The economical value of human and animal excreta would seem to have obtained recognition among all races from the earliest ages. It is not venturing beyond limits to assert that a book could be written upon this phase of the subject alone. It is not essential to incorporate here all that could be compiled, but enough is submitted to substantiate the statement just made, and to cover every line of inquiry.
It might perhaps be well to consider whether or not the constant use of and familiarity with human urine and ordure in houses, arts, and industries of various kinds would have a tendency to blunt the sensibilities of rude races, so that in their rites we could look for the introduction of these loathsome materials; just as we find that all those races whose women are allowed to go naked place a very slight value upon chastity.
“It certainly is not possible to separate the religious uses of urine from its industrial and medical uses.... Probably nearly everywhere it has been the first soap known. Does not this aspect of the matter need to be insisted on, even from the religious point of view?... In England and France, and probably elsewhere, the custom of washing the hands in urine, with an idea of its softening and beautifying influence, still subsists among ladies, and I have known those who constantly made water on their hands with this idea.”—(Havelock Ellis, “Contemporary Science Series,” London, Personal letter.)
TANNING.
The inhabitants of Kodiak employ urine in preparing the skins of birds, according to Lisiansky.—(“Voyage round the World,” London, 1814, p. 214.)
“Les gants, articles de grand luxe, et de haute élégance, faits pour recouvrir de blanches mains et des bras dodus, sont imbibés d’un jaune d’œuf largement additionné dudit liquide ambré.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 72.)
By the Eskimo urine is preserved for use in tanning skins,[58] while its employment in the preparation of leather, in both Europe and America, is too well understood to require any reference to authorities.
The Kioways of the Great Plains soaked their buffalo hides in urine to make them soft and flexible.[59]
Urine is employed by the Tchuktchi of Siberia “in curing or tanning skins.”—(“In the Lena Delta,” Melville, Boston, Mass., 1885, p. 318.)
Sauer says that the Yakuts tan deer and elk skins with cow-dung.—(“Expedition to the North parts of Russia,” London, 1802, p. 131.)
Dung is used in tanning by the Bongo of the upper Nile region.—(See Schweinfurth, “Heart of Africa,” London, 1878, vol. i. p. 134.)
Bernal Diaz, in his enumeration of the articles for sale in the “tianguez” or market-places of Tenochtitlan, uses this expression: “I must also mention human excrements, which were exposed for sale in canoes lying in the canals near this square, which is used for the tanning of leather; for, according to the assurances of the Mexicans, it is impossible to tan well without it.”—(Bernal Diaz, “Conquest of Mexico,” London, 1844, vol. i. p. 236.)
The same use of ordure in tanning bear-skins can be found among the nomadic Apaches of Arizona, although, preferentially, they use the ordure of the animal itself.
Gómara, who also tabulated the articles sold in the Mexican markets, does not mention ordure in direct terms; his words are more vague: “All these things which I speak of, with many that I do not know, and others about which I keep silent, are sold in this market of the Mexicans.”[60]
Urine figures as the mordant for fixing the colors of blankets and other woollen fabrics woven by the Navajoes of New Mexico, by the Moquis of Arizona, by the Zuñis and other Pueblos of the Southwest, by the Araucanians of Chili, by Mexicans, Peruvians, by some of the tribes of Afghanistan, and other nations, by all of whom it is carefully preserved.
BLEACHING.
“Roman fullers used human urine in their business, and Pliny says it was noticed that they never suffered from gout.”—(Pliny, “Natural History,” lib. xxviii. cap. 3: Bohn).
Urine has also been employed as a detergent in cleaning wool.—(Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Bleaching.”)
DYEING.
Urine is used in dyeing by the people of Ounalashka, according to Langsdorff, “Voyages” (vol. ii. p. 47); also, according to Sarytschew, in “Philip’s Voyages” (vol. vi. p. 72).
The same use of it has been attributed to the Irish by Camden, in “Brittania,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1419. His statement is quoted by Buckle: “In 1562, O’Neal, with some of his companions, came to London and astonished the citizens by their hair flowing in locks on their shoulders, on which were yellow surplices, dyed with saffron or stained with urine.”—(“Commonplace Book,” vol. ii. p. 236.)
“As a substitute for alum, urine was employed.”—(“Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans,” W. J. Hoffman, M. D., in “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” 1889.)
“The preparation of blue, violet, and bluish-red coloring matters from lichens by the action of the ammonia of stale urine, seems to have been known at a very early period to the Mediterranean peoples, and the existence, down almost to the present day, of such a knowledge in the more remote parts of Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia, renders it not improbable that the art of making such dyes was not unknown to the northern nations of Europe also.”—(“The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,” Eugene O’Curry, introduction by W. K. Sullivan, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and New York, 1873, p. 450.)
PLASTER.
As a plaster for the interior of dwellings, cow-dung has been used with frequency; that the employment of the ordure of an animal held sacred by so many peoples has a religious basis, is perhaps too much to say, but it will be shown, further on, that different ordures were kept about houses to ensure good luck or to avert the maleficence of witchcraft.
Marco Polo has the following: (In Malabar) “there are some called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill them, and daub over their houses with cow-dung.”—(Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 162.)
The huts in Senegal were plastered “with cow-dung, which stunk abominably.”—(Adamson, “Voyage to Senegal,” in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 611.)
“The cow-dung basements around the tents” of the Mongols are spoken of by Rev. James Gilmour.—(“Among the Mongols,” London, 1883, p. 176.)
“A floor is next made of soft tufa and cow-dung.”—(Livingston, “Zambesi,” London, 1865, p. 293.)
Animal dung is used as a mortar by the inhabitants of Turkey in Asia living in the valley of the Tigris.—(See “Assyrian Discoveries,” George Smith, New York, 1876, p. 82.)
The natives of the White Nile, the tribes of the Bari, make “a cement of ashes, cow-dung, and sand,” with which “they plaster the floors and enclosures about their houses.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 58. See the same author for the Latookas, idem, p. 135; and for the statement that the Obbos plaster enclosures, walls, and floors alike, see pp. 203, 262.)
