I
We are not concerned here with the history and development of the Hebrew feasts; but a few introductory words regarding them will not be out of place.
There were three agricultural festivals of first importance among the Israelites:
Mazzôth[233], or the feast of Unleavened Bread; this was a spring feast held when the sickle was first put to the standing corn and the first-fruits of the new crops were offered (Deut. xvi. 8, 9);
Shabuôth, or the feast of Weeks, celebrated seven weeks later at the conclusion of the harvest (Deut. xvi. 10); called also Ḳazir, the feast of “Harvest” (Exod. xxiii. 16);
Sukkôth, or the feast of Tabernacles, the autumn feast, called also ha-Asiph, the feast of “the ingathering,” when “thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field” (Exod. xxiii. 16).
Since prior to their entry into Canaan the Israelites were nomads, and therefore did not observe harvest festivals, it is extremely probable that, in settling down among the Canaanites, they adopted these festivals from the people of the land, and celebrated them in honour of Jahwe, their God.
These three great feasts were originally, among the Israelites, of equal importance, requiring presence at the sanctuary (Exod. xxxiv. 23); but there are indications that in quite early times the autumn feast of Tabernacles assumed pre-eminence. It is called “the feast,” or “the feast of Jahwe[234].” The other feasts were celebrated locally.
From the present point of view it is important to note that each of these feasts is called ḥag: ḥag ha-Mazzôth, ḥag ha-Ḳazir, ḥag ha-Asiph; that is to say, to each is applied the term which originally denoted what was the essence of a festival, viz. the sacred dance round the sanctuary; and the same is true of the minor festivals which were celebrated at the local sanctuaries.
In view of the fact that the feast was called ḥag because of the sacred dance characteristic of it, no surprise can be felt at the non-mention of dancing at these feasts when they are spoken of in the Old Testament; it was so obvious and customary that any reference to it, excepting incidental allusions, would have been quite superfluous[235]. Such incidental allusions occur in the Psalms, as we have seen, and a more specific mention is met with in Judg. xi. 34: “And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances”; we are not here concerned with the character of the feast referred to[236]; our point is that it was celebrated with dancing. Another and fuller illustration occurs in Judg. xxi. 19 ff., where mention is made of a feast which was held annually at Shiloh in honour of Jahwe; that it was a vintage feast is implied by the reference to the vineyards in which the Benjamites hid themselves[237]. At this feast it was the custom for the young girls to come out and dance: “When the maidens of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances”; and see verse 23. It is worth noticing how the dancing is mentioned as a recognized custom. The spot must have been a familiar one as the feast took place annually: we are reminded of Abel-meḥolah, “the field of dancing” (1 Kings xix. 16), which must clearly have got its name from the festival dancing which took place there habitually.
We know from the later history and ritual of the Jewish festivals that they were marked by dances and processional dances of a sacred character[238]; and the analogy of ritual usage among other peoples makes it certain that these religious dances at the Jewish feasts, as practised in post-biblical times, were not innovations, but rather the traditional ritual which had been handed down from time immemorial. As Krauss points out, the most primitive kind of dancing, a simple form of hopping, without rhythmic movement (for which the Talmud uses the word ṭaphaz), was in use in later times both at weddings and during regular worship[239].
We have already, in another connexion, drawn attention to the daily procession round the altar, after the sacrifices had been offered, during the feast of Sukkôth (“Tabernacles”). There was another dancing ceremony at this feast which must be mentioned, a ceremony of which it was said that whosoever had not seen it had never seen a real feast[240]. This was the wonderful Torch-dance which took place in the Court of the women in the Temple on the second day of the feast. A great multitude of men and women were always present on this occasion to witness the dance in which only the most prominent among the Israelites took part. While the dance was going on hymns and psalms were sung[241]. It was because of the dances and processions at the feast of Tabernacles, during which palms and branches of trees were carried, similar to the thyrsus carried by the Bacchanalian assemblies of maidens, that Plutarch was betrayed into the error of regarding this feast as of the same character as that celebrated in honour of Dionysos among the Greeks; and into his assertion that the cult of this god was in vogue among the Hebrews[242].
