The Golden Bough
by
Sir James George Frazer
Part 14 out of 19
Peninsula, attribute all kinds of diseases to the agency of spirits
which they call _nyani;_ fortunately, however, the magician can
induce these maleficent beings to come out of the sick person and
take up their abode in rude figures of grass, which are hung up
outside the houses in little bell-shaped shrines decorated with
peeled sticks. During an epidemic of small-pox the Ewe negroes will
sometimes clear a space outside of the town, where they erect a
number of low mounds and cover them with as many little clay figures
as there are people in the place. Pots of food and water are also
set out for the refreshment of the spirit of small-pox who, it is
hoped, will take the clay figures and spare the living folk; and to
make assurance doubly sure the road into the town is barricaded
against him.
With these examples before us we may surmise that the woollen
effigies, which at the festival of the Compitalia might be seen
hanging at the doors of all the houses in ancient Rome, were not
substitutes for human victims who had formerly been sacrificed at
this season, but rather vicarious offerings presented to the Mother
or Grandmother of Ghosts, in the hope that on her rounds through the
city she would accept or mistake the effigies for the inmates of the
house and so spare the living for another year. It is possible that
the puppets made of rushes, which in the month of May the pontiffs
and Vestal Virgins annually threw into the Tiber from the old
Sublician bridge at Rome, had originally the same significance; that
is, they may have been designed to purge the city from demoniac
influence by diverting the attention of the demons from human beings
to the puppets and then toppling the whole uncanny crew, neck and
crop, into the river, which would soon sweep them far out to sea. In
precisely the same way the natives of Old Calabar used periodically
to rid their town of the devils which infested it by luring the
unwary demons into a number of lamentable scarecrows, which they
afterwards flung into the river. This interpretation of the Roman
custom is supported to some extent by the evidence of Plutarch, who
speaks of the ceremony as "the greatest of purifications."
LI. Homeopathic Magic of a Flesh Diet
THE PRACTICE of killing a god has now been traced amongst peoples
who have reached the agricultural stage of society. We have seen
that the spirit of the corn, or of other cultivated plants, is
commonly represented either in human or in animal form, and that in
some places a custom has prevailed of killing annually either the
human or the animal representative of the god. One reason for thus
killing the corn-spirit in the person of his representative has been
given implicitly in an earlier part of this work: we may suppose
that the intention was to guard him or her (for the corn-spirit is
often feminine) from the enfeeblement of old age by transferring the
spirit, while still hale and hearty, to the person of a youthful and
vigorous successor. Apart from the desirability of renewing his
divine energies, the death of the corn-spirit may have been deemed
inevitable under the sickles or the knives of the reapers, and his
worshippers may accordingly have felt bound to acquiesce in the sad
necessity. But, further, we have found a widespread custom of eating
the god sacramentally, either in the shape of the man or animal who
represents the god, or in the shape of bread made in human or animal
form. The reasons for thus partaking of the body of the god are,
from the primitive standpoint, simple enough. The savage commonly
believes that by eating the flesh of an animal or man he acquires
not only the physical, but even the moral and intellectual qualities
which were characteristic of that animal or man; so when the
creature is deemed divine, our simple savage naturally expects to
absorb a portion of its divinity along with its material substance.
It may be well to illustrate by instances this common faith in the
acquisition of virtues or vices of many kinds through the medium of
animal food, even when there is no pretence that the viands consist
of the body or blood of a god. The doctrine forms part of the widely
ramified system of sympathetic or homoeopathic magic.
Thus, for example, the Creeks, Cherokee, and kindred tribes of North
American Indians "believe that nature is possest of such a property
as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of the
food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their
senses; he who feeds on venison is, according to their physical
system, swifter and more sagacious than the man who lives on the
flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the
slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy wallowing swine. This is the
reason that several of their old men recommend, and say, that
formerly their greatest chieftains observed a constant rule in their
diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy
motion of body, fancying it conveyed a dullness through the whole
system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper
vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties." The Zaparo
Indians of Ecuador "will, unless from necessity, in most cases not
eat any heavy meats, such as tapir and peccary, but confine
themselves to birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc., principally because
they argue that the heavier meats make them unwieldy, like the
animals who supply the flesh, impeding their agility, and unfitting
them for the chase." Similarly some of the Brazilian Indians would
eat no beast, bird, or fish that ran, flew, or swam slowly, lest by
partaking of its flesh they should lose their ability and be unable
to escape from their enemies. The Caribs abstained from the flesh of
pigs lest it should cause them to have small eyes like pigs; and
they refused to partake of tortoises from a fear that if they did so
they would become heavy and stupid like the animal. Among the Fans
of West Africa men in the prime of life never eat tortoises for a
similar reason; they imagine that if they did so, their vigour and
fleetness of foot would be gone. But old men may eat tortoises
freely, because having already lost the power of running they can
take no harm from the flesh of the slow-footed creature.
While many savages thus fear to eat the flesh of slow-footed animals
lest they should themselves become slow-footed, the Bushmen of South
Africa purposely ate the flesh of such creatures, and the reason
which they gave for doing so exhibits a curious refinement of savage
philosophy. They imagined that the game which they pursued would be
influenced sympathetically by the food in the body of the hunter, so
that if he had eaten of swift-footed animals, the quarry would be
swift-footed also and would escape him; whereas if he had eaten of
slow-footed animals, the quarry would also be slow-footed, and he
would be able to overtake and kill it. For that reason hunters of
gemsbok particularly avoided eating the flesh of the swift and agile
springbok; indeed they would not even touch it with their hands,
because they believed the springbok to be a very lively creature
which did not go to sleep at night, and they thought that if they
ate springbok, the gemsbok which they hunted would likewise not be
willing to go to sleep, even at night. How, then, could they catch
it?
The Namaquas abstain from eating the flesh of hares, because they
think it would make them faint-hearted as a hare. But they eat the
flesh of the lion, or drink the blood of the leopard or lion, to get
the courage and strength of these beasts. The Bushmen will not give
their children a jackal's heart to eat, lest it should make them
timid like the jackal; but they give them a leopard's heart to eat
to make them brave like the leopard. When a Wagogo man of East
Africa kills a lion, he eats the heart in order to become brave like
a lion; but he thinks that to eat the heart of a hen would make him
timid. When a serious disease has attacked a Zulu kraal, the
medicine-man takes the bone of a very old dog, or the bone of an old
cow, bull, or other very old animal, and administers it to the
healthy as well as to the sick people, in order that they may live
to be as old as the animal of whose bone they have partaken. So to
restore the aged Aeson to youth, the witch Medea infused into his
veins a decoction of the liver of the long-lived deer and the head
of a crow that had outlived nine generations of men.
Among the Dyaks of North-West Borneo young men and warriors may not
eat venison, because it would make them as timid as deer; but the
women and very old men are free to eat it. However, among the Kayans
of the same region, who share the same view as to the ill effect of
eating venison, men will partake of the dangerous viand provided it
is cooked in the open air, for then the timid spirit of the animal
is supposed to escape at once into the jungle and not to enter into
the eater. The Aino believe that the heart of the water-ousel is
exceedingly wise, and that in speech the bird is most eloquent.
Therefore whenever he is killed, he should be at once torn open and
his heart wrenched out and swallowed before it has time to grow cold
or suffer damage of any kind. If a man swallows it thus, he will
become very fluent and wise, and will be able to argue down all his
adversaries. In Northern India people fancy that if you eat the
eyeballs of an owl you will be able like an owl to see in the dark.
When the Kansas Indians were going to war, a feast used to be held
in the chief's hut, and the principal dish was dog's flesh, because,
said the Indians, the animal who is so brave that he will let
himself be cut in pieces in defence of his master, must needs
inspire valour. Men of the Buru and Aru Islands, East Indies, eat
the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble in war. Amongst the
Papuans of the Port Moresby and Motumotu districts, New Guinea,
young lads eat strong pig, wallaby, and large fish, in order to
acquire the strength of the animal or fish. Some of the natives of
Northern Australia fancy that by eating the flesh of the kangaroo or
emu they are enabled to jump or run faster than before. The Miris of
Assam prize tiger's flesh as food for men; it gives them strength
and courage. But "it is not suited for women; it would make them too
strong-minded." In Corea the bones of tigers fetch a higher price
than those of leopards as a means of inspiring courage. A Chinaman
in Seoul bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself brave and
fierce. In Norse legend, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was timid in
his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf he became very bold;
Hialto gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and
drinking its blood.
In Morocco lethargic patients are given ants to swallow, and to eat
lion's flesh will make a coward brave; but people abstain from
eating the hearts of fowls, lest thereby they should be rendered
timid. When a child is late in learning to speak, the Turks of
Central Asia will give it the tongues of certain birds to eat. A
North American Indian thought that brandy must be a decoction of
hearts and tongues, "because," said he, "after drinking it I fear
nothing, and I talk wonderfully." In Java there is a tiny earthworm
which now and then utters a shrill sound like that of the alarum of
a small clock. Hence when a public dancing girl has screamed herself
hoarse in the exercise of her calling, the leader of the troop makes
her eat some of these worms, in the belief that thus she will regain
her voice and will, after swallowing them, be able to scream as
shrilly as ever. The people of Darfur, in Central Africa, think that
the liver is the seat of the soul, and that a man may enlarge his
soul by eating the liver of an animal. "Whenever an animal is killed
its liver is taken out and eaten, but the people are most careful
not to touch it with their hands, as it is considered sacred; it is
cut up in small pieces and eaten raw, the bits being conveyed to the
mouth on the point of a knife, or the sharp point of a stick. Any
one who may accidentally touch the liver is strictly forbidden to
partake of it, which prohibition is regarded as a great misfortune
for him." Women are not allowed to eat liver, because they have no
soul.
Again, the flesh and blood of dead men are commonly eaten and drunk
to inspire bravery, wisdom, or other qualities for which the men
themselves were remarkable, or which are supposed to have their
special seat in the particular part eaten. Thus among the mountain
tribes of South-Eastern Africa there are ceremonies by which the
youths are formed into guilds or lodges, and among the rites of
initiation there is one which is intended to infuse courage,
intelligence, and other qualities into the novices. Whenever an
enemy who has behaved with conspicuous bravery is killed, his liver,
which is considered the seat of valour; his ears, which are supposed
to be the seat of intelligence; the skin of his forehead, which is
regarded as the seat of perseverance; his testicles, which are held
to be the seat of strength; and other members, which are viewed as
the seat of other virtues, are cut from his body and baked to
cinders. The ashes are carefully kept in the horn of a bull, and,
during the ceremonies observed at circumcision, are mixed with other
ingredients into a kind of paste, which is administered by the
tribal priest to the youths. By this means the strength, valour,
intelligence, and other virtues of the slain are believed to be
imparted to the eaters. When Basutos of the mountains have killed a
very brave foe, they immediately cut out his heart and eat it,
because this is supposed to give them his courage and strength in
battle. When Sir Charles M'Carthy was killed by the Ashantees in
1824, it is said that his heart was devoured by the chiefs of the
Ashantee army, who hoped by this means to imbibe his courage. His
flesh was dried and parcelled out among the lower officers for the
same purpose, and his bones were long kept at Coomassie as national
fetishes. The Nauras Indians of New Granada ate the hearts of
Spaniards when they had the opportunity, hoping thereby to make
themselves as dauntless as the dreaded Castilian chivalry. The Sioux
Indians used to reduce to powder the heart of a valiant enemy and
swallow the powder, hoping thus to appropriate the dead man's
valour.