Pliny tells us that the threshing-floors of the Roman farmers were paved with cow-dung; in a footnote it is stated that the same rule obtains in France to this day.—(Pliny, lib. lxxviii. cap. 71: Bohn).
Horse-dung was considered very valuable as a luting for chemical stills and furnaces.—(See Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 815; also, as a “Digesting medium,” idem.)
Of the Yakuts of Siberia it is related: “In dirtiness they yield to none; for a grave author assures us that the mortars which they use for bruising their dried fish are made of cow-dung hardened by the frost.”—(Maltebrun, “Universal Geography,” vol. i. p. 347.)
“The people of Jungeion ... collected the dung of cows and sheep ... dried it, roasted it on the fire, and afterwards used it for a bed.”—(Mungo Park, “Travels in Africa,” in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 834.)
“The vessels in which they (the Yakuts) stamp their dried fish, Roots and Berries, are made of dried Oxen and Cow’s dung.”—(Van Stralenberg, p. 382.)
The Index to the first volume of Purchas has “Dung bought by sound of tabor, p. 270, 1. 40;” and “Dung of Birds, a strange report of it;” but neither of these could be found in the main portion of the volume.
AS A CURE FOR TOBACCO.
The best varieties of Tobacco coming from America were arranged in bunches, tied to stakes, and suspended in privies, in order that the fumes arising from the human ordure and urine might correct the corrupt and noxious principles in the plant in the crude state.—(See Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 776. “Ex paxillo aliquandiu suspendere in Cloacis Tabacum,” etc.)
“I heard lately from good authority that, in Havana, the female urine is used in cigar-manufacturing as a good maceration.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)
TO RESTORE THE ODOR OF MUSK AND THE COLOR OF CORAL.
The odor of musk and the color of coral could be restored by suspending them in a privy for a time.—(See Danielus Beckherius, “Medicus Microcosmus,” London, 1600, p. 113.)
“Paracelsus scil. mediante digestione stercus humanum ad odorem Moschi redigere voluit.”—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” Comment. Ludovic. Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172.)
“Moschi odorem deperditum restitui posse, si in loco aliquo, ubi urina et excrementa alvina putrescunt, detineatur, apud autores legimus.”—(Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 768.)
“Fit, ut Moschus longo tempore æmittat odorem, quem tamen recuperat si irroretur cum pueri urina, vel si suspendatur in latrina humana.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 276.)
CHEESE MANUFACTURE.
“A storekeeper in Berlin was punished some years ago for having used the urine of young girls with a view to make his cheese richer and more piquant. Notwithstanding, people went, bought and ate his cheese with delight. What may be the cause of all these foolish and mysterious things? In human urine is the Anthropin.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)
“En certaines fermes de Suisse on se sert, m-a-t’on-dit, de l’urine pour activer la férmentation de certaines fromages qu’on y plonge.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Bernard to Captain Bourke, dated Cannes, France, July 7, 1888.)
Whether or not the use of human urine to ripen cheese originated in the ancient practice of employing excrementitious matter to preserve the products of the dairy from the maleficence of witches; or, on the other hand, whether or not such an employment as an agent to defeat the efforts of the witches be traceable to the fact that stale urine was originally the active ferment to hasten the coagulation of the milk would scarcely be worth discussion.
OPIUM ADULTERATION.
The smoker of opium little imagines that, in using his deadly drug, he is often smoking an adulterated article, the adulterant being hen manure; he is thus placed on a par with the American Indian smoking the dried dung of the buffalo, and the African smoking that of the antelope or the rhinoceros.
EGG-HATCHING.
In the description of the province of Quang-tong, it is stated that the Chinese hatch eggs “in the Oven, or in Dung.”—(Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1741, vol. i. p. 238.) See the same statement made in Purchas, vol. i. 270.
In China “their fish is chiefly nourished with the dung of Oxen that greatly fatteth it.”—(Perera, in Purchas, vol. i. p. 205.)
TAXES ON URINE.
The Roman emperors imposed a tax and tolls upon urine because of its usefulness in many things.—(“Dreck Apotheke,” Paullini, p. 8. See previous statements in this volume and consult Suetonius “Vespasian.”)
CHRYSOCOLLON.
There was a cement for fixing the precious metals, which cement was known as “Chrysocollon,” and was made with much ceremony from the urine “of an innocent boy.” There are various descriptions, but the following, while brief, contain all the material points.
Galen describes this Chrysocollon, or Gold-Glue, as prepared by some physicians from the urine of a boy, who had to void it into a mortar of red copper while a pestle of the same material was in motion, which urine carefully exposed to the sun until it had acquired the thickness of honey, was considered capable of soldering gold and of curing obstinate diseases: “Attamen medicamentum quod ex urina pueri conficetur quod quidam vocant chrysocollon, quia eo ad auri glutinationem utuntur, ad ulcera difficilia sanatu optimum esse assero fit autem id figura phiali confecto mortario ex ære rubro habentem pistillum ejusdem materiæ in quod mejente puero pistillum circumages, identidem, ut non tantum a mortario deradedet, etc.” (“Opera Omnia,” Kuhn’s edition, vol. xii. pp. 286, 287.)
Dioscorides describes the manufacture thus: “Quinetiam ex ea (i. e. ‘pueri innocentis urina’) et ære cyprio idoneum ferruminando glutea paratur.”—(“Materia Medica,” Kuhn’s edition, vol. i. p. 227 et seq.)
If a boy’s urine be rubbed up in a copper mortar with a copper pestle, it makes a sort of mucilage which can be used to fasten articles of gold together, as Sextus Placitus tells us: “Si pueri lotium cuprino mortario et cuprino pistello contritum fuerit, aurum solidat.”—(“De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” edition of Lyons, 1537, pages not numbered, article, “De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)
The definition given by Avicenna, the Arabian authority, is: “Quæ fit ex urina infantium mota in mortario æro cum aceto in sole.”—(Vol. i. p. 336, a 34 et seq.)
