I
It is a natural and obvious thing that there should be expressions of joy on the occasion of victory; and, as dancing was one of the ways whereby joy was expressed, it is equally natural that this should have been performed on such occasions. Furthermore, when we find that in the records of these celebrations it is the women who do the dancing, this is only what is to be expected since it is done in honour of the victorious warriors. This is all in the natural order of things; and, so far as the Old Testament is concerned, it would seem that the simple recording of the fact that the celebration of a victory was one of the occasions on which dancing was performed is all that is required. However, this custom is widespread, and has been, and still is, in vogue among peoples in very different stages of culture; and in discussing a widespread custom, such as this, it is always possible that one may discern in the performance of it among less cultured races elements which suggest that originally there was something more in it than appears upon the surface. In other words, the possibility must be reckoned with that the custom as recorded in the Old Testament was in reality the survival of something which was believed to have a decisive effect in bringing about victory. The dance of the Israelite women on these occasions had a threefold purpose; it was a means of expressing joy; it was also the way in which the victorious warriors were honoured; and, most important, it was an act of praise and thanksgiving to Jahwe; so that this type of dance was emphatically a religious one. If, as we hope to offer some grounds for believing, this type of dance was, in its origin, a means of effecting victory by magic, it will be an interesting illustration of magic being, as Mr Marett says, “part and parcel of the ‘god-stuff’ out of which religion fashions itself[286].”
In passing, it may be said that, in spite of the fact that the absence of the able-bodied men would make the women the natural performers in these kind of dances, this public appearance of oriental women witnesses to a very different condition of society from that with which we are familiar as obtaining in the East in later centuries; in other words, the Israelites were in some respects in a less advanced cultural stage than we are sometimes apt to suppose. Not that they were conscious of any other objects in this type of dance than those mentioned; we only mean that at this time immemorial custom, however different the reasons given for its existence, was more likely to be tenaciously held to than when radical changes in religious belief and social and moral conditions had taken place.
The type of dancing with which we are just now concerned has nothing to do with the war-dance, the primary aim of which
seems to be the development of physical excitement, and consequently courage, in the dancing warriors; secondarily, as magical ideas attach themselves, the aim of frightening the enemy by a demonstration of violence is added[287].
In the Old Testament there is no mention of the war-dance. But there was a solemn preparation for war, for it must be remembered that among the Israelites, as among other Semites, there was a religious element connected with the act of warfare. Warriors “consecrated” themselves before entering upon it (Isa. xiii. 3); the phrase for declaring war or entering upon a state of warfare is to “sanctify, or consecrate, war” (Mic. iii. 5, Jer. vi. 4); and battle was prepared for by sacrifice (1 Sam. xiii. 9, 10); moreover, after the battle the spoil, or part of it, was consecrated to Jahwe (1 Sam. xv. 21, 2 Sam. viii. 11, 1 Chron. xviii. 11).
The Israelites, thus, entered battle under the protection of Jahwe; the religious element, therefore, was strongly emphasized.
We proceed now to enumerate the instances in the Old Testament of dancing in celebration of victory.
In Exod. xv. 20, 21 a dance with song accompanied by musical instruments is performed by women in celebration of victory:
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel (tôph) in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam chanted[288] to them,
Here the dancing and singing have clearly the single purpose of thanksgiving to Jahwe, for the victory is ascribed solely to Him; so that the passage presents the highest development of purpose for which this type of dance was performed. It is the same in Ps. lxviii. 11, 12 (12, 13 in Hebr.), where there is an obvious reference to the custom: “Jahwe giveth the word, the women that publish the tidings (i.e. of victory) are a great host; kings of armies flee; and she that tarrieth at home divideth the spoil[289].” True, there is no mention of singing and dancing here; but if, as we may well believe, it was so well known that the women who celebrated the victory did sing and dance, there was no need to specify it.