But while the human heart is thus commonly eaten for the sake of
imbuing the eater with the qualities of its original owner, it is
not, as we have already seen, the only part of the body which is
consumed for this purpose. Thus warriors of the Theddora and Ngarigo
tribes of South-Eastern Australia used to eat the hands and feet of
their slain enemies, believing that in this way they acquired some
of the qualities and courage of the dead. The Kamilaroi of New South
Wales ate the liver as well as the heart of a brave man to get his
courage. In Tonquin also there is a popular superstition that the
liver of a brave man makes brave any who partake of it. With a like
intent the Chinese swallow the bile of notorious bandits who have
been executed. The Dyaks of Sarawak used to eat the palms of the
hands and the flesh of the knees of the slain in order to steady
their own hands and strengthen their own knees. The Tolalaki,
notorious head-hunters of Central Celebes, drink the blood and eat
the brains of their victims that they may become brave. The Italones
of the Philippine Islands drink the blood of their slain enemies,
and eat part of the back of their heads and of their entrails raw to
acquire their courage. For the same reason the Efugaos, another
tribe of the Philippines, suck the brains of their foes. In like
manner the Kai of German New Guinea eat the brains of the enemies
they kill in order to acquire their strength. Among the Kimbunda of
Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the throne, a brave
prisoner of war is killed in order that the king and nobles may eat
his flesh, and so acquire his strength and courage. The notorious
Zulu chief Matuana drank the gall of thirty chiefs, whose people he
had destroyed, in the belief that it would make him strong. It is a
Zulu fancy that by eating the centre of the forehead and the eyebrow
of an enemy they acquire the power of looking steadfastly at a foe.
Before every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes
used to take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in
boiling water to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was
then drunk by the warriors. In New Zealand "the chief was an _atua_
[god], but there were powerful and powerless gods; each naturally
sought to make himself one of the former; the plan therefore adopted
was to incorporate the spirits of others with their own; thus, when
a warrior slew a chief, he immediately gouged out his eyes and
swallowed them, the _atua tonga,_ or divinity, being supposed to
reside in that organ; thus he not only killed the body, but also
possessed himself of the soul of his enemy, and consequently the
more chiefs he slew the greater did his divinity become."
It is now easy to understand why a savage should desire to partake
of the flesh of an animal or man whom he regards as divine. By
eating the body of the god he shares in the god's attributes and
powers. And when the god is a corn-god, the corn is his proper body;
when he is a vine-god, the juice of the grape is his blood; and so
by eating the bread and drinking the wine the worshipper partakes of
the real body and blood of his god. Thus the drinking of wine in the
rites of a vine-god like Dionysus is not an act of revelry, it is a
solemn sacrament. Yet a time comes when reasonable men find it hard
to understand how any one in his senses can suppose that by eating
bread or drinking wine he consumes the body or blood of a deity.
"When we call corn Ceres and wine Bacchus," says Cicero, "we use a
common figure of speech; but do you imagine that anybody is so
insane as to believe that the thing he feeds upon is a god?"
LII. Killing the Divine Animal
1. Killing the Sacred Buzzard
IN THE PRECEDING chapters we saw that many communities which have
progressed so far as to subsist mainly by agriculture have been in
the habit of killing and eating their farinaceous deities either in
their proper form of corn, rice, and so forth, or in the borrowed
shapes of animals and men. It remains to show that hunting and
pastoral tribes, as well as agricultural peoples, have been in the
habit of killing the beings whom they worship. Among the worshipful
beings or gods, if indeed they deserve to be dignified by that name,
whom hunters and shepherds adore and kill are animals pure and
simple, not animals regarded as embodiments of other supernatural
beings. Our first example is drawn from the Indians of California,
who living in a fertile country under a serene and temperate sky,
nevertheless rank near the bottom of the savage scale. The
Acagchemem tribe adored the great buzzard, and once a year they
celebrated a great festival called _Panes_ or bird-feast in its
honour. The day selected for the festival was made known to the
public on the evening before its celebration and preparations were
at once made for the erection of a special temple (_vanquech_),
which seems to have been a circular or oval enclosure of stakes with
the stuffed skin of a coyote or prairie-wolf set up on a hurdle to
represent the god Chinigchinich. When the temple was ready, the bird
was carried into it in solemn procession and laid on an altar
erected for the purpose. Then all the young women, whether married
or single, began to run to and fro, as if distracted, some in one
direction and some in another, while the elders of both sexes
remained silent spectators of the scene, and the captains, tricked
out in paint and feathers, danced round their adored bird. These
ceremonies being concluded, they seized upon the bird and carried it
to the principal temple, all the assembly uniting in the grand
display, and the captains dancing and singing at the head of the
procession. Arrived at the temple, they killed the bird without
losing a drop of its blood. The skin was removed entire and
preserved with the feathers as a relic or for the purpose of making
the festal garment or _paelt._ The carcase was buried in a hole in
the temple, and the old women gathered round the grave weeping and
moaning bitterly, while they threw various kinds of seeds or pieces
of food on it, crying out, "Why did you run away? Would you not have
been better with us? you would have made _pinole_ (a kind of gruel)
as we do, and if you had not run away, you would not have become a
_Panes,_" and so on. When this ceremony was concluded, the dancing
was resumed and kept up for three days and nights. They said that
the _Panes_ was a woman who had run off to the mountains and there
been changed into a bird by the god Chinigchinich. They believed
that though they sacrificed the bird annually, she came to life
again and returned to her home in the mountains. Moreover, they
thought that "as often as the bird was killed, it became multiplied;
because every year all the different Capitanes celebrated the same
feast of _Panes,_ and were firm in the opinion that the birds
sacrificed were but one and the same female."
The unity in multiplicity thus postulated by the Californians is
very noticeable and helps to explain their motive for killing the
divine bird. The notion of the life of a species as distinct from
that of an individual, easy and obvious as it seems to us, appears
to be one which the Californian savage cannot grasp. He is unable to
conceive the life of the species otherwise than as an individual
life, and therefore as exposed to the same dangers and calamities
which menace and finally destroy the life of the individual.
Apparently he imagines that a species left to itself will grow old
and die like an individual, and that therefore some step must be
taken to save from extinction the particular species which he
regards as divine. The only means he can think of to avert the
catastrophe is to kill a member of the species in whose veins the
tide of life is still running strong and has not yet stagnated among
the fens of old age. The life thus diverted from one channel will
flow, he fancies, more freshly and freely in a new one; in other
words, the slain animal will revive and enter on a new term of life
with all the spring and energy of youth. To us this reasoning is
transparently absurd, but so too is the custom. A similar confusion,
it may be noted, between the individual life and the life of the
species was made by the Samoans. Each family had for its god a
particular species of animal; yet the death of one of these animals,
for example an owl, was not the death of the god, "he was supposed
to be yet alive, and incarnate in all the owls in existence."
2. Killing the Sacred Ram
THE RUDE Californian rite which we have just considered has a close
parallel in the religion of ancient Egypt. The Thebans and all other
Egyptians who worshipped the Theban god Ammon held rams to be
sacred, and would not sacrifice them. But once a year at the
festival of Ammon they killed a ram, skinned it, and clothed the
image of the god in the skin. Then they mourned over the ram and
buried it in a sacred tomb. The custom was explained by a story that
Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules clad in the fleece and
wearing the head of a ram. Of course the ram in this case was simply
the beast-god of Thebes, as the wolf was the beast-god of Lycopolis,
and the goat was the beast-god of Mendes. In other words, the ram
was Ammon himself. On the monuments, it is true, Ammon appears in
semi-human form with the body of a man and the head of a ram. But
this only shows that he was in the usual chrysalis state through
which beast-gods regularly pass before they emerge as full-blown
anthropomorphic gods. The ram, therefore, was killed, not as a
sacrifice to Ammon, but as the god himself, whose identity with the
beast is plainly shown by the custom of clothing his image in the
skin of the slain ram. The reason for thus killing the ram-god
annually may have been that which I have assigned for the general
custom of killing a god and for the special Californian custom of
killing the divine buzzard. As applied to Egypt, this explanation is
supported by the analogy of the bull-god Apis, who was not suffered
to outlive a certain term of years. The intention of thus putting a
limit to the life of the human god was, as I have argued, to secure
him from the weakness and frailty of age. The same reasoning would
explain the custom--probably an older one--of putting the beast-god
to death annually, as was done with the ram of Thebes.
One point in the Theban ritual--the application of the skin to the
image of the god--deserves particular attention. If the god was at
first the living ram, his representation by an image must have
originated later. But how did it originate? One answer to this
question is perhaps furnished by the practice of preserving the skin
of the animal which is slain as divine. The Californians, as we have
seen, preserved the skin of the buzzard; and the skin of the goat,
which is killed on the harvest-field as a representative of the
corn-spirit, is kept for various superstitious purposes. The skin in
fact was kept as a token or memorial of the god, or rather as
containing in it a part of the divine life, and it had only to be
stuffed or stretched upon a frame to become a regular image of him.
At first an image of this kind would be renewed annually, the new
image being provided by the skin of the slain animal. But from
annual images to permanent images the transition is easy. We have
seen that the older custom of cutting a new May-tree every year was
superseded by the practice of maintaining a permanent May-pole,
which was, however, annually decked with fresh leaves and flowers,
and even surmounted each year by a fresh young tree. Similarly when
the stuffed skin, as a representative of the god, was replaced by a
permanent image of him in wood, stone, or metal, the permanent image
was annually clad in the fresh skin of the slain animal. When this
stage had been reached, the custom of killing the ram came naturally
to be interpreted as a sacrifice offered to the image, and was
explained by a story like that of Ammon and Hercules.
3. Killing the Sacred Serpent
WEST AFRICA appears to furnish another example of the annual killing
of a sacred animal and the preservation of its skin. The negroes of
Issapoo, in the island of Fernando Po, regard the cobra-capella as
their guardian deity, who can do them good or ill, bestow riches or
inflict disease and death. The skin of one of these reptiles is hung
tail downwards from a branch of the highest tree in the public
square, and the placing of it on the tree is an annual ceremony. As
soon as the ceremony is over, all children born within the past year
are carried out and their hands made to touch the tail of the
serpent's skin. The latter custom is clearly a way of placing the
infants under the protection of the tribal god. Similarly in
Senegambia a python is expected to visit every child of the Python
clan within eight days after birth; and the Psylli, a Snake clan of
ancient Africa, used to expose their infants to snakes in the belief
that the snakes would not harm true-born children of the clan.
4. Killing the Sacred Turtles
IN THE CALIFORNIAN, Egyptian, and Fernando Po customs the worship of
the animal seems to have no relation to agriculture, and may
therefore be presumed to date from the hunting or pastoral stage of
society. The same may be said of the following custom, though the
Zuni Indians of New Mexico, who practise it, are now settled in
walled villages or towns of a peculiar type, and practise
agriculture and the arts of pottery and weaving. But the Zuni custom
is marked by certain features which appear to place it in a somewhat
different class from the preceding cases. It may be well therefore
to describe it at full length in the words of an eye-witness.
"With midsummer the heat became intense. My brother [_i.e._ adopted
Indian brother] and I sat, day after day, in the cool under-rooms of
our house,--the latter [_sic_] busy with his quaint forge and crude
appliances, working Mexican coins over into bangles, girdles,
ear-rings, buttons, and what not, for savage ornament. Though his
tools were wonderfully rude, the work he turned out by dint of
combined patience and ingenuity was remarkably beautiful. One day as
I sat watching him, a procession of fifty men went hastily down the
hill, and off westward over the plain. They were solemnly led by a
painted and shell-bedecked priest, and followed by the torch-bearing
Shu-lu-wit-si or God of Fire. After they had vanished, I asked old
brother what it all meant.
"'They are going,' said he, 'to the city of Ka-ka and the home of
our others.'
"Four days after, towards sunset, costumed and masked in the
beautiful paraphernalia of the Ka-k'ok-shi, or 'Good Dance,' they
returned in file up the same pathway, each bearing in his arms a
basket filled with living, squirming turtles, which he regarded and
carried as tenderly as a mother would her infant. Some of the
wretched reptiles were carefully wrapped in soft blankets, their
heads and forefeet protruding,--and, mounted on the backs of the
plume-bedecked pilgrims, made ludicrous but solemn caricatures of
little children in the same position. While I was at supper upstairs
that evening, the governor's brother-in-law came in. He was welcomed
by the family as if a messenger from heaven. He bore in his
tremulous fingers one of the much abused and rebellious turtles.
Paint still adhered to his hands and bare feet, which led me to
infer that he had formed one of the sacred embassy.
"'So you went to Ka-thlu-el-lon, did you?' I asked.
"'E'e,' replied the weary man, in a voice husky with long chanting,
as he sank, almost exhausted, on a roll of skins which had been
placed for him, and tenderly laid the turtle on the floor. No sooner
did the creature find itself at liberty than it made off as fast as
its lame legs would take it. Of one accord, the family forsook dish,
spoon, and drinking-cup, and grabbing from a sacred meal-bowl whole
handfuls of the contents, hurriedly followed the turtle about the
room, into dark corners, around water-jars, behind the
grinding-troughs, and out into the middle of the floor again,
praying and scattering meal on its back as they went. At last,
strange to say, it approached the foot-sore man who had brought it.
