented as powerful givers of good things, because
good things were found not to be pro-
curable by magic.
This
condition
of behef
is
not what a European,
whatever his
bias, expects to find.
this kind of
ideas.
they are
He
does not import
misreports, due to misunderstandings in America and Australia from 1558 to 1898, what is the value of anthropological evidence? If
all
THE THEORY OF LOAN-GODS It
ought to be needless to add that
like
when good
45
observers
Miss Kingsley find traces of Jesuit or other missionary
teaching in regions, as Africa or Canada, where Jesuits actually taught in the past, I accept their decision.^
arguments against the theory of borrowing cases
where the beliefs reported were found already extant
by the like
first
white observers, to tribes where missionaries
Mr. Threlkeld could not introduce their names
deity,
My
apply chiefly to
and to
tribes
which
for
jealously conceal their theology
from the whites. ' Miss Kingsley, tember 1897, p. 132.
•
African Religion and Law,' National Review, Sep-
MAGIC AND RELIGIOxN
46
III
MAGIC AND BELIGION 'The idea
which
inspires this text probably is
seeks to obtain his ends by witchcraft
the deity or deities through
be sought. official
Witchcraft
who
priests,
is
whom
also
dowser
'
is
rebelling against
alone these ends should
an insult and injury
to the
regard the witch as the surgeon
regards the bone-setter, or as '
The that a person who
sin of witchcraft is as the sin of rebellion.'
or water-finder
^be
who "uses
geologist regards the
the divining-rod.
Magic or witchcraft falls into two main classes. The former is magic of the sort used by people who think that things accidentally like each other influence each other. it
in the
You find a stone shaped like a yam, and you sow yam plot. You find a stone like a duck, and
expect to have good duck-shooting while you carry the stone about in a bag. fluences the whole so he catches
;
In the same way the part
you burn some
a fever.
man's
of a
hair,
in-
and
Imitation works in the same
manner; you imitate the emergence of grubs from the larvffi, and you expect grubs to emerge. All magic of this kind is wrought by material objects, sticks, stones, hair, and so forth, which sometimes have been charmed by songs chanted over them. Among '
'
the Arunta of Central Australia, in
ward
people,
we do hear
of
an
'
many
evil spirit
respects a back'
material object which has been charmed.^ '
Spencer and Gillen,
p. 549.
influencing the
We
also hear
MAGIC AND RELIGION which instruct men in medical magic.
of spirits
a rule, the magic
is
But, as
produce
It really does
materialistic.
by suggestion a man dies and a woman is won, they know that magic is being worked to kill or woo. The second sort of magic acts by spells which constrain
effects, if
47
:
spirits
or gods
magic
involves
ceremonies
so
religion
in
itself
are,
speak,
to
when
only
by
intention
he
that deity,
is
wjio
practitioner
may
god
priest of a savage
is
a is
symbolic
prayers
the idea
if
spirit,
is
then the
Though the
official
use magic in his appeal to
not a wizard.
medical practitioner
magical
on a god or
spells
magical and rebellious.
is
the
But
expressed in a kind of sign-language. to put constraint
This
do the will of the magician.
to
It
witch, just a quack.
is
the unofficial
the
as
unqualified
In the same way
if
a
minister of the kirk was clairvoyant or second-sighted that
was a proof
lay parishioner
of godliness and inspiration. But if a was second-sighted, he or she was in
danger of the stake as a witch or wizard. These, briefly stated, are the points of contrast and points
The
contact between magic and religion.
of
question has recently been raised by Mr. Frazer, in the j
new
edition of his
not
everywhere
'
Golden Bough,' whether magic has
preceded
Have men not
religion.
attempted to secure weather and everything else to their desire
them
by magic, before they invented gods, and prayed to for what magic, as they learned by experience,
failed to provide ?
This question cannot be -—— historically determined. "• ~—-———"-— II
we find
-ff
rx—
a race
be certain that it
it
has despaired.
suffered
come.
III 1
1
III
11^
i
i
religion,
which
did not once possess a religion of I once
from toothache.
He
If
m iijwe cannot -
fill II
which has magic but no
at once,
knew
a
man
He prayed for
who, as a relief
:
it
child,
did not
about the age of eight, abandoned
MAGIC AND EELIGION
48
What
may do, in the way of despair of religion, a childlike race may do. Therefore, if we find a race religion.
a child
with magic but without
we cannot
religion,
scientifically
Thus^th^
say that the race has never possessed a religion. relative priority of religion or
nwy
i»iii,-iiirimiV'
be as certained magic cannot M Mi ^i Wi«**M*»'-> WjWMW W3
mnatfais.^mimm'- 'v •^^<''<~"'»aiWSSI
'
i
' «i'
«i H-' I
iiii
ii
historically.
Again,
all
depends on our definition of
religion,
../
Mr. Erazer defines religion as
facts.
-j— conciliation of powers superior to to
and control the course
direct
life.'
^
But
we
man which
that
If
usually
the word
'
creator
it satisfies,
')
,
that
by the figment
the speculative faculty.
(I
men
of
human all
believe in a
or manufactured the
am warned
an idea so
is
are believed
and
does not include
clearly this definition
nature of things or most things
a propitiation or
of nature
mean by religion. potent being who originally made that
'
we
unbottomed
are to pursue a speculation rather airy and
on
if
not to use
far
religious
of a supernatural agent,
Clearly the belief in
such a
germ whence may spring the ideas of duty towards, and an affection for, the being. Nobody can deny being
is
a
that these are religious ideas, though they do not appear
The believers in such a being, even if they never ask him for anything, cannot be called irreligious. At a period of his life when Coleridge never prayed, he would have been much and not unjustly annoyed if Mr. Frazer had called him irreligious. A man may believe in God, and yet trust him too utterly to address him in petitions for earthly goods and gear. Thy Will be Done may be his only prayer yet he does in
Mr. Frazer's
definition.
'
'
;
not lack religion.
He
only lacks
it
in the sense of Mr.
Frazer's definition. If that definition
to produce a
is
backward
granted, Mr. Frazer
race, houseless,
"^a. Oil
B.
i.
pUs^,'
is
prepared
without agriculture,
MAGIC AND EELIGION metals, domestic animals, and
Frazer's
'
the
Mr. Frazer, who presently informs us that
woman was
-born child of every
first
without religion in Mr.
They have magic, but they have no
sense.
religion, says
tribe as part of a religious ceremony.' religion,
and a bloody religion
That people magic
49
it is.
»
among whom, while
the Australian,
is
eaten by the
So they have a
^
'
is universally practised, religion in the sense of a
propitiation or conciliation of the higher powers
be nearly unknown.'
^
'
Nobody dreams
gods or spirits by prayer or
We are
seems to
of propitiating
sacrifice.'
presently to see that Mr. Frazer gives facts
which contradict his own statement. But first I must In the cite all that he says about Australian religion. south-eastern parts of Australia, where the conditions of life in respect of climate, water, and vegetation are more '
than
favourable religion
some
elsewhere,
beginnings of
faint
appear in the shape of a slight regard for the
Thus some Victorian
comfort of departed friends.
tribes
are said to have kindled fires near the bodies of their dead
warm
in order to
the ghost, but " the recent custom of
providing food for aborigines as
'
it
is
derided by the intelligent
white fellows'
'
gammon."
'
'
Some
old
tribes
in this south-eastern region are further reported to believe
supreme
in a
spirit,
benevolent, but
who
is
regarded sometimes as a
more frequently
as a malevolent, being.''
Brewin, the supreme being of the Kurnai, was at identified
by two
intelligent
members
first
of the tribe with
Jesus Christ, but on further reflection they thought he
must be the '
G. B.
'
J.
'
ii.
devil.^
p. 51.
But whether viewed '
G. B.
as gods or devils
i.
Dawson, Australian Aborigines, pp. 50, sq. A. W. Howitt in Journal of the Anthropological
p. 71.
Institute,
xiii.
(1884),
.191. '
L. Fison and A.
W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai,
p. 255.
E
MAGIC AND RELIGION
60
does not seem that these spirits were ever worshipped.'
it
It is
thus
worth observing that in the same
advance.
which
organisation
the germs of rehgion, the and the family has also made the greatest The cause is probably the same in both cases
exhibit
society
of
districts
namely, a more plentiful supply of food due to the greater the
fertility of
soil.^
and barren regions attains
highest
its
of
the other hand, in the parched Central Australia, where magic
importance, religion seems to be
The
wanting.^
entirely
On
traces
of
a higher faith in
where they occur, are probably sometimes due European influence. I am strongly of opinion,' says
Australia, to
'
one
who knew
VTritten
the aborigines well,
show
to
that the
that those
'
blacks had
who have
some knowledge
God, practised prayer, and believed in places of reward
of
and punishment beyond the grave, have been imposed upon, and that until they had learned something
and others the blacks had Having heard the
Christianity from missionaries
no
practices of the sort.
or
beliefs
missionaries, however, they were not slow to invent I
may call
of
what
kindred statements with aboriginal accessories
with a view to please and surprise the whites.'
*
Some-
times, too, the reported belief of the natives in a great or
good
may
spirit
rest
Mr. Lorimer Fison informs 1899) that a
German
on a misunderstanding. (in a letter dated June 3,
merely
me
missionary, Mr. Siebert, resident in
the Dieri tribe of Central Australia, has ascertained that their
Good '
Mura Mura, which Mr. Gason Spirit,^ is
See A.
nothing more or
W. Howitt
less
explained to be the
than the ancestors
in Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
in
xiii.
(1884), p. 459. ^
See A.
W. Howitt
^ '
*
in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xviil.
is not mentioned here. See Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia. E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, i. 45.
(1889), pp. 32, sg.
Eeligion
Native Tribes of South Australia,
p. 260.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
There are male and female Mura
the 'dream times.'
Mura
61
—husbands, wives, and children —just as among the Mr. Fison adds
Dieri at the present day.
more
I learn about savage tribes, the
among them This
The more
am convinced that
the ancestors grow into gods.'
is all
that Mr. Prazer has here to say about the
He
religious behef of the Australians.
museum
I
'
:
with abundance
of the past,' a people
yet with no religion, or not
has found, in
enough
of
'
the
magic,
to affect his theory that
was everywhere second in order of time to magic. very content to meet him on Australian ground.
religion
I
am
There we
find
abundance
of
testimony to the existence of
a belief speculative, moral, and emotional, but not practical.
The beings of this belief are not propitiated by sacrifice, and very seldom by prayer, but they are makers, friends, and judges. Mr. Tylor accepts (I think) the evidence for the beliefs as at present found, but presumes characteristics to be of
many of their
European importation.
Against
that theory I have argued in the preceding essay, giving historical
Mr. Frazer
dates.
evidence for the beliefs.
more than 'some
down due
'
He
ignores the
faint beginnings of religion,'
traces of a higher faith
(and perhaps
omits and
denies to the Australians
'
as
sometimes
'
and puts
probably sometiines
European influence. For this theory Mr. Curr is cited Having heard the missionaries, they were not slow to invent what I call '
it
is)
'
to
'
:
'
kindred statements with aboriginal accessories, with a view to please
and surprise the whites.'
To please and
surprise the whites the natives concealed
their adaptations of Christian ideas in the mysteries, to
which white men are very seldom, or were very seldom, admitted! rule
is
now
Is this likely?
I believe that the exclusive
relaxed where the natives are practically paid '
E. M. Curr, The Australian Race,
i.
45.
E 2
MAGIO AND RELIGION
62
One Bora was under European patronage, and
to exhibit.^
men and
the old
But when first
learned the secret of their religion,
initiated
supplies.
Mr. Howitt was initiated by the Kurnai, and so
desired to be satisfied that I
He
European
children were fed on
had
the old men.
'
.
.
.
in very deed been fully
by the Brajerak black fellows in
therefore retired to a lonely spot,
'
their Kuringal.'
far
from the
possi-
woman's presence,' and exhibited the token of his previous initiation by the Murrings. Hitherto long as the Kurnai had known me, these special secrets of the tribe had been kept carefully from me by all but two,' one of whom was now dead. The inmost secret was the belief in Munganngaur, the Great Father of the tribe, who was once on bility of a
'
'
earth,
and now
lives in the sky, [he] is rather the beneficent
and the kindly though severe headman of the whole tribe, than the malevolent wizard, such as are other father,
of the supernatural beings believed in
blacks.'
by the Australian
2
Mr. Frazer
cites
Mr. Howitt thus
:
'
Some
tribes in this
south-eastern region are further reported to believe in a
supreme
spirit,
who is regarded sometimes
as a benevolent
but more frequently as a malevolent being.' ' What has become of Mr. Howitt 's evidence after initiation by the Kurnai, evidence published in 1885
How
?
when
blacks invent beliefs to please the whites reveal
them
to
Mr. Howitt,
after
Brevsdn, the
identified
supreme being
by two
intelligent
he has produced a
bull
Mr. Frazer then writes
roarer as a token of initiation ? '
can the they only
of the Kurnai,
members
was
:
at first
of the tribe with
Jesus Christ, but on further reflection they thought he
must be the '
Cf.
^
J.
'
devil.'
This
cited
is
Mr. Matthews and Mr. Crawley,
A. I. xiv. 1885, p. 521. G. B. i. 72, note J. A. I. ;
xiii. p.
J.
A.
from a work I. xxiv.
191 (1884).
413.
of 1881,
MAGIC AND RELIGION
53
Kamilaroi and Kumai must have escaped even Mr. Frazer's erudiWhen I wrote of Brewin in tion that Mr. Hov^itt says " my paper on Some AustraHan BeHefs " I was not aware These the Kurnai of the doctrines as to Mungan-ngaur.
and
Messrs. Fison (p.
Hewitt's
'
It
255).
'
:
from
carefully concealed
Jeraeil, or mysteries.'
Had Mr.
me
them
until I learned
at the
^
Frazer observed this remark of Mr. Howitt's,
he could not have
Mr. Howitt's
cited,
that 'Brevrin'
without
comment
or correction,
and confessedly erroneous opinion
earlier
'the supreme being of the Kurnai.'^
is
To Mr. Howitt's
correction in
1881 Mr. Frazer, as
1885 of his mistake of
makes no
far as I observe,
allu-
sion.
Mr. Frazer must either have overlooked for
an Australian
belief ruinous to his
of religion (ruinous
known
if
all
must have reasons, not
that evidence too worthless to
We
deserve confutation or even mention.
know
his reasons, for, on other matters,
our witnesses.
the evidence
Australia represents the earliest
stages of religion), or he
produced, for thinking
all
theory of the origin
are anxious to
he freely quotes
Yet I cannot think Mr. Frazer consist-
ently so severe as
to
He
Australian evidence.
has a
was which masked men ran about through Hebrew
picturesque theory that the origin of the Passover a rite in
towns in the night, butchering all the
No
people,
we
first
born of
exclaim, ever did such a thing
!
Israel.^
In proof
the existence of the custom Mr. Frazer adduces an
of
Austrahan parallel
' :
In some tribes of
the first-born child of every
New
woman was
South Wales eaten by the
J. A. I., 1885, p. 321, note 2. G. B. i. 72, note 1. In the first edition of Myth, Ritual, and BeUgion I quoted Mr. Howitt's evidence of 1881. In the second edition I naturally '
^
cited his later testimony. '
G. B.
ii.
49, 50.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
64
ceremony.'
tribe as part of a religious
Mr. Frazer's
'
authority is a communication by Mr. John Moore Davis, and was published in 1878, twenty-three years ago, by In Mr. Brough Smyth. Here is what Mr. Davis says '
:
such as Bathurst, Goulburn, the Lachlan, or Macquarie, it was customary long ago for the parts of N.
S. "W.,
by the
first-born of every lubra to be eaten
tribe, as part
a religious ceremony, and I recollect a black fellow
of
who had, when an
in compliance
infant on the
with the custom, been thrown
fire,
but was rescued and brought
up by some stock-keepers who happened accidentally to be The marks of the burns were passing at the time. distinctly visible on the man when I saw him. ..." The evidence is what the Society for Psychical Research calls 'remote.' In 1878 the event was already '
long ago.'
The testimony The black
remote a hand. time, could not
who were
from we know not how
is
sufferer,
remember the
facts.
baby
a
as
at the
The stock-keepers we even know
present are not named, nor do
whether Mr. Davis was informed by them, or heard their story at third or fourth hand. "We do not know whether they correctly religious
the
interpreted
ceremony (by a people
alleged
in
sacrifice,
a
said to be almost or quite
irreligious), of all the first-born children of
women.
Mr.
Frazer has circulated inquiries as to Australian customs,
and has published the
results in
Anthropological Institute.'
^
He
the
'Journal of the
does not appeal to the
answers in corroboration of Mr. Davis's remarkable
Imbued with the
story.'
superstition of psychical research,
once investigated the famous Australian tale of Fisher's ghost (1826). I sent for the Court archives (the ghost led I
to a trial for murder), '
O. B.
^
November
ii.
51, citing
and I received these and a contem-
Brough Smyth's Aborigines of
1894, pp. 158-198.
"
Victoria,
G. B.
ii.
ii.
311.
51-53.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
55
porary plan of the scene of the murder and the apparition.
These documents
May
Fisher.^
corroborative tale
settler's
me
left
doubtful about the ghost of
I not say that similar researches
and good
we
accept a
evidence are needed before of
an Australian
sacrifice,
'
long ago,'
confirming a theory of a Hehie-w yearly massacre of
all
as
the
Mr. Moore's evidence is good as to a sacrifice, why is the latest evidence of Mr. Howitt and all my other witnesses as to Australian religion not worth Moreover,
first-born ?
Why is
if
bad that Mr. Frazer goes back to Mr. Howitt's evidence of 1881, before he knew the secret, and is silent about Mr. Howitt's evidence of 1885 ? mentioning
We
?
may
it
so
quote Sir Alfred Lyall
:
'
One
effect of
the
accumulation of materials has been to encourage speculative generalisations, because it has provided a repertory
out of which one
may make arbitrary selection of examples suit any theory.' Has Mr. Frazer
and precedents to
escaped this error ?
he has escaped, and the error is Mr. Howitt, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Oldfield, Mr. Dawson, and Mr. Cameron (whom I am about to I cannot think that
fatal.
He
cites
quote), all of
whom
speak to a native religion of the kind
which I contend.
for
Their witness
is
enough
him
for
in other matters, but as to this matter these witnesses,
some reason, are absolutely ignored.
for
I myself have
omitted the affirmative evidence of Mr. Oldfield and Mr.
Foelsche as to religion, because I think although in part corroborated.
But
it
my
contaminated, witnesses,
all
cited for other points
by Mr. Frazer, are not even mentioned
on the point where,
if
their reports be correct, they
rather to invalidate his central theory
seem
— that religion was
invented in the despair of magic. '
For
et seq.
'
Fisher's Ghost
'
see Blackwood's Magazine, August 1897, p. 78
MAGIC AND RELIGION
56
As of
to that despair,
Babylon, Greece, and Egypt lived side by
superabundant
magic is
The
does not exist.
it
fails,
The
magic.
religions
side with
when
Australians,
their
merely say that some other black fellow
working stronger counter-magic'
However, that present
is.
Why
is
whom
evidence fatal to his theory so
surprise
many
them,
of witnesses
or ignored ?
he quotes on other
Why
?
witnesses,
anxious
cannot be biassed.
mony
they were,
If
of
it ?
that
facts
by borrowing,
why
is
not the
all
testi-
with the opposite bias also discredited
Why
welcomed ?
is it
Dieri propitiate ancestral
Mr. Frazer prefers
German
missionary, that the
spirits, to
the opinion of Mr.
Gason, that the being
of their belief is a
made them.
know which
;
points,
does he ignore
distrustful
explain
to
the opinion of Mr. Siebert, a
right
question at
does Mr. Frazer not cite and confute the
evidence of witnesses,
Among
The
a different question.
I do not
good
spirit
who
of these gentlemen
is
possibly both views are held by different native
informants.
But Mr.
through Mr. Fison,
Siebert's
who
says
:
'
ancestral
The more
spirits
come
I learn about
am convinced that among them grow into Gods so natural a process where the names of the dead are tabooed savage tribes, the more I
ancestors
'
—
!
'
Oh
no, we never mention them, Their names are never heard.'
So they grow into gods so, for all
that I know,
have a theory and a witnesses
who
Mr. Fison
!
may Mr.
bias, yet
is
a Spencerian
Siebert be.
they are cited.
If so, both It is only
hold that the Australians, certainly not,
as a rule, ancestor worshippers, believe in a kind of god,
who
are not deemed worthy of mention on though quite trustworthy on other points. '
J.
A.
I. XV. 4.
this point,
MAGIC AND RELIGION I cannot imderstand this method.
He
theory.
a
57
The
historian has
searches for contradictory facts.
chemist or hiologist does not
fail to
mention
The
facts hostile
to his theory.
We
Mr. Frazer to accept the testimony of Mr. Howitt, Mr. Cameron, Mr. Eidley, Mr. Greenway, Mr. Gason, Mr. Hale, Archdeacon Giinther, the Benedicare not asking
Mr. Dawson, Mr. Eyre, Mr. Eoth, Mrs.
tines of Nursia,
Langloh Parker
;
or to accept the opinion of Waitz,
Mr.
Howitt, and others as to unborrowed A-ustralian religion.
may
when it is proved But perhaps anthropologists may be allowed to be curious as to the reasons for which The reason cannot this and similar testimony is ignored. be that there is contradictory evidence, for some observers Their testimony
be erroneous
erroneous I shall abandon
deny magic
to the tribes
;
it.
whom
Yet Mr.
they know.'
To be true to my own principles, I note a few points in Mr. Frazer's Australian evidence, published by him in J. A. J., November 1894. Mr. Gason, an excellent witness, says that the Dieri think some souls turn into old trees or rocks, or 'as breath ascend to the heavens,' to '
'
Purriewillpanina.'
The
Dieri believe the
Mooramoora created them and
will look after their spirits (op. cit. p. 175).
Mr. Frazer, however, calls the remote ancestral spirits,' who would have a difficulty, one thinks, in creating the Dieri. The names of the dead may not be men-
Mura Mura
tioned
'
(p. 176).
The
station master at Powell's Creek denies that magic exists in any shape or form.' There are no religious dances, no belief in a future hfe Mr. Lindsay Crawford says nothing is known of the nature of (p. 180). souls.' For the last ten years this gentleman had held no communication with the natives at all, except with the rifle.' Perhaps his negative '
'
'
evidence
is not very valuable, as he does not appear to have won the friendly confidence of the blacks. Mr. Matthews says : Many tribes believe future existence is regulated by due observances at burial according to the rites of the tribe Mr. Foelsche, described by Dr. Stirling as a (p. 190). '
'
most
intelligent
tributes a belief
'
and accurate observer, who knows the natives well,' conin a benevolent creator, with a demiurge who made the
He inhabits Teelahdlah, among the stars. He never dies.' He a very good man,' not a spirit.' A subterranean being can read and write, and keeps a book of men's actions. This is so manifestly due blacks. is
'
'
'
'
'
to
European influence that
I
have not cited Mr. Foelsche's evidence.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
58
Frazer has no doubt as to the prevalence of magic, though one of his witnesses, Mr. Foelsche, gives no magic, but gives viev^ed as gods or devils,' Mr. Frazer
'Whether
religion.
says of South-Bast Australian beings,
'it
evidence that they are worshipped
Bora are worship),
but,
the rights of the
Gods, in his theory, were invented
be worshipped.
man now
(if
has ignored the
they are not worshipped, so much
if
the worse for his theory. just to
does not seem that
He
these spirits were ever worshipped.'
'
To
addressed himself
....
these mighty beings
....
beseeching
them
of
mercy to furnish him with all good things As against the correctness of my witnesses I only know the mass of evidence by white observers who have detected no religion among these savages. But I do not their
.
by the
beliefs are reported,
who has
inquirer
many
affirmative witnesses, to be
utmost
guarded with the
.
because the
the negative evidence,
accept
necessarily
.
.' ^
secrecy.^
It
is
not every
the power of eliciting beliefs which, for
reasons, are jealously guarded.
Many Englishmen
or Lowlanders are unable to extract legends of fairies, ghosts,
and second-sight from Gaelic Highlanders.
On
the other hand, they are kind enough to communicate to
me
plenty of their folk-lore.
'
The Urkus were very shy
and frightened when asked about their religion,' says Mr. Pope Hennessy in his Notes on the Jukos and other '
Tribes of the Middle
Thus
'
(1898).
I prefer the affirmative evidence of
who have won have been Mr. Foelsche
The
Ben®
the confidence of the Australians, and
initiated,
'
knows
to
the denials
of
'
2
See
^
/.
'
A.
i.
The Theory I.
January
observers less
no magic or witchcraft being practised (p. 197). they then point
of
'
blacks believe that after death their souls 'go up
skywards (p. 198). G. B. 1. 72, note
Europeans
77.
of
Loan
Gods.'
to June, 1900, No. 31, p. 27.
'
;
MAGIC AND RELIGION As for
fortunate. if
they
my
exist, are
their theory that the religious practices,
borrowed from Christians,
have stated
I
There could be no
the preceding essay.
case in
59
stronger evidence than the absence of prayer that
Australian religion
the
not borrowed.
is
This argument ought especially to appeal to Mr. Frazer.
His definition
Enthyphro, in the
of religion is that of
Platonic Dialogue of that name. Socrates. Sacrificing is
asking from
giving to the Gods, and piety
is
them ?
Euthyphro. Yes, Socrates.
Upon
Socrates.
this view, then, piety is a science of
asking and giving ?
Euthyphro.
You understand me
capitally, Socrates.
But
Mr. Frazer agrees with Euthyphro. that the most backward race
known
power, yet propitiates hiip neither
and
if
we
find, as
we
argue that gods were
we
really cannot
invented as powers
first
sacrifice,
precisely the highest
is
it
to us believes in a
prayer nor
unpropitiated, then
is left
find
many more advanced
do, that in
races in Africa and America
power which
b}'
we
if
who
could
give good things, on receipt of other good things, sacrifice
and prayer. Sir Alfred Lyall here agrees with
foundation of natural religion
Do
ut des
'
('
I give that
you
Mr. Frazer.
...
is
may
.
give
'
The
the principle of '),
'
and the most
ingenious researches into the evolution of primitive ideas will hardly take us
beyond or behind
do not pretend to be facts.
'
ingenious.'
Have Mr. Hewitt's
very great power, which conduct, but had,
all
is
is
it.' ^
It is a
My
researches
mere question
'
of
tribes the idea of a power, a
interested in conduct, sanctions
not asked for material benefits
the American and African peoples '
'
Asiatic Studies,
ii.
172.
?
Have, or
whom
I have
MAGIC AND RELIGION
60
power often unconcihated ?
cited a highest
they invent these beings
If so,
why did
Certainly not to play with
?
them
Yet that game was the origin of rehgion, according to Sir Alfred and Mr. Frazer. The facts must be mentioned, must be disproved, before the theory of Do ut des can be established. Even if we accepted the theory of Buthyphro and of
Do ut des.
game
of
Mr. Frazer
it
at the
is
beset
by
Eeligion
difficulties.
is
the
Magic is found by the Rain is not produced, nor
despair of magic, says the theory.
higher minds to be a failure.
Consequently
sunshine, nor food, as a result of magic. invisible
powers,
like
'
himself,
They
invented by man.
but far stronger,' are
are immortal,
home
take man's immortal
spirit
mortal themselves.^
They are
and are asked
to them.^
so dependent
man
beings which are far stronger, that
to
Yet they are on man, these
actually has to
kings to them annually to keep these far
sacrifice his
stronger beings in vigour.'
I
am
willing to suppose, with
Mr. Frazer, a very gradual process of evolution in religious
Man began by He found that
thought. powerful. in a quiet
haven
after a
thinking his a failure,
'
own magic
and came
all
to rest, as
tempestuous voyage, in a new
system of faith and practice. ... a substitute, however precarious, for that
'
(magical)
which he had reluctantly
'
sovereignty over nature
abdicated.'
To be
sure he had
not abdicated, Greek and Babylonic magic are especially
But
notorious.
let
us fancy that
man
at
large but
gradually reached the conception of powers far higher
They were very
than himself.
limited powers at
first
they helped him, but he had to help them, to the extent, sometimes, of killing his kings annually to keep them in health.
This
'
G. B.
i.
'
G. B.
ii.
is
Mr. Frazer's
77.
1-59, and passim, almost.
position.*
But
'
G. B.
ii.
'
G. B.
i.
if
1.
78, 79.
our
MAGIC AND RELIGION Australian evidence
That
is
why
is
61
this theory is baseless.
correct,
our evidence cannot be neglected.
It is another difficulty that the
more man ought
to be
finding out the fallacy of magic, the less does he find
Mr. Frazer chooses the Arunta
out.
as
a people wholly without
but universally
religion,
I have frequently read the account of
magicians.
it
of Central Australia
Arunta
magic by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, but I never found that
it
included a belief like this
'
:
A man
god ....
draws his extraordinary power from a certain sympathy
He
with nature.' '
of
is
defined not as an incarnation of a god
an order different from and superior to man,' but as only
a superior sorcerer
where most
men
are sorcerers.
not merely the receptacle of a divine just
been told that he
spirit at all,
body and
is
that a touch of his
is
have
it
to be so.
'
His whole being,
attuned to the harmony of the world,
hand or a turn
of his
a thrill vibrating through the universal things.^
He
not the receptacle of a divine
and we shall take
soul, is so
'
We
spirit.'
head
may
send
framework
of
.' .
.
.
But you will look in vain for this portentous belief among the Arunta, who, not having found out the fallacy have not invented beings superior to man.
of magic,
For magic you have to go to the civilisation of Japan, or to the peoples on the Congo, much more civilised than the Arunta.^ These peoples, by Mr. Frazer's theory, had experience and intelligence enough to find out the fallacy of magic, and had gods in
this sorcerer of the very highest
great plenty. in a
magician
But they have
much
beyond the Arunta.
infinitely
gods with '
whom
G. B.
i.
81.
carried the belief in magic,
superior to his neighbours, to a pitch
to
Yet the Arunta have no
draw comparisons invidious and G. B.
ii.
8i
i.
232,233.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
62
unfavourable to magicians at
they have,
;
it is
said,
no gods
all.
Just as magic thus reaches ing to Mr. Frazer, where there
its is
highest power, accord-
most
religious competi-
tion (while the reverse should be the case
so religion flourishes
most in
by
his theory),
Australia, exactly where,
by Mr. Frazer's theory, the circumstances are most unfavourable to religion and most favourable to magic. Magic, by the hypothesis, must prosper most, its fallacy
must be
latest discovered, it
versa.
must
give place to
latest
be most successful, and
religion, jwhere it appears to
vice
LZet Mr. Frazer assures us that in Australia magic
flourishes alone, its failure
where every circumstance demonstrates
and religion begins to blossom precisely where
;
...
magic must seem to
devotees a relative success. /
its
_,,-»*
Before examining this apparent inconsistency,
let
us
note Mr. Frezer's inadvertent proof that his irreligious
One
Australians are religious.
magic
is
part of the business of
to produce rain in season, sun- in season, and
The
consequently an abundant food supply.^
Dieri of
Central Australia need especially excellent magic.
'
In a
Having no religion, they ought, of course, to work by mere materialistic magic, like the Arunta.^ But they, oddly enough, call upon the spirits of their remote ancestors, which they call Mura Mura, to grant them power to make a heavy rain,' and then men inspired by the Mura Mura work magic, or pray in sign-language, as you please.' Now the Mura Mura, the rain-givers, by evidence which Mr. Frazer himself has published, is a Good Spirit,' not a set of remote ancestral spirits. The witness is Mr. Gason, than whom (says Mr. Frazer's authority, Dr. Stirling) no man living has been more among blacks or knows dry season their lot
a hard one.'
is
'
'
'
'
'
'
G. B.
i.
81-114.
2
Q
B.
i.
88, 89.
'
G. B.
i.
86.
MAGIC AND RELIGION more
of their ways.'
on
If
63
evidence the
this excellent
Australian Dieri call for rain to a good
spirit,
But
have religion, which Mr. Frazer denies.
German
Siebert, a
as
missionary,
then they if
Mr.
right (and Mr. Frazer,
is
we saw, prefers his view to that of Mr. Gason), then Mura Mura are only ancestral spirits. Yet to demand the aid of remote ancestral spirits by
the
prayer
religion.
is
In
fact
Mr. Frazer had said
powerful beings of the Southern Australians
seem that these is
spirits are ever
worshipped.'
^
'
it
of the
does not
But prayer
worship, and the Dieri pray, whether to a good spirit
or to ancestral spirits, potent over the sky, and dwelling
by Mr. Frazer' s own
If this is not religion,
therein.
namely
definition,
'
a
or
propitiation
conciliation
of
powers superior to man, which are believed to direct and
what is reUgion?^ Yet in nobody dreams of propitiating gods or spirits by prayer and sacrifice,' says our author.^ None the less they call upon the spirits of their remote ancestors, which they call Mura Mura, to grant them power to make a heavy rain.' After ceremonies magical, or more control the course of nature,'
Australia
'
'
Mura Mura at once cause sky.' ^ They see the signs which making. Here then we have
prayers in sign-language, the clouds to appear in the their worshippers
prayer to
Good
'
are
'
powers superior to
man
Spirit or to ancestral spirits),
collected
(whether to the
'
and
that,
on evidence
by Mr. Frazer, occurs in a country where,
fourteen pages earlier, he had assured us that
thinks of propitiating gods or spirits by prayer and Sacrifice,
happily, there
degenerated to sacrificing '
a. B.
2
G. B.,
=
G. B.
i.
i. i.
is
none
human
;
nobody
the Dieri have not
victims like the Greeks.
72, note 1. 86, 87.
72.
'
sacrifice.'
>
G. B.
i.
87.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
64
The
scene
Central Australia, where 'the pitiless
is
sun beats down for months together out of
a'
blue and
on the parched and gaping earth.' Consemust perpetually prove a Therefore, I presume, the Dieri have been driven
cloudless sky
quently rain-making magic failure.
by discovering the
into religion
would be a is
logical
fallacy of magic.
This
argument, but Mr. Frazer's argument
the converse of what I suggest and contradicts his
theory. faint
'
He
germs
dubiously grants the existence of possible of religion
' '
in the south-eastern parts of
where the conditions of life in respect of climate, water, and vegetation are more favourable than elsewhere .... It is worth observing that in the same Australia,
regions which thus exhibit the germs of religion, the
organisation of society and the family has also greatest advance.
both cases the
The cause
is
made
the
probably the same
in
— namely, a more plentiful supply of food due to
greater fertility
the
of
soil.'
'jT^ow, according
Mr. Frazer's whole argument, the confessed
to
failure of
But in Central Australia, most conspicuously to' supply water and vegetation, magic flourishes to the On entire exclusion of religion, except among the Dieri.
magic
is
the origin of religion.^
where magic
notoriously
fails
the other hand, in South-Eastern Australia, where magic, if
practised,
more
is
abundantly rewarded by more water and
vegetation, there these proofs of the success of magic
of the germs of religioin But, by Mr. Frazer's hypothesis, what must be the apparent success of magic in securing a more plentiful supply of
are
'
probably the cause
'
'
ought to encourage the
belief in magic, and prevent from even germinating. On the other hand, the successful result of magic (for to what else can a people
food
'
religion
'
^
G. S. G. B.
i.
ii.
72, note.
75-80.
The hypothesis
is
'
offered with all
due
diffidence.
iriAUiU AiMJ KiDLillilON of sorcerers attribute the better food •
probably the cause
can these things be
of the first
'
65
supply
germs
?)
has been
How
of religion.
?
All this time, one tribe of Central Australia, the Arunta,
remains resolutely godless
denominations
join
Arunta
live in
most
theirs
Arunta cling
'
and
to magic,
rain-making
If so, as of all
religion.
about the most unsuccessful, they must
is
be very stupid, or they would detect the religion,
Yet,
failure.
South-Eastern Australia (where
successful), the
have developed no
magic
most manifestly a
is
unlike the natives of is
For the
the worst country, the most rainless, and
therefore their magic
magic
in spite of all temptations to
a religious character.
of
'
'
and
fly to
a quiet haven after a tempestuous voyage.'
The
Arunta are very
from stupid
far
and adequate
;
failure,
they have the most com-
of savage metaphysics.
If, then, they have not approached superior powers, in face of the failure
plete
may be that they have tried and discarded Eeligion for the women and the children, magic
of their magic, religion. for
men
'
appears to be the Arunta motto
'
uncivilised
the
women and wooden
initiatory
(above
all
to a string
if
spelled
religious conception. lives
in
'
Twanyirika.'
This
and
women
tells
'the
A
'
letters)
the
spirit,
of
the
rather a
is
.
'
great spirit
women .
is
'
.
are told,
Both un-
are taught to believe in the
So
vnrite
Messrs. Spencer and
our only sources.^
brief note
is all
that these inquirers give in their
copious book to the great '
Arunta
the
and swung about,
with capital
existence of Twanyirika.'
A
of
wild and inaccessible regions.
initiated youths
Grillen,
rites
children believe that the roaring noise
slat, tied
of the great spirit
voice
not so very
:
This I suggest because Mr. Frazer
!
us that at
the
it
G. B.
iii.
424.
«
spirit.
'
This
belief,'
they say,
Natives of Central Australia, p. 246, note
F
1.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
66 is
'
fundamentally the same as that found in
Now
tribes.'
the
spirit
in the tribes reported on
whose voice
is
the
sound
Australian
all
by Mr. Howitt, the slat or bull
of
by other names, is the son or other deputy of Baiame, or some such powerful good being, Mungan-ngaur, Pirmeheal, Bunjil, Noorele, or by whatever style he may be called. One of his duties is to
roarer called the tundun, and
The
superintend the Bora, or mysteries of the tribes.
Twanyirika was misconduct, by his superior, Baiame. This
Wiraijuri believe that their destroyed, for
great spirit
sinful
Daramulun
tribes
existing.
was
called
type of
Daramulun, but
in other
is
apparently the superior, and goes on
He is, says
Mr. Howitt, the Great Master,' the '
'
Father,' the sky dweller, the institutor of society, the power
whose
voice
green.'
He
made
'
so that
cries of
nga
calls to the rain to fall
is
Daramulun likes them
('
good
'),
and make the grass
whom
the moral being for '
the boys are
'
— a process involving
so says Mr. Howitt.
His attributes
and powers (where he is supreme) are precisely those of Baiame,' who, by Mr. Eidley and many others, is spoken '
of as a
maker,
if
I
may
not say creator.
It
was
in 1854,
two Gurre Kamilaroi (in which 'Baiame' was used for 'God'), that Mr. Eidley asked a Kamilaroi man, Do you know Baiame ? He said, Kamil zaia zummi Baiame, zaia winuzgulda I I have heard, or perceived him. have not seen Baiame years before publishing his
'
'
'
'
('
;
They hear him in the Daramulun was not the disease
and medical
skill,
he appears in the form like
Among
thunder').
superior
;
he was
of mischief
this '
and wisdom
is
also
of a serpent at their assemblies,'
Asclepius and the American Hobamok.^
Mr. Eidley
tribe
author of
Though
a missionary, I venture to cite him, because
' J.ii. J., 1872, pp. 268, 269. Lang's QMeewsZared, pp. 444, 445. in Arber's Captain Smith, p. 768.
Winslow,
MAGIC AND RELIGION
67
fifty years, to a
time when
the blacks had less contact with Europeans.
Moreover,
back nearly
his evidence goes
Mr. Eidley
is
corroborated by Mr. Howitt and other
laymen, while Mr. Frazer even prefers the evidence of a
German missionary
man
Mr. Gason, a lay English-
to that of
of the greatest experience.
the Kurnai,
Tundun
the bull roarer, tribe
^
among
finds,
as the patron of the mysteries
like
the same role
Mr. Howitt
is
and
In Mr. Manning's taken by Moodgeegally, under the
Twanyirika.
Boyma.
control of
We have thus
five or six parallels to
of the godless Arunta,
and
all
the Twanyirika
are subordinate to a higher
and Gillen
tell us,
the belief in the Arunta Twanyirika, the great
spirit,
power.
'is
If then,
as Messrs. Spencer
fundamentally the same as that found in
Australian tribes,'
more powerful benevolent Arunta would
superior.
lucline to think there
Or something very
as
Clough
says.
If so, as
is
a god,
like one,
they do not propitiate him,
But our only
ut des.
the
much
In that case the
they did not conceive him as a partner in the
Do
all
Twanyirika ought to have a
witnesses, Messrs.
game
of
Spencer
and Gillen, are extremely reticent about Twanyirika. Nothing is said about his having a superior, and I assume that he has none. It seems to follow that he is a mere Mumbo Jumbo, or bogle, devised by the men to keep the
women and But
children in order.
in South-Eastern Australia
(if
I
may
trust
Mr.
Howitt's evidence, to which Mr. Frazer does not here allude) the counterpart of Twanyirika is a mere servant of a much higher being, everywhere called by names meaning our father.' Therefore either our father Baiame, '
•
'
See
'
The Theory
of
'
Loan-Gods,' supra. F 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
68
Mungan-ngaur, and the rest, have been developed out of a sportive bugbear like Twanyirika, or Twanyirika (if he no superior) is a rudimentary survival of a behef like that in Mungan-ngaur, and his subordinate, Tundun. In the former case Twanyirika, a germ of the more advanced religion of South-Eastern Austraha, was not invented as a power behind nature, who might be really has
useful
if
latter
case the Arunta
propitiated, as in
Mr. Frazer
religion (as
man prior man who has cast
holds), but
But Mr. Frazer does not seem
religion.
In the
Mr. Frazer's theory.
do not represent
to off
to notice this
dilemma.
The evidence for what most people call religion among the Australian natives is so far from scanty that one finds it when looking for other matters, as I am '
going to show.
True, in the following report the religion
does not answer to Mr. Frazer's definition, no powerful
being
is
here said to be conciliated or propitiated
only said to exist and favour morality. definition,
But Mr.
:
he
is
Frazer's
pressed, produces the effect of arguing in a
if
His theory asserts that powerful beings invented by man, in view of man's tardy
vicious circle.
only
are
discovery that his
own magic
is
The
powerless.
invented
beings are then propitiated, for selfish ends, and that, by
the definition, If
we
is religion.
produce, as
we
do, evidence that the belief in
powerful beings has been evolved, and yet that these beings are certainly not propitiated by sacrifice, and
seldom
if
ever by prayer, that they are only
won by
conduct, and by rites not involving sacrifice, Mr. Frazer
cau reply,
'
Perhaps
belief is not religion.'
you
call
it ?
'
Its
;
but by
my
definition that kind of
Then what existence,
if
is it ?
proved,
'
What
is
else
fatal to
can
Mr.
Frazer's theory of the origin of religion in the despair of
MAGIC AND RELIGION
69
magic, because the faithful of the behef of which I speak
do not usually implore the god to do for them what magic has failed to do. Their belief satisfies their speculative needs
moral
and
:
Yet
temporal wants.
does not exist to supply their
it
it is
none the
less,
much
but
the
more, a religion on that account, except by Mr. Frazer's If religion is to
definition.
be defined as he defines
and so on, religion can only have arisen as
it
not deny the
name
power superior
a
does in his
theory, setting aside a supernormal revelation.
belief in a
'
powers superior to man,'
propitiation or conciliation of
we do
it,
But
if
of religion to the speculative
to
man, and to the moral
belief
that he lends a supernormal sanction to conduct, and to
the emotional belief that he loves his children, then the
but something other than religion as
belief is religion,
Nobody
will deny the name of Mr. Prazer says I would ask
defined by Mr. Frazer.
such a
religion to
belief.
'
:
who dissent from my conclusions to make sure that they mean the same thing by religion that I do for otherwise the difference between us may be more apparent
those
;
than I
The is
real.'
^
mean by religion what Mr. Frazer means conciliation of higher
religion,
belief in a
but
it
need not be the whole of
who
higher power
—
and more. powers by prayer and sacrifice sanctions conduct, and
father and a loving one to mankind, is also religion if
any, will dispute the fact.
The
religion.
But
this belief,
if
;
is
a
few,
unaccom-
panied, as in Australia, by prayer and sacrifice, cannot be
accounted for on Mr. Frazer's theory
:
that religion
invented,
for worldly ends, after the recognised
of magic,
which aimed
is
at the
same ends
was
failure
fruitlessly.
It
only by limiting his definition of religion, as he does,
that he can establish his theory of the origin of religion. '
O. B.
i.
xvii.
MxVGlC
70
AND RELIGION
by omitting mention of the evidence for what nobody else can deny to be religion, that he can secure It is only
his theory. I return
to
As
religion.
my
additional
be seen,
will
it
evidence for Australian
does not
come within Mr.
Frazer's definition, but will anybody deny that the belief is
The evidence
religious?
is
that of Mr.
A.
L.
P.
Cameron,' and contains a brief comparative glossary of words used by different tribes of New South Wales to Mr. Cameron had been indicate the same objects. interested in the black fellows since 1868 at least, when
numbers were much larger than at present. He of from 800 to 1,000. The tribes chiefly in question dwelt along the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers, and do not include the Kamilaroi, the Kurnai, and Coast Murring of whom Mr. Howitt speaks. As to religion, ghosts of the dead are believed to visit the earth, and to be frequently seen. The blacks will their
had seen gatherings
'
often resort to peculiar devices to avoid mentioning the
names
of the dead,' a practice hostile to the
No
of ancestor worship.
a god '
if
name
his
The people
is
man
ghost of a
development
can grow into
tabooed and therefore forgotten.
of all these tribes appear to have a belief in
some kind.' The Wathi Wathi call this being Tha-tha-pali the Ta-ta-thi call him Tulong. Mr. Cameron could not obtain translations of these names, any more than we know the meaning of the names Apollo or Artemis. The being is regarded as a Deity, and in a future state of
;
'
a powerful being.
now
spirit,
They say
or perhaps
that he
lives in the sky.
they were to speak.
and the
latter
/.
supreme supernatural far north,
and
He told each tribe what language He made men, women, and dogs,
used to '
a
came from the
A.
talk, I.,
but he took the power
1885, pp. 344-370.
of
MAGIC AND RELIGION speech from them.
much
Ta-ta-thi do not care to speak
Tulong, and say that he does not often come to
of
Although
the earth.
han
The
71
it
seems that in
tribes there is only a very
of the
Supreme Being and
ta-thi
and
many of
dim idea
the Austra-
as to the attributes
of a future state, yet in the
there
its allied tribes
is
Ta-
certainly a belief not
only in a future state of existence, but also in a system of
My Ta-ta-thi informant stated
rewards and punishments.
that one of the doctors ascended long ago through the
men were
and there saw a place where wicked
sky,
roasted.'
Mr. Cameron, of course, had the strongest suspicions of a
'
place
These
To
so ostensibly Christian.
'
tribes
mysteries.
If
The penalty
practise
women
this
we
the Bora rites or
witness
initiatory
them the penalty '
for revealing the secrets
is
The
full secret.
(Hke the Twanyirika of the Arunta)
capacity.
'
is
death.
initiated,
presiding being
called
Thuremlin,
his
subordinate
Daramulun in Their belief in the power
who, I conjecture,
is
probably the same.'
Mr. Cameron, unlike Mr. Howitt, has not been and does not know the
return.^
is
of
Thuremlin
is
undoubted, whereas the Arunta adults do not appear to believe in
Twanyirika, a mere bugbear of the
and children.
The
bull roarer is Kalari, or
Ta-ta-thi Kalk [or Kallak]
—that
is
to say,
women
among
the
"word."'
Concerning the instruction given to the boys, and described
by Mr. Howitt, Mr. Cameron, not being no information.
'
Parenthetically, I
may remark
that
many
initiated, gives
beliefs as to the future state
who visit the Hades or Paradise of a tribe, and by reports of men given up for dead, who recover and narrate their experiences. The case of Montezuma's aunt is familiar originate in, or are confirmed by, visions of
is
doctors
'
Mr. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. The new religion of the based on a similar vision. Anthropologists have given slight
to readers of
Sioux
'
attention to these circumstances.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
72
As
to the future
life,
Mr. Cameron received his account
from a tribesman named Makogo,
'
an intelligent member
was that current Wathi Wathi tribe.' The before his people came into contact with Europeans, and Makogo expressed an opinion that, whether right or of the
belief
'
wrong, they would have been better never been disturbed.'
beliefs
The
beliefs
off
now had
their
Probably Makogo was right.
were in a future state of reward or punish-
European contact does not import but destroy
ment.
the native form of this creed.
The Wathi "Wathi
belief
answers in character to the
creeds expressed in the Egyptian
Book
of the
Dead, the
Fijian hymns, the famous Orphic gold talisman of Petilia,
Red Indian
the
belief published
other examples.^ or to If
The
Way
by Kohl, and
to
many
of Souls, as in these ancient
savage beliefs, is beset by dangers and temptations, which the Egyptian Book of the Dead is a guide-book. any one desires to maintain that this Australian idea,
held before contact with Europeans, and extent abandoned after that contact,
is
now
to
some
of Christian origin
know this argument), he must suppose that the Wathi Wathi adapted the idea from our old Lyke Wake (we
'
Dirge
:
When
Brig o' Dread is over and past, Every night and all, To Whinny Muir thou comest at last,
And
Christ receive thy saul.
A
weak point there is. The soul of the Wathi Wathi, after death, is met by" another soul, who directs him to '
the road for good men.'
But the natives had no roads, the opponent will reply. They have trade routes and markets, however, and barter of articles made in special localities goes on across '
See
my Modern
Mythology, and introduction to
my Homeric Hymns.
MAGIC AND KELIGION
73
Let us allow that the Wathi Wathi may know a clean path or track from a hundreds of miles of country.^
dirty one.
The soul,
being instructed, chooses the dirty path
path
is
kept clean by bad
unthinking to
follow
spirits
as
it,'
woman who
and comes
lures,
whirling a rope.
'
The
hell.
He
seduce him.
tries to
two women who try
to
One
them
of
:
the other
in order to induce the
Bunyan's Mr. Ignorance
unwarily chose a by-path into
meets a
The good
and a clean path.
soul meets a dirty
blind,
is
soul
next
escapes her
to trip
him by
and the soul
Next comes a deep narrow gap, in which flames rise and fall. The good soul watches the fall of the flames, and leaps across there is no Brig o' Dread. Bed Indian souls cross by a log which nearly spans the abyss. Two old women meet the good soul, and take him to the evades her.
;
'
Deity, Tha-Tha-Puli.'
He tests the soul's strength and skill
by making him throw Wathi see a shooting
'When
a nulla-nulla. star,
they believe
it
the to
Wathi be the
passage of such a nulla-nulla through space, and say "
Tha-Tha-Puli is trying the strength
The
soul of a bad
sure to
fall
if it
beliefs
of
some new
spirit."
escapes the traps set for
into the hell of
have had their
and I
man,
fire.
Many
it, is
of the natives
modified by contact with the whites,'
feel doubtful,' says Mr. Cameron, whether the pit was not of this kind, and questioned my informant very closely on the subject, but he assured me that there was no doubt whatever that the above was the exact belief before the settlement of the country by the white men.' It is the standing reply of believers in the borrowing '
'
of fire
theory that a native, cross-examined, will always agree
with whatever the European inquirer wishes him to say. '
Both, North- West Queensland Central Aborigines, p. 132.
and Gillen, 575.
Spencer
MAGIC AND RELIGION
74
Langloh
natives examined by Mr. Cameron, Mrs.
The
Parker, Mr. Howitt, Mr. Manning, and others were exceptions. They would not allow that their beliefs were
borrowed.
This
particular
form
native
of
belief
exactly
is
analogous to that of ancient Egypt, of Greece, of
and
Fiji,
The believers in borrowing must therefore say that the Wathi Wathi stole heaven, hell, and the ways thither from missionaries, and adapted them, accidentally coinciding on
so
not to the doctrine of our missionaries.
:
with Egyptians, Greeks, Eed Indians, Fijians, Aztecs, and the
rest, as to
way
a gulf to be crossed, and temptations on the
to the abode of the powerful being
The
the good.
ing
Tha-Tha-Puli and his home for good
The Yerrunthally
to our point.
Mr. Frazer
spirits.
has six pages on beliefs about shooting is
One
stars.'
case
Queensland think
of
among
that the souls of the dead climb to a place stars
souls of
as historical fact, their belief in
establishes,
star
and the
native proverbial explanation of a shoot-
by a rope when they let the rope on earth as a shooting star.' ^ ;
fall, it
'
the
appeared
to people
Now
if
the evidence of Mr. Palmer, in the
the Anthropological Institute,' Australian belief,
why
is
Journal of
'
good evidence
is
for this
the evidence of Mr. Howitt and
Mr. Cameron, in the same
an unborrowed
to
serial,
Australian religion (in this case with Tha-Tha-Puli and
home
his
for
good
souls)
unworthy even
We fall back on Sir Alfred Lyall of the
:
of
mention
?
I think that one effect
accumulation of materials has been to encourage
speculative
generalisation,
repertory out of which one of
'
because
examples and precedents to '
G. B.
'
Asiatic Studies,
ii.
18-24.
'
i.
ix.
G. B.
it
may make
ii.
suit 21.
has provided a arbitrary selection
any theory.'
E. Palmer,
J.
A.
^
I. xiii. p. 292.
Here
MAGIC AND RELIGION
75
of agreeing
with this great
have the pleasure
I
chosen
Mr. Frazer has
authority.
of magic, as a land where magic
home
preceding paper, there
unborrowed Australian dence so soon as
it is
is
but religion has
I have shown, in this
As
not yet been evolved.
abundance
abandon the
confuted, but I cannot reject
the witnesses are treated as good on
but are unmentioned just
when
and the an
of evidence for
I shall
religion.
the
Australia as is,
many
it
evi-
while
other points,
their testimony,
if
true,
seems inconsistent with a theory of the priority of magic to religion.
By the
'
concurring testimony of a crowd of observers,'
writes Mr. Tylor,
were
it is
'
known that the natives
at their discovery,
of Australia
and have ever since remained, a
race with minds saturated with the most vivid belief in souls,
demons, and
deities.'
commencing anthropologist Tylor's
'
What
'
think,
can a young student
when he compares Mr.
concurring testimony of a crowd of observers
'
of
Australian religion with Mr. Frazer's remark that there are
'
some
beginnings
faint
religion
of
'
Southern
in
where they
Australia, but that
'
occur, are probably
sometimes due to European influence,'
traces of a higher faith,
though the people, Mr. Tylor says, were in '
all
things so
saturated with the most vivid belief in souls, demons, and
deities
'
—
'
at their discovery
'
?
There is no use in building
a theory of the origin of religion on the case of Australia till
we
are at least told about the
'
concurring testimony
That Mr. Frazer has some reason for disregarding the testimonies which I have cited, that he must have grounds for doubting their validity, I of a
crowd
of observers.'
But the grounds for the doubt are not apparent, and to state them would make Mr. Frazer's feel
assured.
abstention intelligible. '
Primitive Culture,
i.
379, 1871.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
76
IV
TRE ORIGIN OF THE CHBISTIAN FAITH Among
the
many
recent theories concerning the origin of
religion, certainly the
most impressive
is
Mr. Frazer's
hypothesis as to the origin of the belief in the divinity of
Unlike several modem speculations, Mr. Frazer's
Christ. is
based on an extraordinary mass of erudition.
We
are
not put off with vague and unvouched-for statements, or
with familiar facts extracted from the collections Tylor,
Mr.
of
Lord Avebury, and Mr. Herbert Spencer.
Mr.
Frazer does not collect knowledge, as his Babylonian kings are supposed by
No
writer
have been
Let
it
were,
me
who has an
—by proxy.
make use of
his
his.
in their
from Mr. Frazer,
to differ
own ammunition
say sincerely that I
knowledge or industry against student
sacrificed
and few are so exact
While venturing
often, as
this war.
to
so erudite,
is
references.
must
him
am
not pitting
interest in these subjects,
and peruses
'
citations
in
my
I rather represent the
The Golden Bough,' not as the general reader but with some care, and with some verification '
I
'
does,
of the
and sources.
It is first necessary to state, as briefly as possible,
Mr.
Frazer's hypothesis as to the origin of the belief in the
Divinity of our Lord,
or, at least,
as to
what he thinks
a
very powerful factor in the evolution of that creed.
The Babylonians, he querors were
wont
holds,
and their Persian con-
yearly, at a vernal feast, to dress a con-
OEIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
demned criminal
in the royal robes, to enthrone him, to
obey him, to grant
him
access to the ladies of the royal
harem, and then, at the end of
and hang him. Frazer guesses,
77
whip,
five days, to strip,
The reason why they acted thus, Mr. was that the condemned man acted as
proxy for the divine King
of
Babylon, who, in an age less
had been sacrificed annually so Mr. Frazer conThe King was thus sacrificed as a being of jectures. divine or magical nature, a man-god, and the object, according to Mr. Frazer, was to keep providing the god or magical influence resident in him with a series of fresh civilised,
human
:
It appears, or
vehicles.
Frazer's
opinion,
though the
may point
appear, to be Mr. is
rather
stated
casually and late in the long argument, that the
himself was believed to incarnate a
god
known and
King
recognised
of vegetation, a personal principle of vegetable life.
The King's
proxy, therefore, the
sacrificed (by
condemned
representing the King) and divine (since the a god).
criminal,
hanging) in a character at once royal
is
(as
Bang incarnates
All this occurs, by one of the theories advanced,
at about the time of year in feast called
Zakmuk
theory) Sacsea
:
which our Easter
falls,
in Babylonian, in Persian
at a
(by the
a period of hard drinking and singular
licence.
The Jews, by the had probably no such
theory, or by one of the theories, feast or
carried into exile in Babylonia.
custom before they were But from the Babylonians
and Persians Mr. Prazer holds that they probably borrowed the festival, which they styled Purim, and also borrowed the custom (historically unheard of among them) of crowning, stripping, flogging, and hanging a mock-king, a condemned criminal, in March. this
man,
in Judsea,
was allowed
It does not appear that to invade the
harem, for
example, of Herod, as in the case of the Persian royal
MAGIC AND RELIGION
78
The Jews
harem^
have borrowed
also are conjectured to
Frazer to have perhaps
a practice, presumed by Mr.
Babylon, of keeping a pair of condemned
prevailed at
them was hanged the other was set free for the year. The first died as an incarnation of the god of vegetable life. The second, set free, represented in a
One
criminals.
of
;
pseudo-resurrection the
first,
and also represented, I under-
stand, the revival of the god of vegetable
man was
called
Haman, probably
The
life.
first
Humman,
in origin
a
deity of the vanquished foes of Babylon, the Elamites. The
second man, in
Hebrew Mordecai, probably
represented
Merodach, or Marduk, the supreme god of the victorious
Each man had
Babylonians.
a female consort, probably
Babylon a sacred harlot Haman had Vashti, probably Mordecai had Esther, doubtless an Elamite goddess
in
:
;
Ishtar, the
Venus
Babylonian creed.
of the
These
ladies
do not occur in any account of the Babylonian or Persian feasts,
nor in the Gospels
The
Persian criminals, at least in
who
some parts
were conceived like a
:
their existence
victims, as descending
is
a conjecture.
from the Babylonian and
stood both for the king and
of the theory, for a
of as divine.
god
also,
of vegetation,
Since Christ, by what looks
chapter of accidents, was put to death as one of
these mock-kings,
He
inherited their recognised divinity,
and His mission, which had been mainly that of a moral lecturer, at once was surrounded by a halo of divinity. Such, in brief,
if
I follow Mr. Frazer,
which, I must repeat, of
many
is
is
the contention,
presented as the combination
hypotheses into a single theory, offered
for
criticism.
To
myself, after
such care as presents
it
itself.
Golden Bough'
studying Mr. Frazer's theory with
deserves,
an hypothesis
Before writing the (1890),
first
of its
evolution
edition of
'
The
Mr. Frazer had become acquainted
OEIGIN OF THE OflRISTIAN FAITH with
statement which
a
Dio
Chrysostom,
the
Cynic,
Alexander the Great. to
mouth
of
imaginary dialogue with
in
an
In
this essay
Diogenes
is
made
Alexander ahout the Persian custom of yearly
tell
dressing
up a condemned criminal
feast called Sacaea, allowing five
Greek
a
rhetorician of the first century, puts into the
Diogenes
79
days, giving
him the
him
in royal robes, at the
to Hve
entrSe
of
hke a king
'
'
for
the royal harem,
and then stripping, scourging, and hanging or crucifying him. The resemblance of Dio's words to the account of the
Mockery
of Christ is
Mr. Frazer 1890,
very remarkable.
us that he saw this resemblance in
tells
but could not explain
In 1897 he became
it.
acquainted with a legend, written
martyrdom Moesia (303
of St. Dasius, a a.d.).
Roman
in
Greek,
the
of
Christian soldier, in
According to this legend, Dasius was
drawn by lot as the yearly victim who, the story says, was made to represent King Saturnus, for a month of military revelry, and then was sacrificed, or obliged to slay himself, beside Saturn's altar, at the close
Saturnalia.
of
the
Dasius declined the part, and was put to
death.
Here, then, in Moesia,
if
we
believe the legend of St.
was a mock-king, personating a god, sacrificed to a god, and therefore himself, it may be, regarded as At the other extreme, in Jerusalem, was Christ, divine. who, after mock royal honours, was scourged, crucified, Dasius,
and acquired a halo
of divinity.
The middle term was
the criminal, who, in the character of a mock-king, was stripped,
scourged,
There was no
and hanged-
in
the Persian
feast.
trace in Persia of sacrifice, of a victim in
the technical sense, or of any halo of divinity.
Frazer was familiar with barbaric kings
who
But Mr.
are or were
put to death, to save them from dying naturally, or after
MAGIC AND EBLKilUJN
80
a fixed term of years.
In his opinion they are
provide the god
whom
Combining
these facts, and strongly
all
killed to
they incarnate with afresh vehicle.
drawn by the
resemblance of Dio's anecdote to the narratives of the Crucifixion,
Mr. Frazer adopted the argument that the
criminal executed at the Sacsea, in Babylon, had once been, like the Saturn sufferer in Moesia, a divine victim,
not at life
first
of
hanged, but sacrificed yearly, to redeem the
the Persian king,
himself have been a yearly
who
in
sacrifice.
by the criminal from that divine
by a succession
earlier
ages must
The divinity inherited King was transmitted
of executed malefactors to the victim of
Calvary.
The ingenuity appears to
me
the idea
of
is
that the author's
undeniable. But it mind was throughout
unconsciously drawn to the Crucifixion.
This attraction
became a mental prepossession.' In a recent work, 'Fact and Fable in Psychology' (Boston, U.S., 1900), '
Professor Jastrow has illustrated
by a common and art of bicycling is
trivial
'
mental prepossession
experience.
A
beginner in the
unconsciously drawn into collision with
every obstacle on the road which his conscious
doing
its
self is
best to avoid.
In the same way,
I fancy, our author's
mind was
led
straight to an explanation of the halo of divinity round the
what was needed first, an explanation of the Persian custom, isolated, and examined only in the light Cross, instead of to
of its attendant circumstances, as described in our very
scanty information.