In the example given in Judg. xi. 34 it is different, for the dancing and singing here are in honour of the victorious warrior. Jephthah, on his return from his victory over the Ammonites, is met by his daughter and other maidens (her companions are spoken of in verse 38) “with timbrels and with dances[290].” This is further illustrated by the well-known passage 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7:
And it came to pass as they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, that the women came out of the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with timbrels, with joy and with instruments of music (Shalishim, whatever this may mean); and the dancing women sang to one another and said,
The corruptions in the Hebrew text of this passage need not trouble us as they do not affect the special point with which we are concerned. The same event is referred to in 1 Sam. xxi. 11, where the way in which the custom is spoken of shows that it was a common one: “Did they not sing one to another in the dances...?” See also xxix. 5. In passing, it is worth offering an interesting parallel to this, although the actual dancing is not mentioned. It is given in Pausanias in reference to the victorious Aristomenes after his defeat of the Lacedaemonians:
When Aristomenes returned to Andania the women threw ribbons and fresh flowers on him, and recited in his honour a song which is sung to this day,—
In the light of these passages we may recall Judg. v. 28-30, where the mother of Sisera is vividly depicted looking from the “window,” together with her “wise ladies,” in expectation of the return of her victorious son with the spoils of battle. It is not an undue stretch of the imagination to suppose that if victory instead of defeat had fallen to Sisera’s lot, we should have had a description of his mother watching the women going forth with timbrels and dances to welcome home the victorious warriors.
Taking these Old Testament passages by themselves, then, there is no reason to suppose that the custom of which they speak is anything more than a simple and natural expression of joy and in one case, at any rate, of thankfulness to Jahwe, for victory in battle, together with an appropriate tribute to the victorious leader. And the same is true in the case of other civilized peoples of antiquity. But it is unnecessary to give illustrations of this type of dance among them because this would throw no light on the original object of it. For this we must go to races in a lower stage of culture, among whom we are so often able to see the antecedents of both the nature and the purpose of customs which among civilized peoples appear in a developed form, and with a different purpose and meaning. If the consideration of a few examples of this type of dance among uncivilized peoples appears to lead us away somewhat from our main point, the digression must be excused on the ground that side-lights do inevitably, at times, cast their rays from a distance.
But before coming to these examples we should like to say a word about the “consecration” for battle, as it is conceivable that this may have had an indirect bearing on the “primitive” object of this type of dance. The Old Testament tells us, as we have seen, that warriors consecrated themselves before entering battle by assisting at a sacrifice[292]. The sacrifice was a means of propitiation which would induce the national God to look favourably upon the expedition and give His help to those who were about to take part in it. But this is a relatively advanced religious conception; there is a long history behind it, and some of the stages in that history are discernible in the preparation for battle among uncivilized races. We will give one instance, of many; more are unnecessary, for the same idea underlies them all. Schoolcraft, quoted by Frazer[293], tells us that
on extraordinary occasions the bravest warriors of the Dakotahs used to perform a dance at which they devoured the livers of dogs raw and warm in order thereby to acquire the sagacity and bravery of the dog. The animals were thrown to them alive, killed and cut open; then the livers were extracted, cut into strips and hung on a pole. Each dancer grabbed at a piece of liver with his teeth, and chewed and swallowed it as he danced; he might not touch it with his hands, only the medicine-man enjoyed that privilege. Women did not join in the dance.
To the savage this acquisition of bravery would be an appropriate preparation for battle. In the many instances of analogous rites the choice of the animal appears to depend upon some quality characteristic of it. But it is possible that there is something more behind this. In the case just cited there are two points which suggest that the choice of the dog was not solely due to its qualities of sagacity and bravery; the sacred dance performed during the eating of its liver, and the prohibition to touch it, point to something sacrosanct about the animal. Frazer points out elsewhere[294] that the custom of killing a god in animal form
belongs to a very early stage of human culture, and is apt in later times to be misunderstood. The advance of thought tends to strip the old animal and plant gods of their bestial and vegetable husk, and to leave their human attributes (which are always the kernel of the conception) as the final and sole residuum. In other words, animal and plant gods tend to become purely anthropomorphic. When they have become wholly or nearly so, the animals and plants which were at first the deities themselves, still retain a vague and ill-understood connexion with the anthropomorphic gods who have been developed out of them. The origin of the relationship between the deity and the animal or plant having been forgotten, various stories are invented to explain it. These explanations may follow one of two lines according as they are based on the habitual or on the exceptional treatment of the sacred animal or plant. The sacred animal was habitually spared, and only exceptionally slain; and accordingly the myth might be devised to explain either why it was spared or why it was killed.