We also read of an “Alchymical Water,” called “Diana,” for transmuting metals into gold and silver; it was believed that this preparation was efficacious “ad mutandum Mercurium in Solem vel Lunam.” (“Sol” was gold, “Luna” was silver; see notes from Paracelsus below.) This “Diana” was employed in the preparation of “Crocus Martis,” as well as in that of “Oleum Martis,” for giving metals the color of gold, for polishing gold plate, for giving a fine temper to the best iron or steel implements, and for making the “Chrysocolla” just described.—(“Medicus Microcosmus,” Beckherius, pp. 103-108.)
Paracelsus, speaking of the metals says: “Sol, that is Gold; Luna, that is silver; Venus, that is Copper; Mercury, that is Quicksilver; Saturnus, that is Lead; Jupiter, that is Tinne; Mars, that is Iron.”—(“The Secrets of Physicke,” English translation, London, 1633, p. 117.)
FOR REMOVING INK STAINS.
Human urine was considered efficacious in the removal of ink-spots.—(See Pliny, Bohn, lib. v. and lib. xxviii.)
AS AN ARTICLE OF JEWELRY.
Fossilized excrement is used in the manufacture of jewelry, under the name of “Coprolite.”
Lapland women carry a little case made from the bark of the birch tree, “which they usually carry under the girdle” in which is to be found reindeer dung, not as an amulet but to aid in weaning the young reindeer by smearing the udders of the dams.—(See Leems’ “Account of Danish Lapland,” in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 405.)
But, from other sources, we have learned that the Laps attached the most potent influences to ordure and urine believing that their reindeer could be bewitched, that vessels could be hastened or retarded in their course, etc., by the use of such materials. Several examples of this belief are given in this volume; see under “Witchcraft.”
TATTOOING.
Langsdorff noticed that urine entered into the domestic economy of the natives of Ounalashka. He tells us that the tattooing was performed with “a sort of coal dust mixed with urine, rubbed in” the punctures made in the skin (“Voyages,” vol. ii. p. 40). That the tattooing with which savages decorate their bodies has a significance beyond a simple personal ornamentation cannot be gainsaid, although the degree of its degeneration from a primitive religious symbolism may now be impossible to determine. Even if regarded in no other light than as a means of clan-distinction, there is the suggestion of obsolete ceremonial, because the separation into castes and gentes is in every case described by the savages concerned as having been performed at the behest of some one of their innumerable deities, who assigned to each clan its appropriate “totem.” Clan marks may be represented in the tattooing, the conventional signs of primitive races not having yet been sufficiently investigated; for example, among the Apaches three marks radiating out from a single stem represent a turkey, that being the form of the bird’s foot. At the dances of the Indians of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, New Mexico, the bodily decorations were, in nearly every case, associated with the clan “totem;” but this fact never would have been suspected unless explained by one of the initiated. In one of the dances of the Moquis the members of the Tejon or Badger clan appeared with white stripes down their faces; that is one of the marks of the badger, as they explained.
The author does not wish to say much on this topic, since his attention was not called to it until a comparatively late period in his investigations; but he was surprised to learn that the Apaches, among whom he then was, although marking themselves very slightly, almost invariably made use of an emblemism of a sacred character; moreover, it was very generally the work of some one of the “medicine men.”
The tattooing of the people of Otaheite seen by Cook was surmised by him to have a religious significance, as it presented in many instances “squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men and dogs.” (In Hawkesworth’s “Voyages,” London, 1773, vol. ii. p. 190.) Every one of these people was tattooed upon reaching majority. (Idem, p. 191.) It is stated that certain chiefs in New Zealand, unable to write their names to a document presented to them for signature drew lines like those tattooed upon their faces and noses.—(See “Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,” London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 586.)
Among the Dyaks of Borneo “all the married women are tattooed on the hands and feet, and sometimes on the thighs. The decoration is one of the privileges of matrimony, and is not permitted to unmarried girls.”—(“Head-Hunters of Borneo,” Carl Bock, London, 1881, p. 67.)
A recent writer has the following to say on this subject: “The tattoo marks make it possible to discover the remote connection between clans; and this token has such a powerful influence upon the mind that there is no feud between tribes which are tattooed in the same way. The type of the marks must be referred to the animal kingdom; yet we cannot discover any tradition or myth which relates to the custom. There is no reason for asserting that there is any connection between the tattoo marks and Totemism, although I am personally disposed to think that this is sometimes the case. The tattooing, which usually consists in the imitation of some animal forms, may lead to the worship of such animals as religious objects.” (“The Primitive Family,” C. N. Starcke, Ph. D., New York, 1889, p. 42.) Here is an example of putting the cart before the horse; in all cases investigation will show that the animal was a god, and for that reason was imprinted on the person of the worshipper as a vow of supplication or prayer.
In another place the same writer says that tattooing had “to be performed by a priest.”—(Idem, p. 241.)
The religious element in Totemism has been plainly revealed by W. Robertson Smith in Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Sacrifice,” and by James G. Frazer, M.A., in his “Totemism,” Edinburgh, 1887.
Andrew Lang devotes several chapters to the subject (“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” London, 1887, vol. i. cap. 3). He says of the Australian tribes: “There is some evidence that in certain tribes the wingong or totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed representation of it upon his flesh” (p. 65). On another page, quoting from Long’s “Voyages,” 1791, he says: “The ceremony of adoption was painful, beginning with a feast of dog’s flesh, followed by a Turkish bath, and a prolonged process of tattooing.”—(Idem, p. 71.)
A traveller of considerable intelligence comments in these terms upon the bodily ornamentation of the Burmese:—
“Burmah is the land of the tattooed man.... In my visit to the great prison here, which contains more than three thousand men, I saw six thousand tattooed legs.... The origin of the custom I have not been able to find out. It is here the Burmese sign of manhood, and there is as much ceremony about it as there is about the ear-piercing of girls which chronicles their entrance upon womanhood. There are professional tattooers, who go about with books of designs.... The people are superstitious about it; and certain kinds of tattooing are supposed to ward off disease. One kind wards off the snake-bite, and another prevents a man from drowning.”—(Frank G. Carpenter, in the “Bee,” Omaha, Nebraska, May 19, 1889.)
Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, says of the Apache-Yumas of Arizona Territory, that “the married women are distinguished by seven narrow blue lines running from the lower lip down to the chin.... Tattooing is practised by the women, rarely by the men.... A young woman, when anxious to become a mother, tattooes the figure of a child on her forehead.”—(In the “American Antiquarian,” November, 1886.)
The “sectarial marks” of the Hindus are possibly vestiges of a former practice of tattooing. Coleman (“Mythology of the Hindus,” London, 1832, p. 165) has a reference to them.
Squier, in his monograph upon “Manobosho,” in “American Historical Review,” 1848, says that the Mandans have a myth in which occurs the name of a god, “Tattooed Face.”
Alice Oatman stated distinctly that “she was tattooed by two of their (Mojaves) physicians,” and “marked, not as they marked their women, but as they marked their captives.” Be that as it may, the four lines on her chin, as well as can be discerned from the indifferent woodcut, are the same as can be seen upon the chins of Mojave women to-day.—(See Stratton’s “Captivity of the Oatman Girls,” San Francisco, 1857, pp. 151, 152.)
Maltebrun says of the inhabitants of the Island of Formosa: “Their skin is covered with indelible marks, representing trees, animals, and flowers of grotesque forms.”—(“Universal Geography,” American edition, Philadelphia, 1832, vol. ii. lib. 43, p. 79, article “China.”)
“The practice of marking the skin with the figures of animals, flowers, or stars, which was in existence before the time of Mahomet, has still left traces among the Bedouin women.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 30, p. 395.)
Speaking of the Persian ladies, the same authority says: “They stain their bodies with the figures of trees, birds, and beasts, sun, moon, and stars.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 33, p. 428, article “Persia.”)
In the “Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London,” vol. vi., it is stated that the “Oraon boys (India) are marked when children on the arms by a rather severe process of puncturation, which they consider it manly to endure.”
“Mojave girls, after they marry, tattoo the chin with vertical blue lines.”—(Palmer, quoted by H. H. Bancroft in “Native Races,” vol. i. p. 480.)
In the cannibal feast of the Tupis of the Amazon, Southey says, “The chief of the clan scarified the arms of the Matador above the elbow, so as to leave a permanent mark there; and this was the Star and Garter of their ambition, the highest badge of honor. There were some who cut gashes in their breast, arms, and thighs on these occasions, and rubbed a black powder in, which left an indelible stain.”—(Quoted by Herbert Spencer in “Descriptive Sociology.”)
“A savage man meets a savage maid. She does not speak his language, nor he hers. How are they to know whether, according to the marriage laws of their race, they are lawful mates for each other? This important question is settled by an inspection of their tattoo marks. If a Thlinkeet man, of the Swan stock, meets an Iroquois maid, of the Swan stock, they cannot speak to each other, and the ‘gesture language’ is cumbrous. But if both are tattooed with the Swan, then the man knows that this daughter of the Swan is not for him.... The case of the Thlinkeet man and the Iroquois maid is extremely unlikely to occur, but I give it as an example of the practical use among savages of representative art.”—(“Custom and Myth,” Andrew Lang, New York, 1885, p. 292.)
“Tattooing is fetichistic in origin. Among all the tribes, almost every Indian has the image of an animal tattooed on his breast or arm, which can charm away an evil spirit or prevent harm to them.”—(Dorman, “Primitive Superstition,” New York, 1881, p. 156.)
“The Eskimo wife has her face tattooed with lamp-black, and is regarded as a matron in society.”—(“Schwatka’s Search,” William H. Gilder, New York, 1881, p. 250.) “I never saw any attempt at figure or animal drawing for personal ornamentation. The forms are generally geometrical in design and symmetrical in arrangement.... None of the men are tattooed.”—(Idem, p. 251.)
“The Mojaves of the Rio Colorado tattoo, but the explanation of the marks was exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory. The women, upon attaining puberty, are tattooed upon the chin, and there seem to be four different patterns followed, probably representing as many different phratric or clan systems in former times.”—(See the author’s article in the “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” Cambridge, Mass., July-September, 1888, entitled “Notes on the Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojaves.”)
Swan, in his notes upon the Indians of Cape Flattery, contents himself with observing that their tattooing is performed with coal and human urine.
“In order that the ghost may travel the ghost road in safety, it is necessary for each Lakota during his life to be tattooed either in the middle of the forehead or on the wrists. In that event, his spirit will go directly to the ‘Many Lodges.’ ... An old woman sits in the road, and she examines each ghost that passes. If she cannot find the tattoo-marks on the forehead, wrists, or chin, the unhappy ghost is pushed from a cloud or cliff, and falls to this world.”—(Dr. J. Owen Dorsey, in the “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” April, 1889.)
Of the islands of the South Pacific, Kotzebue says, “I believe that tattooing in these islands is a religious custom; at least, they refused it to several of our gentlemen at Otdia, assuring them that it could only be done in Egerup.”—(“Voyages,” vol. ii. pp. 113, 135, London, 1821.)
“Tattooing is by no means confined to the Polynesians, but this ‘dermal art’ is certainly carried by them to an extent which is unequalled by any other people.... It is practised by all classes.... By the vast number of them it is adopted simply as a personal ornament, though there are some grounds for believing that the tattoo may, in a few cases and to a small extent, be looked upon as a badge of mourning or a memento of a departed friend. Like everything else in Polynesia, its origin is related in a legend which credits its invention to the gods, and says it was first practised by the children of Tharoa, their principal deity. The sons of Tharoa and Apouvarou were the gods of tattooing, and their images were kept in the temples of those who practised the art as a profession, and to them petitions are offered that the figures might be handsome, attract attention, and otherwise accomplish the purpose for which they submitted themselves to this painful operation.... To show any signs of suffering under the operation is looked upon as disgraceful.”—(“World,” New York, May 10, 1890, quoting from “The Peoples of the World.”)
“In the Tonga and Samoan Islands, the young men were all tattooed upon reaching manhood; before this, they could not think of marriage.... Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular profession.... There are two gods, patrons of tattooing,—Taema and Tilfanga.”—(See Turner’s “Samoa.”)