Had our author examined the circum-
stances of the Persian custom with an intellect unattracted
by the hope
of
throwing new light on the Crucifixion, and
uninfluenced by a tendency to find gods of vegetation almost
everywhere, he would have found, I think, that they admit of
being accounted for in a simple manner, granting that our
ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH information
no
There was, as
is true.
far as
81
we are informed,
the Sacsea, and in that Persian festival
sacrifice at
nothing religious.
The
element has to be im-
religious
ported by aid of remote inference, daring conjecture, and even, I venture to say,
some disregard
documentary
of
history.
The consequence,
as I shall try to show,
theory has, in the Regent Moray's words, the bellies
'
of
is
that the
'
to pass over
innumerable obstacles, by aid
of a series of
conjectures increasing in
difficulty.
Thus the
reader's
powers of acquiescence are strained afresh at the intro-
new
duction of each of so
tion
many is
trial of
his faith.
If
one stage out
stages of remote inference and bold presump-
unstable, the whole edifice falls to the ground.
Meanwhile we
shall
have to
offer
a simple explanation of
the circumstances of the Sacsean victim, only in a single instance
demanding the use
of
one of Mr. Frazer's ovtu
conjectures, itself a legitimate hypothesis. of this essay is difficulties of his
by which the
'
The remainder
concerned with an examination of the theory, and of the
yawning chasms
'
'
bridges of hypothesis,'
are to be crossed.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
82
V THE APPROACHES TO MB. FBAZEB'8 THEOBY I.
Kites
THE EVOLUTION OF GODS
so remarkable as those of the pair of criminals,
supposed to have played their parts in Babylon and Jerusalem, each with his female mate, are not historically
known, but are part analogies in folklore.
of
Mr. Frazer's theory, and have
Institutions
whole, in our knowledge of
human
so unparalleled as a religion,
cannot have
been evolved except through a long series of grades
of
Mr. Frazer traces these grades throughout the 1,500 pages of his book. There are, in accordance with the method, large sections of the work devoted to development.
examples of matters which do not bear directly on the main stream of the argument, and these are apt, by the very abundance of their erudition, to distract attention illustrative
from the central hypothesis. through
To
its
numerous
To
that I try to adhere
ramifications.
account, then, for these hypothetical rites of the
double pairs of divinised
human
beings,
that, before attaining the earliest
we
germs
are to suppose
of religion,
men
were addicted to magic, a theory which we have already examined in the essay 'Magic and Eeligion.' They believed that by imitating the cosmic processes, they
Thus the Arunta Australia have magical rites, by which they could control or assist them.
development of
larvae into grubs, increase
of Central assist the
and improve
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY
83
the breed and reproductive energies of kangaroos, foster the growth of edible tubers, and bring
down
rain.
harmless, and involve no sacrifices,
rites are
animal, for the Arunta,
But
accept offerings.'
we as
or
god
to
are to believe, have no
men advanced from
These
human
almost the
lowest savagery, they gradually attained to higher material culture, developing the hitherto ture,
unknown
arts of agricul-
developing also religion, in the despair of magic,
developing gods, and evolving social and political rank,
with kings at the head of society.
In disgust with their
magic (by which they had supposed that they
old original
and animal and vegetable
controlled cosmic forces
life),
they invented gods and spirits who, as they fancied, did really
cosmic control.
exercise
pitiated
by prayer and
sacrifice.
the despair of magic that yet, as
men
will,
men
These gods they proBut though it was in
invented gods and religion,
they continued to exercise the magic of
They
which they despaired.
persisted, like the godless
Arunta, in imitating the processes of nature, in the belief (which,
after
all,
they had not abandoned) that such
imitation magically aided the efforts of nature or of the
gods of nature.
Men now
evolved three species of god, from one or
other of which descends the godhead
of the
Persian
whipped and hanged, and the Divinity of Christ. First, there were gods of an order different from and superior to man.' Second, there were men in whom these superior gods became incarnate. Third, there were men who were merely better magicians than their neighbours, criminal,
'
sensitives who trembled at a touch of nature, and at whose touch nature trembled.^ It is not, in thought, diificult to draw a firm line between these two kinds of '
'
'
^
Spencer and Gillen, Natives of Central Australia. 0. B. i. 80, 81.
G 2
MAaiC AND RELIGION
84
man-gods, though magic and reHgion overlap and shade
The
into each other.
man
incarnate, in
distinction of the
it
must be kept firmly In what follows I shall
Mr. Frazer says it,' on this essential
mind.
'
second
for the
:
sort,
only a high kind of sorcerer,
The
spells.' is
'
Essential
distinction.^
the magical
sort, of
may, by Mr. Frazer's theory, be prior to is
types, the
absolutely essential, and
is
not insist on is
two
incarnating god, and the sorcerer with no god to
man-god,
He
all religion.
a dealer in magic and
other kind of man-god comes in after magic
despaired of and gods are invented.
I shall insist
on
the distinction.
The growth
of society
same time
at the
was advancing and developing and agriculture. The original
as religion
sorcerer or medicine-man, or magic-worker, through his
was apt
influence on his neighbours,
and to accumulate property,
as,
long ago in an essay on the
'
to acquire leadership,
indeed, I myself remarked
Origin of Eank.'
Frazer's theory these magic-men
finally develop
both kings or chiefs and man-gods. that there
In Mr.
^
I have
into
observed
often a lay or secular king or chief, a war-
is
them.
leader, beside
ditary, is apt to
His
position,
if
it
becomes here-
end in leaving the man-god-king on one
side in a partly magical, partly religious, but not secular
kingship,
the royal
more or
whence title.
less
priesthood, carrying
or less
a man-god,
a priest, more or less a controller of cosmic
processes, but is of varieties
may evolve into a The man is more it
still
Of course
a titular king.
occur in these institutions.
result is the divinity of kings,
and
all sorts
The
general
their responsibility for
the luck of the state, and for the weather and crops.
If
the luck, the weather, and the crops are bad, the public asks
'
Who is to be punished '
G.
-B. ii.
81.
for this ? ^
'
Under a
constitu-
Etudes Traditionistes. A. L.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY tion such as our
own, the pubHc notoriously makes the
Government responsible
for the luck
a general election
;
But,
dismisses the representatives of the party in power. four hundred years ago,
mere
the place of of
85
and previously, executions took
loss of office
Morton, or of Gowrie
fell
the heads of the Boyds,
:
when
these nobles lost
office.
In the
earlier society
with which we are dealing, the
king, as responsible for the weather
and crops,
The Banjars
punished in bad times.
'
the weather changes,' elsewhere the king or,
more
in a
is
sometimes
beat the king is
till
imprisoned,
manner, merely deposed.^
constitutional
and In Sweden he is said, in a time of public distress, to have been not only killed, but This is not, however, an historical sacrificed to Odin.
There are traces
actually killing the unlucky
of
responsible monarch.
statement. i-T '^
II.
THE AiLEGED MOETALITY OF GODS
There were other magico-religious reasons for Mr. Frazer writes
kings.
duration, primitive
man
:
^
'
Lacking the idea
killing
of eternal
naturally supposes the gods to be
mortal like himself.'
Here
is,
I venture to think, a notable fault in the
Early men, contrary to Mr. Frazer's account,
argument.
suppose themselves
myths
of
perhaps
to
all
be naturally
immortal.
races tell of a time
The
when death
had not yet entered the world. Man was born deathless. Death came in by an accident, or in consequence of an error, effect
or an infraction of a divine
we have
tral African,
'
command.
To
this
Zulu, Australian, Maori, Melanesian, Cen-
Vedic Aryan, Kamschadal, and countless
G. B.
i.
157.
^
G. B.
ii.
1-5.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
86
other myths
not to speak of the
;
'In the thought of immortahty
Genesis.'
chapters of
first
early
'
man
is
His divine beings are usually regarded as prior to and unaffected by the coming of death, which invades men, but not these beings, or not most of them. Indeed, some low savages have not yet persuaded cradled.
themselves that death
natural.
is
'
Amongst the
Australian natives,' say Spencer and Gillen,
such thing as belief in natural death decrepit a it is
man
or
woman may
once supposed that
at
it
be
;
when
Central
is no however old or '
there
this takes place,
has been brought about by
the magic influence of some enemy,' and
it is
avenged on
These Australians
the enemy, as in the blood-feud.^
Mr. Frazer's opinion (though not in mine) are
'
in
primi-
tive.'
Thus, far from lacking the idea of eternal duration '
life,
primitive
man
'
has no other
says,
indeed,
concerning
Ta-li-y-Tooboo,
'
Not
idea.
formulates his idea in such a term as
'
of
that he
Mariner
eternal.'
Tongan supreme being
the
Of his origin they had no
idea, rather
supposing him to be eternal.'
But, in Tongan, the
metaphysical idea of eternity
only expressed in the
is
meaning of the god's name, wait-there-Tooboo.' This god occasionally inspires the How, or elective king, but the How was never sacrificed to provide the god with a sturdier incarnation, a process which Mr. Frazer's theory Being of the Divinity of Christ demands as customary. Td.-li-y-Tooboo was independent of a human eternal '
'
'
vehicle.'
These
facts
must be remembered,
pensable to Mr. Frazer's
immortals
are
believed,
'
Modern Mythology,
^
Spencer and Gillen,
'
theory to
Myths p. 476.
to
for
it
prove
is
indis-
that
the
a sufficient extent, to be of the Origin of Death.' '
Mariner,
ii.
127.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. ERAZER'S THEORY Hence the supposed need
mortal.
of killing divine kings,
Primitive man, according to Mr. Frazer,
their vehicles.
But
thinks his gods mortal.
hypothesis had no gods at that
87
primitive
when man was no longer
man by
his initial
Mr. Frazer clearly means
all.
primitive,
gods to be mortal like himself.
he conceived the
have elsewhere given
I
many examples of the opposite belief among races of many grades of culture, from the Australian blacks to the immortal gods of Homer.' The point will be found to be important
and
later,
I
must firmly express
my
opinion
and by prayers, hymns, and sacrifices, it is argue from a few local, and contradictory,
that, so long as people believe their
gods to be
alive,
testify that belief
impossible to
and
easily explicable
their gods to be
common
think, the
However,
myths, that these peoples believe
dead, or in danger of dying.
sense of students will agree with me.
and pervading
as this general
mortality of the gods
is
the
belief in
absolutely essential to Mr. Frazer's
argument, perhaps the point had better be
examples of
Here, I
belief in the fact that the
As
settled.
god
dead,
is
we
have the Greenlanders.^
The Greenlanders believed that a wind could kill their most powerful god, and that he would certainly die if he touched a dog. that to
'
the
neath the
Let us
Mr. Tylor, on the other hand,
summerland
sea,
'
of the
'
No Dogs
are Admitted.'
land divine being, Torngarsuk, missionary
tells
deity,
'
us be-
Greenland souls hope to descend at death.'
trust that
supreme deity
Greenland
in
relates,
the native
'
This Green-
so clearly held his place as
mind
that,' as
Cranz the
'many Greenlanders hearing
of
God
and His almighty power were apt to fall on the idea that it was their Torngarsuk who was meant.' The Greenland '
Making
of Religion, chapters xi.-xiii.
*
G. B.
ii.
1.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
88
deity
was unborrowed
he
;
'
seems no figure derived from
the religion of Scandinavian colonists, ancient or modern.'
From
Cranz's evidence
not dead, nor likely to
of the Greenlanders
die, in spite of
of certain Greenlanders,
named by Mr.
much more might
(and
most powerful god
cited) the
be
was
the apprehensions
communicated
to a person not
Frazer, but quoted in a work of 1806.^
At the best the Greenland evidence
is
contradictory
;
all
Greenlanders did not agree with Mr. Frazer's Greenland authority.
believed to
Nor was the Accuser of the Brethren currently be deceased, when the ancient folk-song
assures us that
Some say the Deil's deid. The Deil's deid, the Deil's Some say the Deil's deid, And buried in Kirkcaldy Some say he's risen again,
deid,
:
Risen again, risen again,
Some say he's risen again. To dance the Hieland Laddie.
'
Eisen again
'
he was, and did dance the Hieland Laddie
The
Gledsmuir and Falkirk.
at
'
Volkslied
'
scientifically
represents the conflict of opinion as unsettled, despite the
testimony of the grave of Satan at the lang toun Kirkcaldy
of
like the grave of 2!ieus in Crete.
;
Mr. Frazer, then, ought not, I think, to assume a general belief in the mortality of Greenland gods in face of contradictory but uncited evidence. 1. '
A
North American Indian
the Great Spirit that '
Prmi. Cult.
ii.
308, 1871
made ;
ii.
told Colonel
the world
340, 1873.
is
Dodge
that
dead long ago.
In the edition of 1891, Mr.
Tylor, in accordance with his altered ideas, dropped his denial of borrowing,
and said that Tomgarsuk was
later identified with the devil
result of missionary teaching, just as Saints
or their statues became, ^ i.
G. B.
p. 48.
ii.
1.
'
—a
common
under Protestantism became,
idols.'
Meiners, OescMchte der Beligionen, Hanover, 1806, 1807,
THE APPEOACHES TO MR. FRAZER S THEORY
He
could not possibly have lived so long as
this
was
which, as Mr. Frazer remarks, must walls' of belief.
rable
To prove
'
breach those vene-
his
case,
Mr. Frazer
needs to find examples of the opinion that the Spirit
'
existed
Now
^
and personal inference of a vague American Indian,' living in an age
the ipse dixit
'North
modern
this.'
89
was believed an American
American Indians as
to be dead
(if
belief in a first
'
Great
he grants that there ever
Great
Spirit)
among the I have
studied by Europeans.
elsewhere argued that the supreme being of most barbaric
may come to name and by-word, like the Huron Atahocan,^ who made everything,' and the Unkulunkulu of the Zulus, who has been so thrust into the background by the competi-
races
is
regarded as otiose, inactive, and so
be a mere
tion of ancestral spirits that his very existence '
is
doubted.
we have come to worship the spirits we know not what to say about UnkulunWe seek out for ourselves the spirits that we may
In process of time
only, because kulu.'
'
not always be thinking about Unkulunkulu.'
In the same
^
way, throughout the beliefs of barbaric races, the competition of friendly
and helpful
beings as the Australian exist
where
developed
;
spirits
sacrifice to ancestral spirits
has not yet been
and the Canadian Andouagni
may
a modern North American Indian tell
pushes back such
Baiame and Mungan-ngaur, who
Colonel Dodge, that the creator
it
existed
and
infer,
But the still
America, the cult of Ti-ra-wa with
and
Thus
may
dead, because he
is
not in receipt of sacrifice or prayer.
high beings, where
of 1558.*
is
cult of such
North the Pawnees
exists, in
whom
I. Dodge, Our Wild Indians, p. 112. Le Jeuue, Relations des Jesuites, 1633, p. 16 1634, p. 13. " Callaway, Religion of the Amaeulu, pp. 26, 27. * Theyet, Singularitez de la France Antarctigue, cli. 77. Paris, 1855. Andouagni is a creator, not addressed in prayer. See Science and '
E.
^
;
'
Superstition,' pp. 10, 11.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
90
expect to live after death,
of
the Blackfoot Na-pi of
proves belief in gods
Ahone, Okeus, Kiehtan, and the
rest,
who
said to be in
are ahve,
and who are not
any danger
of death. 2.
A
tribe of
Philippine Islanders told the Spanish
conquerors that the grave of the Creator was on the top of
Mount Cabunian.
believe in a Creator.
So the Philippine Islanders did
The grave may have been the
result
supreme being already have explained, or may meant no more than the grave of Zeus in Crete, while Zeus was being worshipped all over
of
usual
the
neglect
the
of
the Greek world.
number
Heitsi Eibib, of the Hottentots, had a
3.
of
by the theory of successive lives and hadTammuz and Adonis yearly lives and deaths. But so deaths, yet the god was en permanence. graves, accounted for
The graves of Greek gods may be due to Euhemerism, People a theory much more ancient than Buhemerus. who worship ancestral spirits sometimes argue, like Mr. Herbert Spencer, that the gods were once
spirits of living
the bricks men, and show the men's graves as proofs But that the Greeks regarded are alive to testify to it.' '
;
their
gods as mortal cannot be seriously argued, while
they are always styled mortal
men
inspired
;
the immortals
'
in
contrast to
and while Apollo (who had a grave) daily
the Pythia.
She was not grave of Zeus
'
Her death
did not
hurt Apollo.
sacrificed for the benefit of Apollo. '
was shown
to visitors in Crete as late as
about the beginning of our early as the time of
The
Homer
But was it shown Euhemerus was prior
era.'
as
?
to
our era. 4.
dead,
The Egyptian gods were kings over death and the with tombs and mummies in every province. But
they were also deathless rulers of the world and of men.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER S THEORY If
'
Ea
the heavens
rises in
by the
it is
will of Osiris
91
if
;
he
King of eternity, knoweth humility whoso and reckoneth god great deeds of righteousness, thereby knows he Osiris.' This is a living god, and Seb and Nut can scarcely die. Despite myth and ritual the gods of Egypt lived till they the sight of his glory.'
sets it is at .
.
'
.
'
'
star of Bethlehem.'
from the folding
fled
As
5.
the legend of
to
'
great
Pan
the
dead,' in
is
reign of Tiberius, Mr. Frazer mentions a theory that not
Tammuz was
Pan, but Adonis or
The
dying.
story
About 1064 death of the King 6.
but
fairies, 7.
A.D. there
The Jinn
Mr. Frazer
especially needful for
believed to be mortal
of
Babylon
the
gods
'
is
'
it
'
to prove that they
and in danger
death,
of
Jastrow denies that they are mortal. of
of the
are not gods
of fairy funerals.
the high gods
'
he was always
;
was a Turkish story
of the Jinn.
and we have heard
Concerning
dead
pretty, but is not evidence.
is
immortality.'
^
'
The
is
were
for
Dr.
privilege
But Mr. Frazer's
hypothesis derives the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ
from the opinion that he represented, in death, a long line
of
victims to a barbarous superstition.'
superstition substitute
King god
of
of
was,
that
Mr. Frazer's conjecture, that a
in
died for the
Babylon died
And
King
of
Babylon, and that the
to reinforce the vitality of a mortal
Babylon, whose
life
required
a
fresh
human
incarnation annually.
To prove
the Babylonian belief in the mortality of the
Mr. Frazer writes The high gods of Babylon also, though they appeared to their worshippers only in dreams and visions, were conceived to be human in their deities,
:
bodily shape, '
^
human
Hymns
in their passions,
in Maspero,
Religion of Babylon
'
and
and human in their
Musie de Boulaq, pp.
Assyria, p. 483.
^
49, 50.
G. B.
iii.
198.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
92
for like men they were born into the world, and men they loved and fought and even died.' How many of them died ? If they were dead in religious belief, how did they manage 'the great to attend assembly of the gods which, as we have seen, formed fate
;
like
'
annually in the temple of
Zakmuk, and was held Marduk at Babylon ? ' Did
Marduk
he addressed as
a chief feature of the feast of
die ?
merciful one
Marduk, King
If so,
who
of
why
is
lovest to give life to the dead
heaven and
earth,
The spell affording life is thine, The breath of life is thine. Thou restorest the dead to life, thou
briugest things to completeness
(?)
Supposing, again, that the King was really sacrificed to keep a
god in good condition
There were
— why only one
at least scores of gods, all of
them,
sacrifice ?
if
I under-
stand Mr. Frazer, in the same precarious condition of
They
health.
he might argue, to have been
appear,
especially subject to hepatic diseases. supreme mistress
says a
hymn
of heaven,
may
thy liver be pacified,
to Ishtar.*
Of course every one sees that 'thy phrase for '
pluck
'
pluck
and
'
'
of
thy wrath
'
'
;
lily-livered
men.
It
is
'
')
the liver
(as
liver' is only a
in
our phrases
being taken for the seat of the
manifest that the Babylonian gods
are not dead but living, otherwise they could not attend
the yearly divine assembly, nor could they be addressed in prayer.
Moreover,
if
they could only be kept alive by
human vehicles, great holocausts human vehicles would have been needed every year one man for one god, and their name was legion.
yearly sacrificing their of
'
G. B.
p. 8 (1899). ' ,
1898.
ii.
3, 4, citing
L.
W.
King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology, 2 O. B. iii. 154.
Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia
and Assyria, *
p. 307.
Jastrow, p. 311.
Boston, U.S.,
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZEE'S THEORY
93
Once more, if men believed that gods could die, unless kept alive by sacrifices of their human vehicles, we must say of the Greeks that they did not strive Officiously to Iseep alive
Had
their deities.
power
their
known
the Greeks
Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares had not in
belief
decease.^
their
Frazer, believed in
Mankind, according
mighty
'
beings,'
to bring his .
immortal
spirit
might
rest
where he
.
Yet,
'
'
who
Mr.
to
breathed into
He implored them some happier world with them,' and so on.^
man's nostrils and made him
.
die they did,
the graves of each of these mortals prove the prevailing
if
'
Cronos, Zeus,
Yet
died.
was in
that this
to do, then Apollo, Dionysus,
live.'
...
to
lacking the idea of eternal duration, primitive
man
naturally supposed the gods to be mortal like himself.'
we
Mr. Frazer has, believe their belief in their
us that they did not Probably, then,
the
immortality was a late stage in a gradual
Yet
process.^
see, also told
gods to be mortal.
it
Zeus was shown
had not prevailed when the grave '
about the beginning of our
of
era.'
*
Man, then, believed that he could keep one out of the crowd of gods alive (though he implored them to keep him alive) by sacrificing his rightful king once a year, thereby overthrowing dynasty after dynasty, and upsetting the whole organisation of the state. steadfastly believe, before
we can
we must
All this
accept Mr.
theory of the origin of the Nicene Creed.
Frazer's
It is a large
preliminary demand.
The gods keep on being must gods
insist on, in
who
'
and
immortals,'
this
are slain are slain to keep alive the god
'
G. B.
ii.
'
G. B.
i.
we
view of Mr. Frazer's theory that man-
2.
77, 78.
2
G. B.
'
(?.
B.
i.
77.
ii.
1.
who
MAGIC AND RELIGION
94
incarnate in them, of which he does not give
is
His instances
example.
And
they are deathless.
high gods are
of beliefs that the
dead notoriously contradict the
one
prevalent
belief
that
the prevalent belief regulates
religion.
However, man-gods certainly die, and some South Sea Islanders
—by
a
experiment
—
demonstrated Captain Cook was no god, because he died when
that
scientific
which a genuine god would not have done.
stabbed,
This, of course, proves that these benighted heathen
knew
the difference between an immortal god and a deathly
man
as well as did Anchises in the
Homeric hymn
to
Aphrodite. III.
Peoples
who
king-man-god
RELIGIOUS REGICIDE
think that
(the
second
all
the luck depends on their
sort,
the superior
we are to wane with
sorcerer,
with no god in him) hold,
believe, that his luck
and
his
cosmic
influence
Therefore they
kill
of his soul (not of a god)
example. divinity to
and
Mr. Fraser
for this reason
waning
forces.
him, and get a more vigorous recipient of his luck.'
Of king-killing
gives, I think,
one adequate
Of the transmission of the soul of the slain his successor he has no direct proof,' though '
souls of incarnating gods are transmitted after natural deaths.'*
Now
this is a very
argument which
who
king,
is
important part of the long-drawn
to suggest that Christ died as a
also represented a god.
god,
'
of
an order
'
is
only a superior 'sensitive
G. B.
ii.
6.
^
G. B.
ii.
56
In one kind a
from and superior
different
The
supposed to become incarnate.
god
we have
First,
that there are two kinds of man-god.
;
i.
'
151
and
mockseen real
to man,'
is
other kind of mansorcerer.'
et. se^.
'
G. B.
i.
80-82.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY
Now
by Mr. Frazer's theory, died
Jesus,
95
as representa-
two kinds
tive of a god, therefore as one of the first
of
But Mr. Frazer does not here, as I said, proexample of a man-god proved to be of soUtary one duce
man-gods.
—a king in whom an acknowledged god —being slain to prevent his inspiring god from
first class
the
incarnate
is
waning with the man's waning energies.' Many examples I repeat of that practice are needed by the argument. one example
that not
to 'insist
is
produced in this place.
argument depends on
Frazer's entire
his
announced
Mr.
failure
on' the distinction between two sorts of man-
gods which he himself
has
So I keep
drawn.^
on
insisting.
Again,
can hardly be said that any examples are
it
produced of a king of the second sort (a man-god really
no god
the idea of
is
sensitive,' sorcerer, or
magicmagic.
The examples of
but a
who
slain to preserve the vigour of his
at
man) being
all,
'
no proof preserving man's magical vigour from the to be cited all but universally give
decay of old age.
The
mere instances of superpossible (would that it were easy) to
cases given, as a rule, are
annuation.
It
is
pension off aged professors in the Scottish Universities.
But
to pension off a king
The
wars.
How God
early middle
merely means a ages
'
tonsured
series of civil '
weak
kings.
tempting to represent this dedication of them to as a mitigation of sacrifice
some barbaric annuation. It is usual
races, are slain
Nay, the practice
among
Kings, in
!
fact,
among
merely by way of superis
not confined to kings.
elderly subjects.'
Let us take Mr. Frazer's examples.^ '
The mortals who incarnate gods
pp. 139-157. '
G. B.
i.
Not one 80, 81.
is
are catalogued in
G. B. vol.
said to be put to death. 3
G. B.
ii.
6-8.
*
G. B.
ii.
8-57.
i.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
96
A
1. if
believe that the world
Congo people
would perish So he
their chitome, or pontiff, died a natural death.
was clubbed god
or strangled by his
chitome
incarnate in the
is
The king
himself
'
But what
successor.
None
?
mentioned.'
is
regarded as a god in earth, and
is
all
powerful in heaven.'
The Ethiopian
2.
kings of Meroe were worshipped as
but were ordered to die by the
gods,
That they
priests chose.' '
we may
And,
far
'
whenever the
showed any signs
of decay
"We have no evidence except that an end whenever they chose. put to the king
conjecture.'
the priests
first
on the
priests,
authority of an alleged oracle of the gods,
^
'
from alleging the king's decay or bad crops
as
the regular recognised reason, they alleged a special oracle of the gods.
When
3.
or very
occurs
ill,
:
the King of Unyoro, in Central Africa,
his loives kill
it is
him
is old,
(an obvious reason readily
the wives, not a god,
who need a more spirited
person), alleging an old prophecy that the throne will pass
from the dynasty is
if
species
;
But
the king dies a natural death.
not here shown that this king
it
a man-god of either
is
and the prophecy does not concern injury
to a
god, or to magical rwpport.^
The King of Kibanga, on the upper Congo, by sorcerers when he seems near his end.' So 4.
'
is killed
are old
dogs and cats and horses in this country, and peasants are
even thought to provide euthanasia for kinsfolk near their If the King of Kibanga is a man-god, Mr. Frazer end.' '
does not say 5.
If
so.
woimded
in
war the King
of
Ginger o
is killed
comrades or kinsfolk, even if he be reluctant. reason alleged is that he may not die by the hands his
'
'
6. B. '
i.
236.
Emin Pasha
'
G. B.
ii.
in Central Africa, p. 91.
11.
by
The of his
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY Did
enemies.'
who
Saul,
refuse to survive
Is the
King
of
Brutus, and
wounds and
many
97
other warriors
defeat die as
man-gods ?
Gingero a man-god ?
Chaka, King of the Zukis, used hair-dye, having a
6.
The
aversion to grey hairs.
great
would not
people,
elect, or accept,
Zulus,
a
warlike
a greyhaired king, and,
though I know no instance of slaying a Zulu king because he was '
old,
Mr. Isaacs (1836)
that grey hair
says
always followed by the death of the monarch.'
is
Even
if
an historical example were given, a warlike race merely superannuates a disabled war-leader in the only safe way.
At
7.
we
last
according to
Dos
reach a king-man-god in Sofala, who,
told Dr.
was the only god
Santos,
and was implored
to give
Callaway that
'
good weather.'
when
people say the heaven
the chief's they do not believe
what they
and
;
it
among them that
say.'
^
is
The
were perhaps more
Sofalese, or rather their neighbours,
credulous
of the CafEres,
A modern Zulu
appears to have been a custom or law a blemished king should kill himself,
though a reforming prince denounced this as insanity,
We are
and altered the law.
told that the king-god of
was under this law, and a neighbouring king (who is nowhere said to have been a man-god) was. But what god, if any, was incarnate in this man-god, if he was a man-god, like his neighbour ? the
Sofalese
•''
G. B. i. 155 ; compare ii. 10. Callaway, Religion of the Amazulu, p. 122. Here the facts of Dos Santos are confused.
'
''
In volume i. p. 155 we Eastern Africa, ranks with the deity ' indeed, the Caffres acknowledge no other gods than their monarch, and to him they address those prayers which other nations are wont to prefer to heaven' (Dos Santos, Pinkerton, xvi. 682, 687, seq.). If the Caffres have no gods, a god cannot be incarnate in their king. But, elsewhere '
read
in
'
:
The King
Dos Santos (ii. p. is no longer a
Quiteva
the Quiteva
Quiteva
is
; '
'
a
;
of Quiteva, in
10), there is
no
'
King
of
Quiteva
'
(as in
i.
p. 155).
but we read ' contiguous to the domains of the Inca,' in fact, as Dos Santos tells us the
district,
title like
'
the King of Sofala.'
Is Sofala also
known
as Quiteva,
and
MAGIC AND RELIGION
98 8.
The Spartans were warned by an
lame king,
oracle against a
Mackenzies were warned by the Brahan
as the
seer against a set of physically blemished lairds.
prophecy was
seer's
We
fulfilled.'
The
do not hear that
the Spartans killed any lame king.
The King
9.
of the
Eyeos
warned to
is
kill
himself,
warned by a gift of parrot's eggs, when the people have conceived an opinion of his ill-government.' His wives '
strangle him,
1774,
when
ministers.
and his son succeeds, or did so before
the King refused to die at the request of his
To make
a case,
it
must be shown
He
king was a man-god of one or other variety.
merely king while popular,
fact,
'
that the in
is,
holding the reins of
government no longer than whilst he merits the approval of his people.' 10.
The
old Prussians were governed by a king called
God's Mouth. behind,'
'
he wanted to leave a good name
If
.
when weak and
he burned himself to death,
ill
in front of a holy oak. 11.
In Quilacare, in Southern India, the king cut
himself to pieces, before an idol, after a twelve years' reign.
We if
are not told that he
any, incorporated 12.
The King of
was an incarnation
in, or
represented by, the
Calicut,
on the Malabar
of the god, idol.
coast, used to
cut his throat in public after a twelve years' reign. About
1680-1700 his
was commuted.
this
way through
If
any
man
could cut
30,000 or 40,000 guardsmen, to
kill
the
Three men tried, but numbers overking, he succeeded. powered them. Other examples are given in which every the King of Sofala as deity
'
'
the Quiteva
'
?
The King
of
Quiteva
'
ranks with the (ii. 155). But
—though the Caffres have no deity for him to rank with
when the Quiteva becomes King of Sofala (ii. 10), the neighbouring prince who kills himself is the Sedanda,' who is not said to rank with the deity.' And Dos Santos assures us that the Caffres have a God, unworshipped Prophecies of the Brahan Seer, Maokay, Stirling, 1900. '
'
'
'
!
'
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY might become king,
regicide
was
It
king to be killed
if
he could, Hke Macbeth.
if
held, at Passier, that
99
God would
not allow the
he did not richly deserve
These
it.
kings are not said to incarnate gods. 13.
Ibn Batuta once saw a
and climb up
air,
it.
Another
man throw a rope into man followed and cut
the the
which fell on the ground, were reunited, and no harm done. This veracious traveller also saw a man, first
to pieces,
at Java,
kill
himself for love of the Sultan, thereby
securing liberal pensions for his family, as his father and
grandfather had done before him. that formerly the
We may conjecture
Sultans of Java, like the Kings of
Quilacare and Calicut, were at
'
bound to cut their own throats
the end of a fixed term of years,'
'
but that they deputed
We may
the duty to one certain family.
conjecture, but,
considering the lack of evidence, and the
Ibn Batuta freely
tells,
I doubt
saw cups and dishes wish retire.' Did the Sultan Delhi,
14.
'
This case
thetical
the king
is
so
!
at a
of
stories
that
Ibn, at the Court of
wish appear, and at a
Java incarnate a god?
extremely involved and hypo-
where I never heard that was a man-god) that the reader must be referred concerns
(it
Sparta,
to the original.^
Meanwhile the list of instances is numerically respectBut are the instances to the point? Do they
able.
prove a practice of killing a royal
man-god,
for
the
purpose of helping a god incarnate in him, or even of
New Zealand)
preventing his magical power (or viana, in
from waning?
They
rather prove regicide as a form
of superannuation, or as the result of the of priests, or of public discontent.
demonstrate that the king of a deity
who '
is
Above
machinations
all,
they do not
ever killed as an incarnation
needs a sturdier person to be incarnate
G. B.
ii.
18.
G. B.
ii.
18-24.
n
2
in.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
100
So recalcitrant
who
kings
not one
And
is
is
all
Mr. Frazer's
here said to be put to death by his worshippers.'
who
of all his kings
not one
the evidence, that of
are here said to be gods, or to incarnate gods,
are here said to be put to death,
Such
here said to incarnate a god.^
is
initial difficulties of
that elderly
men
are the
which we may add by many savages whether they are kings or
the theory
to
:
are notoriously killed
just because they are elderly,
commoners. Mr. Frazer's point divinity,' visible
'
is
that Christ died in
wherever
men had
story of the dying and rising god.'
other objections already urged,
heard the '
Mr.
is
therefore killed
a slain king sensitive. is
who
;
is
even
if
Frazer's
by a
man who
living
there are one or two cases of
a medicine-man, sorcerer, or cosmic
Thus the argument
fails
an incarnation of a god.
reason no proof
is
IV.
present
dying and
'
from the
first.
to be reckoned divine as representing a king
killed as
old, old
But, apart from
instances do not contain one example of a rising god,' stated to be represented
a halo of
'
But
Christ
who was
of regicide for this
afforded, as far as I can see.
ANNUAL RELIGIOUS REGICIDE
Next we arrive at an absolutely necessary hypothesis, In some places it which I find it difficult to accept. '
appears that the people could not trust the king to
remain in year
full
mental and bodily vigour for more than a
hence at the end of a year's reign he was put
;
and a new king appointed to reign and suffer death at the end of it.
death, year,
.
to
in his turn a .
.
time drew near for the king to be put to death
"When (in
the
Baby-
lon this appears to have been at the end of a single year's '
6. B.
i.
139-157.
"
G. B.
ii.
8-24.
=
Q. B.
iii.
197.
THE APPEOACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY reign),
he abdicated
a few days,
for
during which a
temporary king reigned and suffered in his
we
Later to
read of
'
when
the time
101
stead.'
^
the real king used
redeem his own Ufe by deputing his son to reign and die in his stead.' ^
for
a short time
The hypothesis
then, that at Babylon the king
is,
Later he appointed
used to be sacrificed once a year. a son, or
some one
some other member else, to die for
of the
him, while,
royal family,
last of all,
or
a criminal
was chosen. Is
not this a startling hypothesis?
Yet on
it
the
whole argument about the Divinity of Christ depends. Mr. Frazer overestimates that Moray, Lennox,
Yet
Scotland.
human
and Morton pined
at least
demned
men
free
criminals,
men have
and noble, not
ever
of
fire
acted
how was
A
!
in
this all
choose a year's royalty,
death,
men
Mr.
of royal race,
captives,
child
way.
other
of magistrate,
man
knows that Even if
human
the succession regulated?
Alatunja, 'the head
not con-
beings
followed by burning to
primitive Arunta, naked savages in
have a kind
Babylon
would accept a crown, followed, in
they were so incredibly unlike as to
of
they were sacrificed annually.
:
365 days, by a death
no
wonder
to be Regents of
But the kings
Frazer asks us to suppose that any
anywhere,
We
they had a faint chance of escap-
ing death within the year.
had no chance
ambition.
Even the
Central Australia,
merely a convener, called the
of a local totemic group.'
He
an hereditary official, inheriting in the male line.' Does any one believe that a poor black man would accept the is
Alatunjaship die,
at the G. B. ^
if
end ii.
he knew he was to be roasted, and so of a
year?
Now
24, 26.
Spencer and Gillen, Glossary,
s.v.
the Babylonians
^ G. B. iii. 194. Alatuja and pp. 9-11.
(or
MAGIC AND EELIGION
102
more civihsed than
rather the Persians) were infinitely
then, would Mr. Frazer's system sacrificed
year
;
his eldest son
The king
work?
succeeds
sacrificed
is
;
they soon work through the royal family.
;
Scotland, Darnley
the Hamiltons.
Thus, in
Next year you Next year you begin on
Chatelherault lasts a year
then Lord John, then Lord Claude.
you work out that
is
next
sacrificed (1567).
is
James VI.
sacrifice the baby,
Lennox
How,
Their kings were hereditary kings.
the Arunta.
:
then Arran,
Beginning in 1567
Then you start on the You have Lennox offered up in 1573,
result in 1572.
Stewarts.
and by the end of the century you have exhausted the female and illegitimate branches his son Charles in 1574,
You can
of the royal family.
only sacrifice males, and
these must be adults, for each sacrificed man, by Mr.
Frazer's theory, has to consort before his death with a lady, probably
'
a sacred harlot.'
Mr. Frazer perhaps
will say
'
these Babylonian kings
were polygamous, and had large families think of the situation
!
When
But
of sons.'
the king comes to pro-
viding a son as a substitute, to reign for a few days and
may
be sacrificed in his stead, he married.
Even
if
be a young king,
score of them, annually, they
would be
of
no use
could not consort with the sacred harlot, which pensable.^
So, after the
in a quandary.
just
he could count on a male baby, or a
We
young king
is
sacrificed,
:
they
is indis-
we
are
must overlook primogeniture, and
begin sacrificing the king's brothers
;
they will not
last
Soon we need a new no government could be carried on in the circumstances imagined by Mr. Frazer. The country would not stand it. No individual king would ever long
;
we
dynasty.
fall
back on the cousins.
Now
accept the crown. I
O. B.
Human iii.
178.
beings never had such a pre^
Ibid.
THE APPROACHES TO ME. FEAZEH'S THEORY But,
posterous institution.
they had not, Mr. Frazer's
if
whole theory of the Crucifixion hangs on the yearly
103
sacrifice
baseless, for
is
the
of
divine
it
all
king
in
Where there is no historical evidence of annual regicide, we must appeal to our general knowledge of human nature. The reply is that the thing
Babylon.
is
impossible.
Moreover, that sacrifice
wholly without
is
evidence.
The only reason great Babylonian
when
it
for believing that the kings of the
Empire, or even the kings
may have been
sacrificed
once a year,
of
Babylon
a small autonomous town, were is
the faint testimony existing to
show that once a year at a Persian feast a mock-king was hanged. To account for that hanging Mr. Frazer has to invent the hypothesis that real kings, in olden times,
were annually
sacrificed.
The only
corroboration
of actual fact is in the savage instances of
not annual,
which we
have explained as, in
rude form of superannuation
;
in
king
most
killing,
cases, a
as certainly the
no case
deliverance of a recognised god incarnate in the
There are also instances in
yearly
May, or the like, and a These do not prove Lower Mcesia.
executions of a king
dubious case in
of
folklore
king
mock
of
the
annual sacrifices of actual kings in prove any sacrifice at
all.
the past,
if
they
In these circumstances, I
venture to hold, science requires us,
if
we must
explain
the alleged yearly hanging of a mock-king at Babylon, to
which does not contradict For all of human all that we know of human nature. nature that we know is contradicted by the fancy that the look for a theory, an hypothesis,
kings of Babylon were once sacrificed annually. later
produce a theory which, at
counter
to the
legitimate
and
very
scientific.
nature of
least,
man,
I shall
does not run
and so
far
is
MAGIC AND RELIGION
104
Mr. Frazer says that his theory extravagant or improbable
Ngoio, the chief
by the
is,
who
'
will hardly
when we remember
'
that, in
puts on the cap of royalty one day
rule, killed the
So nobody puts on
next day.^
And nobody would have put on
the cap.
appear
the Babylonian
crown under the condition of being roasted to death at the end of the year. If the theory were correct, the king incarnating a god would be slain yearly. But he would not like that, and would procure a substitute, who would yearly be slain {a) as a proxy of the king, or
{h)
as the god of vegetation,
incarnate in the king, or as both.
Yet, I repeat, not a
single instance has been given of a king
magico-religious reasons, and of
The
any god whatever.
who
is
who
is
slain for
also the incarnation
slain kings in the instances
IDroduced were, as a rule, superannuated because they were
got
or
old,
of
rid
because they were unpopular, or
because a clerical cabal desired their destruction, or for
some other reason outworn
'
:
at most,
and rarely, because they were
We know scores
sensitives.'
of cases of god-
possessed men, but none are killed because they are godpossessed.
The argument has thus made no approach
to Mr.
Frazer's theory of the origin of the belief in the divine
character of Christ and of his doctrine.
At
this point
Mr. Frazer's theory turns from god-man-
kings slain to preserve their mana, or cosmic rapport, to
who
persons
suffer
historical proof
adduced.
There
is,
throne
is
it
was
All
we
is
for
Not one single was such a custom is
these kings.
that there ever
a matter of inference and conjecture.
saw, a region Ngoio, in Congo, where the
perpetually vacant, because whoever occupied
killed the
day after coronation day '
G. B.
ii.
26.
—no substitute
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY is
and no one
suggested,
There are cases of
'
the
in
—the temporary king being H^
a cadet branch of the royal family.
Siam a temporary king or jocular pillaging,
Hood
our Eobin
of
In
killed.
in Scotland.
is
The mock-king
later prove.
also
ploughed nine furrows,
and stood later with his right foot on his
same thing on a
did the
conquer
condemned, and his
is
probably, as I shall show, to
been shown
if
firm, to
In Upper
quete.
unreason for three days holds mock
of
then
tribunals,
he was supposed,
and had another
evil spirits,
Egypt a king
;
He
knee.
left
and omens were
later occasion,
drawn from his steadiness
mean
shell
'
that
'
is
'
burned
the gambol has
There are two or three similar and Mr. Frazer suggests that the mock-king is
cases,
'
and
is over.^
invested with the king.
But the
tions,
and
cap.'
None
'
divine or magical functions
local
are put to death
Ibn Batuta's
if
'
of the real
Pacha, on the Nile, has no such func-
his august representative
alone and dimly, in
not
conducted a quete,
for three days
like
is
an example of the Period of Licence when law is abeyance, and the importance of this period we shall
This in
Siege Perilous.'
temporary kings,' as King February,
Cambodia
for three days in
sits
105
at
all,
:
wears
'
a tall fool's
the Upper Egyptian case
suggests the proxy supposed (as
tale interpreted
by Mr. Frazer)
to die for
the king.
Next we approach instances sacrificed,
King
Moab
who when
of sons of kings
but these are cases of sin offerings
(as
are
the
even
if
the lads were substitutes for their royal fathers, there
is
of
sacrificed his son
on the
wall), and,
no presumption raised that the fathers were habitually killed year by year, to keep their cosmic rapport unimpaired,
or
custom
of
to release the
which I '
G. B.
find ii.
26.
god incarnate within them, a
no example
at
all.
G. B.
ii.
30.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
106
One
instance of what he conjectures to be a proxy
sacrifice for a king Mr. Erazer finds in a festival at Babylon called the Sacsea.^ To this we return in due order. We must first examine cases of similar customs, or inferred ciTstoms, in Greece and Eome. Meanwhile we hope to have shown that Mr. Frazer's
theory of the origin of the belief in the Divinity of Christ already rests on three scarcely legitimate
hypotheses.
were
First, there is the hypothesis that kings
slain
to
known deity, incarnate in them, and to provide a human vehicle. Of this rite no instances were given.
release a
better
Next, there
the hypothesis that the King of Babylon
is
was annually sacrificed, and succeeded by a new king, who was sacrificed at the end of the year. Historical evidence does not exist, and the supposed custom Thirdly,
we
Of
die annually for the king.
example
is
beyond
belief.
who
are to believe in proxies or substitutes this practice
no actual
adduced.
is
Here, perhaps,
the
may
reader
be invited to ask
himself whether he believes that there ever was, anywhere,
custom
a
proof,
of
If
state.
yearly killing the king, the head of the
he cannot believe
may
he
mountain
this, in
admire the faith which can move
in the interests of
my
first
reading through the long
may
say that I was so hypnotised, after
Mr. Frazer's
roll of
stories of the deaths of kings,' that I could only '
But there
is
no
historical
evidence
for
Babylonian, or rather Persian, regicides.' out of the hypnotic trance of
suggestion,
annually
! '
this
Mr. Frazer's conclusions.
For
part I
the entire lack of
;
sad
the
yearly
Then
I woke
I shook off the drowsy spell
exclaimed
and
'
murmur
'
The
king
is
Next, I asked myself whether mortal
killed
men
would take the crown, and how the arrangement would '
G. B.
ii.
24.
THE APPEOACHES TO ME. FEAZEE'S THEOEY work, and, alas
it
!
my
was
was shattered. But the general
107
Mr. Frazer's theory
belief in
that
reader,' perusing
'
1,400
inay
pages,
numerous
cases,'
'
under
fall
though none
an argument of
hypnotic spell
the
are to the point,
of
and may
accept an hypothesis, however violently opposed to his
knowledge
human
of
case like this, compelled
may value common '
Ours
is
the
action, in
sense
field of
To
nature. to '
that test
appeal,
we
however
are, in a little
we
in other fields of speculation.
normal human nature, motive, and
which every
man may
be a judge.
I cannot
but think that the author of the theory would have been stopped by considerations so obvious
But
insuperable.
first
Aztec war-prisoner
was
he had the remote analogy of the
who
personated a god, and to a god
That example
sacrificed.
man was
is
no
of
real service
a captive and could not help himself
not King of Anahuac.
of special
the Saturnian victim,
if
But he
too
;
we
was
shame.
the
:
he was
Moreover, he was sacrificed
was not put to a death narrated.
and obstacles so
:
he
Again, there was
believe the legend about to be sacrificed
:
he was not stripped,
and hanged. Our author, however, was by the Cross at the end of the long vista of the argument. In place, therefore, of seeking, or at least in scourged,
fascinated
place of finding, a simple explanation of the Persian custom, or leaving
it
unexplained, he accepted the impossibility of
was launched into a and inferences to explain the absence, in the Persian case, of sacrifice and religion, the annual regicide at Babylon, and
new wilderness
of conjectures
the presence of a
merrymaking and a hanging.
MAGIC AND KELIGION
108
THE SATURNALIA
V.
We are next sacrifice,
of the yearly-
an historical case
not of a king, but of a mock-king.
ment thus This
to look for
carries us to the
festival (in late
Boman feast of
times held
in
The
argu-
the Saturnalia.
December, 16-23)
so
closely resembled our Christmas in jollity, that Pliny (like
some
withdraw to the most
of us) used to
his Laurentine
escape
villa to
retired
the noise.
does not remark the circumstance, but in
the Empire, or
earlier,
Eome
before
'
Among
our ancestors,' says
the Saturnalia were completed in a single
'
though he does not seem very certain of his fact. Livy
day,'
says
'
:
The
Saturnalia were instituted as a festal day.'
After the time of Caligula, the Saturnalia endured for days, of
in
the Saturnalia seem to have been
a feast of one day only.
Macrobius,
room
Mr. Frazer
'
five
precisely like the feast of the Sacsea at Babylon,'
which we are fated to hear a great deal.^ It would thus appear that the Saturnalia were
originally a feast of one day, later lengthened to five days,
and again
to seven
days.
By
the time of writers like
Lucian and Martial the feast continued Lucian represents Cronos (Saturn) as a unreason.'
The
presents to each other,
Dickens
calls
at table; all
it,
These
'
was
the
jolly old
poor, people
king
licence
The masters and
{cerea), like
riot.
those
served the slaves
Wax
candles were
on our Christmas
cerea, according to Macrobius,
were thought
Macrobius himself is an author of the fourth or fifth century Macrobius, i. x. 2 Livy, ii. xxi. 2. - Cumont, Bevue de Philologie, July 1897, vol. xxi. p. 149, Momnisen, C.I.L. V p. 337, and Marquhardt, Staatsverw. iii.'' 587. '
era.
of
made
a Christmas carol philosophy,' as
prevailed.
given as presents trees.
helped
rich
for a week, and
of our
;
'
Lucian, Saturnalia,
2.
citing
THE APPROACHES TO ME. FEAZER'S THEORY
109
by some antiquaries to be substitutes for human sacrifices. Originally, it was said, the Pelasgi, before migrating to Italy, received
an oracle from Dodona T^
Send a
'
man
warpl
to the Father,' that
were induced to substitute
human
were
sacrifices
Saturnalia,
to the
god Cronos
lights, the
wax
<jiu>Ta,
Roman
no
offered
actual
if
our era, at the
after
antiquary (and there were plenty
should mention the
of antiquaries)
fact,
while discussing
the theory that cerea were commutations of sacrifice.
now and
under the Empire a survival
then,
human
crudescence of
was heard
sacrifice
the antiquaries would catch at
district,
proof that sacrifice,
wax
we know from
woman
Irish peasant
'
greedily, as a
it
at
the
the recent case of burning an
from a
'
Bean
'
may have
fairy."
human
He
is
that the king of the revels (who
answered to our Twelfth Night ')
of
Saturnalia did really occur. '
human
That rural recrudescences
to death, to deliver her
tempted to surmise
If,
re-
of in a rural
Mr. Frazer, however, believes that survivals sacrifices
or
tapers really were commutations of
which some doubted.
do occur
or,
they
candles.
a really astonishing thing that,
is
it
is,
:
But, by a pun on the Greek
in Italy, Saturn.
Now
ipwra
Tre'^ireTe
:
'
'
King
'
or
'
Queen
of the
originally personated Saturn himself.'
^
we read that the victim cut his own throat on the altar of the god whom he personated.' The only known or alleged instance of human sacrifice at
In the following page
'
the Saturnalia follows.
In A.D. 303,
when
the persecution under Diocletian
began, one Dasius, a Christian soldier, in is
said to
have been the victim
'
Maorobius,
''
The reason was probably
=
O. B.
iii.
i.
vii.
p. 140.
whom
Lower
Moesia,
the soldiers yearly
31-33. a mere
'
blind
'
for wife-murder.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
110
chose for the mock-king of a month, not a week, the
Saturn
of
the occasion.
feast lasted
but
Why
a
month,
a day, and, later, but a
if
the ancient
week?
After
being a merry monarch for thirty days, he should have cut his
own
throat at the altar of Saturn (Kpovos, in the
Dasius declined the crown and was Greek MSS.)-^ knocked on the head, on November 20, by a soldier, apparently
Saturnalia at
Eome
named
man,
christened
a
The
John.
lasted (at least under the Empire)
from December 16 to December been executed for his
refusal,
Dasius must have
23.
announced before his month's
week is elsewhere known) should have begun if the regnal month ended on on November 23 December 23. Thus the festive Saturnalian kings at
reign (only a
—
;
Rome may
be guessed to descend from a custom, at
Eome
unknown, but surviving among the soldiers, of killing a Dasius was no slave or criminal, but revels of a month, in place of a day soldier. The himself a mock-king Saturnus. or a week, a day
must
was the
also,
one presumes, be a survival, though
early limit.
The
Dasius Mr. Frazer does not the
give,
'
MSS.
about
but he thinks that
MS. is probably based on MSS. I shall return.
the longest
To
date of the
official
documents.'
The grotesque figure of Carnival, destroyed at the end modern Eoman feast which does not fall in December, also a survival of a slain mock-king who personated
of a is
'
Saturn,' so Mr. Frazer suggests, though in ancient
even
this carnival practice is to us
It will already
Eomans a
Eome
unknown.
have been observed that even
if
the
were, in some remote age, wont yearly to sacrifice
mock-king who represented a god, they did not do so
at
Easter, as in the case of Christ, did not do so in spring,
and did not scourge the victim. '
Analecta Bollmtdiana,
xvi. pp. 5-16.
Their ''
rite, if it really
O. B.
iii.
p. 143.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY corresponded to that of the soldiers
who
111
slew Dasius,
began in November, and ended in December, lasting thirty days, or, teste Macrohio, originally lasting
of a
one day.
Dasius really occurred, and was a survival
If the slaying of
custom once prevalent
ancient Anahuac), then
(as in
month, from NovemDecember 23 but Roman antiquaries knew this. The month date is remote indeed from Mr. Frazer must try to show that originally
the early Saturnalia lasted for a
ber 23 to
;
nothing of Easter, so
the Saturnalia were a spring festival, like carnival.
To make the
carnival and Saturnalia coincide, Mr.
Frazer points out that
if
'
beginning of the
old year or the
many other
the Saturnalia, like
was always observed
seasons of licence,
at the
new
one,
end of the
it
must, like
the carnival, have been originally held in February or
March, the
the time
at
Eoman
year.'
when March was
the
first
Thus, in conservative rural
'
month
of
districts,
would continue to be held in February, Eome, in December, though Eoman writers do
the Saturnalia not, as at
not
tell
us
festival at
so,
and though non-Eoman pagan peoples held
The
the winter solstice.
soldiers
who
killed
poor Dasius were ultra-conservative, but they killed in
November, when their month
in
February, when,
as
they held by old usage, their
Saturnalia should have been kept.
be stated thus 1.
2.
may
The hypothesis may
:
In rural districts
murder
him
of Saturnalia began, not
'
the older and sterner practice
'
of
long have survived.^
In rural
districts the Saturnalia
continued to be
held in February-March, not in December.' 3.
Therefore the soldiers,
sterner practice fell '
in
'
of
remote
February-March,
G. B.
iii.
p. 144.
"
who
districts
killed
G. B.
kept up
iii.
the older and where the Saturnalia
Dasius p. 142.
'
— in November =
0. B.
ii.
p. 144.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
112
4.
Meanwhile, so wedded were the rural
districts to
Saturnalia in February-March, that the feast continued
months under the
in these
Church
and became our
carnival.
The
Lower Moesia kept up the month of revelry (though we never hear of a full month in older or later Rome), but they accepted the new date, November (not kept in Eome) and though in their remote rural homes the December 5.
eclectic soldiers in
and
old killing
full
;
Saturnalia were in February-March. officers insisted
the old
month
on the new
But editor
was but one day
the story of
is
and discoverer
legend occurs at
Ghent, at
first
Doubtless their while permitting
and the human
of revel
apparently, of old there
official date,
of
St.
sacrifice.
Yet,
of revel.
Dasius a true story
?
The
the Greek text in which the
full length.
Professor Franz
Cumont
of
held that as far as the sacrifice of the
military mock-king goes the story
is false.
I have already
observed that Mr. Frazer says nothing about the date of the
Greek MS. containing the longest legend of Dasius.
M. Cumont
does.
The MS.
is
of the eleventh century of
our era, and the original narrative, he thinks, was done into
on
Greek out
official
of the Latin,
which may have been based
documents, before the end of the seventh cen-
tury ' A.D., by some one
who knew Latin ill, wrote
execrable
Greek, did not understand his subject, and was far from
These sentiments of M. Cumont set in a as Mr. Frazer says of something new and lurid light scrupulous.
'
'
else
—the
of a
—
only evidence for the yearly military sacrifice
mock-king
of the Saturnalia.
scrupulous, for he
makes Dasius
Our author was
un-
profess the Nicene Creed
Later (Rev. de Philol., xxi. 3, pp. 152, 153), M. Cumont dates the at about 500-600 a.d., because there were then apprehensions, as in the MS., of the end of the world. But so there were in 1000 a.d. '
Greek
THE AFPKOACHES TO ME. FEAZEE'S THEOEY before
was made.
As
113
the thirty days' revel,
M. Cumont supposes that to be a blunder of our author, who did not know that the Saturnalia only occupied a week.^ M. Cumont held that the king of the feast had not to slay it
to
himself, but only to sacrifice to Saturn
commanding
his to
our gods,
sacrifice to
'
ship.'
whom
MS.
Dasius, the
be a Christian,
says, refused,
named John. and M. Cumont
ignorant translator of the Latin took
was buried '
depulsus
'
by a
est,'
'
'
'
suggests that the '
sepultus est
In fact the Greek translator of the
M. Cumont, had been abolished
The
soldiers,
'
('he or
{sKpovaOr)).
seventh
century
Human sacrifices,
retouched his Latin original dplaisir. says
'
for 'pulsus,'
he was knocked on the head
if
legend,
and was knocked John was likely
named John)
soldier
in the
even the barbarians wor-
on the head by a soldier to
in fact, Bassus,
;
does ask him,
officer,
since Hadrian's time.
they sacrificed a mock-king, broke an
imperial edict.
Our evidence then would seem,
if
M. Cumont
is
right,
an unfaithful and not very scrupulous translator and embellisher of a Latin text. He informs us by the way that similar noisy performances went on in his own Christian period, not in December, but on New Year's to be that of
Day.
The
Saturnalia were thus pushed on a
December 23
we do
;
or retained at,
to,
the legend
is
that
week from
not learn that they were transferred
February-March.
we must
The moral
not be noisy on
lesson of
New
Year's
Day.
Thus M. Cumont did not
at first accept the evidence
December 16-23. So also thinks M. Parmentier, Bev. Phil. xxi. p. 143, note 1. M. Parmentier says that we must either suppose the ¥ictim to have been selected by lot a whole month in advance (of which practice I think we have no evidence), or else oast doubt on the whole story, except the mere martyrdom oS Dasius. But the latter measure M. Parmentier '
thinks too sceptical. "
Porphyry,
De
Abstinentia,
ii.
56
;
Lactantius,
i.
21.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
lU
mock-king representing the god Saturn. But M. Parmentier suggested that an old cruel rite might have been introduced by Oriental soldiers annual
for the
sacrifice of a
into Moesia (303 a.d.) thanks to the licensed ferocity of
the persecutions under Diocletian.
was a
Christian,
and the author
tale to illustrate the sin of revelry
But what led
The on
similar rite the
Roman
Saturnalia,
The
Year's Day.
M. Parmentier
festival,
which a mock-king was scourged and
istics.
New
to the revival of the cruelty ?
quoted the story of our Babylonian
own
victim, Dasius,
of his legend told the
the Sacsea, in
slain.
both as to date and as to character-
Oriental soldiers of
the
Roman Empire
imported into the army this Oriental feast and just as they
Moesia.
This or a
legions finally confused with their
sacrifice
:
brought monuments of Mithra-worship into
In an hour of military licence and
the cohorts in Moesia
may
of persecution,
actually have tried to sacrifice
a Christian private as a representative of King Saturn. far the sacrifice
So
is
an Asiatic importation, not a
Roman survival. But M. Cumont, after reading M. Parmentier, returned
He
legend.
from his
disbelief in the veracity of the Dasius
thought that the extension of the Saturnalia
from one day to
five days, after Caligula,
might be due
an imitation introduced by Eastern slaves
in
Rome
to
(an
influential class) of the five days' feast of the Babylonian
Sacaea.
He
But
thirty days, as in Moesia, are not five days.
also inclined to accept the recently proposed identifi-
cation of the Sacaea with a really old Babylonian feast
Zakmuk, and with the Jewish Purim, shall later criticise. an As to the imperial edict forbidding human sacrifice, M. Cumont now suggested that it had become a dead letter and called
Zagmuk,
identification
impotent.
or
which we
In the general decadence
cruelties flourished,
of 303 monstrous and the Saturnalia were marked by
THE APPROACHES TO ME. FEAZER'S THEOEY
Oriental
Thus, in remote Moesia, the half
combats.
gladiatorial
might
soldiery
115
really sacrifice a Christian
for
'
the safety of his comrades under arms.'
So
far the sacrifice of
Dasius looks rather like a cruelty
introduced into decadent Rome, and at the good-humoured Saturnalia,
by Oriental
legionaries,
than
Eoman
like a
survival or recrudescence of a regular original feature of
In any case the stripping and scourging
the Saturnalia. of
the Sacsean mock-king, his hanging, and his simulated
which we
resurrection (at
shall find
Mr. Frazer making
a guess) are absent, while the date of the alleged trans-
(November-December) does not
action
tally
Dasius
of the
feast,
Thus,
Oriental.
thirty days,
from
far
possible,
neither
illuminating
practice, the rite reported in
problem more perplexing.
is
with Purim,
The
or Eastertide, or the date of the Sacsea.
Eoman the
and the conjecture that the Greek writer
revels of his contemporaries,
Perhaps I of
may hint
may
the
the faults
all
vented the sacrifice, to throw discredit on the
nor
Oriental
make
Mcesia does but
The evidence has
duration
New
in-
Year
be worth considering.
that I think the historical evidence
the author of the Dasius legend so extremely dubious
that I
might have expected Mr. Frazer to
The
of its character.
the
Golden Bough no idea of the tenuity of the testimony, '
'
which, of course,
and Greek. scholars
but
offer a criticism
general reader can gather from
my
reader.
is at
We
once visible to readers of French
address ourselves to scholars, and for
Mr. Frazer has provided the necessary
citations,
heart inclines to regard the needs of the general (Cf.
'
Man,' VI.
Prom Eome we answered, more or
May
1901, No. 53.)
THE GEEEK CEONIA turn to Greece. less,
to Saturn in
Cronos, in Greece,
Eome, though how I
2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
116
much of the resemblance is
Greek myth I need not here Cronos
festival of
Eoman
due to
varnishing with
Now
discuss.
the Athenian
neither in November, December,
fell
Therefore Mr. Frazer
February, nor March, but in July.'
needs to guess that the July feasts of Cronos were once, or
may have
like
been, a spring festival, like the carnival and
the Saturnalia, which (by another hypothesis) were
we have
originally in February or March, though of this
no proof. Indeed, it
is
contrary to use and wont for a popu-
lace to alter a venerable folk-festival because of an official
change in the calendar.
If the
Romans
for
unknown
ages had kept the Saturnalia in spring they would not
move the (or
date of their gaieties, and cut off three weeks
twenty-nine days) of their duration, because the new
year was shifted from all
March
In Scotland,
to January.
through the Middle Ages and
much
later,
the year
began in March. But Yule was not shifted into March it remained, and remains, like the Saturnalia, at the :
winter
solstice.
As proof that the Attic feast of Cronos (supposed answer to the Saturnalia) was originally in spring, not
to
in
Mr. Frazer writes A which perhaps referred to the twelve months of the year, was offered to Cronos by the Athenians on the fifteenth
July,
day of
'
:
the
cake with twelve knobs,
month Elaphebolion, which
corresponded
roughly to March, and there are traces of a licence accorded to slaves at the Dionysiac festival of the opening
wine jars,' in the month of flowers preceding.^ It was a proper season for licence. The possible meaning of the cake does not go for much, and Cronos is not Dionysus. There was a spring of the
festival of
Cronos at Olympia, and Aug.
that the Athenian G. B.
iii.
Mommsen
thinks
Cronos feast was originally vernal,
147.
^
G. B.
iii.
148.
THE APPEOACHES TO MR. FRAZEE'S THEORY though Athenian tradition thought
was
it
117
harvest
a
feast.^
The licers
But he has another Greek
called
spring,
do not suit Mr. Frazer's
Attic customs, then,
argument.