The principle here laid down is only in part applicable to the case under consideration; but it suggests that the dog, which was clearly sacred to the Dakotahs, was not eaten solely on account of its qualities of sagacity and bravery; these happened to be its characteristics which were absorbed by eating it. As a sacred animal it possessed supernatural powers, exemplified especially by its characteristic qualities. In a different stage of the development of this general conception a sacred animal would be partaken of, divine power being thereby acquired, irrespective of any quality that it might possess[295].
“Holy animals,” says Robertson Smith, “and holy things generally, are primarily conceived, not as belonging to the deity, but as being themselves instinct with divine power or life. Thus a holy animal is one which has a divine life; and if it be holy to a particular god, the meaning must be that its life and his are somehow bound up together. From what is known of primitive ways of thought we may infer that this means that the sacred animal is akin to the god, for all valid and permanent relation between individuals is conceived as kinship[296].”
In a still later stage of development, with an advanced conception of deity, a sacrifice to the god would be regarded as the means of securing what was desired, e.g. in the present case, divine aid to victory, as we find in 1 Sam. xiii. 9, 10.
So that it is conceivable that in an earlier stage the Semitic forbears of the Israelites partook of a sacrifice preparatory to battle in the belief that by this means the strength of the god would be imparted to them.
So much then for the question of consecration for battle. We turn now to consider the purpose of the sacred dance in connexion with battle among some of the uncivilized races.
II
As far as one can gather from the evidence there seem to be, in regard to this type of dance in its more primitive forms, two purposes which are apparently quite distinct. The first has for its object the quieting or propitiation of the ghosts of those slain in battle; in this case the dance is not the central rite, but none the less indispensable. The following is an example of this among the natives of the Indian Archipelago:
In the island of Timor, when a warlike expedition has returned in triumph bringing the heads of the vanquished foe, the leader of the expedition is forbidden by religion and custom to return at once to his own house. A special hut is prepared for him, in which he has to reside for two months, undergoing bodily and spiritual purification. That these observances are dictated by fear of the ghosts seems certain; for from another account of the ceremonies performed on the return of a successful head-hunter in the same island we learn that the sacrifices are offered on this occasion to appease the soul of the man whose head has been taken off. The people think that some misfortune would befall the victor were such offerings omitted. Moreover, a part of the ceremony consists of a dance accompanied by a song, in which the death of the slain man is lamented and his forgiveness is entreated.
An argumentative plea, addressed to the slain man, is then pronounced in extenuation of the unfortunate necessity of his having had to lose his head[297]. It is evident that in this case the entire ceremony is an act of propitiation to the soul of the slain lest his ghost should bring some evil on the head of the slayer; the dance is, of course, performed as a compliment to the enraged ghost.
We take another example from a different part of the world:
Among the Roro-speaking tribes of British New Guinea homicides were secluded in the warriors’ club-house. They had to pass the night in the building, but during the day they might paint and decorate themselves and dance in front of it.... Finally, those warriors who had never killed a man before assumed a beautiful ornament made of fretted turtle shell, which none but homicides were allowed to flaunt in their head-dresses. Then came a dance, and that same night the men who wore the honourable badge of homicide for the first time were chased about the village; embers were thrown at them and firebrands waved in order, apparently, to drive away the souls of the dead enemies, who seemed to be conceived as immanent in some way in the headgear of their slayers[298].
Here again, while the dance does not form the central part of the ceremony, it is evidently an essential part of it, performed in honour of the slain. The interior of the warriors’ club-house was evidently considered a place of safety, hence the retirement into it during the night, the time when the ghosts were most to be feared. The dance which followed next day must be regarded as an act of propitiation; this concerned the veterans. The novices had their special dance, also a propitiatory rite, while the firebrands hurled at their heads in the evening gave the quietus to the ghosts of the men slain by them.