There was, to give another example, a religious dance, though of an entirely different character, carried out by Jewish maidens both on the feast-day known as the 15th of Ab, and on the Day of Atonement[243]. That the feast of the 15th of Ab was a religious one is clear from the evidence given by Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus[244] (1st century A.D.) to the effect that it was the great day of the year on which wood was offered for the burning of the sacrifices; the supply offered on this occasion was supposed to be sufficient to last for the year. The festival is referred to by Josephus, who calls it the Xulophoria[245].
To mention but one further example, at the feast of Purim there was a special kind of dance; although this ceased to be of a religious character, there can be no doubt that originally it was so[246].
II
Among the ancient Arabs, being nomads, Harvest and Vintage festivals did not, of course, exist. But among their descendants a festival of another kind at which a dance of, at any rate, a quasi-religious character is performed may be mentioned here; for there can be no doubt that in these things modern usage represents a custom which has been handed down through the generations from the distant past. At circumcision festivals (Muzzayîn)[247] they perform what are called Daḥa dances. The young people gather together, being invited by the fathers of the children to be circumcised, and perform these dances, during which they sing over and over again:
are to be circumcised are uttered],
Dancing at circumcisions is indispensable among the peasants in Palestine[249]; it has been observed also in many other parts of the world, e.g. among the Bambaras of Senegambia[250].
In Gen. xxi. 4, where the circumcision of Isaac is recorded, there is no mention of the circumcision feast and the accompanying dance, which, judging from later usage, always took place; but in verse 8 it says: “... And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.” The Rabbis of later times inferred that just as there was a feast at the weaning there must also have been a feast at the circumcision, and no doubt they were right. In Pirḳe de Rabbi Eliezer we read in reference to this passage (Gen. xxi. 4): “The sages said: A man is bound to make festivities and a banquet on that day when he has the merit of having his son circumcised, like Abraham our Father, who circumcised his son, as it is said...[251].” That dancing formed an indispensable element at such feasts, as among other peoples who practised this rite, hardly admits of doubt[252]. In most cases, though not in all, there enters in a distinctly religious note.
There is also dancing at the festivities attending the performance of vows[253].
III
Although it is highly probable that at the Harvest and other festivals of the Babylonians and Assyrians sacred dancing took place, definite evidence in the way of recorded instances does not seem to be forthcoming.
Among the Egyptians, however, we know that every temple had both priests and priestesses attached, among whom were dancers and musicians; and these played a very important part at all festivals[254]. Apart from official celebrations in temples, local feasts at which sacred dances were performed, also took place. Thus, when the Harvest was completed and the peasants offered the first-fruits, they danced in the presence of the god of fertility as an act of thanksgiving[255]. There was also a dance of thanksgiving performed in honour of Ptah for the annual overflowing of the Nile. In dancing a small piece of wood was often held in each hand, and these were knocked together in rhythmic time[256].
Mention should also be made of the great “Sed” festival, originally performed only once in thirty years, but later in every third year. At this festival the king was deified as Osiris, and the Crown Prince was appointed, and married to the heiress of the kingdom. At the enthronization of the deified king the Crown Prince danced before him as an act of honour to the god; this was also done at another part of the ceremony by all the men, who were present in great numbers[257].
IV
A good example among the Greeks is that of the sacred dance performed at the celebration of the Haloa, which, according to a scholion to Lucian[258], was
a feast at Athens containing mysteries of Demeter, and Kore, and Dionysos on the occasion of the cutting of vines and the tasting of wine made from them.... The Haloa gets its name, according to Philochorus, from the fact that people hold sports at the threshing-floors; and he says it is celebrated in the month Poseidon[259].... The sports held were, of course, incidental to the business of threshing; but it was these sports that constituted the actual festival. To this day the great round threshing-floor that is found in most Greek villages is the scene of the harvest festival. Near it a booth (skēnē) is to this day erected, and in it the performers rest, and eat and drink in the intervals of their pantomimic dancing[260].
