ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
NOTES TO BOOK 3
[1] [Manetho, in Cory, Ancient Fragments, pp. 110-25. In point of fact, a lot of this passage by Massey is pure supposition as Manetho does not divide the dynasties in that way, but gives first 'The dynasty of the demigods' as the first part of his list, lasting approximately 1184 years, with the following dynasties (1 to 31, lasting approximately 7,391 years according to the earlier computation) being the rulers of Egypt in the respective nomes, and is still used by Egyptologists as a means of classification and division.]
[3] [HL, p.127. 'There is, however, no confirmation of Mr. Herbert Spencer s hypothesis, that the rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors. If the Egyptians passed through such a rudimentary form of religion, they had already got beyond it in the age of the Pyramids, for their most ancient propitiation of ancestors is made through prayer to Anubis, Osiris, or some other gods. The deceased is already described in the funereal inscription as "faithful to the great God." And in no case can it be proved that the propitiation of departed ancestors preceded a belief in divinity of some other kind.']
[4] [Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy, p. 282. 'Peculiar to the Esne calendar, according to Krall, is the mentioning of the "New Year's Festival of the Ancestors" on the 9th of Thoth; to the Edfu calendar, publication No. 1 of Brugsch, the festival "of the offering of the first of the harvested fruits, after the precept of King Amenemha I.," on the 1st Epiphi, and "the celebration of the feast of the Great Conflagration" on the 9th of Menchir. In feast-calendar No. 1, the reference to the peculiar Feast of Set is also remarkable; this was celebrated twice, first in the first days of Thoth (? 9th), then, as it appears, in Pachons (10th). This feast is well known to have been first mentioned under the old Pharaoh Pepi Merinra.']
[5] [Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, p. 829. 'However otherwise different, deities, like men, were conceived by them as having doubles. The notion is perfectly congruous with the conclusion everywhere else forced upon us, that deities are the expanded ghosts of dead men, and is utterly incongruous with any other theory.']
[8] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 26.]
[10] [Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 37. 'The whole visible world is ruled by supernatural powers, or "owners," taken in a higher sense, each of whom holds his sway within certain limits, and is called inua (viz., its or his inuk, which word signifies "man," and also owner or inhabitant). Strictly speaking, scarcely any object, or combination of objects, existing either in a physical or a spiritual point of view, may not be conceived to have its inua, if only, in some way or other, it can be said to form a separate idea. Generally, however, the notion of an inua is limited to a locality, or to the human qualities and passions—e.g., the inua of certain mountains or lakes, of strength, of eating. The appellation, therefore, quite corresponds to what other nations have understood by such expressions as spirits, or inferior deities. An owner or ruler conveys the idea of a person or soul, but it appears not necessarily that of a body. The soul of the dead seems to have been considered as the inua of the bodily remains.' See note below.]
[11] [Principles of Sociology, vol.
1, p. 801. 'The Fetich-ghost. The evidence given in 159-163, that the
supernatural agent supposed to be contained in an inanimate object, was
originally a human ghost, is, I think, tolerably conclusive. I have, however,
met with still more conclusive evidence, in the work of Dr. Rink on the Eskimo.
In the passage which I here extract, the two are identified by name.
"The whole visible world is ruled by supernatural powers, or
owners, taken in a higher sense, each of whom holds his sway within certain
limits, and is called inua (viz., its or his, inuk, which word
signifies man, and also owner or inhabitant)." (p. 37.)
The supposed possessing agent to which the powers of an
object are ascribed, is thus called its man; the man in it that is, the man s
ghost in it. The "inue" of certain celestial objects were persons known by name;
and the implication is that the "inue" of other objects are thought of as
persons, but not individually identified.']
[12] [Histories, bk. 2, 142. 'Thus far I have spoken on the
authority of the Egyptians and their priests. They declare that from their first
king to this last-mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three
hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both
of their kings, and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now three
hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations filling up
the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and
forty years. Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand, three hundred
and forty; in which entire space, they said, no god had ever appeared in a human
form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the former or under the
later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this period of time, on four
several occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice rising where he now sets,
and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no degree
affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the river,
remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in the diseases or the
deaths.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who made the
report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of Hephaistos who
reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one generations of men, and
that in them there had been the same number of chief-priests and of kings: but
three hundred generations of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred
years is three generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which
remain, those I mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one
thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand
three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human
form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings who
arose in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come to pass. In
this time they said that the sun had moved four times from his accustomed place
of rising, and where he now sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the
place from whence he now rises he had twice had his setting; and in the meantime
nothing in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes
from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which
concerns diseases or deaths.' Tr., Macauley.]
[16] [Chabas, 'Hymn to Osiris,' RP, 4, 100.]
[17] [Poss. in Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, p. 831. 'Not simply does he fail to give such numerous cases of Nature-worship existing without any other kind of worship, as would serve for the basis of an induction, but I am not aware that he has given a single case: the reason being, I believe, that no cases are to be found; for my own inquiries, which are tolerably extensive, have not brought one to my knowledge.']
[18] [Smyth, Aborigines of Australia, vol. 1, pp. 423. See NG 1:500.]
[19] [Principles of Sociology, vol.
1, p. 290. '"Unkulunkulu told men saying, I, too, sprang from a bed of reeds." "Unkulunkulu
was a black man, for we see that all the people from whom we sprang are black,
and their hair is black."
After noting that here, and in other passages not quoted,
there are inconsistencies (as that sometimes a reed and some times a bed of
reeds is said to be the origin of Unkulunkulu); and after noting that variations
of this primitive creed have arisen since European immigration, as is shown by
one of the statements that "there were at first two women in a bed of reeds; one
gave birth to a white man, and one to a black man;" let us go on to note the
meaning of Unkulunkulu. This, Bp. Callaway tells us, "expresses antiquity, age,
literally the old-old one, as we use great, in great-great-grand father." So
that, briefly stated, the belief is that from a reed or bed of reeds, came the
remotest ancestor, who originated all other things.']
[20] [Africana, vol. 1, p. 75.]
[21] [Source.]
[22] [Unable to trace.]
[23] [Kingsley,
Travels in
West Africa, pp. 430-1. 'In places on the Coast where there is, or has been,
much missionary influence the trouble is greatest, for in the first case the
natives carefully conceal things they fear will bring them into derision and
contempt, although they still keep them in
their innermost hearts; and in the second case, you have a set of traditions
which are Christian in origin, though frequently altered almost beyond
recognition by being kept for years in the atmosphere of the African mind. For
example, there is this beautiful story now extant among the Cabindas. God made
at first all men black He always does in the African story and then He went
across a great river and called men to follow Him, and the wisest and the
bravest and the best plunged into the great river and crossed it; and the water
washed them white, so they are the ancestors of the white men. But the others
were afraid too much, and said, "No, we are comfortable here; we have our
dances, and our tom-toms, and plenty to eat we won't risk it, we'll stay here";
and they remained in the old place, and from them come the black men. But to
this day the white men come to the bank, on the other side of the river, and
call to the black men, saying, "Come, it is better over here."']
[24] [Rit. ch. 17. See also notes.]
[26] [Rit. ch. 55. Cf. Birch's tr.]
[27] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia,
p. 125, and note. 'To take another example, quite
recently the lubra or wife of a witchetty grub man, she belonging to the same
totem, conceived a child while on a visit to a neighbouring Quatcha or water
locality, which lies away to the east of Alice Springs, that child's totem is
water; or, again, an Alice Springs woman, when asked by us as to why her child
was a witchetty grub (in this instance belonging to the same totem as both of
its parents), told us that one day she was taking a drink
of water near to the gap in the Ranges where the spirits dwell when
suddenly she heard a child's voice crying out, "Mia, mia!"—the native
term for relationship which includes that of mother. Not being anxious to have a
child, she ran away as fast as she could, but to no purpose; she was fat and
well favoured, and such women the spirit children prefer; one of them had gone
inside her, and of course it was born a witchetty grub.'
'Spirit children are
also supposed to be especially fond of travelling in whirl-winds, and, on seeing
one of these, which are very frequent at certain times of the year, approaching
her, a woman will at once run away.']
[28] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, bk.1. 11.
'To denote a mother, or vision, or boundary, or foreknowledge, or a year, or
heaven, or one that is compassionate, or Athena [Neith], or Hera
[Saté], or two drachmas, they delineate it a mother,
because in this race of creatures there is no male. Gignuntur autem hunc in
modum. Cum amore concipiendi vultur exarserit, vulvam ad Boream aperiens, ab eo
velut comprimitur per dies quinque, during which time she partakes neither of
food nor drink, being intent upon procreation. There are also other kinds of
birds which conceive by the wind, but their eggs are of use only for food, and
not for procreation; but the eggs of the vultures that are impregnated by the
wind possess a vital principle. The vulture is used also as a symbol of vision,
because it sees more keenly than all other creatures; and by looking towards the
west when the sun is in the east, and towards the east when the god is in the
west, it procures its necessary food from afar. And it signifies a boundary
[landmark?] because, when a battle is to be fought, it points out the spot on
which it will take place, by betaking itself thither seven days beforehand:—and
foreknowledge, both from the circumstance last mentioned, and because it
looks towards that army which is about to have the greater number killed, and be
defeated, reckoning on its food from their slain: and on this account the
ancient kings were accustomed to send forth observers to ascertain towards which
part of the battle the vultures were looking, to be thereby apprized which army
was to be overcome. And it symbolizes a year, because the 365 days of the
year, in which the annual period is completed, are exactly apportioned by the
habits of this creature; for it remains pregnant 120 days, and during an equal
number it brings up its young, and during the remaining 120 it gives its
attention to itself, neither conceiving nor bringing up its young, but preparing
itself for another conception; and the remaining five days of the year, as I
have said before, it devotes to another impregnation by the wind. It symbolises
also a compassionate person, which appears to some to be the furthest
from its nature, inasmuch as it is a creature that preys upon all things; but
they were induced to use it as a symbol for this, because in the 120 days,
during which it brings up its offspring, it flies to no great distance, but is
solely engaged about its young and their sustenance; and if during this period
it should be without food to give its young, it opens its own thigh, and suffers
its offspring to partake of the blood, that they may not perish from want of
nourishment:—and Athena [Neith], and Hera [Saté],
because among the Egyptians Athena [Neith] is regarded as presiding over the
upper hemisphere, and Hera [Saté] over the lower; whence also they think
it absurd to designate the heaven in the masculine, but represent
it in the feminine, inasmuch as the generation of the sun and moon and the rest
of the stars, is perfected in it, which is the peculiar property of a female.