'
kings
and why should they not once have been
like Dasius, only in spring, not
evidence
human
instance.
is
Sacri-
Cronos, at Olympia, in
offered to
'
sacrificed
November
in
This
?
an inference from a presumed survival of
sacrifice to Cronos,
who
certainly received
many
such offerings.
We
know why the Athenian March to July, or when, but let no arbitrary proceedings of the kind prevent them from being equated with the Saturnalia, only known to us, in fact, as a December festival, not as a vernal rejoicing. It are not told,
we
do not
Cronia were shifted from
is
Athenian
singularly unlucky that the July date of the
Cronia does tally with the June-July date of the Persian Saceea,
as
given by Mr. Frazer (and
correctly) in his
But
second volume.^
probably given
in his third
volume
he awakes to the desirableness of placing the Sacsea about
and
Eastertide, not in July,
so loses
any benefit which his
argument might have acquired from the coincidence in date of the Attic harvest feast (Cronia) Sacsea as that date
How
is
deeply this
is
to be regretted
for periods of licence like
after harvest, the real
slaves of feasting
and the Persian
originally established.^
we
shall see later,
the Sacsea usually occur just
time of the Cronia.
Liberty to
with their masters was a feature of the
harvest Cronia, as of
many other
harvest rejoicings.*
But
the conjecture that the Cronia originally were a vernal feast
removes them from such merrymakings
licence as the Sacsea in June-July. '
2
G. B.
ii.
G. B.
253, 254.
iii.
147, note 2 =
G. B.
ii.
;
On
148, note
254.
of harvest
the other hand, 2. *
G. B.
ii.
147.
MAGIC A2^D RELIGIOX
118
the conjecture that the Sacaea were vernal brings them into touch with Eastertide,
and with the other conjecture
that kings were once sacrificed at the conjecturally vernal Cronia, and so has
its
value for Mr. Frazer's argument.
VII.
THE SAC^A
We are still trying to find an historical case of a man who is sacrificed in the character of a god and a king. The argument next introduces us to the Sacsea at Babylon, when the mock-king was hanged, the Persian feast, which, as we saw, M. Parmentier, following Herr Meissner, is inclined to identify
Zagmuk,
with the ancient Babylonian
Zakmuk, and with the Jewish Purim. This identification, this theory that Zakmuk, Sacaea, and the Jewish Purim are all the same feast, is essential But, before his theory was pubto Mr. Frazer's theory. or
Meyer, in the new volume of his 'History
lished,
of
had declared that the identification is impossible, philologically and as a matter of fact (Geschichte des Alterthums). It would be interesting to know the meaning
Antiquity,'
word
of the lates
'
Sacsea, or Sacea, or Sahia,
convivial
in
Omar Khayyam The
trans-
drinking healths' (compotatio,
"We remember the Persian
propinatio)?
SdM,
drinking,
which Hyde
butler, called a
:
eternal Sdhi from the bowl has poured
Myriads
of other bubbles,
and
If the wine-pourer, the Sdhi, of
will pour.
Omar is
etymologically
connected with the Sakaea, or Sacaea, then the feast means a
wine-party.
The Greeks, however, connected
the
Sacaea with the Sacse, an Oriental tribe of the great race stretching
from the Black Sea
to
Dacia.
Indeed, in
Strabo's time, the feasters at the Sacaea dressed as Scythians '
Hyde, De Bel. Pers.
p. 267.
THE APPROACHES TO MR. FRAZER'S THEORY and drank, as Horace
(Sacse)
were used to drink.
119
us that the Scythians
tells
This occurred
at Zela, a
town
of
Pontus, where a love goddess, in Persian Anaitis, of the type of the
Babylonian Ishtar, was adored.
Mr. Frazer even
conjectures that her high priest, or a substitute,
'
who played
King of the Sacsea,' was yearly sacrificed here, perhaps Tammuz.^ No record of the fact has reached us. The interesting point about this derivation of Sacsea
the as
from the tribe of the Sacse
that
is
the festival
commemorate a
believed, says Strabo, to
wag
great victory of
In precisely the same way
the Persians over the Sacse.
Magophonia was supposed to commemorate a victory over and massacre of the Magi.^ Purim, again, was held to commemorate a triumph of the Jews over the Persians and a massacre of the Persians. In three cases, then, Sacaea, Magophonia, and Purim, a feast which was a secular drinking bout, preserve the the Persian feast of the
memory
of
a
bloody victory.
do not observe that
I
Mr. Prazer notices this coincidence.
But manifestly
this kind of feast is not a feast of the
death of a mock-king, festival of
still
less,
if
possible, a religious
the death and resurrection of a vernal god.'
Yet there really was
(if
we
accept rather poor evidence)
not a sacrifice but an execution of a mock-king, a criminal, at the Sacaea, as
First
held in Babylon.
comes Athenseus, who
I quote our authorities.
writing about feasts of un-
is
reason, at which, in various regions, the slaves are waited
upon by of a
their masters.*
mock-king.
of his " of the
He
He says nothing of
remarks
:
'
the execution
Berosus, in the
book
first
History of Babylon," says that on the sixteenth day
month Lous
Babylon, which '
G. B.
'
Strabo, p. 512.
iii.
is
163, 164.
there
is
a great festival celebrated at
called Saheas,
and
it
lasts five
days
-
Herodotus,
^
Athenseus, xiv. p. 639,
iii.
79. o.
;
MAGIC AND KELIGION
120
and during these days it is the custom for the masters to be under the orders of their slaves, and one of the slaves puts on a robe like the king's, being called Zoganes, and is
master of the house.
And
second book of his " History of Persia."
festival in the
(Ctesias flourished rather
about 200
him.
earlier
than Berosus,
who
'
is
B.C.)
Thus Athenasus is king,
Ctesias also mentions this
silent
about the execution of a mock-
though doubtless he had the book of Berosus before
And Dio Chrysostom,
vyho does speak of the execu-
and he alone does so, says nothing about Berosus, or any other authority. I cite the observations of Dio
tion,
He
Chrysostom. Diogenes, his pride
them
;
who
is
puts
and who
much
absurd,
them
into the
mouth
of the cynic,
lecturing Alexander the Great, to tame tells illustrative
as Mr.
anecdotes, some of
Barlow was used
to instruct
Tommy Merton.
Dio, then,
Masters Harry Sandford and
makes Diogenes say that at the Sacsea 'they take one of the prisoners condemned to death and seat him upon the king's throne, and give him the king's raiment, and let him lord it and drink, and run riot and use the king's concubines during these days, and no man prevents him from doing just what he likes. But afterwards they strip, and
He
scourge, dies,
and crucify
hang,
(or
not as a victim, by
sacrifice,
by a cruel and degrading form '
Dio, Oratio
'
Mr. Frazer, in his
iv., vol.
i.
of
sKpifiaaav)
him.'
^
but as a criminal,
capital punishment.^
p. 76, Dindorf.
text, attributes
lonian priest of about 200 B.C. the tale ((?. B. ii. 24, note
In
fact,
the statement to Berosus, a Baby-
we do not know
Dio's authority for
Frazer admits this in his note. Ctesias may be Dio's source, or he may be inventing. On the other hand, Macrobius, a late Eoman writer, says that the Persians used to regard as due to the gods the lives of consecrated men whom the Greeks call Zanas (Macrobius, Saturnalia, iii. 7, 6). But what Zanse are the learned do not know: whether the word means (uiydvas, or the Zanes at Olympia (Pausanias, V. xxi. 2; G. B. ii. 24, note 1). Moreover, Macrobius may have drawn his facts from Dio. But Dio says nothing about consecrated men.' 1).
Mr.
'
'
'
THE APPEOACHES TO ME. PEAZER'S THEORY
121
According to Die any condemned criminal would serve the
But Mr. Frazer suggests that perhaps the profession of victim was hereditary.^ Such is the story which Dio makes Diogenes tell Alexander, in a humorous apologue against royal pride. turn.
'
You
soon be growing a crest like a cock,' says Dio-
will
I cannot think that evidence found
genes in Dio's essay.
only in a Hterary tour de force, and put into the of a professed
mouth
humourist, proves historically that the mock-
king was actually hanged once a year, at a feast described
who
by Athenseus, Strabo, and Hesychius, an
so strange find that
the student tale of
affair as
who
Indeed,
avoids foot-notes will believe that the
the hanging is according to the historian Berosus, '
Now, granting that there Babylon
of a criminal, a
We
to death ? It
reader will not
these doubts.
all
who, as a Babylonian priest, spoke
at
The
the hanging.
Mr. Frazer suggests
never mention
vsrith
^
was a yearly execution why was he put
really
mock-king,
know what Mr.
needs historical
ample knowledge.'
examples
Frazer's theory needs.
men who, by
of
being
sacrificed as victims, obtain a divine character, as repre-
senting the god to also
whom
demands that these victims
crowned as kings. perish
about
our
shall
Eastertide,
and
The
that
solitary
Saturnalian victim in Moesia did not
we
be arrayed and they should
It is desirable, too, that
be supposed to rise again.
He was
The theory
they are sacrificed.
fulfil
they
should
example
of
a
these conditions.
arrayed as a king, indeed, and was sacrificed,
if
but he was not legend of St. Dasius and scourged, and he died, not at Easter, but in November if he had not refused the part thrust on him he would have died in December. There was no word believe the
;
stripped
:
about his resurrection. '
G. B.
iii.
186.
It
was found necessary to suggest "
O. B.
ii.
24.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
122
that originally the Satiirnalian victim died in February-
March, but
The
this
was not proved.
other historical case, the mock-king of the Sacsea,
He
also does not fulfil the conditions required.
and crowned, and scourged, but he have no hint
of a resurrection
attaching to the feast
ing to the victim.
memorative criminal.
of
;
none
The
;
As to the date
By the
none of a religious character
:
the victim
the
a
comcondemned
Mr. Frazer has two
of the death,
By
is
first
(which (if
correct)
is
not, certainly in
month date of the death March-April. Let me add that,
second, the
fixed (provisionally) in
to suit
We
of a divine character attach-
the victim died probably in June-July
September).
robed,
feast is traditionally a revel
a victory
contradictory theories.
is
is
not sacrificed.
is
Mr. Frazer's theory, the victim must not only
have been divine
at the origin
of
the institution, but
must have been recognised as divine at the time of the otherwise our Lord's death, in Crucifixion of our Lord the character of the victim, could lend him no halo of :
'
divinitJ^'
123
VI
ATTEMPTS TO PBOVB THE SACMAN CBIMINAL DIVINE As our
does not meet Mr. Frazer's
historical evidence
needs, as the Sacsean victim is not regarded as divine, as
he
is
no
'
the feast
victim is
'
but a criminal, as he
is
not sacrificed, as
not religious but a secular merrymaking, as
no resurrection is mentioned, as the historical date does not
which will prove far more than the facts alleged by Dio Chrysostom, Berosus in Athenseus, Strabo, and Hesychius or will prove that originally the facts were the opposite of fit
Eastertide,
Mr. Frazer has
to invent theories
;
those historically recorded.
Through his whole argument Mr. Frazer seems to me two distinct theories alternately, and only at the close can I detect any attempt at reconciliation. A to present
third theory, distinct
from
Indeed, Mr. Frazer's task
either, is
appears to be rejected.
He may
not easy.
say that
the Sacsean victim represents the king, and that the king
by the hypothesis, divine, the victim is divine also. But he needs, moreover, a resurrection of the dead man, being,
hence the theory that the victim represents not only the king, but a
god
of the type of
Tammuz
or Adonis.
At the
there
was
wailing for his death, rejoicing for his resurrection.
At no
feasts
of
Babylon
that god, a god of vegetable
this occurred in June-July.
evidence that a
human
life,
But
there
victim was slain for
is
Tammuz
:
MAGIC AND RELIGION
124
none that he was scourged and hanged. How are the two theories, the victim as divine king, the victim as Tammuz, to be combined ? Their combination is necessary, for the king
Tammuz
while
is
is
needed to yield the royal robes
;
needed to yield the resurrection, and
the fast preceding the feast before Purim, a fast of wailing for
but
if
Tammuz. We hear of no Purim be borrowed from
fast before the Sacaea,
the
Sacaea
(which
is
indispensable to the theory), the Sacaea too must have
been preceded by a
fast,
though
it is
unrecorded.
Tammuz
Clearly the king theory alone, or the
theory
alone, will not yield the facts necessary to the hypothesis.
Consequently the two theories must be combined. king must not only be divine, be a god
god
of vegetation, a
resurrection.
god
Now we
of the
;
he must
Tammuz
type,
The
also be a
who
has a
have no evidence, or none
is
adduced, to prove that the king, whether Babylonian or Persian,
was ever deemed to be an incarnation of Tammuz Without sound evidence to
or any such vegetable deity.
that effect the theory cannot
abundance one
is
of
move
Babylonian sacred and secular texts
have :
not
adduced to prove that the king incarnated any god,
especially
Tammuz.
Mr. Frazer then,
after putting
forward alternately the
king theory and the Tammuz theory, does understand him, combine them. He talks of god, the Saturn, Zoganes, called.'
^
Tammuz,
Thus the victim
is
Tammuz
finally, '
the
if
I
human
or whatever he was
the king, and
royal robes, and the five days of royalty. also
We
a step.
we get the The king is
(unless I fail to grasp the meaning), the
is Tammuz, and we get the fast (though we none before the Sacaea), the feast, and the resurrection. But this is a late and rather casually
victim too
hear
of
1
G. B.
iii.
185.
— WAS SAC.EAN
VICTIM DIVINE?
125
introduced theory, quite destitute of evidence as regards the king's being recognised for
Tammuz.
two volumes, the victim had necessary divinity from the king
Previously, throughout alternately derived his
and from the
Tammuz
He
god.
derived more
he had the entree of the royal harem
was the consort
who
of a
woman,
represented the great
A similar
he
probably a sacred harlot,
Semitic
goddess Ishtar or
His union with her magically
Astarte.'
crops. ^
'
as king
:
Tammuz
as
;
the
fertilised
duty, in the dream-time of Mr. Frazer's
hypotheses, had been that of the majesty of Babylon. '
Originally, we
may conjecture, such couples exercised their
function for a whole year, on the conclusion of
male partner
— the divine king—was
which the
put to death
;
but in
historical times it
seems that, as arule, the human god
Saturn, Zoganes,
Tammuz,
was
or whatever he
—the
called
enjoyed his divine privileges, and discharged his divine
only for a short part of the year,' namely five
duties,
days, at the Saceea.^
The
divine duties of the early kings of
understand Mr. Frazer) were
make
that
animals.'
'
to stand for the
for the fertility of plants
early kings of
if '
civil
Babylon
?
and military control
human goddess who
all
I
powers also of
of the
who
Empire
all
carried
?
on
Of course,
but associate with
shared his bed and transmitted
his beneficent energies to the rest of
may have been
the duties of the
In that case,
the early king did nothing at
the
and perhaps
(if
Axe we to conceive that these pleasing exercises
with the lady of the divine pair were
the
Babylon
a man-god, a
Tammuz,
nature,' if
'
then he
the texts say
so,
and his substitute might die at once as royal proxy, to save the king's
'
G. B.
iii.
life,
178.
and also as Tammuz. -
G. B.
iii.
185.
'
G. B.
Moreover,
iii.
186.
it
MAGIC AND RELIGION
126
would not matter a pin's fee whether such a king died Only, no man could take the billet of king. Thus it may be Mr. Frazer's intention to combine
or
not.
Tammuz
one the two theories of the victim as
and
in as
In that case his two apparently inconsistent
royal proxy.
theories are one theory.
But, theory.
if
I
apprehend
it
correctly,
Where have we
it
a very audacious
is
a proven case of a king
incarnates a god of vegetation, plays the part of
'
who
making
by the assistance of the human goddess who shares his bed, and transmits his beneficent energies to the rest of nature,' and who is sacrificed annually ? Does this divine voluptuary also keep a royal harem, or is that essential and more or less attested part for the fertility of plants
'
'
of the Sacsea a later excrescence ?
Without some array of facts,
historical evidence for such a strange
the
including
monarch, I must hesitate
yearly
sacrifice
to think that
of
the
Mr. Frazer's
who is both king and Tammuz, and substitute who is both Tammuz and king, is
theory of a king has, later, a
a practical hypothesis explanatory of
which was shed around the
'
the halo of divinity
cross of Calvary.'
I cannot
accept as evidence for a combination of facts separately so extraordinary, a series of inferences
and presumptions
The Bean on Twelfth Night, with occasional or even frequent mock destructions of the monarch of a playful day, cannot be from
rural or barbaric revels in spring or at harvest.
existence of a
King or Queen
of the
May,
or of the
used as proof that early Babylonian kings consorted a year with a
human
death as gods of vegetable produce is
no
historical testimony,
in favour of
for
goddess, and then were burned to ;
especially
when there
and only inference from myth,
any human goddess or of a burned king. meanwhile, even any testimony to show
We have not,
— WAS SAC^AN any time, in any
in
that,
VICTIM DIVINE? place,
any human victim was
ever slain, let alone a king (and a
possible basis, that of analogy,
Trazer,
and
of Lityerses
'
king annually), as
We have only a guess, founded on
Tammuz.
'
127
The
the vs'eakest
Mr.
analogy,' says
of folk-custom,
both European
and savage, suggests that in Phoenicia the corn-spirit the dead Adonis a
human
— may formerly have been represented by ^
victim.'
.
Tammuz
.
.
This can hardly persuade
.
Babylon
that the kings of
me
annually sacrificed as
vs^ere
or as Adonis.
While admitting that Mr. Frazer may really mean to combine his two theories (the victim as king, the victim as
Tammuz) and while he ,
certainly
makes
his victim both
and a god, I shall take the freedom to examine his
a king
theory in the sequence of the passages wherein
it
is
pro-
and request the reader to decide whether there be
posed,
one theory or two theories.
But ing,
first,
have
victim, to be
though confessedly hanged,
is
by hangFor the Sacsean said, by Mr. Frazer, sacrifice
sacrificed.'
'
DOES
SACRIFICE BY HANGING.
I.
Let us look to
we any examples of a human victim ?
not by burning, the
at actual
human
EXIST?
IT
victims, actually knovwi
have been slain in the interests of agriculture.
were, these
human
malefactors,
were not. 1.
like the
mock-king
Cases are given in vol.
The Indians
Are, or
victims put to the infamous death of
of
of the ii.
p.
Guyaquar used
blood and the hearts of
men when
Sacaea?
238
They
et seq.
to sacrifice
human
they sowed their
fields.^ 2.
In the Aztec harvest '
G. B.
ii.
253.
festival a victim
-
was crushed
Cis2a de Leon, p. 203.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
128
between two great stones grinding of the maize 3.
The Mexicans and old men
children,
We are not told 4.
(perhaps
for
the
children,
older
each stage of the maize's growth.
how they were
The Egyptians
young
sacrificed
JttrjiecZ
sacrificed.'
red-haired men, and scattered
ashes with winnowing fans.
their
represent
to
?).
usual feature of sacrifice, and
This burning
is
a
not hanging or cruci-
is
fying. 5.
The
Ti-ra-wa, controls
Skidi, or
all things,'
were
There sowing
Wolf Pawnees, hurned
the power above that moves the
'
human
the victim had his head
;
universe, and
but the victim was a deer or a occasional
also
a victim to
cleft
sacrifices
buffalo.
before
with a tomahawk,
and was then riddled with arrows, and afterwards hurned} In some cases he was tied to a cross, before being slain with an 6.
axe.^
A
Sioux
girl
was hurned over a slow
Her
shot with arrows.
7.
West
and then
magical purposes, was
flesh, for
squeezed over the newly sown
fire,
fields.
African victims were killed with spades and
and burned in newly tilled fields. At Lagos a girl was impaled among sacrificed sheep, goats, yams, heads of maize, and plantains hung hoes,
8.
on
Though impalement
stakes.
ishment, probably the
We have
the earth. in
girl's
is
a form of capital pun-
blood was expected to
fertilise
no proof that crucifixion was used
Babylon, or the same motive might be alleged for the
may
mock-king
at the Sacsea.
crucifixion
was an Oriental mode
He
Mr. Frazer.
form '
'It
be doubted whether of punishment,' says
does not say that
it
was an
Oriental
of sacrifice.*
G. B.
i.
143. '
G. B.,
" ii.
Grinnell, 2B8.
Pawnee Hero 0. B.
ii.
Stories, pp. 362-369. 24, note
1.
WAS SAC^AN The Marimos
9.
scatter the ashes
and
kill
bu7-n a
on the ground to
human
fertilise
129
victim,
and
it.
The Bagolos hew a slave to pieces. Some tribes in India chop victims up. The Kudulu allow to a victim all the revels, women
10. 11. 12.
and
VICTIM DIVINE?
all,
of the Sacsean
mock-king, and then cut a hole in
him, and smear his blood over an
This
idol.
sacrifice,
is
not capital punishment.
The Khonds slew
13.
in a variety of
their revered
and god-like victim
ways, strangling him in a
tree,
burning, and
chopping up, that his flesh might be sown on the
The head, bowels, and bones were burned. Such are the examples of a real human victim the good of the crops.
In
fields,
and probably
sacrifice to a of
god or
is
this
In seven cases
instances.
slain for
six out of fourteen cases the
victim's ashes, blood, or flesh
the
fields.
used magically to is
In two
burning occurs.
idol occurs.
fertilise
done in several other
In one only
is
mode
the
death a recognised form of capital punishment.
Therefore Mr. Frazer does not seem to justified in
capital
taking for and describing as
punishment
inflicted at the Sacsea
'
me
to
sacrifice
'
be the
on a mock-king
who notoriously was a criminal condemned to death, and who was hanged, not sacrificed. To be sure Mr. Frazer tries to turn this point, and how ? Perhaps ancient kings of Lydia were once burned alive on pyres, god.'
as living embodiments of their For the Lydian, like the Macedonian and many other '
royal houses, claimed descent
on
fire
burned himself. fire,
was about to die by his own head. Cyrus was going to Jeanne d'Arc, Cranmer, Wishart, and infliction by a foreign enemy hardly
Croesus, defeated,
but not out of
burn him others.
from Heracles, who, being
already imder the shirt of Nessus, homceopathically
alive, like
This cruel
MAGIC AND RELIGION
130
proves a Lydian custom, nor are Lydians exactly Baby-
Again,
lonians.
a good
if
an old Prussian king
name behind
wished to leave
'
him,' he burned himself before a
'Crummies is not a Prussian,' nor vs^ere the Once more Movers thought that the divine pair who figured by deputy at the Sacsea were Semiramis and Sandan or Sardanapalus. (Which divine pair, the king's proxy and one of the king's concubines, or the Tammuz man and the sacred harlot ?) Sandan was thought to be Heracles by the Greeks, and his effigy was perhaps burned on a pyre at his festival holy oak.
kings of
Babylon.
'
'
Tarsus.
in
Now
the Persians,
according to Agathias,
worshipped Sandes (Sandan), and perhaps the Babylonians did so also, though really that agreeable Byzantine minor poet, Agathias, cannot be called a
good witness.
K. 0. Miiller thinks that Sandan (Sandes)
Next,
may have
burned in a mystery play in Nineveh, Miiller giving licence to his fancy, as
that
'
he admits.
at the Sacsea the
paired with a
Movers,
too,
been free
thought
Zoganes represented a god, and
woman who
personated a goddess.'
Movers thinks that the Sacsean victim was
'
And
originally
burned.^ exquisite reasons,' that the Lydian For these monarchs claimed descent from Heracles, who was burned, that Cyrus wanted to burn Croesus alive, that '
old Prussian kings
who wished
to
leave a good
name
burned themselves, that Movers thought that Sandan or Sardanapalus might have figured at the Sacaea as Zoganes, that Agathias mentioned Sandes as a Babylonian deity, and that Movers thinks that the man who
was burned, Mr. Frazer suggests that perhaps the mock-king of the Sacaea was burned, once upon a time.' But we only know that he was scourged acted the god
'
G. B.
iii.
167.
'
G. B.
iii.
171.
'
G. B.
iii.
170, 171.
'
WAS SAC^AN
VICTBI DIVINE?
131
So perhaps, Mr. Prazer suggests, he was hoth scourged, hanged, and burned afterwards, or perhaps hanging or crucifixion may have been a later mitigation and hanged.
'
'
of his sufferings
flogging added ?
—a
pretty mitigation
liefer be burned, like a god whipped and then crucified, the lowest and most servile kind,
and a king, than be as
a malefactor
of
first
the necessary suggestion
too,
losing,
in being burned.
divinity implied
If
he
capitally
'
Johnson rudely remarked.
why
god or king,
The man was hanged,
?
there
king as his theory, but
must
not,
gives
many examples
an end
is
Now we
we need
accept the theory.
'
on't,'
must not
'
Mr. Frazer has announced this
sacrifice
not, I
Because,
one single case
of a divine
even say
Mr. Frazer
of persons believed each to contain
whom
Secondly, there
as Dr. forget
But
in not
the person said to be killed for the
is
god
'
may
first,
temporarily or permanently.^
a god, either
benefit of the
is
punished (which as a condemned criminal
he richly deserved), and
that
mitigation,' there
dies as
he stripped of his royal robes
was
'
stripped of his royal robes, then
first
whipped, then hanged. is
and
sacrifice
except what proves that the mock-king
all
was
at the SacEea
of
Besides, apart from
and debasing
this theory of a cruel
no evidence at
And why was
!
One had
^
he contains.
was historically no
sacrifice in the case
Sacaean mock-king.
of the
The mock-king, as a sacrifice, for
a king
who
he
then, is
if
he has any divinity, has
not sacrificed
incarnates a
god,
for
;
it
not
nor as representing
no kings or others
thought to incarnate gods, whether temporarily or permanently, are proved to be slain for the benefit of that god.
Nor
hanging.
are
any kings who are actually
The death G. B.
iii.
171.
of a
man,
slain, slain
as a god, belongs, ^
G. B.
i.
if
131-157.
K 2
by to
MAGIC AND EELIGION
132
Tammuz
anything, to quite another festival, that of Adonis, and to quite another set of ideas.
man
proof indeed that a as
an embodiment
Adonis or Tammuz.
of
a god,
for
sacrificed
But Mr.
human
victim, V7ho
is,
and
is
sacrificed in that character,
is
He must
feigned to rise again.
or
have no
Crucifixion on
the
for
Calvary demands the sacrifice of a officio,
hanged or
v^as ever
Frazer's theory of the reason
ex
We
be royal, to account
also
the scarlet robe and crovsm of thorns of the great
victim. II.
STAGES IN MR. PBAZBE'S THEORY
Let us now trace the stages of Mr. Frazer's theory is both god and king. 1. First in order of statement comes the description of the Sacaea, combined from Athenaeus, who mentions no
that the Sacasan victim
and Dio Chrysostom, who does. We learn (from Mr. Frazer, not from Dio) ' that the victim dies in the victim,
'
But we must not
king's stead.'
'
forget that the king
is
slain in his character of a god, his death and resurrection,
as
the only
means
of
perpetuating the divine
un-
life
impaired, being deemed necessary for the salvation of his
people and the world.'
Mr. Frazer's theory we have seen no proof we have remarked that sacrificed victims are not
That of
it,
hanged
;
is
:
that kings are not scourged
evidence beyond conjecture process of burning
for
an
;
that there
earlier
no
while conjecture also explains whip-
;
hanging as a mitigation,' or alleges possibly the victim was hanged first and burned ping
is
Babylonian
and
'
that after-
wards.
Here the king god of vegetation '
G. B.
ii.
is :
24-26.
on the face of it, a anything, he is more like the
certainly not,^ if
^
Q. B.
ii.
24-26.
WAS
SAC4<:AN victim divine?
Chitome in Congo, who was a
His credulous
'pontiff.'
people believed that the world would end died a natural death,
'
He was He was not
he was clubbed or strangled.
whom
god year
he incarnated.'
Does science ask us and was
when he seems
Congo
is
when he seemed
'
of a
'
BabyCongo savage
?
may
expect us to believe,
by Mr. Frazer that the king
told
likely
put to death, not annually, but
likely to die
Here, whatever science are
no
clubbed once a
sacrificed after a year's reign, because a
savage pontiff in '
sacrificed to
to believe that each
had the cosmic rapport
lonian king pontiff,
likely to die
the Babylonian king of Mr. Frazer's theory)
(like
he was given a rude euthanasia to die.'
the Chitome
if
when he seemed
so
133
we
Babylon was
in
annually sacrificed, as a god, indeed, but not explicitly as a god of vegetation,
A
2.
'
has a resurrection.
Babylonian god of vegetation, and a known god,
appears in that
who
ii.
This god
123, 124.
We
Tammuz.
is
ceremony, at which fimeral
men and women
Tammuz
pyre of
Tammuz was probably
lamenting.
represented in
poured over him, and he came to does not here plead for a
human
took place in the
'doubtless
life
stood round the .
.
The
.
victim.
summer
to
Mr. Frazer
The
is
cited,
'
is
Tammuz,
originally the spring vegetation,
Tammuz
(June-
from mid-
to September, as the
Mr. Robertson Smith calculated.
Sayce
festival
month Tammuz
autumn, or from June
dead
water was
effigy,
again.'
July),' or in different places, at different times,
late
hear
water was throvm over him at a great mourning
Mr. which
so
Du'uzu (June- July). Here, then, we have a death and resurrection
dies in his
Tammuz. and
month,
or
'
It occurs in June-July, or
Tammuz
is
of
June-September,
undoubtedly the god of spring vegetation. '
O. B.
ii.
8.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
134
But Mr. Frazer does not here Babylon hanged '
is also
probably
In
'
vol.
Tammuz
Tammuz.
Tammuz
at the
victim
is
But he
He
divine because he
is
.
ii.
tion
and a
how and we were told that
wishes to show in '
ii.
26,
represents a dying god.'
forget that the king dies in his character
satisfied
Apparently not
26 ?
says nothing here about
.
.
"Was Mr. Frazer in
Now,
divine.
For we must not
of a god.'
is
253 Mr. Frazer returns to the victim, the
the real king of Babylon.
'
His dead body
dummy.
a ii.
the victim
not whipped and
is
feast in July.
mock-king, of the Sacaea.
why the
us that the king of
tell
one.
different
that the mock-king
with this explanation given
for
;
'
who was
It
^
he gives a new explanaseems worth suggesting
annually killed at the Baby-
lonian festival of the Sacaea on the sixteenth day of the
month Lous may have
Tammuz dummy
Here the perhaps,
discarded.
Still,
burned on a funeral pyre sented by a
dummy.
Frazer, as
does
it
nated by a living
Tammuz
represented
^
or effigy of
his ashes
later, to
and, indeed,
is
occurs in the
son Smith, the
month
'
is,
was
repre-
have the re-arisen god perso-
counterpart (Mordecai in a later
Tammuz (Haman). now a Tammuz festival,
is
123, 124,
Tammuz
might well be
The
page) of the dead
the Sacaea
ii.
a real live
has not yet occurred to Mr.
It
human
if
himself.'
identical with that of
month Lous.
Now
festival of
a religious
ii.
feast,
123, 124, for
it
Lous, says Mr. Eobert-
answered to the lunar month Tammuz,' ^ and of
Tammuz * was
June-July, or June-Sep-
tember.
There could not surely be two
month Tammuz? "
We
G. B.
ii.
253, 264.
G. B.
ii.
254, note
Tammuz
feasts in the
are therefore confronted by the
1.
^
G. B.
ii.
123.
*
G. B.
ii.
123.
WAS SAO^AN singular facts that
VICTIM DIVINE?
Tammuz
lay
on a funeral pyre
'
'
worth suggesting
same
feast,
goes on
the Sacsea, whipped and hanged.^
'If this conjecture
:
'
grounds, to Mr. Frazer's satisfaction, in
Mr. Frazer's latest conjecture
also
it
not on other
26
?
Now, on
was a god, and so was his proxy. a real
ii.
and as a god,
criminal victim died as a king,
if
is
There the for the
right, the victim dies as
We keep asking. Was the king Tammuz ? May I not be excused for
we have
here an hypothesis in the making,
an hypothesis resting on two different theories ? Frazer holds that the king of Babylon was also as the
and proving the fact from Babylonian
Tammuz
lies
Mr.
which the human
representative
of
hanged, while 'the dead
probably represented in
effigy,'
and he came to
again.
Mordecai ?
texts,
Tammuz
on a funeral pyre, and also a
whipped and
ii.
If
Tammuz,
mock-king was, here was the opportunity for saying
Mr. Frazer here gives us a
in
king
the other hand,
known god, Tammuz.
an incarnation of
surmising that
so,
at the
Mr. JPrazer
slain in the character of a
(Tammuz) would be established.' But it was establislied already, was '
and
^
the view that the
right,
is
mock-king at the Sacsea was god
Tammuz, he was
personated
'
'
who, Mr. Frazer thinks
also that, as the Sacsean victim, it
185
life
These are the
feast in
which
Tammuz
feast
that deity
is
Tammuz was
water was poured over him,
How ?
results of
In the person of ii.
123, 124,
and
of
253, 254.
These things thing
quite
is
either lay
are, confessedly,
certain
the
conjectures.
But one
wherein
Tammuz
Sacsea,
on a funeral pyre, and afterwards had water probably in effigy,' or was hanged, was
poured over him,
'
a festival of June-July.
might make the Sacsea '
:
6. B.
ii.
123.
Variations of calendars, however, fall
'
from midsummer '
G. B.
ii.
to
253, 254.
autumn
MAGIO AND EELIGION
136
from June
or
to
He
'
Mr. Eobert-
123, note of
(ii.
These dates are remote from Eastertide.
son Smith).
To
September
Mr. Frazer
this point
^
promises
'
to return later.'
For when
does so in the most disconcerting manner.
he returns the Sacsea, which were in the month Tammuz, June-July,^ startle us by being held in April.^
May
I not say that I
h5rpothesis in the making,
seem
March
or
March-
to detect traces of an ?
We
Tammuz
on a
and of discrepant theories
have already been rather puzzled by the
funeral pyre, who has cold water poured over him, probably '
in effigy,'
and
also
is
in the person of a
human
representative, a mock-king, at
But perhaps there were two Tammuz
the same festival. feasts in the
honoured by being whipped and hanged
month
of
Tammuz ? And possibly
was whipped and hanged
at
one
of
them, while his mortal
remains were burned on the pyre quite possible,' says Mr. Frazer,
the victim
at the other ?
when
explaining
victim of a sacrifice was hanged, not burned as '
is
'
It is
why
a
usual,
that both forms of execution, or rather of sacrifice,
may
have been combined by hanging or crucifying the victim first
and burning him afterwards
buxom
;
'
but he neglects the
''
opportunity of corroborating this conjecture, by
referring to the
Tammuz
pyre and a gibbet, in
III.
ii.
victim
who had both
a funeral
123, 124, 253, 254.
A POSSIBLE RECONCILIATION
There is, perhaps, a mode of reconciling the dates of the Tammuz festivals, at one of which Tammuz was honoured with a pyre, at the other tive,
(in
the person of his representa-
Dr. Jastrow
the Sacsean mock-king) with a gibbet.
places a
Tammuz
feast in the fourth
month, which,
Babylonian year begins, as Mr. Frazer says '
O. B.
ii.
'
O. B.
iii.
254. 152, 154.
•"
'
G. B.
O. B.
ii.
iii.
123, 124
171.
;
if
the
it
does, with
ii.
253, 254.
WAS SAC^AN VICTIM DIVINE? the
month Nisan, means
month and
that the fourth
.
187
a
Tammuz feast occurred in our June-July. But Dr. Jastrow that in the
writes
also
August- September,
was celebrated
Tammuz.' ^ Thus Tammuz might have and his pyre will
in
Babylonian month, our
sixth
there
'
is
to
his gibbet in June-July,
But
August-September.
not do, for the pyre
a festival
alas
!
this
Nor can he
of June-July.'
have his gibbet in August-September, as I had fondly hoped, for he
and
Sacsea,
to be identified
is
the
month
Lous, or June-July,
Thus I
if
with the mock-king of the
hanging
his
of
Tammuz,
is
Mr. Eobertson Smith
Tammuz
really fail to believe that
is
right.'
could have
I hoped had solved the
both a burning and a hanging in June-July.
two problem, but I hoped in
that Dr. Jastrow's
Tammuz
feasts
vain.
THE SAC^A SUDDENLY CHANGES
IV.
we have
Meanwhile, even though
Tammuz
feasts, are
we
also to
ITS
DATE
allowed for two
admit a third
Tammuz
March festival of the Sacsea ? For in vol. iii. March has become the date of the Sacsea, rather
feast at the
151-153, to
our surprise, for the date had been June-July.*
three
Tammuz
haps,
if
Now
months seem one too many, if not two. Consequently the arguments which in ii. 123, 124, 263, 254, show the Sacsean victim, because he died in the month Tammuz, to represent the god Tammuz fail, perfeasts in six
the victim really died in March, at the Babylonian
or Zagmuku, a feast in honour, not of Tammuz, Bau (a goddess), and later of Marduk.' Neither Bau nor Marduk is Tammuz nor does the victim seem
Zakmuk, but of
;
'
Jastrow, p. 484. '
G. B.
ii.
123, 124.
^
G. B. =
ii.
123, 124.
=
G. B.
ii.
253,
Jastrow, 59, 127, 631, 677, 678-9.
54.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
138
Tammuz, after his death is shifted from the Tammuz feasts of May-June or June-July, JulyAugust, to March, when the feast was really in honour, not of Tammuz, but of Bau, or later, of Marduk. likely to represent
All our difficulties, indeed, pale before the fact that
the date of the Sacsea,
was hanged, reason and
is
when
fixed twice
the possible once, with
;
with imconcealed
'
the second volume third volume, as
if
in
the date were March-April. the July date was not
I conjecture, therefore, that
inconsistent with
of
June- July,
argued from, in the
is
it
victim
much show
delight,' in
while, next,
;
Tammuz
what
is
now Mr.
he revised his second volume.
Frazer's theory
when
Otherwise he would not
have said that Mr. Robertson Smith's decision as to the July date
'
welcome a confirmation of the and then, in iii. 152, 163, have argue on the presumption that Mr. Eobertson
supplies so
conjecture in the text,'
proceeded to
^
may be, for the purposes of the theory, And they are disregarded, as we shall see. If
Smith's calculations disregarded.
they were dubious, they should never have been welcomed.
V.
VARIOUS THBOEIES OF THE VICTIM
Meanwhile, for our own argument, as to the precise nature of the Babylonian King's divinity, vegetable or not, I do not think that
Babylon
we have
explicitly identified
at first divine, either as
of the king, incarnating, I think, a
god unknown
;
cosmic rapport, as a man-god of the second
Next
his divinity
conjectured
'
G. B.
ii.
that
was he
254, note
established, '
if
represented ^
1. =
G. B.
ii.
King
of
with a god of vegetation.
The victim, remember, was of
yet found the
253,
G. B. 2-54.
proxy
or as full species.^
Mr. Frazer rightly
Tammuz ii.
24-26
;
i.
himself.'
80-82.
WAS SACiEAN VICTIM DIVINE? Next he was a criminal vicariously saving of the king's
Next
'
sacrificed
'
during his
for
the
'
another year.'
life for
would appear that the Zoganes
it
old victim)
139
days of
five
'
same
(the
personated not
office
merely a king but a god, whether that god was the
Humman,
Blamite
the Babylonian Marduk, or some other
deity not yet identified.'
Next the victim personated a
-
'
Tammuz
god or hero of the type of enjoyed the favours of harlot
.
.
.
king,
Tammuz, of the
human
'the
the
god,
is
sacred
a
the royal
of
household at the Persian
would thus appear almost as
Humman
all
we know
all
Adonis, any one of them, or
all
Sacsea.''
gods are one god
scientific
Henotheism.'
'
of them, will do for the
Any one
king to incarnate or personate.
them, or
of
them, will figure as representatives of vegetable
of
the
title of
Zoganes or Tammuz, Marduk or
Saturn,
or
if
Zoganes,
Saturn,
that Zoganes was the
Mr. Frazer by a kind of
to
caresses
or whatever he wa.s called,' though
god Zoganes
slave lord of the It
the
to
Next the indefatigable victim represented
seraglio.^
the
.'in addition
or Adonis, (and)
woman, probably
a
all
life
in
company with Zeus and the horses of Virbius We may conjecture that the horses by which Virbius was said to have been slain were really embodiments of him as a '
!
deity of vegetation.' jecture.'
Now
^
Mr. Frazer
tells
me
let
us that
too say '
we may
'
con-
horses were excluded
from the grove and sanctuary of Virbius.^ Is it putting too great pressure on evidence to conjecture that the '
horses, while being driven out,
were whipped
horses embodied, perhaps, as
we
vegetation.
usual to
are told,
They were whipped, and
whip the representatives
'
G. B.
iii.
152.
"
•
G. B.
iii.
185.
"
G:b. G.B.
Now
a
the
deity of
therefore
it
was
of a deity of vegetation.
ui. 160. ii.
?
314.
'
G. B.
iii.
"
G. B.
i.
178.
6.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
140
This solves our problem,
why was
the victim, the divine
whipped?
victim,
Seriously, have
method
we
not in
book to do with that which has ruined so many
all this
of arbitrary conjecture
laborious philosophies of religion ?
As
to one essential conjecture, that the Babylonian, or
rather the Persian, kings represented a deity of vegetation, I
can
offer
Nebuchad-
only one shadowy testimony.
nezzar for a while exhibited a caprice in favour purely vegetable a royal taboo. eat vegetables
totem.
diet.
As
This
may have been
would not
any more than a savage usually
But some savages do
may
a
a survival of
a god of vegetation, a king
sacred occasions, and that
of
eats his
eat their totems on certain
be the reason
why Nebu-
chadnezzar, for a given period, turned vegetarian.
141
VII
ZAKMUK, SAC^A, AND PUBIM It
necessary to get the death of the Sacsean victim into
is
The
touch with Easter.
June-July, in
in
vol.
Sacsea,
When
before he evolved his theory. in the
when he
died,
had been
in Mr. Frazer's first
ii.,
edition,
the theory is evolved,
second edition and third volume, the Sacsea prefer
to occur in
March-April, which gets the sufferings of the
mock-king into touch with the Jewish Purim, and so within measurable distance of our Passion the June-July date of
new
second volume of the of the Sacsea is
the
Week, though
edition survives in the
first
edition.
The change
of date
arranged for by the plan, rejected by
Meyer and Jastrow, of identifying the Persian Sacaea and the Jewish Purim with the ancient Babylonian Zagmuk or Zakmuk, a New Year festival of March -April.^
To be
sure,
useful
Tammuz, from whom,
if
that be the date, in
we seem ii.
254,
it
mock-king derived his
bereft of our
was conjectured
an old which shed the halo of divinity on the victim of Calvary. For the Tammuz feast was certainly in June-September. However, perhaps there were three Tammuz feasts, resurrection and all, and Mr. that the victim
superstitious belief
divinity,
'
'
Frazer's last choice of a date, in March-April, has the '
'
Zimmern's view
Zagmuku
is
of
a
possible
relationship
untenable,' says Dr. Jastrow [op.
also the opinion of Meyer.
cit. p.
between Purim and 2). This is
686, note
MAGIC AND EELIGION
142
immense advantage
theory of getting us near
for his
Eastertide.
But
did the
Saceea actually desert their old date,
June-July ? To prove that we must identify the Sacsea, a Persian, with Zakmuk, a Babylonian feast, which really
March or Zakmuk, is known
The
in
We
have seen that M. Cumont
inclined to regard
April.
Zakmuk
Herr Meissner
and
as identical vsath the Sacaea, is
supposed by Mr. Frazer
But the
Jewish Purim.
to be the origin of the
in the
feast,
to the learned through inscriptions.
while the feast Zakmuk-Sacsea
fell
Babylonian
old
fell
Sacsea
Macedonian month Lous, as Athenreus tells us a Babylonian priest, using the
according to Berosus,
Macedonian Calendar. And Lous, as Mr. Eobertson Smith proved, was our July.^ Zakmuk, on the other hand, fell in our March-April, and Purim in our March, neither of which
Now
it
is
is
July,
when
desirable for
the Sacsea should
fall,
the Sacsea were held.
Mr. Frazer's argument that
not in July, as
it
did in
Mr. Frazer therefore
in or about Eastertide.
Sacsea from July to Eastertide in face of All
we know
concerning
originally a feast of
ii.
Zakmuk
254, but
shifts the
difficulties.
that this feast,
is ^
Bau, says Dr. Jastrow,
about the
fell
vernal equinox (near the beginning of the old Babylonian year)
;
that, after a certain period,
the chief god of Babylon,
it
was held
named Merodach
;
in
honour
of
that a council
was thought to meet in Merodach 's temple, under his presidency, and that they determined the fate of the The festival year, 'especially the fate of the king's life.' of gods
existed as early as 3000 B.C., whereas the Sacsea, 'so far
as appears from our authorities, does not date
from before
the Persian conquest of Babylon (536 B.c.).^ But in spite of dates it is desirable for Mr. Frazer's purpose to identify '
'
O. B.
ii.
254.
^
G. B.
iii.
151, 152.
'
G. B.
ii.
24, note 1.
— ZAKMUK, SAC.EA, AND PURIM
143
Zakmuk. For, must fall when Zakmuk
the Persian Sacaea with the Babylonian if
he succeeds in
fell,
this,
then Sacsea
and nearly when Purim
from— Eastertide.
But ^
at
fell,
Mr. Frazer as a July, not a spring, 152, Sacsea
identified
Again,
spring.
we have
whereas, in
feast,
fall
iii.
in
not even a hint that any mock-
anybody, was slain at the
or
Babylonian feast of Zakmuk, as a Dio, at the Sacsea.
not so very far
with Zakmuk, which did
Tammuz man,
or
king,
is
— or
Sacsea was eagerly welcomed by
man was
However, Mr. Frazer
slain, says
tries
to
show
Zakmuk may be the same feast. For Sacsea and Zakmuk are names that resemble Zakmuk and Zoganes.^ We may reply that the word Sacsea also rather closely resembles the name of the tribe of Sacse, Sacsea and
that
from
whom
the Perso-Greeks derived the word
Sacsea,
commemorate a victory over the Sacse. Again the word Sacsea, which was a drinking feast, resembles the word Sdki, Persian for a pourer forth of wine. The word SdM is Arabic, being the iiomen agentis of the verb Sakd "to water" (abreuver). while the Sacsea were held to
'
This root
is
common
to several Semitic languages
Hebrew and .^thiopic
— and
we
Babylonian
Sacsea to be of native
origin,
sound of words.
cation of
Zakmuk and
That argument the Sacsea
time for
the king.
Now
'
appears to have been
'
critical
G. B.
ii.
'
'
Zakmuk, the was a critical
the hanging of the mock-
hours for the king
254.
life, it
the central feature of the
king for the saving of the real king's
two
for the identifi-
since, at
gods determined the fate of the king's
are
might very
fails.
Next Mr. Frazer contends that
'
it
root,' Mr. Denison Boss In any case we cannot build on resemblances
informs me.
Sacsea
e.g.
could prove the word
come from the same
probably
in the
if
G. B.
iii.
:
life.' '
Here, then,
one at Zakmuk, when
152.
'
Ibid.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
344
the gods settle his fate
one at the Sacsea, when his
;
saved by the execution of his proxy.
two
one period, and
critical periods
name
Zakmuk ?
life is
Are not then these not Sacsea another
is
But Mr. Frazer has also told us that was the death of a man who represented Tammuz, and was killed after doing for
^
the main feature of the Sacaea
Was Tammuz man, a
sympathetic magic with a sacred harlot.^ connection with
then, in
Tammuz
this
in March-April, for there
feast
June- September?
Thus, even
because two periods are
to do
good
to the crops,
we
Tammuz.
were two,
in
could admit that,
was
a
Tammuz
man,
slain
are unable to concede that he
also died 'in the king's stead,'
the king was
third
both are the same period,
critical,
yet as the victim of the Sacsea
we
if
there,
and
to save his
life,
Besides, no authority
unless
us
tells
that either, or both, of this victim's deaths occurred at the
Babylonian feast
feast of the Sacsea,
Indeed, even identity of
Zakmuk
of
if
if
it
occurred at the Persian
all.
Mr. Prazer's two arguments
Zakmuk and
persuasive they are
for the
Sacaea were persuasive (and
we have
seen), there
how
would remain
For Berosus says, as we saw, that the 16, which is July, whereas Zakmuk
difficulty. fell
at
:
on Lous
a
Sacsea fell
in
March-April.
I.
HISTOEICAL DIFFICULTY
This obstacle seems to
be,
But Mr. Frazer, undaunted,
and
writes
really '
:
The
insuperable.
is,
identification of
the months of the Syro-Macedonian Calendar of
some uncertainty
;
as to the
the evidence of ancient
and
we have
until '
G. B.
iii.
vs^riters
month Lous
is
a matter
in particular
appears to be conflicting,
ascertained beyond the reach of doubt 152.
^
G. B.
iii.
178.
ZAKMUK, SAC^A, AND PURIM when Lous 200
B.C.)
to the
'
Babylon in the time
would be premature
it
Zakmuk and
fancy that
Sacsea and
me
impossible, since the Sacasa
Zakmuk
festi-
Henceforth
the Sacaea).
Zakmuk
(say
'
much weight
to allow
Mr. Frazer's hypothesis seems to
and
Berosus
of
seeming discrepancy in the dates of the two (namely
vals'
at
fell
145
to proceed
on the
which
are identical,
is
in July or September,
fall
in March-April.
and
It is absolutely certain, historically, that Sacsea
Zakmuk cannot be
They were as remote in For the conflicting evidence
identical.
date as they well could be.
month of the Sacsea, namely the Macedonian month Lous (Amos), Mr. Frazer gives two references. The first is to Mr. That Eobertson Smith's proof that Lous is July.' does him no good. The second is to Smith's Dictionary of
of ancient writers
as to the date of the
'
Greek and Eoman Antiquities.' the only doubt as to the
July or September.
common and reader the
In that work
^
month Lous
Smith's
'
is
I read that
whether
Dictionary
'
it fell
in
a book so
is
accessible that I need not inflict on the
nature of the
evidence.
conflicting
It
is
enough to say that the month of the Sacsea, Lous, was almost certainly July, but,
Now neither
September.
if
not July, was undeniably
July nor September
is
Easter-
So that the effort to make the Sacsea identical with Zakmuk, and therefore more or less coincident with Purim, and with our Easter, is an absolute failure. The Jews, then, could not (as in Mr. Frazer's or near
tide,
it.
theory) borrow abroad a July or
and attach him to a vernal as is
Zakmuk
is
several
festival, their
:
'
If the Sacsea occurred in '
G. B. 254, note
Purim.
months remote from the
not identical with the Sacsea.
says
September mock-king,
1.
Thus,
Sacsea,
it
Mr. Frazer himself
July and the ^
3,
i.
Zakmuk
339.
L
in
MAGIC AND RELIGION
146
March, the theory tained.'
than
rather
loses,
Sacsea were in September, and that
The game
alternative.
Babylon
died,
if
not at
Sacsea
;
There
is
not a
main-
of their identity could not be
But he
^
at
is
the
if
the only possible
the
over;
is
mock-king
of
September, at the
in July or
all,
gains,
Zagmuk or Zakmuk, in March-April. known hint that any mock-king died in
Babylon about Eastertide, or
earlier,
at
the
feast
of
Zakmuk.
when I found Mr. Frazer declining to much weight to the seeming discrepancy in the
I confess that '
allow
dates of the
two
festivals,' till it
the reach of doubt
when Lous
presumed that
of Berosus,' I
evidence of ancient writers as to
'
was
fell '
'
ascertained beyond
Babylon
at
in the time
the apparently conflicting
meant
a difference of opinion
whether Lous was a spring or a midsummer month.
But I looked of the sort
evidence,
at Smith's
The
!
is
Dictionary
'
and found nothing
'
difference of opinion, the conflict of
concerned (see Smith) with the question
whether Lous was September
(as
seems to have been
it
Macedon) or whether
in the time of Philip of
it
the faintest chance of being a spring month.
the vernal
Zakmuk
is
was
July,
Neither opinion gives Lous
as in the time of Plutarch.
not the Sacsea
Therefore
therefore there
;
is
not the ghost of a reason for guessing that a mock-king
was hanged
at
Zakmuk
;
therefore
Zakmuk,
in
April,
cannot lend a hanged mock-king to Purim, in March therefore Purim, having
no
slain
mock-king, cannot hand
one on to Eastertide, which, moreover, does not occur the same date as Purim, but some weeks
happen.
Therefore the mock-king,
(which he was
he was
not),
and
not), could not
if
O. B.
iii.
152.
'
at
may
he had been divine
he had been
have lent his '
if
later, as
sacrificed (which
halo of divinity
'
to
'
AND PURIM
ZAIOIUK, SACiEA,
But
the Cross at Calvary.
gild
Frazer's hypothesis
according to
Sacsea,
all
Mr.
is
our authorities, was a
We
Persian, not a Babylonian, feast.
evidence to
that he did so
—sometimes.
PEESIANS ARE NOT BABYLONIANS
II.
The
147
have not a
show that the Babylonians, with
was a
feast of old standing, ever
they
were
by
conquered
Mr. Prazer admits this
heard of the Sacsea before
the
Persians
(B.C.
the Babylonian custom,
:
tittle of
whom Zakinuk
'
536).
so far as
appears from our authorities, does not date from before
but probably
the Persian conquest
;
Why
On
Mr.
'
probably
Prazer
?
'
calls
sostom
;
of
the strength of this
It
^
Babylon,
Yet
lonian custom.
it
'
custom that Mr. Prazer
'
older.'
we can
probably
may
attach
so to
it
'
a
Dio Chry-
believe
evidence that
^
of the Persian
it
has just got to be
Zakmuk, and
lonian feast,
was a custom
if
we have no
but
was much
the doings at the Persian Sacaea
Babylonian custom.' conquerors
it
'
was a Babya Babylonian
Baby-
to a vernal
Purim, and so to Easter-
tide.
ORIGIN OF PUEIM
III.
About the jollification,
real
origin of
Purim, a purely secular
preceded, after a certain date, by a fast,
know nothing. Esther, which is mentioned in
it.
It
is
first
mentioned in the Book
so secular that the
name
of
God
is
we of
never
Scholars have debated as to the date of
which Mr. Prazer places in the fourth or third some, as Kuenen, place it later. Some think it historical, as Mr. Sayce does others regard it as a romance, composed to supply an account of the origin Esther,
century B.C.
;
;
'
G. B. n. 24, note
1.
'
G. B.
ii.
26.
L 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
148
Purim, which we never hear of before the
of the feast of exile.
The account
Esther
in
known.
well
is
Xerxes
quarrelled with his queen, Vashti, and, after a series of
experiments in wives, selected Esther, cousin of an artful
Jew named Mordecai. This man Esther reported, a conspiracy. insolence to
Haman,
the Vizier,
discovered, and through
He
later
who
behaved with
settled
a kind of St. Bartholomew's day for
with Xerxes
But was accidentally reminded Xerxes of the services done by Mordecai, and asked Haman how a grateful prince should reward an unnamed servant.
Haman
all
the Jews.
suggested the ride
which Mordecai enjoyed. Haman gallows whereon to hang Mordecai. Esther news of the intended massacre, and, as But got Xerxes had promised to give her any gift she asked for,
in
royal
splendour,
then erected a very
tall
she demanded the death of
Haman. So Haman was hanged,
and the Jews were allowed to defend themselves.
They
massacred an enormous number of their enemies, and henceforth kept Purim, a feast of two days, on Adar
(March) 14 and
Purim,
after the
cast before
'Wherefore they called these days
1.5.
name
Haman
The word pur,
and pur, that is, the lot, was a whole year from Nisan to Adar.' ^
of Pur,'
for
'
a lot,' does not occur in Hebrew, says However, the Assyrian puhra means an assembly, and there was an assembly of the gods at the '
Mr. Frazer.
Zakmuk. Why the Jews went after an Assyrian word we may guess but we also learn that pur or bu7-
feast of
'
;
seems to be for a lot,^
vote.
lent a
know
if
it
really was)
'
an
and a stone may be used as the Greek xjrrj^os, a pebble, also means a
Thus
name '
(one wants to
'
old Assyrian
word
for
'
stone,'
either the Assyrian
to the feast of
Esther
iii.
7.
puhra
or
pur may have
Purim. '
G. B.
iii.
154, 155.
ZAKMUK, SAC^EA, AND PURIM I
am no
friend to etymological conjecture, especially
when two Assyrian words put of
149
in rival claims to be, each
them, the origin of a Jewish word.
Mr. Frazer does
Purim
not, I think, allude to the other guess, connecting
with the Persian
We
feast,
Phurdigan (Phurim? or Purim).'
Purdaghan, Purdiyan, and
find
so
that
Hyde
very naturally compares
the old Persian Sacaea, or Sakea, or '
drinking together,'
means a convivial
or
'
Persian Sacaea, which were a time of
jollity,
so
Purim and to SaJcia, which means it
to
drinking healths.'
feast in Persian,
This
forth.
Persian feast was a drinking bout and time of
it
^
Sakta
If
very well the
fits
The
jollity.
learned
may settle their etymological guesses among themselves, but we are not obliged, for want of another conjecture, to fly to old Assyrian for Purim still less do we agree that Mr. Frazer has made out a fairly probable case for hold:
ing that 'the Jewish feast (Purim)
Babylonian
No
new
is
derived from the
year festival of Zakmuk.'
case at
all,
I
venture to think,
made
is
out.
Mr. Frazer's Assyrian etymologies are met by competing
we know next to nothing of the Babylonian Zakmuk, but we do know that the Persian Moreover,
etymologies.
Sacsea, Sakea, or
Sahia was,
drinking and wild licence
:
Purim, a period
like
of
hard
which does not resemble a
solemn religious festival of the supreme god, Marduk, or a period
of
wailing for
Tammuz.
There
is
another
by Mr. Frazer, but already Greek soui'ce for us that their chief feast was called
coincidence, unnoted, I think,
noted by us.
Herodotus, our oldest
the Persians, tells
Magophonia, and celebrated the massacre of the hostile Strabo
Magi.''
'
' '
tells
us that the Sacsea were supposed to
Kuenen, Hist, and Lit. of Israelites, Hyde, Hist. Bel. Pers. pp. 266, 267. G. B.
iii.
155.
*
iii.
149, 150.
Oxford, 1760.
Herodotus,
iii.
79.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
150
commemorate a massacre
Purim
of intoxicated Sacse.
is
Can
held to celebrate a massacre of the foes of the Jews.
these three feasts for a massacre coincide by accident
how
It is not easy to see
?
this tradition attached itself to
the slaying of a criminal, either as king's proxy or as representative of
Tammuz.
PURIM PEB-EXILIAN OR POST-EXILIAN?
IV. IS
In any case Purim has not been successfully connected Mr. Frazer, however, says that an
with Zakmuk.
'
examination of that
(the Jewish)
'
'
and
tradition,
of the
manner of celebrating the feast, renders it probable that Purim is nothing but a more or less disguised form of the Babylonian
Zakmuk.'
feast of the Sacsea or
We
'
have
seen that stern dates do not allow us to identify Sacsea
with Zakmuk.
phalanx, and will
donian April,
The month Lous
when Zakmuk was Jews
learned to observe
But
it
know nothing
is
reckoned
Purim
either
'
fairly
and yet 'that they
of
East was the
Purim
probable
directly
'
that the
is
?
^
how
time when
However,
it
Jews borrowed
from the Babylonians or
from which
so
exile,
at the very
through the Persian conquerors of Babylon question
there
Purim was unknown
they also learned to celebrate that festival ? '
'
during their captivity in the Bast.'
their captivity in the
did they
March-
as
Setting that aside,
after the exile,'
until
firm as the Mace-
not masquerade
held.
are good grounds for believing that to the
is
indirectly
; '
the only
^
The Jews probably borrowed Purim in or after the exile. But they also kept Purim before the exile, at least Mr. Frazer thinks that '
G. B.
iii.
'
the best solution.' ^
153, 154. '
G. B.
iii.
155.
G. B.
It is Jensen's
iii.
153.
ZAKMUK, SAO^A, AND PURIM solution, stated, dents.'
however, only 'in letters to correspon-
1
seems hardly consistent that Mr. Frazer
really
It
151
should both think
Purim probably
a feast borrowed in or
and also appear to approve a theory which
after the exile,
Jews before the exile. what he has apparently succeeded in doing. prefers Jensen's solution, which is this A fast
regards the feast as familiar to the
Yet that
He
is
:
Why ?
was held before the feast of Purim.^ '
The
best solution appears to be that of Jensen, that
the fasting and
mourning were
originally for the supposed
annual death of a Semitic god or hero of the type of
Tammuz
or Adonis,
whose resurrection on the following
day occasioned that outburst of joy and gladness which characteristic of Purim.'
Yes
'
was
flesh, to
days of his
first
Then he brought me the Lord's house which was
the temple at Jerusalem.
'
women
wailing
the fast at
Purim
towards the north, and, behold, there sat
Tammuz.'
Now
*
Jensen's solution
represents the wailing for
But,
type.
if
own
carried, in the flesh, or out of the
to the door of the gate of
for
is
but the Jews had that
In the
institution before the exile.
captivity Bzekiel
;
is
that
Tammuz,
or
somebody
of his
the Jews did that, as they did, before the
and if that was Purim, how did they also borrow Purim after the exile, especially as there are good exile,
'
grounds for believmg that Purim was
Jews
till
after the
correct ?
Or
is
this
exile
'
?
How
^
March
'
G. B.
iii.
177,
=
G. B.
iii.
177.
is
to the
Tammuz kind an Tammuz feast ?
feast of the
addition to the old pre-exilian Jewish
Moreover, Purim
unknown
can both views be
probably, according to Mr. Erazer,
and note »
2.
G. B.
iii.
16
^
Esther
*
Ezekiel viu. 14.
153.
iv. 3,
;
ix. 31.
MAGIC AND RBLIGIOK
152 '
a
is
mere disguised form of the Sacsea,' which, in his opinion, the same as Zakmuk.' But the central feature of the '
Sacsea appears to have been the saving of the king's life for
another year by the vicarious sacrifice of a criminal.'
Yet
central feature
its
Tammuz
type of
sorrow for the death and
also the
is
glee for the resurrection
of a Semitic
'
god or hero
hanging a
of
affair
How can
or Adonis,' following Jensen.
the Sacaea have two central features ?
man
If
save the king's
to
only an
is
it
of the
why
life,
should the Jews at Jerusalem fast before the vicarious
And why
did fast,
we know.
tion
any) on the following day
(if
of joy
and gladness which
What had proxy
should the victim's resurrec'
occasion that outburst
characteristic of
is
make with
the Jews to
of the
They
Babylonian king?
sacrifice of a criminal for the
king of Babylon
Purim
'
?
^
the resurrection of a
?
Mr. Frazer has not, I think, suggested that the kings
Judah were once annually
of Israel or
why
So
sacrificed.
women wailing at the north gate of For Tammuz, as we know from Bzekiel
were the Jewish
Temple ?
;
Tammuz was be stated. for
Also,
Tammuz
how can
not a Jewish king,
it
he was,
Temple
in
Jerusalem before the
rites
till
the
after
exile,
borrowed them from Babylonians or Persians a
Tammuz
rite,
Bzekiel proves.