"'Ha!' he exclaimed with emotion; 'see it comes to me again; ah,
what great favours the fathers of all grant me this day,' and,
passing his hand gently over the sprawling animal, he inhaled from
his palm deeply and long, at the same time invoking the favour of
the gods. Then he leaned his chin upon his hand, and with large,
wistful eyes regarded his ugly captive as it sprawled about,
blinking its meal-bedimmed eyes, and clawing the smooth floor in
memory of its native element. At this juncture I ventured a
question:
"'Why do you not let him go, or give him some water?'
"Slowly the man turned his eyes toward me, an odd mixture of pain,
indignation, and pity on his face, while the worshipful family
stared at me with holy horror.
"'Poor younger brother!' he said at last, 'know you not how precious
it is? It die? It will _not_ die; I tell you, it cannot die.'
"'But it will die if you don't feed it and give it water.'
"'I tell you it _cannot_ die; it will only change houses to-morrow,
and go back to the home of its brothers. Ah, well! How should _you_
know?' he mused. Turning to the blinded turtle again: 'Ah! my poor
dear lost child or parent, my sister or brother to have been! Who
knows which? Maybe my own great-grandfather or mother!' And with
this he fell to weeping most pathetically, and, tremulous with sobs,
which were echoed by the women and children, he buried his face in
his hands. Filled with sympathy for his grief, however mistaken, I
raised the turtle to my lips and kissed its cold shell; then
depositing it on the floor, hastily left the grief-stricken family
to their sorrows. Next day, with prayers and tender beseechings,
plumes, and offerings, the poor turtle was killed, and its flesh and
bones were removed and deposited in the little river, that it might
'return once more to eternal life among its comrades in the dark
waters of the lake of the dead.' The shell, carefully scraped and
dried, was made into a dance-rattle, and, covered by a piece of
buckskin, it still hangs from the smoke-stained rafters of my
brother's house. Once a Navajo tried to buy it for a ladle; loaded
with indignant reproaches, he was turned cut of the house. Were any
one to venture the suggestion that the turtle no longer lived, his
remark would cause a flood of tears, and he would be reminded that
it had only 'changed houses and gone to live for ever in the home of
"our lost others."'"
In this custom we find expressed in the clearest way a belief in the
transmigration of human souls into the bodies of turtles. The theory
of transmigration is held by the Moqui Indians, who belong to the
same race as the Zunis. The Moquis are divided into totem clans--the
Bear clan, Deer clan, Wolf clan, Hare clan, and so on; they believe
that the ancestors of the clans were bears, deer, wolves, hares, and
so forth; and that at death the members of each clan become bears,
deer, and so on according to the particular clan to which they
belonged. The Zuni are also divided into clans, the totems of which
agree closely with those of the Moquis, and one of their totems is
the turtle. Thus their belief in transmigration into the turtle is
probably one of the regular articles of their totem faith. What then
is the meaning of killing a turtle in which the soul of a kinsman is
believed to be present? Apparently the object is to keep up a
communication with the other world in which the souls of the
departed are believed to be assembled in the form of turtles. It is
a common belief that the spirits of the dead return occasionally to
their old homes; and accordingly the unseen visitors are welcomed
and feasted by the living, and then sent upon their way. In the Zuni
ceremony the dead are fetched home in the form of turtles, and the
killing of the turtles is the way of sending back the souls to the
spirit-land. Thus the general explanation given above of the custom
of killing a god seems inapplicable to the Zuni custom, the true
meaning of which is somewhat obscure. Nor is the obscurity which
hangs over the subject entirely dissipated by a later and fuller
account which we possess of the ceremony. From it we learn that the
ceremony forms part of the elaborate ritual which these Indians
observe at the midsummer solstice for the purpose of ensuring an
abundant supply of rain for the crops. Envoys are despatched to
bring "their otherselves, the tortoises," from the sacred lake
Kothluwalawa, to which the souls of the dead are believed to repair.
When the creatures have thus been solemnly brought to Zuni, they are
placed in a bowl of water and dances are performed beside them by
men in costume, who personate gods and goddesses. "After the
ceremonial the tortoises are taken home by those who caught them and
are hung by their necks to the rafters till morning, when they are
thrown into pots of boiling water. The eggs are considered a great
delicacy. The meat is seldom touched except as a medicine, which is
curative for cutaneous diseases. Part of the meat is deposited in
the river with _kóhakwa_ (white shell beads) and turquoise beads as
offerings to Council of the Gods." This account at all events
confirms the inference that the tortoises are supposed to be
reincarnations of the human dead, for they are called the
"otherselves" of the Zuni; indeed, what else should they be than the
souls of the dead in the bodies of tortoises seeing that they come
from the haunted lake? As the principal object of the prayers
uttered and of the dances performed at these midsummer ceremonies
appears to be to procure rain for the crops, it may be that the
intention of bringing the tortoises to Zuni and dancing before them
is to intercede with the ancestral spirit, incarnate in the animals,
that they may be pleased to exert their power over the waters of
heaven for the benefit of their living descendants.
5. Killing the Sacred Bear
DOUBT also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the
bear-sacrifice offered by the Aino or Ainu, a primitive people who
are found in the Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in
Saghalien and the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite
easy to define the attitude of the Aino towards the bear. On the one
hand they give it the name of _kamui_ or "god"; but as they apply
the same word to strangers, it may mean no more than a being
supposed to be endowed with superhuman, or at all events
extraordinary, powers. Again, it is said that "the bear is their
chief divinity"; "in the religion of the Aino the bear plays a chief
part"; "amongst the animals it is especially the bear which receives
an idolatrous veneration"; "they worship it after their fashion";
"there is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of the feeling
which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the
Aino may be distinguished as bear-worshippers." Yet, on the other
hand, they kill the bear whenever they can; "in bygone years the
Ainu considered bear-hunting the most manly and useful way in which
a person could possibly spend his time"; "the men spend the autumn,
winter, and spring in hunting deer and bears. Part of their tribute
or taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist on the dried meat";
bear's flesh is indeed one of their staple foods; they eat it both
fresh and salted; and the skins of bears furnish them with clothing.
In fact, the worship of which writers on this subject speak appears
to be paid chiefly to the dead animal. Thus, although they kill a
bear whenever they can, "in the process of dissecting the carcass
they endeavor to conciliate the deity, whose representative they
have slain, by making elaborate obeisances and deprecatory
salutations"; "when a bear has been killed the Ainu sit down and
admire it, make their salaams to it, worship it, and offer presents
of _inao_"; "when a bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow, the
hunters go through an apologetic or propitiatory ceremony." The
skulls of slain bears receive a place of honour in their huts, or
are set up on sacred posts outside the huts, and are treated with
much respect: libations of millet beer, and of _sake,_ an
intoxicating liquor, are offered to them; and they are addressed as
"divine preservers" or "precious divinities." The skulls of foxes
are also fastened to the sacred posts outside the huts; they are
regarded as charms against evil spirits, and are consulted as
oracles. Yet it is expressly said, "The live fox is revered just as
little as the bear; rather they avoid it as much as possible,
considering it a wily animal." The bear can hardly, therefore, be
described as a sacred animal of the Aino, nor yet as a totem; for
they do not call themselves bears, and they kill and eat the animal
freely. However, they have a legend of a woman who had a son by a
bear; and many of them who dwell in the mountains pride themselves
on being descended from a bear. Such people are called "Descendants
of the bear" (_Kimun Kamui sanikiri_), and in the pride of their
heart they will say, "As for me, I am a child of the god of the
mountains; I am descended from the divine one who rules in the
mountains," meaning by "the god of the mountains" no other than the
bear. It is therefore possible that, as our principal authority, the
Rev. J. Batchelor, believes, the bear may have been the totem of an
Aino clan; but even if that were so it would not explain the respect
shown for the animal by the whole Aino people.
But it is the bear-festival of the Aino which concerns us here.
Towards the end of winter a bear cub is caught and brought into the
village. If it is very small, it is suckled by an Aino woman, but
should there be no woman able to suckle it, the little animal is fed
from the hand or the mouth. During the day it plays about in the hut
with the children and is treated with great affection. But when the
cub grows big enough to pain people by hugging or scratching them,
he is shut up in a strong wooden cage, where he stays generally for
two or three years, fed on fish and millet porridge, till it is time
for him to be killed and eaten. But "it is a peculiarly striking
fact that the young bear is not kept merely to furnish a good meal;
rather he is regarded and honoured as a fetish, or even as a sort of
higher being." In Yezo the festival is generally celebrated in
September or October. Before it takes place the Aino apologise to
their gods, alleging that they have treated the bear kindly as long
as they could, now they can feed him no longer, and are obliged to
kill him. A man who gives a bear-feast invites his relations and
friends; in a small village nearly the whole community takes part in
the feast; indeed, guests from distant villages are invited and
generally come, allured by the prospect of getting drunk for
nothing. The form of invitation runs somewhat as follows: "I, so and
so, am about to sacrifice the dear little divine thing who resides
among the mountains. My friends and masters, come ye to the feast;
we will then unite in the great pleasure of sending the god away.
Come." When all the people are assembled in front of the cage, an
orator chosen for the purpose addresses the bear and tells it that
they are about to send it forth to its ancestors. He craves pardon
for what they are about to do to it, hopes it will not be angry, and
comforts it by assuring the animal that many of the sacred whittled
sticks (_inao_) and plenty of cakes and wine will be sent with it on
the long journey. One speech of this sort which Mr. Batchelor heard
ran as follows: "O thou divine one, thou wast sent into the world
for us to hunt. O thou precious little divinity, we worship thee;
pray hear our prayer. We have nourished thee and brought thee up
with a deal of pains and trouble, all because we love thee so. Now,
as thou hast grown big, we are about to send thee to thy father and
mother. When thou comest to them please speak well of us, and tell
them how kind we have been; please come to us again and we will
sacrifice thee." Having been secured with ropes, the bear is then
let out of the cage and assailed with a shower of blunt arrows in
order to arouse it to fury. When it has spent itself in vain
struggles, it is tied up to a stake, gagged and strangled, its neck
being placed between two poles, which are then violently compressed,
all the people eagerly helping to squeeze the animal to death. An
arrow is also discharged into the beast's heart by a good marksman,
but so as not to shed blood, for they think that it would be very
unlucky if any of the blood were to drip on the ground. However, the
men sometimes drink the warm blood of the bear "that the courage and
other virtues it possesses may pass into them"; and sometimes they
besmear themselves and their clothes with the blood in order to
ensure success in hunting. When the animal has been strangled to
death, it is skinned and its head is cut off and set in the east
window of the house, where a piece of its own flesh is placed under
its snout, together with a cup of its own meat boiled, some millet
dumplings, and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed to the dead
animal; amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after going
away to its father and mother, to return into the world in order
that it may again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed
to have finished eating its own flesh, the man who presides at the
feast takes the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it, and
divides the contents between all the company present: every person,
young and old alike, must taste a little. The cup is called "the cup
of offering" because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When
the rest of the flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in like
manner among all the people, everybody partaking of at least a
morsel; not to partake of the feast would be equivalent to
excommunication, it would be to place the recreant outside the pale
of Aino fellowship. Formerly every particle of the bear, except the
bones, had to be eaten up at the banquet, but this rule is now
relaxed. The head, on being detached from the skin, is set up on a
long pole beside the sacred wands (_inao_) outside of the house,
where it remains till nothing but the bare white skull is left.
Skulls so set up are worshipped not only at the time of the
festival, but very often as long as they last. The Aino assured Mr.
Batchelor that they really do believe the spirits of the worshipful
animals to reside in the skulls; that is why they address them as
"divine preservers" and "precious divinities."
The ceremony of killing the bear was witnessed by Dr. B. Scheube on
the tenth of August at Kunnui, which is a village on Volcano Bay in
the island of Yezo or Yesso. As his description of the rite contains
some interesting particulars not mentioned in the foregoing account,
it may be worth while to summarize it.