“One of the features of the Initiation among the Port Lincoln tribe was the tattooing of the young man and the conferring of a new name upon him.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
It is well to observe that each tribe in a given section has not only its own pattern of tattooing, but its own ideas of the parts of the person to which the tattooing should be applied. Thus, among the Indians of the northwest coast of British Columbia, “Tattooings are found on arms, breast, back, legs, and feet among the Haidas; on arms and feet among the Tshimshian, Kwakiutl, and Bilqula; on breast and arms among the Nootka; on the jaw among the coast Salish women.”—(“Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada,” Franz Boas, in “Trans. Brit. Assoc. Advancement of Science,” Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889, p. 12.)
Sullivan states that the custom of tattooing continued in England and Ireland down to the seventh century; this was the tattooing with woad.—(See his Introduction to O’Curry’s “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,” p. 455.)
The Inuits believe that “les femmes bien tatouées” are sure of felicity in the world to come.—(See “Les Primitifs,” Réclus, Paris, 1885, p. 120.)
“Although the practice of the art is so ancient that we have evidence of its existence in prehistoric times, and that the earliest chronicles of our race contain references to it, yet the term itself is comparatively modern.... The universality as well as the great antiquity of the custom has been shown by a French author, Ernest Berchon, ‘Histoire Médicale du Tatouage,’ Paris, 1869, which begins with a quotation from Leviticus xiv., which in the English version reads thus: ‘Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.’ Don Calmet, in commenting upon this passage, says that the Hebrew literally means ‘a writing of spots.’ Many Italians have been tattooed at Loretto. Around this famous shrine are seen professional tattooers, ‘Marcatori,’ who charge from half to three quarters of a lire for producing a design commemorative of the pilgrim’s visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Loretto. A like profitable industry is pursued at Jerusalem.... Religion has some influence (in the matter of tattooing) from its tendency to preserve ancient customs. At Loretto and Jerusalem tattooing is almost a sacred observance.”—(“Tattooing among Civilized People,” Dr. Robert Fletcher, Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C., 1883, pp. 4, 12, and 26.)
“Father Mathias G. says that in Oceania every royal or princely family has a family of tattooers especially devoted to their service, and that none other can be permitted to produce the necessary adornment.”—(Idem, p. 24.)
“Tatowiren, Narbenzeichnen und Korperbemalen” (Tattooing, Cicatricial Marking and Body Painting), by Wilhelm Joest, Berlin, 1887, a superbly illustrated volume, has been reviewed by Surgeon Washington Matthews, U. S. Army, in the “American Anthropologist,” Washington, D. C., ending in these words, “The author’s opinion, however, that ‘tattooing has nothing to do with the religion of savages, but is only a sport or means of adornment, which, at most, has connection with the attainment of maturity,’ is one which will not be generally concurred in by those who have studied this practice as it exists among our American savages.”
AGRICULTURE.
In the interior of China, travellers relate that copper receptacles along the roadsides rescue from loss a fertilizer whose value is fully recognized.
These copper receptacles recall the “Gastra,” of the Romans, already referred to under the heading of “Latrines.”
“Les Chinois fument leurs terres autant que cela est en leur pouvoir; ils emploient à cet usage toutes sortes d’engrais, mais principalement les excréments humains, qu’ils recueillent à cet effet avec grand soin. On trouve dans les villes, dans les villages, et sur les routes, des endroits faits exprès pour la commodité des passans, et dans les lieux où il n’y a pas de semblables facilités, des hommes vont ramasser soir et matin les ordures et les mettent dans des panniers à l’aide d’un croc de fer à trois pointes.
“On traffique dans ce pays de ce qu’on rejette ailleurs avec horreur et celui qui reçoit d’argent en France pour nettoyer une fosse, en donne au contraire en Chine pour avoir la liberté d’en faire autant. Les excréments sont portés dans de grands trous bien mastiqués, faits en pleine campagne, dans lesquels on les délaye avec de l’eau et de l’urine et on les répand dans les champs à mesure qu’on a besoin. On rencontre souvent sur la rivière à Quanton des bateaux d’une forme particulière destinés au transport de ces ordures et ce n’est pas sans surprise qu’on en voit les conducteurs être aussi peu affectés qu’ils le paroissent de l’odeur agréable d’une pareille marchandise.”—(“Voyage à Pekin,” De Guignes, Paris, 1808, vol. iii. p. 322.)
“The dung of all animals is esteemed above any other kind of manure. It often becomes an article of commerce in the shape of small cakes, which are made by mixing it with a portion of loam and earth, and then thoroughly drying them. These cakes are even brought from Siam, and they also form an article of commerce between the provinces. They are never applied dry, but are diluted with as much animal water as can be procured.”—(“Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 124.)
“They even make sale of that which is sent privately to some distance in Europe at midnight.” (Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1736, vol. ii. p. 126.) This statement of Father Du Halde can be compared with what Bernal Diaz says of the markets of the city of Mexico at the time of Cortés: “There are in every province a great number of people who carry pails for this purpose; in some places they go with their barks into the canals which run on the back side of the houses, and fill them at almost every hour of the day.”—(Du Halde, idem, p. 126.)
Rosinus Lentilius, in “Ephemeridum Physico-Medicorum,” Leipsig, 1694, states that the people of China and Java buy human ordure in exchange for tobacco and nuts. This was probably on account of its value in manuring their fields, which, he tells us (p. 170), was done three times a year with human ordure. This leads him to make the reflection that man runs back to excrement,—“Unde stercus in alimentum et hoc rursum in stercus.”
“The Japanese manure their fields with human ordure.”—(See Kemper’s “History of Japan,” in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 698.)
“Yea, the dung of men is there sold, and not the worse merchandise, that stink yielding sweet wealth to some who goe tabouring up and down the streetes to signifie what they woulde buy. Two or three hundred sayle are sometimes freighted with this lading in some Port of the Sea; whence the fatted soyle yields three Haruests in a yeare.”—(Mendex Pinto, “Account of China,” in Purchas, vol. i. p. 270.)
“Heaps of manure in every field, at proper distances, ready to be scattered over the corn.”—(Turner, “Embassy to Tibet,” London, 1806, p. 62.)