If
the Jews had it
is
not a
it
and then If
?
Pmim
before the exHe, as
Tammuz
rite,
why
Jensen's the best solution ? for Jensen's solution '
exile,
be consistently maintained that they knew
nothing of these
is
but
should
it
the Jewish ladies wailed and rejoiced
if
at the
or, if
the
is
is
that
the fasting and mourning were originally for the sup-
posed annual death of a Semitic god or hero of the type
Tammuz '
or Adonis,
G. B.
whose resurrection on the =
ui. 153, 154. J
G. B.
iii.
177.
G. B.
iii.
of
following 152.
ZAK.MUK, SACyEA,
AND PURIM
153
day occasioned that outburst of joy and gladness which characteristic of Purim.'
and
joy
of
'
Tammuz was^
gladness for the re-arisen
month Tammuz, our June-July. Purim that is, in March.
But
probably in the
now '
it is
How
at
—
Mr. Frazer's theories
are
each other and with the facts ?
Tammuz,
is
Then, once more, that outburst
to
be reconciled with
Did the Jews wail
in spring, before the exile
;
for
and, after the exile,
Tammuz fast and feast to the condemned criminal (whether in July or in April) in the interests of the king of Babylon Had they been wont to hang a man, while they wailed for Tammuz, before the exile ? If so, why did they hang him, and what did they borrow during the exile? Or adapt their old
a
rite of
vicarious sacrifice of a
'?
was
that they borrowed just the habit of crowning,
all
discrowning, whipping, and hanging a mock-king, as an addition
We
Tammuz
their pre-exilian
to
fast
and
feast ?
have certainly no evidence that they did these cruel
And
no evidence, as we that they yearly committed the same atrocity
things before the exile. shall see,
there
is
after the exile.
V.
THEORY OF A HUMAN VICTIM AT PUEIM
As Mr. Frazer
is
make our Lord one
to
of the
annual
victims at Purim, he has to try to prove that the did annually
divine
at
hang
Purim. neither
legislator,
or crucifiy a
mock-king supposed
To be
sure neither
Bzekiel,
Ezra, Nehemiah,
Jews to
prophet
be
nor
Haggai,
nor Zachariah, says one word about this heathen abomination borrowed by the Jews. tries to
prove that the
evidence of '
G. B.
iii.
'
traces of
177.
Mr. Frazer therefore
man was hanged human sacrifice
^
q 5
;;
254.
at
Purim by the
lingering about 3
q_ 5.
i;;.
177
MAGIC AND RELIGION
154
Purim in one or other of those mitigated which I have just referred,' such as the un-
the feast of
forms to certain
burning an
'
Mr. Frazer
is,
man
effigy of a
at Tarsus.'
^
I think, rather easily satisfied with this
human sacrifice. Every fifth of November a man, called Guy by the populace, is burned in effigy. But, as we know the historical facts, we do not,
kind of testimony to
though science
in the distant future
human
as a trace of Druidical
may, regard
Guy
sacrifice,
this rite
being a god
November, when St. Dasius was slain. Mr. Frazer explains the old custom of burning Judas on Easter Saturday as all for the purpose of proreally of pagan tecting the fields from hail,' and as of the dying foliage of
'
'
origin.'
^
It
maybe
so
:
the ashes are used in agricultural
But we know that Guy Fawkes
magic.
human
Moreover,
sacrifice.
Haman,
not a
is
relic of
natural to destroy a
it is
foe,
John Knox, or Mr. Kruger, in effigy the The Jews undeniably regarded Haman, on the authority of Esther, as an enemy of their race. So they destroyed him in effigy. In the fifth century of our era, when the hatred between Jews and
like
thing
is
or
:
often done.
become
Christians had
bitter,
the Jews,
'
in contempt of
the Christian rehgion,' attached the effigy of
This insult
cross.
to a
Similar doings, without the cross, prevailed at
sianus.^
Purim
Haman
was forbidden by the Codex Theodo-
hanging
of
But how does
Middle Ages.
in the
a real
Christianity?
It
Haman
this prove the
the
victim before
merely proves
that,
after
the
between Jews and Christians began, an effigy of
of
rise
strife
Haman,
the national enemy, was crucified in contemptu Christianas '
fidei,'
as the edict says
— to annoy the Christians.
But Mr. Frazer has thinking that '
G. B.
iii.
'
'
some
grounds
positive
in former times the Jews, like the
171, 172.
^
O. B.
iii.
246, 247, 258.
'
G. B.
iii.
'
for
Baby172.
ZAKMUK, SACiEA, AND PUEIM
whom
lonians from
165
they appear to have derived their
may at one time have burned, hanged, or crucified man in the character of Haman.' We have seen Purim, if it is a Tammuz feast and fast, yvas kept
Purim, a real that
^
by the Jews before they went to Babylon. that,
what are the
positive grounds
'
But, passing
'
'?
Merely that in 416 a.d. some Jews in Syria, being heated with wine after Christianity, and, for
At
child to the cross.
certain sports,' began to deride
first
'
bound a Christian they only laughed and jeered
him, but soon, their passions getting the better of them,
at
they ill-treated the
child
he died under their
so that
Mr. Frazer can hardly doubt that
hands.' '
'
that purpose,
the
'
were Purim, and that the boy
Haman.'
represented
who
'
Granting that the
'
sports
These motives did not
self.'
how
so
'
were
Haman, the
and even Christ him-
to deride Christians
'
'
died on the cross
Purim, and that the Christian child did duty for purpose was
sports
'
exist before Christianity,
does the anecdote of brutal and cruel mockery,
ending in murder,
afford
'
grounds
positive
'
for
the
hypothesis that, ever since the exile, the Jews, in imita-
July or September,
tion of the Sacsean proceedings in
yearly
hanged a mock-king in March
VI.
Mr. Frazer
?
CONTRADICTORY CONJECTURE is
so far
for the practice of
from holding by these arguments
hanging a yearly victim
to suggest a conjecture that the victim
Purim
at
but a
all,
'
O. B.
^
O. B. iii. 173, 174.
iii.
177
;
Ezekiel
^
G.B.
iii.
189.
month
later
!
'
at
Pmim,
was not If
as
killed at
he thinks this
viii. 14.
The source cited
Hist. Eccles. vii. 16, with p. 129.
^
for the murder of
Theophanes, Chrcmographia,
416 a.d.
is
Socrates,
ed. Classen, vol.
i.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
156
what becomes of his positive grounds for holding that Purim was the date of the hanging? I have shown the value of the positive grounds for maintaining
possible,
'
'
a theory that the Jews, before our era, annually hanged
Haman
a mock-king as is
man
Purim
at
Mr. Frazer himself
Purim.
at
from being convinced that the Jews hanged a
so far
did not do
^
as to suggest the supposition that they If
so.^
they did not,
him
gets
it
out of the
caused by the unlucky circumstance that our
difficulty
Lord was
Purim, but a month
crucified, not at
Purim, as we read in the Gospels.
But, alas
!
if
after
the Jews
hang a Haman at Pm-im, what Mr. Prazer's proofs that they did hang a
did not (on this theory)
becomes
Haman
of all
Purim In the effect, we may be
at
that
to
'?
total absence of all evidence
sure that the Jews did not
borrow (unrebuked by prophets and
March from
brutality in at
all,
legislators) a
And
in July or September.
Haman of a year, which that he may have been. A
VII.
We
NEW THEORY
feast, existing before
adaptation of
it is
Mr. Frazer's
OF THE VICTIM
have seen that Purim
Tammuz
if
they did not, Christ
if
was not the contention
heathen
a heathen brutality occurring,
is
either
an old Jewish
the exile, or a post-exilian
which a condemned save the king's life The or both.' Persian
a
criminal died to
rite,
in
;
victim next 'personates not merely a king but a god,
whether that god was the Blamite
Humman,
the Baby-
lonian Marduk, or some other deity not yet identified.'
But ' the victim represented the king Again Mr. Frazer says
mentioned. festival, if I '
a. B.
iii. *
am
right, a
172-174.
G. B.
iii.
^
159, 160.
man who G. B.
iii.
*
no other god was
:
:
'
At the Sacaean
personated a god or
189. =
' G. B. iii. 152, 177. G. B. iii. 152.
ZAKMUK, SAO^A, AND PURIM
Tammuz
hero of the type of favours of a
woman, probably a
157
Adonis enjoyed the
or
sacred harlot,
who
sented the great Semitic goddess Ishtar or Astarte.
But did the king
repre.' .
.
a god or hero of the Did he associate with And did he, and the victim also sacred harlots? 'personate a god, whether that god was the Blamite Humman, the Babylonian Marduk, or some other deity also stand for
Tammuz
type of
or Adonis
'
?
'
Were the Elamite Humman and Babylonian Marduk (or Merodach) gods of vegeta-
not yet identified ? '
the
^
'
'
Marduk, or Merodach, to be
tion?
sure,
was the
chief
But
god of Babylon, a solar deity, says Dr. Jastrow.
as
Mr. Frazer suggests that the supreme Aryan god, Zeus,
may have
derived his name, 'the Bright or Shining One,'
from the oak tree (he being oak,'
'
actually represented
by an
and oakwood producing bright sparks when used in
fire-making),'
why
may
god of vegetable
also be a
But, like the horses
life.
the Sacsean victim has been plausibly iden-
of Virbius,
Tammuz
with
tified
then another supreme god, Marduk,
or Adonis.^
ing that the mock-king
'
It
who was
seems worth suggest-
annually killed at the
Babylonian festival of the Sacsea on the sixteenth day of the
month Lous may have represented Tammuz
He
also takes that role,
It
Humman
in
iii.
one,
or
iii.
178.
him appearing
therefore, a little bewildering to find
is,
as
himself.'
with his sacred harlot, in
Marduk, or some other god unknown,
159, 160.
How many
single gods are rolled into
scourged, and hanged in this most
unhappy con-
demned criminal?
We
have been told that Marduk presided over a
Zakmuk, which is the Sacsea."' But the hanged man ^ very probably personates Marduk. council of the gods at the
'
O. B.
iii.
*
Q. B.
ii.
178.
253, 254.
^
G. B.
iii.
160.
"
G. B.
iii.
456, 457.
"
G. B.
iii.
152.
'
G. B.
iii.
159, 160.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
158
may
Mr. Frazer
think that,
when
the supreme god
is
Olympian assemby in his Temple, it is a natural and pious compliment to whip and hang him in presiding over the
human
the person of his is
the result of his theory in
supreme
the
that
sure
Humman, would the tactless
This, at
representative.
159, 160.
iii.
I do not
feel
Marduk
or
whether
god,
least,
have taken the same favourable view
of
rite.
NEW GBEMAN THEOEY OF PURIM
VIII.
have hitherto but incidentally mentioned Marduk and Humman as competitors with Tammuz and the king I
the glory of
for
whipping
receiving a vicarious
and
They new Teutonic theory of Purim not Mr. Frazer' s. It was lately an old Jewish Tammuz rite, or quite a new adaptation of the Sacsea. But it is possible,' says
are brought into this honourable position
hanging.
by an
entirely
:
'
Professor Noldeke,
'
that
we have
here
(in
'
Purim)
'
to
do with a feast whereby the Babylonians commemorated a
victory gained
by
their gods over the gods
neighbours, the Elamites, against often
waged war.
The Jewish
whom
feast
of
of their
they had so
Purim
known
that there were similar feasts
From
lonians.'
Babylon over the Elamites.
making
Jews turned
Mr. Frazer,
'
We '
it
But, into
if
iii.
159
;
if '
that
feast
was
an annual merry-
^
misunderstand him, does not
I do not
hypothesis of Noldeke.
can hardly deny G. B.
is
the Baby-
of a victory of the gods of
of a totally secular kind.'
accept the
it
the Babylonians, then, the Jews borrowed
Purim, a feast commemorative religious, the
among
an
is
annual merrymaking of a wholly secular kind, and
He
says, however,
the plausibility of the theory that
Noldeke,
s.v.
'
Esther,' Encyclopedia Biblica.
ZAKMUK, SAO^A, AND PUEIM Hainan and Vashti on the one Esther on
Elam and
antagonism between
the gods of Babylon, and the final
Babylonian
victory of the
and Mordecai and
side,
the other, represent the
the gods of
159
very capital of
deities in the
But plausibility, we shall see, is remote And how can Mr. Frazer think this theory plausible if the Sacsea really is a King-Tammuz feast ? But, if Purim is now to be a rejoicing over a victory
their rivals.'
from proof.
of
the Babylonian gods (naturally endeared as these gods
why was
were to the Jews), It '
was
held, according to
the best'),
'
for the
Tammuz
type of
the fast held before '
Purim
Jensen's solution' (which
?
is
supposed annual death of a hero of the
whose resurrection on the and gladness
or Adonis,
following day occasioned that outburst of joy
which of joy
is
characteristic of Purim.'
and gladness characteristic
over a victory theory,
why
Purim, which for
there a fast, is
should Jews, of
Tammuz
all
a victory
tive of
of
all
commemorating
he
may
gods.
we
sure
is
a jubilation
on Noldeke's
Tammuz
type
?
?
Marduk, some reason
for
^
HUMMAN AND THE
are given our choice
represent
G. B.
iii.
fast
why
representative of
:
177.
VICTIM
Humman, "
may
the victim
of the victorious gods
;
but
one of the defeated
In that case the vanquished hostile god's '
To
a comely thing, but
is
people, scourge and hang, at the
Marduk, the chief also
the outburst
the fast of Esther,' before
human
ANOTHEE NEW THEORY. To be
'
gods,
whose victory they
the chief of the gods
represent
Purim
'
commemorathe Babylonian gods? And why
same time, the possible
IX.
if
people, fast before a feast
should the Jews, of
are
'
a feast of the
the death of
of
the Babylonian
of
is
But,
^
G. B.
iii.
159, 160.
human
AND RELIGION
MA.GIC
160
may well be whipped and hanged, in defeated deity, Humman. But I do not
representative
derision
of the
observe
that Mr. Frazer offers this hypothesis, which seems relatively plausible.
Indeed, I
am
fairly certain that
accept Noldeke's theory that
Purim
Mr. Frazer does not a form of a Baby-
is
lonian rejoicing over a victory of their gods.
be both that and also a the saving of the king's
Tammuz
life
feast,^ or
It cannot
a festival for
by the vicarious hanging
of a
criminal.^
We
are next to see
how Haman,
Mordecai, Vashti,
and Esther are mixed up with the Sacsea, Zakmuk,
Humman.
Purim, Marduk, and '
O. B.
iii.
177.
^
G. B.
iii.
152.
161
VIII
MOBDECAI, ESTHEB, VASHTI, AND
may be
It
How
asked,
Humman
did
Marduk come
or
appear as the god connected with the
Tammuz had
and Marduk came
tatively regarding
nor yet
feast,
Sacsea,
to
whereas
The answer is when we were ten-
previously taken that part ?
Humman
that
HAMAN
Purim, not
as a Persian
(2)
(1)
in
as a Semitic
punishment
criminal acting as king's proxy, but
(3)
of a
Tammuz
condemned
as a festival for 'the
(Marduk and the rest) in the very capital of their rivals (Humman and his company).^ This was a theory suggested by Professor the Babylonian deities
final victory of
'
'
'
Noldeke.
It
has etymological bases.
The name Mordecai resembles Marduk, Esther
Haman
Ishtar,
there
a divine
is
sembling
lest
name
inscriptions, read
in
as re-
an Elamite
of
Esther are in
merging in Babylonian and Elamite gods.
that should occur,
Mordecai was the real Captivity,
from
in the
is like
the Elamite god, and
and probably the name
Vashti,'
'
Humman,
Thus the human characters
goddess. peril of
like
is
But,
we ought also to remember that name of a real historical Jew of the
one of the companions of Nehemiah in the return
exile to Jerusalem.^
me
Again, Esther appears to
to
be the crovm-name of the Jewish wife of Xerxes, in the
Book
of
Esther: 'Hadassah, that
Biblical story she conceals her
says Noldeke, '
G. B.
iii.
159.
'
is
is
no mere invention ^
Ezra
ii.
2
;
Esther.'^
In the
Jewish descent. Hadassah,
Nehemiah
of
vii. 7.
the writer ^
Esther
ii.
M
of 7.
MAGIO AND RELIGION
162 '
Esther.'
Hadassah
'
girls are still called
mean myrtle
said to
is
bough,' and
'
Esther appears to have been
Myrtle.
mixed marriage. Now if a real historical Jew might be named Mordecai, which we know to be the case, a Jewess, whether in fact, an assumed name,
Book course some
of Esther, which, says Dr. Jastrow,
or in this of
after a royal
historical basis,'
•
Purim
a connection between
counted for in
Esther
'
not that of Zagmuku,' or Zakmuk.
Babylonian
feast coinciding
Indeed this
discovered.'
that there
Jewish
(the
'
'
feast ac-
and some Babylonian
')
festival,
Noldeke says that no
with Purim in date has been fact
Mr. Frazer some
gives
reason for various conjectures, as the date of Purim that of
Zakmuk.
name
But,
if
has
might be styled Esther.^
Dr. Jastrow supposes from the proper names is
'
Mordecai
be, as
it
is
an
is,
not his-
Jew of the period, v/hile Esther may be, and probably is, a name which a Jewess might bear, it is not ascertained that Vashti really is the name torical
of
of a real
Yet Vashti
an Elamite goddess.
goddess to Mr. Frazer's argument. says,
'
of the
names
of
Haman
quite essential as a
is '
The
and Vashti
derivation,' is
he
less certain,
but some high authorities are disposed to accept the view of
Jensen that
Homman, Vashti
is
Haman
in like
goddess whose
suppose that
identical
with
we
manner an Elamite
name
Humman
or
appears in
deity,
probably a
inscriptions.'
*
Now
method about that The identification of the months
adopt Mr. Frazer's
unruly month Lous. of the
is
the national god of the Elamites, and that
'
Syro-Macedonian Calendar
uncertainty; as to the
is
month Lous
a matter of some in particular the
evidence of ancient writers appears to be conflicting, and until
we have
ascertained beyond the reach of doubt
'
Encyclop. Bibl.
s.v.
'
^
Encyclop. Bibl.
s.v.
'
Esther.'
Esther.'
^
Jastrow, p. G86, note
"
G. S.
iii.
158, 159.
when 2.
HAMAN
MORDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND Lous
Babylon in the time
fell at
premature
of Berosus,
much weight
to allow
crepancy in the dates of the two
cation of
Haman and
the seeming dis-
to
the identifica-
'
Vashti with a probable Elamite god
some uncertainty
a matter of
is
;
as to Vashti
the opinion of modern writers
in particular
would be
festivals.'
Following this method we might say
and goddess
it
163
be conflicting, and until
we have
seems to
ascertained beyond the
reach of doubt that Vashti was an Elamite goddess,
and a goddess
what
of
much weight
to allow
sort,
it
would be premature
to the conjecture
might go on to allow none at
But
all.
'
—and
this
then
we
would be too
hard a method of dealing with Mr. Frazer's hypothesis.
"We should merely be getting rid of his theory in the same
way
as his theory evades a definite historical obstacle.
It
is clear,
from the
Haman, and
Esther,
connected
necessarily
Sacsea, as a feast of
among many
for
a
is
the
Babylonian divine
a very perilous hypothesis,
is
more
insecure.
intent on connecting the characters
Esther with Babylonian and Elamite gods. They are '
essential
his theory that, at
to
there were
a
Haman, with for the
god
Now,
of
human
Sacsea and Purim,
representatives
of
gods
;
Mordecai with Esther, doing duty for the
of vegetation.
To
this point
we
return.
that, in vol.
ii.
122, 253, 254,
it
occurred in
But, when it had to occur we were met by the difficulty of
Mr. Frazer's content.
March
in vol.
iii.,
two, or rather three, feasts of this kind in the year.
haps
:
as to this festival of a resurrection of such a god,
we have seen July, to
pair
the
a probable sacred harlot, Vashti, doing duty
dying
re-arisen
in
rejoicing
others as hazardous, or even
Mr. Frazer, however, '
names Mordecai,
Purim, Zakmuk, and
with
Elamite gods,
victory over
of
facts about the
Vashti, that to explain these as
we
get rid of
this obstacle
in
iii.
Per-
The
177-179. M
2
MAGIC AND EELIGION
164
resurrection
is
here that not of
Tammuz,
but of a hero of
is fixed by Jensen at Zakmuk, and thereby Mr. Frazer, though not by Jensen, at the Sacaea
the same type, fore
in spring.
Jensen's theory '
is
of a solar at the
that the death and resurrection
who combined in himself
mythical being,
of a
god and an ancient king
Zakmuk
Babylonian
and that the transference
of
Erech, were celebrated the
or festival of
of the
the features
new
year,
drama from Erech,
its
original seat, to Babylon, led naturally to the substitution
Marduk, the great god
of
Eabani
of
Babylon, for Gilgamesh or
in the part of the hero.'
his peace
of
mind,
2iakmuk with the
'
Jensen, fortunately for
apparently does not identify the
Sacsea.'
Jensen constructs his scheme
thus.
Gilgamesh was a hero
of
Erech,
who repelled the amorGilgamesh became
ous advances of the goddess Ishtar.
extremely unwell.
and
of Ishtar,
His friend Eabani
also aroused the fury
Gilgamesh procured
died.
the world of the dead to the upper world.
his return from
The
-^
feast cele-
brating this resurrection was removed from Erech to Baby-
Instead of a mortal hero, Gilgamesh or Eabani, a being
lon.
cold and chaste as
now
cast
feast
was Zakmuk.^
Marduk,
Of course this feast of
whose
Joseph Andrews,
their
is
supreme god,
precisely as
Babylonians
we
coldness, as regards goddesses,
The
said that an old
Adonis was turned into a new feast
the frigidity of Adonis,
like
if
the
for the part.
of
Zeus,
was not proverbial,
Gilgamesh,
Eabani,
Mr.
Andrews, and other notable examples.
The theory seems '
to lack plausibility, but as Jensen
Jastrow does not indicate that, in the ancient poem on Eabani, he did return to the upper world.' But see L. W. King, Bab. and Ass. Bel. and '
Myth. '
p. 146.
O. B.
iii.
178.
MOEDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND
Zakmuk
apparently does not identify
'
Marduk
theory
curious
the
escapes
he
human
way
unheard-of
However,
supreme being. and
if
we
is
whipped
that
and
representative— an of
the
accept Jensen's theory,
Zakmuk
Mr. Frazer, identify
like
also,
supposing
honouring the personator
of
165
with the Sacaea
of
Gilgamesh, or Eabani)
(late
hanged in the person of his
HAMAN
with the
remembering that Eabani rose from the dead and that Marduk is now Eabani, and that the
Sacsea, then, (if
he
did),
Sacaean victim
may
or
is
be Marduk, and
is
also
the
king, we get a reason for supposing that the victim, too,
was feigned to
from the dead
rise
—in
But why was the
Mordecai (Marduk).
the person of
representative of
Marduk, who in Jensen's theory represented Eabani, whipped and hanged ? The victim, on this theory, if we add
it
to
Mr. Frazer's, seems to
The King
/I. 2.
Marduk,
3.
Eabani,
of
me
to personate
Babylon,
Or Gilgamesh,
v4.
and thus to combine a god or hero of vegetation (which
Eabani
is
— and,
god
bound oh,
the theory of
bination with
to be)
why iii.
all
is
with a mortal king, and a supreme he whipped and hanged
His royal substitute was next
burned alive annually. alive
Taking
it
:
burned alive annually. burned
?
seems to run thus, in comThe king was that has gone before
177-179
annually,
His till
criminal this
was
substitute
was
commuted
for
The Zakmuk was brought from
whipping and hanging, with or without burning. king
(before
the feast of
Erech to Babylon) had incarnated some god or other
presume
of vegetation).
became the Marduk but I
may be wrong,
(I
After the Eabani feast at Erech
feast at
Babylon, the king, I think,
represented Eabani plus Marduk.
If
MAGIC AND RELIGION
166
he
did, so, too,
But Babani,
does the victim at the Sacsea.
in a
Babylonian poem, has a resurrection
find
it
in Jastrow's account of the
though I cannot
:
The victim then^
poem.
being a personation of Eabani, of Marduk, and of the king,
has a resurrection
name
—after he
Humman,
of
has been hanged under the
He
a god of the Blamites.
owes that
name, Mr. Frazer thinks, to a popular misconception, for he really is the king, phos Eabani, plus Marduk. Dying and as Marduk, under the alias
as king,
(Haman), he
is
Humman
of
feigned, according to the theory, to rise
under the name of Marduk (Mordecai).
Haman
one year becomes the
The Mordecai
of the next,
is
of
hanged, and
so on.
This
is
an hypothesis
needed to
maintain
of
the
mental
mock
in the
of
effort is
equilibrium
as
v?e
Hovpever, by thus amal-
contemplate this hypothesis.
gamating the ideas
An
some complexity.
Jensen and
of
Mr. Frazer, one
gets
royalty (from the king), the scourging and
hanging (from the
mitigation
of
burning
alive),
the
divinity of vegetation (from Eabani, vrho lends that part of his attributes to
Marduk), and the resurrection from
Babani, vpho, in the Babylonian poem, rose again I
own
that in Dr. Jastrow's account of the
unable to discover this incident.
The
despair in the final speech of Babani.' resurrection.
and
its
From
poetry,
However, I
am
'
^
there
though I
am
Babani
spirit of
conjured up, indeed, in the poem, but
:
poem is
This
is
is
a tone of hardly a
but poorly seen in Babylon
and no doubt Babani had his
resurrection.
that or a similar resurrection Mr. Frazer deduces
the probability that the Sacsean victim in his resurrection
was represented by Mordecai.^ He, like Haman, had a In the Book of Esther, to be sure, she
sacred bride, Esther.
'
Jastrow, p. 513.
'^
G. B.
iii.
179.
HAMAN
MORDECAI, ESTHEE, VASHTI, AND
Mordecai's cousin and adopted daughter.
is
knows
A
Mr. Frazer
better.
ESTHER LOVED BY MORDECAI
I.
'
167
clear reminiscence
'
of the time
the goddess bride of Mordecai
modem Jewish
it
was extremely little girls
of
The
is.
is
And
the lover
(I
a very natural
pair were cousins, and Esther
In exactly the same way two
pretty.
my
appears in
(her cousin)
plays in which Mordecai
hope merely platonic) of Esther. '
modern touch
when Esther was
acquaintance dramatised
'
Bluebeard,'
and made the brother (who rescues Mrs. Bluebeard in the
She had preferred to marry Bluebeard for his money, on which, in this most immoral drama, Mrs. Bluebeard and her lover, her tale)
the lover of Mrs. Bluebeard.
husband's slayer, lived happily ever afterwards.
modern
!
The
original tale does not
This
is
run thus.
Again, Mr. Frazer says that the Eabbis maintain that
Xerxes only wedded a shadow Esther, Esther sat on the lap of Mordecai.' to save
'
while the real
A most
natural shift
Esther's character in a case of mixed marriages.
So Stesichorus and Euripides, long before, gave a shadow
Helen into the arms of Paris.
The real Helen, meanwhile,
saved her character by leading a in
Egypt.
These
late shifts
life of
remarkable purity
and evasions have no real
bearing on the question of the original relations between
Esther and Mordecai.
II.
THE PERSIAN BUFFOON
Mr. Frazer now harms his cause, perhaps, by proving that just as, in Esther, Mordecai Persia, a beardless,
and
if
had a royal
ride, so,
in
possible one-eyed buffoon rode
G. B.
iii.
180.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
168
mock
in
royalty through the streets, collecting
goods, exactly like our
;
After his second round he
might beat him
if
iled, for
But Mr. Frazer,
supposes the right to beat the buffoon to
enough
to the harder fate
No
is
when of a
the people
they caught him, obviously in revenge,
I think, for his robberies.
date
or
Eobin Hood before and even after It was une quite examples
the Scottish Reformation.^ are endless.
money
'
as
usual,
point plainly
'
of the sacrificed
given for this Persian custom, but,
mock-king. if
it
the Jews were in Persia, did it coexist with mock-king ? If not, if it was a substitute
existed
sacrifice
for that
why
are the Jews supposed to have borrowed the cruelty no longer practised ? This is a obsolete
cruelty,
question of dates, which given,
be implied, but are not
though I understand Mr. Frazer
buffoon's ride
On
may
is
later
to
mean
that the
than the origin of Purim.^
the other hand, Lagarde, one of the most learned
of Orientalists, thinks that the ride of the beardless
was
when the stories about Esther and Purim were composed. The Persians, says already customary at the time
Lagarde, had the Feast of Farwardig^n, a feast of
jollity,
the rich making presents to the poor, as at Purim.
They Magi
had
also
the
Feast
of
the
Massacre
of
the
(Magophonia), and, thirdly, they had the popular diversion of the
Eide
of the Beardless.
Esther legend
'
Now
the authors of the
had these three colours on
and with these three painted, not a
their palette,
portrait of one feast,
but a kind of mixed caricature for the Jewish carnival.'
The Magophonia
lent
the
colours
of
the
^
massacre,
O. B. iii. 181-184. Laing's Knox, ii. 157-160. Hyde, Hist. Bel. Pers. (1760), p. 250, says that some call this innovation, but they are wrong, and the ride is very ancient, '
^
opinion.
G. B.
iii.
ride an in his
183.
' Purim, Ein Beitrag zzir OeschichU der Religion, Lagarde, Gottingen, 1887.
p. 51.
Von Paul
de
MORDEOAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND Farwardtg§,n lent the
HAMAN
169
and the presents, the
jollity
ride
of the beardless lent the procession of Mordecai.
In that at
case,
and
Lagarde
if
Jews found
right, the
is
Babylon, not a slaying of a mock-king, but the ride of
So they did not borrow the slaying
the beardless.
of a
mock-king, but introduced into the Esther legend an a
incident of
suggested by the ride of Mordecai,
ride
which Mr. Frazer
calls
'
a degenerate copy of the original,'
namely the reign and death
of the
Whether Lagarde's view be the evidence
is
mock-king.
"^
correct or not, this part of
sandy a foundation for a theory
far too
The Jews could
about a matter of solemn importance.
not borrow the hanging of a victim from the Sacsea,
Lagarde's theory
Mr. Frazer, at
Purim and the not
popular, takes
in
they only found the ride of the beardless one,
their exile
as in
if
most
—not that he mentions the Sacsea. events, sees a connection
all
But the
ride of the beardless.
official,
of
in spite
between latter is
the fact that the king
As popular, and shows its So Mr. Frazer
goods facetiously robbed.
of the
is more primitive, he thinks, meaning better than the Sacaea does.
the ride
any truth in the connection thus traced between Purim and the "Eide of the Beardless One," we are now in a position to finally unmask the leading says
'
if
there
is
personages in the
and
Humman
Purim also
is
Book
'
got into the plot.
connected with the
first
to finally
very
beardless
and show how Marduk
not only the Sacsea, sacrifice and
which there was no us
of Esther,'
'
clear.
one,
How
sacrifice.
this,
if
is
true, enables
characters in Esther,
Apparently
the
who complained
populace snowballed
but
Eide of the Beardless One,' in
unmask the '
all,
him G. B.
in iii.
of
buffoonery
not at of
the
the heat while the
March, 183.
is
was
a
magical
MAGIC AND RELIGION
170
ceremony, to make hot weather by pretending that the weather, in
fact,
was
Therefore, the hypothetical
hot.'
rites of
Haman] Vashti
J
Mordecai]
Esther
j
represent, in the first pair, the decaying
in the second
;
pair, the reviving, energies of vegetation, past
One
pair mates
pair mates
By
and
and the male,
originally lived as
first
man and
pair
slain at the Sacaea (which
kingship was very 'originally,
on
of
at
my
this obscure subject.
put to death, in fact
aU
from
our
if
'
(Haman)
Haman was
we do
'
'
on the
was put
the mock-king
not grant), his mockit
lasted for a year,
The later fortunes of mystery. But I cannot refrain
conjecture.'
Vashti are wrapped up in
from quoting one
Vashti)
wife for a whole year,
However,
brief.
we may
life.
(Haman and
conclusion of which the male partner
Of course, even
present.
the other
;
survives, to encourage vegetable
the hypothesis the
to death.'
and
at least, is slain
we
one
author's most eloquent passages
We do not hear that Vashti was do not hear anything about her authority
but
;
'
the nature of
maternity suggests an obvious reason for sparing her a longer, till that mysterious law, which links together woman's life with the changing aspects of the nightly sky, had been fulfilled by the birth of an infant god, who should in his turn, reared perhaps by her tender care, grow up to live and die for the world.' ^ As Vashti, except for her profession, was not an habitual criminal, let us hope that she was spared to look after the baby. Her issue, if any, and if male, was
little
apparently an hereditary criminal, for otherwise he would G. B. m. 184.
2
Q_ B.
ii.
186.
HAMAN
MOEDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND not be hanged
cruelty of thus deliberately breeding such
modem
shocking to the
The
wish to know
born and bred up
also
Mr. Frazer does not tell us that this what became of Vashti's female issue.
ride of
Mordecai in royal raiment
with and explained
(if
I follow
rode naked on an ass
;
crown
opinion,
is
'
connected
by the
author)
Mordecai rode
blue and white, with a clearly later
my
To be
the Persian beardless buffoon.
is
hanging them,
case, or
to the business.
was the
mind.
Hamans were
whether the Jewish
of
We
mere purpose
a criminal class, for the is
condemned
victims were always
the
:
The
criminals.
171
ride of
sure the buffoon
in royal apparel of
But the buffoon
of gold.'
than the origin of Purim in Mr. Frazer's
though not in that
Lagarde.
of
'
So long as the
temporary king was a real substitute for the reigning
monarch, and had to die sooner or later in his stead,
it
was natural that he should be treated with a greater show of deference
.
.
.
^
.'
But Mordecai, who rode did not die
Haman
:
royally,
was the man who
Therefore Mr. Frazer has to
died.
Haman
guess that the Mordecai of one year died as the of the next.
Ah me,
there are so
many
In any case, Mordecai altered
of
Marduk
by
Biblical
form
recognised
guesses is
!
nothing but
or Merodach,' as scholars.'
is
'
now
a slightly '
generally
Nevertheless,
a
real
Jew called Mordecai occurs, as we saw, in Ezra and Nehemiah so the name was a Jewish name, odd as it historical
:
appears.^
Now Mordecai, by the theory, has to be whipped
and hanged finally to
Merodach, or
god, is
and that seems an odd compliment Marduk, who, as supreme Babylonian ;
human substitute remember, when whipped
presiding over the gods, while his
is
being slain infamously. >
O. B.
iii.
183.
But, ^
Nehemiah
vii.
7;
Ezra
ii.
2.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
172
and hanged, the Mordecai
Haman
become the
1900,
of
speak, has
to
so
And some high authorities
of 1901.
'
Haman
are disposed to accept the theory of Jensen that is
Humman
identical with
Homman,
or
the national god
of the Elamites.'
A HELPFUL THEORY OF MY OWN
III.
high authorities are right, I at
If these
clear
Haman,
!
my way
last see
or the victim of the Saca3a,
is
now
the representative of the King of Babylon, nor of
neither
Tammuz,
nor of both at once, nor of Marduk, nor of Eabani,
nor
of
He
Gilgamesh.
now
is
Humman
(if
Tout va hien
of the Elamites.
representative of a hostile and
Humman
Tammuz
was
also the
is
The human
!
god may
defeated
have been whipped and hanged in that
Noldeke or Jensen
conquered and hostile god,
right) the representative of a
derision.
well
I shall grant
Elamite god of vegetation,
or the like (what else could he be?), and so had
and
to fall as the leaves fall,
flowers do
;
and
also
had
to spring
up
both in June-July ^ and
this
as the also in
March-April.^ If all this
the case,
is
and represents
the Sacsean victim
if
Humman, and
Elamite god, and
if
Purim
feast of rejoicing for
is
if
Humman
is
Haman,
a defeated
adapted from a Babylonian
victory gained
'
is
by the Babylonian
gods over the gods of their neighbours the Elamites,' as
Noldeke thinks sailing.
But
possible,* then all is comparatively plain
this
is
only
if
we
follow Jensen, which I do
not understand Mr. Frazer to do. responsible
for
identifying
Indeed, Jensen
Haman
with
is
only
Humman.
Jensen does not identify him with the Sacsean victim. It
is '
Mr. Frazer who does
Q. B.
iii.
158, 159.
" <
that.
G. B. h. 123, 254. G. B. iii. 159.
»
G. B.
iii.
152.
HAMAN
MORDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND
The
theory,
If
Haman
if
now put on an
victim, has
Haman
Humman, and
is
also the
aspect which I can almost accept.
Humman, and
stands for
is
173
Humman
if
we
vanquished god of the hostile Elamites, then
is
a
solve
namely why the human representative friendly god was whipped and hanged, and
that hard problem, of a
king or
mocked
Sacsea.
The
rightful
king,
at the
the
represent
but also personated the
vanquished deity of a race long inimical but So his harsh treatment was,
But
disposed to or
accept,
Homman,
Humman
with
identical
is
the national god of the Elamites,'
Let us suppose suggest an
which some high authorities are
Haman
was not
originally this
it
'
yet
really the case. to
have been the
who had
case,
and I can
Fatigued by the task
excellent solution.
producing sons stitutes,
subdued.
Mr. Frazer seems to hold that though according
the view of Jensen,
'
now
vulgar, not unnatural.
if
depends on following Jensen, which we are
all this
not to do. to
show, did
victim, I shall
of
to be sacrificed yearly as his sub-
the king of early Babylon at one time annually
sacrificed as his
proxy an Blamite captive, who, to deride
human representative of Humman, and therefore was called
Elamite religion, was also the the
Elamite god,
Humman,
Haman.
or
Just so the
captives as representatives of their relations
gods.^
sacrificed
But, as
between Elam and Babylon grew more peaceful,
Elamite captives were scarce. substituted criminal,
Aztecs
own
for
who
Haman, but
an Elamite
still
The king
of
represented the Blamite
also, as in
Humman,
or
the original hypothesis, represented
We
must next conjecture that
the king
of
Humman
himself was a god of vegetation
Babylon.
Babylon then
war-prisoner a condemned
;
indeed, I can
hardly suppose that any god whatever did not represent '
G. B.
iii.
159.
^
g_ b.
iii.
134-137.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
174
the principle of vegetable
Humman
So
life.
must not
only die but have a resurrection, as vegetable gods often do.
Now, thanks of
to
my
Babylon
hypothesis,
We
removed.
difficulty is
and every Let us
vpere sacrificed regularly every year.
they were burned, as victims
say that
Indeed, Movers thought that
who
all is clear,
once more see that the kings
played the god for
the end of them.' in the progress of
'
usually were.
days was originally burnt at
five
Mr. Frazer himself suggests
'
man
at the Sacaea also the
philanthropy, the
man who
that,
used to
be burned was merely scourged and hanged or crucified by
way
of a later mitigation of his sufferings.' ^ Or perhaps he was hanged first, and burned afterwards, as in our good oldfashioned punishment for treason, whereby many Jesuits were cut down alive, and many Jacobites, their bowels '
But to burn
being burned before their living eyes.' only half hanged and
still
a
man
capable of feeling pain would
not mitigate his sufferings.
My own
theory pleases
me
When
better.
tired of
being sacrificed yearly, the Babylonian king provided a substitute in a son, or other
member
of the royal family,
with what sad and ruinous results to the dynasty I have already shown. tutes were also
merit of
Wearied
Let us suppose that the princely substireally sacrificed by burning. But here the
my
theory comes
of
sacrificing
in,
princes
and, I hope, shines forth. of
house, the king
his
substitutes Elamite prisoners of war.
There
is
whipping and hanging them, except the
tion to
no
objec-
frivolous
objection that they at once cease to be sacrifices, and
can overcome that
hanged
first,
'
2
G. B.
by supposing that they were
and burned afterwards, or
G. B. iii.
difficulty
iii.
171.
171
;
we
'
Movers, Die PhoeniHer, =
wirryit at ane i.
496.]
G. B.
iii.
171.
HAMAN
MORDBCAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND George Wishart
(like
stake'
This makes
burned.
hanging as a
'
The next
it
in St.
175
Andrews), and then
needless to regard whipping and
mitigation.'
step
is,
when Elamite wars
and Ela-
cease,
mite captives are not procurable, to substitute a condemned criminal,
who, he
also, like
the Elamite prisoners,
is
called
Humman, and represents both the king of Babylon, and Humman, an Elamite god of vegetation, who, like Tammuz, has
his resurrection.
Babylonian king.
1.
We thus
get
Incarnates the god of vegetation.
Is therefore sacrificed annually to
keep the god provided
with a succession of fresh and sturdy subjects to be incarnated
in.
The king
.
is
burned.
His sons or nephews are treated in the same way,
2.
same reasons, annually.
for the 3.
stitute.
The king
escapes.
An Elamite war-prisoner becomes the king's subHe also represents the Elamite god of vegetation.
In mockery of the Elamites and their god he
and hanged.
merely sacrificed.
The
4.
captive
He
him.
But
substitute
is
lie
god,
next a condemned criminal.
also dies as the
is
represents a friendly god.
whipped and hanged. he represents the king
is
scourged
Observe the Aztec analogy, though to be
the Aztec captive, representing an Aztec
sure
also
is
He
Like the Elamite warof
Babylon, and dies for
Elamite god
of vegetable
life,
and, as such, has a resurrection, in the shape of Mordecai,
who (not
represents the
Babylonian supreme god, Marduk
Tammuz or another), and is
when he becomes Haman
or
not hanged
Humman,
till
next year,
represents the
king of Babylon, represents the Elamite god of vegetation,
and
is
whipped and hanged,
caresses
of the royal
after enjoying (as king) the
harem, and as
braces of a sacred harlot, Vashti,
Humman
who
the em-
personates Ishtar.
After being hanged (and perhaps burned) he has a pseudo-
MAGIC AND EELIGION
176
resurrection in the
And
the next.
Marduk
so on,
of that year, the
Humman
of
both at the Sacsea and at Purim.
This hypothesis appears to be in
many ways an advance
on any one of Mr. Frazer's hypotheses. It allows us to keep up the Jewish Haman as personating Humman which ;
how
seems necessary, for
We
explained?
how
a victim
and
also,
at
the same
be
represented a victorious
time,
Humman
being, by
my
hypothesis,
Tammuz, all our anxieties about the Marduk and Humman, where Tammuz
an Elamite kind appearance of
of
had previously done duty, disappear. and
to
represented a vanquished Elamite god,
Babylonian king.
Tammuz
been a
Haman
is
moreover, enabled to understand
are,
who
otherwise
feast
(if
where a
also a feast
we
man
Purim, which had
accept Jensen's solution) died for the king, and then
a feast of triumph for the victory of the Babylonian gods,
and a wholly secular merrymaking,' though, if Purim is a Jewish Tammuz feast, it had been, according to Bzekiel '
(who perhaps knew best), a religious religion, now becomes all these things
a false
of
rite
at once,
though
some may doubt how Purim could be, simultaneously, both religious and secular. But I would not abandon my theory merely because
Add
to all this that
it
involves a contradiction in terms.
we can now have
Tammuz
a
death
and resurrection in June-July, and another in MarchApril,
and
burn a
At the summer festival we we hang a man.^
translucent.
all is
dummy
;
'
Admirably as
at the vernal feast
my
hypothesis colligates the
not the hypothesis of Mr. Frazer. '
we can
Though he
hardly deny the plausibility of
that the Sacsea
is
'
facts, it
is
thinks that
Noldeke's theory
a triumph for the victory of the Baby-
Purim
lonian over the Elamite gods, and that
is
an
adaptation of the Sacsea,^ Mr. Frazer does not accept '
G. B.
ii.
123, 124.
^
(?.
B.
iii.
152.
»
G. B.
iii.
159.
MORDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND Noldeke
that idea. is
ruinous to
slain as
my
this
it
We
hanged criminal.
how admirably my humble
round, but
all
and
merely in a stage of evolution between
the sacrificed prince and the
out
;
177
hypothesis of the Blamite war-prisoner,
Humman,
have seen
sound
plausible, but not
is
HAMAN
suggestion worked
must be abandoned
Noldeke
if
is
wrong.
Mr. Frazer thinks that the Sacsea and Purim did not (as in
Noldeke's scheme)
mean
Babylonian over Blamite
was hanged
(as I
the evolution of
originally a triumph of
gods.
No
Elamite prisoner
had sagely conjectured) the Sacsea.
What
at
any stage
of
occurred was this
At the Sacaea there were originally two divine pairs, let us say Vashti and Haman to represent the dying, Esther and Mordecai to represent the renascent, forces of vegetation.
There was nothing Elamite in the business
originally.
But
'
would be natural enough that in
it
time an unfavourable comparison should be dravsni between the two pairs, and that people, forgetting their real ing
opposition a victory of the gods of of
mean-
and religious identity, should see in their apparent eternal
their
foes
Babylon over the gods
the Elamites.
Hence, while the
happy pair retained their Babylonian names and Ishtar, the unhappy
pair,
of
Marduk
who were originally nothing
Marduk and Ishtar in a different aspect, were renamed after the hated Elamite deities Humman and but
Vashti.'
1
Thus the
of the
lonian gods over those of Elam,^ proves to
than merely plausible. solution
:
festival of '
that the fast
Tammuz,
G. B.
Purim Babybe no more
plausibility of Noldeke's theory, that
was adapted from rejoicings for a victory
iii.
We are thus driven back to Jensen's and the rejoicings
or of a
180, 181.
god or hero ^
of
Purim
are a
of his type,
G. B.
iii.
159.
N
and
MAGIC AND EELIGION
178
they cannot, then, have been borrowed in Babylon, for
Tammuz
the Jews had the yet
Purim
'
ivas probably
meant that only the hanging
apparently, be
may
king was really borrowed. The victim
both the king
whom we
Babylon and
of
god
also the
It must,
mock-
of a
thus represent of vegetation
are to suppose to be incarnated in the king
But why should the Jews borrow
^
(?)
and why did the peace, and how do we
that,
prophets and legislators hold their
know
And
ritual before the exile.
borrowed at Babylon.
that the majesty of Babylon incarnated a god of
vegetation ?
As I sometimes understand Mr. Frazer's whole theory, The victim of the Sacsea represents the king, who represents Marduk, Humman, Tammuz, or some
it is this.^
He gets his royal robes from the king; his whipping and hanging from the commuted burning alive other deity.
the king
of
his divinity
;
his resurrection
from the king plus the god
Tammuz
from the king plus
or Eabani,
granting that Eabani had a resurrection, which I cannot
But
find in Dr. Jastrow's account.
plausibly
we need
man
another
re-arisen victim, king,
and god.
year
called,
is
really, or
is
Now
man
the victim for the
Marduk,
representative in the resurrection
shape; each
to do a resurrection
to take the part of the
in one shape; his
Marduk
is
in another
being provided with a consort, repre-
senting Ishtar, though I have yet to learn that she was
Marduk
the wife, or mistress, either of
or Eabani.
But
the populace, not understanding the two Marduks and
two
Ishtars,
Humman,
preferred to
after
call
Marduk who
the
died
an Elamite god, and his sacred lady
of
pleasure Vashti, after a possible, but dubious, Elamite '
O. B.
'
I
iii.
^
155.
assume that Jensen's theory
resurrection, through Eabani.
where
of a
Tammuz
of
This
resurrection in
G. B.
iii.
Zakmuk is
is
185.
accepted, for
essential, as
March
it
gets in a
we hear nothing
at Babylon.
else-
HAMAN
MOKDECAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND
The Marduk who
goddess.
Marduk
was
did not die
next year, and his consort
till
till
still
179
called
next year was
called Ishtar.
All this occurred at the Sacsea,
which
Zakmuk
are
Purim (which Jastrow and Noldeke do not identify with Zakmuk), (though Jensen does not appear to see
it),
and in March, not, as chronology has pushing the proceedings forward
and
it,
only a
in July.
By
month, from
Purim
to Passover,
we can connect them with
fixion,
and account
for
'
at
the Cruci-
The theory
the halo of divinity.'
seems too ramified. It
may
very naturally be thought that I
or
wilfully
and these
am
introduc-
by dint of unconsciously misrepresenting Mr. Frazer's
ing these complexities
difiiculties
argument. But the argument, I sincerely think, very tangled one.
It
is
really a
seems plain that originally the victim
was only conceived of by Mr. Frazer as dying to save the life of the king,
who
otherwise would have been slain as a god,
on Mr. Frazer's hypothesis of religious regicide, as he could not be trusted
'
to
more than a
for
racter as a god,'
who
jecture
appeared
known god later,^
victim's sacred harlot.
royal
harem.
the Sacsea
As
;
'
slain in his cha-
Tammuz.
say
and the date
The
late as
iii.
said,
That conthe sacrifice was
of
even now, about the
victim was content with the
162
'
the central feature of
seems to have been the saving of the king's
by the slaying
of the rite,
had
bodily and mental vigour
could not be trusted for more than a
Nothing was
June-July.
life,'
full
The king was
'
Nothing was said to indicate that the mock king incar-
year.
nated any special
in
remain in
year.'
main end But the date
of the victim, and, to that
no sacred harlot was necessary.
now been moved from midsummer
to early spring,
and into the neighbourhood of the feast of Purim. >
G. B.
ii.
24, 26.
^
G. B.
ii.
253-254.
N 2
The
MAGIC AND EELIGION
180
religious character of the Sacaea as a period of wailing
and rejoicing in sympathy with a god (Tammuz) now seemed to be overlooked, for Mr. Frazer says that the Sacaea 'was a wild Bacchanalian revel and that Purim was the same men and women disguising themselves, drinking, and behaving wantonly.^ .
.
.'
:
But Purim was connected, through the Book of Haman, Mordecai, Vashti, and Esther and now arose the idea of making Haman, the victim, have a double who represented him in his resurrection. The
Esther, with
Elamite god crept
in
;
Humman
and the Babylonian god Mordecai
through the Book of Esther, and through the
very perilous
effort to identify
and both with Purim.
the Sacsea with Zakmuk,
The Book
of
Esther also
intro-
duced two female characters, and parts had to be found for
them in the Sacaea, though our only authority men-
tions, in
connection with the Sacasa, no female characters
By
whatever, except the ladies of the royal harem.
analogy and conjecture, as to Semiramis and her
lovers,
parts were next found for the female characters of the
Book of Esther as sacred harlots, representing the goddess of love. The consequent amours are supposed to stimulate the crops, and, in this part of the theory, the conjecture that the victim really dies to save the
life of
the king does
appear to be rather dropped out of sight, though is
this idea
the real starting-point of the whole speculation.
There
is a come and go between the victim as king, with royal harem, and the victim as Tammuz, with
the
Conjectures about
the
sacred
Elamite
Marduk flit
harlot.
Humman,
the victim as
the
or as the Babylonian Marduk, or as
representing Eabani, or representing Gilgamesh,
like the weaver's shuttle
warp and woof
through the strangely woven
of the argument. '
G. B.
iii.
Throughout we ask
155, 156.
in
MORDEOAI, ESTHER, VASHTI, AND HABIAN vain for any proof tliat the at
any time, in any
incarnation of or of
text,
Tammuz,
King
of
181
Babylon was
ever,
regarded or spoken of as an
or of
Marduk, or
Gilgamesh, or of Eabani
—which
of
Humman,
the speculation
requires.
Meanwhile the known, or the
mock
royalty, whipping,
yearly lorded
it
at least the alleged, facts are
and death
slave-king.
man who
as king for five days in the Persian palace,
when
at the Sacaea, a period of licence, its
of the
The
every house had
extraordinary complexities
in
a
matter really very simple are caused by identifying the
Purim and Zakmuk,
Sacaea with
nology
;
in the teeth of chro-
and by introducing into the Sacsea, without any
historical evidence, the characters of a
romance about the origin of
Purim.
Hebrew historical The tendency
gods of vegetation everywhere adds
also to find
wildering enchantment,
till
be-
its
the spirit of system discovers
gods of vegetation in the criminals who, on very slender evidence, are said to
have been yearly whipped and hanged.
Nay, even the hypothetical male issue of the criminal, by a hypothetical harlot, is
becomes a hypothetical 'infant
god,'
brought up as a criminal, and ends as a mock-king and
a divine victim.
Mr. Frazer's whole argument,
of course, clashes
the higher criticism of Wellhausen,
could keep no feasts in the exile, and there learned lesson of religious isolation.'
On
with
who avers that the Jews '
the
the other hand, the Jews,
by Mr. Frazer's theory, did keep a
feast,
and a very abomi-
nable feast, and, far from learning the lesson of religious
borrowed the most execrable heathen cruelties, accompanied by ritual debaucheries. So Wellhausen must
isolation,
greatly err in his opinions,
which are much revered by
the clergy of this island. '
Wellhausen, History of Israel, pp. 492-493.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
182
IX
WHY WAS THE MOCK-KING OF THE SACMA WHIPPED AND HANGED? Thotjgh I have
tried to
of the cause of the
I
am
The
'
argue against Mr. Frazer's theory
sacrifice
'
of the
mock
Sacsean king,
not prepared to offer a dogmatic counter-theory. Sacffian
case
unique,
isolated
we
are
ac-
quainted with no other similar examples, and thus a
rite
which has an cause. history.
is
is
isolated existence
;
may have had
a singular
The cause may be hidden behind the Though I have not a firm hypothesis
cause, I shall end this chapter
scenes of as to that
by throwing out a
conjec-
of
what it may be worth. Meanwhile it may be asked why I call the adventure the Sacaean mock-king isolated and unique.' Have
we
not other examples of temporary kings, holding
ture, for
'
office
for three or four days, in a period of festivity and un-
reason ?
Certainly
we have such
kings, but
all
of
them
whipping and hanging. And none of them was a These are not mere verbal, and slave or a criminal. probably not mere accidental, variations from the solitary 'scape
Sacaean type.
But we have the legend
of
Yes, but, accepting the truth of that legend,
St. it
Dasius?
rather adds
to than diminishes the difficulty of getting a clue to the
origin of the Sacaean
tabulate the facts
:
mock-king and his doom.
Let us
A THEOEY OF THE SAC^A A.
A condemned
2.
King
of
criminal.
a thirty days' revel.
3.
Is stripped
4.
Is hanged.
B. SATDENALIA freeman selected by
SACaiA
1.
and scourged.
1.
A
2.
King
3.
Is not stripped or scourged.
4.
Is
Is guessed to represent
Tammuz of 6.
Has
(a)
a
lot.
of a five days' revel.
sacrificed
Saturn 5.
183
;
the altar of
at
or sacrifices himself.
5.
Bepresents Saturn.
6.
Has no known
god, or (6) the king
Babylon or both. ;
a pseudo-resurrection.
pseudo-resur-
rection. 7.
Lies with cubines,
(a)
the royal con-
(6)
with a
7.
Does not
lie
cubines
or
sacred
9.
with
a
sacred
harlot.
harlot. 8.
with royal con-
In
a period of topsy-turvy Ueence to slaves and free.
8.
Which is supposed to commemorate a victory over the
9.
In
a
period
topsy-turvy
of
licence to slaves
and
free.
Which is supposed to commemorate the Golden Age of Saturn.
Sacae.
Under A, number
5
— the iteni that the
king represents the king of Babylon, or
—number
6,
number 7
(6),
conjectures of
Sacsean mock-
Tammuz,
or both
the mock-king's pseudo-resurrection, and
amour with the sacred harlot, are all Mr. Frazer's. The real points of resemhis
blance between the Sacsean and the Moesian victim are their
mockery
(1)
of royalty, (2) their death, occurring in very
different circumstances, (3)
during a period of licence, in-
cludmg the pretence of lordship by slaves hold at Babylon by free men at Eome.
in
each house-
;
The
points of difference are
numerous and
essential,
and the dates and durations of the Babylonian and Roman festivals varj'' widely.
Thus, I think, the Sacsean and Moesian cases do not explain the a secular
meaning
custom
differences
make
of
what
is
(as I believe) it
a religious rite in Moesia in Babylon.
hard to conjecture, with
and Parmentier, that the Moesian Oriental soldiers of
rite
Eome, accustomed
:
Again, the
MM. Cumont
was introduced by to the Babylonian
MAGIC AND RELIGION
184
Sacsea.
descence
But
also difficult,
is
historians,
to suppose a native
survival or recru-
because Greek and
Eoman
essayists, all writing
and
antiquaries,
Eoman
Saturnalia, knovsr of no such survival.
Again,
Italian mock-kings were sacrificed yearly in
if
poets,
on the
originally
many
places,
did they die as proxies for real local Italian kings,
who
would otherwise have been sacrificed ? This, as we have men would never have accepted the seen, is impossible crown on such conditions. Or did they die, like the Mexican :
man-gods slain for a real god Saturn ? But the Mexican victim was a captive free men would hardly
victims, as
:
draw lots for death. There is no trace
Eoman folk-custom of any mock Eoman Saturnalian kings of the
in
slaying of the actual
brawls in each household. in Lucian's
The Saturnalia were
day from cruelty, that Dickens might have
written, as Christmas papers, Lucian's essays
on the subject.
Universal kindness
—the
ing the Trotty Vecks of the period
Saturnalia,
we
;
letters
Scrooges feast-
and family games of forfeits and (played for nuts) were the features of the flowed like water
and
—universal giving of
presents,
Wine
so remote
of
chance
Saturnalia.
but as to amorous licence
at the
only hear the complaint of the rich that
the poor guests
make
too free with the ladies of the
house.
The connection of the Saturnalia with Saturn, recogEomans as that old savage the Greek Cronos, may, or may not, have been original. The
nised by the
Saturnalia were not
'
'
'
saturnine.'
Was
the theory of a
golden age under Saturn not a reflection from the festive period, 'the best day in the year,' says Catullus,
which
had become associated with the name of Saturn ? Our evidence for sacrifice or hanging of a mock-king is so meagre and shadowy (in one case the dubious
A THEORY OF THE SACJJA
185
Dasius legend; in the other what Athenseus cites from
what Dio puts into the mouth of what Strabo tells about the Sacsea) not bear the weight of Mr. Frazer's
Berosus, coupled with
Diogenes, and with that the
ground
not, even
will
eighteen-storied castle
high-piled,
so,
absolutely
mock-kings
of the deaths of of
am willing to
testimony I
though
of
I do
hypotheses.
impugn the truth
of the
two
tales
the undesigned coincidence
;
take for presumption of truth,
of four ancient witnesses
who speak
of the Sacsea,
only one, Dio, alludes to the crowning, robing, stripping, scourging,
and hanging
are
we
mock-king
to explain the obscure
begin with a feature
common
303 A.D. and to the Sacsea. chartered licence,
when
of festivals of licence,
'
for
to
Let us
facts ?
the Mcesian event of
Both occur
in a period of
slaves play the masters, and
all is
Mr. Frazer has collected many examples
topsy-turvy.
Eoman
of the festival.^
PEEIODS OF LICENCE
I.
How
of the
when laws
slaves at the Saturnalia
The
lose their force.^
were not even reproved
conduct which at any other season might have been ^
punished with stripes, imprisonment, or death.'
Now
pass the conjecture that in just one
known
place,
Babylon, the stripes and death for the conduct usually
punished with these penalties were
after
inflicted,
period of licence, on just one person,
the
and you get Dio's
mock-king of the Babylonian Sacasa. Meanwhile observe that there was a Zoganes,
case of the
slave-lord, ruling in
ing that of the king.
^
143
;
4
;
every Babylonian household, includ-
Each Zoganes was
See Appendix B, 'Martyrdom of Dasius.' O. B. iii. 76, 78, 84, 85, 86, 138, 119, note 1 iii. 145 iii. 147.
;
ii.
royally attired,
326
;
139
iii.
;
iii.
141,
;
G. B. i.
or
iii. ]
39
;
Horace, Sat.
Plutarch, Sulla, 18
;
ii.
7,
Lucian, Sat.
4
;
M
5, 7.
crobius,
i.
7,
26
;
Justin,
xliii.
MAGIC AND KELIGION
186
and bore sway
in the dwelling where, except in the five
But for all that was done in days only one man was punished, and he was
days of licence, he served. these five
the king's Zoganes.
Hesychius
silent
is
;
Athenseus does not mention this Strabo does not even speak of the
Our only evidence for the slaying of the king's Zoganes is Dio Chrysostom, putting the anecdote into a feigned discourse of Diogenes. The slaying occurs only in one place, as the Persians had only lordship of slaves.
one king.
Meanwhile of
annual
'
let
It
licence.
us study in various regions the periods
seems as
human
if
Mr. Frazer
burst.'
nature needed an
suggests,
magical
a
as
motive, that the farmers thought by swilling and guzzling just
sow the
before they proceeded to
fields that
thereby imparted additional vigour to the
men
whether
fasted or feasted,
In
seed.'
why
but
of
hcence?
Be
It
custom and
I
venture to suggest that the agricultural
is
becoming
as
is
a period of
among
licence
sun and the
To show
with express and purposeful
may
exist
without an
motive, I shall prove later that
a non-agricultural set
quently,
explanation of
to be in mythology.
breach of the most sacred laws agricultural
at present rather over-
common an
belief as the recognition of the
dawn everywhere used that
it
should non-agricultural savages have periods
motive in religion and ritual v/orked.
fact,
were chaste or amorous,
in all cases they acted for the benefit of the crops. so,
they
when found among
of
savages,
agricultural
descend from some non-agricultural motive.
it
occurs
and,
conse-
peoples,
may
Mr. Frazer
himself elsewhere assigns a motive, not necessarily agricultural, for these chartered explosions of 1.
On
unlaw.
the Gold Coast the period of licence precedes '
G. B.
iii.
145.
A THEOKY OF THE SAC^A ceremony
the annual
season of the year 2.
The
India
January,
when
'
licence
by Dalton
called
is
The
devil.'
of '
Hos
the
North-Bast
of
It is held in
saturnale.'
a
the granaries are full of grain, and the
people, to use their
With
'banishing the
of
not given.
is
of
feast
187
prayers for a
own
expression, are full of devilry.'
good new
year the devil
beaten out
is
of the bounds. 3.
At the similar Mundari
feasted
by
So
their masters.'
good
swilling for the
festival 'the servants are
nothing
far
of the crops
;
that
is
is
noted about
not
'
an excuse
for the glass.' 4.
In the Hindoo Koosh a
end of harvest
:
licence exists at the
little
devils are driven out,
and then seed
is
sown. 5.
In Tonquin from January 25 to February 25 was a
season of dormant law
taken account great
seal
only treason and murder were
and the malefactors detained
of,
should come into operation
were made to
offerings
'
:
till
evil spirits, for 'it is
the
Then
again.'
usual and
customary among them to feast the condemned before their execution.' 6.
The
fugium), gambling 7.
devils
were then expelled.^
In Cambodia, after the expulsion of devils {diabolois
universal.
In Nepaul, in October, feasting and drinking occur,
and presents are made by masters to be,
may
There
slaves.
army
fire
In these cases of licence Mr. Frazer thinks that
men
perhaps,
expulsion
of
for
devils;
the
salutes.^
rejoice either before the expulsion of devils,
ceremony
when bursts '
will carry off their sins, or after the expulsion,
their
minds are by the
either,
G. B.
because that
iii.
84.
^
at ease.^ first
G. B.
iii.