Once more, among the Arunta of Central Australia it is likewise the custom to perform a vigorous dance on the return from battle[299]. In this case the dance comprises the whole ceremony, from which one can gather the importance of it in the eyes of these people. It is difficult to say whether the dance here is an act of propitiation or whether it serves to frighten away the ghosts of the slain, who are supposed to follow their slayers; probably, we should say, the former, since the frightening away of ghosts usually takes a different form.
As a few examples of many these cases of the dance taking place after the return from victory show that one of its purposes was the propitiation of the ghosts of the slain.
We turn now to some other instances in which the dance had a different purpose. An old historian of Madagascar informs us that
while the men are at the wars, and until their return, the women and girls cease not day and night to dance, and neither lie down nor take food in their own homes.... They believe that by dancing they impart strength, courage, and good fortune to their husbands; accordingly during such times they give themselves no rest, and this custom they observe very religiously[300].
A similar result is believed to be brought about by dancing, according to Mr Fitzgerald Marriott, among West African tribes. He says that while the Ashantee war was raging he
saw a dance performed by women whose husbands had gone as carriers to the war. They were painted white, and wore nothing but a short petticoat. At their head was a shrivelled old sorceress in a very short white petticoat.... All carried white brushes made of buffalo or horse tails, and as they danced they sang, “Our husbands have gone to Ashanteeland; may they sweep their enemies off the face of the earth[301]!”
Again, among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, “when the men were on the war-path, the women performed dances at frequent intervals. These dances were believed to ensure the success of the expedition.” The same holds good among the Yuki tribe of Indians in California; the women at home danced, believing that this would ensure victory. So, too, among the Haida women who danced and sang while their husbands were away fighting; also among the women in the Kafir district of the Hindoo Koosh of whom Sir George Robertson reports that he
more than once watched the dancers dancing at midnight and in the early morning, and could see by the fitful glow of the wood-fire how haggard and tired they looked, yet how gravely and earnestly they persisted in what they regarded as a serious duty[302].
In all these cases the dancing is in the nature of sympathetic magic, and has, therefore, an entirely different purpose from that of the previous instances cited, namely that of ensuring victory. While in the cases of ghost-propitiation the dancing, though essential, is subordinate, in the sympathetic magical, or telepathic, type it is central.
One other example is worth giving, for it is one in which the dancing takes place as a welcome to the warriors on their return from battle, and is, therefore, not of a telepathic nature; on the other hand, it does not appear to be undertaken with the idea of propitiating the ghosts of the slain, while the frightening of them away is not done by the dancers. Frazer, quoting van der Roest[303], gives this example in the following words:
In Windessi, Dutch New Guinea, when a party of head-hunters has been successful, and they are nearing home, they announce their approach and success by blowing on triton shells. Their canoes are also decked with branches. The faces of the men who have taken a head are blackened with charcoal. If several have taken part in killing the same victim, his head is divided among them. They always time their arrival so as to reach home in the early morning. They come rowing to the village with a great noise, and the women stand ready to dance in the verandahs of the houses.... The day is spent very quietly. Now and then they drum or blow on the conch; at other times they beat the walls of the houses with loud shouts to drive away the ghosts of the slain.
If, as seems probable, we have here a case of the dance taking place as a welcome home, and as a mark of honour to the victorious warriors, then we are justified in regarding it as the remains of the fuller form of the dance which was performed during the whole period of the absence of the warriors, and with a different object. In any case, such a remnant, involving a transition from one purpose to another, would be in the natural order of things,—the original purpose of the dance being an act of imitative magic to effect victory, the remnant being merely a form of welcome home to the victorious warriors; and such a transition could be paralleled by analogies, as every folklorist is well aware[304]. In course of time the original purpose or purposes of the dance would be completely forgotten, and when a reason was sought it would be simply and solely that of the welcome to the home-coming victors.