On entering the hut he found about thirty Aino present, men, women,
and children, all dressed in their best. The master of the house
first offered a libation on the fireplace to the god of the fire,
and the guests followed his example. Then a libation was offered to
the house-god in his sacred corner of the hut. Meanwhile the
housewife, who had nursed the bear, sat by herself, silent and sad,
bursting now and then into tears. Her grief was obviously
unaffected, and it deepened as the festival went on. Next, the
master of the house and some of the guests went out of the hut and
offered libations before the bear's cage. A few drops were presented
to the bear in a saucer, which he at once upset. Then the women and
girls danced round the cage, their faces turned towards it, their
knees slightly bent, rising and hopping on their toes. As they
danced they clapped their hands and sang a monotonous song. The
housewife and a few old women, who might have nursed many bears,
danced tearfully, stretching out their arms to the bear, and
addressing it in terms of endearment. The young folks were less
affected; they laughed as well as sang. Disturbed by the noise, the
bear began to rush about his cage and howl lamentably. Next
libations were offered at the _inao_ (_inabos_) or sacred wands
which stand outside of an Aino hut. These wands are about a couple
of feet high, and are whittled at the top into spiral shavings. Five
new wands with bamboo leaves attached to them had been set up for
the festival. This is regularly done when a bear is killed; the
leaves mean that the animal may come to life again. Then the bear
was let out of his cage, a rope was thrown round his neck, and he
was led about in the neighbourhood of the hut. While this was being
done the men, headed by a chief, shot at the beast with arrows
tipped with wooden buttons. Dr. Scheube had to do so also. Then the
bear was taken before the sacred wands, a stick was put in his
mouth, nine men knelt on him and pressed his neck against a beam. In
five minutes the animal had expired without uttering a sound.
Meantime the women and girls had taken post behind the men, where
they danced, lamenting, and beating the men who were killing the
bear. The bear's carcase was next placed on the mat before the
sacred wands; and a sword and quiver, taken from the wands, were
hung round the beast's neck. Being a she-bear, it was also adorned
with a necklace and ear-rings. Then food and drink were offered to
it, in the shape of millet-broth, millet-cakes, and a pot of _sake._
The men now sat down on mats before the dead bear, offered libations
to it, and drank deep. Meanwhile the women and girls had laid aside
all marks of sorrow, and danced merrily, none more merrily than the
old women. When the mirth was at its height two young Aino, who had
let the bear out of his cage, mounted the roof of the hut and threw
cakes of millet among the company, who all scrambled for them
without distinction of age or sex. The bear was next skinned and
disembowelled, and the trunk severed from the head, to which the
skin was left hanging. The blood, caught in cups, was eagerly
swallowed by the men. None of the women or children appeared to
drink the blood, though custom did not forbid them to do so. The
liver was cut in small pieces and eaten raw, with salt, the women
and children getting their share. The flesh and the rest of the
vitals were taken into the house to be kept till the next day but
one, and then to be divided among the persons who had been present
at the feast. Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the
bear was being disembowelled, the women and girls danced the same
dance which they had danced at the beginning--not, however, round
the cage, but in front of the sacred wands. At this dance the old
women, who had been merry a moment before, again shed tears freely.
After the brain had been extracted from the bear's head and
swallowed with salt, the skull, detached from the skin, was hung on
a pole beside the sacred wands. The stick with which the bear had
been gagged was also fastened to the pole, and so were the sword and
quiver which had been hung on the carcase. The latter were removed
in about an hour, but the rest remained standing. The whole company,
men and women, danced noisily before the pole; and another
drinking-bout, in which the women joined, closed the festival.
Perhaps the first published account of the bear-feast of the Aino is
one which was given to the world by a Japanese writer in 1652. It
has been translated into French and runs thus: "When they find a
young bear, they bring it home, and the wife suckles it. When it is
grown they feed it with fish and fowl and kill it in winter for the
sake of the liver, which they esteem an antidote to poison, the
worms, colic, and disorders of the stomach. It is of a very bitter
taste, and is good for nothing if the bear has been killed in
summer. This butchery begins in the first Japanese month. For this
purpose they put the animal's head between two long poles, which are
squeezed together by fifty or sixty people, both men and women. When
the bear is dead they eat his flesh, keep the liver as a medicine,
and sell the skin, which is black and commonly six feet long, but
the longest measure twelve feet. As soon as he is skinned, the
persons who nourished the beast begin to bewail him; afterwards they
make little cakes to regale those who helped them."
The Aino of Saghalien rear bear cubs and kill them with similar
ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the bear as a god
but only as a messenger whom they despatch with various commissions
to the god of the forest. The animal is kept for about two years in
a cage, and then killed at a festival, which always takes place in
winter and at night. The day before the sacrifice is devoted to
lamentation, old women relieving each other in the duty of weeping
and groaning in front of the bear's cage. Then about the middle of
the night or very early in the morning an orator makes a long speech
to the beast, reminding him how they have taken care of him, and fed
him well, and bathed him in the river, and made him warm and
comfortable. "Now," he proceeds, "we are holding a great festival in
your honour. Be not afraid. We will not hurt you. We will only kill
you and send you to the god of the forest who loves you. We are
about to offer you a good dinner, the best you have ever eaten among
us, and we will all weep for you together. The Aino who will kill
you is the best shot among us. There he is, he weeps and asks your
forgiveness; you will feel almost nothing, it will be done so
quickly. We cannot feed you always, as you will understand. We have
done enough for you; it is now your turn to sacrifice yourself for
us. You will ask God to send us, for the winter, plenty of otters
and sables, and for the summer, seals and fish in abundance. Do not
forget our messages, we love you much, and our children will never
forget you." When the bear has partaken of his last meal amid the
general emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping afresh and
the men uttering stifled cries, he is strapped, not without
difficulty and danger, and being let out of the cage is led on leash
or dragged, according to the state of his temper, thrice round his
cage, then round his master's house, and lastly round the house of
the orator. Thereupon he is tied up to a tree, which is decked with
sacred whittled sticks (_inao_) of the usual sort; and the orator
again addresses him in a long harangue, which sometimes lasts till
the day is beginning to break. "Remember," he cries, "remember! I
remind you of your whole life and of the services we have rendered
you. It is now for you to do your duty. Do not forget what I have
asked of you. You will tell the gods to give us riches, that our
hunters may return from the forest laden with rare furs and animals
good to eat; that our fishers may find troops of seals on the shore
and in the sea, and that their nets may crack under the weight of
the fish. We have no hope but in you. The evil spirits laugh at us,
and too often they are unfavourable and malignant to us, but they
will bow before you. We have given you food and joy and health; now
we kill you in order that you may in return send riches to us and to
our children." To this discourse the bear, more and more surly and
agitated, listens without conviction; round and round the tree he
paces and howls lamentably, till, just as the first beams of the
rising sun light up the scene, an archer speeds an arrow to his
heart. No sooner has he done so, than the marksman throws away his
bow and flings himself on the ground, and the old men and women do
the same, weeping and sobbing. Then they offer the dead beast a
repast of rice and wild potatoes, and having spoken to him in terms
of pity and thanked him for what he has done and suffered, they cut
off his head and paws and keep them as sacred things. A banquet on
the flesh and blood of the bear follows. Women were formerly
excluded from it, but now they share with the men. The blood is
drunk warm by all present; the flesh is boiled, custom forbids it to
be roasted. And as the relics of the bear may not enter the house by
the door, and Aino houses in Saghalien have no windows, a man gets
up on the roof and lets the flesh, the head, and the skin down
through the smoke-hole. Rice and wild potatoes are then offered to
the head, and a pipe, tobacco, and matches are considerately placed
beside it. Custom requires that the guests should eat up the whole
animal before they depart; the use of salt and pepper at the meal is
forbidden; and no morsel of the flesh may be given to the dogs. When
the banquet is over, the head is carried away into the depth of the
forest and deposited on a heap of bears' skulls, the bleached and
mouldering relics of similar festivals in the past.
The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia, hold a
bear-festival of the same sort once a year in January. "The bear is
the object of the most refined solicitude of an entire village and
plays the chief part in their religious ceremonies." An old she-bear
is shot and her cub is reared, but not suckled, in the village. When
the bear is big enough he is taken from his cage and dragged through
the village. But first they lead him to the bank of the river, for
this is believed to ensure abundance of fish to each family. He is
then taken into every house in the village, where fish, brandy, and
so forth are offered to him. Some people prostrate themselves before
the beast. His entrance into a house is supposed to bring a
blessing; and if he snuffs at the food offered to him, this also is
a blessing. Nevertheless they tease and worry, poke and tickle the
animal continually, so that he is surly and snappish. After being
thus taken to every house, he is tied to a peg and shot dead with
arrows. His head is then cut off, decked with shavings, and placed
on the table where the feast is set out. Here they beg pardon of the
beast and worship him. Then his flesh is roasted and eaten in
special vessels of wood finely carved. They do not eat the flesh raw
nor drink the blood, as the Aino do. The brain and entrails are
eaten last; and the skull, still decked with shavings, is placed on
a tree near the house. Then the people sing and both sexes dance in
ranks, as bears.
One of these bear-festivals was witnessed by the Russian traveller
L. von Schrenck and his companions at the Gilyak village of Tebach
in January 1856. From his detailed report of the ceremony we may
gather some particulars which are not noticed in the briefer
accounts which I have just summarised. The bear, he tells us, plays
a great part in the life of all the peoples inhabiting the region of
the Amoor and Siberia as far as Kamtchatka, but among none of them
is his importance greater than among the Gilyaks. The immense size
which the animal attains in the valley of the Amoor, his ferocity
whetted by hunger, and the frequency of his appearance, all combine
to make him the most dreaded beast of prey in the country. No
wonder, therefore, that the fancy of the Gilyaks is busied with him
and surrounds him, both in life and in death, with a sort of halo of
superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it is thought that if a
Gilyak falls in combat with a bear, his soul transmigrates into the
body of the beast. Nevertheless his flesh has an irresistible
attraction for the Gilyak palate, especially when the animal has
been kept in captivity for some time and fattened on fish, which
gives the flesh, in the opinion of the Gilyaks, a peculiarly
delicious flavour. But in order to enjoy this dainty with impunity
they deem it needful to perform a long series of ceremonies, of
which the intention is to delude the living bear by a show of
respect, and to appease the anger of the dead animal by the homage
paid to his departed spirit. The marks of respect begin as soon as
the beast is captured. He is brought home in triumph and kept in a
cage, where all the villagers take it in turns to feed him. For
although he may have been captured or purchased by one man, he
belongs in a manner to the whole village. His flesh will furnish a
common feast, and hence all must contribute to support him in his
life. The length of time he is kept in captivity depends on his age.
Old bears are kept only a few months; cubs are kept till they are
full-grown. A thick layer of fat on the captive bear gives the
signal for the festival, which is always held in winter, generally
in December but sometimes in January or February. At the festival
witnessed by the Russian travellers, which lasted a good many days,
three bears were killed and eaten. More than once the animals were
led about in procession and compelled to enter every house in the
village, where they were fed as a mark of honour, and to show that
they were welcome guests. But before the beasts set out on this
round of visits, the Gilyaks played at skipping-rope in presence,
and perhaps, as L. von Schrenck inclined to believe, in honour of
the animals. The night before they were killed, the three bears were
led by moonlight a long way on the ice of the frozen river. That
night no one in the village might sleep. Next day, after the animals
had been again led down the steep bank to the river, and conducted
thrice round the hole in the ice from which the women of the village
drew their water, they were taken to an appointed place not far from
the village, and shot to death with arrows. The place of sacrifice
or execution was marked as holy by being surrounded with whittled
sticks, from the tops of which shavings hung in curls. Such sticks
are with the Gilyaks, as with the Aino, the regular symbols that
accompany all religious ceremonies.