Thus men enjoy
hypothesis, to 119, note
1.
^
these
improve the G. B.
iii.
119.
MAGIO AND EELIGION
188
prospects of agriculture
on the second theory, because
or,
;
a ceremony will cleanse the
sins
the
of
burst
'
because a ceremony has freed their minds from
When
devils.
have plenty
the harvest
So they play
it
In at
off.
cases fulness of bread for the
'
This also explains
The same
During
sexes
its
men
me
to
our seven to account
the Zulu licence at the rejoicing
(8)
a saturnalia, people are not supposed
'
do.'
mark the Pondo
facts
^
feast of first fruits.^
feast
September.
in
is
continuance the grossest licence prevails
and
intrigue,
theft,
of
full of devilry.'
least four out of
In Ashanti the harvest
10.
'
and drink appears
be responsible for what they say or 9.
'
saw, are
or
burst.'
for the first fruits,
to
we
'
fear
then, in fact,
is just in,
of food, and, as
;
abandon
assault
go unpunished, and
themselves to their passions.'
By
^
both
an extra-
ordinary coincidence, which Mr. Frazer does not quote, '
on the fifth day
criminal
is
the Ashanti harvest festival
of
'
as a
mock-king
Ellis,
a
'
sent as a
Is the criminal attired
kings.'
?
would venture
I
B.
Sir A.
sacrificed,' says
messenger to the deceased
'
suggest,
to
as
a
conclusion, that
people indulge in these lawless excesses not so
improve the prospects
of
much
to
as because they are
farming
and that often they are full of devilry have ended their labours and are full of because they meat and drink. Sine Bacche et Cerere friget Venus. 'full of devilry,'
They
therefore permit
themselves a regular debauch
ranks are reversed, slaves lord are
in
abeyance
;
in
it
over their masters, laws
Tonquin reviving law only takes In Bome, at the Saturnalia,
notice of treason and murder.
and
at
among
Purim ' '"
G. B. G. B.
ii. ii.
the Jews,
^
326.
460
;
however, a kind
Ellis,
G. B.
ii.
Tshi-speaking Peoples,
327.
p. 229.
of
A THEORY OF THE SAC^A
189
Dickensite Christianicy prevailed at the period of licence Persia, at the period
in
also
Hyde compares in writing
The
reader will
and grades
is
:
as does Lagarde,
have observed that at not one of
periods of licence, in widely severed regions of civilisation, is a
Indeed, nobody
nobody
and Purim
on Purim.^
many
these
to the Sacsea
Purdagheln, which
called
mock-king put to death.
put to death, except in Ashanti, and
is
scourged.
Thus, as I remarked before, the case
of the mock-king at the Babylonian Sacsea
far as
our knowledge goes.
THE DIVINE SCAPEGOAT
II.
In
many cases,
part of devil
he
is
is
however, at expulsion of the
played by a
beaten away.
Mr. Prazer's theory at the Sacsea
was
as the king's
Tammuz, this, of
'
man who
I have already said that,
understand '
(the king being
a god)
man
or scourged
;
(6)
after a
whipping.
Mr. Frazer's theory
But his
I
am
;
(3)
that
;
still less
known (if
to
me
;
possible)
is his
theory)
is
(5)
that
crucified,
is sacrifice
by hanging
These arguments convince (if it
when
that there
(4)
Tammuz
have been hanged, or
that in no case
performed by hanging,
To
was not annually nor by the
being killed as
Tammuz is nowhere said to
also as
that I could
(2)
;
infamous death of a malefactor (hanging) of a
and
no case seemed to be given
no case of a king being killed by proxy it
namely both
;
Marduk and Humman.
king yearly to benefit a god
kings really were killed,
by
the mock-king
it),
in a double role
course, I replied (1) that
was no proof
the
devils,
driven away, often
(as I
sacrificed
proxy
is
Now
not to speak of
of killing a
find
isolated, as
is
me
that
unconvincing.
not quite sure that Mr. Frazer really holds
Sacsean victim to have played two parts, at Hyde, Hist. Bel. Pers. pp. 260-267.
two
MAGIC AND RELIGION
190
human
with
Now, however,
times of year.
distinct
a victim
'
connection
in
make
scapegoats, our author does certainly
double a
First, it
part.'
beast-god or man-god
'
was usual to
to save his divine life
weakened by the inroads
of
scapegoats, driven
heads.
But, suggests Mr. Frazer,
away with '
from being
Next, there were
age.'
human
a
kill
on
evil
all
their
occurred to people
if it
combine these two customs, the result would be the employment of the dying god' (god-man, king, or his to
proxy)
take
'
away sin, but
racy of old age people
He was
as a scapegoat.
to save the divine
but, since
;
may have
he had
and
life
not originally to
from the degeneany rate,
to be killed at
thought that they might as well
him the burden
the opportunity to lay upon sufferings
killed,
sin in order that
he might
of
their
bear.it
away
with him to the unknown world beyond the grave.'
Even
man
mob was
a Dublin
^
about to throw a
over from the gallery of the theatre, some economist
cried,
'
Don't waste him
As proof
we
when
so,
seize
:
kill
a fiddler with
him
'
that people might reason in this thrifty
learn that, on
March
15, a
scapegoat man, called
way '
Old
was beaten at Eome and expelled. Mars, of was a god of vegetation, and here the man-god, Old Mars,' is both god and scapegoat. But he is not
Mars,'
course, '
nor even hanged.^
sacrificed,
In Athens during plague, drought, or famine two human scapegoats were done to death, and Mr. Frazer infers,
but
doubtfully,
were stoned
also occurred yearly at the Thargelia
conjecture.
In Greek
calamity, an dried
figs,
cities of
ugly or deformed
a barley
loaf,
to ;
This
death.
the stoning
is
a
Asia Minor, in times of
man was made
to eat
Then he was beaten
and cheese.
seven times in a special manner, with squills and myrtle '
G. B.
iii.
120, 121.
^
Q
.B.
iii.
122, 123.
A THEORY OF THE SAC^A
191
boughs, was burned, and the ashes were thrown into the sea.
The beating
was good
in this ugly poor devil
So
for the crops.
representative
a
must recognise
expelled evil influences and
at once
'
we
the creating and
of
god of vegetation.' I really must try to save These stupid cruelties, if him from this general doom wovked magically, the usual agricaltural motive, they had not religiously, worked by sympathetic magic, not by This creature, though supposed to divine interference. be a god of vegetation, was confessedly in appearance no
fertilising
!
Adonis
^ !
In rejecting the idea that this hideous wretch did duty
he won and so cold that he
as a god, Adonis, so fair that
golden Aphrodite, I
rejected the love of the
myself by Mr.
Prazer's example.
deformed victim was,
—not
religion
Mr. Frazer himself says of the
Western
vegetation, all over '
justify
anything, used in magic, not in
if
In the same way
embodying a god.
as
may
argue that the
I
rites of
the dying god of
Asia, that the ritual
was
fundamentally a religious, or rather a magical, ceremony.'
So was the beating and death of the ugly deformed (as to
whom no
^
man
evidence hints that he did duty for a god)
a merely magical ceremony.
Now
let
us see where
to prove that a
was put
god-king,
to save the
licence,
we
whom
man, to
Mr. Frazer's point was
are.
he regarded as a proxy of a
death, at
divine
period of chartered
a
But people
life.
also
had
human scapegoats. So they perhaps argued (this is my own suggestion) As the proxy of the man-god (himself '
:
ex
officio
a man-god) has to be killed at any rate, and as a
scapegoat has to be thumped,
why
not
thump
the
man-
god who has to die at any rate ? Let him double the part, nay, as
we '
are economising, let
G. B.
iii.
125-128.
him "
treble the part, let
G. B.
iii.
p.
179
MAGIC AND EELIGION
192
him be beaten
as a scapegoat,
the divine Hfe
Tammuz.' But to prove out,
that
We
?
be hanged as a proxy for
and
king,
be hanged as
also
thought
v?as deliberately
this
all
where have we a case
put to death
is
the
of
god-man who
of a scapegoat
have none, unless we
Mr. Frazer
let
persuade us that his ugly deformed person,
'
a degraded
must be recognised as a representative fertilising god of vegetation, whose reproductive powers are stimulated that these might be and useless
being,'
of the creative
transmitted in
'
and
full activity to his successor,
new embodiment
or
of the old god,
the
who was
new god doubtless
supposed immediately to take the place of the one slain.'
must
decline to obey Mr. Frazer's
'
idea that
to the
doubtless
Next, I demur
the dying deformed
'
I
must,' and to recognise
an Adonis in the ugly deformed person. '
^
one
handed over his powers to a new god. Thirdly, if all this is meant to show that the Sacaean criminal was not only (1) a proxy, saving the royal divine life, and enjoying the royal harem and (2) was a representative of Tammuz, ;
enjoying a sacred harlot
;
but
(3)
was, moreover, a
human
scapegoat, scourged as such, and to stimulate his repro-
ductive powers, and to expel evil influences, then I really
cannot accept the portentous hypothesis.
examples of
human
but that
trifle.
If
is
a
Mr. Frazer
No
attested
scapegoats at Babylon are offered,
really
means
to add the duties of a
scapegoat, and the consequent beating,^ to the duties of
Tammuz man
proxy king and Saturnalia,
he does not say
that he wishes The
so.
in his
It does
chapter
on the
not appear, then,
to explain the scourging of the
mock-king
mine. explaining the flogging of the Sacsean victim, Mr. Frazer does not say that the purpose was to stimulate his reproductive powers.' He speaks of a mitigation of burning. '
^
italics are
When
'
'
'
A THEOEY OP THE SAO^A by
at the Sacsea it
his theory of a
human
193
scapegoat, and
does not appear that he ever explains the stripping of
the royal robes from the unlucky really died as a
man.
Yet
man
the
if
mock-king, there must have been some
reason for stripping
him
We
of his royal raiment.
never
King Saturnus was either whipped before being sacrificed. Nor do I re-
hear that the representative of stripped or
mark that, in Anahuac, the human victim who personated a god was stripped of the god's robes and ornaments. Why then was the Sacsean victim, and he alone (as far as we know), reduced from his royalty by being stripped before execution, and also brought down to the estate of a slave by being scourged ?
MGEE PERIODS OP LICENCE
III.
I
am
going with more than diffidence to offer a guess
at the reasons,
asking
to
it
merely because the case
be remembered that I do so
is isolated,
and cannot
at present
But first, returning must show that they are not
be illustrated by parallel ceremonies. to the periods of licence,
I
to agricultural races, nor, therefore, necessarily
peculiar instituted
to aid
the farmer.
This in
itself
is
a great
comfort, for one wearies of being told that the crops are so
custom and
eternally the cause of
Arunta
of Central
Australia, in
race and not agricultural,
on certain occasions,
women
'
when
rite.
many ways
Among a
considerable licence a large
number
of
the
backward is
allowed
men and
are gathered together to perform certain corro-
borees' (or sacred dances).
So say Messrs. Spencer and
Gillen.
The laws
A man is
his
'
is
of
marriage are then turned upside down.
woman who may not, under
ordered to have relations with the
Mura
—that
is,
one to
whom
he
MAGIC AND RELIGION
194
ordinary circumstances, even speak, or go near,
have anything is
much
less
Every man
like marital relations with.'
expected to send his wife to these dances, for the
express purpose of violating, in this period of licence, the
most sacred laws of the tribe. ^ These backward persons, the Arunta, have no native strong drink, and cannot get intoxicated, but what they can they do in the way of licence, like more civilised races, and necessarily not for agricultural reasons, as they have no agriculture. They break their most sacred law, just as the Jews, at Purim,
law
deliberately broke the
of Moses.^
Conceivably, then,
even stripping, scourging, and hanging a mock-king
may
the Saseca
also
have been done
for
at
some reason not
agricultural.
What festival ?
view did the Persians themselves take
of their
I do not think that Mr. Frazer insists enough
on this point. The Persians regard the Sacsea as commemorative of a great massacre of the Sacse near the Euxine. In both forms of the Persian legend, in Strabo, their ancestors fell lessly
intoxicated
asleep, or dancing
on the Sacse when that :
'
drunk
and
were massacred, and the Sacaea, a
wine.'
of
The
feast of licence,
dedicated to the Persian goddess Anaitis
memory
drowsy
frantic,
and maddened with
was hope-
tribe
the intoxicated revels of the
;
and Sacae
was
obviously in Sacse,'
or so
tradition averred.
The Persians
thus,
by dint
of a popular etymology
(Sacaea from Sacae), accounted to themselves for the origin
'
Spencer and Gillen regard these authorised and enforced breaches
of
sacred laws as testifying to the existence in the past of a time when no such laws existed, when promiscuity was universal, or at least as pointing in
the direction of wider marital relations than exist at present {op. cit. in). In the same way the Komans thought that the Saturnalia pointed back to a golden age when there was no law. '
2
G. B.
iii.
156,
'
»
Strabo, 511.
A THEORY OF THE SAC^A
which, says Strabo,
of a period of chartered licence, in
men and women,
'both
dressed in the Scythian habit,
drink and sport wantonly other cases, collected its
kings of unreason
195
by night and
As
day.'
by Athenseus, the lawless slaves acting as masters
:
many
in
had
revel
and kings.
Just one of these kings, the Zoganes in the royal household,
was afterwards
What
Tonquin
all
We
been told that in the
'
have
seen that in
crimes committed in the period of licence
are overlooked, except treason
unreproved,
and hanged.
scourged,
stripped,
could the reason be?
what
Eoman
at
We
and murder.^
have
Saturnalia a slave might do,
any other time would be punished ^ We have read
with stripes, imprisonment, or death.'
the
that, at
Pondo period
made responsible
his
for
nobody was later though at Tonquin
of licence, actions,
The same
murder and treason were excepted.' sibility
To
pervades the Zulu period of
most sacred laws are
reinforce this fact, that the
purposefully broken at
some periods
Nanga
Fiji.
orgies
old
in
'
and food
devilry
'
'
Men and women,
were
seemed
sister
But
after the
'
to
be
Nanga, as
This precisely answers to the Australian
with the Mura. '
need
Nanga, brothers and sisters might not even speak
each other.
incest
full of
'
in fantastic
and
of brother
no bar to the general licence.'
to
people being
practised unmentionable abominations.'
Even the relationship before the
'
frequently
is
All distinctions of property were
suspended at the Nanga.
pubHcly
;
at harvest, which, perhaps, they
not be iu March-April.
dresses,
of licence, I cite the
The Nanga
spoken of as the Mbaki, or harvest
irrespon-
licence.''
Brothers and
intentionally coupled.'
initiatory mysteries, like the '
G. B.
iii.
"
Q. B.
ii.
84. p. 327.
sisters at
the
The ceremonies
Bora
Nanga
included
of the Australian blacks. 2
G. B.
iii.
*
G. B.
ii.
139.
p. 326.
o 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
196
As
at the
Arunta corroborees, the great point was to break This pecuHar those of incest.'
the most sacred laws '
burst
then
'
is
in Austraha pre-agricultural, though, as in
among an
Fiji, it survives
IV.
:
agricultural people.
THE SACiBA AS A PERIOD OF LICENCE Each
Well, the Sacsea was such a period of licence.
household was then ruled by a
The
Athenseus quotes Berosus.
Now
an exception. royal robes,
was not
to rule the royal household, in the
and above
harem (compare
the Zoganes, as
slave,
royal household
all to
take liberties with the royal
Fijian and Australian licence),
is
treason;
one of the two crimes excepted from the Satumalian
amnesty
in
To
Tonquin.
overlook treason would be, for
a Persian monarch, to set a dangerous precedent.
Zoganes, or slave-king of the
fore the royal
revel, unlike the
Zoganes
At
this point let
A
of a substitute.
five days'
would deserve
of private houses,
death, technically speaking.
Mr. Frazer's theory
There-
me
adopt
criminal already
condemned to death is employed instead of a harmless slave, as Zoganes of the royal household, and is then hanged.
In dozens folklore,
'
of cases of
summer gambols,
in
European
the Whitsuntide representatives of the tree spirit
mock death. ^ These are in one or two instances kings.' The regular May Kings and May Queens
are put to a called
seem
'
to escape
to the mayor.'
may
:
the Grass King merely
'
merely mean that the actor's reign
Mr. Frazer's opinion '
Fison, J. A.
hands his crown
handing the crown
think), like
(I
'
These mock slayings of
:
the
to the mayor,
over.
This
summer monarchs when ^
I. xiv. p. 28. »
is
folklore actors
G. B.
i.
218.
G. B.
ii.
60-66.
is
not
killed
A THEORY OF THE SAC^A
197
he thinks, as their precursors were
in sport are killed,
the god of vegetation.
really slain, for
what crimes are wrought
in thy
name
vegetation,
!
In any case the royal Zoganes, or criminal substitute for the slave-king
the royal household in Babylon,
of
deserved a hanging, to discourage the precedent of treason set
by him in the period
Only in the king's
of licence.
house was the reign of the Zoganes high treason.
Now,
before hanging him,
it
was
actually necessary to
demonstrate by symbolic action that he was no real king,
common
but a
true level
slave or criminal.
by being stripped
He was
reduced to his
and by
of his royal robes,
being whipped, a specially servile punishment.
He was
then hanged.
But
merely because, as in
to treat a real slave thus
every other household, he played the Zoganes or slave as master,
on him by custom,
royal household of a
already
The man's only
would be a shame.
accident, thrust
jealous
condemned took the
fault
was the
of playing lord in the
monarch.
part, and, as
So a criminal the slave would
have been, he was finally reduced to his level by being stripped of his royal robes
death
;
and scourged, before suffering for the crime on
technically for treason, really
which he was originally condemned. This mere guess at the origin of a unique custom has (and I
see that
certain advantages.
It explains
Mr. Frazer explains)
why
the Sacsean mock-king (unlike
was
stripped
the
Saturn victim)
and whipped.
of
fail to
his
royal
These sufferings proclaimed the
robes
man no
king, but a slave.
Again, his hanging was just what, as
condemned on a
capital charge,
might expect.
With
a
low-bom malefactor
the best will in the
world,
no
Babylonian could follow Mr. Frazer and take a hanged felon for a
god or a divine
sacrifice.
Why only one man »o3
MAGIC AND RELIGION
198
was thus
treated,
though there was a Zoganes or
lord in every house,
is
was only one royal house, only one household the slave-lord's conduct was treason.
With
!
we
which
in
my own
paternal fondness I contemplate
But, alas
guess.
slave-
explained by the fact that there
little
are not told that the other slave-
lords at the Sacsea actually invaded the ladies of the house.
So why should the slave-lord allowed to do so ? point of danger
?
How Well,
is
we
of the royal
my
household be
conjecture to weather this
am
are never told (as far as I
aware) that a subject in the East enfeoffed himself of
demesne by invading the harem of the man to whose estate he was a pretender. But in the case of royal demesne to invade the harem was the first step for the purpose of a young pretender, like Absalom, of making known and strengthening his claim to the
private
'
throne,' says Movers.'
Eemembering
the
tenacity
traditional
of
usage,
sanctioning deadly sexual crimes in some periods of licence,
remembering
that, in
them, the
rately break, as did the
Jews
'
primitive
'
Arunta
at Purim, and the
delibe-
Fijians,
the most sacred and stringent of their taboos, shall we
not allow Sacsean custom to encroach, for the purpose of
making the royalty of the king's Zoganes harem ? For in that way was
the king's
proclaimed and asserted.
Sir Alfred
indisputable, on
Oriental royalty
Lyall says
' :
We
few unfortunate concubines would have no account at all for the due performance of a popular Babylonian masquerade, which might just as well mimic earthly kingship as symbolise divine mysteries.' And now we see a simple and conceivable reason why
believe that a
been
'
of
G. B.
2
Samuel
i.
15.
iii.
xvi.
21
160, note ;
cf. xii.
1,
8
;
citing Movers,
Herodotus,
iii.
Die Phcenizier, i. 490, seq.; Josephus, Contra ApUm.
68
;
A THEORY OF THE SAC^A
199
the mock-king of the Sacsea invaded the king's harem, ruled
all royally,
was crowned, robed
in the king's robes,
and wipe away his the royal robes, whipped as a slave
and then, to restore his servile status
was stripped of was whipped, and hanged as a condemned criminal deserved
royalty,
to be.
My all
Mr. Frazer's hypothesis,
guess, unlike
It explains the stripping,
the facts.
It explains the scourging
does not, I think, explain.
hanging, which Mr. Frazer
(what
is
incredible) that of old the Persian It accounts
It involves us in
the sufferer
proxy and also a representative of
Humman, But
licence just as in
no double, and,
ing, contradictory theory, that
kings were
occurrence of
for the
the execution at a season of secular
Ashanti.
and
obliged to account for as a
is
It does not require us to believe
mitigation of burning.
sacrificed annually.
colligates
which Mr. Frazer
to
is
my
think-
both king's
Tammuz, or Marduk,
or
or Gilgamesh, or Eabani.
my
guess
is
prove that guessing
only a guess, and is
We
easy.
is
offered chiefly to
cannot be certain about
any explanation of a custom so remote, so unparalleled, and reported on evidence so
late
and
so dubious as that of
Dio Chrysostom.
Some
my
student
sacred harlot. of
may
point out that, though I boast of
theory as colligating
all
the facts, I have
But she was only the
Mr. Frazer's.
A
scientific
child of
hypothesis
is
left
out the
an hypothesis
not required to
more than the known facts in each case. And I am by no means certain that the facts given by our only colligate
authority, Dio,
were facts
of history.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
200
X CALVABY It
is,
fortunately, not needful to dwell long on the dis-
seem to shed which contributed to the
proval of Mr. Frazer's theory that his facts fresh light on
some
of the causes
remarkably rapid diffusion .
.
.
The new
of Christianity in Asia Minor.
had elements
faith
'
powerfully to the Asiatic mind.
.
in
.
.
it
We
which appealed have seen that
the conception of the dying and risen god was no in these regions.
.
A man whom
.
of his worshippers invested
gave his
life for
the
with the attributes of a god
of the world.
life
causes which, because
new one
the fond imagination
we cannot
the loose language of daily
life
.
A
chain of
follow them, might in
be called an accident,
determined that the part of the dying god in this annual play should be thrust on Jesus of Nazareth.
death as the
dying god
'
Haman
' .
annual mystery play
of the
His
of the
impressed upon what had been hitherto mainly
an ethical mission the character of a divine revelation culminating in the passion and death of the incarnate Son of a
heavenly Father.
and death
this
of Jesus exerted
never have had of
In
if
form the story
of the life
an influence which
it
could
the great teacher had died the death
a vulgar malefactor.
It
shed round the Cross on
Calvary a halo of divinity,' &c.*
But
all this
halo could only be shed >
G. B.
iii.
195-197.
if
the victim was
CALVARY
201
recognised by the world as dying in the character of a
and as
god,
rising again in the person of
We
Mordecai of the year.
know on
Barabbas, the
the best historical
Greeks foolishness,
was no such recognition. To the and to the Jews a stumbling block,'
was the Cross, as
St.
evidence that there
know at
'
Paul assures
that ribaldry, not reverence,
the
By
Crucifixion.
mock
his
which he
marked the multitude
Mr. Frazer's theory Barabbas
represented the re-arisen god,
"Was Barabbas revered
we
Moreover,
us.
No
?
'
'
;
The Son of the Father.' some pretended to salute
majesty, and others belaboured the donkey on rode.'
Therefore, by Mr. Frazer's
^
the divine facts about
statement,
Yet he was the counterpart
recognised.
own
explicit
Barabbas were not of the
sacred
Victim.
Mr. Frazer's theory demands, I think, the general
godhead
recognition of the
of the yearly victim,
which
Christ's mission 'the influence
had
if
it
who gave
could never have
the great teacher had died the death of a vulgar ^
malefactor.'
Yet Mr. Frazer himself assures us that the idea
may have been
divinity of the victim 'sacrifice'
might seem
the passage
cite
man
is
The
' :
forgotten,
man who
civilised, if it
is
is killed.
does not drop
death at any
festival at
of the
that his
the execution of a criminal.'
This
at least selects as victims
put to
;
I
divine character of the animal or
and he comes
an ordinary victim. a divine
'
forgotten
to be regarded merely as
especially the case
when
it is
For when a nation becomes human sacrifices altogether, it
only such wretches as would be
rate.
Thus, as in the Sacsean
Babylon, the killing of a god
may come
confounded with the execution of a criminal.
'
to be
^
Yet
within eighty pages Mr. Frazer attributes the 'halo of '
O. B.
ii
.
192.
2
(J. _B. iii.
197.
3
g.
_B. ;;;.
120.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
202
divinity
'
happy accident which enabled the victim
to the
to die as a recognised representative of a dying god.'^
Mr. Frazer puts forth his hypothesis
He
may have
thinks that he
dence.'
^
by the
interest
'
and importance
'
with great
diffi-
perhaps been led
of the subject
somewhat
deeper than the evidence warrants.'
That
is
We
certain.
have shown that the evidence,
cm: opinion, warrants none of the hypotheses
in
;
no,
not one. It It
from
not proved that magic
is
disproved that general belief (as distinguished
is
local legend) in
There
man
older than religion.
is
is
any age regards gods as mortal.
no evidence, or none
given, to
is
show that
has ever been sacrificed for the benefit of a god
a
whom
he incarnates.
There
is
no evidence that a
real
sacrificed to benefit a
god
state of early Italy, or
anywhere.
The evidence torically, of the
The deaths
for
any
is
city-
incredible.
mock-kings
sacrifice of
they were not
;
date of the festival
is
idea
is,
his-
sacrifices, if
they
all.
perished cannot be
There
The
the Sacsean mock-kings were infamous
of
ever occurred at
custom
king was ever yearly
Babylon, or in every
weakest conceivable kind.
executions of criminals
The
at
made
to
fit
at
no evidence that
of killing a yearly
which,
if
at
all,
they
Purim or Easter. the Jews borrowed the
in with
human
victim, or practised the
habit.
was
month
after Purim."
If
they did,
If
they did, by Mr. Frazer's
it
a
own
statement the
killing
The passage in which Mr. Frazer thus appears to demolish his own theory represents his opinion before his theory was evolved. It appeared in his first edition, but he retains it in his remodelled work. '
'
' G. B. iii. 195. iii. 193. See the contradictory attempts to get out of thio diiEculty in
G. B.
iii.
189.
CALVAEY
203
might be thought that of a vulgar malefactor/ and could not cast on all or on any one of the victims a halo of divinity. Finally, our ovra history, in the case of the Earl of Atholl
(who pretended to the crown at the murder of James I. of Scotland) and in the case of Sir William Wallace (who
was accused
saying that he would be crowned in
of
Westminster Hall), proves that pretenders to royalty have been mocked by being indued with symbols of royalty.
Wallace was crowned at his
trial
with laurel
Atholl was
;
The Victim
tortured to death with a red-hot iron crown. of
Calvary was accused of aiming at a kingdom, and, like
Wallace and Atholl, was crowned preliminary scourging
is
—with
The
thorns.
by the tyranny
illustrated
of
Verres in Sicily.
May we
not conclude that Mr. Frazer's
of hypothesis '
have broken down '
The importance and
induced
light bridges
?^
interest of
the subject
'
have
me to examine the hypotheses. But it was needless.
One point has been if
'
'
clear
from the beginning.
Even
the Sacsean victims were originally supposed to be gods,
they could not bequeath a halo of divinity to Christ, unless, as late as
was
still
commonly
recognised. of his
'
the reign of Tiberius, their
When
recognised.
Now
it
own godhead
certainly
Mr. Frazer published the
first
was not edition
Golden Bough,' he doubted that the Sacsean victim
could, as civilisation advanced, be identified
with a god.
But, before publishing his second edition,
Mr. Frazer
evolved his theory of the origin or partial origin of the
the divinity of Christ, as inherited from the
belief in
criminal slaves at therefore, the
regarded as
the Sacsea.
is
edition,
usually
commonly recognised; though Mr. Frazer
had doubted the possibility '
In his second
godhead of the Sacsean victims
G. B.
iii.
120,
of this in his first, "
G, B.
i.
and preserves
xv, xvi.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
204
the doubt in his second edition.
It is needless to
say
more.
Mr. Prazer,
own
in vol.
iii.
theory as given in vol.
120, iii.
had already shaken his I might have
195-198.^
contented myself with comparing these two passages,
but in the interest of the nascent science of religion
seemed desirable
to point out
what
think the errors of method that following essay criticism
is
I
am
now
constrained to
prevail.
In the
applied to an hypothesis with
which modern orthodoxy has no concern. '
it
See also Appendix C, pp. 303-304.
206
XI
THE GHASTLY PRIEST The
system, of finding master keys for
spirit of
all
the
and mythology, has confessedly been misguide students. Macrobius was the father,'
locks of old religion
apt to
'
says Mr. Frazer,
'
of that large family of
most gods into the sun.
resolve all or
mythologistswho
According to him
Mercury was the sun. Mars was the sun, Janus was the
was the sun,
sun, Saturn
likewise
Pantheon.
It
identify Osiris
was
natural,
with the sun.
Mythology has been universal
dominion
Jupiter, also Nemesis,
of
therefore,
that he should
^
.
.
.
'
late
emancipated from the
but only to
of the sun,
of gods of vegetation,
or of
was
so
Pan, and so on through a great part of the
whether
fall
under that
of vegetable life at large,
the corn spirit and the oak spirit in particular.
"What Mr. Frazer says about Macrobius, Macrobius would retort '
on Mr. Frazer, thus
:
According to him Mars was a god of vegetation,
Saturn was a god of vegetation also It
(of
sowing), so was Zeus,
Hera, and so on through a great part of the Pantheon.
was natural,
with a god of vegetation
Far be
when
his
Macrobius
it
from
me
—and Mr. Frazer does
to say that
gods are gods is
he should identify Osiris
therefore, that
of
Mr. Frazer
vegetation,
or
so.' is
wrong,
even that
wrong, when his gods are gods of the sun. '
G. B.
ii.
147.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
206
me
hold of
god
when
god had obtained a firm public favour, the public might accept him as a
It appears to
that
a
and the other aspect or phenomenon
of this, that,
of
nature.
new
the
Still,
work the
school of mythology does
vegetable element in mythology hard
;
the solar element used to be worked.
nearly as hard as
Aphrodite, as the
female mate of Adonis, gets mixed up with plant
So
life.^
does Attis with Cybele, so does Balder,^ so does Death,^ does Dionysus'* with undoubted propriety;
so
does
so
Eabani, so does Gilgamesh, so does Haman, so does Hera,^ does lasion with Demeter,* so
so
Jack-in-the-Green, so Lityerses,^ so does
Marduk
or
(if
does
Mamurius
Tammuz,
does
probably
;
^^
so
does
and
Isis,'
Veturius,^" so does
Merodach
he represents Eabani or Gilgamesh), so
does Mars,^^ so does Osiris,^^ so
does
Kupalo,* so do Linns
so,
I think, does Semiramis,^'
does Virbius,^*
so
so
does
Zeus,
does a great multitude of cattle,
so
cats,
horses, bulls, goats, cocks, with plenty of other beasts.
The
solar
Achilles school,
up
too,
were the sun.
the Covent Garden school
real
human
some
long array of criminals
of
it,
I
vegetable
of mythologists,
as
do not
mixes
Jesus Christ
we have
who were hanged
partly as gods of vegetation.
heroes like
But the
beings with vegetation.
derives his divinity, or
seen, from a
partly as kings, feel absolutely
Iscariot, at his annual burnings in
assured that Judas ef&gy,
not spare
mythologists did
they,
;
escapes the universal
doom any more than
the
ugly deformed person who was whipped and killed in old But an unexpected man to be a representative Attica. '
* '
'»
G. B. G. B. G. B. G. B.
" G. B.
iii.
166.
ii.
160.
ii.
145.
ii.
123.
iii.
163.
'^
'
"
0.
-B. iii.
G. B. G. B.
" G. B. '* G. B.
i.
346.
227.
"
G. B.
ii.
95.
"
G. B.
ii.
217.
253
"
G. B.
ii.
iii.
122.
'^
G. B.
iii.
127.
iii.
456.
'=
G. B.
iii.
456, 457.
ii.
129.
;
ii.
250.
of a
god of vegetation
He
near Aricia. of
is
207
the priest of the grove of Diana
known
is
PRIEST
(jtMASTJLY
l±lJ!i
from the familar verse
to all
Macaulay trees in whose dark shadow The ghastly priest doth reign, The priest who slew the slayer,
These
And
Why, Mr. Frazer
shall himself be slain.
had the
asks, in effect,
priest of the
grove of Diana, near Aricia, to slay his predecessor, subject, in turn, to
First, let
office?
new competitor for the we know about this
death at the hands of a
ghastly priest.
ask what
us
Let us begin with the evidence
^neid
in the Sixth
Book of
Virgil says
nothing about the ghastly
place,
the
'
'
(line
136 and so onwards). priest, or, in this
about Diana, or the grove near Aricia.
indeed, tells us
much
about a bough of a
Virgil,
golden
tree, a
But some
branch, but, as to the singular priest, nothing. four
of Virgil,
hundred years after Virgil's date (say 370
commentator on
Servius, tries
Virgil,
passage cited from the
to
He
^neid.'
'
a.d.)
illustrate
us that, in his
own
time,
public opinion
placed the habitat of Virgil's
bough
the ghastly priest, near Aricia.
It
is,
or took
it
from
may Bameau d'Or of Madame bough, as we shall see, learning.
common with
haunted by
known
in fact, not
extraordinary
its
his rich store of
have been a folklore
It
tells
(publica opinio)
in the grove
whether Virgil invented his bough, with attributes,
'
the
knows
obviously
nothing about Virgil's mystic golden bough, but he '
a
antiquarian
belief, like
d'Aulnoy's fairy
tale.
Le
Virgil's
has one folklore attribute in
a mystic sword in the Arthurian cycle of
romances, and in the Volsunga Saga.
Frazer has failed to
comment on
I think that Mr.
this point.
hazard a guess as to Virgil's branch,
it
is
If I
might
that, of old,
suppliants approached gods or kings with boughs in their
MAGIC AND RELIGION
208
hands.
He who
would approach Proserpine
Virgil, a
bough
pure gold, which only the favoured and
of
carried,
in
predestined suppliant could obtain, as shall be shown.
In the four centuries between Virgil and Servius the
meaning and source
But
gotten.
of Virgil's
branch of gold were
people, and Servius himself,
knew
bough, near Aricia, and located (conjecturally
branch of gold in that
district.
mentary on the '^neid,'
much
for-
of another Virgil's
?)
Servius, then, in his com-
after the
manner
of annotators in
about the boughs of a certain tree
all
ages, talks
in
a certain grove, concerning which Virgil makes no
remark.
Virgil,
golden branch
we
as
shall see,
was writing about a Knowing, like
of very peculiar character.
the public opinion of his age, something about quite other branches, and nothing about Virgil's branch, Servius
tells
us that, in the grove of Diana at Axicia, there grew a tree
from which
it
was unlawful (non
to
licebat)
break a
any fugitive slave, however, could break a branch from this tree, he might fight the priest, taking his In the opinion of Servius the temple office if successful. bough.
If
was founded by Orestes, to the barbaric Diana Chersonese, whence he had fled after a homicide.
of
the
That
Diana received human sacrifices of all strangers who landed on her coasts. The rite of human sacrifice was, in Italy,
commuted, Servius thinks,
for the duel
between
the priest and the fugitive slave, Orestes having himself
been a fugitive.
The
on a barbarous coast
is
process
is, first
a Greek wanderer
in danger of being offered, as
outlanders were offered, to the local goddess. a
form
of xenelasia,
an anti-immigrant
all
This rite was
statute.
Compare
China, the Transvaal, the agitation against pauper immigrants.
Having escaped being
sacrificed,
the king in an unfriendly land, Orestes
and having flies
killed
to Italy and
appeases the cruel Diana by erecting her fane at Aricia.
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
209
But, instead of sacrificing immigrants, he, or his suc-
between the priest and any other
cessors, establish a duel
Why ?
fugitive slave.
was not accustomed
The
such interpretations always
all
are.
story about Orestes appears to myself to be a late
myth,' a story invented to explain the slaying
setiological
the slayer
of
Diana
nor had he been a
an allegorising interpretation of Virgil's branch, as
worthless as
'
priest of the cruel
sacrificed,
Servius then, not observing this, goes off
fugitive slave. into
For the be
to
—which The
hypothesis.
does not do
it
priesthood
is
in short,
;
open not to
men
an
it is
flying the
runaway slaves. The custom introduced by Orestes was the sacrifice of outThe story has a doublette in landers, not of priests.
blood feud like Orestes, but only to
According to Pausanias, Hippolytus was
Pausanias.^ raised
from the dead, and, in hatred
of his father,
and
being a fugitive, he went and reigned at the Arician grove of the goddess.
For these reasons, apparently. Statins grove
'
profugis regibus
the Arician
calls
aptum,' a sanctuary of exiled
and Hippolytus.^ From Suetonius we learn that the ghastly priest was styled Bex Nemorensis, King of the Wood, and that the envious Caligula, think-
princes,
Orestes
ing the priest
had held
athlete to kill
him.'
priest, suggests,
office
The
long enough, set another
title
of
Also Mr. Frazer adduces African kings of credited with miraculous kill
nobody and nobody
in-the-Green
Mannhardt vegetation '
is
Pausanias,
them.
a ruler, ii.
xxvii. 4.
'
fire
and water,
They Then we have Jack-
Spirit of Vegetation
the Queen of the May.
observes,
king at Eome.
powers over the elements.
kills
= May-Tree = the
May King and
borne by a
'king,'
of course, the sacrificial
'
These
= the as
titles,'
imply that the spirit incorporate in
whose creative power extends °
SylvcB,
iii. i.
55.
'
far
Caligula, 35.
P
MAGIC AND RELIGION
210
and wide.'
Possibly
Now, the King
so.
Wood,
of the
who
ghastly priest, lived in the grove of Diana,
the
(among other things) has the attributes of a tree-spirit. May not, then, the King of the Wood, in the Arician grove, have been, like the King of the May ... an in-
'
carnation of the tree-spirit,
Given a female of the
tree-spirit,
Wood and we ;
Diana
to
or
spirit
we should
vegetation
of
?
rather expect a Queen
assuredly do' not expect a priest of
represent the supreme Aryan god, nay to in-
But this Mr. Frazer thinks probable.^ King of the Wood could only be assailed by him who had plucked the golden bough, his life was carnate him.
Again,
safe
since the
'
from assault as long as the bough, or the
which
it
tree
on
^
grew, remained uninjured.'
Here we remark the nimbleness of Mr. Frazer's Tradition averred method. In vol. i. 4 he had said '
:
that the fatal branch
that golden
(in
'
bough which,
the grove near Aricia)
at the Sibyl's bidding,
was
'
J5neas
plucked before he assayed the perilous journey to the
world of the dead.'
But
I have
tried
to
show
that,
according to Servius, this identification of two absolutely distinct
boughs, neither similar nor similarly situated, was
the conjecture of Virgil's date
'
public opinion
by four hundred
In the space between of tradition, as
curious, as I
vol.
Mr. Frazer
'
years.
4 and
i.
calls
it,
i.
matter of fact for
Mr. Frazer.
could only be assailed by
Golden Bough,' he says
But who has
;
'
identical,
G. B.
iii.
457.
has become
Since the King of the
him who had plucked
told us anything about the breaking,
"
the
with what follows.'
fugitive slave, near Aricia, of a golden '
231 the averment
the inference of the
suppose, to the effect that Virgil's golden
branch and the Arician branch were
Wood
an age divided from
in
G. B.
i.
231.
bough ? ^
G. B.
by a
Nobody, i.
231.
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
am
as far as I
211
aware, has mentioned the circumstance.
After an interval of four hundred years, the golden
wood
the
because Servius, and the public opinion
at Aricia,
knew about
of his age,
anything about Virgil's
That branch
a
is
a branch there, and did not
anybody
else
passport to Hades.
safe
named Diana, but
It cannot be broken
Juno, or Proserpine.
;
no, nor can
None but he whom
iron.
It yields at a
know
branch of gold.
sacred, not to a tree-spirit
slave, or
bough
brought by Servius into connection with
of Virgil is only
it
It
is
to Infernal
by a
fugitive
be cut with edge of
the Fates call can break
it.
touch of the predestined man, and another
golden branch grows instantly in
place.
its
Ipse volens facilisque sequetur,
Si
te
fata vacant.
Prima avulsa nan
deficit alter
Aureus.
Virgil's
bough thus answers
in a stone in the
Volsunga Saga, as Mr. H. the knights
draw it king, thin
to the magical
sword
set
Arthurian legends, in a tree trunk in the
may
S. C.
Bverard reminds me.
All
tug vainly at the sword, but you can
lightly, si tefata vacant,
if
you are the predestined
you are Arthur or Sigmund. When ^neas bears bough, Charon recognises the old familiar passport. if
Other living men, in the strength of this talisman, have already entered the land of the dead. Ille
admirans venerabile donum
Fatalis virgce, lango
mmic tempore visum.
I have collected all these extraordinary attributes of Virgil's
bough
(in origin,
a suppliant's bough, perhaps),
because, as far as I notice,
the
many
peculiarities
Mr. Frazer lays no
which
stress
on
bough
differentiate Virgil's
from any casual branch of the tree at Aricia, and connect it
with the mystic sword.
The
'
general reader
'
(who
p 2
MAGIC AND KELIGION
ai2
seldom knows Latin) needs, I think, to be told precisely
what
bough was.
Virgil's
Nothing can be more unlike a
branch, any accessible branch, of the Arician tree, than Yirgil's golden bough.
golden.
It
may
branch
is
not grow at Aricia.
is
It is
not connected with a tree-spirit, but
is
dear to Proserpine.
pine
It does
is
course, that Proser-
(I easily see, of
be identified with a tree
spirit.)^
not to be plucked by fugitive slaves.
Virgil's It is not a
challenge, but a talismanic passport to Hades, recognised by
Charon, is
who
has not seen a specimen for ever so long.
instantly succeeded,
if
It
plucked, by another branch of
which the Arician twig is not. So I really do not understand how Mr. Frazer can identify Virgil's golden gold,
bough with an ordinary branch of a tree at Aricia, which anybody could break, though only runaway slaves, strongly built,
had an
Still less
branch
interest in so doing.
do I think that Virgil meant to identify his
with mistletoe.
of gold
poetic simile
does not compare a thing to
Welsh
the
In
for mistletoe
places, also, mistletoe
may
employed
be
He
does the reverse
he compares his bough
not thus used
?
itself
!
to mistletoe.
Mr. Frazer
^
pren puraur, is
in a
poet cites
d'or pur.
used for divining rods, which
by gold-hunters.
Like other magical
°
tree
:
A
What wood plants, mistletoe
is
is
Who, or what, can escape being a, tree-spirit, if Zeus is one ? Mr. Frazer thinks that the savage must regard all trees used in fire-making as May not this,' he asks, have been the origin of sources of hidden fire. the name " the Bright or Shining One " (Zeus, Jove [Dyaus]), by which the ancient Greeks and Italians designated their supreme God ? It is, at least, highly significant that, amongst both Greeks and Italians, the oak should '— iii. 457. Zeus, like Num, have been the tree of the supreme God. and countless others, was also a sky god. The sky is bright and shining, an oak is the reverse. We do not think that a savage would call an oak or a match-box bright,' even if they do hold seeds of fire. 2 O. B. iii. 449 .Mn. vi. 203, et seq. ' See Professor Barrett's two works on the so-called Divining Eod,' in Proceedmgs of the Society for Psychical Research. '
'
'
.
.
'
;
'
.
THE GHASTLY PRIEST when
gathered at the solstices,
seed,
fern-seed
Must not the golden bough,
flame.
213
be an emanation of the sun's
like the
mythologists would have had not a doubt of I
golden fern-
The
fire ?
must admit, then, that I cannot, at of the branch of gold
the identification
fabled to
is
older solar
it.^
present, accept in Virgil with
any branch you please on a certain tree at Aricia. Nor am I aware of any historical evidence that the grove there was an oak grove, or the tree an oak tree, or that the branch to be plucked was a mistletoe bough, or that any branch, for the purpose of the runaway slave, was not as
good as another.
That
Virgil's
tree at Aricia
branch
was an
the person ambitious of being a toe,
seems
(if
was
of gold
mistletoe, that the
bough to be plucked by ghastly priest was mistle-
oak, that the
Mr. Prazer accurately)
I follow
to be rather
which the Eddaic
needful to the success of the solution of his problem
he
finally
He
propounds.
takes,
on his road,
myth of Balder, which I do not regard as a very early myth but on that point there is great searching of hearts among Scandinavian speciaHsts. No one now,' writes ;
'
a Scandinavian scholar to me, 'puts
poems are
earlier
than 900
a.d.,
and most
We
probably later than that.
any of
of
them,
the if
Edda
not
all,
know
do not even
whether they were composed by Christians or pagans, as the Icelanders never lost their interest in the old logy.
It has never
been
sufficiently noticed that these
poems are not religious in any sense cared for
was the
That
story.
say where the stories
mytho-
it
;
all
that their poets
will ever be possible to
came from,
I doubt very
much
probably they represent the fusion of several quite rent veins of legends, heathen writers
knew
and Christian.
:
diffe-
The Saga
practically nothing about the old heathen '
G. B.
iii.
454.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
214
worship, and Balder all, or, if
he was,
never have been worshipped at
may
rather hopeless to conjecture in
it is
what
capacity.'
Such aie the opinions of Mr. W. A. Craigie, whose writings on the Celto-Scandinavian relations of the Northern
We
mythological literature are familiar to students. return to Mr. Frazer's handling of the Balder story.
A
Balder, says the Edda, dreamed of death.
made
goddess
everything in nature swear not to hurt him, except
a mistletoe plant, which she thought too young to under-
stand the nature of an oath the plant, and,
when
Loki learned
!
Hodur
Balder, asked the blind
this,
plucked
gods were hurling things
the
to throw the
at
mistletoe.
and slew Balder, and his funeral was of a kind which may, or may not, have been used before the period of inhumation in howes or barrows. Balder's dead body
It pierced
'
'
was burned on board his ship, the hugest of all ships.' I had an impression that this was a not uncommon '
Viking form
of incremation,
but Mr. Craigie thinks that
it
had quite gone out before the historic period. In the legendary period he remembers but one case, in Ynglinga Saga.^ King Haki, being mortally wounded, had his ship piled with the bodies and weapons of the slain erected on board and
lit,
The
after.'
story
may
'
of Haki was borne The thing was famous
be borrowed from the Balder
story or the Balder story from that of
In any case Balder was not the
'
huge
King Haki.
sacrificed,
ship,' of course, is a late
the reverse of primitive.
apparently assuming
a funeral pyre was
and the body
forth to sea in the flaming vessel.
long
;
but cremated, and
Viking
idea,
an idea
Mr. Frazer, however, goes
that in the original
form
of the
on,
myth
Balder was
sacrificed, to a
theory about certain religious or
ritual fires,
which survive
in folklore.
'
G. B.
iii.
236-237.
These ^ o.
27.
fires are lit
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
215
by peasants at various seasons, but are best known at midsummer, while a pretence of burning a man is made,
and
when
at a season
this
mistletoe
gathered as a
is
magical healing herb, not as a weapon of death.
seems to think that Balder was the
spirit of
human
victims, representing the oak
of old,
periodically
and Balder, were,
and that people deemed
sacrificed,
oak could not be injured by axes before the
that the mistletoe
plucked
He
the oak, that
which, they thought, lay
(in off.
ever did entertain this opinion
invulnerable
its
life)
was
Unluckily, I see no evidence that people
—namely, that the oak was
the mistletoe was plucked.^
till
The
was viewed as the seat of the life of the oak, and, so long as it was uninjured, nothing could kill or even wound the oak.' He shows how this idea might arise. The oak, so people might Mr. Frazer says
:
'
mistletoe
'
think,
was invulnerable,' so long
remained
as the mistletoe
But did the people think
intact.^
Pliny says a great
so ?
deal about the Druidical gathering of mistletoe,
which, on
The
Druids, I
oaks,
'
is
very rarely to be met with.'
presume, never observed that oaks in general, in fact by
an overwhelming majority, lived very well without having
any seat of
life
(mistletoe)
obvious fact, they reckoned,
all. Not noticing this would appear, that an oak
at it
Mr. Frazer notices that Pliny derived Druid from Greek driis, oak. know that the Celtic word ior oak was the same, daii/r, and that therefore Druid, in the sense of priest of the oak, was genuine Celtic, not borrowed from the Greek.' With other authorities Mr. Frazer cites J. Bhys's Celtic Heathendom, p. 221 et seq. Principal Ehys informs me that he is inclined to think that Druid is of the same origin as the Celtic word for oak. Mr. Stokes seems to think otherwise, and to interpret dru to '
'
He
'
'
did not
'
'
true,' and to make the word Druid mean soothsayer,' which Principal Bhys sees phonetic objections. He himself sees the difficulty, in both theories, that they make the word Druid Aryan, whereas the whole Druidical business may be non-Aryan and aboriginal,' Pictish, or whatever we like to call it.
be the equivalent to
'
'
to
'
'
'
''
G. B.
iii.
350.
MAGIC AND REMGION
216
with mistletoe on removed.
when
that
could not be cut
it
Perhaps they never
the mistletoe was
till
Pliny does not say
tried.
the Druid had climbed the tree and removed
down
the mistletoe, he next cut
was
we
new
that as Balder
:
sacrificed (of
an oak
this opinion.^
theory Mr. Frazer goes forth to erect on the
The
basis of the first theory.
this
of
begin to build another theory
on our theory that they did hold This
life
might gather without
in the mistletoe (which they
hurting the oak), before
seem
It does
the tree.^
desirable to prove that people thought the
which
was the no
I see
theory, in brief,
to
the oak, and was
spirit of
proof), so
comes
human
beings, re-
presenting Balder and the oak, were sacrificed, to rein-
The
vigorate vegetation.
was the soul-box
human
the
of
who
victims
mistletoe
which slew Balder
both Balder and of the oak, and of represented, yearly, the oak and
Balder.
About '
all
this
much might
divine kings,' Balder
and
be
The
said.
killing
of
seems to me, as I have
others,^
already said, in the majority of cases, to be a mere rude
form
We
of superannuation.
in-chief, or
an old professor
not so easy to pension
it is
of the cases cited
with the
ruler,
mean
;
off
do not
we
kill
a
commander-
pension them
a king.
But
off.
I think that most
superannuation, or dissatisfaction
not a magical ceremony to improve vege-
common. Says Birrel (1560There has beine in this Kingdome of Scotland, 1605) ane hundereth and five Kings, of quhilk there was slaine Eegicide
tation.
:
,
The
or was,
'
O. B. ^
is,
iii.
327.
story of mistletoe as the
',
life-token
'
of the
Hays
of Errol
(iii.
449)
on a scrap of recent verse, out from a newspaper of unknown name and date. I suspect that it is from the pen (circ. 1822) of John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart,' alias John Hay Allan, author of other apocryphal rhymes on the Hays of Errol, and of their genealogy. ' G. B. iii. 1-59.
seems
to rest
'
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
often succeeded by their slayers, like the ghastly
fifty-sex,'
am
I
priest.
217
not convinced that the ghastly priest repre-
commu-
sented vegetation, and endured the duel ordeal as a tation of yearly sacrifice, in the case
mummers
though there
But that modem mock ceremony (as Mr.
the king of Calicut.
of
are put to death, in a
Frazer holds,
a kind of parallel
is
quicken vegetation),
to
is
much
proved by
folklore evidence.^
we admit
If
(v^hich I think far
ghastly priest v?as once a kind of slain,
and was analogous
of
life
May
to Balder,
King, periodically
and represented the
an oak, we are next invited to suppose that the
tree at Aricia to
from inevitable) that the
was
an oak, that the only branch on
also
it
be plucked by the would-be successor was mistletoe,
and that the mistletoe was the soul-box
who
the ghastly priest,
is
was damaged.^
hardly a link in this chain of reasoning which
me seems
to
Edda, was
of
when
could more easily be killed
his life-box (the mistletoe)
There
and
of the tree
I do not see that Balder,
strong.
the
was
conceive that the use of so feeble a
his soul-box.
I
weapon
him
to kill
in,
I do not see that the mistletoe
sacrificed.
is
analogous to the slaying of an in-
American myth, by the weapon an example' of the popular liking for weak-
vulnerable hero, in North of a
bulrush
:
ness that overcomes strength.
mistletoe
was ever thought
I find no evidence that the
to be the soul-box of the
none to prove that the tree at Aricia was an oak
;
oak
nothing
show that the branch to be plucked was the branch of gold in Virgil, and nothing to indicate that Virgil's branch to
was the mistletoe. the ghastly priest slain,
after the
To reach Mr. Frazer's was an incarnate spirit
solution
—that
of vegetation,
plucking of mistletoe, in order that he
might be succeeded by a stronger soul, more apt to increase >
G. B.
ii.
59-67.
'
G. B.
iii.
450.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
218 the
life
bridges
To me
of vegetation
—we have to cross at
of hypothesis,
'
these hypotheses seem
who
is
'
chasm.'
more
^
'
is let
into
cautious inquirer,'
brought up sharp on the edge of some yawning ^
I ought to propose an hypothesis myself. I shall confine myself (the limitation
the
light
like the apparently
on which whoso alights
I feel like Mr. Frazer's
the morass.
'
built to connect isolated facts.'
'
solid spots in a peat-bog,
least six
known
In the grove
facts of the problem.
many
(a goddess of
whom we know
In doing so
not unscientific) to
is
various attributes)
was a
nothing but that he was
(1)
Diana
of
priest
of
a fugitive
King of the Grove, (3) might be slain and succeeded by any other fugitive slave, (4) who broke a bough of the tree which the priest's only known duty was slave, (2) called
These are
to protect.
all
the ascertained facts.
Why had the priest to be a runaway says
'
:
He
had
flight of Orestes, the traditional .
.
.'^
.
But the
slave ?
Mr. Frazer
be a runaway slave in memory
to
GreeA; story of Orestes,
and
its cZowSZe^ie as
to Hippolytus, are only setiological myths, fanciful
why,' attached to a Latin usage.
Hippolytus was a
'
The
about Orestes, a fugitive, arises out of the custom of
this,
reasons
Neither Orestes nor
slave, like the ghastly priest.
and does not explain that custom. admits
of the
founder of the worship.
story
Aricia,
Mr. Frazer, I presume,
but thinks that the ghastly priest might
perhaps, at one time, save himself by being a runaway.
But why a slave?
If I
might guess, I would venture
to suggest that the grove near Aricia
may
have been an
asylum for fugitives, as they say that Eome originally was. There are such sanctuaries in Central Australia. Here, fortunately, Mr. Frazer himself supplies
with the very instances which '
G. B.
i.
XV.
'
O. B.
i.
my xx.
conjecture craves. =
O. B.
ii.
67.
me He
THE GHASTLY PRIEST cites
Mr. Turner's
aries for fugitives.
in of
'
Samoa
'
'
for trees
which were sanctu-
These useful examples are given, not
The Golden Bough,' but
Totemism.'
219
in
an essay on
'
The Origin
^
In Upolu, one of the Samoan islands, a certain god, Vave, had his abode in an old tree, which served as an asylum for murderers and other offenders who had incurred the penalty of death.' '
I gather from Mr. Turner's nesia
'
(p.
blood feud. trees
'
Nineteen Years in Poly-
286) that the death penalty
In his
'
was that
of the
Samoa,' Mr. Turner writes concerning
which were sanctuaries
:
If that tree was reached by the criminal, he was safe, and the avenger of blood could pursue no farther, but wait investigation and trial. It is said that the king of a division of Upolu, called Atua, once lived at that spot. After he died the house fell into decay, but the tree was fixed on as representing the departed king, and out of '
respect for his memory it was made the substitute of a Kving and royal protector. It was called o le asi pulu tangata, ' the asi tree, the refuge of men.' This reminds
me He
what I once heard from a native of another island. said that at one time they had been ten years without a king, and so anxious were they to have some protecting of
substitute that they fixed upon a large O'a tree {Bisclioffia Javanica), and made it the representative of a king, and an asylum for the thief or the homicide when pursued by the injured in hot haste for vengeance.^
There seem to have been three sanctuary trees inhabited by a god,
Vave
;
one respected in
:
memory
one of a
king; and one doing duty as a kind of figure-head, or representative of a king. If
my guess that the tree in the Arician grove was once a '
^
Fortnightly Review, April 1899, p. 652. Turner, Samoa, p. 64, se%.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
220
sanctuary, or asylum for fugitives, including fugitive slaves, is
plausible, I cannot, of course, conjecture as to the reason
of its protective sanctity.
three
correctly), or
been one
of us could
of the
have guessed
any other motive may have taken
fugitive slave, of course, of
may have
It
Samoan reasons (which none
A
effect.
was not awaiting trial and chance he would be restored to his
By custom
acquittal.
master's tender mercies, or live on under the tree.
But an unlimited asylum
of fugitive slaves
Hence
inconvenient neighbour to Aricia. conceivable, but I lay no stress on
it)
(it is
the asylum was at last
limited to one fugitive slave at a time.
It
was not
the forest in the Indian fable, populated by hermits,'
Any
was an
physically
'
like
millions of
who cannot have been very solitary anchorites. who took sanctuary had to kill and dis-
fugitive slave
There was only sanctuary for More would have been most inconvenient.
possess the prior occupant.
one at a time.
In any case the one far as
we know) was
Why
certain tree.
know.
solitary
I
am
duty of the ghastly priest
to act as
this
one
(as
garde champetre to one
tree,
we do not and
cannot
averse to Sir Alfred Lyall's plan of suggest-
ing singular solutions arising out of some possible historical
when the problem to be solved wide diffusion. The causes, in such cases
accident in the veiled past, is
of
a practice of
wide diffusion, cannot be regarded as mere freaks
But
recurring accidents. inviolate branches
is
this affair of the tree
isolated, unless
a taboo or sanctuary tree, which reasons, as in
we
it
At
all events,
duty was to guard the
it
or its
regard the tree as
might be
Samoa, perhaps because
of a tree-spirit.
and
for
many
was the residence known
the priest's only
tree.
Then, why had his would-be successor to break a bough before fighting ?
warning.
The
Obviously as a challenge, and also as a
priest in office
was
to
'
have a
fair
show
;
THE GHASTLY PRIEST
221
some law was to be given him. When he found a branch broken, any branch, he was in the position of the pirate '
'
whom
captain on
the black spot
'
meant that
parrots' eggs
the bough
was
He was in whom a present of
was passed.^
'
the situation of the king of the Eyeos, to
was time for him to go.' ^ If and if the fugitive slave, like the
it
mistletoe,
'
Druids in Pliny,' had to climb for priest
'had him at an
avail.'
priest,
who
his
then the ghastly
it,
was any odds on the him down as he However, our authorities tell us about no descended. bough in particular, still less about mistletoe. Let me add that, if the bough was mistletoe, the sacred tree would need to be changed every time (of which we hear nothing), for it IS
could
'
tree
'
It
man
or cut
not a case of Uno avulso non
deficit alter
with mistletoe.
The bough was broken, and a warning.
room ness.
slain
'
for a better
The when
You
man
That
'
man
The
is
the spirit of the busi-
fugitive, utilised as a priest of
the better
attainable
man
the grove, was
was needed
Ladies
soul
but merely because the
to
guard the taboo
runaway
me, seem pronounced.^
that he ever sacrificed.
new
appeared, not that a lively,
sacred and priestly character of a
slave does not, to
make
can't keep your old tree, !
might keep the vegetation best
then, as a taunt, a challenge,
who wished
We
tree.
fighting
know not
to be
mothers
Diana was a goddess like Lucina, presiding over birth. I do not deny that the priest might have worked miracles for them (like the visited the
shrine, indeed,'' as this
who do the miracle for childless rajahs). known duty, guarding the tree, was inconwith much attention to this branch of his sacred
Indian forest sages
But
his
sistent
one
'
'
G. B.
iii.
See Treasure Island. 327.
•
Compare
^ i.
232.
G. B.
ii;
=
13.
G. B.
i.
5
MAQIO AND EELIQION
222 calling.
'
He
the look out.'
We have
prowled about with sword drawn, always on
That
^
is all
!
not, in this theory, to invent a single fact, or
introduce a single belief where
we do not know that it we have given
Sanctuaries or asyla did exist,
existed.
examples of sanctuary
trees,
and the tree was a sanc-
tuary for just one runaway slave at a time
he could
:
not run to burg, as in our old and more merciful law. If
he wanted the
for
ghastly priest he had to fight
billet of
it
Lads, you'll need to fight Before you drive ta peasties.
Before fighting he had to get through the priest's guard
and break a branch
of the tree
which the
the act being a warning as well as
priest protected,
a challenge.
This
unknown and unproved facts, and colligates all the facts which are known. The title of King of the Grove may mean no more than the title of
hypothesis introduces no
'
'
'
Cock
even
North
of the
;
embodied the ruling
may be
it
spirit of
at
if
I
am
right,
where
which I conjecture
the of a
Samoan customs god in a
near a
tree, (2)
tree, (3)
title,
not,
the vegetable department.
I have been favoured with First,
a priestly
implying that the runaway slave
necessarily
so,
or
'
?
is
objections
Well, where
?
They reposed on respect
on a legal
to
my
guess.
the sanction for the custom
(1)
for a
fiction.
is
the sanction of
on the residence
king
The
who had
lived
sanctuaries of the
Arunta Ertnatulunga derive their sanction from hoards churinga, sacred objects of which, nothing.^
till
of
we knew many con-
recently,
Obviously I cannot say which of
ceivable and inconceivable primeval reasons gave a sanction to the tree-asylum of Aricia.
'
Strabo,
t. 3, 12.
^
Once
instituted,
custom did
Spencer and Gillen, pp. 134-135.
THE GHASTLY PRIEST the rest.
The
tree
was a sanctuary
223
one fugitive
for
slave,
and, next, for another v?ho could kill him.
Secondly,
my
guess is thought to disregard Mr. Frazer's
many other analogies from folklore. Which analogies ? Where else do we find a priestly fugitive slave, who held his sacred office
I
am
by the
coir
na
glaive, the
acquainted with no other example.
already, the kings
who
Eight of Sword ?
As
I have
shown
are killed (admitting the Arician
fugitive to be a rex) are killed for a considerable variety of reasons,
vehicle
and are never shown to be
may
killed that a sturdier
be provided for a vegetable deity
;
while the
kings said to incarnate a deity are never said to be killed for religious reasons.
If the reverse
were the
the Arician fugitive, the ghastly priest, benefit of the
I hope that
analogies.
theory, abjectly Philistine as
it is,
then
my
bald prosaic
has the characteristics of
But, like
a scientific hypothesis.
case,
might take the
my
guess as to the real
reason for the death of the Sacaean victim, this attempt to explain the office of the ghastly priest
The in
affair is so
singular that
a
single
is
but a conjecture.
may have an
isolated cause
remember no other classical whose duty was to be always watching
some forgotten occurrence.
instance of a priest
it
sacred tree,
a
I
thing requiring a vigilance of
attention not compatible with
much
other priestly work
a post so unenviable that only a fugitive slave likely to care for the duties
and
:
would be
Naturally he
perquisites.
would not know that he was an incarnation of the supreme '
Aryan god, whose life was in the mistletoe or golden bough.' And, as he did not know, he would not be title.'
