The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Introduction to the History of Religions by Crawford Howell Toy, 'Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 4'

199 In Egypt there grew up also an elaborate system of charms for the protection of the dead against hostile animals, especially serpents,—a body of magical texts that finally took the form of the "Book of the Dead" (Breasted, History of Egypt, pp. 69, 175; Steindorff, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 153 ff.).

200 Çatapatha Brahmana, xii, 9, 3, 12. Cf. W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i, 193 f.

201 Breasted, op. cit., p. 249.

203 2 Macc. xii, 40 ff. Possibly the custom came to the Jews from Egypt. For later Jewish ideas on this point see Jewish Encyclopedia, article "Kaddish."

204 Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, article "Canon of the Liturgy"; Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, article "Prayers for the Dead."

205 On savage logic cf. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, chap. iv.

208 As to the efficiency of such tradition, compare the way in which mechanical processes are transmitted by older workmen to younger, always with the possibility of gradual improvement. In literary activity, also, tradition plays a great part; a young people must serve an apprenticeship before it can produce works of merit.

209 Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i, sec. 35; Westermarck, Human Marriage, p. 43 ff.; Pridham, Ceylon, i, 454 (Veddas); United States Exploring Expedition, i, 124 (Fuegians); Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 278 (Australian Grounditch); Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrikas, p. 328 (Bushmen); Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, i, 207 (North American Snake tribes); Rivet, in The American Anthropologist, 1909 ("The Jivaros of Ecuador").

210 Cf. I. King, The Development of Religion, p. 66 ff.

211 Even in higher forms of religion, as the Vedic, sacrifice and other ceremonies are supposed to have a magical power over the gods.

212 This is a part of the belief in the mysterious energy (mana) potentially resident in all things.

213 See, for example, the bird dances described by Haddon (Head-hunters, p. 358); compare W. Matthews, Navaho Legends, p. 83 al. Dances are now often given for the amusement of the public. Clowns often form a feature of such ceremonies; see Matthews, Navaho Legends, p. 230; R. B. Dixon, The Northern Maidu (Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History, xvii, part iii, p. 315 ff.).

214 Howitt, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xvi, 327 ff.

215 Miss Fletcher, Indian Ceremonies, p. 263 n.

216 Miss Kingsley, Studies, p. 126.

217 E. F. im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, vii, iv, 5.

218 E. F. im Thurn, op. cit., vi.

219 Of the same simple festive nature as dances are the plays or sports that are not infrequent among savages and half-civilized tribes. In the Areoi dramatic performances priests are ridiculed (W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, p. 187).

220 Miss Fletcher, "Emblematic Use of the Tree in the Dakotan Group" (in Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1896).

221 So among the hill tribes of North Arracan (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ii, 239) and the North American Indians (Featherman, Races of Mankind, division iii, part i, p. 37 etc.). Such dances are performed by the Tshi women in the absence of the men (A. B. Ellis, The Tshi, p. 226).

222 See below, § 903, on imitative magic.

223 Riedel, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xvii.

224 Haddon, Head-hunters, p. 139.

225 Journal of American Folklore, xvii, 32. Cf. the dance for the benefit of a sick man (R. B. Dixon, "Some Shamans of Northern California," op. cit., xvii, 23 ff.).

226 Journal of American Folklore, iv, 307. Cf. Will and Spinden, The Mandans, pp. 129 ff., 143 ff. The gods themselves, also, have their festive dances (W. Matthews, Navaho Legends, p. 83), and are sometimes represented as the authors of the sacred chants (ibid. p. 225).

227 See W. Matthews, loc. cit.

228 See, further, Journal of American Folklore, iii, 257; iv, 129; xii, 81 (basket dances); R. B. Dixon, The Northern Maidu, p. 183 ff. (numerous and elaborate, and sometimes economic); Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, chap. 33; N. W. Thomas, Australia, chap. 7. Thomas describes many Australian games, and Dixon (The Shasta, p. 441 ff.) Californian games. For stories told by the natives of Guiana see above, § 106.

230 Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii, 133 f., 409 f.

231 A. B. Ellis, The Tshi, p. 226.

232 So, probably, the Old-Hebrew ark.

233 See the references in article "Circumambulation" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

234 Westermarck, Human Marriage, 3d ed., p. 542. This sexual instinct is carried back by Darwin (Descent of Man, chap. xii) to the lower animals.

235 Cf. Gen. iii, 7. There is no conclusive evidence that the concealment of parts of the body by savages is prompted by modesty (cf. Ratzel, History of Mankind, i, 93 ff.), but it may have contributed to the development of this feeling.

236 Cf. Y. Him, Origins of Art, chap. xvi. For the Maori usage see R. Taylor, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, chap. xviii.

237 Cf. Lucien Carr, "Dress and Ornaments of Certain American Indians" (in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1897).