And the race of vultures, as I said before, is a race of females alone, and on
this account the Egyptians over any female hieroglyph place the vulture as a
mark of royalty [maternity?]. And hence, not to prolong my discourse by
mentioning each individually, when the Egyptians would designate any goddess who
is a mother, they delineate a vulture, for it is the mother of a female progeny.
And they denote by it heaven, (for it does not
suit them to say [Greek], as I said before,) because its generation is from
thence [by the wind]:—and two drachmas, because among the Egyptians the
unit [of money] is the two drachmas, and the unit is the origin of every number,
therefore when they would denote two drachmas, they with good reason depict a
vulture, inasmuch as like unity it seems to be mother and generation.'
See also
BB 1:142 for other refs to this chapter.]
[29] [Source.]
[30] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 124. 'A large number of prominent rocks and boulders and certain ancient gum-trees along the sides of a picturesque gap in the ranges, are the Nanja trees and rocks of these spirits, which, so long as they remain in spirit form, they usually frequent. If a woman conceives a child after having been near to this gap, it is one of these spirit individuals which has entered her body, and therefore, quite irrespective of what the mother's or father's totem may chance to be, that child, when born, must of necessity be of the witchetty grub totem.']
[31] [Ibid., p.124. 'A large number of prominent rocks and boulders and certain ancient gum-trees along the sides of a picturesque gap in the ranges, are the Nanja trees and rocks of these spirits, which, so long as they remain in spirit form, they usually frequent. If a woman conceives a child after having been near to this gap, it is one of these spirit individuals which has entered her body, and therefore, quite irrespective of what the mother's or father's totem may chance to be, that child, when born, must of necessity be of the witchetty grub totem; it is, in fact, nothing else but the reincarnation of one of the witchetty grub people of the Alcheringa.']
[34] [Turner,
Samoa, p. 280, 1884 ed. 'The Samoans say that there was a time when
their ancestors ate everything raw, and that they owe the luxury of cooked food
to one Ti'iti'i, the son of a person called Talanga. This Talanga was high in
favour with the earthquake god Mafuie, who lived in a subterranean region where
there was fire continually burning. On going to a certain perpendicular rock,
and saying, "Rock, divide! I am Talanga; I have come to work!" the rock opened,
and let Talanga in; and he went below to his plantation in the land of this god
Mafuie. One day Ti'iti'i, the son of Talanga, followed his father, and watched
where he entered. The youth, after a time, went up to the rock, and, feigning
his father's voice, said, "Rock, divide! I am Talanga; I have come to work!" and
was admitted too. His father, who was at work in his plantation, was surprised
to see his son there, and begged him not to talk loud, lest the god Mafuie
should hear him, and be angry.
Seeing smoke rising, he inquired of his father what it was. His father said it
was the fire of Mafuie. "I must go and get some," said the son. "No," said the
father; "he will be angry. Don't you know he eats people?" "What do I care for
him?" said the daring youth; and off he went, humming a song, towards the
smoking furnace.
"Who are you?" said Mafuie.
"I am Ti'iti'i, the son of Talanga. I am come for some fire."
"Take it," said Mafuie.
He went back to his father with some cinders, and the two set to work to bake
some taro. They kindled a fire, and were preparing the taro to put on the hot
stones, when suddenly the god Mafuie blew up the oven, scattered the stones all
about, and put out the fire. "Now," said Talanga, "did not I tell you Mafuie
would be angry?" Ti'iti'i went off in a rage to Mafuie, and without any ceremony
commenced with, "Why have you broken up our oven, and put out our fire?" Mafuie
was indignant at such a tone and language, rushed at him, and there they
wrestled with each other. Ti'iti'i got hold of the right arm of Mafuie, grasped
it with both hands, and gave it such a wrench that it broke off. He then seized
the other arm, and was going to twist it off next when Mafuie declared himself
beaten, and implored Ti'iti'i to have mercy, and spare his left arm.
"Do let me have this arm," said he; "I need it to hold Samoa straight and level.
Give it to me, and I will let you have my hundred wives."
"No, not for that," said Ti'iti'i.
"Well, then, will you take fire? If you let me have my left arm you shall
have fire, and you may ever after this eat cooked food."
"Agreed," said Ti'iti'i; "you keep your arm, and I have fire."
"Go," said Mafuie; "you will find the fire in every wood you cut."
And hence, the story adds, Samoa, ever since the days of Ti'iti'i, has eaten
cooked food from the fire which is got from the friction of rubbing one piece of
dry wood against another.
The superstitious still have half an idea that Mafuie is down below Samoa
somewhere; and that the earth has a long handle there, like a walking-stick,
which Mafuie gives a shake now and then. It was common for them to say, when
they felt the shock of an earthquake, "Thanks to Ti'iti'i, that Mafuie has only
one arm: if he had two, what a shake he would give!"']
[35] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 445. 'In the Alcheringa a spark of fire (urinchitha) ascended into the sky at Urapuncha, the place of fire, which lies far away in the north and was blown by the north wind to a spot now indicated by a large mountain also called Urapuncha, or Mount Hay. Here it fell to earth and a great fire sprang up which by and by subsided, and from the ashes came out some Inapertwa creatures—the ancestors of the people of the fire totem. These Inapertwa were after a time discovered by two wild duck (Wungara) men who flew over from the west and both of whom were Bulthara, one being called Erkung-ir-quilika and the other Mura-wilyika. They came from Ilalil-kirika close to the junction of the Hugh and Jay Rivers, and made the Inapertwa into men and women, after which they flew back to their camp in the west. The remains of the great fire still smoulders on the top of the mountain where the sacred storehouse of the totem is located, and at night time, especially if the night be dark and rainy, the fire can be seen from a long distance. Close to the storehouse is a great block of stone which in the Alcheringa was the piece of wood used by the great leader of the fire people, who was called Yarung-unterin-yinga, for the purpose of being rubbed by the amera or spear-thrower when he made fire. The amera is represented in the storehouse by a Churinga.']
[36] [Ibid., p. 337. 'However, to return to the Erathipa
stone. There is on one side of it a round hole through which the spirit children
are supposed to be on the look-out for women who may chance to pass near, and it
is firmly believed that visiting the stone will result in conception. If a young
woman has to pass near to the stone and does not wish to have a child she will
carefully disguise her youth, distorting her face and walking with the aid of a
stick. She will bend herself double like a very old woman, the tones of whose
voice she will imitate, saying, "Don't come to me, I am an old woman." Above the
small round hole a black line is painted with charcoal, and this is always
renewed by any man who happens to visit the spot. It is called Iknula,
and a black line such as this, and called by the same name, is always painted
above the eye of a newly-born child, as it
is supposed to prevent sickness. Not only may the women become pregnant by
visiting the stone, but it is believed that by performing a very simple
ceremony, a malicious man may cause women and even children who are at a
distance to become so. All that has to be done is for the man to go to the stone
by himself, clear a space of ground around it, and then, while rubbing it with
his hands, to mutter the words "Arakutja wunka oknirra unta munja aritchika,"
which means, literally translated, "Plenty of young women, you look and go
quickly." If, again, a man wishes to punish his wife for supposed
unfaithfulness, he may go to the stone and, rubbing it, mutter the words "Arakutja
tana yingalla iwupiwuma ertwa airpinna alimila munja ichakirakitcha," which
means, "That woman of mine has thrown me aside and gone with another man, go
quickly and hang on tightly;" meaning that the child is to remain a long time in
the woman, and so cause her death. Or again, if a man and his wife both wish for
a child, the man ties his hairgirdle round the stone, rubs it, and mutters, "Arakutja
thingunawa unta koanilla arapirima,” which means, “The woman my wife you
(think) not good, look."
The word Erathipa means a child, though it is seldom used in this sense,
the word Ambaquerka being most often employed. Similar Erathipa
stones are found at other spots. There is one near to Hermannsburg on the Finke
River, another at the west end of the Waterhouse Range, and another near to
Running Waters on the Finke.']
[37] [Ibid., p. 135. 'The sanctity of the Ertnatulunga may be understood when it is remembered that it contains the Churinga, which are associated not only with the living members of the tribe, but also with the dead ones. Indeed, many of the Churinga are those of special men of the Alcheringa, who, as tradition relates, wandered about and descended at these spots into the earth where their Churinga, the very ones which are now within the storehouse, remained associated with their spirit part. Each Churinga is so closely bound up with the spirit individual that it is regarded as its representative in the Ertnatulunga, and those of dead men are supposed to be endowed with the attributes of their owner and to actually impart these to the person who, for the time being, may, as when a fight takes place, be fortunate enough to carry it about with him. The Churinga is supposed to endow the possessor with courage and accuracy of aim, and also to deprive his opponent of these qualities. So firm is their belief in this that if two men were fighting and one of them knew that the other carried a Churinga whilst he did not, he would certainly lose heart at once and without doubt be beaten.']
[38] [Hall, Life with the Esquimaux. Unable to trace.]
[39] [Source.]