'
proud
of the
MAGIC AND RELIGION
224
XII
SOUTH AFRICAN BELIGION The a
by which I try
provisional h5rpothesis
the early stages of religion critic,
Mr. Hartland.
'
may
to explain
be stated in the words
Apparently
of
claimed that the
it is
some way only to be and was subsequently obscured and overlaid by belief in ghosts and in a pantheon of lesser divinities.' ^ I was led to these conclusions, first, by observing the reports of belief in a relatively supreme being and maker among tribes who do
belief in a
guessed
supreme being came,
at,
first
in
order of
in
evolution,
not worship ancestral spirits (Australians and Andamanese),
and, secondly,
by remarking the
otiose
un worshipped
supreme being, often credited with the charge
of future
rewards and punishments, among polytheistic and ancestor-worshipping
mention.
people
too
numerous
The supreme being among
for
detailed
these races, in some
instances a mere shadow of a children's tale, I conjectured to be a vague survival of such a thing as the
Andamanese
Puluga, or the Australian Baiame.
Granting the validity appears to colligate the
of the evidence, the hypothesis
facts.
There
is
a creative being
(not a spirit, merely a being) before ghosts are worshipped.
Where
ghosts are worshipped, and the spiritual deities
of
polytheism have been developed, and are adored, there
is
'
Folk Lore, March 1901,
p. 21.
Presidential address.
SOUTH AFRICAN EELIGION still
225
the lanworshipped maker, in various degrees of repose
That the
and neglect.
only to be guessed
belief in
at,' is
an hypothesis like
my
him
'
true enough.
came in some way, But if I am to have
neighbours, I have suggested that '
early
man, looking
an origin of things, easily adopted the
for
idea of a maker, usually an
and
death,
still
affection, fear,
early
and sense
unborn man, v?ho was before
Bound
exists.
of duty;
this
being crystallised
he sanctions morality and
man's remarkable resistance to the cosmic tendency
:
That man should so early conceive a maker and father seems to me very probable
his notion of unselfishness.
;
to
my
But one
critics it is a difficulty.
When we asked " By what they said " By Umvelinqangi." Por
native informants remarks
was the sun made
of Dr. Callaway's
?"
'
:
we used to ask when we were little, thinking that the old men knew all things.' ^ What a savage child naturally asks about, his yet more savage ancestors may have pondered. No speculation seems more inevitable. As soon as man was a reasoning being he must have wondered about origins creation,
complete or
;
he has usually two answers
partial,
'he 'specs things growed,'
and evolution.
when he
Like Topsy
does not guess that
things were
made by somebody.
religious, it
accepts the answer of evolution,
As
far as
totemism
is
men were
evolved out of lower types, beasts and plants, their totems.
But these are not always treated with religious reverence, as sometimes are such creative beings and fathers as Baiame. In
many cases,
as I
have kept on saying, the savage creative
being has a deputy, often a demiurge, rity. is
Where
this is the case,
who
exercises autho-
and where ancestor-worship
the working religion, the deputy easily comes to be
envisaged as the
maker
first
of things, or of '
man, unborn of human parents, many things, and culture hero. Mr.
Callaway, Beligion of the
A mazulu,
p.
10 1868.
Q
,
MAGIC AND EELIGION
226
Tylor says
In the mythology of Kamchatka the relation man is one not of identity,
' :
between the Creator and the first
It is clear that, in proportion to the
but of parentage.'
prevalence of ancestor-v^orship as a working
exclusive
might be worn away, and the first man might be identified with him. It would not follow that the idea of creation was totally lost. The religion, the idea of the Creator
man might
first
be credited with the feat of creation.
Mr. Tylor observes that
'by these
worshippers, the Zulus, the
with the Creator.'
identified
Mr. Tylor's statement, that the idea of creation
is
consistent
manes-
man, Unkulunkulu,
first
is
^
of course, involves the opinion
present to the Zulu mind.
Un-
kulunkulu made things, as Baiame, and Puluga, and other beings did.
Like them he
non-natural
man.
is
no
but a magnified
spirit,
Unlike them, he
subject to the
is
competition of ancestral ghosts, the more recent the better,
receipt
in
very remote, he dead.
of
prayer and
which claims him
special house
is
His name
now is
thing to amuse or put
believed by
a fable, like off children
on Unkulunkulu when
call
them out
of the
sacrifice.
as ancestor,
Having no and being
many Zulus
to
be
that of Atahocan, a
with
;
they are told to
their parents
want
to send
way.
what my theory would lead me to anticipate, if the Zulus had once possessed the idea of an un worshipped creative being, and had lost it under the competition of worshipped, near akin, and serviceable Their ancestral character would be reflected on ghosts. All this
him.
It
is
is
exactly
just as
if
the Australian Kurnai were to take
Tundun, the son and deputy Mungan-ngaur, look on
to ancestor-worship, glorify of
Mungan-ngaur
Tundun
;
neglect
as the creator, '
and
finally neglect
Primitive Culture,
ii.
him
pp. 312, 313, 1873.
in favour
SOUTH AFRICAN RELIGION
227
and more
closely akin to
of ancestral spirits less remote,
This process
themselves.
from our point of view,
under
religion,
come
very readily conceivable, and,
would look
it
new
stress of a
thought dead
to be
like degeneration in
religious motive, the do ut
ancestral ghosts.
des of sacrifice to
should
is
is
That Unkulunkulu the less surprising, as
a Zulu in bad luck will be so blasphemous as to declare that the ancestral spirits of his worship are themselves dead.
'
When we
certain disease
may
them, and pray that a
to
sacrifice
and
cease,
it
we
does not cease, then
begin to quarrel with them, and to deny their existence.
And
the
man who
Amadhlozi
has sacrificed exclaims
although others say there
;
Amadhlozi
part I say that the
ever."'i
Thus
.
.
but for
my
house died for
of our
.
man
favour of serviceable ghosts like the ghosts
had an
that they reduced him, on the
;
lines described, to a first
;
There are no
are,
I can easily suppose that the Zulus once
idea of a creative being
extinct
"
:
;
him
that they neglected
;
in
and that they now think him
themselves
when they
cease to be
serviceable.
Mr. Hartland's theory says
' :
In
creation
fact, so far as
was
foreign
is
He
the reverse of mine.
can be gathered, the very idea of
to
their
minds.'
.
.
.
'
The
earth
Unkulunkulu as yet existed.' ^ But heaven, and the sun, and all things were not in existence before Unkulunkulu he made them, according to other native witnesses, and Dr. Callaway, in his first was
in existence
first,
before
:
page,
says that
the Zulus regard Unkulunkulu as the
Creator.
The '
evidence, as Mr. Hartland urges with truth,
But
contradictory.'
statement that '
Callaway,
p. 29.
'
its
contradictions
is
contradict his
the very idea of creation was foreign to ^
Callaway, p. 41
;
Folk Lore, ut supra,
p. 23.
Q 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
228
Many
their minds.'
Zulu mind '
if
It
we
witnesses attest the existence in the
of the idea of creation.
was
said at
asked, "
before the arrival of missionaries,
first,
By what
were the stones made
were made by Umvelinqangi."
'
'
The
? "
"
They
ancients used to say,
before the arrival of the missionaries, that
things were
all
made by Umvelinqangi but they were not acquainted with his name.' The natives,' says Dr. Callaway, cannot tell you his name, except it be Umvelinqangi.' ^ The sun and moon we referred to Unkulunkulu, together with all the things in this world, and yonder heaven we referred to Unkulunkulu. We said all was made by Unkulunkulu.' ^ At first we saw that they were made by Unkulunkulu, but ... we worshipped those whom we had seen with our eyes (the ghosts of their fathers), so then we ;
'
'
'
.
.
.
'
'
'
began to ask
all
things of the Amadhlozi.'
Zulu, Umpengula Mbanda, states
This convenient
my very hypothesis.'
But
he seems to have been a Christian convert, and probably constructed his theory after he heard of the Christian God. '
"We seek out the Amadhlozi that we may not be always
thinking about Unkulunkulu.' interested
So
spiritualists are
ghosts than in the Christian God.
in
more '
In
we have come to worship the Amadhlozi we knew not what to say about Unkulun-
process of time only, because
knows what to say about him through the celebrated Mrs.
kulu,' just as the spiritualist
his aunt,
who
speaks to
'
'
Piper.*
Dr. Callaway consulted a very old Zulu, Ukoto, whose of King Chaka (Utshaka). Mr. Eider Chaka about 1813-1828. With him began seventy years of Zulu conquest and revolution, in which old ideas might be obliterated. Ukoto answered Dr.
aunt was the mother
Haggard
'
«
dates
Callaway,
p. 10,
Ibid. p. 17.
note 25.
' •
Ibid. p. 21.
Ibid. pp. 26, 27.
SOUTH AFRICAN EELIGION Callaway's inquiries thus
Lord
said the
When far
we must
going back
.
.
We
above.'
is
is
it
heard
it
was
it
said that
the Lord which
is
used to be said the
^
either reject
most respectable evidence,
to the earliest years of last century, before the
Zulu period opinion
.
(Umdabuko)
was growing up,
I
Creator of the world
So
When we were children
in heaven.
is
the Creator of the world above.
' :
229
of
revolution,
Mr. Hartland's
dismiss
or
very idea of creation
that the
foreign
is
to
A
very old woman, whose childhood
was prior to Chaka's
initiation of the revolutionary period
the Zulu mind.
of
conquest (1813),
Umpengula,
being
said that
'
by the
interrogated
when we asked
Zulu,
of the origin of
came from the Creator who created all things. But we do not know him." The old people said the Creator of all things is in heaven.' ^ The old woman then abounded in contradictions. She said that Unkulunkulu was the Creator in heaven, but only the day before she had denied this. Dr. Callaway thought not that her mind was wandering, but that there appears corn, the old people said " it
'
'
in this
account to be rather the intermixture of several
which might have met and contended or amalgamated at the time to which she alludes the early days of Chaka 1. Primitive faith in a heavenly Lord
faiths,
'
—
or Creator.
2.
'
The
ancestor- worshipping faith,
founds the Creator with the faith,
who of
—
first
man.
3.
which con-
The
Christian
again directing the attention of the natives to a
is
her
not anthropomorphic' tale,
She might
also, in a
God part
allude to the fabled ascension of the father of
King Chaka prior
From my
to 1813.
point of view. Dr. Callaway's theory seems
' Umdabuko is derived from ukaddbuTca, to be broken off, a word implying the pre-existenoe of something from which the division took place. Callaway, i. note 3, 50, note 95. It is usually a vaguely metaphysical term.
^
Callaway, pp. 52, 53.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
230
The memories and ideas of people who were ancient,' when Chaka and this old woman were young, before the Zulus entered on a 'wolf age, a war age,' went far back into the Zulu past, when their belief
possible. '
may have
been nearer
that kind of savage
to
deism
which Waitz regards as unborrowed and indigenous Another very old man, Ubebe, who had to Africa.^ fought against Chaka, said As to the source of being (Umdabuko) I know only that which is in heaven. The '
'
:
'
,
men
for the Lord is above Umdabuko, source of ife, may be local or personal, the place in which man was created, or the Here the Umdabuko is person who created him.' Here, too, the called 'the lord which gives them life.' ^ evidence is of Zulu antiquity, the words of the ancients of Chaka's time. The use of the same name for a person and a place is familiar to us in Zeus and Hades,' and we use Heaven ourselves for God, as in the will
ancient gives
them
said
UmdakuJco
.
'
.
.
.
'
'
'
of
elsewhere
;
sonal
'
it is
man
uses
'
as a personal
from which mankind arose
UmManga is
the place where they broke
or out came, from U/ilanga.'
Old Ubebe said to Umpengula that
a dead that
'
Do you not understand
said
man
all
:
Unkulunkulu made all things that we see or And Unkulunkulu, he added, was a man, and now
we
touch.'
;
then he considered, and added
:
vouched
for
confusion of
'
It is evident
man who is dead they He began with the creator
things were not made by a
were made by one who now is.'
'
Umdabuko
equivalent to Uthlanga, the imper-
a bed of reeds,'
Zulu myth.
off,
old
metaphysical source of being, not identical with
Unihlanga, in
'
'
'
The
Heaven.'
name
.
.
life.'
;
by the other old people he relapsed into the him with the first man, and either reverted to ;
Waitz, Anthropologic, '
i.
Ibid. 61,
167.
and note
^
17, 9,
Ibid. p. 59,
and note
22.
and note
12.
SOUTH AFRICAN RELIGION
231
the original idea, or to a natural reflection of his own. Dr. Callaway found the
maker
to
Creator to be
averred the
men
Ubebe declaring
that tradition averred
have been a man, but that the missionaries '
the heavenly Lord.'
'
The
Unkulunkulu was an ancestor and nothing more, an ancient man who begat men, and gave old
said that
origin to all things.'
In
^
fact the primal being of lower
Andamanese and Australians, is a man, vnthout human limitations, and creative. My hypothesis, like Dr. Callaway's, is that Ubebe and the rest wandered between three faiths a faith analogous to that of the Andamanese and Australians that faith modified by ancestor-worship savages,
:
;
carried to a great pitch
the
first
—the creator being identified with
man, and the doctrine of the
missionaries.
It is
wonder that these ancients are confused, but perhaps hypothesis,
which
Dr.
is
Callaway's,
explain their contradictions.
bat I reckon there agriculturist, quite as
Dr.
is
One above
He
so far,
helps to
talk of Providence,
he,' said
the British
confused as Ubebe.
Callaway interrogated
Ulangeni.
They
'
no
my
very old
another
man,
name for God, was by missionaries, misled by
denied that Utikxo, his
a Hottentot word, introduced
what Dr. Callaway thinks their erroneous idea that the Hottentot Utikxo represented a lofty and refined theistic
Ulangeni utterly rejected with extreme contempt
belief.
the idea that his tribe borrowed Utikxo from a people
broken and contaminated by the Dutch.^ learnt nothing of them.'
'
We
have
In Ulangeni's opinion, Utikxo
was disregarded in favour of his visible deputy, as Mungan-ngaur might come to be disregarded in favour of Tundun. 'And so tliey said Unkulunkulu was God.' I am grateful to UlanHe gave geni for again anticipating my humble theory. created Unkulunkulu, but, being invisible,
'
Callaway, 63, and note 23.
^
Ibid. p. 65.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
232
a humorous account of the arrival of the
first
missionary,
Unyegana (Gardiner?), of his 'jabbering,' of his promise to give news of Utikxo, and of the controversies of Zulu
A
theologians.
a
hymn
won
native convert
the day and composed
With
recorded by Umpengula.
all this is
:
all
respect for Ulangeni, he appears to have
been in the Kolb (1729) gives Gounja Ticquoa the Hottentot v7ord for a supreme deity but,
v^rong about Utikxo. (Utikxo) as if
;
Dr. Callav^^ay
Nothing
'
is
the
savages
right,
is
Kolb was in
more easy than
nature
their
of
inquire of heathen
to
and during the
creed,
them great truths and
conversation to impart to
which they never heard these come back to one as
error.
and presently
before,
articles of their
ideas
have
to
own
original
.'1
faith.
.
.
But Kolb's Hottentots, Ticquoa
'is
as Dr. Callaway notes, say that
They
a good man.'
Kolb, or any missionary
:
did not get that from
have said
as I
it
is
the regular
preanimistic savage theory, as in Australia and the Anda-
man
Isles.
'
wounded
Kaffirs
used
to
Shaw
Morimo, another mythical the earth.
first
for
ancestor,
who came out
beginning to
tell
even
'
Bechuana Morimo, Mr. Hartland
name
:
it is
said to be derived
with the singular prefix mo.
who '
is
above.'
But why,
It
most
^
of a
As to
^
gives the etymology
from gorimo, above,
would thus mean
then, did
Waitz, Anthivpologie, pp. 105, 106.
of
There
the
future state, the facts being universally admitted.'
of his
;
anything higher than
degraded of these people of the existence of God, or
the
is
says that 'the
Livingstone asserts just the reverse.
no necessity
is
who
speak of Umdali, the Creator
Moffat found no trace of
but
us of
tell
knee,' a Hottentot being
only an idealised medicine- man. older
Hahn
Later investigations down to
Tsui Goab,
Morimo come
Missionary Travels,
'
Him
out of p. 158.
SOUTH AFRICAN KELIGION
Was he once He who is above,' and the first man ? The plural, Barimo,
a hole in the earth ?
'
was he confused with seems to mean the
'
Morimo not
inclined to regard
Molsino, teste
the dead.
spirits of
Mr. Hartland
used for an ancestral ghost.
Cassilis, is
233
as a once
is
supreme deity
fading away, but as a god in process of becoming.'
1
^
have no grounds whereon to base even a con-
feel that I
jecture.
A
curious piece of evidence by Dr. Callaway
is
One Zulu account
in a note not in his book.
is
given that
Unkulunkulu was created by Utikxo. Now Unkulunkulu was visible, Utikxo was invisible, and so was more prominent and popular.^ is
Thus regarded, Unkulunkulu
the demiurge and deputy of Utikxo, as sometimes are
Daramulun, Tundun, Hobamok, Okee, Bobowissi, the deputies
of
Baiame, Mungan-ngaur, Kiehtan, Ahone,
Nyankupon, and so theologies.
Zulu
:
'
Now Dr.
We had
The
on.
Callaway
this
idea
am going up on
last
usual in savage
another
word before the missionaries came
we had God (Utikxo) long ago would utter his
is
cites the evidence of
words, saying,
high."
;
man when dying " I am going home I
for a
;
;
For there
a word in a song
is
which says Guide me, Hawk That I may go heavenward, 1
To
seek the one-hearted
Away from
Who
We see,
man,
double-hearted men.
deal in blessing
and
cursing.
then, that those people used to speak of a matter
of the present time, which we clearly understand by the word which the missionaries teach us. So we say .
there us.'
is
no God
'
(no
'
^
.
.
new God) who has just come to That God of whom the
Dr. Callaway explains
'
:
'
Folk Lore, March 1901, pp. Callaway, Bel. of Amazulu,
26, 27. p. 67.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
234
missionaries speak of
whom we
new God, but the same God terms Ukqamata and Utikxo.'
not a
is
spoke by the
Callaway could not produce this testimony, or
Dr.
translate
it,
owing to the archaisms and allusions demandtill he got the aid
ing familiarity with ancient Zulu songs,
Kxosa
of a
I
am
as fairly
mony
Kaffir.
apt to regard the archaic character of the piece
good proof
is
accepted,
genuine antiquity.
of it
religion, in its higher elements,
religion
Utikxo was,
John Knox
'
sense.
was a waning
with his one foot in the
grave,'
he was not, as by Mr. Hartland's
;
theory, a god in the making. authorities,
my
settles the question in
The Zulu like
If the testi-
hymn
and the
Old hymns are our best
proves a belief in a future far
nobler than the transfiguration of Zulu souls into serpents.
A deity is
also attested
by the witness.
But from
the use
word Utikxo by this witness, lie may be speaking of by Hottentots from the Dutch, and by Kaffirs from Hottentots. Another odd example occurs elsewhere. Mr. Frazer quotes the King of Sofala, or of Quiteva, or 'The Quiteva.' ^
of the
ideas borrowed
This king ranks with the deity
;
in fact,
'
the
Caffres
acknowledge no other gods than their monarch,' says Dos
But Mr. Frazer omits the circumstance that the They acknowledge a God who both in same author adds this world and the world to come they fancy measures Santos.
:
retribution
for
'
the good and evil done
Though convinced
'
'
life
this.
.
.
.
of the existence of a deity they neither
adore nor pray to him.' future
in
^
Here we have a
and a god (Molunga) analogous
belief in a
to that revealed
Folk Lore Jowrnal, South Africa, ii. iv. 1880, p. 59, et seq. Oolden Bough, i. 155 ii. 10. Dos Santos, in Pinkerton, xvi. 682-687, ;
et seq. '
Dos Santos,
in
Pinkerton, xvi.
country, and the king, the Quiteva.
687.
He
confuses
Cf. supra, p. 97 note 3.
Quiteva, the
SOUTH AFEICAN RELIGION But Dos Santos only
Zulu hymn.
in the archaic
235
recog-
god a god who receives prayer and adoration
nised as
hence he says that the Kaffirs have no gods, and also that they
'
acknowledge a god
of that god,
Molunga,
who now,
in the
'
'
—unworshipped.
world beyond the grave,
Zulu
then,
now
religion,
is
represented as
^
assigning to spirits their proper places.'
To myself,
The name
the same, I presume, as Mulungu,
is
almost exclusively
does seem to contain a broken and
ancestor-worship,
almost obliterated element of belief in a high unworshipped god, presiding over a future
hymns
archaic
interpretation,
are
better
than
the
who
Zulus,
individual
fathers used to
Obviously
life.
with their native
evidence,
statements
contradictory
dubiously of what
speak
The analogy between
say.
of
the
the Utikxo
and Mulungu belief also counts as corroboration, while the
unworshipped supreme being, with a deputy or deputies (Utikxo
— Unkulunkulu), names
the meanings of sure
a pervading feature of savage
throw any certain
like
Mulungu, and
ground might be reached.
a relatively like
is
If philology could
religion.
may be regarded as inference may be that many
on
more of
a plural, ancestral
being blended, or have been blended, into one
The
Eehgion.'
Mura Mura
case of the
met us
Dieri has
Is
it
essay on
already, in the
a case of
They
'
'
of the Australian
or
'
He ?
God,' a native told Mr. Clement Scott
the plural, as
who have
so forth,
when the name
supreme being
Elohim, the
spirits are
being.
Again,
light
God
died
'
is
One.'
(Mzima),
'
'
;
'
'
'
'
Magic and
Mulungu
you
can't put
Spirits are spirits of people
not gods.'
On
the other hand,
For etymological guesses, and the Barimo) to ancestral spirits, and the statement that all things in the world were made by Mulungu,' who was prior to death, see Africana, and Mr. Clement Scott's Dictionary of the Mang'anja Language in British Central Africa, and Making of Religion, pp. 232-238. '
Macdonald, Africana,
application of '
Mulungu
(as
i.
of
66, 67.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
236
Mr. Macdonald
'people
learned that
who have
died
become Mulungu.' Yet he is also regarded as a separate and supreme being, who assigns their places to the spirits His very name is variously interpreted as of the dead. '
sky
or
'
We
'
ancestor.'
may
argue that
Mulungu
the spirits of the dead, Mzima, of
is
are
primal,
only
and that
the people
'
Mulungu,' who was, in the myth, prior
to death.
Or we may argue that many Mzima have been combined
in
a later
Mulungu
conception of
as
a single
Such beings do occur, it is certain, where the dead are held of no account in religion.
being. of
that, in the condition of the evidence, sides in accordance
with their bias
opponents do
will think that their
that
many
writers appear only to be
of the religious bias,
:
I fear
students will take
both parties
at least so.
spirits
I have observed
aware of the existence
which denotes lack
of
humour.
As toUtikxo, Mr. Beiderbecke.like Dr. Callaway, thinks name
that Kaffirs, living near Hottentots, borrowed their for god,
Tixo (Utikxo) and dropped Unkulunkulu. ,
the Ovaherero, in a region
'
Among
which had not yet been under
the influence of civilisation and Christianity
'
(1873),
Mr.
Beiderbecke found that a god called Karunga was believed
Look at our oxen and sheep is it not Karunga who has made us so rich,' as Jehovah made the Israelites ? Mukuru was used by believers in Kuringa as the name for the missionaries' God. Mukuru is in Otyiherer6 the name The derivation is unknown, but Omurunga, the for god.' sacred fan-palm tree, must be derived from Omuru, not Omuru from Omurunga. The Otyiherer6 word for spirit differs from both it is Otyimbosi. As a god, Karunga seems to have no sacrifices these are made to ancestral spirits. Karunga does not appear to be offended by sin, but this in.
'
:
'
:
:
seems merely to be inferred from his receiving no atone-
SOUTH AFRICAN RELIGION
Mil
ment, as the '
When
spirits do.
Karungahas
bid
237
people are dying they say
Traces of him as a creator
them come.'
come
very dubious, but rain, thunder, and so on
are
from him, as proverbial sayings prove, and he to in
time of danger
The Omuambo
— the prayers
men and women.
create
the
of
'
and
earth,
They but Kalunga was ghost.
makes
'
had
also
quite
a
and unique being.'
distinct
My
come out
He is no
the witness said,
ghosts,'
prayed
is
be post-Christian.
creation tale, or one of the tales,
Morimo,
Kalunga, like
may
my own
bias in favour of
theory
is
unconcealed,
but I conceive that South African belief in a god, 'a
unique
indicates
being,'
Mr.
in
itself
Beiderbecke's
evidence.
There are and
spirits
;
different
though
words for this being and
for ghosts
in other cases philology finds cog-
nate African words for both. Dr. Callaway concludes
' :
It
appears that in the native
mind there is scarcely any idea of deity, if any wrapped up in their sayings about a heavenly
When
applied to
is
it
Among
teaching.
God
it
themselves he
Creator, nor as the preserver of
may
name
Egyptians
;
—a
quirer,
of
!
men
but as a power,
;
still
of
most
But
worship of the
the king
— only
''
he
who
in
elders
this excellent
about a creator,
a
justifiable bias.
collector
He was
that Unkulunkulu, Uthlanga, Utikxo, '
it
cele-
Dr. Callaway, a most impartial in-
^
childhood heard from their lord.
chief.
not regarded as the
has given several cases of very old Zulus,
creative trifle
is
another form of ancestor- worship'
worshipped
not
relic
all,
simply the result of
be nothing more than an earthly chief,
brated by
is
is
at
just a
arguing to prove
and the
Beiderbeeke, F. L. Journal, South Africa,
Callaway, p. 124.
had
iv. v.
rest
88-97.
were
MAGIC AND EELIGION
238
not safe equivalents to be used by missionaries for God.
And they were not
Umpengula argued was a name come to us with a deceive children with must not to you new great god, and call him by the name of a being whom every adult Zulu despises.' But that the name was safe equivalents.
that point to perfection. Unkulnnkulu, he said, ;
despised, say in 1860, by 'convinced manes- worshippers,' by no means proves the non-existence of a higher belief in the past. Mr. Eidley deemed Baiame a fit name for the Christian God probably it was imprudent to employ :
it
in teaching natives.
Urged by his justifiable objection to the use of native names to indicate the Christian God, Dr. Callaway, in the conclusion just quoted, forgot, or had abandoned, his opinion that the evidence of old Zulus represented a blending of beliefs, beginning with
heavenly Lord or Creator.'
^
'
a primitive faith in a
I entirely
clusion that the natives at large, of
not regard of men,'
'
go with his con-
his generation, did
the heavenly chief as the Creator or preserver
and that
'
they had scarcely any notion of deity at
all.' But, on the evidence collected from very old people by Dr. Callaway, I feel disposed to think it probable enough that, under stress of military life, conquest, and
ancestor-worship,
the Zulus
may have
forgotten
and
almost obliterated the higher belief which the old
men
had heard into
of
in their
the general
traditions
(as
of
in the case
to children's tales.
who was
line
infancy.
They
my of
If
the Zulus
so,
argument.
Their
fall
faint
Atahocan) have dwindled
are not the
in course of becoming.
'
theoplasm
'
of a
But, of course,
be argued that these faint rudiments came
in,
it
god
may
with Utikxo,
through the Hottentots, who picked them up in conversation with the Dutch. This process, however, does not '
Callaway, pp. 74-76.
^
Callaway, p. 55, note
4.
SOUTH APEICAN RELIGION
239
apply to the belief in superior beings, carefully concealed
from the native women, the children, and the Europeans,
by the Australians. Nor does it apply to the American Eehtan, Ahone, Andouagni, Atahocan, and many others.
Such are the hesitating conclusions which I venture to draw from what we are told about religion among the In favour of my theory is the
peoples of South Africa.
fact that the oldest evidence, that of
what
persons born before
Chaka revolutionised Zulu
the genius of
agrees with
life,
I expect to find, a creative tradition.
The
success of either of the competing theories
which sees elements
of a
and that which denies the existence not appear to
me
—that
high religion among low savages, of these
to affect our ideas
elements
about
'
— does
the truth of
Bach theory regards religion as a thing evolved by mankind in accordance with their essential nature. The only question is as to the sequence of stages of
religion.'
Suppose that the beginning of religion was
evolution. (as
my
in
who was cases,
future
hypothesis) regard for a
maker and
father,
credited with sanctioning morality, and, in
some
with rewarding or punishing the good or bad in a life.
These ideas occur in modern
religion
would not prove modern
religion
were really
human
:
primitive
in
religion to be
men who
would only prove that the
But
religion.
the circumstance that they also occurred
'
true.'
It
evolved primitive
very like their descendants.
They did not produce the higher ideas pure or at least, as we find them, they are always contaminated, often overlaid, by myths of every degree of absurdity and viciousness. But it is to be observed that the faith of "Why not
?
primitive
which I
man,
:
as far as
offer as to
it is
represented by the evidence
very backward man, had not some of
more advanced But when agriculture
the worst elements of the creeds of Sacrifices there
were none.
races.
arose,
MAGIC AND RELIGION
240
it
brought
especially '
with
if
we
it
The Golden Bough.'
man
hecatombs
of
human
sacrifices,
agree with Mr. Frazer's theory stated in
So
far
it
cannot be doubted that, as
advanced in social progress, he became more deeply
stained with religious cruelty. religion of peace
In similar fashion the
and goodwill came
to
be accompanied,
thanks to the nature of mankind, by religious cruelties as barbarous as those of the Aztecs.
hard has
it
Tantce molis erat
:
so
been to elevate the race in any one direction
without introducing
new
depressions in other directions.
241
XIII •CUP
AND BINO:' AN OLD PBOBLEM SOLVED
History and antiquity supply our curious minds with
many pleasant
profitless exercises.
education there are the
Man in
but
the Iron
Nobody,
was.
many
Even
persons
of course, reads the
many would be
in these days of
who have heard of Mask, and would like to know who he
still
'
Letters of Junius,'
who wrote
glad to be certain as to
them.
My merit
riddle
is
more remote, but
infinitely
that I think I can unriddle
:
on that moor of the Cheviot Hills which
Park
(I
has this
it
you roamed near Chatton
If ever
it.
is
think on Lord Tankerville's ground), you
may
have noticed, engraved on the boulders, central cup-like concentric
incised
'
circles.
hollowed out these devices, why, and in what age ?
remember putting these questions when I
I the
by
surrounded
depressions,
Who
scalps
among the
'
first
of whinstone, just swelling out of the turf
heather, on a beautiful day of September.
was a lonely
saw
spot,
where
victual never
grew
;
It
about us
were the blue heights of the Cheviots, below us the fabulosus amnis of
Till,
drowned by Tweed.
My
friend told
the stones were places of others,
men
of
common
me
men
to
one
some
said
sacrifice,
and
that drovpns three
that
Druid human
sense, held that the herd-boys
carved the circles out of sheer idleness.
But these answers
will
not pass.
There were no
R
MAGIC AND RELIGION
242
herd-boys nor Druids in Central Australia, nor on the
Eio Negro in
among
Brazil,
the
Waimara
Indians, nor
in Fiji, nor in Georgia of old, nor in Zululand, where
these decorative markings occur with others of primeval
In our own country they are found, not only
character.
on scalps
of rock, but
Inverness-shire to
on the stones
of
'
Druid
circles,'
Lancashire, Cumberland, and the
from
Isle of
Man. They also occur on great stones arranged in avenues on cromlechs (one huge horizontal stone supported on on the stones of chambered others which are erect) tumuli (artificial mounds) in Yorkshire on stone kists or cof&ns, in Scotland, Ireland, and in Dorset on pre;
'
'
;
;
historic obelisks, or solitary
on walls
underground
in
Forfarshire
;
'
standing stones,' in Argyll
Picts' houses in the
in prehistoric Scottish forts
as well as on isolated rocks, scalps,
New
double spirals occur at entrance
chamber
of
Zululand
and
the
great
;
;
;
stones.
Analogous
Grange, in Ireland, at the
gallery
in Scandinavia
;
and
Orkneys and
near old camps
leading to the
in Asia
Minor
in Australia, India, America,
;
domed
in China and
North and South,
in Fiji.^
Now, who made James Simpson says
these marks, when, and
why?
Sir
They are archaeological enigmas, which we have no present power of solving.' He cites some
guesses.
of old circular
:
'
The markings are archaic maps or plans camps and cities.' They are sundials but '
—
they occur in dark chambers of sepulchres, or underground houses
!
worship.
They stand for sun, or moon, or for Lingam They are Roman, or they are Phoenician
—
theory on which
To
all
much
learning has been wasted.
these guesses Sir
James Simpson opposed
the
For India see Archaological Notes on Ancient Sculpturmgs on Bocks in J. H. Bivett-Carnac, Calcutta, 1883. The form of the Jew's harp is common to India and Scotland. '
Kumaon, India, by Mr.
'CUP AND KING'
243
solution that the markings are merely decorative.
the very earliest historic periods
Egypt, Assyria, Greece, &c., single or double,
and
From
the architecture of
to our
own
day, circles,
have formed, under various
most common types
of lapidary
It appears in Polynesian tattooing, this love
decoration.' of spirals
down
spirals
modifications, perhaps the
in
'
and
But, added Sir James,
volutes.
'
that they
way with
were emblems or symbols, connected in some
the religious thoughts and doctrines of those that carved
them, appears to
me
to be rendered probable, at least,
by
and circumstances in which we occasionally on the lids of stone cof&ns and mortuary urns. Their date must be very remote.' They preceded writing and tradition. They are found in company with polished neolithic stone weapons, as in Brittany, without any remains of the metals, save in one case, of gold. The markings are certainly, in Australia, earlier than the use of metals. Sir James found by experiment that the markings could be made even on Aberdeen granite with a flint celt and a wooden mallet. the position
them
find
placed,' as
'
He
reckoned them earlier than the arrival of the Celtic
race,
and asked
for evidence of their existence in Africa,
He
America, or Polynesia.
example
in
did not
know
the Fijian
Williams's work on the Fijians, nor the
American and Australian examples.
James did not
Sir
live to
hear
much
about these
mysterious marks in remote and savage lands. 1875,
Professor
Daniel
reported his discovery
boulder in Georgia.
orthodox
sort,
Druids and '
The
Wilson discovered, or rather cups and rings on a granite designs are quite of the familiar
and rocks covered with deep cup-marks
occur in Ohio.^ for
of,
But, in
Now
there are romantic antiquaries,
Phoenicians
;
Proceedings S.A.S., June 1875.
and '
there
are
all
sardonic
Ohio Eock Markings.'
R 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
244
who
antiquaries,
like to
rub the
Dr. Wilson was of the latter
gilt off
class,
the gingerbread.
and explained the cups
men in grinding stone pestles. The concentric rings may have been drawn round the cups for amusement.' This is damping, but early man as
made by
holes
early
'
did not use stone kists and the inner walls of sepulchres as grindstones
;
yet on these the
marks
Nor would
occur.
he climb an almost inaccessible rock to find his grindstone
;
summit of such a rock has the decorations, in the parish of Tannadyce (Forfarshire). We may, therefore, yet the
discard Dr. Wilson's theory as a general solution of the
problem.
Sir
James Simpson
left it
with the answer that
the marks are decorative, plus religious symbolism.^ guess, as I think I can prove, or, at least, cause to bable,
was
correct.
The cups and
circles,
His
seem pro-
with other marks,
were originally decorative, with a symbolical and religious
meaning
in
certain
How
cases.
I have reached this
conclusion I go on to show.
When custom or
you want belief,
understand an old meaningless
to
found in the middle of
custom
try to discover the belief or it
possesses intelligible
where you now
what
it
now
find
it
in
civilisation,
Then you may reckon
life.
without meaning,
does where
is
it
you
some region where it
that,
once meant
full of vitality, or
meant
something analogous.
The
place where the
concentric
markings have a living and potent covered by pure accident. of Messrs. '
I '
Spencer and
I
had noted plenty
with concentric '
flat
and other
had been reading the proofs valuable book on the
Grillen's
Native Tribes of Central Australia
sacred things,'
circles
signification I dis-
of facts
'
(Macmillan).
There
about the native churinga, or
oval pieces of
circles, cups,
wood
or stone, covered
and other decorations, which
Ancient Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, dc.
Edinburgh, 1871.
'CUP AND EING' are
read,
or
deciphered,
245
records
as
the myths and
of
These churinga
legendary history of the native race.
down to a foot or less in length. I did not think of them in connection with our cups, circles, and so forth on our boulders and standing stones. But a friend chanced to come into my study, who began to tell me about the singular old site, Dumbuck, discovered by Mr. W. A. Donnelly (July 1898), under high-tide mark The odd thing,' in the Clyde estuary, near Dumbarton. are of various sizes,
'
said
my
friend,
'
is
that they have found small portable
stones, amulets marked in the same way as the cup and ring marked rocks,' and he began to sketch a diagram. '
Why,
that's a churinga,' said I,
churinga,' enlightened friend, after
'
a Central Australian
by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.
My
me
that
being informed as to churinga, told
other examples
had been dug up,
an ancient fort near the other
site,
also
by Mr. Donnelly, in
at a place called
Dunbuie.
Here, then, I had things very like churinga, and of the
same markings as our boulders, kists, and so on, in two Scottish sites, where I understand neither pottery nor metal has yet been detected.
Next, I found that the
marks which the Australians engrave on
their
small
churinga, they also paint on boulders, rock-walls,
and
other fixtures in the landscape, on sacred ground, tabooed
women. The startling analogy between Australian and old Scottish markings saute aux yeux. On the cover of Sir James Simpson's book, stamped
to
in gold, is a central
rounding a cup. the
set
From
of
six concentric
circles, sur-
the inmost circle a groove goes to
circumference of the outer circle (the circles often
occur without this radial groove), and there the line gives a wriggle, suggesting that the circle spiral.
Above and below
was evolved out
this figure are a similar
of a
one with
MAGIC AND RELIGION
246
three and another with four concentric circles side are two-circled
wriggled
Now
line,
;
at each
and one-circled specimens with the circles with no wriggle.
and two cups and
compare
fig.
131, p. 631, of Messrs Spencer and
Here we have the churinga ilkinia, or sacred rock-drawing, in red and white, of the honey ant totem in the Warramunga tribe. Here are, first, seven concentric circles, through the centre of which goes a straight line of the same breadth (only found among the Warramunga), while to each extremity are added two concentric circles Gillen.
of small dimensions, ending in a cross.
Sir
James's cover, are smaller sets of
Around, as on
numerous
less
concentric circles, exactly like Sir James's, except for the radial groove p. 615),
which ends
we have two
in a wriggle.
Again
sets of concentric circles
(fig.
124,
with white
dots answering to cups, and, where the third set of circles
should be, in
many
is
a volute, as at
New
Grange, in Ireland, and
other examples in our islands.
Now,
in Central Australia the decorative motives, or
analogous motives, of the permanent rock-paintings are repeated
on the small portable
churinga,
which
are
deciphered by the blacks in a religious, or rather in a mythical, sense. portable
Scottish
It
is,
therefore, arguable that the small
cup and
circle
recently discovered, bore the
same
marked relation
stones, only
to
the en-
gravings on permanent stones, scalps, and boulders as do the Australian churinga to the Australian sacred rock-
They may have been portable sacred things. Dumbuck, now in course of excavation, and have only seen some casts and penand-ink sketches sent to me by Mr. Donnelly. But I paintings.
I have been unable to visit
have examined the similar objects from Dunbuie, in the
museum at Edinburgh. The antiquaries looked dubiously on them, because they had seen no such matters before
'CUP AND RING' might have done so
(they
247
in Ireland), because a shell, v/ith
among
a very modern scratched face, was
the finds, and
because a few of the markings on one or two stones look
and
recent
But
fresh.
argue
I
that a
Dumbarton
humorist wishing to hoax us Monkbarnses would hardly '
salt
an old
'
How
site
with objects unknown to Scottish anti-
yet afterwards discovered in Central Australia.
quaries,
could the idea occur to
things known, such as flint novelties,
which,
later,
A
him ? weapons
;
forger would forge
he would not forge
are found to tally with savage
sacred things in actual use.
Many
of
the
Millar's paper
Dunbuie
finds
on Dunbuie.^
Mr.
are engraved in
But he has not engraved
most unmistakable cburinga, a small oval slab of
the
stone,
with an ornament of
(much
line
as in
an Irish
little
cups following
instance),
out-
its
and provided,
like
stone churinga in Australia, with a hole for suspension.
He
does engrave certain hitherto unheard-of articles
spear-heads of slate, two supplied with suspension holes.
One
294) has a pattern of the simplest, like a child's
(p.
drawing of a larch, which recurs in Australia.^
That
these slate spear-heads, pierced for suspension, were used
war I doubt, though some Australians do use and where flint is so of a flinty slate
in
heads as in in
'
'
;
Scotland, hard
North America.'
slate
may
be used
— for
spearscarce,
example,
weapons as the very old and rare
I rather regard the slate
amulets, or churinga, analogous to
boomerang-shaped churinga of the Arunta
(lizard
totem)
Proceedings S.A.S. vol. xxx. 1896, pp. 291-316. Spencer and Gillen, p. 632, Nos. 14-23. 'Ilkinia and Plum Tree Totem.' ^ The evidence for Australian slate spear-heads is not strong. Capt. King acquired a bundle of bark in a raid on natives. It contained ' several '
^
most ingeniously and curiously made of stone was covered with red pigment, and appeared to be of a flinty The Picture of Australia, p. 243. London, 1829. spear-heads,
.
.
.
the stone
slate.'
— See
MAGIC AND RELIGION
248
Mr. Millar observes
of Central Australia. all
been saturated with
oil
to them, but runs off as
'
:
They have
or fat, as water does not adhere
from a greasy
Now
surface.'
the Australian churinga are very frequently rubbed with
made greasy with
red ochre, and
Footmarks
hand grease
'
among
'
—a
sin-
the
sacred
Australian rock-paintings with a legendary sense.
They
gular
also '
coincidence.
engraved on rock in Brittany, Ireland, on
occur,
The Fairy Stone
Witches' Stone concentric
are
'
(ilkinia)
'
circles.^
The
'
with cups and
Monzie, associated
at
and on
in Glenesk,
These close analogies point
all in
one
direction.
Meaningless in Europe, what meaning have these designs in Australia ?
take
it
that they were
Though
certainty
is
impossible, I
purely decorative, before the
first
mythical and symbolical meaning was read into them by the savages.
They occur on
the mystic
'
bull-roarers
'
of
Central Queensland, but I do not learn that in Queens-
land the circles and so on are interpreted or deciphered as
among
the Arunta.^
connection
they occur here in a religious
Still,
—the bull-roarer being swung at the mysteries
and they are carved on trees at mysteries held far south in New South Wales. ^ But even in Central Australia the markings sometimes occur as purely decorative, on one rock or other object, while on others they are sacred, and are interpreted as records of legends,* according to Spencer
and '
Gillen.
certain
There are
'
ordinary rock-paintings,' and
other drawings, in
able from
some
many
cases not distinguish-
of the first series, so far as their
form
Simpson, pp. 182-184. Roth, Natives of N. W. Qtieensland, p. 129, pi. xvii. ^ Journal Anthrop. Institute, May 1895, p. 410, pi. 21, fig. 7. Some wooden churinga are engraved, as Australian Magic Sticks,' in Batzel's popular History of Mankind, i. 379. They exactly answer to the churinga of the Arunta. '
^
'
'
'CUP AND RING'
249
concerned, but belonging to a class
is
spoken of
churinga
as
all of
and
ilkinia,
which are
regarded
are
local totemic
as
Each
because they are associated with totems.
sacred
group has certain of these specially belong-
and
ing to the group,
in
many
very
on rock-surfaces in spots which are
preserved
cases
tahu to the
strictly
women, children, and uninitiated men.' One of the commonest represents a snake coming out of a hole in a rock,' which the wriggle out of the cup in our circle'
marked stones would stand are only
'
play-work
where the spot '
believed,
an original series of
to
'
for fairly well.
Some
designs
others exactly similar, on another
The meaning is read, grormd. The concentric circles
have a definite meaning.
spot,
are
;
sacred
is
on good ground,
spiral.'
'
It is
to
have been derived from
much more
easy to imagine a
concentric circles originating out of a spiral than
imagine a spiral originating out of a series of concentric
In
circles.'
this
country the spiral seems to be later than
the circle.
rocks and
These devices not only occur on fixed
portable churinga, they are also painted on the bodies of
boys
when
initiated in the mysteries
:
'
concentric circles
with radiating lines preponderate.'
In Mr. Haddon's
Guinea
'
which are
human
face.'
face,
of
then, however
tive or symbolic, of
we
by the Arunta
of the
interpret the origin, decora-
the sacred designs,
Eoyal Irish Academy,
the
route.
of
is
their significance
Central Australia at the
present time ? '
New
concentric circles and spirals may,
have been derived from drawings
though diablement changSs en
as understood
British
concentric circles and
clearly derivatives of drawings of
Thus our
in the last resort,
What,
Decorative Art of
he describes designs
spirals
human
'
Cuymmgham
Memoirs, No.
i.
1894.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
260
The Arimta
are totemistic
—that
they beheve in
is,
which bind up the groups of their society with certain plants and animals. But they differ vastly from other totemistic races all over the world, and even in Australia. So much do they differ that it may be doubted whether their totems can properly be called totems at all.
close relations
man of a given totem — say the emu— cannot woman of that stock it is incest. The children
Elsewhere a
marry a
;
from the mother,
inherit their totem, either
Any
quently, the father.
contains persons of various totems.
make any
eat, or
less fre-
or,
group in a given region
local
People
may
not
kill,
use of the plants and animals which, in
each case, are their totems.
Among the Arunta all is otherwise. A child's totem may be that of his father, of his mother, or different from that of either parent. A man may marry a woman of his own
which elsewhere
and capitally mother is a grub one child may be a grub, another an emu. Moreover, totem,
Thus, father
punished.
here totems
are
place will be,
local;
for
is
magical
in
a given
example, a lizard or a plum
own
tree.
totems, though sparingly,
intended to multiply the animal or
rites,
plant with which
the general
;
almost every one
Usually people do eat their at
incest,
is
a grub
it
is
associated,
in
the interests
The Grubs work
food supply.
of
a rite to
cause plenty of grubs, and they give the other groups a lead by eating sparingly of the
This bears, in
my
opinion,
totem-sacrament.'
first fruits
of the grubs.
no strong analogy to the soTo work the magic, the men
called
'
of the
grub or other totem must eat a
little of it.
This
probably confirms their relation to the grub, but involves
no
religious element.
any one rather
likes to call
easily
satisfied.
They do not adore the grub. this
a
'
totem-sacrament,'
Nor does
it
agree
he
If is
with the
'CUP AND RING' notion that a man's totem '
soul
kill
why
; '
so,
if
and eat
the receptacle of his
is
Whether Arunta totemism from which a private
us here, and
to destroy
it.
it is
from the main stock, does not concern
The Arunta, and
matter of conjecture.
Central Australian tribes, look back to a mythic
other past,
is
'
or
'
the most archaic kind,
is
other totemism has varied, or whether
all
sport
'
life
'
should he encourage his neighbour to
Nay, he even helps them
?
it
-251
when
closely connected with this or that
ancestors,
plant or animal, perhaps transformations of such animal or plant,
roamed the country
in groups,
totem name, each feeding freely on
its
each of the same
own
totem.
This was 'the Alcheringa time,' and existing explained by a
mummery,
Alcheringa.
aetiological
'
still
myths, 'stating
practised,
Nothing
was
of
dim
that
of the
rites are
or such
originally practised in the
need have
of the sort, of course,
been the case, and such myths cannot
manners and customs Demeter was a woman
how such
tell
us what the
age
really
were.
Greek Alcheringa, and the
Eleusinian rites were explained by the Greeks as originating in her Alcheringa adventures.
But
were invented purely to account for the
these obviously
rites themselves,
not vice versa.
Now, among the Arunta the blacks
of
to-day are
regarded as reincarnations of the Alcheringa fabulous
Bach
ancestors.
of these carried
about (both
men and
women) churinga, the portable decorated stones. When an Alcheringite died, a rock or tree rose to mark the place, but his or her spirit of
'
remained in the churinga.'
churinga were dropped at different
these
now
place
is
frog or
a
hover the
crowd
lizard
incarnated.
spirits associated
of wild cat ghosts
or
emu
ghosts.
Consequently, a
;
sites,
Plenty
and round
with them. at another, a
In one
mob
These want to be
woman who
desires to
of
re-
have
MAGIC AND EELIGION
252
them
a baby goes to one of
down to
a cup-marked rock
!),
Argyll she would slide
(in
a
woman who
A
have a baby keeps away.
child's
does not want
totem
is
derived,
not from father or mother, but from the totem of the ghosts at the place where the it.
When
and
find for
the baby
reincarnated in
Thus,
first
is
she conceived
born her relations hunt the
the churinga
it
woman thinks left
by the
spirit
Then
the fabulous Alcheringite, himself
is
there
fire,
or
spirit enters into spirit's
churinga
child's
and
is
churinga
—an
is
found and
oval plate of
ring or other decorations.'
is
henceforth the
is
stone,
sacred stores, nor their eyes
churinga life of
is
may
Women may
'
Each member churinga nanja
not go near these
they see a churinga.^
If they do,
A
are burned out with a fire stick. not, to
tale.
If
it
does not die, but expects bad luck, as
Not
till
man's
him, like the egg in which was the
the giant in the fairy
mirror.
with cup and
All these churinga are kept
represented by her or his
these repositories.
in
That
born again from a passing woman,
at sacred central stores, caves, or crevices. of the tribe
what
his spirit haunting, after his death,
is
a spot where churinga of his totem were deposited.
and the
is
it.
there
a transformation of an emu, lizard, water, not.
spot,
which
comes
we do
if
to grief, he
we break
a
he has been through the mysteries and
the most cruel mutilations, and just before he has been
painted with the pattern on the sacred rock of his totem,
can a
man
see the store-houses of the churinga.
the witchetty grub totem this sacred painting
the lines incised, under concentric
'
For cups, see Spencer and Gillen,
p.
circles,
129
;
Now,
tallies
in
with
on the covering
for concentric circles, see
p. 131. ' The tribal stores of churinga are not the same as the places where churinga were dropped in the Alcheringa.
'OUP AND EING' There are
a stone kist at Tillicoutry.'
of
253
the lines in the Australian example, or
dabs of paint, called rocks
'
above
circles
rather circular
the decorated eyes,' painted on the
the corresponding patterns are incised on the
;
In Scotland the patterns are incised
portable churinga.
both on fixed rocks and portable stones
Dumbuck and Dunbuie. I observe many patterns common There are the concentric
circles,
the latter at
;
both regions.
to
the spiral, the marks like
horseshoes, the tree pattern, the witchetty grub pattern, the
volute,
number
of
the long sinuous snake-like pattern, and a these recur in Brazil, on the banks of the
Now, though v?e have those patterns on rocha
Eio Negro. ^
in Ohio, Brazil, Australia, in this country, in France, in
Asia Minor, T only
know
the patterns on portable small
Dunbuie, on the
stones in Australia, at
and, I think, in a cairn near
The
Meath.
'Proceedings p. 299,
curious, of
where in
for
Dumbuck
Lough Crew, in County may consult
this last case,
Scottish Society of Antiquaries,' 1893, figs.
would be called two
6
and 7 he
will see
stone, churinga,
what
is like
in Australia
with any number of
Scoto-Australian patterns on large stones. pattern
site,
On
one the
that of a stone from Dunbuie.
In Australia members of each totem decipher the marks, purely conventional, as representative of the totem,
and a
Alcheringa time. For example, two croquet hoops, or horseshoes, is an old
of adventures in the
mark
woman
like
'
gathering frogs.'
the dots round
them
stories are told
'
No.
The
concentric circles are frogs
are tracks of
women
;
dull, often dirty,
about the adventures of the Alcheringites
Proceedings S.A.S. vol. xxix. p. 193.
Spencer and Gilleu,
fig.
132,
6.
^ S.A.S. 1884-5, vol. vii. pp. 388-394. the same work, 1892-93, pp. 297-338.
Compare,
for
County Meath,
MAGIC AND RELIGION
254
commemorated by the
patterns.
At the sacred pattern-
painted rocks, magic ceremonies, extremely puerile, are
performed to ensure a supply Alcheringa
;
for luck.'
exist
of the
totem which
occurred there in the
the rite repeats what, in myth,
and the stomachs '
of the edible
Some event
the pattern represents.
was then done,
men are rubbed with
the churinga
Such are the uses of the churinga. Did they once
wherever the similarly decorated fixed rocks
Did the makers
exist ?
of the decorations in Scotland decipher the
churinga as the Central Australians do
now ?
Were
the
by Clyde (much more advanced in culture than the Australians) totemists, looking on their small decorated dwellers
stones as associated with the spirits of Alcheringa ances-
Do women
tors?
rock, in
hope
in Argyll
of offspring,
hovered round
it,
slide
down
a cup-marked
because totemistic ghosts once
eager to be reincarnated ?
The
fact of
by a chief of Clan Diarmid. Nobody can answer I have showa these decorated rocks and small stones to have a living significance, a vital the sliding
is
attested
!
legendary symbolism, in
Central Australia.
I
cannot
prove that they had the same significance in County
Meath or Dumbartonshire. The Australians may have begun with mere decoration, and later added a symbolism suited to their
amazing theory
the decorations
may have
of life.
In our country
quite a different symbolical sense,
Otherwise, why but probably they had some sense. engrave them, not only on rocks, but on small stones pierced for suspension ?
Perhaps men believed
Alcheringa time on the Clyde
;
in
an
perhaps they multiplied
salmon and deer by magical mummeries at the engraved perhaps these were sacred places, tabooed to rocks ;
women. have
Or quite a different
crystallised
in
inscribed small stones.
set of fables
and customs may
Scotland round marked rocks and I cannot prove that, as in Australia,
'CUP AND EING' Clydesdale boys of old,
when
265
initiated in the mysteries,
were painted with the pattern on their sacred totem rock
and stone or wood churinga.
But,
if
not these
rites,
other rites were, I conceive, connected with the decorative patterns found in so
many
still
savage countries.
One piece of evidence rather points in this direction. The Australian stone churinga are shaped like the wooden churinga, and these are shaped like the tundun, or
Now
roarer.'
the bull-roarer (which occurs in Australia
where stone churinga do not)
is
a sacred oval piece of wood,
women, which
not to be seen by
is
whirled at the mysteries,
and makes a windy, roaring noise. used, for the
same purpose,
The same
object
The roaring
noise
is
taken
be the voice of Tundun, son of Mungan-ngaur,
Father
'
in the heavens,
among
or culture heroes of other
names
Celtic Scotland (as also in
it
Our
Now,
in other tribes.
England)
in
this instrument, the
named strannam.
descend from a sacred object of savage mysteries,
and are the Australian stone churinga
—in
tundun, and like the tundun tabooed to lapidary modifications of the this
'
the Kurnai, and of gods
tundun, occurs as a mere toy, in Gaelic
Does
is
at the mysteries in America,
Africa, and, of old, in Greece.' to
bull-
'
may
be, the
shape
women
wooden tundun ?
strannam looks
like the
—mere
However
like a link in the
long
chain which binds us to the prehistoric past.
While correcting the proof-sheets of this article I read, Glasgow Herald (January 7, 1899), an article on Dumbuck and Dunbuie, by Dr. Munro, the eminent authority in the
on crannogs, or pile-dwellings, and, generally on prehistoric Scotland.
regard
Dr.
Munro,
Dumbuck
as I understand him, does not
as an older than mediaeval
site,
nor as a
See the author's Custom and Myth : The Bull Boarer. Prof. Haddon hag discovered many other inetanoes see also The Golden Bough, iii. 423 '
;
et seq.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
256
true crannog.
The
incised stones he looks
most singular character to-day, the opinion
(if
on either
as of
genuine) or as forgeries of
which he seems
He was
to prefer.
then unacquainted with similar objects in any part of the I have here provided references to similar objects
world.
from Central Australia, and I suggest examination a^pparently similar Irish objects, figured in of Scottish Society of Antiquaries,' 1893, p.
and
forger should forge such
them
at
stones
'
objects,
figs.
6
offer the
Proceedings.'
unknown
of the
Proceedings 299,
Not having seen these stones I can only
7.
hint suggested by the illustrations in a
'
Why
and place
Dunbuie, in 1895, before the Central Australian
had been
described, I cannot guess.
Nor can
I
enough deplore the stupidity of the same salting Dunbuie and Dumbuck with forger in not neolithic implements, whether antique or made by some
hypothetical
'
'
Flint Jack of to-day.
Both
his sins of omission
commission donnent furieusement d penser. however, as I gather from his article on '
The Eeliquary
the
Dumbuck
antiquity.
'
(April
1901),
still
and
of
Dr. Munro,
Dumbuck
in
declines to recognise
decorated portable stones as of genuine
257
XIV FIB8T-FBUITS AND TAB.OOS Taboo
is
few savage words which
one of the
struck root in England.
Introduced from
and other Polynesian
(tapu)
book
mandments
Many
'tabooed.'
is
'
taboo
this
way
ments are not precisely taboos
we ought not
mind, there
is
Commandwhy
pretty obvious
d'etre of
obscure to some advanced
Sinclair must not Ord on a certain lawful day,' or why on anlawful day the fishermen of St. Andrews might
cross the
'
'
not go a-fishing, resemble lack of a manifest reason of the
is
it
pro-
no very
But the reasons why a
intelligences.
other
the prohibitive
;
is
though the raison
to steal or kill,
Commandment
the Seventh
Ten Com-
But, in anthro-
commonly means a
It
hibition for which, to the civilised
In
Zealand
generally denotes something
'
more than a prohibition. obvious meaning.
New
used in English
of the
are, in this sense, taboos.
pological language,
'
it is
This, that, or the other thing, or
to denote a prohibition.
person, or
islands,
have
many
why.
savage taboos in the
Secondly, the infraction
savage taboo generally, unlike that of the deca-
logue, carries its
own punishment.
poison, tabooed land
tabooed property
is
Forbidden food
may mean
death
;
nobody knows what
awful cosmic catastrophe might occur
saw the sun luck will
;
many words and names
come
of using
is
dangerous to tread upon, to handle
them
—
if
a tabooed woman
and no you must not
are taboo,
for instance,
s
MAGIC AND KELIGION
258
name in
'salmon,' 'pigs,' or the minister
some parts In
easily
out fishing
of Scotland.
many
the reason of this or that taboo
cases
A
discoYered.
fishers, as at
day
unlucky because
is
Andrews, were
St.
through a storm
century
past
when
another day were cut
on that day in a
lost
the
or
;
on
Sinclairs
Most
an expedition.
off in
is
the
all
of
us have our lucky or unlucky days, clothes, and other
Again, things are taboo for some reason in
vanities.
that kind of faith which holds that things connected in
the association of ideas are mystically connected in
You must
not mention salmon,
they hear you and
lest
escape; or tin in Malay tin mining, literally
'
make itself
reasons.
If
the tin should
lest
You may not name the fairies,
Therefore you say
a jealous folk.
and so on.
scarce.'
fact.
'
the people of peace,'
But many other taboos have good practical women, among ourselves, were tabooed from
salmon-fishing, eating oysters, or entering smoking-rooms /
(all of
which things are greatly
to be desired), the reason
would be the convenience of the men, who wish a sanctuary or asylum in the smoking-room, and want to keep oysters and fishing
to themselves.
sight of the royal treasury
king
he
'
:
to speak colloquially,
would blue the
lot.'
It is
is
why
pretty plain
tabooed to a
West
the
African
if
admitted to see the hoards
A
taboo often protects by a
supernatural sanction the property and persons of the privileged classes.
were taboo,
it
If the
umbrella of a bishop or a baronet
would not be taken away from the club by
accident.
This simple explanation covers the case of many taboos.
Brother and still
less
sister
speak to or
may
scarcely ever see each other,
name each
other,
against brother and sister marriage or
most
definite
law
of the
community.
'
where the law
amour It
is
is
the one
not, therefore,
AND TABOOS
FIRST-FRUITS surprising,' says
the custom
(of
'
Mr. Jevons,
'
259
that the earlier students of
taboo) regarded '
an artificial invention,
as
it
a piece of statecraft, cunningly devised in the interests of
the nobility and the priests.
This view
generally abandoned,' because taboo in
now home
however,
is,
most
'is
at
communities which have no state organisation, and
where there are no
flourishes
Above
the belief
all
is
not
hesitate about
flourish
more than
human
does in Polynesia and
it
societies
there are
Australia),
Taboo
theory.
this
where there are kings and there are
and imposed, but
artificial
^
spontaneous and natural.' I
no priesthood.
or
priests
no
hardly
West
Africa,
Moreover, though
priests.
without kings or priests
adult males meeting in councils.
Australia are, of course, far from
which
in
societies
rules are not propagated, instituted,
institutions, ceremonies,
can
The Arunta
of Central
primitive.'
They have
'
weapons,
They have
local
rules,
and a complete
unknown
head-men, or Alatunjas,
passes always in the male line
whose
office
son,
the son be of age to succeed,
if
artificial
and enforced by the
system of philosophy, which must have needed ages to develop.
(as in
or, if
:
from father
he
is
to
not, to the
on whoSe death it reverts to the son. An Alatunja dying without a son nominates a brother or nephew to
brother,
succeed him.
Messrs.
equivalent to this law it
indicates,
among
Spencer and Gillen know
among
no
other Australian tribes, and
the so-called
'
primitive
'
Arunta,
a
marked advance beyond other tribes in social evolution. The Alatunja is hereditary Convener of Council, and if an able
man
has considerable power.
He
is
guardian of the
Sacra of the group, determines the date of the cessation of close-time
for certain sorts of
game,
the date of the
magical ceremonies for fostering the game '
Introduction
to the
History of Religion,
or
edible
p. 82. s
2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
260
and
plants,
called
by the Alatunja
may
typed custom
customs and
it
In the councils
ceremonies.
the
directs
appears that changes in stereo-
Men
be introduced.
learned in the
Defimagic settle everything.' thus introduced nite proof of fimdamental innovations Messrs. Spencer and Gillen do not possess but tradition indicates alterations of custom, and it is quite possible that a strong Alatunja, well backed, might bring in skilled in
'
;
even
grades of
with
are
recognised
also
among the medicine-men and the dealers
skill
spirits,
There
reform.^
radical
a
who must have
own
their
share of social
influence.
In
brief,
though without
office is
hereditary in the male
unknown
backward
much
sanctioned by traditoin and authority
spontaneous and universal,' as if kings and had invented them for purposes of statecraft.
just as little priests
'
Jevons
next
argues
been derived from experience.
human
tendency of the ancestor.
