The Maoris turned their faces into close imitations of their demonlike carved images. But the thrust-out tongue, the wild rolling eyes standing out of the head, the fierce grimaces, and the quivering hands and fingers, with the accompaniment of the deep-drawn cries and the stamp of feet, had all the advantages of living movement to add to the terrifying effect. It is difficult to efface the deep impression that its massive energy and furious, almost epileptic, passion makes on the mind, when produced by hundreds. It surpassed in fury anything that kava or any other drug or fermented liquor could have given to the harmonious movements of a mass of warriors[225].
Strictly speaking, this hardly belongs to the category of ecstatic dances because it is not performed with any idea of communication with a supernatural power, whether as a means of effecting union with it, or honouring it, or as a form of supplication to it; nevertheless, it is worth recording here, if only because it affords an illustration of the extended use of a rite for purposes with which originally it had nothing to do.
And now to give, finally, an example or two of the ecstatic dance in its most extreme and barbaric form. Frazer tells us that
when game was very scarce, certain Basuto tribes which lived partly by the chase, were wont to assemble and invoke the spirit of a famous dead chief and other ancestral deities. At these ceremonies they cut themselves with knives, rolled in ashes, and uttered piercing cries. They also joined in religious dances, chanted plaintive airs, and gave vent to loud lamentations. After spending a whole day and night in wailing and prayer, they dispersed next morning to scour the country in search of the game which they confidently expected the ghosts or gods would send in answer to their intercession[226].
He compares this with the frenzied rites of the Canaanite prophets of Baal, and refers to another well-known case among the Israelites themselves (Hos. vii. 14), in which they lacerated their bodies by way of appealing to the deity on behalf of their corn and vines. The non-mention of the sacred dance in this passage does not imply that it did not take place; analogies suggest that it was an indispensable part of the rite.
Another instructive example is given by Jevons which he takes from Bishop Caldwell’s “very careful observations in Tinnevelly[227].” He says:
In Tinnevelly evil spirits have no regular priests; but when it becomes necessary, in consequence of some pressing need, to resort to the aid of these spirits, some one is chosen, or offers himself, to be the priest for the occasion, and is dressed up in the insignia of the spirit. As blood is the sacrifice to a god, so in the dance with which the evil spirits, like the tribal god, are worshipped, the dancer in an ecstasy draws his own blood and drinks that of the victim, a goat, say, and thus the spirit passes into him, and he has the power of prophecy. As the sacrifice of the sacred victims was a solemn mystery to be celebrated by night, and terminated before sunrise, so the worship of the evil spirits must be performed by night, and the general opinion is that night is the appropriate time for their worship[228].
Here we have another interesting parallel to the procedure of the priests of Baal, though, as the Canaanite worship had reached, in comparison, a higher stage, the parallel does not hold good in all particulars. But we have the pressing need of the Baal-worshippers, the sacrifice to the god, the dance round the altar, the dancers in an ecstasy drawing their own blood, and the spirit of prophecy passing into them[229]; the sacrifice takes place after sunset. They do not drink the blood of the sacrificial victim in order to become possessed by the god because this is effected by means of the ecstatic dance whereby they prophesy; and probably this points to an advance in religious conception; for the belief that union is effected by the ecstatic dance is certainly not so crass and materialistic as that which requires the essence of the deity to pass into his worshippers by drinking the blood of the sacrificial victim offered to him, and which is supposed to become identified with the god. In other respects the parallel is sufficiently striking. In each case it is clear that the ecstatic dance is an essential part of the ritual.