The Persians used pigeon’s dung “to smoak their melons.”—(John Matthews Eaton, “Treatise on Breeding Pigeons,” London, no date, pp. 39, 40, quoting from Tavernier’s first volume of “Persian Travels.”)
The finest variety of melon, “the sugar melon,” “cultivated with the greatest care with the dung of pigeons kept for the purpose.”—(“Persia,” Benjamin, London, 1877, p. 428.)
Fosbroke cites Tavernier as saying that the King of Persia draws a greater revenue from “the dung than from the pigeons” belonging to him in Ispahan. The Persians are said to live on melons during the summer months, and “to use pigeons’ dung in raising them.”—(“Cyclopædia of Antiquities,” vol. ii.)
Human manure was best for fields, according to Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. 17, cap. 9). Homer relates that King Laertes laid dung upon his fields. Augeas was the first king among the Greeks so to use it, and “Hercules divulged the practice thereof among the Italians.”—(Pliny, idem, Holland’s translation.)
Urine was considered one of the best manures for vines. “Wounds and incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon’s dung and swine manure.... If pomegranates are acid, the roots of the tree are cleared, and swine’s dung is applied to them; the result is that in the first year the fruit will have a vinous flavor, but in the succeeding one it will be sweet.... The pomegranates should be watered four times a year with a mixture of human urine and water.... For the purpose of preventing animals from doing mischief by browsing upon the leaves, they should be sprinkled with cow-dung each time after rain.”—(Pliny, lib. 17, cap. 47.)
Schurig calls attention to the great value attached by farmers and viticulturists to human ordure, either alone or mixed with that of animals, in feeding hogs, in fertilizing fields, and in adding richness to the soil in which vines grow. See “Chylologia,” p. 795.
In Germany and France, during the past century, farmers and gardeners were generally careful of this fertilizer.
“In the valley of Cuzco, Peru, and, indeed, in almost all parts of the Sierra, they used human manure for the maize crops, because they said it was the best.”—(Garcillasso de la Vega, “Comentarios Reales,” Clement C. Markham’s translation, in Hakluyt Society, vol. xlv. p. 11.)
“Conocian tambien el uso de estercolar las tierras que ellos llamaban Vunaltu.”—(“Historia Civil del Reyno de Chile,” Don Juan Ignacio Molina, edition of Madrid, 1788, p. 15.)
Amelie Rives, in her story “Virginia of Virginia,” relates that a certain family of Virginia was taken down with the typhoid fever on account of “making fertilizer in the cellar.” We may infer that this “fertilizer” was largely composed of manure. This is the interview between Mr. Scott and Miss Virginia Herrick: “‘The tarryfied fever’s a-ragin’ up ter Annesville,’ he announced presently. Virginia faced about for the first time. ‘Is it?’ she asked; ‘who’s down?’ ‘Nigh all of them Davises. The doctor says as how it’s ’count o’ their makin’ fertilizer in their cellar.’”—(In “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, January, 1888, p. 223.)
Animal manure was known as a fertilizer to the Jews (2 Kings ix. 37; Jeremiah viii. 2, ix. 22, xvi. 4, and xxv. 33). Human manure also. (Consult McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopædia, article “Dung.”)
URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.
Gómara explains that, mixed with palm-scrapings, human urine served as salt to the Indians of Bogota,—“Hacen sal de raspaduras de palma y orinas de hombre.”—(“Hist. de las Indias,” p. 202.)
Salt is made by the Latookas of the White Nile from the ashes of goat’s dung.—(See “The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 224.)
Pallas states that the Buriats of Siberia, in collecting salts from the shores of certain lakes in their country, are careful as to the taste of the same: “Ils n’emploient que ceux qui ont un goût d’Urine et d’alkali.” (“Voyages,” Paris, 1793, vol. iv. p. 246.) This shows that they must once have used urine for salt, as so many other tribes have done.
The Siberians gave human urine to their reindeer: “Nothing is so acceptable to a reindeer as human urine, and I have even seen them run to get it as occasion offered.”—(John Dundas Cochrane, “Pedestrian Journey Through Siberian Tartary,” 1820-23, Philadelphia, 1824, p. 235.)
Melville also relates that he saw the drivers urinate into the mouths of their reindeer in the Lena Delta.—(Personal letter to Captain Bourke.)
Here the intent was evident; the animals needed salt, and no other method of obtaining it was feasible during the winter months. Cochrane is speaking of the Tchuktchi; but he was also among Yakuts and other tribes. He walked from St. Petersburg to Kamtschatka and from point to point in Siberia for a total distance of over six thousand miles. His pages are dark with censure of the filthy and disgusting habits of the savage nomads, as, of the Yakuts, “Their stench and filth are inconceivable.... The large tents (of the Tchuktchi) were disgustingly dirty and offensive, exhibiting every species of grossness and indelicacy.” Inside the tents men, women, and girls were absolutely naked. “They drink only snow-water during the winter, to melt which, when no wood can be had, very disgusting and dirty means are resorted to,” etc. But nowhere does he speak of the drinking of human urine, which, as has been learned from other sources, does obtain among them.
(Tchuktchees of Siberia.) “It would be impossible, with decency, to describe their habits, or explain how their very efforts towards cleanliness make them all the more disgusting.... It requires considerable habitude or terrible experience in the open air to find any degree of comfort in such abodes. The Augean stables or the stump-tail cow-sheds appear like Paradise in comparison.”—(“Ice-Pack and Tundra,” Gilder, New York, 1883, p. 105.)
PREPARATION OF SAL AMMONIAC, PHOSPHORUS, SOLUTION OF INDIGO.
Diderot and D’Alembert say that the sal ammoniac of the ancients was prepared with the urine of camels; that phosphorus, as then manufactured in England, was made with human urine, as was also saltpetre.—(Encyclopædia, Geneva, 1789, article “Urine.”)
Sal ammoniac derives its name from having been first made in the vicinity of the temple of Jupiter Ammon; it would be of consequence to us to know whether or not the priests of that temple had administered urine in disease before they learned how to extract from it the medicinal salt which has come down to our own times.