238 Ratzel, op. cit., Index, s.v. Tattooing; Boas, The Central Eskimo, p. 561; Frobenius, Childhood of Man, chap. ii. Among some tribes (as the Fijians) untattooed persons are denied entrance into the other world. Naturally the origin of tattoo is by some tribes referred to deities: see Turner, Samoa, p. 55 f.; Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xix, 100 (New Zealand); xvii, 318 ff. (Queen Charlotte Islands and Alaska). The Ainu hold that it drives away demons (Batchelor, The Ainu, p. 22).

239 Turner, op. cit., p. 141.

240 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, chap. vi.

241 Frobenius, Childhood of Man, p. 31 ff.; cf. chap. i.

242 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., chap. vii.

243 On a possible connection between tattoo marks and stigmata cf. W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, 3d ed., p. 334.

244 See § 23. Blood of men is sometimes drunk, simply to assuage thirst, or as a curative (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 462, 464).

245 Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Index, s.v. Art, decorative; Journal of American Folklore, vol. xviii, no. 69 (April, 1905).

246 So the dress of the Jewish high priest (Ex. xxviii), that of the Lamas of Tibet (Abbé Huc, Travels in Tartary, Tibet and China, ii, chap. ii; Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 250), and costumes in some Christian bodies.

247 Of the same nature is Jeremy Taylor's view (An Apology for authorized and set forms of Liturgy, Question 1, § 7 ff.) that, as earthly monarchs are not addressed in the language of everyday familiar intercourse, so it is not proper that the deity should be approached with other than choice and dignified words—public prayers should be carefully worded.

248 Cf. A. C. Haddon, article "Art" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

249 A. de Quatrefages, The Pygmies, p. 157.

250 Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Index, s.v. Hunting.

251 Batchelor, The Ainu (the hunting of the bear); and so many American tribes, and, in part, some half-civilized peoples, as the Arabs of North Africa.

252 Teit, in Jesup North Pacific Expedition, ii, 280.

253 Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 291 ff.

254 Hollis, The Nandi, p. 8 (cf. p. 24).

255 Hollis (op. cit., p. 6 f.) relates that on a certain occasion when his party was driven from its wagons by a swarm of bees, a Nandi man appeared, announced that he was of the bee totem, and volunteered to restore quiet, which he did, going stark naked into the swarm. His success was doubtless due to his knowledge of the habits of bees.

256 So in the Tsimshian ceremony in eating the first fish caught (Boas, in Fifth Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. lix, p. 51). Cf. the Jewish rule (Ex. xii, 46), which may have had a similar origin.

257 Teit, in Jesup North Pacific Expedition, ii, 282. A similar provision is mentioned in Ex. xvi, 16-20.

258 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 167 f., and Native Tribes of Northern Australia, p. 308 etc.; Strehlow, Die Aranda-und Loritjastämme in Zentralaustralien, part ii, p. 39 etc.

259 Dixon, The Northern Maidu, p. 285 f.

260 Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 177 f.

261 Dorsey, The Skidi Pawnee, p. 149.

262 Seligmann, op. cit., p. 291 ff.

263 Here again the taboos are precautions against injurious supernatural influences.

264 He is said also to imitate the cries of animals—that is, he combines natural means with supernatural.

265 Spencer and Gillen, and Strehlow, loc. cit.

266 This feeling for the tribal life may be called germinal public spirit. Cf. above, § 103.

267 Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., ii, 238 ff.

268 Hopkins, Religions of India, p. 526.

269 Frazer (Golden Bough, 2d. ed., ii, 43 ff.) refers to B. Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, ii, 311; Strachey, Historie, p. 84; Krapf, Travels, p. 69 f.; Mone, Geschichte des Heldenthums im nördlichen Europa, i, 119. See, further, T. Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 181 f.; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, ii, 169.

270 Ex. xxii, 29 [28]; xiii, 12, 13.

271 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., chap. vi.

272 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxv, 104 ff.

273 Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., iii, 78.

274 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiii, 18; xxvi, 30. Other examples are given by Frazer in his Golden Bough, 2d. ed., i, 81 ff., 163; he cites cases of persons (priests and kings) held responsible for rain, and put to death if they failed to supply it.

275 Turner, Samoa, p. 145. On certain Roman ceremonies (that of the lapis manalis and others) that have been supposed to be connected with rain making see Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, p. 106; W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, iii.

276 Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 23.

277 Tylor, Primitive Culture, i, 454; Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, i, 52 ff.; ii, 532 ff.

278 There is, of course, another side to the character of ghosts—sometimes they are friendly.

279 Ploss, Das Kind, 2d ed., i, chap. iv.

281 Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., iii, 39 ff.

282 J. J. M. de Groot, Religion of the Chinese, chap. ii.

283 Batchelor, The Ainu, new ed., p. 321 f.

284 Josh. vii (story of Achan).

285 Examples are given in Frazer's Golden Bough, loc. cit.

287 Lev. xvi. Cf. the vision (Zech. v, 5 ff.) in which wickedness (or guilt), in the shape of a woman, is represented (in no brotherly spirit) as being transferred from Jewish soil to Shinar (Chaldea).