[40] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 76. 'The Great Spirit made the earth and all living things before he made man. And he descended from heaven, and digging in the earth, found clay such as the potters use, which, having again ascended into the sky, he dropped into the hole that he had dug. Immediately there came out Montezuma, and, with the assistance of Montezuma, the rest of the Indian tribes in order. Last of all came the Apaches, wild from their natal hour, running away as fast as they were created. Those first days of the world were happy and peaceful days. The sun was nearer the earth than he is now; his grateful rays made all the seasons equal, and rendered garments unnecessary. Men and beasts talked together, a common language made all brethren. But an awful destruction ended this happy age. A great flood destroyed all flesh wherein was the breath of life; Montezuma and his friend, the Coyote, alone escaping. For before the flood began, the Coyote prophesied its coming, and Montezuma took the warning and hollowed out a boat to himself, keeping it ready on the topmost summit of Santa Rosa. The Coyote also prepared an ark; gnawing down a great cane by the river bank, entering it, and stopping up the end with a certain gum. So when the waters rose these two saved themselves, and met again at last on dry land after the flood had passed away. Naturally enough Montezuma was now anxious to know how much dry land had been left, and he sent the Coyote off on four successive journeys, to find exactly where the sea lay toward each of the four winds. From the west and from the south, the answer swiftly came: The sea is at hand. A longer search was that made toward the east, but at last there too was the sea found. On the north only was no water found, though the faithful messenger almost wearied himself out with searching. In the meantime the Great Spirit, aided by Montezuma, had again repeopled the world, and animals and men began to increase and multiply.']
[42] [Contes Arabes.]
[43] [Not in Gubernatis. Source.]
[44] [See note below.]
[45] ['Parallels in Folk Lore,' PSBA, 11. See p. 178.]
[46] [Slavonic Enoch, ch. 23, 5. 'For every soul was created eternally (or for eternity) before the foundation of the world.' Morfill & Charles' tr.]
[47] [Chagiga, 12b, Mishna.]
[49] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 202. 'The second point is concerned with the relationship which at the present day is supposed to exist between the individual and his totem. A man will only eat very sparingly of his totem, and even if he does eat a little of it, which is allowable to him, he is careful, in the case, for example, of an emu man, not to eat the best part, such as the fat. The totem of any man is regarded, just as it is elsewhere, as the same thing as himself; as a native once said to us when we were discussing the matter with him, "that one," pointing to his photograph which we had taken, "is just the same as me; so is a kangaroo" (his totem). That they claim a special connection with, almost in certain respects a right to, their totemic animal or plant may be seen from the fact that, for example, in the witchetty grub totem, while the members of the latter do not eat it, or, at least, only sparingly themselves, the members of the local group who do not belong to the totem must not eat it out of camp like ordinary food, but must bring it into camp and cook it there, else the men of the totem would be angry and the supply of grubs would fail. We may, in fact say, that each totemic group is supposed to have a direct control over the numbers of the animal or plant the name of which it bears, and further that, in theory at least, they have the first right to the animal or plant. That this is so, and that it is well recognised, will be seen from the following facts.']
[50] [Ibid., p. 209. 'An Arunga or euro man started out in pursuit of a kangaroo which he was anxious to kill and eat but, to enable himself to do this, he first of all changed himself into a kangaroo man.']
[51] [Ibid., p. 73. 'Every Arunta native thinks that his
ancestor in the Alcheringa was the descendant of the animal or plant, or at
least was immediately associated with the object the name of which he bears as
his totemic name. In many Australian tribes it seems to be a general custom that
a man must not eat or injure his totem, whereas amongst the Arunta there are
special occasions on which the totem is eaten, and there is no rule absolutely
forbidding the eating of the totem at other times, though it is clearly
understood that it must only be partaken of very sparingly. However, though the
totems of the Arunta are in certain respects
unlike those yet described in other Australian tribes, still there can be
no doubt but that they are correctly designated by this name, the most important
feature in which they differ from those of other parts of Australia being that
they have no reference to customs concerning marriage.'
Ibid., p. 119.
'In the Alcheringa lived ancestors who, in the native mind, are so intimately
associated with the animals or plants the name of which they bear that an
Alcheringa man of, say, the kangaroo totem may sometimes be spoken of either as
a man-kangaroo or as a kangaroo-man. The identity of the human individual is
often sunk in that of the animal or plant from which he is supposed to have
originated. It is useless to try and get further back than the Alcheringa; the
history of the tribe as known to the natives commences then.'
Ibid., p. 132.
'The tradition of the natives is that when the spirit child goes inside a woman
the Churinga is dropped. When the child is born the mother tells the father the
position of the tree or rock near to which she supposes the child to have
entered her, and he, together with one or two of the older men, who are close
relatives of the man, and of whom the father of the latter is usually one, and
also an elder brother of the father, goes to the locality, at once if it be near
at hand, or when opportunity offers if it be distant, and searches for the
dropped Churinga. The latter is usually, but not always, supposed to be a stone
one marked with a device peculiar to the totem of the spirit child and therefore
of the newly-born one. Sometimes it is found, sometimes it is not. In the former
case, which is stated to occur often, we must suppose that some old man—it is
most often the Arunga or paternal grandfather who finds it—has provided
himself with one for the occasion, which is quite possible, as Churinga
belonging to their own totem are not infrequently carried about by the old men,
who obtain them from the sacred storehouse in which they are kept. We questioned
native after native on this subject—some of them had actually found such
stones—but there was no shaking them in the firm belief that such a Churinga was
always dropped by the spirit child whether it was found or not. If it cannot be
found then they proceed to make a wooden one from the Mulga or other hard wood
tree nearest to the Nanja, and to carve on it some device or brand
peculiar to the totem.']
[52] [Galton, Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, p. 137. 'The Damaras are very particular about wearing something, however little it may be, and look upon complete nakedness as a great disgrace. Another somewhat refined practice they have, that no hunger will drive them to eat raw or even underdone meat. They have numberless superstitions about meat, which are very troublesome: in the first place, each tribe, or rather family, is prohibited from eating cattle of certain colours, savages "who come from the sun," eschewing sheep spotted in a particular way, which those who "come from the rain" have no objection to.']
[53] [Rogers, Social Life in Scotland, vol. 3, p. 336. 'Of these the most conspicuous was "the genie." This imaginary being occupied the forests, and also frequented the air and rivers; it raised storms and allayed them, and interfered largely with human affairs. Persons who bore the name of Tweed were believed to have as an ancestor the genie of the river of that name.']
[54] [Egypt's Place in Universal History,
vol. 4, p. 639. 'The Egyptians were the first who taught the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul, a fact mentioned by all Greek writers from Herodotus to
Aristotle, and one brilliantly confirmed by the monuments. The belief in the
transmigration of the human soul into the bodies of animals, which was connected
with it, is, as far as we can glean from the mythology of Asia, an Egyptian
provincialism.'
Ibid., p. 649. 'The belief in the transmigration of the soul seems to
have pervaded even the latest and most popular branch of Egyptian literature,
the novel. The remarkable romance of the "Two Brothers," for which we are
indebted to De Rouge, proves how deep-seated an influence the doctrine of the
wandering of the soul had exercised on the habits and customs of the
Egyptians.']
[55] [Should read 'Santees.' Spencer is in error. See note below.]
[56] [Hunter,
Rural Annals of Bengal, p. 131.
'Everywhere the ceremonies bear the stamp of the old superstitious terrors, and
the carnivorous, gluttonous habits of the black races. Indeed, Buchanan well
describes them as 'sacrifices made partly from fear, and partly to gratify the
appetite for flesh.' The fierce aboriginal instincts, even in the mixed castes,
who approach nearest to the Aryans, and accept in a greater degree than their
neighbours the restraints of Hinduism, break loose on such festivals; and
cowherds have been seen to feed voraciously on swine-flesh, which at all other
times they regard with abhorrence. In Beerbhoom, particularly in the western
border-land, this worship is very popular, and once a-year the whole capital
repairs to a shrine in the jungle, and there makes simple offerings to a ghost
who dwells in a Bela-tree,'—quoted in Spencer, Data of Sociology, p. 366.
'In like manner the statement quoted by Sir J. Lubbock from Oldfield, who, at
Addacoodah, saw fowls and many other things suspended as offerings to a gigantic
tree; the statement of Mr. Tylor, who, to an ancient cypress in Mexico, found
attached by the Indians, teeth and locks of hair in great numbers; the statement
of Hunter that once a year, at Beerbhoom, the Santals "make simple offerings to
a ghost who dwells in a Bela-tree;" unite to show that not the tree, but the
resident being, is propitiated; and that this has characters utterly unlike
those of a tree, and completely like those of a human being.' Ibid., p.
366.
See also Tylor,
Primitive Culture,
vol. 2, p. 226. 'Modern Hinduism is so largely derived from the religions of the
non-Aryan indigenes, that we may fairly explain thus a considerable part of the
tree-worship of modern India, as where in the Birbhum district of Bengal a great
annual pilgrimage is made to a shrine in a jungle, to give offerings of rice and
money and sacrifice animals to a certain ghost who dwells in a bela-tree.']
[57] [Data of Sociology, ch. 23, p. 366. 'Further, in some Egyptian wall-paintings, female forms are represented as emerging from trees and dispensing blessings.']
[58] [Ibid., p. 430. 'Similarly, plant-worship is the worship of a spirit originally human, supposed to be contained in the plant supposed either because of the exciting effects of its products; or because misapprehended tradition raises the belief that the race descended from it; or because a misinterpreted name identifies it with an ancestor. Everywhere the plant-spirit is shown by its conceived human form, and ascribed human desires, to have originated from a human personality.']
[59] [Budge, Papyrus of Ani, pl. 8.]
[60] [Source.]
[61] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 133. 'As might have been expected, there is a definite relationship supposed to exist between an individual and his Nanja tree or stone. Whilst the belief is by no means general at the present time, there is at least one definite case known to us in which a blackfellow earnestly requested a white man not to cut down a particular tree because it was his Nanja tree, and he feared that if cut down some evil would befall him. Very possibly in times past this feeling was more widely prevalent than it is now. At the present time the special association between a man and his Nanja tree lies in the fact that every animal upon that tree is ekirinja or tabu to him. If an opossum or a bird be in the tree it is sacred and must not on any account be touched. There is no special ceremony performed by the individual in reference to his Nanja tree, but it is one in which he is supposed to have a special interest as having been the home of the spirit whose reincarnation he is.']
