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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

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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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