Blue
obsolete,
abandoned artificial
'
fine,
it
is
have
and even
an inherent
In the same way Gibbon's
mind.'
is
an inherent tendency
innate idea.
not necessarily erroneous because
is
nor a view
abandoned.'
cannot
Gown herald, when among North American
human mind, an opinion
'
It is prior to
In
Indians, declared that heraldry
An
taboo
that
contradictory of experience.
of the
These persons, through
line.
have moulded customs and taboos, which
ages,
are just as
Mr.
priests or kings these
have councils, and conveners, and directors whose
tribes
am
I
wrong here
hypothesis that
becaiise
'
supporting
many
the
taboos,
at
it
is
generally
is
it
'
generally least,
are
and imposed, against Mr. Jevons's idea that
the taboo, like armorial bearings, results from an inherent '
tendency of the
human mind '
'
'
prior to
and even contra-
Spencer and Gillen, pp. 10-16.
FIEST-FRUITS dictory of experience.' ous,' or that is
'
my
I never
water
the
261
That a new-born baby is danger-
^
'
the water in which a holy person has washed
dangerous,'
fact,
AND TABOOS
private experience does not
made
either experiment
previously
:
tell
me
in
;
never tubbed in
used by a bishop.
But
I
am
prepared to admit that neither babies nor bishops are
proved by our experience to be dangerous.
The savage
question.
That
is
not the
argued, not from unbiassed and
impartial scientific experiment, but from fancied experi-
Thus Mr. Jevons mentions a Maori who died after finding out that he had eaten, unawares, the remains of the luncheon of a holy person, a chief. There was experience produced by suggestion. The suggestion was suggested ence.
in the interests of holy chiefs thick,' as
as in our
Mr. Manning writes.
own
;
they were
As
'
tabooed an inch
to the baby, the
fairy belief, hold that
'
new-born children
are the especial prey of evil spirits,' just as corpses
Scotland, where, up,
if
Dyaks,
were in
the door was left ajar, the corpse sat
and mopped and mowed.
If the
watchers
left it,
and
dined in the 'but,' an awful wacarme arose in the 'ben.'
The minister entered, stilled the tumult, asked for the tongs, and came back holding in the tongs a bloody glove !
This he dropped into the
This kind of thing
fire.
is
contradictory to the experience
ih.e fancied experience of Dyaks, Opinion therefore makes taboos in accordance with experience, or what is believed to be
of
Mr. Jevons, but not to
Scots,
and other races.
and the belief is fortified by suggestion, which produces death or disease when the taboo is broken. experience,
On
the analogy of infectious diseases, the mischief of the
tabooed thing
is
held to be contagious.
Thus I cannot hold with Mr. Jevons that the human mind is provided with an a priori categorical imperative '
Jevons, p. 85.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
262
'
some things which must not be
that there are
feeling
independent
'
'
sense experience.'
of
choice of what things are '
irrational,'
that
is
'
not to be done
done,'
He
a
seems to us
'
merely because our reason
enlightened than that of the savage.
'
the
If
^
is
more
prohibited just
such things as his philosophy, and what he believed to be
showed him
his experience,
Any
dangerous for obscure
to be
was dangerous to eat But it took reflection to discover that a baby or a corpse was dangerous by reason of evil spirits, Irimtarinia, whom the Alkna Buma, or clairvoyant, could see, and describe, though Mr. Jevons and I could not discern them.^ These Iruntarinia notoriously carry off women, and probably, like the fairies, have reasons.
fool could see that
poison berries or
frolic
their best chance in the
with a bear.
hour
The belief
the fairies have.^
it
of child-birth is
at all events,
:
socially useful
young Arunta women from wandering
off
it
:
prevents
and
alone,
philandering out of bounds.
Thus
these
taboos
are
sanctioned
by the
tribal
counsellors as the results of experience, not their
perhaps, but that of the Alkna
person.
'medium,'
or
'sensitive,'
Buma,
or
own
or clairvoyant, or
habitually
hallucinated
Other taboos, as to women, are imposed
for
very good reasons, though not for the reasons alleged, and
broken taboos are not
(in
actual
ordinary experience)
attended by the penalties which, however,
may
Taboo, then, deference to
'
is
not
imposed
of
philosophy), but
reason, as savage reasoning goes, is
irrationally,
an inherent tendency of the
(that Mrs. Harris
what
suggestion
produce.
and
for
nor
in
human mind
'
a very good
in accordance with
believed to be experience, and, by dint of sugges-
tion, really does .levons, pp. 85-87.
become ^
experience,
Spencer and Gillen, pp.
15, 515.
'
Ibid. p. 517.
AND TABOOS
FIRST-FRUITS
283
was irrational in Dr. Johnson to touch certain posts, and avoid certain stones, and enter a door twice, if he first entered it with the wrong foot. All my life I have had similar private taboos, though nobody knows It
'
'
they
that
better
are
But
nonsense.
some
solitary
experience in childhood probably suggested a relation of
cause and
where there
effect,
sequence of
and
antecedent
was only
a
fortuitous
and so
consequent,
Johnson and I (though not so conspicuously
imposed taboos on ourselves in deference to on a large tive,
man
Early
experience.
Dr.
as the Doctor) (fancied)
has acted in the same
way
obeying no categorical a priori impera-
scale,
but merely acting on his philosophy and experience
which
is real
to him,
though not
to civilised
men.
They
it,
but educated persons vrith a
survival of savagery in their
mental constitutions find the
usually do not understand
affair intelligible.
But the reason in actual practical experience for some taboos must be plain to the most civilised minds, except Man, in those of Eadical voters for the Border Boroughs. must have game laws and a close-time for animals and plants. The Border Eadical will not
the hunter stage, edible
permit a close-time for trout, perferring to destroy them,
and with them their offspring,
human
gravid and unfit for
food, or before they recover condition.
The a
when
'
primitive
'
Arunta are not so
close-time, protected
by taboo,
monies of a nature more or
less
or,
irrational,
at
magical.
least,
by
cere-
In these cere-
monies of a people not pastoral or agricultural, see
and have
we seem
to
the germs of the offerings of first-fruits to gods or
spirits,
spirits
though the Australian produce nor to gods.
offered neither to spirit,
he plays any other part in than presiding over the tribal mysteries
indeed, Twanyirika, but that religion or society
is
These tribes recognise a great
MAGIC AND EELIGION
'264
we have
no evidence
at present
associated with the mysteries,
are,
other parts
in
But
more august and remote.
Arunta are advanced thinkers who have
the
beyond such
either
passed
they have not yet attained to them,
ideas, or
In any
or our witnesses are uninformed on the subject.'
game, grubs, and plants of the
case, the first-fruits of the
Arunta are not
of
with an ample mythology, and are
Australia, provided
subject to a being
Similar figures,
to prove.
offered to Twanyirika,
or to the minor
sprites, Iruntarinia.
The
ceremonies, partly intended to
used for food
prolific,
the close-time
and
and
dwell.
the creatures
partly, I think, to indicate that
over and that the creatures
is
eaten, are called Intichiuma.
make animals and
pected to
make
On
the
may
plants plentiful
In each case the men who belong
be taken
mummeries ex-
we need
not
totem
to the
the beast, grub, or plant perform the ceremonies.
of
There
believed to be a close and essential connection between
is
man man
of the
plants.
How
a
group was originally called kangaroos or grubs
a
kangaroo totem and
all
kangaroos, between
of the grub totem and all grubs, so each totem group does the magic to propagate its ally among beasts or
a
local
these ideas arose
name
(and some
would inevitably
it
must
we do not know.
have), the association of
by association
lead,
of
ideas,
But
if
names to
the
notion that a mysterious connection existed between the
men
of a
totem name and the plant, animal, or what not
which gave the name.
These men,
therefore,
would work
the magic for propagating their kindred in the animal and
But the
vegetable world.
would
also
should not
In
most
suggest that, kill
and eat
parts '
of
his
the
existence of this connection in
common
decency, a
animal or vegetable
world he abstains
Spencer and Gillen, pp. 222, 246.
man
relations.
from
this
AND TABOOS
FIRST-FRUITS unconsinly behaviour
among
:
sparingly of his totem, and
265
the Arunta he
must do
may
eat
so at the end of the
close-time or beginning of the season.
He thus,
as a near relation of the actual kangaroos or
and gives his neighbours
grubs, declares the season open,
other totems a lead.
Novs? they
kangaroos; the taboo
is off.
the corn of his tenants
they refused
hearing of
'
men
Thus, in 1745, Gask tabooed
In the same way the grub or kan-
publicly eat a
When
after
because
Prince Charles,
Charlie.'
little of
the grub or whatever
the magic doings for
its
own totem, after may fall to and de-
their
which the tribesmen and other totems vour.
it,
cut a few ears with his claymore, thus
removing the taboo. garoo
of
begin to eat grubs or
they must not reap
and follow
to rise
this,
;
may
it is
becomes plentiful,
propagation,
it is
collected
members of the grub totem. The Alatunja, or convener, grinds up some of the grub, he and his fellow totemists eat a little, and hand the mass back to the members of other totems. They eat a little of their own totem, partly, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen say, and placed before some
mystic connection with the creature.
to strengthen their
This, in a way,
regard
is
is
'
sacramental
'
idea,
though no
remove the taboo, and to
religious
But the men
paid to the plants and animals.
also partake, to
the
a
let
community gorge themselves legally.^ The rite has thus a practical purpose.
the rest of
The grubs
or
other creatures are not prematurely destroyed, like trout
on the Border.
enough not '
In
fact,
trout themselves
to begin feeding
The Arunta eating
of the totem, at the
Mr. Jevons, however, adduces
it
May
on
fly
are
sensible
prematurely.
magic ceremony, is not religious.
as proof of
'
the existence of the totem-
an etiolated form.' But what proof have we that the totems were once totem gods,' or in any way divine, among the Arunta ? Jevons, The Science of Eeligion,' International Monthly, p. 489, sacrament,' surviving
'
in
'
'
April 1901.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
266
Throughout the previous week,' says May flies had been seen
'
'a few
would point
his nose at one.
.
.
.
Herbert Maxwell,
Sir
.
.
but not a trout
.
This hesitation on the
part of the trout to begin their annual banquet
known
the best
features of the let
a
the grub
May
come on
bulb
certain
and, at the fly
fortnight.'
one of
is
least explicable
The Arunta
'
the
men
of
also
When
to its full rise before feeding.
ripe,
is
same time,
totem rub
its
off
and blow away the husks, then the general public may There is nothing sacramental in this begin feeding. ceremony, which merely opens the season for tuber
The taboo
eating.
kangaroo
and
eat
tribesmen
men a
is
off.
And
so in other cases
little
may
of
their
mythical ancestors as in some
But
cases feeding solely on their totems.
possibly be true. out,
fruits
totem,
is
cats
in,
who
A
grub
starvation,
of
the
The non-kangaroo The traditions of the
the animal.^
then eat kangaroo.
Arunta represent
were
:
are smeared with the fat of the kangaroo,
is
man would
and so with the
out,'
and a man
cannot
this
when grubs
die,
rest.
'
When
of the gooseberry
only ate gooseberries, would perish miserably.
The Arunta
eating of the totem has nothing to do with
consecrating the first-fruits of grubs or kangaroos to a god or with
absorbing the qualities
a
of
Swedish peasants bake a cake shaped the last sheaf of the ate the cake
'
new
When
like a girl,
from
corn, they perhaps originally
as the body of the corn
the Lithuanian farmer takes the '
spirit.
first
spirit.'
'
swig of the
the second brew was for the servants
'
—
But when
new beer
perhaps he
is
only declaring his ownership, and opening the beer season.*
In an unnamed part '
^ ^
of
Yorkshire the parson cuts the
Memories of the Months, 1900, pp. 132, 133. Spencer and Gillen, chapter vi. ' IHd. G. B. ii. 318.
AND TABOOS
FIRST-FRUITS corn
first
he
;
267
the Alatunja, and opens the harvest.
is
the Celebes the priest opens the rice harvest '
one
after this every
first
tee
turn
—but
;
new
the
is
the first-fruits
king pops a
offered to a
are
little
into the
'may immediately get before he
would
holy spirit of
god
;
in
Zululand the
mouth of every man
die, or, if detected,
If
who
present,
he began harvest
would be speared, or
first-fruits
There are
fire.'
from the
places, as in Indo-China,
in his crops.'
Sometimes the
forfeited.
St.
free to drive off in his
is
In some
not before.
At
it
in harvest time) the
captain) drives a ball
every one
after this
is
In
eat of
all
free to get in his rice.'
is
Andrews on the Medal Day (which Alatunja (that
;
all
are offered to sorts
'
the
ways and
of
ceremonies of opening the season and taking off the taboo.
think
I really don't
dangerous to
follows that the
it
fruits are
first
the ceremony, because
eat, before
'
they are
regarded as instinct with a divine virtue, and consequently the eating of
them
is
a sacrament or communion.'
dangerous to eat them, as a tabooed umbrella.
They
it
^
It is
would be dangerous to
are tabooed because
it is
steal
close-
time.
may come to be entertained, an automay be thought to follow the breach of though we do not learn that this is the case
The other
ideas
matic punishment the taboo,
among
the Arunta.
But the
immature food, I think, a close-time killed,
prematurely. is
angry
to shoot little duck,
much
^
men's conduct,' '
G. B.
the perfectly practical idea of
is
The more
or less
supreme being
—
of
Very bad if you shoot flappers. come rain, come wind, blow, very '
The great black man, who cannot be and who influences the weather according to
blow.'
escaped,
on the
plants are not to be gathered, nor animals
;
the Fuegians
origin of the taboo
ii.
335.
'
is
right about the flappers. ^
He
Fitzroy, Cruise of the Beagle,
sanctions ii.
180.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
268
a necessary to wait
till
game law. The How (king), the yams were ripe, then he
in
Tonga, used
of function
The
—
sacramental,
—no
premature
killing or
the practical idea at the base of
is
Any other
affairs of first-fruits.
may
all
these
superstition, sacrificial or
round the practical primitive
crystallise
prohibition, especially
when
it
was sanctioned by the good
old device of automatic punishment, following
ment
for sort
depends on the stage at which local religion
has arrived; but a close-time gathering
day
fixed a
gathering them, and had a religious function.
on
infringe-
of taboo.
If Sir
Herbert Maxwell could persuade Mr. Thomas
Shaw, M.P., that the proverbially execrable weather on the Border
is
the direct result of fishing, especially with
salmon-roe, out of season
Mr. Shaw,
till
the season open
;
their presence
lent
;
if
there
was
to be
no
fishing
after tasting of the first trout, declared
the clergy of
if
to
all
imposing
the
denominations
ceremony, then
Tweed, Ettrick, Teviot, Yarrow, Ail, and Kale would be worth fishing in again. Taboo, as Mr. Frazer and Mr. Jevons agree, has had its I believe that
uses in the evolution of morality
;
but remark that
moral offences are nowhere under taboo. long as the object stolen
(as
belong to a chief or fere lie,
priest),
with the domestic
is
You may
steal
not tabooed and does not
you may
bliss of
strictly
kill,
you may
inter-
your neighbour, you may
but the automatic punishment of taboo-breaking no-
where there
Baiame or Pundjel may punish you but no instant mechanical penalty, as under taboo.
follows. is
;
After writing this paper, I found that Mr. Eobert
Louis Stevenson's experience
tapu, in
the Pacific,
him to form the same opinions as are here expressed. The devil-fish, it seems, were growing scarce upon the
led '
of
FIRST-FRUITS reef
;
it
was judged '
269
what we should
to interpose
call
a tapu had to be declared.'
The tapus
are for thoroughly sensible ends.'
There are
a close season
described
fit
AND TABOOS
.
.
.
tapus which, to us, appear absurd, often the instrument of wise
'
but the tapu
and needful
is
more
restrictions.'
These taboos are imposed from above, by Government. In other cases, where the taboo expresses an inference
from savage superstition (say that a baby or a corpse dangerous), the taboo opinion.
That opinion
first-fruits)
in
is
more advanced
not imposed except by pubhc sanctioned
is
by the action
is
(as in
the case of
of the Alatunja, or
societies,
by the king.
In
headman
many cases,
taboos are imposed on the king himself by the priestly colleges.
But the
greatest authority
is
tradition, resting
on fancied experience. '
In the South Seas,
pp. 47-50.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
270
XV WALKING THBOUGE FIBE Perhaps head
of
'
through
may be ranged under the many cases the rite of passing
the topic of this paper
Magic,' though in
sanctioned by rehgion, and the immunity of
fire is
the performers
immunity is
the Chinese vernal festival of
The
a certain season.
must
fast for three
'
fire is
Further,
salt '
and
two
how
made
rice,
in
'
at
who
thrown on
fire
be
to
The
feet wide.' it
exorcists, barefooted,
peasants, traverse the
is
to discharge the laid
an enormous brazier
upon
of char-
is
grati-
by a Taoist
priest.
fire
and followed by two
again and again
what beaten down.'
The
walks through amidst
much excitement.
is
fire
days and observe chastity for a week
sometimes twenty
with
fied
The
renewing the
chief performers are labourers,
and dangerous duty which
difficult
coal,
spring, connected as '
while they are taught in the temple
them.
Mr. Frazer describes
fire in
with the vpidespread custom of
it is
The
explained by the protection of gods.
is
really the curious feature.
till it
is
some-
procession of performers then
Their immunity
ascribed to the horny consistency of the soles of their
and they
feet,
suffer
Various Indian
if
the
examples
fire
are
touches their ankles.^
given
by Mr.
Frazer.
Captain Mackenzie found the performance remote from the '
'
sensational,'
O. B.
iii.
and thought that only
girls
with tender
307, 308, citing Internationales Archiv fUr Ethnographie
(1896), pp. 193-193.
WALKING THROUGH FIRE were
soles
Strabo,
is
rite,
well known.'
is
mainly in the
cance of the
case
also quoted
from
being the performers, and the instance of
the Hirpi of Soracte terested
A
likely to suffer.
women
271
Mr. Frazer
is in-
religious, magical, or ritual signifi-
which varies
To me,
in different places.
on the other hand, the immunity of the
performers
appears a subject worthy of physiological inquiry.
The
subject occurs everywhere in history, legend, folk-
and early
law,
lore,
worth while
them with
religion,
and yet nobody has thought
to collect the ancient reports
Tylor's celebrated work,
'
to
the theme.
to
cause their sons and daughters
through to Moloch,' that
to pass
is
'whether in ritual or symbolical
Again
lightly.^
through a
fire,
:
'
The
They
is
pass fire,
As a sup-
again touched
ancient ceremony of passing
or leaping over burning brands, has been
kept up vigorously in the British
midsummer ceremonies, when over, or
to
through the
sacrifice.'^
posed rite of purification the ceremony
jump
'
the high places of Baal, in the valley of the son of
Hinnom,
upon
In Mr.
Primitive Culture,' only one or
two casual allusions are made built
and to compare
modern examples.
well- authenticated
it
Isles,' ^
it is,
run through, light
namely, at the
or was, the fires.
custom
to
Nobody would
guess that a rite of passing deliberately, and unscathed,
through ovens or furnaces yet exists in Japan, Bulgaria, the Society Islands, Fiji, Southern India, Trinidad, the Straits Settlements, the Isle of Mauritius, and,
no doubt,
in other regions.
We must distinguish between such sportive playing with fire
as prevailed recently in our isles
Ceremony
Fire '
G. B.
Virgil,
iii.
Mn.
xi.
of Central Australia,
311, 312; Strabo,
784
;
Primitive CuUtcre,
'
Ibid.
p. 429.
2-7, for
Castabala in Cappadocia;
and Servius's Commentary.
^
ii.
xii.
and the more serious which tests endurance
ii.
p. 281. '
Ibid.
i.
p. 85.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
272
on the one hand, and the apparent contravention of a natural Again, we must discount the popular hand can be rapidly plunged into molten metal and withdrawn without injury, for we do not happen to be concerned with such a brief exposure to heat. Once more, the theory of the application of some unknown chemical substance must be rejected, because, as we shall prove, there are certainly cases in which nothing of the
law on the
other.
reply that the
kind
Moreover, science
done.
is
substance
— alum or diluted
which will produce the Sir William Crookes,
is
acquainted with no
sulphuric acid, or the like
result of preventing cauterisation.^
is not familiar with any His evidence as to fire-handling familiar, and I understand that Mr.
at least,
such resources of science.
by D. D. Home is Podmore can only explain
it
away by an hypothesis
of a
by means of an asbestos glove or some such transparent trick. ^ Perhaps he adds a little hallucination oh the part of the spectators. But asbestos and hallucination are out of the question in the cases bad
trick played in a
light,
'
'
am about to quote. Home was, or feigned to
which I
he performed with
was
dette,
also
in
be, in a state of trance
The
fire.
when
seeress of Lourdes, Berna-
religious
contemplation
when
she
permitted the flame of a candle to play through her clasped
(which
fingers
were
aver that they
'
unscathed)
Some Indian
an hour.^
quarter of
meditate
'
for
a timed
devotees,
again,
on some divine being while
passing over the glowing embers, and the Nistinares Bulgaria,
who
dance in the
fire,
a more or less abnormal mental condition. condition '
'^
'
is
of
are described as being in
But even
this
absent in the well-attested Eaiatean and
See note at end of chapter. Studies in Psychical Research, pp. 58-59. Dr. Dozous timed the miracle.' Boissarie, Lourdes, '
p. iS.
WALKING THROUGH FIRE examples, in
Fijian
preparation
which
employed.
is
also
no
273
kind of chemical
where savages are
Finally,
concerned, the hardness of the skins of their feet
upon, as in the Chinese case already quoted. sole of the
But,
is
dwelt
first,
the
boot would be scorched in the circumstances,
while their feet are not affected
were not leathery
(so
Dr.
;
Hocken
next, the savages' feet avers)
;
thirdly,
one of
who walked through the fire at Earotonga declares that the soles of his own feet are peculiarly tender. Thus every known physical or conjectured psychical condition of immunity fails to meet the case, and we are left the Europeans
wholly without an ascertained, or a good '
reason T
why
shall
'
for the
begin with the most recent and
authenticated civilisation.
conjectural,
phenomena.
cases,
and work
the best
back in time, and in
Mr. Tregear, the well-known lexicographer
Mangarova languages, lately number of The Journal of the Polynesian Society,' March 1899, Wellington, N.Z. Professors Max Muller and Sayce were Honorary Members of the
sent
of
Maori and the
me
the
allied
the twenty-ninth
Society,
which
customs, and conditions.
'
studies
Polynesian
Mr. Tregear
truth-telling character of the British official,
narrator of his
own
experiment.
languages,
attests the upright,
As the
who
journal
is
the
is
not
widely circulated in England, I quote the whole of the brief report.
THE UMU-TI, OE PIEE-WALKING CEEEMONY By Colonel Gudgeon, British Eesident, Eaeotonga [In this Journal, vol. ii p. 105, Miss Teuira Henry describes this ceremony as practised in Eaiatea, of the Society group. have lately received from Colonel Gudgeon the following account of his experiences in walking barefooted across the glowing hot stones of a
We
MAGIC AND RELIGION
274
native oven, made in Earotonga by a man from Eaiatea. Since the date of the paper quoted, it has come to light that the Maoris of New Zealand were equally acquainted
with
this
ceremony,
which
was
performed by their
On reading Colonel Gudgeon's account to ancestors. some old chiefs of the Urewera tribe, they expressed no surprise, and said that their ancestors could also perform the ceremony, though Editoes.]
it
has long gone out of practice.
must tell you that I have seen and gone through the ceremony of the Umu-ti. The oven was lit at about dawn on the 20th of January, and I noticed that the stones were very large, as also were the logs that had been used in the oven for heating I
fire
purposes.
we went to the oven and there found Eaiatea man) getting matters ready, and I told him that, as my feet were naturally tender, the stones He assented to this, and should be levelled down a bit. evidently he had intended to do so, for shortly after, the men with very long poles, that had hooks, began to level the stones flat in the oven, which was some 12 ft. in diameter. He then went with his disciple and pointed to two stones that were not hot, and instructed him the reason was that they had been taken from a marae, or About 2
the tohunga
P.M. (a
sacred place.
He then unwound two bundles, which proved to be branches of a large-leaved Ti (or Dracana) plucked, it is said, from two of these trees standing close together, and it is said that the initiated can on such occasions see the shadow of a woman with long hair, called te varua kino The right-hand (evil spirit), standing between the trees. branch is the first plucked, and it is said that the branches bend down to be plucked. So much
Shamanism, and now for the facts. and his tauira (pupil) walked each to the oven, and then halting, the prophet spoke a few words, and then each struck the edge of the oven with the ti branches. This was three times repeated, and then they walked slowly and deliberately over the two fathoms of hot stones. When this was done, the tohunga came to us, and his disciple handed his ti branch to for the
The tohunga
(priest)
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
276
Mr. Goodwin, at whose place the ceremony came off, and they went through the ceremony. Then the tohunga said to Mr. Goodwin, I hand my mana (power) over to you ; lead your friends across.' Now, there were four Europeans Dr. W. Craig, Dr. George Craig, Mr. Goodwin, and myself and I can only say that we stepped out boldly. I got across unscathed, and only one of the party was badly burned and he, it is said, was spoken to, but, like Lot's a thing against all rules. wife, looked behind him I can hardly give you my sensations, but I can say that I knew quite well I was walking on redthis hot stones and could feel the heat, yet I was not burned. I felt something resembling slight electric shocks, both at the time and afterwards, but that is all. I do not know that I should recommend every one to try it. A man must have mana to do it if he has not, it will be too late when he is on the hot stone of Tama-ahi-roa. I cannot say that I should have performed this wizard trick had I not been one of the fathers of the Polynesian Society, and bound to support the superiority of the New Zealander all over Polynesia indeed all over the world. I would not have missed the performance for anything. To show you the heat of the stones, quite half an hour afterwards some one remarked to the priest that the stones would not be hot enough to cook the ti. His only answer was to throw his green branch on the oven, and in a quarter of a minute it was blazing. As I have eaten a fair share of the ti cooked in the oven, I am in a position to say that it was hot enough to cook it well. I walked with bare feet, and after we had done so, about 200 Maoris followed. No one, so far as I saw, went through with boots on. I did not walk quickly across the oven, but with deliberation, because I feared that I should tread on a sharp point of the stones and fall. My feet also were very tender. I did not mention the fact, but my impression as I crossed the oven was that the '
—
— ;
—
:
;
—
skin would all peel off my feet. Yet all I really felt when the task was accomplished was a tingling sensation not unlike slight electric shocks on the soles of my feet, and this continued for seven hours or more. The really funny thing is that, though the stones were hot enough an hour after-
wards
to
skin of
burn up green branches of the ti, the very tender feet was not even hardened by the fire.
my
t2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
a76
Many of the Maoris thought they were burned, but they were not at any rate not severely. Do not suppose that the man who directed this business was an old tohunga. He is a young man, but of the Eaiatea family, who are hereditary fire-walkers. I can only tell you it is mana mana tangata and mana
—
—
atua.
On
this report a
few remarks
may
be offered.
(1)
No
preparation of any chemical, herbal, or other sort was applied to the Europeans, at least.
over the
mana
(or
'
times successfully
still
when Mr. S. C. Hall's were unharmed by a red-hot coal
A
letter.
common:
clergyman
of
my
acquaint-
when he accepted a Home, as he informs
bears the blister caused
hand
red-hot coal from the
me by
The handing Home, some-
alleged), as
(it is
sometimes unsuccessfully. ance
'
power) was practised by
and white locks
scalp
(2)
(3)
only 12
The ft.
'
walk
of '
(4 paces).
was shorter than seems (4)
A
friend of Colonel
Gudgeon's was badly burned, and the reason assigned was a good folklore reason, since the days of Lot's wife, of
Theocritus, and of Virgil feeling as
if
of
'
:
he looked behind.
slight electric shocks
'
is
worthy
(5)
The
of notice.
(6) Colonel Gudgeon clearly believes that a man without mana had better not try, and by mana, here, he probably means 'nerve.' As we can hardly suppose, in spite of Home, that mana, in a supernormal sense, can be handed '
by one man to another, Colonel Gudgeon's experience seems equally to bafHe every theory of how it is done.' Perhaps we can all do it. People may make Perhaps Colonel Gudgeon faced their own experiments. over
'
'
fire
in a
manner
so unusual as a result of Dr. Hocken's
description of the Fijian rite at
miles south of Suva. '
Transactions of the
Mbenga, an
isle
twenty
This account was published in the
New
Zealand
Institute,' vol. xxxi.
1898, having been read before the Otago Institute on
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
May
10,
follows
1898,
and
is
here
reprinted
277 in
full
as
:
AN ACCOUNT OF THE By De.
T.
FIJI
FIEB CEEBMONY
M. Hocken,
F.L.S.
Amongst the many
incidents witnessed during a recent the tropical island of Fiji, probably none exceeded in wonder and interest that of which I propose to give some account this evening, and to which may be applied the designation of fire ceremony.' It is called by the visit to
'
In this remarkable ceremony a Fijians walk quickly and unharmed across and among white-hot stones, which form the pavement of a huge native oven termed lovo in which shortly afterwards are cooked the succulent sugary roots and pith of the Gordyline terminalis, one of the cabbage trees, known to the Maoris as the ti,' and to the Fijians as the "masawe.' This wonderful power of fire-walking is now not only very rarely exercised, but, at least as regards Fiji, is confined to a small clan or family the Na Ivilankata resident on Bega (=Mbenga), an island of the group, lying somewhat south of Suva, and twenty miles from that capital. small remnant of the priestly order at Eaiatea, one of the Society Islands, is yet able to utter the preparatory incantation, and afterwards to walk through the fire. It exists also in other parts of the world, as in parts of India, the Straits Settlements, West India Islands, and elsewhere. Very interesting accounts of the ceremony as seen at Eaiatea and at Mbenga are to be found in the second and third volumes of the Journal of the Polynesian Society,' and in Basil Thomson's charming South Sea Yarns.' These descriptions filled our small party of three my wife, Dr. Colquhoun, and myself with the desire to witness it for ourselves, and, if possible, to give some explanation of what was apparently an inexplicable mystery. Our desires were perfectly realised. The Hon. Mr. A. M. Duncan, a member of the Legislative Council of Fiji, and agent at Suva of the Union Steamship Company, to whom I carried a letter of introduction from Mr. James Mills, the managing director of natives
'
vilavilairevo.'
number of almost nude
—
'
'
—
'
—
—
A
'
'
—
—
MAGIC AND EELIGION
278
Companj', v/as most courteous and obliging, and promised his best efforts in the matter. His energy and ready response succeeded, with the result that a large party from Suva enjoyed such a day as each one must have marked with a red letter. It was necessary to give the natives three days in which to make their preparations constructing the oven and paving it with stones, which then required heating for thirty-six or forty-eight hours at least with fierce fires fed with logs and branches. They had also to gather their stores of food to form the foundation of the huge feast whose preparation was to succeed the mystic ceremony. During these three days we lost no opportunity of collecting from former witnesses of the ceremony whatever information or explanation they could afford, but Vv^ith no very satisfactory result the facts were undisputed, but the explanations quite insufficient. Some thought that the chief actors rubbed their bodies with a secret preparation which rendered them fireproof others that lifelong friction on the hard hot rocks, coral-reefs, and sands had so thickened and indurated the foot-sole that it could defy fire but all agreed as to the hona fides
that
—
:
;
;
The
incident recounted in the Polynesian Journal was also confirmed where Lady Thurston threw her handkerchief upon the shoulder of one of the actors, and, though it remained there but a few seconds before being picked off by means of a long stick, it was of the exhibition.
'
—
'
greatly scorched.' The story or legend attached to this weird gift of firewalking was told us, with some variation, by two or three far-distant different people, and it is mainly as follows ancestor of the present inheritors of this power was walking one day when he espied an eel, which he caught, and
A
:
was about
to
I
The
kill.
eel
squeaked out, and
Na Galita = Bng-Galita), do not am a god, and I will make you so
Tui
(
me
said,
'
Oh
spare me. strong in war that
kill
;
Oh, but,' replied Na Galita, I am already stronger in war than any one else, and I fear no one.' Well, then,' said the eel, I will make your canoe the fastest to sail on these seas, and none shall come up with it.' But,' replied Na Galita, as it is, none Well, then,' rejoined the eel, I can pass canoe.'
none
shall
withstand you.'
'
'
'
'
'
my
'
'
'
'
I
have not seen
this account.
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
279
a great favourite among women, so that all with you.' 'Not so,' said Na G-alita, 'I have one wife, of whom I am very fond, and I desire no The poor eel then made other offers, which were other.' will
make you
will fall in love
and his chances of life were fading fast when Oh, Na Galita, if you will spare he made a final effort. me, I will so cause it that you and your descendants shall henceforth walk through the masawe oven unharmed.' Good,' said Na Gahta, now I will let you go.' This story varies somewhat from that told in the Polynesian also rejected,
'
'
'
'
Journal.' ^ The eventful naorning was blazingly hot and brilliant, and the vivid-blue sky was without a cloud as we steamed down towards Mbenga in the s.s. Hauroto. Mr. Vaughan,
an eminent inhabitant of Suva, who has charge of the Meteorological Department there, was of our party, and carried the thermometer. This was the most suitable for our purpose procurable it was in a strong japanned-tin casing, and registered 400° Fahr. had also three amateur photographers. Owing to the numerous coral-reefs and shallows, we finally transhipped into the Maori, a steamer of much less draught. Approaching the silent verdure-clad islet, with its narrow beach of white coral sand, we saw a thin blue haze of smoke curling above the lofty cocoanut trees at a little distance in the interior, which sufficiently localised the mysterious spot. now took the ship's boat, and soon, stepping ashore, made our way through a narrow pathway in the dense bush until we came to an open space cleared from the forest, in the midst of which was the great lovo, or oven. A remarkable and never-to-be-forgotten scene now presented itself. There were hundreds of Fijians, dressed according to the rules of nature and their own art— that is, they were lightly garlanded here and there with their fantastic lihulikus of grass, ornamented with brilliant scarlet and yellow hibiscus flowers and streamers of the delicate ribbonwood. These hung in airy profusion from their necks and around their waists, shovping off to advantage their lovely brown glossy skins. In addition, many wore clean white cotton sulus, or pendant loincloths. All were excited, moving hither and thither iu ;
We
We
'
See also Mr. Thomson's South Sea Yarns.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
280
wild confusion, and making the forest ring again with their noisy hilarity. Some climbed the lofty cocoa-palms, hand over hand, foot over foot, with all the dexterity of monkeys. The top reached, and shrouded amongst the feathery leaves, they poured down a shower of nuts for the refreshment of their guests. The celerity with which they opened the nuts was something astonishing, and afforded an example, too, as A stout strong to the mode of using stone implements. stick, 3 ft. long, and sharpened at both ends, was driven into the ground, and a few smart strokes upon it soon tore from the nut its outer thick covering. The upper part of the shell was then broken off by means of a long sharp-edged stone as cleanly and regularly as the lid of an
egg
is
removed with a knife, and then was disclosed a pint milk a most welcome beverage on that over-
of delicious
—
poweringly hot day. The great oven lay before us, pouring forth its torrents of heat from huge embers which were still burning fiercely on the underlying stones. These were indeed melting
moments
for the spectators.
The
pitiless
noontide sun,
both pent up in the deep well-like forest clearing, reduced us to a state of Despite this solution from which there was no escape. the photographers took up their stations, and others of us proceeded to make our observations. The lovo, or oven, was circular, with a diameter of 25 ft. or 30 ft. its greatest depth was perhaps 8 ft., its general shape that of a saucer, with sloping sides and a flattish bottom, the Near the latter being filled with the white-hot stones. margin of the oven, and on its windward side, the therajud the
no
less pitiless oven-heat,
;
mometer marked
114°.
Suddenly, and as if Pandemonium had been let loose, the air was filled with savage yells a throng of natives surrounded the oven, and in a ruost ingenious and effective way proceeded to drag out the smouldering unburnt logs and cast them some distance away. Large loops of incombustible lianas attached to long poles were dexterously thrown over the burning trunks, much after the manner of the head-hunters of New Guinea when securing their human prey. A twist or two round of the loop securely entangled the logs, which were then dragged out by the united efforts of scores of natives, who all the ;
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
281
while were shouting out some wild rhythmical song. This accomplished, the stones at the bottom of the oven were disclosed, with here and there flame flickering and forking up through the interstices. The diameter of the area occupied by those stones was about 10 ft., but this was speedily increased to a spread of 15 ft. or more by a second ingenious method. The natives thrust their long poles, which were of the unconsumable wi-tree {Spondias dulcis), between the stones at intervals of perhaps 1 ft. A long rope-like liana wa previously placed underneath the poles, and 1 ft. or 2 ft. from their extremities, was now dragged by scores of lusty savages, with the effect of spreading and levelling the stones. This done, our thermometer was suspended by a simple device over the centre of the stones, and about 5 ft. or 6 ft. above them but it had to be withdrawn almost immediately, as the solder began to melt and drop, and the instrument to be destroyed. It, however, registered 282° Fahr., and it is certain that had not this accident occurred, the range of 400° would have been exceeded, and the thermometer
—
;
burst.
During all these wild scenes we had seen nothing of main actors of the descendants of Na Galita. Doubtless to give more impressive effect, they had been hiding in the forest depths until the signal should be given and their own supreme moment arrive. And now they came on, seven or eight in number, amidst the vociferous yells of those around. The margin reached, they steadily descended the oven slope in single file, and walked, as I the
—
think, leisurely, but as others of our party think, quickly, across and around the stones, leaving the oven at the point of entrance. The leader, who was longest in the
oven, was a second or two under half a minute therein. Almost immediately heaps of the soft and succulent leaves of the hibiscus, which had been gathered for the purpose, were thrown into the oven, which was thus immediately Upon the leaves and filled with clouds of hissing steam. within the steam the natives, who had returned, sat or stood pressing them down in preparation for cooking the various viands which were to afford them a sumptuous feast that evening or on the morrow. But for us the most interesting part of the drama was over, and it only remained to review observations and
MAGIC AND EELIGION
282
draw conclusions.
Just before the great event of the day, I gained permission to examine one or two of the firewalkers prior to their descent into the oven. This was granted without the least hesitation by the principal native magistrate of the Eewa district, N'Dabea by name, but generally known as Jonathan. This native is of great intelligence and influence, is a member of the Na Galita Clan, and has himself at various times walked through On this occasion he took no other part in the the fire. ceremony than that of watching or superintending it. The two men thus sent forward for examination disclosed no peculiar feature whatever. As to dress, they were slightly garlanded round the neck and the waist the pulse was unaffected, and the skin, legs, and feet were free from any apparent application. I assured myself of this by touch, smell, and taste, not hesitating to apply my tongue as a corroborative. The foot-soles were comparatively soft and flexible -by no means leathery and insensible. Thus the two Suvan theories were disposed of. This careful examination was repeated immediately after egress from the oven, and with the same result. To use the language of Scripture, No smell of fire had passed upon them.' No incantations or other religious ceremonial were observed. Though these were formerly practised, they have gradually fallen into disuse since the introduction of Christianity. I did not succeed in procuring the old incantation formula doubtless it was similar to that of the old Eaiatean ceremony, which is given in the second volume of the Polynesian Society's Journal,' ;
—
'
;
'
p. 106.
Whilst walking through the fire. Dr. Colquhoun thought the countenances of the fire-walkers betrayed some anxiety. I saw none of this nor was it apparent to me at either examination. The stones, which were basaltic, must have been white-hot, but due to the brilliance of the day this was not visible. Various natives, being interrogated for an explanation, replied, with a shrug, They can do this wonderful thing we cannot. You have seen it we have seen it.' Whilst thus unable to suggest any explanation or theory, I am absolutely certain as to the truth of the facts and the bona A feature is that, wherever this power fides of the actors. is found, it is possessed by but a limited few. I was assured, ;
'
;
;
WALKING THEOUGH FIRE
288
any person holding the hand of one of the firewalkers could himself pass through the oven unharmed. This the natives positively assert. My friend Mr. Walter Carew, for thirty years a Besident Commissioner and Stipendiary Magistrate in Fiji, has frequently conversed v?ith Jonathan (referred to ahove), who, whilst withholding no explanation, can give none. He says, I can do it, but'l do not know how it is and, further, that at the time he does not exdone perience any heat or other sensation. Does any psychical condition explain these facts, as suggested in Lang's Modern Mythology ? ^ I certainly did not observe any appearance of trance or other mental condition. In connection with this Mr. Carew thinks that intense faith is the explanation, and that if this were upset, the descendants of Na Galita would be no longer charmed. But it is difficult to see how any mental state can prevent the action of physical law. Hypnotism and ansesthetics may produce insensibility to pain, but do not interfere with the cautery. Many of the so-called fire miracles are remarkable indeed, but are readily explained, and by no means come within the present category. Such, for instance, as plunging the hand, which is protected by the interposed film of perspiration assuming the globular state of water, into boiling lead. At Similarly, many conjuring feats. the beginning of this century an Italian Lionetti performed remarkable experiments rubbed a bar of redhot iron over his arms, legs, and hair, and held it between his teeth he also drank boiling oil. Dr. Sementini, of Naples, carefully examined these experiments, and experimented himself until he surpassed the fireproof quaUties of his suggestor. He found that frequent friction with sulphurous acid rendered him insensible to red-hot iron a solution of alum did the same. A layer of powdered sugar covered with soap made his tongue insensible to heat. In these and similar instances, however, an explanation, though probably not a very sufficient one, has been given, but in that forming the subject of this paper no solution has been offered. Lang's chapter on the Fire Walk should be consulted his account of the Bulgarian Nistinares is as wonderful and inexplicable as
too, that
'
;
'
'
'
—
:
;
;
'
'
'
I
;
would now withdraw the suggestion in the light
of recent evidence.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
284
anything thorough
My
here
The whole
recited.
subject
requires
examination.
scientific
next case occurs
•
among
a
civiHsed race,
the
by Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, an American writer, whose book I have not at hand, and by Colonel Andrew Haggard.' Colonel Haggard saw the The fire fire-walk done in Tokio, on April 9, 1899. was 6 yards long by 6 ft wide. The rite was in honour of a mountain god. Ablutions in cold water were made by the performers, and Colonel Haggard was told by one young lady that she had not only done the fire-walk, Japanese, and
but had been
vouched
is
able to
'
sit
for
for a long time, in winter, im-
mersed in ice-cold water, without feeling the cold in the After
least.'
people of
salt,
some waving
in this case, but feet afterwards
'
'
red-hot charcoal.'
'
in
Japan
to get
performed.
The
God who had power
a good It
is
is
told Colonel
gone through the If
any one
trace of
:
many it
rite is
of the Japanese
before.
Colonel
any clear answer as to why priest talked
something about
over the bad element of
fire.
rite being so unusual, two Japanese Haggard that they had frequently
with our police
fiery ordeal.'
the
isle
know
the particulars of the
Mauritius, he
officials there,
the performance. is
'
anxious to
is
rite as practised in
tion,
I examined their
and not a
not clear how, the
ladies
what
soft,
'
Tokio had never heard of
Haggard was unable the rite
sprinkling of
Colonel Haggard says that the
a very unusual thing
living in
wands and
they were quite
:
upon them.'
fire
of
ages walked through, not glowing stones
all
who
may communicate
annually superintend
Coolies from southern India do just
done by Japanese and Fijians.
however, does not permit
women
Our administra-
to pass
fire. '
The Field, May
20, 1899, p. 724.
through the
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
285
After giving these recent examples in Mauritius, Japan,
Earotonga, and an
isle of
to fall
back on the evidence already
XII.
of
my
de Litterature
know
I Dr.
letter.
Their performances
Fakirs.
personally) and Mastov.
Schischmanof hints
whom
of six,
fire,
none
in
Colonel
observed by Dr. Hocken. are
and
Italy,
Haggard saw pass through the
The
We find the
same opinion
Spain of the
in the
the Fijians
in
fire-walkers in Bulgaria
and the faculty
Nistinares,
called
hereditary.
Japanese
little
Gudgeon, none
Colonel
and
enough,
are extraordinary
but there was no religious ecstasy in the
boy
extase
at
the self-mutilations of Dervishes
in
as
religieuse,
The
Eecueil de Folklore,
with the aid of Drs.
Instruction,
(whom
Schischmanof
'
(1897).
de Science,' edited by the Bulgarian
et
Minister of Public
In a private
from the
obliged
Chapter
set forth in
book, 'Modern Mythology'
Bulgarian practice I take
am
the Fijian group, I
regarded as
is
in Fiji, in ancient
last century.
In Spain the
fire-walkers
were employed
The
given in the essay on the last Earl Marischal
in
story
is
my 'Companions
of
help to
to
Pickle'
(p.
from d'Alembert's account of the Earl or
power
of
is
derived
:
There
is
a family
Spain, who, from father to son,
in
caste
have the
going into the flames without being burned,
and who, by dint can extinguish
of
charms permitted by the Inquisition, The Duchess of Medina Sidonia
fires.'
thought this a proof of the verity of the Catholic and, wishing to convert the Earl, asked
performance. self,
fires.
and
24), '
put out
But he
insisted
him
to
on lighting the
faith,
view the fire
him-
and to that the Spaniards would not consent, the
Earl being a heretic.
To return the
fire
stantine.
on
to the Bulgarian Nistinares, they dance in
May Great
21, the feast of SS. fires of scores of
Helena and Con-
cartloads of dry
wood
MAGIC AND RELIGION
286
On
are made.
the embers of these the Nistinares (who
turn bhxe in the face) dance and utter prophecies, after-
wards placing their
feet
in
the
muddy ground where The report The Nistinare
hbations of water have been poured forth. says nothing as to the state of their feet.
begins to feel the effect of the
resumed
As
fire
his
after
wonted colour and expression. India, I may cite Mr. Stokes, in
has
face
its
for
Antiquary
'
(ii.
ants of India
'
190); Dr. Oppert, in his (p.
and Mr. Crookes, in
480);
'
The Indian
Original Inhabit-
'
'
Introduction
to Popular Religion and Folklore in Northern India (p. 10).
boy that
Mr. Stokes uses evidence from an inquest on a fell into the fire and died of his injuries, at
The
Periyangridi.
was 27
fire-pit
and a span in depth.
broad,
ft.
Mr. Stokes did not witness the performance
through.
(which
long by 7^
ft.
Thirteen persons walked
is
forbidden by our law), but explains that the
'would hardly injure the tough skin Yet it killed a boy labourer's feet.'
fire
the sole of a
of
!
The feet
incredulous say that the
with
oil
from the
admitting that
hood
'
fat of the
the heat
is
fire- walkers
green frog.
vague
is
much
their
unbearable in the neighbour-
of the ditch,' says that the walkers
do themselves
smear
Dr. Oppert,
harm.'
This
'
as a rule do not
vague.
is
the reference to rumours about
'
Equally
a certain pre-
servative ointment.'
In Trinidad, British West Indies, Mr. Henry E. Clair,
writing
to
me, describes (September
14,
the feat as performed by Indian coolie immigrants. personally witnessed the to
me by Mr.
rite,
formers were Klings.
He
which was like that described
Stephen Ponder.
The
St.
1896)
In both cases the per-
case witnessed
by Mr. Ponder
took place in the Straits Settlements, Province Wellesley.
The trench was about 20 yards long by
6
ft.
wide and 2
ft.
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
A
287
was lighted at noon by 4 p.m. it was a bed of red-hot embers. The men, who with long rakes smoothed the ashes, could not stand the heat for more than a minute at a time.' A little way from the end of the trench was a hole full of Six coolies walked the whole length, and thence water. Not one of them showed the least sign into the water. They had been prepared by a devil-doctor,' of injury.' On a later occasion Mr. Ponder heard not a Brahmin. that one of them fell and was terribly burnt.' deep.
pyre of wood, 4 or 5
high,
ft.
;
'
'
'
'
In these
cases, Trinidad (and Mauritius)
and the
Straits
Settlements, the performers are South Indian coolies. all
European
cases there were multitudes of
In
spectators,
except in Mauritius, where, I learn, Europeans usually take no interest in the doings of the heathen.
Turning
to
The
Henry. ^
Tonga, we have the account of Miss Teuira
and
sister
Miss Henry
child of
sister's
have walked over the red-hot stones, as in the Barotonga
and Eijian
cases.
The ovens
are 30
ft.
The
in diameter.
performance was photographed by Lieutenant Morn6, of the
French Navy, and the
original
photograph was sent with a copy
to the Editor of the 'Polynesian Journal,'
The ceremony,
from it.by Mr. Barnfield, of Honolulu. preparatory to cooking the
hymn sung
archaic
Hastwell, of
is
ii
full
plant,
San Francisco, published
have not seen, on the Raiatean
The
stones were
natives
'
religious,
is
'
rite,
and the Mr.
words.
obsolete
of
a tract,
which I
witnessed by himself.
The
heated to a red and white heat.'
walked leisurely across
not even the smell of
fire
'Polynesian Journal,'
'
five
times
on their garments
vol.
ii.
No.
3).
'
;
'
there
was
(cited in the
There
is
corro-
borative evidence from Mr. N. J. Tone, from Province
Wellesley, Straits Settlements, in the Polynesian Journal,' '
'
Polynesian Journal,
vol.
ii.
No.
2,
pp. 105-108.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
288
3,
ii.
He
193.
did not see the
walkers.
of
his diary.
The
to Fiji there are various accounts.
Mr. Basil Thomson, son
York.
of
Mr. Thomson was an
Sea Yarns
195, et seq.)
(p.
'
is
that
the late Archbishop of
official
is
in
and
Fiji,
a
is
South
'
too long for quotation.
done yearly, before cooking the masdwe
rite is
draccena) in the oven through
kata walk.
'
shooting out
The little
pit
was
which the clan
filled
Na
(a
Ivilan-
with a white-hot mass,
tongues of white flame.'
was covered with an even
of the pit
best
His sketch in his
anthropologist.
well-knovsTi
The
arriving too late, but
fire-pit,
an extract from
As
rite,
and examined the naked feet of the They were uninjured. Mr. Tone's evidence is
he saw the
'
The bottom
layer of hot stones
of flame played continually among The walkers planted 'their feet squarely and firmly on each stone.' Mr. Thomson closely examined the feet of four or five of the natives when they emerged. They were cool and showed no trace of scorching, nor .
.
the tongues
.
them.'
'
were their anklets tree-fern
is
of dried tree-fern burnt,'
as combustible
as
tinder.'
'
though
The
covered with skin no thicker than our own, and the
men
plant their insteps fairly on the stone.'
'
dried
instep
is
we saw
A
large
stone was hooked out of the pit before the men entered, and one of the party dropped a pocket-handkerchief upon the stone when the first man leapt into the oven and snatched what remained of it up as the last left the '
stones.'
Every
fold that
touched the stone was charred.
Mr. Thomson kindly showed me the handkerchief. He also showed me a rather blurred photograph of the strange scene. '
It
has been rudely reproduced in the
Folk Lore Journal,' September 1895.
Such see
'
is
part of the
^neid,'
xi.
784
modern evidence et
seq.
;
;
for the ancient,
Servius on the passage
WALKING THROUGH FIRE Pliny,
Hist. Nat.'
'
2
vii.
;
Mount
exempted from military service by the
makes Aruns
walk through the midst of the in the
glowing mass.'
This
Silius Italicus, v. 175.
evidence refers to the Hirpi of
because, as Virgil
289
The
say,
fire,
Soracte, a class
Eoman Government, '
Strong in faith
we
and press our footsteps
Hirpi, or wolves, were per-
haps originally a totem group, like the wolf totem of
Tonkaway Eed Indians rite in
they had, like the Tonkaway, a
;
which they were
The goddess propitiated
told
to
'
behave
in their fire-walk
like wolves.'
was Feronia,
^
a
fire-goddess (MaxMiiller), or a lightning goddess (Kuhn),
Bach
or a corn goddess (Mannhardt).
of these scholars
bases his opinion on etymology. I
have merely given evidence for the antiquity, wide
diffusion,
and actual practice
of this extraordinary rite.
Neither physical nor anthropological science has even glanced at
it
(except in
Hocken's
Dr.
case),
because the facts are obviously impossible.
I
perhaps
ought to
make an exception for Sir William Crookes, but he, doubtless, was hallucinated, or gulled by the use of asbestos, or both. Perhaps Mr. Podmore can apply these explanations to the spectators whom I have cited. For my part, I remain without a theory, like all the European observers whom I have quoted. But, in my humble opinion,
all
the usual theories, whether of collective
hallucination (photographic cameras being hallucinated), of psychical
skin
on the
causes, of chemical application, of leathery soles of the feet,
There remains
'
and so on, are inadequate.
suggestion.'
Any
patient's permission (in writing
hypnotist,
-with,
his
and witnessed), may try
the experiment.
Since this paper was written I have seen an article, '
Les Dompteurs du Feu,' on the same '
Serv. JEneid,
vii.
topic,
by Dr. Th.
800.
U
MAGIC AND RELIGION
290
The first part of the essay is an extract from the Revue Theosophique Fran9aise.' No date is given, but the rite described was viewed at Benares on October 26,
Pascal.^ '
am
I
1898.
unable to understand whether Dr. Pascal
and
is
Eevue Theosophique,' or whether he quotes (he uses marks of quotation) some other writer. The phenomena were of the usual kind, and the writer, examining the feet of two the
himself
spectator
of the performers,
In
intact.
four
entered the of
Ceremonies
the
the procession
two
swords
Das, usual,
—had
')
fine
and
who
that the control of the
the Master
persons,
who
gone,
there
later.
The author
speaks of a Brahmin
Master of the Ceremonies '
—with
excited
two days
slight cauterisations, healed
of this passage
'
which the performers had
in
and
with
cocoanuts
spHt
the
of
found the skin of the soles cases,
after
fire
narrator
were
(apparently 'the
observed to Mr. Govinda
fire
was not
so complete as
because the images of the sanctuary had been
touched by Mahomedans and others in the crowd.'
The second
case, not given
with marks of quotation,
occurred in the park of Maharajah Tagore on December
7,
1898.
was
'
A
Frenchman, the son
The
of Dr. Javal of
was also went up after the rite to venture his hand He was warned that the Brahmin had in the furnace. left ten minutes before, and that the fire had recovered Paris,
present.'
narrator,
'
nous,'
present, and
'
The Maharajah, however, caused the
its activity.'
mony ready.
to be repeated,
The
petit trot,
'
and some minutes
narrator then traversed the a
little less
fire,
after all
cere-
was un
barefoot, at
than two paces a second.'
As 100
yards can be run in ten seconds, this trot was remarkably slow.
He
felt in
paces one and two a sensation of burn-
ing, in the five following paces a sensation of intense heat. '
Annales des Sciences Psychiques, July-August, 1899.
WALKING THROUGH FIRE There were three small brown marks on his formed
blisters,
291 feet,
which
but did not interfere with walking, and
He now learned that the Brahmin's
healed in some days.' '
premier aide did the ceremony not quite successfully. He is convinced that, but for the ceremony, he would
have been seriously injured.
The
third case
was
Benares in February 1899.
at
Three Hindoos collided and
fell
in
:
neither they nor their
were burned.
clothes
The author clearly regards the performers of the ceremony as able to tame considerably the destructive energy '
the
of
This, of course,
fire.'
is
the theory of the savage
The ceremony was only
devotees.
a procession of sacred
images carried in a glazed sanctuary, and words, not known
were uttered by the Brahmin. Holy water and a cocoanut was thrown into the oven.
to the spectator,
was
sprinkled,
As has been
said, incantations are
pronounced
in Fiji
and
from
The
elsewhere.^
The
following case
Daily Mail,'
November
is
recent
9,
1900.
:
it
is
culled
'
OEDEAL BY PIEE According to the Japan Herald,' on Monday last a party of distinguished Americans (the American Minister and his wife, two naval officers, and others) attended the religious rites of the Ontake Jinsha, a powerful sect of '
Shintoists.
A
heap of burning charcoal was placed in a large
furnace. fire,
of
after
seven,
The
officiating priest read a service over the visitors, to the number
which the foreign including
walked over the
fire,
ladies,
their
took
naked
their shoes and showing no sign of
off
feet
scorching.
The performance called forth, says enthusiastic approval of the spectators. '
the report, the
In the Wide World Magazine (December 1899), a Japanese lady
describes the performance witnessed by Colonel Haggard, already cited.
n 2
MAGIC AND RELIGION
292
Yet more recent reporter
being
Mr.
is
the next case, from Honolulu, the Gorten,
'Boston Evening Transcript,' quote the passage
a
correspondent of
March
20, 1891.
the
We
:
We
have already v^itnessed still another strange sight suggestive of necromancy and the incantations of the Bast. Papa Ita, a Tahitan, has given us exhibitions of the famous fire-v/alking which is still practised in the South Sea Islands and parts of Japan and India. On the vacant land swept a year ago by the Chinatown fire a great elliptical pit was dug and a large quantity of wood placed therein, on which were piled the lava rocks. All day the fire burned till the stones were of a white heat then the white-haired native from Tahiti approached the fiery furnace dressed in a robe of white tapa, with a girdle and head-dress of the sacred ti leaves and a bundle Striking the ground of leaves in his hand for a wand. with the ti-leaf wand, he uttered an incantation in his own language, which was a prayer to his gods to temper the heat and allow him to pass then calmly and deliberately, with bare feet, he walked the length of the Pausing a moment on pit, bearing aloft the ti-leaf wand. the other side, he again struck the ground and returned over the same fiery path. This was several times repeated, and he even paused a few seconds when in the middle of the pit to allow his picture to be taken. The stones were undoubtedly hot and were turned by means of long poles just before the walking, to have the hottest side up, and from between the rocks the low flames were The heat that radiated to the continually leaping up. intense. spectators was It was a fact that others followed vsdth shoes on, but no one could be found to accept the standing offer of 500 dollars to any one who would, with bare feet, follow Papa Ita. None but natives of course believe there is anything supernatural, but we cannot explain how he does it. It cannot be called a fake, for he really does what he claims to do, and none, The natives fall down before so far, dare imitate him. him, as a great Kapuna, and many interested in the welfare of the Hawaiians deplore these exhibitions, feeling it is bad for the natives, in that it strengthens their old ;
WALKING THROUGH FIRE
293
bonds of superstition, to the undoing of much of the advancement they have made. Just now Papa Ita is touring the other islands of the group, and rumour has it
manager will take him to the Pan-American Exhibition at Buffalo. In that case people in the States can see and judge of this curious exhibition for themthat his
selves.
I
end with the only instance (forwarded
from a
correspondent by Mr. T. S. O'Connor) of the ascertained use of an ointment to diminish the effect of the
Hocken and Colonel Grudgeon, of
device
this
;
nor
is
it
as
we
fire.
Dr.
saw, found no trace
mentioned in the Japanese
evidence. Port of Spain, Trinidad, B.W.I., June
8,
1897.
You referred some time ago to the fire-walkers. have seen some of these gents performing quite recently, and got an explanation from a coolie customer of ours who watched the business with me. It seems they rub themselves with an oil, made from the root of the tabicutch (don't know the Latin name), which has the property of producing profuse sweat, and the two combine, causing an oily covering which M'arms very slowly and is difficult to dry up by heat. But even then it is essential that the men be good Stoics. I give the explanation for what it is worth, but saw the preparation myself, and had some of the stuff scraped off a man, who was ready for the rite, put it on a piece of tin and held it in the fire, and it certainly neither dried up nor got hot in a hurry. I
It
is
clear
that
several of the cases
this explanation
does not explain
wherein no anointing
is
used.
We
can only agree with Dr. Hocken that the performances deserve the study of physiologists and physicians.
explanation of lamblichus, 'they walk on is
that
'
the god within
them does not let
fire fire
The
unharmed,'
harm them.'
This implies that an exalted psychical condition of the performers secures their immunity.
But
in the cases
MAGIC AND RELIGION
294
where Europeans bore a
part,
and even in Dr. Hocken's
examination of the natives, there
vi^as
than the normal mental condition.
comes
in, it is
no sign of other As fresh evidence
perhaps not impossible that science will
interest herself in the problem.
296
APPENDIX A theory of bobeowing
MB. tyloe's
TEED SO nervous about differing from Mr. Tylor as to the borrowing of the idea of a superior and creative being from the Jesuits by the Eed Indians that I have reconsidered his essay. ^ I
He
arguing that
is
'
the Great Spirit belongs not to the untu-
tored but to the tutored
minds
of the savages.'
tending for the use of the words
and as employed to designate what I That the natives had an untaught belief
origin,
being. is
my
opinion, not that they styled
Mr. Tylor refers us to
'
I
Great Spirit
'
him Great '
'
am
not con-
as of native
call a superior
in such a being Spirit.'
Eelations des J6suites,' 1611, p. 20,
Quebec edition of 1858. Here (to translate the passage) They beUeve in a god, so they say, but can only name I read him by the name of the sun, Niscaminou, and know no prayers, nor manner of adoring him.' When hungry they put on sacred robes, turn to the east, and say, Our Sun, or our God, give us to eat.' Here, then, are prayer, vestments, and in the
'
:
'
turning to the east. for the first
time
;
The
Jesuits, then, did not introduce these
nor did they introduce the conception of the
superior being thus implored.
A
similar relation of the sun to the being addressed in
prayer exists
now among
With them the word Natos
name
the Blackfoot Indians of America. is
'
equivalent to holy or divine,'
To Natos prayer and sacriand the cruel rites of the Natos-dance are performed. Tongues of cattle are served out to the virtuous Youths this rite partakes of the nature of a sacrament.' sacrifice a finger, in recognition of prayers answered by Natos. Prayer is made to Natos only, and everything in OkAn (the ceremony) is sacred to him alone.' ^ and
fice
is
also the
of the sun.
are offered,
:
'
'
'
'
'
"
J.A.I. Feb. 1892. The Blackfoot Sun-daiice, Eev.
J.
MacLean, Toronto, 1889.
MAGIC AND EELIGION
296
These
advanced,
are
observances, of which the
described in the Jesuit
Mr. Tylor says
.
.
.
in the religions
of 1611.
retribution after death for deeds done
on native polytheism
in hfe have been implanted
But
parts of the world.'
'
especially through missionary influence,
'
since 1500, ideas of
Eelations
'
and thoroughly native
elaborate,
germ may be found
in various
his Jesuit authority of 1611, in the
passage cited by him, writes They believe in the immortality and in recompenses for good men and bad, con'
:
of the soul,
fusedly,
and in a general way, but they seek and care no manner of such things {comment cela doibt Mr. Tylor's authority does not, I confess, appear to me
further as to the estre).
to
support
'
opinion.
his
The natives believed
in
future
retribution.'
'
His
other texts
Manitou, diable.
God
A
'
show us savages consulting each
'
a powerful being
Manitou
is
'
'
any superior being, good or bad
of the Jesuits is le bon
his
{quelque nature puissante),
Manitou, Satan
is
: '
or
the
mauvais
le
Manitou. I am not arguing that these phrases are more than the pigeon-French of the savage flock, or that the ideas expressed did not later become implanted in their minds. But Mr. Tylor, in his essay of 1892, omits what he quotes in his Primitive Culture,' the Jesuit evidence of 1633 (p. 16) to one Atahocan who made everything. Speaking of God in a hut one day, they asked me, " What is God ? " I replied, " The AU Powerful '
'
One,
who made heaven and
to each other,
''
earth."
They then began
Atahocan, Atahocan, he
is
Atahocan."
have no worship which they are used to pay to him hold for their god.'