[62] [Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, p. 162. 'One thing that struck me very much in these forests was the absence of signs of fetish worship which are so much in evidence in Calabar, where you constantly come across trees worshipped as the residences of spirits, and little huts put up over offerings to bush souls.']
[63] [Source.]
[64] [Cushing,
'My Adventures in Zuñi,'
CIM, 1883, p. 45 sq. 'No sooner did the creature find itself at
liberty than it made off as fast as its lame legs would take it. Of one accord
the family forsook dish, spoon, and drinking-cup, and grabbing from a sacred
meal-bowl whole handfuls of the contents, hurriedly followed the turtle about
the room, into dark corners, around water-jars, behind the grinding-troughs, and
out into the middle of the floor again, praying and scattering meal on its back
as they went. At last, strange to say, it approached the foot-sore man who had
brought it.
"'Ha!' he exclaimed, with emotion; 'see, it comes to me again; ah, what great
favours the fathers of all grant me this day,' and, passing his hand gently over
the sprawling animal, he inhaled from his palm deeply and long, at the same time
invoking the favour of the gods. Then he leaned his chin upon his hand, and with
large wistful eyes regarded his ugly captive as it sprawled about, blinking its
meal-bedimmed eyes, and clawing the smooth floor in memory of its native
element. At this juncture I ventured a question:
"'Why do you not let him go, or give him some water?'" Slowly the man turned his
eyes toward me, an odd mixture of pain, indignation, and pity on his face, while
the worshipful family stared at me with holy horror,
"'Poor younger brother!' he said at last, 'know you not how precious it is? It
die? It will not die; I tell you, it cannot die.'
"'But it will die if you don't feed it and give it water.'
"'I tell you it cannot die; it will only change houses tomorrow, and go back to
the home of its brothers. Ah, well! How should you know?' he mused. Turning to
the blinded turtle again: 'Ah! my poor dear lost child or parent, my sister or
brother to have been! Who knows which? Maybe my own great-grandfather or
mother!' And with this he fell to weeping most pathetically, and, tremulous with
sobs, which were echoed by the women and children, he buried his face in his
hands. Filled with sympathy for his grief, however mistaken, I raised the turtle
to my lips and kissed its cold shell; then depositing it on the floor, hastily
left the grief-stricken family to their sorrows. Next day, with prayers and
tender beseechings, plumes, and offerings, the poor turtle was killed, and its
flesh and bones were removed and deposited in the little river, that it might
'return once more to eternal life among its comrades in the dark waters of the
lake of the dead.' The shell, carefully scraped and dried, was made into a
dance-rattle, and, covered by a piece of buckskin, it still hangs from the
smoke-stained rafters of my brother's house. Once a Navajo tried to buy it for a
ladle; loaded with indignant reproaches, he was turned out of the house. Were
any one to venture the suggestion that the turtle no longer lived, his remark
would cause a flood of tears, and he would be reminded that it had only 'changed
houses and gone to live for ever in the home of "our lost others."'" From Frazer, Golden Bough,
(1900 ed.), vol. 2, p. 373.]
[65] [Source.]
[66] [Source.]
[67] [Source.]
[68] [Source.]
[69] [Book of Enoch, ch. 9, 7. 'Thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates. And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the 9 women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins.']
[70] [Massey may here be referring to the biblical passage in Genesis (Gen. 6:4. 'There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.') where intercourse between the angels and women resulted in a race of giants, of which many speculative authors have turned into a saga of aliens visiting this planet and impregnating their intelligence into the human life-wave. As for the phrase, 'the loves of angels,' I am unable to determine.]
[71] ['Zuñi Fetiches,' ARBAE, 2, 17.
'In the center of the great sea of each of these regions stood a very ancient
sacred place (Ta-thla-shi-na-kwin), a great mountain peak. In the North was the
Mountain Yellow, in the West the Mountain Blue, in the South the Mountain Red,
in the East the Mountain White, above the Mountain All-color, and below the
Mountain Black.
We do not fail to see in this clear reference to the natural
colors of the regions referred to—to the
barren north and its auroral hues, the west with its blue Pacific, the rosy
south, the white daylight of the east, the many hues of the clouded sky, and the
black darkness of the "caves and boles of earth." Indeed, these colors are used
in the pictographs and in all the mythic symbolism of the Zunis, to indicate the
directions or regions respectively referred to as connected with them.
Then said Po-shai-ag-k'ia to the Mountain Lion, "Long Tail,
thou art stout of heart and strong of will. Therefore give I unto thee and unto
thy children forever the mastership of the gods of prey, and the guardianship of
the great Northern World (for thy coat is of yellow), that thou guard from that
quarter the coming of evil upon my children of men, that thou receive in that
quarter their messages to me, that thou become the father in the North of the
sacred medicine orders all, that thou become a Maker of the Paths (of men's
lives)."']
[72] [As above note.]
[73] [Source.]
[74] [Narrative of the Niger. 'There are like beliefs among Africans. When Hutchinson doubted the assertion that men's souls pass into monkeys and crocodiles, he was answered "It be Kalabar fash, and white man no saby any ting about it."' From Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, p. 332.]
[75] [West African Studies, p. 132. 'In almost all Western African districts (it naturally does not show clearly in those where reincarnation is believed to be the common and immediate lot of all human spirits) is a class of spirits called " the well disposed ones," and this class is clearly differentiated from " them," the generic name used for non-human spirits. These "well disposed ones" are ancestors, and they do what they can to benefit their particular village or family, acting in conjunction with the village or family Fetish, who is not a human spirit, nor an ancestor. But the things given to ancestors are gifts, not in the proper sense of the word sacrifices, for the well disposed ones are not gods even of the rank of a Sasabonsum or an Ombuiri.']
[76] [Macdonald, Africana, vol. 1, p. 71.]
[77] [Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 62-3.]
[78] [Batchelor, The Ainu of Japan,
p. 86-8. 'These assertions are mere guesses, and nothing more; and even Miss
Bird, correct as she generally is, was led astray on this point. Writing on this
subject, she says: "Household gods form an essential part of the furnishing of
every house. In this one, at the left of the entrance, there are ten white
wands, with shavings depending from the upper end, stuck in the wall; another
projecting from the window which faces the sunrise; and the great god, a white
post, two feet high, with spirals of shavings depending from the top, is always
planted in the floor, near the wall on the left side."
Miss Bird is accurate as to these shavings being placed in different parts of
the hut, but she is not correct in calling them gods. They are not gods, but
sacred offerings to them; and they are made especially to show the faith and
devotion of the offerer, and are offered as a token thereof. When placed about
singly they are called inao, and when a number are put together they go
by the name of nusa. Nusa is the name the Japanese give to certain pieces of
silk they hang up in the Shinto temples before the gods.
Inao, then, briefly denned, are pieces of whittled
willow wood, having the shavings left attached to the
top; or, as Miss Bird says, they are "white wands with
shavings depending from the upper end." The engraving
represents one particular kind, which goes by the name
of inao netola that is, "the chief inao." They are called "chief" because
they are of the highest importance, since they are specially made for the gods who
are supposed to stand first in order. The Ainu way of
explaining this fact is very peculiar, and well serves to
illustrate their general ideas about the Godhead. These inao netoba, they say, are symbols or signs presented to
the "distant gods." By distant gods they mean the
chief gods, or those who are remote from human beings,
in contradistinction to the minor deities, or those near
at hand.']
[79] ['The Veddahs, who trust in "the shades of their ancestors and their children," "believe that the air is peopled with spirits, that every rock and every tree, every forest and every hill, in short, every feature of nature, has its genius loci."' From Spencer, Data of Sociology, p. 219.]
[80] [Turner, Samoa, p. 17. 'These gods were supposed to appear in some visible incarnation, and the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing was to the Samoan an object of veneration. It was, in fact, his idol, and he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard, and so on throughout all the fish of the sea, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish, even, gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what was regarded as the incarnation of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his own particular god he would consider it death to injure or to eat. The god was supposed to avenge the insult by taking up his abode in that person's body, and causing to generate there the very thing which he had eaten, until it produced death. This class of genii, or tutelary deities, they called aitu fale, or gods of the house.']
[81] [Codrington, 'Religious Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia,' JAI, 10, 292. See full text here. This is also cited in Spencer, ibid., p. 793.]
[82] [As above note.]
[83] [Cited by Max Muller in Anthropological Religion,
Lecture X. 'Another race which quite recently revived my hopes of finding a
religion consisting exclusively of ancestor-worship are the Niassans. An
interesting description of the religion of the Niassans was published lately by
Kramer in the Tijdschrift vor Indische Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde, deel
xxxii, 1890.
These Niassans, who live in a solitary island west of Sumatra, have more than a
hundred idols. Formerly they had less, now they go on adding to their number.
Priests and priestesses make a living by serving these idols.
Their really important and permanent idols are the images of ancestors and
house-idols. The ancestors are represented as human figures, about six to eight
inches high, and carefully carved. Poor people, however, have to be satisfied
with a piece of wood, with holes for eyes and mouth.
The house-idols are in the shape of children, and in the houses of rich chiefs
these also are carefully executed.
After a man has been buried, the priest covers his grave with a mat, and seeks
till he find a six-legged spider under it. That is taken as the soul of the
departed, deposited in a reed, and placed by the side of the image.
Such images, however, are made of those only who have left male descendants.
They occasionally borrow them from one another.