When the house has been arranged and decorated for their reception,
the skins of the bears, with their heads attached to them, are
brought into it, not, however, by the door, but through a window,
and then hung on a sort of scaffold opposite the hearth on which the
flesh is to be cooked. The boiling of the bears' flesh among the
Gilyaks is done only by the oldest men, whose high privilege it is;
women and children, young men and boys have no part in it. The task
is performed slowly and deliberately, with a certain solemnity. On
the occasion described by the Russian travellers the kettle was
first of all surrounded with a thick wreath of shavings, and then
filled with snow, for the use of water to cook bear's flesh is
forbidden. Meanwhile a large wooden trough, richly adorned with
arabesques and carvings of all sorts, was hung immediately under the
snouts of the bears; on one side of the trough was carved in relief
a bear, on the other side a toad. When the carcases were being cut
up, each leg was laid on the ground in front of the bears, as if to
ask their leave, before being placed in the kettle; and the boiled
flesh was fished out of the kettle with an iron hook, and set in the
trough before the bears, in order that they might be the first to
taste of their own flesh. As fast, too, as the fat was cut in strips
it was hung up in front of the bears, and afterwards laid in a small
wooden trough on the ground before them. Last of all the inner
organs of the beasts were cut up and placed in small vessels. At the
same time the women made bandages out of parti-coloured rags, and
after sunset these bandages were tied round the bears' snouts just
below the eyes "in order to dry the tears that flowed from them."
As soon as the ceremony of wiping away poor bruin's tears had been
performed, the assembled Gilyaks set to work in earnest to devour
his flesh. The broth obtained by boiling the meat had already been
partaken of. The wooden bowls, platters, and spoons out of which the
Gilyaks eat the broth and flesh of the bears on these occasions are
always made specially for the purpose at the festival and only then;
they are elaborately ornamented with carved figures of bears and
other devices that refer to the animal or the festival, and the
people have a strong superstitious scruple against parting with
them. After the bones had been picked clean they were put back in
the kettle in which the flesh had been boiled. And when the festal
meal was over, an old man took his stand at the door of the house
with a branch of fir in his hand, with which, as the people passed
out, he gave a light blow to every one who had eaten of the bear's
flesh or fat, perhaps as a punishment for their treatment of the
worshipful animal. In the afternoon the women performed a strange
dance. Only one woman danced at a time, throwing the upper part of
her body into the oddest postures, while she held in her hands a
branch of fir or a kind of wooden castanets. The other women
meanwhile played an accompaniment by drumming on the beams of the
house with clubs. Von Schrenk believed that after the flesh of the
bear has been eaten the bones and the skull are solemnly carried out
by the oldest people to a place in the forest not far from the
village. There all the bones except the skull are buried. After that
a young tree is felled a few inches above the ground, its stump
cleft, and the skull wedged into the cleft. When the grass grows
over the spot, the skull disappears from view, and that is the end
of the bear.
Another description of the bear-festivals of the Gilyaks has been
given us by Mr. Leo Sternberg. It agrees substantially with the
foregoing accounts, but a few particulars in it may be noted.
According to Mr. Sternberg, the festival is usually held in honour
of a deceased relation: the next of kin either buys or catches a
bear cub and nurtures it for two or three years till it is ready for
the sacrifice. Only certain distinguished guests (_Narch-en_) are
privileged to partake of the bear's flesh, but the host and members
of his clan eat a broth made from the flesh; great quantities of
this broth are prepared and consumed on the occasion. The guests of
honour (_Narch-en_) must belong to the clan into which the host's
daughters and the other women of his clan are married: one of these
guests, usually the host's son-in-law, is entrusted with the duty of
shooting the bear dead with an arrow. The skin, head, and flesh of
the slain bear are brought into the house not through the door but
through the smoke-hole; a quiver full of arrows is laid under the
head and beside it are deposited tobacco, sugar, and other food. The
soul of the bear is supposed to carry off the souls of these things
with it on the far journey. A special vessel is used for cooking the
bear's flesh, and the fire must be kindled by a sacred apparatus of
flint and steel, which belongs to the clan and is handed down from
generation to generation, but which is never used to light fires
except on these solemn occasions. Of all the many viands cooked for
the consumption of the assembled people a portion is placed in a
special vessel and set before the bear's head: this is called
"feeding the head." After the bear has been killed, dogs are
sacrificed in couples of male and female. Before being throttled,
they are fed and invited to go to their lord on the highest
mountain, to change their skins, and to return next year in the form
of bears. The soul of the dead bear departs to the same lord, who is
also lord of the primaeval forest; it goes away laden with the
offerings that have been made to it, and attended by the souls of
the dogs and also by the souls of the sacred whittled sticks, which
figure prominently at the festival.
The Goldi, neighbours of the Gilyaks, treat the bear in much the
same way. They hunt and kill it; but sometimes they capture a live
bear and keep him in a cage, feeding him well and calling him their
son and brother. Then at a great festival he is taken from his cage,
paraded about with marked consideration, and afterwards killed and
eaten. "The skull, jaw-bones, and ears are then suspended on a tree,
as an antidote against evil spirits; but the flesh is eaten and much
relished, for they believe that all who partake of it acquire a zest
for the chase, and become courageous."
The Orotchis, another Tunguzian people of the region of the Amoor,
hold bear-festivals of the same general character. Any one who
catches a bear cub considers it his bounden duty to rear it in a
cage for about three years, in order at the end of that time to kill
it publicly and eat the flesh with his friends. The feasts being
public, though organised by individuals, the people try to have one
in each Orotchi village every year in turn. When the bear is taken
out of his cage, he is led about by means of ropes to all the huts,
accompanied by people armed with lances, bows, and arrows. At each
hut the bear and bear-leaders are treated to something good to eat
and drink. This goes on for several days until all the huts, not
only in that village but also in the next, have been visited. The
days are given up to sport and noisy jollity. Then the bear is tied
to a tree or wooden pillar and shot to death by the arrows of the
crowd, after which its flesh is roasted and eaten. Among the
Orotchis of the Tundja River women take part in the bear-feasts,
while among the Orotchis of the River Vi the women will not even
touch bear's flesh.
In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes there are
features which can hardly be distinguished from worship. Such, for
example, are the prayers offered to it both alive and dead; the
offerings of food, including portions of its own flesh, laid before
the animal's skull; and the Gilyak custom of leading the living
beast to the river in order to ensure a supply of fish, and of
conducting him from house to house in order that every family may
receive his blessing, just as in Europe a May-tree or a personal
representative of the tree-spirit used to be taken from door to door
in spring for the sake of diffusing among all and sundry the fresh
energies of reviving nature. Again, the solemn participation in his
flesh and blood, and particularly the Aino custom of sharing the
contents of the cup which had been consecrated by being set before
the dead beast, are strongly suggestive of a sacrament, and the
suggestion is confirmed by the Gilyak practice of reserving special
vessels to hold the flesh and cooking it on a fire kindled by a
sacred apparatus which is never employed except on these religious
occasions. Indeed our principal authority on Aino religion, the Rev.
John Batchelor, frankly describes as worship the ceremonious respect
which the Aino pay to the bear, and he affirms that the animal is
undoubtedly one of their gods. Certainly the Aino appear to apply
their name for god (_kamui_) freely to the bear; but, as Mr.
Batchelor himself points out, that word is used with many different
shades of meaning and is applied to a great variety of objects, so
that from its application to the bear we cannot safely argue that
the animal is actually regarded as a deity. Indeed we are expressly
told that the Aino of Saghalien do not consider the bear to be a god
but only a messenger to the gods, and the message with which they
charge the animal at its death bears out the statement. Apparently
the Gilyaks also look on the bear in the light of an envoy
despatched with presents to the Lord of the Mountain, on whom the
welfare of the people depends. At the same time they treat the
animal as a being of a higher order than man, in fact as a minor
deity, whose presence in the village, so long as he is kept and fed,
diffuses blessings, especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil
spirits who are constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their
goods and destroying their bodies by sickness and disease. Moreover,
by partaking of the flesh, blood, or broth of the bear, the Gilyaks,
the Aino, and the Goldi are all of opinion that they acquire some
portion of the animal's mighty powers, particularly his courage and
strength. No wonder, therefore, that they should treat so great a
benefactor with marks of the highest respect and affection.
Some light may be thrown on the ambiguous attitude of the Aino to
bears by comparing the similar treatment which they accord to other
creatures. For example, they regard the eagle-owl as a good deity
who by his hooting warns men of threatened evil and defends them
against it; hence he is loved, trusted, and devoutly worshipped as a
divine mediator between men and the Creator. The various names
applied to him are significant both of his divinity and of his
mediatorship. Whenever an opportunity offers, one of these divine
birds is captured and kept in a cage, where he is greeted with the
endearing titles of "Beloved god" and "Dear little divinity."
Nevertheless the time comes when the dear little divinity is
throttled and sent away in his capacity of mediator to take a
message to the superior gods or to the Creator himself. The
following is the form of prayer addressed to the eagle-owl when it
is about to be sacrificed: "Beloved deity, we have brought you up
because we loved you, and now we are about to send you to your
father. We herewith offer you food, _inao,_ wine, and cakes; take
them to your parent, and he will be very pleased. When you come to
him say, 'I have lived a long time among the Ainu, where an Ainu
father and an Ainu mother reared me. I now come to thee. I have
brought a variety of good things. I saw while living in Ainuland a
great deal of distress. I observed that some of the people were
possessed by demons, some were wounded by wild animals, some were
hurt by landslides, others suffered shipwreck, and many were
attacked by disease. The people are in great straits. My father,
hear me, and hasten to look upon the Ainu and help them.' If you do
this, your father will help us."
Again, the Aino keep eagles in cages, worship them as divinities,
and ask them to defend the people from evil. Yet they offer the bird
in sacrifice, and when they are about to do so they pray to him,
saying: "O precious divinity, O thou divine bird, pray listen to my
words. Thou dost not belong to this world, for thy home is with the
Creator and his golden eagles. This being so, I present thee with
these _inao_ and cakes and other precious things. Do thou ride upon
the _inao_ and ascend to thy home in the glorious heavens. When thou
arrivest, assemble the deities of thy own kind together and thank
them for us for having governed the world. Do thou come again, I
beseech thee, and rule over us. O my precious one, go thou quietly."
Once more, the Aino revere hawks, keep them in cages, and offer them
in sacrifice. At the time of killing one of them the following
prayer should be addressed to the bird: "O divine hawk, thou art an
expert hunter, please cause thy cleverness to descend on me." If a
hawk is well treated in captivity and prayed to after this fashion
when he is about to be killed, he will surely send help to the
hunter.
Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by slaughtering the
creatures, which, nevertheless, he treats as divine. He expects them
to carry messages for him to their kindred or to the gods in the
upper world; he hopes to partake of their virtues by swallowing
parts of their bodies or in other ways; and apparently he looks
forward to their bodily resurrection in this world, which will
enable him again to catch and kill them, and again to reap all the
benefits which he has already derived from their slaughter. For in
the prayers addressed to the worshipful bear and the worshipful
eagle before they are knocked on the head the creatures are invited
to come again, which seems clearly to point to a faith in their
future resurrection. If any doubt could exist on this head, it would
be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Batchelor, who tells us that the
Aino "are firmly convinced that the spirits of birds and animals
killed in hunting or offered in sacrifice come and live again upon
the earth clothed with a body; and they believe, further, that they
appear here for the special benefit of men, particularly Ainu
hunters." The Aino, Mr. Batchelor tells us, "confessedly slays and
eats the beast that another may come in its place and be treated in
like manner"; and at the time of sacrificing the creatures "prayers
are said to them which form a request that they will come again and
furnish viands for another feast, as if it were an honour to them to
be thus killed and eaten, and a pleasure as well. Indeed such is the
people's idea." These last observations, as the context shows, refer
especially to the sacrifice of bears.
Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates from the
slaughter of the worshipful animals not the least substantial is
that of gorging himself on their flesh and blood, both on the
present and on many a similar occasion hereafter; and that pleasing
prospect again is derived from his firm faith in the spiritual
immortality and bodily resurrection of the dead animals. A like
faith is shared by many savage hunters in many parts of the world
and has given rise to a variety of quaint customs, some of which
will be described presently. Meantime it is not unimportant to
observe that the solemn festivals at which the Aino, the Gilyaks,
and other tribes slaughter the tame caged bears with demonstrations
of respect and sorrow, are probably nothing but an extension or
glorification of similar rites which the hunter performs over any
wild bear which he chances to kill in the forest. Indeed with regard
to the Gilyaks we are expressly informed that this is the case. If
we would understand the meaning of the Gilyak ritual, says Mr.