In connexion with ritual dances in honour of Demeter, Frazer draws attention to the remains of “the magnificent marble drapery which once adorned the colossal statue of Demeter and Persephone in the sanctuary of the two goddesses at Lycosura, in Arcadia”; on this are carved rows of semi-human, semi-bestial figures dancing and playing musical instruments; the bodies of these figures are those of women, but their heads, paws and feet are those of a horse, a pig, a cat, or a hare, and apparently an ass[261].
“It is reasonable to suppose,” he says, “that these dancing figures represent a ritual dance which was actually performed in the rites of Demeter and Persephone by masked men and women, who personated the goddesses in their character of beasts[262].”
The story of the two daughters of Eteokles who fell into a well while dancing in honour of Demeter and Kore, and were turned into cypresses, probably owes its origin to the desire to account for the reason why sacred dances were performed under these trees, in which the numen of one or other of these goddesses was supposed to reside[263]. The story is given in Geoponica, XI. 4:
The cypresses have two names, and they are indeed called Charites on account of their delectable quality, and Cypresses on account of their bearing and producing branches and seeds in such regular order. They were the daughters of Eteokles; and when dancing in imitation of the goddesses, they fell into a well; and the earth, commiserating their misfortune, produced flourishing plants like damsels[264].
It is unnecessary to give further examples; generally speaking, among the Greeks dancing at festivals, so far as their religious character is concerned, was performed in honour of some deity. A magical purpose is sometimes to be discerned, though rarely[265]; the ecstatic dance seems sometimes to have had this object, and this, as one would expect, is only the case in the earliest period of Greek religion[266]. We have dealt in Chap. VII. with the ecstatic dance and its objects.
V
As illustrating this type of dance among the Romans we may instance the festival of the Ambarvalia; this festival was not celebrated on a fixed date, but varied according to the state of the crops. The duties at the festival were carried out by Fratres Arvales, “the Brethren of the Ploughed Fields.” With solemn prayers, addressed primarily to Mars[267] to keep away all harm from the crops, these Brethren led round in formal procession the victims destined for sacrifice to Mars as the god of vegetation, viz. a pig, a ram, and a bull. The Arval Brothers had a special three-step dance (tripudium) which they performed in honour of Mars and the Lares; it was repeated three times, and during its performance they sang a hymn of praise to the god[268]. A minute account of their three days’ festival is given in the Acta of the year 218 (Elagabalus, CIL, VI. 2104)[269]; the dance, which took place on the second, and most important, day is described as follows: “... Then the priests, shut up in the temple, girding up their togas, took the song-books and, marking the time, danced the three step singing thus ...[270].” Again, at the festival of the Lupercalia, held in February, when the sacrificial feast was ended, the Luperci, crowned and anointed, and, but for an apron of goatskin, entirely naked, ran round the Palatine Hill with thongs cut from the skin of the sacrificed goats in their hands[271]. The feast was held in honour of Faunus (the Greek Pan), who was worshipped under the name of Lupercus, in a grotto in the Palatine Mount called the Lupercal. The running round of the Luperci with the goats’ thongs had a purificatory object[272] (see p. 101).
The dances of the Salii may be appropriately mentioned here. Their sacred processions took place in March and October, and continued for over three weeks[273]. Headed by trumpeters and dressed in full battle apparel they marched through the city; at all the altars and temples they halted, and, under the conduct of two leaders, solemnly danced the war-dance in three measures in honour of Mars, singing at the same time[274]. The Salii, however, also performed dances in honour of Saturn, the Roman god of sowing;
“as the Romans,” says Frazer, “sowed the corn both in spring and autumn, and as down to the present time in Europe superstitious rustics are wont to dance and leap high in the spring for the purpose of making the crops grow high, we may conjecture that the leaps and dancing performed by the Salii, the priests of the old Italian god of vegetation, were similarly supposed to quicken the growth of the corn by homoeopathic or imitative magic[275].”
It was not in Rome alone that this type of dancing was performed;
similar colleges of dancing priests are known to have existed in many towns of ancient Italy, and everywhere, we may conjecture, they were supposed to contribute to the fertility of the earth by their leaps and dances[276].
This magical purpose of the sacred dance will come before us again.
VI
A few examples of this type of the sacred dance among uncultured peoples may now be given[277].