The Niassans expect all blessings from their ancestors, who likewise protect
them against all dangers. But for that purpose it is necessary that they should
receive constant offerings. No event of any importance takes place without some
communication being made or some honour shown to the ancestral images. On some
occasions their names have to be repeated. In fact their whole life seems to be
under the sway of their ancestors. It is true they believe in evil spirits also
(Bechus), and even in a devil (Bela). But these might be traced back to a belief
in hostile ancestors, or ancestors of hostile tribes. At all events, they would
not prove the existence of anything like a belief in nature-gods. What are
called their hazimas (p. 492), and what many people would call fetishes,
are really nothing but amulets, stones, teeth, pieces of lead, &c., which they
wear as a protection against evil spirits. They are often supposed to have
fallen from the sky, to have been the head of a serpent, or to consist of
condensed stormwind.
However, within and above all this chaos of ancestral spirits, ghosts, and
fetishes, there suddenly appears our old friend, the sun. Yes, solar worship
even among the Niassans! The owner, the lord and master of all men is Lature,
and he dwells in the sun. As we are the possessors of our pigs, the Niassans
say, Lature is the possessor of all men. Nay, they are proud to call themselves
the pigs of the sun. Sacrifices are offered to the sun-god that he may grant a
long life to his pigs.
But though we look in vain for a religion consisting of ancestor-worship only,
we often find that in the same religion the worship of ancestral spirits and the
worship of the gods of nature exist side by side, and, what is important, we
find that they are never confounded, but kept carefully distinct even in the
terminology that is applied to them (pp. 478, 490).']
[84] [Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. 3, p. 147, line 205. 'Let an offering to the gods be made at the beginning and end of the fráddha: it must not begin and end with an offering to ancestors; for he, who begins and ends it with an oblation to the Pitrĭs, quickly perishes with his progeny.']
[85] [Turner, Samoa, p. 21. 'The village gods, like those of the household, had all some particular incarnation: one was supposed to appear as a bat, another as a heron, another as an owl. If a man found a dead owl by the roadside, and if that happened to be the incarnation of his village god, he would sit down and weep over it, and beat his forehead with stones till the blood flowed. This was thought pleasing to the deity. Then the bird would be wrapped up and buried with care and ceremony, as if it were a human body. This, however, was not the death of the god. He was supposed to be yet alive, and incarnate in all the owls in existence.']
[86] [Schoolcraft,
Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, vol. 5, p. 420.
'They do not explain rain, or have nothing to say of it worthy of note.
The bear, the buffalo, and the beaver, are manidos
which furnish food.
The bear is formidable, and good to eat. They render
ceremonies to him, begging him to allow himself to be eaten, although they know
he has no fancy for it.']
[87] [Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popul Vuh. Quoted in Bancroft.]
[88] [Cushing, 'Zuni Fetiches,' ARBAE, 2 (1883). See AE 1:87.]
[89]
[Allingham, 'The Fairies,' first pub., London, 1850. Massey errs here. The
lines, 1-8, actually run as follows:
'Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!'
See also BB 1:416. See also p. 117 of Strange and Secret Peoples,
Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, by Carol. G. Silver, Oxford University
Press, NY, 1999, who discusses this poem and Allingham's influence at length.]
[90] [Data of Sociology, p. 281. 'Leaving unsettled the question whether there are men in whom dreams have not generated the notion of a double, and the sequent notion that at death the double has gone away, we may hold it as settled that the first traceable conception of a supernatural being is the conception of a ghost.']
[91]
[Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 342-5. 'The religion of
the Wanyamwezi is founded mainly on the worship and cult of spirits, "Musimo."
Their ceremonies have but one object; the conciliation or propitiation of these
spirits. They have no idea of one supreme power or God—personal
or impersonal—governing the world, and
directing its destinies or those of individuals. They believe in the earthly
visitation of spirits, especially to announce some great event, and more
generally some big disaster. Thus they tell how Mirambo one day met a number of
Musimo, carrying torches, who invited him to follow them into the forest, which
he did. Once there they attempted to dissuade him from proceeding with a war
which he was then contemplating, and in which he subsequently lost his life.
They believe also in "transmigration," both during life and
after it. Thus, according to them, a sorcerer can transform himself into a wild
animal in order to injure his enemies; but in such cases the change is not
permanent, and the soul does not remain in its new habitation.
The dead in their turn become spirits, under the
all-embracing name of Musimo. The Wanyamwezi hold these Musimo in great dread
and veneration, as well as the house, hut, or place where their body has died.
Every chief has near his hut a Musimo hut, in which the dead are supposed to
dwell, and where sacrifices and offerings must be made. Meat and flour are
deposited in the Musimo huts, and are not, as with many other peoples, consumed
afterwards. The common people also have their Musimo huts, but they are smaller
than that of the chief, and the offerings they make are, of course, not so
important as his.
They are constantly consulting oracles, omens, and signs, and
attach great importance to them. Fowls are, for instance, slaughtered, and if on
examination the internal organs prove healthy and in good condition (especially
the heart and lungs) the sign is good, and the enterprise in which they are
about to engage will proceed satisfactorily. The most solemn and important
consultation of the oracles, however, is made with the assistance of a "Mfumu,"
or witch-doctor; relations and friends meet together, and are shortly afterwards
joined by the Mfumu with his instruments: these usually consist of a number of
little gourds filled with medicine, a wooden instrument which opens and shuts
like a concertina, a little pot, and some tails of animals mounted on a stick.
The whole party then betakes itself to the Musimo house, in front of which the
Mfumu stands with the others arranged in a circle behind him. The Mfumu then
holds a kind of religious service; he begins by addressing the spirits of their
forefathers, imploring them not to visit their anger upon their descendants.
This prayer he offers up kneeling, bowing and bending to the ground from time to
time. Then he rises and commences a hymn of praise to the ancestors, and all
join in the chorus. Then, seizing his little gourds, he executes a pas seul,
after which he bursts out into song again, but this time singing as one
inspired. Suddenly he stops and recovers himself All this time, except when
chanting, the spectators observe a most profound silence. After a brief interval
of silence the Mfumu proceeds to publish the message which he has just received
from the Musimo. This he does by intoning in a most mournful and dreary manner.
The congregation then retire, and wind up the proceedings with a noisy dance in
the village.
Besides these consultations with the oracle there are
numberless ways of propitiating the Musimo. I ought to say that the Wanyamwezi
are great travellers, and for nearly three months I was able to observe their
customs, having had during that time nearly 150 Wanyamwezi porters in my
service.']
[92] [As above note.]
[93] [Ditto.]
[94] [Geil, A Yankee in Pigmy Land.
Poss. p 124. 'The old religious belief of the people was called lubare worship,
the main idea of which was
a propitiation of evil spirits by sacrifices. There was a general belief in a
Supreme Being called Katonda, who was regarded as the creator of the
world. Below him in rank were a number of minor spiritual beings called balubare.
They had their shrines, known as spirit-houses, where a lubare spear and fork
were stuck in the ground. They would bring offerings of food, sheep, cattle and
goats to be sacrificed, and often as gifts to the mandwas, priests. Then, when
some misfortune overtook the country, such as an outbreak of smallpox, a public
ceremony would take place, the object of which was the propitiation of the angry
spirit of smallpox, and human victims would be sacrificed.'
See illust. of hut.]
[95] [Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, vol. 2m p. 550. 'The Lendu have no very clearly marked religjon, though they have a distinct ancestor-worship, and are accustomed to remember the dead by placing roughly carved wooden dolls (supposed to represent the deceased persons) in the abandoned hut where the dead lie buried.']
[96] [Maspero, 'The Papyrus of Leyden,' RP, 12, 123-6.]
[97] [Ibid.]
[100] [Renouf, 'Tale of Setnau,' RP, 4, 134.]
[104] [Budge, The Gods of the Egyptian, vol. 1, p. 161-2. 'To these, as well as to the divine beings, was given the name "living ones," as may be seen from the passage in Unas (line 206), which reads, "Hail, Unas, behold thou hast not departed dead but as one living thou hast gone to "take thy seat upon the throne of Osiris. Thy sceptre ab is in thy hand, and thou givest commands unto the living ones; thy sceptre mekes and thy sceptre Nehehet are in thy hands, and thou givest thine orders to those whose habitations are hidden."']
[106] [Brugsch, History of Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. 1, p. 178.]
[107] [Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis, 'First Tale of Khamuas.']
[108] [Lefébure, 'Etude sur
Abydos,' PSBA, 15, 138. 'Aprés
la purification de la statue funeraire qu'il s'agissait de consacrer par
l'ouverture symbolique de la bouche, et avant l'eclairage de cette statue, avait
lieu sa presentation au pretre officiant, le Sem, qui dormait dans la tombe d'un
sommeil visite par les dieux, et que reveillait l'arrivée
des autres pretres. (Le texte de l'Ap-ro, aux tombes royales, est divise en
colonnes au bas desquelles se trouvent, nettement separes du reste par une barre,
des especes de titres, notes, ou mementos).
Ligne 40. Le Sem couche s'eveille, et decouvre les
Amu-Khent.—Les dieux et le couche.
Ligne 41. Le Sem dit: Je vois le pere en sa forme
complete.
Ligne 42. Les Amu-Khent disent devant le Sem:
Ligne 43. Il n'existait plus pour toi, ton pere.
Ligne 44. Le Sem dit devant les Amu-Khefit:
Ligne 45. Le Chasseur de dieu l'avait pris.—Le
Chasseur de dieu.
Ligne 46. Les Amu-Khetit disent devant le Sem:
Ligne 47. Je vois le pere en sa forme complete.—Forme
de Mantis.
Ligne 48. Quelles choses! Il n'existait plus.—Guepes.
Ligne 49. Et il n'y a pas de manque en lui.—Ombre.']
[109] [Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 36. 'The soul performs the breathing, with which it is closely allied. It is quite independent of the body, and even able to leave it temporarily and return to it. It is not to be perceived by the common senses, but only by help of a special sense belonging to persons in a peculiar state of mind, or endowed with peculiar qualities. When viewed by these persons, the soul exhibits the same shape as the body it belongs to, but is of a more subtle and ethereal nature.' See also Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. 1, p. 248. Poss. derived from there.]