The pressing needs which this type of sacrifice with its ecstatic dance are supposed to supply are various, but there is a curious and instructive similarity in most of the details of the ritual wherever it is practised, showing that the underlying ideas are generally the same in every case. Here is one more example. In his book on Serpent-worship in India Mr C. F. Oldham describes what he saw during the great sacrifice to Kailang Nāg, which was celebrated in the village of the Ravi, and which had for its object the obtaining of fine weather for the sowing,—this had been delayed owing to storms. Kailang, a demi-god, is supposed to control the weather. The writer says:
On my arrival I found the people assembled on the open grassy space in front of the temple. The men and the boys sat together, the women and the girls being at a little distance. Soon the music struck up, and some of the men and boys began to dance in a circle, the chela[230] dancing in the centre. After a time the music became wilder and the dance more energetic. Some of the men, when tired, sat down, and others took their places. The chela continued dancing, and he applied the sungal[231] to his own back and shoulders, and to those of some of the other dancers. Some of the men then applied another similar scourge to their backs, with great effect, amid shouts of Kailang Mahārāi ki jāi (“Victory to the great king Kailang”). Then, all being ready, a victim (a ram) was led out, and having shown, by shivering, that it was acceptable to the deity, its head was struck off. The body was immediately lifted up by several men, and the chela, seizing upon it, drank the blood as it spouted from the neck, amid renewed shouts of Kailang Mahārāi ki jāi. The carcase was thrown down upon the ground, and the head, with a burning coal upon it, placed before the threshold of the temple. The dancing was then renewed, and became more violent, until the chela gasped out Kailang āya (“Kailang has come”). All then became silent, and the prophet announced that the sacrifice was accepted, and that the season would be favourable. This was received with a storm of shouts of Kailang Mahārāi ki jāi, and the chela sank down upon the ground exhausted. Water was poured over him, and he was vigorously fanned till he showed signs of revival. The assembly then began to disperse[232].
These three examples exhibit essentially the same traits and sufficiently illustrate this type of dance in its extreme form among peoples of low civilization, so that it is unnecessary to multiply illustrations. It must, however, be said that this more barbarous form of the ecstatic dance is not nearly so prevalent as the form previously mentioned; it seems to be resorted to in times of emergency, and in this offers a further parallel to the case of the prophets of Baal.
SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS
The ecstatic dance is performed as the outcome of strong religious emotion; it begins quietly and without any indication of what is to come; but the intention to increase it gradually to an extravagant pitch is there from the commencement, and it continues until semi-consciousness, and even total unconsciousness is reached. The excitement caused by the dance frequently becomes contagious, so that others join in. The purpose of this dance is to effect union with a superhuman spirit; the body, temporarily “emptied” of consciousness, is believed to be entered by the god or spirit in whose honour the dance takes place. Among peoples of low culture, among whom belief in the “external soul” is common, there can be no doubt that the conviction existed that the soul took its departure from the body for the time being, thus making room for the higher spirit of the god. While thus inhabiting the body, the god utilized it for his own purposes. The prime motive of the ecstatic dance was union with the deity; that being once effected other things might or might not follow.
The ecstatic dance takes, however, a different form, and has a different purpose under special circumstances. It acts sometimes as a means of forcing the deity (or, rather, it is believed to do so) to answer prayer; then during the ecstatic state self-laceration takes place, apparently with little or no sensation of pain; the loss of consciousness does not necessarily ensue. Both these forms of the ecstatic dance are met with among the Israelites. The former was practised by the prophets, and its contagious character is forcibly illustrated; as a result the spirit of Jahwe comes upon the performer. The latter is mentioned as a Syrian rite practised in time of emergency by the prophets of Baal; but the influence of Syrian, or Canaanite, practice upon the Israelites here is plainly indicated by the prophet Hosea who tells of how the people “cut themselves for corn and wine,” thus rebelling against their God. Though in this instance the dance is not mentioned we know from the parallel case of the prophets of Baal that it was part of the ritual, and therefore took place; and this quite apart from the analogous practice elsewhere. It was done with the purpose of forcing the god (in this case some local Baal) to give good crops. It was, so we may believe, an emergency rite; the more normal method may have been the dance round the sacred tree (see above, pp. 96, 99, 103). As to the special form of dance on these occasions, it is probable, so far as the prophetic dance was concerned, that it began in quite moderate style, and in single file formation; as the excitement increased it is obvious that it assumed a very different form, a whirling round with head thrown back, judging from analogy. In the case of the wilder, Syrian, form, there is reason to suppose that it began also quietly, with the “limping” step, and presently got wilder and wilder, until knives and other sharp instruments were seized, and self-inflicted wounds caused blood to flow from the bodies of the performers. The purpose of the “limping” step is believed, with good reason, to have been to arouse the pity of the god, or else to imitate him and thus induce him to hear the prayers addressed to him; the flowing blood may be regarded as having been a means of forcing the god to answer prayer.