It is this latter, and this alone, which is the purpose of this type of dance in the Old Testament. But that the custom, like all ancient customs, must have a long history behind it, and that the ostensible purpose or purposes of such customs vary according to the cultural stage of the people among whom they are in vogue, will be generally allowed. We venture, therefore, to suggest the possibility that in its very much earlier phases among the ancestors of the Israelites some such objects as those indicated were connected with this type of dance.
SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS
Joyful expressions for victory in battle lie in the nature of things; and since dancing is, and always has been, one of the means of giving vent to this feeling, its mention in the Old Testament in this connexion is what might be expected. In the few examples of this dance recorded in the Old Testament the points to be noted are that it is performed as an act of thanksgiving to Jahwe; this stamps it as in the nature of a sacred rite. It is also a welcome home to the victorious warriors and a tribute to their bravery; but in all probability at the back of this there was always the thought of the real author of the victory, the national God; for it was in His name that the warriors had consecrated themselves for the battle, and in His name that they had, therefore, gone forth to fight (cp. Deut. xx. 1 ff.). Moreover, it has to be remembered that the nation’s enemies were always regarded as the enemies of the national God. The religious character of the rite is thus emphasized. A further point is that these dances, together with accompanying music, were performed by women. As it was the men who had gone forth to fight it will be argued that there could be none but women to perform the dances. At the same time, it cannot be supposed that a district would be wholly denuded of men; some, it may reasonably be expected, remained at home for various reasons; see e.g. Deut. xx. 6-8, xxiv. 5. But the performance of the rite seems to have been entirely restricted to women. It may be that there was in its early origins some reason for this, for we find a similar restriction among races of lower civilization.
This type of dance is quite distinct from the war-dance; whether there was anything in the nature of a war-dance among the Israelites we have no means of ascertaining; it is never even hinted at in the Old Testament. On the other hand, there was preparation for battle in the form of sacrifice to Jahwe.
There were some other customs regarding preparation and “consecration” for battle among the Israelites which point to the lingering of very old-world conceptions; this fact offers some justification for the contention that this type of sacred dance may possibly be the remains, in a developed form, of a rite which originally contained some similar old-world conception. By “remains, in a developed form,” we mean a rite shorn of its original content, but which continues to be observed, and has a new meaning assigned to it. We have in the Old Testament distinct references to the taboo on sexual intercourse for warriors previous to battle (Deut. xxiii. 10, 11; 1 Sam. xxi. 4, 5 [5, 6 in Hebr.]; 2 Sam. xi. 11).
The extension of this kind of taboo to warriors on an expedition is common among rude peoples, and we know that it had place among the Arabs, and was not wholly obsolete as late as the second century of Islām[305].
In reference to the rule laid down in Deut. xxiii. 10, 11, Frazer rightly points out that
it suffices to prove that the custom of continence observed in time of war by the Israelites, as by a multitude of savage and barbarous peoples, was based on a superstitious, not a rational motive. To convince us of this it is enough to remark that the rule is often observed by warriors for some time after their victorious return, as also by the persons left at home during the absence of the fighting men. In these cases the observance of the rule evidently does not admit of a rational explanation, which could hardly, indeed, be entertained by anyone conversant with savage modes of thought[306].
There is ample evidence to show that this custom was not observed from fear of dissipating physical strength, but simply owing to the belief that any contact whatsoever with women made a man effeminate; it extended even to the touching of women’s apparel. We do not maintain that the Israelites were necessarily conscious of the reason why they observed this taboo; it may or may not have been so; but what we contend is that the continued existence among them of such an old-world rite, whatever purpose was assigned for its performance, justifies belief in the possibility that the sacred dance in celebration of victory is the remains of another old-world custom and conception to which a new meaning was given. The consideration of some analogous examples of this type of dance among the uncultured races suggests that in its origin it was a magical rite performed by the women to ensure victory. This was, however, only one of the purposes of this type of dance; another object of it was the quieting or propitiating of the ghosts of those slain in battle. That it ever had this object among the Israelites or their forbears it would be rash to deny, knowing what is recorded in the Old Testament regarding the attitude of the living towards the dead[307]; but no data upon which to go occur in the Old Testament.