[110] [Homer, The Iliad. Unable to trace.]
[111] [Cushing.]
[112] [Macdonald, Africana.]
[113] [Ibid., vol. 1, p. 59.]
[114] [Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 60-1.]
[115] [Source.]
[116] [Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 17. 'At first we saw that we were made by Unkulunkulu. But when we were ill we did not worship him, nor ask any thing of him. We worshipped those whom we had seen with our eyes, their death and their life amongst us.']
[117] [Lay Sermons and Addresses, p.
163. 'It is impossible to study trustworthy accounts of savage thought without
seeing that some such train of ideas as this lies at the bottom of their
speculative beliefs.
There are savages without God, in any proper sense of the word, but none without
ghosts, And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship, Hero-worship, and Demonology of
primitive savages, are all, I believe, different manners of expression of their
belief in ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-way
events, which is its concomitant.']
[118] [Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 247. 'I could give many similar instances which have come within my own knowledge among the Fijians; and, strange to say, the dying man, in all these cases, kept his appointment with the ghosts to the very day.']
[119] [Data of Sociology, p. 300, ch. 20, par. 151. 'Negroes who, when suffering, go to the woods and cry for help to the spirits of dead relatives, show by these acts the grovelling nature of their race; and we must not confound with their low conceptions those high conceptions of the Iranians implied in the Khorda Avesta, where the souls of forefathers are called upon in prayers: these express filial feeling only.']
[120] [Livingstone. Unable to trace.]
[121] [Mariner, An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands.]
[122] ['The Greenlanders would carry the dead out by the window, not by the door, while an old woman, waving a firebrand behind, cried 'piklerrukpok!' i.e., 'there is nothing more to be had here!'; the Hottentots removed the dead from the hut by an opening broken out on purpose, to prevent him from finding the way back; the Siamese, with the same intention, break an opening through the house wall to carry the coffin through, and then hurry it at full speed thrice round the house.' From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 2, p. 26.]
[123] [Clytemnestra was the daughter of Tyndareus and wife of Agamemnon. With the help of her lover, Aegisthus, she murdered her husband and was in turn put to death by her son Orestes. The accounts of Agamemnon's murder vary between different classical authors. But see Homer's Odyssey, bk. 11, where Agamemnon tells Odysseus how she came to kill him: 'I heard Priam’s daughter Cassandra scream as Clytemnestra killed her close beside me. I lay dying upon the earth with the sword in my body, and raised my hands to kill the slut of a murderess, but she slipped away from me; she would not even close my lips nor my eyes when I was dying, for there is nothing in this world so cruel and so shameless as a woman when she has fallen into such guilt as hers was. Fancy murdering her own husband! I thought I was going to be welcomed home by my children and my servants, but her abominable crime has brought disgrace on herself and all women who shall come after– even on the good ones.' Butler's tr. See also Pausanias, bk.2, Apollodorus, bk. 3, Diodorus bk. 4.]
[124] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. 589. 'And the ghost depicts for him the sorrows of the abode and the miseries of the shades. Those only enjoy some happiness who have fallen with arms in their hands, and who have been solemnly buried after the fight; the manes neglected by their relatives succumb to hunger and thirst. "On a sleeping couch he lies, drinking pure water, he who has been killed in battle.—'Thou ha^t seen him?'—'I have seen him; his father and his mother support his head, and his wife bends over him wailing.' 'But he whose body remains forgotten in the fields,—thou hast seen him?'—'I have seen him; his soul has no rest at all in the earth.' 'He whose soul no one cares for,—thou hast seen him?'—'I have seen him; the dregs of the cup, the remains of a repast, that which is thrown among the refuse of the street, that is what he has to nourish him.'"']
[125] [Dattaka-Mimansa, in Stokes, The Hindu Law Books.]
[126] [Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo. Unable to trace. See full text here.]
[127] [Source.]
[129] [Budge, Papyrus of Ani, pl. 6.]
[130] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Teta, 2, lines 68-9.]
[131] [The Odyssey.]
[132] [Cushing, 'Zuni Fetiches,' ARBAE, 2, 37. 'As soon as the animal is dead he lays open its viscera, cuts through the diaphragm, and makes an incision in the aorta, or in the sac which incloses the heart. He then takes out the prey fetich, breathes on it, and addresses it thus: Si! My father this day here Game animal its life-fluid (blood) hence thou shalt dampen thyself, thon shalt (thy) hence add unto: with, heart with Si! My father, this day of the blood of a game being thou shalt drink (water thyself). With it thou shalt enlarge (add unto) thy heart.']
[133] [Common Book of Prayer, (1880 ed.), p. 98. 'And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.']
[134] [Unable to trace.]
[135] [Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 175. 'Do you not then see that you are disgraced this day, having been smelt out by the diviner? For it is proper if you demand food, that I should not refuse it. There then is your food. All ye spirits of our tribe, summon one another. I am not going to say, So-and-so, there is thy food, for you are jealous. 30 But thou, So-and-so, who art making this man ill, call all the spirits; come all of you to eat this food.']
[136] [Macdonald, Africana, vol. 1, p. 68.]
[137] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Unas.]
[138] [Décle, Three Years in Savage Africa,
p. 445. 'The funeral ceremonies are as elaborate as those connected with
marriage, especially in the case of chiefs or their womenkind. After death the
body is straightened out and wrapped up in bark-cloth. With it they bury a
number of cloths; for a big chief the number of these cloths is anything from
200 to 3000;* for a peasant fifty is enough, while the body of a slave is merely
thrown into a swamp. A chiefs body is always embalmed; his widows have to
squeeze out all the juices from the body for a space of thirty or forty days.
During the whole of this time his relations neither wash nor cut their hair or
nails. They wear only rags of bark-cloth, and under this next their skin a
girdle of green banana leaves. As soon as one girdle is dry they put on another.
* When Mtesa died over £10,000 worth of cloth was buried with
him.']
[139] [Spencer, Facts and Comments, p. 301. 'After studying primitive beliefs, and finding that there is no origin for the idea of an after-life save the conclusion which the savage draws from the notion suggested by dreams, of a wandering double which comes back on awaking and which goes away for an indefinite time at death; and after contemplating the inscrutable relation between brain and consciousness, and finding that we can get no evidence of the existence of the last without the activity of the first, we seem obliged to relinquish the thought that consciousness continues after physical organization has become inactive.']
[140] [Howitt. 'On Australian Medicine Men.' JAI.]
[141] [Williams,
Fiji and the Fijians, vol. 1, p. 228. 'I got the well-known Tonga
Chief, Tubou Toatai, to call into my house a famous Lakemba priest who was
passing by, and question him in my hearing. The following dialogue took place:
"Langgu, did you shake yesterday?"
"Yes."
"Did you think beforehand what to say?"
"No."
"Then you just say what you happen to think at the time, do
you?"
"No. I do not know what I say. My own mind departs from me,
and then, when it is truly gone, my god speaks by me."']
[142] [Source.]
[143] [Brough Smyth, Aborigines of
Australia, vol. 2, p. 274. 'And now comes the revolting part. Two men
adjusting the body in the grave, stand up. One takes a boomerang, the other
stoops and receives a blow which draws blood freely. The boomerang is handed to
the other; he then strikes, and both bleed copiously over the corpse. They are
then removed, and three men go into the grave and strike each other till they
bleed, bowing down their
heads the while. One throws himself down, and is with difficulty removed. Three
others repeat the same thing. These men all bled freely, and in submission, till
the grave was covered with blood. The bleeding men now retired in sadness under
trees; the gins applied gum leaves till the blood was stopped, meanwhile keeping
up an incessant cry. They submit, it seems, to their heads being cut in order to
strengthen the deceased in the grave, and assist him to rise in another
country—not, as is generally supposed, a white man, but a black.']
[144] [Doolittle,
Social Life of the Chinese, p. 177. 'The longevity picture is intended to
be a likeness of the person whose death is mourned. It is commonly made about as
large as a child six or eight years old; oftentimes the artist is called to
paint it after the death of the individual. It represents him in a sitting
posture, and dressed in his official robes, with button of rank, if an officer
or a graduate; if not, he is represented as having on a nice suit. The picture
is often gaudily painted.
On the table arranged "before the spirit" is placed a bowl
having incense in it, which is kept burning for forty-nine days and nights.
There are also placed on it a pair of candles or lamps, which are lighted at
meal-time, and also whenever any thing is transacted before the longevity
picture with reference to the dead; also two chopsticks for the use of the
spirit when supposed to be eating. About the centre of the table are arranged a
bowl, turned bottom side upward, professedly to hold rice, and a wine-cup, also
bottom side up, for the purpose of holding wine, at the time of eating or of
offering food and wine to the spirit by his children. If the bowl and cup are
used, they are, after being washed, placed back on the table, bottom side
upward. These chopsticks, the bowl, and the cup are seldom used at meal-time,
but others in their stead, they remaining in statu quo on the table. The
table, chair, frame, and picture usually remain unmoved until the expiration of
forty-nine, or sixty, or a hundred days after the decease of the individual,
according as the family decide. Some families keep the whole or a part in
position until the expiration of three years.']
[145] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, pp. 199.]
[146] [Howitt, 'On Some Australian Beliefs,' JAI, 13.]
[147] [Fison, 'Notes on Fijian Burial Customs,' JAI, 10. See full text.]
[148] [Aborigines of Australia, vol. 1, p. 107. 'On the occurrence of the death of a Goulburn black, on the south bank of the River Yarra, a circumstance attending the last rites baffled the ingenuity of the sorcerers not a little. After digging the small trench around the body, no aperture was found, neither in the trench nor in the space between that and the corpse, and the sorcerers and the mourners were perplexed and uneasy. But the wise men were troubled but for a short time. If there was not the ordinary manifestation, it was a sign that they were to look for another; and one sorcerer lying on his stomach spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his side received the precious messages which the dead man told. The sorcerer, thus informed, rose after the lapse of a quarter of an hour, and delivered his speech. He told the credulous mourners that the dead man had given instructions as to the way which they should go to find the wild black who had taken his kidney-fat; and the people were satisfied.']