Sternberg, "we must above all remember that the bear-festivals are
not, as is usually but falsely assumed, celebrated only at the
killing of a house-bear but are held on every occasion when a Gilyak
succeeds in slaughtering a bear in the chase. It is true that in
such cases the festival assumes less imposing dimensions, but in its
essence it remains the same. When the head and skin of a bear killed
in the forest are brought into the village, they are accorded a
triumphal reception with music and solemn ceremonial. The head is
laid on a consecrated scaffold, fed, and treated with offerings,
just as at the killing of a house-bear; and the guests of honour
(_Narch-en_) are also assembled. So, too, dogs are sacrificed, and
the bones of the bear are preserved in the same place and with the
same marks of respect as the bones of a house-bear. Hence the great
winter festival is only an extension of the rite which is observed
at the slaughter of every bear."
Thus the apparent contradiction in the practice of these tribes, who
venerate and almost deify the animals which they habitually hunt,
kill, and eat, is not so flagrant as at first sight it appears to
us: the people have reasons, and some very practical reasons, for
acting as they do. For the savage is by no means so illogical and
unpractical as to superficial observers he is apt to seem; he has
thought deeply on the questions which immediately concern him, he
reasons about them, and though his conclusions often diverge very
widely from ours, we ought not to deny him the credit of patient and
prolonged meditation on some fundamental problems of human
existence. In the present case, if he treats bears in general as
creatures wholly subservient to human needs and yet singles out
certain individuals of the species for homage which almost amounts
to deification, we must not hastily set him down as irrational and
inconsistent, but must endeavour to place ourselves at his point of
view, to see things as he sees them, and to divest ourselves of the
prepossessions which tinge so deeply our own views of the world. If
we do so, we shall probably discover that, however absurd his
conduct may appear to us, the savage nevertheless generally acts on
a train of reasoning which seems to him in harmony with the facts of
his limited experience. This I propose to illustrate in the
following chapter, where I shall attempt to show that the solemn
ceremonial of the bear-festival among the Ainos and other tribes of
North-eastern Asia is only a particularly striking example of the
respect which on the principles of his rude philosophy the savage
habitually pays to the animals which he kills and eats.
LIII. The Propitiation of Wild Animals By Hunters
THE EXPLANATION of life by the theory of an indwelling and
practically immortal soul is one which the savage does not confine
to human beings but extends to the animate creation in general. In
so doing he is more liberal and perhaps more logical than the
civilised man, who commonly denies to animals that privilege of
immortality which he claims for himself. The savage is not so proud;
he commonly believes that animals are endowed with feelings and
intelligence like those of men, and that, like men, they possess
souls which survive the death of their bodies either to wander about
as disembodied spirits or to be born again in animal form.
Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures as practically
on a footing of equality with man, the act of killing and eating an
animal must wear a very different aspect from that which the same
act presents to us, who regard the intelligence of animals as far
inferior to our own and deny them the possession of immortal souls.
Hence on the principles of his rude philosophy the primitive hunter
who slays an animal believes himself exposed to the vengeance either
of its disembodied spirit or of all the other animals of the same
species, whom he considers as knit together, like men, by the ties
of kin and the obligations of the blood feud, and therefore as bound
to resent the injury done to one of their number. Accordingly the
savage makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which he
has no pressing motive for killing, at least such fierce and
dangerous animals as are likely to exact a bloody vengeance for the
slaughter of one of their kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort.
They are only found in hot countries, where, as a rule, food is
abundant and primitive man has therefore little reason to kill them
for the sake of their tough and unpalatable flesh. Hence it is a
custom with some savages to spare crocodiles, or rather only to kill
them in obedience to the law of blood feud, that is, as a
retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles. For example, the
Dyaks of Borneo will not kill a crocodile unless a crocodile has
first killed a man. "For why, say they, should they commit an act of
aggression, when he and his kindred can so easily repay them? But
should the alligator take a human life, revenge becomes a sacred
duty of the living relatives, who will trap the man-eater in the
spirit of an officer of justice pursuing a criminal. Others, even
then, hang back, reluctant to embroil themselves in a quarrel which
does not concern them. The man-eating alligator is supposed to be
pursued by a righteous Nemesis; and whenever one is caught they have
a profound conviction that it must be the guilty one, or his
accomplice."
Like the Dyaks, the natives of Madagascar never kill a crocodile
"except in retaliation for one of their friends who has been
destroyed by a crocodile. They believe that the wanton destruction
of one of these reptiles will be followed by the loss of human life,
in accordance with the principle of _lex talionis._" The people who
live near the lake Itasy in Madagascar make a yearly proclamation to
the crocodiles, announcing that they will revenge the death of some
of their friends by killing as many crocodiles in return, and
warning all well-disposed crocodiles to keep out of the way, as they
have no quarrel with them, but only with their evil-minded relations
who have taken human life. Various tribes of Madagascar believe
themselves to be descended from crocodiles, and accordingly they
view the scaly reptile as, to all intents and purposes, a man and a
brother. If one of the animals should so far forget himself as to
devour one of his human kinsfolk, the chief of the tribe, or in his
absence an old man familiar with the tribal customs, repairs at the
head of the people to the edge of the water, and summons the family
of the culprit to deliver him up to the arm of justice. A hook is
then baited and cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty
brother, or one of his family, is dragged ashore, and after his
crime has been clearly brought home to him by a strict
interrogation, he is sentenced to death and executed. The claims of
justice being thus satisfied and the majesty of the law fully
vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and buried like a
kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone marks the
place of his head.
Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous beasts whom the
savage prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one of the species he
should excite the hostility of the rest. No consideration will
induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger except in self-defence
or immediately after a tiger has destroyed a friend or relation.
When a European has set traps for tigers, the people of the
neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the place and
explain to the animals that the traps are not set by them nor with
their consent. The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall, in
Bengal, are very averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their
kinsfolk has been carried off by one of the beasts. In that case
they go out for the purpose of hunting and slaying a tiger; and when
they have succeeded they lay their bows and arrows on the carcase
and invoke God, declaring that they slew the animal in retaliation
for the loss of a kinsman. Vengeance having been thus taken, they
swear not to attack another tiger except under similar provocation.
The Indians of Carolina would not molest snakes when they came upon
them, but would pass by on the other side of the path, believing
that if they were to kill a serpent, the reptile's kindred would
destroy some of their brethren, friends, or relations in return. So
the Seminole Indians spared the rattlesnake, because they feared
that the soul of the dead rattlesnake would incite its kinsfolk to
take vengeance. The Cherokee regard the rattlesnake as the chief of
the snake tribe and fear and respect him accordingly. Few Cherokee
will venture to kill a rattlesnake, unless they cannot help it, and
even then they must atone for the crime by craving pardon of the
snake's ghost either in their own person or through the mediation of
a priest, according to a set formula. If these precautions are
neglected, the kinsfolk of the dead snake will send one of their
number as an avenger of blood, who will track down the murderer and
sting him to death. No ordinary Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he
can possibly help it; for he believes that the kindred of the slain
beast would surely avenge its death, and that the weapon with which
the deed had been done would be quite useless for the future, unless
it were cleaned and exorcised by a medicine-man. However, certain
persons who know the proper rites of atonement for such a crime can
kill wolves with impunity, and they are sometimes hired to do so by
people who have suffered from the raids of the wolves on their
cattle or fish-traps. In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the Eastern
Sudan, it is forbidden to touch the nests or remove the young of a
species of black birds, resembling our blackbirds, because the
people believe that the parent birds would avenge the wrong by
causing a stormy wind to blow, which would destroy the harvest.
But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all animals. He must
either eat some of them or starve, and when the question thus comes
to be whether he or the animal must perish, he is forced to overcome
his superstitious scruples and take the life of the beast. At the
same time he does all he can to appease his victims and their
kinsfolk. Even in the act of killing them he testifies his respect
for them, endeavours to excuse or even conceal his share in
procuring their death, and promises that their remains will be
honourably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors, he hopes
to reconcile his victims to their fate and to induce their fellows
to come and be killed also. For example, it was a principle with the
Kamtchatkans never to kill a land or sea animal without first making
excuses to it and begging that the animal would not take it ill.
Also they offered it cedarnuts and so forth, to make it think that
it was not a victim but a guest at a feast. They believed that this
hindered other animals of the same species from growing shy. For
instance, after they had killed a bear and feasted on its flesh, the
host would bring the bear's head before the company, wrap it in
grass, and present it with a variety of trifles. Then he would lay
the blame of the bear's death on the Russians, and bid the beast
wreak his wrath upon them. Also he would ask the bear to inform the
other bears how well he had been treated, that they too might come
without fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other animals were treated by
the Kamtchatkans with the same ceremonious respect. Moreover, they
used to insert sprigs of a plant resembling bear's wort in the
mouths of the animals they killed; after which they would exhort the
grinning skulls to have no fear but to go and tell it to their
fellows, that they also might come and be caught and so partake of
this splendid hospitality. When the Ostiaks have hunted and killed a
bear, they cut off its head and hang it on a tree. Then they gather
round in a circle and pay it divine honours. Next they run towards
the carcase uttering lamentations and saying, "Who killed you? It
was the Russians. Who cut off your head? It was a Russian axe. Who
skinned you? It was a knife made by a Russian." They explain, too,
that the feathers which sped the arrow on its flight came from the
wing of a strange bird, and that they did nothing but let the arrow
go. They do all this because they believe that the wandering ghost
of the slain bear would attack them on the first opportunity, if
they did not thus appease it. Or they stuff the skin of the slain
bear with hay; and after celebrating their victory with songs of
mockery and insult, after spitting on and kicking it, they set it up
on its hind legs, "and then, for a considerable time, they bestow on
it all the veneration due to a guardian god." When a party of Koryak
have killed a bear or a wolf, they skin the beast and dress one of
themselves in the skin. Then they dance round the skin-clad man,
saying that it was not they who killed the animal, but some one
else, generally a Russian. When they kill a fox they skin it, wrap
the body in grass, and bid him go tell his companions how hospitably
he has been received, and how he has received a new cloak instead of
his old one. A fuller account of the Koryak ceremonies is given by a
more recent writer. He tells us that when a dead bear is brought to
the house, the women come out to meet it, dancing with firebrands.
The bear-skin is taken off along with the head; and one of the women
puts on the skin, dances in it, and entreats the bear not to be
angry, but to be kind to the people. At the same time they offer
meat on a wooden platter to the dead beast, saying, "Eat, friend."
Afterwards a ceremony is performed for the purpose of sending the
dead bear, or rather his spirit, away back to his home. He is
provided with provisions for the journey in the shape of puddings or
reindeer-flesh packed in a grass bag. His skin is stuffed with grass
and carried round the house, after which he is supposed to depart
towards the rising sun. The intention of the ceremonies is to
protect the people from the wrath of the slain bear and his
kinsfolk, and so to ensure success in future bear-hunts. The Finns
used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed by
them, but had fallen from a tree, or met his death in some other
way; moreover, they held a funeral festival in his honour, at the
close of which bards expatiated on the homage that had been paid to
him, urging him to report to the other bears the high consideration
with which he had been treated, in order that they also, following
his example, might come and be slain. When the Lapps had succeeded
in killing a bear with impunity, they thanked him for not hurting
them and for not breaking the clubs and spears which had given him
his death wounds; and they prayed that he would not visit his death
upon them by sending storms or in any other way. His flesh then
furnished a feast.
The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they regularly kill and
eat may thus be traced all along the northern region of the Old
World from Bering's Straits to Lappland. It reappears in similar
forms in North America. With the American Indians a bear hunt was an
important event for which they prepared by long fasts and
purgations. Before setting out they offered expiatory sacrifices to
the souls of bears slain in previous hunts, and besought them to be
favourable to the hunters. When a bear was killed the hunter lit his
pipe, and putting the mouth of it between the bear's lips, blew into
the bowl, filling the beast's mouth with smoke. Then he begged the
bear not to be angry at having been killed, and not to thwart him
afterwards in the chase. The carcase was roasted whole and eaten;
not a morsel of the flesh might be left over. The head, painted red
and blue, was hung on a post and addressed by orators, who heaped
praise on the dead beast. When men of the Bear clan in the Ottawa
tribe killed a bear, they made him a feast of his own flesh, and
addressed him thus: "Cherish us no grudge because we have killed
you. You have sense; you see that our children are hungry. They love
you and wish to take you into their bodies. Is it not glorious to be
eaten by the children of a chief?" Amongst the Nootka Indians of
British Columbia, when a bear had been killed, it was brought in and
seated before the head chief in an upright posture, with a chief's
bonnet, wrought in figures, on its head, and its fur powdered over
with white down. A tray of provisions was then set before it, and it
was invited by words and gestures to eat. After that the animal was
skinned, boiled, and eaten.