The ecstatic dance, at any rate in its more barbarous form, is unknown among other Semitic peoples. This holds good also of the Egyptians, though the present day existence of it, in its less barbarous form, among the Dancing Dervishes supports the belief of its having been in vogue in earlier times.
With regard to the Syrians, however, there is the clearest evidence of its existence in both forms; for we have the story of Wen-Amon, and the detailed accounts of Heliodorus and Apuleius.
Very full evidence is forthcoming as to the ecstatic dance among the Greeks; it is, however, not indigenous, and can be shown to have come to them from the Syrians. It is, in the main, connected with the worship of Dionysos, in whose honour the Thyiads danced and raved, often until they became insensible. The god was supposed to be present at the orgies which took place during his festivals, and those who, by means of orgiastic dances, lost consciousness, came under his influence and were “possessed” by him. The instances of this dance among the Greeks, of which some notable ones are recorded above, show to what an extent it was in vogue; but we find that, in general, it is the less barbarous form of the ecstatic dance that was performed among them. The more objectionable form was rare; it occurred in connexion with the worship of Attis, but this was not popular among the Greeks. On the other hand, strange to say, among the Romans, especially during the later period of the Empire and owing to the influx of alien oriental cults, this form of worship became prominent. National characteristics undoubtedly had much to do with this contrast between Greeks and Romans; but it is probable that the respective purposes of the dance also had something to do with it; for while the main purpose of the ecstatic dance among the Greeks was to bring about the union of the god with his worshippers, among the Romans it appears to have been that of offering their blood. Among the Greeks, that is to say, it was in the nature of an act of devotion; but among the Romans it was to induce the goddess of fertility to give abundant crops.
Both forms of this dance appear among uncultured peoples. Its purpose is “possession” during which the possessed becomes endowed with supernatural powers; he is able to cure diseases, or to give oracles; or else it is purely an act of devotion. Among the Maoris it is supposed to have the effect of imparting courage, so it is performed on the eve of battle.
In its more barbaric form it is supposed to induce the higher powers to supply wants, as among the Basutos when game is scarce. An interesting example of the rite is offered by the natives in Tinnevelly in which both union with a supernatural being, and the power of prophecy is attained by means of this type of dance; it is true that, among these natives the actual union with the spirit is effected by offering him blood and drinking that of the victim sacrificed to the spirit; but the necessary spiritual condition into which the worshipper must be transported for this purpose is brought about through the sacred dance. But in this instance, as invariably among the uncivilized races, there is always some practical end in view; a material need of some kind arises which, it is believed, will be supplied by means of this rite.
In comparing this type of dance, as practised among many peoples, with the three instances of it given in the Old Testament, it will have been seen that there is a striking similarity both in purpose and performance. It is noteworthy, however, that among the Hebrews it is the milder type that is indigenous, and it is essentially an act of devotion; it is a means of receiving the spirit of Jahwe, and this for the practical purpose of divining His will and proclaiming it. The rite as practised by the prophets of Baal is Syrian; and there can be little doubt that the custom recorded by Hosea was of Syrian origin. So that, as among the Greeks, the milder form of the ecstatic dance was indigenous, while the more barbarous form was due to Syrian influence.
Reviewing the subject as a whole, there is no shadow of doubt that Hebrew and Greek practice here, though it is but a small item of religious ritual with which we have been concerned, illustrates their religious superiority over all the other races. But of these two the Hebrews stand on distinctly higher ground; there is not the remotest reason for believing that the ecstatic dance among them was ever contaminated by the licence which often obtained among the Greeks. Among the Hebrews, moreover, the object of it was purely devotional; and when an oracle was put forth it was only to declare the will of their God. So that it is true to say that even in the lower planes of religious thought and practice the Hebrews showed that they were in the vanguard of religious evolution.