[149] [Ibid., p. 254. Not Smyth, but see vol. 1, p. 472. 'Besides this belief in Bowkan, Bullundoot, and Brewin, there is also one in the Mrarts. The Mrarts are believed to be the spirits of departed blackfellows, and they are considered to live in the clouds. They are mostly well disposed towards the natives, but some do them injury, frightening them, and carrying off children and grown-up people to devour. These evil Mrarts wander about, particularly at night, carrying a net-bag, like the one used for catching small fish in swamps, into which they are supposed to thrust the children.' In this note, and the above, there is no mention of a birraark.]
[150] [Cranz, Historie von Grönland, vol. 1, p. 193. 'That they also believe in apparitions of the dead, is plain from the following well authenticated relation. A boy while playing in a field at noon-day, was suddenly seized by his mother, who had been buried in the place, and addressed in words like these: "Fear not; I am thy mother, and love you much; you will come to strange people, who will instruct you in the knowledge of Him who created heaven and earth, &c."']
[151] [Catlin, North America Indians, vol. 1, p. 90. 'Independent of the above named deities, which draw the women to this spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon to hold converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a pleasant day, but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or lying by the skull of their child or husband―talking to it in the most pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were wont to do in former days), and seemingly getting an answer back.']
[152] [A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 189. 'I saw, in my dream, a beautiful young man come down through the hole in the top of my lodge, and he stood directly before me. "What," he said, "is this crying and noise that I hear? Do I not know when you are hungry and in distress? I look down upon you at all times, and it is not necessary you should call me with such loud cries." Then pointing directly to the sun's setting he said, "do you see those tracks?" "Yes," I answered, "they are the tracks of two moose." "I give you those two moose to eat" Then pointing in the opposite direction, towards the place of the sun's rising, he showed me a bear's track, and said, "that I also give you." He then went out the door of my lodge, and as he raised the blanket, I saw that snow was falling rapidly.']
[153] [Rit. chs.
178, 34.
Rit. ch. 180, 36.]
[155] [Allen and Thompson, Narrative of an Expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the Niger River, vol. 1, p. 228. This ref. is totally wrong. Unable to trace.]
[156] [Mendieta, Historia Ecclestica Indiana, p. 84.]
[157] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 2, p. 146. 'Gomara affirms that the high-priest imposed an oath upon the king that during his reign he would maintain the religion of his ancestors, and observe their laws; that he would give offence to none, and be valiant in war; that he would make the sun to shine, the clouds to give rain, the rivers to flow, and the earth to bring forth fruits in abundance.']
[158] [Turner, Samoa. Unable to trace.]
[159] [Unable to trace.]
[160] [Ideen über die Politik,
'Egypt,' vol. 2,
p. 335.
See also the Eng. tr., vol. 2, p. 326. 'Was the throne hereditary or was it
elective? As we read so often that the father was succeeded by the son, we must
conclude that it was hereditary, although a later writer describes the election
of a king to the throne. According to his account, candidates waited during the
election on the Libyan mountains, near the tombs. The royal tent was here set
up; and the priests who elected assembled. The gods were then consulted, and the
election concluded; the newly-elected king was then led with a numerous train,
in a magnificent procession of gods, priests, and people, to the Nile, where the
royal barge waited, in which he proceeded to the other side, to take possession
of the royal palace (probably that of Karnac,) where stood the original high
temple of Ammon. It is not known from what ancient waiter Synesius borrowed this
relation, we have no reason, how^ever, to suppose it fictitious.']
[161] [Hahn, Tsuni-||Goam, p. 24. 'Prophets (gebo-aogu, i.e., seers) could tell to new-born children as well as to heroes their fate, and this important institution was in the hands of the greatest and most respected old men of the clan.']
[163] ['Account of Japan,' in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vol. 7, p. 613. 'This rule was observed by the Mikado of Japan and by the supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs in Mexico. The latter "profaned his sanctity if he so much as touched the ground with his foot." For the Mikado to touch the ground with his foot was a shameful degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth century, it was enough to deprive him of his office.' From Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 2, p. 224.]
[164] [Source.]
[165] [W. Radloff, cited in Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 2, p. 237. 'The maiden said, "Good mother, I will tell nobody, but show me that bright world." So the old woman took the girl out of the iron house. But when she saw the bright world, the girl tottered and fainted; and the eye of God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry father put her in a golden chest and sent her floating away (fairy gold can float in fairyland) over the wide sea.']
[166] [Life in Abyssinia, 2nd ed., p. 301. 'Few people will venture to molest or offend a blacksmith, fearing the effects of his resentment. The greater part of the "possessed" are women; and the reason of their being attacked is often that they have despised the proffered love of some Bouda, or for other similar cause. Men however are by no means exempt; and of this I have seen several instances.']
[167] [Africana, vol. 1, p. 61.]
[168] [Mariner, Tonga Islands,
vol. 2, pp. 105-6. 'That all egi or nobles have souls, which exist
hereafter in Bolotoo, not according to their moral merit, but their rank
in this world, and then they have power similar to the original gods, but less.
The matabooles also go to Bolotoo after death, where they exist as
matabooles or ministers to the gods, but they have not the power of
inspiring priests: the mooas, according to the belief of some, also go to
Bolotoo, but this is a matter of great doubt. But the tooas, or
lower class of people, have no souls, or such only as dissolve with the body
after death, which consequently ends their sentient existence.
That the human soul during life is not a distinct essence
from the body, but only the more etherial part of it, and which exists in
Bolotoo, in the form and likeness of the body, the moment after death.
That the primitive gods and deceased nobles sometimes appear
(visibly) to mankind, to warn or to afford comfort and advice: that the
primitive gods also sometimes come into the living bodies of lizards, porpoises,
and a species of water snake, hence these animals are milch respected; their
coming into porpoises is supposed to be for the purpose of taking care of
vessels, &c.']
[169] [Howitt.]
[170] [Ethiopia Oriental, e Varia Historia de Cousas Notaveis de Oriente.]
[171] [Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 214. 'We will start with the medical student stage. Now, every West African tribe has a secret society—two, in fact, one for men and one for women. Every free man has to pass through the secret society of his tribe. If during this education the Elders of this society discover that a boy is what is called in Calabar an ebumtup—a person who can see spirits—the elders of the society advise that he should be brought up to the medical profession. Their advice is generally taken, and the boy is apprenticed as it were to a witch doctor, who requires a good fee with him. This done, he proceeds with his studies, learns the difference between the dream-soul basket and the one sisas are kept in—a mistake between the two would be on a par with mistaking oxalic acid for Epsom salts. He is then taught how to howl in a professional way, and, by watching his professor, picks up his bedside manner. If he can acquire a showy way of having imitation epileptic fits, so much the better. In fact, as a medical student, you have to learn pretty well as much there as here. You must know the dispositions, the financial position, little scandals, &c., of the inhabitants of the whole district, for these things are of undoubted use in divination and the finding of witches, and in addition you must be able skilfully to dispense charms, and know what babies say before their own mothers can. Then some day your professor and instructor dies, his own professional power eats him, or he tackles a disease-causing spirit that is one too many for him, and on you descend his paraphernalia and his practice.']
[171a] [Magyar's Travels in South Africa between 1849 and 1857 (?).]
[172] [Poss. My Kalulu,
p. 122. 'Then earthen, tin, and copper pots full of water, with some millet
flour in each, were placed over the fire, and then small bottle gourds (with
numbers of small pebbles in them), two for each magic doctor, were prepared and
placed near the heads of the bodies. Everything being thus ready, the magic
doctors took their sharp knives in their hands and began their work. To the
sound of a low crooning song, or rather chant, the words of which could not be
distinguished, the knives were set to work on the bodies of their enemies, first
in cutting the tips of each nose, then the lower lip, then the flesh under the
chin, then the ears and the eye-brows, which, when ended, they conveyed to the
pots over the fires. Continuing their work, the nipples of the breasts were then
cut, the muscles of their arms and legs, and, lastly, the whole of the flesh
covering the abdomen, which they took and placed in the pots over the fire. Then
the hearts were extracted, and, finally, the fat of the entrails of each body.
After this mutilation and disfigurement of the dead, the head of each body was
cut off and placed on the end of pointed poles, to be borne around the camp
during the ceremonial song.
Within half an hour the water had boiled sufficiently, and the magic doctors,
taking the wonderful gourds filled with pebbles in their hands, began to shake
them to the tune of a monotonous chant, in the chorus of which the warriors,
bearing the heads aloft on poles, joined, marching slowly as they sang around
the circle.'
Or poss. In Darkest Africa, vol. 1, p. 382. 'My Professor of Secret
Ritualism caused the dark red blood of Mazamboni to well out of the vein, and as
the liquid of life flowed and dropped over the knees, the incantations were
commenced by the sage with the white beard, and as he shook the pebbles in the
magic gourd at the range of the peak opposite, and at the horse-shoe range
yonder in the plains, and to eastward and westward of the valley, he delivered
his terrible curses from the summit of Nzera-Kum, and all men listened unto him
with open lip.']
[173] [Africana, vol. 1, p. 43.]
[174] [Ibid.]