(This
is
'
to say '
They
whom
they
the religious condition of the
by Dos Santos in Pinkerton, xvi. 687.) Now Atahocan who interests me, as pre-missionary no doubt In 1634 he was not called le bon Manitou— but there he was Father Le Jeune consulted a very hostile sorcerer, who miniThey do not know,' said the sorcerer, who mised Atahocan. was the author of the world, perhaps Atahocan it was uncertain. They only spoke of Atahocan as one speaks of something so remote as to be dubious. In fact the word Nitatahocan Kaffirs described
it is
:
!
'
'
:
'
Eel. des j6suUes, 1633, p. 16
;
1637, p. 49.
BORROWING
TYLOR'S THEORY OF
MR.
in their language, " I tell a story,
297
tale." The had no interest in sorcerer,' a servant Atahocan, though the tribesmen recognised in him the God and Creator of Father Le Jeune. There was but a waning tradition of a primal maker; interesting and important just because it was waning, and therefore could not be of fresh European introduction. The beings in receipt of sacrifice were Khichikotuii, to whom they threw fat on the fire, with prayer.^
means
It
appears to
me
had
an old
'
'
familiar spirits,
of
'
that these affable familiar ghosts, practically
Atahocan into the background. Andouagni, Kiehtan, and others, was certainly there before the Jesuits, and these beings are elsewhere cited by Mr. Tylor. The question is one of the existence of belief in such a being, not (for me at least) of the origin, which may well be post-European, of the words Kitchi Manitu, or Great Spirit.' If the Mandans believed, as Mr. Tylor does not deny) in Omahank Numakchi, the Creator, whose name appears to mean Lord of Earth,' it is quite unimportant that there is no
serviceable,
But
cast the otiose
he, like
'
'
'
Mandan
whose name answers
Great Spirit.' I mentioned, in the first essay of this book, Mr. Max Miiller's version of Bishop Salvado's account of Motagon, a dead creator in Western Australia. Mr. Tylor recognises him as Sir George deity
Grey's Mettagong,
'
an
demon identified with the demon die in decrepit Bishop Salvado's Motagon? There
insignificant
But
phosphoric fungus.'
to that of
old age long ago,' Like
did that
'
seems to be no hope of making anything clear out of Motagon. Mr. Oldfield, cited by Mr. Tylor for AustraHa, I have never Yet the quoted his account cannot be uncontaminated. natives may have believed in an evU spirit before they adorned :
him with horns, as Mr. beast possesses.
which no indigenous must be belief in a bad spirit. With
Oldfield states,
Their doctrine of a horned devil
'
'
modern, though not necessarily their Mr. Tyler's theory of Baiame as a missionary translation of the word for creator,' as early as 1850, I have already dealt in '
my
second essay, showing that Baiame is a native preMrs. word, whatever may be its etymology. Langloh Parker renders it, not maker (from baia, to cut, or
missionary
'
fashion), but '
'
'
big man.' '
Bel. des JisuUes, 1634, p. 13. »
/.
A.
I.
Feb. 1892,
p.
287.
Ibid. pp. 32, 33.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
298
APPENDIX B THE MABTYEDOM OP DASIUS It
is difficult to
first
two
There are M6nologie de
ascertain the facts about this affair.
brief narratives.
One
is
printed in the
'
^ The other is in Cod. Ambrosianus, D 74, fol. 65r. M. Cumont thinks that both have a single source namely, an abridgment of the Acts of St. Dasius,' published by himself from the Parisinus 1539, a MS. of the eleventh century. The two brief late narratives say that the Greeks in Dorostolum
Basile.'
—
'
held a yearly feast of Cronos. Thirty days before the feast they chose a handsome young soldier, clad him in royal raiment, and allowed him thirty days of revelry, after which he was to sacrifice himself at the altar of Cronos. The lot fell on Dasius, who preferred to die as a martyr of Christ. Diocletian
and Maximian, hearing of this, commanded him to be put to the The second MS. names Bassus as the officer at whose tribunal Dasius was arraigned. The long MS. first published by M. Cumont says that the man on whom the lot fell personated Cronos himself. On the thirtieth day of revelry he died by the sword as a victim to the unclean idols.' The author then adds that, in his own time, so-called Christians do devil-worship by dancing about in skins of beasts at the new year which is not the date of the Saturnalia (December 17-23). Unlike these sinners, who thus sword.
'
—
give themselves to the devil, Dasius determined to refuse to be
a sacrifice to heathen gods. to Cronos.
He
into a dark cell,
He would
never sacrifice himself
proclaimed himself a Christian, was thrown and was brought before Bassus, the Legate,' '
next day.
Bassus asked what he was charged with, his name, and Dasius gave his name, profession, and religion. Bassus (who appears to have been a mild kind of man) bade him revere the images of the Emperors, whose salt he ate (8
'
'
Urbino, 1727, vol.
i.
p. 198.
THE MAETYRDOM OF DASIUS homage even barbarous nations
299
Dasius defied the devil, still unformulated Nicene Creed. Bassus, keeping his temper to a marvel, said that every man must obey constituted authority. Dasius ansv?ered, Do to me whatever your filthy and impious Emperors command.' Bassus then offered him two hours for reflection,
and anticipated, in his
pay.'
confession,
the
'
'
that
may
consider in yourself how you may live among us Dasius refused the respite in vulgar and insolent Bassus then ordered him to be decapitated. He had a
you
with honour.' terms. last
chance, being offered incense to burn before the Imperial
but he threw it on the ground, and was done to death. Not a word about the mock-kingship passed between Dasius and Bassus, who merely asked him to perform the customary sacrifice, that he might live honourably in the regiment (oTTws SvvrjdeLTjs t,rjv [x.€6' rjfjLwv iv Soiy). How could Dasius live on if he was to be sacrificed at any rate ? Why did not Dasius tell effigies,
'
'
'
—
Bassus the supposed facts of the case that he objected to a month of unhallowed revelry, followed by self-sacrifice to Cronos ? Bassus obviously knew nothing about all that. A soldier only has his orders Dasius insulted the religion and the head of the State he declined to retract, and Bassus had to administer the law. If Dasius did not like the law he need not have enlisted. The two brief MSS. give us none of this conversation That foul-tongued confessor, between Bassus and Dasius. according to Mr. IVazer, refused to play the part of the heathen god and soil his last days by debauchery. The threats and arguments of his commanding officer, Bassus, failed to shake bis constancy, and accordingly he was beheaded.' ' But Bassus, a perfect gentleman, never asked Dasius to soil his last ;
:
'
days by debauchery, or to play the part of a heatlien god. He merely offered to Dasius the usual test, just as Claverhouse
might have offered the Abjuration Oath. Dasius was exactly that of a dragoon of 1684
The
who
position of '
refused the
abjuration.'
In
my
Dasius probably was executed
opinion,
scruples, insolently expressed, if
we do
if
we believe his
for
biographer
;
his
and,
not believe his biographer, the evidence ceases to exist.
The biographer, knowing about the usual King of the Saturnalia '
Oolden Bough,
iii.
141.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
300
Eoman household, and wishing to check the survivals pagan revelry at the new year, declared that the King of the Saturnalia was actually sacrificed to Saturn. But in his own account of the conversations between Dasius and his commanding officer not a word is said about the Saturnalia and the sacrifice of the mock-king. On the other hand, the commanding officer, or military judge, labours to save the life of Dasius, not being aware that it is in any way endangered This hardly appears in Mr. Frazer's except by his recusancy. brief summary. But a glance at the original Acts of St. Dasius shows the nature of the evidence.^ If any part of it has an official basis, as M. Cumont supposes, that part must be the examination of Dasius by Bassus. Here occurs no hint of sacrificing Dasius as Saturn Bassus expects him to throw incense on the flame, and to continue an honourable soldier of the Empire. He knows nothing
in every of
'
;
about sacrificing Dasius.
Thus, as historians regard evidencei
the statement about the yearly victim of Saturn, a statement
made long
after
Christianity, is
the event, and after the establishment of
weak
For
indeed.
it
has no corroboration in
the works of Latin or Greek historians or antiquaries.
But
not history, and Mr.
'the
anthropology
is
Frazer
argues,
martyrologist's account of the Saturnalia agrees so closely with
the accounts of similar rites elsewhere, which possibly have been known to him, that the
could
not
substantial
accuracy of his description may be regarded as established.' ^ Now we have the Aztec case and the Sacsean case. But is a captive, not a free soldier, whose life most anxious to preserve. The Sacsean victim is not sacrificed, and is a condemned criminal. Now Mr. Frazer has said when a nation becomes civilised, if it does not drop
the Aztec victim
Bassus
is
'
human
sacrifices altogether, it at least selects as
victims only
any rate.' ^ But a valuable soldier, like Dasius, is not a wretch who would be put Again, among the numerous cases of to death at any rate. periods of licence, like the Sacsea, we know only one instance such
vsrretches as
would be put
to death at
' The precise position of a Analecta Bollandiana, xvi. pp. 5-16. Legatus like Bassus is rather indistinct. If an officer, he need not have asked Dasius what his profession was. 2 G. B. iii. 142. = Q. B. iii. 120.
'
'
'
'
THE MARTYRDOM OF DASIUS of sacrifice, to
and that
the
at
selves
Our business
of a criminal, in Ashanti.
Eoman
prove that free
301
soldiers voluntarily sacrificed
The Aztec
Saturnalia.
the Persian execution of
is
them-
sacrifice of a captive,
with folklore
a criminal,
analogous description, scarcely make the
of
rites
Eoman custom
pro-
bable, vyhile the direct evidence is only that of the martyrolo-
His evidence merely asserts, as to the death of Dasius, he perished for refusing the usual test. Again, as M. Parmentier argues, the sacrifice, if it existed, may have been In this condition of the evidence, of Oriental importation. especially as it allots thirty days to the Saturnalia, an otherwise unheard-of period, suspension of judgment seems prudent. gist.
that
APPENDIX C THE BIDE OF THE BEAEDLESS ONE Mb. Feazeb's argument about the Eide of the Beardless One, and the possible traces of a similar burlesque performance preluding to or follow.
succeeding the
Perhaps, in the
author's meaning.
We
text,
I
know
Crucifixion, is not easy to
may have
misconceived
my
the ride of the beardless one
through the work of Hyde, pubHshed at Oxford in I condense Hyde's account as given
in Persia
1700, and again in 1760.
by Mr. Prazer.^
The date
of the festivity of
the beardless
month, which in the most ancient Persian calendar corresponds to March, so that the date of the ceremony agrees with that of the Babylonian New Year Festival of Zakmuk.' In Mr. Prazer's third volume, the Saceea synchronise with Zakmuk, though in his second volume the Sacsea are of June- July. We shall suppose him, in the one was
'
the
first
day
of the first
present passage, to adhere to the date of
March
for the Sacaea.
The ride of the beardless one, if so, occurs at the Sacsean date. But Hyde found that some Persians regarded the ride of the beardless one as of recent institution
;
if
they were right,
it
has no traceable connection with the ancient Sacaea. Nor was there any mock-king concerned in the ride of the beardless
one
;
and there was no probable sacred harlot '
G. B.
iii.
181, 182.
;
still
less
were
MAGIC AND EELIGION
302
there two beardless ones, with two sacred harlots, as in Mr.
Hyde says no Ohrysostom or any other ancient author records in the case of the Sacsea. Far from being attired as a king, the beardless buffoon was led about naked, on a horse, mule, or ass, fanning himself and At
Erazer's theory of the Sacsea.
more about the sacred
all
events
harlots than Dio
while people soused him in ice, snow, or Attended by the household of the king or governor, he extorted contributions. The goods seized between dawn and morning prayers fell to the governor or king what the
complaining
of heat,
cold water.
;
and second prayers he kept The populace might beat him later, if
buffoon took between the
first
and then he vanished. they caught him. Now if this holiday farce existed, at the Sacsea and at Zakmuk, during the time of the exile, the Jews could not borrow the Sacsean custom of hanging a mock-king, for, on Mr. Frazer's theory (if I do not misunderstand it), the ride of after the serious meaning of the beardless one came in the custom (the hanging of the mock-king) had been The ride of the beardless one is a degenerate forgotten.' of the Sacsean whipping, hanging, copy of the original and scourging a condemned criminal which had fallen Lagarde is not of that opinion he out of use, I presume. thinks that the author of the Book of Esther knew and combined the colours of the Persian Magophonia, the Sacsea, and the ride of the beardless. In fact, Dio Ohrysostom does not tell us that the Sacaean mock-king rode, whether naked or nor that he made a forced in splendour, through the city These collection, which he was not allowed to live to enjoy. things may have occurred, but no record proves them. Yet Mr. Frazer has, provisionally, to conjecture that the Sacsean victim had a ride of honour, and made a collection, and that The description of our Lord enjoyed the same privileges. His last triumphal ride into Jerusalem reads almost like an echo of that brilliant progress through the streets of Susa which Haman aspired to and Mordecai accomplished.' Our Lord does not appear to have been either naked, like the beardless one, or clad in splendour, like Mordecai, or crowned and robed, or attended by the men-at-arms of Pilate or Herod. He borrowed an ass, with her colt, and the multitude strewed '
'
'
'
'
—
—
:
;
'
THE KIDB OF THE BEABDLESS ONE branches and cried, '
303
to the Son of David.' He then money-changers, and cast out all
Hosanna
'
overthrew the tables
of the
them that sold and bought in the Temple a raid,' as Mr. Frazer says. But it is not on record that He seized any property, and His motive has been regarded as an objection to '
:
commercial transactions in a sacred It
may seem
a
edifice.
arbitrary to
little
connect these acts of
what the Sacsean victim, to our knowledge, ever but with what was done by the beardless buffoon, his
Christ, not with did,
"We have first to guess that the Sacaean mock-king acted like him whom we have to guess to be his late degenerate copy and then to read into the Gospels an idea derived from accounts of the ancient or modern buffoon. degenerate copy.
;
'
'
Moreover, while Christ represents the mock-king of the Sacasa the high tragedy of the ancient ceremony for He is put
in to
'
'
death
which
is
—his mere
counterpart, Barabbas, '
—
has a conjectural ride
Now
farce,' like that of the beardless buffoon.
Mr. Prazer says that,
'
after
the
meaning
serious
the
of
Sacaean custom had been forgotten, and the substitute was
allowed to escape with his
life,
the high tragedy of the ancient '^
ceremony would rapidly degenerate into farce.' The degeneration was rapid indeed in the twinkling :
of
an
was not allowed to escape with his life the high tragedy of the ancient ceremony existed in his case. But instantly the high tragedy was forgotten Barabbas, Christ's eye.
Christ
:
'
'
'
'
!
counterpart, in Mr. Frazer's theory,
been going about the
streets, rigged
may
'
with a tinsel crown on his head, and a hand, preceded and followed by of the
very well
.
.
.
have
out in tawdry splendour,
all
sham
sceptre in his
the tag-rag and bobtaU
town, hooting, jeering, and breaking coarse jests at his
some pretended to salute his mock majesty, and donkey on which he rode. It was in this fashion, probably, that in Persia the beardless and oneeyed man made his undignified progress through the town, to the delight of ragamuffins and the terror of shopkeepers whose expense, while
others belaboured the
goods he confiscated offerings at his feet.'
if
they did not hasten to lay their peace-
^
All this as to Barabbas implies that the
the Sacaea
was abeady I
G. B.
iii.
lost in the
183.
'
farce "
'
high tragedy
'
of the
O. B.
iii.
'
192.
'
of
degenerate
MAGIC AND RELIGION
304
copy,' the ride of the beardless.
his life?
If
He
If
so,
why
did Christ lose
died solemnly as a recognised god (which Mr.
Prazer seems to me to deny in iii. 120 and asserts in iii. 194-197), is his no less sacred counterpart, Barabbas, also and simultaneously a counterpart of the beardless buffoon ? Either the whole affair was solemn and tragic, the Haman
why
and the Mordecai (Barabbas) being recognised as divine, was farce, and in neither Christ nor Barabbas was there any recognised divinity. Mr. Frazer makes the belief in the divinity of Christ depend on the contemporary recognition of the godhead of the Sacsean victim, whose male issue was also perhaps recognised as divine.'^ But he also assures us that the divinity of the Sacsean victim must have been forgotten.' ^ In the same way Christ, as victim, was recognised as divine, and so, necessarily, was his counterpart, Barabbas whether in sober fact, or pious fiction, the Barabbas or Son of that Divine Father who generously gave his own Son to die for the world.' ^ Yet this Son of the Divine Father was so remote from sacred that, just three pages before his Sonhood is asserted, we have a picture of him riding about on a donkey among the jeers of the tag-rag and bobtail.' It is difficult to (Christ)
or the whole affair
'
'
'
''
accept both of the theories (not very self-consistent in
humble
my
which Mr. Frazer seems able to hold simultaneously or alternately. If Barabbas rode a donkey amid the jeers of the ragamuffins, then Christ had no triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He, too, had merely a burlesque ride, if Barabbas had a burlesque ride, as Mr. Frazer thinks probable. By the essence of his theory, Christ and Barabbas were counterparts, both were divine, or neither was divine, in general opinion. If Barabbas was a personage in a low farce (as Mr. Frazer supposes), so was Christ, and no halo of divinity can accrue from taking part in a burlesque, which cannot also be a high tragedy, with divine actors. As if difficulties were never to cease, the beardless buffoon is a degenerate copy of the Sacsean victim. But while he was a proxy for the king, and also a representative of Humman, or Marduk, or Tammuz, or Gilgamesh, or Eabani, or a god not yet identified in his opinion),
:
popular form, as '
'
a. B. O. B.
the
beardless
buffoon,
'his
pretence
iii.
186.
2
G. B.
iii.
120.
iii.
195.
*
G. B.
iii.
192.
of
THE BIDE OE THE BEAEDLESS ONE from heat, and his
suffering
final disappearance, suggest that,
he personified either of the seasons, winter rather than the coming summer.'
was the buffoon
If so,
of the
copy of that versatile victim with a
^
was he a degenerate
new meaning
popularly
him ? We are to recognise in him the familiar the mock or temporary king,' ^ though he has neither
assigned to
'
crown, sceptre, robes, nor aught to cover his nakedness. is
does he, and
how
does his magic, put us
to
unmask the leading personages
If
he
a
new popular
'
he
If
not the popular original of the mock-king of the Sacaea,
is
if
was the departing
it
popular ceremony the folklore
original of the Sacaean mock-king, or
features of
305
how
in a position finally '^
Book of Esther ? the Sacman mock-king,
in the
interpretation of
'
a misconstrued survival, he cannot help to explain the Sacsea, or
'
Esther,' especially
if,
as a player in a farce which
mitigation of the Sacsea, he had not '
when
'
Tammuz, nor Marduk,
originally neither the king's proxy, nor
nor Gilgamesh, nor Eabani, but perhaps
He
was a
into existence
was written. But, if the beardless buffoon represents popular germ of the Sacaean victim, then that victim was
Esther
the
come
'
the departing winter.'
can only serve the theory, in that capacity,
if
provided with
a counterpart to represent the coming summer, while he and his counterpart
both have female mates, of
a ghost of a trace in our authorities, of the Sacsea, the
Nobody says is
just as
whom
there
is
Eide of the Beardless, or the Crucifixion.
that there were two beardless buffoons, yet there
much
evidence for them as for the conjectural two
sacred characters, with two sacred harlots, at the Sacsea.
must avoid the '
a. B.
not
whether in the instance
iii.
multiplicatio entium prceter necessitatem.
184.
=
G. B.
iii.
182.
'
G. B.
iii.
184.
We
INDEX Adonis. See Tammuz Agathias (Byzantine poet), cited, 130 Ahone (aboriginal N. American god),
20,39 Alatunjas (Arunta
headmen), 101, 259, 260, 265, 267, 269
Alcheringa (mythical heroic age, or period of fabulous ancestors, of the Arunta), 15, 251, 253, 254 Aloheringites (fabulous
ancestors),
251, 252
Algonquin deity, 39 Alkna Buma (Arunta clairvoyant), and new-born babies, 262 Amadhlozi (Zulu ancestral spirits), 227, 228 Anahuac human sacrifices, 193 :
Anaitis (Persian love goddess), 119,
194 religious beliefs, 231,
:
232
Andouagni
(aboriginal Canadian god), 10 no form of prayer addressed to 10, 11, 12, 21, 89 ;
Anthropology, present-day neglect of its study, 7; en'ors of the higher criticism,' 9 gods not addressed in prayer, 10, 1 1 conilicting evidence of race beliefs, 11 coincidence of testimony, 12, 13. Sec under names of tribes and gods '
;
;
;
women
rites
to
;
practice
;
magical
assist the
processes of nature, 82, 83 periods of licence, 193, 194, 196, 198 ; totems, 250, 251, 252 cited, 67, 68, 101, 259, 263, 264, 265 note, 266, 267 ;
;
Ashanti
licence at the harvest festival, 188, 189 Asia Minor Greek cities use of scapegoats in times of calamity, 190 Astarte (Semitic goddess). See :
:
Ishtar
Atahocau (Huron
deity), 42, 89,238,
296, 297 Athenffius, on the Saosea, 119, 120, 121 cited, 132, 185, 186, 195, 196 Athenian festival of Cronos, 116, ;
117
Andamanese
Argyllshire
scope of their ideas, 16 of magic, 46, 61, 62, 65
:
superstition
connected
with
among cup-
marked
rocks, 252, 254 Arieian grove of Diana, the,
scapegoats killed in times of distress, 190 AthoU, Earlof (pretender to royalty), :
mock crowning Atua (Samoan),
of,
203
tree of protection,
219 Australian blacks alleged endeavour to delay the course of the sun, 3 religious ideas unborrowed, 44 attention to the dead, 49 Christian Deity identified by them with their own supreme beings, 49; religious ideas vary according to soil, 50 fertility of invent to please whites, 50, 51 emergence of gods from ancestors, 51 ; re:
;
;
;
;
and
its
ghastly priest, 207 et seq. Arthurian legend the magical sword, 211 Arunta (tribe of Central Australia), their theory of evolution of our species and the nature of life, 15 ; :
Athens
engraved churinga and rock paintings, 245
ligious beliefs, 231, 232 et
seq.
;
fire
;
ceremony
of,
271.
See also under tribal names Aztecs beliefs, 75 human sacrifice at harvest festival, 127 173, 300 :
;
;
MAGIC AND RELIGION
308 Babylon
annual
:
sacrifice
of
a
criminal proxy king, 77 ; hypothesis of that rite, 91, 101, 103, 106 Backhouse, Mr. (Quaker), his Visit to Australian Colonies,' cited, 26 '
Bagolos 129
(tribe)
:
human
Bunjil (Australian god), 32, 34, 41, 66 Bunyip (fabled Austi-alian monster), 26
sacrifices,
Calicut (Malabar)
Baiame
(Pei-a-raei,
or Baiamai) creative being),
(Australian moral 25-32, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 66, 67, 89, 226, 238, 297 Balder (Scandinavian spirit), the
Eddaic myth of, 213-217 Ballima (Australian spiritual paradise), 36,
Banjars (tribe) beat their king till the weather changes, 85 Barabbas a counterpart of the sacred Victim, 201, 303, 304 Bau (Babylonian goddess), 137, 138 Beiderbeoke, Mr., on South African gods, 236, 237 Beiruk, William (Australian black), on Bunjil, 34 Benares fire-walking, 290, 291 Benedictine Mission at Nursia, 13 Bernadette (seeress of Lourdes) firehandling, 272 Berosus, quoted, on the Sacsea, 119, 120, 142, 144, 185, 196 Birds, wise, Australian and American myth of, 24 Blackfoot Indians (N. America) religious ideas, 295 Bluebeard new version, 167 Bobowissi (W. African deity), 39 Bora (Australian initiatory mysteries), women excluded from, 30, 58, 66, 71, 195 Borrowed religion, 15 at seq., 295 Boyma. See Baiame Brahan. warning to the Mackenzies, :
:
:
:
:
:
superstitious belief, 98 BrSbeuf, Father, on the Oki, 19, 42 Brewin (Kurnai supreme being), 27, 49, 52, 53 Brinton : etymology of the god Kiehtan, 20 British Isles fire- walking, 271 :
Brough Smyth,
Mr., cited, 41, 54
Bryant's ark, 5
Buckley
(convict), on the Australian ideas of a god, 26 Bulgaria, Nistinares of fire-handling, 272, 283, 285, 286 Bullimah (Australian paradise), 36 Bull-roarers, (in savage mysteries), 65, 67, 71, 248, 255 :
religious
self-
209 Callaway, Dr., on Zulu
beliefs,
97,
225, 227, 228, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 237, 238
Calvary, 200 et seq.
Cambodia
37
:
slaughter of the king, 98, 217 Caligula and the priest of Diana,
temporary kings, 105 period of licence, 187 Cameron, Mr. A. L. P., on the tribes of New South Wales, 70 Canadian aboriginal god, Audouagni, 10, 11, 12, 21, 89 Carew, Mr., on fire-walking, 283 Carnival, destruction of, at end of :
modern Roman
festival,
110
on Mandau Mystery Play
Catlin,
of
the Flood, 23, 24 Catullus, cited, 184 Celebes, the harvest customs, 267 Chaka (Zulu king), 97, 228, 229, :
230 Cheviots, the cup and ring incised on boulders, 241 Chinese vernal festival of fire, 270 :
Chitome (Congo
pontiff '), 138 theories concerning, 76, 78, 79, 100, 106, 110, 200, 206 Christian faith, origin of the, 76 et
Christ
'
:
seq.
Churinga (Australian), wood or stone marked with circles, cups, &c., 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255 ilkinia, sacred rock-drawing of totem, 246, 249 Coleridge, Hartley, cited, 31 Collins, Mr. ('New South Wales'), on native use of word father,' 32 Colquhoun, Dr., on fire-walking, 282 Congo tribes, 61 ; their pontiff not permitted to die a natural death,
Churinga
'
96, 133 Craig, Dr. George : fire-walking, 275 Craig, Dr. W. : fire-walking, 275 Craigie, Mr. W. A., on the myth of
Balder, 214 Cranz (missionary), on Greenlanders' behefs, 21, 87, 88
Crawford, note
Mr.
Lindsay, cited, 57
INDEX Croesus, 129
Cronos 117
festival, the, 108, 109, 116,
309
Dyaks, their superstition regarding new-born children, 261
Crookes, Mr., cited, on fire-walking,
286
Eabani
Crookes, Sir William, cited, 289 Crucifixion, a theory of the, 80, 103 Crystal-gazing, 32 Ctesias, on the Sacasa, 120 Cumont, Professor Franz, on the legend of Dasius, 112; on the Saturnalia, 118, 114, 115, 142; cited, 183, 298, 300 Cup and ring :' a solution, 241 et seq. Curr, Mr., on Australian native '
beliefs,
31
(feast of), 164, 165, 166, 178,
180, 181
Eddaie myth of Balder, 213-217 Egyptian Book of the Dead, 72 gods, tombs and mummies, 90 King of Unreason, 105 sacrifice of redhaired men, 128 ;
;
;
EUis, Sir A. B., 13 ; theory of borrowed gods, 42 on Ashanti harvest festival, 188 Erecb, Eabani feast at, 164, 165 Esther, Book of, 147, 180 theories concerning, 161-181 Ethiopian kings of Meroe worshipped as gods, killed by priests, 96 Evolution of gods, 82 et seq. Euhemerism, 90 European influences on savage beliefs, 11 Euthyphro, cited, 59, 60 Everard, Jlr. H. S. C, cited, 211 Eyeos, sacrifice of king of, 98, 221 Eyre, Mr., on the Australian blacks' idea of origin of creation, 40, 41 Ezekiel, 151, 176 ;
;
:
DAEAMULnN (Australian
deity),
27,
66,71 Darwin,
cited, 6 Dasius, story of the martyrdom of, 79, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 121, 182, 185, 298, 301 Davis, Mr. John Moore, on AustraUan native sacrifice of the first-born, 54 Dawson, Mr. (' Aborigines of Australia '), on native religious worship,
33,
34
Deputy gods, 39 Devils, expulsion of, savage licence following, 187
Diana, grove of (near Aricia) the golden bough in, 207 et seq. Diana of the Chersonese, 208 Dieri, the (Central Australian tribe): ancestral spirit worship, 50, 56, 62, :
63,64 Dio Chrysostom, on the festival of SaesBa, 79, 120 and note, 121, 132, 147, 185, 186, 199, 302 Divine scapegoats, 189 et seq. Dodge, Colonel, on North American beliefs, 88, 89 Donnelly, Mr. W. A., discovery of stones marked with cup and ring, &e., 245, 246 Dos Santos, on Caffre beliefs, 97 and note, 234, 235 Druid origin of the word, 215 note Druid circles, 242 Druids, gathering mistletoe, 215 Dumbuck (Scotland) marked stones at, 245, 246, 253 :
:
stones marked 245, 246, 247, 253 A. M. fire-walking,
Dunbuie (Scotland) with rings
Duncan, Hon. 277
:
at,
:
Faewabdigan (Persian
feast),
168,
169 Fijian hymns, 72 195, 196, 198 ;
;
periods of licence, ceremony, 273,
fire
277-283, 288 Fire-walking, 270 et seq. First-born, eating the, 54 First-fruits,
267
et seq.
Fisher's ghost, 54 Fison, Mr. Lorimer, on the emerging of gods from ancestors, 50,
56 Foelsche, Mi., on savage belief in a benevolent creator or demiurge, 57 note, 58 Frazer, Mr. J. G., theories of comparative study of human beliefs institutions, religion the and 6, 7 despair of magic, 10, 60 magic preceded the invention of gods, 47 ; limited definition of religion, 48, 59 ; the Australians who practise magic have httle or no religion, 49-52 ; on the Jewish Passover, 53 its Australian parallel, 53, 54 ; speculative generalisations. :
;
;
;
MAGIC AND RELIGION
310 55
arbitrary selection of wit; nesses, 55- 58 ascription of wrong beliefs to the Arunta, 61 inadvertent proof that irreligious Australians are religious, 62-65 ; invented powerful beings, 68 religion the conciliation of higher ;
;
powers by prayer and sacrifice, 69 shooting stars, 74 imported re;
;
ligiousideas, 75 origin of the behef in the divinity of Christ, 76-78 use of the legend of Dasius, 79, ;
;
109-115 mental prepossession on the Crucifixion, 80 ; double pairs of divinised human beings, 82 alleged mortality of gods, 85-94 ;
;
religious regicide, 'J4-100 annual religious regicide, 101-104 mock kings, 103 et seq. persons who suffer for god-man kings, 104-107; ;
;
;
survivals of human sacrifice at the Saturnalia, 109-115 ; modern Carnival, 110, 111 the Greek Cronia, 115-118; the Saceea, 118-122 again mock kings, 120, 121, 123 attempts to prove the ;
and
Goethe,
native
Australian
35 savage period of Gold Coast licence, 186 Goodwin, Mr. fire-walking, 275 Gorten, Mr. fire-walking, 292 Gounja Tiequoa (Hottentot supreme deity), 232 beliefs,
:
:
:
Greek religious
beliefs
paralleled
with those of savage races, 38 graves of gods, 90, 93 Greenlanders religious beliefs, 87, 88 ;
:
Greenway, Mr., on the derivation of Baiame, 25 44 Greyhair Zulu superstition con;
:
cerning, 97 Grogoragally (Aust. son of god), 36,
37,39 Gudgeon, Colonel
the Te XJmuti, or fire-walking, 273, 274, 276, 285 Giinther, Mr., cited, 44 Guyaquar Indians, human sacrifices by,
when
:
sowing, 127
;
;
123-140 by banging, 127-132 the Sacsea, 135-138 the
Sacffiau criminal divine, sacrifice
date of SacEean victim, 138
Zakmuk,
Sacffia,
141-160 Purim, 153
;
;
;
analogies of
and
Purim,
human
victims at connection of Mordecai, Esther, Vashti, and Haman ;
;
with Babylonian and Elamite gods, the ride of the beardless 161 Persian buffoon, 168, 171, 301-305 festivals of licence, 185-199 divine scapegoat, 189 Calvary, 200-204; the ghastly priest of the grove of Diana, 206-223 the Quiteva, 234; taboo, 268; fire-walking, 270 Fuegian idea on flapper shooting, 267 ;
;
Haddon, Mr. New Guinea art, 249 Haggard, Colonel Andrew, on firewalking, 284, 285 Haggard, Mr. Eider, cited, 228 Hale, Mr. Horace, on the Australian god Baiame, 25, 27, 28, 29 on :
;
Koin, 27 ; cited, 43 Hall, Mr. S. C. fire-handling, 276 Haman theories concerning, 134, :
:
161-181 (Elamite deity), 78 Hanging, sacrifice by, 77, 78,
Haman
80, 127 138, 148, 153, 175, 177, 178, 189, 195, 197, 199 Hartland, Mr., quoted, on savage ideas of superior beings, 35, 36 prayers for the dead, 36 censure et
seq.,
;
Mr. Manning's terminology, 36 origin of belief in a supreme being, 224 on Zulu behefs, 227, 229, 232, 233, 234 Hastwell, Mr. fire-walking, 287 of
;
;
Gason, Mr., on the beliefs of the Dieri, 56, 67 note on Mura Mura, ;
;
Hays
of Errol, their mistletoe lifetoken, 216 note Hearn, Mr. Lafcadio, on fire-walk-
62,63
German theory
of
Purim, 147
Georgia, stone-markings in, 243 Ghost-worship, 31 Gilgamesh and Eabani, legend
164, 165, 180, 181 GiUen. See Spencer and Gillen Gingero, king of killed by kinsmen if wounded in war, 96 Gods, the evolution of, 82 et seq. :
284 Bibib (Hottentot superior being), 90 Hennessy, Mr. Pope, quoted, 58 fire-walking, Henry, Miss Teuira 287 Heraldry, 260 ing,
of,
Heitsi
:
INDEX Heriot, cited, on the Virgiuian Crea-
I
Hindoo Koosh
harvest licence, 187 : Hippolytus, legend of, 209, 218 Hirpi of Soracte, the, 271 firewalking, 289 Hobamok (son of the god Kiehtan), 38, 39 ;
:
276 Honolulu fire-walking, 292 Horses of Virbius, 139 Hos (N.-E. Indian tribe) feast of licence, 187 Hottentot religious beUefs, 231, 232 How {Tongan elective king), 86 Howitt, Mr. A. W., on the Australian god Baiame, 25, 31, 32, 34; the iniKurnai goblin Brewin, 27 change tiated by the Kurnai, 52 on the of views on Brewin, 53 :
:
;
;
;
attributes of native great spirits, 66 cited, 12, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44 (Elamite deity), 139, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161, 166, 169, 172, ;
Humman
173-181, 189
travellers' tales, 99 Ibn Batdta Javan family deputed to die for the Sultan, 99 Images, clay or waxen, as vicarious :
objects of revenge, 3 fire-walking, 286 offering of first-fruits Indo-China :
:
267
Ireland late superstition in, 109 incised patterns on stones, 253 Iruntarinia (evil spirits), inimical :
;
through new-born children, 262, 264 Isaacs, Mr., quoted, on Zulu superstitions, 97 Ishtar (goddess), 125, 157, 164, 175, 177, 178, 179 Islamite suggestions of a God to savage races, 11
Jastkow, Professor, on mental prepossession, 80 Babylonian gods, 91 the Tammuz feast, 136, 137 the Book of the Zakmuk, 142 Esther, 162 the Purim, 162 cited, ;
;
;
;
;
157,. 166, 178, 179;
;
festival, 78; condemned criminals representing life and death of vegetation, 78 Jinn, the, 91
Purim
D., fire-handling by, 272,
to a god,
:
268 Jewish Passover, the, theory of, 53 Jews hanging a mock-king at the
Hocken, Dr. T. M., on fire-walking, 273, 276, 277-283, 285, 293,294
India
self-slaughter of kings and their substitutes, 99 Jensen, Dr., on the feast of Purim, 150, 151, 152, 1.59, 162, 164, 165, 166, 172, 173, 176, 177, 179 Jesuits, credited with suggesting the idea of a great spirit to savage races, 23 ; cited, 42, 45 Jevons, Mr., on taboo, 259, 260, 261,
Java
22 Herodotus, cited, 149 Hesyohiua, on the Saosea, 121 tor,
Home, D.
311
Johnson, Dr.,
cited,
263
Kalaki (Australian bull-roarer.) 71 Kalk (Kallak) Australian bull:
roarer, 71
Kalunga (African
Kamchatka
:
god), 237 religious beliefs, 226
Kamilaroi (Australian tribe) religious beliefs, 28, 29, 31, 48, 66 Karunga (African god), 236, 237 Khonds human sacrifiees, 129 Kibanga (Upper Congo) king killed by sorcerers when dying, 96 Kiehtan (New England god), 20, 21, 38, 39, 90 Kingsley, Miss Mary, cited, 12, 42, 45 Kitchi Manitou (North American Indian great spirit), 18 Kittanitowit (Algonquin great living spirit), 20 Koin (Australian supernatural black man), 27 Kolb (missionary), cited, 232 :
:
:
Kudulu (African fices,
tribe)
:
human sacri-
129
Kuenen, Professor, cited, 147 Kurnai (Australian tribe), 32 initiate Mr. Howitt in the mysteries, 52,
53
;
67
Lafitau, Pere, on the Manitou and Okki, 18, 19 L'Allemant, P^re, on the Virginian creator, 22 Lagarde, Professor, on Persian feasts, 168, 169, 171, 302
animal and human sacrifices, 128 Le Jeuue, Father, on the meaning of Manitou, 18 the Algonquin god, 21, 23 cited, 42, 297
Lagos
:
;
;
MAGIC AND RELIGION
312
Licence, periods of, at ancient and savage festivals, 185-199 Lionetti (Italian conjurer), firehandling experiments, 283 Lithuanian beer custom, 266 Livingstone, Dr., on Kaffir beliefs,
232
:
Livy, on the Saturnalia, 108
Loan-gods
(or
borrowed
;
religion),
theory of, 17 et seq. Luoian, on the Saturnalia, 108 Lyall, Sir Alfred, 55 on the foundation of natural religion, 59, 60 speculative generalisation, 74 quoted, 198, 220 Lydian kings as sacrifices, 129 ;
;
MACDONAiiB, Mr., quoted, 285 note,
236 Mackenzie, Captain, on fire-walking, 270 Macrobius, on the Saturnalia, 108, 111, 120 note, 205 Magic, or witchcraft, 3, 10, 16 46 et See under tribal names seq. ;
Magophonia
(Persian
feast),
119,
149, 168
Makogo (Wathi Wathi tribesman), on the future
Mandan Deluge
life,
72
legend, the, 23, 24,
25 Man-gods, 84, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 104, 138, 192 Manitou, meaning of the word, 18 superior being, 296 Manning, Mr., on early religious beliefs in New South Wales, 35 his terminology in question, 35, 36, 37 on exclusion of women from rebuffed religious knowledge, 39 by natives in his inquiries, 42 on taboo, 261 Marduk (Babylonian god), 92, 137, ;
;
;
;
;
138, 139, 142, 149, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161, 164, 165, 166, 171, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, IHO, 181, 189
human sacrifices, 129 Mariner, on Tongan beliefs, 86 Matthews, Mr., cited, 57 note Masai (African tribe), 12 Mauritius fu-e-walking, 284 Maximilian, Prince, on Mandan beliefs, 24 Maxwell, Sir Herbert, on trout and Marimos
;
:
May
Meath, portable engraved stones at, 253 Medicine-men, 33, 100 Meissner, Herr, on the Zakmuk and Saceea festivals, 118, 142 Merodach. See Marduk Mexicans human sacrifices at stages 184 of the maize's growth, 128 Meyer (' Hist, of Antiq.'), quoted, 118 Millar, Mr., quoted, on the Dunbuie finds, 247, 248 Mistletoe a magical plant, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 221 Mithra-worship, 114
flies,
Mbenga
Moab
sacrifice of sons of kings, 105 Mock-kings, sacrifices of, 79, 94, 105, :
110, 114, 119, 120, 181, 134, 136, 187, 153, 169, 178, 181, 182-185, 196, 197, 199
Mcesia
:
mock-king personating a
god, 79 sacrifice of kings, 103 the killing of Dasius at the Saturnalia, 109, 112; cited, 114, 115, 121, 188, 185 Moffat, Mr., on Kaffir beliefs, 232 ;
Molunga, Mulungu (Caftre god), 234, 235, 236 Mommsen, Prof. Aug., on the Cronos feast, 116 Montagnets (North American In dians),
application
their
of the
word Manitou, 18 Moodgeegally (patron of the mysteries), 67 Moravian missionaries on Baiame, 25 Mordecai (companion of Nehemiah), 161, 171 Mordecai (Babylonian supreme god?), 78; theories concerning, 134, 135, 161-181 Morgan, Mr., compiler of Buckley's Life and Adventures,' 26 Morimo (Bechuana deity), 232, 237 Mortality of gods, 85 et seq. Motagon (Australian dead creator), 297 Movers, Dr., on the Sacsea festival, 130, 174 cited, 198 '
;
Mukuru
deity), the misGod, 236 Mulkari (Queensland deity), 40 Miiller, K. 0., cited, 180
(African
sionaries'
Mundari
(tribe)
:
licence at festivals,
187
266
(Fiji):
277, 279
:
fire-walking,
276,
Mungan-ngaur (Kurnai S2, 53, 66, 68, 89
god), 27, 82,
INDEX Dr., on the incised stone finds at Dumbuck and Punbuie, 255, 256
Munro,
Mura
Mura
(Dierian
Orestes, story of his temple to Diana, 208, 209, 218 Otyihererd different names for god :
and
236 Ovaherero, the (African
ancestors
57 note, 62, 63, 235 Murrings (Australian blacks), 52 Mystery Play of the Flood (Mandan), 23 Myths. See under names of tribes and gods Mzima (spirits of the dead), 236 deified), 50,
313
|
spirit,
tribe), god 236 Oxford University, and the study of anthropology, 7 of,
1
I
1
Palmer, Mr., on the
tribes of the
of Carpentaria, 42,
44
;
cited,
Gulf 74
Pan, legend NANfiA
harvest
(Fijian
festival),
orgies at, 195 Na-pi (Blackfoot deity), 90 Natos (Blackfoot deity), 295 Nature's processes assisted by magical rites, 82, 83 Nebuchadnezzar, 140 Nepaul period of licence, 187 New England the god Kiehtan, 20, 21 religious beliefs, 38 New Guinea, British character of decorative art, 249 :
:
;
:
New South Wales of the first-born,
:
native sacrifice
:
:
Purim,158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 176, 177, 179 Noorele (Australian creator), 39, 40, 41, 66
North American Indians, religious beliefs of, 88, 89. Se« also under tribal
cited, 297 Parmentier, M., on the Saturnalia, 113 note, 114; on the Sacsea, 118 cited, 183, 301 Pascal, Dr. Th. fire-walking, 290 Patterns, incised, on portable small stones, 253 Pausanias, quoted, 209 Pei-a-mei. See Baiame Period of Licence, the, 105 et seq Persia annual sacrifice of a criminal proxy king, 77 ride of the beard;
:
:
54
the king's mana or magical power, 99 Ngoio (Congo) daily kings, 104 Niscaminou (Bed Indian deity), 295 Noldeke, Professor, on the feast of
New Zealand
of, 91 Parker, Mrs. Langloh, on unborrowed character of Australian beliefs, 34, 35, 36 ; prayers for the dead, 36 ;
;
less buffoon, 167,
169, 171,
168,
301-305 Philippinelslanders: religious beliefs,
90 Phurdigan (Persian feast), 149 Pin-sticking of enemy's image, 3 Pirnmeheal (Australian god), 34, 66 on the Druids, 215, 216 Pliny, 108 Podmore, Mr., on fire-handling, 272 Polynesia tattooing, 243 taboo, 259 Ponder, Mr. Stephen fu-e-walking in Straits Settlements, 286 ;
:
;
:
names
Benedictine Narsia (Australia) Mission at, 12 Nyankupon (West Africa), 39
licence, 188, 195 : period of Priest, the ghastly, of the Arician grove of Diana, 207 et seq. Proserpine (goddess), 208, 211, 212 Prussian king, God's mouth,' self-
Pondo
'
Ohio, stone markings in, 243
Ointment used by fire-walkers, 293 Okeus (aboriginal Canadian god), 20, 21,90 Oki (Huron word for spirit), 19, 21, 22,42 Okki (Lafitau's Grand Esprit '), 19 Old Mars (Roman god and scapegoat), 190 Omuambo creation tales, 237 fireOntake Jinsha (Shintoists) walking, 291 '
'
'
immolation, 98, 130
Puluga (Andamanese god), 224, 226 Purdagh^n (Persian festival), 189 Purim (Jewish festival) date, origin, :
conjectures, analogies, 77, 118, 119, 124, 141, 142, 145-160, 161, 162, 163, 168, 169, 176-181, 188, 189, 194, 198,
rites, details, theories,
202
:
Oorooma
(native Australian hell), 37 Oppert, Dr. : fire-walking, 286
Queensland
deity, Mulkari, 40 Quilacare (Southern India) slaughter of the king, 98 :
self-
MAGIC AND RELIGION
314
Quiteva, the (Sofala deity), 97 note,
234
commentator on on the golden bough in
Servius
(early
Virgil),
the grove of Diana, 207, 208, 209
Eaiatea (Society Islands) fire-walking, 273, 274, 277, 287 Eain-mabing magic, 62, 63, 64, 65 Kai'otonga (New Zealand) firewalking, 273-276 Regicide, religious, 94, 100 Red Indian beliefs, 295 :
Shaw, quoted, 232 Shooting stars, Wathi Wathi pretation
Siam
305
Mr. (missionary),
on
the
Australian godBaiame, 25, 29, 30 on native ideas of great spirits, cited, 44, 238 66, 67 Romans customs at the Saturnalia, 108 et seq. Ross, Mr. Denison, cited, 143, 145 Roth, Dr., quoted, on the Queensland god Mulkari, 40 ;
;
:
(Oriental tribe), 118, 119, 143,
194
Mr. Henry R. fire-walk286 Dasius, martyrdom. See Dasius Paul, cited, 201
St. Clair,
:
ing, St.
on ancestral gods, 50, 56, 63 Simpson, Sir James, on the cup and ring, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246 Sioux human sacrifices for magical purposes, 128 Skidi (Wolf Pawnees) animal and human sacrifices, 128 Slate spear-heads, 247 Smith, Captain ('History of Virginia '), on Okki, 19 Smith, Mr. Robertson, cited, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 142 :
See Sacsea Sakeas. Salvado, Bishop, cited, 297 Samoan trees of refuge for criminals, 219, 220, 222 Sandes, Sandan (Persian deity), 130 Saturn, 108, 139, 183, 184 Saturnalia (Roman festival), rites, analogies details, theories and concerning, 79, 108, 109, 110, 183, 184, 195 Sayce, Mr., cited, 133, 147 Scapegoats, 189 et seq Schischmanof, Dr. Bulgarian firehandling, 285 Science and superstition definition, .
:
South African religions, 224 et seq. See under tribal names South Sea Islanders and Captain Cook, 94 Spain fire-walking, 285 Spartans lame kings, 98 Spencer, Mr. Herbert, cited, 6, 35 Spencer and Gillen, Messrs., cited, 15, 67, 86, 193, 194 note, 244,245, 246, 248, 259, 260, 265 Statins, on the Arieian grove, 209 Stevenson, R. L., on tapu in the Pacific Islands, 268 Stirling, Dr., cited, 62 Stokes, Mr. fire-walking, 286 Stones carved with cup and rings, universality of, 242 et seq. :
:
Strabo, on the Sacsea festival, 119120; cited, 149, 185, 186, 194, 195, 271 Strachey, William (successor of Captain Smith in Virginia), on the position of Okeus, 20
incised patterns on rocks and stones, 253, 254 Sementini, Dr. fire-handling, 283 :
:
Settlements
Straits
fire-walking,
:
286, 287
Strannam
tundun,
(Gaelic), roarer, 255
Suetonius, on the
'
ghastly
bull-
priest,'
209 Superstition, definition of, 2 et seq. Superstitions. See under names of tribes, gods, and authorities
Sweden
1 et seq.
Scotland
Sofalese (Caftre triba), their kinggod, 97
:
Saoeea (Persian festival), date, origin, rites, theories, details, analogies, 77, 79, 80, 81, 106, 114, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 141, 144, 145-160, 163, 164, 169, 170, 172, 176-199, 201, 202, 203, 223, 301-305
St.
Siebert,
:
Ridley,
SkCM
inter-
74
temporary kings, 105 Mr. (German missionary),
:
:
Religious beliefs of barbaric races. See under tribal names and gods Ride of the beardless buiioon, 301-
of, 73,
:
ancient treatment of king distress, 85
in times of public cake-eating, 266
Sword, the magical, 211
;
INDKX
supreme
being), 86
Tammuz
(Babylonian god of vegetaoonoerning, 123127, 133-139, 141, 143, 144, 149, theories
151, 152, 153, 155, 157, 159, 160, 161, 164, 172, 176-180, 183, 189,
192 tribe),
70,71 ceremony, 273-276 Thargelia (Athenian festival) goats, 190
:
scape-
;
;
;
;
'
Thomson, Mr. Basil
:
garsuk, 21 attribution of the idea of the great spirit to missionary ;
fire-walking,
288
22 24
influence,
legend,
Tha-tha-pali (Watha Watha deity), 70, 73, 74 Thevet, M., on the Canadian Indians' belief in a creator,' 21
Mandan Deluge
;
23,
Baiame, 25-32
Australian god
;
ideas of European importation, 51 ; native Australian
75
beliefs,
;
Greenlanders' beliefs,
;
Zulu beliefs, 226 ; 87, 88 note fire-walking, 271 theory of bor;
;
rowed gods, 295
Threlkeld, Mr., on the Australian god Koin, 27 translation of the Gospel of St. Luke, 27; first worker at the dialects of the ;
Baiame - worshipping cited, 43, 44,
Thuremlin (superior
tribes,
27,
45
:
:
:
;
:
tribes, gods, spirits,
regear, Mr.,
and authorities
210
on
273
:
and
bull-roarer),
native),
Ukoto (Zulu
on his race's
231
beliefs, 230,
on his race's 229 TJlangeni (Zulu native) repudiates idea of borrowed Hottentot deity, 231, 232 Umdabuko (Zulu creator), 229, 230 Umdali (Kaifir creator), 2B2 Umhlanga (Zulu), bed of reeds whence man sprung, 230 Umpengula Mbandi (Zulu native), on native beliefs, 228, 229, 230, 232, 238 Umvelingangi (Zulu deity), 225, 228 Unkuluukulu (Zulu deity), 89, 226, native),
beliefs, 228,
227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 235, 236, 238 Unyoro, the king of not allowed by his wives a natural death, 96 sacred Upolu (Samoan Islands) tree asylums for criminals, 219 :
:
Urabunna
et seq. fire- walking,
Trinidad (W. Indies) fire-walking, 286 Tshi-speaking races, 42 Tsui Goab (idealised Hottentot medicine man), 232 Tulong (deity), 70, 71 Tundun (patron of Kurnai mysteries
Ubeee (Zulu
:
being), 71
Thurston, Lady, her experiment in fire-walking, 278 Ti-ra-w4 (Pawnee deity), 89, 128 Tokio (Japan) fire-walking, 284 Tone, Mr. N. J. fire-walking, 287 Tonga the How religious function, 268 fire-walking, 287 Tongan religious beliefs, 86 Tonquin period of licence, 187, 188, 195, 196 Torngarsuk (Greenlanders' great spirit), 21, 87 Totems, 246, 249-254, 264 265, 266, 289 Traditions. See under names of
Tree
.
;
XJmu-ti (Maori), or fire-walking
;
Twanyirika (Arunta great spirit), 65,66,67,68,71,263,204 Tylor, Mr. on the Canadian deity Andouagni, 16 modification of his views on primitive culture, 17 the high gods of low races, 18 the Great Spirit or Manitou of the North American Indians, 18 the word Oki, 19 summary of Winslow, 20 the Greenlanders' Torn;
(New South Wales
Ta-ta-thi
29
(Austra-
lian god), 31
:
!J?e
Taramulan
Turramulan,
Taboo, 257 et seq. Tagore fire-walking, 290 Ta-li-y-Tooboo (Tongan
tion),
315
66,
67,
68 Turner, Mr., quoted, on Polynesian tree sanctuaries, 219
tralia),
(tribe
of
Central
Aus
16
Urkus (savage tribe), 58 Uthlanga (Zulu source 230 Utikxo (Zulu
of
being),
deity), 231, 232, 233,
234, 235, 236, 238
Vashti, theories concerning, 78, 161, 171, 175, 177, 178, 180 god), 219
Vave (Samoan
Vegetation, gods of, 5, 206 et seq. Virbius (deity of vegetation), 139
MAGIC AND EELIGION
316 Virgil,
his golden
207
bough,
et
seg.
Virginia: aborigines' chief god Okki, 19 Volsunga Saga the magical sword, 207, 211 :
Wirajuri (Australian tribe), beliefs of, 66 Witchcraft. See Magic Woiworung dirge, a, 41 Women debarred from the mysteries, 27, 33, 52, 71
Xebxes Waitz, Dr.
:
(the king in 148, 161, 167
on Australian religious
customs, 30; rejects the hypothesis of Australian borrowed beliefs, 43, 44 quoted, 232 Walking through fire, 270 at seq. Wallace, SirWilliam mock crowning,
Book
of Esther),
Yekkunthallt (Queensland
tribe)
idea of shooting stars, 74
;
Ynglinga Saga, the, 214
:
203
Warramunga
(Australian sacred rock-drawing, 246
tribe)
:
Zagmuk,
Zakmuk
Wathi Wathi (New South Wales tribe), religious beliefs, 70, 72,
:
;
cerning, 118, 137, 141-144, 145160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 179, 181,
74
Way of Souls, the, 72, 73 Wellhausen, Dr. on the Jewish exile, 181 West Africa, taboo in, 259 human sacrifices, 128 Wilson, Professor Daniel, on cups and rings, 243, 244 Winslow, quoted, on Kiehtan (New England native deity), 20, 38
301 Zeus, grave of, 90, 93 157 Zoganes (Babylonian slave-lord), theories concerning, 124, 125, 130, ;
139, 185, 186, 195, 196, 197, 198
Zulus
ghost worshippers, 31 ; religious beliefs, 97 period of licence, 188, 195; harvest custom, 267. See under tribal names :
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-
Ulackburne (J. H.) Bland (Mrs. Hubert) Boase (Rev. C. W.)Boedder (Rev. B.) -
Boyd (Rev. A. K. H.) Brassey (Lady)
19 13
20 5
15 30, 32
&c.
WORKS OF REFERENCE
INDEX OF AUTHORS Ibboll (Evelyn) (T. K.) (E. A.) Wand (A. H. D.) kton (Eliza) -
32
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ECO-
20
POLITICS,
WORKS
28
"ur,
political MEMOIRS,
29
POETRY AND THE DRAMA
fiction,
aiSTORY,
WORKS
14
MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL
anthropology,
JVOLUTION,
MENTAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY MISCELLANEOUS AND CRITICAL
19
17
24
26 10
16
9 25
INDEX OF AUTHORS"" Page Fowler (Edith H.) Francis (Francis) Francis (M. E.)
-
-
5
4
12, 13
-
Gibbons (J. S.) Gibson (C. H.)Gleig (Rev, G. R.) Goethe Going (C. B.) Gore-Booth (Sir H. W.)
Graham
(P. A.)
(G. F.)
-
-
Granby (Marquis
of)
Grant (Sir A.) Graves (R. P.) Green (T. Hill) Greene (E. B.)-
-
(C.) (F. C.) (Mrs. Lilly)
Gurnhill (J.) Gwilt (J.) -
-
-
25 17
Justinian
Kant Kaye
(I.)
-
W.)
14 8 15
Lang (Andrew)
Ladd
(F. (S. S.)
Levett-Yeats
Harting(J. E.)-
Hartwig
24
Heathcote
(J.
(C. G.) (N.)
M.)
7 30 29 14 12 12
-
-
9
Helmholtz (Hermann von)
-
-
Henderson
Longman (F.
Col. G. F.)
7 26
-
Herbert (Col. Kenney)
(C.
-11,12
(Mrs. C.J.)
29
Lowell
(A. L.) Lubbock (Sir John)
Lucan
-
(H. F. B.) Lyttelton (Hon. R. H.)
(Hon. A.) Lytton (Earl of)
5,
Macaulay (Lord) Macdonald (G.) (Dr. G.)
15
(David) (Rev. W.)
5
Hunter (Sir W.) Hutchinson (Horace fngelow (lean)
5
G.)
lo
(T. D.)
5 -
Jameson (Mrs. Anna)
15 29
5, 6, -
W.)
.
-
Mackinnon (J.) Macleod (H. D.) Macpherson (Rev. H.
Madden (D. H.) Magnusson (E.) Maher (Rev. M.)
-
-
32 2g 18 6 17 A.)i2 13 22 16
Nettleship (R. L.) (Cardinal)
(E. E.)
-
de)
15 22
-
Childe-)
14 8 11
S.
-
Pembroke (Earl Pennant (C. D.)
of)
-
7
-
12 12
-
Phillipps-Wolley(C.) 10,22 Pitman (C. M.) 11 Pleydell-Bouverie (E. O,) 12 Pole (W.) 14 Pollock (W. H.) II, 31 Poole (W.H. and Mrs.) 29 Pooler (C. K.) 20
Poore (G. V.)
31 12
Pope (W. H.)
Powell (E.) 6 Praeger (S. Rosamond) 26 Prevost (C.) 11 Pritchett (R. T.)
Proctor (R. A.)
12 14, 24,
-
N.) -
Raine (Rev. James) Randolph (C. F.) Rankin (R.)
28
8
25
(Rev. Joseph) Ridley (Sir E.)-
6
20 6 22
3,
6 Meade (L. T.) 26 Melville (G. J. Whyte) 22 Merivale (Dean) 6 Mernman 'H. S.) 22 Mill (John Stuart) - 15, 17 Millias (J. G.) 13 Milner (G.) 31 - 13, 19 Moffat (D.) Monck(W. H. S.) 15
-
(Alice) (J. W.) Roget (Peter M.)
Riley
Romanes
-
23 18 10 18 10, 12 16 16 18 23 20 16, 25
(G. J.) 8, 15, 17,
(Mrs. G.
J.)
Ronalds
-
20, 32 8
14
-
5
23
RoKsetti (Maria Francesca)
-
-
31
-
Rotheram (M.
29
Rowe
II
A.) (R. P. P.)
Russell (Lady)-
8
Saintsbury (G.) 12 Sandars (T. C.) 15 Savage-Armstrong(G.F.)20
Seebohm 22, 31, 32
Erskine)
5
-
Ransome (Cvril) Raymond (W.)
-
Miiller (F.)
May (Sir T.
(C. H.)
Peek (Hedley) Pemberton (W.
Ross (Martin)
32 31 22 13 3r
8, 15. 16, 17.
II,
-
5
22
Matthews (B.) Maunder (S.)
Pearson
14 ^
(Sir -
29 8
)
(J.
-
-
Martineau (Dr. James)
Maryon (M.) Mason (A. E. W.)
Park (W.) Payne-Gallwey
(A.) Roosevelt (T.)
Marchment (A. W.) Marshman (J. C
Max
9 6 20
-
Reader (Emily E.) Rhoades (J.) Rice (S. P.) Rich (A.) 19 Richardson (C.) g Rickaby (Rev. John)
8,
Malleson(Col.G. B.)
Marbot (Baron
9 jo 12 19
- ig,
-
Macfarren(Sir G. A.)
Hume
-
17 18 15 22
Lynch
24 29 29
lames (W.)
-
Lutoslawski (W.) Lvall (Edna)
Mann
(E.)
5
-
Maskelyne
9
30 13
-
-
Howitt (W.) Hudson (W. H.) Huish (M. B.) Kullahd.)
W.
5
-
Mack-ail C]
Ingram
5 -
J.) J.) 10, 13,
W.)
r2 13 Herod (Richard S.) 8 Hiley (R. W.) 10 Hillier (G. Lacy) 18 Hime(H. L.) Hodgson (Shadworth)i5, 31 Hoenig (F.) 31 Hogan (J. F.) 7 8 Holmes (R. R.) 8 Holroyd (M. J.) 18 Homer 21 Hope (Anthony) 18 Horace Houston (D. F.) 5 Howard (Lady Mabel) 21
Hunt
9 17 22 13 25 30
-
-
W.
(G. H.)
12
-
29 15, 19
24
(Lieut-
Henry (W.) Henty (G. A.)
5 11
(J.)
Loftie (Rev.
-
17
(S.)
4
(Mrs.) Heath (D. D.)
10, r2
-
Hamilton (Col. H. Hamlin (A. D. F.) Harding (S. B.)
5 21 12
17
Nansen (F.) Nash(V.)Nesbit
R.)
5
-
Leslie (T. E. Cliffe)
29
11
30, 31
Oldfield (Hon. Mrs.) 7 - 11,12 Onslow (Earl of) Osbourne (L.) 23
12
5, 10, 11, 13,
Lawley (Hon. F.) Lear (H. L. Sidney) Lecky (W. E. H.)' 5, Lees (J. A.)
Lindley
14 17
-
(C. Lloyd) Morris (Mowbray) (W.) 18, 19, 20, 22, Mulhall (M. G.)
29
15
W.)
Lawrence Laurie
Loch (C. S.) Lodge (H. C.)
Head
-
(Rev. Edward)
Morgan
8
8
8,
-
g,
(J.)
(G. T.)
Halliwell-Phillippsd.)
(G.) Hassall (A.) Haweis (H. R.)
-
-
Newman
3
-
(F. C.)
(T.)
12 15
17,18,19,20,21,22, 26, 31, 32
11 11 21 15 25
B.)
5 -
Lapsley (G. T.) Lascelles (Hon. G.)
12
-
5
15
Kbstlin
F.)
31 15 15
-
-
(Sir J.
13 16 12
21, 31
Harte (Bret)
5, 22,
:
Kelly (E.)Kent (C. B. R.) Kerr (Rev. J.) Killick (Rev. A. H.)
Lillie (A.)
Haggard (H. Rider)Hake (O.) -
31
-
Knight (E.
4, 5 -
Jones (H. Bence) Jordan (W. L.) Joyce (P. W.)
Kingsley (Rose G.) Kitchin (Dr. G. W.)
4
Gurdon (Lady Camilla)
25
11
15
Gross Grove
6 ig
Moore
12 14 8 19 25
5
Greville (C. C. F.) Grose (T. H.) •
Moon(G. W.)-
Jekyll (Gertrude)
Gardiner (Samuel R.) Gathorne-Hardy (Hon. A. E.)
Montague
22
Jefferies (Richard)
13 21
11 4,7, g, 21 4 24
Froude (James A.) Fuller (F. W.) Furneaux (W.)
31 31
Jerome (Jerome K.) Johnson (J. & J. H.)
21
Freeman (Edward A.) Freslifield (D. W.) -
-continued. Page
Page
(F.)
6,
- 10, Selous (F. C.) - 11, Senior (W.) Sewell (Elizabeth M.) Shakespeare Shand (A L)
Shaw (W.
8
14 12
23 20 12
6
A.)
Shearman (M.)
-
10, 11
-
12
(R. Bosworth) (T. C.) (W. P. Haskett)
10
Sinclair (A.)
Smith
-
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