Schurig devotes a chapter to the medicinal preparations made from human ordure. In every case the ordure had to be that of a youth from twenty-five to thirty years old. This manner of preparing chemicals from the human excreta, including phosphorus from urine, was carried to such a pitch that some philosophers believed the philosopher’s stone was to be found by mixing the salts obtained from human urine with those obtained from human excrement.—(See “Chylologia,” pp. 739-742.)
The method of obtaining sal ammoniac was not known to Pliny; he knew of gum ammoniac, which he says distilled from a tree, called metopia, growing in the sands near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in Ethiopia.—(Nat. Hist. lib. 12, cap. 22.)
“A notion has prevailed that sal ammoniac was made of the sand on which camels had staled, and that a great number going to the temple of Jupiter Ammon gave occasion for the name of ammoniac, corrupted to armoniac. Whether it ever could be made by taking up the sand and preparing it with fire, as they do the dung at present, those who are best acquainted with the nature of these things will be best able to judge. I was informed that it was made of the soot which is caused by burning the dung of cows and other animals. The hotter it is the better it produces; and for that reason the dung of pigeons is the best; that of camels is also much esteemed.” (Here follows a description of the method of distilling this soot.)—(Pocock’s “Travels in Egypt,” in Pinkerton, vol. xv. p. 381.)
“Purifiée, l’Urine sert dans les arts pour dégraisser les laines, dissoudre l’indigo, prépare le sel ammoniac.”—(Personal letter from Prof. Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, June 18, 1888.)
MANURE EMPLOYED AS FUEL.
The employment of manures as fuel for firing pottery among Moquis, Zuñis, and other Pueblos, and for general heating in Thibet, has been pointed out by the author in a former work. (“Snake Dance of the Moquis,” London, 1884.) It was used for the same purpose in Africa, according to Mungo Park. (“Travels,” etc., p. 119.) The dung of the buffalo served the same purpose in the domestic economy of the Plains Indians. Camel dung is the fuel of the Bedouins; that of men and animals alike was saved and dried by the Syrians, Arabians, Egyptians, and people of West of England for fuel. Egyptians heated their lime-kilns with it.—(McClintock and Strong, “Dung.” See, also, Kitto’s Biblical Encyclopædia, article “Dung.”)
Pocock says of camel dung: “In order to make fuel of it, they mix it, if I mistake not, with chopped straw, and, I think, sometimes with earth, and make it into cakes and dry it; and it is burnt by the common people in Egypt; for the wood they burn at Cairo is very dear, as it is brought from Asia Minor.”—(Pocock, in Pinkerton, vol. xv. p. 381.)
Bruce does not allude to any of the filthy customs which are detailed by Schweinfurth, Sir Samuel Baker, and others; he does say that the Nuba of the villages called Daher, at the head of the White Nile, Abyssinia, “never eat their meat raw as in Abyssinia; but with the stalk of the dura or millet and the dung of camels they make ovens under ground, in which they roast their hogs whole, in a very cleanly and not disagreeable manner.”—(“Nile,” Dublin, 1791, vol. v. p. 172.)
“Argol, the dried dung of camels, is the common fuel of Mongolia.”—(“Among the Mongols,” Rev. James Gilmour, London, 1883, pp. 84, 146, 191, 296.)
The dung of camels is the fuel of the Kirghis.—(See “Oriental and Western Siberia,” T. W. Atkinson, New York, 1865, pp. 218, 221.)
See also “From Paris to Pekin,” Meignan, London, 1885, pp. 186, 306, 310, 333; Burton’s edition of the “Arabian Nights,” vol. iii. p. 51; Father Gerbillon’s Account of Tartary, in Du Halde, vol. iv. p. 151.
“Asses’ dung used for fuel and other purposes, such as making Joss sticks.”—(Burton’s edition of the “Arabian Nights,” vol. ii. p. 149, footnote.)
Cow-dung fuel and sheep-dung fuel alluded to by Huc, as used in Thibet.—(See also Manning, Bogle, and Della Penna, in Markham’s “Thibet,” London, 1879, p. 70.)
Friar William de Rubruquis, the Minorite, sent as ambassador to the Grand Khan of Tartary, by Saint Louis, King of France, in 1253, speaks of eating “Unleavened bread baked in Oxe-Dung or Horse-dung” (in Purchas, vol. i. p. 34). Cow dung used for the same purpose in Thibet.—(See Turner’s “Embassy to Thibet,” London, 1806, p. 202.)
“Cowe-dung fewell,” in Malta, mentioned by Master George Sandys, A.D. 1610 (in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 916).—(“Stercus bouinum,” in Egypt, idem, vol. ii. p. 898.)
Yak manure used as fuel in Eastern Thibet, according to W. W. Rockhill in “Border Land of China,” in “Century” Magazine, New York, 1890.
Cow manure employed for the same purpose by the people of Turkey in Asia, in the valley of the Tigris, near Mosul, according to George Smith.—(“Assyrian Discoveries,” New York, 1876, p. 122.)
The “whole fuel” of the Mongols is “cow or horse dung dried in the sun.”—(Father Gerbillon’s Account of Tartary, in Du Halde, vol. iv. pp. 234, 270.)
The use of cow-dung as fuel in certain parts of the world would seem not to be entirely divested of the religious idea.
“Firewood at Seringapatam is a dear article, and the fuel most commonly used is cow-dung made up into cakes. This, indeed, is much used in every part of India, especially by men of rank; as, from the veneration paid the cow, it is considered as by far the most pure substance that can be employed. Every herd of cattle, when at pasture, is attended by women, and these often of high caste, who with their hands gather up the dung and carry it home in baskets.
“They then form it into cakes, about half an inch thick, and nine inches in diameter, and stick them on the walls to dry. So different indeed are Hindu notions of cleanliness from ours that the walls of their best houses are frequently bedaubed with these cakes; and every morning numerous females, from all parts of the neighborhood, bring for sale into Seringapatam baskets of this fuel. Many females who carry large baskets of cow-dung on their heads are well-dressed and elegantly formed girls.”—(“A Journey through Mysore,” Buchanan, Pinkerton, vol. viii. p. 612.)
SMUDGES.