The sowing festival among the Kayans of Central Borneo, who are essentially an agricultural people and of a primitive type, is very elaborate; but we are only concerned with that part of it at which the sacred dancing takes place. The following is taken from an eye-witness’ account:
The first to appear on the scene were some men wearing wooden masks and helmets and so thickly wrapt in banana leaves that they looked like moving masses of green foliage. They danced silently, keeping time to the beat of the gongs. They were followed by other figures, some of whom executed war-dances; but the weight of their leafy envelope was such that they soon grew tired, and though they leaped high, they uttered none of the wild war-whoops which usually accompany these martial exercises. When darkness fell the dances ceased and were replaced by a little drama representing a boar brought to bay by a pack of hounds.... Later in the evening eight disguised girls danced, one behind the other, with slow steps and waving arms, to the glimmering light of torches and the strains of a sort of jew’s harp[278].
Nieuwenhuis, who witnessed this, insists strongly on the religious character of all the festivals observed by these people. There can be little doubt that the dancing masked men represent the spirits of fertility; the high leaps are a magical rite to make the crops grow high; and the row of dancing girls waving their arms is probably in imitation of the field of healthy stalks swaying in the wind, and thus also an act of imitative magic. It is another form of the rite which is practised by the Kai of New Guinea who swing to and fro on reeds suspended from the branches of trees in order to promote the growth of the crops[279].
Among the Malays most of the dances seem to be for the purpose of amusement; but that some of them, at any rate, were originally of a religious character is evident from what Skeat says on the subject:
... All these dances, I was told, were symbolical; one of agriculture, with the tilling of the soil, the sowing of the seed, the reaping and winnowing of the grain, might easily have been guessed by the dancers’ movements[280].
Such dances, as is well known, are always, in some stage of their development, connected with the worship of some god of vegetation[281]. Skeat says that
the religious origin of almost all Malay dances is still to be seen in the performance of such ritualistic observances as the burning of incense, the scattering of rice, and the invocation of the Dance-Spirit according to set forms, the spirit being exorcised (or “escorted homewards” as it is called) at the end of the performance[282].
One other example may be given, this time from Africa, of the dance being a propitiatory act, and accompanied by prayer; it takes place at moon festivals. The Hottentots (they are moon-worshippers) perform long nightly dances in honour of the moon, both at the appearance of the new moon and at full moon. After numberless strange contortions of the body which characterise these dances, and excruciating yells, the worshippers fling themselves to the ground; then they suddenly spring up, stamp about with their feet, and gaze up at the moon, crying: “Hail, see that we have honey, and that our flocks get plenty of food, and give us much milk!” Then the dancing, accompanied by the clapping of hands, continues. This goes on through the whole night with short pauses. According to some authorities the name Hottentot is derived from the noise made by their feet during these nightly sacred dances at the moon festivals[283].
Examples could be multiplied to almost any extent; those given are typical and they will suffice for present purposes.
SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS
A brief enumeration of the chief festivals among the Israelites is called for in the present connexion because they were agricultural feasts; and, as has already been pointed out incidentally, one of the purposes of the sacred dance was to ensure good crops. All that we learn as to the character of these festivals in the Old Testament emphasizes the element of rejoicing during their celebration; and this applies with special force to the feast of Tabernacles. The dancing which took place at these feasts would, therefore, seem to have been purely expressions of joy. But there are reasons for believing that other elements entered in as well. Expressions of thanksgiving to a god are at the same time a means of honouring him; and this, we may feel certain, figured largely at the Israelite feasts; they were thankful to Jahwe for the fruits of the field, and they were joyful for plenty; so that when grateful joy expressed itself in the dance it constituted an act of honouring, and therefore of worshipping, the national God. The rare explicit mention of these dances during the feasts in the Old Testament is easily accounted for.
But the cultural stage of the bulk of the Israelite people, at the very least up to the time of the Exile, can be proved by many indications in the Old Testament to have been no higher than other races; the extremely significant fact recorded by one of the prophets that, on occasion, the most barbarous form of the ecstatic dance, with its self-inflicted lacerations and blood-flowing, was practised by the people for the purpose of ensuring good crops, offers ample justification for the belief that one of the objects of the sacred dance at the spring festival was likewise to ensure good crops. The rite was a world-wide one, which is in itself presumptive evidence that it was practised by the Israelites.