288 Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 95 ff.

289 Later the festival was certainly connected with the driving forth of winter, but its earlier form was, probably, as given above.

290 W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals, Index, s.v. Mamurius, Lupercalia. The beating was supposed also to have fertilizing power; cf. S. Hartland, Primitive Paternity, i, 100 ff.

291 Deut. xvi; Ex. xii.

292 In some savage tribes the older men seem to have nothing to do but arrange ceremonies.

293 There is a faint survival, perhaps, in the use of incense in churches.

294 A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, ed. E. H. Meyer, Index; J. H. King, The Supernatural, i, 111 ff.

295 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xii, 129 ff. (Andaman Islands); ibid. xxv, 188 (East Africa); Frobenius, Childhood of Man, chap. iii; Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., iii, 422 ff.

296 A. L. Kroeber, in University of California Publications in American Archæology and Ethnology, ii, viii; Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, chap. xliii (on homosexual relations).

297 Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., i, 326; iii, 204 ff.; Hartland, Primitive Paternity, Index, s.v. Puberty; Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 55.

298 See below, under "Taboo."

299 Emasculation, of course, does not belong here; it is not a custom of initiation proper.

300 Cf. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 135.

301 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii, 406 (Omahas). On mutilation as a general religious rite see H. Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i, 189, 290, and as punishment, Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Index, s.v. Mutilation.

302 Roscher, Lexikon, articles "Attis," "Kybele." Origen is a noteworthy example in Christian times; cf. Matt. xix, 12.

303 For details of diffusion, methods, etc., see article "Circumcision" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

304 This is an incision of the penis from the meatus down to the scrotal pouch.

305 Herodotus, ii, 37.

306 Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 137 f.

307 Ploss, Das Kind, 2d ed., i, 368 f.

308 On phallic cults see below, § 388 ff.

310 A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba, p. 66.

311 J. G. Frazer, in the Independent Review, iv, 204 ff.

312 Circumcision of females is the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora; introcision is the enlargement of the vaginal orifice by tearing it downwards; infibulation is the closing of the labia just after circumcision. Cf. Ploss, Das Weib, 2d ed., i, chap. v.

313 Cf. also the great extent to which masturbation prevails among savages. Cf. Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, chap. xliii.

314 A rod is thrust through the glans of the penis; see Roth, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxii, 45 (the palang); cf. Ploss, Das Weib, 2d ed., i, chap. xi; J. Macdonald, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx, 116.

315 Cf. the defloration of young women (by certain officially appointed men) on the occasion of their arriving at the age of puberty; Rivers, The Todas, p. 503; Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 93; Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 347.

316 Gen. xvii. Islam has no divine sanction for circumcision; it is not mentioned in the Koran, doubtless because Mohammed took it for granted as a current usage.

317 1 Sam. xvii, 26.

318 Article "Circumcision (Egyptian)" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, and the literature there cited.

319 Deut. x, 16; Jer. ix, 25 f.; Rom. ii, 28 f.

320 Article "Brotherhood (artificial)" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

321 Cf. H. C. Trumbull, The Blood-Covenant, passim; W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, new ed., Index, s.v. Blood Covenant.

322 Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., iii, 422 ff.; cf. Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creeks, p. 185 f.

323 Alice Fletcher, Indian Ceremonies, p. 278.

324 §§ 533, 1095 ff., 1161 ff.

325 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxv, 295 (South Australia); Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 531 f.

326 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii, 296 (Queensland); Howitt, loc. cit.; Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 221, 223, and Native Tribes of Northern Australia, p. 361.

327 H. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, chap. ii ff.

328 The office of sponsor exists in embryonic form in many savage communities; for boys the sponsor is the father or other near relation, for girls an old woman. The duties of savage sponsors usually continue only during the period of initiation.

329 Westermarck, Human Marriage; H. N. Hutchinson, Marriage Customs in Many Lands; Ch. Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage and of the Family; Crawley, The Mystic Rose; and the references in G. E. Howard's History of Matrimonial Institutions, i, chaps. i-iv; cf. Hartland, Primitive Paternity.

330 See below, § 429 ff.

331 Similar restrictions existed in Greece and Rome. An Athenian citizen was not allowed to marry a foreign woman. In Rome connubium held in the first instance between men and women who were citizens, though it might be extended to include Latins and foreigners. In India marriage came to be controlled by caste. These local and national rules gradually yielded to rules based on degrees of consanguinity. Marriage between near relations was looked on with disfavor in Greece and Rome and by the Hebrews, and the Old Testament law on this point has been adopted (with some variations) by Christian nations. For the Arab customs see W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, chap. iii.

332 Cf. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 462 ff.; W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, 1st ed., p. 62 ff.; Hartland, Primitive Paternity, chaps. v, vi.

333 In some cases, among the Todas of South India for example, the defloration takes place shortly before the girl reaches the age of puberty (Rivers, The Todas, p. 703); more generally it is performed when she reaches this age. This difference of time is not essential as regards the significance of the ceremony.