Dried ordure is generally used for smudges, to drive away insects; the Indians of the Great Plains beyond the Missouri burned the “chips” of the buffalo with this object.
The natives of the White Nile “make tumuli of dung which are constantly on fire, fresh fuel being added constantly, to drive away the mosquitoes.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Baker, p. 53.)
“When they burn it (the dung of a camel) the smoke which proceeds from it destroys Gnats and all kinds of vermin.”—(Chinese recipes given in Du Halde’s “History of China,” vol. iv. p. 34.)
Schweinfurth describes the Shillooks of the west bank of the Nile as “burning heaps of cow-dung to keep off the flies.”—(“Heart of Africa,” vol. i. p. 16. See also “Central Africa,” Chaillé Long, New York, 1877, p. 215.)
Such smudges were employed by the Arabians to kill bed-bugs. “Effugatione Cimicum” effected by a “suffumigium” of “stercore vaccino.”—(“Avicenna,” vol. ii. p. 214, a 47.)
Rev. James Gilmour describes a mode of extinguishing a burning tent, observed among the Mongols, the counterpart of which is to be found in “Gulliver’s Travels.”—(See “Among the Mongols,” p. 23.)
Lucius Cataline, accused by Marcus Cicero of raising a flame in the city of Rome, “I believe it,” said he, “and, if I cannot extinguish it with water, I will with urine.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” cap. “Ulysses upon Ajax,” p. 22.)
HUMAN AND ANIMAL EXCRETA TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR AND ERADICATE DANDRUFF.
For shampooing the hair, urine was the favorite medium among the Eskimo.[61]
Sahagun, gives in detail the formula of the preparation applied by the Mexicans for the eradication of dandruff: “Cut the hair close to the root, wash head well with urine, and afterward take amole (soap-weed) and coixochitl leaves—the amole is the wormwood of this country [in this Sahagun is mistaken]—and then the kernels of aguacate ground up and mixed with the ashes already spoken of (wood ashes from the fire-place), and then rub on black mud with a quantity of the bark mentioned (mesquite).”[62]
A similar method of dressing the hair, but without urine, prevails among the Indians along the Rio Colorado and in Sonora, Mexico. First, an application is made of a mixture of river mud (“blue mud,” as it is called in Arizona) and pounded mesquite bark. After three days this is removed, and the hair thoroughly washed with water in which the saponaceous roots of the amole have been steeped. The hair is dyed a rich blue-black, and remains soft, smooth, and glossy.
Dove-dung was also applied externally in the treatment of baldness.—(Hippocrates, Kuhn, lib. 2, p. 854.)
The urine of the foal of an ass was supposed to thicken the hair. (See Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap 11.) Camel’s dung, reduced to ashes and mixed with oil, was said to curl and frizzle the hair (idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 8). The natives of the Nile above Khartoum have “their hair stained red by a plaster of ashes and cow’s urine.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, p. 39.)
And the Shillooks of the west bank make “repeated applications of clay, gum, or dung,” to their hair.—(“Heart of Africa,” Schweinfurth, vol. i. p. 17; idem, the Nueirs, p. 32.)
“L’aqua ex stercore distillata fait pousser les cheveux” (Bib. Scat. p. 29), while Schurig (Chylologia, p. 760) says that the same preparation “promotes the growth of the hair and prevents its falling out.”
Schurig further says that swallow-dung was of conceded efficacy as a hair-dye, and was applied frequently as an ointment. (Idem, p. 817.) He recommends the use of mouse-dung for scald head and dandruff, and even to excite the growth of the beard. (Idem, p. 823 et seq.) Ammonia, or, more properly speaking, “the ashes of hartshorn, burnt and applied with wine,” was known to Pliny as a remedy for dandruff. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 11.) Possibly the use of hartshorn for this purpose sprang from the prior use of urine, from which hartshorn or ammonia was gradually manufactured.
For loss of hair, the dung of pigeons, cats, rats, mice, geese, swallows, rabbits, or goats, or human urine, applied externally, were highly recommended by Paullini, in his “Dreck Apothek,” Frankfort, 1696.
Cat-dung was highly recommended by Sextus Placitus.
AS A MEANS OF WASHING VESSELS.
Among the Shillooks, “ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt.”—(“Heart of Africa,” Schweinfurth, vol. i. p. 16.)
“The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their habits. I have had great difficulty in breaking my cow-keeper of his disgusting custom of washing the milk-bowl with cow’s urine, and even mixing some with the milk. He declares that unless he washes his hands with such water before milking the cow will lose her milk. This filthy custom is unaccountable.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Baker, p. 240.)
A personal letter from Chief Engineer Melville, U. S. Navy, states that the natives of Eastern Siberia use urine “for cleansing their culinary materials.”
By the tribes on Lake Albert Nyanza, the “butter was invariably packed in a plantain leaf, but frequently the package was plastered with cow-dung and clay.” (“The Albert Nyanza,” p. 363. See, also, extract from Paullini, on p. 316, and from Schurig, p. 121, of this volume.) There certainly seems to be a trace of superstition in the first case mentioned by Sir Samuel Baker.
In the County Cork, Ireland, rusty tin dishes are scoured with cow manure; the manure is blessed, and so will benefit the dishes and bring good luck. It is a not infrequent custom to bury “keelars” and other dishes for holding milk under a manure-heap during the winter and early spring (when cows are apt to be dry, and the milk-dishes empty), to protect them (the dishes) from persons evilly disposed, who might cast a spell on them, and so bewitch either the cows or the milk. Such an evil-eyed person could not harm a dish unless empty.
“The cow is believed to be a blessed animal, and hence the manure is sacred.” (Personal letter from Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.) This belief of the Celtic peasantry apparently connects itself with the religious veneration in which the cow is held by the people of India.
FILTHY HABITS IN COOKING.
The Eskimo relate stories of a people who preceded them in the Polar regions called the Tornit. Of these predecessors, they say, “Their way of preparing meat was disgusting, since they let it become putrid, and placed it between the thigh and the belly to warm it.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Dr. Franz Boas, in Sixth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C., 1888, p. 635.)
This recalls the similar method of the Tartars, who used to seat themselves on their horses with their meat under them.