A like respect is testified for other dangerous creatures by the
hunters who regularly trap and kill them. When Caffre hunters are in
the act of showering spears on an elephant, they call out, "Don't
kill us, great captain; don't strike or tread upon us, mighty
chief." When he is dead they make their excuses to him, pretending
that his death was a pure accident. As a mark of respect they bury
his trunk with much solemn ceremony; for they say that "the elephant
is a great lord; his trunk is his hand." Before the Amaxosa Caffres
attack an elephant they shout to the animal and beg him to pardon
them for the slaughter they are about to perpetrate, professing
great submission to his person and explaining clearly the need they
have of his tusks to enable them to procure beads and supply their
wants. When they have killed him they bury in the ground, along with
the end of his trunk, a few of the articles they have obtained for
the ivory, thus hoping to avert some mishap that would otherwise
befall them. Amongst some tribes of Eastern Africa, when a lion is
killed, the carcase is brought before the king, who does homage to
it by prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing his face on the
muzzle of the beast. In some parts of Western Africa if a negro
kills a leopard he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for
having killed one of their peers. The man defends himself on the
plea that the leopard is chief of the forest and therefore a
stranger. He is then set at liberty and rewarded. But the dead
leopard, adorned with a chief's bonnet, is set up in the village,
where nightly dances are held in its honour. The Baganda greatly
fear the ghosts of buffaloes which they have killed, and they always
appease these dangerous spirits. On no account will they bring the
head of a slain buffalo into a village or into a garden of
plantains: they always eat the flesh of the head in the open
country. Afterwards they place the skull in a small hut built for
the purpose, where they pour out beer as an offering and pray to the
ghost to stay where he is and not to harm them.
Another formidable beast whose life the savage hunter takes with
joy, yet with fear and trembling, is the whale. After the slaughter
of a whale the maritime Koryak of North-eastern Siberia hold a
communal festival, the essential part of which "is based on the
conception that the whale killed has come on a visit to the village;
that it is staying for some time, during which it is treated with
great respect; that it then returns to the sea to repeat its visit
the following year; that it will induce its relatives to come along,
telling them of the hospitable reception that has been accorded to
it. According to the Koryak ideas, the whales, like all other
animals, constitute one tribe, or rather family, of related
individuals, who live in villages like the Koryak. They avenge the
murder of one of their number, and are grateful for kindnesses that
they may have received." When the inhabitants of the Isle of St.
Mary, to the north of Madagascar, go a-whaling, they single out the
young whales for attack and "humbly beg the mother's pardon, stating
the necessity that drives them to kill her progeny, and requesting
that she will be pleased to go below while the deed is doing, that
her maternal feelings may not be outraged by witnessing what must
cause her so much uneasiness." An Ajumba hunter having killed a
female hippopotamus on Lake Azyingo in West Africa, the animal was
decapitated and its quarters and bowels removed. Then the hunter,
naked, stepped into the hollow of the ribs, and kneeling down in the
bloody pool washed his whole body with the blood and excretions of
the animal, while he prayed to the soul of the hippopotamus not to
bear him a grudge for having killed her and so blighted her hopes of
future maternity; and he further entreated the ghost not to stir up
other hippopotamuses to avenge her death by butting at and capsizing
his canoe.
The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its depredations
by the Indians of Brazil. When they have caught one of these animals
in a snare, they kill it and carry the body home to the village.
There the women deck the carcase with feathers of many colours, put
bracelets on its legs, and weep over it, saying, "I pray thee not to
take vengeance on our little ones for having been caught and killed
through thine own ignorance. For it was not we who deceived thee, it
was thyself. Our husbands only set the trap to catch animals that
are good to eat; they never thought to take thee in it. Therefore,
let not thy soul counsel thy fellows to avenge thy death on our
little ones!" When a Blackfoot Indian has caught eagles in a trap
and killed them, he takes them home to a special lodge, called the
eagles' lodge, which has been prepared for their reception outside
of the camp. Here he sets the birds in a row on the ground, and
propping up their heads on a stick, puts a piece of dried meat in
each of their mouths in order that the spirits of the dead eagles
may go and tell the other eagles how well they are being treated by
the Indians. So when Indian hunters of the Orinoco region have
killed an animal, they open its mouth and pour into it a few drops
of the liquor they generally carry with them, in order that the soul
of the dead beast may inform its fellows of the welcome it has met
with, and that they too, cheered by the prospect of the same kind
reception, may come with alacrity to be killed. When a Teton Indian
is on a journey, and he meets a grey spider or a spider with yellow
legs, he kills it, because some evil would befall him if he did not.
But he is very careful not to let the spider know that he kills it,
for if the spider knew, his soul would go and tell the other
spiders, and one of them would be sure to avenge the death of his
relation. So in crushing the insect, the Indian says, "O Grandfather
Spider, the Thunder-beings kill you." And the spider is crushed at
once and believes what is told him. His soul probably runs and tells
the other spiders that the Thunder-beings have killed him; but no
harm comes of that. For what can grey or yellow-legged spiders do to
the Thunder-beings?
But it is not merely dangerous creatures with whom the savage
desires to keep on good terms. It is true that the respect which he
pays to wild beasts is in some measure proportioned to their
strength and ferocity. Thus the savage Stiens of Cambodia, believing
that all animals have souls which roam about after their death, beg
an animal's pardon when they kill it, lest its soul should come and
torment them. Also they offer it sacrifices, but these sacrifices
are proportioned to the size and strength of the animal. The
ceremonies which they observe at the death of an elephant are
conducted with much pomp and last seven days. Similar distinctions
are drawn by North American Indians. "The bear, the buffalo, and the
beaver are manidos [divinities] which furnish food. The bear is
formidable, and good to eat. They render ceremonies to him, begging
him to allow himself to be eaten, although they know he has no fancy
for it. We kill you, but you are not annihilated. His head and paws
are objects of homage. . . . Other animals are treated similarly
from similar reasons. . . . Many of the animal manidos, not being
dangerous, are often treated with contempt--the terrapin, the
weasel, polecat, etc." The distinction is instructive. Animals which
are feared, or are good to eat, or both, are treated with
ceremonious respect; those which are neither formidable nor good to
eat are despised. We have had examples of reverence paid to animals
which are both feared and eaten. It remains to prove that similar
respect is shown to animals which, without being feared, are either
eaten or valued for their skins.
When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no one is allowed
to see it, and they think that if good or evil be spoken of the
captured sable no more sables will be caught. A hunter has been
known to express his belief that the sables could hear what was said
of them as far off as Moscow. He said that the chief reason why the
sable hunt was now so unproductive was that some live sables had
been sent to Moscow. There they had been viewed with astonishment as
strange animals, and the sables cannot abide that. Another, though
minor, cause of the diminished take of sables was, he alleged, that
the world is now much worse than it used to be, so that nowadays a
hunter will sometimes hide the sable which he has got instead of
putting it into the common stock. This also, said he, the sables
cannot abide. Alaskan hunters preserve the bones of sables and
beavers out of reach of the dogs for a year and then bury them
carefully, "lest the spirits who look after the beavers and sables
should consider that they are regarded with contempt, and hence no
more should be killed or trapped." The Canadian Indians were equally
particular not to let their dogs gnaw the bones, or at least certain
of the bones, of beavers. They took the greatest pains to collect
and preserve these bones, and, when the beaver had been caught in a
net, they threw them into the river. To a Jesuit who argued that the
beavers could not possibly know what became of their bones, the
Indians replied, "You know nothing about catching beavers and yet
you will be prating about it. Before the beaver is stone dead, his
soul takes a turn in the hut of the man who is killing him and makes
a careful note of what is done with his bones. If the bones are
given to the dogs, the other beavers would get word of it and would
not let themselves be caught. Whereas, if their bones are thrown
into the fire or a river, they are quite satisfied; and it is
particularly gratifying to the net which caught them." Before
hunting the beaver they offered a solemn prayer to the Great Beaver,
and presented him with tobacco; and when the chase was over, an
orator pronounced a funeral oration over the dead beavers. He
praised their spirit and wisdom. "You will hear no more," said he,
"the voice of the chieftains who commanded you and whom you chose
from among all the warrior beavers to give you laws. Your language,
which the medicine-men understand perfectly, will be heard no more
at the bottom of the lake. You will fight no more battles with the
otters, your cruel foes. No, beavers! But your skins shall serve to
buy arms; we will carry your smoked hams to our children; we will
keep the dogs from eating your bones, which are so hard."
The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the American Indians with
the same punctilious respect, and for the same reason. Their bones
might not be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire, nor might
their fat be dropped upon the fire, because the souls of the dead
animals were believed to see what was done to their bodies and to
tell it to the other beasts, living and dead. Hence, if their bodies
were illused, the animals of that species would not allow themselves
to be taken, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Among
the Chiquites of Paraguay a sick man would be asked by the
medicine-man whether he had not thrown away some of the flesh of the
deer or turtle, and if he answered yes, the medicine-man would say,
"That is what is killing you. The soul of the deer or turtle has
entered into your body to avenge the wrong you did it." The Canadian
Indians would not eat the embryos of the elk, unless at the close of
the hunting season; otherwise the mother-elks would be shy and
refuse to be caught.
In the Timor-laut islands of the Indian Archipelago the skulls of
all the turtles which a fisherman has caught are hung up under his
house. Before he goes out to catch another, he addresses himself to
the skull of the last turtle that he killed, and having inserted
betel between its jaws, he prays the spirit of the dead animal to
entice its kinsfolk in the sea to come and be caught. In the Poso
district of Central Celebes hunters keep the jawbones of deer and
wild pigs which they have killed and hang them up in their houses
near the fire. Then they say to the jawbones, "Ye cry after your
comrades, that your grandfathers, or nephews, or children may not go
away." Their notion is that the souls of the dead deer and pigs
tarry near their jawbones and attract the souls of living deer and
pigs, which are thus drawn into the toils of the hunter. Thus the
wily savage employs dead animals as decoys to lure living animals to
their doom.
The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt the ostrich, but
when they have killed one of these birds and are bringing home the
carcase to the village, they take steps to outwit the resentful
ghost of their victim. They think that when the first natural shock
of death is passed, the ghost of the ostrich pulls himself together
and makes after his body. Acting on this sage calculation, the
Indians pluck feathers from the breast of the bird and strew them at
intervals along the track. At every bunch of feathers the ghost
stops to consider, "Is this the whole of my body or only a part of
it?" The doubt gives him pause, and when at last he has made up his
mind fully at all the bunches, and has further wasted valuable time
by the zigzag course which he invariably pursues in going from one
to another, the hunters are safe at home, and the bilked ghost may
stalk in vain round about the village, which he is too timid to
enter.
The Esquimaux about Bering Strait believe that the souls of dead
sea-beasts, such as seals, walrus, and whales, remain attached to
their bladders, and that by returning the bladders to the sea they
can cause the souls to be reincarnated in fresh bodies and so
multiply the game which the hunters pursue and kill. Acting on this
belief every hunter carefully removes and preserves the bladders of
all the sea-beasts that he kills; and at a solemn festival held once
a year in winter these bladders, containing the souls of all the
sea-beasts that have been killed throughout the year, are honoured
with dances and offerings of food in the public assembly-room, after
which they are taken out on the ice and thrust through holes into
the water; for the simple Esquimaux imagine that the souls of the
animals, in high good humour at the kind treatment they have
experienced, will thereafter be born again as seals, walrus, and
whales, and in that form will flock willingly to be again speared,
harpooned, or otherwise done to death by the hunters.