The importance of the sacred dance during the Jewish feasts of later times, for the existence of which the evidence is ample, must be regarded as the observance of traditional custom.
The ancient Arabs did not cultivate the soil and therefore did not celebrate festivals of this kind. Among some modern Arabs dancing takes place at circumcision festivals, and it is accompanied by song; there are grounds for believing that the Israelites did the same. The dance in this case must be regarded as having been performed in honour of the newly initiated, who, by circumcision, were admitted into the community of the tribe[284].
Among the Egyptians both national and local Harvest festivals were celebrated; during these the sacred dance played an important part. We may take it that, as among the Israelites, the purpose of these dances was to express joyful gratitude to the god of fertility. The “Sed” festival was another occasion on which a sacred dance was performed; the deified king was honoured in this way.
The Haloa among the Greeks seems to have been at once a Harvest and Vintage festival; the dancing which took place during this feast must have been in honour of the god of fertility. In Greek villages at the present day the harvest festival takes place round the threshing-floor, and there is much dancing, but its old significance has now, of course, disappeared.
There is evidence that dances were performed in honour of the fertility goddess Demeter and Persephone; the dancers personated these goddesses in their character of beasts,—horses, pigs, etc.; while we have here a dance in honour of these divinities, it is possible that it also partook of the nature of imitative magic, it being a means of ensuring productivity.
An interesting case of framing a reason for the sacred dance under trees, the real reason being presumably forgotten, is that of the two daughters of Eteokles who were turned into cypresses; these were trees under which sacred dances were performed. Festival dances among the Greeks were often doubtless expressions of mirth and joy, but this did not prevent their being performed in honour of some deity; it was precisely similar among the Israelites to whom the exhortation was constantly given: “Ye shall rejoice before Jahwe your God,” in connexion with the feasts (Lev. xxiii. 40, etc.). A magic-religious purpose is at times to be discerned in these Greek festival dances.
Among the Romans a notable instance of this type of sacred dance is that performed by “the Brethren of the Ploughed Fields”; they circled round the victims for sacrifice to Mars. A similar rite was carried out by the Luperci in honour of the god Faunus (the Greek Pan); it had a purificatory purpose. The dances of the Salii were performed in honour of Mars; they also danced in honour of Saturn, the Roman god of sowing; their high leaps during the latter of these were believed to have the effect of making the corn grow high.
Among the uncultured races the Kayans of Central Borneo danced at their festivals with a purpose similar to that of the Romans; their high leaps were a magical rite to make the crops grow in height. A like result was believed by the Kai of New Guinea to be effected by swinging to and fro on reeds suspended from the branches of trees. The Malays perform imitative dances which at one time were believed to make the crops grow. Finally, the Hottentots dance in honour of the moon in belief that this will have the effect of prevailing upon their deity, the moon, to supply them and their flocks with sustenance.
We have no indications in the Old Testament that the sacred dances at the Israelite feasts had any other purpose than that of rejoicing before their God, and this was, of course, in the nature of honouring Him. But the possibility of the existence of imitative magic in connexion with them at some period of their history cannot be altogether excluded; this is suggested not only because the idea is so widespread, but also because even in much later times among the Jews we have an example of an imitative magical rite during a feast in the Temple. At the Feast of Tabernacles it was the custom for water to be drawn ceremonially by the priests from the fountain of Siloam; this was brought through the water-gate, when a long-drawn-out trumpet blast was sounded, into the Temple, where it was poured out upon the altar during the further blowing of trumpets; the rite was performed daily on the seven days of the Feast. That this was a piece of imitative magic for the purpose of ensuring a sufficient rainfall would suggest itself spontaneously; but we have the definite statement to this effect given by the Rabbis, for the object of the rite is explained by the words: “The Holy One, Blessed be He! said, Pour out water before me at the Feast, in order that the rains of the year may be blessed to you[285].” This clear evidence among the Jews for the existence of a magical rite to obtain rain is sufficient justification for believing that their forefathers may have performed dances at Harvest Festivals for the purpose of ensuring good crops.