[175] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 530. 'So far as his functions are concerned the medicine man may be regarded as partly, perhaps in the main, what this name implies, and at the same time as a wizard. His chief function is undoubtedly that of curing the natives; but as all ailments of every kind, from the simplest to the most serious, are without exception attributed to the malign influence of an enemy in either human or spirit shape, the method of curing takes the form of an exhibition of what is really sleight of hand, the object being to remove from the body of the patient something, such as a pointing stick or the broken pieces of a Churinga, which has been placed in it by the enemy. In many Australian tribes the equivalent of the medicine man amongst the Arunta is the one individual who can hold intercourse with the spirits; but in this tribe this is by no means the case, as there are men who, without being medicine men, are especially favoured in this respect. In many tribes also it is only the medicine men or their equivalents who have the power of, for example, securing by means of special incantations the illness or death of the individual whom it is desired to harm, and therefore to secure this end recourse must be had to a medicine man. In the Arunta, Ilpirra and other of the Central Australian tribes, this does not hold true; every man may have recourse to what is usually spoken of as sorcery, by means of which he may work harm of some kind to an enemy, and this power is not in any way confined to the medicine men, though on the other hand they are the only men who can counteract the evil influence of an enemy. At the same time there are certain of the very old medicine men who are supposed to be endowed by the Iruntarinia with the special power of bringing disease down upon not only individuals, but whole groups of men and women.']
[176] ['Religious Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia,' JAI, 10, 3. See full text here.]
[177] [Ibid., p. 119.]
[179] [Source.]
[180] [Shakespeare, Hamlet,
act 1, sc. 1. 'Enter Ghost
Marcellus: Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
Bernardo: In the same figure, like the king that’s dead.
Marcellus: Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Bernardo: Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
Horatio: Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.']
[181] [Harkness, Description of a Singular
Aboriginal Race Inhabiting the Summit of
the Neilgherry Hills, p. 56. 'A family of the Burghers had assembled,
the head of which was about to commence ploughing. With them were two or three
Curumbars, one of whom had set up a stone in the centre of the spot on which
they were standing, and decorating it with wild flowers, prostrated himself to
it, offered incense, and sacrificed a goat, which had been brought there for
this purpose by the Burghers. He then took the guidance of the plough, and
having ploughed some ten or twelve paces, gave it over, possessed himself of the
head of the sacrificed animal, and left the Burgher to prosecute his labours.
We were informed that something similar to this ceremony also
takes place when they are going to sow, and likewise when they are going to
reap; the Curumbar sowing the first handful, leaves the Burgher to go on with
the remainder, and reaping the first sheaf, delivers it with the sickle to him,
to accomplish the remainder of the task.
On the latter occasion, the Curumbar is allowed to take as
much of the new crop as he likes to carry away, but the grain contained in the
sheaf which he reaped, is that day reduced to meal, made into cakes, and being
offered as a first-fruit oblation, is, together with the remainder of the
sacrificed animal, partaken of by the Burgher and the whole of his family, as
the meat of a federal offering and sacrifice.
At harvest home, or when the whole of the grain has been
gathered in, the Curumbar receives his dues, or his proportion of the produce,
consisting, on an average, of about one sixtieth part of the whole.'
See also Reclus, Primitive Folk,
p. 237. 'The entire family was present at the inauguration of the work, over
which two or three Curumbas presided. One laid upon the earth a stone, which he
covered with wild flowers; prostrating himself, he perfumed it with incense,
sprinkled it with the blood of a he-goat. Then he seized
the plough, guided it for a minute or two, and gave the handle to the peasant;
after which he retired, carrying with him the head of the sacrificed beast. At
harvest, he loads himself, in payment for his services, with as many sheaves as
his back can carry; and after threshing, he claims the sixtieth as his share and
allowance.']
[182] [Reclus, ibid., p. 173. 'But this is an incline where we must pull up; the subject is not one that can be exhausted in a page or two; let us merely recall that under the Empire, Roman ladies flung themselves into the arms of the Thaumaturgists, whom they took for quasi-divine beings, able to bestow intenser pleasure and a superior progeny.']
[183] [Ibid. 'Well, let us pass the frontier and enter Burmah, where the great families have a spiritual director, to whom they send their daughter before the wedding; "pay him the homage of the flower of virginity," according to the official phrase.']
[184] [JME, 1852. See note below.]
[185] [Reclus, Primitive Folk, p. 171. 'One of these Brahmins complained to the missionary Weitbrecht of having no less than ten wives on his hands. "These Koulinne Brahmins are thoroughbred stallions, upon whom it is incumbent to ennoble the race and to cohabit with virgins of inferior caste. The venerable personage scours town and country; the people give him presents in money and stuff; they wash his feet, drink some of the dirty water, and preserve the rest. After a repast of dainty meats, he is conducted to the nuptial couch, where, crowned with flowers, the virgin awaits him."']
[186] [Das Matriarchate.]
[189] [West African Studies, p. 148. 'Then we have left very interesting sections of the community to consider from a funeral rite point of view—namely, those in human form who are not, strictly speaking, human beings, and those who, though human, have committed adultery with spirits—women who bear twins or who die in child-birth. These sinners, I may briefly remark, are neither buried nor just thrown away; they are, as far as possible, destroyed.']
[190] [See below.]
[191] [Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization, p. 110. ''The sa, a mysterious fluid, circulated throughout their members, and carried with it health, vigour and life. They were not all equally charged with it, some had more, others less, their energy being in proportion to the amount they contained. The better supplied willingly gave of their superfluity to those who lacked it, and all could readily transmit it to mankind; this transfusion being easily accomplished in the temples.']
[192] [Birch, 'The Possessed Princess,' RP, 4, 59.]
[193] [Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 226. 'Mohbor-meh.—In time of war, the wives of the men who are with the army paint themselves white, decorate themselves with beads and charms, and make a daily procession through the town, invoking the protection of the gods for their absent husbands. This ceremony is called Mohbor-meh, a word compounded of mohbor, "pity," and me, "me," and which may be freely translated, "Have mercy upon us." Besides the daily procession, Mohbor-meh women, painted white from head to foot, dance publicly in the streets, uttering howls and shrieks, leaping and gesticulating, and brandishing knives and swords. On the day upon which a battle is expected to take place, they run to and fro with guns, or sticks roughly carved to represent guns, and pierce green paw-paws with knives, in imitation of the foemen's heads. This ceremony is generally performed in a complete state of nudity, and frequently some of the principal women appear with two hen's eggs fastened above the pudenda. Any man, except the aged and infirm, who may be discovered in the town or village, is at once assailed with torrents of abuse, charged with cowardice, taunted with a want of manliness, assaulted with sticks, and driven out of the town. Mohbor-meh women appear to be regarded in some respects as female warriors, who guard the town during the absence of the men. As may be imagined, the appearance presented by a number of naked women of a dead- white colour, bounding, leaping, gesticulating, and uttering the most unearthly cries, is most peculiar.']
[194] [Matt. 18:18. 'Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.']
[198] [Tshi-speakingPeoples,
p. 149. 'The Tshi-speaking tribes have a word kra, that is used to
designate the spirit of a living man, or, rather, a spirit which ordinarily
dwells in a living man, and which expects sacrifice for the protection it
grants. Thus, just as there is believed to be an indwelling spirit in certain
tangible and inanimate objects, so also is there believed to be an indwelling
spirit in the corporeal man, which is similarly distinct from the man himself.
This word kra, though generally interpreted "soul," does not at all
correspond to the European idea of a soul; for it is the man himself, in a
shadowy or ghostly form, that continues his existence after death in another
world, and not the kra. The latter is rather a guardian spirit, who lives
in a man, and whose connection with him terminates at his death.
When a man dies his kra becomes a sisa, and a
sisa can be born again and become a kra in a new human body. At
the death of the man the sisa can remain in the house with the corpse it
lately tenanted as a kra, and can annoy the living and cause sickness.
After a time, however, if it has no opportunity of entering a new human body, it
must proceed to the land of insisa, where the insisa live and
build houses. This country is believed to be situated somewhere beyond the River
Volta, and insisa which are causing sickness or annoyance can be driven
there by the spells of the priests; but they can and do return therefrom. Those
which thus return are believed to do injury to the living, and particular
localities are regarded as their haunt, usually from occurrences of an
unfortunate nature which have there happened. Their ordinary method of injuring
the living is by entering the body of a man during the temporary absence of his
kra, and causing sickness; and a not unimportant part of the priest's office is
the expulsion of such insisa by means of spells.']
[201] [Birch, Gallery of Antiquities. I can find no representation of either Apt or Neith as a biune being.]
[202] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 442. 'These women were supposed to have sprung into existence far out in the Aldorla ilunga, that is the west country, and as they journeyed they danced all the way along carrying shields and spear-throwers until they passed right through the country of the Arunta people. When they started they were half women and half men, but before they had proceeded very far on their journey their organs became modified and they were as other women.']
[203] [Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Ægyptiacarum, p. 637.]
[204] [Anthropologie. 'A negro was once worshiping a tree with an offering of food, when some one pointed out to him that the tree did not eat; the negro answered, "O the tree is not fetish, the fetish is a spirit and invisible, but he has descended into this tree. Certainly he cannot devour our bodily food, but he enjoys its spiritual part and leaves behind the bodily which we see."' From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 2, p. 216.]
[205] [Not in the Ritual. Not in the Litany to Ra. Unable to trace.]
[208] [Goodwin, 'Upon an Inscription in the Reign of Shabaka,' in Chabas, line 14.]
[210] [See note below.]
[211] [Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, 'For the Gods are essentialized in The One; or, as Damascius observes, speaking Chaldaically, in the paternal peculiarity. For in every God there is father, power, and intellect; father being the same as hyparxis and the one.' Thomas Taylor's note, p. 74, ed. 1895. See also the Thomas Taylor Series, vol. 17, p. 46.]
[213] [Chabas, 'Hymn to Osiris,' lines 3 and 4, RP, 4, 99.]
[214] [The Dawn of Civilization, p. 152. 'Reasoning in this way, the Egyptians naturally tended towards that conception of the divine oneness to which the theory of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad was already lending them. In fact, they reached it, and the monuments show us that in comparatively early times the theologians were busy uniting in a single person the prerogatives which their ancestors had ascribed to different beings. But this conception of deity towards which their ideas were converging has nothing in common with the conception of the God of our modern religions and philosophies.']
[217] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 105.]
[219] [Goodwin, 'Hymn to Amen-Ra.' RP, 2, 129.]
[220] [Brugsch, History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs, vol. 1, p. 83.]