For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its subsistence, chiefly
or in part, upon fishing is careful to treat the fish with every
mark of honour and respect. The Indians of Peru "adored the fish
that they caught in greatest abundance; for they said that the first
fish that was made in the world above (for so they named Heaven)
gave birth to all other fish of that species, and took care to send
them plenty of its children to sustain their tribe. For this reason
they worshipped sardines in one region, where they killed more of
them than of any other fish; in others, the skate; in others, the
dogfish; in others, the golden fish for its beauty; in others, the
crawfish; in others, for want of larger gods, the crabs, where they
had no other fish, or where they knew not how to catch and kill
them. In short, they had whatever fish was most serviceable to them
as their gods." The Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia think that
when a salmon is killed its soul returns to the salmon country.
Hence they take care to throw the bones and offal into the sea, in
order that the soul may reanimate them at the resurrection of the
salmon. Whereas if they burned the bones the soul would be lost, and
so it would be quite impossible for that salmon to rise from the
dead. In like manner the Ottawa Indians of Canada, believing that
the souls of dead fish passed into other bodies of fish, never
burned fish bones, for fear of displeasing the souls of the fish,
who would come no more to the nets. The Hurons also refrained from
throwing fish bones into the fire, lest the souls of the fish should
go and warn the other fish not to let themselves be caught, since
the Hurons would burn their bones. Moreover, they had men who
preached to the fish and persuaded them to come and be caught. A
good preacher was much sought after, for they thought that the
exhortations of a clever man had a great effect in drawing the fish
to the nets. In the Huron fishing village where the French
missionary Sagard stayed, the preacher to the fish prided himself
very much on his eloquence, which was of a florid order. Every
evening after supper, having seen that all the people were in their
places and that a strict silence was observed, he preached to the
fish. His text was that the Hurons did not burn fish bones. "Then
enlarging on this theme with extraordinary unction, he exhorted and
conjured and invited and implored the fish to come and be caught and
to be of good courage and to fear nothing, for it was all to serve
their friends who honoured them and did not burn their bones." The
natives of the Duke of York Island annually decorate a canoe with
flowers and ferns, lade it, or are supposed to lade it, with
shell-money, and set it adrift to compensate the fish for their
fellows who have been caught and eaten. It is especially necessary
to treat the first fish caught with consideration in order to
conciliate the rest of the fish, whose conduct may be supposed to be
influenced by the reception given to those of their kind which were
the first to be taken. Accordingly the Maoris always put back into
the sea the first fish caught, "with a prayer that it may tempt
other fish to come and be caught."
Still more stringent are the precautions taken when the fish are the
first of the season. On salmon rivers, when the fish begin to run up
the stream in spring, they are received with much deference by
tribes who, like the Indians of the Pacific Coast of North America,
subsist largely upon a fish diet. In British Columbia the Indians
used to go out to meet the first fish as they came up the river:
"They paid court to them, and would address them thus: 'You fish,
you fish; you are all chiefs, you are; you are all chiefs.'" Amongst
the Tlingit of Alaska the first halibut of the season is carefully
handled and addressed as a chief, and a festival is given in his
honour, after which the fishing goes on. In spring, when the winds
blow soft from the south and the salmon begin to run up the Klamath
river, the Karoks of California dance for salmon, to ensure a good
catch. One of the Indians, called the Kareya or God-man, retires to
the mountains and fasts for ten days. On his return the people flee,
while he goes to the river, takes the first salmon of the catch,
eats some of it, and with the rest kindles the sacred fire in the
sweating house. "No Indian may take a salmon before this dance is
held, nor for ten days after it, even if his family are starving."
The Karoks also believe that a fisherman will take no salmon if the
poles of which his spearing-booth is made were gathered on the
river-side, where the salmon might have seen them. The poles must be
brought from the top of the highest mountain. The fisherman will
also labour in vain if he uses the same poles a second year in
booths or weirs, "because the old salmon will have told the young
ones about them." There is a favourite fish of the Aino which appears
in their rivers about May and June. They prepare for the fishing by
observing rules of ceremonial purity, and when they have gone out to
fish, the women at home must keep strict silence or the fish would
hear them and disappear. When the first fish is caught he is brought
home and passed through a small opening at the end of the hut, but
not through the door; for if he were passed through the door, "the
other fish would certainly see him and disappear." This may partly
explain the custom observed by other savages of bringing game in
certain cases into their huts, not by the door, but by the window,
the smoke-hole, or by a special opening at the back of the hut.
With some savages a special reason for respecting the bones of game,
and generally of the animals which they eat, is a belief that, if
the bones are preserved, they will in course of time be reclothed
with flesh, and thus the animal will come to life again. It is,
therefore, clearly for the interest of the hunter to leave the bones
intact since to destroy them would be to diminish the future supply
of game. Many of the Minnetaree Indians "believe that the bones of
those bisons which they have slain and divested of flesh rise again
clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and become fat,
and fit for slaughter the succeeding June." Hence on the western
prairies of America, the skulls of buffaloes may be seen arranged in
circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection. After
feasting on a dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the bones, scrape,
wash, and bury them, "partly, as it is said, to testify to the
dog-species, that in feasting upon one of their number no disrespect
was meant to the species itself, and partly also from a belief that
the bones of the animal will rise and reproduce another." In
sacrificing an animal the Lapps regularly put aside the bones, eyes,
ears, heart, lungs, sexual parts (if the animal was a male), and a
morsel of flesh from each limb. Then, after eating the remainder of
the flesh, they laid the bones and the rest in anatomical order in a
coffin and buried them with the usual rites, believing that the god
to whom the animal was sacrificed would reclothe the bones with
flesh and restore the animal to life in Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean
world of the dead. Sometimes, as after feasting on a bear, they seem
to have contented themselves with thus burying the bones. Thus the
Lapps expected the resurrection of the slain animal to take place in
another world, resembling in this respect the Kamtchatkans, who
believed that every creature, down to the smallest fly, would rise
from the dead and live underground. On the other hand, the North
American Indians looked for the resurrection of the animals in the
present world. The habit, observed especially by Mongolian peoples,
of stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching it on a
framework, points rather to a belief in a resurrection of the latter
sort. The objection commonly entertained by primitive peoples to
break the bones of the animals which they have eaten or sacrificed
may be based either on a belief in the resurrection of the animals,
or on a fear of intimidating other creatures of the same species and
offending the ghosts of the slain animals. The reluctance of North
American Indians and Esquimaux to let dogs gnaw the bones of animals
is perhaps only a precaution to prevent the bones from being broken.
But after all the resurrection of dead game may have its
inconveniences, and accordingly some hunters take steps to prevent
it by hamstringing the animal so as to prevent it or its ghost from
getting up and running away. This is the motive alleged for the
practice by Koui hunters in Laos; they think that the spells which
they utter in the chase may lose their magical virtue, and that the
slaughtered animal may consequently come to life again and escape.
To prevent that catastrophe they therefore hamstring the beast as
soon as they have butchered it. When an Esquimau of Alaska has
killed a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all the animal's legs
in order to prevent the ghost from reanimating the body and walking
about. But hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure which
the prudent savage adopts for the sake of disabling the ghost of his
victim. In old days, when the Aino went out hunting and killed a fox
first, they took care to tie its mouth up tightly in order to
prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying forth and warning its
fellows against the approach of the hunter. The Gilyaks of the Amoor
River put out the eyes of the seals they have killed, lest the
ghosts of the slain animals should know their slayers and avenge
their death by spoiling the seal-hunt.
Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for their strength
and ferocity, and those which he reveres on account of the benefits
which he expects from them, there is another class of creatures
which he sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate by worship and
sacrifice. These are the vermin that infest his crops and his
cattle. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer has recourse
to many superstitious devices, of which, though some are meant to
destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at propitiating them
and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of the earth
and the herds. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the island of Oesel,
stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which is exceedingly
destructive to the grain. They give it a fine name, and if a child
is about to kill a weevil they say, "Don't do it; the more we hurt
him, the more he hurts us." If they find a weevil they bury it in
the earth instead of killing it. Some even put the weevil under a
stone in the field and offer corn to it. They think that thus it is
appeased and does less harm. Amongst the Saxons of Transylvania, in
order to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower begins by throwing
the first handful of seed backwards over his head, saying, "That is
for you, sparrows." To guard the corn against the attacks of
leaf-flies he shuts his eyes and scatters three handfuls of oats in
different directions. Having made this offering to the leaf-flies he
feels sure that they will spare the corn. A Transylvanian way of
securing the crops against all birds, beasts, and insects, is this:
after he has finished sowing, the sower goes once more from end to
end of the field imitating the gesture of sowing, but with an empty
hand. As he does so he says, "I sow this for the animals; I sow it
for every thing that flies and creeps, that walks and stands, that
sings and springs, in the name of God the Father, etc." The
following is a German way of freeing a garden from caterpillars.
After sunset or at midnight the mistress of the house, or another
female member of the family, walks all round the garden dragging a
broom after her. She may not look behind her, and must keep
murmuring, "Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall come with
your husband to church." The garden gate is left open till the
following morning.
Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at hitting a happy
mean between excessive rigour on the one hand and weak indulgence on
the other; kind but firm, he tempers severity with mercy. An ancient
Greek treatise on farming advises the husbandman who would rid his
lands of mice to act thus: "Take a sheet of paper and write on it as
follows: 'I adjure you, ye mice here present, that ye neither injure
me nor suffer another mouse to do so. I give you yonder field' (here
you specify the field); 'but if ever I catch you here again, by the
Mother of the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.' Write this, and
stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise,
taking care to keep the written side up." In the Ardennes they say
that to get rid of rats you should repeat the following words:
"_Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum._ Male rats and female rats, I
conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house, out of all my
habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a place,
there to end your days. _Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo
potens, clemens, justitiae._" Then write the same words on pieces of
paper, fold them up, and place one of them under the door by which
the rats are to go forth, and the other on the road which they are
to take. This exorcism should be performed at sunrise. Some years
ago an American farmer was reported to have written a civil letter
to the rats, telling them that his crops were short, that he could
not afford to keep them through the winter, that he had been very
kind to them, and that for their own good he thought they had better
leave him and go to some of his neighbours who had more grain. This
document he pinned to a post in his barn for the rats to read.
Sometimes the desired object is supposed to be attained by treating
with high distinction one or two chosen individuals of the obnoxious
species, while the rest are pursued with relentless rigour. In the
East Indian island of Bali, the mice which ravage the rice-fields
are caught in great numbers, and burned in the same way that corpses
are burned. But two of the captured mice are allowed to live, and
receive a little packet of white linen. Then the people bow down
before them, as before gods, and let them go. When the farms of the
Sea Dyaks or Ibans of Sarawak are much pestered by birds and
insects, they catch a specimen of each kind of vermin (one sparrow,
one grasshopper, and so on), put them in a tiny boat of bark
well-stocked with provisions, and then allow the little vessel with
its obnoxious passengers to float down the river. If that does not
drive the pests away, the Dyaks resort to what they deem a more
effectual mode of accomplishing the same purpose. They make a clay
crocodile as large as life and set it up in the fields, where they
offer it food, rice-spirit, and cloth, and sacrifice a fowl and a
pig before it. Mollified by these attentions, the ferocious animal
very soon gobbles up all the creatures that devour the crops. In
Albania, if the fields or vineyards are ravaged by locusts or
beetles, some of the women will assemble with dishevelled hair,
catch a few of the insects, and march with them in a funeral
procession to a spring or stream, in which they drown the creatures.
Then one of the women sings, "O locusts and beetles who have left us
bereaved," and the dirge is taken up and repeated by all the women
in chorus. Thus by celebrating the obsequies of a few locusts and
beetles, they hope to bring about the death of them all. When
caterpillars invaded a vineyard or field in Syria, the virgins were
gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken and a girl made its
mother. Then they bewailed and buried it. Thereafter they conducted
the "mother" to the place where the caterpillars were, consoling
her, in order that all the caterpillars might leave the garden.
LIV. Types of Animal Sacrament
1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament
WE are now perhaps in a position to understand the ambiguous
behaviour of the Aino and Gilyaks towards the bear. It has been
shown that the sharp line of demarcation which we draw between
mankind and the lower animals does not exist for the savage. To him
many of the other animals appear as his equals or even his
superiors, not merely in brute force but in intelligence; and if
choice or necessity leads him to take their lives, he feels bound,
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